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The study focuses on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) perceptions about using Fintech instruments to meet their financial requirements.

Methodology: The research utilises a quantitative method, which entails collecting primary data from 400 participants using an organised questionnaire. Chi-square tests, principal component analysis and multiple linear regression are some of the statistical tools utilised to analyse the findings.

Findings: The study’s findings indicate that only a small percentage of business owners know that Fintech instruments can be a source of financing for their companies. In addition, the items utilised in the research led to the generation of three different aspects: banking, MSME and Fintech.

Originality: The previous study indicates that several scholars have focused on various facets of the application and utilisation of Fintech. In the category of digital payments, the total transaction value is anticipated to reach $8.49 trillion in 2022. By 2027, it is expected that the entire transaction value will have increased by 12.31 per cent each year (CAGR 2022–2027), totaling US$15.17 trillion. Digital commerce is expected to have a total transaction value of US$5.49 trillion in 2022, making it the market’s largest segment. On the other hand, there isn’t much research that concentrates on developing countries, and the standards those studies need to meet are relatively stringent. In the context of MSMEs, this is an innovative approach taken towards the State of Punjab.

Need: Fintech services have an important role in bringing about significant change by providing innovative financial services, addressing credit gaps and reshaping how financial services are delivered. Fintech instruments are gaining very high popularity in terms of functions and novelty and can be predicted as the future of operations in the financial sector. Moreover, Fintech instruments can be seen to have a close connection to the MSME-guided programmes. Thus, it would be pretty interesting to note if there lies a need for the optimum implications of Fintech in MSMEs and upcoming start-ups.

Purpose: The banking sector is facing a challenge in the quality of services rendered to the ultimate customers for the adoption of Fintech applications in an efficient way. Due to dynamic market conditions, it is difficult for the banks to win the heart of the customers. It can be done only by providing them with updated technological applications and excellent services. Here, service quality plays a major role in this regard. It acts as an optimum strategy for the service providers to attain the interest of their customers and change their perceptions towards the banks in a positive way by providing them satisfactory services. This chapter aims to critically analyse and assess the quality of banking services rendered for Fintech applications to the customers.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The study evaluated the preference for public/private banks for Fintech applications across various demographic factors. In this research, users of public or private banks have been considered as respondents who are using Fintech applications. The service quality of both banks has been measured using a service quality scale, i.e., SERVQUAL. With the help of the Questionnaire, data were collected from 100 respondents from Punjab State on a convenience sampling basis. The Chi-square method was used to check the preference for different types of banks across demographic profiles.

Findings: ‘Responsiveness’ and ‘Tangibles’ are the most significant service quality dimensions. The present study revealed that the preference towards public/private sector banks has no dependency on occupation but found dependence on age and education level.

Research Limitations/Implications: The present study merely concentrates on the banking sector’s service quality towards Fintech applications. It could be used for the security market, insurance and other sectors in the future period. The present study provides implications for future interdisciplinary research addressing the need for Fintech applications as Fintech has become the need of every industry.

Originality/Value: This study is conducted to explore the opportunities for Fintech in the banking sector vis-á-vis service quality. The authors anticipate that the current study will contribute to existing literature and thus become the reference for academicians, researchers and industry professionals.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the ‘real’ world and substantially impacted the virtual world and thus the Internet ecosystem. It has caused a significant exogenous shock that offers a wealth of natural experiments and produced new data about broadband, clouds, and the Internet in times of crisis. In this chapter, we characterise and evaluate the evolving impact of the global COVID-19 crisis on traffic patterns and loads and the impact of those on Internet performance from multiple perspectives. While we place a particular focus on deriving insights into how we can better respond to crises and better plan for the post-COVID-19 ‘new normal’, we analyse the impact on and the responses by different actors of the Internet ecosystem across different jurisdictions. With a focus on the USA and Europe, we examine the responses of both public and private actors, with the latter including content and cloud providers, content delivery networks, and Internet service providers (ISPs). This chapter makes two contributions: first, we derive lessons learned for a future post-COVID-19 world to inform non-networking spheres and policy-making; second, the insights gained assist the networking community in better planning for the future.

This chapter has aimed to indicate some new important emerging policy problems, which have characterised the Covid crisis in the European economy during 2020 and then the bounce-back in 2021. The chapter has illustrated an economic theoretical framework focussed on innovation and structural changes, according to a Schumpeterian and evolutionary or neo-institutional approach, which seems more appropriate than the traditional neoclassical and macroeconomic models, as the basis for a ‘new industrial strategy’ in the European Union. The mainstream economic models are static and point-like, as they do not consider the role of time and of space, such as the existence of asymmetric information and external economies and also the interdependence between the companies and the other ‘stakeholders’ in the process of economic development. On the contrary, the theoretical framework of this chapter considers the factors that act on the structural changes according to four different and interdependent dimensions: the final demand, the intermediate productions and also the supply of labour and the endowment of natural resources. Finally, some preliminary indications on the organisation of a new industrial strategy at the European scale are discussed, different from the focus on just the digital and green technologies, as indicated by the NGEU program by the European Commission.

Purpose: The prominence of quality education for building sustainable development is undeniable and is distinctly pointed out in 1 of the 14 sustainable development goals (SDGs). In the same context, this study intends to investigate the role of university commitment, perceived organisational prestige, student satisfaction, and perceived employability in enhancing sustainability in higher education.

Need of the Study: To evaluate how student satisfaction mediates the relationship between university commitment, perceived organisational prestige, and perceived employability with sustainable university institutes.

Methodology: An adapted questionnaire was used in this study to capture the perception of 458 management graduates selected through the purposive sampling method. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to analyse the data with the help of Smart PLS software.

Findings: The results of this study show that student satisfaction is the strongest predictor of sustainable university institutes. University commitment was found to lead to student satisfaction significantly. Furthermore, student satisfaction wasn’t found to play the role of mediator in the proposed model.

Practical Implications: This study aims to fulfil theoretical, research, and management implications for students, higher education institutes (HEIs), and policymakers. HEIs are recommended to instil university commitment, perceived organisational prestige and student satisfaction via various practices and amendments in their curriculum. Students are recommended to enhance their perceived employability to achieve career sustainability.

The overall goal of science is to build a valid and reliable body of knowledge about the functioning of the world and how applying that knowledge can change it. As personnel and human resources management researchers, we aim to contribute to the respective bodies of knowledge to provide both employers and employees with a workable foundation to help with those problems they are confronted with. However, what research on research has consistently demonstrated is that the scientific endeavor possesses existential issues including a substantial lack of (a) solid theory, (b) replicability, (c) reproducibility, (d) proper and generalizable samples, (e) sufficient quality control (i.e., peer review), (f) robust and trustworthy statistical results, (g) availability of research, and (h) sufficient practical implications. In this chapter, we first sing a song of sorrow regarding the current state of the social sciences in general and personnel and human resources management specifically. Then, we investigate potential grievances that might have led to it (i.e., questionable research practices, misplaced incentives), only to end with a verse of hope by outlining an avenue for betterment (i.e., open science and policy changes at multiple levels).