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The purpose of this article is to offer a recap of the past two years at SAJGBR in terms of its submissions, outline SAJGBR publication criteria and discuss the Editor's future goals with respect to solidifying its reputation as a high‐quality regional journal with a global impact.

The paper reviews the past two years, explains the SAJGBR publication process and criteria, and discusses the Editor's goals and how they will be achieved.

SAJGBR is unique with respect to its focus upon a neglected (but socio‐economically vibrant) region and span across the full spectrum of business discipline. In its two volumes and four issues, it has made significant contributions to creating a repository of knowledge of South Asian business issues, and integrating South Asian perspectives and approaches to international business literatures.

The paper reviews the past two years, explains the SAJGBR publication process and criteria, and discusses the Editor's goals and how to achieve them. The Editor makes a plea to all researchers to select South Asia as the context of their studies; and to all authors to undertake rigorous research and carefully evaluate their manuscripts in terms of contribution, attention to context and quality before submitting to SAJGBR.

The purpose of this paper (editorial) is to take a stock of the research focused upon South Asia, in order to evaluate if it has produced useful results, and to discuss its future directions as per the scope and mission of the South Asian Journal of Global Business Research. In view of pleas for greater attention to context effects, the authors use the concept of contextualization as the basis for analysis.

A qualitative content analysis of research published in 21 top‐tier business journals is employed, including a total of 96 articles focusing upon South Asia or any South Asian country.

A contextualization typology is presented, related to purpose (whether context guides the research or not) and methodology (whether new or old framework and/or scales are used) and continuum of attention to contextualizations for hypotheses and/or research questions, and research findings in order to discuss the status of published South Asian research.

The authors discuss limitations of their philosophical underpinning and epistemological standing that have influenced their analytical approach and results.

This paper presents a contextualization typology as a starting point to discuss contextualization in international business theory and practice. The paper also provides directions for future research for scholars interested in South Asian research.

Scholars have argued that it is important to investigate how authentic leadership is manifested in different cultures (Avolio et al., 2005; Gardiner, 2011; Shamir and Eilam, 2005). Hence the purpose of this paper is to capture a cross-cultural view of authentic leadership, using a sample of South Asian leaders.

Because of a dearth of qualitative empirical evidence, the authors adopted a “life story” approach to collect data. A total of 14 leaders from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were interviewed to share their leadership experiences.

Findings indicate that the concept of authentic leadership is culturally relevant. It emerged as a multi-dimensional construct constituting self-concept, follower development, organizational outcomes and culture (Meacham, 2007), and contextual knowledge. The authors propose a cross-cultural model of authentic leadership.

Research limitations include researchers’ possible biases in design of data and an assumption that leaders interviewed were authentic. Despite these limitations, the study provides valuable insights about authentic leadership to strengthen its theoretical foundation.

Organizational and social problems in South Asian are often attributed to a leadership deficit (Khan, 2014; Khilji, 2013; National Post, 2014; Sardesai, 2013). This study provides evidence of transformative authentic leaders in South Asia who are engaged with their and followers’ authentic growth, and are building authentic cultures for positive organizational outcomes.

The value of the present research is in providing qualitative empirical evidence from South Asia, and proposing a cross-cultural model of authentic leadership.

Using human capital theory and resource-based view (RBV), the authors argue that individuals and societies derive economic benefits from investments in people (Becker, 1992; Sweetland, 1996), thus effective management of talent is critical for economic development (Lepak and Snell, 2002; Khilji, 2012a). Next, the authors review governmental policies in three of the world's most populous countries, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, in order to highlight their national talent development efforts. The authors discuss how each country is meeting the challenge of making the talent they own, as well as buying diaspora talent in order to strengthen their local capabilities. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors adopted a comparative analysis approach in order to frame our arguments and discussion.

The paper finds that Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have implemented a wide range of initiatives, from skill development programs to citizenship policies for its diaspora, in order to upgrade their local capabilities. In addition, these countries are simultaneously using inclusive, exclusive, and subject dimensions (Gallardo-Gallardo et al., 2013) in developing their national talent. The paper highlights prevalence of the paradox of development and retention particularly in Bangladesh and Pakistan, where youth is also being trained to emigrate.

Global talent management (GTM) has become an increasingly important policy initiative, in view of a global generational divide that will require youth-rich emerging economies and aging developed countries to implement policies that help them meet global talent needs.

This commentary advances a macro GTM view, and argues in favor of promoting a policy perspective to better connect policy, research and practice that may lead to maximizing human potential globally and addressing global talent shortages.

The purpose of this paper is to broaden the conception of the base of the pyramid (BoP) from that of a low purchasing power community, to a globally disconnected community.

The paper identifies two views related to fortune at the BoP using the conventional purchasing power approach: finding fortune at the BoP; and creating fortune at the BoP. As a next step, the paper offers a theoretical basis for two additional views using the broader conception: sharing fortune with the BoP using social responsibility theory; and enabling fortune at the BoP using critical social theory. The authors construct an integrated framework to aid practitioners in responding to a variety of context‐specific issues in BoP strategy.

The conventional approach might result in undermining the dignity of BoP communities, and discrediting their unique knowledge systems and potential contributions. It is argued that a context‐sensitive approach can help address these issues to a great extent. In discussing context specific approaches, the paper also introduces the exchange value view that facilitates the need to evolve an open level playing field of value exchange between MNCs (and its partners) and BoP communities.

There is a need for comparative empirical studies examining benefits and costs associated with (and the sustainability of) the three views proposed.

The paper offers a broader definition of the BoP, and provides alternative views going beyond the conventional strategy approach to BoP.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the perspective of Navin Kumar, founder and CEO of iPRIMED, a workforce development company in India. The paper explores core adult learning concepts to focus upon iPRIMED's approach to training the next generation of learners and leaders. This is an important topic because India is faced with talent shortages and organizations there have been experiencing difficulties in recruiting employees who have been adequately trained to lead complex projects (The Economist, 2007; Khilji, 2012).

This paper was based on a structured interview with Navin Kumar and informed by adult learning literature.

The perspective of a South Asian leader in today's globalized environment indicates that experiential and transformational learning is important in educating the next generation of learners and leaders. If successful and sustained, it can have a huge impact on India, South Asia and the global community. By incorporating adult learning concepts, iPRIMED is considering the whole learner with the hopes of developing skilled people for the world's employers.

Khilji (2012) has argued that economic development of South Asia is truly dependent upon its ability to engage in human development priorities and ensure its younger generation is educated and capable enough for meeting needs of the global economy. This paper provides example of one skill-strengthening organization in India that has taken on the challenge of adequately preparing next generation of leaders for the global environment. The paper describes iPRIMED's learning-based approach that may be very unique in the Indian context.

Based upon the argument that the primary characteristic of successful interdisciplinary research lies in human behavior and action (Brun et al., 2007 as cited in Buller, 2008), the purpose of this paper is to offer a view on human aspects of interdisciplinary research.

The paper presents interdisciplinary research as an overlapping process of collective human interactions, consisting of group composition, conceptualization, integration and contribution. Conceptualization and integration processes are particularly important for knowledge exchange and creation as individuals learn to translate, articulate, relate and relocate their original disciplinary positions (Buller, 2008). Further, the paper argues that interdisciplinarity can be enhanced through appropriate group mechanisms and practices; and successful interdisciplinary research also translates into individual (and group) learning and capability development, in addition to knowledge creation.

Interdisciplinary research is important for IB scholars to stay relevant in today's complex environment (Cheng et al., 2009). Since the South Asian region represents extreme contrast and paradoxes, interdisciplinary research could prove particularly valuable in exploring contradictions there (Khilji, 2012).

The value of this perspective is in describing interdisciplinary research as a boundary-spanning experience for researchers in that it facilitates creation of new insights and allows them to transcend their original discipline. However, interdisciplinarity itself is not automatic, but must be collectively managed through appropriate group mechanisms and practices (Buller, 2008; Haythornthwaite, 2006).

Inequality is an important organizational phenomenon. Scholars have argued that inequalities persistently dwell in the flow of our lives and have a lingering impact. Yet, despite such compelling evidence, research has overlooked how individuals make sense of the inequalities they face inside and outside the organizations. The purpose of this paper was to address these gaps and capture its complexity on individual lived experiences with inequalities.

The present study used Seidman's adapted 2-interview strategy to collect the data. The first interview placed the participant's life history at the center, allowing the participant to share their childhood and adulthood experiences with inequalities inside and outside the organizations. The second interview focused on the concrete details of the participant's present lived experience and their reflections on the meaning of their experiences. In total, the present study relied on 26 interviews with 13 participants.

Lived experiences provided an extended-time view and allowed the researcher to explore how study participants perceived, coped and were shaped by inequalities throughout their lives. In addition, the sense-making perspective offered a new lens to study inequalities. Findings underscore the racial, class and gendered dynamics within organizations supporting their intersectional impact and acknowledge the pre-existing societal norms that condition individual actions and choices.

The study presents an “engaged” view of inequality to highlight it as a cumulative and complex experience. The findings help us recognize that participants are immersed in their specific contexts to act, negotiate, empower and make decisions under real-life pressures. Overall, the study pushes the boundaries of inequality research beyond its current episodic treatment.

Biotech companies are generally faced with the paradoxes of simultaneously managing growth and innovation, as well as addressing explorative and exploitative aspects of innovation. Scholars have urged them to re‐evaluate their business model. The purpose of this paper is to explore how biotech companies in emerging economies address these paradoxes, focusing upon the nascent biotech industry in India, in order to investigate their growth and innovation patterns, as well as identify the challenges that they may face.

A qualitative data collection, using in‐depth interviews with representatives of organizations that deal directly with improving the quality of the business environment for biotech industry in India, as well as biotech entrepreneurs and leaders were undertaken. A total of 13 interviews provided insights related to innovation and growth that is discussed in the paper.

Data indicate that Indian biotech companies are ambidextrous and have managed to transcend the aforementioned paradoxes by developing and maintaining distinct organizational capabilities. They were found to pursue an integrated model of efficiency and innovation and utilize both exploitative and explorative aspects of innovation to fuel growth and innovation. The authors also found evidence of some of the characteristics of the “India Way”, proposed by Cappelli et al.

The authors conclude that Indian companies offer an opportunity for learning for American biotech companies with respect to building new competencies and balancing growth and innovation in today's competitive environment.

Despite being labeled as the “industry of the decade”, biotechnology has been neglected in technology and innovation literature. It is hoped that the paper's findings will generate interest in the study of biotech industries in emerging economies, to help scholars develop interesting new theoretical models of innovation and aid managers in coping with the innovation and change paradoxes that they are faced with in developing new products and services.