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The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the factors determining the choice of sources of finance for a tech startup over its lifecycle.

This study adopts simple random sampling technique to choose 93 sample tech startups in Bangalore. Further, this study employs the primary data collection from the sampled startups under study through a semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the founders/CEOs of these startups. Furthermore, it carries out binary logistic regression analysis to primarily examine the likelihood of a tech startup to approach and access a particular source of finance over its lifecycle.

Our results indicate that a tech startup's choice for a financial source varies with its lifecycle stage and financial requirements. We find that while in its early stage, a tech startup's choice of a financial source is limited to business angels (BA), in the growth stage, it approaches the institutional sources, viz. Venture Capital (VC), Corporate Venture Capital (CVC), Banks and Private Equity (PE) firms alternatively. Out of the three major categories of financial requirements: Human Capital (HC), Research Capital (RC) and Social Capital (SC), the requirement for HC and SC is predominantly funded by VCs, while the acquisition of RC is facilitated by early stage investors (BAs) as well as growth stage investors (CVC and PEs).

The research implication of the study lies in bringing out the need to understand both the nature and the quantum of financial requirements of tech startups would influence the sources of finance it would approach and obtain finance for its operations and growth.

The major policy implication of the study refers to the need to promote the diverse sources of finance to meet the diverse needs of finance in different stages of a tech startup's lifecycle. Particularly in an emerging economy, where we do not see the emergence and growth of highly innovative tech startups, the need to promote adequate availability of RC is especially important.

This study makes a key contribution to the entrepreneurial finance literature by empirically investigating the factors determining a tech startup's propensity to approach and access a particular source of finance over its lifecycle.

In general, cloud computing is a model of on-demand business computing that grants a convenient access to shared configurable resources on the internet. With the increment of workload and difficulty of tasks that are submitted by cloud consumers; “how to complete these tasks effectively and rapidly with limited cloud resources?” is becoming a challenging question. The major point of a task scheduling approach is to identify a trade-off among user needs and resource utilization. However, tasks that are submitted by varied users might have diverse needs of computing time, memory space, data traffic, response time, etc. This paper aims to proposes a new way of task scheduling.

To make the workflow completion in an efficient way and to reduce the cost and flow time, this paper proposes a new way of task scheduling. Here, a self-adaptive fruit fly optimization algorithm (SA-FFOA) is used for scheduling the workflow. The proposed multiple workflow scheduling model compares its efficiency over conventional methods in terms of analysis such as performance analysis, convergence analysis and statistical analysis. From the outcome of the analysis, the betterment of the proposed approach is proven with effective workflow scheduling.

The proposed algorithm is more superior regarding flow time with the minimum value, and the proposed model is enhanced over FFOA by 0.23%, differential evolution by 2.48%, artificial bee colony (ABC) by 2.85%, particle swarm optimization (PSO) by 2.46%, genetic algorithm (GA) by 2.33% and expected time to compute (ETC) by 2.56%. While analyzing the make span case, the proposed algorithm is 0.28%, 0.15%, 0.38%, 0.20%, 0.21% and 0.29% better than the conventional methods such as FFOA, DE, ABC, PSO, GA and ETC, respectively. Moreover, the proposed model has attained less cost, which is 2.14% better than FFOA, 2.32% better than DE, 3.53% better than ABC, 2.43% better than PSO, 2.07% better than GA and 2.90% better than ETC, respectively.

This paper presents a new way of task scheduling for making the workflow completion in an efficient way and for reducing the cost and flow time. This is the first paper uses SA-FFOA for scheduling the workflow.

The purpose of this paper is to review phytochemical potential of acacia and its associated health advantages. Acacia a moderate-sized, deciduous tree and recognised as health-promoting species because of availability of essential bioactive components. The bioactive compounds such as tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, fatty acids and polysaccharides (gums) present in the plant parts of acacia, namely, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, twigs and seeds, have medicinal value and thus are used to overlay the formulations of plant-based drugs and value-added foods.

Major well-known bibliometric information sources such as Web of Science, Scopus, Mendeley and Google Scholar were searched with keywords such as “nutrition value of acacia”, “bioactive compounds”, “health benefits”, “processing and safety” were chosen to obtain a database of 1,428 papers. The search considered papers in the English language from the past 18 years of publication in journals (2004–2022). The article selection process consisted of the screening of titles and abstracts, based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Articles that did not have acacia components as a study objective were taken into consideration for exclusion. A final database of 87 scientific sources was made after sorting and classifying them according to different criteria based on topic relevance, country of origin and year of publication. Articles with other random descriptors were also searched to complement the discussion of the results obtained.

The literature reflected that acacia contains all necessary phytochemicals like polyphenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, glucosinolates, alkaloids and carotenoids along with essential macro, micro-nutrients. Furthermore, processing methods such as soaking, cooking, roasting and dehusking significantly reduced the anti-nutritional factors present in acacia seeds of different species. This review also focused on the processing methods that are used to eliminate or lower down the anti-nutritional factors from the seeds. Previous findings related to acacia plant parts with respect to food development are explored and mentioned.

This review emphasised mainly on recent studies that had been reported on ethnomedical acacia plants therapeutically, commercially and exponentially for further studies to increase the utilisation in food processing.

The present chapter aims to find out whether overtourism in Haridwar exists from the residents' point of view or there is still room for growth. Additionally, this research also presents various ideas of how different regulations can control and manage tourists, as the number is increasing and the number will become higher at some point in time. The chapter is also carried out using quantitative research methods and, therefore, using a questionnaire answered by people living in Haridwar for at least 5 years. The results were analysed and presented by using mean and standard deviation. The results have shown that the residents do feel like there is a lot of tourism in Haridwar, especially religious tourism. Though this does not mean that all tourist sites are affected by this opinion, in general, residents do not think that there is too much tourism in the city yet, and according to the results, there is still room for growth for the number of tourists. Though this growth could also be limited to the locations that are not as popular yet, it can also be said that the carrying capacity has not been reached yet. The current situation is not the same as in other known destinations in the region. Therefore, the results of the chapter can be used to design and create preventive tourism laws and rules that should be developed before it is too late, and the city would have to deal with a number of problems. Otherwise, there are also further recommendations on research that could potentially be carried out to connect tourism in the area.

The case has been designed specifically for a Brand Management course. However, it can be used for a basic course in marketing management.

The case has been developed for the students of MBA or Executive MBA. The case needs to be taught after the students have understood the concepts of the marketing mix, segmentation, targeting and the basics of marketing strategy to ensure effective learning.

The case discusses the entrepreneurial journey of Parminder Sandhu. Sandhu initiated an entrepreneurial venture by launching a brand of perfume in India. Parminder, with his business partner Arun, got the idea of using the brand name “Next” from Next Plc store while travelling around in the UK. Subsequently, “Next Care” successfully launched two product lines “Next” and “English Leather” and offered 51 SKUs. “Next Care” became the third highest selling perfume brand firm in India. “Next Care” suffered a setback when one of their factories was raided by “Lacoste” and had to stop production of one brand extension “Nextcare Crocodile” due to the deceptively similar logo. Parminder learned that “Next Plc” was planning to open its stores and may launch the NXT brand of perfumes in India. Sandhu, Mahajan and Wadhawan have been debating whether they should continue with the “Next” brand name.

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: to appreciate the marketing and legal perspective of a brand name; to introduce the concept of deceptively similar brands and implications of the same on the business; and to understand the process of brand name registration.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

To study the impact, awareness and preparedness of COVID-19, a “pandemic” that has aroused the attention of the entire world because of rapid infection rates; among the targeted rural communities as basis to analyze their self-sustainability level.

A mixed methodology/approach combining critical literature review and questionnaire-based survey has been followed in two villages, covering a sample of 150 households located in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, India. The parameters were selected to check awareness/preparedness regarding basic guidelines, immunity, requirements of essential facilities to deal with COVID-19 patients, the effect of lockdown on social and financial status, difficulties in education.

The villages have the potential to transform into Smart Villages or Smart Communities with the adaption of self-sustainable processes. The self-reliance on agriculture and traditional lifestyle in targeted rural areas make them relatively safer as compared to the urban areas. The community's overall awareness about COVID-19 and its preparedness was found satisfactory, with some variations that require more innovative strategies with academic interventions.

Although the scope of the study was limited to two remote villages of Himachal Pradesh (India), the results could be generalized for in-depth understanding about other villages in the state to convert them into smart villages.

It summarizes a systemic perspective based on selected parameters on how COVID-19 lockdown has affected different aspects of life in rural communities. Further, collaborative efforts and adoption of self-sustainability model can lead to the remarkable transformation of villages into smart villages.

In the present era, government colleges in Punjab are facing cutthroat competition on three fronts, i.e. financial constraints and insufficiency of government grants, falling number of students and the shortage of teaching staff in the colleges because of stiff competition and other reasons. Thus, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the resource use efficiency of government colleges in Punjab.

The study covered 15 general degree government colleges from various districts of Punjab. Secondary data for the study were collected from financial budgets, income and expenditure statements and self study reports of the colleges. The data envelopment analysis was conducted using the CCR model and BCC model.

The technical efficiency results suggest that colleges analyzed in this study are operating at a moderate level of efficiency relative to each other. Most of the colleges were found to be inefficient during the study period. Only one college was found consistently efficient during all the years of the study. Moreover, input and output slacks exist in many of the colleges.

To achieve the efficiency level, the colleges need to improve their utilization of resources and the enrollment rate at a given level of resources. To increase the efficiency of the colleges, the Government of India needs to reform their budgeting system.

Punjab is a well-known state of India and public higher education sector plays important role in the education system. This research provides a new insight to the efficiency of the government colleges.

The pandemic induced lockdown lead to supply and manufacturing disruptions that were swiftly dealt with by the Indian Pharma Industry through successful industry-government collaboration. By May 2020 production was back to normal and exports were higher than the same period in May 2019. The case deals with the processes that enabled this to happen, the policy responses and the changes that happened in the period from March 2020 to August 2020.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the investment pattern, adoption behaviour, attitude of farmers towards conservation compliance programmes and the extent of participation of farmers in soil conservation projects in the Western Ghats of India.

For the present study, multistage purposive sampling was followed. The sample respondents were identified for the survey in all the five categories of watersheds (very high, high, medium, low and very low priority watersheds) in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu at the rate of 50 farm respondents in each category. Since the investment among the five categories of watersheds did not show any significant differences, the sample farmers were post stratified as marginal, small, medium and large farmers based on farm size for further analysis.

The investment analysis showed a benefit cost ratio (BCR) of 1.03 for staggered trenches for tea to 1.40 for bench terrace for carrot. For annual crops, the BCR for bench terrace varied from 1.03 for cabbage to 1.32 for carrot. Among the soil conservation technologies, in tea plantation, stone wall had the highest net present value (NPV) of Rs. 74,335. Staggered trench had the lower NPV Rs. 19,237 among all conservation structures. The results of the contingent valuation showed that cropped area, farm size, on-farm income positively and significantly influenced the willingness to pay (WTP) towards soil conservation. Family size and age of the farmer negatively influenced the WTP of the respondents significantly. The multinomial logit model indicated that staggered trench had direct impact on productivity. In tea plantation, staggered trench adoption was influenced by area under plantation crops, farm size, educational level and land slope. The participation index was very low (<30), indicating the poor participation of farmers in soil conservation programmes.

The results of the study reveal the appropriateness of the soil conservation technologies for the select soil type as well as the specific socioeconomic conditions of the farmers undertaking conservation compliance programs in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Understanding the farmer’s perceptions and adoption behaviour is important in making the whole programme a successful one. Hence the results of the study may not be generalized for other study zones, unless otherwise, the agro-ecological zone is similar to the site where the study was conducted.

The study suggested that adoption of conservation technologies should be promoted in a big way to conserve natural resources like soil and enhance economic returns. It is also advocated that institutions should provide only guidance for community participation not on community governance and the role should be involving the real stakeholders/beneficiaries under participatory mode to achieve the goal of soil conservation. The bottom-up approach should be adopted to address the real issues involved in conservation compliance programmes.

The outcome of the study advocates the economic viability of conservation technologies adopted by the crop farmers. The project results also advised the farmers, institutions and the enforcements authorities, the strategies to be adopted to minimize soil loss and increase crop productivity by adopting the appropriate conservation compliance programs. The results also revealed that conservation of soil and water not only conserved the precious natural resources but also had far reaching effect on the yield of croplands, which would be reflected on the food and nutritional securities of the local communities at the micro level and the nation as a whole at the macro level.

The research outcome is based on the field level research done by the authors in the Western Ghats of India. The primary data collected from the respondents were analysed and used for drawing inferences and conclusions.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the rationale and method for studying product adaptation in rural markets.

The paper takes the form of an exploratory design that includes; review of literature, pilot study, and survey method.

Findings of the study are contrary to the general understanding that rural is perceived very differently and hence operationalised differently by different organisation. However, results indicate that contingency theory holds true in case of product adaptation in rural markets also. With the increase in executives' representation of rurality, product adaptation degree also increased.

This is probably the first academic study on product adaptation in rural markets to the best of our knowledge. The study attempted to contextualise product adaptation construct from international marketing to rural marketing domain.