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This case study will allow students to critically analyse and develop entry strategies into untapped foreign markets. The case study was designed to introduce students to identifying and analysing information related to target markets for expansions in international business.

The main objectives of this case are to evaluate and make the “Go Global” decision for the company; to take a position on entry timing for a company for entering an overseas market; to select a country for entry based on cultural, administrative, geographic and economic analysis and other relevant factors; and to evaluate a firm’s readiness for exports.

This case study on Satya Pharmaceuticals presents a typical dilemma faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets such as India while exploring the untapped overseas markets to expand their business. Satya Pharmaceuticals produced over-the-counter Ayurvedic medicines. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the consumer preference for Ayurvedic products had increased globally. Home country governments’ emphasis on exports and conducive consumer preferences created an opportune time for such SMEs to explore uncharted markets with a propensity for herbal medicines. Amidst strict regulations regarding safety, efficacy, labelling and packaging norms, along with a subjective understanding of the consumers’ sentiments regarding alternate medicines, SMEs had to select their target market carefully for their products to be successful overseas. This case study presents the basic information that entrepreneurs needed to explore the foreign markets. It revolved around checking firms’ preparedness to explore foreign markets, identifying target markets, timing the entry and entering those markets.

This case is appropriate for graduate-level courses in management that offer subjects such as international business.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 5: International business.

The paper tries to investigate the impact of applications of the resource-based view (RBV) theory in the management field to improve the firm’s profitability. Global firms are innovating and adopting new technology, paving the way to improve their performance.

We have adopted RBV in management practices such as marketing, strategy, finance, and human resources.

RBV has gained researchers' attention with the growing competitive world and new challenges to retaining customers and achieving their pre-defined targets. We attempt to identify the issues related to the usage of RBV in management.

Using RBV in management may help researchers create a competitive mindset and be prepared for uncertain challenges in the business world.

Service failure and recovery encounters are often witnessed by other customers, but little is known about how these encounters impacts other customers. With an aim to bridge this gap, the purpose of the paper is to explore why and how service recovery directed at a focal customer impacts other customers who are present in the same service environment.

The paper follows a qualitative research methodology. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from 30 customers through semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings of the study show that service recovery directed at a focal customer has an impact on other customers' fairness judgments, emotions, service quality perceptions and behaviour. Other customers' behavioural reactions in response to observed service recovery are driven by two different motives: self-interest and moral obligation. Observing customers' cautious behaviour and (re)purchase behaviour are found to be primarily driven by self-interest, whereas their helping behaviour, punishment behaviour and word-of-mouth behaviour are found to be driven by moral obligation.

This study findings contribute to theory development on “other-oriented” effects of service recovery and provides valuable insights for effective management of service failures in the shared service environment.

This is the first study, which qualitatively explores the “other customers” perspective of service recovery in the context of shared servicescape.

The learning objectives of this case study are based on Bloom’s taxonomy. Upon completion of the case study discussion and exercises, successful students will be able to design a leadership transition and succession plan for non-profit organisations; identify and evaluate critical skills and competencies required in leadership positions; and frame expectations and responsibilities for new and departing executives.

Apar Gupta co-founded Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a digital rights organisation born out of SaveTheInternet – Net Neutrality movement of 2015, credited for urging the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to uphold net neutrality in India. And ban zero-cost internet services that promoted data discrimination in the country. After working on and winning the net neutrality movement, Gupta identified many areas in technology where democratic rights had not been identified or were yet to be clearly defined (like in the case of net neutrality). There was also a service gap between the existing internet volunteer groups and digital rights organisations, which could IFF fill. This was to provide objective clarity, stakeholder identification, handle policy discussions and, most importantly, arrange resources to support movements over the long term. This prompted him to co-found IFF in 2017, which he later joined as a full-time executive director in 2018. IFF worked at the intersection of technology, democratic rights and government policies and was comparable to some global organisations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the USA and the Open Rights Group in the UK. Still, none existed in India at the time. After four years as a full-time executive director in 2022, he was convinced that it was finally time for him to act on the pre-defined strategic departure plan and work towards succession for the executive director position. While there were visible gaps in the system, Gupta’s leadership design and plans had helped IFF overcome existential challenges in the past. Also, while digital rights were still at a nascent stage in emerging economies, under Gupta’s leadership, IFF had delivered unmatched value to its beneficiaries in the world’s biggest digital consumer market. However, constant changes in regulations and continuing financial constraints made him nervous about the outcomes of the succession and the overall sustainability of IFF. Gupta wanted to ensure that this phased transition from executive director after two years and then trustee manager after the next four years are carefully communicated to reduce the likelihood of attrition and loss of trust.

Being the co-founder and the first and only executive director IFF had seen, the organisation would also require significant skill and competency mapping to identify the new executive leadership. But with no clear internal successor in sight, the non-profit trust would also need a successor who not only was competent but also would share a passion for the type of work done by IFF, its unique delivery mode, and also would openly inherit its position in society. The other alternative strategic routes present were to look for dual leadership or interim leadership, but then there could be concerns about Gupta’s influence overshadowing any such alternative.

In the case scenario, IFF is planning for succession while navigating the organisation through financial constraints and constant regulatory changes to ensure long- and short-term sustainability.

The case study has been written to gain insights into departure-defined successive planning in non-profit organisations. The case study can also be used to gain insights into innovative start-ups and innovative non-profit start-ups, as digital rights are still at nascent stages in emerging markets. The case study will be valuable for courses such as human resource management, strategic human resource management, social entrepreneurial leadership, leadership development, start-up environment, innovation and entrepreneurship, public policy, development studies, cyber security and information technology. The case study also allows students and young professionals to take the perspective of an innovative start-up founder and design a departure-defined succession plan. The case study can also be useful for senior students wanting to undertake an entrepreneurial career by starting or joining a non-profit organisation. While the case study is suitable for postgraduate- and executive-level courses, it can also be used for conducting entrepreneurial workshops and skill training.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Nowadays, the competition is not only emerging from within the banking sector, but nonbanking companies like nonbanking financial companies (NBFCs) and FinTech are also growing in size and numbers, offering innovative financial products and services, giving a stiff competition to Indian banks. Thus, this study aims to investigate whether competition from within and outside the banking sector enhances or reduces the financial stability of the banking industry.

The study uses Herfindahl–Hirschman index to measure market share and Z score to measure financial stability. The study further examines the role of NBFCs and FinTech companies in impacting the financial stability by introducing variables like innovation, cybercrimes, systemically important institutions, etc. Thereafter, panel regression has been applied.

Empirical results show a positive relation of market share with financial stability, implying that increased competition in the Indian banking industry erodes the market power, adversely affecting the profit margins which encourages banks to take more risk and which may impact financial stability. The study shows a positive impact of innovation on financial stability which implies that the competition is acting as an enabler for banks. The authors find a negative relation of systemic important NBFCs with financial stability. The authors observe a negative association of cybercrimes with financial stability, reflecting that competition emerging from FinTech sector has exposed banks to new risks.

The policymakers should make sure that the competition of banks with other financial institutions, such as FinTech sector, remains healthy; otherwise, it can jeopardize the entire financial system. It is for the policymakers to define a boundary for FinTech sector, as the development of this sector has exposed the banking industry to new kinds of risks potential to create financial instability. The banks should do a comprehensive check on the company to which it is granting loans, and the government should amend laws. Though big banks have huge potential, consolidations can pose challenges at a macroeconomic level.

FinTech firms are a new entrant in the financial world which are providing immense competition to the banking sector, and thus radically changing the entire financial system. Therefore, it is extremely vital to study and explore the role of NBFCs and the FinTech industry as the main variable to analyze bank competition, which to the best of the authors’ knowledge is completely missing in the previous studies.

This study aims to focus on understanding the work–family conflict of Indian women engineers through the lens of identity conflict.

Semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 Indian women engineers working in India and abroad of varying ages and work experience helped in understanding the types, sources and coping decisions about work–family conflicts experienced by them. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the qualitative data.

The findings reveal that as women engineers negotiate their “engineering” and “woman” identities, work–family conflict manifests as a battle of time and responsibilities, psychological strain and behaviour-based conflict. Furthermore, self-expectations and negative social sanctions play an important role in augmenting the experiences of these conflicts. The results also reveal how women re-strategize their career decisions to conciliate their conflicting identities.

This study furthers the literature on resolving work–family conflict by taking an identity perspective. Recommendations in literature such as work flexibility and part-time work, place the onus on women to increase their capacities to perform different roles better. Examining work–family conflict from an identity perspective allows us to look at the psychological processes underlying the challenges women face in balancing work and home in a male-dominated profession. These give insights into the need to go beyond accommodations in the workplace to redefine gender roles and relations for equal participation of women in the modern workforce.

The purpose of this study is use a bibliometric analysis to explore the relational nature of knowledge creation in WFM in operations. Companies live under constant pressure to find the best ways to plan their workforce, and the workforce emangement (WFM) is one of the biggest challenges faced by managers. Relevant research on WFM in operations has been published in a several range of journals that vary in their scope and readership, and thus the academic contribution to the topic remains largely fragmented.

To address this gap, this review aims to map research on WFM in operations to understand where it comes from and where it is going and, therefore, provides opportunities for future work. This study combined two bibliometric approaches with manual document coding to examine the literature corpus of WFM in operations to draw a holistic picture of its different aspects.

Content and thematic analysis of the seminal studies resulted in the extraction of three key research themes: workforce cross-training, planning workforce mixed methods and individual workforce characteristics. The findings of this study further highlight the gaps in the WFM in operations literature and raise some research questions that warrant further academic investigation in the future.

Likewise, this study has important implications for practitioners who are likely to benefit from a holistic understanding of the different aspects of WFM in operations.

This study aims to focus on understanding how different jet angles and Reynolds numbers influence the phase change materials’ (PCMs) melting process and their capacity to store energy. This approach is intended to offer novel insights into enhancing thermal energy storage systems, particularly for applications where heat transfer efficiency and energy storage are critical.

The research involved an experimental and numerical analysis of PCM with a melting temperature range of 22 °C–26°C under various conditions. Three different jet angles (45°, 90° and 135°) and two container angles (45° and 90°) were tested. Additionally, two different Reynolds numbers (2,235 and 4,470) were used to explore the effects of jet outlet velocities on PCM melting behaviour. The study used a circular container and analysed the melting process using the hot air inclined jet impingement (HAIJI) method.

The obtained results showed that the average temperature for the last time step at Ф = 90° and Re = 4,470 is 6.26% higher for Ф = 135° and 14.23% higher for Ф = 90° compared with the 45° jet angle. It is also observed that the jet angle, especially for Ф = 90°, is a much more important factor in energy storage than the Reynolds number. In other words, the jet angle can be used as a passive control parameter for energy storage.

This study offers a novel perspective on the effective storage of waste heat transferred with air, such as exhaust gases. It provides valuable insights into the role of jet inclination angles and Reynolds numbers in optimizing the melting and energy storage performance of PCMs, which can be crucial for enhancing the efficiency of thermal energy storage systems.

The study aims to facilitate the medical tourists visiting emerging countries for various kinds of ailments by ranking the possible destinations to avail medical treatments.

A Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (FAHP) with a mixed-method approach is applied to analyze data collected from patients and substantiate it with medical tour operators in India to gain managerial insights on the choice-making patterns of the patients.

India is a preferred emerging market location due to the low cost and high medical staff quality. India offers value for money, whereas Singapore and Thailand are preferred destinations for quality and technology.

The study will facilitate the emerging markets' governments, hospitals and medical tourists to understand the importance of various determinants responsible for availing medical treatment outside their country.

The study recommends that cost and quality care are the patients' prime focus; government policies must provide clear guidelines on what the hospitals and country environment can offer and accordingly align the marketing strategies.

This study is the first attempt to rank various factors affecting medical tourism using the FAHP approach.