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This study aims to explore social entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) in the craft sector in the state of Gujarat, India. With liberalization, India witnessed the growth of social entrepreneurship and is considered one of the pioneering countries in social innovation. The objective of the research was to answer the research question: what role do various stakeholder groups play in creating and promoting craft sector social EEs.

The study is based on a qualitative case study approach of methodological triangulation combining analysing documents, a participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Two case studies – one of the Ajrakh craft cluster from Ajrakhpur and the other of Kala Cotton from Aadeshar, Bhuj are studied to explore the symbiotic linkages of social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Kutch district of Gujarat, India. A total of 24 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders of the EE.

The study concludes that the role of like-minded individuals/social entrepreneurs, social enterprises, design networks and educational institutions is vital towards revival and sustainability of craft as economic commodities geared for scalability. Furthermore, the engagement of the systemic condition agents such as various local and national level institutions, the communities play an important role to revitalize, redeem and commercialize craft infrastructure based on active engagement, innovation and services.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how traditional craft-based enterprises can be enabled, revived, grown and sustained.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the motives and the business model canvas adopted by urban poor women to set up microenterprises in the informal sector.

The qualitative analysis used in the paper is based on empirical findings from field work conducted in Mumbai and Pune district in the state of Maharashtra situation on the western coast of the Indian sub-continent. In total, 63 women microentrepreneurs were interviewed using an interview guide, which contained open-ended questions regarding choices made to become an entrepreneur, business canvas mechanics, family and community support to start and manage their businesses. The paper presents findings across the sample and two selected case studies.

In contrast to the view that women’s informal sector micro entrepreneurship is a result of “involuntary exclusion” or “poverty”, this paper found that women’s motives are a result of a wide variety of factors including supplementing family income, gain social recognition and a variety of other reasons. The business canvas of the entrepreneurs focussed on key partners, resource planning, customer orientation and sales promotion.

The limitation of the study is that it focussed on women micro entrepreneurs in the urban informal sector in Mumbai and Pune. Similar studies can be carried out in other mega-metro cities with a large urban poor population in India.

Venturing in the microenterprise sector is an important way for employment generation amongst women from the low-income groups in the urban informal sector. Women are becoming important players in the microenterprise sector and have tremendous relevance in India as the contribution of this sector to the Indian economy is significant.

There are very few studies in the Indian context, which focus upon the business canvas of women micro entrepreneurs in the urban informal sector. This study, therefore, presents new knowledge around women’s micro entrepreneurship in India.

Among the various global options for self-employment, venturing into the micro-enterprise sector has been recognized as an important way for employment generation and poverty alleviation in many developing/emerging economies. In this context, women-owned businesses at the grassroots play a vital role in developing countries like India far beyond contributing to job creation and economic growth. The informal sector is a sizeable and expanding feature of the contemporary global economy.

However, the informal economy operates at the cusp of the institutional framework, which makes them susceptible to many risks like lack of formal financing options, legal aid or increasing margin through access to formal markets. Non-Profit Development Agencies (NPDAs) have emerged as a viable and essential middle ground support in promoting women entrepreneurship in their capacity to contribute beyond governmental institutions.

The study adopted an inductive qualitative option through a case study design to explore the approaches adopted by NPDAs in promoting micro-entrepreneurship among women at the base of the pyramid (BoP) in the urban informal sector in India. The findings suggest that the NPDAs created an impact through the services, which translated into monetary earnings for the entrepreneurs. They could make financial contributions to their families, which boosted their self-confidence and overall personality. The findings also indicate positive changes like increased self-confidence, self-dependence, and inner strength as reported by the entrepreneurs.

Knowledge capital formation through investment in education has been at the center of the recent economic planning and management. Increase in labor productivity and technological innovation is the outcome of Research and Development (R&D) which is a part of the higher education system of a country. Therefore, to achieve long-run sustainable growth, an economy should dynamize its higher education framework along with strengthening the primary and secondary education to reflect the changing realities. The study examines the interplay between the percentage of educational expenditure in total expenditure and per capita net state domestic product (NSDP) of eight selected metro city states of India during the period 2005–2006 to 2015–2016. The result shows strong positive impact of educational expenditure on per capita NSDP. Therefore, the study suggests to increase the percentage share of educational expenditure in total expenditure.

This paper seeks to add a historical perspective to the contemporary debate concerning women’s entrepreneurship in India. This study aims to explore the quantitative and qualitative research map of the research field of women’s entrepreneurship. Through this exploration, the authors aim to portray the historical and contemporary factors related to women’s entrepreneurship development in India, the problems and the opportunities. Future research opportunities are also identified based on the keyword analysis.

The study uses a systematic literature review to analyze the historical and theoretical perspectives of women’s entrepreneurship in India. The bibliometric analysis portrays the publication landscape, including the most popular journals, authors and countries, citation analysis and keyword analysis. The content analysis reveals the thematic clusters of the research field.

The content analysis of the management literature on women’s entrepreneurship reveals four primary clusters from the research: contextual embeddedness in women’s entrepreneurship, reasons for starting a business, microfinance interventions and empowerment of women entrepreneurs and marginalization dynamics for women entrepreneurs in India’s informal sector. The study also presents implications for policymakers and a women entrepreneurs’ development framework.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to comprehensively analyze the management literature on women’s entrepreneurship in India from a historical perspective. The study combines bibliometric mapping and content analysis for a holistic presentation of the research field of women’s entrepreneurship in India and future research opportunities.

This paper aims to analyse how the top over-the-top (OTT) platform is becoming a preferred source of entertainment amongst young consumers over traditional Pay TV service (Cable TV/DTH) in India and what factors play a vital role in such preferences along with gamification of content. The study follows the theoretical framework of use and gratifications theory and Niche analysis.

The study establishes a conceptual framework of understanding the preference of consumers, which triggers the shift from old media to new. This research develops an approach to understanding the relevant implications in responses of consumers through a structured online survey conducted amongst different age groups by applying exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. To further comprehend the relations between measured variables and constructs, the statistical technique is incorporated, i.e. logistic regression.

Empirical results and discussion insinuated the five factors which affect consumers’ choices concerning entertainment i.e. content and viewing behaviour, expenses incurred on services, shifts influenced by offerings/incentives, convenience and telecom. Logistic regression validated the strength of these factors which made content and viewing behaviour, expenses incurred on services and convenience the three most important factors.

This study analyses the driving factors that are revolutionising the entertainment industry and can be applied in designing a comfortable and engaging experience for a consumer in the future.

This research is original in nature and the findings of this study are valuable for online streaming services, video-on-demand services, Cable TV operators and entertainment content producers.