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With new hybrid working models in place post COVID-19, it is requisite that knowledge workers (KWs) stay agile. Knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) can help employees with essential knowledge acquisition (KA) facilitating the journey toward hybrid work agility (HWA). This study, thus, aims to explore the impact of KOL and KA on HWA and reveal whether this effect stems uniformly from a single homogenous population or if there is unobserved heterogeneity leading to identifiable segments of agile KWs.

Data was collected through stratified sampling from 416 employees from 20 information technology enabled services companies involved in knowledge-intensive tasks. Partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling approach, using SMART PLS 4.0, has been applied to examine the effect of KOL and KA on HWA. Finite mixture PLS, PLS prediction-oriented segmentation and multigroup analysis have been used to identify segments, test segment-specific path models and analyze the significance of the differences in the path coefficients for unobserved heterogeneity. Predictive relevance of the model has been determined using PLS Predict.

Results indicate that KOL contributes to employees’ KA and HWA. A significant positive relationship is also reported between KA and HWA. The model has medium predictive relevance. A two-segment solution has been delineated, wherein independent agile KWs (who value autonomy and personal agency over leadership for KA) and dependent agile KWs (who depend on leaders for relational and structural support for KA) have been identified. Thus, KOL and KA play a differential role in determining HWA.

The authors’ major contribution to the knowledge body constitutes the determination of antecedents of HWA and a typology of agile KWs. Future researchers may conduct segment-wise qualitative analysis to delineate other variables that contribute to HWA.

Technological advances necessitate that knowledge-intensive industries foster agility in employees for strategic agility of the organization. For effecting agile adaption of an organization to the knowledge economy conditions, it is pertinent that the full potential of this human resource be used. By profiling HWA of KWs on the basis of dimensions of KOL and the level of their KA, organizations will be able to help employees adapt better to rapidly changing work conditions.

HWA is a novel concept and very germane in a hybrid working environment. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effects of the dimensions of KOL and KA in relation to HWA, along with an empirical examination of unobserved heterogeneity in the aforementioned relationship.

The contemporary business environment steered by forces of globalization, digitization and automation can only be navigated by a resilient workforce. This requires inculcating self-leadership (SL) traits in individuals, which will allow them to exercise self-direction and self-motivation required to survive high-strain situations. The SL characteristics most significantly reflected by Musk are self-goal setting, authenticity and responsibility. Least evidence was found for positive self-talk and self-cueing. This study aims to add to the repertoire of leadership studies, furnishing important implications for academia and practice.

In this paper, the authors explore the dimensionality of SL through a systematic literature review. The authors also take the case of Elon Musk, one of the most resilient technopreneurs in the contemporary business world, and scrutinize his journey as a self-leader.

The SL characteristics most significantly reflected by Musk are self-goal setting, authenticity and responsibility. Least evidence was found for positive self-talk and self-cueing. This study adds to the repertoire of leadership studies, furnishing important implications for academia and practice.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to explore the controversial Elon Musk’s leadership style through the prism of SL.

Over time, interest in servant leadership has increased manifold both in academic research and the popular press. These rampant developments have set the stage for addressing the worthiness of servant leadership’s theory. Empirical studies undertaken by numerous scholars (Farling et al., 1999; Bass, 2000; Page and Wong, 2000; Russell and Stone, 2002; Sendjaya and Serros, 2002; Dennis and Winston, 2003; Smith et al., 2004; Stone et al., 2004; Dennis and Bocarnea, 2005; Humphreys, 2005) have surfaced significant findings supporting relevance of servant leadership in organizational context; however, an absence of universal definition and its measures impinges on this concept. Noticeably missing from research attention has been the effect of servant leadership in promoting positive organizational behaviour among organizational employees. Thus, this paper aims to explore the available literature on servant leadership with a view to establish a servant leader’s role in instilling and facilitating positive organizational behaviour in the workplace. Moreover, the purpose is also to determine whether the positive organizational behaviour inculcated among the employees through a servant leader helps in reducing their turnover intentions.

Using different keywords, relevant research papers on Google Scholar were selected. Also, several online databases like Emerald Management, Elseiver, EBSCO Host, etc., were accessed for conducting this exploratory study.

To examine the various convergent and divergent dimensions of the major constructs, numerous definitions and scholarly work of renowned practitioners have been collated through an extensive literature review. To put forth a comprehensive picture encompassing the noteworthy findings of the studies pertaining to the major construct, a tabular representation has been made.

This is the first study wherein the linkage about servant leadership and positive organizational behaviour in organizational context has been talked about. The paper carries value as the literature pertaining to servant leadership in published domain is still in its nascent stage. The repertoire of literature, presented here, will provide a clear direction to the future researchers who wish to pursue their study in this area.

Intrapreneurial ability (IA) of employees strengthens an organization's internal as well as external growth. Employees' IA makes innovation a continuous practice and augments organization's intellectual capital (IC). This intellectual capital-based intrapreneurial ability (ICIA) helps professionals to effectively handle changes in the business ecosystem by creating innovative solutions. The onus of assessing and inculcating ICIA is a joint responsibility of both academia and industry. In academia, teacher as a servant leader (TASL) contributes towards building ICIA of working professionals (WP) by enhancing their self-efficacy (SE). The paper aims to strengthen the industry–academia interface by analyzing the role of TASL and SE in influencing the ICIA of WP.

Using a stratified sampling technique, data from 387 WP is analyzed on SmartPLS-4 to study the interrelationship between the stated constructs and the role of SE as a mediator between TASL and ICIA. PLSpredict is used to study the predictive relevance of the proposed model.

High R² = 0.654 shows that 65% of ICIA is determined by SE and TASL; reflecting model's robustness. SE partially mediates the relationship between TASL and ICIA. Results reported a higher ICIA of male WP than their female counterpart. The results indicate the low predictive accuracy of the model.

The proposed model of industry–academia partnership allows assessment of ICIA for enhancing corporate value in the present gig economy. The study also highlights the relevance of ICIA, particularly, for developing economies. In knowledge-driven economy, exploring the new ICIA will help organizations to draft a more robust performance measurement system.

This unique industry–academia partnership studies the role of TASL towards enhancing SE and ICIA of WP. The novelty of ICIA would enrich and provide a new perspective in IA literature. Additionally, the study also examines the role of gender in the ICIA of WP.

This paper aims to explore the factors inhibiting the internet adoption among base of pyramid (BoP) and to develop further insights of such factors.

Researchers used a mixed-method study with QUAL/QUAN sequence in this research. Given the dearth of research on the internet usage by the BoP segment in India, the authors began with the exploratory qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews in local language were carried out with the people belonging to the BoP segment in India using common interview protocol. Face-to-face interviews were conducted for 20-30 min with ten people. Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) was conducted on the interview transcripts which lead to five themes. These themes were identified as the potential inhibitors to the internet adoption by the BoP segment in India. This step was further followed by a confirmatory quantitative study.

The results confirm that the factors such as lack of digital literacy, complexity and language barrier play a significant role in inhibiting the internet adoption by the BoP segment. However, there is no impact of perceived risk and cost on the internet adoption. The significant relationship between lack of digital literacy and intention to use implies that if the BoP segment is capable to locate, evaluate and use digital information, it is more likely to use the internet. Similarly, the relationship between complexity and the intention to use suggests that if the BoP segment finds it easy to use and understand the internet, it is more likely to use it.

This research has the implications for government departments and policymakers that are responsible for promoting use of the internet. Therefore, such departments and policymakers are advised to channelize their effort on resting the digital literacy, especially in terms of internet adoption. Findings of this study show that digital literacy, complexity and language barriers are major inhabitants in the internet adoption. Directed and focused government policies and initiatives such as subsidized seminars and training programmes specially designed for the BoP segment can help in increasing internet adoption.

The adoption and use of the internet services by BoP have major implications for digital equality. Therefore, it would be important to explore the factors inhibiting the internet adoption among BoP.

This paper not only explores the factors inhibiting internet adoption among BoP in developing countries such as India but also provides deeper insights to these factors by collecting first-hand information from target segment. The finding of this research provides meaningful inputs to policymakers and also to industry to remove digital divide in the target population. This is how this research adds value to the existing knowledge available in this domain and it also provides agenda for future research.

Big Data has become crucial for fulfilling the vision of smart cities; however, there are several challenges associated with its use. This study aims to provide a holistic view of challenges of using Big Data in smart cities and the solutions to deal with them by systematically selecting, reviewing and synthesizing the literature in this area.

A systematic literature review was conducted by following a rigorous search protocol that identified a total of 310 peer-reviewed academic research papers. These papers were subsequently filtered and finally 38 relevant papers were selected.

A number of major challenges (human dynamics, privacy, security, volume, velocity, variety, veracity and value) associated with Big Data in a smart city and the respective solutions to address them were identified. This study primarily contributes in providing the process of effectively managing Big Data in smart cities.

The study provides valuable information to the Big Data practitioners by illustrating the process of effective management of Big Data in smart cities. This study further provides the directions to the future researchers.

The study is original and is based on the existing literature and its interpretation.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated model to represent how service experience (core, employee and service scale), customer satisfaction (transaction-specific and cumulative) and brand affinity influence brand equity in financial services, taking into account the moderating influence of financial service providers.

Data were collected from 751 customers in three types of financial service providers (banks, insurance companies and credit unions), and analyzed with structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis.

The findings confirm the significant and positive influence of service experience, customer satisfaction and brand affinity on brand equity. Employee service experience has the strongest influence, but its impact is mediated by customer satisfaction. Brand affinity has the lowest influence on brand equity. The type of financial service provider moderates the influence of customer satisfaction on brand equity; transactional satisfaction is more important for credit unions and insurance companies, but cumulative satisfaction is higher for banks.

The study is significant for three reasons. First, it reconciles branding strategies across different types of financial service providers. Second, it will help financial managers to develop and implement a more integrated approach toward building brand equity for financial service brands. Finally, it will identify specific service-related areas financial providers can target to increase customers’ preferential value.

The paper addresses previous concerns within brand equity studies by examining the drivers of brand equity formation in multiple financial institutions. It shows how different aspects of service experience and customer satisfaction affect brand affinity and preferential attitudes toward financial brands.

The purpose of this study is to determine the enablers of the quality of work life (QWL) of employees working in the Garment industries.

The study was carried out in a fivefold step. In the first step, the enablers of QWL were identified through an exhaustive literature survey, in the second step identified vital few components through Pareto analysis. Then the third step was followed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to further, to identify the precise components and validate the same using confirmatory factor analysis in fourth step. The final step included interpretive structural modeling and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification analysis to model the validated components and determine the interrelationships and linkages.

Predominant QWL enablers of employees working in the garment industries are training and development, satisfaction in job, compensation and rewards, relation and co-operation, grievance handling, work environment, job nature, job security and facilities.

In this study, the interpretive structural model is designed based on the opinion of the experts who are working in the garment industry considering the responses from employees in garment sectors. The framework can be extended further to the other sectors.

In future, the researchers in QWL may develop a model to quantify the level of employees’ QWL who are working in different sectors. Enablers of QWL are essential, and based on this further statistical analysis can be carried out. This study will provide limelight to the researchers in choosing the valid and reliable set of enablers for the empirical studies. Organizations can get benefit by implementing the outcome of this research for the enhancement of the QWL of employees.

The study was carried out in 133 garment industries where 851 workers constituted the final valid responses that were considered for analysis. The outcomes from the study help administrators, policy and decision-takers in taking decisions to enhance QWL.