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The Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected the tourism industry. The highly contagious coronavirus-19 has brought the whole industry to its knees, initiating catastrophic effects in terms of loss of jobs and revenue. The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify the innovative coping strategies adopted by small tourism companies (STCs) to revive business and cope with the pandemic.

This study used qualitative exploration and asked open-ended questions to senior executives of STCs in India. Written responses were obtained from the respondents. Thematic analysis was performed to analyse the responses of the participants.

The findings highlight the innovative strategies adopted by STCs to cope with Covid-19-related business loss and present suggestions given by them to benefit the tourism industry.

This study offers insightful practical and theoretical implications for tourism companies, marketing practitioners and policymakers.

The study builds on social practice theory, and the findings (prominent themes) are uniquely mapped with the elements of social practice theory.

The purpose of the study is to probe millennials on their perceptions towards consumer ethics and to generate new insights in the realm of consumer behaviour. Millennials constitute a big fraction of the total consumer base with immense buying power. Therefore, the exploration of the ethical perspective of millennials is of vital importance for organizations.

The study applies a grounded theory approach to explore the subjective experiences of consumers and draws insights from the data following an interpretivist epistemology.

The findings revealed five prominent themes that throw light on the consumer’s ethical orientations. The findings extend Hunt Vettel’s theoretical framework and ethical relativism.

This research is limited by the small sample of millennials studied.

The paper advances the Hunt Vittel theoretical framework of ethics and provides insights into the deontological and teleological evaluations of millennials while making ethical decisions. The study adds to the existing research on millennials materialism and ethical orientation. The organizations get an insight into the ethical perceptions of millennials. The findings reinforce the consumer’s perceived importance of adoption of green practices by the organizations. The organization’s investment in green practices precipitate a favourable image of the organization among the millennials.

Literature in ethics is replete with studies adopting positivist methodologies. This paper is unique as it shuns the methodological bias and adopts a grounded theory approach to study new age digitally savvy millennial consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the incidence and determinants of educational mismatch in the Indian labour market. It also attempts to measure the wage effects of educational mismatch, and other individual and work-related characteristics.

Educational mismatch is modelled using multiple Mincerian equations. Wage effects are measured using the novel identification strategy of Lewbel (2012), which constructs internal instruments to obviate potential endogeneity problems.

The authors find that the returns to over-education are positive and significant, while the returns to under-education are negative and significant. However, over-educated would earn less than the workers who have the same educational level, but who are engaged in occupations for which they are adequately educated.

This study is one of the earliest attempts to identify the determinants of educational mismatch in the Indian labour market. Additionally, it measures the effect of educational mismatch on labour market earnings, as well as marginal wage effects of each surplus (or deficit) year of education. Methodological improvements ensure that the results are robust to the sample selection bias, as well as the endogeneity bias.

The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of authentic leadership on innovative work behavior among employees in the context of Indian startups that have gone global in the past one decade. The study also aimed to investigate the mediating effect of one organizational-level variable, i.e. organizational climate and one individual-level variable, i.e. readiness for change on the direct relationship between authentic leadership and innovative work behavior.

The study used survey method with a sample of 261 employees working in Indian startups that have gone global in the past one decade. Authentic leadership, organizational climate, readiness for change and innovative work behavior were measured using standardized questionnaires.

Structural equation modeling revealed that authentic leadership had significant direct effect on innovative work behavior and this effect was mediated by readiness for change. However, organizational climate had no significant effect.

The findings of the study have important implications for startups that employ millennials as employees and have plans to go global. Millennials have very different characteristics in the workplace and they regard authenticity in the leader very highly. Since they are assertive and they question everything, it becomes imperative for founder-leaders to exhibit authenticity in their actions, words and thoughts.

This is the first study in the context of Indian startups that have gone global by taking important variables of authentic leadership, readiness for change and innovative work behavior.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Restaurants face stiff competition irrespective of the market in which they operate. Digital marketing is a powerful tool for these restaurants to gain a competitive advantage.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The aim of this work was to study the effect of aerobic packaging on storage quality of functional restructured spent hen meat slices (FRSHMS) at refrigerated temperature (4 ± 1°C).

FRSHMS were prepared by replacing the lean meat with different binders and extenders in pre-standardized restructured spent hen meat slices formulation. The slices of control and FRSHMS were aerobically packaged in LDPE and analyzed for physicochemical, microbiological and sensory quality.

The pH of FRSHMS was significantly higher (p = 0.03) than control on 0 and 7th day. Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values of both control and FRSHMS increased significantly on 21st day of storage as compared to 0 day. TBA value of FRSHMS was significantly lower (p = 0.04) as compared to that of control on 21st day. Psychrophils were detected on 14th day of storage and thereafter increased significantly (p = 0.00) in both control and FRSHMS. Coliforms were detected only on 21st day of storage in both control and FRSHMS. The sensory attributes of control, and FRSHMS were affected from 14th day onwards, but the products remained quite acceptable with sensory rating between good to very good up to 21 days during refrigerated storage.

The trials can be further carried in modified atmospheric packaging to evaluate storage stability of developed restructured spent hen meat slices.

The paper has demonstrated that the FRSHMS could be stored safely in aerobic packaging for 21 days at refrigeration temperature.

This paper aims to explore the experience of adoption of digital marketing and related tools by restaurant entrepreneurs or owners of restaurants in the UK and India.

This study is based on qualitative research. In-depth interviews were conducted with restaurant owners to understand the extent of adoption of digital marketing tools and how they have embraced the digital change in running their business operations.

Findings shed light on major changes in consumer behaviour and the readiness of restaurant owners to adopt digital tools for marketing restaurant businesses. Additionally, this paper also probes restaurant owners’ apprehensions in the process with an objective of retaining customers for a longer period.

It is also evident that there is a clear gap in the restaurant space in India and the UK as far as the adoption of digital marketing tools is concerned. The restaurants in India are yet to adequately harness the digital medium as a strategic tool for marketing. This research can potentially form the basis of further research in terms of using technology and digital tools to reach customers and creating a more personalized experience for them.

This study aims to investigate driving factors for wine tourists to revisit Indian vineyards. It explores the motivation for Indians engaged in wine tourism and specific behaviors related thereto. Framed in the theory of planned behavior, this paper proposes a conceptual model of revisit intentions for wine tourism. This model covers environmental concerns, escapism, countryside lifestyle, entertainment and spillovers of international traveling as direct antecedents for the revisit intentions.

A quantitative approach was adopted for this research. Data was gathered through a standardized questionnaire from 141 vineyard tourists in Nashik, India and evaluated by fitting a structural equation model.

Important drivers for wine tourists revisit intentions are countryside lifestyle and spillovers of international travel. Notably, entertainment does not have a significant direct effect, but a substantial impact moderated by escapism. Environmental concerns have a negative impact. The escapism component is the most influential motivation for revisiting the Indian vineyards.

The attractiveness of vineyards visits in contrast to nearby tourist attractions needs to be clarified, e.g. by calibrating gravitation models.

Escapism is a substantial antecedent for the revisit intention of the vineyards while environmental concerns are its major barrier.

Countryside lifestyle contributes to overcoming the disadvantage of the contemporary hectic society of the Indian middle class and preserving Indian roots along with modernizing lifestyles.

The first evidence of Indian wine tourists revisits intentions. The current research fills a research gap by examining India’s wine tourism phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the motivational drives of women entrepreneurs and highlight the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs operating micro, small and medium enterprises from an institutional perspective in Rajasthan – a patriarchal state in India.

The study is based on data collected from a questionnaire survey conducted from July 2018 to January 2019 on 347 women entrepreneurs operating in seven districts of Rajasthan. Descriptive and factor analysis were used to find the major motivations and challenges of the entrepreneurs.

The findings indicate that intrinsic factors, namely, growth, creativity, autonomy and rejecting stereotypical gender identity are primary motivations driving women entrepreneurship in Rajasthan. Further, institutions pose challenges rather than offering a motivational drive to female entrepreneurs. The two most critical challenges, which the women entrepreneurs face are gender stereotypes and the lack of social capital. In patriarchal societies, entrepreneurial roles are considered masculine than feminine. Furthermore, cultural norms reflected in gender-specific role distribution result in the problem of work-life balance. The lack of both bonding and bridging social capital in terms of family support and networks, respectively, also reflects an unfavorable informal institutional environment.

The study adds to the sparse empirical literature on the motivations and challenges of women entrepreneurs in the Indian context. This study explores the motivations and challenges of female entrepreneurs from an institutional perspective for India in general and Rajasthan, in particular, using a large, heterogeneous sample using factor analysis.

This paper aims to focus on how home-grown Indian companies explored the potential of Indian middle class and realized an opportunity to seize the market gap not catered by MNCs in India. Across three distinct business contexts, the authors describe the companies’ procedures of developing segment-specific offerings. Doing so, the authors outline novel strategies implemented by these companies to cater to specific needs of the segments.

Seizing Bandura’s (1986) framework that stresses on the role of cognitive, vicarious, self-reflective and self-regulatory processes, the authors develop a four-layered model of the Indian middle class consumers. Building upon this model, they took multiple case (three caselets) approach for illustrating the strategies of home-grown companies. The authors identify their potential to explore the unknown terrains of various market segments and rework with unique local solutions.

The study highlights the power of home-grown companies over MNCs in terms of better market understanding and realistic offerings best suited to their needs. Across the divergent business contexts the companies’ strategies have four features in common: customer targeting and developing; localization of business models, particularly services; relating the products to the Indian society; and ethnocentrism and pride.

This study gives priority to a “thick” description of the proceedings without claiming causality. The authors limit this qualitative investigation to pinpointing congruence and contradictions to previous established results.

A key implication of this paper is the relevance of linking firm’s strategy to social-psychological development of customers in emerging economies component. This study provides critical insights for both managers and policymakers on the economic and social upswing as socially responsible and ethical practices are likely to gain public awareness.

The study’s originality springs from understanding the domestic company’s strategies when facing the pressure of (mainly Western) MNCs entering the emerging economies markets. While the latter takes advantage of economies of scale, country of origin effects and the powerful brands, the home-grown businesses are forced to develop divergent advantages and capabilities. Notably, earlier literature focused on changed demand pattern brought by MNCs in emerging economies and not on later part whereby, home-grown companies carve a space for themselves with specially designed improved products and innovative strategies.