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Social enterprise, Social entrepreneurship.

PGDM, PGDM Executive.

The case is about the evolution of a unique social organization, BloodConnect, over its journey of four years. Initiated by two Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi students in 2010, the organization went on to be recognized for making leeway into the hitherto underserved need of blood security in India. The case describes BloodConnect's evolution with respect to different dimensions of blood shortages and the organization's acquisition of knowledge over the years. BloodConnect acted as a facilitator to bring multiple stakeholders, including potential donor segments, beneficiaries, hospitals, government and NGOs, on the same platform to collectively identify solutions, thereby increasing the ownership of each segment toward an issue of importance to the society. While the organization started gaining visibility and was on its way to making its operation structured, it desired to move beyond the confines of Delhi-NCR to raise the movement to the national level, but it was faced with challenges peppered with lack of resources, lack of funds, absence of a permanent leadership and complex dynamics between the multiple stakeholders. Donor dependency for funds and amateur management were the other major impediments for its sustenance. The case brings forth the major challenges threatening the very existence of the organization as it grappled to identify solutions that could provide revenue sustainability without dampening its mission of creating social value. The case is of relevance to social enterprises in the context of a developing nation as most of the low and middle income countries face similar challenges pertaining to blood security. It also brings forth the issues of survival, scalability and the concept of social value measurement. In what are the myriad hurdles faced by start-ups, the traditional metrics might not be enough while measuring the impact created by a social enterprise.

To develop an insight into the unique challenges faced by start-up social ventures and options available to them for growth and subsequent consolidation. To enhance the understanding of interrelationship between mission focus, scale of operations, revenue sustainability and social impact. To introduce students to the concept of social value measurement. The students would be able to appreciate the uniqueness of the metrics specific to a social venture.

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

This purpose of this study is to perfrom the analysis of COVID-19 with the help of blood samples. The blood samples used in the study consist of more than 100 features. So to process high dimensional data, feature reduction has been performed by using the genetic algorithm.

In this study, the authors will implement the genetic algorithm for the prediction of COVID-19 from the blood test sample. The sample contains records of around 5,644 patients with 111 attributes. The genetic algorithm such as relief with ant colony optimization algorithm will be used for dimensionality reduction approach.

The implementation of this study is done through python programming language and the performance evaluation of the model is done through various parameters such as accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and area under curve (AUC).

The implemented model has achieved an accuracy of 98.7%, sensitivity of 96.76%, specificity of 98.80% and AUC of 92%. The results have shown that the implemented algorithm has performed better than other states of the art algorithms.

Strategy/entrepreneurship/international marketing.

This case is recommended for use in courses on strategy, entrepreneurship, international marketing and joint venture for PGDM and Executive programmes.

International Football Academy (IFA), a leading football development firm, is gearing up to expand its operations to a new geographic market, India. The purpose is to further its international growth plans by establishing a lasting presence in developing markets. Their previous stints in China and Indonesia met with huge success. However, there was a stark difference between those geographies and the Indian market, in terms of political system, economic infrastructure, social framework, cultural practices, technological advancements, legal regulations, etc. In a country where 47 per cent of the 1.2 billion population considered themselves football fans (Nielson survey, 2010), it was ironical that the Indian football market remained one of the most untapped and fragmented of its kind. The question for IFA was: “Would India be another feather in our hat?”

The case highlights the key factors facing firms, when expanding into emerging markets. The students are expected to think through the various dimensions to decision-making, which includes Why (expand), Where (which market), When (right time), What (thrust of strategy) and Who (partners). It also compels the students to appreciate the various challenges involved in exporting a product, which is as unique as “football training”.

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 11: Strategy

The purpose of this paper is to report on recent performance measurement and impact evaluation progress made in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Moldova, Turkey and Vietnam as part of the last phase of the Global Libraries Initiative.

The country reports are presented as a series of case studies, in some cases supplementing those reported earlier in this journal.

Recent country-specific survey findings are reported and some conclusions are offered.

This paper demonstrates how the adoption of a common approach to library service evaluation across several countries can strengthen research practice at country level beyond the Global Libraries Initiative itself.

This paper shares Global Libraries IPA learning at country level with people in other countries who may be contemplating public library evaluation at regional, national or local levels or who are interested in performance measurement and impact evaluation.

The paper shows how focusing on the impact of public library services on users can enhance the understanding of community requirements and inform the development of more effective services to library users and communities.

These case studies reflect concentrated impact evaluation and performance measurement work at country level across a range of countries over more than 18 years.

In recent years, customer engagement (CE) with brands, which has been shown to yield enhanced firm sales, competitive advantage and stock returns, has risen to occupy a prominent position in brand management research and practice. Correspondingly, scholars have explored CE’s conceptualization, operationalization and its nomological networks as informed by different theoretical perspectives. However, in spite of important advances, the knowledge structure of the overall corpus of CE research remains tenuous. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the intellectual structure of CE research.

Based on this gap, this study deploys bibliometric and network analysis to map CE’s literature-based landscape. Using bibliometric analysis, important CE-publishing journals, authors and influential CE articles (2005–2020) are uncovered. Using network analysis, prominent CE themes are also unearthed.

The results document key CE-publishing journals and authors and their respective contributions to the literature. Five CE themes are also identified, including CE measurement/methods, online CE, CE’s value co-creating capacity, CE conceptualization and customer/consumer brand engagement. Further, an agenda for future CE research is provided based on the presented network analysis results.

The reported findings generate important implications for brand managers. For example, the identified critical role of online (vs offline) CE offers a range of strategic opportunities, as outlined.

This paper offers a pioneering bibliometric and network analysis of the CE literature, thus mapping the field. From the identified CE themes, important avenues for further CE research are also identified.

Strategic management, IT strategy, Business & IT Consulting, International Business.

PGDM and Executive programmes.

Cognizant Technology Solutions, one of the giants in the Indian information technology (IT) industry, has been continually evolving new strategies and business models to cater to the global IT demand. Starting as an in-house technology unit of Duns & Bradstreet, the case highlights the various pioneering and transformative decisions taken by Cognizant to become one among the Fortune 500 companies of the world. However, despite its supremacy in the global market, they are facing tremendous competition from the other IT giants – TCS, Infosys and Wipro, to name a few. Also, the expansion of global IT players like Accenture and International Business Machines (IBM) in India is making matters worse. This intense competition, when juxtaposed with commoditization and price sensitivity on behalf of the IT demand, makes sustainability a big question mark. The million-dollar question remains “How should Cognizant strategize to ensure inorganic growth in the price-sensitive industry?”

The case highlights the market dynamics of the Indian IT industry – from its humble beginning as an attraction for low-cost labour to being one of the strategic outsourcing geographies of the IT sector – and thereby categorically points out the significance of continuous evolution on behalf of the IT firms to stay alive in this client-driven industry. The students are expected to analyze the IT industry of India, keeping in mind its vulnerabilities – price sensitivity, dependence on developed economies and intense competition – and relate the same to different strategies incorporated by Cognizant to remain one of the powerhouses of the Indian IT industry.

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

Strategic Marketing, Marketing Management, Services Marketing.

MBA and Executive MBA.

The case talks about the inception and growth of OYO Rooms, a company that originally started as ORAVEL Stays Ltd. in 2012, as a platform for booking budget and premium accommodations, but graduated to become OYO Rooms, an online aggregator of hotels, with a unique business model of “managing the partial inventory of rooms” in hotels and offering a proposition of affordable, consistent, quality experience to business, leisure and pilgrim travellers. The company received rounds of funding from Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, Sequoia Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. Moreover, unlike its competitors, OYO adapted itself to the fast-changing consumer preference and grew at an enviable pace and by 2016, was present across 190 cities through a network of 6,500 hotels. However, OYO Rooms had to face a multitude of challenges both from the consumer and hotel owners’ ends, primarily service quality concerns from the customers and majorly concerns out of payment irregularities or non-abidance to written contracts from the hoteliers’ end. The dissatisfaction levels increased to an extent that experts started raising questions on the viability of the business. OYO was growing at an aggressive rate but breakeven point was yet to be achieved. Moreover, growing dissatisfaction and switching amongst its customers as well as hoteliers threatened the very existence of the model. The case allows the students to critically analyse the strategies of OYO for deliberation on whether the business model was sustainable in the long run. It also encourages the students to deliberate on the possible growth strategies for OYO as also on the service recovery strategies for OYO.

The case has been positioned around the following modules: industry analysis; value of a two-sided business model to both parties; sustainability of a unique business model, against the challenges that it faces; applying the VRIO framework (resource-based view); complaint handling and service recovery strategies; applying the Ansoff’s grid for possible growth options.

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 11: Strategy.

The current study examines the impact of various psychological factors, university environment and sustainable behaviour on teachers' intention to incorporate inclusive education in higher education.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data from 204 academicians and scholars from India. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to examine data.

Results revealed that teachers' attitudes, university environment and spirituality had a positive and significant association with intention to incorporate inclusive education. Path analysis showed that teachers' attitude was the most prominent predictor of intention to incorporate inclusive education, followed by spirituality and university environment.

The study determines the key predictors of teachers' intention to incorporate inclusive education. The identified factors can help the government and public policymakers foster inclusive education. The study determines that teachers have the capability to drive inclusive education through intrinsic spiritual views and feelings of satisfaction and happiness. Marketers must capitalize on the spiritual aspect of individuals and accordingly develop long-term inclusive strategies.

The current study addresses prevailing gaps in existing literature on teachers' attitude and intention to adopt inclusive education. The study examines the impact of key predictors of teachers' intention to adopt inclusive education and focuses on emerging factors such as university environment, spirituality, teachers' self-efficacy, concern and sustainable behaviour.

This study aims to investigate Indian mainstream secondary school teachers’ awareness and attitude toward assistive technology (AT) and its implementation level in an inclusive setting.

The study followed a descriptive survey method within the cross-sectional research design, and the selected approach consisted of a mixture of quantitative (e.g. questionnaire surveys) and qualitative (e.g. interviews) methods. A survey was distributed among 150 teachers from 15 secondary schools following the stratified random sampling technique. Collected data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially.

Findings revealed that teachers’ awareness of AT was not up to the satisfactory level yet they showed an overall positive attitude toward it. Regarding teachers’ knowledge, professional support or institutional support, almost everywhere the inadequacy was obvious. These schools were running with a poor resource pool of assistive products along with a squat implementation level. Hence special needs students did not get required supports from schools as they deserved which had been hampering the overall inclusive atmosphere. Lack of suitable policies, adequate awareness and financial limitations were evolved as major barriers in the implementation of AT in these schools. Further, statistical analysis revealed a surprising output that male teachers showed slightly higher awareness level regarding AT than their female counterparts but in respect of attitude they were found overpowered by the females. Teachers of urban schools also exhibited slightly better awareness and attitude toward AT than those of rural schools.

The study has a high research value for not only having a scarcity of past studies on this topic but also in developing the inclusive education concept in India by enhancing the use of AT for making the process effective and efficient so far as the academic achievements of students with special needs is concerned. The survey can also serve as a source for academic planners in the country by getting information on the current state of resources, both human and material, and thus by making suitable measures for optimum use of available resources.

The write up of this paper was very difficult, as there were almost no previous studies done on this topic in the past in India, and we had to face an acute shortage of related literature. So, this study would prove to be a good addition in this respect for future researchers.

This is the reporting of an original research conducted in India. To do this study, the authors conducted intensive surveys, interviews and observations. The write up of the findings focuses mainly on the survey and interview data. This type of the study is exclusive in the Indian context and can help Indian policymakers and many other similar developing countries on the globe.

Increasing trends of climatic risk pose challenges to the food security and livelihoods of smallholders in vulnerable regions, where farmers often face loss of the entire crop, pushing farmers (mostly men) out of agriculture in destitution, creating a situation of agricultural making agriculture highly feminization and compelling male farmers to out-migrate. Climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) are promoted to cope with climatic risks. This study aims to assess how knowledge related to CSAPs, male out-migration, education and income contribute to the determinants of male out-migration and CSAPs adoption and how they respond to household food security.

Sex-disaggregated primary data were collected from adopter and non-adopter farm families. STATA 13.1 was used to perform principle component analysis to construct knowledge, yield and income indices.

Yield and income index of adopters was higher for men than women. The probability of out-migration reduced by 21% with adoption of CSAPs. An increase in female literacy by 1 unit reduces log of odds to migrate by 0.37. With every unit increase in knowledge index, increase in log-odds of CSAPs adoption was 1.57. Male:female knowledge gap was less among adopters. Non-adopters tended to reduce food consumption when faced with climatic risks significantly, and the probability of migration increased by 50% with a one-unit fall in the nutrition level, thus compelling women to work more in agriculture. Gender-equitable enhancement of CSAP knowledge is, therefore, key to safeguarding sustainable farming systems and improving livelihoods.

The enhancement of gender equitable knowledge on CSAPs is key to safeguard sustainable farming systems and improved livelihoods.

This study is based on the robust data sets of 100 each of male and female from 100 households (n = 200) using well-designed and validated survey instrument. From 10 randomly selected climate-smart villages in Samastipur and Vaishali districts of Bihar, India, together with focus group discussions, the primary data were collected by interviewing both men and women from the same household.