Search results

Employee engagement has become a hot topic among the global workforce. Both academicians and practitioners tout engagement to have a positive impact on individual and organizational performance. However, despite the enhanced interest, the stagnant engagement levels worldwide pose a grave concern for the researchers. Numerous overlapping and inconsistent definitions of employee engagement lead to a conceptual chaos resulting in poor operationalization of the construct. The purpose of this paper is to develop a multi-dimensional measurement tool for employee engagement based on the evidences from the best companies to work for in India.

Interviews with the top management of the 15 best companies are used for the generation of items using grounded theory methodology. These items are then subjected to content validity assessment by six domain experts. The scale is administered to the middle-level employees of five companies (n = 332) through questionnaire for exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, reliability assessment and initial evidences for convergent and discriminant validity.

The study aimed at developing and validating an employee engagement assessment instrument, which is well-grounded in theory and built on the conceptual framework proposed by both academicians and practitioners and rigorously tested for its psychometric properties to ensure the precise measurement of employee engagement. A 3-factor/16 item employee engagement measurement tool is the finding of this study, which attempts to bridge the incongruity between the academic and industrial view on employee engagement.

Looking at the dearth of measurement tools built in developing countries and with the intent of resolving the issues related with cultural differences in the application of western assessment tools, the developed scale made a notable contribution to engagement theory with prime focus in the Indian context. The three dimensions of employee engagement-alignment, affectiveness and action- orientation- are in a form and language, that is, comprehensible and consequential for practitioners enabling them to take a closer look at the critical engagement elements that align with the organization's human capital strategy and foster improved performance.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relationship between organizational commitment (OC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as mediated by employee engagement (EE). The impact of different facets of OC (affective, continuance and normative) and EE (alignment, affectiveness and action-orientation) is examined with respect to OCB.

Insights from the literature underpin the hypotheses on how EE mediates the relationship between OC and OCB. Primary data using survey questionnaire were collected from 881 permanent employees of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in India. Hayes' model 4 has been used for the mediation analysis.

The analyses show that only one facet of OC- affective commitment and the alignment and action-orientation dimensions of EE positively affect OCB. The relationship between OC and OCB is fully mediated by EE.

The results imply that engaging employees is pivotal for effectively fostering citizenship behavior among employees. Organizations should be willing to implement strategies and interventions which enhance the emotional experience of employees to foster a sense of belongingness with the organization and engage them.

The paper draws on a unique data set of a prestigious organization in India to provide insights with substantial degree of generalizability into the relationship between OC, OCB and EE, whilst applying a comprehensive definition of these constructs. It is the first study to examine the inter-relationship among different facets of these constructs.

With the unprecedented growth of digitalization across the globe, a new asset class, that is cryptocurrency, has emerged to attract investors of all stripe. The novelty of this newly emerged asset class has led researchers to gauge anomalous trade patterns and behavioural fallacies in the crypto market. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the herd behaviour in a newly evolved cryptocurrency market during normal, skewed, Bitcoin bubble and COVID-19 phases. It, then, investigates the significance of Bitcoin in driving herding bias in the market. Finally, the study gauges herding contagion between the crypto market and stock markets.

The study employs daily closing prices of cryptocurrencies and relevant stocks of S&P 500 (USA), S&P BSE Sensex (Index) and MERVAL (Argentina) indices for a period spanning from June 2015 to May 2020. Quantile regression specifications of Chang et al.’s (2000) absolute deviation method have been used to locate herding bias. Dummy regression models have also been deployed to examine herd activity during skewed, crises and COVID-19 phases.

The descriptive statistics reveal that the relevant distributions are leptokurtic, justifying the selection of quantile regression to diagnose tails for herding bias. The empirical results provide robust evidence of crypto herd activity during normal, bullish and high volatility periods. Next, the authors find that the assumptions of traditional financial doctrines hold during the Bitcoin bubble. Further, the study reveals that the recent outbreak of COVID-19 subjects the crypto market to herding activity at quantile (t) = 0.60. Finally, no contagion is observed between cryptocurrency and stock market herding.

Drawing on the empirical findings, it is believed that in this age of digitalization and technological escalation, this new asset class can offer diversification benefits to the investors. Also, the crypto market seems quite immune to behavioural idiosyncrasies during turbulence. This may relieve regulators of the possible instability this market may pose to the entire financial system.

The present study appears to be the first attempt to diagnose leptokurtic tails of relevant distribution for crypto herding in the wake of two remarkable events: the crypto asset bubble (2016–2017) and the outbreak of coronavirus (early 2020).

The present study looks into the mimicking behaviour in both normal and asymmetric scenarios. It, then, considers the contagion between the USA and the BRICS stock markets. Finally, it examines herd behaviour in the wake of a major banking policy change concerning the bloc under study.

The current empirical analysis employs daily, weekly and monthly data points to estimate relevant herding parameters. Quantile regression specifications of Chang et al. (2000)'s dispersion method have been applied to detect herd activity. Also, dummy regression specifications have been used to examine the impact of various crises and strategically crucial events on the propensity to herd in the BRICS markets. The time period under consideration ranges from January 2011 until May 2019.

The relevant herding coefficients turn insignificant in most cases for normal and asymmetric scenarios except for China and South Africa. This can be traced to the anti-herding behaviour of investors, where individuals tend to diverge from the consensus. However, turbulence makes all stock markets to show some collective trading except Russia. Further, the Chinese stock market seems immune to the frictions in the US stock market. Finally, the Indian and South African markets witness significant herding during the formation of a common depository institution.

Most stock markets seem to herd during turbulence. This revelation is of strategic importance to the regulators and capital market managers. They have to be cautious during crises periods as the illusion of being secured with the masses ends up creating unprecedented frictions in the financial markets.

The present study seems to be the very first attempt to test the relevant distributions' tails for convergent behaviour in the BRICS markets.

The main purpose of the present study is to delve into the overconfidence bias in global stock markets during both pre COVID-19 and COVID-19 phases.

The present study makes use of daily adjusted closing prices and volume of the broad market indices of 46 global stock markets over a period ranging from July 2015 till June 2020. The sample period is split into pre COVID-19 and COVID-19 phases. In order to test the overconfidence fallacy in the chosen stock markets, bivariate market-wide vector auto regression (VAR) models and impulse response functions (IRFs) have been employed in both phases.

A highly significant contemporaneous relationship between market return and volume appears to be more pronounced in the Japanese, US, Chinese and Vietnamese stock markets in the pre COVID-19 era for the relevant coefficients are positive and highly significant for most lags. Coming to the period of turbulence, the present study discovers strong overconfident behavior in the Chinese, Taiwanese, Turkish, Jordanian and Vietnamese stock markets during COVID-19 phase.

A stark finding is that none of the developed stock markets reveal strong overconfidence bias during pandemic, suggesting a loss or decline in the investors' confidence. Therefore, the regulators should try to regain the investors' trust and confidence in the markets by ensuring honest, fair and transparent practices. The money managers should reduce the transaction cost to encourage trading and educate investors to hold a well-diversified portfolio to mitigate risk in the long run. The governments may launch recovery packages focusing on sustaining and improving economic activities. Finally, a better investment culture may be built by the corporate houses through good corporate governance practices to regain lost trust.

The present study appears to be the very first attempt to gauge overconfidence bias in the wake of a recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, corporate sustainability is at a tipping point. With average lifespan of organizations shrinking, striving for corporate longevity and sustainability has become indispensable in this fast-paced world. Despite the growing interest in this domain, companies are struggling to define sustainability in a way that is relevant to their business. This article attempts to synthesize the extant literature and provide a conceptual perspective on corporate sustainability and sustainable business models.

Thematic literature review was done to gain an understanding of the extant literature and the ongoing debates on organizational sustainability. As the literature in context of corporate sustainability was found to be in a fluid state, a thematic review was found suitable to systematize and disclose valuable insights that open avenues for addressing sustainability concerns.

The paper attempts to throw light on the journey of organizations towards sustainability and how the context of sustainability has changed for the organizations over time. The paper discusses how companies embarked on their sustainability revolution by shifting their focus from mere compliance and philanthropy to attaining a sustainability edge and also explicates the transformation from traditional business models to sustainable business models. Finally, the research gaps are identified to pave the way for future research in the domain of corporate sustainability.

The extant literature on corporate sustainability is in a shambolic state. This creates a need to investigate what has been done and how the context of corporate sustainability is being shaped. This paper contributes to the emerging literature on sustainability by providing a conceptual perspective and highlighting the research gaps which pave the way for future research on sustainability paradigm.

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.

Sustainable business models are the key to organizations surviving, growing, and adapting in the new economic landscape.

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.