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The purpose of this article is to identify the role of cloud computing services in business continuity and disaster recovery plans and delineate responsibilities for their execution. In recent times, there has been a huge upsurge in the usage of cloud service models such as infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, software-as-a-service and disaster recovery-as-a-service. However, in case of an emergency event or during contract negotiations, a question might arise as to who should be accountable and responsible for the content and execution of recovery plans. The main stakeholders in this scenario are cloud service providers and cloud consumers.

After a review of academic articles, standards, guidelines and vendor documentation, a proposal for assigning accountability and responsibility for business continuity and disaster recovery plans is presented, based on the RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted and informed) matrix. In this regard, a critical information infrastructure protection plan, a disaster recovery plan, an information systems contingency plan and a business continuity plan have been elaborated on in the article.

RACI matrices are presented for three general cloud service models and for three DRaaS models (managed, assisted and self-service). Accountability and responsibilities depend on the deployed cloud service model and the roles of cloud service providers and cloud consumers.

The proposed model for accountability and responsibility assignment provides a guideline for the allocation of responsibilities to roles not only during recovery but also during contract negotiations between cloud service providers and cloud consumers. By delving into business continuity and disaster recovery processes and activities, similar yet nuanced RACI matrices should be developed, as presented in this paper. They need to be customised for the specific context.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation evolves by cloud computing in different industries with different delivery models of cloud ERP. This paper also investigates infrastructure as a service (IaaS) as a delivery approach for cloud ERP. Case research on IaaS is rarely found in the literature. In addition, this paper intends to reveal how this transformation from on-premises to the cloud would influence the ERP implementation process.

A multiple-case study is conducted to identify the different deployed models of cloud ERP systems in the implementation projects. The influences of emerging cloud computing technology on ERP implementation are investigated by interviewing consultants related to the projects.

The findings illustrate that not only software as a service (SaaS) but also IaaS and platform as a service cloud computing services are widely applied in cloud ERP implementation. This study also indicates that certain technical limitations of cloud ERP might have a positive effect on the outcome of ERP implementation.

This study investigates how cloud computing influences ERP implementation from different aspects. The result identifies both SaaS and IaaS as two different approaches widely adopted in cloud ERP implementation. Besides, this study has discussed in-depth and analyzed these two cloud ERP paradigms in five factors, including functionality, performance, portability, security, cost and customization. The classification and suggestions are original to the literature.

Despite Bangladesh’s continued attempts, gender disparity in the workplace has long been a concern, and progress has been slow. Studies conducted earlier indicate that working women in Bangladesh experience an unwelcoming work environment, leading to unequal pay and limited opportunities for their career growth. Academic literature focuses little on the connection between gender and the physical work environment. This chapter focuses on the connection between the masculinist culture of organizations, how work is carried out, and workplaces are set up, illuminating the crucial role played by the built environment in maintaining gender equality. Infrastructure, spatial design, safety measures, amenities, and the biased culture often influence the obstacles to women’s long-term success in the workplace. This chapter investigates and comprehends the constraints female employees encounter in Bangladesh during their work by scrutinizing the influence of the physical space and the biased socio-psychological environment. As women’s long-term professional progress depends on how these elements are interrelated, improving the environment is the first step toward a fairer and more empowered work environment. A qualitative approach has been used in this study. Seventy-eight Bangladeshi graduate, working women have participated in this research. The results show that, regardless of efforts, the environment in Bangladeshi workplaces is inhospitable, directly affecting women’s careers. Building a welcoming workspace accommodating all genders is crucial for creating gender parity and promoting long-term professional growth. Therefore, this research suggests that the government should capitalize on successful efforts and investigate alternative techniques to improve this issue.

Introduction: In the context of Sri Lanka, this study compares how institutions and financial development (FD) affect economic growth (EG) and inclusive growth (IG).

Purpose: The well-structured administration and judicial system at the provincial level have been established against the socioeconomic vulnerabilities in the country for an extended period. Still, the country as a whole and provincial level is experiencing huge income and social inequality, though there are required provisions for enhancing the well-being of the people.

Methodology: The study consists of data from the nine provinces from 2013 to 2019. The analysis used the Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model (D-SDM) to explore the spatial dependencies between the provinces. Two models were developed: the interaction of the financial service activities (FSA) and insurance, reinsurance, and pension (INPEN), representing the FD with the EG and IG with and without. The IG index was estimated by principal component analysis (PCA) using indicators of the four dimensions. The results indicated spatial dependency among FD’s interaction with EG when provincial tax (PROTAX) and provincial expenses (PROEXP) are the provincial institutions.

Findings: The IG model results showed the IG’s spatial dependency moderated by the FD and only the IG model between the provinces. PROEXP showed a significant positive spillover impact among provinces towards the IG.

Practical Implications: The finding inform economic policy making while identifying weaknesses in existing local governments. Attention must be given to how poverty can be reduced, enhancing the well-being of the people with the proper channelling of finance and government institutional mechanisms.

The study's primary purpose is to establish the direct and indirect roles of word-of-mouth communication (WOM) in initiating and maintaining consumer loyalty in the bottom of pyramid (BOP) markets in the Indian context. In addition, the study seeks to evaluate the conditions (viz. extent of media usage, brand distribution intensity and brand social connections) under which WOM leads to the initiation and maintenance of consumer brand loyalty.

The study hypotheses were formulated following the social identity theory. Later, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 898 rural BOP consumers. Structural equation modelling technique was applied to test the study hypotheses.

Results suggested a positive effect of WOM on brand credibility and self-brand connections-indicative of the initiation of strong cognitive and affective relationships respectively. Brand credibility and self-brand connections also mediated the paths between WOM and brand loyalty-indicative of the maintenance and continuation of strong affect-laden relationships. These indirect relationships were moderated by the extent of media usage, brand distribution intensity and brand social connections.

This is among the first studies that holistically evaluate the role of WOM in developing customer loyalty to rural BOP consumers against the backdrop of the systemic deficiencies in these markets.

COVID-19 placed millions of employees under work-from-home/telework. Employers intend extending telework for the long-term, anticipating business benefits. But the benefits are impacted by employees' well-being/ill-being, which is affected by the satisfaction of psychological needs. In turn, need satisfaction is influenced by employees' personal/job attributes. As work-from-home's blended environment disrupts routines, the satisfaction of the psychological need for structure or routines was examined in this study, along with the effect of personal/job attributes.

Cross-section primary data were collected from 500 teleworking information technology employees from India and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Vigour and exhaustion represented well-being and ill-being. Telework self-efficacy, standardised job, technology assistance and supervisor social support were the determinants or personal/job attributes. Need for structure satisfaction was the mediator.

Telework self-efficacy, technology assistance and supervisor social support were positively associated with structure satisfaction. In turn, structure satisfaction was related positively with vigour and negatively with exhaustion, and thus mediated between personal/job attributes and vigour/exhaustion. Standardised job did not affect vigour, exhaustion or structure satisfaction.

Need for structure is mostly studied as a trait, with implications of greater/lesser preference for structure examined. However, this work acknowledges structure as a basic ubiquitous need. Everyone needs some structure. Hence, need for structure is researched from the novel perspective of its satisfaction. This paper also uniquely combines job demands–resources model which identifies personal/job attributes, with concepts of epistemic which posit the need for structure.

The paper develops a model for enhancing R&D productivity for Indian public funded laboratories. The paper utilizes the productivity data of five Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratories for analysis and to form the constructs of the model.

The weighted average method was employed for analyzing the rankings of survey respondents pertaining to the significant measures enhancing R&D involvement of researchers and significant non-R&D jobs. The authors have proposed a model of productivity. Various individual, organizational and environmental constructs related to the researchers working in the CSIR laboratories have been outlined that can enhance R&D productivity of researchers in Indian R&D laboratories. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to find the predictability of the productivity model.

The organizational factors have a crucial role in enhancing the R&D outputs of CSIR laboratories. The R&D productivity of researchers can be improved through implementing the constructs of the proposed model of productivity.

The R&D productivity model can be adapted by the R&D laboratories to enhance researchers’ R&D involvement, increased R&D outputs and achieving self-sustenance in long run.

The R&D laboratories can initiate exercises to explore the most relevant factors and measures to enhance R&D productivity of their researchers. The constructs of the model can function as a guideline to introduce the most preferable research policies in the laboratory for overall mutual growth of laboratory and the researchers.

Hardly any studies have been found that have focused on finding the measures of enhancing R&D involvement of researchers and the influence of significant time-intensive jobs on researchers’ productivity.

The aim of this study is to explore how women in Sri Lanka cultivate entrepreneurial personae to navigate the various gendered roles they situationally enact, as they attempt to secure legitimacy and acceptance and overcome their otherness. Drawing on Goffman's theorisation of symbolic interaction, this study investigates how gender informs the performance of entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka. In this way, the study engages with the challenges women in the Global South navigate while undertaking entrepreneurship, and it contributes to the critical entrepreneurship literature on the intertwined nature of gender and entrepreneurship.

Following feminist standpoint epistemology (FSE), this qualitative study focuses on women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka by examining the performance of entrepreneurship through 44 life history interviews (LHIs) and 40 Field Observations conducted over a seven-month period.

The findings reveal that women carefully cultivate entrepreneurial personae by striking a balance between entrepreneurial ideals and patriarchal social expectations around womanhood. The findings of the study present how the entrepreneurial personae are constructed by way of appearance, mannerism and setting, which presents opportunities for future research to explore the dramaturgical aspect of gender and entrepreneurship.

This study contributes to the growing body of feminist research surrounding women entrepreneurs, by drawing on insights from the lived experiences of women entrepreneurs in the Global South. This study also expands Goffman's theorisation of audience segregation and shows that a subject's understanding of the audience shapes their personae. A further contribution of this research is how space becomes an extension of the personae at play.

In this systematic review of the literature on women’s entrepreneurship education, this paper aims to examine the current state of the field. The authors analyze publication trends, identify major themes and propose an agenda for future research.

The authors review 363 articles published between 1993 and 2023, to develop a synthesized overview of women’s entrepreneurship education, complete with insights into the journals that have provided the most coverage of this topic, as well as how it has emerged over time.

The authors tracked the evolution of research themes and collaboration networks over a 30-year period. Results show there has been significant growth in research on women’s entrepreneurship education, as evidenced by a surge of publications on the topic and the total number of citations.

The authors categorized and analyzed six thematic clusters within the literature: entrepreneurial intention, ethical perspectives, gender-specific barriers, gender stereotypes, rural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Building on these thematic clusters, this study discusses future research directions to advance the field.

This study aims to provide the best estimate of a stock's next day's closing price for a given day with the help of the hidden Markov model–Gaussian mixture model (HMM-GMM). The results were compared with Hassan and Nath’s (2005) study using HMM and artificial neural network (ANN).

The study adopted an initialization approach wherein the hidden states of the HMM are modelled as GMM using two different approaches. Training of the HMM-GMM model is carried out using two methods. The prediction was performed by taking the closest closing price (having a log-likelihood within the tolerance range) to that of the present one as the closing price for the next day. Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) has been used to compare the proposed GMM-HMM model against the models of the research study (Hassan and Nath, 2005).

Comparing this study with Hassan and Nath (2005) reveals that the proposed model outperformed in 66 out of the 72 different test cases. The results affirm that the model can be used for more accurate time series prediction. Further, compared with the results of the ANN model from Hassan's study, the proposed HMM model outperformed 24 of the 36 test cases.

The study introduced a novel initialization and two training/prediction approaches for the HMM-GMM model. It is to be noted that the study has introduced a GMM-HMM-based closing price estimator for stock price prediction. The proposed method of forecasting the stock prices using GMM-HMM is explainable and has a solid statistical foundation.