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The case study incorporated a combination of primary and secondary data collection approach. The authors interviewed Dr Varghese, the co-founder of Sunbird Straws and the protagonist in this case study. In addition, secondary data was obtained from various sources such as newspaper articles, journal publications and company reports.

On a rosy and vibrant morning in 2017, Dr Saji Varghese, a professor at Christ University in Bangalore, stumbled upon a curved coconut leaf on the campus resembling a straw. This sparked his motivation to transform coconut leaves into a natural straw, prompting him to initiate experiments with coconut leaves in his kitchen. The process of boiling and straining leaves became his method for crafting an eco-friendly straw. After numerous attempts, he successfully produced straws from coconut leaves, introducing a distinctive and creative concept incubated at IIM Bangalore. These unique straws, crafted by Varghese, prioritised environmental friendliness and were also crafted entirely from biodegradable materials, free from harmful chemicals. These straws demonstrated durability in hot and cold beverages for up to 3 h, maintaining their integrity without becoming soggy or leaking. As the business flourished, it reached a critical juncture. The primary challenge centred around product marketing, mainly due to consumer unfamiliarity with such sustainable straws. This was a product that also fell under the category of low involvement for consumers. Raising awareness about the product and persuading consumers to purchase presented a significant hurdle. In response, Varghese assigned his team to develop cost-effective marketing strategies. Given the start-up nature of the business, advertising budgets were constrained, and the objective was to achieve a positive return on advertising spend for every investment in advertising the product. In addition, the focus was on increasing the likelihood of selling the straws on both business-to-business and business-to-consumer levels. In this case study, Varghese’s role and predicament exemplify the delicate equilibrium that entrepreneurs frequently grapple with, striking a balance between marketing strategy and return on ad spent to steer the trajectory of their businesses. It offered a valuable examination of the nuanced decisions marketers encounter as they strive for both profitability and customer-centric products.

The case study is relevant to the marketing discipline. All undergraduate and postgraduate-level marketing courses in higher education institutions can use this case study. It can also be used in integrated marketing communication or digital marketing classes. It can be used further in the hospitality and management fields. Also, online courses in marketing can include this case study.

The learning objectives are intended to stimulate the students’ comprehension of the various challenges faced by Indian startups in the digital ecosystem. With the changing working dynamics in organizations around the globe, managers are expected to explore unconventional business models to facilitate operational growth. The case study is a valuable resource for graduate students to enhance and evolve their critical thinking and solution-oriented skills as forthcoming managers of digital businesses. Students should be able to analyze the case, respond to the questions and evaluate the consequences of workplace flexibility, moonlighting and its applicability in an organizational context. With the Indian Government introducing schemes such as the Digital India initiative and Startup India, it is predicted that numerous startups will opt for digital business standards and a remote work approach. The case bridges classroom theories and a real-life digital company to help students connect with emerging market scenarios.

During the digital era, India witnessed a shift in companies’ work culture, which amplified when COVID-19 hit the country. Organizations started to work remotely and experienced the numerous benefits it brought. The comfort of working from home was greater for digital businesses whose significant operations could be performed online. However, is it really that productive for digital companies to telecommute? The case illustrates how a digital company, Career Pandit, formed in 2018, unfurls and expands its business and further highlights the challenges the pandemic raised concerning people management. In addition to the discussion, the purpose of the case is to determine the implication of workplace flexibility and moonlighting and how Indian startups cope with the uncertain future challenges it brings.

Under graduate and postgraduate students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Purpose: Nowadays, many terms like computer vision, deep learning, and machine learning have all been made possible by recent artificial intelligence (AI) advances. As new types of employment have risen significantly, there has been significant growth in adopting AI technology in enterprises. Despite the anticipated benefits of AI adoption, many businesses are still struggling to make progress. This research article focuses on the influence of elements affecting the acceptance procedure of AI in organisations.

Design/Methodology/Approach: To achieve this objective, propose a hierarchical paradigm for the same by developing an Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM). This paper reveals the barriers obstructing AI adoption in organisations and reflects the contextual association and interaction amongst those barriers by emerging a categorised model using the ISM approach. In the next step, cross-impact matrix multiplication is applied for classification analysis to find dependent, independent and linkages.

Findings: As India is now focusing on the implementation of AI adoption, therefore, it is essential to identify these barriers to AI to conceptualise it systematically. These findings can play a significant role in identifying essential points that affect AI adoption in organisations. Results show that low regulations are the most critical factor and functional as the root cause and further lack of IT infrastructure is the barrier. These two factors require the most attention by the government of India to improve AI adoption.

Implications: This study may be utilised by organisations, academic institutions, Universities, and research scholars to fill the academic gap and faster implementation of AI.

The purpose of the paper is to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis and systematic review to examine the research landscape of women empowerment through participation in self-help groups (SHGs), identifying the eminent contributors, intellectual communities and future research agenda in the field of SHGs and women empowerment.

The global works of literature related to the theme of SHGs and women empowerment between 1998 and May 6, 2022 were scanned for bibliometric analysis and systematic review. A total of 176 English language documents from the Scopus database were extracted. Bibliometric analysis is conducted using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software.

This study finds that SHGs are paramount in achieving rural women’s empowerment multidimensionally. Found that India is the most contributing country with 136 documents, and Ranjula Bali Swain and Fan Yang Wallentin are the most cited authors in the research field of SHGs and women empowerment. In addition, the paper proposes a comprehensive conceptual framework to portray rudimentary antecedents of women’s empowerment achieved through participation in SHGs.

This bibliometric analysis, along with a systematic review demonstrating a framework encapsulating the principal dimensions of women empowerment and their indicators, will be helpful to practitioners, government, policymakers and researchers working in the area of SHGs and women empowerment.

This study recognizes numerous significant contributions by eminent scholars and presents a concise review of the literature for novice researchers working in the area of SHGs and women empowerment.

Digital technologies emerged as innovative avenues for launching new products, advertising brands, increasing customer awareness and thus leaving a remarkable impact on the online marketplace. The present study analyzed the effects of crucial antecedents of AR interactive technology on customers' behavior toward AR-based e-commerce websites.

Convenience sampling was used to collect primary data from 357 iGen respondents aged 16–22 years; residing in New Delhi and the NCR region of India and examined using the structural equation modeling technique.

Results revealed that technology anxiety and virtuality significantly influence customers' attitudes and behavioral intentions toward AR-based e-commerce websites. However, interactivity and innovativeness remain non-significant. Additionally, non-significant moderating effects were identified for the moderators, i.e. trust and need for touch. At the same time, gender has a significant moderating effect only for the association between technology anxiety and attitude toward AR-based e-commerce websites.

The study summarizes numerous theoretical and managerial implications for AR-based website designers and policymakers, followed by the crucial limitations and directions for future research.

The present research provides a significant understanding of the e-commerce industry by providing valuable insights about young iGen consumers' perceptions of AR-based e-commerce websites.

The purpose of this study is to monitor suspended particulate matter (SPM), PM2.5 and source apportionment study for the identification of possible sources during the year 2018–2019 at Raipur, India.

Source apportionment study was performed using a multivariate receptor model, positive matrix factorization (PMFv5.0) with a view to identify the various possible sources of particulate matter in the area. Back-trajectory analysis was also performed using NOAA-HYSPLIT model to understand the origin and trans-boundary movement of air mass over the sampling location.

Daily average SPM and PM2.5 aerosols mass concentration was found to be 377.19 ± 157.24 µg/m³ and 126.39 ± 37.77 µg/m³ respectively. SPM and PM2.5 mass concentrations showed distinct seasonal cycle; SPM – (Winter ; 377.19 ±157.25 µg/m?) > (Summer; 283.57 ±93.18 µg/m?) > (Monsoon; 33.20 ±16.32 µg/m?) and PM2.5 – (Winter; 126.39±37.77 µg/m³) > (Summer; 75.92±12.28 µg/m³). Source apportionment model (PMF) have been applied and identified five major sources contributing the pollution; steel production and industry (68%), vehicular and re-suspended road dust (10.1%), heavy oil combustion (10.1%), tire wear and brake wear/abrasion (8%) and crustal/Earth crust (3.7%). Industrial activities have been identified as major contributing factor for air quality degradation in the region.

Chemical characterization of aerosols and identification of possible sources will be helpful in abatement of pollution and framing mitigating strategies. It will also help in standardization of global climate model.

The findings provide valuable results to be considered for controlling air pollution in the region.

The purpose of this study is to explore the potential of Cordyline Australis fibers as an alternate raw material for textile.

The water retting method was used to extract the fiber. Cordyline Australis fibers were characterized in terms of the morphology of fibers (fiber cross-sectional and longitudinal), fiber chemical functional groups, tensile strength and elongation, fineness, fiber length, moisture regain and friction coefficient.

Cordyline Australis fiber strands consist of several individual fibers. At the longitudinal section, the fiber cells appeared as long cylindrical tubes with a rough surface. The cross-section of the Cordyline Australis fibers was irregular but some were oval. The key components in the fibers were cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The tensile strength of the fiber per bundle was 2.5 gf/den. The elongation of fibers was 13.15%. The fineness of fiber was 8.35 Tex. The average length of the fibers was 54.72 cm. Moisture Regain for fiber was 8.59%. The friction coefficient of fibers was 0.16. The properties of the fiber showed that the Cordyline Australis fiber has the potential to be produced into yarn.

To the best of the author's knowledge, there is no scientific article focused on the Cordyline Australis fibers. Natural fibers from the leaves of the Cordyline Australis plant could be used as an alternate material for textile.