We use a comprehensive data set covering almost all Indian coal-fired power plants over the period 2005–14 to evaluate the technical efficiency of power plants using the Slacks-Based Measure model. We find that average technical efficiency falls from 0.847 in 2005 to 0.742 in 2014, indicating substantial scope for efficiency improvement. This trend is driven primarily by declining energy efficiency rather than declining managerial (non-energy) efficiency. We use Simar and Wilson's bootstrapped truncated regression approach to analyze the determinants of technical efficiency. We find an inverted-U shaped relationship exists between efficiency and plant age, with maximum efficiency levels observed between 22 and 23 years of age. Privately owned plants operate at higher efficiency levels than their State-owned counterparts. Large plants are more efficient than small and medium size plants. Coal quality has no significant influence on efficiency as usage of higher calorific value coal is not accompanied by a concomitant reduction in coal use. Foreign equipped plants operate at higher efficiency levels than Indian equipped plants. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

The present outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected 28,584,158 people world-wide as of 13th September 2020 (WHO, 2020b). This crisis has created an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear. Due to the unavailability of the evidence based medical treatment, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are the best options at the present moment. Lockdown was one of such measures to control the spread of the Covid-19 disease. Due to lockdown measures, many countries across the globe followed the complete closure of shopping malls, transport networks, schools, universities, etc. This study aims to investigate the behavioural psychological changes among university students due to covid-19 crises and lockdown. Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model has been adopted to develop a theoretical foundation for the research. Qualitative research methodology including a combination of personal interviews and focus groups has been adopted in the study to develop the themes with the help of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, Atlas.ti 7. It has been found that students are suffering from academic anxiety, fear, Mysophobia, etc. As far as behavioural responses are concerned following behavioural changes have been found; Panic buying, e-learning, community support, support for prime-minister, etc. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

This study examines the direction and extent of asymmetric volatility connectedness between the oil and commodity markets, using five-minute interval data from the oil, natural gas, and 21 commodity futures markets. We also analyze the positive and negative volatility connectedness through network diagrams to determine the magnitude and strength of the volatility spillover. We suggest optimal portfolios for several oil-commodity pairs minimizing value-at-risk and conditional value-at-risk with higher hedge effectiveness. The results are of significant interest to investors and policymakers. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

Biofuels share a meagre fraction in the total fuel consumption, and their usage is speculated to upsurge steadily in the years to come. One of the key drivers for the development of biofuel production industries and simultaneous dilution of biofuels in the energy market is the country's policy. Hence, this critical review focuses on the evolution of biofuel policies in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations and successful implementation of the policies by the respective countries. In detail, this paper provides legal framework and policies prompted the expansion of biofuel research and industries across the BRICS nations. It extensively presents key laws, blending targets, current regulation, national action plan, government support mechanism (subsidies), output targets, and major hurdles and scope in biofuel policies of BRICS nations for efficient penetration of biofuel to the energy market. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

The current work explores the attributes that serve as motivation regulations for students' selection of a higher education institute (HEI). Design/methodology/approach: With a self-determination theory (SDT) perspective, the current study used a mixed-method approach to develop a scale to measure HEI attribute-based motivation regulations. Findings: A total of eight regulations were proposed: academic/extracurricular activities, infrastructure, faculty research expertise, teaching and learning quality, placement opportunities, marketing and promotion, education cost and social influence. The first four were autonomous motivations and the remaining were controlled motivations. Research limitations/implications: The study leverages the SDT motivation continuum into a structured HEI attribute-based student motivation framework. Practical implications: The study guides HEI managers with specific attributes to position the institute appropriately. Originality/value: This is one of the few works in the higher education utilizing the complete SDT framework. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

In this article we consider the analysis of progressively censored competing risks data obtained from a simple step-stress experiment. It is assumed that there are only two competing causes of failures at each stress level and the lifetime distribution of each one of them is one parameter exponential distribution. Based on the cumulative exposure model assumption, the conditional maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the unknown parameters can be obtained in explicit forms. Confidence intervals of the unknown parameters based on the exact distributions of the conditional MLEs and percentile bootstrap method, are constructed. Further we obtain Bayes estimates and the associated credible intervals based on a very flexible Beta-gamma prior on the unknown parameters. A simulation experiment has been performed to observe the performances of the different estimators. © 2020 Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research

The present study aims to identify and investigate the antecedents of enhanced level of cyber-security at the organisational level from both the technical and the human resource perspective using human–organisation–technology (HOT) theory. Design/methodology/approach: The study has been conducted on 151 professionals who have expertise in dealing with cyber-security in organisations in sectors such as retail, education, healthcare, etc. in India. The analysis of the data is carried out using partial least squares based structural equation modelling technique (PLS-SEM). Findings: The results from the study suggest that “legal consequences” and “technical measures” adopted for securing cyber-security in organisations are the most important antecedents for enhanced cyber-security levels in the organisations. The other significant antecedents for enhanced cyber-security in organisations include “role of senior management” and “proactive information security”. Research limitations/implications: This empirical study has significant implications for organisations as they can take pre-emptive measures by focussing on important antecedents and work towards enhancing the level of cyber-security. Originality/value: The originality of this research is combining both technical and human resource perspective in identifying the determinants of enhanced level of cyber-security in the organisations. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Extant research is vertically divided on the question whether exploration and exploitation constitute two ends of a continuum or whether they are orthogonal activities. We suggest that both characterizations are admissible, albeit under different sets of assumptions. Using March’s iconic model, we demonstrate that the continuum conception concerns leveraging an organization’s internal knowledge heterogeneity where managers use their prior knowledge and experiences to formulate actions to attain the maximum possible extent of organizational knowledge at equilibrium. In contrast, the orthogonal conception mainly concerns assimilating heterogeneous knowledge from sources outside the organization through risky experimentation, leading to order-creation in systems operating in far-from-equilibrium conditions. We further demonstrate that the change in outcome obtained by switching from low to high rate of exploitation is larger—and therefore easier to detect—for the continuum conception. We speculate that many managers and researchers favor conceptualizing exploration–exploitation in the continuum sense, for this reason. Moreover, companies obtain far higher organizational knowledge by functioning in the orthogonal mode, than what is attainable by functioning in the continuum mode. Organizations should, therefore, strive to create conditions that foster cultivation of outside knowledge through autonomous actions of employees. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

We study the problem of assigning doctors to existing, non-operational Primary Health Centers (PHCs). We do this in the presence of clear guidelines on the maximum population that can be served by any PHC, and uncertainties in the availability of the doctors over the planning horizon. We model the problem as a robust capacitated multi-period maximal covering location problem with server uncertainty. Such supply-side uncertainties have not been accounted for in the context of multi-period facility location in the extant literature. We present an MIP formulation of this problem, which turns out to be too difficult for an off-the-shelf solver like CPLEX. We, therefore, present several dominance rules to reduce the size of the model. We further propose a Benders decomposition based solution method with several refinements that exploit the underlying structure of the problem to solve it extremely efficiently. Our computational experiments show one of the variants of our Benders decomposition based method to be on average almost 1000 times faster, compared to the CPLEX MIP solver, for problem instances containing 300 demand nodes and 10 facilities. Further, while the CPLEX MIP solver could not solve most of the instances beyond 300 demand nodes and 10 facilities even after 20 hours, two of our variants of Benders decomposition could solve instances upto the size of 500 demand nodes and 15 facilities in less than 0.5 hour, on average. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

A major impact of globalization has been the information flow across the financial markets rendering them vulnerable to financial contagion. Research has focused on network analysis techniques to understand the extent and nature of such information flow. It is now an established fact that a stock market crash in one country can have a serious impact on other markets across the globe. It follows that such crashes or critical regimes will affect the network dynamics of the global financial markets. In this paper, we use sequential change-point detection in dynamic networks to detect changes in the network characteristics of 13 stock markets across the globe. Our method helps us to detect changes in network behaviour across all known stock market crashes during the period of study. In most of the cases, we can detect a change in the network characteristics prior to crash. Our work thus opens the possibility of using this technique to create a warning bell for critical regimes in financial markets. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Channel intermediaries (hereafter, intermediaries) are among the most critical elements of any supply chain as the bulk of manufacturing output is transported through them. However, we have a limited understanding of the approach a manufacturer should take to achieve the dual goal of increasing profitability and intermediary satisfaction. To provide manufacturers with practical strategies to boost their performance and their intermediaries’ satisfaction, we rely on three related studies. In Study 1, through interviews with managers and intermediaries, we find that distribution alignment across intermediary, market, and product types may be a practical strategy for both manufacturers and intermediaries. In Study 2, by using a robust empirical methodology with data from a construction product manufacturer operating in an emerging market, we find that various combinations of intermediary, market, and product types affect the manufacturer's performance differently. Accordingly, through a supply-side examination, we quantify the revenue impact of reallocating the studied manufacturer's retail distribution resources among different intermediary-, market-, and product-type combinations. In Study 3, through a field implementation, we find that our recommended intermediary alignment strategy from Study 2 substantially boosts both the manufacturer's performance (by fourteen percent in revenue and thirteen percent in profit) and intermediaries’ satisfaction (by 7.71%). Thus, with our qualitative, empirical, and field studies, we contribute to the existing research in channel management, emerging market retailing, retail distribution, and marketing strategy. © 2020 New York University

This study conceptualizes and tests a framework to understand consumers’ intention to use environment-friendly ethical transportation medium. It primarily uses ethical decision-making model and extends it under the purview of self-consistency theory. Based on the survey of 158 respondents and analysis of the framework using structural equation modeling and process macro, this study establishes the mediating role of moral judgement, self-accountability and perceived consumer effectiveness in forming moral intention to use ethical transportation medium. It is one of the first studies to provide insights on consumers’ intention to use environment-friendly ethical transportation medium using the ethical decision-making process. It also contributes to the literature on ethical decision-making in view of additional factors like self-accountability and perceived consumer effectiveness. The overall findings suggest new perspectives on consumers’ ethical decision-making process in the context of choice of transportation medium. The study provides some valuable guidance to the service providers and policymakers dealing with environment-friendly ethical transportation mediums. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Does the evolution of distinct practices influence the sectoral dominance of nations? In this review paper, we take an in-depth look at the convergence and divergence debate about HR practices in Asia. We extend the conversation to address specific competitive advantage of nations, such as China, in manufacturing and India, in information technology (IT) sectors. Drawing on the relevant literature and utilizing the lens of firm specificity, HR value creation, and competitive uncertainty, we try to explore the collective implementation of a bundle of HRM (human resource management) and IR (industrial relations) practices that have converged or diverged from western practices leading to such dominance. © 2020 Elsevier Inc.

Industry 4.0 (I4) technologies are gaining increased importance in the manufacturing industry, as they can provide several benefits such as an increase in efficiency, lower costs, higher revenues, etc. This article empirically examines the critical success factors (CSF) for implementing I4 technologies in Indian automotive manufacturing industry. In this regard, CSF and performance outcomes of I4 technologies are identified from published literature. The relationships between CSF and performance outcomes are then examined by regression analysis. The results indicate that “Data governance” is the most critical factor, as it affects all the four performance outcomes (operational, product, economic, and responsiveness). Similarly, “Legal aspects” affects three out of the four performance outcomes (operational, product, and economic performance), while “Collaboration and teamwork” affects only operational performance and responsiveness. The study provides an understanding of factors which are critical in achieving performance outcomes about I4 technologies in the automotive manufacturing industry. The findings can also help automotive manufacturing firms toward an informed decision making in terms of various strategies required to adopt I4 technologies successfully. IEEE

Background: Acceptance of Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) as a measure of health summary and progression has increased over the years, which in turn has instigated comparative analysis studies of DALY across time and geography. Thus, it is important to explore methodological underpinnings of comparative analysis. Results: A crude comparison of disease burden across time or space may mislead the interpretation of the health system's performance because the quantum and pattern of DALY can be influenced by the age structure of the society. A significant proportion of this burden is due to the Years of Life Lost (YLL) component. The paper proposes a mathematical exposition to decompose the change in YLL over time or region into burden attributed to a) population age structure, b) death rate, and c) age at death gradient. Conclusion: We reasoned that the death rate and age at death burden gradient signify the real contribution of the health systems. Hence, the method of decomposition can be utilized to measure the health service progression of a region in real terms. © 2020 The Author(s).

Multi-modal transportation takes advantage of multiple transport modes and can be an effective way to ease the negative environmental effects of freight transportation. This paper addresses a multi-modal distribution network design problem with the aim of balancing the trade-off between economic and environmental benefits. The distribution network that we consider includes both transportation with trucks and ships. We propose a new mixed integer programming (MIP) model which decides the optimal design of the system, i.e. how many ships of each type to use, their corresponding routes and sailing speeds. It also suggests an optimal cargo flow through the maritime and road-based network. We show how the MIP model can be used to provide decision support through a case study from the distribution of automobiles in India, which has a vast coastline that can be used for maritime transportation. Environmental emissions from automobile transportation in India have been rapidly increasing in recent years with the fast economic development, and it has become a major contributor to regional air pollution and road congestion. One possible way to ease these negative environmental consequences is to consider a modal shift where some of the automobile transportation from the production facilities located close to the coastline is replaced by roll-on roll-off (RoRo) ships. Our study shows that multi-modal distribution is both environmentally friendly and economically beneficial, especially if more industrial players can collaborate to create economies of scale. © 2020 The Authors

Over the period of time, patent filing in India has gone up significantly. However, no enough evidence is found in the literature about the quality or value of patented invention in the Indian context. To assess this question, we examine the patent renewal length (survival of patent) as a proxy of patent value for five different technology classes. This study uses the renewal information of firm-level patents applied during January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2005, which were eventually granted. The data provided by Indian Patent Office consists of 2,025 resident patents assigned to 266 firms (foreign subsidiary firms and domestic firms). The survival analysis is carried out via Kaplan–Meier estimation and Cox proportional hazard regression. The outcomes of this study suggest that the survival length of patents significantly depends on their technological scope and inventor size. Moreover, the patents of the firms taking tax credit benefits exhibit lower survival rates as compared with patents of remaining firms. The study also finds that the patents filed by foreign firms with Department of Scientific and Industrial Research affiliation survive longer. Among different technological categories, electrical and mechanical patents are found to be more valuable compared with instrument patents. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

This study selects the context of emerging markets to examine the role of ad creativity dimensions (divergence and relevance) in shaping the attitude of consumers. Most of the existing studies exploring consumer perceived creativity and its dimensions are based on inputs from consumers in developed markets. Using an experimental design, we test the differential effect of divergence and relevance for Indian consumers. The results indicate that for consumers from emerging markets, the role of relevance, which is mostly undermined, is as effective as divergence. The mediating role of attitude toward advertisement was established in the relationship between consumer perceived creativity and brand attitude. The main effects of divergence and interaction effects of divergence and relevance were found to be significant in influencing the consumers’ ad and brand attitude as well as motivation to process information. Ads high in creativity were found to result in a higher unaided product and brand recall. Ads high on divergence also resulted in increased consumers’ intentions to share the ad, which may be considered as a higher potential of becoming viral. The overall findings suggest that standardized advertising in global markets may have limited effectiveness. © 2020, © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

All nations globally are going through domestic and international pressures to become more responsible towards environment and climate change. This makes it imperative for the businesses in these countries to review and revitalize their green initiatives. This study is an attempt to examine the factors that drive the Indian firms to be involved in green initiatives. The findings of the study reveal that higher green ratings corresponded to higher productivity of firms. In addition, green products enabled firms to exhibit higher sales volumes while they charged price premiums. However, firms engaged in green processes were neither able to demonstrate higher sales volumes nor charge price premiums. © 2020 World Scientific Publishing Company.

This paper examines the co-movements between Bitcoin (BTC) and the Dow Jones World Stock Market Index, regional Islamic stock markets, and Sukuk markets. We apply cross wavelet transform and wavelet coherence analysis with a wavelet-based measure of value at risk. The co-movement is stronger and in the same direction at lower frequencies, suggesting the benefits from diversification with BTC are relatively less for long-term investors compared to short-term investors. Co-movement in the opposite direction at high frequencies implies better benefits of hedging in the short run through diversification in BTC and Islamic equity markets. Robustness tests show that the correlations increase as we increase from an investment horizon of two days to one of 64 days. The frequency-domain causality test shows significant causality flow from BTC to the Islamic market of Asia-Pacific, Japan, and Sukuk markets in the short term. Additionally, BTC is found to lead Asia-Pacific Islamic stock markets in the long term. Finally, we note that the benefits of portfolio diversification with BTC and Islamic assets vary across time and frequencies. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.