In this paper, a new variant of the well-known vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) called as the simultaneous product and service delivery problem with order release dates is studied. The problem is motivated by the operations of a 3PL service provider who manages the last mile delivery of electrical and electronic home appliances of a large retailing company based out of China. Apart from the usual constraints on time windows and vehicle capacities, an interesting characteristic of this problem is that the product and service delivery has to happen simultaneously with the explicit consideration of order release dates. This situation necessitates the presence of a skilled service technician at the time of product delivery itself. Being a proven NP-hard problem, we propose a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation for the problem. For solving large problem instances, an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm is developed with three new customized removal operators. The proposed approaches are validated using real-life data as well as benchmark problem instances available in the literature. The computational results are quite encouraging and demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of computational time as well as the quality of the solutions generated. We also analyze the effect of length of time windows and compare simultaneous and separate modes of delivery and identify favorable conditions for choosing one mode over the other. © 2020

Academic research has given considerable attention to service failure and subsequent recovery efforts in an online environment. Nevertheless, existing research examining the effectiveness of recovery interventions in this context is relatively inconclusive, and the results reported are found to be conflicting in nature. This poses a threat to domain expansion and managerial understanding. Hence, we systematically analyse the extant literature on online service recovery, and categorises the studies in this domain into seven themes following a concept-centric approach and provided a synthesised framework. This review consolidated and synthesized the prior literary works based on the methodologies executed, theories used, type of online service recovery, the role of platform of recovery, recovery perspective, speed, source, and magnitude of recovery, and the recovery outcomes. In this review, we present many compelling research gaps, follow-up research questions, and critical insights into managerial practice for the efficacious execution of service recovery intervention in online platforms. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Motivation: Farmer suicides in India have been intensely debated since the economic reforms of the early 1990s. A closer look at the statistics, however, suggests that singling out farmer suicides may miss the point, because other professions have higher rates of suicide. This article aims to set farmer suicides in context, by comparing rates of these against suicide rates for other occupations and groups, between 1995 and 2015, and across 17 states of India. Approach and methods: The term “agrarian suicides” is preferred to “farmer suicides,” because the reported data include deaths of agricultural labourers as well as farmers. Commonly quoted statistics on suicide across population groups are not commensurate: agrarian suicides are reported per person employed, while for other professions rates are reported against all people in households with that profession. This article corrects this by reporting rates per person employed. Findings: One, the rate of suicide among the agrarian group is less than that among several other professions, including self-employed and service (private). Two, while the rates of suicide have been rising for most other groups since the mid-1990s, the rate for agrarian suicides has been falling since the early 2000s. Three, a large majority, 87%, of agrarian suicides occur in just eight states, mainly in central and southern India. Four, problems with farming are not among the most common stated reasons for agrarian suicides; rather, personal, family and other problems dominate. Policy implications: India needs to encourage responsible reporting of and discussion about agrarian suicides. It would be appropriate to design and implement state- and region-specific suicide prevention strategies. Priority policies should address a public health crisis, rather than pin the blame on agricultural policy, conditions, or technical changes in farming. © The Authors 2020. Development Policy Review © 2020 Overseas Development Institute

The case discusses GCMMF's business strategy to achieve a competitive advantage in the domestic market and that they are trying to leverage the advantage of e-commerce giant Amazon to explore the US market. Based on a business situation, the case tries to bring out the decision-making situation: Should Amul focus on the foreign market for more business, or focus on the domestic market and seek more penetration? Or practice both? Can GCMMF replicate the Indian strategies in the US market? Can Amul be successful in the US market provided a difference in consumption patterns, culture, and global dairy industry situation?. © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Public acceptance constitutes an important factor in successfully establishing and operating nuclear power plants. This paper explores public attitudes to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project commissioned in 2013 and situated in Southern India, through assessing the role of socio-demographic factors, externalities, and social trust in determining the level of public acceptance. An exploratory survey (n = 100) was carried out in two administrative units in the vicinity of the plant. The study reveals that acceptance of the plant is positively correlated with positive externalities and trust in governmental entities, whereas negative externalities and trust in antinuclear nongovernmental organizations and media are associated with negative public perception. The results show that governmental policies on nuclear power must support the effects of positive externalities and reduce the effects of negative externalities. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Evaluation of teaching performance of faculty members, on the basis of students' feedback, is routinely performed by almost all tertiary education institutions. Objective assessment of faculty members requires a comprehensive index of teaching performance. A composite indicator is proposed to assess teaching performance of faculty members. It is based on the combination of several items evaluated by students such as punctuality, communication ability and subject coverage. Robustness of the indicator is assessed applying uncertainty analysis. An application to a data set from an Indian institution is presented. It is shown that the proposed index can be used to rank faculty members from the least to the worst performer according to students' feedback. © 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston 2020.

Purpose: The cost of providing healthcare is spiralling up in recent times. On the one hand, patients expect the highest quality of service, while on the other hand, the managers of the healthcare services want to minimise the total operating expenses. Hence, healthcare organisations implement lean thinking (LT) to achieve these twin objectives. LT reduces the eight wastes that are prevalent in the healthcare processes and functions. In particular, if the wasteful inventories related to expensive medical supplies are reduced, the resulting cost savings can help in providing affordable and accessible healthcare. Design/methodology/approach: Hence, in this paper, a case study of a hospital is presented where LT is implemented. One of the projects was related to inventory reduction in the store of the catheterisation laboratory (cath lab). A hybrid methodology called multi-unit selective inventory control (MUSIC) that combined these three dimensions (3D), namely, consumption value, criticality and lead time or ease of availability was used to classify the medical supplies into different categories. Findings: Based on the results obtained, various inventory systems and the associated tools and techniques of LT were proposed. For example, a deep dive into the A-class items revealed that some of the medical supplies fell under both vital and scarce categories. Hence, it was recommended that the case hospital should follow the economic order quantity (EOQ) with safety stock approach as these items were to be shipped from other states in India. Subsequently, the focus should be on developing a local supplier and attempts should be made to establish a kanban system with adequate information sharing. Practical implications: This study demonstrates the step-by-step methodology of MUSIC-3D which would guide the procurement managers to apply the same in their organisation. It also helps them in identifying appropriate elements of LT for inventory reduction before the actual deployment. Originality/value: None of the papers has utilised the MUSIC-3D methodology as a precursor for inventory reduction, specifically within the domain of LT. Similarly, identifying and proposing different type of inventory systems and various LT practices based on this unique method is a novel attempt. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper to present a practical and systematic approach to estimate the availability of a process plant using generalized stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs). The actual live problem at a fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) of a refinery is used to demonstrate this approach. Design/methodology/approach: A majority of models used for estimation of availability of a complex system are based on the assumptions that the failure of the system is associated with only a few states, and the system does not face different operating conditions, repair actions and common-cause failures. In reality, this is often not the case. Therefore, it is necessary to construct more sophisticated models without such assumptions. In this paper, an attempt has been made to model interaction of component failures, partial failures of components and common-cause failures. Findings: The superiority of this approach over other modeling approaches such as fault tree and Markov analysis is demonstrated. The proposed GSPN is a promising tool that can be conveniently used to model and analyze any complex systems. Practical implications: GSPN was used to model the reactor-regenerator section of FCCU, which is quite a large system, which shows the strength of modeling capability. The use of Petri nets (PNs) for modeling complex systems for the purpose of availability assessment is demonstrated in this paper. Sensitivity analysis was also carried out for various subsystem/components. Originality/value: No similar work has been conducted for FCCU using GSPN as per literature incorporating different operating conditions and common-cause failures. The understanding and usage of PNs require a steep learning curve for the practitioners, and this paper provides an approach to estimate availability measures for the complex system. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Research exploring the link between e-government and e-business is still at a nascent stage. Motivated to advance this research area, using a quantitative study by employing publicly available data, we explore the relationships between e-government maturity, corruption, VSN diffusion, and B2C e-business use. We draw on the value framework for assessing e-government impact, and ground our arguments on four theoretical perspectives, namely, (1) principal-client-agent theory, (2) institutional theory, (3) the strategic gap concept, and (4) Habermas' public sphere concept. Our results confirm (1) the indirect association between e-government maturity and B2C e-business use through corruption, and (2) the moderation effect of VSN diffusion on these relationships. The key contributions of this study include extending (1) the understanding of 'e-government-e-business' relationship by empirically establishing the role of corruption as an intervening factor; and (2) the notion of VSN as a public sphere to the business context. © Proceedings of the 24th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems: Information Systems (IS) for the Future, PACIS 2020. All rights reserved.

Learning outcomes: To evaluate a difficult career choice under compelling organizational circumstances. To analyse a complex organizational culture to understand the nuances of career decisions. To relate career dilemmas to relevant conceptual and theoretical strands of organizational behaviour. To interpret the leadership style and its interaction with organizational culture. To determine possible strategic recourses to deal with the dynamics of destructive leadership and toxic cultures. Case overview/synopsis: The case is about the experiences of Raamit Pell, a Middle-level Executive at Accadia Management Services, and his encounters with a new boss, Pret Sohn. Raamit Pell had joined Accadia at a time when the organization was undergoing some political and cultural turmoil. When Pret Sohn came in as the new Chief Executive Officer six months later, there were a lot of expectations. But, Pret Sohn too began following Accadia’s existing political culture, indulging in unhealthy organizational practices. He caused mental harassment to many executives. One such executive was Raamit Pell. Despite Raamit’s excellent performance, Pret Sohn denied him a well-deserved promotion. Sohn justified it by saying that performance alone did not matter. Raamit felt deeply disturbed and considered quitting Accadia. He was reluctant to leave as a defeated man. Subsequently, he received an offer from another subsidiary of Accadia’s holding agency. As he was undergoing a three-month mandatory notice period for his release, Raamit became concerned about his decision to leave Accadia. Deep in his mind he longed to redeem his hurt pride at Accadia. So, he was pondering whether he had taken the decision to resign in haste. Complexity academic level: Level: Post-graduate/doctoral and executive education programmes in management and allied subjects. Courses: Courses in Career Decisions, Organizational Behaviour, Leadership, Organizational Culture and Organizational Ethics. Supplementary materials: Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code: CSS 7: Management Science. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

In 2011, Samjad, deputy CEO of Maledia Broadcasting Limited (MBL)—a new venture of the media group Maledia, based in Cochin, India—prepared to make financial projections to justify the feasibility of the new Malayalam news channel. He was faced with challenges of making estimates that made the project attractive yet practical and credible for the group that was conservative in their advertising sales approach. Set in an interesting industry like broadcasting, the case simulates a real-life situation that also provides a internal corporate context. With the help of the rich market data such as advertising spends, commercial time, competitive scenario in the region, students are expected to forecast revenue for the project. Students are also challenged to use benchmark data of competitors to estimate hurdle rate, capex and operating costs. Estimation of initial investments is also required to be made. Using the processed financial data and projections, students are required to prepare discounted cash flows (DCF) statements with net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) for the broadcast channel project. They learn to build alternate scenarios to deal with decisions under uncertainty. The case provides several opportunities to discuss narratives and numbers, helping students of finance realize the value of analysing the company policies and values, business situation, market environment and competitive financial information in capital budgeting, and project finance beyond number crunching. © 2020 Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Marketers increasingly use social media platforms as a promotion channel, and doing this, they prefer highly interactive social media because it allows consumers to socialize and network better. However, in this media, attention is often restricted towards primary purpose only as a result of the level of interactivity, thereby affecting consumer response towards the advertisement(ad). In this setting, the study analyzes the role of media interactivity and the effects it has on the reaction of customers towards the social media ad. Further, the study also introduces the conditional role of message relevant aspects, such as message vividness and anthropomorphism, and examines the intervening role of flow experience. Results from a between-subjects study indicate that interactivity hurts the consumer ad reactions. It also suggests that the right use of message relevant aspects can mitigate these adverse effects. Thus, the study makes a significant contribution to the literature and practice regarding the effects of social media interactivity which is relatively recent and has been overlooked by past researchers. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Average surface temperatures in the US are now 1.11° Celsius higher than a century ago, and the last years witnessed above-average precipitation. We combine the daily Gallup data and the Agricultural Analytics dataset to address the question of whether such changes in the weather have increased or decreased wellbeing. We find that warmer days are associated with reduced physical health, but higher levels of subjective wellbeing and a higher prevalence of positive emotions. These findings turn out to be completely non-robust, with effects reversing signs when one includes area and behavioural factors that themselves are endogenous. The only consistent result is that, irrespective of what one controls for, the effects are small, with equivalent wellbeing income variations for a 2° Celsius increase worth 0.3% of income. © 2020

Enhancing the proactive strategic capabilities to withstand the most unfavourable circumstances is always appreciated as a long-term policy rather than incident-based responses. The present research is positioned on this fundamental notion of supply chain risk management with a particular focus on strategic capabilities like reliability and flexibility that often conflict with cost. Accordingly, the authors propose a multi-objective mathematical model for designing a four-echelon supply chain that optimises cost, reliability, and volume flexibility. Interestingly, this research is the maiden effort to optimise the supply chain with these trifold objectives and herein lies the novelty as well as the challenges. Consequently, a genetic algorithm based approach is utilised as the solution methodology. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, the small problem instances and the four-echelon problems have also been validated through exact methods and simulated annealing algorithm, respectively. A case study on a footwear supply chain involving three echelons is also presented to showcase the industrial applicability and adaptability of the proposed model. A fuzzy TOPSIS method has been adopted in the case study to incorporate the expert opinion for assigning priorities to the objectives. Supply chain professionals can leverage this methodology to establish a risk resistant supply chain. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Extant empirical evidence suggests that variance risk might not be priced in markets that witness high retail participation. We examine and reject this hypothesis using data from Indian markets. We employ both model-dependent and model-free approaches in our analysis. Our result is robust to alternate specifications of volatility, sampling frequencies and sample periods. We then examine the dynamics of variance risk premium. Specifically, we split realized variance into its two components: jumps and continuous variance. We find that only past continuous variance is significant in forecasting short-term synthetic variance swap returns; realized jumps do not have any predictive power. These results survive inclusion of classical risk factors. These findings suggest that only the continuous component of realized variance has significant impact on variance risk premium. © 2020

Purpose: In important interpersonal service interactions with a frontline employee (FLE), consumers at times fail to carry out their share of responsibility in the execution of the service, resulting in a situation of “consumer created emergency”. This might defeat the consumer's goal of availing the service (termed as consumer failure). This study explains the role of employee's hope in managing consumer failure in the situation of consumer created emergencies. Design/methodology/approach: Hypotheses were tested in three experiments that simulated service emergency across a general printing service situation and a travel service situation. Findings: The study shows that: (1) FLE hope has a positive effect on consumer satisfaction, and is mediated by the consumer's assumed effort by the FLE; (2) the effect of FLE hope on consumer satisfaction changes with changing levels of consumer hopefulness about the service outcome; (3) despite situation of consumer created emergency, consumer failure results in low consumer satisfaction due to attribution error and (4) external attribution by the FLE could not significantly rectify consumer's attribution error and hence could not alleviate consumer dissatisfaction. Research limitations/implications: The study suggests relevance and pathways of managing emotions and attributions of consumers and FLEs for superior performance outcomes. Originality/value: The study theorizes and tests the role of hope, which is an important positive emotion during emergencies because frontline service settings have heretofore predominantly focused on managing negative traits and outcomes. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

In reliability and life testing, when the exponentially distributed components are put in series, it is generally assumed that the lifetimes of the components are independently distributed, which leads to some errors when in fact they are not independent. In this paper, we study the relative errors incurred in different reliability measures due to such assumptions when actually they follow some bivariate exponential distributions. The behavior of the relative errors are demonstrated through a real life data. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Purpose: Research of people’s perceptions of trust, privacy and risk on the internet has generally neglected the impact of the variety of channels used to access the internet. People primarily access the internet using internet channels at home, work, public Wi-Fi (hotspots) or through their mobile data network. The technology infrastructure of each of these channels combined with the vulnerabilities of the environment may form different perceptions, as it relates to trust, privacy and risk. The purpose of this study is to understand how people perceive the home and public Wi-Fi channel from a trust, privacy and risk perspective. Design/methodology/approach: Adapting existing trust, privacy and risk scales, the authors conducted a survey of people’s perceptions, as it relates to home and public Wi-Fi internet channels. Findings: The results of this study suggest significant differences in people’s perception of trust and risk depending on an internet channel. However, with regard to privacy, the results of this study provide non-conclusive, yet intriguing, outcomes motivating the need for future studies. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that parses out people’s perceptions of trust, privacy and risk, as it pertains to specific internet channels. The authors expect future research to benefit from their findings of how different channel perceptions influence people’s online activities. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Organizational ambidexterity in a firm is significantly influenced by the behavioural integration of the Top Management Team (TMT). Researchers observe that ambidextrous firms are associated with two dimensions of dexterity, namely, balanced and combined dimensions. However, studies do not explain the varied effects of behaviourally integrated TMTs on the different dimensions of ambidexterity. A clear understanding of this relationship will help firms choose the specific TMT processes needed to facilitate specific dimensions of ambidexterity. We address this research gap and test our research model with structural equation analyses on data collected from 78 SMEs. We observe that behavioural integration processes mostly enhance a firm's combined ambidexterity. Further, we find that combined ambidexterity completely mediates the relationship between behavioural integration and firm performance. Our study adds to the literature on ambidexterity, micro-foundations, and the theory of behavioural integration, and guides small firms in their choices of behavioural and innovation practices. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.