Business Perspectives and Research

The tourism business is the most effective means to strengthen the economic and financial stability of a country. In a developing country like India this business acts as the backbone to improve the level of happiness of its residents. Sustainable tourism provides equal opportunity to every stakeholder to contribute their part in the development of the society as well as the site. The main purpose of the study was to explore the four dimensions of sustainable tourism, which involve “economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, sociocultural sustainability, and institutional sustainability,” and to study their impact on tourist’s satisfaction. This study involves a survey conducted on tourists visiting selected travel destinations from various states in India. The travel destinations selected for the study involved 26 destinations from 8 states of India. The results suggested a positive relationship of three (environmental, sociocultural, and institutional) sustainability dimensions on tourist’s satisfaction. Findings indicate that the dimensions of environment, sociocultural, and institutional sustainability are important for tourist’s satisfaction and should be included for a holistic approach to planning and monitoring sustainable tourism development.

The current investigation aims to assess the effect of credit assessment changes on the share prices of Indian companies from 2009 to 2019. The data of top 100 companies listed on National Stock Exchange (NSE) across 10 industries stem from CMIE databases. The excess stock return is compared with the market in a 15-day window around credit rating changes. The event effect on share prices is more in the pre-event window compared to the post-event window. Positive abnormal stock returns around upgrades through downgrades are statistically significant compared to upgrades. Credit ratings are not significant across industries, and agency nationality is a critical factor for calculating the intensity of price reaction.

Exchange rate exposure is a strategic decision in finance and risk management at both the micro and macro level of business operations. Literature on the measurement, and management of this risk, has had no consensus on the factors affecting it as these factors seem to be dynamic. In an effort to consider a comprehensive study at the firm level, this article examines the exchange rate exposure of 271 constituent firms from the BSE S&P 500 index. The study period was 2001 to 2020 divided into sub-periods around the financial crises of 2008. The study uses two contemporary approaches (the capital market approach and the cash flow approach) and five relevant exchange rates (USD, EURO, GBP, JPY, and REER) to measure the foreign exchange. The sample firms were divided into 10 industrial sectors to identify the factors that lead to exposure of firms to exchange rate volatility. We use multinomial logistic regression to regress the select factors with the measured value of exchange rate exposure. The findings of the article suggest that multinationality, fixed asset utilization ratio, hedging activities, industrial sectors, size, and age of the firms are the significant determinants of such exposure. The results varied during the sub-periods and across industries.

The need for creating an environment for sustainable growth of startups for the well-being of an economy cannot be overemphasized. Many experts have proposed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are integral to the long-term survival and success of startups (Jenkins, Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century, 2009). At the same time, they also argue that it is very challenging for startups to adopt these practices effectively (Salamzadeh, 2015). In this background, this is an empirical study of promoters of startups in a developing economy, India, to test the linkages between CSR practices and startup success. The study empirically examines the perception of the promoters regarding these linkages, studies the CSR practices adopted by them, and identifies the challenges faced by them in using CSR for sustainable growth. The findings of the study reveal that there is a distinct relationship between startup success (sustainability) and CSR activities. The article empirically proves that the sustainability of a startup is positively dependent upon internal, external, and environmental CSR initiatives. It also concludes that definite structural interventions are required by policymakers to achieve the twin objectives of startup success and societal well-being.

In light of the persistent and coinciding internal and external imbalances, there remains an argument that worsening balance of payment (BoP) is the result of higher fiscal imbalance. However, no concrete consensus either theoretical or empirical exists, particularly in the context of India, and, therefore, this phenomenon of the twin deficit hypothesis becomes more of an empirical question. This study makes a timely and fresh revisit, especially in the backdrop of the fiscal expansions, to curb the recent recessionary situation that is engulfing the economy. To this end, an econometric exercise is undertaken on a quarterly data of financial year over 2000–2019. This work also extends the analysis with three reference variables, namely gross domestic product (GDP), private investment to GDP, real effective exchange rate together with the data for three dummy years to capture the impact of their specific occurrence in a particular year. The transmission mechanism describes how the budget deficit transcends and affects external sector variables. Empirical findings suggest a strong positive association between the budget deficit and current account deficit (CAD), which reinforces the validity of Mundell–Fleming and Keynesian theories. The effect of different exogenous variables explicitly indicates a simultaneous action on multiple fronts to improve the twin account balance.

Social welfare systems across the developing world have witnessed a significant transformation in the last 20 years with direct cash transfers becoming an increasingly preferred means of tackling poverty and inequality. While this movement finds its roots in Latin America, a large number of developing countries including India have since modified their welfare systems, incorporating direct cash transfers as an alternative to in kind benefits and subsidies. India’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system, which has been in existence since the past five years, has 316 schemes under its aegis now. While it would be premature to evaluate its success or failure, it would definitely be an interesting and worthwhile exercise to see how Indian states fare in terms of DBT. With Amartya Sen’s pathbreaking Capability Approach as the premise, this research is a unique attempt to explore and identify variables that determine and impact DBT transfers at the Indian state level using multiple regression. We find that literacy and the JAM (Jan-Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) Index emerge as significant variables impacting DBT transfers in states. This study contributes to the current literature on social welfare systems and highlights the importance of development architecture in emerging economies.

The linear economic model fueled by misconception and ignorance towards our limited resources led us to extract, produce, consume, and dispose of materials faster than putting them back into the chain or reproducing. The circular economy (CE) business model answers these concerns, and exploring the implementation of such models in densely populated emerging nations is overdue. An open-ended interview of the executive team of Paperman Foundation, the organization in concern, was conducted, along with documentary analysis of the organization’s website, international news coverage, and government legislation to collect data for the research. The Paperman Foundation (hereinafter referred to as Paperman) has successfully implemented a circularity business model based on resource value extension in one of the largest cities in India. They have been scaling their operations for almost a decade and sustainably returned the recovered resources to the supply chain extending the resource value of post-consumer plastic waste and thus cutting down on carbon emission. This study established that such contemporary business models like the circular model can achieve lowered carbon emissions in emerging and transitional economies such as India successfully. Although, there is a high volume of research output from academia in CE in the past decade, most of them are not conducted on cases based in emerging economies. Only one representative organization is considered in this case study. Studying several organizations from similar economies could provide a better understanding.