Research at Department of Management, Amritapuri (Kollam)

Towards the development of a sustainable campus of higher education institutions, energy consumption behavior of students is one of the several matters that require attention. Insights in to the energy consumption behavior of students will help to chalk out a good strategy for energy management. The purpose of this study is to assess energy consumption behavior among Indian higher education institutions students. This study has an objective to determine the factors which influence the energy consumption behaviors of students. The 'energy culture' framework from the literature is used in the study for arriving at the energy consumption behavior pattern of the students. Further the study also explores the role that personality of the student plays in exhibiting a sustainable energy consumption behavior. A self-administrated survey was carried out involving 75 respondents at Amrita University. The students were assessed on Building Regulation, Environmental Concern, Social Aspiration and Comfort along with Education, Activities, Social Marketing and Personality variables of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness and Emotional stability. The data was analyzed using multiple regression and the results revealed that the independent variables Education, Activities, Social Marketing and Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Emotional stability were influencing the dependent variables of Building Regulation, Environmental Concern, Social Aspiration and Comfort. Social marketing and Education were strongly and significantly related to the all the dependent variables. The personality variables of Conscientiousness, Extraversion also was found to be strongly and significantly related to Environmental Concern, Social Aspiration and Comfort. This study highlights the need for understanding social marketing, education and personality as an important potential variable for promoting energy efficient consumption behavior among students. The present study contributes to an understanding of the factors influencing the Energy Consumption Behavior Pattern and thus work attempts to make a small contribution to theory and research in Energy Consumption. © 2017 IEEE.

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Economic models are prepared utilizing stylized facts and available information about the economy and economic agents. The overwhelming dependence on market efficiency and limitations of cost benefit analysis tend to underplay the role of environmental resources in growth process. What is vital to note is that invisible positive externalities of environmental resources are under-estimated but negative externalities generated during production and consumption activities are also under-estimated. The end result is that economic activities creating negative externalities are boosted due to inefficiency of markets and public policy failure. There is however a paradigm shift in economic thinking and environmental contributions to economic growth are well recognized. Technically speaking, environmental contributions to growth are part of total factor productivity, which derives its strength from environmental and other missing factors in the model. Further analytical advances are necessary to isolate the environmental impacts.Besides the concept of externalities in the context of environmental degradation, an analysis is presented to explain the existence of externalities in relation to sustainable development by bringing in historical (inter-temporal) externalities, overlapping generational externalities and intergenerational externalities.
We argue that pollution anywhere is a danger for pollution everywhere. In other words, a simple application of polluter pays principle would not help in recovering the cost of damage as polluters are spread at large. Conventional environmental instruments are handy but not adequate to handle border less pollution. While integration of sustainability in development strategy is crucial, it is necessary to enact mandatory laws. Both preventive and restoration expenditures should be made mandatory on the lines of mandatory corporate social responsibility in some countries. A separate budgetary head would need to be created. This budget should be run on the model of performance budgeting purely in terms of environmental projects. What is more instructive is that since externalities have no national boundaries, tackling global externalities would necessitate intergovernmental and international co-operation. This would ensure the application of international best practice technologies and knowhow in environmental governance. While the success of international agreements is slow, climate clubs may hold promise. Small islands however should be adopted as experimental laboratories, which would benefit both the threatened islands in particular and global environment in general.

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The original contribution of this paper is that it empirically examines the role of pre-colonial and post-colonial institutions in reducing fragility by overcoming the negative effects of colonial governance. In a first stage, dynamic analysis of state fragility establishes the existence of a low equilibrium fragility trap, which can largely be attributed to persisting effects of colonial rule, measured by a computed index of colonial incidence. This situation is compounded as increases in current output and quality of secondary schooling seem insufficient to push countries out of extreme fragility -- a case of unmatched expectations during post-colonial period. It is worth noting that pre-colonial state governance and population abundance at time of independence (used as proxy for absence of massive slave trade) engender fragility-reducing impacts. These historical endowments however are not strong enough to overcome colonial drag. In a second stage, the paper extends the existing development literature on colonial and contemporary institutions by examining the efficacy of alternative institutions that matter more for weakening the force of colonial incidence (not attempted in the literature), apart from having significant fragility-reducing effects. In the economic development literature, colonial governance and weak post-colonial institutions are shown to be two major sources of under-development and state fragility. These studies however do not envisage the mechanism by which strong contemporary institutions succeed in overcoming the negative effects of colonial institutions that would have carried over and produced a drag on growth and state capacity during post-colonial period. The paper extends this strand of the literature by investigating the effectiveness of alternative contemporary institutions in weakening the force of colonial incidence (effect 2) apart from having significant fragility-reducing effects (effect 1). 3SLS results reveal that economic institutions captured by rule of law, government effectiveness, protection of property rights and transparency reduce state fragility and colonial incidence. Conversely, political institutions measured by democracy, civil liberties and political stability exhibit fragility-dampening effect but the force of colonial incidence is found to carry over in the presence of these institutions. Control on executives does not appear to generate either impact. Thus, economic institutions are found to be more effective in achieving the goal of fragility-reduction via colonial incidence mitigation, which may be a pre-condition for escaping the fragility trap. Interestingly, macro-policy exhibits limited success in mitigating state fragility while micro-policy and luck factors seem insignificant. Weak fragility-reducing effects of tropics, ethnic diversity and landlocked location require further research.

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The world of today is not looking for innovations that are mere incremental but those that are disruptive. Aakash, the Low Cost Tablet (LCT) initiative by Indian govt. was launched in 2011 amidst dominance by the likes of Apple, Amazon, and Samsung etc. Single most objective of this initiative was affordable ICT learning tool for the 220+ million students. LCT like Aakash can be seen as a disruptive innovation from the as they are simple to use, cheap, low performing, targeted at low portion of mainstream market and focused on social sectors like education, health to increase access and equity. Within Rogers theory of Diffusion of Innovation, we propose a framework for innovation attributes that can significantly predict student and teacher behavior intentions and motivations towards LCT for use in classrooms. Authors investigate the innovation attributes for adoption of LCT in a social group comprising of (N=121) potential-adopter students and teachers from India. The results revealed that motivations for adopting LCT are strongly associated with innovation attributes like relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, peer influence, perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness. Overall, both teachers and students expressed positive attitude towards using LCT as it enhanced their digital literacy skills. Bigger question is to identify what kind of new teacher training program, models and approaches and learning environment are required for successful adoption of educational innovation like LCT. Findings contribute to the design of new pedagogical models that maximizes learning potential of LCTs for K12 education. More »»
Low Cost Tablets as disruptive educational innovation- Modeling its diffusion within Indian K12 system.pdf

Taxation and Development highlights the importance of better understanding the ways in which taxes and expenditure are linked. Focusing on developing countries, the book argues for a broader approach to the topic, with a secondary focus on developing and applying new modeling techniques to country-specific data.

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The success of environmental regulation across the world and in particular LDCs is questionable. Political economy factors are often cited as being significant contributors to environmental policy failures. This contention however has not been systematically tested in the empirical literature with respect to small island developing states (SIDS), which need more attention in terms of environmental policy and governance. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature. In the proposed models, effectiveness of environmental regulation is captured by (i) level of stringency of environmental regulations, (ii) the degree of enforcement, and (iii) the achievement of various pollution reduction and natural resource conservation goals (measures of environmental performance and sustainability). Cross-country regressions reveal that the perceived degree of enforcement and stringency of environmental regulations as well as overall environmental performance are adversely impacted by corruption and political instability in SIDS. Similar results are obtained for other LDCs. However, when we control for specificities of SIDS such as economic resilience, size, vulnerability and degree of competitiveness, the significance of political economy factors appears to lessen. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of the tourism sector and agricultural sectors in SIDS as important lobby powers in dampening the effectiveness of regulations. The paper finally discusses the environmental policy challenges in island economies in the light of empirical results.

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A sustainable environment is a precondition for sustainable economic development. When an economy produces GDP by using energy and other inputs, the planet produces an invisible product, known as photosynthetic product of the planet (PPP) as a natural process. This PPP however contributes to the production of GDP as an invisible input. As GDP increases, there are adverse effects on the growth of PPP due to utilisation of environmental and natural resources. If degradation of the environment is not arrested and exhaustible natural resources are not conserved, the natural growth of PPP and consequently, future GDP growth will decline. In other words, the environmental cost of producing GDP will tend to increase, alongside the threats posed by global warming.

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This paper presents empirical results on progressive incidence of water charges that contradict conventional wisdom in developing countries and many developed countries (Whittington, 1992, 2003; Boland and Whittington, 2000). Water pricing policy is shown to possess the potential of redistribution. This finding is supported by traditional incidence exercise incorporating family size and metering, linear expenditure systems approach and error correction methodology. Family size among high income categories relative to low-income groups is larger in Mauritius. Because of this unusual demographic dimension, increasing block tariffs coupled with lifeline rates that are below long run marginal cost applicable to low-volume users produce this different result. It is important to document that extensive metering both in urban and rural areas allows low income consumers to benefit from increasing block tariffs. Regional disparities among residential water users further contribute to redistributive strategy. More precisely rural low-income households are subsidised by higher income consumers who reside predominantly in urban regions. A comparative analysis of price and income elasticities for different income categories reveals that low income households face more than average price elasticity of demand for water and less than average income elasticity. In the light of this result, it is established that increase in demand for water among richer households has the potential of improving equity in water charges. The computed marginal budget shares derived from linear expenditure system shows that the amount of supernumerary income would be higher for richer people so that a percentage increase in income may result in a higher level of spending on water as compared to lower-income households. In this case, water charges are found to be re-distributive.

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Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the critical factors that drive the adoption of digital library system (DLS) in institutes located in remote India. An integrated model of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model-2 (UTAUT2) and information systems success model (ISSM) is used to evaluate the critical factors.

Design/methodology/approach
The survey method of research was used, and the data collected was analysed by using PLS-SEM, which proved helpful to evaluate and validate the model.

Findings
Departing from past research, where most of the factors of the UTAUT2 and ISSM were found to influence the adoption of DLS, in this context, it is noted that performance expectancy, facilitating conditions and habit were the only constructs that influenced the intention to use DLS.

Originality/value
The study addresses the requirement for further research in DLS domain in emerging markets. It is one of the few studies addressing DLS adoption in remote India. The findings are unique to this context, which differ from developed nations, thus, answering the call to advance UTAUT model.

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This article applies value stream mapping (VSM) in a distribution warehouse after identifying and categorizing different warehousing wastes. The study suggests solutions for the reduction of each type of waste and employs lead time as the metric to understand the overall effectiveness of the suggested remedies. The distribution warehouse faced severe stock-out situations and high lead time for all deliveries. Current state and future state maps were utilized for mapping the current and revamped system, respectively. While existing studies on lean warehousing have utilized VSM to study a specific type of waste, this study extends it to include all types of warehousing waste, classifies them into seven types and provides a real case study along with evidence for improvement schemes for each category. This research, employing a case study, suggests an integrated lean warehousing method for design and operation of distribution warehouses.Dilemma/research question/purpose: Can the warehouse avoid stock-outs and decrease the lead time by identifying and reducing or eliminating the seven types of wastes in the warehouse operations?Theory: Lean management principle applied to a warehouse using value stream mapping to eliminate wastes.Type of the case: A problem-solving using lean tools carried out in a warehouse.Protagonist: Not needed.Options: Allow the current state to continue causing stock-outs and high lead times, or identify and reduce the wastes in the warehouse operations and avoid stock-outs, decrease lead times, and improve the overall efficiency of the warehouse.Discussions and case questions: Is it possible for the firm to go one step further than what the future state map has shown in the study? What other lean tools do you see fit to reduce or eliminate the types of waste outlined in this article?

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This study examines the association between mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) and earnings management. The Government of India mandated all industries to spend and disclose CSR through the Indian Companies Act 2013 with effect from financial year 2014. Management has an incentive to manage reported earnings and avoid fluctuations in reported income as investors prefer firms reporting steady growth in income. We use panel data from a sample of 80 Indian non-financial companies over the period 2014 to 2017. We investigate the possibility of using unspent CSR funds for earnings management. Earnings management calculated using the coefficient of variation method is regressed against unspent CSR and control variables such as Size, Market to Book (MB), Return on Assets (ROA) and Leverage (LEV) to evaluate the effect of unspent CSR on earnings management. We expect a positive association between unspent (carried forward) CSR funds and earnings management. Our findings indicate that companies may use unspent CSR funds to manage reported earnings. This study provides evidence to policymakers and enforcement authorities that mandating CSR spending could have unintended consequences such as facilitating earnings management and thus impeding the financial transparency.

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures became mandatory in India, from April 2014. The Companies Act (2013) specifies the modus to determine the quantum and nature of CSR expenditure and requires that affected companies disclose these details in their audited annual reports. Extant literature generally documents a positive association between CSR and shareholder value. Our study researches this association in an Indian context using a sample of top 100 (by market capitalization) manufacturing companies. Manufacturing industry contributes to environmental pollution and social costs; hence CSR could contribute towards mitigating the societal impact of corporate activities, maintaining trust and increasing shareholder value. External value measures are used by modern investors to assess company’s current and prospective ability to maximize shareholder value. Therefore, we consider Dividend paid and Tobin’s Q as the determinants of shareholder value. We find that CSR is positively associated with dividend payout and Tobin’s Q. The results seem to reinforce prior research findings that shareholder value can be increased by CSR.

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In this 21st century, the importance of knowledge transfer is evident in all the organisation. There are two reasons. First, knowledge appears to be an increasing proportion of the total asset. Second, the advance in information technology has created new means of knowledge transfer. Effective knowledge transfer can improve the organisation performance and gain competitive advantage. There is only a limited research done on the knowledge transfer in non-profit organisations. This paper tries to highlight the relevance of knowledge transfer and the factors contributing to it in non-profit organisations and how it shapes various organisational processes. A qualitative study has been used in this research considering 4 non-governmental organisations in the Southern state of Kerala, India. The primary data has been collected through unstructured interview and the secondary data from the reports, newsletters, articles, organisational, and websites. Content analysis and other exploratory methods using Nvivo software have been used to analyse the data. The outcome of the study would be to provide a framework that intends to help the non-profit organisations to plan, conduct and evaluate the efforts which are used to transfer knowledge with others.

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The objective of the study is to analyse the impact of the asset quality on the financial performance of the Indian microfinance institutions. Using the financial data of 76 'for-profit' Indian MFIs from the microfinance information exchange database for the period 2006 to 2013, we observe that the quality of asset deteriorated significantly during the period of study and it has impacted the performance of the MFIs negatively. The commercialisation of the MFIs resulted in predatory lending and unfair debt collection practices ensuring better repayment rates. These practices, however, resulted in client defaults and an increase in both portfolio-at-risk and write-off ratio. The study, therefore, suggests that the MFIs need to re-examine and realign their operations so that social parameters are given due importance in every aspect of lending activity. This will ensure that MFIs achieve their social objective as well as ensure higher repayment rates.

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The objective of this case study is to explore the application of organizational metaphors in realistic contexts. Metaphors define the realities that we exist in. Metaphors give teams and institutions an orientation of direction, definition of their past and principles for existence. They help answer queries about the organization like, “What is my Organization like - is it a family, a prison? or a jungle? To what kind of Organization am I contributing to? According to Gareth Morgan (1986), Aristotle was among the earliest to recognize the role that metaphors play in the creation of knowledge. To extend our understanding about Organizations, in the book Images of Organizations, Morgan (1986, 1997) presents eight metaphorical images: machines, organisms, brains, cultures, political systems, psychic prisons, flux and transformation and instruments of domination. The unit of investigation in this study is the Organization called as ABC Business School. Data for developing the case was gathered through observation, formal documents and from interactions with the stakeholders in the case. Through the analysis of the case of Organizational Development Intervention at ABC Business School, this study concludes that ABC Business School can be depicted through the brain metaphor. The study asserts the fact that ABC school adopts the double loop learning characteristic of brain metaphor where the learning focus is on the adjustment of models, approaches, and continuous learning in order to respond to changing circumstances. This study which looks at the application of organizational metaphors in realistic contexts also offer further insights into the suggestions and evidences as to who are the stake holders involved in running and leading organizations towards prosperity and growth.

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FMCG is one of the sectors which are rapidly rising all over the world. There are many FMCG companies in India including Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Procter & Gamble (P&G), India tobacco company (ITC), Patanjali, etc.The objective of the study is to understand the consumer perception of Patanjali products in Kerala, India. The primary data was collected from a structured questionnaire with 100 respondents. The major finding in the study says that Quality and Natural product are the two main things that influences customer to buy Patanjali products in Kerala. Further analysis brought out the whether the Patanjali will sustain in the market or not, majority of the people told that they will buy the product again and they will recommend the product to their friends and relatives. So with this we can say that the Patanjali products will sustain in Kerala market.

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The major concern in construction industry is safety because injuries to individuals, organization and societies will bring great loss as whole. This paper aims to focus the effectiveness of factors that influences the safety management practices adopted by the construction firms in India and UAE. The paper is examined using Comparative analysis with two hundred samples. As paper revealed that the India has comparatively less safety measures than UAE. To minimize the risk the government should implement laws towards safety and security for workers; provide the training to site officers. Researchers from the previous studies had explained the countries like Italy, Australia and China has provided new technological method to provide safety for their employees

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Today, the term "eco-friendly” is a prevalent and most alluring word within general population over the globe. As we are now aware about the harm mankind is creating to environment, the eco friendly and green products are gaining popularity. Sustainable development is yet another common term in this era. This study conducted in the southern districts of Kerala focuses on how green marketing leads to purchase intention of the products and then towards sustainable development. Even though the term green marketing is not familiar within Keralites, they are much passionate about eco friendly or green products. A sample of 200 was collected and analysed using average percentages, correlation and chi-square tests so as to determine how green marketing tools improves purchase intention of the customers, trust of customers towards ecolabelling and also to understand how green marketing and sustainable development are interrelated. The results after analysis of data disclosed there are a large number of prospective customers for green products and subsequently their number can be increased with increased initiatives in green marketing activities. The conclusions from the study can be additionally used to dissect the influence of green marketing on the purchase motivation of the customers in different areas, accordingly adding to a supportable improvement of the economy.

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Theobjective of this paper is to analyze the existing instrument workflow of CSSD [Central Sterile Supply Department] and to suggest the optimized workflow solutions for the hospital. We need to study about CSSDand what are the various activities which takes placethere along with the timings they required for each activity. By knowing those, we need to find out the critical and non-critical activities to create a map.The basic outline of the map is that the instruments from OT [Operation Theatre] to TSSD [Theatrical Sterile Supply Department], TSSD to CSSD, then CSSD to TSSD and TSSD to OT store. In detail, we will study about each area how the instruments are moving, and how much time it consumes.For that we need to create an existing workflow with the lean tool called VSM [Value Stream Mapping] and in that pick out the critical and non–critical activities. We can remove the non– critical activities and create a new workflow.With the new workflow we will form the Program Evaluation & Review Technique model which helps to know the percentage of efficiency has been improved in accordance to the existing workflow. With this solution, we can propose a new workflow of Instruments with the minimized critical activity and time period for the activities which takes place in CSSD of the hospital sector. Keywords: Value Stream Mapping, Program Evaluation and Review Technique, Optimized Workflow

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Purpose Mobile phone markets in india is witnessing one of the most challenging phases in its evolution. The economic growth added with the rise in disposable income has seen consumers demand more smartphones than in the past. To keep up with this demand companies are expanding and developing their distributional channels across rural and urban india. Though there have been several studies on the consumer purchase side, there has been scant research on the role of the retailer. This study aims at understanding the factors that drive the demand of smartphones from the perspective of retailers and their ecosystem Design/methodology/approach – to evaluate the role of actors including the retailers in the ecosystem, a holistic approach is needed. Systems theory was found suitable to evaluate the interactions and the roles of players in this ecosystems. The interview method was adopted to develop the model and understand the nuances of the interactions between the actors. Findings – Evaluating factors based from literature as well as interview transcripts, it was seen that trade margins, functional value of smartphones, inventory turnover and brand awareness were major factors propelling demand among retailers. Originality/value – This study advances the body of knowledge by presenting drivers of demand for smartphones from the retailer perspective, which is under researched, especially in the emerging market context. The implications from this study could serve as a platform for future research in similar economies and further shed light on influencing factors that could aid in enhancing market development activities for practitioners. Further the emerging market context of the study provides insights to industry and academia to advance research in This study provides insights on the factors which have an effect on the increased demand of certain smartphone brands from the retailer side and can be a basis to understand the strategies which mobile brands follows to adopt for increased penetration in Indian market. This study concentrates on the retailer’s perspective and only limited studies have been done on this.

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Electricity traded as a commodity have distinct characteristics of being completely fungible, simultaneous in a generation to usage & at any given time, there should be a near perfect supply-demand equilibrium in the power grids. Smart grids use ancillary services & demand response programs to manage any demand fluctuations. Independent System Operators (ISOs) & Regional Transmission Organisations (RTO) are responsible for keeping the grid balanced with generation & load. Power Grid Corporation (ISO), Indian Energy Exchange (ISO) & Kerala State Electricity Board (RTO) are the key players who perform this function for Kerala region. IEX manage the energy markets by operating three submarkets day-ahead, real-time& capacity markets. Through day-ahead market, electricity generators &load-serving entities submit their bids to receive & offer electricity to the power grid based on varying cost on each hour for the next operating day. In the real-time market, ISO & RTOs manage these changes in production & consumption throughout the day. They optimize the generation dispatch schedule where they consider generation cost & transmission constraints. Capacity markets are employed to have study flow of capital investments in the market thereby increasing the generation capacity. Currently, KSEB forecast & schedule power generation to ensure sufficient power is available at its disposal for transmission. But with generation capacity standing at a mere 30% of demand, it has to depend upon bulk purchases. To bring transparency to KSEB�s procurement programme, the Kerala state regulatory commission (erc Kerala) have provided adequate guidelines to consider commodity markets as well along with its traditional flat-ratecontracts. On this research study, we are forecasting day-ahead electricity spot price at IEX Kerala region using modern electrometric techniques. The time series analysis of Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model is applied to the historical IEX spot price data starting from 1st February 2017 to 31st January of 2018. In every deregulated electricity market, it�s a practice to perform the price forecasting first and then to prepare the bids accordingly. KSEB can also apply this technique to improve their procurement efficiency. From 2017 onwards, IEX has created a new separate bid region for the Kerala market, making Kerala specific market study very relevant.

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Spirituality and its practices are the real gems of value additions in the human life, they helps in building a strong foundation and getting a greater clarity. Spirituality is not a limited concept but expansive like a vast blue ocean. Spirituality, being currently becoming an attracting trend when considered with organizations, many of the organizations prefer in deploying spiritual functions and practices aiming for a good level of perspicacity and growth in their future forecasts and operations for the enablement of delivering a good level of productivity. This study aims at examining the connectivity existence or non-existence between some organizational productivity factors that directly or indirectly contributes to productivity levels and the factors of spiritual intelligence. For the study a controlled experiment was conducted, the 4 factors of spiritual intelligence such as Critical Existential Thinking, Personal Meaning Production, Transcendental awareness, Conscious State of Expansion was considered and measured by taking an organization after that 4 factors that contributes directly or indirectly to productivity function such as Ability to address day to day Variations, Adherence in task accomplishment at extreme workload scenarios with equanimity, Consistency level in Benchmark achievement or meeting the provided/ defined target levels, ability in performance beyond the expected level in logical Operations were consulted and measured. After this a pairing was made with a deep look of these factors and each pair consisted of different predictors and a response variables, 4 regression models were developed in Minitab with these in order to check whether there was any connectivity/relationship existence between any one of the factors between the grouped four pairs each (i.e. to check at least 1 predictor - response relationship existence was there or not in all 4 regression models developed). The result signalled the existence of relationship between at least 3 factors to at most 5 factors in all the model, marking a green signal of relationship existences. © 2017, School of Management Sciences. All rights reserved.

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Today, the entire world is on the brink of disaster. The waves of crises like global warming, climate change, financial crisis, mental traumas, and tensions are engulfing mankind. Many business strategies are being discussed with sustainability as the watch word. In this context, the age-old Indian wisdom has much to offer. The gap between the haves and have-nots is on the rise. Affordability of many products is becoming a distant dream for the common man. To cater to the needs and wants of the contemporary world, firms have to adopt frugal innovation to produce low-cost and high-quality sustainable products/services. The aim of this paper was to create a conceptual model of understanding sustainability through frugal innovation by combining ideas from these fields and basing the model on the spiritualistic perspective of Indian wisdom. The case study methodology was adopted to substantiate the above conceptual model.

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Purpose
The Indian microfinance industry witnessed one of the fastest growths in the recent times. However, the striking feature of this growth is that the Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are concentrated only in some specific regions of the country. There is a huge geographical skew in the distribution of the MFIs. In this paper, an attempt has been made to explain these geographical skew by using the macro variables of the states. The objective of the study is to identify the causes for this regional disparity in the growth of MFIs.
Design/methodology/approach
We try to explain the level of penetration of microfinance in the states by using regression models.
Findings
Our analysis suggests that state-level macro factors are significant in explaining the geographical skew. MFIs in India have concentrated in states which are richer, have good rural infrastructure, but lack in adequate banking facility, and have low human capital.
Originality/value
The study provides an insight which would help in framing the necessary regulations to ensure that MFIs operate in all regions of the country.

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Innovation in services is one of the prime drivers of several economies. There are various schools of thought that have emerged over the past few decades in this area. The present paper focuses on the evolution of the ‘synthesis’ school of thought. It contributes to literature by extending the framework proposed by Lancaster (The Journal of Political Economy, 74(2), 132–157, 1966) and other researchers by incorporating aspects of Web 2.0 technology with a specific reference to e-learning. The proposed framework is validated using case study from the field of e-learning. © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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The revenue objective to cover the identifiable costs (in full or partly) is important with respect to both fees and charges. All revenue sources – taxes, fees, fines and user charges – are instruments of cost recovery to meet the financial obligations of public administration and the public and private supply of public goods and services. In the case of publicly supplied local goods, such as public administration, public education, health services, street lighting and sanitation, cost recovery may not be the dominant objective. But cost recovery is tremendously significant in the case of privately supplied local public goods, such as water supply, sewerage, electricity and telephone. In recent years, user fees and charges have gained significance at the sub-national level mainly because of hard local budget constraints. Recession resulted in drastic cuts in intergovernmental transfers and reduced access to market loans. According to the 2009 International City and County Management (ICMA) State Survey in the US, for instance, 46 percent of reporting local governments increased existing fees by 23 percent and added new levies for additional funds (Ebel and Petersen, 2012). While these trends are encouraging, there is no systematic research to assess the efficacy of local government in collecting fees and user charges vis-à-vis performance of other institutional arrangements such as off- budget supply and privatization. The structure of this paper is as follows. Section 2 discusses the principles and practices of user fees and charges and their revenue potential. Section 3 analyzes factors adversely impacting the growth of beneficiary charges in local government budgets, including the centralization of revenue, intergovernmental fiscal transfers, and alternative fiscal strategies such as tax earmarking and piggybacking. Section 4 examines the trade-off between budgetary and privatization regimes of water supply and the efficacy of cost recovery policies. Section 5

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beneficiary-charges-cinderella-subnational-finance.pdf

New paradigms of doing business are evolving as the world is struggling with a financial crisis. It has become a compelling need for business enterprises to explore innovative solutions to overcome this crisis. The voluntary organisations are establishing social businesses as corporate entities and are embracing social responsibility projects. The distance between philanthropy and business is being substantially reduced. The emerging success stories of new age business entrepreneurship reveal the insights expressed in ancient Indian literature, which has struck deep roots in Indian ethos – the Yagna Spirit, which is becoming a new age business dynamism. 1) This paper1 discusses the concept of Yagna from the entrepreneurial perspective and makes an attempt to develop the core philosophy of Yagna Entrepreneurship; 2) It elucidates the traits of Yagna Entrepreneurs and traditional business practices influenced by the spirit of Yagna in the contemporary business context.

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Abstract This paper empirically examines environmental regulation politics in terms of proactive lobbying at different levels of public environmental management, namely enacting legislation and implementing policies. In the proposed models, effectiveness of environmental regulation is captured by (i) level of stringency of environmental regulations, (ii) degree of enforcement, and (iii) the achievement of various environmental performance goals. Findings from cross-country regressions support the capture theory where small size and greater availability of resources render industrial groups in \{SIDS\} powerful at the legislation level. Rent-seeking behaviour of industrial lobbies appears to be channeled via corrupt practices but is constrained by high dependence of \{SIDS\} on international trade as well as improved governance measures and better rule of law. No evidence is obtained on environmental legislative damage caused by agricultural lobbies and tourism sector. At the implementation level, both industry and agriculture are found to be pro-active in terms of non- compliance to environmental legislations causing significant damage to the environment. Weak agricultural lobbies at legislative level in \{SIDS\} may be due to extensive government support programs to agriculture, which would serve to dampen or nullify any increment in cost borne by farmers arising from stringent environmental regulations. The impact of tourism lobbies on environmental performance is inconclusive. Tourism lobbies in \{SIDS\} have interest in maintaining some level of environmental quality and do not display severe adverse impacts at the implementation phase even after controlling for their interaction with institutional variables (corruption, rule of law and government effectiveness).

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The objective of the paper is to empirically examine the effects of macroeconomic volatility on growth and other indicators of welfare incorporating more particularly geography produced diverse conditions that are either growth promoting or growth hampering. We extend the literature on macroeconomic volatility, growth and welfare by integrating the macroeconomics and new development economics literature on cross-country growth performance by capturing factors beyond neoclassical and new growth approaches. Empirical results confirm that growth outcomes under different geography-produced favorable and adverse conditions have the potential of minimizing and exacerbating the effects of macroeconomic variability. The significance of geography and its links with institutions is highlighted and adverse growth and welfare effects of income inequality, coastal openness and trade openness are analyzed.

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The proportion of workers engaged in various occupations pictures the socio-economic development of a region. Occupational gender segregation is said to exist when women and men are distributed across occupations disproportionately without considering the nature of the distribution of occupations. According to the census of India, workers are distributed according to the occupation in which they are engaged into four broad categories namely, cultivators, agricultural labourer, household industrial workers and other workers. The main objective of the study is to measure the state occupational gender segregation, in this article; the occupational differentiation and segregation by sex are measured through different indices. The study showed that even though the regional distribution of occupations in the different states of India are more or less even, the occupational gender segregation exists in almost all the states in varying degrees. Throughout the states of India, male workers are more than female workers, however, the distribution of population by sex shows that almost equal proportion of both sexes are engaged in each state. Occupational gender wise integration is a sign of progress which ensures proportionate participation of women in economic activities. So, measures should be taken by the planners and policy makers to absorb more women in modern large enterprises and thereby expand economic development.

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The intent of this chapter is to discuss some of the theoretical and practical issues associated with tourismtaxation and to consider in more detail an approach that relies on a tax instrument that is already used at the local level in most developed and developing countries – property taxation.We begin by briefly addressing the major issues associated with identifying and measuring the external costs associated with tourism. That is followed by a brief review of analyses of alternative revenue instruments designed to internalise those external costs. The possibility of using property taxation is then addressed followed by a short summary and conclusion.

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This paper discusses the political economy implications of external financial assistance in the presence of partisanship in parties. In fact, rational partisan theory posits that parties tend to adapt to the median voter’s alteration in preferences during a given incumbency period so that they could maximize their chances of being re-elected. Our paper specifically tends to illustrate whether parties should be concerned with
flypaper and fungibility of foreign aid while adapting to the dynamic preferences of voters. The Young theorem is used to show under what conditions would flypaper and fungibility have equivalent effects on output.

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This paper tests the economic efficiency of irrigation water as supplied by single purpose and by general purpose public utilities in dry and humid regions, respectively, in terms of underprovision and overprovision. The proposed methodology mixes conceptual frameworks developed by Farrell (1957) and Brueckner (1979, 1982). A typical agricultural production function uses the institutional attributes of the water-providing authority as an argument. Both short-run and long-run estimates are provided. Although in both cases irrigation water is heavily subsidized, there is no evidence of systematic underprovision or overprovision for the dry north and west, under the single purpose Irrigation Authority. However, water is oversupplied to more humid areas by the general purpose Central Water Authority. Empirical estimates confirm that the efficiency of the single purpose Irrigation Authority cannot be attributed to irrigation technique. The general purpose Water Authority suffers from inefficiency in coordinating rainwater availability with the institutional water supply.

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This paper examines whether political economy considerations are important in the formulation of water pricing policy in Mauritius. Empirical models are developed incorporating current and lagged electoral years as dummy variables in order to test whether politicians make strategic use of water pricing policy to further their partisan electoral objectives. Political economy concerns are also included into our analysis by looking at the impact of lobby groups on the implementation of water prices. In the case of potable water prices, a disaggregated analysis according to consumer categories provides weak evidence of political manipulation. However, political manipulation is established in terms of subsidy allocations to the residential sector, which is the largest consumer category. As regards irrigation water, the results lend support to the contention that political parties indeed manipulate irrigation subsidies allocated to the Irrigation Authority. Evidence on the lobby effect emerges from our empirical analysis on potable water. More specifically, we find that smaller groups have successfully been able to use their political influence to obtain smaller water price increases.

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Doring the period of rising prioeB, income tax paJers are put to a higher tax burden owing to interaction of loBation and a progressive tax schedule. On 'he one hand, the increase in income (money or real) puahee a portion of the income into the higher income brackets aubjeo$ to higher marginal tax ra'-, on the other, the rise in price leads to eroaion in purchasing power. If the price level is relatively atable, increase in money income and subeequent increase in tax liability may be juetified on the groUDd of increased ability to pay. But during the rleiog prioea, the riBe in tax burden may or may not be in oonformi$y with 'be rille in real inoome creating $hereby p088ibi·litlee of injllBtioe in taxauon.

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Energy conservation is the talk of the town and environment conscious organizations, government; companies are looking for multiple ways to enhance the awareness among householders, youngsters and corporates. The most prominent strategy adopted is through spreading the campaigns in social media. Social media platforms provide an economical, dependable and well-timed mechanism for sharing information. Adoption of the smart phone, government policies, and the user friendly applications has made social media usage ubiquitous and faster. The current literature shows deficiency of social media strategies in the online platform for better promotion of energy conservation. This study focuses on developing a conceptual model for promoting conscious energy conservation behaviour in Gen Y using the best social media strategies.

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Financial Inclusion is one of the stated objectives of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) - world's largest Employment Guarantee Scheme. Even though financial inclusion efforts began in India in 2005, large sections of rural India still remain financially excluded. At the time of this work, possessing a bank/ post office account has not been mandated by the Government of India for gaining NREGA employment - our work, therefore focuses on the role of access to formal banking on the breadth and depth of participation in Employment Guarantee Schemes. We find evidences of positive impact of access to formal banking on demand for NREGA jobs as well as extent of participation. We also find interesting contrasts between individual and joint bank account holders in demand for labor as well as participation.

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Spirituality and workplace Attitude of Employees have an important relationship; it differs when the person changes. It is quite difficult to compare both Attitude and Spirituality. The study assesses the reliability and validity of the measures used and it certainly discusses the results that came out from the analysis which says whether workplace Attitude has a Positive or Negative impact on Spirituality. For an Employee he interacts more time in his Work Environment may be 3/4 of his day. So the study helps to come out with a result that shows whether they are able to manage their stress or pressure with the help of spirituality. Now a day's employees are suffering a lot of stress and pressure from their organization to complete their work before the deadlines given and to achieve their target. So this research paper mainly focuses on one aspect that is, does Spirituality plays a significant role in employee's workplace attitude. This paper looks in to the factors that support spirituality deals within the traditional understanding in employing workplace spirituality and also the connection between spirituality and individual and organizational results. This study was mainly conducted to check whether the spiritual factors have any influence on attitude of an employee in his work place, so the study considered 10 factors, which is related to spirituality. The results show the attitude is related to the spirituality in an organization, there is a positive impact between them.

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Massive Open Online Courses have been looked at both as disruptive innovation as well as the biggest experiment in education in recent times. 15 Million learners have turned to MOOCs as in 2014 and Indians constitute the second largest share of the MOOC user base. This paper attempts to understand some of the essential characteristics that distinguish a MOOC user from a non-user in India. A proprietary survey for understanding MOOC consumers has been used to draw insights on demographics of potential MOOC users including age, occupation, gender, educational backgrounds as well as some salient aspects of their personality, learning styles and life goals. Three logistic regression models have been tested. The first model investigates the impact of background demographic variables and internet skills of respondents on the choice to enroll in at least one MOOC course. The second model includes key personality traits that are hypothesized to influence the user adoption of MOOCs and the full modeladdsvariables pertaining to learning styles, learning environment and life goals. Those with better internet skills and an existing preference for learning through videos were seen to be significantly more likely to adopt MOOCs. Personality traits aligned with an openness to try new things were seen to influence the adoption decision but the learning styles and learning environment did not differentiate users from non-users. The results also indicate a significant influence of gender and age. © 2015 IEEE.

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One of the objectives underlying the valuation of environmental goods and services (which do not enter the market place) is to highlight their significance in economic and social terms. Moreover, such information is used to estimate the potential loss of these resources if conservation attempts are lacking. It has been discussed in the earlier chapter that putting a number on environmental resources is a stupendous task. For example, evaluation of damages to biodiversity is not only extremely difficult, but it would also lack scientific precision. Environmental impact assessment techniques are employed to directly assess damage to the natural, economic and social environment due to developmental proposals. They are intended as instruments of preventive environmental management. Biodiversity conservation initiatives internationally advocate the extensive use of environmental impact assessments to design effective strategies and plans.

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The source of many environmental and natural resource problems lies in ill-defined property rights. In this chapter, we explain how the tragedy of the commons can result from existing types of ownership/property rights regimes and examine the consequences. The implications for policy-making are also briefly discussed. The dire consequences of the tragedy are illustrated by the case of the Aral Sea.

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Small may be beautiful, but small island states have a big problem - the environmental consequences of climate change. Emanating from research at the University of Mauritius and with contributions from a wide range of experts,&nbsp;<em>Saving Small Island States</em>&nbsp;introduces and explains the key environmental policy challenges and suggested responses to them.

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