Economic policies in India were shaped by Euro-centric paradigms during the colonial era and a long period after independence, and by US-centric paradigms since liberalisation. Indigenous Indian knowledge paradigms and social sentiments were neglected. As a result, many of the economic activities were environmentally unfriendly. Kautilya’s Arthashastra, based on the principles of interdependence, conservation, and environmental sustainability, offers insights to develop methods and practices that can support sustainable economic development. The wisdom from Arthashastra can not only offer valuable guidance to achieve environmental sustainability in India but can influence global sustainability efforts and contribute to an environmentally friendly future.
It has been widely recognised that India should have its own management education rooted in its history, culture, and ethos. We suggest using stories from the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) in management programmes. In this paper, we demonstrate how to analyse IKS stories from management perspectives. We also present empirical findings from a course and a workshop on IKS stories. The students’ response to the idea of incorporating IKS stories in management curriculum is positive and encouraging. We hope that our paper will help teachers to integrate IKS stories with Contemporary Knowledge Systems (CKS) and design relevant courses.
This qualitative study investigates the community-based entrepreneurial support system within a religious community. Based on observations, field visits, secondary sources, and in-depth interviews of Jain community members, our findings offer a nuanced understanding of the role of family (Parivar), temple (Mandir), and community organisations in supporting entrepreneurship. New insights show how religious communities provide access to resources, social networks, and spiritual mentorship. The study contributes to literature in the social capital and entrepreneurial support system domains. It highlights a socially embedded, value-based entrepreneurial support system. The study also sheds light on the community-oriented Indian perspective of entrepreneurship.
Every human being is composed of three gunas or fundamental elements – sattva (intelligence), rajas (energy), and tamas (mass). In a series of studies with 193 executives (Study 1), 131 engineering students (Study 2), and 176 engineering students (Study 3), we show the relationships between the gunas and values, virtues, and risk-taking behaviour. We found that sattva was positively related to self-transcendent values and negatively to self-enhancement values. tamas was negatively related to social risk-taking and positively to risk-taking in ethical, financial, and health matters. Together, the studies substantiate our argument that gunas constitute an inclusive and comprehensive framework of an individual’s personality.
The principles articulated in Arthashastra – and ancient Indian text by Kautilya – remain strikingly relevant even in the current era of evolving workforce dynamics and organisational challenges. In this paper, we develop a framework based on Kautilya’s paradigm that applies to critical human resource practices at the micro level (addressing employees), the meso level (managing groups), and the macro level (guiding organisational and HR strategy). Existing discourses on the Arthashastra concentrate on aspects such as ethics, law, economics, and governance, and not on the people and organisational relevance of the text. Addressing these gaps, we argue that Kautilya’s prescriptions remain timeless.
The study explores how yoga-based practices (YBP) can enhance self-management by promoting equanimity and reducing mind wandering, helping individuals handle challenging goals effectively. We conducted two studies to assess the impact of YBP on goal difficulty, with equanimity and mind wandering as key factors. The results demonstrate that YBP significantly enhances equanimity and reduces mind wandering, highlighting their potential as sustainable tools for managing goal-related challenges. This research underscores the importance of integrating contemplative practices into management education and contributes to the fields of Indian Knowledge Systems and Management, Spirituality, and Religion (MSR).
Studies on charismatic leadership have generally attributed charisma to leaders based on their looks, speeches, etc. Studies which explore whether followers attribute charisma to leaders based on leaders’ moral behaviours are scant. To address this gap, this study involved a thorough reading of the Mahabharata and explored the charismatic leadership of king Yudhisthira, who is well known for his steadfast adherence to dharma. A conceptual model of charismatic leadership called dharma-based charismatic leadership (DBCL) is developed and propositions are formulated. The paper concludes with the proposed implications of DBCL for today’s leadership and organisations, and some suggestions for future research.
Human civilisation faces a growing polycrisis marked by social fragmentation, ecological degradation, and value erosion driven by profit-centric business models. Profitability is desirable, so is social, economic, and ecological balance. This paper critiques the narrow focus on economic gain and argues for a more holistic understanding of value that balances economic, social, and ecological responsibilities. Drawing from the ancient Indic knowledge system, it explores spiritual perspectives and consciousness as foundations for ethical human action. The paper proposes that integrating dharma, interconnection, and deeper awareness into business practices can help realign human enterprise with collective well-being and sustainable coexistence with nature.
The research introduces a situational judgement test (SJT) designed to measure emotional labour in the hospitality industry, adhering to Morris and Feldman’s theoretical model. The newly developed test was rigorously validated across three distinct studies, which confirmed its psychometric robustness through confirmatory factor analysis, reliability assessments, and various forms of validity testing. The findings highlight the SJT’s effectiveness in quantifying emotional labour, thereby offering a practical tool for enhancing employee selection, performance assessment, and training within the hospitality sector.
Stock price prediction remains challenging due to markets’ non-linear, volatile nature. While existing studies analyse numerical data or textual news separately, their synergistic integration remains underexplored. We propose a novel dual-stream deep learning framework combining wavelet-processed price data with Financial Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (FinBERT)-based news sentiment analysis through intermediate feature fusion. Our architecture employs convolutional neural networks–long short-term memory (CNN–LSTM) networks to model cross-modal temporal dependencies. Comprehensive evaluation demonstrates superior performance (test mean squared error (MSE) = 0.0220), highlighting the value of multimodal integration for financial forecasting. Results suggest that this approach enhances predictive accuracy in algorithmic trading, though performance depends on data quality and temporal alignment between information sources.
This study introduces a contextual agricultural credit scoring model (CACSM) that incorporates loan repayment intention scores to enhance decision-making in collateral-free, small-ticket agricultural loans. By integrating sentiment analysis using Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner (VADER) with traditional credit scoring variables, the model aims to improve loan approval outcomes. The development of CACSM involves three key stages: first, determining the optimal alpha parameter for VADER sentiment analysis to assess repayment intentions; second, evaluating the performance of machine learning models using traditional credit scoring factors; and third, analysing model performance when loan repayment intention scores are added. Experimental results show that incorporating repayment intention scores significantly improves predictive accuracy, with both the decision tree classifier and gradient boosting classifier achieving high F1 scores (0.956522) compared to traditional models (0.454545). This approach can enhance credit officers’ judgment in lending decisions for the Kishan Credit Card scheme in India, offering potential scalability with further robustness testing.
The study investigates earnings management through discretionary accruals and real earnings management related to the cost of newly issued corporate bonds in India. It examines this relationship with the tenure of the bond and ownership structure. The study found a positive association between earnings management and the cost of corporate bonds, suggesting that investors charge a high premium for exercising higher degrees of earnings management. Private firms engage more in earnings management than banks and government firms. Firms issuing long-term bonds engage in earnings management practices, as short-term bonds are subject to frequent monitoring by creditors and banks. (c) 2025 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/)
User-centred design (UCD) innovations are increasingly recognised as a source of competitive advantage in the contemporary business environment. From a dynamic capabilities' perspective, this study explores the critical routines that support organisational capabilities driving UCD innovations. The study adopts a qualitative approach, and the researchers conduct inductive case studies on four B2C firms in the Indian manufacturing and services industry. The insights gathered suggest that all firms have various user-focused routines for knowledge-gaining, organisationmobilising, and organisation-alignment that enable managers to initiate and execute UCD innovations. The study proposes a framework illustrating the seamless flow between different routines. (c) 2026 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
This study addresses the complexity of predicting returns and return categories in the e-tail sector by analysing key transaction variables, offering in-depth insights into returns management in e-tail. Two studies were conducted: Study 1 adopts binary logistic regression to identify factors influencing return rates. Study 2 applies multinomial logistic regression to identify factors influencing specific return categories such as wrong purchase, false returns and late deliveries. The findings, which are further validated against reputable industry reports, provide e-tailers and managers with enhanced decision-making tools to improve their returns management strategies, contributing a predictive model that enhances returns prediction in e-tail. (c) 2026 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Existing trends indicate that higher educational institutions (HEI) offer integrated programmes - a combination of a baccalaureate with a masters' degree, for example, BBA and MBA. However, no studies have empirically compared student performances between integrated and standalone programmes. This study compares student performances of an integrated management programme (BBA+MBA) with a standalone MBA programme of an Indian HEI. It utilises data from four years across three courses: controlling for COVID, courses, graduation, stream, experience, and gender. The results indicate that integrated programme students performed better than standalone students in the overall analysis, and across core and elective courses. (c) 2026 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
This study explores how informal sector competition influences the innovation strategies of formal emerging economy firms (FEEFs), focusing on the novel concept of 'innovation time off,' where employees are given discretionary time to pursue new ideas. Using data about Indian firms from the World Bank Enterprise Survey, the findings show that informal competition drives FEEFs to adopt innovation time off, though this effect diminishes for firms that are located in SEZs or have numerical labour flexibility. This study advances strategic management literature by offering actionable insights into the interplay of informal competition, innovation, and policy-induced firm characteristics in resource-constrained environments. (c) 2025 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
India's military faces new challenges from digital threats, budget pressures, and shifting workforce expectations. This paper explores how the Indian Armed Forces are updating their people strategies in response. Drawing on interviews with two retired generals and existing research, it highlights key issues such as recruitment and retention, leadership development, cultural change, and the Agnipath scheme. While there has been progress, short-term staffing models and deep-rooted cultural norms continue to pose difficulties. The paper offers practical recommendations to strengthen military human resource practices and calls for more evidencebased approaches to support ongoing transformation. (c) 2025 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/)
