American Scholars Press

Dr. Michael Williams
Editor-in-Chief
Dean, School of Business and Management,
Thomas Edison State University, NJ USA

Dr. Linda Sun,
Managing Editor
American scholars press
Kennesaw State University (Part-time Faculty)

Dr. Michael Williams, Ph.D., MBA, is a highly experienced dean, organizationalexecutive, and educational entrepreneur. A strategic, results-oriented leader, Dr.Williams has a proven record of driving growth, operating in hyper-competitiveglobal markets, leading through marketplace disruption, and facilitating large-scaleorganizational change. He is a seasoned educational and executive leader recognizedfor solving complex administrative, financial, and operational issues. An expert inleadership development, adult education, and distance learning, Dr. Williams has heldsenior academic leadership positions in public, private, and proprietary universitiesand executive education and business development roles in the financial services andinformation technology industries.

An innovative, adaptive, and resilient educational leader, Dr. Williams built afinancial services training and leadership academy for a national financial servicesfirm, led a global corporate university located in lower Manhattan through and afterthe 911 World Trade Towers attacks, and shepherded three business schools throughseveral major higher education market disruptions, including distance educationexpansion, the 2015 nationwide decline in enrollments, and the continuing responsesthe COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Williams has launched over 30 new academic degrees, courses,continuing education, and professional development programs. An interdisciplinarianand curriculum designer, he is an expert in developing scholar-practitioner degreeprograms integrating the liberal arts and sciences with the professions realizedthrough experiential learning and enabling career preparation, workplace readiness,and professional career advancement.

Dr. Williams is a New England Conservatory President's Council member,manages active international publishing and presenting schedule, and leadsPsychology Practices Solutions, a global consultancy specializing in businessdevelopment and high-performance coaching solutions for mental health, highereducation, and industry professionals.

Dr. Ying Wang, DBA, CPA is a professor of accounting at Montana StateUniversity-Billings in Billings, Montana. She has done extensive research inthe financing accounting area. Her major research interests are financialaccounting and reporting. E-mail: ywang@msubillings.edu

Debra M. Schoenfeld, BBA, MBA, CPA, JD, LLM is a professor of tax andbusiness law at Montana State University-Billings in Billings, Montana.Background includes experience in public accounting and working for one ofthe top fortune companies. Professor for the last 10 years. Major research inthe area of taxation and accounting.  E-mail:debra.schoenfeld@msubillings.edu

In this analysis, data spanning from 2008 to 2021 is utilized to examine theextent of earnings discretion exercised by state governments. The studyencompasses both accrual and modified accrual basis discretion. Notably,North Dakota exhibits the least amount of discretional accrual, whereas RhodeIsland stands out for having the highest level of discretional accrual. It isobserved that both types of discretional accrual, whether on accrual ormodified accrual basis, tend to carry forward into the future. However, thetendency for modified basis discretional accrual to carry forward issignificantly stronger. To gauge modified basis discretional accrual, the studymeasures other financing sources and uses. The findings suggest that statesshould duly consider this propensity when formulating their budgets.

government earnings discretion, accrual basis, modified accrual basis

Dr. Andrew Valentine is an adjunct faculty member of the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM), The University of New South Wales, Australia. His research focuses on issues related to corporate governance and strategic leadership. He also instructs management and strategy classes in the AGSM’s MBA Programs. Andrew holds a Ph.D. in strategic management from UNSW Sydney. He has also gained professional experience in the executive search and leadership consulting industries in Australia and the United Kingdom. Email: andrew.valentine@unsw.edu.au

Do directors utilize their relationships with prospective CEOs to determine new CEO compensation in the interests of investors? Or are new outsider CEOs empowered by their relationships with directors to negotiate compensation in their own interests? This study addresses these questions by examining the impact of board/CEO ties in 1,173 outsider CEO successions on a range of short- and long-term, performance-related CEO compensation ratios. Results show that new outsider CEOs in the United States and other common law founded Commonwealth countries can leverage their relationships with directors to restructure compensation in their own interests and against those of investors.

corporate governance, board-CEO, CEO, outsider CEO, compensation

Dr. Dina Silbernagel-Krohne earned her DBA from Thomas Edison State University (TESU), an MBA from Western Governors University, and a BS in Business Administration from TESU. She is an advocate for non-traditional adult education and a TESU alumni ambassador. She has over 20 years of experience creating value added improvements for Fortune 500 companies in healthcare foodservice and e-commerce fulfillment. Certifications include Six Sigma Green Belt, FEMA National Incident Management System, and FEMA Incident Command System for Healthcare/Hospitals. Her specialty is researching the root causes of issues stonewalling business goals to develop solutions that include organizational culture and process-based components. 

Dr. Tami Moser is the Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor of Pharmacy Administration, and the Coordinator of the Center of Excellence in Pharmacy Leadership, Innovation, and Quality Outcomes at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Her research focuses on the improvement of quality outcomes and patient experience in healthcare settings and leadership. She has earned a Ph.D. in Organization and Management and a Doctorate in Behavioral Health (DBH). She is an ICU Master Trainer, Consultant with Moser Collective, and a Coach. Her coaching practice focuses on Ph.D. and Professional Doctorate students seeking mentorship, support, and guidance throughout their doctoral journey.

This qualitative study, intended to explore statements of former Amazon employees, categorizes reasons for resignations, and provides answers to two questions. First, what are the three main reasons Amazon Fulfillment employees give for resigning? Second, what percentage of the total reasons do the top three represent and what minor themes exist within those three major themes? Social media comments from the subreddit r/Amazon FC and Glassdoor websites made by previous employees who self-terminated in 2021 and 2022 provided secondary data that was organized into major and minor themes. The three major themes were management issues, difficult work, and schedule hardships with six minor themes: toxic culture, poor management, negative employee engagement, physically demanding, long hours, and shift schedule. Recommendations to address the major and minor themes include a comprehensive culture change, shift modifications, and updates to the internal transfer policy.

Amazon, fulfillment center, employee retention, warehouse, voluntary resignation, turnover

Mrs. Yao Xintao is an Associate professor of Lishui Vocational and Technical College, in Lishui, Zhejiang Province, China. She is pursuing her PHD in public administration at Philippines Christian University. She has published more than 10 papers in domestic and international journals and participated in the compilation of a national planning textbook. 

Dr. Neil Catly Bermudez is a Professor of Public Administration of Philippine Christian University, Manila, Philippine. His main research area is in Principles of Economics; Public Management and Administration; and Environmental Management. neil.bermudez@yahoo.com

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, ecological value realization has been mentioned in an important place. Local governments, as the implementers of the "Two Mountains Theory," play a significant role in realizing ecological value. Under China’s national goal of “realization of ecological value,” this paper criticizes the existing government performance evaluation mechanism and discusses the role of GEP (Gross Ecosystem Product) in the evaluation of local government performance. By integrating GEP evaluation, this paper tries to fix the existing government performance evaluation mechanism.

realization of ecological value, local government performance evaluation, GEP evaluation, service-oriented government, ecological environment status index

Ms. Afsa Parveen is a PhD research scholar in the Department of Commerce, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India. Her area of research specialization is marketing.

The current time needs strong entrepreneurial intention to resolve stress levels that arise due to lack of jobs availability. The existing research investigated determinants of entrepreneurial intention. To accomplish this purpose, the effect of the need for competition, the image of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial education, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control are investigated to determine entrepreneurial intention. Data of 246 respondents was analyzed with the help of PLS-SEM. The need for competition, image, attitude, and perceived behavioral control has significant positive effects, whereas education and the subjective norm have insignificant effects on entrepreneurial intention. Attitude has found partial mediation between need for competition and entrepreneurial intention.

entrepreneurial intention, mediation, structural equation modelling

Ms. Neha Garg is a doctoral scholar at Bharati Vidyapeeth (deemed university) Institute of Management and Research, New Delhi, India. She has completed graduation from Delhi University and MBA from IBS, Hyderabad. She has rich banking industry experience of almost 12 years and presently teaching finance and accountancy subjects to BBA and MBA students. She has keen interest in AI applications with respect to banking field. She has also written several research papers on Artificial intelligence which are published in UGC care journals and other journals / books of high repute.

Dr. Neetu Jain is a tenured professor of economics at Bharati Vidyapeeth (deemed university) Institute of Management and Research, New Delhi, India. She is the author of several research papers published in Scopus, Wos, UGC and others. She has more than 15 years of wide experience of teaching economics to BBA and MBA students. She is proficient in using various research tools and software like Eviews, SPSS, AMOS, Smart Pls and many more.

The twenty-first century has witnessed drastic transformation in the financial sector as financial disruption has caused adjustments in the ever-changing banking industry. Banks are looking for innovative ways to handle massive numbers of transactions per day.

The main objective of the study is to determine the impact of the facilitators and inhibitors on bankers’ behaviors and perceptions of using AI applications by considering an extension in the UTAUT model to include risk, perceived complexity, and technological anxiety.

The extended UTAUT model was assessed using a final sample of 108 bankers. The study is based on primary data through a structured questionnaire circulated in bank branches of Delhi / NCR.  A questionnaire using seven factors (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, risk, technological anxiety, perceived complexity and behavioral intention) was used. The data is investigated to test the hypothesis using statistical tools such as reliability, KMO, and Bartlett’s test of sphericity, exploratory factor analysis, regression, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the instrument items. The results estimated using a multiple regression analysis showed that social influence and risk play a significant role in understanding bankers’ intention to use AI applications. The results further showed characteristics, such as age, education, gender, and the type of banks, through pie diagrams and descriptive frequency charts.

Artificial intelligence applications, behavioral intention to use, UTAUT, perceived complexity, technological anxiety, risk, social influence, Delhi/NCR

Ms. Mehak Mittal is a PhD research scholar in the Department of Management Studies, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) Institute of Management & Research, New Delhi, India. Her research area lies in the field of Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Consumer Adoption, and Voice Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Sanjay Manocha is M.B.A., M.P.A. & PhD qualified. During his total tenure of 19+ years, he has demonstrated leadership in selling, training, managing, coordinating, researching, and teaching. Through his tenure in Pharma companies, Wockhardt (at a managerial cadre), and FDC, he learned personal selling techniques, sales management techniques, sales channel management techniques, and CRM. Through his tenure in HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company, he learnt and demonstrated expertise in sales and product training. Currently working in Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of management & Research, Delhi (a constituent unit of Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) Pune, University ranked in top 70 + band by NIRF, as an Asst. Professor. He has 20 plus research papers to his credit.

Technological advancements and globalization have initiated worldwide development over the past few decades. However, COVID-19 has paused this development process and created a need for tremendous development and fulfilment of sustainable development goals by all nations. Nowadays, artificial intelligence plays a pivotal role in the economic, social, and technological development of any nation. Voice artificial intelligence has left the server room and entered the lives of billions of consumers worldwide to alter their interactions with brands and even establish a new marketing and retail channel: voice commerce. Voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant understand the human voice and interpret it to perform the required action and response in a synthesized voice. Voice assistants are rapidly being adopted across various sectors like education, entertainment, hospitality and tourism, health, and even retail. The onset of voice commerce has upgraded consumers’ e-commerce experience. With the unique characteristics and an increase in voice touch points, we cannot deny that voice is the future. Voice assistants have shifted consumer preferences and reshaped Consumer behavior towards shopping and marketing activities. As consumers are the king of any business, it is necessary to understand consumer behavior, consumer acceptance, usage, and trust of voice artificial intelligence. Though consumers trust voice assistants for their daily routine tasks like listening to music and calling someone, their trust in these devices while engaging in transactional activities like shopping is still a question for debate. 

This study is an attempt to examine consumer acceptance and adoption of voice commerce. The data was collected from 400 respondents residing in India. Also, researchers have proposed a comprehensive model to examine the factors influencing the adoption of voice commerce. Researchers have applied structural equational modelling for data analysis. This study sheds light on how voice artificial intelligence may alter market dynamics and consumer behavior. It will be a valuable contribution in this field and provide valuable managerial insights for marketers regarding uplifting their games in this disruptive era.

perceived privacy risk, tam, trust, voice assistant, voice commerce

Dr. Michael Williams
Editor-in-Chief
Dean, School of Business and Management,
Thomas Edison State University, NJ USA

Dr. Linda Sun
Managing Editor
American scholars press
Kennesaw State University (Part-time Faculty)

Anuj Kumar 
Guest Editor
Apeejay School of Management, Dwarka, Delhi, India profanuj15@gmail.com

Geetika Parmar is a Ph.D. Research scholar at Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University, Pune, India. Her research area lies in the field of Big Data Analytics and Business Analytics.

Prof. Dr. T.J. Vidyasagar is currently working as a Professor - MBA and Associate Dean at School of Business, Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University. He has conducted many MDPs for corporates, conducted student centric research on Stress Management and Work life balance. He has more than 2 decades of experience in teaching and training post graduate management students. He has attended many National and International Conferences. He is a recognized PhD Guide and currently guiding Ph.D. students in the area of General Management and HRM. 

Big data analytical tools have been used widely in the service industry. This paper will study the impact of sustainable big data analytics tools in talent management and how these tools are helpful in the day-to-day activities of the talent management function of the organization. How companies retain good talent in the organization is the key to success. It happens with the right mix of many factors, like compensation benefits, bonuses, equal opportunity for growth, and involvement in decision-making, to name a few. Therefore, this study explores and analyzes the available literature on retaining talent in the organization and how big data analytical tools are helpful in this decision-making in the talent management domain. The instrument designed to measure this has 21 items on a 7-point Likert scale. The respondents are HR professionals working in the service-based industry. The responses were collected from 60 HR professionals in Pune city with the help of an online survey instrument (google forms). The study also considers the demographic traits and other BDA tools organizations use to maintain employee data. These BDA tools analyze the current data and can make predictions, which can help in decision-making. These technologies and tools fall under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Number 9 -- Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. 

big data analytical tools, talent management, HR analytics, HR professionals, service-based industry

Dr. Gagan J. Bhatia is currently working at Lala Lajpatrai Institute of Management, Mumbai as a Senior Core Faculty for Marketing. He is an approved faculty of Management Studies from University of Mumbai. He has a rich experience of 17 years in academics, print media & banking sectors, having held positions of importance at The Times of India Group (BCCL) & Citibank N.A. His areas of specialization are Marketing Management, Services Marketing & Strategy.

Online grocery shopping is in the country's embryonic stage. The number of clients who are inclined towards web-based shopping for groceries is minuscule in number. Of late, there have been several organizations that have forayed into the online grocery business. Some online grocery companies also needed help to sustain their business. Many of them cleared out from the industry. The reasons were many, from requiring the option to sort out conveyance models to the unendurable expenses related to the interaction. This research paper deals with convenience as a factor and tries to judge its impact on online grocery shopping. Research methodology discusses the methodology adopted for constructing measures and collecting and analyzing the data. The research design used in this study is exploratory. The sampling method used to select the sample is done by convenience sampling. The Chi-Square test has been used for Inferential analysis to conclude.

online grocery shopping, e-grocery, online shopping, convenience, sustainability

Ms. Mehak Mittal is a PhD research scholar in the Department of Management Studies, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) Institute of Management & Research, New Delhi, India. Her research area lies in the field of Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Consumer Adoption, and Voice Artificial Intelligence. 

Dr. Sanjay Manocha is M.B.A., M.P.A. & PhD qualified. During his total tenure of 19+ years, he has demonstrated leadership in selling, training, managing, coordinating, researching, and teaching. Through his tenure in Pharma companies, Wockhardt (at a managerial cadre), and FDC, he learned personal selling techniques, sales management techniques, sales channel management techniques, and CRM. Through his tenure in HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company, he learnt and demonstrated expertise in sales and product training. Currently working in Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of management & Research, Delhi (a constituent unit of Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) Pune, University ranked in top 70 + band by NIRF, as an Asst. Professor. He has 20 plus research papers to his credit.

Technological advancements, the rise in internet and smartphone usage, globalization, and digitalization (Mittal & Manocha, 2022) have encouraged humankind to undergo a rapid paradigm shift leading to altering consumer preferences and the ways consumers interact with brands. Voice assistants have left the server rooms and entered how lives of billions of consumers. Voice assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google assistant, are embedded into smartphones, televisions, and cars or built-in as stand-alone speakers. Young consumers are relatively tech-savvy and find it very interesting to interact with new technologies. With a voice as the most comfortable medium for communication, understanding how voice-based artificial intelligence is reshaping consumer behavior is inevitable. The study explores the awareness levels and usage patterns of Indian consumers to understand consumer adoption of voice assistants in a promising economy like India’s. Data was collected from 250 respondents from Delhi NCR to examine their awareness level and the key factors influencing the adoption of voice assistants. The data collected was interpreted and analyzed using SPSS software.  The study is based on a limited geographical region. Thus, future studies can be carried out in other metropolitan regions or a comparative study between rural and urban areas. Also, longitudinal studies can help understand the change in consumer behavior over a while. The comprehensive and extant literature review underlined the limited presence of studies in this field, especially for Indian consumers. This study would contribute to the previous literature while providing direction for future research in this domain. Also, with voice undoubtedly the future, this study would provide valuable insights for marketers and product developers to cater to the needs of consumers and even earn a competitive advantage.

consumer awareness, consumer behavior, consumer adoption, voice assistants, voice-based artificial intelligence

Dr. T. Shirmila holds a Ph.D. in Commerce from the University of Madras, an M. Phil, and master’s in business administration from the University of Madras. She is working as Associate Professor Undergraduate (B. Com) and Masters (M. Com) degrees in Commerce from Madras Christian College, serving Alma Mater as faculty in the Department of Commerce for the past 22 years, teaching undergraduate and master’s students along with guiding research scholars for Doctoral program. She was selected as the United Board fellow for the year 2017-18 and underwent Advanced Leadership and professional development training at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. in July 2017.  She presented a paper on the theme of Sustainable Green consumption among women at the International Conference on Banking, Marketing and Economy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia organized by IERDC.

Mr. M. Muthu Aravinthan is an Assistant Professor at New Prince Shri Bhavani Arts & Science College. He completed his Master of Commerce (M. Com) at Madras Christian College and (B.Com) at Prince Shri Venkateshwara Arts & Science College. He has experience in ‘Brightech Institute’ for more than a year. His area of research interest is ‘Marketing’. Marketing is not just billboards and advertisements, it’s a strategy companies use to communicate their products or services to their target market. There are many different marketing strategies you can use to communicate those messages. The research contribution of Muthu Aravinthan covers potential areas like Digital Marketing, Green Marketing, etc.

At a time when economic activity is slowing down, COVID-19 has improved e-commerce and accelerated digital transformation. Lockdowns became more common as more businesses and customers “went digital,” offering and purchasing more products and services online. So, from 14% in 2019 to over 17% in 2020, e-proportion commerce’s share of the world’s retail trade expanded. At a press conference to introduce the report, Volkan Bozkir, president of the UN General Assembly, predicted that the trend toward e-commerce would probably persist throughout the COVID-19 recovery. As a result, we must recognize the challenges and assist governments and people as they continue to adopt new modes of operation in the prospects of digital marketing with particular reference to the digital word of mouth (D-WOM) and online advertising.

COVID-19, e-commerce, UNCTAD, digital transformation, digital economy and digital revolution

Neha Prakash is a Research Scholar (Ph.D.) in the Department of Financial Administration, School of Management, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab. She is UGC (NET-JRF) qualified. Her interest area includes Green Marketing, Consumer Brand Relationship, Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Media Marketing. She has presented papers in various national and international conferences. She has attended number of workshops, seminars and FDPs. She has published numerous research articles. She is well-versed in basic and advanced data analysis methods, as well as software tools such as MS Excel, IBM SPSS, IBM AMOS, and Smart-PLS.

Dr. Anand Thakur is presently working as an Associate professor, Head & Dean, School of Management, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab. He has over nineteen years of teaching and research experience. His area of research is Consumer Brand Relationship, Rural Development & Marketing, Corporate Social Responsibility, Green Brand Equity and Financial Services. He has more than thirty research publications in Scopus Indexed & other reputed international & national journals of United States, Croatia, Philippines, and India. He has participated in more than twenty-five National and International Conferences. He has supervised three PhD Thesis & thirteen M.Phil. Dissertations (Full time) successfully.

Over the past few decades, green products have been recognized as a critical source for achieving environmental sustainability. Various factors, including attitude, norms, beliefs, values, and motivations, affect the consumers’ behavior. However, the literature is scarce on the relationship between values and branding. The present study proposes an integrated conceptual model to better explain green consumer behavior by exploring consumer values (personal and consumption), green brand equity (trust, satisfaction, image, and loyalty) and green purchase intention. The study adds to the knowledge of green consumption and branding.

consumer values, green brand equity, green purchase intention, sustainability

Ms. Nidhi Sareen is working as Senior Research Fellow in University Institute of Applied Management Sciences, Panjab University. She holds a master’s degree in commerce and has presented papers at national and international conferences. She has organized and attended the Faculty Development programs in the field of Research Methodology. Her research areas lie in the field of Infrastructural Management, Finance and Economics.

Dr. Monika Aggarwal, M.Com, MBA, Ph.D., is working as Associate Professor at University Institute of Applied Management Sciences, Panjab University. Recipient of Dr. S Radhakrishnan Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, by UGC, she has authored 35 research papers. She has also presented papers in 25 conferences at national and international level including University of London, UK and IIHM, Bangkok. Her Ph.D. was accepted by ICSSR, New Delhi for publication grant. She successfully completed a project sponsored by UGC, NABARD and AICTE. She is Co-investigator in ICSSR program and TIGR2ESS, University of Cambridge and Global Challenges Research Fund Project. Her research interest lies in the field of Finance and Entrepreneurship. 

The development of transport infrastructure facilities assists economic growth by improving productivity and creating fair, competitive space. Looking at the national and strategic importance of the transportation network and in pursuance to take forward the existing literature on transport growth, the present study investigates the relationship of transportation infrastructure with sustainable economic development in the nine Northern Indian states. As per the availability, the data has been collected for the period of 17 years ranging from the year 2003-2019. The extensive review testifies to the novelty of the present research work, as previous studies have not analyzed the influence of transport infrastructure networks on the economic growth in the states, namely, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Here transport infrastructure has been defined as road and railway infrastructure, and gross state domestic product is considered a proxy for growth. Using the GLS panel fixed effect model, the study concludes that the transportation infrastructure significantly and positively impacts the gross state domestic product. 

transport infrastructure, road and railway infrastructure, economic growth, panel data analysis, fixed effect model

Mehak Kapoor is a research fellow at the Department of School of Management Studies in Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India. She has cleared the UGC-NET exam along with Junior Research Fellowship in 2017. She is also Pursuing her PhD from Punjabi University in Management. She has completed her master’s degree in commerce as well as bachelor’s degree in commerce from Punjab University, Chandigarh, India. Her areas of interest are Agribusiness management, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for development and Agribusiness Marketing.  She has written several research papers in ICT for development of agriculture and information seeking behavior of the farming community etc. and has also participated in various national and international conferences   as well as various workshops on research methodologies.

Dr. Harpreet Singh is an Assistant professor at the Department of School of Management Studies in Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India. He holds a PhD. Degree in Management. His areas of interest are Agribusiness management, Rural Marketing, Rural development, and Agriculture Marketing. He has published various research papers in Rural Marketing, Rural development and Agriculture Marketing and has also participated in various national and international conferences and has also organized various workshops on research methodologies in the department itself.

The study identified the information needs and sources used by the farmers of Malwa region of Punjab and analyzed how those sources are used based on the size of their landholdings. The study also identified the challenges encountered when trying to get the necessary information. By adopting a multistage stratified disproportionate sampling technique and a standardized questionnaire, data was collected from 607 farmers. Various statistical techniques utilized were Descriptive statistics, One-way Annova and Factor analysis (EFA). Information on pesticide application and market and price were the main information required by the farmers and farmers mostly rely on other farmers, input dealers as well as mass media sources like television and radio to obtain information. Additionally, the study discovered a significant difference between the utilization of various information sources on the basis of land size. Four factors were identified using factor analysis and categorized as Source, Individual, Information Provider related, and Other Challenges, and no statistically significant difference was found between these difficulties and the farmers land size.

information sources/channels, challenges in accessing information, information dissemination, developing countries, information needs/requirements, landholding size-based source usage

Ms. Shipra Paliwal is a research scholar at IIS DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY Jaipur, India, in the Department of Commerce. She has completed her postgraduation and graduation from University of Rajasthan. She has qualified UGC NET-JRF, and her research interests are sustainable economic development, sustainable tourism, banking, and finance.

Dr. Meenakshi Sharma is an associate professor at IIS DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY Jaipur, India, in the Department of Financial Studies. Her research interests are banking, economics, and finance.

Rajasthan is one of India's most well-liked travel locations because of its magnificent forts, palaces, artwork, traditions, and cultural history. Many foreigners visit Rajasthan while visiting India due to its famous art, culture, and craftsmanship. Handicrafts are valuable souvenirs that form a vital part of the tourism experience; they symbolize local traditions and communities. Many countries benefit from the handicrafts business, providing the local population with earnings and employment prospects. Tourists from all over the world admire Rajasthan's handicrafts because of their simplicity and elegance. These handicraft items generated foreign revenue and earned the state and country a wide acclamation. This paper aims to assess the relationship between the socio-demographic characteristics of local handicraft workers and their perception of sustainable tourism and the role of government. An exploratory study was conducted across the four districts of Rajasthan - Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, and Udaipur to gain insight into the handicraft business through surveys with individuals involved in it. For this study, a structured questionnaire has been used, which consists of statements related to the role of tourism and government.

handicraft tourism, tourism, sustainable tourism, Rajasthan tourism, local community development

Anamika Singh is a Research Scholar in Department of Commerce & Business Management, Integral University, Lucknow. She is a full-time research scholar, and her area of research is human resource management. Her thesis title is ‘Study on Training and Development Policies and Practices in Public Sector undertaking in Lucknow City’. Apart from her research, she has presented papers in various National and International conferences/seminars and also contributed to the publication of papers and chapters. She can be reached at email: angel.anamika90@gmail.com

Dr. Farhina Sardar Khan is an Assistant Professor in Department of Commerce and Business Management, Integral University, Lucknow. She is an Alumnus of University of Allahabad and UGC NET qualified. Her expertise is in Finance and Accounting and Auditing area. She has over 12 years of teaching experience and over thirty-five paper publications including projects, patents, books and edited chapters. She is supervising four research scholars at present & four Ph.D. degrees have been awarded under her guidance. Reviewer to Peer-Reviewed and Scopus indexed journals. She has numerous international/national conferences certificates and attended workshops, FDPs, STCs, in her area. She can be reached at farhina.skhan05@gmail.com

In India, the concepts of training and development have a significant weight in the country’s organizations’ public and commercial sectors. It is essential for both the growth and development of the organization, which helps to prevent managerial obsolescence, as well as the development of its employees (which helps improve knowledge, skills, and performance). These training and development policies assist management with assessing employees’ work performance and making choices on the welfare of individual employees about promotion, awards, compensations, and other welfare facilities, among other things. It also helps managers in areas such as inspiring colleagues, keeping workers, planning, organizing, and supervising the implementation and executing of plans. This article is a review study that looks at the practices used for training and development in the public sector in India. The study went through the many phases, techniques, and advantages of training, including those for individuals, organizations, and society. It also developed a model for improving the effectiveness of employee training. In preparation for the presentation of this research work, we combed through a total of 68 research articles. These articles covered training and development practices, design and implementation, evaluation, and transfer of training, all of which are intended to maximize the advantages of training and development.

training & development, employees’ performance, sustainable training design, training implementation

Darshana Devi is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Department of Commerce at Gauhati Commerce College, Guwahati, Assam, India. She is also pursuing her PhD in Royal School of Commerce at The Assam Royal Global University, Guwahati, Assam, India. She holds a master’s degree in commerce and has qualified North-East State Level Eligibility Test in commerce subject. Her research area of interest includes entrepreneurship, marketing, management and other broad finance related areas. 

Dr. Aruna Dev Rroy is a PhD in Management working as an Associate Professor in The Assam Royal Global University, Assam. In her decade long academic career she has written books on Marketing Management, numerous book chapters, multiple research papers, newspaper articles, and magazine write ups, national and international patents in her credit. She has also participated in FDPs and various national and international conferences. Her area of research includes green marketing, skill management, general marketing and advertisement and its related disciplines. Her books are widely appreciated and accepted by readers.

Human resource management is a very imperative feature in the education practice. Human resources in an educational institution submit to every individual or group functioning in that institute, counting educators, learners, administrators, and all supplementary members of the workforce running in that institute. Online teaching and learning came into the style. Artificial intelligence (AI) is altering every market sector, and the education sector is no exception. AI has been converted into a fundamental component of educational institutions and has a force on teachers and students. The educational sector has embraced the recent techniques of training and learning. Hence, artificial intelligence (AI) gives opportunities for education to turn effortlessly accessible both inside and outside the classroom. In the demand of the present times, AI has a vast potential in the education sector in the market and is a progressive change. This paper attempts to get an insight on the role of AI in sustainable instruction of higher education institutions from the teacher’s perception.

artificial intelligence, higher education institution, human resource management, sustainability

Dr. Tahera Hoque Mozumdar is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, The Assam Royal Global University. She formerly worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati. She was a guest lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Gauhati University. Dr. Tahera has 6 years of research experience and is credited with publications in various national and international journals and book chapter. Her areas of research interest include Counselling Psychology, Social Psychology and Developmental Psychology.

Dr. Mahuya Deb is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology of The Assam Royal Global University. She is an academician with a research experience of five years and gaining momentum in the field of teaching. Her areas of research interest include Clinical psychology, counselling psychology, child psychology, positive psychology, organizational Behaviour, and behavioural management.

Dr. Aruna Dev Rroy is a Ph.D in Management working as an Associate Professor in The Assam Royal Global University, Assam. In her decade long academic career she has written books on Marketing Management, numerous book chapters, multiple research papers, newspaper articles, and magazine write ups, national and international patents in her credit. She has also participated in FDPs and various national and international conferences. Her area of research includes green marketing, skill management, general marketing and advertisement and its related disciplines. Her booksare widely appreciated and accepted by readers.

Rituparna Baruah (M.Com, NET) is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Royal School of Commerce in Assam Royal Global University. She is also pursuing her Ph.D from the Department of Business Administration, Gauhati University. She has contributed to various referred journals and chapter publications. Her research interest vests in diverse fields of management including Customer Relationship Management, Human Resource Management.

Dr. Rajat Bhattacharjee is presently working as Assistant Professor in the Assam Royal Global University for more than a decade now. He has a distinguished profile in academics and is credited with various journal publications (SCOPUS, UGC Care), chapter publications in different books and conference proceedings. Besides serving as a life member of North-East India Commerce and Management Association and Orissa Commerce Association, serving as an expert reviewer of a UGC Care Listed journal. Apart from teaching and research, Dr. Bhattacharjee is also involved in various educational, innovative and entrepreneurial initiatives serving in the capacity of innovation ambassador of Ministry of Education, Innovation Cell, Govt. of India as well as Mentor of Change under Atal Innovation Mission of NITI Aayog.

The present study investigated the subjective happiness of tea garden workers of Dibrugarh district, Assam, concerning gender (male and female) and income group (middle and lower-income groups). The sample comprised 100 (50 male, 50 female) tea garden workers aged 21 to 60 years. A survey research design was implemented in this study, while the purposive sampling technique was used for selecting participants. A socio-demographic sheet and subjective happiness scale was used to collect data. Mean, standard deviation, percentage (%), and t-test were computed for statistical analysis of the responses. The findings reveal that the subjective happiness of male and female tea garden workers is significantly different at the 0.01 level. Male workers perceive more pleasure than their female counterparts; further, it was found that lower- and middle-income group workers perceive an equal level of satisfaction in their lives; no significant difference was found between them.

gender, middle-income group, subjective happiness, social sustainability, tea garden workers

Dr. Asif Ali Syed, an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration, FMSR, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh is a full-time faculty for the last 23 years, and teaches Digital-Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Retail Marketing, and Entrepreneurship Development. An author of five books and 90 odd publications in reputed national and International journals his interest lies in techno management research consultancy and full-time research guidance with 30 plus research projects and doctoral research in Infrastructure and Alternate green Energy ventures, Public sector undertaking projects, Small and Medium Enterprises, Bio Entrepreneurship, CRM design in service and manufacturing industry, Retail, Digital and Social Media marketing as also social community group projects too. 
 
Hera Zaidi is currently a Research Scholar at Aligarh Muslim University's Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Studies and Research. She is a full-time Research Scholar. Her primary areas of research interest are in the fields of marketing, consumer behavior, Branding, social media, advertising, and brand management. She is currently exploring the role that programmatic advertising plays, as well as its impact on the online shopping habits of consumers and the privacy concerns associated with online shopping.

In an age where the internet is ubiquitous through platforms like Twitter and blogs, “social media influencers” have become a potent new type of third-party ad agency, swaying consumers’ opinions and decisions to buy a product or service. The concept of a “social media influencer” was first explored in the realm of advertising, specifically to generate excitement about products in markets that target a young audience and increase their social media footprint. Instead of advertising to a broad audience, influencer marketing concentrates on persuading influential people to spread a brand’s message to the desired demographic. Advertisers employ influencers as a means of spreading their messages to consumers. The literature review formed the basis for the conclusion that businesses are moving away from using famous people to promote their products in favor of bloggers and Instagram stars. The efficiency of using social media influencers in brand purchase intention is not well-researched in the Indian context; a latent gap exists to be explored. Influencers are a recent development in the field of social media. Even though western countries have set precedence on different aspects of social media influencers, such as measuring the effectiveness of SMIs on other platforms or celebrity vs. influencer endorsements in advertising and how SMIs are the new celebrity endorsers both from the theoretical and empirical orientations. Moreover, the proposed conceptual paper towards setting a research proposition on using SMI for brand promotion in the Indian context is broken down into two objectives; first , to examine the relationship between consumers’ utilitarian personalities about their attitudes towards SMIs and, second , to study the role of social media influencers in building consumer attitudes towards brand purchases.

social media influencers, brand purchase intention, bloggers, utilitarian, instafamous

Anamika Singh is a Research Scholar in Department of Commerce & Business Management, Integral University, Lucknow. She is a full-time research scholar and her area of research is human resource management. Her thesis title is ‘Study on Training and Development Policies and Practices in Public Sector undertaking in Lucknow City’. Apart from her research, she has presented papers in various National and International conferences/seminars and also contributed in the publication of papers and chapters. She can be reached at angel.anamika90@gmail.com

Dr. Farhina Sardar Khan is an Assistant Professor in Department of Commerce and Business Management, Integral University, Lucknow. She is an Alumnus of University of Allahabad and UGC NET qualified. Her expertise is in Finance and Accounting and Auditing area. She has over 12 years of teaching experience and over thirty five paper publications including project, patents, books and edited chapters. She is supervising four research scholars at present & four Ph.D. degrees have been awarded under her guidance. Reviewer to Peer-Reviewed and Scopus indexed journals. She has numerous international/national conferences certificates and attended workshops, FDPs, STCs, in her area. She can be reached at farhina.skhan05@gmail.com

All countries require a robust and effective financial system to achieve sustainable development. Finance is considered the most fundamental aspect of the growth and advancement of any economy. Moreover, financial inclusion promotes inclusive and equitable growth because it attempts to give every household in the nation easy access to necessary financial services like deposit, credit and insurance facilities at a reasonable cost. Our government has always been proactive; hence, after understanding the significance of financial inclusion, the regulatory bodies have taken numerous landmark initiatives for decades. However, despite the efforts, the results were not overwhelming. So, in continuation of the initiatives taken  from 2014 onwards, a diverse range of financial inclusion schemes have been launched, which offered saving bank account facilities, social security schemes, credit facilities etc., after which exponential growth had been witnessed.

As the public sector banks are the key intermediary in achieving financial inclusion, the current study closely analyzes the perspective of beneficiaries of financial inclusion schemes on their role in its promotion. The study also determines the factors that lead to its successful implementation. Data was gathered using a structured questionnaire built on a 5-point Likert scale model, and with a sample size of 400 respondents, judgement sampling was used as the sampling method. Among statistical tools, mean and multiple regression had been applied, and it has been concluded that the public sector banks have successfully implemented the financial inclusion schemes.

financial inclusion, inclusive growth, public sector banks, government of India and RBI

Mr. Pankaj Sahu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Commerce, DHSK Commerce College, Dibrugarh, Assam (INDIA). His area of specialization is Accounting and Finance, Financial Literacy & Taxation. He has more than 5 years of teaching experience in UG and PG level. In his field of research he has presented more than 15 paper is different national and international seminars and conferences. He has to his credit more than 10 papers publications in different national and international journals. His research interests are financial literacy, behavioral finance and allied areas. 

Prof. Kumud Chandra Goswami is Professor in the Department of Commerce, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam (INDIA). His area of specialization is Accounting and Finance, Capital Market, Micro Finance and other allied areas. He had served as Head, Department of Commerce, Chairperson, Centre for Management Studies and currently he is holding the post of Dean, Faculty of Commerce and management Science, Dibrugarh University. He has a teaching experience of more than 30 years at UG level PG level. He has a research experience with dozens of research publications in journals of national and international level. More than 11 scholars have got their Ph.D. degree under his guidance and more than 25 scholars have completed their M.Phil. degree and quite a good number of scholars are working for Ph.D. and M.Phil. under him. He has completed three research projects funded by UGC.

Financial literacy (FL) has long been seen as one of the foundations of sustainable growth. Out of the 17 SDGs, SDG 1, SDG 8, and SDG 9 can be achieved by promoting financial literacy (FL). Further, sustainable development can be linked with savings, investments, and financial inclusion. This highlighted the need for financial literacy (FL). Moreover, earlier studies revealed the significance of the young generation’s involvement in achieving the SDGs for any country. Therefore, adequate financial literacy (FL) of college students can help create an equitable and sustainable future for the young generation and the entire world. This paper attempts to investigate the financial literacy (FL) level of college students and the role and reach of RBI (as a regulatory body) in promoting financial literacy (FL). The study has been made using primary data collected from 400 college students across different colleges in Assam.

sustainable development, financial inclusion, financial literacy (FL), college students, target group

Prof. Dr. Renu Gupta is a faculty of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, University of Delhi in commerce department. She has done her Ph. D in finance from Department of Commerce, DSE, DU and that is the first Ph. D in VH Category in commerce from University of Delhi. She is teaching in Delhi University for more than 18 years. She has presented and published more than 25 papers at national and international level. She has also authored 8 books. One M. Phil degree is also awarded under her supervision. Hindustan Times, New Delhi published her role model success story in its education section on 12 May, 2012 in article titled ’You-can-do-it-too’ by Vimal Chander Joshi.

Ms. Hersheen Kaur is an Assistant Professor in Department of Commerce at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce. She has a teaching experience of eight years of under-graduate and post graduate courses. She has authored a book on Financial Reporting & Analysis for undergraduate students and has contributed e-content for University of Delhi. She has attended and presented research papers in various internal and national level conferences of repute. Her areas of research are Taxation and Accounting. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the field of Environmental Accounting & Reporting.

Ms. Manleen Kaur is a faculty of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, University of Delhi in commerce department. She has done her graduation and post graduation both from University of Delhi. She has received Department of Commerce M.Com. Gold Medal for securing highest marks. She has an interest in research in following areas: financial markets, behavioral finance, stock market and education. 

Financial technology, or Fintech, combines two major fields: finance and information technology. In today's era of automation, the financial markets and supply of financial services are significantly impacted by a mix of innovative business models, technology applications, and innovative products and services. The benefits of technology in the financial sector include increased operational effectiveness, cost reduction, disruption of the established industry structures, blurring of industry borders, facilitation of strategic disintermediation, creation of new entry points for entrepreneurship, and democratization of access to financial services. The paper provides a bibliometric review of FinTech in financial markets based on the 901 publications retrieved from the Scopus database between 1980 to 2022 (September). Initially, a wide range of keywords was used to search within “TITLE-ABS-KEY” with the help of Boolean operators in two parts: (1) financial technology and (2) financial markets, which resulted in 1,738 documents. Limiting the search to English as a language, journal as a source type, and article as a document type, documents were reduced to 901. The importance of technology in financial markets, especially the banking industry, is further illustrated through various tools, like Biblioshiny for graphs and tables, Microsoft Excel for frequency analysis, and the VOS viewer for data and network visualization. The empirical research of the study is divided into two parts: performance analysis and science mapping by using common bibliometric indicators like authorship, active institutions, citation analysis, geographic distribution, keywords analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, thematic analysis, and cluster analysis. The study will add to the existing literature by presenting a bird’s eye survey on the evolution of FinTech in financial markets, the challenges faced by its stakeholders and how they have been overcome. The findings suggest that COVID-19 had played an essential role in facilitating the adoption of technology in the financial sector, ensuring the sustainability of all financial transactions even when everyone preferred to be behind closed doors.

bibliometric analysis, science mapping, performance analysis, financial markets, banking industry

Dr. Jitender Kumar is currently working as an assistant professor, Institute of Management Studies and Research, Maharshi Dayanand University, Haryana, India. He has had many papers published in reputed journals. He has participated in many national and international conferences. His area of specialization is human resource management, marketing, and general management.

Simran Sikka is a PhD research scholar in the Institute of Management Studies and Research, Maharshi Dayanand University, Haryana, India. Her research area lies in the field of marketing, customer loyalty, purchasing intension and branding.

This study report aims to pinpoint the awareness of customers toward sustainable brand personality. As a crucial element of a brand’s symbolic and emotional characteristics, the concept of brand personality has recently gotten much attention. Consumers perceived human traits connected to a brand are referred to as its brand personality. Marketers and advertisers may use brand personality connections to design more successful tactics that showcase items in a way that speaks directly into the consumer’s psyche. Nowadays, research on sustainable brand personality is quite famous globally. Therefore, to maintain a competitive edge and increase sales, businesses must meet the needs of sustainable consumers. As a result, its application in influencing consumer behavior has improved. Data was gathered using the questionnaire method from primary sources. The researcher utilized easy sampling and non-probability sampling. The researcher has collected data from the respondents using a survey method. A total of 100 consumers provided information. The primary goal is to use Chi Square to demonstrate the differences in sustainable brand personality awareness among customers across age groups, genders, geographic regions, and educational levels. According to the survey, urban customers in the 20–40 year age range who make a respectable livelihood tend to be more aware of sustainable brand personalities.

sustainable, brand personality, awareness, consumer behavior