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Despite enormous literature on Human Resource Management (HRM) practices in the context of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As), researchers have not come up with a synthesis that integrates the role and importance of HRM practices during M&As. This study aims to identify, analyse and synthesise existing literature to discover associated HRM practices that facilitate organisational change during M&As.

Bibliometric analysis is performed using 473 research articles entailing 871 authors from 62 countries (published in Scopus and WoS listed journals), followed by a thematic cluster analysis using bibliographic coupling. The analysis is performed using different means as citation analysis, cluster analysis and keyword analysis to reveal the most significant publications, authors, keywords, trends and future research questions.

The results are primarily descriptive and aim at capturing a panoramic view of what was already written on the topic so far. The bibliometric analysis is conducted using different means like citation analysis, cluster analysis and keyword analysis to reveal the most significant publications, notable authors, keywords, current research trends and future research questions. Further, the bibliographic coupling analysis led to the identification of the following six clusters: (1) coping strategies during and post-M&As; (2) changes in individual and organisational identification during and post-M&As; (3) role of cultural and transformational leadership in M&As success; (4) HRM practices to develop employee capabilities post-M&As; (5) case studies and success stories of M&As; and (6) organisational readiness for M&As.

This study has theoretical and practical implications and suggests future research directions. The authors also propose an abstruse model for HRM practices during M&A process for further investigation.

This is the first bibliometric study to explore the vast extant literature in M&A research related to the role of HRM practices in the execution of successful M&As.

Women experience insurmountable work life balance challenges, which are the reasons a large percentage of women leak out of the workforce pipeline. Flexible work systems empower women to contribute in meaningful ways to their personal and professional lives. Job sharing is one such strategy of flexible work system, which is proposed as an empowering management practice. This paper aims to create a model of empowerment for housewives. Non-working housewives are the most neglected lot of society in terms of getting their dues.

For the purpose of this study, qualitative study was conducted and data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Focus group discussions with 266 housewives were conducted to find out their reasons of not joining the full-time workforce, and their willingness to contribute, if they have any. In-depth interviews of nine HR managers were also conducted to assess the openness of the corporate side toward job sharing as a work design. The paper has significance for the corporate as well as for the social and government agencies.

Qualitative data collected from 266 housewives presented three core themes – the bottlenecks to employment, the available opportunities of employment and growth and their preferred status of employment. The qualitative data further revealed that though they can easily do with some more money at their disposal, they cannot join in the full-time workforce as they have family responsibilities. They were willing to put in half a day’s work. Thus, the investigators recommended job sharing for them, which would engage this talented human resource and give them back their due for selflessly giving in their most productive years to their families. The interviews of nine HR managers from three multinational companies revealed the skillsets of these housewives as the major concern for putting them back on work.

The paper has significance for the corporate, women as the contingent workforce and social and government agencies.

This empirical investigation studies the correlates and predictors of employees’ psychological outcomes during mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the context of India. This study examined the role of different types of training initiatives (awareness training, human capital development training, and cross-cultural training) on building employees feeling of psychological empowerment and thriving. Further, second-order attitudes were studied in the form of employee satisfaction and commitment. A cross-sectional research design was adopted where quantitative and qualitative data were collected to investigate the interplay between the variables. Data were collected on an adapted standardized questionnaire from the employees of a public sector organization (N = 117) which had merged with a software company to deliver its IT services. Descriptive analysis, multiple correlational analysis, and stepwise regression analysis have assisted in exploring the different relationships amongst the variables. This study produces a prescriptive framework for merger success based on the model of growth and thriving (Spreitzer & Porath, 2012). Broadly, the results point towards the facilitative role of training in developing feelings of psychological empowerment, thriving, commitment and satisfaction with the merger, however qualitative data identified significant cultural undercurrents.

The learning outcomes of this case study are to understand the business-to-business (B2B) consumer outlook on mental health care in emerging markets; analyse the challenges faced in creating a need for mental health care in Indian workplaces; explore the business attractiveness of the B2B model and understand the business potential of the B2B segment at heyy,; and contemplate different innovative strategies that could change consumer mindset on mental health care in emerging markets.

Ankit, the founder and CEO of heyy, was facing a conundrum. “heyy,” was built on normalizing mental well-being at workplaces. His mental health-care app heyy, had crossed 50,000 subscribers within a few months of launch. The mobile app was designed to spread mental health awareness and provide various levels of mental well-being interventions. Business-to-consumer and B2B customer segmentation had been targeted by this start-up. The B2B space consisted of employees working with partner organizations. The adoption rates of employees using the features of heyy, declined after the initial app download. The employees had yet to fully become acclimatized to the features of heyy,. Exploring the business potential and investigating the business attractiveness of the B2B segment were the focus of the present study. Ankit contemplated various strategies he could adopt to increase user adoption of “heyy,” services by employees in his partner organizations. The case study strives to address the question – “What are the risks faced by organizations when entering the mental health-care industry in emerging markets like India, where mental health care is still not openly discussed?”

This case study is designed to be taught as part of the “entrepreneurship development” and “strategic management” courses for undergraduates, postgraduates and students of executive programmes in management. Students need to be aware of basic strategic management concepts such as BCG matrix, SWOT analysis and business canvas before working on this case study, so they could dissect the case from multiple perspectives to get a comprehensive outlook on the case.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The study examines how young working women are motivated by online shopping. The study tests the relationship between Internet self-efficacy (ISE), website aesthetics, and purchase intention through perceived benefit. An investigation of the impact of perceived risk on purchase intention is also carried out.

The paper carried out a quantitative study based on a purposive sample of 180 working women from the Delhi-NCR region of India and used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to test hypotheses based on the extended TAM model.

Perceived benefit, website aesthetics, and ISE positively and significantly impact working women's purchase intention. The study also finds an indirect relationship between ISE and purchase intention through perceived benefit. Perceived risk has a negative and insignificant influence on working women's purchase intention for online shopping.

The study finding reflects that perceived website aesthetics fill the gap between offline and online environments. ISE makes shopping easy and increases the shopper's confidence. A mobile-optimized website with ease of navigation would increase women shoppers' conversion rates on mobile devices, leading to a favourable impact on revenue generation for online retailers.

Despite the vast literature on constructs derived from the TAM model, very few studies have researched young women consumers from an emerging economy perspective. The novelty of this research lies in identifying the factors that influence young working women's online shopping intention using smartphone through the glance of ISE and perceived aesthetics in the Indian context.

This paper aims to identify and model barriers to internationalising automotive small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from emerging market perspectives using the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach.

In this paper, 13 critical barriers are identified through an exhaustive literature review and the Delphi method. The ISM tool is then used to establish interrelationships among the identified barriers to expose and discuss the key barriers having high-driving power.

It was found that barriers such as trade agreements and export documentation, exchange rates and material inadequacies were relatively less challenging than the other barriers. At the next level, there are barriers such as supply chain, high international quality standards, legal barriers, skilled labour marketing capacity and information and logistics and infrastructure. Finally, barriers such as government policies, entrepreneurial orientation and technology and finance availability posed the most significant challenge for the internationalisation of Indian SMEs. These barriers warrants immediate and considerable attention.

This study developed a model based on experts’ opinions, which may be biased and influence the final model as proposed in this study. This research will help the owners/managers of the SMEs and policymakers identify and understand the significance and relevance of automotive sector barriers while strategizing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time an attempt has been made to apply ISM methodology to explore the interdependencies among the critical barriers of internationalisation for SMEs of Indian automotive industries. This study will guide the owner–managers management practices to overcome ineffective practices and move towards successful internationalisation.