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Women are the change agents in today's society. They are not only the harbingers of growth and development but also act as a major catalyst in the economic advancement and prosperity of the nation. India has been witnessing an expansion in women entrepreneurs given the conducive startup ecosystem we have created over the years. It has inspired women to break the shackles and switch to being a game changer for themselves and many others over the years. The study aims to explore the impact of social entrepreneurial leadership on women empowerment and how does benchmarking help in this process.

Using a semi-structured questionnaire, the study conducted one-to-one in-depth and focused group interviews with the five women social entrepreneurs and their team. NVivo was used for content and thematic analysis.

Major themes identified from the study include financial independence, women empowerment, social identity, autonomy, mobility, attaining self-confidence, creativity and innovation, fulfillment of motives, action and social learning, and setting standards (benchmarks). The findings revealed that social entrepreneurial leadership has a significant impact on women empowerment through benchmarking.

Social entrepreneurial leadership has the potential to revolutionize the very concept of women empowerment. The research tries to study specific cases of social entrepreneurial leadership and how they have been instrumental in shaping up the life of others through their efforts and determination.

This study aims to analyze the impact of ethical leadership on organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intention of employees working in the financial sector, considering procedural justice as a mediator.

Data was collected from 306 employees working in the financial sector (banking, insurance and mutual fund) in India. The data was collected in two phases to avoid common method bias by using standardized close-ended questionnaires. Data for this study was assessed using Smart Partial Least Square (PLS) 3.

The results show that ethical leadership is significantly associated with procedural justice, organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intention. Further procedural justice acts as a mediator between ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior; also between ethical leadership and turnover intention.

The research contribute in understanding the role of procedural justice as a mediator between ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intention for the employees working in the financial sector in India.

This study was conducted to analyse the socio-ecological problems faced by the Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary and understand its potential and challenges for developing ecotourism following Triple Bottom Line (TBL) principles. The study also benchmarked best ecotourism practices across the globe to create an ecotourism plan that would provide alternative livelihood and help in sustainable management of the area by reducing poverty, dependency on forests and biodiversity protection.

Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary was chosen because this area has several socio-ecological crises with limited livelihood options, and there is an urgent need for alternative livelihood opportunities in the form of ecotourism. The study followed an ethnographic approach through observation, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews. Content and thematic analysis was conducted through Atlas Ti9.0 software for data analysis. Subsequently, benchmarking best ecotourism practices through a literature review was done to develop an ecotourism action plan.

The First finding was related to the study area divided into three themes: problems, potential for ecotourism development, and challenges for ecotourism development. The second finding was related to benchmarking best practices and suggesting an action plan.

This work studied an area not sufficiently acknowledged by academicians and policymakers concerning ecotourism development. The work also benchmarks the best practices for ecotourism and proposes a sight-specific ecotourism action plan in accordance with TBL.

One of the major challenges for developing countries is the lack of mechanisms for the evaluation of critical success factors (CSFs) of quality initiatives, which hampers the journey toward sustainability. Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has been one of the most widely used initiatives supporting quality improvement with wastes reduction and facilitating sustainability. To expedite LSS and its spread, it is important to evaluate key CSFs. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to provide an approach for the evaluation of LSS-CSFs for Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The paper uses a graph theoretic approach and demonstrates the evaluation of LSS-CSFs by proposing an index. The development of index is illustrated using a set of seven prioritized CSFs based on the literature review paper (Lande et al., 2016).

This study guides about the translation of CSFs in the form of an index (number) and will benefit both researchers and practitioners, who wish to study the role of key CSFs for implementation and audit requirements for sustainability.

Authors remain confined only to Indian SMEs.

LSS possesses the potential to enhance the performance of manufacturing SMEs, but its evaluation is not easy. This attempt for offering a useful evaluation scheme involving CSFs, in the areas of LSS in developing country contexts, is the first. The approach also facilitates both quality audits and benchmarking between different sets of CSFs. The approach is generalizable and can be extended in other areas.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and list critical success factors (CSFs) of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) framework affecting and influencing quality, operational and financial performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It also intends to guide researchers and practitioners in selecting appropriate set of CSFs for empirical studies, developing frameworks and to ensure effective implementation experience of LSS.

It systematically reviews literature on CSFs and Indian experience regarding LSS. It uses exploratory approach for data collection and documents various studies depicting both manufacturing and service experiences by using time tested statistical tools to prioritize CSFs, which critically influence LSS implementation.

The study guides and facilitates researchers and practitioners in using the most appropriate set of CSFs for empirical studies and in developing/modifying/reviewing application frameworks. It also guides implementation experience regarding LSS, which can be beneficiary for both developing and developed country contexts. Industries can accelerate implementation by understanding and using most important CSFs, which influence LSS framework.

The study mainly remains confined to the CSFs for LSS implementation in SMEs from Indian subcontinent.

The value lies in documenting, and prioritizing CSFs influencing LSS in a meaningful manner so that researchers/companies take advantage of Indian experience in prioritizing CSFs for framework. The study drastically reduces implementation hassles and simplifies execution for empirical studies. The findings are not restricted to India but are generalizable and can globally utilized in deciding determinants of LSS framework.

The study aims to develop an in-depth understanding of challenges faced by Indian women professionals during the pandemic and the human resource (HR) initiatives like effective communication, taken by the organizations to mitigate the plight of these professionals.

A mix of two qualitative research methods namely focus groups in-depth and one-to-one in-depth interviews was used. A total of 32 females working with different organizations participated.

The thematic analysis revealed themes related to challenges faced by working women-gendered burnout, mental health issues, increased household responsibilities, job insecurity, work-life conflict, gender inequalities, reduced internal communication and financial independence, domestic violence and exploitation. The major themes that emerged for the organizational initiatives were flexible working hours, equal women representation in response to planning and decision making, driving transformative change for gender equality, paid leaves for family care, caregiving bonus, leadership development seeds, increased female recruitments, transparent communication and counseling sessions.

The study establishes a holistic understanding of the plight of Indian women professionals and the consequent organizational interventions accompanied by transparent communication. It adds rigor to the evolving literature on COVID-19 and enriches the theoretical narrative of policy adaptations by industry practitioners for aligning them with employee needs. This helps in routing the policy design and implementation in light of the challenges faced.

The study presents an in-depth understanding of challenges faced by women employees; and provides a foundation for identifying human resource management (HRM) interventions customized for working females. It also proposes a framework implementable in the recovery phase, deploying critical strategic shifts like reflection, recommitment and re-engagement of the women workforce in order to maximize their efficacy for rapidly evolving organizational priorities.

Critical success factors (CSF) for lean six sigma (LSS) using quality 4.0 are not researched so far. This study aims to bridge this gap. It also validates CSF already identified for LSS under conventional technologies.

Empirical research using the questionnaire method is conducted. Construct of the questionnaire is checked using Cronbach’s alpha and responses received are analysed using t-test and exploratory factor analysis.

In total, 20 factors are evaluated for LSS success. It includes 7 factors related to quality 4.0 technologies and 13 related to the conventional set-up. All 7 quality 4.0 related factors were found critical; whereas, under traditional set-up, 11 factors out of 13 were found critical.

The study will help enterprises in the fast and effective adoption of quality 4.0 and seamless integration with LSS. The post-Covid-19 business scenario is expected to be information technology focussed. The findings of this study will be useful in these circumstances. Consultants and practitioners can prioritise their efforts based on newly identified CSF. The new revelation about CSF for LSS in quality 4.0 enriches theory as well.

Developing skills based on newly identified CSF will help people in remaining employable in the era of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence which is otherwise ill-famed for destroying jobs.

CSF for LSS using quality 4.0 is a new contribution. It differentiates CSF established earlier for conventional technologies. Moreover, many CSF are common for LSS and industry 4.0, therefore this study will also help in smoother adoption of industry 4.0/quality 4.0 in organisations.