It is our pleasure to bring you the final issue of the year 2020, with its mix of articles and features. The year 2020 will be remembered for the major disruption that all of us have experienced due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We do hope that you and your dear ones came through safely. The pandemic did have an impact on the operations of IMR as various processes in the chain of publishing got delayed due to associated lockdowns and other changes that were initiated to address the safety and health concerns. We are working on addressing the issues and hope to get back to the normal publishing schedule soon.
This issue carries a set of seven articles across different disciplines besides the Round Table feature. A brief note on the articles is given below.
In “Development of a ’Karma- Yoga’ instrument, the core of the Hindu work ethic”, Ashish Rastogi, Surya Prakash Pati, Pankaj Kumar, and Jitendra Kumar Dixit elaborate on the dimensions of Karma-Yoga, the core of the Hindu work ethic, and develop and validate a scale to measure it.
Aparna Rai and Upasana A. Agarwal, in “Examining fit perceptions and workplace bullying relationship: The moderating role of power distance orientation”, examine the effects of two types of fit— person–job fit (PJ fit) and person–supervisor fit (PS fit) on workplace bullying, and the role of power distance orientation (PDO) in fit perceptions and workplace bullying relationships.
Neharika Sobti examines the determinants of a successful futures contract, with a focus on agricultural commodity futures contracts traded in India, as also the question of what makes a commodity suitable for futures trading in “Determinants of a successful commodity contract: Evidence from the Indian agriculture futures market”.
Jet fuel prices are an important contributor to the operating costs of airlines globally, and price fluctuations are a major cause for concern. In “Cross-hedging aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price exposures with commodity futures: Evidence from the Indian aviation industry”, Sujata Kar and Pulkit Khandelwal examine the prospect of cross-hedges between ATF and three energy products whose futures are traded in India, namely, crude oil, Brent crude oil, and natural gas.
An important proposition underlying prospect theory is the notion that when decision-makers must choose between options with gains and losses, their preference for a positive outcome often mirrors their preference for a negative result. This is known as the reflection effect. In “Risk tolerance and household financial behaviour: A test of the reflection effect”, John E. Grable, So-Hyun Joo and Michelle Kruger test the extent to which the reflection effect is associated with household finance outcomes.
In “The tree of science of deliberate and emergent strategies” Juan Esteban Hernández-Betancur, Iván Montoya-Restrepo, and Luz Alexandra Montoya-Restrepo, build a knowledge network for the concept of deliberate and emergent strategies, using the online application, Tree of Science (ToS), developed at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Manizales.
With the growth of the aviation sector and its increasing contribution to the nation’s economy, concerns about its share in carbon emissions have also come to the fore. In “The future of Indian aviation from the perspective of environment-centric regulations and policies”, Himanshu Rathore, Shirsendu Nandi and Suresh Kumar Jakhar analyse the effect of a prospective carbon tax on the Indian aviation industry from the perspective of aviation network strategies, namely, the point-to-point (P2P) strategy followed by the low-cost carriers (LCCs) and the hubbed network strategy followed by the full-service airlines (FSAs).
Recent advances in digital technologies such as robotics process automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and internet of things have led to significant changes in the way work is done in organisations. The advances have enabled digitisation of physical assets, seamless communication, virtual collaboration, and automation of tasks previously not possible, including very complex tasks. The Round Table article by Ankur Jain and Sushant Ranjan explores this issue in “Implications of emerging technologies on the future of work”. The panel discussion with senior industry leaders explores what opportunities get created, how jobs get transformed, what competencies become essential, and what challenges are posed by emerging technologies, including their psychological and socio-economic impact.
On behalf of the IMR team, I wish you happiness and health in 2021!
Ashok Thampy
Editor-in-Chief
IIMB Management Review
E-mail address: eic@iimb.ac.in
