Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial performance and internal governance structure of Information Technology (IT) sector in India. Various aspects of the board such as board independence, board size, board meeting, board attendance, aspects of leadership with role duality and family ownership are addressed in this study. Design/methodology/approach – The sample consists of 114 listed IT sector firms in India from 2006 to 2011. To account for endogeneity of the relationship between firm performance, corporate governance and capital structure of the firm, simultaneous system of equations was employed. Findings – The study, after controlling for firm-specific factors, shows that larger board size had a positive impact on firm performance. Independent directors on the board did not show any association with firm performance. The study failed to find any relationship between the number of board meetings and firm performance. However, attendance of the board members was found to be positively associated with firm performance. Family firms showed better performance compared to non-family firms. Originality/value – The study demonstrates that governance measures related to the board in Indian firms have some similarities to the firms in western countries. However, the study shows that some of the widely used board characteristic measures differ with other studies documented in the western contexts which limits the generalisability of the western studies in the emerging countries.

Purpose Given the prevalence of family-run businesses in India, this paper aims to empirically investigate the impact of family firms on the relationship between firm performance and board characteristics. The effectiveness of board characteristics such as independent directors, chairman independence, role duality, non-executive directors, board busyness, board size, board meetings and board attendance are studied in the Indian context. Design/methodology/approach The sample consists of top-listed firms in India for the period 2002 to 2012. Board index was constructed to capture the governance quality of the firm. The authors also study the relationship between board structure and firm performance by segregating the sample based on family management, family ownership and family representative directors. Random effects model was used for the regression analysis in the study. Findings The authors find a negative effect of board structure on firm performance in family firms compared to non-family firms. Contrary to the most Western literature, family management was not found to significantly affect firm performance as compared to that of professionally managed firms. In the subset analysis of family firms, higher proportion of family ownership and family representative directors did not show any significant impact on the firm performance. Having a higher proportion of independent directors, larger board size or an independent chairman does not appear to improve this insignificant relationship between family firms and firm performance. Also, in family firms, no significant difference in performance is noticed before and during recession period. Originality/value The study uses a self-defined corporate governance index to measure the governance parameters, specifically the board characteristics. The results documented in this study adds to the debate on the generalizability of the findings in Western governance studies in emerging markets like India with unique institutional development background.

This article, from the perspective of agency and resource dependency theory, investigates the relationship between the various board characteristic measures, such as, board composition, board size, leadership structure and board activity, and accounting measures of performance in a sample of listed firms of Indian information technology (IT) sector. Panel data analysis was carried out on the sample. Our study, after controlling for firm-specific factors, found that the non-duality has a positive effect on performance only when the chairman is independent especially in the case of the larger firms. However, it failed to give evidence to the aspect of agency theory linked to board independence and firm performance. A significant and positive relationship was found between board size and firm performance. Board meeting and board attendance were not found to be associated with firm performance. Our study lends new insights specific to Indian markets as we find results contrary to the popular belief that smaller boards and boards with more independent directors lead to better firm performance.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to apply a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework to evaluate distribution strategies for an e-tailer. An application of MCDM method, the hybrid DANP–VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) model, is used for e-tailers’ distribution strategy evaluation. The choice of distribution strategies under various dimensions is evaluated. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a hybrid MCDM model to solve the decision-making framework, which combines Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), DEMATEL-based analytic network process and VIKOR method. Data were collected from the experts (e-tail manager, logistics manager, operations manager and distribution center (DC) manager) using two questionnaires, first for the influential relationship among the criteria and dimensions and second for a performance rating of each alternative (distribution strategies) against each criterion. Findings DANP with VIKOR method prioritizes the distribution strategies in the following order: DC shipment, drop shipment, click and collect, store shipment and click and reserve. Performance gap was calculated based on the VIKOR method to provide distribution strategies to an e-tailer under different situations. The authors infer that in developing country, product characteristics and transportation have a major influence on deciding the distribution strategy. Practical implications Decision-making framework will provide e-tail mangers a knowledge-based understanding to select the distribution strategy under the different situations related to the performance, product, e-tailer and external characteristics for smooth order fulfillment process. The insights developed by this research provide a framework for rational decision making in distribution strategy selection in e-business. Originality/value This is the first kind of a study which offers a decision framework for e-tail managers on how to choose distribution strategies under different situations which are related to the performance, product, e-tailer and external characteristics.

PurposeThis research theoretically proposed and empirically validated a Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) scale specifically for Medical Tourism for emerging economies including recent findings from tourism theories such as gravity model and signalling theory, but more specifically accommodating political, cultural, economic, legal and social influences.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth literature reviews from tourism, medical tourism, healthcare and hospitality domains are used to propose the theoretical model. The authors have used the lavaan package in R for the empirical analysis and model verification.FindingsThe research included, tested and verified the established latent variables such as “brand awareness”, “brand association”, “perceived quality” and “loyalty”, along with new observed variables for the CBBE scale from the theoretical perspectives of this research. “Infrastructure” has emerged as a new scale construct and “culture” was found to be a moderating variable for “perceived quality” in the CBBE scale, which are novel additions to the literature.Originality/valueThe research contributed to scale refining, latent construct assessment, and fine-tuning of the observed variables for the mentioned theoretical gaps.