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It is critical for small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) to review and monitor sustainability performance indicators across three dimensions: economic, environmental and social to attain long-term competitiveness. SMEs lack a holistic perspective on sustainability; they are frequently hindered from contemplating environmentally favorable investments beyond what is legally needed. The purpose of this paper is to present a joint Decision-making trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and NK methodology for developing a process model for introducing and implementing sustainable competitiveness practices for SMEs.

This study addresses the issue by adopting a sustainable competitiveness practices framework and applying a novel method that integrates DEMATEL and NK model for evaluating and developing the implementation path model for Indian manufacturing SMEs.

This paper also demonstrates that not only the relational practice itself but also the order in which the relational practices are implemented can be related to performance. According to the authors' preliminary findings, organizations in this study should first implement a social dimension, which includes sustainable leadership, knowledge sharing, etc., then an economic dimension like quality, sustainable innovations, etc., and finally environmental dimensions like green marketing, solid waste reduction, etc., with their management for competitiveness.

These findings offer some preliminary information as well as advice for managers and policymakers looking to integrate sustainable efforts.

This study asserts that not only the interdependent practice but also the sequence of implementation is important and can relate to the performance. The path result shows that the organization develops first sustainable design and product development (economic), sustainable leadership (social) and solid waste reduction (environmental) practices.

There is no such study that develops a process model for introducing and implementing sustainable competitiveness of SMEs which assesses and analyzes the interdependencies across relational behaviors, to the best of authors’ knowledge. The novelty of this work lies in integrating DEMATEL-NK model approach.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the dimensions of customer expectations and study the moderating role of demographics in the context of fresh food retail.

A structured questionnaire was designed using extant literature review followed by expert opinions. The survey was conducted among the customers in the twin cities of Maharashtra in India. The factors of customer expectations were identified using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and further confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis in SPSS and AMOS, respectively. The significance of the customer expectations on customer satisfaction was studied using structural equation modeling. Subsequently, the role of demographics was studied using two-step cluster analysis and multigroup moderation.

During EFA three factors emerged, namely, product-related features, in-store quality and store support services. Structural model evaluation found product-related features and in-store quality significantly influencing the customer satisfaction, while store support services were found as a non-significant factor in the region studied. Further, using cluster analysis customers were segregated into three groups, namely, traditional, autonomous and premium customers, where the premium customers were found to prefer the store support services on a higher scale, and similar results were obtained using multigroup moderation. Demographics, namely, gender, age, respondents’ income and marital status moderated for product-related features and in-store quality. Interestingly, respondents’ income also moderated for the store support services.

The findings provide directions for store managers of the fresh food category to align supply chain decisions with the unique requirements of customers considering their socio-economic characteristics.

On the basis of social exchange theory, the authors found that in a mutually beneficial relationship, concerning the value proposition, retailers need to address the requirement of the different income group customers for store support services.

This paper aims to identify gaps and critical issues in policy framework for infrastructure debt fund (IDF) to become financially viable in the Indian context. Growth of any economy is dependent on successful implementation of infrastructure projects. However, infrastructure development is linked to availability of equity and debt funds to finance these projects. IDF is an instrument which aims at enabling financing of infrastructure.

The exploratory research adopted is qualitative and based on secondary data related to infrastructure needs, challenges, factors influencing infrastructure financing and options available for infrastructure financing in the Indian context. It investigates the relationship between external factors, internal factors and viability of IDF and provides recommendations to policy makers to roll-out an enabling policy and regulatory environment.

Findings show that issues such as entry barriers for banks, insufficient tax incentives, restrictions on type of projects to be considered for funding and meeting the expectation of low-cost funds need to be addressed so that IDFs can contribute toward funding requirement of the infrastructure sector.

IDFs have been recently introduced in India and the use of primary and secondary data has been limited. Comparison of IDF guidelines in India with guidelines for similar instruments in developed countries has been left for a later stage.

Value of this study is that it identifies the issues in current guidelines of IDF through the understanding of the policy and regulatory framework that governs IDF. The study also makes recommendations to the government and regulators which would enable IDF to become a viable instrument.

Social entrepreneurship will play a big role in bringing the growth to the rural masses in India and so it becomes important to study the factors, like fair trade, that will shape the social entrepreneurship philosophy.

Primary information has been collected from National Level bodies like Fair Trade Forum – India (FTF‐I) by means of discussions and debates. Current state of fair trade penetration has been discussed with the help of a case study of an India NGO, International Resources for Fairer Trade (IRFT) which is a pioneer in this field in India.

Discussions with FTF‐I and study of IRFT revealed some surprising facts about fair trade in India – one of them being the expected size of the fair trade market in the near future. Fair trade is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years and it has the potential be an inspiration for many to enter into the social entrepreneurship world.

With this study as basis, many Non Government Organizations and other bodies may find that their business models can be slightly modified to make them eligible for entering the lucrative market of fair trade.

This is the first study that focuses on attempting to find a link between social entrepreneurship and fair trade in India. This study will not only help current and future social entrepreneurs understand the need for fair trade and its benefits but it will also help them understand how they could become fair trade compliant if they wanted to and thus contribute to all inclusive growth.