The paper evaluates the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on small-scale retailers. The study operationalizes the constructs with the variables: Backend infrastructure in less developed market, employment opportunity, investment capacity of neighborhood stores, investment capacity of big stores of Indian companies, investment capacity of FDI stores, investment capacity of online retailers, growth of neighborhood stores, growth of big stores of Indian companies, growth of FDI stores, growth of online retailers, and Business Environment Factors (BEF). The study was conducted on a sample of 500 respondents in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR). In retrospective, coefficient of investment capacity of FDI stores and growth of FDI stores show significantly negative impact on backend infrastructure in less developed market and employment opportunity. FullArticle...

The pricing and performance of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) is difficult to predict as there is no prior market history. However, investors are always curious about the returns they can generate across industry sectors. This study analyzes the long-term performance of IPOs across industrial activities during the period 2008 to 2019 through the event study methodology. It also aims at analyzing the short-term performance of IPOs to determine the underpricing and overpricing on the listing day of IPO stocks issued across industries during the study period. Highest underpricing is seen in the professional, scientific and the technical activities industries and the long-term performance is also found to be good indicating good returns. High underpricing on the listing day is seen in mining and quarrying. In case of the manufacturing, electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning activities high underpricing on the listing day is observed, with considerable long-term returns. FullArticle...

In a free capital flow environment with greater volatility, the requirement for an optimum hedge ratio and its efficiency will be justified in order to create a successful hedging strategy. Hedge effectiveness in the Indian market has been tested using derivative contracts of Nifty futures and Bank Nifty futures as to how they help protect the spot market investments. The study has been divided into pre- and post-pandemic periods, from February 16, 2016, to March 23, 2020, and from March 24, 2020, to September 2021. The study emphasizes on Ordinary Least Square (OLS), Bivariate Vector Autoregressive Regression (BVAR), Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and Multi-variate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (M-GARCH) models to determine the effectiveness of hedging strategies. The models OLS, BVAR and VECM identified that the post-sample hedge effectiveness exhibits a higher reduction in variance than the pre-sample hedge effectiveness. According to the MGARCH results, the depicted hedge ratios are capable of reducing risk during both pre- and post-Covid-19 pandemic periods. This implies that the post-pandemic hedge effectiveness is superior to the pre-pandemic hedge effectiveness and both the future indices were able to lower a large amount of risk in the unhedged portfolio by a significant amount. Thus, it can be concluded that time shifting hedge ratios of post-pandemic period are capable of delivering hedging effectiveness in terms of variance reduction in the short run. FullArticle...

The paper investigates the connection and interdependence of the Indian stock, commodity derivatives, and foreign exchange markets, as well as the responsiveness of these market linkages during the turbulence caused by Covid-19. The daily closing prices of BSE S&P Sensex, Nifty futures, crude oil prices, exchange rates USD, and commodity derivatives exchange indices MCX Comdex, and NCDEX Agri Index have been used. The VAR model results confirm long-term relationships among the financial, commodity derivatives, and foreign exchange markets and infer that equilibrium prevails in these markets. Further, it confirms that the interdependence of stock and commodity markets reacts to the flow of information to reach a long-run equilibrium. Granger causality confirms bidirectional causality; both stocks, commodity derivatives, and foreign exchange rates influence each other through the flow of information. This study concludes that when markets are moving towards equilibrium, bidirectional portfolio optimization and hedging will not yield benefits through diversification investments in these markets. FullArticle...

The paper aims at developing an integrated model that can confirm the importance of "financial self-efficacy" as a mediating variable in the relationship between financial capability and financial wellbeing of organic farmers in Kerala. Data was collected from 425 organic farmers from Wayanad and Idukki districts of Kerala. A standardized questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale was used to collect data. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) was used to analyze the data. The results reveal that financial self-efficacy is a partial mediator in the relationship between financial capability and financial wellbeing, and therefore plays a significant role. The results also confirm that gender, age, marital status and religion are the factors that influence the financial self-efficacy of organic farmers in Kerala. FullArticle...

The paper examines the impact of Destination Image (DI), Perceived Risk (PR), Tourist Constraints (TC), and Tourist Attitude (TA) on Intention to Travel (IT) during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The respondents are prospective travelers, and the sampling used is purposive. Data was collected through an online questionnaire. A seven-point Likert scale was used ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" with midpoint as "neutral". The study uses the primary data collected through an online questionnaire from 329 valid respondents. Path analysis and bootstrapping procedure are employed to establish the relationship between the variables and to examine the hypotheses, respectively, using Smart PLS version 3.3.3. The results state that the tourists will consider the Physical Risk (PHR) before visiting any destination and TA will play a key role in decision making in terms of traveling to a destination. The relationships between Affective Image (AI) and Cognitive Image (CI) with TA and IT, TC with IT and PHR with TA are positive. Other relationships between PHR, Financial Risk (FR) and PR with IT, FR and PR with TA, and TA with IT are negative. The critical analysis can be useful for tourism service providers. FullArticle...

Raising funds from banks, financial institutions, or any other sources has always been a very typical task, but now entrepreneurs can raise money on digital platforms through crowdfunding. "How can I raise funds on crowdfunding platforms?" is the most common question among entrepreneurs. Searching for the right crowd is a very difficult task for entrepreneurs. The main objective of the paper is to understand the meaning of the right crowd, identify the factors affecting the selection and study the status of crowdfunding in India. The term "selecting the right crowd" refers to approaching an audience that is regarded as appropriate for the project's requirements. For the study, data was collected from 191 respondents and analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. As per Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), the scale consisted of five factors: Technological Knowledge, Perceived Trust, Perceived Risk, Peer Influence and Crowdfunding Experience with 19 items. Discriminant Validity, Convergent Validity and Reliability were checked. Lastly, as per Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), it was understood that the obtained values confirmed the five factors of the scale. FullArticle...