Pandemic, New Normal and Implications on Business: 12th Annual Research Conference of Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies (Simsarc21)

This book focuses on the issues and challenges posed by COVID-19, proposing ways to deal with the supposed ’new normal’ which the pandemic has introduced in the functioning of business, society, and environment. Among the issues discussed are employee well-being and mental health, impact of changes in education sector, marketing, selling and distribution of goods, change in business model for SME, impact on travel and personal grooming sector, consumer preferences, performance impact of intellectual capital, performance of banks-pre merger, and so on. Focus is on presenting strong research results backed by statistical analysis using different tools. There are managerial solutions to the problems being faced by businesses and firms. The presentations would throw great insights on how businesses have coped during pandemic times in a developing economy like India.

Arti Chandani is Associate Professor, Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune, India. She has more than 23 years of experience in teaching and research. She has published more than 50 papers in journals and has served as guest editor for special issues of journals, International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management and International Journal of Business and Globalisation. She is an editorial board member of International Journal of Digital Accounting Research. Additionally, she also serves as reviewer for International Journal of Innovation Science, International Journal of Emerging Markets, Journal of Indian Business Research, and Information Resource Management Journal. Dr. Chandani has been part of the organizing committee of international conference, organised by NFED, Coimbatore - ICCRESMA for year 2020. She is also the editor of the SIMS Annual International Research Conference: Unleashing the Research Journey. She has since 2013 been conference convener of SIMSARC, which is the annual international conference of Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies.

Dr. Rajiv Divekar is the Director of Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies since 2009. Prior to this he was Head of Faculty, Strategic and Operational Studies, at Army War College; and Faculty in Defence Strategic Studies at Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. He has rich experience of strategy, planning, logistics and human resource management based on his service with multinational teams as part of United Nations Force in both Somalia and Lebanon. He has a large number of research publications in reputed journals and also serves as reviewer of SCOPUS-indexed journals. He teaches Strategy, Human Resource and Leadership to MBA students and has been invited to deliver talks at various organisations and institutes as also to deliver key note address in conferences. He is a recipient of many awards in the field of education. He has been awarded ＂The Rashtriya Vidya Gaurav Gold Medal＂ by the Indian Solidarity Council, the ＂Rajiv Gandhi Education Excellence Award＂ by International Institute of Education and Management and the ＂Education Leadership Award＂ by Education Leadership Awards, Dubai.

Dr. Jogendra Kumar Nayak is Associate Professor at IIT Roorkee. His area of research interests includes B2B marketing, Pricing, Tourism Marketing. He teaches Marketing Research, Marketing Management and B2B Marketing to the students of MBA and B.Tech courses. He is currently deputed as a Professor-In-Charge of Training & Placement Department in DOMS (Department of Management Studies)-IIT Roorkee. In the year 2017 he was awarded as an ’Expert Member of Standing Committee on Research Methodology’ by Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India, also as a ’Reviewer for the Executive Government agency, Poland’ by National Science Centre and in the year 2018 as a member, Board of studies and advisory board member of Abdul Kalam Technical University. He obtained his PhD from VGSOM, IIT-Kharagpur in the field of marketing in 2012. His major research project includes a study on the handicraft industries on empowering the artisans, funded by ICSSR; and marketing practices in handicraft sector in Uttarakhand, funded by IIT Roorkee. Some of his consulting assignments entailed working on projects like ＂Traidcraft-Study the Potential of Handloom sector in Orissa＂, and ＂European Union-Capacity building of Small and Medium Industries in Orissa. He has published close to 40 research papers with reputed journals published by A-list publishers. More than 50% of his papers are in FT-50, A* and A rated journals. He is also an author of the vastly popular textbook on Retail Management.

Dr. Komal Chopra is Associate Professor of Marketing at Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India. He has more than 16 years of experience in academics and teaches subjects such as retail management, consumer behaviour, and essentials of marketing. He regularly conducts management development programmes for managers working in multinational companies in India. He has also delivered guest sessions at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and Katmandu University. He has done research and consultancy projects for Ministry of Corporate Affairs, ICSSR, Tata Motors, Springer Nature and Bilcare Research. Dr. Chopra has published many research papers in ABDC and Scopus ranked journals and is a reviewer for Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, International Journal of Emerging Markets, Emerging Markets Case Studies, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Foresight and Health Education.