Journal Press India^®

              With the global economy shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic, it looks like the dynamics of international business are going to change for a long time to come. However, insightful and objective research in international business can always facilitate policy prescriptions for trade and investment. In keeping with our endeavour to publish innovative and impactful research in international business, this issue of FOCUS: Journal of International Business (FJIB) brings together a diverse range of research papers that delve into the core as well as related areas of international business. The wide variety of aspects impacting international business covered in this issue include bilateral foreign direct investment, women entrepreneurship, foreign exchange reserves, regional trade agreements, gender diversity management policy and social entrepreneurship.

              This issue has two papers on different aspects of foreign direct investment (FDI), which is an integral part of international business discipline. The paper by Debabrata Mukhopadhyay and Dipankar Das investigate the role of cultural, administrative, geographical, and economic factors (CAGE) in explaining the bilateral differences in FDI inflows across fifteen emerging economies. The  results show that cultural, administrative and economic factors are statistically significant in explaining variation in FDI inflows across these countries. Outward FDI by emerging markets and the path of internationalization followed by MNEs from emerging markets has been increasingly drawing the attention of researchers. The paper by Divya Nandrajog analyses the trends and patters of Indian OFDI and concludes that while there is a rapid expansion in the outflow of foreign investment from India, its share in global OFDI remains negligible. The paper also identifies areas for future research wherein the impact of OFDI on the domestic performance of Indian MNEs engaged in services sector can be examined.

An interesting paper by Slagjana Stojanovska and Adrijana Bulevska Zarikj compares the social perception of women entrepreneurship in India and Macedonia. Comparing Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s indicators of both countries and plotting them against the best and worst social perceptions of women entrepreneurs globally, the paper demonstrates as to what it takes to promote and improve women entrepreneurship for women to run strong and viable enterprises. Another dimension of entrepreneurship, i.e. social entrepreneurship, is taken up Sonal Katyal in her paper, which is a comparative study of social entrepreneurship in India and Bangladesh. The author discusses the challenges and role of government in promoting social entrepreneurship and gives recommendations for the success of social enterprises. This issue of FOCUS also includes a paper that addresses the human resource aspect of international business. The paper by Ruth M. Ogega, James Muya and Yobes Nyaboga examines the effect of implementation of gender diversity management policy on employee commitment in selected county governments in Kenya. Employing qualitative survey, the results of the paper indicate that implementation of gender diversity policy is statistically significant in predicting employee commitment.

Regional Trade Agreements among countries have a significant bearing on international trade relations between them. The paper by Mayengbam Lalit Singh examines if regional economic integration yields greater trade openness and deepening between the countries in the agreement. This is done by employing the case of successive India-China regional trade agreements and using Granger causality test in order to check whether institutional integration causes trade integration for these two countries. The paper by Tom Jacob conducts an empirical analysis to identify the macroeconomic determinants of foreign exchange reserves in India. The author finds that foreign direct investment, foreign portfolio investment and exports have a positive impact on foreign exchange reserves whereas imports and exchange rate volatility have a negative impact on foreign exchange reserves in India in the long run. Another paper dealing with the foreign exchange aspect of international business is by Suraj. E. S., Vidisha Agarwal and Nitha. K. P, who examine the cause of rupee depreciation with respect to Bahrain Dinar and Japanese Yen in forex market. The study analyses the correlation between FDI, FII, CPI and gold price and their impact on Indian Rupee in terms of Bahrain Dinar and Japanese Yen respectively. The results can provide insights to arbitrageurs, traders, exporters and importers who participate in the foreign exchange market.

Since increasing globalisation has led to increased interchange of capital flows among different financial markets, it is pertinent to understand the extent of integration among these markets. Addressing this context, the paper Vasudha Kumar and Shruti Aurora analyse the stock markets of two fastest developing countries of the world, viz. India (SENSEX) and China (Shanghai SE). Employing Johansen’s Cointegration test and Vector Auto regression model, the results  show that there is no co-integration between the two markets. Another aspect of interdisciplinarity that has been taken up in this issue are the factors influencing sustainability of non-governmental organizations. The paper by Njilu Solomon Miriti and Njilu Morris Karithi establishes the factors influencing the sustainability of non-governmental organizations in Kenya. The study finds that access to donor funds, monitoring of the funds, government policies on donor funding and resources are significantly related to the sustainability of NGOs. The study also concludes that through resource accountability, the sustainability of NGOs is enhanced.

              With increasing diversity of papers, both in terms of addressing different aspects of IB as well as geographical diversity of authors, FJIB is progressing in its aim of being interdisciplinary in scope and international in content. As always, I express my sincere gratitude to all our authors, reviewers, editorial board members and readers for their continuous support and feedback that has enabled our team to continue in its commitment to conform to highest standards of ethical and value-based publishing.

              I also take this opportunity to invite research papers which can provide insights into the changing dynamics that international busines is likely to witness in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Stay strong, stay safe!

Dr. Niti Bhasin

      Editor