Title: Reskilling business executives in transition economies: can yoga help?

Authors: Anand N. Asthana

Addresses: CENTRUM Católica Graduate Business School, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Santiago de Surco, Lima, Perú

Abstract: The required skill set of the business executives in transition economies is changing as the monopolistic public sector businesses are converting themselves to private enterprises with global exposure. Through the lens of mindfulness, this study investigates whether the ancient practice of yoga can support enhancement of helping behaviour and cultural intelligence of business executives in a transitional economy. PROCESS macro has been employed to study the mediation model. The study found that yogic practices significantly increase participants' helping behaviour and also their cultural intelligence. The results support the partial mediation model with approximately two thirds of the effect on helping behaviour coming from higher mindfulness and the remaining one third coming directly from the practice of yoga. In the case of cultural intelligence, 88% of the increase comes through mindfulness while the remaining 12% can be accounted for directly from yogic practices. This is the first time the gains of benefits of yoga have been quantified in a desegregated manner. Businesses in emerging markets could view yoga not as a woke activity or a trivial pursuit, but as a support for bringing about useful attitudinal changes among their executives.

Keywords: transition economies; transitional economies; emerging markets; international business; yoga; mindfulness; helping behaviour; prosocial behaviour; altruism; cultural intelligence.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEM.2023.132199

International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets, 2023 Vol.15 No.3, pp.267 - 286

Received: 20 Aug 2022
Accepted: 22 Dec 2022
Published online: 12 Jul 2023 *

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