Drawing from the theoretical underpinning of the service brand verdict model, this research aims to study the impact of organizational factors and customer resources on emotional and functional value and further extending it to brand verdict. The survey approach was adopted using a self-administered questionnaire to achieve the research objective. Three hundred and sixty-five participants were selected by convenient sampling technique. Data were collected by personal (face-to-face) interview and online survey (email) method. To test the research model and conduct mediation analysis, the partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed through SmartPLS software (V3.3.3). The findings also that functional and emotional value have a significant influence on brand verdict in nonprofit organizations (NPOs). Organizational factors and customer resources influence functional and emotional values in NPOs. Functional and emotional values mediate the relationship between organizational factors and customer resources and brand verdict in NPO. The findings contribute to brand development for NPOs like Seva Café. Restaurant services create customer value using restaurant resources. NPO managers should focus on increasing organizational and customer resources, which are crucial for developing positive value and brand perception. Improving technical and administrative quality enables NPO managers to enhance functional quality, ultimately strengthening the organization’s brand verdict.
The study examines the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the financial performance of India’s top 100 BSE-listed firms as of March 2022. It also studies the moderating role of environmental sensitivity in impacting this relationship. Greenhouse gas emissions and their components are measured in terms of their intensity per unit of sales, while financial performance is measured by Return on Assets and Tobin’s Q. Using random effects and interaction models, the analysis finds a negative relationship between emissions and financial performance, moderated by environmental sensitivity. The results highlight the need for stricter environmental regulations in India and encourage firms, especially in sensitive industries, to reduce emissions through renewable energy or improved efficiency. The study supports the “win–win” hypothesis, suggesting that reducing emissions can enhance firm performance. Future research could expand to include all listed Indian firms and those in other developing economies to gain a broader perspective.
The first motive of this study is to know how the case study organizations working in a Muslim country practice workplace spirituality. The second is how effective they are in nurturing a sustainable mindset through the practice of workplace spirituality in their organizations. Workplace spirituality was explored through this qualitative study in three case study social sector organizations in Pakistan and it was inferred how these organizations carried sustainable organizational practice. The interviews and focus group discussions were carried out with the organizational members. Thematic analysis techniques were applied to analyze the textual data and themes were identified related to the research questions. After thematic analysis of the interviews and focus group discussions from three organizations, various themes emerged that showed how these spiritual organizations practice workplace spirituality. Themes that were found prominent included the practice of ‘Spiritual Leadership’, ‘Volunteerism in Employees’, ‘Brotherhood’, ‘Halal Earnings’, ‘Barkat’, ‘Customers as the Guest of Allah’, ‘Creating Compassion’ in employees, ‘Connection with the Creator’, ‘Making employees Cause-Focused through training’, ‘Inner or Spiritual Satisfaction’, ‘Community Sense’, the ‘Well-being of the People’, ‘Positive Attitude’, ‘Help Humanity’, and the ‘Negation of Materialistic Culture’. These were regarded as case study organizations’ sustainable organizational practices.
Indian companies are proactively anticipating the forthcoming transformations in the business environment and adopting sustainable practices as an integral part of their future business models. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the impact of the green marketing mix on customer attitude and the subsequent influence of customer attitude on purchase intention within the domain of green purchasing. An online survey was conducted to gather responses from 134 Indian customers in order to shed light on the impact of green marketing mix techniques on consumers’ intentions to purchase green products. The investigation applied partial least square: structural equation modeling to examine consumers’ attitudes and intentions. The findings indicate that the variables of green products, price, and promotion have a significant and beneficial impact on customers’ attitudes within the context of green initiatives. Furthermore, it is worth noting that attitude plays a crucial role in influencing purchase intention. Specifically, green promotion and green price emerge as the most influential factors in shaping customers’ attitudes. Furthermore, the presence of green places has an insignificant and adverse impact on individuals’ attitudes. Additionally, the presence of green places has a substantial impact, both directly and indirectly, on individuals’ intentions to make a purchase. Therefore, it can be considered a case of complementary partial mediation.
This study aims to examine the factors influencing the intention to use digital lending among users by extending the technology acceptance model (TAM) framework. Specifically, the study focuses on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the TAM model with the addition of perceived security and perceived risk as the key factors influencing the intention to use digital lending. The study uses a quantitative research design and collects data from a sample of mobile banking users who are willing to borrow through an online survey. The researcher analyzed the data with a structural equation model using Smart PLS 4.0 to test the hypotheses, including the relationships of all latent variables. The findings suggest that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived security influence are positively associated with the adoption of digital lending. In contrast, perceived risk was found to be an insignificant predictor in this area. The study also provides insights for bankers and policymakers to design effective strategies to boost the adoption of their services.
Purpose: This research article investigates how the credibility of the influencer affects the image of premium cosmetics brands, and it explores how brand attitude plays a role in this association. Design/methodology/approach: The study employed a quantitative approach, using surveys to gather insights from 525 customers who followed social media influencers endorsing premium cosmetics and have purchased them. A convenient sampling method was utilized. Structural equation modeling (SEM) facilitated the analysis, ensuring the validity and fitness of the proposed relationships through the analysis of moment structures (AMOS) software. Findings: Results indicated that dimensions of influencer credibility positively influence the brand image. Moreover, these attributes indirectly affect brand attitude in a positive and significant manner. Originality of article: These findings fill a gap in the existing literature by examining the impact of influencer credibility on both brand attitude and brand image simultaneously. The article concludes with recommendations for marketers and suggestions for future research endeavors.
The purpose of this article is to investigate whether consumer values (appearance consciousness, health consciousness, and environmental consciousness), openness to change, and perceived benefits influence purchase intentions and buying behavior of natural personal care products. Furthermore, the article also investigates the moderating role of consumer buying frequency on purchase intention and buying behavior. This article is based on the argument that consumer values (appearance consciousness, health consciousness, and environmental consciousness) are likely to be reflected in purchase intention and buying behavior if consumers are open to change and perceive the benefits of natural personal care products. The theoretical framework is derived from the Stimulus–Organism–Behavior–Consequence framework. The study proposes consumer values act as a stimulus, openness to change and perceived benefits as an organismic internal state, purchase intention as behavior, and buying preferences as a consequence. The study’s findings reveal some interesting insights. First, all three consumer values exhibit a positive influence on openness to change among consumers. However, when it comes to influencing perceived benefits, it is primarily the environmental and appearance consciousness that showed effective influence on perceived benefits. We believe that marketing strategies for natural personal care products should consider consumer values and effectively communicate how natural products enhance appearance and are environment-friendly. Consumers have increasingly become concerned about the harmful effects of conventional personal care products and are willing to adopt safer alternatives. Unlike the organic food industry in natural personal care products, consumers’ health consciousness does not significantly affect the perceived benefits. We also found that purchase frequency substantially moderates the relationship between perceived benefits-purchase intentions and purchase intention-buying behavior. The association is stronger for high purchase frequency than low and medium.
Elisabeth Rosenthal, An American Sickness: How Health Care Became Big Business and How You Can Take it Back. New York: Penguin Press, 2017, 432 pp., $18. ISBN9780143 110859.
Drawing upon the theory of planned behavior, the present study investigates the antecedents (perceived value, media exposure, and environmental knowledge) of customer intention toward purchasing green durables. Secondarily, this study also examines whether the driver effect of the precursors of customers’ sustainable purchase intention varies across different levels of their price sensitivity. A mall-intercept survey method was used to acquire data from 261 respondents from India’s National Capital Region, and the relationships were tested using PLS-SEM. The findings reveal that perceived value, media exposure, and environmental knowledge positively impact customer buying intention of green durables. Also, price sensitivity negatively moderates the relationship between media exposure and purchase intention. These results afford critical insights to marketers and policymakers regarding the driving factors of customer intention to purchase eco-friendly durables.
The study aims to investigate the influence of corporate risk and the moderating effect of managerial ownership on the firm value of the Dhaka Stock Exchange listed manufacturing industries in Bangladesh. The study collected data from 144 manufacturing companies under ten industry categories from 2012–2021, where the total number of firm-year observations was 1,310. The study considers operational and liquidity risks to measure corporate risk. The study uses a two-stage-least square (2SLS) model estimation technique to run the multivariate analysis. The study found that firms’ operational risks, liquidity risks, and multiple effects of firms’ risk and managerial ownership significantly influence the firms’ value. It is also evidenced that firms’ size, age, shareholders’ influence, and GDP growth rate have a noteworthy positive influence on firm value. In contrast, no significant effect of the inflation rate on firm value was identified. The practical implications of the current study demonstrated that corporate risk management enhances firm value and must be invigorated for the interest of all stakeholders. Interestingly, there needs to be more research on identifying the impact of corporate risks on firm value from the perspective of manufacturing industries in Bangladesh. The current study is designed to reduce the research gap and enhance the literature. The research has several financial, legal, and social implications for policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders.
Forget crowded aisles and unending product comparisons. Imagine yourself trying on clothes virtually, visualizing furniture in your living room before making a purchase, or even discovering information about products that are hidden behind interactive labels. Augmented reality (AR) promises to revolutionize the shopping experience, but widespread adoption depends on understanding user motivations. This study explores what motivates consumers to interact with this emerging technology to determine the “why” behind AR retail adoption. Although AR has the potential to transform many industries, consumer technology readiness is a critical factor that will determine how widely adopted AR becomes. This research investigates how a person’s ability, willingness, and confidence in their ability to use technology serves as a vital link between the potential for innovation and its practical implementation. The study investigates the effects of performance expectancy, price, effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, and technological readiness on adoption behavior using a partial least squares-structural equation modeling analysis of data from 306 online survey respondents. The results show that price and performance expectancy are significant drivers, but hedonic motivation and effort expectancy have no impact on adoption behavior. Notably, one factor that strongly influences the adoption of AR apps is technological readiness. These findings provide retailers with insightful advice, telling them to prioritize app value, affordability, and user-friendly design while also realizing how crucial it is to accommodate different degrees of technological comfort. Retailers can effectively use AR technology to improve customer engagement and accelerate adoption in the retail space by knowing these key drivers.
The use of social media, such as social networking sites continues to grow in everyday life, along with their use in the workplace. So, a concern raised about how the personal use of social networking sites like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc., at work affects employee job performance. Moreover, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between social networking usage and employee job performance through the mediating role of work–life balance. The quantitative methodology was employed in this study. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire adapted from a previously validated survey. The target population consisted of Gen-Y employees of the corporate sector in Chandigarh, Delhi, and Haryana (UTs/states) of India. Judgemental sampling was applied to collect data from 224 employees of the corporate sector. The study results indicated that time spent, frequency of using social networking sites has significant relationship with job performance and work–life balance of employees while work–life balance and employee job performance are significantly positively related. However, social networking use has a significant negative relationship with job performance and work–life balance. Additionally, work–life balance significantly mediates the relationship between social networking usage and job performance. Therefore, the study concluded that employees struggle to set boundaries since they cannot distinguish between work and family life due to the rise in technology and social media use. Therefore, managers and HR professionals need to consider the negative aspect of online social networking at work. Further, the implications for managers and organizations are discussed.
The institutional quality and natural resources of the host country are among the essential determinants of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). The present study is performed to examine the role of the host country’s institutional quality and natural resources on Indian OFDI for the panel of 15 countries concerning the period from 2001 to 2020. The study uses the fixed-effect panel regression model and found that host nations’ political stability, voice and accountability, absence of violence or terrorism, rule of law, and control of corruption attract FDI from India. Further, the government’s efficacy and regulatory quality do not have a considerable impact on Indian OFDI. The study also found that the natural resources of the host nation play an important role in the international diversification of investments made by Indian investors. It is recommended to the government of host nations to strengthen their institutional quality as good-quality institutions add to the growth of entrepreneurship, encourage investment, and therefore stimulate the economic growth of the economy.
The current research study investigated the significance of internal marketing (IM) to enhance faculty innovative behavior (FIB) and faculty engagement (FE) in higher education (HE). Furthermore, the mediation of FE in the association between IM and FIB has been investigated. Three hundred teachers from three major public sector universities in union territory (Jammu and Kashmir) in India have been contacted to gather responses. The study contributes in numerous ways to the literature—dimensions of IM have a significant and positive impact on FIB in the HE sector. FE significantly mediated the effect of IM and its dimensions on FIB. This study also enlarged the scope of social exchange theory by using it from faculty perspectives in HE. Furthermore, the study has made an attempt to modify the scale to measure constructs for making them suitable in the HE sectors. Research findings offer numerous suggestions for administrators in HE institutions.
This study aimed to measure the impact of social media marketing on the consumer purchasing process in the restaurant industry of Dhaka city. The random selection provided a structured questionnaire to 200 participants, and 113 replies were deemed appropriate for the research. An MS Excel sheet, SPSS (V, 24), and SPSS AMOS (V, 22) were used to validate the demographic, descriptive, and inferential analyses. The Pearson product–moment correlation exposes a significant positive correlation among the variables. In regression analysis, the proposed model and the independent variable (trustworthiness, business process, user experience, and consumer engagement) can describe 27.5% of the selected dependent variable (consumer purchasing behavior). Finally, the hypothesis testing from the research survey data depicts that trustworthiness and consumer engagement significantly impact consumer purchasing behavior. In addition, the model proposed three mediating effects of trustworthiness relating to social media marketing and consumers’ buying decisions in the restaurant industry, and the outcomes revealed that the direct effect of both business processes and user experience on consumer purchasing behavior does not work. Meanwhile, the presence of consumers’ trust in social media marketing enhances the predictive ability of business processes and user experience, significantly impacting consumer purchasing behavior.
The aim of this article is to understand consumer complaint satisfaction in the electronics industry. The focus has been placed on consumers of household electronic items who have complained to the company due to one of several reasons (e.g., technical glitch, malfunction, and defect). The various factors responsible for complaint satisfaction have been determined through literature reviews and primary surveys (questionnaires). The three kinds of justice dimensions of organizational behavior (Procedural, Interactional and Distributive) have been incorporated into the model to measure a company’s response to any complaint. The data of 595 consumers of Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) (India) have been collected and analysed using smartPLS 2.0. software. The findings of the study reveal that the process of handling customer complaints affects customer satisfaction and retention rate. Customer who have good experiences during the complaint-handling process, exert positive word of mouth (WOM) and those who have bad experiences during the complaint-handling process exert negative WOM. To study the relationship between complaint satisfaction level, consumers repurchase intention and WOM intention a complaint satisfaction model has been constructed.
COVID-19 had an impact on the market, causing consumers’ perceptions and attitudes regarding the dine-in business to shift, and their buying intent to migrate to online food and service delivery. This phase highlights people’s business chances to demonstrate their culinary expertise and offer the local market via online meal delivery services. Cloud kitchen is the name given to this idea. The research looked at the aspects and how they influenced people’s perceptions, and attitudes, and ultimately built the purchase behavior for the cloud kitchen. The data were collected from the youth. The sampling technique was stratified sampling. Smart partial least square was used to confirm the factors influencing the perception, attitude, and purchase behavior. The data were analyzed using partial least square modeling. The factors studied and their impact assessed which is forming the consumer perception. Perception builds attitude and purchase behavior. It was discovered that there is a strong impact and modifying the consumer purchase intention toward cloud kitchen in India. The analysis also revealed that factors affecting perception and attitude toward the cloud kitchen are strong and there is a positive purchase behavior in India. The research would be useful for the cloud kitchen companies already functioning in India. The factor assessment and confirmation help the existing and upcoming cloud kitchens to work efficiently and effectively in the context of satisfaction among the future of India, that is, among youth.
Doctors today have very little time to listen to a medical representative. They have become patient-centric and feel that listening to a medical representative is a waste of their time. Wishing to learn what could make a doctor prescribe a drug when visited by the medical representative, I drew up a questionnaire consisting of product-centric variables and non-product-based variables. The questionnaire had six variables, which had to be ranked from 1 to 6, with 1 being the most important and 6 being the least important. The variables were easy availability, economical drugs, company name, sponsorships, medical representative’s dedication, and samples among the non-product-based variables and safety, efficacy, tried and tested, less drug interactions, good reviews of the drug, and less adverse effects among the product-based factors. A total of 100 doctors were interviewed. A personal interview was conducted wherein the questionnaire was direct and structured. The results were such that in Thurstone Case V Scaling, economical drugs were considered as the most effective way to get doctors to prescribe, followed by easy availability, company name, medical rep dedication, samples, and sponsorships among the non-product-centric factors, whereas in the product-centric factors, it included efficacy, followed by time tested, less adverse effects, safety, less drug interactions, and good drug reviews. In Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation, it was found that a high, positive correlation existed between economical drugs and efficacious drugs and a medium, positive correlation existed between economical drugs and safe drugs. Similarly, a medium–high correlation existed between company name and time-tested drugs.
This inquiry investigates the moderating role of board size (BS), board independence (BI), and board gender diversity (BGD) on the relationship between dividend policy (DP) and firm performance (FP) in Ghana. The study utilized financial data from 14 purposively selected listed firms in Ghana, spanning 2010–2018. A system-generalized method of moments (GMM) was espoused for the estimation. Results indicate that whilst dividend per share and dividend payout ratio demonstrated significantly positive relationship with FP, dividend yield exhibited significantly negative relationship with FP. Additionally, while BI moderated the relationship between DP and FP, BS and BGD had no moderating influence on FP.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has emerged as the biggest threat to human life. It has changed the entire lifestyle of human beings concerning their emotional stability and cognitive development. Enjoyment is one of the emotions and acts as a positive stimulus that a consumer used to feel and seeks for a balanced life. Since the nationwide lockdown was implemented on March 25, 2020, people have turned restless about how to enjoy themselves at home, as all of their options of going out were being shattered. It was the time when continuous innovations in the form of digital content through over-the-top (OTT) platforms flourished and provided an affordable and diversified entertainment source to consumers. These OTT services help consumers to view the contents via the Internet directly. Furthermore, it has drastically changed people’s preferences toward diversified content based on their choices. This study aims to explore the various determinants affecting consumer satisfaction toward the OTT platforms amid COVID-19 crisis in India. The study’s main findings revealed that among the demographic variables, age group of the consumer largely influences their satisfaction toward OTT platforms. Moreover, work from home, affordability, convenience, and content quality are the significant determinants affecting consumer satisfaction levels toward OTT platforms. The study is relevant to the current marketing scenario, as it provides useful insights for the content developers of the major OTT platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Voot, and many others to enhance the consumer satisfaction in the terms of digital content consumption.
