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This article examines alternatives to a standard wage. It goes on to analyse the advantages and risks inherent in profit‐sharing.

The predominant method by which workers in a business organization get compensated for their labour is that they earn a wage which has been guaranteed to them through an employment contract. By contrast, the earnings of the company (the firm, the owner) remains risky, since they earn the residual after making all the contractual payments to the different factors of production. The residual is a random variable because of production and market uncertainty, and the firm absorbs this risk while insuring the income risk of the workers. A modification of this payment scheme occurs when the earnings of the workers are made contingent upon either their productivity, or the profit of the company. A prominent example is the piece‐rate payment system in which the earnings of a labourer are directly related to the amount of output he or she produces. Profit sharing is another example of variable wage; in this system the workers are paid a share of the firm's profit.

The advent of information technology and the consequent access to Internet has led to significant changes in marketing practice where e-marketing has been the natural outcome of these technological changes and marketing innovations. For modernization and digital formation in India, marketing perception has been changing continually (“All business growth can only happen if business learners faster than the rate at which its customer changes” – William Charnock and Jonny Langden). E-marketing is currently the better element of the marketing mix. It has substantial benefits to the customer, marketers, and in society. Conscious customers have been increasing their purchase through e-marketing as it has a lot of benefits. It has opened a huge business opportunity for marketers. E-marketing is now tapping new markets. This paper is aimed at investigating the changing consumer perception and environment of e-marketing in rural India for consumer durables based on a primary survey. The primary data are collected from 200 households selected randomly in Howrah and Hooghly districts of South Bengal. We have used the chi-square tests to study the role of several demographic factors on e-marketing behavior. We have observed that demographic factors such as gender, family income, and education have an impact on e-marketing. This study also identifies the problems faced by rural customers with reference to payment, goods checking, language, etc., and the problems faced by marketers. In conclusion, appropriate suggestions have been made in this regard.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the critical factors for the diffusion of web technologies in supply chain management (SCM) functions, based on the technology‐organizational‐environment model, and to identify the benefits resulting from diffusion.

Data were collected, via an internet survey, from 251 respondents, ranging from middle‐level to top‐level managers, from firms which currently utilize web technologies for their supply chain activities. Structural equation modelling was employed for five factors: relative advantage; competitive pressure; complexity; trialability; and top management support, which have been hypothesized to affect the diffusion of web technologies in SCM functions.

The results suggest that all the factors except trialability are significant predictors of web technologies' diffusion in supply chain functions. The results show also that by diffusing web technologies, organizations can enhance their supply chain activities.

The survey was conducted in a Malaysian context, using a limited set of variables, thus limiting the generalizability of the findings.

This study provides a greater understanding of managers' perception of web technology diffusion in their organizational SCM functions, and benefits realizing from diffusion of web technology, such as operational efficiency.

Those interested in adopting web technologies in their supply chain activities may find these results helpful in guiding their efforts.

Advanced information technology (IT) changes the way companies manage cross‐border supply chains. This paper examines the role of IT in the context of international business to business (B2B) relationship and its contribution to supply chain performance.

This literature review paper develops a conceptual model of IT‐mediated relationships in international supply chain relationships. The framework integrates transaction cost economics and resource‐based theory perspectives and argues that IT capabilities facilitate supply chain performance, deter partner's opportunism and this process is mediated by B2B processes. Moreover, environmental, relational, cultural and country level moderators are examined.

It is suggested that IT capabilities contribute directly to improved organizational process such as coordination, transaction specific investment, absorptive capacity and monitoring. These in turn contribute to strategic and operational performance outcomes. Against a resource‐based as well as a transaction‐cost theory background it is suggested that partner interdependence and environmental, country and cultural factors moderate the process of IT contribution on performance.

The paper provides a number of propositions which can be tested empirically in future studies.

Managers should focus on the complementarities of IT capabilities. Electronic integration in combination with, for example, human IT resources may enhance supply chain performance and mitigate the moderating effects of environmental, relational, cultural and country factors.

The paper develops an integrated conceptual model and propositions which contribute to a clarification of the ambiguous nature of the IT‐business value in international B2B relationship.

Over time, the concept of word of mouth (WOM) has spread beyond marketing into other disciplines. This is because WOM is important in decision-making at both the individual and organisational levels. Also, people are more likely to trust recommendations from their peers than those from companies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived usefulness of WOM messages for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers in participating in Tanzanian public procurement opportunities.

The study collected cross-sectional data from 214 SME suppliers who supply common use items to public procuring organisations in Dodoma City, Tanzania. Structural equation modelling was used to test the direct relationships between study variables, and Hayes' PROCESS macro was used to test for the indirect effect of WOM message delivery on WOM attributes and the perceived usefulness of WOM.

WOM attributes that include expertise differential, perceptual homophily, and trustworthiness are related to the perceived usefulness of WOM. Also, WOM message delivery mediates the relationship between the WOM attributes and the perceived usefulness of WOM in enhancing public procurement participation. Therefore, the study's findings revealed that WOM is applicable in the public procurement context, under which public buyers act as senders and suppliers act as receivers. The latter finds out about public procurement opportunities and responds to them, while the former gives suppliers whatever information they need to respond to public procurement tenders that have been advertised.

Because the study was cross-sectional, it was difficult to determine whether the opinions gathered over time remained consistent. Furthermore, only suppliers who are parties to framework contracts under Government Procurement Services Agency were included in the study. Therefore, the sample was limited to only suppliers supplying common use items to various public organisations in Dodoma City, Tanzania.

This paper integrates the concept of WOM from the marketing discipline and public procurement. As a result, the study adds to the understanding of the use of information transmission in terms of the contribution of WOM messages from public buyers to suppliers to enhance small and medium enterprises' participation in public procurement opportunities.

This study aims to identify the critical factors affecting the perception of adolescent students toward interactive online mental health information available on health-related websites.

The primary data was collected with the help of an online self–structured questionnaire. The questionnaire includes the identified variables extracted from previous literature related to the mental health information websites using the Likert scale. The respondents include the adolescent school students belonging to the northern region of India: semi-urban/rural locations of Uttar Pradesh (Agra and Mathura) and urban cities (Faridabad, Gaziabad, Delhi and NCR). The criteria for selecting respondents were that students must have visited any online health information-related websites at least once. Exploratory factor analysis was used to explore the factors with the help of SPSS.20.

The identified factors that include information delivery medium/mode, websites’ navigation structure, customized information or content, ability to form a virtual relationship and supplementary features of the websites may benefit the health communication system of any country and the health-care industry.

There are some limitations such as a limited number of respondents and even on that sample was taken for teenagers; thereby creating fewer generalizations related to the present context. Further, only exploratory factor analysis is applied in the study to identify the factors but future researchers may proceed to develop the conceptual model of perception toward online information with the help of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling techniques.

The results of this study are useful for government officials especially those related to the ministry of health care and public health organizations of various countries, who usually invest in co-designing authentic, reliable and high interactive online information-sharing websites.

The results of the study will facilitate the various social child welfare associations and non-governmental organizations that are usually involved in the holistic development of adolescents. The identified factors can be seriously taken into considerations by these associations while they are formulating any on line websites for sharing health-related information to adolescents.

The study is unique as it provides insight into the opinion of the adolescent students, primarily upon encountering the online mental health information concerning the Indian perspective. Future researchers, health-care policymakers and health-care professionals may use the study to capture a complete picture of a relevant phenomenon in their work.

The purpose of this case study is to investigate the role of a governmental social audit (SA) practice in enabling emancipation, and changing patterns in the balance of power, position and understandings between dominant micro actors and disenfranchised rural citizens.

Enlisting Bourdieu's practice theory concepts of field, habitus, capitals and symbolic violence, the case study is informed by semi-structured interviews at central, state, district, block and village levels as well field observations and secondary data. This study is a part of a larger critical accounting research project conducted in India over four months, covering eight annual implementation cycles.

The study demonstrates that despite entrenched hegemonic micro forces and public sector corruption, SA's accounting and accountability practices have altered the rules of the game in this field. This emancipatory perspective has redefined deep-seated, generational patterns of power relations and domination, impacting the distribution of capitals and habitus in the daily life of rural citizens.

This study provides an alternative perspective to understanding governmental SA formats in developing nation contexts at the micro level. In line with Celerier and Botey's (2015) focus on inclusionary and democratic participation, this study challenges the dominant perspective of accounting as strengthening power asymmetries and focuses on its potential as an emancipatory agent.

The paper provides a site of effective implementation of a participative accountability practice in developing nation contexts that offer suggestions to states, countries and policy-makers. This paper also adds to critical accounting literature in the field of SA and social services at a micro level. Drawing upon Bourdieu in this underexplored field, it shines a light on relational elements of change through accounting and accountability practices for researchers and practitioners.

Since liberalization in the 1990s, India has witnessed a growth in the number of educated middle-class women in professions. However, there are few women in leadership positions and decision-making bodies. While the earlier notion of the ideal woman as homemaker has been replaced by one which idealizes women of substance, a woman’s role in the family continues to be pivotal and is even viewed as central in defining Indian culture. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how and to what extent gender inequalities are reproduced in the organizations employing educated professionals.

Based on the perspective that gender is socially constructed, this paper analyzes gender inequality in Indian organizations through semi-structured interviews of men and women scientists in two private pharmaceutical laboratories.

The findings show reproduction of a gendered normative order through two types of norms and practices: one, norms and practices that favor men and second, socio-cultural norms that devalue women in public spaces which help to maintain masculinity in the workplace. Although these practices might be found elsewhere in the world, the manner in which they are enacted reflects national cultural norms.

The paper highlights how various norms and practices enacted in the specific Indian socio-cultural context construct and maintain masculinity at workplace depriving opportunities to professional women which affect their rise to leadership positions.