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This paper aims to investigate an adaptive prescribed performance control problem for switched pure-feedback non-linear systems with input quantization.

By using the semi-bounded continuous condition of non-affine functions, the controllability of the system can be guaranteed. Then, a constraint variable method is introduced to ensure that the tracking error satisfies the prescribed performance requirements. Meanwhile, to avoid the design difficulties caused by the input quantization, a non-linear decomposition method is adopted. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed control scheme is verified by a numerical simulation example.

Based on neural networks and prescribed performance control method, an adaptive neural control strategy for switched pure-feedback non-linear systems is proposed.

The complex deduction and non-differentiable problems of traditional prescribed performance control methods can be solved by using the proposed error transformation approach. Besides, to obtain more general results, the restrictive differentiability assumption on non-affine functions is removed.

Sustainable manufacturing is gaining prominence in light of the rising environmental and social concerns worldwide. One major task to enhance manufacturing sustainability is assessment of the current state of sustainability of a manufacturing firm. This paper reviews the existing sustainability assessment approaches applicable for manufacturing firms and observes that most of these approaches are not easy to apply for reasons such as high amount of skill, data and time requirement. Towards bridging this gap, this study proposes a sustainability assessment approach.

The assessment approach proposed in the paper uses a predefined list of potential sustainable manufacturing practices (SMPs) covering the primary and support activity domains of a manufacturing firm's value chain. It proposes a method to assess the extent of implementation of SMPs and identify associated drivers and barriers for each SMP area/category along the value chain of a firm as well as at overall firm level. A case study from textile industry is presented to demonstrate the utility of this approach.

The sustainability assessment approach adopted in this study uses less time and skills as well as ensures comprehensive coverage of SMPs. It provided valuable information to the management of the case company on how sustainable their practices are and why?

The study highlights the importance of sustainability assessment at SMP area/category level as well as explores practice area/category specific drivers and barriers. It provides a useful approach for a quick assessment of the current state of sustainability in manufacturing firms.

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that help in building e-loyalty towards online retailers. Internet has brought the world market into a single platform. Marketers have started using Internet as a new and innovative way to interact and reach people all around the world. With the increase in the number of Internet users, the number of e-marketers has also increased. In the context of online retailing, the service quality being offered is increasingly being used as a tool for competitive advantage. E-tailers are embracing superior e-services to attract, retain and convert patrons into loyal customers.

The researchers in the present study have used a research instrument that consists of constructs of the modified eTailQ scale, hedonism and e-satisfaction that together result in the formation of e-loyalty. Researcher-controlled sampling was employed to collect data from 159 student respondents.

Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were applied for analysing the collected data. The results of the study demonstrate that major factors which help in the formation of e-loyalty are e-satisfaction, customer service, privacy and hedonism.

This study extends the understanding of the role of e-satisfaction, customer service, privacy and hedonism in the formation of loyal consumers. The researchers proposed a model to study the factors impacting the e-loyalty of the Internet shoppers in India. The findings of the study are expected to help both researchers and marketers.

The purpose of this study is to integrate and synthesize the Islamic marketing literature, understand the phenomenon and related concepts and provide suggestions for future research.

The study uses an integrative review method that emphasizes summarizing and synthesizing the previous literature related to a phenomenon.

The findings indicate the emergence of five major themes, namely, Islamic marketing and its perspectives, activities in Islamic marketing, opportunities, controversies and challenges in Islamic marketing, Islamic principles and determinants of consumers’ behavior and awareness toward Islamic products. Each of the major themes consists of sub-themes discussed in detail in the results and discussion sections.

Like other studies, this integrative literature review has some limitations. These include the methodology undertaken, the lack of explanation of inter-relationship among themes and lack of Islamic theory-based review. These limitations lead to future research directions.

Marketing managers need a thorough understanding of the Islamic standards and need to develop strategies. Further, there are inter-differences among Muslims, which need to be thoroughly understood by managers. Moreover, marketers can effectively use advertising in creating awareness and increasing demand of halal products.

This study provides an integrative review of the literature and synthesizes the Islamic marketing literature, which has not been done before.

The purpose of this paper is to identify what lifestyles best explain and impact ecological behavior among young Indian consumers.

This paper adapts the lifestyle scale developed by He et al. (2010) and the Actual Commitment scale to the Indian context to describe its impact on the young consumer’s ecological profile. The study is based on an extensive literature review. The data were obtained from a questionnaire handed out to a sample of 250 students. With the information obtained, and after the scale validation process, a structural equation analysis has been conducted.

Findings of the study highlight that environmental patterns and lifestyle factors are those that best characterize the ecological market segment. This group of young consumers is characterized by their self-identity and a feeling of uniqueness. They are people who always try to improve themselves and take actions which pose a new challenge for them. They are also characterized by having an ecological lifestyle, selecting and recycling products and taking part in events to protect the environment. This type of consumer is a present and future investment for firms that are committed to the environment.

The results of this study might interest consumer behavior researchers and those firms that care about the ecological consumers. Moreover, previous studies have not dealt with young consumers. Further research is needed including new psychographic variables.

This study aims to develop, propose and test an integrated framework of brand love and brand experience in the context of halal industry. Particularly, this study investigates the relationship of brand experience and brand love concepts with several outcome variables such as brand trust, brand satisfaction, brand loyalty purchase intention and word of mouth.

A structured questionnaire has been constructed using scales from past studies. Hypotheses have been tested using partial least square structural equation modelling methodology.

This study has found that brand experience is a significant determinant of brand love. Further, brand love has a significant influence on trust, satisfaction and loyalty. Both variables, brand experience and brand love, have either direct or indirect influences on several branding-related outcome variables such as brand trust, brand satisfaction and brand loyalty.

This study has been conducted only using cross-sectional sample of one country, which may limit the generalisations. However, the results of this study offer valuable insights for the brand managers in the halal sector.

Previous studies pertaining to halal food consumption have focussed more on understanding the attitude or the buying intention of the consumers. Only few studies have attempted to investigate the branding aspect of halal food consumption. This study is one of its kinds, which offers a comprehensive framework by incorporating important brand-related antecedents and outcome variables to understand the branding aspect of the halal food consumption behaviour.

Internet is both a medium and a platform for information exchange. This characteristic of internet is gradually metamorphosing it into an e-learning enabler. A significant percentage of internet users access health-related information through the medium of internet, but little is known about the factors that determine such behaviour. This study aims to explore the factors that determine the behaviour of those seeking health-related information in the virtual world.

The present study analyses the role of perceived ease of usefulness (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), self-efficacy (SE) and information quality (IQ) on the intention (IU) of the internet users to seek health-related information. Researcher-controlled sampling was used for data collection from 210 university students. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), t-test and correlation have been used for data analysis.

The results of the study demonstrate that except SE, all other factors have a positive relationship with the intention of the users to seek health-related information. The findings suggest that PU and IQ overshadow PEOU in encouraging the users seeking such health-related information over the internet.

The present study extends the understanding of e-learning adoption associated with seeking health-related information. The researchers propose an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) model to study the factors influencing the use of internet in seeking health-related information by the students enrolled in medical and non-medical courses.

This paper aims to gauge the visibility of open content available in different formats of select open courseware (OCW) repositories through prominent search engines.

Open content in three formats (pdf, audio and video) from four OCW repositories listed in the OCW consortium under the science and technology subject heading were searched through seven select search engines.

None of the selected OCW repositories are fully visible on the selected search engines. Visibility of OCW content varied from one search engine to the other and was affected by the format in which it is available. Google is the best search engine for retrieving OCW content, whereas OCWfinder – a specialized search engine for retrieving OCW – has performed dismally.

The study demonstrates the need for enhancing the visibility of open content through using search engine optimization techniques.

The study intends to supply findings that could be used by stakeholders to improve the visibility of OCW repositories. It is an attempt to draw a comparison between search engines for their ability to index different formats of OCW in the selected repositories. Findings can be used by information professionals to brush their information hunting skills.

In recent times, progression of technology and growing demands of customers have substantially influenced the services sector to introduce fast real-time mechanisms for providing up-to-mark services. To meet these requirements, organizations are going to change their end-user operating systems but success rate of change is very low. The purpose of this paper is to address one of the practitioners’ complaint “no one tells us how to do it” and uncovers the indirect effects of knowledge management (KM) strategies: personalization and codification, toward organizational change via organizational learning and change readiness. The current study also highlights how organizational learning and change readiness are helpful to reduce the detrimental effects of organizational change cynicism toward success of a change process.

Temporal research design is used to get the appropriate responses from the targeted population in two stages such as pre-change (Time-1) and post-change (Time-2). In cumulative, 206 responses have been obtained from the banking sector of Pakistan.

The results of the current study are very promising as it has been stated that KM strategies have an indirect effect on successful organizational change through organizational learning and change readiness. Moreover, change cynicism has a weakening effect on a change process and can be managed through effective learning orientation of employees and developing readiness for change in organizations.

Change agents have to use an optimal mix of personalization and codification strategies to develop learning environment and readiness for change in organizations that are beneficial for implementing a change successfully. Moreover, change readiness and organizational learning in the context of change are equally beneficial to reduce organizational change cynicism as well.

This study is introducing a unique model to initiate a change with the help of KM strategies, organizational learning and readiness for change.

This case was written to help students develop their analytical and decision-making skills with regard to sales force evaluation. It identifies a variety of issues – in the Pakistani context particularly – within the sales force environment, including union representation, sales force team conflicts and power dynamics between superiors and subordinates. The various case lessons will enhance students’ analytical, negotiation and team-management skills. This case can be used to discuss the following issues: the complexity of objective and subjective evaluations of a sales force, sales force perceptions and cultural nuances for succeeding in Pakistan. Distribution structures and management in Pakistan. Characteristic features of the Pakistani pharmaceutical market. Students will be able to explain how salesperson performance information can be used to identify problems, determine their causes and suggest sales management actions to solve them. Students will be able to differentiate between an outcome-based and a behaviour-based perspective for evaluating and controlling salesperson performance. Students will understand how to control one’s behaviour in conflict situations by identifying common interests and achieving a “win-win” situation.

The Al-Ain case describes sales force management and sales force evaluation in a situation that involves a high-performing team operating in a hostile environment. Al-Ain eye centre (Al-Ain), located in the city of Karachi in Sindh state of Southern Pakistan, is a small-scale hospital that has diversified into the pharmaceutical business. Al-Ain’s product portfolio includes analgesics, antibiotics, ophthalmology products and cardiology products. This case focusses on team management and the relationship between a sales manager and subordinate salespeople in the context of Pakistani culture. A sales representative has received a poor performance assessment, which he perceives to be an unfair evaluation of his efforts. As a result of the situation, he subsequently joins a union and creates problems for his superiors. As they explore these management issues within a sales force, students will develop an appreciation for objective methods of sales force evaluation, as well as for the complexity of handling high-performing teams, the importance of employee perceptions and the scope of subjective biases in sales force evaluation that can emerge in practice.

The case is suited to undergraduate or MBA courses on sales management, organizational behaviour, distribution management, marketing/strategy and pharmaceutical industries. It addresses issues of sales force management, sales territory allocations, sales target fixation, team conflict, promotion, team bonus and distribution management in the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.