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Purpose of this paper is highlight the importance of adopting FinTech innovations to improve Customer Retention

Authors viewpoint and give a macro perspective of FinTech-Customer Retention linkages.

Adoption of FinTech innovations is essential for customer retention.

Many large B2C players are moving strongly ahead with adopting FinTech driven payment solutions. Competitors which ignore this trend, stand to lose customers in the long run.

FinTech is a new and developing industry. There has been limited research into its usage by non-financial corporates and impact on customer retention.

Entrepreneurship, finance, technology and innovation, general management.

This case is suitable for students in finance, entrepreneurship and general management. The case seeks to understand the challenges of funding in technology startups and how they vary from product to service areas.

Availability of capital, short term and long term, is a major constraint faced by entrepreneurs. In India, in the technology sector, services companies have been able to innovate and grow whereas product-based companies that survived the challenges of funding have been scarce. Aluru Karthik Prasanth is presented in the case as a young entrepreneur with passion and drive to pursue the commercialization of an idea he developed during his undergraduate studies in engineering. Leaving behind the beaten paths ofMTech and employment, he decides to pursue MS entrepreneurship at IIT Madras. As he starts with his program, he analyses the challenges faced by previous technology start ups, Karthik has a dilemma – deciding whether to follow a product idea or change his plans to a technology service.

A detailed analysis of the case would help students address the following questions in entrepreneurial decision making: should an entrepreneur in technology in India pursue a product idea or service idea?. What are the pros and cons of each choice in financing? How can an entrepreneur pursue a product idea and minimize his/her risks? How does an entrepreneur's personal attributes influence his/her course? (e.g. family background, need for control) What are the challenges and opportunities in each kind of funding: debt, venture, angel, etc. in the Indian context?

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Strategy.

MBA level. The case can be used primarily for the following courses: strategic management, competitive strategy. It can also be used for courses on: international business, international business environment, business marketing.

Intense competition and a turbulent economic environment posed problems for Infosys, a leading information technology (IT) company in India. Infosys lost market share and its second position in the IT industry to Cognizant. An adverse economic environment affected its clients' IT spending and introduced severe price-based competition in the market. Infosys' business model operated on charging price premium from clients, and the company never compromised on its margins. The company was forced to revaluate, as outsourcing, the main revenue earner for Infosys was experiencing commoditization, and other players were willing to compromise on margins. The Indian IT industry had moved up the value chain and competitors were offering consulting services, where there was huge scope for differentiation. Infosys did not have the requisite resources to compete in this domain. Decline in share prices, negative investor sentiments, downward revision of revenue guidance targets, loss of large clients, higher attrition rates, and visa problems in the US market (Infosys earned more than 60 percent revenues from this market) added worries for the company. In response to these challenges, Infosys initiated Strategy 3.0, wherein the company planned to move up the value chain and offer consulting services and other high-end solutions to clients. This was a shift from its predominantly outsourcing-based revenue model. The company acquired Lodestone to hasten implementation of Strategy 3.0. Initial analysis, however, suggested that Infosys was merely aping Cognizant's well-established strategy. Infosys also needed to tackle perceptual issues regarding its competencies.

The instructor can use this case to facilitate the understanding of: the impact of an intensely competitive environment on a company's strategy, how changes in the competitive landscape and business environment can erode sources of competitive advantage for an incumbent, the impact of a client's business environment on the vendor's business, the concept of value chain and analyze how companies in an industry move up in the value chain, the concept of business model, and how environmental changes can impact a hitherto robust business model of a company, evolution of business model over a period of time with changes in the business environment, the internal conflict between ideals and values versus revenues and market share for a company, key resources and capabilities that shape the differential advantage for an IT company, designing and implementing strategic solutions, the evolution of the Indian IT industry.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Strategic planning is an organization’s process of describing its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to track this strategy. SWOT analysis is one of the most commonly used techniques for strategic planning. SWOT examines the strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) agents of the community together with opportunities (O) and threats (T), for selecting and implementing the best strategy which helps in achieving its goals. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the performance of SWOT analysis regarding the quantitative side of strategies, select the best strategy from different strategies and deal effectively with vague and incompatible information, which occurs usually in actual life.

This study used the neutrosophic analytic hierarchy process (AHP) incorporated with SWOT analysis.

By adding the neutrosophic AHP to SWOT analysis, the performance of SWOT analysis is enhanced through determining the quantitative values and dealing with vague and inconsistent information effectively leading to improved decisions.

The developed integrated methodology is validated in a real-life case of Starbucks company. For the case study of Starbucks company, the proposed model helps in determining different strategic plans and, further, ranking these plans effectively, which will help the company to compete with its competitors and develop itself by obtaining a competitive advantage over its competitors in an uncertain business environment.

In the case study of Starbucks company, the proposed model helps to determine the different strategic plans, rank these plans which help the company compete with its competitors, develop itself and grow.

This research is the first to address SWOT analysis with neutrosophic AHP.

This paper aims to explore the application of drumstick (Moringa oleifera) flower (DF) as a functional antioxidative ingredient in goat meat product.

Dried DF was included in the product formulation at 1% (Treatment I) and 2% (Treatment II) levels. The physicochemical, colour, textural and sensory quality as well as storage stability of nuggets with DF were determined against control.

The dried DF was found to be rich source of protein and dietary fibre, possessing good antioxidant potential. Chromatographic analysis of DF extract showed presence of 14 active principles known to have antioxidative properties. Inclusion of dried DF decreased pH values of emulsion (p = 0.005) as well as nuggets (p < 0.001) and increased (p < 0.001) the ash, dietary fibre and phenolic contents. The added DF affected the product’s lightness (p = 0.017), yellowness (p < 0.001, hardness (p < 0.001), adhesiveness (p = 0.032), cohesiveness (p = 0.006), gumminess and chewiness (p < 0.001). Sensory characteristics of control and product with DF were statistically similar except low (p = 0.002) flavour score for Treatment II. DF inclusion lowered (p < 0.001) thiobarbituric acid reactive substances number and total plate count.

DF can be used as a source of antioxidants and dietary fibre in goat meat nuggets to enhance their health value, functionality and storage stability.

Foods including goat meat nuggets enriched with goodness of functional ingredients like dietary fibre and natural antioxidants are gaining consumer’s preference globally. Inclusion of drumstick flower in goat meat nuggets significantly increases the dietary fibre and antioxidants making such products healthier and more stable. Consumption of goat meat nuggets added with drumstick flower is expected to improve consumer’s well-being as well.

Developing countries’ economic growth very much depend on the successful performance of entrepreneurial-oriented firms. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is a valuable conjecturer of firm success. This study mainly focuses on analyzing the effect of EO on the firm performance (FP) with the mediating role of absorptive capacity (ACAP).

To test the hypothetical model, we collected 226 valid responses from senior managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The structural equation modeling technique is performed and research hypotheses are validated.

The findings show that the strong causal relations exit between EO, ACAP and FP. In brief, EO was found to be a predictor of ACAP, and ACAP has a strong positive impact on FP. Moreover, ACAP substantiated to be a mediator between EO and FP.

A notable ramification of this finding is that for SMEs to enhance their performance via EO, the presence of ACAP as a mediator is essential.

The findings of this study can be used as a basis to consider EO to increase firms' level of ACAP and to enhance FP. As a whole, the findings offer pragmatic insights for SMEs and pertinent stakeholders.

So far, little is known about the interrelationship between EO, ACAP and FP. Importantly, the mediating role of ACAP between EO and FP has remained unexplored. This study fills this gap in the existing literature.

The case collates secondary data pertaining to Maruti’s current position, Nexa, the premium retail sales channel of Maruti, and recent developments in the Indian automobile industry. It presents the facts and data published on websites, newspapers and magazines in the form of a case study.

Nexa was launched by Maruti in 2015 to enhance the buying experience of its premium customers and to re-position itself as a premium brand. It started offering customized services to car purchasers through its well-trained employees, attractive store environment and omni channel experience. Through all these facilities, though Nexa had a bumpy ride for selling its first product, it managed to pace up and perform better in the next few years. It remained to be seen how Maruti would handle competitor and cost challenges and how it would strategize its efforts to strengthen its footprint in the Indian automotive industry.

This case can be used in retail management, sales and distribution management, marketing management and related courses/modules at the master’s level.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate long-term currency exchange rate and also identify the key factors for decision makers in the currency exchange market. The study is expected to aid decision makers to take positions in the dynamic Forex market.

This study is based on quantitative and fundamental analysis of statistically oriented regression models. The trend of quarterly exchange rates is investigated using 110 variables including economic elements, interest rate and other currencies. This research is based on the same information that banks’ dealers use for the analysis. Ordinary least squares linear regression also known as “least squared errors regression” was used to estimate the value of the dependent variable.

The study concludes that “only Australian economic data” or “only the US economic data” cannot fully reflect the trend of AUD/USD. EUR influences AUD relatively larger than the other main market currencies. Six-month Australian interest rate itself affects AUD/USD trend much more than the six-month interest difference between AUD and USD.

The results indicate that the economic autoregressive moving average model can be used to predict future exchange rate using primary factors identified and not from the generic market or economic view. This helps adjust to the general, common (and possibly wrong) views when making a buy or sell decision.

This is one of the first studies in the context using the information of bank dealers for AUD/USD. This study is highly relevant in the current context, given the significant growth in Forex trade.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that Bourdieu’s concept of masculine domination offers a comprehensive social theory of gender as compared to Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity through examining the proposition of positive hegemonic masculinity.

This is a conceptual paper that argues that Bourdieu’s concept of masculine domination offers a comprehensive social theory of gender as compared to Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity.

The findings demonstrate that Bourdieu’s concept of masculine domination incorporates both discursive and material structures of the gender system that privileges men/masculine over women/feminine, making it a comprehensive social theory of gender.

The concepts of hegemonic masculinity and masculine domination have not been reviewed in the light of emerging perspectives on hegemony, power and domination. The future research could focus on a review of research methods such as institutional ethnography, in examining masculine domination.

Using masculine domination perspective, organizations could identify specific managerial discourses, aspects of work organization and practices in order to eliminate gender-based discrimination, harassment and unequal access to resources.

Public policy interventions aimed at inclusive development could examine women’s condition of continued disadvantageousness, through masculine domination perspective.

The authors seek to provide a comparative view of the concepts of hegemonic masculinity and masculine domination, using the categories of comparison that was not attempted earlier.

This paper aims to identify the dimensions of a firm’s service innovation competence. This paper also aims to establish the relationship between a firm’s service innovation competence dimensions and customer-oriented service innovation configurations and customer adoption. This study probes the supply side of service innovation to assess the key drivers or capabilities that influence the service innovation process at the firm level.

This study uses the triangulation method using existing theoretical concept supplemented by 18 in-depth interviews of senior level managers from service firms from three sectors – hospitality, mobile telecommunication services and financial services. The interview findings were supplemented by 12 service innovation case studies (four from each sector). Content analysis of in-depth interviews was performed using three raters, and inter-rater reliability was tested. Case studies were categorized in terms of the strength of the innovation competence dimension observed.

Based on the content analysis of the interviews and categorization of case study observations, six distinct dimensions of the firm’s service innovation competence were identified. Four attributes of each dimension were also identified. Based on the interview insights and case observations, seven propositions are suggested, and a conceptual framework is presented to establish the relationship between the firm’s service innovation competence dimensions and service innovation configurations and customer adoption.

This study was conducted in the Indian context and remains to be tested using quantitative research. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed framework in a different geographical context to ascertain its validity.

The conceptual framework presented in the paper may help managers of service firms in building innovation capabilities that are relevant to development of customer-oriented innovations. This would lead to better customer adoption of their new services.

This paper fills an important knowledge gap regarding the dimensions of a critical supply-side component of service innovation, that is, innovation competence. Clear identification of competence dimensions and their relationship with customer adoption extends the current knowledge on service innovation.