Search results

Recent research on the energy system highlights the need for understanding the bandwidth of drivers and inhibitors of household investor's behaviour in rooftop PV (or photovoltaic power system) and to fit the broader socio-economic context in which they are deployed. However, apart from few exceptions, these newer perspectives have not been duly applied in the research on rooftop PV. This paper aims to fill this gap and to shed new light on rooftop PV investment decisions.

This study has been conducted with the primary data collected using two data sets of 237 households and 387 households of Indian southern state Kerala using survey-based questionnaire. The findings from first data set revealed that households considering the adoption of PV were likely influenced by six distinct factors, three motivators and three inhibitors. Second data set for multi-state analytic approach was proposed whereby the research model was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). The outcomes of SEM were used as inputs for an artificial neural network (ANN) model for forecasting investor investment decision in in renewables. The ANN model was also used to rank the relative influence of significant predictors obtained from SEM.

In line with the risk–return framework, government subsidies act as primary motivator which helps in overcoming the initial risk of investment in the new technology. Further, low prices and low cost of maintenance are some of the financial motivators which may likely mitigate the long-term apprehension of returns and maintenance cost. Lastly, the strongest motivators of PV investment come from the environmental and financial motivator in the form of PV subsidies, which further solidifies the role of policy interventions in investment decision. The ANN model identified the technical barrier and knowledge and awareness factors play a significant role in forcasting the investor investing decision.

The study results will be useful for policymakers for framing strategies to attract and influence their investment in renewable energy.

Building upon behavioural finance and institutional theory, this paper posits that, in addition to a rational evaluation of the economics of the investment opportunities, various non-financial factors affect the household's decision to invest in renewables.

Brand managers frequently use well-known celebrities to position their brands and capture consumers’ attention to improve the brand’s market share. The attachment of a celebrity with a brand creates a human image for a brand and helps in personifying its image. The consumer perceives the brand as an individual and relates his personality, as well as the personality of the celebrity with that of the brand. It becomes pertinent for marketers to understand how brand-celebrity personality congruence and brand-consumer personality congruence affect the brand reputation, uniqueness and purchase intentions. Thus, the purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between the two personality congruence aspects – brand & celebrity personalities and brand & consumer personalities, and their impact on the reputation of the brand and its uniqueness. Further, the paper aims to examine the impact of the brand reputation and brand uniqueness on purchase intentions.

The present study uses Aaker’s five-factor personality scale to study the personality congruence effects on brand reputation, brand uniqueness and purchase intentions. The literature review was carried out to categorize factors related to celebrity personality, brand personality and consumer personality. The data for this study was collected through questionnaires from 1,235 respondents. In the first step, congruencies between celebrity, brand and consumer personality were determined. This was followed by a two-stage structural equation modelling for assessing the model fit and testing the hypotheses.

From the study results, it is observed that brand-celebrity congruency influences brand reputation and brand uniqueness. However, brand-consumer congruency had an effect only on brand reputation and not on brand uniqueness. Both brand reputation and uniqueness have favourable impact on consumers purchase intentions.

This study contributes to the existing literature on celebrity endorsement by extending the discussion with personality-based congruence. The research deciphered two aspects of identification, i.e. consumer-brand personality congruence and brand-celebrity congruence. The paper hypothesized the favourable association between brand personality and consumer personality congruence and brand uniqueness. However, it was observed that brand personality-consumer personality identification had an insignificant influence on brand uniqueness. This is contrary to the findings of some studies in the literature. Further investigation of this relationship in the future may add a new dimension to the identification context.

The growth in online shopping activities has made online reviews a useful information source for customers. At the same time, the number of shoppers sharing their experiences through reviews has also increased. Not enough research has been undertaken in the past to examine a comprehensive set of factors that influence review posting behaviour. Further, the influence of personality traits on such behaviour is mostly unexplored. The study aims to examine the impact of the system’s usefulness and ease of use, along with shoppers’ motivation for writing reviews, namely, rewards and associated costs.

Using the 3 M model of personality traits, this paper examined the impact of these personality traits on customers’ intent towards writing online reviews. A detailed review of the literature was undertaken to ascertain the pertinent factors, and the corresponding validated scales were obtained. The primary data was collected using an offline survey method, and 275 valid responses were recorded. The hypotheses were investigated through structural equation modelling on analysis of a moment structures 22.0.

The study observed the significant effects of both ease of use and usefulness, on shoppers’ attitude. This favourable attitude was further found to have a positive effect on shoppers’ intention to write reviews. Of the eight personality traits as predictors of shoppers’ intention to provide reviews, three (neuroticism, agreeableness and openness) were observed to be significant predictors. It was noted that intrinsic rewards influenced shoppers’ intention. Conversely, extrinsic rewards were found to be insignificant in influencing shoppers’ intention. Costs had a significant negative impact on the intention to write reviews.

The study presents theoretical and managerial implications. This paper suggests that for writing online reviews, the customers must perceive the review system to be simple, convenient and easy to use. It is pertinent for them to comprehend the usefulness of such reviews. Electronic retailers must highlight how the reviews are read and considered in making buying decisions. They must develop a system that enables the review writers to know the number of shoppers who have purchased the product after reading a particular review. E-retailers must strategize to highlight the intrinsic rewards available for shoppers to motivate them.

The present study examines the factors that motivate and influence shoppers to write online reviews. Using the conceptual framework of technology acceptance model, the self-determination theory and the 3 M framework of personality traits, the study investigates the factors that motivate shoppers to write reviews. The most significant aspect of the present study is the inclusion of eight personality traits for deciphering the relationship between personality traits and the intention to write reviews.

This study differentiates pure impulse buying behaviour from suggestive impulse buying behaviour in using mobile shopping applications (apps). This study aims to assess the moderating effects of instant discount and cashback promotional offers along with the mediating effects of impulse buying intention (IBI) and user satisfaction (US), using the app stimuli (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, layout, atmosphere, privacy and security).

The study was done in three stages: analysis of variance, followed by structural equation modelling (SEM) and paired t-tests.

The results showed that instant discounts and cashback offers are different from each other for the mediating variable IBI. The SEM results for pure impulse buying showed that, except for layout, the remaining variables have a positive relationship with IBI. For suggestive impulse buying, effort expectancy and layout were significantly related to both the mediating variables. Finally, pure and suggestive impulse buying behaviour showed significant differences.

Previous studies have looked into impulse buying in its generic sense and not through the “types” of impulse buying they were measuring. As impulse buying behaviour is a predominant theme for discussion today, marketing professionals and researchers must comprehend the impact of app stimuli in the context of select types of impulse buying behaviour.

The present research has used the expectancy–confirmation model along with the regret theory to examine the influence of six e-retailers' characteristics and confirmation on shoppers' satisfaction or regret. Further, the effect of these two cognitive constructs has been investigated on consumers' post-purchase behaviour like the intention to write reviews, repurchase intentions and brand-switching behaviour.

Extensive review of the literature was undertaken to identify the related factors. Data were collected using the survey instrument from 367 respondents. Structural equation modelling using Amos 22.0 was carried out for analysing the data.

The findings from the data collected from 367 respondents include the significant influence of price transparency, service quality and firms’ sincerity on shoppers' satisfaction.

Contrary to expectations, it is observed that product assortment, product quality and quality of personalisation did not have any such influence. Also, a firm's sincerity is the only factor that influenced regret. The noticeable outcome of the study pertains to the fact that online reviews are only provided by satisfied shoppers and not shoppers who regret. Rather, such regretting customers prefer switching to the alternative brand(s) and are less inclined to repurchase.

Strategic Marketing Management. This case is also relevant for discussion in other courses like brand management.

Postgraduate Management students.

Just before the official launch of “no-negative” news edition by Dainik Bhaskar Corp. Ltd, there was widespread speculation that the group was risking too much by going against the set convention of the newspaper industry. The common belief in the industry was “If it bleeds, it leads” and “good news is no news”. While endeavoring to do away with this perception, the management needed answers to questions like “Would it really be an attractive proposition for the readers?”, “Was the group compromising the role and responsibilities of press in presenting the truth to the world?” and “How would it add value to the brand?” The entire debate was pivoted around the sustainability of positive marketing strategy and “Is it a good idea to go forward with No Negative?” For decades, Dainik Bhaskar was known for its strategy of capturing untapped markets or denting into monopolistic markets and become a leader. This case is an odyssey of moving away from the “me-too” to category (positive newspaper) positioning. The main objective of this case is to build the concept and rudiments of positive marketing in practical perspectives using the backdrop of the Hindi newspaper industry and its largest player breaking the myth “only negative news sell”. Besides this, the case also evolves the process of institutionalizing positive marketing in organizations.

The primary objective of teaching through this case is to make students aware and understand the emerging strategy of positive marketing and its ability to break through the present clutter in the market. It also elaborates on how companies can use this tool for differentiating themselves from others.

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

CSS 8: Marketing.

This paper aims to report the results of an experiment undertaken to investigate the effect of country of origin (COO) in shielding the company’s image and retaining the trust and supportive behavioural intentions when it faces a crisis and the interactive effect of COO and the company’s pre-crisis reputation in shielding the company’s image.

A quasi-experimental study was undertaken to test the proposed hypotheses. Specifically, a two (pre-crisis reputation: low versus high) × two (country of origin: Indian versus Non-Indian) between-subjects factorial experimental design is configured and operationalized.

The results demonstrate that COO of a company fails to protect trust and supportive behaviour on its own, but, in the presence of a high pre-crisis reputation, it shields trust in the company more effectively. However, the interaction of COO and reputation does not induce supportive behaviour for the company during a crisis.

The findings of this research may help organizations to enhance trust/supportive behaviour toward their brand/company using attributes such as COO and pre-crisis reputation of the company.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the importance of social network effects in influencing the elective (courses) selection among masters of business administration (MBA) students and its role in influencing the efficacy of MBA. As such, given the enormous time and investment required for students to pursue an MBA and the role of electives in forming the student’s knowledge base, it is important to consider the decision process of students while selecting elective courses as they pursue their degree.

This study explores the relevance of network characteristics in the elective selection phenomena through questionnaires administered personally to 50 MBA students from a premier b-school in India. Thereby, it seeks to link the implications with MBA efficacy.

In the sample, the authors found that social network connections in terms of homophily and heterophily (similar and dissimilar others) had the strongest association with elective course decisions. Further, the role of tie strength (the level of intensity of the social relationship between two individuals) in governing the phenomena was not confirmed.

The authors discuss the linkage of elective selection phenomena with the efficacy of MBA. Specifically, the authors focus on a possible risk where network influences may prompt a student to select electives by surpassing his or her academic interests and thereby may hamper the efficacy. The authors also outline implications from the perspective of students, professors, and administrators.

The study is among the initial studies to present preliminary evidence on the efficacy of MBA from the perspective of elective selection phenomena and the role of social network effects.