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This research delves into consumer online shopping behaviour during the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, utilising the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Behavioural Inhibition System.

A unique and comprehensive repeated cross-sectional methodology was meticulously employed, capturing the nuances of consumer online shopping behaviour across three distinct phases of the pandemic: the initial phase following the outbreak of COVID-19, the transition phase marked by the relaxation of restrictions, and the adaptation phase as society moved towards a new normal. The study involved a sample of 1,155 participants. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the effects of behavioural attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and the moderating role of pandemic-induced consumer anxiety on online purchase intention.

The impact of behavioural attitudes on online purchase intentions increased continuously from the initial phase to the adaptation phase. In contrast, the influence of subjective norms on online shopping intentions gradually declined over the same period. During the early stages of the pandemic, consumer anxiety amplified the influence of personal attitudes towards online shopping while diminishing the impact of social pressures on the same behaviour.

This study’s originality lies in its nuanced analysis of how online purchase intentions evolved across different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, integrating insights from both the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Behavioural Inhibition System. The study offers a comprehensive understanding of the shifts in consumer behaviour over time. It enables more strategic and proactive marketing tactics in a changing environment.

The study explores the evolution of Indian domestic electronics manufacturing post-economic reforms and also investigates the lack of natural growth stages among Indian start-up/SME electronics manufactures.

The theoretical framework is inspired by Dawar and Frost's survival strategy theory that local companies may follow to overcome competitive threats from MNCs. The study adopts a qualitative methodology, more precisely, a phenomenological approach to walking through policy/regulatory reforms amid market distortions, technological gaps and colonial mindset from the perspective of Indian domestic electronics manufacturers. The study has adopted Gioia method of data analysis to inductively suggest a few research propositions.

The phenomenological approach revealed eight essential structure (essence) narratives to explore the complex issue that plague the industry: make in India, made in India, preferential market access strategy, equitable market access strategy, blue ocean strategy, competitive positioning strategy, technical capability and importance of policy/regulatory arbitrage.

The situation of Indian electronics manufacturing units is comparable to the bonsai tree situation, where natural evolution in business stages does not exist; they are born and die as start-ups/MSMEs. The study advocates for equitable market access by removing market distortions. The long-term solution may lie in making available locally manufactured products as a dependable alternative to the imported products or produced locally by MNC OEMs in terms of cost, quality, technology, volume, after-sale service and integrated supply chain.

While the favorable FDI policies, digital India and make-in India initiatives have strengthened domestic electronics production, it is yet to significantly impact India's position in global trade, including manufacturing and exports.

This study aims to explore the synthesis, characteristics and utilization of polymer composites integrated with cutting-edge pigments.

The incorporation of advanced pigments introduces functionalities such as enhanced mechanical strength, thermal stability, ultraviolet resistance and color stability, thus extending the range of applications in diverse fields including automotive, aerospace, electronics and construction.

This review discusses the mechanisms underlying the property enhancements achieved through the incorporation of advanced pigments and highlights recent developments in the field.

Polymer composites incorporating advanced pigments have garnered significant attention in recent years because of their potential to enhance various material properties and broaden their applications. This paper explores the fabrication methods of polymer composites reinforced with organic/inorganic advanced pigments in brief along with their characteristics and applications.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions to global supply chains (SCs), affecting the production, distribution, and transportation of goods and services. To mitigate these disruptions, it is essential to identify the barriers that have impeded the seamless operation of SCs. This study identifies these barriers and assesses their impact on supply chain network (SCN).

To determine the relative importance of different barriers and rank the affected industries, a hybrid approach was employed, combining the best-worst method (BWM) and the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). To accommodate the inherent uncertainties associated with the pandemic, a triangular fuzzy TOPSIS was used to represent the linguistic variable ratings provided by decision-makers.

The study found that the airlines and hospitality industry was the most affected by the barriers, accounting for 46% of the total, followed by the healthcare industry (23%), the manufacturing industry (19%), and finally the consumer and retail industry (17%).

This study is limited to the four critical industries and nine identified barriers. Other industries and barriers may have different weights and rankings. Nevertheless, the findings offer valuable insights for decision-makers in SC management, aiding them in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on their operations and enhancing their resilience against future disruptions.

This study enhances understanding of COVID-19’s impact on SCN and provides a framework for assessing disruptions using multi-criteria decision-making processes. The hybrid approach of BWM and TOPSIS in a fuzzy environment is unique and offers potential applicability in various evaluation contexts.

Circular economy firms, unlike those in a linear economy, encounter significant challenges due to the nature of nonstandardized products, such as asymmetric information on product specifications and highly dispersed supply and demand. Consequently, achieving large-scale operations becomes inherently difficult for them. However, when digital platform-based circular firms adopt diversified business models, their value creation has the potential to achieve significant scale. This study aims to answer “How do digital platform-based circular firms scale up value creation through business model diversification?”.

The authors use a qualitative case study design with a longitudinal (2011–2023) analysis of the various business models developed by ATRenew, a leading firm in the Chinese preowned electronics industry.

The authors find that the recycling business model can act as a “cornerstone” business model for a circular firm to integrate the business model portfolio by leveraging the most synergies (or complementarities) with other business models. Besides, digital platform-based circular firms can effectively scale up value creation by leveraging capability complementary on the supply side, through establishing industrial infrastructure shared with the platform ecosystem; and by leveraging customer complementary on the demand side, through activating the dual role played by platform users as suppliers and consumers.

The authors contribute to the circular business models literature with three mechanisms to scale up circular value creation through business model diversification and advance a set of propositions to be tested in future research. This also has important practical implications for circular economy platform businesses.

The ripple effect (i.e. disruption propagation in networks) belongs to one of the central pillars in supply chain resilience and viability research, constituting a type of systemic disruption. A considerable body of knowledge has been developed for the last two decades to examine the ripple effect triggered by instantaneous disruptions, e.g. earthquakes or factory fires. In contrast, far less research has been devoted to study the ripple effect under long-term disruptions, such as in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study qualitatively analyses secondary data on the ripple effects incurred in automotive and electronics supply chains. Through the analysis of five distinct case studies illustrating operational practices used by companies to cope with the ripple effect, we uncover a disruption propagation mechanism through the supply chains during the semiconductor shortage in 2020–2022.

Applying a theory elaboration approach, we sequence the triggers for the ripple effects induced by the semiconductor shortage. Second, the measures to mitigate the ripple effect employed by automotive and electronics companies are delineated with a cost-effectiveness analysis. Finally, the results are summarised and generalised into a causal loop diagram providing a more complete conceptualisation of long-term disruption propagation.

The results add to the academic discourse on appropriate mitigation strategies. They can help build scenarios for simulation and analytical models to inform decision-making as well as incorporate systemic risks from ripple effects into a normal operations mode. In addition, the findings provide practical recommendations for implementing short- and long-term measures during long-term disruptions.

Due to advances in both software and hardware, obsolescence risk refers to the fear that a product will soon become obsolete, which can be very high for technological products such as smartwatches or smartphones. Drawing on the perceived risk theory and innovation resistance, this study examines the effects of different obsolescence risks on consumer resistance to smartwatches.

A sequential explanatory approach using a mixed method was adopted in this study. In Study 1, we conducted semi-structured and in-depth face-to-face interviews with 16 individuals to identify the most important obsolescence risks affecting consumers’ resistance to smartwatches. This qualitative study develops a novel theoretical model based on interpretive results, including technological, economic, functional, and aesthetic obsolescence risks. In Study 2, we tested our theoretical model by applying partial least-squares structural equation modeling to a sample of 298 smartwatch users.

The results show that consumer resistance to smartwatches is affected by technological, economic, functional, and aesthetic obsolescence risks.

Although most extant studies have focused on the factors influencing the adoption and use of consumer electronics, little is known about the role of obsolescence risk in consumers’ resistance to these products.

The purpose of this article is to identify whether there is happiness in the consumption of brands and product categories and to clarify which provides more happiness: consuming the product itself or consuming the branded product.

The research was a survey with 528 Brazilian consumers. Data were analyzed and interpreted through content analysis and regressions: linear, quantile and logistic.

The results show that there is happiness in the consumption of brands and product categories, with culture being the category that most provides happiness; also confirming that individuals who consume branded products are happier than those who consume the product itself.

Studies confirm that there is happiness in consumption, but when we show that there is more happiness in the consumption of branded products than in not consuming the product itself, and when we identify which are the categories of products that bring the most happiness in an emerging country of Latin America, our article deepens and expands the previous literature.

We suggest that companies associate their brands with culture to balance profit with sustainable purpose. For this, we provide a framework as a tool for this association.

The topic of our article is relevant, timely and current, its originality lies in confirming that those who consume the branded product are happier and those who consume the product itself are less happy, and also by identifying which categories provide the most happiness.

El propósito de este artículo es identificar si hay felicidad en el consumo de marcas y categorías de productos y esclarecer cuál proporciona más felicidad: consumir el producto en sí o consumir el producto de marca.

La investigación fue una encuesta con 528 consumidores brasileños. Los datos fueron analizados e interpretados mediante análisis de contenido y regresiones: lineal, cuantil y logística.

Los resultados muestran que existe felicidad en el consumo de marcas y categorías de productos, siendo la cultura la categoría que más felicidad brinda; confirmando también que los individuos que consumen productos de marca son más felices que los que consumen el producto en sí.

Sugerimos que las empresas asocien sus marcas con la cultura para equilibrar las ganancias con un propósito sostenible. Para ello, proporcionamos un marco como herramienta para esta asociación.

Los estudios confirman que hay felicidad en el consumo, pero cuando demostramos que hay más felicidad en el consumo de productos de marca que en no consumir el producto en sí, y cuando identificamos cuáles son las categorías de productos que más felicidad aportan en un mundo emergente país de América Latina, nuestro artículo profundiza y amplía la literatura anterior.

El tema de nuestro artículo es relevante, oportuno y actual, su originalidad radica en constatar que quienes consumen el producto de marca son más felices y quienes consumen el producto en sí son menos felices, y también en identificar qué categorías aportan más felicidad.

The development of the next Web 3.0 digital generation will be built on a decentralized society and blockchain technologies such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and “soulbound tokens” (SBTs). These technologies will enable a digital proof of personhood that would make it possible for people to differentiate themselves through their unique credentials and reputation. SBTs can include unique information relating to the user’s identity that can enhance consumer’s self-perception, uniqueness and reputation building. The literature remains scant on the underlying consequences of SBTs from a consumer behavior perspective, and consequently the implications for brands given rising egocentric consumer needs which this study addresses.

This study adopted an exploratory approach using in-depth interviews with experts to increase our understanding related to SBTs, and their potential impact on consumers’ behaviors and brands’ marketing strategies.

The findings unveiled an SBT-led egocentrism cycle comprising the following stages: penetration and proliferation of SBTs, consumers’ need for uniqueness and differentiation, brand’s reputation, brand’s personality matching, brand-based NFTs’ characteristics and shift in the competitive landscape for both consumers and brands.

This research is among the first to study SBTs and their potential impact in the Web 3.0 environment where digital identities and ownership are decentralized and authentic.