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The advent of the internet, digitization and e-commerce has changed the definition of business territory, re-invented direct selling, eradicated middle men and brought the customers and sellers closer. These changes in the business scenario must have had an impact on the intensity and nature of channel conflict which needs to be inspected to structure better channel relationship strategies in the changing context. This paper aims to attempt a systematic investigation into the determinants of channel conflict in today’s context and proposes a composite model by reconciling the research so far in the domain of channel relationships.

An exhaustive search was carried for extant research finding in the channels resulting in the identification of 284 research papers beyond the meta-analysis by Geyskens et al. (1999). The next step was to manually scan through each of these papers to identify the studies which involved quantitative analysis including measures of association such as correlations related to conflict and the determinants of conflict. This led to the finalization of 36 research papers for the meta-analysis.

This study proffers a model that illustrates ranking of major determinants of channel conflict. The results of the study suggest that determinants can be categorized into three major domains: organizational, interpersonal (communication, cooperation, relationship activities and opportunistic behaviour) and environmental factors (environmental volatility, competitive intensity and product or market volatility).

The analysis is based on static data in the sense that the correlations do not reflect supplier-channel member interactions in specific conflict situations. It may be argued that conflicts ultimately occur among firms/businesses run by individuals and individual traits may also impact the formation and resolution of conflict. Further, the quality of the measures capturing the constructs was not investigated in many studies. Final limitation pertains to the measurement of conflict. Conflict may not have been measured in a uniform manner in each of the studies analysed. As this study has evaluated extant research through a meta-analysis, it was not possible to identify the correlations between the determinant variables and the three factors (or constructs).

This study reconciles different research streams in this domain with the visualization of the composite model. It presents a quantitative analysis of the correlations of the determinants of conflict with channel conflict holistically. It creates a base through the composite model to carry forward the academic discussion in this domain holistically. It aims to be a ready reference for understanding the antecedents of conflict along with their significant correlations to enable prioritization of their channel strategies.

This meta-analysis and the suggested model that may be of use to practitioners in terms of prioritizing their activities to reduce channel conflicts through pre-emption. It is hoped that this study enhances the extant understanding of the determinants of channel conflict considerably based on the presented composite model. The results may assist to resolve channel conflicts, create channel synergies, identify optimal channel mix, reduce channel costs, increase channel efficiency and build partnerships in the changing business scenario.

A holistic view of the determinants of conflict would be of enormous use to practitioners and academics alike. Hence, a detailed study is required to enlist and categorize the determinants causing conflict in channels so that an attempt can be made to resolve channel conflict for better performance of the firms. This meta-analysis study is an attempt to fill this major gap in research in this domain to quantitatively analyse the major determinants of channel conflict on the basis of analysis of research work over the past 15 years.

This paper aims to explore franchisor–franchisee relationships in the context of plural forms. Plural forms implies the co-existence of franchised and non-franchised outlets of a given company. More specifically, the paper examines the impact of franchisors’ leadership styles on franchisees’ relationship commitment when the company franchised outlets co-exist with independent non-franchised outlets. Specifically, this study operationalize the plural forms phenomenon in franchising, using multi-channel complexity as a moderator. The mediating role of relational capital is also examined.

Data were collected from 254 franchisees. The hypothesized model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results indicate that all three – participative, supportive and directive leadership styles of franchisors increase relationship commitment. In a high channel complexity context, a supportive leadership style is the most effective, whereas, in a low channel complexity context, a participative style is the most effective. Relational capital also partially mediated the relationships between leadership styles and relationship commitment.

Franchisors should follow a participative leadership style when channel complexity is low. However, as they add new channels and the channel complexity increases, franchisors should shift toward a supportive leadership style to maintain existing franchisees’ commitment. In current environments, managers should avoid using directive leadership in favor of the other two leadership styles.

The present study is the first to examine the influence of channel leadership style on relationship commitment in an environment of multiple channel complexity.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a five-country study of consumers’ need for uniqueness (CNFU) and examine its research and practical implications. Most studies examining CNFU have used single country or US-based samples. To promote cross-cultural research, the authors test the cross-cultural reliability and validity of the CNFU scale using data from the USA, a developed economy, Brazil, India, Thailand, and Mexico, all emerging economies.

The original CNFU scale was developed in the USA. Therefore, to cross-validate the scale, data were collected from consumers in the USA, Brazil, India, Thailand, and Mexico as these countries demonstrate important socio-economic and cultural differences. The scale was tested using confirmatory factor analysis.

The scale was estimated and validated in all five countries and the analysis reveals that the CNFU scale has sound psychometric properties. Further, the authors find that CNFU is a cross-cultural phenomenon that has a significant impact on market mavenism (MM), and this relationship is moderated by usage variety (UV).

The results indicate generality of all the scale items, and demonstrate that CNFU is a cross-cultural phenomenon. Greater nomological validity of the CNFU construct could be established by investigating its relationship with more constructs.

The authors provide empirical evidence on the cross-cultural validity of the CNFU scale; examine its effect on MM; and role of UV on the relationship between CNFU and MM.

This study aims to examine the role of leader-member exchange social comparison (LMXSC) perceptions in triggering the instigation of uncivil behavior in the workplace. This study also explores the intervening role of envy and the buffering role of aggression-preventive supervisor behavior within the proposed relationship.

Data were collected in two phases separated by an interval of four weeks. The final sample consisted of 224 full-time white-collar employees working in five large pharmaceutical manufacturing organizations in India.

The findings indicate that employees’ subjective perceptions of being involved in poorer-quality LMX relationships than their workgroup members generate envy, which, in turn, evokes them to instigate uncivil behaviors onto those higher-LMX counterparts. The indirect effect of LMX social comparison on instigated workplace incivility through envy gets attenuated when supervisors engage in aggression-preventive behavior.

To protect organizations from the financial and productivity losses associated with incivility, supervisors are encouraged to exhibit aggression-preventive behavior if they form differentiated exchange relationships with the subordinates in their teams. Supervisors are further advised to avoid the altogether neglect of lower-LMX subordinates as doing so may give rise to negative emotions (envy) and behavior (incivility) among them.

This study expands the limited body of knowledge on the antecedents of uncivil employee behavior in the workplace. Specifically, it unveils that incivility toward coworkers may be stemming from unfavorable LMX social comparisons and ensuing negative emotions such as envy. It also offers insights on reducing uncivil behavior by highlighting that the impact of LMXSC and envy on incivility instigation gets buffered in the presence of aggression-preventive supervisor behavior.

Businesses need to make quick decisions and adjustments to fulfill the growing online demand. Previous studies examined various factors affecting the online sales performance of products such as books, electronics and movies; however, they paid limited attention toward the local brand clothing products. The current study investigates the importance of different kinds of seller-generated and consumer-generated signals such as price, discount, product ratings, review volume, review sentiment, number of questions and interaction between some of these factors for predicting the sales performance of clothing products.

The multiple linear regressions has been employed to investigate the influence of various predictor variables on sales performance. The study also examines the importance of these predictor variables by using different machine learning models, including random forest (RF), neural networks and support vector regression (SVR).

The findings of the study emphasize the importance of price and discount rates offered on the product. The quantitative characteristics of reviews, such as review volume and average rating, have been found to be more important predictors than sentiment strengths. However, the sentiment strength of reviews with higher helpfulness scores plays a significant role in predicting sales performance.

The study highlights the varying importance of seller-based and consumer-based signals in predicting sales performance. It also investigates the interaction effect of these two kinds of signals. The consumer-generated signals have been further divided into two components based on social influence theory, and the interaction effects of these components have also been examined.

In this paper, the authors have used a systematic literature review methodology of 147 journal articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The analysis includes studies based on country of origin, the periodic proliferation of studies and the methodological design of the studies. As an outcome of the review, the studies are classified on the innovation in family firms under four broad categories – innovation input, family governance mechanisms, innovation output and the external environment. Some fruitful avenues of research are outlined in this domain.

The literature on innovation in family firms – the most dominant and ubiquitous form of organization across the world – is gaining pace. The influence of family by way controlling ownership, management and governance on, and in interaction with business acts as a complex proposition that shapes the strategic decision-making in the family firm including innovation. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to advance the understanding of innovation in family firms and provide a list of future research questions of theoretical and practical value.

Based on this review, the authors provide future research directions pertaining to innovation in emerging economy family firms, effect of the institutional environment of family firm innovation as well family firms' innovativeness in the wake of pro-market reforms, different classes of ownership in family firms and innovation, family firm goal heterogeneity and innovation, and family firm dynamic capabilities and innovation.

The review provides a comprehensive understanding, trends and future research directions in the domain of innovation in family firms.

Culture is one of the critical variables in explaining consumer behavior and consumer response to external stimuli. The purpose of this paper is to delineate the relationship between deal proneness and culture. Specifically, this paper examines the relationship between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, namely, power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity and uncertainty avoidance, and deal proneness. Additionally, the role of store image as a moderator between culture and deal proneness is explored. Finally, the paper offers prescriptive and descriptive insights for marketers to consider cultural perspectives when promoting products internationally. A clear understanding of cultural influences on deal proneness will allow marketers to target specific customer segments more accurately.

The authors collected data from consumers in shopping malls in USA, Thailand, and Kenya. The authors analyzed the data using structural equation modeling.

The authors found that societies with a high femininity index are more likely to respond to deals than masculine societies. An inverse relationship between the Power Distance Index (PDI) and deal proneness may exist, suggesting that societies with a high PDI may be less deal prone. The authors found that individualism index is positively related to deal proneness, and thus societies with a low individualism index should be more deal prone. Finally, individuals in high uncertainty avoidance countries are expected to exhibit low deal prone tendencies.

The study utilized a sample from cities. Consequently, future studies may attempt to validate the relationship posited in this study by utilizing non-urban data. Additionally, the authors look at stores in a mall. Thus, there is a possibility of interaction between mall image and store image. It may be useful to validate the findings of this study by using data from stand alone stores and also examine the interaction effect of mall image and store image on the deal proneness in a given culture.

This study suggests that appropriate store selection for offering deals can possibly augment the effectiveness of deal-based promotions. Specifically, choice of store can alter the context, and thus the perception of the value proposition could increase, which in turn is likely to increase the acceptance of deal-based promotion.

Although several researchers have also examined differences in consumer behavior across cultures yet it appears that there is no direct study that examines the effects of cultural differences on deal proneness using data from three countries (USA, Thailand, and Kenya) which are diverse on all dimensions of national culture. This paper examines the influence of national culture on individual’s propensity to exhibit deal proneness. Furthermore, the paper examines the role of store image on the relationship between national culture and deal proneness.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the sunk-time fallacy in the context of simultaneous variations of time and money when financial expenditures are recoverable. The study compares a recoverable monetary scenario with conditions where money is either not spent or spent, but purchase and payment are decoupled.

A sample of 184 participants was utilised in three experiments. A randomised design was used, and experimental manipulations were achieved using the vignette method.

The results indicate that consumers are susceptible to sunk-time fallacy. Specifically, results suggest that there is no significant difference in sunk cost fallacy when a consumer spends only time vs when a consumer spends money and time both but money can be recovered. The sunk-time fallacy did not occur in credit card purchases. The sunk-time fallacy did not happen in temporal investments of less than a week but appeared in the temporal investments of two weeks.

The study indicates that sunk-time fallacy occurs after a minimum threshold of time is spent on a particular activity.

Online retailers may vary the delivery period of ordered merchandise to reduce product returns. Online retailers may not deliver the merchandise too early to take advantage of the sunk-time fallacy. Bestseller products should be quickly delivered as there are lesser chances of product return. On the other hand, new products or products with mixed consumer reviews should be provided preferably with a time lag beyond a week. Managers should incentivise payments through debit card/net banking and cash-on-delivery to reduce returns by using sunk-time fallacy.

The study is perhaps the first one to study the sunk-time fallacy in a simultaneous variation of time and money where monetary costs can be recovered fully.

The case deals with comparison of two events namely Bhopal Gas Tragedy and BP Oil Spill Tragedy. Specifically, the case compares the negotiation process and its outcome. In other words, the case compares how negotiation was carried out on behalf of victims of these tragedies and resulted in optimal outcomes in one situation and sub-optimal outcomes in another situation. It case also provides insights into cross-cultural issues in negotiation process as one of the events took place in emerging economy (India) and other one in a developed economy (USA). The case gives insight for individuals on how handle communication process during the course of negotiation.

This study aims to answer two significant questions: What are the relative consumer and firm-level effects of marketing through metaverse compared to conventional marketing endeavours? What are the current trends in utilizing the metaverse as reported in the recent literature?

This study uses a systematic literature review methodology, using a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flowchart to synthesize existing research. A total of 35 articles written in English were selected and analysed from two databases, Web of Science and EBSCO Host.

The findings indicate that consumer-level effects of the metaverse include consumer loyalty and brand attachment. The firm-level benefits are decentralization and cost reductions. The paper proposes a framework indicating variables that could attenuate or enhance the association between immersive components of the metaverse and their resultant effects.

This study contributes to understanding the role of metaverse in marketing practices related to the marketing mix components. The study conceptualizes a novel framework for the metaverse and its resultant effects.