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1 – 10 of 194Gopal Das, John Peloza, Geetika Varshneya and Todd Green
Although research demonstrates the importance of ethical product attributes for consumers, a prior study has not examined the role of consumption target (i.e. self-purchases vs…
Abstract
Purpose
Although research demonstrates the importance of ethical product attributes for consumers, a prior study has not examined the role of consumption target (i.e. self-purchases vs gift-giving) on consumers’ preference for products with ethical attributes. Notably, consumers’ preference for quality can differ between self-purchases and gifts, and the presence of ethical attributes can impact product quality perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the presence of ethical attributes alters decision-making in a gift-giving context using perceptions of product quality as an explanatory variable for these differences.
Design/methodology/approach
One field study and two controlled experiments test the proposed hypotheses. The experiments were conducted across different product categories and samples.
Findings
Results showed that the presence of an ethical attribute leads to higher purchase intentions for products in a gift-giving context compared to self-purchase. Perceived quality mediates this effect. Further process evidence through moderation, including resource synergy beliefs, support the findings. This paper discusses the theoretical, managerial and societal implications of these results.
Research limitations/implications
Although care was taken to select products to enhance generalizability, the studies presented here are limited to two products. Further, although the present research includes a field study with actual charity-related purchases, the role of time pressures is not explicitly explored. Finally, the role of brand-self connections is not explored in the current research. The ability for a donor to integrate the mission of a charity into their self-perception or the potential for social normative influences to impact behaviors remains open for exploration.
Practical implications
Charities are facing increasing pressures to raise sustainable funds to support their missions. The research provides guidance to marketers and fundraisers in the non-profit sector that allows them to direct more focused fundraising appeals to donors and adapt their fundraising efforts to create a fit between their audience and fundraising appeals.
Originality/value
This research demonstrates that consumption target (purchasing for the self versus purchasing for others) is a vital contextual factor that influences customer preference for ethical attributes. These results complement the extant literature by exploring the underlying mechanism behind consumers’ responses to the ethical attributes in the case of self-purchase and other-purchase. The underlying effect is supported theoretically by resource synergy beliefs.
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Regulatory focus theory has been studied in an in-store retailing context. Although an in-store retailing differs from an e-tailing in terms of the factors such as absence of…
Abstract
Purpose
Regulatory focus theory has been studied in an in-store retailing context. Although an in-store retailing differs from an e-tailing in terms of the factors such as absence of products, physical human interactions and store atmospherics, the application of regulatory factors in an e-tailing context is limited. This study aims to examine the moderating role of regulatory focus orientations in consumer e-tailing activities.
Design/methodology/approach
A laboratory experiment with 297 participants was conducted to test the theoretical propositions. Statistical techniques such as t-test were used to analyse the data.
Findings
Results show that a consumer online purchase intentions, product review and spreading positive word of mouth vary from promotion-focused individuals to prevention-focused individuals. Results also show that there is no difference in spreading negative word of mouth between promotion-focused and prevention-focused individuals after encountering an unpleasant shopping experience. Finally, results show both the regulatory focus-oriented shoppers are encouraged by sales promotions.
Originality/value
Arguably, this is the first study to examine how consumers’ regulatory orientations moderate their e-tailing activities. The results of this study have implications for both academicians and managers.
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Geetika Varshneya, Gopal Das and Arpita Khare
The purpose of this paper is to review the academic literature on the experiential value to appreciate the developments in the area in the last decade; propose a conceptual…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the academic literature on the experiential value to appreciate the developments in the area in the last decade; propose a conceptual framework delineating the determinants and outcomes of experiential value and provide future research directions based on the insights.
Design/methodology/approach
A range of online databases were searched to review and select the papers related to experiential value. The full text of each of the papers was taken as a unit of analysis. The classification and coding of all the selected papers was performed manually by two independent researchers.
Findings
The analysis led to the classification of the experiential value literature broadly into five categories, i.e. conceptualization, measurement, antecedents, outcomes and applications. The findings indicated that the experiential value delineates across cultures, store formats, channels and product categories. The proposed framework depicting antecedents and outcomes could form a basis for future studies. The study unveiled several other useful findings as discussed in the paper.
Research limitations/implications
The findings may be generalized only to the selected online databases for the given time period in the experiential value domain. The study identified several potential avenues for future research.
Practical implications
The present study may help the academicians and practitioners to comprehend the current state of literature. The bibliography may be considered as a ready reference for contemplating future research in the area.
Originality/value
The extant literature revealed that no study so far has captured a literature review in the area of experiential value. Thus, this could be seen as a unique and significant contribution to the literature.
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Mai Nguyen, Felix Septianto, Gopal Das and Ashish Malik
In the turbulence of a business-to-business (B2B) environment, employees often face role conflict as the result of changes in task allocations due to work requirements. This…
Abstract
Purpose
In the turbulence of a business-to-business (B2B) environment, employees often face role conflict as the result of changes in task allocations due to work requirements. This research uses organizational role theory to investigate the impact of role conflict on active lurking in B2B online communities. Active lurking, defined as the behavior of seeking information and acquiring knowledge without contributing, contrasts with posters who actively share knowledge. By focusing on these dynamics, this study aims to deepen the understanding of knowledge management (KM) practices and behaviors within B2B contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This research conducts two experimental studies with a behavioral outcome to examine the impact of role conflict on active lurking and the mediating role of knowledge self-efficacy in this regard.
Findings
The results also indicate the moderating role of transformational leadership, such that when transformational leadership is low, role conflict decreases knowledge self-efficacy and active lurking. In contrast, this effect is attenuated in a high transformational leadership environment. The findings contribute to the KM literature by demonstrating how role conflict influences knowledge-sharing behaviors in B2B contexts and by capturing active lurking using a behavioral measure.
Practical implications
The implications of this study offer strategies to address role conflict and mitigate its negative impact. By integrating the concepts of posters and lurkers into the research framework, this paper offers a fresh perspective on organizational role conflict and KM. It provides insights into lurkers and active lurking behavior in B2B online communities, thereby extending the KM literature.
Originality/value
The findings of this research are novel as they first show the moderating role of transformational leadership, wherein when transformational leadership is low, role conflict decreases knowledge self-efficacy and active lurking and second it extends the literature on online knowledge sharing in a B2B context by capturing the role of active lurking through a behavioral measure.
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Devansh Pandey, Srabanti Mukherjee, Gopal Das and Jonathan Z. Zhang
Recent development and democratization of digital technologies call for studying base-of-the-pyramid (BOP) consumers’ interactions with these technologies. This study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent development and democratization of digital technologies call for studying base-of-the-pyramid (BOP) consumers’ interactions with these technologies. This study aims to explore how BOP consumers interact with mobile information and communication technology (mICT) and improve their welfare.
Design/methodology/approach
Following an extensive literature review, content analysis of the reviewed articles and reports was conducted to build this article’s conceptual foundation.
Findings
This study has conceptualized five mechanisms in which mICT improves the lives of BOP customers through enhanced access and control of resources. In particular, the authors characterize a converging nature of mICT and related applications (social media, internet of things, artificial intelligence and sharing economy) as resources for social change. The authors find a striking contrast between BOP and affluent consumers regarding their motivations and barriers to adopting mICT-based applications. Implications to research, technology design and policymaking are discussed.
Originality/value
The intersection of mICT and BOP is under-researched. With this paper, we tried to address this research gap. Further, this study has brought out several important research questions in each application, serving as a springboard for future researchers.
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Jochen Wirtz, Chen Lin and Gopal Das
This study aims to show how major service developments in China, India and Singapore offer different perspectives on how cost-effective service excellence (CESE) can be achieved…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to show how major service developments in China, India and Singapore offer different perspectives on how cost-effective service excellence (CESE) can be achieved in health care. Resulting research opportunities are highlighted.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on the authors’ in-depth experience in these three countries.
Findings
Digital platforms and related technologies seem more advanced in China than in most western economies in terms of their application, user acceptance and market penetration. The resulting digital ecosystem enabled innovation that provides CESE in digital health care. Second, India benefitted from a large health care market without excessive regulation, litigation risks and interlocking stakeholders. These allowed a number of organizations to achieve CESE through new business models and frugal innovation. Likewise, Singapore is a global leader in health outcomes while it also has one of the lowest health care cost per capita. This is achieved through focus on costs and productivity, standardization and digitization while being intensely focused on health outcomes and the patient experience.
Research limitations/implications
The three countries stand out in the ways they achieved CESE in health care and offer interesting research opportunities. China has fully integrated digital platforms with rapid innovation capabilities, India has extremely high volumes that met focused service factory and frugal service innovation approaches, and Singapore is a tightly controlled health care market with high levels of discipline, both facilitated by its culture and small size. These markets invite research to explore their successes in more depth and deduct lessons for CESE in health care elsewhere.
Originality/value
Together, the author team has decades of managerial, executive teaching and research experience related to service in Asia. The observations and reflections in this study originate from this unique perspective.
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Abstract
Subject area
Marketing.
Study level/applicability
This case may be used by instructors to teach undergraduate, post graduate and executive level programmes in management. It may be used in basic marketing, branding or marketing strategy courses. The case may serve as a platform for the instructor to discuss the concepts and issues related to positioning and repositioning.
Case overview
Tata Chemicals, a subsidiary of the Tata group, launched the “i-Shakti” brand six years ago for its low-cost “solar-evaporated” salt for rural customers. In 2010, the company extended the brand equity of i-Shakti to a premium segment and launched a new brand “Tata i-Shakti” with a range of unpolished pulses. Changing the brand name and customer base from “i-Shakti for rural market” to “Tata i-Shakti for premium market” created a dilemma among customers in the market. To overcome this problem, in October 2015, the company’s portfolio of pulses, gram flour and food grade soda under “Tata i-Shakti” label has migrated into a new brand “Tata Sampann”. The company also launched a range of spices under the brand name of “Tata Sampann”. This new brand “Tata Sampann” was launched to serve the premium segment with an aim to “enrich everyday meals with extra nutrition and extra joy”. Also, this brand recreation was made by the company with anticipation to make avenues for future launches in the staples and food segment under Tata’s consumer products business. It has been almost a year since Tata Sampann was launched in the market. Given the tough competition and expected growth of the spices market in India, it remained to be seen whether “Tata i-Shakti” was rightly rebranded or repositioned with “Tata Sampann”.
Expected learning outcomes
To make participants understand the basic concepts of branding such as umbrella branding, brand repositioning and rebranding. To make participants learn about various brand elements and how they contribute in communicating the value proposition of the brand. To make participants appreciate various marketing and brand related strategies.
Supplementary materials
Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Subject code
CSS: 8: Marketing.
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Gopal Das and Srabanti Mukherjee
Given the increasing dominance of medical tourism on the service economy of some of the developing nations, as a pioneering attempt, this study aims to develop a consumer-based…
Abstract
Purpose
Given the increasing dominance of medical tourism on the service economy of some of the developing nations, as a pioneering attempt, this study aims to develop a consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) measurement scale for the medical tourist destinations (city/hospital).
Design/methodology/approach
Following the traditional marketing construct development process (qualitative study, purification study and validation study), in the present study, two sets of large and independent samples were assessed to judge the dimensionality of the measure.
Findings
A well-validated measurement scale was developed as an amalgamation of four dimensions, namely, awareness, perceived quality, brand loyalty and authenticity to assess CBBE of medical destinations.
Practical implications
To reduce the financial and physical risk associated with the purchase of treatment, the customers may rely on “authenticity” of the service providers to select a treatment destination. The outcomes would help medical administrators/managers to focus more on developing “assurance” by increased reliability, responsiveness and tangibles to attract the medical tourists to a large extent.
Originality/value
The study is a pioneering attempt to develop a scale for measuring CBBE for medical tourist destinations. The study aligns with earlier CBBE scales in terms of the first three elements, namely, brand awareness, loyalty and perceived quality. However, based on predictive validity, the study puts forth five interrelated first order attributes, namely, “trust”, “value for money”, “quality of residents”, reliability and soft issues (like friendliness and ease of process) as contributing factors to a so far unexplored dimension, “brand authenticity”.
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Gopal Das, Abhishek and Geetika Varshneya
This case depicts a managerial problem faced by Tradition and Trust, a traditional sweet and snack manufacturer, which is 100-year old family business manufacturing, retailing and…
Abstract
This case depicts a managerial problem faced by Tradition and Trust, a traditional sweet and snack manufacturer, which is 100-year old family business manufacturing, retailing and exporting sweets, snacks and other confectionery products. Like other traditional sweet and snack manufactures, the company is facing the challenge of consumers' shift towards ‘healthy snacking’. Moreover, brands like Haldiram's and Bikanerwala are posing a tough competition to the traditional sweet manufacturing brands. In recent years, the brand has witnessed a decline in sales. In view of the challenges posed to brand, the Chief Marketing Officer, wants to understand the various factors influencing decline of sales and find ways to redesign the strategy for sustaining its current position in the market. The case is written to illustrate how six fundamental steps of conducting a marketing research can be used to address a given managerial problem.
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Tobias Otterbring, Giampaolo Viglia, Laura Grazzini and Gopal Das