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This paper aims to analyse the change in performance of parent Indian firms (home effects) who have invested in overseas locations in recent times.

Difference-in-difference (DiD) estimate of home effects using farm level data.

Home effects of Indian outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), in general, are insignificant. However, in the case of OFDI directed only to non-offshore financial centre (OFC), some firms did enjoy beneficial home effects with respect to turnover, current ratio and leverage ratio. In the case of OFDI directed purely to OFC locations, some of the parameters exhibited negative home effects. In the subsample of Indian OFDI directed to combination of OFC and non-OFC locations, the results show positive home effects with respect to export, operating profit margin and forex earnings; however, impact on turnover seems to be negative for all the quartiles.

Estimation of home effects using data over longer horizon may yield robust outcome.

These results make a strong case to draw a distinction among OFDIs to OFC, non-OFC and combination of OFC and non-OFC locations in studying the beneficial home effects of OFDI.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper which estimates home effects of different groups of Indian firms (based on their investment locations and size class) using difference-in-difference estimate.

In the context of sequential multistage utilitarian service processes, the purpose of this study is to develop and validate propositions to study the impact of service quality (SQ) perceptions developed in intermediate stages, along with the impact of service gestalt characteristics, such as peak and end experiences, on quality perception at each stage and on overall service quality (OSQ) perception. The cascade phenomenon (interdependency between process stages) is considered in the evaluation of OSQ perception of customer, who experiences service through a series of planned, distinct and partitioned sequential stages.

In this paper, a conceptual framework is used to evolve the propositions. Subsequently, propositions are tested in three different utilitarian service contexts wherein customer survey was conducted for feedback on attributes at each stage, summary perception evaluations of each stage and OSQ evaluation of multistage process. Peak experiences, considered for OSQ evaluation, were defined by a suitable statistical technique. Ordinal logistic regression with nested models is the technique used for analyzing the data.

This work reveals significant cascade effect of summary evaluation of intermediate stages on the subsequent stage. Peak customer experience (negative or positive) is observed to be marginally significant on intermediate stage and OSQ evaluation. In addition, OSQ is observed to be influenced by summary perception evaluations of intermediate stages, which leads to better model adequacy. Finally, among all the stages, end stage performance is observed to have a significant impact on the overall multistage SQ.

The findings suggest that in view of the cascade effect of intermediate stages, managers need to allocate resources to ensure that all stages are performing at an adequate level instead of only focusing on improving peaks and end effects of customer experiences. The proposed approach is easy to implement and suitable for evaluating SQ and OSQ in varied multistage sequential utilitarian service environment.

An integrated approach for evaluation of SQ in sequential multistage utilitarian service processes is proposed from the perspective of cascade effect of intermediate stages and peak and end effects on OSQ perception.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a tool, “The Excellence Grid,” to categorize attributes on the basis of their ability to impact customer perception of “excellence” in service compared to perception of “good” service. In addition, provide a three dimensional (3D) model for excellence-performance analysis, which can aid managers in formalizing the strategies for building perceptions of excellence about the service.

The positive zone of performance is analyzed through a two-function modeling technique of ordinal logistic regression (OLR) with the non-proportional odds to categorize attributes on grid. Tool is applied to two case studies to validate and establish the asymmetric impact of attributes on perceptions of “good service” and “excellent service.”

Similar to the Kano model for impact of attributes on positive and negative performances, findings from cases confirm the asymmetric impact of attributes on the positive zone of performance and establish “Excellence Grid” as a means to categorize attributes as drivers of excellence.

The “Excellence Grid” tool is expected to empower managers to focus on strategies directed toward the goal of “service excellence” and recommends that managers should not only strive for process improvement, but also sharpen the external communication of service excellence.

The “Excellence Grid” and the “3D Excellence-Performance model,” proposed in this research, are expected to enrich the body of knowledge on operational tools to achieve service excellence. Using parameter estimates of the two-function model of OLR for service quality has not yet been reported in open literature.

To minimize risk of coastal communities arising from cyclones, several risk mitigation initiatives have been taken in countries. Cyclone shelters have proven to be an important critical infrastructure in saving lives from cyclones. A large number of coastal critical infrastructure in the form of multi-purpose cyclone shelters (MPCS) are built to provide safe shelter during disasters. Often observed, such critical infrastructures are non-operational during the normal period, which makes them difficult to use during any disaster. Efforts have been made to keep these infrastructures in working condition. This research paper aims to bring together various management practices adopted for the MPCS in the South-Asian region with a focus on Bangladesh, and India. It also suggests ways to improve these practices for sustainable management of the MPCS.

India and Bangladesh are the most vulnerable countries in the South Asian region. As per the Global Climate Index, India and Bangladesh come in the list of “in extreme risk” countries in the world and are vulnerable to several natural hazards, especially climate-induced hydrometeorological hazards. India has a vast coastline and out of 7,516 km of coastline, a large extent, i.e. 5,700 km is prone to cyclones and that keeps 40% of the population vulnerable living within 100 km of the coastline. On the other hand, Bangladesh has a coastline of 580 km, which is equally vulnerable to tropical cyclones. Safeguarding communities from impending coastal risk through coastal cyclone shelters are of prime concern. This paper uses a qualitative approach to analyze secondary data, and literature in the field of critical infrastructure, sustainability, cyclone shelter, and management practice for cyclone shelters.

To provide sustainability and community ownership of the MPCS, various service plans are adopted in different countries. This paper provides insights on service and sustainability efforts made for the proper functioning of the MPCS in India and Bangladesh. It also provides insight into the roles played by different institutions involved in maintaining the MPCSs.

The research reiterates understanding of the cyclone shelter management from different geographic locations in the South Asian region. Various gaps identified in shelter management practices are discussed in the paper and key recommendations are proposed for better management of cyclone shelters.

As e-commerce has expanded rapidly, online shopping platforms have become widespread in India and throughout the world. Product return, which has a negative effect on the E-Commerce Industry's economic and ecological sustainability, is one of the E-Commerce Industry's greatest challenges in light of the substantial increase in online transactions. The authors have analyzed the purchasing patterns of the customers to better comprehend their product purchase and return patterns.

The authors utilized digital transformation techniques-based recency, frequency and monetary models to better understand and segment potential customers in order to address personalized strategies to increase sales, and the authors performed seller clustering using k-means and hierarchical clustering to determine why some sellers have the most sales and what products they offer that entice customers to purchase.

The authors discovered, through the application of digital transformation models to customer segmentation, that over 61.15% of consumers are likely to purchase, loyal customers and utilize firm service, whereas approximately 35% of customers have either stopped purchasing or have relatively low spending. To retain these consumer segments, special consideration and an enticing offer are required. As the authors dug deeper into the seller clustering, we discovered that the maximum number of clusters is six, while certain clusters indicate that prompt delivery of the goods plays a crucial role in customer feedback and high sales volume.

This is one of the rare study that develops a seller segmentation strategy by utilizing digital transformation-based methods in order to achieve seller group division.

The focus of this paper is a survey of web‐mining research related to areas of societal benefit. The article aims to focus particularly on web mining which may benefit societal areas by extracting new knowledge, providing support for decision making and empowering the effective management of societal issues.

E‐commerce and e‐business are two fields that have been empowered by web mining, having many applications for increasing online sales and doing intelligent business. Have areas of social interest also been empowered by web mining applications? What are the current ongoing research and trends in e‐services fields such as e‐learning, e‐government, e‐politics and e‐democracy? What other areas of social interest can benefit from web mining? This work will try to provide the answers by reviewing the literature for the applications and methods applied to the above fields.

There is a growing interest in applications of web mining that are of social interest. This reveals that one of the current trends of web mining is toward the connection between intelligent web services and societal benefit applications, which denotes the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from various fields.

On the one hand, this work presents to the web‐mining community an overview of research opportunities in societal benefit areas. On the other hand, it presents to web researchers from various disciplines an approach for improving their web studies by considering web mining as a powerful research tool.

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the consumer payment behavior in Italy by correlating financial literacy with digital payment awareness, examining media anxiety and financial security, and including a gender analysis.

Consumers’ attitudes toward cashless payments were investigated using an online survey conducted from November 2021 to February 2022 on a sample of 836 Italian citizens by considering the behavioral characteristics and aspects of financial literacy. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses and to determine whether the model was invariant by gender.

The analysis showed that the fear of contracting COVID-19 and the level of financial literacy had a direct influence on the payment behavior of Italians, which was completely different in its weighting. Fear due to the spread of news regarding the pandemic in the media indirectly influenced consumers’ noncash attitude. The preliminary results of the gender multigroup analysis showed that cashless payment was the same in the male and female subpopulations.

This research is noteworthy because of its interconnected examination. It examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s payment choices, assessed their knowledge, and considered the influence of media-induced anxiety. By combining these factors, the study offered an analysis from a gender perspective, providing understanding of how financial behaviors were shaped during the pandemic.