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The purpose of this study has been to understand brand India’s potential for financial inclusion in the future. As, digital channels like mobile banking (m-banking) are likely to provide better coverage and more cost-effective services to the unbanked population of India. Conventional banking might not be cost-effective for low-ticket-size transactions, hence financial inclusion, which is on the “Digital India” agenda of the Government of India (GoI), might not be feasible. However, to understand brand India’s potential for financial inclusion in the future, it would be essential to understand Indian customers’ attitudes toward m-banking, especially those who have not yet adopted it. This would bring out the potential of m-banking as a channel to drive financial inclusion based on customers’ intentions to adopt it. Until every Indian has access to a wider range of financial services, there cannot be financial inclusion. Similarly, until every Indian adopts digital channels to access a wider range of financial and non-financial services, the GoI’s initiatives for “Digital India” cannot be realized. Furthermore, a review of the literature suggests that there are very few studies concerning m-banking worldwide and still fewer in the context of India.

The present study used IBM SPSS and Amos software to test the conceptual model developed using secondary data.

The findings of the study suggest that subjective norm, output quality and personal innovativeness have impacts on the perceived usefulness of, and attitudes toward, the ultimate adoption of m-banking.

The paper is the original work of the authors. An attempt has been made to integrate all the existing literature on m-banking to develop a complete model for the technology’s adoption.

This study aims to gain insight on evaluation of cause-related marketing (CrM) campaigns by the millennial with focus on skepticism, brand identity and patronage intention.

To attain the above objective a conceptual model was developed and tested using structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis.

The finding suggests that sub-segments exist among millennial segments. They can be classified into hedonic, utilitarian, individualistic and collectivists. Compared to utilitarian and individualistic customers hedonic and collectivists were found to evaluate CrM campaign more favorably. Utilitarian and individualistic depict skepticism toward CrM campaign.

The in-depth knowledge gained about millennials is expected to benefit academicians and marketers alike. Academicians will be enriched by the knowledge of the micro-segments that exists among the millennial and how that had differential impact on their skepticism while evaluating CrM campaign. The marketers involved in the designing and implementation of the CrM campaign will be benefited from the in-depth knowledge of segments with lower and higher levels of skepticism. Such knowledge gained will help them develop more effective CrM campaign.

One of the contributions of the present study is that it extends the existing knowledge about millennials, particularly in the context of CrM campaign evaluation integrating it with other important variables such as skepticism, brand identity and patronage intention.

The learning outcomes are as follows: factors to be considered in devising the best post-acquisition brand identity and outline market research techniques, which can be used to identify the best-suited post-acquisition brand identity strategy.

The case study discusses the brand strategy, which Walmart Inc needs to adopt post its acquisition of Flipkart Pvt. Ltd (Flipkart) Group in India. Flipkart had acquired Myntra Designs Pvt. Ltd (Myntra) and Novarris Fashion Trading Private Limited (Jabong), but had kept their brand identity intact; Walmart Inc was faced with the decision on moving ahead with the brand strategy of keeping individual brand identities or merging all of these into a single brand identity. The study aims to provide valuable insights into the decision-making process adopted by Walmart Inc. It includes also the role of cause-related marketing in the positioning of Myntra as a socially responsible brand. The case study opted for an exploratory research design study using the qualitative research method of in-depth interviews. In total, 10 experts in the area of marketing, market research and marketing communication were interviewed. The qualitative data were analyzed using a template approach, which analyzes the text using a codebook or an analysis guide. The analysis guide already has clearly defined themes or categories. As the qualitative interviews progress, these themes get revised. These themes are analyzed qualitatively rather than statistically. The case study suggests to the management of Walmart Inc that they need to merge Myntra and Jabong based on the degree of similarity of consumer demographics, income/social class of buyers, brand identity and buying behavior. Myntra needs to retain as opposed to Jabong, as Myntra is perceived to be a socially responsible brand that creates a purchase disposition in the minds of the consumers. A more extensive quantitative study would offer better generalizability. It was not feasible to conduct a quantitative study due to time constraints. This research would have used advanced brand imagery assessment techniques such as multi-dimensional scaling to suggest if an overlap exists between consumer segments of Myntra and Jabong. The case study provides a decision-making framework to firms and individuals who are part of organizational teams to create a post-acquisition brand strategy in the e-commerce market. The case study fulfills a need for many academicians and practitioners to understand the decision-making process followed in devising a post-acquisition brand strategy in India.

Senior undergraduates; Master of Business Administration; Executive Master of Business Administration.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Extant literature on business-to-business (B2B) has largely ignored studying multi-homing through a psychological lens. This paper aims to outline the results of three constituent studies, which were designed to reveal potential differences in multi-homers’ versus single-homers’ loyalty behaviors in a B2B and supply chain management (SCM) setting; identify factors that differentiate single-homers and multi-homers in these settings; and examine the relevance and effect of perceived risk on multi-homing behaviors.

In Studies 1 and 2, the authors used a questionnaire-based survey to capture the perceptions of 503 and 458 SCM experts, respectively. They then deployed AMOS v.21 to perform structural equation modeling. In Study 3, the authors used a mixed-methods approach to interview 18 SCM experts and then applied these insights to a survey with 242 SCM experts.

Study 1 reveals that multi-homers’ loyalty toward their preferred SP has a weaker effect on willingness to pay premium prices and share-of-wallet than single-homers’ loyalty. Study 2 establishes that several attitudinal factors distinguish multi-homers from single-homers in a loyalty framework. Study 3 concludes that perceived risk dimensions promote multi-homing intention, which in turn promotes multi-homing behavior.

Through empirical investigation, the present research succeeds in establishing that multi-homing is a concern for SPs, deciphering the attitudinal factors that distinguish multi-homers and single-homers in a loyalty framework, and confirming the influence of perceived risk dimensions on multi-homing. Thus, the study has several theoretical and practical implications for B2B services in emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of store-level attributes, relationship investment, culture and religiosity on relationship quality.

To attain the above objective, data were collected from 350 customers from India and Nigeria. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS.

In the present study, empirical evidence was found for the impact of most of the store’s positioning attributes on perceived relationship investment and relationship quality, in India and Nigeria. Factors like personalization and their impact on relationship investment and quality were not supported in Nigeria. Additionally, religiosity was found to impact relationship quality only in case of Nigerian customers. Cultural differences were also found between consumers of both these countries.

The present study contributes to the theory of consumer behavior and cross-cultural studies by examining the effect of the relationship between various cultural dimensions and religiosity on customer’s commitment with a store, which to the author’s best knowledge is not done before. The present study makes important contribution to the existing literature of relationship quality in three ways: first, by specifying important store-level attributes that impact customer’s perception about relationship investment. By applying these practices, retailers can guide customer’s perception of relationship investment, second, this study confirmed the impact of relationship investment on relationship quality, thus demonstrating the retailers as to why should they invest time and effort in building positive perception about relationship investment, third, this study is first of its kind to have investigated the impact of culture and religiosity on the perception of relationship investment and relationship quality.

This study aims to propose a novel way to explore the narrative structure of advertisements, a nascent area of research, through the protagonist’s emotional arc progression.

The multi-methods approach is used. In Study 1, the authors explore the basic universal emotional arcs through the analysis of narrative advertisements from six key economies. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors experimentally test hypotheses concerning the narrative structure and viewers’ attitudes toward the narrative using representative samples (317 and 193 ads, respectively).

The authors identify five broad emotional arcs of the protagonist in audiovisual advertisements. Different emotional arcs are found to induce different attitudes in the audience. Narratives ending in a positive mode and the narrative arcs with higher emotional shifts are more favorably evaluated by the audience.

The present study is limited to textual stimuli tested in a US population and does not consider protagonist characteristic portrayal.

Understanding consumer preferences for different emotional arcs can help practitioners to develop more clutter-breaking and relevant advertisements.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the narrative structure theory in the context of advertisements using a positivist approach.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a structured model to understand mall preferences among Indian customers.

The present study uses fuzzy analytical hierarchy processing (FAHP). Use of Fuzzy Logic will provide a more reliable solution since it is capable of handling vagueness and uncertainty in the database.

Findings of the study suggest that the most preferred value that determines mall preference by Indian customers is HV, followed by SV, contrary to the stereotype that Indian customers are price sensitive. Forum mall is the best mall in terms of HV and SV, which motivates customers to shop at a particular mall.

The study will be useful for managers and academicians. The study will help managers develop a better understanding of customer's mall preferences and identify their own strengths and weaknesses. Based on this, they can devise strategies to maximize strengths by minimizing weaknesses.

Most of the work on FAHP is dedicated to either vendor selection or supplier selection. A study of this kind, in the context of mall preference among Indian customers is an original contribution to the literature of Indian retailing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of culture on religiosity, cosmopolitanism, and ethnocentrism on attitudes towards foreign products, among two religious classes in India.

Quantitative data analysis was employed to attain the above objective. In order to explore the existence of difference between clothing preferences between two religious classes analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed. It was employed to analyse the difference between group means. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized paths. SEM was used separately for both the religious classes to explore the possibility of difference between both of them. Before testing the measurement model confirmatory factor analysis was run to test the cleanliness of the measurement items. Data were analysed in two parts A and B. In part A SEM was employed to test the hypotheses developed and in part B ANOVA was used to test the difference between group means.

It was found that both the religious classes were significantly different from each other in their apparel preference. It was also found that the Indians were not collectivist as often labelled in a stereotypical way.

The findings of this study would provide useful in-depth knowledge on Indian religious groups for both international and national marketers. The study confirmed that ignoring the diversity of an emerging market and adopting a standardized marketing strategy could prove fatal. It provides better understanding about the cultural diversity and its impact on buying imported products. Such insight should enable marketers, policy makers, and social planners to act more effectively by designing their positioning strategies accordingly.

Some unexpected differences was found in individualism and collectivism dimensions and it was also found that the inter-cultural differences between Hindus and Muslims have changed since the original Hofstede data were collected on Hindu and Muslim dominating countries.