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1 – 10 of 115Manjula N., Bala Subramanian R. and Sunita Mehta
This study adopted interview methods and field visits to collect the data. An audio recording was done for the whole interview and presented as facts in this case. Field visits…
Abstract
Research methodology
This study adopted interview methods and field visits to collect the data. An audio recording was done for the whole interview and presented as facts in this case. Field visits were done to see the packs and understand the consumers and their purchase habits of pickles.
Case overview/synopsis
Pandian Pickles is a pickle manufacturer located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, a state in the southern part of India. Mr Kandasamy, one of the partner of the Pandian pickle, had been thinking of ways to grow the business. Pandian Pickles dominated the low-price unit (LPU) market with a unique packing of pickles done in “arecanut” leaf. This added a unique flavour to their pickles. Mr Kandasamy envisioned to grow the business by introducing higher stock-keeping units in the form of jars and tap the middle class and the upper-middle-class segments in the market. In this category, there were much more prominent and branded players. Being a small regional player, Govindan wondered how Pandian Pickles would take these more prominent players in the industry head-on.
Complexity academic level
The case is ideally suited for discussing the concept of product line stretching, particularly in the product mix strategies of a small and medium enterprise (SME). The case can best fit into the courses such as Entrepreneurship Development, Product and Brand Management, Marketing Management for the Undergraduate levels and in the courses such as Strategic Marketing, Bottom of the Pyramid Markets and Strategies Management of SMEs in the postgraduate levels.
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Hatem Gaffer, Mounir Salem and Magda Marzouk
The present study aims to focus on the possibility of developing new eco-friendly azo dyes with good colouristic application properties, exhibiting biological and pharmacological…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aims to focus on the possibility of developing new eco-friendly azo dyes with good colouristic application properties, exhibiting biological and pharmacological activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Coupling of 4-hydroxycoumarin with a variety of aromatic diazonium salts of 2-aminothiazole, 2-aminobenzothiazole, 4-aminoantipyrine, 4-aminoacetophenone, adenine sulphate, a-naphthylamine and sulphadimidine to produce novel azo dyes. The compounds were fully characterised using spectroscopic and analytical methods. All of the compounds were tested for their antimicrobial, anticancer and antioxidant activities. The prepared dyestuffs were dyed on polyester fabrics and subsequently their dyeing properties, light, washing, perspiration, rubbing and sublimation fastness were determined.
Findings
The spectroscopic data of the synthesised compounds have provided decisive evidence that such compounds exist in the solid state as the azo-dike to form C and in solution in equilibrium tautomer forms A, B and D. The prepared dyestuffs are suitable for either heat transfer printing or traditional printing on polyester and nylon 6 fabrics. The prints obtained from the dyes possess high colour strength, as well as good overall fastness properties. Also the synthesised compounds exhibit good biological and pharmacology activity.
Research limitations/implications
Synthesis of these seven azo dyes for textile dyeing had never been reported previously.
Practical implications
The dyestuffs derived from 4-hydroxycoumarin are reasonable azo disperse dyestuffs giving good all round fastness properties on polyester fabrics.
Social implications
Production of less expensive and new eco-friendly dyes exhibit antimicrobial and anticancer activity.
Originality/value
It provided a potentially simple way to synthesize novel coumarin azo-dyes exhibit good biological and pharmacology activity and also exhibit good overall fastness properties.
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DC Sirimewan, Aparna Samaraweera, NHC Manjula, Raufdeen Rameezdeen, MNN Rodrigo and EMAC Ekanayake
Irrigation System Management (ISM) poses many issues in terms of social and technical aspects. These can be further elaborated as the issues toward the efficiency of…
Abstract
Purpose
Irrigation System Management (ISM) poses many issues in terms of social and technical aspects. These can be further elaborated as the issues toward the efficiency of infrastructure, equity of water sharing, environmental integrity and economic acceptability. Water losses and the structural changes of the system caused many issues putting the irrigation system into distress. Hence, this urges the need for sustainable ISM to improve social and technical attributes in ISM. This paper aims to apply the Socio-Technical Systems (STSs) theory for sustainable ISM.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative expert opinion survey method was selected as the research strategy to approach the research aim. Sixteen industry professionals in the ISM sector were selected through the purposive sampling method to conduct semi-structured interviews to collect data in the Sri Lankan context. Code-based content analysis through a directed approach was used to analyse the data.
Findings
Four main categories of strategies were emerged from the research findings as “engineering strategies”, “operational strategies”, “management strategies” and “regulatory strategies” through STS approach for sustainable ISM. The STS framework was developed by combining engineering and operational strategies into the technical subsystem and the management and regulatory strategies into the social subsystem to approach the aim of achieving contemporary system management in irrigation in a sustainable manner.
Originality/value
The research revealed the links between the strategies emerged from various disciplines to minimise the issues in ISM from the perspectives of technical and social subsystems. The study contributes to knowledge by providing a framework for sustainable ISM by applying the socio-technical systems theory by integrating the concepts of sustainability.
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The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors that impact knowledge sharing (KS) and their importance in technology-intensive service organizations in the United…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors that impact knowledge sharing (KS) and their importance in technology-intensive service organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Design/methodology/approach
An extensive literature review was conducted to identify the critical factors for KS in technology-intensive organizations. Then, an analytical hierarchical process (AHP) was applied to prioritize the primary criteria and sub-criteria. This study consists of nine primary criteria and 34 sub-criteria that are relevant to KS in technology-intensive organizations.
Findings
The results show that organizational leadership (OL) is the most important factor that impacts KS in technology-intensive organizations, which is followed by organizational culture (OC), organizational strategy (OSY), corporate performance (CP), organizational process (OP), employee engagement (EE) and organizational structure (OST). According to the results, the least impactful factor is human resource management (HRM).
Research limitations/implications
Because the results in this study were only obtained from service organizations, future studies can include manufacturing organizations from different countries and additional success factors. Future studies could also use structural equational modelling methodology for better understanding the relations among these critical factors for KS.
Originality value
This paper is one of the first in the UAE to examine the broad range of critical success factors for KS in technology-intensive organizations.
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Sanjay Gupta, Sahil Raj, Aashish Garg and Swati Gupta
The primary purpose of this study is to examine the factors leading to shopping cart abandonment and construct a model depicting interrelationship among them using interpretive…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this study is to examine the factors leading to shopping cart abandonment and construct a model depicting interrelationship among them using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and Matriced Impact Croises Multiplication Appliquee an un Classement (MICMAC).
Design/methodology/approach
Initially, 20 factors leading to shopping cart abandonment were extracted through a systematic literature review and expert opinions. Fifteen factors were finalized using the importance index and CIMTC method, for which consistency has been checked in SPSS software through a statistical reliability test. Finally, ISM and MICMAC approach is used to develop a model depicting the contextual relationship among finalized factors of shopping cart abandonment.
Findings
The ISM model depicts a technical glitch (SC8), cash on delivery not available (SC4), bad checkout interface (SC9), just browsing (SC11), and lack of physical examination (SC12) are drivers or independent factors. Additionally, four quadrants have been formulated in MICMAC analysis based on their dependency and driving power. This facilitates technical managers of e-commerce companies to focus more on factors leading to shopping cart abandonment according to their dependency and driving power.
Research limitations/implications
Taking an expert’s opinion as a base may affect the results of the study due to biases based on subjectivity.
Practical implications
This study’s outcomes would accommodate practitioners, researchers, and multinational or national companies to indulge in e-commerce to anticipate factors restricting the general public from online shopping.
Originality/value
For the successful running of an e-commerce business and to retain the confidence of e-shoppers, every e-commerce company must make a strategy for controlling factors leading to shopping cart abandonment at the initial stage. So, this paper attempts to highlight the main factors leading to shopping cart abandonment and interrelate them using ISM and MICMAC approaches. It provides a clear path to technical heads, researchers, and consultants for handling these shopping cart abandonment factors.
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Nimesha Sahani Jayasena, Harshini Mallawaarachchi and Lalith De Silva
Rapid changes in the environment escalate the requirement of environmental sustainability assessment within built environment. The purpose of this paper is to model the…
Abstract
Purpose
Rapid changes in the environment escalate the requirement of environmental sustainability assessment within built environment. The purpose of this paper is to model the environmental sustainability of facilities management (FM) functions in apparel industry in Sri Lanka.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive literature review was carried out in order to identify the importance of sustainability assessment for FM, sustainable FM functions and their environmental sustainability indicators. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was carried out to determine a relative weight of the sustainable FM functions and environmental sustainability indicators through the analytical hierarchy process analysis.
Findings
Energy management was identified as the most significant FM function in terms of environmental sustainability in apparel industry with a relative performance of 49.12 per cent. Subsequently, the functions of water management (29.39 per cent), maintenance management (11.98 per cent) and waste management (9.64 per cent) obtained the second, third and fourth ranks while asset management (7.85 per cent) was the function which had the least performance score. Relative weights for the environmental sustainability indicators were also determined.
Research limitations/implications
In respect of the apparel industry, the developed model can be utilised for assessing the environmental sustainability of FM in broader term.
Originality/value
No proper mechanism was found to assess the sustainability of FM in apparel sector since very fewer research studies were focussed on achieving environmental sustainability in different industries. Hence, the assessment of environmental sustainability of FM in apparel industry is an emerging necessity in the present day, which was addressed in this research.
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Armin Saadatian and Svetlana Olbina
The retail sector has the largest energy consumption among commercial buildings in the U.S. Although previous studies explored benefits, barriers and solutions for implementing…
Abstract
Purpose
The retail sector has the largest energy consumption among commercial buildings in the U.S. Although previous studies explored benefits, barriers and solutions for implementing sustainability in various building sectors, research focused on retail facilities has been very scarce. This study aims to explore U.S. facilities managers’ perceptions of barriers that prevented the implementation of energy-efficiency practices in the retail sector. Their perceptions were compared by facility size and facilities management company’s business revenue.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was distributed to the members of the International Facility Management Association and the author's LinkedIn network. The survey responses were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis and ANOVA.
Findings
Managers from large facilities, as opposed to those from small ones, significantly more agreed that the unavailability of building automation systems, a lack of professional writing skills and a lack of awareness of life cycle cost (LCC) were the barriers. Business revenue did not cause significantly different perceptions of the barriers except for a lack of awareness of LCC and a lack of support from upper management.
Originality/value
This study fills the research gap on energy efficiency in the retail sector by revealing U.S. facilities managers’ perceptions of the barriers to the implementation of energy-efficiency practices in retail stores. This novel study compares perceptions of the facilities managers by facility size and business revenue; this comparison has not been performed before. The study also identified several new barriers to the implementation of energy efficiency in the retail sector.
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Cindy G. Grappe, Cindy Lombart, Didier Louis and Fabien Durif
Animal welfare is increasingly favoured by consumers in their choice of food and cosmetic products, proposed by manufacturers and retailers. This study aims to investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Animal welfare is increasingly favoured by consumers in their choice of food and cosmetic products, proposed by manufacturers and retailers. This study aims to investigate the impact of the “not tested on animals” claim on consumers' attitude and behavioural intention towards a cosmetic product through an enriched version of Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
A between-subjects design has been used. 450 participants were recruited through the social network of a cosmetics and personal hygiene brand in Quebec, Canada, and answered a questionnaire. They were randomly assigned to either a manipulation group (n = 226) or a control group (n = 224). Data were analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling.
Findings
This study shows that external (credibility and attitude towards marketing claims) and internal psychological variables (subjective norms and altruistic concerns with animal welfare) influence attitude towards and purchase intention of “not tested on animals” personal care products. More egotistic concerns, such as personal appearance, also explain the formation of attitude towards cruelty-free cosmetics.
Research limitations/implications
This research supplements Ajzen's original model with internal psychological (individuals' concerns with animal welfare and personal appearance) and external (general credibility of cosmetic products claims, credibility of the “not tested on animals” claim and attitude towards this claim) variables. These variables, as suggested by previous research on cosmetics and their claims, improve the understanding of consumer attitude and purchase behaviour patterns.
Practical implications
The study's findings point out the role of companies to increase consumers' knowledge on the significance and transparency of their messages, notably the “not tested on animals” claim. They also stress that policymakers in regions where regulation is unclear should at least punish untruthful communication pertaining to animal testing in cosmetic and personal care products.
Originality/value
Prior studies on cosmetic products did not investigate the difference of consumer attitude formation towards cruelty-free products compared to conventional cosmetic products. Consequently, this research shows that the construction of attitude towards cruelty-free products highly differs from conventional personal care.
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This study aims to focus on the possibility of developing new thiazole azo dyes with good colouristic application properties, biological and pharmacological activities.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to focus on the possibility of developing new thiazole azo dyes with good colouristic application properties, biological and pharmacological activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Coupling of curcumin with different aromatic diazonium salts of 2-amino thiazole derivatives, such as 2-aminobenzothiazole, 2-amino-5-phenylthiazole, 2-amino-5-methylthiazole and 2-amino-5-nitrothiazole-produced novel azo dyes. Structures of all synthesised dyes were fully confirmed via spectroscopic and analytical methods. Those compounds were examined for their antimicrobial, anticancer and antioxidant activities. They were applied on polyester fabrics and, subsequently, their dyeing properties, light, washing, perspiration, rubbing and sublimation fastness were determined.
Findings
Prepared dyestuffs were suitable for dyeing polyester fabrics. It was found that all prepared dyes possess high colour strength, as well as good overall fastness properties. Meanwhile, the synthesised compounds exhibited good biological and pharmacology activity.
Research limitations/implications
Synthesis of these four azo dyes for textile dyeing was not conveyed earlier.
Practical implications
Thaizolyl disperse dyes were responsible for giving better colour assessment and fastness properties on polyester fabrics.
Social implications
Although, most of synthesis eco-friendly dyes are expensive, they are showing a good antimicrobial and anticancer activity.
Originality/value
It gave straightforward approach to synthesise novel thiazolyl azo dyes with good biological, pharmacology activities, good colour assessment, and fastness properties.
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Manjula T., Rajeswari R. and Praveenkumar T.R.
The purpose of this paper is to assess the application of graph coloring and domination to solve the airline-scheduling problem. Graph coloring and domination in graphs have…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the application of graph coloring and domination to solve the airline-scheduling problem. Graph coloring and domination in graphs have plenty of applications in computer, communication, biological, social, air traffic flow network and airline scheduling.
Design/methodology/approach
The process of merging the concept of graph node coloring and domination is called the dominator coloring or the χ_d coloring of a graph, which is defined as a proper coloring of nodes in which each node of the graph dominates all nodes of at least one-color class.
Findings
The smallest number of colors used in dominator coloring of a graph is called the dominator coloring number of the graph. The dominator coloring of line graph, central graph, middle graph and total graph of some generalized Petersen graph P_(n ,1) is obtained and the relation between them is established.
Originality/value
The dominator coloring number of certain graph is obtained and the association between the dominator coloring number and domination number of it is established in this paper.
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