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Consumers have the multiple options to choose their products and services, which have a significant impact on the pattern of consumer decision making in digital market and further increases the challenges for the service providers to predict their buying pattern. In this sense, the purpose of this paper is to propose a structural hierarchy model for analyzing the changing pattern of consumer decision making in digital market by taking an Indian context.

To accomplish the objectives, the research is conducted in two phases. An extensive literature review is performed in the first phase to list the factors related to the changing pattern of consumer decision making in digital market and then fuzzy Delphi method is applied to finalize the factors. In the second phase, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is employed to find the priority weights of finalized factors. The fuzzy set theory allows capturing the vagueness in the data.

The findings obtained in this study shows that consumers are much conscious about innovative and trendy products as well as brand and quality; therefore, the service providers must think about these two most important factors so that they can able to retain their consumer in their online portal.

The analysis shows that “innovative and trendy” is the first priority factor for the consumers followed by “brand and quality” and “fulfilment and time energy.” The proposed model can help the marketers and service providers in predicting customers’ preferences and their changing pattern efficiently under vague surroundings. The outcomes of this research work not only help the service provider to update their products and services according to consumers’ needs but can also help them to increase profit and minimize their risk.

This work contributes to consumer research literature focusing on problem evaluation in the context of changing pattern of consumer decision making in digital era.

Organizational change theorists tend to focus on substantive changes and frequently ignore or underplay the significance of the features of structural inertia. The effect of this preoccupation has minimized our understanding of frequently occurring patterns of limited structural change. The purpose of this paper is to encourage theorizing and debate about limited structural change.

This paper presents a conceptual explanation of the different patterns of limited structural change that arise in organizations undertaking change. It reviews and comments on how different patterns occur at the organization level as a result of the adjustment of component forces around pattern profiling centers of gravity.

A pervasive finding in change literature is that organizations tend to fall back on more of the same, even when they undergo some major structural change. The paper proposes a framework encapsulating four competencies that synergistically complement each other as a foundation for explaining different patterns of limited structural change.

The paper argues for advancing theory accounting for limited structural change, moving away from the dichotomy of change as normal and limited change as atypical. Normative rational change actions and bounded change actions interact and coexist in parallel. A focus on explaining limited change is a starting point for advancing our understanding of this coexistence.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the patterns of service strategy changes in manufacturing firms and indicates how each pattern is interrelated with modifications in organizational design elements.

The paper draws on a longitudinal study using a survey of 97 manufacturers of capital goods. In addition, 15 case studies have been conducted. Survey and qualitative data are obtained in 1997, 2001, and 2004.

The findings highlight four patterns of service strategy changes: from customer service strategy to after‐sales service provider, from after‐sales service provider to customer‐support service provider, from customer‐support service provider to development partner, and from customer‐support service provider to the outsourcing partner. Evidence of specific alignment between service strategy and organizational design elements is provided.

The main limitation of this paper is the purposive sample.

Managers should follow the patterns of service strategy changes by extending the service offerings and modifying the organizational design elements.

Previous studies investigate service strategies and organizational design elements only at a specific time, which leads to a static perspective. This paper offers insights into interrelations among service strategy changes and organizational design elements.

This paper aims to investigate business network activity patterns and how they change when actors experience tensions.

Four tensions, developed from previous literature, are considered in relation to how they influence activity patterns. A longitudinal case study focusing on the modernization of an international airport illustrates how tensions experienced by actors influence changes in activity patterns.

Results highlight that when tensions in relation to network position are experienced activity patterns are more likely to break and form new patterns. When multiple tensions are experienced within the same period, an old activity pattern is more likely to be broken and the new activity pattern develop.

Contributions in relation to interdependencies between activities heighten the impact of changes leading to the breaking of existing patterns, particularly the importance of coordination activities. These findings are context specific because activity patterns vary according to the industry.

Practical implications indicate that understanding network interdependences within the change process is important, particularly for co-ordination activities. The study informs practitioners about possible outcomes while tensions are experienced. This study found that when actors are experiencing multiple tensions, breaking of activity patterns is more likely to occur while experience less tensions extending existing activity patterns becoming more likely.

Contributions are made in relation to gaps in investigating the business network activity layer and their changes in relation to tensions.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how anomalous diffusion behaviors can be manifest in physically realizable phase change systems.

In the presence of heterogeneity the exponent in the diffusion time scale can become anomalous, exhibiting values that differ from the expected value of 1/2. Here the author investigates, through directed numerical simulation, the two-dimensional melting of a phase change material (PCM) contained in a pattern of cavities separated by a non-PCM matrix. Under normal circumstances we would expect that the progress of melting F(t) would exhibit the normal diffusion time exponent, i.e., F∼t1/2. The author’s intention is to investigate what features of the PCM cavity pattern might induce anomalous phase change, where the progress of melting has a time exponent different from n=1/2.

When the PCM cavity pattern has an internal length scale, i.e., when there is a sub-domain pattern which, when reproduced, gives us the full domain pattern, the direct simulation recovers the normal ∼t1/2 phase change behavior. When, however, there is no internal length scale, e.g., the pattern is a truncated fractal, an anomalous super diffusive behavior results with melting going as t n; n > 1/2. By studying a range of related fractal patterns, the author is able to relate the observed sub-diffusive exponent to the cavity pattern’s fractal dimension. The author also shows, how the observed behavior can be modeled with a non-local fractional diffusion treatment and how sub-diffusion phase change behavior (F∼t n; n < 1/2) results when the phase change nature of the materials in the cavity and matrix are inverted.

Although the results clearly demonstrate under what circumstances anomalous phase change behavior can be practically produced, the question of an exact theoretical relationship between the cavity pattern geometry and the observed anomalous time exponent is not known.

The clear role of the influence of heterogeneity on heat flow behavior is illustrated. Suggesting that modeling heat and fluid flow in heterogeneous systems requires careful consideration.

The novel direct simulation of melting in a two-dimensional PCM cavity pattern provides a clear illustration of anomalous behavior in a classic heat and fluid flow system and by extension provides motivation to continue the numerical investigation of anomalous and non-local behaviors and fractional calculus tools.

The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.

Comparative studies have confirmed that the current types of cohabitation (defined as living together as a couple without being married) and the meanings attached to them differ across Europe. This variation could reflect differences in the levels of progress or the stages countries have reached in a common developmental process, as suggested by the theory of the Second Demographic Transition and Kiernan’s stage model of cohabitation. However, it may also indicate that countries are on different developmental paths, as suggested by path dependency theories. To examine whether changes in the prevalence of cohabitation follow a common script, this study analyses types of cohabitation within emerging family formation patterns over cohorts and across countries.

For this purpose, sequence methodology is applied to analyze cohort-specific family trajectories in France, western Germany, Norway, and Italy. In particular, using data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and the Generation and Gender Survey (GGS), patterns of union status and co-residence with (own) children between ages 15 and 35 among the 1935–1969 birth cohorts (for Germany, among the 1940–1974 birth cohorts) are compared.

Our findings provide some support for the claim that there were common patterns of change. However, also country-specific variations in family trajectory patterns were detected, which suggests that general processes of change were mediated through country-specific institutions (path dependencies). The empirical evidence for convergence as well as for divergence indicates that both theoretical strands add to our understanding of the spread of cohabitation in European countries.

Popular literature argues that successive generations are experiencing more job changes and changes of employer. The “new careers” literature also proposes that career mobility patterns are becoming more diverse as people engage in more downward and lateral job changes and changes of occupation. The purpose of this paper is to test these assertions by comparing the career mobility patterns across four generations of workers.

The authors analyzed the career mobility patterns of four generations of Canadian professionals (n=2,555): Matures (born prior to 1946); Baby Boomers (1946-1964); Generation Xers (1965-1979) and Millennials (1980 or later). Job mobility, organizational mobility and the direction of job moves were compared across groups through analysis of variance.

Significant differences were observed in job mobility and organizational mobility of the various generations, with younger generations being more mobile. However, despite significant environmental shifts, the diversity of career patterns has not undergone a significant shift from generation to generation.

This is the first quantitative study to examine shifting career mobility patterns across all four generations in today’s workplace. The authors extend previous research on generational differences in job mobility by using novel measures of career mobility that are more precise than extant measures.

This study aims to compare the career patterns of Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials over the various stages of their careers to determine whether there have been notable shifts away from the “traditional” career model characterized by long‐term linear, upward career movement, toward a “modern” career model characterized by increased job mobility, organizational mobility and multi‐directional career movement.

The retrospective career accounts of 105 Canadians were gathered through review of résumé information and semi‐structured interviews. The job changes and organizational changes experienced by each respondent in each five‐year career period (e.g. age 20‐24, 25‐29) and the direction of job changes (i.e. upward, downward, lateral or change of career track) were recorded. The generations were compared statistically on each of these measures through analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Significant inter‐generational differences were observed on all variables of interest, but the differences were largely restricted to the age 20‐24 and 30‐34 career stages.

The study relied on a small sample because of the qualitative nature of the data collection. The sample was also exclusively Canadian. The results should therefore be interpreted with care and the research should be replicated with different types of respondents and in different cultural contexts.

The research demonstrates to employers that the younger generations change jobs and employers at a greater rate than previous generations and that they are more willing to accept non‐upward career moves. Recruiting and retaining young employees will therefore require a different approach than was used for previous generations.

The use of retrospective accounts allowed for the comparison of generations within various career stages. This overcomes a significant limitation of cross‐sectional studies of generational phenomena by simultaneously considering life‐cycle and generational cohort effects.

In this article, we analyse how variations in organisational conditions for research affect researchers’ opportunities for changing individual-level or group-level research programmes. We contrast three innovations that were developed in universities and public research institutes in Germany and the Netherlands, which enables comparisons both between organisational settings and between properties of innovations. Comparing the development of three innovations in the two types of organisations enables the identification of links between patterns of authority sharing at these organisations and the opportunities to develop innovations. On this basis, the distribution of opportunities to change research practices among researchers in the two countries can be established.