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This study aims to investigate the shopping behaviour of consumers, mainly in fashion apparels, and intends to understand consumer buying patterns in Indian context. The study was designed to determine the level of consumer's sense of belonging towards apparel shopping by applying the concept of self-congruence.

The study used variance-based partial least squares structural equational modelling (PLS-SEM) on a cross-sectional study conducted on 569 consumers. The study was conducted by using questionnaire to collect the responses from the central zone of India. The results support most of the projected hypotheses.

The study focused on the shopping behaviour of consumer such as self-congruence, impulse buying, hedonic values and consumer satisfaction. The results of the study highlight the association of constructs and analysed the mediation relation of hedonic and impulse buying constructs. The results revealed a positive association among the constructs and also found a partial mediation effect in their relation with constructs.

The findings are outcomes of an empirical study conducted in the fashion apparel industry of India based on the sample set of urban consumers. The study is restricted to the direct and indirect relationship of constructs. Further, research can examine by using moderating constructs like demographic factors (gender, age, income, etc.) and other shopping behaviours (like brand loyalty, brand love, brand attachment) for more clarity in results. Moreover, the study limited is with fashion apparel, whereas there are many categories in the fashion industry like accessories, perfumes, cosmetic products, footwear and also other products industry.

The study provided valuable inputs to the literature of marketing where self-congruence affects consumer shopping behaviour such as impulse buying, hedonic values and consumer satisfaction. The study proposes a practical approach that can help the marketing professionals and product developers to have a deep understanding about consumer shopping behaviour for facilitating consumer-oriented goods in the Indian fashion industry.

This is one of the first studies in the fashion industry to test the association of self-congruence with hedonic value and consumer satisfaction. This relation is not tested in context of fashion apparel. Additionally, this study also examined the mediating effect of hedonic value and impulse buying in relation with self-congruence and consumer satisfaction in the Indian context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between religious beliefs and socially responsible investment in the Indian agricultural industry.

Owners of small agribusiness firms from India were interviewed regarding their perceptions of religious beliefs and socially responsible investment in the agricultural industry.

The survey indicates that while religious beliefs and internal financing sources increase perceived socially responsible investment, the higher cost of debt capital decreases perceived socially responsible investment in the Indian agricultural industry. The higher level of internal financing sources, however, decreases the perceived cost of debt capital which may increase socially responsible investment in the Indian agricultural industry.

This is a co-relational study that investigated the association between religious beliefs and socially responsible investment. There is not necessarily a causal relationship between the two. The findings of this study may only be generalized to firms similar to those that were included in this research.

This study contributes to the literature on the factors that increase socially responsible investment in the agricultural industry. The study also provides critical policy recommendations to minimize managerial implications. The findings may be useful for financial managers, agribusiness owners (farmers), investors, agribusiness management consultants, and other stakeholders.

The young generation (Gen Z and Millennials) has a different set of values that the brand needs to interpret better. There is evidence of a correlation between luxury brands and sustainability. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of consumers’ consumption values (functional, experiential, and symbolic) and ethical values (ascribed responsibility) through flow experience (FE) on consumers’ attitudes towards sustainable luxury brands (SLB) in the young generation based on stimulus-organism-response theory.

The research design consists of Studies 1 and 2. Study 1 used a structured questionnaire on a sample of 396 respondents based on the scales of luxury consumption values. For Study 2, the authors collected 30 qualitative responses from the target group (young Indian shoppers who indulge in luxury fashion shopping frequently) via open-ended essays. PLS-SEM was used to test the hypothesised relationship.

As per the results, functional values are the most significant predictors of FE, followed by AR, experiential values and symbolic values. The study also discovered that FE has a substantial influence on the formation of attitudes towards sustainable luxury fashion brands. The qualitative findings were in line with the quantitative findings, except that the respondents have reservations with respect to the authenticity of sustainable initiatives by the brands.

As the young consumer represents the future development of the luxury market, it is crucial to fully comprehend their view with respect to consumption value and AR in an emerging economy like India, which constitutes one of the highest populations of young consumers. The new research framework will also assist luxury brand managers in the formulation of efficient brand marketing strategies for sustainable luxury apparel.

Previous studies have mainly focused on FE in the context of the service industry. There are limited studies exploring the impact of achieving FE in framing the attitude towards sustainable luxury fashion brands. Academic research in the area so far has limited its scope to quantitative and a few qualitative studies, but this study provides a mixed-methods approach in a luxury setting, contributing to the study’s distinctiveness.

The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice about probiotic use among health professionals of Ahmedabad, India.

A structured questionnaire was prepared. The questionnaire consisted of 12 close-ended questions related to definition, mechanism of action, safety consideration, health benefits, sources and four questions to assess their attitude and practice about probiotics. Total 267 healthcare professionals were requested to fill the questionnaire. Participants were doctors, medical students, nutritionists, nutrition students, pharmacists and pharmacy students.

Results of the survey revealed that most of the participants (93.25 per cent) were aware of the term probiotic, 66.66 per cent professionals were able to answer the right mechanism of action of probiotics. Only 54.68 per cent health professionals knew the health benefits correctly. There was a significant difference between the knowledge of professionals from different fields (p < 0.05). Medical students had highest knowledge scores, whereas nutrition students had lowest knowledge scores. There was no significant difference between knowledge of doctors, pharmacist and nutritionist, but knowledge of medical students was significantly higher than the nutrition students (p < 0.05). Majority of the respondents (85.76 per cent) believed that probiotics are useful for patients. Nearly 50 per cent preferred probiotic food over probiotic drugs. Almost half of them (48.68 per cent) agreed that probiotics can significantly affect the outcome of any therapy.

Nutritionists and medical students have shown to be more knowledgeable about probiotics than professionals and students of other fields. A positive and significant correlation was found between knowledge and attitude of healthcare providers.

The purpose in this paper is to develop a systematic literature review aiming to reveal innovation opportunities associated with the thematic collaboration and trust in the reverse logistics field.

The authors adopted a parallel analysis approach segregating the systematic literature review papers in two groups at NVivo®, collaboration and trust in the supply chain and collaboration and trust in reverse logistics, aiming to explore in the first group of papers insights for innovation on collaboration and trust in reverse logistics. The content analysis strategy was supported by the knowledge exchange theory described in Gravier et al. (2008).

Reverse logistics is hardly dissociated from broader sustainable supply chain management approaches, which make all considerations on collaboration and trust designed for such approaches valuable and valid for reverse logistics. Collaboration and trust concepts in supply chain and in reverse logistics contexts are quite similar, while collaboration/trust is mandatory for managing networks in sustainable approaches and in reverse logistics, as well. Downstream and upstream, the chain disruptive innovation business models may be developed between focal companies and returns system third-party logistics providers, fourth-party logistics providers or end-customers, in a business-to-customer collaboration approach. Several collaboration technologies are listed in three perspectives: knowledge sharing, knowledge generation and knowledge implementation.

This study uses a specific protocol for the systematic literature review, and due to inclusion and exclusion criteria, other protocols can provide different results. The strategy of analysis under the knowledge exchange perspective may give a type of result different from other perspectives.

This research systematizes the existing knowledge on the collaborations and trust, which is a priority basis for reverse logistics, providing insights to researchers and practitioners in the area and identifying an agenda for future studies.