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The purpose of this study is to examine the role of contemporary consumer-brand relationships in predicting brand sacredness, brand fidelity and propensity to spread word of mouth (WOM) in the context of “halal” cosmetic brands.

The proposed research framework has been empirically tested by collecting responses from 403 Muslim respondents of diverse demographics. Structural equation modelling has been used for exploring the underlying relationships between emotions associated with halal brands.

All the proposed hypotheses were positively significant, thus confirming that brand love is significantly affected by brand trust, brand image, self-congruence and brand experience. Further, brand love acts as a significant determinant in shaping brand sacredness, brand fidelity and WOM.

The study has made a significant contribution by exploring the intensity of brand love and its effect on relationship-maintenance triad in halal cosmetic brands in India.

Marketers must understand the emotional side of brands to create synergy in their marketing efforts. Moreover, in the case of religious or faith-based brands, attainment of the highest order of brand love can play a revolutionary role for long-term growth.

In the context of halal cosmetic brands in India, this study has offered a new perspective by extending the literature on consumer-brand relationships. The use of brand fidelity and brand sacredness has enhanced the effectiveness of emotions with which consumers have been looking at brands for ages.

This paper aims to investigate the role of bank reputation (via its proposed dimensions) in influencing bank trust and its subsequent effect on the loyalty of the customer. The study has also explored the moderating role of bank type (public vs private bank) in the relationship between the dimensions of bank reputation and bank trust.

A total of 651 questionnaires were distributed to the customers of public and private bank, whereas only 375 usable responses were obtained. Questionnaires were given to the respondents through the visit of few interviewers to several private and public banks in Delhi and NCR region during December 2019 to February 2020. A screening question was included in the beginning of the questionnaire (i.e. Do you trust your bank?). Non-random sampling technique was used for data collection, and the research design was cross-sectional. The proposed framework was tested with the help of structural equation modeling.

The findings of the study show that all the proposed dimensions (i.e. service quality, stability, customer centricism and corporate performance) of corporate reputation/bank reputation significantly affect bank trust. Also, the effect of bank trust on loyalty was found significant. Bank type emerged as a significant moderator between the dimensions of bank reputation and bank trust. It shows that the effect of service quality, stability, customer centricism and corporate performance on bank trust significantly differs in public vs private banks. Customer centricism is perceived to be high in private banks, whereas all the other three dimensions are obtained to be higher in public sector banks according to the findings of the study.

The presented framework in the study has covered all the significant antecedents of bank trust and its subsequent effect on loyalty. The findings of the paper are useful to several stakeholders, including bank managers, regulators, investors and depositors. The study shows that bank reputation affects trust and loyalty in the long run. This relationship can be used by bank managers for gaining the trust of customers and building loyalty. It also helps in making strategies by banks for targeting customers. Stability is a very crucial factor for a developing economy. The bank regulators can use these results for ensuring the soundness of the banking system and for providing a stable environment for customers. Bank depositors and investors can also use the findings of the study for analyzing the factors that affect their bank selection decision.

The present research shows that bank type moderates the relationship of the dimensions of bank reputation and bank trust in an emerging economy in Asia.

Tourists regularly make use of their smartphones while staying at tourist destinations. Several studies have studied the outcomes of smartphone use at travel destinations. The current paper believes tourists’ use of their smartphone or its apps because of their contact with tour friends, social loneliness-related concerns or its aesthetic scope. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors of continued use of smartphone apps via travelers during their stay at a tourism destination, framed within the UTAUT2 model (unified theory of acceptance and use of technology), given intrinsic user attributes (innovativeness), tourism destination aspect (aesthetic scope and social loneliness) and one of the key characteristics of mobile devices (portability).

The sample consists of 357 smartphone users who travelled to some tourist destinations and used some mobile apps during their stay. Data was analyzed using the structural equation modeling approach.

The findings of the study show that the UTAUT2 model can effectively explain the use of smartphone apps at tourism destinations and characteristics of the user and mobile device, does affect behaviour outcomes (smartphone, intention to reuse app, satisfaction towards trip and loyalty towards app).

This paper is mainly important due to its emphasis on smartphone apps’ use during the travel stay, as the majority of the existing literature focusses on prior steps ( service booking).

Utilising the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theoretical framework, this study investigated how destination attachment and overall satisfaction mediate the linkage between memorable tourism experiences and customer-based destination brand equity (CBDBE).

The authors study presents a model that illustrates how memorable tourism experiences can influence CBDBE by impacting tourists' attachment and overall satisfaction with a destination. The model was tested using empirical data obtained through a survey of 382 Indian domestic tourists. The data were analysed using the SPSS AMOS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences Analysis of a Moment Structures) programme.

This study validates the accuracy and effectiveness of the suggested conceptual model, demonstrating significant linkage between the variables of the study. Accordingly, it was observed that positive memorable tourism experiences have a notable impact on the development of attachment and satisfaction with the tourist destination forming strong CBDBE.

The study's primary managerial recommendation is that, to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, destination management organisations should give priority to memorable experiences and positive emotions instead than only concentrating on product-centred marketing. Second, destination managers must mould their business models based on the link between memorable tourism experiences, destination attachment, satisfaction and CBDBE.

Perhaps, the authors' research is one of the earliest to explore the relationship between tourists' overall satisfaction, attachment to a destination and memorable experiences and how they impact customer-based brand equity (CBBE) for a specific urban hill station destination.

This study aims to examine the factors determining the discontinuance intentions of millennials to use hotel booking apps.

A quantitative technique was followed to collect the data from the tourists, and partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was adopted to validate the proposed model.

Significant predictors of discontinuance intentions of hotel booking apps are usage barrier, values barrier, risk barrier, lack of facilitating conditions and digital self-efficacy.

The results of this study provide useful insights for tourism stakeholders and app developers to understand in real terms the setbacks that might be a hindrance to the users of such apps for hotel booking.

Despite the increasing focus of scholars toward understanding the determinants of technology adoption, the present study has extended innovation resistance theory with three novel constructs: social dependency, lack of facilitating conditions and digital self-efficacy.

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing state of research on “Halal” branding and to propose and empirically test the framework for understanding the purchase intention for “Halal” branded products in Indian context.

The research design is cross-sectional in nature; convenience sampling and snowball sampling is done, and completely filled 288 questionnaires are considered for testing the conceptual framework. Structural equation modeling is used to assess the fit of framework. The study has incorporated attitude as a mediating variable in relation to purchase intention for “Halal” branded products. The originality of the research is based on responses collected from the respondents in the form of online and offline questionnaires.

Findings of the direct and indirect effects in the study show that attitude has a full mediation effect on purchase intention, i.e. in the presence of attitude as a mediation variable the direct effect of subjective norm and religiosity is insignificant and the effect caused through attitude is significant.

In a country like India, which enjoys a sufficiently good percentage of Muslim population (14.2 per cent), an understanding of attitude provides enough scope for marketers to strategize techniques to reduce dissonance of non-availability of “Halal” brands.

Research is atypical, as it has focused on the mediation effects of attitude toward “Halal” branded products with the help of cosmetic range of products.

This study aims to offer a holistic halal cosmetic consumption framework by describing the current knowledge about halal cosmetics and presenting new directions for future research.

The theory, method and context–attributes, decision and outcome systematic review framework was used in this study. This study addresses the halal cosmetics literature published in the Scopus database: nonpredatory journals between 2010 and 2021.

This study found seven antecedent categories that affect four halal cosmetics consumption decisions. Those decisions led to three outcomes. In addition, behavioral theories were identified as the most frequent theory used to explain this phenomenon in personal and business settings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review of halal cosmetics consumption. This study explores the relevant theories, contexts, methods, antecedents and consumer decisions. Therefore, this study offers important insights into this phenomenon.

The purpose of the chapter is to integrate the understanding of diversity from different perspectives in Indian context and see how the holistic view emerges.

The methodology used is primarily the literature review of the concepts and their evolution in Indian context and the use of secondary sources to extract praxis information.

It emerged from the exploration on diversity practices at the societal as well as organizational level in India that the country demonstrates intent to mainstream the people from different wakes, but with the changing context the format of the practices has changed.

The basic premise of the chapter needs to be explored further through primary data from practice.

This chapter is novel in a way that it integrates the diversity scholarship of four different streams viz. caste, gender, disability, and generation. Most of the existing research focuses only on a thin slice/one key dimension of diversity.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of the 2008 global financial crisis on housing market dynamics in an emerging economy like India using quarterly data (Q4 2008–2009 to Q1 2018–2019). The study explores the extent of linkages between housing prices, monetary policy and financial stability by explaining the nature of the shocks to the housing sector and the degree of impact of those shocks; the possibility of adverse feedback loop which is beyond the natural levels; and the usefulness of explicit and direct role of monetary policy for the housing market stability, which was the loudest demand immediately after the crisis.

The paper follows a three-step methodology: data transformations, a variable selection process “general-to-specific modelling” with the help of OxMetrics 6 Package, and vector autoregressive modelling with the help of EViews 10. F-test was used to describe the short-term relationships between the variables. Impulse response and variance decomposition were used to explain the type of relationship (negative or positive) and the period of the relationships, respectively.

The study finds that the housing sector is sensitive to the monetary policy shocks, whereas the contribution of the housing market shocks to the fluctuations in other market variables is not substantial, though not negligible. As far as the nature of the shocks is concerned, the observed dynamics in the real house prices are diverging from their fundamental levels. The housing market shocks are more or less static; it rules out the chances for a self-reinforcing feedback loop with the existing setup.

The study concludes that the observed dynamics in the real house prices are diverging from their fundamental levels. Given the limitation, the researchers could extend this study by decomposing the part of the risk to the sector contributed by the other drivers, which may be inherent imperfections in housing markets, weak and unreliable wealth effect, and the presence of behavioural biases.

The present study finds countercyclical measures to be more useful for this sector as compared to the forward-looking monetary policy reforms in this sector. The central bank in India should continue to refrain from responding directly to the housing sector fluctuations. Investors can enjoy investing in the housing sector without any fear of the crisis as of now. The effect of speculation is small but not negligible, which enjoins the investors and the policy-makers to remain watchful. Interest rate, money supply and inflation lead (Granger-cause) the housing prices. This information is relevant for spending and investment decisions.

The study feels that banks should avoid using monetary policy to balance the house prices. This will be beneficial both for the economy and the society, as any change in monetary policy to especially curb out surging housing prices may adversely affect the output, and finally, may lead to the deflation. The fear of deflation may cause devastating economic, financial and social effects.

The study contributes to the literature by shedding some new insights about the interrelationship between macroeconomic variables, housing prices and financial stability in the aftermath of the 2008–2009 financial crisis. Such types of studies are absent from emerging markets, particularly from India.

SAATH is among the most respected NGOs of India catering to the needs of slum-dwellers by training them in different livelihood programs. About one and half years ago, the NGO launched Nirman program to train the workers of construction sector. After initial experimentation with processes, the Executive Director of SAATH, now plans to scale up the program. This case highlights the strengths of Nirman program and shows the impact on beneficiaries. It presents the dilemma for an organization in NGO sector to design the impact measurement process for its training program. The case also details out the challenges in implementing the training program for workers in informal sector.