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The objective of this paper is to explore and extend the existing literature on the use of gamification in banking.

Gamification is a new concept, further its application in banking is in a nascent stage both from the perspective of research and application. To systematise the limited literature and to draw the future research prospects, studies are presented based on theories, characteristics, context and methodologies framework.

The synthesis of the literature on gamification opened to a spectrum of areas to determine the future of gamification in the banking industry. The study emphasises the use of social and psychological theory building in the banking industry. Further, the research on game elements is an underexplored area in the banking domain, while they have well exploited in other contexts. Banking context needs more literature evidence, empirically tested and validated research methods to understand the personality traits and customer behaviour arising from the use of gamification.

For bank management, this study lays the impact of gamification in this era of digital banking. With the right mix of hedonic and utilitarian elements, bank management shall be able to boost financial literacy, improve saving habits, simplify banking products and strengthen knowledge updates among bank employees. Understanding the key elements and present status of research on gamification and their impact on customer behaviour development is crucial for the bank in building strategic advantage.

This study on gamification applied explicitly to the banking sector. With no clear application of the elements and mechanics of technology used in gamification, this study presents past literature in a systematised manner and draws the future research agenda of gamification in banking services.

This study aims to demonstrate digital banking’s influence on customers’ evaluation of service experience and develop a framework identifying the most significant variables of digital banking that influence the financial performance of banks.

This structured review of literature, guided with the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses framework, takes a digital banking perspective to identify 88 articles published between 2001 and 2021, examining distinct aspects of digital banking and their impact on financial performance.

Customer experience (CE) is determined by functional clues (functional quality, trust and convenience), mechanic clues (website attributes, website design, perceived usability) and humanic clues (customer complaint handling). The study is furthered to combine CE with the service profit chain model. This study also fills the gap to understand the use of “gamification” in technology-driven banking services to enhance CE. Finally, an integrative framework is proposed to link technology-related factors (digital banking clues and gamification), customer-related factors (CE, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty) and performance-related factors (financial performance).

The study conceptualises a “total” CE framework that banks can use to enhance their online presence. Banking service providers could also analyse their financial results based on digital banking’s impact on customers. Besides, banks can use this framework to strategically place “game-like features” in their digital platforms.

This study attempts to significantly contribute to the digital marketing literature related to CE with banks. It is one of the first studies to determine gamification explicitly in banking literature.

In this global digital era, health-care companies are increasing their presence on the internet through branded content that serves as a connecting link between customers and brands. However, there is a limited understanding of branded content’s impact on customers. Thus, this paper aims to empirically analyse customer engagement for branded content in the health-care sector.

The factors impacting customer engagement for branded content were identified and analysed using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory approach to get their significance and the cause and effect relationship.

It emerged that co-creation is the most significant factor, having a substantial relationship with all other factors. It is substantiated that health-care companies can increase the intensity of customer engagement by delivering more authentic and relevant content and having an appealing look in a time-bound manner. This will increase the usefulness and entertaining value of the content.

The research findings contribute to the customer engagement dimension in the health-care sector and help the companies construct effective branded content leading towards higher customer engagement.

This study enables one to critique the importance of adapting and innovating during challenging times to sustain and grow a business and also emphasizes the need for businesses to be flexible, resilient and willing to make necessary changes to stay relevant and thrive in dynamic and unpredictable environments.

In the competitive world of India’s quick-service restaurants industry, Shilpa Bhatt Bahuguna, the young entrepreneur behind “Pizza Italia,” aimed to secure the top spot in Uttarakhand. Despite facing setbacks by closing six out of the eight outlets during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bahuguna’s focus on product quality and localization had garnered word-of-mouth publicity for her brand. Now, with a limited budget for promotions, Bahuguna sought below-the-line strategies to ensure profitability and success for new outlets. Her determination to establish Pizza Italia as an indigenous brand and her plans for global expansion through franchising reflected her vision for growth and impact in the market. With her entrepreneurial spirit, Bahuguna remained poised to achieve even greater success in the future. Bahuguna aimed to leverage her product quality and word-of-mouth promotion to capture the market. She planned to expand her brand globally and open new outlets in Uttarakhand and London. However, Bahuguna was challenged to promote her brand on a limited budget, favoring “below-the-line” strategies.

This case study is appropriate for an undergraduate- or graduate-level program in marketing management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy

This study aims to identify and analyse the interactions among drivers of anti-food waste behaviour at the consumer level. By understanding the mutual interactions among the drivers, an effort is made to identify the most driving and most dependent drivers through the total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) approach. Modelling offers inputs to propose focused interventions for reinforcing the identified drivers of anti-food waste consumer behaviour using the theoretical lens of social practices theory.

A proposed model of factors affecting anti-food waste behaviour is arrived at to suggest the most effective anti-food waste behavioural interventions. The factors were identified through an extensive literature search. A hierarchical structure of identified factors has been developed using TISM and MICMAC analysis through expert opinion. Focused marketing strategies towards promoting the identified factors for encouraging anti-food waste behaviour were suggested further.

This study identifies nine drivers based on extensive literature review, brainstorming and expert opinion. The TISM hierarchical model portrays the most important and least important drivers of household anti-food waste behaviour. It establishes that fundamental knowledge and socio-cultural norms are the most critical factors to drive the consumers. Marketers can focus on designing effective interventions to enhance the essential knowledge of the consumers and orient the socio-cultural norms towards anti-food waste behaviour.

This study offers implications for practitioners, policymakers and cause-driven marketing campaigns targeting anti-food waste behaviour. It provides an indicative list of critical factors relevant to household food waste behaviour, which can be used to drive effective marketing campaigns to nudge anti-food waste behaviours.

The proposed food waste behaviour management model was developed through modelling technique (TISM) and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis, and relating them to marketing interventions is a novel effort in the food waste domain.

After completion of the case study, the students will be able to appreciate and understand why brands are an essential asset to the company and how they can enhance business value, understand the factors needed to grow brands in the growth stages and evaluate the choices that start-up companies have to grow their brand in competitive and growing markets.

Mamaearth was born as a direct-to-consumer brand in 2016 by a couple who could not find chemical-free, safe products for their child. The company that introduced as a baby-care brand soon consolidated itself to play in the space of personal care category (targeting millennials), and by 2020, it was earning majority of its revenue from skincare. It started by leveraging the power of social media space and online commerce and slowly moved to be a national brand with offline footprint and mass-media communication. In its growth journey, it acquired many brands and launched a few to cater to the specialized needs of its target audience. As the company grew, attracted impressive investors and started clocking profits, it aspired for an initial public offering (IPO). Varun and Ghazal Alagh, the founders of Mamaearth, knew that to refloat an IPO and to grow the company further, they needed to redefine their portfolio and marketing strategy. They had a choice to either invest in building a broader portfolio – organically or inorganically – or expand across geographies. Both were an option, albeit expensive, which could cost Mamaearth its profitability.

This case is intended for discussion in undergraduate and graduate management courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Marketing Management, Product & Brand Management, Entrepreneurship.

This case can be taught effectively to MBA/BBA students as part of Marketing Management, Product & Brand Management, Entrepreneurship.

The case talks about the marketing mix strategy of India’s fastest growing fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) brand Patanjali, with a tremendous revenue growth rate of 100 per cent for the past five years, leaving major FMCG companies insomniac. Patanjali Ayurved Limited riding on Baba Ramdev’s brand equity positioned itself as an authentic Ayurved brand with ancient Indian roots. Patanjali’s product line ranges from healthcare, personal care, home care, to food and more. Patanjali’s products were priced 10-40 per cent lower than that of its competitors. Run by franchisees, Patanjali had a three-tier distribution system. These included Patanjali Chikitsalayas which were franchise dispensaries and clinics along with doctors, Patanjali Arogya Kendra which were health and wellness centres and Swadeshi Kendra, non-medicine outlets. The company has 15,000 exclusive outlets across India and plans to grow to 1,00,000 exclusive outlets by 2020. Patanjali amazed the world by achieving phenomenal success without spending much on advertising in its nascent stage. Recently Patanjali adopted the multinational corporation (MNC) style of advertising by hiring two top advertising agencies McCann and DDB Mudra to prepare the company for the next phase of growth. Patanjali diversified into various segments of the market, ranging from FMCG products, Ayurvedic medicines, Ayurvedic hospitals and a medical college. Patanjali plans to enter various categories of products including the beauty products segment to compete with major MNCs, the baby care segment to compete with Johnson & Johnson, and the sports segment to compete with Nike and Adidas. Patanjali as a brand has a strong positioning in the minds of consumers as a natural and Ayurvedic brand. Will Patanjali’s foray into so many diversified segments lead to a brand extension trap and confused positioning? Because Patanjali as a brand, solely rides on Baba Ramdev’s image, if Baba Ramdev ever finds himself at the centre of a controversy, will Patanjali’s brand equity take a hit? Will it affect the brand Patanjali? Even if Baba Ramdev does not get into any controversy, what will happen to the brand Patanjali when Baba Ramdev is no more? Who should be the next face of Patanjali? Can the brand survive without a face?

The case is designed to enable students to understand the following key learning points: The concept of marketing mix. Product mix, Promotion mix branding (especially “Person as a Brand”), customer-based brand equity (CBBE) model or brand resonance pyramid.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The online learning environment is a function of dynamic market forces constantly restructuring the e-learning landscape’s complete ecosystemcape. This study aims to propose an e-learning framework by integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to predict students’ Online Learning Readiness and Behaviour.

A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 406 students through a survey. The data were analysed using two-stage structural equation modelling and artificial neural network (ANN).

The study’s results revealed that perceived ubiquity (PUB) positively influences perceived ease of use, usefulness and attitude. Similarly, perceived mobility significantly influences perceived ease of use and attitude. Furthermore, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and perceived usefulness significantly influence readiness to learn online, which further influences students’ online learning behaviour. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) values obtained from the ANN analysis indicate the models’ predictive solid accuracy.

The study contributes to the existing literature by proposing an Online Learning Behaviour Model by integrating the TAM and the TPB frameworks in association with two additional constructs, PUB and Perceived Mobility. Secondly, this study proposes a unique triangulation framework of recommendations for learners, educators and policymakers.