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This research paper aims to examine two hybrid models of logistics service quality (LSQ) and its influence on satisfaction, loyalty and future purchase intention in a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce context. This study extends the literature for LSQ by incorporating the second-order assurance quality construct, which comprises personnel contact quality, order discrepancy handling and order returns, into one of the hybrid models.

A survey-based approach is used to collect data. Participant responses to questions concerning multiple LSQ dimensions and behavioral perceptions from their most recent online shopping experience are measured using structural equation modeling.

Findings highlight the importance of including a second-order construct assurance quality as a more explanatory model. Results illustrate that online ordering procedures and assurance quality impact customer satisfaction more than other prominent LSQ dimensions. Furthermore, the findings revealed a customer loyalty is a partial mediator between customer satisfaction and future purchase intention. This underscores the significance of improved logistics services as a competitive edge for e-commerce retailers.

Implications are limited to the e-commerce B2C domain.

The findings of this study underscore critical LSQ dimensions that garner greater satisfaction and retention in the online shopping experience. The results indicate that the effective and efficient handling of the initial order and any order problem significantly influences customer satisfaction and reaps the long-term benefits of customer retention.

The authors present and empirically test a hybrid model of LSQ in a B2C e-commerce domain that captures many of the important elements of the customer experience as espoused in the literature.

Resilience has been emphasised by researchers as a probable framework for overcoming challenging circumstances and fostering organisational innovation. Universities have had to shift to a blended learning system which includes online learning. Prior scholars have studied resilience as a reactive aspect which focuses on organisation's ability to bounce back from a downfall. This study aims to establish the antecedent role of resilience capacity which is a proactive ability to preparedly respond to a downfall.

The research adopts an explanatory study design to establish the hypothesised antecedent role of organisational resilience capacity in enhancing organisational innovation. Drawing a sample from Ugandan Universities, hierarchical regression was used to test the role of organisational resilience capacity on organisational innovation. The study also tested the influence of organisational characteristics of ownership, age and size on innovation.

The study findings show that the three dimensions of organisational resilience capacity (cognitive capacity, behavioural preparedness and contextual capacity) significantly enhance organisational innovation. The findings further reveal that ownership has a significant effect on innovation. The results show that organisational size and age do not influence innovation.

The study's conclusions help contemporary managers decide how to set up numerous strategic initiatives to activate organisational resilience towards innovation. To deal with disruption, organisations should use dependable innovation systems and best practices in a robust and adaptable way. Organisational managers ought to integrate the doctrines of resilience into various organisational activities such as training and development and simulation activities, so that organisational managers learn resilience skills to deal with environmental changes.

This research shows how the three dimensions of organisational resilience capacity (cognitive capacity, behavioural preparedness and contextual capacity) influence innovativeness since most studies have been directed to the aspect of resilience (which only focuses on ability to recover from a downfall) as opposed to resilience capacity that relates to the ability of an organisation to successfully absorb disruptive events that may endanger organisation survival, develop situation-specific remedies and eventually evolve in transformative activities. The study further intensively extends the body of knowledge by delving deeper into establishing the influence of the individual dimensions of resilience capacity on innovation.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the combined effect of eight factors – performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), hedonic motivation (HM), system quality (SQ), information quality (IQ), service quality (SEQ), digital literacy (DL) and computer anxiety (CA) on learners’ behavioral intention (BI) toward the adoption of e-learning in higher education institutions (HEIs) in India.

The study used factors from two theoretical models, the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and the DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success model. The study also considered DL and CA as additional factors because they could affect a learner’s intention in a developing country like India. Data were collected from three HEIs in Southern India and analyzed using fuzzy qualitative and comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The results of the study emphasize the importance of considering both individual and technological factors in e-learning adoption and provide evidence for the significance of integrating multiple theories in understanding the complex relationship between factors and learners’ BI. Four different configurations of the eight factors: EE*HM*SQ*IQ*SEQ*DL*∼CA; PE*EE*HM*SQ*IQ*DL*CA; PE*EE*HM*IQ*SEQ*DL*CA; and PE*EE*SQ*IQ*SEQ*DL*CA found to be sufficient to cause learners’ BI to use e-learning.

This study explores the complex relationship between different factors and learners’ intention to adopt e-learning using the fsQCA method. These findings may need further validation in HEIs across different geographical locations.

This study provides practical insights for HEIs in India and other developing countries on how different factors combine and interact to determine e-learning adoption in multiple contexts.

Using fsQCA as a novel and rigorous method, this study uncovers the complex and nonlinear causal relationships among various factors that affect e-learning adoption. This study provides a holistic and contextualized understanding of e-learning adoption in a developing country’s scenario. This study can inform educators and policymakers on how to design and implement effective e-learning strategies that suit different learner profiles and contexts.

Using attribution theory, this study examined the effects of situational factors [time budget pressure (TBP), organisational ethical culture (OEC) and quality control procedures (QCPs)] and dispositional factors [auditor professional commitment (APC) and internal locus of control (ILOC)] on audit quality threatening behaviour (AQTB). In addition, it observed the moderating role of religiosity in the relationship between situational and dispositional factors and AQTB.

A total of 189 external auditors responded to the survey questionnaire. This study employed structural equation modelling via SmartPLS to analyse the proposed model.

The results documented that the OEC and QCPs situational factors were negatively related to the incidence of AQTB, whilst TBP was positively linked to the incidence of AQTB. Dispositional factors APC and ILOC were negatively connected to AQTB. Furthermore, the findings recorded the moderating effect of religiosity on most of the situational and dispositional factors related to AQTB.

Regulators and accounting firms' efforts to promote high audit quality (AQ) may consider the theological/religious lens and reinforce ethical culture and quality control to reduce AQTB.

The findings provide further insights into situational and dispositional factors that may cause or impede the incidence of AQTB in auditing practices, as well as the moderating role of religiosity in curbing AQTB.

In spite of wide civic and academic interest in obesity, there are no bibliometric records of this issue in the marketing corpus. Thus, this inquiry is conceived to address this shortcoming with a bibliometric analysis of Scopus indexed articles published on the subject.

The analysis followed a five-step science mapping approach of study design, data collection, data analysis, data visualisation and data interpretation. R programming software was used to review 88 peer reviewed journals published between 1987 and 2021.

A sizable stream of literature exploring obesity has accrued in the marketing area as authors have drawn parallels between the influence of persuasive communication and advertising on human wellbeing and child health. The United States of America is found to be by far the country with the highest number of publications on obesity, followed by Australia and the United Kingdom. The topic dendrogram indicates two strands of obesity discourse: (1) social and policy intervention opportunities and (2) the effects on social groups in the population.

This review will shape future enquiries investigating obesity. Beyond the focus on children, males and females, an emerging focus on cola, ethics, food waste, milk, policy-making and students is highlighted.

This is the first bibliometric review of obesity in the marketing literature. This is especially timely for weighing up the utility of research aimed at understanding and reporting the trends, influences and role of stakeholders in addressing obesity.

Environmental dynamics affect all sectors, and retailing is no exception. Scholarships reveal that, in such turbulent times, entrepreneurial characteristics are essential for business. In academic research, entrepreneurial characteristics like entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and entrepreneurial competence (EC) are seldom evaluated for retailers. This study aims to decode the impact of small retailers’ EO and EC on firm business performance (BP). It also traces the mediation effect of EC in the relationship between EO and BP.

The study executed among 740 small retailers is a pioneering work to trace EO’s efficacy via EC on the retailer’s BP. The present research is a primal work in the Indian context. This work redesigns the EC scale to suit the retail context and evaluate its mediation role in the EO and BP relationship.

Examining the mediation model through structural equation modelling (SEM) adds empirical evidence to entrepreneurial value creation (EVC) theory and throws light on the indispensable qualities required for small business retailers. The outcomes of the SEM model portray that there is an association between the EO, EC and BP.

This study, though carried out methodically, it is constrained by the ensuing intricacies. The investigation was limited to the small- and medium-retailers engaged in retailing with a floor space from 500 to 5,000 square feet. All three constructs used in the study are measured using the self-reported perceptual scale, which infuses the subjectivity in the data. Exploring the EO and EC of widely dispersed retailers, examining the entrepreneurial character of large-format independent retailers and evaluating financial performance measures through retailers will add value to the study in future.

The study verified the central role of EC in the intangible resource-reward relationship. Among the five pillars of EVC theory, the role of intention and external finance are not considered in this work. The present work explored the EO and EC of existing retailers, and hence intention is excluded. The study concentrates on small retailers, and the role of external financing is not explored. Mishra and Zachary (2014b) opined that the EVC process should be studied in different context and listed out several prepositions. Considering the role of intention and external financing and studying several prepositions spelt out in the theory in varying contexts will throw more lights on the EVC process.

The purpose of this study is to provide a nuanced understanding of the marketing placebo effect (MPE) of products with reduced sugar labeling and how it forms certain perceptual underpins (perceived healthiness (PH) and perceived tastiness (PT)), with the potential effect of product category and social class in consideration.

The proposed model is tested using a sample of 822 participants by employing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Hypothetical relationships among MPE, PH, PT, purchase intention (PI) and social class are examined for both hedonic and utilitarian products.

The results highlight the positive role of MPE in leveraging consumer PI through the parallel mediation of PH and PT. The positive effect of MPE on PH and PT was more pronounced for the utilitarian product. In addition, social class negatively moderated the relationship between PH and PI only in the case of the utilitarian product.

This paper contributed to the MPE literature in the food industry by challenging the conventional intuition of “Unhealthy = Tasty” and highlighting the potential of perceived food healthiness to positively influence perceived food tastiness under the effect of MPE. An upper social class would attenuate the positive effect of perceived food healthiness on PI.

This study aims to assess the impact of participation in self-help group (SHG) on the psychological empowerment of rural tribal women.

Primary data was collected using multistage random sampling from the rural women of Jharkhand, India. The propensity score matching method was adopted using the psmatch2 command in STATA.

The results show a significant positive change in women’s self-esteem, self-confidence, self-efficacy, autonomy, knowledge and skills, reduction in agony and quality of life after participation in SHG. This reveals that participation in SHG has a significant positive impact on the psychological empowerment of rural tribal women.

Despite the numerous studies on rural women’s empowerment, there is little evidence of literature focusing on the impact of participation in SHG on psychological empowerment, specifically in the tribal context. This study primarily focuses on women belonging to the scheduled tribe category of Jharkhand, one of the poorest states of India.

In this paper, the authors investigate the impact of the confirmation bias on returns, expectations and hedging of optimistic and pessimistic traders in the cryptocurrencies, commodities and stock markets before and during COVID-19 periods.

The authors investigate the impact of the confirmation bias on the estimated returns and the expectations of optimistic and pessimistic traders by employing the financial stochastic model with confirmation bias. Indeed, the authors compute the optimal portfolio weights, the optimal hedge ratios and the hedging effectiveness.

The authors find that without confirmation bias, during the two sub periods, the expectations of optimistic and pessimistic trader’s seem to convergence toward zero. However, when confirmation bias is particularly strong, the average distance between these two expectations are farer. The authors further show that, with and without confirmation bias, the optimal weights (the optimal hedge ratios) are found to be lower (higher) for all pairs of financial market during the COVID-19 period as compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. The authors also document that the stronger the confirmation bias is, the lower the optimal weight and the higher the optimal hedge ratio. Moreover, results reveal that the values of the optimal hedge ratio for optimistic and pessimistic traders affected or not by the confirmation bias are higher during the COVID-19 period compared to the estimates for the pre-COVID period and inversely for the optimal hedge ratios and the hedging effectiveness index. Indeed, either for optimists or pessimists, the presence of confirmation bias leads to higher optimal hedge ratio, higher optimal weights and higher hedging effectiveness index.

The findings of the study provided additional evidence for investors, portfolio managers and financial analysts to exploit confirmation bias to make an optimal portfolio allocation especially during COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 periods. Moreover, the findings of this study might be useful for investors as they help them to make successful investment decision in potential hedging strategies.

First, this is the first scientific work that conducts a stochastic analysis about the impact of emotional biases on the estimated returns and the expectations of optimists and pessimists in cryptocurrency and commodity markets. Second, the originality of this study stems from the fact that the authors make a comparative analysis of hedging behavior across different markets and different periods with and without the impact of confirmation bias. Third, this paper pays attention to the impact of confirmation bias on the expectations and hedging behavior in cryptocurrencies and commodities markets in extremely stressful periods such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims to identify, examine, and present an empirical research design of behavioral finance of potential investors during Covid-19.

A well-structured questionnaire was designed; a survey was conducted among potential investors using convenience sampling, and 200 valid responses were collected. The research work uses multiple regression and discriminant function analysis to evaluate the influence of cognitive factors on the financial decision-making of investors.

Recency and familiarity bias are proven to have the highest significant impact on the financial decisions of investors followed by confirmation bias. Overconfidence bias had a negligible effect on the decision-making process of the respondents and found insignificant.

Covid-19 is a temporary phase that may lead to changes in financial behavior and investors’ decisions in the near future.

The paper will help academicians, scholars, analysts, practitioners, policymakers and firms dealing with capital markets to execute their job responsibilities with respect to the cognitive bias in terms of taking financial decisions.

The present investigation attempts to fill the gap in the literature on the intended topic because it is evident from literature on the chosen subject that no study has been undertaken to evaluate the impact of cognitive biases on financial behavior of investors during Covid-19.