The tourism sector, with its perishable nature of products, requires precise estimation of demand. To this effect, we propose a deep learning methodology, namely Bayesian Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BBiLSTM) network. BiLSTM is a deep learning model, and Bayesian optimization is utilized to optimize the hyperparameters of this model. Five experiments using the tourism demand data of Singapore are conducted to ascertain the validity and benchmark the proposed BBiLSTM model. The experimental findings suggest that the BBiLSTM model outperforms other competing models like Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network, Support Vector Regression (SVR), Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) and Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ADLM). The study contributes to tourism literature by proposing a superior deep-learning method for demand forecasting. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Indian Information Technology (IT) services sector today commands a huge share of worldwide IT sourcing spend. India stays to be a driving force for worldwide sourcing growth despite rising de-globalization moves across Western economies, challenges posed by East European nations, Russia, China and East Asia. A pertinent question that comes up is how will India take on the rivalry, while the Indian IT services sector seems to be content and complacent. One can see that the hunger for growth which we saw in the late 1990s and the decade of 2000s is fast eroding. India’s incentive to the world market was its economies of scale and cost advantage; however, the disruption created by the extant outsourcing or offshoring business model is fast receding. The Indian IT Services players turned complacent while competing as disruption and differentiation gave them a unique advantage and value proposition. This article builds on various articles in this domain while analysing how complacency affects competitive intensity, in turn resulting in a reduced intensity in market growth opportunity. This article endeavours to evaluate whether Indian IT services sector is trapped in its self-projected image leading to Narcissus effect. © 2020 International Management Institute, New Delhi.

This primary objective of the present work is to understand the relationship between Skepticism and Patronage Intention, and to check the mediating and moderating impact of Satisfaction and Religiosity on the same, with focus on Cause-Related Marketing (CRM). In the present study, SPSS 21 and AMOS were used to analyse the quantitative data and test moderation and mediation effect. The findings of the study confirm the mediation and moderation effect of Satisfaction and Religiosity on Skepticism?Patronage Intention. The findings of the study would help academicians and marketers. Academicians will be enriched by the knowledge of the antecedents and moderated and mediated variables and their differential impacts on Skepticism, drawing from the Attribution Theory. The Company and Policy Maker will be benefitted by the knowledge of factors that can lower Skepticism and enhance Satisfaction hence they are recommended to consider them before devising a suitable CRM activity. To the best of our knowledge, no such studies were being made in the Indian context and the study makes original contribution to the existing literature. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Purpose: Our study focuses on analyzing the trading behaviour of the investors who invest in these currencies to review their trading patterns which may help us to understand the price formation of cryptocurrencies in this market. Design/methodology/approach: We used Chang et al. (2000) measure to calculate herding that is based on cross-section absolute dispersion of stock returns (CSAD). We further analyse the nature of the same in different market regimes, that is up market, down market, high volatile market, low volatile market etc. Findings: Applying different methodologies both static and time varying, we find that herding is pronounced when the market is either passing through stress or has become highly volatile. Anti-herding is found in a less volatile market or in a bullish market. Practical implications: Our results are also helpful for the policy makers in designing stricter regulations to provide safe investment environment to the investors. Originality/value: Our study in an extension of the literature in same direction and contribute in numerous ways. As the number of digital currencies is growing day by day and we have around 2,200 digital currencies trading across the world, we increased our sample size up to 100 most traded currencies. While majority of the studies cover the period 2015–2018, our study comprises the largest sample size starting from August 2013 to April 2019. We use the static model to find herding and simultaneously try to detect herding under different market regimes: up market and down market. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Sam Jones joined as the learning and development manager at Fortis Healthcare Limited in August, 2014. He finds himself in a bind when he observes that the people systems were lagging and unable to cope with the rapid organizational growth; affecting the delivery of service. Substantial setback was the ambiguity of training modules creating a hurdle for service excellence. Processes were vague and complex with duplication in training modules. Forty-two training modules were there across all units but being used with different names in different units, some of which had overlapping content under different module names leading to underutilization of time, money and human resources and lacking optimization. This particular case addresses the need of managing organizational change to restructure service excellence training. The case exposes the readers to the dilemma about how to implement the change process, how to convince the employees about the change that is required and in which direction to start with? © 2020 International Management Institute, New Delhi.

Purpose: The article examines strategically directing the breadth of scope of a patent and hazards of litigation vis-à-vis the length of claims for innovating firms. Design/methodology/approach: This paper enumerates latest literature on assessing patent scope and hence protection afforded to firm innovations. Based on prior research findings, this paper proposes to maintain a balanced and nuanced approach to claim drafting to assure grant of patent while minimizing litigation threats. Findings: To strategically manage patent grant and minimize litigation threat, firms would better take a leaf out of academic discourse and streamline claim drafting – not too wide to earn an examiner’s ire and not too narrow to let an infringer bypass by. Unlike smaller firms or universities, big firms are less likely to renew a patent with less scope. Research limitations/implications: The study sample in contemporary literature is exclusive to patents from US Patent and Trademark Office. Whether the same result will be replicated for diverse countries is uncertain. Practical implications: The understanding that patent scope not only influences grant chances but also is an indicator of future litigation threat can help patent practitioners and innovating firms in strategically directing the patent. Originality/value: The paper draws from the findings of three well-articulated recent research papers. The paper’s originality and value is in providing practical insights on how to perfect patent scope in a real world based on academic discourse. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the trends and themes in the field of customer experience using a bibliometric analysis between 1957 and 2017. Design/methodology/approach: The paper analyses 1,767 papers selected from Web of Science (WoS) database using VOS Viewer software tool to create bibliometric networks. The results of the study were classified under the following bibliometric indicators: evaluation of the number of studies analyzed; most cited documents; most influential authors; and highly influential journals, institutions and countries with the highest productivity. Additionally, the paper also presents three co-citation studies analyzing most co-cited references, first authors and journals. Findings: Authors and institutes from the American and European countries dominate the contribution to the development of the field. The presence of Asian countries signifies the rising importance being given to the research field. The findings establish the argument that most of the ideas that follow today in the development of the field are mostly sourced from the works published in highly reputed journals. Co-citation analysis indicates the presence of multi-disciplinarity in the research field with journals representing different research areas such as management, strategy and psychology. Research limitations/implications: The papers analyzed in the study were retrieved only from the WoS. Furthermore, the precise number of clusters obtained during the analysis depends on the parameter set by the authors which is subjective. Researchers are encouraged to draw further insights by manipulating the parameter criteria. Practical implications: The findings in the study can be used to enrich the understanding of customer experience and future research on the topic. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first comprehensive papers offering a general overview of the leading trends in the field over a period of 60 years. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

This study examines the market timing skill of foreign portfolio investors (foreign institutional investors or FIIs) in India as a group. A simulated portfolio is constructed that invests in the market index replicating the patterns of aggregate net FII flow. Similar portfolios are constructed replicating the trading behaviour of domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and investors of other categories. The performance of these portfolios is compared with the performance of two benchmark portfolios. The results based on bootstrapped modified internal rate of return of investment portfolios suggest that the FII portfolio does not outperform the benchmark portfolios, nor the portfolios representing investment strategies of DIIs and other investors. Our results suggest that the FIIs do not have superior market timing skills. © 2020

Online apparel industry is suffering from a major issue of return, with a high rate of return for apparels that are sold online it becomes necessary to investigate the probable reasons of return in online apparel industry. The objective of the study is to develop a multi-criterion approach for evaluation of various factors that are responsible for the return of apparels purchased online in context of India. A total of 34 factors were identified through literature review and discussion with experienced experts from the fashion domain. In this study, best–worst method has been employed to prioritize and rank the factors for online return more effectively. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out to check the robustness of the proposed model of the study. The findings of the study show that fit and size variation, defects, found a better product (wisdom of purchase), wrong product delivery, lenient return policy and value for money were identified as crucial factors for online apparel return. The present study provides valuable research implications which can be used for retail policy improvements and also to online selling strategy. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to identify the non-financial e-procurement performance measures and find out whether these non-financial performance measures are leading indicator of impact on firm financial performance by adoption of e-procurement in terms of reduction in production cost. Design/methodology/approach: The research model has been tested with the data collected from target procurement professionals in India. Structural equation modelling has been used for testing conceptual model hypotheses including mediation. The phantom model approach for testing multiple mediators has deployed. Findings: The present empirical study found that non-financial performance measure of e-procurement, namely, transparency, coordination, efficiency and effectiveness are leading indicators of the impact of e-procurement adoption on production cost. This paper suggests that managers should try to design the e-procurement platform or opt for third party platform which reduces transaction cost to a minimum for enhanced coordination, work on transparency policy with maximum disclosure of information for enhanced transparency and ask for a fast and responsive system for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. Originality/value: This study, first time, attempted to identify non-financial performance measures of e-procurement and tried to understand how these intermediate non-financial performance measures impact the firm financial performance. The interdependence of non-financial performance measures has also been explored, and the research model has been developed to empirically examine the interdependence of these financial measures and its impact on production cost. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

e-Choupal is an ICT-enabled intervention in rural India, providing agriculture-related information and services to farmers. Widely acclaimed as a Bottom-of-Pyramid (BoP)intervention, e-Choupal is known for successfully demonstrating sustainable deployment of ICTs for strengthening agricultural market linkages. Much of the popular understanding about e-Choupal is based on case studies documenting use of Internet in rural India, developing markets for BoP, rural entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility. However, recent empirical research put forth interesting insights on intermediating role of ICTs and impact of e-Choupal. This paper integrates these two sets of literature using a strategic information systems perspective to draw insights for policy makers and practitioners. The dominant narrative projects e-Choupal as almost altruistic endeavor to empower farmers to overcome contextual constraints such as fragmented farms, exploitative middlemen, poor productivity and limited market linkages. It underplays the strong business imperative for the agri-business firm to invest in e-Choupal to address distortions and uncertainty in price and quality during procurement of agricultural commodities. Strategically, the company gained much from integrated supply chain, lower transaction costs, increased sourcing efficiency and product differentiation. But, development outcomes in terms of farmers' empowerment and increasing the overall competitiveness of Indian agriculture have been limited. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

This paper facilitates an in-depth view of the transformation needed for the transition from traditional to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM)—by delineating its elemental aspects. Taking an organizational unit of analysis perspective, this conceptual review seeks to characterize the fundamental nature of complexities inherent in the transformation, and thereby seeks to explicate the elemental nature of organizational efforts responsible for shaping sustainable supply chains. The findings outline intriguing mechanisms for explaining the complex and endless nature of the transformation for organizations. This discourse also involves the proposition of two novel concepts applied in this context: the SSCM Force-field and Differential Efforts in SSCM. While the former represents the intricate interplay between organizational efforts and organizational complexities in absorbing SSCM practices in the supply chain routines of an organization, the latter reflects the value of additional efforts above and beyond what is required in existing supply chain routines, to facilitate the integration of a desired SSCM practice into routines. The findings show how the force-field impedes an organization's progress in SSCM and how differential effort allows an organization to overcome the force-field to extend theoretical frameworks and offering valuable guidance for practicing managers. Overall, the research strengthens the conceptual foundation of SSCM theory by explicating the under-explored aspects involved in an organization's progressive journey toward SSCM. Further, it is a first attempt to outline the organizational implications of the SSCM journey. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the consumer motivation to buy products on consumer-to-consumer (C2C) communities on social networking sites (SNSs). These transactions involve no intermediation or payment of fees by any party. The phenomenon is in contrast with the traditional C2C transactions, on websites such as eBay, where the company website facilitates the transaction between consumers, charges a fee to sellers and provides limited information about buyers and sellers. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing from media richness theory and social capital theory, this paper thus proposes and empirically tests a theoretical model developed using data collected from people making transactions on these communities that synthesize the motivations behind consumers’ intention to buy. Findings: The results indicate that the media richness of the Facebook platform increases the social capital and sense of virtual community among users, which further impacts the purchase intentions of users. Social capital alone does not lead to purchase intention and indirectly impacts purchase intentions through the trust dimension. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to theorizing the role of the platform, social capital and sense of virtual community in buying behavior on SNSs and provides valuable new insights into these constructs for the brand managers on social media sites. Originality/value: Existing research on social commerce does not hold true for C2C communities on SNSs. This paper provides a new perspective into these communities through the lens of media richness and social capital constructs as antecedents of purchase intentions on these communities. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The exponential growth in online fashion retailing in India has brought several structural changes. Changing consumer needs and value propositions have made it imperative for online retailers to identify factors that are critical for its growth. The current study attempts to identify factors that influence consumers’ preference for online fashion retailers (OFR). The factors were identified and their weights were evaluated using the AHP methodology. Furthermore, the potential alternatives were ranked using VIKOR technique in R. Initially, 40 factors were identified, spread across 7 categories and in line with earlier research on online retail and views of retail experts from Indian online fashion retail sector. The analysis revealed that the category ‘webstore-image’ is most preferred and that the factors ‘online shop recognition’, ‘price’ and ‘reputation of stores’ were of importance. The study identified new factors that are important for the success and growth of online fashion retailing that are specific to India. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.

Information and Communication Technologies for Development is an interdisciplinary area of research associated with engineering, application, and adoption of ICTs in developing regions and/or for development. The International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) was started in 2006 with the objective to build a community of scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. In this paper, we examine the social dimension of ICTD as manifest in co-authorship ties in the papers published in conference proceedings. This research community has 1053 unique authors from 302 institutions in 55 countries. Almost 85% of 456 papers are co-authored by two or more people. Initially, the research community displayed small-world characteristics but the social network subsequently displays a distinct core-periphery structure. Further, collaborative ties among academic institutions in developing countries are comparatively less. A key implication is that institutional support is imperative to initiate and maintain collaborative research ties. © 2019, © 2019 Commonwealth Secretariat.

With the intensification of Globalization, customers’ environment-friendly attitude and stringent environmental regulations, the manufacturers have been orienting their manufacturing and other value additive processes towards the development of more environment-friendly products and use of relevant processes including taking back of used products after their end-of-use or end-of-life from the end users. Remanufacturing is one of the prominent and popular options. Remanufacturing perhaps has drawn maximum attention because of its economic viability and environmental cleanliness. The remanufacturing operation depends upon the quality and quantity of the used. Better the quality lesser the remanufacturing cost. A remanufacturer is unaware about the condition of used product before its acquisition. It may also be noted that the remanufactured product may be taken after a period of its use by users. So it is really difficult to judge how many cycles does the product go for remanufacturing. This has drawn the attention of the authors and the problem is studied with developing some mechanism on the possible frequency of the remanufacturing of a new product. This paper is a study report on this area of research which is expected to contribute immensely to the remanufacturing business. © 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.

This investigation seeks to explore the effectiveness of alternative approaches to supply chain management for developing the base of the pyramid (BoP) community. Using case research methodology, we investigate the issue of supply chain alignment when the supply base consists of BoP producers. We consider the handloom supply chains in Odisha, India, as the context of our analysis. The study analyzes the supply chains of four handloom retailers. The retailers represent cooperative and private organizational systems with varied levels of operational integration. In light of the insights from these case studies, we theorize factors contributing to operational cost-effectiveness and conceptualize approaches and considerations for improving the BoP community. Specifically, we clarify the usefulness of alternative supply chain alignment practices in promoting efficiency, innovation, and equitability among the BoP constituents and advance a set of propositions linking the motivations, strategies, practices, and performance in handloom supply chains. Limitations, theoretical and managerial contributions, and future research directions are discussed. © 2019 Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals

The current study presents a quantitative investigation of the literature on political marketing using a bibliometric approach. This study has analyzed 214 documents collected from the Web of Science database for the period between 1996 and 2018 using VOSviewer software and bibliometrix R package. Based on the insights gained from the analysis, the authors discuss the structural characteristics of various scientific agents involved in the publication process. The results of this study indicate that the literature on political marketing is highly fragmented and is still in its nascent stages. It further stresses the need to improve collaboration among researchers and promote this discipline within the research community. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the application of vendor rationalization strategy for streamlining the supplies and manufacturing cycle time reduction in an Indian engineer-to-order (ETO) company. ETO firms are known for a large number of vendors, co-ordination hassles, rework problems and its impact on cycle time and operational excellence. Design/methodology/approach: The research demonstrates the case-based application of Kraljic’s matrix for supply and leverages items, on-the-job observations, field visits, discussions and analysis of supplies reports. Findings: The study guides on the rationalization of supplies and the necessary strategic alignments that can significantly reduce supply risk, costs, manufacturing and delivery cycle time along with co-ordination hassles. The study depicts the challenges of ETO environment with respect to supplies, and demonstrates the effectiveness of vendor rationalization application for the case company and weaknesses of commonly practiced vendor management approaches. Practical implications: To be competitive, companies should rationalize supply items and vendors based on the nature of items and their subsequent usage by applying Kraljic’s matrix-based classification. The immediate implication of vendor rationalization is misunderstood as reducing supply base, but it does much more and includes review of supplies, nature of items and strategic alignments, leading to win-win situation for company and suppliers. Originality/value: For the rationalization of supplies, while procuring and dealing with vendors, executives should envisage engineering nature of components, considering cross-functional requirements and integration of components in context to ETO products/projects environments. There is a dearth of studies focusing on vendor rationalization aspects in ETO setups in fast-developing country context. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The aim of this study is to examine customers' perceived 'service quality', 'customer satisfaction', 'positive word of mouth' (+WOM) and 'problems encountered' at automated teller machine (ATMs) of Indian retail banks. It also attempts to propose a modified and refined Parasuraman's SERVQUAL scale relevant for the Indian context as also suggests a comprehensive model for measuring automated service quality at bank ATMs. A structured questionnaire, drawn together from literature, was used to collect data from a total of 219 ATM customers. The proposed refined scale has been tested for dimensionality, reliability, and validity and the research model was tested for validation through structural equation model (SEM) using LISREL 8.50. Research results indicate that expectations of ATM patrons in India were not being fully met. The highest gap score was observed for 'convenience' dimension followed by 'tangibles'. Results also show that service quality and customer satisfaction effect WOM positively and significantly while problems encountered had a negative impact on customer expectations. Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.