This study develops a new research model to understand and predict the key determinants influencing the adoption of mobile payment services in a Middle Eastern country, Oman. The research model was tested using a hybrid structural equation modeling (SEM) and neural network (NN) modeling. The findings suggest valuable insights into the mobile payment service providers in the development of an appropriate and effective strategy to raise the number of new consumers in Oman. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis.

As far back as the industrial revolution, significant development in technical innovation has succeeded in transforming numerous manual tasks and processes that had been in existence for decades where humans had reached the limits of physical capacity. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers this same transformative potential for the augmentation and potential replacement of human tasks and activities within a wide range of industrial, intellectual and social applications. The pace of change for this new AI technological age is staggering, with new breakthroughs in algorithmic machine learning and autonomous decision-making, engendering new opportunities for continued innovation. The impact of AI could be significant, with industries ranging from: finance, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, supply chain, logistics and utilities, all potentially disrupted by the onset of AI technologies. The study brings together the collective insight from a number of leading expert contributors to highlight the significant opportunities, realistic assessment of impact, challenges and potential research agenda posed by the rapid emergence of AI within a number of domains: business and management, government, public sector, and science and technology. This research offers significant and timely insight to AI technology and its impact on the future of industry and society in general, whilst recognising the societal and industrial influence on pace and direction of AI development. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

This article studies the competitive dynamics between an incumbent and a late entrant in a market governed by network effects. Classifying markets based on decision criterion used by majority of consumers in a market, an analytical model for the likelihood of incumbent displacement in these markets is developed and corroborated using simulations. Using product quality offered and product price charged by the entrant as managerial levers, the impact of managerial decision-making on the expected market share of the entrant is discussed. Efficacy of seeding and delayed entry by the entrant in an attempt to perfect its product is also examined. © The Author(s) 2019.

Detecting intrusions has become a mandatory service in IoT environments. This is due to the power and resource con-strained nature of the networks. This paper presents a Decentralized Time-Window based Anomaly Detection (DTRAD) model for cost and time effective intrusion detection in IoT environments. The proposed model is composed of time win-dow based training data selection module, which enables better detection and reduced bias. Training data are selected based on their temporal significance and the bag creation process is also temporally performed such that data with similar temporal signatures are grouped into same bags. The ensemble model is created and weighted voting is performed to ena-ble better results. The data reinforcement module enables new data to be appended to the training data, hence maintaining the recency of the data. Further, the entire process is decentralized, hence enabling data processing at appropriate nodes. This keeps the size of the training data low, hence reducing the computational complexity of the model to a large extent. Experiments were performed with benchmark data and comparisons were performed with recent models. Results indicate high performance of the proposed models. © BEIESP.

This study examined the effect of determinants influencing the performance of 45 commercial banks in India, post the global financial crisis. The random effect model on balanced panel data for the period from 2010-2016 was performed to determine the impact of the macroeconomic and bank specific factors on the profitability of 45 Indian commercial banks (26 public sector banks and 19 private sector banks). The results suggested that the private sector banks performed better than the public sector banks. Findings of the model revealed that a significant part of the commercial banks' profitability was explained by bank specific factors like the NPAs, profit per employee, operating profit to total assets, and investment to total assets, while the capital adequacy ratio remained insignificant. The macroeconomic variables like GDP, IIP, and WPI were significant in explaining the profitability of the Indian commercial banks. This paper highlighted new facts in better understanding of the profitability of commercial banks in growing economies like India. © 2019, Associated Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mobile banking (m-banking) has emerged dynamically over the years due to consumers’ increased use of mobile technologies, their ever-growing lifestyle choices and also the several different economic factors. This paper proposes a new research model by extending the DeLone & McLean information systems (D&M IS) success model to understand users’ actual usage of m-banking. The research model was tested and validated using data collected by survey from 227 Omani residents. This study employed a two-staged analytical approach by combining structural equation modeling and neural network analysis. The results divulge that satisfaction and intention to use stand as two important precedents of actual usage, and the satisfaction also mediates the relationship between service quality, information quality and trust with intention to use m-banking and negates with that of system quality. We have provided the theoretical as well as practical implications of the findings. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify talent segments within the millennial generation based on performance and intention to stay and differentiate them in terms of their expectations. Based on results, the paper proposes a customized approach to talent management. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a mixed methodology, including 11 exploratory focus group discussions, followed by a survey involving 1,065 employees from nine information technology and business process management companies. Findings: The paper creates a framework of talent segments (performing loyals, performing movers, developing loyals and developing movers) that have different values for the organization. Significant differences are observed in their PC expectations from the manager, PC expectations related to career growth and development and PC expectations related to job and work environment. Research limitations/implications: Researchers faced constraints in obtaining actual performance data from the organizations; therefore, a self-perception report of performance was used. Practical implications: Organizations’ talent-management strategy must acknowledge and understand the differences in PC expectations of talent segments and offer tailored TM programs for maximum impact. Social implications: The paper challenges the old assumption of a uniform psychological contract (PC) that has guided the talent management strategy. Every talent segment has value and must be viewed on continuum rather than a binary construct of “Talent or no talent.” Originality/value: This is one of the few studies which explores how the perception of PC expectations differs between talent segments. It contributes to literature on talent segments, PC and the millennial generation. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The digital divide is the disparity between individuals with respect to access to information and communication technologies. The growing prevalence of mobile phones in India is often linked to phones becoming access points to various government schemes and services. However, ICTs have various features that are not uniformly operated by different users. The use of mobile phones is examined using micro-level data to highlight how the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals (age, gender, literacy, etc) influence their engagement with the various features of a mobile phone. © 2019 Economic and Political Weekly. All rights reserved.

This paper examines the development of the services sector in India in terms of the global value chain (GVC) framework. In particular, it looks at the information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) services and finds that firm characteristics such as size, age and foreign ownership are important determinants of GVC participation for IT firms. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that investment in computer and IT systems promotes forward and backward linkages by the companies. Likewise, while royalty payments for foreign technology prove to be an important factor for backward participation, that is not the case for forward participation. It is also shown that R&D expenditure does not have a positive impact on GVC participation, which suggests that Indian IT firms are currently engaged in low-end activities of the value chain, carrying out mundane tasks like coding and body-shopping. In order to upgrade to greater value-added activities, investment in new technologies and products is crucial. © 2019 ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute.

In this paper, we examine a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and retailer where the manufacturer undertakes greening efforts in terms of pack-size reduction and transportation cost reduction. The retailer decides on shelf-space allocation for the product. Both the players benefit from the greening efforts of the manufacturer. In such a setting, we examine strategic decisions of the players and compare and contrast the performance of the decentralised supply chain with the centralised supply chain. We also examine the effect of collaborative mechanisms by modelling two contracts in which the retailer offers a transportation cost reduction effort based contract and a two-part tariff contract. We find that the decentralised supply chain leads to lower greening efforts and shelf-space allocation decisions. We also find that the contracts improve pack-size reduction effort, transportation cost reduction effort and shelf-space allocation, while also improving the profitability of individual players. The findings demonstrate a scope for supply chain collaboration between manufacturer–retailer pairs in this setting. The paper uniquely combines three critical elements in supply chains, namely, product design, transportation and retailing decisions, and aims to provide insights into the decision making of players considering environmental waste and pollution. The paper also reflects consumer behavior and trade-offs that the supply chain players face. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Purpose: In the current study, the significance of extreme positive returns has been investigated in the pricing of stocks in the Indian equity market. This study aims to understand if investors in India have a preference for lottery-like stocks. The existing literature provides support for MAX effect in several countries, where risk seeking in the form of gambling is an acceptable form of social behavior, suggesting a preference for lottery-like stocks. This motivates the authors to investigate whether such preference for lottery-like stocks is prevalent in a country such as India with a different cultural setting, where gambling is not socially and legally encouraged. Design/methodology/approach: The MAX effect is tested in the Indian market for the period from January 2003 to March 2017. The average number of firms per month in this study is 2,949. Univariate and bivariate portfolio-level analyses, as well as Fama MacBeth regressions, are conducted to observe the difference between average raw and risk-adjusted returns between the stocks lying in the highest and lowest MAX deciles. Several tests have been performed for checking the robustness of the findings. Findings: Unlike the extant literature, the authors have not found any evidence of a negative relationship between extreme positive returns and expected returns. The univariate and bivariate analyses suggest that high MAX deciles over-perform low MAX deciles. Fama Macbeth regressions also do not support the negative relationship documented for other markets. This suggests that investors are not euphoric about lottery-like stocks in India. One may devise profitable trading strategies by going long on high MAX deciles and short on low MAX deciles. Originality/value: This study finds a behavioral aspect of Indian investors, which seems to be in contrast to that of other countries. While there is a strong preference for lottery-like stocks in other markets, investors in India do not end up overpaying for such stocks in the market. This tendency might be an outcome of a different social and regulatory setting in India. In view of the fact that India is increasingly becoming an important investment destination, it becomes important to devise investment strategies based on the peculiarities of this market rather than simply extrapolating the findings of other markets. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the trend and most common themes about Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation in the finance sector, and also to identify gaps in the themes that may be preventing organisations from identifying benefits from their LSS strategy and developing an agenda for future research on LSS themes. The following research is based on a systematic literature review of 30 papers that were published on LSS in the finance sector, from 2005 to 2015. Many issues and important themes have emerged, which are benefits, motivation factors, limitations and reasons for implementing LSS in financial organisations. Review identified many gaps and limitations that need to be explored as future research since little have been written on LSS as a holistic strategy for business improvement. It is important for practitioners to be aware of LSS benefits, limitations and motivating factors before starting the implementation process. This paper is based on a comprehensive literature review which gives an opportunity to LSS researchers to understand some common themes about LSS implementation in depth. In addition, by highlighting gaps in the current literature and proposing an agenda for future research saves time and effort for readers looking to research topics within LSS. © 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the affective outcome of ambivalent nostalgia through use of executional variables, develop a framework linking nostalgia (through affect) and consumers’ cognitive processing, and explain the relationship of nostalgia with self-brand connection (SBC) and willingness to pay a premium (WTPP) through a mediator, cognitive processing. Design/methodology/approach: This research is based on two experiments. In study 1, students were shown a nostalgic ad paired with a vignette to manipulate “past–present contrast.” In study 2, positive and negative moods were induced and an informative nostalgic ad was shown to measure processing styles and SBC and WTPP; this was followed by mediation analysis. Findings: The findings are as follows: first, “Past–present contrast” can reduce the negative affect in nostalgia, making it less ambivalent; second, positive (negative) affect leads to top-down (bottom-up) processing; third, SBC and WTPP are higher when top-down processing is used; and, fourth, processing style is a mediator between affect and SBC/WTPP. Practical implications: Managers may use the “good past, good present” scenario to mitigate negative affect in nostalgia. Nostalgic ads may be used by brands that want consumers to pay a price premium, have a strong SBC and when they want consumers to use top-down processing. Originality/value: This paper demonstrates how to reduce ambivalence and associate brands with positive affect in nostalgia, and gain SBC and WTPP; the mediating role of cognitive processing in the relationship of nostalgia with SBC and WTPP is delineated. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Although foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) often collaborate with firms in emerging markets to help execute capacity expansion projects, the current literature does not adequately explain what factors influence execution performance of such projects. Drawing on the cultural difference- and partner selection literature we investigate in this paper how cultural distance (CD) between MNE’s home and host nation, and business-group (BG)-affiliation of host country partner influence duration and completion-likelihood of capacity expansion projects. Our analysis reveals that high CD is associated with lower project-duration and greater likelihood of project-completion. Results further suggest that BG-affiliation is associated with greater likelihood of project-completion. In addition, we find that BG-affiliation negatively moderates the relationship between CD and project-duration. These findings are new to the literature and enhances our theoretical and practical understanding of project execution in emerging markets. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Purpose: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have now become an important part of economy for not only developed nations but also for emerging economies. Irrespective of the benefits that can be derived, SMEs in emerging economies still lack the will to implement quality management (QM) practices. Using a comparative study, the purpose of this paper is to understand the status of QM practices in SMEs of emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach: A survey-based approach was adopted to understand the established QM practices in the SMEs. A survey instrument was designed by reviewing the literature on QM initiatives in SMEs. A sample of 270 SMEs across Southern India and 189 SMEs in Namibia was selected through stratified random sampling technique. Findings: The overall response rate was 19.52 percent for India and 26.46 percent for Namibia, respectively. There were similarities and differences in responses from SMEs in both countries. Similarities are in terms of limited implementation of QM practices, and also less use of tools and techniques. Reasons for not implementing include unknown to the authors, and the high cost of training. Differences emerged in the type of market (Indian SMEs catering to one major customer), CSFs and business performance indicators. It was interesting to find that management commitment and involvement do not have a major influence as CSF for SMEs in both the countries. Originality/value: The research is the first attempt in bringing a comparative study about QM practices in SMEs from developing countries. The insights will help emerging economies to develop policies for education and training, and thus facilitate implementation of QM practices in SMEs. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

This paper examines the role of firm specific resources in the export performance of Indian automobile ancillary SMEs. The firm specific resources studied are: 1) entrepreneurial resources; 2) knowledge-based resources; 3) property-based resources. To gain better insights into the research, the case study method of research has been used. A total of four case studies were analysed qualitatively. The study found that entrepreneurial resources, knowledge-based resources and property-based resources played an important role in the export performance of SMEs. It was also found that global mindset and international networking played an important role in export. Participation in trade fairs was found helpful in augmenting export performance. One of the findings of the study is that SMEs relied more on internally generated financial resources. It was also found that many SME owners were risk averse and were passive exporters and preferred to export through agent. Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

A recent trend in policy responses the rising public resentments with inequality is to prod the wealthy into spending a fraction of their profits on projects that promote social welfare. Legitimations of these policies are primarily derived through a dogma called ‘philanthrocapitalism’ that views businesses, rather that the state, as better suited to solve social problems. However, for philanthropic funding of social welfare to be accepted as an adequate response to inequality, the meaning of inequality itself has to be reduced to the deprivation of basic needs and not the concentrations of wealth. Through a discourse historical approach (DHA) of Indian policy documents from 2004–2014, this paper charts just how such a semantic dilution of inequality is done. While not denying that philanthropic attention can help sections of the poor get access to basic needs, the paper highlights the adverse outcomes when philanthrocapitalism deflects attention from both the perpetuation of inequalities and the often violent denial of human rights integral to wealth accumulation. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The existing literature on goal orientation suggests that focusing on goal commitment (vs. goal progress) is generally more beneficial for goal attainment. This research extends the goal orientation literature by identifying situations where goal progress (vs. goal commitment) is relatively more beneficial for goal attainment. Results from two experiments indicate that individuals subject to a goal progress manipulation, compared to those subject to a goal commitment manipulation, will show higher levels of interest to engage in goal incongruent activities when the goal being pursued is abstract or when the goal being pursued is in the initial stages of completion. However, individuals subject to a goal commitment manipulation, compared to those subject to a goal progress manipulation, will show higher levels of interest to engage in goal incongruent activities when the goal being pursued is concrete or when the goal being pursued is in the final stages of completion. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.

Indian economy is considered as one of the most promising and fast growing among all developing countries in the world. In the current global scenario, India has a number of strengths namely younger population, greater access to mobile phones, increasing technical competence and digital literacy among others. Indian government initiated a number of steps to incorporate information technology (IT) tools in public institutions to increase transparency, remove middlemen, and minimize digital divide. Digital payment is one of the prominent applications of the ICT in the past couple of years due to some of the initiatives of government of India like demonetization, and digital India. However, around 67% of Indian Population still lives in rural areas and thereby it is imperative to understand the behavioral intention to use and its continuous usage of digital payments in rural population of India. This research attempts to develop a theoretical research framework by integrating psychological empowerment theory and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to explore and understand perception of rural population towards digital payments in Indian context. Researchers using structural equation modeling or other statistical models may test the proposed research framework. In this research framework, second order of empowerment construct is proposed, which is rarely available in the extant literature. The findings of this research will be useful to government agencies, financial institutions, mobile and telecommunications operators, and researchers. This paper is a working paper and intends to further test the theoretical model proposed as the ongoing work. © 2019, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.

Advancements in information technology have not only opened new vistas of business for bankers, but also enabled bankers to perform their existing services more efficiently. Analysts feel that the future of banking lies in the usage of technology, and that the technological revolution brought about by the internet is going to make profound changes in the way that banking business is done. However, growth in the usage of internet banking depends upon the generation of customers’ trust in this medium of banking. The present study, after reviewing the literature on trust, aims to empirically test the identified customers’ trust variables in the context of internet banking in India. © 2019 selection and editorial matter, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta; individual chapters, the contributors.