In this article, we discuss an exact algorithm for solving mixed integer concave minimization problems. A piecewise inner-approximation of the concave function is achieved using an auxiliary linear program that leads to a bilevel program, which provides a lower bound to the original problem. The bilevel program is reduced to a single level formulation with the help of Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions. Incorporating the KKT conditions lead to complementary slackness conditions that are linearized using BigM, for which we identify a tight value for general problems. Multiple bilevel programs, when solved over iterations, guarantee convergence to the exact optimum of the original problem. Though the algorithm is general and can be applied to any optimization problem with concave function(s), in this paper, we solve two common classes of operations and supply chain problems; namely, the concave knapsack problem, and the concave production-transportation problem. The computational experiments indicate that our proposed approach outperforms the customized methods that have been used in the literature to solve the two classes of problems by an order of magnitude in most of the test cases. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

This study examines the efficacy of Askeskin, a subsidized social health insurance targeted towards poor households and informal sector workers in Indonesia, in mitigating the impact of adverse health shocks on household consumption. To overcome selection bias from non-experimental nature of Askeskin enrolment, I use a robust estimation strategy, where outcome regressions are run on a propensity score-based matching sample. Using longitudinal data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey, this study finds that uninsured households facing extreme health health shocks experience a 1.3% point loss in growth in food and 2% point loss in non-food consumption growth. Importantly, households having Askeskin insurance, are fully insured in terms of food and medical consumption. But non-food spending, a discretionary component, is not insured fully resulting in a 1.2% point fall in consumption growth rate, despite Askeskin. This result is robust to a battery of sensitivity and robustness checks, including alternate definition of health shocks. Further, I investigate whether the Askeskin program simply displaced informal, community-based mechanisms of risk sharing. No crowd out effect is observed and informal risk-sharing coexists with Askeskin. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Artificial intelligence-deployed applications for learning are in use and made way into the field of education for quite some time. Therefore, its requirement forces teachers, learners, and stakeholders more than ever in the past. The aim of the current study is to provide focus on the matter that implementation of AI is not a choice but a need. As education technology evolves as a new standard, all the stakeholders involved in education must deploy AI to obtain the basic education goals, i.e., it must be individualized, effective, transformative, output based, integrative and long lasting. The current research is to portray the transformation in methods of education and put forward the current directions in incorporating artificial intelligence. The investigators contemplate on this issue and attempt to address how advancement of AI is contemporaneous with advancement in education. The pursuit to examine this circumstantial believes to add productive surface for a fruitful consideration on probing the power of artificial intelligence-based e-learning applications. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems and applications based on them are fast pervading the various functions of an organization. While AI systems enhance organizational performance, thereby catching the attention of the decision makers, they nonetheless pose threats of job losses for human resources. This in turn pose challenges to human resource managers, tasked with governing the AI adoption processes. However, these challenges afford opportunities to critically examine the various facets of AI systems as they interface with human resources. To that end, we systematically review the literature at the intersection of AI and human resource management (HRM). Using the configurational approach, we identify the evolution of different theme based causal configurations in conceptual and empirical research and the outcomes of AI-HRM interaction. We observe incremental mutations in thematic causal configurations as the literature evolves and also provide thematic configuration based explanations to beneficial and reactionary outcomes in the AI-HRM interaction process. © 2022

This paper aims to apply a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework to evaluate the environmental performance of the medical service supply chain using a case study in India. An application of MCDM method, the fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution) model, is used for Medical Support Service Provide firms (MSSPF) environmental performance evaluation. We require multiple and conflicting criteria to fix real-life decision-making challenges, which in turn led to the inception of (MCDM). However, MCDM is contracted with various contradictory requirements in which the knowledge of decision-makers is generally vague and thereby more challenging. In this situation, inclusions of fuzzy set theory in MCDM Methods would be good to solve the MCDM problem. In this study, the authors used a fuzzy TOPSIS MCDM model to solve the evaluation framework. Data were collected from the experts from the MSSPF about the more perfect criteria to assess environmental performance using a questionnaire. Case assesses the environmental performance, based on defined criteria, of three MSSPF by the experts. Fuzzy TOPSIS Method ranks three MSSPF according to environmental performance in the following order: Firm B, Firm A and Firm C. The result suggested that ‘Firm B’ performed superior environmental performance followed by ‘Firm A’ and ‘Firm C’. This evaluation framework will help MSSPF to identify potential areas of further improvement in Environmental performance, and thereby creates strategies to overcome and formulate new innovations. Notably, this is one of the few studies to have used this method to gauge the environmental performance of the medical service supply chain in India. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Textile industries are among the most polluting and demand urgent management measures to mitigate their negative environmental impact. Thus, it is imperative to incorporate the textile industry into the circular economy and to foster sustainable practices. This study aims to establish a comprehensive, compliant decision framework to analyse risk mitigation strategies for circular supply chain (CSC) adoption in India’s textile industries. The Situations Actors Processes and Learnings Actions Performances (SAP–LAP) technique analyses the problem. However, interpreting the interacting associations between the SAP–LAP model-based variables is somewhat lacking in this procedure, which might skew the decision-making process. As a result, in this study, the SAP–LAP method is accompanied by a novel ranking technique, namely, the Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP), which reduces decision-making issues in the SAP–LAP method and aids in evaluating the model by determining the ranks of variables; furthermore, the study also offers causal relationships among the various risks and risk factors and various identified risk-mitigation actions by constructing Bayesian Networks (BN) based on conditional probabilities. The study’s originality represents the findings using an instinctive and interpretative choice approach to address significant concerns in risk perception and mitigation techniques for CSC adoption in the Indian textile industries. The suggested SAP–LAP and the IRP-based model would assist firms in addressing risk mitigation techniques for CSC adoption concerns by providing a hierarchy of the various risks and mitigation strategies to cope with. The simultaneously proposed BN model will help visualise the conditional dependency of risks and factors with proposed mitigating actions. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Big data analysis involves additional challenges when applying popular machine learning techniques because of the scalability issue. Hence, some innovative approaches to summarizing huge datasets began to appear such that the summarized data retains much of the information present in the original dataset. These summarized data are called a coreset. Due to the sheer volume of the original dataset, the coreset acts as a trade-off between the space and the information.Prior research works focused on the coreset construction algorithm for logistic regression but not specifically for binomial regression. However, when over-dispersion exists in the original dataset, binomial regression is unsuitable for modeling such datasets. In this article, we propose a coreset construction algorithm that considers the over-dispersion in binomial regression when it exists in the dataset. Apart from experimental results, we also provide associated theoretical results for the proposed coreset algorithm. © 2023 IEEE.

This study investigates the critical firm-level strengths and weaknesses that explain cross-sectional variations in abnormal stock returns of Hospitality and Tourism (HT) firms during different phases of a crisis. We used the event study and multivariate regression framework for analysing the Indian HT firms’ data around the COVID-19 crisis. While reporting a significant negative influence of COVID-19, we identified the early crisis, market crash and continuation of the crisis periods. Furthermore, we observe that during the early-crisis period, business diversity, financial stability and board diversity improved HT firms’ strength to withstand the risk, while business group affiliation was of little help. During the market crash and continuation of the crisis phase, better capital intensity and financial stability proved helpful. The managers of HT firms can take cues from this study to understand firm-level characteristics that provide resilience to their firms’ value in managing different phases of the crisis. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

With the rise of the internet, online brand communities have gained popularity among users. However, online brand communities continue to face difficulties in engagement and usage despite the advantages it offers. This study examines the dark side of online brand communities. A total of 316 responses from online brand community members were collected to examine the proposed hypotheses based on the Technology–Personal–Environment (TPE) framework. The study also examines the moderating effect of culture (individualism and uncertainty avoidance). The findings suggest that perceived compatibility, inertia and social influence impact the users’ disengagement intention toward online brand communities. Also, individualism and uncertainty avoidance moderated the association between perceived complexity and disengagement intention. The study contributes to the dark side of brand-based online community literature and suggests marketers how to reduce customer disengagement in online brand communities. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effect of consumers’ gaming motivations on customer–brand engagement and the potential of this engagement to develop self–brand connections and affective commitment toward luxury brands. Second, it explores if the setup game mechanics and self-congruity with the brand can strengthen the effectiveness of motivation to engage with gamification on customer–brand engagement and self-brand connection. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through the survey method using a structured questionnaire. The sample comprised 249 millennial luxury consumers in India. Data analysis was conducted using AMOS 25 and PROCESS Macro for SPSS. Findings: The findings support the mediating role of customer–brand engagement and self–brand connection in the relationship between motivation to engage with gamification and affective commitment. While setup game mechanics and self-congruity with brand positively moderate the effect of motivation to engage with gamification on affective commitment via self–brand connection, a similar effect is not found for the relationship via customer–brand engagement. This study presents important implications for both marketers and academicians. Originality/value: This study applies the mechanics–dynamics–emotions framework and social exchange theory to explain gamified services as a cocreation process between consumers and luxury brands, fostering customer engagement, connection and commitment with the brands. It highlights the role of setup game mechanics and self-congruity in strengthening the effect of luxury consumers’ gaming motivations on engagement and connection with the brand. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) effectiveness on job seekers’ organizational attractiveness (JSA). Deriving inspiration from Carroll’s theory, the study specifically tries to measure the impact of CSR on JSA with the four dimensions pertaining to economics (PECO), pertaining to legal compliance (PLCO), pertaining to ethics (PETH) and pertaining to philanthropic (PPH). Furthermore, the paper also tries to examine the moderating role of company selection (COM SEL) done based on high or low CSR reputation and JSA. Design/methodology/approach: Management and engineering students enrolled in premier institutions and universities of Western Odisha in India are surveyed for their perceptions of CSR and JSA. Purposive and convenience sampling are applied to collect data from 456 job seekers. Based on the analysis, the study proposes two main models (Models 1 and 2) wherein Model 1 tries to measure the effect of CSR on JSA and Model 2 checks the moderating effect of COM SEL on CSR and JSA. In addition, robustness of the study is tested using control variables (Models 3 and 4). Data is treated through SmartPLS 3.3 software. The structural equation modelling (partial least squares-SEM) method is applied to test the hypotheses and for further analysis. Findings: The result reveals an interesting insight. There is a positive and significant effect of PECO, PLCO and PPH on JSA. Moreover, no such significant effect is observed between PETH and JSA. Further, the findings are contrary with respect to COM SEL, that partially moderates the effect of CSR on JSA. However, the results reveal that COM SEL has a substantial moderating effect on the PPH dimension of CSR and JSA. Practical implications: The results highlight that CSR positively and significantly affects JSA in terms of PECO, PLCO and PPH, thereby emphasizing that organizations must be more focused on these perspectives of CSR. Further, though the results did not exhibit any significance with PETH, it is essential that organizations should strengthen the ethical aspects of CSR as well and align them with the CSR strategic actions. The study also confirms the moderating effect of COM SEL on PPH dimension of CSR and JSA, thereby supporting the philanthropic approach in this domain. Further, the organizations should foresee the philanthropic factor of CSR as a competitive advantage to attract potential job seekers. Originality/value: This research attempts to contribute to CSR and HR literature in two ways. First, it is the first attempt to use PLS-SEM with an attempt to understand job seekers’ perception of CSR and JSA with Indian data consisting of students belonging to premier business management and engineering institutes. Second, the study is an attempt to empirically measure the moderating effect of COM SEL on JSA. To sum up, the study will provide insights to organizations to help craft CSR strategies for attracting more job seekers. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Since showrooming has been a key trend among luxury consumers, this study tries to understand the major drivers behind luxury consumers’ showrooming behaviour using a moderated mediation framework. Drawing from Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) Model and Value-Based Adoption Model (VAM), this research aims to bridge this gap in the existing work. Systematic sampling method was employed for data collection from 404 luxury fashion consumers in India. AMOS 27 and Process SPSS Macro were employed to analyse the data. Findings from the analysis revealed that sales-staff assistance, evaluation convenience, deals and discount and online purchase convenience significantly influence showrooming intention. Mediating roles of in-store search value and perceived value of online shopping were confirmed in the relationship between antecedent variables and showrooming intention. Furthermore, the mediating role of in-store search value is moderated by product involvement. This is the earliest work performed to examine the influence of product involvement in consumers’ showrooming behaviour for luxury goods. This paper will assist luxury players to create appropriate marketing programmes to facilitate or counter showrooming. © 2023 Korean Scholars of Marketing Science.

Neuroscience and its offshoot as neuromarketing have helped marketers understand neuroscientific aspects of customers while gamification has helped them understand the psyche of consumers. Despite neuromarketing's many potential benefits to businesses, little academic work has been done on the field so far. Most studies have examined consumer shifts during and after pandemics without analyzing them from two critical perspectives: neuroscientific theories and psychology theories. As the two streams of knowledge lean on each other, their interdependence in the field of e-engagement needs exploration. The purpose of this study is to answer an important question – “How do marketers use gamification and neuromarketing to understand online engagement of consumers?”. We used a quantitative empirical research approach to assess the inter-relationship between neuromarketing and gamification. The study collected data from digital marketing strategists of retail firms to propose a theoretical framework for self-determination theory in successfully implementing new age technologies by plugging the cues of gamification and neuromarketing. The framework would be useful for retail firms to design digital marketing strategies for capturing the attention of consumers across different geographies. Findings indicated that, marketers are interested in neuromarketing for two main reasons: first, they think it can help them save money and improve their marketing plans, and second, they think that cutting-edge research techniques such as brain imaging can help them get more accurate findings. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The study aims to explore consumer experience of mobile wallet (m-wallet) platforms using a data-driven mixed-method approach. A qualitative study using 4789 consumer reviews was performed to explore key drivers of consumer experience of the m-wallet platform. Further, responses were collected using an online survey from 337 Indian m-wallet users to validate the findings of the exploratory study. The results indicated that interactivity, privacy and security, convenience, and contact are the key drivers of consumer experience over m-wallet platforms. The study’s findings enrich the mobile payment literature by exploring key factors impacting consumer experience in the m-wallet context. The findings of the study will help marketers to enhance consumer experience over m-wallet platforms. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Purpose: There is limited literature linking e-fulfillment and product type with postpurchase consumer behavior measures like loyalty, even though there has been a rapid increase in e-tailing. E-fulfillment is defined in literature as a sequence of processes. Each process in this sequence is expected to have a different impact on consumer loyalty across product type. Thus relative importance of e-fulfillment processes leading to consumer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of e-fulfillment on consumer loyalty across two product types: “standard, regular” and “physical product” (e.g. book, clothing, etc.) and “standard, nonregular” and “physical product” (e.g. computer, refrigerator, etc.) using the peak-end rule theory for an e-tailer. Design/methodology/approach: To know the consumer loyalty for e-fulfillment across the two product types, the partial least square-structural equation modeling approach aided by the SmartPLS 3 tool was used for data analysis as it avoids biases in the parameter estimation in regression analysis. A total of 603 consumer responses through an online and physically administered questionnaire were obtained and were used for the empirical analysis. Findings: Results indicate that for standard, nonregular and physical products, all the e-fulfillment components (customization strategy, website quality, distribution strategy, last mile delivery and return management) positively impact consumer loyalty. Except for the customization strategy, for standard regular and physical product types, all other e-fulfillment components positively impact consumer loyalty. Practical implications: This study will be helpful to e-tail managers to configure the e-fulfillment components according to product types, thereby increasing consumer loyalty. Originality/value: While some e-fulfillment components have been linked to consumer loyalty in literature, there is no study establishing linkages between e-fulfillment as a construct and consumer loyalty across product types. This has implications for decision makers in e-tail as the study provides e-fulfillment strategy customization across product types for achieving consumer loyalty in e-tail, a key marketing metric. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Despite the voluminous purchasing power of the consumers at the base of the pyramid (BOP), substantial research has not been carried out on their online buying behaviour. This study investigates the factors that trigger the online shopping intention of BOP consumers. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 52 BOP respondents from India. Our thematic analysis indicates four perceived benefits and five sacrifices influencing BOP consumers' perceived value for online purchases, subsequently determining their adoption behaviour. As a novel contribution to the literature, this study unfolds several unknown factors that motivate/demotivate BOP consumers to buy online using the Value-based Adoption Model (VAM). The findings of this study will help e-commerce marketers enhance BOP consumers' usage intention toward online purchases. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effect of usage, value, tradition, risk, compatibility and complexity barriers on user resistance to mobile bookkeeping applications. Furthermore, it also explores how the relationship between these barriers and user resistance is mediated by technostress. Finally, the authors analysed the moderating impact of self-efficacy on the mediating effect of technostress between barriers and user resistance. Design/methodology/approach: Structured questionnaires were used to obtain data from 325 respondents. A structural equation modelling technique was used to investigate the hypotheses. Findings: The findings suggest that usage, risk and tradition barrier has a significantly positive effect on user resistance intention. Also, results suggested that technostress plays an important role in framing customers’ resistance intention. Finally, the mediation effect of technostress between risk barrier and user resistance is higher for users having low levels of self-efficacy compared with users with high levels of self-efficacy. Originality/value: The present research enriches the existing literature, especially in the field of mobile bookkeeping applications, user resistance, technostress and innovation resistance theory. It would help bookkeeping application developers design their apps, keeping the major user barriers in mind. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

This paper aims to identify the revised international marketing strategies in communication during the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing the firm's resources and capabilities. We conducted in-depth interviews and a questionnaire survey with key stakeholders of retail organizations which changed their digital marketing strategies during COVID-19. The data is collected from 587 respondents from different parts of the world through resource orchestration theory. The qualitative findings support a high degree of association among the firm's resources and capabilities, leveraging processes based on the revised international marketing strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have developed a conceptual model based on these findings with six variables: leveraging process of the firm's capabilities information technology-related resources; information technology-related capabilities, dynamic capabilities, environmental uncertainty, and leveraging process of the firm's resources. However, environmental uncertainty and leveraging of the firm's resources were not influential in forming digital marketing strategies during COVID-19. This study proposes a new process for international marketing managers in business organizations to restructure the resources within their organizations by creating new capabilities and leveraging them. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

Purpose: In the recent past, gamification has been recognized as an effective tool for engaging customers. However, there is limited research to explain luxury consumers' motivations to adopt gamification. This research applies the service-dominant (S-D) logic theory to investigate the association between motivation to adopt gamification, customer engagement, and affective commitment. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through structured questionnaires from a sample of 242 millennial luxury consumers in India. Collected data were examined using AMOS 25 and Process Macro for SPSS. Findings: The findings reveal that consumers' social and personal integrative motives for gaming positively influence customer engagement with luxury brands. Further, all three sub-dimensions of customer engagement (conscious attention, enthused participation, and social connection) are also found to positively influence affective commitment. Customer engagement fully mediates the association between motivation and affective commitment, while the self-brand connection is found to weaken the mediated relationship. Originality/value: This study is one of the first studies to explore luxury consumers' motivations behind engaging in gamification through moderated-mediation framework. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The study highlights the divergence in resource allocation towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) and health, safety, and wellbeing (HSW) across the different ownership categories. The study looks at CSR and HSW investments as part of the firm's external and internal sustainability objectives, respectively. This study uses panel data multiple regression with ordinary least square random-effects model on a sample of 4158 Indian firms within the period 2014 to 2020 with a total of 24,168 observations to test its hypothesis. The results indicate that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have a substantially higher impact than private-sector firms on sustainability initiatives. Meanwhile, there is heterogeneity in the resource allocation on sustainability by the different ownership categories in the private sector. On the other hand, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) stimulate sustainability investments while being predominantly present in some of the worst CSR performers. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd