Employee wellbeing has been a topic accorded significant attention by organizational psychologists with outcomes such as job satisfaction, stress, work engagement and performance given copious space in literature. Evaluated only as an adjunct to more central tenets of performance such as productivity and efficiency, wellbeing needs to be examined in greater detail especially as organisations design interventions or policies in line with the positive psychology paradigm. The present study seeks to address this lacuna in wellbeing literature by studying wellbeing through a dichotomous lens of hedonia, operationalized as subjective wellbeing, and eudaimonia, operationalized as psychological well-being.

Using a cross sectional sample of N=508 married, working IT/ITES professionals from India, this study uses Structured Equation Modelling to analyse a multi-dimensional conceptualization of well-being with organisational, individual and family factors as antecedents, and bi-directional work-family enrichment as mediators. The study used well-established theories such as Self-determination Theory , Broaden-and-build theory , Empowerment theory , Job Characteristics theory, Attachment theory and Work-Family Enrichment theory among others to propose a model of the pathways through which employee empowerment, skill discretion and co-worker support (organisational factors) , proactivity, family permeability and work-family self-efficacy (individual factors) and spousal support ( family factor) impact employee well-being. The study also tests the moderating influence of family supportive supervisory behaviour (FSSB) and job/schedule control on the antecedents of bi-directional work-family enrichment.

Results provided strong support for the distinction between subjective well-being (SWB), and psychological well-being (PWB). Additionally, the results show that empowering leadership, skill discretion and co-worker support (organisational factors), family permeability and work family self-efficacy (individual factors) predict well-being and the process is partially mediated by work-family enrichment. Similarly, work-family self-efficacy, proactivity, family permeability and spousal support predict well-being and the process is partially mediated by family-work enrichment.

Results also show that FSSB moderates the relationship between empowering leadership/co-worker support on work-family enrichment. In addition, job and schedule control moderate the relationship between family permeability and work-family enrichment. These findings have considerably profound implications on theory and practice. For organisations, this means sensitising leaders to enhance the meaningfulness of work, fostering participation in decision making, expressing confidence in high performance, and providing autonomy from bureaucratic constraints. Further, the study shows how developing self-efficacy in employees will yield greater dividends than policy changes on the work-life front. The study also underscores the need to focus on psychological health as much as job satisfaction.

The results show that personality factors have a stronger relationship with well-being than supervisory and job-related factors and the process is mediated by work-family enrichment. Results also show how work-family enrichment influences psychological well-being. Limitations, theoretical contributions, practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) undertaken by potential, and actual customers about a productive the Internet, may occur on different websites (e.g., branding/shopping sites, consumer review sites, corporate websites, social networking sites), in the form of online reviews.

Eight in ten (83%) people trust recommendations from friends and family (Nielsen, 2015). Two-thirds (66%)trust online reviews (Nielsen, 2015). Consumers check online review before purchase. Reviews are posted on multiple websites (platforms), where such platforms may or may not have commerce intent for the reviewed brand (e.g., Amazon.com, Mouthshut.com). Reviews are often presented in different formats - Text, Image and Video. We find increasing prominence to video reviews in instances like successful campaign of Tide “pods” in 2012 (Rosensteel, 2012).

In this study we investigate the impact of the type of platform (i.e., corporate-owned, independent) and the type of review (i.e., text, text and image, video) on the information usefulness, persuasiveness, helpfulness, trust and perceived risk of online reviews. Valence 1s a covariate. Product type (1.e., search, experience, credence) is a moderator. We propose that for credence products:

a) Independent platform is preferred to corporate-owned platform;

b) Rich media and lean media are likely to be equally preferred

For experience products:

a) Independent platform is preferred to corporate-owned platform;

b) Rich media is preferable to lean media.

For search products:

a) Independent and corporate-owned platforms are equally preferred;

b) Rich media and lean media are likely to be equally preferred.

Coming to contributions of our study, first, our model, based on Attribution theory, Signalling theory, Media Richness theory, and WOM literature, provides a much-needed framework for examining consumer perceptions of online reviews across various types of platforms (i.e., websites that allow users or consumers to write reviews). We categorized platforms broadly into two categories based on their ownership and association with ecommerce as - helpfulness, persuasiveness, trust and lesser perceived risk of the information present on independent websites than on corporate-owned websites. For the experience product category, participants indicate a perception of greater information usefulness, trust and persuasiveness of the information present on independent websites than on corporate owned websites. For the search product category, participants indicate a similar perception of information usefulness, helpfulness, trust and perceived risk of the information present on independent websites and on corporate-owned websites.

Our findings further indicate that for the credence product category, participants indicate a similar perception of information usefulness, helpfulness, persuasiveness, trust and perceived risk on high rich media formats and on low rich media formats. For the experience product category, participants indicate a perception of greater helpfulness and trust on high rich media formats than on /ow rich media formats. For the search product category, participants indicate a perception of similar information usefulness, helpfulness, trust and perceived risk. We contribute to the need in the marketing literature to theorize about technology-based consumer decision-making. Finally, our findings will help marketers in devising promotion and CRM strategies across a variety of platforms.

In today’s unpredictable and highly interdependent system, even the planned and organized companies are being caught by events that are beyond their control or which are results of plans and designs not working as expected. In a supply chain network at different stages there can arise different types of risks. Supply chain risks are broadly classified into two categories that are operational risks and disruptive risks (Kleindorfer and Saad 2005). The firms have to plan their strategy in a way in which they can overcome these risks and fulfil the customer’s demand, else there would be losses. In order to maintain the supply chain operations under the loss of some structures against these disruptions, supply chain network needs to be resilient. Ponomarov and Holcomb (2009) in their paper argued that resilience is more than just recovery and in its definition there is an implicit notion of level of flexibility also. They summarized that important aspects of resilience include adaptability, flexibility, maintenance and recovery. Flexibility is recognized as an important strategy in improving responsiveness, meeting customer requirements (Fisher et al. 1994 and Olhager and West 2002) and making the system more resilient.

There are three essays in this thesis. The problem considered in the first essay of this thesis work, is a complex problem, multi-echelon supply chain involving multiple suppliers. multiple plants, multiple distribution centres and multiple retailers for multiple raw materials and products, through multiple modes and multiple links. Thus, through this study we intend to propose a multi-objective model for maximizing supply chain resilience and minimizing supply chain cost subject to supply chain flexibility as the constraint. The study also highlights the work done in each area of supply chain flexibility and supply chain resilience, and proposes a model to address the gaps in the existing literature. We have built a Digital support system software in: J2EE, wherein the real time input data can be captured through different scenarios or imported through an excel sheet and the output can be seen through a’ graph and exported in an excel format for better usability. To solve the model, we have used Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and a hybrid of Genetic Algorithm (GA) and PSO algorithm. The flowchart, pseudo code with an example is illustrated along with major conclusion of our work and scope for future research.

Further, to support resilient supply chain network in the second essay, we have developed a supplier selection technique that seems to be better and simpler than the existing techniques to create a pool of supplier base. The existing techniques, Analytic Hierarchy Process and Analytic Network Process require data in the form of comparison matrices and experts need to mentally weigh the respective importance for each pair of criteria, which makes data collection and evaluation a cumbersome task. The matrix comparison is based on subjectivity of the expert’s analysis. Moreover, it becomes a greater challenge when the number of criteria is large. It is difficult for practicing managers to devote time for drawing comparison matrices for large number of criteria, thus creating disinterest towards adopting such methodologies. This fact motivated us to adopt a technique which would take the data as it is, in the form of a statement from the expert to give the best results of the analysis. As an output, the existing technique rank the market’s best available supplier based on highest aggregate score. However, the best supplier in the market may not always match with the buyer’s aspirations and at times the buyer may deliberately prefer one with a lower score in one or more attributes to avoid excessive cost. In this paper, the adopted methodology overcomes the above mentioned challenges. It captures the buyer’s specification of attributes as an input in the form of a simple statement and not in the form of subjective comparison matrix making data collection activity easier. Further, it involves calculation of similarity measures of all the available offerings from the supplier base with respect to the buyer’s aspiration levels and then selects the supplier that most closely satisfies the buyer’s requirements. Also, it’s a well-known fact that supply chain management is dynamic in nature thus requires addition of suppliers or attributes at any period of time. The adopted methodology also ensures simplicity when there is an addition of attributes or addition of a suppliers in the system. Here the simplicity stands for not repeating the entire procedure for all the existing and new attributes or suppliers in the system but simply adding the required details of the new ones and performing the procedure and giving an advantage towards faster results. At the end of this research the code developed for the technique with an example is illustrated along with major conclusion of our work and scope for future research.

To allow and manage the flow of information within the resilient supply chain network, information technologies are required. Cloud computing has proven to be advantageous for the same and for using these technologies there is no need to maintain a server. Whenever required the software can be accessed from the cloud, no maintenance is required, faster data recovery and faster speed is achieved. However, despite the potential benefits of cloud computing, it is still not widely adopted across firms. This has motivated us to examine the factors that influence an organization to adopt cloud technologies. Accordingly, our third essay proposes a tool which helps the decision makers of an organization to understand the intention to adopt cloud computing in order to improve its supply chain processes and enhance the spectrum of electronic Supply Chain Management. The theory of organizational information processing framework is adopted for this paper to evaluate how an organization’s Information Processing Requirement (PR) and Information Processing Capabilities (IPC) combine to effect the intention to adopt cloud computing technologies as an aid to electronic supply chain management systems for improving the supply chain performance. The factors like supply chain complexities (SCC), organization’s entrepreneurial culture (OEC) are the constructs representing IPR dimension, and infrastructure compatibility (IC) and application functionality (AF) are the constructs representing IPC dimension. In this part of research, concept of Fuzzy Inference System is used to develop the tool along with questionnaire as an instrument to conduct survey mechanism, to test the intention to adopt cloud computing for the supply chain network. At the end of this part of study, conclusion of survey conducted at an Indian Aerospace and Indian Automobile firm using the developed tool is presented along with scope for future research.

We contribute to Supply chain management literature as we have tried to develop unified framework of resilient and flexible supply chain networks providing a stronger base for supply chain management academia.

In recent years, management in the healthcare domain has become burdened with multiple managerial issues related to cost, quality, accessibility, medical errors and security concerns. Nation Master (2014) notes that even though healthcare spending in the United States (U.S.) is the highest in the world, it still exhibits a mediocre cost-to-quality ratio. On the other hand, India experienced 22-25 percent growth in healthcare tourism in 2017 due to low cost and high quality of healthcare services (India Brand Equity Foundation Report 2018). However, the country lags in technology infrastructure and physician-to-patient ratio. Thus, while U.S. hospitals are focusing on healthcare cost reduction and care quality improvement, Indian hospitals are trying to improve the efficiency of existing technologies such as telemedicine. However, investment in healthcare information systems (HIS) has come under scrutiny of management researchers in recent years. This is because the positive perception about HIS has gradually begun to fade due to negligible returns on investments.

Prior researches also focus on concerns related to information security of patient’s electronic medical records. IBM-Ponemon (2017) reports that healthcare data fetches the highest price in the black markets and makes it a lucrative target for cyber-criminals. As a result, cyber risk determination and risk mitigation is of utmost importance for healthcare managers. Our study on IT governance in healthcare follows the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT) framework for strategic alignment, resource planning, risk management, value delivery and performance measure to improve the impact of HIS. In our study, we aim to provide solutions to mitigate (i) strategic risks and (ii) operational risks. Our research contributes to existing healthcare issues related to strategic risk mitigation such as better accessibility, improved care quality, cost reduction and resource management. It also addresses operational risk through proactive detection of attack type to ensure better allocation of resources and reduction of financial loss due to cyber-attack.

In the Indian healthcare system, government or not-for-profit healthcare organizations are continuously making efforts to improve healthcare accessibility. The 2017-18 Indian budget saw the launch of the DigiGaon initiative, which aims to make telemedicine accessible to more than one lakh villages. As the demand for telemedicine increases in India, lack of strategic planning may induce inefficiency and result in financial loss to telemedicine providers. Thus, in this study, we propose a two-module Classifier-Based Prediction and Strategic Investment Planning (CBPSIP) framework based on resource-based view (RBV) and business-IT alignment. The use of machine learning techniques (Classification and Regression tree, Naive Bayes, Bagging tree) and payoff matrix for investment planning are novel in terms of an Indian telemedicine scenario. The CBP module includes knowledge source or department, broadcasting session type and type of remote institute, and performs various functions such as (i) compare machine-learning based classification techniques, (ii) predict the remote broadcasting location and (iii) report the model evaluation measures. The SIP module takes inputs like: (1) prediction accuracy from CBP module, (ii) scenarios (i.e., with admissions available and with no admissions) and (iii) risk profile (i.e., risk-averse or risk-neutral). Within this module, we further (a) assess the business model in terms of expected payoff and utility under risk, (b) determine the optimal investment structure in the CBP framework, and (c) calculate the change in investment in the framework vis-a-vis the increase in consultation fee. Our frameworks helpful as a decision-making tool and can be used to assess the cost effectiveness of such systems and take the necessary decisions to improve their overall profit potential.

In the United States, rising healthcare management issues led to stringent government policies which aimed to reduce readmission rates, improve value-based care and ensure maintenance of data security standards. Hefty penalties to hospitals were introduced in case of any non-compliance with quality and security regulatory policies. Under such circumstances, it became essential for the health providers to devise investment strategies towards installing or reinvesting healthcare information technology (HIT) applications based on their impact towards reducing mortality rates: pneumonia mortality rates (PMR) and cardiac disease mortality rates (CDMR). We propose a Clinical Quality Assessment (CQA) framework that helps healthcare managers in devising their HIT investment strategy through prioritization based on IT impact. W contribute to the existing research on the IT productivity paradox as we investigate whether or not the HIT applications in a hospital reduce patient mortality. Our result also reflects the processes that are positively impacted by IT as a resource, while treating a patient admitted in a hospital. Thus, our study also contributes to the resource-based view (RBV) of IT. The inputs needed for this purpose are: (i) HIT applications needed to treat either pneumonia or cardiac disease or both, (ii) hospital characteristics (number of physicians and number of beds), (iii) socio-economic factors (literacy and per-capita income) and(iv) hospital type (i.e., voluntary, government and proprietary). We use secondary data of U.S. hospitals and apply data analytic methods such as K-means clustering, linear regression and stepwise regression. Our results provide (i) the impact of HIT applications in reducing mortality rates (PMR and CDMR) for all hospitals, (ii) impact of HIT applications in reducing mortality rates (PMR and CDMR) for small and medium hospitals and (iii) compare the change in HIT usage for the treatment of pneumonia and cardiac disorder over two time periods, 2008-2010 and 2011-2013. We also note that though HIT deployed in most healthcare units are still at the transactional level (i.e., storing, aggregating and forwarding healthcare information), they are making crucial contributions in reducing PMR and CDMR. Our CQA model will help healthcare managers to deploy HIT applications on a priority basis in terms of their impact on reducing mortality rates to ensure better utility of their IT investment. Apart from socio-economic factors and hospital characteristics, HIT application functions are also affected by hospital’s security installations. In this study, we classify the HIT applications in a hospital into clinical and administrative automation systems (CAS and AAS) and investigate the impact of IT security (i.e., anti-virus, intrusion detection systems and user authentication systems) on PMR and CDMR. For this purpose, we propose the HITOSEC framework, where IT acts as a hospital’s resource and aids in patient’s treatment processes. Our study also contributes to the IT productivity paradox by evaluating the impact of the integration of HIT applications and security measures with hospital’s treatment processes. In the HITOSEC framework, we use the backward regression technique to explore (i) the effect of each of the factors towards reducing mortality rates (heart attack mortality rates (HAMR), heart failure mortality rates (HFMR) and pneumonia mortality rates (PMR)), and (ii) check the impact of IT security measures on the performance of HIT applications in reducing mortality rates. The input variables to HITOSEC are: (i) HIT applications: CAS and AAS, (ii) hospital characteristics (number of physicians and number of beds) (iii) socio-economic factors (literacy and per-capita income), (iv) hospital type (government, voluntary, and proprietary) and (v) IT security measures (anti-virus, user authentication and intrusion detection system). Based on the study, we conclude that (1) Impact of IT security on HIT in reducing mortality rates is insignificant, (11) security implementations in hospitals may have detrimental effect during on the clinical quality, especially during emergencies, and, (iii) healthcare managers should measure the impact of security implementation in terms of the reduction of operational risks only (like cyber-attacks and data breaches).

Nearly 75%of the U.S. residents are Internet users. The U.S. is also the most affected country in terms of average size of data breach (Ponemon 2017). For this purpose, we propose the AOL framework to predict the amount of data breach per attack, based on historical data. The equation for the proposed linear model includes factors such as: (1) asset characteristics, i.e., data storage type, and data content type, and attacker type with respect to the organization, i.e., internal or external, (ii) organization type, i.e., hospital or non-hospital, and (111) location factors, Le., crime rate, population density, literacy, Internet usage and per-capita income. Our study is in line with criminology theories such as (i) situational crime prevention which supports organization type and asset characteristics and(ii) rational activity theory which emphasizes on locational characteristics as an incentivizing factor for criminal activities. We perform the OLS backward regression to determine the coefficient and significance of the input variables in determining the amount of data breach exposure. This study helps healthcare managers to identify the determining variables that are significant in predicting the number of data breached in an attack. It will help in making policies to avoid excess data exposure during a potential breach. It also encourages researchers to focus on organizational and locational factors in addition to improving the technological prowess of an organization’s security.

We also try to address the problem of minimizing operational risk (security breach) in hospitals by using a Cyber-Risk Quantification and Cyber-Risk Mitigation (CRQ-CRM) framework. Our CRQ-CRM framework is important as it aims to solve issues of confidentiality, integrity and availability (C-I-A) of patient data that can lead to tangible as well as intangible losses to a healthcare organization. Our framework is built on the theory of criminology that tries to explain the impact of a crime-conducive environment, typically in terms of the corruption index. We study past records of identity theft incidents pertaining to the healthcare industry to (i) establish the importance of the form of target data and agent source, and(ii) explain the effect of the state level factors like crime rate, population density, literacy rate, Internet usage, and per-capita income. Our methodology includes: (i) comparing prediction accuracy of classification techniques in order to predict the attack type (hacking, insider attack, physical attack or unintended disclosure), (ii) evaluating the expected loss due to misclassification and(iii) using the probability impact matrix to suggest risk mitigation strategies. Thus, our study will help security managers in policy making and taking precautionary countermeasures to reduce loss due to identity theft attacks while encouraging them to consider state-level factors. It will also encourage academicians to work on locational factors and their interactions with individuals and technology in determining cyberattack severity.

The rise of globalisation, the constant need for innovation, and increased availability of outsourcing options have led supply chains to become multi-echelon. Design of mechanism to align individual objectives of different stakeholders with that of the overall supply chain remains a primary challenge for majority of supply chain practitioners. Coordination mechanisms further help in cost reduction, risk sharing among supply chain agents, and increase in total supply chain profit. Though supply chains are becoming more complex and diverse, most of the key constructs and strategic understanding remain grounded on dyadic logic. Extant literature on supply chain coordination focuses on dyadic logic, and provides results and interpretations for this structure. This thesis focuses on various aspects of channel coordination in the context of a serial decentralised three-echelon supply chain for better understanding of contracts, and influence of sequence of contracts on profit distribution.

Purpose, Methodology, Results and Contributions of the first study

Influence of contract sequence and interactions between different contract mechanisms on profit allocation amongst supply chain agents of a multi-echelon supply chain have received scant attention in the literature. The first study focuses on this gap and examine a serial decentralised three-echelon supply chain using supplier-leader Stackelberg game. In this game setting, the supplier and the manufacturer can choose from three contract types namely, wholesale price, linear two-part tariff, and revenue-sharing. Using two sequential bilateral monopoly settings, analysis is done for nine scenarios of contract sequence. It is shown that optimal parameters of the supply chain agents are influenced by not only marginal costs and reservation profits of agents, but also by sequence of contracts. In a three-echelon decentralised supply chain, the upstream agent can opt for a non-coordinating contract like wholesale price, and yet coordinate the overall chain if the downstream agent chooses a revenue-sharing contract. If the choice of contracts is interchanged between the supply chain agents, then overall channel coordination is not attained. Order quantity and retail price also get impacted by contract sequence. For a decentralised three-echelon supply chain, it is demonstrated that the downstream agent holds control over the channel coordinating contract parameter. As a result, she is in a better position to negotiate for profit allocation compared to the upstream agent. An optimal contract choice strategy is proposed from the perspective of the upstream as well as the downstream agent.

Purpose, Methodology, Results and Contributions of the second study

The second study extends the proposed contract sequence framework for multiple effort dependent linear demand. Again, a serialized three-echelon supply chain is considered under two sequential bilateral monopoly setting. A manufacturer procures a semi-finished or work-in progress product from a supplier, produces finished goods from this work-in-process, and sells it to a retailer. The retailer sells this finished product in the end market. In this serialized supply chain, it is assumed that (i) the supplier puts greening effort to improve her production processes, (ii) the manufacturer takes care of quality effort as she is responsible for producing the finished product, and (iii) the retailer is responsible for advertising effort since she is closest to the customers. For this supply chain, analysis is performed by using supplier-leader Stackelberg game where the supplier and the manufacturer can choose from two contract types namely, wholesale price and linear two-part tariff. Four scenarios of contract sequence are considered for analysis. For these scenarios, optimal retail price, order quantity, profits, greening effort, quality effort, advertising effort, and profits of all supply chain agents are derived. It is also demonstrated that the supply chain model developed in this study is more generalized compared to the one developed in the first study.

Purpose, Methodology, Results and Contributions of the third study

The third study explores the coordination strategies of a serial three-echelon supply chain in an uncertain environment to extend proposed contract sequence framework. The uncertainty associated with various stakeholders of the supply chain are expressed as linguistic or fuzzy variables. Specifically, the marginal production costs of the supplier and the manufacturer, and market demand parameters are associated with uncertainty, and they are expressed as fuzzy variables. It is shown that supply chain coordination is possible when both the supplier and the manufacturer offer linear two-part tariff contract. This study not only identifies the influence of contract sequence on profit distribution among supply chain agents but also establishes the cut-off policies for all supply chain agents for each contract sequence. Further, it indicates the influence of chosen sequence on profit margins of different supply chain agents. Finally, a relevant numerical analysis is presented to illustrate the importance of the derived theoretical results and managerial insights.

Purpose, Methodology, Results and Contributions of the fourth study

The fourth study explores the influence of power structures, advertising, and quality efforts on the optimal pricing decisions and performance of a serial three-echelon supply chain consisting of a supplier, a manufacturer, and a retailer in an uncertain environment. The uncertainty associated with customer demand, marginal production costs and effort costs are expressed as linguistic or fuzzy variables. First, a centralized supply chain is analyzed to obtain all benchmark parameters. Second, four decentralized supply chain cases are investigated through fuzzy game theoretic approach. These four cases are as follows: supplier—leader Stackelberg game, manufacturer-leader Stackelberg game, retailer—leader Stackelberg game, and a vertical Nash game. A comparative analysis between these four cases is carried out. Result shows that per unit wholesale price of the supplier is governed by the channel leadership in multi-echelon supply chain while retail prices are less affected by leadership. Manufacturer puts minimum quality effort and retailer puts minimum advertising effort when they act as Stackelberg leaders. The impact of fuzzy degree of quality and advertising sensitivity on optimal profit distribution among agents is also investigated.

CSR program is vital for B2B companies (Levy, 2010). The study examines the impact of CSR perception from the perspective of sales professionals in the B2B domain. CSR is an issue concerning all business partners; it affects suppliers’ relationships, customer preference, employee commitment and shareholder’s reputation. Of all the stakeholders and their relationship with CSR, the confluence CSR perception with sales professionals are most direct and reciprocating. The exchange relationship in B2B marketing primarily dictated by three mechanisms to preserve and foster the relationship. The instrumental mechanism which is an indicator to the future performance, a relational mechanism which caters the “need for belongingness” and ethical mechanism which look beyond the economic self-interest and towards what is ethically appropriate (Aguilera, Rupp, Williams, & Ganapathi, 2007). The CSR efforts dominate the mechanisms of exchange relationship, CSR efforts are an indicator to future performance, and CSR perception presents a more reliable embodiment of the firm and a representation of going above and beyond economic self-interest. However, before drawing any conclusion on the positive impact on any stakeholder, it is imperative to understand ‘what’ CSR means to a stakeholder. The extant literature argues about the positive influence of a company’s perceived CSR on customer evaluation. As a sales professional gauges such a positive response, the understanding of ‘doing good’ to the company is critical.

The role of business towards uplifting the society is century-old practice. The present form of CSR was coined by (Bowen, 1953), stating it as policies and decision directed at objectives and values of society. Since then, the topic of CSR has been one of the highly researched yet contested issues in social science literature. The examples of philosophical differences to the conflicting opinion of impact on consequences of phenomena are prevalent in literature. Moreover, the concept has broadened since its inception and has a long, diverse history in the literature (Carroll, 1999), yet lacks an agreeable definition (Fisher, 2004). Dahlsrud (2008) has stated that the varying scope of the different socio-cultural context of geographies and industries as a reason for such an anomaly. The varying conceptualization of the concept in extant literature has resulted in the inconstant operationalization of the construct. Consequently, in marketing literature, the construct has been operationalized as unidimensional (Du et al. 2003), bi-dimensional (Larson et al. 2008) and multi-dimensional (Kang et al. 2016). Moreover, multiple proxy measurements like Fortune Reputation Index and KLD Rates are also used to measure CSR in marketing literature. However, Turker (2008) has criticized these measures as for ‘their items are not based on theoretical arguments’. The extant literature presents a lack of understanding about CSR is perceived in the marketing literature.

Multiple scholars in marketing domain have used resource based view to acknowledge employees as a tough to imitate resource. More so, in industrial sales context where the relationship forged by sales employees induces customer loyalty and employee-company interactions and are predictors of sales effectiveness and growth (Palmatieret al., 2007). Given the importance of sales force in the business transaction, companies have turned to CSR as an additional lever to improve job performance (Korschun, Bhattacharya, & Swain, 2014). CSR activities of the firm act as a signal of good working condition and stimulate and enhance self-concept (Greening & Turban, 2000). Within the rubric of CSR, cause-related marketing has been recognized as an effective tool for improving selling confidence and performance (Larson et al., 2008). The extant literature provides multiple evidence for the positive response among various stakeholder due to the firm’s CSR performance. However, few critics infer that it would be inexpedient to extrapolate the findings for sales employees. Dewhurst et al (2009) have argued that the CSR may provide a feel-good factor but it is unlikely to produce a noticeable behavioral changes (Motivating people: Getting beyond money | McKinsey, n.d.). (Korschun et al., 2014) have echoed the finding and urged to research impact of CSR on job performance to bring clarity. The value and benefits of CSR activity of the company, which enables a robust psychological bond and triggers the company benefitting behavior among sales employees are not explored in the industrial sales context. Therefore, the research objectives of the study are threefold: 1) Develop a holistic understanding of salesman’s CSR perception 2) Effect of CSR perception on the salesman’s performance and, 3) Role of individual characteristics in shaping relationship quality from CSR perception.

The research design of achieving the objectives has been divided into two phases - exploratory and descriptive research. The first phase started with an extensive literature review of CSR in general, CSR in the marketing context, important aspects of CSR and their categorization. In the next phase a set of qualitative studies were launched to confirm the CSR dimensions mentioned earlier as well as generate items to measure each along with exploring the relation of CSR to relationship quality and sales professional performance. The Qualitative exercises help in establishing six CSR dimensions as well as develop a way of measuring each. Employees were also probed about their experience with the CSR and that what aspects shaped those experiences. After a protest with 200 sales employees and basic empirical analysis, the final questionnaire was developed. A total of 847 respondents filled the questionnaire. Reliability and Validity of the constructs were established using stringent methods.

The study examines the role of corporate social responsibility, which is also one of the indicators of ‘doing good’ by companies, on the sales professional’s performance. The study through qualitative research derives the understanding of CSR. Then through an empirical measure, the study develops a scale for the measurement of CSR perception of sales professionals and its impact on behavioral consequences. The study proposes six dimensions of CSR perception, namely, Social, Environmental, Economic, Customer-Centric, Employee Centric and Governance. The study is conducted in the B2B context to get an understanding of the role of CSR in the sales operation, where the role of a sales professional is very prominent. The existing knowledge related to CSR is majorly customer-centric; the impact on the other stakeholders helps to provide a broader understanding of the concept. The study enhances the scope of CSR in stakeholder theory domain, as it finds a relation between CSR perception and sales performance through employee benefits and enhanced relationship quality. Consequently, internal marketing literature is also enhanced by the study, as the study provides a fresh understanding of the role of psychological benefits on employees’ behavioral consequences. The study would help sales manager, human resource managers and CSR heads of the firm providing them with an additional lever to enhance performance, boost employees’ morale, and understand CSR activities desired by a particular stakeholder.

Innovation is important for the growth and even survival of organizations. The rapid changes in production technology, new consumer expectations, and the increased rate of technological change have created business conditions wherein value is created by constant creativity and innovation within organizations. Innovative capability is now regarded as one of the key competitive advantages that organizations have. Larger organizations are also embracing the chaos and uncertainty that accompanies innovation. Earlier, innovation was the purview of smaller organizations, as the risk associated was considered too high. Now, the risk of not innovating is such that whole business models are disrupted, if an organization is not on its toes as regards innovation. Organizational capability to innovate, critically depends upon how the organization harnesses its human capital. Indeed, individual and small team innovation, is the cornerstone of several well-known management principles such as Total Quality Management (TOM), Kaizen, and organizational learning

Transforming performing employees to innovating employees is often attributed to their leaders. Examples like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Steve Jobs litter popular literature as messiahs of innovation and are credited with the superlative performance of their organizations in terms of innovation. Ironically, the scholarly research on leading for innovation has garner edits fair share of criticism for not being comprehensive, prescriptive, or theoretically consistent. The findings on the relationship between leadership and innovative behaviors by subordinates have been equivocal. In a meta-analytic review, Rosinget al. (Rosing, Frese, & Bausch, 2011) found that only Transformational Leadership (TFL) and high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX), out of the numerous leadership styles/behaviors/theories were consistently found to have a positive relationship with innovation. Additionally, the relationship between TFL and innovation was found to be highly heterogeneous. Other researchers (Axtell et al., 2000; Caniéls, De Stobbeleir, & De Clippeleer, 2014) have suggested that this could be due to the fact that current models of innovation view it as a unitary activity without addressing its inherent paradoxes. This has called for greater research on the links between leadership and innovation (Anderson, Potoénik, & Zhou, 2014) in addition to a richer conceptualization of innovative behaviors of individuals and teams.

Most of the current models of innovation do not incorporate the paradoxical and dynamic nature of the innovation process. There has been an increasing understanding that viewing innovative behavioras a static, congruent, and stage-based process is not sufficient to properly understand the process and mechanisms by which contextual factors affect innovation. For instance, the relationship of leadership and effect on innovation has been found to be incongruous; both initiating structure and consideration behaviors on the part of leaders have been found to have positive relationships with innovation and the relation of positive, negative, and the sequence of positive and negative affect have all been found to have relationships with innovative behavior.

In this thesis, extant literature is reviewed and current models of innovative behavior analyzed. Then, we borrow from the literature on paradox theory and systems dynamics to develop a new model of innovative behavior in individuals and small teams, referred to as the DDMI (Dynamic Dialectical Model of Innovation). The attempt, is to unify the literature on linear phase-based (LPB) process models of innovation and more chaotic conceptualizations. This new model is then used to develop an experimental study. The purpose of this study is to explain the heterogeneity of the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative behavior in subordinates, which has been found by earlier scholars. The relationship is studied in the light of similar heterogeneity in the relationship between affect and innovative behavior, found by other scholars. Subsequently, the new model is then tested via a qualitative study of the narratives of interviews with patent holders. Finally, this new model is formalized using a systems dynamic approach. Prior studies with seemingly contradictory results are then sought to be explained using this formalization.

Innovative behavior is composed of paradoxical mind sets and action sets which include both convergence and divergence. Past research has found transformational leadership to relate positively to innovative behavior, implying that leaders are able to influence these paradoxical mind-sets and action sets. Additionally, affective displays by leaders are informational cues, which can modify the message that a leader communicates to followers. For instance, a similar message conveyed by a leader with a display of anger versus a display of hope might be perceived differently by a subordinate. Thus, leader affective displays might be one mechanism by which transformational leaders are able to foster both convergence and divergence in their followers.

In the first study, a computer-based randomized controlled experiment is used to investigate the effect of transformational leadership and leader affective displays on performance in convergent and divergent thinking tasks. Divergent thinking performance was measured using an alternative uses task and convergent thinking performance was measured using a word search task. Participants were exposed to videos of confederates enacting the manipulations, after which the participants performed the tasks. These tasks were counterbalanced randomly, to eliminate sequencing bias. Results indicated that leader affective displays interact with leadership style to predict task performance.

The results of the first study suggest that the newly developed model needs to be further explored as some of the effects are supplementary rather than conclusive. Therefore, a qualitative study was developed to explore the phenomena of innovation from the perspective of innovators. Transcribed interviews of patent holders where qualitatively analyzed to understand both the process and the role of contextual factors in the process of innovation. Patents are the most widely acknowledged embodiments of innovation, and patent holders are held in high regard as innovators. First, these interviews were transcribed to result in a corpus of data. A list of a-priori themes were formed, and relationships were expected as postulated in the proposed model of innovation. Template analysis, a framework for thematic analysis which allows for a-priori themes is then used to support, modify and supplement this initial template, throughout the analysis of the corpus. The identified topics were combined to form clusters and finally top-level themes. Finally, the corpus was analysed to look for relationships between these themes, with a special consideration for the role of leadership and its interplay with other contextual and personal factors.

In the final part of this thesis, the proposed model is formalized using computational means. The model is evolved to match current understanding of innovative behaviors, and validation is done with current findings on the relationship between leadership and innovation. Prior studies that find incongruent effects of time pressure on innovative behaviors, and leadership behaviors on innovation are modeled by varying the parameters. It is shown that the formal model captures the findings of the studies reasonably well and explains the incongruous findings in a parsimonious manner.

The contributions of this thesis are as follows: (a) A new model for innovation in individuals and small teams that seeks to unify stage-based and chaotic conceptualizations of innovation, (b) advancement of understanding of the interplay between leader behaviors and their affective displays, to explain the heterogeneity of the relationship between transformational leaders and the innovative behaviors of subordinates, (c) qualitative support with the help of interviews of patent holders, which is also used to clarify terms and what they mean in the context of innovative behaviors, and finally (d) a formal model of innovation that can be used to further test this model as well as explain the findings of other studies on contextual influences on the innovation process.

CNBC in 2018 has reported that the world economy suffers a loss to the tune of $450 billion every year due to cybercrime. Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2017 stated that fifty-three percent of the organization attribute these losses to the lack of IT security preparedness in their information systems. Thus, malicious intruders have compromised their C-I-A (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) of their information assets and carried out successful security breaches. In this context, cyber risk assessment, and its subsequent mitigation is of utmost important for organizations.



AVICS-Eco-LO Framework



In this study, we first propose a cyber security ecosystem, taking into account the relationship between various stakeholders, namely, software vendor, organization, regulatory bodies, attackers, black markers, and vulnerability disclosure authority (CERT). We have built the AVICS-Eco-Lo framework to empirically assess the contribution of each stakeholder in the ecosystem, rank the vulnerabilities, evaluate the loss due to non-implementation of security patches, and IT security investments to reduce the likelihood of an attack. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling based AVICS-Eco module of our framework acts as a risk assessment mechanism. It demonstrates that publicity disclosed and correlated vulnerabilities can increase the likelihood of cyber-attacks. AVICS-Eco shows that if a software vendor publishes the patches earlier for Operating System (OS) vis-à-vis, their Web based products then it will help reduce the probability of attacks on an organization. This framework also finds that the investments in security technologies, namely, firewalls and IDS can reduce cyber-attacks. AVICS-Eco module shows that the legal and regulatory sanctions at the individual level can deter Black hats from committing further attacks. Next, the risk mitigation module of our AVICS-Eco-LO framework tries to model the loss due to cyber attacks using exponential distribution as they demonstrate long tail behaviour and are positively skewed. AVICS-Eco-LO indicates that zero-day attacks lead to the highest expected loss and that increases with the increase in the time window of vulnerability disclosure. We also note that the expected loss due to vendor delays in patch publish, and CTO delays in patch installation are lower that that pf zero-day attacks. Our model proposes that the software vendor should be proactive to publish the patches at the earliest, as that will benefit the other stakeholders, and will enhance their market share by positive cross-side network effect.

G-RAM Framework

Malicious attackers exploit disclosed software vulnerabilities to breach information systems of organizations. Knowledge about these vulnerabilities over time is essential to decide the use of software products by organizations. We next propose a novel G-RAM framework for business organizations to assess and mitigate risks arising out to software vulnerabilities. The G-RAM risk assessment module designs risk-optimal software portfolio using Markowitz’s mean-variance optimization for a given IT budget and preference. Based on an empirical analysis, G-RAM establishes that software vulnerabilities follow a non-linear, time dependent, heteroskedastic growth pattern. Further, GRAM proposes efficient software combinations that can optimize the correlated risk. This framework also reports the empirical evidence of a shift in the efficient frontier of software configurations with time. While the volatility-based estimation of software vulnerability growth is a risk assessment mechanism, the portfolio analysis acts as a risk mitigation activity. From this study, CTOs can decide on the patch management cycle (i.e., individual or group patching) needed for each software. G-RAM also ranks software products into a Risk-x-Return matrix, so that a CTO can choose an optimal portfolio, which ensures that the correlated risk is diversified.

The need to understand the relationship of Asset-pricing factors and aggregate earningswith stock returns and the macro economy has driven some recent advances in accounting and finance literature. Some notablestudies in this field such as Fama and French (2015), Liew and Vassalou (2000), Ball and Sadka (2015), Konchitchki and Patatoukas (2014) have explored these issues.

Our objective is to add to this body of knowledge by exploring how explanatory factors constructed using firm and aggregate level accounting indicators relate to stock returns and macroeconomic variables. We restrict our broader mandate to the understanding of common factors that can explain the following:

• Fluctuations in asset returns (such as returns on a set of diversified portfolios)

• Variations in macro-economic variables (Real GDP growth)

This thesis is a collection of four essays highlighting the relation between stock prices, aggregate corporate earnings and economic growth on multiple dimensions. First, it tries to evaluate the relative performance of different multi factor models in explaining cross sectional variation in stock returns. Secondly, it measures the information content of asset pricing factors with respect to real economic growth. Third, it examines whether aggregated corporate earnings can act as a leading indicator of real activity and lastly, it measures the relationship of different factor portfolios with their aggregate earnings information.

We conduct our empirical analysis in an international context with data for 5 emerging (China, India, Malaysia, South-Korea and Taiwan) and 5 developed markets (Australia, Canada, Japan, the USA and the UK).

The first study tests how well the factors used in the 5-factor model of Fama and French (2015) along with some other related asset pricing factors such as quality and momentum can explain return variation in a wide variety of stock portfolios. For this purpose, we test the performance of 3 and 5-factor models of Fama and French (1993, 2015) and their quality and momentum augmented variants in explaining return behaviour across an assortment of stock portfolios. The findings suggest that for most markets, the performance of the parsimonious three-factor model or its four-factor variants appear to be as good as the five-factor model. The 5-factoris not as consistent so as to call it a superior model.

Fama (1990) provides evidence that stock market returns predict growth in macro-economic variables such as real GNP, industrial production and investment. Further extensions in Liew and Vassalou (2000) and Zhanget al. (2009) suggest that additional asset pricing factors such as returns on SMB (small minus big) and HML (High minus Low) portfolios contain information about future economic growth. In the second study, we extend this line of literature by testing if six asset-pricing factors contain information about future growth (up to 4 quarters ahead) in GDP and industrial production. Based on our findings, there is minimal evidence that asset-pricing factors other than the market factor predict future economic growth. Predictive power of these factors reported in earlier literature seems to have attenuated.

Konchitchki and Patatoukas (2014) report that changes in aggregate accounting earnings can predict quarterly GDP growth in the USA. In the third study, we test whether annual aggregate earnings changes predict future economic growth in our sample. We find positive evidence regarding the generalisability of the aggregate earnings - real GDP relation in an international context. Aggregate earnings provide unique information about future growth after controlling for current expectations of economic growth (professional forecasts). Our results show that aggregate earnings changes lead economic growth and forecasts of real GDP growth can be improved by incorporating aggregate earnings information.

In the last study, we test for the relationship between aggregate earnings and stock returns. We specifically test if the aggregate earnings - returns relationship is dissimilar when stocks are grouped according to different characteristics such as size, value, profitability and investment. Our results suggest that the relation between aggregate earnings and stock returns is relatively stronger for large cap and high profitability and asset growth portfolios as compared to small cap and low profitability and asset growth stock portfolios. Portfolios of hard to value stocks (as defined by Baker and Wurgler (2007)) are, in general less responsive to aggregate earnings news. These findings are valuable for investors and fund managers who utilise factor based strategies to manage their investments.

In today's highly competitive market, the importance of customer brand engagement (CBE) cannot be undermined. The key objective of any brand marketing effort is to engage customers/potential customers in an enduring relationship with the brand, create loyalty and secure profitability. In the last one decade, CBE, as a concept and as a metric, has gained attention by both business practitioners (MSI, 2014-16) as well as academicians (Hollebeek, 2011; Brodie et al., 2011; Wallace et al., 2014). Despite frequent usage of 'engagement' as a metric to gauge return on investment by marketers, a survey (Marketing week, 2016) shows that there is ambiguity around how 'engagement' is being interpreted by the practitioners. In academic domain, as well, there is limited knowledge about CBE since the existing `engagement' studies are mostly exploratory in nature. Moreover, a critical scrutiny of literature reveals an ambiguity when it comes to nature, dimensions and drivers of customer brand engagement, which differ with varying context. Different scholars have operationalized CBE differently, which is evident from the presence of unidimensional as against multidimensional perspectives of engagement. Furthermore, there is no congruency among authors concerning the drivers of CBE. Some authors have limited their studies to single determinant of CBE, while others have taken a comprehensive approach by examining drivers at customer, firm and context levels. Hence, these research gaps provide a motivation to study CBE empirically, along with its drivers, in various contexts in order to establish validity of operationalization of CBE. In this study, attempts have been made to understand the concept of customer brand engagement with respect to packaged foods. With proliferation of packaged food brands and increasing competition in the market, it has become challenging for firms to establish long lasting customer-brand relationship. It is all the more difficult to do so for adolescent segment. Hence, through this study, we intend to expand the current understanding of brand engagement with II adolescents in packaged food segment by developing a model, which incorporates motivational drivers of adolescents' brand engagement. A qualitative study, involving in-depth interviews and focused group discussions, was conducted to throw some light on the operationalization and drivers of CBE. Qualitative findings bring out that adolescents, 11-16 YO, engage with brands on all the three levels, cognitive, emotional and behavioral. The findings, also, suggest that it is love for their favorite brands that motivate them to engage with them. When adolescents experience actual realization of the values or anticipate value realization through consumption, they tend to establish human like relationships with the brands which necessarily has an emotional outcome such as brand Love. Thus, customer value forms the center of any consumption experience. Qualitative findings and literature review supported the formation of our proposed hierarchical customer brand engagement model. The proposed model was, then, validated through empirical analysis. The structural model was tested for entire sample size (n = 1017) in AMOS 20 to obtain overall fit indices. The fit measures for the model presents an acceptable fit: 'e(647) = 1402.751, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.962; GFI = 0.932; NFI = 0.932; RMSEA = 0.034, and RMR = 0.053. The findings of this study is going to be relevant for many packaged food companies as it is going to unveil various aspects of children's motivations, preferences and attitudes towards consumption of branded food products. This will facilitate the brands to design CBE strategies and allocate their resources well. Brand engagement strategies will not only help the brands to generate loyalty but will also allow co-creation of value. Moreover, the study will also appeal to many researchers who seek to understand brand engagement related theoretical frameworks and advance their research in this direction. This study provides a clear cut understanding of hierarchical process of brand development among adolescents.

Rapid consumption of earth’s resources by human beings is causing resource scarcity, generation of toxic waste and severe damage to environment. Recently, conservation of natural resources has gained increasing importance globally. Regulations have been imposed by governments in several countries, which hold firms responsible for management of products throughout their lifecycle. In light of this, implementation of closed loop supply chain (CLSC) has become imperative for organizations. CLSC management is “the design, control and operation of a system to maximize value creation over the entire life cycle of a product with dynamic recovery of value from different types and volumes of returns over time”. CLSC practices are well established in North American organizations but in emerging economies such as China and India, organizations have just begin to realize the importance of implementation of CLSC. In this thesis, we study research problems that can assist firms which are in early phases of implementation of CLSC or are planning for implementation of CLSC in near future.

Managers tend to identify critical success factors (CSFs) that need utmost attention and should be implemented to ensure success of an organization. In the first essay, we identify CSFs for implementing CLSC and performance outcomes by implementing CLSC. Using survey data from 138 practitioners in North America and applying factor analysis approach, we identify eight CSFs and two performance outcomes.

In the second essay, we empirically investigate the effect of CLSC CFSs on performance outcomes. CSFs for implementing CLSC and performance outcomes are identified in the first essay. The relationships are empirically tested by Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach, using the data collected from professionals in North American manufacturing organizations. The findings will help managers to identify the key areas to leverage during the implementation of CLSC.

The third essay examines the current state of CLSC implementation in manufacturing organizations in Indian automotive sector. In this essay, a theoretical model on different types of institutional pressures (government, competitor, customer) that motivate automobile manufacturing enterprises to pursue CLSC practices is empirically tested. The model also empirically tests the effect of CLSC practices on performance factors (economic, environmental and social) and moderating effect of resource commitment on links between CLSC practices and performance factors. PLS-SEM technique is applied to analyze the data collected from 89 manufacturing organizations in the Indian automotive sector. The results validate the significant positive effect of regulatory and normative pressures on CLSC practices, and significant positive effect of CLSC practices on three performance outcomes. The results also validate the role of resource commitment as a moderator on several relationships between CLSC practices and performance outcomes.

In the fourth essay, we present a generalized tractable CLSC model with dedicated remanufacturing facilities and a cap on maximum demand of remanufactured products. The model can help firms decide the optimal location of collection centres and remanufacturing plants while maximizing the profit earned by selling new and remanufactured products. The proposed mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is solved in CPLEX OPLstudio. Several computational experiments are conducted to show the practical applicability of proposed model. Sensitivity analysis is done to study the effect of change in uncertain parameters, derive relevant managerial insights and study problem behavior. Few large scale problems are solved to show the computational feasibility of the model. Further, to consider uncertain parameters, fuzzy mixed integer linear programming (FMILP) optimization model is proposed, and an application and scenario analyses are presented. Finally, the framework is extended to multi-objective FMILP model, which considers environmental effects of manufacturing, remanufacturing and transportation of products. An application of multi-objective FMILP model using e- constraint method is demonstrated.

Conditional Promotions (CP) are pervasively used both in offline and online retail in India. CP largely help the retailers in increasing the cart value of the consumer over and above a threshold value specified in the offer statement. Given the frequent use of CP in retailing, it makes an interesting topic of study. We found no study done that deals with the consumer choices under CP. Due to this, we needed to perform both qualitative and quantitative studies. We conducted Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Personal Interviews (PI) to gain insights from the consumers in three qualitative studies (Essay-1). The qualitative studies made a base for our quantitative study experiments in the offline and online environment (Essay-2). We did three different experiments as part of our quantitative study — 1) a 2 (pain of paying — cash vs. card ) *2 (distance from threshold value — low vs. high) *2 (initial cart orientation — hedonic vs. utilitarian) experimental design in offline context (INR 5000 as threshold cart value), 2) a 2 (prospect theory: gain (discount) or loss (shipping charges) of INR 50) *2 (distance from threshold cart value — low vs. high) *2 (initial cart — hedonic vs. utilitarian), experimental design in online context — low value purchases (shipping) (INR 500 as threshold cart value), 3) a 2 (distance from threshold cart value — low vs. high) *2 (initial cart — hedonic vs. utilitarian), experimental design in online context — high value purchases (INR 5000 as threshold value). Theoretically we used pain of paying (offline context) and prospect theory (online context — low value CP) in conjugation with other theories like regret theory, impulse buying, continuous impulse buying, consumer guilt, shopping momentum and goal gradient hypothesis to understand how the consumer decision making works when the consumers shop under the impression of CP IV in both offline and online contexts. By these experiments, we wanted to understand that under CP, do the initial cart orientation influence the add-on purchases or not. i.e., A hedonictutilitarian initial cart leads to more hedonic purchases or more utilitarian purchases when a consumer tries to meet the threshold cart value of the offer. Is the choice of the add-on products whether to buy hedonic or utilitarian influenced by distance from the threshold cart value or does it change based on mode of payment (cash vs. card) in offline context, or if the CP is framed as a loss function or gain function in online context (free shipping vs. Cash discount)? We explore that how the likelihood to avail the offer changes with the mode of payment, offer framing (offer framed as a loss or gain), initial cart products and distance to threshold cart value (low vs. high). We also explore how the choices add-on products and likelihood to avail CP offer change based on demographics (age, gender, and shopping expense). We found support for the pain of paying, distance from the threshold cart value and initial cart choice does influence the likelihood to avail the CP offer and choice of add-on products (quantitative study-1). With the reduction in the pain of paying, the distance from the threshold cart value and making the initial purchases more hedonistic we found an increase in likelihood to avail the CP offer and shift of consumer choices from more utilitarian products to hedonic products for add-on purchases. Further, we found support for framing of the offer (loss vs. gain) and initial purchase value influencing the likelihood to avail the CP offer and choice of add-on products in an online environment of low-value purchase. However, initial cart products being hedonic or utilitarian did not affect the likelihood to avail the CP offer and choice of add-on product. We found significant interaction among offer framing (loss due to shipping, or gain due to discount) and the relative distance to the threshold cart value. Lastly, we found that relative distance from threshold cart value and initial shopping cart orientation affecting likelihood to avail the offer and V choice of add-on products in online shopping for high-value products. There was significant interactions among independent variables as well. We also found in our high value experiments (offline and online), that females, younger consumers and consumers with higher shopping expense have higher likelihood to avail CP offer and purchase hedonic products. This thesis is arranged in two essays written in the form of research paper. The first essay discusses the three qualitative studies Study — la, lb, 1c). The second essay discusses the quantitative study — 2a conducted in an offline environment for high-value product purchase involvement and study — 3a and study — 3b conducted in an online environment for low-value product purchase involvement and high-value product purchase involvement respectively.

The purpose of this research is to explore the status of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) and empirically examine the relationship between CSRD and financial performance (FP) of firms in the emerging economy of India, in the light of stakeholder theory. The first study analyses the status, direction, and changes in CSRD of top Indian firms in the light of social, political, economic, and global scenario of this emerging economy. The second study investigates the relationship between aggregate level CSRD and financial performance of Indian firms and, examines the relationship between CSRD towards different stakeholders and FP of Indian firms. The third study analyses the impact of FP on the extent of aggregate and segregate (stakeholder) level CSRD of Indian firms. The fourth study empirically explores the causal relation between CSRD and FP of firms in the context of India.

The first study scrutinizes the CSRD practices of top 100 listed firms in the emerging economy of India by creating a reliable measure of quantifying CSRD. Data for CSRD is collected by conducting a content analysis of CSR disclosure in annual reports of the sampled firms over the period from 2012-2014. A multidimensional measure of CSRD is constructed based on stakeholder theory, consisting of six stakeholder groups - employees, customers, investors, community, environment, and others. The aggregate CSRD measure is created by combining disclosure towards the six CSR dimensions. The results show a considerable increase in the CSR disclosure level over the period under investigation, although, the disclosure level of Indian firms is disappointingly low.

The second study empirically examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) and financial performance (FP) of firms in India. Firms’ CSRD is the independent variable for this study and, data for it is collected using the CSRD measure created in the first study of this research. The empirical analysis of this study includes three FP measures capturing different dimensions of a company’s profitability as dependent variables; two accounting measures namely, return on equity (ROE) and return on asset (ROA), and one market measure that is, annual stock return (ASR). Multiple regression analysis is employed to examine CSRD-FP linkage controlling for the confounding effects of size, risk, age, industry, ownership, and time period. The results of this study indicate that aggregate CSRD measure and four of the six CSRD dimensions, namely ‘employees,’ ‘customers,’ ‘environment,’ and ‘others’ have a positive association with FP of firms. However, ‘investors’ and ‘community’ dimensions of CSRD are observed to have a statistically insignificant association with FP of Indian firms.

The third study aims to investigate the potential impact of profitability on the extent of the CSRD of Indian firms. Firms’ FP measures namely, ROE, ROA, and ASR are the independent variables, and CSRD is the dependent variable for this study. Data for CSRD consists of the CSRD measure created in the first study of this research. Multiple regression models are used to investigate FP-CSRD linkage controlling the confounding effects of relevant corporate characteristics and variables. Results based on the multiple regression analysis indicate that firms with higher accounting measures of FP tend to have higher CSR aggregate disclosure and disclosure towards employees, customers, environment, and others.

Academic research suggests that there could be the existence of a “virtuous circle” between CSRD and FP such that increased FP leads to elevated levels of CSRD and vice-versa. The fourth study analyses the causal relationship between CSRD and FP of Indian firms employing the “Granger causality” approach. Controlling confounding effects of size, risk, age, industry and ownership, the findings of this study presents no evidence of causality running from CSRD to FP, but show that causality flows from FP to CSRD in context of India. These results support the findings of studies that predict that better FP provides excess funds to firms to be invested in CSR activities. These findings are in corroboration with the past studies that suggest the absence of causal relationship running from CSR to FP when methods of testing causality are employed.

The results suggest that Indian companies have resorted to higher disclosures to show their involvement in pro-social and environmental initiatives as a response to discussions on the introduction of stringent CSR regulations in India. The results reveal that adopting transparent and extensive CSR disclosure is associated with the profitability of firms, and Government interventions are required to promote CSR programs of firms towards CSR dimensions that provide no apparent financial gains. This study recommends companies to adopt inclusive CSR practices, and report them to their stakeholders. It concludes that CSRD does not cause an increase in FP but is driven by FP in the Indian context. This study contributes to the scarce literature on CSRD-FP linkage in the context of emerging economies by using a more inclusive dataset, creating a reliable measure of CSR disclosure applicable to a large universe of firms, and including relevant control variables that affect CSRD-FP relationship.

Abstract This thesis is an investigation into the effects of infrastructure and technologically-advanced investments such as information technology (IT) and research and development (R&D) on productivity in Indian manufacturing sector. Recent meta-analytic work on the infrastructure-productivity link suggests that empirical assessments of the productivity effects of infrastructure have been marked by contradictory results with little robustness. In this context, the first essay utilizes a new database on Indian manufacturing industries covering the period 1980 — 2012, and a range of 16 infrastructure measures to explore the question of endogeneity and inter-sectoral productivity dependencies as neglected sources of variation in the previous results. A bootstrap cointegration test allowing for correlation-dependence across industries reveals a common rank with a cointegrating vector. To estimate infrastructure elasticities, instrumentation is applied in a cross-sectionally augmented pooled mean group (CPMG) framework, which allows for endogeneity to be addressed, while also allowing for inter-industry heterogeneity in the short-run effect of infrastructure. Results show that in the absence of instrumentation, the elasticity coefficients are sometimes insignificant or even negative or too large in magnitude. However, controlling for endogeneity renders the impact of infrastructure both positive and of economically meaningful magnitudes. Overall, the results of the essay indicate strong effects of infrastructure while the elasticity estimates vary significantly across different types of infrastructure on electricity, ports, railways, roadways, airways and information and telecommunication sectors. In the light of the findings, policy implications are brought out for the Indian manufacturing, which is at the fringe of a national policy movement. The second essay analyses the role of IT in boosting manufacturing output. A review of the IT- productivity literature reveals that despite the strong evidence on the contribution of IT on vi firm's output, a few questions remain. This essay addresses the rather unfairly overlooked question relating to IT-induced leapfrogging in manufacturing sub-sectors. To this effect, the study uses a micro-level dataset of 3600 firms for the period 1998-2016 from Indian manufacturing. To account for transmission bias in production function estimation, Wooldridge's (2009) semi-parametric control function approach is used. Estimated results for various sub-samples reveal significant positive effects of IT in Indian manufacturing, while the exact output elasticities vary distinctly, between 0.042 and 0.320. Unlike several recent studies, this study finds significant support for the leapfrogging-hypothesis of IT-enabled growth. Further, the results indicate a decline in the elasticity coefficient of IT capital from 9 percent in the period 1998-2009 (sub-period I) to around 6 percent in the period 2010-2016 (sub-period Finally, it is shown that these results are unlikely to be driven by restricted functional forms, the assumption of constant returns to scale, reverse causality in the present set up and measurement errors induced by aggregation of data at various levels. Essay 3 extends the previous essay on IT-productivity relationship to assess the effects of innovational investments in both IT and R&D in a joint framework. Utilizing a micro-level dataset of 900 firms for the period 2000-2016 from Indian manufacturing, we assess two channels of productivity transmission: input substitution and technological change. Besides contributing to the thin evidence on the productivity effects of IT in India, the present study is the first to assess the role of IT and R&D jointly for Indian manufacturing. Based on a matching approach, a preliminary evidence is found for causality running from IT and R&D capital to firm performance. Further, the results suggest that: (i) contrary to the doubts raised by scholars eently, controlling for innovational complementarities related to R&D does not influence the significance of IT capital's effect on productivity, (ii) there is a complementarity between IT and R&D both in production and technological advancement, (iii) IT-induced externalities are higher in foreign-owned firms, and (iv) finally, IT as an input justifies the leapfrogging- vii hypothesis of growth in manufacturing industries. It is shown that these results are unlikely to be driven by transmission bias in production function set up, selection effect, reverse causality, measurement errors induced by aggregation of data at various levels and other economic issues such as serial correlation and heteroscedasticity. Based on these findings, policy implications are brought out for Indian manufacturing.

The emerging service-dominant logic (SDL) considers service as the denominator of all the exchanges with value co-creation at its core. The notion of SDL and value co-creation have garnered great attention in businesses. Nevertheless, the complexities linked with the SDL framework, the substantial monetary cost involved with integrating customers in value creation along with the prevalence of goods dominant logic (GDL) had prevented large number of firms from adoption and implementation of SDL. However, during the last decade, exponential growth of technology convergence capabilities and consequential rapid proliferation of portable convergent products have created a conducive environment for adoption of SDL propositions through novel ways of interaction between the firm and customer. Technology convergence has facilitated the merging and coordination of firm resources with the virtual, social, and physical world resources of customers to co-create value. Given the increasing adoption of co-creation, a more comprehensive conceptual framework is required to Unearth key components and consequences of value co-creation. In essay one, we developed an exhaustive conceptualisation of co-creation in technology convergence context. To create a comprehensive framework for value co-creation and its brand implications, we integrated service-dominant logic with theory of experiential consumption and attachment theory. The fundamental value co-creation premises of SDL serve as the basic framework which combines the operant and operand resources of customers and firms to co-create value. SDL conceptualisation of customer resources helped us identify customer expertise as the primary customer resource. Similarly, we operationalise convergence quality as the representative of firm resources which is the outcome of various lower and higher order resources of the firm. The means-end model serves as the backdrop of the convergence quality attribute recognition. Next, based on frameworks of customer experience and brand experience, we conceptualised resultant co-created experiential values as six simultaneous III subjective experiences derived through customer interaction with the convergent product. Finally using attachment theory, we found strong experiential value relationship with brand love. This study creates a stronger argument for firms to make an effort to apply principles of co-creation in actual practice by providing empirical evidence of value co-creation framework and extending the SDL framework to technology convergence context and brand love consequences. Empirical validation of SDL framework underlines the importance of customer resource in value co-creation. Operationalisation of convergence quality gives a clear guideline to product designer to design quality convergent product. By focusing on customer expertise and convergence quality firms can develop strong brand relationship such as brand love and increase the lifetime value of the customer. In the second essay, we address the problem of product differentiation. Technology advancements have made human lives tranquil presenting unique possibilities for human progress, on the other hand, it has increased product commoditization, augmented resemblances between products and made their uniqueness factors fade. It has created a problem of product and brand differentiation for firms and customers. To overcome this, customers are banking on the coolness quotient of the convergent products. Firms have also acknowledged coolness as a strong differentiator in the market. However, marketers don't emphasise on proactively designing cool products. They search for the influencers of coolness and for this job they employ coolhunters, which is a reactive and risky approach. One of the reasons for this reactionary approach is lack of theoretical understanding and empirical validation of product coolness phenomenon. Though there is some progress in the meaning and inception of cool but the customer behaviour research literature on coolness is still in its infancy stage. IU In essay two, we operationalised coolness on the theoretical premises of means-end theory, deviance regulation theory, symbolic interaction theory, signalling theory, optimal distinctiveness theory and perceptual symbol system theory. We found six determinants of product coolness, i.e. desirability, attractiveness, usability, innovativeness of technology, rebelliousness and reliability. We further enriched the six-dimensional coolness framework by detecting two layers of product coolness: external coolness and internal coolness. External coolness operationalised through attractiveness and rebelliousness. Internal coolness operationalised through attractiveness, usability, desirability and reliability. Operationalising coolness and its empirical validation provide an answer to, "How to acquire coolness?" This study provides actionable measures of coolness for marketers. Categorising cool in the actionable internal coolness and external coolness dimensions will help marketers to design cool products with more certainty. Establishment of the dimensionality of the coolness construct will allow researchers to use it further in descriptive and causal researches.

The present thesis work revolves around the theme of energy mix. The energy mix is the share of different energy sources in the energy basket of a country. Energy security and environmental concerns calls for a shift from conventional to non-conventional sources. It is evident that the energy portfolio of a country is not static rather a dynamic entity. The countries are indeed witnessing a rapid shift from carbon intensive fossil fuel to greener options. Nevertheless, carbon intensive sources still dominate the world’s energy basket. The thesis work comprises of five essays on the shifting paradigm in global energy portfolio. The first two essays are cross country studies and the next two essays are written in Indian context. The final essay focuses on the changing energy mix in Indian transportation sector. The first essay is titled “Does Diversity Matter? A Fresh Inquiry into the Energy Economy and Environment Nexus”. The essay extends the literature on the nexus among economy. environment and energy by incorporating an index of electricity generation diversity in production and emission functions. The index is mathematically equivalent to Herfindahl-Hirschman index. The index captures substantial information regarding the ongoing energy transition at the global level. The results obtained through pooled mean group estimation, on a dataset of fairly diversified group of countries, indicate that if diversity index increases by a percentage point, per capita income increases by 2.4% and per capita emissions are reduced by 0.71%. This is against the conventional wisdom in favour of specialization. The study has also found interesting causal pathways. Firstly, in long-run the unidirectional causality runs from diversification to income and from diversification to emission reduction. Secondly, in long-run there is bidirectional causality between electricity consumption and specialization. The results have interesting policy implications. The study supports the growth hypothesis that the electricity consumption drives the economy. As this inevitably increases emissions, a better pathway is through diversification. The fossil fuel intensive pathway may have been the preferred choice in the past for countries with low electricity consumption; the diversified portfolio appears to be prudent in the future.

Title of the second essay is “An economic comparison of solar and wind energy”. important role of energy in shaping the economy of a country is undeniable. Increasing awareness on environmental and socio-economic impact along with risks associated with conventional energy sources have led to a shift in the energy mix of different countries, share of nonconventional sources is rapidly increasing in the portfolio. A strand of literature has just started to focus on comparison of different renewable sources. The essay offers a comparison of solar and wind sources on the dimensions of economy and environment. The results indicate superiority of solar sources over wind energy, this is in sharp contrast to the existing view. Latest data, cross-country analysis and appropriate econometric technique make the findings reliable. The results are useful from the policy perspective. Different renewable technologies are competing for scarce resources and for policy support from government. The analysis gives an additional objective tool to compare different investment avenues in renewable sector.

Third essay is titled “Performance Evaluation of Indian States in the Renewable Energy Sector for Making Investment Decisions: A Managerial Perspective”. The study provides a complete and reliable ranking to the states of India in the renewable energy generation arena. The methodology adopted rests on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). One of the recently developed super-efficiency DEA formulations is integrated with a procedure to allow for non-discretionary input variables. The integration may fail to be feasible in certain cases. To deal with infeasibility, a heuristic is proposed. Using a simulation, it is demonstrated that the approach yields complete and fairly reliable rankings in the vast majority of the cases. Tamil Nadu appears as the leader followed by Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are the laggards. Rankings will be useful for policy-makers in identifying the leaders and the laggards in the renewable energy sector, and hence, for fine tuning the policies to promote better renewable energy deployment. This will in turn, help in transition towards a greener energy mix. Rankings will also be helpful for investors in the sector by providing them with a simple tool to identify lucrative investment options. The approach is fairly generalizable to many other practical cases.

The fourth essay goes by the title “A study of changing energy mix in Indian power sector using network-DEA and SUR estimation”. The study contributes to the literature on Indian power sector m two ways. First, a two-stage data envelopment analysis is employed to rank the performance of Indian states in the sector. The performance is evaluated from the point of- view of policy formulating agencies. Therefore, rather than focusing on operational details, we focus on broader outlook. Second, an econometric analysis using seemingly unrelated regression is conducted to estimate the determinants of total per capita electricity consumption and industrial per capita electricity consumption. Efficiency scores obtained from the first phase of analysis happens to be a significant explanatory variable. The analysis reveals that, though coal reserves are somewhat adequately tapped by the states, renewable potential hasn’t been tapped effectively. As expected, in comparison to renewables, conventional sources have larger impact on electricity consumption. Yet, the share of renewables in the energy mix has positive elasticity. Hence, the findings are encouraging from environmental point-of-view.

The fifth and the final essay is on energy mix in transportation. The title is “Future mobility in India from changing energy mix perspective”. The essay analyses the transportation sector in India with respect to the changing energy mix. The study attempts to serve multiple objectives. The aggregate size of vehicle fleet in operation is estimated. A vehicle survival model is calibrated using primary data collected from the field. Then, based on the extant literature certain mobility related parameters are estimated. Using these data passenger mobility is calculated. The estimate for passenger-km travelled in India obtained from the approach is thus a fairly correct estimate for the same. The values are in sharp contrast to some of the earlier studies and also to the data published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India. Further, future mobility is projected using an S-shaped curve. The mobility data is used to estimate the current energy demand and the consequential carbon emissions. Lastly, the e-vehicle penetration pathways for the future are modelled based on different scenarios. Based on the assumed scenarios, the future demand for the energy and the expected emissions under different electricity mix regimes are calculated. The adopted approach thus gives a set of plausible future scenarios of Indian transportation sector making the study an important tool to the policymakers.

In the recent past, firms across the globe have paid increasing attention to achieve sustainability in their business operations. The renewed interest in sustainability is due to rising regulatory pressures, soaring demand for eco-friendly products, and growing expectations from various stakeholder groups, which has led to the adoption of sustainable practices in the supply chain. Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM)integrates three aspects of business practices: economic, environmental, and social. Several firms across industries such as retail (Wal-Mart), technology (Apple, Dell) and outdoor clothing & gear (Adidas, Nike, Patagonia) are working to adopt sustainability in their supply chains. In the last few years, especially after the Paris Agreement, SSCM has emerged as a burgeoning research area in the academia. However, research in the area of SSCM is still in the nascent stage, particularly analytical modelling that considers all three sustainability dimensions in a unified model has not been investigated in the extant literature. Most of the studies examine the issue of sustainability either at the buyer or the supplier level, whereas this study addresses this issue at the overall supply chain level. In a supply chain, coordination among the agents is always a daunting task due to misalignment of objectives and incentives. The complexity of coordination soars in the combined context of environmental and social issues with the economic setting, which has remained unexplored in the SSCM literature. Further managers, trying to optimize sustainable supply chain objectives, often face a dilemma regarding allocation of sustainability responsibilities among supply chain agents.

In this thesis, we bridge this research gap and propose an analytical model that undertakes the simultaneous consideration of all the three dimensions of sustainability issue faces by sustainable supply chain managers. We also design a contract for exploring the coordination mechanism in sustainable supply chains. Further, we investigate whether contract is sufficient to drive sustainability. If this is not the case, we try to explore which other mechanism can enhance the sustainability performance of a supply chain. Specifically, we examine whether market pressure, regulatory pressure, or stakeholder pressures lead to the adoption of sustainability by the supply chain partners. In this thesis, we investigate these research questions in four essays, applying a mixed method approach, the game-theoretic approach and an empirical study.

In the first essay of the thesis, we start with a basic game-theoretic sustainable supply chain model. We consider a case in which the supplier is responsible for greening and the buyer is accountable for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and, where demand is dependent upon greening and CSR efforts undertaken by the supply chain agents. We analyze our model using a two-stage Stackelberg game-theoretic approach where the supplier acts as a Stackelberg leader. In this context, we analyze the decentralized supply chain setting using five different contract types, namely, wholesale price (WP), linear two-part tariff (LTT), greening-cost sharing (GCS), revenue sharing (RS), and revenue and greening-cost sharing (RGCS) contracts. We demonstrate how different contract types influence optimal greening level, CSR level, retail price, and profits of supply chain agents. Our analytical results show that greening and social efforts, undertaken by supply chain agents, are beneficial for the overall supply chain as long as consumer awareness towards greening and CSR exists. Our results show that channel coordination mechanisms between the supplier and the buyer are conducive to improving the greening and CSR levels. Through a numerical example, we examine the effectiveness of different contracts. This serves to extend our existing understanding of supply chain coordination in the context of sustainability.

In the second essay of the thesis, we extend our base model relaxing a few important assumptions. Our base model assumes that the supplier puts the greening effort and the buyer undertakes the CSR effort. However, it may be possible that (i) one supply chain agent acts as a profit maximizer, while the other agent acts as a sustainability maximizer and(ii) one agent focuses on greening only and the other agent is only interested in CSR activities. Thus, we analyse four different structures of sustainable supply chain. Another assumption is that demand increases due to greening and CSR efforts undertaken by the supply chain agents. It is possible that CSR does not always translate into an increase in the demand. This extended model helps us to understand how sustainability responsibilities could be assigned across the supply chain to yield the best supply chain profit. We also incorporate CSR as a fraction of consumer surplus and assume that demand will not increase due to CSR activities. In this essay, we again analyze our model using a game theoretic approach. In the context of channel coordination, we discuss two contract types, namely wholesale price (WP) and linear two-part tariff (LTT) from the supplier’s perspective. Analysis of the results shows that an LTT perfectly coordinates for the supply chain structures. Another interesting finding is that, in a WP contract, sustainable supply chains yield the best performance when the buyer takes the responsibilities of greening as well CSR.

In the third essay of the thesis, we further expand the model by incorporating information asymmetry about the buyer’s marginal cost of production, which is closer to reality. We analyze wholesale price (WP) and linear two-part tariff (LTT) in a Stackelberg setting. We also examine the “value of information” of the supplier. Our numerical analysis provides a few counterintuitive insights. The results reflect that market pressure alone cannot drive sustainability. Therefore, the question arises whether adoption of sustainability is a mere pipedream or some pressure strategies/ tactics work for the adoption of sustainability. To investigate the aforementioned questions, we carried out an empirical study under the lens of institutional theory in the last essay. Drawing from institutional pressures and citizen attitude towards sustainability, we develop a conceptual model and propose hypotheses to examine how institutional pressures and citizen attitude towards sustainability influence the level of sustainability adoption in public procurement. Using a sample of 546 public procurement experts from across 102 countries, we develop a structural equation model to test our proposed hypotheses. Our results suggest that institutional pressures and citizen attitude towards sustainability significantly influence the level of sustainability adoption in public procurement. However, citizen attitude towards sustainability has lesser influence, while regulatory pressure, i.e. coercion has the highest influence on sustainability. These findings corroborate with our analytical results.

Findings from the aforementioned essays have several theoretical and practical implications. The first essay contributes to the SSCM literature by providing a novel unified framework for practitioners to incorporate greening and CSR related activities simultaneously in their decision-making in an objective way. The second essay resolves the managers’ dilemmas for the allocation of sustainability responsibilities across the supply chain. The third essay indicates that market pressure alone are not sufficient to drive sustainability. Finally, the mathematical results obtained in the third essay are further explored through an empirical study in the fourth essay. Our findings suggest that market-driven pressure such as citizen attitude towards sustainability do not have a much impact, implying that these pressures may not themselves suffice in expediting the adoption of sustainability. Hence, policymakers need to develop context-specific strategies to foster sustainability.

ABSTRACT The evidences of relationship of leadership with organizational and employee outcomes are documented in the literature. This has drawn the attention of the researchers to positive leadership styles. Ethical Leadership is one such positive leadership style. Ethical leadership is defined as a normatively appropriate behavior through which a leader influences and promotes ethical behavior among followers (Brown et al, 2005). Ethical leadership consists of two components: A moral person and a moral manager. A moral person focuses on the personal qualities of the leader like trustworthiness, integrity, and honesty, while the moral manager component refers to the pro-activeness of the leader in promoting ethical behavior among the followers through rewards and punishment (Brown et al., 2005). It is this moral manager component that differentiates Ethical leadership from other ethically oriented leadership styles like Authentic leadership, and Spiritual leadership. Recent times have witnessed a spurt in the interest in the ethical leadership field, both among researchers and practitioners. This is mainly due to a large number of scams that have surfaced in business and allied contexts. For example, the Worldeoml case in the US, where the company official underreported the costs and inflated the revenues. The case of Satyam2 in India was similar, where the company accounts were tampered. Both these scams happened so that the company appears more valuable to the investors, which ultimately led to higher stock prices. These scams led the researchers to investigate the field of ethical leadership more critically. With more and more research in this field, researchers have pointed out some serious concerns regarding the development of the construct. Firstly, though several definitions of ethical leadership are available in literature, what constitutes "ethical behavior" is still ambiguous. Secondly, serious concerns have been raised regarding the existing conceptualizations and measures of ethical leadership. Thirdly, Scholars who have tried to define "ethical behavior" have done so without taking the Indian view point and thus most definitions are western in content and context and hence, not applicable to Indian context. Fourthly, most research on ethical leadership has been done in understanding the benefits of ethical leadership, but not on what makes a leader ethical. This dearth of studies about antecedents of ethical leadership is documented in literature. We, through this research, intend to address the above problems and frame the following objectives. Firstly, we will incorporate the Indian view, by conducting the study in India. Since India features in the top ten countries as per Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and in terms of population size, we consider this would aptly represent the Indian view. Secondly, through qualitative interviews and successive quantitative studies, we will develop a new measure of ethical leadership. Thirdly, through extant literature and qualitative interviews, we will identify the antecedents of ethical leadership and empirically validate them. For the fulfilment of our research objectives, we conducted five studies. First study was a qualitative study in which we interviewed 36 participants from defence, private sector and public sector. This enabled us in identifying the dimensions of ethical leadership in the (Ilan context. The rest of the four studies were quantitative in nature. The entire work from here onwards was divided in two parallel activities: development of scale and development of mological network. We followed the recommended scientific approach for scale development. The scale development process consists of three stages: Item Generation, Scale Purification and Scale tidation, At the end of four studies (Ntotai -- 900), we obtained a new 15-item measure of weal leadership termed as Ethical Leadership for India (ELFI) which comprised of five dimensions namely Social Behaviour, Timeliness and Punctuality, Concern for Environment, Moral Behaviour, and Role Clarification. We used SPSS v20, for exploratory factor analysis in Study 02 to carve out the factors of the scale, and Lisrel 7.82, for confirmatory factor analysis in study 03, 04 and 05. The scale showed robust psychometric properties. For developing nomological network, we identified and empirically validated four antecedents and six consequences. The empirical examination of consequences was done in study 03(N=255) and study 04(N=203). Study 03 was a cross sectional study while Study 04 was a time lagged study. The testing of antecedents was done in study 05(N=276) using Leader-Subordinate dyads. All the hypotheses were tested using the regression analysis using SPSS v20. Spirituality turned out to be the strongest predictor of ethical leadership. Among the consequences, ethical leadership was most predictive of Interactional Justice, and Job Satisfaction in Study 03 and Connectedness and Affective Dimensions of Psychological ownership in Study 04. We contribute to the literature in three ways. Firstly, we respond to the scant research on ethical leadership in the eastern context, especially India and thereby provide a non- western conceptualization of ethical leadership. Secondly, we developed a new measure of ethical leadership which showed acceptable psychometric properties and will serve as a base for future research. Thirdly, we identified spirituality, self-efficacy, religiosity, and ethical idealism as the antecedent of ethical leadership. Our research has two major practical implications. With little research on ethical leadership in Indian context, the organizations were apprehensive about the applicability of cal leadership in the Indian context. We, through the empirical examination, highlight the fits of ethical leadership in the Indian context. Secondly, little was known as to what an ethical leader. With the identification of antecedents of ethical leadership, the Organizations know the qualities to be developed in the future leaders to enable them to lead ethically. Finally we highlight the limitations of the present study and thereby suggest the future directions to the scholars willing to pursue research in the domain of ethical leadership

According to the Apollo Group Chairman (IMS Healthcare Report 2012), the three big challenges in healthcare in India are (i) lack of resources (1 bed for every 1050 people); (ii) lack of skilled man power (a shortage of two million nurses and doctors), and (iii) rise of diseases (number of diabetes cases in India has already surpassed the projected figure for 2020). Further, the healthcare domain is characterized with dynamic, complex and cross-functional processes, along with little support in form of puny budget allocations. Cost and quality of healthcare are two critical issues facing the healthcare industry throughout the world. Business Process Analysis can be employed in health care processes to achieve the cost and time efficiency (Gottlieb et al, 2010) so that the above stated challenges can be addressed partially. Existing analysis techniques primarily make use of best practices for process analysis and redesign, which focus on one-time radical changes. Also, these techniques do not use data captured from real process executions (Reijers and Mansar, 2005). Hence, the chosen performance indicators can often mis-represent information and not include all the perspectives of the modelled process in a compact manner.

Marketing is a continuously evolving discipline where technology plays a major role in today’s times. One such context is the realm of digital marketing, especially e-commerce and m-commerce. Understanding and catering to the evolving markets, trends, and customers in the wake of the continuously changing landscape of online businesses is crucial to improving customer experience and firm performance. There is a plethora of information available to consumers online and there are various channels and media that they use to access that information for decision-making. In order for this to happen smoothly, the computer-mediated communication systems and strategies that marketers use must sit well with the Internet users, and consumers should have seamless experiences, aided by right media choices.

Media choice refers to the choice of technology-aided media for performing certain tasks. Media choice has been predominantly studied in the Management Information Systems (MIS)literature (e.g., Media richness theory, media synchronicity theory, channel expansion theory, social influence theory, social presence theory, task media fit hypothesis) where researchers have looked at the media choices made by employees in an organizational setting from a communication perspective. Current media choice literature also looks at user interaction with technology in the context of consumer decision-making. However, there is a need to understand the process of media choice by consumers who are looking to undertake information search or make a purchase online. There is also a need for insights from the supplier’s perspective which can be done by studying media choices made by marketers while designing their marketing communication. Therefore, this research aims to find out how consumers and marketers make their media choice decisions. Our thesis employs a multi-method approach where we use quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, and grounded theory approach to answer our research questions. There are two essays in the thesis. The first essay deals with consumer media choice behaviour where we answer two questions - first, how do consumers make their media choice decisions, and second, are there any differences between media choices made during information search BB and purchase processes. To do so, we look at media choice decisions from the lens of information search and purchase behavior on the Internet and test it in a B2C e-commerce setting. First we identify the indicators of media choice from existing theory and undertake an exploratory study of online consumers to understand how consumers make media choice decisions online. We find that media choices are influenced by task characteristics (e.g. product type and related factors, temporality, task type etc.), media characteristics (objective and subjective properties of a medium), and individual consumer characteristics (e.g.: technology readiness, trust, familiarity etc.) We collect data for testing the proposed model ‘through surveys and test it empirically to understand the similarities and differences between: information search and purchase processes in new media. The results indicate that media choice satisfaction during information search process primarily stems from the consumer’s perception of task media fit influenced by a perceived ease of information search, and familiarity with the product and the medium. But media choices during the purchase process are more complex than that of information search. During purchase, technology readiness of the consumers comes into play and their perception of media richness also impacts their media choice decisions, along with task media fit.

The second essay looks at media choice from the marketer’s perspective. Here we follow a grounded theory approach to understand the suppliers’ decision making process and develop a marketing centric definition of media choice. First we conduct in-depth interviews 1 of 15 digital marketing professionals across different kinds of firms. Then we adopt the case study method and look at the media selection processes of three firms in detail. The first firm is Ada Chikan, a designer Chikankaari (a type of embroidery specific to Lucknow) studio based out of Lucknow. The second firm is Ambition Box, a recruitment and selection start up (acquired by naukri.com) which helps its customers in job interview preparation. The third firm is the India chapter of MSL Group, known as Social Hive. It is a digital marketing agency.

Using the grounded theory approach, we analyse and summarize the findings of our conversations with marketers and other stakeholders in a firm and propose a unified framework of media choice behaviour. The framework indicates that task characteristics, media characteristics, and consumer characteristics influence media choice decisions of a marketer which eventually affects firm performance sit impacts not only the media choices and experiences of the consumer but also the ROI (measured through metrics). It is also partly responsible for eventual behavioural change in consumer decision making. We also propose that these media choice decisions are greatly influenced by the marketer’s objectives and their own experience and expertise.

Our study has several theoretical and marketing implications. First, it is a multidisciplinary study that establishes the importance of consumers’ and marketers’ media choice decisions and preferences, a concept that has previously been covered primarily in information systems literature. We contribute to marketing literature, MIS literature, and information search and purchase literature as the study helps develop deeper understanding of the relationship between the Internet and the consumer, and points out discernible differences between two important online activities — information search and purchase. Through the unified framework, we tie up loose strands in the IS literature and provide a stronger base for marketing academia to explore the role of computer aided communication media in all forms of online exchange processes.