(Farmer) Producer Companies in India as new generation cooperatives: Case studies of performance and impact from West Bengal,India

One of the innovative alternatives to the traditional cooperative structure has been the new generation cooperatives or cooperative companies, known as producer companies (PCs) in India since the early 2000s. This paper examines the impact of PCs on the member farmer livelihoods, which is not well studied, with the help of member and non-member farmer interview survey in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is found that though the PCs were inclusive of small farmers in their membership, the PC interface with members for farm inputs was not very strong and the output linkage was poor, reaching only a small proportion of member farmers. The Sufal Bangla public supermarket franchise by some PCs was found to make a large difference to the PC performance and its impact on member farmers. The small size of membership in most case study PCs hindered the equity size, leading to working capital and market interface constraints. Therefore, it is important to encourage members to contribute more equity and to reward their output linkage.     

Voting decision-making of low-income consumers: Literature review and research agenda

This review article examines why and how low-income voters decide to vote for a political candidate. A total of 163 articles in the last 80 years (1944–2023) have been identified through a systematic literature review. Thereafter, the fragmented literature has been organized using a fusion of 3W1H and TCCM (Theory, context, characteristics, and method) frameworks to obtain a comprehensive overview of the low-income voters' behaviour. Accordingly, the study has explained the voting contexts of poor consumers. Besides, the fundamental theories and methods employed in this research domain have been identified. This study revealed three characteristics of ‘voting choice’ of low-income consumers (group identity, communication characteristics, and political environment characteristics) that have been further classified under several sub-themes. This review article pioneers to provide an integrated and organized analysis of the literature on the voting behaviour of low-income consumers, highlighting critical research gaps in theories, contexts, methods, and antecedents that future researchers can examine to extend the discourse in this realm.     

Emotions and consumer behaviour: A review and research agenda

Consumers' emotions play a salient role in consumers' buying process, their consumption behaviours, and their engagement with product/service offerings, owing to which, it has gained much attention in recent years as an area of inquiry. However, literature in this field/subject is theoretically fragmented. Therefore, to enhance the conceptual understanding, this study synthesizes extant literature, using a hybrid review approach. Herein, we attempt to integrate bibliometric analysis, along with the theories, contexts, characteristics, and methodology framework, while consolidating and classifying the domain knowledge, trends, and progress/citation analysis using the bibliometric approach. In the process, we reviewed 384 conceptual and empirical articles, published during the period 1967–2021. The idea was to identify key theories, constructs, research contexts, and methods, based on which, we propose a few potential research areas. Based on our thorough analysis, these areas include (1) consumer co-creation, (2) consumer engagement, (3) service employee interactions, (4) consumer decision making, and (5) consumption experience.     

Examining the Time Varying Spillover Dynamics of Indian Financial Indictors from Global and Local Economic Uncertainty

Journal of Quantitative Economics - The research aims to excavate the role of global (Fed Rate, Crude, Real Dollar Index) and endogenous economic variables (GDP and Consumer Price Index) in shaping...     

The role of investor attention in idiosyncratic volatility puzzle and new results

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - We find that stocks with low investor attention show a more substantial return-idiosyncratic volatility puzzle than stocks with high investor...     

Emergence of subprime lending in minority neighborhoods

Subprime lending is concentrated in minority neighborhoods. However, the literature provides little evidence for what led to this concentration. We use the endorsement of credit scores in mortgage underwriting by the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) in 1995 to answer this question. We show that prime lenders were substituted by subprime lenders in minority neighborhoods. As a result, the share of subprime lending increased by 5 percentage points in minority neighborhoods, relative to nonminority neighborhoods. Prime lenders with a stronger relationship with the GSEs reduced their lending in minority neighborhoods more, and the level of securitization by the GSEs in minority neighborhoods also decreased.     

Applying the theory of reasoned action to examine consumers' attitude and willingness to purchase organic foods

The organic food market has emerged as a growing trend among consumers. The present study examines the relationship between Health Consciousness (HC), Organic Food Knowledge (OFK), Subjective Norms (SN), Price Perception (PP), Environmental Concern (EC), Attitude (ATT), Willingness to Purchase (WP), and Actual Buying Behaviour (ABB) towards organic food. Furthermore, the study explores the mediating effects of ATT and WP in the relationship between the aforesaid variables and ABB. The data was collected from 240 respondents using convenience sampling approach. The Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) using ADANCO 2.2 is used to test the hypotheses of the conceptual model proposed in the present study. The study found that the variables HC, OFK, SN, EC, ATT, WP significantly affect the ABB. Also, it is observed that EC is the strongest predictor of ATT, WP, and ABB in organic food purchase, whereas PP is the least influencing factor. Further, HC positively influences ATT and WP but shows a negative association with ABB. The antecedents HC, OFK, SN, PP, EC has shown a significant indirect effect on ABB among respondents through ATT and WP. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Economic growth and labor investment efficiency

We examine the relationship between economic growth and labor investment efficiency. Using a sample of US firms from 1991 to 2019, our findings suggest that labor investment inefficiency increases with the expansion of economic activities. Although economic growth increases labor overinvestment, it also decreases labor underinvestment. The magnitude effect of economic growth is more pronounced for labor overinvestment. Labor investment inefficiency is noticeable during low economic policy uncertainty. Economic growth-induced labor investment inefficiency is pronounced for (1) large firms, (2) high labor intensity firms, and (3) firms with overinvestment in non-labor investments. Further, economic growth negatively (positively) influences the firm's future performance for labor overinvested (underinvested) firms. Our findings remain robust to alternative specifications.     

Normative influence and masstige purchase intention: Facilitators,inhibitors, and the moderating effect of celebrity endorsement

Masstige marketing has gained considerable attention in the recent past as a theoretically significant and practically relevant concept. Masstige strategy encompasses all those activities directed to position the products for the masses, neither by offering drastic price reductions nor discounts. Rather its success depends on product innovation and promotion. Although it has been recognized as an important strategic construct, the nascent concept needs further investigation for better understanding. This research identifies significant gaps in the extant literature on fashion accessories masstige brands and intends to bridge them. The objective of the current study is to empirically investigate the factors that facilitate or inhibit masstige purchase intentions. Our study uncovers the role of normative influence in influencing the purchase intentions of a masstige fashion accessory brand, that is, Armani Exchange. Data were collected from 395 respondents, and structural equation modeling was applied to check the proposed hypotheses. The study's results revealed that conspicuous and social values play an important role as facilitators. In addition, the study highlighted that masstige brands need to overcome inhibitors like identity avoidance and deficit-value avoidance to develop masstige purchase intention. Moderation analysis highlighted the significant influence of celebrity endorsement in strengthening the facilitators and overcoming inhibitors associated with masstige purchase intention. The study's results can help marketers to position their masstige brands by adopting the right strategies that can be formulated by taking into account the influence of stimulus, facilitators, inhibitors, and a moderating variable examined in the study.