Exploring the enablers and inhibitors of electric vehicle adoption intention from sellers' perspective in India: A view of the dual‐factor model

The electric vehicle (EV) is a crucial innovation with the potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions and help reduce the causes of climate change. Despite their multiple benefits, EVs are selling lower numbers than would be expected, seeming to require more positive intent from their sellers to increase the pace of EV adoption. Hence, this study explores the enablers and inhibitors of EV adoption intention from the sellers' perspective using a dual‐factor model. The extended theory of planned behavior has been used to explore the enablers, whereas the status quo bias theory has been used to explore the inhibitors of EV adoption. The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, environmental concern, and perceived corporate social responsibility obligation have significant positive impacts on intention to adopt EVs. However, regret avoidance, inertia, perceived threat, and perceived value have significant impacts on the resistance to adopt EVs. This study enriches the literature related to intention and resistance to adopt green technology and also provides several suggestions to marketers for increasing the pace of EV adoption.     

Knowledge-sharing rewards in enterprise social networks: effects of learner types and impact of digitisation

ABSTRACT

The era of total digitisation demands companies to seek innovative approaches in managing digital assets. This paper presents and studies an analytical model of an enterprise social network (ESN) employed by organisations in facilitating knowledge sharing and learning. Exploring the design of reward systems that motivate workers to share knowledge, we focus on how the dominant type of learners (avid or impressionable), the network structure of the ESN, and digitisation affect the reward systems. This research provides valuable insights for practitioners to implement appropriate reward systems to promote knowledge sharing and learning in ESNs.     

The Impact of Store-Price Signals on Consumer Search and Store Evaluation

Always low price (ALP) and low price guarantee (LPG) are store-price signals that retailers frequently use to induce favorable store-price image and discourage consumers from comparing prices across stores. Although both policies signal low prices, only LPG is an obligatory promise to beat rival stores’ prices. Results of two shopping simulations show that when consumer search costs are relatively low, ALP may effectively discourage consumer search whereas LPG may trigger more search. Paradoxically, consumers tend to evaluate ALP stores less favorably (as having lower integrity and higher self-serving intention) than LPG stores even when both signals appear to be credible. These findings suggest that LPG is a superior tactic for creating a favorable store image while ALP is more effective for discouraging consumer search. The results also indicate that consumers visit fewer stores when the LPG is not a credible signal of lowest market price than when it is credible. This is because consumers are inclined to either claim discounts or refunds at the non-credible LPG store or to purchase at the competing store with a lower price rather than continue searching.     

Modeling agility of supply chain

Agility is the fundamental characteristic of a supply chain needed for survival in turbulent and volatile markets, which are becoming norms as product life cycles shorten and environmental forces create additional uncertainty resulting in higher risk in the supply chain management. Agility further helps in providing the right product, at the right time to the consumer, which is the main objective of any supply chain. In the present paper, using interpretive structural modeling, interrelationships of the variables, influencing supply chain agility, have been derived. These variables have been categorized according to their driving power and dependence. This methodology provides a means by which order can be imposed on the complexity of such variables. The insight from model would help supply chain managers in strategic planning for improving supply chain agility.     

Joint decision of procurement lot-size,supplier selection,and carrier selection

The joint decision making of procurement lot-size, supplier selection, and carrier selection has potential to reduce buyer's purchasing expenditures. Furthermore, the total logistics cost can also come down through economies of scale in the purchasing and transportation costs, and reduction in supply chain disruptions such as rejections and late deliveries. We study a procurement setting in which a buyer needs to purchase a single product from a set of suppliers over finite discrete time periods to satisfy service level requirements. The suppliers offer all-unit quantity discounts, and transportation cost depends on carrier capacity as well as geographical location of suppliers. This paper proposes an integer linear programming model to simultaneously determine the timings of procurement, lot-sizes, suppliers and carriers to be chosen so as to incur the least total cost over the planning horizon. A numerical example is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in establishing tradeoffs among purchasing cost, transaction cost, and inventory holding cost. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out to understand the effects of the model parameters on the purchasing decisions and total cost. Managerial insights of this study serve as a reference for decision makers to develop effective procurement strategies.     

Mobile Marketing in the Retailing Environment: Current Insights and Future Research Avenues

Mobile marketing, which involves two- or multi-way communication and promotion of an offer between a firm and its customers using the mobile, a term that refers to the mobile medium, device, channel, or technology, is growing in importance in the retailing environment. It has the potential to change the paradigm of retailing from one based on consumers entering the retailing environment to retailers entering the consumer's environment through anytime, anywhere mobile devices. We propose a conceptual framework that comprises three key entities: the consumer, the mobile, and the retailer. The framework addresses key related issues such as mobile consumer activities, mobile consumer segments, mobile adoption enablers and inhibitors, key mobile properties, key retailer mobile marketing activities and competition. We also address successful retailer mobile marketing strategies, identify the customer-related and organizational challenges on this topic, and outline future research scenarios and avenues related to these issues.     

Production economics in the presence of risk*

This paper provides an overview of the literature on production under the influence of risk. Various specifications of stochastic production function such as models with additive and multiplicative uncertainty, Just and Pope model, output‐cubical, state‐allocable and state‐general models are discussed. Further, criteria determining optimal producer behaviour are derived for deterministic production technology and for various kinds of state‐contingent technologies such as output‐cubical, state‐specific, state‐allocable and state‐general technologies. Finally, a brief discussion is presented about the drawbacks of each of these specifications of technology.     

An assessment of the potential consumption impacts of WHO dietary norms in OECD countries

The member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) have recently endorsed its global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. The strategy emphasises the need to limit the consumption of saturated fats and trans-fatty acids, salt and sugars, and to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables in order to combat the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. This paper attempts a broad quantitative assessment of the consumption impacts of these norms in OECD countries using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence to the WHO norms would involve a significant decrease in the consumption of vegetable oils (30%), dairy products (28%), sugar (24%), animal fats (30%) and meat (pig meat, 13.5%, mutton and goat 14.5%) and a significant increase in the human consumption of cereals (31%), fruits (25%) and vegetables (21%).