Evaluation of critical constructs for measurement of sustainable supply chain practices in lean‐agile firms of Indian origin: A hybrid ISM‐ANP approach

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the critical criteria that are influencing the successful implementation of sustainable supply chain practices (SSCP) in the lean‐agile manufacturing firm. From the systematic literature review and field professionals' opinion, various criteria that are influencing sustainable supply chain were identified. Data were collected from 16 experts and analysed by an integrated approach of “interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and analytic network process (ANP).” ISM methodology was utilized to get a hierarchical relationship between all criteria. Further, the input to the ANP matrices was taken from the output of ISM, and three organizations that differ in their principle of operation were ranked to find out the extent of implementation of SSCP in the Indian context. The obtained results indicate that “Information technology‐enabled system support (ITS), SC member's awareness and literacy (SAL), Societal issues (SIS), and Scarcity of natural resources (SNR)” were most significant constructs for successful implementation of SSCP for the case organizations.     

Risk Management with Derivatives by Dealers and Market Quality in Government Bond Markets

This paper investigates how bond dealers manage core business risk with interest rate futures and the extent to which market quality is affected by their selective risk taking. We observe that dealers use futures to take directional bets and hedge changes in their spot exposure. We find that, cross‐sectionally, a dealer with longer (shorter) risk exposure sells (buys) a larger amount of exposure the next day. However, this risk control takes place via the futures market and not the spot market. Finally, we find strong support for the price effects of capital constraints emphasized by Froot and Stein (1998).     

Do Farmers Overuse Nitrogen Fertilizer to the Detriment of the Environment?

Increasing use of nitrogen fertilizer in U.S. agriculture has led to nitrate contamination of water resources. The main objective of the study is to determine if the current use of nitrogen exceeds the profit-maximizing level, since reducing such discrepancy, if any, could raise farmers' profitability and enhance water quality making it a win-win situation. Specific objectives of the study, however, are two-fold. First, develop an appropriate methodology for estimation of an agronomic production function utilizing panel data with several treatments from experimental plots. Second, using experimental data from 1987 through 1990 for three farm sites in southeastern Minnesota, empirically estimate the production function and profit maximizing level of nitrogen application. Our results show that both the current recommended rate, 150 1b/acre, and farmers' use, 176 1b/acre, of nitrogen exceed the profit maximizing level of nitrogen in the region. It is shown that the recommended rate needs to be revised and made more site or area specific rather than a general figure for the entire region. The study shows considerable residual nitrogen build-up in the soil profile, implying that farmers have been applying more nitrogen than could be utilized by corn plants. The later finding highlights the importance of soil testing for plant nutrients when making decisions on fertilizer application.     

How Task-Facilitative Interactive Tools Foster Buyers’ Trust in Online Retailers: A Process View of Trust Development in the Electronic Marketplace

While there is a sustained interest in research focusing on issues relating to trust development in the electronic marketplace, significant gaps remain in the literature. In particular, little is known of the underlying processes that may be occurring in online trust development. For example, research suggests that factors such as site design and navigability are among the factors that impact trust perceptions. Extant literature, however, is largely silent about why certain trust-related effects are observed in online environments. In this paper, we propose a new process-centric perspective for understanding the formation of online trust—through buyer's assessment of the e-retailer's assistive intent, implicitly embedded in task-facilitative interactive tools. Specifically, we develop and test a model delineating the relationship between seller's provision of interactive product information management and product information comprehension tools, buyer's perceptions of seller's assistive intent, and buyer's initial trust in the seller. The results of two studies provide support for the trust-enhancing effects of task-facilitative informational tools and the mediating role of buyer's perceptions of seller's assistive intent. Importantly, these effects occur without any explicit expressions of seller's intentions. The results also suggest that the efficacy of interactive informational tools in engendering perceptions of seller's assistive intent, and hence trust, varies with the buyer's level of involvement with and knowledge of the product category.     

Social Commerce: A Contingency Framework for Assessing Marketing Potential

A key issue for marketers resulting from the dramatic rise of social media is how it can be leveraged to generate value for firms. Whereas the importance of social media for brand management and customer relationship management is widely recognized, it is unclear whether social media can also help companies market and sell products. Extant discussions of social commerce present a variety of perspectives, but the core issue remains unresolved. This paper aims to make two contributions. First, to address the lack of clarity in the literature regarding the meaning and domain of social commerce, the paper offers a definition stemming from important research streams in marketing. This definition allows for both a broad (covering all steps of the consumer decision process) and a narrow (focusing on the purchase act itself) construal of social commerce. Second, we build on this definition and develop a contingency framework for assessing the marketing potential that social commerce has to offer to firms. Implications for researchers and managers, based on the proposed definition and framework, are also discussed.     

Modelling the predictors of young consumers' sustainable consumption intention

Sustainable consumption refers to consumers' socially and environmentally responsible consumption practices. The present study is the first to investigate possible individual, behavioural, and situational factors that predict sustainable consumption intention among young consumers in India. A survey was carried out on 325 young consumers. Structural equation modelling was applied to check the extent to which the considered variables predicted sustainable consumption. The results determined drive for environmental responsibility, subjective norm, and attitude towards sustainable consumption as key predictors of consumers' sustainable consumption intention. The paper offers a better understanding of the main predictors of consumers' sustainable consumption intention. Such understanding may enable managers to design effective marketing strategies to encourage sustainable consumption intention and behaviour.     

On the manipulability of a class of social choice functions: plurality kth rules

Review of Economic Design - In this paper we introduce the plurality kth social choice function selecting an alternative, which is ranked kth in the social ranking following the number of top...     

Adoption of electronic banking services in India: an extension of UTAUT2 model

Indian banks have paid sufficient attention to recent innovations in banking services delivery such as e-banking, mobile banking, mobile payment, e-wallet, and e-money services, still the acceptance of these services among consumers is sluggish. Therefore, the present study aims to identify the intention of consumers to adopt various e-banking services. The study adopted the UTAUT2 model (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) and extended it with constructs such as consumer innovativeness, perceived risk, and security information availability. The extended research model was tested using a questionnaire-based response collected from 721 consumers. CB-SEM (Covariance-based structural equation modeling) was used to examine the hypotheses. An empirical examination of the model helped explain the impact of the UTAUT2 model's constructs in predicting adoption intention toward e-banking services. The study also revealed the importance and impact of newly incorporated variables in explaining consumers' adoption intention toward e-banking services. The study has provided some useful insight into the factors influencing consumers' intention to adopt e-banking services to shed new light.