Predicting Internet banking adoption in India: a perceived risk perspective

The emergence of Internet banking has transformed the banking systems across the globe. As a channel to market, Internet banking allows geographical constraints to be overcome by offering various products and services at lower customer costs. An understanding of the factors influencing customer adoption of Internet banking is both relevant and timely. This study integrates technology acceptance model and perceived risk theory in understanding Internet banking acceptance among Indian bank account holders. Specifically, this study categorizes perceived risk as external risk and internal risk, and examines its influence on customer beliefs and adoption of Internet banking. Using two-step predictive analytics of structural equation modeling and artificial neural network analysis, the 270 responses reveal that both external risk and internal risk inhibit customer acceptance of Internet banking. More importantly, neural network analysis reveals that perceived ease of use and external risk are two important factors determining how well Internet banking is accepted by customers. The implications of the study findings and future research directions are presented.     

An analysis of the corporate insolvency resolution process as a route for acquisitions in India

In India, the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (“CIRP”) takes place under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”). It involves a Resolution Professional inviting resolution plans for the corporate debtor undergoing insolvency. These plans are submitted by various Resolution Applicants and the best resolution plan is approved by the Committee of Creditors and sanctioned by the National Company Law Tribunal. Thus, from an acquisition perspective, the potential acquirer of the stressed asset is required to provide the best bid (in the form of the resolution plan) for the stressed asset which would be able to garner the approval of the Committee of Creditors. The CIRP route has led to successful acquisitions across variegated sectors from steel (Essar Steel) to textiles (Alok Industries) and has become a new and effective tool to undertake acquisitions for prospective acquirers providing a simpler and faster way for acquisition of stressed assets. However, acquisitions through this process are not yet free from their imperfections and there are certain problems, which if addressed, could pave a way for fruitful investments in the Indian economy. This would bolster an investment and acquisition friendly regime in India improving our nation's ranking on the ease of doing business index even further. This article seeks to analyse CIRP as an effective route for acquisitions and identify such problems which are relevant from an acquisition perspective, with the objective and hope that a discussion on these issues can help strengthen and stimulate successful acquisitions and investments in the Indian economy.     

Investigation of adolescent accident predictive variables in hilly regions

The study aims to determine the significant personal and environmental factors in predicting the adolescent accidents in the hilly regions taking into account two cities Hamirpur and Dharamshala, which lie at an average elevation of 700--1000 metres above the mean sea level (MSL). Detailed comparisons between the results of 2 cities are also studied. The results are analyzed to provide the list of most significant factors responsible for adolescent accidents. Data were collected from different schools and colleges of the city with the help of a questionnaire survey. Around 690 responses from Hamirpur and 460 responses from Dharamshala were taken for study and analysis. Standard deviations (SD) of various factors affecting accidents were calculated and factors with relatively very low SD were discarded and other variables were considered for correlations. Correlation was developed using Kendall's-tau and chi-square tests and factors those were found significant were used for modelling. They were – the victim's age, the character of road, the speed of vehicle, and the use of helmet for Hamirpur and for Dharamshala, the kind of vehicle involved was an added variable found responsible for adolescent accidents. A logistic regression was performed to know the effect of each category present in a variable on the occurrence of accidents. Though the age and the speed of vehicle were considered to be important factors for accident occurrence according to Indian accident data records, even the use of helmet comes out as a major concern. The age group of 15–18 and 18–21 years were found to be more susceptible to accidents than the higher age groups. Due to the presence of hilly area, the character of road becomes a major concern for cause of accidents and the topography of the area makes the kind of vehicle involved as a major variable for determining the severity of accidents.     

Customers’ perspectives regarding e-banking in an emerging economy

Determining factors affecting customer perception and attitude towards and satisfaction with e-banking is an essential part of a bank's strategy formulation process in an emerging economy like India. To gain this understanding in respect of Indian customers, the study was conducted on respondents taken from the northern part of India. The major findings depict that customers are influenced in their usage of e-banking services by the kind of account they hold, their age and profession, attach highest degree of usefulness to balance enquiry service among e-banking services, consider security & trust most important in affecting their satisfaction level and find slow transaction speed the most frequently faced problem while using e-banking.     

Healthcare utilization and costs associated with treatment for opioid dependence

Objective: Opioid use disorder (OUD) can be managed with medication assisted therapy (MAT) (methadone [MET], buprenorphine [BUP], or extended-release naltrexone [XR-NTX]) or counseling alone (non-pharmacological therapy [NPT]). The objective of this study was to evaluate healthcare resource utilization and costs associated with XR-NTX compared with alternative treatments for opioid dependence.

Methods: Adults with a diagnosis of opioid dependence who initiated treatment with XR-NTX, BUP, MET, or NPT between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2014 were identified in the Truven Health MarketScan Commercial administrative claims database. Healthcare resource utilization, costs (inpatient [IP], emergency department [ED], outpatient [OP], and pharmacy) and adherence were evaluated for each cohort during 12-month baseline and follow-up periods.

Results: A total of 29,235 patients were included in the analysis; 1,041, 20,566, 745, and 6,883 received XR-NTX, BUP, MET, and NPT, respectively. Patients in the XR-NTX cohort were significantly younger and had more comorbidities compared with the other cohorts. Patients in the XR-NTX group had the largest percentage decrease in IP and ED utilization and costs from baseline to follow-up. OP and pharmacy costs increased significantly from baseline to follow-up for all cohorts. Overall, there was no significant change in total healthcare costs for the XR-NTX group, whereas the costs increased significantly for other groups (BUP?=?+43%, MET?=?+47.7%, NPT?=?+38.8%).

Conclusions: Healthcare resource utilization and costs increased from baseline to follow-up in BUP, MET, and NPT patients, whereas patients receiving XR-NTX experienced no such increase. This analysis suggests there may be economic value in the use of XR-NTX for OUD.     

Institutional ownership and the informativeness of disclosure tone

Disclosure tone is an important qualitative characteristic of managerial disclosures. There is mixed evidence on the role of tone in disclosure strategy. While some studies highlight the informativeness of disclosure tone, other studies provide evidence consistent with an information obfuscation role. We conjecture that the mixed evidence may be because prior studies have not explicitly modeled the role of oversight over managerial disclosure. Using an exogenous shock to institutional ownership, an important source of managerial oversight, we find that abnormal disclosure tone is informative of a firm's future earnings and cash flows when institutional ownership is high. This positive association between institutional ownership and informativeness of abnormal tone is stronger when there is an increase in quasi-indexer institutional ownership and the contemporaneous performance is negative. Collectively, the results highlight a more complex role for disclosure tone. Abnormal disclosure tone could be reflective of managerial sentiment and convey forward-looking information to investors in the presence of greater oversight over managerial actions.