Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Indian Business Research, Volume 7, Issue 1
Warm greetings for 2015! as I welcome you to JIBR’s inaugural issue of Volume 7. Consumers and business leaders are optimistic and more confident as we begin the year with hope in India. A business-friendly government, favourable regulatory environment, sharp drop in crude oil prices and low inflation rates are contributing to this optimism. They are also expected to boost the economy. The positive business climate and prospects for higher growth are energizing business leaders as well as researchers in India. This issue presents an assortment of research undertaken in India across a variety of contexts including online purchases, sports and Internet banking.
In the first article titled, “Price discount framings on product bundles with shipping surcharges […]”, Arvind Sahay et al. focus on models consumers adopt evaluating price frames of product bundles and discount offers. They evaluated two popular but competing models of price framing used by consumers to assess product bundles with discounts, namely, weighted-additive model and reference-dependent model. The research focused on how consumers process and react to different discounts and price frames in an online product bundle which includes shipping surcharge as a component. The research contributes to theory by providing some boundary conditions to existing theory and highlights the role of relative weight of components of a bundle on customer responses to different discount frames and bundle frames. In their research on low- and high-priced products, they found that discounts on shipping surcharge increased attractiveness of the bundle compared to a similar discount on the product or on the overall bundle. Thus they provide additional support for the reference-dependent model. They also found that bundling increased attractiveness for a low-priced product, while partitioning was more attractive for a high-priced product.
In the second article titled, “Organizational environments and adaptive response mechanisms […]”, Veena Vohra proposes a comprehensive conceptual model that maps adaptive responses of firms to different types of organizational environments ranging from simple to complex along a spectrum. Multiple case studies were utilized to capture business leaders’ perceptions of organizational environments and their causal texture. The study highlights and describes the characteristics of different organizational environment types in India. While most firms operate in a turbulent environment, they differ in their adaptive response mechanisms. The study describes the strategies adopted by leaders and firms to adapt to their turbulent business environment.
The advent of professional leagues in cricket, soccer, hockey, tennis and, even, kabaddi in recent years has seen the emergence of sports as a serious business in India. They are attracting crowds into the stadiums and viewers on television and online. Corporate sponsors, TV broadcast and digital marketing have helped scale many sports while boosting revenues. In such a scenario, Balaji and Rajdeep’s research titled, “Stadium Atmosphere: Scale Development and Validation […]”, is timely as stadium attendance contributes significantly towards teams’ earnings. A five-phase study involving qualitative and quantitative methods resulted in the development of a four-dimensional stadium atmosphere scale with 14 items. The dimensions include physical layout, facility aesthetics, entertainment experience and social interaction.
As the government’s national mission[#fn1] of financial inclusion, aimed at providing universal access to banking services, added an impressive 111 million account openings within five months after launch, it is important to understand consumers’ perspectives to ensure that many of these new consumers will continue to use banking services. In the final paper titled, “Consumer attitude and behavioural intention towards internet banking adoption in India”, Irfan Bashir and Chendragiri Madhavaiah study the determinants of customers’ attitude and intention to use Internet banking services. Their research, based on the technology adoption model (TAM), focuses on the role of perceived risk, trust, enjoyment, website design and social influence on consumer attitudes. This research will be useful in designing self -service technologies including Internet and mobile-based banking services to sustain low-cost access to banking in India.
I am sure you will enjoy reading our selection. I look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions for making JIBR’s research more impactful.
G. Shainesh - IIM Bangalore, Bangalore, India
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