May'22

Articles

Dimensions of Service Quality of Cab Aggregators from the Perspective of Passengers: A Review
Garima Arora and Ashok Kumar

Several empirical studies have sought to measure the dimensions of service quality of cab aggregators from the perspective of passengers. While many studies have tried to group the items into SERVQUAL scale, a few studies include dimensions related to both traditional cab service quality and service quality of mobile apps to give a holistic picture. Further, most of the studies employ CFA and/or EFA to identify the dimensions. Nonprobability sampling techniques (convenience and purposive sampling) have been used in almost all the previous studies. The paper highlights the lack of consensus among researchers pertaining to these dimensions, thus suggesting the need for further research to refine the measurement criteria of service quality of cab aggregators. FullArticle...


© 2022 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Factors Affecting Fitness Motivation: An Exploratory Mixed Method Study
Abdul Wahid Khan, Anisha Kumari, Subhankar Mandal and Shivali Bhardwaj

Obesity, an increasing concern worldwide, has made consumers more health-conscious. They are shifting towards regulating their food choices to limit calorie intake or engaging in physical exercises to burn calories. Though many studies have focused on food marketing and consumption choices, few studies have focused on consumers' physical fitness behavior, especially on consumer motivation for fitness activities. This paper aims to explore the factors that motivate consumers towards fitness activities. The study applied the sequential mixed methods approach. First, 10 qualitative in-depth interviews revealed 33 items of consumer motivation to be used for the survey. Second, a quantitative survey of 113 participants and Exploratory Factor Analysis were conducted. It was found that six factors consisting of 25 items with high reliability (a > 0.8) motivate consumers towards fitness activities: individual positive outcomes, social benefits and acceptability, reference group influence, self-motivation, concern about physical appearance, and disease avoidance. The study explores novel motivating factors for consumer fitness activities and contributes to the growing literature on consumer fitness and wellbeing. FullArticle...


© 2022 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Post-Purchase Dissonance Among Laptop Consumers in India
Ranjith Somasundaran Chakkambath, Ansted Iype Joseph, Rekha Maitra and Joel Sam Jacob

Brands need to focus on the entire customer journey and deliver excellent experiences to delight customers. Post-purchase experiences are critical to the success of a brand in today's marketplace. This holds true especially in the case of consumer electronics products. This study investigates the post-purchase satisfaction and dissonance of 308 laptop buyers in India. 'Basic functions and features', 'pricing and post-purchase experience', 'product design', 'pre-loaded software and durability', 'video and audio capabilities', 'gaming capability' and 'battery life and connectivity' were found to influence the satisfaction of buyers. Post-purchase dissonance was found to comprise three factors: 'emotional state', 'self-assurance' and 'deal concerns'. A key finding of the study is that online buyers had significantly lower values across all three factors of dissonance. The study provides insights for retailers and brands to understand the post-purchase satisfaction and dissonance of laptop buyers. FullArticle...


© 2022 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Gender Role Portrayals in Indian Television and YouTube Video Advertisements
Ajeet Sharma

Two content analysis studies on gender role portrayals are reported in this paper. In the first, 987 television ads broadcast on top-ten all-India channels from 2016 to 2019 were analyzed. In the second, 397 most watched YouTube video ads in the same period were analyzed. Chi-square test results of these studies indicated that eight out of nine variables, i.e., all except credibility, showed either stereotyping or partial stereotyping in case of television ads; and six out of nine variables, i.e., all except age, arguments, and credibility, showed either stereotyping or partial stereotyping in case of YouTube video ads. The fact that television ads have greater gender role stereotyping than YouTube video ads is discussed, and implications are drawn for the benefit of advertisers in India. FullArticle...


© 2022 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Investigating the Influence of Selected Factors on Online Shopping Behavior of Customers
Anmol Sharma and Manjit Kour

Online shopping is the new norm in consumer buying pattern nowadays, and India has evolved as a lucrative e-commerce market for all types of products and services. With the growing popularity of Internet platforms and boom in e-commerce websites, it is pertinent to know the factors that affect the online shopping behavior of consumers. The main objective of this study is to identify the factors affecting the online shopping behavior of consumers in Northern India. The study employed a descriptive research design and conducted a survey using a questionnaire to obtain data from 500 respondents from the most populated cities of Punjab in Northern India. Factor analysis and Regression analysis were used to identify these factors: Product Variety, Usage Riskiness, Avoiding Social Interaction, Immediate Gratification, and Buying Unobserved. The study found that Immediate Gratification is the main factor that influences consumers' online buying behavior. The results of the study can be useful to the industry in designing appropriate strategies for targeting customers on online platforms. FullArticle...


© 2022 IUP. All Rights Reserved.