Advances In Management

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Advances In Management






Vol. 2(3) March 2009

The relationship between Service Quality Dimensions and Customer Satisfaction in E-Tailing Environment: An Empirical Study on Online Travel and E-mart Retail

Kamble Sachin S.*, Sawhney Shweta and Bansal Ritika

This paper aims to identify online service quality dimensions that facilitate the customer satisfaction for the e-travel and e-mart online retail. Further, it evaluates how well these dimensions are being perceived by the customers so as to provide an objective measure of service performance. Two phase study was undertaken. The first phase included literature review and expert opinions to identify the service quality dimensions whereas the second phase involved collecting data from students on the identified dimensions and their overall satisfaction on the services. Ten e-service quality dimensions were identified and the extent to which current online retailers provided online service attributes were analyzed to be low or moderate on most of the dimensions for both the e-travel and e-mart service providers. The model tested for the relationship between the service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction was also found to be correlated at a low level.

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Issues in Adoption, Diffusion and Application of Broadband in Developing Countries

Pandey Neeraj L.M. Thapar

The usage of high speed broadband has increased multi-fold in the last few years, however, the usage and advantages of broadband have not been realised equally across the globe. The developing countries due to their unique socio-economic structure are yet to fully reap advantages of high speed broadband, which is going to revolutionise the way we learn, impart, discuss and process any information in our day-to-day life. The intensity and quality of life is going to be enhanced greatly in the developing countries if the challenges posed in diffusion and adoption of broadband is addressed properly. The low broadband penetration rates in developing countries require demand and supply side management, keeping in mind the easy accessibility and competitive pricing, as the twin underlying objectives in this endeavour.

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E-Retailing: An Introspection of Challenges of the Mouse

Pandey Chandra Akhilesh

The most critical issue in online retailing in India relates to the payment and the various security issues involved in it. Although, it makes the customer feel convenient in knowing whether the product is available or not at the time of purchase but it requires an effective arrangement of delivery of offer by the retailer. This paper deals with the challenges in the e-retailing industry in India and how innovators are constantly coming up with novel ideas to keep the customer interested. There are few entry barriers, but if not backed by a proper supply chain, the exit becomes inevitable. It also contrasts the brick and mortar retailing with the 'click and mortar' retailing. It arrives at a set of questions which every retailer must answer before venturing into the e-retailing space.This paper is an attempt to study the critical success factors which are prerequisite for the potential growth of e-retailing in India. This paper discusses about the present scenario of e-retailing in Indian market, then future of e-retailing in Indian rural market, comparison of e-retailing with respect to on store retailing which shows the impact of e-retailing on traditional but converting into modern market of India, various hurdles and then strategic concerns for the growth of e-retailing

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Effective Training Methodology to assess Individuals’ Work Initiatives

Jayashree V. 1* and Sheela Rani S. 2 1.

Training is a planned process to modify attitude, knowledge, skill and behavior through learning, to acquire effective performance in an activity or range of activities. The importance of training is felt when there is a gap between the present performance and the desired performance. The success of any training program depends on the degree of acceptance and internalization of the training concepts by the individuals. To achieve that, an effective training methodology that understands the motivations and work initiatives of the individual should to be devised in order to effect a change from the core within. This paper aims to analyze the importance of understanding the work initiatives of the individual and then introduce the training methods. The significance of using the Needs Assessment Model by I.L. Goldstein in understanding the needs and motivations of the individual is explained in length. This is followed by explaining how the individuals differ in their learning style. Learning style refers to an individual’s habitual and preferred way of perceiving, organizing and retaining knowledge. It explains individual differences for stimuli recognition and processing. This will help in devising training methodologies suited to the individual motivations and learning style.

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The Development of a Model to evaluate Online Trust

Hossein Miladian* and Nagendra Babu K.

Trust issue is developing into an important topic as the internet becomes increasingly ubiquitous within everyday life, although many discussions of online trust focus on salient factors influencing trust. To address this matter, we develop a conceptual model that links consumer perceptions of web site characteristics and consumer characteristics to perceptions of trust in a web site, and links online trust to behavioral intent related to a web site. We estimate this model in a large-scale empirical study using data from 1231 consumers across 23 web sites from seven web site categories. The results show that there is significant heterogeneity across web site categories and among consumers with regard to the influential web site and consumer characteristics driving online trust. Privacy and order fulfillment are the most influential determinants of trust for web sites where both information risk and involvement are high, such as travel Web sites. Navigation is strongest for information-intensive Web sites such as portals and community sites. Brand strength is critical for categories with high involvement such as automobile and financial service sites, and advice is the most powerful determinant to search good categories with high financial risk such as computer sites.

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“Brand Shifting” – UTI to AXIS

Raghu kumari P.S

In today’s competitive era of business, “Brand Name” proves to be one of the biggest assets of a company. UTI along with HDFC, ICICI and IDBI are excellent banks of India well known for professional and friendly services. Gaining competitive edge over the other companies is always of premium importance for the growth and sustainability of any organization. UTI is no exception to this global trend. It aims at creating new perception and fresh look among its stakeholders by changing its name to “AXIS”. Shifting brand name requires a lot of effort and study as it requires worldwide acceptance. The present paper makes an attempt to study the renaming exercise of UTI from the perception level of customers.

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Marketing Initiatives by a Branch Manager

Bapat Dhananjay

Mr.Singh joined as a probationary officer in the year 2000 in a Public Sector Bank. He started his career as Assistant Branch Manager in a branch at Goa. In one of the meeting held at the bank in the year 2003, he expressed his feelings with his superiors that he did not enjoy working. He claimed that there is better way of managing a branch. His superior suggested him to take up a challenge as a branch manager in another branch in Goa region. Mr. Singh accepted to take charge as a branch manager in Pilar branch which was a rural branch

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Shopping Habits and Influence of Store Attributes on Apparel Store Patronage Intention

Sandhya A. S.* and Peeru Mohamed H.

This study explores the shopping habits and the influence of store attributes on patronage behaviour of apparel shoppers. Factor analysis of 13 store attributes resulted in three latent dimensions intuitively labeled Customer Friendliness and Service dimension, Store Image dimension and Convenience dimension. The multiple regression result showed significant influence of customer friendliness and service and store image dimensions, but the effect of convenience dimension was not significant on patronage intention. Association between customer importance for dimensions of store attributes and their demographic characteristics were observed. The result shows that for customer friendliness and service dimension, differences were found across age group, gender, education levels, occupation and family size of the respondents. For store image dimension ,the differences were found across age, gender and marital status of the respondents. However for convenience dimension, difference was found across age, number of earning members in the family, educational levels, marital status and family size of the respondents

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An Asset Management Model for Indian Railways Safety

Selwyn Ruby and Thangavel N.

Railway Safety is an organization that coordinates the activities of the fragmented railway industry in India with respect to safety. This paper describes the Asset Management model which is one of a suite of tools developed in recent years to improve the targeting of the industry’s efforts in safety improvement in an impartial and scientifically supportable manner. The model uses fault tree analysis and cause/ consequence techniques to predict residual levels of safety risk, after the industry’s current safety control measures are applied, using observed safety performance data. The model can also be used to test the effect of proposed new controls on risk levels. The research is aimed at suggesting an asset management model for the Indian Railway safety. Asset management approaches may allow Indian Railways to allocate spending on rail safety to maximum economic effect. Asset management here means a holistic, systematic and optimal way of managing assets to achieve desired outcomes in a sustainable way. This research and discussions with rail stakeholders suggest that such an asset management model does not exist either for any rail system. Investigating suitable asset management models, the work was unable to find a truly strategic model either from other sectors or a generic model capable of being applied to rail. The research suggests that a strategic gap exists.

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