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Building Consumer Demand by using Viral Marketing Tactics within an Online Social Network

Oren Gil-Or

Online social networks in general and Facebook, as the biggest network, in particular, became a very attractive platform for many companies in the last couple of years. Most companies are using today traditional push strategies in order to distribute their advertisement messages to the social networkers. These approaches are not very successful as the networkers perceive the social network space to be vendor-free.The use of viral marketing and electronic word of mouth is the main strength of the social networks as members are connected to each other in a way that increase the trustworthiness of the messages that are transferred among friends. In this paper, an experiment of the usage of viral marketing in Facebook was used in order to analyze the possibility of generating demand using this approach. The experiment included a promotion of a restaurant group page to a pre-defined group of 20 Facebook users and measurement of the development of this group within a month after the initial promotion. The results indicated a very strong virality of the message that was mostly reactively distributed between the Facebook members and as a result generated 80 members to the restaurant group with a tree that was seven-levels deep.

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The Growth of Indian Retail Industry

Dhivya Sathish and Venkatrama Raju D.

Retailing in a layman’s language involves the procurement of varied products in large quantities from various sources/producers and their sales in small lot for direct consumption to the purchaser. The retail sector in India is witnessing a huge revamping exercise as traditional markets make way for new formats such as departmental stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets and specialty stores. Western-style malls have begun appearing in metros and second-rung cities alike introducing the Indian consumer to a shopping experience like never before. The sector is at an inflexion point where the growth of organized retailing and growth in the consumption by the Indian population will take a higher growth trajectory. In addition, few other formats such as rural retailing, E-retailing, luxury retailing etc. too have found favors with the Indian retailers. In India, retail is the new buzzword. The need of the hour for Indian retailers is to develop systems and processes keeping the unique nature of the country in mind. In the retail trade, change is the only constant; survival in retail will depend on the ability to adapt to change.

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Measuring Determinants of E-Commerce Readiness and their Effects on Buying Intention for Online Purchase Decisions

Bhasker Bharat and Bhattacharya Abhijit

User familiarity, comfort, product reputation, security and privacy are believed to affect consumer e-commerce readiness and online buying intentions. An experiment was conducted using the survey instrument designed to determine the relative influence of each of these variable. A model was also formulated to test the relationships among the variables. The results of the research are discussed in light of their managerial and public policy implications.

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Entrepreneurial Intentions of Business Students in Finland: Implications for Education

Drost Ellen A.

This study tests four antecedents of Finnish business students’ intent to engage in entrepreneurship. All four antecedents, namely, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship experience, proactive personality and entrepreneurial self-efficacy predicted entrepreneurial intent. Additionally, entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediated the relationship between entrepreneurship education, educational experience, pro-active personality and entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

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Leadership Attribute among Women Employees

Shankar Padma

Heightened competition world wide has raised the performance expectation of organization which women still find it difficult to meet. Women have equal access to higher education but are not treated equally in comparison to their male counterparts while climbing the corporate ladder. Their biological differences, family culture and belief are the limiting factors. There are also many stereotype beliefs which are hindering women from breaking the glass ceiling. For women struggle at work and home seems to occupy her entire life. Despite achieving many historic achievements by women, these hold little promise for the women in their long standing battle for economic quality. This study aims to understand the hindrances perceived by women themselves with regard to their management capabilities. This study also attempts to test whether the perception of women about their leadership capabilities are dependent on their age, social status and their education.

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Impact of Share Buy-Back Announcements on Stock Prices: Evidence from India

Kaur Karamjeet and Singh Balwinder

This paper analyses the market reaction to the share buy-back announcements of companies listed on BSE for the year 1999-2004 by employing event study methodology with Sensex as the market index. The results find that market reacts positively to the buy-backs. Further, abnormal returns are tested for information signaling, free cash flow and leverage hypotheses. Results reveal that only leverage and under-valuation hypotheses are found valid whereas signaling and free cash flow hypotheses are rejected. Thus, share buy-backs are emerging as a tool of capital restructuring as well as dividend policy decision.

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Impact of Intellectual Capital on Firm Value: A Panel Data Analysis of Indian IT Firms

Murale V. and Ashrafali

Human capital of a firm may be viewed as consisting of highly skilled, creative, motivated, collaborative and knowledgeable people who understand the dynamic business environmental context and the competitive logic of their enterprise and the critical requirements thereof. They understand and realize their own broad role and responsibility for the vision, values and competitive viability of their organization. For this purpose, they continually learn, develop, share, integrate and use their knowledge both individually and collaboratively to cultivate enterprise competencies/ capabilities, innovation, expertise and speedy business processes in a proactive manner. They are focused on the success of their enterprise in facing the challenges of both today and tomorrow.

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A Conceptual Framework for Crisis Planning and Management in the Jordanian Tourism Industry

Salem Hyasat Ali and Alhammad Fawwaz Ali

Recently, crisis management in the tourism industry seems to have received more attention in the generic fields of management and crisis management. There are a few studies exploring how managers and policy makers in the tourism industry can manage and deal with crises or disasters and what precautions can be taken before, during and after crises. However, those studies which have been undertaken have, in the main, used survey method to explore negative impacts. They have not presented the opinions of managers and policy makers about how crises in general and political crises in particular, influence destination image and what are the relationship between crises and the tourism industry. This restricts the kind of insights that can be gleaned and is problematic given the differing interpretations of the negative impact of crises upon the tourism industry. Drawing upon qualitative research work (namely in-depth interviews), this study utilizes a descriptive case study approach to build up a rich picture of the impact of crises upon the tourism industry. The study depicts how managers and policy makers in the tourism industry understand and interpret the impact of crises in their industry and how, based upon their understanding and interpretation of crises management, a strategic approach to crises planning and management has emerged.

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