The Taxonomy of Methodological Approaches in Marketing Research

The methodological approach used in any research decides the nature of knowledge the research is creating. Understanding the cardinal importance of methodological approach used in any research, this article attempts to review some of the research papers in ‘Marketing' domain and analyses the same with respect to methodological approaches. Based on the critical assessment of these papers, the article further draws some conclusions regarding how ‘Marketing' domain has been evolved with respect to research methodologies. Literature gaps are identified. One of the major challenges for management research is that the theories or frameworks proposed by researchers in management discipline are not implemented actually in practice. As a result, there is a huge gap between academic research and industry. This article tries to propose a solution to this problem by suggesting that marketing research should focus on systems approach in addition to other approaches. Conclusions are drawn based on the analysis. The limitations of the present study are also discussed.

Offer Attractiveness, Decision Conflict, and Consumer Response

Consumer responses to attractive offers, both in terms of consumer satisfaction with the decision process and in terms of subsequent store choice behavior, have been analyzed in this paper through a factorial analysis process, conducted in Mexico in reference to consumer choice and decision satisfaction variables. The results suggest that consumer response to attractive offer is driven to a large extent by two factors: the effect of a discount sale on the available options of goods and the degree of store loyalty. Overall, the discussion of results of the four studies presented in the paper demonstrates that consumer response to clearance sales, both in terms of decision satisfaction levels and attractiveness of retails stores, are strongly influenced by the variables of price sensitivity, attractiveness of products, loyalty and perceived value on available brands.

Leadership Paradigm Affecting SGA to Drive Organizational Performance

Leadership is one of the concepts that have been widely discussed by scholars and practitioners. In the pursuit of desired organizational performance, determined managers around the world have been persistently working towards the most effective style of leadership that may ensure success. A manager's leadership style, be it Democratic, Bureaucratic, or Autocratic, is essential and significantly responsible for collaborators' strategic goal achievement (SGA) or lack thereof; furthermore, collaborators' SGA has a direct impact on the organization's performance. The evaluation of individual performance based on strategic goal achievement commonly includes positive and/or negative reinforcement systems; in organizations operating in Mexico, these systems include recognition and rewards for strategic goal achievement and reprimand and public shaming for completion failure. It is the leaders' response to the effectiveness of strategic goal achievement that shapes collaborators' perceptions of leadership proficiency, satisfaction, and overall performance.

Analyzing Start-Up Enterprise Eco-System and Convergence of Global-Local Endeavors

Most young entrepreneurs today emerge with innovative ideas and want to work in start-up enterprises and later look forward to the commercial success of such enterprises. However, most entrepreneurs begin working at a startup and face complexities and uncertainties in managing project. This chapter examines the current trend in innovative projects and start-up management, and discusses various managerial skills to run a start-up enterprise. Most startups function under individual leadership environment, and employees are accountable for the success of the project. The work dynamics, project appraisal, and strategic moves that are required for the success of start-up enterprises are discussed in this chapter with focus on local-global business convergence perspectives.

Challenges and Opportunities in Urban Farming

In the rapid growing urbanization, especially in the metros, it is not sure that it really leads to development of the society nor becoming a threat to it. The urbanization leads to shrinkage of the fertile and farming lands to concrete monuments for human to work in an artificial atmosphere. The vertical urbanization is very common in the cities than horizontal, due to shortage of lands. This leads to the vital resources of food and vegetables in scarce for the drastically overflowing population, ends up in fast foods and packed foods culture, that is far from organic foods, which is a clear path towards obesity, diabetes and high rate of heart disease among the youth. This study is an initiative to bring out the feasibility of urban farming that struggles to strengthen its roots in our nation. The research focuses on the challenges and opportunities of urban farming in the society. The outcomes shall bring out societal views on urban farming and the suggest ways to overcome the hindrances and facilitate the people towards utilizing the opportunities of urban farming with its benefits and ‘Let the City Grow Green', which is the way to enrich health for their present and future generations.

Innovation in Public Systems

The purpose of this paper is to establish Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as an effective approach for collecting, analyzing, and translating valuable customer information into managerial action for examining fast track legal systems i.e., Online Public Grievance Redressal System (OPGRS) in the Indian context. This e-government initiative is based on the government's long term strategic policy that aims to innovatively reform the Indian Judicial System. So far, the potential of CRM has been investigated only in the context of existing products/ services. CRM's potential to aid in future New Service Development (NSD) has been under studied. Current research model is based on Resource Advantage (R-A) theory and includes the constructs such as CRM process, CRM technology, New Service Development, system efficiency, performance expectancy and effort expectancy under one umbrella. It measures CRM Process under the dimensions of; innovation management, value management and multiple channel management. This model has been tested based on applications filed at multi source complaint depository consisting of 173 applicants from diverse case backgrounds. The empirical outcome provides the positive significant relationships for all 5 hypotheses established using nine (9) constructs. The results provide evidence that CRM has a positive effect on new service performance.

A Measure of E-Service Quality for Banks

Evidence exists that delivering superior e-service quality is a vital strategy to success. With the growth in businesses offering internet-based transactions, measuring e-service quality becomes an imperative subject to understand what customers expect and perceive in online banking transactions. It recognizes customers' priority and enhances the long-term relationship with them. This study proposes a conceptual model for measuring internet banking service quality and concentrates on evaluating customers' perceptions and their attitude. For empirical estimation, the data was collected from customers who regularly use online banking facilities. Respondents were asked to fill the standardized questionnaire based on their experience with the online services provided by their banks. The results of this study may help the banks to understand the customers' attitude, which may assist to maintain and improve the service delivery.

Moderating Effect of Demographic Variables on the Relationship Between Personality Traits and Financial Risk Tolerance

This paper explores the relationship between financial risk tolerance and its determinant – the personality traits of retail investors. This paper also explores the moderating effect of major demographic variables like gender, age and income on the relationship between financial risk tolerance personality traits of retail investors. Stepwise multiple regression analysis and Hierarchical regression analysis was used to identify patterns in the data obtained from 261 respondents. The Stepwise multiple regression analysis established a negative association of Conscientiousness with financial risk tolerance of retail investors. The hierarchical regression analysis suggested a major impact of conscientiousness on financial risk tolerance among young Indian investors.

Relationship Lending and Entrepreneurial Behavior

Using a game theory approach to model the behavior of entrepreneurs and banks, I develop a new theoretical model supporting the idea that when a relationship is weak and is not considered in economic transactions, thereby causing a bank to disregard a small business entrepreneur's actions, both economic agents (i.e., the bank and the entrepreneur) will lose economic rents. On the other hand, when a relationship is strong and an entrepreneur's actions are observed, the resulting economic rents will be such that each party will be better off building a relationship than not building it. A major contribution of this theoretical model is the introduction of a relationship index (new to the relationship lending literature) that measures the speed of building relationships between banks and small business entrepreneurs and the limit of these relationships. The index is easy to understand because it reveals information about the degree of the relationship (considering speed and limit) between a bank and a small business entrepreneur.

Deriving Psychodynamics Among Consumers Through Social Media

Despite an increasing interest in understanding consumer behaviour through social media, there is paucity of research concerning psychodynamics among consumers derived by online social networks in emerging economies. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of vloggers (video bloggers) as key network performers to derive consumer psychodynamics (consumers' interactions reflected in a company) through social media, specifically YouTube, through the lens of the experiential view and the Social Network Theory. This work will contribute to the extant literature by determining (1) the relevance of the experiential view approach in online social networks' performance, (2) how psychodynamics among consumers are conducted through social media, specifically YouTube, and (3) how key network performers as YouTube's vloggers derive psychodynamics among consumers. Using an inductive approach and grounded theory to analyse the results, the research findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of online consumer behaviour, therefore, yields more valuable information by examining the experiential view in a digital environment.