Browsing by Author "Rani, Leela"

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11

A classificatory scheme for antecedents of the sources of “online brand equity”
(Emerald, 2015-10) Bhat, Anil Kumar; Rani, Leela
The purpose of the paper is to systematically review and summarize the literature addressing various sources of online brand equity. The evolution of social media, online forums and virtual communities drive the diversity in nomenclature of online marketing variables. Different researchers have used different marketing variables to indicate the same source of online brand equity. The definitions of the marketing variables change with the change in context, due to the complex e-commerce environment. The marketing variables used in different studies have lead to a conceptual overlap and repetitiveness.
The Cognitive Structure of Online Brand Choice: An Exploratory Study
(Springer, 2019-04) Rani, Leela; Bhat, Anil Kumar
This paper attempts to explore the underlying cognitive structure of online brand choice. Building brand equity is a multistep process that starts with creating brand awareness, developing cues to form strong brand association among consumers, adding value to create better perceived quality, and ultimately making customers loyal to the brand. Building online brand equity follows a similar sequence of steps. In this regard, understanding the consumer behavior and underlying cognitive perceptions is crucial. A consumer may follow different combinations of simple rules while making a purchase or choosing specific brands. In this paper, multidimensional scaling approach is used to determine the underlying cognitive structure of any brand choice. Online retailer brands and travel website brands are taken into consideration. A survey has been conducted to capture the perception of online consumers and analyzed using SPSS. The identified underlying dimensions for online retailers and travel websites are studied and their latent similarities and dissimilarities observed. An overarching consumer cognitive perception framework is then proposed.
Consumer reactions to retail out-of-stock: replication into new contexts
(Inder Science, 2008-04) Rani, Leela
This study empirically examines the impact of situational, consumer, store and product characteristic variables on consumers' behavioural reactions in out-of-stock situations in retail. A survey method for data collection was used with a sample of 1,207 retail customers in India's unorganised retail sector across five product categories in Varanasi, India. Results showed that 11 out of 13 independent variables had a significant impact on at least one of the three behavioural responses considered. As the data was collected only for five product categories and for unorganised retail setting, findings are not generalisable beyond these limitations. Empirical research like this helps to develop an understanding about the consumer behaviour which differs widely across settings. It is one of the first studies in an unorganised retail in India. Study provides crucial insights to the retailers by identifying independent variables that must be considered while designing their operations and strategies to fight out-of-stock. Implications for the retailers and the future research are discussed.
Drivers of Sustainability Practices and SMEs: A Systematic Literature Review
(European Journal of Sustainable Development, 2018) Rani, Leela; Yadav, Neetu
Formal SMEs contribute up to 60% of total employment and up to 40% of GDP in emerging economies (World Bank, 2015). Globalization council (2009) study reveals that SMEs have more flexibility than MNCs to easily adapt and change to meet important environmental & social targets. Thus, with the right strategy, SMEs can offer both economic prosperity and environmental protection. This raises an important question as to what drives SMEs to consider sustainability in their practices? The article aims at presenting a comprehensive list of numerous drivers identified globally by various researchers using the research technique of systematic literature review. The study intends to contribute to the knowledge base by providing comprehensive state-of-the-art views and findings in the area sustainability practices and their drivers particularly in the context of SMEs.
E-Marketing Mix Variables to Create Online Brand Equity in the Indian Context
(IGI Global, 2022) Bhat, Anil Kumar; Rani, Leela
This paper is an attempt to investigate and empirically validate e-marketing mix framework creating online brand equity suitable for adaptation in the Indian context. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis are used to identify and validate the e-marketing mix variables to create online brand equity. Primary product and service offerings, website content, customer care and relationship, website interactivity, website's security and reliability, and website speed are the six e-marketing mix elements identified. Also, a conceptual categorization is used to propose and develop a typology that classifies these six variables into primary and secondary activities. The identified e-marketing mix variables will be an insightful aid to planning various marketing activities and controlling other outcome variables like online satisfaction, e-loyalty, online brand equity, etc. This is one of the first attempts to propose and verify e-marketing mix variables for a developing economy like India and classify them under a generic parsimonious dimensional framework for e-commerce.
Environmentally Sustainable Consumption : A Review and Agenda for Future Research
(Research India Publications, 2014) Rani, Leela
The term ‘Sustainable development’ entered the development discourse in early 1970s and it was legitimized following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, which was held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil in 1972. The underlying idea which laid the foundation for defining what sustainability means arose at United Nations Conference on Human environment, Sweden, in 1992. Sustainability refers to economic, social and environmental dimension. Environmental sustainability is about making responsible decisions that will reduce negative impact on the natural environment. Researchers have become increasingly interested in understanding environmentally sustainable consumption of customers and this topic is being studied in many countries. This paper will provide an exhaustive review of the literature available on environmental sustainable consumption. First section of the paper describes and highlights the historical development of sustainability and in the second section of the study leading journals are considered and a review of literature is presented. It is thus an attempt to provide a future research direction of sustainable consumption in marketing
Environmentally sustainable consumption awareness among children: an empirical study
(Inder Science, 2020) Rani, Leela
Rising environmental deterioration and consequent environmental concern led to emergence of sustainability. Sustainable consumption behaviour encompasses all stages of traditional consumption {purchase, use and dispose off}, was redefined and reconceptualise to arrive at new frameworks of sustainable consumption. Within this frame work the role of education to create awareness and understanding has been widely acknowledged. With this backdrop, current study was designed to investigate awareness level of ESCB among primary school children. The current study investigates if the demographic variables have any influence on ESCB awareness. Results showed that at an overall level both gender and type of school had significant correlation with ESCB awareness levels. Gender and school type did not have significant correlation with reuse. This study has important implications for marketers, school authorities and education policymakers who can use the framework for in-depth investigation across the four phases of sustainable consumption process applicable to school children.
Impact of Out-of-stock Situations in Retail Store on Consumer’s Attitude about the Retail Store
(BITS, Pilani, 2007-08) Rani, Leela
Social Learning Tools for Environmentally Sustainable Consumption Behavior in Primary Schools
(European Journal of Sustainable Development, 2012-02) Rani, Leela
UN’s Millennium Development Goals declared in 2010 stated sustainable consumption’s importance in ensuring environmental sustainability. Given the roles education, children and social learning process are expected to play in sustainability, this study aims to identify tools for active & passive social learning (SL) perceived by teachers (involved in delivering environmental education) as appropriate & effective for primary school children (chiefly focusing on environmentally sustainable consumption behavior{ESCB}). Study’s largely exploratory nature with a limited sample from Bhiwadi (India) was aimed at setting framework rather than generalization of results. Apart from interviewing fifty respondents from government and private schools with a semi-structured questionnaire (16 SL tools across 16 ESCBs), SL tools were also identified from text books. Data on was put through qualitative and quantitative analysis. Results showed that patterns in teachers’ preferences for SL tools were similar across school types but preferences only partly matched with recommendations from text books and/or research literature. Teachers’ qualitative statements for opportunities, constraints and opinions add to study’s strength. Findings hold useful implications for sustainability educators who aim to prod and inspire young minds for a sustainable environment. Insights would guide educationists to evolve effective SL tools for classroom experience.
A Study of Children's Influence on Environmentally Sustainable Consumption Decisions in Household
(Indianjournals, 2014) Rani, Leela
This study aims to understand children's (in the age group of 6 to 10 years) influence on Environmentally Sustainable Consumption Decisions (ESCD). The data was collected from 120 respondents consisting of children and their parents. The scope of study was extended to 10 product categories and across three decision-making stages of sustainable consumption. Quantitative analysis was conducted on data collected through a 33-item questionnaire. The results show that children do exercise influence on environmentally sustainable consumption of certain product types. These findings help marketer to gain at better understanding of the influence of children's power on environmentally sustainable consumption decisions (ESCD)so that they can better design their market actions. This exploratory study demonstrates that children and parents both perceive children's influence on environmentally sustainable consumption decision for various product categories.
Understanding consumer’s attitude towards retail store in stockout situations
(Emerald, 2007) Rani, Leela
This study aims to examine empirically how consumers’ attitude towards retail stores gets affected by situational, consumer, store and product characteristic variables when they face outof-stock situations.