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The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the need for holistic geriatric health care in rural India. Many older people in Indian villages suffer from chronic ailments without any relief or intervention because of inaccessible and unaffordable health-care services. This paper explores how holistic health care can be assured for older people in Indian villages.

This paper is based on reflections of the authors who have had experiences as caregivers to older persons within their respective families rooted in the Indian villages. Besides, they interacted with 30 older persons (18 males and 12 females in the age group of 60–80 years) living in the villages in three states of India, namely, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to develop a comprehensive viewpoint on the need of geriatric health care in rural India. Relevant reports, newspaper articles and research papers were also reviewed while developing viewpoints on such an important topic.

Geriatric health-care facilities in rural India are abysmal. The older people in the villages cannot leverage health-care facilities that are generally inaccessible, inadequate and unaffordable. Even the government support for medical treatment is minuscule. Furthermore, there is lack of trained health-care professionals at all levels, namely, doctors, nurses and paramedic personnel. Training opportunities in geriatrics are also negligible. The scenario vis-à-vis geriatric health care in rural India can be upturned by increasing public spending on health-care infrastructure, increasing numbers of health-care professionals and expanding training programmes in geriatrics.

This paper is based on the critical reflections of the authors as well as their informal interactions with some of the older people in the Indian villages.

This paper aims to examine the level of awareness and determinants of the actual adoption of fintech services. This paper further focuses on how usages of different kind of fintech services fulfills the business needs of the micro-entrepreneurs of urban slum dwellers of Uttarakhand.

The research investigated the predictive significance of actual adoption of fintech services using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and prospect theory framework. Data was collected from 80 micro-entrepreneurs of urban slum areas of Uttarakhand, using an adapted semi-structured questionnaire. For analysis of data partial least square structural equal modeling has been used.

This paper finds that different fintech services have different levels of awareness whereas payment, regulation and market provision-related fintech services have high awareness. The main drivers for adopting fintech are services trust (ST) and behavioral intention (BI). BI significantly influences fintech adoption, while ST positively impacts BI, actual usage and facilitating conditions; perceived risk, however, negatively affects ST. The widely used fintech services are payment-based fintech (unified payments interface), followed by regulatory fintech (Khatabook app). Fintech effectively serves the business needs of micro-entrepreneurs in the urban slums of Uttarakhand with innovative product solutions.

The findings of this study are valuable for various fintech providers. These results can serve as a roadmap to strengthen fintech services in the broader population, including niche market segments.

This study uniquely contributes to the literature that addresses the issues of entrepreneurs of the lower strata of society through the use of fintech services.

Influencer marketing is a widely used digital marketing strategy. Marketers consider follower count as one of the key criteria when deciding promotion strategies using influencers. However, past studies have primarily studied the impact of follower count on engagement, reach and purchase-related outcomes. The effect of follower count on price perception has not been studied. This research employs the signaling theory to examine how an influencer’s follower count impacts the price perception of the product they endorse. Perceived competence and status explain this effect. Lastly, we elucidate the boundary condition for this effect through thinking styles.

We conducted three experimental studies (N = 460) to empirically test our theorization, employing different product categories and respondents from the USA and India.

The findings suggest that consumers are likely to perceive products promoted by mega (vs micro) influencers as more (vs less) expensive. The perceived competence and status serially mediate the relationship between influencer type and price perception. Thinking style moderates the hypothesized effect.

Given the growth in influencer marketing and its impact, this study has important implications. The findings suggest that marketers need to exercise caution and be conscious of the impact of social media influencers on their product perceptions.

This is possibly the first research study to investigate the effect of the types of influencers on consumers’ perception of price. We not only demonstrate the effect but also explain the process. The research advances the influencer marketing literature by understanding consumers’ perceptions from a pricing perspective.

Blockchain technology, renowned for its decentralization, security, reliability, and data integrity, has the potential to revolutionize businesses globally. However, its full potential remains unrealized due to adoption barriers, necessitating further studies to address these challenges. Identifying these barriers is crucial for businesses and practitioners to effectively tackle them. This systematic review analyzed 70 eligible studies out of 1944 gathered from various databases to understand and identify common blockchain adoption barriers. The Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework was the most popular theory used in these studies. Despite differences in variable definitions, financial constraints, lack of stakeholder collaboration and coordination, and social influences like resistance to change and negative perceptions emerged as the top three barriers. The supply chain domain had the highest number of studies on blockchain adoption. Notably, there was a significant increase in studies addressing blockchain adoption in 2023, comprising 34.2% of the total reviewed studies. This review provides a comprehensive overview of identified barriers, serving as a valuable foundation for future research. Understanding these challenges allows researchers to design targeted studies aimed at developing solutions, strategies, and innovations to overcome obstacles hindering blockchain adoption.