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The purpose of this paper is to examine organisational learning as a mediator among small-scale manufacturing enterprises (S-SMEs) which comprise the majority of economic activity in an emergent/developing economy. This study offers further understanding regarding the mediating role of organisational learning in developing world economies, due to its potential regional influence.

A cross-sectional survey of Indian S-SMEs was undertaken from the District Industrial Center. The study employed a systematic sampling technique to contact owner/managers. Overall, 204 S-SMEs owners/managers participated in the study and 192 usable survey instruments were received.

The study offers novel insights to the following questions. First, the factors that prompt entrepreneurial orientation to achieve superior business performance, i.e. the antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation? The results reveal competitor orientation is an antecedent of entrepreneurial orientation that leads to an S-SME’s business performance. Second, the outcomes of entrepreneurial orientation, i.e. the consequences of entrepreneurial orientation? The study reveals organisational learning and business performance are the corollary of entrepreneurial orientation. Third, the examination of whether organisational learning mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance? The findings found the effects of entrepreneurial orientation on business performance are, in part, mediated by organisational learning.

Three study limitations are recognised. First, other strategic orientations, including technology orientation, production orientation and selling orientation are not included. Second, other constructs have a potentially significant relationship with market and entrepreneurial orientation, such as organisational capabilities, innovation and social context, were not considered. Third, the study is industry-sector specific and does not consider alternative sectors which also may play a potential role in economic development.

This study enhances the existing S-SME literature by identifying factors contributing to entrepreneurial orientation and its repercussions on business performance. For S-SMEs it adds credence to the role played by organisational learning in mediating the link between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance which potentially encourages owner/managers to dedicate increased time and resources towards creating and maintaining a conducive learning environment. The results support entrepreneurs in acknowledging the importance of competitor orientation during the emergence and development of entrepreneurial orientation, specifically in emerging economy contexts.

India’s retail sector is going through a significant transitional period with the internet as a new distribution channel becoming more common. Given the barriers to adoption, the purpose of this paper is to understand the role played by trusting beliefs when engaging with an online retailer. In the Indian market, online vending is expected to increase at a rate of 35 per cent per annum, and by understanding trusting beliefs retailers will be able to develop their market share by developing appropriate and/or innovative strategies.

The work is based on a sample of more than 200 internet customers in India. In understanding the data and the relationships that emerged from the modelling, the authors used a range of tools to analyse the data, including CFA and structural equation modelling. The authors also used descriptive statistics to provide a holistic overview of response profiles.

The study reveals that trusting beliefs are negatively influenced by an uncertainty avoidance culture and positively influenced by a firm’s image and a customer’s price awareness. Moreover, purchase intentions (PIs) are significantly enhanced by trusting beliefs in an online environment. Hence, it leads us to conclude that PIs can be augmented by facilitating and ensuring good quality service by placing special emphasis on timeliness, accuracy and conditions of the order, security and privacy paradigms, aftersales services, etc.

As can be seen, the internet is an emergent tool for retailers in India. By understanding trusting beliefs, retailers will be able to better understand customers’ behaviour and thus design management strategies accordingly. Although this is likely to take more than a decade, as internet retailing becomes embedded it may have a detrimental effect on the historical channel to market, thus altering the country’s retail landscape which is currently dominated by small retailers.

The work’s findings are insightful for those seeking to maximize the opportunities presented by the internet as a channel to market. The works shows how the channel is influenced and thus how it can be managed. In making the contribution the authors provide guidance in terms of operational activity to engage with potential customers.

This paper examines trusting beliefs when using the internet as a channel to market and in doing so it makes a new contribution because it establishes links with culture and other factors. For the research venue the authors use a developing market and therefore the findings are applicable to markets with similar characteristics.

This study investigates the role of personal resource (i.e. psychological empowerment) in reducing the negative impact of emotional exhaustion of frontline employees on their engagement. It also examines the moderating effects of ethical climate and transformational leadership in mitigating the negative influence of emotional exhaustion on engagement among frontline service employees (FLEs).

Data were collected from 671 frontline employees from financial services sector. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical regression analysis (HRA) were used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Results show that the impact of emotional exhaustion on employee engagement is greatly affected by psychological empowerment. Transformational leadership moderates the negative effects of emotional exhaustion on psychological empowerment, while ethical climate weakens the negative impact of emotional exhaustion on employee engagement.

Service firms need to provide enough autonomy to emotionally exhausted frontline employees so that they feel valued. The emotionally exhausted employees can be engaged if they are empowered to discharge their job most effectively and a climate is ensured which can keep them motivated toward accomplishing their targets. A fair and just treatment shall boost their morale to perform better and to strengthen their staying intentions.

The novelty of our study lies in examining and fostering engagement among emotionally exhausted FLEs. It shows that job resources at the individual level (i.e. psychological empowerment), team level (i.e. transformational leadership) and organizational level (i.e. ethical climate) can help in encouraging work engagement among emotionally exhausted FLEs.

This paper investigates the effect of balanced orientation (BO) toward customers and employees on financial distress and firm valuation. Rooted in stakeholder theory and the attention-based theory of firms, the study aims to understand how a balanced synthesis of employee orientation (EO) and customer orientation (CO) influences the long-term market performance and survivability of firms, particularly in the context of emerging markets.

A panel dataset of the top 500 firms listed on the National Stock Exchange of India was analyzed using fixed-effect panel models with robust estimators. The Heckman procedure was employed to address selection bias. Financial data were sourced from the CMIE Prowess database and balanced orientation data were extracted from the annual letters to shareholders.

The study finds that a balanced approach to EO and CO significantly lowers bankruptcy risk and increases firm valuation. Contrary to the traditional dichotomy of EO and CO, BO emerges as a key driver in reducing financial distress and enhancing long-term market performance. Firms embracing multiple strategic orientations outperform those solely focused on customer orientation.

For emerging market firms facing resource constraints, developing BO is challenging but crucial. This study suggests adopting a sequential or alternating approach to developing EO and CO, which can alleviate bankruptcy risk and improve market valuation even in competitive environments.

This paper contributes to the existing literature by empirically demonstrating the significance of BO in emerging markets. It offers a novel perspective on strategic management, highlighting the importance of balancing customer and employee needs, especially in resource-constrained environments.

Premised on dynamic capability theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the link between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and operational responsiveness (OR). In addition, grounded in contingency theory, the authors examine the roles of competitive intensity and technological turbulence in affecting the entrepreneurial orientation and OR link.

This study proposes that firms’ entrepreneurial initiatives in terms of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking significantly affect their responsiveness. Competitive intensity and technological turbulence moderate the EO and OR relationship. Using hierarchical regression analysis, the authors analyze the data generated from a sample of 164 small-and-medium enterprises in the USA.

The findings show that entrepreneurial initiatives are instrumental in responding to market requirements, which in turn results in superior performance. The authors also find that the interactive effects of innovativeness/risk-taking and competitive intensity are significant and positive, while those of innovativeness/proactiveness and technological turbulence on responsiveness are significant but negative. These findings imply that OR is effective when the level of competitive intensity is high while technological turbulence is low.

The authors conclude the paper by suggesting that entrepreneurial actions are pre-requisites for OR, which becomes effective only when the market experiences a moderate level of competition and a low level of technological change. The study provides implications for cross-functional research in the areas of entrepreneurship and operations management (OM) and also suggests future directions in this research stream.

Although responsiveness has been recognized as a critical competitive capability in the OM literature, its relationship with EO is not fully understood and has not been empirically tested. Moreover, the interplay between EO and competitive intensity/technological turbulence and their effects on effective OR have not been gauged in the past.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a customer engagement-enabling platform on a value captured by the firm and value acquired by the customer. It explores the relevance of relational and expertise value for customers during the engagement process so as to ensure positive referrals about the service provider.

Using a sample of 482 students, the study examines the customer engagement efforts of professional institutes that provide training to prepare for the civil service examinations of the Union Public Service Commission. The survey is confined to central areas of New Delhi, India. Statistical techniques including confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling are used to analyse the data, and reliability and validity tests are performed.

The findings reveal the indispensable role of service providers as creators of a meaningful effective learning process and of interpersonal relations with customers for generating more business through customer referrals.

The study validated the moderating role of relational value between customers’ expertise value and their referrals on the basis of motivation theory, which asserts that customers’ motivation to contribute to the organisation is driven by the individuals’ extrinsic relational need for belongingness, acceptance by like-minded individuals, and feedback, recognition and respect from employees of the organisation.

The study contributes to the existing literature by integrating the well-developed social exchange and motivation theory so as to investigate the factors that propel customers’ positive word of mouth for the service provider.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test an integrated model incorporating the constructs of organisational commitment (OC), behavioural intentions (BI), actual turnover behaviour (ATB) and telecom work characteristics (WC) so as to examine the impact of commitment on employees’ BI, whereby they wish to dissolve their relationship with the employment provider.

Structural equation modelling technique has been used to test the data collected through questionnaire from a sample of 139 employees including managers and executives across the hierarchy of an Indian telecom organisation named Aircel Dishnet Ltd from the Jammu and Kashmir circle head office in India.

The theoretical constructs were validated before incorporating the hypothetical structural model. SEM results indicate a good fit to the empirical data. The findings confirmed that affective, continuance and normative commitments lay significant impact on employees’ OC. Also, commitment influence attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, thereby affecting the BI of the employees. An indirect significant impact of OC on the ATB was also revealed. A partial mediation of WC was also found between BI and ATB.

The generalisability of the study is limited as the sample concentrates to one organisation of a single industry in India.

The study provides insights for the policy makers to create and develop mechanisms and programmes leading to the enhancement of affective OC for employee retention.

The model clearly explains telecom employees’ OC and its impact on the ATB through their BI. Though the findings do not reveal any component of commitment to lay more impact on OC, it exhibits higher career commitment than OC among the telecom employees.

The present study aims at developing an integrated model designed to predict and explain the various factors that influence customers' behavioral intentions to use or not to use one particular SST, i.e. ATM services.

A list of households in a particular Indian city was obtained from the municipal corporation. 268 respondents were contacted using systematic sampling technique. Structural equation modeling was used to demonstrate the stability of the proposed model and to test the hypotheses.

The study finds that bank customers are less innovative and less optimistic to try out new technologies. Usefulness of the technology helps in developing positive attitude towards the technology. Customers' intentions to use technology are significantly affected by their attitude towards the technology.

The present study confines to only two banks and that too limited to the branches of these banks operating in one city only.

Despite extensive use of ATMs, the absence of direct interaction with bank staff has increased customers' apprehensions about the perceived risk. To reduce the customers concern about perceived risk because of security and privacy concerns, the bank should improve the quality of interaction with the customers to alleviate these apprehensions.

Lack of personal interaction generates doubts and queries in the minds of the people, especially those unaware or less aware of these technology-based services. Such a situation is quite prevalent in the developing nations (like India), where still a large number of people are apprehensive about using the latest technologies.

This paper seeks to further the understanding of the domain of the IMO construct in a developing country, as suggested by Lings and Greenley. It seeks to build on their proposed construct and provide empirical evidence of its impact in the context of the Indian banking industry.

The behavioral dimensions of the construct are confirmed in a manner consistent with established market orientation (external) construct. The paper validates scale pertaining to the wants and needs of bank employees for effective intelligence generation and dissemination as well as for effective response implementation.

The authors find a positive significant relationship between internal market orientation and staff attitude and perceived customer satisfaction. Further, the impact of staff attitude on employee job satisfaction is also significant.

Internal market orientation, with the passage of time, may not be as prevalent and exhaustive as it is now because the nature of the marketing environment is extremely dynamic. So, there is a need to make changes as time evolves so that this scale remains focused with a high level of reliability and validity.

To generate internal market intelligence, bank management should not only rely on internal customer surveys, but also the intelligence obtained through a variety of formal and informal means, such as meetings and discussion with internal customers; analysis of sales reports and worldwide customer databases; and formal market research, such as employees ' attitude surveys and sales response in a test market.

The present research would be of value to managers across the world for identifying key requirements of internal customers, which need to be evaluated consistently from time to time, for different strategic actions.

The purpose of this paper is to present the exploratory research into the moderating influence of perceived risk on credit card usage and experience link and to know, among various types of risks, which risk is mostly perceived by credit card users. The study also investigates the dimensions of usage and service experience and their relative significance in credit card industry.

The data were collected from 220 credit cardholders working in the various business and service units operating in Gandhi Nagar area of Jammu city.

The study captures a clear and strong moderating effect of perceived risk on usage and service experience link. Time risk appeared to be the strongest moderator. Further, sense of security and confidence benefits emerged as the strongest predictors of usage and service experience, respectively.

The study is based on single financial service only, i.e. credit card. To generalise the results in financial and allied sectors, such as banking, retail or travel, where credit card usage is highly prevalent, this study need to be extended in future research. Further, influence of customer income, occupation and education on credit card use can also be seen in the future. Finally, focus can also be given to the identification and testing of risk-reducing strategies in future research.

There is no previous research on Indian credit card industry which examined the influence of perceived risk on its use among Indian customers and subsequently on their experience.