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In order to achieve a sustained level of entrepreneurship in India, it is very important that the spirit and culture of entrepreneurship are ingrained in students, right at the “school” level. Specifically, in this study we examine how student entrepreneurial behavior is influenced by entrepreneurial activities at school.

We chose schools in India to recruit the students’ samples; 520 higher secondary school students were approached in-person to understand their entrepreneurial intentions (EI). We applied PLS-SEM to test the relationships of serial mediation.

Our findings imply that the students' entrepreneurial intentions are largely influenced by the school’s entrepreneurship program (e.g. labs, lectures and exercises). Further, we noted that school career guidance and students’ entrepreneurship attitude effectively mediate the relationship between school entrepreneurship curriculum and EI.

Entrepreneurship education beginning in schools does foster stronger entrepreneurial intent over the short-term. It also helps in fostering entrepreneurs, who create jobs and support in achieving the country’s desired SDGs.

The study contributes new dimensions to entrepreneurship research focusing on school children hence anchoring at early stages.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0350

This study aims to explore the underdog brand biography dimensions that emerging-country consumers identify with (Study 1) and attempts to uncover the effects of these dimensions on brand affinity and purchase intention moderated by self-identity and brand trust (Study 2).

Study 1, using data from 359 young Indians, reveals three underlying dimensions integral to underdog brand biography in emerging markets. Study 2 uses an experimental setup with a single-factorial design among 332 young Mexican consumers to investigate the direct effects of three identified underdog brand biography dimensions on purchase intention, mediated by brand affinity and moderated by consumer self-identity and brand trust.

Study 1 reveals three dimensions underlying underdog brand biographies: unfavorable circumstances, striving in adversities and passion, and persistent will to succeed. Study 2 reveals that consumers with higher self-identity demonstrate greater purchase intentions for an underdog brand than a top dog one.

The results indicate that marketers can successfully use underdog narratives to influence consumer decision-making, thereby increasing brand affinity and purchase intention.

This study delineates the link between different dimensions of underdog brand biographies with brand affinity and purchase intention in emerging countries and builds on the understanding of the moderating role played by self-identity and brand trust.

Despite having strategic inflection, retail set-ups in India have been continuously raising a challenge for suppliers of retail products aiming to all to target the right consumers in accordance with their ever-changing preferences. This adds a complexity to retailers offering services who seek valued information to devise a retail strategy by segmenting markets on the basis of consumer shopping orientations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and validate the consumer profile of out shoppers based on the shopping orientations.

The study has used descriptive research design. A total of 298 consumers from urban and rural areas of North Gujarat, India, were selected through quota-based sampling method and contacted personally to fill the self-rated structured questionnaire.

Collected data were edited and processed for first exploratory factor analysis to exactly know the factor structure of consumer perceived shopping orientation. Thereafter, cluster analysis was performed to identify consumer groups which were validated through multiple discriminant analysis. Three groups, namely, outshoppers, community-oriented in-shoppers and time-effective in-shoppers were cross-tabulated with consumers’ socio-demographics to extract the profile through chi-square analysis. Results were fairly consistent with the past studies.

The results of this study indicate consumers’ profiles based on shopping orientation to provide an input to retail services markets to devise strategy for targeting and positioning emphasising on outshoppers segment. Marketers do not consider them as an identical segment. Henceforth, more specific approach can be used for consumers who are frequently reflected through their psychographic portrait.

At macro level, study reveals some opportunities to retailers for penetrating into other segments of outshoppers. Furthermore, segmenting for retail services marketers has been ignored in past literature; the study addresses this gap by proposing bases in outshopping context for Indian businesses.

Marketers have realized the importance of assessing consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) before introducing green products across different target audience. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative influence of consumers’ pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) and environmental locus of control (ELOC) on their WTP for green products.

The study sample consisted of 256 Indian consumers which were recruited with the help of convenience sampling. A structured questionnaire was administered with scales that were well established and that have been used in previous research. Data were analysed with the help of CFA and structural equation modelling to test the relationship of ELOC and PEB anon WTP. Second, clustering respondents according to their PEB and ELOC has been done to find its differential effect on WTP with the help of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).

Findings of the study highlight that WTP for green products is significantly predicted by two variables which are in following order: PEB and ELOC. Results of cluster analysis and MANOVA revealed that WTP differ significantly with the level of intensity of ELOC and PEB among Indian consumers.

It advances the body of knowledge centred on the interplay of the PEB and ELOC to WTP for green products. Additional work is clearly required to consider the wide range of potentially relevant variables like brand image, prices, advertisements and product quality that ensures the generalizability of findings.

The hypothesis framed, tested and inferences made can form a basis of extremely valued toolkit for those green marketers who take caution when planning their marketing and communications strategies to stimulate the WTP by conveying a reason and motivation to act environmentally.

In this study, an understanding of WTP for green products is developed. The much required knowledge gap in terms of interplay of ELOC and PEB on WTP has been filled with the help of the present study. It has been identified that those consumer groups who displays higher PEB and ELOC forms the primary target audience for green product marketer.

This paper gives the background to the ISO 18404:2015 standard and explains its rationale. It aims to correct misconceptions and erroneous statements about the standard appearing in the paper by Antony et al. (2021) and to demonstrate the usefulness of the standard in a wide range of application sectors.

A review of recently reported misconceptions and erroneous statements is presented and clarifications are provided. A qualitative interview approach was utilised to obtain the views of leading academics and practitioners familiar with Six Sigma and Lean in a range of sectors and from different parts of the world. This includes the results of a survey for capturing expectations and requirements for the next ISO18404 version.

Clarifications were needed to correct some misconceptions and erroneous statements in recently published work. However, on review, the reports of the interviews in Antony et al. (2021) indicate that most Lean Six Sigma professionals have positive experiences with ISO 18404:2015 and see the advantages of a common standard in helping continuous improvement deployment. Possible causes of some reported negative results are already scheduled to be addressed in the forthcoming review of ISO 18404:2015.

A very real constraint when conducting research into ISO 18404:2015 is to obtain a balanced view of the standard from those who have a vested interest in its continuation and evolution, or not. Whilst the authors cannot claim to be any more objective than Antony et al.’s (2021) authors and commentators, they are, in contrast to that group, highly knowledgeable about the reality of the standard, rather than speculating in ignorance.

A very real constraint when conducting research into ISO 18404:2015 is to obtain a balanced view of the standard which is balanced with respect from those who have a vested interest in its continuation and evolution, or not. Whilst the current authors cannot claim to be any more objective than previous authors, Antony et al.’s (2021) authors and commentators, they are, in contrast to that group, highly knowledgeable about the reality of the standard, rather than speculating in ignorance.

The paper gives a clear description of the ISO standard development process and provides a resource for people to obtain insight into the value or non-value add of a standard in Six Sigma and Lean, and the appropriate details of such a standard. These results can form the basis of a case for the implementation of the standard for those organisations currently trying to decide whether or not to implement it.

The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between employee-generated content (EGC) and firm-generated content (FGC) in the form of LinkedIn posts, employer brand perception, and the effect of employer's attractiveness and corporate reputation on this relationship.

This study comprises two phases. In phase 1, the focus was on stimuli selection through an online questionnaire on favourability. In phase 2, for the main study, data were gathered through an online survey from 214 information technology (IT) employees via a survey. Multiple linear regression and mediation analyses were conducted.

The results show that EGC and FGC have a positive influence on employer brand perception, and the relationship is positively mediated by employer attractiveness and corporate reputation. These findings suggest that organizations can strategically use their own as well as employees' LinkedIn accounts, and encourage employee advocacy initiatives to attract new talent, enhance attractiveness and corporate reputation.

The study covers two different categories of content – employer and employee-generated – and examines both content types' influence on employer brand perception. It adds to the body of literature regarding employee branding and paves the way for further research in employee advocacy.

The opening up of the Indian retail sector has seen a proliferation of the corporate players through different retail formats and stores – the majority being in the food and groceries. This necessitates creating, building, and managing differentiated retail store brands, and image differentiation, to attract and retain shoppers. This research paper attempts to understand whether the Indian consumers differentiate the various store brands and images based on their experiences.

The study was conducted in two stages – list of parameters of evaluation of retail store image (developed from the literature), discussed with middle‐level managers from the retail sector to finalize parameters relevant for store image measurement in the Indian context and a questionnaire evolved for primary data collection, administered to 326 SEC A and B respondents (shoppers of food and grocery from modern retail stores). To assess the store image dimensions perceived by these shoppers, factor analysis was employed and for understanding various store image attributes used for differentiation of store brands one‐way analysis of variance was employed.

Results reflect that Indian shoppers have started identifying the dimensions of retail store image and are differentiating the various stores on the basis of functional attributes. Eventually, the stores would have to create differentiation based on psychological attributes.

The paper is limited to the organised modern food and grocery retail stores of Ahmedabad city.

The paper can be helpful to Indian retail store chains to focus on elements to create a differentiated store image.

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between conumers' emotional attachment towards fashion apps and positive behavioral outcomes, such as e-WoM and repurchase intention. The study also aims to explore how e-servicescape, customer experience and perceived value of online shopping influence this relationships.

The study has used quantitative research methods to collect data from a sample of 484 consumers who had previous experience of purchasing using fashion apps. Data were collected from university students enrolled in university in Gujarat, India using an online self-administered questionnaire. The data are analyzed using structure equation modeling to determine the relationships between the variables under investigation.

The results demonstrate relationships between e-servicescape, customer experience and perceived value of online shopping, emotional attachment and the two consumer outcomes: repurchase intention and e-WoM. The study found support for hypotheses 1, 2 and 3, highlighting the influence of e-servicescape, customer experience and perceived value of online shopping in developing emotional attachment with fashion apps. The study also confirmed hypotheses 5 and 6, which suggest that consumers who have a stronger emotional attachment to fashion apps are more likely to intend to repurchase fashion products and engage in positive electronic word-of-mouth behavior for fashion brands.

In today's digital age, fashion apps are vital for fashion retailers to remain competitive and offer their customers a smooth and immersive shopping experience . Given the potential impact of fashion apps on the customer behavior, it is essential to investigate the relationship relationships between e-servicescape, customer experience and perceived value of online shopping, emotional attachment and the two consumer outcomes: repurchase intention and e-WoM in the context of fashion apps. The findings of the study are expected to contribute to the understanding of consumer behavior in the context of fashion apps and e-commerce more broadly. The results may also provide insights into how fashion retailers can improve their online presence and customer experiences to increase emotional attachment and positive behavioral outcomes.

The results of this study have several implications for online retail managers and fashion app developers. The study provides strong support for the idea that the extent to which online customers feel emotionally attached to fashion apps is strongly related to their e-WoM and repurchase intention. Moreover, the results of the study suggest that online retailers who are looking to cultivate emotional connections with consumers through fashion apps should prioritize three key areas: e-servicescape, customer experience and perceived value of online shopping.

As a result of the increasing challenges of time overrun, several companies regularly set up delay assessment procedures for performance improvement and profit maximization. In the construction industry, projects are enormously complicated and involve significant budgets, and therefore optimizing project performance through the root cause analysis should be imperative for every project manager. Typically issues of delays in projects are generally discussed and problematized separately, yet a comprehensive framework for systematic analysis and grouping of delays is rarely contended. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the 4P concept (project related, practices, participants, and procurement) for identifying, analyzing, and classifying delays in the internal environment of the project development process.

The 4P conceptual framework was validated through the synthesis of the existing literature.

Interestingly, despite the increasing concerns about delays in the construction industry, most research on delays are project and/or country specific, thus no consensus about the sources of delays. The application of the proposed concept as a theoretical framework would provide an understanding of the available delay sources, their risks and use for project delay assessment and classification.

This study grouped delays based on the shared characteristics and four main sources were identified and analyzed. There may be other sources or factors, yet would be dependent or aspect of the 4P.

The study informs project teams to reduce delays in the construction industry.

The paper is an application of risk assessment tool to conceptualize delays in the internal project environment.

This research focuses on suggesting an optimized model for selecting best employees using advanced multi-criteria decision making method to a supply chain firm, who is planning to start a new cold chain business vertical.

Study has been conducted in a supply chain firm in North India, who wants to expand its business with the help of efficient team members. In total 38 applicants were considered for the study, as selected by the firm after initial screening from pool of talent. AHP-LP and TOPSIS-LP integrated approach were applied separately for evaluation and implementation of personnel selection model. Further, both the approaches were compared to find the best fit and optimized model.

As per the findings, both AHP and TOPSIS can be used to select the best candidate among the alternatives available. TOPSIS was found easier to implement as it involves ranking of applicants with respect to each skills required for respective job profile only once, whereas AHP involves pair-wise comparison among candidates with respect to each skills required for respective job profile and normalization of each comparison, resulting in the formation of number of comparison matrices. However, AHP is more reliable as it considers consistency check for each level of pair-wise comparison. Hence, there is a chance to avoid or revise the human judgment error. Integrated ranking and optimization approach minimizes the cost by suggesting the relevant positions to be filed to make an efficient team.

Group of interviewers are involved in the decision-making process, hence there are chances of biasness in ranking method which can influence the group decision. Research is limited to a particular geography of North India therefore needs to be tested for other regions also in order to generalize. The research will help the third party logistics (3PL) and other related firms in efficient team selection.

The researcher focuses on formalizing a method for potential candidate selection by considering the constraints of the organization. It has been observed that limited researches have been done on the application of AHP-LP or TOPSIS-LP integrated approach for selection process. Hence, this research proposes two integrated ranking-optimization method and suggests the best fit by comparing both the approaches.