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Providing positive and memorable shopping experiences has become essential for retailers. As the retail industry strives to create multisensory experiences for consumers, it is equally important to understand the emotions and pleasure such experiences evoke. The current study aims to investigate how multisensory experiences induce hedonic emotions in retail shoppers. It explores the mediating role of hedonic emotions in between multisensory experiences and shopping mall patronage intention.

The study is descriptive; the data was collected using the mall intercept survey method. A total of 380 shoppers participated in and responded to the survey administered at the mall. The collected responses are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Our findings support the idea that hedonic emotions play a significant role in the retail environment by influencing retail patronage intentions. Also, the multisensory experiences have a positive effect on patronage intention as well as the hedonic emotions of shoppers.

The present study provides theoretical and managerial implications for academicians and retail marketing.

The present research contributes to the existing literature by introducing the concept of multisensory experiences in the retail context and its impact on hedonic emotions and adding to the concept of inference theory.

This study aims to explore the concept of collaborative consumption (CC) by identifying factors that drive and deter individual participation in CC. The concept of CC encompasses practices such as sharing, giving, renting, donating, swapping and trading pre-owned goods with another individual, all of which reduce new purchases and promote the reuse of goods, thereby protecting resource depletion and waste.

Using a qualitative research approach, a total of 23 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with the participants involved in various shared consumption activities. The thematic analysis was done on interview data to explore the themes and subthemes of CC in the form of drivers and deterrents.

The findings reveal economic, social connection, sustainability, ease of use, utilization of goods and surroundings as driving factors of CC. Moreover, security concerns, lack of awareness and lack of accessibility were explored as deterring factors. Based on the findings, the present study proposes a conceptual framework for future studies.

The study adds value to the understanding of CC, which is in a nascent stage. The unique drivers and deterrents of CC, as explored in the present study, have significant implications for marketers, business developers, researchers and practitioners.

The study’s objective is to measure the importance consumers attach to AI-based attributes, namely, chatbots, face recognition, virtual fitting room, smart parking and cashier-free station in retail stores. The study also examines the specific purpose of using these attributes for shopping.

A conjoint experiment was conducted using fractional factorial design. Consumers were given 14 profiles (AI attributes and its levels) to rank according to their visiting preferences.

The results revealed that the retail chatbot was considered the most important attribute, followed by face recognition, virtual fitting room, smart parking system and cashier-free station. Moreover, consumers prefer to use chatbots for in-store shopping assistance over alerts and updates, customer support and feedback. Similarly, consumers wish a face recognition facility for greetings while entering the store over other services. In addition, cluster analyses revealed that customer groups significantly differ in their preferences for AI-based attributes.

The study guides retail managers to invest in AI technologies to provide consumers with a technology-oriented shopping experience.

Our results provide an insight into the receptivity of AI technologies that consumers would like to experience in their favorite retail stores. The present study contributes to the literature by investigating consumer preferences for various AI technologies and their specific uses for shopping.

In a consumer-driven world, captivating experiences are increasingly vital and retailers prioritise them for consumers. This study aims to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework that explores the impact of a consumer's multi-sensory and atmospheric experiences on their intention and commitment to a mall, with perceived value acting as a mediating factor.

The study employed a descriptive quantitative research approach and utilised a self-administered mall-intercept survey. A total of 380 shoppers participated in and responded to the survey administered at the mall. The collected responses are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

Study findings show that experiences significantly influence consumers' intentions to patronise shopping malls, leading to their commitment. The study reveals a strong impact of atmospheric experience on multi-sensory experiences. Furthermore, perceived value mediates the relationship between consumers' experiences and their mall patronage intention.

The research sheds light on the significance of atmospheric elements in creating sensory experiences for consumers. Additionally, the study introduces the concept of “props” as essential components of the atmospheric experiences in retail stores and malls. Furthermore, the study advances inference theory by exploring the effects of these sensory and atmospheric experiences within the shopping mall environment.

The present study aims to investigate the impact of perceived quality, brand extension incongruity, involvement and perceived risk on consumer attitude towards brand extension across three product types, namely, FMCG, durable goods and service (FDS) sectors. More importantly, the study seeks to explore the importance of involvement profile comprising relevance, pleasure, sign‐value, risk importance and risk probability and perceived risk facets (financial, psychological and performance) in acceptance of brand extension across FDS.

Three questionnaire‐based surveys were conducted to collect the data for FMCG, durable and service brand extensions. Regression analyses and Chow test were computed to investigate differences in consumer evaluation across FDS.

Results revealed significant different effects of variables across the three product types. The impact of perceived quality was greater in the case of services than FMCG and durables. On the other hand, perceived risk and involvement had stronger influence on evaluation of durables and service than FMCG brand extensions.

The present study gives a comprehensive view of how consumers evaluate the service and non‐service brand extensions.

The major contributions of this study are: generalization of the findings related to brand extension incongruity in the service area; examination of the multidimensional role of involvement in terms of relevance, pleasure, sign value, risk importance and risk probability in brand extension context across FMCG, durables and service product types; and exploration of the role of risk facets, namely, financial, performance and psychological in determining consumers' attitude towards brand extension.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a conceptual framework specifying the multidimensional role of involvement and perceived risk in brand extension domain.

A survey research design was applied to test the proposed hypotheses. Three hypothetical extensions of a real brand were selected. A total of 101 respondents participated in the study. Regression analyses was conducted to examine the role of involvement and perceived risk dimensions in brand extension evaluation.

Results indicate that consumers evaluate brand extension more favorably when it is highly relevant, more pleasurable, and associated with less risk probability. In addition, each facet of perceived risk, namely, financial, performance and psychological, are found to be equally important in making decisions about brand extension.

This paper contributes to the growing body of literature of brand extension. The study provides a new direction to brand managers and marketers to understand the full dynamics of the relationship of consumers with brand extensions. To get more benefit from brand extension strategies, managers should pay attention to involvement and perceived risk associated with extension categories.

This paper is unique in that it identifies the importance of multidimensional nature of involvement and perceived risk to study consumer evaluation of brand extension.

Over the past few years, the electronic media, as represented by the internet version of print media and independent blogs of journalists, has become a major player in the coverage of incidents related to violence against women. While this has brought forward issues of violence and specifically rape prominently into the public sphere, the media portrayal of women has often been as victims or victims who are somehow responsible for the violence against them. Such portrayal has been repeatedly challenged by feminists. Using data from 572 national and international English media reports for a six-month period (from December 2012 to April 2013) the coverage of the protests about the 2012 case of gang rape and eventual death of Jyoti Singh Pandey in India’s capital city, New Delhi, is examined in this chapter. Drawing from past research, three main frames are discerned in the portrayal of women in the reports: mainstreaming gender, endangered woman, and the ungendered woman. Media portrayals of these three frames by three broadly categorized actors most prominently covered by the media reports are analyzed: activists, state representatives or political actors, and ordinary citizens. The findings suggest that while some reports allude to women’s agency and rights particularly when they cover feminist activists, women’s agency is marginalized in the debates around safety and protection for women when other actors (such as state representatives or political actors, and ordinary citizens) are considered. Indian women’s rights have been reduced to passive messages negating the broader politics of the contemporary women’s movement.

Social Entrepreneurship.

This case study can be used on the module on introduction to social entrepreneurship for postgraduate students specializing in Social Entrepreneurship or Social Work.

This case explores the difference between social entrepreneurship and idealism. It captures the journey of Charlene Vaz and Kavita Gonsalves, two passionate young women, who formed “The Bake Collective” (TBC). Kavita and Charlene are both full-time employees, who spend their weekends and evenings running TBC and through bake sells raise funds for supporting social causes. The women have been able to get a teacher hired for differently abled children, provide water purifiers to victims of the Nepal earthquake, furnish a classroom in a school for less privileged children and provide teaching material for schools in over 400 villages in the State of Maharashtra in India. The case highlights the power of volunteering for a cause that can result in developing a social enterprise. It helps to unfold the steps undertaken to kick-start the cause as well as the risks involved in the start-up stage. It also discusses the measures that can be taken to mitigate the risks in the start-up phase and the ways by which social entrepreneurs can scale and grow their programme.

From this case, students will learn about the factors that lead to the germination of a social enterprise and identify characteristics of social entrepreneurs. They will be able to understand critical factors required to sustain start-up enterprises. The case will also enable students to explore systems and processes that need to be designed to sustain the start-up phase. Further, the case will help students to brainstorm on growth strategies for social enterprises.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.