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This study aims to investigate the moderating role of gamification on the relationship of financial attitude (FA), financial self-efficacy (FSE) and financial planning activity (FPA) of individuals on the financial behavior of individuals and also provides a conceptual background on financial management behavior (FMB), FA, FSE and FPA of individuals.

A preliminary study with the help of a structured questionnaire was conducted by administering the questionnaire to individuals who are exposed to financial apps on their smart phones or personal computers for various money-saving and investment activities. Help of various financial planners and financial consultants led to successful circulation of the questionnaire to respondents. The research model was tested through structural equation modeling using AMOS-21 software. Firstly, a measurement model was evaluated that comprised five latent constructs, i.e. gamifying features (GF), FA, FSE, FPA and FMB. Subsequently, the structural model consisting of the hypothesized relationships was evaluated.

The role of GF in financial apps and applications in moderating the influence of FA, FSE and FPA on FMB has not been thoroughly studied in the past literature, and the results of this study show that GF significantly moderate the influence of FA and FPA on the FMB of individuals. However, according to the results GF in financial apps do not have a significant moderating role on the influence of FSE on FMB of individuals.

The studies in the past have not investigated the role of gamification in the area of personal finance of individual investors, specifically their financial behavior in both developed and developing countries. This study addresses this gap by examining the role of gamification in moderating the relationship that exists between FA, FSE, FPA and financial behavior.

This study aims to understand the role of access convenience of common service centres (CSCs) in determining the e-government continuance intention from the perspective of citizens who are dependent on these centres for using e-government services, in developing countries such as India. The study uses the DeLone and McLean’s information systems (IS) success model as a theoretical basis and analyses the effect of access convenience of CSCs (AC), on the three quality dimensions (namely, information quality [IQ], system quality [SyQ] and service quality [SQ]), and the e-government continuance intention. The effects of the three quality dimensions on continuance intention are also analysed.

The primary data were collected from the field surveys conducted at various CSCs in Uttar Pradesh state of India using convenience sampling technique. The study sample included 358 respondents who use e-government services through CSCs. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the proposed model.

The findings of the study suggest that CSCs’ access convenience has a significant positive impact on the e-government continuance intention. The findings also confirm the significant positive impact on all the three quality dimensions of e-government i.e. IQ, SyQ and SQ. Though the findings do not provide support for the impact of IQ and SyQ on the e-government continuance intention but the impact of SQ on the e-government continuance intention is found to be significantly positive.

The explanatory power of the model indicates the scope of including more variables in determining the continued usage of e-government. Future studies may extend the present study by including concepts such as trust, satisfaction and security/privacy concerns of citizens. The present study has failed to support the impact of IQ and SyQ on the intention to continue using e-government services. Future studies may test the model in different contexts with different respondents to further examine these relationships. Future studies may also see the association between the continuance intention and actual use of e-government services.

The government should provide accessible CSCs to the citizens which are conveniently available to them. To diffuse the e-government services successfully among all citizens, the government needs to see that sufficient numbers of CSCs are available in the areas where people lack the required infrastructure for using the e-government services. The government also needs to ensure that the CSCs are fully functional and equipped with facilities for providing the best quality services.

The study combines the quality constructs from the IS success model with AC, for predicting the e-government continuance intention. The joint use of these constructs has provided a model with high explanatory power, which is able to explain 76.6% variation in the continued usage of e-government services. The study also contributes to the existing literature by presenting AC as a strong determinant of the e-government quality dimensions.

This study aims to understand the challenges of 5G deployment in India from the perspectives of telecom operators. These challenges are also mapped to different contexts within the technological-organizational-environmental (TOE) framework.

The study uses a qualitative approach comprising in-depth semi-structured interviews of employees working in telecom companies in India. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the qualitative data.

The author has identified nine challenges that are categorized under three dimensions of the TOE framework. Specifically, the findings indicate three technological challenges: hardware/device challenges, security concerns and limited use cases; two organization challenges: financial challenges and lack of skilled workforce; and four environmental challenges: inadequate infrastructure, regulatory and administrative challenges, consumers’ attitudes and competitive market conditions.

The results of this study would help understand the key factors that can act as barriers to the 5G rollout in India. Based on the findings of the study, the government and regulatory bodies could design conducive policies and regulatory frameworks to successfully deploy 5G in India.

The study is one of the very few studies to empirically examine the telecom operators’ perspectives on the challenges of 5G deployment in India. The study contributes to the TOE framework as its application in the context of identifying barriers to 5G deployment is probably for the first time.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the behavioral intention to adopt payments banks services by Indian underbanked and unbanked population.

The proposed model has assimilated factors from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) along with perceived credibility. The factors of UTAUT include performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitation of conditions and social influence. Apart from testing the direct relationships of the model constructs with the behavioral intention to adopt payments banks services, the study has also explored mediating and moderating effects of certain constructs. The research model has been empirically tested using 660 responses from a field survey conducted in New Delhi – the capital city of India – by using the structured equation modeling (SEM) technique. The target respondents of the study are small businessmen and migrant laborers who are either underbanked or unbanked.

The findings of the study reveal that the model is able to explain 67.5 per cent of the variance in behavioral intention. The results indicate that all the factors are direct determinants of behavioral intention. Perceived credibility is found to be the strongest influencer of behavioral intention. The findings also indicate that perceived credibility partially mediates the relationships between “social influence and behavioral intention” and “performance expectancy and behavioral intention.” The relationship between performance expectancy and behavioral intention is also found to be moderated by facilitating conditions and effort expectancy.

As this study is based on a convenience sample of respondents of only one city of India, this could negatively reflect on the generalizability of results across other cities. Moreover, the study has only focused on the perceptions of small businessmen and migrant laborers. This raises concerns regarding the applicability of the results for other segments of the current population that have different demographic characteristics (e.g. occupation, income, education level and technology experience). Modifying the conceptual model presented in this research to include “experience” and “age” as moderators can also be worth considering in future. Although this study has extended the UTAUT to include perceived credibility, the results of the explanatory power of the model indicate that there is still room for improvement. Therefore, including other constructs, e.g. hedonic motivation, perceived risks and trialability, could be a fruitful path forward. Future studies may also examine the factors influencing the actual use behavior of payments banks, rather than just behavioral intention.

The study looks forward to providing the payments banks service providers in India with suitable guidelines for effectively implementing and designing payments banks services. Specifically, the results of this study have provided clues for Indian payments banks service providers about the crucial role of perceived credibility in influencing the behavioral intention to adopt payments banks. Therefore, service providers have to initially be sure that payments banks are able to conduct financial transactions efficiently, securely and within less time, along with the availability of information required by customers to successfully use the services. Service providers should enhance customer confidence and trust by providing secure and reliable services. They should also emphasize on the positive safety measures of the payments banks during any marketing campaign rather than just creating brand awareness.

The study represents a substantial contribution to the existing knowledge regarding mobile payment channels in particular and technology acceptance area in general. In fact, this study presents a worthwhile direction by examining payments banks services, which, so far, have not been well evaluated in the Indian context. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an early attempt toward a holistic and integrative approach to explain adoption of payments banks in India. Although prior studies have addressed mobile banking and mobile payment adoption, the strength of this research lies in combining the UTAUT constructs with perceived credibility. This is evidenced by the high explanatory power (67.5 per cent) of the research model adopted in this study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influencing factors of generation Z (Gen Z) consumers’ revisit intentions to robotic restaurants in the post-pandemic times.

Using a sample of Gen Z consumers with dining experiences in an Indian restaurant using service robots, the study empirically tests a research framework based on stimulus–organism–response theory.

The study explains how Gen Z consumer’s perceptions of functional attributes (i.e. perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), socio-emotional attribute (i.e. perceived safety) and relational attribute (i.e. trust) shape their attitude, which in turn leads to their evaluations of performance outcomes and intention to revisit the robotic restaurants. The findings also indicate that perceived risk reduction of viral infection moderates the impact of performance outcomes on revisit intention.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the changing preferences of consumers have resulted in an increase in demand for restaurants offering robotic services. To support the long-term viability of service robots in restaurant services, the current study investigates what elements of service robots can determine consumers’ intentions to revisit the robotic restaurants during post-pandemic times.

Government employees have various challenges of adopting e-government which include administrative problems, technological challenges, infrastructural problems, lack of trust on computer applications, security concerns and the digital divide. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most salient factors that influence the employee adoption of e-government in India as perceived by government employees involved in e-government service delivery.

The paper first identifies different factors influencing the employee adoption of e-government on the basis of literature review and then finds their relative importance by prioritizing them using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The AHP is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tool which combines all the factors into a hierarchical model and quantitatively measures their importance through pair-wise comparisons (Saaty, 1980). Eleven influencing factors of employee adoption of e-government have been identified, which are categorized under four main factors, namely, “employee’s personal characteristics”, “technical factors”, “organizational factors” and “trust”. The data pertaining to pair-wise comparisons of various factors and sub-factors related to the study is collected from ten senior government employees working with different departments and bodies of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Based on the results obtained, the findings reveal that “organizational factors” and “technical factors” are the two most important factors which influence the intention of government employees to adopt e-government. Moreover, “training”, “technical infrastructure”, “access speed”, “technical support” and “trust” in infrastructure are the top five sub-factors which are considered to be important for the employee adoption of e-government.

One of the limitations regarding the methodology used in the study is that the rating scale used in the AHP is conceptual. There are chances of biasing while making pair-wise comparisons of different factors. Therefore, due care should be taken while deciding relative scores to different factors. Also, some factors and sub-factors selected, for the model may have interrelationships such as educational level and training; computer skills and trust; etc., and these interrelationships are not considered by the AHP, which is a limitation of the present study. In that case, the analytic network process (ANP) can be a better option. Therefore, this study can be further extended by considering some other factors responsible for e-government adoption by employees and applying the ANP in the revised model.

The results of the study may help government organizations, to evaluate critical factors of employee adoption of e-government. This may help them in achieving cost-effective implementation of e-government applications by efficiently managing their resources. Briefly, the findings of the study imply that government departments should provide sufficient training and support to their employees for enhancing their technical skills so that they can use the e-government applications comfortably. Moreover, the government departments should also ensure fast access speed of the e-government applications so that the employees can carry out their tasks efficiently.

Most of the existing literature on e-government is focused on citizens’ point of view, and very few studies have focused on employee adoption of e-government (Alshibly and Chiong, 2015). Moreover, these studies have majorly used generic technology adoption models which are generally applicable to situations where technology adoption is voluntary. As employee adoption of e-government is not voluntary, the present study proposes a hierarchy of influencing factors and sub-factors of employee adoption of e-government, which is more relevant to the situations where technology adoption is mandatory. Also, most of the previous studies have used statistical methods such as multiple regression analysis or structural equation modelling for examining the significant factors influencing the e-government adoption. The present study contributes to this area by formulating the problem as an MCDM problem and by using the AHP as the methodology to determine the weights of various factors influencing adoption of e-government by employees.

The purpose of this paper is to identify student clusters based on patterns of behavioural, cognitive, emotional, collaborative and social engagement in virtual classrooms, within the context of higher education. The study also attempts to explore the differences amongst the student clusters with respect to various motivating and demotivating teaching behaviours.

The study relies on the self-determination theory to describe the dynamics related to various motivating and demotivating teaching behaviours and five different dimensions of student engagement in virtual classrooms. The data were collected from a convenience sample of 831 students from higher educational institutions in the Delhi – National Capital Region of India. Cluster analysis was performed to classify students into mutually exclusive groups based on five student engagement dimensions.

The findings revealed three student clusters: ‘fully-engaged’, ‘externally-engaged’ and ‘individually-engaged’ students. The findings also provided insights into varied correlations between specific dimensions of motivating/demotivating teaching behaviours and student engagement.

Considering the multi-dimensionality of student engagement as well as teaching behaviours, the study adopts a person-centred approach to understand different clusters of students in virtual classrooms and investigate the relationship between teaching behaviours and student engagement dimensions.

This paper aims to explore the key factors which influence whistleblowing intentions of teachers working with higher education institutions (HEIs) in India. Both internal and external whistleblowing intentions of the HEI teachers are studied by examining their relative intentions to report a potential wrongdoing to the authorities within the management of the institution and to the external statutory bodies. The reporting intentions of the HEI teachers are measured through the use of three vignettes related to academic frauds. Whistleblowing intentions are proposed to be determined by the individual, organizational and situational factors.

Survey method of descriptive research design has been used to obtain the primary data regarding the individual, organizational and situational variables deemed to influence HEI teachers’ internal and external whistleblowing intentions. A self-administered structured questionnaire is used as survey instrument for primary data collection. The respondents’ internal and external whistleblowing intentions are measured through the use of three vignettes related to academic frauds. Non-parametric tests such as Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis test and Spearman correlations have been used to test the research hypotheses.

The study has found that the HEI teachers are more likely to blow the whistle internally if there is a proper communication channel in their organization for reporting wrongdoings. However, they do not hesitate to blow the whistle externally in the absence of internal reporting channel, especially in those cases of wrongdoings where they perceive the cost of reporting to be high. The high status of the wrongdoer and high costs of reporting discourage the teachers to blow the whistle internally. However, if the wrongdoer holds a very powerful position in the organization, then the teachers prefer to report his wrongdoing to external agencies as they are afraid of the likely negative repercussions of reporting against him internally. In case of serious wrongdoings, the teachers intend to blow the whistle within the organization rather than going to external agencies probably because they do not want to spoil the image of their organization in the external world.

The first limitation is that because of the unavailability of pre-tested vignettes in the context of academic frauds, the study has used three vignettes which have been developed on the basis of few case studies. Second, the results showed the existence of social desirability bias across all the three vignettes. Also, the study has been conducted among teaching professionals; therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to the professionals of other sectors.

The findings of the study may bring awareness to the board of management of HEIs, regarding the importance of whistleblowing in their educational institutions. They should encourage the teachers working with their institutions to report the wrongdoings internally as external reporting may cause damage to their institute’s reputation. Proper reporting mechanisms should be designed and shared with the employees as a part of institutional culture.

The Whistle Blowers Protection Act passed by the Parliament of India in 2011 should be amended to include the private sector employees, especially the teachers working in higher education sector. This will encourage the HEI teachers to report the academic frauds fearlessly which will put a serious check on the growing number of frauds and wrongdoings in the education sector.

Previous research studies have discussed the factors influencing whistleblowing intentions in the context of various non-academic organizations. However, existing research has not adequately provided a better understanding of the influencing factors of whistleblowing intentions in higher education sector. The present paper addresses this gap by empirically examining the key factors which influence HEI teachers’ intentions of blowing the whistle and reporting the wrongdoings occurring in their institutions, in Indian context. An attempt has been made to identify the influencing factors of both internal and external whistleblowing intentions by using three different vignettes related with academic frauds.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors underlying the adoption of massive open online courses (MOOCs), using technology-user-environment (TUE) framework and self-determination theory (SDT) as the theoretical frameworks.

The primary data were collected from the field surveys conducted in the universities and academic institutions located in National Capital Region of Delhi, India, using convenience sampling technique. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the proposed model.

The findings indicate that the learners’ intention to adopt MOOCs is significantly influenced by intrinsic motivation, social recognition, perceived value and perceived usefulness. On the other hand, the personal readiness, self-regulation of learners and peer influence are not found to have any significant impact on MOOCs adoption intention.

The findings of the study will be helpful for MOOCs providers and other stakeholders. The MOOCs providers should emphasize on providing courses from renowned universities in cutting-edge areas which are self-paced and cost-effective. The academic institutions should provide credit benefits to the students in lieu of completing courses through MOOCs. Likewise, employers should also recognize the certificates awarded by MOOCs and give due credit to the learners who complete such certifications.

The study has contributed to the existing literature on MOOCs adoption by combining constructs from TUE and SDT. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this has been a first attempt to combine these two frameworks to study the learners’ adoption behaviour for MOOCs in Indian context. The integration of these two frameworks provides a more comprehensive model of factors with increased explanatory ability (72.6 per cent) to describe the adoption intention of MOOCs.

The present study investigates the influence of five personality traits based on the Big Five model, i.e. extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience and personal innovativeness on learners' intention to complete MOOCs.

The proposed model was empirically tested using cross-sectional design. The primary data were gathered through a survey of 515 students at five higher educational institutions in the National Capital Region of Delhi, India. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the proposed model.

The study has found significant associations between the personality traits, personal innovativeness and MOOC completion intention. The findings indicate that extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience and personal innovativeness have significant positive effects whereas neuroticism has no significant effect on MOOCs continuance intention. Personal innovativeness has been found to mediate the relationships between all the personality traits and MOOCs completion intention of learners.

Our findings can potentially address the issue of drop-out rates of MOOCs in developing countries such as India. The findings of the study are helpful for MOOCs providers and other stakeholders. The MOOC developers should develop courses with wide scope so as to accommodate learners with different personality profiles. Additionally, during the enrolment process, MOOC providers can identify the students' attributes through personality tests. This will help in customizing the study material and teaching pedagogy as per the needs of the students.

The study contributes to the growing area of research in MOOCs usage by exploring the influence of personality traits on learners' behaviour towards completing MOOCs. Since the learners' intention to complete MOOCs is a major concern for MOOC developers, hence the present study makes a worthwhile contribution as it is a relatively under-researched area.