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Generation Z (Gen Z) is particularly influenced by digital technologies as this cohort is found to have grown up with technology forming the pivot of most of their routine activities. Owing to the huge potential of this market, online retailers are keen to build and sustain their loyalty. Shopper’s loyalty varies across age, gender, income, service quality perceptions, etc. of customers. This study aims to show that it is necessary to identify distinct consumer segments of these shoppers which can enable online retailers to fine tune their marketing programs and increase program effectiveness.

Using a sample of 700 students pursuing Masters in Business Administration (553 usable responses) from two state universities in North India, data have been collected with reference to accessories, clothes, books and electronic goods. SPSS and AMOS have been used to analyse data using cluster analysis and multinomial logit (MNL) regression analysis.

The results of cluster analysis reveal that these shoppers can be clustered into three segments, namely disloyal shoppers (DS), staunch loyals (SL) and vacillating shoppers (VS) on the basis of their online retail loyalty. The odds ratio reveals that less frequent online shoppers are less likely to be VS or DS than being SL shoppers. People who experience flow while surfing online shopping websites are 3.260 times more likely to be VS than being SL. Further, service quality decreases the odds of a shopper acting as a VS in comparison to SL shopper by 0.113.

These findings would help marketers identify strategies that can transform the VS or the disloyal ones into loyal and profitable segments. The present study is limited to Gen Z shoppers and so results may vary for customers belonging to other age groups.

The study contributes to existing literature by understanding the antecedents which contribute to online retail loyalty of distinct segments of young shoppers.

The undesirable effects of TV advertisements and general parenting responsibility propel mothers to monitor and control the eating habits of children through meal time actions and feeding practices. The purpose of this paper is to identify feeding practices used by Indian mothers through the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ) developed by Musher-Eizenman and Holub (2007) and to investigate differences in the use of feeding practices across demographic variables.

Using a cross-sectional design, a structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data from 473 mothers of children aged four to 11 years from Punjab (India). Data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and ANOVA.

The present study confirms the validity and reliability of the nine-factor model through CFA with 28 items in the Indian context than original CFPQ. Further, significant differences exist in the responses of mothers for feeding practices followed with children across age and gender of child, mother’s education status and monthly family income.

Parents may understand the nature of feeding practices to mediate unhealthy food consumption habits of children. The government should formulate codes or regulations to sufficiently monitor food marketing activities directed at children. The food marketing companies should also act responsibly to protect well-being of children.

This piece of research is important as no such study (to the best of researchers’ knowledge) has already been conducted in India even though dietary patterns of children are transforming tremendously.

Sharing of knowledge has always been accredited as the indispensable segment of knowledge management. As knowledge management practices are growing within the organizations, it is important that correspondingly, valid and reliable knowledge sharing behavior scales are developed to avoid validation issues. Therefore, this composition describes the development and validation of multi-dimensional tacit knowledge sharing behavior scale.

Herein, two analytical techniques, namely, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis have been used to derive the composition of the constructs.

The study proposes four-dimensional tacit knowledge sharing behavior scale for services which include voluntarily tacit knowledge donation, involuntary tacit knowledge collection, involuntarily tacit knowledge collection and voluntary tacit knowledge collection.

A more holistic approach to the tacit knowledge sharing behavior construct has been proposed, which is helpful in contributing to the literature of tacit knowledge sharing behavior of employees. Additionally, it has made an attempt to eliminate the gap as voiced by most of the literature related to tacit knowledge sharing in service industries which has focused upon western service sectors and limited research is available in the Asian context.

The ingenuity of the scale lies in the fact that it measures voluntary and involuntary aspects of tacit knowledge sharing behavior of employees which can be used by the organization to develop knowledge management plans and knowledge sharing practices based on the identified strategies.

The study is one of its kind that has considered various aspects namely, knowledge donation, knowledge collection, voluntary knowledge sharing and involuntary knowledge sharing together.

Given the importance of relationship benefits in creating customer satisfaction, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating role of relationship benefits (special treatment benefits and confidence benefits) on relationship quality and word of mouth (WOM) for online retailers. The conditional mediating role of relationship quality between customer satisfaction and WOM is also examined.

A sample of 700 MBA students from two universities in Punjab (North India) has been used to collect data. Structural equation modelling and PROCESS Macro (Hayes (2017) have been used for data analysis (mod mod mediation).

When customers perceive high confidence benefits, special treatment benefits moderate the mediational role of relationship quality between customer satisfaction and WOM. Specific conditions under which use of confidence benefits and special treatment benefits are successful for online retailers have also been identified.

Tailored use of special treatment benefits with confidence benefits in appropriate combinations will help the online retailers in segmenting the customers and differentiating amongst them according to the customers’ receptivity towards these benefits. Marketers can devise communication strategies, create customer segments and position their services using the results obtained in the study.

The present study is the first of its kind which clarifies as to why the previous literature considered special treatment benefits as less relevant to customers. It also establishes the situations in which these benefits successfully moderate the effect of customer satisfaction in developing relationship quality and eliciting positive WOM in the Indian internet retailing context.

In an era of burgeoning activity in online retail in India, the role of web-store design is paramount. Web-store design elements such as website functionality, brand assortment and product quality are expected to generate customer loyalty.

Using data collected from 553 students from two universities in north India, the present study investigates the indirect effect of web-store dimensions (through website functionality, brand assortment and product quality) on online store loyalty via an enjoyment state (flow) and customer satisfaction. Serial mediation has been analysed through PROCESS macro developed by Hayes version 3.0. In addition to this, the moderating role of gender and purchase frequency has also been investigated.

The present study renders support to serial mediation between website functionality, flow, customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, the path between brand assortment and loyalty is more strongly mediated by customer satisfaction only. Males experience less flow as compared to females while handling brand assortment on websites. The three-way interaction between brand assortment, gender and purchase frequency is also statistically significant.

The study examines the manner in which online retailers can choose to build customer loyalty when they try to build retail image using web store functionality and /or product/brand assortments. The study offers insights to retailers about how and when to focus on hedonism versus customer satisfaction or both of them in conjunction to enhance customer loyalty. This study is important as it investigates the relationships in Indian scenario witnessing a high rate of growth in online retail which can tremendously affect these relationships.

The purpose of this study is to comprehensively uncover antecedents of food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores in India. Children form the pivot of food marketing. They accompany parents on food shopping trips and assist food purchases. Their extent of participation varies with the frequency with which they accompany parents, the presence of food promotions and other demographic variables. The present paper attempts to comprehensively uncover the variables that help in cumulatively predicting food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores.

Data have been collected from 473 mothers of children in the age category 4-11 years. For the aforesaid purpose, a structured, pre-tested and non-disguised questionnaire has been prepared. Binary logistic regression has been applied to analyse the data through SPSS 19.

Shopping behaviour of children in retail stores significantly depends upon food promotions in retail stores, frequency with which children accompany mothers on shopping trips and demographic variables such as age of mother and father and education status of mother.

This study attracts attention of parents, food retailers and policy makers towards impact of food promotional strategies on food buying behaviour of children in retail stores.

This piece of research is important as no such study (to the best of researchers’ knowledge) has been conducted in India even when food retailing is an important component of total retail in India and also growing tremendously.

Marketers try to influence food shopping behaviour of children through various in-store food promotional strategies (FPS). These in-store FPS comprise of attractive packaging, accessibility, availability of foods in wide varieties and presence of helpful and friendly sales personnel. However, little is known about how children buy and the extent to which these marketing strategies are successful. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores and to study the effectiveness of in-store FPS and demographic factors (age and gender of child and monthly family income) on food shopping behaviour of children.

Data have been collected from 473 mothers of children in age category four to 11 years. Data have been analysed through descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations), bivariate correlations, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis.

The study explores and validates four factor structure of food shopping behaviour of children in retail stores in Indian settings. These factors include children’s active assessment of foods, impact of availability and variety on children’s purchases, influence of TV food ads on children’s purchases and influence of packaging on children’s food purchases. Further, the findings also reveal that in-store FPS are truly effective in influencing food shopping behaviour of children.

Marketers may highlight packaging attributes in food advertisements as they can help escalate food purchase requests of children in retail stores. In addition to this, food advertising is strongly associated with assessment of foods in retail stores and looking for availability of advertised foods in retail stores. This suggests that food advertising as a medium of communication should not be ignored. However, sales personnel can also be used more effectively as they are seen to help children in identifying availability and variety of foods in retail stores.

As no such study has been conducted so far (to the best of researcher’s knowledge), this study potentially helps in bridging gaps in literature.

This paper aims to identify the nature of themes/appeals used in food commercials shown on children’s networks in India. Marketers use various themes/appeals in TV advertisements to influence food consumption habits of children. Children are also found to focus on these appeals while selecting foods rather than using nutritional value as a criteria to select foods.

For the present study, a content analysis of 114 discrete food commercials broadcast on children’s networks was done. These were further analysed to collect data on themes/appeals used in them. SPSS 19.0 was used to record the data and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis.

A majority of food advertisements which were broadcast during children’s programmes included confectionery, ice creams and dairy products, baked products and ready-to-cook food items. Grazing was found to be the most frequently used appeal in these food advertisements. This was followed by taste/flavour/smell/texture, fun/happiness, being “cool”, adult approval/disapproval, family ties and so on. However, a majority of these advertisements did not feature any health-related message.

The study highlights the need for strategic actions by all stakeholders interested in protecting well-being of children. Taking account of the promotional tactics used by food marketers, parents as well as governmental agencies must strongly take steps to check these practices.

As no such study has already been conducted in India (to the best of researcher’s knowledge), this study potentially helps in abridging gaps in literature.

A large number of food advertisements are broadcast during children ' s programs which influence their food consumption habits. Globally, consumption of these foods is linked to increased incidence of obesity and other health-related disorders in children. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and extent of food advertising directed at Indian children.

Data were collected by recording programs and advertisements aired on five popular children ' s networks from 9:00 am until 9:00 pm for ten weekdays and weekends each. On an average, total recording of 242 hours for both weekdays and weekends was done. All data were screened and both program and non-program content (advertisements) were identified and analyzed. Data were further analyzed through descriptive statistics.

Out of 4,219 and 4,750 television advertisements broadcast on children ' s networks during weekdays and weekends, 43.33 and 47.62 percent are food advertisements, respectively. “Confectionery” and “sugared and salty snacks” comprise half of total foods advertised during weekdays. Whereas, advertisements for “health drinks and supplements” are most frequently aired during children ' s programs on weekends. A classification of all food advertisements into healthy and unhealthy categories according to “Food Pyramid” given by National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), India in 2010 shows that almost all the advertised foods are unhealthy.

This study will benefit the parents by helping them understand the media content (food advertisements) offered to their children. They may then control television viewing by children, monitor food purchase behavior and take some mealtime actions to control eating habits of their children. Such awareness is critical to force the food marketers to recognize the need to self-regulate food advertising directed at children. Government may also feel the need to formulate a suitable policy for placing time and content restrictions for advertising foods to children.

As no such study has already been conducted in India (to the best of researcher ' s knowledge), this study potentially helps in abridging gaps in literature.

Parents are seen to mediate media behavior of their children to protect them from negative and undesirable effects of advertising. In doing so, they either restrict TV viewing by children or actively discuss ad content with children. The nature of mediation strategy to be used depends upon the age of their children. The purpose of this study is to uncover the nature of mediation strategies used by mothers of younger and older children in India. The findings and implications of the study are further discussed.

Data were collected from three cities of Punjab state of India – Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana and its capital city of Chandigarh during the period November 2010 to June 2011. The mothers were the basic sampling unit for the present study as they are seen to be the primary caregivers for children. Parents of children in eight schools (two from each city), were approached through the schools. The children were asked to take the questionnaire home and get it filled by their mother. Parental mediation of food advertising was measured through a parental advertising mediation scale developed by Valkenburg et al.

The results of the present study reveal that mothers of Indian children resort to mediation of ads in general and food ads in particular. The nature of mediation is also governed by age of children. Mothers of older children primarily use active advertising mediation and mothers of younger children use restrictive mediation strategies. It is also seen that mothers mediate the exposure of food ads more strongly in younger children as compared to older children.

Although vast literature exists about parental mediation of advertising to children, hardly any study has been conducted in India to investigate the nature of parental mediation of advertising to children. The present study adds to the existing literature by delving into this aspect in the Indian settings. More so, as age of children is witnessed to affect nature of parental mediation, this study also sheds light on the way parents in India mediate exposure of children to TV ads.