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This paper aims to investigate the impact of gift-givers’ perception of relational closeness on their gift-selection attitude and eventual selection when the gift is not a requested-gift.

A conceptual framework was constructed on the basis of five hypotheses, which were tested by field data collected through surveys of urban Indian gift-givers while they shopped for a gift. Logistic regressions were used for validating hypotheses. Mediation effect was computed using the PROCESS macro in SPSS.

The giver may have either a “recipient-centric” or a “giver-centric” attitude towards gift-selection. It was found that givers who feel greater closeness towards recipients are less likely to be “giver-centric” and more likely to believe that the recipient’s preferences are similar to their own. The givers’ belief that the recipient’s preferences are similar to their own mediates the effect of closeness on attitude. Closeness reduces the odds of making a “preference-contrary” selection among “recipient-centric” givers because of a perceived similarity of preferences.

The study was conducted among urban Indian gift-shoppers. Cross-cultural study may be required for general interpretation of the results. In addition, the role of reciprocity in determining giver’s attitude and gift-selection was not studied.

The study found that the odds of making “preference-contrary” gift-selection depend on the closeness of the dyadic relation. This understanding can be used in advertising and promoting products that are used as gifts between close relations.

Previous studies postulated and demonstrated that relational closeness affects gift-giving behaviour, but none connected closeness to gift-selection. This research conceptualised gift-giver’s attitude, which influences giver’s selection.

Through a critical reading of a twentieth-century Bengali artist’s autobiography, this paper aims to attempt to demonstrate how commercial art and the consumption ethos symbolized by that art represented an archetypal bhadralok insignia. A close examination of this insignia reveals how the dynamics of modern liberal values mediating through the colonial capitalist structure in relation to the regional particularities of Bengal opened up a new space of cosmopolitanism, where there is an attempt to reframe cultural practices in the light of a broader global history of interrogation, reason, change and emancipation.

This paper is a historical analysis of primary sources.

It was found that the bhadralok-led Bengal School of Art influenced commercial art of early postcolonial Bengal.

The study is limited to the region of Bengal.

This paper makes contributions to one of the less-researched, but very important areas, of business history in India.

This paper aims to investigate the multihoming behavior of users on social networking web sites in the absence or the presence of product differentiation.

The approach is to build a theoretical model to explain the multihoming behavior of users on social networking web sites.

Under multihoming without product differentiation, all members of the smaller network multihome to the bigger network and the social networking web site with the bigger network size benefits from multihoming. Under multihoming with product differentiation, when the smaller network differentiates its product from the bigger network, then all members of the bigger network will multihome to the smaller network. Welfare is higher for both sided multihoming and both sided multihoming will happen only when the social networking web sites are differentiated in terms of features.

The model is a theoretical model and will need to be tested empirically.

The results of the model indicate that multihoming results in increased utility for the users of social networking web sites when the two web sites are differentiated in terms of features.

From the literature available in the public domain, the paper has not found any existing theoretical model to explain multihoming behavior of users on social networking web sites. The paper fulfils this objective.

This chapter shifts contemporary debates on Eurocentrism from its focus on European social theory to an analysis of its moorings in non-Atlantic sociological traditions and especially those within ex-colonial countries. It discusses the sociological/anthropological visions of two first generation sociologists/anthropologists from India, G. S. Ghurye (1893–1983) and D. P. Mukerji (1894–1961), within Orientalist-Eurocentric positions and explores how these are reinvented in the work of contemporary sociologist T. N. Madan (1933–). It suggests that colonial processes and its institutions together with “derivative” nationalist ideas have played and continue to play important mediatory role in organizing these Orientalist-Eurocentric visions.

The chapter presents three sets of arguments. First it suggests that in order to understand postcolonialism it is imperative to lay out the organic links between Orientalism and Eurocentrism. Eurocentrism and its mirror Orientalism mediated to frame social science language in terms of the binaries of universal (the West) and particular (the East). The particular was represented in India through the discipline of anthropology. The latter studied “traditions” through the themes of religion, caste, and family and kinship. When sociology emerged as a discipline in India in the early twentieth century, it continued to use the language organized by anthropology to analyze the particular cultural traditions of the country. Second, I suggest that these binaries also framed nationalist thought and the latter mediated in framing the sociological ideas of G. S. Ghurye and D. P. Mukerji which were embedded in Eurocentric-Orientalist principles. Third, I analyze the ideas of the contemporary social theorist T. N. Madan to indicate how his perspective continues to derive its positions from Orientalist-Eurocentric positions and ignores an engagement with critics who have questioned Orientalist Eurocentrism. Disregarding these arguments implies the legitimation of the latter perspective derived from the disciplines of sociology/anthropology.

The chapter contends that a decolonized critique of colonial social science has existed in other regions of the world including India, and that this perspective needs to be retrieved by social theorists to reformulate the sociological discourse as a study of modern India. It also suggests that contemporary analysis of Eurocentrism needs to move out from within the circuits of knowledge defined by received colonial geopolitical enclaves in order to assess the way production, distribution, and consumption of Orientalist-Eurocentric perspectives have organized sociological traditions across the world including the Global South.

The present study intends to shed light on behaviour of customers towards usage of social media for purchasing decisions. The study proposes an extension to technology acceptance model (TAM) to analyse the significance of monetary benefits and information reliability on customers' intention to use social media.

The sample was drawn from social media users of north-western region of India (n = 622). The proposed model was tested using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

Results indicate that monetary benefits and perceived ease of use have significant influence on customers' intention to use social media, while information reliability and monetary benefits significantly influence only through perceived usefulness.

The findings are valuable to marketers to acknowledge the potential of social media to reach to masses by providing timely and reliable information. The study also reveals that website/app developers should implement a user-friendly interface and reliable content to influence customers' usage behaviour.

The study is a unique attempt to examine the effect of monetary benefits and information reliability with TAM's key constructs in the context of social media adoption. Studies undertaken aforementioned dimensions are mainly concerned with examining direct contribution of social media and its effect on purchase decisions.

The apparel and textile sector poses a significant environmental challenge due to its substantial contribution to pollution in the form of air, water and soil pollution. To combat these issues, the adoption of sustainable practices is essential. This study aims to identify and analyse the barriers that hinder the progress of sustainability in the apparel and textile industry. By consulting experts in the field, critical barriers were identified and given special attention.

To achieve the research objective, an integrated approach involving Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) and fuzzy MICMAC decision-making techniques was employed. The results were further validated through the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method.

The findings highlight that barrier related to clothing disposal, inadequate adaptation to modern technology, challenges affecting sector efficiency and issues related to fashion design are crucial in influencing the remaining six barriers. Based on the outcomes of the DEMATEL method, a comprehensive cause-and-effect diagram was constructed to gain a deeper understanding of these challenges.

This research provides valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders in the apparel and textile industry. It offers a strategic framework to address and overcome sustainability barriers, promoting the development of a more environmentally responsible and resilient sector.

The purpose of this research is to conduct an in-depth investigation of the barriers apparel and textile sectors. It is feasible that both the management team and the medical experts who provide direct patient care could benefit from this research.