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D. Ashok

Bio: D. Ashok is an academic researcher from VIT University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Population & Higher education. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 6 publications receiving 5 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors hypothesised and tested structural equation model with consumer innovativeness, consumers need for uniqueness-creative choice counter conformity-dimension, status consumption as exogenous, antecedent constructs, market maveness as endogenous construct and market helping behaviour-information provided-dimension as an ultimate endogenous, consequence construct, this model was not tested by earlier studies.
Abstract: In this era of intense commercial information bombardment, the interpersonal communication ‘word of mouth’ (WOM) cuts through the clutter, and gains importance among consumers. Market maven plays a pivotal role in providing valuable market place information through WOM and thereby helping consumers towards their purchases. Literatures indicated need for profiling market mavens with psychological factors, hence the authors hypothesised and tested structural equation model with consumer innovativeness, consumers’ need for uniqueness-creative choice counter conformity-dimension, status consumption as exogenous, antecedent constructs, market maveness as endogenous construct and market helping behaviour-information provided-dimension as an ultimate endogenous, consequence construct, this model was not tested by earlier studies. The structural equation modelling (SEM) results indicated the hypothesised model was consistent with data and the psychological antecedent constructs were having positive relationship with market mavenness. Market mavenness was found to have positive relationship with consequence construct market helping behaviour-information provided-dimension. The findings of this study will enhance the marketers’ ability, leveraging on findings about market mavens, to evolve an effective marketing programme.

3 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the usage pattern, user preferences, and scopes for products change, with respect to the packaged (and branded) dairy products in the town; Bettiah, West Champaran, Bihar.
Abstract: This article throws light on the usage pattern and the reasons behind low sensitivity of packaged dairy products. This paragraph obtains information concerning consumers' preferences and knowledge of processing organic/dairy products. It also identifies those consumers who are most likely to get processed organic/dairy products. The objectives of this study were to examine the usage pattern, user preferences, and scopes for products change, with respect to the packaged (and branded) dairy products in the town; Bettiah, West Champaran, Bihar. The researcher has used a descriptive research study using a structured questionnaire for collecting the necessary details for research analysis. Descriptive frequencies analysis used to determine the user or household characteristics that affect the purchase order related to packaged dairy products. The study also showed that, the family size and families with higher earnings were more concerned with quality of packaged dairy product. Further, this study also revealed that, majority of the population living in rural areas still uses the unprocessed, unbranded local dairy products only, which are neither healthy nor enriched with nutrients.

2 citations

01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors have reviewed some important issues related with the effective implementation of ICTs in higher education and provided suggestions to address certain challenges that would help in the implementation of information communication technologies in Higher education and concurrently increasing the quality of education.
Abstract: India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world, and has been witnessing healthy growth in its number of institutions and enrollment in the last few decades. The education system has seen a scorching growth over the last decade, trebling in size. In 2013, India had 727 universities, over 35,000 colleges and about 13,000 stand-alone institutions Education is recognized as one of the critical elements of the national development effort and Higher education, in particular, is of vital mportance for the nation, as it is a powerful tool to build knowledge-based society of the 21st century. India is developing as a knowledge economy and it cannot function without the support of Information Communication Technologies (ICT). Importance of education in almost all walks of life has increased with the support of ICT. During the past 20 years, the use of ICT has fundamentally changed the working of education. In the current environment-conscious world, the importance of education and acceptability of ICT as a social necessity has been increasing. We can make our learning more engaging with the use of ICT, it can completely change how our education system works. ICT can help in enhancing the quality of education through blended learning by supplementing the traditional talk and chalk method of teaching. ICT, if used creatively, can make a big difference in the way teachers teach and students learn and can help students acquire 21st century skills like digital literacy, innovative thinking, creativity, sound reasoning and effective communication.Role of ICT act as an enabler for quality and market-responsive in higher education. But, Higher education in India is plagued by the challenges of inadequate technology access and inequity coupled with economic considerations and technological know-how, it remains to be seen how ICT can actually burgeon the students and how it can foster change. In this aspect, the paper reviews certain important issues related with the effective implementation of ICTs in Higher Education and provides suggestions to address certain challenges that would help in the implementation of ICTs in Higher education and concurrently increasing the quality of education.

1 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of purchase characteristics on store choice in Kadapa where organized retail is still in its early stages is studied and compared to other emerging Indian markets where the majority of the retail growth is focused on metros.
Abstract: We have entered the 21st century at a time when the demography of our small town and rural population is changing significantly to drive organized retail growth. Thus, 85 per cent of the retail boom which was focused only in the metros has started to infiltrate towards smaller cities and towns. These smaller cities and towns where organized retail is still in its early stages are classified as emerging Indian markets (Ali et al., 2010). Literature indicates that store choice has been widely studied across the world. Interestingly Sinha et al. (2002) identified that it would be interesting to study the influence of purchase characteristics of shoppers on store choice. Even after 10 years, research publications related to this area are very little. Recently Ali et al. (2010) indicated that emerging markets especially where organized retail is still in its early stages are less researched. Hence in this research paper we have studied the influence of purchase characteristics on store choice in Kadapa where organized retail is still in its early stages.

1 citations

01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study the attitudes of business and non-business students towards the fields of consumerism, marketing activities and government regulation with special reference to Manipal University.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to study the attitudes of business and non-business students towards the fields of consumerism, marketing activities and government regulation with special reference to Manipal University. College students signify a large and growing population and they will continue to be consumers for all these years. Businesses are also interested in college students because, as trend setters and early adopters they are believed to influence the purchasing decisions of peers and parents and establish brand loyalties that continue long after college. The structured questionnaires were distributed to the students and the data were analyzed to study the level of knowledge among the business and business students in the fields of consumerism, marketing activities and government regulation. The study also tried to bring out significance and similarities between the attitudes of business and non-business students.This paper presents an initial focus on an important area of consumerism research, by comparing quantitative results of business and non-business students

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an SLR of articles published in the context of DSCM practices and assesses the extent to which the structured literature review (SLR) approach can be applied to dairy supply chain management so as to produce a consistent knowledge stock.
Abstract: Dairy industry plays a vital role in enriching the socio-economic status of rural India, particularly in women empowerment. In general, either a structure or subcomponents of dairy supply chain is discussed in the literature, but the rational (why, what, how) is missing. Further, the structured-literature-review (SLR) of dairy supply chain management (DSCM) practices is scarce. This paper presents an SLR of articles published in the context of DSCM practices. The paper further assesses the extent to which the SLR approach can be applied to DSCM so as to produce a consistent knowledge stock by evolving a context-sensitive study. The key challenges discussed in reviewed articles are highlighted. Authors selected the articles published in peer-reviewed journals and categorized the articles published in recent eleven years into three main subjects of supply chain i.e. distribution management (DM), risk management (RM), and decision-making strategies (DMS). The findings of this study show that the food safety, product quality, and associated economic benefits in dairy industry can be achieved through technological innovation, eradication of uncertainties, and introducing the global SCM practices into lean and green initiatives.

18 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between differentiation strategy, market penetration strategy and sales service support strategy on Coimbatore-based agricultural sector pump industry in South India.
Abstract: Marketing excellence is the need of the hour in today's competitive scenario. Numerous companies were striving to compete by continuous implementation of effective marketing strategies for sustainable growth. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between differentiation strategy, market penetration strategy and sales service support strategy on Coimbatore-based agricultural sector pump industry in South India. In this research structural equation modelling (SEM) approach was adopted using SPSS and AMOS tools, to analyse various attributes. The author has also examined the mediating effect on focus strategy and result shows, differentiation strategy and a market penetration strategy has significant and positive impact on organisational performance. It was suggested to provide adequate technical training for sales/service persons, constantly inspire for technical expertise and look for new design of service quality to monitor ontime service, would place pump industry for sustainable growth in competitive market.

2 citations

Proceedings ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2016
TL;DR: The e-Yantra (Engineering a better tomorrow) project is a project of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay, sponsored by MHRD through National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Itfs a known fact that engineering graduates have a strategic and long]term impact on productivity growth in industry and service sectors [8]. IITfs have always tried to improve the quality of engineering education through distance learning, NPTEL videos, online courses, workshops and by providing continuous support to teachers and students of tier II & III type institutions. This had some limitations since engineering education needs hands on training/experience for theoretical aspects. With this quality of education can be maintained and students will have a platform to think upon and showcase their capabilities. So in order to bridge the quality gap in engineering education we are in need of a platform where ICT is effectively used by premier institutes of India to develop and train teachers and students of private and public sector engineering institution through a combined methodology of Project Based Learning which is completely online. We consider this was the motivation for IIT Bombay team which has provided a perfect solution to remove the gap of quality in education with their project- e-Yantra. e-Yantra (Engineering a better tomorrow) is a project of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay, sponsored by MHRD through National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT). Mission of e- Yantra is to Enabling Embedded systems education in engineering colleges across India in a scalable and sustainable manner.

2 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between positioning strategies and customer patronage of fast food firms in Port Harcourt Metropolis in Nigeria and found that only 2.5% of the variation in Customer patronage was explained by the joint influence of customer expectation, location, service quality and assortment.
Abstract: Our research focus was to investigate the relationship between positioning strategies and customer patronage of fast food firms in Port Harcourt Metropolis in Nigeria. We applied a descriptive research design using cross sectional survey. A self-administered questionnaire was employed with a sample size of 123 which is conveniently extracted from fast food employees out of which110 copies were found useable. To ensure reliability, the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability measure was applied using ‘SPSS’ version 20.0. In analyzing the relationship between our variables of interest and to test the hypothesis, multiple regression analysis was employed with the application of SPSS 20.0 and GRETL software packages. Our findings showed an insignificant relationship between all positioning strategies and customer patronage. Although our estimated relationship of interest was not spurious but only 2.5% of the variation in Customer patronage was explained by the joint influence of customer expectation, location, service quality and assortment. Keywords : Positioning strategy, Customer patronage, Customer expectation, Location, assortment, Dineserv

2 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper , the association between variables of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, cyber-market mavenism, and information sharing behavior, particularly among social network sites (SNS) users in Iraq, was investigated.
Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the association between variables of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, cyber-market mavenism, and information sharing behavior, particularly among social network sites (SNS) users in Iraq.This study depends on a quantitative method to test the variables. The sample contains 388 Iraqi customers or users using social network sites to share information about different products and services. The study conducts a purposive sample to determine the characteristics of users who have much information about different products and services. A questionnaire was prepared based on previous research and distributed to participants. The statistical analysis program (SPSS) for descriptive statistics and PLS-SEM were used to analyze the measurement and structural models to test the hypotheses. The study results showed that altruism, moral obligation, and self-efficacy as intrinsic motivations influence cyber-market mavenism. However, self-enjoyment appears to have no impact on cyber-market mavenism. Moreover, reputation and social interaction also influence cyber-market mavenism. In addition, reciprocity and belongingness have no effect among Iraqi users. Thus, cyber-market mavenism plays a significant role in information-sharing behavior. The reason for such an outcome may develop a competitive advantage for marketers through understanding the market maven behavior on social network sites.

2 citations