The Business Review

School of Business Studies

University of Kashmir

ISSN: 0972-8384

With an increase in the advertisement expenditure by companies, researches are trying to understand and determine its’ impact on the consumers’ perception towards the advertisements (favourable or unfavourable) and how they shape their attitude towards the promoted products. In this paper, the consumers’ attitude towards advertisements and its impact on the brand attitude has been studied in PepsiCo India Pvt Ltd. Also, the impact of demographic variables i.e. gender and age on the consumers’ attitude towards advertisements and the product has been studied. For this purpose, data has been collected from 320 respondents across all income and age groups. The data has been collected using a questionnaire the reliability of which was tested using Cronbach’s Alpha. Quantitative methodology has been used to analyse the data. The results reveal that majority of the respondents rated Pepsi favorably on various brand attributes (i.e. Quality, Value, Entertainment, Price, etc.). Also, the perception of the consumers towards the various advertising components and the brand attitude is independent of age and gender. The study revealed a mixed relation of brand attitude with the components of the attitude towards advertisements. The study reveals that the perception towards various components of advertising has a significant impact on the brand attitude. This fact is important for the company and should be given due consideration while designing advertisements. Also, advertising should be prioritised as it can play an important role in projecting a favourable image of PepsiCo India Pvt Ltd.

Growth and development, congruence, efficacy and lucrativeness are some of the mutual goals to be achieved by both the individual and the organization in today’s business world of thoroughpaced competition. The success of an appraisal system would, therefore, depend on how far it is able to meet the organizational as well as individual needs. Organizations exist to attain certain goals and objectives through an integrated effort and some form of control and coordination is needed to facilitate the attainment of such goals, thus control devices in the form of performance appraisal are used to accomplish their professed objectives. The present research paper emphasises on the performance appraisal as a multifunctional tool in telecom organisations of Jammu & Kashmir, India, focussing on the linkages of performance appraisal with the administrative and developmental decisions like remuneration, training and development, grievance redressal, promotions, demotions, layoffs and the like. The respondents in this research study are appraisees at the three managerial levels-higher, middle and lower in three private telecom companies and one government owned enterprise, providing a comparison between all the four sample study organisations. The prime focus of this study is based on the appraisees’ perception towards the significance of the administrative and developmental functions of performance appraisal which positively or negatively affect an employee’s position and career growth within the organisation.

The present paper is aimed to examine the impact of HR practices on organizational commitment of employees in sample select organizations. It is also aimed to examine the relationship between HR practices and Organizational Commitment. The findings of the study revealed that there exists a positive and favourable relationship between HR practices and Organizational commitment. Moreover, the study found that HR practices significantly influences Organizational commitment among employees. The study suggests that HR practices need to be further strengthened in order to promote and enhance organizational commitment among employees of selected organizations.

Entrepreneurs are considered as the fourth factor of production along with land, labour and capital. Some consider them as innovators who come up with new ideas for products, markets or techniques. In India, despite the sociological set-up has been a male dominated one, woman entrepreneurship is gradually gaining importance. The impact of globalisation is also helping the Indian woman in making a contribution to the economic development of the country. But women globally as well as in India are facing many problems at various levels, beginning right at commencement of business idea. Focussing on the problems faced by women entrepreneurs, an attempt will be made at highlighting various programmes and policies pursued by the government to overcome the same and to further facilitate woman entrepreneurship. This paper will examine issues and challenges of female entrepreneurial activity in India and suggest various measures to revamp the existing entrepreneurial structure in order to strengthen the role of women entrepreneurs.

Change is inevitable in the history of any organisation. Organisations that do not change or keep pace with the changing environment suffer from entrophy and soon become defunct. Organisations have an internal environment, but exist in an external environment. The internal environment is in terms of the task, structure, technology, social (people) and economic variables, while the external environment is in terms of the larger social, political, economic and cultural factors. To function effectively, organisations have to achieve equilibrium within the internal variables in active interaction with each other and also with the external environment. However this equilibrium is not static but dynamic. Therefore, organisations have to modify and change to adapt themselves to the changing internal and external environment. Thus no organisation can stand still and “tread water” for very long. Organisational changes are needed at all levels in the development cycle – grass root/community based organisations, intermediary organisations, both government and non-government, and also at policy making levels. In the organisational adjustment process, experience shows that misfits tend to leave the system and the resulting environment is more conducive to a participatory approach. In this paper an attempt has been made to understand the concept of organisational change and the role of change agent into the process. This paper also discusses the need for capacity devlopment in an organisation in present context in order to bring about the change within.

India is among the fastest growing medical tourism destinations in the world. Medical Tourism is broadly defined as the act of travelling to obtain medical care in another country or region of the same country where specialised treatment is given to the patients at affordable cost without waiting for long time. India has become one of the main hub of Medical Tourism in the world. There are several reasons like availability of world class technology and procedures, word class doctors and nurses at a very less cost. This type of tourism has boosted India’s economy and increased its forex. Having vast scope for Medical Tourism, there is a need to explore this potential in full strength.

Skills and knowledge are key drivers of macro economic growth and socioeconomic stability. Skills are central to improve employability and livelihood opportunities, reduce poverty, enhance productivity, and promote environmentally sustainable development. Appropriate policies for the skill development occupy a dominant place in the development of economy. With the demographic dividend, India needs to impart adequate skills to its workforce. Skill development has emerged as national priority for which a number of measures have been taken. In this context, present paper studies and investigates the present status of skill development in Jammu and Kashmir. Coordinated efforts are needed to develop an integrated approach that improves access to relevant, good quality education and training to all rural women and men.

Women are the major contributors of Indian economy. They play a crucial role in the economic development of their families and communities but certain obstacles such as poverty, unemployment, low household income and societal discriminations mostly in developing countries have hindered their effective performance of that role. In spite of discharging a number of duties and doing more work as compared to male members their participation in decision making process is not encouraging. Empowerment is the process of growth and development of an individual or a group so that they can make strategic choices about their lives. Microfinance as a tool of women empowerment has been accepted in almost all parts of the world. The Self Help Group (SHG) strategy is one of the instruments for empowerment of women through economic intervention. The assumption is that once the women experience the empowerment at the lower order (knowledge and awareness of common social issues, increased mobility, small household purchases etc.), it will in itself translate into empowerment at the higher order (increased self esteem, large household purchases, decisions making at the community level etc). But how far microfinance has empowered the marginalized women within her household is an important issue which needs to be researched upon. Hence the present study seeks to examine the impact of microfinance in empowering SHG members in their everyday lives. A Qualitative study design was adopted to explore the impact of SHGs on the empowerment of rural women of district Aligarh. A total of five FGDs were conducted among the members of the Self Help Groups. The FGDs were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The themes which emerged from the FGDs were Awareness of Schemes and Rights, Knowledge and Concern of Health Issues, Level of Confidence, Freedom of Movement, Functional literacy, Decision making in the household matters and Reproductive rights/choices.

The Internet has been touted as an economy-altering technological invention, revolutionizing marketing and trade .Globalization through the Internet has changed the business paradigm for global marketers. Given the trend of globalization and the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, e-commerce and interactive marketing have become key elements in marketing communications across nations. Initially, the Internet was conceptualized as a culture-free medium on the basis of its global accessibility. Only recently did scholars start to analyze the socio-cultural factors in e-commerce adaptation, website design and content. The aim of this study is to examine the role of corporate website-Pepsi in marketing communications in the cross-cultural context. People from different cultures use web interfaces in different ways; they hold different mental models for visual representations, navigation, interaction, and layouts, and have different communication patterns and expectations. In the context of globalization, web developers and designers have to make adaptations to fit the needs of people from different cultures, The study tries to explore and identify the strategies used by High-Context and Low-Context cultures in utilizing the Internet for communication and marketing purposes. Using Hall's High and Low Context dimensions as the main parameters, an exploratory analysis of Pepsi‘s websites identified different strategies on website design, for culturally appropriate websites

In organisations, different employees come together to work towards a common goal but if there are any kind of differences which make it difficult for employees to work together, it will hinder the growth of the organisation and make it impossible to achieve the goals effectively. This paper analyzes the relationship between employee diversity and inter se relationships. The study was conducted on a sample of 352 employees from telecom companies (Bharti Airtel and MTNL) in Delhi NCR. The workforce diversity of gender, age, marital status, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and qualifications revealed that it has no effect on the relationships among the diverse employees. But in case of the public organisation the differences in language showed a significant impact on the relationships among the diverse employees.

Environment is undergoing great changes, and of these there are many changes which organisations/institutions cannot escape from and as such leaders have a main role to adapt these changes and overcome related challenges. It is the quality of leadership that can make a difference during these challenging times. Among other things, emotions have a tremendous influence on leadership and quality of decisions which gives rise to the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI). Emotional Intelligence is all about teamwork, leadership, partnership and vision. The emotionally intelligent leaders help an organisation/institution to excel consistently in all these areas. An organisation/ institution which has an emotionally intelligent leader has productive, motivated, efficient and committed staff. It is also expected that leaders who are high on emotional intelligence are vital to organisational success; therefore, leader should have the ability to sense employees’ feelings about their work environments, to intervene when problems arise and to manage their own emotions. The purpose of this paper is to review the various emotional intelligence models and the studies pertaining to the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership (TL). In total 24 empirical studies were reviewed which were selected keeping in view the different criteria laid down by the researcher. The paper has adopted review methodology by conducting a literature search concerning emotional intelligence and transformational leadership for the period 2000-2015. The results show that most studies provide empirical support of the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership.

Enhancing employability skills of management students is challenge before the institutes of management education Management education is not able to identify the way and out to develop employability skills also in a puzzle to select a proper approach that may have more employability alternatives to management students. Management education today has to address a wide variety of critical issues, one of survival, intense competition, serving the needs of stakeholders, delivering industry employable graduates and in the process of doing all this develop brand equity. While all of these issues are critical and important enough to generate a discussion, research and elaboration at length, this paper is an attempt to know the perception of MBA student's possession of employability skills at entry level in job market. This particular study focuses on the gap between perceived skills by management students and the industry expectations from MBA post-graduate at entry level.

Improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality have gained lot of importance for long time. Though various policies and lot of awareness and technology supported treatments are implemented throughout the world, but still there lot of issues related to safe motherhood. In this study an attempt is made to analyse child delivery management practices in Gujarat state by using DLHS-III

Investment and taxes are the two important facets of economy, in this paper an attempt has been made to examine the role of demographic variables on the investment behaviour considering various tax saving schemes, The data has been primarily collected using a well structured questionnaire. The results portray Gender, Age and income all influence the decision of investing in various tax saving schemes.

The study aims to explore the significant difference between demographic variable groups on customer perception towards various personal wellbeing dimensions in health insurance purchase decision. This structure has been tested using one-way ANOVA (f-test) and independent sample ttest to find out significant difference among the variables considered. An empirical study has been conducted with a well-structured questionnaire consisting of questions/items related to the various personal wellbeing dimensions affecting health insurance decision. The data has been collected randomly from 764 customers of a private health insurance provider in Jammu and Kashmir. The results of the study elucidate that there are some significant mean differences in the perception of customers towards personal wellbeing across gender and education level. In addition, there is no significant mean difference across employment type and age group of customers. It means that male and female customers and customers having different education level have a different perception about personal wellbeing when considering health insurance purchase.

Having loyal and committed employees these days is a major challenge for any organization especially for service organizations where the effectiveness of organization mainly depends on the behaviour and performance of the people. The way employees behave and perform mainly depends on how they view their organization in terms of: providing them necessary support whenever in need; working for their betterment; and appreciating their work efforts. When employees perceive that the organization values them as a member of organization, cares about their well-being and provides them necessary work support, they try to reciprocate by being loyal and committed, improving their performances, and indulging in such behaviours that are beneficial for the organization. Such perception of employees also called as perceived organizational support (POS) can be influenced by many factors which the organizations need to manage and monitor. This paper is an attempt to provide an idea of perceived organizational support, organizational commitment and the relationship thereof. Further, the paper provides for the role of various organizational support practices from the existing literature (such as participation in decision making, growth opportunities, fairness of rewards, leader-member exchange and work-family support), in improving the support perceptions of employees positively and eventually in enhancing commitment of employees towards the organization.

The advancement in Information Communication Technology has pushed reforms in administration and institutions of governance across country. The governments all over the world are in continuous quest of developing newer ways to deliver public services more efficiently and effectively, so is our national government working on. It is envisaged that the cost of rendering services per head will decrease through the information technology-based governance system and thereby creating equitable provisions of public services and anticipating better planning across administrative area. The present research will present the impact of e-governance system practices on organization innovation and achievement of sustainable development goals, which is the prime focus of COP 21.

Investment, unlike saving is the most significant contributor in the economic development of an economy. However, Indians is regarded as a country of savers. The attitude of Indian masses towards investments is negative, they prefer keeping money at home instead of investing it and earning a return. This poses a threat to the nation for it results in unequal distribution of wealth. The reasons for this phenomenon need to be dig out so that appropriate steps may be undertaken to ensure better utilization of available savings. Besides, finding out the causes, an analysis of psychological factors which affect the financial decisions among Indians would be a worthy step. This study is undertaken with that objective. The study used theory of Planned Behaviour propounded by Ajzen in 1991 to measure investment intentions. This theory includes three motivational antecedents of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control as the predictors of intentions to perform a desired action. As, a general rule, the theory holds, the more favourable the attitude and subjective norm with respect to behaviour and the greater the perceived behavioural control, the stronger should be an individual’s intention to perform the behaviour under consideration.

The use of information technology has greatly affected the tourism industry and called attention towards measurement of effectiveness of web 2.0 web sites. The strategic technology has a significant impact on the tourism enterprises and its benefits are incremental and intangible in nature. The impact of web 2.0 websites on tourism industry need to be measured and the websites need to be evaluated. After a thorough review of literature, the variable identified for evaluating second generation websites in this very research were accessibility, user friendliness, attractiveness, appearance, contents, completeness, clarity and accuracy. The data was culled from 295 tour operators of Srinagar city who were registered with J&K Tourism department. A criterion for evaluating Web 2.0 websites was developed and the model was tested with empirical evidences.