Manoj Kumar Dash

Using DEMATEL to construct influential network relation map of consumer decision-making in e-marketplace

Prodigious growth of the internet offers companies many chances to implement new business models, which led to the search of novel techniques for conducting effective marketing business and to reinforce their competitiveness in the marketplace. Commerce is now undergoing a revolutionary phase, where the medium of communication between the customer and the merchant is electronic. The cutting edge for business today is e-marketing. Now there is a need to leverage the knowledge of domain experts in evaluating the consumer decision making in the e-marketplace. The purpose of this study is to construct influential network relation map INRM of consumer decision making in the e-marketplace. For this decision making trial and evaluation laboratory DEMATEL approach is used to investigate the interrelation among perspectives and criteria by the survey of experts. This study provides solutions to improve service quality, optimise source allocation, customise their product/services according to the need of customers and enhance online reputation by increasing customer retention.

Understanding behavioural intention to use information technology: Insights from humanitarian practitioners

We investigate the factors that influence IT adoption in humanitarian organizations.A combined model of UTAUT, personal innovation specific to IT domain and trust in IT was employed.The constructs of UTAUT, performance expectancy and effort expectancy have positive and significant effect on behavioural intention to adopt IT. The contemporary research in the area of individual technology adoption mainly focuses on commercial supply chains. However, limited research focuses on the context of humanitarian supply chains. This calls to develop structural models that can scrutinize the technology adoption behaviour of the users in the humanitarian context. Therefore, this study is an attempt to empirically examine the technology adoption behaviour of humanitarian organizations. It extends the unified theory of the acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model by integrating personal innovativeness and trust in technology with the behavioural intention to adopt technology in the humanitarian context. Data from 192 humanitarian practitioners, who have experienced a large number of disasters, is utilized to empirically validate the conceptual model. The structural equation modelling results show that - out of four constructs namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions under UTAUT - performance expectancy and effort expectancy significantly affect the IT adoption. Contrary to expectations, trust and personal innovation do not affect the behavioural intention. Also, personal innovation does not moderate the relationship between performance expectancy and effort expectancy. This underlines the need to foster a learning culture within these organizations. The efforts made by involved humanitarian organizations may be directed towards improving the level of education, skills and facilitating them with other resources such as appropriate IT and data mining training, so that the technology adoption becomes an integral part of their daily activities. Finally, detailed implications for humanitarian organizations are discussed.

Using entropy and AHP-TOPSIS for comprehensive evaluation of internet shopping malls and solution optimality

Consumers are switching from offline to online to buy everything due to this reason nowadays internet shopping malls (ISMs) are setting up a very crucial role in the economy. For assessment and ranking are basically a critical work which could be exploitation of internet shopping malls information resources when consider in a scientific way, there are many methods for the evaluation and ranking of e-commerce sites. Taking into consideration traffic rank, inbound links, competition, speed, and keyword statistics, in literature multi criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are rarely used by the researchers to find the rank of internet shopping malls (ISMs) on the basis of primary/secondary data of these influencing factors. This study, therefore, is unique to narrow down the gap in literature by employing MCDM methods i.e. entropy and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to collect the weight of influencing factors and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal (TOPSIS) to find the rank of internet shopping malls (ISMs). After finding out the rank of selected criteria, solution optimality needs to be done to find the average ideal solution matrix. Conclusion and managerial implications of the study are also discussed.

Information technology revolution and transition marketing strategies of political parties: analysis through AHP

As the technology has been evolving, India has been witnessing an increased internet revolution growth. Due to information technology IT revolution, all political parties in India are campaigning their party and candidate through social networking sites to capture the confidence and to win the trust of electors in parliamentary elections in 2014, this revisited their marketing strategies: transition from offline to social media. This study develops a conceptual model and identifies the major factors to the merchandising strategies of political parties: transition from offline to online. Analytic hierarchy process AHP is used to produce a hierarchy structure model to prioritise the influencing factors of electors of by the survey of judgment. The results of our analyses show that the growth of internet technology occupied the first rank followed by internet penetration and e-marketing. The findings of this research show that all the offline channels are converting into online channels with very fast speed due to the technology revolution.

Investigating the role of social media in polio prevention in India: a Delphi-DEMATEL approach

Purpose This study aims to evaluate the role of social media (SM) tools in polio prevention in an Indian context by using a hybrid Delphi-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach. Design/methodology/approach A preliminary list of suitable evaluation criteria was derived from an extensive literature review. Ten experts were then contacted to collect data and finalize the most prominent criteria by using the Delphi method. To establish cause-effect relationships among the criteria, further data were collected from 21 experts. The DEMATEL method was applied to process and interpret the data collected. Findings The analysis grouped criteria into two sets, i.e. cause and effect. The results show that awareness of social cause and government utilization of resources fall into the cause group; these elements are critical as both directly affect the remaining criteria. These outcomes can help government and businesses to utilize SM for public health surveillance, e.g. to promote schemes/initiatives through sites concerning polio or related health issues. Practical implications The findings of this research are useful for governments and individual companies to conceive their marketing initiatives akin to polio prevention issues by using SM. Originality/value Despite the emergence of SM, there has been little discussion in existing literature on their role in polio prevention; however, measuring such role could be useful in practice to help decision-makers in exploiting the potential of SM in the health-care context. To fill this gap, this study aims to measure the role of SM in polio prevention in the Indian context and to create a cause-effect evaluation model. Using an integrated Delphi-DEMATEL framework for decision-making in the health-care context is another novelty of this study.

Developing textile entrepreneurial inclination model by integrating experts mining and ISM-MICMAC

The Indian textile industry is lacking in an entrepreneurial inclination of a skilled young generation; because of this, the industry is facing a challenge to achieve sustainable development and growth. To overcome this problem, the goal of this work is to build an entrepreneurial inclination model in the context of the textile industry. For achieving this goal, a combined approach of an extensive literature review and experts mining has been used to establish the entrepreneurial inclination factors in phased of the study. In the second phase, an Interpretive Structural Modelling with Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqués à un Classement (MICMAC) has been applied to build a structural model and to find the driving force factors and dependence power. The results show that effective entrepreneurship courses, institutional policy, training and internship, institutional corporation and the involvement of institutional heads play a very significant role in encouraging youth towards entrepreneurship. The outcomes of the study can help both the government and academic institutes to draw up effective policy and develop an entrepreneurial culture which can help to create more entrepreneurs in the textile field.

A framework for evaluating the status of supply chain integration

Supply chain management (SCM) is among the most frequently discussed topics in the corporate world today. Constant efforts are being made to develop value-added processes that deliver innovative, high-quality, low-cost products on time with greater responsiveness than ever before. Supply chain integration plays an important role to achieve the same. Unfortunately, the SCM concept has not been implemented in totality and there is a huge disconnect between supplier and customer. Many issues need to be addressed to integrate the supply chains of many industries. But the first step is the recognition of the present status of integration so that false notions are removed and fruitful work starts towards better integration and thus higher supply chain (SC) profitability. The present work tries to find out the critical parameters related to supply chain integration, which if addressed properly can provide improvements in supply chain integration effectiveness. Thereafter, the study after establishing the comprehensive list of information that flows through a generic SC and identifying their impact on the SC cost. Finally, a framework has been articulated to enable an organisation to identify its state of supply chain integration.

Using TOPSIS and modified TOPSIS methods for evaluating the competitive advantages of internet shopping malls

Taking into consideration personal innovativeness on information technology, web quality dimension, information and e-service dimension, incentives and post purchase service and online reputation, this research explores how internet shopping malls to establish their competitive advantages through these dimensions. This study starts with an examination of the literature on internet shopping malls about their competitive advantages upon which we develop conceptual framework and proposed a research model. Data is collected through structured questionnaire by survey of experts. TOPSIS is used to rank internet shopping malls and modified TOPSIS is applied to check sensitivity of results. From this study results, information and e-service dimension and online reputation are the most important factors for improving competitive advantage of internet shopping malls. Moreover, Flipkart and Myntra rank the first two positions for internet shopping malls. This study draws on the research results for implications of managerial practice, and then suggests some empirical tactics in order to enhance management performance for the online service providers.

Fuzzy Optimization and Multi-Criteria Decision Making in Digital Marketing

The decision-making process has become a challenge in modern organizations due to increased access to information and large data sets. When considering single-criteria problems, the decision making process is extremely intuitive. On the other hand, multi-criteria decision making, which involves several factors, requires further consideration and more sophisticated methods. Fuzzy Optimization and Multi-Criteria Decision Making in Digital Marketing applies fuzzy theory and multi-criteria decision making principles for better practice in the digital business environment. Presenting timely research and case studies on practical implementation of such theories in the digital marketplace, this publication is designed for use by business professionals, executives, graduate-level students, and researchers. This research-focused publication features discussions on several key concepts useful for modern business professionals including decision-making models and fuzzy theory applied to internet marketing, consumer behavior, and the optimization of strategic marketing plans.

Construction of Capital Procurement Decision Making Models to Optimize Supplier Selection Using Fuzzy Delphi and AHP-DEMATEL

Purpose Supplier selection for capital procurement is a major strategic decision for any automobile company. The decision determines the success of the company and must be taken systematically with the utmost transparency. The purpose of this paper is to construct capital procurement decision-making model to optimize supplier selection in the Indian automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the stated objective, a combined approach of fuzzy theory and AHP-DEMATEL is applied. Evaluation parameters are identified through an extensive literature review and criteria validation has been introduced through a Fuzzy Delphi method by using fuzzy linguistic scales to handle the vagueness of information. AHP is employed to find the priority weight of criteria, although an inter-relationship map among criteria is not possible through AHP alone since it considers all criteria as independent. To overcome this, DEMATEL is used to establish cause-effect relationships among criteria. Findings The results show that the total cost of ownership (TOC) is the first weighted criterion in supplier selection for capital procurement, followed by manufacturing flexibility and maintainability, then conformity with requirement. The cause-effect model shows that supplier profile, TOC, service support and conformity with requirement are in the cause group and are considered to be the most critical factors in selecting the supplier. Originality/value The study’s outcome can help the automobile industry to optimize their selection process in selecting their suppliers for capital procurement; the proposed model can provide guidelines and direction in this regard.