Vandana Ahuja

Internet Marketing and Consumers Online: Identification of Website Attributes Catering to Specific Consumer Intents in a Digital Paradigm

The internet plays two important roles in marketing-influencing consumer behavior and harnessing consumer intelligence. While its vital for organizations to evaluate consumer intentions and provide consumers the necessary information they are looking for, equally important is the need for collecting consumer data by studying the consumer behavioral patterns on the internet and subsequently nurturing long term relationships with consumers. This study aims at identifying the dimensions of website attributes that represent intentions of consumers for visiting product and brand websites and examines the relationship between various website attributes, with respect to the function performed by the attribute. The methods on how the results were obtained and used will be explored further in this article. This research will be further used for analyzing website attributes with respect to Web Traffic, Website Reputation, Alexa Reach & Readability.

Expanding the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model-Towards more Efficient Training in the IT Sector

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the Kirkpatrick Learning Evaluation Model (1950) can be augmented to make it more credible and successful evaluation parameter in the changing times. Since the advent of Information Technology industry the rigid structures of organizations are replaced by the Flat/Matrix structures, removing the bars of time and place. This paper is an attempt to include three gaps identified in the Kirkpatrick Model, Training motivation, Organization citizenship behaviour and the Assessment of both the individual and the Organization simultaneously. Through co-relation and regression analysis these gaps were tested on the data obtained from 461 employees. The data support the various relationships to be included in Kirkpatrick Model and it identifies that for an effective training program its essential to perform both pre-training and post-training analysis using the four parameters of Kirkpatrick Model viz. Reaction (changed to Motivation), Learning, Behaviour (or Performance) and Results.

Websites and Internet Marketing: Developing a Model for Measuring a Website’s Contribution to the Brand

Websites play a pivotal role in contributing to the brand identity of an organization and an even greater role in stimulating the brand-consumer relationship. This manuscript proposes a framework for measuring the Brand Contribution Index (BCI) for a website. The authors commence the study by identifying eight significant website dimensions viz. Relative Importance(RIi), Popularity(Pi), Search Engine Optimization(SEOi), Domain Age(DAi), Site Compatibility with Social Networks(SCSNi), Keyword Research(KRi), Site Quality (SQi) and Site Accessibility (SAi). The Brand Contribution Index is a weighted measure of these eight dimensions. The authors further proceed to segment the websites according to their BCI and create segment profiles by using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. This will help the organizations in studying the performance of their websites in the context of the BCI and create strategies to subsequently improve this performance across the website dimensions where the website is demonstrating a poor score.

An Empirical Segmentation of Users of Mobile Banking Apps

ABSTRACT Digital technologies have squeezed the entire world into a small frame. Trade and transactions never stop, and they go where the customer is. Marketers must reinvent their strategies and toolkits to win in this hyper-connected world. Companies are creating new and improved ways for engaging and involving their consumers, and one significant tool now used by companies for these purposes is the app. Mobile phones have registered the highest growth among all technological evolutions, and mobile apps are proliferating. Apps are being used across a diverse range of industry verticals, including banking, e-commerce, travel, and tourism. This article studies a set of twenty different banking apps and segments consumers based on their adoption and usage of the apps. This article emphasizes the role of mobile technologies to change established channels and banking services, and also analyzes how the Indian banking sector has benefited from the adoption of mobile apps.

A Study of Role Stress among the IT Professionals in India: Examining the Impact of Demographic Factors

Contemporary industries face new competition requiring employees to work for longer hours under competitive time bound deadlines. Prolonged exposure to such stressful situations leads to a depletion and exhaustion of resources in the mind and body; with dysfunctional effects on job performance and overall organizational effectiveness. The Indian IT industry is a fast paced service industry that is characterized by such stressful work situations and related outcomes. The present study analyses the various factors that contribute to organizational stress and the role of Demographic Factors on Role Stress; among the professionals of the Indian IT industry. A sample of 250 employees has been collected from the Delhi NCR region. Role stress has been measured by using the ORS scale which comprises of ten dimensions of role stress that are measured by 50 items. The results show that there is significant impact of demographic factors on the Role Stress amongst the IT professionals.

Segmenting online consumers using K-means cluster analysis

Internet users have several characteristics that differentiate them from other online users, so the aim of this research study is to segregate online consumers into diverse consumers segments on the basis of their online shopping behaviour. In this paper, the diverse stages of the consumer decision making process have been discussed and this study explores only three important phases of consumer behaviour in impacting the pre purchase decision (need recognition, information search and evaluation of alternatives). Data was collected from a well defined sample of 1,014 respondents who had an active internet usage rate. K-Means cluster analysis was used to extract four consumer segments - cognizant techno strivers, conversant appraisers, moderate digital ambivalents and techno savvy impulsive consumers. Classifying consumers into well defined segments can aid marketing in developing a more streamlined and focused consumer targeting process.

Twitter Presence of Jet Airways-Deriving Customer Insights Using Netnography and Wordclouds

Abstract Companies are increasingly using Twitter for brand engagement and visibility. This manuscript focuses on identification of the content typologies being used by Jet Airways on Twitter to solicit Customer Engagement. This has been done, using a technique called Netnography. Subsequently, the manuscript proceeds to derive customer insights from the twitter page of Jet Airways, using wordclouds. The authors further attempt to generate an algorithm for Sentiment Analysis, using the tweets from the Jet Airways Twitter handle.

Virtual Team Effectiveness: An Empirical Study Using SEM

Abstract Advances in communication and information technology create new opportunities for organizations to build and manage virtual teams. Such teams are composed of employees from different genders, experiences, back grounds and geographic locations. Virtual teams have become a norm for organizations whose members work across disparate geographical locations, relying primarily or exclusively, on the usage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the completion of common goals. This paper attempts to explain the role of vital elements like trust, information sharing and communication, in building virtual teams. This study strives towards developing a set of factors using SEM that can be used by managers of virtual teams for establishing an efficacious relationship amongst the members.

Development of an optimal solution for digital marketing variables in an online tool

IT enabled interactivity has lead to the creation of an online dialogue which can be leveraged by organisations for the dual purposes of building brand equity and building customer relationships. While touching the subject of new interactive marketing communication tools offered by the contemporary collaborative web, this paper focuses on the use of corporate blogs by organisations as tools which foster community interaction and organisational participation to build a congenial ecosystem where organisational elements co–exist with customers and incorporation of consumer feedback is a vital tool for organisational growth (Sifry, 2004). This paper focuses on understanding the role and function of interactivity in an online tool while outlining how an organisation can have the right mix of structural features catering to this role of interactivity. This has been attempted by studying the level of interactivity of a corporate blog by calculating an interactivity score and analysing the relationship between the level of interactivity of the blog and the reach (percent of global internet users who visit the site) as well as the Technorati rating of the blog. Further, by maximising the interactivity score, using linear programming, an attempt has been made to determine an optimal solution to understand the desired level of presence of structural parameters in a blog, catering to specific functions served by the dimension of interactivity.

Examining the impact of Emotional Intelligence on Organizational Role Stress: An empirical study of the Indian IT sector

The nature of jobs in the service industry, are characterized by complex work systems and customer orientation; which require huge emotional labor. These multitudinous demands on the personal and professional fronts, lead to a depletion and exhaustion of resources of the mind and body. Prolonged exposure to such situations has been found to have dysfunctional effects on the individuals; leading to organizational role stress. It has been observed that employees with higher emotional intelligence are more aware of the coping strategies to deal with stress. The acknowledgement to develop emotional competencies of the workforce is therefore, a focal point of concern for human resource practitioners today. This paper attempts to explore the relationship between organizational Role Stress and Emotional Intelligence in the Indian IT industry. Data was collected from a total of 160 employees, both Managers and Non Managers working in the Delhi NCR Region. Emotional Intelligence was measured by developing a scale consisting of 27 items, which was developed by the researchers in the previous studies; by adapting to Indian and Western perspectives on emotional Intelligence. Stress was measured using the Organizational Role Stress questionnaire comprising of 50 items. The results show a strong correlation between Role Stress and Emotional Intelligence and significant impact of Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Stress.