Vivek S. Natarajan

The relationship between web quality and user satisfaction: the moderating effects of security and content

The growing popularity of online shopping has drawn an increasing amount of attention from organisations to maintain quality of their websites and attract customers. The principal objective of this study was to test the conceptual model of various components of website quality and customer satisfaction. The study investigates the moderating effects of security and content of websites in relation to the effects of components of website quality on customer satisfaction. We collected data consisting of a total of 448 responses from individuals (255 from USA, and 193 from India) who are habituated to visit websites and engage in online shopping. We used structural equation modelling to test the measurement model and employed hierarchical moderated regression to analyse the collected data. Our findings demonstrated that 1 various components of website quality viz., ease of use, reliability, and interaction are important to enhance customer satisfaction 2 security and content have moderating effect on these direct relationships. On the basis of our results, the companies must stress the content and security features to enhance customer satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The regional impact of monetary policy on house prices

This paper examines how house prices respond to monetary policy in the nine census regions of the USA. A polynomial distributed lag regression model is estimated for each region. The dependent variable in each equation includes growth for the index of regional house prices. The independent variables include: (1) growth for an index of national house prices; (2) difference between the regional unemployment rate and the national unemployment; (3) the growth in M2. The money stock variable enters each equation as a polynomial distributed lag. Given this specification, regional house prices are positively correlated with money stock growth in some regions, and negatively correlated in others.

Organic growth – a taxonomic perspective

As the opportunities for mergers and acquisitions are finite, the principal way that a firm can expand is through organic growth. This paper has a comprehensive discussion on the subject of organic growth by taking a taxonomic approach. It first classifies the different routes to growth, followed by a categorisation of the various factors that could inhibit it. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the importance of the interaction of historical antecedents and the ability to exploit existing opportunities.

An Evaluation of the Demand for Orphan Drugs as a Response to Promotional Expenditures

Orphan drugs describe a subset of medicines which aim to serve rare diseases and therefore do not have a sizeable demand. As the market for these drugs is small, pharmaceutical companies do not have an incentive to manufacture this genre of drugs. However, in the USA, the Orphan Drug Act provides various incentives to manufacturer of these drugs. The USA is also one of the few countries that allow drugs companies to advertise “prescription only” drugs. This gives the opportunity to disseminate information about rare diseases and its potential cures to people who would not otherwise have known about these options. In our paper, we examine how the demand for orphan drugs has been influenced by these promotional expenditures. We examine the demand in response to the promotional expenditures for different companies, both by examining orphan drugs as a sub-set of all prescription drugs, as well as differentiating between different types of orphan drugs themselves. The results have potential implications for public policy about this important sector of health and medicine.

An Exploratory Investigation of Social Responsibility in DTC Advertising — Evidence From Outlier Analysis

The USA and New Zealand are the only two countries that allow advertising of prescription drugs directly to consumers. Although these drugs are not available over the counter, the rationale for allowing this type of advertising is that prospective customers can recognize their symptoms in the advertisements and approach their physicians for prescriptions for the advertised drugs. This type of advertising, called DTC advertising is an example of a pull strategy, where advertising to the customer generates a demand for the advertised product, which is then pulled through the channel. DTC advertising is often complemented by push strategies, such as sampling and detailing. Sampling involves the distribution of free samples by pharmaceutical representatives to physician’s offices. Detailing covers the expenses of these representatives as they visit physician’s offices.

Social and cultural factors as a determinate of ICT expenditures: an empirical study

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have come to hold an important place in strategies for promoting economic growth and development in developing countries. It is known that ICT expenditures as a percent of GDP vary between countries. An elevated rate of ICT expenditures as a percent of GDP indicates that a country is closing the digital divide gap. The primary purpose of the paper is to identify social and cultural variables that explain variations in ICT expenditures measured as a percent of GDP. A multiple regression equation is estimated to examine the impact of selected social and cultural variables on ICT expenditures. The dependent variable is ICT expenditures as a percent of GDP. The independent variables include math and science education, freedom of press, percentage of English speaking, percentage of Protestant, and number of vacation days. This study suggests two factors that give countries an advantage in assimilating information and communication technologies. One is a high quality of math and science education. Another is a government that protects freedom of the press.

Location strategies of dairy plants in India

Competing for a perennial supply of milk is a major factor influencing dairy plants, and theoretically, they must be positioned at an optimum distance between themselves in order to sustain their profitability. However, the location optimised on economic variables seldom corresponds with the actual location of a dairy plant as the final selection is an outcome of a complex set of variables, both objective and subjective in nature. This paper models the influence of various subjective and objective factors on location strategies of the dairy plants in India. Findings indicate that the demographic factors, represented as population density, employment and literacy emerge as the most significant influencers of the choice of a manufacturing location of small-, medium- and large-scale units. Among the subjective variables, the site specific and micro-factors, comprising of the regulatory framework, and the site-specific fixed costs score over the macro-factors while selecting a location.