Abstract

The efficiency of Indian banks has emerged as a key issue in recent years. This study analyses the technical efficiency of banks in India with respect to different input and output factors. The data for the study is collected from the annual reports of a sample of eighteen public sector banks and thirteen private sector banks, for the period of 2007-12. The analysis is based on the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) using the intermediation approach. The inputs considered were Capital, Reserves, Deposits, and Interest Expended, while the outputs considered were Investments, Advances, Interest Income, and Other Income.

The results of the study indicate that public sector banks were significantly more efficient than the private sector banks in the initial year 2007-08 of the study period, and were consistently more efficient than private sector banks throughout the study period, except for the year 2010-11. The results of the study also indicate that private sector banks have worsened in efficiency with respect to interest expended over the study period, while public sector banks have worsened in efficiency with respect to other income over the study period. Thus, the private sector banks must take steps to control their interest expenditure whilst maintaining their outputs, while the public sector banks must take steps to increase their other (noninterest) income whilst controlling their inputs.

Abstract

The formation of manufacturer-supplier partnerships has emerged as a significant and popular competitive strategy in marketing channel relationships. To ensure their operational and financial benefits, small-medium manufacturing enterprises must work closely with the suppliers and the inter-firm linkage between the manufacturer-supplier units may involve all possible forms of economic relationships between them. This study highlights that prior to assess supplier service, the internal working of manufacturing units towards supply function and also ability to provide Ease of Doing Business (EODB) needs to be assessed. 120 executives working in supplier units providing raw materials and other supplies to SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) located in north India responded to a questionnaire survey. The respondents were asked to assess service quality offered by the buyer units towards facilitating the supplier's working and EODB on 1 to 5 Likert scale. Construct validation using exploratory factor analysis showed an interpretable latent structure consisting of 4 determinants and 21 indicators. Confirmatory factor analysis synthesized a purified, valid and reliable service quality measurement scale with 4 determinants and 16 indicators. It was concluded that SMEs need to improve working towards suppliers on four dimensions, viz., Assurance, Communication, Adaptability, and Empathy to carve a win-win situation. The scale thus developed can be used by managers of small-medium manufacturing units in identification of opportunities for assuring service excellence to their suppliers to facilitate their working and improve performance thereby mutually benefitting both partners and the whole supply chain.

Abstract

Online shopping is a fast growing concept nowadays globally, and it is seen that number of online shops have been increasing and it is obvious that there has been an upward trend of consumers who opt online purchases rather than conventional shopping. A consumer group, which is designated as Millennials (Generation Y) has a huge market in online market, which alone will contribute in the success of online retailers in the future. As we see internet is widely used by people of this generation and in fact, they are more technologically savvy and people feel much comfortable in using this internet for a variety of purposes including online shopping. For more than two decades, this millennial consumers segment constitutes a major marketing segment in the global market place. This trend is attributed to the fact that the individuals in the age group are in great numbers and they have supreme purchasing power which in fact, surpasses any other group of consumers. For this study, a sample size of 132 was taken through probability sampling techniques.

Abstract

Financial system plays an important role in the economic growth of the country. A fresh investor considers various factors before deciding his or her investment avenue. Similarly, a youngster who is considering of investing his savings will choose an investment option depending on his perceptions about various investment options. The study seeks to find out the various factors influencing youngsters' investment decisions. In other words, the study attempts to identify the factors that will be considered by the youngsters before they decide their investment avenue. The data required for the study is collected from 100 youngsters in Chennai city. SPSS 21 version is used to analyze data and reliability analysis is used to test the validity of the variables considered for the study, and factor analysis with Varimax rotation is used to group various factors influencing the youngsters' choice of investment avenues. The study comes out with five major factors influencing youngsters' choice of investment avenues. The reliability analysis shows 0.802 indicating good reliability of the scores generated by the variables used for the study.

Abstract

There has been a constant ongoing struggle between man and machines from centuries. In the past, many artisans, farmers and textile workers have opposed the automation of their sectors or industries. Automation is replacing a man's job with an automated or self-control machine to increase efficiency and to increase the quantity of production with minimal human supervision; management is forced to adopt automation for competitive advantage and many other reasons. The term automation and attrition go hand in hand as known and observed by many scholars. All of them to an extent have known the impact of automation on employees and their relations with the management. Many ways were suggested to alleviate the pain of man due to the advent of machine in his job. Many laws were made by the governments of nations to compel the management to be sincere in their efforts towards the displaced workers. But, still the problem is persisting why? This is one side of the story; this article tries to answer that why question. Are all the measures suggested and being implemented useless? No! Then why has the pain not gone and still many workers are suffering? and how researchers make more efficient methods in this regard? The other side of the story is Automation leading to employee engagement, this angle of the story is also discussed in this paper as the main focus and to arrive at this statement as a conclusion.