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The goal of this study is to identify and evaluate key success factors (CSF) for unorganized retail supply chain management (UORSCM). The interpretative structural modelling (ISM) approach is applied for analyzing the CSFs. In India, the unorganized fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail sector occupies a sizable amount of space and makes a significant GDP contribution. A total of 13 CSFs are analyzed, and to determine their driving and dependency power, MICMAC analysis is carried out. The outcome demonstrates that unorganized retailing suffers a variety of difficulties, like, the arrival of new competitors, product substitution, supplier problems, buyer threats, an increase in organized retailers, and co-manufacturer threats, in developing country settings. The factors with the highest positive impact are service quality in FMCG retail, time management at stores, product quality, and spoilage adjustment in retail. The factors, service quality in retail, time management at stores, and product quality have resulted in the highest driving power and lowest dependence power to attain the desired performance of UORSCM. The study’s findings also indicate that by focusing on these factors, unorganized retailers can efficiently handle customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to identify the demographic variables that influence rural customers' decision-making rules in the process of purchasing fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) products. Five FMCG personal care products are taken into consideration for the study. A multistage proportionate sampling procedure was adopted and 550 respondents were selected for the study. The regression model enables the marketers to identify the key demographic variables which affect the decision-making rules used by rural people. The study concludes that consumers' decision-making rules are influenced by rural consumer's educational backgrounds and the number of family members under the age of 18 years. In the context of FMCG products, our research assists marketers in designing strategies that take into consideration the needs and demands of rural residents. Further studies possibly will be expanded to include other FMCG product categories such as domestic care, food, and beverages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian cities have some of the poorest air quality globally but volatile organic compounds (VOCs)—many of which adversely affect health—and their indoor sources remain understudied in India. In this pilot study we quantified hundreds of VOCs inside and outside 26 homes in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, Gujarat, in May 2019 and in January 2020. We sampled in the morning and afternoon/evening to capture temporal variability. Total indoor VOCs were measured at higher concentrations in winter (327.0 ± 224.2 µgm−3) than summer (150.1 ± 121.0 µgm−3) and exceeded those measured outdoors. Using variable reduction techniques, we identified potential sources of compounds (cooking, plastics [with an emphasis on plasticizers], consumer products, siloxanes [as used in the production of consumer products], vehicles). Contributions differed by season and between homes. In May, when temperatures were high, plastics contributed substantially to indoor pollution (mean of 42% contribution to total VOCs) as compared to in January (mean of 4%). Indoor cooking and consumer products contributed on average 29% and 10% to all VOCs indoors in January and 16% and 4% in May. Siloxane sources contributed <4% to any home during either season. Cooking contributed substantially to outdoor VOCs (on average 18% in January and 11% in May) and vehicle-related sources accounted for up to 84% of VOCs in some samples. Overall, results indicate a strong seasonal dependence of indoor VOC concentrations and sources, underscoring the need to better understand factors driving health-harming pollutants inside homes to facilitate exposure reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores whether consumer segments can be formed by the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) consumers based on their perception towards various packaging attributes while making Packaging Influenced Purchase decisions (PIP) for buying Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) products. Along with facilitating targeting for marketers, this study aims to contribute significantly to the literature of 'BoP consumer behaviour' where a visible research gap exists. FMCG, being a low-involvement market by nature, most of the purchase decisions are made under time pressure. So, packaging being the point of interaction between products and consumers, has huge potential to influence purchase decisions. A sample of 1530 BoP consumers has been considered from West Bengal, a state of India with high Human Poverty Index. Along with clustering techniques, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) has been applied for validation and visualization. The result shows existence of clear segments along with the variability of influences of the packaging attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector is a foundation stone of the growing Indian economy. This sector strikes every facet of human life. The FMCG producers now realize that there is a lot of prospect for them to enter into the rural market. The rising incomes and growing lifestyle is a significant attraction for this sector. There are more than middle income households in the rural areas as compare to the urban. Thus the rural marketing has been growing progressively over the years and is now bigger than the urban market. Globally, the FMCG sector has been successful in selling products to the lower and middle income groups in India. More than 70% of sales are made to middle class households today and over 50% of the middle class residing in rural India. The FMCG sector is energized about a rapidly increasing rural population whose incomes are intensifying and which is willing to spend on goods designed to improve their lifestyles. Also with a near saturation and cut throat competition in urban India, many manufacturers and marketers of this sector are driven to formulate new strategies for targeting the rural consumers. But the rural penetration rates are low. This presents a tremendous opportunity for manufacturers of branded products who can convert prospective consumers into consumers to buy their products. Companies including Multi National Companies and regional players started developing marketing strategies to attract this untouched market. While formulating the strategies, the marketers need to take care of the rural consumers differently from urban consumers because they are economically, socially and psycho-graphically different from each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appliance labels allow consumers to choose products based on their energy use. In most countries, the widely adopted comparative categorical labels give information on energy use in physical units such as kilowatt-hour. Studies on the impact of monetary cost information on labels have reported different results across appliances within studies, and for the same appliances across studies. Recent studies on refrigerators show that monetary information increases the probability of cost-effectiveness analysis and fosters choice of energy-efficient refrigerators but do not estimate the consumer willingness to pay for higher efficiency category. In a discrete choice experiment, we observe choices of a sample of households divided into groups based on whether they get operating cost information on hypothetical choices. We estimate a mixed logit model with correlated random parameters and estimate the magnitude and distribution of consumer willingness to pay for higher energy efficiency category. We find that energy cost information on labels facilitate comparison of refrigerators based on energy-efficiency and leads to a positive willingness to pay for higher levels of energy efficiency. It also increases the share of respondents having a positive willingness to pay for higher efficiency. We conclude that annual energy cost information on refrigerator labels can improve the effectiveness of labelling policy in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: Stockists are the entity in the supply chain who deliver to the millions of small shops that account for over 90% of retail sales in India. The stockist purchases product from the manufacturer, develops retailer interest in carrying the product, solves the logistics problem of delivery to retailers, and manages retail credit and money collection. In return, the stockist is provided assistance by the manufacturer and paid an associated margin that is a percent of the product's retail price. We observed relatively low distribution margins offered to the stockists in India that was a surprise given infrastructure and financing challenges. We noted that the low margins are enabled by the efficiency in product delivery and demand stimulation induced by the stockist. In this paper, we focus on the analysis of screening contracts offered by manufacturers to stockists. Methodology: We use a principal–agent model structure and model the routing cost, inventory cost, and demand impact of the stockist's capability. We then use a substitutes or complements relationship between manufacturer assistance and stockist impact to understand the optimal contract structure—i.e., level of assistance and associated retail margin. We describe the economics associated with the stockist, provide data regarding the margins and assistance provided by the manufacturer, and use the model to understand their use in developing an effective supply chain. Results: Our model uses three parameters to show that a manufacture can adjust the level of spatial retailer intensity and thus the impact of the stockist in generating demand, the fraction of high-performing stockists associated with the manufacturer and the nature of the relationship between assistance provided and its impact on the stockist's performance (i.e., complements or substitutes relationship), to attain superior performance. Academic/practical relevance: We parameterize data from Indian firms in the consumer goods industry to understand the observed assistance provided by the manufacturer to the stockist, and associated margins. We then use our model to understand actions taken by a manufacturer in the Indian market. Managerial implications: Our analysis provides a framework for manufacturers to design screening contracts for stockists who play a vital role in managing the fragmented retail markets in developing countries. The online supplement is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2018.0722. This paper has been accepted for the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Special Issue on Value Chain Innovations in Developing Economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this age of rising consumerism, it is evident that we need to move toward a more environmentally sustainable and socially just form of consumption patterns by surpassing the impasse currently faced by various sustainable consumption policies. Without any further delay, we need to embrace an apt methodological orientation to gain a better socioculturally situated conceptual understanding of consumers and a means to obtain empirical insights into drivers of socioenvironmentally impactful consumption patterns to be able to proceed toward efficacious sustainable consumption policies. This article proposes a phenomenological research methodology–based conceptual framing and a step-by-step methodological approach based on that framing to gain an in-depth understanding of how consumers being socioculturally situated identity projects–driven subjects embed consumer goods as integral parts of their life narratives and how that in turn acts as the drivers of their consumption. The elaborated steps of interpreting collected consumer narratives are presented with examples from an empirical research conducted in a few Indian cities. Critical reflections on diverse issues that may arise while employing this methodology in similar contexts like India are then discussed. The conclusion highlights how this understanding of consumer could make a novel contribution to sustainable consumption literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) used extensively over the past 3 decades as flame retardants in most types of polymers, all over the world, have been identified as global pollutants. PBDEs pose various health problems such as thyroid hormone disruption, permanent learning and memory impairment, behavioral changes, hearing deficits, delayed puberty onset, fetal malformations, and possibly cancer. Many measurements of PBDEs in various matrices from Sweden, Holland, Japan, the USA, and elsewhere have been reported, but few measurements are available for India. In this study, a preliminary screening of different congeners of PBDEs has been performed in different old electronic and consumer products with an objective to build capacity in order to analyze PBDEs and BFRs. Six different samples, foam from upholstery, motherboard of a computer, children toy composite sample, old vanishing window blind sample, electrical wire sample, and PVC flooring sample, were collected and analyzed for the presence of the following PBDE congeners: BDE-28, BDE-47, BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-153, BDE-154, BDE-183, and BDE-209. It was found that three out of six samples were positive for the presence of PBDEs. Three congeners were detected in the samples, i.e., BDE-47, BDE-153, and BDE-209, of which, highest concentration was of BDE-209. Among the samples, motherboard of computer showed the highest concentration of BDE-209 followed by window blind and foam from upholstery. The results of this preliminary investigation indicate that PBDEs are still present in the old consumer products which can be an important additional source of exposure to the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, concerns have been expressed by manufacturers and customers about the environmental impact of products. Consumers and manufacturers have directed their attention toward environment friendly products that are presumed to be "green" or environment friendly like low power consuming (energy-efficient) electrical appliances, organic foods, lead free paints, recyclable paper, and phosphate free detergents. Indian marketers are also realizing the importance of the green marketing concept. Although a variety of research on green marketing has been conducted across the globe; little academic research on consumer perception and preferences has been carried out in India. This research provides a brief review of environmental issues and identifies the green values of the consumers, their level of awareness about environmental issues, green products and practices. This paper highlights the consumers' perception and preferences towards green marketing practices and products with the help of a structured questionnaire. A study was conducted on 106 respondents. High level of awareness about green marketing practices and products was found among the consumers. Green values were also found to be high among the respondents. Research has given good insights for marketers of the green products and suggests the need of designing the marketing communication campaigns promoting green products due to high green value among the consumers. Results of regression analysis reveals the view that overall green values, awareness about green products and practices and the perception regarding seriousness of marketing companies towards green marketing had positive significant impact on consumer persuasion to buy and prefer green products over conventional products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the market reform and quality of economic growth in India during the 1980s and after liberation in early 1990s. It examines the quantitative aspect of gross domestic product (GDP) growth based on the quality and occurrence of defects and faults of consumer goods, such as televisions, telephone and wristwatches. It also suggests that the quality of consumer goods were higher during liberalization than policy governments of import substitution.

The article examines transformations in long-distance trade in a highland community in northeast India over a period of 35 years. It links changes in demand for trade goods to shifts in the political subjectivities of the Wancho as they are incorporated into the Indian state and to the consumer choices made by chiefs and commoners, women and men as they utilize opportunities to alter patterns of labor inhering in the local conceptions of gender and social rank. The movement of mass-produced consumer goods into rural communities around the world has given rise to a volume of anthropological work on the social meanings of consumption.

This article focuses on the range of a central good in Punjab, India. Walther Christaller is particularly explicit in distinguishing between the population of a center and that center's importance. He observes that the ranges of non-essential goods, with elastic demands, will be most affected by a widespread change in price. He demonstrates that price-induced changes in the range of a good may alter the rank of a good from high to lower orders with price reductions, and from lower to higher orders with price rises. The commodity utilized in the study, milled white cotton cloth, was selected as an item commonly and frequently purchased in districts of Punjab.

Reducing fossil fuel consumption is a top priority option for climate change mitigation, which requires collaborations of partners along the supply chain, such as energy suppliers, energy consumers and final consumers of goods and services. A comprehensive analysis of fossil fuel consumption is useful for policymakers to reduce demand but still absent. This study explores the national contribution to global energy consumption from different perspectives in the global supply chain and is designed to complement current energy reduction policies. For the developed countries, energy consumptions are stable from 2000 to 2014, while that of emerging countries almost doubled (e.g., China and India). Most of the developing countries are producers whose production-based and final production-based energy consumptions are higher than their consumption-based ones, except India after the global financial crisis. In contrast, the developed countries are consumers, whose consumption-based energy consumptions are higher. At the sectoral level, the service sector is the largest contributor to consumption- and income-based energy consumption. The analysis in this study can create opportunities for all the parties alongside the supply chain in reducing fossil fuel consumption. • Different frameworks of energy consumption are proposed and discussed. • National energy consumptions at different production stages are identified. • Sectoral contributions to energy consumption are identified. • China accounts for the majority of global energy consumption. • Energy consumptions of emerging countries increased faster than the developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]