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Marital disruption defined as widowhood, divorce, or separation, has adverse consequences for women’s health and wellbeing. Extant evidence, however, is primarily available for older women or in developed country settings. Consequences of marital disruption for younger women in the developing countries is relatively less visited. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to assess whether maritally disrupted women of reproductive age (18–49 years) had differential risk of tobacco-use compared to their married counterparts. Using nationally representative data from India, we estimated multivariable logistic regressions to obtain the odds in favor of tobacco-use for maritally disrupted women. We found that compared to women remained in marriage, maritally disrupted women were 1.5 times (95% CI: 1.4–1.6) more likely to consume tobacco. The higher risk of tobacco-use of maritally disrupted women was evident in both younger (age 18–34) and older (age 35–49) cohorts. The results were robust across urban and rural areas, high- and low- education groups, and poor- and non-poor households. The higher odds of tobacco-use among maritally disrupted women persisted even after accounting for household fixed effects. The study findings thus, have implications for strengthening targeted tobacco control policies and health promotion among maritally disrupted women in low-and-middle income countries.

PurposeThis article aims to examine political marketing strategies adopted by the politicians operating in base of the pyramid (BOP) areas and their impact on the BOP voters using the tenets of the social influence theory.Design/methodology/approachThe authors resorted to a qualitative phenomenological inquiry for this study. The responses obtained from two qualitative studies were subjected to thematic analysis. Two thematic maps were integrated into a conceptual model.FindingsStudy 1 indicates that the politicians operating at the BOP resort to vote-bank segmentation, clientelism, mobilizing opinion leaders, short guerilla war against opposition and communication bombarding. Study 2 has elaborated on how poor voters perceive these strategies and form their opinions towards the party/candidate.Social implicationsThe findings of this study highlight the need for essential policy formulation to protect BOP consumers from deceptive political tactics.Originality/valueThis study develops a model of the effectiveness of voting strategies at the BOP. It also contributes to the literature on social influence theory by indicating how the three social influence processes (compliance, identification and internalization) result in different ways of accepting political influence.

With the increasing prevalence of gynecologic cancer and obesity, there is a growing population living with cardiovascular disease, obesity and gynecologic cancer concurrently or at risk of developing these disease states.We examined cardiovascular (CV) conditions and obesity among 1824 gynecologic cancer survivors in a cross-sectional analysis, using data from the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Univariate and multivariable logistic regression methods were used in the analysis.The prevalence of heart attack, CHD, and stroke were significantly higher (p0.001) among survivors of gynecologic and other cancer survivors compared to women with no history of cancer. However, no statistically significant differences were observed across gynecologic and other cancer survivors. The prevalence of obesity among gynecologic cancer survivors was significantly higher (p0.001) than that in the other two groups. While around one-third of the women with no history of cancer and survivors of other types of cancer were obese, obesity prevalence was nearly 13%-points higher among survivors of gynecologic cancer. In multivariate analysis, gynecologic cancer survivors were 2.7 times more likely to have a heart attack compared to those without any history of cancer. The odds of CHD and stroke among survivors of gynecologic cancer were respectively 3.4 and 2.7 times that of those with no history of cancer. The adjusted odds were also similar, though smaller in magnitude. Gynecologic cancer survivors were also more likely to be obese -1.8 times that of those with no cancer.Gynecologic cancer survivors are more likely than persons without a cancer history to have cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses, and they have a higher prevalence of heart attack, stroke, and obesity. These results underscore the sizeable opportunities for primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of cardiovascular health conditions among gynecologic cancer survivors.

BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in men with prostate cancer (PC). Accumulated stress plays an important role in CVD development. The cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events can be measured using allostatic load (AL).MethodsThe initial cohort included males aged 18 years and older diagnosed with PC (2005-2019). AL was modeled as an ordinal variable (0-11). Fine-Gray competing risk regressions measured the impact of precancer diagnosis AL and postdiagnosis AL in 2-year major cardiac events (MACE). The effect of AL changes over time on MACE development was calculated via piecewise Cox regression (before, and 2 months, 6 months, and 1 year after PC diagnosis).ResultsWe included 5261 PC patients of which 6.6% had a 2-year MACE. For every 1-point increase in AL before and within 60 days after PC diagnosis, the risk of MACE increased 25% (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] =1.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.18 to 1.33) and 27% (aHR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.20 to 1.35), respectively. Using AL as a time-varying exposure, the risk of MACE increased 19% (aHR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.11 to 1.27), 22% (aHR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.14 to 1.33), 28% (aHR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.23 to 1.33), and 31% (aHR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.27 to 1.35) for every 1-point increase in AL before, 2 months after, 6 months after, and 1 year after PC diagnosis, respectively.ConclusionAL and its changes over time are associated with MACE in PC patients, suggesting a role of a biological measure of stress as a marker of CVD risk among men with PC.

Background Hypertension is a major risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, which is the leading cause of premature mortality worldwide. While untreated hypertension heightens the risk of mortality and morbidity among hypertensive individuals, access to hypertension care in low-and-middle income countries has ties with various socioeconomic inequalities. Child brides represent a marginalized group of population who experience various socioeconomic disadvantages. This study investigates whether there exists any disparity in receiving treatment for hypertension between child brides at young adult age and their same-age peers who were married as adults. Methods We obtained data on 22,140 currently married hypertensive women aged 20 to 34 years from the 2015–16 wave of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) of India. We estimated multilevel univariate and multivariable logistic regressions to obtain the odds in favor of not receiving treatment for hypertension. We compared the odds for child brides with those of their peers who were married as adults. Results Among the study participants, 72.6% did not receive any treatment for hypertension. While the share was 70.6% among women who were married as adults, it was 4.3 percentage points higher (P Conclusions Our findings show that hypertensive women who were married as children are at greater risk of not receiving hypertension care at young adult age. Therefore, young women who got married in their childhood should be targeted for regular screening and proper referral and treatment to avoid further detrimental effects of elevated blood pressure.

PURPOSE: There has been increasing concern over the high cost of oncology care and its long-lasting impact on the well-being of cancer survivors. METHODS: We examined characteristics of impoverished cancer survivors in the United States, including their physical and mental health, using data from the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We used binomial logistic regressions for binary outcome variables, and negative binomial regressions for count variables, to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and incident rate ratios (IRRs) of the physical, mental, and socioeconomic-related health factors for low-income cancer survivors versus higher-income survivors. We compared the ORs and IRRs for low-income cancer survivors with those of higher income cancer survivors. RESULTS: There was a two-fold increased odds (adjusted OR, 2.33; 95% CI, 1.86 to 2.91) of having fair/poor health for low-income cancer survivors compared with higher-income cancer survivors. There was an almost two-fold increased odds (adjusted OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.50 to 2.59) of not being able to see a doctor among low-income cancer survivors, and a 42% lower odds (adjusted OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.39 to 0.86) of having health insurance coverage for low-income cancer survivors compared with higher-income survivors. Incidence rate ratios for physical (IRR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.31 to 1.75) and mental (IRR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.26 to 1.86) unhealthy days were significantly higher among low-income cancer survivors compared with nonpoor cancer survivors. CONCLUSION: Strategies are available to ameliorate financial hardship at multiple levels. Implementation of these strategies is urgently needed.

The association between child marriage and the access to or utilization of maternal and antenatal healthcare has been widely studied. However, little is known about child brides’ access to healthcare for illnesses later in life. Using data on 496,283 married women aged 18 to 49 years from the India National Family and Health Survey 2015–2016, we developed an 11-point composite score (ranging from 0 to 10) outlining the extent of problems accessing healthcare, as follows: (i) no/little problem (score 0 to 2), (ii) some problems (score 3 to 6), and (iii) big problems (score 7 to 10). The differences between child brides and their peers married as adults were assessed by the relative risk ratios obtained from multinomial logistic regressions. The adjusted risk of having “some problems” and “big problems” accessing healthcare relative to “no/little problem” for child brides was found to be 1.22 (95% CI: 1.20–1.25) and 1.26 (95% CI: 1.22–1.29) times that of those married as adults, respectively. These findings highlight the disproportionate barriers to healthcare access faced by women married as children compared to women married as adults and the need for further research to inform policies regarding effective public health interventions to improve healthcare access.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the impact of other customer's opinion on a service firm and its alliance on the evaluation of the airline by the focal customer by integrating qualitative and quantitative user-generated content. The study also explores the relative importance of core and peripheral attributes in consumer evaluations.Design/methodology/approachA text mining and natural language processing-based approach was followed to extract insights from the qualitative part of 18,457 consumer reviews, which were later analyzed along with the quantitative information obtained from the reviews using linear regression and logistic regression methods.FindingsThe authors found that customer satisfaction and recommendation behavior is formed by own and others' opinion about the airline and alliance. The relative importance of the core and peripheral attributes depends on the psychological distance from the evaluation of the attribute.Research limitations/implicationsThe theoretical contribution and managerial implications have been discussed in detail.Practical implicationsIt helps in review management strategy, service design strategy and the alliance and partnership strategies of the airlines.Originality/valueThis is the first paper that explores the impact attribute-level evaluations found in prior reviews on the future reviews of customers. It also explores the effect of prior reviews in the context of a service business and its alliances.

Child marriage, defined as marriage before age 18 years, could impact women's nutritional status through biological as well as environmental and socioeconomic attributes affecting diet and lifestyle behaviors. This study aims to examine whether women married as children have a differential risk of individual level double burden of overweight/obesity and anemia at adult age compared to women married as adults.Using nationally representative data from India we estimated multinomial logistic regressions to obtain relative risk ratios (RRR) in favor of mutually exclusive anemia and overweight/ obesity conditions among women aged 20-49 years. We estimated the model for full sample and for sub-samples by household wealth groups.We find that women who were married as children had a lower relative risk (RRR=0.941) of the double burden of anemia and overweight/obesity in the full sample. However, when sociodemographic correlates were accounted for and assessed in sub-groups by wealth groups, they had a higher relative risk (ARRR ranging from 1.079 to 1.204) of the double burden compared to women married as adults.Our results thus portray a classic case of the Simpson's paradox by documenting a reversal of association between child marriage and occurrence of the double burden of malnutrition in the subgroup level than that in the general population. This finding provides a critical policy insight for effective public health interventions to improve women's health and wellbeing, particularly in low resource settings.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic study of important research trends and published electronic word of mouth (eWOM) studies over the past 20 years in the emerging economy. This research is designed to identify the key areas of eWOM based on the Antecedents-Consequence-Intervention (ACI) framework. This paper is also aimed to analyze the current research status of each WOM area and critically review each area for developing future research directions.Design/methodology/approach616 articles were selected from 112 journals for in-depth review analysis. For the systematic review of articles, an ACI framework was adopted. This paper used systematic review analysis methodology to critically analyze important research studies in each area of the ACI framework with a set of research questions.FindingsResults identify six significant areas of eWOM, i.e. WOM antecedents, outcomes, senders, receivers, eWOM platform and eWOM management representing the whole environment. The result highlights increasing research interest on mixed eWOM and rich eWOM content and market-level source credibility factors. Research also identifies research gaps based on the ACI framework.Originality/valueAnalyzing the recent trends in the eWOM environment with the SLR approach and linking these trends to the ACI framework with a future research agenda in the emerging market indicated a pioneering attempt in eWOM research.

In congruence with the remarkable trend of consumer’s adoption of online hotel booking services, this study applies the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework to analyse the direct triadic ef...

The purpose of this study is to explore the key dimensions of mobile banking (m-banking) service quality. Four qualitative methods (focus group, in-depth interviews, critical incident technique, an...

With increasing prevalence, there is a growing population living with cardiovascular (CV) disease and cancer who are concurrently or at risk for developing these 2 disease states. We examined CV conditions and CV risk factors in cancer survivors in a cross-sectional analysis, using data from the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Cancer survivors are more likely than participants without a cancer history to have multiple risk factors that increase their risk for CV disease and other chronic illnesses, including cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, and obesity. In contrast, cancer survivors are less likely to be heavy drinkers or to not consume fruits and vegetables. The odds of having a heart attack, coronary heart disease (CHD), diabetes, and hypertension were generally higher among cancer survivors. In multivariable analysis, the adjusted odds of having a heart attack, CHD, diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol were higher among cancer survivors than among participants without a history of cancer. Although the odds of obesity and physical inactivity were generally higher among cancer survivors across all socioeconomic status groups, the odds of having a heart attack or CHD were particularly high among Black and Hispanic cancer survivors and among younger participants. The odds of having diabetes were also higher among Black and Hispanic cancer survivors. In conclusion, cancer survivors are more likely than participants without a cancer history to have multiple risk factors that increase their risk of CV disease and other chronic illnesses, and they have a higher prevalence of heart attack, CHD, diabetes, and hypertension. Of particular concern are the higher prevalence of heart attack, CHD, and diabetes among Black and Hispanic cancer survivors.

Background: This study assessed the association between cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death in the United States, among parents and child mental health. Methods: Our sample included 9076 children aged 6 to 17 years. Data were pooled from the 2016–2018 waves of the National Health Interview Survey. We fitted a logistic regression to obtain the odds ratios in favor of child mental health problems for parental CVD. We also fitted a multinomial logistic regression to obtain the odds in favor of the severity of mental health problems (i.e., minor, definite, and severe). Results: The adjusted odds of facing difficulties for a child of a parent with CVD were 1.64 (95% CI: 1.28–2.11) times that of their peers whose parents did not have CVD. The adjusted relative risk of facing minor and definite difficulties for a child of a parent with CVD were 1.48 (95% CI: 1.13–1.94) and 2.25 (95% CI: 1.47–3.46) times that of their peers of parents without CVD. Conclusions: The results suggest a strong association between child mental health and parental cardiovascular morbidity, demonstrating the need for the development or adaptation of existing public health interventions to facilitate mental health support for children of parents with CVD.

Health literacy is a set of knowledge and skills that enables individuals to obtain, communicate, process and understand information, and services to make appropriate health decisions and to successfully navigate the health care system. Health literacy is important to quality of cancer survivorship care and patient self-management of their disease.We examined health literacy among cancer survivors, using data from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We compared health literacy across various demographic and socioeconomic groups and estimated the adjusted odds in favor of low health literacy for these characteristics.We found that about 16% of the cancer survivors had low health literacy. The prevalence was higher among Hispanic and Black individuals, and among those with poor health status, low income and educational attainment.A sizeable percentage of cancer survivors have low health literacy which is likely to complicate their ability to self-manage their disease and navigate the health care system for optimal care. In order to ensure the quality and appropriateness of cancer survivorship care, effective interventions are needed to address low health literacy in these populations.

Cancer patients and cancer survivors may struggle to pay for housing or fall behind on their monthly bills to pay for out-of-pocket medical costs. Housing insecurity increases the likelihood of poorer health and decreased access to health care. The financial burden of medical care as a cause of poorer health outcomes is worsened by the inability to afford housing.We examined housing insecurity among cancer survivors, using data from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). We compared intensity of housing insecurity across various socioeconomic status indicators and estimated the adjusted odds for housing insecurity for these characteristics.We found that about 16.6 % of the cancer survivors had moderate to increased level of housing insecurity. The intensity of housing insecurity among cancer survivors was significantly associated with being Black, and having lower household income and lower educational attainment.In order to ensure the quality and appropriateness of cancer survivorship care, effective interventions are needed to address housing insecurity in these populations. Policy Summary. A sizeable percentage of cancer survivors have housing insecurity which is likely to complicate their ability to self-manage their disease and navigate the health care system for optimal care.

Patients with cancer and cancer survivors commonly rely upon family members and friends to act as caregivers to help manage cancer treatment and the late effects of that treatment. Informal caregivers provide a variety of supportive functions for cancer patients, including emotional, informational, and functional support, and practical assistance with skilled care activities.We examined predictors of unhealthy physical and mental days among informal cancer caregivers. Unhealthy days are an estimate of the overall number of days during the previous 30 days when the respondent felt that either his or her physical or mental health was not good.Data were used from the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a cross-sectional, population-based study. The participants were adults aged ≥ 18 years who provided regular care or assistance to a friend or family member who had cancer in the past 30 days.On average, caregivers who had a household income of less than $25,000 per year reported more (p 0.05) unhealthy physical and mental days (during the last 30 days). Average reported number of mental unhealthy days was the highest for those who provided care for 2 or more years and 40 or more hours per week. Caregivers of Hispanic ethnicity had a greater risk of reporting unhealthy physical and mental days among those who provided care for 2 or more years. Among those who were providing care for 40 + h a week, caregivers from less wealthy households (income less than $50,000) were at greater risk of experiencing a larger number of unhealthy mental days.Informal cancer caregiving can be a stressful experience with potentially negative consequences for both psychological and physical health. Of particular concern are caregivers who are low-income or have limited financial resources.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of cashback usage restriction exemption (CURE) on travelers’ intention to prefer a brand’s mobile application (m-app). Using a mixed-method approa...

This study has examined the antecedents of adoption of Virtual Reality (VR) among the Indian tourists using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Perceived enjoyment and perceived immersion have b...

The purpose of this study is to examine the service quality in the mobile banking (m-banking) context using different generic service quality scales, and to see which one is most appropriate to exa...

As a pioneering effort, this study analyses the consumer decision-making process at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). This study proposes consumer vulnerability, bounded rationality, locking-in effect and opportunism as major constructs influencing the consumer decision-making process at the BoP. Using a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), this study has integrated the transaction cost perspective into the consumer decision-making process at the BoP, which is a novel contribution to the literature of consumer behaviour. This work has recognised the importance of the retailer and its role in the decision-making process, and adds a new perspective to the study of BoP as well as to consumer behaviour theories. This study will be helpful to businesses while serving the BoP segment by crafting appropriate marketing strategies for this segment.

The study measures the level of customer involvement related to Organic Food (OF) purchase through FCB Grid. A conceptual model was developed to identify the location of OF in FCB Grid by testing t...

This paper has measured the effects of antecedents of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on Consumer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) for branded hotels. The hypotheses and a conceptual framework were develo...

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) becomes an important tool for online consumers for evaluating and selecting a product. Extant research has mainly studied how various eWOM characteristics such as va...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consolidate the antecedents of electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Thereafter, it examines the impact of eWOM and its antecedents on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE). Design/methodology/approach A total of 93 research articles on eWOM and CBBE were critically reviewed using the systematic literature review method. Findings This study has consolidated the antecedents of eWOM from the extant literature. It has identified eight antecedents of eWOM including information or argument quality, loyalty, social relationship, source quality, satisfaction, subjective norms, and information quantity. This study has come out with a conceptual framework, followed by 16 hypotheses addressing the possible relationships between eWOM, its antecedents, and CBBE. Originality/value This study pioneers to examine the impact of the antecedents of eWOM on CBBE through an exhaustive review of contemporary literature. It has also explored the possibility of eWOM acting as a mediator between the antecedents of eWOM and CBBE. Therefore, this study unravels a wide array of directions for researchers to examine the relationships between the constructs mentioned above and CBBE.

This study aims to identify the factors affecting mobile payment (m-payment) adoption intention in India by proposing a conceptual framework based on technology acceptance model (TAM). In addition to construct of TAM, four user-centric constructs have been added to evaluate m-payment adoption intention in India. The proposed research framework was empirically tested by data collected from 381 potential m-payment service users, through online and offline survey. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. The results exhibit that perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), trust, and self-efficacy (SE) have a significant positive impact on m-payment adoption intention. However, subjective norms (SN) and personal innovativeness (PI) have no significant impact on m-payment adoption intention. Findings of the study have important theoretical and practical implications, particularly to understand important user-centric factors affecting m-payment adoption.

PurposeThe tourism literature has focused only on destination branding; nonetheless, measuring the quality of a destination from the tourism point of view has been overlooked, especially in the context of the emerging markets. This paper aims to focus on developing a scale measuring the overall quality of the tourist destinations.Design/methodology/approachWith the help of extensive review of the literature, the study identified the key variables for measuring the quality of tourism destination in emerging markets. Thereafter, to determine the factor structure (purification stage) and assess the stability of the factor structure (validation stage), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) has been conducted. A second-order CFA has been conducted to analyse the factor structure stability of the broad dimensions, namely, the quality of service, the quality of destination features and the quality of experience.FindingsThis research shows that the quality of tourism can be determined not only by the quality of destination features but also by the quality of service and the quality of experience one perceives from a destination. Together, these three dimensions and their various sub-dimensions form a valid scale to measure the overall quality of a tourist destination.Practical implicationsThis study provides marketing managers an idea of the dimensions that affect tourist destination quality. They can now align the dimensions measuring destination quality with the destinations that they are marketing to tourists. This can add to the competitive advantage of any place brand.Originality/valueThis study has developed three distinct measurement scales for quality of experience, quality of destination feature and quality of services and validated the same with adequate data following appropriate scale development procedure. Through empirical research, the authors have integrated these three dimensions as the constructs for measuring the overall quality of tourist destinations. Hence, as a pioneering attempt, the authors have developed a scale to measure the quality of tourist destinations.

Online retail sector in India has witnessed a phenomenal growth in recent times. Online shopping has also become a popular trend among the younger generation in India. Increasing number of shoppers visit online retailer websites and read online reviews before making their purchase decision. The online reviews or electronic word of mouth (eWOM) becomes an important guiding tool for the online shoppers with its intrinsic product information and evaluation characteristics. The present study aims to analyze the effects of various eWOM antecedents on online sales by considering the effects of positive and mixed-neutral eWOM (MNWOM) valence (stimuli) on sales. It also explores the role of market-level eWOM factors, such as price, on online sales of security products like antivirus software. The confirmatory bias of these factors was noted, while the elaboration likelihood model (ELL) has been used to understand the relative importance of these factors in influencing customers’ purchase decision and sales. Further, a content analysis method supplemented by a multiple regression method was used to analyze 205 real-time online sales (reviews from verified purchasers) data pertaining to popular and top-selling antivirus products taken from two leading e-commerce websites. The study contributes as a pioneering effort in the domain with the use of innovative methodology of capturing real-time online data with a subsequent kappa statistics validation. The results showed a new insightful perspective of eWOM valence and price on sales, and provided further research directions.

Over the last decade, the increased adoption of the Internet in public life as well as in developing businesses has led to a phenomenal rise in academic research on online marketing. This article i...

Supplementary Appendix. (DOCX 36 kb)

This study investigates the effects of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) valence on online purchase intention. The study also examines the moderating effect of the product's nature on the relationshi...

This article focuses on the research conducted in customer relationship management (CRM) from 2000 to 2014 in six top-tier academic publishing journals: Journal of Relationship Marketing, Journal o...

The article traces the opportunities for reducing the dwell time taken during clearing of export and import (EXIM) goods at Kolkata sea and air ports. As observed in the Government of India reports, the dwell time in Indian airports is considerably higher than that of global benchmarks. Drawing from the literature, we figured out that reduction in dwell time can reduce opportunity cost and lead to increased productivity and higher efficiency of the ports and air terminals. In the first phase of the study, using the Ishikawa Fishbone diagram, we have analyzed the reasons behind the higher dwelling time in Kolkata air and sea ports. In the second phase, following the value stream mapping process indicated by Barber and Tietje (2008), the current state map of the EXIM clearing process has been mapped and possible future state maps have been proposed for reduction in dwell time.

This study aims at enhancing organic food product (OFP) purchase by identifying customer segments based on their knowledge and attitude related to organic food along with their demographic profile. Two scales for measuring Knowledge and Attitude related to organic food were developed to measure their levels. The scales have covered six dimensions of organic food: Healthy, Eco-friendliness, Price, Availability, Certification, and Brand. After identifying the customer segments, each segment was further segmented based on their media consumption behavior. Hierarchical followed by K means cluster analysis resulted to six distinct segments with their corresponding subsegments. Cluster analysis was again performed for each customer segment, and a media selection method (MSM) was evolved to effectively communicate with OFP customers. These methods can guide marketers in devising an appropriate communication plan for enhancing OFP purchase.

This study explores the motivations and consequences of purchasing second-hand (SH) products by the rural and sub-urban (RSU) base of the pyramid (BOP) consumers using a qualitative phenomenological approach. This study has also examined the preferred purchase points for buying SH products by the RSU BOP consumers. Findings revealed that the RSU BOP consumers preferred their personal sources over offline and online retails while buying a SH product. The economic motivations, need for fulfilling aspirations, apathy towards cheap brands, need for social recognition, and pester power of school/college going children were found as the motivations behind the purchase of SH products by the RSU BOP consumers. This study has also identified that increasing consumption of branded SH products results in compensatory consumption, increased consumerism, and overwhelming recurring cost at the RSU BOP. This study has put forth a conceptual model leading to a comprehensive understanding of the purchase points, motivations, and consequences of SH purchase by the RSU BOP consumers. It has advanced the social comparison theory and the theory of compensatory consumption in the context of SH buying by BOP consumers. This study would fill the gap in the literature on consumer behaviour and BOP by examining such a novel issue. The practical and social implications of the study have been discussed.