The Role of Front Line Service Employee in Select Service Industries in India

Employee actions form a very important aspect of service delivery. It is the employee who is reflected as the organization across and along with the various touch points to the customers. The Indian services sector hosts a lot of industries and dynamics within each are undergoing change. However, the understanding and knowledge of critical customer behavior does cut across industries and enable firms towards success. The role of the employee is the key to success especially in the high customer contact service industries as the employee actions convey the professionalism, sincerity and seriousness expected from a company towards understanding its customer base. Researchers in the developed world have done studies but the literature developed in the West cannot be adopted to the Indian context. Research studies done in other countries need to be replicated to see if the findings are applicable in the changed context and condition and only then be generalized. This is very important as businesses in the marketplace may tend to build strategies based on literature and experience established in a different context. This research study is an attempt to analyze the impact that employee actions have on customers in select service industries in India. For the purpose of this study the service employee has been confined to the front line staff in the Retail, Hospital, Airlines, Hotels and Banking industries. &nbsp

Private Label Motivators and Product Category Association: An Empirical Study

Private labels are important contributors in a retail strategy, especially when the industry starts maturing and competition starts intensifying. While modern trade  penetration in India is still low, the proportionate private label growth is much higher owing to a new generation of  shoppers that is open to trying out new products and brands. It is thus important to understand the private label motivators in India and also to understand the role of product category in the private label decision. This  particular study aims at these two objectives in the Indian context

Private Label Motivators and Product Category Association: An Empirical Study

Abstract Private labels are important contributors in a retail strategy, especially when the industry starts maturing and competition starts intensifying. While modern trade penetration in India is still low, the proportionate private label growth is much higher owing to a new generation of shoppers that is open to trying out new products and brands.It is thus important to understand the private label motivators in India and also to understand the role of product category in the private label decision. This particular study aims at these two objectives in the Indian context. The findings of the study indicate that product category does have an intervening role in the customer’s private label purchase decision. The implications need to be assessed and incorporated in the private label strategy of the retailers. &nbsp

Fusarium pallidoroseum: A potential entomopathogenic agent for the biological management of Aphis gossypii

With rising need of switching over to sustainable agricultural practices, utilization of entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) as biocontrol agents, provides better substitute against chemical pesticides- having several side-effects. Therefore, an attempt have been made to explore the potential EPF fungi that could be incorporated into IPM practices for control of Helicoverpa armigera Hubner and Aphis gossypii Glover. Regarding this, an entomopathogenic fungus, Fusarium pallidoroseum (Cooke) Sacc, was isolated from natural population of H. armigera infesting chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and explored efficacy under in-vitro & field conditions. The findings of present investigation shows efficacy of F. pallidoroseum as potential biocontrol agent against okra aphid (A. gossypii), as it inflicted initial mortality of 43.33% nymphs on 2nd day and lead to complete annihilation (93.33%) of nymph population on 8th day of spore suspension application at 1x1010 spores/mL concentration. The observations against adult okra aphid clearly demonstrated that spraying of 1 x 1010 spores/mL of F. pallidoroseum resulted 66.67% mortality after 8th days of spraying. Increased mortality was recorded with increase in spore suspension concentrations. The LC50 & LC90 value for F. pallidoroseum against nymphs of A. gossypii was recorded 3.79 x 105 and 2.74 x 108, respectively. The findings were used to develop  formulations (1 × 104  to 1 × 1010 spore suspension/mL conc),  and tested  at field-level. The results showed that formulation at 1 x 1010 spores/mL conc was most effective against A. gossypii, recorded 93.33% mortality of nymphs & 66.67% mortality of adults; could be used under IPM practices

Synthesis of 2-oxo-azetidine derivatives of 2-amino thiazole and their biological activity

A new series of N-[2-(2-aminothiazolyl)ethyl]-4-(substitutedphenyl)- 3-chloro-2-oxo-1-iminoazetidine, compounds 4(a-m) have been synthesized from 2-aminothiazole as a starting material. The structure of all the synthesized compounds were confirmed by chemical and spectral analyses such as IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and FAB-Mass. All the final synthesized compounds 4(a-m) were screened for their antibacterial and antifungal activities against some selected bacteria and fungi and antitubercular activity screened against M. tuberculosis with their MIC value. Antiinflammatory activity screened against albino rats (either sex) and gave acceptable results