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This research is based on the hypothesis that the supply of appropriate perceptual and conceptual information through compensatory sensorial channels may assist people who are blind with anticipatory exploration. The two main goals of the research are: evaluation of different modalities (haptic and audio) and navigation tools; and evaluation of spatial cognitive mapping employed by people who are blind.

In this research the BlindAid system, which allows the user to explore a virtual environment, was developed and tested. The research included four participants who are totally blind.

The preliminary findings confirm that the system enabled participants to develop comprehensive cognitive maps by exploring the virtual environment. The BlindAid system could be used as a training‐simulator for O&M rehabilitation training, as a O&M diagnostic tool, and to support people who are blind in exploring and collecting spatial information in advance.

This preliminary study aims to highlight which VE properties could provide perceptual and conceptual spatial information and allow users who are blind to gather and expand their spatial information.

This chapter integrates research that highlights and demonstrates the importance of the marketing mix and customer attitudinal metrics in influencing the customer’s path to purchase. A key objective of this chapter is the provision of an integrative conceptual framework that links marketing actions to customer mindset metrics along the consumer’s path to purchase and the identification of the mechanisms by which customer mindset metrics contribute to consumer purchase journey. Specifically, it delineates two routes for the effects to manifest on sales: the “mindset route” where marketing actions influence customer mindset metrics, which in turn influence brand performance, or the “transactions route” where marketing actions influence market performance directly without influencing the intermediate mindset metrics. A second objective is to identify empirical patterns on incorporating marketing mix and mindset metrics along the path to purchase by reviewing key papers in this domain. Finally, the chapter concludes with the formulation of a rich, forward-looking research agenda on the customer mindset metrics – path to purchase link.

5S is a commonly used Lean tool that focusses on creating an organized work environment, but the effects of 5S on safety climate are not as well studied. The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of a 5S event on safety climate.

This pre-test post-test study examines the effect of implementing 5S on safety climate of the packaging area of a manufacturing plant. Two groups of employees (case and control groups) completed a safety climate questionnaire (Safety Climate Assessment Toolkit) prior to the 5S event, one month after, and two months after.

Total safety climate significantly improved for the case group but remained unchanged for the control group over the study period. Specifically, management commitment and involvement dimensions of safety climate improved for the case group.

These results show that two important aspects of safety climate (management commitment and involvement) can be significantly, positively influenced by successful 5S events, which may translate to improved safety overall.

Prior literature on 5S speculates a positive impact of 5S on safety and safety climate, but this assertion is not well supported with empirical evidence. This study provides quantitative measurement of positive safety climate changes that resulted from a successful 5S event. The results provide additional incentive for management to continue 5S and other Lean activities with the possibility of also improving safety.

The case study is designed to help students understand how the “growth at all costs” attitude can lead to compromised corporate governance in a start-up leading to disastrous implications for all the stakeholders. This case study aims to make students understand the components of the fraud triangle, the impact of financial fraud on various stakeholders, the role of venture capitalist (VC) investors and the importance of good corporate governance in start-ups. The case study presents an excellent opportunity for students to discuss the consequences of ignoring good governance in the pursuit of growth in a start-up. After analyzing the case study, the students shall be able to explain the concept of the fraud triangle and to be able to identify the motivation, opportunity and rationalization of financial irregularities in a start-up; analyze the impact of financial irregularities on various stakeholders; comprehend the business model of VCs and evaluate its influence on VC-funded start-ups; and appraise the importance of good corporate governance in start-ups.

The case study revolves around the confession of financial irregularities made by one of the cofounders of GoMechanic, a start-up headquartered in Gurugram, India. On January 18, 2023, Amit Bhasin confessed to financial irregularities in the company’s financial statements, leading to laying off 70% of the workforce of the company. GoMechanic had earlier raised close to US$62m [1] from maverick global investors including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Orios Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures, and was negotiating to raise Series D financing from the Japanese multinational SoftBank with aspirations to be a unicorn (start-up with a valuation of over $1bn). The confession led to a debate about the consequences of the “growth at all cost” culture being followed by start-ups as well as VCs. GoMechanic was not an isolated instance of a lack of governance in the start-ups. The confession had consequences not only for the GoMechanic but for the entire start-up ecosystem of India, which was the third largest in the world. Bhasin stated that the founders take full responsibility for the situation, and they were working on a plan which was most viable under the circumstances. However, it was not going to be easy to regain the confidence of the investors.

The case study is best suited for senior undergraduate- and graduate-level business school students and in executive education programs in courses such as corporate governance and ethics, private equity and entrepreneurial finance.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and finance

Dealers positioned at the downstream of the supply chains are those who can directly influence demand scenario for the manufacturer. However, manufacturer has to ensure that the influence is favorable by competitively fulfilling the anticipations of the dealers. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is focused on developing sustainable strategic relationships between manufacturer and dealer.

In this paper, the basic requirements of the dealers expected to be fulfilled by a manufacturer are analyzed by applying fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and fuzzy Quality Function Deployment. The said approach is implemented in a case situation of a paint manufacturing company in India, and the results are analyzed to provide directions for the company to strategically align manufacturer–dealer relationships.

It was found that the case company has to focus mainly on promotions and advertisements, painters meet, and recognition offered to the dealers. Although pricing was also considered as one of the prominent aspects yet through competitive assessment the case company was found to be better off compared to its competitors.

As the results obtained in the current study are specific to a manufacturing environment, they cannot be generalized for all the companies. However, similar approach can be adopted for analyzing the customer requirements in order to achieve dealers’ attractiveness and satisfaction.

The application of proposed approach assists a manufacturer to pursue right strategy to practice for achieving dealer attractiveness and satisfaction. This will definitely help the supply chain managers to have the right requirements of the dealers’ are fulfilled on priority.

Personalized price promotion (PPP) is a marketing instrument that addresses the limitations of untargeted promotions by tailoring the offers to individual customers based on their purchase histories. Current evidence on PPP is limited to its immediate effects on buying behaviors at grocery stores and food companies' economic benefits. Moreover, little is known about the role of consumer characteristics in determining how effectively this promotional tool works. Hence, we aim to assess the effectiveness of PPP in promoting healthy fast food and which consumer-specific factors affect its performance.

The authors conduct a laboratory experiment to examine the effects of personalized and non-personalized coupons for lower-calorie fast food menus on food and calorie selection. The coupon personalization is based on participants' menu choices, calorie needs and deal proneness. The authors additionally investigate how post-intervention changes are influenced by consumers' estimation of their selected calories, and their attitudes toward nutrition.

Recipients of personalized incentives are more likely than participants in the control group to redeem the offered coupons, select more healthy items and reduce their selected calories. Such changes are less likely among participants underestimating the calorie content of their menu choices and perceiving higher barriers to healthy eating. Personalized coupons perform better even among subjects receiving lower discounting levels than the control treatment.

As the first to evaluate the effectiveness of PPP in encouraging healthy food choices, this study highlights the potential of this cutting-edge price intervention and provides valuable implications for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of price and products on the promotion (through in-store temporary displays) on consumer sales in an emerging market context (i.e. Brazil) in different regions with contrasts in the market and store formats analyzed.

The data originate from retail market audits conducted over three years and are broken down by a region and a channel for a product category that has experienced increased competition and growth and is highly distributed throughout the analyzed regions and channel formats (i.e. the ready-to-drink juice category). This study uses a panel vector autoregression framework and an impulse-response function to determine the effects on sales over time.

The results suggest that price sensitivity and the effects of promotions on sales vary with the type of store format rather than through structural differences between regions with lower vs higher levels of economic development in an emerging market.

Managers should consider differences in store format more than the heterogeneity among regions when making price and promotion decisions. Additionally, this paper highlights the importance of in-store product visibility through temporary displays of promoted products, especially in smaller stores in an emerging market.

By considering the challenges of managing a consumer brand for which market heterogeneity is key, this paper extends the current research by contrasting consumer price and in-store promotion decisions across two heterogeneous regions and store formats within an emerging market.

The purpose of this study is to understand how young consumers engage in the multi-category context. To that end, engagement on the focal product (dating platforms) and the other product (matrimony platforms) were studied. The objective is to find an answer to the following research question: Why do consumers tend to engage more with the focal product, yet are likely to purchase its complement or substitute?

Semi-structured depth interviews and Straussian grounded theory method were used to collect, analyze and interpret the data.

Self-determination theory provides an answer to the research question. This study suggests: young consumers experience different levels of need fulfilment when they evaluate the focal product in the single-category and in the multi-category contexts; young consumers’ motivational orientation (controlled motivation, autonomous motivation and intrinsic motivation) results into high-level behavior and engagement (pleasure-seeking, platform abandonment, goal-oriented pleasure-seeking, goal-oriented problem-solving, anxious and outsourcing) with the focal product and the other product.

Value of the paper lies in developing a grounded theory framework for engagement in the multi-category context. This study can help practitioners in making important business decisions, especially in the dating and matrimony e-business categories.