People’s acceptance of technological changes has escalated with time. However, the acceptance and adoption of fintech services hiked after the outbreak of the virulent coronavirus. With this breakout, the adoption of mobile fintech services (MFS) increased among general citizens and business sectors around the world, including in developed, emerging, and developing economies. This study aimed to identify the factors that impact the adoption intention of consumers to embrace and enhance the use of mobile fintech services in an emerging market, Bangladesh. A research model was developed to strengthen the objective of this paper. A total of 218 respondents responded to the questionnaire. The study utilized structural equation modeling to analyze the results in SmartPLS software. The results showed significant positive effects of social influence, trust, perceived benefit, and facilitating conditions on the adoption intention towards MFS. Mobile fintech service providers must keep their users’ needs and literacy rates in mind when designing the user interface (UI). Moreover, they should also cater more efficient services to the users and work based on the feedback received. The customers’ satisfaction will ultimately lead to customers conducting more digital transactions and will contribute to the escalation of fintech transactions, resulting in more financial inclusion.

This study aims to find whether Sharpe's single-index model of portfolio construction offers better investment alternatives to the investors of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE). For this purpose, month-ended closing price data of 178 companies listed on the DSE, the prime bourse of Bangladesh, and the month-ended index value of DSEX have been used for the period starting from January 2013 to February 2018. The stocks selected for this study belong to 16 industrial sectors, and purposive sampling technique has been used to select these sectors. Sharpe's model formulates a unique cut-off rate and selects the stocks having an excess return-to-beta ratio above that rate. In this study, 54 stocks qualified to be a part of the optimal portfolio. Hence, the proportion of investment to be made on each of the stock is calculated according to the model. The study reveals that three industries occupy a hefty chunk (65.78%) of the proposed investment portfolio. The constructed portfolio offers a monthly return of 2.1489% and carries 1.9516% risk as measured by standard deviation. The beta of the optimal portfolio is only 0.124003. The constructed portfolio outperforms every individual stock as well as the market index in terms of offering the optimal risk-return combinations. Therefore, this five-and-a-half-decade-old model offers a great opportunity for Bangladeshi investors to optimize return and diversify risk in an efficient manner.

A significant breakthrough in organised retail in an emerging economy such as Bangladesh, coupled with growing competition among mall managers, necessitates determination of the factors that contribute to a satisfactory shopping experience and long-term patronage intentions. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the factors influencing the overall experience of mall shoppers, which, in turn, shapes their patronage behaviour. For this purpose, 284 respondents were surveyed using the convenience sampling technique. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the hypothesised model. Among the three independent factors analysed, entertainment and accessibility wielded significant influence on shoppers’ experience, while tenant mix exerted a statistically insignificant influence. Altogether, these three independent variables, along with shoppers’ experience, accounted for 67% of the total variance in patronage. It was plausible to conclude that managing entertainment and accessibility can result in a more pleasant shopping experience. Being the first of its kind, this study investigated the combined impact of accessibility, tenant mix, and entertainment on the overall shopping experience that shapes patronage behaviour. This study’s findings can help comprehend the dynamics of customer management in the retail market of an emerging economy.

Growing competition amongst contemporary forms of shopping malls has made mall developers and management consider devising methods that enrich the experience of the customers. In this study, an attempt was made to explore the antecedents to the shopping experience at the mall. For this purpose, a survey instrument was developed for measuring the respondents' opinion. The constructs developed for this study were tested and validated by means of multidimensional procedure on a sample of 284 mall shoppers in Bangladesh. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses developed for this study. Among the three exogenous factors analyzed in this study, two factors namely ambience and amenities have a significant influence in determining customers' shopping experience, while the third factor, named safety, exerts a statistically insignificant impact. It is reasonable to conclude, based on the evidence gathered from the study that, an enriched shopping experience can be facilitated by mall managers as a relational outcome of managing ambience and amenities. Being the first of its kind, this research work delves into the interrelated dependence among the factors that in turn influence customer experience at the shopping malls in the context of Bangladesh.

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