For customers’ purchasing decisions, word of mouth (WOM) has been considered as one of the major influential factors. With the rise of Internet-based technology and usage of online-based devices, customers are now considering online reviews and other users’ e-opinions as one of the significant sources of information gathering for taking final purchasing decisions. Organizations also emphasize electronic word of mouth (eWOM) as a major promotional tool for their business. This study aims to examine the impact of eWOM on customers’ buying intention and tries to determine the mediating relationship of trust between eWOM and customers’ buying intention. For this, an exploratory study has been designed using the purposive and convenience sampling technique. With the assistance of a self-administrated structured questionnaire, a total of 218 respondents’ data were finally selected for the structural equation model (SEM) analysis. The result of the study reveals that eWOM has a direct influence on customers’ intention to buy without the presence of the mediator trust. Nevertheless, with the presence of trust as a mediator, the direct relationship gets weakened, resulting in full mediation. The study results can contribute both theoretically and practically in many ways.

Purpose Despite the abundant literature on panic buying during COVID-19 pandemic, the several causes and consequences of panic buying have been enormously ignored. The purpose of this study is to emphasize the consumer’s behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and illustrate the comprehensive theoretical model of consumers’ panic buying to investigate its causes and consequences in a developing country empirically to uncover this gap. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected data from 419 households of all socioeconomic classes of Bangladesh. A hierarchical regression model analyzed the data. Findings This study finds that internal and external factors such as rumors, government strategies, fear and anxiety and health security significantly affect consumers’ panic buying behaviors. This finding supports some theories of human behavior. This study also finds that panic buying has internal and external consequences such as price hike, shortage of supply of products, dissatisfaction of consumers and increase in utility (benefit) of the products but not on consumer’s budget. This finding supports as well as contradicts some established theories of human and consumer behavior. Originality/value This study proves that panic buying cannot help the consumers and they are the ultimate sufferers of this. The findings of this study will help the government, media, suppliers and consumers to interact properly to maintain panic buying during a pandemic crisis. Giving a holistic explanation of the causes and consequences of panic buying by introducing some novel variables is a momentous strength of this study.

Though SMEs have low accessibility to institutional credit, this accessibility may reduce the cost of capital. Therefore, this study explores field level status of accessibility of SMEs to institutional credit along with finding out the causes of low accessibility. Descriptive statistics, accounting and financial techniques, and a logistic regression model are applied to analyse the data. This study finds a demand and supply gap of SME credit. Moreover, SMEs have to bear some additional costs besides the interest of institutional credit. Banks are more conscious regarding their loan’s safety and security in the SME sector. Therefore, SMEs are facing difficulties in getting access to institutional credit. Again, SME entrepreneurs are not concerned regarding the interest rate of institutional credit, which ensures that the entrepreneurs are capable enough to earn more than the cost of institutional credit. By the study’s findings, respective government authorities, Bangladesh Bank, banks, other financial institutions and SME entrepreneurs can get a guideline to enhance the credit flow in the SME sector.

Due to the share market crash in 2010-2011, the investors have lost confidence regarding the share market till now. Therefore, this study is an endeavor to giveaway to rethink about the share market of Bangladesh and to increase the confidence of the investors. For that, Tobin's Q ratio used to analyze the share market in this study. Tobin's Q represents the ratio of the market value of a firm's share capital to the replacement cost of the firm's share capital. Tobin's Q is greater than one means stock is overvalued. Tobin's Q is less than one means stock is undervalued. Again, Tobin's Q is equal to one means stock is fairly valued. The study found that, the value of Tobin's Q of the all sampling banks is gradually decreasing means moving the value of the stock from overvalued to undervalue. The value of Tobin's Q of the all sampling banks is less than one in the year 2014 except Dutch Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL). The average value of Tobin's Q of the banking industry is also decreasing and the average value of Tobin's Q of the banking industry is less than one in the year 2014. Thus, the average stock value of the banking industry is moving from overvalued to undervalue gradually. Again, the value of Tobin's Q of all sampling banks fell down drastically from the year 2010 to the year 2011 as share market has been crashed in those years. As a result, the average value of Tobin's Q of banking industry also fell down drastically from the year 2010 to the year 2011. Therefore, the value of the share slopes down drastically from the year 2010 to the year 2011.

Due to the share market crash in 2010-2011, the investors have lost confidence regarding the share market till now. Therefore, this study is an endeavor to giveaway to rethink about the share market of Bangladesh and to increase the confidence of the investors. For that, Tobin's Q ratio used to analyze the share market in this study. Tobin's Q represents the ratio of the market value of a firm's share capital to the replacement cost of the firm's share capital. Tobin's Q is greater than one means stock is overvalued. Tobin's Q is less than one means stock is undervalued. Again, Tobin's Q is equal to one means stock is fairly valued. The study found that, the value of Tobin's Q of the all sampling banks is gradually decreasing means moving the value of the stock from overvalued to undervalue. The value of Tobin's Q of the all sampling banks is less than one in the year 2014 except Dutch Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL). The average value of Tobin's Q of the banking industry is also decreasing and the average value of Tobin's Q of the banking industry is less than one in the year 2014. Thus, the average stock value of the banking industry is moving from overvalued to undervalue gradually. Again, the value of Tobin's Q of all sampling banks fell down drastically from the year 2010 to the year 2011 as share market has been crashed in those years. As a result, the average value of Tobin's Q of banking industry also fell down drastically from the year 2010 to the year 2011. Therefore, the value of the share slopes down drastically from the year 2010 to the year 2011.