Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand antecedents of app-based shopping in an Indian context. The paper has used unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) 2 model for examining the impact of various constructs on behavioral intention and usage behavior of smart phone users toward the mobile shopping apps. Design/methodology/approach The constructs were tested and validated by means of a structured questionnaire which was administered on a sample of 350 mobile app shoppers in Delhi. AMOS 20 was used to analyze the collected data. Findings The study revealed that hedonic and habit are the strongest predictors of users’ behavioral intention to use mobile apps for shopping. Respondents are also influenced by the deals that are being offered by the marketers. The research also suggests that facilitating conditions help in usage of mobile apps for shopping. Research limitations/implications Managerial implications simplifying the interface which would encourage the less technologically advanced individuals to use mobile apps. Hedonic element of shopping through mobile apps should also be enhanced. Originality/value This study contributes to the research on intentions and usage behavior of consumer technologies by adopting UTAUT 2 model to explain the intentions and usage behavior toward mobile apps for shopping. The paper also measured the role of deals in influencing the consumers.

Haryana is a small state having 4.4 million hectares of land only, yet it has become pioneer in production of food crops in the country. The time series data collected from the secondary sources of information from 1966-67 to 2015-16 showed a significant increase in total cropped area, irrigated area and cropping intensity. The production of major crops of wheat, rice, sugarcane, cotton and oilseeds and productivity of food crops of wheat and rice increased progressively due to adoption of high-tech agricultural practices but the productivity of wheat and rice decreased in later years due to change in agricultural practices including adoption of organic farming. The state government has taken several initiatives to protect and better management of resources for the sustainability of production and productivity of major crops.

In this paper, we have introduced the multi-indexed Whittaker function (3m-parameter) by using the extended confluent hypergeometric function which is defined in terms of multi-indexed (3m-parameter) Mittag-Leffler function. We derive some properties of multi-indexed (3m-parameter) Whittaker function such as its integral representations, derivative formula and Hankel transform.

No abstract

The digital age has changed the way businesses are run today. Technology is not just a priviledge but also a necessity. The recent pandemic has given important lessons to business to be proactive and advanced in technology. Customers occupy the centrestage in any business and giving them solutions promptly for their queries can leave a positive impression and lead to long term customer enagagment. For this, a trained team of employees are required who can give their services incessantly. However, the rising employee retention costs have impacted the profit margins of organisations and more human intervention becomes a hurdle in standardization of processes. Therefore, organisations are roping in artificial intelligence to be more efficient and cost effective. Chatbots are artificial intelligence softwares that have enabled organisations to give answers to customer queries online. The study intends to examine the significant factors in determining customers’ intentions to use chatbots. This paper aims to understand the role of user experience, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and trust in customer chatbot use intentions from the Indian point of view. A structured questionnaire was utilized to gather data for testing the proposed model, which was conceptualized based on extant literature on technology acceptance and consumer behavior. A survey response of 354 respondents was taken. In order to test the constructs, the collected data was analyzed through AMOS 21. The research findings depicted the positive impact of user experience, trust performance expectancy, and effort expectancy on customer intention to use chatbots, which influences actual usage. This paper empirically demonstrates the relationship among various variables affecting customer intentions to use chatbots. Since the paper uses data collected from a sample not randomly selected, it may regulate the generalization of the results. This study intends to add to the current research gap in the existing literature about customer intention to use chatbots, mainly in the Indian context. The research examined how positive user experience, performance, effort expectancy, and trust affect customer intentions to take support from chatbots.