Indian Service Research Articles

Understanding the Incongruent Brand Personalities on Social Media: Evidence from Indian Brands

Abstract Although the social media websites decreased the firms’ control over their brand personalities, there is little research on the incongruence between communicated and perceived brand personality of Indian service brands. The impact of bots and suspicious accounts on the online brand personalities also remained unexplored. We analyzed 58,024 tweets of nine Indian service brands using machine learning. Some of the newer brands are savvier in managing their brand personalities. The public sector brands have poorer alignment between communicated and perceived brand personalities. A counterintuitive finding is that the brand sentiment changes in value, but not in category, after removing the suspicious accounts.

Linder hypothesis and India’s services

This study examines the empirical validity of the Linder hypothesis for India’s service sector exports from 2005 to 2021, focusing on 35 major importing countries. We use a gravity model trade, applying Feasible Generalised Least Squares (FGLS) and two-step system generalised method of moments (GMM), incorporating country- and time-fixed effects. Our results confirm that the Linder hypothesis does not hold for Indian service exports, revealing an increase in trade intensity between countries with dissimilar income levels. The study finds that distance has a positive and significant impact on Indian service exports. Exchange rates have a negative and significant impact on India’s service exports, while the results for the RTA dummy variable are inconclusive. Sharing a common border, a common colony, and a language has a positive and significant effect on Indian service exports.

Constructing a decision-making tool for HRM process by predicting organizational citizenship behavior

Purpose The complexity of citizenship behavior in organizations has long been a focus of research. Traditional methodologies have been predominantly used to address this complexity. This paper aims to tackle the problem using a cutting-edge technological tool: business process mining. The objective is to enhance citizenship behaviors by leveraging primary data collected from 326 white-collar employees in the Indian service industry. Design/methodology/approach The study focuses on two main processes: training and creativity, with the ultimate goal of fostering organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), both in its overall manifestation (OCB-O) and its individual components (OCB-I). Seven different machine learning algorithms were used: artificial neural, behavior, prediction network, linear discriminant classifier, K-nearest neighbor, support vector machine, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), random forest and naive Bayes. The approach involved mining the most effective path for predicting the outcome and automating the entire process to enhance efficiency and sustainability. Findings The study successfully predicted the OCB-O construct, demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach. An optimized path for prediction was identified, highlighting the potential for automation to streamline the process and improve accuracy. These findings suggest that leveraging automation can facilitate the prediction of behavioral constructs, enabling the customization of policies for future employees. Research limitations/implications The findings have significant implications for organizations aiming to enhance citizenship behaviors among their employees. By leveraging advanced technological tools such as business process mining and machine learning algorithms, companies can develop more effective strategies for fostering desirable behaviors. Furthermore, the automation of these processes offers the potential to streamline operations, reduce manual effort and improve predictive accuracy. Originality/value This study contributes to the existing literature by offering a novel approach to addressing the complexity of citizenship behavior in organizations. By combining business process mining with machine learning techniques, a unique perspective is provided on how technological advancements can be leveraged to enhance organizational outcomes. Moreover, the findings underscore the value of automation in refining existing processes and developing models applicable to future employees, thus improving overall organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Caste affiliation and access to high-authority jobs in the Indian service sector

Restricting high authority jobs to a specific section of society leads to market inefficiencies, resulting in higher costs and lower quality of goods and services due to suboptimal management. Moreover, such favouritism exacerbates social inequalities across occupational hierarchies. Given India’s caste-based societal structure, it is crucial to investigate whether all social groups have equal access to top management and leadership positions. Using the 2019–2020 Periodic Labour Force Survey and binary logit models, this study reveals significant disparities in securing high-authority roles between lower and upper castes. The results show an average marginal effect of −7.3% for lower castes relative to upper castes. These disparities are further amplified if the lower caste individual is female, resides in a urban area, or holds a graduate-level education.

A Study on Internal Branding – Developing a Predictive Model for the Indian Service Sector with Reference to Bharti Airtel

In recent times, internal branding has gained importance in the marketing literature because researchers identify that corporate brand management not only associates external actions but also an internal approach that involves employees. Although the growing interest, there is no agreement among authors about experiences, measurements, and outcomes of internal branding. Currently, this paper aims to explore the conceptualization of internal branding and to offer opportunities for future research. The study is an organized literature review that uses a specific database. The contributions of each article were extracted, organized, and processed following systematic procedures. This review defines internal branding as a cross-functional process that involves both marketing and human resource departments. It focuses on managing the brand internally through brand-centered human resource management, internal brand communications, and brand leadership, with the aim of achieving brand outcomes among employees (brand understanding, brand identification, brand commitment, brand loyalty, brand citizenship behaviors) so they can build brand equity in front of external stakeholders. Although a lack of consensus had been established, the literature evidenced similarities that gave rise to the conceptualization proposed in this study. Nevertheless, the discussion about internal branding is still open because there are several issues to investigate in this field.

Job Autonomy and Employee Psychological Well-being: The Mediating Effect of Employee Voice

The review of employee well-being literature in the context of human resource management and organisational behaviour advocates that well-being is a major area of consideration for every organisation. Thus, based on job demand resource (JDR) theory, the study aims to examine the influence of job autonomy on the psychological well-being of employees with promotive voice behaviour playing the role of a mediator. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to analyse the cross-sectional data of 206 employees from the Indian service sector. The findings support the direct relationship between job autonomy, employee promotive voice and psychological well-being and further confirm the mediating role of promotive voice between job autonomy and psychological well-being. This study suggests that organisations should delegate authority to their employees to carry out their job roles, as it can improve their voice behaviour and further their psychological well-being. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the mediating effect of promotive voice behaviour between job autonomy and psychological well-being.

Interrogating the Interceding Effects of Service and Justice Climates on the Juncture Between Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance in the Service Sectors

Purpose: This Research work focuses at how service and justice climates influence the strength and direction of the relation between Employee engagement and financial and non-financial results in service businesses, as well as the moderating impact of these climates on this relationship. Method: This research employs a quantitative method, collecting data from workers (N=376) in different service sectors and analysing it using SmartPLS software to investigate the moderating impacts of Service and Justice Climates on Work Engagement and Organizational Performance The survey covered North Indian service sectors. A questionnaire was issued online to over fifty firms across several service verticals. A total of 480 samples were gathered, and after filtering, 376 samples were utilised for result analysis. Results: This research found that service and justice climate moderates the relationship between employee engagement and financial and non-financial Performances.This investigation emphasizes the need of organisations creating service and justice climate resulting in maximisation of performance advantages of employee engagement programmes, emphasising the necessity for managers and leaders to prioritise service excellence and procedural compliance. Research Implications: This research investigates the results of service and justice climate on employee engagement and organisational performance, providing practitioners with useful insights on how to optimise engagement programmes while also improving organisational efficiency and sustainability, and contributes to current knowledge of Employee Engagement. Originality/value: Supporting current knowledge, this study examines how service and justice cultures affect employee engagement and organisational performance, helping practitioners improve engagement efforts and organisational success and sustainability.

Psychological empowerment an antecedent to career satisfaction: modeling affective commitment as a mediator and resilience as a moderator

PurposeThe study, grounded on the social cognitive career theory, seeks to analyze the upshot of psychological empowerment on career satisfaction via affective commitment. The study also aims to examine the impact of the interplay among affective commitment and resilience on the career satisfaction of Indian service industry professionals.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the data has been collected from 277 employees using standardized measures from the North Indian service industry. To test the proposed model, Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) (Hayes, 2013) was utilized.FindingsThe outcomes of the study offered substantial support for the theorized link between psychological empowerment, affective commitment, resilience and career satisfaction. The outcomes confirmed an affirmative association concerning psychological empowerment and career satisfaction through affective commitment as a mediator and resilience as a moderator. The study concludes that the workforce with extraordinary resilience will perceive a stronger influence of psychological empowerment on career satisfaction.Practical implicationsThe study offers a few pertinent inputs for the organizations operating in high-power distance culture to comprehend the role of psychological empowerment and “resilient attributes” of personality in developing a sense of career satisfaction amongst Indian service sector employees.Originality/valueThe present research examines the association between psychological empowerment, affective commitment, resilience and career satisfaction for the first time as mediated moderation model and the same has neither been examined theoretically or empirically.

Assessing the Influence of Entrepreneurial Culture on Innovative Work Behaviour: An Empirical Study of the Indian Service Sector

This study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial culture and innovative work behaviour of the employees in Indian service sector organisations. Based on responses collected from 203 Indian service sector employees, the study examines the impact of the factors constituting entrepreneurial culture, namely, management support, work discretion/ autonomy, rewards, time availability and organisational boundaries on their innovative work behaviour. Multiple regression analysis has been used to study this relationship. The results show that work discretion, time availability and reward/reinforcement had a significant positive impact on innovative work behaviour. On the other hand, management support and organisational boundaries did not significantly affect innovative work behaviour. This study assists managers in understanding the factors which are the facilitators and inhibitors of innovative work behaviour among employees.

Role of Emotional and Artificial Intelligence in Employee Performance: A Perspective from the Indian Service Industry

Artificial intelligence (AI) and emotional intelligence (EI) are primary game changers in Industry 4.0. To ensure growth, organisations look to technological advances for support but should remain focused on developing people and resources that power organisations and drive it forward. This study attempts to combine these two concepts. This research investigates the impact of EI and AI on employee performance with focus on the Indian service industry. The data was collected from different service industry employees. Employee performance has been observed through internal and external services provided to customers and co-workers, respectively. Descriptive statistics and PROCESS macro were used to test the mediation (Model 4) and moderation model (Model 1). Both EI and AI significantly impact employee performance. All the bivariate correlations were significant at the 0.01 level. Correlations between the dimensions of EI and dimensions of employee performance were higher as compared to dimensions of AI and employee performance. To conclude, EI has a major impact on employee performance, while AI moderates the relationship between EI and employee performance.

New Technologies in the Tourism and Hospitality Service Sector

Technological innovations and creative thinking are revolutionizing the Indian services industry. In the services industry, digital transformation is essential. In India, smart technology has significantly contributed to the development of several sectors. It has created new opportunities for the services industry in India to expand and become more efficient. This article aims to highlight significant technical breakthroughs that destinations may achieve by implementing smart technologies and strategies. These developments allow destinations to manage their resources, improve infrastructure and services, and provide tourists with individualized experiences. Innovations fuelled by technology are revolutionizing the travel sector solutions, smart hotels, AR/VR experiences, and AI-powered customization. Today's globe is seeing a tremendous evolution in technology, which is changing every industry. The study combines new technical advancements in the tourist services industry with established ideas of co-creation, service ecosystems, networks, and technology disruption. This study's approach was developed through a review and analysis of pertinent literature. We employed the integrated literature review technique to do this. The study looks at previous and current studies on the digitalization of economic sectors. In addition to fresh research on the topic and project data, lectures, conference proceedings, Internet publications, journals, and books devoted to this field's study were examined. Analytical, synthesis, critical thinking, and generalization techniques were employed. An overview of technological trends in tourism is given in this article. In order for apps to respond to all material, enable personalisation, and offer conveniences while keeping up with technology, the tourist industry should set up effective customer processes on its applications. Technological disruptions led to an upsurge in local criminality, including drug sales, prostitution, and illicit gambling. Travelers now have more options for exploring and learning about new places thanks to technology. The results emphasize the essential for more study on modernizing services in the travel and hospitality industry. The travel, hotel, restaurant, events, and entertainment sectors are all part of the booming tourism and hospitality businesses. Digitalization is the process of using digital technology to run and expand a business. This involves selling products and services online as well as collecting and analysing large amounts of data that may be used to create new initiatives or modify current ones. Integrating digitization will make tourist enterprises more adaptable and durable after COVID-19. Several distinct segments make up the tourist business. From the manufacture and distribution of goods for recreational activities, such paper or digital tour guides and interpreters, to transportation services like those provided by airlines, railroads, and vehicle rental firms. To put it simply, the infrastructure, services, and goods that enable leisure travel from beginning to end constitute the tourist sector. The study provides examples of how technology is upending the travel and hospitality sector.

Investigating nexus between corporate re-branding and stock market performance: a study of Indian service sector

PurposeThe present study, by using signaling perspective aims to investigate short-term valuation impact of rebranding announcements (with name change) on stock performance of 160 service firms listed on NSE NIFTY-500 over the period of 2000–2019.Design/methodology/approachAn event study methodology is used to estimate the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) and its statistical significance is tested with both parametric and non-parametric test-statistics. Separate analysis has been conducted for firms with “major vs minor” and “restructuring vs non-restructuring” name change.FindingsFindings of the study suggest that rebranding decisions are negatively associated with abnormal returns around the announcement period indicating strong disapproval of name change event. In addition, investors formed strong adverse opinion for major name change firms as compared to minor name change firms. Further, restructured name change sample document larger negative drift than non-restructured sample.Practical implicationsFindings offer substantial repercussions for shareholders who can make informed judgments about name change as a signal of reinventing brand identity. Managers should announce detailed rationale behind name change decision to market for enhancing corporate reputation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to marketing-finance interface literature and is first to examine market reaction to name change of Indian service firms and moreover, made a distinction between major vs minor and restructured vs non-restructured name change events for these firms.

The role of mindfulness and self-compassion to ameliorate COVID-19 phobia in frontline employees associated with the Indian services sectors: an empirical analysis

PurposeThis research aims to study the effects of mindfulness and self-compassion in addressing COVID-19 phobia issues. To date, not a single study has examined the influence of these constructs on COVID-19 phobia amongst frontline employees (FLEs) in the services sector. In this context, the present study examined the association between FLE’s trait mindfulness and COVID-19 phobia and the mediating effect of self-compassion on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using 335 FLEs working in the Indian services sector, and the analysis was undertaken using the PROCESS macro of Hayes (2018).FindingsFLE's trait mindfulness was found to influence COVID-19 phobia negatively, and the mediation role of self-compassion was also noted. Findings for the COVID-19 phobia composite and its four facets are discussed.Practical implicationsCorporate leaders could encourage mindfulness and self-compassion training helping in buffering the negative issues associated with COVID-19 phobia among FLEs.Originality/valueIt is one of the few studies conducted in the South-Asian context that highlights how mindfulness can help enhance self-compassion among frontline service sector employees while guiding them to overcome COVID-19 phobia. This could be the first study to examine the mediating effects of self-compassion in the relationships between mindfulness and COVID-19 phobia.

Impact of Change Communication on Readiness of the Employees - A Study on Post Covid19 WFH Scenario in the Indian Service Sector

The study focuses upon analysing and examining the impact of change communication on readiness of the employees under the perspective of post-Covid19 WFH scenario. A closed-end and structure questionnaire was designed and adopted for data acquisition. The targets were determined as service sector-based organizations and the sample size 301 was determined for this study. Hypothesis was formulated and AMOS software was utilized for analysis. Through the proposed research, results were gathered, and it was found that the readiness to change by employees is highly impacted by effective communication, especially after Covid-19 the employees’ readiness to change in an organization is found to be positive than negative, since the digitalization was the only way to reach others due to social distancing. The study will definitely have an impact upon the change management and will also have practical implications towards employees’ readiness towards changes in the organization. Covid-19 has been identified as a great pandemic disaster that has affected many industries, especially the IT sector, Healthcare sector, educational sector and Tourism industry. “Working From Home” has been considered as a great opportunity by the SMEs and MNCs since the human lifestyle has changed and adopted to Covid-19. The research originally extends from existing literature upon change management and employees’ readiness to change. The study also indirectly focuses and analyses the factors like planned behaviour, resistance to change, organizational structure, organizational climate, working environment, employees’ readiness to change and adapt top management’s interventions and other relevant subjects.

Spatial concentration of Indian service industries in rural and urban areas: A micro-unit-level analysis

Spatial concentration of Indian service industries in rural and urban areas: A micro-unit-level analysis

Outsource to India: The impact of service outsourcing to India on the labor market in the United States

AbstractService offshoring raises the fear of job loss for high‐skilled workers, unlike goods offshoring, because workers at home compete with highly educated workers in low‐income countries. This paper examines whether the increase in the United States's service offshoring to India has reduced the domestic employment of the occupations with greater exposure to Indian service imports. To account for endogeneity, I instrument for the growth of the United States's service imports from India by exploiting the change in Indian exports to European countries. Service offshoring reduces total employment from 2000 to 2006; however, this effect disappears overall and becomes positive for college‐educated workers in the later period from 2006 to 2016. Unlike goods offshoring, the employment effect is largely driven by college‐educated workers, and the employment growth in the later period is larger.

Can Mindfulness be an Alternative for Servant Leadership? A Well-being Perspective

Servant leaders go beyond their self-centeredness and genuinely work toward strengthening the well-being (WB) of their followers. However, organizations cannot solely rely on servant leaders to stimulate the WB of their workforce as numerous factors affect servant leadership (SL), which may hinder its successful implementation in the workplace. Therefore, it is essential to determine to what extent an individual trait such as mindfulness can compensate for this leadership. Being focused, optimistic, and present in the moment fosters the WB of a person, which may reduce their reliance on external leadership. Thus, by relying on the “substitutes for leadership theory,” this study examines the moderating role of mindfulness in the SL and WB relationship. The data were collected from the 265 Indian service sector employees and were analyzed using the SPSS-20 and AMOS-21 software. The study’s results revealed that SL and mindfulness were significantly related to employee WB. Moreover, employees’ mindfulness moderates the SL and WB relationship. Also, mindfulness partly substitutes for a low level of SL in the workplace. Hence, by organizing meditation and yoga sessions in the organizations, employees’ mindfulness can be enhanced which reduce the reliance on the leadership style of the managers.

Psychosocial influence of blended working: the reciprocity of blended working and organizational optimism

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of blended working (BW) on individual payoffs like psychological ownership (PO), affective organizational commitment (AOC) and digital stress (DS). Additionally, the study also examines the moderating role of organizational optimism (OO) on the relationships stated to determine the boundary condition of the relationship between BW and the individual payoffs.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal field survey based on executives employed in the Indian service industries (comprised of state-owned banks, three healthcare and four MNCs) was conducted. Levels of BW, AOC, PO, DS and OO were measured through a validated scale, and the relationships' significance was explored.FindingsThe result indicated that BW positively influences AOC and DS, while OO influences PO positively and DS negatively. OO also moderates the influence of BW on PO and DS.Originality/valueThis research extends its contribution to the extant literature by (1) exploring the unique context of research in work conditions (BW) across India, (2) examining macro level factor (OO) in the linkage between BW and psychosocial factors, (3) investigating the moderating effect of OO and (4) considering a relatively large sample for empirical analysis in several waves to study BW and its individual pay-offs.

Linking Workplace Incivility and Emotional Exhaustion: A Moderated Mediation Examination

Ignorance in cultivating a harmonious work culture and not addressing the negative misconduct at the workplace is highly undesirable for the organisations and taxing for individual and team-level performances. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory, a moderated mediation framework is hypothesised where workplace incivility predicts emotional exhaustion in employees, and organisational social capital is identified as a critical resource mediating the mechanism. In addition, irresponsible leadership is tested as a boundary condition influencing this relationship. A cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire collected data from a heterogeneous sample of 410 Indian service sector employees providing evidence for the hypothesised relationships. Results confirm that participants experiencing higher levels of incivility reported greater levels of emotional burnout. This outcome is affected by irresponsible leadership such that the higher the levels of irresponsible leadership, the more the social capital is undermined and emotional exhaustion rises in employees.

Proactive Personality and Employee Engagement: The Mediating Role of Employee Voice

Recent market congestion and intense competition elevated the need for the organizations to engage their workforce to foster their loyalty. And, to achieve this objective, proactive personality of an employee characterized by ability to voice and ability to take initiative can prove fruitful in stimulating the engagement level. Based on the premise, this study aims to examine the relationship between proactive personality and employee engagement. Also, it intends to find novel progress in this area by investigating the mediating role of employee voice between proactive personality and employee engagement. For this, data were collected from 220 Indian service sector employees, which were then analysed using the SPSS (Version 20) and the Jamovi (Version 1.8.4.0) software. Particularly, the analysis comprised confirmatory factor analysis, followed by multiple regression and mediation analysis. The results revealed that proactive personality and employee engagement were significantly related, with employee voice partially mediating this relationship. These findings imply that as proactive employees are more like to raise their voice and provide valuable suggestions and ideas, and such proactive nature of theirs ultimately helps in augmenting their engagement towards their work.