Retailing is one of the world’s fastest growing industries. Food and Grocery sector has the largest share in the India’s retailing sector. It is divided into traditional and modern grocery stores. In this paper we investigate the perception of women, the largest segment of grocery shoppers. Using empirical research, this paper finds out the factors that influence the perception of women towards grocery stores and compare their perception between traditional and modern grocery retail stores. Due to introduction of FDI in multi brand retailing, foreign players are entering the Indian grocery retail sector. This study will help the domestic retailers to understand what women in a metro city expect from a grocery store as women are usually responsible to buy food & grocery for their family. The sample was collected from 101 women of Delhi and NCR. Factor analysis and paired t-test techniques were used in the research. This paper identifies seven factors that influence perception of women towards a grocery store, namely Attractive and Modern services, Responsiveness, Customer Convenience, Money saving, Time saving, Product variety, and Quality & Location. The study also indicates that there is significant difference in the perception of women between traditional and modern grocery retail stores.The modern grocery retail stores have better perception than traditional grocery retail stores in terms of all the factors named above. This study provides specific knowledge to grocery retailers of the factors that influence women perception while choosing a grocery store.

Sustainable development can be attained through knowing the behavior of people at work. With an aim to enhance understanding about the association of human needs with their behavior, more than 400 executives of Indian Manufacturing and IT-ITES (Informational technology enabled service) industries were surveyed. It is observed that Secondary motives/ psychological needs like need for achievement (nAch), need for Affiliation (nAff), need for Power (nPow) and need for Security (nSec) impact the decision making styles (Rational, Intuitive, Dependent, Avoidant and Spontaneous) differently across industries.Thus, the hypothesis of the study “H1: Motives and Cognitive styles of executives are significantly associated across industries” has fetched considerable support. This knowledge about the association of motives with styles may be channelized well for betterment or business sustainability.

Initial Public Offer (IPO) plays a role of new blood in the nerves of firms as the firms try to raise funds for their forthcoming ventures through IPOs. This paper examines the one year and six month performance of IPOs launched by companies of various sectors during year 2007 to year 2012. The study comprises of comparative analysis of the performance of the IPOs in terms of average return to that of Sensex pertaining to all companies of various sectors of Indian economy. Multiple regression has been used to analyze the impact of various independent variables on the IPO return for 6 months as well as 1 year. The study has been done to analyse the factors affecting the performance of IPOs. Independent variables like Oversubscription of IPOs, time delay in IPO listed, IPO offer Price, Market return in terms of Sensex return for the same time period have been considered to gauge their impact on IPO performance. Attempt has been made to weigh the macro as well as micro economic factors and also market trend during the specified period. The analysis highlights the impact of various factors on IPO performance on short term basis.

Customer acceptance of innovations necessitates behavioral research aimed at examining and predicting behavior and behavioral intentions. Due to low penetration of internet in India (around 4% according to Business Today, 5.2% according to Nasscom s projection for 2005 and 7.1% in November 2008 according to internet World Stats usage and populations statistics) as compared to other countries (China 22.4%, Taiwan 66.1%), internet shopping can be considered as an innovation for the Indian customer. Customer demand for the internet is a key factor that may ultimately drive widespread acceptance of the internet by retailers. Whether the customer has access and how they use or perceive internet shopping in a way will affect its ultimate acceptance. Therefore, this study examines internet shopping acceptance in developing countries; in this case India. The exponential growth of internet penetration in India and increased e-commerce activity both on consumer side as well as corporate side during last few years provides the impetus to investigate this phenomenon among potential online shoppers. The study tests a comprehensive Technology Acceptance Model incorporating shopping profiles and security and privacy concerns exploring their effects on successful adoption of internet shopping in India.

Financial Inclusion or Inclusive Finance refers to the delivery of financial services at an affordable cost to the vast sections of the disadvantaged and low profile groups of the society. Financial Inclusion helps vulnerable groups such as low income groups, weaker sections, etc., to increase incomes, acquire capital, manage risk and work their way out of poverty through secure savings, appropriately priced credit and insurance products, and payment services. Financial Inclusion should not be seen as a social responsibility of the Governments and the banking system, but it is a potentially viable business proposition today which provides the poor with opportunities to build savings make investments and get credit. This paper analyse the demand side factors which are responsible for financial exclusion.

A research was conducted in Vadodara, Gujarat, India to study the psychology of people while purchasing cheap products as compared to costly products. As a result, two representative products were selected and buying behavior of respondents was studied towards these two products. It was found that the mental process for both the products is quite different.

This study made an attempt to examine the impact of macroeconomic factors on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) SENSEX. The study include crude oil prices, Gold price, Food price inflation, Call money rate, Rupee Vs Dollar exchange rate, Foreign Portfolio Investment and Foreign Exchange Reserve (Forex). The study used statistical tools like correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis to found the impact of macroeconomic factors on Sensex. The study finds 25% of variance of Sensex explained by the variables during the study period. The result was useful for all the stock market participants in India.

The paper aims to explore the concept of leadership effectiveness and workplace spirituality from the employee’s perspective. A review based on the constructs of the study – workplace spirituality and leadership effectiveness is concentrated and discussed. Secondary data is used. Review of past relevant literature has been analysed for the study. The emergence of workplace spirituality as a major management concept in the past decade is emphasised. Workplace spirituality researches have contributed towards spirituality, relationship of spirituality with religion and spirituality as an independent construct without any orientation towards religion. Leadership effectiveness has a strong literature base analysed with various management concepts. Yet the study pertaining to workplace spirituality and leadership effectiveness are minimal. Spiritual leadership and workplace spirituality and other management dimension have been analysed in western countries. This context has received less attention in India. However the leadership effectiveness assessed from the employees who are spiritual is a new entry into the area of workplace spirituality. The assessment concentrates on bringing out the effect of workplace spirituality on leadership effectiveness through the employees perspective. Conclusively the paper aims to show that a study on leadership effectiveness based on workplace spirituality is congruent and has a positive impact on work outcomes of the employees.

In this paper, the researchers have projected a conceptual framework to investigate the significance of customer retention as a challenge in financial services. In order to drive sustainable competitive advantage, customer retention must be on top of the all marketing strategies. As the cost of getting hold of new customers and fierce competition increases, the main focus of service industry’s marketing strategic efforts is on customer retention. This study is an attempt to examine the drivers inducing customer retention in the banking sector. In order to smooth the progress of managerial action, we discuss what are those drivers and how are these connected to the customer retention by reviewing the literature. It has been found that drivers like service quality, customer satisfaction , switching cost, Customer loyalty etc. to be considered. Our approach and findings have meaningful inferences for managing customer retention in the financial services industry.

Before 1988 there being no effective legal provision to restrain people from issuing cheques without having sufficient funds in their account or any stringent provision to punish them in the vent of such cheque not being honoured by their bankers and returned unpaid. Of course on dishonour of cheques there is a civil liability accrued. This paper attempts to elucidate the penal provision in the light of the amendments and the judicial interpretations. Many issues arise under this section such as what happens in case of default, who will be liable to the holder of the cheque, what are the procedures involved to make the case adept in the eyes of the magistrate, etc. in this paper the researcher has attempted to look at all these issues comprehensively and analyse them with sufficient illustrations. The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 was amended in the year 1988 to add – Chapter XVII which pertains to “penalties in case of dishonour of certain cheques for insufficiency of funds in the accounts” and contains sections 138 to 147. The loop holes available to the defaulter of the cheque are ratified by the amendment of the year 2002 in Chapter XVII and the penalty provisions are made clear by various judicial pronouncements. But the recent judgment of the Supreme Court stating that in case of dishonour of cheque, a criminal complaint has to be filed where the drawer of the cheque is residing appears to be a huge set back to the interest of innocent creditors and also frustrates the very idea of the legislation. And hence the same in the opinion of the researcher requires modification.