PACIFIC BUSINESS JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

5

Authors: D. Silambarasan , Dr. R. Azhagaiah

The term 'leverage' is used to utilize the fixed cost or funds to increease the returns to the owners of the firm. The study is an attempt to analyze the determinants of corporate leverage in IT industry in India. In order to test the hypotheses and to address the objectives of the study, the present study has chosen 28 sample firms from IT industry in India, which are listed in National Stock Exchange. The study used correlation and regression analysis to find the relationship and the impact of corporate leverage on profitability. The study proves that there is a significant impact of operating Leverage and Financial Leverage on Return on Net worth. Hence, based on the results, the 1 2study rejects Ho and Ho , revealing that the Operating Leverage and Financial Leverage have impact, of course the Operating Leverage negatively while the Financial Leverage positively, on Return on Net worth of IT Industry as a whole in India. However, the impact o Combined Leverage on Return on Net worth is not significant due to negative impact of Operating Leverage on Return on Net worth.

6

Authors: Dr. Ishani Patharia Chopra

India is the second fastest growing economy of the world. The rapid groowth and development in industry, trade and services owes its success to the technological adoption and advancements. But this is drastically affecting the environment and in turn the quality of life. India has been ranked 155 out of 178 countries on the 2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI). The gigantic business houses which are earning and prospering due to gaining huge business from society have an ethical and moral responsibility to take care of society in return. Since, pollution is a drastically growing crisis; it needs to be handled urgently. The government has been laying down rules and regulations from time to time but there have been some flaws in adoption and reporting of the green practices of the companies since long. Keeping in view the above problems, this paper evaluates the developments in the adoption of green marketing concept and reporting practices among top five electronic companies in India and a few other popular Indian electronic companies. For the purpose, six major areas of operations namely, environmental policy, manufacturing process, green house gas emissions and carbon foot printing, energy efficacy initiatives and e- waste management have been investigated. On the basis of content analysis and comparative study of the efforts, the results have been discussed and some pragmatic suggestions have been made towards the end of the paper so that the efforts by the companies become more robust and effective.

8

Authors: Khushboo Makwana, Anuradha Pathak, Chandan Maheshkar

In the present scenario of information explosion and media power, the adverrtisement plays a major role in changing customer perception about brands. Endorsement is a channel of brand communication in which a celebrity acts as the brand's spokesperson and certifies the brand's claim and position by extending his/her personality, popularity, stature in the society or expertise in the field to the brand. Celebrity Endorsement is a billion dollar industry today (Kambitsis, 2002) with companies signing deal with film stars, sports persons , entertainers , politician and other celebrities hoping that they can make their brand stand out in this competitive era. Celebrity endorsement has become an essential part of today's advertisement world especially in the FMCG sector. It is argued in the previous researches that FMCG Company make mistake while entering in the rural market. These companies treat rural market as an extension to the existing urban market. But the rural Indian consumers' demographic and psychographic variables differ from those of urban consumers. The purpose of this study is to find out the impact of celebrity endorsement on branding of FMCG products in Indian small towns. The study reveals the fact that there is no considerable impact of celebrity endorsement on branding of FMCG products in Indian small towns. The study also concludes that the celebrity endorsement is not significantly influencing the brands and its undertaken factors (branding elements) in case of Indian small towns.

8

Authors: Pooja

Demand for financial services is changing rapidly and customer behaviouur regarding these services is also adapting rapidly. Consequently, with the passing of the traditional banking to electronic banking, new strategies have become necessary in order to attract and retain existing as well new customers. E-banking is the most innovative trend among the customers. The transfer from the traditional banking to e-banking has been a rising amendment in banking dealings. Enlarged competition, the advancement of information & communication technology, and changing business environment etc. are the important concerns that have forced banking services to change. This particular paper tries to explore the role and relevance of e-banking in regard to customer services and as a cost reduction tool for banks in India and the initiative taken by RBI along with progress made by Scheduled Commercial Banks in this regard.

9

Authors: Er. Vikram Sandhu , Dr. A.S. Sidhu

The human beings, directly and indirectly are influenced by the factorss of environment. Among these factors, climate has direct effects on the human's economic activities. It has a major influence on the process of decision making regarding the use of resources. This influences the culture and life style of the different races of the people. Though with the help of advancement in science and technology, man is in the position of modifying the environment by creating artificial changes but that is to a very limited extent. India's environmental resources are limited. Further these resources are being exploited by unprecedented growth of population and unplanned economic development. The environmental resources are the foremost and mandatory requirement for sustainable development. These resources are depleted by environmental pollution and deterioration. India has enacted more than 200 laws for protecting the environment with significant provisions in the constitution. An attempt is made to systematically analyze the initiatives taken by the government of India in the broader framework. The study will provide greater insight into the efforts done by Government of India for the citizens of the country, NGOs, institutes, regulatory agencies, polluting sources as well as general public.

10

Authors: Saumendra Das , Balaram Bora

Excellence in service is rare, mediocrity is common. What characterizess excellence from mediocrity is its closeness to the customer, productivity through people. The customer is reign supreme since the present need in corporate sector is to receive outstanding quality of service. The hallmark of excellence is customer service culture. Excellence in service is marketing-oriented, operates with a target set of customers in mind and co-ordinates its efforts to satisfy their demands from the long term belief. Service institutions like banks seek to enhance their image by providing continuous, and signal quality to customers often by using intangibles. Most institution has realized now that a combination of tangible and intangible dimensions could only constitute the service quality strategy for any firm. There are wide disparities in likes, dislikes, lifestyle, and profile of the bank customers, more so, in a large and diverse country like India. One way to make the task less daunting and more manageable could be to divide the bank customers into groups on the basis of similarity in their banking related behaviour and expectations. Managing customer relationships has thus become the new mantra for businesses, especially in the so-called new economy. The present study comprised a sample of 305 customers of the leading nationalized banks in the region, i.e. the State Bank of India above all the Nationalized Banks. The complete survey of customers was carried out in Berhampur, Odisha. As such, the investigator first attempted to study the service quality that a customer expects from an “Excellent” bank. Next, the investigator emphasized on the responses of customer with regards to his/her perception about the quality of service actually experienced in the bank. The data have presented by descriptive statistics i.e. in the tables and the results interpreted though correlation analysis.

14

Authors: Haiyadri Sharma

With the advent of LPG (Liberalisation, Privatization and Globalisation) reegime, the Indian economy opened its gates for international trade resulting into heavy influx of luxurious international brands in Indian markets over past two decades. These two decades have brought about many changes occurring across global economy which has had repercussions on Indian economy. There has been consistent higher economic growth leading to increase in gross domestic product and per capita income of Indian nationals. The qualitative demographic changes have made the people in India with better education, improved job opportunities, higher pay packages and ultimately sweeping changes in the lifestyle. The newer developments in the past couple of decades have activated the forces which are empowering more and more individuals today to reach farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever to make life easier, comfortable and elegant. There has been a shift in the mindset of consumers towards lifestyle, recreation, luxury and entertainment expenditures. As a result, today products from basic to the high snob value are coming to the range and reach of the people. The market is flooded and flushed with an explosion of choices of products with seemingly very little differences between the products. This paper studies the luxury industry with respect to luxury cars and also the demographic parameters of luxury customers. The paper also investigates what evaluative criteria is used by consumers when purchasing premium car brands.