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EFFECTIVENESS OF SERVICE QUALITY IN MULTISPECIALITY AND SINGLESPECIALITY HOSPITALS-A COMPARATIVE STUDY
The growth in the health care services in the country is primarily driven by the 350 million strong middle class people aspiring for quality health care services. A health care provider is an institution (such as a hospital or clinic) or person (such as a physician, nurse, other health care service provider) that provides preventive, curative, rehabilitative or palliative care services in a systematic way to individuals, families or communities. Improving access, coverage and quality of health services depends on the way, the services are organized and managed, and on the incentives influencing providers and users. The rate of growth of the health care industry in India is moving ahead neck to neck with the pharmaceutical industry and the software industry of the country. Much has been said and done in the health care sector for bringing about improvement. Till date, approximately 12% of the scope offered by the health care industry in India has been tapped. The health care industry in India is reckoned to be the engine of the economy in the years to come. Health care industry in India is worth $17 billion and is anticipated to grow by 13% every year. The health care sector encompasses health care instruments, health care in the retail market, hospitals enrolled to the hospital networks etc. Literature review on Service quality in the hospitals has mostly emphasized on patients perception of the services, the factors responsible for creating customer satisfaction and their intentions to return for future services available. The literature also reveals the gap between customer expectations and customer perception. The findings of the literature identifies the future courses of action to be taken by the hospitals. The loyalty is created in the hospitals by service quality dimensions. The literature so far shows the research in Hospitals; the research gap is that no research has been done in the sectors like Multispeciality Hospitals and Singlespeciality Hospitals. Statement of the problem: Effectiveness of service quality in Multispeciality and Singlespeciality Hospitals- A comparative study The population for the study consists of the patients from both the sectors. The Questionnaire were administered to 315 respondents out of which 292 were the usable data for analysis. The sampling technique adopted was Convenience sampling. The sample was drawn from 6 multispeciality hospitals and 5 single speciality hospitals in Bangalore city only. The Questionnaire consisted of three sections; the first section on the Demographic characteristics, Section 2 consists of the service quality dimensions for expectations and perception. The dimensions were rated on 7 point Likert scale. The third section on the customer loyalty. The patients of the hospitals have rated independently without any bias. The developed questionnaire was found to be very reliable and valid. Conclusion:The present research found that the service quality is high in Multispeciality hospitals when compared to single speciality hospitals. The Reliability dimension is very important when compared to the other dimension. Also the study revealed that price is the very sensitive variable that the customer loyalty depends on the price justification. Hence the research throws light upon the Servqual and the customer loyalty. -
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FACTORS EFFECTING EMPLOYMENT CHOICE AND WILLINGNESS TO STAY IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY
Employer Brand refers to what people currently associate with an organization, employer branding can been described as the sum of a companys efforts to communicate to existing and prospective staff what makes it a desirable place to work, and the active management of a companys image as seen through the eyes of its associates and potential hires. This study is an attempt to continue afresh with new perspective to the field of human resource and behavioural sciences with special reference to employer branding: factors effecting employment choice and willingness to stay in information technology industry. The review on the related literature in the area of Employer branding and their willingness to stay or quit studied in this research has provided the researcher an insight into many factors. It also provides directions in designing the present study. Having reviewed several studies and having identified the gap, the investigator felt an imperative need to undertake the present investigation. The sample consisted of 276 IT employees from 11 employers of Bangalore city listed by NASSCOM. The sample consisted of both male and female IT employees. Judgemental sampling technique was adopted to select the number of respondents across the three types of management levels. The Major findings of the study were: 1. The five major media adopted to choose to work with the present employer were personal contacts followed by friends at the organization, job portals, company website and campus recruitment. Whereas medias like head-hunters, advertisements, internship, articles in media or product information had less interference in media adoption process. 2. It was found that challenging tasks, good reference for future career, international career opportunity, financial benefits, and work life balance were the top five factors that motivated employees to stay in the organization. Whereas wages / salary,products / services, retirement insurance, vehicle loan / discount facility, support staff for domestic help where least in motivating employees to stay. 3. It was found that compensation and benefits was the highest factor triggering an employees decision to quit followed by rewards and recognition, training programs, corporate culture and too challenging tasks. Other factors like recruitment and induction processes, reputation of the organization, leave and vacation policy, vehicle loan / discount facility and corporate social responsibility did not influence employees decision to quit. 4. It was found that compensation was the highest factor on why employees leave the organization.This was followed by reference for rewards,training programs,corporate culture, and challenging tasks. 5. Employees perception of trust too played a vital role in his decision process to stay or quit. It was found that dimensions like willingness to listen; trust, reliability, accountability, fairness, commitment and integrity played a vital role in influencing the trust process in an employee towards the organisation. Implications : HR managers need to have a good theory or model of how employer branding works in their own organisations. What works in one organisation or one industry sector may be quite different from what works in another. This indicates that there is some hard evidence and useful insights to be learned from emerging research in employer branding and its close relative, talent management. HR managers would be advised to look at this evidence-based work before leaping. Conclusion: The findings and outcome of this research will be beneficial to the IT organisations in India, which is a flourishing industry and contributes significantly to the GDP of the country and the talent pool of the world. The study will bring in sharp focus on the major challenges encountered in these areas and the solutions that will aid IT organisations to deal more significantly in increasing their organisational efficiency. Key words: employer branding, willingness to stay, perception of trust -
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A Study on Organizational Performance related to Employee Attitude and Behavior in the Information Technology Industry, in Bangalore City
The integral part of any management process is to manage the people at work. A well managed organization sees worker as the root cause of quality and productivity. Attitude is a mental position consisting of a feeling, emotion, or opinion evolved in response to an external situation. It can be momentary or can develop into a habitual position that has a long- term influence on an individual's behavior. Employee attitude is the behavior pattern, manners, body language of an employee towards his/her co-workers, colleagues, sub-ordinates, boss etc. It is very much important to keep a good relation between an employee and his/her boss as well as his/her sub-ordinates and co-workers. A good relationship enables an employee to succeed in his/her work field and helps the company to reach up to its goals and maximizes its benefit. In order to be an ideal employee, he/she should be attentive to his/her work. The nature of IT employees job is very time bound, client oriented and technology intensive. The studies have revealed that poor employee attitude and behavior results in poor organizational performance and low outcome also. The study explores the meaning and relationship between employee attitude & behavior and organizational performance of IT employees. The study was carried out with survey instrument, consists of 27 items and completed by 310 employees in the IT industry. The data was gathered and analyzed using Descriptive, Karl Pearsons correlation and ANOVA which revealed interesting factors with organizational performance related to employee attitude and behavior of IT employees across the variables. The review on the related literature in the area of organizational performance and employee attitude and behavior of IT employees studied has provided many insights for the study. It also provided direction in designing the present study. A number of researchers have established the relationship between organizational performance and employee attitude and behavior across various professions mainly in developed countries. Since Bangalore is known as Silicon Valley of India, the attitude and behavior was a major concern among IT employees. Though there were various studies undertaken in the field of employee attitude and behavior, very few researchers have attempted to focus in detail the variables such as job satisfaction, HRM policies, organizational change, and organizational commitment and also with productivity, well being, and absenteeism etc., Having reviewed several studies and having identified the gap, the investigator felt an imperative need to undertake the present investigation. The sample consisted of 310 IT employees from various IT companies in Bangalore respectively. The sample was given representation to both male and female IT employees. Judgment Sampling has been adopted in this study. The purpose of choosing judgment sampling is to exercise judgment or expertise, in choosing the elements to be included in sample because researchers believed that they are representative of the population of interest. Two standard tools were used to measure the variables of the study. The survey questions were drawn from employee attitude and behavior, including Gallie, D, White, M, Cheng, Y and Tomlinson, M (1998); Appelbaum, E., Bailey T., Berg P., and Kalleberg A. 2000 and Wright P.M., and Gardner, T. (2003).and suganya sengupta and her colleagues, 2006. The overall reliability of employee attitude survey was satisfactory. These results suggested that the employee attitude survey is a handy tool for the goal the organization wants to use it for its performance. The major findings of the study were: 1. There is a significant relationship between employee attitude and behavior and organizational performance of IT industry. 2. The employee attitudes are positively related with discretion effort and loyalty negatively related with intention to quit job and job stress. 3. There is a significant difference between gender and the employee attitudes and behavior. The implications of the study will help the organizations to understand the impact of organizational performance related to employee attitude and behavior and its outcome. A famous statement is that a happy worker is a productive worker. This assumes a relation between employees attitude & behavior and organizational performance. -
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Customer Perception and Receptivity to Loyalty Programs offered by Organised Retailers
The Indian Retail Industry is growing at a fast pace. This growth to a large extent is driven by the organised retail market, with more and larger retail organisations investing heavily in increasing their store networks and improving in-store offerings. Apparel, accessories and related merchandise form a considerable chunk of the organised retail space and is in the ambit of a handful of established players vying to capture & increase larger portions of the available market using new strategies. Increased customer satisfaction and service is one of the means through which they will be able to fulfill their goals. The use and implementation of Customer Relation Management tools like Loyalty Programs is one of the ways in which they can achieve customer satisfaction. According to Sharp and Sharp (1997) loyalty programs are structured marketing efforts, which reward and encourage the loyal behaviour of their members. Capizzi et al (2004) defined it as the business process of identifying, maintaining and increasing the yield from best customers through interactive,value-added relationships.Loyalty programs are thereby are a rhetoric of relationship marketing in gaining customer loyalty.(Minami & Dawson ,2008) . Loyalty programs, however serve dual purposes of the organisation ?? acquisition of customer spending related information and ensuring that they patronise their store. According to Peters (1988) the costs of retaining customers are about 80 percent lower than acquiring new customers. This explains why there is a high degree of proliferation of retailer loyalty programs. Loyalty Programs today have become an inseparable part of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy of todays retailers. It is vital to gauge how successful these programs are as CRM tools. This study is concerned with how customers perceive such programs and how receptive they are towards these programs. The sample size consisted of 168 usable samples of member customers of loyalty programs of four competing departmental stores who were members of the stores. The study was confined to the city of Bangalore. Convenience sampling was used for the purpose of data collection. Data was collected through questionnaires and was subjected to descriptive analysis and inferential analysis. The reliability of the perceptual scale was found to be 0.766. The major findings of the research are: ? Lifestyle is the most frequented store and Shoppers Stop has the most attractive loyalty program. ? Customers have more important reasons for preference of a store than holding membership to the stores loyalty program ? Customers perceive that a loyalty program membership makes them enjoy monetary benefits. Offers and discounts followed by redeemable points are the most popular form of monetary benefits. ? Customers seek ??real and value creating benefits from loyalty programs ? There is a significant relationship between customer perception of loyalty program benefits and purchase behaviour. ? There is a significant relationship between customer perception of loyalty program benefits and store attractiveness and loyalty. The study will help retail organisations understand their customers better and help them in designing and implementing more satisfying, value creating and differentiated programs as a CRM tool to retain customers and build loyalty. -
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IMPACT OF MNP ON CONSUMER SWITCHING BEHAVIOUR WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS
Indian telecom market is one of the fastest growing markets and is forecasted to reach 9.2 million users by mid of 2012. India has seen rapid increase in the number of players which has caused the tariff rates to hit an all time low and with the introduction of MNP, the mobile users has an option of changing the service provider without changing the number. The availability of Mobile Number Portability to subscriber has intensified the competition among service providers in order to retain the existing customer base and to gain from other operators, which has led to attractive schemes or offers or packages to the end users. This shows satisfaction has become a major influence on switching behavior and only those mobile operators who satisfy the needs of the users at affordable cost can prevail. The study examines the impact of MNP on customer demographics in determining the switching behavior. The data gathered was through a survey and the sample size was 203. The variables considered for the study were customer demographics, satisfaction, tariff, customer care. Independent students t test and chi-square were used to analyze the data to examine the impact of switch propensity for each demographic variable. Research findings suggest that different groups have different switching behavior. Age, gender, marital status and brand have significant dependency on those who switch and there is significant difference on age with regard to VAS, network quality; education and monthly income on low international tariff; marital status on network quality. The study also reveals that call rates play the most important role in switching the service provider followed by network coverage and value added service respectively. It is found that there is a relation between switching the demographic variables. More number of young mobile users prefers mobile number portability. Airtel and Idea Cellular emerged as most preferred mobile service operators in terms of MNP. Both continue to gain customers from other service providers. As per the study BSNL was the biggest loser in terms of MNP. It was also observed that post paid customer prefer MNP over prepaid. Keywords ?? MNP, Prepaid, Postpaid, Switching Behavior, Demographics, VAS, Tariff. -
MOTIVATION IN RELATION TO WORK ENGAGEMENT OF SALES PERSONNEL IN TELECOM INDUSTRY
The study is in motivation in relation to work engagement of sales personnel in telecom industry. Motivation is the Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role, or subject, and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal. Workengagement is defined as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Vigor is characterized by high levels of energy and mental resilience while working, the willingness to invest effort in one??s work, and persistence even in the face of difficulties; dedication by being strongly involved in one's work, and experiencing a sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, and challenge; and absorption by being fully concentrated and happily engrossed in one??s work, whereby time passes quickly and one has difficulties with detaching oneself from work. When you don't have the motivation to do your work, you will either eventually get fired or you will not likely get promoted and will stay where you are for a long time. If you are the supervisor or the owner, a lack of motivation throughout your company can create a rather unproductive workplace. This will lead to loss of sales, profits, and market share. In this case, it's important to do what it takes to create an environment where people naturally want to do their work. The importance of employee motivation shouldn't be taken lightly here. The company's survival depends on it. Modern organizations need energetic and dedicated employees: people who are engaged with their work. These organizations expect proactively, initiative and responsibility for personal development from their employees. Overall, engaged employees are fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work. The hypotheses of the study were (a) The interaction effect between MPS and CPS does not significantly influence the personnel outcomes of sales professionals in telecom industry. (b) The interaction effect between work engagement and CPS does not significantly moderate the personnel outcomes of sales professionals in telecom industry.(c) There is no significant difference in demographics in work engagement across demographics. The review of related literature in the area of motivation and work engagement provided the researcher valuable inputs, perspective, insights and direction in understanding these factors and designing this study. The researcher has attempted to seriously and systematically undertake the present investigation. There are two research models; these two models were tested using the statistical technique hierarchical regression model. These two models were framed based on the job diagnostic model of Hackman and Oldham (1974) and Job resource model of Bakker and Demerouti (2010). The research methodology adopted for the study was surveying of 359 sales employees in different telecom industries using structured questionnaires. The independent variable of this study were Motivation(core job dimensions, critical psychological states, personnel outcomes).The dependent variable is work engagement(vigor, dedication, absorption) and the demographic variables are, age, work experience, marital status, and gender. The major findings of the study were: 1.There is a positive significant correlation between critical psychological states and motivation potential score. Critical psychological states promote high performance motivation and satisfaction at work. 2.The interaction effect between MPS and CPS significantly moderate the personnel outcomes of sales professionals in telecom industry. 3.The interaction effect between work engagement and Critical Psychological State significantly moderate the personnel outcomes of sales professionals in telecom industry. 4.Work engagement significantly influences the outcomes. 5.Age and marital status has a significant influence on work engagement. The concept of motivation and work engagement is gaining importance across every organization. This study aims at helping Telecom organizations to build more effective policies with respect to motivation and work engagement .By offering effective policies and encouraging employees to make use of available policies and programmes the organization will in turn be increasing the employee??s level of satisfaction and also commitment towards the organization. This will help the organization retain its best people or talent. -
A study to identify Critical Factors affecting Performance of Low Cost Airlines in India
The main objective of the study is to identify the critical factors affecting performance of low cost airlines in India For this purpose, the research focused on the low cost airline industry with regards to their macro environment, its strategic aspects and an analysis of the industry The study incorporated the Porters Five Forces Model to study the five forces having an impact on the industry and thus directing a firms strategic actions The study also conducted an industry analysis from the point of view of travel agents through questionnaire A customer satisfaction survey was also done to know their satisfaction levels and loyalty to a particular airline. This is achieved by the adoption of primary research techniques including surveys and interviews of the industry specialist and customers and secondary research including reading the existing literature on the subject, industry reports and articles published in journals A critical analysis of the industry highlighted the factors having an impact on the industry as a whole The porters five forces analysis revealed the current and future trends for the industry and provided an understanding for future survival strategies for the airlines. Industry professionals state that the Airline industry is in infancy stage They have a long way to go The factors such as airport infrastructure, massive expansion plans, aggressive growth strategies, demand and supply patterns and the exchange rate mechanism affects their performance But the highest factor restricting the growth of any airline is the high price of ATF All the three- industry professionals, travel agents and consumers believe that LCCs have benefited the industry providing low fares and making air travel affordable They are quite positive about the times ahead and hope that the industry will bounce back Consumers are quite satisfied and content with the offerings As suggested by a consumer that they should be named as ??value for money airlines and not LCCs The Porters Five Forces analysis revealed that there are high entry barriers as this is a highly capital intensive industry and that buyers and suppliers both have high bargaining power There is moderate threat of substitute like railways looking at the future potential of the aviation sector The analysis further revealed that the market is highly competitive with very few players and to reach the customers expectations the players have to cut their prices most often thus creating an imbalance in the cost and revenue Also, unhealthy competitive practices prevail in the industry which hamper the overall growth process and thus affect the performance The research provided insight on the future opportunities and the several future industry success and survival factors The research also gives further scope of the study and thereby concludes that there needs to be a consensus so that both the regulatory bodies and the airlines are benefited thus promoting growth and prosperity of the country. Dissertation Layout: The first chapter of the dissertation titled ??Introduction primarily covered a range of aspects from history to the LCC situation globally and then following it traces to India thus leading to the statement of the problem and the objectives of the study The second chapter ??Review of Literature covered the previous research on the factors impacting the performance of low cost airlines The third chapter ??Research Methodology covered the data collection process, sampling description and the methodology for data analysis The fourth chapter titled ??Data Analysis and Interpretation covered the customer satisfaction and industry analysis The fifth chapter ??Summary and Conclusion listed the major findings, implications and limitations, scope for further research and conclusion drawn from the research. Keywords: LCCs, critical factors, performance, airlines, low cost, ATF, aviation. -
An Empirical Study on the psychographic factors influencing financial decisions of informed individual investors, with special reference to Bangalore financial market
Behavioural finance has been emerging as a significant discipline in academia as it speaks about the irrational behaviour of investors. Behavioural finance is the combination of classic economics and finance with psychology and decision making sciences. It is the study of how investors systematically make errors in judgment, or mental mistakes.Specifically, behavioral finance has two blocks: cognitive psychology and the limits to arbitrage. Cognitive refers to how people think. There is a huge psychology literature documenting that people make systematic errors in the way they think: they are over confident they put too much weight on recent experience etc. Their preference may also create distortions. Behavioural finance uses this body of knowledge, rather than taking arrogant approach that it should be ignored. Limits to arbitrage refer to in what circumstances arbitrage force will be effective, and they wont be. An Empirical Study on the psychographic factors influencing financial decisions of informed individual investors, with special reference to Bangalore financial market, has done with the objective of identifying the effect of three major anomalies namely over confidence, fear of loss, and effect of information and media and relationship of age and fear of loss on the investment decisions. Primary Data collection has been done with the help of questionnaire and had a sample size of 242. The above three aspects have studied and proved using various statistical tools like chi square, one sample t test, ANOVA and correlation. From the study it was proved that investors are overconfident but at the same time there is high fear of loss as well. Study shows that effect of information and news stories plays a major role in investment decisions. Age and fear of loss also have a significant relationship. Only 3 Anomalies has been considered for the study, considering the remaining will give further scope of research. -
OUTWARD FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT FROM INDIA IN THE SERVICE SECTOR WITH REFERENCE TO IT INDUSTRY
Growing international integration through trade and investment is the emerging scenario of the 21st century. International Investment flows, particularly Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), have become a rising manifestation of this growing global linkage between nations. Outward Foreign Direct Investments (OFDI) from India in the service sector is emerging as a significant aspect of Indias international economic integration. Firms from India are incorporating outward foreign direct investment as part of their corporate strategy to compete globally and to acquire key assets. Outward investments is being adopted as part of their global strategy to emerge as leaders in their respective domain.As the significance of outward investment rises, it is important to understand the motivation and strengths behind such flows. With rising significance of services sector, more studies to explain the nature and factors behind outward FDI assumes importance. Therefore a focus on growth of OFDI from service sector like knowledge??intensive information-technology (IT) sector has become very relevant. IT firms from India have created a global presence and brand image. It is therefore important to consider various factors which give competitive advantage to the firms. The present study is divided into six chapters. The first chapter provides an overview and introduces the research issue. The second chapter comprises of a review of literature in the area. Research Methodology is outlined in the third chapter. The fourth chapter consists of an analysis of the trends in Indian outward foreign direct investment. The fifth chapter provides the analysis and interpretation of factors influencing foreign investments by firms. The sixth chapter gives the summary and conclusions of the study. Results of the study indicate that Indias outward foreign direct investment is showing a rising trend and that there are significant changes in the pattern of these outflows. The outflows by service sector firms have increased and there is also rising investment to developed countries. The changing trend is a reflection of the global aspirations of Indian firms and their willingness to compete in the world market. The study shows that India firms, though small in comparison to multinationals from developed world, do have competitive advantage. They have leveraged these advantages and acquired strategic assets to enhance their competitive position. The firms are gaining from experience and building tacit knowledge. These skills are applied to creating a network to supplement and augment their competitive advantage. In this endeavor, macro factors are also playing a significant role. Technological and information revolution has given firms an opportunity to strengthen their competitive advantage. In this endeavor, firms in developing country like India have benefited from a vast pool of educated, skilled and technically qualified human resource. They have been facilitated by a liberalized government policy and the domestic economic climate, which has given them opportunities for entrepreneurship. Rising outward FDI is a manifestation of these changes. As Indian firms seek to strengthen their competitive positions and augment their assets, the outflow of investment to nations that have intellectual assets will increase. At the same time the traditional motive of undertaking investments to seek larger markets is still important. Though India is still a fledgling in the spectrum of outward investments, Indian firms are fast rising up to the challenge of competitive global atmosphere with aggressive strategies. Indian economy is emerging as one of the largest economies in the world. With the second largest population in the world, India has to utilize every opportunity to build sustainable growth with greater international economic linkages with rest of the world. -
Study On Impact of Employee Retention Strategies on Employee Turnover in IT IndustryAn Exploratory Study in Bangalore
Employee Turnover is a major challenge faced by the companies globally. Employee Turnover is predominant not only in IT sector, but in other sectors as well. This study has focused in IT sector. Employees are the assets of any organization. Organizations are striving to retain their talents by implementing effective retention strategies. High Employee Turnover would subsequently have an impact on productivity and sustainability of the organization. There are two types of Employee Turnover ?? functional and dysfunctional. When productive employees leave the organization, it is said to be dysfunctional turnover and when the poor performers leave, it is called functional turnover. The focus of this study was dysfunctional turnover. Dysfunctional turnover is the concern of HR managers. When an employee leaves, it takes approximately eight weeks for this position to be replaced and in the meantime, productivity suffers. Causes and consequences of the Employee Turnover is mentioned in detail in Chapter 2. This study is an attempt to understand the impact of Retention Strategies on Employee Turnover in IT sector in India. Bangalore, being the IT hub of India, was chosen as the location of the study. Results of the study showed that Retention Strategies has an impact on Employee Turnover. Other variables such as Welfare Benefits, Personal Satisfaction and Organization Culture, which are said to be associated with the Employee Turnover were also investigated as a part of this study. -
Development and validation of analytical methods for the determination of anti-fungal drug in active pharmaceutical ingredient and other dosage forms
A simple and sensitive extractive spectrophotometric method is proposed for the determination of fluconazole drug, in pure form and in the available dosage forms. The method (A) is based on ion-pair formation between the fluconazole and Mo(V)-thiocyanate inorganic complex in the acidic medium and method (B) is based on ion-pair formation between the fluconazole and Co(II)-tetrathiocyanate inorganic complex in the acidic medium. For method (A), the formed coloured ion-pair is extracted with dichloromethane and absorbance is measured quantitatively with maximum absorption at 470nm. The molar absorptivity and Sandells sensitivity of the coloured species are 0.38x104 L mol-1 cm-1 and 0.8 ng cm-2 respectively. Beers law is obeyed between 4.0 -50.0 ?g mL-1 of fluconazole concentration. For method (B) the formed coloured ion-pair is extracted by using a mixture of (3.5:6.5) n-butanol : dichloromethane and the absorbance is measured quantitatively with maximum absorption at 620nm. The molar absorptivity and Sandells sensitivity of the coloured species are 0.268x104 L mol-1 cm-1 and 0.114 ng cm-2 respectively. Beers law is obeyed between 5.5.0-80 ?g mL-1 of fluconazole concentration. The first order derivative spectrophotometric method is also proposed for the determination of fluconazole in pharmaceutical formulations. The proposed methods are successfully applied for the assay of the fluconazole drug in different dosage forms without any interference from common excipients. The results are in good agreement with those obtained by the official pharmacopeial method. Keywords: Spectrophotometry, fluconazole, ion-pair complex, pharmaceutical preparation, molybdenum thiocyanate, cobalt thiocyanate. -
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INVESTOR SENTIMENTS, TRADING BEHAVIOR AND INFORMATIONAL EFFICIENCY IN INDIAN STOCK FUTURES MARKET
The study entitled Investor Sentiments, Trading Behavior and Informational Efficiency in Indian Stock Futures Market shows that the traders in Indian Stock Futures Markets are positive feedback traders-they buy when prices increase and sell when prices decline. Positive Feedback trading appears to be more active in periods of high investor sentiments. Our primary objective is to examine the relationship between the investor sentiments and transitory volatility. The data used in the study is secondary data which is being collected from the National Stock Exchange. The sample period of the study is of past 5 years i.e. from July 2006 to September 2011.The Pharmaceutical sector has been chosen and around seven companies are selected. We used Vector AutoRegression (VAR) Model to test the contemporaneous and causal relationship between order flow, stock return and return volatility. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) unit root tests have been employed to test the stationarity of the investor sentiment measures. We found that futures market tends to be more liquid in periods of bullish sentiments. We also found that controlling for feedback trading; the persistence of order flow is significantly lower in high sentiment periods. Further the study shows a strong positive relation between investor sentiments and transitory volatility. The result also suggested that stock futures prices tend to follow the underlying efficient price more closely in bullish periods, consistent with increased liquidity in bullish states. Overall, it can be concluded that this study provides new evidence on the link between investor attitudes, trading behavior and price efficiency at the microstructure level. Key Words: Investor Sentiments, Market Efficiency, Futures Market, Volatility, Order . -
A STUDY ON CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTS IN BANGALORE
Consumers worldwide are becoming health conscious and are concerned about nutrition (Hart, 2000) and the quality of food consumed. Consumers are also increasingly concerned with food safety issues taking into consideration, the recent salmonella case in Germany and elsewhere. Gil, Gracia and Sanchez (2000) have investigated that consumers are getting health conscious and are paying more attention to qualit y of food consumed. Therefore, food must deliver an added value that are sought after by consumers besides basic hedonistic and functional needs such as nutrition, taste, health, favorable price-quality ratio, etc in the selection of food. This added value may be perceived in the form of ecological, social and individual benefit. Consumer interest in organic and local foods has shown continued growth for the past two decades. Organic food sales in the U.S. have grown at a rate of approximately 20% per year from $1 billion in 1990 to $17 billion in 2006, currently representing about 2.5% of all food sales (Dimitri and Greene, 2002; Klonsky and Greene, 2005; Organic consumers Association, 2007; Organic Trade Association, 2007). In a report on US public opinion, organic food markets evolve at noticeably different rates. For example, the British and German markets have developed at a faster pace as has been investigated by Baker, Thompson and Engelken (2004). Fotopoulos and Krystallis (2002) studied the earlier Greek market which was considered to be a mature market to be lagging behind a decade when compared to the rest of the developed markets. Krystallis and Chryssohoidis (2005) have investigated that a total of 130 countries are engaged in producing certified organic food with 90 of them belonging to the developing countries having a favorable environmental condition for growing organic produce. The organic food market in India is at a nascent stage. Country specific research undertaken by A.C.Neilsen in 2006 has indicated that Indians are among the top ten buyers of food with health supplements but lack access to organic food products. Due to high logistic cost & low volume operation, organic food products are costly. The domestic market is driving organic market in India and 96.7% of Indias 5,85,000 MT of certified organic products produced in 2007 ?? 08 is used in domestic markets. An eight city survey in 2006 has indicated a potential demand to the tune of INR 5.6 billion for organic food products in India (Mukherjee,2008). However, the domestic market is characterized by limited retail presence, low certified branded produce and a small range of organic product offerings with respect to varieties though potential growth is becoming evident. Chen (2007) identified that awareness of organic food products are generally not promoted and public is not well informed. A study on consumer perception towards organic food products may add insight into the nascent but emerging organic food industry in India. The review of related literature in the area of organic food products and consumer perception studied has provided many insights for the study. It has also provided direction in designing the present study. A number of researchers have identified various factors that influence consumer perception of organic food products mainly in developed countries. Some studies have also been undertaken in Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. Very few researchers have attempted to focus in detail the various factors that influence consumer perception towards organic food. Having reviewed several studies and having identified the gap, the investigator felt an imperative need to undertake the present investigation. The sample consisted of 246 respondents across the city of Bangalore. Convenience sampling technique was adopted for selecting the respondents. The questionnaire was developed by the investigator. Pilot study was conducted to test the reliability. The Cronbachs alpha reliabilit y for the scale was 0.790 which is considered as fairly good. The major findings of the study were: 1.Consumers of organic food products evaluate product quality with the price they pay. 2.Demographic variables namely gender has a positive impact on consumer perception towards organic food products while difference in educational qualifications do not have a significant impact. 3.There is significant impact of psychographic factors on overall satisfaction of consumers towards organic food products. 4.Consumers consider organic food products as safe for consumption. 5.The respondents have also felt that organic food products are healthy to consume 6.Consumers generally prefer to consume grain based organic food products followed closely by organic grains and organic fruits. The implication of the study will be to help marketers develop and strategize their offerings of organic food products more effectively and efficiently contributing to the overall well being of the society and the individual consumer. Key Words used in this study: demographic factors, organic food products and psychographic factors influencing consumer perception. -
