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This study examines how formal retail formats (FRFs), and informal retail formats (IRFs) may coexist as substitutes and complements in emerging markets because of store patronage driven by customers’ chronic shopping orientations, and differences in salesperson consultation in the two retail formats.

Using a shopping motivational orientation framework, we develop and test a moderated mediation model using survey data from 515 shoppers of formal and informal grocery retail outlets in India.

While task-focused and experiential-focused shopping orientations influence both FRF and IRF patronage, store satisfaction mediates these relationships and crucially attenuates the negative impact of task-focused orientation on FRF patronage. Salesperson consultation moderates the mediating effects of satisfaction in the link between shopping orientation and patronage of both FRFs and IRFs.

The findings suggest that FRFs and IRFs could coexist as complements and substitutes when patronage is examined as repeated visits determined by shopping orientation, mediated by satisfaction and moderated by salesperson consultation.

For FRFs and IRFs to be complements, both formats must prioritize their distinctive attributes that satisfy a consumer's chronic shopping orientation. Substitution depends on how both retail formats prioritize salesperson consultation and in-store characteristics that appeal to consumers’ chronic orientation during specific shopping trips.

Whilst FRFs must satisfy task-focused shoppers to compete with IRFs, salesperson consultation can inhibit such satisfaction. However, the extent of coexistence between FRFs and IRFs depends on how each format leverages salesperson consultation to enhance satisfaction of experiential-focused shoppers.

Drawing upon the resource-based view of the firm, this paper aims to develop and empirically validate a model that examines the relationships between technical knowledge management infrastructure (TKMI), social KM infrastructure (SKMI) and competitive advantage provided by KM (CAPKM). The authors argue that KM process capabilities account for the direct effects of TKMI and SKMI on CAPKM.

The study used partial least squares —structural equating modelling (SEM) to empirically test the hypotheses using a sample of 251 firms from an emerging economy. The results were then confirmed using the bias-corrected bootstrap procedure. The study also conducted two robustness checks including examining a competing moderation model and performing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), a set–theoretic method that examines how causal conditions combine into all possible configurations of binary states to explain the desired outcome.

The findings show that TKMI and SKMI have positive effects on CAPKM. In addition, KM process capabilities mediate the direct effects of TKMI and SKMI on CAPKM.

This paper complements and advances previous research in several ways. Firstly, the paper develops a conceptual model that depicts the interrelationships between TKMI, SKMI, KM process capabilities and CAPKM. Secondly, this paper suggests the critical role of the “action” component (i.e. KM process capabilities) that capitalises on the KM resources in the creation of CAPKM.

The purpose of this study is to examine how corporate communication of their social programs on their websites affects the ratings of those programs by independent rating agencies. Firms expend resources on corporate social programs (CSPs) to promote their corporate social responsibility and sustainability credentials. Stakeholders, however, often respond to such “self-promotion” with skepticism because they believe that there are inconsistencies between corporate claims and actions. This research draws on attribution theory as a framework to examine how the perceived CSP performance of firms by uncontrollable sources are affected when firms disseminate CSP information on firm websites, i.e. a controllable source, where their claims may not be verifiable.

This study uses a two-step, mixed method study for the analysis using data from Fortune 500 companies. A qualitative content analysis process identifies the interfaces of CSP and their communications on firms’ website. The process allows the authors to collect CSP data systematically from firm websites and to identify relevant variables through the patterns that emerge from the analysis. The findings are used in a quantitative analysis to study how the patterns underlying CSP communication on their websites affect the ratings of firms’ CSP by independent rating agencies.

Results show that the location, the manner, the content and the scope of CSP information dissemination on firm websites, as well as perceived commitment to CSP identified on the website are important drivers of perceived CSP performance. A robustness check using an alternative independent rating of CSP also provides results that are supportive of the findings. In addition, the effects are found to differ by sector of operation, firm age and profitability.

This research suggests that communication of CSPs at controllable sources of firm information dissemination can have a significant effect on the evaluation of CSP at uncontrollable sources when such communication facilitates the assessment of other information from a firm to determine the motive underlying a firm’s CSP.

The findings show that firms and managers can influence the perceived ratings, rankings or scores of their CSP by stakeholders when they put the right information at the right place on their corporate websites. One of the findings shows that even moderate levels of CSP commitment demonstrated on firm websites result in positive perceptions of CSP, which has marked practical implications.

The findings show that integrating even a medium level of commitment to CSP increases the positive perceptions of a firm’s CSP. Thus, society benefits from the firm’s action without a substantial impact on the firm’s profits.

This research shows that firm-controlled sources of CSP information dissemination to stakeholders can affect uncontrollable sources of CSP information evaluation.