Purpose: Nation brand building is a complex task as it involves multiple stakeholders. In the context of globalisation, a strong nation brand has important implications not only for attracting foreign businesses and tourists but also for the brands originating from that country. This study examines the role of nation brand experience in enhancing a nation's global reputation.Design/methodology/approach: The relationships between nation brand experience, nation brand love, nation brand loyalty and positive word of mouth (WOM) were examined by analysing 334 survey responses collected from foreign tourists in India. Structural equation analysis was carried out as part of the analysis.Findings: The results confirmed that international visitors' sensory and affective nation brand experiences significantly enhance brand love for a nation, leading to national brand loyalty and positive WOM among them. The findings are expected to help practitioners understand consumer buying behavior related to nation brand and develop innovative strategies for improving brand values.Originality/value: Understanding a developing nation brand experience and how it converts to brand loyalty through the mediation effect of nation brand love from the lens of foreign tourists is the novelty of this study.

Handicraft is one of the many productive sectors for developing countries. It contributes significantly towards economic growth. This study seeks to investigate consumers’ perception towards purchase of wooden handicraft items through e-commerce platform. The proposed extended technology acceptance model investigates the role of website quality, service and product perception on consumers purchase intention towards wooden handicraft items online. Trust acts as a mediator to study its effect on consumer intention. The effect of website quality, service and product perception was analyzed for the technology acceptance model constructs, namely perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. A total of 234 respondents were surveyed and data was analyzed using structural equation modelling technique. Service perception and product perception determine perceived usefulness whereas perceived ease of use is determined by website quality and service perception. The results show that trust has positive role in determining consumers’ purchase intention. Website quality, service and product perception determine trust, and they build consumers’ confidence in online shopping. Both seller and website should have effective strategies to build consumers’ trust. The research suggests that sellers can significantly surge consumers’ trust by improvising product and service perception, whereas the website can ensure consumers’ trust by increasing the quality of website and service perception.

International Student Mobility (ISM) has received a lot of attention in the literature on international migration. However, most of the studies assume that investment in skills and knowledge by international students is guided by economic motivations only. Importantly, with an increase in the proportion of international student mobility in total mobility, the students’ motivations have become more complex. Different theoretical approaches across disciplines have been logically extended to study the mobility motivations of international students. Most of the existing approaches do not emphasise the non-economic aspects of motivation and thus, do not provide a holistic understanding of ISM. This paper proposes an augmented human capital framework that incorporates the non-economic motivations of international students through the inclusion of psychic gains and the acquired stocks of personal and social capital.

This study empirically investigates the factors affecting e-commerce adoption by small and medium-size enterprises producing handicrafts in India. The study is motivated by the fact, that even though the handicraft sector plays a vital role in the Indian economy in terms of exports and employment, it has not adopted e-commerce as one of the prominent sales channels. Survival in this new economy requires handicraft organizations to learn and adopt new technologies. Those who cannot or do not adopt this new business practice will become obsolete and will be left behind. This study proposes and utilizes technological, organizational, environmental and strategy model based on TOE (Technology, Organization and Environment) model. From a survey of 163 Indian small and medium-size enterprises, findings reveal that awareness, human resources, strategy and market forces e-readiness are the prime influencing constructs towards adoption of e-commerce by Indian small and medium-size enterprises.