Editorial

Abstract

As the frontiers of knowledge are pushed further, new realizations dawn on us which give us a different perspective to the challenges in hand. This issue of BPR is in line with the above thought. It presents before you an eclectic collection of papers from diverse fields like marketing, social media, finance, and human behavior. Wali, AGYO, Amangala and Nkpurukwe, in their paper “Marketization of Public Universities: Lessons from a Developing Economy,” have investigated the marketization of public universities in a developing economy intending to provide findings for repositioning public universities for global attraction. Policy implications and recommendations suggest a tripartite work relationship between the government, university leadership, and academic staff union for repositioning public universities. Farzin, Sadeghi, Fattahi, and Eghbal, in their paper “Effect of Social Media Marketing and eWOM on Willingness to Pay in the Etailing: Mediating Role of Brand Equity and Brand Identity” have shown that electronic word-of-mouth can indirectly affect consumer behavioral responses through brand equity and brand identity and also have a direct impact on consumer decisions such as willingness to pay a premium. The insights from this paper could be utilized by marketers and advertisers in the formulation and implementation of effective and coherent marketing and advertising strategies. Ugheoke, Mashi, and Mohd Isa in their paper “Can Workplace Fun Moderate Organizational Identification and Job Satisfaction Relationship” investigate the moderation effect of workplace fun on the relationship between organizational identification (OID) and job satisfaction. The findings suggest that organizational leaders can use fun to generate favorable organizational outcomes. Managers can increase employee job satisfaction by encouraging workplace fun. Pandey and Joshi in their paper “Examining Asset Pricing Anomalies: Evidence from Europe” examined five important asset pricing anomalies, namely, size, value, momentum, profitability, and investment rate to test their efficacy in major West European economies, that is, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The authors have employed four prominent asset pricing models, namely, CAPM, FF3 Factor Model, Carhart Model, and FF5 Factor Model to evaluate if portfolio managers can create trading strategies to generate risk-adjusted extra normal returns for their investors. The study has implications for portfolio managers, academia, and policy makers. Dhar and Khandelwal have studied the “Impact of Goods and Service tax (GST) on supply chain management.” This research helps managers to understand GST system in a better way so that they can adopt it for enhancing their business performance. Lastly, Jena and Sahoo’s case study “Story of Milk Mantra: Growth and Sustenance in a Complex Emerging Market” focuses on various leadership styles and strategies that are necessary for Milk Mantra in order to expand and sustain growth in complex emerging markets. I wish each one of you good health and hope you continue to subscribe to our journal.