COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the economies around the world and the economic fallout from preventive measures such as lockdown is enormous. It has massive repercussions for the sharing economy as well. This research paper empirically analyses the impact of lockdown restrictions on five major sectors of the sharing economy such as ride-hailing, accommodation, freelance work, entertainment and delivery services. To evaluate this impact, we employed the difference-in-difference estimation technique using the Google trends data for selected countries. Daily search data of 2019 and 2020 is reindexed to examine the change in search patterns that occurred after lockdown. The empirical results show that transportation and accommodation sectors are negatively impacted by COVID-19 related lockdown while the other sectors of the sharing economy such as freelance work, streaming services and online deliveries are seeing a surge in searches. The findings of this study provide vital insights into the economic disruptions caused by COVID-19 related lockdown. We have highlighted the sectors that are booming during pandemic thus the sharing economy platforms and government have opportunities to invest in these sectors to jump-start the economy. The recently unemployed gig workers can also be employed in these sectors to address the problem of unemployment.

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The purpose of the present paper is to provide an advanced overview of the practical applications of Banking 4.0 in Industry 4.0. This paper examines the technology trends in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and identifies the key indicators behind the creation of a strategic map for the fourth-generation banks and their readiness to enter Industry 4.0. This paper examines a systematic review of fully integrated Banking 4.0 and the application of the technologies of Industry 4.0 and illustrates a distinct pattern of integration of Banking 4.0 and Industry 4.0. One of the prominent features of this article is the performance of successful global banks in applying these technologies. The results showed that Banking 4.0 in Industry 4.0 is an integrative value creation system consisting of six design principles and 14 technology trends. The roadmap designed for banks to enter Industry 4.0 and how they work with industrial companies will be a key and important guide.

Customers can choose to buy products online without certain sensory experiences, such as touching, smelling or tasting. Consequently, product reviews are extremely important to implement online marketing strategies. While reviews can influence customers' purchase decisions, how they affect the decisions of potential consumers in the case of a growing emerging economy such as India has hitherto not been studied. Positive and negative reviews affect the way customers understand and interpret product information. This study provides multiple methods to identify the relationship between reviews and customer decisions in the case of tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 Indian cities. The outcomes in tier 1 cities (n ¼ 1200) reveal that reviews have a positive effect on buying decisions. Our empirical findings suggest that online reviews affect consumer attitudes and can significantly influence e-commerce sales in India.

This empirical study contributes towards identifying the effect of both fake and real discounts in the Indian marketing environment. A common but unsustainable practice in India is to increase the selling price and then offer a discount on the product. Increasing sales based on fake discount pricing strategy is a primary business development objective in India. The discounts, however, vary across store type and time and are based on product features. The selected databases were collected from the top five Indian e-commerce portals in terms of volume of sales, and from popular brick and motor outlets of tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India. The empirical results indicate that offers based on price in India had an impact of 2.8 times higher than the actual quality of the product. The outcomes suggest that marked price has a significant impact on consumer’s behavior. The results also indicate the existence of a strong correlation between trapping fake discounts and purchase by deceiving and persuading customers in India. Research is empirical in nature and respondents have been selected based on purposive sampling. The study is limited to tier 2 and 3 cities of India for 250 days, and the results are applicable to online and offline retail stores.