Perceptions of psychological empowerment play a vital role in the way an individual perceives things at the workplace. In spite of this, there is scant research on the antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment. This study is an attempt to fill this gap by analyzing the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relationship between its antecedents (leader-member exchange) and its consequences (work engagement and psychological withdrawal behavior). Data were collected from 454 employees working in the Research and Development (R&D) departments of the information technology (IT) and pharmaceutical sectors operating in India. Results suggest that employees who have a high-quality relationship with their leader have high psychological empowerment, they are highly engaged at work, and their psychological withdrawal behavior is also low. In addition to this, high levels of psychological empowerment have a positive impact on their engagement toward work, which further leads to a low psychological withdrawal behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Purpose Conventionally, consumers perceive luxury products as a means of displaying their wealth and prosperity. Consumption of luxury products has usually been considered the prerogative of the Western world. Although there are a number of studies capturing the pre-purchase and purchase behaviour of consumers, there is a dearth of quality studies that have been conducted in this field to understand the post-purchase behaviour of consumers towards luxury brands, especially in the context of young shoppers in an emerging market context. Studying the post-purchase behaviour of shoppers is important to understand their experience with the brand. A negative experience could lead to a post-purchase dissonance, which in turn could lead to an unbalanced or distorted attitude towards the brand and other marketing stimuli. Keeping this in consideration, the purpose of this study is to explore the experiences and attitudes of young shoppers in India towards luxury consumption. Design/methodology/approach The study captured responses from young shoppers of Chandigarh and its satellite cities located in the relatively prosperous northwest region of India. The data were collected from 200 participants through a structured questionnaire that was based on an adapted “Attitude towards the concept of luxury” scale by Dubois and Laurent (1994) and “Brand Experience” Scale by Brakus et al. (2009). The structural equation modeling technique was applied to test the proposed model. Findings The empirical results indicate that sensory, intellectual, behavioural and affective experience play a significant role in building the attitude of consumers towards luxury brands. Research limitations/implications The study selected university students from Chandigarh (India) Tricity region as target respondents, which may limit the generalisability of the results to other target respondents in different regions of India or other countries. Practical implications The study is useful for researchers, academicians, marketers and retailers of luxury brands, as it gives fresh insights into understanding the consumer behaviour of a young segment towards the consumption of luxury brands in the post-purchase scenario, especially in the context of an emerging market. Originality/value The uniqueness of the study lies in the fact that it examines the post-purchase behaviour of a segment consisting of young, educated and aspirational individuals in one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies.

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PurposeThe study aims to explore the themes responsible for employee orientation and further their role in building strong customer relationships in telecom and organized retail outlets in emerging markets.Design/methodology/approachEmploying the qualitative approach, a total of 31 in-depth interviews with customer relationship management (CRM) officers of telecom and organized outlets were carried out. Data were analysed using NVIVO-12 plus and ATLAS tools.FindingsThe analysis extracted 13 unique themes namely training and development, communication skills, convincing skills, interpersonal skills, knowledge management, grievance handling, organisation's culture development, service climate, adaptive behaviour, customer retention skills, customer profiling, trust and commitment, and suitability of employees. The results claimed that these themes can assist in building strong customer relationships. However, the extent of the significance of themes may vary for telecom and organized retail outlets.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings have vital implications for frontline employees to drive customer value as they directly involve with customers. Findings further suggest that hiring of employees according to their location and catchment area of outlets are utmost important.Originality/valueEmployee orientation is an indispensable determinant in building a sustainable relationship with customers through uniqueness and consistency in meeting customers' expectations. This is a first attempt to explore the various unique themes responsible for employee orientation and the imperative role of such themes in maintaining long-lasting customer relationships.

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