AI social-appraisal support: effect on adoption intention and value co-creation Baby Chandra, Zillur Rahman Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 2026 Purpose This research investigates how AI assistants enhance user adoption intention and value co-creation (VCC) through appraisal support, a form of social support that makes users feel valued and supported, beyond merely receiving information. It explores the psychological and behavioral impacts of AI-driven appraisal support on technology adoption. Design/methodology/approach Across four experimental, scenario-based studies, the research examines how AI-delivered appraisal support influences the adoption of AI services and VCC. It focuses on the mediating role of social cognition, specifically, users’ perceptions of AI warmth and competence. Findings The findings demonstrate that AI-delivered appraisal support significantly increases the adoption intention of AI-facilitated apps (Studies 1 and 2) and enhances value co-creation (Studies 3 and 4). Furthermore, self-efficacy is a key moderator affecting the relationship between social cognition and VCC (Study 5). Practical implications This research provides actionable insights for managers, suggesting the development of user-friendly features that enhance the social dimensions of human-machine interactions. Such features can boost the likelihood of adopting AI services and foster a culture of value co-creation. Originality/value By focusing on appraisal support, this study fills a gap in understanding the social dimensions of AI interactions. It highlights the importance of users feeling involved, cared for and respected in their interactions with AI.
A framework for AI-driven value co-creation across customer journey stages Baby Chandra, Zillur Rahman Service Industries Journal, 2026 The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how firms and customers co-create value across the customer journey, enabling innovative, personalized, and relationship-driven interactions. This paper introduces a conceptual framework that extends the traditional customer journey model through AI-driven value co-creation (VCC) across the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase stages. The framework distinguishes traditional journey from AI-enhanced co-creation by classifying AI functionalities into mechanical, thinking, and feeling dimensions, each linked to functional, emotional, and social value. Drawing on service marketing, consumer behaviour, and contemporary theories such as anthropomorphism, psychological ownership, and Theory of Mind, this study offers a robust perspective on AI’s role in VCC. Mechanical AI enhances efficiency and functional value, thinking AI enables adaptive emotional engagement, and feeling AI fosters social connection through humanlike traits. This integrated approach addresses key research gaps and provides actionable insights for leveraging AI to create meaningful, customer-centric value.
Consumers through the lens of financial scarcity-review and future research agenda Arnab Akash Saikia, Zillur Rahman Journal of Consumer Marketing, 2025 Purpose In recent years, financial scarcity has gained significant attention from researchers. However, it still lacks a comprehensive review from consumers’ perspectives and a framework that captures how financial scarcity influences individuals throughout the decision-making process. This article aims to address these gaps by integrating existing research to provide a more holistic understanding of consumer responses to financial scarcity. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review approach was adopted in this paper to synthesize and analyze the articles. Fifty-five articles were obtained for the final analysis through a 4-step process. Findings Using a dual-processing lens, this study synthesizes key variables from the existing literature to present a framework that connects them to the broader decision-making process under financial scarcity. The framework highlights how consumer decision-making progresses from reliance on fast, intuitive mechanisms in the initial stages to more deliberate, thoughtful processes in the later stages. This progression reflects how individuals experiencing scarcity assign focus to their scarce resources. Additionally, the study identifies major research traditions, theories and methodologies used in this domain and outlines avenues for future research. Originality/value This study integrates research relevant to consumer behavior under financial scarcity and provides a novel framework that deepens our understanding of its intricacies and steers future research, benefiting researchers and managers alike.
Reimagining customer engagement and digital business in the age of generative AI and the metaverse Baby Chandra, Zillur Rahman Customer Engagement and Digital Business, 2025 This chapter explores the evolving landscape of customer engagement and digital business, driven by the transformative capabilities of Generative AI and the Metaverse. It aims to investigate how these cutting-edge technologies are challenging and reshaping traditional business models, offering unprecedented levels of personalization and scalability in customer interactions. By examining the integration of Generative AI and the Metaverse, the chapter highlights their roles in fostering deeper emotional connections with customers, enhancing the overall customer experience, and redefining the way businesses operate in the digital realm. The chapter also outlines emerging business models and innovative strategies that leverage these technologies to create immersive, personalized experiences, which in turn promote customer loyalty and brand differentiation. Additionally, it identifies key challenges and provides insights into future research directions, underscoring the vast potential for businesses to harness these technologies for continuous innovation and long-term success.
Customer and employee engagement in the era of artificial intelligence adoption Owais Nazir, Jamid Ul Islam, Zillur Rahman Customer Engagement and Digital Business, 2025 This conceptual chapter proposes the relational dynamics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption and its dual impact on stakeholder engagement, specifically focusing on employee and customer engagement. Building on the Technology Acceptance Model, the chapter proposes technostress and transformational leadership as moderating variables to explore the enablers and barriers of AI adoption. While AI adoption is heralded for its ability to enhance efficiency, decision-making, and personalization, it also presents challenges such as cognitive overload, anxiety, and potential disengagement. Technostress emerges as a critical factor that moderates the relationship between AI adoption and stakeholder engagement by influencing users’ perceptions of usefulness and ease of use. Concurrently, transformational leadership plays an important role in mitigating technostress and aligning AI strategies with organizational and stakeholder needs, thereby creating meaningful engagement. The chapter provides significant theoretical contributions and offers actionable strategies for practitioners to achieve sustainable engagement outcomes across employees and customers. The chapter concludes by offering some insightful future research directions.
Examining the issues related to consumer co-created value: from policy perspective Amit Kumar Agrawal, Zillur Rahman, Zahid Hussain, Sheshadri Chatterjee International Journal of Law and Management, 2025 Purpose This research article investigates the legal issues related to consumer co-created value (CCV) especially from the business law perspective. This study also aims to investigate how the active participation of consumers, firms and fellow consumers influences consumer CCV from the policy perspectives. Design/methodology/approach A research model has been developed to explore the connections between various constructs through an extensive examination of prior literature. There are ten hypotheses which were framed and were tested using structural equation modelling technique. Findings The results indicated that CCV mediates the relationship between customer satisfaction and antecedents of CCV. This has a ramification from the business law perspective. It was found that enhanced, benefit laden, experientially rich and interactive value is the key driver behind consumer participation and improving satisfaction level of the participating consumers and has policy implications. Research limitations/implications This study examines the co-creation related issues from the business law standpoint. This study suggests that value co-creation can be used as a strategy to achieve competitive advantage by inviting active consumer participation which can be key to achieve satisfaction of consumers. Legal fraternity and policymakers can use the findings to improve value creation and delivery to their consumers. Originality/value This study holds value both for legal fraternity, researchers and business law practitioners as emergence of internet has changed the way in which banking industry used to operate and has opened vistas for the organisations to allow customers to be part of value creation and enhancing their experience and satisfaction multifield time. Therefore, management researchers and policymakers would be intrigued with processes and tools through which consumers and fellow consumers can mutually benefit and also exchange value with each other with organisations acting as catalyst to the process from policy standpoint.
Emotion as Cause, Effect, Mediator, and Moderator in Marketing: An Integrative Review and Future Research Directions Suchi Aeron, Zillur Rahman Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2025 The study aims to synthesize four decades of research on emotions in marketing by delving into the specifics of who, where, how, what and when. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, 453 articles from top marketing journals were analysed. The study first presents a descriptive account of publication and citation metrics and theoretical underpinning, resolving contestation around emotion function as cause, effect, mediator and moderator. Secondly, using science mapping, along with performance and content analysis landscape of emotion research is unravelled by identifying eight clusters. These clusters placed on development timelines provide a bird's eye view and are presented on a three‐level categorization: Theory, Characteristics and Context. Clusters 1 and 2 focus on theoretical underpinning of emotion interrelationship with cognition and construal. Clusters 3 and 4 emphasized unique characteristics of emotion as antecedents and outcomes to/of evaluations/behaviours. Clusters 5, 6, 7, and 8 emphasized distinct emotional settings—notably, cluster 5 accounts for emotion interaction across service encounters and elements of service interface. Cluster 6 emphasizes effectiveness, advantage and measurement of emotion in advertising. Cluster 7 highlights how emotions are profoundly shaped by and influence social interactions/behaviour, and Cluster 8 underscores emotion embedded in brands, products and life experiences. Finally, a diverse yet unified field of emotion research in marketing is advocated by reflecting on findings, identifying opportunities for cross‐pollination, highlighting cluster‐specific future research directions and developing an integrative framework. The framework, beyond decision‐making, synthesizes distinct ways emotion arises and permeates marketplace and accounts for alternate lenses to emotion functioning, promoting newer research.
Online Impulse Buying: A Systematic Review of 25 Years of Research Using Meta Regression T. S. Anoop, Zillur Rahman Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2025 In the dynamic realm of online commerce, the phenomenon of Online Impulse Buying (OIB) has become a focal point of extensive research. Despite the multitude of studies exploring antecedents, mediators, and moderating factors, inconsistencies in findings have hindered generalization. To bridge this gap, we conducted a comprehensive meta‐analysis, synthesizing data from 84 empirical results across 75 research articles up to December 2023. Encompassing a cumulative sample size of 139,545 participants and 341 effects, our analysis aimed to evaluate the strength and significance of associations with OIB. Results revealed substantial influences on OIB, with Situational stimuli (ESr = 0.477), Marketing stimuli (ESr = 0.433), Customer related factors (ESr = 0.388), and Platform related factors (ESr = 0.362) emerging as key contributors. The heightened impact of situational and marketing stimuli reflects the evolving landscape of OIB. Additionally, we explored six potential moderators—culture, sample type, sampling method, online commerce type, and data collection technique—uncovering statistically significant effects on some aggregated correlations. By shedding light on the changing dynamics of OIB, our findings provide valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners navigating the intricate landscape of online impulse buying. Finally, we outline future research directions to guide ongoing exploration in this rapidly evolving field.
Curbing unethical consumer behaviour: the role of religiosity, consumer ethical beliefs and anticipated guilt Syed Masroor Hassan, Zillur Rahman International Journal of Ethics and Systems, 2024 Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role of personal and affective factors in curbing unethical consumer behaviour (UCB). Specifically, this study scrutinizes how religiosity, consumer ethical beliefs (CEBs) and anticipated guilt influence UCB. Design/methodology/approach Using a survey-based approach, the author distributed offline and online questionnaires among students enrolled in a public university in Roorkee, India and analysed the data using structural equation modelling. Findings The results provide evidence that intrinsically religious individuals develop strong ethical beliefs, which can help them to refrain from unethical behaviour and adopt ethical conduct. Also, individuals prone to experiencing anticipated guilt show less inclination to commit unethical behaviour. Research limitations/implications This research presents significant theoretical and practical implications to facilitate academic understanding and managerial decision-making in the context of consumer ethics. Originality/value This research is one of the few empirical studies in the Indian context that simultaneously examines the antecedents and consequences of CEB.
Factors affecting consumer willingness to pay for locally grown sesame in Australia Z Rahman, K Alom, S Bhattarai, T Trotter, C Rixon, D Akbar Discover Food , 2026 2026
The Multifaceted Role of Packaging: Product and Brand Perspectives S Yadav, Z Rahman 12th AIM-AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium & International Marketing … , 2026 2026
AI Social-Appraisal Support: Effect on Adoption Intention and Value Co-creation B Chandra, Z Rahman Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 10-1108/MIP-10-2024-0740 , 2026 2026
A Framework for AI-Driven Value Co-Creation Across Customer Journey Stages B Chandra, Z Rahman Service Industries Journal, 1-31 , 2026 2026 Citations: 2
Customer and employee engagement in the era of artificial intelligence adoption O Nazir, JU Islam, Z Rahman Customer engagement and digital business, 85-103 , 2026 2026 Citations: 5
Reimagining customer engagement and digital business in the age of generative AI and the metaverse B Chandra, Z Rahman Customer Engagement and Digital Business, 122-139 , 2025 2025 Citations: 3
Examining the issues related to consumer co-created value: from policy perspective AK Agrawal, Z Rahman, Z Hussain, S Chatterjee International Journal of Law and Management 67 (5), 523-542 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
Modelling the Drivers of Online Impulse Buying Behavior in Quick Commerce: A Comprehensive Analysis TS Anoop IIT Roorkee (Ph.D. Thesis) , 2025 2025
From brick-and- mortar to Omni channel: A mixed- method exploration of impulse buying research TS Anoop, Z Rahman Journal of Consumer Marketing 42 (7), 963-979 , 2025 2025 Citations: 1
Consumers through the lens of financial scarcity- Review and future research agenda AA Saikia, Z Rahman Journal of Consumer Marketing 42 (6), 756-779 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
An Automatic Fan Blade Cleaning System TS Anoop, Z Rahman IN Patent 202,511,011,976 , 2025 2025
Emotion as Cause, Effect, Mediator, and Moderator in Marketing: An Integrative Review and Future Research Directions S Aeron, Z Rahman Journal of Consumer Behavior 24 (1), 470-498 , 2025 2025 Citations: 11
Online impulse buying: A systematic review of twenty-five years of research using meta regression TS Anoop, Z Rahman Journal of Consumer Behaviour 24 (1), 363-391 , 2025 2025 Citations: 25
From urge to action: the hidden forces behind online impulse buying in electronic commerce – a meta analytic structural equation modelling (MASEM) research TS Anoop, Z Rahman Electronic Commerce Research 103431 , 2024 2024 Citations: 13
A Portable Dual Action Whey Protein and Paneer Household Device K Gupta, Z Rahman IN Patent 202,411,098,259 , 2024 2024
A Dual Action Toaster and Sandwich Grill B Akshaya, Z Rahman IN Patent 202,411,077,089 , 2024 2024
Developing and Validating a Contextual Framework of Discrete Emotion Effect on Consumer Evaluation and Behaviour S Aeron IIT Roorkee (Ph.D. Thesis) , 2024 2024
Developing and Validating a Framework for Integrating AI in Value Co-Creation B Chandra IIT Roorkee (Ph.D. Thesis) , 2024 2024
Branding Pathways for Creating Wealth From Waste A Paul, Z Rahman, IIT Roorkee IN Patent App. 20554/2024-CO/ L , 2024 2024
Sales and Distribution Management, 2ed, (ISBN: 978-93-5746-951-7) JF Hair Jr., RE Anderson, R Mehta, BJ Babin, AK Kaushik, Z Rahman Wiley , 2024 2024
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Factors Affecting Green Purchase Behaviour and Future Research Directions Y Joshi, Z Rahman International Strategic Management Review 3 (1-2), 128-143 , 2015 2015 Citations: 2697
Measuring Consumer Perception of Social Media Marketing Activities in E-Commerce Industry: Scale Development & Validation M Yadav, Z Rahman Telematics and Informatics 34 (7), 1294-1307 , 2017 2017 Citations: 972
The impact of online brand community characteristics on customer engagement: An application of Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm J Islam, Z Rahman Telematics and Informatics 34 (4), 96-109 , 2017 2017 Citations: 875
The Influence of Social Media Marketing Activities on Customer Loyalty: A Study of E-commerce Industry M Yadav, Z Rahman Benchmarking: an International Journal 25 (9), 3882-3905 , 2018 2018 Citations: 742
Corporate sustainability performance and firm performance research: literature review and future research agenda P Goyal, Z Rahman, AA Kazmi Management Decision 51 (2), 361-379 , 2013 2013 Citations: 689
Consumer engagement in online brand communities: A solicitation of congruity theory J Islam, Z Rahman, L Hollebeek Internet Research 28 (1), 23-45 , 2018 2018 Citations: 604
Customer engagement in the service context: An empirical investigation of the construct, its antecedents and consequences J Islam, L Hollebeek, Z Rahman, I Khan, A Rasool Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 50 (2019), 277-285 , 2019 2019 Citations: 529
An empirical investigation of relationship between total quality management practices and quality performance in Indian service companies F Talib, Z Rahman, MN Qureshi International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management 30 (3), 280-318 , 2013 2013 Citations: 484
Analysis of interaction among the barriers to total quality management implementation using interpretive structural modeling approach F Talib, Z Rahman, MN Qureshi Benchmarking: An International Journal 18 (4), 563-587 , 2011 2011 Citations: 476
Consumers’ Sustainable Purchase Behaviour: Modelling the Impact of Psychological Factors Y Joshi, Z Rahman Ecological Economics 159 (May 2019), 235-243 , 2019 2019 Citations: 441
Evolution of Sustainability as Marketing Strategy: Beginning of New Era V Kumar, Z Rahman, AA Kazmi, P Goyal Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences (The International Conference on … , 2012 2012 Citations: 439
Building company reputation and brand equity through CSR: The mediating role of trust M Fatma, Z Rahman, I Khan International Journal of Bank Marketing 33 (6), 840-856 , 2015 2015 Citations: 436
Linking Customer Engagement to Trust and Word of Mouth on Facebook Brand Communities: An Empirical Study J Islam, Z Rahman Journal of Internet Commerce 15 (1), 40-58 , 2016 2016 Citations: 422
Tourist behaviour towards self-service hotel technology adoption: Trust and subjective norm as key antecedents AK Kaushik, A Agrawal, Z Rahman Tourism Management Perspectives 16, 278-289 , 2015 2015 Citations: 389
The Transpiring Journey of Customer Engagement Research in Marketing: A Systematic Review of the Past Decade J Islam, Z Rahman Management Decision 54 (8), 2008-2034 , 2016 2016 Citations: 385
The role of customer brand engagement and brand experience in online banking I Khan, Z Rahman, M Fatma International Journal of Bank Marketing 34 (7), 1025-1041 , 2016 2016 Citations: 361
Brand engagement and experience in online services I Khan, LD Hollebeek, M Fatma, JU Islam, Z Rahman Journal of Services Marketing 34 (2), 163-175 , 2019 2019 Citations: 356
Roles and Resource Contributions of Customers in Value Co-creation AK Agarwal, Z Rahman International Strategic Management Review 3 (1-2), 144-160 , 2015 2015 Citations: 352
Examining the effects of brand love and brand image on customer engagement: An empirical study of fashion apparel brands J Islam, Z Rahman Journal of Global Fashion Marketing 7 (1), 45-59 , 2016 2016 Citations: 342
Investigating the determinants of consumers' sustainable purchase behaviour Y Joshi, Z Rahman Sustainable Production and Consumption 10 (April), 110-120 , 2017 2017 Citations: 341
