Purpose This research primarily assesses – interactive quality in the service encounters of Ethiopian Telecom from the customer and contact personnel perspectives. Research design, data, and methodology – After reviewing the literature on service encounters and interactive quality, two separate questionnaires and structured personal interviews were conducted to collect the opinions of 400 customers and 100 employees of Ethiopian Telecom. The researchers used convenience sampling; the responses, measured on a five-point Likert-type scale, were analyzed through chi-square tests conducted on SPSS 17.0. Results – Regarding the outcome expected by customers, encounter effectiveness is very low. Regarding accessibility and materiality, the corporation’s personnel are freely accessible, relatively well-dressed, and have access to sophisticated office equipment and physical facilities. Finally, with regard to agent satisfaction, the telecom’s contact employees are shown to gain little professional satisfaction from service encounters. Conclusion – The study clearly presents the areas in which interactive quality strongly affects both telecom customers and employees; this will help the corporation take corrective action. This is of utmost contemporary importance for both practitioners and researchers.

Purpose - This study aims to identify the reasons behind the conspicuous consumption of Veblen products, viz. fashion designer wear, diamond and gold jewellery, and high-end cars, to examine how conspicuous consumption varies between Aryan and Dravidian cultures. Research design, data, and methodology - The researchers meticulously review the relevant literature, administered a well-structured questionnaire, and conducted personal interviews on various influential factors relating to the consumption of Veblen products. The convenience sampling technique was used to gather data, with a total sample of 200, equally selected from eight cities of both North and South India the collected data was analyzed through ANOVA and Z-Proportion tests. Results - Indian consumers’ conspicuous consumption significantly varies among the Veblen products selected for the study, between the Aryan and Dravidian cultures. Regarding conspicuous consumption of branded accessories, 65 percent of Aryan culture Indians responded positively as against only 45 percent of the Dravidian culture Indians. Conclusions - This ingenious study proffers valuable insights about the conspicuous buying behavior of affluent class consumers in India, which are lucrative for both the corporate sector and academia.