Sonia Mehrotra

Bio: Sonia Mehrotra is an academic researcher from Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research. The author has contributed to research in topics: Structured interview & Emerging markets. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 7 publications receiving 38 citations.

An assessment approach for enhancing the organizational performance of social enterprises in India

Abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the activities of Indian social enterprises, identify the reasons/causes for their shortcomings and suggest a networked model of donor and beneficiary pool so as to enhance the performance efficiencies of these social enterprises to result in a larger social development impact. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social ventures together termed as social enterprises are perceived to be a panacea for all kinds of development in the social sector in the underdeveloped economies. In the past decade, the social enterprises in India have mushroomed and yet the sanctity of their operations and ability to deliver to expectations is questionable. Design/methodology/approach – The research design for pilot study was exploratory followed by descriptive design for the full study. The research adopted a two-phase approach. In Phase I, a loosely structured interview schedule was used to collate the insights from the social enterprises, developed as a survey questionnaire and ...

Lifelong activism and women’s entrepreneurship: how a social movement organization improves conditions for self-employed women in India

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a local trade union improves living conditions for women entrepreneurs in India and how its activities have evolved over time.,The authors conducted a longitudinal case study of the self-employed women’s association (SEWA) in India. Founded in 1972, this organization fosters and supports women’s entrepreneurship. The approach of this study combines qualitative face-to-face interviews and secondary data analysis.,The findings highlight the fact that SEWA, which combines the features of a trade union and a social movement, improves women’s conditions in several different ways. The study shows that the organization’s main role has evolved from creating a community to expanding it and finally to becoming an agent of societal change.,The study contributes to the literature by analyzing how locally grown organizations fight social exclusion and improve the conditions of deprived groups in emerging economies.

Secondary Business Model Innovation in Emerging Economies

Abstract: We study two quick-service restaurant (QSR) chains based on regional ethnic foods that were launched in China and India. The products that these QSR ventures offered had hitherto been sold by fragmented street vendors who typically operated single outlets. Inspired by the successful business models of international QSR brands, these entrepreneurs developed business models to popularize their chosen regional ethnic foods in multiple new regions and grew their organizations to 1,400 and 300 outlets in China and India, respectively. We build on the recently coined concept of ‘secondary’ business model innovation (SBMI), which is based on inter-organizational learning, break down its constituents into creative and imitative, specify the mechanisms through which it is achieved, and propose that it is a specific case of the more general construct of creative imitation.

Patanjali: an Indian FMCG on growth path

Abstract: Subject area Strategy. Study level/applicability MBA. Case overview On 20 May 2016, the Management team at Patanjali Ayurved Limited (PAL), an Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, had assembled in their Haridwar office, India, to discuss their future growth plans. The team was in a celebratory mood, as their internal reports suggested the annual revenue forecasts for the year 2016-2017 to be INR 10bn, an increase of 100 per cent as compared to the previous fiscal year 2015-2016 that recorded annual revenues of INR 5bn. PAL incorporated in 2006 and co-founded by Acharya Balkrishna operated in four business segments of foods, personal care, home care and Ayurved products. The products sold under the brand name Patanjali were single-handedly promoted by Swami Ramdev (hereafter referred as Ramdev), a popular Yoga practitioner and preacher amongst the Indian masses, as well as PAL’s co-founder. Ramdev recommended PAL’s products in his yoga sessions on television and yoga shibirs which had led to huge positive “word-of-mouth” publicity for their brand Patanjali. Their fast-paced growth in less than a decade had generated a disruption in the Indian FMCG sector, resulting in a negative impact on the sales of established multinational corporations (MNCs) such as Colgate-Palmolive, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), ITC Limited (ITC), besides the domestic players such as Dabur India Ltd. and Emami Ltd. This had led their FMCG competitors to launch plans to strengthen their product portfolios so as to provide a tough competition to PAL. The management team at PAL, though confident of achieving their annual revenue targets, were apprehensive of this new competition from the big players of the FMCG sector. Were they capable of continuing their success story? Going forward what strategic steps would ensure them a sustainable growth and a market leader position? The mood turned reflective as the team pondered on some of these questions. Expected learning outcomes The case is structured to enable discussion on: conducting and understanding a general environment analysis and industry and competitive analysis and critically evaluating the firm’s strategic positioning and scope in a competitive environment. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

Eastern Condiments: The Changing Curry Company

Abstract: Navas Meeran, the Chairman and Managing Director of Eastern Condiments Private Limited (ECPL) had been instrumental in the growth and professionalization of ECPL by bringing in non-family professionals, introducing state-of-the-art systems and processes in manufacturing, and nurturing the values of compassion and loyalty that his father had instilled across the organization. In 2014 he had taken a sabbatical and handed over the company operations to his younger brother Firoz. ECPL, the flagship company of the INR 8 billion, family managed Eastern Group headquartered in Kochi, India, was engaged in manufacturing and marketing spices, blended spice powders, pickles, breakfast staples and beverages in both domestic and international markets. The company began as a small shop set up by their father M.E. Meeran in 1961. It had grown to record revenues of INR 5.60 billion in 2014. Though Navas was pleased with the company's 2015 business performance under Firoz's leadership he was uncomfortable with the pace and execution of major organizational changes brought in by Firoz. He was worried about Firoz's aggressive approach; the speed of the internal changes Firoz had made to tap external market opportunities had resulted in 10 -15% attrition at all levels in the organization. Was it right for a traditional family run business bred on a culture of compassion and loyalty to make a sudden shift to a metrics-based performance culture? Would Firoz's efforts to transform the company into a professional organization ultimately sustain the growth of the business? Was there a need to both cultivate professionalism and reward loyalty across the ECPL value chain? Could a company based out of a Tier 2 city such as Kochi be able to attract high-quality talent easily? These were some of the questions that worried Navas.

Building Inclusive Markets in Rural Bangladesh : How Intermediaries Work Institutional Voids

Abstract: Much effort goes into building markets as a tool for economic and social development, often overlooking that in too many places social exclusion and poverty prevent many, especially women, from participating in and accessing markets. Building on data from rural Bangladesh and analyzing the work of a prominent intermediary organization, we uncover institutional voids as the source of market exclusion and identify two sets of activities – redefining market architecture and legitimating new actors – as critical for building ‘inclusive' markets. We expose voids as ‘analytical spaces' and illustrate how they result from conflict and contradiction among institutional ‘bits and pieces' from local political, community, and religious spheres. Our findings put forward a perspective on market building that highlights the ‘on the ground' dynamics and attends to the ‘institutions at play', to their consequences, and to a more diverse set of ‘inhabitants' of institutions.

Managing interfaces with suppliers

Abstract: In recent years, both the academic and practitioner-based literatures have witnessed a spate of interest in the management of supplier relationships. In particular, the movement from transaction to relational modes of buyer–supplier interaction has been highlighted as a dramatic shift. This article reexamines the nature of management of supplier relationships from the perspective of resource interfaces. We propose a categorization of four different interfaces based on how a focal customer can access its suppliers' resources. The four different interfaces serve different purposes and have various implications for static (productivity) and dynamic (innovativity) efficiency. We conclude by highlighting the costs and benefits of establishing and maintaining different supplier interfaces. The main implication stemming from our analysis is that buying firms need a variety of supplier interfaces to pursue productivity and innovativity objectives.

International business responses to institutional voids

Abstract: textFor nearly two decades, scholars in international business and management have explored the implications of institutional voids for firm strategy and structure. Although institutional voids offer both opportunities and challenges, they have largely been associated with firms' efforts to avoid or mitigate institutional deficiencies and reduce the transaction costs associated with operating in settings subject to those institutional shortcomings. The goal of this special issue is to advance scholarship on this topic by (a) exploring institutional voids that are new to the literature, (b) providing a deeper assessment of the different ways in which firms respond to these voids, and (c) utilizing diverse disciplines and theoretical approaches to do so. In this introduction, we first review and synthesize extant research on institutional voids, tracking the evolution of institutional void scholarship since the inception of the concept (Khanna & Palepu, Journal of Economic Literature, 45(2):331-372, 1997) and providing our perspective on its contributions and limitations. We then summarize the contributions of the articles included in this special issue. In addition to identifying an array of institutional voids - economic and social - the articles highlight four different strategies for responding to them: internalization, substitution, borrowing and signaling. Drawing on these, we develop new insights on the implications of institutional voids for firm behavior. We conclude with suggestions for future research.

Business models: A challenging agenda

Abstract: The current literature on business models lies mainly in the literature on strategy and competitive advantage and focuses on their role as descriptors of actual phenomenon, often by reference to taxonomic categories. In this essay we explore how business models can be seen as a set of cognitive configurations that can be manipulable in the minds of managers (and academics). By proposing a typology of business models, that emphasises the connecting of traditional value chain descriptors with how customers are identified and satisfied, and how the firm monetizes its value, we explore how business model configurations can extend current work on cognitive categorization and open up new possibilities for organisation research.