Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

About: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad is a education organization based out in Ahmedabad, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Emerging markets & Population. The organization has 1828 authors who have published 4011 publications receiving 59269 citations. The organization is also known as: IIMA & IIM Ahmedabad.

On Posterior Concentration in Misspecified Models

Abstract: We investigate the asymptotic behavior of Bayesian posterior distributions under independent and identically distributed ($i.i.d.$) misspecified models. More specifically, we study the concentration of the posterior distribution on neighborhoods of $f^{\star}$, the density that is closest in the Kullback--Leibler sense to the true model $f_0$. We note, through examples, the need for assumptions beyond the usual Kullback--Leibler support assumption. We then investigate consistency with respect to a general metric under three assumptions, each based on a notion of divergence measure, and then apply these to a weighted $L_1$-metric in convex models and non-convex models. Although a few results on this topic are available, we believe that these are somewhat inaccessible due, in part, to the technicalities and the subtle differences compared to the more familiar well-specified model case. One of our goals is to make some of the available results, especially that of , more accessible. Unlike their paper, our approach does not require construction of test sequences. We also discuss a preliminary extension of the $i.i.d.$ results to the independent but not identically distributed ($i.n.i.d.$) case.

Markets and marketing at the bottom of the pyramid

Abstract: Concern with the role of markets in the lives of the poor has been growing consistently in management and marketing academic communities over the past two decades. Since the publication of CK Prahalad’s HBR article, and bestselling book (Prahalad, 2006; Prahalad and Hammond, 2002), an increasing number of scholars have turned their attention to understanding markets as a means to alleviate poverty and engaging the poor in economic life. The importance of markets and how they are performed is thought to be central to making better and more inclusive societies and to improving the lives of those at the bottom of pyramid (BoP). Indeed, those adopting a market studies approach would argue that ‘building markets is one of the most ordinary ways to produce society’ (Geiger et al., 2014: 1) – putting markets at the centre of the everyday practices of the poor. In concerning ourselves with BoP markets, we assert a very specific aim – to understand how market configurations that take into account the various concerns associated with unfolding economic transactions come about (Chakrabarti and Mason, 2014). Specifically, we start from the premise that (1) consumers cannot consume unless they are able to produce – an activity that generates the means for market engagement and consumption (Karnani, 2007; Viswanathan et al., 2010), (2) market practices are always situated in the particularities of time and place (Kjellberg and Helgesson, 2007) and as such cannot be divorced from histories and associations and (3) the globalisation of trade and markets entangles multiple and complex social–political–economic worlds in chains of practices that stretch across the globe (cf. London and Hart, 2011; Maurer, 2012). This approach calls into question extant conceptualisations of BoP markets as purely economic constructs. As Geiger et al. (2014: 3) explain, ‘Rather than simply replacing or overlaying social bonds with economic transactions, markets initiate a plurality of social relations of a new kind, bearing matters of concern that should be carefully monitored. They invite us neither to reject the economic dynamics of markets nor to try to purify them from any remaining social relations, but rather to search for modalities of organization that are all the more relevant for the implementation of market exchange’, one might add that this is pertinent – in any given BoP context. Indeed, it is notable that market actors often ignore deviant behaviours that result from balancing normative compliance with valuing the role of community in the practice of markets (Christensen et al., 2001; Layton, 2009). Such conceptualisations enable us to ‘…deconstruct the current axiomatic treatment of transaction-centric markets and to reconstruct the market as a socially embedded institution in which community ties are formed and sustained’ (Varman and Costa, 2008: 141). In this brief editorial, we draw on this unfolding understanding of what markets are and how they work to consider how we might re-conceptualise BoP markets, where we might find them and how our concerns about BoP markets are beginning to shape understanding, theorising and action.

Does a Consumer’s Religion Really Matter in the Buyer–Seller Dyad? An Empirical Study Examining the Relationship Between Consumer Religious Commitment, Christian Conservatism and the Ethical Judgment of a Seller’s Controversial Business Decision

Abstract: Religion is an important cultural and individual difference variable. Yet, despite its obvious importance in consumers’ lives, religion in the United States has been under-researched. This study addresses that gap in the literature and investigates the influence of consumer religion in the buyer–seller dyad. Specifically, this study examines the influence of consumer religious commitment and a Christian consumer’s conservative beliefs in the United States on store loyalty when retailers make business decisions which are potentially reli- gious objectionable. This study uses structural equation modeling and applies Anderson and Gerbing’s (Psychol Bull 103(3):411–423, 1988) two-step approach to exam- ine data obtained from a national sample of 531 consumers. The results from this study suggest that consumers evaluate seller’s actions and form ethical judgments. These judgments are a major explanatory variable in consumer store loyalty intentions.