Showing papers by "Indian Institute of Management Calcutta published in 2010"

Do international acquisitions by emerging-economy firms create shareholder value? The case of Indian firms

Abstract: While overseas acquisitions by emerging-economy firms are gaining increased attention from the business press, our understanding of whether and why this inorganic mode of international expansion creates value to acquirer firms is limited. We argue that international acquisitions facilitate internalization of tangible and intangible resources that are both difficult to trade through market transactions and take time to develop internally, thus constituting an important strategic lever of value creation for emerging-economy firms. Furthermore, the magnitude of value created will be higher when the target firms are located in advanced economic and institutional environments: country markets that carry the promise of higher quality of resources, and therefore, stronger complementarity to the existing capabilities of emerging-economy firms. An event study of 425 cross-border acquisitions by Indian firms during 2000–2007 supports our predictions.

Buying behaviour of consumers for food products in an emerging economy

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a marketing strategy for a modern food/grocery market based on consumer preferences and behaviour.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 101 households having sufficient purchasing power were personally surveyed with a structured questionnaire. These households are spread across the well‐developed Gomtinagar area of Lucknow city. Simple statistical analysis such as descriptive statistical analysis, frequency distribution, cross tabulation, analysis of variance, and factor analysis to assess the consumers' preferences for food and grocery products and market attributes were carried out.Findings – The preferences of the consumers clearly indicate their priority for cleanliness/freshness of food products followed by price, quality, variety, packaging, and non‐seasonal availability. The consumers' preference of marketplace largely depends on the convenience in purchasing at the marketplace along with the availability of additional services, attraction for ch...

Cost modelling techniques for availability type service support contracts: a literature review and empirical study

Abstract: The traditional distinction between manufacturing and services, both in relation to products and indeed, the actual companies themselves, is getting blurred. Increasingly services are becoming a major part of the company offerings in manufacturing sector. In order to compete in a transformed environment, companies need to assess the cost of their service offerings properly to stay competitive. The research in this paper is focused on enhancing existing knowledge in cost estimation models for availability type support service contracts that focus on equipment availability targets and predefined service levels. Most of the current studies concentrate on product cost estimation rather than on services. The difficulty of this task lies in properly estimating the costs of activities during the long lasting contracts, which in some cases may reach even several decades. The paper first reports the existing knowledge in cost estimating techniques through detailed review of literature and presents the key cost assessment techniques that can be used in estimating the cost of service contracts over its entire life-cycle. The paper investigates different availability type support contracts in defence sector and reports the cost assessment techniques used in practice. The paper presents an integrated framework for costing availability type service contracts based on the literature and practice. The gaps in cost modelling of availability type service contracts and areas for further research are identified.

Environmental dynamism, human resource flexibility, and firm performance: analysis of a multi-level causal model

Abstract: While strategic HRM scholars have conceptualized HR flexibility as an important source of sustainable superior firm performance in dynamic environments, the process through which HR flexibility creates value for the firm has not been empirically investigated. Based on a study of 98 manufacturing and 103 service firms from a wide array of industries in India, this paper attempts to illuminate the black box of causal linkages between environmental dynamism, flexibility of human assets, and firm level human-, operational-, and financial-outcomes by developing and testing a multi-level causal model. Evidence indicates that HR flexibility mediates the influence of environmental dynamism on firm performance and that irrespective of the nature of the industry and the degree of environmental turbulence, superior firm performance ensues when HR flexibility as actually possessed by the firm matches the environmental demands for such flexibility as perceived by the firm managers. The results also support the notion of HR value chain that postulates that HR system has direct impact on firm-level HR outcomes which are most proximal, and its effects on increasingly more distal operational- and financial-outcomes are mediated by HR outcomes. The findings of the study suggest that HR practices as a system have both direct and indirect (mediated by behavioral flexibility) effects on firm-level HR outcomes. Existence of significant direct effects signifies that HR practices play an important role as a structural mechanism in achieving superior firm performance.

Usage and understanding of food and nutritional labels among Indian consumers.

Abstract: Purpose – Nutritional labeling of food products is not mandatory in India at present and the Indian Government is on the verge of introducing a code of conduct for it. The aim of this paper is to provide some initial guidelines for the above‐said purpose so as to have consumer friendly labeling policies.Design/methodology/approach – A structured questionnaire‐based survey was used for the purpose of the study. A total of 100 respondents were considered for the study. Data were collected from two superstores located in New Delhi.Findings – Food labels are read by the consumers for brand comparisons and not for consulting nutritional information. Difficult terminology, small font size and inability to understand nutritional labels are the major problems encountered by the consumers. Television, friends, magazines are commonly used for assessing nutritional information. Labels are considered more consumer friendly when benchmarks regarding serving size are provided. Income level, size of household, number of...

A novel droplet routing algorithm for digital microfluidic biochips

Abstract: One of the recent areas of research interest is the use of microfluidics for building up biochips, the digital microfluidic biochips (DMFB). This paper deals with a challenging problem related to the design of DMFB. Specifically the design problem considered is related to high performance droplet routing, where each droplet has single source location and single target location. The objectives are (i) minimizing the number of electrodes used in the DMFB, and (ii) minimizing the total routing time of all the droplets or arrival time of a droplet that is the last to arrive at its target(latest arrival time). We propose a simple algorithm for concurrent path allocation to multiple droplets, based on the Soukup's routing algorithm [22], together with the use of stalling, and possible detouring of droplets in cases of contentions. Selection of the droplets is based on their respective source to target Manhattan paths. The empirical results are quite encouraging.

Indian Generics Producers, Access to Essential Medicines and Local Production in Africa: An Argument with Reference to Tanzania

Abstract: Much analysis of the supply chain for essential medicines to Africa assumes broad sustainability of low-cost generics supply from Indian manufacturers. We use Indian data and interviews to question this assumption. In a case study of Tanzania, we then argue for the necessity and feasibility of enhanced local production of essential medicines. We identify key industrial policy interventions, including industrial protection and active government purchasing; public goods including legislative and regulatory frameworks and training; and encouragement and facilitation of joint ventures. We show that a basis has been laid for these activities, and identify the urgency and difficulty of the policy challenge. There are lessons for the Tanzanian case from Indian industrial history, and policy space is provided by Tanzania's Least Developed Country status. Industrial and health policy can be further integrated to the benefit of Tanzania's citizens. The Tanzanian case has broader implications for African policymakers.

On Detecting Data Flow Errors in Workflows

Abstract: When designing a business workflow, it is customary practice to create the control flow structure first and to ensure its correctness. Information about the flow of data is introduced subsequently into the workflow and its correctness is independently verified. Improper specification of data requirements of tasks and XOR splits can cause problems such as wrong branching at XOR splits and the failure of tasks to execute. Here we present a graph traversal algorithm called GTforDF for detecting data flow errors in both nested and unstructured workflows, and illustrate its operation on realistic examples. Two of these have interconnected loops and are free of control flow errors, and the third one is an unstructured loop-free workflow. Our approach extends and generalizes data flow verification methods that have been recently proposed. It also makes use of the concept of corresponding pairs lately introduced in control flow verification. It thus has the potential for development into a unified algorithmic procedure for the concurrent detection of control flow and data flow errors. The correctness of the algorithm has been proved theoretically. It has also been tested experimentally on many examples.

Optimal (k, n) visual cryptographic schemes for general k

Abstract: In (k, n) visual cryptographic schemes (VCS), a secret image is encrypted into n pages of cipher text, each printed on a transparency sheet, which are distributed among n participants. The image can be visually decoded if any k(≥2) of these sheets are stacked on top of one another, while this is not possible by stacking any k − 1 or fewer sheets. We employ a Kronecker algebra to obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a (k, n) VCS with a prior specification of relative contrasts that quantify the clarity of the recovered image. The connection of these conditions with an L 1-norm formulation as well as a convenient linear programming formulation is explored. These are employed to settle certain conjectures on contrast optimal VCS for the cases k = 4 and 5. Furthermore, for k = 3, we show how block designs can be used to construct VCS which achieve optimality with respect to the average and minimum relative contrasts but require much smaller pixel expansions than the existing ones.

Earnings Inequality in India: Has the Rise of Caste and Religion Based Politics in India had an Impact?

Abstract: Since 1989, there has been a sharp increase in the role of caste and religion in determining political fortunes at both state and federal levels in India. As a consequence, significant intercaste and inter-religion differences in earnings have the potential to stall the process of economic reforms. Yet, the patterns and determinants of such differences remain unexplored. We address this lacuna in the literature, and explore the determinants of the differences in inter-caste and inter-religion earnings in India during the 1987-99 period, using the 43 rd and 55 th rounds of National Sample Survey (NSS). Our results suggest that (a) earnings differences between “upper” castes and SC/ST have declined between 1987 and 1999, (b) over the same period, earnings differences between Muslims and non-Muslims have increased, to the detriment of the former, and (c) inter-caste and inter-religion differences in earnings can be explained largely by corresponding differences in educational endowment and returns on age (and, hence, experience). However, differences in returns on education do not explain inter-caste and inter-religion earnings differences to a great extent.

Application of data mining techniques for customer lifetime value parameters: a review

Abstract: Computational and digital advancements with the advent of relationship marketing have changed the land signs of business. Digital revolution led to generation and collection of data in companies and extracting knowledge from this data through knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) process. KDD involves many steps, of which an important step is data mining. Data mining is a process of extracting patterns in data through statistical and other techniques and algorithms. In business, firms are shifting their marketing approach from mass marketing to relationship based marketing leading to an era of customer relationship management (CRM). CRM requires sustainable long term relationship with customers and allocation of resources to maintain these relationships. Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a metric to justify resource allocation by segregating customers on the basis of their contribution to the company. In this paper we review applications of statistical and data mining techniques for predicting CLV and its parameters. The applications of techniques such as logistic regression, decision trees, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic and support vector machines are covered. In the end, a case study is presented to estimate few CLV parameters for a direct marketing company.

R&D for development of new drugs for neglected diseases in India

Abstract: The world pharmaceutical industry dominated by multinational corporations has neglected research for drugs for diseases of poor countries. Introduction of stronger patent protection in India after World Trade Organization's TRIPS agreement has failed to rectify this deficiency despite the substantial increase in R&D activity. In the light of the experience of the Indian private sector and the public-private partnerships initiated in India for the development of new drugs, the paper explores some policy options and suggests the expansion of public-private partnerships to include organisations from other innovative developing countries such as Brazil and China.

Understanding Requirements Volatility in Software Projects - An Empirical Investigation of Volatility Awareness, Management Approaches and their Applicability

Abstract: Requirements volatility during software project development is known to be the most critical risk, and managing this is paramount to success in software project. The research described in this paper is based on a combination of interviews and a survey in two phases and aims to investigate the organizational practices in dealing with this risk, and how it is influenced by the adopted project execution strategy with regard to process model selection decisions.The results indicate study participants' heightened perception of the risk of requirements volatility. Thirteen different approaches to managing projects under volatility could be identified, of which the practice of involving the business side was the most frequent. Differences could be observed in the usage of these approaches based on the chosen project execution strategy. The influence of business emerged as the highest determinant of the seven identified factors governing execution strategy selection. The variation in these factors under volatility has also been pointed out. The current practice regarding usage of these execution frameworks reveals a gradual shift towards customization. In this regard some incongruence between perception and practice under requirements volatility was also evident, and has been addressed in the paper. The study findings are expected to assist project managers in their choices related to project administration under requirements volatility.

Method of droplet routing in digital microfluidic biochip

Abstract: One of the challenging research areas nowadays is the design and use of microfluidic biochips, the digital microfluidic biochips (DMFB). It is used for analysis of different biological samples like protein, sirum etc using an array of electrically controlled electrodes. This paper deals with a challenging problem related to the design of DMFB. Specifically the design problem considered is related to high-performance droplet routing, where each droplet has single source location and single target location. The objectives are (i) minimizing the number of electrodes used in the DMFB, and (ii) minimizing total routing time/latest arrival time of all the droplet at their target locations. We propose a simple algorithm for concurrent path allocation to multiple droplets, based on the classical shortest-path algorithm, together with the use of stalling, and possible detouring of droplets in cases of contentions. The algorithm is also extended to droplet routing where a droplet may have two source positions and a single target position. The algorithm is implemented on a Linux platform and empirical results are quite encouraging.

Minimax second-order designs over cuboidal regions for the difference between two estimated responses

Abstract: Minimization of the variance of the difference between estimated responses at two points, maximized over all pairs of points in the factor space, is taken as the design criterion. Optimal designs under this criterion are derived, via a combination of algebraic and numerical techniques, for the full second-order regression model over cuboidal regions. Use of a convexity argument and a surrogate objective function significantly reduces the computational burden.

Is ngo development assistance mistargeted? an epistemological approach

Abstract: An empirical analysis of the relationship between “objectively assessed need” and the formation of NGOs in Andhra Pradesh, India, suggests that the former is not a significant trigger for the latter. The formation of NGOs appears to be a response to perceptions of need that are so far removed from the local level that they fail to prioritize amongst levels and locations of poverty. In the absence of objective feedback mechanisms, the global—and therefore indiscriminate—perspective of international funding sources may help explain the lack of correspondence between need and NGO location, combined with the inevitably limited and blinkered knowledge of regional disparities that can be obtained through local NGOs. This preliminary “epistemological” approach to the question of the sub-optimal formation of NGOs is buttressed by consideration of the factors that may bring perception, reality, and organizational responses into better alignment when natural disasters occur, namely the factors that make na...

Entrepreneurial inclination of students at a private university in Malaysia

Abstract: Most past studies on studentsʼ entrepreneurial intention tend to focus on the phenomenon in developed countries.There is limited research on entrepreneurial intention of university students from developing nations. This article intends to close this gap by providing some insights into students℉ entrepreneurial inclination in a developing country, Malaysia. A total of 234 students from three faculties at both graduate and undergraduate levels were surveyed to examine their entrepreneurial inclination and also to examine the relationship between their demographic and social characteristics with entrepreneurial inclination.The study found strong entrepreneurial inclination among the students. Significant difference was found between students studying part time and full time and their entrepreneurial inclination. Significant difference was also found between the type of program enrolled in and students℉ entrepreneurial inclination. Further analysis and other findings were reported and recommendation for future research are been put forth in this article.

Data-dependent probability matching priors of the second order

Abstract: We consider second-order probability matching priors that ensure frequentist validity of posterior quantiles with margin of error o(n −1), where n is the sample size. It is well known that there are many models of interest where data-free second-order probability matching priors do not exist. We explore how this problem can be resolved via consideration of data-dependent priors. This is done both in the absence and presence of nuisance parameters.

Quo vadis, SaaS a system dynamics model based enquiry into the SaaS industry

Abstract: SaaS has quickly become a mainstream business phenomenon by delivering a software product as a service. In this study, we examine the system dynamics of the SaaS business model in light of the drivers of growth, the various types of SaaS applications and the various entities in the SaaS value chain. A modeling approach is followed to determine the effects of various drivers of growth in SaaS business model. In addition, our model tries to determine the relative power of the entities in the SaaS value chain under various scenarios chain and attempts to determine when and how bandwagon effects occur in this industry and isolate the factors that contribute to growth or decline of various types of application revenues. The model is also a means to identify the stakeholders in the value network who gain maximum value under different conditions. Our results suggest that the SaaS industry would fall victim to a stronger substitute business model unless SaaS can move more of its resources to work on applications which are more critical and customized to the needs of a client.

Drivers of Knowledge Contribution in Open Fora: Findings from Wikipedians

Abstract: Today’s social computing platforms include many open content fora where users voluntarily create and edit content online. This has opened up a new mechanism for knowledge acquisition raising related research questions, including identification of the reasons why people contribute to open fora. While altruism is mentioned most frequently, it has been suggested that there may be additional drivers in play. To explore this possibility, we examine contribution behavior in the Wikipedia context using qualitative data from two focus groups of Wikipedians. Content analysis of the data reveals a number of different drivers of contributor behavior which we then map into the Motivation-Ability-Opportunity (MAO) theoretical framework developed in the organizational behavior literature on work performance. The mapping can provide a theoretical basis for quantitative examination of contributor behavior and lead to more effective methods of managing collective knowledge in other open forum settings, such as corporate wikis.

Cell level thermal placement in 3D ICs

Abstract: Thermal issues are playing a dominant role in today's high performance VLSI design. On-chip power density has become an important parameter during the physical design phase. The consumed power is usually converted into dissipated heat, affecting the performance and reliability of a chip. Moreover, 3D chips have significantly larger power densities than their 2D counterparts. In this paper, we consider the placement of standard cells and gate arrays (modules) under thermal considerations. Our contribution includes a novel algorithm for placement of the gates or cells in the different active layers of a 3D IC to ensure (i) an uniform distribution of temperatures of the modules in each active layers, (ii) lowest possible value of the maximum temperatures of each of the active layers, and (iii) a temperature gradient of the maximum temperatures of the layers in a non-increasing manner from bottom layer to top layer to ensure efficient heat dissipation in the face-to-back bonding structure. Experimental results on randomly generated and standard benchmark instances are quite encouraging.

Mother or motherland: Can a government have an impact on educational attainment of the population? Preliminary evidence from India

Abstract: In this paper, using data from the 61st round of the (Indian) National Sample Survey, we examine the relative impacts of personal-household and state-level characteristics (including government policy) on the likelihood of transition from one educational level to the next. Our analysis suggests that the most important factors driving these transition likelihoods are personal and household characteristics like gender and education of household heads. However, state-level characteristics and government policies have a significant impact on these transition likelihoods as well, especially for transitions from the lowest levels of education to somewhat higher levels. The odds of making the transition to higher education, especially tertiary education, are systematically lower for women than for men, for individuals in rural areas than those in urban areas, and for Muslims than for Hindus. An important conclusion of our analysis is that there is significant scope for government policy to address educational gaps between various demographic and other groups in the country.

Post deployment planning of 3G cellular networks through dual homing of NodeBs

Abstract: 3G Cellular networks typically consist of a group of NodeBs connected to a Radio Network Controller (RNC), and a group of RNCs to a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSNs) as well as to a Mobile Switching Centre (MSCs). Post deployment planning of such network is to re-plan the connectivity among the above mentioned network elements with an objective to minimize the cost of operation of the network. This planning problem is traditionally solved under single homing consideration (i.e., one NodeB is homed with only one RNC). However, a single homing solution becomes ineffective when the subscriber distribution changes over time and groups of subscribers begin to show a specific diurnal pattern of their inter-MSC/SGSN mobility. One of the solutions for this problem is dual-homing where some selected NodeBs are connected to two RNCs to reduce the complex handoffs involving two different RNCs as well as two different MSCs/SGSNs. In this paper, we have mapped the dual-homing problem into a search problem and used Simulated Annealing (SA) and Tabu Search (TS) techniques to optimally select the NodeBs and RNCs to be connected. A comparison of the performances of the two meta-heuristic techniques reveals that, though both are efficient enough to produce good solutions, TS is found to be better than SA throughout.

A cost-efficient algorithm for finding connected dominating sets in static wireless ad hoc networks with obstacles

Abstract: We present a cost-efficient algorithm for spine identification in networks with obstacles with a view for finding connected dominating sets in static wireless ad hoc networks with obstacles (eg, a sensor network in a disaster site)

Co-Existence of Network and Terminal Mobility in the Context of TCP Performance

Abstract: Both the network mobility and the terminal mobility are likely to co-exist in the future. These two mobile communication paradigms have different wireless connectivity models and likely to deploy different schemes to address the wireless related performance issues for TCP. In this paper, we con-sider TCP Snoop, which allows a mobile terminal to efficiently recover from wireless-related losses. For the network mobil-ity, we consider on-board TCP (obTCP), which improves snooping performance when the mobile terminal is located inside a moving network. We investigate the performance of obTCP and Snoop when they operate over a common cellular base station. We evaluate their end-to-end throughput, and also their fairness in using cellular resources. Our study re-veals that obTCP achieves higher throughput than Snoop. We have further analyzed the results to show that the differences in the retransmission mechanisms of Snoop and obTCP are responsible for the higher throughput attained by obTCP. We have also observed that, obTCP does not bring any significant unfair to Snoop, allowing network mobility to co-exist with terminal mobility.

A comparative study of North American and Indian third-party logistics (3PL) service providers

Abstract: This paper makes a comparison between the North American and Indian third-party logistics (3PL) industries in terms of demographics, key success factors and performance metrics. One of the important observations of the paper is that although breadth of service offerings, investment in information systems, availability of skilled manpower and integration of supply chains are identified as significant predictor variables for performance metrics, there are wide gaps between Indian 3PL firms' expectations and achievements with respect to these variables. It is expected that the findings of the paper would provide valuable managerial insights into the Indian 3PL industry and help logistics managers make better, informed decisions concerning the allocation of scarce resources.

Exploring Relationships between Key Success Factors and Performance Metrics for Indian Express Delivery Service Providers

Abstract: Studies on the global express industry are few and far between in the academic literature. The purpose of this paper is to identify from the extant literature the variables and dynamics significant for this industry and present a survey of Indian express delivery service providers in terms of these variables and their inter-relationships to assess the state of the sector, its dynamics, problems, and growth opportunities. The Indian express sector generates approximately USD 1.6 billion of revenues, growing at about 20% per annum, and employs close to one million people. The sector is fragmented, consisting of about 2,500 players with a few large players capturing about 80% of the market. The survey shows that small firms perform poorly with respect to on-time delivery and reliability, breadth of services, geographic coverage, investments in assets and information systems, and integration of services. However, all these factors are shown to be important determinants of success, and, therefore, small firms ...