Showing papers by "Indian Institute of Management Calcutta published in 2017"

Whose online reviews to trust? Understanding reviewer trustworthiness and its impact on business

Abstract: Why do top movie reviewers receive invitations to exclusive screenings? Even popular technology bloggers get free new gadgets for reviewing. How much do these reviewers really matter for businesses? While the impact of online reviews on sales of products and services has been well established, not much literature is available on impact of reviewers for businesses. Source credibility theory expounds how a communication's persuasiveness is affected by the perceived credibility of its source. So, perceived trustworthiness of reviewers should influence acceptance of reviews, and consequently should have an indirect impact on sales. Using local business review data from Yelp.com, this paper successfully tests the premise that reviewer trustworthiness positively moderates the impact of review-based online reputation on business patronages. Given the importance of reviewer trustworthiness, the next logical question is how to estimate and predict it, if no direct proxy is available? We propose a theoretical model with several reviewer characteristics (positivity, involvement, experience, reputation, competence, sociability) affecting reviewer trustworthiness, and find all factors to be significant using the robust regression method. Further, using these factors, a predictive classification of reviewers into high and low level of potential trustworthiness is done using logistic regression with nearly 83% accuracy. Our findings have several implications - firstly, businesses should focus on building a good review-based online reputation; secondly, they should encourage top trustworthy reviewers to review their products and services; and thirdly, trustworthy reviewers could be identified and ranked using reviewer characteristics. Trustworthiness of reviewers impacts sales of products they review.Review data from Yelp is analyzed to identify trustworthiness of reviewers.Various characteristics of reviewers that influence trustworthiness are identified.Logistic regression is used to identify highly trustworthy reviewers.

Follow the herd or be myself? An analysis of consistency in behavior of reviewers and helpfulness of their reviews

Abstract: This study investigates if reviewers' pattern of rating is consistent over time and predictable. Two interesting results emerge from the econometric analyses using publicly available data from TripAdvisor.com . First, reviewers' rating behavior is consistent over time and across products. Furthermore, most of the variation in their future rating behavior can be explained by their rating behavior in the past rather than by the observed average rating. Second, reviews by reviewers with higher absolute bias in rating in the past receive more helpful votes in future. We further divide the bias in rating into intrinsic bias (driven by intrinsic reviewer characteristics) and extrinsic bias (driven by influences beyond intrinsic bias) and document that intrinsic bias plays a more significant role in influencing helpful votes for reviews than extrinsic bias. Our results are robust to different product categories and different definition of bias. Overall our results indicate that in the online review context, the observed average rating or an attention grabbing strategy may not be as important as believed in the past. This study provides insights into reviewers' rating behavior and prescribes actionable items for online vendors so that they can proactively influence online opinion instead of passively responding to them.

A game theoretic analysis of multichannel retail in the context of showrooming

Abstract: Showrooming as a market phenomenon in multichannel retailing has grown in importance over the last few years. Consumers nowadays use the brick-and-mortar store to research about a product before purchasing it online. This leads to the offline stores being converted into showrooms for the online retailers. Therefore, popular notion suggests that showrooming should benefit the online retailer. In this paper, our objective is to analyze multichannel retailing under showrooming and determine the veracity of the popularly held belief. We develop a series of game theoretic models that involve a traditional retailer and an online retailer under showrooming. We determine optimal pricing strategies for each player and also the sales effort expended by the traditional retailer based on the interplay of power dynamics, market potential and the impact of showrooming. Our results indicate that profit for the traditional as well as the online retailer decreases with rising levels of showrooming. Hence, high levels of showrooming are not beneficial from the perspective of the online retailer. Thus, contrary to popular intuition, lessening of showrooming benefits not only the traditional retailer but also the online retailer. Nevertheless, from the consumer's point of view showrooming is beneficial as it leads to overall reduction in retail prices. We also analyze the viability of a click-and-mortar model as a strategy of the traditional retailer to counter the threat of showrooming. We analyze multi-channel retailing under showrooming in a game theoretic set up.We study the impact of showrooming on the traditional as well as the online retailer.We study the interaction of market potential and power dynamics with showrooming.We develop a strategy matrix for pricing decisions under showrooming.

Navigating identity duality in multinational subsidiaries: A paradox lens on identity claims at Hindustan Unilever 1959–2015

Abstract: Multinational subsidiaries do not merely seek legitimacy within their dual institutional contexts; they also strive to articulate an organizational identity by drawing on institutional resources embedded in these dual contexts. We draw attention to the subsidiary’s identity duality and conceptualize it as a paradox, i.e., as the juxtaposition of the contradictory, interdependent, and persistent characteristics of the ‘global’ and the ‘local’ in the subsidiary’s identity. Using 57 years of archival data from Hindustan Unilever, the Indian subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever, we observe changing patterns in the articulation of identity claims by subsidiary leaders and develop a process model of how subsidiaries navigate identity duality over time. We find that subsidiary leaders may use two modes of organizational identity work for this purpose – logic ordering (the articulation of identity claims that respond to contradictory institutional demands by privileging one and subordinating the other) and logic bridging (the articulation of identity claims that respond to contradictory institutional demands by effecting a Janusian integration of the said demands). Over time, and employing these modes of identity work, leaders at Hindustan Unilever sustained a dynamic balance between the dual cores of the subsidiary’s espoused identity.

User segmentation for retention management in online social games

Abstract: This work proposes an innovative model for segmenting online players based on data related to their in-game behaviours to support player retention management. This kind of analysis is helpful to explore the potential reasons behind why players leave the game, analyse retention trends, design customised strategies for different player segments, and then boost the overall retention rate. In particular, a new similarity metric which is driven by players' stickiness to the game is developed to cluster players. Three feature dimensions, namely engagement features (e.g., log-in frequency and length of log-in time), performance features (e.g., level, the number of completed tasks, coins and achievements), and social interactions features (e.g., the number of in-game friends, whether or not to join a guild, and the guild role), are employed and aggregated to derive the stickiness metric. The applicability and utility of this new segmentation model are illustrated through experiments that are conducted on a realistic MMORPG dataset. The derived results are also discussed and compared against two benchmark models. The results reveal that the new segmentation model not only achieves better clustering performance, but also improves player's lifetime prediction by better distinguishing between loyal customers and churners. The empirical results confirm the effects of social interaction, which is usually underestimated in the current research, on player segmentation. From an operational perspective, the derived results would help game developers better understand the different retention-behaviour patterns of players, establish effective and customised tactics to retain more players, and boost product revenue.

Business group heterogeneity and the internationalization-performance relationship: Evidence from Indian business groups

Abstract: Business groups, the dominant organizational form in many Asian markets, have expanded their operations into international markets. We combine the resources-based view with the institutional perspective to highlight the costs and benefits of business groups’ internationalization, rather than business groups’ affiliated firms’ internationalization, and consider how ownership heterogeneity among business groups influences the internationalization-performance relationship. Three ownership types—family, domestic financial institution, and foreign corporate—serve as distinguishing characteristics of business groups and potential moderators of this relationship. In a sample of 185 Indian business groups examined over more than a decade (2000–2010), we find that these three ownership types have a differential impact on the internationalization-performance relationship¸ depending on the level of internationalization of the business group. Specifically¸ we find that at lower levels of internationalization, family and foreign corporate ownership has a positive moderating effect whereas domestic financial institutional ownership has a negative moderating effect. Conversely¸ at higher levels of internationalization, family and foreign corporate ownership has a negative moderating effect, while domestic financial institutional ownership positively moderates the internationalization-performance relationship.

Resource mapping during a natural disaster: A case study on the 2015 Nepal earthquake

Abstract: Any major natural disaster, such as an earthquake, is accompanied by an urgent need for various types of resources in the disaster-affected region, which primarily includes medical resources, human resources, and infrastructural resources How quickly this need for resources can be satisfied might critically determine the extent of damage and human casualties in the aftermath of the disaster Hence, knowledge about what type of resources are usually needed in the aftermath of a disaster is important for responding organizations for planning formative solutions, to be better prepared to mitigate any upcoming disaster The goal of this study is to curate the resource needs during a major disaster – the earthquake in Nepal and parts of India in April 2015 This work has been carried out in association with Doctors For You (DFY), a humanitarian organization of medical professionals who work in various disasters-affected regions A large set of WhatsApp messages exchanged among DFY members who were working in the disaster-affected areas of Nepal was collected and analyzed to identify the different resource requirements and the corresponding delay in the mobilization of such resources The study revealed detailed phase-wise requirement of various types of resources and also suggested that for several resources, there was a significant delay between the requirement and the actual availability of the resources The acumens from this study will not only help disaster risk management in Nepal but also help in preparedness planning in other earthquake-prone regions of the world

Identifying Post-Disaster Resource Needs and Availabilities from Microblogs

Abstract: Microblogging sites like Twitter are increasingly being used for aiding post-disaster relief operations. In such situations, identifying needs and availabilities of various types of resources is critical for effective coordination of the relief operations. We focus on the problem of automatically identifying tweets that inform about needs and availabilities of resources, termed as need-tweets and availability-tweets respectively. Traditionally, pattern matching techniques are adopted to identify such tweets. In this work, we present novel retrieval methodologies, based on word embeddings, for automatically identifying need-tweets and availability-tweets. Experiments over tweets posted during two recent disaster events show that the proposed methodologies outperform prior pattern-matching techniques.

Device Independent Quantum Private Query

Abstract: In quantum private query (QPQ), a client obtains values corresponding to his or her query only, and nothing else from the server, and the server does not get any information about the queries. V. Giovannetti et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 230502 (2008)] gave the first QPQ protocol and since then quite a few variants and extensions have been proposed. However, none of the existing protocols are device independent; i.e., all of them assume implicitly that the entangled states supplied to the client and the server are of a certain form. In this work, we exploit the idea of a local CHSH game and connect it with the scheme of Y. G. Yang et al. [Quantum Info. Process. 13, 805 (2014)] to present the concept of a device-independent QPQ protocol.

Extractive Text Summarization Using Word Vector Embedding

Abstract: These days, text summarization is an active research field to identify the relevant information from large documents produced in various domains such as finance, news media, academics, politics, etc. Text summarization is the process of shortening the documents by preserving the important contents of the text. This can be achieved through extractive and abstractive summarization. In this paper, we have proposed an approach to extract a good set of features followed by neural network for supervised extractive summarization. Our experimental results on Document Understanding Conferences 2002 dataset show the effectiveness of the proposed method against various online extractive text summarizers.

Have Green, Pay More: An Empirical Investigation of Consumer’s Attitude Towards Green Packaging in an Emerging Economy

Abstract: Green packaging has emerged as a solution for several environment-related issues. There is a growing concern about environmental issues among consumers which is forcing manufacturers to produce more environment friendly products. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) as a theoretical framework, the current research investigates the relationship of the three variables (concern for the environment, knowledge about green packaging and beliefs about positive consequences of using green packaging) with consumer attitude towards paying a premium for green packaging. A survey was conducted among prospective customers in major cities of eastern and western India in June 2012. As predicted by the TRA, positive relationships exist between beliefs, consequences and attitudes toward paying more for green packaging. Overall concern levels, knowledge levels and beliefs were quite high for consumers in the sample. It is suggested that knowledge plays an important role in developing positive beliefs about green packaging. Results of the study also indicate that consumers are ready to pay premium for green packaging conditioned to the beliefs, though paying a premium based on knowledge and concern does not show sufficient support in the study. The study helps to extend the understanding about the process of attitude development towards green packaging.

A Qualitative Exploration of the Challenges Organizations Face while Working with Generation Z Intrapreneurs

Abstract: This article presents preliminary findings of what challenges Indian organizations face when working with generation Z intrapreneurs. Organization will grow at a faster pace if the decision...

A Novel Word Embedding Based Stemming Approach for Microblog Retrieval During Disasters

Abstract: IR methods are increasingly being applied over microblogs to extract real-time information, such as during disaster events. In such sites, most of the user-generated content is written informally – the same word is often spelled differently by different users, and words are shortened arbitrarily due to the length limitations on microblogs. Stemming is a common step for improving retrieval performance by unifying different morphological variants of a word. In this study, we show that rule-based stemming meant for formal text often cannot capture the arbitrary variations of words in microblogs. We propose a context-specific stemming algorithm, based on word embeddings, which can capture many more variations of words than what can be detected by conventional stemmers. Experiments on a large set of English microblogs posted during a recent disaster event shows that, the proposed stemming gives considerably better retrieval performance compared to Porter stemming.

A Postcolonial Critique of Indian’s Management Education Scene

Abstract: This chapter explores the history of Management education in India and its current status as a dominated field of knowledge. Building from Ford Foundation’s support for IIMs to the 2008 IIM review committee report, it traces the developments in the notions of Management education in India. It also focuses attention on the status of the Management teacher in contemporary times, as an individual who straddles between the subordinated world of Management education and a native teacher. Following the logic of decolonial thinking and the geopolitics of knowledge, the chapter makes a suggestion for decolonizing Indian Management education. It also provides an illustration of how thinking from “other” categories opens up a new world of understanding and insight.

Imperatives and Challenges in using E-Government to Combat Corruption: A Systematic Review of Literature and a Holistic Model

Abstract: Corruption, both bureaucratic and political, exists in various forms. Causes and effects of corruption have been documented in various academic and practitioner forums. Developing countries are plagued by rampant corruption caused by several economic, cultural, social and regulatory factors and are struggling to make changes to control and combat corruption. e-Government and e-Participation systems can substantially reduce corruption. Through a comprehensive literature review of over 100 published papers, we analyze the different theoretical models, empirical data and conclusions relating to e-government and its role in combating corruption. We decoct and synthesize the review to evolve four dominant themes relating to the association of e-government with corruption and propose a holistic model of the same. We also examine the challenges associated with each of the themes. We believe this model can be validated by researchers in different contexts while such a holistic understanding can help practitioners view potential solutions differently.

Impact of industry sector on corporate diversification and firm performance: Evidence from Indian business groups

Abstract: Prior business group (BG) studies implicitly assume that corporate diversification-firm performance relationships are uniform across industry sectors. This generalization may lead to research implications that are not equally true for BG-affiliated manufacturing and service firms. Drawing on strategy and marketing literature, this research addresses this scholarly gap. Our empirical analysis of a large sample of BG-affiliated Indian firms over a five-year period (2004-2008) indicates that the influence of corporate diversification on firm performance is greater for affiliated service firms than affiliated manufacturing firms. Results also indicate that the influence of BG size and diversity on diversification-firm performance relationship varies significantly depending on whether the focal firm belongs to the manufacturing or service sector. Firm's share ownership does not generate similar influence. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Resume Les etudes anterieures sur les groupes d'entreprises (BG) presupposent de facon implicite que d'un secteur industriel a l'autre, les relations entre le rendement de l'entreprise et la diversification des societes sont uniformes. Cette generalisation debouche sur des implications qui ne s'appliquent guere aux entreprises de services et de fabrication affiliees aux BG. Le present article s'appuie sur les travaux en strategie et en marketing pour combler cette lacune. L'analyse empirique d'un grand echantillon d'entreprises indiennes affiliees aux BG pendant cinq ans (2004-2008) indique que l'influence de la diversification des societes sur le rendement est plus grande pour les entreprises de services affiliees et moins grande pour les entreprises de fabrication affiliees. Les resultats montrent aussi que l'influence de la taille et de la diversite des BG sur les relations entre la diversification et la performance de l'entreprise varie considerablement selon que l'entreprise centrale appartient au secteur de la fabrication ou a celui des services. La propriete partagee de l'entreprise n'exerce pas la meme influence. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Subalterns, empowerment and the failed imagination of markets

Abstract: In our earlier paper, we drew upon Franz Kafka’s literary writings to attend to the repressive sides of the State and markets and their impact on subaltern positions. Moreover, we pointed to some of the key limitations in the theories of the base of the pyramid and subsistence marketplace. In this paper, responding to the commentaries, we clarify some doubts, provide correctives to misinterpretations and further develop the broad theoretical argument we made in our earlier paper. In response to Viswanathan’s commentary, we specifically clarify the role of neoliberal ideology as it impels discourse of subsistence markets. Moreover, as a corrective to Karnani’s reading, we explain the limitations of the State, markets and private enterprises in alleviating poverty in India. Through these clarifications, we ask scholars to attend to systemic features of the current political economy that create poverty and call for an imagination beyond the current capitalist zeitgeist to empower the subaltern.

The Changing Rural-agrarian Dominance: A Conceptual Excursus:

Abstract: Based on a review of extant literature, this article entreats for thorough-going empirical investigation of rural-agrarian dominance in the context of the fundamental transformation of the ‘village...

Market orientation and customer-based corporate brand equity (CBCBE): a dyadic study of Indian B2B firms

Abstract: The relationship between market orientation (MO) and one of its most important consequences – firm performance – has received considerable attention in marketing research. Performance has been largely judged through financial or objective measures. This paper connects assimilation of MO in firms with corporate brand performance since academics have not used judgmental or market-based measures in assessing performance. We have introduced customer-based corporate brand equity to obtain a rounded idea of firm performance. This is achieved through a dyadic study, instead of self-assessment, wherein the marketing chiefs of B2B firms and their respective organisational customers are surveyed to gauge the effects of incorporating MO. We have shown that corporate brand performance is enhanced significantly in the presence of organisational innovativeness. From a practitioner’s perspective, the study details the organisational actions to be taken to assimilate MO and how those can be exploited to enhance corporate...

BOP research meets macromarketing: content analysis of BOP-related research in the Journal of Macromarketing

Abstract: Although the research in the domain of bottom/base of the pyramid (also called BOP) has progressed a lot, there has been little understanding of how the BOP research has progressed in the macromarketing domain. In this article, a systematic content analysis of the published research is conducted in a leading macromarketing journal, Journal of Macromarketing. Selection of articles led to 23 key articles that lie at the intersection of BOP and macromarketing, which were analyzed on the basis of frequency of publication, content, methodology, and nature of authorships. The BOP macromarketing research has then been classified into six different themes: (1) BOP as a theoretical perspective, (2) Capacity Building and Subsistence Entrepreneurship, (3) Well-Being and Quality of Life at BOP, (4) Religion and BOP, (5) BOP and Market Development, and (6) BOP and Ethics. The article also suggests directions for future research at the intersection of BOP and macromarketing.

Technology Governance Challenges in e-Government Projects: Health Information Systems in India

Abstract: Information Technology (IT) governance has been a topic of interest and concern amongst information systems researchers and practitioners alike Although it has been widely studied in the context of business firms, there is a paucity of research on how technology governance is effected in the e-government context The importance of this can hardly be exaggerated given the extensive funding in e-government projects and the growing dependence on technology to deliver citizen centric services This study aims to use secondary data on the Health Management Information Systems project in India, as a single case study to highlight the processes, structures and mechanisms used to effect IT governance in an e-government context while also using the same to highlight potential gaps between the intended governance policy and implementation Through this, the study aims to highlight the need for more conscious attempts at anticipating and resolving information technology governance challenges in the e-government context

Feature Selection Using Autoencoders

Abstract: Feature selection plays a vital role in improving the generalization accuracy in many classification tasks where datasets are high-dimensional. In feature selection, a minimal subset of relevant as well as non-redundant features is selected. Autoencoders are used to represent the datasets from original feature space to a reduced and more informative feature space. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for feature selection by traversing back the autoencoders through more probable links. Experiments on five publicly available large datasets show that our approach gives significant gains in accuracy over most of the state-of-the-art feature selection methods.