Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

About: Indian Institute of Management Calcutta is a education organization based out in Kolkata, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Supply chain & Emerging markets. The organization has 415 authors who have published 1354 publications receiving 21725 citations. The organization is also known as: IIMC & IIM Calcutta.

Information sharing and coordination mechanisms for managing uncertainty in supply chains: a simulation study

Abstract: The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of information sharing and coordination mechanisms in reducing uncertainty. Supply chains are constantly subject to unpredictable events that can adversely influence its ability to achieve performance objectives. This paper primarily aims at managing uncertainties originating from unexpectedly large demand spikes. The supply chain literature is full of effective supply chain uncertainty management practices. This paper reviews the different practices for improving management of uncertainty and proposes several combinations of information sharing and coordination mechanism for reducing the uncertainty in supply chains. Next, the proposed combinations are tested on the make-to-stock supply chain of a paper tissue manufacturer using an agent-based simulation approach to show how the use of different levels of information sharing and coordination can be effective in managing uncertainty under daily operations facing a huge mismatch of actual and forecast demand....

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.

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.

Challenges of supply chain finance: A detailed study and a hierarchical model based on the experiences of an Indian firm

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the different challenges that confront supply chain finance (SCF) and to develop a hierarchical model that analyzes the complex relationship dynamics among them.Design/methodology/approach – An extensive survey is carried out amongst Indian firms to ascertain the perceptions and experiences related to different SCF challenges. After obtaining an overview of the different SCF challenges, an Indian company with global operations was approached and after establishing relationships among the challenges, a hierarchical relationship structure was developed and MIMBI analysis (where MI=measure of influencing; MBI=measure of being influenced) was carried out that helped understand the relationship dynamics of SCF challenges and identify actions at both strategic and tactical levels.Findings – The study reveals that lack of common vision among the supply chain (SC) partners is the most critical challenge confronting SCF. Unpredictable cash‐flows resulting from dela...