Showing papers in "South Asian journal of management in 2012"

Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations

Abstract: you have excellent communication skills, the ability to manage relationships with diverse stakeholders, a commitment to helping people and organisations improve performance? Do you also have the ability to handle details and see the big picture? If so a career in human resource management and industrial relations could be for you. The first port of call for many job applications is the human resources department of an organisation or a recruitment consultancy. Industrial relations experts are called in when employers and unions are in dispute about wages and conditions. But recruitment and bargaining are just two of many roles that human resource management and industrial relations (HRM & IR) professionals are involved in. Other roles include those of change management, strategic planning , training and development, and remuneration. Human resource management is about managing people so that businesses are competitive and successful. To do this in a fast-changing global economy, HRM & IR professionals keep up with issues and trends that affect employment relationships the labour market and economics, the product or service market, the political environment, environmental concerns, technological change, employment regulations, organisational psychology and social trends. The human resource management (HRM) function of an organisation manages the individual aspects of the employment relationship-from employee recruitment and selection to international employment relations, salaries and wages. HRM is a complex blend of science and art, creativity and common sense. At one level, HR practice draws on economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, political studies, and strategic and systems thinking. At an operational level, success depends on interpersonal relationships. HR professionals are often the \" go to \" people in an organisation for advice and information. When things go wrong employees rely on the integrity and ability of HRM staff to manage and advise on issues without taking sides. They may also train and develop staff to ensure the business performs well, that it meets its goals and continually improves within legislative frameworks. HRM practitioners also keep up-to-date with legislation and analyse contemporary employment issues. Industrial relations is also a multidisciplinary field that studies the collective aspects of the employment relationship. It is increasingly being called employment relations (ER) because of the importance of non-industrial employment relationships. IR has a core concern with social justice through fair employment practices and decent work. People often think industrial relations is about labour relations and unionised employment situations, but it is more than that. Industrial relations …

Designing and Managing a Research Project: A Business Student's Guide

Abstract: Designing and Managing a Research Project: A Business Student's Guide By Michael Jay Polonsky and David S Waller Sage Publications, Second and South Asia Edition, 2010; Pages: 279; Price: ?395 ISBN: 978-81-321-0577-0(PB) I am sure, in many mushrooming management institutes, the completion of a research project remains to be a formality in order to acquire the masters degree (at least in countries like India). I do not know how many students are enthused to do the research project and how many of them have fair knowledge about various aspects of research at that stage. The very word 'research' makes people uncomfortable when basic things are not clear and when one doesn't receive proper guidance for conducting the research. The number of people that would like to register for Ph.D. in management and the number that receive doctorates is a clear indication of it. When enough research is not carried out in a discipline, the growth and development of the discipline itself is at stake. What if a 279 page book takes the place of research guide, what if it answers all the expressed, unexpressed and possible doubts of masters level student? What if it sows necessary zest in a student for research? Michel Jay Polonsky and David S Waller's book Designing and Managing a Research Project subtitled A Business Student's Guide precisely does that. It is not an exaggeration to say it is a 'guide' in true sense. The book interacts, advises, directs and also leads the student (confused or otherwise) through his/her research project. In one word, it makes the life of business management student easy. It provides a solid basis of academic research projects. In a cursory look of the book, one would understand that it is not a book of research methods, it is a ready help available for a business student in dealing with various issues associated with the design and management of a research project. It is directly addressed to the student, and it reads as if a guide/supervisor in reality advising his research student. Following the logical flow of the research process, the content of the book has been arranged into three main parts namely: 1) The Foundations; 2) Undertaking the Research; and 3) Communicating the Results. Part one "The Foundations" consists of five chapters. The first chapter while providing an overview of the book also deals with the basics of research and research projects. The second chapter deals with the question, how to choose a topic? While cautioning that a poorly chosen topic will have adverse effects, the authors emphasizes upon choosing a manageable and focused topic of research. The chapter goes into the specifications of what a student could do if the topic is assigned to him or what a student should do if the topic has not been assigned. While emphasizing that selection of right topic is crucial for both the student and assignment, the chapter deals with five essentials steps in choosing a topic. The third chapter provides an overview on the role of the supervisor. Beginning with the need for understanding the supervisor's potential role and expectations for a healthy student-supervisor relationship, it deals with various roles a supervisor can play, selection of supervisor and also the possibility of having multiple supervisors. The fourth chapter deals with the complexities of working in groups, if a student has to work in a group project. It elaborates on the sources of conflict and its management. Chapter five throws considerable light on ethics in research and in general business. It deals in detail with codes of ethical conduct and various ethical issues to be considered while conducting the research. In the second part, from Chapters 6 to 11, the authors focus on various activities involved in "Undertaking the Research". For a research project to be successfully completed, it requires a structured process and the sixth chapter of the book deals with each such step involved in the planning of a research project. …

Structural Equation Modeling for Testing the Impact of Organization Communication Satisfaction on Employee Engagement

Abstract: Communication satis/action plays a very crucial role in achieving employee engagement in organizations. It becomes even more significant and relevant in the context of the recent global crisis wherein organization's focus on employee engagement was high and was aimed towards employee retention and motivation, using the second-generation analytical technique structural equation modeling, the present study examines the relationship between various components of organization communication satisfaction and various components of employee engagement. A modified version of the Downs and Hazen's communication satisfaction questionnaire was administered on 235 personnel in the Information Technology (IT) /Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry in India. The scale was tested for reliability and validity using confirmatory factor analysis. The results indicate that organization communication satisfaction has a positive impact on employee engagement. The study findings have strategic implications for organizations with regard to laying a greater emphasis on increasing communication satisfaction through various human resource interventions, both at macro and micro levels in the organization. INTRODUCTION Employee Engagement (EE) has been drawing a lot of importance in various organizations in recent times. A global workforce study conducted by Tower's Perrin in 2007-2008 revealed that only 21% of the employees were engaged. A more disturbing finding of the study was that 38% of the employees were partly to fully disengaged. The study also concluded that companies with the higher levels of EE are able to retain their valued employees as also achieve better financial results. Similarly, Gallup has also conducted a study on EE and found that 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs, 54% are not engaged, and 1 7% are actively disengaged. Many researchers have studied and have found that EE predicts employee outcomes, organizational success and financial performance (Harter et al, 2002; and Bates, 2004). Similarly, Hewitt Associates (2005, p. 1) have also established a strong relationship between EE and profitability through higher productivity, sales, customer satisfaction and employee retention. Unfortunately though, a lot of literature available is only those from consulting firms and there is very little theoretical or empirical research available on EE. Today, as a result of continuous organizational restructuring (mergers, acquisitions and downturn imperatives), it is commonly observed that organizations are resorting to right sizing strategies. Every Chief Executive Officer (CEO) accords topmost priority to engage the employees who survive the layoffs. Research indicates that there is a decline in engagement levels and that there is deepening disengagement among employees today (Bates, 2004; Richman, 2006; and Saks, 2006) . It has also been reported th?t the majority of workers today, roughly half of all Americans in the workforce are not fully engaged or they are disengaged leading to what has been referred to as an 'engagement gap' that is costing US business $300 bn a year in loss of productivity (Kowalski, 2003; Bates 2004; Johnson, 2004; and Saks, 2006). Further, with the world becoming a global market place, where every thing is becoming a commodity, people and their talent are the key differentiators to an organization's ability to service its customer. Managing disengaged employees or non-engaged employees in a customer facing role is therefore, very crucial to the success and profitability of the business. Lockwood explains, "As organizations move forward into a boundaryless environment, the ability to attract, engage, develop and retain talent will hence, become increasingly important". In addition to the various literatures available from consultants, there have been a few researches conducted on the antecedents and consequences of EE and also on "What is employee engagement? …

Impact of Organizational Culture and Communication on Employee Engagement: An Investigation of Indian Private Banks

Abstract: Banking sector in India has undergone tremendous change in its operations in the last decade. Owing to a highly competitive scenario; it is pertinent to note that banks need to differentiate themselves from each other. They need to have employees who are passionate about their work and strive to take their organization to greater heights. The scope of the study is the strength and impact of the organizational culture and communication on facilitating employee engagement is measured in the Indian private banks. The sample consists of 247 executives drawn from this sector. This study has a practical implications for the banking sector at large, and has established connections between organizational culture, communication and employee engagement. It has unraveled the dimensions of organizational culture and communication which need to be focused for enhancing vigor, dedication and absorption of employees. INTRODUCTION Success stories of flourishing business organizations have been scripted on contributions made by engaged employees. They profoundly express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during performances in various roles in the organization. They act as a drivers of financial and market success. They give stellar performances by trying to stretch themselves and continuously strive to outperform by setting new standards of excellence. Owing to this, enhancing employee engagement has gained momentum in business organizations across the globe. Engaged employees drive more profits by being productive, focused in their goals and efforts, and enjoy work and continue to stay with the company (Gallup, 1999). It is closely linked to the attrition of employees, increased satisfaction of customers, internal and external client loyalty, enhanced productivity, improved standards of safety and sustainable profits (Harter et al., 2002). Studies by Tower Perrin (2003) linked the same to the customer impact and financial results. They are not just committed and satisfied but are passionate about their work. Increased contributions of engaged employees towards their job and organization have been instrumental in making it an endeavour of every business organization. According to Watson Wyatt (2002) consulting companies, as global organizations continue to operate in dynamic and virtual contexts, the need to engage employees has become more profound. According to them, these employees have a 'line of sight' and exert "discretionary efforts for the organization". They are assets for assured organizational success (Johnson, 2011). DRIVERS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Employee engagement is an outcome of interplay of several individual and organizational factors at work. The antecedents of employee engagement have not been exhaustively identified but can be inferred from Kahn's (1990) and Malash et al. (2001) model. Towers Petrin (2003) identified top management's interest and vision for employees' well-being, challenging and enriched work content, autonomy, career growth opportunities, employer brand, collaborative work environment, availability of resources to get work done as drivers of employee engagement. Similarly the Development Dimensions International (2005) highlighted three main drivers of engagement: employeejob fit, visionary leadership and healthy organizational systems and strategies. Previous studies suggest that organizational culture enhances intrinsic motivation, employee commitment, job-involvement and job-satisfaction (Fogarty, 2000; Russo, 1 998; and Woodruffle, 2006) . Employees also perceive a sense of worth and belongingness if they are well communicated by the superiors, subordinates and colleagues (Hatch, 1966). Studies undertaken by Towers Perrin (2003), Watson (2006) reflect that communicational climate and styles of supervisors impact employee engagement. Havill (2010) refers communication as one of the drivers of engagement for accounting firms. According to Saks (2006) organizations striving to enhance engagement levels of employees should aim at capturing perception of employees towards support and encouragement provided by the organization through appropriate channels and suitable cultural practices. …

Personal Characteristics and Job Satisfaction as Predictors of Organizational Commitment: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract: The main objective of this study was to assess the level of employee commitment in selected industries in Assam and to empirically identify the correlates and predictors of organizational commitment. The sample comprised of 120 employees belonging to the service sector and one manufacturing sector. The results reveal that majority of the employees had a moderate level of organizational commitment. Interestingly, the level of commitment of the service sector employees was found to be higher than their counterparts in the manufacturing sector. The study further found that gender and marital status has no significant relation to organizational commitment. Amongst the predictors of organizational commitment, regression analysis indicated extrinsic job satisfaction as the strongest predictor variable and age as the weakest predictor variable.INTRODUCTIONOrganizational commitment is considered to be an important determinant of organizational effectiveness. It has the potential to predict a variety of organizational outcomes, such as: increased job performance, reduced turnover, lower absenteeism rate, and increased organizational citizenship behavior (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990; and Meyer and Allen, 1997). A vast number of studies have found relationships between organizational commitment and attitudes and behaviors in the workplace (Porter et al, 1974; and Koch and Steers, 1978). Organizational commitment, most frequently studied concept in organizational behavior, has been defined as the relative strength of an individual's identification with, and involvement in, a particular organization. Employees with strong organizational commitment continue employment with the organization because they want to do so. Numerous definitions of organizational commitment have been offered. Simply defined, organizational commitment is the emotional bond or attachment between the employees and their organization. Porter et al. (1974) conceptualized commitment as having three interwoven attitudes and intentions: (1) belief and acceptance in an organization's goals and values; (2) willingness to exert effort on behalf of the organization; and (3) a desire to remain a member of the organization.The main objective of this paper is to assess the influence of personal factors and job satisfaction on organizational commitment. The first part of the paper discusses the broad conceptual framework of organizational commitment and its antecedents based on a review of existing literature on the subject. The rest of the paper focuses on the methodology used, discussion on the findings and the scope for future research.REVIEW OF LITERATUREAllen and Meyer (1996) have studied a three -component model of commitment. The 'affective' component of organizational commitment, proposed by the model, refers to employees' emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in, the organization. This can be said to be the highest form of commitment. The 'continuance' component refers to commitment based on the costs that employees associate with leaving the organization. Finally, the 'normative' component refers to employees' feelings of obligation to remain with the organization. Affective and normative commitments have been found to be predictors of positive organizational behavior, including increased work performance, tenure and attendance. Awasthy and Gupta (2001) found that Indian executives in multinational companies displayed continuance commitment; normative commitment was absent and affective commitment varied.ANTECEDENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENTA number of studies have been conducted to understand the relationships of demographic factors (age, marital status, gender, job tenure, and educational level), emotional intelligence, work-role salience, achievement motivation and job satisfaction to organizational commitment of industrial workers. A variety of antecedents and outcomes of commitment have been identified in past studies. …

Job Satisfaction, Commitment and Performance: Testing the Goodness of Measures of Three Employee Outcomes

Abstract: Effective utilization of human resources brings out a positive employee outcomes which has direct implication for organizational effectiveness. Job satisfaction, performance and organizational commitment has been the most researched employee work outcomes in the past years. However, little effort has been made to test the contextual validity of the measure of these employee outcomes in reported studies. The purpose of the present study is to validate the dimensionality of three employee work related outcomes, namely job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance in Sri Lankan context. A questionnaire is developed with the items adopted from role theory based performance measure, Minnesota Satisfaction (Questionnaire and O'Reilly and Chatman's organizational commitment measure. Data is gathered from 136 public sector employees selected with stratified random sampling procedure. Data is analyzed with exploratory factor analysis and reliability analyses. It is found that the three measures of performance, job satisfaction, and commitment developed are valid and reliable with slight modification in Sri Lankan context. INTRODUCTION Organizational effectiveness is largely dependent and how well they are utilizing the human resource of these organizations. Effective utilization of human resources brings out positive employee outcomes which has direct implication for organizational effectiveness (Rothmann et al., 2002). Researchers over the past years has examined the various employee work related outcomes such as, organizational commitment, performance, job satisfaction, loyalty, organizational citizenship behavior, etc. Researchers have shown an overwhelming interest on three major employee outcomes, i.e., job satisfaction, organizational commitment and performance over the past years. Their interest ranges from examining the antecedents, consequences of employee outcomes and its moderating and mediating role in organizational research. Most of the studies on these employee outcomes use measurements without paying adequate attention to test their goodness to the research context. This has limited the expansion of the knowledge on contextual validity of most of the employee outcome measures. Therefore, the study reported here is an attempt to fill this gap by examining the goodness of measures of three employee outcomes in Sri Lankan context. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to test the goodness of measures of three employee work related outcomes, namely job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance in Sri Lankan context. It assesses the reliability of these measures and tests the factorial validity by assessing the dimensionality of each variable. By doing so, it is expected to broaden the contextual validity of these selected measurements, making a contribution to the development of knowledge. JOB SATISFACTION Job satisfaction has been one of the mostly researched work related outcome in the field of both management and organizational behavior. Job satisfaction is defined as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job and job experiences and as a function of the perceived relationship between what one wants from one's job and what one perceives as it offering (Locke, 1976). It results from the perception of the employee that the job and the job environment provides, what the values regularly. Most comprehensive model of job satisfaction is that of Hulin et al. (1985) identifies job satisfaction as a four factors of psychological processes; work role outcomes, work role contribution, the frame of reference used to evaluate job outcomes and subjective utility of contribution and outcomes. Organ (1989) reported in Williams and Anderson (1990) identified dispositional, affective and cognitive component of job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is being assessed with various measurement scales. …

Value Relevance of Financial Reporting and Its Impact on Stock Prices: Evidence from India

Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to examine the value relevance of financial statements. To achieve this, various models that include specific indicators, which have proved to be important indicators of financial statements analysis in the Indian capital market, are developed. The value relevance of each variable is measured in both, annually and pooled for each model. The data were collected from a sample of 71 non-financial CNX 100 firms listed at the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The time frame spans from 2000 to 2008 and the methodology used was Ordinary Least Square (OLS) multiple regression models. The result reveals that value relevance of financial statements, per se, is negligible in Indian markets. However, some ratios based on these financial statements show significant association with stock market indicators. Our results depart from studies conducted in other markets. The results further indicate that the value relevance of Return On Net Worth (RONW) is statistically significant and is a useful measure for investment decision. INTRODUCTION Accounting research has extensively examined the value relevance of accounting data in order to assess the usefulness of financial information to investors (Papadaki and Siougle, 2007). The basic objective of financial accounting and statements is to provide information that is useful for efficient decision making to various stakeholders. The 'true and fair view' principle about financial statements has been legally embedded in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), in the majority of the developed countries worldwide (Dimitropoulos and Asteriou, 2009). Since, investors are considered the most important group of decision makers that use accounting information, so it is important to examine the value relevance of accounting information to facilitate them in decision making. Accounting information is defined as value relevant if it has a predicted association with equity market values, i.e., stock returns. Value relevance studies are designed to assess whether particular accounting figures reflects information, that is used by investors in valuing firms' equity (Barth et al., 2001). Financial statements are said to be value relevant if they are associated with stock prices, values or returns. Lev (1989) asserted that the relevance of accounting value was characterized by the quality of accounting information. In this study, earnings quality was measured as the coefficient of determination in a regression of market returns on earnings. Worldwide, research on value relevance of financial statements is motivated partly because of listed companies use financial statements as a medium to communicate with investors and general public and partly by the fact that various regulators (stock market as well accounting) are putting lot of emphasis on improving the quality of disclosure and increasing transparency level of financial reporting, so it is necessary to investigate the value relevance of such statements. In recent years, the value relevance of accounting information has been criticized by the stock market researchers in accounting (ElShamy and Kayad, 2005). Studies conducted recently in the advanced and developed economies have created the impression that financial statements are losing their value relevance on the ground of less or no associations with stock market indicators such as price or returns. This is perhaps because of increasing movement from industrial economies to a service oriented economies (Dontoh et al., 2007). Many studies on value relevance concluded the declining association between accounting information and stock prices over the time (Lev and Zarowin, 1999; and Core et al., 2003). While there has been number of studies on the value relevance of financial statements in the developed countries especially in US and UK (Amir et al., 1993; Ball and Brown, 1968; Board et al., 1989; Collins et al., 1997; Livnat and Zarowin, 1990, etc. …

Capitalizing on Culture: Critical Theory for Cultural Studies

Abstract: Capitalizing on Culture: Critical Theory for Cultural Studies By Shane Gunster University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2004; Pages: 380; Price: $35.95 ISBN 13: 9780802036933 CONTENTS/OUTLINE OF THE BOOK Introduction: Culture as Commodity 1. Mass culture and commodity form; revisiting the culture industry thesis 2. Capitalism, Mimesis Experience: Legacies of the Commodity Fetish 3. Dreams of Redemption? Adorno, Bejamin, and the dialectics of culture 4. From Mass to popular culture: from Frankfurt to Birmingham 5. Articulation and the commodity form: Rethinking contemporary cultural studies Concluding Thoughts James Hamilton of the University of Georgia finds Shane Gunster's Capitalizing on Culture: Critical Theory for Cultura/ Studies (CCCS) as a publication in line with Hall's 'return of the repressed in media studies' but with a difference and that is the repressed earlier was the 'concept of ideology' while here it is what the Frankfurt School has projected within the project of cultural studies. To start with, Gunster laments that the earlier proponents of the critical theory has not been properly appreciated. He notes that the series of authors in this line like Adorno, Horkheimer and Benjamin have not been understood in the right context; rather they have been ridiculed and misquoted by the earlier powerful critics for their vested interests. Hamilton thinks that even some other authors like Lowenthal, Marcuse and some others of the like have also not been well presented in their right sense of critical theory. Gunster argues that the critical theory has been misunderstood as if it were a set of hard and fast rules whereas it is adaptable to the changing circumstances in so far as the conditions for emancipations are concerned though the earlier authors did not anticipate the characteristics of commercialization of social relationships in the coming ages. It is further argued that the critical theory needs to be revisited for working in the area of cultural and media studies as now the interactions between the forces of domination and resistance, culture and economy, meaning and practice, and individual and society have so far been interpreted superficially as the organizing principles for work. Hamilton note that some authors like Jay (1984) and Kellner (1989) also attempted to recover Critical Theory but Gunster may be distinguished as the one trying to overcome the shortcomings of the critical theory in the past as well as in the present times. The author intends to generalize the construction of Critical Theory benefiting from the past authors and then reformulate it to cope with the particular requirements of today. Here the author wants to capitalize on the emergence of cultural studies and its theoretical developments. The author by referring to the earlier works, attempts to discover the aspects of Critical Theory not highlighted so far by each author rather than connecting and linking them with each other. The author then critically evaluates the attempt made by the CCCS to ignore Critical Theory by substituting 'mass culture' with 'popular culture'. Hamilton notes that whatever the author has dealt with in reviving the Critical Theory in this book has also been undertaken by other authors, but CCCS appears to be more exhaustive. That is why the last two chapters dealing with reshaping the Theory, relating it with other works of today, and linking it with media, society and commercialization of today's social relationships, have been worth noting. Instead of explaining the Theory as a rigid concept, the author emphasizes the study of relative interaction between the cultural positions of today with the intent of Critical Theory. The commercialization of social relationships as embedded in the 'postmodern materialism' may be studied for its content in the light of Critical Theory to inquire into it as the apparatus, that is overwhelming on a regional scale of today's social formations. …

Organizational Commitment, Perceived Organizational Support, and Job Satisfaction among School Teachers: Comparing Public and Private Sectors in Bangladesh

Abstract: Data was collected from a sample of 100 respondents of 3 public and 3 private secondary level schooh purposively. Analyses of the data indicate that organizational commitment and job satisfaction were higher for public school teachers than private school teachers. It was also found that if job satisfaction and POS increase, organizational commitment will also increase. The study also discussed the Implications and future research. INTRODUCTION Employees' commitment towards their organization is very crucial for the organization. Many studies found relationships between organizational commitment and employee's behavior and attitude at work place (Porter et al, 1974 and 1976; Koch and Steers, 1978; and Angle and Perry, 1981). An Employees' perceived desire to remain with and continue working for the organization, she/he is employed can be stated as organizational commitment. It implies a willingness to remain with the organization, and to continue helping the organization by providing the best possible products or services to its consumers for the betterment of the organization and other colleagues. According to Meyer ( 1 997) , "organizational commitment reflects loyalty and willingness to work toward organizational objectives that have been identified by the organization". Employee's commitment towards their organization is greatly influenced by their Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and Job Satisfaction (JS) (Yoon and Thye, 1999). Organizational support theory (Eisenberg et al., 1986; Shore and Shore, 1995; and Rhoades and Eisenberg, 2002) holds a reciprocal point of view about the relationship between organization and its employee - mutual perception between employee and organization influences each other. This theory states that employees of any organization have different socio-emotional needs to fulfill. They also want the feedback of their contributions to the organization. If any organization does accordingly, it creates a positive perception among the employees about their organization, and they think their organization is supportive to them. Such POS would increase the employees' felt obligation towards their organization to fulfill its objectives, their affective commitment to the organization, and their expectation that improved performance would be rewarded. Rhoades and Eisenberg (2002) in their meta analysis found that three categories of favorable treatments - fairness of treatment, supervisor support, and reward and job conditions are positively correlated with POS, which eventually influence the organizational outcome behavior, such as performance, absenteeism, and turnover. In short, "POS is an experience -based attribute concerning the benevolent or malevolent intent of the organization policies, norms, procedures, and actions as they affect employees" (Eisenberg et al, 2001). Studies have shown that employees with greater co-worker and supervisor support perceived more organizational support compared to those without (Yoon and Lim, 1999). Wayne et al. (1997) in their study found a positive correlation between POS and affective commitment. Shore andTetrick (1991), utilizing Survey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS), found POS was positively and significantly correlated with both organizational commitment and JS. JS has been defined as "a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job" (Brief and Weiss, 2001); "an affective reaction to one's job" (Weiss, 2002) and an attitude towards job. Weiss (2002) argued that JS is an attitude and researchers should clearly distinguish its objects of cognitive evaluations which affects the beliefs and behaviors. This definition suggests that we form attitudes towards our job by taking into account our feelings, beliefs, and behaviors. The interactive effect among absenteeism, organizational commitment and JS was examined by Sagie (1998) on municipality official workers of Israel. From the study it was found that JS and organizational commitment were positively correlated. …

Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Orientation in Indian Enterprises: An Empirical Study

Abstract: The present study examined the entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial orientation in terms of six attitudes, viz., achievement orientation, innovativeness, internal locus of control, risktaking propensity, pro-activeness, and self- efficacy with reference to selected service provider enterprises of India. Both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs perceived their attitudes (except 'risk-taking propensity') as moderately positive. Level of 'achievement orientation' and 'selfefficacy' vary significandy between the entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs and which was found to be significantly higher among intrapreneurs than the entrepreneurs; all other attitudes were found at same level among both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Earlier research provided evidence that in the matter of 'achievement motivation entrepreneurs are higher than the managers (intrapreneurs) but the findings of the present study contradict such a generalization. Earlier research indicates towards conflict between studies showing entrepreneurs exhibiting 'moderating risk-taking propensity' and the widely held believe that entrepreneurship involves 'high risk-taking propensity'. However, in the present study, the entrepreneurs were found to have less than moderate risk-taking propensity, and thus, the issue remained inconclusive. Previous research suggests that innovation separates entrepreneurs from managers. In the present study, innovativeness of entrepreneurs as well as of intrapreneurs were found moderately positive. Earlier studies support that entrepreneurs are more internal than non-entrepreneurs. But, in the present study, Indian entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs were found to be moderately internal of by and iarge same degree and thus, such a finding does not match with the results of earlier study. INTRODUCTION: PROCESS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP Entrepreneurship is a process of (i) recognizing (by the individuals or team of individuals) that the entrepreneurial opportunities, for new venture creation or new value creation exist and they have value; (ii) deciding to exploit the opportunities by them; and (iii) exploiting the opportunities by the way of new venture creation or new value creation by them for realization of some desired value Qain, 2011). In such a process, new venture creation includes starting up a new business; incorporating a new company from an established business; creation of a new business activity within an established firm; development and launching of new products or services; entering into new market segments; discovery/recognition, deciding to exploit, and exploiting in actual practice, the new business opportunities by converting them into feasible business projects; and expansion/diversification of existing business by applying novel strategies. And realization of some desired value includes gaining profit/wealth/growth/ better image or achieving something as desired or targeted. An individual or team of individuals is known as an entrepreneur who is characterized principally by innovative behavior and will employ strategic management practices in the business (Carland et al., 1984) and who adds the value through time, effort, money skills, etc., and assumes the risk of competitive market place to work on enterprising projects (Kuratko and Hodgetts, 1995). An entrepreneur and his/ her team members are the catalyst of such an entrepreneurial process through an act of volition. Entrepreneurship is reflected in common actions/behaviors of entrepreneurs. Viewed thus, entrepreneurship is the state of being an entrepreneur, or the activities associated with being an entrepreneur (Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 2006). ENTREPRENEURS VERSUS INTRAPRENEURS Entrepreneurs are not only those people who found new business ventures, but they are also termed as "intrapreneurs". They also comprise managers within large size of organizations who lead innovative change or develop spinout companies (Pinchot, 1987). …

Strategic Entrepreneurial Orientation: Development of a Multi-Dimensional Construct Based on Literature Review

Abstract: Research in the field of entrepreneurship and strategy has largely developed independent of each other. While entrepreneurship has focused on opportunity seeking approach, strategic management has focused on advantage seeking behavior increasingly researchers have highlighted some overlapping areas in these two disciplines. This study talks about inter-linkage of entrepreneurship and strategy and the emergence of strategic and entrepreneurial orientation construct (EO). Increasingly entrepreneurship is considered as making a new entry and the process of making this new entry is called firm's strategic orientation. This led to development of firm's strategic and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) construct which talks about entrepreneurship as a firm level phenomenon and highlights the process of making new entry through its strategic approach. Most of the studies in this field tend to examine firm's strategic and entrepreneurial construct through three most commonly used dimensions of innovativeness, pro-activeness and risk-taking and put them together into a gestalt or uni-dimensional construct where these three dimensions co-vary. Prior research highlights that EO contributes positively to business performance but some studies have found the opposite or insignificant influence. This study tries to overcome this inconsistency by building on literature highlighting that EO construct is better explained by five dimensions rather than three by the addition of competitive aggressiveness and autonomy to the existing three dimensions and these dimensions vary independently rather than co-varying. This study argues the need to consider EO as a multidimensional construct rather than a uni-dimensional one and highlights that some of these dimensions may have a positive influence on firm performance whereas some may have a negative or insignificant influence and further this influence may vary across firm life-cycle.INTRODUCTIONThe origin of the term entrepreneurship can be traced back to the French word entreprendre that means to undertake, consequently, it is the alertness to new opportunities. Entrepreneurship includes new business venture creation or rejuventation and would address questions like - What business do one enter and how do one make the new business successful. Schumpeter (1934) argued that the driving force of economic growth is entrepreneurs who introduce new products, new methods of production, and other innovations that stimulate economic activity. He described entrepreneurship as a process of "creative destruction in which an entrepreneur continually displaces or destroys existing products, processes, or methods of production with new ones. Evf r since Schumpeter, the emergence of new businesses has been explored, not only in terms of opportunities, but also, in terms of resources combined in specific ways that best lead to competitive advantages (Barney, 1992). Entrepreneurship is defined as "identifying opportunities and taking advantage of opportunities by novel combination of resources in ways which have impact on the market" (Wiklund, 1999), and entrepreneurial actions as "creating new resources or combining existing resources in new ways to develop and commercialize new products, move into new markets, and /or service new customers" (Hitt et ah, 2001).Strategic management is defined as set of decisions, commitments, and actions that result in the formulation and implementation of plans designed to achieve firm's objectives and produce a competitive advantage. Strategy reflects a firm's awareness of how, when and where it should compete; against whom it should compete; and for what purpose it should compete. A business competes on the basis of its available resources, skills and expertise, competitive capabilities, and its strategically valuable assets. Firms may look for entrepreneurial opportunities and utilize strategic management processes to identify and develop distinctive capabilities and competencies in the goal of acquiring competitive advantage and improved performance. …

A review of the strategic sourcing literature during 1997 2010: trends and emerging issues for research

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to understand the nature of research undertaken in the area of strategic sourcing using a structured framework and use it as a basis for projecting some future areas for research. In this paper, the contributions of the literature are analyzed at two levels; research agenda and data and analysis framework. Using this, the research contributions of 225 papers published over a 14-year time period was assessed and some possible areas for further work identified. Our analysis of the literature points to a few areas of research pertaining to strategic sourcing. There is a need for studying several aspects related to global sourcing. Further, important issues such as reliability of global supply chain networks, development of strategies for responding effectively to major disruptions in the supply network and understanding the behavioral issues related to supply chains are some of the other areas worth researching in the future. Our study also pointed out the need for developing hybrid solution methodologies to improve the solution quality. INTRODUCTION One of the important activities in any organization today pertains to procurement of materials and services that it requires in order to convert raw material into finished products and services that are useful for the customers. Sourcing has become strategic due to economic considerations. Operationally there is a growing importance of sourcing due to several developments. An analysis of the cost structure of manufactured goods over the last 30 years reveals that increasingly organizations spend over 70% on raw materials and purchased components and services. This puts a special emphasis on procurement and sourcing. Further there is a significant change in the trading partner relationships. From an era of 'independence' between the supplier and the buyer, we have transformed into an era of 'mutual dependence' and even further into a 'state of interdependence'. Finally, the increasing cost pressure that organizations face translate directly into reducing the input cost of materials and components even while increasing the quality and performance of these components. Clearly these considerations have underscored the importance of sourcing in organizations. Strategic sourcing consists of processes of planning, evaluating, implementing and controlling all sourcing activities undertaken by an organization to achieve its longterm goals (Carr and Smeltzer, 1997). The principal objective of strategic sourcing is to effectively handle situations when faced with supply, competitive, and demand uncertainties (Milliken, 1987). It is achieved by developing a set of practices through which certain flexibilities could be obtained to face these uncertainties. Strategic Sourcing enables an organization to identify and select suppliers through long term partnerships, by providing benchmarks, laying emphasis on supplier performance and providing feedback to suppliers. Moreover, in today's business context organizations compete in a global environment and operate in multiple markets and geographical locations. This provides additional dimensions to strategic sourcing. With the advent of the Internet, new market mechanisms have sprung in the electronic space enabling the buyers and the sellers to locate each other, discover products and prices efficiently and conduct business in a cost effective manner. A case in point is Alibaba.com, a global leader in Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce. Alibaba has a user community in excess of 65 million from more than 240 countries and regions (Alibaba, 2011). These users transact a number of trade leads with one another through its portal. Such electronic marketplaces help the buyers and the sellers reduce the transaction costs and the time in the entire procurement process. On account of these developments, practices such as outsourcing, global sourcing and e -procurement have become key aspects of strategic sourcing. …

Performance Management System Design, Implementation and Outcomes in Indian Software Organizations: A Perspective of HR Managers

Abstract: Organizations' concern regarding contribution of HR systems to business level performance continues to grow. In such context, effective design, implementation and outcomes of performance management system may result in greater strategic alignment of HR processes with business goals and objectives. This may be especially true in context of software industry, given its dynamic team-based work structures and agility requirements. This research was conducted in four Indian software services organizations with the purpose of understanding the perceptions of HR managers regarding design, implementation and outcomes of their organizational performance management systems'. Results of this study present some interesting insights regarding the performance management process; present and future trends with respect to system design; implementation and its underlying challenges; and outcomes of the system as perceived by HR managers and has important implications for greater alignment between performance management system and business strategy. Challenges of knowledge economy has catalyzed the search for relatively sustainable sources of competitive advantage. As a result, organizational leaders and strategists are ascribing greater importance to the role of human capital in driving business success. Moreover, organizations' concern for HR function's contribution and accountability has grown significantly over the recent years. In such a context, performance management is being considered as a critical HR sub-system which may substantially contribute to organizational growth and effectiveness (Nankervis and Compton, 2006). Performance management has been seen as a complex system in which managers work with their employees to set expectations, measure and review results, and reward performance, to ultimately improve organizational success (Armstrong and Baron, 1998; Mondy et al., 2002) and has consequences for both individuals and organizations. As with any other organizational system, performance management system's effectiveness is heavily dependent upon the way it is designed and implemented and perhaps, the reason for it being one of the "most praised, criticized and debated management practices for decades" (Lawler, 1994) lies in this only. Achieving the best organizational fit (in terms of design) and ensuring effective implementation of Performance Management System (PMS) are far from easy and need concerted effort by the HR managers. Identifying significant performance areas and developing key indices; developmental planning; devising performance measurement tools/methods; ascertaining periodicity of assessment; soliciting constructive involvement of employees and managers; ensuring fair implementation; improving individual, team and organizational performance are some of the intricate challenges encountered by the HR specialists with respect to a PMS. Moreover, in knowledge based industry like the software services, where performance outcomes are not essentially in terms of sales targets achieved or volume of goods produced, challenges seem to multiply. Software development work relates to transforming business information and knowledge into software products/services, requiring collaborative effort by cross-functional teams of knowledge workers and often involves high degree of experimentation with different analysis, strategy, prioritization, innovation and adaptability requirements for customization of software products/services (Moran, 2010) . Knowledge workers with their high level abstract reasoning and cognition to synthesize and communicate new perspectives for effective solutions/processes (Stamps, 1996) possess skills that are in high demand, prefer work autonomy and resist traditional command and control culture while dealing with work related problems/issues (Kinnear and Sutherland, 2000). Managing performance of knowledge workers, thus, has been said to involve various intricate challenges and practitioners (e. …

Perception of Workforce Reduction Scenario and Coping Strategies of Survivors: An Empirical Study

Abstract: While downsizing, the behavioral responses of the survivors are as important as the financial implications for the organization's future competitiveness. The purpose of the study was to investigate the predictive relationship between survivors' appraisal of the scenario and their coping strategies. The study was conducted on 208 survivor respondents across four organizations in the manufacturing sector, where workforce reduction had taken place in the recent past, in Delhi and the National Capital Region (India). As reported, appraisal of attitude, workload, motivation and fairness were the predictors (negatively) of avoidance/resignation coping. Direct action coping was positively predicted by the appraisal of training, productivity and team spirit, and negatively by perception of job stability. Predictors of help-seeking coping were appraisal of job stability, motivation and fairness (all negatively) and appraisal of training positively. Predictors of positive thinking coping were appraisal of productivity, motivation and training (positively) and participation in decision making (negatively). INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW OF LITERATURE Today, when organizations are going through difficult times the first thought that reminds them instantly is reducing manpower cost. However, it has been seen that even after reducing the number of employees, organizations have not been able to reap the benefits. Apart from financial implications, we cannot afford to ignore that it is the employees in the organization who are going to drive it. Hence, it is pertinent to give importance to the survivors work behavior. Understanding how survivors react to downsizing will contribute a lot towards smoothening the post-downsizing phase. In this scenario, few employees who are left with the organization are expected to be highly committed and productive, the organization cannot assure job security. The survivors consider it as breaking of the psychological contract (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994; and Morrison and Robinson, 1997). If we assume that these employees, because they have been spared, they will be grateful to the organization and their performance and commitment can be taken for granted, we are grossly mistaken. Had it been so, then there would not have been so much concern over the survivor syndrome which talks of the negative attitudes and behaviors of the survivors. Perceived violations of psychological contract have been shown to prompt a number of attitudinal and behavioral responses that may reduce survivor motivation and performance (Rousseau, 1995). Job loss due to downsizing can be devastating, but discussions on "survivor syndrome" indicate survival might be even worse (Devine et al., 2003). Thus, it is important for the organizations not to ignore the survivors' behavior and their adjustment following the downsizing event. People, of course, are different, and we may expect different reactions after the dust settles down. Brockner (1986) found that layoffs may cause some workers to work harder, others tend to be de-motivated and some continue to work unaffected. Attitudes, too, may assume a mixed reaction, i.e., anxiety, guilt, anger, relief (elated that they were not axed). BEHAVIORAL ASPECTS OF SURVIVORS It is very crucial for organizations to understand the behavioral changes taking place among survivors during such turbulent times (Waraich and Bharadwaj, 2002). A firm's post-layoff success is contingent upon the reactions of its surviving workforce. Negative survivor reactions can diminish the intended benefits of a layoff (Shah, 2000) . Discussed below are some of the dimensions which are impacted by workforce reduction: Perception: According to Hardy (1987), a perception of fairness prevents the initiation of grievances and provides some security to continuing employees. Research has shown that when layoff survivors view layoff procedures at their organizations to be unfair they are likely to exhibit decreased morale, self-esteem, organizational commitment, trust and productivity (Brockner et al, 1987; Brockner et al, 1995; and Konovsky and Brockner, 1993). …

Financial Management as a Determinant of Profitability: A Study of Indian Pharma Sector

Abstract: This paper aims to examine the relationship between financial management and profitability of the enterprise. Financial management, invariably, has two aspects - mobilization of funds and deployment of funds. Both these aspects of financial management have immense potential to influence the profitability - the former through incurrence of costs and the latter through generation of revenue. The study uses six variables viz. Long-term Debt to Equity Ratio (LTDER), inventory Ratio (IR), Debtors Ratio (DR), Creditors Velocity (CRSV), Total Assets to Saks Ratio (TASR) and Profit After Tax to Sales Ratio (PATSR), covering both the aspects of financial management. These variables are studied for 64 public iimited pharmaceutical companies for a period of 10 years. The observations are analyzed using statistical techniques. The empirical results suggest that TASR and CRVS are the important variables to be paid greater attention while optimizing the profitability of the enterprise. INTRODUCTION As defined by Prof. Solomon (1963) "Financial management is properly viewed as an integral part of overall management rather than as a staff speciality concerned with fund-raising operations. In this broader view, the central issue of financial policy is the wise use of funds, and the central process involved is a rational matching of the advantages of potential uses against the cost of alternative potential sources so as to achieve the broad financial goals which an enterprise sets for itself. The underlying fund using proposals which originate within the operating departments of an enterprise are still assumed as given. So are the present and prospective conditions in technology and in the markets for goods, services and capital. Given these data, the function of financial management is to review and control decisions to commit or recommit funds to new or ongoing uses. Thus in addition to raising funds, financial management is directly concerned with production, marketing and other functions within an enterprise whenever decisions are made about the acquisition or destruction of assets." Naturally management of finance has evinced keen interest both amongst the academicians and practicing managers primarily due to its immense potential to influence the profitability of the enterprise. This potential is engrossed in both the aspects of management of funds, be it mobilization of funds or deployment of funds. Appropriate costs have to be incurred irrespective of the magnitude, type and source from where funds are mobilized as there is no free lunch in finance. Mobilization of funds, thus, influences profitability of the enterprise through incurrence of costs. The deployment of funds too has to be carefully done in a manner that it results in to creation of assets, fixed and/or current, that are capable of providing desired stream of profits. Naturally, management of finance has to excel in both the aspects - mobilization of funds and deployment of funds. These aspects invariably involves several variables such as equity share capital, share premium, reserves and surplus, debenture and other long-term borrowings, current liabilities including creditors, bank advances, provisions and other current liabilities, fixed assets, investments, current assets including debtors, cash and marketable securities, inventories, advances made, deferred revenue expenditures, etc. Multiplicity of the variables and the varying degree of influence they exert on the profitability of the enterprise make the task of finance managers extremely difficult. They simply cannot concentrate on all the variables. They have to ascertain the important variables exerting substantial influence on the profitability. This problem of ascertaining the important variable can be better solved through a research-based approach, instead of mere reliance on historical practices. LITERATURE REVIEW Academicians have widely visited different aspects of financial management in order to postulate the corporate profitability. …

Managing in Changing Times: A Guide for the Perplexed Manager

Abstract: Managing in Changing Times: A Guide for the Perplexed Manager By Sid Lowe Response Business Books, 2010, New Delhi, Pages: 398; Price: ?495 ISBN : 978-81-321-0233-5 Managing in Changing Times: A Guide for the Perplexed Manager is an insightful management book with its ideological underpinnings in the works of E F Schumacher and F Capra It is an endeavor made by the authors to provide fresh perspectives to deal with the challenges faced by managers working in the everchanging socioeconomic world of today Drawing from Schumacher's book - A Guide for the Perplexed, which is a critique of materialist scientism, this book disregards the mechanistic approach of the traditional management theories proposed by the West and critiques the fixation of the West with proof of causation which leads to a bureaucratic and dualistic system of functioning and serves to be ineffective in managing the kind of turbulence that the world is witnessing today In the first two chapters, the first part is authored by the editor Sid Lowe and elucidate the concepts of Schumacher's Hierarchy and Capra's Kite The book explains how the classical scientific management theories are based upon inanimate mapping of reality The modernist theories graduated from inanimate mapping to animate mapping However, to manage the uncertain global environment today, the author stress upon the need to act and think through a contextual understanding by ascending to the levels of conscious mapping and sublime awareness in Schumacher's hierarchy The author highlights the need of the organizations to actively map different levels of reality by continually adjusting the changing conditions and existing maps whenever needed Sid Lowe suggests that Capra's Kite provides a good contextual framework for an integrated understanding of such diverse perspectives According to this paradigm, pattern, process, meaning and structure are four interdependent and inseparable criteria of a living system Such an organizational system is an intangible, nominal, linguistic phenomenon characterized by a 'rhizomic' network pattern of organization True understanding requires a closer look at the interplay of all these four criteria by primarily recognizing that all knowledge is approximate and cultural In doing so, Sid Lowe emphasizes upon the role of language, mind processes and the resulting sense of perception that forms reality for all living beings Thus, according to Sid Lowe, the existing management and organizational theories need to take a 'linguistic turn' to accommodate uncertainty Managers instead of seeking knowledge, which is limited in the number and extent of solutions that it can provide, should seek wisdom to deal with perplexity Developing upon the understanding that the basic elements of reality are not individual objects or nodes but rather they are the events or processes that connect these nodes and contribute to the 'rhizomic* pattern of existence, the book further builds upon the necessity of focusing on the process, ie, "becoming rather than the being" This insight has several practical implications in daily management activities For instance, for a human resources manager, the focus would then be on how he is communicating with the employees rather than what he is communicating or for a marketing professional it would be more advantageous to know how a product or service is being delivered in addition to what is being delivered The process then gains paramount importance and even provides a competitive advantage to the firm Such a processual appreciation of the surroundings requires that managers be intuitively perceptive and develop a sense of readiness to assess from multiple perspectives This calls for a more human-centric approach rather than the traditional scientific approach of management And it is this shift to a human-centric approach that the authors keep suggesting to the reader throughout the book - at times directly and at times subtly …

Determinants of Pricing IPOs: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the pricing of IPOs by using market average P/E and issue mechanism, delay in listing along with a set of financial and signaling information. A database of 172 IPOs issued during the period 2002-2007 in India is considered for the study. The result indicates that market P/E as measured by BSE-Sensex (i.e., P/E at the time of issue) is significant and positive in affecting both offer price and list price. We lend support to the view that book building mechanism command higher prices for the IPOs than fixed priced offer. Other variables, i.e., book value per share, earnings per share, IPO activity period, investment bank prestige, and post issue promoter group retention are also significant and positive in evaluating IPO price. We find that listing delay is adversely affecting the list price. Subscription rate is also found positively associated with list price.(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)INTRODUCTIONThis research examines the pricing of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) . As addressed in this research an IPO is the process by which a company goes public, i.e., offers its shares to the public for sale for the first time. Despite considerable research on IPO valuation, factors affecting IPO pricing is still debated and discussed. Prior studies focused on signaling (Leland and PyIe, 1977; Keasey and McGuinnness, 1992; Brown, 2002; and Li et al, 2004) and financial information (Klein, 1996; Ghicas et al, 2000; Bartov et al, 2002; Bhagat and Rangan, 2004; and Aggarwal et al, 2009), and comparable multiple (Kim and Ritter, 1999; and Schreiner, 2007) to estimate the value for an IPO. Though comparable firms price -earning (P/E) is widely used for evaluating IPOs, little evidence is encountered for the application of secondary market P/E as an explanatory variable for IPO pricing. This paper focuses on the research gap by estimating the price for Indian IPOs by using market P/E along with a set of value drivers, i.e., signaling, financial information, and IPO activity period. Further, to make it more informative the pricing across issue mechanism (i.e., book build and fixed price offer) including delay in listing is also explored.Prior theoretical and empirical evidence indicate that comparable peer group firms average P/E plays an important role in affecting the offer price1. Overall this strand of literature concludes that an IPO firm affiliated with high valued peer group (P/E) command higher prices. Although, listed peer group firms P/E is a key factor for IPO value, emerging markets (Indian IPO market) doesn't have enough listed firms in each industry category. Even in some sectors the comparable firms having secondary market trading history is not available. Thus, under the emerging new issue market environment, market (sensex) P/E can be used as an effective surrogate for the comparable P/E for the IPO firm. Empirical studies, i.e., Gupta et al. (1998) suggests that market P/E is among the best indicators of the market's mood and state which has significant bearing on the individual company P/E. Further, Pal and Mittal (201 1) find that sensex (market index) is significantly reflecting the macroeconomic factors. Taking cue from this we use market P/E as possible predictor for the IPO price.Issuing firms in India have the freedom of using either fixed price or book building route to market the IPOs. However in recent times book building overtakes fixed price mechanism both in volume and value terms. There is hardly any empirical study to explore the impact of issue mechanism on IPO price (both offer price and list price). Existing studies (Ghosh, 2005; and Khurshed et al, 2009) find that IPOs frequently exhibit incorrect pricing, i.e., either lower or higher than the sustainable market price of the equity shares. Valuation is therefore is considered as an important issue for analysis of IPOs. More precisely, whether or not the IPO pricing reflects the financial information, signaling, issue mechanism, and market factors is a challenge for the issuing firm. …

Organizational Learning and Its Inter-Linkages: Determining the Impact on Employee Behavior

Abstract: Employee behavior with motivation/innovation and their inter-linkages with organizational learning were examined to study its impact on employee behavior. The purpose was to discern how the linkages between these paradigms change as employees move higher in the organizational hierarchy. A framework was developed and the relationship between the motivators within the individual and the organization was identified. The variables and their inter-linkages to influence employee behavior were established. The findings were based on the study of 50 employees from the cities of Chennai and Bangalore, which are the industrial hubs in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka in India. The discriminant model established to help and predict an employee's organizational learning based on the motivators identified at various levels. This study helps the organizations to understand their employees' behavior and foster their strategies to enhance organizational learning and effectiveness. The Beaver's best course was, no doubt, to procure A second-hand dagger-proof coat - So the Baker advised it - and next, to insure Its life in some office of note: This the Banker suggested, and offered for hire (On moderate terms), or for sale, Two excellent Policies, one Against Fire, And one Against Damage From Hail. The Hunting of the Snark - Fit the First - Lewis Carroll INTRODUCTION Organizational Learning (OL) is a topic that has been attracting the attention of academicians and management thinkers, particularly in the present context of a complex and highly competitive business environment. Concept of OL is researched and discussed and the need for its presence in an organization is felt to survive and succeed. The equally significant topic of Organizational Innovation is also central in management thinking, due to the fact that it indicates the manner in which organizations respond to external changes. Employee behavior also plays an important part in an organization and the question is whether there are any linkages between learning, and the type of employee behavior, which will ideally promote innovation in an organization. It is argued with the three ideas, OL is most important as it leads to an environment congenial for appropriate employee behavior that can promote the capacity to innovate. However it is believed that of the three concepts, innovation exerts a direct and stronger impact on profitability which is the driving force of 21st century organizations. It has been held that creative vigor is precisely what firms require if they want to improve continuously (Kanter, 1984). Under today's conditions of dynamic global competition, the leading innovative organizations are those that show a higher level of adaptability and survival capability (Robbins, 2003). Hamel and Skarzynski (2001) proposed a First Law of the Innovation Economy: if firms cannot maintain a constant level of innovation, then they will be defeated by the economic environment. An innovative strategy is the only way to cope up with the problem caused by intermittent changes. Slater and Narver (1995) further proposed that innovation of the core activities must be correlated with the orientation and performance of the lead market. It can therefore be concluded that one of the primary concerns of Boards of Directors and Chief Executives is to ensure organizational sustainability through the continuing encouragement of innovation in their companies. Investigating these three organizational paradigms, this paper can provide insights, which will help the firms to make efficient use of their accumulated organizational knowledge. This is of particular importance when facing the new era of economic knowledge. A novel concept of linking employee behavior with motivation/innovation is attempted in this paper. The paper explores the differences in OL as perceived by different levels or stages in the organizations and their inter-linkages with employee behavior, organizational environment and innovation. …

In-Film Placements of Product Brands in Hindi Films: Practices and Preferences

Abstract: In India, in-film placements have gained attention from film production houses and companies but not much information is available about the audience preferences regarding this form of communication. A survey of 280 young adults for their preferences towards in-film placements and the execution styles was conducted. A content analysis of 30 Hindi box-office hit movies to examine the in-film placements was performed. The audience preferences were compared with the actual practice of placements and the execution styles employed. Significant differences between audience preferences and actual practice were found for movie genre and mode of placements. The study also investigated the differences in preferences for placements across gender. The number of placements per film and the product category of the brand placed were found to differ significantly. Last, implications and directions for future research are also provided. INTRODUCTION In the last decade Indian Hindi film industry (Bollywood) has started embracing the practice of in-film placements similar to its counterpart Hollywood. Brands like Cocacola, Mc Donalds, Benzer and Emami are some of the early adopters of this practice in Indian films (Duraiswamy and Gupta, 2001). But very little information is available about the practice of product placements in Bollywood and the audience preferences for the same (Panda, 2004; Nelson et al., 2005; Nelson and Devanathan, 2006; and Gokhale, 20 1 0) . In traditional forms of communication like advertising external variables like media characteristics and execution styles affect the consumer reactions towards the product (Preston, 1982; and Liu, 1986). Thus execution style of in-film placements could have the potential of influencing the consumer. This study attempts to examine the difference between the actual practice and the audience preference for in-film placements execution in Hindi movies. BOLLYWOOD Every year Bollywood films are produced in a variety of genre like social/romance, comedy, thriller, etc. Films contribute nearly 16% to the entertainment and media revenue pie (PWC Report, 2010). Bollywood films not only have domestic but also fairly lager number of overseas audience. In 2009 the box-office revenue collection for overseas was 8 billion' and for domestic 70 billion'. Incorporating brand placements in films could help to recover at least 15% of the publicity cost of the film (Chakraborty, 2010). One such example was the film Dostana released in 2008 which recovered 35% of its marketing spends through brand placements (Bhandari, 2008) . The cost of placement could range from 2.5 to 7.5 million' depending on the level of integration, exposure time and the star value (Moneylife, 2010). The main drawback of placements in films was that success of placements was dependent on the success of the film. As observed over a decade in India hardly 20%, of the films were successful at the box office with very few becoming super hits (Kumar and Vilayati, 2002). STUDY OBJECTIVES Since late 1990s the practice of in-film placements had become a regular and an accepted form of brand communication in India (Agarwal, 2007). Though usage of placements had increased over the years not much is known about the audience reaction towards them. Results of past studies had shown that the practice of placements was not very scientific and it was dependent on the power equation between the film producer, director and the brand sponsor (Karrh et al, 2003). Consumers have shown liking and preference with respect to what, where and how they would prefer to see placements. Thus, the objectives of this study were specified as: (1) to examine audience preferences for placements in Hindi films. Preferences with respect to frequency, nature and type of placements were sought. (2) to compare practices and audience preferences for placements in Hindi films. This study though exploratory in nature would provide direction for future use of this form of communication, to movie production houses as well as brand managers. …

Design and Implementation of Performance Management Systems, KPIs and Responsibility Centers: A Case Study

Abstract: Responsibility centers, balanced score cards, EVA, performance management system, KPIs, etc., are organizational systems of great significance for creating corporate performance. Glories of successful corporate transformations using these systems have been well documented and studied in depth. However, there have been also multitudes of partial or total failures of such organizational transitions which are often neglected by researchers. Study of failure cases can provide the control group necessary to test the critical factors influencing successful transformations which are often credited to top management involvement, charismatic leadership, capacity building, etc. Moreover, most case studies are about large, especially fortune 500 companies, usually headquartered in the US or Europe the lessons from whose experience may not be applicable to Asian companies, particularly those in the SME and MME sectors. This paper describes and" discusses a case study of a small Indian enterprise in order to highlight the issues required to be considered when designing and implementing organizational transformation programs for smaller Asian organizations. As Binoy Roy, CEO of TechEdge, walked out of the meeting room followed by the Vice Presidents of the different departments, the expressions on their faces betrayed various feelings ranging from relief to frustration. It is not easy to develop a consensus even among the top management team on such a critical issue as performance management. TechEdge is a system integration company in core business of providing IT solution and services for multiple industry verticals. The company partnered with various technology vendors in various capacities such as System Integrator, Value Added Technology Partner, Technology Consultant, etc. It is a B2B business model. TechEdge sold their technology consulting services, 'Business Technology Optimization' services, project implementation services and maintenance services for complex information technology infrastructure. The main departments of the company are sales, consulting, support and services, back office operations, and finance and software. The formal structure of the company is very lean. Each department is headed by a Vice President who is assisted by managers who in turn handled teams independently. The branch offices across die country has a similar structure with the branch manager (a VP level position), reporting directly to the CEO. All the Vice Presidents are at the same level in the hierarchy, but at different payscales depending on their experience and perceived importance or criticality of the department for the company. Sales was supposed to be the most powerful department, followed by support and services, and finance. All VPs reported directly to the CEO in terms of day to day business activities, internal financing for new assets, salaries, etc. REPORTING STRUCTURES AND THE ROLE OF HR Though the roles and responsibilities of each department are clearly defined within the department, members of all departments are required to work in temporary teams with members of other departments for delivering projects. The role of HR is reduced to routine recruitment. The individual department needs of training, appraisal, performance measurement, and the like was completely driven by individual VPs. The HR department is never taken into confidence on people management issues and they responded to such issues as if they are under 'learned helplessness'. Though all the departments worked together to deliver the final project, none of them are answerable to each other. Each department had a clear focus on their individual tasks. Within each temporary team, the project leader is responsible for the team's performance but each member of the team reported directly to his/her own VP The project leader usually from the support and services team. The entire business transaction comprised broadly of understanding the customer's business problem, creating a feasible solution to address the problem, selling the contract for concept design, consulting and delivering the desired service, mobilizing resources to meet the contract obligations, and collecting the payment. …

Marketing Accountability: How to Measure Marketing Effectiveness

Abstract: Marketing Accountability: How to Measure Marketing Effectiveness By Malcolm McDonald and Peter Mouncey Kogan Page Publishers, London and Philadelphia, 2009, pp. 293; Price: ?995 ISBN-13: 978-0749453862 RELEVANCE OF THE BOOK The recession currently being experienced by all nations has thrown the issue of marketing accountability into greater focus. Experience from three previous recessions in past 50 years shows that one of the first actions of organizations suffering a downturn is to make what appear to be easy cuts in planned expenditure in the domain of marketing. Without a toolkit or in-depth research to provide the evidence that such cuts damage the organizations' chances of survival, this will continue to be the preferred response to crises. There is therefore, a pressing need for the kind of research spelled out in this book. ABOUT THE BOOK The responsibility for the systematic management of marketing resources and processes to achieve measurable gains in return on marketing, while maintaining quality and increasing the value of the corporation is one of the major concerns of the CEO's. To fulfil this, one of the biggest issues facing marketers today is accountability for marketing expenditure as, no CEO or CFO wants to hear that their marketing investment was a failed gamble. CFO believes that marketing does not play a crucial role in determining strategy (Deloitte 2007, Marketing in 3D). Hence, marketers need to develop a much better understanding of how shareholder value is created. Without this knowledge, and more effective communications between marketing and finance, traditional low-level, short-term performance measures will continue to prevail and the strategic impact of marketing will be understated. This book is a major breakthrough for marketing and is a must-read for all marketers who are depressed by the very low regard in which marketing is held. The authors argue that in many companies marketing is poorly linked to strategy and marketing managers are rarely held accountable for ROI or expected to explain how they support corporate strategy. Based on seven years of research into global best practice in marketing they investigate every aspect of the topic including strategic marketing planning and marketing due diligence before introducing a marketing metrics model that will help marketing directors align marketing activities with corporate strategy. Hence, from the past experience of the great recession, it clearly calls for excellent strategic marketing planning that can form the bedrock of any marketing accountability framework. The book links between strategy and company performance that has been a subject of detailed statistical analysis by the Strategic Planning Institute. However, authors criticise the Profit Impact of Market Strategy (PIMS) perspective saying it too mechanistic and glossing over the complex managerial problems that beset most businesses. Evidence from many companies has been provided on the failure of such perspective. The proposed planning exercise in the book calls for the systematic identification of emerging opportunities and threats; preparedness to meet change; reduction of conflicts between individuals and departments; more appropriate allocation of scarce resources; consistency of approach across the organization; and a more market-focused orientation across the organization. Although it can bring many benefits, a strategic marketing plan is mainly concerned with competitive advantage - that is to say, establishing, building, defending and maintaining it. …

Managing Faculty Demand in Technical Education: A Supply Chain Model for IITs

Abstract: Providing education to the masses is extremely important for any nation as it has a direct effect on the development of the country. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the demand supply gap with respect to faculty requirement with particular reference to the IITs. The government's proposal to set up eight additional premier institutes for technical education (IITs) in India will widen the demand supply gap for faculty among these institutes. The paper tries to understand the education system as a supply chain concept. It then attempts to determine the year by year demand for faculty required to cater to the proposed eight Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country. It is found that a huge gap exists between the supply and demand for faculty. It forecasts an additional requirement of about 2800 faculty in the IITs during the period 2009-14. The paper makes specific recommendations to reduce the gap. The concepts of collaboration and outsourcing can be applied. The generation of faculty can be enhanced by increasing enrolments for doctoral program and having stringent quality control in the programs. Also, compensation for faculty can be enhanced to attract more people to the field. The forecast as well as recommendations can be of immense value to policy makers as well as the IITs in order to plan for expanding technical education in the country.INTRODUCTIONEducation is a vital component in the development of any nation, more so, for developing countries like India with relatively lower literacy rates. The level of education affects the level of development of a country. Labor force quality is related to economic growth of a country (Hanushek and Kimko, 2000) . However, not only does development require primary education to make the teeming millions of the country literate but also there is a requirement for providing higher education to enable the young population of the country to contribute to the development of the country more effectively. The facilities for providing higher education need to expand at a rate commensurate with the increasing population of India.JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDYIndia is a country with a population exceeding one billion. Literacy rates among the population aged seven years and over rose considerably during the 1990s. The 2001 census recorded literacy rates of 65.2%, up from 52.2% in 1991. The male literacy rate was 75.6% in 2001 (up from 56% in 1981 and 27% in 1951), compared with 54% for women (30% in 1981 and 9% in 1951). The 2001 census indicated a decline in the total number of illiterate people for the first time since independence, with 21.5 m fewer illiterate males and 10.5 m fewer illiterate females in 2001 than in 1991. In spite of recent progress, India still lags behind in educational standards, both absolutely and compared with other developing countries: it has 17% of the world's population, but some 40% of the world's illiterates. In higher education (science, maths and engineering) the rate was 20% for both males and females in 1998-2003, the highest rate by far for a low- income developing country, and up from single digits in 1960 (www.eiu.com). This means that our country requires providing higher education to a huge number of people. This is a mammoth task by any standards. This calls for rapid expansion of the education facilities being provided in the country. Keeping this requirement in mind the government of India has declared the formation of several new Indian Institutes of Technology (HTs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), central universities and Indian Technical Institutes (ITIs) , in the next five year plan. However, expansion of the higher education system requires not only infrastructure in terms of land, building and equipment but also human resources to manage them. Faculty is the most important human resource in any educational institution and can be a major factor in the quality of education of a country. …

Case Study: All aboard the Magic Bus

Abstract: The Case is about a not-for-profit organization that works with children in some of the most marginalized and at-risk communities in India. It uses the medium of sport to enhance their basic life skills and provide empowerment so that they can take charge of their lives and transform their circumstances. The case highlights the challenges encountered by Magic Bus in terms of constant dropouts of girls from the graduation program in Mumbai's Dharavi project. This dropout is primarily seen in the elder age groups, viz., between 12 to 16 years. The case also looks at the various reasons for these dropouts, as narrated by the parents of the children as well as the community workers of the organization. The case draw attention to the various socio-cultural stereotypes related to the female gender, the scope of learning and development of children through sports and social interaction and developing a positive attitude of community towards girls' education through participation in sports. DECEMBER 5, 2010, 3.00 PM, MAGIC BUS OFFICE "We need to increase the number of girls in our program. This is imperative to our organization and we can't compromise on this" said Sohail Khan1, the program manager of the Magic bus voyagers project, in a meeting with his team and the community coordinators. The meeting was called on an urgent basis to address the constantly falling number of girls in the Dharavi project of the Magic bus graduation program in Mumbai. "The children do not have time to play due to studies, tuitions and household chores", said Laxmi, the community coordinator working in Dharavi. She further said, "the parents are not willing to send them to the sessions and whenever we go to pick up the girls, they give reasons like exams, sickness, tuitions, etc.", to which Shanti, another community coordinator, added, "the parents want the girls to learn household chores and therefore, do not allow them to go out of the house. They say that the girls need to learn these chores as they will get married and should uphold the family name in their in-laws house. And in such a situation, how they handle their house would count and not how good they are at football." Laxmi claimed that, "Another major problem is that, the parents do not like the mixing of teenage boys and girls. There is a belief that as soon as the girls hit puberty, they are perceived to be young women and should be safeguarded from the outsiders. A number of parents have had to face ridicule from their neighbors about how their girls, even after becoming young women, continue to wear shorts and play with the boys on the ground. It's a big prestige issue for them, as they feel no one would accept their daughters hand in marriage in the future." INTRODUCTION "Empowering children and youth with positive experiences to discover and develop through sport." This is the mission of Magic bus and is articulated in its work through the various programs across India. The city of Mumbai, Delhi, Chandrapur and Medak are the places where Magic bus works with marginalized children. Magic bus is a notfor-profit organization that works with children in some of the most marginalized and at-risk communities in India. It uses the medium of sport to enhance their basic life skills and provide empowerment so that they can take charge of their lives and transform their circumstances. Since its inception Magic bus has reached out to 140,000 children and youth and by 2012 it aims to reach out to over 600,000 at the national level2 (Refer to Exhibit 2 and Table 1 for further details). HISTORY OF MAGIC BUS Magic bus was founded by Mr. Matthew Spacie in the year 1999 in Mumbai. The journey of the organization began, while practicing Rugby in the Bombay Gymkhana, spotted a few young boys looking at the game from outside the railings of the club. These boys used to work at the fashion street in Mumbai and belonged to a nearby slum. Matthew understood their curiosity about the game and invited them to play along with him. …

Characteristics of Conditional Volatility of BSE SENSEX: The Impact of Information Asymmetry and Leverage

Abstract: Stock market volatility has attracted growing attentions from scholars, policy makers and practitioners due to its impact on decision making. Present study in this context tries to explore the features of daily returns of BSE SENSEX and the conditional volatility of the same. Highly significant large JB-statistic confirms that the return series is not normally distributed. The return series is leptokurtic and returns are serially correlated. It appears that volatility clustering is present during the study period. Furthermore, GARCH (1, 1) model has been applied to compute conditional variance of the sample data. The empirical results show that above model is a good fit and it has also been established that volatility in this market persists over a long period of time. A large sum of coefficients implies that a large positive or a large negative return leads future forecasts of the variance to be high for a prolonged period. To capture the leverage effect present study has applied TARCH(1, 1) model. From the empirical result it appears that news asymmetry and leverage effect are present in the market.(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)INTRODUCTIONDispersion of returns of an asset from its mean return is called volatility. Volatility receives a great deal of concern because it can be used as a surrogate to risk. A rise in the volatility could be interpreted as a rise in risk of the concerned investment and investors may transfer funds to less risky assets given an assured return. This move could result in rise in cost of capital of firms (Arestis et al, 2001)). The study conducted by Bekaert (1995) reported that in segmented capital markets volatility is a critical input in the cost of capital.According to Poon and Granger (2003) volatility has a very wide sphere of influence including investment, security valuation, risk management and policy making. They also put emphasis on the importance of volatility forecasting in various things such as options pricing, financial risk management, etc.Moreover, market volatility may also affect consumer spending. According to Garner (1988) stock market crash in 1987 reduced consumer spending in the USA. Furthermore, Gertler and Hubbard (1989) revealed that business investment spending is also influenced by stock return volatility.While there is a general consensus on the definition of stock market volatility, but lesser agreement on how to measure it. There are various models and estimators in the literature for measuring volatility of stock returns. Models and estimators that assume volatility to be constant are called "unconditional volatility". Since the volatility of stock market investments can be defined as the dispersion of investment returns below and above the mean, variance or standard deviation of the return series has been the traditional measure of volatility. The formula of computing standard deviation of daily returns on stock market index is:...where, r = In (I/IM)I1 is the closing value of the stock market index at time t,In is natural logarithmFrom Iƒ that is sample standard deviation of time t forecast value Ox is estimated by applying different models, such as:Random Walk:...Historical Average:...When s is used to measure volatility, the users assume that the return series is normally distributed. However, standard deviation, s, is not the correct dispersion measure except for the normal distribution. If returns are independent and identically distributed (iid), then of returns over a long horizon can be derived as a simple multiple of single period s. But, this is clearly not the case for many financial time series because of the characteristics like fat tail distribution, volatility clustering, etc. (Poon and Granger, 2003) . So, models capturing the above mentioned features should be used to measure volatility. Following Poon and Granger (2003), it can be said that the time series models used by the researchers are not based on theoretical foundations but are selected to capture the main features of volatility found with actual returns. …

Impact of Investors' Ratios on Dividend Decisions with Special Reference to Select Cement Companies in India: An Analytical Study

Abstract: Cement industry has been considered as a road map for the development of a nation. As far as Indian cement industry is concerned, it was under price control regime until the year 1990 and after the economic reforms initiated by the Government of India. It took a breathe of relief from full control and rigid supervision, yet in the pricing aspect, is still under the interference of government. Though India stands at the second largest manufacturer of the cement in the international arena, it is surprised to note that, the consumption does not witness a substantial improvement due to the inability of poor people to construct concrete houses leaving them to dwell in huts and mud houses. Besides the truth, India takes an advantage of enhancing demand by the way of constructing bridges, hying cement roads to raise her status as a developing nation in the process of globalization. As far as domestic demand of the commodity is concerned, the industry faces consistent demand and with the high market demand, nearly 80% of the total production of the cement is controlled by major 15 firms in the industry so as to contribute 8% in India's economic development. By keeping the above fact in view, this paper has made an attempt to study the trend and progress of corporate dividend to the share holders so as to highlight the importance of dividend decision to make use of the available resources at the firm's disposal for future growth and perhaps the wealth of the shareholders. INTRODUCTION The Indian cement industry has shown recently a consolidation effect with top five players in controlling the capacity of the production to the extent of 60% of the total output and the remaining percentage of output is quiet fragmented. The industry has witnessed a growth rate of 10-12% during the last five years by way of improving the production capacity more than 1 20 million tones. Since the per capita consumption of cement has registered a lower intake with respect to our population, this underlies an opportunity for the companies to capture the untapped potential market in the years to come. By taking into account of emerging growth in industry in the ensuing years, the multinational companies have planned to setup their plants by the way of acquisition mode. For instance domestic companies like Ambuja cements and ACC's Stake has been increased in the hands of Holicim, a multinational, to take an advantage of full control. Now the industry is slowly penetrated with foreign players in such a way to capture the 25% of market share in the domestic market. In terms of long term view, consolidation may emerge as a possible outcome in enhancing the production capacity to meet the required demand in near future and maintaining sustainability in the fray. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Industry analysis has become an indispensible area in predicting the corporate performance in term of its future activities. This study has adopted Michael porter's model to analyze the Indian cement industry in the following aspects: INFLUX As far as supply is concerned, the industry faces a balanced position in terms of supply towards the fulfillment of demand, i.e., the total demand is correctly met out by actual supply and there is no excess of supply. DEMAND Since, India has witnessed a drastic development in terms of industrial and infrastructural sectors, the industry receives a good response towards the demand of the commodity over the past 10 years and the same is likely to increase in the future. ENTRY BARRIER Installation cost acts as a deterrent in attracting the firms to operate in the industry. In addition to that cost recovery period also adds the fuel for the firms to reap the benefit within a short period. EXIT BARRIER Even if the firm wants to exit from the operation it is quiet difficult in terms of heavy investment made in the initial years. COMPETITION Since the industry requires an ample amount of investment to run the show, only few firms compete with each other to survive in the long run. …

The Emergence of SWFs and Its Implications to Global Financial System: A Case Study of India

Abstract: This paper focuses on a major global phenomenon: the rise of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) and its implications to global financial system It also investigates the perspectives of a developing country like India for setting up SWF in the ever changing global economic environment The paper finds out that SWFs has appeared as a vital source of liquidity for the international financial markets and they also play a vital role vis-a-vis the other players such as mutual funds, hedge funds and private equity SWFs are the important investors in the leading global financial companies but they pose a serious challenge to global financial markets due to their non-transparent nature of investment The paper concludes that India should not go for setting up of SWFs as the nature of the capital flows in India is very volatile and it poses a serious challenge to the economy in case of capital flight from the domestic market, a phenomenon it has experienced earlier INTRODUCTION Sovereign Wealth Funds' (SWFs) is a not a new concept in the global financial market In fact, these are introduced for the first time in 1953 as a financial instrument when the global financial system is disorganized, fragmented, under-networked, and disintegrated As a result, it did not get much prominence during the period Later, in the era of global economic financial liberalization and globalization under World Trade Organization during 1990s and in the first decade of the 215t century; the landscape of global financial system has been transformed which has given comfort to nations to plan for SWFs as financial instruments at global level Thus, SWFs has emerged as an important instrument in the global financial markets and got significant attention in the emerging economies SWFs are a viable financial instrument for the countries having current account and capital account surplus However, sovereign wealth funds are state -owned investment fund comprising financial assets such as: bond, stocks, property, precious-metals and other financial instruments These are originated from the surplus liquidity held in public sector, government fiscal surplus, and current account surplus The economists have categorized the sovereign wealth funds into two broad categories - the first is based on minerals, oil and gas exports and the second is the excess flow of capital In this respect, the nations having current account surpluses in the form excess saving over investment Therefore, a separate entity has been created in order to manage excess foreign exchange reserves In other words, SWFs can be defined as public investment agencies operating directly under the central and the state governments The paper is divided into four sections - the first section of the paper reviews the literature on sovereign wealtJh funds, key trends, size and investment of sovereign wealth funds; second section examines the growth of foreign exchange reserves in different parts of the developing nations and their significance level with respect to current vs capital account The third section of the paper reviews the outcome of sovereign wealth funds on international financial markets and emerging issues pertaining to sovereign wealth funds, whereas the fourth section discusses India's approach towards setting up a SWF and its potential implications LITERATURE REVIEW In the last decade, a large number of studies has been conducted on SWFs and their impact on global financial markets In this context, (2007) pointed that SWFs gives added dimension to countries to use them to get strategic leverage for narrow nationalistic objectives Buiter (2007) pointed out that SWFs should be encouraged non-voting equity shares as the global financial markets are prone to their investments Truman (2007) alarmed over the lack of transparency of SWFs with especially reference to their size and disclosure of their investment holdings and strategies Aizenman and Glick (2007) found two major reasons, i …

Performance of Business Schools and Level of Students, Satisfaction in Pakistan: An SEM Approach Based on HEC's Self-Assessment Criteria

Abstract: This research aims to study the performance of business schools and determine the level of students' satisfaction in four public sector universities of Islamabad/Rawalpindi A quality self-assessment criterion developed by HEC has been used to assess the quality of education The paper relies on Structural Equation Modeling Technique to analyze students' satisfaction at university level Satisfaction is measured on the basis of five variables: work skills, internship experience, communication skills, interpersonal skills and knowledge Data have been collected from 320 final year graduating students and the alumni of four management and business schools Results of the study show that except for knowledge and interpersonal skills, all other variables are positively related with satisfaction and are also statistically significant The reason for this is the failure of students to relate their business studies to local context The study also proposes some policy recommendations for enhancing the quality of education in business and management schoolsINTRODUCTIONThere has been a mushroom growth of business schools in Pakistan during the last decade The students also made a beeline since the prevailing consumerism in the first half of the previous decade gave an impression of a sustained growth in the economy (Singh and Wijetunge, 2006) However, in Western Europe, this "massification" led to a trade-off between quality and quantity (Economist, 1997) Pakistan's education scenario has also faced similar challengesOne result of this mushroom growth is that higher education has mutated into a service industry that now considers students as their customers (Marginson, 2006) Due to the presence of many suppliers and growing competition, each has adopted a market-oriented strategy that claims to offer the best education and experience to students As a result, though the quality of education may go down in the short term, it should increase in the long run (Keegan and Davidson, 2004) However, notwithstanding this competition, not all institutions of higher education provide the same level of quality or maintain similar standards The quality even differs amongst different disciplines within a university, ie, one department may be providing better quality education than the others within the same institution Here, the case of business education stands out, which is expected to be more marketfocused compared with more conventional disciplines such as liberal arts or pure sciences (Marginson, 2004) Companies, the prospective employers, demand new recruits to augment their business interests and cater for their specific market needs They prefer those business graduates who not only have a theoretical understanding of business but also practical knowledge of how businesses function in the real world It is, therefore, desirable to analyze whether educational institutions are providing market-driven education to their studentsThis study aims to assess the level of students' satisfaction in terms of quality education provided to them This is done by using criteria that has been developed by the Quality Assurance Committee of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) , the regulatory body for higher education in Pakistan These criteria have been described and explained in the Quality Assurance Manual and Self Assessment Manual prepared and issued in 2006 These manuals aim to create a balance between quantity and quality and provide guidelines for improving quality in universities Various universities have also implemented these criteria in their systems However, their impact has not yet been studied and this study is the first attempt of its kind to fill this gap in the literatureIntroduction is followed by review of literature on the subject and also develops hypotheses to be tested Research Methods introduces the sampling framework, describes the survey instrument and methodology used for analyzing the data; followed by presentation and analysis of results …

Concise Encyclopaedia of Advertising

Abstract: Concise Encyclopaedia of Advertising By Kenneth E Clow and Donald Baack Best Business Books by the Haworth Reference Press, Imprints, of the Hawroth Press, Inc., 10 Aice Street, Binghamton NY 13904-1580, p. 213, Price : US$39.95 ISBN: 0-7890-2211 A Concise Encyclopaedia of Advertising is a valuable reference for academicians, libraries, marketing educator, advertising practitioners, and students; this book is comprehensive guide to understand and utilized the basic advertising concepts, encyclopaedia is corporeal and exquisite, arranged alphabetically, with antique-style illustrations to go with entries on diverse and enthralling terms used in the advertising word. Encyclopaedia of advertising provides wide explanation of terminology used in marketing, sales promotion, and branding, explanations are presented in the alphabetical ordering of terms and phrases, makes finding information a breeze, so that these are used over longer period of time frame and understandable to all who are concerned with marketing, branding, consumer behaviour and advertising concepts. An exhaustive list of authors is presented as an appendix who has recently written articles of text books about advertising. Various references of journals have been provided as notes, which may be further referred for further studies. The terms starting from letter A starts with account executive, administration, agency selection to advertising appeal with principles which covers; fear, humor, sex, music, rationality, emotions and scarcity. The alternative media is presented so that reader is able to plan its advertising campaign from leaflet, brochures, menus, ad on carry home bags, ad on T-shirts, ad on movie trailers, free standing road signs, Mall Kiosk ads, ads on air ports, subway and bus terminals, inside cabs and buses. Letter ? contains terminologies from behavioral aspects which are popular and widely used in advertising world to benefit segmentation, brand and brand equity, image, extension, parity and positioning. All these terminologies help the reader in exercising its efforts while planning and executing its advertising campaign. Letter C comprises of cause related marketing to children advertising, children being the most promising consumers who do not spend their own money but spend their parents' money and play vital role as consumer, influencer for the products. Co-branding helps the reader in joining other for their promotions. Competitive analysis helps in identifying a firm or brand with its competitors. Consumer decision making process steps such as problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternative, purchase decision, and post purchase evaluation study guides the advertisers to plan and make their advertising campaign so they are better liked and remembered by the consumer. Consumer promotional tools like coupons, premiums, contests and sweepstakes, refunds and rebates, sampling, bonus packs, and price offs helps the reader in deciding about the freebees for the consumers and call them who were otherwise not coming for purchasing that brand. Cost calculation is presented with formula which helps in calculating the money spent on advertisement and it's ROI. Letter D starts with the decay effect of advertisement which helps in understanding the viability of the expenses made; decider allows the ads to be made so the person should convince him for the business. Decorative model helps the advertiser in choosing the right kind of model for right product or services. Direct marketing which makes possible the closer relationship with customer includes mail, catalogue, telemarketing, mass media, alternative media and internet and e-mail. Dramatization execution which is a four step process encounter, problem, interaction and solution helps in making the story board and makes the advertisement better understandable to the viewers. Letter E explains effective frequency and effective reach of the advertisement and an elaboration likelihood model which with the help of persuasive communication message change the customers' attitude. …

Impact of Marketer's Influence Strategies on Distribution Channel Partners: A Comparison among Distribution Channel Partners

Abstract: Distribution channel management is the priority of the marketer. Profitable operation of physical distribution along with sustainable relationship management with channel partners is the need of the hour. In this regard behavioral management of the channel partners is very important for their motivation. Literatures have expressed six various ways to influence channel partners. These six ways are promise, request, threat, legalistic plea, recommendation and information exchange. Further theories have also inferred that these six ways are standard in nature and practice. In this present research we are testing the standardize nature of the influence strategies globally talked about. We have chosen three industries of varying nature and compared the perception of the dealers/distnbutors vis-a-vis influence strategy executed by marketers. For this purpose we have used multivariate test of equality of vector means between industries pairwise. Finally, this paper concludes with an interesting result that influence strategy requires customized industry specific applications. (ProQuest: ... denotes formula omitted.) INTRODUCTION Distribution management is one of the priorities in this era of competition. Efficient channel management is becoming a compulsion among the marketer for the right placement of product and service to customers. Management of physical distribution does not generate efficiency in the channel management. Behavioral management of channel partner is imperative to bring efficiency in channel management. It also leads to a long lasting relationship with channel partners. Thus channel partners consider themselves as an integral part of the company. Actually efficient behavioral management makes channel partner's behavior under channel principal's directives. Required motivation of channel partners is the pre-condition to direct their behavior in accordance with the objectives of the marketers. Actually channel participants perceive various reasons for motivating. All these reasons create dependency among the channel partners about the marketer. Naturally, marketers use these reasons for creating dependency in their own favor for influencing channel partners. These various ways of influencing channel partners are termed as influence strategies in various management literatures. Influence strategies can be defined as the way by which one channel member influences other member's behavior towards achieving desired action. Different research papers have been published whose main objective is to develop a framework that will promote the effectiveness of influence attempts between organizations in managing the channel relationship. These literatures talk about more or less six dimensions of influence strategies in managing distribution channel management. Literatures have also stated various facets of influencing strategy as a model for practicing managers in the global context. Researchers opine that these six strategies are standard in nature and practice. This is the point for which we have objections. We believe that the influencing strategies must be different between industries. In this backdrop our present paper examines whether practices between the three industries are different in nature or the same. REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURES Frazier and Summer (1984) have introduced the concept of influencing channel partner in marketing literature. Influencing is a kind of tactics that channel member use to gain compliance from channel partners (Frazier and Summer, 1984). In fact they propose for six dimensional influence strategies to control channel participants. These six influence strategies are information exchange, recommendation, requests, threat, promises and legalistic plea. Frazier and Sheth (1985) have developed a model consisting of influence strategies different from six mentioned above based on attitude of the channel participants in response to channel program (a way of influence) offered to them by channel leader (marketer). …