Showing papers in "South Asian journal of management in 2013"

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries & Competitors

Abstract: Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries & Competitors By Michael E Porter The Free Press, New York, 1980, Pages: 397, Price: $25.33 ISBN-10:0684841487; ISBN -13:978-0684841489Competitive Strategy - Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors aims to provide a comprehensive and structured approach for strategy formulation by inviting readers to look into the profound impact of environmental forces in general, and of competitors in particular, on the success of businesses.OVERVIEW OF THE BOOKCompetitive Strategy - Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors posits that organizational actions are externally controlled and constrained. Survival of the organization lies in creating a best fit between environment and resources of the organization. Hypothesis supports the idea that environmental factors play decisive role in putting up threats and opportunities for the organizations. In addition, structure of industry and environmental forces keep on evolving, thereby forcing organizations to consistently interact and respond according to the changing environmental conditions. However, organizations do not remain passive in this process, rather they can be proactive to understand and predict changes in industries. Porter, in this book, provides set of tools and techniques to make strategic choices among various options posed by environment.Porter is of the view that every firm competing in industry holds a competitive strategy. The process of formulation of strategy in an organization takes place in two ways:* Explicit strategy formulation that is based on the planning process; and* Implicit strategy formulation that is evolved as an outcome of organization's functional activities.Porter takes the position that it is always doubtful to have implicit process as source of best strategy; hence, he attributes the explicit process of strategy formulation as a best way of taking maximum benefits for the firm.FINDING THE COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENTThe essence of the book is to provide a framework of relating a company to its environment. Framework encompasses a best fit between firm's resources and environment. The book has been written from two dimensions. On one end it highlights importance of understanding industry structure and developing in-lined strategies to deal with it. Another dimension of the book, which is rather more interesting and productive, is to propose frameworks and tools for industry analysis and crafting strategy. The book, thus, successfully asserts philosophical insights and provokes thinking of business pundits to look into industry dynamics with a different perspective on one hand, and proposes standardized generic tools for systematic analysis on the other.Accordingly the book is divided into three parts.First part encapsulates general analytical techniques for understanding environmental forces, dynamics of industry evolution and dimensions of competitive strategies.Included in Part II is the application of generic business strategies in various forms of industries, in line with structural determinants, sources and impediments of respective industrial segments/forms.Finally Part III establishes multiple options for a firm in its dealing with environmental forces. The book considers Vertical Integration, capacity expansion and entry into new business as available strategic decisions for the firms.SCANNING THE COMPETITIONCompetition has always been central to the managerial decisions. Rising intensity of competition has continued until present era. This book however presented new spheres of looking into competition. Contemporary writers raised important points in strategy formulation for coping with competitive forces of the industry. Porter has given a systematic and rigorous tool to answer to these questions. Porter also signaled a new direction and provided thought for economic models. …

Employer Brand-Bringing the Best of Brand Management to People at Work

Abstract: Employer Brand-Bringing the Best of Brand Management to People at Work By Simon Barrow and Richard Mosley John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 8SQ, England, Year 2006, Pages: 232, Price: US$70.00 ISBN: 978-0-470-01273-4Τ'he concept of Employer brand is not new to the business but its scope and application has definitely been uncertain. This book gives numerous reasons why employer brand is as important as a strong customer brand. The authors are of the opinion that creating a positive brand experience for employees requires the same amount of dedication, efforts, care and patience as customer brand experience would require. The most important and high involvement brand is not any product or service rather it is an employer brand. The rationale given by the authors for having a strong employer brand depicts that employer brand is a concept which in spite of achieving immense awareness is not a fad. The collaboration of Marketing, Communication and Human Resources community is the foundation stone for having a strong employer brand. The term Employer brand was first propounded in 1996 by Simon Barrow and Tim ambler of London Business School and they defined employer brand as "The package of functional, economic and psychological benefits provided by employment and identified with the employing company". Since then the term employer brand has mostly been limited to improving the look and feel of recruitment advertising. The authors of this book give a fresh and meaningful perspective of the term employer brand. It is a comprehensive, step by step guide to develop and manage the human resources of an organization.Although the book was written in 2006 it has got more relevance in today's time when the organizations are competing not only for customers but for talented employees. In the war for talent the concept of employer branding becomes all the more important as skills are in short supply and talented candidates have bargaining power. This book is a practical guide to develop a strong employer brand. The authors have enriched the content by citing real live examples of different organizations. The real world experiences of different organizations which have successfully developed and maintained a strong employer brand like Tesco and Reuters are the highlights of this book. The book has been written by two authors Simon Barrow and Richard Mosley and has been divided into two sections. Simon talks about the evolution of the concept of employer brand and Richard explains how the principles of marketing management can be applied to people at work. Both the authors have enriched the book with their personal experiences in different organizations like Unilever, John Lewis, Compass Group, etc. In the first section the author mentions about the different stakeholders of employer brand and the challenges associated in developing a strong employer brand. In today's time the needs and aspirations of employees have changed. They don't just look for functional benefits in an employment offer but psychological and emotional benefits associated with the employing firm. The employees today look for an organization whose name looks good on their resumes and gives them pride. The investors have become more aware about how their funds are being utilized. It is the responsibility of management to demonstrate that the funds are put in for productive purposes and employer brand is one of them. A strong employer brand needs the support of top management. It requires active leadership, commitment and encouragement from senior management. The second part of the book deals with how the concepts like brand communication, brand hierarchy, brand positioning and brand proposition can be applied to the people management. The major benefits of a strong employer brand can be lower costs in terms of recruitment, sickness absence, increased levels of customer satisfaction and positive financial results. …

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home

Abstract: The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home By Dan Ariely Harper Collins Publishers, 2011, Pages: 334, Price: ?299 ISBN 9780007431816I think it would be very foolish not to take the irrational seriously.-Jeanette WintersonThis is author's second book and protagonist of the book is "Irrationality". Earlier book by Ariely, "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape tur Decisions" (2008) was also about irrationality. In 'Predictably irrational', author examined a number of biases that lead people into making unwise decisions. He explored the downside of human biases in decision making. As in most cases, the word irrationality has a negative connotation but in his second book, The Upside of Irrationality, he has mentioned the other side of irrationality which is quite positive.Author tries to focus that our irrational abilities sometimes allow us to adapt to new environment, trust other people and enjoy expending effort. The title of the book The Upside of irrationality is an attempt to capture the complexity of humans' irrationalities.In this book like his previous book 'Predicability irrational', he mentions about his injury and how three degree burns to 70% of his body has shifted his outlook on many aspects of his life (in his late teens he was burnt when a magnesium flare exploded next to him).Dan Ariely is an Israeli American professor of psychology and behavioral. He teaches at Duke University and is the founder of The Centre for Advanced Hindsight. Both of his books became New York Times best sellers. He was a physics and mathematics major at Tel Aviv University, but transferred to philosophy and psychology when he found the writing too physically taxing. However, in his last year he dropped philosophy and concentrated solely on psychology, in which he received his BA. He also holds an MA and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of North Carolina. He did a second doctorate in business administration at Duke University at the urging of Nobel economic sciences laureate Daniel Kahneman.This book from methodological perspective has adopted mainly research work and experiments conducted by him and his researchers. This book also draws a bulk from his difficult experiences as a burn patient. Author has emphasized on the importance of experiments as one of the best ways to learn what really works. He has explained most of the concepts with his personal experience which makes lucid reading for the readers.This book has two parts. The first part has five chapters which mainly focus on the unexpected ways we defy logic at work. The second part has six chapters which deals mainly the unexpected ways we defy logic at home. In these 11 chapters he has mentioned role of irrationality and how it plays out in different areas of our lives: in our habits, our dating choices, our motivations at work, the way we donate money, our attachments to things and ideas, our ability to adapt and our desire to revenge.Contrary to rational creature, author suggests that using money to motivate people can be a double edged sword. He explained this as for tasks that require cognitive ability, low to moderate performance-based incentives can help. But when the incentives level is high, it can command too much attention and thereby distract the person's mind with thoughts about the reward. …

A Review of Facilitators, Barriers and Gateways to Entrepreneurship: Directions for Future Research

Abstract: This article incorporates the results of extensive review of earlier research carried out by the authors in the area of Facilitators, Barriers and Gateways to Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is influenced by both extrinsic environmental factors and intrinsic individual characteristics. Generalized self efficacy has a significant effect on firm performance through entrepreneurial orientation. Opportunity to be innovative, need for achievement, internal locus of control, and Innovativeness along withpro-activeness and risk-taking influence business performance. Tolerance for ambiguity has also been found positively related to entrepreneurial intentions and actions. Education enhances entrepreneurs' performance both directly and indirectly. Prior entrepreneurial experience is the most consistent predictor of future entrepreneurial performance. High performing entrepreneurs tend to be more externally oriented and maintained a broad and complex network of ongoing relationship with people both inside and outside of the firm. Insufficient social network creates hurdles in the way of entrepreneurship. Inadequate support in raising required funds is the main constraint in startingup of a new venture. Psychological barriers to entrepreneurship mainly include fear of failure, risk aversion attitude, and feeling of lacking relevant expertise and experience. Low level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, inadequate or inappropriate infrastructure and legislations also appear as common barriers to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy can be strengthened through social exposure and social networking. Specially designed measures need to be adopted for promotion of entrepreneurship that would help in developing a wide base of population. The phenomenon of entrepreneurship is complex and heterogeneous therefore, it is difficult to suggest that the phenomenon is predictable within a deterministic framework.INTRODUCTIONEntrepreneurship is a tool for economic growth (Venkataraman, 1997) and economic development (Shane, 2008) because it enables structural change and regional development (Morris, 2001), generating employment, promoting innovation, producing competition, and creating wealth (Chiles et al, 2007). It also creates invention and diversity, promotes a greater ability to adjust and to focus on customer needs, and introduces new technologies and management methods (Draft, 2000). Moreover, it can benefit a society by bringing in new products and services (Low, 2006). Since entrepreneurship plays a vital role in social prosperity and national development, it has received considerable attention of all the sections of the society. An entrepreneur establishes an enterprise and does everything that is required to transform his/her business concept into marketable reality and in the process he/she aims to become successful in his entrepreneurial efforts. Luke et al. (2007), in illustrating their framework for analyzing financial and nonfinancial benefits of entrepreneurship, offered several measures of entrepreneurial outcome, ranging from the more conventional measures such as entrepreneur satisfaction, revenues, profits, number of ventures and employee growth, to those that are less commonly used such as standards of living, employment rates, welfare, savings from increased employment and increase in tax revenues because of entrepreneurial activity. Storey (1994) suggests that successful entrepreneurial activity process results from a combination of three basic components which are: (i) the characteristics of the organization (including resources, capabilities, strategic choice etc.); (ii) the environment (including factors external and internal to an organization); and (iii) the entrepreneur (including his motives, behavior, background, and psychological characteristics/traits of his personality). These three components are not mutually exclusive and they influence the growth and success of small firms in a combined way. …

Luxury Goods Consumption: A Conceptual Framework Based on Literature Review

Abstract: Luxury goods consumption has received limited attention in marketing literature in spite of the presence of a significantly big luxury marketing industry. Studies focused on the definition of luxury, commented on the characteristics of luxury buyers, researched the buying motivations of luxury consumers; but no study integrated them all to present an integrated framework of luxury goods consumption. Based on review of extant literature on the subject, this paper is an attempt to bridge this gap. The paper primarily serves two distinct but related purposes. Firstly, a comprehensive review of literature on luxury marketing is presented with an attempt to analyze luxury goods consumption from three different perspectives which are product or brand perspective, consumer characteristics perspective and buying motivations perspective. And, secondly an integrated conceptual framework is presented which brings together the three different perspectives of luxury goods consumption.INTRODUCTIONThe concept of 'luxury' exists since a long time and has been aspired by many for ages. At the same time luxury was detested by many others for reasons of its own. In the popular sense of the word, 'luxury' is something related to indulging in self-pleasure and something which is not a necessity. The hedonistic philosophy of Epicurus approves the pleasures of life and hence the enjoyment of luxury. But the Aristotelian philosophy of following the mean course between the extremes condemns the excessive man: 'On small objects of expenditure he spends much and displays a tasteless showiness... And all such things he will do, not for honor's sake but to show off his wealth, and because he thinks he is admired for these things' (Dubois et al, 2001). This history of controversy regarding luxury consumption has been researched and reported by Berry (1994) and has also been studied by Twitchell (2003). Twitchell (2003, p. 43) defines luxury as: "things you have that I think you shouldn't have". But in spite of all the allegations against luxury, it has survived through all these years and is still going strong. The size of luxury goods market was estimated to be around $86 bn in the year 1990 by McKinsey & Co. During the last two decades luxury industry grew at a very fast pace and it achieved sales of $170 bn in 2008 as per Bain & Company.Luxury as a concept is quite complex and context specific; even one single person might have conflicting opinions about luxury (Dubois et al, 2001). Culture, country and even individual variables have a significant impact on the perception of luxury. Traditionally luxury was meant for the 'happy-few'. But with the growth of luxury industry, currently it is not only restricted to the elite class of the society and the concept of mass-luxury is getting popular (Nueno and Queich, 1998; and Silverstein and Fiske, 2003). As per Perez (2008), "Luxury has always been a relative concept, but there is no doubt that luxury has gone more mass market in recent years". While French designers historically had a majority hold in the luxury market, US designers like Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren grew in 1970s by promoting leisure-oriented casual elegance as the American style; recently with the right kind of buzz to spread the luxe culture, Italy has become one of the latest fashion centers. In their book called The Cult of the Luxury Brand - Inside Asia's Love Affair With Luxury Chadha and Husband (2006) discusses how luxury is becoming popular in the Asian countries: "94% of Tokyo women in their 20s own a Louis Vuitton piece... 92% own Gucci, 57% Prada, 51% Chanel, and so the list goes on". Luxury product sales are also growing in China. Chinese consumers already account for more than 10% of global luxury brand sales. Other Asian countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are also showing increasing appetite for luxury brands. Counterfeited luxury goods and mass marketing of famous luxury brands are two most important aspects in this regard. …

Determinants of Consumer Acceptance of M-Commerce

Abstract: The decade has seen mobile phones and other hand-held devices being used for various services. M-commerce has very rapidly developed into a very powerful way of reaching out to the consumer. Factors that motivate a consumer to engage in m-commerce are a blend of strategy, technology and marketing. This research paper integrates elements from factors defining consumer behavior with acceptance of technology to identify and measure the factors influencing customers' acceptance of m-commerce. The results revealed that perceived usefulness and ease of use significantly affect acceptance of m-commerce while perceived financial risk adversely impacts the acceptance of m-commerce by consumers. The suggestions for strategic and managerial decision-making are offered.INTRODUCTIONToday we are on the cusp of a new era in e-commerce, where e-services are no longer restricted to traditional desktops and laptops but are delivered to consumers over mobile devices (Rajaraman, Walmart Global e-commerce). The mobile revolution has taken the world by a storm. The improvements in wireless and computing technologies have led to the proliferation of handheld devices and mobile phones and their usage for varied services. Advancements in technology leading to miniaturization on one hand, and improvement in services on the other have fuelled consumers' dependence on mobile phones based services. Also, the phenomenal proliferation of mobile networks and the falling profitability of the provision of pure voice services are, on the other hand, pushing mobile service providers to explore the potential of the mobile phone to support more-than-voice applications and services. Hence, the technology popularly known as 'm-commerce' is the next phase of e-commerce, which conducts internet based transactions via mobile phones and personal digital assistants. Studies have shown that m-commerce is not to replace electronic commerce but to supplement it. M-commerce has gained popularity for being able to provide individualized, customized and location specific services to the user, thus increasing efficiency, entertainment as well as spontaneity (Clarke, 2008).Previous research in m-commerce has shown that understanding the factors that motivate a consumer to carry on a m-transaction is a blend of technology and marketing. This calls for a radical shift in thinking. With a concept such as m-commerce which is so deeply embedded in technology it is easy to mistake the technology for the concept itself (Balasubramanian et al., 2002). M-commerce can deal with all the transaction functions, like mobile banking, mobile entertainment, mobile advertising, and mobile ticketing. But, whenever technologies are employed, usually of a cutting edge nature, benefits to consumers and their acceptance are often nebulous. So, in order to leverage the full potential of m-commerce for the market and consumers, it is essential to separate the concept from its underlying technologies. Several consumer and market related questions regarding use of hand-held devices for carrying out internet based transactions need to be answered for unleashing the full potential of m-commerce. Hence, optimizing the benefits of m-commerce requires a deep understanding of consumer behavior for accepting m-commerce. Apart from this, the acceptance of the mobile technology as an alternative to traditional ways of carrying out transactions also needs to be understood. Optimizing the potential of m-commerce requires understanding these factors and their inter-relationships. Hence, the purpose of this research is to explain constructs which would determine the acceptance of m-commerce by mobile users.Since m-commerce is still in the initial phase and has a potential to deal with all the transaction functions such as mobile banking, mobile ticketing, mobile entertainment, mobile advertising, hence it requires extensive research in various disciplines and contexts (Kao, 2009). Thus the motivation for this research lies in understanding the dimensions of consumer behavior for adoption of m-commerce in Indian context. …

Entrepreneurial Success and Life Satisfaction among Women Entrepreneurs in Micro Enterprises

Abstract: Many entrepreneurship researchers share the opinion that entrepreneurship is a positive force which enhances employment generation and promotes new products and services to meet the needs and wants of their clients. However, emphasis on entrepreneurship within micro enterprises is limited. Hence, an attempt was made to identify and assess entrepreneurial attitude orientation and competencies and skills among women entrepreneurs in micro enterprise leading to entrepreneurial success and ultimately life satisfaction. Multivariate analysis technique like Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were conducted to identify the entrepreneurship success related factors. The findings showed a direct relationship between entrepreneurial attitude related constructs and entrepreneurial competencies related factors, leading to entrepreneurial success, and life satisfaction among micro entrepreneurs.INTRODUCTIONThe growth of entrepreneurship in India and its importance can be gauged by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2007 report which emphasizes that an entrepreneurial boom exists in India, wherein one in every 10 persons is engaged in entrepreneurial activity. Such activity or "Entrepreneurship is the process of creating something new with value by devoting the necessary time and effort, assuming financial, psychic, and social risks, and receiving the resulting rewards" (Hisrich, 2000). While entrepreneurship is a multi-faceted phenomenon appearing in all sectors and enterprises of all sizes, entrepreneurship in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) in general and entrepreneurship in micro enterprises in particular assumes importance as it is an effective instrument for securing balanced socioeconomic development by increased productivity and employment levels. However, in most developing nations, promotion of micro enterprises have been viewed more as a development process for poverty alleviation instead of a robust entrepreneurial activity for growing businesses. Among entrepreneurs in India, women entrepreneurs constitute about 10% of the total entrepreneurs, and this percentage is growing rapidly every year. If this trend continues, it is very likely that in another five years, women will comprise about 20% of the entrepreneurial force in India (Pooja Nayyar et ai, 2007). Entrepreneurial activities among women enhance their leadership qualities and increase their decisionmaking capabilities in the family and society as a whole. According to Khanka (2000), a woman entrepreneur is confident, innovative, creative and capable of achieving economic independence individually or in collaboration, to generate employment opportunities for others through initiating, establishing and running an enterprise by keeping pace with her personal, family and social life. The first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has stated, "When a woman moves forward, the family moves, the village moves and the nation moves." A further examination of the various components of entrepreneurship in micro enterprises like achievement in business, innovation, perceived self esteem and various strategic skills and competencies needed for entrepreneurial success and their linkages was called for as limited research has been undertaken in this regard.Hence, this study was undertaken to determine the relationship between entrepreneurial attitude characteristics using the Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) scale, entrepreneurial competencies using the competency scale and entrepreneurial success, eventually leading to life satisfaction among micro entrepreneurs in micro enterprises.LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENTRobinson et cd. (1991) formulated an attitudinal scale to determine entrepreneurial activity. They perceived that the attitudinal scale could be more domain-specific, which increased the relationship with actual behavior and also mitigated unexplained variability. Attitudes had a tendency to change over time and situations through which an interactive process with the environment took place. …

The Role of Opinion Leaders in High-Involvement Purchases: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract: Opinion leaders influence the consumer's decisions making and play significant role in disseminating information, specifically in high involvement purchases. After extensive literature survey on the opinion leaders, the theoretical framework was proposed and their hypothesis was tested. The results from the empirical study that was conducted, indicates that opinion leaders in high involvement product possess significantly higher levels of media-exposure endurance, social involvement, product knowledge, innovativeness and computer usage than non-leaders. Based on the findings, the theoretical model was developed, conclusions are drawn, key implications delineated, and avenues for future research are listed. The findings will provide useful information for marketers to promote the high-involvement products. They are also significant to real estate companies, banks, FM CG industries, who desire to understand the opinion leaders for their inputs, influences for the marketing strategies. The new finding indicates that they are younger, attained a higher education, has computer competence and they desire unique product offerings that convey status, will be useful for research purpose. This study provides a first step in investigating the opinion leadership and their impact that are rooted in high involvement product; still more research in this area is warranted.INTRODUCTIONIn the Information economy, the information is very important and opinion leaders play a vital role in dissemination information and knowledge The companies have started using communication from opinion leaders in the form of opinions, recommendations, suggestions and experience on products, services, or sellers, in order to influence consumer decision making.The customer's approach to purchasing a product is influenced by their situation- whether they have money and how important, frequent, risky, or urgent the purchase is to them in their situation. Processes of consumer decision-making situation are partly affected by product involvement (Laurent and Kapferer, 1985). A consumer spends time and energy to make a decision in purchasing high-involvement products, whereas spends less time and effort for low-involvement products (Richins and Bloch, 1986). While researchers haye focused on the low-involvement, frequently purchased, convenience product (Olshavsky and Miller, 1972; Swan and Combs, 1976; and Prakash and Lounsbury, 1983), less attention has been devoted to the factors that influence the satisfaction with a high-involvement product (Day, 1977; Churchill and Suprenant, 1983; and Oliver and Bearden, 1983).It was observed that the greater the involvement with the product, the greater the search for information about the product and the larger the number of information sources used, the more extensive the information processing undertaken by the consumer. More importantly, the consumers undertake extensive post-purchase evaluation and attempt to maximize their satisfaction with the product (Barber and Venkatraman, 1986). In case of high-involvement purchases often resulting in extended problem solving, the consumer seeks information from opinion leaders and other personal sources of information.Opinion leaders have long been of interest to managers and researchers because they are instrumental in successful marketing strategies. The tendency of the consumer market to depend upon the success of new products often rests with opinion leaders who direcdy influence the consumers by giving advice and verbal direction for search, purchase, and use. Despite the phenomenal growth of consumer market in India, surprisingly very little empirical research has investigated about the opinion leaders in highinvolvement purchases. Hence, it is needed for further research to address this gap "the influence of the opinion leaders in high involvement consumer decision-making situations" in the extent literature.Lawrence Corey (1971) defines an opinion leader as "trusted and informed people who exist in virtually all primary groups. …

Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations

Abstract: Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations By Thomas ? Lawrence, Roy Suddaby and Bernard Leca Cambridge University Press, UK, 2009, Pages: 336, Price: $54.93 ISBN978-0-521-51885-0Academic interest in institutional studies of organization has a long history, starting with classical works of Max Weber, Philip Selznick, etc., in the late 1940s. In last two decades, there has been an upsurge in work on institutional studies of organization with publication of some commendable work (Powell and DiMaggio, 1991; and Greenwood et al, 2008). The initial focus of scholars in institutional theory was on explanation of organizational similarities (isomorphism) in organizational field. In the late 1990, the focus shifted to explaining institutional change due exogenous elements, followed by institutional entrepreneurship and institutional logic. Institutional entrepreneurship aims at explaining an endogenous change to institutions. It thrusts on importance of agency in actors and attempts to resolve the paradox of embedded agency: how can actors change institutions if their actions, intentions, are constrained by the same institution which they wish to change (Holm, 1995; and Seo and Creed, 2002). Institutional entrepreneurship has emphasized on role of actors in creating new institutions. However, in recent years, there has been significant stress on understanding the role of actors in transforming and maintaining institutions. Lawrence and Suddaby (2006) refer to this as institutional work, "the purposive action of individual and organization aimed at creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions" (p. 215). Institutional work has become a bridge between work on institutional entrepreneurship (focusing on creating new institutions) and deinstitutionalization (focusing on death of institutions). Since the foundational work by Lawrence and Suddaby (2006), institutional work has gained attention in academic world of organization studies as evident from flourishing research works shared through academic platform( EGOS1, 2008) Sub theme: 222; EGOS (2012) Sub theme: 163).This book is a collection of revealing paper on institutional work put together by Lawrence, Suddaby and Leca, to speak on a central issue: how individual actor produce, sustain, and transform institutions while protecting their personal interests? As evident from title, concept of institutional work is the primary theme around which all the papers are written. The book is divided into three sections: introduction, essays on institutional work comprising of four chapters on theory, and studies of institutional work assembling six empirical papers. Each of the four theoretical chapters focuses on distinct elements of institutional work like multidimensional agency in institutional work, leadership as institutional work, geographic location of institutional work, and issues of contradiction in institutional work. The empirical papers are about application of institutional work: two are about creating institutions, two are about maintaining institutions and rests are about the interplay among creation, maintenance and disruption of institutional work.Introduction chapter by Lawrence, Suddaby, and Leca, raises three main issues related to institutional work- accomplishment, intentionality, and effort. "Creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions" signifies activities, while "creation, maintenance and disruption of institutions" refer to accomplishment. They argue that it is the activities which are at the core of institutional work and not the accomplishments. Activities as institutional work broaden the domain for exploration in institutional work and also bring in the issue of "unintended consequences", which accomplishment fails to do. Activities imported the notion of intentionality into the heart of institutional work. Intentionality determines what is to be considered as institutional work and what is not. The third element, effort, is fetched in to explore the notion of "work" in institutional work. …

Assessing the Role of Internal and External Agents in HRM: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract: Recent literature has recognized the role of both internal (top management and line management) and external agents (HR outsourcing agencies or external service providers) in HRM. However, most studies have focused on a single agent. As a result of this, no establislied measures are available to explore the role of both internal and external agents. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to develop an instrument for assessing the role of internal and external agents vis-a-vis HRM. The paper is based on primary data obtained from leading business organizations in India through a single crosssectional survey. The respondents of the study were senior HR executives, from whom 174 usable responses were generated. The scales were assessed for unidimensionality as well as reliability and validity. SEM capabilities of LISREL 8.50 were employed to evaluate the unidimensionality, reliability and validity of the scales. Both indicator and scale reliability as well as convergent, discriminant and nomological validity of the scales were established. The research instrument has been tested based on the data obtained from selected companies operating in India. Hence, there is a need to cross-validate it on other samples from other countries. The paper has implications for researchers as well as practitbners because it offers a reliable and valid instrument to assess the rob of internal and external agents vis-a-vis HRM. This paper is unique as it integrates the scattered viewpoints regarding the rob of internal and external agents in management of HR and offers a reliable and valid instrument to explore their rob vis-a-vis HRM.(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)INTRODUCTIONLast two decades has ushered a new era in business world - one in which organizations are competing with each other across national boundaries (Ansoff, 1991). These changes in the business environment have substantially changed the roles of the HR professionals as well as the way people are managed in the organizations. In this context, Valverde et al. (2006) has recognized the contribution of both internal (top management and line management) and external agents (HR outsourcing agencies or external service providers) in HRM.HRM is not the sole responsibility of HR departments but also of other agents (Valverde et al, 2006). Thus, all managers irrespective of the area they belong to can be conceived as managers of employee related issues since they are all responsible for managing people in their own capacities (Whittaker, 1990; Khatri and Budhwar, 2002; and Papalexandris and Panayotopoulou, 2005). These are both internal and external agents. In today's organization, line manager roles have changed and it continues to evolve with the changing needs of the organizations. The devolution of traditional HRM responsibilities to line management have been reported by different researchers (Renwick and McNeil, 2002; and Larsen and Brewster, 2003). Top managers are also increasingly getting involved in HRM as they evolve strategies to attract, motivate, and retain the best talent in the organisation (Chung et al, 1987; Jonas et al, 1990; and Harper, 1993). At the same time, HR outsourcing has also gained prominence of late, engendering a new genre of research on the role of external service providers in HR (e.g., Cook, 1999; Mahoney and Brewster, 2002; and Banham, 2003). Of late, both internal and external agents are seen to be participating in management of HR, albeit with differing degrees of involvement.CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUNDThe concept of sharing responsibility for HRM with other entities is being recognized within the literature and there is constant debate about the same. Devolution to the line implies that line managers should become more involved in HRM so that HR staff can take on a greater strategic role (Legge, 1995; Sisson and Storey, 2000; and Finegold and Frenkel, 2006). The devolution of HR responsibilities to the line has been viewed as a key characteristic of strategic HR. …

Applied Human Resource Management: Strategic Issues and Experiential Exercises

Abstract: Applied Human Resource Management: Strategic Issues and Experiential Exercises By Kenneth M York Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2010, Pages: 411, Price: ?475 ISBN: 978-81-321-0625-8 (PB)Applied Human Resource Management - Strategic Issues and Experiential Exercises is a book which specifically talks about implementation of the learning from the textual concepts in human resource management. Kenneth M York in this book has provided a good and holistic account of HRM covering all the functions of a human resource professional. It presents in-depth, hands - on experiential learning applications to help the students to develop the skills which are usually sought by companies while recruiting human resource professionals.Following Human Resource Certification Institute classification of 2008 chapters can be grouped under five bodies of knowledge, namely, workforce planning and employment, Human Resource Development, total rewards, employee and labor relations and risk management. Author has divided the book into easily understandable 12 chapters. Chapter 1 presents an introduction to the management of human resource. It spells out the importance of human resource management in the organization and also briefly discusses the historical overview from industrial revolution to present day practice of Total Quality Management (TQM). Functions and roles of HRM, the concepts of cost of efficiency and HR scorecard are also discussed in the opening chapter to set a tone and understanding of human resource management. Subsequent chapters' deal with the issues in workforce planning and employment in Chapter 2, equal employment opportunity has not only been dealt as a compliance issue but also as a strategic issue for the employer. Chapter 3, 4 and 5 discuss the issues of job analysis, recruitment, selection and socialization, author places these processes as very important for any organization to attain sustainable competitive advantage through human capital.Human resource development aspect of HRM is discussed in Chapter 6, 7 and 11. Performance appraisal highlights organization's intention to evaluate employee's job performance and make employment decisions such as continued employment, merit pay and bonuses. In training and developing employees, author has highlighted the importance of investments made in human resource training which can help in achieving higher productivity and improved quality. Chapter on organizational change and development points out that turbulent business environment calls for continuous adoption, intervention and improvement in work setting for improving organizational functioning and individual development.Chapter 8, compensation and benefits deals with the complex subject of total reward management. It underscores the importance of compensation systems in organization which has a direct impact on many other human resource management functions such as recruitment, selection and retention. Creating satisfactory pay scales for the workforce is an ongoing process, requiring constant monitoring of market trends and industry trends.Chapter 9 and 12 basically deal with the risk management aspect of an organization. …

Effect of Foreign Aid on Economic Growth and Development in India: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract: The present study examines the impact of foreign aid on both economic growth and development in India by using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) test from the period 1975-76 to 2009-10. The study analyzes plan-wise distribution and composition of foreign aid inflows into India. It attempts to explain the effect of some major macroeconomic variables on both economic growth and development in India. The results indicate that foreign aid has been considered as a significant determining factor for both economic growth and development of India. The simple OLS test results show that the impact of foreign aid on both economic growth and development is positive. Finally, the study concludes that the impact of foreign aid on economic growth is higher than its impact on economic development, which indicates that aid contributes to growth but that growth is not translated into meaningful development. This inadequate transformation may be caused due to underutilization of foreign aid, inequality present in the distribution of wealth and income, poor economic policies, poverty and corruption.INTRODUCTIONForeign aid is considered as an important ingredient for financing the developmental programs of the developing countries. Currently, it is considered as an important instrument of the foreign policy of states. It acts as a major source of foreign exchange earnings for developing countries. After World War II, developed economies have been providing hundred billions of dollars in terms of foreign aid to the developing world with a welfare motive. Even before the First World War, foreign aid was used as a profitable investment. However, it was only in the post-war period that the flow of foreign aid began in a planned way, when developed Western countries started contributing primarily for the development of infrastructure, alleviation of poverty, emergency relief, peace -keeping efforts and socioeconomic reconstruction programs of their war allies. Adding to this, there are a number of mechanisms through which aid can contribute to die process of economic growth, i.e. (a) aid stimulates investment in both physical and human capital; (b) aid act as a supplement to the scarce domestic resources and acts as a major source of foreign exchange earnings; (c) aid increases the capacity to import necessary capital goods and technology; (d) aid helps to raise the productivity of both capital and labor through technological transfers and also promotes indigenous technical change; (e) aid also brings other crucial resources for development such as managerial skills, organizational capability, research ideas and market access (Morrissey, 2001). It also helps the underdeveloped economies in filing three major gaps; (1) saving-investment gap; (2) export-import gap; and (3) technological knowhow gap. At the same time huge amount of external assistance inflows may create threat for large amount of external debt burden in the long run to developing economies. The extent to which foreign aid can be a decisive factor in the economic development of developing economies remains controversial. Many countries in the world accept foreign aid and get different benefits along with a few adverse results.Moreover, it is observed that the role of foreign aid may be beneficial in the case of certain countries and may not be beneficial for others. It may therefore be observed that geographical condition, economic policies, political policies of the ruling elite, bureaucratic efficiency, role of institution, the level of socioeconomic development and level of technological advancement are some of the conditions in which foreign aid has to functions. These factors differ across region, which are responsible for the variability found in the role and achievement of foreign aid from country to country. Therefore, the present study tries to examine whether foreign aid inflows helps in the process of economic development of India during the period of study or not? …

Environment Management and Environmental Disclosures: A Comparison of Corporate Practices across Malaysia, Singapore and India

Abstract: The main objective of the study is to examine the environmental management and disclosure practices employed by the various corporate enterprises in Singapore, Malaysia and India. An attempt has also been made to study the regulatory framework of environment management of the corporate sector. The study concludes that in the recent era, the concerns about environmental issues have gained momentum in the countries under study. They generally link environmental disclosure and financial performance measures and this should provide an incentive for companies to increase the content of their environmental management and reporting in their corporate reports. Mere compliance with legislative requirements is not sufficient by the corporate enterprises rather the companies should consider this as a part of their corporate social responsibility.INTRODUCTIONThe micro and macro aspects of environmental management have shaped new face of corporate environment reporting. The present practices indicate that the corporations disclose only the statutory information and the information relating to environmental disclosures are ignored by the companies. In order to make the corporate report more useful to the users, the same should include the voluntary disclosures like corporate social cost-benefit analysis, environmental accounting, and the extent of convergence to the global environment disclosure standards.The corporations all over the world have to play an important role in resolving the environmental challenges facing the world because of the resources they command and the extent to which they may be responsible for environmental degradation. Current disclosure practices followed by most of the companies do not fully reflect the environmental impact of corporate operations.It is now being realized by the economists, environmentalists, business managers and accountants that (1) if the benefits from rising incomes are offset by the costs imposed on health and quality of life by pollution, this cannot be called development; and (2) environmental damage can undermine future productivity. The corporate managers also need to remember the effects of their investment decisions on the environment.The need for corporate environment disclosures arises to comply with the statutory requirements, public opinion and the logic of public accountability. The reform process in India since 1991-92 has certainly improved the performance of the different sectors in the Indian economy. The Indian Corporate sector has started realizing the need for adequate corporate environment and social disclosures in order to repose the confidence of the stakeholders in the working of their enterprises and performance.RATIONALE OF STUDYWhen we are marching ahead towards the 21st century, there is consensus among stakeholders that corporate environmental performance involves the integration of environmental considerations into the corporate business practices, and reporting of environmental performance that is measurable and comparable over time.The concept of corporate governance in India has started gaining momentum and the deregulation, privatization, and globalization trends unleashed in the process of reforms led to renewed interest and need for good governance in the Country's corporate sector in order to have transparency and better environmental disclosure by the corporates.The purpose of creating awareness of environment management by corporate sector is to help improve practices of environment where this subject has received scant attention. Industrial development in market oriented economies like Malaysia, Singapore and India in Asia-Pacific region is taking place at an accelerated rate since economic liberalization began in these countries. Hence it is of great interest to study the environmental management and disclosure practices of various corporate enterprises in these economies.There is an urgent need to ensure a secure environment for the future. …

Organizational Change Effectiveness in an Indian Public Sector Organization: Perceptions of Employees at Different Levels

Abstract: Turnaround process in an organization results in changes in almost every aspect of working. Empirical approach based quantitative analysis of a case study undertaken at Bharat Pumps and Compressors Limited (BPCL), a public sector organization in India, that underwent turnaround successfully, is presented here. Change outcomes in the organization directly affecting the employees were identified in the study and employee perception on effectiveness of these changes was also studied. These change outcomes were identified as: enhancement of employee involvement, improvement of various organizational processes and systems, improvement of work environment and improvement in performance management process of employees. The study indicates that though change effectiveness is perceived as positive by different levels of employee, there were significant differences between higher and lower levels of employees. Based on the findings, the paper identifies lessons for policy makers and change agents in transforming companies in the context of emerging markets such as India. The paper offers an in-depth analysis of successful transformational change practices from employees' perspective in a large public sector organization in India.INTRODUCTIONIn organization, most problems and challenges are generated by factors like product quality maintenance, enhancing employee efficiency, innovations, and new leadership and management approaches, amongst others (Madsen et al., 2005). These problems, when allowed to accumulate over a period of time may ultimately take its toll on the health of organization and result in sickness of unit. The Government of India enacted the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985. As per the revised definition provided by this Act, a sick industrial company would be one which is registered for a period not less than five years and whose accumulated losses are equal to the sum of paid up capital and free reserves.Turnaround strategy is often followed to revive such sick units. Turnaround may be defined as a sharp, positive reversal in the performance of a company or the overall market (http://www.investorwords.com/2962/market.html). Schendel et cd. (1976) and Robbins and Pearce(1992) found out that turnaround concept is operationalised in the literature as performance decline followed by performance improvement. Improving organizational performance means improving the organizational strategies and changing the work systems. Thus, turning around an organization involves changes of large magnitude. According to Cummings and Worley (1993) change can be described as the deliberate introduction of novel ways of thinking, acting and operating within an organization as a way of surviving or accomplishing certain organizational goals. Turnaround strategy was adopted at Bharat Pumps and Compressors Limited (BPCL), a public sector unit in India, to revive it.FOCAL AREAS OF CHANGEAccording to Armenakis and Bedein (1999), organizational change may refer to four dimensions: content, contextual, process and outcome issues. This paper focuses on outcome issues. The main objective of change process during turnaround is to enhance overall productivity and performance of organization, which in turn is dependent upon employees' performance and productivity. The factors which influence the productivity of employees and organization, identified as the universal factors by many researchers, e.g., Armstrong (2003), Bernadin (2003), French and Wendell (2003), are broadly divisible into four categories: (1) factors related to job itself, which are job analysis, job description and job specification; job rotation; and avoidance of overloading of individuals with work. (2) Factors connected with financial aspects - such as ensuring equitable, adequate and timely remuneration; bonuses or similar awards; (3) those related to human relations, which include encouraging participative management; providing employees with an environment (both physical and psychological) that is conducive to work and having counseling services. …

Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Bangladesh and India: A Comparative Study

Abstract: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is often seen as important catalysts for economic growth in the developing countries. The study compares the trends of FDI inflows in Bangladesh and India. This study examines the relationship between FDI and economic growth in Bangladesh and India respectively. In this study we estimate the effects of FDI on economic growth by Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method using time series data for the period 1974-2006. ADF test and Johansen co-integration test, and Granger causality test are performed to examine the effect and direction of relationship. The regression results found that the coefficient of FDI is positive but it is statistically insignificant for Bangladesh. The result indicates that FDI is positively correlated to the economic growth of Bangladesh but it has not yet been established as a significant determining factor for the economic growth of Bangladesh. On the other hand, the estimated coefficient for FDI is negative and statistically insignificant for India. The result indicates that FDI is negatively correlated to the economic growth of India and it has not yet been established as a significant determining factor for the economic growth of India.(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)INTRODUCTIONDeveloping countries, emerging economies and countries in transition increasingly see Foreign Direct Investment (FDl) as a source of economic development, modernization and employment generation, and have liberalized their FDl regimes to attract investment. The overall benefits of FDl for developing economies are well documented. Given the appropriate host-country policies and a basic level of development, a preponderance of studies show that FDl triggers technology spillovers, assists human capital formation, contributes to international trade integration, helps to create a more competitive business environment and enhances enterprise development. All these contribute to higher economic growth. Beyond the initial macro-economic stimulus for actual investment, FDl influences growth by increasing total factor productivity and, more generally, die efficiency of resource use in the recipient, economy. Technology transfers through FDl generate positive externalities in the host country.FDI provides financial resources for investment in the host country and thereby augments the domestic saving efforts. This contribution of FDI is, however, small for most developing countries. The share of FDI in gross domestic investment in developing countries was only 3.2% in 1992 and in 2001 it stood at a decent 27.9% and the relevant ratio for some countries of the South Asian region (e.g., Bangladesh, India and Pakistan) was even less than 1%. On the other hand, there are some countries in which the contribution of FDI flows to Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) has been significant. For example, FDI flows as a percentage of GFCF in some South, East and South-East Asian countries are presented in Table 1 .One of the more important contributions of FDI lies in raising the technological standards and levels of efficiency and competitiveness of the host country. The foreignowned enterprises pressurizes and assists the local related and support industries to improve the quality of their products and ensure greater reliability of delivery, both of which make it necessary for the related and support industries to upgrade their technology (Mortaza and Das, 2007).The FDI can increase growth in two ways. The investment increases total investment by attracting higher levels of domestic investment. While FDI represents investment in production facilities, its significance for developing countries is much greater. Not only can FDI add to investible resources and capital formation, but, perhaps more important, it is also a means of transferring production technology, skills, innovative capacity, and organizational and managerial practices between locations, as well as of accessing international marketing networks. …

Working Capital Management Efficiency and Firm Profitability: A Study of Indian Retail Industry

Abstract: Working capital management is an important part in firm financial management decision. Inefficient management of working capital suffers firms, so an optimum level of working capital and its efficient utilization is the key to a smooth inflow of profit. In this paper, we analyze the working capital management in the Indian retail industry not only in totality but also in segmental performance as far as possible. The present study evaluates the various components of working capital; appraise the utilization of current assets and finds out the relationship between working capital efficiency and profitability in the units under study. The results of our research showed that proper working capital management helps in efficient utilization of resources, as evident by regression analysis results also.INTRODUCTIONINDIAN RETAIL INDUSTRYThe Indian Retail Industry is one of the largest among the industries, contributing 13% to India's GDP and 8% of the employment, and growing at 46.6% pa compounded over last three years, fastest in Indian Economy. The Indian retail industry is divided into organized and unorganized sectors. More than 90% of the Indian retail industry lies in the unorganized sector, which lacks standardized supply chains and accounting practices. But the traditional markets are making a way for new formats such as departmental stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets and speciality stores. Western-style malls have begun appearing in metros and second-rung cities alike, introducing the Indian consumer to an unparalleled shopping experience. The scope for growth of the organized retail sector is huge.According to A T Kearney, India is the third-most attractive retail market for global retailers among the 30 largest emerging markets and the organized retail sector is expected to double to 10% by 2013. BMI expects the hypermarket sector in India to grow by 354.1% and reach INR452.6 bn by 2015.Modern retailing has entered into the retail market in India as observed in the form of bustling shopping centers, multi-storied malls and the huge complexes that offer shopping, entertainment and food all under one roof. The growth pattern in organized retailing and in the consumption made by the Indian population will follow a rising graph helping the new businessmen to enter the Indian Retail Industry. Indian retail is expected to grow 25% annually. Modern retail in India could be worth US$175200 bn by 2016.This graph below shows how the retail sector is growing at an even faster rate than the growth in the food industry in India. Thus, it makes sense to enter this sector for retailers.The Indian retail sector is divided mainly in the following segments:* Food* Book and Music* Fashion* Entertainment* Phone* Fashion Accessories* Consumer durables* Furniture* Health and BeautyWORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENTWorking capital is an important tool for growth and profitability for corporations. An inadequate level of working capital could lead to shortages and problems in day-today operations (Horne and Wachowicz, 2000). Working capital is defined as current assets less current liabilities (Hillier et al, 2010).Working capital management is an integral part of the financial management of an undertaking. There have been instances when major giants have fallen down like a pack of cards due to an inefficient short-term management. The working capital management should aim at having balanced; optimal proportions of the working capital management components to achieve maximum profit and cash flow. While an excessive working capital leads to an inefficient use of fund; inadequate working capital interrupts the smooth flow of business activity and in result profitability. Thus, the need to have an adequate amount of working capital in a firm cannot be ignored in any respect. Its efficient utilization is equally important, as the level of utilization is the key to profitability in the longer run. …

Do Mergers & Acquisitions Pay off Immediately? Evidence from Mergers & Acquisitions in India

Abstract: Mergers and Acquisitions (MA DePamphilis, 2010; Vijgen, 2007; Jensen, 1986; and Jayadev and Sensarma, 2007).A number of studies have been done in MA Pazarskis et al, 2006; Ooghe et al, 2006; and Vanitha and Selvam, 2007) and event study (Aggarwal and Jaffe, 1996) methods to find out the shareholder returns through MA and the second examining the timing of returns in the post-acquisition period.REASSESSMENT OF PRIOR RESEARCH STUDIESReview of Indian and International empirical studies has been made in the areas focusing on the research problem. This section reviews the relevant literature based on two aspects:a. The timing of accrual of returns from MA solvency measures in terms of interest coverage ratios and total debt ratios and the profitability measures in terms of return on net worth and return on capital employed. …

Financial Indicators of Corporate Sickness: A Study of Indian Steel Industry

Abstract: As a result of recent global financial crisis, a large number of companies are facing many challenges from the environment. If they fail to cope up with the changes, they will be forced into bankruptcy. Therefore, it is necessary to identify financial indicators and a model for corporate sickness prediction. In this paper, a model has been proposed to predict business sickness by using seven financial ratios. The model has been developed by using cluster analysis and step-wise logistic regression analysis. From the empirical study, it is revealed that Rate of Growth of Profit After tax (RGPA) and DebtEquity Ratio (DE) are important predictors of sick companies. It means that earning power and capital structure are the important predictors of corporate distress.INTRODUCTIONThe recent global financial crisis has already caused a considerable slowdown in economic activities in most of the developed countries. This economic slow down in developed countries may also have significant impact on the economy of developing countries. As a result, business firms throughout the globe are facing so many challenges and unexpected changes in the economic, technological and social environment. If they fail to cope up with the changes, they will be forced into bankruptcy. They become a financially sick companies when these firms are not able to pay their obligation in time due to shortage of cash flows.In the year 2009, 64 companies were registered as sick unit in Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). Such sickness can be attributed to the both internal as well as external factors. Some of the external factors are shortage of raw materials, power, and change in the government policy. Some of the internal factors are obsolesce of technology and machinery, inefficiency of management which is reflected in the financial statements. Therefore, it is important to understand the reasons behind sickness of a company. In this study we want to predict corporate failure based on information provided by the financial statements.Financial statement is the primary reporting statement which provides information to the decision makers. Those decision makers are investors, lenders, bank, shareholders and other interested parties. Ratio analysis is an important tool of financial statement analysis. It provides information to the stakeholder of business. Ratio analysis concentrates interrelationship among figures appearing in the financial statement. The ratio analysis helps management to analyze the past performance of the firm and to make future projection of the firm. In this paper some selected ratios have been used as indicators on the financial status of the companies. The purpose of this study is:a. To identify the most important ratios that explain the corporate success or failure; andb. To develop a model for prediction of business failure or success.With these in the backdrop, the present presentation has been divided into six sections, Section two focuses on literature review. Choice of independent variables has been highlighted in the section three. Section four covers methodology for the study. Analysis of the data is presented in Section five. The last Section covers conclusion, limitation and future direction of the study.LITERATURE REVIEWA number of studies have been undertaken to predict corporate failure or success. In this section an attempt has been made to review a few related empirical studies.Earlier it was observed that corporate success of failure can be predicted on the basis of trends of the ratios. In this context, the works of Beaver (1966) is notable. He developed a dichotomous classification test based on simple t-test in a univariate framework. He conducted this study on 79 failed and 79 non-failed firms for the period 1954-64- He conducted the study by comparing the mean ratios of the failed firms and non-failed firms. He concluded that there is a difference in the mean ratios of the failed and non-failed firms. …

Total Customer Value Management: Transforming Business Thinking

Abstract: Total Customer Value Management: Transforming Business Thinking By Gautam Mahajan Response Books, New Delhi, 2011, Pages: 326, Price: ?450 ISBN: 978-81-321-0312-7 (PB)This book titled "Total Customer Value Management" written by Gautam Mahajan discusses various thoughts on the relevance of customer and their attachment with business processes and business cycle. In a nutshell it reflects the interaction between customers and businesses in modern times. Age old strategies of CRM, brand management have now been replaced with CVM, TCVM, CVA, EVA and other relevant business techno terms.Chapter one discusses CVM where customers are celebrated as chief pioneer or instigators driving the market , the product and the services allied to products. Customer excellence has been regarded as the core theme of transformational process taking place in the organization. Three key aspects as of customers, of employees and owners are to be handled in corresponding actions in business. The company or brand must perform actions and take steps which may probably enhance its image and quality in the eyes of customers, employees, managers. The brand must separate necessary and relevant (truly important) tasks from unnecessary and irrelevant work and follow this procedure in all business processes. Customer value as a result of the action should be more than what existed before the task had been undertaken.He also enlists different tasks into categories such as CVA, BVA , EVA, and NVA. CVA deals with customer expectation where as BVA deals with business requirements. EVA is related with employee requirements and NVA includes those tasks which are neither related with business nor with customers. According to Baldrige criteria, business excellence can be achieved through visionary leadership, organization and personal learning, giving value to employees and partners, taking social responsibility, managing innovation and focusing on results and the future possible scenes. Customer feedback can be maximized by measuring customer satisfaction complaints and communicating them to the employees. Further action planning also needs to be prepared to decide future possible steps to correct related issues. An action team should be prepared for carrying out the plans in an effective manner.These plans and actions should be properly communicated to the intended customers and the society. Customer loyalty has been defined in terms of loyal customers giving wallet retention to the company. It also indicates the client revenues for the current year in relation with previous years. Loyal customers have a tendency to accept company's product even during bad times in the market. They also perceive company's as partners with a virtual life time contract. It must be remembered that a company or brand requires customers and customers require quality product at competitive prices and not a company or brand.Customers often require to be intimated about newly developed & innovated products and at the same time, new experiences around those products. Customer bill of price includes these transformations of information through sales, marketing, service centers, call centres etc.The COO performs the job of CVA analysis during product introductions. They also try to make sure that internal processes work in sync with customer's happiness and values achieved thereof. …

The Tao of Loyalty: Winning with Employees

Abstract: The Tao of Loyalty: Winning with Employees By Ajit Rao Response Books, New Delhi, 2006, Pages: 257, Price: ?275 ISBN: 0-7619-3554-1The Tao of Loyalty, authored by an international expert marketing consultant, Ajit Rao, is an entirely refreshing approach to revisit profitable organizations and understand their crucial differentiating factors especially in the new economy industries. This book is well weaved to present powerful techniques that help comprehend and build employee loyalty thus making it invaluable for the people in the corporate world and the services sector in particular.The book, The Tao of Loyalty, starts with a categorical applause to the power of the Indian consumer, exceptionally feminized to show her desire for value and drive worldwide businesses towards delivering that value. To typify the contradictions of life and its implications on management, the author relies on Tao (Yin and Yang) , a Chinese school of thought to depict aspects like male, female; hot, cold; and soft, hard. Tao, a complete and holistic in its approach, helps to identify, comprehend and build a team of highly loyal employees. The People factor, i.e., the 5th ? of marketing is fast gaining significant acceptance and is measured to be imperative to organizations as studies prove that above and beyond the factors of products, cost and speed; people and brand are driving customer loyalty and retention. Organizations in high-growth economies rely more on people and their loyal contributions. The higher "feel-good" element for an employee refers to the attitudinal or emotional loyalty while future positive behaviors relate with behavioral loyalty. Attitudinal or emotional loyalty scales heights only when there is high emotional contentment in the workplace, sense of pride and connect with the organization's concerns as one's own.Unlike employee engagement which is an "inside-out" view, employee loyalty is an "outside-in" view which makes organizations contemplate on what creates the bonding between employees and their organizations. Though emotional loyalty is a potent indicator of organizational health, it can pilot attrition levels. To build potential insights into employee loyalties, the book provides a novel loyalty segmentation/matrix that grades employees as truly loyal, accessible, trapped and high risk employees. Loyalty segmentation provides an incisive foundation for employee -related decision-making in organizations. Truly loyal employees are the most sought after, maintain both high emotional and behavioral loyalty, high performing and spread positivity. Accessible employees are more of "value-seekers" or "opportunists" who would quit despite their attitudinal loyalty. Trapped employees are literally locked into their current organizations owing to personal reasons, risk aversion, immobility or financial reasons and are generally low on emotional loyalty and contribute to a minimum extent. The least preferred segment would be the high risk category who are neither emotionally connected nor are they great contributors. They almost translate into actual attrition rates at the organizational level. Any organization, to increase the percentage of its truly loyal employees, it needs to focus on ensuring that 1 1 factors are provided to its employees. Working on the lines of the managerial grid as suggested by Blake and Mouton, the author categorizes the 1 1 factors as task and people factors. The task bucket factors are job satisfaction, role clarity, buy-into-vision/mission, resources and accomplishment while the People bucket factors are fairness, care and concern, trust, appreciation and value for new ideas/suggestions. As a strong plinth to support both the task and people factors, an exceptional quality or higher order flexible communication structure needs to be established within the organization. These factors can be averaged to provide a single score called the Tao score. Higher Tao scores indicate higher levels of employee loyalty and lower attrition rates. …

Statistical Methods for Practice and Research (A Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS)

Abstract: Statistical Methods for Practice and Research (A Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS) By Ajai S Gaur and Sanjaya S Gaur Response Books, A Division of SAGE Publications, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London, 2006, Pages: 170, Price: ?295 ISBN: 13: 978-0-7619-3502-5 (PB), 10: 0-7619-3502-9 (PB)Research is an organized enquiry, whether logical or else. Scientific research, in contrast, utilizing scientific method, has distinct goals and methods, makes reliable data, consistent and clear-cut findings, and reasonable conclusions. Statistics act as a crucial responsibility in every field of human activity. It has a significant job in determining the handy situation of per capita income, unemployment, population growth rate, housing, schooling medical facilities, etc., in a country. At present statistics grasps an essential point in just about each pasture similar to industry, commerce, trade, physics, chemistry, economics, mathematics, biology, botany, psychology, astronomy, etc., accordingly application of statistics is extremely broad (Statistics Doctor, 2001).SPSS consists of an integrated series of computer programs that facilitate the user to understand data from questionnaire surveys and other sources, to maneuver them in diverse traditions and to generate an extensive choice of statistical analyses and reports, together with documentation. The original version of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was written in the late 1960's by two postgraduate political science students who could not get any happiness from statisticians or computer programmers when it came to dealing out, manipulating and analyzing data from questionnaire surveys. SPSS was first released in the USA in 1968 and arrived in the UK in 1970. It was a built-in lay down of agendas for the management and statistical analysis of social science data, developed particularly for the processing and analysis of data from questionnaire surveys. On account of its clear-cut English-like command language and notable user manual, it extends rapidly all over the community investigate group of people. It was consequently triumphant to SPSS Ine was set up to look after the generous position of the University of Chicago. It hurriedly happens to the world average designed for social science computing. Later on SPSS Ine consulted business more willingly than social research applications and developed a graphic user edge based on drop-down menus rather than syntax (Investopedia, 2003).SPSS further escorts for research methods at the present time. Today, with SPSS, most of what you need to know is in reality built into the software. Subsequent the integral lecture will offer you a swift way in how to utilize SPSS. It's designed to match the material in your text with things you can do in SPSS. The requisite irritation is really more like a concern. The simplicity of using a program like SPSS makes data analysis easy to get to those who would as soon not when it comes to math and statistics. Nowadays, the monotonous computations are disappeared, but you still have to know the reason of sampling, how to collect data, and how to tell which statistical test is suitable for a given point of capacity. Moreover, if you're disappearing in the direction of inquire SPSS for a relationship; you still need to know where those things come from and what they tell you.The book is presented in 1 1 chapters. First chapter is an introduction to the SPSS, highlighting the starting principles of SPSS, its main menus, working with data editor and its screens, commands, importing and exporting data of SPSS. Second chapter is an overview of the common statistical concepts in terms of variables, types of research variables, reliability and validity, tests of hypothesis and use in SPSS. Strength and reliability are two different features of relationship between variables. Third chapter details the set of brief descriptive coefficients that summarizes a prearranged data set, which can moreover be present a demonstration of the whole population or a sample. …

Entrepreneurship, Its Conceptualization and Teaching in Business Schools: Management Lecturers' Perspective

Abstract: Entrepreneurship education has been recognized as one of the crucial factors in fostering entrepreneurial attitude and thus contributing to the economy and regional development. Still, it is found that there are large numbers of problems associated with entrepreneurship education; first problem for resolution is one of the definition. In this regard, this study explores lecturers' interpretations of 'what entrepreneurship is' and their approach to teach entrepreneurship. The data is collected from 232 business lecturers from three South Asian countries namely: India, Singapore and Malaysia. The study reveals that there is no consensus among the management lecturers regarding how to interpret the term entrepreneurship. However, it was found that out of two prominent approaches in entrepreneurship education, business skill approach is preferred over attribute development approach equivocally.INTRODUCTIONWithin the realm of entrepreneurship research, it has been unanimously accepted that entrepreneurship education by and large, is successful in influencing students' entrepreneurial intentions and behaviors (Fayolle, 2002) which leads to the formation of new venture and ultimately economic development (Hynes, 1996). Considering this, it has been observed that on one hand, research in the arena of entrepreneurship education is increasing (Garavan and O'Cinneide, 1994), at the same time there is found to be ambiguity over the meaning of the term entrepreneurship (Bruyat and Julien, 2000; and Bennett, 2006).During last almost three decades, we have witnessed that management education across the globe has seen upsurge like never before and last few years have witnessed growth of entrepreneurship education and training from primary to university level. Still, we do not have sufficient knowledge that how the lecturers perceive the term entrepreneurship (Bennett, 2006). It is very necessary from research and academic standpoint that we have a clear understanding about lecturer's perception of entrepreneurship because they are the people who not only shape the curriculum but also teaching pedagogy and ultimately help a student to determine their future career aspiration. Bennett (2006) also said that there is no commonly held view about "what entrepreneurship is" or "how it should be taught". This reflects that still a good amount of research is required in this arena, so as to have better conceptual clarity in understanding and defining the entrepreneurship and pedagogical aspects of teaching entrepreneurship.Therefore, the present research study would make an attempt to understand that how academic staff of management institute of three South Asian nations, namely: India, Singapore and Malaysia understands the term 'entrepreneurship'. Moreover, one of the chief problems that is often debated and discussed among researchers and academic advocates of entrepreneurship at large is whether we can teach entrepreneurship (Hynes, 1996). Therefore, this study would also make an attempt to gauge the feeling of business lecturers from these three countries that whether we can teach entrepreneurship and then to know that whether their current or past teaching of entrepreneurship subject and their business experience affect their perception towards entrepreneurship and approaches to teach entrepreneurship.REVIEW OF LITERATUREENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATIONEntrepreneurship is deemed to be the catalyst that creates wealth and job creation in the new economy (Louw et al, 2003). To expedite economic development and considering the need of an hour, number of programs offered in entrepreneurship has seen an upsurge in last two decades. This steady stream of courses on entrepreneurship intends to ignite the spark of entrepreneurship among youth and create awareness about entrepreneurship as viable career option (Postiogo, 2002).A number of researchers have opined that entrepreneurship education is one of the key element that shape the understanding of youth towards entrepreneurship (Kourilsky and Walstad, 1998). …

Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Study of the Social Segments in the Indian State of Goa

Abstract: India has many mineral extraction and processing related businesses which are subjected to serious questions because of adverse effect they create on the environment and the people. After adoption of liberalized economic policies the relationship between business and society has undergone major change. To demonstrate social commitment businesses engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. But CSR, both as concept and practice, is subjected to many debates and confusions. There are questions about the real benefits it brings to communities and society. The perception of society varies among people from various age groups and education backgrounds. Social scientists feel that CSR benefits the businesses more than the society and companies use it as marketing tool to create good image among the potential customers. To open a useful debate on the subject a study was conducted in the state of Goa in India which has many iron ore mines. The study reports that the politically and socially powerful people influence the CSR related activities the most at the cost of marginalized and neglected communities including the tribal and migrants. CSR plans and programs are yet to align with the real needs of society.INTRODUCTIONCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a balancing act to demonstrate commitment of business towards society. The relationship between business and society has undergone major change in last few decades in various parts of the globe including India. However, CSR literature is dominated by studies in the western and developed countries with very few studies available on developing country context (such as Lokshin et ai, 2001; Peinado-Vara, 2006; Reddy and Camelia, 2007; and Shauki, 2011). The latter studies focusedonly on the business side of CSR (e.g., Quazi and O'Brien, 2000; Blowfield, 2003; and Zulkiflli and Amran, 2006) almost completely ignoring the community's expectation. Studies on Indian CSR practices are no exception. Also, too much generalization is evident while reporting on developing countries (Frynas, 2006), as if all of them have similar social, political and economical contexts and norms. We can not ignore that developing countries present different kind of challenges due to their unique characteristics like wide disparity between the rich and the poor, illiteracy and poor physical public infrastructure. They are not able to utilize the available natural resources in a way to benefit all stakeholders including society due to factors like outdated technology and poor governance indicators.India has huge mineral reserves and hence potential for business activities in mining and allied areas. However, mining has not only affected environment but also the communities and their livelihood (Humphreys, 2000). Though the mining companies pay financial compensation as per the legal framework, mass agitations against businesses and the government for environmental degradation and loss of livelihood are very common (Srikant, 2009). NGOs receive mass support to voice against irresponsible mining activities. Individuals and social groups have filed many 'public interest litigations' in the Supreme Court of India1 to pressurize the Government and businesses. Hence different context is emerging in India which is also about high level of social activism and judicial intervention. Therefore, the role of Government in CSR is also becoming important (Bagire et al, 2011; and Shauki, 2011). Government of India has already made it mandatory to allocate certain percentage (varying from 0.5% to 5%) of the retained profit of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) in CSRrelated activities.Literature (Scott, 1995; Barney, 1997; Kanter and Brinkerhoff, 1981) suggests that success of business largely depends on the stakeholders' support, which can be gained only when companies understand how stakeholders perceive them.But the aspects of community perceptions, expectations, and local cultures are yet to receive sufficient attention in design and implementation of CSR policies (Agim, 1997). …

Role of Information Sources in Selection of Life Insurance Schemes: An Empirical Study of Policyholders

Abstract: Empirical financial research treats sources of information as an important determinant for selection or purchase of financial services. Sources of information provide information for other selection factors and themselves acts as selection factors also. However the academic literature is very scanty with respect to insurance purchase or selection. This study presents the components of sources of information, which act as selection criteria for purchase of insurance. Primary data collected from 500 respondents, randomly selected from the cities under survey was used to assess the sources of information. Factor analytic technique using varimax rotation procedure resulted in three components namely: 'Literature and advertising'; 'Professional recommendations'; and 'Return performance'. Inferential statistics on Anderson Rubin (AR) factor scores depict the significant differences between various categories, grouped on the basis of demographic, economic and behavioral characteristics. The study adds to the existing literature of life insurance selection and will be of help in improving the marketing strategies of life insurance companies.INTRODUCTION AND REVIEWFollowing the passage of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Act in 1999, market driven competition gained much ground as compared to public sector exclusivity in Indian insurance sector. The beginning of this new era saw a phenomenal growth in not only the number of private companies but also witnessed proliferation of new innovative products and new distribution channels. Growing middle class segment, rising income, increasing insurance awareness, rising investments and infrastructure spending have led a strong support to extend insurance services in India. Following this Indian insurance industry witnessed increase in number of life insurance companies from 5 in 2000-01 to 23 in 2010-11; increase in insurance penetration to 4.40% in 2010-11 from 2.15% in 2000-01; and increase in number of issuing new policies from 253.71 lakh in 2002-03 to 481.52 lakh in 2010-11 (Anonymous, 2011).With such an explosive growth, there is a large number of products to choose, ranging from simple vanilla term plan to highly evolved and complex product like United Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs). Adding to the complexity, with in even one category of say, term plans, there are many schemes from which a choice can be made, thereby making selection decisions are extremely difficult. Therefore such a scenario makes it imperative to study the factors affecting the selection of life insurance policy. With the proliferation of gamut of new products and services, as well as new competitors, life insurers must learn all about the factors that help to attract customers away from their competitors, motivate current customers to purchase insurance and stimulate others to buy the product. Sources of information are very important in knowing about these factors. Study of sources of information is extremely important as on one hand they provide knowledge about selection factors and on the other hand, they themselves acts as selection criteria.Modern finance theory assumes that purchase decision for individual financial asset is made on the basis of investor's anticipation regarding the returns in future and asset risk, and at the same time covariance of these returns with other assets in investor's portfolio (Markowitz, 1959; and Elton and Gruber, 2001). As a result most of the research on financial asset selection and purchase thereof extensively used only return and risk parameters. Later on many of the researchers have considered that purchase or selection of financial service is a part of multi attribute decision among which financial asset return and risk performance is one important part (Cook and Hebner, 1993; Capon et al, 1996 and Campenhout, 2007). With the inputs from different academic researches pointing towards different selection criteria, it is pointed out that there is no single theoretical framework of selection of financial asset (Campenhout, 2007). …

On the alternative proxies for estimating firm growth in empirical corporate finance literature: Evidence from Indian manufacturing sector

Abstract: Empirical tests of theoretical propositions necessitate quantitative estimation of qualitative firm level attribute. The challenges of such estimation are nowhere more pronounced than it is the context of estimating firm growth as evinced from the multiplicity of proxies used. However in using or theorizing about the validity of these alternative proxies in their quest to measure a common intangible called ‘firm growth’, the issue of inter-relationship between these variables and the dimensions of growth it is capable of capturing has never been explored. This research paper is an attempt to address this issue. This paper uses a sample of 429 listed manufacturing firms for the period 2004-05 to 2010-11, and employs correlation analysis as well as a panel data model to reach its conclusion. Findings of this research suggest that the alternative financial statements based measures of firm growth are not correlated to an extent that can warrant substitution or interchangeable use. And in certain cases correlations are stronger with time lags than without. Furthermore, it is also observed that financial statements based measures of growth have limited explanatory power when it comes to explaining variations in market-to-book ratio of firms. Findings of this paper coupled with studies on the linkage between macroeconomic and capital market conditions with equity prices, provides indirect evidence that market-to-book ratio factors in the forward looking perspective of growth that the other alternative measures are not capable enough to capture, given their historical nature.

Culture and Organizational Behaviour (Second Printing 2010)

Abstract: Culture and Organizational Behaviour (Second Printing 2010) By Jai B P Sinha Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd. New Delhi, Pages: 426, Price: $8.06 ISBN: 978-81-7829-896-2(PB)Organizational behavior in the contemporary world is exposed to wide array of factors and one such factor finding wide audience is culture. The influence of culture on OB is so much talked of that it has almost become a cliche. This is evident in the flora of books on management both in Western and non-Western context that delineate on topic highlighting the influence of culture on OB. However, books dealing with the applicability and validity organizational behavior theories and practices across national boundaries are scarce. The book under review is one of the best contributions in this regard, which provides a considerable knowledge about organizational behavior as it has developed in the West and situates them in the Indian cultural perspective.The book is logically stratified into four main parts: (I) The Backdrop; (II) Individuals; (III) Groups; and (IV) Organizations. Each of these parts is further fragmented into meaningfully classified chapters of study. Each chapter contains few box inserts that provide insights to help readers to get in-depth understanding of contents in a precise manner.The first part includes Chapters 1 to 3. The opening chapter in this section is devoted to the evolution and development of organizational behavior theories, models, contents and practices navigating from Western culture to Indian culture. It provides information on different approaches to managing organizations-the Howthorne study, the human relations and socio-technical approaches. The newer concept of global organizational behavior reflecting many cultural shades has also been discussed in his chapter. Chapter 2 highlights the Indian cultural perspective and mindset with regard to OB. The author draws the attention to the diversity in the Indian mindset due to the presence of amalgamation of different values, beliefs, norms and action orientations. Chapter 3 describes the Indian organizations in the larger milieu which has economical, political and social facets. This chapter provides an excellent explanation of the influence of cultural values and norms on the larger milieu in which Indian organizations operate.The part II of book includes Chapter 4 and 5. In Chapter 4, the author has clearly identified nearly all major concepts of self, personality and culture and provided on explanation of integration of these important topics. The author concerns the issue of overseeing the fact that personality of individuals working in an organization has positive and negative impacts on organizational behavior. Chapter 5 begins with conceptualization of well-being in three different perspectives and later describes wellbeing of individuals working in an organization through motivation and stressmanagement. It covers Indian conceptualization of well-being, theories of motivation and Indian approaches to motivation.The Part III of book includes Chapter 6 to 11. Chapter 6 explains why people form or join groups in an organization; types of groups found in an organization and elucidate the influence of culture on all aspects of group. …

Theory Building for Hypothesis Specification in Organizational Studies

Abstract: Theory Building for Hypothesis Specification in Organizational Studies By Badrinarayan Shankar Pausar SAGE Publications, 2009, Pages: 160, Price: ?495 ISBN: 978-81-321-0244'1 (HB)T'he book's description (an excerpt) says, "This book focuses on developing a cogent theory that leads to the specification of a hypothesis that can be taken up for subsequent empirical examination. It is a concise and holistic guide to theory building for such hypothesis specification. This volume breaks down the process of theory building into its component steps and explains each of them, starting with formative concepts of theory, units of theory, principles and processes of theory, to explaining theory building for hypothesis specification in organizational studies."As described above and also mentioned in the preface, this book describes theory building for the purpose of hypothesis specification. This book is meant for researchers pursuing quantitative research and interested in doing incremental science. The author has used the positivistic approach to theory building and the book is an outcome of this approach. He has distilled his extensive experience of teaching research methods course to come up with a book that can be used both as a text book by doctoral students and as a ready reckoner by practicing researcher. This book is useful for a researcher who might often come across various terms (concept, construct, variable, premise, mediation, etc.), but is not very clear about their exact meaning. In my opinion, the more widely cited works on theory building or methods are unwieldy to read, at least for a new researcher. This book can serve well if a new researcher gets acquainted with it in the beginning.The book contains seven chapters that can be divided into three broad sections. The first section (Chapters 1 to 4) deals with the concept and units of theory. The second section (Chapters 5 and 6) deals with the process of theory building for hypothesis specification. The last section (Chapter 7) deals with the process of building comprehensive models by employing complex processes such as moderation and mediation.Chapter one begins by describing what a theory is. The author has a simplified approach from the beginning that can be especially helpful to a novice researcher. For instance, clarifying the usage of terms such as theory and model is immensely useful to a person who has been asked to develop a research model but may not know the elements of a model. By differentiating between input and output part of a theory, the author has made it clear that a pictorial representation would only be a partial description of any theory. Without the associated concept definitions, assumption, and reasoned out statements to explain the conjectures drawn, this picture would remain incomplete. It would perhaps have been useful if a separate appendix had been created to distinguish or draw similarities between oft used words such as theory and model, proposition and hypotheses, concepts and variables, etc. The author consolidates the previous discussion at various points before moving to the next topic. While it may appear repetitive at a glance, it helps to clarify and internalize the discussion on a complex topic.Chapter two begins with a detailed description of terms that had been briefly mentioned in chapter one. The subsequent discussion on knowledge is precise and a reader immediately able to understand and differentiate between knowledge, science, beliefs, paradigms, theory, actual reality, conjectures and presumed reality. Putting all these terms in a framework would perhaps have made the differences and linkages much clearer (cf. Bacharach, 1989).The delineation between conceptual research and empirical research is interesting since most of the dissertation proposals reach the conceptual stage. This is a critical point in a doctoral research process where post conceptual research, the doctoral student receives the nod to collect empirical data. …

Organizational Role Stress: A Comparison between Professionals in IT and ITES Sectors

Abstract: The increased globalization, privatization and favorable government policies, has facilitated the emergence of India as a leading offshore IT/ITES destination The boom in this sector has posed new challenges and constrains on the workforce employed This study presents a systematic study on the occupational stress in the IT sector and the ITES sector Firstly, it compares the nature and intensity of ORS among professionals employed in IT and ITES sector Second, it investigates the various coping strategies used Primary data was obtained from leading IT/ITES destination in India through standardized instruments such as ORS and Role PICS (O) It was found that the professionals in IT scored a higher ORS score and the respective means of all the stressors was found to be higher in IT sector except for RS, IRD and RIn For both IT and ITES top three stressors were Role Stagnation, Inter Role Distance and Role Erosion The findings presented will deepen our understanding of organizational stress in IT/ITES industry The paper will benefit the policy makers and the manager to understand the various role stressors faced by average employee in these organizations and will become the basis for initiating the stress management in IT/ITES organizationINTRODUCTIONThe increased globalization, privatization and favorable government policies, has facilitated the emergence of India as a leading offshore IT/ITES destination The dramatic rise of this service sector has defined the prevailing life cycle norms of a developed economy where an economy transits from agriculture to manufacturing to service economy India has witness a queer syndrome where it has almost given a miss to manufacturing economy and directly evolved into service economy The contribution of IT/ITES sector in the development of service sector in India has been immense IT/ ITES has been touted as the sunshine industry and is poise to achieve an estimate of USD881 bn by FY2011 employing 25 million professionals directly and another 83 million indirectly This sector has contributed 26% to the total Indian export in FY2011 as against 4% in FY 1998 IT Services segment of this sector has shown an impressive growth of 227 percentages over FY2010 to reach aggregated export of USD335 bn (Nasscom, Strategic Review, 2011) In addition to the key global sourcing drivers such as cost, access to talent, business improvements and increasing speed to market (Nasscom, Strategic Review, 2009), the sector has matured and innovated to accommodate higher value added services providing strategically benefits to their clientsWORKING CONDITIONS IN IT/ITES SECTORIT/ITES as an industry is changing at much faster pace, and at smaller intervals, than any of the traditional industries The technological advancements in this sector comes up with in a short span of time with increasingly significant high efficiencies and novelty, putting them apart from technology previously/currently in use It has brought in faster processing and transformation of information exposing the IT professionals to ever increasing flow of information thereby causing information overload leading to stressful conditions (Raitoharju, 2005) The skills in this sector are becoming obsolete at a rate of 20% per year (Yourdon Edward, 1994) The client's expectations in terms of skills required for processing jobs keeps changing and forces professionals to upgrade/ adapt very fast to their demands At times IT/ITES professionals are forced to change the entire paradigms amidst constant uncertainty and high risk This sector is characterized by service providers adhering to strict deadlines set up by their clients, working in multiple shifts and in different time zones, multitasking, increased interaction with offshore client, extended working hours which at times stretches beyond 50 hours per week (King, 1995) and monotonous work IT/ITES professionals are constantly under pressure to deliver the project/services efficiently at required time span and adhering to the clients' requirement and to be cost effective (Hart, 1994; Longenecker et al …