bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Nurturing a Venture: A Venture Capitalist's Perspective
Authors: Varshney Vishnu 
Published: June 2019

The concept of venture capital originated in the US in 1946. A number of new technologies which could be commercially exploited had come up after the Second World War and funds given for such ventures were called venture capital investment. Though the venture capital movement has been in existence for more than three decades in India, it has only recently gained momentum. New ventures found it difficult to get funding from the banks as they did not have any collateral to offer. Hence, venture capital industry was started in India to fund such enterprises. Gujarat Venture Finance Limited (GVFL) was set up by the World Bank in 1990. Till date, it has funded 56 companies from all over the country. GVFL supports only technology-oriented companies. Funding is provided in stages. The money given at the seed or early stage is called angel funding. This paper documents how GVFL funded and nurtured a venture called Permionics which was involved in manufacturing an innovative water filter and helped it to grow into a commercially viable enterprise. This was not smooth sailing and the venture did not take off initially as the project required a lot of product innovation and market research for its feasibility. However, the venture capitalist persisted with the efforts in making the venture successful as he had faith in the product. Thus, he went beyond hand-holding and helped in the company's promotional effort, getting expert advice, solving internal disputes, coordinating strategic tie-ups, etc. After some trial and error, the product was finally relaunched and was a great success. The main conclusions emerging from this paper are: A venture capitalist's contribution is not just funding an enterprise but also seeing to its proper functioning. A venture capitalist provides necessary linkages to the entrepreneur for the growth of the enterprise. A venture capitalist not only provides moral support but also helps in forming the company. He is more of a partner than an outsider. A good venture capitalist sees the enterprise through its ups and downs until it becomes a commercially successful venture.
Taxation and Corporate Payout Policy
Authors: Singhania Monica 
Published: June 2019

This study examines the dividend trends of 590 Indian companies over the period 1992–2004 of all manufacturing, non-government, non-financial, and non-banking companies listed on BSE for which there was no missing financial information over the period of the study. Dividend payout has been chosen for the purpose of examining the impact of taxation on dividend policy. Analysis was done for the full period under consideration, immediate one year of tax regime change, and immediate three years of tax regime change so as to conclusively establish the results and also to note the variations in results over different time frames, if any. For the purpose of this study, the sample was classified on the basis of dividend history, industry, and size. Of the 590 companies, 240 companies were regular payers—the companies that had paid dividend regularly without ever skipping the payments throughout the period of the study. According to tax preference or trade-off theory, favourable dividend tax should lead to higher payouts. The Union Budget of 1997 made dividends taxable in the hands of the company paying them and not in the hands of the investors receiving them. The corporate dividend tax aimed at improving the economic growth and flexibility by eliminating the tax bias against equity-financed investments thereby promoting saving and investment. The new system aimed at reducing the tax bias against capital gains in the earlier tax system, encouraging investment, and enhancing the long-term growth potential of the Indian economy. As compared to the earlier tax regime where the recipient shareholder paid the tax on the dividend received primarily on the basis of marginal tax slab rate applicable to him/her (varying between 0% to 30%), in the current structure of corporate dividend tax, the dividend paying companies pay dividend tax at a flat rate of 12.5 per cent as of financial year 2005–06. Implicitly, the present corporate dividend tax regime can be termed as a more favourable tax policy. The analysis of influence of changes in the tax regime on dividend behaviour reveals the following: Trade-off or tax preference theory does appear to hold true in the Indian context in the case of both the total sample companies as well as the regular payers. While in the case of total sample companies, the results are significant for the entire period of study and the immediate three year period, in case of regular payer, the results are significant for all the three time periods analysed. Though the results are somewhat mixed, it can be largely inferred that there is a significant difference in average dividend payout ratio in the two different tax regimes. There are wide industry-wise and size-wise variations in empirical findings visible over the period of study.
Need Behavioural Orientation of Dynamos and Drones in Organizations: A Maruti Experience
Authors: Lather Anu Singh , Jain Shilpa 
Published: June 2019

Research has recognized the important role of personality in developing and selecting employees and in determining behaviour at workplace. Personality is believed to affect decisionmaking, problem-solving, conflict management, and stress management. This stems from the assumption that role conflicts and organizational stress are also manifestations of the underlying turbulence of one�s personality predispositions. This paper reports the results of the threephase study conducted in Maruti Udyog Limited to understand the different behaviour patterns in workplace. In phase I, secondary data were collected through organizational stress and work motivation questionnaires, and job satisfaction and role conflict scales. In phase II, Dynamos and Drones were identified. Those scoring low on organizational stress, role conflict, and absenteeism and high scores on work motivation, work performance, and job satisfaction were grouped as Dynamos. On the other hand, those obtaining high scores on organizational stress, role conflict, and absenteeism and low scores on work motivation, work performance, and job satisfaction were categorized as Drones. In phase III, the Edwards' Personal Preference Schedule was administered to Dynamos and Drones to compare the need orientation of their behaviour. In order to examine the difference between the Dynamos and the Drones on various need orientation of their personality, t-test was conducted. The results reveal the following: The Dynamos are significantly higher on achievement, order, and autonomy compared to the Drones. Dynamos prefer to participate in friendly groups and form strong attachments. Dynamo's high score on endurance shows that they keep pursuing a job till it is complete. The drones are significantly higher on aggression and heterosexuality resulting in poor interpersonal relationship. There is no difference between the Dynamos and the Drones on deference, exhibition, interception, dominance, abasement, and change. In order to grow and be successful, an organization therefore needs a workforce consisting of more Dynamos. And, to be a dynamo, one should have the need personality orientation of order, endurance, and achievement which accounts for one's desire to give his best, to be successful, plan work, and stick to the job till the end. The author also stresses upon the need orientation of affiliation, succorance, and nurturance which together form the key ingredients for building interpersonally sensitive relationship.
Developing Advanced Decision-Making Skills in International Leaders and Managers
Authors: Safi Asila , Burrell Darrell Norman 
Published: June 2019

Socially, economically, politically, and technologically, our world is transforming in complex ways that are beyond what we could have fathomed even five years ago. Now, more than ever, managerial decisions have far-reaching consequences in the way that organizations fail or succeed in bridging commerce and compassion, sustainability and profitability, and move from vision to effective strategic implementation. Solving problems, making decisions, and picking the courses of action are the most critical aspects of being in charge because it is risky and very difficult. Bad decisions can damage a career, influence peoples' lives, and hurt an organization's performance. But, where do bad decisions come from? In many cases, they can be traced back to the way the decisions were made. Maybe the right questions were not asked. Maybe the right alternatives were not explored or may be the data collected was wrong. Sometimes, the fault of poor leadership decisions lies not in the decision-making process, but rather in the mind of the decision-maker. How does an organizational manager make the correct leadership decisions when the unexpected occurs or the existing plans are insufficient or important organizational core values and goals are threatened? Critical Thinking in decision-making helps the professionals ask relevant questions, gather opinions from various groups, interpret complex problems, and make wise decisions. The development of critical thinking skills in international executives has never been more vital than it is today. The engagement in managerial critical thinking is about learning to apply experience-based, team-based, and formal problemsolving methods to situations. It is essential to develop a keen ability to overcome and become self-aware of biases, false assumptions, myths, and faulty paradigms that can hamper effective decision-making.
Significance of Non-Price Variables in Price Discovery: An Empirical Study of Stock Option Market in India
Authors: Srivastava Sandeep , Yadav Surendra S , Jain P K 
Published: June 2019

The efficiency of the financial markets is important as it ensures increased productive efficiency and economic growth through better capital allocation. Price discovery is the central aspect of financial markets. The relatively efficient price signals also facilitate the participation of uninformed investors to make suitable portfolio choices. Derivative instruments like option contracts enhance informational efficiency of the underlying's market through better price discovery as these securities are expected to increase the flow of information in the market. Besides, they facilitate hedging of risk. In India, exchange-trade derivates are of recent origin in the stock market. This study investigates the significance of net open interest and trading volume in stock option and stock index option market to predict the underlying stock prices⁄index level. In the study, only 15 stock option contracts (having maturity of one-month) and Nifty options for the entire period, i.e., November 10, 2001 to November 2, 2004, have been analysed. The analysis could not be carried out for all the stocks in option segment because of the fact that the options were not traded or the trading range and volumes were too thin to justify any analysis. The major findings of the study are as follows: Net open interest of stock option is one of the significant variables in the determination of the future spot price of the underlying stock. Open interest-based predictors are statistically more significant than the volume-based predictors in the Indian context too as is the case for the US market. The trading behaviour of Indian investors is found to be different from their counterparts in the developed world. This difference can be attributed to: the nascent state of derivatives market in India extremely limited participation of institutional investors in the Indian stock derivative market because of regulatory restrictions; as such investors are allowed to use derivative securities mainly for hedging and arbitrage purposes only. The findings would definitely help the regulatory bodies in policy-making and further strengthening the efforts to promote the derivative market in India. There are many areas which are still unexplored and can be addressed by the future studies by using the intraday data and a larger sample for the stock options.
Environmental Aspects of Project Management
Authors: Vyas Neha 
Published: June 2019

The primary challenge in project management is to achieve all of the defined project goals and objectives while adhering to typical constraints which are usually scope, quality, time, and budget. Often, the basic flaw in project planning and design is the complete neglect or minimal consideration of environmental and social costs and dependence only on economic analysis for project preparation and investment. A failure to understand and internalize adverse or negative impacts on environment during project preparation could lead to several undesirable consequences, which may ultimately jeopardize the very objectives of growth and development for which the project was proposed. In this paper, the author stresses upon the need for environmental management for successful project completion and discusses the challenges of addressing the key environmental issues. Environmental management is not just about the ‘trees and bees’ but also about health, safety, profits, quality assurance, reduced risks to reputation, and increased global competitiveness, states the author. Overall, it is about efficiency and reducing environmental and legal liabilities. It is argued that sound environment management reduces the unforeseen obstacles and bottlenecks that may otherwise hamper the delivery of project objectives while helping to improve the environmental performance of project operations. The key environmental issues resulting from agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and urban operations include: severe degradation of air quality due to industrial and vehicular pollution contamination of land and water resources due to pesticides, fertilizers, and dumping of hazardous wastes depletion of raw material reserves contamination of surface and ground water sources due to discharge of sewage and industrial effluents deforestation. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) study is suggested as a tool for formulating an environment management plan. EIA should, however, not be treated just as a tool for regulatory compliance but as an instrument for improving project management per se with proper expertise, time, and budget allocations made for the purpose. In environmental management, the moot question is: How to get started? The author's advice is to start small and simple and gradually turn them into action plans for a worksite and subsequently up-scale them for the entire company. It is ultimately the actions taken at personal or community level or as a project manager that matters the most when it comes to environmental sustainability. Policies and plans merely show the way. It is becoming increasingly important to make environmental management an economic driver that would serve to minimize environmental damages and promote resource efficiency and cost savings to businesses.
Facilitating Organizational Unlearning using Appreciative Inquiry as an Intervention
Authors: Srithika T M , Bhattacharyya Sanghamitra 
Published: June 2019

Drawing upon theoretical bases, this paper attempts to demonstrate a relationship between Appreciative Inquiry (AI), an organizational development (OD) intervention, and organizational unlearning. Present day organizations are characterized by continuous change. It has been accepted that change implies learning along various dimensions: cognitive, behavioural, and normative. Any type of organizational learning would involve: (1) creation of new knowledge and (2) getting rid of obsolete knowledge. The first aspect refers to learning while the second aspect relates to unlearning. While literature abounds in studies pertaining to organizational learning, literature on organizational unlearning is relatively few and far between. While appreciating the fact that both learning and unlearning complement each other and result in change, this paper has attempted to highlight the difference that inherently exists in the process of unlearning, as compared to the process of learning. And it is on account of these differences that the techniques or interventions that facilitate organizational learning may not be appropriate for organizational unlearning. According to Zell (2003), increased resistance to unlearn exists for individuals, groups or organizations due to their fear of loss of time and resources invested earlier in gaining such knowledge. Senge (1990) has described how the diagnostic process of analysing problems and identifying solutions by itself stifles creativity and flexibility and increases resistance. Thus, increased resistance and fear inherent in the unlearning process calls for an affirmative and strength-based approach such as Appreciative Inquiry, vis-a-vis other diagnostic problem-solving interventions. Based on an extensive review of existing literature, this paper attempts to demonstrate how AI can be used as an effective facilitator for unlearning. The complete AI process and principles have been enumerated and mapped to the unlearning process. With an eye to objectivity, the authors have also attempted to identify inhibiting factors that might hinder the process of unlearning while using AI as an intervention. While adding to existing literature, this paper is also expected to contribute meaningfully by sensitizing practising managers about this technique and logically establishing its efficacy, along with awareness creation of possible challenges that might arise during intervention. This in turn can have significant implications for longterm organizational change initiatives and OD practices.
Conspicuous Consumption: Is That All Bad? Investigating the Alternative Paradigm
Authors: Chaudhuri Himadri Roy , Majumdar Sitanath 
Published: June 2019

Effort in studying the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption can be adequately justified by the concept's near universality and timelessness. The Theory of Veblen presents conspicuousness as a purposive conduct in which status considerations predominate. His opinion regarding individuals' efforts “to excel in pecuniary standing” indicates his positioning of conspicuous consumption as consumers' deliberate, conscious activity to achieve the objective of status enhancement. Our everyday experience suggests that the nature of conspicuous consumption (CC) is going through a change, which remains largely unaddressed by the extant literature (for details see, Chaudhuri and Majumdar, 2006). This calls for a closer investigation of the dynamics of a more contemporary perspective of CC and the present paper takes an attempt at the same. For long, in modern societies where ‘order’ is of supreme importance, CC has been considered as a ‘sinful,’ ‘wasted’ expense that delivers no value. Possibly because of this, lavish expenditure was branded wasteful as the practice symbolized exception (Mason, 1981) or “disorder.” However, with evolving ideologies of postmodernism, consumption also gradually moved to the symbolic realm. This symbolic consumption helps the consumer to express his⁄her self and achieve a sense of continuity and identity. By adopting abstract interpretations and ascribing complex cultural meaning to products, those with “higher” taste but less money would aim to compete with those with money but no matching taste. The cultural ‘elite,’ thus, can make even a mundane or an easily affordable product to express and exhibit their exclusive taste, by sophisticated, in-depth appreciation and appropriate communication of these ‘taste-symbols’ which, by design, remain distinct from ‘status-symbols’. Based on the above discussion, the paper proposes an alternative conceptualization of the conspicuous consumption construct and also discusses the marketing implications.
Role of Knowledge Management Initiatives in Organizational Innovativeness: Empirical Findings from the IT Industry
Authors: Mathew Mary , Kumar Devaraj , Perumal Santhi 
Published: June 2019

This paper addresses the relationship between knowledge management initiatives in Indian IT organizations and their innovativeness at the organization level by using the survey research methodology. Knowledge management initiatives were measured in the context of cultural, structural, and technological interventions. Innovation was measured in terms of organizational behaviour related to sensitivity, learning, newness, trialability, communicability, risk-readiness, and absorption. A conceptual model was developed to assess the relationship between knowledge management initiatives and innovativeness. A hypothesis that knowledge management initiatives (KMI) influence the innovativeness of the organization was propounded. The questionnaire developed to assess knowledge management initiatives had 60 items, while an already available questionnaire consisting of 65 items was used to measure innovativeness. Eventually, the number of items in the knowledge management initiatives and innovativeness questionnaires was bought down to 45 and 34 respectively. Items were measured on a fivepoint Likert type rating scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The reliability of the questionnaires was checked using Cronbach Alpha. The study was carried out on 84 professionals from 20 Bangalore-based IT organizations that had implemented knowledge management initiatives and had SEI CMM level 5. Means and standard deviations of the variables were computed. The variables were subjected to correlation analysis and factor analysis. A multiple regression analysis was done to identify the influence of knowledge management initiatives on organizational innovativeness. An organizational innovativeness score, was used as the dependent variable and the variables of knowledge management initiatives were used as the independent variables. The results of data analysis showed that the initiatives taken by companies to enhance their knowledge assets fall into the culture, structure, and technology subsystems and that all the three are highly correlated: Technology and culture are more strongly associated with each other, as compared to their association with structure. All the three KMI variables strongly influence organizational innovativeness, with ‘culture’ being the most important. ‘Learning climate,’ a variable of culture, is found to be the most significant of the variables to influence innovativeness. Hence, organizations that lay emphasis on learning and provide excellent training facilities can foster a more innovative environment. Interestingly, ‘risk readiness‘ is not a factor contributing to innovativeness and is not significantly associated with the other variables. The variables like leadership, networking, reward and recognition, structure and technology do not significantly influence innovativeness.