bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Transforming Work Culture: A Case Study
Authors: Srivastava D.K. 
Published: August 2011

Today, all organisations are trying to improve their work culture to ensure their long term survival and growth in competitive business environment. This paper presents a case study of changing work culture in a large manufacturing organisation. This study is based on consulting experience of the author. The objective of the consultancy assignment was to develop a work culture characterised by teamwork, openness and involvement of all employees in operations and maintenance of the plant. Intervention techniques like education and training, counselling, participative decision-making, etc. have been used to improve the work culture. In the beginning, employees showed resistance to change, but they accepted change later. After three years it is seen that work culture of the company improved. Workers developed commitment to the organisation, accepted new responsibilities and improved their knowledge and skill. Executives developed a tendency to work in team and utilise the potential of workers. They developed positive attitude to work and organisation. It can be concluded that attitudes and behaviour of workers as well as executives have improved. Change in work culture has led to tangible and intangible gains for the company.
A Comparative Study of Pakistani Consumers' Country-of-Origin Attitudes toward the Marketing Mix of Products from Germany, Japan and South Korea
Authors: Butt A Rauf 
Published: August 2011

This study is among the first to report findings from empirical consumer research in Pakistan. The study has examined international business competitive rivalry of Germany, Japan and South Korea from the perspective of the consumers of a neutral country, Pakistan. The research was conducted to evaluate and compare the influence of the “made in …” label on Pakistani consumers' attitudes toward the marketing mix of products from the countries. This study used verbal references to general products by using the questionnaires used by a number of earlier researchers in similar studies. The comparison of the Pakistani consumers' attitude scores toward the marketing mix was conducted using analysis of variance statistical technique, at the .05 level of significance. The results of the hypotheses testing indicated the existence of significant differences among the Pakistani consumers' country-of-origin attitudes toward the marketing mix of products from the countries. Pakistani consumers seem to have the most positive attitudinal response to the products and marketing activities of Japan. The findings of this study are expected to contribute toward the planning and execution of the marketing strategies of international business managers in Pakistan and benefit all the concerned organisations.
Creating Corporate Advantage through Human Resource Development
Authors: Ahuja Shobha 
Published: August 2011

The purpose of the paper is to ascertain the extent to which human resource development impacts the economy in general and the corporate sector in particular. The paper, while analysing in detail the situation prevailing in the international arena, concludes that there is no close correspondence between economic development and human resource management at the aggregate level. A high ranking of the Human Development Index does not necessarily imply wealth creation which would lead the economy on a high growth trajectory. However, a closer look at corporate performance-demonstrated through case studies-shows that employee satisfaction and HRD does help companies to leverage their production pattern and create new advantages through sustained value addition. The success stories of corporates across the globe, made possible through human resource management, has spurred a number of professional companies in India to adopt HR practices and invest in human resource development. Companies are increasingly adopting innovative HR polices which would empower their skilled and qualified employees and motivate them to add value to the production process. However, corporate India has yet to invest in HR in a big way. This is especially the case when it comes to investing in unskilled labour which continues to be regarded as a fixed cost in the manufacturing process. Hence, there is a need for a planned strategy on manpower development as well as recruitment and remuneration which would enthuse workers to score high on the productivity index.
A Study of Indian Business Ventures Abroad
Authors: Srivastava Ritu , Kumar Krishna 
Published: August 2011

India started opening its economy a decade ago to integrate with the global economy. Several economic reforms have been undertaken during this period with the hope that India will soon emerge as a global player. There is a need to review the developments and take necessary corrective action. It is necessary because globalisation and integration with the world economy is a double-edged sword. If necessary care is not taken, the country may become only a global market rather than emerging as a global player. This paper examines the patterns of Indian Business Ventures Abroad, both in the form of subsidiaries and joint ventures over a period of 50 years since independence. The analysis reveals that there has been a significant increase in the activity. The ventures, however, have been concentrated in only a few, about a dozen, countries. The study also shows that there is a noticeable preference towards subsidiary mode of operation. Further, there are country-wise patterns of preferences towards use of joint ventures and subsidiary modes. The study also reveals that there is a significant shift in the mix of activities, tilting from high risk manufacturing to low risk trading and software development. It is also observed that there is a wide gap between the number of ventures approved and actually implemented. A comparison has also been drawn between Indian Business Ventures Abroad and the Foreign Business Ventures in India during the pre and the post-liberalisation era. This is complemented with the patterns of export/import ratio in the respective periods. The two together indicate that the reforms in economic policies undertaken so far seem to be leading to India fast becoming a global market rather than emerging as a global player. The paper then suggests that there is a need for intensive studies for developing policy and strategic interventions to strengthen India's business ventures abroad and to help India emerge as a global player.
Meeting the MNC Challenge: Are Indian Firms Competitive Enough
Authors: Ahuja Shobha 
Published: August 2011

The objective of the paper is to ascertain whether foreign firms display superior performance in the marketplace as compared to Indian owned business units. The emphasis is on the branded product. The paper, on the basis of specified parameters, concludes that even with higher productivity, foreign firms are unable to secure a distinct niche in the market place. The reason is that the foreign firms have limited presence in some higher growth areas. However, MNCs can pose a challenge once FDI enters the country in a big way. To meet competition from the MNC, Indian firms need to emphasise on product innovation and adopt constant technological upgradation as an integral part of corporate planning. Besides, there is need to continuously rework on factors such as price and performance in order to enhance the brand appeal. It is also desirable to address social and cultural factors to draw the customer to the branded product. Above all, domestic companies need to be accorded a level playing field to compete with foreign firms on equal terms.
Determinants of Delegation — A Study in Five Star Hotels
Authors: Jha Sumi 
Published: August 2011

In a competitive business scenario, attracting and retaining customers is a daunting task for managers of the service industry in general and five star hotels in particular. The present study has tried to suggest a few measures through which customer care can be improved or in other words–well defined job, better superior subordinate relationship and effective delegation may help frontline employees to take extra care of customers and retain them. Direct and interaction effect of determinants of delegation i.e., job characteristics and superior-subordinate relationship has been studied. Effect of these determinants on factors of delegation i.e., amount of delegation, process of delegation and facilitating factors of delegation, has also been studied. A sample of 319 frontline employees of five star hotels of Mumbai was chosen. It has been found that job characteristics and superior subordinate relationship significantly influences delegation. Interaction effect of job characteristics and superior-subordinate relationship were also found to be influencing significantly.
Jesus was Born a Jew!: Strategy, Religion and the Product Life Cycle
Authors: Prasad Ajit 
Published: August 2011

The Product Life Cycle remains one of the more popular tools of modern management that has survived in a universally acceptable form. More a product of logic and pedagogical learning than the rigors of empirical validation, the PLC concept has survived the myriad of changes that have taken place in the field of strategic management. The PLC has had two major contributions: First, the process of innovation is an eternal quest for identifying the “new curves.” Second, the new curve identified may not be a singular. This is true for all products, and this paper takes the stand that the concept and dimensions of the PLC can also be applied to religion. This paper argues that on three fundamentals: one that religion like all other commodities needs to be “sold” and therefore growth paths need to be identified (refer The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino), two there is a common thread running through all religions, and that strategies of differentiation and focus dominate; and three that it is possible to identify a unique PLC for each religion, along with the accompanying assumptions of predictability with, of course, with different periodicities. The process of application of the PLC to five different religions has resulted in the series of seven propositions outlined in the paper. The implications of the propositions would have substantial learnings for the “managers” of religion.
An “Open Eye and Ear” Approach to Managerial Communication
Authors: Subramanian Sharmila 
Published: August 2011

Managerial communication does not restrain itself to corporate presentations, meetings, conferences, media relations, official correspondences like business letters, memos, proposals and reports. This is quite obvious from the fact that today we have “ hi-tech” communication like intranet, internet, teleconferencing, video-conferencing, net meeting, etc. … as part and parcel of our professional communicative life. But, communication is not always formal. In fact, informal communication is far more active in the work place than formal communication. People at workplace spend between 25 per cent to 70 per cent in face-to-face conversations, and about 88 per cent to 93 per cent in unscheduled communication (Whittaker et al., 1994). This enhances the level of informal communication in the organisations. This type of communication is sometimes backed by opportunity, and sometimes spontaneity. On one hand, it augments mutuality and solidarity, on the other hand, it spreads rumours and counters the formal communication network. Informal tie- ups give rise to cliquey functioning in the organisation, which in turn induces clique politics. The consequences can be low productivity, low morale, less belongingness and high attrition. To cope with these problems managers need to adopt “an open eye and ear” approach to organisational communication. The paper, here, attempts to provide a solution to the problem of informal (mis) communication and organisational politics that is acceptable to both academia and industry.
New Service Development (NSD): Role of Customer Contact Executives
Authors: Jayasimha K. R. , Nargundkar Rajendra , Murugaiah V. 
Published: August 2011

The need for developing new services organically is well recognized. Extant review of literature reveals that various issues pertaining to NSD (New Service Development)/Service innovation like NSD initiation strategies, internal functional integration, need for simultaneous involvement of employees, evaluation of NSD and measuring the performance of new service, leadership role, role of customers, communication, factors influencing innovative co-worker behavior, etc., have been investigated. However, in comparison to New Product Development (NPD), New Service Development (NSD) has received significantly less attention. Innovations that are initiated and implemented by individuals have been largely bypassed as most of the studies have investigated NSD at firm level or project level. This lack of attention is in-spite of the recognition that employees (customer contact employees in case of service firms) can be major contributors of blockbuster new ideas. Notwithstanding the benefits, the role of customer contact employees in the new service development stands largely under investigated. In this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the potential contributions front-line personnel can make, and empirically testable propositions are presented based on the extant review of literature
Input Subsidies to Agriculture: Case of Subsidies to Fertiliser Industry across Countries
Authors: Ashra Sunil , Chakravarty Malini 
Published: August 2011

The fertiliser industry in developing countries is facing challenge and uncertain future due to their commitments to the WTO. This is part of the reason that the developing countries are pushing for reducing of subsidies given by the developed countries to their agriculture which is much bigger making the subsidies to agriculture becoming a contentious issue in the WTO negotiations. Some of the subsidies are accepted in the WTO context whereas the others are not. In India the farm sector subsidies are given in the form of irrigation, electricity, fertilisers etc. By far the fertiliser and food subsidies are the most significant amounting to about US$9.3 billion in 2004 (less than 0.5 percent of GDP). Thus, while from the WTO point of view, it is not necessary to reduce fertiliser subsidy in India. However, because of the WTO commitments, quantitative restrictions in this sector had to be removed by the end of March 2001 in India. Cheaper imports have been threatening the domestic industry specially the units that do not use gas as feedstock. In the short run domestic companies may enjoy the protection of differential subsidy in some form or the other. But in the long run they will have to compete on a stand-alone basis. This paper examines the experience and impact of fertiliser subsidy across various countries and shows that it is a common tool to promote farm production. But the evidence shows that the fertiliser subsidy tends to benefit the rich farmers more than the poor farmers. The study examines the different approaches used by the policymakers to reach the targeted farmers. In this context the paper records the evidence from some countries where the fertiliser industry has come forward and complemented the policymakers' efforts to meet this objective and in the process ensured their better future.
A Comparative Study of Executive and Non-Executive Associates of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for Their Level of Commitment and Personal Efficiency
Authors: Lather Anu Singh , Mohan Sangeeta 
Published: August 2011

Present research was designed to study the level of commitment and personal efficacy amongst the associates of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and also to understand the relationship between these two variables. Data was collected from 50 executives and 50 non-executives of DMRC. For this purpose, Organisational Commitment Instrument (OCI) and Personal Efficacy Test was administered individually to all employees. Chi-Square was applied to see the level of commitment and personal efficacy of executives and non-executives. The results were analysed using Chi–square test Pearson Product Moment correlation. The Chi–square results of commitment are shown in Table 1. The results revealed that Chi–square for commitment was 35.78, which was significant at 0.01 level. The comparison of results of executive and non–executive associates showed that large number of executive associates (n = 27) where highly committed, moderate number of employees (n = 15) fell into medium commitment range and few (n = 8) were low committed executives. The results were almost reverse in case of non–executive employees. There was only one employee from nonexecutive group who showed high level of commitment. Majority of this group was either moderately committed (n =22) or low on commitment (n = 27). The comparison of results on personal efficacy between executive and non-executive employees showed a Chi–square value of 27.01 significant at 0.01 level. The results reflect that the executive employees showed high personal efficacy (n =27), medium personal efficacy (n = 17) and few showed low personal efficacy (n = 6). The reverse trend was seen with the nonexecutive employees. Majority of employees showed low personal efficacy (n = 25) and medium personal efficacy (n = 20). There were only 5 non executive employees who showed high personal efficacy. The correlation coefficient of commitment with personal efficacy (n–100) came out to be 0.324 significant at 0.001 level.
Anomalous Market Movements and the Rolling Settlement: Empirical Evidence from Indian Stock Markets
Authors: Chander Ramesh , Mehta Kiran 
Published: August 2011

Investors and analysts are unable to predict stock price movements consistently so as to beat the market in informationally efficient markets. Still, concerted efforts are being made to earn abnormal returns discerning some anomalous pattern in the stock price movements. Also, the study of some structural changes in the market leading to, or removing some anomalous pattern in the stock prices, are of interest to investors and analysts. The present study was conceptualised to scrutinise whether anomalous patterns yield abnormal return consistently for any specific day of the week even after introduction of the compulsory rolling settlement on Indian bourses. Three market series viz., BSE Sensex, S and P CNX Nifty and S and P CNX 500 were observed on daily basis for ten years viz., i) Pre-rolling settlement period, April 1997 - December, 2001 and ii) Post-rolling settlement period, January 2002 - March 2007 to discern evidences in this regard. Contrary to developed capital markets, the results reported in this study documented lowest (significant) Friday returns in the pre-rolling settlement period as credible evidence for the weekend effect. The findings recorded for post-rolling settlement period were in harmony with those obtained elsewhere in the sense that Friday returns were highest and those on Monday were the lowest. It implied that arbitrage opportunities existed (for different trade settlement cycle on two exchanges, BSE and NSE) have disappeared consequent to the rolling settlement. On the whole, the study noted stock markets moved more rationally and anomalous return pattern noticed earlier could not sustain, in the post rolling settlement period.
Benefit Segmentation of Gutkha Market: A Study in the State of Gujarat
Authors: Panwar J. S. 
Published: August 2011

Purpose: The Research Question examined in this paper is why people consume gutkha? Is there any specific perceived benefit from consumption? If yes, could this help identify various segments of gutkha consumers for evolving some more focused social marketing strategy to wean people away from gutkha addiction. Design, Methodology and Approach: As gutkha addiction is a social problem severely affecting the health and well-being of the society, a comprehensive study, involving 1400 respondents was conducted in the state of Gujarat. A two stage cluster sampling procedure was adopted for data collection. Findings: The cluster analysis procedure using SPSS package helped identifying three distinct segments of gutkha consumers. The first cluster comprising about 43 percent respondent was named as ‘Compulsives’ because they were found to be strong addicts, unable to live without gutkha. The second segment comprising about 30 percent respondents included mostly young greenhorn ‘Imitators’ chewing gutkha for fun, excitement or just for time pass. The third group was labeled as ‘Socialisers’ because they considered gutkha consumption as status symbol and a means of socialisation. As consumption motives are different, it was concluded that different de-marketing strategies are needed for the three aforesaid segments.
Analytic Hierarchy Process for Selection of Erp Software for Manufacturing Companies
Authors: Perera H. S. C. , Costa W. K. R. 
Published: August 2011

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are popular as an IT enabled tool, which integrates different functional areas of business. ERP systems are implemented as a total business solution that supports major functionalities of business. However, many of the implementations are not success stories. Most post implementation problems are due to the inappropriate selection of systems. This paper describes multi-criteria decision model using Analytic Hierarchy Process for the selection of ERP systems for manufacturing companies. First, ERP evaluation criteria are developed by using past literature and through a questionnaire distributed among Sri Lankan manufacturing companies. Seven major criteria are identified and under each criterion several sub-criteria are identified. Selection of the best suited ERP system leads to a multi-criteria decision making problem as ERP systems should be evaluated based upon many criteria. Using the identified main and sub criteria, an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model is developed for ranking the ERP software. An example of a case is presented to show the actual implementation of AHP model. Expert Choice software is used to solve this AHP model.
Antecedents of Individual Well-Being
Authors: Singh Rekha Padmanabhan , Arora Ashok Pratap 
Published: August 2011

The main aim of this study was to further the research efforts on the construct of Well-Being. The study begins by identifying the components and the construct of Well-Being in the Indian context. Well-Being in this context has been characterised as life perceptions formed as a function of one's goals and aspirations. Well-Being has been described as the aggregation of perceived need gaps of individuals in various life domains. The “gap” has been further described as the difference between the current state and the aspired state within a domain. This “gap” has further been analysed in the context of influences on various aspects of life comprising an individual's state of Well-Being. These influences involve respondent's social fabric, past, and future expectations. The research was conducted using both the qualitative and quantitative techniques of research conducted sequentially, among a sample of 300 respondents in India. The sample was split to gauge differences on account of gender and marital status. The study revealed that Well-Being was largely a function of respondent's evaluation of themselves in the context of their social milieu.