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2769 items in total found

Working Papers | 2002

Gene Patents and the Genetic Resource recognition Fund: Sharing Benefits from Use of Plant Genetic Resources by Agro-biotechnological Inventions and Traditional Agricultural Practices

Anil K. Gupta

The subject of this case study is the role of intellectual property rights in the benefit-sharing arrangements surrounding the gene Xa21 of Oryza longistaminata, a wild rice from Mali, which was isolated, cloned and patented at the University of California at Davis. A specimen of Oryza longistaminata was originally accessed in Mali and transferred to a rice research program in India, where its resistance to bacterial rice blight, one of the most serious rice diseases, was identified. The blight resistant specimen was transferred to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, which determined that the resistance was coded by a single locus called Xa21 and bred the resistance into cultivated rice varieties by conventional breeding methods. One such variety was then acquired by the University of California at Davis, where gene Xa21 was mapped, sequenced and cloned. After a patent application was filed and granted for the cloned gene, a Genetic Resource Recognition Fund (GRRF) was established at UC Davis to share with the stakeholders in Mali and other developing countries the benefits arising from the commercial utilization of the patented gene. This intellectual property-based benefit-sharing mechanism provides that the licensee of the patent over Xa21 shall annually pay a certain percentage of sales of products and derivatives of Xa21 into the GRRF for a specified number of years following the first year of commercialization. The Fund shall be used to provide fellowships to agriculture students and researchers from Mali, the Philippines and other countries where the wild rice is found, so as to build capacity in the donor country. At the time of conclusion of this study, however, no funds had yet been received by the GRRF. There are presently no plans at UC Davis to mainstream this model for accessing biodiversity and sharing benefits with gene donor countries. Within the overall policy of UC Davis and its own claims on such benefits, it remains at the discretion of individual researchers to decide how he or she wants to share the benefits and with whom. Patent US5859339, which forms the subject of this case study, is attached as Annex 3.2.1 of this case study. This is a part of WIPO sponsored study on the role of intellectual property rights in the sharing of benefits arising from the use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge.

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Working Papers | 2002

Competition, Regulation and Strategy in Industries with Consumer Side Scale and Scope Economies: An Essay in the Context of the Information Technology Industry

Sebastian Morris

The IT industry (both software and hardware) is characterised by `vast consumer side scale and scope economies which are incomparably larger than in other industries with supply side network economies like pipelines or electricity distribution. In IT the supply side economies are also incomparably larger because the marginal cost of an additional unit of the software or hardware especially the former is very small. But its uniqueness arises on the demand side. The interaction of these two economies, in a situation of heightened technological dynamism, imposes a greater degree of contingency, and hence path dependency in the developments in the industry as a whole. In this respect these industries are therefore distinguished from nearly all other prior industries. It makes possible giants line Microsoft and CISCO. Even as they extract significant part of the scale economies in the form of large profits, such firms are competitive in the more relevant dynamic sense. The endogeniety of critical points in the development of the industry implies considerable scope for strategy on the part of such large firms. It also means that inter-firm linkages dynamically develop and thrive even in societies like the US that have been abhorrent of extra-market links, and have had the conceptual space to recognise only two kinds of economic coordination - within firms (managerial hierarchies) and through markets. Path dependency implies that physical clusters in IT have a far stronger economic logic, and the difficulties in the emergence of new clusters are far more severe. Traditional anti-trust like regulation or price regulation is entirely outmoded for the development of these industries. To challengers (countries and clusters) few independent options exist. Strategies with the most potential would involve promoting inter-firm linkages, promoting industries with the least need to be in contact with other firms, in fresh clusters. The effort has to be to lower the time and cost of networking with the dominant cluster. The costs of disassociation are too large even for large countries attempting to have a role in the evolution of IT industries, so that closed-door approaches are almost entirely unworkable.

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Working Papers | 2002

Comments on the Draft Electricity Bill 2001

Sebastian Morris

These comments on the Draft Bill 2001, had been widely circulated in September 2001. Discussions on the Bill have again revived in the media and elsewhere, as the reform of the power sector has made little headway, and there is much concern that something needs to be done. Little progress or changes have been made in the Bill, so that most of the comments made then remain valid. Essentially the Bill is maimed because it is not clear enough, does not lay a path for reform and for the evolution of the sector, and in no way reduces the policy and regulatory uncertainties. While it attempts to bring about open access, that objective would not be realised since cross subsidies are to be loaded on to the transmission charge thereby killing whatever little prospect there is the Bill for a market in power. There is no specification at all of the mode of transmission pricing and the crucial role of transmission pricing is not recognised in the Bill. The Bill does not recognise that cross-subsidies via differential prices would continue to keep open the "price-arbitrage" opportunity (the root of corruption and the source of all ills in the system), so that no real change would be possible. The Bill gives legal status to far too many "authorities" and bodies, some of them quite unnecessary and vestiges of the past. The coordination problems between these are likely to take the system (if ever what is envisaged materialises) far from the optimal. The special opportunity in inter-regional trade in power cannot be realised unless the law limits the barriers to interregional trade. Most importantly the Bill virtually rules out incentive regulation of the modern varieties such as price cap regulation. Through the sub-clauses it brings in cost plus regulation. Cost plus regulation has been particularly problematic in India, and can be expected to bring inefficiencies and cost padding if not regulatory capture.

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Working Papers | 2002

An Exploratory Study of Sales Promotion Activities in Toilet Soap Category: An Insight into Consumer and Retailer Perceptions

Kureshi Sonal and Vyas Preeta

Understanding perceptions of channel members and consumers regarding sales promotion activities enhances the effectiveness of these activities. Widespread usage of sales promotion activities in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector makes it imperative that manufacturers take into account channel member and consumer perceptions before planning such programmes. In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine the nature of sales promotion activities in toilet soap category in India, study retailer perceptions with respect to these activities and also get an insight into consumer perceptions of these activities. Our findings indicate that with respect to the nature of the schemes, premiums (free gifts) were found to be the most frequently used in both premium and popular toilet soap category, followed by price offs. Retailers perceived price offs to have relatively greater impact compared to any other forms of sales promotion. In line with the retailers perceptions, the findings of consumer perceptions indicated that price offs was the most preferred type of sales promotion. Retailers stated that role of word of mouth and television advertising was very important in providing information inputs to the consumers regarding sales promotion activities. This perception of retailers was supported by the consumer unaided recall of sales promotion schemes which were widely advertised. As the retailer interacts and observes consumers more frequently and closely than the manufacturer, it would be useful for the companies to incorporate perceptions while planning sales promotion strategies.

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Working Papers | 2002

The New MO-MO VARI-SACs Framework: Marketing Strategy and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Venaik Sunil

The concept of sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) originated in the strategic management literature, in particular, the literature on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. Barney argued that to gain sustainable competitive advantage, firms must possess resources and capabilities that have four essential characteristics, namely, valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable. Although the focus of marketing is to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace, there has been little formal and systematic examination of how the marketing mix strategy can be a source of SCA for the firm. The objective of this paper is to study the sources of SCA from the perspective of the firms marketing strategy. The aim is to develop an integrated framework that links the elements of the global marketing mix with the strategic management concept of SCA and the resource characteristics of valuable, appropriable, rare and inimitable.

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Working Papers | 2002

The Data-Correcting Algorithmfor the Maximization of Submodular functions: A Multilevel search in thehasse Diagram

Diptesh Ghosh and Boris Goldengorin

Working Papers | 2002

Data Correcting: A Methodologyfor obtaining near-optimal solutions

Diptesh Ghosh, Boris Goldengorin, and Sierksma Gerard

Working Papers | 2002

Response to increasingcompetition by business organizations in India: Voluntary Retirement Schemesand their Outcomes

Sunil Kumar Maheshwari and Kulkarni Vilas

Companies in India have responded to the challenges of globalization in various ways. One of the strategies to survive in the market was to reduce the cost by reduction in the number of employees with the help of Voluntary Retirement Schemes (VRS). This paper examines different types of VRS offered by the companies in the year 1999-2000 in India. It also examines the effect of VRS on the profitability of companies. Findings are based on the VRS of 30 companies from diverse sectors. Findings indicate that there is no fixed pattern of VRS among companies in India. Different companies adopt different forms of VRS. The implementation of VRS also differs significantly between companies. The results indicate that framing an attractive VRS by offering high compensation to employees is not important. The success of VRS depends on how the scheme is implemented and the perception of the persons opting of VRS and the survivors. The key concerns for the successes of VRS are effective communication, building trust among employees about procedural justice and involvement of multiple stakeholders.

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Working Papers | 2002

Managing Complex Networks inEmerging Markets: The Story of AMUL

Pankaj Chandra and Tirupati Devanath

Firms that desire to do business in large emerging markets need to develop a new paradigm for looking at opportunities in these markets. The success of many such firms has depended on how well have they formed or managed to become a part of an existing network of suppliers and consumers. These economies are complex and have unique characteristics that range from underdeveloped markets to small and fragmented supplier base. Clearly, traditional business models are not adequate for this environment. Successful firms participate in the development of both these elements of the supply chain. The prize, needless to mention, is significant sales in a large market. In this paper we describe a successful business model using the example of AMUL. AMUL is a dairy cooperative in the western India that has been primarily responsible, through its innovative practices, for India to become the worlds largest milk producer. The distinctive features of this paradigm involves managing a large decentralized network of suppliers and producers, simultaneous development of markets and suppliers, lean and efficient supply chain, and breakthrough leadership. This paper draws various lessons from the experiences of AMUL that would be useful to firms contemplating entry into emerging market.

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Working Papers | 2002

What's in a Drink that you calla Chai? Quality Attributes and Hedonic Price Analysis of Tea

Satish Y. Deodhar and Intodia Vijay

India is one of the leading producers and exporters of tea. However, in the last two decades its share in the world exports has gone down considerably. On the other hand, although the domestic market is large, the per capita consumption in India is one of the lowest in the world. Therefore, Indian growers, processors, and traders could focus their attention to cultivate and expand the domestic market as a buffer against the vicissitudes of export performance. As a first step in their competitive strategy, Indian tea industry may want to understand the valuation consumers place on various quality attributes of tea. This can be done by applying hedonic price analysis to the data on prices and the quality attributes of tea. In this paper, we applied the hedonic price analysis to the data on 43 Indian tea brands. Based on performance of regression equations, exponential functional form was selected for the Box-Cox transformation, where price of tea brands was taken as the dependent variable and quality attributes of tea were considered as independent variables. Indian consumers seemed to attach importance to two quality attributes, aroma and colour. No significant value is attached to flavour and strength of tea. Premium is attached to the tea types CTC Leaf, Teabags, and CTC Fanning in that order over the type CTC Dust. Based on these results, stakeholders in the tea industry may want to enhance or reduce some of the quality attributes during the tea blending process. The newly blended teas may be marketed through aggressive generic promotions to increase overall consumption and/or through firm specific advertisements to improve market share.

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