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2769 items in total found

Working Papers | 2006

Success: An Exploration

Parvinder Gupta

Success, in a worldly sense or by societal yardstick, is mostly evaluated in terms of money, status, recognition, fame, promotions, awards, rewards, and similar criteria. The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of success as viewed by people who were considered successful in their respective fields by societal yardstick or in a worldly sense. Further, the study aimed at exploring what led to their success. Six successful people from varied fields such as dance, architecture, sports, industry, academics, and medicine were included in the sample. They were interviewed to explore their concept of success, background, struggles, and factors that led to their success. The findings revealed that success was viewed differently by different people. Whatever their field, these successful people had a few things in common. The implications of the study were discussed.

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Working Papers | 2006

Corporate Farming in India: Is it must for Agricultural Development?

Sukhpal Singh

Indian agriculture is under policy reforms for some time now. One of the issues it faces is that of lack of viability of smallholdings and lack of international competitiveness of its produce. In this regard, new initiatives of reorganizaing the production systems are being attempted in the form of contract farming and corporate farming. At the state level, laws are being amended to facilitate the practice of contract farming and corporate farming. Where contract farming means working with small growers most of the time and therefore, high costs for agribusinesses, the alternative of corporate farming is being seen to resolve this problem. For facilitating this, prime agricultural land and wastelands are being allowed to be bought or leased in by corporate agribusiness houses, the latter (wastelands) being given away by the state on nominal lease. This paper profiles cases of corporate farming practice and examines the rationale for allowing corporate farming in India in the context of its agriculture and rural sector. It points out that the rationale is weak and not supported by international evidence on corporate farming. It rather argues for other alternatives, like consolidation of land holdings and contract farming, for making better use of corporate resources for agricultural development.

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Working Papers | 2006

An Exploratory Study of Factors affecting MBA Students Attitude towards Learning via Case Study Pedagogy: Insights from Advertising Literature

Ramendra Singh and Piyush Kumar Sinha

Case based pedagogy has become popular in most business schools today, since the pioneering efforts made by Harvard Business School, several decades ago. Although the case method approach stands firmly on grounds its effectiveness in 'simulating reality of the business world' in the classroom, yet it has its own limitations and cannot be used in all learning situations This article delves into both sides of the debate on the efficacy of case method for learning and through an exploratory study, models the attitude of MBA students towards the perceived learning aspects of the pedagogy. The premise of our beliefs-only attitude model rests on the conceptual analogy between a case study and an advertisement message as two similar forms of communication technology. Drawing heavily from the insights available in the advertising literature, the article suggests several hypotheses for future empirical validation.

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Working Papers | 2006

Tapping Economies of Scale and Scope in Consumer Cooperation - A Case Analysis of Possible Cooperation among selected Cooperatives

Samar K. Datta and Rahul Nilakantan

Because of its narrow and negative perspective of safeguarding the interests of only poor consumers against unethical practices of the private traders, consumer cooperation in India seems to have failed, except probably in some isolated pockets. A number of social welfare functions like poverty alleviation and public distribution of essential items of consumption have been imposed on them at the cost of their basic economics. With the basic micro and macro-economic rationale for consumer cooperatives as a positive form of economic organization being lost sight of, they seem to be facing enormous problems both historically as well as currently in a era of economic liberalization. Their worries seem to have been compounded with the threat of impending competition from large private enterpriss - both domestic and foreign, which highlights the need for evolving strategies to rectivy their systemic weaknesses and tackling the competition head on. This case has attempted to document just such an initiative through a round table conference with several doyens of the consumer cooperative movement in India such as Warana Bazar and Amalsad Mandali as well as some fledging consumer cooperatives from West Bengal which are already in existence for some time or contemplating entry into this field. The roundtable conference organized in the spirit of Cooperation among Cooperatives attempted to evolve strategies to capture economies of scale and scope in order to take on the competition, as well as to facilitate dissemination of ideas and information across the country.

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Working Papers | 2006

Family and Store Choice - A Conceptual Framework

Tripathi Sanjeev, Piyush Kumar Sinha, and Piyush Kumar Sinha

Retail Store choice has traditionally been studied from the perspective of an individual. The retail offering is however consumed more by the family than by an individual. This study questions the study of store choice by an individual and argues that the family is the relevant unit of analysis. The study draws on the extensive literature available on store choice and also on the family decision making for products and services. It identifies the key factors from the literature, which might be affecting the store choice of a family. On the basis of these factors, it proposes a conceptual framework for studying the retail store choice as a family decision.

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Working Papers | 2006

An Assessment of the Impact of Distribution Channel Conflict on Channel Efficiency - Few Improvised Conceptual Models

Ramendra Singh

The primary purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of the impact of distribution channel conflicts on the channel efficiency, which has hitherto received little attention in distribution channel literature. Although 'channel conflict' as a construct is fairly well researched and its relationship with channel efficiency is explored to some extent, yet the moderating effect of the conflict resolution strategies on the channel efficiency is largely absent in the channel literature. From a behavioral science perspective, the article models the channel conflict-efficiency relationship, for three different types of conflict resolution methods-problem solving, bargaining and politics, in the context of asymmetric power relationships. The managerial implications of these conceptual models lie in making organizations (channel captains), dealing with their channel partners, foresee the possible impacts of their adopted conflict resolution strategies, on their channel efficiency and accordingly maximize returns on the channel investments.

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Working Papers | 2006

Vision 2020: The Role and Scope of Operations Research Models

N. Ravichandran

In this theme article, we summarize the broad characteristics of Vision 2020 (a document which outlines the transformation process related to evolution of India as a developed nation by 2020) as envisaged by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. We discuss the enabling role of our discipline related to this critical national (social) transformation process. This theme article is organized in three segments. The first segment, which is drawn heavily based on the published work by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam introduces the salient features of Vision 2020 and a road map related to realizing this national dream. The second segment sketches the evolution of operations research as a scientific discipline in the international and Indian context. The third and final segment of the article relate OR tools and techniques that can facilitate the planning and implementation of several projects / activities / policies in the overall context of Vision 2020.

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Working Papers | 2006

A Stochastic Linear Programming Model for Asset Liability Management: The Case of an Indian Insurance Company

Garg Ankur, Tiwari Apoorva, Goutam Dutta, and Basu Shankarshan

Asset - Liability management is one of the most critical tasks for any financial institution for determining its cushion against the risk and the net returns. The problem of asset liability management for an insurance company requires matching the cash inflows from premium collections and investment income with the cash outflows due to casualty and maturity claims. Thus, what is required is a prudent investment strategy such that the returns earned on the assets match the liability claims at all points of time in future. Conventionally, the asset allocation has been done using the Mean Variance approach due to Markowitz (1952, 1959). While such a strategy ensures that the asset value always match or are greater than the liability for the next year, it does not maximise the net worth of the firm nor does it take care of all the cash inflows and outflows over a long term period. A stochastic linear programming model (on the lines of Pirbhai, 2004) maximises the net worth of the firm and also takes care of the uncertainties. While there are instances of stochastic linear programming being applied for ALM in financial institutions in developed markets, no such practical application has been reported in this area in Indian context as yet. In this paper, we describe the development of a multi stage stochastic linear programming model for insurance companies. The multi-stage stochastic linear programming model was developed on the modelling language AMPL (Fourer, 2002).

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Working Papers | 2006

The Value-Congruity Relationship Model

Kaul Subhashini, Pradyumana Khokle, and Abraham Koshy

Marketers have always aimed at improving quality of relationship with consumers. Recent efforts exploring into brand-consumer relationships indicates that individuals use the interpersonal relationship elements to forge associations with brands and stores. This paper draws from interpersonal literature to develop a value-congruity model of relationship where four district circles are identified. Each circle is associated with a set of values and relationship progression is conceived of as a movement inwards based on value-congruity.

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Working Papers | 2006

A Conceptual Note on Influencing Store Loyalty: Implications for Indian Retailers

Kaul Subhashini

Store loyalty is the most initial variable of interest to retailers. This paper reviews existing retail literature to identify the dimensions of store loyalty; with specific focus on its antecedents such as store image. The paper also discusses methodological issues in measuring store loyalty and image in the current Indian context.

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