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Working Papers | 2006

Decision Support System for Design and Evaluation of Pipeline Projects

Samir K. Barua and T. Madhavan

Petronet India Limited (PIL) was created to give impetus to investments in pipeline projects for transportation of petroleum products in the country. Since these projects have a long life and require large investments, correct assessment of location, capacity and financial viability are of critical importance. This paper is based on the study undertaken for PIL to evaluate a few of their pipeline projects. The study resulted in creation of a comprehensive software package that is capable of operational and financial evaluation of pipeline projects based on countrywide view on production and distribution of petroleum products. The core of the package is an LP based optimization model. The package is capable of performing sensitivity analysis to investigate the impact of uncertainty on the proposed project due to from changes in the values of key factors including distribution network and capacities, refining capacities and pattern of demand. •A model is developed for identification of viable pipeline projects, taking into account the demand and capacity additions to production and distribution network for petroleum products in the future. •The model can be used for financial evaluation of such projects based on appropriate assumptions to forecast the investments required as well as the net cash flows from the project. •The solution procedure is implemented for the models developed in the form of a software package that would allow the decision maker to experiment with assumption and generate solutions with ease and with little manual intervention. •The software package developed above is further embellished so that it also provides additional information to the decision maker in the form of reports that contain details of movement of products and the mode combinations used for the movements.

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Working Papers | 2006

Networks of Small Producers for Technological Innovation: Some Models

Pankaj Chandra

Small producers face a variety of challenges - some related to markets and others related to capabilities. Inability to develop technological capabilities has often restricted small firms from growing large. In this paper, we present learning from three global networks , i.e., TAMA in Japan, Wenzhou in China and Rajkot in India, that have adopted a variety of mechanisms of coordination between small producers and has led to both capability enhancement and demand enhancement. We argue that the capability enhancement effects play as significant a role as demand enhancement effects in the growth of small firms. Coordination that allows firms to improve their capabilities enhances both productivity as well as innovative capabilities to develop new products and processes. The paper, with the help of these three case studies, presents a generic model for SME development that is based on acquiring distinctive capabilities and linkages with other small producers or other members of the supply chain. We propose distinctive determinants of a collaborative model for engaging SMEs in technological innovation over a period of time. These are : Focus of the Firm, Interactive Producers, Processing and Product Manufacturing, Innovation Investment, Markets, Market Makers (and market making processes), and Regulatory Support.

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Working Papers | 2006

Information in the Term Structure – The Indian Evidence (I): Modeling the Term Structure and Information at the Short End for Future Inflation

Vineet Virmani

This study is part of an on-going work on assessing the information content of the term structure in India for future inflation, future short rates and real interest rates. In this part, first the Indian term structure is modeled using three alternative specifications and changes in slope of the term structure at the short-end assessed for forecastability of inflation. Performance of two atheoretical (Nelson and Siegel, 1987 and Svensson, 1994) models is compared against empirical implications of a general equilibrium (Cox, Ingersoll and Ross, 1985) model. While Svensson is seen to offer no improvement over Nelson-Siegel, Cox-Ingersoll-Ross comes out as marginally superior to both on the criteria of mean absolute pricing and yield errors (both in-sample and out-of-sample), behaviour of the short and the long rates, stability of the parameters and behaviour of forward rates for maturities 1-8 years. This is encouraging because models like Nelson-Siegel and Svensson are designed to fit the observed yield curves, while Cox-Ingersoll-Ross is a theoretical model derived from intertemporal description of a competitive economy. On the information content of the term structure, in the sample under study, change in the slope of the term structure seems to have no information for inflation changes over the horizon 1 month to 2 years. Results could be sample and/or sampling-frequency specific. Results for the long end of the term structure (from a bigger sample) follows.

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Working Papers | 2006

Risk, Ambiguity - Gains, Losses

Chakravarty Sujoy and Roy Jaideep

We use a multiple price list (MPL) method to elicit attitudes to risky and ambiguous prospects. In particular we wish to investigate if there are differences in agent behaviour under uncertainty over gain amounts vis a vis uncertainty over loss amounts. On an aggregate level, we find that (i) in the domain of risk, subjects are risk averse over both gain and loss lotteries with the degree of risk aversion being lower for losses than gains, (ii) subjects are ambiguity averse over ambiguous prospects that involve gains, but that they are mildly ambiguity seeking over such prospects that involve loss and (iii) attitudes toward risk and ambiguity are positively correlated in the domain of gains and are independent of each other in the domain of losses. These behavioural observations are statically significant using both parametric as well as non-parametric tests. Further analysis shows that at an individual level, (a) in the domain of risk, there is a high incidence of a reflection effect across gains and losses though the subjects' behaviour is bimodal, that is, many are risk averse in gains and risk seeking in losses while many others are risk seeking in gains and risk averse in losses, while (b) in the domain of ambiguity, there is also a high incidence of a reflection effect although almost all such cases exhibit ambiguity aversion in gains and ambiguity seeking in losses.

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Working Papers | 2006

An exploration of customer-supplier alliances and partnerships: A synthesis of literature review and empirical investigation leading to 3Rs framework

Prathap Oburai and Baker Michael J

The marketing discipline is evolving and so is its agenda with the advent of relationship marketing, networks and other related sub-fields. Till recently, business literature focused largely on competition, and cooperation, its counter part, has received insufficient attention. With a view to redress the situation, this research article investigates the phenomenon of customer supplier alliances and partnerships and aims to make fundamental theoretical contributions in the sub-field of business-to-business relations and cooperation. Eclectic and wide-ranging enquiry is a main research tool employed and hence the character of this research is interdisciplinary. An extensive literature review of a number of related disciplines is undertaken in order to capture the essence of relationship strategies and their implications. The ideas and alternative research processes were exposed to critical scrutiny by a few marketing scholars to increase feedback and validity of ideas. In addition, a qualitative exploratory survey was carried out in order to understand the strategic issues concerning alliances and partnerships. The research findings were combined with theoretical ideas to derive a Routines-Relationships-Resources (3Rs) model. This 3Rs model is made up of three cores that underlie all business strategies including those designed to generate competitive advantage through the route of cooperative alliances and partnerships.

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Working Papers | 2006

Employee Privacy at Workplaces: Some Pertinent Issues

Krishnan Sandeep K, Biju Varkkey, and Raghavan Anush

Employee privacy at the workplace is an issue of debate worldwide. With data security and other organizational interests becoming paramount, the employee rights for privacy and freedom is curtailed. This paper explores the underlying factors that contribute to violation of workplace privacy, the factors that affect how workplace privacy is defined, and debates on how privacy notions change based on cultural differences. We also try to understand the relevance of employee privacy nuances in the Indian context. The paper poses pertinent questions on definition of workplace privacy, and the balance of managing the employee and employer interests.

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Working Papers | 2006

Strategic Marketing Alliances, Partnerships and Networks – The Logic of Cooperation, Roots, Evolution and Advantage

Prathap Oburai and Baker Michael J

The marketing discipline is evolving and so is its agenda with the advent of relationship marketing, networks and other related sub-fields. Till recently, business literature focused largely on competition, and cooperation, its counter part, has received insufficient attention. With a view to redress the situation, this research article investigates the phenomenon of strategic marketing alliances, partnerships and networks, and aims to make fundamental theoretical contributions in the sub-field of business-to-business relations and cooperation. Eclectic and wide-ranging enquiry is a main research tool employed and hence the character of this research is interdisciplinary. An extensive literature review of a number of related disciplines is undertaken in order to capture the essence of cooperative strategies and implications for competitive advantage. In this paper, we examine the phenomenon of cooperation and its evolution over time, and highlight the advantages of cooperative strategies in the workplace and in economic organisation. Following an introductory section, we discuss in the second and third sections the evolution of cooperation and need for adaptation on the part entities in order to obtain favourable outcomes. Fourth section continues the discussion along the biological evolutionary lines and adds the crucial dimension of social organisation. Consequent changes that altered the ways in which societies and economies developed are captured in the fifth section. The final and concluding section is devoted to exploring avenues for building of theories that explain cooperative forms of organisation.

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Working Papers | 2006

Growth Acceleration and Potential in Gujarat

Ravindra H. Dholakia

The paper begins by considering the growth experience of Gujarat in 17 sectors compared to the nation during the pre-reform period of 1980-92 and reform period of 1991-2004 identifying areas of strength and weaknesses. It then identifies episodes of high economic growth over 4 and 10 consecutive years in each sector in the state over the last two decades and derives plausibly optimistic growth potential of the state in future. In order to examine the feasibility of such optimistic growth targets, a preliminary attempt is made to estimate traditional sources of economic growth in Gujarat in the neoclassical growth accounting framework for the primary and non-primary sectors in the two sub-periods. Sources of growth acceleration are derived and implications of targeting substantial growth acceleration implied by earlier estimate of optimistic growth potential in the state are examined. In the process, the paper provides first estimates of capital stock, growth of land input, factor shares and total factor productivity growth for Gujarat broadly comparable and consistent with the national level estimates. A simultaneous equations model to identify the prime-movers or drivers of economic growth in Gujarat is also fitted before concluding the paper with suggested strategy and policy changes based on the findings of the study to achieve faster growth in the state.

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Working Papers | 2006

Role of Educational and R&D Institutions in City Clusters: An Exploratory Study of Bangalore and Pune Regions in India

Rakesh Basant and Pankaj Chandra

This paper explores the role played by academic institutions in Bangalore and Pune cities of India. It shows that there exists a large variety of linkages between industry and academia in the two Indian cities; a hierarchy of institutions satisfies a hierarchy of local demands ranging from skills to new technologies. While labor market linkages continue to dominate, global and local changes are creating opportunities for knowledge based linkages. With enhanced competition and privatization of research and education, these linkages are bound to undergo significant change in the future and policy should facilitate this transition.

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Working Papers | 2006

Spotting Difficult Weakly Correlated Binary Knapsack Problems

Diptesh Ghosh and Tathagata Bandyopadhyay

In this paper, we examine the possibility of quickly deciding whether or not an instance of a binary knapsack problem is difficult for branch and bound algorithms. We first observe that the distribution of the objective function values is smooth and unimodal. We define a measure of difficulty of solving knapsack problems through branch and bound algorithms, and examine the relationship between the degree of correlation between profit and cost values, the skewness of the distribution of objective function values and the difficulty in solving weakly correlated binary knapsack problems. We see that the even though it is unlikely that an exact relationship exists for individual problem instances, some aggregate relationships may be observed. Key words: Binary Knapsack Problems; Skewness; Computational Experiments.

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