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2757 items in total found

Working Papers | 1987

Optimal Mix of Coupons in a Mess System

Samir K. Barua and Gupta Omprakash K

Most organisations operate staff mess or canteen facility for its employees where payments for food items are made with money coupons rather than cash. In such coupon-based transaction system, the management needs to decide the denominations in which the coupons should be printed and also the proportion in which these denominations should be combined to form a coupon book which is made available to the employees. These decisions are made with the twin objectives of minimising the total number of coupons used as well as ensuring that most transactions are feasible. This paper reports the details of the method used for studying such a problem in a specific organisation. The study arrives at an optimal mix of coupons which leads to a significant improvement over the existing practice.

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Working Papers | 1987

Introducing the Young Japanese Executive: Antecedents and Outlook

Thomas P S, P. R. Shukla, and Verma Pramod

The young Japanese executive is a product of his socio-economic environment specifically the Japanese educational system. Thus the paper first highlights the key features of the Japanese school and higher education system, touching briefly upon the scope and extent of post-graduate management education in Japan. The young Japanese executive is also poised on the threshold of a management career in a dynamic industrial firm. Hence the paper goes on to discuss recruitment (in the context of the Life-time employment system), training (including in overseas MBA programs) and promotion (with reference to key attributes of Japanese top management such as the search for Wa, or harmony, and the emphasis on Seishin, or the managerial spirit). Finally, the paper focuses on an emerging problem for young Japanese managers viz. International management in developed as well as developing countries. The paper concludes that the problems facing young Japanese managers, especially those assigned abroad, are interesting and challenging ones and merit the attention of management educators world wide, including India.

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Working Papers | 1987

Application of Markov Chains to Management of Leasing

Samir K. Barua and Srinivasan G

The paper presents application of Markov Chains to management of leasing. The paper demonstrates that, despite low percentage of bad debts, there could be a significant reduction in the returns earned by a lessor because of delays in payment. Since a lessor typically operates with a very small spread between returns earned and the cost of funds, a reduction in returns could jeopardise the very viability of the business. Markov Chains could be useful in assessing the impact on the rate of return because of the quality of accounts a lessor has, as reflected by the prevailing transition probability matrix. The model could in addition be used for assessing working capital needs, arriving at the age distribution of accounts and predicting the incidence of bad debts.

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Working Papers | 1987

Effect of Changing Taxation and Depreciation Policies on the Leasing Industry

Samir K. Barua and Ragunathan V

In the recent years the government's policy of reducing the corporate tax rate and increasing the depreciation rate has been welcomed by the industrial sector. The changes so obviously benefit the sector that it appears incredible that there could be an industry which may not benefit from the changes. In this paper we present an analysis which shows that these changes reduce the spread available to the lessors and the leasees to strike a lease deal which is beneficial to both the parties. This would necessarily reduce the margins available to the leassors and affect the viability of the leasing industry in the long run.

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Working Papers | 1987

Institutional Credit for Green Revolution and Dry-Farming Areas in India

Desai B M, Gupta V K, and Gurdev Singh

This paper examines the relationship between the degree of agricultural progress and institutional credit. More specifically it examines the relationship between the proportion of area covered under HYVs of foodgrains and (a) the density of Rural Financial Institutions (RFIs), (b) various types of agricultural credit, and (c) default rate of 'direct' agricultural credit from the cooperatives. Moreover, it also examines the relationship between this default rate and various types of cooperative credit for agriculture. These relationships are examined by utilizing cross sectional data of 10 states in India for 3 years. The paper found that the degree of agricultural progress is positively associated with the density of RFIs and overall amount of credit per hectare. Secondly similar relationship was found for the share of credit for (a) agricultural input subsystem, (b) stability and growth of current production in agricultural production subsystem, and (c) 'kind' credit in short-term crop loans. The paper also found that the default rate of 'direct' cooperative credit for agricultural production subsystem was inversely related to the share of (a) agricultural input subsystem credit in 'indirect' credit, (b) stability and growth of current production credit in 'direct' credit for agricultural production subsystem and that of (c) 'kind' credit in short-term crop loans for agricultural production subsystem from the cooperatives. The paper makes recommendations about how to increase the share of these three types of credit in dry farming areas. These recommendations are made because these types of credit have direct bearing on improving factor productivities, loan recoveries, growth rate in agricultural production and value added, and viability of RFIs.

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Working Papers | 1987

Industrial Relations in Gujarat: An Exploratory Study

Verma Pramod

It has generally been recognized that the state of industrial relations in Gujarat has undergone a subtle change. Data on industrial disputes appear to support this view. It is also argued that increasing tension in labour-management relations could be traced to accelerating pace of industrial development, followed by the growth of the tertiary sector. To substantiate this hypothesis, a survey of establishments in manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors was undertaken. Out of 100 units approached, 41 units responded to a structured questionnaire. This survey, which covered a wide cross-section of economic activity, indicates that the employers have just begun to luse systematic methods of selection and promotion of employees, that the differentials between the lowest and the highest pay is still substantial, and that these units have not experienced any considerable extent of conflict between the employers and the employees. Employers, however, feel that the employees are less than satisfied in relation to some of the personnel practices and disciplinary methods use din the organizations. Moreover, the employers do not have a negative view about the employees, but they do feel that the unions are politically inclined and their leadership is politically motivated. At the same time, there is also a feeling that the state intervention is not conducive to the development of harmonious industrial relations.

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Working Papers | 1987

A Differential Game in Advertising

Lahiri Somdeb

A general dynamic oligopolistic price-advertising model is formulated and open-loop nash solutions are derived. A detailed discussion of long run equilibrium solutions is given. Conditions for global stability are discussed.

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Working Papers | 1987

Social Movements: An Organization Theory Perspective

Chakrabarti Indranil

The paper first reviews the available literature on social movements (SM). Following emerge: (1) Classical literautre on SMs have missed out or tended to ignore the organizational aspects of SMs (Section I) (2) The more contemporary literature on SMs do have organizational focus; however, their theorization is based on an inadequate understanding of SMs and its relationships with the relevant organization. Further, they do not justify why and how the collectives in question qualify to be deemed as organizations (Section II) Section III attempts to rectify the above lacunas, and in the process provide a theoretical framework for SMs with due (and very important) place for organization theory. It puts forth the concept of social movement Kernel (SMK), the core of any SM, that guides and leads a SM. Section IV seeks to establish that the SMK is indeed an organization, by comparing SMKs with various definitions of organizations, borrowed from the standard works in organization theory. This opens a wide gamut of possible theorization on SMK, and hence also on SM, because of the close relationship between the two. A preliminary attempt towards this is made in Section V, where ten propositions are put forth, mainly relating SMKs to SMs. The last Section (VI) seeks to briefly highlight the likely usefulness of the study.

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Working Papers | 1987

Industrial Conflict: Trends and Determinants

Verma Pramod

The objective of this study is to assess the growth of industrial conflict during the phases of economic development from 1921 to 1984 and to identify the economic and institutional factors which could have influenced conflict over this period. Three indicators of conflict, viz., industrial disputes, workers involved, and mandays lost, have been considered. Both trends and cycles have been identified. These differ for three sub-periods, 1921-38; 1939-60; and, 1961 to 1978. There are also differences for the three indicators. Nevertheless data indicate similar increase in conflict, with cyclical changes. The determinants of conflict also differed from one sub-period to another. In the first period, rising prices, and political events and trade union history were the leading factors. The second period was marked by the increasing influence of wages and consumer price index. For the third period, wages, inter-union rivalry, and political events explained the growth in conflict. The need for further research in economic and social history is indicated by the study.

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Working Papers | 1987

Causality Between Money and Price Level in India Revisited

Sharma Ram Lal

In this study we have used Granger's test of causality as interpreted by Sims and found out that causality is semi directional from money to price level. This conclusion is independent of the type of definition of money used and is valid whether we choose time period characterized by fixed exchange rate regime or flexible exchange rte regime.

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