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2761 items in total found

Working Papers | 2008

Issues and Constrains in Manpower Supply in Indian Hospitality Industry

Subbarao Srinivas P

By the very nature of tourism as a service industry, its efficient management and successful operation depend largely on the quality of manpower. In India, the shortage of skilled manpower poses a major threat to the overall development of tourism. In particular, the rapid expansion of hotels of an international standard in India is creating a high level of demand for skilled and experienced staff. The nature of the decisions facing hotel management is continually expanding. For their business to remain competitive, managers must be skilful in many diverse areas. Tourism statistics reveal that both domestic and foreign tourism are on a robust growth path. This growth will need to be serviced by a substantial increase in infrastructure, including air-road, rail connectivity as well as hotels and restaurants The availability of skilled and trained manpower is a crucial element in the successful long-term development and sustainability of a tourist destination. Skilled and trained human resources will ensure the delivery of efficient, high-quality service to visitors, which is a direct and visible element of a successful tourism product. High standards of service are particularly important in sustaining long-term growth, since success as a tourist destination is determined not only by price competitiveness or the range of attractions available, but also by the quality of the services provided, there by the qualified human capital. This paper elaborates the issues and constrains relating to demand and supply of manpower in hospitality industry and also suggested the recommendations to fill the gap.

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Working Papers | 2008

Access of Poor Households to Primary Education in Rural India

Ravindra H. Dholakia and Shreekant Iyengar

The Planning Commission's premise that the growth in India has bypassed the weaker sections due to their ineffective access to the basic services like primary education needs to be tested against the evidence. Traditionally identified weaker section on social criteria (SC and ST population) seems to have a similar or relatively better access to the primary education. However, there is no direct evidence available for the weaker section on the economic criteria or the population living below poverty line (BPL). The present paper attempts to provide an empirical evidence for the premise of the Planning Commission from the household survey of BPL families in five states of India including the survey of primary schools for the same states and localities. Our findings suggest that there is a problem of access of the poor (BPL) households to the primary education services in rural areas. Primary enrolment ratios among the children of poor households are considerably lower than the respective state average and also the aggregate enrolment ratio of the country. Our findings also reveal that the incentives such as mid-day meals, free textbooks and cash subsidies given by government schools to the poor children do actually reach them. The problem of insufficient effective access of the poor to primary education still persists. It calls for a change in the policy level thinking. Qualitative aspects like school infrastructural deficiencies and functioning of teachers having a direct bearing on the quality and access of education in the rural areas need urgent attention.

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Working Papers | 2008

FDI and Human Capital Development

Subbarao Srinivas P

FDI has considered a major catalyst in promoting sustainable development in developing countries. FDI has the potential to generate employment, raise productivity, transfer skills and technology, increased income, enhance exports and contribute to the long-term economic development of the world's developing countries. The investing countries usually supply superior technologies to the host countries. At the initial stages, however, the less developed countries (LDC) lack not only the necessary skills and infrastructure to attract FDI in high technology sector but also the knowledge for proper implementation of technology. Since this requires less technical capabilities, skill building in the host LDC is less. However, such skill building, even though small, creates a platform for the LDC to develop their existing technology and capital productivity. This helps in improving the human capital of the country by facilitating education and technical training to a greater mass of people. Eventually, with the development of the economy the country moves from the subsistence level to the point where the dependence on FDI gradually shifts from mere manufacturing level to the managerial level of a company. At this point of time, the LDC should aim at attracting effective FDI. By effective FDI, we mean the FDI that is development friendly-FDI that fosters not only growth of the nation, but also growth and development of each resident of the country. In other words, effective FDI indulges in enhancement of human capital of the country. The growth of an economy can sustain only though the growth of an increasing, economically productive labor force. This paper explains importance of human capital skilling, the relation between the FDI and Human Capital development besides the experiences of these two in different regions of the world i.e., Asian and Latin American experiences.

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Working Papers | 2008

A Unified Theory of Capability Building: Need and Response

M. R. Dixit, Amit Karna, and Sunil Sharma

Strategy literature is replete with isolated contributions to the jigsaw puzzle of building capabilities by firms. The isolation is primarily caused by the way resource-based view and capability literature has developed over time. There is a need to overcome this isolation and build a unified theory of capability building process which takes into account both internal as well as external perspective and explains it for new as well as established firms, successful as well as not so successful firms . We respond to this need with a unified theory that explains deliberate and emergent process of capability building by recognizing the independent and interdependent contributions of the firm and its external environment. The capability building process is characterized as a three phased process with different starting points for different categories of firms. The phases in capability building-Participative, Competitive, and Leadership-reflect the strategic intent of the firm and its position vis-à-vis the environment. Each phase in the process witnesses capability building through an interaction between internal firm dynamics and corresponding external environmental forces. The theory encompasses the evolution of capabilities not only by exploiting the opportunities but also by overcoming the external constraints and the rigidities inherent in the capability. It incorporates context, processes, antecedents and consequences within each stage and across different stages. It answers important questions like why firms are different in terms of their capability building approach. The theory is unique as it unearths the unexplored process of capability building with a holistic and temporal perspective.

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Working Papers | 2008

Metamorphosis of Entrepreneurial Ventures: A Holistic Paradigm from Two Tales

M. R. Dixit, Amit Karna, and Sunil Sharma

Some entrepreneurial ventures grow into large organizations within a relatively short duration. These startups rapidly increase their scale and scope to turn into matured organizations. Though the literature is replete with such examples, there is no explanation for such a phenomenon. Also, nothing has been said about the role of the environment in metamorphosis of such ventures. We look at two global organizations and explain their metamorphosis. We arrive at four dynamic stages through which an entrepreneurial venture grows: prime pillar formation stage, scale catapult stage, scope enlargement stage, and maturity stage. We also explain the different roles played by the firm and the environment during each stage, the interactions between each of these roles, and the dominant strategic process underlying in each stage.

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Working Papers | 2008

Overcoming Managerial Challenges to Realize Growth Spurts: Insights from Cases of Three Enterprises

M. R. Dixit, Sunil Sharma, and Amit Karna

Organizations face several managerial challenges during their growth period. Growth spurts are realized when organizations overcome these challenges. Though the literature is full of studies on the enterprise growth, the knowledge about how these challenges facilitate or hinder growth is limited. We conceptualize and explain five challenges faced by an enterprise along its growth trajectory. For evidence, we then look at history of three organizations from different sectors and trace their strategies to overcome the challenges faced by them. The firm and the environment interact and make certain strategic choices, which in turn results in growth spurts in the organization. We draw insights from their growth stories and discuss the different strategies and interactions between the firm and the environment.

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Working Papers | 2008

International Technology Transfer to India an Impedimenta and Impetuous

Subbarao Srinivas P

Technology transfer is an important means by which developing countries gain access to technologies that are new to them. Most technology transfer has between developed and developing countries through commercial technology transfers by the private sector. These include transfers through foreign direct investment, foreign licensing, turnkey projects, technical consultancy, capital goods acquisition, international subcontracting and joint ventures. By opening of the Indian economy (LPG policies-1991), several Indian companies are poised for different types of financial, technical and other forms of collaborations. Though they enter with proper technology transfer agreements, some are not successful with different reasons. Government of India's Ministry of Scientific and Industrial Research is playing a vital role through its technology transfer policy in both inward and outwards technology transfers to the Indian companies through automatic route and some are through project approval board (PAB). The ability of the country to use technology transfers to develop their domestic capabilities to reap the social and economic benefits have been very mixed. This paper explores the important issues involved in the technology transfer besides the scope of technology transfer disputes and the promotion and regulation of technology transfer in India.

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Working Papers | 2008

Mining Frequent Item sets in Data Streams

Rajanish Dass

Working Papers | 2008

Classification Using Association Rules

Rajanish Dass

Association rule mining is a well-known technique in data mining. Classification using association rules combines association rule mining and classification, and is therefore concerned with finding rules that accurately predict a single target (class) variable. The key strength of association rule mining is that all interesting rules are found. The number of associations present in even moderate sized databases can be, however, very large-usually too large to be applied directly for classification purposes. This project compares and combines different approaches for classification using association rules. This research area is called classification using association rules. An important aspect of classification using association rules is that it can provide quality measures for the output of the underlying mining process. The properties of the resulting classifier can be the base for comparisons between different association rule mining algorithms. A certain mining algorithm is preferable when the mined rule set forms a more accurate, compact and stable classifier in an efficient way. First, in this project we are interested in the comparison of the quality of different mining algorithms. Therefore, we use classification using association rules. Secondly, classification using association rules can be improved itself by using a mining algorithm that prefers highly accurate rules. The author of the report is indebted to several students and research assistants who showed interest and got involved in the work.

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Working Papers | 2008

Links in the Knowledge Journey of an Idea to Innovation: A Study in the Context of Development of Customized Cartons

M. R. Dixit and Girja Sharan

This paper identifies and analyses the links in the knowledge journey of an idea to innovation. It tracks the links in the development of customized cartons for packaging tomatoes. The trigger points for the innovation, the milestones crossed by the innovator, the interaction with agencies and actors in the environment, the interests and responses of the agencies and the actors, and the final outcomes were identified. Based on analysis, it conceptualises a model of knowledge journey and develops suggestions for innovators and innovation associates. The suggestions are in the areas of responding to innovation triggering points, learning and leveraging on what is possible and happening, adapting to the constraints of the innovation associates and building flexible systems and structures.

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IIMA