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3899 items in total found

Journal Articles | 2017

Let the people speak: Improving regional adaptation policy by combining adaptive capacity assessments with vulnerability perceptions of farmers in Gujarat, India

Ryan Stock, Trevor Birkenholtz, and Amit Garg

Climate and Development

Farmers throughout the Global South are vulnerable to extreme heat events and shifting precipitation patterns associated with climate change. This is particularly the case in Gujarat, India, which is experiencing fluctuating monsoon rains and seasons. Local institutions there are ill-equipped to assist farmers in adapting to these changes. However, farmers are adapting to climate change, largely through livelihood diversification, in the absence of formal state intervention. Using qualitative methods, we conducted adaptive capacity assessments and assessed vulnerability perceptions in 3 villages, involving 120 farmers from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Combining vulnerability perceptions with adaptive capacity assessments, we better observed the mismatch between rural development policy with the potential to aid in adaptation processes that address local needs, identifying why policy fails to increase the adaptive capacity of the agriculturalists most vulnerable to climate impacts. Decentralizing adaptation programmes to community-level institutions can increase the efficacy of climate interventions by emboldening latent institutions, while not widening the socioeconomic gap of a rapidly modernizing India.

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Journal Articles | 2017

Urban common service generation, delivery and management: A Conceptual Framework

Arpit Shah and Amit Garg

Ecological Economics

Urban commons are currently not studied holistically under the rationale used by the ecosystem cascade framework. In this paper, we build on the ecosystem cascade framework to present a conceptual model that provides a comprehensive view of urban common resources and allows decision-makers to develop suitable interventions to meet objectives of sustainability and equity. The model looks at the role of and explains the linkages between urban commons' biophysical structures, user population characteristics, power dynamics, use behavior, benefits generated, and management strategies. The model adds to existing literature by focusing on direct benefits and equity and by elaborating on the role of transaction costs and management strategies in governing urban commons. Considering direct benefits allows for a complete picture of overall benefits while making governance decisions, as opposed to considering benefits received only through human effort. Focusing on power asymmetries between stakeholders highlights the inequities created in accessing benefits from urban commons. Elaborating on management strategies provides greater insight into the complexities of managing urban commons and the impacts that governance decisions can have. Finally, including transaction costs highlights the factors that influence costs of managing resources. We illustrate the use of the model with literature from urban India.

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Journal Articles | 2017

The role of cluster presence and quality certification in internationalization and performance of offshore service providers

Rajesh S. Upadhyayula, Karthik Dhandapani, and Amit Karna

Journal of International Management

Offshore Service Providers (OSPs) have been a subject of research for several years now. However, there is little known about what drives the internationalization of OSPs. In this paper, we combine insights from economic geography and institutional view to investigate cluster presence and quality certification as the drivers of OSP internationalization and their performance. We hypothesize the facilitating role these two factors play in driving the performance of internationalized firms. We test our hypotheses using data from Indian software firms between 1992 and 2002. We find a positive effect of certification on OSP internationalization. Although certification contributes negatively to OSP performance, it positively moderates the performance effect of OSP internationalization. Cluster presence was found to drive OSP's overall performance, but has no effect on internationalization. Through our findings, we contribute towards the literature on OSP internationalization.

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Journal Articles | 2017

Unsustainability of sustainability: Cognitive frames and tensions in Bottom of the Pyramid projects

Garima Sharma and Anand Kumar Jaiswal

Journal of Business Ethics

Existing research posits that decision makers use specific cognitive frames to manage tensions in sustainability. However, we know less about how the cognitive frames of individuals at different levels in organization interact and what these interactions imply for managing sustainability tensions, such as in Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) projects. To address this omission, we ask do organizational and project leaders differ in their understanding of tensions in a BOP project, and if so, how? We answer this question by drawing on a 5-year study of a BOP project of a global pharmaceutical company in India. In line with the existing research, we found three kinds of frames—paradoxical, business case, and business—held differently across organizational levels and over time. We also found that the shift in frames of both project and organizational leaders was mediated by the decision-making horizon. The initial divergence across organizational levels, seen in paradoxical and business frames, was mediated by long-term decision-making horizon. However, there was an eventual convergence toward business frames associated with the shift from long- to shorter-term decision-making horizons and one that led to the project’s closure. We contribute by proposing a dynamic model of cognitive frames in sustainability, where the research has either alluded to top-down or bottom-up understanding.

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Journal Articles | 2017

Multilevel analysis of ambidexterity and tagging of specialised projects in project-based information technology firms

Srihari Suresh Sohani and Manjari Singh

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the expression of ambidexterity at the “between” projects level as well as the “within” project level in project-based information technology firms (PBITF). The research also provides a framework for the classification of specialised projects. This classification is essential to clarify the level of attention the project will receive with respect to the appropriation of resources and the requisite management bandwidth.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on a nine-month long field-based qualitative study and ensures a rigorous triangulation of the findings through an analysis of archival data and actual project artefacts.

Findings

The authors bring forth three critical implications for practice. First, strategizing ambidexterity at the level of “between” projects and “within” projects is heavily dependent on the interaction among distributed actors and partners. Second, routines and actions to deal with manpower constraints are completely different at these two levels. Lastly, the classification framework of specialised projects proposed here should enable firms to appropriately apportion resources to engagements that are strategic in nature.

Originality/value

The study extends the concept of ambidexterity to the “within” project level and finds it relevant at the lowest level in the project-based structure. Also, the framework for the classification of specialised projects that is provided will assist decision makers in PBIT firms to decide the organisational response to such projects.

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Journal Articles | 2017

Swot analysis of the Indian Economy in Economic Survey of India 2016-17

Ravindra H. Dholakia

Yojana

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Journal Articles | 2017

How Costly is the Deliberate Disinflation in India? – Estimating the Sacrifice Ratio

Ravindra H. Dholakia and Kadiyala Sri Virinchi

Journal of Quantitative Economics

Methods followed in earlier studies for estimating the sacrifice ratio or the real cost of deliberate disinflation have focused only on aggregate supply side ignoring aggregate demand. The present study considers the adjustment path obtained as a locus of short run equilibria to arrive at a theoretically acceptable sacrifice ratio. The study uses quarterly data from the period between 1996-97Q1–2013-14Q4 in India and employs both the regression as well as the direct methods to estimate the ratio. The results have revealed a sacrifice ratio ranging from 1.7 to 3.8 depending on the method and the measure of inflation used. Such a magnitude of the real cost of disinflation in India, also relevant in the medium to long run, clearly contradicts the dominant view among policymakers that the trade-off, if any, is negligible. Deliberate disinflation policy needs to consider the real cost of sacrificing output and employment particularly when its magnitude is substantial.

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Journal Articles | 2017

Critique of recent revisions with base year change for estimation of state income in India

Ravindra H. Dholakia and Manish B. Pandya

Journal of Indian School of Political Economy

In the present paper, we have critiqued recent revisions made in the estimation of state income in India consequent upon the change in the base year of the National Accounts from 2004-05 to the new base of 2011-12. We have pointed out 10 major limitations of the whole exercise. The revisions associated with the new base 2011-12 series have serious implications on national and regional accounts estimation compared to the past. We have argued with concrete illustrations drawn from the experience of the Gujarat state that most of these impacts are negative on the quality, reliability, valid usage, interpretation and meaningful analysis of long term trends of sectors and the economy at the state level in the country. These revisions areperhaps not well thought out, carefuland consistent with the fundamental desirable characteristics of descriptive statistics and estimation of aggregates. In some cases they seem to be carried out hurriedly without paying attention to their likely impact on the whole system, processes and personnel involved in collection, compilation and generation of critical estimates at regional level. Our final recommendation is that the recent revisions associated with the new base of 2011-12 series should be abandoned for implementation at the state and district levels in the country till further revision of the base year takes place. In the interim period, let the old base of 2004-05 with the methodology continue at the state level.

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Journal Articles | 2017

Rehabilitation myths? How transaction costs reduce farmer welfare after land acquisition.

Vikram Patil and Ranjan Kumar Ghosh

Journal of South Asian Development

In this article, we show how transaction costs lead to farmer marginalization as displaced farmers embark on the process of acquiring new land. Existing studies have focused on the links between monetary compensation and landowners’ investment decisions, but before new land is acquired. However, the post-displacement scenario and the investment decisions of land owners to restore income have not been carefully examined. We use a transaction cost framework to suggest that local specificities related to land characteristics, uncertainties in search for alternatives and information constraints may impose high non-monetary costs on displaced farmers and force them to settle for inferior new land. The article concludes with a preliminary assessment of whether the newly enacted land acquisition framework, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act 2013, promises to minimize these ex-post transaction costs that farmers face.

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Journal Articles | 2017

Are small firms willing to pay for improved power supply? Evidence from a contingent valuation study in India

Ranjan Kumar Ghosh, Yugank Goyal, Jens Rommel, and Julian Sagebiel

Energy Policy

This paper provides new estimates on Indian small-scale manufacturing firms’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for reliable power supply. Almost half of Indian manufacturing lies in the small-scale sector, and its productivity is severely affected by power outages. However, there is a surprising paucity of research on small firms’ WTP for avoiding outages. We conduct a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation experiment with a random sample of 260 small-scale firms in the region around Hyderabad. We find that on average, firms are willing to pay approximately 20% more for uninterrupted power supply. The WTP estimates and the explanatory factors for the firms’ decisions were tested for robustness using both probit and bivariate probit models. In addition, a two-step Heckman correction was used to control for selection bias induced by protest responses. Our results are vital to understand behavior of small firms, which are crucial to India's economic growth. Further, the government's continued emphasis on power sector reforms makes the paper even more important as it provides realistic estimates for designing tariffs while keeping in mind the preferences of the small-scale industry.

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