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3722 items in total found

Working Papers | 2014

ICT Adoption and Organizational Change in Public and Private Enterprises

Rakesh Basant and Shruti Sharma

In this paper we explore whether there are differences in IT adoption, as well associated organizational change between private and state owned enterprises. We use two datasets from India to conduct this analysis- primary survey data of about 500 firms in India that contains detailed information on IT related organizational changes at these firms, and a secondary plant-level panel dataset by the Annual Survey of Industries which comprehensively covers the Indian manufacturing sector. We find important differences across the two kinds of enterprises in terms of extent and intensity of adoption as well as organizational structures across both datasets. The survey data suggests that IT induced organizational changes especially in terms of removal of levels of hierarchy are higher in state owned enterprises. The secondary data on the other hand shows that there are no statistically significant differences between the two kinds of enterprises as far as adjustment in composition of supervisory and managerial staff and other skilled workers is concerned.

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Working Papers | 2014

Strengthening Corporate Governance in India - A Review of Legislative and Regulatory Initiatives in 2013

Bala N. Balasubramanian

The passing of the long awaited Companies Act in 2013 is probably the single most important development in Indias history of corporate legislation, next only to the monumental Companies Act 1956 which it replaces. While significant improvements have been effected in required standards of corporate governance, there is also some concern of possible overreach making life more difficult for companies as well as their independent directors. Among the major provisions of the Act are those of restraining voting rights of interested shareholders on related party transactions, recognition of board accountability to stakeholders besides shareholders, and extension of several good governance requirements to relatively large unlisted corporations.

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Working Papers | 2014

Heuristics for the multi-product satiating newsboy problem

Avijit Khanra and Chetan Soman

Due to the preference of satiation (of the profit target) over maximization (of expected profit) in uncertain situations, the newsboy problem with the satiation objective is an important practical problem. In the multi-product setting, practically usable solution methods are available only for two-product and some restricted three-product problems. We develop heuristics to solve larger problems (more number of products). Two search-based heuristics are developed and tested with a large number of versatile test problems.

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Working Papers | 2014

Multi-product newsboy problem with satiation objective

Avijit Khanra

Meeting the prot target is often preferred over maximizing expected prot in uncertain
business environments. Research into the newsboy problem with satiation objective started
quite early. However, the progress has been slow, particularly in the multi-product setting.
We study the general multi-product newsboy problem with satiation objective. A discrete
formulation is adopted. Computational methods for evaluating and maximizing the satiation
probability (i.e., probability of meeting the prot target) are developed. Diculties associated
with the conventional continuous formulation are also discussed.

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Working Papers | 2013

A Dynamic Pricing Approach on Electricity Prices in Indian Context

Kinnary R. Desai and Goutam Dutta

In this paper, we study the mechanism of dynamic pricing of electricity and its opportunities in the Indian context. We compare the economic efficiency of dynamic pricing vis-à-vis the traditional flat tariff of electricity. We analyse various ways in which dynamic tariff can be introduced in the electricity market and we show the Indian experience in this regard. We consider the state of Maharashtra, in particular, to understand how TOD (Time of Day) pricing system has been introduced and how it is more efficient. We develop a mathematical model using pseudo-real data (as per the advice of a renowned sector expert) to show how TOD tariff is more efficient than flat tariff and how RTP (Real Time Pricing) tariff is associated with uncertainty of electricity bills. We further emphasise on how the dynamic pricing system can be modified in order to increase its efficiency.

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Working Papers | 2013

Blinded Tests in 2 x 2 Cross-Over Trial

Kaustav Banerjee, Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, and G. Chattopadhyay

We propose tests for equality of treatment effects in the context of a double-blind 2 x 2 cross-over trial which do not require treatment codes to be unblinded and thus can be used as a part of the interim analyses. We first discuss the set-up of a 2 x 2 cross-over trial and state the important assumptions necessary for our procedure. Section 2 discusses implications of blinded interim data analysis under the givensetting and review the test proposed in Millder et al. [27] while pointing out its limitations. Section 3 introduces two preliminary (blinded) tests for equality of means when the data are collected from a 2 x 2 cross-over trial and study their power properties. Section 4 proposes a procedure to improve upon the performance of the tests proposed in Section 3 which require the assumption of equality of variances for the two treatments. The resulting methodology is a two-stage test and is introduced in Section 5. Section 6 discusses the performance of the two-stage test against the benchmark test which would have been effective had the data been unblinded. At the end we add a few concluding remarks.

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Working Papers | 2013

An Expanded Database Structure for a Class of Multi-period, Stochastic Mathematical Programming Models for Process industries

Narain Gupta, Goutam Dutta, and Robert Fourer

We introduce a multiple scenario, multiple period, optimization-based decision support system (DSS) for strategic planning in a process industry. The DSS is based on a two stage stochastic linear program (SLP) with recourse for strategic planning. The model could be used with little or no knowledge of Management Sciences. The model maximizes the expected contribution (to profit), subject to constraints of material balance, facility capacity, facility input, facility output, inventory balance constraints, and additional constraints for non-anticipativity. We describe the database structure for the stochastic linear programming (SLP) based DSS in contrast to the deterministic linear programming (LP) based DSS. In the second part of this paper, we compare a completely relational database structure with a hierarchical one on multiple criteria. We demonstrate that by using completely relational databases, the efficiency of model generation can be improved by 60% in comparison to hierarchical databases.

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Working Papers | 2013

Modeling Situational Factors in Variety Seeking Behaviour: An Extension of the Lightning Bolt Model

Rajesh Nanarpuzha

Variety seeking behavior and its corollary, purchase reinforcement have been looked at from diverse viewpoints in marketing literature. One specific viewpoint has involved looking at the effects of variety seeking behavior on purchase behavior and brand preference. In the area of marketing modeling, variety seeking behavior has been looked at as a consequence of attribute satiation and inherent user preferences. However, the effect of situational variables on variety seeking behavior has often been overlooked. Chintagunta (1999) has made use of the lightning bolt model (Roy, Chintagunta, & Haldar, 1996) to isolate the effects of variety seeking behavior on brand preferences. However, the author has made use of the attribute satiation approach to model variety seeking behavior. In this paper, the attempt has been made to build on the lightning bolt model (Roy et al., 1996) and the variation proposed by Chintagunta (1999) to propose a conceptual model that incorporates the effect of situational variables on variety seeking behavior and thereby, brand preferences. The Indian kirana store and a large-format retail store have been contrasted to set the empirical context for the problem. Alternative methods have been proposed for data collection and for empirically testing the model in this particular context.

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Working Papers | 2013

A Constrained Nash Bargaining Approach to the Stock Rationing Problem in Multi-echelon Supply Chains

Debjit Roy and N. R. Srinivasa Raghavan

In order to survive in the global volatile market place, supply chain analysts' are brainstorming
to arrive at robust inventory control policies that prevents inventory worth of millions
of dollars to get tied up in the chain and at the same time ensures to achieve the differentiated
customer service levels. Inventory rationing is a useful strategy to tackle the above problem
of conflicting objectives, i.e., minimizing inventory costs (holding costs and backorder costs)
and achieving the desired customer service levels. In this paper we consider a multi-echelon
supply distribution system and pose the stock allocation problem in a constrained Nash Bargaining
(NB) setting. The objective of the model is to determine a set of rationing fractions
at the central depot in order to minimize the order-up-to level inventory yet exactly achieving
the differentiated target fill rates. It is our firm belief that the Distribution Resource Planning
(DRP) managers will find the proposed models a useful tool in their stock allocation decision
making process. Rigorous computational experiments suggests that our approach performs
better than the existing ones for this important problem.

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Working Papers | 2013

"Impatience" of Forest Dependent Communities -
Evidence from Andhra Pradesh

B. Sundar and Vineet Virmani

This study is an attempt to generate empirical evidence on the time discount rate or "impatience" of forest dependent communities (FDCs). The FDCs covered in the study include two different geographical regions from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh-Rayalaseema (a relatively dry forest region with low income) and the coastal region (relatively fertile forest and with higher income). "Impatience" was measured as the revealed individual time discount rate from the choice task methodology. With this measure, on average, members of FDCs from Rayalaseema were found to be more "impatient" compared to their counterparts from the coastal region. Using interval regression, the study also looked at the role of income and socioeconomic variables on their impatience. Incomes of members of FDCs both from Rayalaseema and the coastal region did not contribute to their "impatience". For members of FDCs from Rayalaseema, on average, proximity to urban centers was found to contribute positively to "impatience" and membership to "other backward caste" (relative to "scheduled caste" and "scheduled tribe") negatively so. For members of FDCs from the coastal region, family size and being a shared decision maker within the family contributed negatively to impatience.

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