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3892 items in total found

Working Papers | 2020

Development of Utility Function for Vehicle Insurance: Comparison of Logarithmic Goal Programming Method and Conjoint Analysis Method

Sumeetha R. Natesan and Goutam Dutta

The increase in competition among the vehicle insurance sectors has increased the number of policy options available in the market. This study focuses on the development of a utility function for these policies that will aid policy holders and potential investors in comparing them based on various attributes. A comparison of various vehicle insurance policies can help the customers to compare and choose a vehicle insurance that is suitable to them. Although there are several methods for developing a utility function, in this study, we intend to develop a linear utility model for vehicle insurance policies using two approaches: Logarithmic Goal Programming Model (LGPM) and Conjoint Analysis Method (CAM). We propose to compare the similarities and differences between the results obtained from LGPM and CAM approaches, used for developing the utility function for vehicle insurance policies. We also derive a choice probability of the vehicles insurance policies available in market by developing a multinomial logit choice model. We also study the consistency indicators of the respondents. We will provide useful insights for the use both approaches as research tools.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Celebrity endorsements in emerging markets: Align endorsers with brands or with consumers?

Subhadip Roy, Abhijit Guha, Abhijit Biswas, and Dhruv Grewal

Journal of International Business Studies

This paper investigates country-of-origin (CO) effects as they relate to celebrity endorsements. Across multiple studies in emerging markets, the authors show that consumers’ evaluations depend on the match between (1) celebrity CO and consumer CO (termed consumer CO fit), and (2) celebrity CO and brand CO (termed brand CO fit). If there is a trade-off between consumer CO fit and brand CO fit, the authors identify contingencies (e.g., ethnocentrism levels) that determine which type of CO fit leads to higher evaluations. Furthermore, the authors develop prescriptions for segmentation in emerging markets and specify when these prescriptions differ from those prescribed by prior international business research.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Impact of regulatory framework on bidding behavior of firms: Policy implications for the oil & gas sector

Sunil Sharma and Mukesh Sud

Energy Policy

India's economy is heavily dependent on foreign oil with the country importing nearly 80% of its crude requirement. Consequently, government of India has been keen to encourage private investment in this sector through attractive policy frameworks. The earlier New Exploration Licensing Policy (1999–2015) has met with limited success, especially in the context of attracting multinational firms, necessitating its replacement with Open Acreage Licensing Policy. The factors that resulted in the limited success of a regulatory framework are not fully understood, especially the impact of firms bidding behavior. This paper adopts a qualitative approach to examine bidding decisions of four petroleum exploration firms across several bidding rounds from a resource picking mechanism perspective. Our findings suggest that uncertainties in the regulatory framework were exploited by the firms resulting in policy inefficacy. Our research identifies four variants of uncertainties and three types of aggressive bidding behavior. We recommend that in order to increase policy efficacy, there is a need to decrease stance uncertainty. Further adoption of a behavioral strategy lens to examine regulatory policy can inform the extant literature.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Spirituality at workplace: As seen by Indian managers

Sunil Maheshwari and Rama Shankar Yadav

Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

The purpose of this article is to explore how spirituality is perceived by the managers in India.Thus, attributes of spiritual individuals and its impact at workplace are also explored. Qualitative thematic analysisof thirty in depth interviews was done to generate the unique Indian perspective on workplace spirituality. The participants in the interview process were full time managers of various Indian organizations holding positions like Vice President HR, Senior Manager HR etc. The major findings of the qualitative interviews were that workplace spirituality is a belief in sacred power which guides towards the ethical path. It helps in nurturing a positive, peaceful and compassionate environment at workplace.

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Journal Articles | 2019

The Punjab National Bank scam: Ethics versus robust processes

Sundaravalli Narayanaswami, Kaushik Dora Hanumantu, and Vidula Worlikar

Journal of Public Affairs

With the rising incidents of corporate scams, it has become imperative to lift the corporate veil to unearth the reasons behind them. As a result, it is of paramount importance to examine the formation of the companies entering into the contract—the executives, directors, and top management. A large-scale scam hit the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in India recently with huge implications on its financial position and credibility. It is inferred through this work that violation of checks and balances led to the huge scam. Following this scam, several banks have initiated measures to prevent and early detect such manipulative practices. Banks have incorporated stringent verification of all stakeholders involved in any transaction and do not completely rely anymore on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications system. The Reserve Bank of India, as the apex governing body of all banking agencies in India, has also started taking measures to ensure that monitoring and control mechanisms are strong and robust. Finally, we present the way forward to prevent malpractices in the corporate world and the ethical implications in the society. Although any organization, especially, a public service organization does not allow any perpetrators into its systems, loopholes might exist that its internal or external stakeholders take advantage of. While emphasizing the needs for robust monitoring and audit processes to prevent violation by perpetrators, it is interesting to note that the same monitoring processes have brought out the scam to open for legal scrutiny, specifically at PNB.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Reforming agricultural markets in India: A tale of two model Acts

Sukhpal Singh

Economic & Political Weekly

The union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare had prescribed a model Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act in 2003. The state-level adoption of the act has been tardy and varied in terms of both the magnitude and content of agricultural market reforms. Yet, the ministry under the current central government has come up with another model act, the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017, supposedly an improvement over the 2003 act. Among other things, the provision that has grabbed much attention is the removal of contract farming from the APMC domain to a separate model act of Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion and Facilitation). Analysing these draft acts, the paper finds that both the model acts suffer from serious conceptual lacunae that have implications for their application and governance, and, consequently, for inclusive and sustainable agricultural development.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Community and collective organisations for sustainable agricultural development in India: Experience, challenges, and policy.

Sukhpal Singh

International Journal of Agricultual Economics

The paper reviews and examines the performance of various community and collective institutions across agricultural and allied sectors and regions to determine the factors in their performance and sustainability. These range from water users’ associations, co-operatives and self-help groups to producer companies. It examines the dynamics of their working and performance and their local level livelihood impact based on review of literature, case studies, and inferences. It dwells on the major policy and practice challenges faced by these community entities and concludes by identifying policy and practice relevant lessons for promoting such institutions for inclusive and sustainable agricultural development in India.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Service quality versus service experience: An empirical examination of the consequential effects in B2B services

Subhadip Roy, S. Sreejesh, and Sandhya Bhatia

Industrial Marketing Management

The present study investigates the role of service experience in B2B services vis-a-vis service quality. In particular, the study addresses the question: how do the relative effects of service quality versus service experience in a B2B setting influence the immediate (satisfaction and perceived value) and subsequent customer outcomes (loyalty and word of mouth)? To this end, three surveys were conducted (with a combined sample size of 626) of customers of financial consultancy services. The collected data is subjected to factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the study hypotheses. Major findings indicate a stronger influence of service experience on satisfaction and perceived value as compared to service quality. Results also show a stronger indirect effect of service experience on loyalty and word of mouth (via satisfaction) compared to service quality. In addition, service experience was found to influence both perceived utilitarian and hedonic value derived from service while service quality was found to influence only utilitarian value. The findings underline the importance of service experience in a B2B setup.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Inflation expectations in India: Learning from household

Abhiman Das, Kajal Lahiri, and Yongchen Zhao

International Journal of Forecasting

We use a large household survey that is being conducted by the Reserve Bank of India since 2005 to estimate the dynamics of aggregate inflation expectations over a volatile inflation regime. A simple average of the quantitative responses produces biased estimates of the official inflation data. We therefore estimate expectations by quantifying the reported directional responses. We perform quantification by using the hierarchical ordered probit model, in addition to the balance statistic. We find that the quantified expectations from qualitative forecasts track the actual inflation rate better than the averages of the quantitative forecasts, highlighting the filtering role of qualitative tendency surveys. We also report estimates of the disagreement among households. The proposed approach is particularly suitable in emerging economies, where inflation tends to be high and volatile.

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Journal Articles | 2019

The goblet and two faces: Understanding transcendence and paradox from the perspective of Advaita Vedanta

Shiva Kakkar (FPM)

Human Resource Management International Digest

Purpose

Paradox theory looks at ambidexterity as a set of paradoxical yet interrelated demands. A form of response to such paradoxes is transcendence. Currently, there is limited understanding of the concept among researchers. Using concepts from the Indian philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, this paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of transcendence, highlight some of the epistemological challenges it presents and suggest ways in which the concept can be used by practitioners and ambidexterity researchers.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses concepts and theories from advaitic episteme to look at concepts of paradox and transcendence. The method of adhyaropa–apavada is introduced as a way to help individuals get a transcendental perspective of paradoxes. The application of the method is demonstrated using secondary data from published research on ambidexterity management.

Findings

It is postulated that transcendence is an “intuitive experience” born out of reflexive thinking. The dialectic of adhyaropa–apavada (affirmation followed by recension) is suggested as a pedagogical tool that can promote reflexive thinking.

Originality/value

The paper significantly adds to the theoretical understanding of paradoxes and transcendence in ambidexterity literature. The paper also makes a strong pedagogical contribution to literature by suggesting the dialectic of adhyaropa–apavada that can be used by managers to promote reflexive thinking among subordinates when faced with paradoxical situations.

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