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3899 items in total found

Journal Articles | 2019

Exploring the role of urban green spaces in 'smartening' cities in India

Rama Mohana R Turaga, Sandip Chakrabarti, Urmila Jha-Thakur, and Dipita Hossain

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal

This paper explores the conceptualization of Urban Green Space (UGS) within India’s urban planning process. In doing so, the context of the Smart Cities Mission (SCM), which is a flagship programme for urban transformation in the country, is chosen. We identified four key elements of UGS planning in the literature – quantity, accessibility, multifunctionality, and connectivity. Using this as a framework for analysis, we reviewed the national SCM guidelines and plans of four cities – Gwalior, Bhagalpur, Chandigarh, and Udaipur – in depth. We find that multifunctionality does not feature in the planning of UGS, and the notable absence of a connected, strategic vision suggests the need for strategic-level planning and assessment that goes beyond the project level in India.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Innovations in public administration in India

Dipti Gupta, Ashok Kumar Pandey, and Amit Garg

Economic & Political Weekly

Innovations in public service could be a core driver for ensuring that public administration becomes competitive, efficient, cost-effective and accountable to the citizenry. This state of innovation in India is analysed through the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration for the period 2005–06 to 2016–17. The analysis shows that most of the innovations are management innovations, followed by technological innovations. They indicate some degree of direction in good governance and replicability. There is also need for some scouting mechanism for public administration innovations and for providing a replicable yet flexible template to promote them across the country.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Reverse innovation: a conceptual framework

Suresh Malodia, Shaphali Gupta, and Anand Kumar Jaiswal

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

Reverse innovation (RI) has emerged as a new growth strategy for MNCs to innovate in emerging markets and then to further exploit the profit potential of such innovations by subsequently introducing them not only in other similar markets but also in developed markets, thereby delivering MNCs a sustainable growth globally. In this study, we propose an overarching conceptual framework to describe factors that contribute to the feasibility of RIs. Using grounded theory with a triangulation approach, we define RI as a multidimensional construct, identify the antecedents of RI, discuss the outcomes, and propose a set of moderating variables contributing to the success of RIs. We also present a set of research propositions with their relative effects on the relationships proposed in the conceptual framework. Additionally, we provide future research directions and discuss theoretical contributions along with managerial implications to realize the strategic goals of RI.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Downstream electric utility restructuring and upstream generation efficiency: Productivity dynamics of Indian coal and gas-based electricity generators

Anish Sugathan Anish Sugathan, Deepak Malghan, S Chandrashekar, and Deepak K. Sinha

Energy

This paper investigates the producer-level temporal dynamics of total factor productivity and operational performance changes in coal- and gas-based generators during the 2000–20013 period of major structural reforms in the downstream utilities in India. The total factor productivity is estimated using a recently developed improvement in the Stochastic Frontier panel method that controls for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, and the productivity change is decomposed into components of changes in technology frontier, efficiency, scale and allocation. A unique dataset of station-level data for coal and gas plants, that represents about two-thirds of all power generation in India during this period, is constructed for the analysis. The study shows that while there is improvement in the coal generator productivity at the mean rate of 0.20% per year that converges towards a point of higher efficiency for most plants, the gas generators show a trend of stagnant efficiency and declining total factor productivity at the mean rate of −0.80% per year. Unbundling and multi-dimensional utility reform indices are significantly associated with improvement in thermal efficiency and capacity utilization for coal generators. In contrast, utility reforms shows no significant positive influence on gas generators, instead a decline in capacity utilization is observed following unbundling.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Supporting and sustaining state-initiated women's empowerment: Learning from a national programme in India

Ankur Sarin and Vijaya Sherry Chand

Journal of International Development

State-led women's empowerment initiatives are usually indifferent to the tensions between the processes of transformation they initiate at the grassroots and the intermediary support structures they create to sustain empowerment. Drawing on the experiences of Mahila Samakhya, a programme initiated by the Indian state in the late 1980s, we argue that the failure of the state to acknowledge the struggles of the intermediary layers to reconcile the social purpose of transformation with the economic logic underpinning organizational survival only leads to reinforcing a new form of ‘neo-liberal compatible’ governance. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Bilevel optimization based on iterative approximation of multiple mappings

Ankur Sinha, Zhichao Lu, Kalyanmoy Deb, and Pekka Malo

Journal of Heuristics

A large number of application problems involve two levels of optimization, where one optimization task is nested inside the other. These problems are known as bilevel optimization problems and have been studied by both classical optimization community and evolutionary optimization community. Most of the solution procedures proposed until now are either computationally very expensive or applicable to only small classes of bilevel optimization problems adhering to mathematically simplifying assumptions. In this paper, we propose an evolutionary optimization method that tries to reduce the computational expense by iteratively approximating two important mappings in bilevel optimization; namely, the lower level rational reaction mapping and the lower level optimal value function mapping. The algorithm has been tested on a large number of test problems and comparisons have been performed with other algorithms. The results show the performance gain to be quite significant. To the best knowledge of the authors, a combined theory-based and population-based solution procedure utilizing mappings has not been suggested yet for bilevel problems.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Forefather distribution in a variant of Galton-Watson branching process.

Arnab Kumar Laha and Sumit Kumar Yadav

Stochastic Models

In this paper, we consider a variant of a discrete time Galton–Watson Branching Process in which an individual is allowed to survive for more than one (but finite) number of generations and may also give birth to offsprings more than once. We model the process using multitype branching process and derive conditions on the mean matrix that determines the long-run behavior of the process. Next, we analyze the distribution of the number of forefathers in a given generation. Here, number of forefathers of an individual is defined as all the individuals since zeroth generation who have contributed to the birth of the individual under consideration. We derive an exact expression for expected number of individuals in a given generation having a specified number of forefathers. Using this exact expression, we provide a detailed analysis for a simple illustrative case. Some interesting insights and possible applications are also discussed.

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Journal Articles | 2019

The geography of medical travel in India: Differences across states, and the urban-rural divide

Sandip Chakrabarti and Aruna Divya T

Applied Geography

There is a large body of literature exploring spatial disparity in access to healthcare services, and the resultant geographic inequality in the demand for medical travel. We are, however, unaware of any such study conducted in India in the past. The transportation implications of inequitable healthcare access, therefore, remains unknown to Indian planners and policymakers. We use a unique dataset, the 2014–15 Domestic Tourism Expenditure survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, to address this critical gap in the literature. We use trip-making information of 42,547 persons (13,525 urban and 29,022 rural residents) belonging to 28 Indian states in order to analyze the variation in individuals' medical trip destination choice, on average, across states. We analyze overnight trips (i.e., trips involving at least one night stay away from home) made for medical purposes only. Specifically, we isolate and compare the independent influence of state of residence (i.e., the state-effect) on residents' choice of within-district and out-of-state medical care location, after controlling for various personal and household factors that also govern choice. Additionally, we select a sub-sample of individuals who made out-of-state medical trips, and analyze state-level differences in the likelihood of long or >1500 km (vs. short or ≤1500 km) distance medical travel. We analyze urban and rural residents separately, and estimate a pooled model to explore intra-state urban-rural differences in medical trip destination choice. Our analyses reveal significant variation in urban and rural residents' destination choice for medical trips across India's states. We also find within-state urban-rural differences in destination choice to vary significantly across states. Our analysis provides new information on the geography of medical travel in India, underscoring the need for further research on the causes and consequences of the geographic disparity in healthcare access, and targeted action to improve healthcare access equitably across states. We expect our paper to stimulate further research to guide national and state health and transportation policies in India.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Payment methods and their effect on durable goods replacement

Aruna Divya T and Kanchan Mukherjee

Journal of Consumer Marketing

Purpose

Unlike point of purchase behavior, not much is known about how payment method impacts post-purchase behavior, especially for durable goods where user experience can last over long periods. The purpose of this paper is to link two strands of literature for the first time by uncovering systematic linkages between the payment method (upfront cash vs loan) used for purchase of durable goods and the replacement timings for the same.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors predict that cash purchases are more likely to have shorter replacement horizons compared to loan purchases and propose a psychological mechanism that accounts for the same. Their arguments are based on how the strength of coupling, which is the degree of psychological association between payment and consumption, depends on the payment method and differentially influences the consumption experience and consequently leads to different replacement horizons. They conduct a field study to test their predictions and find support for their model.

Findings

The authors find that individuals who financed their durable goods purchases using loan, expressed their intentions to replace the goods after longer period than those who financed their durable goods with cash down payment. As loan installments remind people of painful thoughts of payment, they tend to reduce the dissonance by positively evaluating both retrospective and anticipated usage experiences. This dissonance reduction mechanism eventually leads to reduced willingness to let go of the durable.

Practical implications

Marketers are faced with a tradeoff between increasing purchase likelihood versus ensuring long-term post-purchase satisfaction. In this paper, the authors uncover the psychological mechanisms that can explain how payment method chosen to pay for a durable can have direct effect on post-purchase consumption experiences and subsequently in the replacement intentions. This finding is crucial for marketers who are interested in planning the product line launches and other post-purchase engagement strategies such as buy-back scheme and upgrades.

Social implications

Understanding the psychological mechanisms that explain individual’s likelihood to replace their durable goods allows policymakers to design appropriate interventions to induce more sustainable and efficient use of durable goods in the market. While on one hand, marketers might be interested in increasing sales of their product line by inducing faster replacement of older product versions, environmentalists nudge towards the opposite. This paper provides a possible way to achieve the dual objectives.

Originality/value

While past research on downstream effects of payment methods on behavioral outcomes focused only on consumables, the authors focus on durable goods. Further, they identify the effect of payment method on both psychological and behavioral outcomes.

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Journal Articles | 2019

Framework for sustainable maintenance system: ISM fuzzy MICMAC and TOPSIS approach

Rajesh Kumar Singh and Ayush Gupta (FPM)

Annals of Operations Research

Due to the increasing complexity of manufacturing processes and automation, maintenance of all machines and equipments has become challenging task for production managers today. Due to lack of sensitivity for maintenance, share of maintenance cost in total product cost is also increasing along with decreased productivity. Organizations are either quite slow or getting failed in updating their maintenance systems with time. Keeping in view the importance of maintenance in today’s context, this study has tried to develop a framework for a sustainable maintenance system for manufacturing organizations. Usually organizations are not able to identify critical factors for effective maintenance. Therefore, in this context, the study has identified fourteen factors for the effective maintenance management from the literature review. Some of these factors are process oriented and some are result oriented. Interpretive structural modeling approach is applied for the development of structural relationship among the factors from a strategic perspective. Fuzzy MICMAC analysis is then carried out to categorize these factors based on their driving and dependence value. Further to prioritise major driving factors, Technique for order preferences by similarity of an ideal solution approach has been also applied. It is observed that top management support and commitment, strategic planning and implementation, continuous upgradation of maintenance system to reduce manufacturing lead time and cost are major factors to ensure the sustainable competitive advantage.

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