Innovation, Technology, and Market Ecosystems

The study aims to gauge the influence of the increasing role of technology on Shared Services (SS) operations and efficiency. Based on information gathered by means of a questionnaire-based survey from over 100 Shared Service practitioners representing over 60 Shared Service Organizations (SSOs) across 14 industry segments in select cities of south India, where most Shared Service Centers (SSCs) are located, the findings of the survey reinforced that technology is largely considered a game changer for Shared Services, fundamentally changing the way SSCs operate. SSCs are harnessing technologies of Intelligent Process Automation such as Digital Process Automation, Robotic Process Automation, Machine Learning, and Cognitive and Artificial Intelligence in not just decreasing the effort required for repetitive, labor-intensive tasks but empowering SSCs to engage efficiently and accomplish higher-value objectives while they continue to stay competitive and meet changing customer needs effectively.

The primary aluminum industry in India consists of three major players, that is, NALCO (PSU), Hindalco and Vedanta, with a production of about 3.4 MT and capacity of 4.1 MT (Saraswat and Ghosh, 2018). All the plants have their captive power plants for cheaper and uninterrupted power supply. The aluminum industry has set up about 9500 MW of captive power capacity (“Aluminium industry demands resumption of coal supply”, 2018). Currently, aluminum smelters in India are facing huge coal shortages in domestic coal supply from Coal India Limited (CIL). This study was taken to analyze the issues and challenges related to coal sourcing and to explore and suggest suitable options so as to execute the coal sourcing in the most efficient way. The inputs received and the data collected from the various sources are utilized in the formulation of business solutions to determine the most suitable mix of fuel-sourcing options. The study analyzes the current scenario of coal demand and supply and estimates the gap based on the market survey and then conclusive recommendations are suggested.

Modern financial intermediation research has focused its attention on the role that relationship plays in the lender-borrower interaction. As information asymmetries are critical for financial intermediation at all levels of lending (especially for those lending to the poor), building relationship has been considered an alternative type of lending to diminish this problem. Microfinance institutions (MFI) while using the relationship to lend hold most of the risk of lending. How do they know whom to lend? What are the probabilities of the borrower to pay the loan back on time? What are the characteristics of the borrowers that influence a positive behavior to pay back the loan on time? Using a recent unique data set from a Mexican MFI (SOFIPA) we analyze 122,594 credits given to active entrepreneurial poor women in a joint liability-based group lending model. Our results suggest that social ties and a stronger relationship built between the MFI and the women determine a better repayment performance.

Limited access to low-cost and long-duration financing is an impediment to the growth of the renewable energy sector in India. Tapping institutional capital is a potential solution to this problem. In theory, institutional investors such as insurance and pension funds are well positioned to fund the renewable energy sector as traits of this sector align well with the investment objectives of this class of institutional investors. Yet, this class of investors have not invested in renewable energy sector in the magnitude that is warranted. This chapter assesses suitability of Green Bonds, Infrastructure Debt Funds (IDFs), and Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvITs) as financial instruments to provide financing by institutional investors in the renewable energy sector. Our analysis suggests that the renewable energy investment traits align reasonably well with institutional investors’ investments criteria such as return, time horizons, and risk but illiquidity and regulatory restrictions remain a major concern impeding institutional investments. The chapter provides insights, shared by institutional investors, pertaining to policy and perception barriers, which once addressed can increase uptake of these new financial instruments.

Firms that report engagement in corporate social responsibility strive for both business and social growth and development by being proactive in tending to stakeholders’ needs and wants. In the midst of the #metoo movement, organizations around the world are confronted with the challenge of addressing current and potential stakeholders’ online and offline demands to do the right thing, as well as maintain their right to operate. The question, then, is how does stakeholder voice via social networking sites influence organizational decision making? This study contributes to the understanding of stakeholders’ role in the development of organizations’ standards and policies, by exploring the legitimacy of organizations’ engagement in corporate social responsibility in the midst of the #metoo movement.

Organizational identification (OID) plays a crucial role in employee-organization relationship, which leads to a range of positive individual and organizational outcomes such as employee satisfaction and well-being, organizational citizenship behavior, performance and turnover intentions. Drawing on the social exchange theory, it is proposed that the positive relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) on OID will be stronger for the employees with positive reciprocity beliefs. Data was collected using structured questionnaires to measure the variables under study. The sample of the study was 306 employees working in different Indian organizations. The data was analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. The results of the study show that POS had positive impact on OID. Further, the relationship between POS and OID was moderated by positive reciprocity beliefs such that the relationship was stronger when the positive reciprocity beliefs were higher. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed for better understanding and application of the research.

To sustain the transformation of human resource functions, human resource (HR) professionals must develop and demonstrate a new set of competencies to fulfill their changing roles and responsibilities. Prominent round of studies on HR competencies was conducted by Ulrich and team from late 1980s for around 30 years, defining the competencies of HR professionals and the way those competencies had an impact on personal effectiveness and business performance. There were certain competencies identified that needed to be demonstrated by HR professionals that were at the core of HR work or heart of HR. Three such competencies were found, namely, Strategic Positioner, Credible Activist and Paradox navigator. Other three competencies identified were Strategic Enablers that included Culture and Change Champion, Human Capital Curator and Total Rewards Steward. Further three competencies identified were foundational enablers, namely, Compliance Manager, Analytics Designer and Interpreter and Technology and Social Media Integrator. Other research results also indicated that organizations who were managing their human capital effectively had a competitive advantage over others and were more likely to have a strong financial performance. Literature also indicates that HR professionals need to not only possess HR-related competencies but also knowledge of business and high degree of cross-functional orientation so that HR may create value for business. HR professionals of tomorrow would need to understand business and context of business and use HR systems effectively as a strategic intervention tool. They would not only be required to work toward building of organizational capabilities, through competence building, talent management, leadership development and trust building, but would also be expected to work toward their own capability building to lead to fulfillment of expectations of various stakeholders and in process aligning Human Resource Development (HRD) with business and organizational goals.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is described as an investment into another country by an organization with the idea of production of a good or marketing of a product in the country of investment. Besides being a pivotal source of non-debt capital inflow for the host country, it also commits transfer of technology, skill and know-how from one country to another. It has essentially been contemplated as crucial for the integrity of global economies ensuring deeper and enduring ties between nations. This chapter aims to look at the impact of FDI on the growth rate in the Indian economy. The growth rate of the economy is measured as the growth rate in GDP. The time period of the study is the new millennium, that is, from 2001 onward till early 2018. The time period has been chosen such as to study the impact of FDI on the growth rate of India in the pre-financial crisis period (2002–2007), the financial crisis years (2008–2012) and the post-financial crisis period (2013–2018). This delineation of the time period helps in understanding the impact in a better way.

This study follows a macroeconomic approach in determining the factors that impact external commercial borrowings (ECBs). It considers the impact of independent factors, that is, exchange rate, differential growth rate, index of industrial production, interest rate differential, differential inflation, global money supply, and capital account openness on the dependent factor of external commercial borrowings based on quarterly data for the period July 2004–December 2017. The study also seeks to determine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variables, that is, external commercial borrowings in the short run and long run based on Johansen cointegration test and vector autoregressive/vector error correction model. It also determines the causal relationship between the independent and dependent variables through the Granger causality test.

The classroom of today is emerging as a new battleground between the teachers and the students. With a new generation of tech-savvy students—the teachers are facing a complex battle trying to impose the older “chalk and talk” methodology in the face of multiple sources of information. The new generation—increasingly born after 1990s—is extremely reliant on various digital tools for day-to-day work including learning. This has brought the teacher into direct conflict with Google and Wikipedia which are regarded as more learned than the person delivering the knowledge in the classroom. The rising social and digital tensions have made the classroom more of a battlefield with the traditional mode of learning and teaching fighting a losing battle against the new waves of digital invaders. This chapter proposes to look at how the students perceive the new classroom and what role does the various platforms play in terms of classroom interaction. Data for the research was collected from 198 students from various business schools. Exploratory factor analysis using parallel analysis was employed to understand the underlying dimensions and the interrelationships between them. An attempt was also made at using confirmatory factor analysis to understand the dynamics of the relationships. Four dimensions were identified and the paper tries to synthesize the outcomes with classroom teaching and learning in the Indian context.

Land acquisition is one of the biggest roadblocks in the development of infrastructure projects in India and contributes to 50% of the delays on infrastructure projects in India. The government of India (GoI) introduced a new legislation, the Right to Fair Compensation in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RECTLARR) in 2015, with the objective of inducing appropriate behavior amongst various stakeholders and resulting in a win-win situation in terms of reducing delays and speeding up infrastructure development but this has not materialized. The authors analyze the legislation from a control perspective and examine successful cases where the project authorities have sidestepped the law and arrived at mutually satisfactory compensation along with rehabilitation and resettlement of the displaced population. The authors find that in all the cases, the authorities have employed value systems that have contributed to inducing appropriate behavior and resulting in a win-win situation. The authors postulate a new informal control mechanism and term it as value-based control, which has so far not received attention in management control literature.

The general objective of this study is to propose consumer perceived brand literacy as a construct, and develop a measurement scale, its validity, and reliability. The proposed scale will help to understand the consumer perceived brand literacy through the measurement and validation of the five proposed dimensions. This study aims at describing the consumer perceived brand literacy through five dimensions such as perceived brand image literacy, perceived brand attributes literacy, perceived brand quality literacy, perceived brand personality literacy, and perceived brand leadership literacy. The data is collected from consumers within the age group of 25–45 years, distributed homogeneously. The scale development process has been carried out in two stages in reference to two different consumer brands. Scale refinement has been done based on the analysis of reliability and validity tests at both stages.

The prime objective of the study is to understand the moderating effect of job satisfaction and gender on the relationship between customer relationship management (CRM) practices and customer acquisition. The study first investigates the relationship between the four best CRM practices; CRM vision, CRM strategy, valued customer experience and organizational collaboration, suggested by Gartner’s competency model with customer acquisition and then tries to test the moderation effect of employee’s job satisfaction and gender. The findings of the study are based upon the responses from 196 employees of a selected retail store, through a self-administered questionnaire. The study finds a significant moderation effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between Gartner’s CRM practices and customer acquisition.

This chapter proposes a set-theoretical model to analyse the interplay between causation and effectuation in entrepreneurial marketing (EM). Existing literature offers approaches oriented to understand venture performance but they are exclusive. This chapter takes an inclusive perspective in which there may be an interplay of causation and effectuation across the critical stages of venture evolution: exploration of opportunities and exploitation of opportunities. The proposed model involves analysing the differences between previous approaches but also considers their intersection. In this way, we contribute by considering that the interplay causation-effectuation as a hybrid path to venture performance. Prospects for testing as well as implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Today’s time has seen the rise of the social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Twitter, which encourage customers to take a more active role as market players and reach almost everyone anywhere and anytime. Although, there is a difference in usage pattern of these media channels by male and female. This chapter introduces a new “Competency Mapping” framework of the use of new media by male and female. This chapter has identified five social media competencies namely, technical competency, visibility awareness competency, knowledge competency, impact assessment competency, and social media communication competency. Researcher has tried to map these competencies to make a comparative study of the use of social media among male and female users.

With the advent of information and communication technology, more and more industries are emphasizing on the use of e-learning methods in order to train employees without incurring much training cost. Although organizations are investing in building infrastructure to support e-learning method, it becomes important to understand the user satisfaction and their continuance intention to use e-learning method for trainings. This research study tries to analyze the relationship between user satisfaction and continuance intention. The data are collected from 260 respondents in Indian telecom sector majorly from the National Capital Territory (NCT) region through structured questionnaires. The data are analyzed through ordinal logistic regression technique (OLR) using SPSS version 20. The result indicates that motivation is the major factor that affects user satisfaction. This chapter also demonstrates the significant relation between user satisfaction and continuance intention.

This chapter examines the factors that contribute to enhancing social enterprises effectiveness in African context. Using Identity theory which is based on symbolic interactionism and assumes that society shapes social behavior, this study proposes the four pertinent factors—culture, community, communications, and leadership—that managers need to pay attention in order to enhance social enterprise effectiveness. These factors contribute to literature by offering the promise of empowering marginalized segments of populations in Africa through social enterprises. This study has a few recommendations for social enterprise managers and policymakers.