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Airtel, the leading mobile operator in India was going to launch the “Airtel Zero” platform that would charge service providers and OTT providers on the internet for mobile data traffic but would allow end consumers free access to the web sites that were signed up for the platform. The case revolves around the questions of pricing these data services to the service providers in a market where the price to one set of customers (the end consumer) was not independent of the price to another set of customers (the OTT service providers) - typical of two sided markets. Issues of net neutrality and competition have been considered alongside.

Pricing, digital marketing, marketing management and strategic marketing.

The case can be used for pricing or digital marketing courses as well as marketing management courses to MBA students and/or for management development programmes.

Goldfinch Mobile Solutions, a Hong-Kong based value added services (VAS) and gaming platform provider, had an exclusive tie up with Bharti Airtel in India for providing value added voice applications on an interactive voice response system (IVRS) platform. The Goldfinch flagship service is “Guru Ki Bani” which may be subscribed to by dialing the short code 58282. This “58282” service has a repository of all Sikh religion daily prayers, religious songs, teachings, stories from Guru's life and similar information that is derived from the Sikh Holy book Guru Granth Sahib Ji. As per mutual agreement between Goldfinch Mobile Solutions and Bharti Airtel, the telecom operator had the responsibility to promote Goldfinch's Guru Ki Bani service amongst its subscriber base through its below the line (BTL) promotional channels such as short messaging service (SMS), outbound calls, cell information, notification SMS after call and above the line (ATL) activities such as posters, leaflets, print, promoters, regional TV, outdoors, etc. The revenue sharing arrangement between Airtel and Golfinch was in the ratio of 75 percent and 25 percent. However, with recent changes in the policies of Telephone Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), promotional marketing used by telecom operators has been constrained. Declining customer share, decreasing profits (after Bharti Airtel halted promotions) and increasing organization cost per customer have made MD and CEO Mr Newton Bubber think of various options including low-cost marketing initiatives besides digital marketing to promote Guru Ki Bani services. Value communication to its huge potential customer base, i.e. 184.19 million Bharti Airtel subscribers was another challenge facing Mr Newton and his marketing team at Goldfinch.

The case enables students to learn the concepts and application of value creation, effective value communication, price waterfall analysis, importance of costing parameters in pricing decisions, low-cost marketing strategies and digital marketing.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Marketing, Pricing, Strategic marketing.

The case is developed for an MBA-level program.

In May 2017, the telecom industry in India witnessed an intense price war over 4G (fourth generation) data prices. Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel was exploring various options on how best to respond to the situation. He had to take a final call regarding Bharti Airtel’s marketing team’s counter move to tackle this price war by Jio – should Bharti Airtel ignore it, accommodate it or retaliate with even lower prices? Bharti Airtel strongly believed that Jio pricing structure had violated “fair pricing” norms, and its pricing was anti-competitive. It had filed a case with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to restrain Jio from further giving “free” promotional offers and penalize it for it. Could the legal recourse by Bharti Airtel dampen Jio’s consistent subscriber growth rate?

The case provides the students with an insight into how the competition focused on pricing happens in the telecom industry. The pricing war affects the profit margin of all competing companies. It changes the customer reference point for evaluating the competing products and services. The students would also learn practical applications of positive-sum pricing, pricing war, fair pricing and legal aspects of pricing. This case provides the students with an opportunity to understand the pricing war and how to respond to it in a particular situation; understand positive-sum pricing and negative-sum pricing in telecom industry context; understand legal aspects of pricing; and how to leverage data for gaining newer customer insights.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

On October 1, 2017, Gopal Vittal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer-India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel, was in his New Delhi office reviewing current trends and Airtel's position in Indian Telecom. His primary concern was the shifting data consumption trend in the Indian Telecom Industry (Exhibit 1) and the disruptive changes that were impacting pricing and profitability since the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio) in September 2016. Data consumption in Indian telecom had started increasing exponentially after the entry of Jio who offered lifetime free voice services followed by rock-bottom data tariffs. As Vittal reviewed the data, he wondered if the voice market through a non-VOIP provision was now saturated and would rapidly decline. He was also concerned about the price and revenue implications for Airtel. How might the voice market evolve? How should he act on the pricing front to enable Airtel revenues to continue to grow in the context of what appeared to be predatory pricing by Reliance Jio?

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distinct reasons and more common reasons that reduce customer satisfaction and are antecedents to customer churn behavior in the telecommunication industry.

The study adopted the netnography approach to investigate churn behavior by utilizing online user-generated content in qualified social media communities.

The investigation revealed that “data speed issue”, “ineffective relationship building”, “service area coverage issues” and “billing issues” are some of the most important attributes that influence a consumers' decision to churn. Further, the churn consequence influencers model summarizes the attributes that contribute to overall dissatisfaction and finally results in churn behavior. The study found out the application of the netnography approach in a quantitatively dominant research area and stands out with its insights from a rich qualitative data.

Proper clarification of customer expectations and pain points can help reduce customer churn. The study will serve as the basis for developing future churn prediction models that will contribute to the informed decision-making process.

Contributing to research on customer churn behavior, the study offers a novel attempt to study customer satisfaction and customer churn behavior jointly. The paper is the first attempt that contributes to the extant literature by adopting the unique qualitative approach to understand the reasons for telecommunication churn behavior in the emerging Indian market. Another contribution of this research is that the paper shifts the focus of the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) literature to the telecommunications industry, thus adding another block to ongoing research in eWOM communication.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ OIR-02-2020-0048

The purpose of the paper is to assess whether the dysfunctional structure of the Indian mobile communications sector has been improved by a large number of spectrum auctions during the period 2010-2016.

This paper provides a case study of developments in the Indian mobile communications sector primarily during the period 2010-2016. This period has witnessed a large number of spectrum auctions, the results of which are presented and analysed. The particular focus is upon the consequences of these auctions for the structure of the sector which began the period in what can best be described as a dysfunctional state.

The paper concludes that only limited progress has so far been made in improving the structure of the sector. This is due to factors such as political interference, delays in completing merger & acquisition (M&A) activity, badly organised auctions, a scarcity of the right amount of spectrum in the right places and a regional structure that inhibits operators from providing a nationwide presence.

The paper concludes that considerable progress still needs to be made: For example, political interference needs to be harmonised, auction prices need to become market-clearing and M&A activity needs to come to fruition.

The existing analysis of the sector has paid only limited attention to the significance of auctions for the structure of the sector, and this paper provides an analysis of all auctions and M&A activity virtually to the end of 2016, making it unusually up-to-date.

Drawing attention to the significant number of unsuccessful (abandoned) cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in recent years, the purpose of this paper is to analyze three litigated cross-border inbound acquisitions that associated with an emerging economy – India, such as Vodafone-Hutchison and Bharti Airtel-MTN deals in the telecommunications industry, and Vedanta-Cairn India deal in the oil and gas exploration industry. The study intends to explore how do institutional and political environments in the host country affect the completion likelihood of cross-border acquisition negotiations.

Nested within the interdisciplinary framework, the study adopts a legitimate method in qualitative research, that is, case study method, and performs a unit of analysis and cross-case analysis of sample cases.

The critical analysis suggests that government officials’ erratic nature and ruling political party intervention have detrimental effects on the success of Indian-hosted cross-border deals with higher bid value, listed target firm, cash payment, and stronger government control in the target industry. The findings emerge from the cross-case analysis of sample cases contribute to the Lucas paradox – why does not capital flow from rich to poor countries and interdisciplinary M&A literature on the completion likelihood of international takeovers.

The findings have several implications for multinational managers who typically involve in cross-border negotiations. The causes and consequences of sample cases would help develop economy firms who intend to invest in emerging economies. The study also offers some implications of M&A for telecommunications and extractive industries.

Although a huge amount of extant research investigates why M&A fail to create value to the shareholders during the public announcement and post-merger stages, there is a significant dearth of research on the causes and consequences of delayed or abandoned national and international deals. The paper fills this knowledge gap by discussing an in-depth cross-case analysis of Indian-hosted cross-border acquisitions.