Search results

Customer interaction in new service development is a key success factor for new services. However, the knowledge about the process and techniques of customer interaction in any Asian and emerging market is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to investigate the process of customer interaction in new service development in an emerging market – India.

The article is based on longitudinal case research involving 24 service firms, in which 48 managers and 24 customers were interviewed and the paper followed the development process of several new service projects in real time.

The research answers several critical questions involved in customer interaction in new service development that include: What are the modes of customer interaction in NSD? What are the stages of customer interaction? Whom a firm shall interact with? What is the role of employees in customer interaction? And what are the pitfalls in customer interaction process?

The results and findings of this study will help managers improve the odds of developing successful new services in the emerging markets.

The research is the first attempt to examine the customer interaction practice of service firms in an emerging market – India. Therefore, it contributes to the extant literature of new service development and innovation.

Despite the growing debate about differences in consumer attitudes and behavior in emerging and developed markets, there is little research on the differences in consumer value perceptions and their influence on purchase intentions. Focusing on the theory of impression management, the purpose of this paper is to introduce a conceptual framework incorporating the social (conspicuousness and status), personal (hedonism and materialism) and functional (uniqueness and price‐quality perceptions) value perceptions using the context of luxury goods.

Data were collected through a structured questionnaire‐ based study of consumers in four countries, representing two leading Western developed luxury markets (the US and the UK) and two important Eastern emerging markets (India and Malaysia). Multiple‐group SEM analysis was used to analyze the data.

The findings show several differences in the influence of value perceptions on consumer purchase intentions in the Western developed and Eastern emerging markets. The study highlights the importance of understanding the homogeneity and heterogeneity in consumer consumption decisions and provides managers with a basis to adapt their strategic responses.

The results offer needed empirical support and cross‐cultural stability to the much theorized construct of value perceptions by exploring their effects within and between Western developed and Eastern emerging markets. Additionally, it unifies and complements the previous work by integrating the theory of impression management and value perceptions framework, thus providing a comprehensive theoretical framework with empirical support.

A framework for evaluating public opinion towards franchising is proposed and empirically tested in an emerging market, India. Franchising in an emerging market was selected as the context because – (1) future growth is likely to come from newly emerging markets, (2) franchising is primarily seen as a foreign concept in emerging markets and has attracted its fair share of attention, both positive and negative. The results indicate that people evaluate franchising using four key factors – well being of small businesses, socio‐economic, socio‐cultural well being, and employment opportunity. This study further investigates the relationship between these factors and patronage behaviour. Some of these factors were associated with patronage behaviour and the associated residual feeling. Clearly, in order to succeed in emerging and developing markets, the franchising industry must pay heed to public opinion.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of small retailers’ new product acceptance criteria using a grounded theory approach in an emerging market, India.

Empirical research on retailers’ new product acceptance either takes survey design or modeling approach. This study uses grounded theory approach to systematically collect and analyze data to generate a model for the small retailers’ new product acceptance in an emerging market, India. In depth interviews with ten small retailers, five situated in small market town and five in a metro were conducted.

Retail margin on offer is the first and foremost criteria considered while accepting a new product along with product and market-related factors. The small retailers spelt out the tradeoff decision on retail margins while accepting a new product. The tradeoff criteria that emerged during the analysis are trade and promotional support, sales potential of the product, salesperson relationship with the retailer, aspects of fairness in the relationship, corporate reputation, relevant product information, and availability of the product with other retail competitors.

The study suggests that marketers have to maintain healthy relationship with the channel partners especially the retailers who are in direct contact with the final consumer. The findings of the study suggest that marketers specifically need to take into consideration aspects of fairness and encourage salespersons to build and foster relationships with small retailers.

This study is one of the few study which uses grounded theory approach to propose a retailer’s new product acceptance model.

Previous studies have examined the relationship between institutional investors and corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement primarily for the case of developed nations. The purpose of this paper is to look at the association between different ownership categories and CSR spending of selected Indian firms within an emerging market context.

This study examines the motivations that guide the CSR strategies of different ownership groups. Random-effects Tobit panel regression is performed on a panel of BSE-listed non-financial Indian firms panel comprising of 5,313 firm year observations over a six-year period (2014-2019).

Heterogeneous behavior of institutional investors is revealed through the study. Different categories of institutional investors have different preferences for CSR spending of a firm. Lending institutes and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are seen to support the CSR investments. However, mutual fund investors are seen to not influence the CSR spend by the firms. Further, the results show that family ownership, measured in terms of family shareholding, positively moderates the lending institutions and mutual funds toward CSR and does not impact the FIIs decision regarding the CSR investments.

The analysis has implications for both institutional investors and multinational firms. In the emerging market context, managers and owners who target long term strategies such as CSR, will benefit from increasing shareholdings of creditors (lending institutions). They can also take steps to improve their transparency and corporate governance structure so as to attract the foreign institutional investments.

Managers cannot ignore the heterogeneities of institutional investors in their investment decisions and hence CSR decisions need to align with those of different types of investors. This study adds to the existing literature by offering new empirical insights from the perspective of an emerging market, India.

This study aims to investigate the effects of peers on corporate payout policies in one of the largest emerging markets – India. It also examines the motives for mimicking payout decisions.

The sample is composed of 3,024 non-financial and non-government firms listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for the period 1995 to 2020. To encounter the endogeneity problem, the instrumental variable technique based on peer firms' idiosyncratic risk is used to estimate the effects of peers on firms' payout policy. To define peer reference groups, the authors use the basic industry classification of the firms.

The results indicate a significant positive impact of peers on firms' dividend policies in India. A firm with all dividend-paying peers is more likely to declare dividends than the one with no dividend-paying peers. Further, peer effects are found to be more pronounced amongst larger and older firms, thus supporting the rivalry theory of mimicking.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, the present study is the first of its kind that attempts to understand peer effects on payout decisions in an emerging market India, that offers a unique institutional setting. Moreover, the authors extend the existing literature by investigating the peer effects on a firm's payout policies considering various firm-level characteristics, such as growth opportunity, cash holding, financial constraint and profitability, which previous studies have not taken into consideration. These results provide additional insights into the heterogeneity and motives behind peer effects.

The main goal of this research is to describe the talent management process via social networking sites (SNS) in emerging economies of India and Mexico.

The chapter uses a conceptual approach to detail the subject matter and adopts two theoretical frameworks to enhance understanding of the topic.

India and Mexico have welcomed various forms of SNS as strategic organizational tools for talent management. In India, Orkut is adopted to attract technical employees, Facebook is used to source overseas applicants, and Linkedin is sourced for management professionals. In Mexico, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube predominantly provide applicants for young talent, while LinkedIn provides applicants for upper-level talent. This research also identifies the role of national cultures and data privacy laws in both these countries.

This research is a conceptual paper and any future research will benefit from having either empirical or qualitative research to substantiate the results.

Practitioners might also benefit from this chapter as it distinguishes how different cultures use SNS for recruitment practices. Some cultures prefer to use SNS predominantly for its social aspect while others favor its practicality value. Global managers may be interested to identify where social networks are easily accepted for work-related practices.

There seems to be a paucity of research on SNS in emerging economies. This chapter provides pioneer work in two emerging economies by identifying relevant statistics, developing a model, and listing current SNS. Thus this research helps fill the gap in the extant cross-cultural literature on SNS.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of investor confidence on mutual fund performance in two relatively vulnerable but leading emerging markets, India and Pakistan.

A pooled ordinary least squared (OLS) model is used to look at two alternative measures of investor confidence and test for the relationship between investor confidence and mutual fund returns. To check the robustness of the findings, the authors also implement two-stage least squares and generalized method of moments techniques to control for unobserved heterogeneity, simultaneity and dynamic endogeneity problems in the regressors.

The paper finds that the returns of mutual funds are positively associated with investor confidence and an interaction effect exists between investor confidence and persistence in performance. The paper also confirms that returns from mutual funds are associated with different fund characteristics such as fund size, turnover, expense, liquidity, performance persistence and the fund’s age. These findings remain robust to alternative model specifications and measures of investor confidence.

While the previous literature mainly focuses on mutual fund characteristics and the macroeconomic determinants of mutual fund returns, this paper demonstrates that investor confidence plays an important role in determining mutual fund performance. The authors attribute this finding to two relatively unique features of the emerging markets in the study. A lack of awareness of mutual funds as being a low-cost investment vehicle and the interplay of cultural and behavioral changes have prevented investor’s savings from being channeled into investment products, away from gold or property.

Companies with global ambitions need to pay close attention to how innovation is achieved in India. In particular, corporate leaders still have much to learn about how this economic powerhouse is likely to develop in the coming decades and what strategy and innovation plays are most likely to be successful.

This “Masterclass” examines the lessons from three important recent books that offer valuable insights on how Indian businesses are addressing the innovation challenge: Conquering the Chaos by Ravi Venkatesan, former Chairman of Cummins India and Microsoft India, identifies the leadership blueprint for creating most value in this and similar emerging “VUCCA” markets. India Inside by Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam discovers a significant opportunity and challenge – India's rapid emergence as a global hub of innovation. Reverse Innovation by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble presents an alternative strategy to “glocalization” as a more promising way to drive global growth, using emerging markets like India as the innovation platform.

The article looks at why only 25 to 30 of the more than 1,300 major multinationals currently operating in India have made it into the “high-growth trajectory, market leadership” category within that country.

Every company with global ambitions would now be well advised to make to make innovation in India central to their own ambitions, so that they might become the global disruptors of the future not the victims.

While most of today's multinational CEOs see pursuing significant market participation in China as a “no-brainer,” rising, or failing to rise, to the challenge of India, with at least as much urgency and commitment, may turn out to be their most “defining” strategic legacy.

In recent years, while the food and grocery retail in developed markets like Western Europe seem to be slowly facing saturation, it has been steadily growing in the Asia–Pacific region markets like India. This is mainly due to the emergence of modern retail and the changing consumer dynamics. This study purposes to assesses whether food and grocery (F&G) shoppers in India are strongly influenced by store-attributes.

Descriptive research design, a cross-sectional survey involving 346 respondents (households) from metropolitan Bengaluru, participated in the study. Data is analyzed with SPSS 21, involving descriptive analysis, 1-way Anova, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which appears useful to confirm the theoretical structure used for the study.

Store-attributes – atmosphere, promotion, convenience, facilities, merchandise, store personnel interaction and services affect F&G store choice decisions. Additionally, significant difference is found in the way respondents perceive the sub-constructs of store-attributes, based on age.

The study contributes to the theoretical knowledge on store-attributes and dynamic socio-demographic influences on store choices. It has managerial implications to encourage global retailers use knowledge on store-attributes influences to initiate effective communication and promotion strategies and work at customer relationship management (CRM) that earn profitably in the long run.

Today, connected consumers seek shopping experiences that blend physical stores-attributes with other retail formats offerings. This research paper provides insights on shopper expectations of store-attributes, which could be used by global retailers to create delightful shopping experiences and to build CRM, especially when “experience per square foot” is used to measure the retailer's performance.