Search results

The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential barriers of telecom services and develop relationships among them using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) in the Indian telecom sector. Further, this paper intends to find the driving and dependence powers of telecom barriers, using MICMAC (Matriced' Impacts Croise′s Multiplication Applique′ea′un Classement) analysis.

A group of experts from telecom sector and academia was consulted and the ISM was used to develop the contextual relationship among identified barriers of telecom services. The results of ISM are used as an input to MICMAC analysis, to further classify identified barriers based on their driving and dependence powers.

This paper has identified 11 barriers of telecom services from the literature review and opinion of experts, and a contextual relationship model was developed using the ISM technique. The paper further studied barriers based on their driving and dependence powers using MICMAC analysis that classifies them into four clusters. The results identified the barriers such as “lack of adequate investment in infrastructure expansion”, “interference of private operators”, “legal and regulatory issues”, “lack of maintenance culture” and “lack of financial resources and high cost” as strategic-level barriers that, if dealt with carefully, can help overcome the effect of other barriers preventing the effective performance of the Indian telecom sector.

Although, there are a number of barriers that affect the performance of telecom services, existing theories, models and frameworks have focused on identification of factors, their implementation and benefits, and thus, these theories lack a holistic view in understanding those barriers which hinder the performance of the telecom sector. Top-managers and policymakers need to be more concerned about these barriers so that the performance of the Indian telecom sector could be improved.

A thorough literature review has revealed that no such study has been undertaken that provides any clear understanding of the barriers of telecom services, linkages between them and hierarchical relationships among the barriers.

Post 1991, given the advent of liberalization and economic reforms, the Indian telecom sector witnessed a remarkable growth in terms of subscriber base and reduced competitive tariff among the service providers. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of regulatory announcements on systemic risk among the Indian telecom firms.

This study employed a two-step methodology to measure the impact of regulatory announcements on systemic risk. In the first step, CAPM along with the Kalman filter was used to estimate the daily β (systemic risk). In the second step, event study methodology was used to assess the impact of regulatory announcements on daily β derived from the first step.

The results of this study indicate that regulatory announcements did impact systemic risk among telecom firms. The study also found that regulatory announcements either increased or decreased systemic risk, depending upon the type of regulatory announcements. Further, this study estimated the market-perceived regulatory risk premiums for individual telecom firms.

The regulatory risk premium was either positive or negative, depending upon the different types of regulatory announcements for the telecom sector firms. Thus, this study contributes to the theory of literature by testing the buffering hypothesis in the context of Indian telecom firms.

The study findings will be useful for investors and policy-makers to estimate the regulatory risk premium as and when there is an anticipated regulatory announcement in the Indian telecom sector.

This is one of the first research studies in exploring regulatory risk among the Indian telecom firms. The research findings indicate that regulatory risk does exist in the telecom firms of India.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the optimal leverage ratio, speed of adjustment, and which factors contribute to achieving the target of selected telecom companies in a partial adjustment framework from 2008 to 2017. Further is to analyze the likelihood of bankruptcy of sample companies by Altman Z-Score model and to suggest which theory of capitals structure is better in explaining leverage strategies and judicious mix of debt and equity structure of the selected telecom companies.

This paper chooses a partial adjustment model and uses the generalized method of moments technique to identify the variables that influence the target leverage ratio and the factors that influence the speed at which the target leverage is adjusted. Second, the Altman Z-score model is used in this paper to research the financial status of telecom companies using financial instruments and techniques.

For Indian telecom firms, firm-specific variables such as profitability, NDTS and Z-score lead to greater debt adjustment towards optimal level target leverage. The paper also highlights new paradigms in the Indian telecom sector, stating that top market leaders such as Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Vodafone and R.com, among others, should focus on debt reduction and interest payments, as well as implement new strategies to solve the crisis and change financial policies.

It mainly focuses on firm-specific variables because the firm-specific variables affect the leverage framework. The country-specific variables are not taken into the study. These results may be unique to telecom companies due to some peculiarities existing in the telecom sector in India. Although other sectors, both national and international level, can be taken into consideration.

This paper has ramifications for corporate executives, investors and policymakers in India, for example, in terms of considering different transition costs while changing a telecom company’s financing decisions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper of its kind to look at both financial and econometric tools to assess financial performance using the Altman Z-Score model, as well as decide leverage strategies and the pace with which they can be adjusted to target leverage in the context of Indian telecom companies.

This case study aims to analyse the different factors that cause a decline in an organisation's performance. It projects data for the prospective case readers to explore the possible approaches for the Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to turnaround both the organisations. Furthermore, the case compels the readers to study the Indian Telecom industry to analyse the competitive behaviour and the consequent actions necessary to survive and thrive amongst their peers. From the theoretical perspective, the case emphasises the recent change observed in the Telecom industry regarding the transition from value-chain to value-network.

The authors collected the case facts and data for the case study from secondary sources like the latest news articles, the CRISIL database, company annual statements, company press releases and government regulatory body web portals.

The case study has identified the issues pertinent in the public sector companies in India, especially in the telecom sector, concerning leadership, pending government financial commitments and a slow-moving attitude towards taking action.

The case study highlights the management problems faced by the CMD of the two public sector telecom companies i.e. BSNL and MTNL.

The learning outcomes of this paper are as follows: to understand the characteristics of a natural monopoly such as telecommunications sector and impact of “network externality”; to understand the role of a regulator in maintaining a balance between competition and consolidation of telecom sector; to understand the importance of first-mover advantage in telecom sector and coping mechanism of late entrants; to understand different pricing mechanisms of “natural monopolies” that can be adopted to remain profitable; to understand social cost of price floor in telecommunications sector.

Indian telecom sector is going through a downturn where most of the private sector telecom service providers have reported huge losses, failed to pay adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues and reported decline in average revenue per user over a period of 3–4 years. Fierce competition in the sector leads to rock bottom calling and data charges. Bharti Airtel benefitted for being the first mover in terms of market share but with entry of JIO in 2016, the service providers have entered a price war. As a result, service providers have requested Mr. R.S. Sharma, Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to come up with a floor on calling charges and requested the government for a bailout package. Currently, Mr. R.S. Sharma, Chairman TRAI is facing a dilemma whether to regulate and come up with a floor on calling and data charges or leave the sector for market correction. Mr. Sharma can also recommend to amend the definition of AGR. Telecommunications sector exhibit the characteristics of a natural monopoly where there is a need of a regulator to introduce “competition for the sector” and “competition in the sector.” In India, TRAI is the regulatory body responsible for introducing “competition for the sector” by auction and “competition in the sector” by deregulating calling and data charges, maintaining at least three private and one public service provider, decreasing “switching cost” of the customers, etc. The case deals with the issues of why there is a need of a regulator in natural monopolies, how different chairmen of TRAI have successfully introduced competition “for” and “in” the sector, and how Indian telecom sector went through a downturn? What should TRAI do to maintain competition in the sector?

The case deals with the issue of managing telecommunications sector (a natural monopoly) by a regulator in the context of India. The regulator had successfully introduced “competition in the sector” and “competition for the sector.” This led to sharp increase in subscriber base and decrease in calling and data charges. Presently, fierce competition in the sector has left the service providers cash crunched. The case deals with the dilemma faced by the chairman of the regulatory body in India on whether the regulator should come up with a price floor or market correction. Study level: MBA, Executive MBA.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public sector management.

The purpose of this paper is to benchmark the Indian mobile telecommunication service providers for relative efficiencies. In this paper, a method for benchmarking performance of mobile telecom utilities based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) is presented. The paper discusses some concepts between quality performance and benchmarking and the results include performance efficiency and sensitivity‐based classification of utilities. Also, peer‐to‐peer comparison of inefficient with efficient utilities is provided. Based on these results, inefficient utilities can develop strategic plans to improve performance.

The authors use DEA to measure comparative efficiencies of mobile telecom companies and two different DEA models, CCR and BCC, were applied to evaluate the relative efficiency of mobile telecom operators in India. Sensitivity‐based classification of utilities is carried out by removing one or more inputs or outputs from the base model to construct a new DEA model. Comparisons of DEA efficiencies from the base model with the structurally perturbed models show the impact on efficiency. Data include annual and quarterly reports showing various quality parameters.

DEA is used to derive the benchmarks based on the comparison of the 126 utilities which include public sector undertaking (PSU) operators (MTNL and BSNL) and private operators of the Indian mobile telecommunication sector. The result includes performance efficiency and peer‐to‐peer comparison of inefficient utilities with efficient utilities. Based on these results, inefficient utilities can develop strategic plans to improve their performance. Sensitivity analysis, based on removal of one or more variables from the base model to determine changes in DEA efficiencies is done for selecting the strength of parameters of utilities for performance improvement.

Benchmarking of service utilities in the telecom sector is virtually non‐existent at the national level in India. This research identifies the different variables and then a model is prepared for benchmarking of the service providers in India. Based on the efficiency analysis, benchmarks can be set, and utility efficiency scores can be obtained based on the set benchmarks. These scores can help develop a strategic plan for mitigating the factors that contribute to the system inefficiencies.

This paper is one of the few published studies that benchmark the performance of mobile telecom services in India. This research promises to be amongst the first of the works carried out taking specific parameters of mobile telecom utilities of India.

This study aims to explore the telecom regulations and telecom reforms of different countries in the context of consumer complaints and grievance handling. The telecom dispute resolution mechanisms of countries such as Australia, the USA, the UK and India are studied. This qualitative research is carried out for the three major telecom markets: Australia, the USA and India.

Here, research is conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the telecom policies of the major telecom markets, their ombudsman policies and consumer grievance redressal mechanisms are studied. In the second stage, the qualitative analysis of the three telecom markets, Australia, the USA and India, is conducted through in-depth interviews, the questionnaire method for telecom customers and secondary research.

Telecom customer satisfaction is significantly higher in countries with the telecom ombudsman as a system of telecom governance redressal. This study dedicates significant importance to the distinctiveness of the grievance resolution systems in different countries and suggests recommendations for improving the mechanisms. The recommendations given in the research study emerge as the output of interviewing telecom experts, academicians and researchers and court judges.

This study has partial limitations as primary research was carried out only in selected countries with limited participants.

This study is useful for policymakers, regulators and think tanks in the telecommunications sector.

The resolution of individual customer grievances is significant to the telecom industry and all participants. A well-oiled grievance redressal system enhances the trust among the service users and aids in the industry’s growth. Further practical assessment of redressal offered by different telecom operators can be used for benchmarking, and it can create an onus on telecom operators for timely and adequate redressal of consumer complaints. In certain countries with a well-developed alternate dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism, the service offerings of telecom operators and the quality of services are deemed to be better than those without such an ADR. The research aims to bring in the positives of ADR systems from specific telecom markets and suggest the effectiveness of such ADR for countries such as India, which has over 1.17billion active subscribers. This research aims to aid responsive communication with telecom consumers in the overall telecom industry, which can bolster telecom consumers’ confidence and help the industry grow sustainably. Discussing perspectives on telecom dispute resolution in various conferences and discussing use-cases of innovative dispute settlements can act as stimuli in this space. As ADR procedures are conducted in the shadow of the law, a dispute resolution framework must have a buy-in from the government, telecom experts, the judiciary and private telecom stakeholders. This can only help achieve a framework that can reap the benefits of various ADR/ODR processes facilitating better access to justice, including cost-effectiveness, swiftness, a broader reach for dispute resolution and improved efficiency of dispute resolution.

Previous studies have focused on the study of telecom reforms and mechanisms in a particular country and there was a limited comparison with other countries’ mechanisms. Also, there has been minimal research in this area in recent years. This paper contributes to analyzing the effectiveness of the telecom ombudsman framework in Australia, the USA, the UK and India. It also studies the reforms and consumer grievance-handling mechanisms in a few other countries. It also gives well-researched recommendations for improving the consumer grievance resolution system.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate performance of Indian telecom service providers through a benchmarking study of their operational efficiency and service delivery effectiveness. The paper also carries out a peer-to-peer comparison and identifies-specific areas of improvement for different service providers to attain sustainable growth and profitability.

A two stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was used to compare the performances of the service providers. The first stage represents how efficiently a unit is able to use its infrastructure and resources to generate better quality services. The second stage captures how well the company is able to communicate and deliver these services to the customer.

The results of the study support the applicability of the two stage DEA for comparing the performances of the telecom service providers as they are in line with the financial performance indicators and brand ranking. It is observed that those companies which score high on both operational efficiency and service delivery effectiveness have achieved superior profitability.

This study has been carried out at a pan-India level and hence does not take into account circle level or local performance which varies significantly for most service providers. Besides, this the analysis was constrained by limited data in the public domain, which necessitated estimations and extrapolations for some variables of few service providers.

The study has helped to provide inputs for the Indian telecom companies for potential performance improvements by providing a comparative analysis of their operational efficiency and service delivery effectiveness. It has enabled to derive deeper insights on potential target areas for managerial attention that could be translated into implementable actions. The benchmarking analysis has also helped to understand whether the current performance of the service provider is sustainable, unprofitable or ephemeral.

This paper goes beyond the traditional benchmarking studies of Indian telecom service providers introducing a two stage DEA model to understand the operational efficiency as well as the service delivery effectiveness. The study has helped to derive valuable academic and practical insights on the issue of performance measurement of the Indian telecom service providers.

From a pedagogical point, the case may fulfill following objectives: First, to understand Vodafone’s position in the current environment. Does the environment present the elements that are necessary for them to thrive (as analyzed using a PESTEL framework)? Second, to understand the resources needed to build competitive advantage in an emerging market context (as analyzed using the Porter five forces model); and third, to understand the competitive challenges of conducting business in a highly (and sometimes capriciously) regulated industry.

The Indian Telecommunication sector is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. There are nine telecom operators who are pioneering this growth; however, five private companies: Bharti, Idea, Reliance, Aircel and Vodafone make up 78.86 per cent of the market. These five companies have the opportunity to increase their market share by expanding the services provided to rural India; however, the Indian Tax Authorities have caused some hesitation. Aside from being known as heavy handed and unpredictable, the authorities have also demanded that Vodafone pay them billions in taxes. These court cases have challenged the way that other telecom operators look at investing. The arrival of Reliance Jio as a new player in the Indian wireless space with deep pockets has not helped the already fierce competitive landscape. Reliance Jio is forcing all wireless companies including Vodafone to reevaluate their India strategy.

This case could be used in both MBA and executive education programs.

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 11: Strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a total interpretive structural modelling (TSIM) of strategic factors related to performance management in the context of Indian Telecom Service Providers taking dual perspectives in account, i.e. enterprise perspective and subscribers’ perspective.

An evolving performance management framework, i.e. flexible strategy game-card has been taken as the basis to develop the strategic performance management model, where strategic factors have been identified through thematic content analysis and the hierarchical structure of factors has been developed using TISM.

Two total interpretive structural models have been developed, one for enterprise-related strategic factors, and another for subscriber-related strategic factors. These hierarchical structures portray the leading and lagging factors of performance, and showcase that financial performance indicators are the lagging indicators.

This study has implications for both practitioners and academics. For practitioners, it provides an indicative list of strategic factors relevant for Indian telecom companies, which drive better financial results as well as a list of strategic factors that subscribers consider while assessing the performance of telecom operators. For academics, the methodology used provides a mechanism to conduct an exploratory study by identifying the variables of interest and highlighting their interactions through hierarchical structures.

The proposed strategic performance management models developed through qualitative modelling technique is a new effort altogether in the context of Indian telecom operators’. Capturing subscribers’ perspective of firm's performance is neglected in existing performance management literature, and this study makes a contribution in this regard.