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Marketing. Sub subjects: customer segmentation, targeting, positioning and new product launch strategies.

This case can be taught at degree and master level management programmes including distance education mode in business schools having marketing management as one of the subjects.

Maruti Suzuki a leading global Japanese car manufacturer recently launched a new multi utility passenger car with the brand name Ertiga. Ertiga was launched by Maruti Suzuki as life utility vehicle (LUV) using lifestyle categorization instead of using car categorization to position Ertiga using LUV theme. This new category created called LUV is in car categorization between high end hatchbacks and multi utility vehicles/sedans. This case highlights how Maruti Suzuki through effective market research was able to identify a new category and also create and offer a car to the Indian market. This case covers some of the innovative promotional strategies like in film promotions and brand placements which was used to promote Ertiga in India.

The case is designed to enable students to understand the concept of segmentation, targeting, and positioning about the various products launch strategies companies adopt in the emerging markets. Also this case covers the marketing mix concepts and how it was adopted during the Ertiga launch in India.

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

Multiutility tunnel (MUT) has been recognised as a more sustainable method to place underground utilities than the traditional directly buried (DB) method. However, the implementation of MUT is hindered because of high initial construction costs and the difficulty to demonstrate its benefits, especially social benefits that are hard to be quantified. To address the limitation, this paper aims to quantify and compare both economic costs and traveller loss (i.e. an important part of social costs) of the MUT and DB method.

An agent-based model (ABM) is developed, which considers attributes and actions of vehicles, interactions between vehicles and interactions between vehicles and the road network. The ABM is used to estimate traveller loss by comparing traveller time when the MUT and DB method is adopted, respectively. The traveller loss is combined with economic costs to estimate and compare the LCC of the MUT and DB method. To verify the ABM-based approach, it is implemented in an MUT project in Shanghai, China.

Results of the study indicate: (1) When the DB method is adopted, periodic E&Rs cause severe traffic congestion and substantial traveller loss. (2) When traveller loss is not included in the LCC estimation, the DB method has a lower LCC in most scenarios. (3) When traveller loss is included, the relative LCC of MUT and the time it takes to cover the LCC of the MUT and DB method is largely reduced. Thus, when social costs are considered, MUT will bring more benefits than the DB method.

Previous studies on comparing the MUT and DB method focus on investigating economic costs, while other costs, e.g. social costs, are not well addressed quantitatively. Besides, current studies of traveller loss estimation lack consideration of factors such as unique attributes, actions and interactions of vehicles and the network. Hence, this paper applies an ABM-based approach to involve these factors and produce more reliable estimation of traveller loss than existing approaches. Moreover, by integrating traveller loss into LCC analysis, this paper helps to understand the benefits of MUT thus assisting decision-making in selecting utilities placement methods.

This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a new theory of human nature to explain the happiness paradox of capitalism.

It is argued that happiness crisis in capitalism stems from the lack of full understanding of human nature which is like a black box from which key assumptions in capitalist market system are derived. The author attempts to unlock this black box in order to understand the failure of capitalism in bringing happiness.

As the success of capitalism comes from its partial understanding of human nature, its failure comes from its partial misunderstanding or exploitation of human nature. This leads to ignoring the needs and desires of certain elements of human nature for the sake of serving only the animal spirit and self‐centric ego. The proposed new theory offers a new understanding of happiness and its determinants. Comparing the human body to a luxury recreational vehicle (RV) and the elements of human nature to the companions on this vehicle, the theory suggests that an individual cannot be truly happy if he or she listens only to one of his/her residents while disregarding the others. The new theory offers better explanation for the 2008 financial crisis and the happiness paradox in wealthy nations. It also provides an underlining framework for the existing happiness theories.

The new theory needs to be tested through empirical studies.

The paper theoretically argues that that authentic happiness is possible if individuals listen to the voices of all elements of human nature and try to fulfil their needs and desires in a balanced manner.

The paper offers a new comprehensive theory on human nature.

This paper aims to determine the stage of the life cycle where the trucks of a waste collection fleet from a Colombian city are located through a reliability approach. The reliability analysis and the evaluation of curve of operational costs allow to know the moment in which it is necessary to make decisions regarding an asset, its maintenance or possible replacement.

For a dataset presented as maintenance work orders, the time to failures (TTFs) for each vehicle in the fleet were calculated. Then, a probability density function for those TTFs was fitted to locate each vehicle in a region of the bathtub curve and to calculate the reliability of the whole fleet. A general functional analysis was also developed to understand the function of the vehicles.

It was possible to determine that the largest proportion of the fleet was in the final stage of the life cycle, in this sense, the entire fleet represent critical assets which in most of cases could be worth replacement or overhaul.

In this study, an address is exposed for the identification of critical equipment by reliability and statistical analysis. This analysis is also integrated with the maintenance management process. This is a broadly interested topic since it allows to support the maintenance and operational decision-making process, indicating the focus of resource allocation all over the entire asset life cycle.

This paper traces the historical evolution and growth trajectory of the automotive and farm equipment sector, which is a very significant entity of the Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) group. The purpose of this paper is to understand and provide a pragmatic framework through which the authors can see what were the internal and external factors and the spirit of the contemporary times that led to the changes in the nature of the group.

The “Greiner curve” model has been applied to interpret the evolutionary growth of the group and strategic trajectory explaining characteristics in its different phases.

M&M initially went through its share of learning and grew through pragmatic and, orchestrated entrepreneurial risk. The group made a very successful transition from a proprietorship model to a professionally managed group. It is found that rapid growth has been possible through innovation led collaboration. The group is increasingly organizing its innovation activities around the development of responses to specific challenges.

This study suffers from methodological limitations associated with a stage model that the estimated length of the time the organizations will stay in a phase is not known. It is unclear whether passage through all stages is necessary; or whether, in some circumstances, one or more stages may be omitted, and if variations in sequencing can occur. The data for the initial years was not available in primary form and the paper had to depend entirely on the secondary sources.

Various strategies adopted by the group from time to time have practical implications for Indian economy. The group has faced many challenges, but challenge-led collaboration-driven approach represents a new type of innovation process that contrasts with other methods of business strategies and provides a sharper focus for managerial and technical issues and brings together stakeholders with diverse interests, expertise and perspectives.

This study is a unique attempt in India to trace the evolution of the strategic interventions in the context of a major business group, which is considered to be a symbolic representation of Indian economic history. The paper has got both academic as well as managerial utility.

The purpose of this study is to develop a holistic optimization model for an integrated sustainable fleet planning and closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network design problem under uncertainty.

A novel mixed-integer programming model that is able to consider interactions between vehicle fleet planning and CLSC network design problems is first developed. Uncertainties of the product demand and return fractions of the end-of-life products are handled by a chance-constrained stochastic program. Several Pareto optimal solutions are generated for the conflicting sustainability objectives via compromise and fuzzy goal programming (FGP) approaches.

The proposed model is tested on a real-life lead/acid battery recovery system. By using the proposed model, sustainable fleet plans that provide a smaller fleet size, fewer empty vehicle repositions, minimal CO₂ emissions, maximal vehicle safety ratings and minimal injury/illness incidence rate of transport accidents are generated. Furthermore, an environmentally and socially conscious CLSC network with maximal job creation in the less developed regions, minimal lost days resulting from the work's damages during manufacturing/recycling operations and maximal collection/recovery of end-of-life products is also designed.

Unlike the classical network design models, vehicle fleet planning decisions such as fleet sizing/composition, fleet assignment, vehicle inventory control, empty repositioning, etc. are also considered while designing a sustainable CLSC network. In addition to sustainability indicators in the network design, sustainability factors in fleet management are also handled. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no similar paper in the literature that proposes such a holistic optimization model for integrated sustainable fleet planning and CLSC network design.