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Marketing, Innovation, Strategy, Digital Marketing and E-Business.

Master's level and Executive Program.

MocDoc is a young Indian online health-care company that has achieved success in early years of establishment, and is looking forward to expand the customer base. The founder, Senthil Peelikkampatti, along with his friends decided to design a service that can bridge the gap between doctor and patients. However, initially, Senthil lost the trust in his idea due to the unacceptance of the idea by health-care experts. It took a little long for the team to gain visibility after launch of the service. Senthil and the team brainstormed to gain recognition online through different techniques of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media networking through Facebook Web site. MocDoc case is designed to stimulate discussion of a broad array of entrepreneurial issues related to online start-ups. In particular, it deals with strategy and marketing of service in the online arena. At the same time, it gives detailed overview of marketing techniques online as fuel to the business. The company is moving under strong leadership skills of CEO but fails to gain momentum in terms of gaining online customers. This case deals with decision-making capabilities to bring more number of registered customers in the online space.

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: to animate online business environment and challenges faced by virtual enterprises in the cyber space; to illustrate opportunity for students to speculate the start-up business environment; to illustrate opportunity to introduce cloud computing as a viable business option for the health-care industry; to develop understanding among students for designing effective marketing strategy for online business; to identify business opportunities and gaining competitive edge by offering bouquet of services; and to stimulate business environment for understanding innovation and strategy building.

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

Entrepreneurship, innovation, marketing and strategy.

Master's, postgraduate and executive level programs.

Deepak Ravindran, an engineering student at LBS College, Kerala, India, was attempting to launch Innoz. The company flagship product SMSGyan will allow users to access information on low-end mobile devices with no Internet connectivity. With the improvement in the Internet standards and rapidly growing smartphone users, selling SMSGyan never came easy to Innoz. The case explores challenges faced during the transformation of a start-up into a profit-generating business. The case describes the dilemma faced by Deepak Ravindran and key role players of Innoz to sustain in business in the scenario of dynamic technologies. Should they re-innovate the technology that was limited for low-end mobile users? Innoz being at the bottom of the pyramid innovation is the key competitive advantage. Low-cost or niche market or differentiation connects this case to the basic business strategy concepts. Through this case, students learn about many practical issues related to technology development in the global competitive environment. They are also exposed to broader trends and facets of start-ups and globalization. The Innoz case is designed to stimulate discussion of broad array of issues encountered by the early start-ups. In particular, it deals with introducing innovation and entrepreneurship skills leading to social change.

To identify new business opportunities for non-Internet mobile users. To explore various possibilities of application services for low-end mobile users. Evaluate the advantages and liabilities of expanding globally at a very early start-up stage. The case focuses on Innoz's early development with only concept in hand and transforming it into a profit-generating business. To develop and give exposure to entrepreneurship skill set in students. To understand learning and strategies behind setting up of start-ups and the motivating self-driven skills. Discussion on innovative use of technology as a stream of business. Silicon valley culture adaptation into Indian context. To highlight use of mobile technology for teaching and learning. To showcase how entrepreneur skill in business can lead to social transformation.

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

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relation between family involvement in ownership and the performance of private equity (PE)-backed SMEs.

Using a sample of 533 European PE-backed SMEs (i.e. 107 PE-backed family SMEs and 426 PE backed non-family SMEs), the author estimate the OLS model where a firms operating performance is a function of the presence or not of family shareholders, various other firm-specific characteristics, the experience of PE investor and a dummy for the financial crisis. To control the robustness of results, the author restrict the analysis to those firms that are incorporated in one of the 15 old member states of the European Union and the author include among the independent variables the one-year lagged values of the dependent variable.

The results show that PE-backed family SMEs outperform non-family PE-backed SMEs over the post-investment period.

This paper aims to extend literature about the link between PE backing and the involvement of family in ownership, considering European countries.

Applied Colour Systems Inc, PO Box 5800, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA, has issued a data sheet on its Chroma‐Pac colour control software for the paint and coatings industries. The software package is designed for use with ACS computer colour control systems and offers rapid, accurate colour matching, batch correction and colour quality control.

Smedleys Ltd v. Breed effectively disposes of Section 3 (3), Food and Drugs Act, 1955 as a defence in law in what nowadays constitutes the commonest source of all food prosecutions, viz., foreign matter in food. Their Lord‐ships' judgment is indeed a brilliant exposition of the law on the subject, but the result of their dismissal of the appeal can only be seen, as one of their number stated, that local authorities and magistrates for all practical purposes can ignore the subsection, and from the numerous reports of legal proceedings, this is what they have been doing for many years. It was resurrected in a case, similar in circumstance to that in Smedleys, a couple of years ago, in respect of a snail in black currant jam, in which the snail and black currants were identical in size and appearance.

Shows how Kellogg’s used an integrated marketing campaign to launch a new fruit snack into the UK market; it included PR, ambient media, web and TV. Argues that this innovative approach was a major factor in the product’s success: the creative idea was that Real Fruit Winders were an anarchic from of fruit that children could eat, play with and use to communicate with each other, and a world of fruits was created with its own Chewchat language as well as characters. Identifies the key marketing insight as children’s need for interactivity, which connects their interests like gaming and the Internet but was previously absent from the snack market. Illustrates this with a look at the Chewchats website and how children could interact with the brand, plus the campaign which distributed Chewchat stickers in magazines, and at cinemas and concerts.

This paper aims to verify which intangible assets attributable to intellectual capital (IC) influence the anti-cyclical nature and the resilience of social enterprises (SEs) during systemic crises and whether these factors take on particular connotations in female-run SEs.

A qualitative methodology based on multiple case studies is used to answer the research questions. A set of SEs operating in the catering sector is analyzed. The analysis is carried out by in-depth interviews with male and female managers of SEs to understand which resilience IC factors were most activated during full emergency and recovery stages.

The results confirm the anti-cyclical nature of SEs and their resilience to systemic crises. No distinct differences emerge between female and male SEs. Concerning the IC, relational capital (RC) is the most relevant intangible asset for small and medium-sized SEs. Internal and external relations support them during the crisis and the consolidation of trusted ties, formal and informal, external and internal, favor the Recovery. The RC is a crucial resource even in bigger SEs, but some differences are detected concerning the smaller ones. In the smaller SEs, informal relations prevail, while formal relations prevail in the larger ones, particularly with institutions. Furthermore, the RC is the sole or primary resource in the smaller SEs, while the bigger SEs can count on more varied intangible resources.

This study offers an original contribution to studies on IC by focusing on the factors little analyzed by existing studies: (1) SE management, (2) the contribution of IC to the resilience of non-profit-oriented enterprises and (3) the search for elements of differentiation between SEs with male and female leadership.

This study aims to investigate the impact of a salesperson’s psychological capital (PsyCap) on sales performance through the interplay of work engagement and performance feedback. This study examines the role of thought self-leadership (TSL) as an antecedent of a salesperson’s PsyCap.

Grounded in the social cognitive theory and job demands–resources theory, a hypothesized model is proposed. To test the hypothesized model, data on sales professionals were collected from B2B sales organizations, and a structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that TSL drives PsyCap in salespeople. The results also suggest an interesting relationship between salesperson’s PsyCap and their sales performance through work engagement as a mediator for PsyCap and sales performance. The moderating effect of performance feedback on work engagement was not significant and thus counterintuitive.

The results suggest that organizations should invest in training to develop the TSL of their salesforce, which will lead to enhanced performance through personal resources such as PsyCap. Further, the findings have implications for sales organization designs and structure.

This study augments the extant information on the linkage between a salesperson’s PsyCap and sales performance by suggesting mediation mechanisms and proposing an integrated framework with work engagement. Further, the authors establish TSL as an important cognitive mechanism to strengthen PsyCap in salespeople.

Three copolymer and three terpolymer systems involving tributyltin methacrylate, methyl methacrylate and acrylonitrile were prepared with variable tin content of 7, 15 and 22%. The structure of the organotin polymers was investigated by the elemental analysis of tin and nitrogen and by infrared spectroscopy. Long‐term leaching rate determinations of tin from the organotin polymer films were studied and were in the range of 0.033–0.045 ?g Sn/cm2/day. The antifouling performance of the prepared polymer varnishes was tested at Ismailia and at Alexandria. Tributyltin methacrylate‐methyl methacrylate copolymer with tin content of 22% exhibited the highest antifouling potential for more than 18 months.

Reports briefly on the Technical Sessions and other presentations of the 43rd All‐India Conference of the Indian Library Association, and mentions the recommendations made by delegates at the conclusion of the conference.