Search results

Extant research suggests that managing strategic change has become a key managerial function and this duty encompasses changes in organizational product-market boundaries and organizational structure among many related organizational activities. The need to achieve strategic change arises because of major shifts in the external environment and the subsequent need for the organization to remain viable and competitive in the changed environment. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if middle managers are likely to adopt authoritative style while implementing strategic change when they sense organizational survival.

“Sensemaking” literature led to development of the authors’ hypotheses and these were tested using the responses of 117 middle managers. The authors used survey-based instrument to collect data and used regression analysis to explicate the responses of the middle managers.

Results indicate that when middle managers sense that the survival of the organization is at stake, they are likely to choose an authoritative style. The authors also investigated the moderating role of organizational commitment, strategic posture of the top management team, and hostile business environment on the relationship between perception of survival urgency and the choice of authoritative implementation style. Only organizational commitment moderates this relationship.

The authors’ data collection was survey based and the authors used a single source for each questionnaire and this process may lead to possibilities of mono-method bias. However, steps were taken to reduce the resultant mono-method bias. The respondents are from a variety of industries and future research may focus on one specific industry.

The first implication of this study allows us to expand research focus on the adoption of authoritative style, a research area that is not explored very much. The second implication of the study is that middle managers tend to focus on their emotions when it comes to implementing strategic changes. Using arguments from sensemaking the authors show that the perception of need for survival or the perception that business environment is hostile will determine how strategic change could be implemented. Middle managers must be treated as more than just the implementers of the directives/fiats/orders/edicts that originate from the top.

Role of middle managers in strategic change management is critical and the authors suggest that the perception of organizational survival at risk leads to choice managerial style by middle managers.

The authors have combined ideas from both the strategic management and organizational development fields to understand successfully the implementation of strategic change in a survival urgency situation. In the past, the strategic management literature focused primarily on understanding strategy formulation process, and the process of implementation was generally neglected. The respondents are from a variety of industries. The analysis indicate that membership to any one firm was not impacting the results obtained by the authors and as such allows for results to generalized.

Successful innovation depends upon effective communication of the business value of innovation. Yet different stages of the innovation process require different communication strategies. Companies who have recognized the different elements of the innovation process are able to target their communication mechanisms to achieve the best results from organizational innovation. In this article, we employ Desouza’s model of intrapreneurship to outline key communication challenges and strategies for addressing them across the five phases of innovation: idea generation and mobilization, idea screening and advocacy, experimentation with ideas, commercialization of ideas, and diffusion and implementation of ideas. The importance of communication to each stage is identified and barriers are noted. Drawing from first-hand interviews, case studies and a literature review, and further refined by presentation of the ideas to various executives, we propose in this article seven communication strategies for organizations to consider across the innovation process. Overall, having a clear understanding of the stages of the innovation process, and the kinds of communication that are most beneficial to each stage provides a clear vision of how to communicate the business value of innovations both internally and to external stakeholders. The effectiveness of communication can determine the success or failure of an innovation project.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the mechanisms of organizations managing innovation outsourcing to business partners. In a business environment characterized by the development of deep, niche expertise in a particular domain, business partnerships can provide a source of innovative rejuvenation by outsourcing the innovation to business partners who have complementary skills and expertise. This paper addresses a critical challenge which the organizations are currently facing: how do you manage outsourcing of innovation to business partners effectively while maintaining your strategic competitiveness?

Exploratory multiple case studies of over 30 innovative European and US companies were done. It involved 50 semi‐structured interviews with senior executives from research and development, product management, information technology, and marketing.

The paper identifies three complementary models of managing outsourcing of innovation to business partner: acquisition, strategic alliances, and open source (OS). Based on these, a three‐dimensional “Co‐Innovation Space” is proposed that can help in analysis and planning of current and future innovation projects.

Although the research is carefully designed, it is an exploratory study and has the limitation of generalizability of the findings. Nevertheless, findings from multiple case studies from diverse organizations shed a light to current innovation and strategic alliance literature.

Partnerships can open the door to multiple knowledge sources. Accessing and integrating information from these sources can greatly enhance knowledge base of organizations and can help fuel sustainable innovation. The models proposed in this study provide a lens to examine existing innovation project portfolios and/or to plan for future innovation programmes.

This study is probably among few to study such a large, diversified, and geographically scattered group of organizations. Although exploratory and preliminary, this makes the findings of the study insightful.

This paper examine beneficiary women's awareness of the harmful effects of traditional cooking fuels and the benefits of cleaner cooking fuel (LPG) in the Indian state of Haryana after the inception of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.

Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis H test were used for the data analysis.

The paper finds that the women of the scheduled caste were highly aware of the hazards of traditional cooking fuel. They perceived that the usage of LPG led to significant health and environmental improvements. However, the refilling was low among the respondents. So, the only low awareness was not the cause of the low refilling of LPG among Ujjwala beneficiaries.

Technological advancement, accessibility and successful adoption require convergence with socio-economic and institutional aspects. It was evident that focus on technology might not necessarily serve developmental purposes if it is not integrated correctly with socio-economic and institutional factors. These should have conversed with the household's needs, preferences, affordability, social structures, policy support and delivery mechanism, as it was observed that, in different cases, high-end technologies have limited access.

This study shows that the low awareness is not the barrier to the adoption of cleaner cooking technologies in India. So, the policymakers have to revive and further investigate the real cause of the low adoption of cleaner cooking technologies in India.

Although growing Internet penetration in the hinterlands has attracted agribusinesses to promote digital platforms, farmers are sceptical about using them. The literature discusses agricultural platforms from the theoretical perspective of technological determinism, where the platforms are developed and promoted by firms in a top-down manner to be accepted by farmers. However, this approach results in poorly configured platforms with limited utility for farmers. It is evident from the existing literature that the mere creation of a platform business is not sufficient to guarantee adoption by users. Hence, this study explores how to make the agricultural platform more attractive for farmers.

The present study is based on a discrete choice experiment performed on 126 Indian farmers using agricultural platforms. The data were analysed using the conditional logistic regression method.

The study suggests that farmers expect government and cooperative entities to be also embedded with the platforms. Complementary features such as prompt service, competitive pricing and farm credit were identified as essential attributes. Further, the platforms should enable smallholders to trade farm produce by providing a mechanism for real-time online nudging and bargaining with buyers.

The study is based on the applications of random utility theory. The research has utility for Agtech managers, cooperative institutions and agricultural policymakers.

This is one of the first studies focussing on agricultural platform design from the farmers' perspective. The study implies that incorporating preferred attributes can help practitioners configure platforms to benefit farmers with prospects concerning farm management decisions.

Although Agtech firms have promoted digital platforms for retailing farm supplies (RFS), farmers are sceptical while purchasing them online. As a result, they struggle to generate a sustained demand. Among other approaches, these platforms onboard complementors to become full-stack farming solution providers. Whether platform complementarity can induce farmers' trust remains ambiguous. Literature on network externality theory highlights that complementarity positively affects the perceived value for buyers. The sociotechnical systems literature indicates that perceived value is an antecedent of user trust. In this vein, the authors ask: Does perceived complementarity affect farmers' trust in the RFS platform? Alternatively, the Agtech firms augment the platform's look and feel to make the digital retail setting appear “normal” to farmers. The extant research on the social cognitive theory indicates that a retail setting conforming with the generalised expectancy of buyers harbours their trust. Against this backdrop, the authors ask whether situational normality affects farmers' trust in the RFS platform.

The study is based on a questionnaire survey of 212 Indian farmers using RFS platforms. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis.

This study establishes that platforms' complementarity and situational normality ameliorate farmer trust. The authors also identify the socioeconomic factors shaping the farmers' trust in platforms.

The present study has taken all RFS together as a single umbrella category, which can be considered a limitation. Also, the study is based on the cross-sectional survey of RFS platform users; the farmers' attitudes are dynamic in nature and evolve over time; however, the temporal factors shaping the farmer attitudes have not been considered in this study.

The study establishes the epistemological relationship between complementarity, situational normality and farmers' trust in agricultural platforms.

The present study investigates the impact of digital entrepreneurial education and training and its impact on the digital entrepreneurial intention (EI) through the mediating character of entrepreneurial competence.

A total of 391 survey responses were collected from employees using convenient and snowball sampling methods.

Digital entrepreneurial education and training showed a positive influence on entrepreneurial competence and EI, with entrepreneurial competence mediating the relationship between digital entrepreneurial education and training practices and EI.

This study is intended to assist the development of digital entrepreneurs. The implications of this study are also useful for governments, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors and various international development institutions.

The novelty of this study relates to exploring the relationship between digital entrepreneurial education and training, entrepreneurial competence and digital EI.

The paper aims to analyse the extent of volatility and generating forecasts of exchange rates of British pound and Indian rupees in US terms.

This study applies different combinations of GARCH and EGARCH models suggested in the Econometric literature to capture the extent of volatility. The forecast of exchange rates of British Pound and Indian Rupees in US terms are generated applying artificial neural network (ANN) technique using different combination of networks with hyperbolic tangent function at hidden and output stage of the model.

The presence of volatility depicts that there is noise and chaos in the forex market. Prediction of exchange rate of the respective currencies underscores that exchange rates will increase marginally in near future.

The results proposed in this study will be benchmark for the hedgers, investors, bankers, practitioners and economists to foresee the exchange rate in the presence of volatility and design policies accordingly.

In literature, no study has applied ANN for forecasting exchange rate after measuring the extent of volatility. The present study is a unique contribution in the existing pool of literature to forecasts the concerned variable(s) after ascertaining the noise and chaos in the data by applying GARCH family models.

Sustainability has become the topic of the era, and the world is moving toward a circular economy. As part of it, companies are also integrating sustainability in supply chain management. Therefore, this study conducts a technology-empowered systematic literature review to examine the state of the literature on the technologies in the sustainable supply chain. The review reveals that limited studies have been conducted in the area. There is still scope for the researchers to explore new innovative technologies, many clusters in author collaboration, and involve more sectors in the study. Future studies can enrich the field by employing other methodologies like meta-analysis review.

The case is intended to be used by post-graduate students of Management in the courses of Marketing Management and New Product Management. This case may also be used in other courses like Consumer Behaviour and Strategic Marketing.

Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector set to reach an astonishing INR165.62 trillion (US$3.6 trillion) by 2012 gave a tremendous opportunity to Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) to establish its footprint in all consumer packaged products. Dove, a brand of HUL, primarily catering to the premium segment of the market, launched Dove Elixir Hair Oil in November 2012 priced at INR185 (US$3.41) for 90 ml. This was five times higher than any other light hair oil in the market. The case brings out facts that describe market situations at that time and questions if a substantial market at higher end, for Dove hair oil, was available.

This case has been documented to help students understand the concept and applicability of brand extension strategy. The students shall learn the dynamics of this strategy in the market by answering the following questions: What are the factors that contributed to the growth of FMCG market in India? Evaluate HUL's decision to extend the brand Dove into other product categories? Was the market for Dove hair oil available at the higher end? What strategies should Dove use for its hair oil?

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