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HIV prevention campaigns have focused on condom distribution and the dissemination of HIV‐related knowledge, with the goal to reduce risky sexual behavior. However, very little empirical work has been done to reveal any possible association between HIV‐related knowledge and risky sexual behavior. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to estimate such associations, using demographic health survey data for India.

The authors estimate multiple binary response models and calculate average partial effects of every treatment (HIV‐related knowledge) on the outcome variable (risky sexual behavior) controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, location of residence, and state specific effects.

Using data from the third wave of the national demographic survey, it is found that better HIV‐related knowledge does not always promote safer sexual practices. While, better HIV knowledge increases the likelihood of condom use, it also increases the likelihood of pre‐marital sex, and reduces the likelihood of abstinence. These effects are much stronger for males when compared to females. These results also suggest, albeit indirectly, that informational and condom distribution campaigns are not necessarily promoting safer sexual practices in India.

One possible limitation of this study is the possibility of endogeneity bias due to omitted variables or reverse causality. The authors follow the literature in the use of controls and interpreted results with caution.

The paper is believed to be the first to derive empirical results relating HIV knowledge and risky sexual behaviour, using a population‐based survey for India.

BotGo was started in 2007 by Ravi Panchal, an engineer, after he lost motivation to continue at a managerial role at his job. A hands-on technical person, Panchal was inspired to create an underwater tank-cleaning robot. He started BotGo by bootstrapping it with his savings and roped in his friends for key positions in the company. He also started workshops for robotics education in colleges in order to sustain the company; he called this initiative BotLearn. In 2009, BotGo was incubated and Panchal started franchises for BotLearn as part of his growth plans. This led to a crisis within the company, escalating to a point where Panchal was forced to consider options.

This case highlights the importance of a product-to-market fit and examines the decision to franchise in view of the case facts. The case also points towards the mistakes in crisis management, with particular emphasis on channel management.

Towards the end of the case, Panchal is faced with a dilemma on whether to continue with the franchises or close them down. The dilemma is further accentuated since Panchal's decision would ultimately affect the growth of BotGo as well as directly challenge his intention to franchise.

Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) technologies have strong potential to affect consumer well-being, positively or negatively, so the current paper aims to review potential opportunities and threats that these technologies represent for consumers in several core economic sectors: health care, education, financial services, manufacturing and retailing.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for how IR 4.0 technologies affect consumer well-being in five representative sectors: health care, education, financial services, manufacturing and retailing. The authors argue that the potential transformations of these specific sectors, facilitated by these technologies, may have profound effects on consumer well-being, with urgent public policy implications.

Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, three-dimensional printing, machine learning and blockchain, provide customers with novel approaches toward decisions regarding health, education, finances and other fundamental parts of their lives. The organizations that provide these services, such as hospitals, universities and banks, actively adopt the innovations offered by IR 4.0. These evolving and disruptive technologies thus are changing reality for consumers and providers.

This paper proposes some novel public policy implications of IR 4.0 technologies for consumer well-being, and it outlines further research directions that can enhance understanding of relevant technologies and the consequences of their use for society.

The subject areas are entrepreneurship, start-up ventures and business strategy.

The case is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate MBA.

Shikhar Veer Singh (Singh), a post graduate in Medical Biotechnology, quit a cushy corporate job to start his own food venture WoknStove Foodworks Pvt. Ltd. (WSFL) in October 2015. WSFL sold the ubiquitous popular Indian snack food “Samosas” under the brand name of “Samosa Singh”. “Samosa” – a deep fried triangular in shape with conical edges crispy wrap with variety fillings of potatoes/vegetables – was part of unorganized sector and sold by small shops and road-side hawkers. Singh spotted an opportunity to “brand” the “Samosas” that as well was gaining momentum in the international convenience food markets. The company set up a central kitchen near Electronic city, Bangalore, and started experimenting with different fillings. In February 2016, WSFL opened its first quick service restaurant (QSR) in Electronic city, Bangalore. It was an instant hit with consumers of all age groups. Gradually, the company started supplying bulk orders to various other customer segments such as corporate customers, schools and movie theatres/event stalls, that resulted in revenue growth. By January 2017, his monthly annual revenues amounted to INR […] Singh had ambitious plans to expand his business from a single QSR to 15 QSRs across the city by 2018. However, to cater to the increasing demands and support his expansion plans, he was yet to find out the most suitable back-end processes. He had adopted few standard operating procedures (SOPs) for quality operations and implemented 30 per cent of automation for backend processes at his central kitchen. Singh was aware of the automated machinery available in international markets that had conveyor belt arrangements where one could place the flour dough and filling consecutively to get the end product in a shape, unlike the shape of the Indian “Samosas”. The triangular shape with conical edges of the Indian “Samosas” was of utmost importance for the Indian consumers, as the shape associated them with the favourite snack, the “Samosas”. Singh preferred the method of manual filling to maintain the shape and decided to focus on increasing the shelf life of the “Samosas” instead. He felt that an increased shelf life would better equip him to cater the increased market and seasonal demands. However, the question was that whether this was a feasible option to support his ambitious expansion plans (with only 30 per cent automation)? Was Singh’s thinking right with respect to the business operation? More importantly, whether WSFL venture would be able to make an attractive business proposition for investments from any future institutional/angel investor? Singh’s mood turned reflective as he pondered on the above questions.

The case is structured to discuss the structure of Indian QSR market and factors contributing to its growth, evaluate WSFL’s ability to leverage the Indian QSR market potential, its strengths and shortcomings, to highlight the steps of consumer decision making process in terms of selection of a QSR and discuss WSFL’s business model and its future sustainability.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

Technological progress and the advancement of the 4th Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) are well underway. However, its influence on the transformation of core sectors from the perspective of consumer well-being remains under-explored. Seeking to bridge this gap in the marketing and public policy literature, this study aims to propose a conceptual framework to explicate how data-driven, intelligent and connected IR 4.0 technologies are blurring traditional boundaries between digital, physical and biological domains.

This is a conceptual paper using primarily a literature review of the field. The authors position the work as a contribution to consumer well-being and public policy literature from the lens of increasingly important in our technology-integrated society emerging technologies.

The authors define and conceptualize technology-enabled well-being (TEW), which allows a better understanding of transformative outcomes of IR 4.0 on three essential dimensions of consumer well-being: individual, societal and environmental. Finally, the authors discuss public policy implications and outline future research directions.

The authors highlight specific gaps in the literature on IR 4.0. First, past studies in consumer well-being did not incorporate substantial changes that emerging IR 4.0 technologies bring, especially across increasingly blurring digital, physical and biological domains. Second, past research focused on individual technologies and individual well-being. What is unaccounted for is the potential for a synergetic, proactive effect that emerging technologies bring on the aggregate level not only to individuals but also to society and the environment. Finally, understanding the differences between responses to different outcomes of technologies has important implications for developing public policy. Synergetic, proactive effect of technologies on core sectors such as healthcare, education, financial services, manufacturing and retailing is noted.

Using features of social media, peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payment enables users to foster social interaction every time transactions are made. Given the increasing popularity of social features in P2P mobile payment applications, it is worth understanding how these components contribute to users’ switching behavior between conventional mobile payment and P2P mobile payment services. By treating sociability of P2P mobile payment as a pull factor, this study aims to extend the push–pull–mooring framework in the context of P2P mobile payment.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain data. Respondents from the USA were exclusively selected due to the emerging number of P2P mobile payment users and the volume of transactions in this country. Based on a sample of 232 Amazon Mechanical Turk mobile payment users, the authors tested the hypotheses using the partial least squares structural equation model technique with SmartPLS software version 3.

The finding reveals that sociability is triggered by social presence, social benefit and social support within the P2P mobile payment platform. Moreover, dissatisfaction with perceived enjoyment of conventional mobile payment (push factor), customer innovativeness (mooring factor) and sociability of P2P mobile payment (pull factor) jointly influence users’ intention to switch to P2P mobile payment services, and subsequently drive their migration behavior.

Unlike past research that mainly focuses on utilitarian-related factors, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to thoroughly examine the sociability features of P2P mobile payment service as a form of a social-centric system.

The purpose of the paper is to evaluate what caused the debates and confusion in articulating a gender-equal inheritance policy in Bangladesh, and to identify the socio-political drivers and nature of the political power play that thwarted the policy’s adoption.

The research undergirding this paper is based on a qualitative approach involving a case study with in-depth semi-structured interviews, focus-group discussions, and secondary data analysis. The interviews were conducted with policy makers, officials, lawyers, women activists, Muslim religious scholars, Hindu priests, academics and researchers, and women representing Hindu and Muslim religions.

The findings illustrate that the controversies between the Islamic religion and national and international policies led to serious debates and confusion about gender-equal rights of inheritance in Bangladesh. The failure to formulate and adopt a gender-equal inheritance policy was influenced by several socio-political phenomena and gender-biased institutional settings. This kind of policy is deeply political, and cultural compatibility is necessary to formulate it, especially when the policy affects religious sentiments. Religious sentiments and beliefs, which are associated with religion-based personal law, therefore influence both the formulation or non-formulation of a gender-equal policy. To move forward with the fundamental idea of women’s inclusion, there is a strong need to identify the socio-cultural and political drivers behind formulating, non-formulating, as well as implementing a gender-equal policy.

The paper will be beneficial to scholars and policy makers who seek to explore the epicenter of challenges and opposition to formulating a gender-equal policy in the context of a developing country with a Muslim majority.

This research investigates the top five pharmaceutical companies in India to determine whether their financial structures are sound and if they face the risk of bankruptcy, highlighting the potential contribution of intellectual capital (IC) to financial stability.

The analysis outlines operating ratios, profitability ratios, possibility of bankruptcy (through Z-scores) and attractiveness of the financial structure (through the F-score), with consequent focus on (IC).

The financial structure of the selected companies seems stable. Changes in the Indian pharmaceutical scenario, above all, regarding the patent system, will force the companies to consider the impact of IC carefully.

Indian pharmaceutical companies need sustainability and development, with increasing focus on patent issues. To enhance innovation capabilities and overcome international competition, they should redesign their business orientation towards IC, mainly when impacting patents.

Using established approaches for predicting potential bankruptcy, this study focuses on the financial performance of top Indian pharmaceutical companies. IC can support financial stability, and this study provides further perspectives for managing their financial structure, both statically and dynamically.

The learning outcomes are as follows: understand the operating model of a not-for-profit organization; gain knowledge about the significance of an organizational structure to successfully run a not-for-profit organization; learn the socio-cultural implication of yog through BYS; and learn the applicability of growth and business expansion strategy in the case of a not-for-profit organization.

This case covers the innovative operating model of Bharatiya Yog Sansthan (BYS) – a not-for-profit organization which offers free service towards the society through yog. BYS was a not-for-profit organization that survived for long without accepting donation in any form. They had more than 3,500 Yog Centers in 21 States and 2 union territories in India and more than 60 Yog Centers in foreign countries. They were the only not-for-profit organization which had operated such a huge number of Yog Centers across the world. Des Raj became the face of BYS after the demise of the founder Mr. Prakash Lal. While adhering to the core principle of the founder, the list of challenges in front of Mr. Des Raj and other yog enthusiasts’ associated with BYS was long. There arise no questions regarding the level of commitment and dedication of Des Raj and his team. They had left no stone unturned to bring BYS into the lime light and perhaps this is the reason because of which BYS had stood for more than fifty years. On one part they were strictly against commercialization and on the other part, they wanted to reach every household. Was it truly challenging for them to reach people without spending money on promotion? Was it really difficult for a not-for-profit which survived without donation to establish it as a brand?

This case can be taught effectively to MBA/ BBA students as a part of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship subject.

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CSS 11: Strategy.