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The purpose of this study is to understand the business ecosystem through the “identity” construct. “Identity” is a well-researched subject in sociology and psychology but as a construct, its application is limited in management and organization studies, especially in the ecosystem context. This study used “identity” to examine the management and organization of stone carving microenterprise clusters in India.

The examination followed classical grounded theory approach for data collection and data analysis. Data collection was made by a mixture of focus group discussions, informal discussions, personal observations, etc., and it followed a series of thematic analysis under the qualitative technique. Further, a structured questionnaire was used to collect information, and the data analysis was done through structural equation modelling and confirmatory factor analysis.

The study identified and established ten identities of the producers, two identities of the suppliers and two identities of the customers. There were identity-interlinkages within each stakeholder, and among the stakeholders, creating a solid, static and rigid ecosystem for ages.

This paper made a new and significant contribution to the literature on the business ecosystem.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how business ecosystems evolve, what is the identity of business ecosystem and is the ecosystem identity static or dynamics. To understand the above questions, this paper is conducted on stone carving clusters in India.

The author engaged the ethnographic approach in this study. To sample stone carving clusters of India, the author followed the snowball sampling method. Further, the author did collect the information by informal personal discussions, focus group discussions and participant observations. Furthermore, the thematic analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis were applied to process the data. The validity and reliability of the method was ascertained by testing the credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability.

The author found that the business ecosystem of stone carving was dynamic, and it was transformed from the buyer-driven ecosystem to the supplier-driven ecosystem. The identities of the early stage business ecosystem and the late stage ecosystem were analyzed through product, network and information flow. The author developed a structural framework to conceptualize the identity domain of the business ecosystem and the author named it as “nature-conduct-performance model.” Also, the author conceptualized the identity evolution, the influence of social system on business ecosystem identity, and identity-based conflicts and identity-based cooperation in the stone carving business ecosystem.

This study is making additional theoretical contribution in conceptualize the business ecosystem from the identity construct.

The purpose of this paper is to create optimally located Facilitation Centers on this tourist circuit, evaluated through network analysis, thus creating an effective linkage between tourism and economic activities of the craftsmen who are the custodians of the cultural heritage of Puri.

The craft villages lying in and around this tourist circuit are surveyed to establish socio-economic condition of artisans, significance of the craft and spatial distribution of craft villages and the willingness of artisans to travel closer to the transport spine. Network analysis is used to assess the suitability of Facilitation Center location using travel time and distance as parameters. Finally, the sustainability of the Facilitation Centers is evaluated using a cost-benefit analysis (CBA).

The Facilitation Centers can be spatially developed at the strategic locations to expand tourist market. This will help in leveraging the economic benefits of tourism to a marginalized rural artisan community by creating a sustainable model.

The focus on festival can help to protect local cultural traditions, develop tourism and promote the economic, social and cultural developments of the destination. Dispersal strategies adopted aim to increase visitors' satisfaction with the product and thus entice them to stay longer in the destination.

The handicraft sector is unorganized, with tremendous opportunities for generating employment, particularly for the non-urban and bottom of the pyramid (BOP) population. The aim of this paper is to revisit the existing supply chain of the handicraft sector to identify the gaps that can help generate better marketing outcomes for the sector when addressed.

A mixed method of qualitative and quantitative research has been used. Empirical observations from artisans have been collected to identify different variables impacting the functioning of the handicraft value chain.

Different variables were identified and grouped into six important dimensions through the mixed-method research. The components were ranked based on importance, which can help in developing a robust supply chain at BOP for the handicraft sector.

Studies on the supply chain of the handicraft sector are rare, and none has tried to understand issues in an integrated way directly from the artisans. This study has captured the voices of the artisans, and through qualitative and quantitative data analyses, the main reasons for the artisans' pain points were identified. This can give directions to a viable business model for the handicraft sector.

The Indian marble and stone industry has got the potential to contribute well to the development of the emerging economy. However, unlike the other Indian industries, stone and marble industries are highly underrated sectors, which may become a critical factor for development. This paper analyses the sustainability factors in supply chain management practices.

A literature review is used to identify the barriers and drivers in sustainable supply chain management practices. Interpretive structural modeling has been used to obtain a hierarchy of barriers and drivers along with driving power and dependence power analysis. Further, MICMAC analysis is used for segregating the barriers and drivers in terms of their impact on sustainability.

The findings of the work of this research are that the attention of society, government, and commercial banks should be more toward the unorganized condition of stone and marble sector. There should be an increase in the commitment of stakeholders to reduce pollution and install safety, by enforcing more relevant laws and regulations and creating the importance of environmental awareness.

The main contribution of this research is to identify the barriers and drivers of sustainable supply chain management in a stone and marble industry. The paper proposes a sound mathematical model to prioritize the critical factors for responsible production and consumption of resources from sustainability perspectives of stone industry.

The archaeological record of small-scale societies is replete with examples of people expending considerable labor to craft both places and objects for communal rituals. Archaeologists often infer these efforts to have been the product of aspiring elites. This chapter focuses instead on the larger community responsible for the construction of places and objects, through a ritual economy analysis of the social logic people use to organize the production of ritual places and paraphernalia. A review of ethnographic and archaeological data suggests that the production of communal ritual places often involves the creation of sociograms, while the production of objects for use within these places encompasses a web of complementary and competitive relations. Two examples of large-scale communal ritual spaces, the early British Neolithic causewayed enclosures and the Ohio Hopewell geometric earthworks, are explored in light of these ethnographic and archaeological patterns.

Familiarize with the retail operations of handicrafts, facility location problem, apply multi-criteria decision through the goal programming approach and solving the same with MS Excel.

The case portrays a dilemma in the context of retail operations of a small-scale handicraft company known as Odisha Craft. Located in Odisha, Susanta Mohanty, the owner, was finding it a challenge to decide on the most promising location for his new retail outlet in the neighbouring city of Kolkata. He had five choices for the locations. Odisha craft was established by his father-in-law in 2009 with an objective to preserve and promote the rich culture of the handicrafts designed by the local artisans and ensure sustainable rural livelihood. The company had been facing numerous challenges and the pandemic has given a very formidable blow to the monthly revenues. The case brings out the multi-faceted dilemma of deciding on the facility location in 2020, involving a set of conflicting criteria. The case unfolds a systematic solution approach resolving the dilemma using MS Excel.

Courses such as operations research, operations management, service operations and retail operations for MBA students and trainings for junior-middle level executives.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 09: Operations and Logistics

Ancient theatres and odea are one of the most significant and creative socio-cultural edutainment centres of human history that are still in use. They stood and served as huge multi-functional structures for social, religious, propaganda and political meeting space. Meanwhile, ancient theatres’ sites have an intrinsic value for all people, and as a vital basis for cultural diversity, social and economic development, they should continue to be a source of information for future generations. Though, all places with ancient theatre heritage should be assessed as to their potential risk from any anthropogenic or natural process. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The main paper’s objective is to discuss mainly the anthropogenic and technical risks, vulnerability and impact issues on the ancient classical theatres. While elaborating on relevant recent studies, where the authors were involved in ERATO and ATHENA European projects for ancient theatres and odea, this paper provides a brief overview of the main aspects of the anthropogenic qualitative risks and related issues for selected classical antiquity theatres. Some relevant cases are critically presented and investigated in order to examine and clarify the main risk mitigation issues as an essential prerequisite for theatre heritage preservation and its interface with heritage reuse.

Theatre risk mitigation is an ongoing and challenging task. By preventive conservation, theatre anthropogenic qualitative risks’ management can provide a framework for decision making. The needed related guidelines and recommendations that provide a systematic approach for sustainable management and planning in relation mainly to “ancient theatre compatible use” and “theatre technical risks” are analysed and presented. This is based on identification, classification and assessment of the theatre risk causes and contributing factors and their mitigation.

The paper also suggests a new methodological approach for the theatre anthropogenic qualitative risk assessment and mitigation management, and develop some recommendations that provide a systematic approach for theatre site managers and heritage experts to understand, assess, and mitigate risks mainly due to anthropogenic and technical threats.

Purpose: Preserving a country’s culture is crucial for its sustainability. Handicraft is a key draw for tourism destinations; it protects any civilisation’s indigenous knowledge and culture by managing the historical, economic, and ecological ecosystems and perfectly aligns with sustainable development. It has a significant role in creating employment, especially in rural regions and is an essential contributor to the export economy, mainly in developing nations. The study focuses on the skills required and existing gaps in the handicraft industry, its development and prospects by considering women and their role in preserving and embodying the traditional art of making handicrafts.

Approach: A framework has been developed for mapping and analysing the skills required in the handicraft sector using econometric modelling; an enormous number of skills have been crowdsourced from the respondents, and machine learning techniques have been used.

Findings: The findings of the study revealed that employment in this area is dependent not only on general or specialised skills but also on complex matrix skills ranging from punctuality to working in unclean and unsafe environments, along with a set of personal qualities, such as taking initiatives and specific skills, for example polishing and colour coding.

Implications: The skills mapping technique utilised in this study is applicable globally, particularly for women indulged in casual work in developing nations’ handicrafts industry. The sustainable development goals, tourism, and handicrafts are all interconnected. The research includes understanding skills mapping, which provides insights into efficient job matching by incorporating preferences and studying the demand side of casual working by women in the handicraft sector from a skills perspective.

International marketing/export marketing.

This case is appropriate for discussion in courses such as international marketing and export marketing of post graduate studies in management. The case can also be used for management development programmes concerning practising managers.

The case is based on export marketing strategy with special focus on developing strong buyer (customer) relationships and the associated challenges of a trading company, The Handicrafts and Handlooms Exports Corporation of India Ltd (HHEC). The corporation primarily engages in export of handlooms and handicraft products from India. Since 2005-06 the corporation has been incurring losses and it was only in 2010-11 that the corporation has registered a positive net profit.

To understand the appropriate strategies for buyer retention; to understand appropriate promotion strategies of non-essential items like handicraft, handloom and carpets; and to help students in making decisions for export marketing like understanding product characteristic, development of samples, procurement of products, vendor management, and pricing decisions.

Teaching notes.