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Article
Publication date: 15 August 2016

Safal Batra, Sunil Sharma, Mukund Dixit and Neharika Vohra

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a multi-dimensional second-order operationalization of strategic planning, to advance the understanding of this construct.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a multi-dimensional second-order operationalization of strategic planning, to advance the understanding of this construct.

Design/methodology/approach

Data on the strategic planning construct were collected using survey questionnaire administered to 123 small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in India.

Findings

The findings clearly reveal that the strategic planning construct can be effectively operationalized as a second-order multi-dimensional construct.

Research limitations/implications

Data for this study have been collected primarily from SMEs of manufacturing firms. Further investigation in other kinds of firms may help in the enhancement of the construct.

Originality/value

Scholars have long called for using second-order constructs in strategy research. Operationalizing multi-dimensional constructs as unidimensional leads to inaccurate results and interpretations. By demonstrating a second-order operationalization of strategic planning, the authors illustrate better ways of operationalizing a construct. At the same time, this operationalization should help in better understanding of the implications of strategic planning on firm performance.

Details

Measuring Business Excellence, vol. 20 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1368-3047

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 January 2022

Safal Batra, Vishal K. Gupta, Sunil Sharma and Rahul Yadav

The purpose of this study is to investigate potential lenders of legitimacy for business-to-business (B2B) startups as reflected in the willingness of potential customers to do…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate potential lenders of legitimacy for business-to-business (B2B) startups as reflected in the willingness of potential customers to do business with startup firms. This study theorizes the role of familiarity with B2B startups, their founding teams and their product offerings in influencing perceptions about legitimacy among potential customers.

Design/methodology/approach

Data are collected from key decision-makers involved in B2B procurements in large Indian companies and analyzed using conjoint analysis.

Findings

Results suggest that familiarity with product/service offerings from B2B startups is the most salient factor in forming favorable assessments for the venture, followed by the awareness of the startups and their founding teams, in that order.

Practical implications

The research makes several contributions to understanding the legitimacy of B2B startups from the customers’ perspective. The study provides a nuanced view of the factors impinging on legitimacy. The conceptualization of legitimacy as a reflection of willingness to buy (in other words, willingness to do business with) provides a useful lens with which to study the interactions between B2B startups and potential customers.

Originality/value

The strong empirical support the study finds for the predicted relationships in an international context, specifically India, enhances theory development, providing a solid foundation for future knowledge generation around the demand side legitimacy concept.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 37 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2016

Sunil Sharma, Mukund R. Dixit and Amit Karna

Firms take design leaps when they imitate an established business model developed either by another firm or in another market to create business opportunities. While recent…

Abstract

Purpose

Firms take design leaps when they imitate an established business model developed either by another firm or in another market to create business opportunities. While recent research has suggested the use of contextual intelligence for imitation, the exact process of adaptation of a business model is not fully understood. The purpose of this paper is to outline the process through which an emerging market firm adapts a developed market business model for creating business opportunities in the local market.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper investigates the journey of Air Deccan, the pioneer low-cost airline in India, from its founding until its successful adaptation of a (Western) business model and eventual failure. The authors use a qualitative case-based approach to study business model adaptation.

Findings

The authors find that adaptation involves the incorporation of following design features: novelty to overcome problem of institutional voids, elasticity to exploit unexpected increase in demand and efficiency to serve large volumes. Based on the evidence, the authors suggest the introduction of global efficiency measures as the boundary conditions of business model adaptation in emerging markets.

Research limitations/implications

The paper contributes to the literature on business models by suggesting elasticity as a unique design feature relevant for emerging markets. This paper provides granular understanding of business model toxicity.

Practical implications

Entrepreneurs and managers – looking to enter emerging markets through opportunity creation – should focus on providing contextually novel design features in the adapted business model. The authors also caution practitioners against the perils of toxicity arising out of combining contextual novelty with efficiency.

Originality/value

Recent literature suggests that multinationals need contextual intelligence to successfully monetize their investment in emerging economies. This paper provides rich description of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in emerging markets, local innovations used to overcome them and boundary conditions.

Details

Journal of Asia Business Studies, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1558-7894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 January 2021

Akhilesh Nautiyal and Sunil Sharma

A large number of roads have been constructed in the rural areas of India to connect habitations with the nearest major roads. With time, the pavements of these roads have…

Abstract

Purpose

A large number of roads have been constructed in the rural areas of India to connect habitations with the nearest major roads. With time, the pavements of these roads have deteriorated and they need some kind of maintenance, although they all do not need maintenance at the same time, as they have all not deteriorated to the same level. Hence, they have to be prioritized for maintenance.

Design/methodology/approach

In order to present a scientific methodology for prioritizing pavement maintenance, the factors affecting prioritization and the relative importance of each were identified through an expert survey. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to scientifically establish weight (importance) of each factor based on its relative importance over other factors. The proposed methodology was validated through a case study of 203 low volume rural roads in the state of Himachal Pradesh in India. Ranking of these roads in order of their priority for maintenance was presented as the final result.

Findings

The results show that pavement distresses, traffic volume, type of connectivity and the socioeconomic facilities located along a road are the four major factors to be considered in determining the priority of a road for maintenance.

Research limitations/implications

The methodology provides a comprehensive, scientific and socially responsible pavement maintenance prioritization method which will automatically select roads for maintenance without any bias.

Practical implications

Timely maintenance of roads will also save budgetary expenditure of restoration/reconstruction, leading to enhancement of road service life. The government will not only save money but also provide timely benefit to the needy population.

Social implications

Road transportation is the primary mode of inland transportation in rural areas. Timely maintenance of the pavements will be of great help to the socioeconomic development of rural areas.

Originality/value

The proposed methodology lays special emphasis on rural roads which are small in length, but large in number. Instead of random, a scientific method for selection of roads for maintenance will be of great help to the public works department for better management of rural road network.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 March 2020

Anish Purkayastha, Sunil Sharma and Amit Karna

In this paper, the authors undertake a systematic analysis of multinationality–performance (M-P) literature published in the last decade, when antecedents for internationalization…

Abstract

Purpose

In this paper, the authors undertake a systematic analysis of multinationality–performance (M-P) literature published in the last decade, when antecedents for internationalization and moderators of the M-P relationship had attained a center stage in international business and international management research. Though M-P relationship is one of the most widely studied topics within international business literature, so far synthesis of the entire theoretical landscape is missing in extant literature.

Design/methodology/approach

Through keywords search process, the authors found 111 studies in management literature that look at internationalization, its antecedents, performance of internationalized firms, and moderators of the M-P relationship. The focus of this study is to identify theoretical foundations used to explain the antecedents and moderators in M-P relationship, in order to suggest the future research direction for the field. The authors classify the antecedents and moderators based on their theoretical underpinnings not only to identify commonly used theoretical foundations in the last 10 years of international strategy research but also to highlight potential areas for future research.

Findings

The authors’ analysis indicates that research on international strategy in the last decade was dominated by theory testing in the context of developed economies. The authors’ review suggests that majority of the antecedents and moderators in the M-P relationship are anchored within institutional theory, organizational structure, resource-based view, social capital, and upper echelon theory.

Originality/value

The authors’ findings are indicative of a rich research potential of M-P relationship in the contextual research setting of emerging markets while leveraging more diversified theoretical bases and multiple levels of research design.

Details

Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5794

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 31 March 2016

Sunil Sharma, Saral Mukherjee and Parvinder Gupta

The three cases (Case A: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Opportunity; Case B: JSW Steel's Ispat Acqusition: The Setback & Case C: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Turnaround…

Abstract

The three cases (Case A: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Opportunity; Case B: JSW Steel's Ispat Acqusition: The Setback & Case C: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Turnaround Strategy) describe the business situation leading to acquisition of Ispat by JSW, the acquirer company's failure to realize synergies post-acquisition, and the subsequent turnaround initiatives to salvage the situation. The Case A provides the details of the potential synergies between the two firms. After an elaborate due diligence process, JSW acquired Ispat. However, the JSW team failed to realize synergies anticipated at the time of acquisition. This was a big setback for the company because Ispat was acquired based on certain assumptions on synergies between the two companies. Case B captures the setbacks after Ispat's acquisition, i.e., JSW's failure to realize anticipated synergies.

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 31 March 2016

Sunil Sharma and Biju Varkkey

The Government of India established Competition Commission of India (CCI hereafter) through an act promulgated in 2002 to shift regulatory focus from curbing monopolies to…

Abstract

The Government of India established Competition Commission of India (CCI hereafter) through an act promulgated in 2002 to shift regulatory focus from curbing monopolies to promoting competition. The organization became fully functional in 2009 and gained recognition for its proactive stance when it slapped a penalty of Rs. 6400 crore on eleven cement companies for anticompetitive behavior. While CCI's proactive stance increased expectations of stakeholders and of the general public at large, it also became apparent that going forward the organization would need enormous resources and a clear identification of priority areas so as to emerge as an effective regulator. With this objective, the organization invited a team of professors from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India to help them with formulating a vision and mission statement. This case describes the process of creating a new vision and mission statement for a regulatory body.

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 8 April 2014

Sunil Sharma and Addepalli Srinivasa

The case provides rich description of an actual decision making situation related to selection of a consulting company. An Indian company a US based manufacturer of Widgets with…

Abstract

The case provides rich description of an actual decision making situation related to selection of a consulting company. An Indian company a US based manufacturer of Widgets with intent to capture 20% market share in India. When in-house efforts didn't yield quick results, the company decided to explore the option of hiring a consulting firm to develop a growth strategy. Various stakeholders were involved in the actual decision making which was seen as a trade-off between expertise and price.

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 21 November 2019

Sunil Sharma and Parvinder Gupta

The case describes the first four years of Dhruva, a tax advisory firm set up by Dinesh Kanabar, ex-Deputy CEO of KPMG. Dinesh and other founding partners had worked with the…

Abstract

The case describes the first four years of Dhruva, a tax advisory firm set up by Dinesh Kanabar, ex-Deputy CEO of KPMG. Dinesh and other founding partners had worked with the Big-4 firms and were familiar with some of the tensions in the overall ecosystem of Professional Services Firms. Dinesh wanted to build a distinctive professional service firm driven by values of cooperation, high quality work, transparency and stewardship. Very early in its journey, Dhruva's founding team decided that they would use organizational culture as the North Star for guiding decisions related to growth, internal organization design and even admission of new members including Partners. The first four years turned out to be highly successful for the firm. Since inception, it was ranked as Tier-1 firm in the tax advisory space. It was apparent that the firm had succeeded in building a model of alternate organizational paradigm for professional service firms. The next challenge was to test the scalability of this model as the firm embarked on an ambitious growth journey.

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 31 March 2016

Sunil Sharma, Saral Mukherjee and Parvinder Gupta

The three cases (Case A: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Opportunity; Case B: JSW Steel's Ispat Acqusition: The Setback & Case C: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Turnaround…

Abstract

The three cases (Case A: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Opportunity; Case B: JSW Steel's Ispat Acqusition: The Setback & Case C: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Turnaround Strategy) describe the business situation leading to acquisition of Ispat by JSW, the acquirer company's failure to realize synergies post-acquisition, and the subsequent turnaround initiatives to salvage the situation. In 2010, JSW Steel, a 14 mtpa Indian steel company acquired Ispat Steel with annual production capacity of 3 mtpa. The acquisition was part of JSW's multipronged strategy to realize its aspiration of being a 40 mtpa firm. At the time of acquisition, Ispat had huge debts, a long pipeline of unfinished projects, high production costs and unpredictable cash flows. Its main plant, Dolvi was shutdown for 45 days. However, the plant also had numerous advantages. It was located near the seashore and was technologically very advanced. Case A describes the events leading to acquisition of Ispat by JSW. It captures the facts, opinions and inferences around the acquisition decision, which were used as inputs in the due diligence process to assess synergies between JSW and Ispat. The case describes the economic, competitive, and industry factors prevailing in 2010 when JSW was thinking of acquiring Ispat.

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

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