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India is the first country to have mandated compulsory corporate social responsibility (CSR) spends through changes in its legislative framework. Focus has thus shifted from the “why” to the “how” of CSR and, therefore, a shift in the “locus” of CSR responsibility from the “influencer” chief executive officer toward the “implementer” CSR professionals. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of management education in developing individual competencies among the implementers and impacting effective CSR implementation.

This paper, using a case study design, studies the role of management education in developing individual competencies among the implementers and impacting effective CSR implementation. Building on theoretical frameworks, this paper carries out an exploratory research of an Indian business school’s management education program for development practitioners. It uses qualitative inputs gathered from relevant stakeholders of the program to understand the role of management education in facilitating the paradigm shift in CSR in the Indian context.

The paper finds that the program has impacted outcomes at three levels, namely through developing key individual CSR-related competencies; impacting participants’ professional performance; and organizational impact in effective CSR implementation.

The case study provides a roadmap to business schools for designing and implementing programs for CSR professionals.

Extant research in the Indian context is silent on key competencies required for CSR implementation and also on the role of management education in developing the same. Such competencies can ensure the efficiency of the expected large CSR spends by private corporates under the new legal requirements and alter the country’s social development path.

This paper aims to explore the drivers and barriers in the transition of the social responsibility agenda of large, emerging economy (EE) firms from non-strategic philanthropy to strategic corporate sustainability. This study also suggests a strategy that such firms may adopt for obtaining the desired corporate social responsibility (CSR) manifestation.

The paper follows an in-depth case study approach of a large, family-managed Indian firm in a pollutant industry – Sudarshan Chemicals. The article is based on direct observation and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, namely, senior management, employees and the local community members (villagers) in the company’s plant in Maharashtra.

The study exposes a lack of alignment between firm size (large) and firm CSR manifestation (small) as the key challenge that EE firms face in transforming their social responsibility agenda. Stuck in the mould of non-strategic corporate philanthropy, even large EE companies are not exposed to the three essential elements of the Western conceptualization of CSR, namely, stakeholder pressure, environmental concerns and integration into core business. Sudarshan’s small-firm CSR orientation can be seen as symptomatic of most Indian companies which are family-led, family-managed businesses.

Faced with strong drivers to incorporate CSR, EE firms can strategize to leap-frog from philanthropy to corporate sustainability through obtaining the desired CSR manifestation.

The significance of this paper lies in the “on the ground”, detailed and empirical study of the drivers and challenges faced by a large Indian company, as it proactively sought to transition from the philanthropy orientation towards strategic CSR/sustainability. The paper identifies the major challenge large, Indian corporates are likely to face going forward, as they respond to drivers in a globalized business environment.

This paper aims to understand the process of value creation and value capture through open innovation strategies such as crowdsourcing in emerging economies (EEs) like India. The paper seeks to understand that crowdsourcing strategies offer both potential as well as challenges to value creation and capture in EEs.

The paper follows a case study approach. Building on interviews with company officials, the paper looks at the process of value creation and value capture by Talenthouse India through its unique “My Nation My Anthem” (MNMA) initiative.

With growing internet penetration and the presence of a demographic dividend, crowdsourcing presents high potential in EEs like India. EE firms may strategize to use the creativity and ideas of “crowds” to drive value creation and value capture. However, understanding the limits of such strategies, in particular those relating to the crowds (their composition, access to them and their motivators) and the access to technology, is important. The result of the MNMA initiative was a 52-second crowdsourced national anthem that generated sufficient value for the crowdsourcing intermediary (Talenthouse), the client firm (PVR) and the entire ecosystem.

The significance of open innovation models has been demonstrated in settings involving high-tech industries, producing high-value goods, in advanced economies. The paper finds the applicability of such models to low-tech, less mature industries, involving experience goods in EEs like India.

This paper aims to understand how emerging economy firms can use the growing emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability as an opportunity to drive corporate social innovations (CSIs) so as to create shared value and gain competitive advantage.

The paper applies a case study design. Building on in-depth interviews with company officials, document analysis and secondary sources, the paper presents a model of CSIs.

The case study presents evidence of how Agarwal Packers and Movers Limited – an Indian family managed business firm operating in the fragmented, unorganized and highly competitive household relocation segment of the Indian logistics industry – used socio-environmental sustainability challenges to drive CSIs. These innovations helped it to differentiate itself from competitors and gain competitive advantage, while creating shared value simultaneously.

Indian firms have been lagging behind on both sustainability/CSR and innovations. Driven by domestic regulatory requirements, as also the need to compete in a globalizing economy, emerging economy firms may strategize to integrate their sustainability agenda with innovations to influence both organizational and societal outcomes.

Firm innovations, even in advanced countries, have been driven by market triggers, with ideas internal to the firm. The paper contributes to the limited research on innovations in emerging economy firms and shows how they may “leapfrog” their growth pathways by systematically integrating their sustainability agenda with innovation activities.

This paper aims to understand how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can use design thinking (DT) as a strategic tool to improve organisational and societal outcomes.

The paper applies a case study design. Building on in-depth interviews with senior management, beneficiaries (villagers), the village headman and children in Karaliya village (Rajasthan), as also from secondary sources, the paper presents a model of using DT for NGOs.

This paper presents evidence of how Jal Bhagirathi Foundation, an Indian NGO working in the most water-distressed and densely populated arid zone of the Thar Desert, used a user-centric, DT approach to solve the water-scarcity problem in villages in the Marwar region. In doing so, several interconnected societal problems were also addressed, including those of sanitation, education – especially of the girl child – poverty and migration.

DT has been increasingly used by “for-profit” business organisations to derive competitive advantage. NGOs have lagged in the use of DT as a strategic tool to drive enhanced organisational and societal outcomes. Such NGOs can strategise to adopt a DT approach.

A literature search revealed that while the term “NGO” threw up 36,571 results, “NGOs and strategic management” had only 363 results, and “the use of design thinking in NGOs” had 0 results. This paper contributes to the limited research in the field of strategic management in the NGO space by looking at DT as an important strategic tool for NGOs.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the competitive landscape of emerging market economies (EMEs) and the implications of business models and strategies used by multinational enterprises (MNEs) to enter and operate in such landscapes. It does so by considering the aviation sector in an emerging economy – India, and by studying the strategies pursued by AirAsia India – the Indian joint venture of AirAsia Investment Limited and Tata Sons..

The paper follows a case study approach. Secondary data sources from the library, company website and newspaper articles have been used to build a case that would encourage students to discuss and analyze the competitive strategies followed by MNEs in EMEs.

Emerging markets offer attractive investment opportunities to MNEs across several industries. However, their markets for intermediate goods and services possess imperfections. Competitiveness in such markets will require going beyond country-specific and firm-specific advantages. MNEs will need to integrate location-specific advantages with internalization advantages of these market imperfections to operate successfully in the complex environments of EMEs. A one-size-fits-all approach of transposing successful strategies from home markets will fail to create value.

MNEs, such as AirAsia, will need to develop participatory skills to leverage the location-specific-advantages of EMEs and reduce their own curse of foreignness to be able to succeed in EMEs.

This paper contributes to extant literature by studying the competitive strategies pursued by a global leader in an EME. The case of the “World’s Best Low-Cost Airline” – AirAsia’s India operations seeks to go beyond the Eclectic Paradigm and the country-specific and firm-specific advantages framework, to provide a location-internalization paradigm for operating in EMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the behavioral lessons and managerial implications of deep discount strategies used by e-commerce firms to gain a competitive advantage over rivals. The paper seeks to understand the behavioral aspects of consumer and competitor response to such online sales, particularly with reference to e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. The case study seeks to: understand the behavioral aspects of utility and customer satisfaction; understand the behavioral aspects influencing customer attitudes, preferences and choice; understand heuristics involved in consumer decision-making; and understand possible firm strategies based on a thorough analysis of behavioral influencers of customer decisions.

The paper follows a case study approach. Secondary data sources from the library, company website and newspaper articles have been used to build a case which would encourage students to discuss and analyze the application of principles of behavioral economics to marketing problems faced especially by e-retailers. It uses Flipkart’s botched-up Big-Billion Day sale to drive home lessons in behavioral economics to marketers.

With growing internet penetration, e-retail presents high potential in India along with its BRICS peers. However, the task of grabbing customer mindshare, as also a share of wallet of the growing Indian purchasing power through monster discounts and deals by e-tailers may not work. Firms such as Flipkart may strategize using principles of behavioral economics including confirmatory bias, framing effects, reference points, principles of loss aversion, heuristics and the peak–end rule to influence customer decision-making in their favor. They must also guard against any incidents/events which invoke the representativeness heuristic or negative confirmatory biases towards e-commerce portals.

E-tailers in countries like India should understand the behavioral implications of deep discount strategies and deals offered by them as a means of gaining competitive advantage. Attention to e-service outcome quality and e-service recovery is important.

The case is unique in its applications of behavioral economics principles to e-retailing in India. It seeks to apply behavioral principles to a major e-commerce marketing event in India. With the e-commerce industry likely to boom in India, the case study provides unique insights into competitive pricing strategies adopted by e-retailers and the feasibility thereof.