Vijay Edward Pereira, Rita Fontinha, Pawan Budhwar and Bimal Arora
High-performance work practices (HPWPs) have been well documented within private organisations in developed country economies. Such practices, however, remain under-investigated…
Abstract
Purpose
High-performance work practices (HPWPs) have been well documented within private organisations in developed country economies. Such practices, however, remain under-investigated in the public sector and in emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to work towards filling this void, by empirically evaluating HPWP within an Indian public sector undertaking (PSU), also the world’s largest commercial public sector employer: the Indian Railways (IR).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors investigate whether the practices implemented in this organisation are consistent with the idea of HPWPs, and analyse how they are influenced by different stakeholders and ultimately associated with different indicators of organisational performance. The authors focused on six railway zones and interviewed a total of 62 HR practitioners.
Findings
The results show that most practices implemented are aligned with the idea of HPWPs, despite the existence of context-specific unique practices. Furthermore, the authors identify the influence of multiple stakeholders in decision making concerning different practices. The authors additionally found that the measurement of performance goes beyond financial indicators and several context-specific non-financial indicators are identified and their social importance is reiterated.
Originality/value
Theoretically, this paper utilises and contributes to the resource-based view of firms by identifying a distinctive bundle of competencies in human resources through HPWS in the IR.
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Zinette Bergman, Yael Teschemacher, Bimal Arora, Rijit Sengupta, Klaus Michael Leisinger and Manfred Max Bergman
The Government of India dramatically altered the dynamic between business and society when it introduced the Companies Act 2013, which mandated firms to expend at least 2 per cent…
Abstract
Purpose
The Government of India dramatically altered the dynamic between business and society when it introduced the Companies Act 2013, which mandated firms to expend at least 2 per cent of average net profits on corporate responsibility (CR) programmes. This reconfiguration of social value creation may serve as a template for a closer and participatory relationship between the private sector and government in emerging economies and beyond. This paper aims to analyse how CR expectations have taken shape in the print media in India. Specifically, the authors ask the following: What are the dimensions of CR expectations in mainstream Indian newspapers?, and Why, according to the newspaper narratives, do corporations have these responsibilities?
Design/methodology/approach
In this qualitative study, the authors randomly selected and analysed 50 per cent (n = 442) of the newspaper articles that dealt explicitly with CR. The articles appeared in the top five Indian English-language newspapers and the top two Hindi-language newspapers between 1 January and 31 December 2015. Using Content Configuration Analysis (CCA), the authors developed a typology of CR expectations and analysed their associated justifications. Finally, they used CCA to analyse how this typology and its justifications connect to the two main stakeholders: the business sector and government.
Findings
The analyses reveal how the introduction of the Companies Act 2013 had a major impact on CR expectations by explicitly and legally casting the business sector as the engine of social development. The authors were able to describe how contextual and cultural dimensions frame evolving interests and societal demands towards corporations, and how difficult it may be for corporations to fulfil CR expectations that are well beyond their core business and that reach domains usually pertaining to government.
Originality/value
This study contributes an empirical exploration of media discourse on contemporary CR expectations in India and its associated notions of social value creation, and how these are shaped by various cultural and contextual influences. The authors discuss how this novel approach to CR modifies the relations between business and society, and they reflect on the opportunities and limits of this model for other emerging economies, which struggle to formulate a symbiotic relationship between business and society.
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the trends in relative efficiency of software companies in India during 1999-2008 by applying input-oriented data envelopment analysis…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the trends in relative efficiency of software companies in India during 1999-2008 by applying input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. Based upon the PROWESS Database of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the efficiencies were estimated for the Indian, multinational and group companies. Also, relationship between efficiency and size is examined.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applied DEA to measure relative efficiencies of software companies and two different DEA models, CCR and BCC, were applied to evaluate the relative efficiency of the sample software companies in India. Comparisons of efficiency scores based on ownership were carried out by applying ANOVA and t-statistics.
Findings
The mean overall technical efficiency (OTE) of the software industry in India during 1999-2008 was low at 0.477. The mean pure technical efficiency for the industry for the study period was found to be 0.654 suggesting that software firms, on an average, were wasting 35 per cent of their inputs. It was observed that the Indian-owned companies have relatively high OTE score as compared to foreign owned and group owned companies. The mean OTE score of PI companies was found to be greater than the other two categories. In terms of, size it is observed that medium sized companies performance better.
Practical implications
Software companies can use DEA to examine their performance against the best performers in the industry. Software industry in India, which is doted by large number of small firms in the lower part of the size pyramid, needs to increase their size to improve their efficiency.
Originality/value
Research on measurement of service sector export oriented industry efficiency is limited. This paper is one of the few published studies examined service sector performance. This paper fills the gap in the literature by applying DEA in software industry in India and compares performance in terms of ownership and size.
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Aijaz Ahmad Bhat, Javaid Iqbal Khan, Javed Ahmad Bhat and Sajad Ahmad Bhat
This study attempts to quantify the degree of independence of Central Bank of India from both legal and behavioural contexts over the period 1990–1991 to 2018–2019, a period…
Abstract
Purpose
This study attempts to quantify the degree of independence of Central Bank of India from both legal and behavioural contexts over the period 1990–1991 to 2018–2019, a period encompassing major developments in the operation and regulation of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Design/methodology/approach
We followed Jasmine et al. (2019) to calculate the magnitude of de jure independence of RBI and for de facto independence, “turnover rate (TOR) of CB governor” as proposed by Cukierman et al. (1992) is applied.
Findings
The results report that the legal autonomy of RBI increased specifically after the reforms and post formulation of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). However, the actual independence of RBI remains more or less in line within the critical threshold limit of 0.2.
Practical implications
The study proposes effective implementation of laws and procedures designed to promote the independence of Central Bank of India imperative for an effective monetary operation along with a coordinated fiscal policy.
Originality/value
Targeted study of a particular central bank on its “independence” aspect in general and of the Reserve Bank of India in particular has not been attempted as on date. It is to this end that the present study contributes.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2023-0098.
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Manzoor Hassan Malik and Nirmala Velan
The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of trends of Indian information technology and business processing management (IT-BPM) sector and to analyse the determinants…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of trends of Indian information technology and business processing management (IT-BPM) sector and to analyse the determinants of IT-BPM sector during the period 1991-2014.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on annual data collected from National Association of Software and Service Companies and Department of Electronic and Information Technology for the period 1991 to 2014. The methodology adopted for studying the objectives are simple averages, percentages, ratios, growth rates, graphs prepared on the basis of data from the IT-BPM sector and regression analysis. Trends and patterns in key variables, such as total revenue, domestic revenue, export revenue, employment and exports of the IT-BPM sector have been examined. Factors influencing IT-BPM export growth have been analysed using ordinary least square multiple regression model, with growth rates of gross domestic product (GDP), labour productivity, exchange rate and previous year’s export, as the explanatory variables.
Findings
The export revenue from IT-BPM sector increased continuously over the years, at an average growth rate of 36.60 per cent during the period 1991 to 2014. Similarly, domestic revenue of IT-BPM sector also increased, but at a lower growth rate. This is because domestic market in India is captured by multinational giants against Indian firms, which do not possess full comparative advantage in the case of IT-BPM sector. Indian firms are producing low skill activities required for production, mainly concentrated only in the export sector. Direct employment, excluding hardware from IT-BPM sector, has grown at an average rate of 18.08 per cent over the study period. The determinants of IT-BPM exports indicated previous year’s export demand to be significantly contributing the highest to export growth rate. This was followed by GDP growth rate, implying that overall growth of the economy leads to significant increase in export growth. Increased labour productivity followed next in significantly encouraging export growth.
Research limitations/implications
Generalization of the results may not be possible, as Indian conditions and policies vary.
Practical implications
The paper has implications for the expansion of domestic market, diversification of trade and products, innovations for increasing competitiveness and sustainability in the global market in the wake of stiff competitions from new competitors.
Originality/value
This paper focuses on originality in analysis of determinants of export growth.
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Pradipta Chandra, Titas Bhattacharjee and Bhaskar Bhowmick
The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the indicators of institutional barriers hindering the technology transfer training (TTT) process behind the technology…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the indicators of institutional barriers hindering the technology transfer training (TTT) process behind the technology adoption lag affecting the agricultural output in India through development of a scale.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative technique has been followed for data collection through a close-ended questionnaire scored on the seven-point Likert scale. The sample size was considered as 161; target respondents were farmers and farmer-centric individuals. Data were analyzed using an exploratory factor analysis technique.
Findings
Factor analysis revealed that there are three significant factors related to TTT process, namely, comprehension, customization and generalization, which are liable for institutional barriers in technology adoption by farmers.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation is biasness from both respondents’ end and interviewer’s end might exist during survey due to differences in perception.
Social implications
The key beneficiaries from this research are the small and marginal farming community in India. They can enhance their productivity through an appropriate training process. Corporates will show interest in investment through the mechanism of corporate social responsibility.
Originality/value
Under this study, the factors of the institutional barriers from the farmers’ perspective are being introduced as a new research contribution, especially for the resource crunch area of Jangalmahal and other similar places in India.