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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of board structure on financial performance of Indian software companies. It is an empirical study carried out on 92 software companies from 2011 to 2018.

The board size, board independence, board meetings, CEO duality, audit, remuneration and nomination committee are used as board structure variables. Two accounting-based measures, return on assets (ROA), return on equity and one market-based measure Tobin's Q are used as a representative of financial performance of software companies. Panel regression is used to test the hypothesis.

Results demonstrates that board size, board meetings, remuneration and nomination committee have positive impact on more than one performance measures, while audit committee do not have any relation with any of the performance measures. It is also found that CEO duality has negative but significant relation with firm's performance and board independence has negative influence on ROA.

The findings of the study attract the attention of company's policymakers, shareholders to know the importance of board structure in increasing the firm's performance. The outcome of the study has relevance in other developing economies also. The results of the study can be utilised by policymakers and regulatory bodies in the formulation of good corporate government (CG) practices for the enhancement of profitability and market value of companies.

The findings suggest that special attention should be given to quality of CG, specifically board structure while measuring corporate financial performance.

The ease and convenience of online shopping are shifting the customers to e-tailers. This has prompted offline retailers to re-examine behavioural patterns along with a reconfiguration for a responsive retail model. The paper investigates the influence of responsiveness on customer satisfaction, cross-buying behaviour, revisit intention and referral behaviour.

Data were collected via a survey answered by 793 fashion customers from India, and for data analysis, partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed. Path analysis was used to determine the interrelationships amongst the constructs used in the study.

The standardized path coefficients depict competitive responsiveness as the highest contributor of retailers' responsiveness followed by service responsiveness, employee responsiveness and customer responsiveness. The findings suggest that customer satisfaction acts as the biggest contributor to referral behaviour followed by cross-buying behaviour and revisit intentions.

This study has made a substantial contribution to fashion apparel retailing. The findings revealed that responsive retailing influences the customers' post-purchase behaviour as they engage in more cross-buying, revisiting and referral behaviour. The retailers are encouraged to carefully monitor their preparedness to deliver a combination of sensory, emotional, cognitive and social experience to their customers.

This case can be used to teach students how to analyze innovative business models, as well as to trace their reasons for success and failure. The following objectives also align with categories in Bloom’s taxonomy (Forehand, 2010), consistent with the keywords underlined. More specifically, this case will enable students to learn the following: First, to analyze the distinctive features of a social commerce business model, and how these differ from a traditional e-commerce model. This objective maps to Discussion Question No. 1. This objective helps students to understand the value proposition of an unfamiliar business model (social commerce platform) and compare it with that of a familiar business model (e-commerce platform). Second, racing the causes for success and failure of a venture, using frameworks from entrepreneurship and strategy. This relates to Discussion Question No. 2. This objective helps students analyze strategic decisions of an entrepreneur in light of available resource constraints and by applying appropriate conceptual frameworks. Third, developing recommendations to help a new venture sustain its business model in the face of severe challenges. Discussion Question No. 3 covers this objective. This objective enables students to debate possible paths that the startup could take. The discussion on possible paths naturally causes students to create sustainable or viable options.

The case describes the challenge facing Vidit Aatrey, the founder and chief executive of Meesho, a social commerce venture headquartered in Bangalore, India, in October of 2022. While Meesho recorded the second-highest sales (by order volume) during India’s festive season, it also recorded layoffs and business closures. While Meesho’s core business of getting resellers to sell through its online platform seemed to be working, its new business ventures, such as expanding into the grocery business and into Indonesia, had failed and resulted in more than 300 layoffs. Meesho was also pressed for funding: valued at US$4.9bn, the global market for venture capital funding had chilled and now demanded profitability, not growth-at-all-costs. Meesho’s cash burn rate was about $40m per month, and Aatrey was hard pressed to come up with options for profitable growth.

This case is intended for students of management at a master’s level in a course on entrepreneurship. At the authors’ institute, this case is used with MBA students in an elective course on entrepreneurship and also in an elective course in general management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship

The learning outcomes are as follows: factors to be considered in devising the best post-acquisition brand identity and outline market research techniques, which can be used to identify the best-suited post-acquisition brand identity strategy.

The case study discusses the brand strategy, which Walmart Inc needs to adopt post its acquisition of Flipkart Pvt. Ltd (Flipkart) Group in India. Flipkart had acquired Myntra Designs Pvt. Ltd (Myntra) and Novarris Fashion Trading Private Limited (Jabong), but had kept their brand identity intact; Walmart Inc was faced with the decision on moving ahead with the brand strategy of keeping individual brand identities or merging all of these into a single brand identity. The study aims to provide valuable insights into the decision-making process adopted by Walmart Inc. It includes also the role of cause-related marketing in the positioning of Myntra as a socially responsible brand. The case study opted for an exploratory research design study using the qualitative research method of in-depth interviews. In total, 10 experts in the area of marketing, market research and marketing communication were interviewed. The qualitative data were analyzed using a template approach, which analyzes the text using a codebook or an analysis guide. The analysis guide already has clearly defined themes or categories. As the qualitative interviews progress, these themes get revised. These themes are analyzed qualitatively rather than statistically. The case study suggests to the management of Walmart Inc that they need to merge Myntra and Jabong based on the degree of similarity of consumer demographics, income/social class of buyers, brand identity and buying behavior. Myntra needs to retain as opposed to Jabong, as Myntra is perceived to be a socially responsible brand that creates a purchase disposition in the minds of the consumers. A more extensive quantitative study would offer better generalizability. It was not feasible to conduct a quantitative study due to time constraints. This research would have used advanced brand imagery assessment techniques such as multi-dimensional scaling to suggest if an overlap exists between consumer segments of Myntra and Jabong. The case study provides a decision-making framework to firms and individuals who are part of organizational teams to create a post-acquisition brand strategy in the e-commerce market. The case study fulfills a need for many academicians and practitioners to understand the decision-making process followed in devising a post-acquisition brand strategy in India.

Senior undergraduates; Master of Business Administration; Executive Master of Business Administration.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Introduction: The insurance sector provides security to society by pooling resources to manage risks. Insurers’ improved ability to analyse risks by examining vast amounts of granular data has considerably refined this technique. Compiling and analysing the fine data sets is now transformed into the ‘Big Data’ technique. The introduction of big data analytics (BDA) is transforming the insurance industry and the role data plays in insurance.

Purpose: This chapter will attempt to examine the applications and role of big data in the insurance sector and how big data affects the different insurance segments like health insurance, property and casualty, and travel insurance. This chapter will also describe the disruptive impact of big data on the insurance market.

Methodology: Systematic research is carried out by analysing case studies and literature studies, emphasising how BDA is revolutionary for the insurance market. For this purpose, various articles and studies on BDA in the insurance market are selected and studied.

Findings: The execution of big data is continuously increasing in the insurance sector. The performance of big data in the insurance market results in cost reduction, better access to insurance services, and more fraud detection that benefits the customers and stakeholders. Therefore, big data has revolutionised the insurance market and assisted insurers in targeting customers more precisely.

This paper aims to examine and compare extant literature on the application of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques in humanitarian operations (HOs) and humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). It identifies the status of existing research in the field and suggests a roadmap for academicians to undertake further research in HOs and HSCs using MCDM techniques.

The paper systematically reviews the research on MCDM applications in HO and HSC domains from 2011 to 2022, as the field gained traction post-2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami phenomena. In the first step, an exhaustive search for journal articles is conducted using 48 keyword searches. To ensure quality, only those articles published in journals featuring in the first quartile of the Scimago Journal Ranking were selected. A total of 103 peer-reviewed articles were selected for the review and then segregated into different categories for analysis.

The paper highlights insufficient high-quality research in HOs that utilizes MCDM methods. It proposes a roadmap for scholars to enhance the research outcomes by advocating adopting mixed methods. The analysis of various studies revealed a notable absence of contextual reference. A contextual mind map specific to HOs has been developed to assist future research endeavors. This resource can guide researchers in determining the appropriate contextual framework for their studies.

This paper will help practitioners understand the research carried out in the field. The aspiring researchers will identify the gap in the extant research and work on future research directions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review on applying MCDM in HOs and HSCs. It summarises the current status and proposes future research directions.

The purpose of this study aims to explore the dimensions assessing the servicescape of beauty salons and provides suggestions to improve the salon's servicescape.

A mixed-method design is used in the sequence of thematic analysis through focus group technique followed by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to assess the beauty salon's servicescape.

The exploration of factors in beauty salons is determined with three dimensions: the substantive staging of servicescape, the communicative staging of servicescape and the social staging of servicescape. These dimensions are mentioned in the order of importance perceived by the customers. The substantive staging of servicescape was identified with five factors: ambient conditions, facility aesthetics, artifacts, provisions and spatial layout. Communicative staging of servicescape explored four factors: employee duties, employee commitment, employee–customer interactions and employee image. Social staging derived two factors: customer characteristics, customer-to-customer interactions.

The findings enrich the previous literature with the addition of new factors while assessing servicescape in beauty salons and the development of new items through qualitative research in the domain of servicescape.

The study offers the managers to understand the importance of various factors affecting the servicescape in beauty salons. The salon managers can beautify the service environment through the implementation of the factors identified, thus resulting in enhancing the experience of customers at the salons.

Considering no research has been conducted on beauty salons scale development, this study serves as the first empirical research effort.

The study attempted to gauge the relative effectiveness of celebrity and product image match-up in comparison to non-celebrity attractive endorsers for two distinct high involvement situations. Also, due to the expected demographic diversity among target consumers, the study aimed at assessing the impact of respondent's age and gender on the effectiveness of image match-up.

Building on the three-order hierarchy model, two experiments were conducted (utilising celebrity and non-celebrity endorsers) for two high involvement hierarchies, i.e. standard learning and dissonance/attribution. Through fictitious print advertisement, the experiments assessed the effectiveness of the match-up in terms of consumer attitudes towards advertisement and brand and intentions to purchase.

The match-up consistently and significantly outperformed non-celebrity attractive endorser in case of standard learning hierarchy. The same conclusion was not established for dissonance/attribution hierarchy due to the lack of significant results. The findings also suggest that the match-up subdues the impact of consumer's gender and age on consumer attitudes only in case of standard learning hierarchy.

The study provides interesting theoretical implication by challenging a widely held postulation about the applicability of celebrity and product match-up under high involvement.

The research provides the practitioners with a better understanding of important issues, mainly, whether to use a celebrity endorser and selecting the right celebrity, especially if high involvement is expected.

Previous research concerning celebrity endorsements has largely considered consumer involvement as unitary, i.e. either high or low. However, the multifaceted aspect of consumer involvement is well established in the field of consumer psychology. The present research, therefore, is a pioneering attempt as it studies the effectiveness of match-up for two distinct high involvement situations. Moreover, unlike the majority of previous studies that have focused on the performance of “celebrity match” versus “celebrity mismatch”, the impact of match-up was studied in comparison to a non-celebrity attractive endorser.

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and the associated economic lockdown provided a jolt to businesses around the world and the global economy. Amid the ongoing uncertainty, circumstances varied across business sectors and regions, but the common goal for business organizations was to respond effectively, devising strategies to survive the turmoil and accelerate recovery. The narrative in India was no different from the rest of the world. Due to the novelty of the event, literature regarding its impact on the strategic management of firms was scarce. Thus, this paper aims to attempt to ascertain the crisis impact on firms and subsequently unravel the tactical short-term and long-term strategic responses initiated by Indian firms.

The authors carried out an empirical investigation to comprehend the strategic foresight adopted by Indian firms. Following a structured literature review, the authors conducted semi-structured open-ended interviews with 28 business experts who were involved in drafting strategic responses for their respective firms. Subsequently, the authors performed a thematic content analysis of the expert interview responses to document firm-level strategic responses to the COVID-19 crisis and associated economic lockdown. The authors further searched reputed media articles to supplement and triangulate the primary research findings with management perspectives.

The authors identified that managers had adopted a dual approach responding to the disruption. Companies simultaneously focused on surviving the crisis in the short-term by reconfiguring existing resources and initiated long-term recovery by mobilizing efforts for a redesigned business model. The research findings indicated that companies had adapted to the dynamic chaotic crisis environment to fulfill the changed consumer expectations. Remote working was widely implemented, supply networks were adjusted, operations were managed with minimal resources, working capital was closely monitored and the product-portfolio was revamped to reap benefits in an essentials-only world. The impact of several strategic firm responses was determined through this study on the revenue, profitability, operational costs and regulatory adherence of the companies along with the ability to meet stakeholder expectations. The study suggested that companies encouraged innovative solutions and highlighted the importance of collaborative inter-organizational practices.

The study contributed to an inter-theoretical perspective on firm strategic initiatives to confront a global crisis. Resource-based view, dynamic capabilities perspective and industrial-organizational theory-based perspectives, were applied. This facilitated an extensive analysis of the entire business ecosystem to identify various paths to accelerated recovery during and post COVID-19 world.

The research findings would aid managers in drafting a comprehensive response strategy during and post COVID-19 world. This study results would help managers in addressing multiple concerns such as the sustainability of operations in the short-term through working capital management, the fulfillment of changing consumer needs through sustained innovation and business model alterations to ensure long term growth. The study enabled managers to prioritize necessary actions, ascertain the impact of strategic initiatives and build sustainable competitive advantage for long-term growth.

The novel coronavirus pandemic and the associated economic lockdown impacted firm strategies and this was one of the very first empirical studies regarding how firm-level short-term tactics and long-term strategies were getting reshaped. Traditionally, companies were prepared to handle localized disruptions but a crisis of such epic global proportions jeopardized most business. This study provided an extensive review of the short-term tactical and long-term strategic response perspectives adopted by Indian firms to absorb the impact of this unique crisis and expected recovery with renewed strength. This was one of the first research articles to provide an inter-theoretical perspective on the ongoing global pandemic. This integrated view of the possible impacts of firm-level strategic initiatives provided a detailed knowledge repository to design the crisis response capability of firms.

The purpose of this paper is to identify various dimensions of green quality. It integrates the existing carbon footprinting technique with the eight dimensions of quality proposed by Garvin (1984, 1987). Apart from extending these concepts, it also proposes two new dimensions – traceability and standardization which are not explicitly considered by the above two.

Conceptual theory building is used to develop a framework consisting of three interrelated propositions which explain the underlying dimensions of green quality and provide a better understanding of the same.

Similar to the eight dimensions of quality proposed by Garvin, the authors propose various dimensions of green quality and develop three propositions around these dimensions. This conceptual framework is developed by integrating the works of traditional quality (specifically Garvin’s eight dimensions), emergent literature on green products and their attributes, carbon footprinting from environmental economics discipline by summarizing their common elements and contrasting their differences.

This research is one of the first studies that explore the dimensions of green quality of a product. Apart from discovering and exploring inherent greenness in Garvin’s eight dimensions of quality, the authors also discuss about two new dimensions – traceability and standardization.