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India ranks third in the global startup ecosystem in the world incubating more than 50,000 startups and witnessing 15% YoY growth per year. Being a center of innovation and skilled labor, Indian startups have attracted investments from all over the world. This paper aims at exploring the trends that are driving the growth in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Top 200 startups according to valuation are selected as a sample to find out the major trends in the Indian startup ecosystem. This paper includes surveying the sample startups about the implementation of trends such as big data, crowdfunding and shared economy in their startup and its tangible, as well as intangible impacts on their business. The result of the survey is analyzed to get an overview of the emerging trends in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Major ten emerging trends that drive growth in the Indian startup ecosystem are discovered and the areas where these trends can be leveraged are identified.

This research has contributed toward structuring and documenting the growth driving trends, and it will help the budding entrepreneurs to get familiar with the contemporary trends, pros and cons associated with it and the ways to leverage these trends to build a successful startup.

With the current pandemic situation, the world is shifting to online buying and therefore the purpose of this study is to understand how the industry can improve sales based on the product recommendations shown on their online platforms.

This paper has studied content-based filtering using decision trees algorithm and collaborative filtering using K-nearest neighbour algorithm and measured their impact on sales of product of different genres on e-commerce websites and if their recommendation causes a difference in sales.This paper has conducted a field experiment to analyse the customer frequency, change in sales caused by different algorithms and also tried analysing the change in buying preferences of customers in post-pandemic situation and how this paper can improve on the search results by incorporating them in the already used algorithms.

This study indicates that different algorithms cause differences in sales and score over each other depending upon the category of the product sold. It also suggests that post-Covid, the buying frequency and the preferences of consumers have changed significantly.

The study is limited to existing users of these sites, it also requires the sites to have a huge database of active users and products. Also, the preferences and likings of Indian subcontinent might not generally apply everywhere else.

This study enables better insight into consumer behaviour, thus enabling the data scientists to design better algorithms and help the companies improve their product sales.

Digital transformation is the way forward for all businesses. The technology is advancing at a rapid pace and the companies need to adapt to the change, not just to take advantage of the enormous opportunities it provides but even to stay relevant in this volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity world. This study aims to define the concept of digital transformation and what it means in today’s business scenario. It helps to understand the different stages of digital maturity, identify the barriers in adopting different technologies and provide solutions to overcome those challenges.

This is a qualitative study in which opinions of the digital transformation experts were collected using a qualitative questionnaire. Natural language processing (NLP) and text mining techniques were applied along with a thorough analysis of the text to generate the results.

The study was able to uncover – what it means to be digitally transformed, different challenges an organization faces during the digital transformation journey and their potential solutions.

The existing literature on the topic is scattered and does not provide a roadmap for a company to adopt digital transformation. This study aims to fill up the gap and cover various aspects of the whole transformation process. The uniqueness of the study lies in the use of NLP techniques to perform text analytics on the data.

This paper seeks to focus on the TQM journey of MilkFed, a major milk‐producing cooperative in the state of Punjab in Northern India. It aims to demonstrate how TQM principles have been used to create an organisation‐wide environment of continuous improvement in a cooperative sector organisation that spread into tradition and ways of doing business in spite of facing numerous challenges.

MilkFed hired Punjab Technical University's School of TQM and Entrepreneurship (PGSTE) to create an organisation‐wide system of continuous improvement. PGSTE consultants prepared a road‐map for TQM implementation. In the first phase, 14 teams comprising 76 senior/middle level executives (one team from each of Milkfed's 14 plants/units) were trained in the structured application of TQM principles and the project‐by‐project improvement through a series of workshops. Each team implemented an improvement project, which was facilitated by the consultants.

MilkFed has saved USD 0.89 million per annum which amounted to more than 25 per cent of its net profit. There is a tremendous scope for multiplying the gains through horizontal deployment of learning across various plants and units. Intangible benefits included transformation in attitude of employees, creation of team culture, breakdown of departmental silos and tremendous improvement in labour‐management relations.

The paper demonstrates that the project‐by‐project approach used in conjunction with the basic 7 QC tools is an excellent approach for building a culture of continuous improvement. It has many important lessons for organisations, which are starting their quality improvement journey.

This case studies the growth of OYO Hotels (OYO) to illustrate the operational processes necessary to succeed in the service sector. The case allows for a discussion of employee- and customer-management systems, tech-driven solutions, and profit drivers. The material unfolds OYO's growth and its solution for making economy hotels discoverable and bookable online.

The case raises a series of questions around OYO's business model, its ability to translate across global markets, and growth potential. It has been successfully taught in a second-year MBA class on the management of service operations.

After completing this case study, students will be able to understand the issues firms, brands and influencers face due to sponsorship disclosure regulation and the impact of self-regulation on firms engaging in influencer marketing, explain the challenges regulators face in ensuring compliance in an emerging market, explain Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI)’s challenges in adopting influencer guidelines from emerged markets and recommend ethical theory (or theories) and strategies to firms engaged in influencer marketing.

This case study centers on Mr Manish Chowdhary, co-founder of WOW Skin Science, who started the beauty and personal care business with his brother Karan Chowdhary in 2015 in Bangalore, India. The company successfully built its brand through influencer marketing but faced challenges after the ASCI implemented new influencer guidelines. On May 31, 2021, he expressed disagreement with ASCI guidelines during an interview with Akansha Nagar from Buzz in Content, particularly the requirement to label every product or service received by influencers as an advertisement. He expressed concern about certain rules, fearing they might harm organic content and reduce viewership and followers. Subsequently, ASCI registered noncompliance cases against the company and communicated with them about complaints regarding influencer guideline violations. In this situation, Manish needed to evaluate his decision on noncompliance with regulation and required an action plan to strategically manage its influencer marketing campaign by incorporating ASCI’s guidelines. Overall, this case study highlights the journey of WOW Skin Science and its challenges with self-regulatory authorities over its influencer marketing strategy in an emerging market. Additionally, students can gain insight into the marketing communication ethics of a startup operating in an emerging market by embodying the protagonist’s role.

This case study is suitable for postgraduate level students pursuing a Master of Business Administration program. The difficulty level ranges from moderate to complex. It fits well into integrated marketing communication and marketing strategy courses. This case study discusses marketing ethics, advertising and promotion regulation.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

This study aims to examine the effect of dataveillance on resistance towards online payment. Using a moderated-mediation framework, the study also investigates the mediating effects of perceived privacy and security concerns and how these mediating effects are moderated by corporate credibility, consumer scepticism and consumer empowerment.

A scenario-based experimental design was performed to examine the proposed hypotheses. Analysis of covariance and PROCESS macro were used to examine the hypotheses by analysing 312 collected responses.

The results indicated the dataveillance positively affects consumer resistance towards online payment. The results also suggested that corporate credibility and consumer scepticism significantly moderates the association between dataveillance and resistance towards online payment.

The findings of this study will help online retailers to reduce consumers’ perceived privacy and security concerns, thereby reducing consumers’ resistance towards online payment.

Theoretically, the study contributes to privacy, consumer behaviour, online payment and cognitive-motivational-relational theory literature.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce learners to a successful Agri-start-up where they can explore the existing challenges and critical strategic decisions for the firm’s growth.

Shashank, the CEO and co-founder of an agriculture-based Indian start-up Green Agrevolution Pvt Ltd (GAPL), is planning to reach out to more than one million farmers by 2021-2022, which is more than 20 times of the present volume. His team is presently serving around 42,000 farmers with a home-grown technological platform DeHaat which provides end–to-end services right from seed to the market. Micro-entrepreneurs are selected and groomed to act as local touchpoints for farmers in the respective catchment areas ranging from 3 to 5 km. Shashank has been a recipient of multiple accolades and recognition and is now firmly seated to drive his start-up to the next level of growth and pan-India market penetration. The venture also requires an understanding of segment-specific needs, cropping pattern, using local resources and channelizing the advisory services to occupy a central role in the value chain. There are other impending issues such as low smartphone adoption, low internet access and lack of entrepreneurial mindset among the rural youth. Similar issues were relatively backward states of India with little or no provision of app-based services. Will he be successful to expand on such a high pace in other States with the existing resources and capabilities?

Senior undergraduate and Master's level business students

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 11: Strategy

With the rapid rise in the number of start-ups, corporate social responsibility (CSR) can principally contribute to the nation’s socioeconomic development, making it more critical. This study aims to explore the effect of sustainability practices on a firm’s performance with competitive advantage (CA) and innovation (INN) as the mediating variable.

An exhaustive literature review was done to identify the constructs relationship for this study, and a questionnaire was used to gather the data from the start-up owners. In total, 400 samples were received, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for testing and validating the proposed hypotheses.

CSR and financial performance (FP) have a significant relationship. According to this study’s findings, innovation and CA substantially mediate the relationship between a firm’s FP and CSR. This study will highlight how CSR practices stimulate organizational creativity, problem-solving and strategic thinking. It will also demonstrate how CSR can foster a culture of innovation that generates long-term value and positively impacts FP.

It will aid in improving the knowledge of start-up owners that CSR is more than just pure altruism or philanthropy; instead, it must be promoted strategically as an investment that boosts productivity and creativity while also bringing overall financial benefits to the company. It will ultimately enhance the start-ups’ ability to improve the economy and society. Furthermore, this study holds the potential to inform policy discussions and recommendations for fostering responsible business practices in the Indian start-up ecosystem. Policymakers can benefit from insights into how regulations and incentives can be designed to encourage start-ups to adopt CSR practices that not only fulfill legal obligations but also contribute to their CA and FP.

This study provides empirical validity to establish linkages between sustainability measures on the FP concerning start-ups that were not considered in the prior studies. Identifying the current conceptual framework and CA and Innovation as the two major factors influencing CSR in Indian enterprises is a novel contribution. This study aims to fill the research gap. By unravelling the intricate dynamics between CSR, FP and CA, the research contributes to the understanding of how start-ups can navigate the complex interplay of social responsibility and business success in the Indian context.