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This case study will allow students to learn about effective segmentation and how to choose an appropriate segment, analyse the attractiveness of the target market by using five-forces analysis and explore business growth alternatives by using Ansoff’s growth matrix.

The Left-Out Store was an online shop that sold products exclusively for left-handers. Maitri Wadher, the proprietor of the store, being a left-handed person and driven by her childhood experiences, started the store to help left-handed people find products for their use. She started the online-only store in September 2018, and in October 2022, she found that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic having abated, her store had not grown as expected. How, then, should she push for growth? Was the niche segment substantial enough? Was her target market attractive? Should she penetrate the market or go for market development? What should she do?

PG level (MBA/PGDM).

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The proliferation of the internet has enabled over-the-top (OTT) media to spread rapidly. It is now at the threshold of creating a huge social impact. However, there have been no studies so far that have examined the impact of OTT media on society, family and individuals. This study proposes to investigate the same and discover its impact on the family, society and whether it has any effect on individuals' career or education and one's health.

Path analysis was used to investigate the patterns of the effect of OTT on the family and society. This method was chosen since it allows to examine the influences within a system of variables and gain insights into the OTT media's impact. The responses were collected through an online questionnaire.

The paper provides empirical insights into the impact of OTT media. It reveals some interesting and crucial insights on its influence.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results do not establish any causal relationships. Since the survey was conducted during the pandemic, further research during “normal” time is suggested.

The paper discloses the powerful and growing OTT media's significance.

With watching OTT emerging very rapidly as a powerful channel of entertainment, what people see is very important. Hence, the purpose of this empirical study to investigate the influence of OTT media on individual, family and society is crucial and topical.

This paper fulfils an identified need to understand OTT media's influence.

The Denial of Service (DoS) attack is a category of intrusion that devours various services and resources of the organization by the dispersal of unusable traffic, so that reliable users are not capable of getting benefit from the services. In general, the DoS attackers preserve their independence by collaborating several victim machines and following authentic network traffic, which makes it more complex to detect the attack. Thus, these issues and demerits faced by existing DoS attack recognition schemes in cloud are specified as a major challenge to inventing a new attack recognition method.

This paper aims to detect DoS attack detection scheme, termed as sine cosine anti coronavirus optimization (SCACVO)-driven deep maxout network (DMN). The recorded log file is considered in this method for the attack detection process. Significant features are chosen based on Pearson correlation in the feature selection phase. The over sampling scheme is applied in the data augmentation phase, and then the attack detection is done using DMN. The DMN is trained by the SCACVO algorithm, which is formed by combining sine cosine optimization and anti-corona virus optimization techniques.

The SCACVO-based DMN offers maximum testing accuracy, true positive rate and true negative rate of 0.9412, 0.9541 and 0.9178, respectively.

The DoS attack detection using the proposed model is accurate and improves the effectiveness of the detection.

The purpose of this paper is to adopt the multi-objective optimization technique for identifying a set of optimum abrasive water jet machining (AWJM) parameters to achieve maximum material removal rate (MRR) and minimum surface roughness.

Data of a few experiments as per the Taguchi’s orthogonal array are considered for achieving maximum MRR and minimum surface roughness (Ra) of the Inconel718. Analysis of variance is performed to understand the statistical significance of AWJM input process parameters.

Empirical relations are developed for MRR and Ra in terms of the AWJM process parameters and demonstrated their adequacy through comparison of test results.

The signal-to-noise ratio transformation should be applied to take in to account the scatter in the repetition of tests in each test run. But, many researchers have adopted this transformation on a single output response of each test run, which has no added advantage other than additional computational task. This paper explains the impact of insignificant process parameter in selection of optimal process parameters. This paper demands drawbacks and complexity in existing theories prior to use new algorithms.

Taguchi approach is quite simple and easy to handle optimization problems, which has no practical implications (if it handles properly). There is no necessity to hunt for new algorithms for obtaining solution for multi-objective optimization AWJM process.

This paper deals with a case study, which demonstrates the simplicity of the Taguchi approach in solving multi-objective optimization problems with a few number of experiments.

The purpose of the paper is to assess whether the dysfunctional structure of the Indian mobile communications sector has been improved by a large number of spectrum auctions during the period 2010-2016.

This paper provides a case study of developments in the Indian mobile communications sector primarily during the period 2010-2016. This period has witnessed a large number of spectrum auctions, the results of which are presented and analysed. The particular focus is upon the consequences of these auctions for the structure of the sector which began the period in what can best be described as a dysfunctional state.

The paper concludes that only limited progress has so far been made in improving the structure of the sector. This is due to factors such as political interference, delays in completing merger & acquisition (M&A) activity, badly organised auctions, a scarcity of the right amount of spectrum in the right places and a regional structure that inhibits operators from providing a nationwide presence.

The paper concludes that considerable progress still needs to be made: For example, political interference needs to be harmonised, auction prices need to become market-clearing and M&A activity needs to come to fruition.

The existing analysis of the sector has paid only limited attention to the significance of auctions for the structure of the sector, and this paper provides an analysis of all auctions and M&A activity virtually to the end of 2016, making it unusually up-to-date.

The Ba River catchment and delta on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji, supports a wealth of livelihoods and is populated by diverse communities who are living with an increased frequency and intensity of hydro-meteorological hazards (floods, cyclones and droughts). Participatory mapping as part of focus group discussions is a tool that can be used to elucidate communities’ understanding of the differing impacts of multiple hazards, as well as the strategies used to prepare and respond to different hazards. In this chapter, the authors present the results of qualitative research undertaken with members of three communities along the Ba River, from the Nausori highlands to the coastal mangroves, with a particular focus on recent floods (2009, 2012) and Tropical Cyclone Winston (2016). The communities draw on a wide range of livelihood strategies from fishing and agriculture to tourism and outside work. Natural hazard events vary in their impact on these livelihood strategies across the landscape and seascape, so that community members can adjust their activities accordingly. The temporal ‘signatures’ of ongoing impacts are also variable across communities and resources. The results suggest that taking a broad, landscape (and seascape) approach to understanding how communities draw livelihoods is valuable in informing effective and inclusive adaptation strategies for environmental change. Furthermore, documenting how the landscape is used in a mapped output may be a valuable tool for future social impact assessment for resource extraction activities.

The purpose of this paper is to use a dynamic model to investigate capital structure determinants for 178 firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the period 1998‐2008. The sample of firms is also used to examine the cost and speed of adjustment towards a target debt ratio.

A target adjustment model is estimated using a generalized method of moments technique to examine the cost and speed of adjustment towards a target debt ratio. The determinants of target capital structure for South African listed firms are also examined.

The results show that South African firms adjust relatively fast towards a target leverage level. It is also found that asset tangibility, growth, size and risk are positively related to leverage, while profitability and tax are negatively related to leverage. The results also suggest that capital structure decisions of South African listed firms follow both the pecking order and trade‐off theories of capital structure.

The sample chosen focused on listed firms, thus the results cannot credibly be generalized to all South African firms (listed and unlisted). Also, whilst a lot can be gleaned from the results, they may not be readily applicable to firms in other African countries.

The issue of dynamic adjustment towards a target or optimal debt ratio has not received sufficient attention in developing economies. Using data from an emerging economy, this paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature. A target adjustment model is estimated using a generalized method of moments technique.

The purpose of this paper is to benchmark the Indian mobile telecommunication service providers for relative efficiencies. In this paper, a method for benchmarking performance of mobile telecom utilities based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) is presented. The paper discusses some concepts between quality performance and benchmarking and the results include performance efficiency and sensitivity‐based classification of utilities. Also, peer‐to‐peer comparison of inefficient with efficient utilities is provided. Based on these results, inefficient utilities can develop strategic plans to improve performance.

The authors use DEA to measure comparative efficiencies of mobile telecom companies and two different DEA models, CCR and BCC, were applied to evaluate the relative efficiency of mobile telecom operators in India. Sensitivity‐based classification of utilities is carried out by removing one or more inputs or outputs from the base model to construct a new DEA model. Comparisons of DEA efficiencies from the base model with the structurally perturbed models show the impact on efficiency. Data include annual and quarterly reports showing various quality parameters.

DEA is used to derive the benchmarks based on the comparison of the 126 utilities which include public sector undertaking (PSU) operators (MTNL and BSNL) and private operators of the Indian mobile telecommunication sector. The result includes performance efficiency and peer‐to‐peer comparison of inefficient utilities with efficient utilities. Based on these results, inefficient utilities can develop strategic plans to improve their performance. Sensitivity analysis, based on removal of one or more variables from the base model to determine changes in DEA efficiencies is done for selecting the strength of parameters of utilities for performance improvement.

Benchmarking of service utilities in the telecom sector is virtually non‐existent at the national level in India. This research identifies the different variables and then a model is prepared for benchmarking of the service providers in India. Based on the efficiency analysis, benchmarks can be set, and utility efficiency scores can be obtained based on the set benchmarks. These scores can help develop a strategic plan for mitigating the factors that contribute to the system inefficiencies.

This paper is one of the few published studies that benchmark the performance of mobile telecom services in India. This research promises to be amongst the first of the works carried out taking specific parameters of mobile telecom utilities of India.