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Literature, spanning industrial organization and strategic management disciplines, uses variance decomposition to understand the relative importance of firm, industry and business group effects in shaping profitability variations. Some literature analyzes firm profitability under transition to liberalization. Previous research has taken a static before-and-after view on institutional change. This paper aims to focus on the dynamic process of liberalization in India, analyzing how different institutional regime changes alter firm behavior leading to changes in profitability patterns.

Based on a panel data set of several thousand Indian firms, spanning the 26-year period between 1980-1981 and 2005-2006, the authors determine the relative importance of firm, industry and business group effects in explaining manufacturing firms’ profitability variances across different institutional phases. The authors evaluate three propositions that help assess transition dynamics between phases. They determine the quantum of catch-up or falling behind by firms.

Different industries emerge as profitability leaders, as the economy progresses through different liberalization phases. Business groups that have been more effective in resource appropriation, rent-seeking, politician management and non-market activities in a controlled regime are replaced as profit leaders by those that, in a free-market economy, can be capable of intra-business resource allocation tasks and leveraging corporate capabilities.

The approach demonstrates how to analyze the underlying detailed structure of firm-level data, and performance outcomes, to derive nuanced interpretation of factors giving rise to the effects that explain profitability variances, and how to assess the way these effects behave over time. The dynamic evidence-based approach highlights what factors matter, where, when and why, in influencing profitability variances, which are a key dimension of industrial and economic performance.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the maintenance personnel with a methodology for modeling and estimating the reliability of critical machine systems using the historical data of their inter‐failure times.

The failure patterns of five different machine systems were modeled with NHPP‐log linear process and HPP belonging to stochastic point process for predicting their reliability in future time frames. Besides the classical approach, Bayesian approach was also used involving Jeffreys's invariant non‐informative independent priors to derive the posterior densities of the model parameters of NHPP‐LLP and HPP with a view to estimating the reliability of the machine systems in future time intervals.

For at least three machine systems, Bayesian approach gave lower reliability estimates and a larger number of (expected) failures than those obtained by the classical approach. Again, Bayesian estimates of the probability that “ROCOF (rate of occurrence of failures) would exceed its upper threshold limit” in future time frames were uniformly higher for these machine systems than those obtained with the classical approach.

This study indicated that, the Bayesian approach would give more realistic estimates of reliability (in future time frames) of the machine systems, which had dependent inter‐failure times. Such information would be helpful to the maintenance team for deciding on appropriate maintenance strategy.

With the help of Bayesian approach, the posterior densities of the model parameters were found analytically by considering Jeffreys's invariant non‐informative independent prior. The case study would serve to motivate the maintenance teams to model the failure patterns of the repairable systems making use of the historical data on inter‐failure times and estimating their reliability in future time frames.

Bangladesh is home to one of the world's leading ship breaking and recycling industries. Whilst these industries are booming in Bangladesh, it is not safe for workers or the environment. According to International Maritime Organization's (IMO) regulations, Bangladesh is lacking in a number of areas such as having a safe recycling plan and environmental protections reviewed by a competent authority. There is a need to develop safer working conditions, more stringent regulation and corporate responsibility programmes towards protecting human health and the environment. Possible solutions require stakeholders (industry, governments and the IMO) to work together in order to develop sustainable practice. This research contributes by taking a step forward by focussing on the implementation of sustainable practices in the supply chain of global shipping industries in a developing country. Using stakeholder theory, this research offers insight into the need and barriers to implementing social sustainable initiatives.

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of competitor entry on efficiency outcome in two‐sided network context.

The context is the population of incumbent firms making up the local exchange segment of the telecommunications industry in the US over a 14‐year period from 1988 to 2001.

The results show that encouraging the entry of competitors had led quite substantially to the enhancement of efficiencies for the incumbent firms.

A policy conclusion would be to enhance the incentives for new firms to enter two‐sided markets and also suppress anti‐competitive behavior by incumbents in such contexts with a firm hand so as to enhance efficiency levels.

This is a comprehensive analysis of policy changes in one of the world's largest telecommunications markets and the results have applicability across several other country contexts.

This study aims to examine competitive entry in the presence of cross‐subsidization of firms in the telecommunications industry.

How variations in cross‐subsidies, received via the separations mechanism, influence firms to enter the territories of incumbents is assessed for the population of local exchange firms in the USA.

Firms able to obtain greater cross‐subsidies, on average, experience less entry within their territories. Competition has evolved considerably in the telecommunications industry in the last two decades.

These results point to the need for evaluating cross‐subsidies, where these may still exist, so as to encourage entry.

This article is the first to look at the consequences of an important regulatory phenomenon and its impact on competition. The results at the confluence of regulation and competition policies have potential applications across the world.

In the present knowledge economy, intellectual capital (IC) is regarded as one of the significant determinants of efficiency, profitability, and ultimately value of a firm. This chapter empirically investigates the ramifications of the IC on the level of efficiency of the firm. In addition, exploration of the changing dynamics in the relationship between IC and firm level efficiency in the face of global economic crisis is of special interest of this chapter. In attaining the objectives of the study, a comprehensive database of 299 manufacturing firms (chosen randomly from a stratification of six BSE manufacturing industry subsectors) were utilized during the period from 1999–2000 to 2013–2014. Firm level efficiency scores and implications of IC (as measured by employing Pulic's Value Added Intellectual Capital Model) on the level of efficiency of the firms were examined simultaneously using Stochastic Frontier Analysis. Empirical results revealed that IC significantly determines the efficiency of the manufacturing firms during the period of study. However, the impact of financial crisis was not robust in changing the synergy between efficiency and IC. Size, age, and leverage were also found to be significant determinants of efficiency during the period of study.

This paper aims to implement a novel design of approximate comparator which can be suitable for image processing applications.

Here, the N-bit approximate comparator is implemented by taking reference of N as 2-, 4- and 8-bit. The design analyses the fractional change in error to bit in several bit formats. The final implementation of approximate comparator design application compares the structural similarity index, colour test and extraction of an image to the results.

The novel approximate comparator was designed using 2-, 4- and 8-bit to explore N-bit comparator expressions. The implementation, computations, evaluation of errors, applications and the design constraints were executed using Python and Synopsys, respectively. The computations, evaluation of errors, applications and the design constraints were executed using Python and Synopsys, respectively.

This paper presents the N-bit accurate and approximate comparator which is novel over the existing design of comparators.

This paper presents the outcome of research related to application of formal rules and standard procedures in EAsʼ procurement of goods and services for foreign aid-funded projects. Executing agencies are entrusted to implement foreign aid-funded projects on behalf of respective governments and they are required to satisfy a combination of rules of their multiple principals, mainly donor organizations and respective government ministries. The theoretical framework of this study is guided by agency theory. The findings indicate that the processing of procurement related information and awarding contracts by the executing agencies in the context of Bangladesh is heavily dependent on the informal working systems or “unwritten ground rules”. These are driven by downward hierarchical verbal and non-verbal instructions. The study has adopted a qualitative method following a grounded theory approach.

The present paper proposes a theoretical analysis of the stability characteristics of a Jeffcott rotor‐hybrid bearing system. It is intended that on the basis of the numerical results drawn from this study, appropriate recess depth, land size, orifice location and speed parameter for stable operation can be determined for use in the bearing design process.

A Jeffcott rotor supported by hybrid oil film bearings with dual‐row recesses and orifice‐ compensated restrictors is studied. In order to facilitate the calculation of film dynamics, using the perturbation method, the Reynolds equation was linearized and subsequently solved using finite difference techniques, whilst the stability maps were determined by the Routh‐Hurwitz method.

The data reported here suggest that the stability characteristics of the Jeffcott rotor‐bearing system could be improved by the use of shallow, dual‐recessed hybrid bearings with orifice compensation. In addition to greater eccentricity ratios, smaller land‐width ratios and greater shaft stiffness may also provide shallow‐recessed bearings with better stability. In all cases, the stability provided by upstream orifice‐sited bearings is better than that provided by center orifice‐sited bearings, whilst high‐speed parameters may also provide a greater stability threshold.

This study proposes an extensive database as a critical requirement in the design of hybrid bearings, in order to ensure that a rotor bearing system is operating stably.