Mueen Ahmed and Sankalp Pratap
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the motivation for firms in emerging economies to engage in constraint absorption. It illustrates the mechanisms that enable business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the motivation for firms in emerging economies to engage in constraint absorption. It illustrates the mechanisms that enable business group (BG) affiliated firms to manage interdependencies vis-à-vis standalone firms in emerging economies.
Design/methodology/approach
The propositions outlined in this study are rooted in the theoretical lens of resource dependence theory (RDT). The authors integrate RDT with the resource-based view and institutional theory to explain the effect of BG affiliation on the relationship between the two types of interdependence (i.e. mutual dependence and power imbalance) and the likelihood of constraint absorption.
Findings
This paper theorizes that BG affiliation influences the relationship between mutual dependence/power imbalance and the likelihood of constraint absorption. However, if both the firms in a dyad are affiliated to a BG, the likelihood of constraint absorption is likely to be low owing to a process called “co-optation” even if mutual dependence or power imbalance between the firms is high.
Originality/value
This paper highlights how BG affiliated firms are better at managing contingencies in the external environment vis-à-vis standalone firms. This paper also advises managers that the type of organizational form is an important factor to be considered while engaging in constraint absorption in an emerging economy.
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Divya Sharma, Agam Gupta, Arqum Mateen and Sankalp Pratap
Google commands approximately 70 per cent of search market share worldwide, resulting in businesses investing heavily in search engine advertising on Google to target potential…
Abstract
Purpose
Google commands approximately 70 per cent of search market share worldwide, resulting in businesses investing heavily in search engine advertising on Google to target potential customers. Recently, Google changed the way in which content and ads were displayed on the search engine results page. This reshuffling of content and ads is expected to affect the advertisers who advertise on Google and/or use it to drive traffic to their websites. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of these changes on various stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
Data have been collected from various sources on the internet including blogs and discussion forums. Netnography has been used as it allows a detailed evaluation of the consumers’ needs, wants and choices in a virtual space.
Findings
The average cost-per-click for ads on the top positions is expected to increase. Advertisers whose ads usually occupy the lower positions would be adversely affected. To counter this, more emphasis should be placed on ad extensions and on product listing ads. In addition, organizations would benefit from increased efforts on search engine optimization.
Practical implications
A variety of coping strategies have been developed that can help marketers to successfully navigate through the change, including the use of ad extensions and the use of product listing ads.
Originality/value
This practice-focused paper offers guidelines for digital marketers to use sponsored search more effectively as part of their arsenal in light of some important changes recently made by Google. The potential of netnography as a research methodology has also been expanded by using it in a novel setting and in drawing up actionable insights.
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Abstract
Subject area
Strategic Management.
Study level/applicability
The case is designed for a) MBA students b) Short-duration executive MBA courses.
Case overview
The case refers to India’s leading steel company Tata Steel. Tata Tiscon, the steel rebar brand, is the organization’s leading retail brand. The case chronicles the period between the birth of the retail brand in the year 2000, its dramatic rise and dominance, to the end of 2013 when some of its initiatives had failed. Tata Tiscon was established as a pan Indian brand on the dint of a distribution network comprising 33 distributors and over 2000 retailers, many of them exclusive to the brand. The brand spawned a series of innovation in the category like “selling by piece”, fixed price concept and “free” home delivery. Together with its channel partners, the company achieved dramatic success which was reflected in its leading market share coupled with significant price premium in a category where price had traditionally being the only selling pitch. After 2010, the company saw an emerging challenge in the form of a new business model, where some companies were gearing to provide the complete portfolio of construction material including cement, steel, etc., and a turnkey construction solution for house builders. Tata Tiscon responded by attempting to enter the service space by launching a building design solution and later a construction supervision solution. Both of these initiatives failed. The protagonist of the case is Mr Keshav Viswanath (Chief of Marketing for retail business at Tata Steel), who is concerned with the failures of these key initiatives and is wondering how to ensure the “leader” status of Tata Tiscon in coming years.
Expected earning outcomes
The students are expected to understand how a core strategy like differentiation is implemented successfully in “practice”; understand the exploitation–exploration dichotomy in an organization; appreciate difference between radical innovation (based on new organizational routines, new business partners and new relationships) and incremental innovation based on fine tuning of existing organizational routines and relationships.
Supplementary materials
Rebar production: www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6n9sci8j-8; Tata TISCON AV: www.youtube.com/watch?v=89kOUsbnaYQ; TQM – The Toyota Way: www.youstube.com/watch?v=qf3gdrIMxRw; Disruptive vs. Incremental Innovation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOOL_GiaLTo; Approach to innovation is dead wrong: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pii8tTx1UYM
Subject code
CSS 11: Strategy.
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Hari Sreekumar and Sankalp Pratap
The purpose of this paper is to provide an advertising history of Tata Steel from its inception in 1907 to 2007 when it completed 100 years of operation. The authors use…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an advertising history of Tata Steel from its inception in 1907 to 2007 when it completed 100 years of operation. The authors use postcolonial theory to highlight the intertwining of advertising with the broader project of anticolonial resistance and postcolonial nation-building.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a visual analysis of a compilation of advertisements published by Tata Steel to commemorate 100 years of its existence, spanning the years from 1907 to 2007. They also used ads and posters available on the website of the Tata Steel Archives. Published work on Tata Steel such as books and papers provided contextualization.
Findings
Advertising creatives, through selective deployment of anticolonial discourses, manage the contradictory pulls of emergent nationalism on the one hand and the pragmatic need to work with the colonial administration on the other. However, such a negotiation leads to moments of slippage, where advertising reinforces colonial tropes. At a broader level, the authors suggest that despite attempts to draw on subversive discourses of resistance used by nationalists, Tata Steel’s advertising is inescapably intertwined with the larger matrix of colonial and capitalist power.
Originality/value
This study contributes to a non-Western perspective on advertising history. Further, it provides understanding of the marketing activities of a large corporation, which straddles the colonial and postcolonial era of India, an important economy.
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The aim of this paper is to go beyond the “What to outsource” and “To Outsource or Not” debate. Recognizing outsourcing as a fast growing reality that firms have to depend upon…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to go beyond the “What to outsource” and “To Outsource or Not” debate. Recognizing outsourcing as a fast growing reality that firms have to depend upon, the paper concerns itself with optimal management of outsourcing arrangements through the practice of “outsourcing capability”. It argues that outsourcing failure can be mitigated if organizations see outsourcing as an “ongoing activity” to be managed as opposed to treating it as a one-time opportunistic “act”.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the review of existing literature and drawing upon recent instances of outsourcing successes and failures, the paper develops a conceptual framework which divides various organizational processes into four different classes. It delineates the varied aspects of “outsourcing capability” that a firm would need to use to manage these varied class of processes as and when they are outsourced.
Findings
There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to managing outsourced processes. Different processes require emphasis on different aspect of outsourcing capability if outsourcing is to deliver the envisaged benefits.
Originality/value
The traditional focus in outsourcing literature has been on the core/non-core process with the recommendation to keep core processes in-house and outsource the non-core processes. This distinction can be transitory and hence detrimental in the era of hyper-competition. I argue that firms should instead focus on developing and refining aspects of “outsourcing capability” relevant to the varied class of processes that they wish/need to outsource.
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Sankalp Pratap, Agam Gupta, Arqum Mateen and Kavita Mahto
– The purpose of this paper is to extend the understanding the role of consumer experiences, instantiated through gift giving and game play, in communication of brand values.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend the understanding the role of consumer experiences, instantiated through gift giving and game play, in communication of brand values.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on in-depth phenomenological interviews of marketing managers and various channel intermediaries involved in the execution of a mass brand promotion program in rural India.
Findings
The study reveals the employment of innovative game designs and gift choices, their design rooted deep in the village populace’s context and life experiences. It shows how the consumer’s experience created through games and gifts shapes their perceptions about the brand leading to favorable consideration and purchase outcomes for it.
Research limitations/implications
This work is derived primarily from practice. It is hoped that industry practitioners will benefit from this stream of research and will use games and gifts in innovative ways to engage customers and create brand experiences.
Originality/value
This is one of the first works to highlight the importance of games and gifts in experiential marketing literature. It brings into focus one of the largely unexplored facets of customer engagement in rural India.