Shekhar Kumar Sinha, Sandip Mukhopadhyay, Parijat Upadhyay, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Subhajit Bhattacharyya, Manas Paul and Amrita K. Bhattacharyy
Legacy organizations, particularly government departments, have always remained focused on technology acquisition at a low cost. However, they must balance their quest for better…
Abstract
Purpose
Legacy organizations, particularly government departments, have always remained focused on technology acquisition at a low cost. However, they must balance their quest for better financial performance with a commitment to social obligations and inclusiveness. This study aims to analyze the issues faced by a public sector department, India Post, in its digitization process.
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes a case-based approach to analyze India Post’s digitization journey through the theoretical prism of the technology, organization and environment framework.
Findings
The organization’s ability to benefit from innovative technology is constrained by its outdated structure and business processes. The other constraints include the limited technological know-how within the organization and the lack of intricate organizational process knowledge of today’s vendors.
Practical implications
This study portends important implications for policymakers and provides a base for several inquiries for future research. This study attempted to identify the facilitators and inhibitors of digitization initiatives of a legacy government organization with extensive outreach in rural economy which policymakers can consider while rolling out digitization initiatives for public sector organizations.
Originality/value
There are very few studies available as published literature which examined the digitization journey of a legacy government organization in a developing economy. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there was no published literature available on India Post’s digital transformation process.
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Suneel Kumar, Shekhar, Marco Valeri and Geetanjali Sageena
Sanjit Kumar Roy, Vaibhav Shekhar, Ali Quazi and Mohammed Quaddus
The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of service convenience in the relationship between organizational characteristics (such as brand equity, store ambiance, store…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of service convenience in the relationship between organizational characteristics (such as brand equity, store ambiance, store layout, customer information and employee responsiveness) on customer engagement behaviors (CEBs), including service improvement, customer cooperation, positive word-of-mouth and customer helping customers. It examines two research models, with service convenience as a separate antecedent of CEBs (model A) and as a mediating variable between organizational characteristics and CEBs (model B).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a positivist paradigm, data were collected from 384 respondents representing the existing customers of grocery retailers based in India via a survey instrument. Data were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling.
Findings
Results demonstrate service convenience as a motivational driver of CEBs. Results also show that the organizational characteristics significantly influence service convenience which in turn impacts CEBs.
Practical implications
The findings have important implications for store managers in effective management of customers' time and effort in terms of saving customers' time and effort as well as motivating customers to elicit their engagement behaviors.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in identifying the impact of organizational characteristics in helping customers to save time and effort in their shopping activities and thereby elicit various types of CEBs. The paper also adds to knowledge by examining the role of service convenience in the nexus between organizational characteristics and CEB types.
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Service quality is a perceptual construct that is likely to differ across industries, customer segments and markets. The purpose of this paper is to explore the construct of…
Abstract
Purpose
Service quality is a perceptual construct that is likely to differ across industries, customer segments and markets. The purpose of this paper is to explore the construct of retail service quality in the Indian context, and identifies quality components as a precursor to developing a quality measure.
Design/methodology/approach
Initially, the construct comprehension was done using exploratory research involving customer depth probes and juxtaposing it with the available literature. After defining the broad contours of retail service quality and surface considerations, the study attempted to discover retail service quality dimensions by factor analyzing the collected data.
Findings
It was found that retail service quality construct is composed of seven critical dimensions – ambience and layout, salespeople, merchandise, convenience, services, prices and customer care.
Research limitations/implications
The specific quality component structure found in this study highlights the need for managers to prioritise their retail operation and marketing efforts in sync with the uncovered quality dimensions.
Originality/value
This paper explored the quality phenomenon in the Indian retail context using a bottom-up approach. This paper provides the much-needed insights to firms that are entering the Indian market on what the quality means and the components it is made up of.
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Shekhar Srivastava, Rajiv Kumar Garg, Vishal S. Sharma, Noe Gaudencio Alba-Baena, Anish Sachdeva, Ramesh Chand and Sehijpal Singh
This paper aims to present a systematic approach in the literature survey related to metal additive manufacturing (AM) processes and its multi-physics continuum modelling approach…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a systematic approach in the literature survey related to metal additive manufacturing (AM) processes and its multi-physics continuum modelling approach for its better understanding.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of the literature available in the area of continuum modelling practices adopted for the powder bed fusion (PBF) AM processes for the deposition of powder layer over the substrate along with quantification of residual stress and distortion. Discrete element method (DEM) and finite element method (FEM) approaches have been reviewed for the deposition of powder layer and thermo-mechanical modelling, respectively. Further, thermo-mechanical modelling adopted for the PBF AM process have been discussed in detail with its constituents. Finally, on the basis of prediction through thermo-mechanical models and experimental validation, distortion mitigation/minimisation techniques applied in PBF AM processes have been reviewed to provide a future direction in the field.
Findings
The findings of this paper are the future directions for the implementation and modification of the continuum modelling approaches applied to PBF AM processes. On the basis of the extensive review in the domain, gaps are recommended for future work for the betterment of modelling approach.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is limited to review only the modelling approach adopted by the PBF AM processes, i.e. modelling techniques (DEM approach) used for the deposition of powder layer and macro-models at process scale for the prediction of residual stress and distortion in the component. Modelling of microstructure and grain growth has not been included in this paper.
Originality/value
This paper presents an extensive review of the FEM approach adopted for the prediction of residual stress and distortion in the PBF AM processes which sets the platform for the development of distortion mitigation techniques. An extensive review of distortion mitigation techniques has been presented in the last section of the paper, which has not been reviewed yet.
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Minakshi Sharma, Rajneesh Kumar and Anurag Jain
During high demand for the virtualized resources in cloud environment, efficient task scheduling achieves the desired performance criteria by balancing the load in the system.
Abstract
Purpose
During high demand for the virtualized resources in cloud environment, efficient task scheduling achieves the desired performance criteria by balancing the load in the system.
Design/methodology/approach
It is a task scheduling approach used for load balancing in cloud environment. Task scheduling in such an environment is used for the task execution on a suitable resource by considering some parameters and constraints to achieve performance.
Findings
The presented mechanism is an extension of the previous proposed work quality of service (QoS)-enabled join minimum loaded queue (JMLQ) (Sharma et al., 2019c). The proposed approach has been tested in the CloudSim simulator, and the results show that the proposed approach achieves better results in comparison to QoS-enabled JMLQ and its other variants in the cloud environment.
Originality/value
90%
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Kamal Kant Tyagi, Chakir Aziza and Vinay Pal Singh
India has a serious poverty issue that needs to be addressed immediately. The elimination of poverty should be one of the primary goals of economic policy. The elimination of…
Abstract
India has a serious poverty issue that needs to be addressed immediately. The elimination of poverty should be one of the primary goals of economic policy. The elimination of poverty is one of the greatest obstacles to economic development as it is now envisioned. It is difficult to provide a blanket recommendation for achieving economic growth and reducing poverty because each state's experience has been distinct. The states of Punjab and Haryana are two examples of how a strong emphasis on agricultural expansion can help alleviate poverty. Human resource development has been successful in Kerala; thus, it has been replicated in other states. While India's social safety programmes have helped to alleviate poverty, they aren't perfect. COVID-19 reversed the progress made and harmed migrant workers and others in the informal economy. There are now millions more people living in extreme poverty than before. To tackle unemployment, governments and underprivileged communities are appealing to programmes like MGNREGA.
The purpose of this article is to investigate the measures taken by the state to combat poverty.
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Mohammad Fuad and Ajith Venugopal
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are important strategic actions undertaken by firms to access resources and markets. However, firms face substantial challenges in M&As during deal…
Abstract
Purpose
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are important strategic actions undertaken by firms to access resources and markets. However, firms face substantial challenges in M&As during deal completion. While prior literature reviews synthesize the studies on the post-merger consequences of M&As, the literature on deal completion is largely fragmented. In this paper, the authors synthesize prior literature on deal completion into the antecedents and consequences framework and map various studies across the international business and management, finance and accounting literature at the macro-, meso- and micro-levels.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopt a content analysis-based methodology to conduct the review. First, the authors identify existing literature on deal completion based on keyword searches. Next, the authors propose a framework that integrates the extant literature from a multi-theoretic perspective across four broad themes: concepts, antecedents, implications and moderators. In this study, the authors consider not only empirical but also conceptual papers to strengthen the theoretical foundations of M&A literature. Finally, after synthesizing various studies, the authors highlight a future research agenda on deal completion.
Findings
Based on the review, this study provides important avenues for future research on M&A deal completion.
Originality/value
This study theoretically integrates multi-disciplinary and multi-country research on acquisition completion.
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Partha Sarathi Roy and Shekhar Chaudhuri
Access to pure drinking water is considered as a basic human right and part of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. India ranks poorly in terms of providing…
Abstract
Access to pure drinking water is considered as a basic human right and part of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. India ranks poorly in terms of providing universal coverage of potable water to its citizens. This case highlights the challenges faced by the private sector in providing purified drinking water for a diverse country like India with many geographical regions (and their corresponding water impurities) and differing levels of economic prosperity (making sustainability tougher for private companies) by focusing on Waterlife India Private Limited (WLIP). WLIP is a for-profit social enterprise that sells drinking water in rural hinterlands and urban slums at a very affordable price of US$0.006 per liter. Since its inception in 2008, WLIP has evolved to become a major player in the fragmented Indian affordable drinking water industry. Sustainability of the WLIP business model is based on a unique public–private partnership template in which three parties come together—a corporate sponsor who bears the cost of the water filtration equipment; community governance bodies like panchayats or municipalities, which give a sense of operational legitimacy to the model; and WLIP as the driving force of the network. This business model is unique for three reasons: suitable incentive mechanisms with proper alignment of interests among various stakeholders; optimization of the water-filtration plant equipment to community demand; and achieving the delicate balance between standardization of processes and customization in offerings to the operating context. Alignment of partner interest is the principal differentiator that also ensures accountability and impact.
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Kanupriya Misra Bakhru, Manas Behera and Alka Sharma
This paper aims to examine the traditional business communities and family businesses of India, their emergence and sustained growth.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the traditional business communities and family businesses of India, their emergence and sustained growth.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyze the role of business communities in family businesses of India and identify business communities that have still sustained and marked a global presence.
Findings
Business communities such as Marwaris have the knack for business activities and are leaders of family businesses in India today, who have sustained their past success and continue to create new histories. Other traditional business communities such as Parsis, Sindhis, Chettiars and Gujarati banias have not been able to sustain much. Possible reasons were switching to white-collar jobs, taking up diplomacy and other professions, inter caste marriages, international migration in search of business and Indian government policies.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a useful source of information for academics, policy-makers and economists.
Practical implications
Traditional business communities populate the list of family businesses that have marked their global presence. This paper identifies various factors that are responsible for the growth and sustainability of these business communities.
Social implications
The study clarifies the role of business communities in domestic economic development.
Originality/value
The paper explored traditional business communities of India and assessed their role in family businesses of India that currently mark a global presence.