Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether futures markets play a dominant role in the price discovery process. The rate of convergence of information from one market to another is analyzed to infer the efficiency of futures as an effective hedging tool.

The paper uses a two‐regime threshold vector autoregression (TVAR) and a two‐regime threshold autoregression for six commodities. The regimes (or states) are defined around the expiration week of the futures contract.

This paper finds evidence for price discovery process happening in the futures market in five out of six commodities. However, the rate of convergence of information is slow, particularly in the non‐expiration weeks. For copper, gold and silver, the rate of convergence is almost instantaneous during the expiration week of the futures contract affirming the utility of futures contracts as an effective hedging tool. In case of chickpeas, nickel and rubber the convergence worsens during the expiration week indicating the non‐usability of futures contract for hedging.

This paper extends the framework developed by Garbade et al. by superimposing a two‐regime TVAR model to quantify the price discovery process. It is the first paper to analyze the differential impact of price discovery and convergence during expiration week (compared to non‐expiration weeks) for the Indian commodities market.

In a world where corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a meaningful trend valued by firm stakeholders, it is still not clear how the marketing department integrates corporate-level social responsibility strategy into its departmental activities i.e. socially responsible marketing activities (SRMA) and whether such activities can benefit the department. Using legitimacy as the underlying theoretical explanation, this paper aims to study two instrumental returns from SRMA at the marketing department level, i.e. marketing department’s performance – impact outside the firm on multiple marketing-related outcomes and influence within the firm – the power of the marketing department compared to other departments.

Three studies were performed. Study 1 is a survey that offers a validated measure of SRMA and examines its relationship with the focal outcome variables. Study 2 is also a survey that investigates the mediating role of the marketing department’s legitimacy and the moderating role of customers’ interest in social responsibility and uses actual sales data of firms. Study 3 is an experiment that examines the main findings in a controlled setting using participants other than marketing executives i.e. chief executive officers.

Study 1 shows that SRMA is different than the closely related variable socially responsible business strategy and is positively related to the marketing department’s performance and influence within the firm. Study 2 complements these findings by demonstrating these impacts are mediated by the marketing department’s legitimacy and strengthened with higher customers’ interest in social responsibility. Study 3 sets the causality between the focal variables and the mediating role of legitimacy.

This work extends the study of firm-level CSR to the department- and implementation-level, in the context of marketing departments. It reveals the underlying mechanism driving the positive impact of SRMA, i.e. legitimacy, and identifies a moderating condition, i.e. customers’ interest in social responsibility. It further extends research on the role of the marketing department and its contribution to firm performance.

Marketers can benefit from the reported findings by understanding when and how CSR-related, domain-specific activities that feature the traditional responsibilities of marketing, including market research, customer relationship management and the product, promotions, price and place (4Ps) may be reshaped to include a broader set of stakeholders and a socially responsible angle and thereby generate more legitimacy and impact – inside and outside the firm.

This study provides a novel perspective on how marketing departments evaluate CSR in their daily activities where such engagement vests increasing returns to the marketing department and underpins the successful implementation of CSR.

Energy-efficient retrofitting of existing buildings is an inexpensive way of reducing energy consumption and mitigating climate change impacts. The purpose of this study is to examine electricity savings and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission reduction potentials of energy-efficient retrofit measures for surveyed two large shopping malls in India.

A techno-economic model was developed to estimate the electricity savings achieved due to energy-efficient retrofit measures in shopping malls that were surveyed in 2017. Alternative scenarios were constructed based on capital cost and cost of conserved energy (CCE) value for retrofit measures: cheapest replacement, best available technology and best value for money. The life-cycle electricity and CO₂ emission savings and payback period for end-use retrofit measures were evaluated.

The estimated average electricity savings were around 39–56% for various retrofit measures across all three scenarios while the average CO₂ emission reductions were around 50–125 kt-CO₂. Retrofits to light-emitting diode lights and air conditioners with inverter technology offered more life-cycle electricity savings. Paybacks for most lighting end-use measures were estimated to be within 1.5 years while for most space conditioning end-use measures were between 1 and 4 years.

The primary survey-based comprehensive research makes an exclusive contribution by estimating life-cycle electricity savings and CO₂ emission reductions for energy-efficient retrofit measures of lighting and space cooling end-use appliances for existing shopping malls. The present research methodology can also be deployed in other types of commercial buildings and in residential buildings to estimate electricity savings from energy-efficient retrofit measures.

As B2B firms face increasing scrutiny due to increased stakeholder awareness of environmental and social concerns, doing business with a conscience has become an important imperative. Despite a growing focus on conscientious corporate branding (CCB), the construct has never been clearly defined, and many of the exemplars used to depict CCB have focused on a B2C context. The purpose of this research paper is to define CCB, to develop a framework that leaders can apply to build and manage a conscientious corporate brand and to demonstrate application of the components of the framework in the B2B context.

This study uses an exploratory approach and focuses on extant literature relating to operating with a conscience, including organizational purpose, ethical leadership, ethicalization of the organization, stakeholder co-creation, sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

This study shows how companies in a B2B context can use a framework that includes dimensions of purpose, ethics, stakeholder co-creation, sustainability and CSR to build a CCB through reconciling and integrating leadership and stakeholder perspectives to create and communicate sustainable and responsible behavior.

This study opens the door for further research into the actions required to build CCBs. There is a need to validate the CCB framework in future studies.

This study identifies how to build a conscientious corporate brand and applies it in the B2B context.

This study expands our understanding of CCBs by providing a definition and framework to guide scholars and practitioners. Given the paucity of focus on CCB in the B2B context, the authors exemplify the framework using B2B examples.

There is a growing consensus that entrepreneurial activity is essentially a collective family endeavour, with some configuration of family involvement in business (FIB) working better than others. This paper aims to examine the effects of FIB on strategy and financial performance (FP), drawing from the institutional theory for the Indian family businesses.

The sample comprises of 105 pharmaceutical companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange for FY2013–2017. A two-way random effects panel model was invoked to examine the relationship between FIB and strategy, as well as the intermediating effect that strategy has on the FIB-FP link.

On average, the family has a high ownership concentration, with the founders predominantly holding the chief executive officer (CEO) and chair positions. The econometric results highlight that the founder’s descendants adopt a conservative strategy. A significant positive moderating effect of strategy on FIB-FP link was observed for the descendants as the largest owners, CEO and board chair. The presence of a professional CEO and independent chair, however, leads to an intervening adverse impact on FP. The ownership-management-governance configurations highlight that some combinations of family and non-FIB leads to better performance than others.

The study provides a plausible explanation for the conflicting evidence on the direct FIB-FP relationship through the strategy intermediation. The institutional perspective emphasizing the identity and role family members play in terms of strategy provides an unconventional epistemological underpinning to the present research.