With the growth of multi-channel retailing, many firms that have traditionally relied upon third-party service providers to offer after-sales service (AS) have introduced direct AS channel. While there exist a few studies that examine the effects of adding a direct sales channel on the sales revenue of incumbent channels, there are no studies investigating the effects of adding direct AS channel. This study tries to fill this research gap by exploring cross-channel effects of including AS through the firm's direct brand stores on performance (i.e., revenue, assortment width, and extent of upselling) in both direct and indirect channels. A matched difference-in-difference quasi-experimental design was used to compare the sales outcomes of test and control groups using a five-year longitudinal dataset from a large dual-channel consumer durables firm. Results reveal that providing AS through the firm's direct channel has a positive significant effect on the revenue and upselling in the indirect channel, but no significant impact on assortment width in the indirect channel. However, unlike hypothesized, it results in significantly lower revenue, assortment width, and upselling in the direct channel. We interpret these negative effects as arising from customer confusion and perceived retail crowding. Overall, our research highlights that implementation of going direct with AS should be done with utmost care. Our findings would serve as a building block for future studies that are conducted to understand the dynamic cross-channel effects of introducing direct AS, and would be useful for drawing comparisons and contrasts. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

This investigation took an attempt to solve the cluster traveling salesman problem (CTSP) by the heuristic approach. In this problem, nodes are clustered with given a set of vertices (nodes). Given the set of vertices is divided into a prespecified number of clusters. The size of each cluster is also pre-specified. The main aim is to find the least cost Hamiltonian tour based on the given vertices. Here vertices of each cluster visited contiguously, and the clusters are visited in a specific order. Standard GA is used to find a Hamiltonian path for each cluster. The performance of the algorithm has been examined against two existing algorithms for some symmetric TSPLIB instances of various sizes. The computational results show the proposed algorithm works well among the studied metaheuristics regarding the best result and computational time. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

The traveling purchaser problem (TPP) is a notable generalization of the traveling salesman problem (TSP) which involves selecting a subset of markets at a minimum traveling cost such that the demand for each product is satisfied. A solid green traveling purchaser problem (SGTPP) is a TPP in which, at each market, some conveyances are available to travel to another market with minimum cost considering the environmental impact caused by carbon emission. In this paper, we formulate an SGTPP with travel cost between each pair of markets and purchase price of the products as uncertain variables. Using uncertainty theory, an expected value model is formulated and then transformed into the corresponding deterministic form. Finally, a noble genetic algorithm (nGA) is designed to solve the proposed model. The algorithm is called noble because it adopts a crossover of the combination of a probabilistic selection of three parents, according to real-life In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) techniques. Computational results reveal that our proposal is favorably compared to previous algorithms in the existing literature. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The literature on decision biases in the newsvendor model assumes classical version of the problem where the distribution of random demand is known. This context is decision-making under risk. In many real-life settings, firms are not able to elicit complete and exact information about the demand distribution. This results in decision-making under ambiguity. We examine the newsvendor ordering preferences under ambiguity. Our study is the first attempt in behavioural operations management research to examine the biases in newsvendor decisions under ambiguity. We design experiments to understand the ordering preferences under ambiguity and risk. The experimental results show that subjects deviate from the normative benchmarks. We observe ‘pull-to-center’ bias in newsvendor decisions under ambiguity. We also observe that subjects exhibit ‘asymmetry in ordering’. Both these biases have significant implications for both theory and practice. Our research is a building block for research in a variety of normative models in operations management literature where ambiguity in demand is a highly relevant context for decision-making. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

[No abstract available]

No amount of crystal ball gazing may help us fathom the full impact of the Covid-19 (C-19) crisis on business organizations in a distinct manner. Given the lack of precedence, any such analyses seem to demand routine revisions as we progress further up the “number of infected” curve. Most countries of the world have imposed restrictions on social congregations or even people working in close proximity to each other. Industries that produce and deliver information products and services therefore, have continued to function while those that manufacture physical products especially labor-intensive firms were forced to minimize operations or temporarily shut down. However, in most countries, physical products which were essential in nature were reluctantly permitted to be manufactured given the need for them in people's everyday life. In this viewpoint, I draw upon three dimensions – information intensity of product/service, information intensity of process/value chain; along with a third dimension – essential nature of the product/service to help understand the immediate implications of C-19. I also present some anecdotal evidences of attempts to alter business models in these circumstances in order to address the challenges that certain product characteristics impose but at the same capitalize on the business opportunities presented by the essentiality of the products. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Order of addition (OofA) experiments have found wide applications. Each order (run) of an OofA experiment is a permutation of m(≥2) components. It is typically infeasible to compare all the m! possible runs, especially when m is large. This calls for experimentation with a subset or fraction of these m! runs. However, only a few systematic results are available on the construction of such fractions ensuring optimality. We employ block designs to propose a systematic combinatorial construction method for optimal fractional OofA designs, and extend the method to construct highly efficient OofA designs, both in much smaller run sizes than the currently available optimal fractions. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

One of the key deficiencies in many marginalized rural communities is lack of linkage to local and larger metropolitan area opportunity structure, financial, technical, social and political resources. The primary reason behind this is the knowledge asymmetry between rural communities and the urban marketplace and associated agencies, which often disallows rural artisans to sustain profitable entrepreneurial ventures. Knowledge asymmetry occurs when one party (the artisans) in an economic transaction possesses lesser market knowledge (or, lesser understanding about the market context in which a business operates) than the other party (urban marketplace and associated agencies). The resultant market separation derivative of knowledge asymmetry necessitates dependence on middlemen and resultant lack of autonomy for the rural artisans, which often impedes a rural community in achieving workable levels of self-sufficiency. This paper proposes building an online virtual community of purpose to mitigate knowledge asymmetry and market separation of Indian rural artisans. The community of purpose is defined as a community of people, who are going through the same process or are trying to achieve a similar objective. The paper concludes by providing an architectural framework of a Community Information System (CIS), through which we have attempted in building a virtual community of purpose for rural Indian artisans by connecting them digitally with other relevant actors in the craft production system. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

Most e-commerce platforms have been developed as sales and marketing channels, offering artisans of all skill levels equal opportunities for growth and provide very low-cost worldwide visibility. These strategies never allow any artisans to give opinions about willingness to accept/reject orders due to personal inconvenience, wages, item shipping deadlines, etc. Extant exogenous approaches undertaken to provide rural producers with direct access to market have mostly done so sporadically, by incorporating measures that are not designed in accordance with rural context and needs. In this context, this paper attempts to securing active participation of rural producers in the process of production by considering the opinion and purposive collaboration between relevant rural-urban agents by allocating an order to the rural artisans. This paper will propose a Community-driven Information System for Rural Artisans (CISRA) which identifies the selection of artisans in fairness manner as a strategy to boost market opportunities of rural producers. We used a simulator called AnyLogic to ensure fairness and scalability in the artisan selection method and to measure the efficiency of our allocation model. The simulator will optimize the allocation policies of a job to the artisans based on the opinion value. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

The study seeks to further advance our understanding of the complexities and challenges facing international managers when conducting business in an Indian context. Drawing on survey data from managers in over 300 companies, the study suggests that in-order to enhance performance in a business-to-business context within India, there is a need to nurture satisfactory business relationships through the practice of Jaan – pehchaan. Specifically, the study revealed that relationship satisfaction and long-term orientation are driven by three behavioral constructs associated with Jaan – pehchaan, i.e., Pehchaan, Len-den and Bharosa and these serve to positively drive business performance. Several managerial and theoretical implications are extracted from the study along with directions for future research. © 2020 Elsevier Inc.

The paper perceived the moderating role of gender on professional attributes with professional-life conflict (PLC). The study was drawn with a sample of 319 techie employees working in different IT sectors across India. Professional attributes were found as important elements that influence PLC. Gender, as a moderator in this relationship, showed the influence of interaction with few professional attributes only. The findings in the study suggested that there was a relationship between professional attributes and PLC and they influenced PLC based on time, strain, and behavior. Irrespective of the gender (male/female) in the IT sector, it affected on the relationship between the attributes and conflict. The implications of the study were discussed and the need forfurther research was also highlighted in the study. © 2019, Associated Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Purpose: The growing market for organic products presents a tremendous opportunity for marketers to extend their existing brands. However, there is hardly any research that investigates the factors extension from an organic parent brand is preferred over extension into same product category for success of such brand extensions. This paper investigates the role of two different bases consumers may use to evaluate the extension into organic product – organic status of the parent brand and its similarity to the extended product category. Design/methodology/approach: The study involved a 2 × 2 (organic versus regular parent brand and same versus different product category) between-subjects factorial design. Data collected from 164 postgraduate students presented with one of the four scenarios were analysed using ANOVA. Findings: The results reveal that extensions from organic parent brand versus regular brand, and in the same product category versus different category, are evaluated more favourably. Moreover, extension from an organic parent brand is preferred over extension into same product category. Originality/value: The research contributes to the extant literature on branding and retailing by building on categorisation theory to explain consumer preference for brand extension when launching a new organic product. The findings provide valuable insights to practitioners to launch a new organic product using brand extension. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Digital social networking (DSN) sites have attracted users pervading geographical, cultural, demographic, social and economic boundaries. DSN adoption has by far surpassed other information systems implementations and introduced novel opportunities to users in communication, information exchange, and human interaction as an individual, in a group, in communities and organizational networks. DSN offers unique features and opportunities compared to offline social networking. In consequence, the size of social network and the quality of network ties formed on DSN are different from those on offline social networks. The findings of this exploratory research upset the established bridging/bonding social capital factors based on network tie strength which served as the basis for academic studies and introduces factors on the functional view of social capital. It establishes the notion that DSN has introduced novel opportunities compared to previous instances of information systems which necessitated a revisit of established information systems theories and epistemology. © 40th International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2019. All rights reserved.

The 2020 Union Budget has announced several small steps that could give some fillip to the financial sector in the short run, but the lack of a long-term vision for reviving an economy in downswing remains most conspicuous. © 2020 Economic and Political Weekly. All rights reserved.

An empirical understanding of countrywide diffusion of third (3G) or/and fourth (4G) generations of Mobile Broadband Services (MBSs) has proven implications for both business and policy of the country. However, extant literature lacks in explanation for the diffusion and forecast of these services in India. We address this gap by analyzing both individual and multigenerational diffusions of 3G and 4G services in India, using Bass, Gompertz, Logistic and Norton-Bass models that utilize a mix of linear and non-linear regression techniques. Additionally, we evaluate the influence of several exogenous variables on the diffusion of those MBSs in India. Our analyses reveal that, firstly in case of diffusion, Bass model estimates are quite sensitive to both 3G and 4G historical data, whereas Gompertz and Logistic models fit well with the same dataset. As expected, Norton-Bass model - encompassing all the successive generations of 2G, 3G and 4G - provides more reliable estimates of the diffusion parameters. Secondly, as far as 3G forecast is concerned, Bass model works better with fixed assumptions of ultimate market potential, whereas Gompertz and Logistic models seem to be more suited for ‘optimistic’ long-range forecasts and ‘conservative’ short-term forecasts, respectively. Our results also show that 4G is diffusing at 6.1 times the speed of 3G diffusion in India, when the total MBS subscription in India is likely to reach 410 million by 2026. Finally, we notice that, among the notable external sources of influence, National Telecom Policy 2012, average revenue per user, and aggregate income variables have significant positive impacts on the diffusion of MBSs in India. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.

This study explores how sudden disruptive changes lead to changes in institutional logic and associated consumption practices. The empirical context is provided by the demonetization of high-denomination currency in India in 2016. The findings reveal that micro-level consumption practices are embedded within macro-level social structures and institutions. Therefore, institutional changes lead to corresponding changes in the material, competence, and meaning dimensions of consumption practices. This study examines the neglected dimension of the delegitimation of consumption practices and markets. The study points to artifactual spatialization and indirect identification as important mechanisms of change in materiality, and sheds light on the microfoundations of institutions. It explores the sensemaking work of adjusting, adapting, adopting, and advocating by micro-actors and the sensegiving work of problematizing, enrolling, and facilitating by macro-actors. Thus, sensemaking and sensegiving enactments are conceptualized as institutional work. © 2020 Elsevier Inc.

As the carbon emission (CE) from a vehicle depends on the factors such as the surface condition of the traveled route, conveyance type, load, speed, curb weight of the vehicles, etc., nowadays, consideration of the appropriate route, conveyance and corresponding CE are given maximum importance in eco-friendly transportation systems. The present study investigates a four-dimensional transportation problem (4DTP) for breakable/damageable items, some of which are pairwise incompatible, with carbon tax policy under crisp and type-2 fuzzy/fuzzy random environments. Here, unit transportation costs are taken as type-2 fuzzy and the products’ availabilities, demands, conveyance capacities are type-2 fuzzy-random. Type-2 fuzzy and fuzzy-random data are respectively transformed to the corresponding crisp and random data using the centroid-based type-2 fuzzy-probabilistic programming with Enhanced Karnik-Mendel (EKM) algorithm. Then a modified interactive algorithm is proposed to convert the above transportation problem into two crisp sub-constrained optimization problems which are solved by Generalized Reduced Gradient method using Lingo 11.0. The models are illustrated with some numerical data. As particular cases, several models are deduced. A real life example is illustrated. Effects of consideration of different paths, conveyances with different capacities, breakability, carbon emission costs, and incompatibilty of items are demonstrated. It is shown that the routes of shortest distance and minimum unit transportation cost are not the optimum paths for the model's minimum cost. Here, road's specific constants also play an important role. It is observed that for minimum total cost, there is a trade off between the total carbon emission and total transportation cost. Some managerial decisions are also derived. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Performance based contract (PBC) is an innovative advanced service strategy for offering product service solutions. PBC aims at increasing customer value and reducing the costs of operations. However, manufacturers incur unquantifiable “hidden costs” while implementing PBC. This paper uses agency theory and service-dominant logic to build a theoretical framework to study the hidden costs of PBCs. The research uses a multiple exploratory case study approach to unravel the drivers of hidden costs during the design, delivery and adaptation phases of PBC. This paper derives findings from five PBCs from the UK defence industry. The analysis reveals four major hidden cost drivers (supplier relations, contract complexity, customer relations, and cost estimation problems) of PBC. The research refines the theoretical framework by linking the hidden cost drivers, PBC life cycle stages and engagement of the service network partners. It develops a set of propositions for guiding future research and managerial practices. © 2020 Elsevier Inc.

This article aims to study the effectiveness of the multi-step multiplicative component generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (MCS-GARCH) model in forecasting intraday value at risk (VaR) and expected shortfall (ES) for both emerging and developed markets. The intraday VaR- and ES-forecasting performance of the MCS-GARCH model is compared with that of three other models. Five-minute returns data of stock market indices from four different countries are used in this study: India, China, the USA and the UK. The VaR and ES quantiles are estimated with the help of conditional extreme value theory (EVT) framework as well as with simple normal distribution assumption. The backtesting of VaR and ES suggest that the conditional EVT models provide superior forecasts compared to their GARCH counterparts. However, the accuracy of these models differs between emerging and developed markets. The multi-step MCS-GARCH or its EVT counterpart fails to outperform other competing models consistently, especially in emerging markets. The inability of the MCS-GARCH model in forecasting intraday risk accurately suggests that the multiple steps in the estimation of this model may lead to the errors-in-variables problem. The results of this study are unique in their suggestion that multi-step models may not be a better option in the estimation of VaR and ES. © 2020 International Management Institute, New Delhi.

Purpose: The study explores career shocks in the Indian context and examines their impact on the career development of people with MBAs. Design/methodology/approach: In-depth, semi-structured interviews with 41 Indian MBA graduates were thematically analysed to identify career shocks that resulted in different types of transitions. Eight themes were identified based on ongoing and iterative comparison of these instances. Findings: Outcomes relating to competitive examinations that determined entry into various occupations were the first career shock experienced by participants. Geographical considerations were salient in the deliberations involving events relating to marriage, eldercare and spouse relocation. Events at the workplace that signalled uncertainty, a fall-out with one's boss or a request to relocate, prompted participants to switch employers. Some of the observed differences were gender based. While female MBA graduates adapted to handle both spousal and parental responsibilities, male MBA graduates did the same to shoulder eldercare responsibilities. Research limitations/implications: The study's retrospective design could have led to concerns regarding memory recall. The use of open-ended questions partially mitigated this, by giving participants the freedom to recount their experiences, to the extent that they could remember. Practical implications: Organisations in India could customise and strengthen policies to support employees who have maternity and eldercare responsibilities. Managers should make greater efforts to have open communication with their subordinates to overcome the challenges of operating in a culture with high power distance and indirect communication styles. Originality/value: This study explored different types of career shocks and associated transitions. The Indian context, with its growing economy, large population, collectivistic culture and strong influence of family on careers, enabled a deeper examination of novel career shocks. The study also highlighted the dissimilar impact of career shocks for men and women and people at different career stages. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.