Why Business Model Innovation Is the New Competitive Advantage

--Dilpreet Singh, Harpreet Singh and Namrata Sandhu

The focus on business model innovation has increased to a dramatic extent over the last couple of years. This paper contradicts Porter’s views about competitive advantage and highlights how business model innovation can serve as a competitive advantage. The study was purely approached from a theoretical perspective, and previous articles and papers based on competitive advantage were reviewed and analyzed in the present context. The study highlights that business model innovation can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage because for rival firms imitating an entire novel system is quite difficult compared to imitating a product or a service. The study also shows that business model innovators earn four times more returns than product and service innovators.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Service Development Strategies Employed by Public and Private Sector Banks in India: A Comparative Study

--Dilpreet Singh, Harpreet Singh and Namrata Sandhu

Indian banks, both public and private, have constantly endeavored to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction. Private sector banks, despite their late entry into the industry, have consistently challenged and in some cases even surpassed the service quality standards of public sector banks. A number of studies have captured the issue of service quality from the customers’ perspectives; however, studies examining the bankers’ outlook on the same are rare. The current research is a path-breaking attempt to understand the priorities of the bank strategists with respect to service development. An empirical analysis of the views of 364 bank officials employed with 33 Indian banks and engaged in the development/execution of bank strategies reveals that though the preferred service development strategies of public and private sector banks vary, there is no significant difference in the importance given to service development strategies by both categories of banks.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Deliberating Reforms: Public-Private Partnerships in Indian Water and Sewerage Sector

--Sumanth Inukonda

The paper analyzes the growing challenges within developing countries, such as urbanization, and consequent solutions emerging due to globalization. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been mooted to push forward the reforms in several sectors. Where the response has been lukewarm, strategic communication has been employed. Examining the contribution of PPPs to service delivery, public policy and public debate in the urban water and sewerage sector involves an irony. The PPPs have demonstrated strong public demand for better services, but they have been resisted widely, leading the policymakers to back down on their initial enthusiasm and make way for increased government funding. This paper argues the wider themes of freedom and justice have to be critically invoked within the context of globalization to understand the choices before policymakers. This calls for the emphasis to shift from the project-based strategic communication to a wider deliberation on reforms.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

--Vaishali Dhingra and Manish Dhingra

The case study highlights the factors affecting strategy formulation and the decision areas involved in art-metalware handicraft units of India where the output and its quality essentially depend on the artisans’ hand skills, their frame of mind and their willingness to contribute to their respective organizations. It will go a long way in suggesting the employers in art-metalware industry in specific that quality of work life measures can actually help the organizations in achieving their desired end. Growth is not the outcome of making strategies for dealing with external environment; rather the soft resources (artisans here) play a vital role in achieving the winning situation for a firm. The intention of this case study is to focus on those strategic aspects of art-metalware industry which need special attention of public associated with it. The work is an outcome of personal meetings with the artisans, manufacturers and exporters of handicrafts sector during the seminars/workshops held at EPCH Moradabad and the authors’ own research in this area.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.