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Convergence
towards Communication Equilibrium Point
-- Orlando
Gomes
Firms
invest in communication to create common languages or codes
that the members of the organization must share, in order
to develop an organizational culture directed towards attaining
the maximum potential for the generation of income. Therefore,
the managers of a firm face a trade-off between spending resources
to stimulate such a culture, and using these resources to
accumulate inputs such as physical and human capital. The
article analyzes this trade-off by assuming a dynamic scenario.
Under an inter-temporal set-up, a long-term equilibrium point
can be achieved, which describes the moment that is no longer
worthwhile to continue to invest in organizational capital,
since the gains in terms of language sharing cease after this
point: The investment costs exceed the marginal productivity
gains resulting from increased understanding. The steady state
result is analyzed and the convergence conditions are derived
here. The model also includes the possibility of an external
changing environment that forces a firm to revise its concept
of culture.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Price
Sensitivity and Perceived Value Pricing Strategy
-- Atanu
Adhikari
This
article evaluates the variations in response to price change.
A `random utility theory stated preference model' is used
to estimate the joint impact on the price sensitivity of differences
in systematic utility of different products, and differences
in the consistency with which a consumer responds to price.
Recent researches indicate that, as the systematic utility
of a product increases and/or its price decreases (all else
being equal), the price sensitivity also decreases. Researches
show that there is a systematic effect of income on price
sensitivity, as high income consumers are less price sensitive
than the low income consumers.
©2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Measuring
Customer Satisfaction among Mobile Handset End Users: An Empirical
Study
-- Raja
K G, Uma Sharma and Shashikala R
Consumer
satisfaction is a growing concern among businesses throughout
the world. Today, manufacturing and service companies, large
and small, use `satisfaction research' to determine the critical
product and service attributes that provide customer satisfaction.
This article examines the customer satisfaction of mobile
handset end users in India. It is important that technological
models of the supply side need to be supplemented with the
views and impact of perceptions from the demand side of the
mobile end users. This article focuses on the understanding
of customer satisfaction on the demand side within the Indian
market. Customer satisfaction is discussed in the context
of perceived values of the mobile commerce service attributes.
The authors identify product quality, service support, product
distribution, service personnel, information services and
corporate brand equity as the underlying factors of customer
satisfaction. It ranks the mobile handset brands on the basis
of these factors and identifies homogeneous subgroups among
the end users.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Achieving
Sustainable Business Growth in the Magical Way: A Study
-- Debasish
Mohanty
In
this article, the author talks of the golden routes and strategies
adopted by some of the successful companies of the world in
order to achieve sustained business growth. It also discusses
the cases of some companies which have failed to cope with
the momentum. In all, it discussess the ways to become a winner
in today's dynamic business scenario.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Value
Engineering-enabled Cost Saving in Instrument Cluster
--
P
S S Prasad and G Murali
Liberalization
and globalization of the Indian economy have caused intense
competition for the Indian industry from the global players.
This, in turn, has imposed a heavy responsibility on Indian
industries to reduce cost, improve quality and competitiveness,
upgrade technology, find import substitutions, and achieve
higher productivity in the organization. Though there are
several tools and techniques, Value Engineering (VE) is one
of the most effective tools to achieve these objectives. Cost
reduction being the primary aim of the vE, the study is based
on its application on an automobile instrument cluster to
reduce the material cost by 20%. The basic framework for conducting
a VE study is the job plan: A seven-phase job plan has been
followed in the present work. The VE study made on instrument
cluster has resulted in an expected 19.28% reduction in material
cost against the targeted 20%. This article recommends proposals
for design and material changes for 26 components based on
value. Five components were eliminated through `achieving
function by alternate means'.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Human
Resources Development Climate in Indian IT Companies
-- Sonal
Saxena
It
is a fact that technological sophistication is a sine qua
non for rendering prompt and efficient services. The major
challenge faced by the IT industry is in the field of Human
Resource Development (HRD). In order to involve the employees
as active participants, HRD activities must be consistent
with the development efforts of the organization; only then,
will the enthusiasm and creative potential of the employees
be mobilized. The IT industry has given HRD the chance to
be more creative. At a time when the winds of change are blowing
across the entire IT industry, the innovative policies and
trends adopted by HR professionals may help the industry to
reach a new level of maturity and strength. The ESOPs (Employee
Stock Options) offered by Infosys and Hewlett Packard (HP)
to their employees; the open culture of Wipro and HP; and
STEP (Software Technology and Entrepreneurial Program) of
Satyam Computers are benchmarks in the Indian IT industry.
The major findings of this paper are based on a descriptive
research design undertaken with the help of structured questionnaires
to study the HRD climate for marketing professionals in the
IT Industry. The data is based on the responses received from
five top management personnel and 25 marketing personnel from
a sample of five IT organizations, in 2003. Certain statistical
tools are employed in the study for assessing whether the
hypotheses formed at the beginning of the study are valid
or not. The results show that the effective HRD climate of
the sample organizations do not differ significantly.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Impact
of Public Sector Reform on Employees' Job Affect: A Case of
Indian Public Sector Company
-- Deepak
K Srivastava Umesh Holani and Naval Bajpai
Due
to poor financial performance of Indian public sector enterprises,
the Indian government introduced the Pubic Sector Reform in
1991. This reform leads to many changes in the working culture
and environment of public sector enterprises. This article
investigates the impact of reform on `job affect' of public
sector employees. The study is based on one public sector
company and 120 respondents, who were selected randomly from
the middle and top-level management. A questionnaire developed
by Sinha (1990) has been used for ascertaining the degree
of job affect. The items reliability of the questionnaire
is 0.962 (Cronbatch alpha value). The means of score are 1.64
and 2.23 respectively in the pre- and post-reform era. Z-test
has been employed for the testing of significance. The value
of Z is significant and it indicates that the means of the
pre- and post-reform era are significantly different from
each other. The findings show support for the public sector
reform that has increased the job affect of public sector
employees.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Research
Summary Better
B2B Selling
This
research paper provides an insight into creating collaborative
relationships in B2B (Business to Businees) selling. This
concept has been dealt with by discussing two case studies,
i.e., Alcoa and BASF. Most of the companies think that building
a collaborative relationship with customers is a complex and
time-consuming exercise, since there is always a need to identify
new sources of values, and companies are pressurized to provide
the tailored products and services. This situation has developed
over a period because of increased competition, as the customers
are more demanding than ever before.
©
2005 McKinsey & Company. All Rights Reserved. IUP holds the copyright for the summary.
Generating
a Rural Job: The Chinese Way
-- S
V Devanathan
There
is a hue and cry that unemployment is a perennial disease
that is crippling the developing countries and is openly threatening
the developed countries as the availability of jobs are far
below the demand of the labor market. On the other hand, there
is an argument that there is no dearth of jobs in the industry,
but the labor population is not suitably qualified for the
jobs. This article deals with the various factors that confront
the labor markets of India and China in meeting the demand
and supply of jobs of various industries. It enlists the reasonable
success of China in solving the unemployment problems through
its continued manufacturing programs in the semi-urban and
rural areas by successfully implementing TVEs (Town and Village
Enterprises).
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
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