Ajay Bhalla

The Role of Status Seeking in Online Communities: Giving the Gift of Experience

This article examines online gift giving in the form of opinion, information, and advice that individuals post on websites. Research has highlighted altruism and reciprocity as the key motives behind such gift giving. We argue that informational gift giving is also strongly driven by status and status seeking, and that status sentiments are more likely to sustain virtual communities. Using theories of status seeking and self-presentation, we investigate the ways in which consumers construct status in online consumer communities. The data reveal insights into the strategies behind constructing a digital status and the rise of online systems to promote celebrity status within online communities.

A Multiparadigmatic Perspective of Strategy: A Case Study of an Ethnic Family Firm

Research into family businesses has a long history of lacking theoretical underpinnings, especially with respect to strategy. Moreover, the family of the firms in question has frequently been assumed to be Anglo-Saxon, unless the family business of an ethnic minority has been the specific subject of the research. This article broadens the prevailing discourse by studying the strategic affinities of an ethnic family firm in the context of Whittington’s (1993) framework, which proposed four approaches to the study of business strategy. The subject of this study, GOF, is a medium-sized family firm controlled by a South Asian family specializing in the wholesale distribution of ethnic foods and drinks in the UK. The management of this firm believes that its successful firm (of 35 years standing) has never had a strategy. However, a multiparadigmatic examination of the narrative of this family business reveals that there are several ways in which to gain an understanding of business strategy in medium-sized family firms.

Structuring enduring strategic alliances: the case of Shell Australia and Transfield Services

Purpose – This paper provides insights into the evolution of the strategic alliance between Shell and Transfield Services in Sydney, Australia in the area of engineering and facilities management.Design/methodology/approach – To gain an in‐depth understanding of the distinct developmental phases in the alliance relationship, we conducted 12 interviews and a survey yielding 39 responses from the management and operations staff of both these organizations.Findings – Initially the alliance between Shell and Transfield Services was established with fundamental building blocks of trust and flexibility. However, as the relationship progressed with subsequent contract renewals, complex value adding demands were placed on the alliance. This paper provides insights into understanding three generations of evolution in the relationship‐starting from the building of a successful relationship based on labor savings and then on to one which seeks incremental innovations to become one of the most efficient maintenance o...

Let's get natural

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that the influence of Japanese management practices has led organizations towards a “naturalized” view aiming to resolve the ontological dilemmas that exist between communalism and individualism.Design/methodology/approach – Having conducted an extensive literature review, the paper draws on literature and examples to construct the argument that for organizations to benefit from Communities of Practice they need to balance the tension between practice and process of such initiatives.Findings – The influence of Japanese knowledge management practices on the more general phenomenon of transferring practices is twofold. On the one hand, the Japanese precedent has legitimized radical rethinking of management practices which were strongly influenced by rational views of organizations, and on the other hand it provided models which experimenters could emulate.Practical implications – Looking to the future of KM, it is important that researchers and practitioners a...

Wipro Consulting Services: Building an Effective Global Configuration in Business and IT Consulting Industry

The Wipro Consulting Services (WCS) case charts the evolution of the consulting initiative within Wipro Technologies; the strategic choices the management made during this evolution and the challenges facing the firm once it consolidated the various consulting initiatives to set up Wipro Consulting Services in 2008. The case deals with several questions facing the leadership team, such as the competencies to develop to move up the value chain in delivering consulting services and the extent to which WCS should rely on the parent firm (Wipro) for its next phase of growth.The case seeks to deal with the issues of new business creation and growth in large organizations. It invites students to explore the domain of technology consulting, the delivery model firms pursue in this industry, and the challenges a firm with corporate centre in an emerging market faces when it seeks to establish itself as a global player. In particular, it also aims to open up discussion on the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges a firm encounters when encouraging new business initiatives while retaining tight co-ordination when this initiative enters growth phase.

“There’s got to be a better way”: Aspirations, constraints, and the discovery of new routines

Research on organizational decision-making suggests that choice is shaped by attempts to match available resources with solvable problems. Research also suggests that over time, choices that emerge from this process become organizational routines i.e. repetitive patterns of interdependent organizational actions, which form the basis of predictable patterns or ‘production techniques’. Within the framework of evolutionary economics, production techniques evolve by the variation, selection, and retention of underlying routines by decision makers. In this paper we investigate the triggers of variation in routines. We argue that as decision makers are boundedly rational, they are not aware of all the possible alternatives when selecting a known routine to execute organizational processes, and that decision makers are more likely to search for better routines when there is a subsequent mismatch between available resources and desired outcomes. We propose and experimentally examine the effect of high aspirations...

Two Case Studies

This chapter illustrates the experience of MAC & Co., a large consulting firm that recently set up internal offshore research operations in India. The experience suggests that successful offshoring depends not only on how much can be gained by performing the same activities offshore versus local, but also on developing the right and compatible offshoring options. Specifically, the objectives of the case are to (1) provide insight into the process of setting up an offshore operation that is driven by the forces of globalization and the realities of competition; and (2) raise awareness of the issues that lead such firms to select India or other emerging markets as an offshore destination for research functions.

WIPRO Consulting Services in 2006

In the autumn of 2006, when the leadership team of India’s second largest provider of IT products, services and consulting Wipro Technologies Ltd, gathered to consider the future of its burgeoning consulting business. What started as a strategic initiative 5 years ago in the backdrop of 2001 IT slowdown, had now matured into a thriving business. But to become a business leader in technology consulting, Wipro needed to go further. It needed a strategic focus that can only come with a dedicated organization, and a structure that would give it the scale and kind of push required to fully take advantage of the opportunities this sector had to offer. Wipro’s strategic reorientation of its consulting business was also essential if it was to counter moves by its main rivals, Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), and Infosys. Infosys was busy establishing Infosys Consulting Services as a stand along business, and TCS had integrated its consulting initiative within the firm’s vertical structure and looked towards consulting as key strategic initiative in becoming engaged in transformation projects and establishing itself as an end-to-end technology enabled services provider. Wipro, however, was having difficulties taking its consulting business to the next level. Fragmented organizational structure prevented the management to accurately assessing both scale as well as the real worth of its consulting capabilities. It was not clear how the company should align consulting capabilities with industry verticals and global business accounts. On top of this, Wipro’s leadership was also concerned about internal friction. The high profit margin in consulting was leading several Wipro units to develop consulting services alongside their other business lines. This improved business unit bottom-line directly, and Wipro’s revenues indirectly, but it also gave momentum to unhealthy internal competition. How far could the leadership have allowed these fragmented business units to live in their own silos was necessary to be addressed urgently. It was important for the leadership to tackle the issue of cross coupling among the organizational units along with their own cohesion for a better management oversight and sense of direction. Wipro’s leadership had their plates overflowing in that meeting and everyone knew that the time was running out and they needed to act and act fast!!