Arun Sahay

Linking Technological Innovation, Technology Strategy and Organizational Factors

The essence of business growth is technological innovation and successful management lies in skilful allocation of resources to bring about the technological change. Seeing the increasing importance of technological innovation and strategy guiding the acquisition and deployment of technological resources for competitive growth, the article attempts to summarize research in the area of technological innovation and technology strategy. Literature brings out the importance of organizational factors supporting technological innovation and technology strategy. A preliminary model has been proposed, suggesting a possible relationship between the three. The article in addition to providing a narrative of literature, also gives practical implications and directions for future research.

Greenhouse impact of fossil, forest residues and jatropha diesel: a static and dynamic assessment.

Biofuels have been recognised as one option for mitigating climate change. However, in order to show the sustainability of biomass-based fuels, an assessment of the savings in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions compared to fossil fuels needs to be clearly shown. There are two ways to measure the greenhouse impact of an activity. It can be done statically or dynamically, by using Global Warming Potential (GWP) or Radiative Forcing (RF) respectively. This article compares these two methods for assessing the greenhouse impact and introduces two more rarely discussed and lesser-known raw materials for biodiesel production, forest residues in Finland and jatropha in India, as well as their greenhouse impact compared to fossil fuel from a life cycle perspective. The analyses made with GWP and RF show some differences. Using a time horizon of 100 and 300 years, the magnitude of the greenhouse impact of jatropha biodiesel assessed with GWP and RF differs by only a few percent. When the greenhouse impact of forest residue-based Fischer-Tropsch (FT) diesel was assessed, the difference between the GWP and RF assessment was larger, up to 10%. This is also a reflection of the more accurate calculation possibility of the greenhouse impact with RF in which the exponential and time dependent decay of forest residues can be taken into account. Compared to fossil diesel, the greenhouse impact of jatropha and forest residue-based biodiesel was approximately one-third less, irrespective of the assessment method. This, however, may not be enough to fulfil the requirements of the European Union (EU) on the sustainability of biofuels.

Disruptive innovation through a dynamic capabilities lens: an exploration of the auto component sector in India

Innovation has gained momentum for the development; spread; and survival of auto industrial firms in India. In this paper; we study the less-explored aspect of organisational response focusing on discontinuous innovation. The Indian auto sector requires a tool for long-term market dominance; particularly owing to the rapid change in the business environment. This can be achieved through a special kind of discontinuous innovation known as disruptive innovation (DI). We further affirm how developing DI is facilitated by the firms dynamic capability (DC); to substantiate our claims; we develop and utilise a survey instrument to test a hypothesised model with responses from various firms affiliated with the Indian auto component industry. Our findings confirm the positive roles of DC and research and development (R%D) expenditure as antecedents to DI. We further conduct exploratory analysis to study factors such as R%D and environmental turbulence as moderators of the DC-DI relationship. We offer the following contributions: the operationalisation of DC and DI for the Indian context, a sector specific study and critical results pertaining to moderating role of R%D and environmental turbulence on the positive DC-DI relationship.

Transforming a State-Owned Utility: The Role of Technology and Leadership

105 A pril 2011: The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AB Power Ltd.1 reflected on the journey of the power distribution utility since its formation. It was on the morning of July 1, 2002 that AB Power was formed as a joint venture company between the State Government and Regent Energy Ltd. He had been part of the former CEO’s team in the transformation of the bleeding State Vidyut Board from an old, hierarchical, transaction-oriented government utility to a modern, customer-focused, and technologically advanced distribution utility. The Aggregate Technical and Commercial Losses (AT&C) had come down from 48.1 percent in 2002 to 17 percent in 2010. The company had till date invested ̀ 4,000 crore on network improvement and upgradation. The company’s vision was to be amongst the most trusted integrated utility companies in the world.

Diffusion of Innovative Teaching Method: Case of the Heritage School (A) and (B)

This case comes in two parts: case (A) and (B). It traces the journey of The Heritage School, Gurgaon (India) from 2003, when the school was deliberating to launch an innovative teaching methodology in the junior school to 2007 when the school had to make a decision whether to extend the teaching methodology to the senior school. The new teaching methodology based on experiential and project based learning, questions the relevance of the conventional teaching methodology which was based on memorization of content. The case highlights the changing opinion and attitude of the teachers and parents, towards the new teaching methodology. It also deals with how the school management went about implementing the innovative teaching methodology. The case allows students to examine the fundamental challenges in diffusion or acceptance of innovation by potential users. It aims to discuss the dynamics of the innovation and diffusion process, and the factors which drive or hinder the process of diffusion.

Perception of pollution and expectation from NTPC's Talcher Super Thermal Power Plant

The National Thermal Power Corporations (NTPC) Talcher Super Thermal Power Plant (TSTPP) is situated near Talcher in the district of Angul in Orissa and is the biggest power-generating station in India, with an installed capacity of 3000 MW. The local population considers it both a boon and a bane: a boon because of area development and a bane because of pollution. A case-based exploratory research was carried out among the population living around TSTPP to assess their perception of the plants environmental management and its impact on area development in general and on the health of the employees and the residents (living in the surrounding area) in particular. The survey also tried to assess whether the local population would like to have such plants in future in their area of habitation. The study revealed that there is no significant adverse impact on the ecology due to the project activities on account of the preventive actions taken and continuous monitoring by the power plant. There is all-around development of the area but local residents feel that more needs to be done. Beyond pollution control, the people have expectations of jobs, free electricity supply and availability of drinking water.

Environmental management as strategy: the case of Scooters India Ltd.

Scooters India Ltd. had plenty of economic and environmental problems in running its business. People and in particular, the promoters, were of the view that there is no possibility for company to recover. However, the firm was able to make a radical change and recover due to the innovative approach it adopted in various aspects of business including the environmental management. It spread environmental awareness, innovated products and processes and launched an approach for greening of the management and people including stakeholders. The present article, after briefly introducing the status of Indian automobile industry and environmental issues therein, describes how environmental management as part of corporate strategy adopted by the company not only helped its successful turnaround but also ensured its sustainability. This is only an individual case, yet very fruitful as it indicates that environmental management is not only for big multinational companies but can be practiced successfully by mid-size industries and even in the developing countries.