Murali Patibandla

Role of Transnational Corporations in the Evolution of a high-tech Industry: The Case of India’s Software Industry

India’s software industry presents the case of an internationally competitive high-tech industry from a developing economy. This paper takes the evolution of the industry in terms of human capital accumulation. The initial stock of human capital in India led to entry of TNCs, which triggers a cumulative process of further human capital accumulation through the market structure dynamics and spillovers. This paper develops a simple theory and tests the propositions empirically. The empirical analysis is based on both qualitative information collected through field interviews and econometric analysis of firm level panel data. There is significant evidence to the positive contribution of TNCs for the competitive evolution of the industry.

Firm size and export behaviour: An Indian case study

In the context of Indian industry, this article argues that in the presence of capital market imperfections and sub‐optimal contractual arrangements, small firms face higher transaction or selling costs in the domestic market. One of the strategic responses by small firms towards overcoming the mobility barriers imposed by high transaction costs in the domestic market is to break into the competitive world market. Small firms that could realise a critical level of production efficiency and possible information externalities that arise through inter‐firm linkages might be the ones that could succeed in exports. The empirical observations derived from the analysis of firm level survey data provide reasonable support to the main arguments.

Structure, organizational behavior, and technical efficiency: The case of an Indian industry

Abstract The differences in certain aspects of organizational behavior across large and small firms could be explained as a response mechanism to structural conditions like capital market imperfections and high market transaction costs. This, in turn, could explain the relative production efficiency of large and small firms. This paper examines the issue on the basis of firm-level survey data for an Indian industry.

Policy Reforms and Evolution of Market Structure in an Emerging Economy: The Case of India

Policy reforms have facilitated entry of quite a few transnational corporations (TNC) into Indian industries. This has important implications for the evolution of competitive industrial structure. This article focuses on the issue of the response mechanism of local firms to competition from new entrant TNCs and the possible strategies of TNCs in penetrating the Indian market. It develops a conceptual framework by incorporating elements of intangible assets theory and new institutional economics into a simple sequential entry oligopoly model. This yields interesting insights into qualitative behaviour of firms in the post-reforms period. A few hypotheses drawn from the conceptual framework are empirically tested on the basis of firm level panel data drawn from a set of Indian industries.

Organizational practices and employee performance: the case of the Canadian primary textile industry

Abstract This study investigates variations in the adoption of different organizational practices and productivity using a survey of the Canadian primary textile industry. The results suggest that monitoring and profit-sharing are substitutes. The effectiveness of these practices in eliciting high employee performance depends on the size of organizations and adoption of complementary practices. Profit-sharing practice appears to be more effective in small firms than large firms.

Pattern of foreign direct investment in developing economies: a comparative analysis of China and India

Qualitative information and data show significant differences in the magnitude and type of foreign direct investment inflows among developing economies. An explanation of these differences requires an analysis of market institutional factors as well as an analysis of the supply and demand side conditions. This paper adopts the approach that different the configurations of supply and demand and that market institutional factors explain the type of investment flows into developing economies. The argument is illustrated through a comparative study of China and India.

Institutional dynamics and the evolution of the Indian economy

Managing globalization: India and China Compared The rise of Indian Multinationals Global Value Chains, Market Organization and Structural Transformation of Bangalores Software Cluster in the 1990s and Beyond Institutional Change and Industrial Development Corruption: Market Reform and Technology Accessing Early-Stage Risk Capital in India Understanding Indians in a Global Era Negotiating in India

The New Institutional Economics: Its Relevance

Corruption is a major political and economic issue in India. The stakes, value, frequency, and costs of corruption have become exceptionally high in the history of modern India. This is partly because some of the tenets of free market mechanism are implemented in the absence of underlying necessary institutional conditions for efficient and fair functioning of the market mechanism. The objective of this paper is to bring forth the relevance of the insights of the new institutional economics to the functioning of the Indian economy.

Preparing for a Services Economy: An Evaluation of Higher Education in India

This report is part of a larger study to examine the role of higher education in Indias success in providing globally traded services. In this report, we assess the quality of software engineering education. We find that the institutional structure has the capacity to produce a quality of engineer suited to the current needs of the marketplace. This is a remarkable achievement considering the rapid change in both job requirements and the role of private provision in higher education. While it is too early to assess whether the currently emergent needs, particularly in research, project management and entrepreneurship, will be met by the current structure, we argue that the states role as regulator will be critical. While the state has so far demonstrated its capabilities of being an effective regulator, we argue that new regulatory capabilities will be needed of the state to address the evolving demands.

Macroeconomics Discipline at the Cross-Roads

The 2008 financial crisis of the US was a watershed for economics discipline, especially macroeconomics. Several world leaders such as the Queen of England questioned distinguished economists of Ivy league schools such as the London School of Economics on why they failed to see what was happening and had not prevented the crisis through policy advice? Most did not have an answer. Why? One of the reasons is the supply side economics, which is also called Monetarism; and the Chicago School of Economics, which advocates that free markets function efficiently and self-regulate; and at best governments should tinker with monetary policy of money supply; has become the dominant intellectual basis for policy making for the last forty years. Models of this kind failed to predict the financial crisis because they are based on strong assumptions. I sketch out the causes of the crisis.