Tapan Kumar Panda

Entrepreneurial Success and Risk Perception among Small-scale Entrepreneurs of Eastern India

The paper is based on empirical research done on industrial units which are often categorised under the small-scale sector. The paper makes an attempt to explain the relationship that exists among various socio-economic variables with different success levels among the enterprises. The findings reveal that there are associations between the success levels of an enterprise with factors like technical education of the entrepreneur, occupational background of parents, previous background of the entrepreneur and capability to arrange working capital. The paper also brings out the entrepreneurs perception of risk namely, the functional risk and business risk. It makes an attempt to learn about the hindrances encountered by the entrepreneur. This research conducted in four Indian states thereby establishes the necessary interventions one could do to strengthen the small-scale sector which according to the author has both an economic as well as a social advantage over other sectors.

Anti-Dumping Retaliation -- A Common Threat to International Trade

With the virtual elimination of tariffs and quotas under the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs/World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO) regime, anti-dumping (AD) has emerged as a key instrument of protection. In recent times there has been a sharp increase in anti-dumping initiations by many of the WTO member countries. Under the new regime of anti-dumping, India has joined traditional users namely, the United States and the European community to become the top three users of anti-dumping laws within the last ten years. In this article we have selected 20 countries on the basis of the number of AD initiations, the number of AD measures, affected by number of AD initiations and affected by number of AD measures for a two-way analysis. Out of this analysis we have taken the top-four countries namely, India, China, United States and the European community and tried to examine the possibility of occurrence of retaliation against them. The correlation test reveals that out of the total anti-dumping cases some of them are likely to be considered as cases of retaliation. The test reacted positively by providing indications of occurrence of retaliation in many cases of anti-dumping by, as well as against, these four countries.

Sex-Oriented Advertising and its Impact on Attitude of Teenagers: Application of Behaviuoral Intention Model across Product Categories

Use of Sex in advertising continues despite the public outcry against it. Exposing mature adults to sex based advertising often invites lesser criticism compared to advertising that targets teenagers. Its use in advertising is no more confined to adult programs on television or adult literature; its consequences are far reaching in the context of exposure through mass media. Although some level of sex content might help in selling, the real questions are: how much sex content is appropriate; when is the use of such content appropriate, and for which target audience. The present research aims to explore some of these questions through consumer data in which teenagers are shown a series of print and television advertisements with different degree of sex content for different product categories. This paper attempts to find out the effectiveness of sex based advertising on the overall attitude and behavioural intention of respondents by application of Fishbien Behavioural Intention Model. The paper tries to find out the relationship between the use of sex content in advertisements for commercial and non-commercial product category at different levels of depiction and behavioural intention towards product categories. The results show that the respondents find sex-content based advertisement to be in bad taste in the context of family setting and there is a relatively moderating effect on the behavioural intention of consumers upon exposure to commercial product advertisements.

Service employee adaptiveness: Exploring the impact of role-stress and managerial control approaches

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between managerial control strategies, role-stress and employee adaptiveness among call centre employees. Design/methodology/approach Based on a conceptual model, a questionnaire-based survey methodology is adopted. Data were collected from call centre employees in India and the data were analysed through PLS methodology. Findings The study finds that outcome control and activity control increase role-stress while capability control does not have a significant impact. The interaction between outcome control and activity control also tends to impact role-stress of employees. Role-stress felt by employees has significant negative impact on employee adaptiveness. Research limitations/implications The sampling approach was convenience based affecting the generalisability of the results. Practical implications The paper provides guidelines for utilising managerial control approaches in a service setting. Originality/value The paper looks at managerial control approaches in a service setting – a topic not quite researched before.

Job Satisfaction of Dotcom Employees An Indian Experiment

The internet revolution has initiated a distinctive “click model” of business operation. Even brick and mortar enterprises are trying to start click components. The nature of the business operation, the work culture and the level of job satisfaction have undergone a sea change in the dotcom companies. As a business proposition dotcoms have brought in large investments, while a majority of their stocks is now going down, resulting in a high level of apprehension and job insecurity among the employees. This paper highlights some of these problems and presents a picture of the level of job satisfaction among employees of dotcom companies. It also identifies unique issues of job satisfaction in click companies, rarely found in “brick and mortar” businesses. The paper presents a diagnosis of job satisfaction indices in the dotcom business.

Driving Customer Appeal Through the Use of Emotional Branding

Driving Customer Appeal Through the Use of Emotional Branding is a critical scholarly resource that examines the responses consumers have to differing advertising strategies, and how these reactions impact sales. Featuring relevant topics such as multisensory experiences, customer experience management, brand hate, and product innovation, this publication is ideal for CEOs, business managers, academicians, students, and researchers that are interested in discovering more effective and efficient methods for driving business.

Effects of Service Quality and Salesperson Characteristics on Consumer Trust and Relationship Commitment: An Empirical Study on Insurance Buyers in India

This research article explores the effect of service quality and salesperson characteristics on consumer trust and relationship commitment among life insurance buyers in India. Earlier research on service quality has revealed five key dimensions that influence levels of consumer satisfaction. This article explores how ‘service quality’ as an independent variable influences consumer’s trust and relationship commitment. Earlier studies have explored organizational shared values on consumer trust and relationship commitment but no study in Indian context reveals how salesperson characteristics affect consumer trust and commitment. In this article the author has conceptualized two models (a) linking service quality with consumer trust and relationship commitment and (b) service quality with salesperson characteristics, consumer trust and commitment to study mediating and direct effects of independent variables on the dependent variables in the context of term life insurance policies in Indian market by applying structural equation modelling. The study identifies the strength and direction of these relationships and has a significant bearing in developing future relationship marketing programmes for insurance marketing companies in India.

Changing Paradigms, Competitive Strategies and Role of 'Integrated Marketing Communication in Building Brands in Indian Market'

Building Brands in Indian market is on an evolutionary process. The behavior of Indian consumer can not be simply grouped as emerging market behavior. The demand level in the emerging market is flat at the base and the consumption is more commodities centric. The customers choose products and brands that satisfy the basic needs than for reasons of emotion or pleasure seeking behavior. Hence brands those deliver price value are more successful in the market. While building a brand the brand manager spends every media pie in talking about this basic proposition. Horizontally large chunks of the population do not have purchasing power in an emerging market and do not qualify to be customers of brand centric marketing. Though brands exist in these segments but they only play the identification and differential function; they are not delivery vehicles of brand value to the customers. The researches conducted on Indian market speak a different story. Segments, which are assumed to have no purchasing power, were found to be using quite a good number of product categories including the consumer durable. The Indian marketers avoided entering in to the rural markets due to poor purchasing power parity with urban customers, abysmal infrastructure network and lesser avenue for brand promotion. It is observed that the rural customer has started using the up market and urban brands faster and started using products and brands almost similar to the urban customers. Most of the FMCG majors and consumer durable companies are looking at rural markets as the growth drivers of the future. So this typicality in brand penetration and acceptance across demographics and geographic segments have brought unique attempts and experiments in building brands in Indian market. This paper is an attempt to conceptually evaluate the alternate brand paradigms and see how they contribute towards building brands as a competitive advantage. The author has also made an attempt to develop an alternative brand building model through the use of effective integrated marketing communication and advertising in particular in Indian market. This paper highlights situations where the brand manager can use alternate platform and copy formats in building brands.

Creating Customer Value Focused Organization Through Employment Branding

In todays business world, brand managers have two branding missions. They are product branding and employment branding. Product branding deals with creating a distinction in the market place for the product or service offered to the external customers. Product branding provides a mental patent against consumer apprehensions and hence creates a sustainable competitive advantage for the organization. On the other hand employment branding deals with an internal as well as external marketing orientation for hiring and keeping the best talents at the market place. By employment branding process the organization creates an image of the organization as the dream corporation to work for. Employment branding as a process is a recent phenomenon where organizations try to go beyond a recruitment advertisement and try to create an atmosphere in the work place that enhances the value delivered to the customer. This research paper deals with the strategic issue of employment branding and its relevance in the age of talent hunt. Every branding process involves a brand promise and brand character. While product branding takes care of the brand promise, it is the employment branding that looks in to the issue of brand character. A brand character is built at the customer interaction point where the customer also looks at the kind and level of motivation of employees with whom he deals during the transaction process. This paper highlights various approaches in employment brand building and also looks at the performance technology issue by which the internal customers web themselves around the brand promise and character to deliver a higher customer value.