It is my pleasure to bring you the first issue of the journal for the year 2015, with its complement of articles and features.
The year 2014 has been a healthy year for the journal with an upward trend in the number of submissions – our rates of rejection continue to be high at 84%, with all articles clearing due review processes. IIMB Management Review is listed as a category ‘B’ journal on the Australian Business Deans Council Journal Quality List and is listed on other international listing databases, including Scopus and Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities. In September 2014, our panel of Associate Editors was strengthened with the addition of seven researchers and professors from IIM Bangalore.
The IMR Doctoral Conference (IMRDC) is growing in strength and the sixth IMRDC, held on 22nd and 23rdDecember, received as many as 125 abstract submissions from doctoral students in India and overseas, of which 50 were invited to submit full papers. Finally, 13 papers covering the areas of Marketing, Organizational Behaviour & Human Resources, Economics & Social Sciences, Finance, Production & Operations Management, and Corporate Strategy & Policy, were selected for presentation and discussion at the conference. Senior researchers and faculty were invited as Discussants, who critiqued the selected papers and provided feedback for enrichment. The conference also witnessed keynote sessions by noted international scholars in management and social sciences research. Dr C Rangarajan, formerly Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minster, delivered the keynote lecture on “Indian Economy: Short Term Concerns and Medium Term Challenges”. The Conference also featured invited talks by Dr Vidya Natampally, Senior Director of Strategy, Microsoft Research India and Professor K S Manikandan of IIM Tiruchirapalli and Fellow IIM Bangalore, and a Workshop in Randomized Evaluation by The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a global research organization.
Three awards, named after our sponsors, were awarded to the top three papers. The United India Insurance Award For Best Paper, First Place went to Aruna Divya T, IIM Bangalore for the paper “Reference Dependent Preferences on Time of Coverage: An Alternative Explanation for why we observe Minimal Warranties”. The SBI Life Award For Best Paper, Second Place, went to Anuradha Saha, Indian Statistical Institute Delhi, for the paper “Tax Policy and Food Security”. The Syndicate Bank Award For Best Paper, Third Place went to Giridhar Ramachandran, IIT Madras for the paper “Benefits of flocking together | Perceived Value of Consumption Community Membership – Results of a Qualitative Study”. Two papers received special mentions -- Sreevas Sahasranamam, IIM Kozhikode, for the paper “Moderating Effect of Formal Institutions on Individual Resource Commitment to Social Enterprise Entry”, and Prakash Awasthy, IIM Bangalore, for the paper “Collaboration in Outcome-based Contract for IT Services”. You will find more details about IMRDC 2014 at our website http://www.iimb.ac.in/node/1913/.
IIMB Management Review provides some of the papers selected for presentation at the IMR Doctoral Conference a publication opportunity in the journal. Two papers presented at earlier editions of IMRDC have been published in the journal, while two more papers, presented at IMRDC 2012 are awaiting their turn for publication in forthcoming issues, after successive rounds of revision.
While the world has seen a proliferation of free trade agreements and bilateral investment protection agreements, there has been no visible progress in agreements to eliminate barriers on international migration and mobility of people. In their paper, “India-EU Engagement and International Migration: Historical Perspectives, Future Challenges, and Policy Imperatives”, Researchers Basant Potnuru and Vishishta Sam of the Indian Centre for Migration examine if and how the bilateral relationship between India and EU has influenced international migration between them. They traverse historically the key elements of coordination and collaboration for facilitation of international migration. The paper also identifies the potential challenges and policy options for facilitating international migration between India and the European Union.
Professor Sankalpa Bhattacharjee and Professor Debkumar Chakrabarti carry out a “complex” application of Porter’s diamond model that is ”instrumental” in its attitude towards “Investigating India’s Competitive Edge in the IT-ITeS Sector”. Porter’s theory identifies four distinct stages of competitive development, namely factor-driven, investment-driven, innovation-driven, and wealth-driven, with the “diamond” becoming fully functional in the innovation-driven stage. The authors hold that differing from the findings of Heeks (2006), their study finds clear evidence of the emergence of the innovation-driven stage as outlined by Porter with the gradual progression of the industry from being a ”service provider” to a ”solution provider”. A policy implication of high priority is the upgradation of education and training needs to meet the ever-changing industry demands.
With emerging economies emerging as the hub of manufacturing, there is a need to identify the drivers of production and operational efficiencies in these markets. In their paper “Inventory Trends in Emerging Market Supply Chains: Evidence from the Indian Automotive Industry” Professors Haritha Saranga, Arnab Mukherji, and Janat Shah, conduct an empirical study using fixed effects regression models to explain trends in inventory holdings over time and how this varies across inventory types and across tiers in the supply chain. They use a sample data of 58 firms, consisting of automakers and auto component suppliers across a 14-year period, to study the factors contributing to efficient inventory management. Their results provide a number of interesting managerial implications and implications for further research in emerging economies.
Of the contents of the featured articles in this issue, the round table discussion, anchored by Professor Charan Singh, is on “Separation of Debt and Monetary Management in India”. Debt management, whose objective is to minimize the cost of borrowing over the medium to long term while containing the risks, is in contrast to monetary policy, which aims to achieve price stability. Prior to the financial crisis of 2008, separation of debt management and monetary policy was a settled norm in order to preserve the integrity and independence of the central bank, ensure transparency and accountability, improve debt management using modern risk management techniques, and reduce risk of policy conflicts. But following the financial crisis of 2008, there has been a rethink of this issue because of sharp increase in government deficit and debt, unconventional monetary policy in advanced countries involving large scale purchase of government securities of varying maturities, new liquidity requirements resulting in higher demand for government securities, and increase in foreign ownership of government debt. Thus the argument is that under a difficult macroeconomic situation, the lines between debt management and monetary policy become blurred and hence the two functions should be brought under the same agency. In India, presently, public debt management is divided between the central and state governments, and the RBI. After a brief contextual introduction, a panel of experts including functionaries of the RBI and other banks, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, senior researchers and academics discuss several issues pertaining to the subject.
In the “Dialogue on Leadership Development”, Professors Manohar Reddy and Vasanthi Srinivasan of IIM Bangalore, draw on their experience as teachers and trainers to address some key issues which they believe are critical to the success of leadership development programmes. . The dialogue is based on issues that include (i) differences between leader development and leadership development; (ii) differentiation of leadership theories from leadership development theories; (iii) cognition vs internalization and deeper transformation; (iv) the gaps between ”knowing”, “being” and ”doing”; (v) the importance of coherence in the design of leader development programmes using multiple approaches; and (vi) the need for synthesis between Western theories and Indian approaches.
I look forward to your feedback on this issue of the journal.
Nagasimha Balakrishna Kanagal
Editor-in-Chief
IIMB Management Review
India
Email address: eic@iimb.ernet.in
