Joint Brown Bag Seminar Series

Title

The Frontiers of Labour Market Intermediation

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Rajalaxmi Kamath, IIM Bangalore

Abstract

This paper examines the evolving role of human resource companies (HRC) or staffing companies in shaping labour recruitment practices within India’s rapidly expanding quick-commerce (q-commerce) industry. As demand for just-in-time delivery intensifies, HRCs play a crucial role in supplying and managing their major workforce of pickers and packers based out of the numerous hyperlocal dark stores spread across the cities. In this process, the HRCs reduce transaction costs of various types - including search, verification, monitoring, compliances, etc., enabling fluctuating business needs and casual labour supply to adjust to changing labour market conditions. Through an eight-month-long workplace ethnography based out of a leading HRC in Bangalore, this study uncovers the processual and operational dynamics of labour market intermediation. We argue that this novel organizational reincarnation of an erstwhile Thekkedaar into an HRC, liquifies labour into a tractable and “on tap" vector, amongst other means in the production function. As we become cognizant of the intermediaries' advanced and expansive services for the q-commerce industries, we argue that the HRC is not simply a neutral entity but a proactive agent signalling labour market flexibility. The uptake of an employment relation through an intermediary by the labour force can only be understood in a larger context of the demographic bulge, their aspirations driving migration to cities, a gigified urban labour market, the dwindling bargaining power and the role of the welfare state.

Speaker Bio

Lakshmi Parvathy is a fifth-year doctoral student at the Centre for Public Policy, IIM Bangalore. She has an Integrated Masters in Development Studies from IIT Madras and has previously worked on ICSSR project, NITI Aayog as a Young Professional and IIMB as an academic associate. Currently, her research interests lie at the intersection of labour, livelihood and public policy. Her dissertation is within the disciplinary scope of economic sociology of work to understand changing work conditions with a field-oriented and grounds-up approach.

Title

A dual-factor concept analysis of acceptance and resistance to online teaching by school-teachers

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Aditi Bhutoria, IIM Calcutta

Abstract

Online teaching can be used to develop innovative educational services for promoting quality education. While previous research has discussed the factors that influence teachers to teach online, the combination of both acceptance and resistance factors to teach online has rarely been considered simultaneously. This research model delves into the dual factor concepts of ‘facilitators’ and ‘inhibitors’ of teacher’s intention to teach online. Extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to include the online teaching self-efficacy in the facilitating factors and resistance to change, technostress, and frequency of negative critical incidents during prior use in the inhibiting factors, this model questions what factors and how these factors influence school-teacher’s intention to use online teaching.

Speaker Bio

S Devi Priya is a Doctoral Student in the Public Policy and Management area at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Her primary works are focused on care labour during digital technology intermediation in the context of school education. Her broader research interest lies in online teaching in school education emphasised in the National Education Policy 2020.

Title

Survival of the capable: The interplay of survival-related capabilities across the firm lifecycle

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Ansgar Richter (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management), and Amit Karna (IIM Ahmedabad)

Abstract

Firms require both operational and dynamic capabilities for their survival. Operational capabilities are vital for short-term survival, while dynamic capabilities enhance evolutionary fitness required for long-term survival. However, prioritizing short-term survival can compromise long-term evolutionary fitness and vice versa. In this study, we ask whether the survival-enhancing benefits of capabilities vary across a firm’s lifecycle. We theorize that while both operational and dynamic capabilities are important for survival, their relative importance depends on the lifecycle stage. Operational capabilities are more important during the initial phases of the lifecycle, whereas dynamic capabilities become increasingly important in later stages. Using panel data regression on a longitudinal sample of U.S. public firms from 1981 to 2023, we find support for these predictions. The findings contribute to the literature on firm capabilities and survival. We also derive practical insights for executives, suggesting which capabilities to prioritize at different stages of the firm lifecycle, particularly given the resource-intensive and path-dependent nature of capability development.

Speaker Bio

Pramendra Singh Tank is a PhD candidate in Strategy at IIM Ahmedabad, expected to graduate in 2026. His research explores the organizational consequences of executives' breadth of attention. His primary interest lies in examining the interplay between organizational capabilities and managerial cognition.

Title

A Hierarchy of Second Order Cone Programming relaxations for zero-one Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming Problems.

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Jitamitra Desai, IIM Bangalore

Abstract

Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming (QCQP) problems with binary variables frequently arise in diverse applications such as Portfolio Optimization, Facility Location, and Capital Budgeting. Traditional global optimization techniques address these problems by constructing convex or linear relaxations and integrating them into an exhaustive search framework, where the lower bound of the objective function is evaluated at each iteration. This paper introduces a novel reformulation approach to enhance existing methods, particularly those based on Reformulation-Linearization Technique (RLT) and Second-Order Cone Programming (SOCP). Our approach demonstrates that the effectiveness of the formulation is contingent upon the degree of terms used in the reformulation, with higher degrees yielding tighter approximations that ultimately converge to the convex hull of the original problem. We present computational results comparing our method with standard techniques, such as RLT and Semidefinite Programming (SDP), using benchmark instances to validate its efficacy.

Speaker Bio

B. Sudheer Kumar Reddy is a PhD candidate in the Decision Sciences area at IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Bangalore and is expected to graduate in 2026. His thesis is on the application of Second-Order Cone Programming Methods to solve real-life optimization problems. He has a bachelor's degree in mining engineering from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Kharagpur.

Title

The Relevant Third: Threat of Coalition and Economic Development

Co-authors, Collaborators

Sourav Bhattacharya (IIM Calcutta), Somdeep Chatterjee (IIM Calcutta), Pushkar Maitra (Monash University)

Abstract

We examine the impact of political competition on economic development in a multi-party setting by constructing a novel measure of competition: threat of coalition. We define a constituency as competitive when there is a ‘relevant’ third-position candidate, i.e., the ex-post vote share of the third-ranked candidate exceeds the winning margin. Using data from Indian Legislative Assembly elections and a regression discontinuity (RD) design, we show that constituencies with a barely ‘relevant’ third witness a 1.2—3.5 percentage points increase in nightlights (our measure of economic development). The main mechanisms are a higher availability of public goods and reduced reported crimes in constituencies with a relevant third. We rule out other channels by showing that there is no effect when the threat of coalition is not credible.

Speaker Bio

Manhar Manchanda is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Economics Group at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. His research interests primarily span areas of empirical political economy, public economics, and development economics, with a particular focus on voting behavior, political institutions, and public goods provision.

Title

IT software coordination in networks

Co-authors, Collaborators

Sanjith Gopalakrishnan (Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University), Sriram Sankaranarayanan (Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad)

Abstract

We investigate the problem of technology adoption by players in a networked environment. Modeling the environment as a directed network, we assume that each player faces a fixed cost for adopting a technology and an incoordination cost for differing from the technology of its neighbors. We characterize the network-optimal technology adoption problem and show that computing the network-optimal adoption strategy is computationally challenging. We also focus on a variant of the problem where the technologies are on a continuum. We compute the network-optimal and equilibrium costs, offering insights for efficient network coordination.

Speaker Bio

Devpriyo Ray is a fifth-year Ph.D. student at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in the Operations and Decision Sciences area. His research interests lie in applied game theory, particularly leveraging theoretical frameworks to address practical problems. He is also working in the domain of fair division problems.

Title

Effect of Education on Women’s Time Use: A Causal Analysis using DPEP.

Co-authors, Collaborators

Soham Sahoo, Loughborough University & IIM Bangalore and Hema Swaminathan, Asian Development Bank & IIM Bangalore  

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of education (captured through District Primary Education Programme) on Indian women’s time allocation. We use data from the 2019 Time Use Survey and employ a difference-in-difference (DID) framework for this analysis. While DPEP increased women’s completion of primary schooling, it led to gendered shifts in workload. Women spent more time on domestic work, while men spent more time on employment. We find no significant change in the intra-couple time allocation patterns.

Speaker Bio

Tanieem is a sixth year PhD student in Public Policy area. She has completed her MA in Economics from St Joseph’s College, Bangalore. Her broader research interest lies in women’s economics empowerment. She primarily works on asset ownership and education as means of reducing the gender inequality in the Global South.

Title

Venture Capital Syndicate Centrality and IPOs: Information and Investor Attention

Co-authors, Collaborators

Sudhakara Reddy Syamala, Professor, Finance & Control Group, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

Abstract

We study the impact of how well connected the Venture Capital syndicate investing in a particular IPO firm is to the entire Venture Capital network, on voluntary and aftermarket underpricing, investor attention, valuation and initial day performance of the IPO. We follow social networks literature and develop a measure for cumulative centrality of VC syndicates. The Indian setting offers us the advantage of transparency, thus enabling us to examine investor attention by category, and also the actual underpricing voluntarily carried out by the underwriter. We find that centrality, in fact, causes higher underpricing which is voluntarily carried out by the underwriter and though institutional investor attention is positively impacted, retail investor attention and initial day returns reduce in increasing centrality of the backing syndicate. Secondary market valuation is positively impacted by VC network centrality. Results are robust to different definitions of centrality and other explanations.

Speaker Bio

Samhitha Kasibhatta is a Doctoral Student in Finance & Control group at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Her research interests lie in Initial Public Offerings, Venture Capital and Renewable Energy Financing.

Title

Encroachment or Entitlement? Negotiating Public Space for Business Sustenance

Co-authors, Collaborators

Arun Sreekumar, Asst Prof of Marketing, IIM A

Abstract

Speaker Bio

Athi Karthick V is a sixth-year doctoral student at IIM Ahmedabad in the Marketing area. His primary research interests lie in prosocial behavior. He is also interested in informal retailers, digital platforms, and consumer wellbeing.

Title

Electric versus Flex-fuel Vehicles – The impact of government policies on automakers’ choice between green technology alternatives.

Co-authors, Collaborators

Haritha Saranga, IIM Bangalore and Sreelata Jonnalagedda, IIM Bangalore

Abstract

Green vehicles like EV and FFV are expected to be the future, however, prohibitively high investment costs force automakers to make choice between alternative technologies. We develop an analytical model to study an automaker’s choice to invest in EV or FFV where a fraction of consumers are endowed with conventional vehicle. Our findings suggest that automakers should prioritize EVs when the fraction of endowed customers is low, and the resale value is above a certain a threshold but not very high. Demand incentives and emission taxes influence portfolio mix and market coverage, resulting in a trade-off between total emission reduction and consumer welfare.

Speaker Bio

Satyajit is a fourth year PhD student in Production and Operations Management area. He has completed his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Durgapur and MBA from IIM Kozhikode. He has total 4 years of work experience in the automotive and consulting industry. His broader research interest lies in Environmentally and Socially sustainable value chain. On the environmental front, he primarily works on EVs and on the social sustainability front, he works on cadaveric organ supply chain. His interest also lies in the behavioural operations space.

Title

Reigniting the flame: Sustaining Usage Through Intermittent Releases of In-game Content

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Soumyakanti Chakraborty, Management Information Systems group, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

Abstract

Downloadable contents (DLCs) are additional in-game contents that developers release periodically to sustain the interest of users. In this paper, we study the effect of these DLC releases on the usage of a game by analysing actual usage data from 241 DLCs released over a period of 12 years. We use a quasi-experimental analysis to determine the effect on usage, and also investigate the effect of different DLCs categories on usage. We also study the effect of the different categories of game developers, indie and AAA, on the relationship between DLC release and usage. Results indicate that different categories of DLCs have distinct effects on usage. We also find that the release of DLCs of indie games have a greater impact on usage as compared to AAA games. We compare and contrast our results with the extant literature and provide insightful guidelines to game developers on managing DLC releases.

Speaker Bio

Shyam Prasad Ghosh is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Management Information Systems group, IIM Calcutta. He has a multidisciplinary educational and professional background with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering, a post-graduation in MBA, and having worked in the IT and Fintech sectors. His research thesis is on the user engagement in the hedonistic artifacts, with a special inclination towards the gaming domain.

Title

District-Level Longitudinal Implementation of India’s Forest Rights Act   

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Ankur Sarin, Associate Professor, Public Systems Group, IIM Ahmedabad   

Abstract

India’s Forest Rights Act aims to recognize community forest rights (CFRs) on traditional forest resources. I explore the District Collectors’ (DC) role over 13 years of CFRs implementation in India’s Gadchiroli District. I describe DCs’ implementation strategies to engage subordinates, NGO members, and village-level actors to generate intermittent outputs.

Speaker Bio

Santosh Gedam is a 6th-year PhD candidate in the Public Systems Group, IIM Ahmedabad. He has been studying district-level implementation of the Forest Rights Act. He has made a shift from policy practice to research. He has closely worked with administrators at the district and state levels on policy matters. He has also engaged with village-level communities and government actors to improve public service delivery in conflict-prone areas. He has a multi-disciplinary educational background in development practice, business management, law, and engineering. His research interest is in the commoning process, particularly of natural resources.

Title

A divide-and-conquer approach for spatio-temporal analysis of large house price data

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Soudeep Deb, IIM Bangalore

Abstract

Real estate statistical research, especially in spatio-temporal house price dynamics, grapples with slow standard Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for large datasets. We propose a divide-and-conquer approach, partitioning data into subsets, utilizing parallel Gaussian process models, and aggregating results via Wasserstein barycenter.

Speaker Bio

Kapil Gupta is a PhD candidate in the Decision Sciences area at IIM Bangalore, expected to graduate in 2025. His thesis is on spatio-temporal models in analysing house price dynamics. His research interests also include clustering, variable selection, and sports analytics. He has a master's degree in mathematics from IIT Delhi and a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from IIITDM Chennai. At IIM Bangalore, Mr. Gupta has taught preparatory courses on quantitative techniques and R programming to MBA and PhD students, and the Probability and Statistics course to the Pre-doctoral students. He is also working as a research consultant with IIMB-RERI. Please refer to the web page https://kapil21gupta.github.io/ for more details.

Title

Unveiling Managerial Perceptions of Transgender Individuals Through Stereotype Content Model

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Chetan Joshi (IIMC)

Abstract

This study examines the economic disenfranchisement and discrimination faced by transgender individuals in India. Employing the Stereotype Content Model, our investigation focuses on cisgender managers’ perceptions of transgender individuals within organizational settings. Results reveal that transgender individuals are consistently rated low on both warmth and competence, eliciting heightened feelings of pity among respondents.

Speaker Bio

Deepanshu Wadhwa is a 4th-year doctoral student in the Organizational Behaviour Group at IIM Calcutta. His primary research interests lie in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. He also works on the topics of leader-member exchange and work-family conflict.

Title

Cooperative Adoption of Supply Chain Traceability

Co-authors, Collaborators

Sanjith Gopalakrishnan (Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University), Sriram Sankaranarayanan (Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad)

Abstract

We investigate firms' adoption of traceability technology in supply chain networks. Adopting a cooperative game-theoretic approach, we develop a cost sharing mechanism implementable via transfer payments to upstream suppliers. We show that the cost sharing mechanism satisfies certain formal fairness properties, and, when efficient, supports the optimal traceability adoption strategy. Our findings also extend to a model that allows firms to benefit from partial traceability in their upstream supply chain.

Speaker Bio

Devpriyo Ray is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in the Operations and Decision Sciences area. His research interests lie in applied game theory, particularly leveraging theoretical frameworks to address practical problems. He is also working in the domain of fair division problems.

Title

Scaling Sustainable Agriculture Interventions through Equipment Sharing: Achieving Triple Bottom Line Performance

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Haritha Saranga - Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Prof. Sriram Narayanan - The Broad College of Business, Michigan State University and Chandrakant Pradhan - Confederation of Indian Industry Foundation

Abstract

This research tackles the issue of agricultural crop residue burning in northwestern India by implementing Sustainable Agriculture Practices. Using an intervention-based research approach, we present a framework highlighting the importance of equipment sharing through the lens of the socio-ecological model. It validates the intervention's success in improving triple-bottom-line performances.

Speaker Bio

Subhankar Saha is a 5th year PhD student in the Production and Operations Management area at IIM Bangalore. His thesis addresses agricultural crop residue burning in northwestern India through sustainable agriculture practices, emphasizing equipment sharing's role in improving triple-bottom-line outcomes. Moreover, his work also relates to spatial interpolation methodology to assess the broader environmental benefits of the intervention. He was awarded the WIPRO Sustainability Fellowship and TATA Chemicals Fellowship. He also works in Healthcare Operations Management, mainly focusing on the (in)equity in healthcare services. He has presented his work at top international operations management conferences and won the best paper award.

Title

Dignity-Armoring in Transactional Subsistence Marketplaces

Co-authors, Collaborators

Prof. Srinivas Venugopal, IIM-C and Prof. Ramendra Singh, IIM-C

Abstract

We investigate how the crucial aspect of dignity is protected in subsistence marketplaces marked by weak/absent formal and informal dignity-protecting institutions. Based on our analysis, we theorize dignity-armoring which are institutionalized practices deployed by subsistence entrepreneurs to protect themselves from chronic and multi-dimensional dignity threats.

Speaker Bio

Sarthak Mohapatra is a 5th-year doctoral student at IIM Calcutta in the Marketing area. His primary research interests lie in the domain of subsistence marketplaces. He also works on green marketing, ethical consumption, and game studies alongside.

Title

Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Understanding OBC Reservations in India

Co-authors, Collaborators

Single authored paper

Abstract

I study the effects of The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act. I evaluate the differential effects on Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SC/STs) relative to the general category. I look at changes in higher education attainment as well as dropouts among these groups.

Speaker Bio

Abhishek Shaw is a PhD student in the Economics Area at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He is interested in development economics and policy. Before his PhD, he worked as Senior Assistant Editor at Economic & Political Weekly (2013-18) and as Editorial Consultant at The India Forum (2018-19).

Title

Industry participation in academia and novelty in science

Co-authors, Collaborators

Nilam Kaushik, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and Satyam Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Shiv Nadar University

Abstract

Novelty in academic publications is important for both scientific and technological breakthroughs. The extent to which industry participates in academic publishing varies across different fields of scientific research. We explore how novelty in academic publications varies across fields with different degrees of industry participation in academic publishing.

Speaker Bio

Anubha Shokhand is a 4th year PhD student in Strategy area at IIM Bangalore. Her primary areas of research are University-Industry Collaboration and Science of Science.

Title

Shipment policies and coordination of fashion products facing dual-selling sessions

Co-authors, Collaborators

Sumanta Basu, Preetam Basu, and Raunak Joshi

Abstract

This study addresses the complex dilemma of adopting a single or dual shipment policy for fashion products facing two independent-selling sessions that meet individual tradeoffs based on delivery uncertainty and production, inventory holding, and shipping costs. Next, this paper extends the model to investigate coordination dynamics under a decentralized setting where traditional contracts fail to coordinate and finally suggests a novel contract for coordination.

Speaker Bio

Safiul Alom is pursuing Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India, in the area of Operation management group. His thesis is on healthcare multichannel operations. His other research interests are fashion supply chain, multichannel, and omnichannel retailing. He has two unpublished research papers under review in ABDC A* journals. Before his Ph.D., he had 12 years of work experience in L&T Limited, Vizag, India, where he actively implemented project management theories such as TOC, CCPM, etc.

Title

Are Gifts a Delight or an Overhead Cost? Impact of Donor Motivations on Preference for Gifts

Co-authors, Collaborators

Sai Siddharth VK, Arvind Sahay, Sou.

Abstract

We investigate the impact of gifts on donor retention. Importantly, across 3 field and 5 lab experiments, we examine if and why donors' refuse gifts, and its consequences on donor retention. We find that around 35% of donors refuse gifts and gifts can lead to negative consequences for donor retention.

Speaker Bio

Sai Siddharth V K is a PhD student in marketing at IIM Ahmedabad. His primary area of research is "Pro-Social behaviour" and nonprofit marketing. He is a recipient of multiple awards including 'Mirae Assets Foundation Merit Scholarship' and 'Sethuraman NASMEI Research Grant Award'

Title

Adjusting to Covariate Shocks: Tiding the COVID-19 Waves in India

Co-authors, Collaborators

Arnab Mukherji: Professor, Public Policy, IIM Bangalore

Abstract

Using the COVID-19 induced lockdown we investigate how household consumptions behaviour in India adjusted to a covariate economic shock. Longitudinal data allows us to capture evidence of differential consumption smoothing across heterogenous income and occupation groups.

Speaker Bio

Deepti Sharma is a 5th year Ph.D. student in Public Policy area at IIM Bangalore, advised by Prof. Arnab Mukherji. She is currently working as a research fellow on a fully funded project by Canadian Institute of Health Research in collaboration with McGill University, Canada on impact evaluation of public funded health insurance in India. Her research interests are in development economics particularly health and gender. Her thesis looks at the consumption smoothing during covariate shock, differences in age-appropriate immunization uptake between insured and non-insured households, measurement error due to respondent’s bias using Time Use Survey in India.