Intellectual capital and firm performance: evidence from Indian banking sector

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the entire Indian banking industry was paralysed and their performance was shattered by the unfolding of enormous cases of Non-performing Assets (NPA). The study estimates the operating efficiency of 40 Indian banks for 5 years (2011–15) as a proxy of performance measure using the output-oriented DEA-BCC model. We find that nearly 62% of the state-owned banks and 47% of the private banks are inefficient indicating that the inefficient banks need to reduce their inputs or improve their output to become efficient. The study further investigates the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and bank performance using a truncated regression model. The regression results show that out of the three components of intellectual capital, only human capital efficiency is positively and significantly associated with operational efficiency while structural capital and finance capital have a negative impact on the efficiency of banks. The study concludes that to achieve competitive edge banks should invest in their human capital. The results are robust in the case of financial variables taken as a proxy for performance.     

Inventories and antidumping: the case of orange juice trade

The United States and Brazil are key players in the international market for orange juice, mainly frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ). The U.S. orange juice industry benefits from one of the highest levels of import protection in U.S. agriculture. Additional trade protection was recently added with a U.S. industry victory in an antidumping trade suit against Brazil. We study the impact of FCOJ imports from Brazil on U.S. prices using time series econometric models and find only a weak FCOJ domestic price response to imports from Brazil, because extremely large U.S. inventories mute the price impact of any fluctuation in imports. Our findings imply that the antidumping tariffs were unjustified based on a material injury argument.     

Technological upgrading and energy demand scenarios for Indian railways—A system dynamics study

This paper presents a system dynamics model of the Indian railway system and generates probable scenarios of its performance up to the year 2011. The basic structure of the model, the relationships between the interacting variables, and the generic flow diagrams used for developing the model are discussed in detail. In generating the scenarios, probable changes in the railway system and in the national socioeconomic environment in which it works are considered. In particular, introduction of technological innovations in the railways and their impact on railway energy demand are examined in detail.     

Incentive Complementarity in China’s Rural Enterprises

Complementarity between incentive instruments is a central theme of theoretical research in industrial organization. However, despite its importance, empirical evidence on the existence of complementarities is limited. We identify complementarities between incentive mechanisms using a dataset on rural firms in China. Using a panel regression framework, we confirm that significant complementarities exist in terms of the impact of incentive instruments on the performance of firms. In order to evaluate the robustness of our results we account for unobserved differences in firm quality using fixed effects and instrumental variables regressions. Support for the complementarity hypothesis is found after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity.     

Exchange Rate Exposure and its Determinants: Evidence from Indian Firms

This article examines the determinants of the exchange rate exposure by comparing both manufacturing and service sector firms in India over the period of 2000 to 2013. First, the study finds that service sector firms are more exposed to exchange rate changes than manufacturing firms in India. Second, the results indicate that the market-to-book ratio and export are significant and positively related; however, size is negatively related to the exchange rate exposure of both the manufacturing and service sector firms. These results are robust with the estimation using a trade-weighted exchange rate.     

An exploratory study of factors affecting credit card brand and category selection in India

This article aims to identify various credit card selection factors in the context of an Asian emerging economy – India. Considering the recent emergence of the three-tier banking system in India, the study proposes to investigate whether there exists an association between credit card selection factors and the type of credit card issuing bank (public, private national or private foreign). The article also seeks to find out whether the income level of the individual determines the type of credit card bank category selection, as prior literature suggests that demographic factors are closely related to credit card selection and usage patterns. The analysis was carried out using a mixed method research design involving thematic analysis of focus group data, factor analysis, PERMAP analysis and multiple correspondence analysis in different phases. Five primary credit card selection factors were identified. A strong correspondence between credit card selection factors, personal income levels and choice of credit card issuing bank was found. Accordingly, credit card selection factors and personal income level were together identified as factors affecting the type of bank selected. The phenomenon of bank category-based stereotyping of brands is emphasized based on the analysis. The implications of this phenomenon with respect to brand identity conception, target segmentation, brand positioning and marketing communication are discussed.     

Excess demand and price formation during a Walrasian auction

We conduct a detailed analysis of the relationship between excess demand and the convergence of price to equilibrium during a real-world Walrasian auction, paying special attention to the size and speed of the price adjustment. Using data from the Tokyo Grain Exchange (TGE), we first show that because auctions for the various futures contracts occur sequentially, information becomes more evenly dispersed across traders as an auction sequence progresses. Then we show that excess demand is positively correlated with both the eventual price change and the speed with which price adjusts. As information becomes more evenly dispersed, the strength of these relationships weakens. Finally, though excess demand explains a large proportion of the variability of the change in price, it explains only a small proportion of the variability of the speed of adjustment.     

Evaluation of supplier capability and performance: A method for supply base reduction

Development of partnership with suppliers is widely recognised today as a potent tool for supply chain improvement. To develop an effective partnership, it is necessary to have a small supply base and an effort to reduce the supply base to a manageable level. Despite its overwhelming importance, models of supply base reduction are rare. Supplier sorting methods, used for pre-selection of suppliers and sometimes seen as methods for supply base reduction, have limitations ranging from (1) requirement of an exhaustive database of historical information (case-based reasoning), (2) inability to predefine the number of elements in a cluster (cluster analysis) and (3) inability to identify suppliers who are both highly capable as well as high performers (data envelopment analysis). In the present work, we develop a systematic framework for carrying out the supply base reduction process. The study assumes two important dimensions of suppliers—performance and capability. Performance of a supplier represents short-term effects on the achievement of supply chain objectives while supplier capability indicates long-term effects. Many of the performance and capability factors are imprecise in nature. In order to account for the imprecision involved in numerous subjective characteristics of suppliers, we use fuzzy set approach to measure the imprecision of these factors and rank a potential list of suppliers against their performance and capability. We then display their ranks in a ‘capability–performance matrix’ that helps a decision maker arrange the suppliers in decreasing order of preference. The desired numbers of suppliers are finally selected on the basis of this ordered list. The suggested framework will be of immense help to the practising managers in reducing the supply base—a prerequisite for building a strong supplier partnership and developing an effective supply chain.     

Policy analysis for growth of a new technology product

Three important aspects of the growth of a new technology product are new product diffusion, rise in productivity, and new product management. The authors maintain that these three aspects are interrelated. The study presented in this paper selected a system dynamics framework to address, in a unified fashion, the above-mentioned aspects of growth in the context of the TV industry in India. The study indicates that (a) in conformity to the present trend, new product diffusion should be treated as a multiattribute phenomenon, and a study of causal factors and their relationships hold the key to understanding this phenomenon, (b) contrary to the prevailing belief, new technology may not enhance capital or total productivity, particularly after the end of the major expansion phase of the product life cycle, and (c) new product growth is generally associated with a loss of market share during the major growth phase and an overcapacity at the end of this phase. Various policy tests on the model reveal that in the case of the Indian TV industry, employee skill has the highest leverage in improving company performance in terms of increased market share, increased productivity and profitability figures, and reduced overcapacity.     

Investigating the tourism and economic growth linkage: a panel causality analysis for the SAARC countries

Tourism receipts and expenditure are considered to be causally related to economic growth. The present study investigates the causal relationship between tourism receipts and tourism expenditure to economic growth for a panel of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries over a 20-year period (1995–2014). The present study used panel Granger causality tests and panel fully modified ordinary least squares to test the presence and magnitude of the causality. Results indicated a bidirectional causal linkage between growth and tourism expenditure only, while tourism receipts were found to influence growth. Tourism expenditure was found to have a negative effect on growth.