In the third issue of our Silver Jubilee volume, which marks the twenty-fifth year of publication of IIMB Management Review, we present "Influence of ERP Systems on Business Process Agility" by Prof Ravi Seethamraju of the University of Sydney Business School and Prof Diatha Krishna Sundar of IIM Bangalore, as the invited paper. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are today considered an important component of the management of business processes. Capabilities enabled by the implementation of ERP systems that include integration, process optimisation, information visibility, and best practices impact process agility, an intermediate outcome that is likely to affect organisational outcomes such as cost, efficiency, and profit. The paper examines the effect of ERP systems on agility by employing a cross sectional field study to infer that standardisation of processes has mixed effects on agility and that inadequacies in implementation and poor process optimisation prior to ERP implementation are restricting process agility.
In "Investigating Role Stress in Frontline Bank Employees: A Cluster Based Approach", Prof Arti Devi and Prof Jyoti Sharma identify role stress as a significant contributor to work stress that impacts job performance. They make a case for the segmentation of employees based on their experience of role stressors in devising an effective role stress management programme. They conduct a cluster analysis of a random sample of 501 frontline employees of commercial banks in Jammu and Kashmir using a 30 item role stress scale that reveals three distinct segments -- "overloaded employees", "unclear employees", and "underutilised employees". They conclude that having the same role stress management programme for all employees could be sub-optimal and underline the relevance of a customised approach to role stress management.
The speed at which domestic and global news is absorbed by the stock market indices impacts market efficiency and patterns of stock price behaviour are an input parameter for investment decisions that include asset allocation strategies. In their paper "Speed of Information Adjustment in Indian Stock Indices", Prof P. Krishna Prasanna and Anish S. Menon use four speed estimators -- the AR (1) model, the ARMA (1, 1) model, the ARMA (1, X) model, and the cross-covariance estimator to estimate the speed of information adjustment in various indices of the Indian stock market. The lead-lag relationships between indices (BSE and NSE) with varied characteristics were also analysed. The findings showed that the benchmark Indian indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, led the other indices in the market and the bank index was found to be independent. An increase in the speed at which information gets adjusted into market indices has been observed indicating improved informational efficiency of Indian stock markets as a result of ongoing market reforms.
Prof Ashis Mishra studies the Café Coffee Day (CCD) chain of cafes and interviews V. G. Siddhartha, Chairman, Coffee Day Company to analyse the existing business model of a retail firm and comment on its appropriateness for generalisation to the retail sector in India. The round table on Distribution Challenges, anchored by Prof Avinash Mulky, seeks to find workable solutions by discussing challenges that companies in India face in designing, constructing and managing distribution channels with an eminent panel from industry and academia.
This issue also carries a call for submissions to the IMR Doctoral Conference 2013. I look forward to your feedback and to any other comments and suggestions.
Nagasimha Balakrishna Kanagal
Editor-in-Chief
IIMB Management Review
India
Email: eic@iimb.ernet.in
