Editorial

It is my pleasure to bring you Volume 28, No. 2, the second issue of IIMB Management Review for the year.

Extant literature on corporate identity (CI) deals in communication of CI or change of CI. In “New Perspectives on Communication of Change in Corporate Identity”, Professor Seema Gupta fills a gap in the CI literature by examining the issues and challenges of communicating change in CI. The paper is based on a case study of Bosch in India, a leading automotive component manufacturer.  The case study investigates a two phase brand migration of Bosch, with the first phase (August 2004 – December 2005) termed the “Power of We’’, that recognised the respective strengths of MICO and Bosch through dual branding and treated them at par; the second phase (January 2006 – February 2008) being the brand migration from MICO to Bosch that signified unified branding of Bosch worldwide. The paper brings forth the challenges that a global brand faces when the old local brand has a strong emotional affinity among audiences.  The paper develops seven propositions and conceptualises a framework for strategic communication of change in CI.  The key propositions centre around – strategic orientation, a constituency focused approach, dual branding as an intermediate stage between de-identifying with the old and identifying with the new identity, integrating product messages with corporate messages, having a long time horizon to prevent loss of continuity, measuring communication effectiveness with a hierarchy of effects, and harnessing reciprocity of advertising and public relations.

Consumer sales promotion is increasingly gaining importance and to develop an effective sales promotional programme, a company needs to identify its target audiences and understand why they respond to sales promotions. Studies suggest that monetary savings cannot fully explain why and how consumers respond to sales promotions.  Psychological variables are recommended to identify deal proneness as individual traits are considered to be stable within oneself. The concept of consumers’ exploratory tendency (CET) is seen as a potentially important psychological motivator of consumers’ deal responsive behaviour. In the paper, “An Investigation of Consumers’ Exploratory Tendencies as Motivators of their Responsive Behaviour to Deals”, Professor Surajit Ghosh Dastidar assesses CET as potential motivator of proneness to eight types of deals during the purchase of shampoo and refrigerator.  Hypotheses are generated for deal proneness (purchase intentions) with respect to exploratory tendencies of variety seeking; risk taking / innovativeness; and curiosity motivated behaviour that includes exploration through shopping, interpersonal communication, and information seeking. The study is based on cross-sectional descriptive/survey research with the sample (410 responses) belonging to the age group of 21 to 50 years, residing in West Bengal, India, and those who take active purchase related decisions for fast moving consumer goods and consumer durable goods such as shampoo and refrigerator respectively. Multiple regression analysis has been employed to test how well the hypotheses are endorsed by the collected data. Scaling for exploratory tendencies in consumer behaviour and deal proneness has been adapted from extant literature. A field study has also been carried out to assess the relationship between CET and the consumers’ actual deal redemption behaviour and the results of the field study compared with the findings of the main study.  Consumers’ exploratory tendencies were found to partially influence their proneness to deals. The influence of consumers’ exploratory tendencies on their deal proneness differed across consumers, deal types, and product categories. Future research should examine other potential antecedents of deal responsive behaviour and include different types of products for cross-product validation of findings. The theories also need to be tested in other countries, to make the findings more generalisable for use by marketers.  

In their paper, “Response Rate in Industrial Surveys Conducted in India: Trends and Implications”, Professor T N Krishnan and Ms. Shobitha Poulose point out that the survey methodology is one of the predominant means of collecting data for organisational research, and the response rate (RR) is an important factor in determining the quality of the study. While there have been studies of RR in the Western context, this has not been the case in India. Presently, India is emerging as a destination for conducting and reporting large scale empirical research in top tier organisational journals, but India differs significantly from the West not only in its cultural norms but also in the practical difficulties of doing empirical research. The authors reviewed articles that reported response rates using questionnaires in 26 selected journals, and 46 selected studies, published in the years 2005 and 2010. The trends analysed include response rate across journals; individual or organisational level of respondents and RR over time; RR by mode of survey data collection; follow-ups and RR; incentives and RR; type of respondent (such as managerial, non-managerial) and RR; and industry sector and RR. Implications are discussed with reference to two theoretical frameworks for helping increase response rates: one based on reasoned action approach (considers rewards, costs, and trust); and the second based on psychological heuristics approach (considers norms of reciprocity, helping tendencies, compliance with legitimate authority, and perceptions of scarcity).  According to the results of the study, the response rate is significantly different for organisation level as compared to individual level respondents. Similar to the Western context, the use of non-monetary incentives is found to be associated with higher response rates while the use of reminders is related to lower response rates. As a contrast to the Western context however, the average response rate for an organisational level survey is significantly lower in the Indian context while for individual level respondent groups it is significantly higher than the average figures reported in the West. There is a significantly higher proportion of direct methods of survey data collection in India than through mail or Web. Further, use of legitimate authority to request participation in the survey has been adopted in many studies and it has been associated with higher than average response rates.

In the paper,  “Labour Market Outcome for Formal Vocational Education and Training in India: Safety Net and Beyond”, doctoral scholar Tutan Ahmed explores the safety net aspect of vocational education and training (VET) in India by looking at the labour market outcome. Vocational education and training is being paid increasing attention in India since the 11th Plan report with the formation of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA). The Government of India sets the target to skill / upskill or reskill 500 million people by 2022. The paper uses two rounds of National Sample Survey data and observes that there is a significant positive return of VET to wages but unemployment from VET is quite high, for the VET trained manpower.

In the Round Table on “Societal Impacts of Information and Communications Technology”, Professor Rahul De of IIM Bangalore reviews the promise of information and communications technology (ICT) to deliver societal change and the challenges it poses. It is now largely accepted that ICTs deliver benefits of change and development, and many governments have set up initiatives to implement ICT infrastructure to enhance people’s reach and access. However, academics are cautious in their endorsement of ICT for social change and point to the challenges that ICTs pose with regard to design, implementation, and evaluation. With ICT invariably being a Western import, concerns arise about its adaptability to local conditions and the likely social impacts.  A panel discussion moderated by Professor Sourav Mukherji of IIM Bangalore with the panel comprising Dr Ashwin Mahesh, founder and CEO of Mapunity, a social technology firm; Dr Srinivas Padmanabhuni, VP, ACM India and AVP, Infosys Labs; Dr Pramod Varma, Chief Architect, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI); Dr  Amit Prakash of IIIT Bangalore, formerly Advisor—Social Sector Consulting, Deloitte India; and Mr Chetan Patil, Founder & CEO, Rakya Technologies, discuss the societal impacts of ICT and the opportunities and challenges it poses.

In this issue, the book “The Paradox of India’s North South Divide: Lessons from the States and Regions”, by Samuel Paul and Kala Seetharam Sridhar, is reviewed by Ms Aparna Krishna, a doctoral student at IIM Bangalore.

I regret to announce the passing away of Professor Kwok Leung, of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, earlier, Professor at City University of Hong Kong, an eminent social scientist, on May 25, 2015. Professor Leung was Editorial Board Reviewer for IIMB Management Review in the OB/HR area.  

I also draw your attention to the announcement of our annual doctoral students’ conference, IMRDC, and look forward to the enthusiastic participation of doctoral students in the conference.

With best wishes to all readers,

Nagasimha Balakrishna Kanagal

Editor-in-Chief

IIMB Management Review

India

Email address: eic@iimb.ernet.in