Editorial
It is my pleasure to bring you the third issue of the year, with its regular complement of articles and features.
The Indian stock market has grown significantly in the last decade and provided enormous opportunities for market participants. However, investors also face a high risk on account of the volatility of the markets. In their paper, "Modelling asymmetry and persistence under the impact of sudden changes in the volatility of the Indian stock market", Dilip Kumar and Prof S Maheswaran study the impact of sudden changes in the variance on the asymmetry and persistence of volatility in the Indian stock market from the point of volatility modelling and to assess the forecasting ability using the GARCH class of models. The authors compare two widely used methods , namely, Inclan and Tiao's (1994) (IT) ICSS algorithm and the Sanso, Arago and Carrion (2004) (AIT) ICSS algorithm, for various data generating processes, with conditional and unconditional variance. They infer that considering sudden changes in the variance may improve the accuracy of the estimation of volatility persistence and consequently in the Value at Risk and may help in the optimal allocation of funds.
Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) aggregates decisions of multiple experts to form a unified opinion about a system or a product which is being evaluated. In his paper "Multi-criteria decision making with overlapping criteria", Prof Mohammed Shahid Abdulla uses the evidential reasoning algorithm for handling the case of MCDM. He proposes two variants of ER, one where multiple experts assess a given subsystem and the second where experts have overlapping areas of expertise among subsystems. The author also introduces the framework of "inclusive" and "exclusive" ER algorithms.
In their paper, Prof Ajay K Jain and Prof Cary L Cooper examine the strength of the relationship between organisational stress and organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB) among operator level employees working in Indian business process outsourcing organisations (BPOs). The study took a sample of 402 operators from BPO organisations in northern India. Data on the primary variables of interest, organisational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour, were collected through the ASSET questionnaire and the OCB questionnaire, respectively. The results were found supportive of and consistent with the hypothesis of a negative relationship between organisational stress and OCBs in the context of BPO organisations in India. The authors suggest that efforts be made to increase the level of positive forces such as pay and benefits, job security and control. Further the impact of work relationship, aspects of your job, overload and resources and communication should be decreased in organisations.
The Indian information technology (IT) industry has had a "dream journey" since its formative years in the early 90s, in terms of its growth in revenues, provision of employment and contribution to the GDP of the country. This growth has largely been enabled by the availability of skilled and economical manpower. With the industry having attained significant scale, the viability of the existing service delivery model and financial model is being questioned. Our Round Table feature this time debates on the "Strategy to usher in the next phase of growth in the Indian IT industry". Prof N M Agrawal and co-authors assess the value pyramid of the Indian IT services and suggest that the journey forward must include inclusive growth and holistic development of society through provision of solutions in areas such as governance, healthcare and education, among others. A panel of practitioners from the IT industry share the strategies and initiatives of the industry in meeting the new challenges and opportunities. Our Interview feature is a reprint of the conversation that Prof J Ramachandran and Shubha Patvardhan of IIMB had with fashion artiste Manish Arora. The feature, first published in Vol 20 No 4, throws light on the challenges that companies from emerging economies face as they venture into advanced international markets, in the context of the fashion industry.
We are looking forward to the interesting presentations in the IMR Doctoral Conference, scheduled for December 17 and 18, 2012. We trust some of you will attend the conference. We look forward, as always, to your comments and suggestions on the contents of this issue.
Nagasimha Balakrishna Kanagal
Editor-in-Chief
IIMB Management Review, India
Email: eic@iimb.ernet.in