ISSN: 2456-222X

Special Issue of National Conference Proceedings

on
“Global Strategy for Self Sufficiency”

BIMS Journal of Management

Vol -3, No. 1

January – June 2018

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Institute of

Management Science, Kolkata- 97
 BIMS Journal of Management

Chief Patron : Justice (Retd.) Chittotosh Mukherjee

Patron : Dr. G.V. Subramanian

Chief Editor : Dr. R.K. Patra

Executive Editor : Dr. Shantanu Chakraborty

EDITORIAL BOARD 1) Dr. Amitava Sarkar

Formar Director, IISWBM, Kolkata
& University Nominee (MAKAUT)

2) Dr. Ashish Banerjee

Professor, IIM, Kolkata

3) Dr. Sajal Dasgupta

Vice Chancellor – UEM, Kolkata
Former Director of Technical Education,
Govt. of West Bengal

4) Dr. Sitanath Majumder

Professor, Management Dept., Calcutta University

5) Dr. Mihir Kr. Mukherjee

Sr. Vice President, Ultratech Cement,
Durgapur, West Bengal

6) Dr. Ganesh Kawadia

Director, School of Economics, DAVV, Indore

7) Prof. J. K. Das
Professor and Head, Department of Commerce, Calcutta
University & Director, Calcutta University – Calcutta Stock
Exchange Centre of Excellence in Financial Market
 Message from the Governor -
Sri Keshri Nath Tripathi

Vol 3. Issue 1; January - June 2018’ BIMS Journal of Management I

 Message fro m the Principal

Vol 3. Issue 1; January - June 2018’ BIMS Journal of Management II

 Message from VC, Makaut

Vol 3. Issue 1; January - June 2018’ BIMS Journal of Management III

 Message from the President, Association of Indian
Management Schools (AIMS)

Vol 3. Issue 1; January - June 2018’ BIMS Journal of Management IV

 Message from the Conference Director

Vol 3. Issue 1; January - June 2018’ BIMS Journal of Management V

 BIMS Journal of Management
Volume 3, Issue 1; 2018

Contents
Message from H.E. The Governor of West Bengal I
Message from the Hon’ble Minister of Education, Govt. of West Bengal II
Message from The Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, MAKAUT III
Message from the President, Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS) IV
Message from the Conference Director V

1. Women Self Sufficiency through Participation as Directors in Business Enterprise 1

Arpita Ghosh, Sneha Ghosh
2. Impact of Male Influenceand other Variables towards the Purchase Decision
of Female Global Branded Products in Different Regions of Kolkata 6
Sucharita Debnath, Dr. Indrajit Sinha
3. Impact of Subliminal Messages in Print Advertisements on Customer
Behaviour- Special Reference to the Amul’s Print Advertisement 12
Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee
4. Impact of Technology on Recruitment Process and Its Impact on
Service Quality of HR Service Providers 26
Amitabha Gupta, Dr. Arup Kumar Baksi
5. Loyalty Programme – A Game Changer in the Volatile Market Environment of Indian Oil Industry 31
Dr. Amit Kundu, Kaustav Guha
6. Role & Responsibility of Supply Chain Management in IT Industries 36
Dr. Anand Mohan
7. Where Does the Roots of Open Defecation Lie? What Economics has to Say About it? 40
Debasree Bose
8. Correlation between Changes in Stock Market Index and Exchange Rates: A Time Series Analysis 48
Semanti Debroy Sen, Dr. Indrajit Sinha
9. Employee Branding Strategies in the Service Sector 52
Partha Das Biswas, Dr. Sandeep Ray Chaudhuri
10. Role of Digitalisation in Hospitality Industry with Special Reference to Online Food Delivery Services 58
Sukanta Kundu, Saroda Chatterjee
11. The UK-NHS: The Humble beginnings to the Distant Future 67
Dr. Somnath Sinha
12. Factors that Affect the Effectiveness of Online Automobile Advertisement on Indian Customers 74
Arijit Adhikary, Dr. Indrajit Sinha
Guidelines for Submission of Papers 79
Subscription Form BIMS Journal of Management 81
Disclaimer:
The view and opinions expressed or implied in the articles / papers published in theBIMS Journal of Management are those of the
contributors and not necessarily of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Institute of Management Science. The content of the Journal are the
copy right of the BharatiyaVidyaBhavan Institute of Management Science and the same may not be reproduced whether in part or
whole, anywhere without written consent of the Institute.

Vol 3. Issue 1; January - June 2018’ BIMS Journal of Management VII

 BIMS Journal of Management
Women Self Sufficiency through Participation as
Directors in Business Enterprise
Abstract: Self sufficiency of women as transition in career of
women is a debatable topic. During the post-Vedic and epic ages
the status of women were challenged from various spheres.
From early twentieth century, their status changed gradually.
After getting Independence, our Constitution makers strongly
demanded equal social position of women with men and
enshrined with the basic rule that there should not be
inequality. But surprisingly, inequality was persistent in the
society. Later on, with the changing scenario both the society
and the government started realizing the importance of women,
with the government making various laws to make women self
sufficient. From time immemorial, women have always
supported men and the society for achieving all around
development and progress in every vital and most significant
sphere of the domestic and social life and slowly in the
occupational and professional domain. As India is one of the
major and fast growing economies of the world, the initiative
for facilitating the lawful entry of women to the Board of
directors is surely a bright and prudent decision for
enhancement of the cherished contributions of women in the
economic progress and growth of the country. The Company
Act, 2013, after amendment, lays down under Section 149 (1)
provides for appointment of the women director as an effort for
making women self sufficient in India. Thus, this paper
discusses about:- i) the legislation on women director adopted
by our country, ii) women representation on boards in India
after the Act in 2013 and comparing it with the situation before
2013, iii) global comparison after legislation in the respective
countries. The data are provided through various charts and
tables. Finally, the curtains are drawn in this paper with some
suggestion to make women more self sufficient.
Keywords: Companies Act 2013, Self sufficiency of women,
Women Directors
1. INTRODUCTION
A society cannot be established without a man and a woman
though in India women were always overshadowed by men.
But with the passage of time, our society realized the
importance of women not only in domestic spheres but also in
social sphere. So, our Constitution makers provided provisions
for eradication of gender inequality as well as equality in
employment opportunities. Thereafter, various statutes have
been enacted in India for giving an economic recognition to
*Hooghly Mohsin College, Department of Law, Burdwan University; reeneeghosh@gmail.com
**sneha.putai@gmail.com
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Arpita Ghosh*, Sneha Ghosh**
women. The business enterprises are also not lagging behind.
From various study it has been seen that board of directors
consists of mainly men but women have been woefully
underrepresented across the globe and efforts have been made
in the recent years in a number of countries to remedy this.
Within India too, women‟s position in society is slowly
changing, so, our Legislature has taken a very bold step by
including provisions for women to be a part of the board in the
Company Act, 2013.The long-awaited Company Bill, 2013
got the assent of the President of India on 29th August 2013
and became the much awaited Company Act, 2013. The
Company Act, 2013 does not contain an exhausted definition
of the term “director”. Section 2 (34) of the Act prescribes that
“director” means director appointed to the Board of a
company. A director is a person appointed to perform the
duties and functions of director of a company in accordance
with the provisions of the Company Act, 2013. The Company
Act, 2013 enhances the accountability and responsibility of the
directors by mandating certain disclosures and provisions of
the Act. This paper deals with representation of women
directors in companies, as a whole, both in India and globally.
2. OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
OF THE STUDY
1. A study about the prevailing provisions and the legal
compulsions about women directors under Company
Act, 2013 and SEBI regulations, 2015.
2. To analyze the impact of the Act of 2013 in India, for
inclusion of women directors on board through various
data representation with special reference to Nifty 500
and NSE Listed companies.
3. To analyze the Global representation of women on
boards after legislation in respective countries through
data representation.
4. The data provided for this paper are purely secondary in
nature i.e. from publicly available biographical
information, from annual reports, articles, reliable
websites, etc. While the analysis and views provided are
of professionals, consultants, experts as well as personal.
1
Arpita Ghosh, Sneha Ghosh
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
In a report by Standard Chartered Bank (2010), it was
observed that one of the key themes that emerged was women
in India need to juggle their career with their family
responsibilities.
A study conducted by Srinivasan and George titled ‘Building
the Women Directorship Pipeline in India: An Exploratory
Study’ (2013) and they found that the attendance of male
members increased during board meetings and there was a
drop in aggression of a male member when there was a
woman director on board. There was a consensus that it didn‟t
matter to women whether there was another woman on board.
A study by Vinnicombe et al (2004) indicated that higher
number of women in executive positions results in stronger
rates of corporate return on equity. Another Study by Catalyst,
The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance And Women‘s
Representation On Boards (2007) on board diversity found
that companies with the highest percentage of women on their
boards outperformed companies with the least number of
women on their boards by 53% on return on equity, 42% on
return on sales and by 66% on return on invested capital.
Industries which thrive on women‟s products it would be even
more beneficial for corporations to have women on their
boards to understand and relate to the consumer base. The
representation of women on corporate boards could also help
address issues of sexual harassment, facilities for onsite day
care and any other concerns of women employees (Janis
Sarra, 2003, 2004, 2010). Women directors also frequently
ask questions meaning that decisions are less likely to be
nodded through. CEOs report that women become more vocal
and active as directors when there are more females (Konard,
Kramer and Erkut 2008). While these are just essentialist view
about female talents but intelligence of both women and men
is increasingly valued at the very top.
4. INCLUSION OF WOMEN DIRECTORS IN INDIA
The parliamentary committee report on the Companies Bill
offers one justification for the proposal by stating that the
provision is “likely to be in line with the policy of the
Government for encouraging more and more women
participation in decision making at various levels”. Moreover,
from Sociological and Women‟s Rights Perspective, another
equally compelling reason is Article 11 of the United Nations
Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW), which states that men and women
have the same rights to employment opportunities, promotion
and equal treatment in respect of work for equal value. Hence,
the Central Government found it expedient to introduce a
mechanism to make women self sufficient. Thus, necessary
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
BIMS Journal of Management
amendments were made to the previous Act by the Company
(Amendment) Act and India got its new Company Act 2013.
The Act aims to make the corporate more transparent and also
special provision for women to encourage them. Though
various changes have been made in the Act, the focus of this
paper being on studying women, hence, Section 149 of the
Company Act, 2013, deals with the same. It states that every
company shall have board of directors who are individuals
with minimum number of three directors in case of a public
company and two directors in case of a private company and
one in case of One Person Company. A maximum of fifteen
directors may be appointed. Section 149 (1) of the said Act
further states that such class or classes of companies as
mentioned above shall have at least one women director. In
case, if there is vacancy in the post of women director, such
vacancy has to be filled as early as possible and it should not
be later than the next immediate board meeting or after three
months from the date of the post being vacant, i.e. whichever
is later.
The Act further provides for the time limit for the appointment
of women director under Section 149 (2). It states that every
Company existing on or before the date of commencement of
this Company Act, 2013, shall within one year from such
commencement comply with the requirement.
SEBI under Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement lays down
that the Board of Directors of the company shall have an
optimum combination of executive and non-executive
directors with at least One Woman Director.
LEGAL ACTION FOR NON – COMPLIANCE
The rules relating to women directors have been made with an
aim to ensure gender diversity in boardrooms. So, any
contravention of Section 149 (1) of the Act, the Company and
every officer of the company who is in default shall be
punishable with fine which shall not be less than Rs. 50,000/-
but which may extend to Rs. 5,00,000/-.
The rule as laid down by SEBI under Clause 49 of the Listing
Agreement was first announced by SEBI in February 2014
with an initial deadline of 1st October of the same year that
was later extended by six months i.e. 31st March, 2015.
Acting against listed firms without a mandatory woman
director, SEBI in April 2015 announced a minimum Rs
50,000/- fine and warned of further action, if they remain non-
compliant beyond six months. The Securities and Exchange
Board of India (SEBI) announced a four-stage penalty
structure wherein fines would increase with the passage of
time on non compliance by the listed companies:-
2
Arpita Ghosh, Sneha Ghosh BIMS Journal of Management

TABLE 1: SEBI Regulations on Listing Agreement

Compliance Date Fine

Between 1st April and 30th June, 2015 Rs. 50,000/-
Between 1stJuly and 30th September, 2015 Rs 50,000/- and an additional Rs 1,000 per day till the date
of compliance.
On or after 1st October, 20l5 Rs 1.42 lakh plus Rs 5,000/- per day till the date of
compliance.
Beyond 30th September, 2015 The regulator may take any other action or issue such
directions in accordance with law.

So, the Government has now paved a way for the women to on March, 2016. But in December, 2017, there were 14.8% of
participate as one of the Board members of the company and women directors while by the beginning of 2018, 14.94% of
bring about a transition in the career and now, time will tell women directors occupied the NSE listed companies.
how beneficial will it prove.

5. REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN DIRECTORS ON

BOARDS IN INDIA

India is one of the few developing countries to have enforced a

quota – the legal framework now mandates listed companies
to have at least one women director on the board. While this is
less stringent than some of the thresholds prevalent in global
markets, it is a welcome step in changing the market dynamic.
The push seems to have worked – at least for now. Companies
have woken up from their inertia and are more mindful of the Chart 2: Data Source: Indian Boards Database, 2016, 2017 and
need to have women directors at the board level. The effects 2018
of the regulatory push are clearly visible in the board mix
trends – from 5% female representation in 2012, the board But clearly more needs to be done. The following chart will
composition is significantly more inclusive now with women show the number of non compliant companies in Nifty 500
constituting around 26% in the NIFTY 500 as in the beginning and NSE listed companies.
of 2018.

Chart 3 – Data Source: Prime Database, Indian Database, 2017,

Chart 1 - Data Source: Prime Database, May, 2017 and 2018
2018
According to the Indian Boards Database covering various
Out of the 14 non compliant companies of Nifty 500, 8
NSE listed companies, there were 13.9% women directors as
companies were from Public Sector Undertakings. There are a

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Arpita Ghosh, Sneha Ghosh BIMS Journal of Management

total of 58 PSUs in the NIFTY 500, which means about 14% The chart above shows that all the sectors have a higher than
of PSU companies were non compliant. Thus, PSUs have average proportion of women directors except the energy
lagged their private sector counterparts. sector, which is at the lowest end at 8.9%.

So, numbers do tell the entire story. Women presence on

company boards is increasing after the legislation of 2013 and
changing board culture in certain ways.

6. GLOBAL COMPARISON

The global markets have taken the lead in promoting gender

Chart 4 - Data Source: IiAS Research, Prime Database Group, as
on 31st March, 2017
diversity, with most of them having adopted regulatory quotas
for female representation. Norway was one of the first
countries to set a benchmark in 2003 and the law came into
effect in 2006.The approach was subsequently adopted by
other countries. The laws in various countries have resulted in
a surge of women director appointments since the last decade
which will be proved by the following data.

TABLE 2: Source: Catalyst Legislative Board Diversity, IiAS Research, 2017

Country Requirement Type Threshold Introduced In Due Date for Representation of

threshold Women Directors
Compliance
Norway Mandatory 40% 2003 2008 42%
Germany Mandatory 30% 2015 2016 19.5%
Italy Mandatory 33% 2011 2015 28.1%
Netherlands Company or explain 30% 2013 2016 21.4%
Spain Company or explain 40% 2007 2015 16.3%
Belgium Mandatory 33% 2011 2017 27.6%
Denmark Comply or explain 40% 2013 - 24.2%
France Mandatory 40% 2013 2016 40%
Malaysia Mandatory 30% 2011 2016 13.7%

7. CONCLUSION been constant increase in the representation of women on

The goal of this paper was to review the most up-to-date study
of women directors on boardrooms. Based on the secondary
analysis and findings and as per the words of experts in the
field of research it can be concluded:
• The Company Act, 2013 and SEBI have taken a bold step
to bring the women in the forefront and make them self
sufficient. It is evident from Chart no. 4 wherefrom it is
clear that in every sector there has been average
representation of women directors on board.
• Most of the Companies in India have tried to comply with
the mandatory provision by appointing women directors
and has welcomed the amendment. From Chart no. 1 & 2,
it is evident that after the Company Act, 2013, there has
boards.
• ONGC, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd
(BPCL) and GAIL (India), country‟s prized PSUs, were
amongst some of the PSUs that did not have a woman
director on their boards at the beginning of 2017 in
contravention of the mandatory requirements but by the
end of November, 2017, all of them have complied with
the requirement and it can be said that the PSUs are trying
to bring in diversity in the boardrooms.
• As per the Prime Database and Indian Database in Chart
no. 3, some companies are still non compliant with the
mandatory provision. This is due to the inability of the
companies to meet the deadline by citing various excuses
like “sudden excuse of an existing woman director”, or

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Arpita Ghosh, Sneha Ghosh
“lack of quorum at board meetings”, or “due process not
followed by the company in calling board meeting”, etc.
• The four stage fines laid down by SEBI as per Table no.
1, for the non compliant companies within the prescribed
period is very low and will not burn the pockets of the
Companies.
• From global perspective as per Table no. 2, none of the
countries have managed to comply fully with the mandate
for appointment of women directors on boards and each
of the countries are progressing. Similarly, India is also
progressing and there is a regulatory push in the
representation of women directors.
From this study it has been seen that there are fewer
companies with no female directors on their boards in India
today than just a few years ago but this change has occurred at
a sluggish pace. After exploring all the facts and figures, we
would like to say that there has been an increase in women
representation and it can be expected to increase in future if
proper and strict actions are taken by the government of India.
We should aim to close the gap of female representation with
that of the men in the post of directorship by some measures:-
• To make women self sufficient, equal opportunity should
be given to women in appointments and promotions on
Boards. It will enhance the quality of the board as a whole
as the combined contribution of a group of people with
different skills, different experiences, backgrounds and
life styles.
• A Voluntary Pledge Program should be set up by our
country to urge the companies to address the issue of
proportionate appointment of women on boards. This
attempt was made by EU, whereby it requested large
public companies to voluntarily pledge to achieve 30%
representation of women on company boards by 2015.
• A comply or explain approach whereby it would be
recommended to the company boards to achieve a
minimum proportion of women directors and if they fail
to comply, they are to explain their failure. This creates
accountability on the part of the company. Such approach
has been taken up by U.K. and Australia which has
resulted in positive progress.
• A Mandatory Diversity Disclosure Report, by which
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
BIMS Journal of Management
companies are required to disclose the gender diversity
ratios in the organizational structure, the process and
criteria of hiring, attempts made by companies to create
equal opportunity and long term strategy to realize gender
diversification. This creates transparency, holds company
accountable to the public and paves a way for equal
opportunity for men and women.
• Other measures must also be implemented like
mentorship programs, annual diversity reports, diversity
training programs, etc. to bring in more brimming women
talent to the forefront.
Recently, IMF has pointed out that India‟s GDP can expand
by 27% if women get equal opportunity to participate in
workforce as much as men. Thus, it is expected that if there is
strict rules and regulations, companies will exhibit more
women orientation in their board nominations in future
matching with the professional nature of their industry for
bringing self sufficiency amongst women in India.
REFERENCES
[1] Board Diversity without Quotas: An International Perspective,
available at http://www.harrisandassociates.com/
web/z/1/1764/Board_Diversity_Without_Quotas:_An_Internatio
nal_Perspective.
[2] Catalyst, The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and
Women's Representation on Boards (2007)
[3] Corporate India – Women on Boards, IiAS, May 2017, pdf
[4] Deloitte- Women on Boardroom: A Global Perspective
[5] Factly.in/gender-diversity-on-company-boards
[6] http://www.indianboards.com/pages/index.aspx
[7] Journal on Emerging issues on Accounting and Financing, Azad
Hind Fauj Smriti Mahavidyalaya; Koushik Chatterjee, Women
on Boards.
[8] Need for Women Directors in Indian Companies, pdf
[9] The Companies Act, 2013, Bare Act
[10] The Parliamentary Committee Report on the Companies Bill,
2011, available at
[11] http://www.scribd.com/doc/99565110/Parliamentary-
Committee-Report-Lok- Sabha-on-Companies-Bill-2011.
[12] Women Matter 2010, available at
http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/swiss/news_publications/pd
f/women_matter 2010_4.pdf.
[13] www.globewomen.org/cwdi/2015FG200KeyFindings.html
5
 BIMS Journal of Management
Impact of Male Influenceand other Variables towards
the Purchase Decision of Female Global Branded
Products in Different Regions of Kolkata
Abstract: In today’s world of increasing global competition,
consumer perception occupies a wide research area of strong
interest for both academic and marketers. We are finding in
recent time number of global multinational brand in female
products are trying to establish their brand in Indian market.
The purpose of this study is to analyse and find how male
partner of the group influences on purchase decision of female
global branded products in Indian Market. Besides gender
influence we are also trying to examine the influence of other
variables (i.e., Awareness, Lifestyle, Income and Age) towards
purchase decision of female global branded products. After data
collection through survey, it isanalysed using Multiple
Regression analysis to find out the significance of individual
predictor as stated above.
The finding reveals that male partner of group highly
influences purchase decision of female global branded products
in Kolkata. After analysis the data shows that male partner
having annual income up to Rs. 5 lakhs with an age group of up
to 30 highly influences purchase decision of female global
branded products. Along with that the data reflects that male
partner were highly aware regarding latest designs and market
position of different female global branded products. Thus
annual income and higher awareness of male partner of the
group are highly correlated with each other regarding purchase
decision of female global branded products indifferent regions
of Kolkata.The overall findings of this study provide
implications for marketers and brand owners of female global
branded products.
Keywords: purchase decision, male influence, awareness,
lifestyle, income, age, regions.
1. INTRODUCTION
Purchase decision is the selection of an action after evaluating
different alternatives. Consumers face a lot of dilemma before
taking a final decision to purchase a product or service.
However there is a known process through which consumer
goes through by which they identify their needs first then they
proceed to collect information and finally evaluate the various
alternatives and make purchase decision. These decisions are
*Research Assistant, Indian Institute of Management (IIM-C), Kolkata; sucharitad14@gmail.com
**Assistant Professor, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Institute of Management Science; Kolkata indrajitsinha25@gmail.com
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Sucharita Debnath*, Dr. Indrajit Sinha**
helpful and useful for marketers to formulate new strategies to
make their products more popular.
This study throws light on the impact of male influence and
other variables towards the purchase decision of female global
branded products in Kolkata. Today, global branded products
of women play a significant role in the retail market.
Women play a significant role in domestic and socio-
economic life in society. In today’s society, female and male
roles have been changing rapidly. Now a day’s female
consumers are playing roles of chief purchasing officer and
controlling 85% of buying decisions. Products and services are
finally purchased by women instead of having male dominated
society. This is mainly due to increasing awareness,
independent income and role in the family. But still there are
factors where male influence is higher regarding purchase
decision of female consumers in our society.
Realising this situation, female global branded product
companies are competing with each other to satisfy the needs
of women consumers with their latest designs. Along with
that, marketers are updated in their stores of a particular mall
with beautiful outfit, and different sizes and coloursof female
global branded products. So this study helps somewhere the
marketers and salesperson of female global branded products
to target male consumers to boost their sales and making new
strategies to enlarge their market share. However, it is
necessary to analyse the impact of male influence and other
variables regarding purchase decision of female consumers of
their branded products.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
According to research (Jain et. al., 2014) young generation
usually have distinctive taste, choice, opinions, preference,
attitude and behavior. This makes it crucial to understand how
they perceive brands. They are highly fashion conscious,
demand for high-end luxury goods, especially luxury apparels.
As per (Gazhali and Abidin, 2011) within the entire country
population, the younger generation is highly fashion conscious
6
Sucharita Debnath, Dr. Indrajit Sinha
and survey studies reveal that exposure to movies and
perceived influence from parents and peers are positively
related to brand consciousness.
Western clothes were adopted first by Indian men and later by
Indian women as more women are joining the workforce
(Wilkinson-Weber, 2005). In spite of the popularity of western
clothing among Indians, there is no empirical research on
understanding consumer perception towards foreign clothing
brands i.e., Levi’s, Calvin Klein, Nike, Dockers, Wrangler,
And, Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, Lee etc. Indian consumers are
purchasing these brands in malls and department stores.
India’s $3.5billion clothing market represents the second-
largest industry for India and it presents opportunities for both
domestic and foreign retailers (Fernandez et al., 2000).
Considering the buying behaviour of Indian women, it is
influenced by advertisements, Discounts, offers and new
schemes on the commodity (Surindar.K.V. Miglani,2011).
This study reveals that the purchase decision of Indian women
is highly influenced by various promotional tools.
Another research conducted by Sarguna Mary (2009) stated
that product purchase decision making among married
working women of cities depend on the decision of family
members.
It is evident from the research conducted by Kamalveni et al
(2008) that brand loyalty is significantly associated with age
of consumers rather than with their income. So it is really
necessary to study the influence of demographic variables on
purchase decision of female global branded products.
Entrepreneur Ravi Modi founded Manyavar 18 years ago with
a single store in Kolkata. It currently operates 400- plus stores
across 170 locations and could be valued at over Rs. 2500
crore, or $400 million, according to recent media reports (The
Times of India, 2017). If successful, the deal-making would
provide Vedant, a strong presence in womenswear market, a
AWARENESS
LIFESTYLE
INCOME
AGE
Fig. 1. Effect of Awareness, Lifestyle, Income and Age towards Purchase Decision of Female Global Branded Products
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
BIMS Journal of Management
brand called Mohey. Thus, the branded womenswear
companies could be able to increase the GDP of our country
by increasing their monthly sales.
3. RESEARCH GAP
Previous research has established some concepts regarding
global brand consciousness and consumer behavior towards a
particular brand but not enough is known regarding the impact
of male influence and other variables towards purchase
decision of Female global branded products in Indian context.
Therefore through this study we like to establish whether
above stated variables does have an effect on male partner
towards purchase decision of female global branded products
in Kolkata.
4. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1) To study the impact of male influence towards purchase
decision of female global branded products in Kolkata;
2) To evaluate the awareness level of male partners towards
different female global branded products;
3) To study how the lifestyle of male partner actually
affects the purchase decision of female global branded
products in Kolkata;
4) To understand how the income of a male partner have a
great impact on purchase decision of female global
branded products;
5) To know how the age of a male partner influences the
purchase decisionof female global branded products in
Kolkata.
5. FORMULATION OF HYPOTHESES
Following hypotheses can be drawn to be tested through this
research to evaluate the impact of male influence and other
variables towards purchase decision of female global branded
products in Kolkata:
PURCHASE
DECISION OF
FEMALE GLOBAL
BRANDED
PRODUCTS
7
Sucharita Debnath, Dr. Indrajit Sinha
Awareness:
Customer cannot buy a thing unless brand awareness is
created (Percy & Rossiter, 1992). It is prerequisite dimension
of whole knowledge system in customer mind that tell how
potential a customer is to identify brand under different
conditions, how much they like a brand and how easy does the
brand name comes to their mind (Keller, 1993). Marketers
promote product through many promotional activities to create
awareness. Once customer is aware of any brand and use it
then this personal experience turned into brand loyalty and
brand association.
Research Question 1: Does awareness level of male
partnerhave positive effect on purchase of female global
branded products?
Hypothesis 1: Awareness level of male partner has positive
effect on purchase of female global branded products.
Lifestyle:
For high lifestyle consumers, there is strong impact on
purchase of female global branded products. Bharadwajet. al.,
2011explained that the Indianconsumers in developing
countries experiencing improved standards of living and
lifestyle and showing a desire to consume global brands. This
study examined the effect of life satisfaction of Indian
consumers on brand consciousness and brand-specific
variables (i.e. quality, emotional value and brand loyalty) for
female branded products.
Research Question 2: Does lifestyle of male partner have
positive effect on purchase of female global branded products?
Hypothesis 2: Lifestyle of male partner has positive effect on
purchase of female global branded products.
Income:
Mukherjee et al., 2012 focuses on purchase behaviour and
perception of foreign brands by carrying out a survey of
potential consumers through data analysis by simple
regression techniques. This study throws light on that the
Indian consumers are price-sensitive as disposable income are
rising, consumption patterns are changing day by day and
brand consciousness level is rising. Male influence on
purchase of female globalbranded productsis highly dependent
on male’s income.
Research Question 3: Does income of male partner have
positive impact on purchase of female global branded
products?
Hypothesis 3: Income of male partner has positive impact on
purchase of female global branded products.
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BIMS Journal of Management
Research Question 4: Does age of male partner have positive
impact on purchase of female global branded products?
Hypothesis 4: Age of male partner have positive impact on
purchase of female global branded products.
6. METHODOLOGY
This research has design for causal study between independent
variables namely awareness, lifestyle, income and age and
dependent variable i.e., male influence towards purchase
decision of female global branded products. To conduct this
research study, primary data were collected through personal
interview with structured questionnaire which was developed
on the basis of above mentioned review of literature. The
questionnaires consisted of close-ended questions which were
framed keeping in mind the impact ofmale influences and
various variables towards purchase decision of female global
branded products. The data collected through these
questionnaires were examined and SPSS 21was used for data
analysis. Secondary data were collected from previous
journals, internet, magazines, news articles and newspapers.
These secondary data helped a lot to frame the above literature
reviews.
Data Collection: In this study, Convenience sampling method
was used for collecting data from respondents through
questionnaires. Various shopping malls of Kolkata were
selected as study area and people from this area were selected
for filling up of questionnaires and collecting responses due to
convenience of location. Information was also collected by
sending questionnaires through e-mails to friends, relatives
and colleagues.200 questionnaires wereserved. The
respondents were selected from different shopping malls of
Kolkata, where 50 are from each regions of Kolkata. Among
200 questionnaires, 135questionnaires were scrutinized and
out of 135, 35 questionnaires were rejected due to various
reasons. Remaining 100 questionnaires were finally used for
analysis.
Validity and Reliability of data: To assure the validity of data,
principal component analysis (PCA) was used forthis study as
shown in Table 1 below:
TABLE 1: Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling 0.581
Adequacy
Approx. Chi-Square 787.993
Bartlett's Test of
df 378
Sphericity
Sig. 0.000
Source: Validity data
8
Sucharita Debnath, Dr. Indrajit Sinha BIMS Journal of Management

Table 1 depictsthat the KMO value of this dataset is 0.581. Total 100 100
Therefore, KMO values between 0.5 and 0.7 aremediocre.
However, Bartlett’s test of sphericity with an associated p Income:
value of <0.00, rejecting the null hypothesis, indicates validity Up to 5,00,000 57 57
of the data.
5,00,001-10,00,000 27 27
To investigate the reliability of questionnaires, Cronbach’s 10,00,001- 6 6
alpha was used. For this, 20 samples as pre-test were used as 20,00,000 10 10
shown in Table 2 below: 20,00,001 and 100 100
above
TABLE 2: ReliabilityStatistics
Total

Cronbach's Alpha No. of Items Age:

0.752 18 Up to 30 50 50
Source: Reliability data 31-40 26 26
41-50 17 17
Table 2 shows that Cronbach's Alpha value for questionnaires
51 and above 7 7
was0.752 which reveals that data is internally consistent and
reliable. Total 100 100
Source: Computed data
7. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

It has been recognized that impact of male influence towards Table 3 indicates that 59% of male respondents belong to the
purchase decision of female global branded products, age group of up to 30. Majority belong to the income group of
particularly, their awareness, lifestyle, income and age, may up toRs.5 lakhs. The data shows that male partner having
vary according to their individual characteristics in different annual income of up toRs. 5 lakhs with an age group of up to
regions of Kolkata. 30 highly influences purchase decision of female global
branded products. Thus this study reveals that demographics
TABLE 3: Demographic profile of the respondents play acrucial role on the impact of male influence and other
variables towards purchase decision of female global branded
products in Kolkata.
Respondents Frequency Percentage
Gender: Multiple Regression method has been used to know about the
exact relationship between independent variablesnamely
Female 41 41 awareness, lifestyle, income and ageand a dependent variable
Male 59 59 that is male influence towards purchase decision of female
global branded products.

TABLE 4: Multiple Regression Analysis

Variables R R Square Adjusted R Std. Error of Durbin-

Square the Estimate Watson
Awareness, Lifestyle, Income and Age 0.484 0.234 0.040 0.73490 1.968
Source: Regression Data

Table 4 shows how much variation a variable brings in other
constraints. The impact of male influence and other variables
towards purchase decision of female global branded products
shows positive relation as R=48% and R2 =23% variation male
influence and other variables brings towards purchase decision
of female global branded products. The value of Durbin-
Watson = 1.968 as we know test statistics values of Durbin-
Watson in the range of 1.5 to 2.5 are relatively normal and
considered.

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Sucharita Debnath, Dr. Indrajit Sinha BIMS Journal of Management

TABLE 5: Coefficientsa

Variables Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized t Sig. 95% Confidence Interval for

Coefficients B
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 1.393 0.470 2.963 0.004 0.459 2.326
Awareness 0.211 0.127 0.168 1.669 0.099 -0.040 0.463
Lifestyle 0.220 0.128 0.176 1.714 0.090 -0.035 0.475
Income -0.213 0.155 -0.140 -1.372 0.173 -0.522 0.095
Age 0.167 0.118 0.147 1.416 0.160 -0.067 0.402
Source: Regression Data

Table 5 reveals that the beta values of awareness, lifestyle, income and age shows how significant is the relationship among those
variables towards purchase decision of female global branded products. As explained by the figure below:

β = 0.17
AWARENESS
S
PURCHASE
DECISION OF
β = 0.18 PURCHASE DECISION
LIFESTYLE FEMALE
GLOBAL
β= -0.14 BRANDED
INCOME PRODUCTS
β = 0.15

AGE

Fig. 2. Effect of Awareness, Lifestyle, Income and Age through Beta

Values towards Purchase Decision of Female Global Branded Products

Figure 2 reveals thatlifestyle (β=0.18) of male partner of the
group highly influences purchase decision of female global
branded products than other variables. While on the other
hand the income (β= -0.14) of male partner of the group does
not influences purchase decision of female global branded
products. Thus this study depicts positive relationship between
impact of male influence and other variables (Awareness,
Lifestyle and Age) towards purchase decision of female global
branded products.
8. CONCLUSION
The result shows that there is a high impact of male influence
and other variables i.e., Awareness, Lifestyle and Age towards
purchase decision of female global branded products in
different regions of Kolkata. It was found that different
regions of Kolkata have a strong effect on purchase decision
of male partner towards purchase of female global branded
products. Variables like awareness, lifestyle, income and age
tend to influence male partner towards purchase decision of
female global branded products. It can be concluded that our
analysis provide insight onmarketers, brand owners and
especially salespeople who were engaged with daily sales of
female global branded product at particular store. Thus, result
of this study is highlighted and further authenticated the
importance of male influence and other variables regarding
purchase decision of female global branded products.

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Sucharita Debnath, Dr. Indrajit Sinha
REFERENCES
[1] Bharadwaj, V., Park, H., and Kim, Y. K. (2011), “The Effect of
Indian Consumer’s Life Satisfaction on Brand Behaviour toward
a U.S Global Brand”. Journal of International Consumer
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[2] Fernandez, M., Gadi, C., Khanna, A., Mitra, P. and Sabbu, N.
(2000), “Indian retailing comes of age”, McKinsey Quarterly,
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[3] Gazhali&Abidin, (2011), The Influence of Socialization Agents
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[4] Jain, V., Vatsa, R., &Jagani, K. (2014), Exploring Generation
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[5] Kamalaveni. D., Kalaiselve. S., Rajalakshmi.s.(2008),” Brand
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[6] Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing
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[7] Mukherjee, A., Satija, D., Tanu, M., Murali, G., Mantrala, K.,
&Zou, S. (2012), Are Indian consumers brand conscious?
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[8] Percy, L., &Rossiter, J. R. (1992). A model of brand awareness
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[9] Sarguna Mary, (2009),” Product purchase decision making
process among urbanmarried working women in Tiruchirapalli
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17 to 25.
[10] Surinder K.V. Miglani (2011), “Indian women buying behaviour
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 BIMS Journal of Management
Impact of Subliminal Messages in Print
Advertisements on Customer Behaviour- Special
Reference to the Amul’s Print Advertisement
Abstract
The term "subliminal" means beneath the threshold of
perception. Many things are subliminal, such as the circulation
of our blood, which we normally do not feel, experience, or
perceive moving throughout our bodies. And it is possible to
have our skin touched in such a way that we do not notice the
touch.
Ever since the term ‘subliminal advertising’ was coined in the
1950s, the idea of advertisements with hidden messages that can
influence us without our conscious understanding has
captivated the popular imagination. If adverts can steer us
toward a particular product through surreptitiously placed
words or images designed to be absorbed at a subconscious
level, how else can marketing and government agencies coerce
us into decisions that are not our own? The spectre of
brainwashing looms large. The topic subliminal advertising has
had long controversy ever since 1958 when James vicary
published a study based on the effects in add “Drink Coke, Eat
Pop Corn”, wherein he had found increase in sales after movie
at refreshment Box (Russel, Rowe and S.mouse, 1991).
Subliminal advertisements are directed at subconscious level
where a consumer is not able to evaluate consciously what is
happening to him or her but its impact is seen through indirect
way as what is impact on feelings, how cognitive aspect of a
consumer is affected, whether consumers of such ads are able
to evaluate such type of ads, how much thrilled and involved
they feel towards characters depicted in such subliminal ads
and many other aspects as well.
The effectiveness of subliminal messages is actually disputed –
if the results of controlled tests are anything to go by. What is
evident, however, is that ads containing stimuli that are difficult
to discern exist, and that they can, however subtly, alter human
behavior and emotions. Subliminal advertising is a reality.
Here in this study we have considered few of the ads containing
subliminal messages so as to see what kind of impact they are
able to make on consumer behaviour. This study has been
limited to Student of colleges. A sample of 100 was chosen
which included male, female, ranging in the age group of 16-22
*Asst. Professor, Department of Management Science, Techno India, Kolkata
**Associate Dean of Studies, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Institute of Management Science, Kolkata; profsujitmukherjee@yahoo.com
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Anis Chattopadhyay*, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee**
from different Socio-economic back grounds. Results have
shown positive impact on some of the components of Consumer
behaviour.
1. INTRODUCTION
Hundreds of experiments conducted over the last 85 years
have established that people are influenced by cer-tain latent
information in the advertisements. This phenomenon is known
as "subliminal perception" and has been popularized in science
fiction stories. Subliminal message is a Visual or auditory
message presented so fast or at so low intensity that people
cannot detect it. Literally speaking of subliminal messages it
means be-low threshold. There has been continuous research
in subliminal messages in biological sciences, psychology and
other social science fields including Management. A highly
publicized study in 1950’s by James Vicary incorporated a
subliminal message in an add, “Drink Coke, Eat Pop Corn”,
and the effect was increase in sales after movie at refreshment
Box (Russel, Rowe and Smouse, 1991).
Advertisements are not only important to advertiser but to
customer as well as it is an important source of information for
customers and technique of generating sales for advertisers.
The advertisers have been always seen alert to catch the
potential buyers unawareness by igniting their state of mind to
feelings and emotions which prompt them to buy the product
as the message contained therein is more addressed to psyche
than the vision. Though there are a number of ways how
advertisers can subliminally persuade customers like Music in
ads, the back ground language influence, love messages in
advertisements, Social proof/cult feelings but certain messages
are there which may conflict with the sound principles of
business ethics. Therefore certain aspects need to be addressed
like how far is it reasonable to have so much pornography
which is apparent in most of the advertisements, what about
the half sexual actions, how far ethical is it to use metaphor in
advertisements and more importantly the question of celebrity
endorsement? The study therefore focussed mainly on three
categories i.e (Pornography and Half Sexual actions, Metaphor
and Celebrity Endorsement). Pornography and Sexual actions
12
Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee
in advertisement may help promote a product but implications
associated with such advertisements like
inclination/excitement may tempt the youth viewers to satisfy
their biological needs through illicit relationships, causing
anxiety and stress which may force them to be-come drug
addicts catching them in a vicious circle.
Metaphor is being used in advertisements where actions and
messages shown are directed at something else than only the
product information like the advertisement of Hero Honda
Igniter, though advertisement is about bike but in this
advertisement there are certain things that should be taken into
consideration like why in this advertisement an employee who
has recently purchased Igniter is shown to have lured a female
who incidentally happens to be his boss. The metaphor is that
by purchasing Igniter you will be able to get hold of girlfriend
and another case of metaphor is that you will not just be able
to have girlfriend but you will be able to get hold of that
celebrity which others die for. Celebrity endorsement mostly
affects youth because of their vulnerability and it is believed
that endorsements which promote fictitious and misleading
information often affect consumer’s behavior or decisions
about the product or service.
Though there are certain clinical devices like Tachistoscope
which may directly measure the impact of subliminal
advertisements. However in the area of behavioural sciences
we can get response from customers by using Developed
Stimulus Instruments. There are different models of customer
behaviour like Economic Man where customer is supposed to
make rational decisions and Psychodynamic Model where
behaviour is deter-mined by biological drives, rather than
individual cognition, or environmental stimuli, this process
where customer makes decisions on the basis of emotions and
not on cognitive abilities is irrational behavior which this
research proposal is intended to study. If customers emotional
capabilities are lesser than cognitive capabilities then customer
would make rational decisions and if his/her emotional
capabilities overcome cognitive capabilities then whatever
decisions customer is taking would be irrational and this
irrational decision making may lead to compulsive buying and
this may be because of internal factors or external stimuli like
subliminal advertisements and here focus has been only on the
im-pact of external stimuli i.e subliminal advertisements.
The controversy of subliminal tactics started way back in
1950’s and it has been used for increasing sales and also to
bring changes in consumer behaviour. Subliminal messages
also create anxiety and as a result of it people tend to lessen
their anxiety through smoking, drugs and over eating.
Persuasion is about messaging one-to-one or one-to-many.
Subliminal persuasion occurs when you are able to
successfully implant a message in the mind of a person or
group of people whom you target for change without their
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BIMS Journal of Management
conscious evaluation of the change, and encourage them to
spread the idea organically to their associates. Subliminal
persuasion is about getting people to change their minds, to
change their beliefs, and to accept new information as not only
being correct, but having the necessity to spread. Advertising,
marketing, movie making, public relations, propaganda,
negotiation, and religion all rely on subliminal persuasion.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Subliminal message is visual or auditory message pre-sented
so fast or at so low intensity that people cannot detect it.
Literally speaking of subliminal messages it means below
threshold. There has been continuous re-search regarding
subliminal messages in biological, psychological and other
social science fields including Management. For example,
Cheeseman and Merikle (1986) cited the Psychodynamic
Activation theory and theorized how subliminal messages
work in an individ-ual and according to this theory subliminal
message pro-vides a subliminal stimulation, which conscious
mind may be unaware of, to either the visual or auditory cor-
tex of the brain. According to this theory the subliminal
message bypasses the gatekeeper in the conscious mind and
plants those messages straight into the individuals sub
consciousness (Stress Relief Management, 2005; Emergeman,
and Kopiez, 2006).
James Vicary a researcher, claimed in a press release that
subliminal messages had motivated movie viewers to purchase
popcorn and coca cola (Packard, 1957). He used a technique
called Tachistoscope to project the words “Drink Coca Cola’’
and “Eat pocorn’’ for 1/3000 of a second at five second
intervals during the presentation of movie entitled Picnic.
Soon after Coca Cola study sub-liminal messages caught
attention of business world.Federal funding started being
funded for related re-search projects(Russel, Rowe &Smouse,
1991).The pub-lic and academia viewed subliminal messages
as a chan-nel that indirectly creates antisocial behavior such as
early sex stimulation in children, chane in value system of an
individual, cultural change, suicidal acts and Drug use (Taylor
Retrie December, 5, 2007).There has been research on two
types of subliminal messages whichincludes auditory and
visual messages (Moore, 1982).According to urban (1992) the
phe-nomenon of visual subliminal stimulation is real, however
the disagreement continuous on the effective-ness of these
messages. The visual stimulus can be in terms of graphics and
videos where as auditory includes audios such back ground
message in music. However there has been no strong evidence
of these auditorymessages like in a study concluded by
Merikle(1998).Apart from this, there has been so many
empirical studies concluded by various scholars includ-ing
Benes and Gutkin(1998) who analysed relationship between
music masking and free association.Duke-Budzynesss(1998)
conducted a study to enhance the selfesteem in adult
type.Schnell(1986)investigated the effec-tiveness of
13
Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee
subliminal tapes for improving public speak-ing.Russel, Rowe
and Smouse (1911) evaluated the effect of subliminal self-helf
tapes on academic achievement.
3. OBJECTIVES
There has been long controversy regarding the impact of
subliminal advertisements i.e. to say whether these kinds of
advertisements do actually affect the feeling component of an
individual, whether it affects the cognitive part of a customer
whereby he/she then goes for compulsive buying. This
research proposal tried explore some of the behavioural
aspects of a customer that can be affected by subliminal
advertisements like feelings, likely involvement in depicted
behaviour, believability in actions and ideas promoted through
these advertisements, whether such advertisements create any
confusion, Compulsive buying habits if any, purchase
intensions and purchase privacy. This study has been
conducted in Salt lake, and has been undertaken in among the
students of Techno India college, and respondents under study
are youth from both the sexes in the age group of 18 to 22.
The main objectives of the study are:
a) To study the influence of Print advertisement of Amulon
the feelings, beliefs of customer, purchaseintentions.
b) To study the perceptions of customers on subliminal
effect of advertisement of Amul.
c) To analyse whether subliminal advertisements do create
any confusion in customer’s mind.
d) To study the exact application of subliminal effect in to
the elements of print ads.
e) Analysis perception of consumers about different print
ads of Amul along the time line
4. RESEARCH DESIGN
Sources of Data:
The source of data was both primary as well as secondary. The
primary data was obtained from youth in the age group of 18
to 22. The instrument for empirical study consisted of
structured questionnaire based on established scales along
with a eleven print advertisements of Amul, spreaded over 11
years from 2006 i.e, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011,
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The advertisements are
chosen judgementally taking care of the criteria of most
debatable print ad of Amul.
The various components of the questionnaire are:
a) Feeling component
b) Likely Involvement Component
c) Scale on Cognitive Component
d) Purchase Intension Component
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BIMS Journal of Management
e) Compulsive buying Component
f) Purchase Privacy Component
g) Confusion Related component
h) Demographics Component
Sampling Frame, Type & Size:
The Techno India, salt lake is one of the largest college in
terms of no. of students and course offered. It is having more
than 10 UG courses and 4 PG courses. The sampling frame
consisted students of both UG and PG courses of Management
studies, such as Bachelor of Hospital Management, Bachelor
of Hospitality Management, Bachelor of Business
Administration and Master of Business Administration. The
method of sampling used Judgemental sampling wherein the
entire sample have been chosen from Management UG and
PG courses stated above. Both male and female respondents
were chosen from courses on the basis of judgement sampling.
Efforts have been made to choose a representative sample
from each strata and sub-strata of the population and a sample
of 105 were chosen which included male and female ranging
in the age group of 18-22 from different SEC Back ground.
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
After getting the response from 105 respondents of age group
18-22, the following information have been collected
regarding their behaviour regarding consumption Amul Butter
and subliminal print ad inserted by the company in different
time.
1. This response concerned with respondent role in
purchasing Amul Butter. The question was “Do you
purchase Butter for your family”. In the response 97
respondents have told that they can buy butter for their
family. 6 respondents don’t buy for their family and 2
respondents didn’t reply. It implies that they don’t even
go to shop for purchase.
1 . Do you purchase Butter for your family
Yes
no
blank
1 . Do you purchase Butter for your family
Response no. of respondent
Yes 97
no 6
blank 2
14
Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

2. This question about brand decision regarding purchasing 4. This question was asked to the respondents to know
of Butter. The responses of 104 respondents were whose opinion influences them most to buy the butter.
AMUL; whereas only respondents tilt his/her head 104 respondents out of 105 said that parents influence
towards MOTHER DIARY. them most as they all belong to micro family.

2. Which brand of butter do you purchase 4. others opinion

Response no. of respondent Response no. of respondent
Amul 104 only parents 104
Mother diary 1 no 1

4. others opinion
2. Which brand

only parents
Amul no
Mother diary

5. All respondents except one opined that their parents

influence most in case purchasing FMCG product so
3. This question is about the person(s) who usually make Butter is no exception. But, only respondent has opined
the decision regarding purchasing of specific brand of that her brother influence her parents to purchase butter.
Butter. As a result, we have received that father is taking
decision in maximum cases (36) followed by Mother
(31) and joint decision making (28). In one case brother 5. influencer
makes the decision. But, after probing it is understood only parents 104
that the parents always influenced by brother decision. brother 1

3. Decision maker 6. Respondents were asked the question related with the
Response no. of respondent exposer to the Amul’s Print. this question was framed to
know whether the respondents are aware about the print
Father 36
ad of Amul or not. 102 respondents among 105 are
Mother 31 aware about the print ads of Amul and they have seen it.
brother 1
Jointly 28 6. ever seen Amul's Print ads
him/her self 6 Response no. of respondent
blank 3 yes 102
no 3
3. Decision maker
6. ever seen Amul's Print ads
Father
Mother
brother yes
Jointly no
him/her self

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Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

7. Media exposer was judged in this question. Respondents
were asked to rank different media according to their
preferences. TV was ranked 1st position in 92 occasions
followed by print media 10 times. The consolidated
value of radio, hording, banner and others was only 3.
After questioning them into more depth, it was
understood that, their exposer to print media (both
newspaper and magazine) was very less and they don’t
have the habit of read newspaper daily.
7. ranking of the media as per the Exposer is
concerned no. of respondent
TV
Print
others
7. ranking of the media as per the Exposer is concerned
Response no. of respondent
TV 92
Print 10
others 3
8. According to maximum no. respondents the exclusive
characteristics of Amul Print advertisement is “AMUL
GIRL” (55), slogan “UTTERLY BUTTERLY
DELICIOUS” (40) and composition of its ad (10).
9. In this stage 15 statements are given to judge the
effectiveness of subliminal message in eleven print ads
of Amul. These advertisements have been collected from
different years starting from 2006. Here, help of
secondary data have been taken care off. Those
advertisements are most debatable advertisements of
Amul.
15 statements have been judge by the help of 5 point
scale where 1 denoted – strongly disagree, 2 denoted
disagree, 3 for neither disagree nor agree, 4 depicted
agree and 5 for strongly agree.

a)
1. the advt. is very effective No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire
Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 14 1 14 1
2. disagree 10 0 19 19 47 10 10 14 28 15 37
3. neither agree nor disagree 38 38 19 19 19 9 10 19 19 19 47
4. agree 10 10 28 19 10 19 38 19 19 19 10
5. strongly agree 37 47 29 38 19 57 38 38 38 38 10

In this scale the effectiveness of eleven advertisements are
judged by means of five point scale. The result showed that 76
respondents (19 agreed and 57 strongly agreed) marked no.6
advertisement as effective ad. No. 7 advertisement has also
been recognised as most effective as 76 respondents nodded
their head towards agree and disagree equally. These two ads
followed by no.2, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10 having same no of response
i.e. 57. Ad no. 1 has got 47 responses in favour of
effectiveness.
Advertisement no. 5 has 57 responses which depicted
ineffectiveness of this advertisement followed by no 11 having
38 responses in favour of ineffectiveness.

b)

2. Message is understandable No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 21 0 0 21 21 0 0 0 0 0 0
2. disagree 0 0 21 21 42 21 42 42 21 21 63
3. neither agree nor disagree 42 21 21 42 21 21 21 42 21 21 21
4. agree 21 63 42 0 0 42 21 0 42 42 21
5. strongly agree 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 0
42 84 63 42 63 63 42 42 63 63 63

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Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

In order to know the understandibility different opinions have been formed from response. No. 2 advertisement has got maximum
consolidated responses i.e., 84 for the understability. It is followed by no.3, 6, 9 and 10 having 63 responses in favour of
understandibility. Advertisement no.1 has got 42 responses as understandable.

Whereas, advertisement no. 5 and 11 have got 63 responses in favour not understandable; followed by no 4, 7, 8 having 42
response in favour of not understandable.

c)

3.other meaning is conveyed rather

No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire
than Amul'satrributes
Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 21 0 42 42 42 21 0 0 0 0 21
2. disagree 21 0 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 0
3. neither agree nor disagree 0 84 0 42 42 42 21 42 21 21 21
4. agree 42 0 21 0 0 21 42 0 63 63 21
5. strongly agree 21 21 21 0 0 0 21 42 0 0 42
63 63 63 63 42 63 42 63 63 63

According to responses advertisement no. 1, 7, 9, 10 and 11 conveyed different kind of message rather than products attributes.
But, advertisement no.3, 4, 5 and 6 conveyed message related to product attributes.

d)

4. Advt. has some educative value No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 0 0 0 42 0 0 0 0 0 0
2. disagree 21 0 0 42 0 19 21 42 0 0 20
3. neither agree nor disagree 42 42 39 21 0 0 21 21 18 0 45
4. agree 21 42 24 22 42 23 40 0 63 75 40
5. strongly agree 21 21 42 20 21 63 23 42 24 30 0
42 63 66 42 63 86 63 42 87 105 40

It was used to judge the educative value conferred by the advertisements. According to the opinion of the respondents it was found
that no. 10 advertisement has got highest educative value i.e., 105. It means all respondents had their opinion in favour of the
statement. Advertisement no. 9isin the next position with 87 favourable responses, followed by no.6 and no 3 having value 86 and
66 respectively.

e)

5. Message has got comedy appeal No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 0 19 0 42 0 0 0 0 0 0
2. disagree 0 20 0 42 0 0 0 0 21 21 42
3. neither agree nor disagree 87 64 19 42 42 60 20 84 42 42 0
4. agree 0 21 67 - - 45 0 0 42 42 63
5. strongly agree 18 0 0 21 21 0 85 21 0 0 0
67 42 42 85 42 42 63

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Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

In this case the appeal of subliminal message attempted to be judged. The responses are mixed. Statements tried to judge whether
any Comedy appeal has been incorporated or not. 85 respondents strongly agreed in favour of comedy appeal. It is followed by no.
3 advertisement, where 67 respondents agreed on comedy appeal. Advertisement no. 11 has 63 respondents, who agreed in favour
of association of comedy appeal.

But, astonishingly, huge no. respondents were remain silent regarding application of comedy appeal in advertisement no 1, 2, 6, 8,
9.

f)

6.Advt. is portraying Product

No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire
benefits
Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2. disagree 43 40 21 43 42 21 42 18 41 38 84
3. neither agree nor disagree 20 39 41 20 42 63 0 85 0 39 21
4. agree 21 5 43 42 21 21 63 2 43 5 0
5. strongly agree 21 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 21 23 0
42 43 42 63 64

It is all about judging the presence of product benefits in the message of advertisement. Only two advertisements have got the
favourable answers ie., no. 7 and 8. Followed by no. 1, 3 and 4.

g)

7. Advt. will increase intensity to

No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire
buy
Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 0 0 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2. disagree 21 0 42 0 21 21 0 20 21 21 42
3. neither agree nor disagree 21 61 0 63 63 21 18 0 63 0 42
4. agree 3 22 21 21 21 63 87 44 0 84 21
5. strongly agree 60 22 42 0 0 0 0 41 21 0 0
63 44 63 63 87 85 84

In case of advertisement 1, 60 respondents agreed on the statement that advertisement will increase intensity to buy and 3
respondents agreed on it. But only 21 respondents disagreed on the statement.

In advertisement no. 2 only 44 respondents agreed on the statement whereas, 61 were remain undecided.

63 respondents in advertisement 3 approved that advertisement message increase their intensity to buy. 21 were undecided and 21
strongly disagreed on the statement.

In advertisement 6, 63 respondents agreed on the statement; 21 disagreed and 21 were remain undecided.

In advertisement 7, 87 respondents agreed on the statement; 18 were undecided.

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Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

Buying decision is intensified by the message of advertisement no.8 approved by 85 respondents. They were scattered in two
groups i.e., agreed 44 and strongly agreed 41.

84 respondents agreed on the statement in case of advertisement 10

h)

8. advt is attractive No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 18 21
2. disagree 21 21 43 19 60 0 21 0 21 7 60
3. neither agree nor disagree 21 21 42 44 5 0 0 84 0 18 21
4. agree 0 63 20 23 18 65 64 0 84 20 3
5. strongly agree 63 0 0 19 19 40 20 21 0 42 0
63 63 43 42 60 105 82 84 62 81

According to response advertising no. 6 is most attractive having 105 responses in favour of the statement. Then, advertisement
no. 9 with 84 favourable responses and no. 8 with 82 reponses. Advertisement no. 1 and 2 are also attractive ads having 63
favourable responses. But, advertisement no. 3, 5, 11 are not attractive.

i)

10. Slogan is most attractive No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 21 21 0 21 0 0 0 21 0 21
2. disagree 0 0 21 21 0 0 0 0 84 21 21
3. neither agree nor disagree 21 60 0 0 42 63 21 0 0 0 21
4. agree 60 24 42 84 21 21 21 42 0 42 21
5. strongly agree 24 0 21 0 21 21 63 63 0 42 21
84 63 84 84 105 105 84

Slogan of advertisement no. 8 is most attractive and advertisement no. 9 is least attractive. Slogan of Advertisement of 1, 3, 4, 7,
10 are also attractive.

j)

11.Fun is hidden in the headline No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 21 0 0 18 0 21 0 42 0 0
2. disagree 0 21 21 48 18 0 0 0 42 21 20
3. neither agree nor disagree 15 0 42 0 44 65 42 60 0 42 20
4. agree 63 21 0 39 25 0 42 18 21 21 20
5. strongly agree 27 42 42 18 0 40 0 27 0 21 45
90 63 42 57 36 40 42 45 84 42 65

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Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

In Advertisement no. 1 the fun is hidden in headline followed by no. 11 and 2.

k)

12. Fun is hidden in the Slogan No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 0 20 0 0 42 25 0 0 0 25
2. disagree 67 0 20 0 63 0 0 0 42 0 44
3. neither agree nor disagree 0 85 22 63 0 0 0 60 21 20 11
4. agree 38 20 43 20 42 39 33 0 21 42 0
5. strongly agree 0 0 0 22 0 24 47 45 21 43 25
67 20 43 42 63 63 80 45 42 85 69

Maximum respondents believed that in case advertisement no.10 fun is hidden in slogan. Followed by no. 7 and 6. But, in case of
no. 11 and 1 it is totally disagreed by the respondents.

l)

13.Fun is hidden in the Picture No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 18 0 20 65 0 0 22 0 0 0
2. disagree 20 39 63 1 18 60 0 40 20 40 21
3. neither agree nor disagree 0 25 19 18 22 0 20 18 20 0 42
4. agree 64 23 0 45 0 45 20 0 47 22 42
5. strongly agree 21 0 23 21 0 0 65 25 18 43 0
85 57 63 66 83 60 85 62 65 65 42

In case of Advertisement 1 and 7 fun is also hidden in picture. The statement is also supported In advertisement no. 4, 9, 10.

m)

14. Fun is hidden in thebody copy No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire

Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 strongly disagree 0 15 0 0 0 21 0 42 21 0 21
2. disagree 0 14 20 0 65 0 0 24 0 21 21
3. neither agree nor disagree 17 20 0 65 0 0 45 19 40 0 21
4. agree 46 56 64 0 22 40 60 20 44 0 -
5. strongly agree 42 0 21 40 18 44 0 0 0 84 42
88 56 85 40 65 84 60 66 44 84 42

The statistics shows that in fun is hidden in body copy of advertisement no. 1, 3, 6, 10, 7, 2 etc.

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Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

n)

15. main attraction of the advt.

No. Advt. displayed in questionnaire
lying in (IN %)
Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
SLOGAN 5 50 72 65 10 15 63 72 45 84 25
HEADLINE 20 40 12 15 15 5 37 22 30 10 22
SUB HEADS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
BODY COPY 5 2 8 5 10 80 0 0 15 2 25
PICTURE 70 8 8 15 65 0 0 6 10 4 10
TOTAL LAYOUT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 18
OTHERS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

• In the last scale cross checking has been done regarding Example:
attractiveness of different elements of 11 advertisements.
In the result – a) Advertisement 3: Financial crisis hits the United States,
leading to repercussions around the globe published in
• Picture of advertisement 1, 5, have been chosen by 2008.
maximum respondents as main attraction – 70%
b) Advertisement 4:On the Satyam scandal that rocked the
• In advertisement no 2 the attraction is divided into two Indian economy, published in 2009.
elements, i.e., Slogan and Headline. c) Advertisement 7: Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher
• Slogan is most attractive in advertisement no. 3, 4. 7, 8 Airlines enters a debt-crisis after logging quarter-after-
and 10 having percentage 72, 65, 63, 72 and 84 quarter of losses. Airline exits low-cost business to
respectively. improve performance (2012)
d) Advertisement 8: The rupee hit its lowest in August,
• Body copy of advertisement no. 6 has got highest closing at Rs 68.85; the government drew sharp criticism
responses. for its policy paralysis (2013)
6. CONCLUSION e) Advertisement 11: The butter brand weighs in on the
controversy surrounding RBI (2016).
1. This Study has been done to the age group 18-22 yrs of 8. Respondents of age group 18-22 identified inner
age. meaning of the message sublime to the ads.
2. Maximum respondents claimed that purchase can be 9. In the structured questionnaire format no cognitive
made by them. answer has been found.
10. Basic elements of these subliminal advertisements are
3. In maximum case purchase decision has been taken by
punning.
father.
11. 100% respondents are unmarried.
4. Amul butter is the mostly recalled brand.
12. 100% respondents are students.
5. Parents influence the respondents to buy butter. 13. 85% respondents are female.

6. It is found from unstructured question and probing that 14. 15% respondents are male.
all the advertisements shown are political. 15. No. Product attributes have been portrayed by headlines.
7. Another comment has been gathered from respondents 16. In some cases slogan intensified the buying intention.
that some of advertisements are Politico-economical.
Headlines have been evolved from Economical 17. Picture along with Slogan have the more attractiveness.
environment influenced by Politics.

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Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee
19. In almost all the cases Subliminal Messages are observed
in HEADLINE.
20. Punning along with brand name intensify the purchase
decision.
20. Subliminal messages made all the advertisement
SATIRE. Which criticise the present International and
domestic political, social and economic environment in
light way.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Ajzen, et al (1980). Understanding Attitutes and
[2] Predicting Social Behaviour. Englewoodcliffs: Prentice –Hall.
[3] Aronson, et al (1990). Methods of research in socialpsychology
(2nd ed.). New York:McGraw-Hill.
[4] Barkow, (1992). The Adapted Mind: EvolutionaryPsychology
and the Generation of Culture. New York: Oxford University
Press, USA.
[5] Belk, R. (2006). Consumption, Mass Consumption, and
Consumer Culture. In: G. Ritzer (Ed.), Oxford:Blackwell.
[6] Bell, (1992). Ritual Theory Ritual Practice . New
[7] York : Oxford University Press, USA.
[8] Bloom, (1997). The Lucifer Principle: A ScientificExpedition
into the Forces of History. New York : Atlantic Monthly Press.
[9] Cialdini, et al(2006) . The Psychology of Influ-ence. NewYork :
HarperCollins .
[10] Conway, et al(1995). America’s Epidemic of Sud-den
Personality Change .New York : StillpointPress .
[11] Damasio, et al (2000). The Feeling of What Hap-pens: Body and
Emotion in the Making of Con-sciousness. San Diego: Harvest
Books.
[12] Dawkins, et al (2006) Richard . The Selfish Gene. New York:
Oxford University Press, USA.
[13] Dillard, et al (2002). The Persuasion Handbook: Developments
in Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications,
Inc.
[14] Green (2003). The Art of Seduction. New York : Penguin, .
[15] Green (2006). The 33 Strategies of War . New York : Viking
Adult.
[16] Green (2000). The 48 Laws of Power. New York : Penguin .
QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Do you purchase Butter for your family?
2. Which butter do you purchase?
3. Who has taken purchase decision of butter in your family?
4. Which brand does he/she purchase?
5. Have you been influenced by others Opinion in the time of buying Amul butter?
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
BIMS Journal of Management
[17] Goldman, et al (2007 ). Social Intelligence: TheNew Science of
Human Relationships. New York.
[18] [16] Hawkins, (2002). Power vs. Force: The Hidden De-
terminants of Human Behaviour. Carlsbad, CA:Hay House .
[19] Heinrichs, (2007). Thank You for Arguing: WhatAristotle,
Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of
Persuasion.New York: ThreeRivers Press.
[20] Hogan, et al (2006) Psychological Tactics and Tricksto Win the
Game.Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons
[21] Holt, D. (2004). How Brands Become Icons: Prin-
[22] ciples of Cultural Branding. Boston: Harvard Busi-ness School
Press.
[23] Hogan, (1996) . The Psychology of Persuasion:How to Persuade
Others to Your Way of Thinking.Gretna, LA : Pelican Publishing
Company .
[24] Kilbourne, (2000). Can’t Buy Me Love: How Ad-vertising
Changes the Way We Think and Feel.New York : Free Press .
[25] Kramer, et al(1993). The Guru Papers: Masks of
[26] Authoritarian Power.Berkeley, CA : Frog Books .
[27] Laermer, et al(2007). Punk Marketing: Get Off Your
[28] Ass and Join the Revolution. New York : HarperCollins.
[29] Raichle, M. E. (2001). Functional Neuro-Imaging:A historical
and Physiological Perspective. Cam-bridge: The MIT Press.
[30] Rushkoff, (2000) . Coercion: Why We Listen to What “ They
”Say.New York: Riverhead Trade.
[31] Roof, W. C. (1999). Spiritual Marketplace: Baby-boomers and
The Remaking of American Religion.
[32] Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
[33] Surowiecki, (2005). The Wisdom of Crowds. New York: Anchor
Books .
[34] Underhill, (2001). Why We Buy: The Science ofShopping .New
York :Texere Publishing.
[35] www.shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in.
[36] http://www.pnas.org
[37] http://www.apa.org
[38] http://www.accessmylibrary.com
[39] http://en.bookfi.org
[40] http://www.psychologyofattraction.org
[41] http://www.indianjournals.com
[42] http://subliminalsex.com
a) Yes ( ) b) No ( )
a) Yes ( ) b) No ( )
22
Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

6. If Yes, Whose opinion influenced you in the purchase decision?

a) Spouse ( ) b) Family Members ( )
c) Friends ( ) d) Relatives ( )
e) Others ( )
7. Whichmediagetsyourattentionmore?(PleaseRank)

Sl. No. Media Rank

1 Print
2 Radio
3 TV
4 Hording/Banner
5 Display
6 Others (mention)

8. Have you seen Amul’s Print ad a) Yes ( ) b) No ( )

9. According to you, whatis the exclusive characteristic of Amul Print Ad?

10. Please see following advertisements of Amul butter, published in newspaper in different times.

2006: The historic Indo-US 2007: Congress - led United

nuclear deal, which faced Progressive Alliance (UPA) and
opposition from both sides Left Party’s nominee PratibhaPatil
(1) becomes India’s first female
president(2)

2008: Financial crisis hits the 2009: On the Satyam scandal

United States, leading to that rocked the Indian economy
repercussions around the
globe (4)
(3)

2010: An expose of high-profile 2011: The year marked the rise of

PR consultant NiraRadia’s Anna Hazare, a Gandhian who led
telephonic conversations led to the mass anti-corruption protests.
the uncovering of the 2G The movement led to the
spectrum scam(5) formation of the AamAadmi Party,
but Hazare was eventually sidelined(6)

2012: Vijay Mallya-owned 2013: The rupee hit its lowest

Kingfisher Airlines enters a debt- in August, closing at Rs 68.85;
crisis after logging quarter-after- the government drew sharp
quarter of losses. Airline exits criticism for its policy
low-cost business to improve paralysis(8)
performance(7)

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Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

2014: The BJP’s historic victory 2015: ArvindKejriwal rides in as

in the general elections, helmed Delhi chief minister after the
by NarendraModi (9) AamAadmi Party’s resounding
win, decimating the
opposition(10)

2016: The butter brand

weighs in on the controversy
surrounding RBI governor
RaghuramRajan’s second
term(11)

12. Different weightages are allotted to different parameters such as 5= strongly agree, 4=agree, 3=medium, 2= poor, 1= very poor

Criteria Numbers of displayed ad Remark

Advertisement is very
effective
Message is Understandable
Some other meaning rather
than Amul’s attributes are
portrayed
The advertisement has
Educative value
Message has got Comedy
appeal
Ad is portraying Product
Benefits
Intensity of buying will be
increased after seeing the ad
Advertisement is Attractive
Headline is more attractive
Slogan is more attractive
Fun is hidden in the
Headline
Fun is hidden in the Slogan
Fun is hidden in the Picture
Fun is hidden in the Body
copy
Main attraction is lying in Write
down
element of
the ad,
where the
main
attractive
ness lies

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Anis Chattopadhyay, Dr. Sujit Mukherjee BIMS Journal of Management

PERSONAL DETAILS:

1. Name:
2. Age (in years) :
3. Sex: a) Male ( ) b) Female ( )
4. Educational Qualification:
a) No Formal Education ( ) b) UptoH.Sc ( ) c) Graduate ( )
d) Post Graduate ( ) e) Diploma ( ) f) Professional ( )
6. Occupation:
7. Monthly Income:
a) Below ` 20, 000 ( ) b) ` 20, 001 – 40, 000 ( )
c) ` 40, 001 – 60, 000 ( ) d) ` 60, 001 – 80, 000 ( )
e) Above ` 80, 000 ( )
8. Marital Status : a) Unmarried ( ) b) Married ( )
9. Family Size:
a) Small ( 1-4 ) b) Medium ( 5-7 ) c) Large ( 8 and above )

ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018 25

 BIMS Journal of Management
Impact of Technology on Recruitment Process and Its
Impact on Service Quality of HR Service Providers
Abstract: Facebook and Google have now stepped into
Recruitment Domain with cutting edge technologies to
transform the over recruitment process. FB is coming up with
an “Apply” Button within the timeline from where anyone can
directly apply for a Job. With the acquisition of Linkedin by
Microsoft, it is expected more improved features especially in
the MS Office Environment. MS Office Bot will also be an
effective tool for recruitment by extracting candidate profiles for
active job vacancies when the recruiter is not active or is logged
out. Microsoft Bot can initiate automated conversation with the
candidate to judge whether he/she is interested with the profile.
Google have launched Cloud Jobs API in Nov 2016, a Machine
Learning Service which significantly transformed the
candidates sourcing process.
HR Service Providers working in the recruitment domain need
to be technologically updated in order to provide better customer
services to their Clients. Corporate while selecting any HR
service Provider in hiring domain also consider Operational
Efficiency along with several other factors. Operational
efficiency would be ensured with appropriate utilization of
technology. User Friendly, Apps Driven Hiring Platforms if can
be offered by the Recruitment Service Providers to their clients,
Customer Satisfaction can be increased multiple times if can be
coupled with ethical time bound efficient manpower hiring
process.
In a survey conducted by CarrerBuilders.com it has been found
that 83% People Said they are not going to apply in a Company
where they have heard of any bad candidate experience. A Job
Seekers or an employee may have lots of HR related queries and
HR/Recruiter may not have adequate time to answer all such
queries in real time and that leads to bad employee experience
which would be spreading like wildfire and here the Chatbots
keep the employee engaged and 67% of the Job Seekers reacted
positively about constantly being updated throughout the
application process.
In this paper the authors have tried explore whether
Technological Efficiency has a direct impact on the Service
Quality of the Recruitment Service Providers from the point of
view of the Corporate through a survey conducted amongst the
practicing HR Professionals from Kolkata and have found that
the Perceived Service Quality of the Corporate about the
*Research Scholar, Dept. of Management & Business Administration, Aliah University, Kolkata; hr.amitabha@gmai.com
**Associate Professor, Dept. of Management & Business Administration, Aliah University, Kolkata; baksi.arup@gmail.com
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Amitabha Gupta*, Dr. Arup Kumar Baksi**
Recruitment Service Provider greatly affected by the
Technology enabled operational efficiency.
Keywords: Recruitment, Technology, Service Quality, HRM.
1. INTRODUCTION
According to a survey conducted by Talentdrive, an average
recruiter spends 40% to 60% of their daily working hours in
searching new candidates rather than engaging with most
suitable candidates which could have attract more suitable
candidates. With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence in
the recruitment domain hundreds of candidates are sourced in
minutes resulting into the fact that now the recruiters can
spend more time in prospective employee engagement for
better hiring. AI can also reduce unconscious bias to a great
extent in comparison to human interventions. Modern
Technologies like Mya, HireVue, Wade, Wendy ensured
higher candidates response rate and reach. Machine Learning
automated the outreach and communication with the Job
Seekers during the end to end recruitment process. It helps the
recruiters to ensure better on boarding with lesser drop out
ratio. It also bring down the Turnaround Time (TAT) to hire
and improve the organizational brand image. Recruiters No
longer researching candidates and their personal history rather
they obtain information from the data gathered by AI from
Social Media and other sources for the candidate. It helps the
recruiter to take a more informed accurate decision regarding
hiring.
Recruitment Service Providers need to be technologically
upgraded to provide quality hiring services to their clients.
Technologically enabled hiring platform is one of the most
important factor during selection of any hiring service
providers for most of the MNCs. Service Quality is always an
important factor of consideration before selecting any service
provider and recruitment service is not an exception.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Kiran Bhatia Tandon, Human Capitalist, Disrupter in her
article “AI and Recruption in Talent Management” (Business
Manager, March-2018 Issue) stated the importance of Chatbot
26
Amitabha Gupta, Dr. Arup Kumar Baksi
and other HR Technologies in the hiring and on boarding
process
Indraneil Roy, Business Growth Specialist, Edgenetworks in
his article “AI= The Game Changer of Future HR” (Business
Manager, March-2018 Issue) discussed about Machine
Learning, Big Data, High Speed Computing, Frameworks and
Libraries and their impact in the recruitment domain.
Purvi Sheth, CEO, Shilpusti Consultants, in her article “The
Romance of HR and AI” discussed in details about the
Artificial Intelligence and Its impact in the recruitment
domain.
In an article for the Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM), John Sullivan, industry thought leader and professor
at San Francisco State University, said 2017 is "the year of the
algorithm." Sullivan said that the recruiting function will
finally begin to shift away from a decision model based on
past practices and intuition and toward data-driven decisions.
Rachit Jain, founder and CEO at Youth4work, agreed, noting
that the same technology used in modern advertising – where
Google learns a person's interests, profile and needs based on
user data and matches ad displays accordingly – is now
seeping into recruitment.
“The challenge of matching billions of people … to a billion
[jobs] requiring unique skills and resources is probably the
most complex but crucial for [employers], " Jain said.
Cloud-based hiring tools will allow recruiters and hiring
managers to easily and affordably find, evaluate and organize
top job candidates, while innovative assessment and filtering
techniques will help provide a 360-degree holistic view of top
applicants, " said Bob Myhal, director of digital marketing at
CBC Advertising and former CEO of NextHire. "Through
biometric data, companies like NextHire will better predict
which candidates are most likely to be a good fit for a
position, and which are not."
Technologies Applicable to Recruitment Services (Source:
Careerbuilder.com)
• Applicant tracking system (ATS). This is the heart of
the recruiting operation. Most recruiting workflow is
wrapped around the ATS. A good ATS ends up being a
tool for tracking regulatory compliance on hiring issues. It
usually contains a searchable resume database and the
elements of hiring.
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BIMS Journal of Management
• Sourcing (recruitment marketing). Sourcing is the
discovery of potential employees. This area grows faster
than any other aspect of HR technology. It includes over
35 discrete functions that range from job postings to email
campaigns to database tools.
• Pre-hire assessment and screening (A&S). Pre-hire
processes range widely depending on industry, region and
level of employment. Drug testing, background checks,
polygraphs, personality tests and reference checks all
have levels of automation and data flows. The data can be
kept in either the HRIS or the ATS depending on the
software.
• On boarding. On boarding software is used to
standardize the completion of regulatory forms, the
allocation of software and passwords and, sometimes, to
enhance the new employee’s move to productivity.
Technology and Recruitment- Recent Trends:
Recently People Matters and Param.ai have conducted a
survey to understand present trend of Technology in
Recruitment Industry which has the following findings:
1. 67% of the respondents opined about importance of
technology that can help in balancing speed and quality
of hires.
2. 62% of the respondents opined that major challenges in
Indian Recruitment market is the unavailability of the
skilled manpower and if Hiring Technology can help the
recruiter to find the people with the right skill.
3. 48% of the respondents want hiring technology to help
them to improve their hiring decisions.
4. 50% of the Organization agreed that recruitment cost is
on the higher side and they expect technology may help
them to reduce Recruitment Cost.
5. 66% of the respondents want better insights about their
recruitment metrics through the utilization of the
Technology.
6. 14% of the respondents have already adopted Artificial
Intelligence and 16% have adopted Machine Learning
for transforming their screening and sourcing candidates.
3. PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY AND HR
SERVICES
Perceived Service Quality dimensions include- Reliability,
Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy and Tangibility.
27
Amitabha Gupta, Dr. Arup Kumar Baksi BIMS Journal of Management

During the selection of any services usually the above factors 5. DATA ANALYSIS
are taken into consideration by any organization and HR
Services (Recruitment Services) are not an exception. 1. Model Summary:

Sl Service Quality Recruitment Services

No Dimension
1 Reliability
2 Assurance
3 Responsiveness
4 Empathy
5 Tangibles
Provide similar level service
performance each and every
time
Assurance of Quality
Candidates as per client’s
requirements
Providing hiring Services as
per agreed Turn Around
Time(TAT)
Considering and Internalizing
Client’s hiring challenges as
their own.
Visible HR Outcomes

Recruitment Service Providers need to match the above

perceived service quality of their clients in order to increase
business volume by increasing customer satisfaction.

All the above parameters can be met through appropriate

utilization of HR Technology. 2. Predictor Importance:
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

• The Customers of HR Services (In this paper only

Recruitment Services) i.e. HR professionals involved into
hiring process are the best source of getting the exact data
to explore the research problem.
• The authors have surveyed total 36 HR Professionals of
Kolkata from various industries like IT, ITES, BPO,
Startups etc.
• Sample Size: 85
• The authors have taken a 5 Point Likert Scale to construct
the questionnaire with 1=Strongly Disagree and 5=
Strongly Agree
• The Questionnaire is consisting of 10 Questions.
• 85 HR professionals have been surveyed to explore
relationship between Technology and Perceived Service
Quality (PSQ).
• Hypothesis: There is no significant impact of Technology
on PSQ.
• Automatic Linear Model Method in SPSS has been From the above predictor analysis it is indicative that HR
utilized to analyze the data. Technology has a direct impact on the Responsiveness,
Assurance Level, Uniqueness and the Reliability of the

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Amitabha Gupta, Dr. Arup Kumar Baksi BIMS Journal of Management

Recruitment Service Providers. Responsiveness is the highly 5. Effects:

impacted area and Reliability is the least impacted factor.

3. Residuals:

So our Null Hypothesis i.e. Technology has no direct impact

on the perceived service quality is not correct as most the
Service Quality Factors are being affected by HR Technology.
Model suggests that Responsiveness, Assurance, Uniqueness
and Reliability of Recruitment Services are being affected by
the HR Technology.
4. Outliers:
So the HR Service Providers in the Recruitment domain need
to offer their services through modern technology platform to
ensure On time response, high assurance level, Unique
Services and Reliability of the services.

Recruitment Service Provider Selection Model:

Authors have developed a Recruitment Service Provider

Model based on Service Quality Parameters: Baksi-Gupta
Model of Recruitment Service Provider Selection.

6. CONCLUSION

• HR Service Providers need to work as a HR Business

Partner (HRBP) of their clients instead of simple service
providers. In order to secure and maintain the HRBP

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Amitabha Gupta, Dr. Arup Kumar Baksi
status HR service Providers has to concentrate on
improving the technological platform in order to provide
high quality, efficient, on time recruitment services to
their clients.
• HR service providers need to internalize the factors based
on which the Corporate Select their HR Service Providers
like Tangibility, Empathy, Reliability, Responsiveness
and Assurance Level. HR Service Providers need to
include these factors in their Service Delivery Model in
order to gain new business and retain the existing one.
REFERENCES
[1] Bank, J. (1992). The essence of Total quality management,
London: Prentice Hall
[2] Berry, L.L., Parasuraman A., V. A. Zeithaml (1985). Quality
counts in services too, . Business Horizons.
[3] Cronin J. J. and S. A. Taylor (1992). Measuring service quality:
A reexamination and extension, Journal of Marketing, 56, 55-
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[4] Czepiel J. A. and R. Gilmore (1987). Exploring the concept of
loyalty in services, in: J. A. Czepiel, C. A. Congram and J.
Shanahan (Eds.), The services challenge: Integrating for
competitive advantage, American Marketing Association,
Chicago, 91-94.
[5] Dutka A. (1995). AMA Handbbok of customer satisfaction: A
guide to research, planning, and implementation, NTC
Publishing Group, Illinois.
[6] Getty J.M. and Thomson K.N. (1994). The relationship between
quality, satisfaction and recommending behaviour in lodging
decisions. Journal of Hospitality and Leisure Marketing, 2(3):3-
22.
[7] Grönroos, C. (1984). A service quality model and its marketing
implications. Journal of Marketing, 18, 36-44.
[8] Grönroos, C. (1988). Service Quality: The six criteria of good
perceived service quality. Review of Business, 9(3):10-13
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BIMS Journal of Management
[9] Johnston, R. (1987). A Framework for Developing a Quality
Strategy in a Customer Processing Operation, University of
Warwick working paper, March.
[10] Johnston, R., & Morris, B. (1985). Monitoring and control in
service operations. International Journal of Operations and
Production Management.
[11] Kandambully J. Connie M. Beverley S. (2001), ”Service quality
management in hospitality, tourism and leisure, The Howarth
Hospitality Press, NY.
[12] Naumann E. and K. Giel (1995). Customer satisfaction
measurement and management, Thomson Executive Press,
Cincinnati.
[13] Oliver, R.L. (1996), Satisfaction: A behavioural Perspective on
the consumer. London: McGraw-Hill
[14] Parasuraman A., V. A. Zeithaml and L. L. Berry (1988).
SERVQUAL: A multiple item scale for measuring consumer
perceptions of service quality, Journal of Retailing, 64, (1), 14-
40.
[15] Parasuraman A., V. A. Zeithaml and L. L. Berry (1994).
Reassessment of expectations as a comparison standard in
measuring service quality: Implications for future research,
Journal of Marketing, 58, 111-124.
[16] Swanson R. (1995). The quality improvement handbook, Kogan
Page Ltd., London.
[17] Silvestro, R., Johnston, R., Fitzgerald, L., & Voss, C. (1990).
Quality measurement in service industries. International Journal
of Service Industry Management, 1, 54-66.
[18] Smith, S. (1982). How to quantify quality. Management Today,
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[19] Solomon & C.F. Suprenants (Eds), The service encounter:
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[20] Zeithaml V. A., A. Parasuraman, and L. L. Berry (1992).
Delivering quality services, The Free Press, New York.
30
 BIMS Journal of Management
Loyalty Programme – A Game Changer in the
Volatile Market Environment of Indian Oil Industry
Abstract: The oil and gas sector is among the six core industries
in India and plays a key role in influencing decision making for
all the other important sections of the economy. The
Government of India has adopted several policies to fulfill the
increasing demand. The government has allowed 100 per cent
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in many segments of the
sector, including natural gas, petroleum products, and
refineries, among others. Before liberalization, the sector is
completely dominated by state-owned enterprises (SOEs)-
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Hindustan
Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Indian Oil
Corporation Limited (IOCL). The three SOEs enjoyed a
monopoly under the administered pricing mechanism of the
government. With full deregulation of the industry in 2002, the
market structure are completely changed and the entry of local
(private) and global players make the highly competitive. Indian
Oil is India's flagship national oil company with business
interests straddling the entire hydrocarbon value chain –
refining, pipeline transportation and marketing of petroleum
products, exploration & production of crude oil & gas,
marketing of natural gas and petrochemicals.
In the competitive environment, Indian Oil has adopted
relationship marketing along with traditional transactional
marketing. Indian Oil's XTRAPOWER Fleet Card Program is
one such a programme that extends a complete Fleet
Management Solution for the Logistics Industry. In India,
customers are heavily influenced by what “others say” and
hence a good loyalty programme brings in more customers by
the Word-of-Mouth marketing. This is especially true in the oil
sector as because most of us tend to listen to others as to where
to “Fill up.”
In the present study, an attempt has been made to understand
the consumer perceptions regarding the benefits offered by
IOCL through the mentioned loyalty programme. The study is
aimed at measuring the accrued benefits received by the
customers from the loyalty value program through the
structured questionnaire. The factors emerged from the analysis
are used to measure the acceptability of loyalty benefits which
are instrumental of measuring the success of relationship
marketing as a strategic decision in the oil industry.
Keywords: Loyalty Programme, Oil Industry, Marketing
Strategy, Transactional, Relationship, Consumer Perception
*Head- School of Management Studies, Techno India, Kolkata; amit.kundu74@gmail.com
**Student-MBA 2nd year, School of Management Studies, Techno India, Kolkata; kaustav.guha1@gmail.com
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Dr. Amit Kundu*, Kaustav Guha**
1. INTRODUCTION
The oil and gas sector has always seen less promotional
activities in India due to the market being regulated by the
government. But in the world oil companies aggressively
promote their products using different advertising media, sales
promotion activities, loyalty programs etc. The primary reason
for this is that, petrol and diesel, the two main products for an
oil company, are very generic, and people often do not care
about the brand or retail outlet they are buying it from as long
as the price is not exorbitantly high. In the USA, oil
companies have made partnership with truck stops to convert
their points gained through fuel purchases, into redeemable
services at the truck stop (food, beverages etc.). With full
deregulation of the industry in 2002, the market structure
changed and open competition was ushered in. Retention of
the market share would be a serious problem for all three state
owned enterprises (SOEs) – Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) with the entry of
new local (private) and global players.
This paper is in specific reference to Indian Oil’s promotional
activities and how the Loyalty program that they offer is a
game changer in the oil industry. Indian Oil is the largest
state-run oil company with a reported turnover of Rs 4, 38,
710 crore in 2016-2017. It has almost half of the market share
in the oil industry in India. Being a public sector unit (PSU), it
is restricted in its advertising where in they are unable to
promote their actual product, but they can promote their brand.
The reach of IOCL promotional activities is low because the
promotional activities itself is very low.
The main competition of IOCL in the oil industry are the two
other SOEs, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL),
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and the private
players like Reliance, Essar Oil, Shell etc. IOCL’s main
advantage is that it has the largest number of filling stations in
India and it also owns and operates 11 of the 23 refineries in
India. But now IOCL is facing steep competition because of
the Loyalty Programs offered by the competitors and to
combat this IOCL has tried to give a lot of benefits through
the loyalty program.
31
Dr. Amit Kundu, Kaustav Guha BIMS Journal of Management

The present study is aimed at understanding the issues of 4. OBJECTIVES OF PAPER

promotional activities undertaken by IOCL and also
measuring the effectiveness of the loyalty programme among An attempt has been made to evaluate the acceptability of the
the target group of customers. loyalty program and the accrued benefits received by the
customers from the loyalty value program on the basis of the
2. LITERATURE REVIEW interaction with the customers. In order to have an
understanding of reality concerning consumers acceptance and
Corporate management has always tried to justify the feedback regarding the loyalty programme, fifteen variables
expenditures of advertising and sales promotion because it is have been considered initially and out of which, relevant
very difficult to measure their effectiveness directly. It is factors have been identified to gauge the reality, the
highly debatable if the money invested in the short run Sales beneficiaries encountered. The emergence of promotional
Promotion will have any further impact on the activities in the oil and gas sector in the Indian environment is
brand/company. The majority of the research has been justified due to the high level of volatility in the mentioned
concentrated on marketing activities where the objective is sector. The estimation of market uncertainty on the basis of
immediate short-run improvements in sales and profit objective measure, i.e. time series data of sales revenue of the
(Haskins et al. 1969). mentioned organization in the said sector is used to validate
the significance of promotional activities.
An extensive body of academic research has established that
temporary price reduction substantially increase short-term 5. METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
brand sales (Blattberg et al, 1995) which motivates both the
retailers and manufacturers. Nijs et al. (2001) argue that many Development of Survey Instrument
leading manufacturers would like to reduce their excessive
reliance on price promotions but they are reluctant to do so as The perceptual data set of the consumers has been studied and
they may lose the support from the retailers. From a strategic that is used to measure the benefits offered by IOCL through
perspective, promotional activities do not affect the brand’s the XTRAPOWER Fleet card.
long image in the long term brand beyond those accrued
during the dust-settling period. In the same way, brands do not The consumer perception regarding the promotional activities
suffer permanent damage to their market position from of IOCL is based on the following broad dimensions and the
competitive promotions either. In the highly competitive surrogate measures explaining the dimensions are listed in the
market, to be economically viable, promotional activities table 1.
should be accountable to come out with the positive results
(Srinivasan et al. 2000). TABLE 1: Dimensions and Surrogate measures of Consumer
Perceptions
Most organization regard promotion expenses as secret and
therefore information about such expenditure is difficult to Dimensions Surrogate Measures
determine. Immediate price reduction is the technique that Convenience Convenience to recharge cards
exerts greatest influence on the brand choice process. It is
Convenience of cashless fuel
possible that the consumer perceives a promotion, for Easy Fleet Management
purchases
example, coupons or rebates, but does not modify his or her
behavior (Alvarez, 2005). In the present study of Boulding et Rewards SMS updates for transactions
al (1994), it was established that advertising and sales force Usefulness of online/Monthly
activities are perhaps more valuable and promotion activities Tracking
Reports
less valuable than previously thought. Availability of Customized
Insurance Benefits
reports
3. RESEARCH GAP AND EMERGING QUESTIONS
Usefulness of the Daily/Monthly/
Promotion
The management of an industrial enterprise is constantly faced Limits
with the problem of deciding how much advertising, selling, Ease of use of the website
or promotional effort is economically justified. On the other Ease of redemption of rewards
hand, excessive reliance on the sales promotion activities may
also tarnish the brand image of the organization. The Ease of use of control card
challenge for the organization is to maintain the balance in Ease with which transactions can
between these two for their sustenance in the competitive be tracked
market environment. Awareness of insurance policies

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Dr. Amit Kundu, Kaustav Guha BIMS Journal of Management

Dimensions Surrogate Measures
Insurance benefits are good
Claim settlement
The reach of IOCL promotional
activities
IOCL makes customers aware of
products
Data Sources
The present work is an empirical research based on both
primary and secondary data.
Primary Data Source: Questionnaire based survey method is
adopted following the exhaustive study of literature as well as
pilot survey to evaluate the identified parameters associated
with consumer perceptions regarding promotional activities.
The required modification has been made in the survey
questionnaire by the subsequent addition/deletion of the
identified issues keeping in mind the context of the study. The
survey uses five point Likert type scales where “1” means
strongly disagree and “5” means strongly agree. The items
were empirically tested and validated.
A factor analysis has been performed based on the perception
data of the end users regarding the effectiveness of IOCL’s
promotional activities based on identified fifteen variables
Findings
The construct's validity was tested applying Bartlett’s Test of
Sphericity and The Kaiser–Mayer–Olkin (KMO) Measure of
Sampling adequacy analyzing the strength of association
among variables. The results reveal that the value of KMO is
0.675 which is above 0.5. The results for Bartlett’s Test of
Sphericity (0.000) and KMO both were highly significant and
so it is concluded that factor analysis is suitable
Based on perceived data on all identified items, the factor
analysis has been performed. The findings of this study
indicate that five factors namely, Ease of additional benefits,
Usefulness of the MIS, Cash flow and Insurance, Promotion
and availability of MIS and Awareness of insurance policies
emerge as the significant factors regarding the acceptability of
promotional activities and can explain the variation at the
level of 67.601 percent [Ref Table 2].
TABLE 2: Emerged Factors with their parameters and
associated loadings

Study Areas:
Factors Parameters Factor
Loading
The identified zone for survey was West Bengal. In the
identified regions, the interactions were made with the F1: Ease of Ease of redemption of 0.666
customers in a group meetings/ personal interactions additional rewards
benefits Usefulness of 0.654
Sample Size: online/Monthly Reports
The reach of IOCL 0.532
A total of 189 customers (fleet owners) were interviewed promotional activities
using the structured questionnaire.
Ease with which 0.44
transactions can be tracked
Secondary Data Source:
F2: Usefulness SMS updates for 0.658
Last 15 years annual sales data was collected from the official of the MIS transactions
website of Indian Oil to measure the volatility of the market. Ease of use of control card 0.588
Usefulness of the 0.548
6. RESULTS AND FINDINGS Daily/Monthly/ Limits
Analysis –Stage I Claim settlement 0.526
Ease of use of the website 0.499
Reliability Measure F3: Cashflow Convenience to recharge 0.560
and Insurance cards
The reliability of all the variables is measured for 189 Benefits
respondents and the results (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.6499) Convenience of cashless 0.549
fuel purchases
indicate that satisfactory internal consistency exists in the
survey data set. Insurance benefits are good 0.521
F4: Promotion The reach of IOCL 0.564
Method and availability promotional activities

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Dr. Amit Kundu, Kaustav Guha
Factors Parameters Factor
Loading
of MIS Availability of Customized 0.493
reports
F5: Awareness Awareness of insurance 0.505
of insurance policies
policies
The emerged first factor F1 clearly indicates that consumers
are willing to get extra financial benefits out of their purchase
and that is quite justifiable in the highly competitive
environment as all the players are playing the same card.
Factor 2 (F2) and factor 4(F4) justify the emergence of the
technology intervention for better service environment as well
as service delivery. Factor F3 and Factor F5 strongly validate
the strategic way of developing communication mechanism
i.e. advertisement generates the awareness and sales
promotion act as a stimuli to purchase as the consumer are
already aware about the product offerings.
7. ANALYSIS –STAGE II
In this paper, attempt has been made to determine the degree
of uncertainty in the market place. Based on the time series
data on the sales revenue of the organization, namely, Indian
Oil, the degree of uncertainty has been measured in respect of
demand of the produce.
Method
Based on yearly data on the variable, namely sales, time series
analysis has been performed using regression method with
time being the only independent variable. The time series data
was available from 2002-2017. In this analysis, values of R-
square turn out to be reasonably high. Standard error of the
estimate is taken as measure of uncertainty in respect of the
variable because it shows the degree of volatility of the
respective market. The results are shown in the following
table 3.
TABLE 3: Output of Regression Analysis
Standard error of
R Square Level of Significance
estimates
0.930 0.000 33726.325
Uncertainty in the market place is well known and it is time
and environment specific. Considering a fixed set of
environment and time specificity, the uncertain situation in the
market is conceptually reflected in the movement of the
variable straightaway relating to the market. To suggest a
measure reflecting the uncertainty in the market, it is
necessary to ascertain the pattern of movement of the variable
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
BIMS Journal of Management
i.e. sales turnover. At the first stage of analysis, the following
model is estimated: Y=f(t) where Y represents sales turnover
for Indian Oil Corporation Limited and t represents time. In
estimating the above model, there emerges an error variance
associated with the above estimate model. Error variance in
this context reflects the extent of fluctuations of the variables
over time. In fact, if the extent of fluctuations is more, market
seems to be more uncertain. Therefore, error variance turns
out to be measure of uncertainty of the market. the high value
of error variance indicate the volatility of the market and
industry analysts indicate the several factors of market
volatility in the oil and gas sector namely, crude oil price in
the international market, government taxes, cost of
transportation etc.
The volatility in the marketplace on the other hand, justifies
the organizational effort to rely on the promotional activities
to retain the market share and provide the loyalty benefits to
the developed consumer base.
8. CONCLUSION
The key to success for any business is strong customer base. A
business can survive even during tough competition if it has
strong and loyal customers with them. The best way to keep
customers loyal is to provide a good product or a service that
provides good value for money. Offers and loyalty schemes
can act as stimuli of the market to extend the loyalty benefits
to the customers and may act as good customer relationship
strategy (CRM). We need to enroll the right customers,
knowing which customer groups are more important to us
allows crafting recognition and rewarding strategy that piques
their interest.
The functional relationship between sales and promotional
effort developed here is useful in directing sales promotional
activities. It is also of fundamental importance in any general
model of the business as a whole. A general model can be
extremely valuable in providing quantitative guides to
planning basic strategy of the business.
REFERENCES
[1] Alvarez B.A., Casielles R.V., (2005) Consumer evaluations of
sales promotion: the effect on brand choice, European Journal of
Marketing, 39 ( 1/2), pp.54-70
[2] Blattberg, R., R. Briesch, E. Fox. (1995). How promotions work.
Marketing Science 14(3) G122-G132.
[3] Boulding, W., Lee, E., Staelin, R. (1994) Mastering the Mix: Do
Advertising, Promotion, and Sales Force Activities Lead to
Differentiation? Journal of Marketing Research, 31(2) Special
Issues on Brand Management pp. 159-172
[4] Haskins J.B., Hugli W.C., (1969).Evaluating the Effects of
Company Promotional Activities: A Neglected Area for
34
Dr. Amit Kundu, Kaustav Guha BIMS Journal of Management

Research and Management Attention. Journal of Marketing, (2004) Do Promotions Benefit Manufacturers, Retailers, or
33(4) pp 66-68 Both? Marketing Science 50(5) 617-622
[5] Magee, J.F., (1953) The Effect of Promotional Effort on Sales. [8] https://www.iocl.com/download/audited-financial-result-2016-
Journal of the Operations Research Society of America 1(2) 64- 17.pdf
74 [9] https://www.iocl.com/download/FinancialResult141501.pdf
[6] Nijs, V., M. G. Dekimpe, J.-B. E. M. Steenkamp, D. M. [10] https://www.iocl.com/download/Indian_Oil_Corporation_Ltd_3
Hanssens. (2001). The category demand effects of price 00514.pdf
promotions. Marketing Science 20(1) 1-22 [11] https://www.iocl.com/download/Indian_Oil_Corporation_Ltd_2
[7] Srinivasan, S., Pauwels K., Hanssens D.M., Dekimpe M.G., 80512.pdf
[12] https://www.iocl.com/downloads/IOC_FinancialResult_MAY_2
010v1.pdf

ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018 35

 BIMS Journal of Management
Role & Responsibility of Supply Chain
Management in IT Industries
Abstract: This paper presents a study of Supply Chain
Management, SCM applications, elements and benefits roles
and responsibility of SCM in IT firms in India. Specifically
focus on supply chain structures; facilities network design;
transportation and logistics; collaborations and partnerships;
and the role of Information and Communications Technologies
(ICT). Supply Chain Practices in India Before the 1990s,
Indian organizations operated in a protected environment.
Supply chain activities cover everything from product
development, sourcing, production, and logistics, as well as the
information systems needed to coordinate these activities.
Comparative analysis of SCM practices of these firms indicates
various similarities, differences, emergent trends as well as
areas of concern. Manufacturing as well as others services
firms, face many challenges in getting the best out of their
suppliers, in-house operations and logistics and distribution
channels. Their supply chain structures, facilities network
design, collaborations and partnership strategies, forecasting
methodologies as well as implementation and utilization of
information and communications technologies (ICT) are
assuming greater significance in meeting these challenges.
Inventory control and inventory visibility are two very critical
elements in any operations for these are the cost drivers and
directly impact the bottom lines on the balance sheet. Inventory
means value and is an asset to the company. A lot of inventory
would also be in the pipeline in transportation, besides the
inventory with distributors and retail stocking points. Since any
loss of inventory anywhere in the supply chain would result in
loss of value, effective control of inventory and visibility of
inventory gains importance as a key factor of Supply Chain
Management function. In a global scenario, the finished goods
inventory is held at many locations and distribution centers,
managed by third parties.
Keywords: SCM, Supply Chain Management, Inventory
Management, Comparative Analysis, Information and
Communications Technologies (ICT).
1. INTRODUCTION
Supply Chain Management (SCM) has grown rapidly over the
past several years mainly due to an increase in corporate goals
of reducing costs and at the same time ensuring quick and
timely deliveries in right quantities at right places to the ever-
demanding customers. This is specifically developing in our
country India.
*Associate Professor, NSHM Knowledge Campus, Durgapur -713212 (West Bengal); anand.mohandhn@gmail.com
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Dr. Anand Mohan*
Supply chain management (SCM) is the active management of
supply chain activities to maximize customer value and
achieve a sustainable competitive advantage represents a
conscious effort by the supply chain firms to develop and run
supply chains in the most effective & efficient ways possible.
The concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM) is based on
two core ideas:
1. The first is that practically every product that reaches an
end user represents the cumulative effort of multiple
organizations. These organizations are referred to
collectively as the supply chain.
2. The second idea is that while supply chains have existed
for a long time, most organizations have only paid
attention to what was happening within their four walls.
Supply chain management (SCM) is the combination of art
and science that goes into improving the raw components it
needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers.
SCM is the management of a network of all business
processes and activities involving procurement of raw
materials, manufacturing and distribution management of
Finished Goods. SCM is also called the art of management of
providing the Right Product, At the Right Time, Right Place
and at the Right Cost to the Customer.
The organizations that make up the supply chain are “linked”
together through physical flows and information flows.
Physical Flows: Physical flows involve the transformation,
movement, and storage of goods and materials. They are the
most visible piece of the supply chain. But just as important
are information flows.
Information Flows: Information flows allow the various
supply chain partners to coordinate their long-term plans, and
to control the day-to-day flow of goods and materials up and
down the supply chain.
The Indian infrastructure – comprising roads, railways,
airports, seaports, ICT and energy production – is considered
36
Dr. Anand Mohan
very poor as compared with other developed and developing
countries. However, things are changing for the better at a fast
pace. Technology, which was earlier mistaken to be a driver
for doing business in a particular fashion, has become a
“necessary” enabler for aligning business to consumer
demand. It can change the way we capture and analyze
information, differentiate products and services, configure and
sell existing products, crash order cycle times, introduce new
products and so on and so forth.
ICT can thus achieve breakthroughs in the area of supply
chain design, configuration and planning, which otherwise can
never be thought about. ICT tools for Indian organizations are
still a luxury with organizations still preparing themselves to
harness its power to improve supply chains. To compete in
today’s environment ICT tools are a necessity. The size of the
organization does not matter as fortunately the cost of
technology has been reduced so that even the smallest
organization can now afford them.
Supply Chain Management is a broad-based function that
encompasses all business and operational processes involved
in but not limited to Procurement, Manufacturing, and
Finished Goods Transportation, warehousing & Distribution
and Inventory Management. Raw material procurement
sources across the world and cheaper manufacturing and labor
markets being available in developing world, the business of
meeting demand with supply is constantly changing and
evolving. Global business has been fuelled and enabled by the
IT Technology which has redefined all aspects of business
today. All businesses today are run on ERP - Enterprise
Resource Planning which provides the organizations with
tools to manage all the functions including procurement,
production, sales, and finance management in seamless and
integrated manner.
These software systems like SAP, Oracle, People soft, etc.,
have taken over and enhanced the business processes that were
traditionally being managed manually.
Winning the SCM “game” requires supply chain professionals
to play similar roles. Each supply chain player must
understand his or her role, develop winning strategies, and
collaborate with their supply chain teammates. By doing so,
the SCM team can flawlessly execute the following processes:
• Planning – the plan process seeks to create effective
long- and short-range supply chain strategies. From the
design of the supply chain network to the prediction of
customer demand, supply chain leaders need to develop
integrated supply chain strategies.
• Procurement – the buy process focuses on the purchase
of required raw materials, components, and goods. As a
consumer, you're pretty familiar with buying stuff!
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BIMS Journal of Management
• Production – the make process involves the manufacture,
conversion, or assembly of materials into finished goods
or parts for other products. Supply chain managers
provide production support and ensure that key materials
are available when needed.
• Distribution – the move process manages the logistical
flow of goods across the supply chain. Transportation
companies, third party logistics firms, and others ensure
that goods are flowing quickly and safely toward the point
of demand.
• Customer Interface – the demand process revolves
around all the issues that are related to planning customer
interactions, satisfying their needs, and fulfilling orders
perfectly.
Structuring the supply chain requires an understanding of the
demand patterns, service level requirements, distance
considerations, cost elements and other related factors. It is
easy to see that these factors are highly variable in nature and
this variability needs to be considered during the supply chain
analysis process. Moreover, the interplay of these complex
considerations could have a significant bearing on the
outcome of the supply chain analysis process.
There are six key elements to a supply chain:
• Production
• Supply
• Inventory
• Location
• Transportation, and
• Information
The following describes each of the elements:
1. Production: Strategic decisions regarding production
focus on what customers want and the market demands.
This first stage in developing supply chain takes into
consideration how many products to produce, and if any,
parts or components should be produced at which plants
or outsourced to capable suppliers. These strategic
decisions regarding production must also focus on
capacity, quality and volume of goods, keeping in mind
that customer demand and satisfaction must be met.
Operational decisions, on the other hand, focus on
scheduling workloads, maintenance of equipment and
meeting immediate client/market demands. Quality
control and workload balancing are issues which need to
be considered when making these decisions.
2. Supply : An organization must determine their facilities
to produce, both economically and efficiently, high
37
Dr. Anand Mohan
quality products. But most companies cannot provide
excellent performance with the manufacture of all
components. Outsourcing is an excellent alternative to be
considered for those products and components that
cannot be produced effectively by an organization’s
facilities. Companies must carefully select suppliers for
raw materials. When choosing a supplier, focus should
be on developing velocity, quality and flexibility while
at the same time reducing costs or maintaining low cost
levels.
3. Inventory: Further strategic decisions focus on
inventory and how much product should be in-house. A
delicate balance exists between too much inventory,
which can cost anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of
their value, and not enough inventory to meet market
demands. This is a critical issue in effective supply chain
management. Operational inventory decisions revolved
around optimal levels of stock at each location to ensure
customer satisfaction as the market demands fluctuate.
Control policies must be looked at to determine correct
levels of supplies at order and reorder points.
4. Location: Location decisions depend on market
demands and determination of customer satisfaction.
Strategic decisions must focus on the placement of
production plants, distribution and stocking facilities,
and placing them in prime locations to the market
served. Once customer markets are determined, long-
term commitment must be made to locate production and
stocking facilities as close to the consumer as is
practical. In industries where components are
lightweight and market driven, facilities should be
located close to the end-user. In heavier industries,
careful consideration must be made to determine where
plants should be located so as to be close to the raw
material source.
5. Transportation: Strategic transportation decisions are
closely related to inventory decisions as well as meeting
customer demands. Using air transport obviously gets
the product out quicker and to the customer expediently,
but the costs are high as opposed to shipping by boat or
rail. Yet using sea or rail often times means having
higher levels of inventory in-house to meet quick
demands by the customer. It is wise to keep in mind that
since 30% of the cost of a product is encompassed by
transportation, using the correct transport mode is a
critical strategic decision. Above all, customer service
levels must be met, and this often times determines the
mode of transport used.
6. Information: Effective supply chain management
requires obtaining information from the point of end-use,
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BIMS Journal of Management
and linking information resources throughout the chain
for speed of exchange. Overwhelming paper flow and
disparate computer systems are unacceptable in today's
competitive world. Fostering innovation requires good
organization of information. Linking computers through
networks and the internet, and streamlining the
information flow, consolidates knowledge and facilitates
velocity of products. Account management software,
product configurations, enterprise resource planning
systems, and global communications are key
components of effective supply chain management
strategy.
2. SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF SCM
More than ten years ago, a research study of 100+
manufacturers, distributors, and retailers uncovered some
widely used supply chain strategies and initiatives. These
ideas and practices were distilled down to seven principles and
presented in an article in Supply Chain Management Review,
a magazine widely read by SCM professionals.
Principle 1 Segment customers based on the service needs of
distinct groups and adapt the supply chain to serve these
segments profitably.
Principle 2 Customize the logistics network to the service
requirements and profitability of customer segments.
Principle 3 Listen to market signals and align demand
planning accordingly across the supply chain, ensuring
consistent forecasts and optimal resource allocation.
Principle 4 Differentiate product closer to the customer and
speed conversation across the supply chain.
Principle 5 Manage sources of supply strategically to reduce
the total cost of owning materials and services.
Principle 6 Develop a supply chain-wide technology strategy
that supports multiple levels of decision making and gives
clear view of the flow of products, services, and information.
Principle 7 Adopt channel-spanning performance measures to
gauge collective success in reaching the end-user effectively
and efficiently.
Benefits of SCM Systems
• Improvement of delivery dependability and customer
orientation
• Reduction of stocks
• Cost reduction within the procurement, production and
distribution network
• Decrease of processing time5)
• Avoidance of the bullwhip-effect
38
Dr. Anand Mohan
Types of SCM Systems
The SCM market could be classified into five categories:
1. Integrated SCM and eBusiness Suites: Software
vendors who started with “Advanced Planning &
Scheduling Functionalities” and developed their modular
products to almost complete SCM tool suites. Vendors:
e.g. i2 Technologies, Manugistics and SAP.
2. Specialized SCM-Suites: These software suites offer
specialized solutions in different fields of task
scheduling. These solutions are less extensive than those
of the first category. Vendors: e.g. Adexa, Aspentech
and DynaSys.
3. Functional Extended ERP Systems:Vendors of this
category develop SCM functionalities as an extension oft
their Production Planning and Control (PPC) and
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems but their
core business are still traditional systems. Vendors: e.g.
Infor Global Solutions and Oracle.
4. Niche Vendors: These software solutions are
customized for special subtasks of SCM or for particular
target groups. The vendors don’t offer complete SCM
systems or tool suites. Vendors: e.g. flexis and Supply
Solutions.
5. Chain Execution-Suites/-Software: This category
contains vendors whose software solutions enable and
support the management, execution and controlling of
supply chain activities. Vendors: e.g. Descartes.
Supply chain activities aren't the responsibility of one person
or one company. Multiple people need to be actively involved
in a number of different processes to make it work. It's kind of
like baseball. While all the participants are called baseball
players, they don't do whatever they want. Each person has a
role – pitcher, catcher, shortstop, etc. – and must perform well
at their assigned duties – fielding, throwing, and/or hitting –
for the team to be successful. Of course, these players need to
work well together. A hit-and-run play will only be successful
if the base runner gets the signal and takes off running, while
the batter makes solid contact with the ball. The team also
needs a manager to develop a game plan, put people in the
right positions, and monitor success.
3. CONCLUSION
IT is one of the most important enabler of the Supply chain in
modern complex world of Global Businesses. Supply Chain
Strategies are the critical backbone to Business Organizations
today. Effective Market coverage, Availability of Products at
locations which hold the key to revenue recognition depends
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BIMS Journal of Management
upon the effectiveness of Supply Chain Strategy rolled out.
Very simply stated, when a product is introduced in the market
and advertised, the entire market in the country and all the
sales counters need to have the product where the customer is
able to buy and take delivery. Any glitch in product not being
available at the right time can result in drop in customer
interest and demand which can be disastrous. Transportation
network design and management assume importance to
support sales and marketing strategy. Demand planning,
Forecasting, Global procurement management are some of the
enabling tools on which the Global procurement strategies are
built and managed. Finished goods distribution, transportation,
and inventory management, besides sales process is again
driven by the various ERP modules combined with additional
specific applications as required. ERP has enabled companies
to manage their business processes in different markets and
countries under one common business process thus providing
standardization and control. The complex network of various
processes, software platforms and applications and different
software tools used by various vendors and agents in the entire
chain drive the supply chain of the companies.
REFERENCES
[1] http://rockfordconsulting.com/supply-chain-management.htm
[2] Management, Vol.10, No. 6, pp. 300–305Lurquin, M.G., (1996),
"Streamlining the Supply Chain in the Pharmaceuticals
Industry", Logistics Information Management, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp.
6–10
[3] https://www.researchgate.net/.../37999067_Comparative_Analys
is_of_Supply_Chain.
[4] Tan, K.C. (2002), "Supply Chain Management: Practices,
Concerns, and Performance Issues", The Journal of Supply
Chain Management, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 51-62.
[5] Tan, K.C., Kannan, V.R., and Handfield, R.B. (1998), "Supply
Chain Management: Supplier Performance and Firm
Performance", International Journal of Purchasing & Materials
Management, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 2-9.
[6] Towill, D.R., (1996), "Time Compression and Supply Chain
Management – a Guided Tour", Logistics Information
Management, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 41–53Tully, S., (1995),
"Purchasing’s New Muscle", Fortune, Vol. 20, pp. 76.
[7] www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/17410391311325234
[8] https://www.coursera.org/specializations/supply-chain-
management
[9] https://www.cognizant.com/supply-chain-management
[10] www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/14725960910990035
[11] ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4114601/
[12] https://www.intechopen.com/.../supply-chain-management-
applications-and-simulation.
[13] https://www.slideshare.net/.../application-of-supply-chain-
management-in-banking-in.
[14] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27575640
39
 BIMS Journal of Management
Where Does the Roots of Open Defecation Lie? What
Economics has to Say About it?
Abstract : India has become the global champion of open
defecation with largest number of her people defecating in the
open. In recent time, sanitation coverage has experienced a
phenomenal leap. Swachh Bharat Misson (SBM) acting as
“engine of growth” in sanitation sector by raising access to
sanitation. However, the ultimate goal of the mission as well as
sustainable development is to achieve “Clean” i.e. open
defecation free India. Construction of toilet only serves the
necessary condition of the bigger goal whereas sufficiency lies
in elimination of open defecation which is still a far cry. The
paper intends to identify the enabling factors behind the choice
of open defecation practiced by rural households. The paper
utilized primary data from a field survey conducted in rural
Maharashtra. The choice function of the rural households
combines household characteristics with the environmental and
Gram Panchayat characteristics.
The aim of the paper is to fetch out the key factors that sets in
the open defecation behaviour in the mind of the rural people.
Logistic regression has been applied to model the choice
function of the household with the dichotomous outcome
variable i.e. choice for open defecation and choice of using the
toilet. The results speak out that keeping other things remaining
same, the choice made by a household is a pure economic
choice i.e. when they found opportunity cost of using toilet is
relatively higher, open defecation gives them higher pay off.
Moreover, the incentive mechanism by the government only
covers the fixed cost of toilet construction in the short run for
weaker section of the society. But when it comes to sustainable
use of it recurring cost of maintaining a toilet matters. In the
long run, if household’s perceived return from sanitation
turned out lesser than variable cost on maintenance of toilet,
the household will simply “shut down” usage of their toilet and
resort to open field. Again, the paper explores that household
characteristics have lesser explanatory power while the Gram
Panchayat and environmental factor have greater influence on
the choice pattern of the household. Hence the result quiet
convincingly portraying that macro behaviour drives the micro
behaviour in terms of sanitation practice. The empirical results
of the paper thus reveal the hidden but existing economic part
of the story of open defecation which had not been proved
statistically till now.
Keywords: Open defecation, Choice function, Logistic
regression, Sanitation access
*Junior Research Fellow (UGC-JRF), Department of Economics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India;
bosedebasree91@gmail.com
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Debasree Bose*
Acknowledgment: The primary survey was conducted by Riddhi
Foundation, Kolkata a non-profit making organisation under a
project of UNICEF, Maharashtra. I am grateful to Dr. M.N.
Roy, President of Riddhi Foundation for his support.
1. INTRODUCTION
India was one of the pioneer in the system of cleanliness and
sanitation since ancient era. Indus Valley civilization was the
most glorifying example. Again, in recent times, the country
has secured the first rank globally with respect to sanitation.
But this time, the highest burden of open defecation made the
country global champion. Such acute sanitation scenario
especially in the rural India is a matter of concern not only at
the national level but also internationally. On 2nd October,
2014 “India’s biggest Cleanliness drive” was launched with a
mission to achieve “Clean India” or open defecation free India
by 2019. Hence, the country is chasing a bigger goal to
eliminate open defecation much sooner than that of
Sustainable Development Goal which targeted to reach the
same by 2030. With the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission
(SBM), India has experienced a phenomenal leap in rural
sanitation coverage. The increased subsidy benefits under
SBM for toilet construction significantly raised the access
among below poverty line (BPL) households. However,
construction of toilet only serves the necessary condition of
the bigger goal whereas sufficiency lies in elimination of open
defecation which is still a far cry.
2. OBJECTIVE
The broader aim of the paper is to explore the enabling
factorsbehind the choice of open defecation by rural
households. The choice function of the rural households
combines household characteristics with the environmental
and Gram Panchayat (GP)characteristics. The idea of the
paper is to narrate the story of open defecation through the
economic lens. Hence, all the rural households are assumed
nothing but rational economic agents and the choice made by
households must include sound economic logic. The paper
assesses the validity of the assumptions i.e. whether economic
logic plays a vital role in determining the choice of open
defecation or not.
40
Debasree Bose BIMS Journal of Management

3. DATA & METHODOLOGY of sanitation practice depends on household characteristics as

The data are collected from field visit in rural Maharashtra
during January-July 2017. The survey has been conducted in
20 districts, 42 blocks of the state. Both household and GP
level detail information has been collected through two
separate questionnaires. Merged primary data on 513
households dwelling in 54 GPs has been utilized in this paper.
The aim of the paper is to fetch out the key factors that sets in
the choice of open defecation in the mind of rural people.
Logistic regression has been applied to model the choice
function of the household where the choice of sanitation
practice is dichotomous in nature i.e. either choice for open
defecation or choice of using a toilet.
The equation of Logistic regression model is as follow:
Logit (E[Yi|x1, i, x2, i, …, xm, i])= Logit (Pi )
= ln (Pi/1-Pi) = β0 + β1x1, i + β2x2, i + …+ βm xm, i
Where Yiis the binary dependent variable. Yi takes the value 1
if a particular surveyed household reported to practice open
defecation and 0 if the household uses a toilet to defecate. Pi is
the probability associated with Yi=1. The household behaviour
well as GP environment and initiatives taken by GP.
Therefore, the paper includes a range of household and GP
features that might have important explanatory power to
explain the choice of sanitation practice at the household level.
Hence, the xj, i (j=1(1)m) are the independent regressors which
contents household and GP level characteristics as shown in
first two columns of table 5 in section 4. Application of this
logistic model in the surveyed that will explore the hidden
factors that have the significant influence which drives a
household to resort open defecation as per the objective of the
paper.
4. RESULTS
Table 1 contains the survey details across the districts.
Information has been collected from 20 (58.8%) out of 34
districts of rural Maharashtra. The survey conducted in 54 GPs
which are segregated in two groups as per secondary
information on ODF (Open Defecation Free) status. A GP
declared as open defecation free (ODF) by Ministry of
Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) if the district and
block authority confirms that all the household in the GP do
not resort to open field for defecation i.e. a particular GP is
free from open defecation. The data on total 513 households
has been analysed. Out of which 239 (46.6%) households
belongto Non-ODF GP and 274 (53.4%) are from ODF GPs.

TABLE 1: Survey Summary - Surveyed Household Distribution across Districts of Maharashtra

District HHs from Non-ODF HHs from ODF Total District wise HH
GP GP distribution
Ahmadnagar 8 12 20 3.9
Akola 9 10 19 3.7
Buldana 18 0 18 3.5
Dhule 19 20 39 7.6
Jalgaon 30 10 40 7.8
Kolhapur 0 20 20 3.9
Latur 10 10 20 3.9
Nanded 10 10 20 3.9
Nandurbar 30 10 40 7.8
Nashik 17 20 37 7.2
Osmanabad 9 10 19 3.7
Palgarh 30 9 39 7.6
Parbhani 10 10 20 3.9
Raigarh 19 19 38 7.4
Ratnagiri 0 29 29 5.7
Sindhudurg 0 40 40 7.8

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Debasree Bose BIMS Journal of Management

District HHs from Non-ODF HHs from ODF Total District wise HH
GP GP distribution
Solapur 0 10 10 1.9
Thane 0 18 18 3.5
Wardha 0 7 7 1.4
Yavatmal 20 0 20 3.9
Total 239 274 513 100
Source: Author’s Own Presentation

Table 2 presents the environmental and GP level characteristics of the surveyed GP.

TABLE 2: Characteristics of Surveyed GP

Non-ODF GP ODF GP Total

GP Characteristics No. of GPs % No. of GPs % No. of GPs %
GP type 25 46.30 29 53.70 54 -
Availability of OD sites
Abundantly Available 20 83.33 11 39.29 31 59.62
Few/Not available 4 16.67 17 60.71 21 40.38
ODEP Preparation
Prepared 10 40.00 16 55.17 26 48.15
Not Prepared 15 60.00 13 44.83 28 51.85
Community Involvement
Good 9 37.50 24 82.76 33 62.26
Poor 15 62.50 5 17.24 20 37.74
IEC Utilization
Unutilized 17 68.00 6 20.69 23 42.59
Utilized 8 32.00 23 79.31 31 57.41
Garbage Collection Mechanism
Present (By GP) 1 4.00 4 13.79 5 9.26
No Mechanism 24 96.00 25 86.21 49 90.74
Source: Author’s Own Calculation

Table 2 shows that availability of open defecation site is
mostly concentrated in non-ODF GPs. Such prevalence of OD
place is relatively smaller in case of ODF GPs. Only 39.3% of
ODF GPs reported to have abundant availability of OD place
while as high as 83.3% of Non-ODF GPs are having plenty of
OD sites. Thus, this environmental factor might have strong
influence on the sanitation behaviour. Again, from the action
point of view also, ODF GPs are ahead than that of Non-ODF
GPs. 55.2% of ODF GPs have prepared Open Defecation
Elimination plan (ODEP) whereas 40.0% of Non-ODF GP
have only taken the initiative to make a strategic plan to curd
this societal disease. Overall more than half (51.9%) of the
GPs of rural Maharashtra do not have any specific plan to
make the GP ODF which is quite striking. ODF and Non-ODF
GPs also express significant variation in community
involvement. 62.5% of Non-ODF GPs have reported to have
low community involvement in sanitation movement. Such
percentage is quite sound (82.8%) in case of ODF GPs.
Therefore, it could be seen that Non-ODF GPs are hardly able
to mobilize people to take effective part in ongoing sanitation
movement. Information. Education and Communication (IEC)
plays a critical role to generate awareness among communities
regarding sanitation benefits. Hence, greater utilization of IEC
material will generate higher sanitation knowledge among
households which will in turn lead to elimination open
defecation from the GP. However, Table 2 shows that IEC

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Debasree Bose BIMS Journal of Management

materials are not effectively utilized in 68.0% of Non-ODF
GPs. Moreover, such IEC remain unutilized in 42.6% of entire
surveyed GP. It is shocking to report that only 9.3% of the
GPs in rural Maharashtra presently have a garbage collection
system. Simultaneous focus on Solid and Liquid Waste
Management (SLWM) with sanitation is the very need of the
hour for maintaining sustainability. Otherwise society will
evidently have to pay good price in future for such disastrous
condition of SLWM in rural India.

TABLE 3:Characteristics of Surveyed Households (HHs)

Non-ODF GP ODF GP Total

HH Characteristics No. of HHs % No. of HHs % No. of HHs %
Education
Illiterate 33 17.55 33 15.79 66 16.62
Primary 16 8.51 23 11 39 9.82
Secondary 102 54.26 109 52.15 211 53.15
Above Secondary 37 19.68 44 21.05 81 20.40
Caste
ST 111 47.03 66 24.18 177 34.77
SC 32 13.56 47 17.22 79 15.52
Other 57 24.15 98 35.90 155 30.45
OBC 36 15.25 62 22.71 98 19.25
Religion
Hindu 218 91.60 251 91.94 469 91.78
Muslim 20 8.40 22 8.06 42 8.22
Head of HH
Male 221 92.86 231 84.31 452 88.28
Female 17 7.14 43 15.69 60 11.72
Income Category
APL 127 53.59 157 57.51 284 55.69
BPL 110 46.41 116 42.49 226 44.31
Source: Author’s Own Calculation

Table 3 explores the household characteristics in two different
sets of GPs. The distribution patterns in terms of educational
achievements among the households of ODF and Non-ODF
GPs are quite similar. The percentage of illiterate household
head is marginally greater (1.7 % point) in Non-ODF GPs than
that of ODF ones. But the distributive pattern slightly changes
in terms of caste of the household head. Surveyed households
among Non-ODF GPs are predominantly (47.0%) ST
households. While in case of ODF GPs highest percentage of
households (35.7%) belong to other caste. Again, no
significant difference has been found between households of
ODF and Non-ODF GPs in terms of religion of household
head. It is interesting to note that majority of the surveyed
household in rural Maharashtra is Hindu (91.8%) and all non-
Hindu surveyed households are believer of Islam. Households
of rural Maharashtra are mostly dominated by male elderly
(88.3%). Same pattern could be viewed in case of households
from both the type of GPs. However, percentage of female
headed households (15.7% against 7.1% in Non-ODF GPs) is
a bit higher in the households from ODF-GPs. Income
categorical distribution of households is also similar across the
households of ODF and Non-ODF GPs. Overall surveyed
household consists of 55.7% of APL families and 44.3% of
BPL families.
Table 4 below presents the condition of WAS (Water &
Sanitation) in surveyed households. Availability of toilet is
naturally quite high (92.7%) in case of ODF GPs as compared
to 54.8% in Non-ODF GPs. But it is good to notice that 40.2%
of the households from Non-ODF GPs are reported ongoing
construction of toilet during the survey (ended in July 2017).
That means, by this time the access of toilet has been raised to
95.0% of households in Non-ODF GPs and 96.3% in ODF
GPs. Now, it is interesting to note that there lies hardly any

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Debasree Bose BIMS Journal of Management

difference between households from ODF or Non-ODF GPs the households in any of the GPs. Hence, the paper tries to
with respect to availability of toilet. Therefore, given the capture the root cause behind the choice of open defecation
primary data, in recent future, access to toilet willbe no more a apart from access to toilet.
major deciding factor for describing open defecation choice by

TABLE 4 WAS (Water & Sanitation) Status of Surveyed Households (HHs)

Non-ODF GP ODF GP Total

HH WAS (Water & Sanitation) Status No. of HHs % No. of HHs % No. of HHs %
Toilet Availability
Present 131 54.81 254 92.70 385 75.05
Defunct 4 1.67 8 2.92 12 2.34
Under Construction 96 40.17 10 3.65 106 20.66
Not Present 8 3.35 2 0.73 10 1.95
Drinking Water Availability
Sufficiently Available 136 57.38 230 85.19 366 72.19
Not Available 101 42.62 40 14.81 141 27.81
Toilet Distance
Inside House 10 6.21 17 6.46 27 6.37
Attached to House but outside premises 100 62.11 124 47.15 224 52.83
Away from House 51 31.68 122 46.39 173 40.80
Water source Distance
Within dwelling 17 7.11 72 26.28 89 17.35
Not within dwelling but inside premises 73 30.54 96 35.04 169 32.94
Outside Premises 149 62.34 106 38.69 255 49.71
Water facility in toilet
No facility of water 14 10.00 14 5.30 28 6.93
Tap facility within toilet 7 5.00 26 9.85 33 8.17
Through bucket 70 50.00 160 60.61 230 56.93
Water source far from toilet 49 35.00 64 24.24 113 27.97
Frequency of Using Toilet
Always not in use 99 43.61 15 5.49 114 22.80
Always in use 128 56.39 258 94.51 386 77.20
Usual Defecation Place
Toilet 130 54.85 258 94.51 388 76.08
Open defecation 107 45.15 15 5.49 122 23.92
Source: Author’s Own Calculation

The percentage of defunct toilet though seems small (2.34%)
but carries some wider consequences. The GP and higher-level
authority should take necessary action to correct the
dysfunctionality of the existing toilet for continuous usage by
the household to maintain the sustainability of good sanitation
practices. Health of the household is a function of good WAS
condition. Water plays a pivotal role in it. However, Table 4
depicts that more than one-fourth (27.8%) of the households
still deprived from adequate drinking water need. Households
from ODF GPs are well-off in this ground than the ones from
Non-ODF GPs. There is little percentage of households
(6.4%) which have built the toilet inside the house. Mostly the
toilet is built outside premises either somehow attached to
house or away from house (mostly within 50-100 feet). Water
sources are also mostly situated outside the premise of
households. However, such percentage (38.7% against 62.3%

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Debasree Bose BIMS Journal of Management

in Non-ODF GPs) is lesser among households from ODF GPs.
6.9% of households reported to have no facility of water for
using in toilet. Only 8.2% of households have internal
connection of water within toilet through tap. Majority of the
households (56.9%) pour the water in bucket externally to use
it for sanitation. Striking difference lies in frequency of use of
toilet among the households from ODF and Non-ODF GPs.
Only little more than half of the households (56.4%) from
Non-ODF GPs reported to use toilet regularly. Therefore,
member/s from almost half of the households (43.6%) from
Non-ODF households still resort to open defecation. The same
is revealed by the choice of open defecation by the households
where 45.1% of the households practice open defecation.
Although, from the Table 4, it could be seen that access to
toilet is highly correlated with open defecation practice which
is quite obvious and redundant as access is the first step of
using a toilet. Hence, the next econometrics analysis entirely
focused on searching the enabling factors (apart from access)
behind open defecation choice by the rural households by
applying Logistic regression as described in section 3. The
result of the analysis is presented in the Table 5 below.

TABLE 5: Results of Logistic Regression

Logistic regression
Number of obs = 316 LR chi2(20) = 74.73
Log likelihood = -70.53 Prob > chi2 = 0 Pseudo R2 = 0.3463
Open Defecation Coef. Odds Std. Err. z P>z [95% Interval]
Ratio Conf.
Explanatory Variables (Reference)
GP Type
(Non-ODF) ODF -1.611 0.200 0.679 -2.37 0.018*** -2.943 -0.280
Availability of OD sites
(Abundantly Few/not Available -2.253 0.105 0.817 -2.76 0.006*** -3.855 -0.651
available)
Prepared ODEP
(Not Prepared) Prepared -0.787 0.455 0.620 -1.27 0.204 -2.002 0.428
Community Involvement
(Good) Poor 0.317 1.373 0.732 0.43 0.665 -1.118 1.752
IEC utilization
(Not utilized) Utilized -0.905 0.405 0.689 -1.31 0.190 -2.257 0.447
Garbage Collection Mechanism
(GP collects) Absent 1.239 0.405 1.517 0.82 0.414 -1.736 4.213
Education of HH Head
(Illiterate) Primary -0.271 0.762 0.850 -0.32 0.750 -1.939 1.396
Secondary -0.145 0.865 0.559 -0.26 0.796 -1.242 0.953
Above Secondary -0.727 0.483 0.842 -0.86 0.388 -2.378 0.923
Religion of HH Head
(Hindu) Muslim 0.521 1.684 1.037 0.50 0.616 -1.513 2.555
Caste of HH Head
(ST) SC -0.612 0.542 0.969 -0.63 0.528 -2.513 1.288
OBC -0.578 0.561 0.888 -0.65 0.515 -2.319 1.163
Others -0.173 0.841 0.586 -0.30 0.768 -1.322 0.975
Sex of HH Head
(Male) Female -0.275 0.760 0.797 -0.34 0.730 -1.837 1.287
Income Category

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Debasree Bose BIMS Journal of Management

(APL) BPL 0.962 2.617 0.474 2.03 0.042*** 0.033 1.891

Sufficient Water Availability
(Not Available) Available -0.425 0.654 0.753 -0.56 0.573 -1.901 1.051
Water Source Distance
(Within Dwelling) Not within 0.493 1.637 0.757 0.65 0.515 -0.992 1.978
dwelling
Outside Premises 0.797 2.219 0.924 0.86 0.388 -1.014 2.608
Toilet Distance
Inside House Attached to House 0.281 1.325 0.988 0.28 0.776 -1.656 2.218
Outside House 0.549 1.732 1.076 0.51 0.610 -1.561 2.660
Constant -2.378 0.093 1.912 -1.24 0.214 -6.126 1.369
Note: ***significant at 1% level, Source: Author’s Own Calculation

The result as shown in Table 5 speaks out that keeping other
things remaining same, the choice made by a household is a
pure economic choice. One reason behind saying that lies in
strong significance of availability of OD site as an explanatory
factor. Table 5 shows probability of open defecation decreases
when a household moves from a GP with abundant OD site to
a GP with no/few OD sites. Presence of abundant OD site
make the use of toilet costlier (both respect to money and
time) in the mind of the rural household. As very lesser
percentage of household have direct connection of water
within toilet and water source are away from house (shown in
Table 4), therefore it is easier for such household to use open
field for defecation which saves the time of fetching water for
toilet use. Again, regular use of toilet is associated with
continuous expenditure of money (also time) on cleaning and
maintenance of that particular toilet. All these elements
actually raise the opportunity cost of using a toilet particularly
when there is plenty of open field for defecation at the
convenience of the households. Thus, when they found
opportunity cost of using toilet is relatively higher, open
defecation gives them higher pay off.
actually hindering a BPL household from sustain use of toilet
which in turn raises the probability of open defecation among
such households as pointed out in the result table.
The paper also explores that Gram Panchayat and
environmental factor have greater influence on the choice
pattern of the householdrather than its own household
characteristics. The ODF status of the GP is another
significantly important factor in determining sanitation choice
made by the households. The probability of going for open
defecation declines when a household moves from Non-ODF
GP to ODF ones. Thus, when a community aggregately
revealed its preference for open defecation as in the case of
Non-ODF GP, the household residing in that community also
follow the aggregate pattern of social choice. Whereas, similar
household situated in an ODF GP have much lesser
probability to choose open defecation. Hence the result quiet
convincingly portraying that macro behaviour drives the micro
behaviour in terms of sanitation practice.
TABLE 6: Results of Goodness of fit test for Logistic Regression

Again, income category of the household turned out as a Logistic model for Open Defecation, Goodness-of-fit test
significant parameter to explain the choice of open defecation.
Number of Observations 316
The reason behind such significance is again due to fact that
the households are actually making economic decision through Number of Covariate Pattern 260
cost-benefit approach. Table 5 reveals that probability of Pearson chi2 (239) 255.77
choosing open defecation as sanitation practice rises if a Prob > chi2 0.2176
household moves from APL to BPL income category. The
Source: Author’s Own Calculation
result is striking as access to toilet among BPL households are
higher in rural India than that of APL households. The
A statistical test has been performed to test the goodness of fit
incentive mechanism by the government only covers the fixed
the fitted logistic model. The outcome of Chi-square test is
cost of toilet construction in the short run for BPL families.
presented in Table 6. The associated P-value is 0.2176 which
But recurring cost of maintaining a toilet actually matters
is higher than the critical values to reject null hypothesis stated
when it comes to sustainable use of it. In the long run, if
the model is correctly specified at both 1% and 5% statistical
household’s perceived return or benefit from sanitation turned
significance level. Therefore, the test statistically assures that
out lesser than variable cost on maintenance of toilet, the
the fitted model is a good fit.
household will simply “shut down” usage of their toilet and
resort to open field. Thus, this simple economic logic is

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Debasree Bose
5. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION
From above explanation of result, the choice of open
defecation can be viewed as summation of some economic
problems at various aspects of decision making. Firstly,
opportunity cost of defecating in open is much lesser for
households residing in GPs with abundance of open field.
Greater open defecation in the GPs with open land reflects
nothing but the economics behind thetheory of “Tragedy of
Commons”. Secondly, open defecation is more
economicoption for low income households (who constructed
toilet through subsidy) to get rid of recurring cost of
maintaining toilet as per the cost-benefit analysis in the long
run. Thirdly, as explained by social choice theory, the results
are also showing that individual household choice or
preference is heavily guided by collective decision or social
choice for open defecation. Therefore, creation of individual
household latrine cannot imbibe a household to sustain usage
of toilet fully, though temporarily. The empirical results of
the paper thus reveal the hidden but existing economic part of
the story of open defecation which had remained unexplored
till now. The beauty of the paper lies in the fact that the paper
not only narrates the economics theory behind the sanitation
choice making but also provides statistical support to it.
REFERENCES
[1] AL Salvatore, SR Patil, BF Arnold, B Briceno, S Ganguly, Jr
JM Colford, PJ. Gertler (2014): “The effect of India's total
sanitation campaign on defecation behaviors and child health in
rural Madhya Pradesh: a cluster randomized controlled trial”.
PLoS Med. 2014 Aug 26;11(8): e1001709. doi:
10.1371/journal.pmed.1001709. eCollection 2014 Aug.
[2] Black Maggie & Fawcett Ben (2008): “The Last Taboo-Opening
the door on Global sanitation crisis”, Earthscan, pp-117-122
[3] Burki Talha (2015): “Prioritising clean water and sanitation”,
www.thelancet.com/infection/ Vol 15 February 2015
[4] DFID report (2011): DFID Evidence Paper Water, Sanitation
and Hygiene, UKAid, Department of International
Development.
[5] Diane Coffey, Gupta Aashish, Hathi Payal, Khurana Nidhi,
Spears Dean, Srivastav Nikhil, Vyas Sangita (2014): “Revealed
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BIMS Journal of Management
Preference for Open Defecation: Evidence from a New Survey
in Rural North India”, Economic & Political Weekly, vol xlix
no 38
[6] Guidelines of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (2012), Ministry of
Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India
[7] Guidelines of Swaachh Bharat Mission (2014), Ministry of
Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India.
[8] Hussain Rukhsat, Mangla Bhawna (2014): “Toilet as an Asset:
Necessity versus Luxury”, Developing Country Studies; ISSN
2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online) Vol.4,
(www.iiste.org)
[9] Jenkins. M (2004): “Who Buys Latrines, Where and Why?”,
Water and Sanitation Program, Sanitation and Hygiene Series,
World Bank
[10] Joint Monitoring Report (WHO & UNICEF 2017): “Progress
on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, 2017 update and
SDG Baselines”http://www.unwater.org/new-publication-
whounicef-joint-monitoring-programme-2017-report/
[11] Krause Matthias, Von Vorgelegt, Tübingen aus (2007): “The
political economy of water and sanitation in developing
countries: Cross-country evidence and a case study on
Colombia”, Dissertation (Doctor rerum politicarum) Justus-
Liebig-Universität Gießen
[12] Kumar Vivek (2014): “Whose Cleanliness?”, Economic &
Political Weekly; vol xlix, nos 43 & 44
[13] Luby Stephen (2014): “Is targeting access to sanitation
enough?”, Published Online, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-
109X(14)70326-2 [page-e645]; Vol, 2
[14] Perez Eduardo with Cardosi Jason, Coombes Yolande, Devine
Jacqueline, Grossman Amy, Kullmann Craig, Kumar C. Ajith,
Mukherjee Nilanjana, Prakash Manu, Robiarto Amin, Setiawan
Deviariandy, Singh Upneet, and Wartono Djoko (2012): “What
Does It Take to Scale Up Rural Sanitation?”, water and
sanitation Program: working paper,
[15] Reilly n Kathleen O’, Louis Elizabeth (2014): “The toilet tripod:
Understanding successful sanitation in rural India”, Journal of
Health & Place29(2014)43–51
[16] T Clasen., S Boisson., P Routray., T Belen., M Bell., Cumming
Oliver, Ensink Jeroen, Freeman Matthew, Jenkins Marion,
Odagiri Mitsunori, Ray Subhajyoti, Sinha Antara, Suar
Mrutyunjay, Schmidt Wolf-Peter: “Effectiveness of a rural
sanitation programme on diarrhoea, soil-transmitted helminth
infection, and child malnutrition in Odisha, India: a cluster
randomised trial”, Lancet Glob Health 2014; 2: e645–53
47
 BIMS Journal of Management
Correlation between Changes in Stock Market Index
and Exchange Rates: A Time Series Analysis
1. INTRODUCTION
Financial markets in the recent times have been subjected to
volatility by way of wide ranging fluctuations in stock markets
and foreign exchange markets. This has been predominant in
mostly the developing economies. So, investors who are
diversifying their portfolio by investing in stock markets and
foreign exchange markets of different countries seek
understanding of the effects of changes in the values of one
market on the other. The question arises is that is it expected
that the currency of a country would appreciate or depreciate
if its stock market index is rising at a higher rate than that of
other countries? The answer to this question matters to
international equity investors, policymakers and also aca-
demics. A person dealing with foreign equities is affected by
exchange rate fluctuations. The return from the portfolio and
foreign exchange (FOREX) risk will depend on the
relationship between equity and currency returns. Changes in
these values will bring about significant swings in
international investment positions.
What should be the possible relation between stock price and
exchange rates ?
In the asset pricing viewpoint, there would be some
correlation between exchange rates and equity returns which
depends on the covariance between returns on currency and
stock market. Some of the recent theory (notably Hau and Rey
2006)1 suggests there will be a negative correlation between
foreign exchange and equity market because of portfolio
rebalancing. For example, suppose a US portfolio manager is
interested to invest in Japan. If the Japanese stock market rises
relative to that of US, the manager has an overweightof
Japanese equities and in order to return to a neutral position,
will sell Japanese stock and then sell the Japanese yen earned
against the US dollars. The sale of yen for dollars causes the
yen to depreciate at the same time that the Japanese stock
market is outperforming. This is the essence of the uncovered
equity parity condition
If we analyse the correlation from a cross sectional point of
view an investor who is interested in building a portfolio
which will capture the variations across international equity
markets in local currency, we can evaluate the returns from
*Assistant Professor, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Institute of Management Science, Kolkata
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Semanti Debroy Sen*, Dr. Indrajit Sinha*
this strategy, and how they decompose into an equity market
and foreign exchange component. This allows us to evaluate
the economic importance of the uncovered equity parity
deviations directly, and also measure the correlation between
equity and currency returns in a broad cross-section of
countries.
There are significant rewards available to international equity
investors from betting on markets that are expected to perform
well. This says something interesting about the correlation
between foreign exchange and equity markets as when we
compute the contributions of foreign exchange movements to
the strategy returns
Exposure to global stock market volatility does not tell the full
story of stock market returns. Even after having accounted for
risk, significant differences in portfolio returns remain;
investors can run a long-short strategy based on predicted
stock market returns and obtain significant excess returns
which are on a par with or better than those from conventional
domestic.
When currency depreciates, value of commodities priced at
that currency will increase. But the commodity will become
cheaper in the foreign markets which drive up exports. When
exports increase, profits and stock prices in the domestic
markets will increase. Investors may shift their portfolio from
bonds to stock leading to further rise in stock prices.
If we consider the main factors which affect the exchange
rates, they can be listed as follows
a) Inflation rate
b) Interest rates
c) Current account balance of Balance of Payments
d) Government debt liabilities
e) Terms of trade faced by the country in the international
trade
f) Political stability and performance of the government
g) The stage of the business cycle.
h) Speculation
48
Semanti Debroy Sen, Dr. Indrajit Sinha
On the other hand the factors affecting the stock prices in the
same country would be
a) Earning per share (EPS)
b) Price-earning ratio (P/E ratio)
c) Economic growth
d) Inflation
e) Economic strength of the country
As some of these factors are common or varies in the same
order, so it is evident that there will be some relation in the
valuation and changes in stock market indices and currency
exchange rates of the countries.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
There is a vast literature which tries to explore a statistical
relationship between the two variables and try to explain the
fluctuations of stock prices and exchange rates.
According to traditional approach, exchange rates lead stock
prices. On the other hand,
portfolio balance approach states that exchange rates are
determined by market mechanism. In other words, changes in
stock prices might have impact on exchange rate movements.
This approach states that stock price is expected to lead
exchange rate with a negative correlation since a decrease in
stock prices reduces domestic wealth, which leads to lower
domestic money demand and interest rates. Also, the decrease
in domestic stock prices leads foreign investors to lower
demand for domestic assets and domestic currency. These
shifts in demand and supply of currencies cause capital
outflows and the depreciation of domestic currency. On the
other hand, when stock prices rise, foreign investors become
willing to invest in a country’s equity securities. Thus, they
will get benefit from international diversification. This
situation will lead to capital inflows and a currency
appreciation. (Granger et al.)7, (Granger et al., 2000: p.338;
Caporale et al., 2002; Stavárek, 2005; Pan et al, 2007).
The first paper to provide theoretical guidance on this relation
is by Hau and Rey (2006).2
Ajayi and Mougoue (1996)3 examine the short run relationship
between stock and currency markets in the U.S. and U.K.
They find that an increase in stock prices causes the currency
to depreciate. The authors explains that a rising stock market
is an indicator of an expanding economy, which can lead to
higher inflation expectations. This creates a negative
perception on foreign investors. thus the demand for the
currency drops and it depreciates. As to the currency effect on
the stock market, the authors find that currency depreciation
leads to a decline in stock prices in the short run,
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
BIMS Journal of Management
Granger, Huang and Yang’s (2000)4 work further illustrates
that the two markets can jointly affect each other. They try to
find out the causality, iewhether currency depreciation led to
lower stock prices or whether declining stock prices led to
depreciating currencies during the Asian Crisis of 1997. The
data on some of the Asian countries support the case of
bivariate causality. Seven of the countries examined by
Granger, Huang and Yang (2000) showed a strong relationship
between the two markets—causality was unidirectional in
some cases and bidirectional in others. .
Hsing (2004) and Zietz and Pemberton (1990) 5develop
models with monthly data and simultaneously. Hsing (2004)
adopts a structural VAR model originally proposed by Sims
(1986), using this method allows for the simultaneous
determination of several endogenous variables two markets—
causality was unidirectional in some cases and bidirectional in
others. Whenever the relationship was unidirectional, it was
found to be negative, regardless of which the lead variable
was.
Authors Nieh and Wang, (2005)6 opined that remarkable
changes in exchange rates may occur every day. These
changes require adjustments in costs or gains of multinational
companies and increase exchange exposure to enterprises and
financial institutions.
Exchange rate changes affect the competitiveness of firms
through their impact on input and output price (Joseph, 2002)8.
When the Exchange rate appreciates, since exporters will lose
their competitiveness in international market, the sales and
profits of exporters will shrink and the stock prices will
decline. On the other hand, importers will increase their
competitiveness in domestic markets. Therefore, their profit
and stock prices will increase.
The depreciation of exchange rate will make adverse effects
on exporters and importers. Exporters will have advantage
against other countries’ exporters and increase their sales and
their stock prices will be higher (Yau and Nieh, 2006). 9
That is, currency appreciation has both a negative and a
positive effect on the domestic stock market for an export-
dominant and an import-dominated country, respectively (Ma
and Kao, 1990).10
Exchange rates can affect stock prices not only for
multinational and export oriented firms but also for domestic
firms. For a multinational company, changes in exchange rates
will result in both an immediate change in value of its foreign
operations and a continuing change in the profitability of its
foreign operations reflected in successive income statements.
Therefore, the changes in economic value of firm’s foreign
operations may influence stock prices. Domestic firms can
49
Semanti Debroy Sen, Dr. Indrajit Sinha
also be influenced by changes in exchange rates since they
may import a part of their inputs and export their outputs.
Thus, devaluation will make positive effect for export firms
(Aggarwal, 1981)11 and increase the income of these firms,
consequently, boosting the average level of stock prices.
(Wu, Nieh and Lee (2001)12 state that in an open economy,
since the expectations of relative currency values affect the
domestic and foreign interest rate and these changes affect the
present value of a stock.
3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
• The main objective of this paper is to determine any
correlation between fluctuations in currency exchange
rates and the stock market indicator in the same country.
• To explain the nature of correlation, if any,
• To explain the causes of the nature and extent of the
correlation
• To underline the impact of such correlation
4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
There are several reasons justifying the importance of
understanding the correlation between exchange rates and
stock exchange values.
Firstly, it has an impact on the monetary and fiscal policy
of a country. Studies show that a rising stock market is an
indication of recovery in the economy with boosts aggregate
demand.
Secondly, a prediction can be made about the exchange
rate changes. This information would help companies in
deciding their exposure in foreign contracts in international
markets.
Thirdly, the knowledge is also useful for Asset Management
companies as currency is often included as an asset in
investment funds’ portfolios. So, an estimate of the correlation
between stock prices and exchange rates will provide some
forecast about the performance of the fund.
Lastly, the understanding of the stock price-exchange rate
relationship may be used to forecast a financial crisis. The
example of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997is given to prove
the point as some studies have suggested that the fall in the
value of the Thai currency (Baht) had started of serial
depreciation in other currencies of that region, which was
followed by crash in the stock markets of those countries as
well. Awareness about such a relationship between the two
markets would trigger preventive action before the spread of a
crisis.
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BIMS Journal of Management
The scope of this paper is limited to a set of 4 countries
1) England – a country which is part of the European Union
and have since decided to exit it.
2) Germany – a country which remained within the
European Union
3) 1 developed country (with high GDP growth rate) –
Japan
4) 1 BRICS group country (with moderate GDP growth) –
India
5. METHODOLOGY
The paper is entirely based on secondary data.
The period of the study is from 1st January 2017 to 30th June
2017 (i.e. for a period of six months) Time series data
pertaining to this period has been collected on a daily basis for
every Monday to Friday during the period of analysis.
To carry out the analysis the currency exchange rates of the
four selected countries were taken and their exchange rates
against the US Dollar (USD) were recorded. The currencies
taken were
Value of 1 USD against
Great Britain Pound (GBP)
Euro (EUR)
Japanese Yen (JPY)
Indian Rupee (INR)
The daily change in the currency exchange rate is calculated
and then the percentage change is determined.
The second series obtained is the stock market index of the
main stock exchange of those countries. The
indicesconsidered were
FTSE 100 of the London Stock Exchange
DAX of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Germany
NIKKEI 225 of Tokyo Stock Exchange, Japan
NIFTY 50 of the National Stock Exchange of India
The closing value of the indices were noted and then the
change over the previous day determined, from which the
percentage change could be derived.
Then Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient between % change
in the exchange rate and % change in the stock market index is
obtained. The nature (i.e. positive or negative) and extent (i.e.
high, medium, low) is then explained and analyzed to
elaborate its impact on international financial management
policies.
50
Semanti Debroy Sen, Dr. Indrajit Sinha BIMS Journal of Management

6. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS The correlation value in German economy is very insignificant
which shows that the changes in the value of Euro against the
Stock market Value of $1 Value of dollar have little impact on the German stock market. This is
index against correlation because the change in Euro prices is not solely determined by
FTSE 100 Great Britain 0.472 the economic performance of the German economy but also is
Pound influenced by other parameter across Europe.
DAX 30 Euro 0.142 In case of Japan the correlation is negative. Thus an
NIKKEI 225 Japanese Yen 0.2766 appreciation of Yen has a positive impact on Japanese stock
NIFTY 50 Indian Rupee -0.011 prices. This can be explained by the fact that the Japanese
calculations for NMC paper.xlsx currency is much undervalued compared to the dollar. The
main determinant of the Japanese currency value is the low
7. RESULT ANALYSIS interest rates of Japanese banks which creates greater demand
for dollars in the Japanese currency market. Moreover the
An interpretation of the result obtained can be made by value of the correlation is negligible which shows that the
explaining why the correlation is positive or negative and how Japanese currency exchange rates hardly influence its stock
much is the influence of the change of one variable on the markets.
other.
In case of Great Britain and India, there is a mild positive
It can be seen that for three countries, the correlation between correlation showing that currency values in these countries do
their currency exchange rate and stock market index is have an influence on the stock market. This is because of
positive in line with the literature on this subject. This can be significant amount of foreign institutional investment in these
explained as, when the exchange rate is rising, i.e. the value of countries where investment flow will increase in case of
the currency is depreciating against the dollar, there is a rise in currency depreciation leading to rising index values.
the stock market index. We know that as currency value
depreciates, exports valued at the domestic currency become 8. CONCLUSION
cheaper in the international market. This increases exports
which benefits the domestic firms from increased sales. This Overall, stock returns seem to tell us little, if anything, about
in turn leads to increased production, employment of resources the behaviour of exchange rates. If there is a relationship
and increase in overall GDP and national income. Also between stock market and currency returns, this should be
depreciation makes imports costlier which discourages searched for at individual country level, and the above results
imposts. Hence the net exports ( X - M) component of do not rule out that the correlation may not be zero or vary
aggregate demand increases leading to rise in demand in the over time for certain countries or in response to specific
economy. As production and sales volume increases, the stock shocks.
prices start rising reflecting on a rise in the stock market
index.

ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018 51

 BIMS Journal of Management
Employee Branding Strategies in the Service Sector
Abstract: In the era of liberalization, privatization and
globalization, the tertiarization of Indian economy (transition
from manufacturing to service sector), reemphasized the human
resources not only as the cornerstone of growth but also a
precursor for innovation and technological advancement
leading to customer delight.
The service organizations are experiencing cut throat
competition for their existence and sustenance. Brand
promotion plays a vital role leading towards competitive edge
into their operations.
Employer branding is about crafting a sense of the organization
as an employer that will attract the right kind of new hires.
Employee branding the new kid on the block is a different
practice altogether. It is all about influencing the behavior of
organizational members. Employee branding is the practice of
‘aligning’ an employee’s behavior and often the employee’s
point of view with the image that the organization wants to
project to its customers and external stakeholders. It is all about
strategically turning the employees into brand ambassadors;
encouraging them to behave in a way that enhances the
organizations’ brand and giving them a positive professional
experience that they would tell friends and colleagues about.
The companies can epitomize their brand image by aligning the
employer and employee brands together and promoting them.
The intent of employee branding programs is always the same
from compliance orientation to internalization orientation. This
leads to not only ‘on brand’ behavior but ‘on brand thinking’.
Organisations must embark on formulating strategies for
implementation of employee branding programmes.
The identification of the self with the organization, and the
imprinting of the organisation’s values on the individual
become a reality when the individual and organizational
interests are aligned and complementary. However, in practice
the synchronization may be less than expected.
Too much reliance on employee branding may lead to a breach
of trust focusing the need to draw the line at branding by
employees themselves.
Keywords: Employee Branding; Employer Branding; Service
Sector; On Brand Thinking.
General Manager (Academic), Techno India, Salt Lake, Kolkata; parthadasbiswas@gmail.com
Professor, Techno India, Kolkata; raychaudhuri.sandeep@gmail.com
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Partha Das Biswas*, Dr. Sandeep Ray Chaudhuri**
1. INTRODUCTION
The transition from the import substitution era post
independence to the era of economic liberalization had
profound impact on Indian economy. The tertiarization of the
economy marked by growth of service sector from agricultural
and manufacturing sectors requires new skills, new work
values and in some cases, new forms of employment and work
organization (Venkataratnam, 2007).
In the new millennium, the surge in consumerism and
hedonism led to a huge boom in the Indian service sector. The
presence of a plethora of multinational and Indian players led
to fierce competition for survival. The key differentiating
factor for achieving sustainable competitive advantage is
human resources.
Developed countries outsource a number of services to
developing countries like India leading to a rise in demand for
services from the developing market (Bhagwati, 1984, Gordon
and Gupta, 2003 and Hansda, 2001). High government
expenditure on certain services has also led to high growth of
services. (Ansari, 1995)
Indian service sector inter alia includes the Banking Sector, IT
and IT Enabled Services (ITeS).
By its nature, service cannot be separated from the person who
is delivering a service. A personal banker is the bank itself for
a customer. In this scenario, it becomes critical to ensure that
the employees live the brand itself (Parekh, 2014). Before
promoting the brand to external customers, the brand should
be promoted to the employees (internal customers). Each
employee should understand the value system of the
organization and the brand deliverables. If this does not reflect
in the behavior of employees, the customer will have a brand
disconnect. This phenomenon is referred to as employee
branding or internal marketing (Czaplewskim, Ferguson and
Milliman, 2001).
Employee branding is at the interface between Human
Resource Management and Marketing Management. There is
abundance of literature in both of these individual streams.
However, there are not many studies on their integration. Even
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Partha Das Biswas, Dr. Sandeep Ray Chaudhuri
the results on the application side of employee branding leaves
a lot to be desired (Parekh, 2014).
2. EMPLOYER BRANDING TO EMPLOYEE
BRANDING
Branding as a concept has rooted itself in business vocabulary
for decades (Härkönen, 2015). American Marketing
Association (AMA) defines brand as : ‘Name, term, design,
symbol or any other feature that identifies on seller’s good or
service as distinct from those of other sellers. (AMA, 2015).
Although there are numerous definitions of branding, there is
one thing that remains the same – branding is everything a
company does (Sounio, 2010). Branding is not something that
just exists, but something that constantly needs to be
maintained. (Härkönen, 2015). However, it is commonly
accepted that the theory of employer branding is built upon the
concept of branding. (Rosethorn, 2009).
The brand is considered one of the most important and
valuable assets of a company (Backhaus and Tikko, 2004).
The concept of branding can also be used as a part of Human
Resource Management (HRM) in order to attract new
employees and to retain already employed members of the
firm (Kunerth and Mosley, 2011).
When applying branding to HRM, the concept is entitled
“Employer Branding” (EB) (Backhaus and Tikko, 2004) and
the connection between HRM and EB has been established.
Since it was first coined in 1990 by Tim Amber and Simon
Barrow, as a way of combining branding techniques with
human resource practices, employer branding has massively
extended both in research and number of companies applying
it. (Barrow and Mosley, 2005). The concept of EB is said to
originate from two separate theories – recruitment
communication / branding and work psychology, especially
the so called psychological contract. The two theories have
merged into what is today known as employee branding.
(Rosethorn, 2009).
Externally, the employer brand functions to attract employees
and to create positive associations and enhance corporate
image. Internally, the employer brand generates the value by
creating a unifying and strong culture as well as increased
employee satisfaction and commitment. (Backhaus and Tikoo,
2004; Gaddam, 2008; Edward, 2010). Employer Branding has
an indirect influence on the profitability through increased
performance. Additionally, a purpose of employer branding is
to enhance the orgnisational culture. People who like working
for the company will become advocates for it thus
recommending it to friends and family (Watson and Reissner,
2010).
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BIMS Journal of Management
Aggerholm et.al. (2011) in a contemporary re-
conceptualisation defined employer branding as a strategic
branding process which creates, negotiates and enacts
sustainable relationships between an organization and its
potential and existing employees under the influence of the
varying corporate contexts with the purpose of co-creating
sustainable values for the individual, the organization and the
society as a whole.
So, the branding efforts from the side of the employer
(employer branding) is to be supplemented by from the side of
employees (employee branding) whose behavior should reflect
the value system of the organization and brand deliverables.
Berry, Hensel and Burke (1976) made one of the first attempts
to define employee branding or internal marketing. They
commented that to satisfy the final customer, a company needs
to first satisfy their own employees (internal customers). The
job of an employee should be treated as an internal product. If
the internal product ensures good quality the final product will
definitely reflect the same. Czaplewskim et.al (2001) in recent
times attempted to define internal marketing. They reported
that it is a tool to deliver quality services to customer by
attracting, retaining, training and motivating the employees.
Beagrie (2003) defined internal marketing as a tool to achieve
the goals of the organization by motivating employees to
change their cognitive and behavioural processes. Mullich
(2003) stated that companies should not be looked upon as
bundle of products or services. They should be defined by the
performance of their human capital. If the projection of the
company by the employees is not in tune with the external
communication of the organization, then it will create a brand
disconnect with the customers. Mitchell (2002) holds a strong
opinion that employees should know about the company more
and before the external customers.
Pine and Gilmore (1998) state that brand experience can be
very useful in connecting with the customers and transferring
the abstract brand values and concepts to target customers. It
is very important for employees to understand and experience
the brand to ensure that customers have a unique and
consistent brand experience. This needs the employees to live
the brand themselves. This requires employees to become the
brand ambassadors of their own company’s brand (Mitchell,
2002).
Bendapudi (2005) reconfirms the same idea that employees
should live the brand of their organization. Human capital
branding was the term tossed by the author as a synonym of
employee branding. Researchers revealed that employees are
the key factors for delivering promises thus it conceptualized
the fact ‘No Talent No Brand’. Therefore employees’ talent
should be explored and utilized to build a brand.
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Partha Das Biswas, Dr. Sandeep Ray Chaudhuri
Studies revealed that there are three types of benefits which
make a brand more lucrative and competent against the
competition. First, functional benefits i.e., how the brand is
functionally different from its rivals; second, emotional
benefit that is it gives mental satisfaction to the customers who
feel confident on the assured brand performance; and third,
rationale benefit - the reason for believing in the brand.
People believe in the employees’ version of the organization
(i.e. employee branding) more than the organisation’s own
claims about itself (employer branding). Entrepreneurs always
think about the relevance of internal marketing. Internal
branding involving internal communication is equally
important as external branding because it establishes
relationship between employer and employees. The core
objective is transferring the desired corporate identity to the
employees with the end-goal of enhancing their motivation
and engagement. (Vallaster, 2004). This approach includes
every employee believing in core value and principles of the
organization (Balmer and Greyser, 2003; Belasen, 2007) and
conveying the same to the customers.
Employee branding is a process of training employees and
making them understand their responsibilities and duties with
proper motivational factors to reach and build good brand
image of the organization is front of the customers.
Employee branding has achieved a great acceptance by
various MNCs as a strategic tool in their competitive arena. To
manage employee brand image an organization must send
frequent and consistent messages to the employees to keep
them updated and motivated and let them feel that they are the
integral part of the organization in brand building and other
business operations. (Kumar, 2014). Consistency in throwing
frequent messages develops employees’ psychological ability
to better understand the strategic intent of the organization and
use this to deliver his best to the customers.
Employer branding is the new kid on the block when it comes
to recruitment practices. It is critical to clear the distinction
between employer branding and employee branding.
Numerous organizations are battling hard to build up
employee branding in real sense, and they inadvertently skip
to comprehend the difference between the two.
3. OBJECTIVES
The service sector companies confront the elusive minds of
the ever changing customers. Amongst these, no sector more
than the IT and ITeS is at the crossroads of unpredictable
future because of rapid technological change and the new
world order. In the backdrop of these small IT organizations as
well as the behemoths face formidable challenge in attracting,
motivating and retaining to talent towards sustainable
competitive advantage.
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BIMS Journal of Management
In this paper, the IT and ITeS sector has been chosen as the
focal point of the study. Many IT organizations have
embarked on employer branding activities. As compared to
this research and application in the employee branding arena
are scanty. An attempt is made here to develop employee
branding strategies especially for the service sector.
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this study qualitative research is used to ensure that all
aspects of Employee Branding are taken care of.
This was analysed through qualitative, unstructured
interviews. They are suggested by Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and
Lowe (1991) as an general input on a subject, to develop a
general understanding of respondents’ opinion and beliefs, if
the subject is confidential or personal and to get clarity on a
process. The twenty respondents selected were senior HR
Managers as well as Senior Manager from other departments
of IT organizations.
Most of these companies have gathered firsthand experience
in employer branding and a few were contemplating employee
branding initiatives. Only when these facts are present, the
required information can be derived in the interviews.
Regarding the sample size, 15-20 interviews should be a
scientifically valid number of respondents. (Mason, 2010).
The Main body of the unstructured interviews was based on
the interface of the employees with the customers and the
internalization of the organisations’ values and beliefs/desired
brand image. In addition, various parameters pertaining to
employee branding were probed.
5. EMPLOYEE BRANDING STRATEGIES
Numerous organizations endeavour to formulate strategies and
create brand ambassadors out of each and every employee.
Some experts opine that there cannot be any firm strategy to
build up a universal methodology to execute employee
branding. The organizations may think over these to develop
tailor made strategies and the implementation thereof.
However not many organizations are engaged in employee
branding in a real sense of term. Organisations in the service
sector (IT sector) must embrace this challenge with
magnanimity.
The following ideas although obvious in nature are seldom
taken up seriously. These may serve as solution towards
achieving employee branding – (i) Educating employees’
about the organisation’s details (vision, mission, values,
products and services); (ii) Aligning the expectations of
employees with the product which would help in building up a
feeling of alliance with the item; (iii) Celebrating the success
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Partha Das Biswas, Dr. Sandeep Ray Chaudhuri
stories including any brand story experienced by both
organization and employees respectively; (iv) Sharing
constant feedback which should be done from both the sides
(employees and employer) about the product/service to ensure
that both are at the same page of considerations leading to
improvement in the product/service alongside the relationship;
and (v) successful correspondence – Regular, transparent and
straightforward communication must be set up which may
include Employee Meet for anything and everything!
The organization systems move from a compliance orientation
to an internalization orientation as ‘work’ moves from
physical labour into intellectual and emotional labour.
Sometimes influencing behavior is not enough and
organizations want employees to think from the organisation’s
point of view. So the emphasis is on not only ‘on brand’
behavior but also ‘on brand’ thinking. This identification of
the self with the organization or the imprinting of the
organisation’s values on the top of the individual can be
fine/smooth when the interests of the organization and the
employee are aligned and complementary. But there is usually
less alignment in individual and organizational interests than
one expects.
Many organizations try to positively influence employees
through the scheme of ‘Employee Referral’. The employees
gain financially if the person referred to by them gets selected
in the organization and stays for a specific period. The
organizations strive to become ‘the employer of choice’. The
interaction involving senior IT professionals and those in other
functional areas resulted in the following outcomes for
framing suitable employee branding strategies:
• Top Management support (lead by example. Leaders
show inspiration, commitment and communicate a sense
of vision);
• Selective Recruitment and Hiring;
• Provide Targeted Training/Certification;
• Effectively Communicating organizational Goals;
• Role clarity;
• The compensation system should incorporate messages
that constantly and frequently reflect the brand and
organizational image;
• Accurate and specific job previews should be given to
new employees so that realistic expectations are
incorporated into their psychological contracts;
• Building an Employer Brand unique benefits/policies –
Employee referral programs, Awards programme, Parties
sponsoring events recruitment website;
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BIMS Journal of Management
• Identify strength through undertaking corporate social
responsibility initiatives;
• Using the web wisely to market the company to the young
employees (offering career progression) to spread the
word;
• Employee Empowerment Initiatives;
• Emulate strong industry practice (such as CTS –
“Celebration at work’; Accenture - “Best place for women
to work”.);
• The techniques of crowd sourcing to be adopted for
recruiting;
• Training and Management Incentive;
• Charismatic leaders engage employees and elicit brand
citizenship behavior;
• Transparent and fair system of selection, training,
performance evaluation and career development; and
• Special programmes on mentoring, job rotation and cross-
training;
6. IMPLEMENTATION DILEMMA
Literature on employee branding is replete with examples
showcasing the positive role employees’ play as ‘Brand
Ambassadors’.
However, there is strong possibility that employees go rogue
and drift away from corporate brand representation. Some
experts draw the line at branding employees themselves.
Questions are raised about the practice of employee branding.
The drive for a full merger of the organization and the
individual demonstrates selfishness on the part of the
organization. The willingness to merge one’s sense of self
with organization demonstrates a psychological immaturity on
the part of the individual. Neither organizational selfishness
nor psychological immaturity are good on their own, and
together, in an organization, it can get ugly.
Certainly, a little bit of employee branding is a great idea, but
too much reliance on employee branding sets the stage of
exploitation.
It is not unusual to find bad employee reviews. They pop up
on sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even things that
now seem archaic – like online message boards. The negative
reviews hurt an employer’s brand and reputation as a large
chunk of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before
applying for a job.
Questions arise as to how an organization responds to negative
online reviews. According to one study reported in the Society
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Partha Das Biswas, Dr. Sandeep Ray Chaudhuri
of Human Resources Management the following are some
techniques to protect an employer brand a) Respond – to
online criticism in a way that shows the organization is
genuinely committed to improving; b) Create – intranets for
employees to expose concerns internally before they turn to
outside sites; c) Ask – Current employees including new hires
to comment about their application process and work
experiences on review sites; d) Mine – Online review sites for
actionable aggregated data;
Some experts opine that asking the employers to respond to
negative online reviews with positive online reviews can
backfire because they may look superficial. However such
negative reviews are often refuted by passionate employees
before a social media team or Reputation Management plan is
put in place.
One PR Firm Axis Public Relations created a reputation
management software called Review Master, a tool that helps
businesses gain more positive reviews, while filtering through
the negative ones. Review Master, monitors these online sites.
The best way to handle negative employee reviews is to rise
above the negatively. The company may apologise to a
disgruntled employee. Sometimes silence is considered the
best response.
7. CONCLUSION
The concept of Employee Branding supplements the theme of
HR as a strategic partner. Existing human resources of an
organization can only convince the outside world the internal
state of affairs as an authentic and transparent source. Miles
and Mangold (2004) emphasized the internalization of the
desired brand image of the organization by the employees and
further projection of the image to customers and other
organizational constituents. The motivation for doing so
emanate from the management side (Walk the talk) and
thereby lead by example. (Boyd and Sutherland, 2006). The
implementation of employee branding strategy is also
shrouded with the quagmire of negativity. The organizations
need to be alert about drawing the line for employee induced
initiatives.
8. LIMITATIONS
Employee Branding is a delicate concept. Apart from a
handful of service sector (IT) organizations its application is
yet to catch up with the rest even today.
An empirical study within a specific industry (service sector)
by collecting primary data on different aspects of employee
branding and the consequences thereof would unravel new
insights.
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BIMS Journal of Management
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 BIMS Journal of Management
Role of Digitalisation in Hospitality Industry with
Special Reference to Online Food Delivery Services
Abstract: The hospitality trends for 2018 has seen a new digital
wave taking over the hotel industry on top of the iceberg.
Hospitality Industry plays an important role in the global
economy, representing more than half of service exports in
countries like Spain, South Africa or Mexico, and covering
more than 3% of global GDP. Incessantly acclimatising to the
digital drifts, hospitality organisations manage to create digital
solutions to improve their sales, brand image and awareness.
Starting from aggregators with 12 million users per month and
concluding with small business sites that use conversion rate
optimisation to increase their performances, the entire online
tourism market fights to stand out in an Internet era in which,
at this moment, there is one website per every 3 Internet users
worldwide. This paper argues that there is sound analytical
value in explicitly identifying the role of digitalisation in the
Hospitality Industry.There are endless digital aspects like
Digital menus, kiosks, tablets on tables, digital table tops and
digital kitchens which leads to crucial success for achieving
sound customization. Even today, in India, Zomato, Swiggy,
and Food Panda are a few names that have made services like
online table reservations, social media reviews, and mobile
payment options things of the past. In this paper, we tried to
show whether digitalisation have any significant impact on
online food delivery services or not. A survey was done. A
questionnaire has been prepared and sample size was taken 100.
Chi-square test was done to see whether digitalisation have any
impact on online food delivery services or not and Cronbach’s
alpha test was done with help of SPSS software to check the
reliability of the collected data.
KeyWords: Digitisation, Global GDP, Hospitality trends,
Digital kitchens.
1. INTRODUCTION
"India is among the fastest-growing markets and has been
identified as one of the significant potential markets for the
company"
The digital era has its impact in every sector of Indian
economy. Since, its conception the Indian economy faces
remarkable changes which affects its GDP. The present study
is concentrated on the role and importance if digitisation in the
hospitality sector considering the online delivery of food from
*
Lecturer, Heramba Chandra College, Dept. of Commerce, sukanta.sk44@gmail.com
**
Lecturer, Scottish Church College, Dept. of Business Administration, saroda.82@gmail.com
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Sukanta Kundu*, Saroda Chatterjee**
Swiggy and Zomato. To keep pace with dynamic digital drifts,
Food and Beverage sector should also be mobilised with every
digitised aspects. Digital menus, table tops, digital kitchens
and digital kiosks are some of noteworthy aspects which leads
to crucial success for achieving sound customisation.
Food and Beverage Sector have the ply to satisfy customer, as
today customers are both time and quality conscious. Within a
short span of time they seek the best delivery and top quality
food. So, to cope up with this the sectors must be always
digitally upgraded or furnished with digital devices. This
sector contributes a sound percentage of contribution which
help the Indian economy to reach on top.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Khan, Khan and Aftab (2015) revealed that the waves of
implementation and usage of ICTs (Information and
Communication Technologies) have revolutionized our world
by introducing distinct technology–enabled services in every
sphere of our lives. There are various applications of ICT,
digitization is one of them. A number of measures are taking
in the field all over the world and in India, to conserve and
preserve the knowledge of the past and present for the
upcoming generations.
Popescu, Nicolae and Pavel (2015) focuses in their paper that
Tourism and hospitality industry plays an important role in the
global economy, representing more than half of service
exports in countries like Spain, South Africa or Mexico, and
covering more than 3% of global GDP. Continuously adapting
to the digital trends hospitality organisations manage to create
digital solutions to improve their sales, brand image and
awarness. Starting from aggregators with 12 million users per
month and finishing with small business sites that use
conversion rate optimisation to increase their performances,
the entire online tourism market fights to stand out in an
Internet era in which, at this moment, there is one website per
every 3 Internet users worldwide.
Patel (2015) in his paper said that ‘Online Food Order
System’, a website designed specifically for use in the food
delivery industry which will allow hotels and restaurants to
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Sukanta Kundu, Saroda Chatterjee
increase scope of business by reducing the labour cost
involved. This aspect also allows to quickly and easily manage
an online menu which customers can browse and use to place
orders with just few clicks. Restaurant employees then use
these orders through an easy to navigate graphical interface for
efficient processing.
Lan, Ya’nan and Shuhua (2016) in their paper gathers
consumers’ negative comments from 10 partner restaurants
which have the biggest sales in meals, fruits, beverage and
snacks on 3 online food delivery platforms, and then presents
the main problems of online food delivery service. Finally, the
causes of those problems are analysed and suggestions to
solve the problems are put forward.
Reddy K, KGK, Abhinav M and Feiroz Khan (2016)
Technological meddling has become compulsory to improve
the quality of the service and business in this industry. This
manuscript reports application and integration of web based
technology for restaurants. A dynamic database utility system
was designed to fetch all the information from a centralised
database. It was observed that this system was successful in
overcoming the shortcomings found in the previously
developed similar systems. Moreover, this system was very
cost effective in development as well as during use.
3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
• To find out whether digitalisation has any significant
impact on online food delivery services or not.
• To find out the challenges faced in the implementation of
digitisation.
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The methodology used in this research work is both primary
and secondary data. This paper covers the impact of
digitisation on hospitality industry with special reference to
food and beverage sector considering Swiggy and Zomato.
The sample size taken for the research purpose is 122, but 22
people didn’t cooperate with us or didn’t respond to our
questions, so the sample size is 100.
Secondary data has been collected from various useful
websites and some published articles.
Parameters of Interest: The major parameter of interest is
the subgroup of people who are prospective customers and
web savvy having an experience in online delivery of food.
The two other subsidiary parameters of interest are:
• The respondent should also have an experience in
ordering online food.
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BIMS Journal of Management
• The key features which endure the customers to give
orders online food.
Sampling Technique: Convenient Sampling (having
knowledge about online order and are web savvy)
Place of Survey: Kolkata corporation jurisdiction.
Time period of the Survey: Nov, 2017- Feb, 2018
Data Collection Tool Used:
Questionnaire: The data collection tool used for the research
is “Questionnaires” to get the primary data for the empirical
research.
5. CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND & PRESENT
STATUS
The waves come in its own way just like digitalisation, when
it start entering into the Indian economy every sectors got
tethered with the digital arrays. Food and beverage sector is
one of the major sector of hospitality industry which depend
itself in to the waves of digitalisation. Especially online food
delivery system poses to be a serious example of this. In this
paper we have taken Swiggy and Zomato’s customer feedback
for understanding the real impact of digitalisation. The online
food ordering business in India is in its nascent stage, but
witnessing exponential growth. With online food delivery
players like FoodPanda, Zomato, TinyOwl and Swiggy
building scale through partnerships, the organised food
business has a huge potential and a favourable future.
While the digital revolution engulfs functioning of all major
sectors, travel & hospitality has been the early bird in the
world. The Food and Beverage service industry is one of the
most vibrant service industries within India with over 25%
yearly growth. Although predominantly concentrated in the
unorganised space, with the advent of foreign and Indian
restaurant chains, the organised market is likely to expand
quite rapidly. Food expenditure constitutes the majority of our
consumption basket and with an increasing young population,
eating out will only grow. Amongst the various segments
within the restaurant sector, Quick Service Restaurants and
Casual Dining Restaurants constitute the largest categories –
combined they constitute more than 77% of the overall
market. The Restaurant Sector has been one of the first sectors
to attract foreign interest due to huge opportunity.
In this regard, an overview of the Indian F&B Sector
following traits are brought into lime light.
• Changing demographics, increase in income, urbanisation
and growth in organised retail is driving India’s F&B
sector
59
Sukanta Kundu, Saroda Chatterjee
• Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) and casual dining are
the two most popular formats that form 45% and 32% of
the overall market respectively.
• The F&B service market is dominated by unorganised
segment and although it will decline significantly over the
next 4-5 years, it is likely to remain more than 60% of the
market
• Brands chains of both Indian and MNC brands are still
less penetrated and there exists a large opportunity in this
space to create bigger restaurant chains.
• The maximum growth being witnessed is still in the
standalone restaurant space where local taste along with
uniqueness of concept are the key deciding factors.
The Food and Beverages (F&B) industry in India has grown
considerably over the years. It has become one of the most
prominent sectors in the country owing to introduction of
innovative service features and concepts by various market
players in this field. A report suggests that Quick Service
Restaurants (QSR) and casual dining chains are the two
most popular F&B formats in India that form 45% and 32% of
the overall market respectively.
EXHIBIT 1
Here the market segmentation of food and beverage industry is
depicted. This depends on some key drivers like:
• changing demographic of the country
• rise in disposable income
• steady growth of retail chains
• urbanisation
India’s outmoded outlook received a surprise when the decree
of demonetisation dawned on them as India, under the
leadership of Narendra Modi, envisaged a cashless economy.
Feisty responses from the citizens of the country despite initial
glitches have also encouraged further measures. The travel and
tourism sector, along with the traditional hotel industry, was
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BIMS Journal of Management
one of the prime sectors that witnessed a drastic slowdown
during the last couple of months of 2016. Although new signs
of revival have been encouraging for the tourism sector, the
thought-leaders in the industry along with FICCI seems to
plan a blueprint of what can be the major skeletal of growth
embracing digitalisation.
Swiggy (Online Food Delivery) is an Indian based company
having revenue of Rs. 235.9M (2016) and market value
$200M, provides a food-ordering and delivery solution from
the neighbourhood restaurants to the urban foodie. It was
founded in 2014.At present Swiggy is in eight cities where it
has more than 9, 000 restaurants on its arena. Whereas Zomato
(Online Food Delivery, Restaurants nearby and Table
Bookings) is an Indian restaurant search and discovery service
founded in 2008. The service commence as the name ‘Foodie
bay’ but in November 2010 it was renamed as Zomato. In
early 2017 Zomato in a company’s blog had explained the
concept of ‘Cloud Kitchen’ that will help the restaurants to
expand their presence without incurring any fixed cost.
EXHIBIT 2
From this exhibit it is clear that food and beverage market in
India in boom. In near future in 2020 it will generate revenue
of about $141.90.
The case of a young aspiring trainee decision scientist
Consider TuhinBhattacharya, a fresh graduate shared his first
experience of using it in Bangalore. As Swiggy was providing
a discount of Rs 100 on orders above Rs 400 and hence he
decided to go for it. He placed an order for multiple burgers
and sides from McDonald’s using Debit Card. Everything was
pretty smooth commencing from the payment to Swiggy
keeping him updated on every account as to whether the
restaurant got his order and whether it was ready or not. They
even provided notifications as to when the delivery guy got
60
Sukanta Kundu, Saroda Chatterjee BIMS Journal of Management

dispatched and subsequently his position kept dynamically TABLE 3: Expected Frequency-
updating on a kind of google map interface.
Digitalisation Students Service Business Total
Even the service time was really fast and the food was has persons persons
delivered within around 20 minutes. Also he thought that significant
McDonald’s Packaging deserves a special mention and food impact on
chains deliver food in a well packaged manner. With the onset online food
of various cashback offers from various mobile wallets such as delivery
PayTM and Freecharge, he was looking forward to order more services.
and more from Swiggy! Yes 27.9 18.6 15.5 62
6. HYPOTHESIS No 17.1 11.4 9.5 38
Total 45 30 25 100
Null Hypothesis (ࡴ૙ ): Digitalisation has no significant
impact on online food delivery services. TABLE 4: Calculation of Chi Square Test-

Alternative Hypothesis (ࡴ૚ ): Digitalisation has significant Observed Expected Chi-Square

impact on online food delivery services. Frequency Frequency Value
29 27.9 0.043
7. DATA ANALYSIS
13 18.6 1.686
TABLE 1: DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS: 20 15.5 1.306
16 17.1 0.071
Parameters Age Age Age Total
between between above 30 17 11.4 2.751
16-24 25-30 5 9.5 2.132
Male 11 26 13 50 TOTAL 7.989
Female 7 28 15 50
Total 18 54 28 100 Calculated Value of Chi square test with 2 df is 7.989 which is
Types of Respondents more than the tabulated value of chi square with 2 df at 5
percent level of significance i.e 5.99. Hence Null Hypothesis
Students 39 (ࡴ૙ ) is rejected i.e Digitalisation has significant impact on
Service Person 36 online food delivery services.
Business Persons 25
Total 100 Interpretations on The Basis of Data Collected Through
Questionnaire:
TABLE 2: Responses of the respondents towards the statement- CHART 1

Digitalisation has Students Service Business Total

significant persons persons PREFERRED ONLINE FOOD ITEM
Series1,
impact on online Breakfast,
food delivery 10%, 10%
services.
Yes 29 13 20 62
Series1,
No 16 17 5 38 Series1,
Lunch,
Total 45 30 25 100 Snacks,
50%, 50%
35%, 35%
Our test statistic is Chi square with 2 degree of freedom. Series1,
Combo
8. TESTING OF HYPOTHESIS Meal, 5%,
5%
Table 2 is taken as the observed frequency and the expected Breakfast Snacks Combo Meal Lunch
frequency is calculated as follows-

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Sukanta Kundu, Saroda Chatterjee BIMS Journal of Management

The above chart depicts that 50% of the respondents prefer unique for their guests, 15% want to compare prices, 5% don’t
lunch, whereas 35% prefer snacks which a favourable aspect have time to cook food and rest 5% other miscellaneous
of preference or liking of varieties of food, moreover only reasons.
10% preferred breakfast and 5% goes for combo meal.
CHART 4
CHART 2
IMPORTANT FEATURES
BUYING BEHAVIOR Series1, Any other(Please
specify), 5%

Series1, Food Carnivals,…

Series1, Variety, 20%

Series1,
Advertisement, 5%

Generally the buying behaviour of the customers from online
food is much high. A handful percentage (55%) of customers
are ready to spend from Rs. 100-500/- which is really good.
Whereas 25% spend from Rs. 500-1000 and rest 25% spend
more than Rs. 1000.
CHART 3
Series1, Discounts
offered, 45%
Series1, The design
of a app, 10%
These are certain important traits for which customers prefer
online food delivery. Mostly 45% prefer the discounts
available like ‘enjoy 15% off from BanglarRannaghar’, ’get
50% off from Hello Cravings’, ‘Wallet friendly meal options’,
‘Top Picks’ etc, which proves that digital apps are so
important nowadays.

WHY ORDER ONLINE FOOD? CHART 5

Series1, Any Series1, PLACE TO ORDER

other(Please… Food
Kiosks,
Series1, When I don’t 10%, 10%
have the time to…
Series1,
Local food
Series1, When I need
centre,
to compare prices,…
35%, 35%
Series1,
Series1, When I want Restaurant
something unique and s, 55%, 55%
special for guest, 30%
Series1, When I
need home
delivery, 45%

Local food centre Restaurants Food Kiosks

45% of the respondents seek that they prefer home delivery

food by ordering online due to different digital applications. The chart shows that 55% prefer to put their orders at
Whereas 30% order online as they want something very restaurants, 35% from local food centres and rest 10% from

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Sukanta Kundu, Saroda Chatterjee BIMS Journal of Management

food kiosks. So restaurants should also be much more CHART 7

digitalised to accept instant orders and satisfy customers
demand. They also accept digital payments. Series1,
Avoid long
FACTORS FOR ONLINE ORDER
queues, 5%, Series1, Any
CHART 6 5% other(Please
specify), 5%,
Series1, 5%
BUYING ONLINE FOOD Saves time, Series1, Easy
10%, 10% to order,
25%, 25%

Series1, No, Series1, Series1,

25%, 25% Discounts & Variety, 20%,
offers, 35%, 20%
35%
Series1, Yes,
75%, 75%
Easy to order Variety
Discounts & offers Saves time
Avoid long queues Any other(Please specify)

Yes No The above graph depicts that user respondent think that online
delivery of food will be beneficial as it will save their time.
The next relating aspect why consumer will order online as it
75% prefer to buy online food which saves time. The will allow the user to avoid long queues resulting in reduction
remaining percentage of the respondent may or may not order in time spent in purchasing food. The other factors why online
online food due the factors like physical examination and delivery of food will be beneficial as it will allow the user to
security issues. order multiple times at a particular place with discounts and
offers.

CHART 8

ISSUES REGARDING ONLINE BUYING OF FOOD

Highly priced Too much clutter Issue regarding food Any other(Please specify)
quality
Series1 25% 10% 5% 60%

The above data determines that physical examination that is the quality of the food is an important issue when it comes to order
online. The other factor which demotivates the user to order online is the security issue, which consists of issues like phishing,
hacking of accounts etc.

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Sukanta Kundu, Saroda Chatterjee BIMS Journal of Management

CHART 9
The picture can't be display ed.

Parameters
Food Kiosks, Variety, 80
Food Kiosks, Quality, 77
Food Kiosks, Discounts/Offers, 73

Food
Local food centre, Kiosks,
Price, 63 Price, 65 Restaurants, Variety, 64 Food Kiosks, Proximity to home,
58

Restaurants, Quality, 50
Restaurants, Price, 47
Local food centre, Proximity to
Restaurants, Proximity to home,
home, 36
Local food centre, Variety, 33 34 Local food centre,
Discounts/Offers, 29
Restaurants, Discounts/Offers, 26
Local food centre, Quality, 23

Price Quality Variety Proximity to home Discounts/Offers

Local food centre 63 23 33 36 29
Restaurants 47 50 64 34 26
Food Kiosks 65 77 centre
Local food Restaurants 80 Food Kiosks 58 73

The above graph depicts that, when it comes to price factor people prefer to order from local food station as these offers food items
at nominal price& proximate to their home.User prefers to order from restaurants when it comes to the quality of the product.When
it comes to availability of variety of food items offered at a particular centre, user prefer both restaurants and food kiosks as they
offer more discounts & offers compared to the other food hubs.

CHART 10

Customer Satisfaction Level Very Important, Order confirmation

screen, 85
Very Important, Payment, Quality &
Delivery Options, 80 Very Important, Free Delivery , 80

Very Important, Cash on delivery, 75 Very Important, Food Variety,

Very Important,
75 Offers & Discounts, 75

Very Important, Food Quality, 65 Very Important, Super-fast Delivery, 65

Very Important, Security, 60

Very Important, Net banking, 55

Very Important, Debit/ Credit Cards, 50 Very Important, Tracking of Orders, 50

Very Important, MultipleVery

Order,
Important,
45 Rating after delivery,
Very Important,
45 Id & password, 45
Somewhat Important, Debit/ Credit Somewhat Important, Tracking of
Cards, 40 Orders, 40

Somewhat Important, Multiple Somewhat

Order, Important, Rating after
Somewhat Important, Net banking, 30 Somewhat Important, Food Quality, 30 30 delivery, 30 Somewhat Important, Id & password, 30
Somewhat Important, Super-fast
Delivery,
Not 25
Important, Multiple Not
Order,
Important,
25 Somewhat
Rating after
Important,
delivery,
Not Important,
Security,
25 25
Id & password, 25
Somewhat Important, Cash on delivery, Somewhat Important, Offers &
20 Somewhat Important, Food Variety, 20 Discounts, 20
Somewhat Important, Payment, Quality
& Delivery Options,
Not Important,
15 Net banking, 15 Somewhat Important, Free Delivery , 15
Somewhat Important, Order
Not Important, Debit/ Credit Cards, 10 Not Important, Super-fast Delivery,
Not Important,
10 Tracking of Orders, 10 confirmation screen, 10
Not Important, Payment, Quality & Not Important, Order confirmation
Delivery
Not Important,
Options,Cash
5 on delivery, 5 Not Important,
Not
Food
Important,
Variety,
Not Important,
Food
5 Quality,
Offers
Not5 Important,
& Discounts,
Free5Delivery , 5 Not Important, Security, screen,
5 5

Very Important Somewhat Important Not Important

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Sukanta Kundu, Saroda Chatterjee
The above chart depicts that in every aspect respondents are
quite satisfied in ordering online food whether it is payment
options or security. Regarding quality and offers there was a
massive good response.
The major findings from the above study is that a digitally
knowledgeable and empowered population can transform the
whole economy. The automation of the economic sectors will
lead to better performance and growth of the sectors, which in
turn impact the growth rate of the economy. Digitisation will
lead to cost savings, increased output, better employment,
enhanced productivity & literacy, etc. In the hospitality
industry, digitalisation will help in betterment of all the
processes, be it, purchasing, selling, inventory control, trade
relations, employment, product innovation & development,
etc. Automation of Service Sector will help in growth of the
sector by increasing the ease in access to and rendering of the
services. Wider customer reach and customization of services
according to customer’s requirements also boost the demand
for services. A digitally empowered economy develops much
faster, effectively and efficiently due to better utilisation of its
capital as well as human resources. And India being a country
with such huge manpower resources, if utilised properly, can
achieve unprecedented growth rate and put the country in top
position along with the developed economies.
9. RELIABILITY TEST
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha N of Items
Based on
Standardized Items
.896 .755 10
As the Cronbach’s alpha results .755 i.e. (>0.70), we can say
that the data which was collected through questionnaire is
reliable.
10. CHALLENGES
The massive upliftment of Food & Beverage Sector due to
digitalisation affects Indian economy. The food and beverage
market was estimated at US$30.12 billion in 2015 and is
expected to reach US$142 billion by 2020, with a
compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.34%.Though
implementation of digitisation brought a sound landmark in
the avenues of F&B sector (Swiggy & Zomato) but still few
hurdles persist. So, Zomato and Swiggy both confronts few
challenges but they managed to survive the carnage in the
food tech sector and also keep itself afloat.
Moreover urban India enjoy the facility of online delivery of
food having several digital app on mobiles or tablets but rural
India is far behind from it. They are unaware and have less
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BIMS Journal of Management
knowledge about the digitalisation aspect. So, despite of so
many advantages of digitalisation in Indian economy, still
rural sectors are suffering which can pose to be a major
challenge in this chapter. The impact of digitisation does not
spread its full arm on rural India hence it lags behind.
Government should take initiative regarding this, which will
bring a flown in total hospitality industry by increasing GDP.
Swiggy solves a crucial logistics problem in the hyper local
food delivery environment by having their own delivery fleet.
The advantages of Swiggy having its own delivery fleet is also
a challenge. It takes liability of the order away from restaurant
and places it on itself. Other food service like Food Panda,
Zomato rely on its partner restaurant for delivery and hence
the blame could be attributed on the side of the restaurant.
Whereas Swiggy doesn’t share the same privilege. Another
important challenge is digital payment. Being a digitalised
app, it also confronts problems with digital payments and huge
cost is involved in logistics but the margins on orders are very
low to operate. But beside all these constraints Swiggy plans
to set up Cloud Kitchens. Swiggy is in the process of building
a new cloud kitchen vertical. In a push against Zomato, the
food delivery start up is also looking to recruit a CEO for its
new vertical.
On the other hand Zomato doomed themselves when they
changed from the descriptive “Urbanspoon.com” to the
ridiculous nondescript “Zomato.com.” Their biggest challenge
is overcoming a really bad name. As “Zomato” their biggest
challenge beyond their name is how to get their potential users
to think of them as an alternative to the other services. Beside
these they are still in start-up and investment mode.
Acquisitions and acqi hires done in the past haven't given
them any edge. All the money is considered as learning cost.
Their investors don't have any problem with them.
11. CONCLUSION
• From table 4 we can conclude that digitalisation has
significant impact on hospitality sector specially on online
food delivery services.
• From the above data analysis it can be conclude that
customer order for online food on the basis of factors like
offers and discounts, variety of product available, free
home delivery, website user friendliness and cash of
delivery payment option.
• The hypothesis framed for the Customer Perception and
role or digitalisation towards Online Order of Food are
beneficial for the consumers.
• From the above data analysis it can be determined that
most of the respondent would agree to buy food online
rather than going to restaurants by standing in long queue
with the traditional method.
65
Sukanta Kundu, Saroda Chatterjee
• Out of the agreed respondents to order online food, most
of the respondents would think that it would be beneficial
to shop grocery online on the basis of factors like easy to
order, variety, discounts/ offers, saves time and avoid
long queues.
12. LIMITATIONS
• The first limitation caused during the market research was
to find out the respondent (customer) who order online
food and are web savvy.
• The second limitation caused during the research was
searching the prospective respondents who order online
food frequently.
• Other limitation caused in the study was that the research
will only study the consumer perception towards online
food order through apps and not the employees or sellers
to support its business operations.
REFERENCES
Journals:
[1] Singh, Mukesh Kumar &Arora, Ritu. (2014). The Changing face
of the Indian Hospitality Industry.International Journal of
Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences, 3(8),
26-36.
[2] Sharma, Nitya & Kalotra, Anil. (2016). Hospitality Industry in
India:A Big Contributor to IndiasGrowth.International Journal
of Emerging Research in Management & Technology, 5(6), 202-
210.
[3] Sharma, Vivek & Thusoo, Vinay. (2017). Major shift in the
Indian hospitality industry: An assessment study. IOSR Journal
of Business and Management.19(12), 59-62.
[4] Thyagaraju, N. (2015). Indian Hotel Industry – Future Prospects
And challenges In India.International Multidisciplinary E-
Journal. iv(iii), 55-66
[5] Rishipal. (2014). Customer Loyalty towards Hotel Industry In
India.International Journal of Science and Research.3(12),
1362-1365
[6] Mayurkumar Patel (2015), ‘Online Food Order System for
Restaurants’, Grand Valley State University
[7] Hong Lan, LI Ya’nan, WANG Shuhua (2016), ‘Improvement of
Online Food Delivery Service Based on Consumers’ Negative
Comments’, Canadian Social Science, 12(5), 84-88,
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
BIMS Journal of Management
Websites:
[8] http://www.quora.com/What -are-some-of-the-challenges-that-
zomato-face
[9] culturedigitally.org/2014/09/digitalization-and-digitization/
[10] http://www.firstpost.com/tech/indias-e-commerce-market-to-
touch-260-bn-by-2025-report-255350.html
[11] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577
308652286295634.html
[12] http://www.businessworld.in/businessworld/businessworld/conte
nt/Services-Economy-Moves-
Online.html?storyInSinglePage=true
[13] http://trak.in/tags/business/2011/08/23/india-online-internet-
users-survey-report-2011/
[14] https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-challenges-that-
Zomato-face
[15] https://www.scribd.com/document/320732867/Zomato-
Problems-Faced-By-Them
[16] https://www.zomato.com › Home › Company
[17] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com › Small Biz › Startups
[18] https://www.thecasecentre.org/.../results?...Challenges%20faced
%20by%20Zomato
[19] https://www.dartconsulting.co.in/market.../growth-of-food-and-
beverages-industry-in-...
[20] info.shine.com/industry/fmcg/6.html
[21] https://www.slideshare.net/sakshitaneja3/food-and-beverage-
industry-india-2015
[22] ficci.in/spdocument/20589/F&B-Report.pdf
[23] http://informationmadness.com/blog/965-mobile-commerce-in-
india.html
[24] http://www.sooperarticles.com/business-articles/e-business-
articles/key-success-online-retailing-appealing-women-
128808.html
[25] http://blog.dreamstarts.in/survival-of-e-commerce-startups-in-
india/#more-161
[26] http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/grocery-e-tailing-start-ups-a-
dime-a-dozen-but-investors-wary
[27] www.grantthornton.in/.../articles/unlocking-the-potential-in-the-
food-and-beverage-se...
[28] https://blog.ipleaders.in › General.
66
 BIMS Journal of Management
The UK-NHS: The Humble beginnings
to the Distant Future
Abstract: The UK NHS was founded in 1948 on the principle
that the service would be free at the point of use for all, and it
itself would be funded by general taxation. Since then it has
kept its promise to deliver world-class healthcare and has
evolved to adapt to changes in political climate and medical
advance.
The hierarchical structure at inception, the flatter matrix system
later, top down leadership followed by leadership through
influence and not authority has been some of the major changes
in the NHS.
The strategies employed over the decades focusing on (1)
recruitment, modernization, supported learning (2) setting
standards and targets, empowering with governance and
rounding off with regulation and appraisals, and (3) giving the
patient choice, setting payment methods, and putting checks and
balances for accountability, have slowly evolved over the years,
learning from other industries as well and keeping ‘safety’ at its
core.
The NHS has been compared to the other developed countries
operating as a ‘single payer’ system or ‘two tier’ or ‘insurance
mandate’ system, and has taken this opportunity to benchmark
itself and excel. No country ranks first consistently across all
domains or measures, suggesting that all countries have room
to improve.
Successive governments have wooed the masses and have
sometimes done unnecessary re-organizations to showcase
development, and in other instances led to paradigm shifts in
thinking and innovation towards self-sufficiency.
At present it has to deal with Brexit and find ways to be an
effective partner in Europe and yet maintain its individuality.
The major five issues identified include, (1) Staffing (2) Access
to treatment (3) Regulation (4) Cross-border co-operation and
(5) Market functioning and trade agreements.
As the NHS looks to the future, and makes projections for
growth and sustainability, different organizations notably the
Royal College of Physicians have chipped in to help face the
facts and shape the future. The idea is not only to make the
NHS ‘employer of choice’ but also a ‘centre of excellence in the
global market’ and strategies are already in place.
Keywords: service free at point, consensus management,
general management, one, two and three-dimensional reforms,
single payer system, two tier system, insurance mandate, Brexit,
*Clinical Director, Medicine, Asst. Professor in Medicine & Senior Staff Specialist, Mackay Base Hospital, Australia
somnath.sinha@health.qld.gov.au
ISSN: 2456-222X; Vol 3. Issue 1; January – June 2018
Dr. Somnath Sinha*
devolved systems, Future Hospital Commission, employer of
choice, global centre of excellence
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article
are those of the author and do necessarily reflect the official
policy or position of any agency of the UK. Many parts of the
article are from cited references but the views held are those of
the author.
1. INTRODUCTION
There has been some form of state-funded provision of health
and social care in England for 400 years, and at least some
benefit in kind to support the poor at home. In 1948 the NHS
was founded in place of fear that many people had of being
unable to afford medical treatment for their families, and also
in a spirit of optimism after the sacrifices of war. Since then
the fundamental principles of a service free at the point of use
for all and funded by general taxation still holds. The founding
patrons did not anticipate the rapidity and enormity of medical
progress, of fMRI and PET Scans, transplant and robotic
surgery, advances in genetics, infertility and oncology to name
a few that would add fuel to the political climate and societal
changes and lifestyle mismatch to have a direct impact on the
delivery of health care.
Over the years the NHS has not only survived, but has attained
great heights and admiration the world over, struggled and
buckled to keep pace with technological advances,
demonstrated unimaginable leadership and values through
various quarters, kept the flame of scientific progress burning,
innovated and exceled in governance, and continues to spar
with gaps and mistakes in an effort to fulfill its commitments.
2. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
The 1950’s Command and Control
This was the era of ‘Command and Control’ management style
of the war years, whereby a chain of authority was created by
default. As time went by concerns were raised on preventative
health and care of older people including war veterans and the
like. These were early days, devoid of benchmarks and the
system prevalent across the big pond had not been explored.
67
Dr. Somnath Sinha
The 1960’s Expansion
This was the era when healthcare systems in continental
Europe (and political changes and economic shifts post war)
came under scrutiny and the media started to report on them
also. This led to the phase of ‘Expansion’ focusing on
infrastructure and technology. The three major changes were
(1) Population based approach (although funding was still
based on previous year’s expenditure) (2) Development of
hospital consultants, their career structure and advice to
management (3) The development of ‘personal care’ services
The 1970’s Consensus management
There were some highly publicized scandals around mental
health leading to a new way of thinking to prioritize services.
The idea was now to bring the hospital and the community
together. Corporate approaches to management were
countered by trade union disagreements. Although staff was
employed locally, the contracts and negotiations of service
were held centrally leading to poor decision-making at the
front end as a direct consequence of lack of leadership.
The 1980’s General management
Stand-alone hospitals called ‘Trusts’ were created to address
the historical inequalities due to geographical areas and post
code effects. A single point of accountability put greater
emphasis on leadership and explicit decision-making. By the
end of the decade ‘internal markets’ separated ‘providers’
from ‘purchasers’ giving power to the fund-holding primary
care groups or General Practitioners tilting the balance in
favour of the community.
There was a paradigm shift in delegating responsibility to the
periphery, and introducing the concept of accountability of
clinician’s performance. ‘Caring for People’ was a set of
proposals advocating care in the community for vulnerable
people.
The 1990’s and towards 2000: The New NHS
‘The New NHS: Modern, Dependable’ had a primary focus on
quality of care, efficiency and performance. Clinical and
technological standards were set by NICE (National Institute
of Clinical Excellence) and delivery of care was the remit of
NSF (National Service Framework). Clinical Governance
imposed a statutory on the Trust Chief Executive to deliver,
and hence it was intimately connected to professional self-
regulation and lifelong learning. Monitoring was via
Commission of Health Improvement (to evaluate care against
standards), National Performance Framework (six standards
on outcome, access, patient views, carer views, efficiency and
effectiveness) and National Patient and User Survey.
The leadership wanted more long-term approach to planning,
reduce transaction costs, invest in technology. There were
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massive changes in how medical staff interacted with the New
NHS, starting from junior years and training, working hours
(European Union directives), and 24/7 cover of specialist
service driven by consultants.
There was a subtle shift to strategy for ‘health’ rather than
‘health service’.
While in 1991 John Major proposed the ‘Citizen’s Charter’
outlining what the public could expect, in 1997 the Labour
Government revised the charter. It has ever since been a
marriage between consumerism and patient charter.
As in all other fields of public service, Human Resources and
employment became intertwined, and local pay bargaining
became a feature of the reform in the 80’s and later led to the
development of national schemes with equality across the
board, and even performance related common pay spine for
senior managers was introduced.
Is it possible for the healthcare industry like the NHS to
flourish without research and development? Is it possible to
have no national strategy for research and rely on high profile
research only? No. Hence a ‘levy’ top-sliced from allocations
to Health Authorities was the way forward to supplement the
many other avenues of funding including charities and private
companies.
3. STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT OVER THE YEARS:
The growth and development of ‘general’ and ‘specialist’
‘management’ across the globe and research and innovation in
business process engineering and other incentive based,
knowledge driven business processes made their mark on
healthcare. Different industries (especially aviation) and their
norms and practices especially related to safety made inroads
and were compared. The media did no favours and there was a
shift from NHS (good) versus US (bad) to NHS (bad) to
continental Europe (good).
• How do health care staff compare to their peers in other
industries? They will do the right thing if properly funded
and not overly controlled.
• Hence capacity building has focused on recruitment,
modernization and supported learning. This has been
labeled one-dimension reform.
• The high level of individual expertise is no guarantee to
delivery of care and can lead to variability of care across
the spectrum.
Hence the development of ‘Standards’ and ‘Targets’,
‘Inspection’ and ‘Regulation’, publication of performance and
appraisal are designed to bring equality to care and benefits of
modern medicine accessible to all. This has been labeled as
two- dimension reform.
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• As compared to other industries, the delivery of care by health care, with the United States being the lone exception.
the providers should have some checks and balances and Universal does not imply government-only system.
accountability
a) Single payer- The government provides insurance for all
Hence patient choice, ‘make in house’ versus ‘buy externally’
residents (or citizens) and pays all health care expenses
should be challenges to the provider so as to maintain
except for co-pays and coinsurance. Providers may be
standards and efficiency.
public, private, or a combination of both.
Hospitals will be paid by (DRG) diagnosis related group type
activity based payment, underpinning patient choice and b) Two-Tier: The government provides or mandates
supply of caregivers. This has been labeled three-dimension catastrophic or minimum insurance coverage for all
reform. residents (or citizens), while allowing the purchase of
additional voluntary insurance or fee-for service care
As we realize that control of funding and ownership of when desired.
delivery are the two principal mechanisms of governmental
influence, privatization and globalization become necessary c) Insurance Mandate: The government mandates that all
entrants. citizens purchase insurance, whether from private,
public, or non-profit insurers. In some cases the insurer
Currently the model in the NHS is a hybrid of:
list is quite restrictive, while in others a healthy private
(a) Local, not-for-profit Trusts, like in Netherlands and
market for insurance is simply regulated and
Belgium
standardized by the government. In this kind of system
(b) Elected local health boards (some Scandinavian insurers are barred from rejecting sick individuals, and
countries) individuals are required to purchase insurance, in order
to prevent typical health care market failures from
4. COMPARABILITY arising.

Thirty-two of the thirty-three developed nations have universal

Health Care System Performance Rankings:

AUS CAN FRA GER NETH NZ NOR SWE SWIZ UK US

Overall 2 9 10 8 3 4 4 6 6 1 11
Care 2 6 9 8 4 3 10 11 7 1 5
Process
Access 4 10 9 2 1 7 5 6 8 3 11
Admin 1 Efficiency 6 11 6 9 2 4 5 8 3 10
Equity 7 9 10 6 2 8 5 3 4 1 11
Health 1 Care Outcomes 9 5 8 6 7 3 2 4 10 11

Source: European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2017).

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Dr. Somnath Sinha
No country ranks first consistently across all domains or
measures, suggesting that all countries have room to improve.
In general, the U.K. achieves superior performance compared
to other countries in all areas except Health Care Outcomes,
where it ranks 10th despite experiencing the fastest reduction
in deaths amenable to health care in the past decade.
Care Process (preventive care, safe care, co-ordinated care,
engagement & patient preference):
The U.K. excels in safety, while Australia is the top performer
in patient engagement.
Access (affordability, timeliness):
The United Kingdom, Sweden, and Norway are the other top-
ranked performers on affordability.
Administrative efficiency (4 indicators to barriers to care-
availability of regular doctor, medical records, test results and
3 indicators on dealing with paperwork, disputes related to
documentation requirements):
The top performers in this domain are Australia, New Zealand,
the United Kingdom, and Norway
Equity (based on 11 survey measures):
The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Sweden rank
highest on measures related to the equity of health systems
with respect to access and care process
In these three countries, there are relatively small differences
between lower- and higher-income adults on the 11 measures
related to timeliness, financial barriers to care, and patient-
centered care.
Health Care Outcomes (Population Health Outcomes-
chronic disease and mortality/ Mortality amenable to health
care-under the age of 75/ Disease-specific outcomes-following
stroke or heart attack and survival after cancer diagnosis):
While the United Kingdom ranks 10th in the health care
outcomes domain overall, it had the largest reduction in
mortality amenable to health care during the past decade.
The UK provides free at point of need care to all permanent
residents, and about 18% of a citizen’s income tax (about
4.5% of the average income) goes to healthcare. As a
percentage of GDP the expenditure has gone up (9.9%) and
the private sector has taken up a more prominent role (16.7%)
recently.
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The disadvantage of government’s participation includes,
weak market mechanisms, shortfall in resources, and
disproportionate use of health care by citizens. It was only in
2007 that Reinsurance in UK was finally made a law instead
of a directive, to harmonize minimum standards across the
European market.
5. POLITICS/ ECONOMY:
(1) BREXIT- (The House of Commons Health Committee
recommendations) Although health is frequently
described as a ‘member state competence’, (i.e. a policy
area beyond the competence of the European Union)
there is a wide range of areas where Brexit will have an
immediate impact.
Issue 1: Staffing
EU’s policy of freedom of movement and mutual recognition
of professional qualifications-will lead to recruitment and
retention shortfalls in the UK (about 5.9% in 2014). This will
impact on those who are here now, and those who we will
need in the future
Issue 2: Access to treatment
Immigrants and visitors are on average younger and use the
NHS lees than the local population. UK pensioners living in
Europe will come back post-referendum. Reciprocal
arrangements with EU countries will need to be revisited.
Issue 3: Regulation
Will UK repeal EU regulations?
a) Working Time Directive- to support the safety of
workers and their impact on patients, it sets the upper
limit of hours worked and minimum rest periods and
annual leave, and allows doctors to opt out of the 48-
hour limit per week.
b) Procurement/Competition laws- The impact of EU
competition and procurement rules on the NHS is
contentious. As the relevant EU directives have already
been incorporated into UK law, the government would
need to repeal or amend the law if it wished to reverse
current arrangements.
Overall, it seems unlikely that leaving the EU will have a
significant impact on NHS procurement and competition
regulation.
(c) Medicines/Devices, clinical trials and research- The UK
is currently part of the centralized authorization system,
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Dr. Somnath Sinha
which is operated by the European Medicines Agency,
based in London and is responsible for the scientific
evaluation of human and veterinary medicines.
Companies are able to submit a single application to the
EMA to obtain a marketing authorization that is valid in
EU, EEA and European Free Trade Association (ETFA)
countries. Hence the UK may lose out in research.
(d) Professional standards/Medical Education
Issue 4: Cross-border co-operation/ Public Health.
Surveillance and warning of communicable diseases-like
H1N1 and antibiotic resistance
Issue 5: Funding and finance/ market functioning and trade
agreements.
This will depend on the economy
(2) CRISIS- Unlike a business, it doesn’t need to raise
money from sales – as taxpayers and voters we have the
final say over how much funding it gets. This panic that
the NHS is failing isn’t economic at all, but politically
created.
A dangerous muddle of overspending, frontline service cuts
and political self-denial- this is an argument for NHS staff to
be more productive! They have. If NHS activity had gone up
only in line with government money, between 2010 and 2014
it would have treated 3.7 million less outpatients and 4.5
million less A/E patients.
(3) ONE MODEL FOUR SYSTEMS (Devolved systems)-
Hospitals are accumulating ever-larger deficits; ever
more people are having to wait more than four hours
before they are attended to in accident and emergency
departments; and there isn’t enough staff, as evidenced
by the rising number of unfilled vacancies. Even the
Commonwealth Fund found that only 44% of patients
and clinicians surveyed in the UK in 2016 said the NHS
worked well, down from 63% in 2013. If the NHS is
supposed to be the best in the world, how have things
come to this?
Yet the Commonwealth Fund has placed the NHS at the top of
its 11-country league table.
1. There is a creation of the accountable care organization
(adaptation of US Kaiser Permanente model), but the
grants calculated do not match need or projections of
demand in the four parts of the UK.
2. You Get What You Pay For-does it corroborate with
overseas staff levels? Does it equate to prioritizing
urgent over non-urgent care?
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3. Just spending money does not solve all problems-
wastage of money by politically driven ambitions,
expensive IT projects, regular re-organizations of some
form or the other.
4. Would a seven-day hospital/ primary care service be the
best use of money?
5. Maybe reducing waste, unnecessary tests, unnecessary
treatments, unwarranted variations in quality and cost of
care, can be tackled by better information to patients.
What can be done to avoid unnecessary admissions due
to lack of social support in the community?
6. THE FUTURE
Improvements in the quality of care do not occur by chance.
They come from the intentional actions of staff equipped with
the skills needed to bring about changes in care, directly and
constantly supported by leaders at all levels. They do not come
free and will require a substantial and sustained commitment
of time and resources.
(1) The Future Hospital Commission (FHC) has made 50
recommendations relating to the organization of acute medical
care-
• A comprehensive model of acute medical care
underpinned by 11 principles of patient care
• Patients and their medical and support needs must be at
the centre of how services are organized and delivered
• Patients must be involved in service design and delivery
• Specialist medical care must be available to patients
irrespective of where they are, either in hospital or in the
community
• Patient experience must be valued as much as other
outcomes
• The measurement of patient outcomes, including patient
experience of care, must be embedded into clinical
practice and drive improvement initiatives
• A renewed emphasis on training and leadership,
embodied in the post of chief registrar
• Prioritization of self-management and shared decision
making
• Special provision with services for vulnerable patients,
including frail and older patients, and young adults and
adolescents
The Royal College of Physicians took up the challenge and
established the Future Hospital Programme (FHP) and over 18
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Dr. Somnath Sinha
months put this vision into practice to evaluate the real world
impact of these recommendations.
The new model of patient-centered care underpinned by a set
of principles and new approach to training and leadership has
come up with a blueprint.
This would bring care to patient where they were in the
hospital, and identify and care for the deteriorating patient in
the community before they needed to go to the hospital.
The results – increased patient satisfaction, meaningful patient
engagement, saving of money and resources, reduced
admissions, patients treated more safely and effectively,
increased clinician engagement, higher morale in FHP units
leading to easier recruitment, improved self-management of
conditions – are impressive and inspiring.
The challenge now is to transform each and every hospital into
a FHP unit.
(2) Facing the facts and shaping the future
The move towards self-sustainability in the workforce and to
build a global reputation as a centre of excellence will come
with a price.
Workforce- NHS spends 65% of its operational budget on its
most valuable asset, its staff. Even with expansion in numbers,
it is a struggle to cope. Why? It is because of the huge growth
in demand and a focus on quality.
So, we have more staff, which is treating more people.
Current vacancies stand at 9.4% (an improvement from 2016
data of 9.9%).
• Supply- New graduates, returning practitioners and
recruitment from elsewhere are the sources, and the tap
has been turned on (including international recruitment).
• Retention-Had the rate of nurses not leaving employment
remained the same as in 2012, we would have 16,000
more nurses today (nearly half of our currently vacant
nurse post filled). Some of the increase in people leaving
may be due to pressure of work, some because of lack of
flexibility, some due to pay, and some because people feel
they are not getting the career development they want.
But, as many of these are issues affect the whole NHS,
why is there such variation from employer to employer in
staff turnover?
Staff returning to the same posts as locums drive both
vacancies and costs upwards.
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• Changing expectations- Different generations want
different things in their working lives. Millennials often
want non-linear careers and they see flexible working
with career breaks as a right. When considering changing
expectations we need to be mindful of wider societal
changes. We have to find a way to stem the rise in
lifestyle related illness to take further pressure off the
health service. Prevention must be the first priority.
Do we currently train all our clinicians with this as a basic
premise? Do we spend enough time training clinicians in
population medicine? Do we ensure that all clinicians
understand the benefits of exercise on both physical and
mental health and wellbeing? And are we serious about parity
of esteem between physical and mental health.
Finally, the way we expect to work with local populations and
deliver care in the future is changing. The creation of new care
models, including Primary Care Homes, developments in
technology that mean many more services can be offered in
the home.
More than 50% of today’s workforce will still be working in
the health service in 2032. If we want to transform services
over this period we need to develop the current workforce
We also want to ensure that we have a future workforce
representative of the population we serve and to offer ‘careers
not jobs’ to people who demonstrate the NHS Constitution’s
values and behaviours. We are expanding apprenticeships for
both new entrants to our workforce and existing staff.
(3) Making the NHS the employer of choice:
• Reducing staff turnover: improves working conditions,
patient outcomes, and productivity. Making staff turnover
reduction one of the highest workforce priority for Boards
is in the interests of staff and patients.
• Action on NHS staff health and wellbeing will be
extended
• People first: and focusing on the things we know are
important to our staff.
• Workforce transformation and continual professional
development: to develop skill mix and career progression
• The total reward package: offered by the NHS includes
pay (basic, additional and allowances), employer pension
contributions and leave entitlements, alongside service
terms. The NHS Pension scheme is also a very valuable
component.
• Return to practice: Some qualified clinical staff choose
not to work in the NHS and there are others with lapsed
professional registrations. These are just the sort of people
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Dr. Somnath Sinha
the NHS should seek to attract back. Many are highly
experienced and skilled and encouraging and supporting
them back into substantive NHS employment is a highly
cost effective way of growing the workforce.
• Global workforce: The NHS has historically relied on
significant numbers of staff from overseas to meet service
needs. The contribution of those already working here is
highly valued and will be needed, until new graduates
from recent increases in domestic clinical education
programmes are available.
(4) The NHS as a global centre of excellence for workforce
development:
1. Recognise the capacity of the NHS to transform overseas
health economies by co-developing educational
programmes that benefit both countries.
2. Promote and develop models to support global learning
for NHS staff; with the aim of improving job
satisfaction, retention, capabilities and productivity.
3. Ensure value for money by coordinating global
initiatives through a single structure, preventing
duplication and ensuring a consistent ethical framework.
4. Create time-limited, ethical ‘earn learn and return’
programmes for professional groups where there is a
clear educational offer to help reduce global skills
shortages.
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5. Use the workforce excellence of the NHS to support
commercial relationships and where this is in line with
wider Government policy on reducing net migration.
6. Learn from others through global partnerships.
REFERENCES
[1] House of Commons Health Committee: Eighth Report of
Session 2016-17. Clerk of the Health Committee, House of
Commons, London SW1A 0AA
[2] The UK Health Care System. Josh Chang, Felix Peysakhovich,
Weimin Wang, Jin Zhu. Acta-uk.
[3] The King’s Fund. www.kingsfund.org.uk
[4] Health Affairs. Reform strategies for the English NHS. Simon
Stevens.
[5] Vol 23, No 3: Global Challenges in Health
[6] DFID Health Systems Resource Centre. The history and
development of The UK NHS 1948-1999. Peter Greengross,
Ken Grant, Elizabeth Collini. Second Edition July 1999
[7] NHS England, Public Health England, Trust Development
Authority- Five Year Forward View. 5yfv-web.pdf
[8] Public Health England. Facing the Facts, Shaping the Future. A
draft health and care workforce strategy for England to 2027 for
consultation. Consultation.hee.nhs.uk
[9] Royal College of Physicians: Future Hospital Programme.
Nov’17.
[10] NHS Providers One Birdcage Walk, London SW1H 9JJ. There
for us. A better future for the NHS workforce.
[11] NHS Confederation 50 Broadway London SW1H 0DB.
Leadership in a matrix. A personal view from Ciaran Devane.
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Factors that Affect the Effectiveness of Online
Automobile Advertisement on Indian Customers
Abstract: Effect of Online advertisement can be felt when we
are using internet. Companies are giving advertisement online
also apart giving print or television advertisement companies.
We also see online advertisement of automobile companies. Car
or bike purchase depends on society or individuals leaving in a
particular society. Most of the individuals access internet
because of need or requirements.
The study proposes to take a sample of 200 individuals across
three centers in West Bengal namely Kolkata Municipal
Corporation. The study proposes to use a variation of
convenience sampling for identifying the sampling unit.
Structured questionnaire will be used to collect the data.
The study proposes to take help of descriptive statistics to
understand the basic relationships amongst the various
variables. In order to determine the relationships between
effectiveness of online advertising for automobile industry and
end user purchase of the product or service. Causal and
multivariate research techniques like factor analysis and
multiple regression technique will be used.
Keywords: Internet, Companies, Statistics
1. INTRODUCTION
The Indian market is experiencing a change in past few years.
The effectiveness of online promotion of products is growing
day by day. Globalization and consumption level of Indians
are some of the prime factors behind this. The disposable
income is increasing as well as the reach of internet service is
engulfing the Indian urban as well as the rural market. This
kind of change is making the Indian market more competitive.
The Indian companies are experiencing stiff competition from
the foreign companies. Indian market is an open market now
days because of government policies. Indian companies are
expanding its business in South East Asia as well as many
parts of Europe. Companies of USA, Japan and Germany are
launching their products through India. Indian market is
experiencing the effect of globalization in every segment of
market from mobile phones to automobiles.
Effect of Online advertisement can be felt when we are using
internet. Companies are giving advertisement online also apart
giving print or television advertisement companies. We also
*Research Scholar, MAKAUT, West Bengal; arijitadhikary89@gmail.com
**Assistant Professor- Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; indrajitsinha25@gmail.com
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Arijit Adhikary*, Dr. Indrajit Sinha**
see online advertisement of automobile companies. Car or
bike purchase depends on society or individuals leaving in a
particular society. Most of the individuals access internet
because of need or requirements.
2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Advertising in print as well as electronic media is common for
Indian consumers but watching online advertising is a new
experience for them. Giving an advertisement on local
language paper and on electronic media like FM Radio or
television does have an effect on consumers in India but
whether showing advertising on internet is effective enough?
Today’s consumers are aware of the fact that the type of
products that are available in the market. Previous research
paper found out that consumers can differentiate the products
that being offered by the companies in the market. It creates
differentiation among products (Comanor and Wilson 1974),
which at times may not be real (Tirole 1990).
Creating awareness among the consumers through advertising
is an old marketing tool. Awareness through internet is a new
phenomenon. We can denote it as a sign of a developing
nation. Nation is developing and the advertisement patterns
are changing and the consumer attitude is changing depending
on the advertisement shown on the internet. Some questions
arise regarding this online advertising like-
Does Online Advertisement effect high end purchase?
How effective is Online Advertisement for Automobile
Industry?
The literature on persuasive advertising, which is relatively
inadequate, uses advertising as a device to persuade people to
buy a particular product or brand (Koh and Leung 1992). This
persuasion process goes on for a long period of time during
the product life cycle phases. Internet being used as a source
of information than entertainment today. Due to changing
work culture people spend more time in office than in the
houses. For them the prime source of information is internet.
This study proposes to study some aspects of the changing
scenario of online advertising in the Indian context, keeping in
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Arijit Adhikary, Dr. Indrajit Sinha
mind the effect of print or other forms of electronic
advertising for automobile market. Buying a new car is a high
end purchase. Automobile companies are promoting their
brands through online advertisement and also through print
and television advertisement. It is hoped that the study will be
able to identify key aspects of difference in the forms of
advertising that we experience in Indian market and its effect
on consumers which will be useful for academicians and
managers of automobile industry.
3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
3.1 Effects of advertising
We have witnessed a lot of creativity in the field of
advertisement now rather than earlier. Traditionally it has been
seen that creative advertising attracts the most than the
noncreative advertisements (Smith and Yang 2004).
Advertisement skepticism has been defined by Obermiller and
Spangenberg (1998) as the tendency toward disbelief in
advertising claims. Calfee and Ford (1988) explain the
effectiveness of the advertising can be understood when the
consumers experiences the product after using it. Calfee and
Ringold (1994) found that there is a vast segment of
consumers who disbelieve the advertising claims. Supporting
the work of Calfee and Ringold other researchers like Ford,
Smith, and Swasy (1988) reported that marketers has changed
the approach of advertisement and about 65% of
advertisement clams were either knowledge based or
acceptance type. Uncertainty or disbelief towards advertising
is an important component of consumer persuasion process
(Friestad and Wright 1994) and a generalized idea how the
marketplace operates (Duncan 1990). There are various
opinions given by the researchers regarding the effect of
advertisement among the customers. McDonald (1971)
suggested that the most effective exposures were those seen
not more than four days prior to a purchase. Clarke (1976)
concludes that the span of cumulative advertising effect on
sales is between 3 and 15 months.
3.2 Effects of online advertisement on automobile market
Advertisement has created the need among the consumers.
The objective of advertising is to communicate. Research
paper of Naik et al. (2005) develops a model of interaction
between advertising and promotion in a competitive
environment. There are many segments in the society and
advertisement has influenced these levels of the society.
Esteban et al. (2001) showed that different forms of
advertisement are prepared for different segments of society
within the market. Consumers can even predict the price of the
product or service after observing a particular advertisement.
Brand advertising provides information to the consumers
about the brand's value proposition that differentiates it from
its competitors, thereby encouraging consumers to choose the
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BIMS Journal of Management
advertised brand over competing brands (Krishnamurthy 2000,
2001). Dreze (1998) considered internet advertising as a
suitable alternative to traditional media, reach and frequency
are used as the standard measures for online ad effectiveness.
Jordaan and Ehlers (2009) reported that they use new media
(cell phone media and internet advertising) more frequently
than other traditional media (print and broadcast advertising),
so from this it can be depicted that automobile advertisement
can be flown effectively through online form of advertisement.
Drèze and Hussherr (1999) found response to the advertising
on the internet or to be similar to response to advertising in
other forms of media, except that advertising on the internet
appeared to be easier to ignore. The advertisement of
automobile brands over the internet can be ignored according
to above proposition.
4. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
4.1 Defining Customer information needs and advertisement
(Kotler et al., 1999) advertising is the mediator between the
company and its product, service or brand and the consumer.
Customer satisfaction is a major outcome of marketing
activity. According to Oliver (1980), customer satisfaction is
the feeling or attitude of a customer towards a product or
service after it has been used and is generally described as the
full meeting of one’s expectation. Advertisement serves as a
link between the various stages of customers buying behavior.
As for example, if customers are satisfied with a particular
service offering after its use, then they are likely to engage in
repeat purchase and try line extensions (East, 1997).
Satisfaction is measured as an overall feeling or as the sum of
elements of the transaction in terms of its ability to meet
customers’ needs and expectations (Fornell, 1992; Zeithaml
and Bitner, 2000). Another approach employs a
disconfirmation paradigm, which examines deviations of
performance from customer expectations and norms (Beardon,
W.O., Crockett, M., Teel, J. E. 1981).
With recent innovations in information technology, the
advantages of cooperative advertising are made more
compelling for the manufacturer, as the retailer's ability to
provide benefit through its access to local information is
further enhanced (Clark, 2000). We can predict from the
above literature that spread of information technology is
creating the market more competitive as well as the consumers
is getting the information required before purchase of the
product or service. It is generally accepted that advertising
intensity is positively correlated with rate of return to the
manufacturer (Comanor and Wilson, 1967; Round, 1983;
Geroski, 1982). The type and quality of the product can be
communicated by advertisement. Advertisement depends on
variables like communicating the characteristics of the brand
of product to be marketed, competitors' brands which creates a
knowledge base among consumers (Burke et al. 1988).
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4.2 Online advertisement and other forms of advertisement • Is purchase type a factor for the effectiveness of online
advertisement for automobile industry?
Advertising campaign been done by the companies in many
forms like either in print media or in electronic media. The The above mentioned objectives will try to provide new
reach of newspaper in rural areas of India is dominant. If we insights into online advertisement through analysis of
compare the effectiveness of newspaper and online collected data and the differences between the traditional and
advertisement the effect of these two varies on locations as online advertising concepts. The results would benefit both
well as it depends on human psychology. Newspaper habit and Indian and foreign companies as well as the academia.
mainly internet addiction (Stein 1997, Griffith 1999 or Beard
2002) are phenomena subject to psychological and psychiatric 6. LOCATION OF THE STUDY
research. Previous research papers also analyzed the
economies of newspaper industry. Rosse (1967) analyses print The study was conducted in Kolkata metropolitan area during
media with a different focus. In his seminal paper, Rosse the months of February and March 2018.
investigates economies of scales of newspaper industry.
Anandam P. Kavoori and Kalyani Chadha (2001) studied the 7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
prospect of the internet in the developing world by exploring
the discourse of advertising. A research design is the specification of the methods and
procedures used for acquiring information needed to structure
Advertisement on television channel has been analyzed by or to solve the research problem (Green, Tull and Albaum
researchers in early published papers. Brown and Williams 2006). A good research design will ensure that the data
(2002) provided an analysis on the influence of concentration collected is relevant to the research problem and that it was
on advertising rates in local radio markets. While local collected in an objective and economical manner.
concentration is found to raise advertising rates only
reasonably, an increase in national concentration even seems In order to attain the objectives of this causal study we have
to lower the respective prices. Bergen and John's (1997) followed methods
theoretic result derives from assuming that local advertising is 1. The study is empirical in nature.
not at all a competitive tool for either the manufacturer or the 2. Questionnaire is designed.
retailer, but simply a tool to precipitate the purchase decision. 3. Final Data collect data from respondents.
4 Multiple regression technique is used to analyze the data.
The comparison between the print, radio, television and
internet advertisement has been explained by (Lafayette, 8. SAMPLING PLAN
2008). He specified the fact that individual online websites
may have detailed information on registered users which they The survey is conducted on customers by us. Sample of 200
can also use for advertising. Print, radio and television media individuals across three centers in West Bengal namely
generally do not know this level of information for individual Kolkata Municipal Corporation have been taken.
users; cable systems with set-top boxes also have specific
information on viewers but do not have ready access to the The universe of the study would be all individuals having a
browsing behavior of those individuals. four and two wheeler and who access internet on daily basis
for their works.
5. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
9. ANALYSIS OF DATA
The study aims to generate the following research objectives:
• To identify whether and to what extent the online The term analysis refers to the computation of certain
advertising creates awareness on automobile brands measures along with searching for patterns of relationship that
among customers. exists among data-groups to find answers to the research
• Whether the customers are getting the necessary problems.
information before purchasing.
TABLE 1: Demographics
• Are Indian customers satisfied on the direct response
options that has been provided by online advertisement on DEMOGRAPHICS MINIMUM MAXIMUM MEAN
two and four wheelers? Age 25 64 38
• Do Indian Customers depend on the information been Annual income 15000 45000 28000
provided by online advertisement for car or bike NO. of times online 2 10 4.5
purchase? contact per day

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Arijit Adhikary, Dr. Indrajit Sinha BIMS Journal of Management

TABLE 2: Factors affecting the effectiveness of online not is a question to answer. For this we need elaborate study of
automobile advertisement online advertisement for high end purchase.

FACTORS ROTATED % OF 13. CONCLUSION

FACTOR VARIANCE
LOADING EXPLAINED The primary objective of the study is to look whether the
Type of file 10.3 online automobile advertisement effects Indian customers. The
result shows that online advertisement is effective but
Audio/Video 0.842 customers prefer specific form of advertisement like audio and
Pictorial 0.788 visual aid.
Type of 38.33
Advertisement 14. SCOPE OF FURTHER RESEARCH
Online 0.745
Print 0.632 Nevertheless the findings of the study are clearly expressed by
Television 0.528 the respondents and this study can be considered as a broad
indication of the consumers and the executive’s mind of the
Direct Response 7.4
industry and the basis for more rigorous research in future
Voting 0.682
when new foreign brands enter into Indian automobile market
Comments 0.625
and the competition intensifies.
Social media 0.576
response
REFERENCES

[1] Beard, K.W., 2002, Internet Addiction: Current Status and

10. MAJOR FINDINGS
The analyzed data reveal some interesting facts. The study is
concentrated on effectiveness of online form of advertisement.
The study reveals that online form of advertisement is the
most effective form of advertisement in comparison with other
forms. Among all forms of online advertisement email and
visual aids are the most effective form of online
advertisement. Voting process conducted by automobile
organizations in various websites is a good form of direct
response advertisement, where customers can give their
valuable opinion over automobile companies. High number of
individuals believe online advertisement is the future of
advertisement. No conclusive evidence found whether online
advertisement effect high-end purchase
11. IMPLICATIONS
The study postulates that online form of advertisement is an
effective form of advertisement and most of the individuals
prefer online form of advertisement because of accessibility of
internet. Email or audio/video form of advertisement is most
effective but question still remains whether online form of
advertisement is effective for high end purchase like
automobile or not.
12. DISCUSSIONS
In this competitive market companies try to maximize their
profit by selling their products or service. Automobile
companies are trying to reach their target customers through
advertisement. Online form of advertisement is an effective
form of advertisement but does it affect high end purchase or
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