Shriram Transport Finance Corporation Ltd: Do Proxy Advisors Really Protect Non-promoters’ Interests?

Research Question: What is the role of Proxy Advisory Firms in protecting the interests of the non-promoter shareholders? Links to theory: This case study demonstrates how agency cost type 2 may lead to a conflict of interest between the promoters and the financial institutions. It also takes into consideration how the information asymmetry can be alleviated using proxy advisory services. Phenomenon studied: The case study explores the role of proxy advisory firms in influencing the votes of non-promoter shareholders at a general body meeting and its impact on the passage of resolution. Case Context: The case explores the role of shareholder activism in general and proxy firms in particular to protect the interests of minority shareholders at STFC where financial institutions have substantial stake vis-a-vis the promoters. Findings: The case study findings suggest that proxy advisory firms have now earned the confidence of the financial institutions and non-promoter investors. This adds vital fire power to the shareholder activism movement in India. However, the company’s stance that the report was based on quantitative factors and Puneet Bhatia’s contribution has been ignored calls for a more robust method of arriving at recommendations. The role of TPG in directing Puneet not to join should also be commended. Discussion: The case study examines in detail the growing influence of proxy advisory firms on voting by financial institutions in annual general body meetings. It raises the issue of whether quantitative metrics such as number of meetings attended can overshadow the qualitative inputs and contributions made by a director. The need for financial institutions to think beyond their interests and consider actively recommendations by proxy advisory firms is also highlighted. Are minority shareholders’ concerns now being better addressed in annual general body meetings is another development the case throws light on. Corporate governance norms in the context of roles and duties of directors is also touched upon.

We Do Much More Than Norms Require’: Making Sense of Family-owned Healthcare Firms’ Profitability and Ethics

To address the literature gap regarding the business ethics of family firms in the healthcare sector, this case study investigates profitability and business ethics from the perspective of a very successful Finnish private healthcare company. The study combines business ethics and sensemaking theories to provide a broad view of the company’s performance and stimulate new thinking about the relationship between ethics and profitability in private healthcare. Company’s profitability requirements seem to elicit disapproval from the public. This study examines how a private, family-owned healthcare company combines business ethics and profitability successfully in its operations and how this family-owned company has successfully constructed a plausible, trusted and ethical identity. The theoretical framework of this study is based on business ethics, profitability, trust and sensemaking theory. The study shows that the case company has worked tirelessly to maintain high ethical practices and standards in providing excellent care and enjoying high profitability. By achieving high standards of business ethics and maintaining good social relations with stakeholders, the company has developed a plausible and trustworthy identity, while continuously improving its operations. The case shows that the surrounding environment, in particular, places significant pressure on the case company’s daily activities and management. Even when customers (municipalities and residents) are very satisfied with the quality of care, this does not automatically lead to performance and profitability in the short term. Profitability as a value creation can also depend on personal relations and trust fostered between the company and its stakeholders. Thus, applying sensemaking theory, profitability means company’s ongoing sensemaking about the plausibility of its actions and reading cues within the environment now and for the future.

A Framework for Transforming Indian Sports Goods Manufacturing Industry

The Indian manufacturing industry is gradually adopting the sustainable productivity-oriented processes of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), but the sports goods manufacturing (SGM) sector has lagged far behind. In India, the city of Meerut is one of the hubs of SGM, providing about 25,000 direct jobs and exporting goods worth around ₹4.86 billion (~US$75 million). The thousands of mini, micro and small household manufacturing units of the Meerut sports goods manufacturing (MSGM) cluster widely operate with the centuries-old labour-intensive manufacturing practices. MSGM cluster has a vast untapped potential to increase productivity, quality and sustainability of processes. To remain relevant in this competitive era, a transformation of the sports goods manufacturing industry (SGMI) is the need of the hour. For this, the requirement for an integrated transformational framework capable of transforming the processes of the manufacturing cluster from its current state to intelligent manufacturing is felt. It will help the SGMI sustain and uplift its workforce’s employability, income and living standards. This transformation also invites the other allied industries to operate in the cluster, generating employment and business opportunities. In Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL)-based analysis of the MSGM cluster, cause–effect relations among eleven prevalent transformational challenges are deduced. From both prominence ranking and cause–effect relations for the eleven prevalent transformational challenges, ‘management’s willingness’, ‘government support system’, and ‘awareness and clear understanding of benefits (ROI)’ are observed among the prominent factors to be overcome. A transformational framework for SGMI from its present state to the I4.0 state is proposed. The study and proposed scalable framework with causal relationships will serve as a road map and tool for the smooth and effective transformation of the SGMI cluster.

A Process Model of Leveraging Survival Crisis Towards Building Innovation as Core Competence: Theorization from the Journey of a Textile Firm

Although the extant research in entrepreneurial innovation shows how organizational challenges could enact such innovations, the relationship between organizational challenges and organizational innovation under the small and medium enterprise (SME) context requires attention. Especially considering that SMEs face supply chain challenges, we need to know whether such challenges consistently enact supply chain innovations. Moreover, although those innovations can address the immediate SME challenges, extant research does not capture the life cycle of the innovations efficiently. To find an answer to this theoretical quest, we conduct participatory case research at Saha Textile, India. The founder of Saha Textile started his journey as a small garment shop owner in a Bazar. Within two decades, Saha Textile became one of the most prominent vertically integrated organizations in the Indian textile sector. Our reflexive process study reveals that the organization faced multiple survival threats throughout its journey. The uniqueness of the organizational crisis enacted sensemaking in the organization. The organization looked at unusual and unconventional resources within its access and creatively converted those into valuable resources to address the challenges. If successful with the creative attempts in addressing the pressing challenges—the organization further strengthened those resources into core competence. Over time, the organizational learning in converting crisis to core competencies through creative utilization of resources became rational heuristics and acted as a (higher-order) dynamic capability. Our inductive theorization makes a significant academic contribution as it proposes a generalizable dynamic capability process model of converting crisis into innovation and capitalizing such innovations as a core competence. Our research points out the possibility of standardizing and leveraging innovations-as-crisis-responses as core competence towards a sustainable competitive advantage for practice.

Religion as a Dominant Logic for Entrepreneurial Activities: Theorizing the Dynamics in and Around ‘We’d Meat Burger, Kazakhstan’

As religion gains prominence in several countries, research to understand the dynamics between religion and business becomes critical. Extant research paid scant attention to the influence of religion on entrepreneurial activities. To develop insights into this phenomenon, we conduct reflexive field-based case study research on a family business in Kazakhstan that experienced the inclusion of religion as a dominant logic in the management. Kazakhstan provides an interesting context to study the phenomenon as religion gained prominence in post-Soviet Kazakhstan after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Our study reveals how religion can influence the entrepreneurial mind and activities and transform the family business. Our inductive theorization offers a process model of entrepreneurial journey under the influence of religion and its impact on the organizing of family business. The model consists of influenced disruption, creative combination and pragmatic adaptation through which the entrepreneur with religion as a dominant logic can transform the family business and attain organizational stability. For academia, the study contributes to extend the scholarly understanding of religion as an influencer in entrepreneurship and family business. For practice, our work shows how religious principles as constraints can enact creativity and innovation in organizational transformation.

Enabling Knowledge Management Initiatives through Organizational Communities of Practice

Learning the concept of organizational communities of practice (OCoP) is very effective but too complicated when it comes to implementation. Challenges arise when cultivating OCoPs and creating effective communication processes, particularly within an organization that has a traditional hierarchy. Literature on knowledge management (KM) fails to provide an inclusive comprehension of the significance of OCoPs. Thus, the current exploratory research aims to determine how organizational contexts can enable or disable the establishment and development of OCoPs. This article is built on communities of practice (CoP) theory to study the phenomenon of intentionally established OCoPs within large organizations. The case studies conducted for this research involved two companies based in Saudi Arabia, with intentionally created OCoPs. The selected cases assist in providing a holistic understanding of the influential role of organizational context in enabling OCoP activities, using semi-structured interviews, document reviews and field notes. The study findings support an integrated framework to assist organizations in establishing effective OCoPs. Its five phases include establishment, enforcement, recognition, maintenance and sustainability, representing OCoP development phases. The resulting framework organized 16 enabling or disabling factors in OCoP development. This article expands the focus of research beyond traditional CoPs, to investigate the intentional establishment of OCoPs within organizations and understand opportunities and challenges that enable OCoPs. The study argues that organizations implementing OCoPs should offer a comprehensive, long-term strategy for KM initiatives that leads to designing OCoP activities that enable better alignment with the organization’s business plan. A company can shape perceptions and behaviours by establishing the organizational context for social interaction. Thus, this article extends the perspective on developing OCoPs within organizations and argues that the role of middle management requires more thoughtfulness about OCoP research.

Indian Telemedicine Industry: Evolving Nature of Business Models and Customer Interactions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the telemedicine industry evolved rapidly in India. The purpose of this case research was to map the evolution of the telemedicine industry in India. This was studied from the perspectives of present business models and customer engagement methods practised in India by different telemedicine firms. The research case study approach as advocated by Yin (1994, 2011), Eisenhardt (1989, 1991) and Woodside (2010) was followed. For the purpose of this study, the authors collected the data related to telemedicine firms’ business leaders in India through primary and secondary sources from October 2020 to February 2021. An array of appropriate methods was applied to compare, analyse, conduct pattern mapping, pattern matching and illustrate the subject to support the arguments of this research study. Specifically, a theoretical contribution was made on business models (Acheampong & Vimarlund, 2015; Peters et al., 2015) and customer interaction (Broens et al., 2007; Gackowski et al., 2011).

In Search of a Blue Ocean in the Indian Wine Industry

Naara-Aaba is an indigenous wine innovated by a woman who could predict a beautiful end to her vision of brewing wine from the sacred but exotic fruit kiwi. The brand was launched in 2017 at Hong village of Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh by Tage Rita Takhe; an engineer turned entrepreneur through her venture M/s Lambu Subu Food & Beverages. The brand was named after her late father-in-law lovingly known as ‘Naara’ and ‘Aaba’ meaning father. The motto of the company is to fight a social problem that wreaks havoc across the region, namely the suicides of thousands of farmers who cannot pay back their debt due to drought, poor harvest, and sometimes exacerbated by climate. Rita started her winery facing these hurdles and a field abundant in kiwi fruits. Despite facing many challenges such as lack of efficient production infrastructure, market connectivity, and minimum support from the government machinery, she has created a niche market in the wine industry. This case aims to establish the applicability of the Blue Ocean strategy by applying the tools to create an uncontested market space for Naara-Aaba, the first organic kiwi wine from the north-eastern states of India and second in the world after New Zealand. Research question: How to apply Blue Ocean strategy for the brand Naara-Aaba so that the competition becomes irrelevant? Theory: Blue Ocean theory Type of the case: Applied problem solving Basis of the case: Phenomenon-creating uncontested space in the market Protagonist: Present Findings: The findings revealed that implementing a Blue Ocean strategy will open up new uncontested market spaces for the brand to grow profitably. This case study shows how to apply Blue Ocean strategy for a wine brand. Discussion: Blue Ocean strategy advocates that by eliminating unnecessary attributes, reducing all features that pushes up the cost, raising utility, and creating higher value, a brand can redefine its market where competition is non-existent.

A Case Study on the Entrepreneurial Process of Push and Pull Women Entrepreneurs

The study presents two entrepreneurship typologies: necessity-driven and opportunity-driven. ‘Opportunity’ entrepreneurs start a business to pursue an opportunity, while ‘necessity’ entrepreneurship is requirement-based and attempts for the best option available in the absence of alternate employment opportunities. Push and pull effects are analogous to necessity-based and opportunity-based entrepreneurship. The study explored success through stages of the entrepreneurial process. The push entrepreneur proved her resilience despite the absence of spousal support. Behind the pull entrepreneur’s success was spousal support. The key findings are that success is influenced by the entrepreneur’s grit, willpower and attitude. The objective of the case is to study two typologies of entrepreneurship, based on their motivation to become an entrepreneur—necessity-driven and opportunity-driven. It also examines the various factors that could influence the success of entrepreneurship. Both entrepreneurs discussed in the study had several common factors. The two succeeded in their entrepreneurship due to their sheer grit, determination and a feeling of higher purpose. Multiple pieces of evidences exist to show that grit is a success factor linked to positive outcomes. The phenomenon studied in this case include ‘opportunity’ and ‘necessity’ entrepreneurs. It also studied the push and pull effects in entrepreneurship, which are analogous to opportunity-based and necessity-based entrepreneurship. The push entrepreneur was involved in boutique business, and pull entrepreneur was in catering business. The findings are that the push entrepreneur demonstrated resilience despite many drawbacks. The success of the pull entrepreneur’s involved spousal support too. In both cases, the critical finding is that success is influenced by the entrepreneur’s grit, willpower and attitude. Further, neither of the women entrepreneurs took any loan to fund their business. Both entrepreneurs discussed in the study had a few common factors. Both of them were educated. The two entrepreneurs exhibited grit, determination and a feeling of higher purpose. Grit has been found to be a success factor and linked to positive outcomes.