Advances In Management

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Advances In Management






Vol. 2(6) June 2009

Knowledge Creation in the co-operation between Knowledge-Intensive Business Services and Client Organizations – A Theoretical Approach

Dobrai Katalin* and Farkas Ferenc

Knowledge-intensive business services function as an external knowledge source for other organizations. Because of the increasing client focus in the service sector and the requirements of higher quality standards it is not uninteresting to see, what factors have to be considered in the learning process. The paper, therefore, addresses the specific aspects of knowledge transfer from knowledge-intensive business service organizations to client organizations. It expands the aspects studied in connection with knowledge-intensive business services and examines those hard and soft factors which influence the success of client knowledge creation.

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Regional Trade Organizations and Risk Analysis: A Contemporary Preview

Ghosh Anupam

There are different methods of determining risks of entering a foreign market, commonly known in the literature as country risk analysis. Similarly, there are measures to understand the attractiveness of entering a foreign market. A proper trade-off between the two is necessary to harness the gains of global market. However, with WTO, regional trade organizations, changing mix of political alliances and unipolar world order, the risk-attractiveness trade off is increasingly becoming more complex.

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E -Waste Management

Govil S.K.

“E-Waste is a popular name for electronic products nearing the end of their “useful life”. There is a urgent need for improvement in e-waste management .India is expected to be one of the largest consumer electronic markets in the world in the coming years. By 2012, the country is expected to have 600 million mobile subscribers, 60 million PCs and 143 million TV sets. This will definitely lead to significant amount of e-waste. With regulatory intervention likely, there is an opportunity for the emergence and growth of organized players in e-waste management. Proper e-waste management –from efficient sourcing and collection right up to extraction and disposal of materials –has ensured that this huge pile of junk turns into a lucrative business opportunity.

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Knowledge Management as the Source of Competitive Advantage in Indian Service Industry: An Exploratory Study

Verma Sanjeev and Chaudhuri Ranjan*

Knowledge management facilitates the capture, storage and dissemination of knowledge using information technology. Methods for managing knowledge have become an important issue in the past few decades and the KM community has developed a wide range of technologies and applications for both academic research and practical applications. Specifically, knowledge management embodies the strategies and processes that a firm employs to identify, capture and leverage the knowledge contained within its organizational memory. It has been well documented that organizations with efficient communication linkages have higher information flow, knowledge sharing, cooperation, problem-solving, creativity, efficiency and productivity. An organization built on such well developed networks also produces measurable business results like faster learning, quicker response to client needs, better problem-solving, less rework and duplication of effort, new ideas and more innovation. It enjoys higher sales, more profits and superior market value. This paper aims to study existing knowledge practices, the use of knowledge management (KM) as a strategic tool and the factors affecting the use of KM in the Indian service industry. KM is a considerable organizational asset as a source of competitive advantage and wealth. Thus, it is vital to identify those factors critical to the successful implementation of KM practices in organizations. There have been major changes in the Indian services industry in terms of better awareness and adoption of KM practices.

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Competency Based Employee Development

Mily Velayudhan T. K.* and Maran K.

This is a competency era. It is beyond doubt that it is beneficial and cost effective, to have competent people to occupy all level positions. Competency refers to the intellectual, managerial, social and emotional competency. Many organizations in India and abroad are making their efforts to mapping competencies and implementing assessment and development centers. This paper gives a deeper insight into the areas of competency based employee development. The article covers ways of making employee development competency-based and enumerates the advantages and its limitations. This study also gives an insight into the employee development in a changing organization and the different ways to foster those changes, and goes into the roots of all the various approaches in employee development in detail.

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Profitability Determinants of Banks in India

Singh Satya Dev* and Singh Rajesh Kumar

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many countries adopted a series of financial sector liberalization measures that included interest rate liberalization, entry deregulations, reduction of reserves requirements and removal of credit allocation etc. This led to significant change in the pattern of profitability and efficiency of banking industry. The present paper focuses on India’s banking sector which has been attracting increasing attention since 1991 when a streamlined financial reform programme was launched. It assesses whether the selected bank specific and macro-economic determinants have any significant impact on profitability of banks in India. The paper concludes that the most of the selected indicators have significant positive impact on profitability of banks in India. Thus, it can be inferred that the last decade and a half has seen the transformation of the Indian banking sector with a high level of technology, diversity and sophistication in products and services and improved efficiency. The banking sector is rapidly moving towards international benchmarks with increasing efficiency, transparency and dynamism. The broad-based reforms have made the banking sector competitive and positioned it well to support sustained economic growth.

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Human Resource Management in Retail Sector: An Overview

Meena R. S.

Retailing in India is poised for boom time flowing from surging domestic consumption and consumerism. Organized and modern retail together today forms around 9 per cent of total retail in the country. The country is already witnessing a retail revolution of sorts: organized retail in India is expected because of its current nascent stage and the investments planned in this sector by existing organized retail market will be 5 per cent of total retailing by 2009. The significance of retail is apparent not only from its contribution to various economic but also by the level of employment generated by the industry. Retail is the largest industry in the United Kingdom and employs nearly three million people. However in, India attracting people to this industry and then retaining them is a challenge. This paper tells about human resource management in retail sector such as product knowledge, market awareness and success of retail environment largely depends on the workforce. Given the kind of work hours and the pressures on perform-ance, the retailer needs staff which is completely motivated. Thus, this paper focused on retailer’s single largest controllable expenses and the work force is the retailers face to the customer. Human Resource Depart-ment plays an important role not only in selecting the right person for the right job but also in maintaining their morale and ensuring that employee attrition is minimized.

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Analysis of Enterprise Resource Planning Execution in Power Distribution Utilities in India

Khatik S. K.* and Saxena R.V.

Organizations need for an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is typically driven by its long term IT Strategy. In today’s business world, it has become the backbone of Organization’s dynamism. In order to be dynamic and flexible in meeting the organizations goal of customer delight, this information must be available on the fingertips. Information Technology (IT) is widely acknowledged to be crucial for efficient operation and management of all industrial systems. This is equally true of the power utilities, which need to handle a large amount of information for their efficient operation. Information Technology is one of the most promising industrial sectors of the Indian economy and India’s IT capacity is well recognized globally. At the same time the opening and restricting of the Indian power sector have changed the perception of the power utility managers in the way they have been doing business till now. The entire gamut of the operation in power sector will be revolving around better availability of quality power and efficient management of energy. Compulsion to perform financially from National and International Funding Sources, competition from private as well as government utilities, indications of fundamental changes in pricing and tariff structures, growing environment concerns are a few of the challenges beckoning the Indian Power Manager.

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The Reef Endeavour

Narayan Jashwini

Prior to privatization, Shipbuilding (Fiji) Limited was known as Government Shipyard and Public Slipways. Based on in-depth interviews and archival data, this paper details and analyses the major shipbuilding disaster of the ‘Reef Endeavour’, the resulting losses of which was one of the supposed reasons behind the privatization of Government Shipyard and Public Slipways. This article has two goals. A complete account of the then widely publicized Reef Endeavour fiasco is discussed as the first aim. The second aim unveils the height of political interference leading to mistakes, consequently resulting in losses for the said public enterprise.

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A study on Effectiveness of Colgate Maxfresh TV Advertisement

Muruganantham G.

Advertising has become a serious and big business in India. The Indian economy is booming and consequently the advertising and communication media are booming too. Television with reach of 75 per cent in urban and 38 per cent in rural area, continues to be the medium with highest reach. According to a recent study by Adex India, a division of TAM Media Research, Television advertisements with film stars or cricketers as models have almost doubled in the last two years. This study mainly focuses on the effectiveness of Colgate Maxfresh TV advertisement which was endorsed Celebrities in TV media.

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