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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