Editorial: IIMB Management Review

Abstract

It is my pleasure to introduce the ‘monsoon’ issue of the year – with its complement of articles and features. Two articles, this time, turn the research lens on very important contemporary social issues. Prof Ramadhar Singh and co-authors seek answers to (i) why people want to punish the perpetrators of severe crimes against women and (ii) how the effect of public protest on the punishment goals is moderated by the social order and the country. They test five hypotheses through an experiment in which samples of Indian and American students (32 male and 32 female) randomly received any of four vignettes about a severe crime committed by a man against a woman in the presence of his group of friends. Offenders are punished for deterrence and retribution goals and the offender's group is punished for deterrence of and omission by the group. The results indicated that Americans pursued deterrence and retribution goals equally regardless of public concern with the crime, coming through as principled theologians; Indians, in contrast, pursued both deterrence and retribution goals more vehemently when there was public protest than when there was no public concern, and came through as pragmatic politicians.

While the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, on November 26, 2008, have been much discussed, according to Rajarshi Chakraborty and co-authors, there has been little post-facto analysis in understanding the motivation and decision-making process of first responders in the Mumbai Police department. They conducted a study on information processing for responders during the early stages of man made disasters that includes terrorist attacks, employing the protection motivation theory which recognises the importance of perception of the threat as well as the coping mechanisms that follow. The study surveyed the officers of the Mumbai Police department from two zones that were most actively involved in dealing with the attacks – the Control Room that played a strategic role and Zone 1 that played a tactical role. Based on their findings, they make recommendations for law enforcement.

The article, “Service Delivery Innovation Architecture: An Empirical Study of Antecedents and Outcomes”, by Rajeev Verma and Prof K R Jayasimha, an earlier version of which was presented at the IMR Doctoral Conference 2012, puts forward an integrated service delivery innovation framework and its role in a firm's sustainable competitive advantage. Their antecedent based model integrates both the resource advantage theory of competition and the service dominant logic framework and tests out nine hypotheses collecting data from 203 service sector professionals working in Mexican financial and IT firms. The nine hypotheses cover three main aspects, namely collaborative efforts, technology and organisational resources. The research shows that service delivery innovation acts as a mediator for the relationship between various intangible/operant resources and the firm's competitive advantage and demonstrates the importance of operant resources in a firm's resource base. Results also show that customer orientation moderates and strengthens service delivery–performance relationship.

In today's global business world, national cultural differences pose challenges to organisations and often become barriers to global expansion. To overcome these challenges, Prof Ritu Tripathi suggests that conventional descriptive scientific models of managerial learning need to be complemented by explanatory models of cultural psychology. Further, she suggests that the reflections of a cross-cultural learned authority could be a valuable resource for managerial learning. In this context, Prof Tripathi converses with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the renowned spiritual leader and Founder, Art of Living, on issues related to Indian culture and cultural identity in the global work place.

While businesses globally are being compelled to play an active role in reducing sustainability burdens and preserve resources for future generations, existing research on sustainability focuses almost exclusively on developed economies. This issue's round table feature, by Prof Rama Jayanti and Prof Rajeev Gowda, focuses on the sustainability challenges and dilemmas in emerging economies. They propose a framework based on organisational choices within the three pillars of sustainability based on environmental, social and economic aspects. They conduct a dialogue with a panel of corporate representatives and academics to discuss sustainability initiatives and challenges in the Indian context.

I look forward to your feedback on the issue, and your comments and suggestions.