Papers by A. Shivakanth Shetty
Tanishq: Brand Activism Gone Wrong?
Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective
Mansoor Khan, 45, brand manager, Tanishq Jewellery for Media and Communications, was facing lots ... more Mansoor Khan, 45, brand manager, Tanishq Jewellery for Media and Communications, was facing lots of backlashes for Tanishq’s advertisement on interfaith marriage advertisement aired to promote unity and harmony amongst different communities. In contrast to its stated objective of promoting unity and oneness, this interfaith marriage advertisement created a huge controversy in social media dividing its consumers and netizens into two opposing camps supporting and some even boycotting the advertisement. The brand Tanishq was trolled because of its alleged insensitivity and blindness towards the recent spate of killings in interfaith love affairs and marriages across different parts of India. This controversial advertisement of interfaith marriage and its resultant controversy has left the brand manager pondering should brands rely on more mainstream work rather than any edgy or controversial messaging? Should brands add their business voice to the societal and cultural debates or just...
Impact of COVID-19 on the Performance of Indian Stock Market: An Empirical Analysis
Jindal Journal of Business Research
The outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic had not only brought destruction to the human lives but also de... more The outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic had not only brought destruction to the human lives but also destabilized the financial markets across the world. Although there were some studies conducted on the impact of COVID-19 on the financial markets in the developed economies, very few studies were conducted on the developing economies like India. Hence, this study intends to measure the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian stock market, especially on NIFTY50, and all the major sectorial indices of National Stock Exchange (NSE). The study also makes an attempt to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian stock market in various time periods (lockdown, pre-lockdown, and full sample time periods). For this purpose, the researchers have used EGARCH and regression models to measure the sectoral impact of COVID-19 on NIFTY. The study finds asymmetrical reactions on positive and negative shocks in the Indian stock market. The β2 coefficient, which explains asymmetric volatility, is significant and...
Changing dynamics of industrialisation and employment in Karnataka with special reference to Gulbarga district
University, Aug 31, 2010
ARTICLE INFO A. Shivakanth Shetty, Nagendra Belavadi Venkataramaiah and Kerena Anand (2019). Bran... more ARTICLE INFO A. Shivakanth Shetty, Nagendra Belavadi Venkataramaiah and Kerena Anand (2019). Brand activism and millennials: an empirical investigation into the perception of millennials towards brand activism. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 17(4), 163-175. doi:10.21511/ppm.17(4).2019.14 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.17(4).2019.14 RELEASED ON Monday, 02 December 2019 RECEIVED ON Friday, 31 May 2019 ACCEPTED ON Thursday, 14 November 2019
The Rush for Corporate Rebranding in India: Rejuvenation with a Rationale or Irrational Exuberance?
The brand rejuvenation and innovation has become an imperative for many companies because of the ... more The brand rejuvenation and innovation has become an imperative for many companies because of the factors like the vibrancy of the consumer choices and preferences, limited life cycle of the brands, inherent risks, uncertainties involved in the promotion of new brands and the ever present dangers of brand erosion and fatigue. Hence, the paper intends to probe the rationale behind such makeover and the crucial factors which play a major role in the determination of success and failure in the brand rejuvenation efforts in the context of Indian corporate in particular and global companies in general.
Revival of the Relics : How to Find Gold in the Brand Cemetery?
Nokia's Shrinking Market Share in India: Can Nokia Sustain its First-Mover Advantage?
Indian Journal of Marketing, 2011
Business in general, and stock markets in particular, have proven to be merciless punishers for t... more Business in general, and stock markets in particular, have proven to be merciless punishers for the companies, who take their early success as granted and tend to be unimaginative and uncompetitive in the face of ever changing dynamics of business. Business history is full of such companies, who have fallen from grace and have become extinct like dinosaurs because of the comprehensive changes of technology, tastes and preferences, competitors and disruptive innovations. Nokia's shrinking market share in USA, China and India is nothing but an indicator to prove that all is not well within Nokia and it is all set to enter the long list of companies who have fallen from the grace of customers. Hence, this paper makes an attempt to probe the reasons for the dwindling global market share of Nokia in general and India in particular. This paper also evaluates Nokia's opportunities and strategic challenges to get back on track in the Indian Market by using Michael E Porter's Fiv...
The Survival, Sustenance and Success of Technology Start-Ups : the Role of Human Resource Planning and Policy Development
Abstract: It is a well-recognized fact across the world that start-ups in general, and technical ... more Abstract: It is a well-recognized fact across the world that start-ups in general, and technical start-ups in particular, are not exactly known for the systematic human resource development techniques, neither during their inception stage nor at their growth stage. The signifi cance of strategic human resource development strategy for start-ups is not considered, as they suffer from the myopia that HR strategies are only meant for mature and big organizations. But conversely, the business mortality is more in the case of technical start-ups than in the case of mature and stable organizations. Most often it is the exodus of key human resources results in the mortality of the technical start-ups. Hence, it is high time that start-ups in general and technical start-ups in particular adopt the proactive HR strategy and policy to deal with employee problems for an effective organization. Therefore, this research paper demonstrates the need for and imperative of rational HR policy and strategy for technical start-ups. It outlines the process of creating an effective HR policy and strategy for technical start-ups. Key-Words: technical start-ups, human resource development, human resource strategy, employee problems 1.
Problems and Perspectives in Management, 2018
The forces of globalization and subsequent trade across the borders have necessitated the firms t... more The forces of globalization and subsequent trade across the borders have necessitated the firms to have their presence across the globe to meet the needs of their customers. The employees or expatriates will be sent on assignment to different countries for a period of time ranging from few weeks, months to years. This sudden exposure to the different environment not only makes these expatriates vulnerable to cultural shocks, but also may significantly affect their job performance. Their failure to acclimatize to the foreign conditions will not only hurt the confidence, career and life of the expatriate, but it will also cost a lot to the company. The present paper aims to understand of the process of expatriate adjustment in the Indian Information Technology (IT) industry by examining demographic variables and few organizational variables of expatriate’s adjustment process. A structured questionnaire was distributed to the expatriate employees working in 50 IT companies in the Silic...
Business Perspectives and Research, 2020
This case is developed to discuss options related to strategy in general and marketing strategy i... more This case is developed to discuss options related to strategy in general and marketing strategy in particular that were implemented by an iconic brand—Old Monk—in the compelling attempt to revive the its brand value and relevance. The protagonist in the case is Mr Hemanth Mohan, the Director of this brand who is faced with serious challenges in resurrecting the brand in a hypercompetitive, ever-changing lifestyle alcoholic beverages market in India. The most significant of the challenges faced by Mr Mohan are changing tastes and preferences of the consumer, new foreign brands entering into the market, strong regulation, close monitoring from the government, and the monopoly of state-managed liquor retail chains. This case addresses and provides for the evaluation of various strategic options available for the brand in terms of repositioning itself in the relevant markets. The case presents questions related to how effectively a traditional brand can carry forward the legacy to redee...
Problems and Perspectives in Management, 2019
The reckless pursuit of social, environmental, political and cultural issues and brands may alien... more The reckless pursuit of social, environmental, political and cultural issues and brands may alienate the very customer base, whom they try to impress, especially the millennials. Hence, this study intends to study the perceptions of millennials towards brand activism, so that the findings from the study can help the brand managers to steer their brands into the troubled waters of brand activism. The methodology followed is HTAB (Hypothesize, Test, Action, Business), a popular analysis framework given by Ken Black in his book titled “Business Statistics: Contemporary Decision Making (6th ed.)” A sample comprising of 286 respondents was collected. The final data had 286 observations and 45 features across seven categories. It was found that millennials prefer to buy a brand if it supports a cause or purpose and they stop buying if brand behaves unethically. It was also observed that there is no gender difference amongst the millennials towards their perceptions concerning brand activi...
Banks and Bank Systems, 2019
The banking sector in India has contributed to economic growth, parity and equity while equally k... more The banking sector in India has contributed to economic growth, parity and equity while equally keeping focus on profit and social objectives. The successive prudential and regulatory reforms introduced in the banking sector have made it more robust and stronger to withstand the bubbles and external shocks. Still, the Indian banking sector in general and public-sector banks (PSBs) in particular have been suffering from the bank frauds. This study endeavors to cover the increasing incidences of banking frauds in PSBs and probes the weaknesses and chinks in the operational risk architecture at the PSBs in India. This study selects Punjab National Bank as a true representative of PSBs and treats it as a critical case study to apply the learning and findings to the PSBs in India. This qualitative analysis of the study revealed that the chinks in the operational risk control mechanism and lax corporate governance are the main reasons behind the increasing incidences of frauds at PSBs. Th...
Ruthless Exploiters or Fallen Angels?: Global Lessons in Brand Crisis Management for Indian MFIs
Al Barkaat Journal of Finance Management, 2012
The recent series of incidents like the unfortunate spate of suicides amongst the micro finance b... more The recent series of incidents like the unfortunate spate of suicides amongst the micro finance borrowers in Andhra Pradesh, unceremonial sacking of the CEO of SKS Micro Finance, lack of transparency, government's decision to cap the interest rates charged by the Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), the dwindling loan collection rates, huge and unrealistic salaries charged by the promoters have tarnished the image of MFIs and taken the sheen out of their Rs. 30,000 crores industry in India. These troubled and cornered institutions in India have learnt a painful lesson that brand building and management is no more a luxurious task but have become an existential imperative for the survival in an increasingly becoming tough terrain of micro finance industry in India.
From Trailblazing to Trailing: The Imperative of Reshaping Business Strategy for Infosys
Iup Journal of Business Strategy, Dec 1, 2012
Infosys, once considered as the bellwether of Indian IT industry, has hit a rough patch in the la... more Infosys, once considered as the bellwether of Indian IT industry, has hit a rough patch in the last two years due to both internal and external factors. The changing landscape of global IT industry has created a situation of uncertain demand, increasing competition, increasing bargaining power of clients, rising attrition amongst the skilled senior employees and lack of employable talent pool in the industry. The old formula of linear model (cost arbitrage) is no more relevant given the changed scenario, which demands complete business solutions from the IT companies. Therefore, this paper makes an assumption that the current business model of Infosys in particular and Indian IT companies in general is ill-equipped to face the current challenges and turbulence in the industry. This paper probes the sustainability of the present business model and advocates the adoption of nonlinear business model for Infosys. We believe that suggestions for Infosys will be as relevant to other companies in the sector as Infosys is considered to be, as mentioned above, the ‘bellwether’ of Indian IT industry.
Ambush Marketing Landscape in India: Innovative Practice or Parasitic Marketing?
Indian Journal of Marketing, Sep 13, 2011
The global outreach, sheer size of excited audience and the extreme popularity of the global spor... more The global outreach, sheer size of excited audience and the extreme popularity of the global sports events cutting across cultures has always attracted the attention of the corporates to be associated with events like the Olympics, the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games etc. The widening fiscal deficit of the governments and dwindling private donations have necessitated the organizers to look for a partnership with the corporates to finance these mega events across the world. The rush and competition for earning the much coveted sponsorship and telecast rights of the events resulted in competitive bidding, exclusivity and sometimes the disappointment for the corporates who lost the legitimate opportunity to be associated with the events. However, this blatant commercialization of major sporting events introduced a new sort of phenomenon-ambush marketing, where a competitor of the sponsor might come into play illegitimately and create an association with the event as well as divert the audience's attention to its business. Though, the phenomenon of ambush marketing has been limited to major sports events, but recent evidence emerging from various countries suggests that marketers have been using it as a weapon of choice to ambush the marketing campaigns of their competitors, thus widening the ambush marketing landscape beyond the major sporting events. The recent ambush act of Samsung against the Nokia signals the widening landscape of ambush marketing in India, and provokes the debate on the relevance of ambush marketing on moral, ethical, judicial and legal grounds. Hence, the present paper makes a critical analysis of the origin and evolution of ambush marketing in India and abroad and explores the dilemma of treating it as a case of innovative practice or parasitic marketing. Finally, by analyzing the legal landscape of ambush marketing in India and abroad, it offers suggestions for the marketers to repulse acts of ambush marketing within the perimeters of legislation in India.
Journal of Business & Retail Management Research, 2018
In a conventional wisdom, it was believed that in traditional consumer journey, consumer will eng... more In a conventional wisdom, it was believed that in traditional consumer journey, consumer will engage in an extended consideration and evaluation before entering into the loyalty loop. But with the emergence of online and offline advocacy the modern consumers may skip various traditional phases and may directly enter into loyalty loop. Being well informed and empowered modern-day consumer would wait hardly few seconds before he shifts loyalty to the rival brands. Hence, the retailers and marketers need to deal with well informed and empowered consumers who are disloyal to the core. Therefore, this paper proposes the adoption of Omni-channel marketing as a strategy to deal with disloyal customers. This study is both analytical and theoretical in nature and is based on the secondary data as well as extensive review of literature on the subject. The findings of the study recommend that the adoption of Omni-channel marketing will reduce the loyalty depressing factors and increases the loyalty supporting factors amongst the consumers by creating seamless experience throughout their consumer journey. Therefore, this paper proposes the adoption of Omni channel marketing to retailers, brands and marketers to deal with well informed, empowered and disloyal consumers and to convert them into loyal consumers.
In a conventional wisdom, it was believed that in traditional consumer journey, consumer will eng... more In a conventional wisdom, it was believed that in traditional consumer journey, consumer will engage in an extended consideration and evaluation before entering into the loyalty loop. But with the emergence of online and offline advocacy the modern consumers may skip various traditional phases and may directly enter into loyalty loop. Being well informed and empowered modern-day consumer would wait hardly few seconds before he shifts loyalty to the rival brands. Hence, the retailers and marketers need to deal with well informed and empowered consumers who are disloyal to the core. Therefore, this paper proposes the adoption of Omni-channel marketing as a strategy to deal with disloyal customers. This study is both analytical and theoretical in nature and is based on the secondary data as well as extensive review of literature on the subject. The findings of the study recommend that the adoption of Omni-channel marketing will reduce the loyalty depressing factors and increases the loyalty supporting factors amongst the consumers by creating seamless experience throughout their consumer journey. Therefore, this paper proposes the adoption of Omni channel marketing to retailers, brands and marketers to deal with well informed, empowered and disloyal consumers and to convert them into loyal consumers. I. Introduction For more than a century, marketers followed the conventional wisdom that, consumer buying decisions followed a linear, top-down progression known as the funnel. This conventional wisdom of marketers has forced them to attract and capture consumer attention at the top of the funnel and guiding them through the entire purchase process. However, thanks to revolution of internet and digitalization, consumer decision journey is no longer linear. The new breed of consumer is not handicapped by the asymmetry of information; rather he has access to all the information needed to take the right and rational decisions. The modern 'empowered' consumer has multitude of options to choose from, high expectations from the brands, very skillful in bargain hunting, disloyal and doesn't think twice in switching over to the competitor's brand. High costs are involved in consumer loyalty programmes and consumer acquisition for the companies and marketers. Unwittingly, most of the times modern retailers are more occupied themselves in shaping consumer journeys rather than following and understanding their experience and loyalty to a brand. Uunderstanding of consumer's psyche, quest for instant gratification, raising expectations, and engage them at any stage of new consumer journey both in physical and digital world is more important. Hence, the present paper adopts the exploratory and conceptual investigation to ascertain the reasons for brand infidelity amongst empowered consumers and conceptualise and develop (not to create) an Omni-channel model to neutralise the factors triggering the brand disloyalty and trigger the stimuli to augment the brand loyalty amongst the consumers.
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Papers by A. Shivakanth Shetty