Department of Management Studies

IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

This article examines the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in two districts of Tamil Nadu—Panchetti and Salem. It describes the functioning of the Act based on a preliminary field study and documents the views of implementers and beneficiaries. This analysis reiterates that the implementation should drive policy and that the evaluation lessons need to filter back to the design of the policy. More specifically, MGNREGA requirements can be improved on two counts: one, wage determination and wage rates; and two, evolving better techniques to measure labour productivity. © 2021 Institute for Human Development.

World University root node

Indian Journal of Human Development

MGNREGA Implementation in Tamil Nadu: Voices from the fields

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of type of unfamiliarity and information on willingness-to-try unfamiliar healthy native foods in males and females. Specifically, the intuition of “healthy = not tasty” is investigated by probing into the effect of high and low taste expectations in the presence and absence of information on health benefits. Defining Type of unfamiliarity of a dish based on its ingredient and format is a unique contribution of this research. This paper uses a 3 * 2 * 2 full factorial experimental design (Type of unfamiliarity * Health Benefits * Taste Expectations; n = 367). ANCOVA was performed to analyse the quantitative data. Findings suggest that the information on health benefits or taste expectations does not have a main effect on willingness to try a new healthy native food, in both males and females. Type of unfamiliarity does not matter for males but females consider it important to try a new food. Males may possibly be inclined towards choosing healthy foods that set high taste expectations; however, providing information on health benefits may lower their interest levels. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Food Quality and Preference

Role of unfamiliarity and information on consumers’ willingness to try new healthy foods

The aim of this study is to explore the practical application of Lean with Six Sigma and Agile to create a powerful, synergetic and novel process improvement (PI) method. Going beyond the traditional definitions of Lean, we establish a Factory Physics view of PI which doesn't technically discriminate Lean from non-Lean. We apply a design science approach to help a global bank deploy a continuous process improvement program. By reviewing the literature on PI, we recognize Lean additives viz., Lean Six Sigma and Lean Agile, when synergized, help overcome the limitations of individual PI practices. Our design takes its roots from Factory Physics (FP) and emerges as a novel model synthesizing the theoretical lens of FP with Lean additives for field application. Besides the design of ‘Lean Additives Program’, we deployed the model in several iterations, and studied its performance over a three-year period. The improved system exhibited high levels of efficiency and effectiveness. The longitudinal case evidence demonstrates that Lean additives offer both operational and strategic benefits in firms. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Technovation

Lean additives in a service factory: A design science approach

Indo-Gangetic (IG) Basin, formed between the Indian shield and Himalayas, is the largest sedimentary basin in India. The region also constitutes many metropolitan cities, including the capital city New Delhi. The seismic risk in the region is attributed due to the proximity to seismically active Himalayan faults, the possible seismic wave amplification due to huge sedimentary layers, and the vulnerability due to urban agglomerations. However, the region lacks a dense set of recorded data curbing the direct assessment of ground motion intensities. Hence, seismic hazard needs to be estimated based on synthetic ground motions for possible scenario earthquakes. These ground motion simulations require a proper understanding of the spatial variation of material properties, viz., density and wave velocities in the region of interest. Hence, the present work focuses on developing the 3D regional velocity model for ground motion simulations in IG Basin spanning between longitude 74.5–82.5E and latitude 24.5–32.5N. The spatially varying material properties of the region are derived by suitably interpreting the available velocity models constrained according to geological features reported in the literature. The 3D velocity model derived from the study is first employed in a finite element platform to obtain low-frequency ground motion. These ground motions rich in low-frequency content are further combined with the high-frequency ground motion simulated using the Zeng-scattering method on a hybrid broadband ground motion generation platform. Hence, the simulated time histories comprise of energy in the period between 0 and 10 s, thus complying to engineering interest. The 3D velocity model developed from the study is validated using the strong motion data available for an event in the Main Boundary Thrust. The simulated time histories are observed to match the phase and energy content of recorded data. The model is further employed to simulate time histories for Mw 8.5 hypothetical earthquake in the Himalayas. The obtained response spectra are compared with the IS1893 code recommendations. © 2021, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Department Of Civil Engineering

Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

Broadband Ground Motion in Indo-Gangetic Basin for Hypothetical Earthquakes in Himalaya

The purpose of the research paper is to provide insight to the Indian hotel administrators by identifying key sustainability practices that can be jointly adopted with their supply chain members and will effectively contribute to the management of hospitality operations. A comprehensive framework is developed and a confirmatory factor analysis is used to test the relationship between the observed indicators and their factors. A set of reliable and valid measurements of sustainability practices in tourism supply chain that aims at the betterment of hospitality management methods is an outcome of the paper. The identified sustainability practices are used for conceptualisation of the model which can be logically used by the practicing managers in tourism supply chain and gain competitive advantage. The findings clearly suggest that sustainability practices need to be looked from the supply chain perspective than as individually. Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management

Sustainability practices in tourism supply chain with confirmatory factor analysis

We consider an M/ M/ 1 / N¯ observable non-customer-intensive service queueing system with unknown service rates consisting of strategic impatient customers who make balking decisions and non-strategic patient customers who do not make any decision. In the queueing game amongst the impatient customers, we show that there exists at least one pure threshold strategy equilibrium in the presence of patient customers. As multiple pure threshold strategy equilibria exist in certain cases, we consider the minimal pure threshold strategy equilibrium in our sensitivity analysis. We find that the likelihood ratio of a fast server to a slow server in an empty queue is monotonically decreasing in the proportion of impatient customers and monotonically increasing in the waiting area capacity. Further, we find that the minimal pure threshold strategy equilibrium is non-increasing in the proportion of impatient customers and non-decreasing in the waiting area capacity. We also show that at least one pure threshold strategy equilibrium exists when the waiting area capacity is infinite. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Queueing Systems

Equilibrium in a finite capacity M/M/1 queue with unknown service rates consisting of strategic and non-strategic customers

Purpose Considering recent changes in sales practices, such as the sales role becoming more strategic, increased reliance on technology for sales activities, increased stress from adding technological responsibilities to the sales role and decreased avenues of social support (such as traditional forms of community) to cope with work-related stressors, there is a need to reconsider Verbeke et al.’s (2011) classification scheme of determinants of sales performance, which was based on literature published before these critical changes became apparent. This paper aims to conduct a systematic review of sales performance research published during 1983–2018 to propose an extension to Verbeke et al.’s (2011) classification.Design/methodology/approach This paper followed a systematic approach to the literature review in five sequential steps – search, selection, quality control, extraction and synthesis – as suggested by Tranfield et al. (2003). In total, 261 peer-reviewed journal papers from 36 different journals were selected for extraction and synthesis.Findings The findings make the following additions to the classification: strategic and nonstrategic activities as a new category, technological drivers of sales performance and job-related psychosocial factors as a broader category to replace role perceptions. Derived from the job demand–control–support model, three subcategories within the category of job-related psychosocial factors are psychological demands (encompasses role perceptions and digital-age stressors such as technostress creators), job control and work-related social support.Research limitations/implications This paper identifies that manager’s role in facilitating technology skills, providing informal social support to remote or virtual salespeople using technology, and encouraging strategic behaviors in salespeople are future research areas having good potential. Understanding and building positive psychology aspects in salespeople and their effect on sales performance is another promising area.Practical implications Newly added technological drivers draw the attention of sales firms toward the influence of technology and its skilful usage on salesperson performance. Newly added strategic activities makes a case for the importance of strategic participation in salesperson performance.Originality/value This review extends Verbeke et al.’s (2011) classification scheme to include recent changes that sales profession and literature have undergone.&nbsp;

Fulltext

Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing

Systematic review of determinants of sales performance: Verbeke et al.’s (2011) classification extended

The role of emotion, particularly anger, has been explored as a valence in management and negotiation literatures. Studies on the impact of the strength of such emotions, however, are just beginning to emerge, even though this has been identified in recent literature as an important topic for investigation. In this article, we fill this gap by investigating the behavior of angry negotiators under varying levels of anger. We conduct a multi-round distributive electronic negotiation, with both quantitative outcome and subjective value. We discuss the implications of our findings for electronic negotiation. Our work contributes to negotiation literature by extending our understanding of the impact of a less explored aspect of anger on electronic negotiations. © 2020, Springer Nature B.V.

Group Decision and Negotiation

How Angry are You? Anger Intensity, Demand and Subjective Value in Multi-round Distributive Electronic Negotiation

This paper focuses on developing the optimal solution or a lower bound for N-job, M-machinePermutation Flowshop Scheduling (PFS) problem in a manufacturing system with the objective of minimizing the makespan using Lagrangian Relaxation (LR) technique. Even though LR technique is considered, in general, as a good method to obtain a lower bound, research in this direction with respect to our problem under study appears scarce. We address this gap by developing two MILP based Lagrangian Relaxation models, namely, Lagrangian Relaxation Method 1 (called Proposed Lagrangian Lower Bound Program (PLLBP)) and Alternate Lagrangian Relaxation Method 1 (called ALR) to find the optimal solution or a lower bound on the makespan. Basically, we develop these LR methods to overcome the possible limitation of the general LR procedure involving the sub-gradient approach. Benchmark PFS problem instances are used to evaluate the performance of these methods. It is observed that the PLLBP outperforms the ALR, and it provides better lower bounds than the lower bounds (in most instances) reported in the literature. Even though the PLLBP is superior in terms of solution quality, it has a limitation in that it cannot execute problem instances beyond 500 jobs due to the associated computational effort. © 2020, Indian Academy of Sciences.

Sadhana - Academy Proceedings in Engineering Sciences

Permutation flowshop scheduling to obtain the optimal solution/a lower bound with the makespan objective

Purpose This study investigated the crossover of work–family conflict (WFC) from supervisors to subordinates employed in conventional work settings. The authors hypothesized that the supervisor’s WFC would impact the subordinate’s level of WFC, and the level of crossover would vary with relationship quality or LMX.Design/methodology/approach The authors surveyed a matched set of 150 supervisors and 193 subordinates from several services organizations who were recruited using a snowballing technique. Data were analysed using hierarchical regression analyses and moderation testing.Findings Results confirmed a significant direct crossover path. Further, the crossover was found to be lowered in the event of higher LMX quality.Research limitations/implications The findings provide significant insights into the conditions under which transmission of WFC takes place by broadening crossover research in the work–family area. Future studies must explore the crossover of work–family enrichment and the role of leadership styles, empathy and perspective taking of subordinates in the crossover.Practical implications Supervisors must endeavour to reduce the level of WFC of subordinates by trying to build high-quality LMX by regularly interacting with them and by providing them a supportive climate. Employees in turn must support supervisors in various means, which will help them gaining manager’s trust and support.Originality/value Examination of the potential mitigating effect of high-quality LMX in the crossover of WFC in supervisor–subordinate dyads has rarely been investigated in the past.