This study examines the role of cost structure in working capital management for sugar manufactur... more This study examines the role of cost structure in working capital management for sugar manufacturing companies in India. The study uses fixed-effects panel regression models and the sample for the study included fifteen listed sugar manufacturing companies for the period 2008-18. The key results of the study were that employee expenditure has significant positive impact on the current ratio, the payables cycle, and the cash conversion cycle, and significant negative impact on the total assets turnover ratio and the fixed assets turnover ratio and that sales/administrative expenditure has significant positive impact on the total assets turnover ratio, the fixed assets turnover ratio, and the inventory turnover ratio, and significant negative impact on the inventory cycle and the cash conversion cycle. The results suggest that the cost structure variables of employee expenditure and selling/administrative expenditure may play a mediating role between firm-level variables and working capital variables, with direct and indirect effects; whereas the cost structure variables of raw materials expenditure and power/fuel expenditure may not play such a mediating role. These direct and indirect effects may be tested using structural equation methods in subsequent studies.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2014
At the heart of the CAPM lies the concept of systematic risk. The systematic risk of a security i... more At the heart of the CAPM lies the concept of systematic risk. The systematic risk of a security is that component of the total risk of the security that is explained by market risk. This study investigates the econometrics of the CAPM. In particular, it analyses Granger causality from market returns to security returns, the absence of which would weaken the significance of beta, and undermine the foundations of the CAPM.
Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting, Jun 7, 2023
There are hundreds of mutual funds in the market, each offering different returns. The investors ... more There are hundreds of mutual funds in the market, each offering different returns. The investors always look at funds which give high returns and have low risk. Thus while making a portfolio the asset management company should make investment allocations where returns are definite and to give justified returns for every rupee the investors pay, considering the different risks. The objective of the study was to find the short-term effects of portfolio allocation on the performance of mutual funds. The data for the study was consisted of the portfolio allocations and the performance statistics of one hundred and fifty-nine open-ended mutual funds, of which fifty were diversified debt/ income funds and one hundred and nine were diversified equity funds. These funds were further classified into different mutual fund schemes. Each of the mutual funds had a different portfolio and investments were made in different instruments like bonds, certificates of deposit, commercial papers, etc. (in case of debt) and in different sectors like technology, chemicals, services, etc. (in case of equity). The findings from the study indicate that, for debt funds, allocation in bonds and government securities tend to impact the performance of the fund, while for equity funds, allocation in engineering, energy, and service sector stocks tend to impact the performance of the fund.
Journal of strategic human resource management, Feb 1, 2018
The present study analyses the costs associated with the recruitment process in Indian informatio... more The present study analyses the costs associated with the recruitment process in Indian information technology companies. Recruitment costs include all the expenditure that organisations make towards hiring candidates as employees, including cost of contacting candidates, travel costs of the human resource unit, the direct and indirect logistics involved, the cost incurred to conduct tests, interviews, and so on. This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it proposes a model for recruitment process costing using the beta distribution, akin to the project evaluation and review technique (PERT) model. Second, it suggests that the overall recruitment process time also follows a beta distribution, due to the high correlation between the sub-process times. The proposed model is used to compare the overall recruitment process times for different target profiles using data collected from a sample of 50 Indian information technology companies.
Journal of commerce and accounting research, Oct 1, 2017
This study analyses the financial performance of Indian banks from three different points of view... more This study analyses the financial performance of Indian banks from three different points of view, viz. that of regulators, investors, and borrowers, using multi-criteria TOPSIS analysis. In particular, the financial performance of public sector banks is compared with that of private sector banks from these three points of view. The results of study show that the three different points of view of banking performance are very consistent with each other. Further, the results of the study clearly indicate that, in the Indian context, private sector banks are performing significantly better than public sector banks, and all of the top-performing banks identified from the TOPSIS analysis are private sector banks. The better performance of private sector banks may be attributed to professional, efficient management, and better customer focus and service; while the worse performance of public sector banks may be partially attributed to lack of professional, efficient management and partially to political interference and constraints.
Asian Journal of Research in Banking and Finance, 2013
Many firms in the service industry face the problem of disparate results in terms of efficiency. ... more Many firms in the service industry face the problem of disparate results in terms of efficiency. This problem is a cause of concern for many big organizations such as banks, hotels, courier companies, and so on. In particular, the last decade has witnessed continuous changes in regulation, technology and competition in the global financial services industry, and Indian banks are no exception. Rising cost-income ratios and declining profitability reflect increased competitive pressure. To assess the stability of the banking system, it is therefore crucial to benchmark the performance of banks operating in India. An efficient banking system contributes in an extensive way to higher economic growth in any country. Thus, studies of banking efficiency are very important for policy makers, industry leaders and many others who are reliant on the banking sector.
This study combines three distinct empirical models of stock returns into a single model: the aut... more This study combines three distinct empirical models of stock returns into a single model: the autoregressive model, which suggests that stock returns are determined by their own past values, the (generalised) autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model, which suggests that stock returns conditional volatility is determined by its past values and by returns shocks, and the day-ofthe-week effect, which suggests that stock returns are higher on particular days of the week (usually Fridays). All three models represent departures from the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), in the sense of proposing a certain degree of predictability in stock returns. The study examines day-of-the-week effects on stock returns and volatility using an AR-GARCH model with day-of-the-week dummy variables for twenty major stocks from the Indian banking sector. The stock price data was collected from the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The study period selected was Apr. 1, 2018 to Mar. 31, 2019, a period of one year.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2018
The book-to-market effect is one of the most widely-studied phenomena in stock returns. It is cha... more The book-to-market effect is one of the most widely-studied phenomena in stock returns. It is characterized by high book-to-market ratio stocks yielding higher returns than low book-to-market ratio stocks, i.e. when stock returns are positively related with book-to-market ratios. The classic Fama-French methodology for analyzing the book-to-market effect involves the comparison of the rates of return of a portfolio consisting of high book-to-market stocks with a portfolio consisting of low book-to-market stocks. The present study contributes to the literature by proposing different methodology for testing the book-to-market effect, viz. fixed-effects panel regression analysis. This study examines the book-to-market effect for banking stocks in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India. The data for the study was collected for a sample of eighteen stocks from the banking industry, for the period 01/04/2004 - 31/03/2014. The measures of stock performance considered in the study were mean returns, standard deviation of returns, beta, and the Sharpe and Treynor ratios. The book-to-market ratio was computed from the annual financial statements of the banks. The analysis was performed using fixed-effects panel regression analysis of stock performance on the book-to-market ratio, controlling for stock-specific and period-specific effects. The results of the study indicate significant negative relationship between the book-to-market ratio and the mean returns, Sharpe ratio, and Treynor ratio, significant positive relationship between the book-to-market ratio and beta, and no significant relationship between the book-to-market ratio and standard deviation of returns.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2016
The role of microfinance institutions is to provide credit to the poor who have no access to comm... more The role of microfinance institutions is to provide credit to the poor who have no access to commercial banks. A major challenge for microfinance institutions is that of financial sustainability, with several of them appearing to be often loss making. Recently, however, there has been a renewed focus on the financial sustainability and efficiency of microfinance institutions, which is essential for the well-being of the financial system in developing countries. This study examines the efficiency of microfinance institutions in India using a modified form of Data Envelopment Analysis. The data for the study was collected on a sample of thirty microfinance institutions in India from the Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX). The results of the analysis indicate the inefficiencies in the microfinance sector.
Attrition/retention of employees has always been a perennial problem for Indian IT/ITeS companies... more Attrition/retention of employees has always been a perennial problem for Indian IT/ITeS companies. Their major challenge is to design their incentives/retention strategies to ensure that they retain qualified professionals with the right mix of skill sets and experience. This study focuses on the factors affecting attrition in the Indian IT majors. Compensation-related factors were identified as the most important factors affecting attrition, followed by career growth factors, job satisfaction factors, and work environment factors. Further, attrition due to work environment factors and attrition due to compensation-related factors were the only factors with significant impact on the attrition rate.
ABSTRACT The present study investigates the technical efficiency of Indian banks, segmented in te... more ABSTRACT The present study investigates the technical efficiency of Indian banks, segmented in terms of ownership. For this purpose, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model was used with five input variables (borrowings, deposits, fixed assets, net worth, and operating expenses) and four output variables (advances and loans, investments, net interest income, and non-interest income), and the efficiency scores were calculated for a sample of 49 major banks operating in India. The findings of the study help in identifying the inputs and outputs that each of the banks would need to control and streamline to enhance their efficiency.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2017
The market portfolio plays a pivotal role in asset pricing. W. Sharpe proposed a model for the ma... more The market portfolio plays a pivotal role in asset pricing. W. Sharpe proposed a model for the market portfolio based on optimizing the excess expected returns to total risk. Unfortunately, empirical studies using Sharpe's model in the CAPM explain asset expected returns only to a moderate extent. The present study proposes a model for the market portfolio which maximally explains expected returns of assets, under a given asset pricing model. This model is compared with five other constructions, viz. the equally-weighted portfolio, the value-weighted portfolio, the maximum returns portfolio, the minimum risk portfolio, and the Sharpe portfolio, in terms of their risk-return properties, the statistical properties of their implied SMLs, and their efficiency.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2018
This study analyses the determinants of capital structure in the Indian pharma sector using poole... more This study analyses the determinants of capital structure in the Indian pharma sector using pooled regression and panel regression modeling. The results of the study suggest that financial leverage in Indian pharma companies is determined primarily by two factors: it is positively related with Non-Debt Tax Shield and negatively related with Profitability. Paradoxically, the former finding supports the Static Trade-Off theory, as companies would prefer debt financing due to its tax benefits, while the latter finding supports the Pecking Order theory, as more profitable companies would prefer internal sources of funds. This could mean that pharma companies would prefer to finance their initial capital expenditure through debt due to its tax advantage, but as they become more profitable they prefer to turn to internal sources. This switch-over behaviour, whereby companies would be expected to switch from financing through debt to retained earnings, should be investigated in further detail, in the pharma sector and in other capital-intensive industries.
Journal of supply chain management systems, May 16, 2011
This study analyses the impact of uncertainty at different points in the textile supply chain, an... more This study analyses the impact of uncertainty at different points in the textile supply chain, and tries to identify the weak points in the supply chain. The design adopted for the study is descriptive in nature, involving primary data collection from a sample of textile units in Bangalore city. The data was collected by interviewing the different textile units about their supply chain practices, the constraints they face in terms of uncertainty, and strategies adopted by them to resolve it. The paper suggests appropriate strategies and solutions to manage the uncertainty that occurs in textile supply chains at various nodes and due to varied reasons.
There has been some improvement in the Indian banking sector after the reforms, and CAMELS framew... more There has been some improvement in the Indian banking sector after the reforms, and CAMELS framework is a natural framework to analyze this improvement. The present study compares the performance of public sector banks with private/foreign banks under the CAMELS framework. The data used for the study were the audited financial statements of a sample of 58 Indian banks for the period 2003-08. The results of the study show that private/foreign banks fared better than public sector banks on most of the CAMELS factors in the study period. The two contributing factors for the better performance of private/foreign banks were Management Soundness and Earnings and Profitability.
The term ‘basic customer service’ encompasses those services that are provided to customers free ... more The term ‘basic customer service’ encompasses those services that are provided to customers free of charge, along with the core product and/or service offering. The concept is similar to that of supplementary customer service, developed by Parashuraman (1998).The primary objectives of the present study are:(1) to examine the characteristics of organisations providing superior basic customer service as opposed to organisations delivering inferior basic customer service, in terms of customer complaint handling systems and culture, and(2) to analyze the impact of such basic customer service on customer loyalty.The study is based on primary data collection using a structured questionnaire from a sample of business organisations in Bangalore, India. The sample companies were elicited from a panel of consumers who were asked to identify organisations providing superior basic customer service as opposed to organisations delivering inferior basic customer service, and what elements distinguished these two groups.Some of the indicative findings are:(1) Organisations providing superior basic customer service had a higher frequency of daily reviewing of customer complaints (56.7%) than organisations delivering inferior basic customer service (46.9%), but this narrows down when considering weekly review (81.7% and 79.7%, respectively). Thus, establishing a proper and timely customer complaint review system would enable organisations to provide superior basic customer service.(2) Organisations providing superior basic customer service had inbuilt corrective processes and/or actions for handling customer complaints (88.3%), as opposed to organisations delivering inferior basic customer service (76.6%). Thus, instituting an inbuilt corrective process for handling customer complaints would definitely provide greater satisfaction to the stakeholders and would thereby enable organisations to provide superior basic customer service.(3) Organisations providing superior basic customer service had a higher frequency of informing customers regarding customer complaint resolution within a day (35.0%) than organisations delivering inferior basic customer service (23.4%), and this gap widens when considering weekly information (58.3% and 42.2%, respectively). Streamlining the process of informing customers on complaint resolution would further enable organisations to provide superior basic customer service.(4) Organisations providing superior basic customer service fostered a customer-centric culture amongst employees, and in many such organisations it was top management’s involvement through periodic review of customer complaints that made the difference. In particular, organisations providing superior basic customer service strongly believe that customer service must be backed with top management commitment, with full employee involvement.(5) Organisations providing superior basic customer service had a higher rate of customer retention (51.83%) than organisations delivering inferior basic customer service (46.33%). Of course, customer retention/repeat purchase varied considerably with core product/service; superior basic customer service contributed to customer retention by providing a solid foundation for customer relationship.The study indicates that systems for frequent reviewing of customer complaints, with inbuilt corrective processes for handling customer complaints, and for providing adequate and timely information to customers on their complaints status, and a customer-centric organisational culture are crucial in delivering superior basic customer service, thereby enhancing customer retention and loyalty.
This study examines the role of cost structure in working capital management for sugar manufactur... more This study examines the role of cost structure in working capital management for sugar manufacturing companies in India. The study uses fixed-effects panel regression models and the sample for the study included fifteen listed sugar manufacturing companies for the period 2008-18. The key results of the study were that employee expenditure has significant positive impact on the current ratio, the payables cycle, and the cash conversion cycle, and significant negative impact on the total assets turnover ratio and the fixed assets turnover ratio and that sales/administrative expenditure has significant positive impact on the total assets turnover ratio, the fixed assets turnover ratio, and the inventory turnover ratio, and significant negative impact on the inventory cycle and the cash conversion cycle. The results suggest that the cost structure variables of employee expenditure and selling/administrative expenditure may play a mediating role between firm-level variables and working capital variables, with direct and indirect effects; whereas the cost structure variables of raw materials expenditure and power/fuel expenditure may not play such a mediating role. These direct and indirect effects may be tested using structural equation methods in subsequent studies.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2014
At the heart of the CAPM lies the concept of systematic risk. The systematic risk of a security i... more At the heart of the CAPM lies the concept of systematic risk. The systematic risk of a security is that component of the total risk of the security that is explained by market risk. This study investigates the econometrics of the CAPM. In particular, it analyses Granger causality from market returns to security returns, the absence of which would weaken the significance of beta, and undermine the foundations of the CAPM.
Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting, Jun 7, 2023
There are hundreds of mutual funds in the market, each offering different returns. The investors ... more There are hundreds of mutual funds in the market, each offering different returns. The investors always look at funds which give high returns and have low risk. Thus while making a portfolio the asset management company should make investment allocations where returns are definite and to give justified returns for every rupee the investors pay, considering the different risks. The objective of the study was to find the short-term effects of portfolio allocation on the performance of mutual funds. The data for the study was consisted of the portfolio allocations and the performance statistics of one hundred and fifty-nine open-ended mutual funds, of which fifty were diversified debt/ income funds and one hundred and nine were diversified equity funds. These funds were further classified into different mutual fund schemes. Each of the mutual funds had a different portfolio and investments were made in different instruments like bonds, certificates of deposit, commercial papers, etc. (in case of debt) and in different sectors like technology, chemicals, services, etc. (in case of equity). The findings from the study indicate that, for debt funds, allocation in bonds and government securities tend to impact the performance of the fund, while for equity funds, allocation in engineering, energy, and service sector stocks tend to impact the performance of the fund.
Journal of strategic human resource management, Feb 1, 2018
The present study analyses the costs associated with the recruitment process in Indian informatio... more The present study analyses the costs associated with the recruitment process in Indian information technology companies. Recruitment costs include all the expenditure that organisations make towards hiring candidates as employees, including cost of contacting candidates, travel costs of the human resource unit, the direct and indirect logistics involved, the cost incurred to conduct tests, interviews, and so on. This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it proposes a model for recruitment process costing using the beta distribution, akin to the project evaluation and review technique (PERT) model. Second, it suggests that the overall recruitment process time also follows a beta distribution, due to the high correlation between the sub-process times. The proposed model is used to compare the overall recruitment process times for different target profiles using data collected from a sample of 50 Indian information technology companies.
Journal of commerce and accounting research, Oct 1, 2017
This study analyses the financial performance of Indian banks from three different points of view... more This study analyses the financial performance of Indian banks from three different points of view, viz. that of regulators, investors, and borrowers, using multi-criteria TOPSIS analysis. In particular, the financial performance of public sector banks is compared with that of private sector banks from these three points of view. The results of study show that the three different points of view of banking performance are very consistent with each other. Further, the results of the study clearly indicate that, in the Indian context, private sector banks are performing significantly better than public sector banks, and all of the top-performing banks identified from the TOPSIS analysis are private sector banks. The better performance of private sector banks may be attributed to professional, efficient management, and better customer focus and service; while the worse performance of public sector banks may be partially attributed to lack of professional, efficient management and partially to political interference and constraints.
Asian Journal of Research in Banking and Finance, 2013
Many firms in the service industry face the problem of disparate results in terms of efficiency. ... more Many firms in the service industry face the problem of disparate results in terms of efficiency. This problem is a cause of concern for many big organizations such as banks, hotels, courier companies, and so on. In particular, the last decade has witnessed continuous changes in regulation, technology and competition in the global financial services industry, and Indian banks are no exception. Rising cost-income ratios and declining profitability reflect increased competitive pressure. To assess the stability of the banking system, it is therefore crucial to benchmark the performance of banks operating in India. An efficient banking system contributes in an extensive way to higher economic growth in any country. Thus, studies of banking efficiency are very important for policy makers, industry leaders and many others who are reliant on the banking sector.
This study combines three distinct empirical models of stock returns into a single model: the aut... more This study combines three distinct empirical models of stock returns into a single model: the autoregressive model, which suggests that stock returns are determined by their own past values, the (generalised) autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model, which suggests that stock returns conditional volatility is determined by its past values and by returns shocks, and the day-ofthe-week effect, which suggests that stock returns are higher on particular days of the week (usually Fridays). All three models represent departures from the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), in the sense of proposing a certain degree of predictability in stock returns. The study examines day-of-the-week effects on stock returns and volatility using an AR-GARCH model with day-of-the-week dummy variables for twenty major stocks from the Indian banking sector. The stock price data was collected from the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The study period selected was Apr. 1, 2018 to Mar. 31, 2019, a period of one year.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2018
The book-to-market effect is one of the most widely-studied phenomena in stock returns. It is cha... more The book-to-market effect is one of the most widely-studied phenomena in stock returns. It is characterized by high book-to-market ratio stocks yielding higher returns than low book-to-market ratio stocks, i.e. when stock returns are positively related with book-to-market ratios. The classic Fama-French methodology for analyzing the book-to-market effect involves the comparison of the rates of return of a portfolio consisting of high book-to-market stocks with a portfolio consisting of low book-to-market stocks. The present study contributes to the literature by proposing different methodology for testing the book-to-market effect, viz. fixed-effects panel regression analysis. This study examines the book-to-market effect for banking stocks in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India. The data for the study was collected for a sample of eighteen stocks from the banking industry, for the period 01/04/2004 - 31/03/2014. The measures of stock performance considered in the study were mean returns, standard deviation of returns, beta, and the Sharpe and Treynor ratios. The book-to-market ratio was computed from the annual financial statements of the banks. The analysis was performed using fixed-effects panel regression analysis of stock performance on the book-to-market ratio, controlling for stock-specific and period-specific effects. The results of the study indicate significant negative relationship between the book-to-market ratio and the mean returns, Sharpe ratio, and Treynor ratio, significant positive relationship between the book-to-market ratio and beta, and no significant relationship between the book-to-market ratio and standard deviation of returns.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2016
The role of microfinance institutions is to provide credit to the poor who have no access to comm... more The role of microfinance institutions is to provide credit to the poor who have no access to commercial banks. A major challenge for microfinance institutions is that of financial sustainability, with several of them appearing to be often loss making. Recently, however, there has been a renewed focus on the financial sustainability and efficiency of microfinance institutions, which is essential for the well-being of the financial system in developing countries. This study examines the efficiency of microfinance institutions in India using a modified form of Data Envelopment Analysis. The data for the study was collected on a sample of thirty microfinance institutions in India from the Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX). The results of the analysis indicate the inefficiencies in the microfinance sector.
Attrition/retention of employees has always been a perennial problem for Indian IT/ITeS companies... more Attrition/retention of employees has always been a perennial problem for Indian IT/ITeS companies. Their major challenge is to design their incentives/retention strategies to ensure that they retain qualified professionals with the right mix of skill sets and experience. This study focuses on the factors affecting attrition in the Indian IT majors. Compensation-related factors were identified as the most important factors affecting attrition, followed by career growth factors, job satisfaction factors, and work environment factors. Further, attrition due to work environment factors and attrition due to compensation-related factors were the only factors with significant impact on the attrition rate.
ABSTRACT The present study investigates the technical efficiency of Indian banks, segmented in te... more ABSTRACT The present study investigates the technical efficiency of Indian banks, segmented in terms of ownership. For this purpose, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model was used with five input variables (borrowings, deposits, fixed assets, net worth, and operating expenses) and four output variables (advances and loans, investments, net interest income, and non-interest income), and the efficiency scores were calculated for a sample of 49 major banks operating in India. The findings of the study help in identifying the inputs and outputs that each of the banks would need to control and streamline to enhance their efficiency.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2017
The market portfolio plays a pivotal role in asset pricing. W. Sharpe proposed a model for the ma... more The market portfolio plays a pivotal role in asset pricing. W. Sharpe proposed a model for the market portfolio based on optimizing the excess expected returns to total risk. Unfortunately, empirical studies using Sharpe's model in the CAPM explain asset expected returns only to a moderate extent. The present study proposes a model for the market portfolio which maximally explains expected returns of assets, under a given asset pricing model. This model is compared with five other constructions, viz. the equally-weighted portfolio, the value-weighted portfolio, the maximum returns portfolio, the minimum risk portfolio, and the Sharpe portfolio, in terms of their risk-return properties, the statistical properties of their implied SMLs, and their efficiency.
Journal of Applied Management and Investments, 2018
This study analyses the determinants of capital structure in the Indian pharma sector using poole... more This study analyses the determinants of capital structure in the Indian pharma sector using pooled regression and panel regression modeling. The results of the study suggest that financial leverage in Indian pharma companies is determined primarily by two factors: it is positively related with Non-Debt Tax Shield and negatively related with Profitability. Paradoxically, the former finding supports the Static Trade-Off theory, as companies would prefer debt financing due to its tax benefits, while the latter finding supports the Pecking Order theory, as more profitable companies would prefer internal sources of funds. This could mean that pharma companies would prefer to finance their initial capital expenditure through debt due to its tax advantage, but as they become more profitable they prefer to turn to internal sources. This switch-over behaviour, whereby companies would be expected to switch from financing through debt to retained earnings, should be investigated in further detail, in the pharma sector and in other capital-intensive industries.
Journal of supply chain management systems, May 16, 2011
This study analyses the impact of uncertainty at different points in the textile supply chain, an... more This study analyses the impact of uncertainty at different points in the textile supply chain, and tries to identify the weak points in the supply chain. The design adopted for the study is descriptive in nature, involving primary data collection from a sample of textile units in Bangalore city. The data was collected by interviewing the different textile units about their supply chain practices, the constraints they face in terms of uncertainty, and strategies adopted by them to resolve it. The paper suggests appropriate strategies and solutions to manage the uncertainty that occurs in textile supply chains at various nodes and due to varied reasons.
There has been some improvement in the Indian banking sector after the reforms, and CAMELS framew... more There has been some improvement in the Indian banking sector after the reforms, and CAMELS framework is a natural framework to analyze this improvement. The present study compares the performance of public sector banks with private/foreign banks under the CAMELS framework. The data used for the study were the audited financial statements of a sample of 58 Indian banks for the period 2003-08. The results of the study show that private/foreign banks fared better than public sector banks on most of the CAMELS factors in the study period. The two contributing factors for the better performance of private/foreign banks were Management Soundness and Earnings and Profitability.
The term ‘basic customer service’ encompasses those services that are provided to customers free ... more The term ‘basic customer service’ encompasses those services that are provided to customers free of charge, along with the core product and/or service offering. The concept is similar to that of supplementary customer service, developed by Parashuraman (1998).The primary objectives of the present study are:(1) to examine the characteristics of organisations providing superior basic customer service as opposed to organisations delivering inferior basic customer service, in terms of customer complaint handling systems and culture, and(2) to analyze the impact of such basic customer service on customer loyalty.The study is based on primary data collection using a structured questionnaire from a sample of business organisations in Bangalore, India. The sample companies were elicited from a panel of consumers who were asked to identify organisations providing superior basic customer service as opposed to organisations delivering inferior basic customer service, and what elements distinguished these two groups.Some of the indicative findings are:(1) Organisations providing superior basic customer service had a higher frequency of daily reviewing of customer complaints (56.7%) than organisations delivering inferior basic customer service (46.9%), but this narrows down when considering weekly review (81.7% and 79.7%, respectively). Thus, establishing a proper and timely customer complaint review system would enable organisations to provide superior basic customer service.(2) Organisations providing superior basic customer service had inbuilt corrective processes and/or actions for handling customer complaints (88.3%), as opposed to organisations delivering inferior basic customer service (76.6%). Thus, instituting an inbuilt corrective process for handling customer complaints would definitely provide greater satisfaction to the stakeholders and would thereby enable organisations to provide superior basic customer service.(3) Organisations providing superior basic customer service had a higher frequency of informing customers regarding customer complaint resolution within a day (35.0%) than organisations delivering inferior basic customer service (23.4%), and this gap widens when considering weekly information (58.3% and 42.2%, respectively). Streamlining the process of informing customers on complaint resolution would further enable organisations to provide superior basic customer service.(4) Organisations providing superior basic customer service fostered a customer-centric culture amongst employees, and in many such organisations it was top management’s involvement through periodic review of customer complaints that made the difference. In particular, organisations providing superior basic customer service strongly believe that customer service must be backed with top management commitment, with full employee involvement.(5) Organisations providing superior basic customer service had a higher rate of customer retention (51.83%) than organisations delivering inferior basic customer service (46.33%). Of course, customer retention/repeat purchase varied considerably with core product/service; superior basic customer service contributed to customer retention by providing a solid foundation for customer relationship.The study indicates that systems for frequent reviewing of customer complaints, with inbuilt corrective processes for handling customer complaints, and for providing adequate and timely information to customers on their complaints status, and a customer-centric organisational culture are crucial in delivering superior basic customer service, thereby enhancing customer retention and loyalty.
Uploads
Papers by mihir dash