Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers

In the context of the liberalization of the economy, telecommunication has become an important infrastructure which can really catalyse growth. What are the factors that drive the growth of the telecom sector? According to N. Vittal, technology, political will, judicial activism, and market dynamics are the four significant factors that will help in the country's leap forward strategy to catch up with gobal telecom services in terms of density and quality.

This study is a partial replication of an earlier study by Davis who studied the dimensions of marital roles in consumer decision-making in the planned purchase of two major consumer goods – automobiles and furniture. The original study was conducted in the late 1960s in Chicago whereas this study examines husband-wife roles in consumer family decisions in the Indian context (for the same products – automobiles and furniture). Despite significant differences in the timing of the two studies and also in the cultural and social contexts in India and the US, this study finds the pattern of relative influence of husband and wife in important purchase decisions to be essentially similar to that of Davis.

Efficient running of an enterprise in the present day liberalized scenario assumes considerable significance and better utilization of existing capacities is an important indicator of the health of an enterprise.

In this paper, P S Mohanakumar evaluates the inter-sectoral differences in capacity utilization based on data relating to 21 spinning mills in Kerala. He also identifies the main reasons for underutilization of capacity which are absenteeism, power problems, unscheduled breakdowns, and obsolete machinery.

This paper presents a simulation model of fruit movement from orchards in Himachal Pradesh to the market of Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Delhi. Daily arrivals in Delhi as predicted by the model are compared with the data on actual arrivals from records maintained at APMC. The comparisons appear satisfactory.

The results suggest that the system dynamic modelling approach is promising and, with some refinement, can provide an analytical support for those engaged in formulation of policies to improve the post-harvest systems of fruit industry.

The case featured in this issue depicts a situation enmeshed in several organizational and systems problems with behaviourial manifestations. Mr Basak is addressing the problem of non-receipt of two vital equipments on time due to which drilling operations of an Oil Company in the public sector had to be suspended causing financial and non-financial losses.

While familiarizing the readers with the organizational reality where pinpointing of a problem situation is often difficult, the case raises a few important issues: Is it possible for an individual to tide over multiple organizational constraints with innovation, patience and tact and is advancement always through questioning the existing way of doing things?

Readers are invited to send their responses on the case to Vikalpa Office.

The July-September 1996 issue of Vikalpa had carried a Management Case titled “Who is the Loser? A Case Study of Career Management” by Sanjiv K Gambhir and Kanika T Bhal. In this issue, we are featuring diagnoses of this case by Mukul S Vasavada, A Monappa, TV Rao, R N Goyal and Kirit Goyal.

Based on the responses of 132 executives of a large public sector heavy engineering organization located in Karnataka, this study attempts to analyse the major factors that are conductive to the development of HRD climate and concludes that early identification of human resource potential and development of skill are the two major tasks of HRD.

This section features abstracts of articles covering empirical studies, experiences, ideas, and theories published in Indian and international journals. Sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, this service in intended to facilitate Indian management research.

Authors desirous of having their publications considered for inclusion in this feature may please send reprints of their articles to Vikalpa Editorial Office.