Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers

The paper reviews campus-based executive development programmes, the reasons why companies prefer them, and how their benefits can be accentuated.

“The whole in a nutshell ! ” That is Frontiers of management research abroad. To expose Indian readers. to management research abroad we present in this feature jargon free summaries of recent research published in some of the world's leading management journals. These capsule summaries would, we hope, induce the enthusiastic readers to still wider reading. And also,to contribute to this feature themselves.

Readers are requested to give detailed information regarding the article condensed such as its publication details, etc., to Professor Samir Barua.

There is much ignorance even among advertising professionals as to how an ad creates or fails to create a favourable selling climate for the product advertised. Two Calcutta-based samples, one of 100 advertising executives and the other of 160 graduate students, were utilized to identify 10 drafts of an ad that may contribute most to its effectiveness. Based on these drafts, a flowchart for assessing the potential effectiveness of an ad is developed.

Perspectives presents abstracts of select articles by well-known practitioners and academicians. Readers are welcome to contribute their own thought-provoking pieces or those of others that they have come across.

The paper reviews the performance budgeting system adopted by nationalized banks in the seventies. Based on a questionnaire and interview survey of over 100 branch managers of four public sector banks, the study identifies some of the strengths and weaknesses of the branch level performance budget settlement process as it is practised, and provides a number of suggestions for improvement.

Vikalpa welcomes readers to contribute reviews of books of particular relevance to management issues in developing societies. Please send your contributions to Professor Rushikesh Maru.

Innovative management features brief accounts of novel, off-beat management. These are accounts of creatively managed organizations or of innovative handling of management issues.

As for the others, we invite contributions and comments from readers for this feature too.

The purpose of these abstracts is to provide reference facilities in the management field. These abstracts have been sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research.

These abstracts cover books and articles on empirical studies, experiences of people involved in the management process, and concepts and theories based on Indian data and environment written by Indian or foreign authors and published in India or abroad.

The following areas of management are covered :

Financial Management, Management Accounting, and Control (FM)

Marketing (M)

Organization and Administration (OA)

Personnel Management and Industrial Relations (PMIR)

Production Management, Computers, and Operations

Research (PMCOR)

General Management : Environment, Policy, and Planning (GM)

Policy, Planning, and Development (PPD)

Books and articles published after January 1974 are covered in Vikalpa. Abstracts of publications between 1970 and 1973 have been published in two volumes by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. For reprint of articles abstracted in Vikalpa please contact the original journals. For further details please write to Professor Shekhar Chaudhuri.