It is important to understand why an activity creates value when making decisions on pushing growth or earnings, or both, as revealed by many popular episodes in global economy. The dynamics of unearthing the sources of value hidden in the corporate portfolio is very significant, and while doing so, it is found that senior management, who rely on high-level metrics to manage, miss the potential sources of value creation. As such, the phenomenon of value creation through various managerial functions and strategic initiatives has become the subject matter for research in recent times, and certainly, the myths around it need to be resolved. Precisely, the process of institution building happened to be the sole responsibility of top management, and it comes into the limelight for achieving the objective of value creation through a diversified portfolio. The implications of value chain management in any organization are profound, and this becomes very evident in small and medium enterprises, manifested in successful HR practices. Hence, the focus on promoting organizational citizenship behaviors also figures prominently in this regard. The current issue devotes considerable space to these trends.

The success of any organization certainly depends on its strength and vitality displayed in terms of its transformation as an institution, and this process of institution building is a mammoth task before the founders at any time. There is no doubt that the longevity of an institution draws strength not only from the philosophy cherished by its founders, but also from the modalities adopted in making or building the institution through an objective framework. The first paper, “Institution Building: Experiences, Lessons and Challenges”, by Kavil Ramachandran, is a reflection on the various complexities and contingencies to be tackled for an effective institution-building process.

Realizing the value of encouraging employee participation in the organization development process, many thinkers have stressed the relevance of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) that play a predominant role in terms of achieving the goals set by the management. As such, thought building on extending the spirit of this citizenship behavior to the realm of customer service is being attempted by many researchers in recent times. Further, echoing the need for developing research on linking these two different phenomenon, Y L N Kumar, in the second paper, “Importance of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in Enhancing Customer Service Indicators: A Review”, brings to light the necessity of managing customer satisfaction through employee satisfaction.

Having seen six decades of industrial progress in India, many felt that there is a long way to go before achieving a balanced growth model with due emphasis on the development of small and medium enterprises. The productivity factor in small and medium enterprises is extensively studied from the perspective of Cobb-Douglas production function, aimed at resolving many issues between labor management and capital management. In the third paper, “Productivity in Small and Medium Enterprises of India: A Cobb-Douglas Production Function Approach”, the author, Niharika Joshi Bhatt, points to the need for achieving optimization through various operational techniques.

The fact that the Indian retailing sector’s growth potential is still untapped as revealed by many studies makes us understand its potential to emerge as a growth engine of our economy. The evolution of marketing strategies, moving away from product innovation to that of effective sales management, relies on visual merchandising. In the fourth paper, “The Role of Visual Merchandising in Apparel Purchase Decision”, the author, M Krishnakumar, sheds light on how to capture the changing emotions of consumers with regard to the apparel segment.

There is a growing diversity in terms of identifying the contribution of Human Resource Management (HRM) policies towards organizational growth and development and precisely more in the context of small and medium enterprises. The transaction orientation is still identified as the major plank of HR professionals rather than as a transformation agenda before them. In the fifth paper, “A Comparative Study of the HRM Practices in Small and Medium Enterprises”, the author, Sameer Sudhakar Pingle, has made a significant attempt at identifying the flaws in the HRM system.

India and China, as the emerging superpowers of the modern times, are subject to criticism from many quarters, and some have called the whole thing an exaggerated picture of development process in the region. Tarun Khanna’s book, Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours, is a reflection on the core argument with regard to the wealth creation phenomenon in Asia. Laxman D Satya’s review of this book equally strengthens the argument against crony capitalism and its repercussions.

-- Radha Mohan Chebolu
Consulting Editor