The Journal of IMIS - Institute of Management and Information Science

The Journal of IMIS
Volume 11, No.1, January-June 2011 ISSN 0972-5466
Articles & Papers
HEMANT KASSEAN
TD JUWAHEER
Perspectives on CSR from Mauritius –An Emerging
Economy.
7 -23
MAYA KHEMLANI DAVID
Extracting Discourse Norms from Novels. 24 -32
FEROZ AHMED
TANIA JALAL
MD. REAZ UDDIN
Challenges Faced By Working Women in Bangladesh-
A Study on Khulna City.
33 -39
ANUKOOL M. HYDE
K. AGRAWAL
HEENA JAIN
Performance Management in Retail Sector in India -
An Empirical Study.
40 -58
NISHITH DUBEY
IRA BAPNA
ANUSHRUTI NEEMA
HITESH J. SHUKLA
JEENAL DEVANI
Intruders Altering the Perception of Customers in the
Life Insurance Sector of India – A Comparative
Empirical Study between Public & Private Life
Insurance Companies.
A Study on the Determinants of Equity Prices in the
Stock Markets in India.
59-65
66-72
In Focus
BISWAJIT JENA
Online Retailing In India: Where Does it Stand
75-79
Book Review
KISHORE CHANDRA PADHY Corporation Bank: A Corporate Journey, Mangalore, 2006 83-84

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Editorial
Dear Readers
1990s saw globalization becoming a buzzword that appeared to dominate political, popular, and academic
discourse. It is now difficult to read a newspaper or a book, watch the television, surf the Internet, or participate
in a demonstration without coming across references to how 'globalization' is affecting our lives. Globalization,
it seems, is variously blamed and credited for an incredibly wide range of phenomena. Social problems ranging
from famine to floods, from pollution to poverty, and from rural depopulation to urban overcrowding are commonly
cited examples of the many invidious effects of globalization on social welfare. Conversely, globalization is
trumpeted as being central to many developmental successes, such as poverty reduction, increasing economic
prosperity, better services, and enhanced concern with human rights. Even those who are skeptical of the benefits
globalization has brought so far may point to the ways in which it has the potential to transform political,
economic, and social relations within and between countries to the benefit of human welfare worldwide.
A globalization perspective not only 'stretches' the scope of our field of enquiry to recognize the variety of
welfare arrangements that exist worldwide and the ways in which 'national' systems are deeply interconnected;
it also challenges us to rethink theoretical and conceptual constructs. Academic work has only recently begun on
'globalizing' the bodies of sociological, political, philosophical, and economic theory that informed explanations
of national social policy and welfare state development. What has been described as globalization is in fact only
one possible variant of globalization - the neo-liberal one, described by Chomsky (2000) as 'a particular form of
globalization, that has been instituted by state and corporate power, with primacy given to the rights of investors,
financial institutions and so on, and with people being incidental'. For these reasons globalization is perhaps
most often used to denote profound transformations to capitalism over the past several decades, including the
opening up of non-capitalist countries and markets to capitalist values, institutions, and social relations.
Looking at the above arrangement, we need to start stimulating academic bodies for a larger understanding of
social implications of globalization.
Dr. K. K. Beuria
Chief Editor

Chief Editor
Pratibimba, Volume 11, Issue 1.
Dr. K. K. Beuria
Advisor & Senior Professor ( General Management & HRM )
Institute of Management and Information Science, Bhubaneswar
Executive Editor
Dr. Dindayal Swain
Marketing and Retail Area
Institute of Management and Information Science, Bhubaneswar
Editorial Advisory Board
P. D. Thomas
Director, XITE, Ex-Director, XLRI, Jamshedpur
Dr. Tapan K. Panda
Former Professor, IIM, Indore
H. K. Patnaik
Director General, Institute of Management and Information Science, Bhubaneswar
Dr. K. C. Padhy
Director, Institute of Management and Information Science, Bhubaneswar
Editorial Review Board
Mr. Arvind Acharya
Prof. Avinandan Mukherjee
Dr. Bhaba Krishna Mohanty
Dr. C. Panduranga Bhatta
Prof. S. Panda
Dr. J. Mohapatra
Dr. Jishnu Hazra
Madhabananda Das
Dr. S. Moharana
Mr. Subrat Nayak
Dr. Swarup Chandra Sahoo
IDC Ltd., Bhubaneswar
Nanyang Business School of the
Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore.
IIM Lucknow
IIM Kolkata
IMIS, Bhubaneswar
Former Professor Sambalpur University
IIM Banglore
ISKON, Bhubaneswar
Proressor Utkal University
Technology Solutions Dialogos Inc., Boston,
USA
Former professor (Mktg.), Utkal University,
Bhubaneswar
Kindly note : The views and factual claims expressed in individual contributions
are personal to the respective contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the
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Section
ARTICLES & PAPERS

Perspectives on CSR from Mauritius -an
Emerging Economy
Authors
HEMANT KASSEAN 1
TD JUWAHEER 2
Abstract
Purpose - To determine the overall CSR practice in Mauritian private and public sector companies.
CSR, a complex concept, encompassing an ever-widening range of issues has been evolving
over the past decade. CSR has broadened its scope to include not only aspects of corporate
conduct that impinge on social, environmental and human rights issues, but also the role of
business in relation to poverty reduction in the developing world. Evidence from literature,
however shows a predominance of perspectives from an American and European multinational
companies, NGOs, governments, trade unions and academics, with very few from developing
nations. This paper has a research objective in increasing knowledge about what constitutes
CSR in emerging markets, with Mauritius as a case.
Design/methodology/approach - A sample of 100 companies from the Top 100 companies' were
chosen to participate in a face to face interview which was carried out over a period of 4 weeks.
Findings - The majority of the companies are involved in CSR activities. Key areas of CSR
involvement: Donation to welfare organisations, Sponsorships (NGOs, sports, district council,
Environment Protection schemes, Health and Safety Programs e.g. health alertness campaigns).
Benefits for involvement in CSR activities were in terms of enhanced corporate image, good
relationship between company and society, credibility towards stakeholders. Limitations:
measurement of the true impact of CSR initiatives have not been carried out.
Keywords: CSR, Small Island Developing State, Benefits, Impact
Introduction
CSR a complex concept, encompassing an everwidening
range of issues - is evolving. CSR has
broadened its scope to include not only aspects of
corporate conduct that impinge on social,
environmental and human rights issues, but also the
role of business in relation to poverty reduction in the
developing world (Prieto-Carrón, M et al 2005). So
far, the debate has been dominated by perspectives of
American and European multinational companies,
NGOs, governments, trade unions and academics (Fox,
2004).
Another, somewhat related driver behind the
interest in emerging markets has been the idea that
CSR, as a ‘western’ concept, which by definition may
not be directly applicable elsewhere, and needs
separate investigation (Logsdon, et al 2006). This,
gives a somewhat different perspective than the
traditional assumption that CSR implementation
1
Department of Management, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius
2
Department of Management, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS, Volume : 11, Issue :1, January - June 2011, Pages 7 -23
©
Copyright 2009, Institute of Management & Information Science, Bhubaneswar

outside developed countries lag behind because of
other priorities (Singh and Zammit, 2004), a lack of
access to technologies (Christmann and Taylor, 2001)
or weaker systems for implementation (UNRISD,
2003). In considering CSR in new/other settings,
however, it must be noted that different notions and
backgrounds of CSR (Katz et al., 1999) do not
necessarily translate into concomitant differences in
CSR performance. It can therefore be argued that even
if values and perceptions of CSR vary, it may still be
the case that when it comes to implementation, similar
practices are being followed, or that different
approaches nevertheless lead to comparable outcomes.
This would therefore mean that the traditional and most
commonly studied CSR issue deserves further
attention, in order to include other dimensions and
expand beyond the western environment. In this way,
more insight can be gained into the extent to which
CSR performance in emerging markets actually differs,
regardless of the origins and context-specificity of the
CSR concept.
Research of this kind however has been lacking,
which may partly be due to the fact that actual
implementation of CSR broadly, is relatively new in
emerging economies. The concept as such is certainly
not new (Carroll, 1999), but does not have a universally
accepted definition of this concept among authors,
therefore, implementation of this concept,
measurement of CSR and its impact have been rather
limited. We believe the debate should be broadened
by incorporating, perspectives that reflect experiences
from developing countries as well - and that if CSR
initiatives are to be legitimate, their content and
implementation should be adapted to the particular
country or region in which they are taking place. In this
paper, we hope to incorporate our insights from Mauritius,
an emerging economy into the debate on CSR.
Literature review
Research publications that have investigated CSR
in emerging markets are relatively few. Husted and
Allen (2006) and Muller (2006) have explored CSR
among MNE subsidiaries in Mexico, but say little
about the applicability of their conclusions to the
strategies (or performance) of local companies. Those
studies that do explicitly consider local companies tend
to be explorative in that they assume CSR strategies
to be determined by the local context as opposed to
being expressions of a more broadly applicable concept
(Logsdon et al., 2006, for Mexico; and
Kraisornsuthasinee and Swierczek, 2006, for
Thailand). The emerging country context is assumed
to be a distinct setting for CSR due to differences in
value systems or the institutional environment, which
are assumed to manifest themselves in two ways: (1)
differences in the type of CSR activities (with some
being more prevalent than others), and (2) differences
in CSR level (performance). So far, there has been only
a few research publications that have systematically
investigated the type of CSR activities undertaken by
local firms in emerging markets. Vives (2006) provides
interesting insights on the importance of specific CSR
behaviours to management through his large-scale
survey of small- and medium enterprises (SMEs) in
eight Latin American countries, but did not actually
measure CSR activities or performance. Logsdon et
al. (2006) discussed attitudes towards CSR in three
large Mexican companies, considering the historical
and cultural roots that may shape such attitudes. Some
studies on CSR reporting have considered the types
of activities mentioned by companies in emerging
markets either in their CSR reports on corporate
websites (Chapple and Moon, 2005) referred briefly
to general developments in Asia, Latin America, Russia
and Africa, and reported actual figures only for South
Africa, where disclosure has progressed most, amongst
local companies and MNE subsidiaries. Their analysis
of the Fortune Global 250 included a limited number
of the largest emerging-market MNEs as well.
Similarly, OECD (2005) also explored CSR disclosure
by some of the largest emerging-market MNEs. In the
case of Chapple and Moon (2005) it is unclear to what
extent the companies in their sample are domestic or
MNE subsidiaries, or both. They selected a sample of
companies in seven Asian countries (India, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and
Thailand) using total revenues as the selection criteria.
Utting (2003) Reed and Reed (2004) have argued
that the potential and limitations of CSR initiatives in
the developing world should be assessed and that any
CSR initiative should not just benefit companies
financially but also benefit workers and communities
socially and environmentally. They suggest the
following themes be investigated (1) the ideological
or ideational underpinnings of CSR; (2) which issues
are included or excluded from CSR debates; (3) the
absence of gender, class and race perspectives from
CSR debates and initiatives; (4) actual as opposed to
postulated effects of CSR actions; and (5) the inclusion
of a range of guiding principles in relation to
regulations, profit strategies, governance and political
responsibilities.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 8

CSR – case of Mauritius
A survey conducted by Deloitte in 2008, in
Mauritius, found that CSR is not yet embedded in the
corporate culture in Mauritius. Companies still
indulged in sponsorship and philanthropy, or else carry
out activities with a social objective on a rather adhoc
basis. However, CSR is emerging as a priority for
businesses in Mauritius. The first quarter in 2008 has
been marked with various organisations engaging in
CSR. The study reveals that while CSR is gaining
momentum among organisations in Mauritius and
Rodrigues, it is not being done in a systematic and
formal manner. Only a few organisations adopt a
formal approach and structure to launch and manage
social projects. This is a key issue for authorities to
address in order to improve the state of CSR in
Mauritius and Rodrigues. The survey has revealed the
following:
• Corporate Mauritius intervenes in a number of
areas for CSR activities. Popular thematic areas
are: education, health and quality of life,
environment and sustainable development,
poverty alleviation, community development
and sports.
• There is general lack of information (about the
area of focus, about NGOs activities in such
areas, government assistance in such areas, etc).
The more companies wish to intervene in one
area, the greater the lack of information they
face. The two main areas where companies have
reported lack of information are education and
environment and quality of life.
• Companies have demonstrated interest in
partnering up with other stakeholders in the
future in a number of thematic areas among
which the following come first: education,
environment and sustainable development,
health and quality of life, poverty alleviation
and community development.
• Large organisations carry out philanthropy in
the following areas: health and safety,
education, and community (mainly sports).
• Sponsorship by large companies are mainly in
sports and education.
It was difficult however, to assess whether this
study was from a representative sample of industries
from Mauritius and whether the results could be
generalised.
Ragodoo (2009) in a survey conducted among
the 100 top companies in Mauritius found that firms
are willing to help in creating a better society whether
through financial or non-monetary means but they do
have the resources to do so. Only 11 per cent of CSR
funds are devoted to the fight against poverty. He
argued that there is a need to set the priorities and to
coordinate these efforts. He also found a lack of active
involvement of business leaders and public figures
which are needed to create the momentum for setting
poverty alleviation as a top-priority of our social
agenda. In our view, on how business can contribute
to poverty reduction suffers from a serious
shortcoming. The term ‘poverty’ has been used but not
clearly defined. These findings are however in line
with Prahalad (2005) who argues that business can help
eradicate poverty through profit-making, while Kolk
and Tulder (2006) also outline a methodology for
assessing whether corporate policies contribute to
reducing poverty but they both have not clearly
defined what they mean by poverty.
Although the importance of CSR is recognized
by the Code of Corporate Governance in Mauritius,
practice of CSR so far has been poor in Mauritius.
More than half of the 100 top companies in Mauritius
show a turn over of over Rs 1 Billion. The combined
profits of these100 top companies, according to
Business magazine, has reached Rs 23 Billion, as
compared to Rs 15 Billion in 2006 (MEF workshop,
2009). This implies that Mauritius has been good for
business and that it would be fair that the companies
put more of the proceeds of their success back into
society. Nonetheless, it was found that, companies
attached little importance to CSR. Thus, on a social
front, recognizing the poor level of corporate
citizenship in Mauritius, CSR has been embodied in
the Finance Act 2009 by the Government. All
registered companies are now legally bound to endorse
CSR and give effect to it by setting up, yearly, a CSR
Fund equivalent to 2% of their book profit derived
during their preceding year with the aim of
contributing to the social and environmental
development of the country. The major controversy of
this policy is that it neglects the fundamental
observation that the evolution to good corporate social
responsibility must be voluntary. Paradoxically, the
Government itself stated clearly in the budget brief
2009 that CSR specifically refers to voluntary
initiatives that go beyond mere compliance with
legislation in a diverse range of social, environmental
and economic areas (MEF, 2009). But, by imposing
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 9

the CSR legal obligation, the former is forcing
companies to adopt CSR practices when it should have
been something coming from within. The CSR levy of
2 per cent will continue to evoke much passion, interest
and controversy in the near future.
Methodology
Face-to-face interviews with the key participants
was conducted using a standardized questionnaire we
developed. Each interview, conducted by an interviewer,
sought to confirm and update the available documented
records as well as provide information on practice of CSR
at their company’s level. Five interviewers were selected
by the researchers based on their previous experience in
conducting community surveys and their demonstrated
understanding of the study protocol and how to correctly
administer the study questionnaire. The interviewers were
local University students trained in the study protocol,
including study aims.
Except for the 1% of the respondents who are
not involved in CSR activities because of their poor
financial position, the majority i.e 99% of the
respondents are involved in and committed to CSR
activities. This is because on one hand, it forms part
of the company values and on the other hand,
companies operating in oil or construction industries,
have to comply with legal requirements for health and
safety of their employees and the community around.
Fig 2 Mauritian Organisations’
Definition of CSR
A sample of 100 Top companies were chosen, as
illustrated in the table below: Table 1. The response
rate was 75% for 100 Top companies and the data
collection took place during 4 weeks of Feb 2007.
Top 100 companies’ Survey
Company List
No. of Companies
Top 100 Company 100
Listing 2006
No. of Respondents 75
Response Rate 75%
Table 1: Sample size and response rate
Fig 1 Mauritian Organisations’
involvement / Commitment to CSR
Figure 2: Definition of CSR
Figure 2 shows six main definitions of CSR,
which were outlined by the respondents of this research
survey:
• 61.3% of the respondents describe CSR as being
the ‘involvement of a company in community,
social and environment matter with the aim of
contributing to social and employee welfare’
• 21.3% argue that CSR is the ‘code of ethics
which is within the company policies’
• 18.7% of companies believe that CSR is the
‘responsibilities that go beyond the economic
factor of an organization’
• 13.3% feel that CSR ‘brings value to society by
doing partnering sustainable activities’
• 12% are of the view that it is the ‘sharing of
one’s profit with the society’
Figure 1: Involvement in CSR activites
• 6.7% feel that CSR is the ‘code of ethics which
goes beyond the law’
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 10

Fig 3 Organisation’s Sector of Activity
From the respondents interviewed, the majority
(26%) operate in the Manufacturing sector, 16% in
Commercial sector, 15% operate either in Banking &
Insurance sector or Hotels & Restaurants sector, 9%
Figure 3: Sector of Activity
Fig 4 Reasons behind involvement in CSR Activities
in Transport & Communication sector. While 8% of
respondents belong to the Construction sector, 7% in
Sugar Industry sector and the remaining 4% operate
in Education, health and social work sectors.
Figure 4 Reasons for Involvement in CSR Activities
The majority of the respondents (44%) explained
that their involvement in CSR activities is mostly
motivated by the fact that it is “to contribute to the
development of society in general”. 37.3% describe
their motivation by the fact that ‘it forms part of the
company value and policies’. 25.3% are involved in
CSR activities in order to contribute to the welfare of
employee; 24% want to be considered as a good
corporate citizen whereas 16% want to enhance their
image by indulging in CSR activities. 12% are
motivated by CSR activities as they represent
sustainable development with long term implications.
The remaining 10.7% were involved in CSR activities,
because it was mandatory by international law and their
clients’ exigencies.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 11

Fig 5 Involvement of Companies in Areas of CSR
Figure 5: Areas of CSR activities Involved
The main areas of CSR where the respondents
are involved are mostly:
1. ‘Sponsoring’ 65.3%;
2. ‘Education’ 56%,
3. ‘Health and safety’ 48%,
4. ‘Environment’ 46.7%,
5. ‘Welfare of employee’ 29.3% and,
6. 17.3% for ‘Culture’, which are mostly religious
celebrations and protection of historical
building.
Sponsoring activities are mostly for sports, NGO
activities, district council and religious celebrations.
Fig 6 Education / Training of Employees about CSR activities
Figure 6: Staff Educated/Trained about CSR Activities
73% of the respondents have educated their staff
or apprised them of the importance of CSR activities
and 17% have not done so. For those who have
apprised their staff, reasons have been mainly due to
the fact that CSR activities form part of their
company’s value and culture.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 12

The training methods used by those companies
to develop awareness of CSR are:
• Communication through company’s newsletter,
Intranet, company’s magazine
• In-house training house
• Seminar on health and safety: Aids, protection
measure
The CSR programs that are implemented within
the organizations are:
• Setting up of clubs to encourage employees to
do social work ( tuition in ZEP school)
• Offer expertise to NGOs
• Promote voluntarism among the employees
• Fundraising activities
• Training program for employees
• Creation of a staff committee
• Investment in bio-diversity and biodegradable
products
All these activities are being set for the welfare
of employees and the society in general.
Fig 7 Factors affecting attitudes towards
CSR Practice
The factors that influence most the organization’s
attitudes towards CSR are essentially, in descending
order, as follows:
• The companies’ value and culture – part of its
policies (42.7%)
• The managerial awareness of the need for social
involvement (32%)
• The law (25%)
• The contribution of the company towards the
society (24%)
• The company reputation towards its
stakeholders (22.7%),
• The corporate image (21.3%)
• Win-win situation: indirect benefit generated to
the company (16%)
• Globalisation – to be more competitive (12%)
• Pressure from international clients (10.8%), and
• Marketing tool (5.3%).
Figure 7: Factors Influencing Attitudes towards CSR
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 13

Among these factors, the one that influences
these organizations most ie by 42.7% is its value and
culture. As it has been observed before, companies
have implemented a code of ethics within its policies.
It is to be noted that only 5.3% of them believe that
CSR is a marketing tool. These are companies that
have identified CSR as being a good communication
tool that increase the awareness of their products and
services to the general public. All these factors stated
by the respondents show that their companies are
concerned about CSR and they consider it as a key
asset for their development and competitive advantage.
Table 2 Other ways to promote CSR
Activities within the organisation
Furthermore, the following table shows the other
CSR activities that the respondents are presently
involved in to encourage the CSR practice, as regards
to the Mauritian context:
Yes
No
Clean Energy 66% 23%
Beneficial Products & Services 77% 25%
Pollution Prevention 67% 22%
Recycling Hazardous Waste 49% 29%
Ozone Depleting Chemicals 42% 40%
Substantial Emissions 26% 33%
Agricultural Chemicals 30% 43%
Climate Change 41% 39%
Some of the respondents are not directly
concerned about some of these activities stated above
because of the nature of their sector where they are
operating. They do participate in these activities only
when it is needed, that is, when a national campaign
is being launched for these activities.
Table 2: Promoting other CSR activities
Fig 8 Amount of money allocated to CSR Activities
The others activities where the respondents are
involved are:
• Protection of historical buildings
• Health: Chikungunya National Prevention
campaign
• Waste Water Management issues
Fig 8 Amount of Money Allocated to CSR Activities
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 14

Most of the respondents (63%) allocate less than
10% of the annual budget for CSR activities, 21%
allocate no specific budget for CSR activities as it all
depends upon project. Only three companies allocate
1% of the group annual profits to CSR activities.
Fig 9 Ways CSR Activities brings
profitability to organisations
There are many ways that have been stated by
the respondents regarding benefits that may accrue due
to CSR practices. 40% of them believe that CSR
activities enhance their image, whereas 26.7% of them
consider it as a way to foster the relationship between
the company and the society in general. It also brings
credibility towards their stakeholders. 22.7% of
companies argue that it enhances goodwill vis-à-vis
the society through social stability and its
development. 17.3% of them believe that, it is a
marketing tool as it contributes to the choice of
consumer. 14.7% argue that it adds value to the
company. 13.3% of them consider also that CSR makes
employees more productive and 9.3% feel that it is a
way to acquire competitive advantage. Only 4%
believe that it increases goodwill for the company’s
products and 1.7% view CSR as a long-term
investment.
Figure 9: Ways CSR bring profit to Organisation
New Tax policies and their implications
With the new tax policies, 12% of the respondents
argued that this would affect the amount that they spent
on CSR activities, whereas 88% felt that they are not
affected about it. For those who believe that CSR will
be affected by the new tax policies, the main reason
evoked is that the donation could not be deducted with
the new tax policies.
Figure 10: Would new tax policy affect the amount spent on CSR activities?
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 15

The other comments that the respondents
provided are:
• Government should review the new tax policies
as many Non-Governmental Organisations
(NGOs) are having financial problems because
of reduced funding from companies.
• Government should educate the public sector
to better understand the concept of CSR as it is
not clearly understood.
• CSR is a new emerging concept and it will take
time to be fully implemented.
• There is no structured approach about CSR
programmes and implementation.
• CSR should be framed within companies’
policies.
• Private sector should be more involved in CSR
activities.
• There should be legal and mandatory
requirements to enforce corporate bodies to
allocate a budget for CSR activities.
Figure 11 and table 3 illustrate the various definitions of CSR provided by the
respondents across the various sector of activity.
CSR Definitions:
Responsibilities of company going
beyond the economic factor of
organization
To share part of one’s profit with the society
Code of ethics within the company policies
Code of ethics going beyond the law
Involvement of company in community,
social and environment
matter aiming to contribute to social
and employee welfare
Bring value to society by doing
sustainable partnering activities
Code:
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
Table 3 – Definition of CSR by Sector of
Activity
Fig 11: CSR Definition by Sector of
Activity
In Fig 11, above, CSR has been mostly defined
(100%) as a ‘code of ethics which goes beyond the
law’ in the ‘Sugar’, ‘Transport & Communication’,
‘Manufacturing’ and ‘Education, Health & Social
work’ sectors. The reason is due to the fact that there
is historical partnership that exists between the
surrounding community and the companies operating
in these sectors. Secondly, these sectors depend highly
on international norms of operation which are
sometimes beyond domestic law and which allow them
to be more competitive in the international market.
Nowadays international clients are more likely to trade
with companies which are highly CSR oriented.
Table 4 Reasons behind involvement in
CSR Activities by sector
Respondents suggested many reasons so as to
justify their involvement in CSR activities. For the
analysis purposes, respondents’ reasons have been
codified in Table 12 which illustrates the reasons
behind the involvement in CSR activities by ‘Sector
of Activity’.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 16

Figure 12 & Table 5 illustrate the different reasons behind involvement in CSR
activities across sector of activity.
Reasons behind involvement
in CSR activities:
To contribute to welfare of employee
To contribute to development of society
in general
Forms part of company value and policies
To be a good corporate citizen
To enhance company image
Is a sustainable development achievable
in long term
Is mandatory by international law and clients
Code:
B1
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
B7
Fig 12: Involvement in CSR Activities by
Sector
According to Figure 13 ‘to enhance the company
image’ was the reason that was mostly outlined (100%)
in the ‘Commercial’, ‘Sugar industry’ and ‘Education,
Health and Social Work’ sectors for their involvement
in CSR activities. This is so, because in the
‘Commercial’ and ‘Education, Health and Social Work’
sectors, these companies are marketing services and
Table 5 - Reasons behind Involvement in
CSR Activities by Sector of Activity
their involvement in CSR activities highly enhances
their image for their products and services.
On the other hand, respondents operating in ‘Hotels
and restaurants’ sector are mostly motivated by the
fact that CSR activities are part of sustainable
development that are achievable in the long term.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 17

These companies invest mostly in training and
development of their employees as well as the
development of their surrounding environment.
International law and clients had also urged
companies operating in the ‘Construction’ sector to
be involved in CSR activities. The compelling reason
is that these companies have international
requirements, which they should respect for the
safety and security of their clients.
Table 6 Factors affecting attitudes
towards CSR Practice by sector
Many factors have been outlined by respondents
concerning the attitudes to towards CSR practice. For
the analysis purposes, respondents’ factors have been
codified in Table 6, which shows the factors affecting
attitudes towards CSR practice by ‘Sector of Activity’.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 18

Figure 14 and table 7 illustrate the different factors that affect attitudes towards
CSR practice across sector of activity.
Fig 14: Factors affecting attitude towards CSR Practice by sector
Factors affecting CSR practice:
Contribution of company towards society
Part of company value and culture
Law (EIA, ISO 14001)
Managerial awareness of need for
social involvement
Corporate image
Code:
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
Marketing tools
Company reputation towards its
stakeholders
Globalization: to be more competitive
Win-win situation: indirect benefit to
company
Pressure from international clients
Table 7– Factors affecting attitudes towards CSR Practice by Sector of Activity
Fig 14 shows that apart those operating in the
‘Transport and Communication’ sector, executives’
attitudes towards CSR are influenced by their ‘CSR’s
integration in the company’s value and culture’. On
the other hand, most companies did not consider CR
Practice as a marketing tool as it has the lowest ratings.
The fact is that CSR activities in Mauritius are not yet
associated to marketing activities. ‘Managerial
awareness of need for social involvement’ is also one
of the factors that influence the attitudes of respondents
towards CSR irrespective of their sector of operation,
except for the ‘Education, Health and Social Work’
sector. Hence, it can be deduced that management’s
attitude is important in considering CSR as a business
or marketing practice.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 19
C6
C7
C8
C9
C10

Table 8 Ways that CSR Activities can
increase the profitability of their
organisation by Sector of Activities
Respondents have mentioned many ways on how
CSR activities bring profit to their organisation. For
the analysis purposes, respondents’ ways have been
codified in Table 6. Table 6 demonstrates different
ways CSR activities bring profit to organisation by
‘Sector of Activity’.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 20

Figure 15 and Table 9 illustrate the different ways mentioned by respondents on how
CSR activities bring profit to organisation across sector of activity.
Fig 15: Ways that CSR activities benefit organizations by Sector
Ways:
Foster relationship between company and society in general
Credibility towards stakeholders
Goodwill for the market
Enhance corporate image
Long term investment benefit
Marketing tool: trust of customers and influence choice of consumers
Employees more productive
Add value to company
Goodwill of the society through social stability and its development
Acquire competitive advantage
Code:
D1
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
D7
D8
D9
D10
Table 9- Ways that CSR Activities can increase the profitability of organisation by Sector of Activity
‘To enhance ‘corporate image’ is the most
common way of increasing reward for organisations
according to all respondents except those operating in
‘Commerce’, ‘Hotels and restaurants’, ‘Sugar’ and
‘Education, Health & Social Work’ sectors. For some
of these sectors, that is, ‘Sugar’ and ‘Education, Health
& Social Work’, corporate image is not ‘as important’
as it is in the other sectors. The main reason is that
companies operating in ‘Education, Health & Social
Work’ sector are para-statal companies and enhancing
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 21

their image is not their targeted objective in doing CSR
activities. For them, the goodwill of the society through
social stability and its development paves the way for
profitability rather than enhancing corporate image.
For companies operating in ‘Sugar industry’ sector,
corporate image does not help them to market their
products as international bodies decide on the pricing
strategy.
Concluding remarks
Through this paper, we have presented evidence
that firms in Mauritius participate in donation and the
extent of such participation. The survey has shown that
executive managers in Mauritius use ‘Corporate Social
Responsibility’ as a source of business success in
marketing their activities. Companies in Mauritius
invest money on CSR activities whether it is for
sponsorship, education or environment. More and
more companies are becoming aware of the benefits
that CSR activities may bring to them in the long run.
With the new tax policy prevailing in Mauritius, 88%
felt that they are not affected, whilst the remaining
12% indicated that they have reduced the budget
allocated to CSR activities. We argue that there is a
pressing need for a critical investigation of the
potential and limitations of CSR initiatives in
developing countries. In particular, we suggest that
researchers and practitioners pay attention to issues
such as who is recognized or overlooked in CSR
interventions, which issues are addressed or not
touched upon, what is measured (compliance or
impact), and what works in one place as opposed to
another.
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on CSR and development: what we know,
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***
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 23

Extracting Discourse Norms From Novels
Author
It can be argued that literature represents social reality. The symbiotic relationship
between literary works and authentic interactions opens the door to cross-cultural
communication. Therefore reading various literary texts will help readers enrich their
cultural knowledge and understand other cultures. A range of literary texts are selected
to exemplify this connection between talk in these literary texts and the understanding
of a range of speech acts across cultures. The speech acts include greetings, requests,
and compliments performed in various cultures. Examples of the various forms of each
of these speech acts will be provided. Such practices are culturally bound and provide
readers a wide, rich and interesting cultural experience. Learning the discourse norms
of other cultures through literary texts is pedagogically practical and beneficial. The
methodology will be exemplified and the advantages of using such texts discussed.
Key Words: Culture, Discourse, Novels
MAYA KHEMLANI DAVID 1
Abstract
Introduction
Culture is viewed and understood differently in
various contexts. Consequently, it does not have a
single definition but multiple definitions in different
contexts such as language, arts and sciences, thought,
spirituality, social activity, and interactions. In the
context of interaction, culture is defined as the social
aspects of human contact, including the give-and-take
of socialization, negotiation, protocol, and conventions
(Definition of Culture, 2001). Culture in interactions
follows certain conventions which are said to be
socially constructed. The communication or interaction
even in a certain culture would still vary depending
whether the type of communication is classified as
high-context or low-context. In high-context
communication, most of the information exists in the
context, is internalized in the people communicating,
or is found in the physical context.
Malaysia and the Malay community more
specifically, have been said to be a community where
the message has to be inferred as it is generally in
indirect mode (Omar, 1995). In low-context
communication, most of the information lies in explicit
codes (Hall, 1976, 1983). Communication is more
direct in such cultures. Samovar and Porter (2004)
remind us, “Each human being is unique and shaped
by countless factors, culture being but one of them”
(p. 24).
The relationship of culture, language and
communication needs to be understood in order to
provide a clearer view as to how culture influences
language and communication or vice versa. According
to Clark and Ivanic (1991) that language forms cannot
be considered independently of the ways they are used
to communicate in context. Further, individual acts of
communication in context cannot be considered
independently of the social forces which have set up
the conventions of appropriacy for that context. (p.170)
For language teachers it is essential to see culture
as integrated at all levels of language. In learning and
teaching cultures through the literary texts in English
1
Faculty of Languages and Linguistics University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS, Volume : 11, Issue :1, January - June 2011, Pages 24 -32
©
Copyright 2009, Institute of Management & Information Science, Bhubaneswar

equires teachers to realise the importance of
pragmatics in understanding a range of essential speech
acts as performed or enacted or realized in different
cultures. As pragmatics engages teachers in the
everyday world of cross-cultural communication,
teaching and learning languages, issues of
empowerment in institutional settings, and more, it is
important to examine the role of pragmatics in issues
like speech acts so as to raise learners’ awareness in
the classroom of real time interaction.
With the emergence of more and more non-native
speakers of English, with the growth of more and more
multilingual societies, with internationalization and
globalization, it is vital to integrate cultural norms with
language teaching (see Liddicoat,1997). In fact,
according to Locastro, (2006) a foreign language
environment explicitly raises the need for a
comprehensive understanding of pragmatics and its
importance in developing language proficiency.
According to Lazar (2007) reading literature in English
helps learners become fully aware of the social,
political and historical events which provide
background knowledge to a particular literary text.
In this paper it is argued that cultural awareness
as reflected in language can be triggered by the teacher
through the use of culturally appropriate material
culled from a number of texts which focus on any one
speech act. With the emergence of globalization, it is
essential for students to be aware of the various
cultures around the world. Visiting all countries can
perhaps be impossible for many people. However, it
is possible to learn about different cultures and
different cultural norms by reading a range of literary
texts set in different cultural backgrounds.
One of the important variables that is affected
by culture is speech acts. Differences in accepted
norms of behaviour are generally reflected in speech
acts. A speech act is the function performed by our
utterances. For instance greetings (David 2004a),
complimenting (David, 1999); disagreement (see
Jariah and David 1996); requests (David, Kuang and
Don 2002 and Kuang, C.H., David and Don 2006);
directives (David and Kuang 1999) and even obituaries
(David and Yong, 2002) are all examples of speech
acts. The way a speech act is performed in any given
language can be very culture specific (Schmidt and
Richards, 1980; Wierzbicka, 1985). Culture-specific
speech acts necessitate a familiarity with the value
systems of the interlocutors in the interaction. Speech
acts differ cross-culturally in their distribution,
function and frequency of occurrence. Learners of
English must be made consciously aware of the
differences in certain speech acts when used by a native
speaker of English and by second language learners
of the language (see also David, 2003, 2004). In an
earlier research we showed how texts (see David and
Norazit, 1996) can be used to open the Muslim world
to non-Muslim students) and cultural capsules were
extracted from the text to make learners aware of the
differences in certain speech acts albeit in English,
when used by native speaker(s) of English.
Discourse and Texts
Compliments
David (1999) shows how differences in the
pragmatic and sociolinguistic behaviour of native (NS)
and non-native speakers (NNS) vis-a vis compliment
giving and receiving can be used by the language
teacher as a basis for raising consciousness of the
culturally different ways of giving and receiving
compliments. Compliments, like apologies are
primarily aimed at maintaining, enhancing, anointing
or supporting the addressee’s “face” (Goffman 1967)
and are generally regarded as positive politeness
strategies.
Extracts culled from a novel Bicycle Days where
a young American stays with a Japanese host family
in Tokyo show a number of compliments by the young
American to a number of speakers, both Japanese and
Americans. The Japanese hostess on being told by the
young American guest that her food was good
responded by saying, “Eat” and elsewhere she diverted
the compliment by saying that her husband helped her
with the cooking. In contrast, a young American friend
who had been complimented by the young American
protagonist responded by merely saying, “Thank you”
(see David, 1999). The responses, however, vary and
the extracts clearly indicate that in some cultures an
acceptance of the compliment is the norm, while in
other cultures an acceptance would signify an
infringement of cultural norms.
Information about differences in the pragmatic
and sociolinguistic behaviour of NS and NNS vis-àvis
compliment giving and receiving can be used by
the language teacher as a basis for comparison since
there are culturally different ways of responding to
compliments. In some cultures like the Philippines and
Malaysia, an acceptance would signify some
derogatory comments about the compliment receiver
and the norm is to deny or negate the compliment. In
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 25

discourse with the native speaker of English “thank
you” is more often than not an expression of gratitude
made in response to a compliment and is an adjunct to
the function of complimenting. Data of native speaker
responses from a comparative study on native and nonnative
responses indicate that native speakers
responded to compliments by an expression of thanks,
followed by either a redundant question, “Do you like
it?” or by expressing pleasure “I’m glad you like it”
(Eisentein and Bodman, 1986, p.171).
The responses of native and non-native speakers
to compliments are therefore different and the
“correctness” or appropriacy or politeness of the
response depends on the socio-pragmatic rules of
language use. “To be polite is saying the socially
acceptable thing” says Lakoff, 1975, p. 53. In some
cultures it would not do to respond with a “Thank You”
for this would mean that one was openly
acknowledging the fact, for example, that one was
pretty, had a handsome husband, etc. A westerneducated
Malaysian colleague whose first language is
English and who protested that she only responded
with “thanks” to compliments was observed to provide
more clarification and elaboration after the initial
thanks. She would say, “Thanks. I felt like a change,”
when complimented on a nice sari.
There are not only different ways of responding
to compliments but the number of times people
compliment, the kinds of things people compliment
and the words they use to compliment differ from
culture to culture (see David, 1999). For example, it
will not do to compliment Malaysian Indian (Tamil)
babies for being pretty, for this, it is believed by this
ethnic group, will result in bad luck. This is because,
the values and cultural norms underlying the English
language which a non-native speaker uses, are not
necessarily the same as those of a native speaker.
Raising students’ awareness of these cultural
differences resulting in varying responses to
compliments will help to improve the communicative
competence of language learners. Examples of spoken
discourse culled from a range of texts can be used as
teaching input which act as a catalyst to a discussion
on cross-cultural differences in the speech act of
complimenting.
Disagreement in interactions
Disagreement in interactions can be interpreted
differently in various cultures. People from different
cultures may perceive it either positively or negatively.
Disagreement becomes positive when a speaker
interprets disagreeing as a way of showing that he or
she understands and is interested in the interaction.
However, utterances of disagreement can sometimes
be perceived as undesirable reactions among native
speakers of English and can be considered
discomforting (Pomerantz, 1984; García, 1989).
Generally, disagreeing can be perceived negatively
among speakers in most cultures. Consequently,
disagreement is seen as a face-threatening act. Even
in interactions among friends, they are reluctant and
hesitant to express disagreement as it reflects
unsupportive reaction (Beebe & Takahashi, 1989). It
is therefore essential that speakers understand that
disagreement can be expressed in different ways so as
to minimize misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Methodology
The paper analyses data from three literary books.
The first is by Amy Tan and is entitled The Kitchen
God’s Wife (1991); the second by Jhumapa Lahiri’s
(2008) entitled Unaccustomed Earth and the third is
The Minfong Ho Collection ( 2010). The texts analyzed
in this paper have been culled from the the
aforementioned books.
A total of six (4) speech acts are discussed. They
are disagreement, greeting, request,and
compliments(giving and responding).
Results
It is evident that Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife,
Jhumapa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth, Minfong Ho’s
The Minfong Ho Collection present various speech acts
which include disagreement, greetings, closings, giving
and receiving compliments, and requesting. It is evident
that speech acts are culturally bound. For instance, the
way people greet, disagree, give and receive
compliments, make a request and close a conversation
may vary from one culture to another. It is essential for
educators to teach students how cultures vary and how
to avoid problems in intercultural interactions.
Disagreement
Disagreement can be expressed different- directly
and indirectly. Even more so the range of directness
and indirectness varies due to a number of variables
like the interlocutors, their relationship, educational
level, gender, and cultural norms. Lexical choices,
sentence structure and the manner of disagreeing
varies.. The following examples are taken from the
texts selected.and reflect the various ways of showing
disagreement.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 26

Example 1
“Um,” “So can’t you get out of it?,” and “Um-nh” (Tan, 1991: 8
Their father was stooped underneath the house, mending the chicken coop again. “You promise, Kwai?” (Ho,
2010:47)
“I don’t have to promise anything, Sister,” Kwai retorted, and sprinted ahead of her to greet his father. (Ho,
2010:47)
“Is Buddhism of no use to anybody?” the old monk asked coldly. (Ho, 2010:47)
“Dawan sucked in her breath and hung her head: she knew she had offended the abbot with her unthinking
protests. Not daring to look up at him, she faltered, “I, I didn’t mean that, sir.” Her voice was low and hesitant,
“I just meant that I wanted to know how to cure sick people, or to help set up a new order where farmers would
own their own land – we have to pay much rent now, sir – or …” (Ho, 2010:61).
‘I … I’ve always said that the decision was yours,’ Ned said. (Ho, 2010:160)
‘Really? I thought, just a few days ago, you were telling me I had less spirit than a buffalo,’ Inthorn said. (Ho,
2010:160)
Jinda stiffened. ‘There are many others who can give speeches better than I could,’ she said. ‘You don’t need me
in Bangkok for that.’ (Ho, 2010:185)
“What do you think, Nea?” I asked her. “Is it a magic marble?” (Ho, 2010:354)
Nea weighed the marble in her hand before answering. “Maybe it wouldn’t have been magic for someone else,
but you were brave and patient, Dara, and you believed in the marble, so maybe the magic worked for you.”
(Ho, 2010:354)
“I was thinking about Sarun,” Jantu said. “Do you really think he’ll be ready to leave with this caravan?” (Ho,
2010:379)
“I don’t see why not,” I said. (Ho, 2010:379)
“ Don’t you, Dara? Listen.” She gestured in the direction our families had just gone, toward the parade ground.
(Ho, 2010: 379)
Example 1 shows the various ways of
disagreement from different cultural backgrounds. It
is evident that both verbal and non-verbal cues can be
used to show disagreement. In addition disagreement
was also performed directly and indirectly. In the
excerpt “I don’t have to promise anything, Sister,”
Kwai retorted, and sprinted ahead of her to greet his
father”and ‘Really? I thought, just a few days ago,
you were telling me I had less spirit than a buffalo,’
Inthorn said” show how the speaker disagreed
directly. Disagreement can also be performed
indirectly like “”I was thinking about Sarun,” Jantu
said. “Do you really think he’ll be ready to leave with
this caravan?” which suggests though not directly that
Sarun is not ready yet. This took the form of a question.
It is also evident from the example that the use
of “Um, So you can’t get out of it, Um-nh” are some
of the responses used by people to disagree.
Disagreement can be verbal like a direct statement
which shows disagreement, it can be expressed through
the use of some back-channeling devices like “um,
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 27

huh” and non-verbal markers like the movement of
the eyes and other parts of the body.
Greeting
Greetings can be performed in various ways. It
can range from verbal expressions like “hi, hello, how
are you?” to non-verbals like “smiling, nodding and
shaking hands.” The following extracts in Example 2
taken from the texts demonstrate the various ways of
greeting others.
Example 2
Although we have not seen each other since Christmas, almost a month ago, we do none of the casual hugs and
kisses Phil and I exchange when we see his parents and friends. Instead, my mother walks out from around the
counter, muttering, “ Can you imagine? That man is cheating me! Tried to charge me for extra-rush delivery.”
(Tan, 1991: 16)
“Pearl! Phil! There you are,” It’s my cousin Mary. I haven’t seen her in the two years since she and Doug moved
to Los Angeles. (Tan, 1991: 20)
“You look terrific!” she tells me, and then she looks at Phil. “Really, both of you. Just sensational. (Tan, 1991:
20)
“How’s my favorite cuz? Bao-bao says to me from across the table, then gives me a toast with his up-raised
champagne glass. “Lookin” good. I like the hair, short, nice. Mimi, what do you think of Pearl’s haircut? Nice,
huh?” (Tan, 1991: 31)
“Hey, Phil, bro’,” Bao-bao calls, pouring more champagne. “You put on a few pounds, I see. The good life’s been
good. (Tan, 1991: 31)
My mother is dry-eyed. “Why so late?” she asks crossly. “I told them to wait until you came.” (Tan, 1991: 41)
Old Aunt stroked my cheek many times, telling me, “Ai! Ai! Look at you, pale and thin! And this little boy, it can’t
be – your son, so big already?” (Tan, 1991: 427)
She was pulling my hair, pinching my cheek, shouting, “Look at you! Finally you’ve come! Why did you wait so
long?” (Tan, 1991: 444)
Your father called her Lau Tai Po, “Old Lady.” In China, if you called someone Old Lady, you were being
respectful, very polite. In this country, people say, “Hey, old lady! Watch where you’re going!” They’re not being
respectful. I see the looks on their faces, mean. (Tan, 1991: 466)
At that moment I hear the rustle of chiffon and satin. Auntie Helen claps her hand on my back. “Enough to eat?”
she says, surveying the disaster on our table. There are mounds of food still sitting in serving dishes. (Tan, 1991:
520).
Example 2 shows how greetings are expressed
by people in different cultures. Greetings can be
expressed verbally like “You look terrific!” she tells
me, and then she looks at Phil. “Really, both of you.
Just sensational and “Hey, Phil, bro’,” Bao-bao calls,
pouring more champagne. “You put on a few pounds,
I see. The good life’s been good. The greeting is direct.
However, in other cultures, greetings can be performed
through non-verbal acts like Although we have not seen
each other since Christmas, almost a month ago, we
do none of the casual hugs and kisses Phil and I
exchange when we see his parents and friends. Instead,
my mother walks out from around the counter,
muttering, “ Can you imagine? That man is cheating
me! Tried to charge me for extra-rush delivery.”
Hugging and kissing can be very common to people
from some cultures as a form of greeting.. Sometimes
there are no utterances or the use of any words but the
action would demonstrate a greeting.
Greetings are important as they express phatic
communication. Greetings can be done to initiate a
conversation or to just simply recognize the presence
of another speaker. One may be considered rude for
not initiating greetings.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 28

Request
Making a request can be a face-threatening act
to both the requestor and the requestee. Requests can
be made directly or indirectly depending on how it is
practiced in a certain culture. Being direct or indirect
might be perceived positively or negatively depending
on the speakers’ cultural orientation. Teachers can
expose their students to some literary pieces that would
show cultural differences in the performance of this
speech act as shown in the following examples culled
from the texts described..
Example 3
One time his car was broken down, and he called me, so nice and polite: “Oh, Auntie, I haven’t seen you for a
long time. Oh, Auntie, how is your health? Good, good. Oh, Auntie, please let me borrow your car for an
important job interview.” (Tan, 1991: 85)
My mother pokes Phil’s arm. “You should get her one of these,” she says, nodding toward the back of a woman’s
full-length mink coat .
“It’s not politically correct,” says Phil with a grin .
“She would be warm,” says my mother .
“She would be in trouble.”
“She would be warm,” insists my mother. (Tan, 1991:517)
“Go ahead and eat,” Ruma would say, but her mother, trained all her life to serve her husband first, would
never consider such a thing. (Jhumapa Lahiri)
Sir,” I called out, “about that piece of chicken…”
“Yes, yes,” he said impatiently. “Take it.”
“Thank you, sir” I said. “But could we have some rice with it, too please?”
He laughed, a deep throaty sound. “Anything else you want, Dara?” he said. (Ho, 2010: 344)
Example 3 shows how making a request varies in
various cultures. Some cultures interpret direct requests
as impolite but in other cultures they are perceived to be
polite. Some examples from the literary texts illustrate
the directness in making requests when in other cultures
like One time his car was broken down, and he called
me, so nice and polite: “Oh, Auntie, I haven’t seen you
for a long time. Oh, Auntie, how is your health? Good,
good. Oh, Auntie, please let me borrow your car for an
important job interview.” and My mother pokes Phil’s
arm. “You should get her one of these,” she says, nodding
toward the back of a woman’s full-length mink coat . On
the other hand, indirectness in making a request is also
evident from the examples like He laughed, a deep throaty
sound. “Anything else you want, Dara?” he said. From
this example there is no direct utterance of the request
but the listener noticed that the other speaker is requesting
something because of the throaty laugh.
Giving compliments
One has to be careful when giving compliments
as suggested by the first example below. And in fact
some cultures consider an acceptance of compliment
as a form of bragging of oneself. In many Asian
countries giving a compliment is sometimes taken
negatively instead of positively.
Example 4
“This dish – even my mother could not make it better.”
I scolded him. “You can never say such things about your own mother!” His face turned red. “Sister,” he said,
“excuse my bad manners.” The he ate two more dumplings and said in the same quite voice, “Better than my
own mother’s.” (Tan, 1991: 251)
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 29

And Jimmy Louie said, “You see how strong you are?”
I said, “This is not being strong. I have no more strength to fight him. Sometimes I don’t know how I can live
another day with him.” (Tan, 1991: 443)
“You’ll have friends from your village who’ll be glad to help,” Nea said.
“Strong friends. Pretty ones, too.”
“I think I have a friend right here,” Sarun said, “who’s stronger and much prettier than anyone back home.”
“It’s a good village,” Sarun was saying, his voice soft and warm. “At the edge of Tonle Sap lake, where the soil
is black and moist. Our harvests are good, and there’s plenty of fish fresh from the lake.” He paused and smiled
at Nea. “You’d like it there,” he said.
Nea started to walk away. “How can you be so sure that I’d like it there?” she asked, looking over her shoulder
at my brother. (Ho, 2010:300)
“There’s only one way to find out,” Sarun said, walking after her. “Come with me, when we go home.” (Ho,
2010:300)
Example 4 shows how compliments are given in
various cultures. However, it reveals that there is
something in common in giving compliments in which
a positive appreciation of things and person’s
characteristics are highlighted. For example, “This
dish – even my mother could not make it better.” and
“I think I have a friend right here,” Sarun said, “who’s
stronger and much prettier than anyone back home.”
Responding to compliments
Compliments can be taken positively when it is
sincerely given by the speaker. However, it can also
be taken negatively when it is sarcastically made.
Exposing students to the various ways of responding
to compliments would help in improving the
communication skills of individual. In the educational
setting, students must be aware on how people respond
to various compliments. It is therefore essential to
know when to give compliments and when not to.
The following extracts demonstrate how
responses to compliments are performed in various
cultures.
Example 5
And one time we were visiting, drinking tea. I said, ‘Ah, good tea!’ same as always. This time, Grand Auntie
went to her kitchen, brought back the tea. She told me, ‘Syau ning, you take this tea now.’
“I said , ‘No, no! I wasn’t saying this to hint.’ And she said, ‘Syau ning, you take this now so I can see how
happy you are to receive it while I am still alive. Some things can’t wait until I’m dead.’ (Tan, 1991: 57)
“Kung Silor is right,” he said. “You’ve got spirit.”
I smiled, but I knew it was actually the magic that Jantu had put in the marble. (Ho, 2010: 344)
Example 5 shows that receiving compliments vary from culture to culture. In some cultures accepting a compliment
is interpreted negatively while in other cultures they positively accept the compliments given. Negation seems
common in Asian culture and it is also evident in the text like “I said , ‘No, no! I wasn’t saying this to hint.’ And
she said, ‘Syau ning, you take this now so I can see how happy you are to receive it while I am still alive. Some
things can’t wait until I’m dead.’ Compliments are also accepted positively like I smiled, but I knew it was actually
the magic that Jantu had put in the marble.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 30

Closing
Closing can be a common speech act where
speakers would like to put an end in a conversation.
In ending a conversation can sometimes be difficult
for most Asians because of the idea that closing a
conversation would mean that the other speaker may
not like the conversation.
The following texts show some examples as to
how closing in a conversation is done in various
cultures.
Example 6
“Well, nice seeing you again, Pearl. Catch you later, Auntie.” (Tan, 1991: 51)
“Bye-bye, Ha-bu!” they each say. “We love you.” “Next time you come,” my mother says to the girls, “I make
potstickers. And you can eat moon cakes for Chinese New Year’s.” (Tan, 1991: 55)
“Grand Auntie’s tea, I gave you some,” my mother says. “ Don’t need to use too much. Just keep adding water.
The flavor always comes back.” (Tan, 1991: 63)
“It is time we leave. I understand much better now why you have returned to live in the village. But,” she paused,
then asked Noi awkwardly, “I suppose there’s no chance, since you feel this way about City life that you would
help Dawan convince her father she should go to study there?” (Ho, 2010: 41)
“Then, as Dawan still hesitated, her grandmother gave her another light push and said, “Go now, child.” (Ho,
2010: 97)
“Solemnly her grandmother tied a knot on the thread bracelet. The strand of cotton looked very white against his
brown arm. ‘Bless you, child,’ she said. ‘And come back soon.’ She got up then, and walked back into the kitchen.
(Ho, 2010: 184)
Example 6 shows how closings are performed in
different cultures. Sometimes ending a conversation
is a difficult task for some because it might signal that
the other speaker is not interested in the interaction.
In closing the interaction, some leave takings or verbal
cues are commonly used like “Bye-bye, Ha-bu!” they
each say. “We love you.” “Next time you come,” my
mother says to the girls, “I make potstickers. And you
can eat moon cakes for Chinese New Year’s.” and
“Well, nice seeing you again, Pearl. Catch you later,
Auntie.”
Conclusion
The different speech acts like disagreement,
greetings, making requests, giving and receiving
compliments and closing vary in different cultures. It
is evident from the data that different speech acts are
found in most literary texts. Exposing students to
various ethnic and cultural backgrounds can be done
even within the four corners of the classroom. Through
exposure to various speech acts from various cultures
by using dialogues culled from literary texts, teachers
or language instructors, can show students how to
perform specific speech acts in different settings.
Learners will be made aware of the varying
conventions that need to be observed when dealing
with people from various cultures.
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Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 31

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***
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 32

Challenges Faced by Working Women in
Bangladesh - A Study on Khulna City
Authors
FEROZ AHMED 1
TANIA JALAL 2
MD. REAZ UDDIN 3
Abstract
An attempt has been made in this study to identify working environment of female
employees in Bangladesh. This study was carried out within Khulna City of Bangladesh
which covered mainly the Bank, Insurance, MNCs, and Govt. organizations located in
Khulna city. A set of structured questionnaire which included both closed and open
ended questions were used to collect data from the targeted group. This study identified
that female employees are discriminated in case of promotion and taking leaves
especially in case of maternity leave. This study also found that there is no day care
center or feeding room at the office for the mother officials. The female employees are
also dissatisfied with fresh room facility and their sitting arrangements.
Keywords: Working, Women, Discrimination and Promotion.
Introduction
There are approximately 55 million women in
Bangladesh, relatively half of the entire population
of country. They contribute substantially to their
households. But today’s sky rocketing cost of
living, increasing expenses on education of
children, increasing cost of housing properties force
them to look for ways and means of increasing the
household income. Consequently, women in
Bangladesh who were mostly known as
homemakers are entering into different jobs and
take up even careers that were considered only
suitable for men. They are left with no option but
to fend for their families in all possible ways.
Working women in our country face more
challenges than their counterparts. In our country
men do not share on most of the household chores.
Women look after daily household chores like
cooking, cleaning, getting children ready for school
etc. The major burden of running the family is on
the shoulders of women. With their increasing need
for getting some income for the family, now they
work harder. They take up a 9 to 5 job plus handle
all the household chores. They also handle
harassments at their work place. Sometimes they
just over look things to ensure that their job is not
jeopardized in anyway.
Many families are still living as joint families
along with the parents and in-laws. This adds to
their stress further because they need to please all
the family members. Listening complaints made
against her; they just turn deaf ears towards them
and so on. Majority of women hope that things will
1
Professor Business Administration Discipline Khulna University.
2
Independent Researcher of Khulna.
3
Lecturer Business Administration Discipline Khulna University.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS, Volume : 11, Issue :1, January - June 2011, Pages 33 -39
©
Copyright 2009, Institute of Management & Information Science, Bhubaneswar

change. Some have given up the hope and learnt to
accept that nothing can be done about it. Bangladesh
has a long way to go before our women will be able
to live their lives to the fullest.
Literature review
Bangladesh is one of the highly density
country of the world. Out of its total population,
48.9 percent that means almost half of its total
population is women. This country’s development
depends on the participation of women in its social
as well economic activities. But women are
vulnerable in every in Bangladesh (Islam and
Sultana, 2006). Women in Bangladesh quite often
encounter more obstacles than men in workplaces
and are treated unequally in their terms and
conditions of employment (BILS, 2009).
Bangladesh has the lowest rate of women’s
employment in South Asia (World Bank Report,
2008). According to Bangladesh Bureau of
Statistics (2008), civilian labor force of the country
is 49.5 million of which 47.4 million is employed.
Among 47.4 million employed workforce, male are
36.1 million, while females are 11.3 million.
Women participation in the labor market has
increased during the mid-1980s (Mahtab, 2007).
Participation has increased sharply from 8% in FY
1984 to 29% in FY 2006 (Morshed and Jahan,
2008). At present women participation in workforce
in Bangladesh is 31.5 (Bangladesh Bureau of
Statistics, 2010). Women all over the world are
facing sexual and gender related violence every
single day in their lives. (Star Campus, 2010). In
the study by Naved et al (2006), 32 percent of
working women in Dhaka, 23 percent in Matlab
reported work disruption as a consequence of
physical violence by husband, about 50 percent of
working women reported that they frequently
suffered on leave. Bhuiya et al (2003) found that
32 percent of women working outside their homes
experienced disruption of work due to incidents of
domestic violence.
Women in Bangladesh face many challenges
in workplaces. Mahtab (2007) identified two major
problems faced by every woman. One is gender
discrimination and another is sexual harassment.
Islam (1997) identified several problems like lack
of separate rest room, place for prayer, separate
canteen, inadequate transportation facility. BILS
(2009) in a study identified problems like wage
discrimination, health hazard, sexual harassment,
no legal protection, depriving of human rights,
vulnerable lives. It is also commented that most of
the women worker work without maternity benefits,
retrenchment benefit, provident fund money and
health facilities.
Methodology
The study was carried out to find out working
environment of women employees and to find out
the problems women employees face in their
working position in Bangladesh. This study covers
various organizations of Bangladesh such as Bank
(public and private), Insurance, various
Multinational companies, Health complex, NGO’s
etc in Khulna city. Total 100 working women were
selected randomly for the study and among them
40 from Banks, 10 from Govt. Organization, 15
from NGOs, 15 from Multinational Company, and
20 form other Organizations. A structured
questionnaire was designed for the survey. A 5 point
Likert Scale was used for analysis. An open ended
questionnaire was also used to collect particular
information like demographic issues.
Data analysis
Data processing includes compiling, editing,
coding, classification, tabulation and graphical
representation. In case of data analysis and
interpretation, descriptive statistical tools such as
Weighted Mean Value (WMV), frequency,
percentage etc. have been used. Data have been
interpreted mainly from two perspectives;
percentage and Weighted Mean Value (WMV). By
using WMV aggregate standing of the respondents
towards a specific statement or question is shown.
The following formula have been used to determine
Weighted Mean Value (WMV),
Where “x i
” represents Likert Scale values and “f i
”
represents the number of respondents who assigned a
particular value to a particular statement. And then for
representing a deliberate picture of the total responses
the following scales have been used:
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 34

Analysis and interpretation
Gender based discrimination, workplace
harassment, lower pay scales and lesser growth
opportunities are some of the issues that the
professional women have to face when they start their
careers. These challenges take their toll on some of
them and they retire from the professional world a bit
too soon. But those who tough it out and face the trails
bravely, succeed in their professional lives and are able
to meet all their career related goals. Here the data
which we find are divided into some broad category.
They are being discussed as follows:
Discrimination
Discrimination of women with their male
colleagues in terms of taking leave, bonus, transport
facility etc is presented below.
weighted mean value is 2.70 that represent “Negative”
standing of the respondents towards a specific
statement.
Figure-4 Discrimination in terms of
promotion
Figure- 3 Discrimination in terms of
taking leave
Source: Field survey 2010
Survey result shows that 50 % women are
discriminated while they take leave, 25% have neutral
feeling and remaining 25% women are satisfied. Here
Source: Field survey 2010
The above figure shows, in terms of promotion
55% are totally dissatisfied. Here weighted mean value
is calculated 2.60 that represent negative standing of
the respondents. Only 20% satisfied and 25% are
neutral about the statement.
Working Environment for Women
Occupational environment and safety is a crossdisciplinary
area concerned with protecting the safety,
health and welfare of people engaged in work or
employment. The goal of all occupational health and
safety programs is to foster a safe work environment.
It may involve transport facility for women if they
work extra time in office, comfortable sitting
arrangement, refreshment room for female, hygiene
toilet facility etc.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 35

Comfortable sitting arrangement
for women
Figure-5 Comfortable sitting arrangement
of legislation relating to toilet and washing facilities,
including those in the Factories Act and Offices, Shops
and Railway Premises Act.
Separate facilities should be provided for men
and women, except where conveniences are in a
separate room with a door capable of being secured
from inside.
Figure-7 Toilet Facility for women
Source: Field Survey-2010
The above figure shows that 50% are totally
dissatisfied about their sitting arrangement. Only 30%
are satisfied and remaining 20% are neutral.
Refreshment room facility
Employees work in office daily 8 to 9 hours. They
need privacy to refresh themselves. Survey result
shows that there is no refreshment room facility both
in multinational company as well as in govt.
organization for female employees. 85% are totally
dissatisfied and no one is satisfied about this facility
while only 15% are neutral.
Figure-6 Refreshment room facility
Source: Field Survey 2010
The survey result shows that 70% women are not
fully dissatisfied with their toilet facility. Only 10%
are satisfied and 20% are neutral.
Special facility
Special facility includes maternity leaves, day
care centre, and feeding facility. Women are entitled
to receive these facilities.
Maternity Leave
Pregnant women have the right to what is termed
as ‘reasonable’ amounts of time off to attend antenatal
appointments and to be paid for this time off. All
pregnant women are entitled to special health and
safety protection at work to ensure that their working
conditions do not put them, or their baby, at risk.
Figure-8 Maternity leave
Source: Field Survey-2010
Toilet facilities
The 1992 Workplace (Health, Safety and
Welfare) Regulations replaced many individual pieces
Source: Field Survey 2010
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 36

Maternity leave is the right for all women.
According to Govt. law, every working women is
entitled to take 4 months maternity leave in her work
life for two times. In Govt. organizations, women avail
this benefit. But in other organization the scenario is
not the same. The above figure shows that, 45% women
are not satisfied about maternity leave. About 25% are
satisfied and 15% are neutral. The weighted mean
value is 3.05 that represent “Moderate” standing of the
respondents towards a specific statement.
Day Care Centre
Survey result shows that, there is no day care
centre in any organization and working women are
strongly dissatisfied presented in the following figure.
Figure-9 Day Care Centre
Recently Government has declared that every
organization should provide feeding facility for
women. But survey result shows 80% are dissatisfied
about feeding facility provided by their organization.
Sexual Harassment
Figure-11 Sexual Harassment
Source: Field Survey -2010
Here weighted mean value is calculated 1.90 that
represents “Negative” standing of the respondents
towards a specific statement.
Feeding facility
Figue-10 Feeding Facility
Survey result shows that, only 25% working
women agree with the statement that they are
harassed sexually in workplace. Researchers
noticed ignorance among women in sharing sexual
matters. Pattern of teasing in different ways from
their boss or colleagues such as sexual innuendo,
gender specific insults, derogatory humor, jokes or
comments emphasizing sex, gender-specific traits
or sexual orientation, non-verbal remarks that is
inappropriate displays or distribution of sexually
suggestive and/or derogatory pictures, objects,
writing or graffiti, including electronic and hard
copy forms etc. Here weighted average mean is 2.55
that represent negative value.
Findings
From the survey the findings are-
Ø Survey found that female workers are
discriminated in terms of taking leave, bonus
or promotion.
Source: Field Survey: 2010
Ø Most of the women are not satisfied with their
working environment. They work at least 8 to
9 hours at office. They need privacy to refresh
themselves. This facility is negligible in most
of the organization.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 37

Ø Under the Maternity and Parental Leave
(Amendment) Regulations 2002, all pregnant
employees are entitled to 26 weeks OR
16WEEKS maternity leave with salary. But the
study result shows, in private organization
women are not granted this leave as per rules.
Women enjoy this leave properly in
Government organizations.
Ø According to Government declaration, every
organization must have facility to provide day
care center and feeding center for their female
stuffs. The survey found absence of these
facilities in organizations.
Ø Survey found different pattern of harassment
such as gender specific insults, inappropriate
or uncalled for comments about one’s body or
dress, unnecessary or unwanted physical contact
of a sexual nature such as patting, touching,
pinching etc.
Expectation of working women
from their Organization
What are professional women longing for when
crisis or “breakdown” occurs? Women who have gone
through significant professional transition reveal that
when they were in professional crisis, they struggle
with the absence of one or more of the following
benefits of a fully empowered life.
q Honor or express their various facets.
q Respect the work they do and their colleagues,
and be respected in turn.
q Be treated fairly.
q Earn the money they need to.
q Expand their self-reliance.
q Achieve “quality of life,” flexibility, or control
over what they do and how they do it.
q Balance their numerous important life roles.
q Make a significant positive difference in the
world and in the lives of others.
q Utilize their voices, talents, and abilities.
q And finally, contribute fully in ways that reflect
their unique needs and values without being
negatively judged or renegade.
Conclusion
Gone are the days when men were considered
the bread winners and women were confined to the
homes performing domestic chores. Nowadays women
are earning their livelihoods by working in all fields
and doing all jobs. They are working as HR managers,
CEOs, Directors, Business Executives, Producers,
Musicians and what not. Now in our country there
has been a phenomenal change in the attitudes of
people regarding professional and career oriented
women. They are now respected and valued contrary
to the treatment meted out towards them in the past.
Despite the acceptance of working women in the
professional life, they still have to face many
challenges when they opt for a career. Gender based
discrimination, workplace harassment, lower pay
scales and lesser growth opportunities are some of the
issues that the professional women face when they start
their careers. These challenges take their toll on some
of them and they retire from the professional world a
bit too soon. But those who tough it out and face the
trails bravely, succeed in their professional lives and
are able to meet all their career goals.
In order to face the challenges, it is necessary to
practice the rule of law, carry out proper and competent
investigations. It will reduce all kinds of discrimination
(man and women) and help implementing existing laws
protecting women. To prevent women’s oppression,
men must first come forward. Many NGOs have been
working for the rights of women. The government
should also take step for establishing the rights of
women. Even the women development policy of 1997
hasn’t rein stead. Bangladesh government should take
positive step for the empowerment and for the rights
of women immediately.
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Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 38

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Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 39

Performance Management in Retail Sector in
India-An Empirical Study
Authors
DR. ANUKOOL M. HYDE 1
PROF. KALPANA AGRAWAL 2
MS. HEENA JAIN 3
Abstract
Retail sector is a market where there is organized methodology for the sale of goods.
The retail sector is presently undergoing a transition in India. Previously, customers
used to go to 'Kirana' stores to purchases their necessities. The Indian retail market,
which is the fifth largest retail destination globally, was ranked second after Vietnam
as the most attractive emerging market for investment in the retail sector by AT Kearney's
seventh annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), in 2008. The share of retail
trade in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) was between 8-10 per cent in 2007.
It is currently around 12 per cent, and is likely to reach 22 per cent by 2010. Performance
management includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an
effective and efficient manner. Performance management focus on performance of the
organization, a department, processes product or service, employees' qualities etc. This
study is an attempt to find out the factors which are important for performance
management in retail sector in Indore city.
Keywords: Retail, Performance Management.
Introduction
Scenario of retailing in India
India has one of the largest numbers of retail
outlets in the world. A report by Images Retail
estimates the number of operational malls to grow more
than two-fold, to cross 412, with 205 million square
feet by 2010, and a further 715 malls to be added by
2015, with major retail developments even in tier-II
and tier-III cities in India.
The Indian retail market, which is the fifth largest
retail destination globally, was ranked second after
Vietnam as the most attractive emerging market for
investment in the retail sector by AT Kearney’s seventh
annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), in
2008. The share of retail trade in the country’s gross
domestic product (GDP) was between 8–10 per cent
in 2007. It is currently around 12 per cent, and is likely
to reach 22 per cent by 2010.
Commercial real estate services company, CB
Richard Ellis’ findings state that India’s retail market
1
Dr. Anukool M. Hyde is Reader at Prestige Institute of Mgmt. and Research, Indore.
2
Prof. K. Agrawal is Lecturer at Prestige Institute of Mgmt. and Research, Indore.
3
Ms. Heena Jain is Alumnus of Prestige Institute of Mgmt. and Research, Indore.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS, Volume : 11, Issue :1, January - June 2011, Pages 40 -58
©
Copyright 2009, Institute of Management & Information Science, Bhubaneswar

is currently valued at US$ 511 billion, and is poised
to grow to US$ 833 billion by 2013. The report further
stated that organized retail that currently accounts for
less than 5 per cent of the total retail market is expected
to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
40 per cent and swell to US$ 107 billion by 2013.
Perform means “to carry out, accomplish or fulfil
an action or task”. It also means “work, function or to
do something to a specific standards”. Performance is
“an action or process of performing a task or function”
(Oxford Concise Dictionary 1999:1060).
Performance Management is the process of assessing
progress toward achieving predetermined goals. It
involves building on that process, adding the relevant
communication and action on the progress achieved
against these predetermined goals helping
organizations achieve their strategic goals. [1] Rather
than discarding the data accessibility previous systems
fostered, performance management harnesses it to help
ensure that an organization’s data works in service to
organizational goals to provide information that is
actually useful in achieving them and focus on the
Operational Networking Processes between that
performance levels.
Factors Affecting Performances
• Physical Factors: - These are medical and illness
related factors like Colds and flu, Asthma,
Anaemia, Hay fever, Fatigue, Lack of sleep,
Menstruation, Physical ability etc.
• Psychological Factors: - These are factors
related to the way you are thinking and your state
of mind like Mental preparation, Mental ability,
Experience etc.
• External Factors: -These are things largely
beyond our control as Environment (the weather),
Equipment, Technology, Other players, Officials
etc.
• Ability: - Character traits, skills and knowledge
which are used in the performance. It is always
present and will not vary widely over short
periods of time.
• Effort: - The amount of manual or mental energy
that a person is prepared to expend on a job, to
reach a certain level of performance. This can
vary according to incentive and motivation.
• Motivation: - Many people who are not
motivated keep their performance to an
acceptable level by expending only 20-30% of
their ability. Managers who know how to
motivate their employees can achieve 80-90%
ability levels and consequently higher levels of
performance. There are other more detailed notes
on motivation elsewhere in this site, but
remember Maslow:
• Basic needs - food clothing
• Safety needs - security, avoidance of risk/harm
• Social needs - friendship, acceptance, group
• Esteem needs - responsibility, recognition
• Self realisation - independence, creativity
Again, detailed notes elsewhere. Basically,
people expect to be treated equally, within the company
and as others are in similar companies; they expect to
get a certain reward for a certain effort; and they expect
to get promoted if they undergo training. All these
factors are inter-related and affect the amount of effort
people are prepared to put in.
• Equity & Expectation: - Again, detailed notes
elsewhere. Basically, people expect to be treated
equally, within the company and as others are in
similar companies; they expect to get a certain
reward for a certain effort; and they expect to
get promoted if they undergo training. All these
factors are inter-related and affect the amount of
effort people are prepared to put in.
• Task, or role, perception: - The direction in
which the person wishes to channel his or her
effort and ability. It varies according to such
factors as: -
• Whether or not the job is seen to be important
or of value in itself, to the organisation, to
workmates, to the individual.
• Whether or not there is an end in sight Is what
I do simply lose in the larger organisation? Can
I see it as a finished entity in its own right, no
matter how small?
• Environmental factors :- Those factors over
which an individual has no control, e.g.: the job
may have been completed under severe time
constraints, with a lack of adequate resources,
or by using obsolete equipment; there may have
been conflicting priorities or information
overload, such that the individual was confused
and under stress; other staff and departments may
have been less than cooperative; the restrictive
policies of the organisation may have prevented
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 41

the individual from using her initiative and
imagination to the extent that she wished; the
quality of the supervision exercised may have
been defective - some people need
encouragement and support, whereas others like
to be left to get on with the job. Cannot be used
as excuses for poor performance, but they do
have a modifying effect.
• Goal Clarity: - People must have in mind a clear
picture of any end or goal they are to achieve. If
this picture does not exist, they cannot tell if they
are making progress or when they have
completed the task or assignment, let alone if it
has been completed properly. “Keep the end in
view” has been advice for almost two thousand
years. The time a manager spends in developing,
communicating and clarifying the goals or ends
to be achieved is time well spent.
• Repertoire: - To achieve a goal, the people
working toward it must possess a suitable,
flexible repertoire. They must be able to engage
in whatever behaviors are necessary to obtain that
goal – despite changing circumstances and
environmental disturbances. In some cases, this
will involve carrying out a routine that has been
specified in advance by someone else. In other
cases, it will require figuring out — on the spot
— an appropriate course of action. In many
situations, the end to be achieved will remain
constant but the conditions under which it is to
attained will vary.
• Knowledge of Structures: - Figuring out what
to do in a particular situation requires knowledge
of the structure of that situation. People must
understand the elements that make up the
situation, how those elements are connected to
one another and the relationships that exist
between and among these elements. This
knowledge of the structure of the situation allows
people to say how the actions they take will lead
to the result they seek.
• Feedback: - Without information about actual
conditions in relation to intended goals or results,
no one can perform to standard. Such
information is known as “feedback.” It informs
progress, enables corrections and, eventually,
signals attainment of the objective.
• Mental Models: -Absent feedback, people have
no choice except to act in ways that are consistent
with internally-held views or mental models of
what is appropriate or what should work instead
of externally-based information about what is and
isn’t actually working.
For this reason, it is worthwhile spending time
working with people to identify the mental
models they currently use in situations where
feedback isn’t readily available. In some cases,
this will surface mental models that are
inappropriate or inadequate. In other cases, it
might surface mental models that are superior to
those held by most people.
• Recapitulation:- The seven factors that make
performance possible are these:
• A clear picture of the ends to be attained.
• A suitable repertoire.
• Knowledge of the structure of the situation.
• A functioning feedback loop.
• Sound mental models.
• Adequate motivation and
• A supportive or manageable task
environment.
Performance management includes activities to
ensure that goals are consistently being met in an
effective and efficient manner. Performance
management can focus on performance of the
organization, a department, processes to build a
product or service, employees, etc.
Objectives of the Study
• To identify factors conducive for frontline
executives retention.
• To identify factors those are positively and
negatively affecting frontline executive’s
retention.
• To ascertain the skills and competencies of
managers in retail industry in order to facilitate
good performance by their subordinates.
• To propose different strategies that could
improve performance of frontline executives.
Review of Literature
Hilda et. al. (2006) conducted a study to explore
the factors that affect performance of nurses in
Namibia with the aim of providing a management
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 42

framework for improving the performance of
professional nurses. The study followed a quantitative
research approach using an exploratory descriptive
design. A survey method using questionnaires was
applied. The reaction to the study was positive as a
response rate of 75.8% was obtained. Data analysis
included identifying and comparing existence or
absence of factors using the SSPS package. The target
population included all professional nurses in Oshana,
Otjozondjupa and Khomas regions.
Baseline results revealed various factors which
affect performance. The study revealed that hospitals
currently have deficiency in human resources
management aspects such as recognition of employees
who perform well.
Boshoff et al. (2000) studied some
organizational factors which can have an impact on a
service firm’s ability to return dissatisfied customers
to a state of satisfaction through service recovery. In other
words, it investigates the potential impact organizational
variables (modelled as antecedents) can have on the
service recovery performance of frontline staff. It also
assesses the impact that successful service recovery has
on two outcome variables, namely, intentions to resign
and job satisfaction. The results show that organizational
commitment exerts a strong positive influence on the
service recovery performance of frontline staff as does
empowerment and rewarding them for service excellence.
When frontline staffs are performing service recovery
effectively, they are less likely to resign and report higher
levels of job satisfaction
Bourke et. al. (1996) had gone for a research
which had a sample of over one hundred students from
the Faculty of Aboriginal and Islander Studies (FAIS)
and other faculties of the University of South Australia.
While the study aimed to concentrate on the factors
affecting the performance of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students, numbers of non-Indigenous
participants were included as a control group. The
survey looked at a wide range of variables including
gender; ethnicity; educational background; mode of
study; family situation; and finances. Many of these
factors were found to contribute to the inadequate level
of persistence and performance of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander students. However, no single
factor was found to be the sole reason for students
dropping out.
Banker et. al. (1996) investigated how
contingency factors such as competitive intensity,
customer profile, and behaviour-based control
influenced the effectiveness of an outcome-based
incentive plan supporting a customer-focused service
strategy. Empirical analyses were based on data for
77 months from 34 outlets of a major retailer, 15 of
which implemented the incentive plan. Results support
theoretical predictions: the positive impact of outcomebased
incentives on sales, customer satisfaction, and
profit increased with intensity of competition and
proportion of upscale customers and decreased with
level of supervisory monitoring.
Shyamak Tata said that the great Indian retail
landscape has been changing by the day, what with
global biggies marching in, one after the other, as if
they were all waiting in the wings. To decode what
has been happening, Brand Line connects with
Shyamak R. Tata, Partner with Deloitte Haskins &
Sells, Mumbai. He is a Fellow chartered accountant,
in the profession for over 20 years. More importantly,
Tata has been keenly following and tracking the
emergence of the Indian economy since its 1991,
primarily in the consumer business. (Business Daily
from THE HINDU group of publications ‘Talent: Key
to successful retailing’ BY SHYAMAK TATA, Partner
with Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Mumbai Jan 11, 2007)
Al-Ahmadi, Hanan (2009) identified the factors
influencing performance of hospital nurses in Riyadh
Region, Saudi Arabia. Specific objectives were to
estimate self-reported performance, and determine
whether differences in employee demographics, job
satisfaction, and organizational commitment,
influenced performance. In total, 15 hospitals were
randomly selected. The questionnaire was sent to all
nurses (1,834) in these facilities and 923 nurses
responded. Statistical analysis included correlation, t-
test, and regression analysis. The study finds that job
performance is positively correlated with
organizational commitment, job satisfaction and
personal and professional variables. Both job
satisfaction and organizational commitment are strong
predictors of nurses’ performance. Job performance
is positively related to some personal factors, including
years of experience, nationality, gender, and marital
status. Level of education is negatively related to
performance. The findings of this study have a limited
generalize ability due to the fact that all measures used
are based on self-reports. Emphasis should be placed
on effective supervision, empowerment, and a better
reward system. Cultural diversity is a reality for most
health organizations in Saudi Arabia; therefore, they
need to adopt effective human resources strategies that
aim to improve commitment and retention of qualified
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 43

workers, and build a high performance organizational
culture based on empowerment, open communication,
and appreciation of impact of national culture on work
attitudes (Al-Ahmadi, Hanan, 2009).
Research Methodology
The Universe
The universe in this study is the employees of
Retail Industry of Indore city.
Sampling Unit
In this research the sampling unit is frontline
employees of Retail Industry.
Source List
The source list for this research:-
• Big Bazaar, Indore
• Pantaloons, Indore
• Reliance Fresh, Indore
• Westside, Indore
• Treasure Island (Shopping Mall), Indore
Sample Size:
For this research, the size of the sample was 104
frontline employees.
Sampling Procedure:
In this study, simple random sampling technique
was used.
The Tools:
Tools for data collection -
Primary data
A Self-designed questionnaire was used to collect
primary date comprising of 45 statements .
Tools for data analysis:
Following tools have been used for data
analysis:
• Item Total Correlation.
• Factor Analysis.
Hypotheses
For fulfilling the objectives of research following
hypotheses were formulated:
H01: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of
Organizational Factors.
H02: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of Group
as a factor.
H03: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of
Reward as a factor.
H04: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of
Psychological Factors.
H05: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of
Individual Factors.
H06: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of Job
Role.
H07: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of
Internal Relationship.
H08: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of
External Factors.
H09: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of
Communication.
H010:There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of
Feedback.
H011: There is no significant difference between the
mean scores of Senior and Junior Frontline
Executives in Retail Industry in terms of Other
Factors.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 44

Results
Following factors have been generated out of Factor Analysis::-
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 45

Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 46

Graphical Representation of Factors
Q1. Positive image of your organization brand has
put an impact on your performance.
Q2. Leadership style of top management affects your
performance.
Q3. Facilities provided by organization develop to
improve employees’ performances.
Q4. Better coordination at work place with all is needed
to improve performance
Q5. Group tasks affect performance. Q6 Job roles seem to influence your work.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 47

Q7. Challenges in job motivate to perform better and
better.
Q8 Customer's positive feedback improves your
working efficiency.
Q9 Difference in feedback method also changes your
performance
Q10 Emotional Intelligence has its impact on your
performance
Q11. Work culture of your organization put some effect
on your efficiency to perform.
Q12 Working environment is also responsible for your
performance
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 48

Q13. Goal clarity is important factor for improved
performance.
Q14. Pay structure play important role in your
performance.
Q15. Recognition on outstanding performance enhance
your morale
Q16. Personal innovations in dealing with customer
help a lot to improve performance at work place.
Q. 17 Personal growth rate in your profession is very
imp. for your good performance.
Q18 Interested job tasks enhance your performance.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 49

Q19. Proper communication channels in your
organization affect performance.
Q20. Clear communication of future plans/ directions
was found to be important factors affecting
performance.
Q21 Staff and department cooperation is needed to
improve performance.
Q22. Team mates performance also influence yours
performance.
Q23 Difference in gender is also a factor affecting
performance.
Q24 Mental preparation can help you lot in preparing
yourself to perform better.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 50

Q25 Work load/ work pressure influence your
performance to work efficiently.
Q26. . Listening skills are very important factor needed
for your good performance.
Q27 The use of new technology affects your
performance in various manners.
Q28. Training and development programs also
influence performance.
Q29. Adequacy of resources affects your performance. Q30. Equality in treatment among employees is very
influencing factor for good performances.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 51

Q31. Healthy relationships at work place are necessary
for excellent performance
Q32. Your personality also influences performance at
work place.
T-Test Result Table
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 52

Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 53

Discussion
Eleven factors were found out through factor
analysis that affect performance of frontline employees
in Retail Industry. They are Organizational Factors,
Group, Rewards, Psychological Factors, Individual
Factors, Job Role, Internal Factors, External
Relationship, Communication, Feedback and Others.
Factor 1: Organizational Factors
Organizational Factors is the important factor
affecting the performance of frontline employees in
Retail Industry. This clearly indicates that for a
frontline employee in Retail Industry its performance
gets more affected due to work environment,
organization’s brand, its work culture, Goal Clarity to
them and leadership style of top management.
Factor 2: Group Factors
Group Factor is second highest factor that affects
the Performance of Frontline Executives in Retail
Industry. Better Coordination, Teammates Performance
and Group Tasks are some group factors that affect
performance of Frontline Executives in Retail Industry.
So as to improve performance of frontline executives
Group Factors must be taken care.
Factor 3: Rewards
Reward can be monetary and non- monetary both
depend on performance and management and its
policies both. In this study reward is a third factor that
affects performance of frontline executives and it
includes recognition on performance, pay structure and
facilities that are given to them by their organization
on their performances.
Factor 4: Psychological Factors
Psychological factors though seems to have less
impact but these are those factors that affects a lot, as
it has its direct relation with human mind, its thinking
etc. According to study few psychological factors that
affect a lot human performance in retail industry are
mental preparation of employees, Emotional
Intelligence and Work Pressure.
Factor 5: Individual Factors
Personal Innovation, Personal Growth, Gender
Difference, Personality and Listening Skills of an
individual are those individual factors that affect the
Performance of Frontline Executives in Retail Industry.
Factor 6: Job Significance
Challenges in Job Tasks, Job Roles and Interested
Job Tasks are few Job Significance Factors that affect
the performance of frontline executives in retail
sectors. If job significance is not clear to employees
then it might put an impact on their performance as
they must not be aware of exactly what their job
demands.
Factor 7: Internal Relationship
Internal relationship means relationship inside
the organization it might be between seniorsubordinate,
subordinate-subordinate or senior-senior
etc. According to this study Staff Cooperation and
Healthy Relationship are two internal relationships
which affect Performance of Frontline Executives in
Retail Industry.
Factor 8: External Factors
External factors means factors outside the
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 54

organization it might be govt., competitors or other
factors which are not in control. Use of New
Technology and Adequacy of Resources are few
factors according to this study which comes under this
factor.
Factor9: Communication
Communication is most important factor which
may affect working of many processes in any
organization and here also it is one of the factors that
affect Performance of Frontline Executive in Retail
Industry and it includes clear communication of future
plans and proper communication channels.
Factor 10: Feedback
Feedback is a circular causal process whereby
some proportion of a system’s output is returned (feed
back) to the input. Feedback is a message which tells
the team how it is performing.
Feedback is essential for a team to improve its
performance. In this study Feedback factor includes
customer feedback and other feedback method.
Factor 11: Other Factors
All other factors are summarized in one factor
and named it as Other Factor this includes training and
development and equality in treatment among
employees.
These all are some factors which are identified
in this study which affects performance of frontline
executives’ performance in Retail Industry.
T-test Discussion
• It has been found that performance level of
frontline executives both senior and junior level
sector is almost same. Mean score of
organizational factors affecting performance of
frontline executives both at senior and junior
level in retail sector is 17.44 and 16.22
respectively. T-test value also returns no
significant difference between the mean scores
of senior and junior frontline executives’
performance in Retail Industry. T1 value
reported 0.38792.
Since t 1
< .546 H01 is not rejected. (There is no
significant difference between the mean scores
of senior and junior frontline employees’
performance in retail industry in terms of
organizational factors). H01 is accepted.
• It has been found that performance level of
frontline executives both senior and junior level
sector is almost same. Mean score of Groups
affecting performance of frontline executives
both at senior and junior level in retail sector is
12.28 and 11.06 respectively. T-test value also
returns no significant difference between the
mean scores of senior and junior frontline
executives’ performance in Retail Industry. T2
value reported 0.132655.
Since t 2
< .546 H02 is not rejected. (There is no
significant difference between the mean scores
of senior and junior frontline employees’
performance in retail industry in terms of
group). H02 is accepted
• It has been found that performance level of
frontline executives both senior and junior level
sector is almost same. Mean score of Rewards
affecting performance of frontline executives
both at senior and junior level in retail sector is
12.22 and 11.39 respectively. T-test value also
returns no significant difference between the
mean scores of senior and junior frontline
executives’ performance in Retail Industry. T3
value reported 0.38955.
Since t 3
< .546 H03 is not rejected. (There is no
significant difference between the mean scores
of senior and junior frontline employees’
performance in retail industry in terms of
rewards). H03 is accepted.
• It has been found that performance level of
frontline executives both senior and junior level
sector is not same. Mean score of factors
affecting performance in terms of psychological
factor senior employees reported 11.17 and
mean score of factors affecting performance in
terms of psychological factor junior employees
reported 10.83. T-test value also returns
significant difference between the mean scores
of senior and junior frontline executives’
performance in Retail Industry. T4 value
reported 0.692.
Since t 4
>.546 H04 is rejected. (There is
significant difference between the mean scores
of senior and junior frontline employees’
performance in retail industry in terms of
psychological factors). H04 is rejected.
• It has been found that performance level of
frontline executives both senior and junior level
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 55

sector is almost same. Mean score of Individual
Factors affecting performance of frontline
executives both at senior and junior level in
retail sector is 19.89 and 18.06 respectively. T-
test value also returns no significant difference
between the mean scores of senior and junior
frontline executives’ performance in Retail
Industry. T5 value reported 0.12544.
Since t 5
< .546 H05 is not rejected. (There is no
significant difference between the mean scores
of senior and junior frontline employees’
performance in retail industry in terms of
individual factors). H05 is accepted.
• It has been found that performance level of
frontline executives both senior and junior level
sector is not same. Mean score of factors
affecting performance in terms of Job Role
senior employees reported 10 and mean score
of factors affecting performance in terms of Job
Role junior employees reported 10.22. T-test
value also returns significant difference
between the mean scores of senior and junior
frontline executives’ performance in Retail
Industry. T6 value reported 0.84691.
Since t 6
< .546 H06 is rejected. (There is
significant difference between the mean scores
of senior and junior frontline employees’
performance in retail industry in terms of job
role). H06 is rejected.
• It has been found that performance level of
frontline executives both senior and junior level
sector is not same. Mean score of factors
affecting performance in terms of internal
relationship senior employees reported 17.78
and mean score of factors affecting performance
in terms of Job Role junior employees reported
17.28. T-test value also returns significant
difference between the mean scores of senior
and junior frontline executives’ performance in
Retail Industry. T7 value reported 0.74693.
Since t 7

Clusion
other factors junior employees reported 7.56.
T-test value also returns significant difference
between the mean scores of senior and junior
frontline executives’ performance in Retail
Industry. T11 value reported 0.48771.
Since t 11
>.444 H 11
is rejected. (There is
significant difference between the mean scores
of senior and junior frontline employees’
performance in retail industry in terms of other
factors). H011 is rejected.
This study identifies a range of factors that have
been shown to be consistently linked to performance
of frontline executives. They are Organizational
Factors, Group, Rewards, Psychological Factors,
Individual Factors, Job Role, Internal Factors, External
Relationship, Communication, Feedback and Other
Factors. Among these entire factors organizational
factor is the most affecting factor that affects the most
performances of frontline executives in retail industry.
Factors which are determined in this study can
help employers to understand the general nature of
factors affecting performance. Understanding the key
problem areas the performance of frontline executives
can be improved using this study and its factors. Access
to data is necessary for understanding various factors
affecting performance in Retail Industry.
After applying T-test we can also conclude that
Psychological Factors, Job Role, Internal
Relationship, Feedback and Other Factors are few
factors that have its significant impact on age
differences and performances of frontline executives
in Retail Industry.
On the basis of discussion we had done above
we can also say out of 11 factors 5 are those factors
which are affects performance of frontline executives.
Thus we can also conclude that age has less impact on
performance but then also it is a factor to measure
performance which cannot be neglected.
Suggestions
The study can be conducted in wide geographical
domain at large scale. So that concluding research can
be executed in this direction.
Apart from Factors Determined in this research
that affects performance there are many other factors
which affect the employee Performance, therefore that
can be considered in future research.
As in this research study merely factors affecting
performance of frontline executives in Retail Industry
has been considered to understand the affects of
various factors on performance, but in future different
factors related to job which affect dramatically the
Performance of Frontline Employees can be
considered. Different factors can be:
Ø Alertness during job.
Ø Practical Knowledge related with job.
Ø Future prospectus.
Ø Locality of situation like Cosmopolitan and
Metropolitan.
Ø Opportunities in organization. Etc.
This research is initiation just to know the factors
affecting performance of frontline executives in retail
industry. The in-depth research of factors affecting
performance in other industry can add value to the field
of management for putting a check on the unwanted
higher attrition or more retention rate of employees in
organization.
This study can be done in more structured manner
to gets much better results. It can also helpful in
brainstorming, recruitment and selection etc. All
factors can be joined together and an open discussion
can be done so as to get much better results and its
actual impact on performance.
References
Awases, Magdalene Hilda, (2006) Factors Affecting
Performance of Professional Nurses in
Nambia, June 2006.
Al-Ahmadi, Hanan, (2009). Factors Affecting
Performance of Hospital Nurses in Riyadh
Region, Saudi Arabia. [International journal
of health care quality assurance, 2009, Vol.
22, No.1, pp. 40-54], Saudi Arabia.
Banker, D. Rajiv; Seok - Young Lee; Gordon, Potter
and Dhinu, Shrinivasan, (1996). Contextual
Analysis of Performance Impacts of
Outcome-Based Incentive Compensation.
[Academy of Management Journal, 1996, Vol.
39, No. 4(Aug., 1996), pp.920-948].
Bourke, Colin J.; Burden, Jennifer K. and Moore,
Samantha, (1996). Factors Affecting
Performance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Students at Australian Universities:
A Case Study, Australia.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 57

Boshoff, Christo and Allen, Janine (2000). The
Influence of Selected Antecedents on
Frontline Staff’s Perceptions of Service
Recovery Performance. [International
Journal of Service Industry Management,
2000, Vol. 11, No.1 (2000), pp. 63-90].
Brain Towers,(1998). Handbook of Human
Resource Development, New Delhi, Beakon
Books, 1998.
China’s Retail Market: The Soaring Dragon;
(Thursday, January 11, 2007), RNCOS’
published report entitled “China Retail
Sector Analysis (2006-2007) the Evolving
Face of the Retail Sector in China”.
Kothari, C.R., (1978). Research Methodology,
Methods & Techniques, New Delhi, Vikas
Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., 1978.
Robbins, Stephen P. (2008), Organisational
Behaviour, New Delhi: Prentice – Hall of
India
Rao, P. Subbha, (2007). Essentials of Human
Resource Management and Industrial
Relations, Mumbai, Himalaya Publishing
House, 2007.
Tata, Shyamak, Business Daily from THE HINDU
group of publications ‘Talent: Key to
successful retailing’ Partner with Deloitte
Haskins & Sells, Mumbai ,Jan 11, 2007.
William R. Spriegel and Joseph W. Towle, (1952).
Retail Personnel Management ,New York:
McGraw-Hill, Book Company.
Webliography
• www.search.ebschohost.com
• www.wikipedia.com
• www.citehr.com
• www.humanresources.about.com
• www.knowledgestrom.com
• http://www.hrmguide.co.uk
• http://www.workinfo.com
• www.retailimage.com
• www.indiaretailing.com
***
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 58

Intruders Altering the Perception of
Customers in the Life Insurance Sector of
India - A Comparative Empirical Study
Between Public & Private Life Insurance
Companies
Authors
NISHITH DUBEY 1
IRA BAPNA 2
ANUSHRUTI NEEMA 3
Abstract
The insurance sector, along with other elements of marketing, as well as financial
infrastructure, have been touched and influenced by the process of liberalization and
globalization in India. The customer is the king in the market. Life insurance companies
deal in intangible products. With the entry of private players, the competition is becoming
intense. In order to satisfy the customer, every company is trying to implement new
creations and innovative product characteristics to attract customers. Keeping this in
mind, the present study is designed to analyze the innovation in life insurance sector
in India.
Keywords: Perception, Life Insurance, Public, Private
Introduction
Insurance is defined as a cooperative device to
spread the loss caused by a particular risk over a
number of persons who are exposed to it and who agree
to ensure themselves against that risk. Risk is
uncertainty of a financial loss. A well-developed and
evolved insurance sector is needed for economic
development as it provides long term funds for
infrastructure development and at the same time
strengthens the risk taking ability. It is estimated that
over the next ten years India would require investments
of the order of one trillion US dollar. The Insurance
sector, to some extent, can enable investments in
infrastructure development to sustain economic growth
of the country. The growing number of wealthier as
well as aging Indian middle class is set to offer a strong
business potential for the country’s untapped life
1
Dr. Nishith Dubey, Professor, Maharaja Ranjit Singh College of Professional Sciences, Indore.
2
Dr. Ira Bapna, Professor, Maharaja Ranjit Singh College of Professional Sciences, Indore.
3
Anushruti Neema, Lecturer, Maharaja Ranjit Singh College of Professional Sciences, Indore.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS, Volume : 11, Issue :1, January - June 2011, Pages 59-65
©
Copyright 2009, Institute of Management & Information Science, Bhubaneswar

insurance market. Insurance is a federal subject in
India. There are two legislations that govern the sector-
The Insurance Act- 1938 and the IRDA Act- 1999.
IRDA has till now provided registration to 12 private
life insurance companies. The insurance sector in India
is like a full circle from being an open competitive
market to nationalization and back to a liberalized
market again. Tracing the developments in the Indian
insurance sector reveals the 360 degree turn witnessed
over a period of almost two centuries. As the twentieth
century has come to a close and we have move into
the third millennium, we can see many developments
and changes taking place around us with all the
industries and firms within each industry trying to keep
pace with the changes and diverse needs of the people.
Though for decade together, marketers have regarded
'customer' as the king and evolved all activities to
satisfy him or her, giving this concept a momentum it
is necessary to understand the Perception and
Expectations of the customer in respect various aspects
& attributes so as to design a successful and an
acceptable product or service. This can largely be
attributed to the prevailing market situation. Not only
has competition become intense but over and above
with the market being flooded with many me-too
products, the challenge before the marketer is to
understand the diversity of consumer expectations and
offer goods/services accordingly. Today the company
image is built and made known by its customers.
Thus the success of the insurance firm will be
determined by how effective it has been in meeting
the diverse consumer needs and wants by treating each
customer as unique and offering products and services
to suit his or her needs. Therefore today all the firms
are engaged in a process of creating a lifetime value
and relationship with their customers, a step towards
developing knowledge regarding its customers needs
is the utmost important. The current study is an attempt
to measure the various parameters as perceived by the
customers and to help the insurance company (both
public and private sector) in serving its customers in
a much better and efficient manner.
Literature Review
• With increase in population and income there is
a wide scope in insurance sector and it was found
that LIC plays an important role and has
maximum share in this sector. Recently banking
sector has also moved towards insurance sector
since they would get better dividends than the
commission they would get by entering into
partnerships with other major insurance market
players.(Singh Binod Kumar.2010)
• Retaining a customer is four times cheaper than
acquiring a new one. The retention of the
customers is of utmost importance in the
insurance industry in specification. Insurance
business is of the relationship building process
were one customer leads to the building of other
one. A satisfied customer is like a word of mouth
advertisement for the company. The needs of the
existing customers should be identified and
satisfied well rather than only concentrating at
the new accounts. All possible measures needs
to taken to retain the customers as it is lesser
costlier as well as provides stability to the
business.(Imtiyaz, H Ltd VASI DO, Insurance
Times Feb 2007)
• It is found that there is need to improve the
features of the insurance products to make them
more liquid or short term schemes could be
increased. It is shown that although rewards
implied by the insurance products particularly by
the tax benefits are quite close to those observed
in banks and small saving scheme of the
governments.The survey indicates that it may not
be very difficult to win over the confidence of
small investors towards insurance policies if good
marketing techniques are adopted to educate the
targeted population about the uses of insurance
policies from investment point of view. (Sampada
Kapse & D.G. kodwani, May2003)
• The customer perception towards the life
insurance providers and their product are varies
with their income and age group. The buying of
Life insurance policies is dependent on income.
Unit linked life insurance policy is preferred the
most. All the insurance company must advertise
more in the market because not all people know
more about life insurance policy. Most number
of people wants guaranteed returns so company
must focus on this for the customer investment.
Most of the responded purchase insurance policy
through agents.(Richa Vohra, MBA, 2008-09)
• This paper concludes that companies should also
innovate to come up with better products that
would suit the Indian population and should also
try to market and sell their products through new
channels of distribution that can be effective in
selling their products to the masses.( Kunj Bihari
Paliwal,2007-09)
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 60

• Insurance is one product which is not demanded
by a customer, but supplied to him by massive
education and drive marketing. Insurance ought
to be bought not sold. The new concept of
demand side innovation focuses more on
customer's social and economic reality striving
to deliver maximum value to the customer at an
affordable price. (Samuel B. Sekar, July 2006)
• The general impression is gathered in this
research paper that People are beginning to look
beyond LIC for their insurance needs and are
willing to trust private players with their hard
earned money. People in general have been
impressed by the marketing and advertising
campaigns of insurance companies. The general
satisfaction levels among public with regards to
policy and agents still requires improvement. But
therein lies the opportunity for a relative new
comer like HDFC Standard Life Insurance
Company Ltd. LIC has never been known for
prompt service or customer oriented methods and
HDFC Standard Life can build on these factors.
(M.Vijaya Raghavan,2007-09)
• It was found necessary for the insurance
companies to think of a method whereby the
expectation of the policyholders could be
satisfied. The object was to provide a hedge
against the inflation through a contract of
insurance. Decline of assured return endowment
plans and opening of the insurance sector saw
the advent of ULIPs on the domestic insurance
horizon.(Ulip plans IRDA annual report 2007-
08)
Objectives of The Study
• To study customer's preference for innovative
products offered by public and private life
insurance providers.
• To explore the reasons of investment in public
and private life insurance companies.
• To study the problems faced by life insurance
policy holders.
Limitations
In spite of every care taken on the part of the
researcher there were certai limitations which could
not be overcome and are as follows:
• Some of the persons were not so responsive
• .Possibility of error in data collection because
many of investors may have not given actual
answers of my questionnaire.
• Sample size is limited to 100 customers.
• The sample size may not adequately represent
the whole market.
• Some respondents were reluctant to divulge
personal information which can affect the validity
of all responses.
• The research is confined to a certain part of
Indore.
The above are some of the aspects which posed
real problems in the way of completion of the research
work but the majority of respondents were cooperative
and my gratitude are due to them.
Research methodology
Data sources
Research is totally based on primary data.
Secondary data can be used only for the reference.
Research has been done by primary data collection, and
primary data has been collected by interacting with
various people through questionnaire. The secondary data
has been collected through various journals and websites.
Sampling
Sampling procedure
The sample was comprised of the customers of
public or private life insurance providers. It was also
collected through personal interview, by formal and
informal talks and through filling up the questionnaire
prepared. The data has been analyzed by using
Statistical tool.
Sample size
The sample size is limited to 100 people only.
Out of which 76 customers were of Public life
insurance company (LIC) and 24 customers were of
Private life insurance companies.
Sampling method
Judgement convenience method was used to
select sample.
Statistical tools used
Statistical tools like averages, percentages, Z-
test, mean and standard deviation are used for the
analysis of data.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 61

Data analysis And Interpretation
Analysis of data
The demographic profile of the respondents is
analyzed on the basis of age, educational qualification,
occupation and annual income.
Table 1- Age Group Distribution
Age Group Below 25-40 40-60 Above Total
25 60
No. of 20 40 36 04 100
Respondent
Percentage 20 40 36 4 100
(%)
Chart -1
Chart-2
Interpretation
It is revealed from table 2 that 55% of the
respondents are postgraduate, 35% are graduate.
Remaining 8% are professionally qualified.
Table 3 – Occupation Distribution
Occupation Govt. Private Busi- Agri Other Total
ness culture
No. of 18 47 20 05 10 100
Respondent
Percentage 18 47 20 05 10 100
(%)
Chart-3
Interpretation
It is clear from Table1; a vast majority of
respondents (76%) fall in the age band of 25-60 years.
Out of 100 respondents 40% are between 25-40 years
and 36% are between 40-60 years of age and very less
4% are above 60 years of age.
Table 2 – Educational Qualification of
Respondents
Educational Post Gradu- Profe- None Total
Qualification Graduation ation ssional
No. of 55 35 08 02 100
Respondent
Percentage 55 35 08 02 100
(%)
Interpretation
It is clear from the table-3 that 47% respondents
are employees of Pvt. Sector,20% belongs to business
class,18% respondent are from Govt. sector and
remaining are from agriculture or other occupation.
Table 4 – Annual Income of Respondents
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 62

Chart-4
Interpretation
It is clear from the above table that 65% of the
respondents are having policy of LIC And 13%
respondent are having policy of Pvt. Companies and
22% of the respondent are having policy of both i.e.
LIC and Pvt. Companies.
Table 6- Comparison of various policies
is important before selecting One
Interpretation
Table no.4 shows that 38% respondent have an
annual income below 50,000, 25% respondent have
an annual income in the range between 50,000-
1,50,000,19% have an annual income in the range
between1,50,000-2,50,000.Rest 5% respondent have
an annual income in the range between2,50,000-
3,50,000and13% have an income below 50,000
Table 5 - Policies owned by the
respondents-
Chart-6
Chart-5
Interpretation
It is clear from the above table that 75%
respondents are agree and strongly agree for comparing
various policies before selecting one.
Hypothesis testing
1.) Ho- There is no significant difference regarding
influencing factors for investment decisions
between public and private life insurance policy
holders.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 63

a.) Level of significance = 5%
b.) Computed value of Z-test for above table = 1.791
Interpretation
Computed value of Z-test i.e. 1.791 is less than
the tabulated value which is 1.961, so null hypothesis
is accepted.That means there is no difference regarding
influencing factors for investment decisions between
public and private life insurance policy holders i.e
company’s image, CRM , Promotional strategies
,attractive schemes, variety of products ,services
provided and presale communication , all have equal
influence on customers of public and private insurance
companies.
2) Ho- There is no significant difference between
the motives of getting insurance decisions
between public and private life insurance policy
holders.
a.) Level of significance = 5%
b.) Computed value of Z-test for above table = -.54
Interpretation
Computed value of Z-test i.e. -.54 is more than
the tabulated value which is
-1.961, so null hypothesis is accepted.That
means there is no significant difference between
customer’s preference for selecting a particular plan
offered by public and private life insurance company.
4.) Ho- There is no significant difference between
the problems faced by the customers of public
life insurance and private life insurance.
a) Level of significance = 5%
b) Computed value of Z-test for above table = 1.3072
Interpretation
Computed value of Z-test i.e. 1.3072 is less than
the tabulated value which is 1.961, so null hypothesis
is accepted.That means there is no difference regarding
the motive of getting insurance decisions between
public and private life insurance policy holders i.e the
reasons behind selecting insurance company is same
whether it is for safety or for investment purpose or
for tax benefits or to procure loan in future.
3) Ho- There is no significant difference between
customer’s preference for selecting a plan of
buying public life insurance policy and private
life insurance policy.
a.) Level of significance = 5%
b.) Computed value of Z-test for above table = 2.398
Interpretation
Computed value of Z-test i.e. 2.398 is more than
the tabulated value which is 1.961, so null hypothesis
is rejected.That means there is a significant difference
between the problems faced by the customers of public
and private life insurance companies.
Conclusion
The entry of private sector insurance
companies into the Indian insurance sector triggered
off a series of changes in the industry. Even with
the stiff competition in the market place, it is
evident from the study that the public sector giant
LIC dominates the Indian insurance industry. A
Thus, it can be inferred that though public sector
dominates as per customers preference but at the
same time, private players as intruders have got
golden opportunity to prove themselves and acquire
major market share with the strength & unique
quality of simplified & timely claim settlement,
formalities, procedures and accessibility of agents
which is of utmost importance in life insurance
sector where public sector is lacking.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 64

References
Singh Binod Kumar,consumer perception about
insurance sector in Indian journal of
Economics and Business, March 1, 2010
IRDA annual report Trends in Life Insurance
Business – Unit Linked Insurance Plans,
2007-08, box item 1, page no. 15
Samuel B. Sekar, Research Associate, Academic
wing, The ICFAI University, Customer –
driven innovation in insurance products,
Insurance Chronicle, page 33, July 2006.
C.R. Kothari – ‘Research Methodology’, New Age
International Publication, New Delhi, 2 nd
edition, 2004.
The Icfai University Journal of Risk and Insurance
Vol. VI No. 2 April 2009, Published by The
Icfai University Press.
The Icfai University Journal of Financial
Economics Vol. VII No. 2 June 2009,
Published by The Icfai University Press.
***
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 65

A Study on the Determinants of Equity Prices
in the Stock Markets in India
Authors
HITESH J. SHUKLA 1
JEENAL DEVANI 2
Abstract
This study is to understand and analyze the interrelationship between the equity prices
and some explanatory variables i.e., book value per share, dividend per share, dividend
yield, dividend cover, growth, price earning ration and earnings per share. The
researchers tried to find out the determinants of equity prices in the Indian context.
The primary objective of the study was to understand and analyze the determinants in
equity share prices among the sample companies over the period of study. The period
of the study was from 2005-2009. It could be concluded from the correlation and
regression analysis that price earnings ratio, earning per share, dividend per share
and dividend cover were the variables which contributed significantly in determining
the share prices followed by dividend yield and book value.
Key Words: Earnings per Share, Price Earnings Ratio, Dividend per Share, Market
Price
Introduction
Financial Investment is concerned with the
purchase and sale of financial assets and an attempt of
the investor to make logical decisions about the various
alternatives in order to earn expected return. Savings
are invested into return yielding assets depending on
their risk and return characteristics. For such purpose
primary and secondary market plays a vital role in the
economy. The reason for establishment of stock
exchanges was primarily the need for financing
businesses and for providing returns for the finances.
The market price of the shares tends to fluctuate every
moment. It may boost up to new heights or may even
drop down tremendously. No one can exactly predict
what could be the exact next price of the share.
Generally, price depends on the demand and supply
of the shares. If there are more buyers than the sellers,
the prices of the shares are very likely to rise and vice
versa. This is called the demand-supply mechanism
of the share price determination. Another vital factor
is the information regarding any company, which falls
under the wide concept of Efficient Market Hypothesis.
If there is any good news regarding the company the
share prices of that company are likely to boost and
vice versa. Investors are very well known to these facts,
but what drives the demand of the shares? What kind
of information causes the rise or fall in share prices?
1
Associate Professor, Department of Business Management (MBA Programme) Saurashtra University
2
Researcher, Saurashtra University.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS, Volume : 11, Issue :1, January - June 2011, Pages 66-72
©
Copyright 2009, Institute of Management & Information Science, Bhubaneswar

Which are the factors that contribute to the
determination of equity prices? In other words what
are the determinants of equity prices?
A study examining the determinants of equity
share prices is essentially required in India because of
predominance of agricultural sector, low rate of
industrialization, imperfect capital market and
ignorance of investors to invest in stock market. There
are several empirical works pertaining to the pricing
of equities. Pandey (1981) examines the impact of
leverage on equity prices and concludes that
Modigliani-Miller hypothesis is not supported. Zahir
and Yakesh (1982) find that dividend per share to be
the most important variable affecting the share price,
followed by dividend yield, book value per share,
dividend coverage. Bansal (1996) analyses the
behavior and determinants of equity prices in India
over the period 1987-95 and finds that the BV, DPS,
EPS and DC were the variables which contributed the
most in determining equity share prices followed by
price-earnings ratio and dividend yield.
This study is based on the study done by
Singhania (2006) that was an attempt to analysis
various determinants of equity prices. This study seeks
to analyze the various dimensions in a quantitative
framework in improving the understanding of share
prices and the factors that affect the prices directly.
Singhania conducted a research in this direction
considering seven different variables and concluded
from the analysis that P/E ratio, EPS, BV and DC are
the variables, which contributed the most in
determining share prices followed by DPS and DY.
This study is an extension of the period that she tried
in her study and to know whether her findings are
relevant in today's context or not.
Review of Literature
Zhang (2004) designed a multi-index model to
determine the effect of industry, country and
international factors on share pricing. Byers and Groth
(2000) defined the share pricing process as a function
utility and non-economic factors. Clerc and Pfister
(2001) posit that monetary policy is capable of
influencing share prices in the long run. Any change
in interest rates especially unanticipated change affects
growth expectations and the rates for discounting
investment future cash flows. Ross (1977) APT model
which could be taken as a protest of one factor model
of CAPM which assumes that asset price depends only
on market factor believe that the asset price is
influenced by both the market and non-market factors
such as foreign exchange, inflation and unemployment
rates. One of the defects of APT in spite of its
advancement of asset pricing model is that the factors
to be included in asset pricing are unspecified.
Brav & Heaton (2003) alleges market
indeterminacy (a situation where it is impossible to
determine whether an asset is efficiently or
inefficiently priced) in the stock market. Further
argued that empirical tests of linear asset pricing
models show presence of mispricing in asset pricing.
Asset pricing is considered efficient if the asset price
reflects all available market information to the extent
no informed trader can outperform the market and / or
the uninformed trader.
A model defined by Al-Tamimi (2007) was used
to regress the variables (stock prices, earnings per
share, gross domestic product, lending interest rate and
foreign exchange rate after testing for multicollinarity
among the independent variables. The multicollinarity
test revealed very strong correlation between gross
domestic product and crude oil price, gross domestic
product and foreign exchange rate, lending interest rate
and inflation rate. All the variables have positive
correlation to stock prices with the exception of
lending interest rate and foreign exchange rate. The
outcomes of the study agree with earlier studies by
Udegbunam and Eriki (2001); Ibrahim (2003) and
Chaudhuri and Smiles (2004). This study has enriched
the existing literature while it would help policy
makers who are interested in deploying instruments
of monetary policy and other economic indices for the
growth of the capital market.
The results however do not support the views of
Miller and Modigliani, revealed that firms use target
payout ratios, firms' motives for paying dividends and
extent to which dividends are determined are
independent of investment policy. Higgins (1981)
indicates a direct link between growth and financing
needs: rapidly growing firms have external financing
needs because working capital needs normally exceed
the incremental cash flows from new sales. Higgins
(1981) shows that payout ratios are negatively related
to firms need top fund finance growth opportunities
all show significantly negative relationship between
historical sales growth and dividend payout. D'Souza
(1999) however shows a positive but insignificant
relationship in the case of growth and negative but
insignificant relationship in case of market to book
value.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 67

Research Methodology
It's not very clear as to which variables contribute
the most in determining equity share prices. So, the
research problem lies in the fact that determinants of
equity prices in the Indian context are not yet clear.
Taking this problem into consideration, the researcher
tried to find out the determinants of equity prices in the
Indian context. The primary objective of the study is to
understand and analyze the determinants in equity share
prices among the sample companies over the period of
study. This study is to understand and analyze the
interrelationship between the equity prices and the seven
explanatory variables i.e., book value per share (BV),
dividend per share (DPS), dividend yield (DY), dividend
cover (DC), growth (GH), price earning ration (P/E) and
earnings per share (EPS). The period of the study is from
2005 to 2009. There are two basic reasons for selecting
this period for the purpose of study. The reasons are as
follows; during this period the Indian economy is
experiencing very high growth and at the same time
markets are becoming more volatile. The other reason
could be the investment scenario in this period has
improved and the investors are moving towards more
rationale investment. Due to market volatility, it becomes
essential for the investors to know what would cause the
fluctuations in prices.
To select the sample the BSE 100 companies as
on 31st March 2010 were taken into consideration. The
selection of the sample of 75 companies, from the 100
companies listed under BSE 100 has been considered
based on the following criteria; the company should have
its existence in the last 5 years i.e. from 2005 onwards.
The company should not have skipped the dividend
during the period of study i.e. from 2005-2009. No
financial data required for the calculation should be
missing. Government holding companies were excluded.
After considering the above criteria, the companies not
fulfilling any of the above criteria were excluded.
Therefore, the final selection of 75 companies as the
sample for the study was done. For the purpose of this
study, secondary data was taken from the annual reports
of the sample companies.
To achieve the objectives of the study, the
following relationship of independent variables with
dependent variable is formed:
MP = f (BV, DPS, EPS, DC, GH, P/E, DY)
Where, MP = Market price of the equity share,
BV = Book Value, DPS = Dividend Per Share, EPS =
Earning Per Share, DC = Dividend Cover, GH = Growth,
P/E = Price Earnings Ratio, DY = Dividend Yield.
In order to study the impact of the explanatory
variables on the dependent variable, the following
statistical techniques have been employed. The mean
values are compared with the values of the different
variables over the period of study and to analyze the
effect of explanatory variables on the dependent
variables. Standard deviation of the explanatory
variables has also been computed to examine the variation
in various variables from their mean values and also to
analyze the consistency and homogeneity in the data. The
analysis of the degree of linear association between
various variables used was carries out with the help of
Karl Pearson's correlation method. The significance of
the correlation coefficient is tested with the help of t-test
distribution at 1 and 5 percentage level of significance.
A linear multiple regression model has been selected to
measure the combined effects of explanatory variables
on the dependent variable.
The general form of multiple linear equations is:
Y = b0 + b1X1 + b2X2 + …… + bn Xn
Where, Y = Dependent Variable, X1, X2, X3 =
Independent Variable, b0 = Regression Constant, b1,
b2,.. bn = Regression Coefficient of independent
variables.
The statistical significance of regression
coefficients was worked out and tested by applying 't'
test. The coefficient of determination R² was computed
to determine the percentage variation in the dependent
variables. With a view to account for the loss of degree
of freedom resulting from the inclusion of additional
explanatory variables, the adjusted R² was computed.
The 'F' value was also computed to test the significance
the R² with 'F' distribution at 1 and 5 percentage
significance level. Following are the calculation of the
variables used in the study:
Market Price (MP), the average price of the share
derived from the financial year high and low has been
considered as market price for this study.
MP = (High Price + Low Price) / 2
Where, High Price = Highest MP during the
financial year, Low Price = Lowest MP during the
financial year.
Book Value per share = (Reserves + Equity
Capital - Revaluation Reserves) /
No. of Outstanding Shares
No. of outstanding shares is the total no. of equity
shares held by the company.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 68

Dividend per share: Dividend is the portion of
the profit after taxes, which is distributed to the
shareholders for their investment bearing risk in the
company. It has a significant influence on the market
price of the share. DPS shows how much the company
has paid out as dividend. DPS is calculated as under:
Dividend j,t
DPS j,t =
NOS j,t
Where, DPS j,t refers to dividend per share
for company j in year t; Dividend j,t refers to amount
of dividend paid by company j in the year t and NOS
j,t refers to the no. of outstanding shares of company j
in the year t.
Earning Per Share: It is defined as the ratio of
the profit after tax of the company for any financial
year after payment of preference dividend if any, to
the number of shares outstanding as on the last day of
the financial year.
Net profit After Tax - Preference dividend
EPS =
No. of Outstanding Shares
Dividend cover: It shows the extent to which the
DPS is protected by the earnings of the company.
EPS j,t
DC =
DPS j,t
Where, DPS j,t refers to amount if dividend per
share paid by company j in the year t, EPS j,t refers to
earning per share for company j in year t. the reciprocal
of Dividend cover is known as dividend payout ratio.
Standard Deviation
Growth is measured in terms of net sales in the
present study.
S t - S t-?
G =
S t-?
Where, S t=Net sales in the current year, S t-? =
Net sales in the previous year.
Price Earnings Ratio (P/E): This ratio enables an
investor to make appropriate calculation of the time
required to cover his investment in a company's stock.
Using the definition of EPS given below, the P/E ratio
is defined as under:
P/E ratio =
MP per share
EPS
Dividend yield: This is the return earned by an
equity shareholder by way of dividends. DY is
computed as:
DPS j,t * 100
DY j,t =
MP j,t
Where, DY j,t refers to dividend yield for
company j in the year t, DPS j,t refers to dividend per
share for company j in the year t and MP j,t is the
average price of the share derived from the financial
year high and low for company j.
The limitations of this study
This study is restricted to the companies listed
under BSE 100. The study is only for the period of 5
years, i.e. from 2005 -2009. The results may vary with
the time period. The sector wise results may vary.
Mean
Year MP BV DPS EPS DC GH P/E DY
2005 606.28 161.66 6.88 32.87 10.43 0.31 28.99 1.75
2006 909 165.173 7.5021 33.0284 11.8166 0.4425 35.8066 1.3426
2007 1480.67 176.748 8.1427 40.1659 8.8214 0.3423 48.9618 1.4509
2008 1317.08 206.669 9.2553 45.5006 7.8985 0.3876 35.6193 1.66
2009 995.367 213.1 8.8208 34.7784 6.1577 0.1916 34.9882 1.6965
Year MP BV DPS EPS DC GH P/E DY
2005 483.629 129.555 7.27816 31.3333 14.6523 0.58272 48.1694 2.15498
2006 1074.38 129.533 8.82369 32.832 32.4848 1.33229 36.1174 1.26986
2007 3648.09 153.186 7.5491 42.0073 13.3638 0.37093 138.607 1.75318
2008 3126.21 174.905 9.19538 58.7063 12.0189 1.34343 75.4943 2.26055
2009 3029.58 180.461 9.35897 32.0929 6.2667 0.24347 112.494 2.03373
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 69

Correlations
MP pearr.corr. 1
Sig (2-tailed)
BV pearr.corr. .200** 1
Sig (2-tailed) 0
DPS pearr.corr. 0.065 .346** 1
Sig (2-tailed) 0.208 0
MPBV DPS EPS DC GH P/E DY
EPS pearr.corr. .244** .764** .382** 1
Sig (2-tailed) 0 0 0
DC pearr.corr. .198** .216** -.235** .384** 1
Sig (2-tailed) 0 0 0 0
GH pearr.corr. 0.021 0.002 -0.014 .154* 0.063 1
Sig (2-tailed) 0.685 0.968 0.789 0.003 0.226
P/E pearr.corr. .869** -0.059 -0.078 -0.085 0.02 0.007 1
Sig (2-tailed) 0 0.257 0.13 0.101 0.693 0.885
DY pearr.corr. -.174** -.124* .319** -.104* -.242** -0.066 -.168** 1
Sig (2-tailed) 0.001 0.016 0 0.044 0 0.202 0.001
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Anova
Sum of square DF Mean suare F
Regression 2180554143 7 311507735 331.443
Residual 344925653.2 367 939851.9
TOTAL 2525479797 374
a. Predictors: (constant), dy, gh, bv, peratio, dc, dps, eps.
b. Dependent variable : mp
Coefficientsª
Unstandardized Standardized T sig
Coefficients coefficients
B Std. error Beta
Constant -800.118 105.833 -7.56 0
BV 0.417 0.517 0.025 0.807 0.42
DPS 14.866 7.627 0.049 1.949 0.052
EPS 16.024 2.248 0.252 7.128 0
DC 13.522 3.391 0.094 3.988 0
GH -83.077 57.192 -0.029 -1.453 0.147
P/E ratio 25.71 0.565 0.895 45.471 0
DY 15.546 29.164 0.012 0.533 0.594
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 70

Table of R²
R R Square Adj R² S.E.
(R²)
.929ª 0.863 0.861 969.4596
a. Predictors: (constants) dy, gh, bv, p/e ratio, dc, dps, eps
The mean of market price and book value are
continuously increasing over the study period. A
positive correlation is noticed between the MP and the
BV till 2007, i.e. with an increase in the market price,
the book value also increased. However, the years 2008
and 2009 reflected a negative correlation between MP
and BV and thus decrease in the mean of MP, the mean
of BV increase. The mean value of DPS consistently
increased from 2005 till 2008. However, in the year
2009, the mean value of DPS considerably declined,
possibly due to the market effects. The mean value of
EPS increased from 2005 till 2008 at a consistent rate.
The highest was found in the year 2008 i.e. 45.50. It
declined drastically by 10.73 points in the year 2009
to 34.77. DC mean shows a declining trend, except in
the year 2006 when it increased by about 1.4 points to
11.81 from 10.43. The lowest mean was in the year
2009, i.e. 6.16, which is again the effect of the
slowdown in the market. The mean value of growth is
seen fluctuating every year. It is seen increasing and
decreasing every alternate year, within a range of 0.12
– 0.15 points. In the year 2009, it reduced with a higher
value i.e. about 0.2 points down, again due to the
market effects. The P/E ratio showed an increasing
trend till 2007. However, from 2008 it reflected a
decreasing trend. The highest mean was in the year
2007 i.e. 48.96. The mean value of DY was highest in
the year 2005 i.e. 1.7542. It reduced to lowest level
i.e. 1.3426 in the next year i.e. 2006. Thereafter, it
reflected an increasing trend.
The deviation of Market Price from its mean was
less in the initial 2 years i.e. 2005 and 2006. But, from
2007 it highly deviated. In the initial 2 years there was
a nominal deviation, But from the year 2007, though
the deviation was less, it increased in a consistent
pattern. The DPS did not show much deviation during
the course of study. It was more or less consistent in
every year. The deviation from mean was not much in
EPS. It however rose in the year 2008. But, again it
fell in the year 2009. The standard deviation of DC
showed a mixed result. It showed high deviation in
2006, i.e. 32.48. For the rest of the years, it remained
more or less the same. GH, exhibits mixed results.
Highest deviation is seen in the years 2006 and 2008.
P/E ratio reflects high deviation from its mean in every
year, except in the year 2006. It deviated highest in
the year 2007, followed by 2009. It is highly volatile.
Dividend Yield was deviated the least from its mean.
Looking into the correlation between the market
price and the other independent variable, the P/E ratio
exhibits the highest positive correlation i.e. 0.869. The
other variables i.e. BV, DPS, EPS, DC and G/H also
showed a positive correlation. However, the DY
reflected a negative correlation with MP i.e. -0.174.
The results reflect that BV and EPS are highly
correlated i.e. 0.764. The EPS along with DY shows a
positive correlation with the DPS. However, P/E ratio
and the DY show a negative correlation with the BV.
The P/E ratio along with G/H reflects a negative
correlation with DPS. G/H also has a negative
correlation with the DY. But, G/H has positive
correlation with EPS and the P/E ratio.
There exists a positive correlation of DC with
G/H and P/E ratio, but a negative correlation with the
DY. There exists a negative correlation between P/E
ratio and DY. Multiple linear regression equation’s
results are drawn from independent and dependent
variables for the sample companies. The results are as
shown in the previous tables.
The co-efficient of determination (R²) has shown
86.3 percentage variation in the dependent variable
(MP) is explained by all the independent variables.
The table also determines that the P/E ratio, EPS, DPS
and DC have a significant impact on the MP. The
adjusted R² showed 86.10 percentage variation in the
MP. It shows 86 percentage relationship between the
variables used in the study to the MP.
The correlation analysis shows the highest
correlation of P/E ratio with the MP. EPS, DC and BV
also show a positive correlation with the MP while
Dividend Yield (DY) reflects a negative correlation
with the MP. The regression analysis depicts that P/E
ratio, EPS, DC and DY are significant determinants,
whereas, growth (G/H) are insignificant with negative
value. These findings were matching with the
conclusion of Singhania (2006) and the findings of
Bansal (1996).
Finally, it can be concluded from the correlation
and regression analysis that price earnings ratio,
earning per share, dividend per share and dividend
cover were the variables which contributed the most
in determining the share prices followed by dividend
yield and book value.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 71

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Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 72

Section
IN FOCUS

Online Retailing in India:
Where Does it Stand
Author
BISWAJIT JENA 1
With the rise of middle class in India, the
affordability for common luxury goods and services
has grown many-fold in last couple of years. All most
all-major international retailers like Wal-Mart,
Carrefour, Tesco, and Spar are rushing to tie-up with
Indian counterparts. Every now and then we come
across news splashed across our TV shows, news
channels, interviews etc that the retail sector is on the
verge of a major upswing. Every major business houses
like Bharti, Reliance, Tata, Pantaloons are tying up with
North American and European retail houses to structure
and organize the $180 B USD chaotic Indian retail
industry. AT Kearny puts India as the fifth largest retail
destination globally. Unbelievable, but the retail
industry has also benefited from its online version after
the dot-com bust during which internet websites were
mushrooming in a good speed. This has resulted in the
growth and expansion of the sector worldwide.
However, general retail and online retail, to me have
always been two different territories. If you were to
talk about the factors that contribute to online retail,
we could just go on and on. Plastic money penetration,
Internet literacy, thanks to Bill Gates, with availability
and affordable computers it has been adding up pretty
fast. Greater population of Indians now have to access
to online stores like never before. To add to that when
government initiatives like the Indian Railways ticket
booking became a success, more and more people
finding their soul mates through the marriage portals,
there are substantial proof of concept for the basic
online retail idea in a place like India for the common
man.
The Internet provides a progressive dimension
to most of the industries on global platform. Even with
all these advancements, there is not much happening
to the Indian online retailing landscape of late. When
the online retailers in the west sale everything, from a
needle to brand new cars online, Indian online market
is mostly restricted to a handful of products. In 1990s,
if you remember, there were handful of online retailers
like bazee.com, rediff.com, shopping.indiatimes.com
that tried to bank on the rising popularity of computers,
tech savvy shoppers and people’s fascination for credit
cards which made shopping easy and fun. Many of
the not so established retailers, who came into
existence during the dot-com boom, got obliterated
after the dot-com bust. Some of the established ones
like the makemytrip.com. Bazee.com (now eBay.in),
which could survive the avalanche, became the
pathfinders for others to follow them. According to
some of the research agencies, online retailing is
conservatively pegged at $500 million per year and
growing at a rate of 30% year on year for last 5 years.
So with an ever growing demand for goods and
services, India poses a greater potential for online retail
industry. It’s just up for grabs.
India is considered one the prominent IT hubs in
the world. We have the biggest IT service industry and
software services export which stands at a staggering
48-50 B US Dollars according to NASSCOM for the
year 2009. Almost all the US retailers have their call
centers based in India. Though the preference has been
shifting towards Philippines and other countries lately,
India is still the hotspot for BPO. At the end of Mar
2009, Internet penetration stands at 13.54 Million nonbroadband,
6.22 million broadband, and 117.82 million
wireless Internet access in India. Given the state of
Internet and PC penetration in India still lag behind
Korea and Japan etc, these figures if not outstanding
are not disappointing either. So with this much of
connected audience, out of which we can safely
assume, 90% would be having operational knowledge
1
CISCO SYSTEMS INC, USA. He can be reached at biswajit.jena@cisco.com
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS, Volume : 11, Issue :1, January - June 2011, Pages 75-79
©
Copyright 2009, Institute of Management & Information Science, Bhubaneswar

of the computer, India’s online retail landscape is
lagging behind at USD.0.23B in comparison to UK
standing at 15 billion pound per year and US at USD
32.9 B at the end of 2009. So why the online retail
landscape looks so bleak? There are couples of areas
retailers need to look at. I am not merely stating out
the litany of flaws, you will find some examples
innovative solutions people have come up which suits
our Indian consumer’s palate.
Lets look at the distribution of the online market
to different segments of business. The ecommerce
industry stood at roughly INR 9200 crores by end of
2008. If we ignore the big travel portals like
makemytrip.com, yatra.com et al which contribute
roughly 75-80% of this market the rest of the market is
formed by online classified, online retail and digital
downloads. Online classifieds like matrimonial and job
portals like naukri.com and bharatmatrimony.com
contribute about 12% of the market. That leaves us
with a very small percent of revenue from the everyday
goods and services. However, given the rate of India’s
growth and Internet savvy middle class, its bound to
grow very rapidly than you could imagine.
Before we dive into different aspects of our retail
structure, let me tell you, Indian’s don’t go shopping
until it’s absolutely “necessary” to do so. We are not a
consumerist country. To give you an example, unlike
westerner’s, where having your regular lunch or dinner
in a fast food joint, we Indians eat at home and go to a
restaurant to celebrate. Of course you would argue
that’s not entirely true, but when compared in a
national scale, it actually is. In late 1999, in the state
capital of Orissa, there were not many restaurants
because they never had enough crowds to cater to.
Customer Service
This is a paradoxical situation. India houses the
most number of BPO and call centers for most of the
companies from US and other part of the world. But
ironically, customer service to Indians by Indian
companies is not so commendable. Household
appliance companies want us to buy their product and
replace them with same brand again. Airlines want us
to have frequent flyer numbers with them. Malls give
out membership cards in the name of rewards.
Financial companies want us to use their services
frequently. So we can go on and on. Nevertheless, the
intention of all businesses is same. However, when it
comes down to execution, it has never been the case.
Indian consumers do not get what they were promised.
We Indians are very self-sufficient, non-complaining,
mind-our-own-business type consumers actually. Even
though Indian constitution gives us the all the required
consumer laws, we hardly know our rights.
If you have ever tried to contact the company
which sold you the refrigerator to fix a problem within
the due warranty period then you know they apparently
operate the “support” division for name sake. This was
much worse in 1990’s but with the introduction of
MNCs into the market, the scene has changed a bit.
But then, I guess the MNCs have adapted to the rules
of the land. If you can’t beat them, you join them. So
the customer support scenario has been worsening day
by day. I remember my grandfather used to have a radio
with the big knobs, which you could turn, and twist to
change stations. It lasted a lifetime and I guess it’s
still there in “working” condition. These days, the
stuffs we buy have a very limited lifetime. We like to
replace instead of repair these days. I am not against
replacing or adapting to newer technologies. My point
here is, we need the customer service now more than
ever and that’s something missing from our retail
agenda. Most of the cases, we personally know the
B&M store owner or we at least think we can dump
the stuff back to the shop if it does not work. We don’t
have same confidence when we buy online. So the
retailers somehow need to convince the consumers that
they can expect the same or better service if they buy
online. We are a billion plus population and are often
quoted that we have the most important asset in the
word: our people. So having a real person to help out
online customers over the phone on online chat
couldn’t be easier. Customer service does not only refer
to real-time help you could provide. Do you remember,
if a business ever called you to thank you for your
business or have you ever heard from your car service
station calling you to remind when your next service
is due? Well, we don’t have this concept built into our
business culture. Vendors do not pay enough attention
to serve you well or even smile and greet you when
you are at their store. Of course online retail is
challenged here in a awkward way as there is no one
there to smile at you or greet you when you login.
That’s when customer service becomes vital for a
online retailer. We need to get back to our roots:
customer is god. There are lessons to be learned from
history. One of the US biggest telecom companies of
90’s (Sprint Communication in US) lost out in the
battle to its competitors solely because of poor
customer service. State Bank of India had to send their
employees for crash courses in customer service when
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 76

people preferred private banks to SBI because of messy
and unwelcoming banking service culture. With
everything happening in the right side of the issue, I
would still say, we have a long way to go as far as
customer service is concerned. Having a mechanism
to have review and feedback about the service and
quality on the website is a simple and powerful idea
vendors can exploit too.
The Store Front
Touch technology has been there for ages. We
have seen touch screen monitors being used at point
of sales devices in big malls and sophisticated brick
and mortar stores in India. So what changed in apple
iPhone which disrupted the entire cell phone market
and had all the cell phone makers like Nokia and
Motorola to rush to produce a touch interface phone
in impossible deadline. I am sure, developers and
researchers in all the cell phone companies must have
spilled coffees in their shirts when they heard about
the impossible targets and deadlines to produce a touch
phone to challenge iPhone. Till date, almost every day
news websites and technology blogs report of a iPhone/
iPad killer being launched. Its quite understandable
that, it’s been 3 years, there has been so many phones
in the market with touch interface, but none could
match iPhone. One particular reason for this comes to
my mind: Apple’s revolutionary user interface design.
In a small device like a phone, user interface plays a
very key role. In fact, it’s a norm in cell phone industry
that, if a user takes 3-clicks to get to a feature, then its
almost evident that no one uses that particular feature
on the device. So make no mistake, user interface is
the face of the device. If we draw an analogy of user
interface, you would agree that the website a company
puts for its online store is as important as a cell phone
user interface. An online shopper should be able to
navigate, search, view and check out of the store
seamlessly.
Sometimes having a brick and mortar store
backing up an online web store helps people to have
the confidence to shop from online. They know, if it
does not work for them, they can simply walk down
and return the product or even go to the store and check
out the product before ordering online. However,
without the B&M presence, it may just work fine.
The Trust Factor
The most important element in building a direct
relationship with your consumers, online as well as
offline is ‘trust’. The more real your conversations are
with your customers, the more accountable
your business becomes in their mind. Internet is still
in its nascence as far as this interactivity is concerned.
Back in the days in 1999, rediff.com and
indiatimes.com used to be two major online retailers
which I knew. They used to sell small electronics,
cakes, rakhis and some high value stuff like ACs etc
but nothing in real big way. I remember ordering a
nice looking “zodiac” t-shirt from rediff.com which
arrived couple of days later. I paid close to INR300.
When I opened it, I was thoroughly disappointed to
see the quality was not up to the standard and did not
really match the description. Of course there is no
customer service you can call in to complain or ask
for a return. So I had to keep it even though I knew
it’s a complete wastage of my money. The same
scenario exists today also. We ordered a birth day cake
for our mother from a very reputed website, and they
delivered a cake which was completely different than
what we saw in the website. When we followed up
with them over email, we were told that, the fine print
says, the product might not be as it looks in the website.
Of course we knew the fine print, but we did not expect
the product would be completely different than what
we saw. Since that day, we never went back to the
website for any business. This attitude remains in
almost all small-to-mid range online retailers. If we
cannot trust the retailer, we definitely don’t want to
do business with them. More so, we don’t have any
agencies like Better Business Bureau of US which
protects and rates retailers in US. Even though India
has couple of laws regarding consumer protection, we
are too busy to spend that time to go to the court and
complain about and corruption has its victim too. So
we are not too sure, it makes any sense to do so even
as you might as well not get anything done by the
enforcement department there. So to overcome this,
the retailers have to re-invent the way they conduct
business. Deliver what you promise. EBay India in
many respect being an escrow agent gives its
customers some protection from malicious sellers,
however, being conservative shoppers by culture, it
will take some time for us to go online unless there is
a compelling reason.
The Mail Man
This is one of the major problems in online
retailing. I remember an incident when I hired a private
courier company to send a pack of chocolate to my
parents. I choose the private courier because I was
convinced that the Indian post that may not quite be a
good medium to send the chocolates. Also, the private
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couriers used to provide mail tracking facility where
as Indian post was not too tech savvy then. Anyway,
so my parents never got those chocolates. When
contacted the courier, I certainly could track it to find
that, the package is lost in Kolkata. The courier office
refused to reimburse because I technically did not
“insure” the package, which would have cost me some
additional mullahs. I don’t know how effective was
the insurance, but gist is, we still don’t have a reliable
mail carrier in India. Package can get lost anywhere.
Tracking though available, who takes the bottom line?
It is certainly the vendors or the retailers’ responsibility
to make sure, the delivery reaches it customer. Though
we certainly can not 100% rely on the web tracking,
we can definitely have someone answer our call when
we call with a tracking number. That’s easy. Retailers
could bank on the burgeoning population of mobile
phones to send a SMS with tracking information.
Retailers need to stick to time lines, introduce some
incentive if the package gets delayed and more than
anything get the stuff when are where it need to be.
This will boost confidence of buyers who are afraid
of losing their money when the package gets lost and
the retailer washes their hand off any responsibility.
The Great Bargain
If you are a fashion follower and if you ever lived
in Mumbai, then you know Fashion Street. Almost
every big city has a place similar to Fashion Street.
Interestingly, it not the official name of the street by
any means. It’s the pet name given to the place by its
patrons. So what you get here? Well, you pretty much
by the fake Gucci, Channel, D&G clothes, purses, belts
etc. Some of them are nice looking ones and some of
them are obvious ugly ones. Apart from that, you see
all kinds of recent trends in women attires, fresh-fromthe
movie bollywood styles etc. So this is the go-to
place if you like change and if you want the latest
fashion without burning a hole in your wallet. Again,
that’s not my point. The price you pay is linearly
dependent on you bargaining/haggling skills. I stay
out of this place, for obvious reasons, but at least I
have accompanied friends who claim to be at their best.
So a common shopper does not believe in the sticker
price unless you are a fashionable mall. And even
though we go to a mall, we are always not very
comfortable to pay the price we see. Indians seem to
live with the psyche that everything is negotiable.
Every price can be bargained. I had no idea that you
could possibly bargain in a pharmacy. Yes, we like to
haggle on everything. If you look at the way most of
us shop at brick and mortar shops, there is a lot
of communication that takes place, which plays a huge
role in determining the final price of the product, the
choice of seller, the quantity of purchase. Online platform
makes it easy if the retailer can publish the real-time prices
of good from another vendor so that the customer does
not have to do a lot of driving around. So there is a huge
potential in this concept to be exploited. There are some
start-ups which have based their businesses on this. One
of them is www.lootstreet.com which was launched by
2 IIM-A grads recently. This website provides real-time
bargaining opportunity for customers and claims to be
providing near-real-time shopping experience to people.
We need more and more retailers to adopt these kinds of
concepts to make this type of retailing more attractive
and reliable.
As Russell Peters (the Indian-Canadian standup
comedy artist) put this forward: an Indian and a
Chinese can never do business with each other. The
Indian wants to keep all the penny and the Chinese
cannot leave a penny. Let me tell you Indians are deal
savvy. They will probably spend a dollar on gas to
drive to a shop which gives them milk subsidized by
50 cents. Well, you get the point.
Return Service
Ok, we don’t have this concept of return service or
simply returning a product we don’t like or may be
changed our mind for any funky reason. Whatever it is, I
simply don’t want the product any more. As much, this
idea is alien to retailers, it’s shocking to almost many
people. The other day I was talking to one of my friend,
and I mentioned I returned some product I bought from
US. He was completely amazed and asked, “what, can
you really do that ?” Well yes, retail in US is much
different than India. I am not merely saying that we should
replicate the US model; there is definitely value in it. We
should be able to have the confidence that, after we see
the products if we don’t like it, we should have a way to
send it back. I know it B&M stores, in some cases you
can take the product back to the shop and get a store
credit for your return to buy something else from the same
place. You could never get your money back though. You
will have to spend the credit in there. But this needs to
me more flexible and will be a good move to carry it
over to online retail.
The 1800- number
Yes, it’s the much revered 1800 service we keep
hearing about from our NRI friends. Lately, more and
more business, service providers, retailers, corporate
offices are publishing their 1800 service numbers.
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However, again it’s not been very successful for 2
reasons: attitude of person who is actually picking up
your call and seriousness to implement the service.
Most of the companies have this number published
because they think it adds value to their promotion
campaign. So most of the time, you will never have
someone actually answering your calls. And if you are
fortunate enough, though someone picks your call, you
almost certainly are not going to get your problem
solved. A recent study revealed that there are more
mobile phones in India than toilets. However, we have
not been able to tap this infinite possibility in a positive
way. If done the right way, this could be the key to the
next disruptive revolution in retailing history after
amazon.com.
Repeat Business
Every Friday, you remember your favorite
restaurant to have your weekend-start dinner at. Can
you retrospect why? Well, reason is pretty simple: you
like the food and you have your favorite waiter who
knows what you exactly want. Given good service and
good product you wouldn’t mind going back to the
same place again and again. Same theory applies to
online business as well. If the web store keep in touch
with you and updates you with when a new deal is
going on or a new product is introduced, you would
not mind visiting the website couple of times a week.
However, it is an alien idea for some and have not
caught up with Indian web stores yet.
Another alarming situation in Indian retail
business is not enough importance has been given to
“repeat business”. Even though our IT behemoths
Infosys, TCS Wipro etc have pioneered this idea of
retaining customers year after year, this religion
somehow has not trickled down to our conventional
retail business. Retailers do not often make enough
effort to make a shopper return to their store or offer
him some incentive that will bring them back for some
other stuff. It can only happen if vendors stick to the
ethics of business and deliver what they promise. After
sales service has become important more than ever.
Gone are the days, when we used to fix our grand
fathers radio and make it work for another couple of
years. The grand-pa’s radio has found its safe haven
in the treasured antic collection of ours. We like to
change things as the technology changes. We like new
cars every couple of years, we like HDTVs when they
become available. We adapt to the changing world of
today’s economy because our affordability has gone
***
up and world has become our local market. So it’s high
time, retailers go back to the basics.
Why it would work
We examined few of the obvious reasons why
online retail is in a state, which it is. However, with
innovation and bit of passion, this can work magic due
to the same very reason it does not. We have the biggest
asset on earth: our people. With a lot of mom-and-pop
courier services in every corner of our city, retailers
can really build a reliable and trustworthy delivery
service. We can have real people to answer phone calls
and help out the customers for lot cheaper price than
deploying not-so-convenient IVR (interactive voice
response). Another novel idea is going local. In fact
one company called fernsandpetals.com, which sells
exotic flowers through Internet, has tied up with local
florists and cake makers to deliver flowers and cakes
to your doorstep. So you get to enjoy fresh flower and
local favorite cakes minus the shipping fees. That’s
easy. Couple of years back I was reading an interview
with a lady who was touted as Jeff Bezos of India.
She opened a web store called firstandsecond.com
which sells books online much like what amazon.com
started with. Five years or so have passed; they have
only grown bigger and are selling more books.
Naaptol.com is another website which gives you
competitive pricing on mostly electronics products and
have a real good collection of goods you may want.
Allcheckdeals.com is a website which specializes on
retail sector which has relationships with all most all
major real estate builders in India. Their service is
pretty good as reviewed by some people in metros.
They provide you with all expertise in paper works,
home loans and other real estate related jobs. So they
are pretty much selling apartments and houses over
Internet. Another instance of innovation in Indian
online revolution is, a Mumbai businesswoman who
got this idea of opening an online website to help out
small time artists. The idea really took off and provided
a good platform for small time artists to publish and
sell their art pieces online. So what we need is passion,
innovation and business ethics to take us to the next
level of online retail in India.
Disclaimer: Some of the numbers presented in
this article may not be exactly match today’s figures.
They are presented as they are for comparison and
reference purpose only, to give the readers a feeling
of things.
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 79

Section
BOOK REVIEW

Book Review
Dr. K. C. Padhy, Director, IMIS.
Author : M. V. Kamath,
Title : Corporation Bank: A Corporate Journey, Mangalore, 2006
Publisher : Corporation Bank
From being Nidhi, to be Number one Bank in the country (Business Today-KPMG Survey, 1999 ) this is
the corporate journey of Corporation Bank written by a member of Corporation Bank family (his father being
legal advisor of the Bank for thirty years) belonging to undivided Dakhin Kannada District, M.V. Kamathjournalist,
(editor of the famous Illustrated Weekly of India) , biographer (written biography of Henry Kissinger,
R.K. Bajaj and T.A. Pai among others) and author of 45 books, has written an interesting, easy to read and welldocumented
history of the Corporation Bank.
In fact, Corporation Bank brought out a series of history books-useful for business historians on the eve of
its Silver Jubilee, Golden and Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 1931, 1956, and 1976. The present one containing
history of hundred years is justly dedicated to the bank family-past, present and future. Khan Bahadur Haji
Abdullah Haji Kasim Sahib was the illustrious founder. The Bank was conservative to the core. Erode branch
gave a loan of Rs. 200/- for the purchase of a tyre. The loan could not be recovered and was written off. Gopal
Nayak, Chairman summarily closed the Branch. There are many such stories on the then Canara Banking
Corporation, whose successor is the Corporation Bank.
Kasim Saheb lending a portion of his palatial residence for the bank office to start with in 1906, Treasurers
not being paid salary till 1917, B.A LLb taken as more relevant degree than B.Com for appointment, appointment
of unpaid probationers till ‘40s (who retired in senior position of General Manager later) starting with princely
salary of Rs. 25/- a month and P.S Nayak, General Manager negotiating with Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank
for merger of three D.K. banks are a few interesting stories told in a racy language by the author. Corporation
Bank was success in business by being first cautious and conservative and by being different. How substantially
different it could have been with merger of three important books is open to conjecture by business historians.
With nationalization, the Bank came of age. It began to become an all India bank.
Corporation Bank, smallest among the nationalized banks has many,”firsts to its credit”
i) Number one bank in the country (1999-Business today & KPMG survey)
ii)
A consistently profit earning bank for 92 years
iii) Leader among PSBs on profitability parameter.
iv)
First to introduce Cash Management Services to provide liquidity to the corporates.
v) Corporate Agent of LIC to sell life polices
vi)
First PSB to identify domestic correspondent banking as a thrust area.
vii) First to introduce e-mail communication system at corporate office.
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Apart from innovative communication system among employees, Corporation Bank adopted the following
innovative best HRD practices for employees- Honouring Superordinate Goal achievers, Chairman’s Club
members, Career rewards for strong performer etc. The staffs unitedly follow the Rig-Veda hymn which says-
Go together, speak with one another
Let your minds be of one accord
Common be your aim and your hearts united
Your mind be one so that all may live happily together.
The Bank focuses on growth and survival rather than ‘survival and growth. In the second century, the Bank
begin to march as
They have promises to keep
And miles to go before they sleep
***
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 84

IMPRINT LINE
(a) Name of the Publisher : Director
Institute of Management & Information Science
2130/4711, Vivekanand Marg, Bhubaneswar
(b) Name of the Printer : Director
Institute of Management & Information Science
2130/4711, Vivekanand Marg, Bhubaneswar
(c) Name of the Owner : Director
Institute of Management & Information Science
2130/4711, Vivekanand Marg, Bhubaneswar
(d) Name of the Printing Press : Perfect Print & Graphics (P) Ltd.
with Complete Address 154, Sec.-A, Zone-B, Mancheswar Industrial
Estate, Bhubaneswar - 751 010
(e) Name of the Editor : Dr. K. K. Beuria
Institute of Management & Information Science
2130/4711, Vivekanand Marg, Bhubaneswar
Pratibimba - The Journal of IMIS 85

With the initiatives of some of the leading industrial and business houses of Bhubaneswar,
Institute of Management and Information Science was established in the year 1995.
It’s prime objective is to train and develop students and working
professionals in techno-management disciplines.
THE MISSION
l
l
l
To produce some of the best talented highly skilled
creative and confident management professionals to
take up key responsibilities in the development of
our nation.
To induce a value system among learners,
colleagues and practising professionals which
combines social responsibilities, ethics and personal
integrity in each of their action.
To achieve excellence in every sphere and improve
productivity and efficiency in all possible fields
through the practice of management.
For further information contact:
Central Office
IMIS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & INFORMATION SCIENCE
2130/4711, Vivekananda Marg, Bhubaneswar - 751002, Orissa
Phone : 0674-2433762, 2431953, 2435697 # Fax : 0674-2433932
Email : jpratibimba@imis.ac.in
Visit us at : www.imis.ac.in