International Review and Advisory Committee

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Strategic thinking: explorations around conflict and cooperation

Strategic Thinking provides an interpretation of strategy around an 'actor' rather than an organization. It views strategic action as being executed in a 'milieu' populated by power holders, where the individual strategist actor holds centre stage, and where pursuits are obstructed by the countervailing threats of other power holders. The authors explain that the strategic 'milieu' is an intensely governed set-up where the relations and transactions between the power holders controlling key assets are under the governance of the current set of rules and institutions

New moon day anomalies of Amavasya and Muhurat trading: Gestalting the role of culture and institutions

We study the socio-cultural ecosystems, along with cross-country investments and global flow of foreign capital in a local milieu, India, having multiple stock exchanges and listed firms. India's varied investor profiles exhibit a marked preference for certain “special” days given their religious beliefs. This study tests the abstinence hypothesis to examine the “new moon day” effect, considered inauspicious by the local dominant investing community, and the duality of minds, based on India's annual festival, Diwali, considered auspicious to make investments and commence any wealth-generating activity (Muhurat trading). We find that the Indian markets generate a significant negative return on a Friday new moon day and a significant positive return on the Muhurat trading day. We propose a profit-making trading strategy that exploits the impact of the new moon day