An Exploratory Study of Factors affecting MBA Students Attitude towards Learning via Case Study Pedagogy: Insights from Advertising Literature

Case based pedagogy has become popular in most business schools today, since the pioneering efforts made by Harvard Business School, several decades ago. Although the case method approach stands firmly on grounds its effectiveness in ‘simulating reality of the business world’ in the classroom, yet it has its own limitations and cannot be used in all learning situations This article delves into both sides of the debate on the efficacy of case method for learning and through an exploratory study, models the attitude of MBA students towards the perceived learning aspects of the pedagogy. The premise of our beliefs-only attitude model rests on the conceptual analogy between a case study and an advertisement message as two similar forms of communication technology. Drawing heavily from the insights available in the advertising literature, the article suggests several hypotheses for future empirical validation.

Store Format Choice in an Evolving Market . A TPB Approach

<div align=justify>The store choice has been studied extensively in the literature, but store format choice has had limited research attention. The store choice modeling has been primarily done in the random utility theory framework, which however is a neo-economics based view of choice decision that ignores the psychological and behavioral aspects of this planned behavior. The store format choice for bulk grocery purchase despite being a rational context has not been conceptualized in the most accepted construct in attitude behavior, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Attitude-behavior linkage has been studied extensively in literature but there is still no consensus on the components of attitude, their interrelationship and resultant impact on conation. The Theory of Reasoned Action has evolved over time to incorporate perceived behavioral control and past behavior to improve its explanatory capacity as TPB; however, it has maintained its unidimensionalist approach and has not tested affect and cognition independently for its impact on behavior. It may therefore be relevant to explore the possibility of testing the proposed Converging framework of Affect and Cognition and comment on the relationship of the structural components of attitude and its impact on format choice. The impact of past behavior on future behavior in Theory of Planned Behavior has been ambiguous while there has not been much emphasis on the quality of past experience. The current research takes up the past experience quality and tests it in the attitude behavior relationship as an antecedent of actual behavior. This paper conceptualizes the store format choice behavior in the Theory of Planned Behavior framework by exploring the strength of attitude-behavior relationship mediated through behavioral intention and its impact on format choice as also the independent role of affect and cognition on the format choice.</div>

Impact of Merger of Housing Development Finance Corporation Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab on Shareholder Value Management

This study analyzes the impact of merger on the shareholder’s wealth through Economic Value Added (EVA) and Market Value Added (MVA) in Indian Banking Industry. The paper explains the major strategic reasons and various challenges of the high profile mergers of Indian Banking Industry. The paper has attempted to find out the impact of the merger on the acquirer bank’s profitability ratio, on its different variables like EVA, MVA, etc. This study also explores the fact that there is very little impact of the sub- prime crisis on the merger outcomes. Key Words: EVA (Economic Value Added), MVA (Market Value Added), Profitability Ratios, Sub Prime Crisi

Measuring Technical Efficiency of Indian Banking Sector in Post Subprime Crises Scenario: A Non Parametric Frontier Based Approach

This study gives a comparative analysis of the technical efficiency of top Indian banks during 2007-2011. This period is characterized by far reaching experience of sub-prime crisis (2008-2009) and its impact on Indian banking sector. Efficiency assessment of Indian banking sector has become highly imperative now a days because of intense competition, changing reforms, and instability in banking environment. This study uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a non parametric linear programming based technique, for evaluating the relative efficiency of top public, private and foreign banks in India. The present paper, based on empirical analysis, shows that the levels of input and output variables in efficiency measurement have changed significantly during this period and banks have improved their relative efficiency score over the period of time. Results support the fact that after sub-prime crisis, Advances (A) and Investments (I) are getting importance as output variables, while Operating Costs (OC), Fixed Assets (FA) and Capital (C) are considered as important input variables. This study also recommends that Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) could be a suitable tool for measuring relative efficiency score of Indian banking sector. Key words: Technical Efficiency, Sub Prime Crisis Period, Non Parametric Approach, Data Envelopment Analysis

Rheological inferences with uncertainty quantification

Fitting meaningful model parameters to relevant data is a valuable tool for inferring microstructural information from rheology. In this work, we focus on the asymptotically-nonlinear medium-amplitude oscillatory shear (MAOS) data, the next systematic step after small-amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS). The first part of this research is composed of new methods development and improvements in current practices for fitting MAOS. We develop a new, faster and material economical technique for MAOS enabling its nontrivial data acquisition much easier. We further propose confidence metrics for validating the single measurements of the new MAOS protocol. We remind the community that an honest uncertainty quantification of fit parameter estimates requires fitting SAOS+MAOS simultaneously. Even then there are subjective choices in fitting, particularly for SAOS data. We demonstrate that fitting with data uncertainty weighted least squares significantly reduces the effects of subjectivity. As a follow up, we provide a methodology for estimating uncertainties in single measurement SAOS data. In the second part of the research, we apply the ideas of previous part to fit the data on two entangled polyethylene melts: a linear polyethylene melt and its blend with a three-arm symmetric star polymer (5 weight % of star by composition). We show that the simplest model for entangled polymer melts i.e. the Doi-Edwards reptation model is not able to capture the MAOS data of our systems. We then proceed to fit various other sophisticated and mathematically more complex models categorizing them as time-strain separable (TSS) versus non-TSS MAOS models with a discrete or continuous spectrum parameterization for model parameters. We choose the most credible model from among these models using Bayesian information criterion (BIC). The most credible model for the linear polyethylene melt comes out to be a TSS MAOS model with a fractional Maxwellian continuous spectrum parameterization for SAOS, with a single nonlinear parameter whose fit value indicates: (1) a non-negligible polymer chain stretch compared to chain orientation, and (2) that the cross sectional area of the mean field tube around a chain deforms affinely with the average macroscopic deformation. Interestingly for the polymer blend, while the differences in data compared to pure linear melt are minor, they are sufficient to alter the choice of most credible model. For the blend case, the most credible model is still a TSS MAOS model with a fit value of nonlinear parameter that gives the same interpretation for chain stretch and tube deformation, however, the response for SAOS is now best explained by a lognormal continuous spectrum compared to the fractional Maxwell continuous spectrum for the pure linear melt case. This approach of selecting the most credible model for a given dataset has the potential to inform what physics and its governing mathematics might be missing from the well-accepted models

The Impact of Blockchain on the Healthcare Environment

Bitcoin was the first electronic payment system to truly exploit the power of blockchain technology. There is currently the problem of health information inequality and health information leakage. Physicians should conduct essential routine work that wastes hu-man and financial resources and delays treatment processes. Blockchain provides a trust-free and cost-reducing solution to manage and secure valuable health information. The aim of this study is to discuss research into blockchain healthcare applications. It addresses the management of medical data, as well as the sharing of medical infor-mation, the sharing of images, and the management of logs. We also discuss papers that overlap with other fields, such as the Internet of Things, information management, drug monitoring along their supply chain, and aspects of security and privacy. Finally, we analyze and compare the research papers in the medical area and also summarize the strategies used in healthcare with their pros and cons

The Basic Cardiovascular Responses to Postural Changes, Exercise, and Cold Pressor Test: Do They Vary in Accordance with the Dual Constitutional Types of Ayurveda?

According to Ayurveda, the native Indian system of healthcare, three Doshas, namely, Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, are the basic mutually reciprocal mechanisms that are responsible for the maintenance of homeostasis in human beings. Ayurveda classifies entire human population into seven constitutional types (Prakriti), based on the dominance of any single or a combination of two or three Doshas. Considering the fact that, in the recent past there have been several studies that have proposed some important genetic, biochemical and haematological bases for Prakriti, we conducted the present study in 90 randomly selected clinically healthy volunteers belonging to dual constitutional types (Dvandvaja Prakriti) to evaluate the variability of heart rate and arterial blood pressure in response to specific postural changes, exercise, and cold pressor test. The results of this study, in general, suggest that these basic cardiovascular responses do not vary significantly as per the dual constitutional types. However, we noted a significant fall in the diastolic blood pressure immediately after performing the isotonic exercise for five minutes, in Vata-Kapha individuals in comparison to the other two groups, namely, Pitta-Kapha and Vata-Pitta

Acceptance of non-invasive prenatal testing by cell free foetal DNA for foetal aneuploidy in a developing country: experience at a tertiary care centre in India

Background: Non-invasive prenatal testing is a new technique which is deepening its root all over the world. Its tremendous potential lies in its ability of using cell free fetal DNA from the plasma of pregnant women. However, to what extent the technology has reached to a common person is also to be given a thought. hence the study was planned to assess the acceptability of non-invasive prenatal testing in Indian settings, to study about the awareness and baseline knowledge about Down’s syndrome, to study the correlation between various indications of prenatal testing for aneuploidy and results of noninvasive prenatal testing.Methods: Noninvasive cell free fetal NA testing for aneuploidy was an informed patient choice after pre-test counseling. Patients with a positive test result were offered invasive prenatal diagnosis for confirmation of test results.Results: The diagnostic potential of cell free DNA for fetal aneuploidy matched equally with invasive tests avoiding slight but yet considerable risk of invasive tests. However, we found that, 90 % of patients in a tertiary centre hospital in India were not aware of trisomy 21 and various options available for prenatal screening for aneuploidy.Conclusions: Newer genomic technology involving cell free maternal DNA is a new storm in prenatal diagnosis. Its application in clinical practice is the need of the hour, however, the lack of awareness, high cost and unavailability of the test in the country appears to be a major limiting factor for its poor acceptability