Customer value creation for the emerging market middle class: perspectives from case studies in India

This paper examines the customer value creation framework and discusses the design of the key elements for product development in emerging markets. A scientometric/bibliometric scoping literature review identifies a clear gap in the current research in studying prerequisites for customer value creation in emerging market contexts. Observing experiences of Daikin and Renault in the context of India, the purpose of this paper is to identify value creation strategic choices following which comprehensive customer value offerings in products and services can be successfully created by firms across the four facets of the framework in emerging markets. Value creation strategies include having a nuanced understanding of the latent contextual needs to offer localized high-quality products that embody distinct functional attributes that provide a functional value and being responsive to specific emotional needs and epistemic experiences of the target customers in product and service offerings to deliver a greater experiential value. Furthermore, the products should adopt a localized operational excellence strategy throughout the value chain to reduce costs for competitive price offerings in order to deliver superior cost value and develop brand image and equity strategy, thereby allowing for the provision of a greater symbolic value. Experiences of successful firms demonstrate the need for extensive local research into the emerging market followed by localization of production and development of a distribution network to be able to offer customized products at competitive prices whilst maintaining the brand value. We thus extend the customer value creation framework by introducing localization as a necessary condition for successful organizational performance in emerging markets

Customer value creation for the emerging market middle class: Perspectives from case studies in India

This paper examines the customer value creation framework and discusses the design of the key elements for product development in emerging markets. A scientometric/bibliometric scoping literature review identifies a clear gap in the current research in studying prerequisites for customer value creation in emerging market contexts. Observing experiences of Daikin and Renault in the context of India, the purpose of this paper is to identify value creation strategic choices following which comprehensive customer value offerings in products and services can be successfully created by firms across the four facets of the framework in emerging markets. Value creation strategies include having a nuanced understanding of the latent contextual needs to offer localized high-quality products that embody distinct functional attributes that provide a functional value and being responsive to specific emotional needs and epistemic experiences of the target customers in product and service offerings to deliver a greater experiential value. Furthermore, the products should adopt a localized operational excellence strategy throughout the value chain to reduce costs for competitive price offerings in order to deliver superior cost value and develop brand image and equity strategy, thereby allowing for the provision of a greater symbolic value. Experiences of successful firms demonstrate the need for extensive local research into the emerging market followed by localization of production and development of a distribution network to be able to offer customized products at competitive prices whilst maintaining the brand value. We thus extend the customer value creation framework by introducing localization as a necessary condition for successful organizational performance in emerging markets

Organizational Capabilities for Mass Market Innovations in the Emerging Economies: Insights from an Automobile Firm in India

Of late, there has been a dramatic shift of world economic power towards less-developed countries, in particular, emerging economies (EEs). The growing influence of EEs is shifting the global competitive landscape, as these new economies are a great source of opportunity, inspiration and innovation. However, companies face the challenge to identify what organizational capabilities are required to serve mass market customers to meet their unique demand and price-performance conditions. In depth empirical studies in this context are largely unexplored in the academic literature. Focusing on the product innovation for India and other EEs with the creation of passenger vehicles from the Indian multinational automaker- Mahindra & Mahindra, our analysis highlights that capabilities to recombine are required to achieve an altered price-performance package. Furthermore, linkage capabilities are required to economize on resources. Also, capability to modularize is required for product performance improvements to serve multiple tiered customers. Using case study design, our study aspires to contribute to the innovation literature on mass markets formulating a set of testable propositions to advance research in this subject

A Systems Perspective in Examining Industry Clusters: Case Studies of Clusters in Russia and India

This article explores an examination of industry clusters from a systems perspective. We analyze Russia’s pharmaceutical clusters and India’s automobile clusters in terms of the systems concepts of holism, emergence, and open systems. We further consider the aspects of human capital investment and the availability of professional labor, infrastructure, private–public sector collaboration, support for funding and commercialization, as well as innovation corporate culture, when examining the institutional pillars supporting the development and growth of industry clusters within the national innovation ecosystems. The findings illustrate how industry clusters can be viewed from a systems perspective. We also highlight how the institutional pillars underpinning national innovation ecosystems can be applied to an industry cluster level, particularly in emerging countries. The article provides implications for theory and practice in the application of a systems perspective as a way to foster industry cluster innovation and promote a more effective national innovation ecosystem

Professionalism in artificial intelligence: The link between technology and ethics

Ethical conduct of artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly becoming an ever more pressing issue considering the inevitable integration of these technologies into our lives. The literature so far discussed the responsibility domains of AI; this study asks the question of how to instil ethicality into AI technologies. Through a three-step review of the AI ethics literature, we find that (i) the literature is weak in identifying solutions in ensuring ethical conduct of AI, (ii) the role of professional conduct is underexplored, and (iii) based on the values extracted from studies about AI ethical breaches, we thus propose a conceptual framework that offers professionalism as a solution in ensuring ethical AI. The framework stipulates fairness, nonmaleficence, responsibility, freedom, and trust as values necessary for developers and operators, as well as transparency, privacy, fairness, trust, solidarity, and sustainability as organizational values to ensure sustainability in ethical development and operation of AI

Strategic Sensemaking and Political Connections in Unstable Institutional Contexts

Emerging economies are often characterized by pervasive institutional changes and resultant institutional voids. In the absence of strong formal institutions, firms rely on informal institutions to fill these voids. This article argues that the process of sensemaking for firms in turbulent environments is continuous and dependent on cyclical adjustments connecting performance via a feedback loop to scanning and interpretation. Far from being a one-time occurrence, environmental sensemaking is a process operating in accord with continuous environmental changes. This study’s findings derive from an in-depth analysis of a Russian pharmaceutical firm and an Indian telecommunications firm, and demonstrate that entrepreneurs make sense and gain legitimacy through political connections. The study further finds that improvements in institutional environments reduce the salience of political networks, thereby creating a choice for firms to rely on formed market mechanisms or continue along the path of political connections that evolve to public–private partnerships