This thesis examines the evolution of platform dynamics over time. The dissertation focuses on a long-standing gap in platform research as the lack of an understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of platform activities. The dissertation attempts to address this gap by studying the activities of two video platforms like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix in India. The research uses a natural language processing technique known as Structural Topic Modelling. We employ this technique on the media coverage of Amazon Prime Video and Netflix in India. Using independent labellers, we inductively identify topic categories across time and study their prevalence. Additionally, we leverage the benefits of structural topic modelling and identify the linkages between these topics. Using the Cluster Louvain method, we identify communities of topics and study the evolution of topics and communities over time.nThe results indicate the similarities and differences in the platform strategy of Amazon Prime Video and Netflix over time. Both platforms seem to focus on similar objectives' building a consumer base to build and enhance network effects. Additionally, the evolutionary dynamics suggest similarities in the relationship between the platform and its complementors over time. Both platforms depend more on complementors to attract consumers and create value. Over time, platforms change this relationship to appropriate value for themselves by relying on producing original content. This results in an expansion of firm scope over time. The difference between the two platforms arises in the mechanisms to achieve these objectives. Netflix chooses to build network effects at a global level and accordingly ally with partners in allied industries to this effect. Netflix also preferred to push global content over building domestic content. Amazon Prime Video chose to rely on domestic partners and heavily favoured domestic content. Amazon Prime Video also leveraged its other platformsnx | P a g ento drive subscribers across different platforms. Thus, both platforms adopted different governance mechanisms in their choice of complementors and the nature of their relationship with them. External data suggests that Amazon Prime Video performed better than Netflix in India during the study period.nThe findings highlight the importance of platform governance in platform strategy. We argue that platform governance is the fulcrum of strategy and forms the basis of evolutionary dynamics in platforms. Our framework argues that Platform governance influences value creation and is responsible for the state of network effects. Additionally, platform governance influences firm scope and value appropriation. Thus, we argue that platform governance rather than network effects must be considered the distinguishing factor of platform success.

A vast body of literature exists that acknowledges the role and impact of both creativity and innovation. However, reaching to innovation from a creative idea is not a guaranteed outcome. Leaders have been found to be a key factor impacting creativity and innovation. This study aims to explore the following research question: To investigate how does leader humility and leader envy impact innovation at the team level. It aims to examine the mediating role of psychological safety. It also examines the mediating role of idea championing for creativity to innovation at the team level and examines the moderating role of political skill. Results from 106 R&D teams with 371 team members working in 14 institutes showed that leader humility relates positively to team creativity, idea championing, team innovation, and psychological safety, and leader envy had a negative impact on team creativity, idea championing, team innovation and psychological safety. Leader humility was shown to enhance team innovation by fostering psychological safety, whereas leader envy worsened team innovation by hampering psychological safety. Further, political skill was found to be moderating the idea championing and team innovation relationship.nThe study aims to advance the understanding of the process and intermediary factors that impact innovation in teams. It will help us to identify the process as well as boundary conditions that impact team innovation. The study makes contributions to the recent literature on leader characteristics and team innovation. The study is of significance to the leaders and managers of teams that are engaged in innovative pursuits.

The National Education Policy (2020) and the National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage (2022) have introduced a new integrated pedagogical and curricular framework for children in the age group of 3-8 years, who are at present covered under pre-primary and primary schools. What does this integration of two stages, each with its own history and policies, but sharing a common vision of a child-centred approach to learning, mean for the ground-level actors in the public system? I explore this question through an examination of how the two key educators of the 3-8 age group, the anganwadi worker and the Class 1-2 teacher, seen as a dyad working in the same socio-cultural context, but under different government ministries, enact early childhood education policies that belong to the same ‘policy archive’ of child-centred discourse. I draw on the policy enactment literature to study how discursive interpretations of policy, the manner in which structures selectively shape action, and the agentic actions of actors, combine to shape educational practice. I adopt an interpretivist approach to the analysis. Non-participant observations of the teacher-anganwadi worker practice in six villages of Gujarat, India, semi-structured interviews of the educators, and analysis of various policy documents were the main methods used. A within-case analysis of the six sites was followed by a cross-case thematic analysis. In addition, secondary data on projects carried out by Class-1 teachers to address perceived deficiencies at the entry level was analyzed to develop an understanding of the disjuncture between the two stages. The key finding of this study is that the dominant patterns of structured interactions of the two sets of educators with various stakeholders are similar (consonant), but they serve to uphold negative educational outcomes. In a few cases, the non-dominant counter-discursive attempts to change structures show the possibilities that training systems can build upon. It is, therefore, important to assess the net impact of policy enactment in a common setting through a study of the actors’ consonant-dissonant actions in upholding-challenging dysfunctional structures. Governmental training systems must inculcate a sense of shared responsibility but concerted action for a successful integrated foundational stage.

This thesis, through two essays, examines how policy interventions for climate adaptation cannfoster collective action for vulnerable communities as well as the configuration of conditionsnat the community level that leads to early adoption and collective action, respectively. Itnstudies the case of a centrally sponsored adaptation interventions for communities ofnagriculturalists, pastoralists, and fishers in Kachchh, Gujarat. Under the National AdaptationnFund for Climate Change (NAFCC), the adaptation intervention implemented by the StatenGovernment agency aims to build adaptive capacity of the three communities.nThe first essay studies how policy instruments drive collective action for a given economicnnature of collective adaptation goods provided through government interventions. Bynfocusing on NAFCC interventions requiring collective action across the three communities ofnpastoralists, fishers, and agriculturalists of Kachchh, the essay examines how the free ridernproblem is tackled at the policy plan, implementation, and adoption stage. The study findsnthat adaptation goods that require collective action for its uptake can have club goodncharacteristics or the relatively well-understood common pool resource properties. The studynfurther highlights the role of beneficiaries in co-producing these two kinds of collectivenadaptation goods depending on the incentives they face.nThrough fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the second essay studies thenconfiguration of conditions that lead to early adoption and collective action among nearidentical,nsame-sized 20 farmer groups that received a shared underground tank to harvestnrainwater each as adaptation solution funded by NAFCC. The study finds that these conditionsnare connected to factors that impact cost of transforming the status quo for the group andntheir internal norms. Sole reliance on farm income and costlier coping mechanisms involvingnmigration in the past are found to be necessary conditions (but not sufficient) for earlynadoption of planned adaptation and collective action by farmer groups. Further, five sufficientnconfigurations for early adoption and two sufficient configurations for collective action arenidentified.nThe study finds that communities devise their own rules and arrangements to tailor thencollective adaptation interventions to meet their adaptation needs which are embeddednwithin the policy framework of the intervention and local social and political context thatninfluence their legitimacy.

There is limited literature exploring the breadth of menstrual practices and how it affects student engagement levels in school among adolescent girls in India. This research tries to address this gap by (a) developing a new scale to understand menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) practices among students and teachers, and, (b) examining how MHH beliefs among students and teachers are linked to student engagement.nStudent and teacher versions of the MHH scale consisting of 80 and 60 items, respectively, were constructed using a literature review of quantitative and qualitative studies conducted in India and other lower- and middle-income countries. A cross-sectional survey was conducted online with 703 adolescent girls across classes VII to X and 318 teachers across eight schools in Delhi and Ahmedabad. Firstly, we conducted a series of factor analyses to examine the validity of MHH scale measures for both student and teacher versions. Next, multilevel modelling was employed to check how the student and teacher perceptions of MHH influenced the engagement level of adolescent girls in school. The final MHH-student and teacher version scale comprised of 58 and 39 items, respectively, capturing the gamut of menstrual practices across personal, interpersonal, and environmental factors. A ten-factor solution was the best fit for the MHH-student version data (root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA]=0.04; comparative fit index [CFI]=0.92; Goodness of fit-index [GFI]=0.91; standardised root means square residual [SRMR] = 0.06). The reliability for the sub-scales lies in the range of 0.67-0.86. For MHH- Teacher Version scale, a six-factor solution was the best fit for the data (RMSEA=0.03; CFI=0.95; GFI=0.95; SRMR = 0.05). The reliability of the sub-scales lies in the range of 0.68-0.81. Concurrent validity for both the scales was supported by using the hypothesized relationship between the sub-scale scores and confidence to manage the menstrual period. Results from multilevel modelling showed that teachers’ MHH beliefs (β=0.14, p<0.01) was a significant predictor of student engagement.nvnIn contrast, students’ MHH beliefs (β=0.02, p>0.10) was not a significant predictor of student engagement.nMHH Student and Teacher Scale are the first measure to capture the breadth of menstrual practices, guided by the relevant literature and framework. It will help various non-governmental organizations, policymakers and researchers understand the ground reality of menstrual health in a particular context and contribute towards developing the literature further in this regard. Future studies should explore and validate these scales in a different context.

The start-up ecosystem in India is currently the third largest in the world, trailing only behind USA and China. However, women were founders of 11% of the Indian start-ups. Starkly, only 6% of the funding goes to companies with women as a founder or co-founder and for companies with only women founders, the percentage of the total funding drops to 1.5%. This research primarily explores the role investor biases play in explaining the persistence of the gender gap in accessing funds.nTwo studies were designed to study investment-biases among the majority of male investors and majority dynamics leading to the marginalization of women's voices among investor groups. Essay 1, an observational field-based study, focused on the nature of linguistic and psycholinguistic patterns of interactions of investors with men and women founders. Textual analysis (LIWC-22) was used to analyse 42 such conversations, and differences were found in expressed emotion, motivational words and stances and social processes toward men and women founders. Essay 2 studied the emergent group dynamics and outcomes of funding decisions for men or women founders in teams with varying numbers of women. A 2 (gender of the founder) *5 (5 compositions of groups) factor experiment was designed. 349 men and 273 women who were part of 122 groups decided on funding either a male or female founder. Significant patterns in team dynamics emerged when women in teams increased. It was found that as the number of women increased, it was better for the women founders.nThe findings of both essays are discussed in light of the literature on systemic patterns of investor bias at the individual and group level towards women-led ventures. Recommendations to improve the gender funding gap are made.

India is amongst the fastest-growing major economies in the world today. Financing from the organized sector, particularly banking, remains the fulcrum for supporting and sustaining India’s growth. Three aspects, inter alia, in this bankingled development process, are important - a contributive and supportive monetary policy, regulatory reforms addressing public welfare needs, and technological innovation supporting banking access and services. In this thesis, we sequentially examine these intertwined aspects.nIn the first essay, I nowcast monthly headline Inflation using Dynamic Factor Models in a mixed-frequency set-up. The study leverages crowdsourced prices of 22 essential commodities collected daily from 75 centers in conjunction with a host of market-based measures like yield spread, crude oil price, money supply, reserve money, stock prices, and exchange rate. The forecast using the proposednmethod outperforms the forecast from the Reserve Bank of India’s Survey of Professional Forecasters and forecasts from the conventional methods. I further model asymmetry in monthly retail inflation realization using the Quantile AutoregressivenDistributed Lag Mixed-Frequency Data Sampling (QADL-MIDAS) proposed by Ghysels and Iania. The study shows that the persistence of inflation is quantile dependent and non-extreme quantiles are mean-reverting under the flexible inflation targeting regime adopted by India in 2016. On the other hand, extreme quantiles show a unit-root-like behavior.nIn the second essay, I estimate the demand for retail deposits in Indian banks using a discrete-choice structural model of demand. The study models consumer behavior using a variety of bank characteristics and prices viz. service fees anddeposit interest rates. I find that consumers respond favorably to an increase in the deposit rate, decrease in service fees, and improvement in bank characteristics likenemployees per branch, number of branches, number of Automatic Teller Machines per branch, and electronic payments infrastructure. Using the estimated structural parameters, I further study the welfare implications of saving rate deregulation in India. The study establishes that the saving rate deregulation of 2011 led to a significant increase in welfare during the years immediately following the deregulation.nIn the third essay on FinTech in payments, I study the adoption of digital payment technologies over the last decade. Using a difference-in-differences design, the study assesses if the demonetization exercise of 2016 led to enhanced adoption of digital payments. I further study the evolution of digital payments adoption accounting for exogenous shocks like demonetization and nationwide lockdown innthe wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found insufficient evidence in support of the claim that COVID-19 led to enhanced adoption of digital channels (as measured by the volume of transactions as a percentage of GDP).

This thesis studies three essays based on hub location problems (HLPs) wherein hubs have limited capacities.nWe specifically look at two issues that can severely degrade the performance of a hub-and-spokennetwork: i) congestion at hubs, and ii) interdiction of hubs.nIn the first essay, we study an HLP that includes setting up hubs with appropriate capacity levels tonminimize the capacity installation and congestion costs. The resulting mixed-integer non-linear programn(MINLP) models in the literature are challenging to solve. Hence, we propose two new MINLP modelsnof the problem, which outperform the existing two models in the literature. Next, we present ninendifferent MISOCP-based reformulations for each of the MINLP models. From our extensive computationalnexperiments using two well-known datasets, we suggest the overall MISOCP-based reformulation,nwhich solves the problem 20–60 times faster compared to the existing model/method in the literature.nIn the second essay, we extend the first essay by considering the effect of congestion in a capacitatednhub-and-spoke network subjected to interdiction. We model the problem as a bi- level (max-min)nprogram between an adversary (attacker) and a network operator (defender). The adversary acts first atnthe upper-level to interdict a subset of the hubs. The network operator acts second at the lower levelnto route the flows through the remaining surviving hubs to minimize the routing and congestion costs,nwhich the adversary at the upper level tries to maximize. Incorporating congestion at the lower levelnintroduces non-linearity, rendering the bi-level problem extremely challenging to solve. To this end, wenpropose two exact alternate solution approaches: i) an inner-approximation based approach (IBA); andnii) a second-order conic programming-based approach (SBA). Our computational studies suggest thatnIBA consistently outperforms SBA for all the tested instances.nIn the third essay, we study the interdiction problem of a capacitated hub-and-spoke network subjectednto uncertain demand. We model it as a robust optimization problem, wherein the demand uncertaintynis modelled using different uncertainty sets, namely column, ellipsoidal, hose, and hybrid. Introducingnrobustness in the interdiction problem results in a tri-level formulation, for which we propose single levelnreductions. We show that accounting for uncertainty can result in a significantly different set of criticalnhubs.

E-commerce is proliferating, consequently, the need to make informed decisions. Many ecommerce platforms have adopted data-driven solutions in various applications, such as product recommendation and fraud detection. This dissertation explores how platform decisions on review recommendation, packaging design, and order delivery can be enhanced by leveraging advancednmachine learning and optimization methods.nThe first essay addresses the review subset selection problem. Sifting through a large corpus of reviews is taxing on customers. Though prior works address this problem by recommending a subset of informative reviews, they fail to account for review quality resulting in suboptimal recommendations. In this essay, we propose two novel criteria to account for review quality and present an optimization framework to leverage the same in recommending high-quality, informative reviews. We establish the superiority of the approach by conducting user experiments on the Prolific platform.nThe second essay addresses the e-commerce box-sizing problem. E-commerce packages are notorious for their inefficient usage of space. More than one-quarter volume of a typical package comprises air and filler material. The inefficient usage of space results in increased transportation and material costs. Therefore, designing an optimal set of packaging box sizes is crucial. Priornapproaches for solving this problem are not scalable. This essay proposes a scalable three-stage optimization framework combining unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, and tree search to design optimal box sizes. We demonstrate the superiority of the approach by conducting experiments on real-world and synthetic datasets.nThe third essay addresses the last-mile delivery problem in e-commerce. The problem is crucial as leading e-commerce firms commonly report delivery failure rates of around 15%. Current approaches to the problem do not account for customer availability; therefore, schedules followed by delivery executives are optimized for the shortest tour distance resulting in missed deliveries.nMissed deliveries cause a significant increase in fuel, storage, and package handling costs. We propose a prescriptive analytics framework for addressing this problem. Our framework generates delivery schedules by predicting appropriate time periods for order delivery. We demonstrate the benefits of our approach by performing numerical experiments on real-life delivery hub datanobtained from a leading e-commerce firm.

This thesis examines discretionary managerial decisions and investigates their association with the behavioralnbiases of market participants. We study managerial discretion in the context of repricing employeenstock options (ESOs), audit opinion shopping, and misclassifying items in the financial statements.nESO repricing helps realign employee incentives and reduce executive turnover. However, optionnrepricing critics regard repricing as a sign of managerial entrenchment and contributing to executives’nself-dealing behavior at the cost of shareholders’ interests. Our first essay investigates the US firms’ tendencynto engage in repricing activity depending on the temporal shifts in firm-specific investor attentionnand market-wide investor sentiment. The results indicate a positive influence of investor distraction andna negative impact of investor sentiment on firms’ stock options repricing likelihood. With the temporarynloosening of monitoring constraints due to the distraction of their institutional shareholders, top executivesnin a firm are more likely to reprice their stock options to maximize private benefits.nOur second essay studies the managerial decision to switch or retain their auditor depending on thenlikelihood of receiving a clean audit opinion from the successor audit firm. We examine US firms’ auditnopinion shopping activities and their association with temporal shifts in firm-specific investor attention andnmarket-wide sentiment, including investor and managerial sentiment. We focus our analysis on two typesnof audit opinions, going concern and material weakness in internal controls audit opinion. Our results suggestna positive association between firms’ going concern-opinion shopping tendencies and the prevailingnmarket-wide investor sentiment. Our findings are consistent with a lower cost of opinion shopping andnweak shareholder monitoring in a high investor sentiment period (Amin et al. 2021). Our investigation alsonindicates a positive influence of market-wide managerial sentiment on firms’ audit opinion shopping activities.nContrary to investor and managerial sentiment, we find no significant relation between firm-specificninvestor attention and firms’ opinion shopping activity.nFinally, our third essay studies US firms’ tendency to misclassify their core expenses as negative specialnitems and estimates its relationship with firm-specific investor attention and market-wide sentiment. Ournfindings indicate a negative influence of investor sentiment and a positive impact of market-wide executivensentiment on firms’ classification shifting activity. Our evidence is driven by managers’ forced turnovernbeing less sensitive to poor firm performance in a high investor sentiment phase (Si et al. 2020). Ournfindings are also consistent with optimistic managers having unrealistic expectations about their firms’nfuture performance and may pursue to achieve those by reporting higher earnings in the short term (Hsiehnet al. 2014). We fail to find evidence to confirm a significant association between classification shifting and prevailing firm-specific investor attention. In addition to the empirical contributions, our researchnhas important implications for the investors, regulators, and audit committees, significantly when auditornindependence is compromised.

Shareholder ratification of corporate actions is an important part of the corporate governance process. In this thesis, I examine the determinants of shareholder dissent in the context of three actions proposed for shareholder approval at the annual meeting of Indian companies, namely, adoption of annual financial statements, appointment of directors, and reappointment ofnauditors of the firm.nIn the first essay, I study the relationship between shareholders’ voting dissent on adoption of financial statements and the quality of reported earnings in Indian firms. I find that dissent expressed by institutional shareholders is inversely related to the firm’s earnings quality. In contrast, retail shareholder dissent is influenced by firm’s financial performance and stock market returns. Further, my results suggest that firms respond to institutional dissent by reporting earnings of improved quality in the subsequent year. This study contributes to the literature on shareholder perceptions of firm’s financial statements and identifies differencesnin voting patterns of different types of shareholders on ratification of firm’s financial statements.nIn the second essay, I examine the impact of directors’ education and work experience on shareholder votes on their appointments to firm boards. I find that institutional shareholders’ dissent is negatively related to the directors’ education level. The results suggest thatninstitutions express lower dissent when directors hold a master’s degree in management. I also find evidence of higher shareholder support for directors with government experience. Overall, the findings of the study contribute to knowledge on shareholder’s participation in director elections and their voting behaviour in light of directors’ biographical characteristics. nIn the third and final essay, I examine shareholder votes on auditor reappointments and examine if institutional dissent on auditor reappointment acts as a disciplining mechanism on subsequent auditor actions. My results indicate that institutional shareholder dissent is positively related to relative magnitude of non-audit services (NAS) fees. More importantly, I observe that auditors are sensitive to institutional dissent and respond by charging lower NAS fees and providing superior audit quality in the subsequent year to signal increased independence and objectivity. My findings reinforce the role of institutional shareholders as important monitors in the corporate governance process.

The past two decades have witnessed a shift from centrally managed supply chains to decentralized supply chains (Netessine, 2004). In decentralized supply chains, interests of individual members may not be aligned with each other. This dissertation is an attempt to understand how the interactions among various agents in a decentralized supply chain are impacted by different supply chain characteristics. Specifically, we explore the role of inventory and technology on manufacturer-retailer interactions in decentralized supply chains. This dissertation consists of three essays, which focus on the following supply chain characteristics: (i) the manufacturer’s cost learning (ii) the retailer’s adoption of tracking technology, and (iii) mass customization facilitated by using 3D printing. In the first essay, we study how the manufacturer’s cost learning impacts the retailer’s inventory decisions in a decentralized supply chain. Cost learning refers to the manufacturer’snability to reduce the marginal production cost due to learning from production activities. We highlight the ubiquity of cost learning across various industries and discuss how the manufacturer’s cost learning interacts with the retailer’s strategic inventory. Anand, Anupindi, and Bassok (2008) have demonstrated that retailers have an incentive to carry inventory strategically as a bargaining chip to induce the upstream manufacturer to drop future wholesale prices. The manufacturer, anticipating the retailer’s strategic behavior, responds by increasing the early period wholesale price. However, when the manufacturer experiences cost learning, whereby the future production cost reduces with the cumulative production in the early period, she also has some incentive to reduce the early period wholesale price to induce the retailer to purchase more. Hence, in the presence of cost learning, the manufacturer faces a dilemma: should she hold inventory, bearing her holding cost, to progress faster on the learning curve, or should she adjust her wholesale price to encouragenthe retailer to carry inventory, who bears his holding cost but also uses it as a bargaining chip to lower future wholesale prices? We formulate a game-theoretic model to address this dilemma and characterize the optimal inventory holding pattern in the supply chain. In the second essay, we study the retailer’s adoption of tracking technology and its interaction with his strategic inventory decision. In the absence of strategic inventory, the retailer’s costbenefit analysis of tracking technology adoption is rather straightforward. The benefits from eliminating shrinkage costs are compared with the tagging cost required to adopt trackingntechnology. However, in the presence of strategic inventory, the retailer’s tracking technology decision becomes more nuanced. It does benefit the retailer by eliminating the retailer’s shrinkage cost, but it simultaneously eliminates the additional wholesale price reduction induced by shrinkage, over and above what is induced by strategic inventory. When the retailer adopts a tracking technology, his total order quantity may decrease, thereby reducing his bargaining power to extract a lower future wholesale price. In addition, it also imposes a tagging cost. This raises an important question for a retailer who carries strategic inventory.nShould he adopt tracking technology, which eliminates shrinkage but also eliminates the benefit of wholesale price reduction induced by shrinkage? If yes, what is the impact of such a technology adoption on the supplier’s profit? We formulate a stylized game to capture the strategic inventory decision and technology adoption decision of the retailer. In the third essay, we investigate the role of 3D printing in the design of a supply chain that leverages this technology to sell customized products. 3D printing allows manufacturers tonproduce and sell customized products that can fit the exact customer specifications (biometric profile). Ensuring fit requires capturing each customer’s dimensions, which can be achieved by delegating the process to retailers. This often involves on-site production of the fitted product, which implies ceding pricing power to the retailer. Alternatively, the manufacturer can involve customers directly, usually via a mobile application. By doing so, the manufacturer retains the pricing power, but subjects herself to issues stemming from data imperfections, and consequently, a potential lack of fit of the product. Hence, the manufacturer faces a challenge: should she delegate data collection and 3D printing cost to the retailer or should she bear the 3D printing cost while engaging with the customer directly to carry out data collection? We resolve the manufacturer’s dilemma by revealing the interactions among the manufacturer, the retailer and the customers using a theoretical model.

In two essays, I examine how elements in online and offline consumer journeys can be used to study consumer behaviour.nIn the first essay, I bring in the network theory perspective as an element to study online consumer behaviour. Using the clickstream data, I show how consumer browsing can be interpreted as a network to gain richer insights. I hypothesize using the tenets of network theory, flow of information and orchestration of the flow. I show that when consumers browse, they visit websites multiple times, revisit websites, and sometimes visit only one website to make their decisions. This behaviour is depicted by using three network properties, i.e., total connections (TCs), betweenness centralization (BC), and network density (ND), to determine their average basket value. Further, I examine the moderating role of contingent variables, variety and volume of information on consumer online search behaviour. I find that the ABV decreases when the TCs and BCs increase. However, ABV increases when ND increases. To validate the results, I conduct several robustness checks (involving endogeneity, benchmark models, sample selection bias, omitted variable bias, alternative dependent and independent variables, and four product categories).nIn the second essay, I explore the elements contributing to offline in-store consumer journeys. I hypothesize using the stimulus-load theory from the store environment literature. By combining data from multiple sources, such as store sales and blueprints, I create a novel dataset and validate the importance of inter-department proximity (IDP). Results show that as the IDP of two departments increases, joint sales (combined sales of those two departments) first increase and then decrease, depicting an ‘inverted-U’ relationship. I consider three (external and internal) factors for the department in establishing boundary conditions for IDP. Results show that the type of departments and department layout positively impact the relationship between IDP and joint sales among external factors. Finally, with the internal factor, category differential, I find that the as the difference in the number of categories between two departments increases, the relationship between IDP and joint sales strengthens. I conduct several robustness checks (endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, benchmark models, multicollinearity, sample-selection bias) to establish the results.

This Ph.D. dissertation comprises three essays on the role of information in financial markets.nThe first essay examines the impact of the introduction of a minimum buyback mandate innopen market repurchases. In line with our theoretical model, we find that the mandatenstrengthens the informational role of open market buybacks which can be attributed to thenhigher cost of buyback announcements. This is evidenced by a significant increase in thenabnormal stock returns around the buyback announcements and insiders purchasing buybacknfirms’ stock against increased selling in the period without the minimum buyback. Thenmarket timing associated with buyback execution declines, accompanied by a more consistentnbuyback intensity, implying a weaker instinct for opportunistic buybacks. Furthermore,nimplying a significant decline in the option value associated with open market buybacks, wenalso document an increase in the propensity of firms with more illiquid stocks to buybacknthrough fixed price tenders. Our findings suggest that the regulatory change has lowered then‘cheap-talk’ motives associated with the announcement of open market buybacks.nIn the second essay, we investigate how risk information is inferred in normal and turbulentnmarkets. The study focuses on two potential sources of risk information, earningsnannouncements of firms and changes in the market risk premium. We employ a recentlynproposed measure to infer the risk information that limits the impact of event risk whilenestimating forward-looking information from option prices. We find that both earnings announcementsnand the changes in market risk impact firm-level discount rates, but bothnsources exhibit a significant time variation. The spillover from the market is lower in favorablenmarket conditions while it has a stronger impact on firm risk information comparednto firm announcements in crisis periods. Using COVID-19 as an exogenous shock, we shownthat the spillover of risk information from peer firms becomes insignificant during a crisisnperiod while a firm’s own earnings announcements have a diminished role in impacting firmnrisk information. The results indicate lower attention to firm-specific risk factors in times ofna systemic crisis, in contrast to normal times.nIn the third essay, we propose novel and intuitive measures of investor disagreement thatncapture hitherto unknown dimensions of disagreement. Our measures are based on an appropriatelynweighted statistical distance between the components of a mixture lognormalndistribution. While we find that some of our measures have a positive correlation with existingnmeasures, we show that our measures capture dimensions of disagreement not capturednby the existing measures. In addition, our measures allow us to recover belief disagreement,nfree from time-varying preferences, which is not possible with the existing measures.

The thesis focuses on the development of efficient algorithms for solving the non-convex problems arisingnin different application areas involving operations and supply chains.nIn the first essay, we propose an exact method for solving a general class of mixed integer concave minimizationnproblems. The piecewise linear inner-approximation of the concave function is achieved usingnan auxiliary linear program leading to a bilevel program, which is solved using CPLEX after reducing it tona single level using KKT conditions. Using the proposed method, we solve two different classes of problems:nthe concave knapsack problem and the concave production-transportation problem. It is observednthat the proposed method computationally outperforms the benchmark methods by an order of magnitudenin most of the test cases for both problems.nIn the second essay, we propose an exact algorithm for solving non-convex optimization problemsnin which the presence of an inverse S-shaped function makes the problem non-convex. Using a similarnapproach used in the first essay, the concave part of the inverse S-shaped function is inner-approximatednbefore solving it using the cutting plane technique. The method converges to global optima throughnpiecewise linear inner and outer approximations. To test the computational efficiency of the algorithm, wensolve a facility location problem with an inverse S-shaped production cost function. We also report somenimportant managerial insights.nIn the third essay, we report exact methods to solve the hub location problem involving concave interhubntransportation costs. The flows between non-hub nodes are usually routed through one or two hubs.nThe transportation of flows through inter-hub links results in the bundling of flows leading to economiesnof scale. Hence, the inter-hub transportation cost acts as a concave function forming a mixed-integernconcave minimization problem. In this essay, we exactly solve the concave uncapacitated hub locationnproblems (CUHLP) with single allocation and multiple allocations. Here, we discuss two exact methods.nThe first one is the same method as discussed in the first essay. We solve CUHLP with single allocationnand multiple allocations using this algorithm. The other approach is a mixed integer second-order conicnprogramming (MISOCP) approach, using which we solve a special case of CUHLP with single allocation.nWe present the computational results for both methods.

The advancement of information and communication technologies has revolutionized work–nlife balance in the 21st century by migrating work from traditional office spaces to remotenlocations. For many, employees, this means working from home, in what is called "homebasedntelework" (HbTW). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of HbTW wasnsignificantly accelerated as a part of quarantine measures aimed at containing the spread ofnthe virus. Considering that HbTW could become deeply assimilated into employees' work–nlife balance, it is vitally important that human resource management (HRM) understand thenimplications of HbTW in order to proactively shape the future of their organization and itsnemployees.nOne of the outcomes of HbTW in a relational context is significant professional and personalnisolation, which may contribute to workplace loneliness among employees. Althoughnloneliness in the workplace tends to have deleterious affective, mental, attitudinal, andnbehavioral consequences for the employees and has become a pervasive organizationalnconcern, it has received limited attention in HRM literature. This research first qualitativelynexplores factors that affect HbTW and highlights the role of discretionary human resourcen(HR) practices (Study 1). Based on the findings of Study 1, our research further enriches thenexisting scholarly work by empirically examining the antecedents of workplace loneliness,nwhich is one of the critical outcomes of HbTW (Study 2A), and probes the work behaviors ofnteleworkers while analyzing the role of discretionary HR practices (Study 2B). The studynuses a mixed-method research design to explore and investigate the proposed linkages in thenfollowing three studies.nIn Study 1, the research qualitatively explores the impact of HbTW on employees andnexamines the role of discretionary HR practices. Furthermore, the study highlights the themesnthat would influence the link between telework and its implications.nIn Study 2A, the study empirically examines the relationship between HbTW and one of itsnoutcomes: workplace loneliness. Furthermore, the factors affecting the given linkage arenprobed. Drawing from the job demand–resource model and conservation of resources theory,nwe argue that HbTW can precipitate workplace loneliness through augmented socialndisconnectedness.nIn Study 2B, the study quantitatively shows that counterproductive work behavior (CWB) isnone of the instrumental outcomes arising from the social emotion of loneliness in thentelework context. Furthermore, the study probes the role of individual personality andndiscretionary HR practices that would influence the relationship between an employee'snworkplace loneliness and CWB during HbTW.

Extant research based on temporal construal theory has employed only specifically defined time frames for near versus distant future but has not examined the case where a future event’s time of occurrence is stated in a vague manner (“coming soon”). Essay 1 focuses on how framing time-related information as vague versus precise can differentially impact consumers’ construal mindset, perceived temporal distance, and preferences for desirability versus feasibility. Through four behavioural experiments and an electroencephalogram (EEG) study, we demonstrate that a vague framing elicits a higher-level mental construal, which in turn leads to a greater perceived distance from the future consumption event. We also uncover a boundary condition (hedonic versus utilitarian product/experience category) under which this effect is altered. Examining downstream consequences on consumer preferences, we find that a vague (versus precise) temporal framing leads to a greater preference for hedonic (compared with utilitarian) products and for desirability (versus feasibility) attributes. In essay 2, we examine how vague versus precise launch date information in pre-launch advertisements can impact temporal judgments and purchase behaviour. Firms engaged in developing innovative products spend considerable resources on pre-launch advertisements, but there is a lack of literature examining the role of temporal framing in such advertisements. Findings from five behavioural experiments indicate that a vague launch date leads to a greater perceived temporal distance from the launch, while a precise launch date leads to a lesser perceived temporal distance. This effect occurs because framing the launch time as “soon” leads to consumers inferring that the product is still at a nascent development stage. We uncover the moderating impact of product innovativeness level and desirability-oriented versus feasibility-oriented product descriptions in the advertisement. Evidence indicates a construal matching effect, such that a vague launch date aligns better with a more innovative product and a desirability-focused description, to elicit higher interest and purchase likelihood. This work makes substantive theoretical contributions in the domain of pre-launch advertisements and temporal framing; while offering strategic managerial implications for effective marketing communications.

Brands have come to play a major role in consumer decision-making, and in this, the brand identity, which includes its perceived global and local nature, can play a very significant role. But there is inconsistent evidence in the literature about how consumers’ preferences for global and local brands are formed. The evidence mostly talks about non-food product categories, and the explanations for global brand preference, such as perceived higher quality, prestige, and social status signalling and global consumer culture associations, are well established and accepted, but the explanations for local brand preference are still contested. Food products with global and local brands provide a good background to understand global versus local brand preference formation since food often has global and local origin associations.nThis thesis examines how food product category characteristics, consumer dispositions of global-local identity, and consumer ethnocentrism may influence preference for a global or a local food brand. It also studies how the product category characteristics, global-local identity, and consumer ethnocentrism influence the relationship between Perceived Brand Globalness (PBG) or Perceived Brand Localness (PBL) in the global versus local brand preference in the case of food brands. It uses schema theory (Fiske, 2014; Fiske & Taylor, 1991) to explain how the properties of a food product category – utilitarian, hedonic and symbolic benefits- influence preference for global versus local brands. The information about product category characteristics stored in the brand and product category schema in a consumer’s mind is associated with the consumer’s global/local brand preference. This work also uses the social identity theory (Tajfel et al., 1979) to explain how consumer dispositions of global-local identity and consumer ethnocentrism are associated with global and local brand preferences for food brands.nA consumer survey was conducted in Gujarat and Maharashtra with a sample size of 596. The survey used the constructs’ well-established measures to elicit opinions and attitudes about global versus local food brand preferences. This was followed by statistical and regression analysis. The findings indicate that if product category characteristics are predominantly functional and hedonic, they are not associated with global brand preference. However, if the product category provided the symbolic benefit of global food consumption, then global brands were preferred. Local brands are not preferred when the product category characteristic provides a local-symbolic benefit, which may be explained by the fact that most respondents did not attach localness symbolism as the dominant benefit they derive from the local food product categories presented to them and the dominance of regional brands, and unbranded packaged products in the local symbolic food product categories.nConsumers with high global identity preferred global food brands in functional and hedonic product categories. There was a weak statistically significant association between consumers’ high global identity and global brand preference in the case of global-symbolic food product categories. Consumers with high local identity preferred local brands for all product category characteristics - functional, hedonic, and local-symbolic. Ethnocentric consumers, too, preferred local brands for hedonic and local-symbolic product categories. However, in the case of functional product categories, weak statistical significance was associated between consumer ethnocentrism and local brand preference.nThe association of perceived brand globalness with global brand preference and local brand preference was confirmed in the case of functional and local-symbolic product categories, respectively, but not in the hedonic and global-symbolic product categories for Indian food brands. The product category characteristics of being functional, hedonic, global-symbolic, and local-symbolic had no moderating influence on how PBG and PBL influence global brand and local brand preference.nThe high global identity of consumers positively moderated the relationship of PBG with global brand preference in the case of functional and hedonic product categories but not for global-symbolic product categories. Furthermore, consumers' high local identity and ethnocentric beliefs did not moderate the influence of PBL on local brand preference.nThe research shows that marketing and brand managers may need to be cognizant when positioning brands in global or local consumer culture, as though matching the product category characteristics with the positioning is necessary but not sufficient to ensure consumer preference. This inference was made since the boundary condition of product category characteristics is associated with global brand preference only in the case of global-symbolic product categories. Consumer dispositions of global-local identity and consumer ethnocentrism are helpful for consumer segmentation to match brand positioned in global or local consumer culture, as consumers with high global identity beliefs prefer global brands and those with high local identity beliefs and ethnocentric beliefs prefer local brands. Brand managers may need to pay more attention to the perception of whether a brand is global or local to increase consumers’ preference for them. This is because it was found that product category characteristics and consumer dispositions -global-local identity and consumer ethnocentrism had only contingent association with global and local brand preference. This study contributes to the literature by providing unique insights into consumer preference formation for global and local food brands through an in-depth study in the emerging market of India.

Globally, the rise of the Educational Technology (EdTech) field has been accompanied by the growth of the market in education. Working alongside the dispersed policy networks and the discourse of ‘disruption’, the interests driving EdTech have proposed an alternative form of educational provisioning where educational services are produced, exchanged, and consumed on a for-profit basis. Such a form, underpinned by a global education industry, a favourable international policy environment, and transnational sources of influence, has paved the way for the longer-term transformation of education systems, institutions, and practices, including the repositioning of teachers in an ever-changing educational labor market.nEducation technically is a non-profit endeavour in India, by virtue of any educational institution, contra a training institution, having to register itself as a society, trust or non-profit company. The reimagining and reconfiguring of education implied by the alternative model of educational provisioning has significant implications for the idea of education as a non-profit activity and the maintenance of the boundaries between education as a service and education as provisioning underpinned by a for-profit approach. However, these implications are yet to be understood clearly or subject to careful public scrutiny. It is in this context that this study examines the phenomenon of a new form of educational provisioning driven by EdTech and for-profit objectives in India, by mapping out the corporate interests in education and investigating the dynamics that are shaping it at the discourse level, organizational level, and level of individual teachers.nThe possible counter-narratives, where teachers and other important stakeholders express their concerns about the dominant EdTech narratives, are explored by using the methods of interviews and participant observation. The study deploys virtual/digital ethnography methods to trace the discursive constructions between the organizational field and the practice field. Finally, the concepts of ‘precarity’, ‘deprofessionalization’, and ‘gig academia’ are used to locate teachers and teaching within the fast-growing EdTech field in India.nTwenty-two EdTech startup founders, executives, and teachers are interviewed to understand how the EdTech field and its logic are applied in everyday lives. In addition, 89 policy documents and reports were analyzed to make sense of how the discourse on EdTech gets legitimized and authorized through its circulation in policy circles. The study also analyzed 99 images to understand the phenomenon of ‘futuring’, which EdTech companies deploy to drive investments in education.nThe findings suggest that corporatization is becoming a dominant logic, with several for-profit players entering the EdTech field. Even public provisioning of education is getting transformed, with the corporate style increasingly becoming the norm. Many functions of educational policymaking and implementation have been outsourced to players that have for-profit interests, with philanthropies and consultancy firms playing an important role in educational policymaking. This reorienting of education through EdTech investments has consequences for teachers’ subjectivities and their increasingly ‘insecure’ position in the EdTech field.nThe study seeks to contribute to theory-building by providing a critical perspective on the political economy of the EdTech field in India and how the work of teachers is currently organized.

The enforcement and regulatory public services, operating in a highly sensitive context with national security implications, display high job demands relative to resources. This study examines it through Frontline Customs Officers (FCO) serving as the first public interface at international airports in India. The FCO job revolves around facilitation, revenue, and preventive roles involving high stakes, risks, and pressures to meet growing public expectations for higher service standards (Shome, 2013). The study employed the job demands, resources and stressors (JDRS) framework (Demerouti, et al., 2001; Pandey, 2017) to identify variables, including public service motivation, and their relationship with burnout and job satisfaction.nThe study adopted a sequential mix-method research design (Johnson, Onwuegbuzie, & Turner, 2007). In qualitative phase 35 semi-structured interviews were conducted in multiple airport locations. Focussed group discussions, interviews of supervisors, various policy documents and reports were used for triangulation. The comprehensive model that emerged indicated job context dominated by high demands, resources inadequacy, and unique stressors leading to burnout, impacting job satisfaction. Subsequently, in quantitative phase, a questionnaire was developed and administered to a subset (n=373) of FCO population in various international airports across India. Linear regression analysis was employed to test the hypothesised model.nFindings suggest high and time-sensitive job demands and stressors associate positively with burnout, while job resources including public service motivation (PSM) aren4nnegatively associated with burnout. Job demands including affective demands impact job satisfaction indirectly mediated through burnout. Job resources, PSM, and job stressors directly impact job satisfaction and also exhibit indirect effects mediated through burnout. Hence, the resource augmentation, along with realignment of the HRM framework applicable to FCO and regulations, with a thrust on context-specific infrastructural upgrades, capacity building, PSM reinforcement, and ease of business process may help reduce burnout and improve job satisfaction of FCO.nThis comprehensive study of Customs expands scope and applicability of JDRS framework, adds to understanding about PSM for civil servants, and looks at India specific PSM measures. Finally, based on findings, insights and expert analysis, corrective policy pathways for resource augmentation, realigning human resource framework and review of specific regulations to reduce FCO burnout and enhance job satisfaction are suggested.