The theory of Quantity–Quality (Q–Q) trade-off suggests that given the resource constraints in a household, an increase in family size would result in lower investments in the human capital development of children. Following this theory, we investigate the role of fertility in explaining the educational gap between Muslims and Hindus in India. A historically large difference in the total fertility rates (TFR) between them, which is as high as 24% in 2015–2016, may have contributed to the existing gap in education. Using decomposition techniques, we find that family size accounts for about 10% of the gap in years of schooling between high-caste Hindus and Muslims. Examining the likelihood of completion of different levels of education, we find that the contribution of family size increases with the level of education, rising to 16% for secondary education. Upon further investigation, we find that the unmet need for family planning is higher for Muslim women than for Hindu women. Thus, appropriate supply side measures addressing these unmet needs may help to reduce the fertility gap, with the potential to reduce the education gap in due course. Additionally, with a comparatively higher desired fertility of Muslims on average, public investments in good-quality schooling, safer and cheaper transportation to schools, and general awareness initiatives about pecuniary and non-pecuniary benefits of schooling may reduce the Q–Q trade-off. This may weaken the association between fertility and education, which could go a long way in reducing the educational disadvantage of Muslim children.

This article is a maiden attempt at exploring determinants of stage-specific investment choices of Indian venture capital and private equity (VCPE) firms. Analysis of 5,782 VCPE investment deals during 1998–2016 shows that firms’ preferences to invest in various stages (early vs. late) are significantly affected by the characteristics of the VCPE firms, features of the deal, and characteristics of the investee firms. More specifically, experience and ownership (foreign vs. domestic) of VCPE firm, type of deal (syndicated or otherwise), investment size of the deal, and location and industry of the investee firm influence the stage of investment. Detailed empirical analysis shows that younger VCPE firms and those with domestic investors prefer to invest in early stages, presumably because they wish to build a reputation and also leverage their proximity with investee firms to manage high market and technological risks associated with early-stage investments. Syndication is another mechanism used to manage the risks associated with early-stage deals. Investee firms in industries that have lower investment requirements or shorter gestation periods and those located in regions with a mature entrepreneurial ecosystems are more likely to attract early-stage investments. JEL Classification: G24, L26, D81

This paper examines the influence of firm rivalry within an industry on the internationalization of new ventures in an emerging economy. Drawing on industrial organization and institutional theories, it was hypothesized that the influence of industry concentration (an index of firm rivalry) on new venture internationalization changes with the deepening of economic liberalization processes. An analysis of new ventures from 67 Indian industries from 1996 to 2014 suggests that the relation between industry concentration and new venture internationalization shifts gradually from a U-shaped relation to an inverted U-shaped relation during this time period. Implications for the generalizability of research in an emerging economy across time are discussed.

While quota-based and other affirmative actions remain on the policy radar of nations faced with social inequalities, there is limited evidence informing policy choices at the national level. This paper estimates the mid-term impact of quota-based affirmative action in higher education (HE) in India implemented from 2008, which mandates that 27 per cent of seats are to be reserved for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in public funded institutions of HE. Exploiting the differences in participation across social groups, age cohort,s and geographies with varied histories of affirmative action, our triple difference method estimates the impact of the Act by the year 2011-2012. Our results indicate that southern and northcentral states that already had quotas in place for a fairly long period of time, do not contribute much in further expansion of enrolment of OBCs; instead, the eastern region, where such a policy did not exist for long has about 0.12 points improvement in enrolment. Our estimates are robust to different specifications and the impact seems to be non-existent amongst the richest. It suggests that future policy initiatives need to be more nuanced considering regional differences in policy histories, supply of institutions, and extant rates of HE participation of the disadvantaged sections.

In the context of declining degrees of vertical integration in major industries of Indian manufacturing sector during the post-reform period, the present paper is an attempt to examine how such “vertical disintegration” has affected firms’ market power and its implications for competition policy. Using panel dataset of 49 majors industries of Indian manufacturing sector for the period 2003–04 to 2010–11 and applying the system generalized method of moments approach to estimate of dynamic panel data models, the paper finds that vertical integration does not cause any significant impact on average market power of firms in an industry. Instead, it is influenced by market size, and selling and technology-related efforts. While selling intensity has a positive impact on market power, the impact of market size and technology intensity is found to be negative. Notably, like vertical integration, market concentration, import to export ratio, and capital intensity also do not have any significant impact on market power. The findings of this paper, therefore, have important implications for competition law and policy in general and policies and regulation relating to technology development and international trade in particular.

Purpose Extant literature suggests that post-entry internationalization strategies and performance implications of born globals are an under-researched area. This paper aims to examine the internationalization strategies of born global service firms (BGSFs) and performance implications thereof through strategic group analysis of hand-collected data from Indian information technology (IT) firms. Design/methodology/approach Strategic group analysis has been used to examine if there are any differences in the strategic decisions across firms and if there are any implications of these strategies on the performance of firms. The strategic group approach helps understand not only the antecedents but also the strategic trade-offs that different groups of BGSFs face after internationalization. The study uses Indian IT industry as the context for analysis of BGSFs, as studies have found that the Indian IT industry to have significant presence of born globals. Findings Four distinct strategic paths were found to be followed by BGSFs. In addition, the nature of services and ways of mobilization or deployment of resources explain the different internationalization paths and consequently performance. The performance differences primarily stem from the choice of degree of commitment and scope of internationalization. Practical implications - This study provides distinct insights to practice by charting internationalization paths for an emerging born global. Originality/value This paper contributes to the theory on born globals by using strategic lens to explain the internationalization paths and their performance implications.

This article is part of a Book Forum review of Ghazala Jamil's book Accumulation by Segregation (2017). The Book Forum consists of individual commentaries on this text by four interested scholars, followed by a response by the author. The article may be read individually or alongside the other contributions to the Forum, which together constitute a comprehensive discussion of the themes and arguments in the book.

Significant research has gone into the analysis of the complex linkages between public policy and innovation. While this research has generated a lot of interesting insights, it has also identified several gaps in our understanding of these linkages. This paper is an attempt to pool together some of the ideas that academic research has highlighted on the linkages between innovation and public policy and identify the current challenges as well as opportunities for meaningfully exploring these linkages further. Through a select review of the literature the paper (i) provides a broad overview of the public policy–innovation interface; (ii) discusses issues of conceptualizing and measuring innovation, innovation related activities and policy changes; (iii) summarizes mechanisms through which various policies impact innovation along with available evidence on the same; and (iv) identifies challenges in exploring policy-innovation interface along with a few potential areas of research in the context of India.

The case describes the situation faced by the chairperson of CIIE with respect to commercialization of an innovation of one of the incubatee companies. The incubatee had been working on a prototype of a flow monitor for IV fluids since his diploma days and won the competition organized by CIIE for the best innovation worthy of commercialization. The case describes the problem of nurses spending considerable time in monitoring the administration of IV drugs and the solution that the innovator had developed to reduce the monitoring burden. The case also chronicles the development of infusion systems, a rival method of reducing the burden that was expensive and not well adopted in India. The dilemma that the chairperson is facing is vis-à-vis a marketing and distribution deal that a pharmaceutical company involved in mentoring of the project had offered.

With the advent of TRIPS, the IP regimes have changed in most WTO member countries. India also came up with its own version of TRIPS compatible IP regime which has been hailed by some as a ‘model’ regime for developing countries, while others are not convinced that it will provide the right incentives for medical innovation and enhance access to healthcare. This paper undertakes a review of available studies to provide a perspective on the role of IP protection in developing healthcare innovations. Broadly, the relevant literature in the context of India has followed two strands: some studies focus on the implications of the new IP regime on access to healthcare, while others explore the implications of IP on innovation in general and medical innovation, in particular. Interestingly, the two strands do not converge. Moreover, many studies view IP driven innovations as a constraint on access, as these are expected to be monopolized by the IP owner. We argue that there is merit in viewing healthcare access and innovation as complementary processes. This is particularly the case when one defines ‘health innovation’ more broadly to include:(a) Product innovations in drugs; (b) Process innovations in pharmaceutical industry; (c) New drug delivery mechanisms , bio-enhancers and dosage forms; (d) Product innovations in medical equipment and devices; (e) Innovations in the delivery of health services; and (f) Policy innovations to enhance access to healthcare.

Encouraging the establishment and growth of technology-based ventures continues to be the focus of attention from policy-makers globally, linked to enhanced levels of innovation, economic activity and wealth/employment creation. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are prominent among the public, private and not-for-profit organisations supporting the commercialisation of scientific outputs. Modes and vehicles adopted include spin-outs, science parks, intellectual property exploitation and different forms of incubation activity. Some HEIs in the United Kingdom have significant experience of commercialisation and technology transfer activities and have developed markedly different approaches. Meanwhile, HEIs in India are broadening their attention from their teaching-research focus to wider engagement in supporting venture creation. While approaches differ between HEIs all face issues of efficacy and sustainability. Set within the wider context of the HEI commercialisation agenda this paper focuses on incubation models, with particular attention to efficacy and sustainability dimensions. Using six case studies (three each from UK and India), we identify contrasting ways in which incubation was undertaken. Findings raise questions regarding whether and if so how HEIs should be involved in the business of incubation to enhance efficacy and provide a more broadly-based and robust platform for underpinning sustainability.

Several studies have explored the determinants of firms' innovative efforts, but a consensus on the conceptual underpinnings and empirical manifestations of these determinants is yet to emerge. This paper attempts to understand the role of several factors in determining inter-industry variations in research and development (R&D) efforts in Indian manufacturing sector. Using Arellano–Bond dynamic panel estimation technique and a panel data set of 34 manufacturing industries over the period from 2001–2002 to 2008–2009, the paper finds that firms in industries with greater R&D efforts in the past, larger participation of the multinational corporations (MNCs), higher capital intensity, and greater penetration in the international market through exports spend more on R&D. On the other hand, R&D efforts are less in industries with larger incidence of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and greater competition from imports. The degree of sellers' concentration in a market, size of the market, product differentiation, purchase of technology, and the level and variations profitability do not make any significant difference in R&D intensity across industries. Our findings raise some important policy issues relating to encouraging entry of MNCs through Greenfield investments, restricting M&A, and promoting exports.

Affirmative action, in the form of reservation policies, to address the issues of inclusion has been in place in India for a long time. While its scope has enlarged with inclusion of new social groups, the efficacy remains a matter of debate. This paper explores if parental education is an appropriate criterion for affirmative action. Empirical results using three rounds of the National Sample Survey data suggest that parental education as a determinant of participation in higher education not only transcends the impact of caste, religious and economic status, it is also very attractive for the ease of implementation.

Deficits in participation of marginalized groups in higher education in India have attracted significant policy and research attention. Inclusion of Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the ambit of affirmative action for participation in publicly funded institutes of higher education has fueled this discussion further. This paper explores the role of socio-religious affiliation as determinant of participation in higher education; and if the importance of these affiliations change over time. Using the nationally representative National Sample Survey (NSS) data for the period 1999-2010, it follows the change in hierarchy of participation within a binary probit framework over years. Since being eligible for higher education is found to be the key factor in participation, it also explores the role of supply side constraints by controlling for distance to secondary school. The latter is captured from a different round of the NSS data having further details on education and related expenditures. Econometric estimations done separately for rural and urban areas indicate vast rural-urban divide in the role of socio-religious affiliations. Eligibility seems to be the key factor in participation, and a better understanding of the constraints on school education is critical if participation in higher education is to be enhanced.

Firms in most emerging economies are engaged in seemingly un-related activities. This is particularly observed in the case of business groups which dominate the landscape of these economies. Initially, diversification in emerging economies that was not based on product or technological considerations was considered value reducing. However, according to the new emerging consensus unrelated diversification is a strategic response to the institutional voids that exist in such economies. Despite major breakthroughs in conceptualizing this institutional relatedness, the empirical support for this concept is scant due to lack of an appropriate measure. Creating an appropriate measure is a challenge because it has to take into account the ‘unique and invisible’ nature of institutional relatedness. An appropriate measure should capture various reasons to combine businesses, without giving undue importance to any specific rationale and should change to help gauge the impact of institutional transitions. In this paper we propose an empirically implementable measure for institutional relatedness having the stated features. We also show that the empirical estimates for India of our measure of relatedness are consistent with studies using the case-study method and seem to be linked with the institutional transitions that have been observed in recent years.

This study investigates the types of international competitive strategies (ICS) followed by Chinese and Indian firms. Using firm-level primary data, the contribution analyses the factors that affect ICS choices and whether these factors differ between the two countries. It argues that firms' resources and capabilities influence firms' propensity to choose a specific ICS and that the strategies differ in relation to firms' location, sector and destination market as well.

Open innovation is a paradigm that is based on the concept of availability of abundant knowledge outside the boundaries of organizations. This study identified the influence of degree of openness, strength of appropriability regime, and project management maturity on the performance of open innovation projects. Performance was measured based on reduction of technology transfer time from research labs to business units, time to market innovations from the business units, and degree of innovativeness of the outcome. Data from 92 open innovation IT projects across India and Europe were used to test the proposed hypotheses using multiple linear regression and binary logistic regression. We developed an index termed Partner Collaboration Intensity (PCI) to measure degree of openness based on number of partners, intensity of collaboration, and innovation funnel openness. Results showed that specialized research or market partners reduced technology transfer time from research labs to business units. Results also indicated higher values of PCI index, higher strength of appropriability regime, and higher levels of project management maturity positively influenced reduction of technology transfer time from research labs to business units. Results of the logistic regression model showed that all parameters except higher strength of appropriability regime had a positive correlation with the occurrence of breakthrough innovations compared with incremental innovations.