Research Training Seminar (RTS) 2012-13


Consumer evaluation of new product branding strategy for global and local brands: The moderating role of product similarity

Date:

7 September 2012

Speaker:

Plavini Punyatoya, Asst. Professor (Marketing), International Management Institute, Bhubaneswar

Abstract:

While introducing a new product to the market, companies invariably evaluate two possible options. They either go for a brand extension which involves the use of an extended brand name, or alternatively opt for altogether a new brand name. The choice between new brand name and brand extension is impacted by the perceived globalness of the brand. The purpose of this research is to investigate interaction effect between perceived brand globalness (global versus local brand), new product branding strategies (brand extension versus new brand name) and product similarity (high versus low) on consumers’ attitude towards the brand and purchase intention. A series of pretest and the main study was conducted for a functional and a prestige product using multivariate analysis of variance. The results show that for functional product consumers have more favourable attitude towards the brand and purchase intention when both global and local brands go for brand extension in high similarity situation and new brand name in low similarity situation while introducing new product to the market. For prestige product category, consumers favoured global brand with brand extension in both high and low similarity cases. If a prestige local brand went for new product, brand extension and new brand name were preferred in high and low similarity cases respectively. The study not only deepens the readers’ understanding of brand extension and new product introduction literature, but also gives insight to managers for selecting the right kind of branding strategy.

Performance review system complexity as a predictor of alienation in performance review systems

Date:

8 September 2012

Speaker:

S.S.Ganesh, Professor of OB & HR, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar

Abstract:

Complexity has been identified as one of the structural properties of organizations and is measured quantitatively as well as qualitatively in organization theory. Over the years, studies have shown that the degree of complexity has a more direct relationship with formalization and formalization has been conceptualized as a source of alienation. From the human resource management perspective, the degree of formalization in an organization can be seen from the organization’s need to establish a formal performance review system which has been regarded as one of the most complex and controversial human resource techniques in organizations. However, attempts to measure the complexity of the performance review system have been limited mainly to the appraisers' cognitive complexity related to the performance review processes and formats. While cognitive complexity in the context of performance review systems has been recognized as an important attribute of the appraisers, the cognitive complexity of the appraisees has been given little or no attention. This is a major research gap because dealing with some of the problems which practitioners face in implementing more complex performance review systems cannot be based on an understanding of appraisers only. Therefore, we present a model to study experiential perceptions of performance review system complexity from the appraisee perspective and explore its mediating effect on the relationship between formalization and alienation through powerlessness (control) and meaninglessness (uncertainty) and other forms of alienation such as normlessness, social isolation and self-estrangement. We discuss the implications of this study for researchers interested in studying performance review systems and managers who are striving to design and implement performance review systems to create a high performing culture in organizations.

Academic research for the Oxford Companion to Economics in India (2nd edition, forthcoming)

Date:

27 September 2012

Speaker:

Arkadev Chatterjea, Financial Economist & Research Fellow ,University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School

Abstract:

The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) defines ‘research’ as ‘the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions’. A key to creating the wealth of a nation is applied research, which, in turn, traces back to academic research. Academic research is typically conducted at universities (which offer advanced studies in a large number of disciplines) and research institutes (which have narrower interest and focus). Advanced nations have powerhouse universities and institutes that developing countries aspire to emulate.

Doctoral education for The Oxford Companion to Economics in India (2nd edition, forthcoming)

Date:

28 September 2012

Speaker:

Arkadev Chatterjea, Financial Economist & Research Fellow ,University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School

Abstract:

In the Ancient and Universal Company of Scholars

During graduation ceremonies at many universities in the United States, after doctorate degrees have been conferred upon the candidates, the university’s president or the graduate school’s dean adds a comment signifying the profession’s high calling: ‘Welcome to the ancient and universal company of scholars’, or ‘Welcome into the society of educated men and women’. These words signify the calling of the doctorate, the highest academic degree, which is commonly referred to as the Ph.D. (Philosophiae Doctor, or, D.Phil., Doctor of Philosophy). Its primary purpose is training professors and other researchers who would act as recipients and keepers of vast knowledge handed down from the past, creators of new knowledge through research, and disseminators of knowledge through teaching.

What is doctoral education? There is a tongue-in cheek saying: ‘In graduate study, you learn more and more about less and less, so that in the limit you know nothing.’ Jokes aside, the Ph.D. requires years of intensely studying and researching in minute detail some area of human knowledge and writing a dissertation based on the findings. In its ideal form, the Ph.D. is free from encumbrances that may characterize research done in industry, government agencies, or think tanks, such as pressure to turn a profit, diktat to work on specific subjects or promote a certain ideology, and stricture to meet deadlines. Doctoral research, which is conducted in universities or university-like research institutions, is a unique privilege and an extraordinary pursuit.

An Introduction to the genesis of a research programme on Gandhian Branding and Cognitive Justice: Two decades in retrospect

Date:

5 October 2012

Speaker:

Sandip Anand, Professor of Marketing, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar

Abstract:

My formal research journey started in year 1993 when I came in touch with stalwarts like Profs. Durganand Sinha, R.C. Tripathi, and Janak Pandey. Durganand Sinha is a man whose work in 1952 has greatly contributed towards the building of cognitive dissonance theory by Leon Festinger. This has been properly acknowledged by later. Along with D.N. Sinha’s work, Jamuna Prasad’s works on the psychological effects of earthquake in Bihar in 1934 are also given its due recognition. R.C. Tripathi (along with DeRidder) is known for his work on norm-violation and intergroup relations. R.C. Tripathi received his training on client centered therapy from Carl Rogers, and has been practicing the same throughout his life. Janak Pandey does not need an introduction, he is the man to whom IACCP bestowed Honorary Fellowship along with Hofstede. These people have shaped my initial thinking at Centre for Advanced Study in Psychology, Allahabad, where focus was on research related to social change and development. This is the place wherein we were introduced to courses like Philosophy of Science in the very first year. There I got a chance to meet Prof. A.K. Dalal, MSc in Mathematics from IIT Kanpur but turning to psychology under the influence of Prof. Ramadhar Singh.

Later, I moved to International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai. There my thoughts are influenced by works of J.R. Rele T.K. Roy, Sripati Chandrasekhar, Mari Bhatt and many others. Works of these people are not only cited by academia internationally, but have caught up wider attention. Rele’s works have received attention of media to the extent where it is included by Indian cinema in the form of dialogues delivered by Amol Palekar. Sripati Chandrasekhar was elected to the upper house of the Indian Parliament in 1964, and appointed Minister of Health and Family Planning in 1967. Those were days wherein academia and industry really co-existed. IIPS is a place for applied research, and hence I got an opportunity to work on public-private partnership under my PhD supervisor Prof. R.K. Sinha who was a Principal Investigator of IIPS-JHU project.

Thereafter, I move to Industry wherein I work on more than 100 marketing research projects, small projects but very insightful. My initial ideas on consumer complaints, alienation, and conflicts amongst stakeholder evolve. Currently, our student Atul Kumar is exploring these ideas in the context of social media.

Then I move to Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, wherein I meet a Gandhian called Prof. Shiv Visvanathan whose works on cognitive justice push me further towards consumer alienation. This provides shape to my work on self-regulation for ITC e-choupal, published later in IIMB Management review. This, and works of Rakesh Pandey, CSDS give genesis to my write-up on Gandhian Branding. This leads me to organize ICDCM 2010. Later development on this leads me to offer a course on Indigenous Marketing Theory at XIMB. I get further inspiration as students’ comments on my course give a reference to Prof. I. C’s course on FMGD. This further motivates me. I come under the influence of Prof. B. P. Patra who introduces me to the literature on mediation through efficiency of information. Later on I get in touch with Prof. Ibha Kumar whose works on expressions of politeness and gratitude, and her thinking on spirituality further provide much needed impetus, which later on is shaped in the form of culture of empathy. Currently, a FPM candidate at XIMB, Julian Tobias is working on these ideas.

My quest for relative comparison and fairness goes on, and I get in touch with a man known as Prof. Biresh K Sahoo who helps me in concretizing my ideas further, and now the work goes for review in journals like Marketing Science, and European Journal of Marketing. Works receive some positive comments and journey goes on!

Apart from the above, there are many other influences contributing to the genesis of this research programme on ‘Gandhian Branding, and Cognitive Justice’ which cannot be captured in this brief write-up. I am indebted to all my colleagues, students, participants and staff who shape my thinking. Special thanks are due to Prof. Banikanta Mishra, Prof. P.K. Bala, Prof. Rajneesh Krishna, Prof. Chandrika Parmar, Prof. A.K. Sharma, Prof. D P Dash, Prof. Biswa Swarup Mishra, Prof. D.V. Ramana, Prof. W.S. William, Prof. Latha Ravindran, Prof. G.K. Nayak, Prof.F.M.Sahoo, Prof. C Shambu Prasad, Prof. Amar K J R Nayak, Prof. Subhajyoti Roy, Prof. S. Ganesh, Prof. Suchitra Pal, Prof. Sanjay Mohaptra, my area colleagues, and The Director, XIMB.

CENDERET as a platform for social involvement, action and intellectual opportunities in XIMB

Date:

23 November 2012

Speaker:

Amar K J R Nayak, Professor of Strategic Management, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar

Abstract:

As we complete 25 years and advance into the future, it would be worthwhile to explore the new possibilities of our involvement with the larger-weaker society, undertake actions that make a difference to the lives of the people at the bottom of our economic system, and in the process explore new intellectual spaces for theoretical developments in the field management from the lenses of cooperation and sustainability. After brief opening observations on the logic of cooperation and sustainability and the new possibility for CENDERET and the intellectuals in XIMB, we would have an open discussion on the subject.

Contract performance in offshore systems development: Role of control mechanisms

Date:

29 November 2012

Speaker:

Shirish C. Srivastava, Associate Professor, HEC Paris

Abstract:

Although control theory has often been invoked to explain the co-ordination between client and vendor for information systems development (ISD), insights into its moderating effects for explicating ISD contract performance, especially in the offshore context, is rather limited. Such insights would enable better understanding of variables that have complementary or substitutive effects on performance. Further, the control literature talks about different control modes (e.g., formal and informal control modes classified as behavior, outcome, clan and self-control modes) without adequately distinguishing among the different control mechanisms enacting each of the control modes. In this research, by explicitly classifying the distinctions existing within each of the control modes, we uncover the key role played by mechanistic governance in outsourced ISD. Grounding our arguments in the information requirement for performance evaluation, the study theorizes the moderating influence of mechanistic governance on the relationships of contract specificity and relational governance with ISD quality and cost performance. We test the theorized model in a field study comprising 160 offshore ISD projects executed by Indian vendors. Our results establish the significant complementary role of mechanistic governance on the relationships of contract specificity with both cost and quality performance variables. Further, mechanistic governance substitutes the impact of relational governance on cost performance. Thus, the study theoretically as well as empirically establishes the need for conceptualizing mechanistic governance as a viable and significant governance mechanism for offshore ISD contracts. The study also teases out the distinctions between the two prime contract types in vogue for managing offshore ISD contracts, namely, fixed price (FP) and time and material (T&M) contracts. The study thus contributes not only to control theory but also to the stream of literature examining offshore ISD contracts. Further, the study provides insights to managers on having well specified contracts and acknowledging the role of mechanistic governance for better performance.

E-commerce strategy

Date:

1 December 2012

Speaker:

Sanjay Mohapatra, Professor, Information Systems, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar

Abstract:

This book illustrates approach for designing and implementing e-commerce strategy with social perspectives. While it gives details of different technological concepts related to designing and hosting web portals, it also provides live examples from different corporate as to how better results can be achieved through effective channel design with social commerce oriented strategy. The book also illustrates ‘people focused’ approaches that can be used for marketing products and services through internet.

The seminar will be in two parts: what went to the book as constituents and how were they conceived and written.

Substitution between Debt and Trade-Credit in the Capital-Structure decision of Indian firms

Date:

11 December 2012

Speaker:

Lalatendu Misra, Professor of Finance and the Chairman of the Finance Department: The University of Texas at San Antonio

Abstract:

We use Indian firm-level data since liberalization to examine corporate financing across listed and unlisted firms. We find that listed firms change their capital structure in response to regime changes; therefore they exhibit a higher sensitivity to market conditions. Unlisted firms exhibit higher leverage because they rely more on current liabilities. However the studied determinants of capital structure impact both listed and unlisted firms similarly when debt and current liabilities are examined separately. The impact of collateral on debt and current liabilities is in the opposite direction. Tangible firms use more debt and less current liabilities; the overall impact is insignificant for unlisted firms. Profits are a substitute for debt in both types, but the impact of profits on current liabilities is smaller.

AHP/Fuzzy-AHP: A Mutil-Criteria decision making (MCDM)

Date:

26 December 2012

Speaker:

Surya Prakash Singh, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Abstract:

MCDM refers to obtaining the best opinion from all of the feasible alternatives in the presence of multiple (usually conflicting) criteria. It consists of a set of conflicting goals which cannot easily resolved when all criteria are considered together. One of the widely used MCDM approaches is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP has widely been used in MCDM and has been applied successfully in many practical decision-making problems. Due to lack of handling qualitative information in applying AHP, Fuzzy-AHP is developed. The aim of the seminar is to inform research scholars the practical use of AHP and Fuzzy-AHP tools in solving MCDM problems.

Introducing a concept hierarchy for the Journal of Research Practice

Date:

29 December 2012

Speaker:

D. P. Dash, Professor, Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus, MALAYSIA

Abstract:

With this issue of the Journal of Research Practice, we initiate a conceptual framework for thinking and writing about research, defining areas of editorial focus, and indexing work published in the journal. The framework takes the form of a concept hierarchy that offers index terms at three interrelated levels: (1) focus areas for reflection on research practice within which the journal aims to achieve excellence and strengthen its profile and visibility, (2) subject areas relevant to research practice that the journal aims to cover and in terms of which it defines its focus areas, and (3) keywords for capturing the content of research work done in these subject areas or for reflecting and writing about it. Focus areas are characterized by assigned subject areas; subject areas are characterized by assigned keywords. The concept hierarchy is part of a more comprehensive initiative to strengthen the journal’s profile and visibility, an initiative that will also include a restructuring of the editorial team and new roles for the journal’s dedicated reviewers and active readers. The article introduces an initial version of the concept hierarchy, explains its intended use and further development, and situates it in the larger effort of which it is a part.

Liquidity risk of Corporate bond returns

Date:

4 January 2013

Speaker:

Yakov Amihud, Ira Leon Rennert Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance, Stern School of Business, New York University.

Abstract:

We study the exposure of the U.S. corporate bond returns to liquidity shocks of stocks and treasury bonds over the period 1973 to 2007. A decline in liquidity of stocks or Treasury bonds produces conflicting effects: Prices of investment-grade bonds rise while prices of speculative grade bonds fall substantially.This effect is regime-switching in nature and holds when the state of the economy is in a "stress" regime.The likelihood of being in such a regime can be predicted by macroeconomic and financial market variables that are associated with adverse economic conditions. Our model can predict the out-of-sample bond returns for the stress years 2008-2009. These effects are robust to controlling for other systematic risks (term and default). Our findings suggest the existence of time-varying liquidity risk of corporate bond returns and episodes of flight to liquidity.

Between Denigration and Admiration: Understanding postcolonial mimicry in Indian advertising

Date:

9 January 2013

Speaker:

Rohit Varman, Professor of Marketing, IIMC

Abstract:

Through an interpretive analysis, we show that the West is construed in an ambivalent manner in Indian advertising. The West is denigrated as promiscuous and immoral, and isalso admired as a symbol of modernity and economic achievement. Wedeploy the concept of mimicry, which is central to postcolonial theory, to explain this ambivalence and highlight the importance of postcolonial subjectivity and race in shaping responses to Western globalism.The structuring effects of postcolonialityand whiteness help us to understand the socio-cultural power of the West and to contextualize the particular political, historical and social circumstances under which advertising is produced and received.

Heterogeneous beliefs and wealth dynamics in a binary hidden Markov model

Date:

10 January 2013

Speaker:

Debi Prasad Mohapatra, Research Fellow, Department of Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca

Abstract:

In this article I presume a world where agents might lack the complete knowledge of the fundamental structure of the economy. It is assumed that the true endowment process in the economy follows a binary Hidden Markov Process. I prove that in general equilibrium, in the long run agents with simple parsimonious models can outperform agents with more complex models. First, such results are shown to hold when the true process of the world cannot be learned by any of the agents in the economy. Second, the paper calculates the convergence rates of consumption paths under the presence of an individual with correct model. The survival arguments are established following a wealth dynamics approach, similar to Blume and Easley (2006).

Why some countries are rich and others are poor?

Date:

1 February 2013

Speaker:

Pradipta Chaudhury, Centre For Economic Studies and Planning, School Of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Abstract:

Understanding the “Great Divergence” or “Reversal of Fortunes” of countries

Since the 19th C Western Europe and its offshoots have experienced sustained economic growth at an unprecedented rate. Thus, for two centuries these countries are dominating the world. However, till the end of the 18th C, Asia was not behind the west. In fact, till the 16th C, Asia was the leader of the world in terms of manufacturing, science and technology, and culture. This phenomenon has been named the “Great Divergence” since the 19th C or the “Reversal of Fortunes” after 1500, by American scholars. In the last quarter century, western scholars have been paying particular attention to these issues. Besides, it is being argued by British scholars that the great divergence started in the 17th C itself. Many fascinating explanations are available for the rise of the west and the decline of Asia. The factors considered include ecology, institutions and values. Most arguments are anchored in the ideas of Western superiority in values, institutions and creativity.

In my lectures the major views and explanations will be critically examined and elements of an alternative, more plausible set of explanations will be explored.

Global Economy: the current scenario

Date:

2 February 2013

Speaker:

Amal Sanyal, Professor of Economics, Lincoln University, New Zealand

Abstract:

The discussion will have two parts. The first will take a brief look at the economic scene of important countries and market areas. The second will discuss the trends in production and business organisation that are arising recently and are expected to have far-reaching effects.

The first: a brief discussion of the current economic situation. It will focus on the aftermath of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the Euro zone crisis, the long-term stagnation of Japan and the effect of all these on China, India and other emerging economies. It will argue that the macroeconomic policies currently being tried in these cases can produce only short run fixes. Long run structural changes in the US economy, the Euro currency area and Japan are required to halt their progression into stagnation.

The second: it will discuss a number of very recent developments in consumerism and consumer attitude, production technology and new materials. These developments are expected to change production organization, marketing and government-business-consumer relations across the countries and may change the economic environment of the future in a significant way.

From thin air to firm ground, and crisis: Institutional change in microfinance

Date:

14 February 2013

Speaker:

Debiprasad Mishra, Fellow IIM (A) Professor, General Management - Policy and Strategy area in Institute of Rural Management (IRMA)

Abstract:

“The micro-loan recovery agents were due to come knocking by the end of that week. She did not wait for them” – stated the BBC News South Asia’s report on India’s micro-finance suicide epidemic (Soutik Biswas, December 16, 2010). It went on to narrate the situation of Mylaram Kallava from Ghanapur village in Andhra Pradesh leading up to her death. It was one of the many such incidents reported between October and December that prompted the use of the term – epidemic – in the title of the report. Elsewhere Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) were referred to as “modern sahukars” (EPW, October 23, 2010), and “loan sharks” (ToI, February 21, 2011). In a recent op ed piece Jhunjhunwala has termed Microfinance as the Poverty Generator (Orissa Post, February 2, 2013).

What started out as an innovation in providing micro loans to poor in 1980s and within a decade acquired (near) universal recognition for its potential to reduce poverty seems to have come a full circle. The transformation could be explained in many ways; not least of which is one that takes recourse to human greed and avarice. However, in this research our focus was on understanding the changes in the institutional environments and the transformation of institutional logic (Alford & Friedland, 1985). It took guidance from the formulation that organizations take recourse to the strategy of ‘theorization’ (Greenwood, Suddaby & Hinings, 2002) - framing of a problem with the current arrangements and justifying alternate organizational action solution as a legitimation process (Sarma & Mishra, 2013). Two organisations that undertook the transformation that had come to be the flavor of the times were studied to understand the operation of competing logics (Greenwood et al, 2011), and how they were negotiated and settled within.

The seminar would seek to share the research and its preliminary findings.

Experiences as a research student and a research supervisor

Date:

19 March 2013

Speaker:

B.N.Patnaik, Retired Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Kanpur

Abstract:

The three years I spent as research student in my early thirties constituted a period of great intellectual delight for me. I experienced the joy of developing intellectually. This was a period of considerable challenge for me as well. I often felt extremely lonely, although I had many friends. I was troubled by worries about whether I was doing something meaningful or not. The library was inadequate, there wasn’t really a peer group, and the fellowship was for just two years. My situation was unusual in another way – so I had worries about whether my degree would help me in my career at all. My thesis adviser and teachers were encouraging, but no words of encouragement soothed my anxieties and dispelled my fears.

As a supervisor, I had only one major aim, namely to protect my students from anxieties, doubts and worries of the sort I had suffered as a graduate student.

Writing PhD Thesis: An experience sharing

Date:

20 March 2013

Speaker:

B.N.Patnaik, Retired Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Kanpur

Abstract:

I have always found writing difficult. And as a research student I learnt that writing a thesis was different from writing a long argumentative essay and that academic writing has a convention. In the beginning I did not enjoy writing in that style – I found it tiring and boring, but it did not take me long to overcome this problem. I motivated myself; after all, I was learning another mode of discourse, of self-expression. Many graduate students are often concerned about when they must stop reading (and doing data analysis, etc.) and start writing and many do not give much time to writing. For me, it was different. I wanted to write rather too soon. It had some worrying consequences; luckily things worked out fine for me.

Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development

Date:

19 July 2013

Speaker:

Sunila S. Kale, Assistant Professor, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Abstract:

Electricity is a quintessential piece of the modern infrastructural state as well as a key feature of how Indian development and modernity have been imagined and enacted.
Analyzing electricity, a concurrent subject in which the state governments have played a large role, is also useful to challenge the common view of Indian political economy as historically dominated by the central government.Despite the inordinate authority of the central Indian state to guide the country’s development agenda, India’s state governments have used their commandof critical domains of social and physical architecture—such as electricity—to pursue distinct trajectories of development. In those parts of the countryside that were successfully electrified from the 1960s to the 1980s, the gains were due to neither nationalist idealism nor merely technocratic plans. Instead, rural electrification occurred where rural constituencies became politically influential within state political regimes. One result of this variation in state-level development paths is that in spite of the vast sums devoted to electrification from independence onwards, today access to electricity varies widely from state to state within India. The process of electrification also provides a unique lens with which to think about the politico-economic connections across two time periods that are usually treated as distinct: the era of central planning until the 1980s, and the period of market reforms that has followed. The development pathways charted in the earlier period have shaped the kinds of policies pursued in the last two decades.

The Determinants of Firm Transition in the Indian Informal Manufacturing Sector

Date:

2 August 2013

Speaker:

Kunal Kalyan Sen , Professor of Development Economics, Institute of Development Policy and Management, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Abstract

The predominant type of firms in developing countries is small family firms and the self-employed in the informal sector which form the bulk of production and employment in the economy. Very few family firms
make the transition to larger firms employing non-family labour. In this paper, we examine the reasons for the low degree of firm transition in the informal sector. We use a rich firm level data-set drawn from nationally
representative recent surveys of the Indian informal manufacturing sector for our empirical analysis. We find that key constraint to firm transition is firm capabilities, followed by the level of urbanisation, access to electricity and roads, and human capital, with finance constraints playing a lesser role. Our results have important policy implications with regard to facilities for skill up-gradation and adult education.

Capital Budgeting Practices:A Survey of Central and Eastern European Firms

Date:

10 August 2013

Speaker:

Sunil K. Mohanty, Professor of Finance, Department of Finance, Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis.

Abstract

We survey 400 executives in ten countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia – and report the results of their companies’ capital budgeting practices. We find that capital budgeting practices in CEE countries are influenced mostly by firm size, multinational culture, firms’ goals, code of ethics, and to a lesser extent, by executive ownership, number of projects analyzed, and target leverage. We compare our results with prior studies and find significant variations in capital budgeting practices across 24 countries, between high- and middle-income countries and among four geographic regions.