My research paper

My research paper that I conducted on the diversification strategy of the companies as part of my MBA was due long ago to be published, but paucity of time and other resources did not permit. I am now putting the document online on this blog. It is a long paper and some sections are omitted but still it is long. The document titled - "The case of Diversification: Case Study analysis of the nature of competition in emerging markets" is linked here. This is my main research paper and I will be publishing a concise version of the same soon.

The abstract of the document is available in this blog post

Document Abstract

"This paper explores the nature of competition in emerging markets, specifically in the context of India, in a regulated environment. The paper identifies various contextual strategic factors for diversification and proposes a diversification framework to achieve customer lock-in, in a regulated environment. Through an ethnographic case study, the characteristic of the private Indian Radio industry are examined and various factors that influence competition in such an industry are identified. The main characteristics of the industry are that it is an oligopoly, faces regulatory barriers to entry and witnesses fierce competition.

The heavy competition forces firms to constantly innovate to develop competitive advantage which is temporary – a hypercompetitive characteristic. Various theoretical frameworks besides hypercompetition, including oligopoly and Porter’s competitive advantage framework, are studied to identify the explanation behind the nature of competition.

The literature, despite making rich contributions, does not collectively explain the competition observed in the radio industry raising a new question to answer. If business groups are aware about the competition in the industry then why do they get into it in the first place? Is diversification a defensive strategy by spreading the risk or an offensive strategy to lock-in the customer so as to earn superior rents by monetising every touch point?

The findings suggest that competition observed in radio industry is a function of the process of diversification. The regulatory barriers do act as hurdle when the players are outside the industry, once they get the license the barriers act as insurance against future competition. The players need to be able to sustain operations for long terms before the benefits can be enjoyed. This requires players with large resources who look at diversification as long term hedging strategy to earn superior rents. The business groups, which are resource-rich, do not get into an industry to compete but to lock-in the customer enabling them to mitigate their risks. A locked-in customer presents an opportunity to monetise various touch points of the customer with the business group, representing a long term competitive advantage.

Even though certain other industries may exhibit characteristics similar to radio industry, the diversification by business groups is not a simple phenomenon. Future research can try to identify other factors that prompt business groups to diversify and test the applicability of the framework proposed."

You are welcome to critique the document and also email me if you feel to discuss the same.his blog.