Session on BOP
Competitive Dynamics between MNCs and Domestic Companies
Anand Kumar Jaiswal, IIM Ahmedabad, India
Federica Angeli, Maastricht University, Netherlands
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Anand Kumar Jaiswal |
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Profile
Professor Jaiswal obtained his doctorate from XLRI Jamshedpur. His research interests include bottom of the pyramid (BOP) markets, services management, customer satisfaction, business-to-consumer e-commerce, and brand extension management. He has published and accepted papers in the Long Range Planning, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Innovations, Managing Service Quality, Journal of Academy of Business and Economics, Asian Case Research Journal, Economic & Political Weekly and Decision.
His work in the bottom of the pyramid has attracted attention of academicians and practitioners in India and abroad. His paper providing a different perspective on the bottom of the pyramid has been published in the Innovation, a prestigious journal from MIT press. He has conducted programme on the bottom of the pyramid for several organisations such as Sanofi-Aventis, Novo Nordisk, Novo Nordisk Region International Operations and General Electric. His consulting experience includes working with several organizations in both private and public sectors.
He has also won several awards for his research work. He was given Distinguished Young Professor Award for excellence in research in 2011 at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He won the best case award in 2011 international EFMD Case Competition in the Indian Management Issues and Opportunities category. In 2013 international EFMD Case Competition he was runner-up in the Indian Management Issues and Opportunities category and received a special Highly Commended mention.
He won the International Management Division’s Skolkovo Best Paper Finalist award in 2012 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Boston. He was also nominated for the Gustavson School of Business Award for the ‘Best Qualitative Paper in International Business’ of International Management Division in 2012 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Boston.
He was selected for the First Biennial Sheth Emerging Scholars Faculty Consortium at Reims, France in 2011. He also won award for ‘Excellence in Management Writing’ at IBS Kolkata and Telegraph Strategy Summit in 2005; the best doctoral student paper award at AIMS International Conference, IIM Calcutta in 2004, and the best paper in marketing award at Doctoral Symposium COSMAR, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 2003.
Abstract
This study we investigate the factors underpinning the competitive dynamics between multi-national corporations (MNCs) and domestic companies in base of the pyramid (BoP) markets. We analyze the case of a multi-domestic MNC, Hindustan Unilever, facing the competition of two small Indian companies focused on the low-end shampoo and detergent segments, Nirma and CavinKare.
Our findings highlight a fundamental rigidity of Hindustan Unilever. By using institutional theory as our interpretative lens, we ascribe this rigidity to the overlap of institutional domains faced by the MNC’s subunit, at two levels: 1. the constant search for legitimacy in both the host country domain and within the MNC, which requires the concurrent adherence to local policies and to practices institutionalized within the MNC; 2. the simultaneous pursuit of legitimacy in both low- and high-income markets, which requires non-consistent actions to conform to cognitively distant social groups. Building on previous work, we label these phenomena as ‘institutional dualism’.
This work advances the current understanding of strategic behavior in BoP markets. Further, it contributes to international business literature by providing new theoretical and empirical depth to the concept of institutional dualism, which emerges as a potential liability for MNCs competing in highly idiosyncratic foreign markets.
