Developing Nation Context Research Articles

Conceptualizing luxury buying behavior: the Indian perspective

Purpose – The study aims to draw on existing knowledge and investigates how luxury is perceived in a developing nation with economic and cultural diversity. The present study aims to develop a conceptual framework to understand luxury buying behavior in a developing nation context. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilizes qualitative research (focus group discussions) with 72 luxury consumers (and partly with practitioners) of apparel and accessories in two major metro cities and two major non-metro cities of India. Findings – A framework of luxury buying behavior was constructed with cultural background, antecedents, buying process and post-purchase consequences of luxury buying behavior as its sub-constructs. Gender was identified as a moderating variable between antecedents of purchase and purchase behavior. Research limitations/implications – The most important contribution of the present study is the creation of a comprehensive framework of luxury buying behavior within a developing nation context and a set of testable propositions to further validate using quantitative research. Practical implications – Provides the manager with a workable model of luxury buying behavior that he/she could use to generate the right consumer responses. Originality/value – The present study is the first of its kind which integrates cultural backdrop, antecedents and consequences of luxury consumption in the context of a developing nation.

Firm ownership and board characteristics

Purpose – This paper aims to examine whether the extent and type of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures made by Indian public listed companies are associated with firm ownership and board characteristics. Design/methodology/approach – Data analysis is based on the top 100 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (2007-2011) using a 17-item CSR disclosure measure. Findings – The extent of CSR disclosure is positively associated with foreign ownership, government ownership and board independence and negatively associated with CEO duality. Promoter ownership has a negligible effect on the extent of CSR disclosure. In terms of the type of CSR disclosure, community information increases with government ownership and board independence, while environmental information expands with foreign ownership and board independence. Information on employees/human resources has a positive association with foreign ownership but decreases with CEO duality. The amount of product and services information increases with promoter ownership, foreign ownership and board independence and CEO duality. Practical implications – Given the positive impact independent directors have on the extent of CSR disclosure, their role can be further strengthened in terms of overseeing quality of information disclosed. Stakeholders and regulators will need to develop greater awareness of firm CSR disclosure biases associated with ownership and more carefully scrutinize firm CSR activities that firms are “not” reporting on. Originality/value – Empirical evidence on the link between corporate governance and CSR disclosure from a developing nation context is limited. This paper provides much needed evidence in this area from India – one of the largest, rapidly developing economies in the world.

Managing Gender‐Related Challenges in ICT4D Field Research

AbstractA significant number of ICT4D projects funded by the developed world cannot meet their objectives. One cause of failures of ICT4D projects is likely to be the failures or shortcomings of the field research component since it is an integral part of a majority ICT4D projects. Hence, it becomes an imperative for researchers to be able to manage the challenges encountered in ICT4D field research. Project management principles (PMP) concerned with the scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, and risks related to a variety of projects may help researchers to manage ICT4D field research challenges. However, PMP developed in and for the developed world cannot be applied as is; they need to be customized to a developing nation context. This paper illustrates the culturally sensitive application of PMP to manage contextual challenges mainly consisting of gender‐related challenges in field research with poor female mobile phone users in rural India. The communications and risk management principles were most useful when collecting quantitative and qualitative data from one of the most disadvantaged communities in the world. The insights into gender relations between the male researcher, the female local mediator, the female study participants, and their male family members would better equip researchers and practitioners to manage gender‐related challenges in ICT4D field research.

An Exploratory Study Of The Contextual Factors That Influence Success Of Ict Projects In Developing Nations: A Case Study Of A Telecommunications Company In Ghana

Organizations use various information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support business operations. In the developing world, ICT has promise for socio-economic development of the people. Successful project implementation is necessary in order to obtain the needed benefits from ICT endeavors. Factors that contribute to the successful implementation of ICT projects are well known. However, the implementation of ICT projects in developing countries is a more recent phenomenon that has not been well researched. In this paper we use a case study of ICT project implementation within one company in Ghana to highlight factors that underlie the implementation of ICT projects and how these factors collectively impact project success. The study shows that some of the factors identified as important in developed nations were relevant in the developing nation environment. However, the relative ranking of the importance of the factors was different between developed and developing nations. The study also identified additional factors that were relevant in the developing nation context. Our study is informed by the diffusion innovation theory, Hofstede’s cultural theory and DeLone and McLean’s IS success model. We present a framework that ties the ICT project success factors together and can serve as a guideline in ICT implementations in similar environments.

Developing Nations Special Issue

This edition of PharmacoEconomics is devoted entirely to issues surrounding the use of costeffectiveness analysis (CEA) for healthcare policy decisions in developing nations. As Singer pointed out, developing nations are the areas in the world where there is the greatest need for use of CEA in healthcare decision making and yet the evidence suggests that most of these nations rarely conduct and/or use such analyses at a policy level. This is mirrored in the published literature, where it was estimated that only 7% of published CEAs in 2007 were set within a developing nation context. This special issue of PharmacoEconomics signals a start by the journal to address this disparity, with articles from Asia, Latin and South America, and Africa. Although many of the articles in this special issue of PharmacoEconomics suggest a willingness amongst policy makers to adopt CEA as part of healthcare policy decisions, there are some significant barriers. Foremost is the lack of capacity to conduct CEAs in developing nations. This not only includes lack of qualified researchers but also poor infrastructure and lack of local data. Inroads are being made in Asia, as shown by Yang, who provides an overview of the use of pharmacoeconomic evidence as part of health technology assessment (HTA) in Asia. Although the use of HTA evidence in policy making is still in its infancy in Asia, there is much interest in the methods. Yang points out that pharmaceutical manufacturers see Asia as an attractive market and this, coupled with a rising demand for healthcare in Asia, has made policy makers extremely concerned about how to best manage limited resources. Leading the way in formal use of cost-effectiveness methods are South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. They may have impact well beyond their borders, as other countries will look to their findings to advise their own health policy decisions. However, economic evaluations in the literature have proven to be difficult to generalize or transfer to other settings. Aside from the obvious difficulties in trying to apply results from developed countries, even learning from other developing nations has proven to be a challenge. This was the finding of Augustovski et al. in their review of economic evaluations conducted in Latin America and the Caribbean. One of the greatest difficulties in using CEA for policy in developing nations is the choice of an appropriate threshold. Shillcut et al. review the different approaches. It has been common to use multiples of per-capita gross national income, and this has been endorsed by the WHO. This approach may be useful for demonstrating disparities between developed and developing nations and as a basis for seeking international aid. Yet this often fails for countries trying to make their own internal policy decisions due to excessive incremental cost when ‘cost-effective’ interventions affect a large number of people. Indeed, even interventions that have been demonstrated to be cost effective using very low thresholds that were chosen precisely because of affordability concerns, have still sometimes proven to be too expensive to implement. Shillcutt et al. argue for adoption of explicit values of lambda, using a league table approach and a context-specific budget. They believe that EDITORIAL Pharmacoeconomics 2009; 27 (11): 887-889 1170-7690/09/0011-0887/$49.95/0

Groundwater: the processes and global significance of aquifer degradation.

The exploitation of groundwater resources for human use dates from the earliest civilizations, but massive resource development has been largely restricted to the past 50 years. Although global in scope, the emphasis of this paper is on groundwater-based economies in a developing nation context, where accelerated resource development has brought major social and economic benefits over the past 20 years. This results from groundwater's significant role in urban water supply and in rural livelihoods, including irrigated agriculture. However, little of the economic benefit of resource development has been reinvested in groundwater management, and concerns about aquifer degradation and resource sustainability began to arise. A general review, for a broad-based audience, is given of the mechanisms and significance of three semi-independent facets of aquifer degradation. These are (i) depletion of aquifer storage and its effects on groundwater availability, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; (ii) groundwater salinization arising from various different processes of induced hydraulic disturbance and soil fractionation; and (iii) vulnerability of aquifers to pollution from land-use and effluent discharge practices related to both urban development and agricultural intensification. Globally, data with which to assess the status of aquifer degradation are of questionable reliability, inadequate coverage and poor compilation. Recourse has to be made to 'type examples' and assumptions about the extension of similar hydrogeological settings likely to be experiencing similar conditions of groundwater demand and subsurface contaminant load. It is concluded that (i) aquifer degradation is much more than a localized problem because the sustainability of the resource base for much of the rapid socio-economic development of the second half of the twentieth century is threatened on quite a widespread geographical basis; and (ii) major (and long overdue) investments in groundwater resource and quality protection are urgently needed. These investments include appropriate institutional provisions, demand-side management, supply-side enhancement and pollution control.

The impact of health system reform on remote health in Cambodia and the Philippines

Remoteness is commonly conceived of in the Western health context in terms of geographical or social isolation. These features of remoteness also apply to the developing nation context. However, the international context has additional dimensions of remoteness that impact significantly on health outcomes. These are the economic, social and political realities of poverty and insecurity in remote populations. Based on the experiences of implementation of health development projects in Cambodia and The Philippines in the 1990's, this paper describes the character of poverty and insecurity and it's impact on health outcomes. It also describes recent health sector reforms of decentralisation and devolution, and discusses the degree to which these reforms have responded to the health needs of remote populations. Poverty and insecurity are dominant factors in reducing access to essential health services and hence impact negatively on health outcomes, particularly for women and children. Recent health sector reforms have not as yet demonstrated tangible benefits for the health of remote populations.