ISSN: 0976-6669

International Journal of Management Research Volume 9, Number 1-2 December 2018

Editor Dr. D. K. Malhotra, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia (USA) Managing Editor Dr. Srirang Jha, Apeejay School of Management, New Delhi (India) Assistant Editor Dr. Priya Gupta, Apeejay School of Management, New Delhi (India)

Editorial Advisory Board Dr. Russel Kershaw, Clark H. Byrum School of Business, Marian University, Indiana (USA) Dr. Vivek Bhargava, Alcorn State University, Mississippi (USA) Dr. Joel M Rodney, formerly with Penn State York, Pennsylvania, (USA) Dr. Lloyd Russow, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Philadelphia (USA) Dr. C.P. Gupta, University of Delhi, Delhi (India) Dr. Rashmi Malhotra, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia (USA) Dr. Rand Martin, Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania, (USA) Dr. Amit Sareen, Apeejay School of Management, New Delhi (India) Dr. Shailendra Singh, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (India) Dr. D. P. S. Verma, formerly with University of Delhi, Delhi (India) Dr. Narender Singh, formerly with Institute of Technology Management (India) Dr. Harish Chandra Chaudhary, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (India)

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International Journal of Management Research (IJMR) is a peer-reviewed biannual journal published jointly by Apeejay School of Management, New Delhi (India) and Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia (USA). IJMR is published in June and December every year. IJMR aims at providing an intellectual platform for high quality research encompassing all the sub-domains of Management. In the process, as a joint academic initiative, it would not only cause dissemination of knowledge across the world but also foster collaborative research. Poised to nurture creativity, innovation and forward-looking management practices it aspires to improve the quality of life of people across the globe. Editorial Connect: ijmr.asm@apeejay.edu Copyrights © Apeejay School of Management, New Delhi (India) All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without written permission of the Editor/ Publisher except for purpose of quotes in research papers. Disclaimer: The views expressed in the articles/ reviews are those of the contributors and not necessarily of the Editorial Board or Apeejay Education Society/ Thomas Jefferson University. Articles/ reviews are published in good faith and the contributors will be liable for any copyright infringements. Published by the Director, Apeejay School of Management, Sector 8, Institutional Area, Dwarka, New Delhi –110077.

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Contents

Improving Resilience among Employees High in Depression, Anxiety and Workplace Distress Allison L. Williams, Acacia C. Parks, Grace Cormier, Julia Stafford and Ashley Whillans 4-22

Antecedents and Consequences of Brand Experience for Luxury Brands: A Conceptual Framework Yuvika Sumbly and Sadaf Siraj 23-41

A Systems Perspective on Managing Eco-Logistics Pragya Arya and Daisy Mathur Jain 42-56

Community Radio in Gurugram: A Case Study in Social Entrepreneurship Sumati Varma 57-69

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Improving Resilience among Employees High in Depression, Anxiety, and Workplace Distress

Allison L. Williams*, Acacia C. Parks**, Grace Cormier***, Julia Stafford**** and

Ashley Whillans*****

Abstract Depression and anxiety are costly for both employees and employers, in terms of direct medical costs as well as costs stemming from lost productive time and missed days at work. Resilience training has been shown to improve workplace functioning for employees, which suggests that it is a promising avenue for reducing some of these costs. However, existing resilience trainings are often conducted in-person, suffer from low levels of engagement, and are difficult to scale to large groups of employees. In the current study, we compared change in resilience over time among employees who were assigned to and used an online resilience intervention platform (Happify), employees who were assigned to and used a scaled-down psycho-educational version of the platform, and employees who did not use their assigned platform (i.e., a no-usage comparison group). We did this separately for users high in emotional distress (clinical levels of depression and/or anxiety) and users high in workplace distress (high levels of presenteeism and/or burnout). Across both samples, employees who used the Happify platform showed significantly greater increases in resilience over eight weeks than employees in the two other groups; the latter two comparison groups did not differ significantly from each other. These findings suggest that a technology-based resilience intervention, which employs a low-touch, cost-effective, easily scalable intervention format, can successfully improve resilience among vulnerable employee groups, which may have important benefits in workplace settings. Keywords: Resilience, Depression, Anxiety, Presenteeism, Burnout, Employee Mental Health Introduction As the costs associated with healthcare have increased, so too has the importance of understanding mental health and the factors that may help to improve it (see Goetzel et al., 2018). Recent estimates suggest that mental health issues are common; up to 6.6% of the adult U.S. population has experienced a major depressive episode in the past year (Kessler et al., 2003). Anxiety disorders are also extremely common in the U.S., affecting an estimated 15.7 million people annually, and 30 million people at sometime in their lives (Lepine, 2002). These high prevalence rates for mental health issues can have important implications for organizations, as poor mental health functioning is costly for both employees and * Research Associate, Happify, New York, USA. E-mail: allison@happify.com ** Chief Scientist, Happify, New York, USA *** Doctoral Student, Harvard Business School, USA. E-mail: gcormier@hbs.edu **** Research Assistant, Happify, New York, USA. E-mail: julia.stafford@happify.com ***** Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School, USA. E-mail: awhillans@hbs.edu

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employers. Depression costs employers an estimated $210 billion per year (Greenberg et al., 2005), with over 20% of U.S. employees reporting depressive symptoms (Shim, Baltrus, & Rust, 2011). Employers lose approximately 32 days of productivity annually from an employee with a depressive disorder (Greenberg et al., 2015), and employees with depression are 4-5 times more likely to experience work-related problems than employees with chronic physical illnesses such as diabetes or heart disease (Lerner et al., 2004). Other recent estimates have quantified the amount of lost productive time from employees with depression to be $44 billion annually (Stewart, Ricci, Chee, Hahn, & Morganstein, 2003). Similarly, Dupont and colleagues (1996) estimated that costs associated with anxiety disorders totaled $46.6 billion, with approximately 75% of these costs stemming from lost or reduced productivity in the workplace. In considering options for reducing the rates of depression and anxiety in the workplace, one promising avenue is resilience promotion. Resilience is characterized as the ability to maintain mental health despite exposure to psychological or physical adversity (Kalisch et al., 2015; Tugade, Fredrickson, & Barrett, 2004). Resilient individuals are better able to form and maintain positive social relationships, regulate their behavior, and maintain a positive view of the self and their outlook on life (Wright, Masten, & Narayan, 2013). Ultimately, resilience can lead to greater overall life satisfaction and reduced occurrence of depression (Cohn et al., 2009; Fredrickson et al., 2008; Mak, Ng, & Wong, 2011), even after experiencing a traumatic event (Wingo et al., 2010). Importantly, resilience can have important implications for organizations (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005), as resilient workers are less likely to miss work due to ill-health (Kotze & Lamb, 2012). Resilience also relates negatively with adverse outcomes such as job turnover intentions and behaviors (Seligman et al., 1986; Van Katwyk, Fox, Spector, & Kelloway, 2000) and burnout (Dyrbye et al., 2010). Perhaps most relevant to the present study, there is evidence that resilience can combat depression (Steinhardt & Dolbier, 2008) and anxiety (Scali et al., 2012), and that resilience is negatively related to all dimensions of presenteeism, which is the tendency to work while sick (Thogersen-Ntoumani et al., 2017). Together, these findings suggest that resilience may be an important skill for employees to learn to better address mental health issues and accompanying costs associated with them, such as presenteeism and burnout. Importantly, resilience training interventions have been shown to be directly effective in workplace settings and to improve workplace functioning for employees (Robertson, Cooper, Sarkar, & Curran, 2015). A meta-analysis by Vanhove, Herian, Perez, Harms, and Lester (2016) found a consistent, small effect of resilience interventions on workplace performance, well-being, and social functioning. For example, resilience trainings have been shown to increase well-being and positive affect and decrease depression, anxiety, and negative affect (Forbes & Fikretoglu, 2018; Robertson et al., 2015). Resilience trainings have also had positive impacts on physical health outcomes such as cortisol (a stress hormone), heart rate, blood pressure, and cholesterol (Forbes & Fikretoglu, 2018; Robertson et al., 2015). In terms of psychosocial functioning, individuals participating in resilience trainings have reported increases in optimism, social support, self-efficacy, and purpose in life, relative to those who did not receive such trainings (Robertson et al., 2015; Waite & Richardson, 2004). Finally, with respect to job performance, resilience trainings have been shown to increase work productivity (Robertson et al., 2015), organizational commitment (Youssef & Luthans, 2007), ratings of job performance from both the employee (Robertson

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et al., 2015) and his or her supervisor (Cropanzano& Wright, 1999; Luthans, Avolio, Walumbwa, & Li, 2005), and burnout (Magtibay, Chesak, Coughlin, & Sood, 2017). One study quantified the effects of resilience training, finding that over a 2-month period, cost savings were $1846 per person in terms of reduced presenteeism (Johnson, Emmons, Rivard, Griffin, & Dusek, 2015). In summary, it is increasingly clear that employee well-being is directly tied to employee productivity, retention, engagement, and social harmony. These factors, in turn, are strongly tied to the success of a business as a whole. However, despite the acknowledged need and growing demand for resilience interventions in the workplace, existing interventions are often difficult to scale, requiring in-person facilitation and other logistical and financial resources (Cherniak & Lahiri, 2010). These programs also struggle with lack of participation for a myriad of reasons, including a lack of motivation due to competing demands and/or a lack of willingness to be seen as someone who needs help—especially in workplace contexts where employees could perceive and experience negative career implications (Brohan et al., 2012; Clement et al., 2015). Internet interventions have the potential to surmount many barriers to employees accessing traditional resilience programs, such as high costs for interventions and user inconvenience (Griffiths, Lindenmeyer, Powell, Lowe, & Thorogood, 2006). In the current study, we sought to test whether participating in an 8-week online intervention designed to improve happiness and well-being would increase resilience among employees who might benefit the most, namely, part-time and full-time employees that are high in emotional distress (symptoms of depression and/or anxiety) and employees high in workplace distress (symptoms of presenteeism and/or burnout). Although past research has found evidence supporting the effectiveness of resilience interventions in the workplace (e.g., Forbes & Fikretoglu, 2018, Waite & Richardson, 2004), the majority of these studies have focused on healthy individuals, which may limit their generalizability. Furthermore, little work has tested the impact of technology-based resilience interventions. Thus, this research will provide new insight into how a low-cost online intervention could potentially help employees who need it most. To do this, we compared change in resilience over time between participants who used an online resilience intervention platform as recommended (Happify) and participants who used a scaled-down version of this online intervention platform that contained polls about mental health and well-being topics and that provided psychoeducational information about the topics contained in the polls. Lastly, we included a non-random subgroup of users who did not use their assigned platform at the recommended level. This comparison group was intended as a proxy for the natural improvement that individuals would likely experience over time. We hypothesized that participants who used the online resilience intervention platform (Happify) would show greater increases in resilience from baseline to post-test than participants who were in the psychoeducational comparison condition or who did not use their assigned platform. We further hypothesized that these benefits would hold for participants with clinical depressive symptoms and/or anxiety symptoms, as well as for employees with high levels of presenteeism and/ or burnout.

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Method In this study, we report analyses separately for two samples of participants. Sample 1 was drawn from a randomized trial examining the efficacy of the Happify platform; we specifically selected users who were employed full-time and reported elevated levels of depression and/or anxiety. Sample 2 was drawn from a second randomized trial that targeted users who were full-time employed; we selected users who reported high levels of presenteeism and/or burnout. Both studies were conducted under the supervision of the Hiram College Institutional Review Board. See Table 1 for the demographic information of retained and excluded participants in each of the two samples, and Table 2 for the demographic information of retained participants by condition. Sample 1: Users with high levels of emotional distress Participants in Sample 1 were new registrants of Happify who consented to participate in an 8-week research study and who completed the baseline and post-test questionnaire. Assessments were considered part of the “8-week follow-up” if they were taken up to three weeks after the 8-week follow-up assessment target date. Of the participants who met these criteria (N = 444), we retained individuals who indicated that they were employed full-time or self-employed, and who reported depressive symptoms at the upper end of the mild level or higher (i.e., PHQ-9 ≥ 8; Kroenke et al., 2001) and/or anxiety symptoms at the upper end of the mild level or higher (i.e., GAD-7 ≥ 8; Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, & Löwe, 2006). Research suggests that these cutoff scores have acceptable properties for diagnosing depression (Manea, Gilbody, & McMillan, 2012) and generalized anxiety disorder (Plummer, Manea, Trepel, & McMillan, 2016), respectively. In this sample, 61 participants (19.0%) indicated clinical levels of depression but not anxiety, 27 (8.4%) indicated clinical levels of anxiety but not depression, and 233 (72.6%) indicated clinical levels of both depression and anxiety; these percentages are consistent with research finding a high level of comorbidity between depression and anxiety (Brown, Campbell, Lehman, Grisham, & Mancill, 2001). Although we report results for the combined group of employees who are depressed or anxious due to this high level of comorbidity, all results hold when examining users with depression and anxiety separately. Ultimately, a total of 321 participants met all criteria and were included in analysis, which represented 72.1% of the initial sample. In this sample, retained and excluded participants differed with respect to distributions of age (X2(5) = 32.58, p< .001), but not gender (X2(3) = 3.03, p = .39). In terms of age, excluded participants were less likely to be in the younger age categories and more likely to be in the older age categories. Participants in the three conditions did not differ significantly by gender (X2(6) = 6.87, p = .33) or age (X2(8) = 1.02, p> .99). Sample 2: Users with high levels of workplace distress Participants in Sample 2 were new registrants of Happify who consented to participate in an eight-week research study and completed both the baseline and post-test questionnaires. As with Sample 1, although we intended participants to complete the post-test questionnaire eight weeks after enrolling in the study and completing the baseline questionnaire, we included in analysis those who completed the post-test questionnaire up to three weeks after the target date, in order to increase statistical power. Of the participants who met these criteria (N = 482), we analyzed a subset who had high levels of workplace distress. This subset of employees were those with either high levels of presenteeism (i.e., scores above the midpoint of the job-stress related presenteeism scale; Gilbreath & Frew, 2008) or high

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levels of burnout (i.e., scores above the midpoint of the Maslach Burnout Inventory—General Survey; Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, & Jackson, 1996) totaled 270 participants and represented 56.0% of the sample. In this sample, participants included and excluded did not differ significantly with respect to gender (X2(3) = 2.98, p = .39) or age (X2(5) = 7.44, p = .19). In addition, participants in the three conditions did not differ significantly by gender (X2(6) = 6.92, p = .33) or age (X2(10) = 14.75, p = .14).

Table 1: Summary of participant demographic information by sample

Demographic

Sample 1: High Emotional Distress Sample 2: High Workplace Distress

Included (N = 321)

Excluded (N = 124)

Included (N = 270)

Excluded (N = 212)

Gender

Male 38 (11.8%) 22 (17.7%) 46 (17.0%) 25 (11.8%)

Female 279 (86.9%) 101 (81.5%) 219 (81.1%) 184 (86.8%)

Other 3 (0.9%) 1 (0.8%) 4 (1.5%) 2 (0.9%)

Missing 1 (0.3%) 0 (0.0%) 1 (0.4%) 1 (0.4%)

Age

18-24 55 (17.1%) 10 (8.1%) 30 11.1%) 34 (16.0%)

25-34 140 (43.6%) 40 (32.3%) 119 (44.1%) 87 (41.0%)

35-44 75 (23.4%) 28 (22.6%) 73 (27.0%) 53 (25.0%)

45-54 37 (11.5%) 28 (22.6%) 39 (14.4%) 26 (12.3%)

55-64 14 (4.4%) 14 (11.3%) 7 (2.6%) 12 (5.7%)

65+ 0 (0.0%) 4 (3.2%) 2 (0.7%) 0 (0.0%)

Table 2: Summary of demographic information for included participants, by condition

Sample 1: High Emotional Distress Sample 2: High Workplace Distress

Demographic

H (N = 86)

PE (N = 176)

NUC (N = 59)

H (N = 56)

PE (N = 161)

NUC (N = 53)

Gender

Male 6 (7.0%)

23 (13.1%) 9 (15.3%)

5 (8.9%)

30 (18.6%) 11 (20.8%)

Female 79 (91.9%)

151 (85.8%)

49 (83.1%)

50 (89.3%)

129 (80.1%)

40 (75.5%)

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Other 0 (0.0%)

2 (1.1%)

1 (1.7%)

1 (1.8%)

1 (0.6%)

2 (3.6%)

Missing 1 (1.2%) 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 1 (0.6%) 0 (0.0%)

Age

18-24 15 (17.4%) 31 (17.6%) 9 (15.3%)

3 (5.4%)

25 (15.5%) 2 (3.8%)

25-34 39 (45.4%) 77 (43.8%) 24 (40.7%) 29 (51.8%) 68 (42.2%) 22 (41.5%)

35-44 19 (22.1%) 41 (23.3%) 15 (25.4%) 15 (26.8%) 43 (26.7%) 15 (28.3%)

45-54 10 (11.6%) 19 (10.8%) 8 (13.6%)

6 (10.7%)

21 (13.0%) 12 (22.6%)

55-64 3 (3.5%) 8 (4.6%) 3 (5.1%) 3 (5.4%) 3 (1.9%) 1 (1.9%)

65+ 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 1 (0.6%) 1 (1.9%)

Note. H = Happify, PE = Psychoeducation, NUC = No-usage comparison. Study Procedure All study experiences took place via smart phone or web, with no human contact outside of assistance with technical problems via email. The only inclusion criterion for intake, besides the level of computer literacy needed in order to find Happify in the first place, was that the user be a new registrant, with no experience on the platform to date; new users were offered the opportunity to participate in the study at the end of the process of registering for the free version of the consumer site. Data Security. As data security is a concern for any online data collection, we implemented various safety measures to protect user privacy. They are summarized in the consent form as follows: When you register for the study, you will be asked to give us your email address. In our secure database, your email address will be tied to your data by a randomly generated numerical code, which will allow us to connect each new questionnaire you take to the other questionnaires you have taken. Depending on whether or not your email address contains identifying information, this may or may not constitute a risk to privacy were someone to compromise the security of our database. However, because email addresses will be stored separately from questionnaire data, the researchers will never be able to connect your data with any identifying information. However, if you wish to be completely certain that your data will remain private under any circumstances, you may create an anonymous email address for the purposes of this study and have its messages forwarded to your main account. Allocation and Clinical Symptom Screening. Participants who consented to participate in the study were prompted to complete the baseline assessment via email as well as push notification on their mobile device, if they had installed the Happify app.

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Experimental Conditions Happify (happify.com) can be accessed via the web, or via an app (Android and iOS), and all study activities took place through the Happify platform. There were two intervention conditions between which participants could be randomly assigned: the full Happify platform and a psychoeducational comparison intervention. Per the consent form, participants were aware that there were different programs being tested, and that they would be randomly assigned to one program, which they would be unable to change. However, participants were unaware of whether the program to which they were assigned was “experimental” or “comparison.” Since the psychoeducation condition was designed to look like any other Happify program, it is unlikely that users unfamiliar with Happify would be able to determine whether they were in the comparison condition. In the first 30 days, all participants received emails twice per week reminding them to visit the site and to complete their assigned program. They did not receive emails after that, except to prompt for follow-up assessment. Happify. The Happify condition received full access to an online platform that offers techniques grounded in positive psychological interventions (PPI; Parks & Schueller, 2014), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT; Beck, 2011), and/or mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 2013) (Carpenter et al., 2016). Each of the core activities on the platform was selected from one or more of these three theoretical traditions, but only if there existed randomized, controlled research demonstrating its efficacy for improving well-being. Those core activities are organized into 5 categories using the acronym STAGE: savor (savoring and mindfulness), thank (gratitude), aspire (goal-setting, reframing/optimism, meaning, and using strengths), give (prosocial behavior, kindness, and forgiveness), and empathize (perspective-taking and self-compassion). Some of these activities would be considered “traditional” exemplars of the literature they came from. Gratitude journals, acts of kindness, and using strengths are examples of activities on Happify that are canonical PPIs. Users do body scan meditations, walking meditations, and sitting meditations very much in line with traditional MBSR. They practice thought-stopping and thought disputing, as well as goal-setting, all of which are staples of traditional CBT. However, because these three approaches overlap in many ways, we do not clearly label each activity as “belonging” to only one area; for example, savoring appears in both positive psychology and mindfulness-based approaches, and many positive psychology-based activities could also be housed under the “behavioral activation” side of CBT. Happify users have free choice from a growing catalog of over sixty 4-week programs tailored to different goals, such as conquering negative thoughts, feeling more connected to one’s family, or finding meaning in one’s job. Together, these programs contain over 2,500 different activity variants. The design of each program is overseen by an author with expertise in the topic. The author selects a subset of the core activities that are appropriate to the goals of the program, and works with a writer to customize the selected activities for the specific nature of the program. For example, a track on living with chronic pain was overseen by Afton Hassett, a researcher at the University of Michigan who specializes in psychosocial interventions for pain. She sampled interventions from positive psychology (gratitude, kind acts, strengths-building, finding meaning), cognitive-behavioral therapy (goal-setting, thought stopping), and mindfulness-based stress reduction (savoring the

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present moment, sitting meditation). Each of these appears in the track in a customized form that mentions pain and helps the user see the activity’s relevance to chronic pain. Psycho-education comparison. In order to account for regression to the mean and expectation effects, it is important to evaluate active interventions against one or more comparison groups (Mohr et al., 2009). About half of online well-being intervention studies use waitlist control conditions, where users do not receive any aspects of the intervention being tested (Bolier et al., 2013a; Bolier et al., 2013b; Schueller & Parks, 2012). Our psychoeducational condition was designed to provide a more robust and more meaningful comparison group than a simple waitlist control. The psychoeducational comparison intervention emulates many existing websites that provide information about well-being, where a person might end up if they are searching online. Psychoeducational participants logged in regularly to an identical looking Happify website or app, which included an identical on boarding process, and were offered content that grew and changed over time. However, comparison group users did not experience some of the engagement elements from the main platform -- they had no access to social forums, could not post their activity results publicly for others to see and comment on, and could not choose freely between different programs. Like a waitlist group, users do not receive activities to try, but unlike a waitlist group, they do engage with content about well-being, and they also have the experience of using the Happify platform. Users in the psychoeducational comparison group completed a series of polls on the topic of well-being (Haeck, Parks, & Schueller, 2016). In these polls, they were asked survey questions on well-being topics, and then were given some social comparison data about where they stand in their opinions compared with other users as well as information about why the well-being topic is important, including references to relevant scientific studies. No-usage comparison. Our restriction to users who used their assigned intervention as instructed (a minimum of twice per week, on average, over 8 weeks) left us with a substantial number of users who were randomly assigned to one of the two groups, but who completed fewer than 16 activities during the 8-week period. From these users, we selected those who completed 8 or fewer activities over 8 weeks, and therefore were not significantly exposed to their assigned intervention; these users comprised a non-randomized comparison group. By separating out users who were assigned to an intervention, but who did not fully complete it, we hoped to observe the natural change in well-being that can be expected over time. With an estimate of natural change over time, we could assess the extent to which the two intervention conditions improved above and beyond the improvement they would have experienced regardless. Instead of randomly assigning participants to a no-intervention control group, we chose to examine low-usage users based on internal pilot data, which suggests that participants assigned to a no-intervention group will seek out treatment elsewhere. These pilot results are consistent with previous research, which finds that when people who value happiness are given an ineffective strategy for pursuing it, they experience dysphoric effects (Mauss, Tamir, Anderson, & Savino, 2011). The non-randomized comparison group, therefore, allows us to see the well-being changes that occur in users who receive no intervention without

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risking the negative consequences of a no intervention group assignment in this eager population. Measures Sorting and Control Variables Depressive Symptoms. In Sample 1, depressive symptoms were measured using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). Participants were asked to rate the frequency with which they experienced various depressive symptoms in the past two weeks, on a scale that included the following response options: not at all, several days, more than half the days, almost every day. Symptoms included “feeling down, depressed, or hopeless,” and “feeling tired or having little energy.” Participants’ responses were summed to create a total score that ranged from 0 to 27, with higher values indicating depressive symptoms that were greater in number and/or more frequent. PHQ showed acceptable internal consistency in the larger sample from which our subsample was

screened ( = .88). Baseline PHQ scores did not differ significantly as a function of study condition [F(2,318) = 0.99, p = .37]. Anxiety Symptoms. In Sample 1, anxiety symptoms were measured using the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7; Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, &Löwe, 2006). Participants were asked to indicate how frequently in the past two weeks they had experienced various symptoms of anxiety, on a scale ranging from not at all, several days, more than half the days, and nearly every day. Symptoms included “feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge,” and “worrying too much about different things.” Participants’ responses were summed to create a total score that ranged from 0-21, with higher scores indicating more frequent anxiety symptoms. Participant GAD showed acceptable internal

consistency in the larger sample from which our subsample was screened ( = .89).Participant baseline GAD scores did not differ significantly as a function of condition among those retained for analysis, [F(2,318) = 0.61, p = .55]. Presenteeism. In Sample 2, presenteeism was measured using the 6-item job-stress-related presenteeism scale (JSRP; Gilbreath & Frew, 2008). Participants were asked to indicate how often they had engaged in thought patterns or behaviors indicating presenteeism, such as that they were “unable to concentrate on [their] job because of stress” or that they “delay starting on new projects at work because of stress.” Participants’ responses were summed to create a total score that ranged from 0-12, with higher scores indicating higher levels of job-stress-related presenteeism. The JSRP showed acceptable internal consistency in the

larger sample from which our subsample was screened ( = .80). At baseline, presenteeism scale scores did not differ significantly between the different study conditions, F(2,267) = 0.23, p = .80. Burnout. In Sample 2, burnout was measured using the 5-item Exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS; Schaufeli et al., 1996). Participants were asked to indicate their level of agreement with statements such as, “I feel burned out from work,” with response options ranging from 0 (Disagree Strongly) to 4 (Agree Strongly). Participants’ responses were summed to create a total score that ranged from 0-20, with higher scores indicating higher levels of burnout. The MBI-GS Exhaustion subscale showed acceptable internal consistency in the larger sample from which our subsample was

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screened ( = .85). Burnout scale scores did not differ significantly as a function of study condition, F(2,267) = 0.12, p = .89. Demographics. In both Sample 1 and Sample 2, participants were asked to indicate their gender and age. For gender, participants were able to select from options including male, female, and “it’s complicated”, and for age, participants were able to select from options including 18-24 years, 25-34 years, 35-44 years, 45-54 years, 55-64 years, and 65 years or older. In Sample 2 only, participants were also asked to indicate their job category from the following options: executive, administrator, or senior manager; professional; technical support; sales; clerical and administrative support; service occupation; precision production and crafts worker; and operator or laborer. Participants in each of the three conditions did not differ significantly in terms of gender or age in either Sample 1 or Sample 2 (all ps> .26). Study Outcome: Resilience Resilience was measured using a composite scale that aggregated measures of optimism, perceived stress, and positive emotionality, all three of which are key components of resilience (Parks et al., in press; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). Optimism was measured using the LOT-R (Scheier & Carver, 1985). Perceived stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). Positive emotionality was measured using the emotion subscale of the Happify scale (Carpenter et al., 2016).To compute the resilience index, items within each of the three resilience components (optimism, perceived stress, and positive emotionality) were rescored to run from 0-1, and then averaged separately by component. Next, the three component averages were averaged together, so that each component was weighted equally in the final composite, regardless of the number of items in any given scale. Finally, composite scores were multiplied by 100 for ease of interpretation, such that the final resilience index ranged from 0-100. Analytic Strategy To test whether using the Happify platform increased resilience in our two samples relative to users in a control condition, analyses focused on users who engaged with the platform as suggested (see Carpenter et al., 2016). Users included in analysis completed, on average, at least two activities per week, or a minimum of 16 total activities over the course of the eight-week study; this optimal activity level was derived from internal data from our consumer platform. We also retained a subsample of users who did not use their assigned platform as suggested, and completed (at most) eight activities during the eight-week intervention period as a non-randomized comparison condition. All analyses were conducted using Stata SE 14.2. Results Baseline differences. Baseline levels of resilience did not differ significantly for emotionally distressed participants in Sample 1 [F(2,318) = 0.39, p = .68] or for participants experiencing workplace distress in Sample 2 [F(2,267) = 1.19, p = .31]. Analysis overview. We conducted a two-way mixed analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with time (baseline, post-test) entered as a within-subject factor and condition (Happify, Psychoeducation, No-Usage) entered as a between-subjects factor, separately for each sample. We also controlled for relevant demographic variables in the models. For Sample 1,

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this included participant gender and age. For Sample 2, this included participant gender, age, and job category. Results are summarized in Table 3 below and presented graphically in Figure 1. Changes in resilience among users with high emotional distress. When examining changes in resilience over time among full-time employed participants with clinical symptoms of depression and/or anxiety, the mixed ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of time, F(1,317) = 75.62, p< .001, ηp

2 = .19 and a non-significant main effect of condition F(2,317) = 0.13, p = .88, ηp

2 = .001. However, these effects were qualified by a significant time by condition interaction, F(2,317) = 3.86, p = .022, ηp

2 = .02. Follow-up simple effects analyses revealed significant effects of time in all three conditions, such that participants in the Happify [t(317) = 7.21, p< .001], Psychoeducation [t(317) = 6.31, p< .01], and the no-usage conditions [t(317) = 2.73, p< .007] all saw significant increases in resilience over time (MH = 9.38, SEH = 1.30; MPE = 5.71, SEPE = 0.90; MNU = 4.26, SENU = 1.56). In terms of change from baseline to post-test, participants in the Happify condition showed significantly greater change in resilience from baseline to post-test than did participants in the Psychoeducation (t(317) = 2.32, p< .021) or no-usage comparison conditions (t(317) = 2.52, p = .012). These changes in resilience are equivalent to a 25.1% increase in baseline resilience for users in the Happify condition, a 14.8% increase for users in the psychoeducation condition, and an11.0% increase for users in the no-usage condition. Results for each of the resilience composite components separately are shown in the Appendix. Changes in resilience among users with high workplace distress. The mixed ANOVA analyses revealed a significant main effects of time, F(1,266) = 43.11, p< .001, ηp

2 = .14, which was further qualified by a significant time by condition interaction, F(2,266) = 3.38, p = .035, ηp

2 = .025. Follow-up simple effects analyses revealed significant effects of time in both the Happify [t(266) = 5.39, p< .001] and Psychoeducation conditions [t(266) = 5.12, p< .001], but not in the no-usage condition [t(266) = 1.72, p = .086], suggesting that participants in both of the active experimental conditions saw significant increases in resilience over time (MH = 9.68, SEH = 1.80; MPE = 5.44, SEPE = 1.06), but that those who did not actively use their assigned condition did not (MNU = 3.18, SENU = 1.85). Moreover, this increase over time in resilience for participants in the Happify condition was significantly larger than the increase in resilience for participants in either the Psychoeducation condition (t(266) = 2.03, p = .044) or the participants in the no-usage condition (t(266) = 2.52, p = .012). These changes in resilience are equivalent to a 20.9% increase in resilience for users in the Happify condition, an 11.6% increase for users in the Psychoeducation condition, and a 6.3% increase for users in the no-usage condition.

Table 3: Baseline, post-test, and change in resilience scores by condition and sample

Condition

N

Resilience 95% CI of Change Baseline Post-test Change

Sample 1: High Emotional Distress

Happify 86 37.33 46.71 9.38 6.82, 11.94

Psychoeducation 176 38.59 44.30 5.71 3.93, 7.49

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No Usage 59 38.80 43.06 4.26 1.19, 7.33

Sample 2: High Workplace Distress

Happify 56 46.34 56.01 9.67 6.14, 13.22

Psychoeducation 161 46.75 52.19 5.44 3.35, 7.54

No Usage 53 50.21 53.40 3.18 -.45, 6.82

Discussion In two studies, we build on prior work demonstrating the effectiveness of the Happify platform (Carpenter et al., 2016; Parks et al., in press) to show that using an online- and smartphone-based resilience intervention increases resilience among employees who might need it most. Specifically, we demonstrated the effect for employees with elevated emotional distress (depression and/or anxiety), and replicated it for employees reporting high levels of workplace distress (presenteeism and/or burnout). Automated technology-based interventions have numerous advantages over in-person or coaching-based interventions. First, they may circumvent the social stigma that might arise from singling out at-risk employees and encouraging them to participate in mental health programs at work. Second, they may also engage employees who might not have the schedule flexibility or motivation to seek in-person services; by accessing the intervention via computer or phone, they can participate as their schedule allows. Lastly, automated technology-based interventions are low-cost -- once created, the cost of disseminating to thousands or even tens of thousands of employees would be highly cost-effective (Griffiths et al., 2006; Muñoz et al., 2016). In short, the present study illustrates how a technology-based resilience intervention can improve resilience among vulnerable employee groups. This is particularly interesting given that these interventions can be substantially more accessible and engaging than in-person services. Research has found decreased effectiveness when interventions are translated into an online format (e.g., Vanhove et al., 2016). This is, in part, due to low engagement rates; less usage means smaller effects (Eysenbach, 2005). It is therefore essential to design interventions in such a way that they are as engaging as possible -- and to document those engagement measures so that they can be studied and their impact better understood. Also important is the role of self-selection in internet intervention research. It is possible that the participants in the present study are different in key ways from average employees, as our samples are employees who specifically sought out Happify. Furthermore, while our focus on users who used the platform regularly allows us to get an accurate assessment of the platform’s impact, it also introduces an additional layer of self-selection. Real-world enterprise data are a needed analogue to help determine whether the results of the current research generalize to realistic settings. By the same token, when doing real-world research embedded in organizations, it is important to consider the impact of performing organizationally-embedded research on the user experience. It can be difficult to study mental health difficulties in employer settings because it is easy to set employees on edge when their employer wants to evaluate their mental health status. For example, compared to published prevalence rates, proportionately

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fewer participants reported high presenteeism and/or burnout in our sample, which could indicate a social desirability bias. Social desirability biases may be even more pronounced when the assessment is being administered by an employer, to whom people certainly do not want to admit presenteeism or burnout. It is possible, however, that employee reluctance to engage in mental health topics could be mitigated by top-down support of self-care initiatives. Unpublished data collected by authors Cormier and Whillans as well as others (e.g., Blake & Lloyd, 2008) lends support to the idea that leadership support and participation in wellness initiatives can enhance the effectiveness of workplace interventions; when testing a brief intervention to reduce burnout in the workplace, employees in this pilot study were more willing to engage with and benefit from the program when there was leadership support. It makes sense that interventions can only be successful insofar as the people receiving them are on board—genuine support from the employer is one possible way to facilitate this. That said, real-world research in organizations can yield many interesting data points, such as objective outcomes that are directly tied to cost savings for the employer; reduction in mistakes made at work, improvements in productivity, better social cohesion among teams, and even reduction in presenteeism and/or burnout itself would all translate to better employer outcomes. Longer term research studies are needed in order to see change in habitual behaviors, as well as outcomes such as turnover. Despite consistent findings across two very different samples, we acknowledge several limitations. First, because we were interested in participants who met specific criteria for inclusion (i.e., high emotional distress in Sample 1 and high workplace distress in Study 2), results may not generalize across all users of Happify. Indeed, we found significant differences in age between participants who were retained for and excluded from analysis in Sample 1, such that excluded participants in this sample were more likely to be older than those included in analysis. Further, Happify users may not be representative of the general population of employees—the type of user who seeks internet-based self-help may be systematically different. Finally, although Happify has been localized in several different languages (including Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Chinese, Japanese, and French-Canadian), the current study only examined changes in resilience among employees in the United States. Future work should examine the extent to which Happify, as a resilience intervention tool, functions similarly in various cultural groups, as many major employers are international, with offices all over the world. In order to implement interventions in the workplace in ways that are affordable and scalable, work must be done along the entire spectrum of research design -- from rigorous, randomized controlled trials in highly controlled settings, to less structured, real-world studies with non-randomized comparison groups. Our hope in the present paper was to present two studies that are somewhere in between these two extremes. We offered both randomized, active comparison groups and a non-randomized no intervention control. We examined those groups of employees who are most likely to be of interest to employers due to their high cost to businesses: those suffering from high emotional distress, and those exhibiting presenteeism or burnout behaviors. Unlike a standard RCT, which takes an “intent-to-treat” approach—including everyone regardless of their engagement level—we instead wanted to obtain a baseline for how effective our intervention was for these high-

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risk groups when they actually receive it. In workplace-based internet interventions, engagement is very fluid, depending on the level of resources the employer chooses to invest. Employers can offer incentives to employees, special features such as interactive webinars and daily content can be provided, and specialized content can be offered depending on the interest of the employees. All of these factors can impact engagement level, and engagement level varies from context to context depending on how much effort is spent to promote engagement. It is worthwhile in this setting, therefore, to separate effectiveness when used-as-directed from efficacy when users and non-users are averaged together. We hope that this study provides a first step towards understanding how high-risk employees can be helped with a low-touch, cost-effective, easily scalable intervention. References Afifi, T. O., & MacMillian, H. L. (2011). Resilience following child maltreatment: A review of

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Antecedents and Consequences of Brand Experience for Luxury Brands: A Conceptual Framework

Yuvika Sumbly* and Sadaf Siraj**

Abstract

In some of the most recent approaches to conceptualising luxury brands, researchers have begun to emphasize the importance of consumer experiences in luxury branding. Luxury brand experiences offer an important way of enhancing the value derived from luxury brands. However, as having an intrinsically, inherently experiential offering is very different from actively and deliberately marketing that offer in an experiential manner. Thus the objective of this research paper is to develop a conceptual framework through which luxury marketers can formulate experiential branding strategies for their offerings in the marketplace. Keywords: Luxury Brands, Brand Experience, Conceptual Framework, Antecedents, Consequences, Brand

Introduction The luxury market in India has also been steadily growing at a healthy rate of 25% over the last couple of years (CII-IMRB Kantar Report, 2016). The recent ecommerce and technology boom has created many relatively young ultra HNIs who have sky-high aspirations and desires when it comes to luxury in their lifestyle. According to Top of the Pyramid 2017, Kotak Wealth Management study, it is estimated the number of UHNHs (Ultra High Net Worth Individuals) in India ,increased by 10% to approximately 160,600 in 2017 – at a compounded annual growth rate of 12% over the previous five years. The growth of Indian luxury market growth is fueled by various favourable factors. The rising young population of India is a major driver of the growing Indian luxury market. The Indian luxury market is still young and evolving when compared to the mature European and North American Market (CII-IMRB Kantar Report, 2016). According to the Top of the Pyramid 2017, Kotak Wealth Management study, Indians are getting wealthier at a younger age. About 60% of UHNIs surveyed for the report are below 40 years. Another important factor to fuel the higher growth rate of Indian luxury market is the rise of the new age women who are now more empowered and financially independent than ever before. This is especially the case in the major cities of India. This emerging category wants to feel and taste luxury (CII-IMRB Kantar Report, 2016). Euromonitor International Report (2016) stated that Luxury in India is associated with experience and

* Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. E- mail: yuvikasumbly@gmail.com ** Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. E- mail: sirajsadaf@gmail.com

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consumers wish to enjoy the complete experience of buying luxury goods. An Indian consumer usually visits the retail luxury stores to purchase luxury goods. Consumers in India also feel the need to physically check luxury goods before making the purchase as luxury goods are considered to be a big investment and consumers feel the need to verify the product before purchasing. This changing yet important feature of Indian Luxury market is also highlighted by Jain et al. 2012. As per the research paper, Indian consumers are changing their views and behaviours from historic communal cultural bases to more individualistic approaches. Indian consumers evaluate luxury brands on the basis of the satisfaction such brands provide that fits their internal stimuli, self-indulgence and hedonic traits. Indian Luxury consumers are well educated, ambitious and have high spending capacity (Jain et al. 2012). In spite of all this potential, few academic studies have been conducted on Indian consumers and their experiences, attitudes, beliefs and feeling about the luxury brands (Schultz and Jain, 2015). Conceptual Framework: Theoretical Foundations The roots of the word ‘luxury’ are derived from the word ‘luxus’, which according to the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1992) means ‘soft or extravagant living, (over)-indulgence’ and ‘sumptuousness, luxuriousness, opulence’ (Tynan et al., 2010). It’s more positive meaning only emerged in the seventeenth century, and more recently it has come to be more associated with escape from, or cure of, the ordinary and the struggle for betterment (Berthon et al., 2009). There is no agreed upon definition of luxury, in the marketing literature (Dubois & Duquesne, 1993; Vigneron & Johnson, 1999) .With no definition of luxury or luxury brands in academia (Choi, 2003; Wiedmann et al. 2009) ,the luxury brand term is often used to indicate products, services or brands with high price (Choi, 2003), excellent quality (Choi, 2003), aesthetic beauty (Kapferer, 1997), pleasure (Berry, 1994) or exclusivity or rarity (Pantzalis, 1995). Vigneron and Johnson (1999), use luxury to describe the very top category of prestige brands, whereas Dubois and Czellar (2002) view “prestige” to stem from unique accomplishments in the brand and “luxury” to merely concern self-indulgence. Wiedmann et al., (2007) also defined the concept of luxury as highly subjective, situational contingent and depending on the experience and individual needs of the consumers. As per Berthon et al. (2009), Luxury is concept and cannot have a single definition; the concept of luxury is contingent upon its context – both social and individual. Thus what constitutes luxury varies with social context (social time and place), luxury has a personal component also, what might be luxury to one person, will be irrelevant or value less to another. Therefore luxury cannot be reduced to one sphere- it is an amalgamation of the material, the social and the individual. Tynan et al. 2010, (p. 1158) define luxury brands as “high quality, expensive and non-essential products and services that appear to be rare, exclusive, prestigious, and authentic and offer high levels of symbolic and emotional/ hedonic value through customer experience. Therefore rather than defining luxury in single definition ,marketing academicians have followed an integrative understanding of luxury which examines the multifaceted perceived value, a consumer seeks through luxury consumption (Hennigs et al., 2013; Tynan et al., 2010), which in other words refers to examining luxury in terms of what it does- the motivation for the consumer to buy luxury goods and the perceived value of luxury to the consumer rather than characteristics of or set of attributes of luxury.

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Luxury Value Framework Understanding the perception of consumer value for luxury good is essential as luxury goods have to deliver sufficient value as a compensation for the high product price (Choo et al., 2012; Hennigs et al., 2013; Hennings et al., 2015; Tynan et al., 2010). In order to understand the motivation for or the perceived value of luxury consumption, earlier marketing academics used Veblen's, (1899, 1994) work on the “The theory of the Leisure Class”. In this seminal work, it is postulated that achieving the social status and demonstrating wealth are major motivators for luxury consumption (Yang & Mattila, 2016). Overlapping with the social status consumption of luxury given by Veblen, Leibenstein, (1950) added two additional forms of interpersonal effects of conspicuous consumption of luxury ; snob value and a bandwagon value. Snob effect refers to a situation wherein the demand for a product fall as the number of buyers increases; as higher-class consumers tend to distance themselves from lower-class consumers. On the other hand, people also tend to imitate the behaviours of higher-class consumers; therefore, the bandwagon effect refers to a situation wherein the demand for a luxury product rises as the number of higher-class consumers (Yang & Mattila, 2016). Vigneron & Johnson (2004, 1999) developed a theoretical framework of luxury brand value that captured both personal effects (hedonism and quality) and inter-personal effects (conspicuousness, uniqueness and social) value perceptions. They argue that conspicuousness reflects the Veblen effect, identifying the ability of luxury products to display wealth and power. Snob effect demonstrates the perceived uniqueness value of the luxury product, which is the scarcity and exclusiveness of luxury good. Social value is the bandwagon effect, as highlighted by (Leibenstein, 1950), it is a consumer’s desire to possess prestigious brands to conform to a desired reference group and to distance oneself from less desirable groups. Hedonism refers to the emotional benefits of luxury consumption; the perceived emotional value and Quality value is related to the utility generated from the superior performance of a luxury brand. The conspicuous value and social value are differentiated by the importance of perception of price as an indicator of prestige; conspicuous value is pursued when customer attaches higher prices with high prestige value; whereas social value is accrued to the luxury good when price and prestige perception is weak. Social value is attached with status and affiliation with a desired group. Vickers & Renand (2003) and Berthon et al., (2009) both proposed that luxury and non-luxury brands can be differentiated according to the functional, experiential and symbolic dimensions of product. Functional dimension of the luxury goods refers to the set of product feature that fulfils extrinsic consumption needs through physical and product quality. Experientialism as product features stimulates the sensory pleasure, emotions. Symbolism dimension relates to the association with a desired group (Seo & Buchanan, 2015) Wiedmann et al. (2007, 2009) extended Vigneron & Johnson (2004, 1999) and added financial value dimension to reflect the monetary value of luxury brand. The authors proposed four latent luxury values (financial, functional, individual and social). The financial dimension addressed direct monetary aspects as well as the aspects of exclusivity and rareness of the luxury products (scarce material used, limited accessibility and distribution). It includes the perception that higher price of the luxury brand, signals the

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high quality of the product. The functional dimension referred to the core benefit, basic utilities of the luxury good and the uniqueness of the luxury product. The functional dimension is based on excellent product quality, craftsmanship, reliability, durability and exclusiveness of the luxury product. The individual dimension focused on a customer’s personal orientation toward luxury consumption, it refers to the emotional benefits of indulgence and pleasure, hedonic motives, experiential rewards and enhancement of the self-identity which the consumption of luxury products provides to its users. The social dimension of luxury value perception relates to the perceived utility derived by the consumers by displaying wealth and power within their own social groups. Purchase and consumption of luxury goods are perceived as status and prestige symbols. (Choo et al., 2012; Hennigs et al., 2013; Yang & Mattila, 2016) Tynan et al.(2010) used and modified the general theoretical framework of customer value creation given by (Smith & Colgate, 2007), in order to develop theoretical framework for luxury customer value. The six value framework included utilitarian value (i.e. excellence and craftsmanship), hedonic value (which included subjective tangible benefits such as hedonic effect, aesthetics and experience), outer-directed symbolic / expressive value which included conspicuous consumption, perceived unique value and perceived social value of the luxury consumption. Fourth type of value identified by Tynan et al.(2010) was self-directed symbolic value , this included self-gift giving behaviour, enhancement of personal identity by luxury consumption. The fifth value classified was cost value which included cost which customer have to incur to achieve the benefit of consuming the luxury product and such cost include economic cost, psychological cost, the cost/ sacrifice value also encompassed exclusivity and rarity value of the luxury brands. The most significant contribution of Tynan et al. (2010) to the luxury value framework was addition of relational value, to the existing framework of Smith & Colgate, 2007. Review of Luxury Value Dimensions

Constructs Veblen (1899)

Leibenstein (1950)

Vigneron & Johnson (1999, 2004)

Wiedmann et al. (2007, 2009)

Tynan et al. (2010)

Shukla & Purani (2012)

Snob Quality Functional Utilitarian Utilitarian

Uniqueness Self-Directed Symbolic

Self-Directed Symbolic

Hedonic Personal Hedonic Hedonic

Conspicuous Veblen Conspicuous

Bandwagon Social Social Other Directed Symbolic

Other Directed Symbolic

Financial Cost/ Sacrifice

Cost/ Sacrifice

Customer Brand Relationship

Source: Yang and Mattila (2016)

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A review of the literature of luxury value frameworks reveals that traditionally luxury has been associated with exclusivity, status and quality; however, as contemporary consumer behaviour is undergoing a paradigm change, modern day consumers are using consumption to make statements about themselves, to create identities and to develop a sense of belonging. This new understandings of changing consumer behaviour have emphasized importance of understanding the meanings which consumers ascribe to luxury brands (Seo & Buchanan, 2015). Support for this proposition can also be found in (Tynan et al., 2010) qualitative study, wherein the authors found that a symbolic/ expressive, experiential/ hedonic and relational values provided by the luxury brands are the key values that are most sought after by the luxury brand owners, whereas utilitarian value is assumed as essential and cost/ sacrifice value is irrelevant for the luxury brand owners, thereby emphasizing the need to examine multiple perspectives of meaning which create value for luxury brand consumer. Greater attention is vital for understanding how luxury consumers interact with and experience the luxury brand (Tynan et al., 2010). This new paradigm has emphasized the role of experiential marketing in study of luxury goods (Ballantyne & Varey, 2006). Experiential Marketing provides a new approach to examine the unique nature of luxury consumption and is predicted to become an important component of luxury marketing. Brand Experience Understanding consumers and their consumption experiences, with products and services and with brands, is not only of interest to academics; marketing practitioners, as well emphasize the importance of providing appealing experiences for their consumer, in order to differentiate and position their offerings in a competitive environment (Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2013). Brands are increasingly being marketed through –appeals to consumer’s senses, feelings, intellect, curiosity and self-image, rather than more rational, utilitarian notions of value. Such a change in the marketing techniques has been witnessed in all sorts of industries, from consumer electronics and automotive, to airlines and retailing (Schmitt, 2010). This paradigm shift in the marketing management perspective is commonly referred to as ‘experiential marketing’. The academic research stream on experience in marketing was launched by the seminal paper, titled “The Experiential Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings and Fun,” published in 1982 (Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2013). In this research paper, Holbrook and Hirschman, introduced the concept of consumption experience, which criticized the single minded focus of consumer behaviour research study on information processing perspective and advocated for a complementary approach of experiential view of consumption for examining consumer behaviour (Schmitt, 2010). The key idea of experiential marketing is that value does not only reside in the objects of purchase (products and services) and in their utilitarian and functional benefits, but also in the hedonic and experiential elements surrounding the product and service, and in the experience of consumption itself (Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2013). Academic literature examined various experience constructs, such as consumption experience (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982), service experience (Hui & Bateson, 1991), shopping experience (Kerin et al., 1992), product experience (Hoch, 2002), however most of these experience constructs referred only to specific phases of consumer life cycle (for example shopping experience) or specific offering (for example service experience and product experience) or category

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experiences (Brakus et al., 2009). However Brakus et al.(2009), theorized that when consumers search for, shop for and consume brands, they are exposed to both utilitarian as well as specific brand related stimuli , such as brand identifying colours (Bellizzi & Hite, 1992; Gorn et al., 1997; Meyers-Levy & Peracchio, 1995) shapes (Veryzer & Hutchinson, 1998), typefaces, background design elements(Mandel & Johnson, 2002)slogans, mascots, and brand characters(Keller, 1987) ,which also influence consumer behaviour . They coined the term brand experience to specify the subjective, internal consumer responses generated by such brand related stimuli. Thus brand experience is considered to be the broadest experience construct which includes all different experiential concepts such as product, shopping, service and consumption experience (Khan & Fatma, 2017; Nysveen et al., 2013; Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2010). Brakus et al., (2009) defined brand experience as “subjective, internal (sensations, feelings, and cognitions) and behavioural responses evoked by brand related stimuli that are part of a brand’s design and identity, packaging, communications and environments (p. 53). These brands related stimuli are an integral part of the brand’s design and identity (name, logo, and signage), packaging, marketing communications (advertisements, brochures, web- sites content ) and in environment in which brand is marketed (retail stores, events, website- design). Dimension of Brand Experience Understanding of experience construct in marketing theory is heavily influenced by the conceptualization of experience in other academic fields such as philosophy, cognitive science, sociology, anthropology and psychology. Philosopher Dewey, (1922, 1925), viewed experience as intertwining of humans with their environments, which results in gathering knowledge, on various dimensions. Cognitive scientists like Pinker (1997), also identified four mental modules in humans that respond to specific environmental cues. Thus on the lines of earlier research on experience in philosophy and cognitive science, marketers also proposed that there are different types (dimensions) of experiences that can be empirically distinguished and measured (Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2013). The research paper of Holbrook & Hirschman, (1982), which fueled the marketing research in the field of experience and underlined the importance of examining symbolic, hedonic and aesthetic nature of consumption, viewed experience construct pertaining to dimensions of – activities (Behavioural Experience), Emotions (Feel Experience) and Sensation (Sensory Experience) and Symbolic (Relate Experience). Schmitt, (1999), examined concept of experience from a multi-dimensional perspective of cognitive, sensory, affective, behavioural and social dimensions. Brakus et al. (2009) who based their work on brand experiences, in part, on the prior work of Schmitt, (1999), and also specified five dimension of experience , but could only validated four dimensions in qualitative and quantitative research; namely sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioural experiences. Brand Experience is related but also distinct from other internal consumer constructs in branding and consumer behaviour literatures (Brakus et al., 2009; Schmitt, 2010; Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2013; Shamim & Butt, 2013). The experience construct differs from the evaluative, affective and associative constructs such as brand attitudes, brand involvement, brand attachment, brand associations and customer brand engagement. For example,

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customer brand engagement construct emphasizes on “a cognitive and emotional commitment to an active relationship” with the brand whereas the concept of brand experience is more comprehensive, in that it encompasses all aspects of psychological (sensations, emotions, and cognitions) and behavioural responses to brand related stimuli (Yoon & Youn, 2016). Another difference between the concept of customer brand engagement and brand experience is that experiences do not presume a motivational state Brakus et al., (2009), whereas CBE is a motivational construct (Hepola et al., 2017; Hollebeek et al., 2014; Hollebeek, 2011). Experiential marketing essentially describes marketing initiatives that give consumers in-depth, tangible experiences in order to provide them with sufficient information to make a purchase decision. Experiential marketing, approach is in contrast to the rational features-and-benefits view of consumers and takes a view that consumers are emotional beings concerned with achieving pleasurable experiences. Antecedents and Consequences of Brand Experience for Luxury Brands Existing literature on branding (Keller & Lehman, 2006) and experiential marketing scholars (Brakus et al., 2009; Schmitt, 1999) have emphasized on the need to understand both antecedents and consequences of brand experience , but besides, Roswinanto & Strutton, (2014) study which focused on the examination of antecedents and consequences model of brand experience in advertising context and Khan & Fatma, (2017) which developed a brand experience model for restaurant brands, there has been negligible research on brand experience model in context of luxury brands. Therefore this study proposes the model of antecedents and consequences of brand experience for luxury brands. Brand experience has been examined in the context of product brand websites (Chen, 2012; Shim et al., 2015; Yoon & Youn, 2016), service brand websites (Hamzah et al., 2014; Khan et al., 2016a, 2016b; Lee & Jeong, 2014), search engines (Morgan-Thomas & Veloutsou, 2013), social networking websites (Chen et al., 2014; Simon et al., 2013; Smith, 2013; Tafesse, 2016b), online brand community (Trudeau & Shobeiri, 2016) and online retailers (Ha and Perks, 2005; Gabisch, 2011; Khan & Rahman, 2016b). Brand Experience has also been studied in the context of services category, which include telecommunication services (Nysveen et al., 2013), hotel industry (Khan & Rahman, 2017a; Xu & Chan, 2010; Zhang et al., 2008), coffeehouse services (Chang & Chieng, 2006; Choi et al., 2017), hospital services(Kumar et al., 2013), financial services specifically banks have been studied by (Alloza, 2008; Altaf et al., 2017; Bapat, 2017; Khan & Rahman, 2017b; Nysveen & Pedersen, 2014), restaurants(Khan & Fatma, 2017), catering industry (Moreira et al., 2017), shared car services (Payne et al., 2009), restaurants (Khan & Fatma, 2017)and generic service brands (Morrison & Crane, 2007). Certain research articles have also been carried out in the context of product brands , these studies, examined brand experience in the product categories of – mobile phone brands (Chao-Chin Huang, 2017; Shamim & Butt, 2013), high technology smart phone brands (Saari& Makinen, 2017), consumer electronics (Chattopadhyay& Laborie, 2005), mobile handsets (Shamim& Butt, 2013), fashion apparel (H. Kim, 2012), consumer goods (Roswinanto& Strutton, 2014), tablet PC (Tsai et al., 2015), luxury cars(Klein et al., 2016), FMCG goods (Bapat& Thanigan, 2016), tableware (Hepola et al., 2017) and cosmetic products (Trudeau H. & Shobeiri, 2016b).

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There are research studies that have examined the brand experience construct within multiple product brands (Francisco-Maffezzolli et al., 2014; Iglesias et al., 2011; Ramaseshan & Stein, 2014; Risitano et al., 2017) and multiple service brands context (Ding & Tseng, 2015; Lin, 2015; Xie et al., 2017). Some studies have examined brand experience in niche areas such as event marketing (Akaoui, 2007; Fransen et al., 2013; Tafesse, 2016a; Whelan & Wohlfeil, 2006; Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2013), destination branding (Barnes et al., 2014; Beckman et al., 2013), luxury brands (Atwal & Williams, 2009), retailing (Huang et al., 2015; Ishida & Taylor, 2012; Jones & Runyan, 2013; Khan & Rahman, 2016a; Shamim et al., 2016). Antecedent Variables This study in conjunction with the extant literature on brand experience, proposes that event marketing activities , brand clues and marketing communication as key antecedents of brand experience in luxury brands. Event marketing is viewed as “a communication tool whose purpose is to disseminate a company’s marketing messages by involving the target groups in experiential activity” (Drengner et al., 2008). Event marketing offers first hand brand experiences (Whelan & Wohlfeil, 2006) and is recognized as a branding tool to build brand equity (Akaoui, 2007; Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2013) and plays an important role in creation of long lasting brand experience (Fransen et al., 2013). Events can take various forms, including incentive/ reward programs, product launches, open days, conferences, product sampling, publicity events, the so called “ created “ events, road shows, press conferences, competitions/contests, exhibitions, corporate entertainment, charity fundraisers, trade shows and product visitor attractions(Wood, 2009). Event marketing is characterized by high audience involvement, novelty, experiential richness and spatial and temporal transiency (Tafesse, 2016a). Therefore, this study proposes: Proposition 1: Event marketing activities have positive influence on brand experience for luxury goods Brand Clues have also been emphasized to influence brand experience, clues influence the customer’s overall perception of an experience. Brand clues consist of functional clues (technical performance of the service), mechanic clues (tangibles associated with the service), and the humanic clues (behaviour and appearance of service providers)(Berry et al., 2006). Berry et al., (2002)mentioned that the functional, mechanic, and humanic clues play specific roles in creating the customer's service experience, influencing both rational and emotional perceptions of service quality. Studies have also shown that different brand clues such as that slogans and mascots (Keller, 1987), colours (Gorn et al., 1997), shapes (Veryzer & Hutchinson, 1998), design elements(Mandel & Johnson, 2002), packaging (Underwood, 2003), brand name (Srinivasan & Till, 2002; Warlop et al., 2005)simple touch points such as order forms, application forms, customer billing (Coomber & Poore, 2013), physical infrastructure (Hanna and Rowley, 2013), store uniqueness (Dion & Arnould, 2011) and store atmosphere (Hollenbeck et al., 2008)can shape consumer’s experience with the brand. The composite of all the clues makes up the customer's total experience. The emotional clues, of mechanics and humanics, are just as important to the customer experience and work synergistically with functional clues (Berry et al., 2002).

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Thus this study proposes: Proposition 2: Brand clues have a positive influence on brand experience for luxury goods Marketing communication also influences consumers’ experience with a brand. Marketing communication may include one-way communication (e.g., publicity, advertising), two-way communication (e.g., customer service, personal selling) or direct marketing (e.g., sales promotion) that includes both one-way and two-way communication (Duncan and Moriarty 1998). In recent times, online consumer reviews (on Web sites and social media) have also been included in the marketing communication mix (Chen and Xie 2008). According to Schmitt (1999), consumers demand marketing communications that deliver an experience. The various marketing communications discussed above, including online disclosure on the brand’s Web site, can evoke brand experience (Lee and Jeong 2014; Morgan-Thomas and Veloutsou 2013). Therefore this study proposes: Proposition 3: Marketing communication has a positive influence on brand experience for luxury goods Consequences Variables After analyzing the extant literature on brand experience and luxury brands, this study proposes three behavioural outcomes of brand experience in the context of luxury brands- word of mouth, brand image and hedonic emotions. Harrison-Walker, (2001) defines word of mouth as “informal, person to person communication between a perceived non-commercial communicator and a receiver regarding a brand, a product, an organization, or a service’’ (p. 63). Consumers communicate their brand experiences with the other individuals whom they are connected through formal or informal groups (Westbrook, 1987). In these groups, exchange of thoughts, ideas and comments takes place among individuals (Bone, 1992). Studies acknowledged word-of-mouth as an outcome of brand experience in various contexts (Barnes et al., 2014; Beckman et al., 2013; Klaus & Maklan, 2013). WOM communication plays a particular important role for luxury brands, because activities such as referrals and consumer reporting of positive experiences with a brand increase both the relevance of the brand within target groups and the customers' desire for the brand(A. J. Kim & Ko, 2012). As such, the creation of positive WOM is a vital task for luxury brand managers(Klein et al., 2016). Therefore this study proposes: Proposition 4: Brand experience has a positive influence on word of mouth in the context of luxury brands The next consequence of brand experience, proposed by this study is creation of positive brand image in the minds of the consumers. The concept of brand image has evolved over time. Early marketing scholars (Dichter, 1985)mainly emphasized cognition-focused dimension of brand image. These scholars described brand image as the totality of the impressions of attributes, functions and meanings that consumers associate with a brand or received from multiple sources about the brand (Altaf et al., 2017). More recently, marketing scholars(Chang & Chieng, 2006; Keller, 1993; Low & Lamb, 2000)have recognized

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that emotional and sensory associations are also important in building a positive brand image. Brand image is an outcome of the brand that results from brand association(Keller, 1993, p. 3). Cho & Fiore, (2015)conducted a qualitative study in the context of fashion related brands, including luxury cosmetics and sportswear brands and found the importance of cognitive and emotional dimensions and sensory dimension evoked by the brands, on the brand image of the aforesaid brands. Therefore this study proposes: Proposition 5: Brand experience has a positive influence brand image of the luxury brands Extant literature asserts that by providing affirmative brand experiences, positive hedonic emotions can be built. Emotions are described as a mental state of readiness that arises from cognitive appraisals of events or thoughts. Emotion has a phenomenological tone and may trigger specific actions to affirm or cope with the emotion, depending on its nature and meaning for the person having it (Bagozzi et al., 1999; Lazarus, 1991). Hedonic emotions are formed without deliberate elaboration (Giner-Sorolla, 2001; Hung & Mukhopadhyay, 2012; Leary, 2007; Ramanathan & Williams, 2007). Hedonic emotion are generated during the consumption experience of a brand(Havlena & Holbrook, 1986; Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982), both types of hedonic emotions are generated during the consumption experience, i.e. positive hedonic emotions such as pleasure, delight and excitement as well as negative hedonic emotions such as frustration, sadness and disgust. Hedonic emotions are triggered by intrinsically motivated behaviours such that of play, leisure activities, aesthetic, creativity and these behaviours are more prominent in the context of luxury brands. Hedonic emotions are related to multisensory responses and fantasy. Multisensory responses are induced by sensory and affective brand experience and fantasy is triggered by cognitive and behavioural brand experience(Chang & Chieng, 2006) . Therefore brand experiences produce hedonic emotions and marketers induce positive hedonic emotions by experiential marketing (Shaw, 2007). Therefore this study proposes: Proposition 6: Brand experience has a positive influence on hedonic emotions in the context of luxury brands

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P1 P4

P5 P2

P3

Event

Marketing

Brand Clues

Marketing

Communication

Brand

Experience

Word of Mouth

Brand Image

Hedonic

emotion

P6

Figure 1 : Theoretical Framework of Brand experience for luxury goods

Conclusions This study provides an important addition in current literature on luxury brand value and brand experience by proposing the conceptual framework incorporating antecedents and consequences of brand experience in the context of luxury brands. In addition to theoretical contributions, this study also provides a number of managerial implications. First, by providing an integrated conceptual framework for brand experience in luxury brands, it provides managers a greater understanding of the factors that help to enhance and provide unique and memorable brand experiences because brand experience plays an important role in the formulation of focused marketing strategies and tactics for luxury value consumers. The present study recommends that event marketing, brand clues and marketing communication has a positive impact on brand experience. Luxury brand managers should focus on organizing events; the luxury brand should get associated with charity fundraisers, fashion shows, pop up shops, corporate entertainment, art exhibitions which are rich in sensorial stimulation and trigger positive emotions in consumers. Another important implication of the present research is that it recommends that the luxury marketers should make an effort to go beyond the objective of mere sales and focus on developing physical and non-physical cues like store atmospherics, store uniqueness of the luxury brand store to create brand experiences. This research paper, also highlights the positive brand experience, helps the luxury marketer to not only in engaging consumers in word of mouth, but also drives the strong emotional bond with the brand. A unique, memorable brand experience also goes a long way in establishing brand image in the minds of the consumers. Future Research This research study has developed a theoretical framework. Empirical investigation of the model should be carried out in subsequent research. Marketing literature on brand experience has suggested that cumulative brand experience consists of individual dimensions of experience –future research should investigate the current framework by modeling each dimension of brand experience with the antecedents and consequences of the framework and analyze which antecedent/ consequence has higher influence on the individual dimensions of brand experience . Researchers may also investigate influence of other stronger forms of brand affect as consequences of brand experience. Existing framework of antecedents and outcomes of brand experience can also be empirically tested in the context of online luxury purchases. References Akaoui, J. (2007). Brand experience on the pitch: How the sponsors fared in the World Cup.

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A Systems Perspective on Managing Eco-Logistics

Pragya Arya* and Daisy Mathur Jain**

Abstract

The concept of Sustainability has recently picked up momentum in academic, industrial as well as regulatory communities. There is also a growing realization that achieving sustainability in the true sense is not the responsibility of only one entity but each entity has a unique role to play. With this approach, the present research tries to look at various factors that play a role in achieving ecological and economic sustainability simultaneously in logistics. Use of the term Eco-logistics is emphasized upon. An attempt has been made to apply system dynamics modeling to build a causal loop diagram to understand the present state of sustainability in logistics and how a balance can be achieved between the economic and ecological parameters. The study is qualitative and has been conducted in the Indian business setup. It emerged from the study that technology plays an important role, among other factors, in achieving the desired trade-off between the two pillars of sustainability, addressed in this study. Keywords: Sustainability, Logistics, Eco-logistics, Technology, Qualitative

Introduction Sustainability is increasingly gaining importance among business organizations, governments, and individuals, with efforts being taken in that direction. Yet, various studies which monitor the state of the environment across the globe do not show a positive picture. Despite increasing awareness and concern about sustainability, we frequently hear news of ice caps melting, ozone layer depletion, greenhouse effect, increasing pollution and other region-specific environmental issues affecting the health of human beings and destruction of natural flora and fauna (Dyllick & Muff, 2016). This implies that the system is falling short in fulfilling its responsibility towards environment. Achieving sustainability is not the responsibility of an individual or one business organization or the government alone, nor will it be right to expect so (Gladwin & Kennelly, 1995). Each entity has a unique role to play in achieving sustainability in true sense. Visible positive results can only be obtained when the system, comprising of the state, the commercial sector and the society, takes unified efforts towards improving the ecological footprint of various activities. The efforts taken at present are isolated and reactive

* Assistant Professor (Operations), IILM Institute of Higher Education, New Delhi, India ** Associate Professor (Technology and Operations), IILM Institute of Higher Education, New Delhi, India

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in nature. Each entity in the system, especially in the developing nations, focuses on improving its own footprint by reducing or minimizing the damage that has already been done rather than getting to the root cause of that damage and eliminating it (Eltayeb et al., 2010). There is need of a collective proactive approach to curb environmental degradation and invest in building a better society; one that finds the source of the damage and works to eliminate that source. Having said that each entity in the system has a unique role to play in achieving, protecting and preserving the environment, it is essential that this role must be well understood. Each actor must understand its part to achieve an overall improved ecological sustainability footprint. An important entity of this system is the commercial sector which draws resources from nature for its functioning. While business corporations are the biggest contributor to the degrading quality of the environment, they are also the pillars of a nation’s economic and technological development. They possess the institutional as well as financial capability to bring about noticeable improvement in the quality of the environment and society in which they operate (Shrivastava, 1995). One of the biggest assets of these organizations is their technological know-how. Technology has been exploited to achieve economic benefits. However, it’s use to achieve ecological sustainability is ubiquitous in both academic (Melville, 2010; Chen et. al 2008) as well as industrial sectors. The focus of this research is on understanding how business corporations can aim to be truly sustainable - what motivates them to think and act to achieve ecological sustainability of their operations and what inhibits them from taking necessary actions in that direction, without hampering their economic performance. Each activity, whether commercial or not, is associated with a unique sustainability footprint. Among various commercial activities, manufacturing and logistics are the ones resulting in large scale disruption of the environment. The effects of logistical operations are known and easily visible because logistics touches our lives closely in the form of public transportation and city logistics. Among the diverse functions that go on in a business, logistics is also an important cost head. Hence, logistics function has been chosen as the area of study for this research. Extensive research in supply chain and logistics management has been done with the objective of achieving improved economic and environmental performance. However, most of these studies have been performed in isolation i.e. without considering the two pillars simultaneously. This subject needs more attention today – both in research and practice – because despite increasing awareness about preserving and taking care of mother nature, ecological degradation continues due to extensive commercial activities. Though some efforts in businesses have been directed to minimize the negative impact of business on environment and society, but they do not seem to be adequate in reversing the damage already done. While the very basic objective of commercial activities is making profit, businesses cannot ignore the negative effects of their operations on environment as they are dependent on environment/nature directly or indirectly for raw material.

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In this research, an effort will be made to understand the dynamics of becoming a truly sustainable organization without compromising the economic sustainability of the firms. Logistics function is chosen because it is an important activity that determines the economic well-being –whether of a nation or of a particular industrial sector. The estimated logistical expenditure of various nations throws light on the importance of this sector in development. US and Europe have close to 10% share of logistics in their GDP; in Japan, this share is 11.4% while China and India had their logistical expenditure between 13%-15% of their GDPs (Sople, 2015). Logistics cost also varies from one industrial sector to the other; nevertheless, it forms an important cost head and indicator of economic performance of various firms. Some firms are in the logistics business where logistics is the core operational activity, rendered as a service to its customers. Other firms are highly dependent on logistics function for an improved performance in market. Logistics cost ranges from 5 to 35 percent of sales for various product-market configurations in different industries (Sople, 2015). These national and industry figures suggest that logistics function serves as a key source of development and competitive advantage. The other reason for the choice of this sector is that it is a highly capital and technology-intensive function and some efforts have already been made towards making this function more eco-friendly; yet there is a long way to go. While academic literature is abundant with works on green supply chain management with logistics forming an important aspect of various studies; the industrial sector has fallen short in bringing about considerable ecological improvement of the logistics function. The result is polluted air, altered bio-diversity, land degradation, inadequate and inappropriate water supply and availability and other such issues which have a direct impact on the quality of life of the human beings. In this research, the objective will be to understand that despite awareness, why have the corporate sector not been able to improve the logistics function from ecological perspective. Third, since logistics is a common function across all industrial sectors, the results of this study are expected to be generic and applicable to all commercial activities which are directly or indirectly dependent on logistics for improved market performance. Literature Review Sustainability The most widely accepted definition of sustainability is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987, p. 43). Human aspirations, at individual and societal levels, have caused large scale damage to the natural environment. At individual level, it is the short-sightedness (Midden et al., 2007) that makes a person pay more attention to fulfill his immediate material aspirations rather than to the environmental degradation to which he would be contributing on his path to achieve those aspirations. We fail to see that in the long run, immediate steps to quickly fulfill our present needs may cause a damaging effect on the environment. While the extent of damage due to such individual behaviour may not be big enough to become

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apparent; but on a collective level, as a society, such behaviour becomes the cause of large scale ecological damage, which then starts becoming visible and becomes so big that it starts negatively affecting our quality of life, in the form of poor health (Dyllick & Muff, 2016; Chen et. al 2008). Based on the definition of sustainability outlined above, it is worthwhile to note that many conceptualizations of sustainability have been proposed. However, the most common among various conceptualizations is the triple bottom line (3BL), which proposes three aspects of organizational performance – economic, environmental and social (Melville, 2010; Seuring & Müller, 2008). The present work is concentrated on the area of intersection between economic sustainability and environmental sustainability. Each organization has its own unique culture. It is this unique culture that determines what level of importance the organization gives to ecological concerns (as compared to economic concern) arising out of its operations and what is the level of efforts/ actions it takes to make the operations eco-friendlier without compromising with its economic performance in the longer run. Corporations have the ability, both financial and institutional; to bring about visible change in improving the quality of the environment we live in (Shrivastava, 1995). Besides this, analysis of ecological sustainability combined with economic sustainability at this level is relatively weak in management literature. A firm, whose culture allows its decision makers to give equal weightage to economic as well as ecological sustainability of its operations can be appropriately termed as Ecologically Responsible Corporation (ERC). This is in line with the concept of Ecologically Sustainable Corporations (Shrivastava, 1995) which refers to firms that have an environmentally conscious culture (Varsei et. al, 2014; Linton et al., 2007; Kleindorfer et al., 2005) and have policies and practices aimed at achieving improvement in the quality of environment in which they operate. Such firms have an advantage over their competition in terms of better economic performance as well as improved goodwill and positive recognition in the eyes of all stakeholders (Koh et al., 2007; Gao & Zhang, 2006). It is possible that decisions leading to a better environmental performance may bring down a firm’s profit in the short-term. Therefore, a myopic firm will focus on short term benefits that are immediately visible rather than on long-term benefits as compared to a firm that is ecologically responsible. If ecological and economic aspects are considered as two sides of balance, then for a myopic firm the side with economic aspect will carry more weightage whereas an ecologically responsible firm will try to keep the balance straight assigning equal weightage to both the sides. However, whenever a decision is taken to bring about a large scale visible environmental improvement in its performance, due to investment in technology, training of people to create awareness and consciousness, building associated infrastructure, etc., the distribution of weight may seem biased with the economic aspect carrying less weightage, but this will only be a temporary situation. As the benefits due to investment start coming in, gradually the balance will go the ideal straight position. It can be seen that an ERC

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keeps oscillating between the temporary stage, where ecological aspect seems to be given higher priority because of initial investment, and the ideal stage, where investment is fully recovered and benefits are realised and continue to accrue. Sustainability in Supply Chain and Logistics Management One way, how firms can achieve the ERC status is to integrate supply chain management and sustainability initiatives (Wolf, 2011; Seuring & Müller, 2008). Therefore, a sustainable supply chain is one that considers the 3BL aspects of sustainability in its every initiative. It becomes the responsibility of the focal firm (Wolf, 2011) to ensure that both the upstream and downstream parts of its supply chains follow sustainable practices (Seuring & Müller, 2008). An ecologically responsible firm will ensure that environmental sustainability initiatives are taken up throughout its entire supply chain. Such firms engage in Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) to balance discrepancies between economic and environmental performance of their supply chain.

Figure 1: Ecologically responsible culture permeates the entire supply chain as well as the internal activities of an organization (Wolf, 2011; Seuring & Muller, 2008) In this study efforts are directed towards understanding how environmental sustainability aspect can be integrated with the logistics function, an important function under the umbrella of supply chain management, and whose direct and indirect negative effects on the environment are easily visible and measurable. It is believed that a focus on the environmental aspect will lead to a firm’s recognition as ecologically responsible as well as a socially

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responsible corporation (Varsei et al., 2014; Linton et al., 2007; Koh et al., 2007; Kleindorfer et al., 2005) and will help in achieving economic sustainability as well. This implies that firms that leverage upon the efficiencies and performance of their logistics function for a positive economic performance will achieve better results if they aim to shift from just logistics to eco-logistics (Kleindorfer et al., 2005; Koh et al. 2007). Eco-logistics follows various principles and practices of Green Supply Chain Management, viz. waste reduction, reduced emissions, reverse logistics, life cycle assessment for product design and development, clean process technology etc. and those of Supply Chain Sustainability Integration (SCSI), viz. coordination, collaboration and integration with supply chain partners through the use of enabling technologies like IT and IS, etc. The focal firms must take the onus of creating an eco-logistics network and ensure that all logistical partners meet the minimum criteria to classify as green to remain in the network (Seuring & Müller, 2008). Such measures lead to various practices that, translate into better economic as well as ecological performance, of the entire logistics network and hence, of individual firms too. For example, excess inventory in the supply chain is not just blocked money but it is also a proof of the environmental short-sightedness of the supply chain members. From eco-logistics perspective it means that time and money has been spent on moving and storing the inventory that is of no use to anybody and it has been achieved by extracting raw material that could have been useful for future generations. The extraction of raw material and some degree of processing must have consumed various other resources apart from time and money and would have left a negative impact on the environment, which could have been avoided if there were serious eco-supply chain and eco-logistics initiatives put in practice. This research proposes the use of the term Eco-logistics instead of Green logistics to better portray the simultaneous orientation of the logistics function towards Economic as well as Ecological performance. The motivation behind the proposition of this term is that the prime objective of any business is economic performance. It is natural for businesses to evaluate any environmental initiative from the cost perspective. One reason why environmental initiatives by the corporate sector have not resulted into great improvement in the quality of the environment is the high cost they incur in implementing these initiatives versus the benefit they derive from them. Therefore, it will be unjustified to expect the corporate sector to be proactive on the environmental sustainability aspect without considering the economic sustainability. The term Eco-logistics highlights a more practical orientation of businesses towards environmental issues – the notion of a trade-off between the economic and the environmental/ecological performance criteria. The trade-off implies that an ecologically responsible firm ideally gives equal weightage to economic as well as ecological performance of the logistics function. While the logistics function tries to achieve this state of equal weightage, it passes through an intermittent stage where ecological ideology seems to overweigh the economic performance. But eventually both economic as well as ecological ideologies become embedded in the routine operations.

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This notion of trade-offs is backed in literature too (Psaraftis, 2016: page xii), where the author gives a definition of Green Transportation Logistics which is modified only slightly to define Eco-logistics as below: Eco-logistics is an attempt to attain acceptable environmental performance in the logistics activities, while at the same time respecting traditional economic performance criteria. Research Gap

Analysis of HOW ecological sustainability can be combined with economic sustainability

at corporation/organization level is relatively weak in management literature

(Gunasekaran et al., 2014)

Short-sightedness at the corporate level regarding environmental performance has not

been addressed.

System Dynamics Modelling has been used less frequently as compared to other

Management Science methods for addressing sustainability issues in supply chains. This

gap shall be discussed in detail in the coming section on research methodology.

Research Objectives 1. To understand the present state of Eco-logistics among the various industrial sectors

2. To identify enablers and inhibitors of technological interventions, for a shift to Eco-logistics

Research Questions

What are the enablers or inhibitors of technological interventions in achieving the Eco-

logistics status?

Does an amalgamation of logistics management, environmental sustainability and

technological interventions lead to a better environmental performance of the logistics

function without having any adverse effect on the economic performance of a firm?

Research Methodology System Dynamics Modelling The methodology used in this research is System Dynamics Modeling (SDM). It was developed by Prof. Jay W. Forrester in 1961. He defined System Dynamics Modeling as: ‘…the investigation of the information-feedback characteristics of [managed] systems and the use of models for the design of improved organizational form and guiding policy.’ Evident from this definition is the fact that SDM involves developing models of the system we are trying to study. Such studies are motivated by the undesirable behavior of the system under consideration (Forrester, 1994). Despite the fact that there is awareness about continually declining state of our environment and various entities like the state, business firms, NGOs and media and individuals take some measures to minimize the damage done to the environment, our environment is not what we expect it to be – clean and fresh air, less noise, better visibility,

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clean and safe drinking water, ample water for irrigation, no ozone layer depletion, no melting of ice caps, no further alteration of bio-diversity, preservation of natural flora and fauna, no temperature extremes during various seasons of the year, etc. System Dynamics is a suitable tool for both qualitative and quantitative study (Coyle, 1996). SDM stats with development of a model of the system. This model is termed the influence diagram. The development of an influence diagram of the system to be studied and analyzed is an iterative process. The researcher or the system dynamics practitioner starts with identifying the various variables which define the system and the interconnections among them. The data for this can be collected through any source - secondary like company documents, web sites, etc. or primary like questionnaire, interviews, etc. The initial idea is to get a basic picture of the system. As the qualitative analysis of the data starts, this initial influence diagram will go through much iteration involving addition and deletion of variables, change of interconnections between variables, depicting the dynamics of the system, before a final diagram is achieved. This first part of data collection and building of an influence diagram constitutes the qualitative aspect of SDM. The second part of SDM is quantitative data analysis. Once the influence diagram is finalized, it can be analyzed through simulation to understand how changes in the values of variables will change the behavior of the system. Various software are available which aid in drawing the influence diagram and its quantitative analysis. For this research, Vensim has been used to develop the causal loop diagram. The outcome of the second part is to help the managers in the system develop policies and take appropriate decisions to achieve the desired goal. This research uses qualitative case study methodology to find answers to research questions 1, 2 and 3a. Data will be collected primarily through semi-structured interviews of logistics and supply chain experts across various industrial sectors. Secondary sources like websites, company documents and literature review will also be used, to build the final influence diagram. The research question 3b will be answered through quantitative analysis of the influence diagram. Quantitative analysis will help in understanding how various enablers and inhibitors of technological interventions in the logistics function interact among each other leading to an improved environmental performance, without having any negative impact on a firm’s profits. The SDM fits well for conducting this study also because of the following reasons: 1. SDM is the most suitable analytical tool when a complex phenomenon involving numerous

factors acting simultaneously, has to be studied. This research brings together three different areas – logistics management, technological interventions and environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability and role of IT and technology in the environmental sustainability, both are distinctive in scope, complexity and urgency (Melville, 2010). When these are studied from logistics perspective, the complexity will further increase due to a number of factors acting together (in a positive or negative way) to achieve environmentally sustainable performance.

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2. The basic premise for the use of Systems Approach is that a system that is composed of many parts will act differently when all parts act simultaneously than when only one is acting. This is also the reason why we find that many times our systems including natural systems do not act the way we wish them to. Since we are looking at the logistics function, there will be many actors involved – suppliers, transporters - apart from the focal firm. Due to this reason and due to the reasoning given in point 1 above, SDM emerges to be the most appropriate tool for this study.

The literature supports the use of Systems Approach, especially SDM, in Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SCM) (Varsei et. al, 2014; Angerhofer & Angelides, 2000; Goncalves et al. 2005). A study by Tako & Robinson (2012) on the use of Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and System Dynamics Modelling (SDM) in Supply Chain Management revealed that DES has been used more frequently to model and analyze various SCM issues. Literature survey also points towards incorporating mixed methodologies to study sustainability in supply chains (Chen et. al 2017). To conduct this study, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted, each of an average duration of 45 minutes. The respondents were supply chain and logistics heads or held director level positions in their respective firms with an average overall experience of 23 years. 9 respondents were interviewed face-to-face and 1 respondent was interviewed through online voice chat. All the interviews were recorded. The audio recordings were converted to written transcripts. These written transcripts were then shared with the respective interviewee for validation of the data reproduced in the transcript and the promise of anonymity. Out of 10 respondents, 8 were working in MNCs while 2 respondents belonged to SMEs. Out of the 10 firms approached, 2 were 3PL service providers and rest 8 belonged to various other sectors where logistics formed an important cost head. Research Findings It emerged from the study that there is a discrepancy between the present state of logistics and the desired state of eco-logistics. This discrepancy can be reduced through collective efforts by various actors identified in the system. These actors include the business organizations, transporters and the government. A causal loop diagram was developed to display the interconnections between various enablers and inhibitors of investment in technology leading to eco-logistics. The present state of logistics is characterized by an absence of environmental consciousness. Though the firms possess environmental awareness i.e. they acknowledge the degrading state of the environment and the business’s contribution to this state, yet they do not take sufficient measures which can translate into visible positive improvement in the quality of the environment. This is primarily because the economic performance and service levels are still the most important KPIs. Since cost-efficiency is till the factor of prime importance, any

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investment decision to improve ecological performance is guided by overall profitability of the function. In the absence of any financial support from the government, decisions to improve ecological performance of logistics are usually seen as a cost head. Support from the regulatory authorities is also needed in the form of policies that can encourage collaboration among various industrial players to share the investment for a better ecological performance. At present, policies which can put pressure on the commercial sector to measure the environmental performance of logistics and take measures to improve upon it, are very ambiguous. Any initiatives to improve the ecological performance are also hindered by the unorganized transportation sector. The transporters and the truck owners belong to the unorganized sector and it becomes difficult to get their support to implement any technology that can lead to better environmental performance of logistics. The Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) shown in figure 2 depicts the interplay among various factors that can influence the decision of businesses to invest for a better ecological performance of logistics. There are 3 exogenous variables in the system as depicted by the CLD. These are the Environmental Condition, State Owned Infrastructure & Processes, Balanced Manufacturing Hubs and the Degree of Organization in the Transportation Sector. Exogenous variables imply that these are not under direct control of the business managers. Exogenous variables are represented in boxes. Other variables are endogenous variables and the business managers can influence the values of these variables to achieve their objective. Some of the endogenous variables are known as auxiliary variables, which influence the managerial decisions but do not necessarily depict system performance. Regulatory pressure, Industry & Government Collaboration, Regulatory Support, Stock Visibility, Modal Shift, Better Volume Utilization and Intra and Inter Industry Collaboration are auxiliary variables. Actual State of logistics, Desired State, discrepancy between actual and desired states, investment in technology for eco-logistics and improvement in environmental parameters are the endogenous variables that depict the system performance – economic and ecological. Three loops have been identified in the CLD: Negative feedback or goal-seeking loop 1: Actual State of Logistics –Discrepancy between actual and desired states – investment in technology for eco-logistics – improvement in environmental parameters – actual state of logistics. This loop emphasizes upon the need to continuously invest in technology to improve the ecological performance of logistics. The investment in technology leads to improved environmental performance, which further improves the actual state of logistics. In turn, this reduces the discrepancy between the desired investment and the actual investment. As long as there remains a discrepancy between the actual and the desired states, the system will keep on taking corrective actions. The decision to invest in technology is further influenced by variables like regulatory support, state owned infrastructure and processes, stock visibility, better volume utilization and intra and inter industry collaboration.

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Figure 2: Causal Loop Diagram: Interplay of enablers and inhibitors leading to Eco-logistics Negative feedback or goal-seeking loop 2: Intra and Inter-industry collaboration–investment in technology for eco-logistics–Improvement in environmental parameters–actual state of logistics–intra and inter-industry collaboration This loop emphasizes upon the need for collaboration between various players in the industry. If the various players, including the transporters, collaborate to share the investment to improve ecological performance of logistics, then per head investment will reduce resulting in the reduction of cost incurred by a single player. This also puts the onus of better ecological performance on all the partners in collaboration, rather than on just one. If the collaboration results in better ecological performance, then the collaborators will be motivated to keep the partnership alive for a longer time. Positive feedback or growth producing loop 1 Industry & govt. collaboration–regulatory pressure–discrepancy between actual and desired states–investment in technology for eco-logistics–improvement in environmental parameters– actual state of logistics–industry & govt. collaboration

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This loop emphasizes on the need for collaboration between the industry and the government. The regulatory and commercial sector must get together and collaborate to formulate suitable policies and successfully implement those for a better ecological performance of logistics. Investing in such collaboration will lead to building of required regulatory pressure which will push the organizations to invest in technology for eco-logistics. The collaboration leads to increased regulatory support, which shall motivate the commercial sector to invest in technology. This will result in an improvement in environmental performance of logistics and hence, the current state of logistics. This improved performance will enhance the current state of logistics and the actors will be motivated to further invest in keeping the collaboration active. The Role of Technology in Eco-logistics All the respondents in the study mentioned extensive use of technology to achieve better ecological performance of logistics. However, all of them also emphasizes that just a promise of better ecological performance of logistics is not sufficient to push them in favour of a particular technological intervention. The technology must also offer some economic or service level benefits along with the promise of an improved ecological footprint of logistics. Adoption of technology comes with its own set of challenges and the biggest one is diffusion and institutionalization of these throughout the entire organization (Melville, 2010; Midden et al. 2007). Conclusion and Future Research This paper is an attempt to present a systems perspective to look at challenges in achieving a desired balance between ecological and economic performance of logistics. The outcome is an influence diagram or a causal loop diagram which depicts how various influencing factors are connected and act together to lead to a particular level of system performance with reference to eco-logistics. The below table categorizes these influencers as enablers and inhibitors. Future researches on the subject can aim to extrapolate the CLD presented in this paper into a measurable one leading to simulation of system performance. The validity of the model can also be put to test through case analysis. This will help in further justifying the claim if the results of this paper can be generalized. It is necessary that our policies and actions must be directed to effectively eliminate the inhibitors and enhance the enablers. This will result in collective efforts to improve the quality of the environment in which we live and the businesses operate. There is need that both the industry and the government join hands. It is high time that proactive steps are taken to identify the source of environmental degradation and eliminate that root cause. Reactive steps are also necessary as a beginning point for various organizations. But only collective and proactive measures can bring about considerable improvement in the state of the planet without hampering the economic performance of the commercial sector.

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Community Radio in Gurugram: A Case Study in Social Entrepreneurship

Sumati Varma*

Abstract

This study examines changing identity of a modern Indian city and entrepreneurial response to make it a more inclusive space. In a globalized world as the city becomes an excluding space, the third sector supplements the effort of the state. This paper chronicles the efforts of Gurgaon’s Community Radio as a social entrepreneurial initiative to create social inclusion. This article also emphasizes the emergent need of participatory urban existence where the interests of all find a voice and space through community radio. Keywords: Modern India, Entrepreneurial Response, Community Radio, Social Inclusion

Introduction Social exclusion is a global phenomenon. It has existed since the beginning of time, arising out of hierarchies in different social settings. In the Indian context social exclusion has traditionally been based on caste, class, religion and gender (Kummitha, 2015). More recently, the ubiquitous process of globalisation has become the driver of exclusion. As globalisation became the order of the day, consumer tastes and cultures become homogenized and satisfied through the provision of standardized global products created by global corporations with no allegiance to place or community. The global is, thus, claimed to be the natural order of affairs in today’s technologically driven world in which time-space has been compressed, the ‘end of geography’ has arrived and everywhere is becoming same.’ (Dicken, 1998). The phenomenon of globalisation proceeds selectively, including and excluding segments of economies and societies in and out of the networks of information, wealth and power that characterise the new dominant system. Divides and inequality are almost synonymous with its promulgation as a widespread process of change. Social Exclusion in the city has been visible through the ages in the form of urban slums and the urban poor. In a more recent context, newly emerging global cities which have appeared in response to the dictates of neo – industrialisation have also become excluding spaces. Occupying centre stage in the Indian story of globalisation are the mega cities of Delhi,

*Associate Professor, Department of Commerce, Sri Aurobindo College (Eve), Delhi University, New Delhi, India. E-mail: varmasumati@yahoo.co.in

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Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad –cities that have grown in response to market needs, but excluded most of its original inhabitants from its new found social, economic and cultural spaces. The city of Gurgaon (a suburb of Delhi to begin with) has attained great visibility in the world economy due to the phenomenal growth of the Information Technology sector in a single location in the context of a developing country. Commonly called the “Millenium City”, its growth and development has been in response to the needs of a new class of global migrants, who came here for work and became instrumental in the transformation of existing urban space to suit global requirements. The growth of the city in response to market needs however, has led to the exclusion of its original inhabitants from its new found social, economic and cultural spaces. The tragedy of exclusion as a part of global existence (United Nations 2010) is exacerbated by the failure of the state to provide adequate and timely redressal. As state policy is largely driven by corporate interests, the scope for minimizing social segregation is limited, which multiplies social problems and expands the neoliberal space (Hirway, 2012). This has led to the emergence of the Third Sector, characterised by a growing number of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), globally and in India, taking on the role of Social Entrepreneurs addressing various issues including social exclusion. In a community, one of the key factors that can create inclusive spaces is access to information and the opportunity to air grievances and opinions. In India, this has not been made possible either by the state-owned media or the private commercial FM channels. The former follows the top-down method of broadcasting, giving negligible access to the local community to create its own content, discuss their own local issues, and document their own cultural traditions. The latter focuses solely on the bottom line, hence community participation is entirely absent. Radio for and by the people is a radical democratic idea that is slowly getting its place in India through the government’s policy in support of community radio. In this context the present paper focuses on the changing identity of a modern Indian city and entrepreneurial response to make it a more inclusive space. It chronicles the effort of an NGO - The Restoring Force (TRF) in Gurgaon: a community radio station that addresses the needs of the hundreds of villages, semi-urban clusters, and urban slums that fall within a 10-km radius around an industrial cluster in Gurgaon, helping to build an inclusive city for those who have been left out on the periphery in the present phase of globalization.

Social Entrepreneurship Social Entrepreneurship aims to create social value (Peredo and McLean, 2006) through sustainable solutions for unaddressed social problems (Austin et al 2006) to stimulate social change (Mair and Marti 2006, Nicholls 2006b, Nicholls and Cho 2006, Tan, Williams and Tan 2005). Social value here takes on myriad forms, ranging from enabling social justice, creating

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social inclusion and adopting social innovation leading to social and environmental sustainability (Hill, Kothari and Shea, 2010). Social Entrepreneurship is characterized by a diversity of processes to achieve the desired social transformation. These range from reconfiguring resources for social objectives (Dees 1998), measured by the social transformation achieved (Alvord, Brown and Letts 2004, Pearce 2003, Bornstein 2004). While philanthropy and reliance on government subsidies are a defining feature of the process, social entrepreneurship may also lead to the development of business ventures. In order to balance the entrepreneurial aspects of the process with intended social outcomes, there is a need to create commercially viable and socially goal oriented institutions with a mission centric approach (Amin, Cameron and Hudson 2002), (Leadbeater, 1997). Social entrepreneurship may be conceptualized within existing organizations or lead to new organizational creation, to exploit new opportunities in an innovative manner (Zahra et al 2008). Its basic objective is the creation of social, economic, cultural, political and environmental wealth (Leadbeater 2007, Shaw and Carter 2007, Steyart and Hjorth, 2006). Social enterprises thus have a dual focus on social and financial value creation (Austin et al 2006, Nicholls 2010). The Third Sector through NGOs can act as social entrepreneurs by adopting a professional approach to development (Devine 2003). They can do so by moving out of their intermediary role as grantees or recipients of financial resources (Alvord, Brown and Letts, 2004, Cho 2006, Nwanko, Philips and Tracey, 2007) and adopting a businesslike approach to problem solving and social value creation including enabling social inclusion. The following section traces the journey of an Indian NGO as a social entrepreneur creating inclusive urban spaces. Exclusion in the City Cities of the world are interesting case studies in social exclusion. An obvious manifestation of exclusion are the urban slums and inner cities which consist of the urban poor who have been excluded in the process of urban planning and whose right to be a part of the urban process has been largely ignored. The increasing concentration of poverty and social deprivation in cities is a major challenge for development. Another form of exclusion as a consequence of globalisation is in the context of the original inhabitants of newly visible “global cities” - people who now exist almost as strangers on the fringes of a city that originally belonged to them, but find no space in its current development and growth. The concept of the inclusive city is derived from the idea that the city belongs to all its inhabitants. This gives rise to the notion of a new urban citizenship, which makes it possible for those who belong in it to fully realise their rights and exercise their responsibilities. At the heart

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of the inclusive city, are the three inter – related ideas that contribute to the realisation of full citizenship: respect for human rights, good urban governance and equitable growth. The Human Development Report (UNDP 2000) characterises human rights into seven core freedoms: freedom from discrimination – for equality; freedom from want – for a decent standard of living; freedom for the realisation of one’s human potential; freedom from fear – with no threats to personal security; freedom from injustice; freedom of participation, expression and association; and freedom for decent work – without exploitation. These human rights however, have to be realised within society; therefore the quality of urban governance – the manner in which individuals and institutions, public and private, plan and manage the common affairs of the city becomes crucial. An inclusive city requires collaboration between the national government, city governments, the private sector and civil society, which form new relationships and take on new roles in a globalising world. Exclusion, as a result of physical, social or economic barriers, prevents certain groups from participating fully in urban life and services, and failure of local authorities to integrate such groups in their decision-making is often a function of inertia, along with bureaucratic and unresponsive forms of government. Ethnicity, gender and religion are also factors that contribute towards exclusion, along with ‘self-exclusion’ of the urban elite who have cocooned themselves into self-sufficient gated communities. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) refers to social exclusion as a ‘process of social disintegration, a progressive rupture of the relationships between the individual and society’ (1996). Exclusion surfaces either as marginalization from the rest of society through economic deprivation and social disadvantage or as social and cultural segregation by fragmentation of social relations. The increased risk of a breakdown of social cohesion due to growing exclusion is recognized in the literature for industrialized countries (Room, 1995). In the developing world exclusion works as a way of controlling and subduing people (Young, 1990) and hence becomes a strategy to maintain hegemonic structures and power distribution. The concept derives from the idea of ‘society as a status hierarchy, comprising people bound together by rights and obligations’ (Walker, 1995). Exclusion defines a state of detachment, where individuals are restrained from or not enabled to access public services, goods, activities, or resources, which are essential for a life with dignity. Hence, there is a central concern focusing on dominant institutions and rules that enable or restrict social interaction. Social exclusion is recognized as a state of ill being that disempowers and disables people from being full citizens, isolating them from the rest of society (ILO, 1996).

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The stigmatization of certain groups as being ‘underclass’ who are worth less is another aspect that reiterates social exclusion and provides excuses for the rest of society and, particularly, for politicians in power to not do enough (Gans, 1996). Strong prejudices against people from marginal settlements are related to race, education, and income, and ultimately these people are interpreted as having a lower social status within society. In the Indian context caste has been a major factor contributing to the exclusion of significant sections of the population for centuries. Gender-related prejudices force women into disadvantaged employment patterns and social roles. However, the most affected are marginalized children and young people, since they are deprived of future opportunities. In not having access to a regular and healthy diet and primary/ secondary education, as well as professional training, they usually become unemployed or underemployed and end up in the informal sector. With an increase in the number of households having to cope with insufficient income, the number of children living in the streets is also growing. Often these children consume drugs (alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs) and become involved in drug trafficking, drug consumption, prostitution, and crime. Since they often have to contribute to the family budget, or have to make a living for themselves, they undertake informal activities (delivery, guarding services, collecting recyclables, street sales, washing cars, polishing shoes, and other street services including prostitution and drug dealing) or begging (Zaluar, 2001). Exclusion is further exacerbated as different systems of the city - social security systems, education and health, transport, housing, water supply and sanitation – start responding to the needs of a wealthy minority integrated with the global economy. For example, infrastructure projects based on the principle of public-private partnership or privatization, including those for water supply and sanitation, increase the cost of living for the poor and may altogether exclude the poorest. Land development becomes an intensely contested area. Low and Gleeson (2001) reveal that ‘urban distributions, which are highly variegated in socio- cultural and spatial terms, interact to produce a diverse and shifting landscape of ecological politics’. Plotkin (1987), for example, documented that institutional mechanisms, such as planning regulations, keep noxious land uses away from high-income neighbourhoods and concentrate them in poor and working-class communities. In Delhi for example, hazardous and polluting industries located in the city were pushed beyond the boundaries of the urban agglomeration. Slum clearance and rehabilitation policies implemented in the city since the 1960s and the recent episodes of judicial activism in the late 90s (Dupont and Ramanathan, 2005) have contributed to a social segmentation of the metropolitan space and the exclusion of the poor from the central zones of the city.

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Gurugram: An Excluding Urban Space Gurugram –the industrial and financial centre of Haryana is the sixth largest city in the state and is located 30 km south of the national capital New Delhi and 268 km south of Chandigarh, the state capital. As per the census of 2001India, Gurgaon had a population of more than 600,000, out of which 54% were males 46%were females. It has an average literacy rate of 77%, higher than the national average of 65.38%: male literacy is 81%, and female literacy is 73%. Known as the “Millennium City” on account of its perceived global character, the city has grown and developed in accordance with the needs of the MNE which has been the reason for its birth and existence. developed under the public private partnership mode, the city has seen rapid growth in the last 25 years as big TNCs like Airtel, American Express, EXL, IBM, Microsoft, Sapient, DLF, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Honda, Infosys, Ericsson, Oracle, Bank of America, American Airlines, have made Gurgaon the call centre, capital of India and an important financial centre. The city traces its origin to Hindu mythology. Legend has it that Gurgaon is the ancestral village of Guru Dronacharya, the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. In Sanskrit, Guru means teacher, which in this case refers to Dronacharya and Grammeans village. According to Hindu mythology, the village was gifted by the Pandavas and Kauravas to Dronacharya the son of Rishi Bhardwaj, and was therefore known as guru-gram. Over time the colloquial term gaon (which also means village in Prakrit) was substituted for gram and the name Gurgaon emerged. By the mid nineteenth century Gurgaon was part of the princely protectorate of Pataudi which is a part of Gurgaon district today. The British integrated Gurgaon into the Punjab Province where it served as district and tehsil headquarters. After India's independence, Gurgaon continued to be a part of the state of Punjab until 1966 when Haryana was formed as a separate state. Gurugram remained a small farming village while neighbouring Delhi emerged as India's political capital. Delhi's economic rise attracted a large influx of labourers from neighbouring regions like Rajasthan, Orissa and Bihar rapidly increasing Delhi's population. By the early 1990s, Delhi was one of the most populous and crowded cities in the world and as the country adopted the most ambitious liberalisation program ever since independence, there was an obvious need for a satellite city to welcome the incoming investment. Gurgaon seemed like an ideal choice given its vast undeveloped farming lands and proximity to Delhi. The Haryana Urban Development Authority bought large areas of land from farmers in Gurgaon and developed residential and commercial sectors. Known as the “Millennium City” on account of its perceived global character, the city has grown and developed in accordance with the needs of the MNE which has been the reason for its birth and existence. Developed under the public private partnership mode, the city has seen rapid growth in the last 25 years MNEs like The American Express, IBM, Microsoft, Sapient, DLF, Maruti Suzuki, GE, Infosys, Ericsson, Oracle, Bank of America and American Airlines have made Gurgaon the call centre capital of India and an important financial centre. Some of the other

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factors which attracted the MNE to Gurgaon were the reformed tax laws, proximity to the international airport and promised world class infrastructure including a fast moving expressway connecting the suburb to the city of Delhi in a matter of minutes. The paradox representing the globalisation of cities such as Gurugram is manifested in their spatial transformation. The central city areas have changed as new up market stores, international banks, fast food chains and pubs made an appearance. Several state sponsored mega development projects such as sports stadium and exclusive mass housing have resulted in the demolition and resettlement of several poor settlements to distant peripheral locations. Rapidly rising land prices have pushed poor and middle income groups to live in distant and sometimes non-serviced locations. The urban façade of the city today is a study in contrast with granite, steel and tinted glass offices next to ill- maintained factories and high class residential neighbourhoods standing cheek by jowl with sprawling slums. Traffic jams on pot holed roads in which the Mercedes shares space with the bullock cart completes the picture of a parallel universe in which the nouveau riche yuppie in his Armani suit tries to create his own exclusive universe. Urban areas such as these thus become “quartered” cities in the sense that their effort to accommodate the needs of global capital has enriched commercial interests, but at the cost of neglecting the interests of its other stakeholders and their liveability. The central business district consisting of glass walled computer – ready office complexes, exclusive shopping malls and entertainment facilities stand in stark contrast to the dense squatter settlements and their very poor services. The city’s urban periphery has also transformed in response to the needs of the IT sector. In the 1980s, the city’s peripheral areas evolved as “revenue layouts” with minimal infrastructure and civic amenities catering mainly to low and middle income groups and small scale enterprises. The 1990s saw a development of the southern periphery into gentrified enclaves of exclusive luxury condominiums combined with high quality commercial space for the professional managerial “techie” in peripheral locations as a part of sub-urbanisation of the type witnessed in “edge cities” of the more developed global cities of the Boston region or Santa Clara Valley. The suburb of Gurgaon is an example of the increasing growth of self-sufficient gated communities that have cocooned themselves in their little paradises. These are exclusive “farmhouse clusters and apartment blocks” with their own swimming pools and health clubs, walled in private security, 24 hour electrical power back up and exclusive club facilities. The rest of the city is a sprawl of decaying single story houses and shops occupied by people who livelihoods fall beyond the plans of the IT industry. Changes in transportation and migration patterns have increased the diversity of local spaces and reflect the cultural and cognitive diversity of its temporary citizens. On the other hand they have led to the exclusion of all sections of the urban population from one or more areas of urban space. Cities such as Gurgaon have witnessed an urban reconfiguration due to their inclusion in the network of global cities. It has led to the emergence of a new lifestyle

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characterised by mobility, fast pace, poly-scripted and parallel experiences. It allows people to include and exclude in multiple spaces which we categorise as mind space, information space, material space and social (relational) space. A study of these emerging patterns of poly-inclusion and exclusion helps us to develop strategies and new capabilities that are appropriate for creating and sustaining inclusive urban space or city on a theoretical continuum of decentralization. “Less than 30 minutes from Udyog Vihar, straddling planned SEZ zones, and within hooting distance of Gurgaon’s line-up of glitzy malls, villages such as Garhi Harsaru and Dhankot straddle two very different worlds. In one, English-speaking youngsters throng BPO offices at night, and malls in the daytime. In the other, their children find it difficult to even read their Hindi textbooks in Class 8. Their most difficult subject? English. It’s a language they rarely use, and hardly ever hear. But they know that it holds the keys to the consumerist kingdom, to jobs in Gurgaon city, and to a better life not dependent on land, since the land has long been sold off, and few have as yet acquired the skills to earn their bread through anything other than farming.” (MIB Case study 2010). We use a poly-inclusive concept of space (Go 2003), to explain the process of urban exclusion experienced by the inhabitants of cities like Gurugram. Material space is the main environment of experience for an individual. It is his habitat and includes the home space, office space, and also temporary sites such as hotels and meeting centres. Although technology has broadened our understanding and exploration of this physical space, its basic limitation is that it allows human beings to be present at a single site only at any given moment. People also interact within an information space that captures, represents and transmits images, facts, stories and audio-visual products. Technology enables the participation of individuals in the information space together wherever they are. It provides a real time and asynchronous layer that connects people through the electronic media. Interaction in the information space helps to cut across the different layers of the social fabric as all sections of the population watch a common soap opera or a news item. Common experiences in the information space temporarily help to create a sense of inclusion. A third space people include is in mind or knowledge space. We develop and express routines and experiences that are communicated, processed and enhanced by other human beings. People have developed stories and scripts that transfer generic knowledge and help us communicate (Grant 1996; Orr 1996). We connect directly or through artefacts with other minds. These stories, scripts and artefacts become a part of the culture of a city or an organisation. Mind space is limited only by the imagination of the human mind and has endless opportunities for growth. As a consequence of the impact of a technological culture, driven by IT-developments, the former is moving beyond mind space, e.g. the literature refers to ‘virtual culture’ and ‘bodily culture’. Moreover, the city affords and offers a platform for the

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manifestation of culture, which tends increasingly to be a combination of new media culture (i-pods; etc), corporeal presence (as in ‘showing off brand fashions) and traditional cultures (e.g. ethnic communities that have settled in the city historically or more recently). Changing culture goes beyond existing mind spaces and in the process becomes exclusionary for a large section of the urban population. Social space exists when two or more individuals meet in some format on a relational basis (Gabarro 1990). People create unique interaction patterns and reciprocal knowledge (Schein 1992). They exchange efficiently by using their own protocols, symbols and common knowledge. This cultural and relational space has been associated with uncertainty. People can improvise around uncertain situations when they have established social space (Williamson 1991; Peplowski 1998). They create meaning in a joint process based on similar past experiences (Hall 1959). Social space involves the ties amongst human beings, is independent of space and evolves historically over time. Agglomeration patterns of the city directly affect the social spaces of the city. The development of the city’s residential location of the high skilled IT worker has been accompanied by the development of retail spaces are all done in response to global lifestyle and higher paying capacity of the global executive. The development of these new retail cores of shopping malls, speciality restaurants and entertainment centres are in areas that were meant to serve neighbourhood functions (Aranya 2003). There is thus a clear compartmentalisation of social spaces in which the interests of the “globetrotting techie” seem to predominate. The common non-IT Bangalorean is thus excluded from the newly emerging social spaces of the city. The extension of the city’s mind space excludes the ethnic community, which perceives the aforementioned corrosion of character as a consequence of work in the new capitalism (Sennett) as a threat to the society’s traditional language and culture. It is also felt by some that traditional middle class Indian values of simple living and thrift have been replaced by a culture of conspicuous consumption of the global citizen (Sugata, 2007). The growth of the new capitalism, driven by a technological culture has meant that social events like festivals, which used to be community affairs are now organised and “marketed”, in part, by commercial sponsors. The global migrant includes in spaces of virtual culture but is unable to relate to the traditional culture of the city both for want of time as also due to the fact that his presence is resented by the original ethnic community. The urban poor on the other hand are excluded from virtual spaces leading to a clear division of the city’s mind spaces between different inhabitants of the city. All in all, the entire city is an exclusionary enclave!!

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Gurgaon Ki Awaaz – The Voice of Gurugram Gurgaon Ki Awaaz - Gurugram’s only community radio station was born in November 20091. It broadcasts in Hindi and Haryanvi to a community that has remained voiceless throughout the transformation of Gurgaon from a sleepy cluster of villages 20 years ago to a much vaunted “Millennium City”. The only civil society-led community radio station in the entire National Capital Region, Gurgaon Ki Awaaz is a platform for and by marginalized community groups in Gurgaon, especially communities living in villages in and around Gurgaon, migrant workers and inner city residents for whom the gloss and glamour of malls and glass-fronted office buildings is simply a testament of the uneven development that has taken place in this town. Community Radio (CR) in India is in its infancy. The idea of allowing the people to own and run radio channels that broadcast content relevant to their own lives, has taken some time to gain acceptance in India. Radio has always been extremely tightly controlled in India, the monopoly resting with All India Radio. The first break from this monopoly was the start of Campus Radio stations (often confused with Community Radio stations, which are not led by an educational institution but by the members of a community). The first Campus Radio station was set up in Anna University in Chennai in 2004. After a fairly lengthy process of application, screening, and paperwork, the first CR stations have begun broadcasting in India, in places as far apart as Orchcha in Madhya Pradesh, Kutch in Gujarat, Mukteshwar in Uttarakhand and Medak district in Andhra Pradesh. The Gurugram Community Radio station has a footprint of approximately 20kms originating in TRF’s field office in Udyog Vihar, Gurugram, Haryana. Within this footprint, fall hundreds of villages, many of which have practically disappeared inside industrial zones, urban estates and condominiums. The radio station encompasses offices and factories in Udyog Vihar, homes and apartments in the new and old colonies of Gurugram, villages strung along both sides of NH-8, as well as those tucked inside, reached only by broken roads and narrow paths2. Broadcasting in Hindi and Haryanvi, the radio station is run by a team of community reporters, the bulk of whom are from these very target communities within Gurugram. The station has been set up and is supported by The Restoring Force (TRF), an NGO that works in government schools in Gurugram district. Gurgaon Ki Awaaz broadcasts 24 hours a day on a wide range of programs that include programs on careers, entrepreneurship, migration, women’s empowerment and health, folk culture especially music, health, sports, and community reportage by school-going children. TRF’s community radio initiative is an attempt to create space for a community struggling with inadequate power, gaps in education infrastructure, and lack of knowledge about opportunities in education, livelihood and income generation. This includes a large number of Gurugram’s villagers who either have substantial land holdings, or substantial cash reserves from selling off this land but have got excluded from the millennium city’s spaces. It also targets lakhs of

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migrant workers who live and work in Gurugram, but who do not fit into any of the transformed city spaces. for whom the city has very little to offer. The radio is a wonderful medium to reach the community - because by its very sound and music, it is very evidently "their" station. The station records and airs folk music and folk ballads performed by local music groups and performers, children's music (much of it recorded by the children in government schools), and debates and discussions like the Chaupals (a common village space for debate and discussion), that bring together diverse, but local, voices. Gurugram has been shaped by the lakhs of migrant workers from across India who work in the city’s factories, farms, homes and offices. A weekly program “Sara Aasmaan Hamara” (the universe belongs to us ) brings the personal stories of Gurgaon’s migrant workers to the radio as they share their journey from their villages to Gurgaon, their early struggles, the challenge of adjusting to a new milieu and, very often, living far away from home and family. Music on Gurgaon Ki Awaaz gives it a unique identity as it airs local folk music called Raginis sung by local troupes known as mandalis or devotional songs (bhajans) by village women or songs by schoolchildren. Neither the music nor the artists can ever hope to find space on the popular commercial radio stations which air popular Hindi film music. So unique are the sounds emanating from this little studio, so rooted to the land and collective community memory, that there has been an instant connects with the people. Not even one listener has ever asked for Hindi film music!! Conclusion In physics, the term "The Restoring Force" refers to a variable force that gives rise to equilibrium in a physical system. Toward this end, the Gurgaon ki Awaaz Community Radio initiative aims to restore equilibrium in the spaces of the city of Gurgaon as it intervenes to minimise the inequality of access and opportunity that currently characterises the people living in the millennium city. Whatever be the form of response there is no getting away from the fact that globalisation and its attendant effects are here to stay. It is therefore important to reconcile old identities and newer realities of our cities. How can the old make way for the new as we strive to conserve? The answer to this perhaps is in the words of urban historian and architect, Dolores Hayden, “the power of ordinary urban landscapes to nurture citizen’s public memory, to encompass shared time in the form of shared history – remains untapped in most working people’s neighbourhoods in most cities.” The need of the hour is participatory urban existence where the interests of all find a voice and space.

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