IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/102553.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rational Organizational Structure: For Brick-and-Mortar Lifestyle Retailers in India to Overcome Diseconomies of Scale and Protect Firm’s Sustainability (ROLS-b)

Author

Listed:
  • H. R., Ganesha
  • Aithal, Sreeramana

Abstract

A majority of organized brick-and-mortar lifestyle retailers in India believe that the brick-and-mortar retailing model ensures economies of scale as they keep opening new stores. Having more stores might help retailers to gain product sourcing advantages in addition to generating additional revenue to the firm but at the same time, it fails to provide any other benefits towards economies of scale as every new store comes with new one-time capital expenditures and recurring fixed expenses. Another misconception is that lifestyle retailing must follow an organizational structure (OS) that is adopted by their parent company and hence a majority of OS adopted by lifestyle retailers in India is dependent on organizational form. This study was not limited to just recommending a rational OS based on exploratory research and existing theories in the OS domain. Once the ROLS-b was designed, we have experimented with the proposed rational OS on one of the ten lifestyle retailers in the study to test the validity and reliability. Experimentation results empirically and qualitatively demonstrate that the existing belief of brick-and-mortar lifestyle retailers in India which assumes economies of scale and long-term firm’s sustainability as the retailer increases the store count is just a misconception and does not hold. On the other hand, when we experimented the ROLS-b for over twelve months at over 25 percent stores of a select retailer, results demonstrate that these stores which have gone through the treatment have shown 5.34 times improvement in the store-level profit and 1.97 times in the firm-level profit in addition to eliminating a majority of gaps found in the existing OS that was leading to diseconomies of scale and deteriorating firm’s performance.

Suggested Citation

  • H. R., Ganesha & Aithal, Sreeramana, 2020. "Rational Organizational Structure: For Brick-and-Mortar Lifestyle Retailers in India to Overcome Diseconomies of Scale and Protect Firm’s Sustainability (ROLS-b)," MPRA Paper 102553, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:102553
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/102553/1/MPRA_paper_102553.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kalle Pajunen, 2006. "Stakeholder Influences in Organizational Survival," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(6), pages 1261-1288, September.
    2. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    3. Todd R. Zenger, 1994. "Explaining Organizational Diseconomies of Scale in R&D: Agency Problems and the Allocation of Engineering Talent, Ideas, and Effort by Firm Size," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(6), pages 708-729, June.
    4. Rasmusen, Eric & Zenger, Todd, 1990. "Diseconomies of Scale in Employment Contracts," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 65-92, Spring.
    5. Silver, Morris & Auster, Richard, 1969. "Entrepreneurship, Profit, and Limits on Firm Size," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(3), pages 277-281, July.
    6. Simon, Herbert A., 2000. "Barriers and bounds to Rationality," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 243-253, July.
    7. Oliver E. Williamson, 1967. "Hierarchical Control and Optimum Firm Size," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(2), pages 123-123.
    8. Josep Rosanas, 2008. "Beyond Economic Criteria: A Humanistic Approach to Organizational Survival," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 78(3), pages 447-462, March.
    9. McAfee, R Preston & McMillan, John, 1995. "Organizational Diseconomies of Scale," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(3), pages 399-426, Fall.
    10. Richard B. Fabling & Arthur Grimes, 2007. "Practice Makes Profit: Business Practices and Firm Success," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 383-399, December.
    11. Mookherjee Dilip & Reichelstein Stefan, 2001. "Incentives and Coordination in Hierarchies," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-38, April.
    12. Geanakoplos, John & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "A theory of hierarchies based on limited managerial attention," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 205-225, September.
    13. R. Joseph Monsen & Jr. & Anthony Downs, 1965. "A Theory of Large Managerial Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(3), pages 221-221.
    14. Yingyi Qian, 1994. "Incentives and Loss of Control in an Optimal Hierarchy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(3), pages 527-544.
    15. H. R., Ganesha & Aithal, Sreeramana, 2020. "Consumer Communication Deployment Tactics: An Integrated Framework for Lifestyle Brands and Retailers in India (CCF-LS)," MPRA Paper 102550, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Juha‐Antti Lamberg & Henrikki Tikkanen & Tomi Nokelainen & Henri Suur‐Inkeroinen, 2009. "Competitive dynamics, strategic consistency, and organizational survival," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 45-60, January.
    17. James W. Brock, 1987. "Bigness Is the Problem, Not the Solution," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 11-16, May.
    18. Riordan, Michael H. & Williamson, Oliver E., 1985. "Asset specificity and economic organization," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 365-378, December.
    19. H. R., Ganesha & Aithal, Sreeramana, 2020. "Retailing Performance Evaluation Scale for Indian Brick-and-Mortar Lifestyle Retailers (LSRS-b)," MPRA Paper 102554, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. repec:bla:jemstr:v:4:y:1995:i:3:p:399-426:a is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. H. R., Ganesha & Aithal, Sreeramana, 2020. "Sales Personnel Attrition Control and Retention – An Integrated Framework for Lifestyle Retailers in India (RSPR-LS)," MPRA Paper 102867, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. H. R., Ganesha & Aithal, Sreeramana, 2020. "Theory of Brick-and-Mortar Retailing in India (ToR-b)," MPRA Paper 102869, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Staffan Canback, 2004. "Diseconomies of scale in large corporations: Theory and empirical analysis," Industrial Organization 0402001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Staffan Canback, 1998. "Managerial diseconomies of scale: Literature survey and hypotheses anchored in transaction cost economics," Industrial Organization 9810001, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Oct 2002.
    3. Staffan Canback & Phillip Samouel & David Price, 2003. "Strategy and structure in interaction: What determines the boundaries of the firm?," Industrial Organization 0303003, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Mar 2003.
    4. J. Myles Shaver & John M. Mezias, 2009. "Diseconomies of Managing in Acquisitions: Evidence from Civil Lawsuits," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 206-222, February.
    5. Cho, Myeonghwan, 2010. "Efficient structure of organization with heterogeneous workers," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1125-1139, November.
    6. Brahm, Francisco & Tarziján, Jorge, 2012. "The impact of complexity and managerial diseconomies on hierarchical governance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 586-599.
    7. Choe, Chongwoo & Ishiguro, Shingo, 2008. "On the (Sub)optimality of Multi-tier Hierarchies: Coordination versus Motivation," MPRA Paper 13451, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Choe Chongwoo & Park In-Uck, 2011. "Information, Authority, and Corporate Hierarchies," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-39, February.
    9. Filippo Belloc & Gabriel Burdin & Fabio Landini, 2020. "Corporate Hierarchies and Labor Institutions," Department of Economics University of Siena 827, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    10. Gibbons, Robert, 2005. "Four forma(lizable) theories of the firm?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 200-245, October.
    11. Andrea Patacconi, 2009. "Coordination and delay in hierarchies," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(1), pages 190-208, March.
    12. Jonathan Treussard, 2005. "Life-Cycle Consumption Plans and Portfolio Policies in a Heath-Jarrow-Morton Economy," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2005-033, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    13. M. Martin Boyer, 2004. "On the Use of Hierarchies to Complete Contracts when Players Have Limited Abilities," CIRANO Working Papers 2004s-41, CIRANO.
    14. Emma Hubert, 2020. "Continuous-time incentives in hierarchies," Papers 2007.10758, arXiv.org.
    15. Smeets, Valérie & Warzynski, Frederic, 2006. "Testing Models of Hierarchy: Span of Control, Compensation and Career Dynamics," Working Papers 06-10, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics.
    16. Garicano, Luis & Hubbard, Thomas N, 2007. "Managerial Leverage Is Limited by the Extent of the Market: Hierarchies, Specialization, and the Utilization of Lawyers' Human Capital," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(1), pages 1-43, February.
    17. Pedro Ortín‐Ángel & Vicente Salas‐fumás, 1998. "Agency‐Theory and Internal‐Labor‐Market Explanations of Bonus Payments: Empirical Evidence from Spanish Firms," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 573-613, December.
    18. Jayesh Kumar, 2003. "Ownership Structure and Corporate Firm Performance," Finance 0304004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Hernán Bejarano & Brice Corgnet & Joaquín Gómez-Miñambres, 2019. "Labor Contracts, Gift-Exchange and Reference Wages: Your Gift Need Not Be Mine!," Working Papers 19-26, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    20. Emilie R. Feldman & Claudine Gartenberg & Julie Wulf, 2018. "Pay inequality and corporate divestitures," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(11), pages 2829-2858, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Indian Retail; Brick-and-Mortar Retail; Lifestyle Retail; Firm’s Sustainability; Sustainable Business; Organizational Structure; Diseconomies of Scale; Organizational Form; Degree of Integration; Atmospheric Consequences; Bureaucratic Insularity; Incentive Limits; Communication Distortion; Bounded Rationality; ROLS-b;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M1 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • M3 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising
    • M30 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:102553. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.