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Indigenous Business and Financial Practices

Kshama V. Kaushik and Kaushik Dutta

in India Means Business: How the Elephant Earned its Stripes

This chapter describes various indigenous financial and business practices. A unique social innovation developed in ancient India, a merchant guild or sreni or nigama was akin to a corporate ... More

This chapter describes various indigenous financial and business practices. A unique social innovation developed in ancient India, a merchant guild or sreni or nigama was akin to a corporate self-governing entity with its own regulations which were duly recognized and even registered by the local authorities. Some other practices prevalent in ancient India were hundis, which were part of a sophisticated financial system for safe transfer of funds to carry out business transactions; loan deed forms called rnpatra or rnlekhya; nidhis or chit funds which were designed to cultivate the habit of thrift and savings amongst its members, and the bahi-khata and parta systems of bookkeeping and management. The authors suggest that rather than dismissing these ancient practices as outmoded, Indian businesses may gain from modifying them to suit modern commerce.Less

The Merchant Family as a Business Enterprise

C. A. Bayly

in Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion 1770-1870

This chapter considers the merchant family in north India during pre-colonial and early periods as a business enterprise. It suggests that many of the patterns of behaviour which seem to characterise ... More

This chapter considers the merchant family in north India during pre-colonial and early periods as a business enterprise. It suggests that many of the patterns of behaviour which seem to characterise the family firm of nineteenth-century north India can be understood as tactics to avoid the risks of operating in a peculiarly hostile business climate. It explains that from early youth, children in merchant families were taught that good business involved the constant division of capital into small, manageable portfolios. It also discusses business management practices including double entry bookkeeping and the use of a central daily cash book.Less

Indian Business: An Introduction

Kshama V. Kaushik and Kaushik Dutta

in India Means Business: How the Elephant Earned its Stripes

Providing an overview of events, policies, and practices relating to commerce and business prevailing in the country from 1800s to the present, this chapter introduces the reader to factors that ... More

Providing an overview of events, policies, and practices relating to commerce and business prevailing in the country from 1800s to the present, this chapter introduces the reader to factors that shaped India's economic and business landscape, historical events that formulated its business practices, and political ideology that affected Indian businesses. It highlights the British influence on the Indian landscape and evaluates the impact of the American Civil War and World Wars I and II on Indian business. The chapter also discusses the diversification of Indian companies from the textile business into machine-based industries, such as sugar, jute, coal, and tea and coffee plantations. It also examines how Indian businessmen used the Indian National Council and other budding trade organizations to ensure business-friendly measures from the government.Less

The French Way: Economy, Society, and Culture in the 1990s

Richard F. Kuisel

in The French Way: How France Embraced and Rejected American Values and Power

In 1990s, the French saw America as both an incentive for change and an example to be shunned. If the New World's successes—for example, in economic growth—were admired, the ways Americans employed ... More

In 1990s, the French saw America as both an incentive for change and an example to be shunned. If the New World's successes—for example, in economic growth—were admired, the ways Americans employed to attain such prosperity were to be avoided. In short, America was simultaneously a model and an antimodel. What the French accomplished in the 1990s was to adapt features of the American way, without admitting it, in an effort to find their own way forward. This chapter addresses policies of the Fifth Republic that were explicitly, or in some instances only implicitly, inspired by the American model. It deals with economic and social policy, business practice, and cultural affairs. In economic and social policy, the focus is on issues like economic and technological competitiveness, unemployment, and the welfare state. In cultural affairs, the focus will be on language—that is, the spread of American English—and on the audiovisual sector.Less

Successful Business Practices of Modern India

Kshama V. Kaushik and Kaushik Dutta

in India Means Business: How the Elephant Earned its Stripes

This chapter describes several business practices that have proved successful in modern India. These include the cooperative movement, microcredit or micro-financing, and off-shoring. Indian ... More

This chapter describes several business practices that have proved successful in modern India. These include the cooperative movement, microcredit or micro-financing, and off-shoring. Indian companies have developed a reputation for work efficiency, information technology (IT) capability, and cost-effectiveness. The word BPO (business process outsourcing) has become synonymous with India and has even spawned idiomatic expressions like 'being Bangalored'. This chapter also discusses solutions to bridge the digital divide, such as ITC's e-choupal, an Internet-based intervention in rural India launched in 2000, the Drishtee rural network for delivering services and related information to the village community, and the C-DAC research and development institution set up by the Ministry of Communication and Information and Technology.Less

Private Market Access Barriers

Chris Noonan

in The Emerging Principles of International Competition Law

This chapter analyses the case for an international obligation for countries to enact and enforce a competition law to prevent anticompetitive conduct that creates market access barriers. It examines ... More

This chapter analyses the case for an international obligation for countries to enact and enforce a competition law to prevent anticompetitive conduct that creates market access barriers. It examines Japanese business practices that allegedly created market access barriers in several major industries, including soda ash, steel, stevedoring, semiconductors, and supercomputers. It is argued that anticompetitive conduct may restrict market access and that an international remedy should be available in limited circumstances. While there may be mutual gains from states agreeing to prohibit private anticompetitive conduct that restricts market access, the case for a common set of rules is weak.Less

Human rights and self-regulation in the apparel industry

Rebecca DeWinter-Schmitt

in Private Security, Public Order: The Outsourcing of Public Services and Its Limits

This chapter examines the evolution of regulatory regimes in the apparel industry as a comparison with efforts to regulate PMSCs. Lessons learned from the efforts of the Fair Labor Association and ... More

This chapter examines the evolution of regulatory regimes in the apparel industry as a comparison with efforts to regulate PMSCs. Lessons learned from the efforts of the Fair Labor Association and the Workers Rights Consortium might provide a road map for creating a hybrid public-private regulatory regime for PMSCs that contains all the necessary elements of high standards, implementation guidelines, independent monitoring, an enforcement mechanism, and public reporting. Incentives could be established by giving companies an industry seal of approval that would indicate their adherence to ethical business practices. This could be attractive to non-state customers, like NGOs and other companies that need security and are worried about the reputations of their providers. The existence of a hybrid regulatory regime would not, however, alleviate the state's responsibility to conduct ongoing assessments of the human rights impact of such an effort, including by examining the global structure and operations of the PMSC industry.Less

The Influence of Catholic Social Teaching on the Democratic Practice of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Study from Indonesia

Francisca Ninik Yudianti

in Democracy, Culture, Catholicism: Voices from Four Continents

Do the principles and frameworks provided by Catholic Social Teaching (CST) have any effect today on the processes of democratic practices and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Catholic-owned ... More

Do the principles and frameworks provided by Catholic Social Teaching (CST) have any effect today on the processes of democratic practices and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Catholic-owned businesses? The results of Yudianti’s economic analysis indicate that, in fact, yes, the democratic practices of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) do have a positive effect on the adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a business practice in the corporate culture of the Yogyakarta Special Region in Indonesia. While this is particularly true for the Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) in the Yogyakarta Special Region whose owners identify as Catholic, it remains to be seen the extent to which such practices have an impact on the Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) in the Yogyakarta Special Region whose owners identify as Muslim. While more research needs to be conducted in these areas, Yudianti’s contribution to the conversation suggests that such research ought to be undertaken, given that her preliminary findings show positive results for the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).Less

When People Thrive, Business Thrives

Larry Cohen

in Prevention Diaries: The Practice and Pursuit of Health for All

This chapter discusses taking actions against harmful business practices. Once people accept that there are businesses whose core practices and products lines are fundamentally harmful to health and ... More

This chapter discusses taking actions against harmful business practices. Once people accept that there are businesses whose core practices and products lines are fundamentally harmful to health and safety, they can take collective action to protect themselves from further harm. This move can be controversial—but it is needed to prevent needless illness and injury—and health leaders can be catalysts for this kind of action. Part of the solution is to bring communities and consumers together, cultivating a groundswell of activity to control bad businesses and build a movement for change. A variety of strategies can be adopted to protect health, including policy and regulatory action, changing consumer buying practices and norms, strikes, legal action, grassroots advocacy, and of course directing support—and purchasing power—toward businesses that promote health. This supports these businesses and also sends a powerful message to health-harming businesses that their practices need to change.Less

Problems of Substance

Nancy S. Kim

in Wrap Contracts: Foundations and Ramifications

This chapter explains how companies strategically use wrap contracts to acquire rights without bargaining and to establish and embed by stealth practices before users and regulators realize what has ... More

This chapter explains how companies strategically use wrap contracts to acquire rights without bargaining and to establish and embed by stealth practices before users and regulators realize what has happened. The discussions cover how wrap agreements create their own laws that are contrary to what a reasonable user expects; how businesses use wrap contracts to legitimate practices lacking in transparency; and the problems with relying upon the doctrine of unconscionability to prevent enforcement of nonnegotiated agreements.Less

Introduction

Keith Roberts

in The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets

This introductory chapter first explains the rationale behind the present volume. The author briefly recounts the events leading up to his realization that nobody has yet described the ancient ... More

This introductory chapter first explains the rationale behind the present volume. The author briefly recounts the events leading up to his realization that nobody has yet described the ancient origins of business practices and how it developed into a significant part of economic life. The chapter then provides an overview of the history of business, the origins of which can be traced back to Mesopotamia about five thousand years ago. Business became more than a marginal activity through the Greek combination of coins and markets. From the sixth century b.c.e. an entrepreneurial market system became central to the urban economy of Athens and other democratic city-states. By 200 b.c.e. Alexander the Great and his followers had spread this economic system to hundreds of cities throughout Western Asia and the Mediterranean region. The Romans established entrepreneurial market systems in the parts of Africa and Western Europe they conquered. They invented multinational business corporations, and between 200 b.c.e. and 200 c.e.their empire's favorable business environment allowed firms to attain considerable influence and importance.Less

The Antebellum Merchant in Southern Society

Frank J. Byrne

in Becoming Bourgeois: Merchant Culture in the South, 1820-1865

This chapter examines the reputation and societal standing of the antebellum merchant family in the antebellum American South. It explains that the business activities that ordered the internal lives ... More

This chapter examines the reputation and societal standing of the antebellum merchant family in the antebellum American South. It explains that the business activities that ordered the internal lives of merchant families also helped fashion their public identity. Many white Southerners viewed merchants with suspicion because they believe that merchants love money too much and their sharp business practices violated community standards. However, there are those successful merchants who understood the sundry ways their public behavior could affect profits and made sure they and their families acted accordingly.Less

The Nature of the Firm

Patrick L. Anderson

in The Economics of Business Valuation: Towards a Value Functional Approach

This chapter presents three competing definitions of the firm, including a common definition of any organization that has a profit motive, a modern neoclassical definition of a transaction ... More

This chapter presents three competing definitions of the firm, including a common definition of any organization that has a profit motive, a modern neoclassical definition of a transaction institution whose incentives differ from those of its owners, and a new three-part definition. The elements of the new definition of the firm include an organization with a profit motive for its investors, a separate identity, and replicable business practices.Less

The Contexts of Change

in The Roots, Rituals, and Rhetorics of Change: North American Business Schools After the Second World War

This chapter considers some major elements of the context in which changes in business schools in North America took place. It suggests that the course of the reforms was shaped by the context of the ... More

This chapter considers some major elements of the context in which changes in business schools in North America took place. It suggests that the course of the reforms was shaped by the context of the times and the institutional context and identifies some factors that necessitated the reforms which included changes in business practices, growth of student population, and the augmentation of higher education into an instrument for research and training.Less