Announcements

Join us in congratulating SPJIMR Assistant Professor Caruna Bhat. Her research paper titled “Digital Platform Adoption as a Response to Informal Competition – An Attention-based View of Small Business”, co-authored with Prof. Punyashlok Dwibedy, Assistant Professor, Strategy, IIM Indore, was awarded the BEST PAPER in the SMEs and Sustainable Enterprise track at the 9th Indian Academy of Management- INDAM National 2024 conference at Goa Institute of Management, Goa.

The winning paper examines the underlying reasons for the adoption of digital platforms by entrepreneurial owners of small-sized businesses. We find that such an uptake is influenced by them facing a high degree of competition from informal sector competitors. This effect is also positively moderated by the entrepreneur having a different full-time job, as that influences their ability to focus on their business. This mechanism is in line with the situated and structural attention principles of the attention-based view of the firm that states that a decision-maker’s attentional preference is shaped by the situations in which they are embedded along with the structural elements of their environment of operation.

On receiving the news, Prof. Bhat said, “I’m glad to have received this honour. This serves as a motivational boost for future research.” The entire SPJIMR community takes immense pride in her achievement. We applaud the intellectual contributions of our faculty members, who continue to inspire the larger academic community.