Timely acquisition and divestment of resources is essential for sustaining the competitive advantage and longevity of family firms. A combination of past successes, emotional attachments, and path dependencies can lead to extensive inertia toward divestment in these firms. This article develops a framework to understand the influence of community culture and family structure on divestment decisions in family firms. Propositions on the varying levels of inertia to divest—depending on the values held by the owning family and the culture prevailing in their community—are developed. Research and practical implications are discussed.

Following the lead of Habbershon and Williams (1999), this paper uses the resource-based view of firms to understand the strategic responses of nine family groups to the more liberalized environment in India's emerging economy. Using the concepts and empirical findings in the resource-based view (RBV) stream of literature, this manuscript offers six hypotheses related to the restructure of business portfolios, structural changes within organizations, and the induction of professional family and nonfamily members. I also identify five emerging trends in the responses and use them to test the hypotheses. Data from published sources indicates a high degree of support for the hypotheses. The manuscript also shows how the resource-based view of the firm provides an excellent theoretical framework for understanding and interpreting these responses and suggests directions for further research.

This paper develops a framework for understanding the relationships between approaches to learning adopted by students in the context of higher education and the culture of the country they were brought up in. The paper, after examining the more widely used Kolb's learning styles, opts for another categorisation, namely the so called learning approaches developed by Entwistle and others (for example,

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This colloquium serves as a conceptual and experiential platform to stage the insights generated on the case method by the faculty who have taught and/or trained at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). It comprises three sections titled Contexts (including Technology and Culture), Institutions, and Futures. The institutions comprise IIM, Ahmedabad, IIM, Bangalore, and IIM, Indore though the primary focus remains on the curricular and pedagogical innovations at IIMA. The insights on the future of the case method in India that emerged from the colloquium are the following: The availability of information and communication technologies in the emerging milieu is not a threat but an opportunity to reinvent the method; this, however, requires breaking from the ‘classical method’ in order to innovate. The changing demographics of the classroom necessitate a greater appreciation and sensitization to how cultural differences can affect the receptivity to the case method. The written analysis of cases (WAC) was and will continue to remain the site for introducing the case method to the incoming students of the Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) at IIMA. Communication skills can be taught effectively if a performative dimension is built into the case discussion through role plays. Many of the cases used in the IIMs reflect the ethos of a socialist, pre-liberal era of the Indian economy. There is a pressing need to develop cases that reflect the economic developments of recent times. The case method will continue to be the mainstay of the forthcoming PGPX (PGP for executives) at IIMA since the greater work experience of the participants will make it possible to combine ‘inductive and personalized’ forms of learning. An examination of the barriers to effective case teaching and writing at IIM, Bangalore reveals that a formal review process may help to increase the standard of cases and teaching notes. The institutionalization of the case method in a new IIM requires enormous efforts on the part of both individual faculty (with prior exposure to the method) and the institute as a whole. The learnings from the experiment at IIM, Indore are relevant to understanding what is at stake in the replication of the method in a new institution. The Socratic Method is not synonymous with the case method; it is not the instructor�s task to invoke the dialectical method in response to an ‘inner voice,’ but an attempt to facilitate the learning process. The method persists despite adverse conditions in many institutions. Questions of form remain more important than content in teaching through this method since it helps to negotiate the gap between ‘management reality’ and ‘methodical management.’ The method should move from a mere ‘post-mortem’ of a business situation to a dynamic orientation and facilitate active learning through the realization of the dictum that ‘the past is in the present as in the future.’ The case method will continue to structure the education of managers in the future despite changes in the nature of competition, the organizational environment, etc. However, it may be necessary to supplement the case method with field-based projects to generate the habit of decision-making; this will also make the learning contemporary for the participants.

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S ManikuttyThis paper argues that for effective development of managers, training programmes are far from sufficient. The major development of managerial capabilities, in fact, takes place not so much as a result of training programmes as on the job. But this development can be directed or undirected and one of the important tasks of a senior manager is to make sure this development is directed and effective.The development of junior managers by senior managers is a vital activity in a learning organization. In today's fast changing environment, the only organizations that will survive will be learning organizations. Competitive advantage is not static. Organizations cannot place themselves in particular strategic postures in an industry and stay there for all time to come but have to evolve and adapt to new situations. This ability to adapt depends on the amount and kind of learning that takes place continuously in the organizations and how effectively managers can apply these learnings in their jobs.Formal training programmes can be useful and effective not by themselves but through effective coupling to organizational situations. This linkage is often lacking which is the prime reason for the apparent lack of effectiveness of such formal programmes. But building such linkages can hardly be done by academic institutions or consultants; they need to be ultimately done by the managers of the organizations themselves.As a general rule, most managers are aware of this role but have neither the time, energy nor incentive to do the development and training of their junior managers. They also lack a framework to do this systematically. This article suggests a possible framework.The role of senior managers as trainers varies with the stages the junior manager is in his career:as the first boss of a new manager, the senior managers have to shape the values and develop the ability in the new manager to prioritize and set goals for himself for the middle level managers, the senior managers have to act as trainers capitalizing on the experience the junior managers would have had thus far and integrating them with the training programmes they might have been deputed to for senior managers, they must act as disseminators and enablers of dissemination of new ideas for all levels, mentoring is very important.Not all managers can make effective mentors; and for those who have the aptitude, training programmes for mentorship can be useful. Ultimately, the role of the senior managers as trainers, coaches, and mentors is to enable the junior managers to learn effectively and help them in their self development.

Following the lead of Habbershon and Williams (1999), this paper uses the resource‐based view of firms to understand the strategic responses of nine family groups to the more liberalized environment in India's emerging economy. Using the concepts and empirical findings in the resource‐based view (RBV) stream of literature, this manuscript offers six hypotheses related to the restructure of business portfolios, structural changes within organizations, and the induction of professional family and nonfamily members. I also identify five emerging trends in the responses and use them to test the hypotheses. Data from published sources indicates a high degree of support for the hypotheses. The manuscript also shows how the resource‐based view of the firm provides an excellent theoretical framework for understanding and interpreting these responses and suggests directions for further research.