BRIEF PROFILE

I am a final year doctoral student in the Strategy area at the Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli (IIM Trichy). While my doctoral dissertation centres on the performance of business group organizations, I also engage in studying psychological drivers of strategic choices in firms.

Broadly, my dissertation aims to explore “whether the strategies of business group affiliate firms differ from those of non-affiliated firms, and if so, whether these distinctive strategies affect the relationship between business group affiliation and financial performance”.

I am good at quantitative research method. My research works have been presented / accepted in prestigious conferences organized by Strategic Management Society (SMS) and Academy of Management (AOM).

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My primary research interest is on Business Groups and Competitive Strategy. Borrowing from Competitive Dynamics literature, I adopt a fine-grained approach to examine competitive strategy (as competitive actions) of business group affiliate firms and non-affiliated firms. In specific, I do content analysis of news items about Indian firms’ business activities to identify their competitive actions and then analyse their competitive repertoire (i.e., entire range of competitive actions taken by firms in a focal period) and ask:

1. Does competitive repertoire of affiliate firms differ from that of standalone firms? How does this difference, if any, affect the relationship between business group affiliation and firm performance? (Business group firms Vs Standalone firms)
2. Does heterogeneity exist in competitive repertoire of affiliate firms belonging to different business groups? (Heterogeneity among Business groups)
3. Does heterogeneity exist in competitive repertoire of affiliate firms belonging to same business group? (Heterogeneity within a Business group)

Other interest is on understanding the role of emotions in strategic decision making. For example, I explore the role of CEO’s regret on the higher premiums paid during acquisitions of firms.

RESEARCH OUTPUT

Major conference attended/accepted for presentation

Arun Kumar, T. V., and Manikandan, K.S., ‘Business Group Affiliation and Firm Performance: The Role of Competitive Actions’. A proposal paper presented in Strategic Management Society Special Conference (SMS 2018) at Hyderabad, India.

Arun Kumar, T. V., and Kumaravel, S., ‘It’s also about Regret: CEO's Emotion and Large Premiums Paid in Acquisitions of Firms’. A proposal paper accepted for presentation in Strategic Management Society Special Conference (SMS 2019) at Las Vegas, United States of America.

Arun Kumar, T. V., and Manikandan, K.S., ‘Business Group Affiliation and Firm Performance: The Mediating Role of Competitive Repertoire Volume’. An empirical paper accepted for presentation in the 79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2019) at Boston, Massachusetts.

Arun Kumar, T. V., Kumaravel, S., and Rupesh Sharma, ‘Do CEOs Regret? The Role of Emotion in Large Premium Paid in Acquisition of Firms’. A proposal paper accepted for presentation in Strategic Management Society Annual Conference (SMS 2019) at Minneapolis.

Arun Kumar, T. V., and Manikandan, K.S., ‘Complex and Strategic Competitive Actions: The Missing Link between Business Group Affiliation and Firm Performance’. A proposal paper accepted for presentation in Strategic Management Society Annual Conference (SMS 2019) at Minneapolis.

Arun Kumar, T. V., and Kumaravel, S., ‘Internationalization as Competitive Actions: How Business Groups influence Firm Performance’. An empirical paper presented in Indian Academy of Management (INDAM 2020) at Trichy, India.

Arun Kumar, T. V., ‘How does CEO’s Emotion Matter? Theorizing the Role of Regret on Premium Paid in Firm’s Acquisitions’. A conceptual paper presented in Indian Academy of Management (INDAM 2020) at Trichy, India.

Arun Kumar, T. V., ‘Business Group Affiliation, Internationalization Action Intensity and Performance’. A proposal paper accepted for presentation in Competitive Dynamics Conference 2020 at Helsinki, Finland.

Arun Kumar, T. V., and Manikandan, K.S., ‘Business Group Affiliation and Firm Strategy: A Competitive Repertoire Perspective’. An empirical paper accepted for presentation in the 80th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2020) at Vancouver, Canada.

Major workshops attended/accepted for participation

Business Groups and Governance in Emerging Markets Workshop (2017) held at Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M), India. – Attended

Workshop on Advance Panel Data and Time Series Models using STATA (2018) held at Madras School of Economics (MSE), Chennai, India. – Attended

Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) Paper Development Workshop (2018) held at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B), India. A conceptual paper titled: ‘Business groups and competitive dynamics’. – Attended

Academy of International Business (AIB) Paper Development Workshop (2018) held at ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad, India. A proposal paper titled: ‘Business Group Affiliation, International Actions and Firm Performance: A Competitive Repertoire Perspective’. – Attended

Academy of Management (AOM) Strategic Management Division (STR) Dissertation Consortia (2019) at Boston, Massachusetts. An empirical paper titled: ‘Business Group Affiliation and Firm Performance: The Mediating Role of Competitive Repertoire Volume’. – Accepted for participation

Academy of Management (AOM) - International Management Division - Paper Development Workshop (2019) at Boston, Massachusetts. An empirical paper titled: ‘Business Group Affiliation and Firm Performance: The Indirect Effect of Internationalization Actions’. – Accepted for participation

Academy of Management (AOM) - Psychological Perspectives on Strategy - Paper Development Workshop (2019) at Boston, Massachusetts. An empirical paper titled: ‘Do CEOs Regret? The Role of Emotion in Large Premium Paid in Acquisition of Firms’. – Accepted for participation

 

EDUCATION

2015-2020

            Fellow Program in Management (FPM - Equivalent to Ph.D.) from Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

2012-2015

            Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM - Equivalent to MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

2006-2007

            Post Graduate Certification in Business Management from XLRI - Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, India

2001-2004

            Under Graduation - Bachelor of Engineering (B.E - Industrial Engineering) from College of Engineering Guindy (CEG), Anna University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

1991–1995

             Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (D.M.E) from Larsen & Toubro Institute of Technology (L&T IT), Mumbai, India

TEACHING / TRAINING EXPERIENCE

• Teaching Assistant for 'Strategic Leadership' course, an elective course under strategy area for the MBA program of IIM Trichy), September 2018- November 2018

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

1996-2013

At Larsen & Toubro Ltd.: Approx. 17 years of industrial experience, worked as Engineering Manager for Design and Development of Bulk Material Handling Systems for Power, Steel, Mining, and Port Sectors.

I was also a department trainer and mentor for engineering trainees on system design & execution and Quality Management System implementation.

 ACADEMIC SERVICE

Conference Volunteer and Conference paper reviewer for:

Indian Subcontinent Decision Sciences Institute (ISDSI-2017)

Strategic Management Forum (SMF-2018)

Indian Academy of Management (INDAM-2020)
 

Honours, awards, and distinctions:

First rank and second rank in 1st and 2nd Year of Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, respectively

First class with distinction in Bachelor of Engineering

SKILLSET

Research Methods: Primarily quantitative research. I am also exposed to qualitative research methods. 

Research Tools: Stata, SPSS

PROFESSIONAL MEMBSERSHIP (in alphabetical order)

Academy of International Business (AIB)

Academy of Management (AOM)

Strategic Management Society (SMS)