The Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS) Nuffield - FLAME University is pleased to welcome Dr. Aniruddha Pangarkar(PhD, Texas Tech University, MBA, Thunderbird School of Global Management), Assistant Professor of Strategic Marketing at MICA. Dr. Pangarkar  will be giving a talk titled "The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Culture in Securing Frontline Service Employee Support during a Product-Harm Crisis."

Abstract

Firms are vulnerable to the effects of product harm-crises which can impact their brand image, reputation, and credibility. This empirical paper looks at antecedents and factors that can lead to frontline service employee support when firms are faced with a product-harm crisis. Social exchange theory, with its focus on reciprocal exchanges, is used to enlighten how firms can provide employees with conducive working conditions, empowerment, job support, and task-variety, and in turn employees reciprocate through demonstrating unanimity and unflinching support during difficult situations. Through data collected from 332 frontline service employees, it is found that job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior fully mediate the link between perceived organizational support and employee support during a product-harm crisis. Additionally, it is found that employee association with substantive corporate social responsibility policies leads to greater support during a product-harm crisis. Implications for researchers and practitioners that will enable organizations to identify loyal employees, reduce work ambiguity in their work environments resulting in lower turnover, and focus on the type of cause-related initiatives to implement, are presented.

Bio

Dr. Aniruddha Pangarkar (PhD, Texas Tech University, MBA, Thunderbird School of Global Management) is a Marketing scholar, whose scope of research transcends areas such as the effects of a product-harm crisis on frontline service employees, the factors that contribute to consumers purchasing luxury goods in emerging markets thereby engaging in conspicuous consumption, and the effects of cultural distance on market entry strategies of firms.

Dr. Pangarkar’s research has been presented at the top conferences in the world such as American Marketing Association’s (AMA) Summer and Winter conferences, Society for Marketing Advances (SMA), and the prestigious Academy of International Business (AIB) Emerging Markets conference held in Boston in 2017. He is among the very few research scholars who has presented a paper each year at the AMA Summer and Winter conferences during his PhD studies. Dr. Pangarkar has extensive teaching experience and has taught classes such as Introduction to Marketing, International Marketing, and Services Marketing to students in the United States and secured excellent teaching evaluations and ratings in these. Many of his students are working in Fortune 500 companies all over the world.

Prior to starting his PhD, Dr. Pangarkar worked for 15 years in the United States, UK and India in the areas of project management, consulting, market research, and strategic planning, Dr. Pangarkar’s global work experience has all been in senior leadership roles for Fortune 500 companies such as Avaya, Credit Suisse, and Bank of New York Mellon in the US, UK, and India. Dr. Pangarkar also has a full-time MBA degree from Thunderbird School of Global Management in AZ, USA, ranked #1 for International Business worldwide. Dr. Pangarkar has traveled to 18 different countries and has lived and worked in 3 different continents- Asia, Europe, and North America. Dr. Pangarkar considers himself a truly global citizen and looks forward to developing young leaders and top research scholars.