Problem and Literature Review

This document discusses the problem faced by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. in the A-segment market and provides a literature review on the subject. It explores the research objective, ethical issues, and limitations. The stakeholders, research question, and potential bias are also discussed.

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PROBLEM AND LITERATURE REVIEW

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PROBLEM AND LITERATURE REVIEW
Company Background Analysis:
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (MSIL) automotive manufacturing company, which
was formely known as Maruti Udyog Limited began its operation in 1983 with
a joint venture with the Indian Government (Singh & Salwan, 2015). MSIL
affected India’s automobile market industry proficiently from an economic
standpoint. The company made good progress from 2008 to 2013 as the
brand tried to establish an emotional connect with its message “India comes
home in a Maruti Suzuki”. However the aggressive competition that the
brand faced from Hyundai and Tata Motors in respect to their product design
strategy or product segmentation and marketing strategy brought greater
hardships for MSIL and demanded to strengthen its survival
Research Problem
With the presence of a large number of competitive dynamics in different
vehicle manufacturing companies, MSIL faced a greater competition to stay
relevant with its product particularly catering to the needs of A-segment
(hatch level) as the company witnessed a steady fall in the market share
pertaining particularly to this segment from 61% to a sharp fall of 49%. The
A-segment is considered very important as the growth of the vehicle industry
market in India is analyzed on this basis and where MSIL has always been a
leading name, this sudden downfall has made the company extremely
worried and the general manager of the product development sector lead to
an in-depth research and market analysis pertaining to this specific research
problem.

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Literature Review
A literature review is both a process and a product. One needs to search for
information about the related subject to familiarize oneself with the relevant
research results. This process also helps you to identify problems and gaps in
research. Remember that you identify the main authors and main arguments
relevant to your topic and do not want to read everything that has been
written on this topic in detail. (Christianson, 20018). To add more, as a well
completed writing a literature review describes the method and theory used
in the related research.
In the history of the modern vehicle corporation, Toyota’s march to the
top from its humble beginnings as a textile machinery manufacturer in the
mill town of Koromo is one of the most remarkable examples of market
power. (Stewart & Raman, 2007). The Japanese auto manufacturer closed
the gap little by little, improvement by improvement. In 1970 General Motors
had a 40% portion of the U.S. car and light-trucks market, whereas Toyota
had only a 2% sliver. Toyota's market share rose from 3% in 1980, to 13% in
2006 and General Motors experienced a fall of 26% from 40 %. Toyota's
ascension is best captured by the Japanese word Jojo: “slowly, gradually, and
steadily.” (Stewart & Raman, 2007) In some instance, MSIL sales were in a
critical situation at that time. It was necessary to start the production and its
redesign process forms the point it was already in progress. By hiring
consultants MSIL could initiate change strategy that aimed toward current

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market competitions by gathering significant data that provide a cautious
solution to the market power problem.
Following the change process, once MSIL’s production management
collected ideas and recommendations in a statistics base, it should bring
changes gradually while it watches the consumer behavior toward new
design (face-lifting, options, fuel economy, price, etc.) changes compared
with the market. On the other hand, MSIL could become more agile start
rethinking the design of competitive intelligence process, to focus on
building a strategic early warning capability, so it can not miss the big
picture (of it brand) (Gilad, 2015). By using market intelligence, MSIL should
match its upcoming designs with its hatch-level market to satisfy and keep
its customers. this way, MSIL can manage any unexpected risk of new
changes before harming the company. For this reason, the extent of
researcher interference study of action research is an appropriate
method. In this method relationship of researcher interference study in
which researcher tries to manipulate certain variable (change in design vs
change in consumer behavior or change in sell) to alter the "channel
push driven product to consumer pull driven product." (Sekaran & Bougie,
2019)
Stakeholders
MSIL is formerly known as Maruti Udyog Limited that started in 1983
when the government of India and the Suzuki motors established a joint

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venture companionship with public and financial institution interest. Thus,
the key stakeholders of the business were India government, financial
institutions (Banks, Credit Unions, and Loan Agencies), supply chain, the
employees working in it such as managers, supervisors, line staff, and most
important people who are the owners and shareholders. The primary
stakeholders were at the first step to be affected by the changes in the
market by consumers. Consumer behavior toward MSIL A-segment was one
of the major reasons that affected the decline. Some more elements and
factors should be considered including, environmental regulation, economic
changes, political changes, and government relations.
Research Objective and Question
Thus, a research objective to help stakeholders resolve the current
company sales issue is mandated. Hence, the objective of this research is “to
consider the redesign of A-segment (hatch level) cars with the
respect of current competition elements of the daily market”
including, price, dashboard options, and style. In this case, this analysis tries
to find “What essential factors should be considered for redesigning
of MSIL hatch level cars to help its stakeholders about bring the
brand back to the market top list?” and make it a customer pull product.
Ethical Issues and Theories:

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Consequently, the research objective to resolve the problem
necessitates research that is based on acceptable theories to satisfy MSIL’s
stakeholder for a change in production. And subsequently, the issue and
each research require a specific type of surveys such as interviewing and
observations.
Since India is a cultural and religious country it is crucial to observe the
regional tradition and religious regulation with conducting a research
questionnaire. People do not live their lives in isolation: they grow up within
particular moral traditions (Reiss, 1999) some people in east believe that
survey is spying and don’t like to attend or give honest answers. In other
instance, India recorded the highest number of road accidents in the world in
2013. One of the reason noticed about this record was due to poor decision
making of production management and engineering staff (Miranda, 2014)
The production designers had less background knowledge about “Ethical
Blindness” the phenomenon that refers to poor conscious and knowledge
about statistics that tells someone about an upcoming incidents but the
person does not take it seriously. To protect MSIL from this side, the MSIL
company needs to prepare a data-based issues history to address how and
why the incident happen? MSIL should prepare qualitative and quantitative
forms online and offline (in dealerships) that should gather data from
consumers regarding the design and sturdiness of the vehicles to comply
with traffic regulation. For a company that manufactures vehicles and has its
brand name in the market, it is vital to conduct an ethical and accurate

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business survey observing the ethics of research, Thus, the following
elements are important for MSIL research consideration regarding receive
honest feedback from surveys (Smyth, 2019).
A. Protecting the rights of the participant or subject.
B. Ensuring the sponsor receives ethically conducted and reported
research.
C. Following ethical standards when designing research.
D. Protecting the safety of the researcher and team.
E. Ensuring the research team follows the design.
Observing those mentioned factors shows professionalism and it helps
customers to feel respected and cared. In result, customers show interest to
give feedback, comments, and accurate recommendations they have for
MSIL in compare to other car companies.
Bias and limitation
In general bias and limitations exists in all researches that point to the
gaps and potential impacting factors that are missing in the research done.
Bias is defined as "concentration on or interest in one particular area or
subject” (Oxford, n.d.)
This being said, this research discusses the aspects affecting MSIL
market penetration from the power and leverage perspective about
competition with its competitors. By this mean, the research lacks the

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elements which affected the A-segment vehicle competition market that they
were not under companies' control, such as government regulation and
regional economics. Therefore, this research is based on the current data
noticed in the Harvard business publication. More importantly, the research
deficits the details which MSIL was holding them as its competition quality
standard dynamics, that helped MSIL to keep itself on the top of the list
before its sale decline.
Other Research Study
Similar case can be analyzed in the lieu of understanding the potential
crisis that other business firms have faced pertaining to the field of product
development. A researched named "God Is In The Detail” points out to the
prolonged unrest of employees in mid-2000s. The issue which led to an
estimated loss of around $475 million and in the same time Maruti's Share of
the passenger car market jumped to 38 % a far cry from the vertigo-inducing
of 55.5 % in 2000. Also, the net profit of after-tax dropped down to 5.4 % in
July-September of 2012. Another key point, the labor revolution happened
right in the middle of diesel engine vehicles that caused a rise of 22 % in
2011. And it was the time MSIL had no capacity for diesel engines, the only
plant MSIL producing diesel engine was in Manesar that was producing
200,000 engines while it had 100,000 diesel vehicles in its waiting list.
(Sinha, 2014). The company was way behind from the consumer demand
standpoint.

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Fiat Multipla
Fiat type 186 was a compact Italian vehicle car from 1998 to 2010. Which
had double row seating design, where its competitors had two front rows
with the almost same design. Its exterior and interior design were displayed
at the Museum of Modern Arts in New York in 1999 (wikipedia, 2019) and
then in 2000, this design got the Top Gear Magazine's Ugliest award. Though
the sell was good in Italy but elsewhere it was less successful due to its
design which led to sarcastic sneers and derisive laughter of their neighbors.
Later on, the later on June 2004 the Mutlipla underwent a major facelift to
shed its original style for a more restrained look. The facelift was under the
intention of attracting more buyers, which made it arrive at critical acclaim
(wikipedia, 2019). Using the above method (face-lifting) is another
appropriate resolution for MSIL A-segment to address its design issue. To add
more, MSIL can bring changes int its seats, as Fiat had the option of moving
seats, removing the seat, minimizing the armrest to get more room.
According to current-needs, the Fiat Multipla offered a more or less generous
load platform (Nizza, 1998).

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Reference
Christianson, L. (20018, Sep 17). AZHIN: Writing: Literature Reviews for
Culminating Project: Purpose. Retrieved from azhin.org:
https://azhin.org/cummings/litreview
Gilad, B. (2015, May 2018). Competitive Intelligence Shouldn’t Just Be About
Your Competitors. Retrieved from hbr.org:
https://hbr.org/2015/05/competitive-intelligence-shouldnt-just-be-
about-your-competitors
Miranda, L. (2014, Nov 25). Is the Indian Auto Industry Ethically Blind?
Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbesindia.com/blog/accidental-
investor/is-the-indian-auto-industry-ethically-blind/
Mukherjee, J., Mathur, G., & Dhar, N. (2015). MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA:
DEFENDING MARKET LEADERSHIP IN THE A-SEGMENT. IVEY.
Nizza. (1998). Interior. Fiat Multipla the car of tomorrow, 71.
Oxford. (n.d.). Definition of bias in English. Retrieved from lexico.com:
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/bias
Reiss, M. (1999). How We Reach Ethical Conclusions. Retrieved from
www.nuffieldfoundation.org: www.nuffieldfoundation.org › files › files ›
snab-cpd4-ethics-by-mr-9617
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2019). Research Methods For Business: A Skill
Building Approach. Wiley.

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Singh, N., & Salwan, P. (2015). Contribution of Parent Company in Growth of
its Subsidiary in Emerging Markets: Case Study of Maruti Suzuki.
Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 28.
Sinha, S. (2014, Feb 02). God Is In The Detail. Retrieved from
businesstoday.in: https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/cover-
story/maruti-suzuki-on-recovery-route-after-2012-labour-troubles/
story/202165.html
Smyth, D. (2019, June 13). What Are Ethical Considerations in Business
Research? Retrieved from www.bizfluent.com:
https://bizfluent.com/info-7861005-ethical-considerations-business-
research.html
Stewart, T., & Raman, A. P. (2007, August). Lessons from Toyota’s Long
Drive. Retrieved from hbr.org: https://hbr.org/2007/07/lessons-from-
toyotas-long-drive
wikipedia. (2019, May 21). Fiat Multipla. Retrieved from wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Multipla#Design