Good day, Dr Ansab K V. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Yes.

Hello.

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

Uh, well, uh, I was recently working as a postdoctoral researcher in, uh, NTNU is a Norwegian government university.

And I was like working in Norway for the like of the for the past two years. And before that I I had my PhD from NIT Karnataka, Suratkal. It was in the domain of marketing and.

And then before that I was I did my MBA in marketing and managers management through Calcutta University Department of Commerce and Management cities. I was in campus student of University of Calicut and I did my B.Tech in electronics and communication engineering as the.

I think as as my undergraduate tweet and I, I do have academic experiences and professional experiences like I, I was able to, I was able to work and collaborate with companies like PepsiCo.

Uh, PepsiCo, DDB, Mudra and so on and Suzuki next as well. And then regarding my professional experience, these are regarding my professional experiences so far. And I was able to take classes for students of an IT sort of classes, so yeah.

Thanks for sharing that!

Professor, let us dive into evaluating your competencies for this role. I’ll be systematically assessing your expertise across specific skills. Please try to be as precise and clear as possible. Starting with Marketing Analytics: Can you explain how you would use tools like SPSS and R to analyze consumer trends? Specifically, can you provide an example of when you’ve done this in your research or work?

We could use the SPSS for for for data cleaning for data.

Yeah, for for like right from the data collection, from the data that you know that arrangement and right from the data cleaning and and actually.

Correcting errors in the data and input like correcting the missing values and like working with the missing values. This is the first thing that we can do with the data and then we can use various tools, various things like regression analysis or and various other.

Other thing in that basically I, I, I, I myself did did do my PhD level work and some of my positive level work using SPSS. We we, we were actually.

Driving to you with some regression analysis, some, some some combatants of mean values of of of of this, this of the of the various groups of customers in our in our data. And we can do various things like that. So basically what we can potentially do is right from data planning to probably regression analysis wherein we can actually see what are the most important factors that influences a decision to something like group comparison.

To some extent and, and, and this is some of the things that we can actually do. There are more, but those are the most basic thing that I posted myself and that's what I just shared. Now, again, I, I know about further steps, but I, I just want to include it to what I personally used first hand.

Yeah.

Thank

I can just explain this with an example like I was working as a relationship manager in Suzuki Nexa where we were, we were made, we were made responsible or we were responsible for the satisfaction of the customers. And we are the friend, friend handling. We are the, we are the front end of to the customers. So we will be dealing with the customer and we will be the face of the company. So operations should go hand in. So the we have we will practically using a lot of. Lot of lot of lot of service operations concepts.

Understood, Professor. Now, let’s move to Services Operations Management. Considering your experience, how do you apply concepts of operations management to improve customer experience, particularly as aligned with your past roles or research?

And we were trying to actually avoid bottlenecks right from the right, from the right from the order, right from the moment when a customer order for a car to to its delivery and post, post, post purchase or post delivery experiences till then for a for a couple of weeks after that as well. So right from the right from the delivery, right from the order.

Right from the ordering of it to the delivery and post delivery, these are the places where we, we, I were, I was able to do service office service, relate service operational concepts in my personal life and we were able to increase the satisfaction of customers by almost like 20 percentage. And that's what we have achieved in in one year of terms where where I walked to the viewer, everything is like satisfactory service by 20 percentage.

We were, we were actually trying to, uh, make sure that customer actually order, uh, actually actually order the order or customer actually were aware of the available stock that is available, available with us at a particular time point of time and they're actually ordering it so that there is no further delay here. The here we are actually, we have actually implemented the inventory management of inventory control. The then after that we during the survey, during the delivery or during the post. During the delivery time or in the processes till then, we were trying to actually. Collaborate and coordinate with various various.

Various units within within the company within the within Suzuki in Excel to actually make sure that customer really do get it in with get it on time and without any delay.

So this is one of the places where I was able to use service operations first hand in my personal life, which actually is relevant to this current role of marketing and service operations faculty.

Thank you, Professor. Let's proceed to Teaching Theory and Laboratory Courses. Could you walk me through how you structure a typical lecture to ensure both theoretical understanding and practical application for students?

Right, then we can start before, before, before teaching a particular concepts in in this, this, this which actually involves both the area and practical. The first thing that I will try to do is to explain the conceptual things behind conceptual, theoretical things behind that. Then I will make sure that the next most first, the next most important thing that I'll be trying to do is to actually tell them why this particular concept is important, why it is being used or where it is being used.

Uh, have it replaced any previous methods or any previous algorithms before it so that that it becomes more relevant or more contextual to the in their, uh, programming or in their, uh, and end their technical, uh, knowledge for this relapse students. OK, so first thing is to actually teach them the concepts related with it. And then I will tell them the practical applications of it, especially where it will be used and have it replaced any previous, uh, any previous. Algorithms or any previous methods?

And then we will then I'll try to go on to the hands on laboratory or hands on coding or laboratory laboratory hands-on step. And this actually is a very good part because they will be actually interested into implementing what is actually being what is actually more relevant and practical to the to the industry or to the potential role that they will they are interested or potential. Applications of this particular.

Concept that they are learning in the long run. So yeah. So that is the method that I'll try to follow first. First the teach the concepts, tell them why it is important, then how it is important or where it is being applied. Then I'll then I'll give them a hands on laboratory or coding or practical experience or practical class to them.

And we'll be open to asking doubts by students. So clarifying doubts is also really important once we start, once they start doing their work, hands on themselves.

Yeah.

One of the things that I personally was doing is like, I, I do the blind tribute, like I, I don't read the name of the students. But this is a very basic thing that I tried to do because like I, I do, I did actually. And I, I actually do actually. So it's as simple as, like I, I don't look at the name of the students at the first before sending the violation of any assignment or answer sheet, I will try to evaluate it according to the criteria. So according to the desired. Desired.

Understood, Professor. Moving on to Student Evaluation and Exam Duties: How do you ensure fairness and objectivity when grading student work, especially for subjective assignments?

The content that I, I expect from that particular assignment or exam answer, and I'll do it based on the criteria or based on the based on what is actually required and or then, then again. Then next I'll try to look at whether, if at all, any answers are not like if it are any answers are outside the things outside the criterias or outside the, the, the contents that I have mentioned, as I have mentioned as expected answer in the in the answer sheet. Then I'll try to see whether this is relevant to the question.

Features or desired desired.

And was asked whether this is relevant to the assignment that they're trying to solve and if at all is that I'll try to include their point of view in that or their content, their extra added content or extra point of view as well. I'll try to include that as well. But but overall, I can say that one of them is one of the things that is actually efficient could be blind review. Like we don't look at the name of the student at the first. We just do it how it should be analyzed, how should it how how it should be evaluated Then at last. Only by giving the mark I get to. I will look at the name also because name also doesn't make any difference.

How are you added to it? So that is something that I follow to to use fairness. And the second thing is to actually let them ask for the feedback or second thing is like openness for them to ask why their marks were reduced or why there's a second they can ask for the feedback. They can ask why their marks was reduced or how how it was evaluated. We are open to that kind of stuff because we are very transparent in evaluating. So as I can. So we should be open to their to their feedback like to to the questions.

So that's the second thing that we can really ensure to make fairness.

Thank

Thank you, Professor. Now let us delve into guiding student projects and research. How do you mentor students to ensure they stay analytically rigorous while also fostering their creative or original contributions?

I'll try to make sure that at least all right, at least I'll ask them to do some some topics or some projects which is actually relevant or which is actually.

Uh, existing and the, in the current industry or current practical scenario, like I'll, I will ask, I will try them to, like I will, I will, I will motivate them to actually do some projects or some practical, as I, as I told you, now, practical concept that is actually relevant to their subjects, relevant to their potential role that they will be trying to do in the, in the, in the industry.

Or in their career and, and that's the first thing that I'll try to do is relevance and.

And the, the, yeah, the relevance and how much recent that the concept is that they're trying to work on, is it outdated? Like whatever they are trying to do, this is the first thing. And another thing is to actually give them the motivation and giving them, giving them the courage and support.

They feel very motivated and relaxed to to continue pursue whichever complex idea that they want to actually try, try out. We should make them like at ease and we should, we should, we should, we should try to make them comfortable and confident and they should feel that my professor is there with me. He will try, he will actually help me or support me or he will actually guide me better. I require anything or he won't blame me unnecessarily and he will support me. And this confidence should be given to students.

So then they, they are trying, they, they, they feel very secure and they feel very.

This will help them to actually.

I don't limit my students topic selection myself. I don't actually limit it. If I don't require, I will try to learn what is required for their project to actually guide them or motivate them.

This will actually help them to choose good topics. I I personally have given that freedom to my students and.

Or to guide them or to give confidence to them that I am a good guide for them. So that's the thing like we should, we should be giving, we should make sure that it is relevant and not updated the topics or the things that they're trying to do students. And second thing is we should give them courage or motivation or they should feel that we will support them irrespective of their outcome or irrespective of what will come in the way. Third thing is we should get our some updated in order to make sure that we actually catch up with.

The latest trend and we we should we are actually catching up with the current.

Uh, stop. These actions might be coming up with.

Yeah, this is one of the things that I used to follow and I still follow.

Understood, Professor. Next is good communication and structured teaching approach. Could you describe how you communicate complex topics in a structured manner to ensure clarity for students of varying levels of understanding?

The first thing is I'll try to say the basic. I'll try to introduce the basic idea of the concept or topic that I'm trying to tease them. This is the first thing. And then I'll try to actually say where it is being implemented, where it is, where is the practical application of it. So this actually link the basic idea that I have already told them with something practical or something that they can actually visualize in their mind or visualize themselves. And this is.

Worries it used and then third thing I'll try to do is why is it important? This is the third thing then I'll try this is the third three things that we need to do first. First thing is to to tell the basic idea, the most basic idea. We should actually say the basic idea behind the Congress idea, what it is about or what is it basically Second thing is what is being used currently. Third thing is.

Yeah, third thing is basically why is it important? And then comes the 4th 1 wherein we actually tried to.

Uh, we try, we actually try to make this complex idea into various sub concepts or in the similar, uh, labels language. Then we will try to explain them in a very in, in, in, in the page that is required. Not too fast. So, so let so they will understand the complex idea behind that. So practical oriented knowledge or practical oriented wisdom or the practical application behind this complex or where is it actually currently? Where is, where can I find actually this concept somewhere in the current?

For the practical scenario, in the real life scenario, so and then we will try to explain the concept that actually brings the, brings the.

Concept to a much, much, much, much.

And so, yeah, this is the thing that we are trying to do while they're teaching complex concept.

Much comprehensive or much easier to understand.

And we will be open to feedbacks or questions from their side so that it is real time. We'll ensure that they are actually getting what we're seeing. This is also very important real time feedback from them.

And yeah, that's how we do with the complex topics.

Understood, Professor. Now focusing on your PhD specialization: Could you briefly outline the central theme of your thesis and highlight its contribution to the field of Business Management?

I was trying to actually.

At the time when I was doing PhD, electric vehicle adoption was very less in India. Particularly I did my PhD on the consumer adoption of electric 4 Wheelers. The market share during that time was less than 0.01 percentage or something. So that was very less. So my topic was to.

Analyze.

The consumer the the factors that influences the factors that influence consumer adoption of electric formulas in India. So that was actually a very much practically required research at that time because most of the companies were focusing more on 2 Wheelers and the two Wheeler market share was steadily increasing while the four Wheeler electric electric car market was almost stagnant. So this had.

Practical research importance in the 1st place so that is the first contribution like I tried to analyze what actually could increase the consumer acceptance and adoptions of electric 4 Wheelers. This is the first research contribution that I gave out and the second thing is I was able to.

Look into this. Look into various construct in a deeper in a in a deeper way. Say for example.

You, for example, perceived risk associated with electric vehicles.

Perceived risk associated with buying or using electric vehicle was a construct that was actually used in an abstract, in an abstract or in a very holistic and in a very abstract level, in a very top level, in a very, very, very, very, very, very, very.

Very, very, very, very in a very surface level. So what I tried to do was to actually go into the dimensions of pursuit risk and I was able to get into which particular perceived risk or dimension is imported in.

Or inferencing consumers, uh, purchase district. So this is like I have delve in deeper. I have delve deeper into various constructs that is, that was less, less researched or that was not researched enough in the, in the consumer behavior research, especially in the context of technology, innovative technology adoptions and especially in the case of my particular product category, health electric formulas. And I found out that psychosocial risk was the most important.

Actor MN the cycle MN the perceived risk dimensions. So that actually tells, uh, that, uh, that how can how people perceive this, uh, product like they were actually, they were actually afraid of losing their self-image or their, their image in front of their friends or in front of their society if they buy electric vehicles. So this is actually some of this was actually like a very interesting both in terms of theoretical and.

Both in terms of practical, you know private industry level research. So these are second thing like I I doubt your deeper into some of the construct that actually gave me more idea on how it is.

And third thing is this research actually gave not only to that particular context of electric vehicles, this actually contributed also to the technology adoption of innovations in Indian context. A lot of green innovations or sustainable technologies are being resisted by people or people had a resistance to it. And so my my current research in DHD level actually contributed in reducing that also and contributed research in that domain.

Sorry, sustainable technology adoption among Indians or among emerging nations. This is another conduction that I had. And it was an exciting and interesting project. And it was based on this project, I was able to get out of this particular PhD domain topic. I was able to go to Norway, which was like in TNU, which was a prestigious organization in Europe, like with 267 QAS ranking or something. So, yeah. So this Bhd actually helped both in my personal life as well as my research contribution context as well. Yeah.

Yeah, my most of my.

Professor, could you summarize the focus of your most recent or impactful research publication and its key findings?

Yeah, actually my most recent publications was mostly in, in, mostly in, but not only it's, it's, it's in consumer behavior and it's in the marketing domain. And I will mention some of the interesting findings in one of some of my recent papers. One was that.

I found out that anticipated guilt like anticipated guilt.

Is to be considered as a mediator.

In the theory of planned behavior model.

Uh, instead of a separate.

Independent variable we have to actually consider anticipated git our consumer emotions as an idiot in in in consumers adoption of or or or in how factors influences consumer option of eco friendly products. So the first paper that I want to emphasize is was on consumer emotions and particularly on anticipated guilt in.

Because you listen. And so another paper that I did was financial incentives. I found out that financial incentives were.

The most critical and most deciding and most important factor that influenced consumers adoption of electric 4 Wheelers compared to the other factors or compared to non financial incentives, consumers give more emphasis to the financial incentives. And so my second another recent paper that I had was also was also on consumer behavior. It was on consumers how financial incentives.

Consumers adoption or consumers acceptance or consumers purchase of electric vehicles. So this this almost every research that I have I have done so far was in the domain of marketing, marketing analytics, consumer behavior and so on. So, yeah, so I think this actually make me more closer to this particular role that I'm into giving interview for because this is actually a very, very relevant posture for considering my research experience as well or my recent process. Yeah.

Play a role in.

Thank you, Professor. Now, moving on to your experience in industry projects or consultancy: Could you share an example of a specific industry project you were involved in and the tangible outcomes it achieved?

Yeah, I was. I worked for both PepsiCo.

And also for DDD mudra I did 2 projects for industries 1 was.

Uh, our one was analyzing, uh, on for PepsiCo, I analyzed how the satisfaction of satisfaction or retention of employees can be increased and what are the various factors that actually increases the turnover in or, or the, or the, or the resignation of people in, in the organization. That was super simple, but I would give more emphasis on my second project, which was on, which was for DDB Mudra, which is one of the biggest.

And raising agencies in the world. So for that DB Mudra, I was actually doing a project for one of the client which was a footwear manufacturing company, one of the prominent footwear manufacturing companies. And we were trying to actually.

Plan and and and execute Execute a marketing strategy or marketing plan on how they can launch their new foodware, particularly for end consumers.

So I was first hand involved in the research and how and the marketing communications.

Of this particular project were in this again I'll repeat, the project the project was on was was devising and and executing a marketing strategy.

And the marketing communication strategy for, for a, for a client of DDD Mudra, which was a footwear brand. So the, so again, I'm saying that the footwear was trying to, they, they actually had a very big consumer base in the, in the about 25, about 20 categories. But they were, they had a very less category of or very less number of consumers and less than 28 to 25 in consumers. So they were trying to launch a new product, new product category for them. So I was actually part of the project that actually handled.

And it was to us for the company, yeah. So that is one of the two projects that I did for industry or big, big companies, yeah.

Thank you, Professor. Let's move to the final skill: guiding research publications in reputed journals. How would you mentor students in selecting journals for publishing their work and ensuring it meets rigorous academic standards?

Definitely it has to the first and foremost thing that we will, we will try, we will ask, we will ask our students these to check whether the the journal is indexed in Scoopers or Web of Science. And then I will ask them to see the, the, the quarter, the quartile or the OR the category in which this parallelism. I will, I will motivate them to publish more in Q1 Scoopers journals and in highly ranked journals.

Of Wos Web of Science and then definitely ABDC a star a category journals will be given should be should be given more emphasis on. So I will first of all educate my students about this rankings or this indexing of journals and I'll try I'll tell them to target high quality journals and this actually makes the process or the first step.

The easiest actually they can try and that's the first thing. Second thing I'll try to do is to actually ask them to use journal suggestions, journal finders and put in their abstract or their papers to it online and then they can get feedback or on or or they can get their potential list of journals.

That's the second thing like, but then again, it should be, it should be made sure that this actually, this journalist actually is listed in the top quality scoopers or process or ABDC indexes.

Secondly, third thing is I would I would tell them to actually make sure there is theoretical and or and or methodological contribution. That is clear theoretical methodological contributions or industry relevance of industry related contribution is the I've asked them to make sure that the paper first of all, do the research or do the experiments that really matters either in the context in the in the in the in terms of conceptual contribution or.

Probably a methodological contribution or auto work like there should be relevant. There should be very strong rigorous research at the 1st place or strong rigorous methodology and strong rigorous research in the 1st place. And then you go to focusing targeting on top class journal indexing, good scoopers and good, good databases like Scoopers or as I mentioned already BDC, etcetera. Yeah.

Practical significance or.

Thank you, Professor, for sharing your thoughts. Let's delve into your teaching philosophy: Which specific marketing concept or model do you find the most rewarding to teach at the introductory level, and why?

I would say for the marketing domain, I did see 222 concepts very relevant and very much comprehensive to be taught to students. They are four days in marketing, four piece stands for product, price, place and promotion. And this is the most basic concept that we should, one of the most basic concept that we should teach them and the second concept that is really important to be taught is segmentation, targeting and position. If you are teaching these two concepts well for the students.

That actually covers the most part or it is actually an umbrella were in every other, most of the other concepts in marketing comes in. So these are the two basic concepts namely STP segmentation, targeting and positioning at the 1st and 2nd 4 is product price promotion.

So these are the two concepts then I will try to teach. This will teach my students at the first basic level.