Title: Qualitative factors as a determinant of firm location: a case study of paddy processing industry in northern India

Authors: Tejinder Sharma; Suresh Kumar Turka; Vivek S. Natarajan

Addresses: Department of Commerce, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra 136119, India ' SA Jain Institute of Management and Technology, Ambala City, Haryana 134003, India ' Department of Management and Marketing, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, USA

Abstract: The most logical determinant of manufacturing location in paddy processing industry is in close proximity to the raw material. Northern India is the rice bowl of the country, and the basmati varieties are famous throughout the world. There is a concentration of the paddy processing units in few clusters developed in selected towns, defying the econometric paradigm of location. However, the entrepreneurs' subjectivity, emerging as the qualitative factors, seems to play a greater role in selecting the manufacturer location. This paper investigates the qualitative determinants of manufacturing location of paddy processing units. It is found that the entrepreneurs consider the variable costs, input availability, raw material competition and micro-environment of site as the important influencers of the location of a paddy processing unit.

Keywords: firm location; paddy processing; rice milling; qualitative factors; logical determinants; manufacturing locations; raw materials; basmati rice; paddy fields; econometric paradigms; entrepreneurs; subjectivity; location selection; processing units; variable costs; input availability; material competition; micro-environments; influencers; Haryana; agriculture; farmers; farming; India; Indian culture; business management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2012.045640

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2012 Vol.5 No.2, pp.111 - 131

Published online: 20 Dec 2014 *

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