FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Raja Kali, assistant professor of economics in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, has received a $25,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant will be used to study and understand the evolution of industrial organization and institutional context using India’s attempts to transition toward a more market-oriented economy over the last decade as a laboratory.

Kali, the principal investigator, will collaborate with Jayati Sarkar from the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research (IGIDR) in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The grant will fund travel and board back and forth for two years for Kali, Sarkar and their graduate students.

"We are very pleased that this NSF grant will allow Dr. Kali to work with a researcher from one of the top research institutes in India and that it involves graduate students from both countries," said Walton College Dean Doyle Z. Williams. "As businesses become more global, we look for opportunities for our students and faculty to connect with researchers around the world to study emerging business issues."

According to Kali, "There is an increased focus on the organizational landscape of many emerging and transition economies. These economies are rife with forms, such as business groups and business networks, which are difficult to classify in standard ways as either firms or markets. The objective of this research project is to provide insight into these issues by turning attention to the evolution of business groups in the institutional context of emerging economies."

He added, "Business groups dominate private-sector industrial activity in economies such as Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan. These hybrid forms of organization occupy the middle-ground between firms and markets. We plan to examine how the scale, scope and integration versus outsourcing of these organizations has evolved as the competitive landscape has changed. This research will enhance our understanding of the organizational architecture of firms and their "fit" to different competitive environments."

The study is titled "Organizational Architecture and Institutional Context: An Investigation Using Indian Business Groups." The research will strengthen networks for further U.S.-India bi-national scientific collaboration and will play an important role in human capital development and training on both sides.

Kali joined the Walton College in 1999. He received the Associated Student Government Alumni Board Award for the University-wide Outstanding Teacher in 2002. He holds a BSC in economics, mathematics and statistics from the University of Calcutta, an MA in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, and an MA and a PhD in economics from the University of Maryland at College Park. He teaches economics of management and strategy, managerial economics, and industrial organization. His research interests include industrial organization, law and economics, economic development, contract theory and game theory. Kali has been invited to participate in economic conferences in China, Japan, Thailand, France, Mexico, England, and Argentina. He has published articles in the Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Economics of Transition, Journal of International Business Studies and the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy.