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Behavioral Lab

Established in 1949, XLRI School of Business Management and Human Resources, attracts some of the best talent from all over the country. It has established a niche for itself as a premier institution in the country, apart from being the oldest B-School in the country, and so perhaps a natural pioneer of sorts. XLRI broke new ground with the concept of a Marketing Research Fair as early as 1979 with MAXI Fair, and has been imitated widely in Colleges across India. That legacy of innovation lives on. Then it was MAXI Fair, now it is Behavioral labs.

Introduction

Increasingly these days, management researchers and marketers are challenging the accepted results of traditional research. These challenges, often fuelled by a keen intuition, can now form the basis of experiments that allow us to understand the processes of the consumer's and individual brain that even he or she is unaware of. XLRI is the first B-school in the country to set-up a Behavioral lab to understand individual and group behaviour.

The Behavioral Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory designed for the study of human subjects. A major resource of XLRI, the Lab is available for use by all XLRI faculty, Fellow researchers, and post graduate students. The interdisciplinary nature of the Lab means that it collaborates extensively with all the departments on the XLRI campus and, through collaborations with our faculty and students, works with outside research institutions to bring new insights in the field of management.

The lab is also in the process to collaborate with researchers and institutes of repute in the field and looks forward to establish itself as a one stop solution for all behavioral and neurological research in management sciences.

Facilities & Equipment
  • Group lab: An observation room with one way mirror, video camera and a seating capacity of 8-10 people. This room is ideal for running focus group interviews and conducting observation based experiments. The data captured through online camera can be analyzed by using various software.
  • Multi-Person lab: Cabins for capturing individual responses. These cabins are equipped with a 21 inch monitor, a PC and time response software (Direct RT).
  • Conference Room: A conference room equipped with LED screen can be used for debriefing the respondents or to conduct group exercises. This space can also be used for designing and conducting small experiments and has been provided with flexible furniture and partitions.
  • Video lab: A server room providing facilities to store, edit and analyze experimental data. The lab is equipped with Media Lab software.
  • Software: Lab also subscribes to Qualtrics, media lab software etc.
Research Subjects

The lab is determined to establish a panel of over 3000 people from different walks of life. XLRI, being a premier B-school, has students of varied profiles and backgrounds on campus. The students range from those fresh out of college to those with more than eight years of work experience. This combined with a mix of students from various parts of the country, with different backgrounds means that the behavioral labs have a very heterogeneous set of volunteers for the experiments. Thus provides scope for testing out youth oriented products and policies.

The Lab will also provide a sample from city population of Jamshedpur and rural population of East Singhbhum District. Jamshedpur is a cosmopolitan city with a population of over 14 lakh and has a literacy rate as high as 83%. Jamshedpur is home to several industrial units namely Tata Steel and Tata Motors. People working with these and many other companies come from different parts of the country and hence provides a heterogeneous sample (income, age, cultural background, education level etc.) to carry out experiments and controlled testing.

A researcher can use the services of the lab manager in selecting and finalizing ones sample depending upon the requirements of the experiment. If need be services can also be taken to recruit new respondents to meet one's requirement. The city has over 201,340 vehicles and 645 cooperative societies.

Past work in Behavioral Research

In the field of Marketing XLRI is most renowned for its Marketing Fair, 'the MAXI fair'. The concept, pioneered by XLRI, uses projective marketing techniques wherein consumers are observed and analyzed through the medium of games/activities and customer behavior is understood. Our experience in handling projective techniques for years enables us to now take to on bigger challenges and use advanced techniques from the world of behavioral and neurological architecture

XLRI has been the host of MAXI Mindscapes, India's first symposium on the application of Behavioral Research and Neuroscience in Marketing. Neuroscience is seen to play a revolutionary role in research and marketing in the future. When used in conjunction with established research techniques, neuroscience based research (brain-wave measurement, etc.) can add powerful new insights. The symposium was attended by doctors from AIIMS, neuroscience practitioners from Industry and Marketing Research agencies, cognitive neurologist from forensic science labs and marketing practitioners.

We've also had a series of guest lectures by experts in the field with an aim to introduce students to the field of Cognitive Neurology and Behavior Architecture.

Scope of work

The following is a non-exhaustive list of the research projects that we can take up. In case you wish for us to take up any other research project please contact us.

Consumer Behavior Studies

  • How consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives.
  • Contextual studies: How consumer is influenced by his or her environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media).
  • Shopping behavior: Individual behavior while shopping in a retail store.
  • Information processing: Consumer knowledge or information processing abilities and its influence on decisions.
  • Motivation studies: Consumer motivation and decision strategies.
  • Brand Choice behavior: Brand selection, impression formation etc.
  • Communication studies: Advertising effectiveness, message response, promotion response etc.
  • Product Studies: Effect and perception of packaging, Concept Testing, Comparative Evaluation and New Product Preferences
  • Pricing studies: Price Sensitivity, Price Evaluation, Price quality Relationship

Organizational Behavior Studies

  • Group behavior: Study of group dynamics, group decision making, communication, group problem solving and distributed tasks.
  • Leadership studies: Strategic behavior, team performance, leadership, power, and morality etc.
  • Individual behavior: Decision making, social justice, stereotyping, attitude formation and change, information processing etc.
    Economics
  • Behavioral economics: Studies psychological aspects that interfere with decision making. Experiments can be designed to study the evolution of rationality.
  • Finance
    • Behavioral finance
    • Investment Decisions
    • Risk studies
  • Human Resource Management
    • Negotiation studies: Risk perception studies in union-management negotiations, bargaining tactics etc.
    • Worker-employer relations studies
    • Work-place environmental studies
    • Power struggle studies
    • Conflict studies in industrial relations
Expansion Plans

The Lab in future plans to acquire few more equipment and software. Also plans to provide collaborative services for carrying out neurological research by tying up with local and national level neuro research centres and leading hospital chain in India. Some tie ups and contracts are already in process and will soon be communicated.

Researcher's profile

Chief Coordinator: D. Israel (Marketing Area)

Lab manager: To assist users in designing and executing the experiments. The Lab Manager will also assist you with profiling of respondents, execution and analysis as well. Dr. Tapas Ranjan Moharana is the present Lab Manager. You may contact him at

Contact:

Behavioral Lab
Phone: +91-657-3983160
Email:

Chief Co-ordinator
Phone: +91-657-3983153;
Email: