The Implicit Impact on Retail Management Education /Research in India Owing to Favoritism in the Recruitment of Faculty Members at IIMs, IITs, NITs, IIITs, IISc, and NITIE

Among about 993 universities and approximately 50,000 higher education institutions (HIEs) in India, the Government of India (GoI) has identified a few institutes and accorded them Institutes of National Importance (INI) status. The key assumption was that these institutes would set higher quality standards for other HEIs in the country by delivering world-class research output that is capable of contributing to the overall social and economic development of the country by choosing the research areas that demonstrate National level importance. Undoubtedly, Retail Management education/research is one such area. Besides, these institutes would adopt unbiased practices in the process of student’s admission and recruitment of faculty members that would set higher quality standards for other HEIs to follow. It is evident that these institutes have adopted a transparent and unbiased practice in admitting students, but there is no evidence of such practice in the process of recruitment of faculty members. In this study, we have evaluated the research interests of 1,361 faculty members working in the Department of Management Studies of these institutes. Going by the definition of favoritism by Arasli and Tumer (2008), that is, “the provision of special privilege to friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, in areas of employment, career and personnel decisions,” the results indicate a significant level of favoritism in the recruitment of faculty members at these institutes and this practice whether or not adopted consciously is implicitly affecting the Retail Management education/research in India negatively.