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Doctoral Research in Commerce: A Bibliometric analysis* DDrr.. RR.. DD.. BBiirraaddaarr**** JJaaggddiisshh NN.. KKuullkkaarrnnii****** SShhyyaamm MM.. SSaarrssaarree********

Abstract:

The present paper is the map of contribution of doctoral research in the subject commerce in Indian Universities during 1997 – 2006. The study analyzed bibliographic data of the Ph.D. theses on different parameters such as researcher, guide, university, state, zone, year, subject, etc.

The study reveals that there is a significant disproportion & monotonous growth in universities & subject respectively in commerce research in Indian Universities. The paper discussed all these details with necessary support & comments. (Key words: Commerce, Commerce Research, Bibliometrics, Theses, Ph.D., and Doctoral Research, Doctoral Degree) INTRODUCTION:

National growth is depicted from the research contribution by that nation with the use of research. It is only research that helps to solve those problems, expand the human knowledge base and develop better and advanced tools and techniques for their work situation1. Research is personally rewarding and socially beneficial. Most would accept that research is an essential component for a well round academic culture in any higher education institution; it contributes extensively to knowledge bases and is good for the individual researchers profile, work satisfaction and career development. Research is necessary to satisfy natural human curiosity2. Research has mainly five functions viz., analytical & explanatory, synoptic, evaluation, forward looking and advisory. The last two are important from the viewpoint of innovation and reforms. Research brings transformation and development and also enhances the quality of education. Thus commerce research is not exception to this. Hence, at a first instance doctoral research is considered for the present investigation. Commerce research is applied and one of the major activities for building the base of business, industry & commerce. Doctoral research is one of them. A thesis is a key indicator for academic achievement3.

Commerce is a basic and most important subject in higher education. Almost all-traditional universities offer courses in commerce at different levels. Commerce education begins generally at first year of junior college i.e. at higher secondary level. Graduation, Post graduation, different diplomas & certificate courses are the part of commerce curricula. Research begins after post graduation through either M. Phil and/or Ph.D. Doctoral Research is the highest academic degree honored by the Universities. ** TThhiiss ppaappeerr iiss aann oouuttccoommee ooff UUGGCC ssaannccttiioonneedd MMRRPP 22000099--1100 oonn ““RReesseeaarrcchh aanndd PPuubblliiccaattiioonn CCoonnttrriibbuuttiioonn ooff TTeeaacchheerrss iinn CCoommmmeerrccee && MMaannaaggeemmeenntt:: AA BBiibblliioommeettrriicc SSttuuddyy”” ****PPrrooffeessssoorr aanndd HHeeaadd,, DDeepptt.. ooff CCoommmmeerrccee,, PPII ((UUGGCC MMRRPP)) SScchhooooll ooff CCoommmmeerrccee && MMaannaaggeemmeenntt SScciieenncceess.. EE--mmaaiill iidd:: -- bbiirraaddaarr..ssrrttmmuu@@ggmmaaiill..ccoomm

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According to O. P. Gupta & P. N. Abrol4 “Commerce refers to all those activities, which are necessary to transfer commodities and services from the place of their origin to the places of their consumption. Commerce is more comprehensive than trade in that the latter refers to mere buying and selling goods, while the former includes not only buying and selling but also other agencies called aids to trade or auxiliaries to trade. These agencies include buyers, sellers, transport, insurance, banking, and the warehousing companies”.

Evelyn Thomas5 defined the term commerce as, “Commercial occupations deal with the buyer and selling of goods, the exchange of commodities and the distribution of products.” According to Stephenson, “Commerce constitutes the sum total of those processes which are engaged in the removal of hindrances of persons, place and time in the exchange of commodities.” Commerce can be further divided into two parts: Trade & Aids –to- Trade i.e. Trade is the buying & selling of goods and aids to trade consists of auxiliary services.

Bibliometrics is a type of research method. Bibliometrics is a branch of scientometrics that focuses principally on the quantitative study of written products of research6. It is an emerging area of research. Bibliometric studies can be used to study regional patterns to research the extent of cooperation between research groups and national research profiles. The main derivatives of bibliometrics are: Publication counts, citation counts, co– citation analysis, co– word analysis, scientific “mapping” and citations in patents. The study focuses light on the publication counts & scientific mapping for the growth of commerce research in India. The word “bibliometric” has been derived from the Latin and Greek word “biblio” and “metrics” which refer to the application of mathematics to the study of bibliography. L. Egghe (1987) has defined “bibliometrics” as “the development and application of mathematical models and techniques to all aspects communication”. Result of such studies is very useful in decision making in research administration & planning. Bibliometric studies afford investigators to study the quality and quantity of work done by researchers and scientists in various fields7. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

Present study focuses the Ph.D. Research in Indian Universities specifically for ten years i.e. 1997 – 2006 with the following objectives.

1. To study chronological growth of doctoral research in commerce. 2. To identify the zone and state wise contribution of doctoral research. 3. To determine the contribution of the Universities in commerce research and to know the more

industrious Universities in this respect. 4. To recognize most prolific guides in Indian Universities. 5. To find out subject trends of research in commerce & identify core areas. 6. To know the language wise break up of doctoral research in Indian Universities. 7. To identify gender distribution of researchers.

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SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

The study has wider scope which covers all Ph. D. theses awarded by Indian Universities in commerce during 1997 to 2006. REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

While screening the literature on Doctoral Research in Commerce, it is observed that there is no specific study carried out in commerce by using Bibliometric technique. However, the study conducted by Amudha S. & et al7 recently in January 2009 related to Indian Journal of Marketing by using Bibliometric approach can be considered as in the field of commerce. Besides this there are numerous studies carried out in Library & Information Sciences, Agriculture and branches of basic Sciences. Mukherjee Bhaskar said that “these kinds of studies have been conducted to examine the status of Indian research from the recent times”8. METHODOLOGY:

Accessing information plays a vital role in the production of scientific knowledge. Unlike the past, the present era of information & communication has opened up opportunities for researchers around the world. The sources available on World Wide Web (www) are now widely used in academic & research activities. It has also been proved that information available on the web is authentic & useful9 In view of this the present study has been conducted based on web information. Accordingly the Bibliometric database of the Doctoral Research contribution of Indian Universities in Commerce, for the period of ten years i.e. 1997 to 2006 has been considered. The published information on Internet collected/ downloaded from two websites Vidhyanidhi & INFLIBNET. The downloaded data in text format were converted into database using MS – Excel. The necessary changes made in the arrangement of data to make analysis appropriate & relevant. ANALYSIS OF DATA: Growth of doctoral research

As a vehicle to transmit the result of research dissertations become an integral part of the research process. Research and publication cannot be envisaged without the communication of result of research10. To present the result of doctoral research in commerce, the Figure 1 depicts year wise (chronological) contribution of doctoral theses in commerce.

Figure 1 analyses the average Ph.D. theses per year, which is found nearly 120. With the help of this figure it can be said that 1997, 2003, 2004 & 2005 have the satisfactory

Figure1

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contribution which is above the average. Remaining six years shows the negative contribution i.e. below the average. It indicates that there is a significant disproportion in contribution of Doctoral research over the period of time. Further it can be seen that highest number of theses i.e. 197 & 143 have been contributed in 2003 & 1997 respectively as compared to rest of the years.

Zone wise break up of doctoral theses

In order to make better understanding of the contribution of doctoral theses in commerce throughout the country, six zones break – up is given in figure 2.

The figure 2 reflected the zone wise distribution of Ph.D. theses in India. Northern zone includes seven states (viz., Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) with the highest number of doctoral theses i.e. 31.61% and rank first. In North Zone, Uttar Pradesh is top in the ranking with 137 Ph.D. theses. South region consist of four states (viz., 1Andhra Pradesh, 2Karnataka, 3Kerala & 4Tamilnadu). It awarded 292 (24.41%) doctoral degrees & had second rank followed by West zone (includes Gujarat, Maharashtra & Rajasthan) with 284 (23.75%) Ph.D. theses. & got third rank. Similar picture is seen from south & west zone. East region (consist of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa & West Bengal) with 127 (10.62%), North-East region (contains Assam, Manipur, Tripura & Arunachal Pradesh) with 68 (5.69%) and having forth & fifth rank. Central region (includes Chhattisgarh & Madhya Pradesh) has the lowest contribution with 47 doctoral dissertations i.e. 3.93%.

State wise contribution of Ph.D. theses.

Figure 3 exhibits the state wise contribution of Ph.D. Theses in Commerce during 1997 - 2006. Almost all major Indian States have their representation in this figure3.

The figure 3 demonstrates that Maharashtra has the largest share compared to other states with 245 Ph.D. theses to the credit and representing nearly 21 % of the total. Within the Maharashtra, Shivaji University of Kolhapur is on the top position

Figure 2

Figure 3

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with 80 doctoral researches. Uttar Pradesh has second place with 137 (11.45 %) Ph.D. theses, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 123 (10.28 %), Karnataka with 121 (10.12 %) & Haryana with 118 (9.87 %) by taking third, fourth & fifth position respectively. West Bengal & Assam contributes 59 (4.93 %) & 57 (4.77 %) respectively and places at sixth & seventh position. Seventeen states contribution is below the average i.e. 49.83 (approximate 50).

University - wise break up of Ph.D. theses

Universities play a crucial role in the generation and application of new knowledge11. Any university is judged by the level and extent of the research work it accomplishes. Experience of research leads to quality teaching and quality teaching imparted to the young in turn enriches the research. It is a known fact that certain universities contribute for more literary output in a particular subject. It can be identified in figure 4 prime (top ten) universities out of ninety Universities which have more contribution of doctoral research in commerce.

It can be seen from figure 4 that Shivaji University, Kolhapur led from the front with highest number of doctoral research contribution i.e. 80 (6.69%) Ph.D. degrees to its credit. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh stand second in the country with 68 (5.69%) Ph.D. theses followed by Nagpur University, Nagpur with 55 (4.60%) Ph.D. degrees and stand on third rank. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad & Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak with 54 (4.52%) Ph.D. theses each to its credit and have got the fourth rank. Gauhati University, Guwahati; Karnataka University, Dharwad; Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla; Osmania University, Hyderabad and University of Burdwan, Burdwan have been contributed between 42 to 45 Doctoral degrees during the period of study.

Ranking of Guides

There are certain eminent personalities in every subject field who achieve recognition through their research output. These personalities form the backbone in their own subject field. The Table 1 describes the ranking of guides on the basis of the number of theses produced under their guidance. It can be noted that only first top five ranks have been listed in the table. Among 550 guides list from 90 Universities only Top Twenty Two were fulfill this criteria.

Figure 4

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Table 1 Prime Top Twenty Two Guides Ranking 1997 - 2006

It can be seen from the table 1 that Shitole V. S. from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, leads the country with fourteen Ph.D. degrees to his credit, followed by Joshi J. V. from Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded with Eleven Ph.D. theses to his credit and stood second in the India. Baruah H.K (Gauhati University, Guwahati) & Kalkundrikar A. B. (Karnatak University, Dharwad) have stood on third rank with nine Ph.D. degrees to their credit. Chhillar A. S. (Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak), Chistry M. H. (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad), Kumar Narender (Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak), Sarkhal Jaydeb (University of Burdwan, Burdwan) & Somwanshi S. A. (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad) have guided Eight Ph.D.

candidates and have secured fourth rank. Thirteen guides are on fifth rank from various universities. It must be noted that in the top five ranking, four guides are from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

Marathwada University, Aurangabad.

Subject wise distribution of doctoral research in commerce

Subject plays an important role in overall development of commerce faculty because it specifies the direction of the study. Hence, it is necessary to know the inter-disciplinary nature of the subjects, areas of research covered & areas need to be studied. To identify the trend of subjects of doctoral research, authors divided these doctoral dissertations into broad 16 sub-subjects that deal with various facets of commerce domain.

Sr. No.

Contributor / Guide No. of Ph.D.

Rank

1 Shitole V. S. 14 1 2 Joshi J. V. 11 2 3 Baruah H. K. 9 3 4 Kalkundrikar A. B. 9 3 5 Chhillar A. S. 8 4 6 Chistry M. H. 8 4 7 Kumar Narender 8 4 8 Sarkhal Jaydeb 8 4 9 Somwanshi S. A. 8 4

10 Shreshthi C. S. 7 5 11 Ali M. M. 7 5 12 Biswas Swapan Kumar 7 5 13 Hugar S. S. 7 5 14 Nikam G. A. 7 5 15 Rahman Mahfoozur 7 5 16 Rao P. S. 7 5 17 Reddy D. Obul 7 5 18 Sarma A. K. 7 5 19 Sarma K. Rama krishna 7 5 20 Sengupta Palas Ranjan 7 5 21 Sharma R. D. 7 5 22 Venkateshwaralu H. 7 5

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Figure 5 depicts the areas of subjects in which commerce theses have been contributed in the past ten years (1997 -2006). As many as 345 (28.85 %) Ph.D. theses have been carried out in Finance (Financial aspects) which got first rank, followed by Marketing with 168 (14.05%) Ph.D. theses and taken second place. Subsequently in Trade, Industry & Commerce 151 (12.63%) Ph.D. dissertations and in H. R. (Human Resource aspects) 110 (9.20%) doctoral research have been carried out which got third & fourth rank respectively. On Management (Managerial Aspects) 103 (8.61%), in Performance Appraisal 87 (7.27%) & in the area of Economic (Economical aspects) 78 (6.52%) doctoral research have been completed. Most of the doctoral research in commerce is of monotonous in nature. Language wise distribution of doctoral research

Language is one of the mediums of research communication. It plays a significant role in the exchange of scientific information. Information about the most dominant language is very much useful for researcher12. Hence, the authors are curious to know the most dominant language used for doctoral research in commerce. The study of language is shown in figure 6. It gives a clear picture about doctoral research in commerce in India during 1997 - 2006. As per figure 6, English is having almost great influence among all i.e. 1164 (97.32%) Ph.D. theses with first rank, followed by Marathi with 26 (2.17%) doctoral research. Rests of languages like Hindi, Gujarati & Sanskrit have less contribution i.e. below .05%. With this picture we can predict that the researcher & guides are more fascinated towards represent their research work at international level by using English language.

Figure 5

Figure 6

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Gender wise distribution of researcher

Research facilities are available for both genders. There is no gender discrimination for awarding doctoral degree to researchers. Hence, researchers are interested to know the gender wise involvement in doctoral research of commerce. Out of 1196 Ph.D. theses in commerce, the notable distinction is observed. The figure 7 shows gender wise distribution of researchers for doctoral research in commerce during the period 1997 to 2006. It can be seen from the figure 7 that the male researchers have been contributed more doctoral researches i.e. 1104, which is 92.31% and female researchers have contributed with 92 (7.69%) Ph.D. theses. This indicates the most of Commerce Ph.D. theses contributed by male researchers compare to female. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY:

We must realize that we are living and working in a society that may be characterized by complexity and rapid change. Society demands new approaches to solve the problems. Research make it possible to solve these problem, doctoral research is one of them. The study manifested the ten year (1997 – 2006) of research output in India for doctoral research in commerce with 1196 Ph.D. theses. The following findings have been emerged from the fore going discussions.

1. It can be observed that the year 2003 is more productive with 197 doctoral researches which represent the 11.96% contribution during study period i.e. 1997 to 2006.

2. Zone wise analysis indicates that the north zone has shown more contribution to doctoral research with 378 Ph.D. theses i.e. 31.61% of total six zones.

3. State wise analysis of doctoral research shows that the Maharashtra state rank first throughout the county with 245 doctoral theses.

4. Shivaji University, Kolhapur from Maharashtra ranks first amongst ninety universities in India in the university analysis of doctoral research with 80 doctoral theses.

5. Analysis on guide shows that out of the total numbers of guides i.e. 550 in India, Dr. Shitole V.S. & Dr. Joshi J.V. rank first & second respectively with 14 & 11 doctoral research. These prolific guides are from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad and Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded both from Maharashtra.

Figure 7

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6. The subject analysis on doctoral research indicates that about 345 (i.e. 29%) doctoral research is carried out on financial aspects alone. This shows that the various social relevant subjects like sustainable development, commerce education, agro base industries, human resource accounting, co-operation, etc have not been covered significantly.

7. Analysis on doctoral research contribution language wise depicts that in all five languages i.e. English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi & Gujarati have been considered for writing doctoral research. It is found that maximum number (1164) of studies have carried out in English out of the total 1196 doctoral research.

8. Analysis of male-female involvement in doctoral research in commerce shows that male researcher’s contribution is found highest i.e. 92.31% as compare to female researcher’s contribution i.e. 7.69%.

9. The analysis of doctoral theses during 1997 to 2006 of ninety universities out of 353 & 24 states out of 35 states in India shows the annual growth rate per university per year is of 1.32. This is not significant contribution & university wise disproportion of doctoral research in the field of commerce faculty. Therefore 58 universities out of ninety universities have contribution below the average. This shows the insignificant contribution of doctoral research in Indian universities with lot of disproportion.

10. The study is a quantitative analysis of doctoral research in commerce in Indian universities and the qualitative aspect of doctoral research in commerce is an independent study of research.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

We are grateful to our Honorable Vice-Chancellor Dr. S. B. Nimse for his constant encouragement. Our sincere thanks are due to UGC New Delhi for financial support.

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