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Business growth is a core element of a healthy national economy, partly contributing to global economic growth.There are different ways to measure the growth of a business such as comparing revenue between the present year and the previous year basing on industrial characteristics and corporate goals in a manner or relying on the scale of the business.The factors affecting business growth is also studied by many researchers. These factors include several characteristics of the enterprise’s owners such as personal incentives, owner relationships, education background, and the features of that enterprise such as age, size, legal form, industry type, strategy, and financial structure (Harabi 2005; Storey 2009; Davidsson and Delmar 1997; Kumar 1985; Variyan and Kraybill 1992; Marris and Wood 1971; Chen et al. 1985; Pavitt 1984; Nguyen et al. 2019). However, in the context of a harshly competitive market, spending on sales and marketing has increasingly affirmed the role of promoting the development of businesses; it not only helps businesses achieve higher sales and profit but also attain customer loyalty, thus gaining market shares before accomplishing sustainable growth for these businesses.Promotional expenses are the costs associated with any activities of selling a good or making a sale such as: publicity costs, demonstration costs, advertising costs, sale commission, warranty charges of goods, maintenance charges, cost of packing and transportation etc. The present study has examined the impact of promotional expenses on enterprise growth in Indian cement industry. The enterprise growth is measured though sales turnover of four major cement companies during 2001 to 2021. Simple regression and pooled regression is used to analyse the data. The result shows a significant impact of selling and marketing expenses on enterprise growth of selected cement companies.

This objective of this study is: 1. To study the impact of the promotional expenses on the sales turnover of 4 major cement companies individually during the twenty-year period from 2001 to 2020. 2. To study the overall impact of the promotional expenses on the sales turnover of 4 major cement companies during the twenty-year period from 2001 to 2020.

Sandra Luxton, Mike Reid & Felix Mavondo (2015), by drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, investigated how an integrated marketing communication (IMC) capability drives a brand's financial performance through influencing the effectiveness of communication campaigns and the brand's market-based performance. The results illustrated that an IMC capability has a significant direct effect on campaign effectiveness and significant indirect effect on a brand's market-based performance and financial performance. The study highlights the role of IMC as a key firm-specific capability with significant impact on performance outcomes. Competitively, the more the firm is able to build its distinctive IMC capability, the greater its campaign effectiveness, which in turn leads to superior brand market-based and financial performance. Mike Reid (2005) conducted a study in order to prove that whether the value of the integrated marketing communication (IMC) process is related to brand outcomes, such as brand awareness, brand loyalty and sales are critical issues. The research presented in this paper employs a modified version of the Duncan-Moriarty IMC mini audit (Duncan and Moriarty 1997) to examine the relationship between the IMC process and brand outcomes. Data were collected from managers in both consumer goods and consumer services organizations. Results demonstrated a positive relationship between the implementation of the IMC process and brand outcomes, and provide encouragement for further research to validate the findings. It was also found that IMC is used more in companies with a market orientation, and in those that encounter a high level of competition. Saeed. R. Et.al (2013) have done a review of past research in order to enhance the understanding of what IMC is, its impact and the difference between IMC and traditional marketing communication. They have drawn the conclusion that IMC is consumer oriented approach rather than organizational oriented that focuses on organisational needs. IMC is performed in a manner of synergy rather than in isolation. IMC is associated with some positive results like brand awareness, customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, positive brand image, unique brand association, greater profitability, increased sales and cost savings. Finally, IMC has major impact on organizational performance and brand equity. But there are some barriers to successful implementation of IMC program. Enterprise growth has always been a subject of interest and attention of scientists in the world, especially scientists in developed countries. This is because business growth represents the ability of a business to meet the goal of maximising profits and improving business value and contributes dominantly to the national economic growth. Therefore, it has attracted interest not only from company managers but also from researchers or even from the government. Many scientists such as Mansfield (1962), Hart and Oulton (1996), Dunne and Hughes (1994), Lotti et al. (2010), Calvo (2006), and Mengistae (1999) have pointed out that firm size is one of the most important factors to compare the growth of businesses to each other or to evaluate the growth factor of businesses in the present year with the previous year. Any change in the enterprise size can directly influence the business growth in the present period or in the subsequent period. About the impact of the structure of the selling expenses on the growth of the business, several different studies have been taken such as Agarwal et al. (2009), Lindgreen and Wynstra (2005), Ramsey and Sohi (1997), and Konak (2015).However, instead of taking concentration directly on evaluating the influence of different types of selling expenses on business growth, these previous studies indicated the importance of marketing to the expansion of enterprise market share, to the growth of sales, or to maximising profitability. More specifically: (i). Upgrading sales means encouraging customer commitments, which help the company with reputation and market share achievement. This is because if the customers are more interested in buying products from a company, they tend to make several “free marketing” these products to their friends and family members with a great review. In the digital age, attracting more customers is an important key to quickly increase sales and service provision, for any type of business. Approving with this opinion, Melfi (2016), Jena (2013), Haas et al. (2012), Levitt (1960), Lindgreen and Wynstra (2005), and Ramsey and Sohi (1997) indicated that “sales are tied to revenue, and setting sales goals makes it possible to forecast quarterly performance”. Sales not only guarantee the ability of any business to achieve its growth goals but also play an important role in motivating employees and helping managers set strategies in the right direction (Ramsey and Sohi 1997). This is the reason why many large enterprises have spent over 10% of their annual revenue on marketing for dominating the market and becoming a “monopoly” in the industry (Markdao 2019). (ii). Affirming the position of sale staffs in generating revenue and, thereby, motivating business growth is one of the vital aspects that previous researchers tend to. Indeed, finding the right weighted formula for who (individuals, stores, e-commerce personnel) gets what is the challenge (Haas et al. 2012, Lindgreen and Wynstra 2005, Ramsey and Sohi 1997). In other words, this sentence means that finding ways to make sales and marketing strategies reasonable to a customer audience through different sales channels is the best method to achieve business goals (Drucker 1973, Woodruff 1997, Ramsey and Sohi 1997). Furthermore, sales employees act as a bridge between businesses and customers, building relationships and creating value from these relationships (Haas et al. 2012). (iii). The impact of marketing on business growth showed that marketing and advertising expenditures are recognised as an essential element influencing the profitability negatively in the short term, but they can add more value for the firm in the long-term (Konak 2015). In each marketing campaign or a business’s sales strategy launched, the most important purpose of business is not just upgrading the revenue figure or the amount of money that customers are willing to spend on products and services provided by that business, but it is for developing customer loyalty and competitive advantages (Konak 2015; Kumar 1985; Blattberg et al. 2009). Therefore, it is possible to assume that the cost of marketing and selling activity is directly correlated to the revenue and market size of the business, influencing significantly the business growth. The above literature review shows that the previous studies are done on the assessment of business growth in small and medium enterprises rather than in large enterprises and the study on the impact of selling and marketing expenses on business growth of cement companies is ignored. Therefore, in this study, we have examined the impact of the selling and marketing expense on the growth of large enterprises in India. This is because, although small- and medium-sized enterprises account for 97.5% of total businesses, their GDP accounts for only about 40% total national GDP while large enterprises represent only 2.5% of total businesses but their GDP is created accounting for 60% of national GDP (Ha 2018). In addition, every year, large enterprises always spend over 10% of the total revenue on marketing activities with the purpose of dominating the market and achieving the growth rate (Markdao 2019). This shows that researching and assessing the impact of the prootonal expense structure on business growth is necessary and urgent, especially for large enterprises.

The four major cement companies taken for the present study are Ultratech Cement Ltd., J K Lakshmi Cement Ltd., JSW Ltd. and ACC Ltd. The promotional expenses and sales turnover data has been taken from the annual reports of the selected companies for a period of twenty years from 2001 to 2020. The data for JSW ltd. is taken from 2007. In most of the cases promotional expenses are written as selling/marketing/advertising expenses. Sales turnover is considered as the representative of business growth. The analysis has been done in two steps. In step 1, the simple regression is calculated to find the relationship between promotional expenses and sales turnover of each cement company for the study period. And in step 2, the overall impact of promotional expenses on sales turnover of four cement companies together is calculated.

Table 1 shows the simple regression and pooled regression result as below.

Table 1: Simple Regression - Promotional Expenses and Sales Turnover

Company	R	R2	Adjusted R2	Value of Beta	Value of C	Sig.
Ultratech	0.996	0.992	0.991	3.454	775.8	0.000
J K Lakshmi	0.995	0.991	0.99	2.717	617.5	0.000
JSW	0.917	0.841	0.832	28.056	-1285.2	0.000
ACC	0.980	0.960	0.958	2.921	1680.7	0.000
Pooled Regression	0.971	0.943	0.942	3.296	1461.6	0.000

Dependent Variable: Sales Turnover

Independent Variable: Promotional Expenses

The study tries to find whether sales turnover increases with increase in Promotional expenses of cement companies or not. Simple regression analysis is used to verify the relationship between Promotional expenses (independent variable) and Sales turnover (dependent variable) as shown in the table 1. The data for the analysis is taken for a period of twenty years from 2001 to 2020 for four cement companies i.e. Ultratech, J K Lakshmi, JSW and ACC. The impact of Promotional expenses on Sales turnover of each company for a period of twenty years is analysed independently and the overall impact of the independent variable on dependent variable of the sample four companies for the given period of twenty years is calculated. The outcome of the analysis is explained below.

Ultra tech

It is found that there is a high correlation between Promotional expenses and Sales turnover, R = 0.996 in Ultratech company. The model is good as the coefficient of determination, R² = 0.992 which explains 99% variability in sales turnover by Promotional expenses. From the Table 1 it is observed that Promotional expenses regressed sales turnover with a beta value of 3.454 and constant value of 775.8. The result shows that for every unit increase in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 3 units increase in sales turnover. Similarly for every unit decrease in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 3 units decrease in sales turnover of Ultratech cement.

J K Lakshmi

It is found that there is a high correlation between Promotional expenses and Sales turnover, R = 0.995 in J K Lakshmi company. The model is good as the coefficient of determination, R² = 0.991 which explains 99% variability in sales turnover by Promotional expenses. From the Table 1 it is observed that Promotional expenses regressed sales turnover with a beta value of 2.717 and constant value of 617.5. The result shows that for every unit increase in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 3 units increase in sales turnover. Similarly for every unit decrease in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 3 units decrease in sales turnover of J K Lakshmi cement.

JSW

It is found that there is a high correlation between Promotional expenses and Sales turnover, R = 0.917 in JSW company. The model is good as the coefficient of determination, R² = 0.841 which explains 84% variability in sales turnover by Promotional expenses. From the Table 1 it is observed that Promotional expenses regressed sales turnover with a beta value of 28.056 and constant value of -1285.2. The result shows that for every unit increase in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 28 units increase in sales turnover. Similarly for every unit decrease in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 28 units decrease in sales turnover of JSW cement.

ACC

It is found that there is a high correlation between Promotional expense sand Sales turnover, R = 0.980 in ACC company. The model is good as the coefficient of determination, R² = 0.960 which explains 96% variability in sales turnover by Promotional expenses. From the Table 1 it is observed that Promotional expenses regressed sales turnover with a beta value of 2.921 and constant value of 1680.7. The result shows that for every unit increase in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 3 units increase in sales turnover. Similarly for every unit decrease in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 3 units decrease in sales turnover of ACC cement.

Overall Impact of Promotional expense son Sales Turnover of four selected companies during 2001 to 2020

It is found that there is a high correlation between Promotional expense sand Sales turnover, R = 0.971 if all four companies taken together. The model is good as the coefficient of determination, R² = 0.943 which explains 94% variability in sales turnover by Promotional expenses. From the Table 1 it is observed that Promotional expenses regressed sales turnover with a beta value of 3.296 and constant value of 1461.6. The result shows that for every unit increase in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 3 units increase in sales turnover. Similarly for every unit decrease in Promotional expenses there will be approximately 3 units decrease in sales turnover in aggregate of all four cement companies.

Hence, the study found a significant positive relationship between Promotional expenses and sales turnover of selected cement companies over a period of twenty years.

Annexure 1:

Sales Turnover and Promotional Expenses of Selected Cement Companies

Year	UltraTech		J  K Lakshmi		JSW		ACC
	Sales Turnover (In Cr.)	Promotional Exp. (In Cr.)	Sales Turnover (In Cr.)	Promotional Exp. (In Cr.)	Sales Turnover (In Cr.)	Promotional Exp. (In Cr.)	Sales Turnover (In Cr.)	Promotional Exp. (In Cr.)
2020	43,188.34	12,121.55	4,459.00	1,323.00	9281.00	320.00	13989.00	4271.00
2019	40,649.17	11,968.02	4094.00	1,249.00	12101.00	366.00	15968.00	4914.00
2018	35,703.50	10,708.29	3,940.00	1,260.00	10731.00	376.00	14801.00	4892.00
2017	27,162.42	7,258.66	3,582.00	1,148.00	8932.00	341.00	13263.00	4270.00
2016	26,947.14	7,277.92	3,330.00	962.00	6335.00	267.00	10994.00	3410.00
2015	24,107.36	7,276.42	2,988.00	880.00	5035.00	351.00	11797.00	3493.00
2014	25,710.19	6,611.58	2,307.00	689.00	4936.00	305.00	11738.00	3345.00
2013	21,652.20	5,700.81	2,101.00	603.00	4333.00	236.00	11393.00	2978.00
2012	20,174.94	5,192.34	2,110.00	555.00	2940.00	194.00	11623.00	2838.00
2011	18,309.85	4,570.85	1921.63	447.00	3208.00	196.00	9852.00	2427.00
2010	13,209.91	3,996.18	1491.26	359.40	2406.00	141.00	8074.00	1819.00
2009	7,049.68	1,759.22	1,644.05	352.80	703.00	103.00	8027.00	1817.00
2008	6,383.08	1,525.38	1404.05	283.44	4088.00	100.00	7283.00	1812.15
2007	5,508.78	1,353.35	1286.36	250.19	578.00	65.00	7007.00	1674.00
2006	4,910.83	1,297.86	970.99	34.90			5803.00	1444.00
2005	3,299.45	983.41	700.03	28.61			3203.00	899.00
2004	2,681.05	699.83	591.73	27.82			3902.00	994.00
2003	2,251.13	612.18	695.18	39.26			3490.00	817.00
2002	2,081	520	748	42			3334.00	757.00
2001	2,031	480	731	41			2,939	717

The present study evidenced that the major Cement companies in India meticulously spend money on Promotional activities. The study also evidenced that there is a positive relationship between selling Promotional expenses and sales turnover. The more money the company spends on Promotionalactivities, the more will be the sales turnover. The proportionate increase in sales turnover is three times more than the proportionate change in the Promotional expenses. Considering the growing demand for cement in India and higher capacity utilization over the years, key Indian players prepare budget for Promotional expenses to increase the sales turnover. Further, as Cement is a commodity and the process is well known, there is no USP as far as the product is concern. Therefore, aggressive sales promotion and advertising will be the key to unlocking the puzzle of profit and expansion in Indian cement Industry in the 21st century.

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