For much of the last century, Western models dominated the practice of business management. Now that's changing. In India a distinctly different approach to running and leading companies is emerging.

Dubbed "The India Way," this innovative management model is the subject of a new book by that title, written by four scholars at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. Professor Harbir Singh, one of the four, will discuss their findings at a March 24 luncheon-lecture, part of the Wells Fargo Speaker Series on South Asia hosted by Asia Society Texas Center.

Singh, who has taught at the Wharton School for more than 25 years, is Mack Professor of Management, Vice Dean for Global Initiatives, and Co-Director of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation. Corporate acquisitions, strategic alliances, and corporate restructuring are among his areas of research interest.

For The India Way (Harvard Business Press, $29.95), Singh and colleagues Peter Cappelli, Jitendra V. Singh, and Michael Useem interviewed more than 100 heads of leading Indian companies. They have identified what Indian managers do differently—looking beyond stockholder interest to public mission, for example, or drawing on improvisation and adaptation to overcome hurdles and building a stirring corporate culture. They also detail which of these innovations are readily exportable to the West and which likely to remain indigenous.

Professor Singh has a doctorate from the University of Michigan and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. He has worked with such global businesses as GlaxoSmithKline, Verizon, Cisco, Philips, and the Aditya Birla Group.