March 2011
Assessment of talent retention strategies: The case of a large South African company (CSA)
The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which the key elements of talent management (TM) and employee engagement (EO) are being utilized to retain employees at a large South African Company (herein-often referred to as CSA). Skills shortages have become a feature of the South African business environment. As such competition to attract human capital in the form of talented...
March 2011
Neuromarketing: Where marketing and neuroscience meet
Neuromarketing is a new field where brain science and marketing meet. The emergence of brain imaging encourages marketers to use high-tech imaging techniques to resolve marketing issues. Marketers and advertisers have exploited the results of many brain imaging studies to know what could drives consumer’s behavior. They have found out that some marketing actions can generate added satisfaction in a...
March 2011
Exploring social marketing landscapes: A review of healthy food campaigns
Social marketing is a growing research field. It has been proved that social marketing has some effectiveness in health programs and can help in shaping people’s behaviour. This paper examines the role of social marketing in public communication campaigns and, more specifically, it explores the issue of healthy food habits promotion. An overview of theoretical issues surrounding definitions of basic...
March 2011
Using new Huff model for predicting potential retail market in South Korea
This study sets out to reinvestigate the existing theoretical models (that is, the Huff Model, the new probability model, and the gravity model) for the following two critical reasons: (1) it is because the precedent models have seldom predicted an estimation of sales potentials at the opening of stores particularly at local markets in Korea and (2) it is also because the existing models did not offer...
March 2011
IT auditing activities of public sector auditors in Malaysia
Information technology (IT) has become an increasingly important tool for the Malaysian government to improve the delivery of its services. However, advances in information technology continuously render control procedures obsolete. Indispensably audit methodology has to evolve to keep abreast with the change in technology. This study investigates the IT practices of the public sector auditors in Malaysia. We...
March 2011
Lean public management: How lean principles facilitate municipal governance reform in China
Traditional Chinese municipal governance set up on “information islands” brought negative effect to municipal governance reform. E-government has become a hot topic in public management recently just as lean supply chain does in business management. However, there is little discussion about their relationship. This article focused on this gap through referring to lean principles in supply chain...
March 2011
Conceptual frameworks of university students regarding accounting
This paper aims at ascertaining the conceptual frameworks of university students regarding accounting. In order to fulfil this aim, a word association test was applied to 119 students who had studied accounting before in Turkey. Ten key concepts (accounting, balance sheet, account, cost, inventory, payable, receivable, profit, loss, finance) were constructed for the word association test. Frequency tables...
March 2011
Talent management in Thai cement companies: A study of strategies and factors influencing employee engagement
This paper investigated talent management strategies and employee engagement implemented in three leading cement companies in Thailand ranged from the largest to smallest ones. In-depth interviews conducted with multi-level employees involved in managing talent including executives, potential employees, and human resources (HR) staff, while 350 questionnaires were also distributed for an investigation of...
March 2011
Employees’ perceptions of Malaysian managers’ leadership styles and organizational commitment
Using Bass’ (1990) framework of transactional and transformational leadership, this research investigated the employees’ perceptions of the prevalent leadership style among Malaysian managers and its impact on organizational commitment. The Malaysian society with its social complexity has much to offer to the understanding of culture’s effect on leadership style and organizational...
March 2011
The impact of matriculation results on management abilities of school principals: A South African case study
The advent of democracy saw a drastic increase in demands for a meaningful performance for South African schools. With principals’ abilities to lead and manage these schools coming under constant severe scrutiny, with the main emphasis being placed solely on the Grade 12 final examination results as a measure of their competencies. This paper therefore, attempted to investigate the merits of this...
March 2011
Meanings of unemployment and industrial restructuring in Lavras, Brazil: A constructionist approach
This study aimed to investigate meanings produced by workers excluded from the industrial job market regarding unemployment, having focused on the understanding of the socially articulated relationship between industrial and labour restructuring, meanings of unemployment and subjectivity. We grounded our analysis on postulates of the constructionist approach. This theoretical/methodological choice facilitated...
March 2011
Community-based tourism and local socio-economic development: A case study in Cape Verde
Community-based tourism is being presented as an alternative to traditional mass tourism in developing countries. This kind of tourism allows for greater contact with local residents and generates greater economic and environmental benefits for the local community. In this paper, the results of fieldwork carried out on the island ofSantiago (Cape Verde) are presented, in which both tourists and managers...
March 2011
An integrative approach to management systems and business excellence
Traditionally, quality (ISO, 9001), safety (OHSAS, 18001) and environmental (ISO, 14001) management systems are integrated. This study developed the SECQA Model which integrated the latter systems and proposed aids management and corporate governance in the integration process. Questionnaires were sent to thirty manufacturing and service organizations in the KwaZulu-Natal region to elicit the suitability of...
March 2011
The effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives on consumers’ identification with companies
This study focuses on the relative influences of three types of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, sponsorship, cause-related marketing, and philanthropy, on consumers’ identification with consumer-company (C-C identification). Two hundred and forty-six subjects participated in a between-subjects factorial design experiment. The test results revealed that philanthropy had a...
March 2011
Portfolio value at risk with Copula-ARMAX-GJR-GARCH model: Evidence from the gold and silver futures
In the article, we construct the copula-based VaR-ARMAX-GJR-GARCH model. The purpose is to examine the strategic commodities comovements and directional relationships with these variables, as well as estimating the VaR of a gold and silver portfolio. Based on our empirical results, we conclude that the crude oil for the gold and silver price in Comex and Tocom market is both a significant and positive sign...
March 2011
Employees' attitudes toward company privatization as possible predictors of a high-performance work system
Factorial structure of employees' attitude towards enterprise privatization has been identified in the present privatization procedure of one of the largest Serbian insurance company. It is established that the most important issue is the present enterprise climate as a result of privatization. On the other hand, the research has identified a direct relation between the employees' attitudes and...
March 2011
Causality in mean and variance between ISE 100 and S&P 500: Turkcell case
The article examines the causality between US stock market and Turkish stock market by using two-step method which is developed by Hong (2001). The returns of Turkcell securities that are traded as American Depository Receipt in the New York Stock Exchange and ISE 100 are used. The causality test results indicate that S&P 500 affects ISE 100 and Turkcell returns, moreover, Turkcell returns influence each...
March 2011
Elucidating rational investment decisions and behavioral biases: Evidence from the Taiwanese stock market
Financial innovation has witnessed an increasing number of financial products in the financial industry. Various investment activities involving individual investors have also become prevalent in the Taiwanese financial market. Financial managers thus highly prioritize elucidating the investment behaviors of individual investors and then incorporate them in investment decision making. This study examines how...
March 2011
Moderating effect of employees’ education on relationship between feedback, job role innovation and organizational learning culture
Learning is a sacred and increasingly growing need of the business organizations. The learning culture facilitates the employees’ performance, that is increases their efficiency and effectiveness with innovation, creativity and behavior modification. The employees learn the prestigious values of organizational learning culture and color themselves in a way of getting better work experience and desired...
March 2011
Destination choice, service quality, satisfaction, and consumerism: International students in Malaysian institutions of higher education
This pilot study examines the pull factors influencing international students in selecting Malaysia as the host country and their perceptions of service quality in Malaysian institutes of higher education. It has been found that students from the Middle East countries came to Malaysia mainly due to agent recommendation, lower costs, and comfortable climate. They were somewhat satisfied with their host...
March 2011
A new housing finance model for the base of the pyramid: The case of Turkey
There is no solid housing finance model that will solve the shelter needs of low-income household groups who do not have adequate capital to buy houses in developing countries and work properly during an economic crisis. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to propose a new housing finance model that will function even during a financial or an economic crisis for the base of the pyramid (low-income...
March 2011
Intention to shop online: A study of Malaysian baby boomers
Using the theory of planned behavior as the theoretical framework, this study aimed to examine the relationships between attitude towards online shopping, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention to shop online. Based on a sample of 146 baby boomers who are Internet users but not online shoppers, the study found that two of the three determinants--attitude towards online shopping and...
March 2011
Moral intensity and the use of socially undesirable influence tactics with superiors in greater China: exploring the role of Chinese sub-culture in the hospitality industry of Hong Kong and Taiwan
The purpose of this article is to integrate and extend previous research by examining the relative influence of the components of employees’ moral intensity (MI) on their use of two socially undesirable tactics: assertiveness and exchange of benefits, when attempting to influence their supervisors. It also looks at the moderating role of sub-culture in two greater Chinese regions. The responses of 268...
March 2011
What is professional? An experiential learning theory perspective of sales engineer competencies in the semiconductor industry
The position of sales engineer is an important and specialized job in the high-tech industry. Sales engineers are responsible for getting orders from clients, which is critical for a firm’s survival. In order to complete his or her job targets, a sales engineer needs two abilities – technical knowledge and interpersonal skills. This study focuses on the semiconductor industry and examines by job...
March 2011
Business education and entrepreneurial capabilities in Pakistan
This study explores the relationships between business education in Pakistani universities and the development of the entrepreneurial capabilities in students. It also focuses upon the potential differentials on entrepreneurial making among public and private universities. This is a cross-sectional casual study using questionnaire for a sample of 320 students of 04 different universities at Rawalpindi and...
March 2011
Managing effective knowledge acquisition in outsourcing alliances: A supplier’s perspective
Knowledge acquisition through international outsourcing alliances often plays a key in increasing a firm’s technology capability. However, knowledge acquisition is not an easy process, as it relates to the firm’s learning ability, the quality of the partnership, cross-national communication, and knowledge ambiguity, etc. Few studies discuss knowledge acquisition from the perspective of...
March 2011
Islamic banking and prohibition of Riba/interest
The 21st century came with blending of threats and opportunities due to the inception of Islamic banking practices across the globe. Islamic and conventional banking could be differentiated due to interest, risk sharing and objectivity. This study describes the Islamic instruction regarding Islamic banking and prohibition of Riba/interest, and also presents a glossary regarding prohibition of Riba/interest in...
March 2011
Comparative study of Islamic and conventional banking in Pakistan based on customer satisfaction
The financial service sector especially banking sector is growing rapidly in the area of globalization and borderless market. Islamic banking practices accelerated the pace of competition to retain customers as satisfied in the existence of the conventional banks. This study examines the perception of satisfaction amongst bank customers using products of IB[GA1] and CB[GA2] in...
March 2011
Regional sustainability assessment based on long periods of ecological footprint: A case study of Zhejiang Province, China
China has experienced unprecedented economic growth for three decades since the implementation of economic reform. This paper argued that the capitalization of environment and resources fuel the economic growth. It was documented through a case of Zhejiang Province based on long periods of ecological footprint analysis. It concluded that: (1) ecological footprint per capita and ecological deficit from 1990 to...
March 2011
The impact of perceived employee identification on the relationship between customer company-identification and customer citizenship behaviour: Practice from Turkish hotels
This study examines the impact of customer perception of employee identification on the relationship between customer-company identification and customer citizenship behaviour in service settings. A total of 386 surveys are collected from city hotels in Ankara, Turkey. Results of the present study provide empirical evidence that customers who identify more strongly with the organisation indicate more...
March 2011
The interaction of self-leadership and psychological climate on job performance
The purpose of the present study was to examine the interactive effect of self-leadership and psychological climate on job performance and to evaluate the extent to which psychological climate facilitates or inhibits the demonstration of self-leadership on job performance. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted in a sample of 213 employees. The results clearly showed that the interaction...
March 2011
Impact of career salience on universities teachers’ job involvement: A study on public and private universities in Pakistan
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of career salience on universities teachers' job involvement. The nature of the study is cross-sectional and co-relational. Data were collected through questionnaire and sample size was 100 teachers working as professor, associate professor, assistant professor and lecturer in public and private universities. Correlation and regression test were...
March 2011
A perceived service quality measurement scale in Iran’s retail banking market
In recent years, special attention has been paid to concepts and models of service quality. Considering different influence of contextual factors on the number of indices or the number and concept of service quality, many researchers place emphasis on designing localized and service-specific quality models. This research attempted to design a model for evaluating customers’ perceived service quality in...
March 2011
Consumers’ behavioral intentions to use mobile data services in Malaysia
Mobile data services have gained its popularity among mobile phone users even throughout the world, the voice calls revenue decreases and the mobile phone industry has been experiencing market saturation. With limited research pertaining to what are the factors that affect customers’ behavioral intention to use mobile data services, this study attempts to identify these factors and the extent to which...
March 2011
Antecedents of market orientation in the microfinance industry of Pakistan
The performance of microfinance providers in Pakistan is very weak whereas market orientation has been found to significantly influence performance of firms in the general business field. This study attempted to identify those factors (antecedents) that determine the level of market orientation of microfinance providers in Pakistan. The results of the study indicated that top management emphasis on market...
March 2011
The successful factor of expatriates in transnational enterprises
With the acceleration of Taiwan corporate internationalization, roles of expatriates have also become more and more important. Therefore, domestic, academic and commercial circles on how an enterprise assigns its expatriates effectively to increase expatriate success rate, decrease losses of tangible and intangible assets and accordingly enhance competitive advantage are given by the study. In this study, 450...
March 2011
The effects of challenge and hindrance stressors on unlearning and NPD success: The moderating role of team conflict
In order to develop successful products, an NPD team needs to engage in an unlearning process by re-orienting their existing beliefs and routines. Previous studies have mostly determined that unlearning is based on external organizational stressors, while internal ones are rarely discussed. Based on expectancy theory, this study examines the effects of challenge and hindrance stressors embedded in the...
March 2011
E-banking adoption by customers in the rural milieus of South Africa: A case of Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa
The vitality of technology utilisation by banks in establishing competitiveness in rural areas is unarguable. The computer-mediated environment has profound implications particularly in the banking sector and it is widely acknowledged that customers increasingly require instant gratification through the use of new technologies. This paper provides primary information to guide banks in structuring their...
March 2011
Organizational learning capability and organizational innovation: The moderating role of knowledge inertia
The capability to learn is a critical factor for organization to grow and innovate. However, there’s no research examined the positive relationship between the effect of organizational learning capability and organizational innovation. In addition, employees solve problems with their prior experience and knowledge as facing problems, that is, knowledge inertia, may hinder organizations capability from...
March 2011
Measuring performance through capital structure: Evidence from banking sector of Pakistan
Capital structure of the financial institutions and banks determine agency cost of financial sector of the economy. In this study we explore the agency cost hypothesis of banking sector of Pakistan using panel data of 22 banks for the period 2002 to 2009. We employed the idea of using profit as a measure of efficiency of banks following Berger (2002) and the idea of using Tobin’s Q as a...
March 2011
Testing a model of Islamic banking based on service quality, customer satisfaction and bank performance
This study analyzes the services quality of products offered by Islamic banks with mediating effect of customer satisfaction on bank performance. There is an increasing competition among banks to capture new customers as well as to retain existing customers. It requires a study to measure the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction towards bank performance. Data were collected from 720 respondents...
March 2011
Moral dilemmas of employees in businesses operating in South-east Europe
Conditions imposed by corporate operations are such that a relationship between a company, potential customers and the public is affected by a great number of both internal and external factors, such as: requirements of investors, pressure to meet unrealistic business deadlines, profit at any price, pressure of competition, globalization, etc. A prevailing belief is that business activities need to be planned...
March 2011
A study of the relationship between the share and criterion of companies’ performance using profit and cash flows: Some Iranian evidence
The aim of the current study is to present a relationship between share yield and criterion of companies’ performance using profit and cash flows and items of listed companies on Tehran Stock Exchange during 2004 to 2009. Results show that, there is no meaningful relationship between independent variables such as gross profit, operational profit, profit before tax, net profit and operational cash flow,...
March 2011
Perceived investment in employee development and turnover intention: A social exchange perspective
Applying the social exchange theory the study aimed at exploring the relationships between perceived investment in employee development, affective commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Using a self-administered questionnaire, 177 tellers of private sector commercial banks in Pakistan were randomly selected and surveyed to test a multiple mediation model, to see if the relationship between...
March 2011
Leadership, job satisfaction and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors in flight attendants
Recent research in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) has gradually shifted to service industry and its employees. This study investigated the relationships between leadership, job satisfaction, and service-oriented OCBs in airline flight attendants. The sample included 228 flight attendants employed in international airlines operating in Taiwan. The results indicated that leadership and job...
March 2011
Incorporating a cost lessening distribution policy into a production system with random scrap rate
This paper incorporates a cost lessening product distribution policy into a production system with random scrap rate, with the purpose of cutting down producer’s inventory holding cost. The present study reconsiders a production lot sizing problem examined by a prior paper and improves its replenishment lot size solution in terms of stock holding cost reduction. An n+1 product distribution policy...
March 2011
Success factors of entrepreneurial activity in the Overberg region of Western Cape, South Africa
Entrepreneurial activities around the world accounted for about 70% of the global GDP on average. However, in South Africa entrepreneurial activities only share 40% of the country’s GDP. With an unemployment rate of approximately 25%, accelerating entrepreneurial activity becomes crucial in a developing country like South Africa. A recent study executed in the Overberg rural district has shown vast...
March 2011
An approach to Safety Management System (SMS) implementation in aircraft operations
Each year a large number of approach and landing accidents occur worldwide. Safety statistics of commercial airline operators show that on average there is almost one occurrence every week. Each year there is also a number of approach and landing accidents that resulted in third party damage and injuries on the ground. To operators it is therefore interesting to know how big their risk is and what possible...
March 2011
Film festivals: A holistic communication tool for the film industry
This research proposed a conceptual framework in which film festivals represent a holistic communication tool employed by the film industry. From this perspective, film festivals require careful advance planning pertaining to both general financial outcomes and specific objectives for separate target audiences. This research offered a novel approach to investigations of film festivals. Therefore, it began...
March 2011
Training as a nexus for entrepreneurial emergence: An appraisal of OGEGEP trainees experience in Ogun State, Nigeria
The success, or otherwise, of any commercial venture is a function of many factors among which is training. A business would survive the initial challenges if it is able to maximize its core competences in order to assert its strengths, minimize its frailties and overcome its threats. Small scale enterprises have been identified as the drivers of economies in Sub-Sahara Africa. However, the rate at which...
March 2011
Role and transition of public service in Malaysia: An effective governance perspective
Effective governance (EG) is a new term, with modified concept, popularized for governing a country well, particularly since the new millennium age. It has become more important with the urge and challenge of globalization, whereby managing a country is not by virtue of one man that is the leader, but a combination of three major entities, that is, the state, the private sector and the citizens. This article...
March 2011
Team management: The Islamic paradigm
The success of any organization greatly depends on the collective performance of teams working under that umbrella. Therefore to measure/monitor the effectiveness of a team is of vital importance for both practitioners and researchers. Many researchers have presented their models explaining how to respond to this concern. This study critically analyzes the existing methods of assessing effectiveness of teams...
March 2011
The fit between organizational B2B e-commerce policy, IT maturity and evaluation practices on B2B e-commerce performance in Australian healthcare organizations
Healthcare organizations have started to make use of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce technologies in overcoming many of the challenges they face. However, healthcare executives have found it increasingly difficult to justify rising IT expenditures and are often under pressure to find a way to evaluate the contribution of their B2B e-commerce investments to business performance, as well as to find...
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