Coping With the Changes That Challenge Business and Education Sectors in Thailand 4.0

This paper explores the ideas, and cases based on research that emanate from the application of the contingency theory, resource-based views theory, and the institutional theory to cope with an abruptly changing paradigm. The paper attempts to provide a holistic view of the IR 4.0 impact on the business changes and the usage of technology in the education sector among Thais. This paper stresses the role of the educational sector by creating a shift from static into dynamic triggered by the intense competition in the Thailand markets. Keeping in view such a scenario organization should be pliable and enabled enough to transform existing resources into intellectual resources. This would result in the revitalization of the entire organizational human capital from leaders to teams, and individuals contributing to morally support employee well-being and this would strengthen the reaping extraordinary organization results in terms of output. All this is seen through the lens of IR 4.0 as applied to the current Thai business and education scenario.

A regional head election’s political corruption and new styles of clientelism

Intense competition in the regional head election (Pilkada) has implications for the increasing costs that candidates have to prepare to win the competition. The high cost in the regional head election makes many regional heads, when elected, commit political corruption and practices that are more adapted to the situation, namely the new styles of clientelism. This study aims to determine the shift in the relationship between political corruption and clientelism and to see new forms of clientelism. The approach used in this research was a literature study. Documents were selected using an application from the Publish or Perish database. The results of this study indicate that first, the power of money in politics in Indonesia creates a significant dependence on economic power, which influences a high level of political corruption. Second, there are two new styles of clientelism, including buying and selling votes and patronage in the bureaucracy. This paper concludes that the various modes of political corruption and new styles of clientelism that occur underline political vulnerabilities at the local level due to the broad elaboration of regional authority discretion.

Impact of Relationship Marketing on Customer Loyalty in Banking Sector of Pakistan

This study is a contribution towards marketing literature by analyzing the impact of Relationship Marketing (RM) on Customer Loyalty. Every business organization tries to attract and retain customers for a longer period of time. In recent years an intense competition in banking sector of Pakistan is witnessed as the industry has stretched and become very competitive, where retaining customers in long run become important for every bank. Relationship marketing emphasizes on the continuity of long term relationship with the patrons. Numerous marketing strategies have been employed by banking sector to increase customer base, reduce turn over and to spread positive word of mouth of product and services. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of relationship marketing practices such as (Trust, Commitment, Communication, Competence and Customer Satisfaction) on customer loyalty in Banking Sector of Pakistan. For this purpose, data is collected with the help of 150questionnaires across Pakistan. Statistical analysis is performed on the data using multiple regression analysis and reliability test. The results of the study show that all the five constructs of relationship marketing (mentioned above) have significant and positive relationship with customer loyalty. The factors are proved to be significant drivers of customer loyalty in banking sector of Pakistan. The study recommends that for retaining long-run customer loyalty, banks should consider relationship marketing as a core strategy. Hence, relationship marketing is important for banks to survive and excel in current intense competition.

Measuring the Relative Efficiency of Government Banks Using Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) For The Period (2010-2019)

The research aims to apply the data envelope analysis method to measure the efficiency of Iraqi government banks for the period (2010-2019) and to implement the objectives of the research, the method of data envelope analysis was chosen on (7) government banks for the period (2010-2019), this research means measuring the efficiency of the Iraqi banking system The research reached a main conclusion that (6) banks did not achieve efficiency, namely (Al-Rafidain Bank, Al-Rasheed Bank, Agricultural Bank, Industrial Bank, Real Estate Bank, Trade Bank of Iraq) and one bank that achieved efficiency during the period 2010-2019, which is (Al-Nahrain Bank Islamic(. Therefore, the research recommends Iraqi government banks to work to raise their efficiency by modernizing banks to strengthen their financial positions, and to provide new banking services to face intense competition in light of the liberalization of banking services trade, and the research recommends the necessity of financing provided by government banks to achieve economic development.

Evaluating mechanisms that could support credible reputations and cooperation: cross-checking and social bonding

Gossip is believed to be an informal device that alleviates the problem of cooperation in humans. Communication about previous acts and passing on reputational information could be valuable for conditional action in cooperation problems and pose a punishment threat to defectors. It is an open question, however, what kind of mechanisms can make gossip honest and credible and reputational information reliable, especially if intense competition for reputations does not exclusively dictate passing on honest information. We propose two mechanisms that could support the honesty and credibility of gossip under such a conflict of interest. One is the possibility of voluntary checks of received evaluative information from different sources and the other is social bonding between the sender and the receiver. We tested the efficiency of cross-checking and social bonding in a laboratory experiment where subjects played the Prisoner's Dilemma with gossip interactions. Although individuals had confidence in gossip in both conditions, we found that, overall, neither the opportunities for cross-checking nor bonding were able to maintain cooperation. Meanwhile, strong competition for reputation increased cooperation when individuals' payoffs depended greatly on their position relative to their rivals. Our results suggest that intense competition for reputation facilitates gossip functioning as an informal device promoting cooperation. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

The Political Crisis of 2020–2021 in Mali

The subject of consideration is the 2020 crisis in Mali. The events are viewed in the context of the geopolitical transformations taking place in West Africa. The purpose of the study is to find out the causes and consequences of military and political cataclysms that threaten the state integrity of Mali and the stability of the situation in Tropical Africa. The situation in Mali remains poorly known: it is not clear what forces will determine the vector of its political and military-strategic development. It is obvious that France is losing its influence in the region, which is largely due to the emergence of new actors in international relations here. This, in turn, allows Africans to diversify their foreign economic and political orientations. The author assumes that the named processes will provoke an intense competition for influence in the countries of Tropical Africa.

The effect of e-service quality on e-loyalty mediated by e-trust and brand image variables

The amount of e-wallet providers in Indonesia is so many, so there is intense competition between each e-wallet provider. The tighter competition for e-wallet, makes users not only loyal to one type of e-wallet and makes users switch brands or providers in using an e-wallet. This study aims to investigate the factors that influence e-service quality on e-loyalty mediated by e-trust and brand image. This research is categorized as explanatory research. Respondents in this study were users of the OVO e-wallet application in Malang City, determining the number of samples in this study using a purposive sampling technique with a sample of 200 respondents. The method of collecting data is using a questionnaire, the data is analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results showed that e-service quality had no significant effect on e-loyalty. E-service quality has a significant effect on e-trust, e-trust has a significant effect on e-loyalty. E-service quality has a significant effect on brand image, brand image has a significant effect on e-loyalty. E-trust and brand image can play a fully mediating role in the relationship between e-service quality and e-loyalty. OVO is expected to continue to maintain and increase e-trust because it is proven in this research that e-trust has the greatest influence on e-loyalty so that it can be a competitive advantage for OVO. Keywords: e-service quality, e-loyalty, e-trust, brand image.

Curse Tablets

In Greco-Roman antiquity the intense competition (agōn) between opponents in the sporting arena was echoed by an equally fierce competition of magical materials inside and outside the venue. Curse tablets (Gr. katadesmoi, L. defixiones), phylacteries, protective magical texts worn on or near the person, and other magical materials, symbols, and rituals all competed with each other to advance or retard the performance of the competitors in the event. Extant tablets come from the early imperial period to the 6th century ce, but their use in the classical and Hellenistic periods is likely. The extant sport-related tablets contain curses relating to wrestling and running, beast-hunting in the arena (venatio), and chariot-racing in the circus, with tablets relating to the latter predominating. As chariot-racing in the empire became an increasingly high-stakes event and connected with competition among the factions, their supporters, and the ruling elite, the practice of magic to influence outcomes of the races is increasingly mentioned in sources of the period as a source of concern.

Methodological recommendations for the evaluation of freight forwarding services

Individualization of service is the most reasonable way to implement a customeroriented approach in freight forwarding services in conditions of intense competition. The article considers the structure and content of the main mathematical methods for assessing consumer loyalty. The necessity of developing an indicator of service individualization and its systematic use in the practice of organizations` activities for the growth of competitiveness is actualized. The conditions of application of the service individualization method in practice are studied. The systematic use of this indicator will allow an organization in the field of freight forwarding services to form partnerships with customers, increase their satisfaction and loyalty, and ensure a sustainable nature of interaction with customers in the long term. In this regard, the assessment of client performance indicators is the basis for the development of an organization’s strategy.

DSS for best e-commerce selection using AHP-WASPAS and AHP-MOORA methods

eIQ Consumer Pulse 2019 determines the 6 largest e-commerce in Indonesia, namely Blibli, Bukalapak, JD.id, Lazada Indonesia, Shopee and Tokopedia. This is due to an increase in e-commerce transactions. The COVID-19 pandemic, which emphasizes social distancing and physical distancing, has also played a role in increasing these transactions. Indonesia is also predicted to become the market leader in Southeast Asia due to this. On the other hand, each e-commerce customer has their preferences in choosing e-commerce to use in transactions. Various criteria make customers confused due to intense competition between e-commerce companies. DSS is a solution in choosing the right e-commerce for each customer's preferences. The AHP-WASPAS and AHP-MOORA methods can be used in calculations for determining favorite e-commerce in Indonesia. The CRISP-DM framework also helps in preparing the research flow well. 3 decision-makers are used to provide weighting criteria using AHP. The results of this study indicate that the Tokopedia alternative is the best e-commerce, with a preference value of 0.8964 for AHP-WASPAS and 0.4245 for AHP-MOORA. The second and third places are Bukalapak and Lazada, respectively. The weighting of the criteria by the decision-maker, the alternative normalization process and the calculation technique for the preference value have a significant impact on the ranking results.