E-service portal for freelance community: case study in photography business

This study revealed the limitations of freelancers’ inability to perform portfolios and biographies, their performance ratings to a large community of customers. The difficulties were evident in searching for reliable, qualified and experienced freelancers from multi-channel information sources. These limitations might impact the ability of freelancers selected by customers to perform the required task to the customers’ satisfaction. This research focused on the case study of the freelance community for photography business in southern of Thailand. This aims to establish an online facility in which freelance photographers can publicize their services and performance to potential customers. The concepts entailed in web portals and e-services were the key elements in the development and ensured that its functions worked efficiently. The study employed qualitative methods were used to assess the current practices of web portal and thus determining the requirements for the e-service web portal for freelance community. The practical contribution is that it can aid the effective design and implementation of an e-service web portal for the freelance community of photography business, and it is a massive step towards promoting the freelance community in Thailand.

CHALLENGES FACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAKAFUL INDUSTRY IN BANGLADESH AND INDONESIA: A REVIEW

Takaful is the Islamic version of insurance, and the size of global takaful industry is about USD$51 billion in 2019. Limited studies have been conducted on the development of takaful sector in Bangladesh and Indonesia using a comparative approach. As such, this review aims at investigating the challenges facing the development of takaful industry in these two countries. Primary sources such as laws and regulations, and the secondary sources such as scholarly articles and books on the subject matter were reviewed to derive conclusions. This review concludes that efficiency of takaful in both countries depend on some common factors, such as having a proper and sophisticated regulatory framework for takaful with the development of required talent pool while focusing on creating awareness and education to ensure that not only the general public have the required takaful literacy; but even the existing and potential customers have the basic knowledge about takaful. Further, it is also found in this review that in order to further develop the takaful industry in both countries, it is imperative to use innovation and technology to promote takaful parallel to the conventional insurance by creating a level playing field. This review also identifies some specific issues in both countries and have suggested recommendations accordingly. It is anticipated that the outcome of this review will assist policy makers and other stakeholders to understand the inhibitions facing the development of takaful industry in these two jurisdictions with hope that these challenges can be eliminated for the sustainable development of takaful sector. Keywords: Insurance, Islamic insurance, Islamic finance, review, Shariah, Takaful. Cite as: Lubaba, S., Ahmad, A. U. F., & Muneeza, A. (2022). Challenges facing the development of Takaful industry in Bangladesh and Indonesia: A review. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 100-113. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp100-113

Management Response to Online Review: The Case of Hong Kong Luxury Hotels

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is regarded as crucial in business development. Given the intangible nature of tourism and hospitality products, potential customers find it hard to assess them before making purchase. Accordingly, online customer reviews and management responses have influential roles in their decision-making process. While a plethora of previous research focused on customer reviews, scholarly attention on how luxury hotels respond to the reviews was scant. Using content analysis, this study examines the management response characteristics of 35 luxury hotels and response style of 7 luxury chain hotels in Hong Kong. Their response characteristics including response frequency, responder’s job position, and timeliness of response were generally similar. The response style and tone (professional and conversational tones) vary with hotels even they are in the same hotel group. Implications on practice of management responses are offered for luxury hotel operators.

Environmental Aspects of the European Experience in Landscape Planning

Understanding all the possibilities of environmentally oriented landscape planning will contribute to the effective environmental planning of the territory and nature management in general. Accordingly, the purpose of the study was to investigate the experience of the European countries towards the introduction of an effective system of environmentally oriented landscape planning and improvement of territories, as well as their protection. For this purpose, it is necessary to comprehensively study the strengths and weaknesses of existing developments in the field of environmentally oriented landscape planning in Europe. An analysis of the best practices of environmentally oriented landscape planning in such countries as Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, etc. has been conducted. The findings allowed to state that the effectiveness of development and implementation of substantial planning for landscape design depends not only on the volume and depth of research, but to a very large extent from their reasonable and productive organisation. The paper summarises that in environmentally oriented landscape planning, it is first necessary to determine the reasons for planning. Before choosing the object and territory of planning, it is necessary to find out: who are the potential customers and investors – their goals and motivation; what are the problem situations and conflicts in nature management in the area; what is the practical use of the results of landscape planning; the purpose of the territory, including cartographic; the availability of source information, and more. And then make decisions regarding the stages of landscape planning, taking into account the environmental component and, accordingly, the implementation of the idea of landscape planning.

Study of E-Commerce Customer Review Capturing Process in the Indian Context

Online customer reviews provided by customers on e-commerce sites who had bought the products proved to be a key parameter. New and potential customers at the pre-purchase stage to vet the merits and demerits before buying new products listed on e-commerce sites referred to online customer reviews. However, there have been very few studies that focused on online customer review capturing process. Thus, this research work focused on the review capturing process of e-commerce websites from a customer's point of view to understand the online customer review process. A qualitative exploratory research was carried out. An open-ended semi-structured questionnaire was used to understand customer's stand on the e-commerce review capturing process. In-depth interviews were collected from customers. The data was analyzed thematic content. The study findings indicated what motivated customers to write online reviews, what inhibited them from writing reviews and what were their suggestions for the managers of e-commerce organizations towards designing better online review capturing.

Tenor of Discourse and Modality Examination in Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah

This study has examined the tenor of discourse and modality in two excerpts from Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah. The study aims at decoding the writer’s subtly encoded messages through both the interrelationships established among the participants of the selected excerpts and his use of modality. To attain such objectives, the investigation uses the descriptive quantitative and qualitative methodology. The research has arrived at valuable findings. Among several others presented in the subsection entitled interpretation of findings, the study has unveiled that power among the participants of the excerpts is unequal, contact infrequent, and affective involvement low. The tenor or social role relationship played by such participants as Major Sam, Chris Oriko, and Ikem Osodi is a formal one describing a formal situation. This implies that Achebe’s message in these excerpts is a serious one depictive of the real political unrest and the dominantly unmanageable discontent of Nigerians by the time he wrote these texts. The social role relationship carried out by the salespeople and their potential customers depict an informal tenor highlighting Achebe’s claim for a change in the Nigerians’ mind, and indirectly in the Africans’ ways of life. The overriding use of modalization over modulation in the analyzed excerpts highlights the way the writer creates a less authoritative, more suggestive tenor balancing, by this means, the power inequality inherent in the modulation.

Effects of Customized Skin Diagnosis Service on Participation-based Consumer Segmentation

Purpose: This study aimed to verify the possibility of consumer segmentation of customized cosmetic skin diagnosis services by identifying the needs of potential customers related to their consumption value, participation level, and pursuit benefits for each type of customized cosmetic service.Methods: An online survey was conducted for 13 days in September 2020 on individuals aged at least 20 years, living in Seoul and its metropolitan area. Among 483 received responses, only 393 were used for an analysis; insufficient responses and those written by residents living outside of the included region were excluded. Data were analyzed as per frequency analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, one-way ANOVA, post-hoc analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis.Results: Findings confirmed that consumer segmentation is possible in the customized cosmetic skin diagnosis services and customized ingredients services. After analyzing the average difference of consumption value, participation level, and pursuit benefits, the monthly average purchasing cost in cosmetics showed significant differences. Participation level, consumption value, and benefits were positively correlated. Participation level affects the consumption value.Conclusion: The customized cosmetic skin diagnosis service can serve as the foundation for the skin cosmetic industry development and as part of systematic and secure skincare.

TRENDS OF CONSUMER PURCHASES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA ACCORDING TO THE STIMULUS-ORGANISM-RESPONSE (SOR) MODEL

The theme of this paper is ,,Trends of Consumer Purchases via Social Media according to the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) Model’’. Social media are an important platform for entrepreneurship development, and a lot of entrepreneurs are using social media for marketing and selling activities in order to increase sales and attract potential customers. The topicality of the research is based on economic development requirements. The aim of the research – to identify the situation and to develop proposals for entrepreneurs and managers in Latvia. The tasks of the research are the following: to develop a survey, to carry out theoretical research; to develop proposals. The research period was from March until June 2021. General scientific research methods were used in the research: the monographic and descriptive methods, the survey method, the comparative analysis method for studying the concept of SOR at social networking and future development possibilities. The survey conducted in the study showed the tendencies of Latvian consumers' purchases via social media. The study hypothesis confirmed that according to the Stimulus-OrganismResponse Model, advertising, opinion leaders, and user-generated content act as the stimulus (S) to evoke positive emotions (O), which later leads to impulse purchases (R) for consumers.

Creating Promotional Mix and Improving Physical Evidence to Attract Potential Customers of Suci Shoelab

The increasing number of MSMEs in Indonesia creates even more competition among businesses, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This difficult situation causes a decline in revenue and forces MSMEs in Indonesia to find strategies to survive. This study aims at helping an MSME in the shoe laundry industry called Suci Shoelab. This study employs qualitative and business coaching methods. The data were collected through interviews with the MSME owners and the employees as well as questionnaires given to customers. Several analytical methods, namely Business Model Canvas (BMC), Porter's Five Forces analysis, PESTEL analysis, Service Marketing Mix, SWOT analysis, TOWS analysis, Gap analysis, and Pareto Analysis, were used to identify the problems and generate solutions. The findings revealed that the MSME had not promoted its products consistently and the location of Suci Shoelab was unknown to many potential customers. The MSME improved the promotional activity and placed signage to enhance its physical evidence to address this issue. Sales promotions and digital/internet marketing were also used for the promotional mix, and discount prices and drop stations were applied as promotional programs. For increasing its physical evidence, the MSME placed signage at the store to attract potential customers. After the solutions were applied, the sales of the MSME increase.