The effect of type of company doing home delivery during a pandemic on consumers' quality perceptions and behavior

PurposeIn the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers increasingly opt for, or are forced to, use home delivery services. The authors study retailers' decisions regarding “delivery mode”, which is about outsourcing (vs. insourcing) the delivery service to a traditional delivery company or an unbranded carrier and its effects on consumers' perceived overall quality, perceived hygienic quality, and subsequently, willingness to stay with the firm beyond the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA pre-test, an experiment and a post-test were conducted with participants from the UK (Total N = 380).FindingsThe results of this study show that (1) in a pandemic, perceived hygienic quality overshadows perceived service quality as a key determinant of consumers' choices, and (2) while consumers have a relatively negative view of the hygienic level of unbranded carriers, they do not differentiate between traditional delivery carriers and retailer-branded carriers. Thus, they are equally interested in using the services of the latter ones.Originality/valueThis study shows that during a health crisis, consumers change their hierarchy of motivations to reflect the new protection motivations. The authors usher perceived hygienic quality as a variable that should be seriously considered as both a tactical and a strategic variable affecting the attractiveness of alternative home delivery methods and consumers' intentions to continue using them after the pandemic.

Ontosophy and anthropologised metaphysics: Revisiting the ontology of deities among the Igbo

Existentially, Igbo-African metaphysics swivels around ethics, morality, justice, and medicine. This state of being is evident in their credo on the ontology of the deities, which they see as a strategic variable in their hierarchy of beings and a critical agent in their quest for sane, responsible, peaceful existence and co- existence. Based on these premises, this paper interrogated these variables to establish the symmetry between them. In doing this, this research employed the critical analytic cum existential model in its analysis. After which, it became palpable that the existence and ontology of the deities accentuates the mode of operation of the Igbo-African and from that position; it was blatant that the communal life of the Igbo-African makes African metaphysics a lived-metaphysics or what I have called anthropologised-metaphysics.

EXPRESS: Religious Belief, Religious Priming, and Negative Word-of-Mouth in Everyday Service Failure Encounters

This research examines the effects of religious belief and religious priming on negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) behavior. Drawing on social exchange and norm paradigms, we theorize and find evidence of the unique effects of religious belief and religious priming on NWOM in everyday service failure encounters. Specifically, we find that religious belief is associated with higher NWOM, driven by a greater sensitivity to violations of fairness norms, which in turn reduces forgiveness. However, exposure to religious priming attenuates NWOM among more religious consumers by reducing sensitivity to violations of fairness norms, which in turn enhances forgiveness. A field study involving over 1.2 million online reviews of actual restaurant experiences, in addition to four lab studies, provides support for our theorized effects. Our study sheds light on the religion–forgiveness discrepancy by establishing the mediating role of sensitivity to fairness violations on the relationship between religion and forgiveness in the NWOM context. Further, our results demonstrate the importance of religion as a strategic variable in the management of service failure experiences, providing theoretical implications for the literature on the effects of religion on consumer behavior.

The U.S. Alkaline AA Battery Market: A Competitive Profile

This paper follows the footsteps of eleven studies that have tried to analyze the competitive profile of U.S. consumer markets: Men’s Shaving Gel, Beer, Shampoo, Shredded/Grated Cheese, Refrigerated Orange Juice, Men’s Razor-Blades, Women’s Razor-Blades, Toothpaste, Canned Soup, Coffee, and Potato Chips.Porter associates high market share with cost leadership strategy which is based on the idea of competing on a price that is lower than that of the competition. However, customer-perceived quality—not low cost—should be the underpinning of competitive strategy, because it is far more vital to long-term competitive position and profitability than any other factor. So, a superior alternative is to offer better quality vs. the competition.In most consumer markets a business seeking market share leadership should try to serve the middle class by competing in the mid-price segment; and offering quality better than that of the competition: at a price somewhat higher to signify an image of quality, and to ensure that the strategy is both profitable and sustainable in the long run. Quality, however, is a complex concept consumers generally find difficult to understand. So, they often use relative price, and a brand’s reputation, as a symbol of quality.For 2008 we chose the Alkaline AA Battery because its sales were $667 million vs. $283 million for AAA. By the same token, we have focused our analysis on AA 4-pack because it was the most popular size with 2008 sales of $190 million.In 2008 the AA 4-pack Alkaline Battery market was quite competitive with 30 brands with sales over $25,000.Using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, we tested two hypotheses: (1) That the market leader is likely to compete in the mid-price segment, and that (2) Its unit price is likely to be higher than that of the nearest competition.For 2008 the results supported Hypothesis I and II. Both the market leader Energizer, and the runner-up Duracell, were members of the mid-price segment. Moreover, the unit price of Energizer was higher than that for Duracell, as we have hypothesized.For 2007 the results did not support Hypothesis I, because Energizer found it to be a member of the premium segment, even though Duracell maintained its association with the mid-price segment. We found that relative price was a strategic variable, as hypothesized.We also discovered four strategic groups in the industry.

Investigating the Determinants of Non-Performing Loan: Loan Monitoring As a Moderating Variable

The objectives of the study are: 1) to analyze the effects of Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), Credit Risk, Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR), and Net Interest Margin (NIM) to Non- Performing Loan (NPL); 2) to analyze the role of loan monitoring in moderating the effects of CAR, credit risk, LDR, and NIM on NPL. It was a quantitative study. The subject of the study was the Republic of Indonesia Employee Cooperative (KPRI) which had saving and loan business units. Data were collected by conducting documentation (to collect data on CAR, Credit Risk, LDL, NIM, and NPL) and distributing questionnaires (to collect data on loan monitoring). Then, data were analyzed by moderated regression. The results showed that CAR and NIM did not influence NPL, credit risk and LDR had a positive effect on NPL; Then, loan monitoring moderated the effects of NIM on NPL. However; loan monitoring did not succeed to moderate the effect of CAR, credit risk, and LDR on NPL. Based on the results of the study, the cooperatives engaged in the provision of credit need to consider loan monitoring as a very strategic variable to suppress NPL. Thus; it is suggested for the future research to analyze the effectiveness of loan monitoring system at each loaning institution to suppress NPL. Keywords: Capital Adequacy Ratio, Credit Risk, Loan to Deposit Ratio, Net Income Margin, Non-Performing Loan.

Distinctive Capabilities and Performance: Empirical Evidence from Malaysian SMEs

Despite the general notion that distinctive capabilities are crucial to the success affirms, empirical studies that focused on this strategic variable in SMEs remains limited. This study seeks to address this research issue by empirically investigating 100 SMEs in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. The findings of the study suggest that the SMEs studied established capabilities in several business functional areas. In addition, the results of the correlations indicate statistically significant positive relationship between distinctive capabilities and the performance of the SMEs in this study.

ANALISIS HUBUNGAN STRATEGI BISNIS, MODEL PENGUKURAN KINERJA, KINERJA PERUSAHAAN DAN NILAI PERUSAHAAN (STUDI EMPIRIS PADA INDEKS ISLAM JAKARTA)

This study aims to obtain empirical evidence about the relationship between corporate strategy, performance measurement model, company performance and value of the firm. The research subjects are companies that have gone public and entered the Jakarta Islamic Index in 2013 until 2017. The number of samples in this study were 30 companies. By using path analysis in analyzing data, it is known that the results of this study, it can be concluded that value of the firm is directly influenced by the variable corporate performance and performance measurement model. The cost leader strategic variable influences the corporate performance and performance measurement model variables, while the product deferencial strategic directly influences corporate performance. It is hoped that this research will be used as a basis for decision making about the company's strategy and its performance measurement model.

Innovation Through Corporate Social Responsibility

In this chapter, the authors address institutional efforts in CSR carried out in two big European countries with different backgrounds but the same responsible goal for business and competitiveness: Spain and Poland. To illustrate how CSR pays off, the authors have selected two emblematic cases, one from each country: La Caixa Group and PKN Orlen. Although the degree of implementation of CSR is still different in the European countries in the European Union, and the institutional framework in Spain and Poland is clearly different, the two case-studies presented as best practices suggest promising new developments of CSR in both countries in the near future as CSR could be considered a vital component of innovation in national economies and a strategic variable of core's business determining future competitiveness through the social trend.