The Link Between Marketing Capabilities and Co-Operative Performance in Malaysia

Co-operative is a business entity established with voluntary participation to enhance the economic status of members, communities, and the country. As the third significant contributor to the nation's economic, due attention is essential in addressing some issues related to co-operative performance. Among these issues was the inability to meet the goals of the National Co-operative Policy II (2011-2020) as well as the low level of contribution to the country's GDP, despite various support provided by the government. Based on the literature, marketing capabilities are predicted to enhance co-operative performance, but less research has been conducted on this relationship, particularly in the Malaysia.Thus, 500 questionnaires were distributed to randomly selected co-operatives in Malaysia. In all, 133 sets of questionnaires were successfully collected, which showed a 27 percent response rate. This study utilises SPSS software to perform the required statistical analysis of the data survey. This study uses a simple random sampling method to select a sample based on a list of registered co-operatives from the Malaysian Co-operative Commission. Thus, this study found the marketing capabilities has positive and significant relationship with co-operative performance. The evidence from this study suggests that the co-operative needs to develop the marketing capabilities in order to enhance performance.The findings of this study will help the government to streamline the co-operative sector in Malaysia with the strategic planning and policies so that the co-operative sector would be stronger, competitive, and able to improve performance and contribution to economic as well as GDP of the country.

BRAND APPEAL AND CUSTOMERS’ PATRONAGE OF FAST FOOD FIRMS IN PORT HARCOURT

In theory, brand appeal represents an integrated notion employing a broad stretch of routes, methods and tools that may be considered as a strategy for achieving sustainable customer patronage. Although this concept has been thoroughly examined in various studies there is a research gap regarding its usage in generating customer patronage in the fast food industry. The aim of this research project is to examine and evaluate the degree of the application of brand appeal in customer patronage in fast food firms in Rivers State of Nigeria. The population of the study was 65 fast food firms, from which a sample of 39 was drawn based on the Taro Yemen’s formula. The simple random sampling technique was employed to select 200 respondents from 39fast food firms in Rivers State of Nigeria. The data were gathered by questionnaire survey on 200 respondents. 200 copies of questionnaires were received useful, obtaining a 93 percent response rate. The simple regression statistics was used to test the hypotheses. The results illustrates that emotional brand appeal has a strong, positive and significant influence on patronage intention, and a very strong, positive and significant influence on patronage action. The study also found that rational brand appeal has a strong, positive and significant influence on patronage intention and patronage action. The study therefore, concludes that brand appeal significantly influences customer patronage of fast food firms in Rivers State. The study recommends amongst others that fast food managers should focus particularly on emotional brand appeal to ensure that their companies address adequately, patronage intentions and patronage action.

Engaging employees through compensation fairness, job Involvement, organizational commitment: The roles of employee spirituality

This paper aims to investigate the role of Employee Spirituality to moderate between Compensation fairness and Employee Engagement, Job involvement and Employee Engagement, organizational commitment, and employee engagement. In this survey, 279 respondents were collected with a 75 percent response rate (139 respondents) from May to July 2020 and a 93.3 percent rate (140 questionnaires) from August until September 2020. Validity used Confirmatory Factor Analysis used KMO and Bartlett’s test, and the reliability test was based on Cronbach-Alpha. Moreover, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is used for normality test, Park test is implemented for Heteroscedasticity and Multicollinearity test. Moderator Regression Analysis is used to identify the moderator types. The results indicate that Employee Spirituality fully moderated (Pure moderator) between Compensation fairness and Employee Engagement and between Organizational Commitment and Employee Engagement. Moreover, Employee Spirituality partially moderated between Job Involvement and Employee Engagement. The research suggests to implement the model in a narrow scope and considers many variables outside the Compensation fairness, Job Involvement, and Organizational Commitment.

Critical success factors for digital library implementation in Africa: Solution focused rather than problem focused

Digital libraries continue to be an important source for indigenous content and research output in developing countries, especially in the context where traditional distribution mechanisms failed. It is therefore useful for continual research to maintain and enhance our standing on the topic and to improve ways of making digital libraries more usable and sustainable to the user community. It is with this effect that this study on the success factors of digital libraries was conducted, with the objective to identify and validate a set of critical success factors (CSFs) for digital library implementation in developing countries. To address this, a quantitative exploratory research design was employed using a web-based survey questionnaire as the data collection technique. A total of 56 item statements associated with the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework were developed and respondents were asked about their Perceived Importance and Actual Practices of those factors in digital library implementation. Digital libraries in Africa were sampled and an identified 155 digital libraries from this continent were obtained from OpenDOAR, with 111 sample size representative of the respondents. Based on a 70 percent response rate expectation, invitations were sent to respondents representing the digital libraries. After almost six months, there was a 67.7 percent response rate with 105 usable questionnaires obtained. This study revealed eight CSFs for digital library implementation in ranked order - Content, Architecture, People, Process, Standards, Location and Time, Policy and Advocacy. They are the salient factors that would not only assist to attain sustainable digital library development and implementation, but also provide guidance to library practitioners in appropriate decisions for digital library adoption. It may also help libraries to accomplish their digital library mission in the most cost effective way.

From e-Commerce Overall Quality to e-Loyalty: A Purchase-centred Framework

The e-commerce market becomes one of the markets with the most promising growth. A number of studies on e-commerce have been investigated, but only a little attention is paid to the factors that may create e-commerce customer loyalty, even though customer loyalty is one of the primary keys to improve the performance of e-commerce businesses. This research offers a conceptual model focused on purchases to investigate the factors that affect customer's loyalty and when it is formed. Specifically, this paper intends to examine the relationship between the e-commerce overall quality on the perceived usefulness, perceived value, satisfaction and trust. This paper also verifies the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived value, satisfaction and trust in the e-loyalty. The method of online survey is used for the data collection. From 1457 of the distributed questionnaires, 960 were completed and returned, resulted 65.8 percent response rate. The data is then analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method. The research findings contribute to filling the knowledge gap regarding the defining factors of customer loyalty which may help the e-commerce provider in developing e-loyalty to increase e-commerce profitability.

Retail Investors' Preferences towards Investment in Mutual Funds

This research aims to study retail investors’ preferences towards mutual funds from Gujarat perspective. For this, survey approach was used in order to solicit primary data from the respondents. The structure questionnaire was distributed among 325 respondents out of which 288 valid questionnaires were received with full response with 88.62 percent response rate. The survey was carried out in the month of August - September, 2019. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. The results of this study indicated that majority people make investment with an objective of getting tax relief; there is association between: 1) occupation and kind of investments 2) occupation and mode of investments. The findings of this study provide valuable insights to mutual funds companies and govt. about which factors affects investors’ investment decisions towards mutual funds. Moreover, investors can have ideas about what other investors think of about investment in mutual funds. The limitations of this study will create scope for further research in same domain in future.

Consulting Forester Timber Sale Practices in the US South

Private timber sale transactions are vital to the forest products industry in the US South. Consulting foresters often assist private landowners in administering timber sales, and their decisions and practices have a major impact on landowner compensation, satisfaction, and market efficiency. This study used a mixed-mode survey of consulting foresters in 11 southern states to examine contract terms, timber sale practices, and market conditions on private sales. Responses were received from 430 consultants, resulting in a 37 percent response rate. Final harvests are primarily offered to bidders, whereas thinnings are more likely to have timber prices negotiated. Pay-as-cut payment terms are typical for thinnings, but less common in the Mountains where lump sum is relatively more common. Well under 50 percent of firms from the Coastal Plain and Piedmont conduct presale inventories on thinnings, whereas nearly two-thirds of firms in the Mountains use inventories on these types of harvests. Fewer than 25 percent of responding foresters suggested that restrictive quotas reduced landowner revenue on pay-as-cut timber sales. Consulting firms reporting that sawtimber quotas were never a problem in their area reported at least two more sawtimber outlets than those concerned about restrictive mill quotas.

Understanding Brand Loyalty in Relation with Brand Affect and Brand Commitment: Evidence from Oral Care Segment

Purpose- The purpose is to examine the relationship among brand affect; brand commitment; attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty for oral care segment with special reference to Delhi and NCR. Methodology: For achieving the objective the theoretical model was tested with the help of SEM. Research scale were adopted from literature and were modified for suitability. Data was gathered from 250 respondents, 83 percent response rate was recorded, using anonymously completed questionnaire. Before undertaking the analysis; pilot testing was done followed by exploratory factor analysis; reliability and validity testing; and mediation analysis was also assessed. Findings: The result indicated that, for oral care segment, brand affect have a significant influence on both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty via brand commitment. It has been concluded that brand commitment has significant impact on behavioral loyalty. Even in the low involvement category (oral care segment), consumer purchase on the basis of attached attributes of the brand and shows attitudinal loyalty has a strong and positive influence on behavioral loyalty. This study makes an attempt to explain how all these variables are interlinked and their inter-relationship. Originality: Majority of consumer behavior research has been performed in high involvement products on the other hand very limited research is available on the oral care segment. This study tries to fill this void.

Opioid overdose history and awareness of naloxone in patients seeking outpatient detoxification

Objectives: The goal of this study was to investigate whether patients were knowledgeable about naloxone, and whether they would accept overdose (OD) education and naloxone distribution (OEND), if available.Design: This is a cross-sectional study to ascertain participants knowledge about OEND. A questionnaire was designed requesting information regarding age, gender, ethnicity, previous OD experience, type of substance(s) used, availability and use of naloxone for reversal, other treatment interventions utilized if witnessed OD, ways of seeking help for OD, knowledge about OEND, and willingness to accept OEND.Setting: Study was conducted at the ambulatory detoxification clinic of a tertiary healthcare institution.Participants: Consecutive 131 patients, who presented for primary treatment of opioid detoxification during their visits to the ambulatory detoxification clinic between a predefined timeline from October 2014 through February 2015, were invited to participate, and all 131 agreed to be included in the study. A total of 124 participants returned completed questionnaires (95 percent response rate.)Results: Overall, 68 (52 percent) of the participants indicated that they would accept OEND. A logistic regression analysis showed that younger participants (95% CI: 0.9-1, p = 0.02) and those who identified as non-white (95% CI: 0-0.8, p = 0.01) had higher odds for accepting OEND. Furthermore, prior administration of naloxone was significantly associated with OEND acceptance (95% CI: 1.6-68.6, p = 0.01).Conclusions: Results indicate more than half of participants presenting for outpatient detoxification from opioids have had an OD or witnessed an OD. More than half of the participants were willing to accept OEND. This study provides evidence that patients starting their recovery are willing to accept naloxone.

A Study on Use of Search Engines by the Faculty Members of Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts & Science, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

The aim of this study was to examine A Study on Use of Search Engines by the Faculty Members of Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts & Science, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. A well-structured questionnaire was distributed among the 176 faculties, out of which 165 duly filled copies were returned, constituting a 96.94 percent response rate. The present study demonstrates and elaborates the various aspects of use of search engines such as, use of arts and science subject search engines, material and liking of search engines, conduct to place the information from the Internet during search engines, troubles faced by the users and satisfaction rank of users though using the search engines. The results of the survey provided some of the reasons that influence the contentment with information recovery results of search engines. Internet has revolutionized the information today. The search engines contain complete searching the Internet very simple. They have emerged as a resolution to the difficulty of accessing in order source on the Net. The study recommends that there is a need to conduct the orientation programmer on search engines to help the faculty members for effective and efficient use of search engines for access the qualitative information available on the web.