Empirical Research on the Relationship between Consumer Attitudes and Values towards Advertisements by Mobile Operators

The purpose of this article is to present research on consumer attitudes to mobile operator advertising, as well as their relationship with components of the value of consumers of mobile products and services. The Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion, which examines the variability of attitudes toward advertising, as well as the Schwartz method for changing values, are applied. The obtained results clearly show the presence of a relationship between the studied indicators, as well as behavioral changes in the individual target groups. The leading summary is that females aged 21 to 24 are more strongly influenced by advertising of mobile operators and the same target group shows higher values for establishing benevolence towards different family members and universalism as shows tolerance to the needs of representatives of individual social groups.

Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Decision: Evidence from Fast Food Restaurants

Service quality is a major determinant of customer satisfaction and consequently a repurchase decision in the fast food restaurants’ (FFRs) industry. Nevertheless, prompt and efficient services alone may not guarantee a restaurant a place in today’s hyper- competitive marketplace. Therefore, this study was conceived to examine the impact of food quality (FQ), service quality (SQ), perceived value (PV) and restaurant environment (RE) on customer re-purchase decision, mediated by customer satisfaction (CS). Data for the study were obtained from a sample of 320 consumers drawn from 12 FFRs in three major towns in Delta State, Nigeria. Multiple and hierarchical regressions were used to analyse the data generated. The findings indicated that FQ, SQ, PV and RE exerted positive and significant effects on CS and re-purchase decision. The results also showed that CS fully mediated the relationship between SQ and repurchase decision, but the meditational influence was only partially for FQ, PV and RE; implying that FQ, PV and RE have their own direct influence on RPD besides through SQ. Given the impact of FQ, SQ, PV and RE on CS and repurchase decision, restaurants’ managers need to continually improve on the quality of their services, environment and offerings to sustain the patronage of their clients in order to survive in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace.

Effect of Risk Mitigation on Profitability of Insurance Industries in Nigeria

Risk management plays a critical part in every organization‘s profit maximization through risk cost minimization for wise protection, which cannot be overstated. Risk mitigation (rmt), risk monitoring (rmn), risk management environment, procedure, and policies (epp), and risk measurement (rme) in relation to the profitability of the insurance industry in Nigeria were randomly selected from a wellstructured 5-point Likert scale questionnaire ranging rom ‘5 strongly agree‘ to ‘4 agree‘, ‘3 undecided‘ to ‘1 strongly disagree‘. Using the StataSE 14 statistical software, one hundred and twenty (120) questionnaires were recovered from respondents, accounting for 83 percent of the total questionnaires sent using the multiple regression statistical methodology. Risk reduction and risk monitoring have a considerable impact on the profitability of insurance companies in Nigeria, according to the findings. As a result, it concluded that risk mitigation and monitoring are important factors in determining industry profitability, and those insurance regulators should work to ensure that risk identification, assessment, measurement, and control mechanisms are implemented in accordance with best global practices in order to avoid financial crises and improve insurance performance.

Industrial Actors` Perceptions of Industrial Disputes in Public Universities

There has always been serious concern about how industrial actors in public universities in Nigeria perceive industrial disputes as a means of enforcing collective agreements jointly reached and signed. A group may likely see industrial disputes as unnecessary and destructive while others may see it as a veritable tool for enforcing their labour rights. This study therefore examined the industrial actors’ (university management, academic staff and non-teaching staff) perception of industrial disputes in public universities in Southwest, Nigeria. Descriptive research survey design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of the management staff and all the staff of public universities in Southwest, Nigeria. The sample size of the study was 280 respondents (80 management staff, 100 academic staff and 100 non-teaching staff) randomly selected from four public universities across Southwest geo-political zone. Data was collected through a selfdesigned questionnaire. T-test analysis was used to analyze the three hypotheses raised at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there was significant difference in the way university management, academic and non-teaching staff perceive industrial dispute while there is no significant difference in the way academic and non-teaching staff perceive industrial disputes. It is therefore recommended that all the industrial actors in public universities in Southwest, Nigeria should not see industrial disputes as destructive engagement since disputes are naturally part of organizational existence. Effective management of industrial disputes through sincerity of purpose should be adopted by the industrial actors.

Regulation, Competition and Partnership in the Financial Sector

This article analyses current regulatory tendencies, provoked by the entry of the BigTechs in the financial services segment. Against that background, new forms of cooperation between financial institutions and the possibilities for their partnership with the financial regulators are reviewed.

Impact of Covid-19 on the Performance of The Nigeria`s Stock Market

This study identifies the structural break date in the series of All Share Index (ASI) of the Nigeria’s capital market using innovational outlier methodology with the Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root with structural break test. The study also examines the descriptive characteristics and model structure of ASI before and after the identified break date using ARIMA methodology. It uses daily data of ASI from November 27, 2018 to November 24, 2020. The results indicate that the break date is March 6, 2020. The mean results decreased after the break. The series before the break follows ARIMA (3,1,12), while it follows ARIMA (7,1,9) after the break. The diagnostic test revealed that the ARIMA (7,1,9) fails to capture the entire variation in the series. The modified model for post break period is AR(7), MA(8) and MA(9) process. However, the estimated volatility of the series decreased after the break. The study recommends that capital market studies and policies going forward should incorporate the impact of Covid-19 induced structural break.

Opportunities and Challenges of Remote Work

In a dynamic crisis situation such as the current one, the forecasts for the impact of COVID-19 on the world economy and the development of individual countries and cities are constantly changing. The impact of COVID-19 has turned many industries upside down in unexpected ways. More organizations switch to remote working environments for their employees due to the current world health crisis. The purpose of this article is to outline the opportunities and challenges facing Bulgarian employees working from home during the MarchApril 2020 state of mergency and beyond. We discuss the many advantages and disadvantages of remote work from an individual point of view.

Firm’s Attribute and Performance of Deposit Money Banks

This study investigates the impact of firm attributes on the financial performance of deposit money banks in Nigeria’s financial sector. The scope of this research covered the period 2007 – 2018 using audited financial statements and reports of nine (9) deposit money banks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The results revealed that bank liquidity has significant negative effect, while bank growth has insignificant negative effect on financial performance. On the other hand, bank size and leverage have insignificant positive effect on the financial performance of banks. It is recommended that banks should pay attention to liquidity management and use this to enhance performance. Also, the management of banks should endeavor to make use of their growth opportunities optimally.

Estimating the Determinants of Food Import Demand in Africa

This paper examines the determinants of food import demand in Africa taking the case of Nigeria using the ARDL bounds testing approach. Specifically, the study aims to estimates the short run and long run price and income elasticities of food import demand in Nigeria. The paper used annual time series data over the period 1981 to 2019. The empirical result indicates the existence of a long run equilibrium relationship between food import demand and its determinants. The long run price and income elasticities are -4.57% and 5.57%, respectively. The result shows that population and food production exert significant influence in determining food import demand in both the short run and long run while exchange rate is insignificant in the long run. The paper recommends that price and income-oriented policies will be effective measures in controlling food import demand in Nigeria.

Measuring Key Performance Indicators in Retail Trade

IThe tendency of business entities to cope with the challenges of the environment in which they operate is determined by the state and development of a complex system of evaluation indicators describing the condition and performance of the company and their time dynamics. They serve to objectively measure the extent to which the individual economic operator meets the conditions by which to be assigned to the group of successful business agents. In traditional retail trade, the most significant indicators for business evaluation are: gross (profit) margin, operating margin, turnover of inventories, gross return on investment in inventories, gross profit per employee, etc. The paper examines the key economic performance indicators of the three leading retail chains in the retail sales of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) in Bulgaria.