ARE WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS’ BUSINESS PERFORMANCES INFLUENCED BY FINANCIAL RESOURCES? EMPOWERING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN MALAYSIA THROUGH FINANCIAL RESOURCES POST-COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Entrepreneurship has always been women's interest, and women have risen in the business arena. On the other hand, statistic shows that Malaysian women's participation in entrepreneurship is still minute but vital to Malaysia's economic development, as indicated by previous researchers. Additionally, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused adverse effects on women-owned businesses in Malaysia. This research aims to offer an insight into how financial capital, the amount of capital needed, and personal savings of women entrepreneurs induces business performance among women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. This study used quantitative methods to produce empirical outcomes and substantiations to answer the research questions. A total of 312 women entrepreneurs participated in this study which facilitated the findings and conclusions. The results demonstrated that financial capital, the amount of capital needed, and personal savings were statistically significant for the women entrepreneurs post Covid-19. Additionally, the findings of this research will undoubtedly give confidence to the women entrepreneurs to come out of the Covid-19 shock and operate their business more remarkably as well as continue to progress and enhance their business performance taking into account the significance of financial resources. JEL: L20; L23 <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0995/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

PARADOXICAL PRACTICES IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF A COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION / PARADOXES ORGANISATIONNAL DANS LES ORGANISATIONS PUBLIQUES : CAS D'UNE ORGANISATION A CARACTERE COMMERCIAL ET INDUSTRIEL

Public sector organizations are by nature complex multifunctional entities, attempting to reconcile partially conflicting objectives and considerations (Perrow, 1972). The advent of new public management (NPM) has only increased the number of paradoxes to be faced, since these new managerial requirements, focused on performance, efficiency and even profitability, were added to those, very present, linked to the essential principles of public action. In this study, we address the paradoxical nature of the daily work of proximity managers and identify strategies for managing the paradoxes they face. Our results confirmed two key points: 1) the presence of organizational paradoxes that affect the daily work of proximity managers; and 2) that proximity managers can respond to paradoxical tensions by applying different defensive and active approaches. They must then show a behavioral complexity that allows them to manage the paradoxes in order to take into account the multiplicity of tendencies that are expressed within the organization. Les organisations du secteur public sont par nature des entités multifonctionnelles complexes, qui tentent de concilier des objectifs et des considérations partiellement contradictoires (Perrow, 1972). L’avènement du new public management (NPM) n’a fait qu’augmenter le nombre de paradoxes à affronter, puisque ces nouvelles exigences managériales axées sur la performance, l’efficience voire la rentabilité, venaient se rajouter à celles, bien présentes, liées aux principes essentiels de l’action publique. Dans cette étude, nous abordons la nature paradoxale du travail quotidien des cadres de proximité et nous identifions les stratégies de gestion des paradoxes auxquels ils sont confrontés. Nos résultats ont permis de confirmer deux points essentiels : 1) la présence des paradoxes organisationnels qui se répercutent au niveau du travail quotidien des cadres de proximité; et 2) Ces derniers peuvent réagir aux tensions paradoxales en appliquant différentes défensives et actives. Ils doivent alors montrer une complexité comportementale leur permettant de gérer les paradoxes afin de prendre en compte la multiplicité des tendances qui s’expriment au sein de l’organisation. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0986/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

ENHANCING THE MOTIVATION AND LEARNING PERFORMANCE IN AN ONLINE CLASSROOM WITH THE USE OF NEUROMARKETING

In recent years, the newly emerging discipline of neuromarketing, which employs brain (emotions and behaviour) research in an organisational context, has grown in prominence in academic and practice literature. With the increasing growth of online teaching, COVID-19 left no option for higher education institutions to go online. As a result, students who attend an online course are more prone to lose focus and attention, resulting in poor academic performance. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to observe the learner's behaviour while making use of an online learning platform. This study presents neuromarketing to enhance students' learning performance and motivation in an online classroom. Using a web camera, we used facial coding and eye-tracking techniques to study students' attention, motivation, and interest in an online classroom. In collaboration with Oxford Business College's marketing team, the Institute for Neuromarketing distributed video links via email, a student representative from Oxford Business College, the WhatsApp group, and a newsletter developed explicitly for that purpose to 297 students over the course of five days. To ensure the research was both realistic and feasible, the instructors in the videos were different, and students were randomly allocated to one video link lasting 90 seconds (n=142) and a second one lasting 10 minutes (n=155). An online platform for self-service called Tobii Sticky was used to measure facial coding and eye-tracking. During the 90-second online lecture, participants' gaze behaviour was tracked overtime to gather data on their attention distribution, and emotions were evaluated using facial coding. In contrast, the 10-minute film looked at emotional involvement. The findings show that students lose their listening focus when no supporting visual material or virtual board is used, even during a brief presentation. Furthermore, when they are exposed to a single shareable piece of content for longer than 5.24 minutes, their motivation and mood decline; however, when new shareable material or a class activity is introduced, their motivation and mood rise. JEL: I20; I21 <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0805/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

CUSTOMERS PERCEPTION OF SERVICE QUALITY OF NNPC RETAIL OUTLETS IN ENUGU URBAN, NIGERIA

Service quality is becoming more crucial for oil and gas firms to maintain their market shares. This study identified the perception of customers of petroleum services firm (NNPC) through the relationship of five factors along with the demographic characteristics of customers. A total of 304 retail customers who patronize petroleum filling stations have been taken for the study and convenience sampling method was adopted for collecting a sample. Factor analysis revealed five factors and results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that while age, gender, occupation have no significant effect on customer perception of service quality income and qualification on the contrary differs significantly. The paper therefore recommends among other things that, the concepts and principles of total quality management (TQM) are recommended for holistic study, in addition to contemporary marketing management issues such as relationship marketing, value analysis and permission marketing, among others. Efforts should also be made by petroleum marketers to understand the relevant factors that affect both clients’ behaviours so as to understand the strategic options to be adopted to cope with such behaviours. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0875/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

EFFECT OF CORPORATE BRANDING ON SALES PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA

The study focuses on effect of corporate branding on performance of manufacturing firms in Enugu State, Nigeria. The objective of the study is to: determine the effect of brand awareness on performance of manufacturing firms in Enugu State, Nigeria; ascertain the nature of the relationship between brand associations and sales performance of manufacturing firms in Enugu State, Nigeria and determine the influence of perceived quality on performance of manufacturing firms in Enugu State, Nigeria. The population size was 1168 out of which a sample size of 369 was realized using Cochran’s sample size at 5% error tolerance and 95% level of confidence. Instruments used for data collection were primarily questionnaire and interview. Out of 369 copies of the questionnaire that were distributed, 385 copies were returned while 11 were not returned. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient t and Simple Linear Regression Statistical tools. The findings indicate that brand awareness significantly affect performance of manufacturing firms in Enugu State, Nigeria (r = 0.864; t = 33.536; p < 0.05). That there is a positive relationship between brand associations and performance of manufacturing firms in Enugu State, Nigeria (r = 0. 812, p < .05). That perceived quality significantly influences performance of manufacturing firms in Enugu State, Nigeria (r = 0.883; t = 36.848; p < 0.05). The study concluded that branding enable customers to distinguish between different products and services and recognize what they perceive satisfies their needs the most. The study recommended that manufacturing firms should adopt brand awareness so as to ensure that customers’ recall and recognize the brand as reflected by their ability and to identify the brand under different conditions which will promote firms’ performance. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0859/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

TOWARDS A CLASSIFICATION OF FAMILY-OWNED CONSTRUCTION FIRMS IN GHANA

The Ghanaian construction industry predominated by family-owned construction firms has established its dominant impact on economic development, albeit unstructured. This literature review is to dissect extant literature bringing out the uniqueness of the sector and attempt a classification for family-owned construction firms in Ghana. Anchored in a value-free axiological tradition in which the classification criteria of family-owned construction firms can be obtained by objective means set out in the framework, this study was undertaken by an extensive literature review from journals databases, textbooks, and relevant reports and citations. The review began with searches using “AND” and “OR” operators to search abstracts, titles, and a keyword with no restriction placed on the article's date of publication. Content analysis was done of the articles and with lots of information on family-owned businesses, very few on family-owned construction firms. Existing frameworks on the classification of family-owned businesses formed the basis of this framework. The key findings indicate that small and medium-sized family firms predominate the construction industry. The physiognomies of family-owned construction firms also contribute to their proliferation and overarching importance within the sector. The novelty of this study is that it merges information from the general business and construction industry and carves criteria for which family-owned construction firms can be identified and classified. For academia, the paper contributes to the stream of knowledge on what constitutes family-owned construction firms whilst exposing the lack of research in this constituency. It also serves as the foundation upon which future research can be conducted in the field of family-owned construction firms. For practitioners and policymakers, the paper offers insights into how to identify family-owned construction firms to be able to distinguish them for targeted support to grow the economy. Future research should be targeted at examining the growth and sustainability of family-owned construction firms. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0885/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

HOTEL INDUSTRY COMPETITIVENESS IN COVID 19 PANDEMIC ENVIRONMENT IN KENYA: HOW TECHNOLOGICALLY READY ARE THE HOTELS?

Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on te totel industry leading to deep losses among industry players and forcing some to shut down altogether. For those that would survive the crisis, their competitiveness could be at risk unless they demonstrate strategic readiness. The competitiveness found in modern organizations is, however, increasingly determined by the strategic readiness or capability of it assets, notably technology. However, the strategic readiness of the hotel industry needed to be established. Therefore, this paper explores the strategic teachnology readiness of the star-rated hotels in Kenya for competitiveness in the Covid 19 pandemic environment. The paper is guided by the Chamberlain's theory of strategy. A descriptive cross sectional survey design targeting 138 star-rated hotels in the country selected through systematic random sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires and interview schedules. Qualitative data was analyzed using content anaysis with the aid of Nvivo software while quantitative data was analyzed using both ddescriptive and inferential statistical analysis with the aid of SPSS version 24.0. Specifically, the study used the bivariate regression model to assess the relationship between the variables. The study found that technology readiness significantly influenced the competitiveness of star-rated hotels in the Covid 19 pandemic environment in Kenya. There is need for the hotels to adopt a more proacticve approach in setting their technological systems for any eventualities as this will be less expensive and enable their users to be more acquainted with the systems in advance. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0892/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

SOCIAL MEDIA AND STUDENTS’ CHOICE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION

Over the past decade, online social networks (OSN) have become ingrained in our daily lives. They have changed the way young people live and become one of the most important means of communication and entertainment. The use of social media by teens and young adults is on the rise. Higher education institutions recognise the value of social media as a tool of communication to provide information to target students and use its platforms to advertise their programmes to prospective students. Students also use Social Media and Facebook to access and analyse information to make informed study decisions. The current study examines how social media in general, and Facebook in particular, influences students' choice of study programme and Higher Education Institute (HEI). Quantitative research methods were employed as being most appropriate for this particular study. A total of 170 students from Oxford Business College (OBC), U.K., participated voluntarily in the survey; sixty-three (63) male and one hundred and seven (107) female students. All students completed a survey questionnaire based on four sections (A, B, C and D) comprising fifteen questions primarily based on the Likert scale. Simple descriptive statistics and SPSS were used to identify and analyse the factors students considered most important (influential) in their (the students’) choice of programme of study and HEI. The most popular social media site was Facebook, followed by Instagram. In regards to influence, Facebook seems to be more influential than other social media sites. It is also obvious that Facebook has been used as a marketing tool by the majority of HEIs. We do not make any claims regarding the generalisability of our study’s findings because of the small sample size and convenience sampling used in the study. However, the results generally support what is already known about the most popular social media site - Facebook - as having a positive influence on students’ choice of programme and Higher Education Institute. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0892/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

INFLUENCE OF PERCEIVED VALUE ON CUSTOMER RETENTION AMONG MOBILE PHONE USERS IN THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN WESTERN REGION OF KENYA

Organizations have embraced the concept customer relationship management practices since it focuses on managing relationship between its current and prospective customer base hence helping in building long lasting relationships which consequently give the organization the joy of retained customers. The specific objective of this study is to determine the effect of perceived value on customer retention. The study was guided by the social exchange theory which focused on the fundamental principle that humans in social situations choose behaviors that maximize their likelihood of meeting self-interests in those situations. Descriptive and explanatory research designs were utilized in this study and the following networks were sampled; Safaricom, Airtel, Orange and, yuMobile A questionnaire was used to collect data from sample size of 222 respondents who were sampled from the staff of public universities in the Western region which included Moi, Masinde Muliro, Maseno, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, University of Eldoret and Kisii University. Data collected was analyzed by use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Multiple regressions were used to establish the effect perceived value and customer Retention. The results revealed that Perceived value had significant effect on Customer retention. The study recommends that service providers should put more emphasis on Customer perceived value they influence customer retention. The study provides new theoretical insight into factors influencing customer retention. JEL: L20; L22; L63 <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0865/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE STUDENT’S DECISION TO PURSUE, SUSTAIN OR TERMINATE THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNIVERSITY

The overall purpose of the study is to determine key factors that influence students in the quest to continue their relationship with their university or to quit. The study employed the use of the descriptive design. Data was collected from three private and public universities in Ghana. These were to ensure equal representation from both sectors. The study used standardized questionnaires as the main source of data collection instrument. In terms of the analysis of data, the study employed the use of the statistical package for social sciences version 21. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. it is evident that fulfilment was significant in determining student continues relationship with university (β= 0.713, p=0.014). Furthermore, the table also reveals that there was a positive and significant relationship between maximum academic support individuals had and their continuous relationship with university (β= 0.511, p=0.000). Thus, maximum academic support individuals had was significant to their investment behavior after controlling for all other demographics. This was in line with the assertions of Tandoh (2011) when he indicated that factors such as fulfilment, reward for hardwork, fulfilment and the likes can affect hugely the continuous relationship with university by individuals. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0895/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>