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Business Ethics Practices and Programs in Bangladesh: An Empirical Analysis
Md. Mahi Uddin, Dr. Mohammad Aktaruzzaman Khan, and Dr. Kazi Deen Mohammad
ABSTRACT
The issue of business ethics in Bangladesh is becoming important and not widely studied before. The study aims to evaluate ethical practices and programs today and for the next ten years with survey questionnaire applying non-probability purposive sampling. The study includes 43 business organizations from two largest cities, Dhaka and Chittagong. The results indicate that protecting reputation is the prime reason for ethical business while corporate scandals and rules and regulations are the influential business and external environmental factors of ethical practices. The code of conduct is the main internal ethical aspect of the Board of Directors. In addition, the ethics survey and audits are the most important effectiveness measures of ethical programs. Finally, the findings draw implications for Ministry of Legal Affairs, regulatory bodies, management, and policymakers to adapt multi-faceted, multi-targeted, and multi-tiered approaches to formulating effective programs in order to build a truly ethical enterprise.
Keywords: Business ethics; Bangladesh
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The Causal Relationship between the Consumption of Energy and Trade in Developing Countries
Seyed Morteza Afghah, Soheila Barzegar, and Zahra Shahri
ABSTRACT
As an important factor in production, energy plays a remarkable role in economic development and growth of countries, on the other hand, energy use in developing countries is to a great extent influenced by economic growth. Also, in recent decades, as a part of GDP, trade has had a significant role in the economic growth of countries. Therefore, studying the relationship between energy and trade can efficiently contribute in the policymaking of energy and foreign trade sectors. In this paper, panel unit root, panel cointegration and panel causality tests have been performed in order to investigate the relationship between energy consumption and trade among 70 developing countries during the period of 1980- 2010. These countries have been selected based on available statistics and data. These findings have policy implications for macroeconomic planners results show that in short term there is a unilateral causal relation from export (import) to consumption of energy. Common or strong causal findings also verify bilateral causality between export (import) and consumption of energy.
Keywords: consumption of energy, trade, developing countries, panel causality
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The Moderating Effect of Perceived Benefit on the Relationship between Attitude and Actual Purchase of Herbal Product in Malaysia
Sarina Ismail and Sany Sanuri Mohd Mokhtar
ABSTRACT
This study examines the moderating effect of perceived benefit on the relationship between attitude and actual purchase. Mall intercept survey was used to collect data from six various states in Malaysia. A total of 473 respondents (about 82%) completed and returned the questionnaire. A seven-point Likert scale was used to measure responses. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) path modeling (Ringle, Wende& Becker, 2015). The path coefficient results supported the direct influence of intention on actual buying. Similarly, the findings reveal that perceived risk does not moderate the relationship between product safety and buying intention.
Keywords: Buying intention, actual buying, product safety, perceived risk, consumer behavior.
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Examining the Adaptation Strategy at the Level of the Business Model (Case Study: Iran’s Food Industry)
Hadi Bastam, Asghar Moshabaki Esfahani, Asadollah Kordnaeij and Adel Azar
ABSTRACT
Given the changes in the global business environment and the internationalization of businesses, numerous companies have adopted the adaptability strategy to take the maximum benefit of opportunities available in the markets beyond their national borders. The purpose of the present study is to understand the development of the adaptability strategy beyond the product level or marketing mix. In this regard, adaptability is investigated in the business model. For this purpose, after a review of the related literature and administration of interviews; the constituent factors of this adaptive business model were reckoned by content analysis and then with regard to the impact of these factors on each other, the inter-relationships were obtained through interpretive structural modeling (ISM). Finally, the proposed model was measured using partial least squares (PLS). The results of the study indicated a good fitness for the adaptive business model. Furthermore, the proposed model showed that there are cause-effect relationships between business model components in which a change in one component brings about other changes in other dimensions.
Keywords: adaptation strategy, business model, interpretive structural modeling, partial least squares
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Factors Affecting the Success of Social Marketing: A Case of Bangladesh
Mohammad Solaiman, Mohd Suberi Bin Ab. Halim, Abdullah Osman, MahamudulHasan
ABSTRACT
Social marketing means exploiting the commercial marketing techniques to influence the behavior of the target audience. Government, non-profit institutions and private companies are engaged in a variety of social marketing projects in Bangladesh. Since the independence of Bangladeshi range of organizations are practicing social marketing techniques to solve social problems. This study attempts to find out the factors that are important for the success of social marketing in Bangladesh. The researchers have used factor analysis to decompose the variables into four meaningful factors and regression analysis to find out the effect of those variables on the success of social marketing. Results of the analysis show that benefit of the project, product, promotion and monitoring the implementation of the project are significantly and positively correlated with the success of social marketing. |
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The Impact of Firm Size on Innovative Activity: An Analysis Based on Egyptian Firm Data
Hany Elshamy ABSTRACT
The paper examines the relations between the innovation activity and the firm size. This research administers a questionnaire- based survey developed from the UK Innovation Survey (CIS). The survey covers quantitative and qualitative information addressing the innovation activities in the small and medium sized firms in Egypt during the period 2010-2012. The sample covers manufacturing firms in different regions in Egypt such as north, middle and Upper Egypt as well. The paper uses a logit model to study the relationship between the innovation activity and firm size and an ordered logit model to study the relationship between the sources of innovation and performance. This paper demonstrates there is a positive relationship between size firm and innovation. The main policy implications of these results are that innovation policies should explicitly identify their major objective and target group of firms. |
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Comparative Studies of Three Types of Product Policies (Remanufactured, Refurbished and New Products) on Warranty Cost and Profitability.
Jafar Raam Bejandi and Mahsa Soltani-Neshan
ABSTRACT
Estimating cost and profitability of warranty are the most important factors in managers’ decision making. Today employing the remanufactured and refurbished strategies are the best choices to use the best equipment as well as manage the operational cost. It also helps to enhance the profitability and protect the environment from e-waste. Although used products give an opportunity to purchase latest technology, customers are doubtful about quality and reliability of these products. Because of limitation of buying used products, some countries set warranty requirement to ensure reliability. In this paper, we aim to have a comparative view between two upgrading strategies named refurbished, remanufactured and estimating the effect of selecting these strategies on warranty cost and company’s profitability, and on the other hand, we compare this result with new product outcome. For this purpose, the failure data of 60 medical devices of a leading company has analyzed from 2013 to 2014. For each strategy (performing remanufactured,performing refurbished and buying new products), 10 devices were selected and monitored over a year. The result shows that remanufactured strategy causes reasonable warranty costs and profitability. This help manager to have a deep understanding, and decide on the profitable strategies leads to improve their competitiveness.
Keywords: remanufacture, refurbish, used products, medical market, product life cycle, warranty cost, profitability, analyzing failure data
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The Effect of Finance, Infrastructure and Training on the Performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria.
Mohammed Sani Abdullahi, Puspa Liza Ghazali, Zainudin Awang, Izah Mohd Tahir, and Nor Azman Mat Ali @ Salim
ABSTRACT
Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) play significant roles in providing employment opportunities, alleviating poverty, empowering communities, provision of goods and services, contributing toward the GDP, and achieving sustainable growth and development of the Nigerian economy. The aims of this research is to examine the effect of finance, infrastructure, and training on the performance of SMEs in Nigeria. This study used Kano State as a case study, and descriptive survey research design was used in this study. Sample size of 310 SMEs was drawn through simple random sampling out of the population of 1530 registered SMEs in Kano State, Nigeria. Primary data was employed in this study, and the data was collected through administering of close-ended structured questionnaires, but only 299 respondents respond to the questionnaires that were used for this study analysis. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software was used to analyze the respondent’s profile while Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) software was used to test the hypotheses of this study. The findings indicate that finance, infrastructure, and training have a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Nigeria. This suggests that there is a dire need for finance, infrastructure, and training to be given adequate concentration as they serve as the engine of boosting the performance of SMEs in Nigeria. Thus, it is recommended that the Government should undertake policy development work aimed at making access to fund easier for SMEs with growth potential and reduce the interest rate. The existing infrastructural facilities such as road, electricity, water supply, and telecommunication should be improved to a high standard by the Government. The Government should also encourage the SMEs entrepreneurs to make use of Entrepreneurial Development Programme (EDP) that is aimed at improving the skill level in the SMEs sector, and the SMEs entrepreneurs should inculcate the habit of training and developing their management and workforce in order to build a strong capacity for meeting these challenges.
Keywords: Finance, Infrastructure, Training, Performance, SMEs, Relationship, Economy, Nigeria.
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The Role of E-Service Capability and Research and Development Capability in Organizational Performance
Ahmad Jafarnejad and Matin Rashidi Astaneh
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to investigate the capability of e-service innovation, research and development capability and its impact in a firm’s performance outcomes. Data were collected from 120 manufacturing managers working in the industrial estates of Guilan (located in North of Iran) and analyzed using a structural equation modeling methodology. The results show that there is a significantly positive relationship between e-service and R & D capability and incremental service innovation, which, in turn, leads to new service innovation. Our analysis shows that the impact of e-service innovation on firm outcomes begins with e-service and R & D capabilities and these factors positively influences organizational outcomes. But, the results don’t show a positive relationship between e-service and R & D capability on radical service innovation.
Keywords: E-service capability, E-service innovation, R & D capability, Incremental service innovation, Radical service innovation.
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The Relationship Among the Unemployment Rate, Inflation and Child Abuse Rate in Malaysia
Mohd Shahidan Shaari, Syahira Sa’aban, Nor Hidayah Bt Harun and Dr Mohd Suberi Ab Halim
ABSTRACT
This paper attempts to shed some lights on the relationship among inflation, unemployment rate and child abuse rate in Malaysia by using data period of 1982 to 2011. This study employs ADF and PP test, Johansen co-integration test and causality test to seek for relationship among the variables. ADF and PP test show all variables are non- stationary in level and stationary in first difference. The Johansen co-integration test explains that the inflation rate and unemployment rate are correlated with the child abuse rate in the long run. The vector error correction model reveals an increase in unemployment rate causes the child abuse rate to increase in the short and long run. The causality test seems to run from the unemployment rate to child abuse rate. However, the findings show that no causality is found between the inflation rate and the child abuse rate. It is hope that the findings will assist Malaysian government to lessen the child abuse rate by controlling the unemployment rate at a minimum rate.
Keywords: Inflation rate, unemployment rate, child abuse rate.
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Hubungan Kawalan Proses Statistik (SPC) Terhadap Prestasi Organisasi Dengan Budaya Organisasi Sebagai Pemboleh Ubah Moderator
Mohd Norhasni Mohd Asaad, Rohaizah Saad dan Rushami Zien Yusoff
ABSTRAK
Dalam Kawalan Proses Statistik (SPC), pemantauan penyebaran proses mempunyai kesan yang besar kepada prestasi proses seperti pembuatan, pengurusan dan perkhidmatan. Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan adalah untuk menyelidik hubungan di antara Kawalan Proses Statistik (SPC) dengan prestasi organisasi dan juga pengaruh budaya organisasi sebagai pembolehubah moderator. Walaupun terdapat banyak kajian yang telah dijalankan berhubung dengan SPC, tetapi sedikit sahaja penyelidikan yang menyiasat kesan SPC terhadap prestasi organisasi. Sebahagian organisasi yang melaksanakan SPC menghadapi kegagalan. Antara sebabnya ialah faktor budaya organisasi yang mempengaruhi pelaksanaan SPC dan prestasi organisasi. Model Rasch digunakan dalam kajian ini kerana keupayaannya dalam mentafsir dan menganalisis keupayaan responden dalam melaksanakan perkara-perkara yang sukar. Soal selidik dalam talian telah diedarkan kepada 63 buah syarikat automotif yang dipilih secara rawak terletak di Wilayah Utara Malaysia . Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa SPC dan budaya organisasi menyumbang secara positif terhadap prestasi organisasi. Oleh itu, pelaksanaan SPC dalam budaya organisasi yang cemerlang boleh meningkatkan prestasi sesebuah organisasi.
Kata kunci: Kawalan proses statistik, prestasi organisasi, budaya organisasi, model Rasch.
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