Ishak Ismail

Service quality, client satisfaction and loyalty towards audit firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between audit service quality, client satisfaction and loyalty to the audit firms. SERVQUAL model was used to measure the perceptions and expectations of public listed companies on the services received from audit firms.Design/methodology/approach – The five dimensions of SERVQUAL, i.e. reliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy and responsiveness was used to measure the service quality of audit firms. The research was conducted using primary data. Questionnaires were sent to 500 public listed companies listed in Bursa Saham Malaysia for year 2005.Findings – The public listed companies were satisfied with the tangible dimension but were dissatisfied with the other four dimensions. The most dissatisfied dimension was empathy. Customer satisfaction was found to partially mediate the relationship of reliability and customer loyalty.Research limitations/implications – The small sample size is a limitation of the study. Also, the study examin...

The reliance of external auditors on internal auditors

External auditors often rely on other professionals for the audit of the financial statements of their clients. Generally, external auditors rely on clients’ internal auditors. Reliance on internal auditors results in cost savings to the client. The objective of this study is to determine which of the criteria as mentioned by AI 610 will be used by the external auditors to evaluate the work of the internal auditors. Respondents of the study consist of those from the big four and non‐big four firms located in Kedah and Penang. A one‐quarter replicate of 28 Kempthornes design was used to determine the experimental task. The findings of the study indicate that technical competence and scope of function are the two most important criteria that external auditors consider in their reliance on internal auditors. Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA), being the standard setter of the auditing standards in Malaysia, will have to develop precise and operational criteria for these factors in planning the audits. The study also shows that there was consistency in audit judgement.

Perceived justice in service recovery and switching intention: Evidence from Malaysian mobile telecommunication industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational justices on switching intentions.Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered on distributive, procedural, interpersonal, informational justices and switching intentions by means of a survey from prepaid mobile subscribers in Malaysia.Findings – The results show that the effects of procedural justices on switching intentions were stronger than distributive and informational justices. However, the results did not indicate a significant relationship between interpersonal justice and switching intentions.Research limitations/implications – The paper examines only one service context; consequently, the results cannot be generalized for other services in the industry.Practical implications – The results of this study are useful for Malaysian marketing practitioners in the overly saturated and highly competitive mobile telecommunication industry.Originality/value – Unlike prev...

The impact of firm reputation on customers’ responses to service failure: the role of failure attributions

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to assess the influence firm reputation on behavioral intentions and to examine the moderating role of failure attributions in the relationship between firm reputation and behavioral intentions.Design/methodology/approach – The sample used in this study consists of 127 airline passengers in an airport in Iran. The data were collected via a structured survey.Findings – Based on the findings firm reputation has a significant and positive relationship with behavioral intention. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses confirmed the moderating role of failure attributions in the relationship between firm reputation and behavioral intentions.Research limitations/implications – This study examines only one service context; consequently, the results cannot be generalized to other service industries.Practical implications – By understanding the important role of firm reputation, service organizations understand that carefully building and maintaining reputation is para...

Relationships of perceived justice to service recovery, service failure attributions, recovery satisfaction, and loyalty in the context of airline travelers.

This study examines the relationships between perceived justice with service recovery (distributive, procedural, interactional, and informational), failure attributions (stability and controllability), recovery satisfaction, and loyalty. We collected data on perceived justice, failure attribution, recovery satisfaction, and customer loyalty through a survey of 263 airline passengers in Malaysia who experienced a service failure and subsequently a service recovery within the past year. The results reveal a significant relationship between perceived justice and recovery satisfaction in terms of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Recovery satisfaction had a significant effect on customer loyalty. The inclusion of failure attributions of stability and controllability as moderators indicates that both stability and controllability moderated the relationship between perceived justice and recovery satisfaction in terms of procedural, interactional, and informational justice, implying that the lower the stability and controllability of service failure, the stronger the positive relationship between procedural and informational justice and recovery satisfaction. These results have important implications for marketing theory and management.

Scale development and validation for DART model of value co-creation process on innovation strategy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to validate scale measurements of dialogue, access, risk assessment and transparency (DART) constructs, as the process of value-co-creation, and then understand its effect on innovation strategy. Further, the paper explores the influence of innovation strategy on the market performance. Design/methodology/approach – The model links four dimensions of DART as building blocks of value co-creation, to the innovation strategy. Further, the model links innovation strategy to the market performance. In total, five hypotheses are postulated. Testing was conducted through structural equation modeling using PLS-SEM, utilizing data from 249 managers of telecommunication companies in Malaysia. Findings – The result of the analysis revealed dialogue, risk assessment and transparency having a significant positive relationship with innovation strategy. These results signified the importance of value co-creation to formulate an innovation strategy of the firms. The finding of the r...

Effects of Stability and Controllability Attribution on Service Recovery Evaluation in the Context of the Airline Industry

ABSTRACT This study examines the relationships between service recovery, stability and controllability attribution, recovery satisfaction, and customer loyalty. We collected data on service recovery, failure attribution, recovery satisfaction, and customer loyalty through a survey of airline passengers in Malaysia. The results indicate significant positive relationships between service recovery dimensions and recovery satisfaction, and between recovery satisfaction and customer loyalty. Both stability and controllability were negatively related to recovery satisfaction. The results provide support for the moderating effects of service failure attribution (stability and controllability) in the recovery process dimension. By recognizing the important role of stability and controllability attribution and its negative effects, service management should become highly involved in facilitating appropriate service recovery to satisfy customers after a failure. The results have important implications and suggest some interesting avenues for future research.

The relationship of service failure attributions, service recovery justice and recovery satisfaction in the context of airlines.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of failure attributions (stability and controllability) and service recovery justice (i.e. distributive justice, interactional justice, and procedural justice) to recovery satisfaction and the moderating relationship of service recovery justice on the link between failure attributions and recovery satisfaction in the context of airline. Data were gathered by means of a survey from airline passengers who experienced a service failure and subsequently a service recovery within the past year. The findings of this study suggest that stability and controllability have a negative relationship with recovery satisfaction. The results also indicate that distributive and procedural justices have a positive relationship with recovery satisfaction. Additionally, the results found that among service recovery justice dimensions, only distributive and procedural justice moderate the relationship between stability and recovery satisfaction. Moreover, only procedural satisfaction moderates the relationship between controllability and recovery satisfaction. Managerial implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

The pattern of international tourist arrivals and revenue estimates for Malaysia: 2002-2007.

This article discusses the applications and the results of the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) forecasting model to predict the international tourist arrivals into Malaysia using the monthly data from January 2002 through December 2007. Based on the arrivals and the average length of stay, the revenue was computed and the time series forecast model was fitted to estimate the total revenue for the Malaysian tourism industry. International arrivals into Malaysia remained resilient and have been dominant by Asian visitors. The five Asian countries, namely Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, and China, together accounted for 75.3% of the international tourist arrivals into Malaysia and contributed to 66.5%, of the Malaysian tourism revenue for the year 2007. The forecasting models were also fitted for tourists coming into Malaysia from these five countries for future planning and managerial applications. It is worthwhile to mention that the forecasted arrivals and revenue for the year 2008 almost coincide with the actual Malaysian official tourism figures and the variation is negligible, which strengthens the validity and the robustness of the fitted models.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): Evaluation of the technology supporting the development of Program Latihan Khidmat Negara (PLKN) participants tracking application

Radio Frequency Identification technology has been adopted into goods tracking, human tracking and identification of valuable items to fulfill the needs of identification. Reliable RFID communication requires good communication protocols as well as decision support protocols. The purpose of this paper is to review the current RFID technology and to explain the anti-collision protocol which is the communication protocol that eliminates the collisions between reader and tag as it will prevent reader from obtaining data from tags. Besides, this paper will also introduce the positioning protocol as a part of decision support protocol which is used to help the system to determine the location of required tag. These protocols are the random back-off anti-collision protocol which uses counter to generate random duration for next transmission to avoid tags from transmitting at the same time, simple positioning protocol and receiving power based triangulation method using Heronpsilas formula for positioning protocol use the concept multi readers to formulate the location of tag. Simulations have been done to illustrate how the protocols work. These protocols may be used in certain low end systems which cater fewer functions and limited number of mobility tags. As a conclusion, these protocols are able to be implemented into National Service participants tracking application to fulfill the requirements of tracking moving objects.