Kalthom Abdullah

Compliance to Islamic marketing practices among businesses in Malaysia

Purpose – This research paper aims to explore the perceptions of Muslim consumers of the degree of compliance of Malaysian businesses to Islamic marketing practices and promotional strategies.Design/methodology/approach – The perceptions of the Muslim consumers were examined by distributing a self‐administered survey questionnaire to a sample of 450 Muslim respondents residing in the major towns in Peninsular Malaysia. Items used in the questionnaire were derived from the basic guidelines provided in the Quran and the Sunnah on the conduct of business practices, specifically on the general marketing and promotional practices used.Findings – Findings suggest that though there is an awareness of these regulations and practices, not many businesses in Malaysia are perceived to be complying with them both with respect to general Islamic marketing principles and with recommended Islamic promotional practices. There was also a significant difference in opinions expressed by Muslim consumers due to the influence...

Spillover effects of foreign hypermarkets on domestic suppliers in Malaysia

– Since the mid‐1990s, there has been a rapid expansion of large‐scale foreign retailers in many countries across Southeast Asia, Central Europe and Latin America. This emerging trend has triggered a number of research interests on the issue of retail globalization. The research aims to consider the entry of foreign hypermarkets in Malaysia and their impact on the development and growth of domestic suppliers and manufacturers., – This study uses both primary and secondary data. Secondary data were drawn from industry sources which included government departments, economic reports, retailing magazines and companies, web sites. Meanwhile, primary data are collected using mail survey questionnaire and face‐to‐face interviews., – The findings of this study indicate that foreign hypermarkets play a very important role in the development and growth of the domestic suppliers via backward linkages. The main forms of linkages are product supply, informational linkages, assistance with inventory management, technical support and quality assurance and procurement systems. A majority of the firms indicated that they benefited substantially from the presence of foreign hypermarkets; however, they also face several challenges brought about by imposition of several unfair terms and procurement policy., – The findings are largely derived from the experience encountered by domestic firms who participated in the survey. Thus, it is believed that their views could definitely help all the parties including the policymakers and researchers to better understand the impact of foreign hypermarkets on local businesses and take appropriate policy measures.

The impact of technology CSFs on customer satisfaction and the role of trust : An empirical study of the banks in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and test technology-related critical success factors (CSFs) and its impact on trust and customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – This paper analyses the causal relationship that exists between technology CSFs and customer satisfaction. It also investigates the mediating role of trust between these two. For this purpose data were collected quantitatively from 349 employees working in different banks, through self-administered questionnaire. The data analysis was conducted using SPSS and AMOS software. Factor analysis was performed to extract and decide on the number of factors underlying the measured variables of interest. Structural equation modelling was then used to examine the variables and the fitness of proposed model. Findings – The result revealed that technology CSFs positively affect customer satisfaction. Also, trust partially mediates the relationship between technology CSFs and customer satisfaction. A significant positive impact o...

Development and validation of patient satisfaction instrument

Purpose – Patient satisfaction of healthcare organisation is often used as a measure of organisational efficiency. However, there is a need for valid and reliable instruments to be used in order to ensure that the findings are accurate. This paper aims to explore the development and validation of an outpatient satisfaction instrument, with emphasis on the service of the attending physician.Design/methodology/approach – Twenty‐six items on service of the attending physician and registration service were developed for the instrument based on earlier published research. The instrument was applied to a cross‐sectional study and data collected were factor analysed to ascertain construct validity, while reliability was established by assessing the internal consistency.Findings – The instrument was found to establish excellent reliability with Cronbachs alpha 0.975, and two factors, “service of doctors” and “registration service”, were extracted from the factor analysis.Research limitations/implications – A val...

Satisfaction among Gen Y patients: A case study of students at the International Islamic University Malaysia

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to assess satisfaction of Generation Y (Gen Y) patients in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach - A patient satisfaction study was conducted on an outpatient clinic at the Health Centre of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). The majority of students at the IIUM comprise undergraduates who are within the age group categorised as Gen Y. Patient satisfaction questionnaire was used as the main method of data collection. The survey was administered to patients over a two-week period during regular semester session. Findings - More than 85 per cent of the respondents are below 25 years of age, reflecting the Gen Y demography. Significant difference is found in the level of satisfaction on the service of doctors between the younger Gen Y undergraduate students and postgraduate students; as well as the Gen Y and the employees. Level of confidence in the clinic is also lower among those of the Gen Y age group, reflecting the higher expectation of service quality. Originality/value - Patient satisfaction is an important measure of the quality of care provided by healthcare organisations. Understanding the needs of a target group of patients can be used for continuous improvement where their specific needs and expectations can be addressed. A study on patient satisfaction among the Gen Y has been rarely explored. The study is an early attempt in filling the void.

Beliefs about Islamic advertising: an exploratory study in Malaysia

Purpose This paper aims to explore people’s beliefs towards Islamic advertising. Design/methodology/approach Being exploratory in nature, this paper applies qualitative method of research by adapting thought elicitation technique of data collection. This method rests in the projective techniques of data collection and is also known as “word association technique”. It allows free thinking of respondents that helps in generating rich data which is most required in qualitative studies. Findings Various beliefs regarding Islamic advertising were extracted and categorized into different dimensions. These dimensions pertained to Islamic advertising’s possibility, nature, characteristics, real-time decisions and potential outcomes. Research limitations/implications Being an exploratory study, the data are collected from a small sample, hence raising generalization issues. Though, the same opens avenue for future research in that these dimensions should be subject to validation via large sample size. Practical implications This research will help in developing a scale to measure attitudes towards Islamic advertising, which the researchers can use to find justification for using Islamic advertising. Such application has great implications for businesses, as Islamic advertising concept stands contrary to the contemporary practices. Social implications With a growing concern for business ethics, this research is an attempt to bring Islamic ethics into advertising practice. This will not only eradicate the ill-effects of contemporary advertising but also provide sound evidence for revising advertising policies. Originality/value It adds to the developing field of Islamic marketing, by being the first attempt of its kind in paving the way for Islamic advertising.

Customer-based brand equity model for the Shariah-compliant tourism: a conceptual model from the Muslim tourists’ perspective

The authors develop a conceptual model of consumer-based brand equity for the Shariah-compliant tourism from the international Muslim tourist perspective in Malaysia. This model might aid concerned users to understand and measure the Shariah-compliant brand image and equity developed in the Muslim customers’ mind regarding quality from Islamic perspective, Islamic brand identity and personality, haram-halal, Makhru, and devotion to God. Fundamentally it is Islamic value based brand image and equity development concept which is different from a platform of building image and equity from the contemporary ethical marketing. Positive customer-based brand equity entices consumers to buy products or service and the vice versa. Shariah-compliant brand image is a different set of dimensions like brand equity as supported by Shariah-law, whereas in the conventional brand knowledge, favorableness is considered as an important dimension (Keller 2003); that is, only brand image as a main element of knowledge is conceptualized in this model because Islam does not priotize personal favorableness violating Shariah law. Different media channels (Traditional channel-based and Modern channel-based integrated Marketing communication) injecting Shariah-complaint message of tourism into International Muslim tourists based on Shariah-compliant tourism create Shariah-complaint consumer-based brand equity. Instruments appropriate for measuring customer-based brand equity are implied and, possible future research is discussed as well.

FASHION: MALAYSIAN MUSLIM WOMEN PERSPECTIVE

Domestic violence in itself is one of the most difficult, specific and wide-spread social-legal problems containing the number of signs of violation. Conflict directly concerns people connected with coexistence; it has the local, exclusive character and the fight against it is less effective in accordance with common practice of fight against the crime. Specificity of the fight against the crime of this category is expressed in both complexity of its revealing and in effective and lawful choice of coercive measures against it. The issue of domestic violence has been tabooed in many countries for a long time, because the disclosure of such issues was considered as interference in people’s private life. Although the society has gradually realized that the problem of domestic violence must not be ignored as violence endangers people’s health and life. Domestic violence is not only the problem of separate individuals, it has negative effect on the other members of the family, especially on minors and leads to distortion of their psyche and consciousness which, in its turn, leads to the formation of an unhealthy situation in the society.The author analyzes the results of the four stages of victimization surveys and Unified Crime Reports prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia in 2010-2013. The results of victimization surveys and statistics reports related to indexes and structure of crime became important after the parliamentary elections held in October 1, 2012, resulted by defeating of the ruling political party “National Movement” which was in power for the last 9 years. The new coalition “Georgian Dream”, headed by the billionaire B. Ivanishvili, radically changed political climate and announced the acceleration of democratization of the country and adopted the legislation decriminalization policy. According the new policy, the government of the country carried out the general amnesty, and released more than 60% of all prisoners from the custody. Such policy became the object of serious criticism from the part of the oppositions and some experts. They have expressed concerns about the criminal situation and decreasing level of security in the country predicted anarchy and disorganizations. This article is an attempt to assess the real situation in Georgia and the level of real threat to stability posed by criminality.Everything has his pros and cons. Debtor’s rights and obligations during court order enforcement, causes of problems that may arise. This problem is in the whole country, not just in one city or in one social class. A very large number of families from everywhere around Georgia have been affected. How and where it started will be discussed below in the text. Rights of creditors and debtors overlap in many aspects. We need to be very careful when sorting out this issue. We cannot under any circumstances make a decision with a benefit of one party while the other party will suffer losses. Georgian law on “Law Enforcement” does not support in any ways rights of debtors and all the procedures highlighted are towards forcing the debtor to pay off the debt. At this stage based on the current law, current socio-economic problems, statistics, ways on sorting out the problem, this object of studies is very important and has a very high intrinsic value in its theoretical part as well as in its practical part. If the right approach is taken it is possible to minimise the need to protect rights of creditors or debtors in the futures, because every party will be fully aware of their abilities and punishments for failures to fulfil their obligations, before signing the contractThe article includes detailed employment and uniploymant analysis in each municipality. In the analysis we use results from household survey conducted by the National Statistics Service. More specific information about the labour market at the municipal level was collected through cooperation with local municipalities. For the analysis we used information from municipalities’ web pages, telephone conversations with stakeholders, personal meetings with experts and so on. It should also be noted that a certain part of the data obtained from municipalities and from administrative territorial units have an approximate nature, but based on these information it is possible to gain some valuable conclusions and make assumptions. Terms and reality of employment analysis is carried out not only at the level of the municipality but on the country and regional ones as well.This project aims to apply learning of operations research and optimizing resources to practical cases. The aim of this problem is to maximize the the fairness of the schedule , while respecting all the constraints . In regards with the results obtained after some tests ILP has found a very good solution to our problem . Better values of the penalties associated to the shifts could be defined in order to represent the reality more accurately especially by taking into account the length of the shifts. The models can also be solved by means of optimization software. As shown in this paper, the current schedules can benefit from this work. My problem is NP-hard that it means unsolvable.My objective is to do the objective values ( diff =0.1) . The ideal must be 0 but it is impossible.there is shown in the table in 5 shifts , 20 nurses 10 weeks. We see that when we increase the number of shift the objective value is decreasing. It is fact that when we add a shift the software must do more iterations but the penalty is decreasing. We see that with the same number of iterations the penalty is smaller when we add a shift.For the welfare of modern society and any state`s correct function it is very important to have straightened working court system and to ensure every person`s court accessibility. Each step of court case management is detailed in civil procedure code. The legislation of civil procedure of Georgia foresees some mechanisms and opportunities of the restriction of court accessibility, which must be studied. The meaning of this study is stipulated by huge importance of court accessibility itself and by need of due caution during its restricting. The access to the court right is reserved not only by national, but also by international law, as evidenced by Article 42 of the Constitution [1], ``The UN Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms`` Article 6 [3]. As any study issue, this one also needs scientific, systemic approach. For fully demonstrating the issue it is advised to classify and define court accessibility restriction mechanisms. Here presented work is about this matter.The Administrative Law is a part of public law, as it is depended on the subordinate principle. It aims to realize public interest. On the other hand, Enforcement Law is part of administrative space, which regulates the rules and procedures of the enforcement process for different court’s decisions as well as other acts. As administrating effects our everyday lives, it is a public interest that this process should be kept in the legal borders. This is exactly what the Administrative Law is all about. It regulates the social relations in which were government and other administrative bodies play a major role. It is true that Enforcement Law provides us with the norms, rules and procedures of the legal administration, but it is still court’s responsibility to assess the legal quality of it. This is why we need effective justice, to have the competent court ruling practice and to enforce them properly.Collision issues are discussed in family law such as conditions of marriage, results of marriage, annulment of marriage, duty of maintenance, relations between parents and children, relations related to child’s origin, conditions of adopting, guardianship and tuition. I discuss issues of guardianship and tuition in mentioned work, which I think is very interesting and actual.