Nik Kamariah Nik Mat

Intervening effect of attitude on the relationship between selected determinants and corporate image

Despite the profitable revenue reported by direct selling industry, the corporate image of these companies has been negative and deteriorating.This is partly attributable to the increasing number of pyramid schemes and frauds which had led to the negative attitude of the consumer towards direct selling, and tarnished the image of the direct selling company in recent years.Hence, the main objective of this study is to examine the intervening effect of attitude in the relationship between the selected determinants and corporate image of direct selling companies in Thailand.A total of 900 questionnaires was distributed to direct selling customers, and 612 were collected back, representing a response rate of 68%. A final 532 usable questionnaires were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM).This study found a full mediating effect of attitude between perceived value and corporate image.However, attitude was a partial mediator when tested for linkage between trust and corporate image while attitude does not mediate in others. The finding of the study is discussed in the perspective of its implications in direct selling context.

Halal Consumption Pattern Model: A Conceptual Framework

Despite the increasing importance of halal food industry, there were increasing complaints from Muslim consumers regarding “haram” food products issues in Malaysia. Alarmingly, for Muslim customers, many have no clue that the food products in the market are not in accordance with Islamic halal rulings. It seems that Malaysian Muslims are uncertain of the food they are consuming, leading to hazardous consequences to future Muslim generations. Despite the impressive growth outlook for this Islamic food market segment, Muslim consumers are confronted with consumption dilemma when they became doubtful regarding their purchase and consumption of halal or toyyiban food products in the market even though they have the halal logo on the packaging issued by the government arm “Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia” (JAKIM). Hence, the main objective of this study is to propose a model for examining the main factors that influence halal consumption pattern. The research method will be mainly quantitative research design approach. The sampling technique will collect data from 500 Muslim consumers through random sampling of households. The data will be distributed using self-administered survey. The data collected will be analyzed using structural equation modeling method. The expected finding is a new halal consumption pattern model which will identify the significant factors that contribute to the halal consumption pattern so as to safeguard Muslim consumers from consuming non-halal derivatives.

Preliminary study for understanding the moderating role of government regulations in telecom sector of Pakistan

Telecommunication sector of Pakistan is a significant contributor toward the economic development of Pakistan. However, telecommunication sector of Pakistan underwent a lot of changes from regulatory and marketing perspective in 2015, resulting in decreased cellular penetration, dropped down the cellular subscribers and decreased telecommunication revenue. Hence, this research paper is designed to validate the constructs used in addressing the moderating role of government regulations based on Oliver’s four-stage loyalty model in telecom sector of Pakistan. This preliminary study has mainly employed the quantitative method (i.e. survey questionnaire), consisting of a total of 72 items related to eight constructs under study and used 7 points Likert scale. The main analysis method used is the reliability test of the constructs. The results reveal that the Cronbach alpha readings were between 0.756 and 0.932, indicating internally consistent and reliable measures of the constructs used. This result enables ...

Does dependency make a difference? The role of convenience, social influence, facilitating condition and self-efficacy on student's purchase behaviour of smartphone

It is an undeniable fact that penetration level and usage and sales of Smartphone dramatically increased past few years, whereby; it has increased to almost 60 percent of total population. Despite the high penetration of smartphone, previous studies have exhibited inconsistent findings towards understanding the behavioural intention to use smartphone especially among university students. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine purchasing behaviour of Smartphone among students. From the literature, five antecedents of purchasing behaviour were identified. Each variable is measured using 7-point Likert scale: convenience (10 items), social influence (6 items), self-efficacy (10 items), facilitating condition (11 items), dependency (14 items) and purchasing behaviour (4 items). Using the primary data collection method, 400 questionnaires were distributed to the target respondents of one of the public higher education in the northern region. The responses collected were 350 completed questionnaires repr...

Staff Conduct, Communication, Access to Service & Customer Satisfaction: The Mediating Effect of Credibility

This study examines the direct effects of staff conduct, communication, access to service, and credibility on satisfaction towards telecommunication services in Malaysia. The study took place in a public university to see whether the lecturers are happy with the services provided by the telecommunication firms. There are a total of 100 responses to the questionnaire developed. The data is analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through AMOS. The goodness of fit indices of the revised structural model indicate adequate fit (GFI: 0.915, RMSEA: 0.048, Ratio: 1.21, P-value: 0.158). The regression parameter estimates show four significant relationships between credibility and staff conduct (β=0.295, P-value=0.003 and C.R=2.93), credibility and communication (β=0.76, P-value=0.000 and C.R=8.996), satisfaction and access to service (β=0.316, P-value=0.000 and C.R=3.673) and satisfaction and credibility (β=0.945, P-value=0.035 and C.R=2.05). The result is discussed in the context of improving telecommunication services in Malaysia.