Rosidah Musa

Measuring service quality in retail loyalty programmes (LPSQual): Implications for retailers' retention strategies

Purpose – This research aims to empirically develop a reliable and valid scale for measuring the service quality of retail loyalty programmes (loyalty programme service quality (LPSQual)) in the context of department stores and superstores in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approach – By adapting the process proposed by Churchill for developing measures of marketing constructs, an instrument to assess LPSQual in Malaysia is formulated. The methodology consists of developing the scale based on a literature review and qualitative method. The proposed scale is then purified and validated through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis.Findings – The proposed instrument (LPSQual) contains 26 attributes in seven dimensions: reward, tangibility, policy, information usefulness, courteousness/helpfulness, personalization and communication.Research limitations/implications – Further testing of the scales across multiple contexts is necessary for validity enhancement.Practical implications – Retail...

Examining market accessibility of Malaysia's Harumanis mango in Japan: challenges and potentials

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to seek to illuminate the challenges and potentials that might be encountered by the exporters of Malaysians tropical fruits, particularly the Harumanis mango into the Japanese market.Design/methodology/approach – The research method utilised in the study were in‐depth interview with appropriate government authorities, fruit traders, importers and retailers in Malaysia and Japan.Findings – The findings suggest that to succeed in this challenging and competitive yet lucrative market environment, it is vital that farmers, fruit exporters and relevant government agencies implicitly understand the aforementioned regulations, procedures and the Japanese trend of fruit consumption.Research limitations/implications – The study focuses on the challenges and potential of Malaysians tropical fruits, especially Harumanis mango into the Japanese market.Practical implications – The results provide insights to the Malaysian agricultural sector and other organizations of similar ...

The Impact of Social Media Content Marketing (SMCM) towards Brand Health

Abstract The emergence of Web 2.0 has created the new phenomenon in business strategies as it allowed two-way communications between companies and the consumers. Nowadays, the business practitioners tend to use the social media marketing to create awareness and promote their brands to the customers. Nevertheless, the main point in sharing the information through the social media is about the content itself to attract more consumers engage with the brands. Social media content marketing (SMCM) also plays an important role in conveying effective information to the consumers thus attract them to keep engaging with the brands. Meanwhile, brand health is the evaluation from digital audiences about the brands and products. It measures the awareness of the brand for long-term period thus develop the brand equity. There are few indicators in measuring the brand health such as time on site, repeat visitors, social likes, subscriptions, and bounce rates. There are still limited studies on the impact of social media content marketing (SMCM) towards brand health. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of SMCM in increasing the brand health score

The Predictors and Consequences of Consumers’ Attitude Towards Mobile Shopping Application

Abstract Today, mobile phones are no longer devices for one-to-one communication through voice and text messaging services. This phenomenon has increase the awareness to the new dynamic market environment which caused many business entities or companies constantly looking for ways and means of expanding and retaining their market share. Many marketing experts consider that the mobile device is an extremely promising marketing tool to overcome the major challenges of getting time and the attention of consumers. Those aggressive and extrovert companies have gone beyond adding mobile-sites, they create and introduce their own apps to remain competitive in the global market. In its introduction stage, the consumers’ response is very positive whereby many people have subscribed the mobile shopping application and the number of consumers that visit the website via mobile application was also very high. But unfortunately, actual purchase and transaction rarely takes place via mobile application in which the number of actual purchase and transaction was very low as compared to sales recorded via the companys official website. Therefore, this research attempts to determine consumers’ attitude which include feelings and beliefs towards mobile shopping that have substantial impact on consumers’ attitude and also examined the consequences of consumers intentional behaviour such as using the mobile shopping application to seek information, share information or actually make purchase transaction. Data were collected through online survey and a total of 218 usable respondents were analysed using Partial Least Squares (PLS). The findings revealed that mobile application features is the most influential predictor to consumers’ attitude meanwhile security and confidentiality is the least influential predictor. It was also found that the main consumers’ intentional behavior is to share the information.

University quality and emotional attachment of undergraduate students in a private higher education in Malaysia: The mediating role of total experience

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to measure the influence of six university qualities, namely academic quality, academic staff quality, management quality, industrial linkage quality and facilities’ quality, on students’ total experience (STE) and emotional attachment. Design/methodology/approach - – Judgmental sampling is used to collect data from a sample of 489 undergraduate students of a private higher academic institution. The data are then analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings - – This study finds that only management quality forms a significant direct relationship with emotional attachment, whereas facility quality and industrial linkage form a significant relationship with emotional attachment only when mediated with STE. Originality/value - – The results provide important findings to researchers and management of higher education institutions for future research directions.

Self-congruity effect on store loyalty: The role of green environment image

Past research had demonstrated that congruence between store image and self-image is positively related to consumer behaviour such as patronage, store choice, store preference, and also store loyalty. With the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), specifically, the green environment having gained a legitimate place in retail strategy, the need to understand the function of this concept in self-congruity model of retail industry has become imperative. Despite of much attention has been given on this concept, few, if any, has reported its role in the self-congruity model. Thus, this study attempts to fill the void by developing a model which examines the role of green environment image of the retail store in self-congruity theory in influencing consumer behaviour. It attempts to test the relationship between self-congruity, and green environment image of a retail store and also to examine the role of green environment image in the self-congruity model in influencing store loyalty. Based on the study of consumers of casual apparel, it was found that self-congruity, specifically actual self-image and ideal self-congruity as well as green environment image have positive effects on store loyalty. Importantly, green environment image has shown a biasing effect on the relationship between actual and ideal self-congruity and store loyalty. As a result, this study provides empirical support for the new framework on the role of green environment image in the self-congruity model. The result also provides important findings to the researchers and practitioners as well as implications for future research directions and management of retail industry.

Factorial Validation Predictors of Attitude among user and Nonuser of Halal Skin Care Product

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to construct and validate the underlying factorial-structure of attitude predictors’ measurement scale towards Halal skin care product. The analysis was based on a sample of 470 among user and nonuser, collected via drop off and collects survey technique. A quota sampling approach was used in the data collection. Subsequently, Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was executed to confirm and validate the factorial structure. The results confirmed a 4-factor structure as conceptualized i.e. Spiritual Intelligence (SQ), Spiritual Congruence (SC), Product Image (PI) and Product Involvement (PV).

Bridging Islamic Financial Literacy and Halal Literacy: The Way Forward in Halal Ecosystem☆

Abstract Halal business is not just about halal ingredients and production. Besides focusing on halal production, the right Halal business operators should also concentrate in adopting Halal financing that is called Islamic financing. However, the assessment of the level of awareness, knowledge and skills of Halal and Islamic financing among business operators should be prepared. This paper aims to bridge the Halal Literacy and Islamic Financial Literacy on the attitude of Halal business producers towards Islamic financing adoption. This study proposes the measurement and validity approach for Halal Literacy and Islamic Financial Literacy. Halal Literacy and Islamic Financial Literacy are two crucial concepts where it can lead to the behavior of person towards its decisions especially in adopting Islamic financing. Halal Literacy and Islamic Financial Literacy will be measured using true/false test questions with an option to choose don’t know. Then, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) will be used to analyze the scoring using Weighted Least Square method to test the construct validity. This study is attempted to contribute towards new theoretical knowledge especially in proposing the measurement items for Halal Literacy and Islamic Financial Literacy. This study also expected to help the policymaker to understand the level of literacy among consumers, especially from Halal business producers perspective.

Reconceptualisation of Customer Experience Quality (CXQ) Measurement Scale

Abstract Customer experience quality (CXQ) has gone forth as one of the emerging concepts among top management and becoming an uppermost-prioritized research stream in customer-orientation philosophy. Customer management strategy must focus on the efforts to create a unique, compelling and memorable customer experience because of its significant impact on business sustainability and prosperity. Therefore, it is imperative for business firms to unlock the core dimensions of CXQ that lead to great and wonderful experience to their customers. However, there is still limited empirical evidence that address this question: How to conceptualise and operationalise CXQ? The primary purpose of this paper is to revisit the existing literature on customer experience and consequently refine and conceptualise CXQ in the context of automotive industry. The proposed CXQ scale is adopted from Mehrabian and Russells Pleasure-Arousal-Dominant (PAD) Theory. Evidently, through rigorous literature search, it is plausible to incorporate a new dimension, Peace of Mind (PoM) in PAD theory, which will be proposed and known as PADPoM. The research findings could be deployed as a guideline to formulate impactful customer experience management strategy.

Factorial Structure of Spiritual Intelligence Towards Purchasing Decision Towards Halal Cosmetic Product

Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) construct is difficult to measure, it is quite impossible without moral values that can affect one’s attitude in the purchasing behavior process, so the paper is to report the results of a pilot study to confirm the analysis in SQ on consumer attitudes in purchasing Halal cosmetics and subsequently to confirm the intention to purchase by using the theory of planned behavior. It is a descriptive cross-sectional study among the Muslim women as the subjects, working and staying in the Klang Valley area in Malaysia. The purpose of the study is to develop a new measurement scale to unravel and decompose the underlying dimensions of SQ from the perspective of the Muslim-deemed imperative. About 200 respondents of user and nonuser of Halal cosmetics are selected. The structure equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to examine the relationships among God, society, and self, which are the dimensions of SQ to drive the Halal economy.