Sreenivasan Jayashree

Online impulse buying of tourism products: The role of web site personality, utilitarian and hedonic web browsing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationship between web site personality, utilitarian web browsing, hedonic web browsing and online impulse buying of tourism products. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 405 valid online questionnaires were collected to empirically test the measurement and structural model using partial least square path modelling approach, a variance-based structural equation modelling technique. The study sample includes experienced online shoppers who performed shopping tourism products and services via internet medium. Findings – The results imply that web site personality is a second-order reflective construct comprising solidity, enthusiasm, genuineness, sophistication and unpleasantness. web site personality positively influences utilitarian web browsing, hedonic web browsing and online impulse buying; and both hedonic web browsing and utilitarian web browsing positively influence online impulse buying. Originality/value – Online impulse buying of tourism products has not been profoundly explored in current literature, despite its important implication for managers, academicians and consumers alike. This study contributes to the field of e-commerce marketing, retailing and e-tourism research.

Attracting tourists to travel companies’ websites: the structural relationship between website brand, personal value, shopping experience, perceived risk and purchase intention

This article aims to examine the structural relationship between website brand, personal value, shopping experience, perceived risk and purchase intention from travel websites. Built upon the theory of consumers’ perceived risk, a theoretical model was proposed and a questionnaire was developed. The fieldwork utilized responses from 409 participants who purchased travel items from websites of Malaysian travel companies. Partial least square (PLS) path modelling approach, a variance-based structural equation modelling (VB-SEM), was used to assess the overall goodness-of-fit tests, measurement and structural model. The results highlight different aspects related to the effectiveness and attractiveness of travel companies’ websites. Its unique finding highlights the importance of personal value as a user characteristic factor that can strongly affect online purchase intention. In addition, by combining user characteristics and website characteristic and examining them in a single model, this study provides a clear multidimensional picture of causal relationship between latent constructs in an online travel purchase context. Theoretical and practical implications of study results are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

The Effect of Gender and Nationality on Service Quality in Malaysian Higher Education

Competition is becoming increasingly intense among service organizations, and one of the most profitable service sectors of Malaysia is the higher education sector. This stiff competition requires tertiary institutions to satisfy their clients. Hence, measuring students’ satisfaction becomes essential. Accordingly, this study measures the effect of gender and nationality on service quality in Malaysian private universities using the SERVQUAL instrument. The level of students’ satisfaction is evaluated based on the gap found between their perceptions and expectations towards five dimensions of service quality, namely tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, based on their gender and nationality. Thus, a 22-item Likert-type questionnaire was administered among 250 students from both genders and different nationalities. Based on the results obtained, there is no sufficient evidence concerning the effect of gender on service quality in higher education institutions. However, nationality has a slight effect on the responsiveness dimension of service quality. Then, the research addresses policy implications on the importance of the education system in a country, and some implications for universities to improve their offered services. Finally, in the two last sections, the researchers address limitations of the study and future research directions.

Sun Tzu art of war strategies and supply chain management as a strategic change agent: a proposed model for Malaysian service sector

Presented in a systematic approach, this conceptual paper propose to seek the senior managers’ views and perception of Sun Tzu Art of War strategies (STAW) and Effective Supply Chain Management (ESCM) processes as a strategic change management agent in achieving Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) in the service sector in Malaysia. First, the proposed model would consist of four dimensions of STAW strategies, two dimensions of ESCM and three dimensions of SCA. Secondly, we hypothesise that the STAW strategies has a positive relationship with SCA and that the ESCM is a mediator in a relationship between STAW strategies and SCA. The findings would reveal if STAW strategies and ESCM processes and its implementations will play a significant role in attaining a sustaining competitive advantage in Malaysian service organisations.

The Effect of Recruitment, Selection and Development on Talent Management in IKCO Company in Iran

Background/Objectives: the talented people are important role of success in organizations, the goals of this study is to determine the used organization techniques to recruit and select, develop and maintain talent. Also examine the relationship between recruitment and selection, development used by organizations and their talent management. The survey method was selected for this research. Methods/ Statistical analysis: The Research tool is a structured questionnaire. This study is Settings of international companies in Iran. The Questionnaire was conducted by human resource managers in the organization. The result indicate that HR planning and selection are the most common techniques used by the organization to recruit and techniques. Also, training programs continuously developing talent is the method used by the organization to develop their talents. Findings: The findings showed that the most important strategy to preservation talent is clarifying job responsibilities and career paths. In this study is that what techniques are used for the recruitment and choosing in this organization to predict the talent management.

Dual pillars of hotel restaurant food quality satisfaction and brand loyalty

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of service quality (physical quality and staff behaviour) and brand equity (brand quality, brand awareness and brand image) on hotel restaurant food quality satisfaction and brand loyalty among international and local travellers in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach A total of 354 valid questionnaires were collected to assess the measurement and structural model for reflective latent constructs using the two steps of covariance-based structural equation modelling. Findings The research findings suggest that while travellers’ nationality moderates the path between physical quality, staff behaviour and brand image on food quality satisfaction, it does not moderate the relationship between brand quality and brand awareness on food quality satisfaction. This finding further suggests that towards enhancing service quality and brand equity on food quality satisfaction and brand loyalty, managers should understand the important distinctions between international and local travellers. Originality/value Previous studies have mostly examined the impact of brand equity and service quality towards tourist satisfaction and very few studies have examined the impact of restaurant service quality and brand equity on consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty specifically among international and local travellers. This is one of the first few studies providing empirical evidence and discussions in this area.

Social network based model for dengue prevention

Despite of numerous preventive measures being taken by governments, efforts to prevent and control dengue have met little success in many dengue endemic countries. This knowledge gap creates the need to find out the view of citizen on dengue prevention and monitoring initiatives. This empirical study proposes to integrate social support theory to an existing theoretical model to test the intention of the users to use social media for healthcare, focusing dengue health information. Existing model was formulated based on two theories; technology acceptance model and theory of reasoned action. It lacks the social support perspective that is exchanged through social network sites. The hypothesized model will be tested with data to be collected from social network sites and survey of citizens from online community, who are users of social networking sites. The outcome from this study will be useful in the prevention and management of dengue outbreak. As dengue is economically devastating for individuals and the government, any initiatives to the prevention of dengue would be useful for both citizens and the government.

Impact of Knowledge Management System and the Productivity of Knowledge Centric Organizations

The study reviews the existing theories and empirical studies to identify the effect of knowledge management system on the productivity of knowledge centric organizations. Studies on knowledge management system have noted its crucial role in today’s competitive and global business landscape, as organizations rely on knowledge as a source of innovation, inspiration, and research and development. This is specifically important in knowledge intensive and knowledge centric organizations where knowledge plays a central role. As noted in earlier studies, for knowledge centric organizations, the management of knowledge has been highlighted as a key to unlock knowledge creation and knowledge transfer for organizations to create a competitive advantage. The outcome of this review could consequently affect our knowledge and understanding about knowledge centric organizations’ perspective on knowledge management, which could lead to an increase in the productivity of knowledge centric organizations.

The Role of Organizational Learning on ISO 14000 EMS Implementation and Corporate Sustainability

Public concerns for environmental issues has led increasing number of organizations to adopt and implement environmental management system. However, little attention has been devoted particularly among manufacturing industries in Malaysia. The existence of relevant organizational learning, will reduce the cost of ISO 14000 adoption and implementation and facilitate the successful implementation. This study highlights the impact of effective implementation of ISO 14000 EMS by proposing a theoretical model to explore the effect of organizational learning on effective implementation towards corporate sustainability. This study is expected to benefit Malaysian Manufacturing industries by establishing the influence of organizational learning on implementation leading to sustainability.

Firm's typology and strategic innovation among Chinese cosmetic industry - a strategic transformation tool

Strategic transformation occurs via innovative technologies. This paper presents the challenges faced by the Chinese cosmetics industry in achieving strategic transformation by exploring how firms innovate strategically to compete based on their typology. The constituents of strategic innovation were analysed by 19 types of strategic innovation. Miles and Snow business–level strategy typology was extended to analyse the choices among defenders, analysers, and prospectors. MANOVA was used to analyse data. Results indicated that different types of firms focus on different types of strategic innovations. Prospectors focus on strategic innovation that improves new market creation, defenders on the improvement of product and service value, and analysers on competitive disruption. This research improves the understanding of strategic innovation in the Chinese cosmetics industry based on the typology of firms as a tool of strategic transformation.