Social Media and Purchasing Behavior: A Study of the Mediating Effect of Customer Relationships

Overwhelmed by the use of social media in augmenting human interactions, researchers have developed special interest in understanding the use of social media in developing strong and customized relationships with customers. In line with this, the current study aims to explore the impact of social media on purchasing behavior with mediating effect of customer relationship. The findings indicate that majority of the respondents use social media for purchasing purpose and there is a positive relation between social media and customer relationship, as well as social media and purchasing behavior, with customer relationships fully mediating and enhancing the relationship between social media and purchasing behavior. It has been also found that the majority of the respondents use social media for purchasing purposes. This study offers new insights into the conceptual development and understanding of social media in enhancing customer relationships and affecting purchasing behavior. The study acts as a strong support and aid towards developing and managing global customer relationships through the use of social media.     

The product life cycle and sample representativity bias in price indexes

Official price indexes are usually calculated using matched samples of products. If products exhibit systematic price trends at different points in their life cycle then matched sample methods may introduce bias if the life cycle movement in the sample does not adequately reflect that in the population. This article explores the extent of these life cycle pricing effects and then examines the bias it can introduce in measured inflation. A large US supermarket scanner data set for six cities and six products over 12 years is used. Using hedonic methods we find that the life cycle component of price change is important across a range of products and cities. To explore the bias introduced by these movements, we use simulations that construct indexes with different sample update frequency. For indexes that are never completely resampled, we find an annual absolute bias of 0.88 and 0.59 percentage points depending upon whether we use the actual prices or prices imputed from our hedonic model. This compares with absolute biases of 0.34 and 0.10 percentage points for the corresponding cases for samples, which are re-selected annually. Thus our results provide strong support for more frequently updating index samples.     

Peginterferon beta-1a versus other self-injectable disease-modifying therapies in the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in Scotland: a cost-effectiveness analysis

Aims: Peginterferon beta-1a 125?mcg administered subcutaneously every 2 weeks, a new disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), was approved in January 2015 by the Scottish Medicines Consortium. This study assesses long-term clinical and economic outcomes of peginterferon beta-1a compared with other self-injectable DMTs (interferon beta-1a [22?mcg, 30?mcg, and 44?mcg], interferon beta-1b, and glatiramer acetate 20?mg) in the treatment of RRMS, from the National Health Service and Personal Social Services perspective in Scotland.

Methods: A previously published, validated Markov cohort model was adapted for this analysis. The model estimates changes in patient disability, occurrence of relapses, and other adverse events, and translates them into quality-adjusted life years and costs. Natural history data came from the ADVANCE trial of peginterferon beta-1a, the London Ontario (Canada) database, and a large population-based MS survey in the UK. The comparative efficacy of each DMT vs placebo was obtained from a network meta-analysis. Costs (2015 British Pounds) were obtained from public databases and literature. Clinical and economic outcomes were projected over 30 years and discounted at 3.5% per year.

Results: Over 30 years, peginterferon beta-1a was dominant compared with interferon beta-1a (22, 30, and 44?mcg), and interferon beta-1b, and cost-effective compared with glatiramer acetate 20?mg. Results were most sensitive to variations in each DMT’s efficacy and acquisition costs. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the results.

Limitations: The impact of improved adherence with peginterferon beta-1a on clinical and economic outcomes and the impact of subsequent DMTs after treatment discontinuation were not considered. Oral and infused DMTs were not included as comparators.

Conclusion Long-term treatment with peginterferon beta-1a improves clinical outcomes, while its cost profile makes it either dominant or cost-effective compared with other self-injectable DMTs for the treatment of RRMS in Scotland.     

THE TECHNICAL INEFFICIENCY EFFECTS OF TURKISH BANKS AFTER FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION

The banking sector in Turkey has grown significantly over the last two decades of financial liberalization. One of the aims of the financial liberalization was to improve efficiency through restructuring programs including the privatization of state banks and the encouragement of mergers. In this paper we identify key factors determining the technical efficiency differentials among Turkish commercial banks in the pre‐ and post‐liberalization periods, using the technical inefficiency effects model. We found that loan quality, size, ownership of the banks, and profitability have a positive and significant impact on the technical efficiencies of banks. The results warrant implementation of effective regulatory measures to improve the quality of the earning assets of commercial banks. Furthermore, steps by the government to encourage acquisitions or mergers for private banks and the privatization of state‐owned banks seem to be consistent in improving the overall efficiency of commercial banking in Turkey.     

The value relevance of major media advertising expenditures: Some U.K. evidence

This study examines whether ACNielsen MEAL major media advertising expenditure measures, that are publicly available at a cost, have value relevance. Our results suggest that these advertising-expenditure measures are positively associated with market value. We also find little difference in the value relevance of these expenditures among different sizes of firms. Value relevance is found to be present only for nonmanufacturing firms. This suggests that the costly information provided by ACNielsen MEAL surveys may be potentially useful to market participants in valuing firms, at least for nonmanufacturing firms.     

Contextualising diversity management in the Middle East and North Africa: a relational perspective

This study examines the clash between diversity policies as designed in the West and the challenges in implementing these in the Middle East and North Africa region. We contribute to the role of context in diversity management by studying how HR managers deal with diversity policies when the Western approach and the local context are perceived as being incompatible. Twenty HR/diversity managers working for multinational companies in nine different countries in the Middle East and North Africa region were interviewed. The findings show that a manager's understanding of the interrelated nature of multilevel factors of the local context influences the strategies adopted. Three strategies to deal with the perceived clash are identified: forcing a Western approach upon the local country, a reframing strategy where existing policies are reformulated to fit the Western requirements, and a sensitive approach in which the local context is considered. The study suggests that multinationa.l companies have to adapt diversity policies to local multilevel factors of the country in which they operate.     

Higher education and growth performance of Pakistan: evidence from multivariate framework

This study investigates the relationship between higher education and economic growth in Pakistan by using the annual time series data from the period of 1980–2011. The ARDL bound testing cointegration approach confirms the valid positive relationship between higher education development and economic growth in long run as well as in short run. Results of Granger causality test, Toda and Yamamoto Modified Wald causality test and variance decomposition test confirm the bidirectional causal relationship between higher education and economic growth in Pakistan. Results of rolling window estimations suggest that the contribution of higher education in economic growth is significantly increased after the formation of higher education commission of Pakistan in 2002. It is clear from our findings that higher education commission plays an important role in the development of higher education in Pakistan which leads to enhance economic growth. It is recommended that policy makers should make policies to strengthen the higher education commission to ensure continuous and rapid economic growth in Pakistan.     

The polarization impact of the crisis on the Eurozone labour markets: a hierarchical cluster analysis

This study assesses the impact of the Great Recession (2008–2014) on the process of integration of the Eurozone labour markets. Through an agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis using several European labour market harmonized indicators, we find that the crisis led to a greater integration, and to a polarization within the area. In the aftermath of crisis, two groups of countries clearly emerged, consisting Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands in the core while Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain in the periphery.     

JAPANESE MANAGERIAL PRACTICES IN THE MALAYSIAN ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY: TWO CASE STUDIES

The transferability of the Japanese management syndrome is examined through an analysis of the employment policies and practices of two major Japanese multinational electronics companies operating in Malaysia. the evidence suggests that the question of transferability must be considered in the specific historical context. While such companies operate from within a preferred managerial style, the case study evidence suggests that employment policy and practice is likely to be significantly constrained by business objectives and heavily conditioned by the local economic, political and legal conditions and socio-cultural values.     

Testing for Convergence in Carbon Dioxide Emissions Using a Century of Panel Data

This paper tests the convergence in per-capita carbon dioxide emissions for a collection of developed and developing countries using data spanning the period 1870–2002. For this purpose, three recently developed panel unit root tests that permit for dependence among the individual countries are employed. The results lend strong support in favor of convergence for the panel as a whole. Estimates of the speed of this convergence is also provided.