Brand Commitment Role in the Relationship between Brand Loyalty and Brand Satisfaction: Phone Industry in Malaysia

Abstract

To maintain a competitive advantage, the strategy of the creation and maintenance of brand loyalty plays a vital role. The main aim of this study is to examine the theoretical and empirical evidence on the causal relationships among different factors i.e., brand personality, image, experience, satisfaction, trust and commitment that have direct and indirect effects in the creation of brand loyalty. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using Partial Least Squares (PLS) method was applied to test the relationships in this study. The findings indicate that brand personality, brand image and brand experience are key sources of brand satisfaction.     

A data mining approach for segmentation-based importance-performance analysis (SOM–BPNN–IPA): a new framework for developing customer retention strategies

Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is a simple but effective means of assisting practitioners in prioritizing service attributes when attempting to enhance service quality and customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how IPA can be used with market segmentation to develop customer retention strategies for different market segments. For this purpose, a new framework have been proposed that uses self-organizing maps for customers’ segmentation and back-propagation neural network (BPNN) for implicity drive the importance of service attributes based on their effect on customers’ loyalty in each segment. Then, individual IPA matrixes are developed for each market segment. Also, an example case is presented to demonstrate the implementation and application of the proposed framework. The results of the proposed framework compared with a conventional BPNN-IPA approach indicated that it can increase reliability and applicability of IPA results.     

Intellectual property rights,product complexity and the organization of multinational firms

This paper studies how the intellectual property right (IPR) regime in destination countries influences the decision of firms between procurement from related parties and from independent suppliers while the latter may involve technology sharing or not. Using firm‐level data on the mode choice for each transaction and a new product complexity measure, results confirm that firms are generally reluctant to source complex goods from outside firm boundaries. However, when technology is shared, IPRs promote outsourcing of more complex goods whereas without technology sharing, IPRs promote outsourcing of less complex products that are prone to reverse engineering and simpler to imitate.     

Decision criteria for updating test intervals for well barriers

In this paper, we discuss whether or not the decision-making process regarding test intervals for well barriers should adopt the same decision criteria as those recently suggested for safety instrumented systems (SIS). We conclude that the criterion suggested for halving the test intervals for SIS is also appropriate to use for well barriers. The criterion for doubling the test interval for SIS is, however, not considered appropriate, as it does not give sufficient weight to the uncertainties. A new type of criterion for doubling the test interval for well barriers that better reflects the uncertainties is suggested.     

Intellectual property rights and diaspora knowledge networks: Can patent protection generate brain gain from skilled migration?

This paper studies the mechanism through which intellectual property rights (IPR) protection can influence the impact of skilled migration on innovation activities in developing countries. We argue that knowledge acquired by emigrants abroad can flow back to their country of origin through diaspora networks. IPR protection in the sending country facilitates this channel by increasing returns to skills and encouraging workers to move into the innovation sector. An expansion of the innovation sector allows diaspora knowledge to be absorbed by a larger range of workers. Strong IPR enforcement therefore makes it more likely for brain drain to be transformed into brain gain.     

Political crises and the stock market integration of emerging markets

This paper investigates the role of political crises in explaining the degree of stock market integration in emerging markets over the period 1991-2006. Using the International Crisis Behavior database, which contains detailed information on political crises around the world, and employing data on more than 15,500 firms, we assess whether political crises affect stock market integration in 19 emerging markets in South and East Asia, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe. We conclude that crises with certain characteristics generally reduce the level of stock market integration in these regions. In particular, the beginning of a political crisis, its severity, the involvement of the US in the conflict, and the number of parties involved in a crisis all have impacts on the level of stock market integration in these markets.     

Do Criminal Sanctions Deter Insider Trading?

Many developed markets have taken what appears to be a tough stance on illegal insider trading through the use of criminal sanctions. Although criminal sanctions represent a much greater penalty than civil sanctions, the higher burden of proof required makes their enforceability weaker. This trade off between severity and enforceability makes the impact of criminal sanctions ambiguous. We empirically examine this issue by studying the deterrence of insider trading following the introduction of criminal sanctions in a developed market. Significant changes in sanction regimes are rare, especially when criminal sanctions are introduced without other changes. In February 2008, New Zealand introduced criminal sanctions for insider trading. This change of law offers a unique setting in which to examine the deterrence effect of criminalization. Using measures for the cost of trading, degree of information asymmetry, and probability of informed trading, we find that the enactment of this law led to a worsening in these measures. These findings suggest that the weaker enforceability of criminalization outweighs the associated increased severity of the penalties in New Zealand.     

Appointment scheduling of outpatient surgical services in a multistage operating room department

This article addresses the appointment scheduling of outpatient surgeries in a multistage operating room (OR) department with stochastic service times serving multiple patient types. We discuss many challenges, such as the limited availability of multiple resources (e.g., staff, operating rooms, surgeons, and recovery beds), and the compatibility of patient and surgeon types. In addition, availability of surgeons is restricted by time window constraints. Three simulation-based optimization methods have been proposed to minimize the patients’ wait time, patients’ completion time, and number of surgery cancellations. The first method is simulation-based tabu search (STS). It combines discrete-event simulation and tabu search to schedule surgery cases. The second and third methods are integer programming enhanced tabu search (IPETS) and binary programming enhanced tabu search (BPETS). IPETS and BPETS improve on STS by incorporating integer programming and binary programming models, respectively. This article includes a case study of an OR department in a major Canadian hospital. We further expand the actual data obtained in the case study to cover a wide range of parameters in sets of test problems, and provide analysis on the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed methods in comparison with several scheduling rules. Finally, comments on the applications of the proposed methods are provided.     

Properties and the predictive power of implied volatility in the New Zealand dairy market

This study develops a dairy implied volatility index (DVIX), derived from New Zealand Exchange traded options on whole milk powder (WMP) futures. We document an inverse return–volatility relation which is asymmetric, where increases in WMP futures prices are associated with larger absolute changes in the DVIX than decreases. In sample, the results strongly suggest that the DVIX has a high information content regarding conditional variance and that the inclusion of historical information further improves the predictive power. Out of sample, we find that the DVIX provides substantial information about future realized volatility. We also document that a combination of historical volatility and the DVIX provides the best out-of-sample forecasts.     

New Zealand mutual funds: measuring performance and persistence in performance

The present study investigates the performance of New Zealand mutual funds using a survivorship‐bias controlled sample of 143 funds for the period of 1990–2003. Our overall results suggest that New Zealand mutual funds have not been able to provide out‐performance. Alphas for equity funds, both domestic and international, are insignificantly different from zero, whereas balanced funds underperform significantly. There is no evidence of timing abilities by the fund managers. In the short term, significant evidence of return persistence for all funds is observed. This persistence, however, is driven by ‘icy hands’ rather than ‘hot hands’. Finally, we find the risk‐adjusted performance for equity funds to be positively related to fund size and expense ratio and negatively related to load charges.