The Role of Trust in Understanding the Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Equity and Brand Loyalty

Abstract

In this era, social media platform is integrated into the marketing strategy. This new technology sets out new mechanisms and communication tools that companies can rely on to interact and engage with actual and potential customers. This study aimed at exploring the impact of social media marketing activities (SMM) on brand loyalty via brand trust and brand equity. Based on an online survey of 287 users who follow telecommunications companies on social media located in Egypt, data was collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that SMM activities comprise only three dimensions; trendiness, customization and word-of-mouth. These attributes of social media marketing directly influence brand loyalty and indirectly influence brand equity mediated by brand trust. The study emphasis the role of trust and provide guidance toward measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing.     

Corporate Social Responsibility,Shariah-Compliance,and Earnings Quality

This study examines the effect of two potential sources of ethical principles on earnings quality: corporate social responsibility (CSR) and membership in a Shariah index. We define membership in a Shariah index as the adherence to an ethical code that relates to Islam. Our sample comprises firms in ten European Union countries for the period from 2003 to 2013. The empirical results show that firms with a high degree of CSR are less likely to manage earnings. In contrast, membership in a Shariah index leads to earnings manipulation. Our results are robust after using several alternative quality metrics for earnings. Furthermore, our empirical results indicate that highly rated CSR firms that are not Shariah-compliant are less likely to engage in earnings manipulation. Further, institutional factors are also important in determining the link between CSR, Shariah-compliance, and the quality of financial reporting.     

An assessment of the impact of watershed programmes on agricultural sustainability in Hamedan province,Iran

This paper assessed the effects of watershed programmes (WPs) on the sustainability of agro-ecosystems in Hamedan province, western Iran. This research was a causal–comparative study, and various techniques were used to collect data, such as survey data, archival data, observations, and face-to-face interviews with key informants. The causal–comparative method requires a comparison of agro-ecosystems with and without WPs. Therefore, a survey was conducted using a stratified random sampling to select 136 households in agro-ecosystems with and without WPs. Nine indicators were selected to evaluate sustainability. Significant differences were found between the two agro-ecosystems in biodiversity, soil quality management, hydrological processes, energy-use efficiency (EUE), access to public services, farm management practices, and social capital. No significant variation was found in the indicator of quality of life, even though that indicator was found to be slightly higher in the agro-ecosystem that had WPs. Results revealed that the agro-ecosystem with WPs, with the exception of the social capital, productivity, biodiversity, soil quality, EUE, farm management, and hydrological processes as well as access to public services had significantly higher values than the agro-ecosystem without WPs. Therefore, it can be concluded that despite WPs' positive impact on biodiversity, soil quality, hydrological processes, EUE, farm management, productivity, and access to public services, it had a negative impact on social capital. The findings suggest that WPs affected the agro-ecosystem by increasing the stability and economic viability of the agro-ecosystem and decreasing social dimensions. A new approach, including demand-driven WPs rather than supply-driven ones to cater to the specific needs of local people, was recommended for the promotion of the social acceptability of WPs.     

Relationship between organisational safety culture dimensions and crashes

Knowing about organisational safety culture in public transportation system can provide an appropriate guide to establish effective safety measures and interventions to improve safety at work. The aim of this study was investigation of association between safety culture dimensions (leadership styles and company values, usage of crashes information and prevention programmes, management commitment and safety policy, participation and control) with involved self-reported crashes. The associations were considered through Spearman correlation, Pearson chi-square test and logistic regression. The results showed an association among self-reported crashes (occurrence or non-occurrence) and factors including leadership styles and company values; management commitment and safety policy; and control. Moreover, it was found a negative correlation and an odds ratio less than one between control and self-reported crashes.     

The Anatomy of Corporate Fraud: A Comparative Analysis of High Profile American and European Corporate Scandals

This paper presents a comparative analysis of three American (Enron, WorldCom and HealthSouth) and three European (Parmalat, Royal Ahold and Vivendi Universal) corporate failures. The first part of the analysis is based on a theoretical framework including six areas of ethical climate; tone at the top; bubble economy and market pressure; fraudulent financial reporting; accountability, control, auditing, and governance; and management compensation. The second and third parts consider the analysis of these cases from fraud perspective and in terms of firm-specific characteristics (ownership structure) and environmental context (coverage in media and academic literature, regulatory and corporate governance frameworks). The research analyses shed light on the fact that, despite major differences between Europe and U.S. in terms of political institutions, laws and regulations as well as managerial practices, there are significant similarities between six groups. The analysis also demonstrates that, the ethical dilemma has been coupled with ineffective boards, inefficient corporate governance and control mechanisms, distorted incentive schemes, accounting irregularities, failure of auditors, dominant CEOs, dysfunctional management behavior and the lack of a sound ethical tone at the top. Significant similarities were also observed in the analysis from the fraud triangle perspective. However, there are several major differences between the six corporate failure cases particularly with regard to ownership structure, coverage in media, and legal, regulatory and governance frameworks. This research study may have several academic and practical contributions, particularly because of multidisciplinary, international features, and comparative analyses used in the paper.     

On the Design and Pareto-Optimality of Participating Mortgages

This paper develops a micro-economic model and proceeds with numerical simulation to demonstrate that participating mortgages can improve social welfare when the real estate ownership is shared among the different taxable entities. The optimal distribution of real estate ownership and lending will tend to be concentrated in taxable and nontaxable hands, respectively, with lending conducted via participating mortgages. This paper also demonstrates the violation of the well-known, risk-neutral valuation argument of the Black and Scholes (1973) model because of the lack of a riskless hedge due to the uniqueness of real estate.     

Shaping e-retailer’s website personality: The importance of experiential marketing

This research investigates how offering experiential values by an online retailer affects the personality of the e-retailer’s website in consumers’ minds. It empirically studies the impacts of four experiential value types – aesthetics, playfulness, customer return on investment (CROI), and service excellence – on each of the five website personality dimensions of enthusiasm, genuineness, solidity, sophistication, and pleasantness. The findings confirm the overall model and the majority of the hypothesized relationships are significant. The findings show that e-retailers should use appropriate combinations of experiential values to portray their desired website personalities.     

What is happening to flexible workers in the supply chain partnerships between hotel housekeeping departments and their partner employment agencies?

The primary aims of this paper are two-fold: first, to consider the potential which exists for hotel management to establish a firm relationship with employment agencies to contribute to the deployment of right numbers and skills at the right place; and second, to assess whether both the hotels and employment agencies treat the flexible workers as a resource, or as a cost. The findings, based on 84 qualitative interviews, indicate that: there is a solid economic rationale that is likely to bind the incidence of flexible working practices to the wider recruitment strategies of the hotels; that the flexible firm models do not provide a full account of supply chain relationship between hotels and their partner agencies; and that the current management approach to labour flexibility conforms to a ‘hard’ version of HRM in that labour is treated as a variable cost. The findings suggest that flexible workers are highly likely disadvantaged in terms of access to training, career development, remuneration and other work-related practices than core employees. Overall, the data reveals that both dimensions of cost and, to a lesser extent, quality of the workforce provided by the employment agencies are central to the interests of the hotel management, thereby forming the backdrop to their decisions on whether to maintain these supply chain relationship with their partner agencies. Finally, the implications of these findings are discussed.