An investigation of internal marketing and its effects on employees in the banking sector in Saudi Arabia

A survey of the impact of internal marketing on perceptions of organizational commitment to employees and employee identification with their employers was conducted among a convenience sample of Saudi Arabia banking employees. The results indicate that internal marketing impacts perceptions of organizational commitment to employees (PBCMT), and rewards, employee empowerment and PBCMT impact employee identification with the organization (EBID). In addition, PBCMT partially mediates the internal communications – EBID and employee empowerment–EBID relationships, and it fully mediates the training – EBID and rewards–EBID relationships. Research and managerial implications are discussed, as are limitations and suggestions for future research.     

The status quo of omani female entrepreneurs: a story of multidimensional success factors

Quality & Quantity - While the Omani government’s endeavours over two decades to support entrepreneurship, particularly among women, have been significant, research has not substantiated...     

The political transfer problem: How cross-border financial windfalls affect democracy and civil war

Following a rise in the price of oil in the 1970s, a number of developing countries received a significant boost in foreign transfers as oil producers could not absorb all of their new rents domestically. When those transfers ended, some recipients of these transfers eventually democratized as part of the ”Third Wave” while others languished as violent autocracies. This raises a puzzle: how can declines in external transfers foster democratization in some cases, but heighten political violence in others? We develop a formal model to reconcile this tension and demonstrate that autocratic incumbents can become more repressive with higher levels of transfers and either experience civil conflict or democratize at lower levels of transfers. We characterize these dynamics as a ”political transfer problem” and then use case studies and econometric evidence to argue that the largest windfall of the 20th century, the period from 1973–85 during which oil prices were at all-time highs, and its aftermath, produced political dynamics consistent with our model.     

Innovation shock,outsourcing strategy,and environmental performance: The roles of prior green innovation experience and knowledge inheritance

To investigate under what conditions an outsourcing strategy can show superior environmental performance, one stream of scholars has underscored the importance of prior green innovation experience, and another stream of scholars has underscored the importance of the in‐house possession of outsourced component knowledge. However, the empirical findings regarding the positive role of both scholarly streams when studied separately are mixed and sometimes contradictory. This study bridges these two distinct but related streams and suggests that prior green innovation experience and in‐house knowledge regarding outsourced components play a complementary role in enhancing environmental performance. The U.S. hybrid electric vehicle market lends support to the argument of this study. In so doing, this study increases our understanding of the role of prior green innovation experience and outsourced component knowledge on environmental performance while pursuing an outsourcing strategy. This study also provides guidance for managers and policymakers on how to achieve superior environmental performance in outsourcing.     

The Brazilian Mobile Telephoning Market and Its Indicators of Non-quality

This article aims to scale the Brazilian mobile phone market as the number of active lines, carriers participation in the market and teledensity, as well as presenting the main non-quality indicators and rankings of carriers in relation to complaints registered by users. The methodology used was ＂survey＂ with documentary research, enabled through access to the database of the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency~-ANATEL, and Sindec Report developed by the Brazilian National Secretary of the Consumer--SENACON. The results obtained showed a Brazil of had a teledensity of 132.78 lines every 100 inhabitants, with 261 million mobile lines active, these 19 million enabled in 2012. The leadership of the company ＂Vivo＂ with 29.08% of marketshare and shows the lowest rate of complaints among the big four carriers （Vivo, TIM, Claro, and Oi M6vel） according to the data of Anatel. SENACON data already confirm the big four carriers among the 10 conglomerates more defendants in claims in Brazil. As the indicators of non-quality, the Act of Misappropriation was pointed to by users as the biggest problem in contracted services.     

Measuring the degree of competition in Pakistan’s banking industry: an empirical analysis

Pakistan’s banking industry has gone through significant transformation from being in a heavily state regulated and controlled environment to a more liberalized market structure in recent years. This liberalization of banking industry in Pakistan has raised concerns over the dominant banks’ exercise of market power on account of increase in market concentration due to mergers and acquisitions, high profitability in banking sector and increasing interest rate spread. Present study therefore explicitly tests the market conduct of banks using quarterly panel data of 30 banks from 2004 to 2012 and employing Panzar–Rosse, Bresnahan–Lau, Hall–Roeger and Boone’s approaches to study market power. Our findings suggest that Pakistan’s banking industry is working in a competitive environment and we find little evidence for the exercise of market power by the dominant banks. Our results remain robust across all these approaches to measure market power. These findings indicate that the liberalization and deregulation of Pakistan’s banking industry has been successful in improving the competitive conditions in the market.     

Long- and Short-run Relationship Between Firm Creation and the Ease and Cost of Doing Business

Abstract

To promote private-sector growth, many countries have implemented reforms aimed at making it easier and less costly to do business. Using data from Philippine cities and municipalities from 2011 to 2015, this paper tested for the relationship between business creation and the ease and cost of doing business. The results provide evidence that the overall ease and cost of doing business is indeed associated with business creation, but the relationship becomes more apparent with disaggregation. In particular, lower cost of doing business is found to be a much stronger predictor of business creation than ease of doing business. The specific indicators that drive this relationship are minimum wage, price of electricity, price of water, and price of land from the “cost” dimension, and number of days to process a new business permit from the “ease” dimension. These relationships have implications on policy making, especially in designing programs that target firm creation.     

Fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour: The moderating role of consumer social responsibility

This study aims to understand the drivers of fast‐food addiction and the role of consumer social responsibility (CSR) on the relationship between fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption. Due to growing health concerns, an increasing number of consumers have been avoiding the consumption of fast food. Based on a sample of 539 respondents, all pertaining to generation Y in Pakistan, this study tests a model including addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour. Empirical results provide strong evidence that individual and sociocultural factors together with advertising practices influence consumers’ fast‐food addiction. Results also reveal that CSR moderates the relationship between fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour. Interestingly, the present study pioneers the discussion on how addiction can drive anti‐consumption. The findings can help public policy makers and managers to understand consumers’ anti‐consumption tendencies and help promote healthier consumption habits.     

Corporate social responsibility and employee’s desire: a social influence perspective

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly important topic in management, especially in organizational behavior field across the globe; however, this concept is still in its infancy in Pakistan. In this study, we examined the effect of employees’ perceptions about CSR on their Desire to have a Significant Impact through Work (DSIW). We suggested the serial mediation of organizational identification and organizational pride in this relationship. The time-lag data of middle managers were collected from a well-known Pakistani firm that is actively engaged in CSR. The data consist of 187 observations and were analyzed using structural equation modeling in AMOS software. The results show that CSR positively affects employees’ identification that in turn make employees proud of their organizational membership and finally pride leads to employees’ DSIW. The study contributes in CSR and organizational behavior literature and provides managerial implication to enhance the positive psychological state of employees.     

Risk Perception in the Short Run and in the Long Run

There is an ongoing controversy in financial economics regarding the role of time horizon in portfolio selection. This problem is relevant in a broader context, wherever consumers or managers make decisions that involve both time and risk. The purpose of this paper is to review recent findings from the decision making literature so as to shed new light on how the short run vs. long run contingency may determine risk taking and perception.