Factor analysis: Key tool in consumer behavior research

Quantitative techniques are in frequent use by students of consumer behavior. Most of these techniques, such as correlation analysis and Chi-square tests for significant differences are treated in the various quantitative methods courses taught in or for schools of business across the country. Factor analysis, on the other hand, is rarely included in the content of these courses. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to find journal articles in which results of factor analytic studies are reported. This state of affairs must produce some frustration among marketing practitioners and even among some academicians, who find it difficult to interpret those results, much less understand how they were obtained. This article is designed to assist those who need to read and comprehend journal articles, who need to discuss such articles with others and who may find it desirable to use factor analysis in their own work.     

Employment Outcomes of Graduates: The Case of Universiti Utara,Malaysia*

Data on the labor market outcomes of graduates of the Universiti Utara Malaysia were analyzed using an ordered logit model. The type of degree, ethnicity, and number of job applications submitted are found to be significant determinants of labor market outcomes. Accounting graduates were found to obtain the best labor market outcomes. Malay graduates had significantly less favorable labor market outcomes. The findings for unemployed graduates support two current programs in Malaysia: re‐training for the long‐term unemployed and job matching assistance. The findings also suggest that universities should monitor the skill‐demands of job vacancies and give specific consideration to Malay graduates.     

Corporate governance—A multi-theoretical approach to recognizing the wider influencing forces impacting on organizations

It has been argued by researchers that agency theory has limitations as the underpinning theory for governance given its inability to recognize the wider environmental influencing forces impacting on organizations. This paper provides a case for incorporating a number of management-based theories to augment agency theory in recognizing these wider environmental influencing forces and the consequent extended governance paradigm it creates. Through a theory building approach that reviews and critically analyses the extant literature, a case is built to integrate four existing theories that complement each other to recognize these wider influencing forces. The paper argues that the proposed approach will narrow the theoretical practical gap in governance and will consequently have policy implications on governance guidelines. Further research is suggested to validate the approach with a wide range of real life organizational settings.     

Political Economy and Organizational Leadership: A Hope-based Theory

Unlike other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, economics has neglected leadership. This paper proposes that a distinctive leadership role is to facilitate the development of hope so that organizational members can sustain their commitments. The conceptual grounding for this approach can be found in the work of Amaryta Sen, Albert Hirschman and Jon Elster, who have tried to explain the effect of commitment and emotions on behavior. It is also proposed here that the authority organizational leaders have to call meetings gives them the capacity both to influence social interactions to carry out this role, and to gauge the organization's cultural strength and its members' receptiveness to inspirational information that can shape the choice of leadership styles.     

Designing the DPD: Indonesia's Regional Representative Council

This paper examines the design of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) that Indonesia set up in 2002. Why was it established with its current electoral system and responsibilities? The design of the DPD had to fit within a compromise made between the two then dominant parties and their leaders. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle wished to preserve the revered People's Consultative Assembly structure, but without losing the power it then wielded by virtue of being the biggest party in the parliament. The other major party, Golkar, obtained the provincial chamber it sought, but was denied control of it when membership was closed to political parties. The public's demand for greater electoral power was appeased through the method of election chosen for the DPD. Institutionally, the design has not made the workings of the legislature more complicated for the established political actors, because the new chamber has little influence.     

Learning cyber trust using a triadic functioning analysis: a qualitative approach

The issue of cyber trust has been scattered in several different fields, including computer science, information science and some social sciences. Although social informatics has been a subject of systematic analytical and critical research for more than three decades, previous research has rarely noted the importance of social informatics on cyber trust. Therefore, it is essential to establish a research framework that applies in cyber trust from a perspective of social informatics so that cyber trust may be achieved by different professionals and researchers. This study presents the factors under which cyber trust thrives from a perspective of social informatics. Social informatics research pertains to e-commerce from a perspective of both social and technical changes that shed some light on cyber trust for business professionals and researchers.