The relationship between the firm's social media strategy and the consumers' engagement behavior in aviation

Social media platforms constitute a new frontline for brands to build relationships with their customers. Nevertheless, the literature on social media engagement behavior is unidimensional, as it focuses on customer engagement while neglecting the customer's influence on managerial decisions. The current paper goes a step further by applying the theory of the marketing firm (TMF). We investigated consumer-firm bilateral contingencies through three studies. The first study captures up to 60% of the variance in consumer responses given on Icelandair's Facebook page. The second study shows how customers engage with Icelandair's social media platforms. The third study illustrates the firm's social media strategy from a managerial perspective.     

Harmonisation of Reliability Performance Indices for Planning and Operational Evaluation of Water Supply Reservoirs

The planning and operational performance evaluation of water supply reservoirs routinely use the volume-based (R_v) and time-based (R_t) reliability indices but decision making is often complicated by trade-off necessitated by the fact that the two are never the same, with R_v ≥ R_t. This study has resolved the problem by harmonising the two indices. Using data from ten global rivers, simulations of hypothetical reservoirs were carried out to determine capacity for specified demands and R_t values. The corresponding R_v values were then evaluated and the resulting reliability biases (i.e. R_v – R_t) were found. To harmonise the two indices, i.e. to nullify the biases, the concept of water shortage threshold was introduced, which is the minimum quantity of water shortage that can be taken as constituting real failure for the purpose of R_t evaluation; shortage quantities below this will be disregarded. The results showed that the water shortage threshold that nullifies the reliability bias can be as high as 60% of the demand, depending on the runoff variability, the demand and the specified R_t. When averaged over all the situations analysed, the water shortage threshold was found to be 51% of the demand. Although this might appear high, it is argued that it is plausible both within the context of developed economies, where unaccounted-for-water can be much higher than 51%, and of underdeveloped economies where large sections of the population have no access to adequate water supply. In the latter case, a reduction of 50% in water supplied that guarantees uninterrupted supply of the other 50% will be deemed satisfactory and reliable, while for the former, a shortage of 50% that forces a change in behaviour to waste less water will also be deemed satisfactory. The significance and novelty of this study stem from the fact that it has removed the need for the trade-off between the two reliability indices, thus enabling unequivocal characterisation of water supply reservoir performance for effective decision making.     

The Effects of Real Exchange Rate on Trade Balance and Domestic Output: A Case of Malaysia

The main objective of this study is to determine the effects of real exchange rate changes on the real Malaysian trade balance and the domestic output during the pegged exchange rate regime, 1977:1–1998:2, using quarterly data. The cointegration results suggest that a real ringgit exchange rate depreciation improves the Malaysian balance of trade in the long run. The impulse response analysis suggests that the effects of a depreciation of ringgit on the trade balance and domestic output are quite similar. A devaluation will initially improve the trade balance and domestic output, after which the trade balance starts to deteriorate and then the recession sets in, but subsequently both the trade balance and domestic output improve.     

The determinants of hotels' marketing managers' green marketing behaviour

Little is known about the factors underlying the pro-environmental behaviour of marketing managers. This paper explores the determinants of green marketing practices in the Red Sea hotel sector in Egypt. The research model assesses green marketing practices against the personal and organisational values of the marketing managers, together with a range of organisational and demographic variables expected to influence hotels' environmental behaviour. From a valid sample of 89 marketing managers responsible for 194 hotels, it was found that organisational contextual variables, and in particular targeting Western tourists, being affiliated to an international hotel chain and the marketers' own demographics, including age, academic subject studied and gender, were the best predictors of more proactive green marketing. Personal environmental values did not explain the pro-environmental behaviour of marketers, and the organisational environmental values that had explained part of their ethical behaviour had resulted from voluntarism rather than utilitarian or conformance-based values. Government policies also appeared to be ineffective determinants. The implications for green marketing practices are also discussed.     

An Introduction of Epistemology to Business Ethics: A Study of Marketing Middle-Managers

A vast majority of marketing theory and research has focused on relativism and idealism in order to understand ethical behavior. However, making ethical assessments that in turn influence behavior is much more complicated than it appears. One of the most important developments in contemporary philosophy has been the renewed interest in epistemic virtue. Epistemologists contend that belief is an ethical process that is susceptible to the intellectual virtue or vice of one’s own life and personal experiences. Open-mindedness, curiosity, careful thinking, creativity, and intellectual courage are the foundations of epistemic virtues. Closed-mindedness, intellectual overconfidence, unimaginativeness, intellectual conformity, and wishful thinking are among epistemic vices. The purpose of this investigation is to introduce epistemology to marketing ethics by linking it to personal moral philosophies (idealism and relativism) and optimism to explain various ethically challenging organizational behaviors. The items of epistemology were developed and pretested by the lead author of this study. Structural equations (LISREL) analyses found that epistemic virtues and vices are better predictors of ethical behavior than were personal moral philosophies (idealism and relativism), and their influence on mild and severe levels of unethical behaviors was enhanced by the moderator variable, optimism. Implications are designed to develop suggestions for improving ethical behavior in the workplace.     

Measuring Internet retail service quality using E-S-QUAL

Abstract

Despite its acknowledged importance, there are few rigorous empirical studies examining Internet retail service quality. An exception is the development of the E-S-QUAL scale by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Malhotra (2005 Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Malhotra, A. 2005. E-S-QUAL: A multiple-item scale for assessing electronic service quality. Journal of Service Research, 7(3): 213–233. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Whilst E-S-QUAL demonstrated good psychometric properties in the original study, the scale lacks external validation. This paper presents a reassessment and validation of the E-S-QUAL in the context of the Internet grocery sector. Data were collected via a web-based cross-sectional survey using self-administered questionnaires distributed to online grocery shoppers. A total of 491 usable questionnaires were received. The results show that there are potential discriminant validity problems with the Efficiency and System Availability dimensions of E-S-QUAL. Further analysis shows that a second-order, three-factor model of E-S-QUAL, consisting of Efficiency, System Availability, and Fulfilment, provides the best fit to the data in this study. Privacy is shown to be the least important dimension for the data set in this study.     

Improving rural livelihoods through the conservation and use of underutilized species: evidence from a community research project in Yemen

The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of a set of interventions related to conservation and use of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) on people's livelihoods. Specifically, a simultaneous three-equation model of households' participation on underutilized crops conservation and income generation activities is applied to evaluate the outcome of a pilot research project implemented by Bioversity International in Yemen between 2002 and 2005. Results generated show a relation between project participation and the perceived yield increase demonstrating the importance for farmers to actively participate in the project's activities and subsequently apply agronomic practices learnt to improve their livelihood. The generated benefits incentivized farmers to continue to apply the interventions beyond the lifetime of the project ensuring thus a sustainable process in which exogenous interventions, once adopted by farmers become integrant part of farmer's agronomic practices.     

Attending to the Reasons for Attribute Non-attendance in Choice Experiments

This paper focuses on behavioural reasons underlying stated attribute non-attendance in choice experiments. In order to identify and incorporate procedures for dealing with heterogeneous attribute processing strategies, we ask respondents follow-up questions regarding their reasons for ignoring attributes. Based on these statements, we conclude that the standard way of assigning a zero impact of ignored attributes on the likelihood is inappropriate. We find that some respondents act in accordance with the passive bounded rationality assumption since they ignore an attribute simply because it does not affect their utility. Excluding these genuine zero preferences, as the standard approach essentially does, might bias results. Other respondents claim to have ignored attributes to simplify choices. However, we find that these respondents have actually not completely ignored attributes. We argue along the rationally adaptive behavioural model that valid preference information may indeed be elicited in these cases, and we illustrate how recoding of non-attendance statements conditional on stated reasons may be a more appropriate solution than the current standard way of taking stated non-attendance into account.     

Volatility in Wheat Spot and Futures Markets, 1950–1993: Government Farm Programs,Seasonality, and Causality

We explore how wheat spot and futures market volatility has been impacted by government farm programs during the 1950–1993 period. We find that changing volatility in both markets is highly associated with changing farm programs. The mandatory allotment programs of the 1950s and early 1960s (1/3/50–4/10/64) were associated with low volatility, while the voluntary programs initiated in the mid 1960s seem to have induced high volatility (4/11/64–12/22/85). Both market-driven loan rates and conservation reserve programs appear to have helped volatility revert to lower levels since the mid 1980s (12/23/85–12/30/93). We also examine seasonality and causality in conjunction with the farm programs.     

The Determinants of Labour Supply and Demand in Irrigated Agriculture: A Case Study of the Gezira Scheme in Sudan*

Abstract: The objective of this study was to estimate the determinants of labour supply and demand in irrigated agriculture with reference to the Gezira scheme. Two samples, one comprising the farmers and the other the agricultural workers, were randomly selected through a field survey during the 2003/2004 season. A log‐linear model of multiple regressions was fitted to the data. The results indicated that labour demand and supply depend mostly on variables related to the household characteristics and economic and non‐economic conditions.