Consumers’ Preference Mapping and Their Behavior with Regard to Traditional Halwa Using a Structured Survey Questionnaire

In this study, a structured survey questionnaire was used to determine consumers’ preferences and their behavior with regard to halwa. Five types of consumer groups were identified thorough hierarchical cluster analysis based on ranked attributes. Color was ranked within the top three attributes for all the groups. In general, color, sweetness, appearance, and solubility were found to be the most important attributes for selecting the halwa. Five types of groups were identified based on their preference levels (i.e., intensity) of attributes. These could be recognized in terms of preferences for halwa with (1) black with high sweetness, (2) dark-brown with high-medium sweetness, (3) dark with low-medium sweetness, (4) brown with medium sweetness, and (5) dark with high-medium sweetness preferred consumers. The consumer segmentations identified could be used to develop retail marketing strategies and to develop store brands of diversified Arabian sweets and intermediate moisture fruit snacks, such as dates.     

On the path of integration in the Gulf region

It is examined whether the six countries comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are sufficiently compatible to form a viable economic and financial block in the Gulf region. Despite long and numerous governmental attempts since the mid 1980s, and in spite of public pressures to expedite the process, these countries have thus far failed to achieve full economic and financial integration. Empirical evidence suggests that this apparent failure is unlikely the outcome of economic or financial incompatibility among the countries in the region. The results imply that more efforts should be directed at resolving possible sociopolitical differences that may have hampered real progress toward the emergence of a genuine and effective bloc in the Gulf region.     

ON URBAN RE-ARRANGEMENTS: A Suite in Five Movements

This movement introduces the ethos of the collective project: its conceptual and practical preoccupations. It focuses on our concern with urban processes on the cusp of change, in the midst of being re-arranged, and thus homes in on the various polyrhythms of intersections, how things come together and diverge, how possibilities open and close in urban contexts of continuously shifting horizons.