Retailing from Consumers' Perspective

Editoria

The Relationship between Service Experience Equity and Guests’ Behavioral Intention at Eco-Resorts: A study using PLS-SEM

Guest experience studies and the consequences towards behavioral intention play a significant role in the success of resort industry. Hence, this study attempts to investigate the relationship between service experience equity and behavioral intention at eco-resorts. This study also aims to discover the new experience and phenomenon of ecotourism particularly in eco-resort setting in Malaysia. The result of the hypotheses is tested using partial least square of structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and several conclusions were achieved. Noticeably, the service experience equity perceived by eco-resorts’ guests showed significant influence their behavioral intention in staying at eco-resorts

Factors influencing in selection of online banking products: a conceptual paper on Bangladeshi customer

Abstract The study has been led to research the components that impact the clients of electronic banking services to utilize internet banking in Bangladesh. In this study there has been utilizing diverse compelling components that has an extraordinary effect to rouse or impact the internet banking client in determination of their web based banking framework in Bangladesh will be examine and with different analytical procedures. It has been seen from the result of the literature that, the ease of usefulness is the most critical component that impacts the client in choice of internet banking. Different questions will be asked to determine the most influencing term under use of usefulness. On perception, a proper policy may go a long way to increase the ease use online banking system with the improvement of other related facilities which will help the online banking system to attract the new clients. Keywords: Ease of usefulness, online bank, Security and Privacy, Customer satisfactio

Factors affecting the attractiveness of medical tourism destination: an empirical study on India

Abstract Background: In this edge, medical tourism is not a new idea. Medical treatment is one of the essential demands of human beings and it requires high quality and intensive care. Beside western world, few developing countries are playing key roles as medical tourism destinations. India is one of the leading names among these countries. The purpose of the paper is to find the factors influencing the attractiveness of India as a health tourism destination. Methods: The study has found the major contributing factors and their relative importance in the attractiveness of the health tourism destination that is India from consumers‟ perspectives by conducting survey with an application of structural equation modelling approach. Results: In Indian context, medical tourists consider service quality and cost mostly to select any medical destination. In addition they also give value to the destination competitiveness but tourist attitude is less important in comparison with other factors affecting their destination choice. Since the study has used structural equation modelling approach to test the hypothesis and figure out the relative importance of the factors, the fundamental indices such as Normed Chi square(less than 3), RMSEA (less than 0.08) and CFI (more than 0.90) values show the overall model fit of the proposed model. Conclusion: In order to transform a country such as India as an attractive and competitive medical tourist destination in this time of globalization, a step should be taken to control cost ensuring the quality of services. Keywords: Medical tourism, Destination competitiveness, Factors, Indi

Islamic banking in Malaysia: a study of attitudinal differences of Malaysian customers

This research emphasizes attitudinal difference of Malaysian customers about Islamic banking services. The banking service providers can gain excellent benefit from Islamic banking practices upon identification of these differences. A structured questionnaire was constructed to collect the necessary data to answer the research questions as being framed on related affective factors of attitudinal differences of consumers’ in Malaysia. In this research we have employed independent sample ‘t’ test and ANOVA to test the hypotheses. Results showed that Malaysian consumers have positive attitude toward Islamic banking. Results of ‘t’ test showed significant attitudinal differences between males and females. In addition, the results of ANOVA showed significant attitudinal difference existed only between Malay and Chinese and between Chinese and Indian, while the overall attitudes of all three races were positive toward Islamic banking. One potential limitation of this study was the size and composition of the group which participated in the study. Therefore, a generalization about the entire population of Malaysian banking customers of banking sector is inappropriate. In addition, this research could not incorporate all levels of diverse attributes of Islamic banking that might influence customers’ behavior. The results of this study can facilitate the Islamic banking service providers to introduce new, innovative service offerings based on attitudinal differences and of course, in accordance with Islamic rules and regulation

Identifying Potentiality Online Sales In Malaysia: A Study On Customer Relationships Online Shopping

Understanding of consumers buying pattern through internet and motivation of consumers to online shopping and what product has potential of online sales are critical questions. The purpose of this study was to identify the potential of online sales. The study started with verifying consumer online behavior and model of potential of online sales. The results showed only two factors, gender and family income was significant relationship with overall attitudes towards online shopping. In addition, results indicated that weekly internet use, having experience in e-shopping, and willingness to shopping online in the future have significant relationship with overall attitude towards online shopping. Moreover, results   proved that there is significant difference between human senses in online decision-making process and it is explored to customers who experienced shopping a product or they were satisfied previously, which have stronger confidence to do online shopping. The estimation of Logistic model shows that potential of online sales is affected significantly by consumer overall attitudes towards online shopping, product type, familiarity and confidence

Religiosity, ethnocentrism end corporate image towards the perception of young muslim consumers: structural equation modelling approach

The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between religiosity, ethnocentrism and corporate image towards the perception of purchasing foreign goods by the young Muslim consumers in Malaysia. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed for measuring the relationship from young Muslim consumers in Klang Valley area. Finally, 230 questionnaires became validated and tested for further statistical analysis through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied for testing the hypotheses of the study. Among all the variables, corporate image and ethnocentrism behavior plays the most significant on the perception of young Muslim consumer’s before purchasing foreign made products. The added value of this paper is to link between theory and practice, and explore the religiosity and ethnocentrism behavior on young Muslim consumer’s purchase decisions of foreign products. Few researches have conducted over the years under the young Muslim consumers that investigated the relationship between religiosity and ethnocentrism perspective. Moreover, this relatively new issue remains largely undiscovered by researchers under various market environments

Export of Furniture Product from Malaysia: Market Prospects and Challenges

This study seeks to investigate the export competitiveness of Malaysian furniture product through the application of a collection of methods, which includes Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Constant Market Share (CMS) and Shift Share. SITC 821, which represents the furniture product under the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) for the period between 2000 and 2011, has been taken into consideration. The RCA method reveals that is an escalation in the countries competitive advantage of furniture product. The results from CMS method indicate that export gain of Malaysian furniture product is to a great extent a result of the size of the market as well as its competitive effect. Furthermore, CMS analysis also illustrates there has been significant improvements in the furniture industry throughout the given period which are Period I and II, Period and II and III and Period III and I. Additionally, shift share analysis shows that countries such as Brunei, Algeria, Norway, Lebanon and Korea are the major markets with the greatest potential. However, major challenges, in terms of competition, still exist mainly with Asian countries

Online Brand Awareness: Determining the Relative Importance of Facebook and Other Strategies among the Malaysian Consumers

The purpose of this study is to determine the relative importance of facebook with other strategies like affiliate marketing and word of mouth in creating online brand awareness. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis is used in the study. The study chooses 303 Malaysian frequent internet users as the respondents. In confirmatory factor analysis, a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach is applied to determine the relationship among the exogenous and endogenous constructs. The study finds facebook as the most influential online brand awareness creating strategies followed by the affiliated marketing and online word of mouth. In creating the online brand awareness; all the strategies have positive influence, however. The study can be a useful guideline for managerial implication in practice

A model of Islamic tourism towards religious motivation and tourist satisfaction in Malaysia

Abstract The aim of this chapter is to explore the roles of religious motivation in the relationship between tourists' antecedents and their destination and satisfaction , and to provide some guidelines to aid tourism professionals in developing and implementing the niche strategy of Islamic tourism for the advancement of the tourism industry of a country such as Malaysia. In the Malaysian context, the religious motivation of international Muslim tourists is increasingly active in their minds, which suggests that tourism professionals consider Shariah-compliant tourism to keep long-term customer relationships. Perceived value, destination image, and service quality influence international Muslim tourists to look to this destination for satisfaction . As a moderation role, the more the level of religious motivation varies, the more the effect of moderator yields. In addition, tourism professionals necessarily require understanding relevant Shariah rules, character­ istics of international Muslim tourists , and the context of the Islamic country so that they can design a Shariah-compliant tourism strategy and policy effective for further growth of the tourism industr