Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia

Greater Space Means More Service: Leveraging the innovative power of architecture and design

Organizational structures certainly are of great importance in order to determine employees’ behaviour and performance. On the other hand, physical structures also significantly influence the way staff and customers view any company and interact with it. In service based activity, such as in retailing, banking, hospitality, and so, firms and institutions are competing thanks to innovations in products/services, delivery processes, and management styles. Innovative approaches may also materialize into the design of facilities. Service providers are in a position to significantly improve convenience, productivity, and attractiveness by designing space and defining appropriate layout carefully. This pattern also has to include identification of the meanings, characterization of size and qualification of the process by which any service facility delivers messages. In the last session of the paper, we address a particular type of service facilities, namely the buildings of institutions for higher education in management. The objective is then to analyze how facilities have evolved in order to cope with the change affecting business education.Service; innovation; architecture; working place; corporate symbols

Globalization and E-Commerce II: Environment and Policy in Germany

Due to its economic power as the largest economy in Europe and third largest in the world, Germany inevitably will play an important role in e-commerce. After the improvement and diffusion of high-speed Internet access, like ISDN or DSL, Germany enjoys more ISDN telephone lines than any country; also the highest DSL per capita ratio, in Europe. Germany includes a large, highly educated and relatively wealthy population, which is an important prerequisite for successful e-commerce activities. Due to foreign language skills in the German population (every pupil is required to learn English; a large number know basic French or Spanish, too), the language barrier to using international Web sites is small. Moreover, the German education system puts increasing emphasis on information and communications technology (ICT) skills. Invention activity in some areas of ICT shows signs of improvement. Starting from a low level, patent activity in mobile communications and the Internet grew faster in Germany than anywhere else in Europe. This growth could be viewed as an early indicator of strengthening the mobile e-commerce sector in Germany and may be interpreted as an important effort in catching-up with overall e-commerce development. More than 80% of the GNP is created in mid-sized companies (Mittelstand), which traditionally are considered as more flexible and innovative than large enterprises. The majority of these small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can access the Internet. Looking at Internet penetration, German SMEs are at the top together with SMEs in Scandinavian countries. The central position of Germany as a hub to Europe together with the excellent public and private transport infrastructure is a competitive advantage to attract foreign investments. Germany follows the innovation model be the best imitator of successful developments and within this course exploits the competitive advantage achievable through integration. After e-commerce technologies proved successful, Germany caught up in developing its relevant infrastructure and is now gaining momentum

Snapy : a grispy bite on grocery retail

Under the guidance of its founder, Artur Catarino, Progelcone started its activity in 1983 as a pioneer producer of ice cream cones in Portugal. Limited by the high seasonality that characterized the ice cream industry, Progelcone broaden its scope and became the leader supplier of ice cream related products and plastic items for the food-service industry. In 2013, the company was already recovering from the European debt crisis, which had decreased its clients financial capacity and contributed to the excess capacity of the company. Despite having reached sales of €12,6 million in the HORECA channel in 2013, Progelcone was confronted with a major challenge in 2014. Adding to the strong impact of seasonality, Progelcone had just lost its biggest client, Olá, a local brand of Unilever’s ice cream business. The company believed that launching Snapy, a wafer cookie, in Jumbo supermarket, had the potential to increase revenues and contribute to the firm’s growth. However, a category dominated by private labels and competitors such as Mondelez, and the lack of knowledge of branding nuances may impose significant challanges. The strategies followed by Progelcone are an interesting subject of discussion. The Case Study can be used within strategic management and marketing courses, and includes topics of diversification, brand positioning, the empowerment of private labels and retailers’ bargaining power. This thesis includes a literature review, plus a teaching note that focused on the improvement of the company’s strategy.Sob a orientação do seu fundador, Artur Catarino, a Progelcone iniciou a sua atividade em 1983 como pioneira na produção de cones para gelado em Portugal. Limitada pela sazonalidade que caracterizava a indústria do gelado, a Progelcone alargou o seu escopo e tornou-se a principal fornecedora de produtos relacionados a gelados e embalagens de plástico para a indústria de food-service. Em 2013, a empresa já recuperava da crise económica, que diminuiu a capacidade financeira dos seus clientes e contribuiu para o excesso de capacidade produtiva da empresa. Apesar de atingir vendas de €12,6 milhões no canal Horeca em 2013, a Progelcone foi confrontada com um grande desafio em 2014. Além do forte impacto da sazonalidade, a Progelcone perdeu o seu maior cliente, a Olá, uma marca local do negócio dos gelados da Unilever. A empresa acreditava que o lançamento da Snapy, uma bolacha wafer, no supermercado Jumbo tinha o potencial de aumentar as receitas e contribuir para o crescimento da empresa. No entanto, uma categoria dominada por marcas de distribuição e concorrentes como a Mondelez, e a falta de conhecimento de gestão de marcas podem impor desafios significativos. As estratégias seguidas pela Progelcone são um tema interessante de discussão. O Caso de Estudo pode ser utilizado em cursos de estratégia e marketing, incluindo tópicos como diversificação, positionamento, o crescente poder das marcas próprias e o poder de negociação dos retalhistas. Esta Tese inclui uma revisão de literatura e uma nota de ensino focada na melhoria da estratégia da empresa

Campuses, Cities and Innovation:

The locations of technology campuses determine where innovation takes place. In a knowledge-based economy, the future of cities increasingly depends on the presence of universities, their industry partners, talent and (start-up) businesses. The relationship between (technology) campuses and cities was a central theme in Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel’s doctoral research, which was defended and published in September 2016. During her PhD study, she collected data of thirty-nine technology campuses, which we – as her promotor and co-promotor – considered worth a spin-off publication. This publication “Campuses, cities and innovation” contains descriptions of 39 international cases that accommodate tech-based research activities. These case descriptions (in part B) are introduced with background information about concepts and methods (in part A) and reflected upon in conclusions and recommendations (in part C). Based on our experience - after more than twenty years of campus research at TU Delft – we identified a demand for case study references to support decision making at both universities and municipalities. TU Delft’s campus research team aims at generating management information on all campus levels: from the changing academic workplace and new concepts for university buildings to the sustainable campus and the knowledge city. This book is part of a book series that combines insights from theory with references from practice, to contribute to smarter campus management. With a large number of facts, figures and maps this book “Campuses, cities and innovation” is relevant for board members and (campus) management staff at universities as well as policymakers at municipalities and regional authorities. Additionally, decision-makers of industry partners, (start-up) businesses and (other) members of the campus community could be interested in comparing their campuses with worldwide examples. “Innovation is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” was one of the propositions that Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel defended in September 2016. With this book, we wanted to take the opportunity to support the preparation process and hope to stimulate innovation

Connected Firms and Investor Myopia

Conglomerates, multinational corporations and business groups are non-exclusive forms of complex firms. Often organized as corporate networks, complex firms control a myriad of firms connected through ownership links. We investigate whether parent-subsidiary links within corporate networks enhance transparency because the investors in a listed parent company and in its listed subsidiary now receive information about these two firms from each these firms. Alternatively, the corporate network complexity could bring about more opacity when investors are unable to detect the connections between the corporate entities. We examine the share price reactions to information releases by various entities of the corporate network. We find that parent’s investors benefit from enhanced transparency in case the parent announces surprise earnings first, whereas subsidiaries’ investors seem mostly unaware of ownership links and are myopic

Transparency in Meat Production – Consumer Perception at the Point of Sale

As a result of a large number of food scandals, societal interest in transparency in the food sector has grown considerably. Deficits have been discovered, which new legal frameworks of the EU and the German legislative body have attempted to address. Hence, the creation of transparency in the production process has been the focus of the legislation. In this context, traceability systems for animal-based foods, for instance, have been established (Regulation (EC) 178/2002). In addition to tracking and tracing, one finds in the public discussion an increasing number of demands for further information, for instance information on food safety, animal and environmental protection and generally for sustainability of the production processes for foods. This is intended as a response to the general call for more transparency or a "gläserne Produktion ". It has not been sufficiently clarified which information about the production process, and thus which level of transparency is actually desired, or can actually be processed, by consumers at the point of sale. This is related to the question of to what extent the demands for more transparency in meat production are influenced by new campaigns of many consumer organisations and NGOs, or whether these actually represent user preferences at the point of sale. In order to analyse this topic from the viewpoint of the consumer, a large-scale empirical study has been conducted. This is intended to determine what transparency expectations, in the form of information on packaged pork, consumers have, using an adaptive conjoint analysisTransparency, pork production, adaptive conjoint analysis., Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Labor and Human Capital,

US-India Technology Co-operation and Capability Building: The Role of Inter-firm Alliances in Knowledge Based Industries

The paper reviews some Indo-US technology cooperation initiatives and analyses data on inter-firm alliances in knowledge based industries, especially Information Technology (IT). It shows that the market driven increase in the alliances between Indian and US enterprises has significantly enhanced the variety of linkages between Indian and US entities, both public and private. And that these linkages have contributed to capability building and diversification by Indian partners. A variety of spillover benefits of international technology alliances are highlighted. It is suggested that issues relevant for Indo-US co-operation at different levels need to be analyzed together in order to appreciate the complementarities across linkages of various types. For example, linkages between the public sector entities of the two nations may enhance the potential private sector networking initiatives. The paper also argues that while building of public institutions and policies relating to trade, technology and investment remain important for Indo-US technology co-operation, a shift in policy focus to "market induced" inter-firm alliances may be desirable.