Electronic word of mouth: exploring the consumer perspective

The aim of the paper is to review the phenomena of traditional word of mouth and electronic word of mouth based on consumer behaviour perspective. Customers are increasingly using social media in their purchase decisions. Scholars have shown that positive electronic word of mouth has a significantly positive effect on purchase intention, while negative electronic word of mouth has greater negative impact on purchase intention. This study seeks to examine relevant literature regarding the impact of electronic word of mouth on business and consumers’ behaviour. It is crucial to understand in depth on the impact of electronic word of mouth towards consumption patterns since technology has been widely used in disseminating information

Understanding women experiences and decision making in choosing birthplace

Understanding consumer behaviour pertaining to healthcare consumption is vital in assessing and improving the service quality. Maternity care is one the largest division that most of the healthcare provider holds within the community of healthcare market and childbirth is most common reported cases. Choosing the ideal birthplace is one of the pivotal decision in childbirth process and the decision made are influences by different attributes. Understanding women’s experiences during the childbirth process provide useful insights on how experiences influence the decision made. Intense competition and lucrative industry required healthcare provider to further understand the consumer need and demand as well focusing more towards customer-centred strategy.Purpose of this article is to discuss and review the relevant literature regarding the childbirth experiences and birthplace choice phenomenon from the lenses of consumer

Secure multicast group communication scheme in wireless IPv6 networks

Key management is one of the challenging issues in group communications. It is generally used to secure multicast data transmission as well as preventing potential eavesdropping by malicious attackers. Group security key should be maintained for data encryption, while group key update and dissemination processes are required when a new user joins or leaves the group, which eventually lead to high communication and computation cost. Since eavesdrop activities can be initiated by capturing the disseminated keys, higher communication and computation cost due to frequent updates also increase the possibility of attack of multicast transmission. In this paper, a key management scheme for IPv6 networks is proposed to reduce communication and computation cost and therefore, fewer security risks. The obtained results from test-bed implementation show the efficiency of proposed scheme in terms of communication and computation cost, number of updated paths and security index due to key updating, while at the same time achieving both forward and backward secrecy

Students’ perception towards task - based language teaching (TBLT) approach in learning Arabic language: CFS,IIUM experience

Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is a new approach in teaching second language particularly in Arabic language. The approach, which employs student-centred approach, is viewed as more effective than the traditional way. This approach is slowly gaining its popularity among Arabic language educators and learners all around the world. In Malaysia, the Centre for Foundation Studies, International Islamic University Malaysia (CFSIIUM) is one of the first institutions of education to implement this new way in teaching Arabic language. As such, this study was conducted in order to find out the students’ perception towards the implementation of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in this learning institution. 313 respondents were randomly selected from the students in Arabic elementary level studying at CFSIIUM. The instrument used in the survey was survey questionnaires. The quantitative results were used to examine students’ perception towards the implementation of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in Arabic language. The findings indicated that the respondents were positive in learning Arabic language using this approach and they were motivated to learn this language

Most Admired Training Transfer Enterprise Model in Agribusiness and Agro-technology Industry: A Conceptual Paper

AbstractThe recognition of training as an important development of human resource in implementing the quality of its human capital needs is no longer a new issue. However, despite several attempts trying to improve the success of training transfer onto the job, majority of the employees attending training had indicated that they had less successfully transferred the knowledge, skills and attitudes they have learnt and even further minimal change in behavior in their job-related performance. In this paper, the qualitative and quantitative investigation was conducted to examine the extent of training transfer knowledge activities (in compiling, gathering, collating and synthesising the employees experience, knowledge, skills and abilities) among executives at selected agribusiness and agro-technology based organizations. Final knowledge on training transfer performance and program were further formulated with feedback from training transfer expert. This paper contributes to the alternate model in favour of innovative and sustainable governance of a holistic agribusiness policy framework

Predicting muslim consumers’ purchase intention of previously retracted and recertified halal products / Nurul Syuhada Mohd Yunus, Raja Nerina Raja Yusof and Haslinda Hashim.

The purpose of this paper is to test the influence of attitude, subjective norms, brand image and halal knowledge on the purchase intention of previously retracted and recertified Halal products among Muslim consumers. This study used self-administered questionnaires that were distributed using convenience sampling. A total of 200 questionnaires were collected from respondents in Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor and Perak. The findings of the study revealed that attitude, subjective norms and brand image significantly predict Muslim consumers’ purchase intention of previously retracted and recertified Halal products. However, halal knowledge was found to be insignificant towards purchase intention. The findings are primarily beneficial for the marketers of halal products by offering an insight into the intention of consumers to purchase products that had previously been retracted off their Halal certification

Predicting muslim consumers’ purchase intention of previously retracted and recertified halal products

The purpose of this paper is to test the influence of attitude, subjective norms, brand image and halal knowledge on the purchase intention of previously retracted and recertified Halal products among Muslim consumers. This study used self-administered questionnaires that were distributed using convenience sampling. A total of 200 questionnaires were collected from respondents in Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor and Perak. The findings of the study revealed that attitude, subjective norms and brand image significantly predict Muslim consumers’ purchase intention of previously retracted and recertified Halal products. However, halal knowledge was found to be insignificant towards purchase intention. The findings are primarily beneficial for the marketers of halal products by offering an insight into the intention of consumers to purchase products that had previously been retracted off their Halal certification

Restaurant's Atmospheric Elements: What the Customer Wants

AbstractThe purpose of the study is to examine youth customer behaviour due to the restaurant's atmospheric element environment. It also explores the environment of the restaurant and the use of atmospherics by the restaurateurs through the reactions of the customers. The dimensions of colour, design, lighting, and restaurant layout, among others, were measured. Qualitative data taken from 300 youth customers were analyzed, and interpretations of the relationships were made. It was found that atmospheric elements contributed significantly in each representation of customer behaviour

Relationship between product factors, advertising, and purchase intention of halal cosmetic

More customers are aware of Halal products, especially among Muslim customers living in multi-religious societies such as Malaysia. The trend is customers are also becoming more conscious about the permissibility (Halal) of a wide range of products ranging from food, financial and non-financial products, to tourism and health products. This apparently has prompted marketers operating in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products to revise their strategies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between five product factors; namely, brand, price, quality, ingredients and labelling and purchase intention of Halal cosmetic and toiletry products. The study also examined the role of advertising in the relationship between product factors and purchase intention. For this purpose, a structured questionnaire was designed based on items adapted from previous studies. Data were collected from 200 adult Muslim respondents using a convenience sampling method. Pearson Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to test the proposed model. The results indicated that all product factors are significantly correlated with purchase intention. The results further indicate that advertising is a mediator for price-purchase intention relationship, but not a mediator to other product factors-purchase intention relationships. This study provides insights into how consumers behave in purchasing Halal products, given five product factors of brand, price, quality, ingredients and labelling. It is argued in this research that the presence of advertising may not change the intention to purchase Halal products but price may influence purchase intention

Determinants of customer loyalty: a review and future directions

This paper aims to provide a summary review on the existing loyalty models. It focuses on the key factors and perspectives that can assist marketing scholars and professionals in enhancing customer’s loyalty. A review of the literature has been employed to provide further understandings on customer’s loyalty and its research priorities. The findings of this paper contends that integrating cultural and religious influences into existing models would enhance customer’s loyalty. The study also argues that there are three groups of loyalty antecedents should be taken into consideration. They are 1) loyalty’s primary determinants (PD), which include, customer’s satisfaction, trust, perceived value, and perceived service quality; 2) loyalty’s secondary determinants (SD), which include, other loyalty factors based on the research nature and context; and 3) loyalty’s moral determinants (MD), which include, spiritual, cultural, and religious factors of target markets. Additional propositions and directions are also provided to create efficient loyalty models. Marketing scholars have given inadequate attention to cultural and religious influences in studying customer’s loyalty. This article is a commentary research on previous loyalty models. It is hoped that the propositions provided in the study would inspire future researchers in emerging proper and effective loyalty models