The effects of brands and country of origin on consumers' buying intention in Saudi Arabia

The Country of Origin (COO) and branded product are concepts that have been studied widely in social science. This is manifested in the movement and progress of studies related to these concepts from simple to sophisticated and in-depth ones. However, previous studies still have many limitations and have recommended further research in this field. Among these limitations is the restricted geographical spread of study areas, as most of the previous COO studies have been conducted in the United States, Canada, and other developed countries. Another gap in the extant COO literature is the scarcity of food product studies, as most of the COO studies have concerned durable goods such as cars, T.V. sets, appliances, etc. The food product studies found are rarely related to the effect of COO on buying intention or consumer perception; hence, a study of the effect of COO and branded product on food products is an addition to the literature. Moreover, previous COO research suffers from an inadequate assessment of the reliability and validity of the widely used measurement scales. Adapted scales for COO, branded product and brand parity that fit the culture and the research product have been developed specifically for this research. These scales are reasonably valid and reliable. A process for scale adaptation has been developed using a qualitative approach; this process can be followed in any similar studies in future. An attempt is made to address these limitations in this study, which examines how Saudis, as Muslim consumers, use the Country of Origin (COO) and branded product cues in their buying intention decisions and how their socioeconomic characteristics, ethnocentrism and perceptions about brand parity affect their perception of COO and branded product. Based on a thorough literature review, an analytical model that depicts the different relationships between the research constructs and the research hypotheses has been developed. A complementary qualitative and quantitive approach has been used in this research, and the outcome of combining the two methods has strengthened the reliability of the research findings. The process of combining the two methods has been proven to be a prudent decision, as the use of only one of these methods may have resulted in misleading findings. A qualitative approach, including an exploratory study and focus groups, has been used to gain an in-depth understanding of the different dimensions of the theoretical concepts of the research and to discover which of the variables can conceptualize each of them in the Saudi setting. This process has assisted in adapting the construct scales that were developed in a different setting, as using the scales in the Saudi culture without adaptation was inappropriate. Therefore, the qualitative approach was a prerequisite for this research. A quantitative approach (survey) has been used as the research approach after developing appropriate scales for each construct and putting them together in a well-designed questionnaire. The instrument was pre-tested and found to be appropriate. The data was collected in Saudi Arabia from two purposive quota sub-samples of 400 women in each sub-sample; the respondents were women who regularly buy the research product (chicken). A wide range of statistical analysis techniques was used. These techniques include descriptive statistics, correlation, regression and ANOVA. Regarding the overall objective of this study to explore the effects of Saudi consumers’ perception about country of origin and branded product on their buying intention, the study results reveal that the political, cultural, and religious dimensions have a significant effect on consumers’ buying intention for chicken from most of the countries under consideration, whereas the economic and technological dimensions play a very minor role in influencing consumers’ chicken buying intention. This is exactly opposite to the situation with durable goods, such as automobiles, where the technological and economical dimensions play an important role in influencing consumers’ buying intention. These findings prove the importance of the effect of the product category, as different product categories will have different effects on how consumers perceive the COO. This study mainly focues on consumers’ perceptions towards whole chicken , as it is normal form of purchase in the Saudi market. Furthermore, the study results show that the respondents’ perception about all the dimensions of the branded product have no effect on their buying intention of those brands in the case of seven out of the eight countries under consideration. The weak effect of the different dimensions of the branded product concept on the consumers’ buying intention of chicken branded product might be attributed to the minor emphasis on and limited use of the branded product as information cue in the consumers’ buying decision in the case of the chicken as a fast-moving food product. The product category again proves its importance in this research; the weak effect of brands on the buying intention of chicken as the research product shows that the brand effect may be high or low depending on the product category. It has been found that brand parity does not exist in the case of branded chicken and is not significally correlated with branded product construct, which may explain the scarcity of such studies in the literature. Ethnocentrism was proven to have an effect on the Saudi female consumers' buying intention, which means that Saudi women may buy a local product even if they perceive that an imported product is of better quality. In addition, it has been proven that various demographic factors may explain the differences in consumer perception of COO. Thus, the conclusion is reached that the importance of each of the COO dimensions and the branded product as an information cue in influencing buying decision depends on the type of product. The research has conceptualisation and methodological contributions that reflect the importance of this study. The conceptualisation contributions are, firstly, the COO conceptualisation, which has been adapted to include the cultural and religious dimensions in order to be appropriate to the study area (Saudi Arabia) and the research product and, secondly, the branded product, which has been conceptualised to include the brand as a person and the brand as a product. The third contribution is that the research has studied the joint effect of COO and brand simultaneously. The final contribution is the conceptualisation of brand parity, which has been dealt with in this study in a different manner than in previous studies. The methodological contributions are: a) the use of the focus group data collection technique in a conservative society, in this case Saudi Arabia, and b) the process of adapting the scales for this study, which represents a significant contribution that may be useful to other researchers. The study’s main policy and empirical implication is the recognition of the differing effects of COO of different countries for Saudi consumers, and the differing effects of COO dimensions. This proves the importance of studying different countries and different products in order to find the real effect of the COO and its implication for policy makers' decisions. Nevertheless, the study has certain limitations. Among these is the fact that the scales used for COO have relatively low reliability and the conceptualisation of COO requires improvement. The scarcity of food product studies in Saudi Arabia restricted the arguments that could be used to compare and support the study findings. The limited study of the religious effect is another limitation. The difficulty the researcher experienced in gaining access to the executives during the preliminary exploratory study also placed certain limitations on the results. The final limitation was related to the difficulty of conducting the focus group in such a conservative country, particularly when the participants were women, as was the case in this research. Suggestions are made for further studies that could enrich the literature in this area. These are, firstly, that the differential relevance and importance of the different dimensions of the COO and branded product constructs for different products and different consumers’ require further examination. Secondly, methodologically, more comprehensive analytical models could be used and, lastly, a full re-modelling of the research model utilised in this study is suggested

Al-Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University: A Bibliometric Research Profile

Aim: To investigate the status of research productivity and publication trends of Al-Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) during the period of 2009 to 2018. Method: A quantitative and retrospective research method was used. Publications data of IMSIU researchers have been retrieved from Scopus database published during the period of ten years from January 2009 to December 2018. The retrieved dataset has been transferred in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to analyse the bibliometric indicators, as the growth of publications by year, subject stratification, national and international collaboration, frequently used journals and productive authors. Results: IMSIU affiliated researchers have produced 2010 documents with an average of 201 documents per year. These documents received 12,594 citations, with citation impact of 6.26. Majority of the research has been conducted on the subjects of Engineering, Computer Sciences and Physics & Astronomy. King Saud University with 435 publications found top preference in research collaborative at the national level while at an international level, Université de Gabès, Tunisia with 159 publications stand on the top. Research collaboration analysis by country shows that Egypt is on the top 324 documents. Frequently used journals and 20 most productive authors in term of the number of publications have also been identified. Conclusion: Growth in the tendency of publications was found by IMSIU expect the year 2017. Open access documents received a higher number of citations. The ratio of Scopus based publications in proportion to the number of faculty and students is not very encouraging. Young faculty and students should involve in the research process to enhance publication output

Theory And Practice In Capital Budgeting: Evidence From Kuwait

Capital budgeting is an important tool in corporate finance, which is supported with numerous methods. Previous researches in this field shows that simple methods of capital budgeting are preferred over complex methods. With an objective to adopt relevant modification in the academic sector this paper evaluates the preferred capital budgeting practices in Kuwait, one of the strongest economy in the world, through a structured questionnaire distributed among 100 firms. The study also reveals the significance of demographic factors on real life capital budgeting practices as well as it probes in to the significance of the subjects; introductory finance, financial management and risk management. The results of the study are consistent with the previous researches in this field, that majority of the respondents use the NPV.  Furthermore, age, educational qualification, managerial levels, years of experience, company size, among others all have significant effects on most capital budgeting methods

The customer experience…Is there an app for that? A conceptual understanding of the customer experience with m-commerce mobile applications

This paper examines the customer experience in relation to high street retailers’ m-commerce mobile applications. The aim of the research is to gain an understanding of the variables capable of influencing the customer experience during use of high-street retailers’ m-commerce mobile applications, resulting in the development of a conceptual customer experience with m-commerce mobile applications model. From a review of the literature the paper illustrates a number of hypothesised relationships. In contrast to the e-commerce environment with regard to flow theory, this research suggests that customers are conscious of the length of time spent completing an activity on an m-commerce mobile application, thus should customers perceive to spend longer than necessary using the application, it will result in a negative customer experience. Additionally, we suggest that smartphone screen-size may play a moderating role on the customer experience. This research investigates mobile applications as a service delivery channel for high-street retailers, while understanding the variables capable of influencing the customer experience

Bibliometric Appraisal on Dental Research at Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 1998-2017

Purpose: Scholarly research is considered as a yardstick to measure progress and development in any country, institution, or subject or individual. This study describes the growth of publications in the field of dentistry by researchers affiliated to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) during the two decades from 1998 to 2017. Research Design: This observational and quantitative analysis on dental research growth in KSA is based upon the data retrieved from Scopus database. This study was carried out at the College of Dentistry, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS). Bibliometric indicators such as year-wise growth, productive author, research-type, source publication, productive national institutions, international research collaboration and collaborating countries have been used to illustrate research performance of KSA. Relevant bibliometric studies on medical and dental research have been reviewed. Microsoft Excel used for data analysis. Key Findings: The results of the study provide various characteristics of dental literature published during the projected period. Total of 6,415 research items produced by 22 Arab countries, a share of KSA counted 2,427 (37.83%) documents. Nearly half of the research items (n=1,209; 49.81%) published during the last three years from 2015 to 2017. Journal of Contemporary Dental Practice published 242 articles. King Saud University (KSU) appeared highest prolific national institution (n=938) and Alexandria University with 67 papers grasp top rank in international research collaborating institutions. United States (US) with 474 papers stood at the top in collaborating countries. Most of the papers have been written on the subject of dental procedures, resin, dental caries, tooth prosthesis and dental implants. Dr. Shankargouda Patil affiliated with Jazan University found as the most instrumental author with 60 publications in his credit. Conclusions/Implications: Findings of this study illustrate that dentistry has been progressing over the years in KSA. High tech dental research has a direct impact on the oral health and wellbeing of citizens. KSA researchers are thriving for more informed dental practices and research-based education leading to quality oral health care to their community

Quality Management In Oman’s Construction Industry

Proses Pengurusan Kualiti Total (TQM) boleh dianggapkan sebagai satu sistem yang terkini dalam bidang kualiti, selepas pemeriksaan kualiti, kawalan kualiti, pemastian kualiti dan sistem pengurusan kualiti ISO 9000 dalam sektor binaan. Dewasa ini, kebanyakan organisasi di dunia menggunakan TQM dengan hasrat untuk menilai dan meningkatkan kualiti. Objektif kajian ini adalah: i) untuk menilai pelaksanaan terkini TQM di kalangan firma binaan di Oman, ii) untuk menilai halangan-halangan yang dihadapi oleh firma binaan binaan bagi melaksanakan prinsip-prinsip TQM, iii) untuk mengenalpasti faktor kualiti yang kritikal yang memberi kesan kepada pelaksanaan prinsip-prinsip TQM secara berkesan serta memberi kesan kepada produktiviti di tapak bina; Total quality management (TQM) process can be considered as the latest system in the field of quality, after quality inspection, quality control, quality assurance and ISO 9000 quality management in the construction sector. Recently, many organizations resorted to the application of TQM in the world, with a view to assessing the level of quality and to improve it. The objectives of this research are: i) to investigate the current TQM implementation in Oman construction companies, ii) to investigate the obstacles that construction companies face in implementing effective TQM practices, iii) to identify the quality factors that are critical to effective implementation of TQM and which factors impact site productivity; and to provide possible solutions to overcome these problems

INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT GRADES AND CONCENTRATIONS OF PH‑SENSITIVE POLYMER ON PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF LIDOCAINE HYDROCHLORIDE AS IN SITU GEL BUCCAL SPRAY

Objective: The present study was aimed to develop a pH-triggered in situ gel for local release of lidocaine hydrochloride (lidocaine HCL) in the buccal cavity to improve the anesthetic effect of this amino amide drug which has very high water solubility. The formulations were introduced to the oral cavity as a spray to improve compliance and for easier administration.Methods: In this work, two grades of carbopol (934 and 940)-based in situ gel spray were designed. The formulations containing lidocaine HCl 5% were prepared by mixing different concentrations of carbopol with xanthan gum. Eight formulations were investigated and evaluated for gelation capacity, spray angle, volume of solution delivered per each actuation, rheological properties, and release kinetic model. Similarity factor (f2) was used for the comparison of dissolution profiles.Results: The prepared formulations undergo gelation after it had been actuated to the buccal cavity as a spray solution. The results showed that, as the concentration of polymer was increased, the release of drug decreased and the viscosity increased for both grades. The spray angle and volume of solution delivered per each actuation varied according to the composition of each formulation. The in situ gel containing 0.3% carbopol 934 and 0.2% xanthan gum regarded as a better candidate which had a good gelation and release property compared to other formulations. Drug release from optimized in situ gel spray followed Korsmeyer–Peppas model and was mediated by Fickian diffusion mechanism.Conclusion: Lidocaine HCl-loaded pH-sensitive in situ gel was successfully developed using carbopol 934 as polymer to be applied to the buccal cavity as spray solution for more effective anesthetic effect and painless treatment

Outcome of tracheostomy after pediatric cardiac surgery

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate the incidence, timing indications and outcome of tracheotomy in children who underwent cardiac surgeries.MethodsAll pediatric cardiac patients (under 14years of age) who underwent cardiac surgeries and required tracheotomy from November 2000 to November 2010 were reviewed. The data were collected and reviewed retrospectively.ResultsSixteen children underwent tracheotomy after cardiac surgery. Fifteen of these cases had surgery for congenital heart disease, and one had surgery for an acquired rheumatic mitral valve disease. The mean±SEMs of the durations of ventilation before and after tracheotomy were 60.4±9.8 and 14.5±4.79days respectively (P value 0.0002). The means±SEM of the lengths of ICU stay before and after tracheotomy were 63.31±10.15 and 22±5.4days respectively (P value 0.0012). After the tracheotomy 12/16 patients (75%) were weaned from their ventilators and 10/16 were discharged from the PCICU. Six patients were discharged from the hospital and 3 were successfully decannulated. The overall survival rate was 9/16 (56%).ConclusionTracheostomy shortens the duration of mechanical ventilation and facilitates discharge from the ICU. The mortality of tracheotomy patients is still significant but is mainly related to the primary cardiac disease

Polyvascular Disease in Patients Presenting with Acute Coronary Syndrome: Its Predictors and Outcomes

We evaluated prevalence and clinical outcome of polyvascular disease (PolyVD) in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Data for 7689 consecutive ACS patients were collected from the 2nd Gulf Registry of Acute Coronary Events between October 2008 and June 2009. Patients were divided into 2 groups (ACS with versus without PolyVD). All-cause mortality was assessed at 1 and 12 months. Patients with PolyVD were older and more likely to have cardiovascular risk factors. On presentation, those patients were more likely to have atypical angina, high resting heart rate, high Killip class, and GRACE risk scoring. They were less likely to receive evidence-based therapies. Diabetes mellitus, renal failure, and hypertension were independent predictors for presence of PolyVD. PolyVD was associated with worse in-hospital outcomes (except for major bleedings) and all-cause mortality even after adjusting for baseline covariates. Great efforts should be directed toward primary and secondary preventive measures