Customer Loyalty in the Retail Industry in Yangon, Myanmar

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors impacting customer loyalty in the retail industry in Yangon, Myanmar. The study identified the relationship among product innovation, service quality, product quality, customer satisfaction,  trust, communication, and customer loyalty. Research design, data, and methodology: A total of 491 respondents were used to collect the data via online and offline questionnaire. The sampling procedure involves judgmental, convenience and snowball sampling. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to test factor loading, composite reliability, average variance extracted, Cronbach’s alpha, validities and goodness of fit. Additionally, the hypothesis testing results were produced by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results: The result shows that service quality and product quality have a significant relationship on satisfaction. Furthermore, the relationship among satisfaction, trust and loyalty are significantly supported. For second order, there are causal relationship among semi/uncontrolled communication and its elements which are word-of-mouth, public relations, media relations, and social media marketing. Nevertheless, product innovation has no significant impact on satisfaction. Conclusion: Products itself and semi-uncontrolled communication are vital points to get customer loyalty in the long run through satisfaction and trust. Thus, organizations and marketers need to focus on a competitive edge to gain sustainability in customer loyalty

国際貿易、垂直統合及び貿易協定に関する研究

広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(学術)Doctor of Philosophydoctora

A large-scale sentiment analysis using political tweets

Twitter has become a key element of political discourse in candidates’ campaigns. The political polarization on Twitter is vital to politicians as it is a popular public medium to analyze and predict public opinion concerning political events. The analysis of the sentiment of political tweet contents mainly depends on the quality of sentiment lexicons. Therefore, it is crucial to create sentiment lexicons of the highest quality. In the proposed system, the domain-specific of the political lexicon is constructed by using the supervised approach to extract extreme political opinions words, and features in tweets. Political multi-class sentiment analysis (PMSA) system on the big data platform is developed to predict the inclination of tweets to infer the results of the elections by conducting the analysis on different political datasets: including the Trump election dataset and the BBC News politics. The comparative analysis is the experimental results which are better political text classification by using the three different models (multinomial naïve Bayes (MNB), decision tree (DT), linear support vector classification (SVC)). In the comparison of three different models, linear SVC has the better performance than the other two techniques. The analytical evaluation results show that the proposed system can be performed with 98% accuracy in linear SVC

Feedback after summative OSCEs: optimising delivery and engagement

Background Few opportunities for learning exist after high stakes summative assessments. Providing students feedback after summative Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) could be a learning opportunity. However, as engagement is often poor, it is necessary to have an understanding of the learners’ perspective to design a summative feedback programme. Once summative feedback has been given, it is necessary to evaluate its quality and quantity and whether the learners engage with it as the examiners and learners may have little motivation and opportunity to engage with summative feedback. Evaluating whether the learners read the feedback they receive belongs to the behavioural aspect of feedback engagement. Looking beyond this, cognitive and emotional aspects of feedback engagement can be better understood by defining and measuring specific learner attitudes that influence feedback engagement. Currently, there is no evidence of such constructs in medical education. Feedback orientation is a construct that represents a learner’s receptivity to feedback. It is composed of Utility, Accountability, Feedback self-efficacy and Social Awareness dimensions. Feedback Orientation Scale is a twenty item five-point questionnaire that measures these constructs in business management. This study aims to generate the evidence of feedback orientation in medical education. Methods This is a mixed methods study conducted at the University of Nottingham. Firstly, a qualitative phenomenological study was conducted using semi-structured peer interviews to explore the learners’ perception of feedback in the context of summative assessments in order to inform the design of the intervention. Secondly, a feedback intervention was implemented in which examiners used digital tablets to record written feedback to students during actual high stakes summative OSCEs. This feedback was delivered online at the same time as the results. The quality of the comments was assessed using a set criteria. Feedback website log-in data were collected. Learners were categorised into Honours, Pass and Fail groups. Quantity distribution of feedback across these groups and their log-in rates were analysed. Thirdly, confirmatory factor analysis, item analysis and ANOVA were performed on FOS data collected from medical students. FOS scores were analysed in relation to the learners’ course, training year and gender. Results Interviews The students (N = 16) wanted specific personalised examiner feedback to be offered to everyone as they were receiving only generic feedback after summative OSCEs at the time. Some felt they will likely not use the feedback because they have already passed the exam. One student felt that one-on-one feedback they received after failing an exam was unsatisfactory as the feedback giver neither appeared to know nor care about anything apart from what was written on the mark sheet. Feedback intervention Using digital tablets in summative OSCEs to produce feedback was feasible, acceptable and efficient. Exams were delivered smoothly without any disruptive incidents. Quality Seventy examiners assessed 287 students in eight stations resulting in 2296 assessments. Nearly two thirds of these (N = 1600) produced free text feedback, of which four were illegible. No unprofessional or derogatory comments were found. More than half of the comments (N = 857) were descriptions of two or more actions performed by the student. A quarter of the free text feedback (N = 387) contained both a description what the student did and a suggestion for improvement. A minority contained only a general description or unspecific judgement (N = 240). Quantity Nearly all assessments (N = 2266) produced either free text or pre-written “tickbox” feedback. All students received either free text or tickbox feedback in all stations. All students received both types of feedback in at least two stations and nearly all students (N=271, 94.43%) did so in at least four stations out of eight. Quantity distribution of both free text and tickbox counts followed closely to normal distribution (mean = 125.73 and 32.45, SD = 50.88 and 5.37, skew = 0.67 and 0.12 respectively). Failed students received significantly more free text feedback than the rest (P = 0.00). Engagement A large majority (N=263, 91.64%) of students viewed their feedback after the main exam. Honours students’ view rate (92.59%) was higher than that of the passed students (89.74%). A smaller proportion of students viewed their feedback after the resit (78.95%). A smaller proportion of passed students at resit (N=26, 83.87%) viewed their feedback while only three out of seven failed students did so. FOS study Nearly a third of all students (N = 422) responded to the FOS questionnaire. All items had high reliability (SE = 0.03, coefficient alpha = 0.89). Confirmatory factor analysis produced good fit indices which supported the applicability of the model to the data. Overall feedback orientation was high (mean = 3.99). Utility domain had the highest mean at 4.3 and the Feedback self-efficacy domain had the lowest mean at 3.7. The overall scores were significantly higher in students from training years four and five (p = 0.02). Males had a significantly higher self-efficacy score than females (p = 0.02). GEM students had significantly higher scores in Utility and Social Awareness domains than non-GEMs (p = 0.02 and 0.03 respectively). The Utility scores increased in year four and five significantly (p = 0.02), while Social Awareness scores were significantly lower in the first year (p = 0.00). Females were significantly stronger in Utility than males when they are GEM students (p = 0.02). There was no other significant difference in any domain according to student variables. Discussion Feedback after summative OSCEs was successful: quality and quantity of feedback for all students was adequate and learner engagement was high. This success could be attributed to the information gained during the literature review and peer interviews. Examiner training should include specific information regarding what constitutes good feedback in order to further improve feedback quality. Finding a direct relationship between academic performance and feedback engagement was congruent with existing evidence. It is not surprising because it is logical to assume that higher performing students are more motivated learners who would engage with feedback, or any learning opportunity, more than lower performing or unmotivated learners would. Examiners showed a tendency to help poor performing learners correct their mistakes than help competent ones perfect their practice by giving significantly more feedback to poor performing students. This is likely because examiners felt it was important to help students pass and also to prevent incompetent practice. More evidence should be attained on the examiners’ feedback giving behaviour. This study generated strong psychometric evidence of feedback orientation in medical education using data from a large number of students. FOS was reliable to measure the same constructs in medical education as it did in business management. None of its items were redundant. Overall feedback orientation of the medical students was strong. It was not surprising to find more senior students and GEMs having higher feedback orientation and males having more Feedback self-efficacy than females. Students were aware of the utility of feedback more than they were confident about their ability to use the feedback they receive. Despite these variations, no demographic group appeared to be severely weak at any aspect of feedback orientation. Medical educators can use FOS to assess how receptive their learners are to feedback, both as a group and individually, and give feedback accordingly. Future research should focus on the relationship between the learners’ feedback orientation and their actual engagement with feedback, for example, in terms of whether they read the feedback they receive. Targeted interventions to improve each aspect of feedback orientation should be developed. In conclusion, this study generated evidence on providing feedback to undergraduate medical students after summative OSCEs and on their feedback orientation

Gender, ethnicity, and geography on security in Myanmar

The study looks at public perceptions towards public service delivery on health, education and security. Kachin State was selected to understand how the breakdown of ceasefire between the Tatmadaw and Kachin Independent Army (KIA) impacted people’s opinion on security. (Note that since publication the coup d’état, February 1, 2021, has severely halted Myanmar’s fragile democratisation). Kayin state was chosen to reflect how the ongoing ceasefire shaped public opinion on security; Chin state was selected because it was one of the least developed ethnic states. Magway provided the control case as it was a Burman-dominant state, not directly affected by armed conflict

Decentralization of the police and its performance in four ethnic states of Myanmar

Along with democratic reforms started in 2011, police sector decentralization moved towards being a more gender and ethnic sensitive institution. Drawing on a survey, focus group discussions, and in-depth key informant interviews undertaken in Chin, Kayin, Kachin and Magway, the paper investigates effects of police force decentralization on service delivery performance in these four regions. Findings reveal that the police sector is only partially decentralized, and state governments have limited capability to manage police sectors even under limited decentralization. Challenges include resource and capacity constraints, political instability, and armed conflicts in the regions

MODELLING OF DYNAMIC SPEED LIMITS USING THE MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL

The article considers the issues of traffic management using intelligent system “Car-Road” (IVHS), which consist of interacting intelligent vehicles (IV) and intelligent roadside controllers. Vehicles are organized in convoy with small distances between them. All vehicles are assumed to be fully automated (throttle control, braking, steering). Proposed approaches for determining speed limits for traffic cars on the motorway using a model predictive control (MPC). The article proposes an approach to dynamic speed limit to minimize the downtime of vehicles in traffic

ALGORITHMS FOR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT IN THE INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS

Traffic jams interfere with the drivers and cost billions of dollars per year and lead to a substantial increase in fuel consumption. In order to avoid such problems the paper describes the algorithms for traffic management in intelligent transportation system, which collects traffic information in real time and is able to detect and manage congestion on the basis of this information. The results show that the proposed algorithms reduce the average travel time, emissions and fuel consumption. In particular, travel time has decreased by about 23%, the average fuel consumption of 9%, and the average emission of 10%

Young key affected population in Myanmar: are there any challenges in seeking information and care for HIV/sexually transmitted infections and reproductive health? [version 2; referees: 2 approved]

Background: Unmet needs and barriers in seeking HIV/STI and RH information and care are present especially among young key affected population (YKAP). Therefore, the study was conducted to determine the health seeking behaviors of YKAP regarding HIV/STI and RH, and challenges in seeking health information and care. Methods: A cross-sectional, mixed-methods study was conducted at two large cities in Myanmar. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with YKAP aged 15-24 years. In-depth interviews and key informant interviews were done with YKAP and health care providers. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were done for quantitative data and thematic analysis was applied for qualitative data. Results: A total of 119 young men who have sex with men (YMSM) and 123 young female sex workers (YFSW) included in the study. Mean age of YMSM and YFSW were 20.9±2.4 and 21.7±2.2 years. Over 30% of YMSM and 49.3% of YFSW had experience of any STI symptom. Particularly, 17% of YMSM and 10% of YFSW had genital ulcer, and majority sought health care at NGO clinics. About 37% of YMSM and 40% of YFSW visited Drop-in-center (DIC) within one to six months. Over 13% of YMSM and 14.6% of YFSW had challenges in seeking HIV/STI and RH information.  YMSM/YFSW type and age of YMSM were associated with visit to DIC. Lesser proportions of Tha-nge (43.5%), younger age YMSM (66.7%), brothel-based YFSW (47.9%) visited DIC than others (p<0.05). Challenges and unmet needs expressed by YKAP were reluctance in asking health information, worry for future fertility, consequences of anal sex and contraception. Challenges expressed by providers were limited time during outreach service and difficulty in reaching entertainment-based sex workers. Conclusions: Special attention in provision of health information should be paid to YKAP since there is a considerable proportion of YKAP with unmet need in seeking HIV/STI/RH information and care