Service quality and customers trust, moderating role of personality traits

Customers’ trust is an inevitable asset for organizations. The long-term relationship of customer-organization depends upon the presence of customers’ trust on the organization. It’s a delicate sense of feeling derived from quality and commitment of the organizations to meet customers’ expectations. The significance of this phenomenon in services industry becomes even more critical where organizations have to know individual as well as contextual factors that influence on customers’ trust. This study tested the impact of different dimensions of perceived service quality on customers’ trust and how this perception varies depending upon the personality disposition in life insurance sector of Pakistan. Using cross sectional research design, the study taped customers’ responses regarding service quality, customers’ trust, and their personality disposition. The sample was obtained from insurance sector in different cities of Pakistan, where 242 customers were participated in the survey Explanatory factor analysis, single mean T-test, correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test proposed hypotheses. The results indicate positive relationship between different dimensions of service quality and customers’ trust. The finding of moderation analysis shows that customer’s personality traits have varied effects on the relationships between dimensions of service quality and customers’ trust. Finally, based on quantitative findings, proposed framework was revised. This study recommends several implications for managers of services industry so that they should develop an effective service design to build long-term customers’ trust in accordance with different personality traits

The use of partial least squares path modeling in causal inference for archival financial accounting research

In financial accounting research, multivariate regression is almost exclusively the dominant statistical method. By contrast, Partial Least Squares path modeling is a under-utilized statistical method. The aim of this study is to examine how Partial Least Squares path modeling can be applied to the archival financial accounting research. This article first presents an overview on multivariate regression and structural equation modeling. The authors then highlight that advantages of using Partial Least Squares path modeling to address the research constraints in causal inference for archival financial accounting research

A New Trilogy to Understand the Relationship among Organizational Climate, Workplace Bullying and Employee Health

AbstractOrganizational Climate is a driving force in the organization behavior which provides foundations to many physical and psychological phenomena to the employees. Bullying is one of the major under considered phenomenon, usually caused by the organizational climate. The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between organizational climates, workplace bullying and workers’ health in selected higher education institutes of Pakistan. A proportionate random sample of 20 Universities comprising of 10 from public sector and 10 from private sector was selected for the study. The model of workplace bullying, organizational climate and worker's health was estimated by Structural Equation Modeling using AMOS software. The study found a negative relationship between organizational climate and bullying on one hand, while on the other hand, an increased workplace bullying effects employees’ health negatively due to affected sleeping hours. Drug abuse was treated as a moderator between health and affected sleeping hours. The study suggested that organizations should control workplace bullying which may cause physical and psychological effects on employee's health

A proposed model to enhance crisis management capabilities of electricity production and supply companies in Pakistan

Crisis management (CM) is considered to be of growing importance in the management of utilities. A wealth of literature on crisis stresses on the need to enhance crisis management capabilities such as decision making, and leadership. Such capabilities are already in practice in the developed countries but have been mostly ignored in developing countries like Pakistan. Because of the neglect of the crisis management capabilities particularly in relation to utilities, Pakistan is facing acute shortage of electricity which is the life and blood of the industrial development in the country. Due to the electricity crisis, many of the industries have been forced to shut down and hundreds of thousands have become unemployed. The present study is an attempt to propose a framework that would help enhance the crisis management capabilities of the companies involved in electricity production and supply. A comprehensive review of literature has been carried out in order to propose a conceptual framework accordingly

A review of theories on technology acceptance: the case of mobile banking user retention in Saudi Arabia

Mobile technologies have become a crucial functional element of modern organizations. They provide uninterrupted access to information, regardless of the user’s geographic location and time. Customer service, quality, satisfaction and retention are key proponents of measuring success and profitability in any organization. Due to the exponential growth of information technology, banks face dual competitive pressures to provide service quality and administrative efficiency. Accordingly, banks need to retain their existing users of mobile banking (m-banking) services to be able to benefit long term from this sustained usage behavior. The problem for banks is that the current understanding of determinants of m-banking sustained usage is limited. We propose some modifications to the DeLone and McLean Model (2003) of Information Systems Success in light of descriptive and relational studies, whereby the universal model may be applicable in post adoption user retention context. Using the findings of the review of theories and models, banks in Saudi Arabia can improve their m-banking strategies to achieve higher retention rates of existing users of m-banking services. While this study focused on m-banking user retention in the Saudi Arabian context catering to post adoption scenario, the purpose of this study is also to establish a universal measurement model for post adoption user perception of m-banking services, with global applicability

Relationship of Transformational Leadership, Organizational Learning and Organizational Performance

Purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of transformational leadership on organizational performance through the dynamic capabilities of organizational learning in telecom sector of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses. The data was collected through survey questionnaires which were distributed to the employees of telecom sector of KSA. A random sample of 70 employees was used to collect the data. The response rate was 80%. The results reveal that transformational leadership positively influences the organizational performance and learning. The study also confirms existence of positive association between organizational learning and performance. The study is useful for the managers in telecom sector to understand the impact of transformation leaders to enhance learning capabilities of the employees which ultimately increases the performance of the employees in telecom sector. Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Organizational Learning, Organizational Performance JEL Classifications: D8; L2

Demystifying the role of a state ownership in corporate governance and firm performance: evidence from the manufacturing sector in Malaysia

The aim of this research is to examine the role of state ownership in corporate governance and firm performance. We employed ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares regressions to analyze the effects of state ownership on firm performance.We go beyond existing research on state ownership by carefully disentangle investment objectives of state-controlled financial institutions. Such state ownership can be classified as profit-oriented and non-profit-oriented, in which the former consider return on investment to be the primary investment objective, whereas the latter prioritizes socio-economic development. We found that profit-oriented state ownership is an effective corporate governance mechanism and provides political patronage to the firm in the form of firm’s specific resources and credit financing. Although nonprofit-oriented state ownership firms also receive similar political patronage, they tend to be associated with inefficiencies such as the free-rider problems, bureaucracies and political intervention in firm management. We conclude that state ownership consists of heterogeneous entities with respect to corporate governance and firm performanc

A proposed conceptual model of determinants of supply chain performance in the Malaysian electronic manufacturing services (EMS) industry

Electronic manufacturing services (EMS) provide electronics manufacturing services for other companies. This industry is one of the industries that require supply chain management (SCM) to optimize the operations. EMS focuses on printed circuit board fabrication, electronic design, assembly and testing. In this article, the authors propose a conceptual model by linking the relationships with customer and supplier, information and communication technology, material flows management, corporate culture, performance measurement; and SCM performance in a single study. The findings of this article would provide important implications for the management in the manufacturing companies to understand determinants that contribute to the SCM success. More importantly, based of the obtained results, these companies can enhance the SCM performance by improving the current practices/strategies through focusing on the determinants that significantly influence SCM performance

Commercialisation activities of research results among academic researchers in Malaysia

This paper discusses the results of a survey conducted on academic researchers working on biotechnology related research from four leading research universities in Malaysia. One-way ANOVA tests were conducted to examine whether perceptions on commercialisation activities of research results differ based on the demographic background of the researchers.The result of this study revealed significant differences in perceptions on commercialisation initiatives particularly with regards to years of research experience, experienceas administrator/top level management at university level and job status.Other researches which could be conducted were recommended to complement this exploratory study

Issues of commercialization activities of biotechnology related researches in Malaysian research university

This study aims to explore issues of commercialization activities of research results among academic researchers who work in biotechnology related researches in Malaysian Research University. Accordingly, the conceptual framework based on ‘Innovation Implementation’ model has been assessed for its applicability in describing the phenomenon under study. Through interviews, elements as specified in the ‘Innovation Implementation’ model were found in this case study. Significant patterns and themes were also identified that suggest local industries, funding for research, development and commercialization as well as leadership, political interference, researcher’s attitude, transition management and legal are considered as the contextual factors that affect the commercialization activities of research results. Finally, the revised framework of commercialization activities implementation based on the findings from qualitative analysis was recommended