Influence of Customer Service and Firm- Level Characteristics on Customer Satisfaction Among Large Retail Supermarkets in Kenya: Theoretical Framework

Different companies adopt different mechanisms to measure customer satisfaction and gain competitive edge. Principal component analysis identified five constructs which were found to influence respondents' decision to purchase: value, physical appearance, usage, prior experience and promotion. To achieve customer satisfaction therefore, most large firms are grappling to balance both the tangible and intangible consumer previous experience in order to maintain a destination of choice for its target audience. Customer service and firm level characteristics remain crucial elements of the retail mix that are of great significance to supermarket operations. Empirical review widely links the two aspects with customer satisfaction and that they are important for organization performance, growth, and sustainability amidst competition. However, previous studies have analyzed each aspect separately or looked at the variables independently which is a fact to be established in this study. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of customer service and firm level characteristics on customer satisfaction among large retail supermarkets in Kenya. The study tested a conceptual framework of six variables which links customer service and firm level characteristics to customer satisfaction; customer loyalty card initiative; supermarket ambience; operation schedule; supermarket pricing differentiation; supermarket image; and supermarket location. Key words: Customer Service and Firm- Level Characteristics, Customer Satisfactio

Influence of Mentorship Practices on Employee Performance in Small Manufacturing Firms in Garissa County, Kenya

Mentorship is a semi-structured approach where a person or groups of people share their knowledge, skills and experience to assist others to progress in their own lives and careers. This practice motivates employees and empowers others so as to identify their own strength and achieve organizational targets and goals. Mentorship enables the mentee to tap into the best of a mentor as a source of energy to foster intrapersonal and interpersonal understanding. These practices were identified as the independent variables, while employee performance was the dependent variable. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of mentorship practices on employees’ performance in small manufacturing firms in Garissa County. The specific objectives conceptualized from the study include; to establish how leadership mentorship affect employee performance; to assess how innovative mentorship influence employee performance; to determine how knowledge-transfer mentorship influence employee performance; and to examine how talent development mentorship affect employee performance in small manufacturing in Garissa county. A cross-sectional survey design was used in the study whereby the respondents were all the employees were included in the study. Questionnaires were administered to collect data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to arrive at conclusions on the relationships between study variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the set hypotheses and construct the model of interest. The study established a significant relationship between leadership mentorship, innovative mentorship, knowledge transfer mentorship, talent development mentorship and the performance of the employees. The results of the study will contribute tremendously to better the management of firms through mentorship adoption practices. The study recommends that mentorship practices be considered as part of the organizations strategy to improve on the performance of the employees. Keywords: Competitive advantage, Knowledge assets, Knowledge management, Knowledge transfer mentorshi

Customer Loyalty Initiative and Its Influence on Customer Satisfaction among Large Retail Supermarkets in Kenya

With the entry of other international retailers, Kenyan large retail supermarkets face fierce business competition in the marketplace that has been never witnessed in recent times. Therefore, to maintain a competitive edge, stay in business and retain their customers, they need to adapt a customer-oriented philosophy that creates maximum customer value. It is worth noting that customer value formulate certain attitudes, which ultimately informs purchase decision. Customer satisfaction can only be realized if customers’ expectations are met and exceeded thus exhibiting high frequency customer patronage in preferred supermarkets. Thus large retail supermarkets through their customer loyalty initiative, have established amicable customer relationships, communicated easily using available technology, amicably solved customer issues, and rewarded repeat purchase through this kind of program. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of customer loyalty initiative on customer satisfaction among large retail supermarkets in Kenya. Carried out in all large retail supermarkets in Kenya, a sample of 336 customers and 31 branch managers spread across the 8 regions were engaged using self-administered questionnaires for customers while interview schedules was undertaken for the supermarket branch managers. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for descriptive statistics; inferential statistics (Pearson moment correlation) and regression analysis was also done to establish the extent of relationship between the variables. It was established that customer loyalty initiative had a significant influence on customer satisfaction among large retail supermarkets in Kenya. The study thus recommends that the supermarkets management should scale up their promotional campaigns to ensure that all their customers be part of the program. This kind of initiative should  also include other features such as; access to all  banking services; prompt payment of goods, as well as access to credit facilities whenever they are in need among other services. Keywords: Customer Loyalty Initiative; Customer Satisfaction; Large Retail Supermarket

Effects of fatty acids on albumin-mediated cholesterol efflux from endothelial cells and on the growth of hamster pancreatic β-cells

Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2010.Includes bibliographical references.There is compelling evidence that elevated levels of plasma free fatty acids (FFAs) are associated with insulin resistance and pancreatic β-cell dysfunctions. On the other hand, elevated levels of circulating cholesterol are linked with higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). CVD and its complications that several type 2 diabetic patients experience are the leading causes of death. Despite these findings on the elevated levels of FFAs in metabolic diseases, the role that the most abundant serum protein and the sole FFA carrier, human serum albumin (HSA), plays in FFA-induced cellular effects is not well studied. HSA binds to many other ligands of both endogenous and exogenous sources, including cholesterol as evidenced through its potency to mediate cholesterol efflux in cell cultures. In this study, we examined the effects of HSA mixed with various FFAs on FFA-induced cell viability changes and insulin secretion from the hamster pancreatic insulinoma cell line, HIT-T15. Our study showed that various FFAs mixed with HSA have differential effects on HIT-TI5 cell viability, depending on the degree of saturation and chain length of FFAs. Furthermore, we showed that palmitate and stearate had adverse effects on cell viability that cylosporin A (csA) and caspase inhibition could not reverse, regardless of the presence of HSA or bovine serum albumin. However, caspase inhibition blocked apoptotic DNA fragmentation, thus indicating that FFA-induced β-cell death is not due to a single mechanism of cell death. Insulin secretion was also reduced after 24-hour exposure of β-cell to HSA/oleate complexes. We further examined the effects of FFAs on HSA-mediated efflux in the endothelial cell-line, EA.hy926. We observed significant reductions in cholesterol efflux (P < 0.05) at HSA/oleate or palmitate molar ratios of 1:5.3; this was not elicited by the presence of arachidonate. These results suggest that palmitate and oleate competes with cholesterol for the same binding site on HSA. Lastly, modified HSA/FFA interactions caused by mutations of key amino acids involved in binding of FFA to HSA resulted in β-cell viability changes as well as on changes in HSA-mediated cholesterol efflux. Our study suggests a possible role of HSA polymorphism in FFA-induced cellular changes