Challenges facing women entrepreneurs running home-based business in Saudi Arabia

A considerable amount of studies have been devoted to understanding the challenges undermining entrepreneurial activities. However, calls to the lack of studies published on female entrepreneurs have been emphasized in the literature. Notably, much research investigating the challenges facing women entrepreneurs who chose their homes to be the primary place for business is encouraged. The current study delves into exploring the challenges facing Home-based businesswomen in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A qualitative approach was selected to collect; thirty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of home-based businesswomen. The research has explored challenges during the journey of the business stages (i.e., Seed stage, Start-up stage, and Expansion stage). The findings identified three significant challenges that undermine female home-based businesses. Financial difficulties are the most salient challenge that is found prominent during the life cycle of the business. Psychological problems were also dominant during the seed stage; however, societal challenges were apparent during seed and expansion stages only. Operational challenges were the critical challenge notable during the expansion phase

Towards Green Pilgrimage: A Framework For Action in Makkah, Saudi Arabia

The great Islamic pilgrimage (Hajj) to the Holy places in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, is considered one of the largest annual mass confluences of people in the world. Hajj takes at least four-days and attracts more than three million pilgrims who perform specific steps to fulfil the requirements of this unique journey. However, Hajj presents an extraordinary challenge to the Saudi government for ensuring safety during such a large-scale mass gathering, and stakeholders are overwhelmed by managing the logistics of this event. Despite prior studies’ efforts to explore attitudes towards pilgrimage safety, and to investigate ways to minimise carbon footprints on the environment, research on how to move towards greening this massive event is scarce. Hence, this paper provides a holistic overview of the challenges facing the Saudi government and involved stakeholders towards achieving the greening of this pilgrimage. This exploratory study uses a qualitative approach; data were collected via a semi-structured interview, six focus groups, and participant observation (on-site observation) in the city of Makkah during the Hajj season of 2018. Results show that the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah put various elements in place, such as recycling, solid waste management, and environmental protection. However, limited communication among stakeholders involved in the event makes it difficult to go further in achieving green goals. In this study, opportunities and challenges for green pilgrimage are divided into seven main groups: initiatives towards green pilgrimage, waste management, energy efficiency and transportation, greening water resources, greening food, green rituals, and promoting green awareness. A framework of action for developing sustainable green pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia is suggested and also, implications for the Saudi government and stakeholders are discussed in the light of extant literature. Recommendations are provided for better application of green pilgrimage initiatives in Saudi Arabia, with a particular focus on the Holy City of Makkah

The challenges facing innovation teams in healthcare organizations: A case study of King Abdullah Medical City

Understanding the challenges of team-based projects is a phenomenon that has become increasingly critical to both academics and practitioners. Identifying the obstacles which inhibit team-based project effectiveness is crucial to health organizations. Research exploring the challenges facing team members during the stages of team building is limited. Further, exploring the role of leadership style on Hence, the current study delves into the challenges facing innovation team members in King Abdullah Medical City during the team development stages. Based on Tuckman's stage development model, the study identifies the challenges facing members during the five stages of team development stages (i.e., forming, storming, performing, norming, and adjourning). Four focused groups, eight face-to-face interviews and unstructured personal observation have been used to collect data for this study. The findings reveal five critical themes related to the challenges confronting innovation team members during the stages of team development. In particular, the storming and norming stages are found to be the most critical stages, which involve many difficulties such as leader characteristics, communication, task distribution

Religious Servicescape: Does Convenience Matter for Revisit Intentions and Positive Word of Mouth?

Umrah is an optional holy ritual that is highly rewarded when performed in the month of Ramadan. Hence, managing such an event is a challenging mission facing stakeholders. However, limited studies have examined the quality of services provided in the Umrah site (i.e., the Holy Mosque in the city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia) from the pilgrims’ perspective. The current study examines the influence of religious servicescape on service convenience and investigates whether service convenience matters to pilgrims. Further, the study tests the role of religious attractiveness (i.e., of the Kaaba) on pilgrims’ behavioural outcomes (i.e. intention to revisit and Positive Word of Mouth (PWOM). A Mixed-method approach is followed to collect rich data (i.e., quantitative and qualitative). The findings demonstrate that religious servicescape has a critical impact on service convenience. The results also show that service convenience is also a significant mediator between servicescape and PWOM. However, service convenience does not mediate the relationship between religious servicescape and intention to revisit. Consequently, service convenience in the religious context matters to pilgrims and the service provider. Further, Kaaba attractiveness creates a ‘halo’ effect

Sociodemographic Characteristics and Dietary Choices as Determinants of Climate Change Understanding and Concern in Saudi Arabia

Climate change poses a global threat to public health. This study investigated the understanding of, and concern over, climate change in Saudi Arabia and examined the associations with sociodemographic characteristics and dietary choices. This cross-sectional study consisted of 280 participants recruited via an online survey. Of the study participants, 45% demonstrated a sufficient understanding of climate change, and 56% were highly concerned about climate change. Male sex, medium-high monthly income, high education, and governmental employees were determinants of sufficient understanding of and great concern over climate change. Participants who exhibited a high understanding of climate change score demonstrated significantly higher consumption of vegetables (3.47 ± 0.98) and vegetable oils (3.26 ± 1.07) than participants with a low understanding score (3.31 ± 0.96 and 3.00 ± 1.01, respectively) (p ≤ 0.01). Additionally, participants with higher concern of climate change scores exhibited lower consumption of red meat (p = 0.0001), poultry (p = 0.003), margarine (p = 0.02), and soy products (p = 0.04). The study revealed a poor understanding of, but great concern over, climate change. The intake of non-climate-friendly food was typically higher than that of climate-friendly food. These findings are critical for developing strategies to enhance awareness of climate change and encourage people to consume climate-friendly food to mitigate climate change and improve public health

Interaction experiences and outcomes of value co-creation in banking in Saudi Arabia

Services theory emphasises the importance of both customer involvement in relevant processes and for service outcomes to be perceived as high value. Co-creation of value is a joint process by firms and their customers, during which they use reciprocal interactions to draw on relevant resources. However, current understanding of the meaning of co-creation is limited, especially with respect to multichannel service delivery. Hence, this project has two major aims. First, it explores the meaning of, and develops a measure for, the co-creation experience from the perspective of both managers and customers. Second, the project uses customers’ responses to test relationships between antecedents of the co-creation experience, its dimensions, and outcome variables including customers’ perceived value-in-use, and customer commitment. To achieve its objectives, the project uses two sequential studies with data collected from five major banks in Saudi Arabia. In Study 1, the responses of 33 interviewees were content analysed to understand how the co-creation experience is interpreted. Three key dimensions were identified: joint problem-solving (JPS), joint relationship development (JRD), and joint knowledge and learning (JKL). In Study 2, responses from 528 banking customers were used to identify the psychometric properties of the co-creation experience measure, and to test hypothesised relationships between integration quality (antecedent), co-creation, the factors contributing to customers’ perceived value-in-use (customer participation benefits, convenience value, and religious value), and customers’ affective and continuance commitment to the bank. Testing the measurement and structural models revealed that the three-dimensional measure of the co-creation experience is robust, but that the factors have different effects with respect to outcomes. JPS is positively related to only customer participation benefits of value-in-use, while JRD and JKL are related to affective commitment, but not to value-in-use. Additionally, JKL is linked to continuance commitment. These findings extend contemporary theory focussing on service-dominant logic. Finally, the antecedent, integration quality retains the importance attributed to it in the literature in that it is related to each of the co-creation experience, convenience value and affective commitment. Several implications for banking managers emerge. JPS needs to be proactive taking into account all types of contact with customers regardless of their location, and supporting coordination among different banking channels. To build positive feelings towards the bank, employees predominantly need communication skills to improve on and maintain existing customer relationships; while the JKL findings suggest that banks must invest in a variety of strategies to facilitate on-going education of both employees and customers about collaboration and the effective use of multi-channels. This study has the limitations of cross-sectional research and as it was conducted on end consumers in Saudi Arabia, the findings might not be generalizable to developed or culturally different populations, or business customers. Other areas that warrant further investigation include the role and importance of religious value, which emerged as a dimension of value-in-use; the possible commitment or loyalty outcomes of JPS, which were not evident in the current study; and further research into JKL, which provided links to both affective and continuance commitment

Interaction experiences and outcomes of value co-creation in banking in Saudi Arabia

Services theory emphasises the importance of both customer involvement in relevant processes and for service outcomes to be perceived as high value. Co-creation of value is a joint process by firms and their customers, during which they use reciprocal interactions to draw on relevant resources. However, current understanding of the meaning of co-creation is limited, especially with respect to multichannel service delivery. Hence, this project has two major aims. First, it explores the meaning of, and develops a measure for, the co-creation experience from the perspective of both managers and customers. Second, the project uses customers’ responses to test relationships between antecedents of the co-creation experience, its dimensions, and outcome variables including customers’ perceived value-in-use, and customer commitment. To achieve its objectives, the project uses two sequential studies with data collected from five major banks in Saudi Arabia. In Study 1, the responses of 33 interviewees were content analysed to understand how the co-creation experience is interpreted. Three key dimensions were identified: joint problem-solving (JPS), joint relationship development (JRD), and joint knowledge and learning (JKL). In Study 2, responses from 528 banking customers were used to identify the psychometric properties of the co-creation experience measure, and to test hypothesised relationships between integration quality (antecedent), co-creation, the factors contributing to customers’ perceived value-in-use (customer participation benefits, convenience value, and religious value), and customers’ affective and continuance commitment to the bank. Testing the measurement and structural models revealed that the three-dimensional measure of the co-creation experience is robust, but that the factors have different effects with respect to outcomes. JPS is positively related to only customer participation benefits of value-in-use, while JRD and JKL are related to affective commitment, but not to value-in-use. Additionally, JKL is linked to continuance commitment. These findings extend contemporary theory focussing on service-dominant logic. Finally, the antecedent, integration quality retains the importance attributed to it in the literature in that it is related to each of the co-creation experience, convenience value and affective commitment. Several implications for banking managers emerge. JPS needs to be proactive taking into account all types of contact with customers regardless of their location, and supporting coordination among different banking channels. To build positive feelings towards the bank, employees predominantly need communication skills to improve on and maintain existing customer relationships; while the JKL findings suggest that banks must invest in a variety of strategies to facilitate on-going education of both employees and customers about collaboration and the effective use of multi-channels. This study has the limitations of cross-sectional research and as it was conducted on end consumers in Saudi Arabia, the findings might not be generalizable to developed or culturally different populations, or business customers. Other areas that warrant further investigation include the role and importance of religious value, which emerged as a dimension of value-in-use; the possible commitment or loyalty outcomes of JPS, which were not evident in the current study; and further research into JKL, which provided links to both affective and continuance commitment

Young adults’ sought gratifications from, and perceptions of food advertising by, social media influencers: a qualitative approach

Abstract Background This study aims to explore young adults’ sought gratifications from social media influencers and whether they are exposed to food advertising by influencers. Further, it aims to understand how young individuals perceive food advertisements by social media influencers. Methods This qualitative study was conducted on 17 students from two public universities—King Abdul Aziz and Jeddah universities—located in the City of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, using in-depth, face-to-face, and semi-structured interviews. The participants were active users of social media platforms who followed at least one influencer. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The COREQ guidelines for reporting qualitative research (see Additional file 2) were followed when stating the findings. Results The findings reveal ten themes, that is, seven gratifications sought by young adults—broadening knowledge, perceived usefulness, self-improvement, boosting positivity, fostering morale, reinforcing inspiration, and passing time/enjoyment—and three themes (i.e. repeated, authentic, and unhealthy) that describe how Saudi young adults perceive food advertising. Conclusion This study contributes to social media influencer marketing by identifying the factors that motivate young consumers to follow influencers, and it elucidates the extent to which young adults are exposed to food marketing, adding to the body of literature on food advertising

Entrepreneurs’ Responses to COVID-19 Crisis: A Holistic Dynamic Capabilities Perspective in the Saudi Food and Beverage Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an active crisis for businesses around the globe. This paper adopts the Dynamic Capabilities (DC) theory to investigate factors that may account for differences in entrepreneurial marketing (EM) adoption and entrepreneurial marketing opportunities during two stages of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, namely the full and partial closure. The existing study provides useful insights into the functioning of entrepreneurial marketing that make the related opportunities and challenges visible. Additionally, the paper explores entrepreneurial marketing strategies employed by Saudi entrepreneurs within the Food and Beverage sector (F&B) to mitigate the uncertainty and challenges posed by the pandemic. Since the nature of the research inquiry is exploratory, semi-structured interviews with seventeen restaurant and cafe owners were conducted to explore the phenomena under investigation and confirm the constructs used for the model development. Under exceptional circumstances, restaurants and cafés representing the F&B sector have been forced to respond quickly, become innovative and make compromises. Findings revealed that converting to survival mode with short time frames was the only solution for entrepreneurial marketing within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic