Service Quality Dimensions and Students’ Satisfaction: A study of Saudi Arabian Private Higher Education Institutions

Students’ satisfaction and their intentions are recognized as rather important aspects in higher education institution’s strategy in a competitive private higher education sector. However, what drives students’ satisfaction and retention is the service quality, and this quality comes from the combination of excellent learning and non-learning process. Building on service quality dimension literature, this study aims to investigate the antecedents of students’ intention to choose and stay with private higher education institutes. Through an adapted questionnaire survey, students’ response was measured on a 5-point likert scale. The results suggested that perceived service quality is positively correlated to satisfaction; perceived service quality and satisfaction are positively correlated to students’ retention. Limitations of the study are also presented at the end of the paper

Impact of Informational Social Support and Familiarity on Social Commerce Intention

Due to the increased popularity of social networking sites, a new platform called social commerce has emerged. Social commerce facilitates online interactions and user contributions to assist them in conducting commercial transactions. In this paper, we explore and identify factors that affect the intention to adopt social commerce. This study develops a comprehensive social commerce framework that has five key variables: Reviews and recommendations on social networking sites, customer ratings on social networking sites, trust on social networking sites, brand familiarity, and social commerce platform familiarity. Data were obtained from a survey of 310 consumers and were analyzed using Partial Least Squares PLS. The results indicate that reviews and recommendations on social networking sites, customer ratings on social networking sites, trust on social networking sites, and brand familiarity have a positive and direct influence on social commerce intention, while social commerce platform familiarity is not significant. This study contributes to consumer behavior theory by applying predictors of intention to social commerce for traditional e-commerce sites. The results also help e-commerce practitioners to improve their use of social tools

Impact of Informational Social Support and Familiarity on Social Commerce Intention

Due to the increased popularity of social networking sites, a new platform called social commerce has emerged. Social commerce facilitates online interactions and user contributions to assist them in conducting commercial transactions. In this paper, we explore and identify factors that affect the intention to adopt social commerce. This study develops a comprehensive social commerce framework that has five key variables: Reviews and recommendations on social networking sites, customer ratings on social networking sites, trust on social networking sites, brand familiarity, and social commerce platform familiarity. Data were obtained from a survey of 310 consumers and were analyzed using Partial Least Squares PLS. The results indicate that reviews and recommendations on social networking sites, customer ratings on social networking sites, trust on social networking sites, and brand familiarity have a positive and direct influence on social commerce intention, while social commerce platform familiarity is not significant. This study contributes to consumer behavior theory by applying predictors of intention to social commerce for traditional e-commerce sites. The results also help e-commerce practitioners to improve their use of social tools

Measurement of natural frequency and mechanical damping of thin brass diaphragm by pulsed laser generated vibrations

Damped harmonic oscillator model based fitting of nanosecond pulsed laser induced amplitude variations of clamped vibrating circular plate is used to estimate the mechanical damping and natural frequency of the sample in current work. Laser Pulses of 50 mJ energy, 20 ns duration, and focused at a spot of 4 mm diameter at the center of the circular thin brass sheet of 100 µm thickness is used to generate vibrations in the target. Quadrature Michelson interferometer (QMI) with CW laser focused on the opposite side of the target surface is used to measure the amplitude of vibrations. Variations of fringe frequencies are identified in the frequency domain. Finite element based numerical modal analyses are also performed in ANSYS Workbench for the verification of experimental results for the same geometry and materials. Experimental frequencies of vibrations are found to match nearly 2 percent of FEM modes. Moreover, Elastic parameters are also found using the first two mode frequencies and a reasonable agreement is observed while comparing with the elastic parameter data of brass. Current work in itself is a unique attempt of getting mechanical parameters for the determination of elastic parameters in a single laser pulse impulse excited measurement for thin clamped targets

Defining prospects

Peer Assessed Case Study for TeachingThe case study describes the situation of a female student, Anum, who gets inspired by training on entrepreneurship and was motivated from there to start her quest to become a real entrepreneur. The business plan competition comes out as the deciding event of her destiny as it was held amongst the best brains of university and thus was the toughest. This case has discussed various approaches that Anum used to generate four business ideas to take part in the competition. The information in this case revolves around idea generation process including personal factors, contextual matters, sources and techniques of research. Learning outcomes of the case are manifold yet primarily; it focuses on one of the central areas of entrepreneurship ie idea generation and its evaluation. This case is intended to serve as an indigenous solution to those who want to become future entrepreneurs but do not know how to build business ideas or assess their viability. Those who are most likely to get benefit from this case are: (1) the audience / students who haven't got any prior experience of working in any organization or played role in business in any capacity; and (2) novices to the study of entrepreneurship

Iqbal's Thoughts & Colonization System

Iqbal was a poet and philosopher. In his era, the British colonized India. Indian people were living as slaves. Allama Iqbal visited Europe for his studies in 1905. He observed the British rulers very closely. He came back in 1908 with an insight. He had seen the modern democracy very closely. He had a view that the British are not sincere to Indians. He guided his people with his thoughts. In this article, Iqbal’s thoughts and Colonization has been analyzed. How the British captured India and how they snared people for slavery. How Iqbal worked against all these snares. He guided the Indians to overcome these issues. He used his poetry as well as prose

Knowledge about Pain Clinics and Pain Physician among General Practitioners: A Cross-sectional Survey

Introduction: There is an on-going debate about what qualifies one to be called a pain physician and who can run the pain clinic . Currently, the discipline of anesthesiology is producing the majority of pain physicians. A literature search was unable to find data for any Pakistani or other South Asian countries with regards to general practitioner (GP) knowledge about pain clinics and pain physicians. The main objective of this study was to assess the awareness of GPs regarding the existence of the pain clinic and pain physician.Methods: A total of 411 GPs were included in this cross-sectional survey. A questionnaire consisting of ten questions was designed to identify their knowledge about the existence of pain clinics and pain physicians. Questionnaires were completed in the field and edited for the inconsistencies and in-completeness.Results: The results showed that only 52.6% of GPs were aware of the existence of pain clinics. The survey showed that 37.5% believe neurologists are the pain physicians and only 10.9% know that pain clinics are run by anesthesiologist. The vast majority (85.0%) are unaware of the modern pain relieving methods used in pain clinics.CONCLUSION: The survey indicates that nearly half of the GPs are unaware of the existence of pain clinics and pain physicians, and the majority of GPs are unaware of new pain relieving methods

The Sozo effect

Peer assessed case study for teachingThis Case accounts the story of an entrepreneurial venture named SOZO WATERPARK situated at Jallo 28km from Lahore, Pakistan. Zoraiz, was the person who identified this big enthralling opportunity in entertainment sector and materialized it with his acumen and commitment. To this end, the focus of the case is on the process of how the idea was developed, forces that persuaded him to plug in this huge project and strategies through which he accomplished his endeavour. The case ended up with narrating profound concern of owner towards future growth of the business. The objective of teaching this case is to provide students/readers an indigenous example of how to become an entrepreneur and setting up entrepreneurial ventures. The analysis of this case will give them insight into how ideas can be generated and how to proceed for the execution of huge projects. The case will also help students in learning how to devise strategies to ensure the growth of business in future. This case is ideally suitable for the students studying the basic level of the subjects of Business, Marketing and entrepreneurship