Marketing

Mobile Internet has become a convenient tool for information exchange, the new 4C business rules in the mobile commerce are co-creation, commodity, community and connecting. In today's mobile commerce, enterprises should pursue the following competitive strategies, which are strategic planning period is shortened?adjusting to changing circumstances is crucial, organizational structure will be more flat, flexible, and adapted to the environment, enterprises become customer operators, remove intermediaries, reduce distribution channels or service networks etc.

This paper investigated the hedonic analysis of consumers’ preference on the cowpea in the Ibadan metropolis. 100 cowpea sellers were selected by a purposive random sampling technique in five major markets in Ibadan.79% of the respondents were female while the rest 21% of them were male. 89% of the respondents sell a combination of varieties i.e. Peu/Drum, Sokoto, Mala, Olo and Oloyin for their nutritive value, popularity and availability which may be used for boiled whole grain cooking, fried cowpea balls (akara), and steamed cowpea cake (moin-moin). 75% of the respondents do not use any chemical to store cowpea grains.Also, analysis of Covariance model which was used capture price-quality relationship of the type of cowpea purchased by consumers revealed that there is a significant relationship between the number of holes in each of the cowpea varieties and their respective prices in the various markets sampled in the study area. Hence, the numbers of holes appear to be the major determining factors affecting the prices of various cowpea types in the study area.

Despite the increase in interest in fashion in Malaysia, there has not been any in-depth research conducted on the motives behind this concept. Hence, this study aims to fill this gap by searching for patterns, ideas, or issues to answer specifically “what is Malaysian youth understanding of fashion ?”Twelve respondents were selected through Facebook by virtue of their fashionpictures. An in-depth interview was conducted on one to one basis. The outcome indicated that these youth concur with the concept of fashion. This information will assist and be valuable to marketers in designing fashion.

Private Label brands had seen a striking expansion in recent days. Though, initially private label brands had a low-priced strategy, retailers have taken serious efforts quality improvements in recent years. The paper examines how retailers can influence the customers for private label brands by providing additional features in their product. Furthermore, the familiarity of the products may influence the purchase decision. The research method used in this study is descriptive research. Under this study a survey is conducted with the customers in and around the Coimbatore city for their preference towards private label brands. The major limitation in this study is that a few customers led some problems in the customer service area. The study was limited only to 200 customers. The time taken for the survey was between February 2012 and June 2012. The data collected is analysed with the tools like chi-square, weighted average rank and simple percentage method .The present study shows the customer preference for private label brands only in organized retail stores. Personal bias by the respondents may have script in while answering the questions.

The use of internet banking as a way for banking transactions has been dispersed around the world due to improvements in various aspects of technology. Iran has not been the exception of this advancement and consequently the number of internet banking affaires seems to be increasing dramatically recently. The aim of this study is investigating the factors affecting internet banking adoption in Iran. For this purpose, the extended TAM model is conducted as a conceptual framework. To collect the data needed to implement this exploratory research 230 people, who have bank accounts in Tehran and are of different demographical backgrounds, were selected to complete a standardized structured questionnaire. The questions of the questionnaire utilized in this study have been written in a closed-ended structure and the questionnaires were sent by mail or done through self-completion. Data are analyzed using Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) to evaluate the strength of the hypothesized relations. The results were well matched with integrated TAM and perceived risk models and confirm its robustness in predicting customers' intention of internet banking adoption in Iran. The results showed that the behavioral intention to use internet banking is positively affected mainly by digital literacy, self-efficacy and variables of TAM model and negatively affected by perceived risk.

This study specifically investigates the value or importance given to different sources of Word-of-Mouth. It also investigates the effect of Negative Word-of-Mouth on consumer decision-making. The study further investigates how actively people share their healthcare institute-related experiences with others. The study is based on primary data collected from 120 attendants from 4 hospitals (2 private hospitals and 2 government hospitals) in Delhi, India. The data is analysed using various statistical tools and methods. The results reveal that recommendations from medical practitioners and people who have availed the service are considered to be the most credible where as an individual’s own opinion takes the back seat while choosing a healthcare facility. The results of the study also reveal that people share their healthcare institute-related experiences very actively with others so as to express a sense of care and humanity. The results also reveal that Negative Word-of-Mouth plays a significant role in consumer decision-making about choosing a healthcare facility. Thus healthcare practitioners should focus on positive as well as negative Word-of-Mouth, and should come up with different strategies for different sources of Word-of-Mouth, in accordance to the importance given to those sources by consumers, so as to enhance their position in the market.

The world moved away from the concept that waste is something to be disposed of to recognizing it as a feedstock for energy. Therefore, the research was carried out by 2.5m3 pilot-scale Puxin digester from China to evaluate the anaerobic biodegradation of lignocellulose waste comprising cow dung, wheat straw and rice straw as feedstock is feasible at thermophilic condition (45 0C) for production biogas as a renewable energy. The addition of cow dung inoculum to fixed amount of feedstock was observed to improve biogas production. However, biogas yield was observed to decrease with use cow dung only. The ultimate biogas yield which can be determined from very long periods of anaerobic batch reaction was alternatively estimated through curve fitting. The maximum biogas yield for digester was estimated to be 233 L/Kg VS fed, while the ultimate biogas and methane yield attainable from these mixtures were estimated to be 340 L/Kg VS fed. This biogas can be burnt to produce heat and power. The results show that there are number of operating parameters affect the performance of the anaerobic digestion including the amount and type of inoculum, digestion duration, pH adjustments, temperature, C: N ratio and total solids (TS).

The relationship between the concepts of brand equity and brand evangelism is a less examined concept as claimed in empirical research works. There are studies found examining those concepts in line with different market and consumer perspectives, but still demands further investigations. Brand evangelism is found as one of the concepts related to brand-related behavior. Meanwhile, brand trust is a noted concept revealed in studies as a facet of brand evaluation that influences on brand relationship behaviors as a mediator. Accordingly, this paper attempts to review the concepts of brand equity and brand evangelism to verify how brand equity results brand relationship behavior. Empirical review and theoretical justifications were followed as per deductive approach to build an argument to claim proposed hypotheses. The “Commitment Trust Theory” was reviewed as to bridge the theoretical mechanism for the proposed research directions. Accordingly, we followed empirical articles published in journals, content of book chapters and industry statistics as the research tools. Discussion was established to rationalize the future research directions in line with the main empirical arguments made. Paper concludes the significance of examining the proposed conceptual relationship in the scope of cable market of Sri Lanka.

The goal of this research is Assessing the impact of organizational strategies on the performance of Bank Mellat in Tehran. To achieve the goal a descriptive survey model was applied. The research is based on practical objectives. To collect information from the library - field and a questionnaire was used. Strategy tools used in this research are Kaplan and Norton strategy standard questionnaire, job satisfaction by Barry Field and Ruth performance by Liu and Sin. The statistical community in this research include all Mellat bank employees in Tehran branches which count up to 3000 people. In order to identify the 379 people for the sample group the questionnaires were distributed though cluster sampling method, based on the Cochran formula. In order to determine the validity of the questionnaire a content validity method was applied and for and to determine the reliability of the questionnaire Cronbach's alpha coefficients was applied. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were applied for data analysis. The first main research hypothesis on the effect of Mellat bank strategy on the successful performance of the Tehran branches, was approved. The second main research hypothesis on the effect of Mellat bank strategy on quantified successful performance of the branches, was approved, The third main research hypothesis on the effect of Mellat bank strategy on qualified successful performance of the branches, was approved.

The major purpose of this study is to analyze consumer’s usage behaviour towards smart phone in Indian market by finding the factors which influence consumer of smart phone purchase. The result in this study showed that branding, product design, product performance and price have the influence on people’s buying decision process. The consumers are buying a variety of mobile phones which satisfy their wants. Consumers are always influenced by their purchasing activities by some considerations for selecting a particular brand.