Marketing

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.

The purpose of writing the current paper is to formulate and rank strategies of Tehran Gas Company – one of the most powerful ones in Iran- by 2 different techniques: QSPM and fuzzy TOPSIS. After designing SWOT matrix and formulating 18 strategies, QSPM and fuzzy TOPSIS techniques were applied to rank strategies. The results of utilizing both techniques show that “Observing environmental, social and economical by employees’ training”, “Applying new technologies and utilization expert human resources to upgrade assessment and evaluation systems” and “Establishment affective customer relationship systems and projects timely execution to enhance liquidity and decrease the effect of inflation and sanctions” were selected as the most important ones but in different order. Finally by applying SAW technique two applied techniques were comprised in which showed fuzzy TOPSIS technique obtains better and more credible results.

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. 

The study examined the relationship between perceived characteristics of innovating (PCI) and adoption of new mobile phones among students in Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Based on Rogers’ (1983) theory of adoption, Moore and Benbasat (1991) identified constructs such as relative advantage, ease of use, result demonstrability, compatibility, visibility, trialability, and image as characteristics of innovation that could influence adoption. The study population comprised 13,798 full-time undergraduate students of the institution, out of which 389 respondents were drawn using Yamane sample size model and stratified random sampling technique. An aggregate of 380 structured questionnaires were duly completed and useable giving a 97.6% response rate. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was the method used to test the relationship between consumer perception of mobile phone as innovative and adoption of new mobile phones. The result showed that factors such as relative advantage, ease of use, result demonstrability were highly significant (r= 0.859; p<0.05, p=0.000) in their relationship with adoption; whereas visibility and image were weak (r=0.482; p<0.05, p=0.006) in their relationship with adoption. The study recommended that awareness of the functionality of new and sophisticated mobile phones needs to be raised by marketers if they want customers to adopt and use them. Furthermore, knowing that students are becoming ICT compliant and having taken to the use of social media in their interactions, it is important that mobile phone design and functionality should correspond to the social lifestyle and academic requirements of scholars to ensure sustained adoption.

The purpose of this study is to assess the influences of perceived justice with service recovery on recovery satisfaction and word of mouth, and to examine the mediating role of recovery satisfaction in the relationship between perceived justice and word of mouth intention. Data were gathered on perceived justice with service recovery, recovery satisfaction and word of mouth by means of survey from management undergraduate students, who experienced failure within last one year in a university in Iran. The results show that distributive and procedural justices have a significant and positive relationship with recovery satisfaction. However, there was no significant relationship between interactional justice and recovery satisfaction. The results also found that recovery satisfaction has a positive relationship with word of mouth. Moreover, the results of this study confirmed that recovery satisfaction mediates the relationship between perceived justice with service recovery and word of mouth in all perceived justice dimensions except for distributive justice. Managerial implications of these findings are briefly discussed.