Archives-June 2014

The topic of market orientation has become popular among scholar in recent years. However, little has done for identifying the antecedents and effective factors which have main role for development and improvement of this concept. Therefore, this research provides insight of antecedents of market orientation by presenting a conceptual model stem from relevant literature. The empirical results indicated that internal marketing is an antecedent for market orientation, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Moreover, both job satisfaction and organizational commitment has direct positive impact on market orientation. Managerial implications and theoretical applications have been explored for both managers and scholars.

This study analysed the efficiency of resource use in cassava production in Ayedaade Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. It focused on the socio-economic characteristics of cassava farmers, input-output relationship and the efficiency of resource use in cassava production. Data were collected from a random sampling of 120 cassava farmers using pre-tested questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, regression technique and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Result showed that the average age of the respondents was 49 years;average year of schooling was 7 and average households’ size consistsof 7 members. The result further revealed that the average farm size of the respondents was 4.59 hectares. The double-Log function of the multiple regression analysis gave best fit with R2 of 92.3% and it indicated that farm size, hired labour used, quantity of herbicides and fertilizer used significantly influenced cassava output. For the efficiency analysis, farm size (ha), cost of factor input and chemicals (fertilizers and herbicides) used per hectares were the major determinants of farm level efficiency among the cassava farm households in the study area.

Present Conceptual study endeavors to reveal the importance of social media marketing. Social Media Marketing is the method of gaining attention of customers, establishing direct contact with customers, encouraged them to share the information about products with their friends and family. It expresses the applicability of social media marketing in modern era as a frequent marketing technique. It is the way of earning media in place of paying media. When companies join social media they can easily built relation with customers, promote their products, communicate with customers and can get their prompt feed back. With the growing trend of mobile phone usage, boosts up the use of social media. People used social networking sites through mobile phones and stay connected with companies around the clock. Marketing Managers can remind them about their capacity, capabilities, trends, new arrivals, collections and about their discount offers in a real time. It is most recently researched and dynamic topic. Many researchers conducted research to find out the effectiveness, applications, strategies and consequences of social media marketing. In present paper, it is concluded that social media marketing is very crucial for marketing managers. It is found that factors i.e. security, influence, medium, language, price, after sale services, liking, knowledge, usage have positive influence over social media marketing.

In fierce competition of airline industry, due to sensitive nature and vital rule of crisis management, viability of companies in this industry is highly depended on skillful handling of crisis situations. The aim of this study is to first determine the different strategies of airline companies in dealing with crisis situations in Iran and then to identify the effect of Customer's perception of danger on repurchase intention for Iran's airline industry. Data obtained from 500 survey questionnaire were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that Denial has a significantly negative effect on Customer's perception of danger. Involuntary product recall has a significantly negative effect on Customer's perception of danger. Voluntary product recall has a significantly positive effect on Customer's perception of danger. Supper effort has a significantly positive effect on Customer's perception of danger. Customer's perception of danger has a significantly positive effect on Repurchase intentions. In addition results show that Denial was the best negative predictor of their Customer's perception of danger and Supper effort was the best positive predictor of Customer's perception of danger.

In the latest development of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, the system performance can be distracted by the frequency offsets (FOs) which can demolish the orthogonality of the subcarriers, and hence leads to a number of impairments in the received signal, thereby making its detection incorrect. In this paper, a new threshold-based frequency offset estimation algorithm for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is proposed. Through a detailed analysis and simulation over AWGN channel, it has been shown that the proposed method shows good performance i.e. it offers low error variance as the SNR (signal to noise ratio) increases.

An effective management and application of ICT is very important in education nowadays. ICT and e-learning platform plays an important part in the successful implementation of distance, collaborative and e learning for the higher education learners. This approach in the teaching and learning process with the application of ICT culture would create intelligence, academic excellence and quality work life of working adult learners. A good higher education system is required for overall prosperity of a nation. A tremendous growth in the higher education sector had made the administration of higher education institutions complex. Many researches reveal that the integration of ICT helps to reduce the complexity and enhance the overall administration of higher education. This study has been undertaken to identify the various functional areas to which ICT is deployed for information administration in higher education institutions and to find the current extent of usage of ICT in all these functional areas pertaining to information administration. The various factors that contribute to these functional areas were identified. A theoretical model was derived and validated.

Based on many studies and research conducted on learning a foreign language, it can be claimed that most of the students experience a great difficulty in reading and comprehending the texts in foreign language. It seems that reading and comprehending foreign language materials can be improved if teachers do research to find ways through which readers could be helped to get more information from the text. Therefore, compensation reading strategies can be considered as certain types of enabling activities because they equip the reader with a base knowledge necessary for dealing with the content of the structure of materials. So the present study was an attempt to answer the research questions considering the effects of teaching explicit vs implicit compensation strategies on the third grade high school students’ reading comprehension performance. 110 students took part in this study. The researcher provided them with a language proficiency test taken from NELSON test. Then based on their scores, the mean and standard deviation were computed .The students whose scores fell in the range of “mean ±1standard deviation” were selected for the research study. Therefore, 36 students in one class and 35 students in the other participated as the subjects of the study. Then a standard pre-test (Master TOEFL and Arco TOFEL) was given to the subjects in both groups before any treatment. Finally, a standard post- test (Master TOEFL and Arco TOEFL) was given to the subjects in both groups to prove or disprove the Null hypothesis. Obtaining the needed data, the researcher ran the necessary statistical procedures. It was proved that the experimental group which being exposed to the explicit compensation reading strategies showed higher level of performance on post-test than the control group. Therefore the main null hypothesis, teaching explicit compensation reading strategies has no effect on the reading comprehension of the third- grade high school students was rejected.

Indian women have to go a long way to achieve equal rights and position because traditions are deep rooted in Indian society where the sociological set up has been a male dominated one. Despite all the social hurdles, Indian women stand tall from the rest of the crowd ands are applauded for their achievements in their respective field. The transformation of social fabric of the Indian society, in terms of increased educational status of women and varied aspirations for better living, necessitated a change in the life style of Indian women. She has competed with man and successfully stood up with him in every walk of life and business is no exception for this. These women leaders are assertive, persuasive and willing to take risks, they managed to survive and succeed in this cut throat competition with their hard work, diligence and perseverance. Increasing numbers of women are becoming leaders of their own businesses, and many are struggling to achieve success. The present paper endeavors to study the concept of women entrepreneurs –reasons women become entrepreneurs –Reasons for slow progress of women entrepreneurs in India-suggestions for the growth of women entrepreneurs-schemes for promotion &development of women entrepreneurship in India.

Arabic teaching, though prevailing in the educational system of Iran, remains extremely underexplored. This paucity of literature becomes more acute if one is aware of the enormity of literature that exists on English language teaching. To contribute to the scant literature on the quality of Arabic teaching this study set out to examine the efficiency of Arabic language teachers, knowing that teachers are the most crucial agent in the success or otherwise of educational innovations. Accordingly, an efficiency scale was developed by the researcher and administered to a group of Arabic language teachers, selected out of convenience. Besides, we collected data on teachers' gender, years of experience, first language, and educational qualifications. Findings suggest the latter three factors do play a role in determining the extent of teachers' efficiency. More specifically, it was revealed that Arabic teachers who are native speakers of Arabic are more efficient than their non-native counterparts. Moreover, there was a positive direct correlation between teachers' years of experience and their efficiency; more experienced teachers proved more efficient. Finally, results of ANOVA showed that teachers with different levels of experience attained significantly different scores on the efficiency scale, meaning that the higher the level of education, the more efficient teachers become. Conversely, male and female teachers were no different on the efficiency scale. The implications that such findings carry for Arabic language pedagogy are further discussed.

One of the most cited concepts in marketing literature is customer loyalty. many researchers have investigated different aspects of this concept and there is a rich marketing literature in influential factors on customers loyalty. the aim of this study is to probe a new dimension of this concept and to see the effect of relationship marketing on it.This research assesses impact of relationship marketing strategies including commitment, trust, communications, and conflict management on the loyalty of Bank Keshavarzi and Saman Bank’s customers. Research methodology, in terms of research purpose, is of applied type, and in terms of data gathering, of descriptive-survey type. Statistical population of this research includes 260 customers of the private bank Saman Bank and the state-owned bank Bank Keshavarzi within the city of Tehran. The sample, using random sampling methods, was selected. The constituents were prepared based on Likert’s 5-optional Scale. The constituents’ validity was calculated based on content validity and its reliability was calculated based on Cronbach Alpha, and the data were analyzed using T-test. Research results indicate a direct and significant relationship of commitment, trust, communication, and conflict management with customers’ loyalty in the both banks (p < 0.000). In addition, the research findings suggest that the variable communications with both banks is ranked in the first place and is of a high importance, and in the state banks, the variables conflict management, commitment and trust are respectively ranked next. In the private bank Saman Bank, the variables affecting customers’ loyalty are prioritized as follows: communication, commitment, conflict management, and trust.