Journal of Business and Retail Management Research

Recent researches have predicted that the growth in Internet shopping will show an upward trend over the next few years although the factors that will determine or influence this growth are still uncertain. This paper examines and evaluates internet shopping as a tool for enhancing customer satisfaction. The article reviews sources of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Secondly, the measurement and indicators of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction level are also examined. Further the Internet as a tool is also evaluated. Finally a conclusion is drawn and recommendation for further /future research is suggested

This study sets out to examine the marketing culture of firms in the telecommunication industry and how it reflects to marketing effectiveness in Uganda. The main objective is to theoretically understand the relationship between marketing culture and marketing effectiveness and the practical orientation of the forward and backward linkages between the marketing culture of a firm and its marketing effectiveness as it is translated in the firm’s day-to-day operations. In order to understand marketing culture and marketing effectiveness in Uganda, Anderson’s Contingency-based theory was the basis of the theoretical orientation of this study, and from the literature reviewed a marketing culture-marketing effectiveness conceptual framework was also developed. A total sample of 240, that included 60 employees in the telecommunications sector and 180 customers were selected by both purposive and quota sampling respectively. The key results indicate that marketing culture possessed by the companies was different, and that the most pronounced component of the possessed marketing culture was external marketing behaviour. The findings of the study offer a sound basis for the telecommunications companies to improve their marketing culture in order to enjoy a sustainable marketing effectiveness scenario; have big managerial and organizational implications and the need to undertake a study on the effects of the individual components of marketing culture on marketing effectiveness

This paper examines Ghana’s experience with external debt and debt relief measures, specifically, Ghana's experience with the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative and the relevance to poverty reduction. The Ghana government’s attempt to improve its record on social development led to the HIPC initiative in February of 2001. The HIPC initiative is expected to free significant budgetary resources for Ghana’s poverty reduction strategy, hence enabling the country to implement the development goals set out in the PRSP. The paper examines the performance of the social sector reforms within the context of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). It must be stressed that the implementation of social reform programmes to solve these problems requires additional resources to those resources that are currently projected from domestic and donor sources. There is likely to be a resource-financing gap in the implementation of Ghana’s social development programmes, especially as it relates to expenditure. Indicatively, Ghana would require more money to implement social policies to alleviate poverty. A critical aspect of the paper would look at how sustainable Ghana’s debt is. Specifically, the paper would look at the extent to which a critical component of the debt, the debt service payable, is reduced so as to make Ghana’s debt service to GDP ratio 2% from year to year. And within the context of poverty reduction, the reduction in debt service payable would be

This paper aims to address two main issues; firstly if it is indeed possible to manage absence due to sickness to the advantage of both the employer and the employee and secondly, to examine if it is indeed possible to use ‘SICK PAY’ to attract and retain part-time workers. This research was undertaken in two stages. A model of motivation theory (Hertzberg 2000) was used to provide a framework upon which to study and answer the research questions. The first stage was conducted by the principal researcher. This involved an informal discussion between the researcher and a group of seven part-time retail assistants of Iceland foods to determine their feelings and opinions about sick pay. This stage of the research provided very important themes and opinions that were used to provide a discussion guide during the second stage of the research. During the second stage of the research a total of twenty part-time retail assistants comprising of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer stores were informally interviewed using a combination of different techniques. This was conducted by the two researchers over a period of two months using random sampling technique. During the interviews the researchers were particularly interested in their account of events using a discussion guide prepared in advance of the interviews. This helped the researchers to explore several themes. This research was undertaken from a broadly phemenological and interpretive point of view that lend itself

This article seeks to examine labour flexibility within the context of the ethical and social responsibilities of businesses. Our aim is to find out what bases there are for businesses and organisations to claim moral and ethical responsibilities as they implement flexible employment policies. The article shall define labour flexibility and examine the implications of the different flexible employment contracts for stakeholders namely organisations and employees. The problem of ethics and the difficulty of using ethical arguments in determining right and wrong decisions shall be highlighted. Consequently the article shall use normative ethics which incorporates approaches such as the utilitarian approach, justice approach, moral or natural right approach and individualism approach as the bases to evaluate the ethical dimensions of labour flexibility

This article looks into the advancement of information technology in Africa. The objective is to determine the awareness, use and impact of information technology in Africa. Lands commission of Ghana was isolated in this case to evaluate its adaptability of information technology in its departments and offices. The article also examines the pace of Africa adaptability to IT and the impact on the economy. It also justifies the need to switch from manual handling and storage of information to current and modern technology. It identifies impedance factors to the growth of IT and gives relevant recommendation on how this can be tackled

The government of Ghana in line with the vision of propelling the country’s economy to a middle-income status identified certain sectors of the economy for wealth creation since 2001. This was christened "President’s Special Initiative” (PSI) where certain commodities were earmarked for intervention and they include: cassava & starch, textiles & garments, oil palm, salt, among others. The objective of this paper was to find out whether it is justifiable for governments to intervene in enterprises especially in developing countries, as a tool for economic growth. Therefore three (3) of the commodities from the PSI were assessed in order to determine the impact of government intervention. The methodology used was performance plausibility assessment technique using previous economic growth as historical control. The paper revealed that, there is significant economy growth from inception of PSI from 2001 to 2006 and it could be attributed to cumulative effect of the intervention by the government, yet it was apparent that the set targets by government were not achieved fully. The paper concluded that contrary to opponents of government intervention theory, it is possible for governments in developing countries to intervene in enterprise development but must have clear flexible framework of implementation through increase participation by all stakeholders. The authors recommended that, further research is needed to establish efficiency of government intervention in developin

International migration continues to play a crucial role in the world demographic change. It has affected the very fabric of the receiving societies and seen as fundamentally challenging to liberal states like United Kingdom’s (UK) labour structure. Women and minority ethnic groups are gaining grounds in the labour market. Diversity is a positive thing that brings ideas and useful information from one economy to another with its integration and eventual labour force restructuring. Various approaches have been employed to manage the resulting diversity of the labour force, but these have not been very effective. An emerging third approach which is combination of the existing two i.e. discrimination & fairness and access and legitimacy, fits into the ad-hoc nature of managing diversity. This is called connecting diversity to work perspective. This allows for various aspects of the two above mentioned approaches to be used when the need arises. British Airways manage diverse labour force effectively through the use of very aspects of the third approach and constant research about the staff and the markets it operates. Labour diversity will continue to part of the UK’s labour structure for years to come, and with increasing globalisation different cultures are been understood and gaining recognition. Hence diversity management will continue to receive much research attention in the quest for a better and alternative ways of dealing with issues that emanate from labour diver

This paper uses simple regression analysis for a time series data between 1981 and 2000 to assess the relationship between FDI and economic growth in Ghana. The general thought of the paper is that FDI does not result in or indicate a robust positive influence on economic growth for the period under consideration: 1981-2000