Journal of Business and Retail Management Research

The purpose of this research paper was to examine if product quality, trust, customer satisfaction and communication have a positive influence on customer loyalty. Furthermore, the research intended to determine the outcomes of customer loyalty in the Gauteng province of the South Africa leafy vegetable market. Data was collected through purposive and convenience sampling technique using self-administered questionnaires with the assistance of research assistants. A total of 367 respondents completed the questionnaires. A structural equation modelling technique using the partial least squares (PLS) approach was used to analyse the data. The results show that of the selected antecedents of customer loyalty examined, only customer satisfaction was identified as a significant determinant. With regard to the outcomes, the results show that commitment, word-of-mouth and repurchase intention are outcomes of customer loyalty in the South African leafy vegetable market. The implications for both academic and managerial decision makers are outlined.

Online shopping is overgrowing around the globe. Consumers unite and combine their purchasing power in order to bargain for a significant volume discount from a seller. On the other hand, it also helps the new seller to enter the competitive markets easily. The objective of this study is to examine the relationships among the factors and to assess how it influences consumers' purchase intention on online shopping. The main problem that online retailer faced nowadays is how to attract the consumer's purchase intention toward online shopping especially among the student because we know that most student does not have fixed income. So it will prevent them from spending more on online shopping. In order to make a business successful, some good strategy needs to be implemented, and the retailer does not only need to acquire the new customers but also need to retain the existing customers. Purchase intention as the possibility of purchasing a special brand in a product category during purchase. There were 200 sets of the questionnaire had been distributed randomly among the PPIPT students. The present study used descriptive statistics, regression, and Pearson correlation. In short, price, ease of use and usefulness can only explain (R Square = 0.973) variation of factors influencing consumers' purchase intention towards online shopping. Durbin-Watson considers the accepted range of 1.486 shows there was no autocorrelation problem with data. The condition index= 77.598, VIF= 1-10, and tolerance fell =0.1-10 within the accepted range. F-value is found to be a significant level (Sig. F = 0.000). The regression model used in this study is adequate, the model is fit. As a conclusion, a lack of confidence and trust in utilizing the Internet as a shopping channel. The ethnic group also dominated by Malay only which could be a source of bias.

Growing competition amongst contemporary forms of shopping malls has made mall developers and management consider devising methods that enrich the experience of the customers. In this study, an attempt was made to explore the antecedents to the shopping experience at the mall. For this purpose, a survey instrument was developed for measuring the respondents’ opinion. The constructs developed for this study were tested and validated by means of multidimensional procedure on a sample of 284 mall shoppers in Bangladesh. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses developed for this study. Among the three exogenous factors analyzed in this study, two factors namely ambience and amenities have a significant influence in determining customers’ shopping experience, while the third factor, named safety, exerts a statistically insignificant impact. It is reasonable to conclude, based on the evidence gathered from the study that, an enriched shopping experience can be facilitated by mall managers as a relational outcome of managing ambience and amenities. Being the first of its kind, this research work delves into the interrelated dependence among the factors that in turn influence customer experience at the shopping malls in the context of Bangladesh.

This research examines how strategic capabilities impact hybrid competitive strategies and the effect on organizational performance. The target population of this study was 475 3 to 5-star hotels in Malaysia. Questionnaires were sent by mail and email to all the targeted 3 to 5-star hotels’ managers. Multiple regressions were used to analyse the relationship of hybrid competitive strategy, strategic capability and organizational performance. The outcomes indicate that hybrid competitive strategy has a significant impact on performance and strategic capability. Similarly, strategic capability has a significant impact on performance. Specifically, it establishes that strategic capability partially mediates the association of hybrid competitive strategy and performance. This study found hoteliers that executing hybrid competitive strategy should simultaneously use strategic capability to attain better performance. It fills in some of the gap and showing the importance of hybrid competitive strategy and strategic capability in the Malaysia hotel industry which has received little empirical attention.

The transition into a service-oriented government is the focal point of the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) administrative transformation. This transformation must be conducted according to the specific needs of each local municipality. SMG provides a customized service for individual citizens and support job creation by opening and sharing public information and offering the advanced service to help their local business which is called ‘Golmoksangkwon Analysis Service’. This service is using big data analysis and service-oriented government in SMG. This paper discusses the efforts of SMG to provide information service which is based on big data analysis for local businesses. Information providing units for commercial and sector analysis were constructed from the various viewpoints by establishing a local business area including the existing administrative districts. SMG expects to contribute to improving the competitiveness and self-sufficiency of self-employed people by supporting the policy macro perspective of self-employed people by analyzing the factors affecting the business environment of the local business through big data analysis.

Based on the decline in development of new, and use of existing, shopping malls that is happening in the USA due mainly, it seems, to e-shopping, a comparative study was conducted to investigate perceptions of shopping malls and their use in Germany (a developed country) and South Africa (a developing country). Are attitudes towards mall shopping changing, or are there other factors influencing changes in mall shopping, e.g. increase in e-shopping, lack of security (especially effect of crime in South Africa), preference for localised shopping, etc.? A questionnaire was developed from the literature and distributed via e-mail to a comprehensive database of consumers, collecting a pre-set, socio-demographic quota sample from the defined target groups. The resultant data was analysed using relevant descriptive, inferential and multivariate statistics to identify the importance of the various factors. The main finding was that South African consumers are increasingly using shopping malls, whereas German consumers are using malls slightly less than they did 2 to 3 years ago. South Africans would like to see better entertainment and unique experiences in malls, while Germans would like to see malls developing a stronger identity, integrating themselves more into their communities and acting for the good of the community they serve.

Branding and brand personality have become major areas of interest for marketing strategists and academicians. This has, in turn, led to an interest in determining ways to judge brands’ own personality and the implications for these in the market. In 1997, Jennifer Aaker developed a brand personality scale which identified five key brand dimensions. Her study was conducted in the U.S., and since then researchers have assessed the reliability, validity, and dimensionality of her scale in different parts of the world. There has however been a paucity of studies in Africa, including Kenya, that focus on validating Aaker’s brand personality scale. This study was centered on assessing the reliability, validity, and dimensionality of the brand personality scale in Kenya, a developing country. In doing so, data was gathered from customers of Safaricom, a mobile phone service provider. The sample for this study was drawn from both undergraduate and graduate students at the United States International University—Africa. The data collection instrument was an adaptation of Aaker’s brand personality scale, with 42 items. Altogether, 211 completed questionnaires were used in the final analysis. Cronbach’s Alpha values of each construct confirmed that good reliability exists with the data. Principle component analysis was employed to determine the important factors of brand personality. As opposed to the 42 items in the Aaker scale, only 22 were found to satisfy requirements, and 20 items were therefore discarded. Seven dimensions were identified through the CFA, as opposed to the five by Aaker. A structural equation model was developed showing the relationships between the seven dimensions and brand personality, and all the seven were significant. Safaricom brand personality was identified as excitement by consumers after the regression path coefficient.

Rebranding has become a very important strategic tool for companies wanting to succeed in this ever-competitive business world using the principles of rebranding. Companies may occasionally discover that they may have to re-position the brand because customers change preferences and new competitors enter the market. Moreover, a strong brand enhances positive evaluations of a product’s quality, maintains a high level of product awareness, and provides a consistent image or brand personality. To keep up with fierce competition, companies may seek to transform their business due to changing business directions or adding extra business units. The main purpose of this study was therefore, to investigate the influence of rebranding on brand equity and firm performance. This study was quantitative in nature. Data were collected from 372 respondents using anonymously completed questionnaires. Research scales were operationalised on the basis of previous work. Proper modifications were made in order to fit the research context and purpose. “Rebranding” measure used five-item scales; “Store Layout” used a five item scale measure; “Franchising” used three item measure, “Brand Equity”; “ Perceived Quality “, “Brand Associations and Attributes” and “Firm Performance” all used a five item scale measure while “an customer experience ” used a six item scale measure. All measurement items were measure on a five-point Likert-type scale that was anchored by 1=strongly agree to 5= strongly disagree to express degree of agreement. The seven posited hypotheses were empirically tested. The results supported three hypotheses in a significant way and rejected four hypotheses. Important to note about the study findings is the fact that rebranding has no effect on the firm’s brand equity although brand equity has an influence on the firm’s performance. Notably too, the relationship between customer experience and firm performance is robust. This finding indicates that brand equity can have a strong influence without the influence of rebranding. A major implication for this study is that rebranding is a risky operation that needs to be carefully managed.

This study aims to examine the mediating effect of job happiness factor on the relationship between job satisfaction and both employees’ performance and turnover intentions in oil and gas industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study utilized a total of 722 usable questionnaires that were administered to respondents in oil and gas industry in the United Arab Emirates. This study adopted structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to analyze these relationships. The Analysis of Data revealed that job satisfaction factor has a significant direct positive relationship with both factors the employees’ performance and the job happiness, while it has a negative insignificant relationship with employees’ turnover intention. On the other hand, the Job happiness displays a significant positive direct effect on job performance, but it records a significant negative effect on employee turnover intention. Results show that job happiness plays a mediating role between job satisfaction and employee performance and turnover intention. These findings may guide the implementation of policies by human resources or other organization managements in the UAE Oil and Gas industry. For instance, they may use job happiness (mental well-being) as a predictor of employee behaviors and then formulate recruitment policies that will help maintain employee happiness and satisfaction, thereby helping in employee retention.

The study focuses on the consumer perception regarding digital membership card, an trendy instrument in the customer relationship management (CRM). It adopts the Unified Theory of Acceptance of the Use of Technology 2, which takes into account the following determinants: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, price value, and habit. The population of the study is consumers having any membership cards. The data are collected from a random sample by using questionnaires on the Likert scale. The collected empirical data in conjunction with a multivariate regression model suggest the followings. The price value aspect is the key factor influencing the continuous intention of use of the instrument. The aspects of social influence, performance expectation, and effort expectation are more important than the hedonic motivation aspect. The findings imply that for companies to succeed with the digital CRM instrument, offering strong competitive advantages at a lower price is still important as much as the user friendliness of the device.

Purpose of the Paper: This study aimed to explore the impact of human resources development mechanisms on building teamwork.
Design/Methodology: The study has used the descriptive analytical approach, where a questionnaire was employed as the study instrument. The questionnaire consisted of (3) demographic variables and (25) items that were put together to measure the impact of human resources development mechanisms on building teamwork. The study population consisted of all male and female employees that work at five-star hotel chains in the Jordanian capital Amman, which amounts to (15) hotels up until the end of 2017, while the sample of the study consisted of (339) male and female employees, which was chosen using the stratified proportional random sample. (355) questionnaires were distributed; only (346) of them were retrieved, where the loss amounted to (9), and (7) questionnaires were excluded due to their invalidity for analysis.
Findings: The results showed that there is an impact of human resources development mechanisms and its variables (learning, performance appraisal, performance rewards) on building teamwork at (α ≤ 0.05).
Practical Implications and Originality Statement: This study will be beneficial for the hotel chains in Amman in general, and for five-star hotel chains in the Jordanian capital Amman and its affiliations in specific. This study can motivate the hotel chains in Jordan to design an accurate strategy that might help them increase the teamwork among their employees.
The researcher certifies that the intellectual content of this paper is the product of her own work and that it has not been submitted elsewhere. The researcher also certifies that all the assistance received in preparing it as well as sources have been acknowledged.

This study addresses the gap of how businesses vary in quality services of its website by investigating the e-Service Quality and its impact on achieving students' value added at private universities in Jordan. A descriptive and quantitative methodology are used. To achieve the study objectives. A Likert scale questionnaire was designed and included (30) statements to collect data from the sample which consists of (480) respondents. Then, a statistical correlations and regression tools used to analyze data. The study showed that e-Service Quality related to achieving a student’s Value Added. Findings have also proved the impact of e-Service quality on achieving students' Monetary value and achieving students' Beneficial value. Multiple regression indicated that “adequacy of information” and “website design” have the highest impact on achieving Value added. We concluded that sophisticated content, user-friendly well-constructed, and professional university’s web design would improve students’ experience, and add much values to students.

The aim of this study was to explore the effects of the antecedents of social media marketing, brand loyalty and purchase intention. Furthermore, the study aims at investigating the effect of social media marketing on brand loyalty and purchase intention. Finally, the study seeks to identify the effect of brand loyalty on purchase intention. In order to achieve the study objectives, a questionnaire was developed based on prior literature and a sample of customers consisting of 500 participants was selected in order to collect the required data. The model of the study was developed theoretically and then tested using structural equation modeling. The results confirmed that social media antecedents significantly affect three constructs: social media marketing, brand loyalty and customer purchase intention. In line with numerous previous studies, the results indicated that social media marketing significantly affects both brand loyalty and customer purchase intention. Finally, the findings showed that brand loyalty has a significant effect on customer purchase intention. Based on these results, it was concluded that organizations should pay more attention to the antecedents of social media marketing since it has direct effects on social media marketing application, brand loyalty and customer purchase intention. Despite the importance of these results, the study is still limited to measurements used to evaluate constructs, since these measurements were built on a small number of indicators, its cross-sectional design and a little number of antecedents being explored. Considering these limitations in the future might reveal different results. However, since the effect degree of social media marketing application is greater than the degree of the same construct on brand loyalty and purchase intention, social marketing application was not approved to play a mediating role between theses constructs. Hence, the major contribution of this study is that social media antecedents are no less important than the application of social media marketing itself. In other words, for organizations to ensure an effective application of social media marketing, an eye on its antecedents would bring the benefits of social media marketing into the light, which, in turn, would affect brand loyalty and customer purchase intention.

Considering the growing number of Generation Y students enrolled at South African higher education institutions (HEIs), and university websites primarily being the first point of reference in sourcing and evaluating information about the university and the courses offered, as well as Generation Y students’ scepticism about marketing tactics and their low trust propensity, it is imperative to understand the factors that influence this generation’s trust in university websites. As such, the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of perceived system and information quality on Generation Y students’ trust in university websites within the South African context. A single cross-sectional and descriptive research design was followed in this study. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to collect data from a convenience sample of 319 Generation Y students registered at two Gauteng-based South African HEI campuses. The methods used to analyse the data included descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product-moment correlation analysis, reliability measures, regression analysis and collinearity diagnostics. The findings of the study suggest that Generation Y students’ perceived information and system quality of university websites has a significant positive influence on their perceived trust in university websites. Insights gained from this study can assist universities in devising appropriate strategies that will foster trust in their website, thereby paving the way forward for an increased number of visitors and student enrolments.

This study investigates the effect of strategic performance measures (SPM) on a firm’s performance in the service sector with and without the mediating effect of market orientation (MO).We analyse 107 data points with structural equation modellingSmartPLS. The results show that to use SPM has a positive effect on a firm’s performance, both directly and indirectly through the mediator of MO (customers).We do not involve MO (competitors), a completely different dimension.In addition, using the Sobel test We find that MO (customers) fully mediates the relationship between SPM and a firm’s performance. This research confirms that a firm does better when it consistently fulfils its customers’ needs and thus gains a sustainable competitive advantage. Previous studies of MO by management accounting researchers did not fully recognise the effect of the mediation.

Motor vehicle dealership are confronted with an excessive competition and are resorting on innovative techniques to retain customers. The purpose of this paper is to identify different innovative financing techniques being adopted by motor vehicle dealership. A qualitative research method was used to address the research purpose of this paper. A content data analysis was followed in analysing the primary data gathered during the study. The findings of this paper uncovered that different innovative financing techniques are used by motor vehicle dealerships in an attempt to remain competitive. Recommendations to the managers of motor vehicle dealerships and future research directions are provided in this paper.

The purpose of this paper to measuring the effect of critical success factors to excellence in Iraqi universities. The empirical data was drawn from the head of departments in six Iraqi universities, the number of respondents was 174. The research model was tested by using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. The findings of the empirical study revealed that critical success factors have a positive effect on excellence. Theoretically, the practices of critical success factors have contributed to understanding the different roles in excellence in Iraqi universities. From another side, this study shows practical implications, where increasing the attention of the factors to help the head of department in Iraqi universities to improve the performance.

Service sector is dominantly the largest sector in India and to maintain the current position of Rank 11 in the World Service Sector, Organizational culture of every Indian organization plays a very critical and crucial role. It determines the Accelerated or retardate growth of the organization. Culture acts as an invisible adhesive that holds values, technology adoption, working parameters intact which are the essence of organization’s existence. Culture also acts as creator of organizational stress and the increasing stress level among employees reduces effectiveness and efficiency or individual and organization as a whole. Various research work states culture creates stress but does stress effect culture? The objective of the study was to examine the impact of Organizational Role Stress on OCTAPACE Culture and recommend proper interventions to stake holders for reducing the organizational role stress and make better OCTAPACE Culture in the service sector. The present study was conducted on 474 employees of organized Retail and Telecom service sectors randomly drawn using questionnaire method. The result indicates that negative correlation exists between Organizational role stress and organizational Culture.

The size of the teenage population is quite large in developing countries (1.6 billion), compared to the developed countries (240 million). The identical trend is also available in Bangladesh where the teenagers are about 21% of the total population. TV and TVCs have a major influence on the buying decisions of Bangladeshi middle-class teenagers like other developing counties, even with the emergence of digital and social media. As such, the research is focusing on the influence of TVCs in buying decision of the middle-class urban teenagers of Bangladesh. An elaborated multi-step research method including pertinent literature review, expert in-depth interview, focus group discussions and a structured questionnaire survey has been accomplished. Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 21 were used for the analysis of survey data. The study has observed that 95% of urban teens watch TV either regularly or occasionally, where females were more inclined (97%) to watch TV than males (93%). The majority of teens watch TV at night (71%) and in the evening (21%). The teens are found to prefer sports the most (41%) followed by drama serials (29%). The study has revealed that 89% of the respondents watch TVCs regularly or occasionally. The study has also explored that 67% of urban teens are influenced by TVCs to make purchase decisions, while the late teens were more influenced by TVCs (71%) than the early teens (62%). Majority of the respondents are fascinated by models or celebrities (65%) to watch the TVCs. These research findings will assist marketers and business professionals of Bangladesh as well as similar developing countries to target specific teenage segments, types of TVCs, peak hour of airing TVCs and models or celebrity endorsement while prepare cost effective brand communication plan.

The study examined the impact of speed and awareness of portability on intention to port among mobile phone users in southwest Nigeria. The study population comprises of staff and students of public universities in southwest Nigeria, the total population for the study was 313,001 and the sample size of 1522 was arrived at by using the Krecie and Morgan sample size table. The sampling techniques used in the study were both probability and non-probability sampling techniques. The non-probability sample techniques used was the homogenous purposive sampling technique for the selection of two universities (one state university and one federal university) from each state in the Southwest, Nigeria; the probability sample techniques were simple random sampling in order for all the elements of the population to have an equal chance of representation. The study analyzed the data through binary logistic regression. The result of the study indicated that coefficient of speed of porting (β = 0.321, p < 0.05) is positive and significant at 5% level. The results suggested that increase in the rate at which porting can be affected would increase intention to port by about 4%. The coefficient of awareness of porting, which is an indication of level of knowledge of mobile number portability, is also positive and significantly (β = 0.451, p < 0.05) related to consumers intention to port. The study recommends that Government and service providers should take note of the time it will take to port, as it is preferable by subscribers to have less than 48 hours for porting and increase the awareness of portability in order to strengthen the competition and make life better for customers.

Previous research has examined the effects of free gift promotion on purchase intention of the main products, but its effects on purchase intention of products offered as gifts have been neglected. Based on the theory of transaction utility, this paper proposes a moderated mediation model, aiming to study the impact of free gift promotion on purchase intention of gifts and its internal mechanism. Two experiments are conducted to test the hypothesis. The results are presented as follows: Firstly, free gift promotion reduces purchase intention of gifts. Secondly, transaction utility of gifts has a complete mediating effect on the relationship between free gift promotion and purchase intention of gifts. Thirdly, brand value of main products moderates the negative impacts of free gift promotion on transaction utility of gift. Fourthly, brand value of main products also moderates the indirect impacts of free gift promotion on purchase intention of gifts via the mediating effect of transaction utility. This research not only enriches the literature of free gift promotion, but also provides managerial implications for marketing managers.

Contemporary dynamics of global geopolitical and economic interdependence have been witnessing a growing trend of integration of various schools of thoughts with an endeavor of seeking interconnections for meaningful understanding of complex world developments. Inter-disciplinary research has become profoundly important for connecting with mainstream theoretical discussions across social sciences and humanities. Various traditional paradigms of international relations can be analyzed in a holistic manner by forging convergence, the so-called layering process, to explain politico-economic and business processes realistically. In this context it is imperative to comprehend two well-established mainstream international relations concepts of Rationalism and Constructivism by connecting the missing links that are ingrained in behavioral traits of political actors and their Optimism for making a holistic understanding of strategic political decision process. This paper attempts to configure the interconnections between the powerful traditional theories pertaining to Rationalism and Constructivism in the domain of international relations with the dynamics of Optimism and psycho-dimensional behavioral traits of political actors. Analyzing the various tenets of theoretical foundations and their practical implications in international relations in an interdisciplinary framework, this paper introduces an innovative and adaptable multidimensional ROC (Rationalism – Optimism – Constructivism) Model to meaningfully explain the complexities involved in strategic political decision process. The implications of the multidimensional ROC Model are expected to be profoundly impeccable in influencing the outcome of critical negotiations in strategic decision processes. Empirical analysis in the paper reflects the interface and synthesis of ROC tenets in a symbiotic manner most of the time in ensuring occurrence of positive outcome in strategic decisions.

The importance of selecting an environment appropriate authentication method is the most crucial decision in designing secure systems. In particular, authentication such as login process is more considering with security threat. This paper introduces the method of location-based authentication using multi-layer display which is the ability to authenticate pc and mobile users based on location-based information they would carry out anyway. The system generates authentication information on multi-layer display by users’ current location information captured by smartphones, PCs, time, and weather information to authenticate users. We develop a simple model and application for how to perform location-based authentication, which is working on the multi-layer display, describe the benefits of our method. Our preliminary findings support that this is a meaningful approach, whether used to increase usability or increase security and simplicity.

It is argued that advertising must be utilitarian, however the perception of viewers’ response indicate that it is far from the truth. This study investigates these issues from a consumer point of view and explores the attitudes and their perceptions towards Television advertising. For the last 25 years, there has been a massive spurt of television channels offering a plethora of programs are interceded by commercial breaks. This paper explores the attitudes of the viewer’s towards television advertising. The results indicate that the information content is very low, there is too much of falsity and deceptiveness. There is no effective regulation by regulatory authorities; and much of television advertising goes unnoticed by viewers. With all these negative perceptions about advertising, the viewer’s still feel that advertising is essential but not at the level that it is being telecast with so much frequency. The viewers also feel that advertising creates affluence attitude and leads to cultural degradation of society, but these issues have low priority. To conclude, advertising per se is not bad but an obsession by the advertisers will have a bad effect on the society.

Women modest sportswear has stepped up the industry of the modest fashion. The emerging economy, combined with the most significant Muslim population, has become the main attraction of Indonesia as a market for this particular fashion style. The purpose of this study is to determine motivating factors which affect the behavior of Indonesian Muslim women in buying modest sportswear by employing The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Expectation, perception, the subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and consume’s attitude toward modest apparel during sport, and purchase intention are the factors to be examined. By employing a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), the analysis proclaimed that the effects of expectation, perception and the subjective norm on consumer’s attitude toward modest apparel during sport are confirmed. The result given by perceived behavioral control on purchase intention is higher than the subjective norm. The subjective norm is also being confirmed to affect perceived behavioral control. Further managerial implications are discussed.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the behavior of women in Bahrain as consumers in the field of Spa & Beauty services. Design/methodology/approach: Sample of 384 is divided using a sampling ratio into the four main governorates of Bahrain and a combination of Chi-square & eta correlation along with Pearson product moment correlation is used. Findings: The study found that there is a significant relationship between all the demographical aspects of females except for education with behavior. It was also observed that self-expression along with achieving ideal self-image are highly perceived personal factors when selecting beauty and spa treatments, although null hypostasis with regard to personal, social, cultural, service criterion factors were accepted, it was found that demographics as an integral part of personal factors are significantly correlated to selection of spa services. The other groups of factors variables were also significantly correlated to the selection of the Spa service. Practical implications: This study suggested that Spa owners should fully recognize the factors that really contribute in shaping the behavior of consumers in the Spa industry such as the importance of complementary services as well as designing an ideal spa service mix that matches the needs and wants of women consumers in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Originality/ value: The study concurs with previous research conducted in the Spa industry, as it reflects that some aspects of women consumption behavior could be planned and predictable.

Performance appraisal is very much essential for the HR managers to adopt administrative decisions regarding promotion, fringes, pay-offs, and merit pay increment of the employees. The article attempts to evaluate the existing performance appraisal system of Mercantile Bank Limited, one of the leading private commercial banks in Bangladesh. Efforts were made to reveal the problems and suggestions for the improvement of the performance appraisal system of the said bank. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques of gathering and interpreting data were applied. The key findings of the study suggest that there are some pragmatic gaps in the process of performance appraisal. The employees gave divided views on their satisfaction level about the performance appraisal procedure. The employees, in general, perceive the process of the appraisal system a tool of biased judgement for assessing their performances. The practical implication of the study is that it will facilitate the management of the bank to formulate time worthy performance appraisal policy so that the managers can conduct effective performance appraisal program ensuring satisfaction of the bank staffs.

Technology advances such as Internet have changed consumers shopping behaviour and increased South Africa consumers online shopping in the last few years. The purpose of this research paper was to determine the consumer attributes that influence online shopping behaviour of South African consumers. The paper determines whether consumer attributes influencing online shopping differ across consumer demographic factors and frequency of purchase. Online shopping has been a topic of interest for many researchers in SA and globally. As online shopping gain momentum among consumers, it is important for online retailers to understand what influence consumers to shop online. This is more important for developing countries such as SA. The population for the study was SA consumers who have internet access. A convenience sampling method was used to reach 104 respondents in SA. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 24. Various statistical analysis such as descriptive statistics, factor analysis and Anova were used. The findings of the study revealed that consumers attributes: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and security have an influence on their online shopping behaviour. The conducted research also established that age of consumers, significantly influence on online shopping while gender, income and education level have no significant influence towards online shopping consumer behaviour. The attributes differ across the frequency of purchase with those frequently buying attaching more value to perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of online shopping.

The purpose of this paper is to describe through an exploratory case study how the leading retailing company in Spain, Mercadona has been able to generate a set of dynamic capabilities – detection, absorption, integration and innovation – that support an original and unique innovation model in the retail sector. This model drives to higher rates of successful product innovation, a constant updating of its range of products according to the ever-changing consumers’ needs and outstanding results in terms of reputation and customer loyalty. Thanks to a sustained investment in product innovation and supported by solid theoretical frameworks such as Dynamic Capabilities and Open Innovation Mercadona has been able to develop this pioneering model which could be an interesting benchmark for the industry as well as stimulate future research regarding retailers’ role and involvement in product innovation.