Journal of Business and Retail Management Research

There are currently significant differences in the approach to various age groups in many fields of human activity. Due to the global demographic trend of an increasing age of population and growing number of people in the 50+ category, it is necessary to adopt measures that take age into account on the social level and also in the process of organisational management; these measures are collectively referred to as age management. The aim of this paper is to identify and evaluate factors on the organisational level that influence the application of age management in organisations. The partial objective is then to determine the impact of these organisational factors. The data was collected through quantitative research, specifically a survey among n = 549 selected organisations in the Czech Republic. The results show that significant factors influencing the application of age management include the sector in which the company operates, size of the organisation and majority ownership. The article provides the formula for a logit function that can be used to determine the probability of various scenarios of the application of age management in organisations. The article is focused on organisational factors influencing the application of age management in practice to build the employer’s good brand and to attract knowledge workers. 

This study aims to identify the core competitive factors that differentiate migrant owned small business retail stores from those that are owned by South African citizens. Primary research was conducted in two of Cape Town’s townships, Delft and Eindhoven. Data was collected through focus group interviews with open-ended questions. The findings revealed that South African citizen retailer’s lack funding to start or expand their businesses, they do not collaborate among themselves, and they lack pricing strategy. The findings also revealed that migrant small business retailers have strong business networks that enable them to collaborate in a number of business-related issues such as the buying of stock and they have networks that help them raise finance for their businesses. The researcher notes that there are agencies such as the Small Business Development Agency (SEDA) that aim to help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMME’s) but such agencies deal with all types of SMME’s. There is a need for a targeted support for the small business retail sector as it is a very unique sector in the South African small business market. The challenges faced by local small business retailers are unique when compared to those faced by their migrant trader counterparts. The foreign national small business retailers are more competitive than local South African small business retailers in the township retailing sector. The study recommends that the South African government department of Small Business Development should assist the South African citizen owners of small retail businesses to improve their competitiveness. 

Social Network has enabled a significant growth in our daily interaction with each other. As we spend a considerable amount of time on this platform, it now plays a big role in consumer purchase decision-making journey where teens are considered as the changing agent. Hence, brands are increasingly trying to engage consumers, especially teens through social networking platforms. However, the space is much cluttered as numerous activities are taking place there. The purpose of the study is to find out the activities in Social Networking Sites that the brands should leverage to make an impact on purchase decision among the teens of Dhaka. Online Peer Communication, Social Networking Groups, Brand Fan Pages and Advertising on Social Networking Sites are considered as antecedents and Purchase Decision is considered as outcomes. Hypotheses have been developed accordingly and tested through applying Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS 20. A survey was conducted among 381 college and university students across Dhaka city. The research findings reveal that the Social Networking Groups, Brand Fan Pages and Paid Advertising have an influence on Purchase Decision. Surprisingly, Online Peer Communication came insignificant. The research findings provide media investment management guidelines to the advertisers who are willing to promote their brands through Social Networking platforms.

The purpose of the study is to examine and identify the variables that are important to customers while visiting shopping malls. It provides updated information to shopping mall managers and property developers about customers' shopping preferences in Northern Bangkok. The primary data was collected in a two-part questionnaire. Part I included details about the demographic characteristics of respondents, and Part II contained a set of 29 questions to determine the level of agreement, in a five-point Likert scale, on reasons that motivate customers to choose a particular shopping mall. Of the 420 questionnaires distributed in the area, 395 were completed and used for data analysis. 
Six critical conclusions were generated from the factor analysis. Mean rankings began with convenience, promotion, privileges, one-stop shopping, professionalism, and the combination of free services, and facility safety. One-stop shopping, convenience and free services/safe facilities were the top three critical factors that significantly influenced consumers' visiting frequency and time spent per visit at shopping malls. Customers more often visited and spent more time at malls that provided multiple services (mixed-use malls). These tendencies increased for the malls that offered additional free services, such as a free shuttle bus. A mall manager or property developer's principal tasks are to fulfill customers' overall needs, particularly their physiological needs (including hedonic ones), and to differentiate their products and services from those of competitors, to induce customers to make actual purchases. 
 

The post-modern consumer is an entirely new figure and represent one of the strategic factors in terms of consumer beahaviuor and purchase intentions. The studies on grocery retailing industry is considered constantly a priority in marketing research and in managerial practice. The retailers that operate in grocery retailing, in order to propose an adequate offering system to customers, want to know what drives a consumer to make their daily purchasing and what are the factors that fosters this process. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the purchasing behaviour and explore the factors of a local context. The research is based on an explorative approach on a sample of consumers residing in Campania Region. The qualitative methodology was administrated in the three following points: 1) first, data was collected through the diary tool; 2) subsequently, were conducted in depth interviews, on the same respondents of the diaries; lastly, 3) a content analysis was carried out on the results of the diaries and interviews. The research partially confirms the evidence emerging from recent studies on Marketing Performance Measurement (MPM) in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) industry, referred to share of wallet's creation. Moreover, offers a new interpretation of the conceptual model on MPM, in the perspective of consumer behaviour. The research methodology is based on the individual’s daily observation during his monthly purchasing process, influenced by cultural factors. The first evidences could be useful for grocery ratailing's managers to modify the business model, in the decisions on offering system, in the distribution format and in terms of pricing strategies (that is, HILO and EDLP strategy). Therefore, the future scenario is of a great interest, both for the evolutionary trends in purchasing behaviour than for the business model’s innovations in grocery retailing.

The aim of this study is to understand consumers’ choice and shopping preferences regarding retail format (traditional vs modern markets). Further, this study is conducted to understand the changes that are occurring in the consumers’ behaviour with respect to modern retailing and traditional retailing outlets. It is noted that due to change in demographics, and an increase in families’ income, urbanization, awareness through electronic and internet media has influenced the consumer behaviour to choose from modern retail outlets rather than the neighbourhood stores. Therefore, to empirically testing the phenomenon of retail format choice, a quantitative study is conducted by using a questionnaire. Collected data is analysed by using SPSS. Results has supported that there are fewer factors that favour traditional retailing and fewer which support modern retailing. However, the results show that there are many challenges that exist in modern markets and traditional markets based on consumer preferences.

Industry 4.0 is originated in Germany in 2011, it is focused on optimize value chain through autonomous manufacturing and through technological systems; it’s related with automotive sector as a product of international highly competitive. That is how the fourth industrial revolution started. The sector is very dynamic in Asia-Pacific, Mexico and United States. The goal of this investigation is to determinate three groups with respect to Industry 4.0, which allows them to identify new technology-based business strategies. The hypothesis shows that proposed methodology is useful to evaluate adopted strategies in the business to introduce the industry 4.0.
A transverse quantitative study was realized, using multivariate statistic and a population of 16 automobiles distributors located in three adjacent cities. An instrument was designed with six variables: Process, Product, Persons, Technology, Business and Social Responsibility. With 30 items; it was validated by Cronbach's alpha and it was used SPSS V25.
Three groups were determined with similarity shown in four indicator variables in the technology stage in industry 4.0. Groups were determined through ANOVA test. The most significant variables were analyzed by groups. A characterization of the variables was realized for their interpretation.
“Process” variable got the highest value among the three groups; the perception about productive process, services that they offer, and continuous improvement are positively identified at interior of the business. Process, Persons and Social Responsibility are the highest variables of the group three.
 

Brand loyalty is regularly categorised as one of the most vital drivers for ensuring the long-term sustainability of any organisation. Advantages of having a brand loyal customer base include lower sensitivity to price increases, lower brand switching intentions, high level of customer word-of-mouth marketing exposure and increased consumer profitability. The main focus of this study is to measure the brand loyalty of the KwaZulu-Natal consumers towards their uncooked chicken brand of choice using a validated model and its measuring instrument. The model was developed to measure brand loyalty in the fast-moving consumer goods industry but also successfully applied in agriculture, financial services and other industries. The model measures twelve of the most important antecedents influencing brand loyalty, namely perceived value, brand relevance, brand trust, repeat purchase, switching cost, brand affect, brand commitment, involvement, brand performance, relationship proneness, customer satisfaction and culture. The empirical study was conducted amongst 112 consumers in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. A convenience sample was used to collect data through a product-specific adapted questionnaire designed to test how strongly each of the twelve antecedents relates to KwaZulu-Natal’s consumer loyalty towards its chicken brand. The sample showed the appropriate adequacy, had low sphericity and were proved to be reliable as measured by Cronbach Alpha coefficients. The empirical results confirm the importance of each brand loyalty antecedent in chicken brands. This study offers the most important brand loyalty antecedents as a managerial guideline to chicken brands for consideration to implement in their customer loyalty marketing strategies.       

The purpose of the research was to examine the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction amongst customers in the internet service provision sector of Zimbabwe. In the study, service quality consisted of six dimensions, namely, reliability, empathy, responsiveness, tangibles, location and price. The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative design from which a sample of 341 successfully completed questionnaires were obtained. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 23 software. Multiple regression was performed to ascertain the cause-effect relationship between the independent variables (namely, reliability, empathy, responsiveness, tangibles, location and price) and the dependent variable (customer satisfaction). The results of the study indicated that reliability, responsiveness and price displayed a positive statistically significant impact on customer satisfaction.  On the other hand, empathy, tangibles and location were noted as not having a statistically significant positive impact on customer satisfaction.  The main implication for internet service providers in Zimbabwe is that responsiveness and prices-sensitive offerings are key to satisfying customers.

This study aimed to investigate the micro-linkages between electronic customer relationship management (E-CRM) and electronic loyalty of customers, through electronic banking satisfaction as a mediator variable. specifically, the neglected roles for expected security, convenience of website design. To achieve the objectives of the study, four basic hypotheses were formulated, it's were tested using preliminary data collected through the survey list, Data was collected by a convenience sample, the sample of study consisted of (370) customer who representative of the community of customers of Egyptian commercial banks  who dealing electronically, Data analysis and hypothesis testing have been depended on  use methods of a structural equation modeling, confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, and direct and indirect analysis by using the Bootstrap method, The study found a significant correlation between the dimensions of the E- CRM (expected security) and The intentions of repeat e-dealing and providing customers positive words to others, A significant correlation was found between the convenience of website design and providing customers positive words to others. While there is no significant relationship between convenience of website design and intentions of repeat e-dealing. And the electronic banking satisfaction does not play the role of mediator in influencing the relationship between E-CRM dimensions (expected security) and providing positive words to others, and the intentions to repeats electronic transactions. So, Managers are likely to increase customer's loyalty by providing technological protection mechanisms for electronic banking transactions and enhance convenience requirements on the website in terms of ease of use and immediate customer problem solving, predisposing positively Customer’s attitudes towards the banks.                                                                                                                                         

Technological innovation is the driving force of FinTech's growth. FinTech (Financial Technology) provides easing payment processes, reducing fraud, saving user’s money, promoting financial planning, and moving a giant industry forward. FinTech is receiving a lot of attention in the finance and IT markets in the world. However, main concerns of FinTech services are regulations and technical problems such as government regulation, the security of customer's money and investments, protection of customer's data, cyber-attacks, lack of expertise, and so on. Especially, the major issues of FinTech are security and stability which are essential as well as ease of use. No matter how they introduce new technologies and user convenience, FinTech got the trust of our customers. As a leader of FinTech, we discuss the major concerns of the FinTech security with Korean market case. Also, regulation has slowed the development of the FinTech industry. With the unreasonable regulation system in Korea, FinTech is in a lot of controversies between finance and industry. People in Korea have already had a significant amount of experience with FinTech. The most prevalent examples of FinTech in Korea are Internet & Mobile Banking and shopping with the mobile payment market.
In this paper, we discussed institutional and technical issues that should be considered for a successful settlement in Korea and suggested how to carry out an unprecedented financial regulation innovation for the activation of FinTech to activate and successfully establish FinTech. 
 

This paper examines the influence of various variables on competing the Israeli products at the Palestinian market. These variables are (competition for quality, corporate management practices, procedures and laws, update and development, government policies and procedures and follow-up and evaluation). A survey has been conducted to examine the hypotheses of this paper. The population consists of directors of organizations, dealers, business owners, government employees, marketing managers, workers and customers. 500 questionnaires were distributed to the targeted respondents in Palestine using the random sample. 378 questionnaires were returned which represents 75.6% of the distributed sample. The finding of this paper are: (1) the current practices of the follow-up and evaluation of Palestinian products have a negative competitive impact (2) there is a positive role of the administrative practices of the Palestinian companies on competing the Israeli product. (3) there is a positive role of the quality of Palestinian product on competing the Israeli product. (4) there is no role of the current Palestinian procedures and laws on competing the Israeli product. (5) there is a positive role of updating and developing the Palestinian product to compete the Israeli product. (6) there is a negative role of the policies and procedures of the Palestinian government on competing the Israeli product. Based on the previous findings, this paper suggests the following recommendations: (1) the Palestinian producer should increase the quality of Palestinian products. (2) the current Palestinian procedures and laws that are related to the competition should be developed to meet the requirements of competition. (3) the Palestinian government must reform its competition policies and procedures. (4) the current practices of the follow-up and evaluation of Palestinian products should be updated.