Journal of Business and Retail Management Research

Purpose of the research: This study investigated the impact of formal shopping centre development on informal and small businesses in Lagos, Nigeria.

Methodology: Semi-structured interviews with the business owners as well as shoppers were conducted. The population size included 15 informal and 15 small business equally distributed between five different shopping areas including the areas around the two major shopping centres in Lagos. Interviews were also done with a hundred shoppers around these two centres. The collected data were analysed using content analysis method.

Findings: Most of the informal and small businesses are struggling to survive. Different strategies have, however, been developed for competing against the giant retailers in the shopping malls.  The different types of goods sold in shopping centres and in informal traders were characterised and the reasons for the support of these respective businesses were identified.

Practical implications and Conclusions:  While the development of shopping centres may be of benefit to the community it serves, the valuable role of informal trading in developing countries should not be ignored.

This study aimed to investigate the availability of the requirements for applying the concept of social entrepreneurship in the branch of Taibah University in the Khyber region in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this aim of the study, three basic hypotheses were formulated and tested using preliminary data collected through the survey, Data was collected by a convenience sample, the sample of study consisted of (307) students and faculty members, Data analysis and hypothesis testing have been depended on  use methods of a structural equation modelling, path analysis, and direct and indirect analysis by using the Bootstrap method, The study found a significant effect of the dimensions of social entrepreneurship in the application of the concept of social entrepreneurship in Taibah University branch, And the relative importance of the requirements for applying the concept of social entrepreneurship , it's arranged as follows: (innovation - voluntary participation - acceptance of risk - Initiative) ,The importance of the requirements for applying the concept of social entrepreneurship in the branch of Taibah University varies according to gender, specialization and function with regard to the dimensions of (acceptance of risk and voluntary participation) while it does not differ with regard to the dimensions of Initiative and innovation.

This study measures the impact of customer brand engagement (CBE) on brand satisfaction, loyalty, and trust through the online brand experience in the Egyptian banking sector based on the customers’ perspective. Electronic questionnaires were developed to collect data. Data collected from 392 questionnaires was analyzed by means of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Findings indicated that CBE has a significant positive impact on brand satisfaction, trust, and loyalty respectively via the online brand experience. This study contributes to knowledge development by focusing on the importance of CBE and its consequences in the online service sector, which is still uncovered. Besides, this study offers guidelines to the service providers with valuable meanings for CBE to enhance brand’s satisfaction, trust and loyalty via developing a unique online brand experience particularly in the Egyptian banking sector, which is witnessing now a new era of digital transformation.

The main objective underlying the study is to assess human resource strategies adopted by hoteliers in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic period and their sustainability.   The target population of the study was 725 and this comprises of 471 and 254 hotels from Greater Accra and Ashanti regions, respectively.  Using Guilford and Fruchter (1973) formula, a total sample size of 371 representing both regions was used for the study.  The study shows that employees’ lay off is considered as the main Human Resource (HR) strategy hoteliers in Ghana adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic period to salvage their businesses in terms of meeting employees wage bill though there were other HR strategies that could have been adopted.  Among other HR strategies include operationalizing established pandemic fund, reducing employees working hours, temporary converting employees’ full-time jobs to part time and re-training employees to use alternative means of doing business.

The study revealed that, the lack of interest for majority of hoteliers to pursue other HR strategies other than laying off their employees, was due to the absence of policies developed by the central government to support the implementation of the other HR strategies as pertains in countries such as Japan, Australia, Ireland, Canada, United States of America and France.  

The originality of the study was based on the novel nature of the COVID-19 and the fact that, research has not been conducted on how hoteliers in Ghana are surviving through the use of HR strategies to salvage their businesses.  The main limitation of the study was based on restrictive selection of only hotels in Ghana for the study though, there are different segments such as food and beverage, travel and tourism and recreation that completes the hospitality industry in Ghana.

Purpose of this paper: Traditionally, lessors and lessees of especially national tenants use a risk-sharing retail rental model, which consists of a fixed rental and a risk sharing component, the so-called turnover clause. In an online retail environment, however, revenue is generated through several channels and it is not possible to assign to each store a portion of the total revenue by simply looking at individual instore turnover. The opportunity of selling online provides disincentives to tenants to generate instore revenues, thereby increasing the risk of turnover-based contracts becoming ineffective. This article investigates whether the commonly used risk-sharing clause in retail rental agreements used in South Africa is still the most relevant in this changing environment. Four alternative rental constructs: (i) fixed rental only, (ii) turnover rental only (iii) geofenced rental and (iv) alternative performance metrics are investigated.

Methodology: Role players in the South African retail real estate are interviewed and questions formulated based on the results of the literature review are discussed on a one-on-one basis. The interviews are analysed and solutions to accommodate the disruptive effects of online retailing on the calculation of turnover rentals are tested against industry knowledge of the participants.

Findings: The preliminary finding is that the existing model will continue to be the preferred model for the foreseeable future because of the underlying adversarial relationship between retail lessors and lessees and the existing model’s ability to share risk while guaranteeing a minimum fixed rental.

The primary purpose of this study is to study the moderating effect of entrepreneurial leadership and competitive advantage in the relationship between the business model innovation and the performance of the start-up business.  We hypothesized that business model innovation has a significant association with the performance of the start-up, and entrepreneurial leadership or competitive advantage connects substantially to the business model innovation and start-up. Fifty-one respondents participate in this study. The partial least square statistical technique is used to analyse the data, which is appropriate for parametric analysis for such a sample size. The analysis shows a significant relationship between business model innovation and start-up performance. Also, there are significant relationships of entrepreneurial leadership and competitive advantage to business model innovation. However, it shows no direct relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and start-up; the association is not direct but indirect. The null hypothesis that there is no direct association between competitive advantage and start-up performance is rejected. There is a negative association between competitive advantage and start-up. Both entrepreneurial leadership and competitive advantage improve the relationship between business model innovation and start-up.  However, they must be interpreted with caution

The rapid growth of middle-class consumers in emerging markets like South Africa is often characterised by high energy consumption, driven by demand for household appliances. As green appliances can reduce energy consumption, this study (1) examined South African black middle class consumers’ attitudes and adoption behaviour of green appliances; (2) integrated the theories of consumption value and planned behaviour for a richer explanation of attitudes and behavioural intention (BI) regarding green appliances; and (3) assessed whether BI and perceived behavioural control (PBC) translate into actual adoption. Data was quantitatively gathered from 500 respondents who were aware of green appliances, displayed the intention to buy green appliances and had bought green appliances. Data was analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

Findings showed that respondents hold a strong positive attitude towards green appliances (M=5.8), which was significantly driven by functional, emotional, and epistemic values. Attitude, social value and PBC drove BI which, with PBC, influenced adoption. The integrated model explained far greater percentage of attitude (81%) and BI (83.4%) compared to studies applying only one theory.

The original value lies in the sampling of consumers, who are working and capable of buying green appliances. Previous studies have mainly used students, who lack purchasing power.

The integrated model makes theoretical implication by providing greater explanatory power of green product adoption. Practically, from their positive attitudes towards green appliances and adoption behaviour, governmental/environmental interest groups can use the large and influential black middleclass as opinion leaders to promote green product use.

The purpose of this study to investigate the relationship between soft skills and organizational creativity at the company Telecom Egypt in regions of Suez, South Sinai, and the Red Sea. To achieve research objectives, three basic hypotheses were formulated, and tested using primary data collected through the questionnaire, consisted of 251 questionnaires. Structural equation modelling and path analysis were performed to analyse the survey data and to test study hypotheses. The study found a strong positive relationship and significant effect of the soft skills dimensions of (communication, working in a team, individual innovation, self-management, critical thinking, problem-solving on organizational creativity, and the relative importance of the soft skills dimensions varies in their impact on organizational creativity, ranking as follow: critical thinking, self-management, problem -solving, communication, working in a team, individual innovation.

In the current condition, Millennials have the biggest portion in the workforce composition. In the next ten or fifteen years, they will be in the top management level, replacing the current management. By retaining them in the organisation, such training and recruitment cost could be minimized and bring less efforts to the organisation in recruiting new talents. This research is aimed to examine the impact of reward and recognition, work life balance on employee retention using the job satisfaction as mediating variable. This research is expected to be able to give insights to organisations to develop programs or policies to retain their current demography of the workforce, which consist of Millennials. The samples were collected by non-probability sampling method. The statistical method used was structural equation model using partial least square software, with hypothesis testing using t-test and p value result. For validity and reliability, average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR) were used to determine whether the tool that was used is valid and reliable. Result of this research shows that reward and recognition, work life balance and job satisfaction have significant positive effect on the employee retention.