International Journal of Management, Accounting and Economics
Volume:2 Issue: 7, Jul 2015

One of the marketing activities undertaken by PT Nestle Indonesia to communicate Bear Brand milk in the market is by Words of Mouth marketing. However, Bear Brand Milk is only superior in several regions in Indonesia. The purpose of this study were to analyze the influence of reputation, influence of advertisement attractiveness, and community effect to customer value of Bear Brand Milk in Malang, and to analyze the influence of customer value of positive words of mouth on consumers of Bear Brand Milk in City Malang. The primary data were obtained from questionnaires spread to Bear Brand Milk consumers in Malang. The sampling technique used was accidental sampling. The analysis technique used in this study was Structural Equation Model which was operated by AMOS program 16. The variables measured were reputation, advertisement attractiveness, community effect, customer value, and word-of-mouth. Results of the study showed that reputation is an important first element in implementing customer value. The reputation effect of positive words of mouth begins with how reputation can give dominant strategic effects on increasing customer value. The advertisement attractiveness was the second variable affecting the realization of positive words of mouth. Community effect is the third important element in implementing positive words of mouth. In order to create positive words of mouth, improvement of customer value can be realized through reputation, advertisement attractiveness, and community effects.

Generally, knowledge spillovers result in the creation of new knowledge, increased competitive advantages, and economic cooperation. Since the investigation of spillover flows among countries is considered to be highly important, in this study, knowledge spillovers and its resulting externalities were considered among a number of selected European countries during 1995 to 2011 using spatial econometric analysis. The results indicated an indirect effect and positive feedback caused by changing human development index, research and development expenditure, and knowledge-bearing imports, which confirmed the existence of spillovers and adsorption capacity in this region.

We now commonly see that sports sponsorship is used by companies as part of their marketing efforts. The question that comes to mind is: why should the companies be interested in sponsorship? One view is that if sports sponsorship is done properly, it can provide good opportunities for distinct marketing and competitive advantages, and also showing support for the event. It is also considered as one of the communication vehicles available, which is capable of helping to form a long-term relationship with the consumers. Brand building is another objective for using sports sponsorship. It is natural that different companies will not have similar objectives for sports sponsorship. Academic research in a number of countries has tried to understand the various reasons and objectives for sports sponsorship. However, in India, academic research on sports sponsorship is hard to come by. Therefore, for this paper, various objectives for sports sponsorship and related aspects were primarily identified on the basis of review of available literature from other counties. A questionnaire was designed containing Likert-type statements about sport sponsorship management while setting the objectives as well as importance attached to various identified objectives. Responses received from 248 respondents were analyzed and described using means and standard deviation. Statements about ‘strengthening/altering the company image as an objective’ and ‘likely benefits to be derived from sponsorship’ have been found to be more important. The statements on ‘monetary profit due to sponsorship’ and ‘utility of objective setting to measure sponsorship effectiveness’ are surprisingly lower down the order. Sponsorship objectives which turned out to be most important belong to three categories namely, media coverage, objectives related to product/service/brand, and general corporate objectives.

This study examines the effect of financial integration on economic growth in Nigeria. Using time series data from 1981 and 2012, the study employs autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach proposed by Pesaran et al., (2001) to estimate the long run and short run effect of financial integration and development on economic growth. The result from cointegration test showed presence of long run relationship between dependent and all explanatory variables. The regression results show that, while financial integration has no short run effect on economic growth, its long run effect on growth is negative and significant. Financial development was found to have both short run and long run positive effect on economic growth in Nigeria. Hence, for Nigeria to benefit from financial integration, the government has to increase the level of competition, improve the quality of financial information and reduce corruption in the financial system.

Providing the required cut panels to the sawing department on time, is the major task and responsibility of the cutting department of an apparel manufacturer. Therefore, the cutting process is one of the main value adding processes. Several functions are included in the cutting process; namely fabric laying, cutting and bundling of cut panels. Since other processes are depended on the fabric laying, it plays a crucial role. This study attempts to develop a model to determine the fabric laying time of Gerber machines used in the cutting department. First the factors that affect to the lay time are identified. The actual times taken for each of these factors are collected for non-woven trouser patterns for a period of month totaling 89 data points. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis are used to analyze the data. Overall, the results show that six factors out of identified seven are significantly useful in predicting total lay time. Particularly, the results of the regression analysis indicate that at a α=0.01 level of significance, loading time, damage check time, joint time, preparation time, reverse time and cutting time are significantly contributing to total lay time. The regression model has an overall accuracy rate of 79.2 percent. This study attempts to develop a model to determine the fabric laying time of Gerber machines used in the cutting department. First the factors that affect to the lay time are identified. The actual times taken for each of these factors are collected for non-woven trouser patterns for a period of month totaling 89 data points. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis are used to analyze the data. Overall, the results show that six factors out of identified seven are significantly useful in predicting total lay time. Particularly, the results of the regression analysis indicate that at a α=0.01 level of significance, loading time, damage check time, joint time, preparation time, reverse time and cutting time are significantly contributing to total lay time. The regression model has an overall accuracy rate of 79.2 percent.

The main purpose of this study is to empirically compare of intellectual capital (IC) and its efficiency among manufacturing companies with different level of technology using a sample of 135 Malaysian listed manufacturing companies during the 2006-2012 period. The manufacturing companies are classified into different sectors based on their products and services (Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code) on OSIRIS databases. Then, they are categorized into one of the four groups: high, medium-high, medium-low, and low technology. The results of ANOVA test indicate that investment in IC and its components, and efficiency of IC and its components vary with degree of technology of the manufacturing companies. It also can be concluded that more investment in IC components does not necessarily lead to more efficiency of IC.

The study was conducted to determine the aspect affecting the farmer in taking part in off-farm activities in three cotton growing districts of Punjab province, Pakistan. Since off-farm activities have become an imperative part of income strategies among rural families in developing countries like Pakistan. The data was documented from a total of 180 cotton farmers using multistage cluster sampling technique. A binary logistic model was used to evaluate the determinants motivating the farmers to participate in different off-farm activities. Various socio-economic factors were found significantly associated with probability of immersion in non-farm activities. The results of the model reveal different factors like total farming area and farmers having access to road were significant for several business activities through odds ratio 1.051 and 0.088 respectively. Though more experienced farmers with odds ratio (1.063) had more likelihood for labour activities. Lastly more educated farmers and large family size have higher probability to go for services type of off-farm activities and their odds ratio estimated is 1.297, 2.069. These findings have essential implications for policy, economic growth and development.

Warehouse plays a major role in logistic operations especially in the telecommunication infrastructure development industry. Inefficient warehouse management makes huge cost to the company. Thus, it is important to manage warehouses especially in this industry as they are using very specific materials, machineries, equipment and tools. On the other hand, firms need to keep larger as well as costly inventories for the successful completion of the construction projects. This implies the differences with compared to other type of warehouses and also generates some specific requirements in warehousing for this industry. Thus, this research study focuses to identify and examine the factors affecting effectiveness of warehouses in telecommunication infrastructure construction industry. The study was carried out by performing a comprehensive survey and a questionnaire was used to get the feedback from the selected sample which comprises both executive and non-executive employees work in warehouses. For the purpose of analysis, descriptive statistics and other statistical tools were used to examine the factors. Through the study, environmental impacts, emergency unloading and safety & protection were identified as largely affecting factors to the warehouse effectiveness and their behaviours were further examined. Based on findings, the paper has given recommendations for telecommunication infrastructure construction firms to effectively manage their warehouses for the better performance in their construction projects.

The Sri Lankan apparel industry is considered as the most significant and dynamic contributor to the country’s economy. Though the industry creates profits in significant still it has many losses in financial aspects such as the cost of raw material. Therefore this research was carried out as a case study in the Sri Lankan apparel industry to identify factors affecting raw material write off. The main raw material considered in the study was fabric being the single largest cost factor in the apparel industry. This research randomly selected 85 schedules as the sample. Both primary and secondary data were used and collected through author observations, interviews and secondary data sources. The data were quantitatively analyzed with regression analysis. The results showed that both excess ordered raw material quantity and yield per yardage saving were the significant factors that affected on raw material write off in the Sri Lankan apparel industry. Further descriptive analysis revealed that pattern changes and marker improvement mainly contributed to this yield per yardage saving. The regression analysis further identified a significant relationship among the raw material write off quantity, excess ordered raw material quantity and yield per yardage saving. Also this study suggested to create a Lean manufacturing culture to minimize raw material write off in the apparel industry.

In today competitive world, innovation is a key factor for creating competitive advantage and even for survival of the enterprises and as a propellant for business growth and prosperity and maintain more profitability for an organization, as a result of market needs and technology push. In service organizations, recognition of the conceptual framework of service innovation, improves performance of the Organization and creates core competencies for achieving competitive advantage through their systematic approach to service development, which is crucial for survival and maintaining competitiveness in the current financial markets. Banking systems due to the rapid global competition, the impact of structural change, deregulation effects, the use of new technologies and the increasing expectations of customers, have sought to develop and implement service innovation in their organizations. In this paper the effective factors of Service Innovation in service organizations has been introduced and case of study is Iranian Governmental Banks. Research methodology is qualitative and qualitative. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with academic experts and managers of governmental banking systems until theoretical saturation was achieved. The gathered data was analyzed using axial and open coding methods. The results show that dimensions of Service Innovation in financial service organization systems consist of six main dimensions including new service concept, new delivery system (organization), new delivery system (technological), interact with new customers, new value systems / new business partners and finally the new revenue models and 36 secondary factors. The results of this paper can be used for the understanding of service innovation for new service design and development in governmental banking system in a competitive environment at the other countries.

Product harm crises often reflect the outcomes of firms’ unethical business decision-making behaviours. Literature showed that the majority of crisis management studies have paid high attention for finding strategies from the consumer’s perspective. Hence, the purpose of present study is set to conceptualise the impact of an entrepreneur’s personal values on making ethical business decisions to fill the empirical gap that has been arisen from a firm’s perspective. A systematic approach was followed to review the crisis management literature and to examine the current status of product harm crisis management strategies in scholarly accepted databases. The analyzed content found that the relationship among the variables of entrepreneur’s personal values, firm’s attitude towards fulfilling the corporate social responsibilities, and the ethical decision-making behaviour can be explained through the value- attitude-behaviour hierarchy model. Some propositions have been suggested as future research directions for academia and it is believed that the present study finding is a pre-requisite for the content provision from a firm’s perspective in product harm crisis management study context.

Cloudy computing by offering the scalable infrastructure and available capabilities as a service for small and medium-sized businesses has changed the game. It is a paradigm that computing resources are available anywhere and anytime and businesses can take advantage of it in the same way as they consume utilities like water and electricity. Due to the important role of small and medium-sized businesses in Iran economy, the aim of this study is to design a cloudy Spine for small businesses. According to the views of experts in the field of IT and cloudy computing, information and data in this field are collected by observing, preliminary and systematically interviews. Studies show that this business model provides a win-win solutions for small and medium-sized businesses provider and cloud service consumer. At the end, it is presented for the cloudy Spine model.

The study was conducted to identify the determinants of the export performance of the value-added rubber products industry in Sri Lanka. This research has identified the impact of several selected factors on the export performance and the strength of those factors’ impact on the industry. The research study was carried out by performing a comprehensive survey by focusing exclusively on Sri Lankan value-added rubber products exporters. Online questionnaire and interviews were used as research instruments to get the feedback from a randomly selected sample which comprises more than fifty percent of Sri Lankan value-added rubber products exporters. For the purpose of analysis, descriptive statistics were comprehensively used. Determinants of export performance have been identified by reviewing literature as firm characteristics, marketing strategies, market characteristics, technical capabilities and the investment portfolio. These variables’ relationships were analyzed and positive correlation was identified with export performance. They are firm characteristics and technical capabilities. Thus, Sri Lankan value-added rubber products industry can improve their market performance by focusing the enhancement of those two factors. Further, the technical capability was identified as the most significant factor for the value-added rubber products’ export performance. Therefore it was recommended the manufacturers &exporters to focus on their technical capabilities to gain more industry performance.

Endowment has an old history and a long record and has been emphasized and ordered as a good tradition in Islam, but its dimensions and angles has not yet been considered by experts and economists. Expanding economic issues and their complexities, the role of endowment and endowed properties in economic development, and the need to fulfill the purposes of the Holy Legislator and benefactor indicate the need of revision in endowment in accordance with the conditions of that time and place. Endowment institution in the West, as a capable «financial institution» in equipping the capital to solve social problems has a desirable position; while, despite having deep cultural and powerful religious stimuli, our society still could not use the capacities and capabilities of this good custom properly. Using the methods and new resources of financing in the development of and endowments are ways which suit to the changing circumstances of time and space, to use of high capacity of endowment. In this paper, after examining traditional and modern methods and sources of financing in the development of endowments, the necessity to use Sukuk as a new way of financing is emphasized, then, in the following, profiting Sukuk pattern as one of the new ways in financing in the development of endowments will be provided.