Revue du Journal arabe des affaires et de la gestion

This study aimed at examining the impact of elements of service marketing mix on brand equity, from the customers’ point of view (Case study: branches of Melli Bank in Hamadan). And using descriptive-survey research method, and from both forms of data collection, library (the study of literature, articles and sites), and field studies (questionnaire), we addressed the evaluation of the relationship between the independent variable (service marketing mix) and its seven dimensions, including service’s nature, price, and distribution, promotion, personnel, physical evidences, and the banking procedures, with the dependent variable (that is, brand equity from the customers’ point of view). Due to the unlimited nature of the study population, who were the customers of branches of Melli Bank in Hamadan, using Cochran formula and the Morgan table, a sample of 384 people were selected for the study. In this study, a questionnaire was used to collect the data, and in the data analysis section, the simple linear regression analysis test was used to test hypotheses of the study. The results of the research showed that all of the hypotheses of the study have been accepted, and among the seven dimensions of the service marketing mix elements, promotion index, with the value of 0.675, has the highest impact on brand equity from the point of view of customers in the branches of Melli Bank in Hamadan.

Job satisfaction has been of great interest in the field of organizational psychology. The primary goal of this study was to investigating the predictive relationship in between employee’s job satisfaction and intention to leave. The mediating role of loneliness between job satisfaction and intention to leave was also investigated among prison staff. A total of 154 participants were employed at two different prisons in the city of Bursa, Turkey. Data were collected using the Intention to leave Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale and Job Satisfaction Scale. As hypothesized, loneliness was found to significantly mediates the relationship between Job satisfaction and Intention to Leave (p<.005). Moreover, loneliness predicts intention to leave (p<.005). The results manifested that job satisfaction predicts intention to leave and loneliness (p <.000). The path also revealed that loneliness at work fully mediated the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to leave. The ï¬Ã‚nal model also showed a signiï¬Ã‚cant path from intent to leave through to job satisfaction and loneliness. The result of the Sobel test supported the significance of the mediating effect of loneliness (p<.001). The limitations of the study are considered and the implications of the results for increasing an individual’s job satisfaction are discussed.

This paper examines the factors that affect the liquidity risk for Islamic and conventional banks in Gulf countries, using the panel data for 11 IBs and 33 CBs between 2006 and 2013. Our results show that return on equity, Net Interest Margin, Capital Adequacy Ratio and inflation rate have a positive impact on liquidity risk for Islamic banks, while returns on assets, Non-Performing Loan, size and GDP growth have a negative impact.On the other hand, in conventional banks, size, Return on Equity, Net Interest Margin, Capital Adequacy Ratio, GDP growth and inflation rate have a positive impact, whereas the Return onAssets, Non-Performing Loan have a negative impact on liquidity risk.This study tries to see how Islamic and conventional banks manage their liquidity in response to changes on the basis of several factors.

This paper shows how the behaviour of a single change agent affected outcomes. The mechanisms were demonstrated through which actions contributed to the non-achievement of planned outcomes and to the appearance of unintended, unwanted and unpredicted outcomes. The investigating was carried to establish if there were differences between good and bad change agents and also to investigate a change in an organisation with offices in several locations and analyse what happens when an organisational level change is implemented at each of the sites. By doing so we will be able to make comparisons between several change agents in a similar situation. Comparison change processes in several companies to determine the role played by structure in change management compares to the role played by agency.

This article examines the relationship between monetary policy and financial stability, in the experience of six south Mediterranean countries (Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey) over the period 2006M1- 2013M12. This research analyzes the monetary policy contribution to financial stability using a structural vector Auto-regressive model. Our empirical results show that the short term interest rates is affect the selected asset prices depends on the strategy of the monetary policy. For countries that adopt a flexible exchange rate regime such as Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Turkey, the interest rate is conducive to financial stability. However in countries that adopt a fixed exchange rate regime such as Jordan and Lebanon, the interest rate is not an effective tool for promoting financial stability.

The study was specifically designed to find out the following: (1) To know and understand the ranking of the causes of truancy among students by teachers and counsellors. (2) To set priority areas for counselling interventions. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated for the investigation. The study utilized descriptive survey method. The population of the study was JSS1 students in Port Harcourt, Obio-Akpor, and Okrika Local government areas. A sample size of 150 teachers and counsellors were used by simple random sampling. The Teachers/Counsellors Truancy Rating scale (TCSTRS) was used. The study concluded that: (1) There is no significant difference between teachers and counsellors ranking of factors causing truancy among secondary school students in Rivers State, Nigeria. (2) There is no significant difference between teachers and counsellors priority in selecting areas of counselling interventions in factors causing truancy among secondary school students in Rivers State. Four recommendations were made in the research paper.

Background: Emerging new technologies have considerable potential for improving communication. E-communication in healthcare is a key to faster and efficient communication, reduction in paper consumption and increase in comfort level of end users. Environmental policy of the study hospital is aimed towards energy and resource conservation. Objective: To study the cost effectiveness of e-communication in healthcare. Method: A comparative study was conducted in a tertiary care NABH, ISO 9001:2008 and 14001:2004 certified teaching hospitals. A validated questionnaire based survey was conducted in 11 non clinical departments of the hospital. Comparative cost analysis of the paper consumption of the hospital (pre and post e-communication) was performed using t-test of ten different categories of stationery used. Results and Discussion: A majority of health expenditure in hospitals are wasted through misallocation and technical and managerial inefficiency within hospitals. A combination of hospital cost data with service statistics will highlight areas in which waste can be reduced. In order to have a paperless system our in-house IT department employees undertook the task of creating a software program catering to the needs of the hospital. A significant reduction in total paper consumption was found after the implementation of e-communication (5% level of significance, p value <0.05). Operations team of the hospital used the highest no of A4 size papers (Rs. 7480/100 inpatients) as compared to MRD (Rs. 3453/100 inpatient) Radiology (Rs. 1707/100 inpatients), Billing (Rs. 898/100 patients). Frequency of raising General store indents markedly increased after starting e-communication leading to decreased manpower consumption and increasing comfort level to the end users. Conclusion: Implementation of e-communication has resulted in a significant reduction in the cost incurred towards running the facility leading to surplus, giving more comfort to the end users and saving time. E-communication complies with the environmental policies i.e. environment conservation and resource conservation which helps to generate more time towards patient care.

The large potential of the halal business and the continuous unique position and strength of the halal hubs demand more from an audit function for halal assurance. Hence there is a need for a properly in place monitoring and controlling system to be in tandem with the drastic development of the industry. This paper examines the role of Shariah auditors in discharging their accountability towards halal assurance. The paper attempts to relate the concept of accountability to the reality of a Shariah auditor by referring to the concept of “Taklif”in Al-Quran through its Surah Al-Baqarah (2:282). Further, the role of the Shariah auditor for halal assurance is argued to be in defects without the criteria of having the Islamic identity, being knowledgeable in Shariah Islamiah and having the value of integrity embedded in him/her which relates to the characteristics of independence, objectivity, honesty and sincerity. The paper concludes that the accountability of a Shariah auditor in halal assurance is believed to result in achieving the conformity with the objectives of the Shariah Islamiah as a whole.

Micro-credit now means providing small scale financial services to people, who operate very small or microenterprises who work in agriculture, fishing and herding, who provide services and other individuals or groups at the local levels of developing countries both rural and urban. For assessing the impact of micro credit, a comparison of pre-credit and post-credit situations is undertaken in this study. The impact was measured as the difference in the magnitude of a given parameter between pre and post-credit situations. An attempt has been made to examine the variation in annual income of the respondents among various sectors, such as agricultural, manufacturing, service and trading sectors. For this one way ANOVA is applied. The household income represents the total income of the family members through all sources before availing micro credit. When the family members earn, it is a supporting source of income for the respondent. The higher family income indicates a better standard of living, and a better family environment. The annual income of the household before availing credit has been classified into four groups.

The study investigated self-esteem among private and public secondary school students in Rivers State. The study used simple random sampling method to select 200 SS1 students from 3 private and 3 public schools, all in Port Harcourt municipality. The “Students Self Esteem Scale” (SSES) was use for collection of data for the study. Test-retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. Reliability coefficient of 0.78 obtained. The t-test statistics was used to test two null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Null hypotheses one and two were rejected, meaning that private school students, both male and female demonstrated high self-esteem, while public schools students demonstrated low self-esteem. Based on the findings of the study, four recommendations were made for effective implementations.

India aims to achieve a growth target of 9% through its 12th five year plan (2012-2017) by emphasizing on faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth, terming it as “ financial inclusion “ which is emerging as a new paradigm of economic growth. From a total of 403 million bank users in India, almost 40% of the huge Indian population lacks basic services such as saving A/c and credit facilities. RBI is striving continuously to solve this problem by increasing the bank penetration, nationalizing of banks, establishing of Regional Rural Banks and many more. The great Indian Budget launched a “Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna” scheme for comprehensive financial inclusion under which 15 million banks A/c were opened depositing INR 105.9 billion. The Indian Government should develop low cost bank models to encourage its citizens to access to banking services. Ideas can be taken from the FI schemes that western countries have adopted .Research shows that in India, there is only 1 bank branch for every 14000 nationals out of which 18 percent are debit card holders while a meager 2 percent own a credit card. In this research paper we will learn about the impacts of various financial inclusions on our nation’s economy.

By using the Professional Competencies Required scale and the Organizational Modernity Assessment Approach, the study presents a comparative analysis of empiric data surveys collected from professionals in emerging economies: Brazil and Taiwan. In methodological terms, the research can be characterized as quantitative, conducted by survey. After the data had been treated by means of multivariate and descriptive statistical techniques, it was possible to notice perceptions as regards the high degree of demand for the competencies assessed. The findings show that Taiwan was the country in which professionals perceived the greatest demand for the set of professional competencies investigated (ICR=8.1), comparing to Brazil (ICR=7.7). We should mention Entrepreneurial Capacity (5.7) as a less-emphasized competence in Brazil, and in particular in Taiwan. In relation to organizational modernity, it was verified perceptions regarding the prevalence of decision-making processes that involve little participation, transparency and decentralization, as well as perceptions about the low degrees of autonomy given to the professionals targeted by this study. In practice, what was found was the prevalence of an organizational trait that is still authoritarian, hierarchical and centralized, despite also having found encouragement towards establishing internal climates that are favorable to continuous learning processes and the establishing of organizational environments that facilitate teamwork and encourage action and decision initiatives. Overall, the demand for the professional competences investigated has not been followed, to the same extent, by modernity as regards policies and managerial practices, suggesting the need for organizational environments more closely aligned with the professional profiles required, as well as theoretical-methodological-conceptual approaches that seek to understand the competence construct in a more systemic manner, factoring into the analysis not only individual dimensions, but also organizational factors that favor the application and development of the required knowledge, abilities and attitudes.

Researchers have been identifying incessantly that how the leadership does influence the people and process of organization, which in turn gives positive outcomes to the organization, results in enhancing the performance of organization. The idea of this paper is to determine the relationship between leadership and performance of organization. Secondary research based data is used to reach the result of this paper.

This study employs the Time-varying Parameters Vector Autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model with stochastic volatility to examine the impact of the remittance outflows on non-oil GDP, investment and current account balance (CAB) in Saudi Arabia for 1970-2012. Results show that the TVP-VAR model is of use for examining inter-temporal dynamics between remittance outflows, non-oil GDP, investment and the CAB in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, an analysis of time-varying impulse responses of non-oil GDP, investment and the CAB to structural remittance outflows shocks suggests that responses depend on the magnitude of structural volatilities of remittance outflows. In particular, highly volatile remittance outflow levels are likely to have persistent negative effects on non-oil GDP, investment and CAB levels in the 1970s and the1980s. However, we observe that the time-varying response of non-oil GDP to remittance shocks displays a negative pattern during 1980-1992 and positive otherwise. Remittances have a persistent negative effect on CAB over the period 1971-2012. Regarding the effect of remittances on investment, the results indicate that there have been sizeable negative responses of investment to remittances shocks during the period 1985-1995. These findings imply that monetary policies must consider high- and low-volatility regimes of remittance outflows and time-varying patterns of relationships non-oil GDP, investment, CAB and remittance outflows. Finally, our results put forward monetary incentives to keep in foreign workers’ earnings to promote investment, such as free participation in the stock market, and to enhance current account surplus.

The Objective of the study is to investigate the relationship of overconfidence bias and illusion of control bias towards the start of new venture, with the mediating role of risk perception in context of Pakistan. To understand the relationship, this study developed and tested hypothesis by correlation and regression analysis. This study’s sample consisted of 170 students pursuing a Masters of Business Administration. The students’ responses to a survey based on a case study regarding a decision to start a venture were examined. This study found illusion of control and risk perceptions have significant effect on decision to start new venture. Conversely, overconfidence bias has insignificant relationship with decision to start new venture. The positive and negative impact of biases and perceiving low levels of risk suggest the importance of exploring the area of venture formation. As this study has incorporated two biases but many other biases should also be considered that effect human decision making process like self-efficacy, availability heuristics, law of small numbers and escalation of commitment.