In the Malaysian Umrah industry, there are so many new entrants selling and offering similar products and services. As a result, Umrah providers must compete to survive in the Umrah travel industry, as there are currently so many competitors. They need to focus on customers' special needs and preferences to maintain the long-term relationship. Hence, the purpose of this research is to identify the relationship between service marketing mix and customer's loyalty towards Umrah travel agents in Malaysia. The customers who performed Umrah more than once were on the focus of this study. The necessary data were collected from 384 respondents through a structured questionnaire using a convenience sampling technique. The results of the research confirm that all "service marketing mix" elements ("price, product, place, promotion, process, people, and physical evidence") show significant positive effects on customer loyalty. This study will be of interest to the Umrah travel industry in understanding how marketing mix strategies are essential for maintaining a long term relationship with customers.
People nowadays seem to become dependent towards smartphone due to its convenience, great camera features, easy applications' installations, and more importantly, it can do most of the computer functions on the go. Significantly, smartphone usage in Malaysia is growing enormously and has become a significant and lucrative industry. This study aims to understand the antecedents and the outcome of the smartphone dependency among smartphone consumers. Two theories -the theory of uses and gratification and the media dependency theorywere used as the theoretical basis for this study, in order to determine the motivations to use a smartphone and to define dependency and its outcome. The antecedent variables were convenience, social need and social influence; and all of these dimensions are conceptualized as one-dimensional. The outcome of dependency on smartphones was expected to be the purchase behavior. Data analyses were based on 226 valid questionnaires that were collected among smartphone users. The result from the Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Partial Least Square (PLS) shows that only social needs and social influence significantly influenced the smartphone dependency among consumers, therefore indicating that these two factors are important to influence dependency on the smartphone. In addition, the analysis also verifies that the purchase behavior is the outcome of the dependency on the smartphone. Based on these results, marketers could focus on creating dependency among consumers on smartphone usage based on the consumers' social need, which eventually will promote future purchase behavior in the long run. More importantly, understanding social influences as antecedents Keywords: dependency on smartphone, purchase behavior, theory of uses and gratification, theory of media dependency
This study aims to understand the influence of relational benefits of Facebook brand/fan page towards relationship commitment among Generation Y. Additionally, this study also investigates the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on the relationship between relational benefits and relationship commitment. A total of 195 sets of online questionnaires were collected using snowball sampling method for the statistical data requirement of SmartPLS. The analysis found significant positive relationships between relational benefits and relationship commitment, however, only on social, functional, and special treatment benefits. Surprisingly, the findings also showed an insignificant mediation effect of customer satisfaction on the relationship between relational benefits and relationship commitment. The research findings are valuable to both the theoretical and businesses adopting social media as a marketing strategy. Marketers employing the Facebook or other social media in catering and reacting to the Generation Y needs will benefit the most; securing their confidence and loyalty towards purchasing a certain brand.
The purpose of this research paper is to understand how an NGO in Pakistan perceives the utility of its performance measurement system and thus what drives design of its PMS. The study explores the phenomenon from the perspective of NGO managers by applying qualitative approach and using critical realism to explore the issue. The paper presents the findings on the basis of an instrumental case study conducted in Pakistan. The research identifies the main objective of PMS in this NGO is to help the organization remain sustainable and its managers’ desire for legitimacy has deeply influenced the design of the PMS of the NGO. Results suggest managers perceive organizational credibility and not the accountability as the most important factor in determining its sustainability. The evidence is based on findings of a single NGO case study from Pakistan. Furthermore, the findings are based only on the perceptions of the managers of the selected organisation. Future research including perception of other stakeholders in other NGOs may help in deepening the understanding of the issue and validating the presented results. However, given that little research has been conducted within the NGO sector on drivers of performance measurement this research provides useful evidence that can be further developed. The paper specifically contributes by extending prior PM literature in an NGO environment. It has implications for the further development of legitimacy theories in the NGO sector. It raises issues about how primary focus of reporting in NGOs is shifting from accountability to show-casing.
Kajian ini bertujuan untuk memahami dan menerangkan mengenai cabaran atau kesukaran yang berlaku dalam proses mengutip data bagi kajian yang menggunakan kaedah kualitatif ketika Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) sedang berjalan disebabkan oleh pandemik Covid-19 di Malaysia. Sama ada kaedah kuantitatif mahupun kualitatif, kedua-duanya memerlukan data yang bersifat tulen, lengkap dan berkualiti. Untuk tujuan tersebut, maka proses pengutipan data memerlukan tatacara kutipan data dilakukan dengan berhati-hati dan pada masa yang sama mengikut prosedur terbaik. Kajian ini telah memilih satu entiti syarikat berkaitan kerajaan (GLC) dan satu entiti pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) sebagai kajian kes untuk mencapai objektif kajian. Dapatan kajian mendapati terdapat isu dan cabaran yang agak berbeza dalam proses kutipan data melibatkan GLC dan NGO dalam konteks kajian menggunakan kaedah kualitatif. Entiti NGO didapati lebih terbuka dan bekerja sama berbanding entiti GLC dalam proses tersebut. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa data yang dikutip daripada NGO adalah lebih komprehensif dan berkualiti berbanding dengan GLC. Ini menunjukkan bahawa, terdapat banyak isu dan cabaran yang dihadapi dalam proses mengumpul data daripada GLC berbanding daripada NGO ketika PKP Covid-19 di Malaysia.
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