BackgroundThe objectives of this study were to understand the labour market dynamics among health workers, including their preferences and concerns, and to assess the skills, competence and performance (i.e. the ‘know–do gap’) of doctors working in Timor-Leste.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey was implemented in all 13 districts of Timor-Leste in 2014. We surveyed 443 health workers, including 175 doctors, 150 nurses and 118 midwives (about 20% of the health workers in the country). We also observed 632 clinical consultations with doctors, including 442 direct clinical observations, and tested 190 vignettes.ResultsThe study highlights some positive findings, including the gender balance of health workers overall, the concentration of doctors in rural areas, the high overall reported satisfaction of staff with their work and high motivation, the positive intention to stay in the public sector, the feeling of being well prepared by training for work, the relatively frequent and satisfactory supervisions, and the good attitudes towards patients as identified in observations and vignettes. However, some areas require more investigations and investments. The overall clinical performance of the doctors was very good in terms of attitude and moderate in regard to history taking, health education and treatment. However, the average physical examination performance score was low. Doctors performed better with simulated cases than the real cases in general, which means they have better knowledge and skills than they actually demonstrated. The factors that were significantly associated with the clinical performance of doctors were location of the health facility (urban doctors were better) and consultation time (cases with more consultation time were better). Regression analysis suggests that lack of knowledge was significantly associated with lack of performance, while lack of motivation and equipment were not significant.ConclusionsThe survey provides essential information for workforce planning and for developing training policies and terms and conditions that will attract and retain health workers in rural service. Improving the work environment and performance of doctors working in rural health facilities and ensuring compliance with clinical protocols are two priority areas needed to improve the performance of doctors in Timor-Leste.

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This research has two main objetives: (1) to examine the effect of price, service quality and costumer satisfaction on costumer’s purchasing decision, (2) to test the mediation effects of the costumer satisfaction on the relations between product price and service quality on purchasing decision. Data was collected from 82 insurance company’s costumers using questionnaire, and hypothesis was tested using Smart- PLS 3.0. The findings reveal that (1) price, service quality and costumer satisfaction have direct and significant effect on costumer purchasing decision, (2) costumer satisfaction has an indirect and significant effect on the relationship between service quality and costumer’s purchasing decision, and (3) costumer satisfaction has no significant effect on the relationship between product price and costumer’s purchasing decision. The study enriches the existing empirical studies on product price, service quality, costumer satisfaction and purchasing decision in emerging market. The study also provides practical implications to service industry managers to enhance costumer satisfaction and purchasing decision, ultimately increasing market share and organisation profits by considering service quality and product price.

The objectives of this research are to test and explain the influence of product quality and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty, in addition to customer satisfaction on the relationship between product quality and customer loyalty. A total of 190 valid questionnaires were collected from costumers of Bamboo Institute in Dili, Timor-Leste, and the relationships between 3 variables were tested using SMART-PLS 3.0. The result of the study revealed that product quality and customer satisfaction influence positively and significantly on customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction fully mediate the relationship between product quality and customer loyalty. The result of study confirms that product quality and customer satisfaction are strong antecedent factors for customer loyalty. Therefore, to enhance customer loyalty, it is important to provide the product quality that meets the customer’s satisfaction level.

This research aims to test the influence of price and product quality on customers’ purchasing decision. To this, 105 respondents were used to fill up the questionnaires, Smart-PLS 3.0 was used to analyze and test the hypothesis. The results showed that product price influenced positively and significantly on customers’ purchasing decision, while product quality did not. This research enriches the empirical study on price, product quality, and the customer purchasing decision. At the practical level, the result revealed that corporates should emphasis developing and delivering products meeting the needs of customers in price sensitive market in order to stimulate customer’s purchasing decision and enhance corporate’s market share.

This study aims to analyse the impact of credit risk and interest rates on the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Dili, Timor-Leste. This study used quantitative questionnaire-based method with a sample of 171 SMEs in Dili, Timor-Leste. Data analysis was conducted using multiple regressions with hypothesis test using t and f values. The results show a positive and significant relationship for credit risk and interest rate on SMEs growth in Dili, Timor-Leste. The result shows that when banks and financial institutions implement credit risk effectively, company growth is increased. On the other hand, the interest rate did not have any impact on the growth of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMC). This may be because small and medium enterprises (SMEs) do not pay attention to the Bank interest rate when they ask for credit.

Service quality, price, customer satisfaction and word of mouth (WOM) appear to be the most important variables in today’s business market, and many researchers have focused their attentions on their relationships. This research aims to test the influence of service quality and price to customer satisfaction and WOM, as well as the mediation effect of customer satisfaction in the relationship between service quality and price with WOM. Using accidental sample method, this study collects data from 315 respondents from Timor-Leste Electricity, State-owned Entreprise namely Eletricidade de Timor Leste, Empresa Publica (EDTL.EP) customers who are based in Dili Municipality, and tests hypothesis using SMART-PLS 3.0. Result shows that relationship between both service quality, price, customer satisfaction and WOM have positive and significant effect. This study contributes to the extensive discussions related to service quality, price, customer satisfaction and WOM in different industries. It is also expected to contribute to the improvement EDTL.EP management to provide better service quality and meet customers’ expectation to encourage more positive recommendations to other customers via WOM.

Price, service quality and purchasing decisions are played important roles in tourism market management. Therefore, many empirical studies have been carried out to enhance customer purchasing decisions through price and service quality. Nonetheless, there is a limited number of studies in emerging tourism destinations and marketing. This study aims to analyse the influence of price and service quality on customers’ purchasing decisions. This research was carried out at the Tais Market, Kolmera, Dili. Data was collected by using questionnaires distributed to 395 respondents using accidental sampling technique, and hypotheses were tested using SMART-PLS 3.0. The results showed that both price and service quality have significant impacts on customers’ purchasing decisions. This study enriches the empirical studies on price, service quality and customers’ purchasing decisions, particularly in emerging tourism destinations and markets. This study implies that to enhance customers’ purchasing decisions, the Tais Market needs to offer products at a reasonable and fair price as well to keep improving the tangible and intangible services.