Purpose This study aims to investigate the attitude and consciousness of Indian Muslims toward halal and also to indicate the alertness of Muslim students about halal in their daily life. Design/methodology/approach A total of 500 respondents were selected for the study from the State of Andhra Pradesh in India, by stratified random sampling method; of which 300 were general Muslims and 200 were Muslim students. Self-administrated questionnaire and personal interviews were administered to garner the data, which were analyzed with SPSS (version 21.0) and GRETL, and the research hypotheses were tested with Z-test for proportion and Pearson’s chi-square test. Findings A total of 92 and 98 per cent of respondents from the general Muslim community and Muslim students, respectively, agreed that they do not have proper exposure to halal. In addition, 89 per cent of general Muslims believe that the halal concept is very significant to Muslim consumers as against 95 per cent students. A total of 98 and 96 per cent of the selected two classes of respondents, respectively, are intended to know more about halal. Research limitations/implications The respondents in this research were general Muslims and Muslim students from Andhra Pradesh. The results of this research are, therefore, only applicable to the sampled community. Hence, generalization of the findings to the whole Indian Muslim population or to other areas of Muslim communities should be avoided. Practical implications This research results proffer most precious and ingenious information to the corporate sector, Islamic religious organizations and educational institutions specially involved in formal Islamic education. Based on the snowballing trend of Muslim population from the present 250 million to the whopping 340 million by the end of this century, it is an inspired decision to target this lucrative segment which provide alluring profitability particularly food, cosmetics, medicines, etc., with Halal certified products. Specially, Islamic religious organizations also have an enormous onus to enhance the ken of this community on the matters comprehensively germane to Islam in general and about halal and haram in particular. Originality/value This is the first ingenious effort aimed to investigate the attitude and awareness toward halal among general Muslims and Muslim students. This is a pioneering attempt on halal of Indian Muslims which is lucrative for both corporate sector and to the academia.

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PurposeThe main purpose of this research is to know the attitudinal displays of Kazakhstan companies towards corporate social responsibility. Apart from this, the paper also seeks to analyze the opinions of Kazakh employees, customers and the general public about their companies' socially responsible actions.Design/methodology/approachAfter a thorough revision of the relevant literature on corporate social responsibility, through well structured questionnaires and informal personal interviews with 50 Kazakh companies from both manufacturing and service sectors' concerned officials, the study analyzed CSR towards Kazakh owners or shareholders, employees, customers, creditors and suppliers, general public or community at large and government. To cross‐validate, the paper also carried out a separate survey to collect the opinions of 100 employees, 100 customers, and 100 members of the general public. These collected data were analyzed by using SPSS and Microsoft Excel software packages.FindingsKazakhstan companies conveyed a difference of opinion in almost every stakeholder area because of the present day economic crunch. Related to consumers, only 68 percent of companies recognized the provision of effective after‐sales service and 62 percent only promised to extend courteous service. Most importantly, only 58 percent of the Kazakh business community acknowledged following a fair trade policy. Related to the cross‐validation part, a meagre 8.57 percent of employees were not content with companies' policies, 12.86 percent of customers thought they were exploited and another 11.20 percent of the general public were not pleased with the social actions of Kazakh companies.Practical implicationsThe study presents required information relating to Kazakhstan companies about the expectations of different stakeholders regarding revising their existing plans, policies, strategies and programs for maintaining healthy and affable relations.Originality/valueThe research paper provides a strong information base for both Kazakh companies and academicians to understand the various expectations of all the key interest groups in general and employees, customers and the general public in particular.

Purpose -The primary purpose of this paper is to assess and review fixed-line telecom customers' perception of the quality of after-sales services provided by Ethiopian Telecom. Design/methodology/approach -The paper was conducted on telecom customers who are in Addis Ababa using self-administered questionnaires sent to a sample of 450 respondents. In addition to this, interviews were conducted with managers and selected employees to provide supporting data. The data were processed, analyzed and interpreted using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Findings -The results show some degree of customer dissatisfaction, but not to the extent expected. Dissatisfied customers point at lack of clarities of bills and delays in making decisions on complaints as some of the main reasons for their dissatisfactions. Other reasons include telephone interruptions during rainy seasons, old cables and networks, and damaged and stolen cables, which combined, increase the frequency of faults and interruptions. Nearly 40 percent of respondents have negative assessments of the role of employees in delivering good quality after-sales service. Practical implications -Despite the fact that some improvements have been shown in recent reports, Ethiopian Telecom has a long way to go in achieving its objectives with respect to customers' satisfaction. Originality/value -Previous studies on telecommunication in Africa have not focused on service delivery and customer satisfaction. The paper, therefore, contributes to filling a research gap in telecommunication studies in Africa in general and in Ethiopia in particular.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to find an attitude of Ethiopian corporate sector towards corporate social responsibility (CSR). In addition this research analyzed the opinion of employees, customers' as well the general public about the Ethiopian corporate sector's socially responsible actions.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reviewed the relevant literature of CSR. Through structured questionnaires and in‐depth interviews with 50 Ethiopian companies, this study analyzed CSR towards different interest groups, e.g. owners or shareholders, employees, customers, creditors and suppliers, general public or community at large and government. To cross validate, the researcher also conducted a survey with another three questionnaires to obtain the views of 100 employees, 200 customers and another 200 general public. Collected data was analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel software packages.FindingsEthiopian companies expressed 100 percent positive attitude in implementing CSR towards customers, creditors and suppliers, general public and government. However, only 40 percent of companies' were positive on periodical disclosure of information to its shareholders, 80 percent believed in fair wages and security of employment, and 10 percent of companies were negative on meaningful freedom, job satisfaction and humane treatment. Related to the cross validate section, overall 69 percent employees were not happy with companies' policies, 71 percent customers thought they were manipulated and another 75 percent general public were not pleased with CSR from the Ethiopian corporate sector.Originality/valueThis research paper serves as a basis for Ethiopian managers to understand the key interest groups and their expectations from the corporate sector and also to be acquainted with the opinions of employees, customers, and general public to assess the social performance of their organizations.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the spending patterns and buying behaviors of two different age groups of young Kazakhstan consumers. In addition, this research seeks to analyze the importance Kazakh parents give to their children's opinion on purchasing different products.Design/methodology/approach -After a thorough revision of related literature on young consumers, the researchers used two types of questionnaires, and in-depth personal interviews with 400 young Kazakhstan consumers in the 10-14 and 15-18 age groups and 100 Kazakh parents. The collected data were summarized, coded, and controlled by using SPSS 13.0 and Microsoft Excel software packages and analyzed by using frequency distribution. Findings -Sixty-one percent of the 10-14 and 84 percent of the 15-18 age groups of young Kazakhstan consumers receive weekly pocket money of below 250 Kazakh tenge and above 1,000 tenge, respectively, from parents. Related to spending patterns, 78 percent of 10-14 age group children spend 74 percent of their pocket money for entertainment and food as against 50 percent in the 15-18 age groups. The study found that 90 percent of parents in both the age groups took into account the opinions of their children when purchasing different household products and services.Research limitations/implications -The city (Almaty) selected for this study is highly developed culturally, socially and economically when compared with the remaining parts of Kazakhstan.Practical implications -The current study sheds light on the buying behavior of young Kazakh consumers along with parents' opinions and provides useful information for the corporate world when targeting and communicating with young people.Originality/value -The paper offers insights about the complex patterns of youth attitudes in a former Soviet Socialist country which is changing its nature toward a market oriented economy. This is a pioneer work on the buying behaviors of young Kazakh consumers which is additionally useful to the academic world.

The purpose of this study is to explore how small and medium enterprises in India has identified the opportunities and challenges in adopting the Web 3.0 technologies to improve their productivity and efficiency. After an in-depth literature review, researchers framed a semistructured questionnaire with open-ended questions for collecting responses from managers working in 40 Indian SME's representing five key economic sectors. The collected data was analyzed, and themes were encoded using the NVivo 11 computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. Content analysis was used to analyze the data collected with the semi-structured interviews. This study identified five key themes and 12 subthemes illustrating the key advantages and challenges as perceived by the managerial leadership of SMEs. The five key themes identified in this study include integration of data and services, the creation of new functionalities, privacy and security, financial and technological challenges, and organizational challenges. The results of this study will benefit the organizational leadership of SMEs in planning and developing their short-term and long-term information systems strategies and will enable SME leaders to make optimal use of their information technology assets, improving the productivity and competitiveness of the firms. Web 3.0 technologies are considered as emerging technologies, so the advantages and challenges of using these technologies for SMEs have not been explored in the context of emerging economies, such as India.

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