Asia Pacific Journal of Advanced Business and Social Studies

12-23

Authors: Quang Linh Huynh, Nguyen Van Nguyen

Knowledge management is deemed as a consequence of organizational structure and organizational culture. Previous projects have investigated the effects of organizational structure and organizational culture on the knowledge management; but none of them have evaluated the relative importance of organizational structure and organizational culture to the knowledge management. This research attempts to re-examine the relations of knowledge management with organizational structure and organizational culture by using the multiple linear regression. Specifically, it applies the analytic hierarchy procedure to rank the comparative significance between organizational structure and organizational culture to the knowledge management. The data for analyses was obtained from 101 publicly listed firms in the Vietnamese Stock Exchange. The findings provide statistically significant support for the influences of organizational structure and organizational culture on knowledge management and the influential levels are different. This research makes some contributions. For the theoretical aspect, the findings offer new evidence on the relative importance between organizational structure and organizational culture to knowledge management, which is organizational culture more important than organizational structure in boosting the implementation of knowledge management in business. On a practical aspect, the results help business managers with a good decision in adopting knowledge management to different types of organizational structure and organizational culture.

33-43

Authors: Michiko Miyamoto, Satona Shirai

The cosmetics industry market is fiercely competitive in Japan as the number of different products available to consumers is continuously increasing. Since brand awareness helps the customer to buy certain products, cosmetic companies need to focus on their advertisement media. It is generally expensive to advertise, and recently, companies have moved towards new digital media such as the internet, as well as traditional media such as television and print (magazines and newspapers). The decision about which advertisement media to use in order to reach their customers becomes a big issue. This research proposes a framework for an effective advertisement medium by using survey data on Japanese cosmetic product brands. Covariance structure analysis is conducted to measure the relationship between different advertising media and consumers’ purchasing intentions. In addition, advertising media, which is considered to have influenced purchases, is analysed by binomial logistic regression analysis. The research results present effective advertising media for a particular Japanese cosmetic brand.

65-71

Authors: UmutSanem CITCI, OylumSehvez ERGUZEL, Ebru OZEREN

Nowadays,some businesses are able to move their companies from a local to a global level based on the strategies they follow, the principles they develop and the stance they have maintained over time. Internationalization is sometimes long and sometimes short for firms and this causes the emergence of different areas of discussion. Whichever way is pursued, some global firms have the potential to become models for small local entrepreneurs.However, this study claims that small local firms become global corporations by building their own processes due to the conditions they are in. In the study, a case in point to promote a controversial aspect of the claimwas chosen to support the argument.The internationalization process of a Turkish company, Mavi, was discussed by a qualitative research. Mavi’s internalization process was evaluated by success indicators of global firms and try to determine isomorphic and authentic fields.

87-97

Authors: Gregory John Lee, Sumeshin Naidoo

Self-service check in has become a norm for passengers in the worldwide airline industry. However, this broader methodology of check-in is dominated by the use of the internet over other self-service check-in channels such as kiosks and mobile. Check in options such as mobile do, however, remain important to airlines for a variety of reasons. This paper therefore examines some factors involved in the choice to enact mobile check-in within a sample of over 700 South African airline passengers. Notably, we examine whether technological readiness of passengers moderates the relationships between attitude towards mobile check-in and positive response to the experience, as well as adoption of mobile check-in and positive response. These moderation relationships are supported for technological optimism specifically, which when higher is associated with stronger positive relationships between attitudes and responses and adoption and responses. Implications and recommendations are discussed.

108-116

Authors: Waqar Akbar, Sana Riaz, Kashif Arif, Ahson Hayat

Rewards play a vital role to increase satisfaction. To satisfy the employees, there is an important role of non-financial rewards. Though financial rewards are considered to be very effective and is an important form to escalate job satisfaction, non-financial rewards are still overlooked at times. This study measures the impact of non-financial rewards on job satisfaction at workplace in private companies of Pakistan. Data is gathered through SelfAdministrated Questionnaire containing 5 nominal and 12 Likert scale questions from a Sample of 100 employees by convenience sampling technique. The data is analysed through SPSS. Correlation and regression tests are applied to analyze the data. The results reveal that recognition, flexible working arrangement, feedback to employees, freedom, advancement opportunities, promotion, empowerment, competitive work environment and individual reward preference positively impact job satisfaction in the workplace. It would further be suggested that focusing the factors that positively impact job satisfaction would enhance the performance of employee and create a positive work environment which will also help grow the organization’s productivity.

127-134

Authors: Bình Nghiêm-Phú

This study aims to verify the correlation between customers’ evaluation of airport/airline lounge service categories and their intention to recommend the lounge, as well as that between atmospheric/affective and cognitive airport/airline lounge service categories. Using the 2,242 units of data gathered from airlinequality.com, the study confirms the findings of previous research regarding the importance of service quality with customer behavioral intention, and of cognitive service attributes with atmospheric/affective service attribute. Some implications for lounge service management and future studies are drawn from the outcomes of the exploratory and inferential analyses of the data.

146-153

Authors: Ming Fan, Mengmeng Dong

This paper examines the use of GARCH-type models for modelling volatility and explaining relationship between stock market risk and exchange rate risk in CHINA. We use daily data from China Shanghai A Stock Price and Exchange Rate. Various time series methods are employed, including the simple GARCH model, as well as exponential GARCH, threshold GARCH. We find strong evidence that daily returns can be characterised by the above models. For both markets, we conclude that the best model is GARCH (1,1)and the asymmetric effect is not significant. These findings are strongly recommended to financial managers and modellers dealing with international markets.

163-175

Authors: Olivia Barcelona Nasution, Sahid Susilo Nugroho

E-commerce is one of trade forms that is growing rapidly because it reduces the intermediary fees. Thus, consumers pay lower cost. Nevertheless, trust is a problem in ecommerce due to the existence of uncertainty and asymmetry of information. In a research field, experience allegedly strengthens the consumer trust that leads to repurchase intention. However, some studies were carried out to examine the experience in the context of the purchase frequency and duration of internet and website usage. This study examined whether previous consumer transactions experience can strengthen the relationship of trust toward the repurchase intention. This study also examined the dimensions of trust to know which dimension describes the trust in anonline context. This research was conducted in Indonesia, involving 265 respondents who had purchased goods in web mall at least 1 time in the last 6 months. Web mall was selected as the research object because it was considered more stable and constant in executing transactions. This study used Moderated Regression Analysis and proved that the previous consumer transactions experience can strengthen the correlation between trust and repurchase intention. Implication for theory and practice, and the suggestion of future research are discussed on the last part of this paper.

183-200

Authors: Saravanan Raman, Kumareson Darmalingam, Subhaseni Chinniah

The study attempts to investigate the cause of the new product development failure at OSM Malaysia (OSMM). The research identified five prominent variables which cause new product development failure. The Five factors are management style, technical expertise / knowledge, job stress level, project management skill and cross functional team support. This research use both primary and secondary data information to analyze the data findings. A self-administrated questionnaire with 32 questions was given to the respondents. The questionnaire used Likert scale range between 1 to 5 to determine the level or agreement of the respondent to the items listed. Management Style is the most influencing factor that causes the new product development failure in OSMM. While the technical expertise/knowledge shows a positive relationship, it is not statistically significant; hence this independent variable should not be neglected as well. Anyhow the research has also ruled out the job stress level, project management skills and cross functional team support towards the new product development failure as it has a negative direction and the strength of relationship is relatively weak. OSMM new product development failure can be improved if the management team pays attention to the management style which needs to be fine tune to meet current globalization market trends and needs. There are limited journals or researches that are published which have direct relevance to the new product failures in OSMM, other than that experienced delay in receiving the respondents reply to the questionnaire as it was done during working hours and most of employees’ feedback for the delay was due to their workload.

214-222

Authors: Rebeca B. Lima, Júlio F. B. Facó, Ricardo R. Jorge, Alexandre A. de Andrade

In spite of their size, Micro and Small companies are also embedded in a highly competitive and dynamic environment. Hence, investments in innovation can play an important role for them to remain on the market. It is relevant to consider that these companies often face a lot of economic obstacles which include high costs and financial constraints. Regarding this situation, public funding programs can be a crucial alternative so that these companies can be able to invest in innovation. Therefore, this research analyzes Small Businesses with a focus on the Brazilian scenario, in order to better know the companies of their companies and their general characteristics. Moreover, the relationship of the theme with an innovation and those from the influence of business enterprises and public policies for innovation were evaluated for a policy of Science Technology and Innovation in Brazil and also highlight some types of clusters. This study analyzes government financial programs, which focus on innovation, regarding Micro and Small Enterprises in Brazil. In order to get acquainted with the innovation process from the arrangements and verify how they have been accessing and using the analyzed financial programs, this work also contains a survey including four Productive Companies of industries located at ABC region from São Paulo, Brazil. This lecture intends to show the impact and results that lack of appropriate financing resources and knowledge, along with high costs, they may have in the innovation process and growth of the examined companies.

235-240

Authors: Vehbi Miftari, Bedri Statovci

The Business Leadership Communication is undergoing rapid changes. The use of New Social Media has provided new opportunities for enterprises. The number of research-based reports in this field in Kosovo has been very limited. In these researches, the forms of ecommunicationhave been explored and the use of social media has been mentioned, but there is no specific evidence on the level of its usage and possible impacts in the Leadership Communication. Therefore, the purpose of this study is: (1) to explore the most effective written communication mediums; (2) to show how social media can change the leadership communication inside the medium-sized enterprises and (3) to reveal whether ecommunication strategy has been established. The research methodology includes a survey; the instrument used is a questionnaire which has been delivered in persona to the leaders of 25 ME’s of Kosovo and 230 employees. The quantitative data are analyzed via using the statistical software STATA. This study measures the impact of the use of new social media in official communication of the leadership in SME-s. The findings are sent to ME’s, in Kosovo or EU partners and will be appealing for leaders of the small and medium enterprises (ME’s) as well as the researchers in Business Communication.

252-262

Authors: Dr. Hassen Altalhi

This study measures the level of agility of higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia using descriptive statistical methods. A correlation analysis was carried out based on data gathered through a survey consisting of 19 items and 116 participants. The study reveals a significant petition for increasing organizational quickness to take swift action towards positive change. There is positive and significant correlation exists among the different factors presented. The hypotheses framed were found true and hence the respondents of this study are ready to accept, test and implement the changes in the organization.

274-282

Authors: Dr. Latifeh Salamatbavil

Culture is basically one of the expanded and more complicated issues in human life raised from the interaction between human, nature and the evolution of social concept. Folklore is considered one of the building blocks of culture including: traditions, customs, ethics, celebrations, habits, literature, arts, etc. The folklore of every society indicates the thoughts, ideals, cultural values and moral principles all around the world. Moreover, it is directed into a better recognition of different nations. From the beginning of the 19th century, the scientific studies of folklore scientifically started which examined the beliefs, verbal literature and the behaviours of people considered so as to identify social realities. The current essay is based on a descriptive-analytical method presenting some of the folkloric elements. It is concluded that getting acquainted with the folklore of different societies is led into recognizing their social facts. Holistically, attempting to comprehend the folkloric concepts of certain societies can make nations get closer to one another.

291-299

Authors: A. Sugeenthiran, Anushiya Sireeranhan

Food consumption patterns of Sri Lankan citizens are changing drastically towards fast and junk foods within the last decade. As a consequence of adverse food intake, Sri Lankan population has undergone the risk of obesity, raised blood pressure, raised blood sugar level and deposition of bad cholesterol. Labels not only aid consumer choices, but they also guide him to healthy living by avoiding adverse intake. Now a days, many fast food restaurants and supermarkets sell modern sophisticated foods rushed into Jaffna and consumers are also attracted towards such places. The objective of this study is to identify the sociodemographic features and individual behaviors that influence the food label usage and to identify the consumer groups in order to find out the market for food labeling. A total of 158 respondents were interviewed in Valikamam DS division for this survey. In order to identify the key determinants of whether an individual reads food labels when buying a familiar product, 15 explanatory variables were analysed using logistic regression. Therefore, the study concludes that the determinants that influence whether an individual reads food labels when buying familiar product. These include Special dietary status, marital status, whether an individual reads nutrition panel of familiar product and if the household income group earns less than 250000/=annually when other income group earn above or equal 400000/= annually. Among them, married and those who are not reading nutritional labels on familiar products have negative significant impacts.

310-314

Authors: Apiwit Tansoo, Khwanruedee Tuntrabundit

The purpose of this research was to demonstrate the components and processes to adopt organizational innovations and results by literatures analyzed and collected data through interviews with the 7 best entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprise from SMEs National Award. By results, there are four components of organizational innovation; Human resource management, Organization structure management, Leadership and Organizational management. The processes are to implement organizational innovation in order to actualize the initial vision of trends and business analysis which is the fundamental basis. Then, targets will be set and organizational innovations will be adopted. Brainstorming was implemented to resolve problems, and ways of implementation stages are from the result which found that operational performance, employee encouragement, and organizational performance increased after used organizational innovation. Moreover, entrepreneurs can use researched results to develop organizational innovation in their organizations for achieving their goals and sustainable development. Furthermore, researched results were used to develop questionnaires to measure components of organizational innovation obviously.

333-339

Authors: Ratna Permata Sari

Smog problems from forest fireshappened in Indonesia almost every year during the dry season. The case of forest fire in 2015 is one of the biggest forest fire in Indonesia which brought big impacts for health of human, enviroment and social aspects. In health aspect, the smog caused the limited visibility, and serious health problems such as respiratory diseases. It needs huge social awareness and participation from the government and society to help the victims of smog. With this situation, volunteers from TurunTanganused online news portals, such as www.bebasasap.org that aimed to spread the latest information from smog area. From that background, researchers were interested in studying about communication patterns in the BebasAsap community in their spread of information and raising donations to fulfill the need of victim smog disaster. Communication pattern in this virtual community delivered three approaches: (1) Analysis of interation among core members of BebasAsap community with external parties very intense. (2). The hierarchy of communication in this community used two ways, horizontal and diagonal communication. (3). This social community, especially in core members of bebasasap community, used all channel communication network structures because all of the core members have the same position and power in decision making based on their own job description.

352-362

Authors: Cynthia Ayu Manggarani,Basu Swastha Dharmmesta

This research is conducted based on marketer’s concern about whether new products offered by a company would be acceptable by its existing customers or not. These concerns arise since generally consumers tend to doubt the quality of a new product which is not obvious. Despite the overabundant and saturating advertising in todays’ market, this research tries to prove that advertising is still considered effective in strengthening consumers’ intention to try a new product offered by a particular company. The most popular skin clinic in Indonesia named Natasha Skin Care was chosen to be the object of this research. The topic in this research is then discussed based on Theory of Trying developed by Bagozzi and Warshaw (1990), a theory that is still quite under-researched compared to the previous theory explaining human actions such as Theory of Planned Behavior. By using the theory, consumer’s motivation to achieve a specific goal will be tested simultaneously with attitude towards advertising in order to see their effects on attitude towards trying and their intention to buy the new products.Samples are 614 customers of Natasha Skin Care who have been using Natasha products, other than the new hair products, for at least 6 months. Results show that customers would have the intention to buy the new product if only they have a strong motivation to achieve a particular goal, in this case, try to get a good hair. In fact, advertising also becomes an important determinant to strengthen consumers’ attitude toward trying a new product offered by the company, and also strengthening their intention to try. Recommendations from the study are that the content of advertising should be emphasized on elevating consumers’ willingness to achieve a particular goal, and encouraging the consumers to think that the goal would be crucial for them in the future.

371-384

Authors: Roxane Coche, Matthew J. Haught

Four men’s sports largely dominate the U.S. sports industry. The National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Hockey League (NHL) combined brought in about $31 billion in revenue in 2016, placing them all in the top 5 leagues with the most revenue worldwide (Kutz, 2017). But, other leagues now have a chance of finding their own audiences through online media. Indeed, social networks allow leagues and teams to communicate directly with their target audience without the need for traditional media. As such, social media plays an increasingly important role as sports marketers use them for various purposes, including promotions (Hambrick and Mahoney, 2011), public relations (Waters et al., 2011) and endorsements (Brisonet al., 2013). The possibility of building an online community has become a key strategy for sports brands and organizations to develop greater loyalty. Using a grounded theory approach, the proposed study employs a digital participant observation, following the netnography (Kozinets, 2002; Muniz and Schau, 2007) process, of how the National Women’s Hockey League’s four teams used Twitter during their first and second seasons. Modeled on the ethnographic method, a netnography requires the researcher to study an online community over an extended period of time, identifying the field and taking notes to then analyze the data. This study seeks to answer how new (minor) sports organizations use social media to build brand communities and what types of messages build fan engagement. This study furthers social media research by exploring how communities are established online — an essential part of advertising, public relations, and marketing. It will help social media practitioners, particularly those in niche markets, including those involved in sports competing with “the Big Four,” as they build and maintain social relationships online.

393-401

Authors: Anna Cornelia Beyer

A combination of Psychology with International Relations yields important results and ideas for improving the international world. This chapter proposes to establish International Political Psychology as a discipline with the purpose of harvesting ideas, theories and concepts that derive out of a combination of the above disciplines.