Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics

1-39

Authors: Monica Devina, Melia Retno Astrini, Muhammad Irfan Syaebani

Employers in Indonesia must set themselves apart from competitors to attract high quality graduates from university since the competition for talent is so high. Therefore, employer needs to increase the value of company as a good employer by conducting early-recruitment branding strategies. This study aims to examine the impact of employer branding strategies and perceived job attributes of employer image towards organizational prestige and job pursuit intention. This paper also reveals the differences between those variables, which carried out by two oil companies in Indonesia with different characteristics. The one is state-owned oil company, and another one is multinational oil company. The respondents of this study are undergraduate students of Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Indonesia. Using structural equation modeling method, the results show that for state-owned oil company, word of mouth endorsement is the most significant dimension affecting perceived job attributes of employer image. While for multinational oil company, advertising is the most significant dimension affecting perceived job attributes of employer image. Three of four employer image dimensions (working atmosphere, payment attractiveness, and task attractiveness) influence organizational prestige, which in turn influences job pursuit intention for both companies. The paper discusses the implication of the results for academic and company in the oil industry. Research paper

59–93

Authors: Ditimi Amassoma, Ephraim Ikechukwu

The role of human capital development on economic growth cannot be over – emphasized in Nigeria. This is because in the past three decades there had been conflicting opinion of researchers, policy makers and academics concerning the role investment in human capital development play on economic growth of a country. Hence, the reason why this paper is conducted to reappraise the nexus between investment in Human capital development and economic growth in order to ascertain if truly investment in human capital can induce economic growth of Nigeria or not with data spanning between 1970 – 2012 using a Two Stage Least Square and Pairwise Granger Causality methodologies. The variables used in the study were tested for stationarity using the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and Philip Perron (PP) test. The result of the test showed that the variables were stationary at first differencing. The co-integration test was also performed and the result revealed the absence of co-integration between Investment in human capital and economic growth. Furthermore, it was discovered from the results of the TSLS that there exist a positive and statistical significant relationship between PERCAPITA and some explanatory variables (like; HUMANCAP, PUBLIC, and EXCHR) in the first estimated equation. The result also shows that LABFORCE exhibited a negative but significant effect on the level of PERCAPITA income in Nigeria. Similarly, it was equally discovered from the second estimated equation that public expenditure has a positive and significant relationship with investment in human capital. This means that the amount the government spends on human capital development in form enrollment and making schools to be easily accessible to pupils and students has the tendency to foster economic growth in Nigeria. Therefore, the study recommends the need to increase budgetary allocation to the education and health sector and the establishment of sound and well-functioning vocational institute needed to bring about the needed growth in human capital that can stimulate economic growth. In this regard, policy-makers in conjunction with employers and individuals needs up to date information on the real labour market value of different qualifications, in order to help them navigate through the increasingly complex education system and make the strategic kinds of educational investment decisions needed to propel economic growth due to issues associated to labour mis-match. Research paper

130–149

Authors: Ehsan Shahidifar

Today, as firms become more competitive in their fields, the use of strategic insights and management practices are becoming an integral part of the firms' activities- especially for new ventures which are in the early phases of their lifecycle. Indeed, they cannot improve their performance if they do not take advantage of such tools and mechanisms. On the other hand, nascent firms are facing lots of problems due to the lack of appropriate use of strategic insights. One of the main problems is the acceptance of strategic management practices in such companies. Then, in this paper, the authors try to investigate the elements which affect their acceptance. Authors use technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework to examine the hypotheses. Findings reveal that all the factors were influential, other than complexity, vendors' support, firm size, and industry type. Research paper

163–181

Authors: Vishal Soodan, Akhilesh Chandra Pandey

Consumer behavior is always uncertain and rational. The complex black box of consumer is a challenge to the marketers and researchers across the world for its nature and tendency to change within no time. Consumer responses towards different marketing programs cannot be same and hence differ by means of its actions which are emotional and always stated as irrational. There are different emotional chords of consumers targeted by marketers in order to generate sales and managing effectively the marketing program. Present study is an attempt to investigate the role of emotions on FMCG purchases. The study highlighted the relevant emotions in consumer purchases of FMCG products with the help of factor analysis and was conducted in north India to serve the purpose of analyzing the role of emotions in FMCG purchases. Research paper

1-21

Authors: Ridzwan Bakar, Riyad Neman Darwazeh, Wardah Sakinah

There is a growing consensus in the literature that privatization program has positive impact to the country’s productivity and competitiveness. At micro level, empirical analyses both in Malaysian and Jordan have shown the significant contribution of privatization program on firms’ profitability, productivity and better leverage. Generally, privatization leads to better profitability which theoretically should provide higher return to shareholders in terms of dividend as well as higher contribution to stakeholders in terms of zakat to the asnaf (zakat recipients including the poor and needy). However, studies on privatization impact towards zakat and dividend payment are almost absent. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the effect of privatization on zakat and dividend disbursement. This paper focuses on two developing nations namely Malaysia and Jordan. The sample size of this analysis includes 17 Malaysia Government Link Corporations (Top GLC20 companies) and 23 Jordan State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The duration of the study is eleven (11) years from 2003 to 2013. The data were collected from Bloomberg, Amman Stock Exchange and Bursa Malaysia. Using statistical models and Wilcoxon signed rank test, the results show that privatization has contributed to higher payment in terms of dividend to shareholders in both countries. In addition, zakat paid by Malaysian GLCs is steadily increasing and significant. The findings also indicate that global financial crisis 2007-2008 has no impact on corporate zakat payable in Malaysia, while dividend growth is slow during this period. The paper then provides discussion on few pertinent issues and finally suggests the need for new tax and zakat Law in Jordan as well as improvement in current zakat accounting practices in Malaysia. Research paper

45-72

Authors: Ernest Lim Kok Seng, Cho Cho Wai

Numerical studies have been conducted to determine the employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment particularly in the corporates’ settings. There are few studies pertaining to the institutional staff’s job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Therefore, this study seeks to identify the influence of job satisfaction on organizational commitment among the academic and non-academic staff in institute of higher learning. The antecedent selected to identify the organization commitment was staff’s job satisfaction. Questionnaires were constructed and distributed to the academic and non-academic staff of an institute of higher learning. This study identified three important findings namely male staff were more satisfied with their jobs compared to female staff, there was no significant difference between male and female staff on organizational commitment and levels of job satisfaction has significant influence on staff’s organizational commitment. The results showed that staff who were satisfied with their jobs demonstrated higher level of commitment and more unlikely to change their job. Research paper

85–107

Authors: Shiva Shabani

The present research studies the composite technology in construction industry as a platform for entrepreneurial activity. Due to the importance of using composite technology and its important role in job creation, economic growth in construction industry and simultaneously its potential profitability, it shows an untapped market for Iranian entrepreneurs that tend to create added value and active participation of SMEs. Due to the lack of entrepreneurial researches in this context, conducting a research to form a scientific approach in this industry is essential. The research method was a combination of structured and semi-structured interviews and analysis and investigation of environments, needs, obstacles and results of the interviews, a questionnaire was prepared by certified teachers and was answered by a population by 70 experts and engineers. And it became the basis for identifying opportunities in this industry. According to the conducted analyses and investigations and with executions and performance of programs such as "Laws and Regulations", "Standards", "Culturalization", "Notification" ‘’ Quality Raise ", "Costs Reduction", ‘’Books Publication ", " Advertising ", demands for start-up businesses in this regard can be facilitated and identified opportunities cab be analyzed and evaluated. Research paper

128–147

Authors: Naghmeh Khademian

This study indicates the theoretical perspective and examines the relevant literature that supports the significance of leadership style and professional ethics among employees. The methodology for conducting the study was the use of two quantitative questionnaires aimed at determining the relative contribution that task-oriented and relations-oriented styles of leadership have on different dimensions of professional ethical behavior. This study is conducted in a manufacturing company and data were collected from 200 employees working in the cement factory. Firstly, the study revealed the type of leadership in this factory and then examined the relation between the leadership style and ethical behavior. To test the hypothesis structural equations modeling was used. The results showed that simultaneous high relations-oriented and high task-oriented leadership styles (i.e. supportive behavior) have significant effect positively on professional ethics among employees. Research paper