Business Excellence and Management

7

Authors: Saurav KUMAR

Branding and consumer buying behaviour are positively correlated (Muhammad & Iqbal, 2014). Emotional loyalty is considered as optimistically influencing emotional brands towards customers (Jawahar & Maheswari, 2009). The value premium generation of the brand and effusion do get effected by the association of parent brand and brand extension. Concluded value trade off experienced from the parent brand is discovered to be effectively connected effusion towards brand extension. Mustafa & Akdogan (2015) admit that customer innovation exists in all segments of market. The article investigates buyers’ excitement and experience relationship sometimes called as customer innovativeness is drawn as an association of value premium generation by the parent brand and effusion towards brand extension.

14

Authors: Faith TINONETSANA, Steve Kayambazinthu MSOSA

The COVID-19 epidemic has affected how consumers work, travel, communicate, and shop, among other things. This study examined significant shifts in consumer behaviour that were induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and assess whether these shifts persist in the post-Covid era or if consumers reverted to their previous behaviour. The study focused on consumer behaviour in the fast-moving consumer goods sector. The study used a qualitative approach. This study utilised purposive sampling to select 15 participants during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and an additional 12 participants after the pandemic. During the peak of COVID-19, online interviews were conducted, while face-to-face interviews took place in the post-pandemic phase. This methodological approach enabled a thorough investigation of consumer behavioural shifts during and after the pandemic. The findings reveal that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a substantial surge in online shopping, driven by health concerns and convenience, but post-COVID, participants reverted to their pre-pandemic shopping habits, emphasising a return to physical stores. Further, in the post-Covid era, consumer behaviour shifted towards greater loyalty and stability, with many individuals reducing the frequency of changing stores or brands compared to the pandemic's peak. The study also reveals a significant shift in consumer behaviour towards valuebased buying during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting a change in consumer attitudes influenced by economic factors and pandemic experiences. The findings reflect changes in consumer attitudes and intentions, demonstrating the applicability of TRA to these shifts. Additionally, the findings highlight the alignment between consumers' attitudes and behaviour, indicating that TRA principles were evident in their shopping decisions. Retailers should adopt a robust omnichannel strategy that integrates both physical and online shopping experiences. Recognising that consumers value the convenience of online shopping but also seek the in-store experience, businesses should provide seamless options for customers to switch between channels. Retailers should adopt an omnichannel approach, seamlessly blending online and in-store shopping experiences. Marketers should focus on affordability, promotions, and trust-building to align with consumers' value-based buying preferences. Future research could investigate deeper into the long-term sustainability of the observed shifts in consumer behaviour towards physical stores, loyalty, stability, and value-based buying. Assess whether these changes persist or evolve over an extended period beyond the immediate post-pandemic era.

16

Authors: Kudzanai CHINOGWЕNYA, Reward UTETE

Although the concept of procurement management has recently garnered attention of researchers, the relationship between strategic procurement practices and organisational performance is still unknown. Thus, study sought to assess the effect of strategic procurement practices on organisational performance within the public sector. However, the study specifically focused on a leading state entity in Zimbabwe. The study adopted a correlational research design and quantitative research approach. The data was collected from a sample of 53 respondents who comprised of head of procurement from state entity subsidiaries situated in different regions of Zimbabwe. The key findings of the study indicated that strategic procurement practices have significant and positive impact on organisational performance at a leading state entity in Zimbabwe. The government should ensure that there is smooth and timeously disbursement of funds to suppliers as this has been identified to be the root cause of strained relationships.

17

Authors: Advera M. Gibe ROCHE, John Nshimba JECKONIAH, Fatihiya Ally MASSAWE

This study investigates the impact of small-scale fish business (SSFB) on women's empowerment in Mwanza Region, Tanzania, utilizing a cross-sectional research design. Ilemela and Nyamagana Districts were purposively selected; encompassing wards and fish markets, with 309 respondents sampled using the proportion allocation formula. Data analysis employed the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) and Ordinal regression. Five empowerment indicators were considered: participation in household decision-making, control over permanent assets, women’s economic contribution to the household, freedom of movement, and political autonomy. Results indicated a medium level of empowerment among women in small-scale fish business. Notably, higher empowerment levels were observed in participation in household decision-making and freedom of movement, with medium levels in political autonomy and lower levels in asset control. Ordinal regression revealed that type of marriage, contribution to family income, and access to resources significantly predicted women’s empowerment (p < 0.05). The study concludes that SSFB contributes to moderate empowerment in controlling permanent assets, contributing to household income, and political autonomy. Elevated levels of empowerment are observed in women's participation in household decision-making and freedom of movement. The findings underscore the need for policies challenging gender norms to address gender inequalities comprehensively and promote sustainable women's empowerment across all indicators in the study area.

2

Authors: Ana SCALCĂU

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13

Authors: James Amere OWICH, Jackline Akoth ODERO

The study examined the effect of supplier selection practices on supply chain performance of county referral hospitals in Kenya. Descriptive survey design was utilized. Both stratified random and simple random techniques were used in the selection of 81 respondents. For data collection close ended questionnaires and an interview schedule was used. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics which entailed frequency and percentage and also using inferential statistics whereby simple linear regression was utilized. Findings revealed that supplier selection practices positively and significantly impacted on the supply chain performance. The study concludes that supplier selection practices can be a strategic organizational weapon which may be used to achieve supply chain performance. The study recommends for supply chain managers in county referral hospitals to take into consideration supplier evaluation and supplier certification as aspects of supplier selection as this may enhance supply chain performance.

15

Authors: Ikenna Franklin EZE, Thobekani LOSE

In most nations, small businesses are viewed as vital to economic advancement. These smaller businesses can take advantage of environmental opportunities more effectively than huge corporations since they are more adaptable. Nevertheless, in the course of their activity, they also face numerous challenges. The study aimed to look at the challenges faced by Small businesses in South Africa and the consequences of small business failure within the country. The study also made recommendations on how to sustain these small businesses. This paper was written by employing a descriptive literature review. The descriptive literature review approach is an organised process that seeks out, collects, and evaluates published works in a specific area to identify any discernible patterns or trends. Every SME failure situation ought to be reviewed as a unique case and treated on its merit. Consequently, the success of small businesses would be found in the reverse of these elements, namely, entrepreneur capacity, enterprise competitiveness, and environmental conduciveness.

24

Authors: Willy MALIGANYA, Kenneth M. K. BENGESI

The mining sector in most developing countries including Tanzania has become an important sector for the economy. However, the sector still faces many challenges to realize its full potential. This paper assesses whether mining companies complied with the regulatory framework of the mining sector based on community perspectives in Kahama District. A total of 215 households were sampled for the study based on Bailey’s method using a sampling per cent of 9.3%. Within villages, respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using questionnaire, focus group discussions, observations and document reviews. While content analysis was used to analyse primary qualitative data, factor analysis was employed to reduce variables which were then analyzed to find extent of compliance of large-scale mining companies with regulatory framework for sustainable mining, and documentary review was used to analyse secondary data. The findings show that consultation for views on issues, publication of anticipated effects and benefits in communities were positively attained by the mining companies. However, mining companies’ operations to a large extent have negatively affected the qualities of water, soil, air and use of the available resources within operation areas. The paper concludes that although large mining companies are required in Tanzania, addressing the existing challenges would lead to achieving sustainable mining practices.

5-13

Authors: Omar GARGOURI

This paper is a synthesis of several theoretical works on the pros and cons of digital banking services. The objective is to allow future users of digital banking services to have a clearer idea of the pros that these services can offer. In fact, pros are many: availability, mobility, time saving, ease of access to services, autonomy in the relationship with the bank, reducing banking service prices and increasing interest rates on deposits, online bill payment, knowing about bank products, non-discrimination of technology and environment friendly. As for cons, they include: absence of human contact, complexity, fear of insecurity, no or slow internet connection, limited scope of the services offered, unnecessary letters and notifications and high using costs.

30-44

Authors: Adrian POP

The measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce the health crisis led to the implementation of a new service in current medical practice - telemedicine. In the post-pandemic period, telemedicine continued to be practiced around the world. This is the premise from which this article starts. The proposed goal is to carry out a comparative study between the evolution of telemedicine in Romania and the level of development in the European Union. Achieving the goal required, as a first objective, knowledge of the development of telemedicine in Romania, followed by a comparative analysis with the level of development of telemedicine in the European Union. For the first objective, the method of researching the collectives that have the necessary information for the study was used. A survey was carried out, using as methods for data collection, the method of direct survey research and online research by accessing the websites of institutions responsible for the practice of telemedicine. The comparative study was carried out through a parallel between telemedicine services in the European Union and those in Romania. Through the combined analysis of the results of the two investigations, the opportunities for development and the constraints of the telemedicine sector in Romania were identified.

64-79

Authors: Sandiso NGCOBO, Witness ROYA

The South African Government, through the Department of Transport (DoT), offers financial support to various engineering companies to use in their road construction projects to improve the country’s road infrastructure. However, many road projects allocated to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are not completed on schedule. Communication plan was used as a lens to track essential elements involved in ensuring project success. A probability stratified random sampling method was used to select 34 respondents from the DOT who completed questionnaires as part of this quantitative study. Employees of the DoT’s Finance department in KwaZulu-Natal province were chosen because they were well placed to highlight the communication plan followed and challenges experienced in handling financial contracts and monitoring of such between themselves and the SMEs. On the one hand, the respondents generally claimed to have sound measures to monitor the progress of funded projects and apply appropriate techniques to cope with awarded contracts. On the other hand, they conceded that poor planning and poor communication management were the main challenges facing the department. The study calls for regular, open communication to enhance the success of projects which should be monitored in every phase following clear performance indicators. If problems are identified, a communication strategy to resolve them should be established; this strategy should be evaluated against its objectives.

97-113

Authors: Ajeng Septiana WULANSARI

One of the biggest issues in organization in centuries is problem raised by the relationship between actor inside. This problem called principal-agent problem which explained by principal agent theory (PAT). The emerged new technology disruption called blockchain technology (BCT) receive the challenge to offers the solution for principalagent problem, it claims empirically could reduce or even eliminate the problem, thus lead to lower cost to solved the problem, called agency cost. This technology application wide spread in several sectors, the example is the implementation of Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). DAO is the blockchain based new form of organization, who run based on a smart contract or algorithm run in the computer network. This paper is conceptual paper, we explained about the basic of blockchain, and we analyzed the correlation between blockchain and principal agent theory

5-20

Authors: Tharushika PATHIRANAGE, Ali KHATIBI, Jacquline THAM

Syntheses of existing literature provide a framework for a broader understanding of the relationships among working environment, workload, work life balance and job satisfaction. This empirical study synthesizes the relevant literature pertaining to the impact of working environment and workload on work life balance towards job satisfaction. The focus of this empirical study is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8), which is about "Decent Work and Economic Growth". The empirical study comprised various published sources on working environment, workload, work life balance and job satisfaction, such as journals, periodicals, seminal books, and other published materials. The review focused on the relationships of working environment and workload on work life balance and job satisfaction and their dimensions. After analysis of a wide range of renowned literature, it was found that there are opposing findings in previous research with regard to the study area. Empirical evidences further ascertained that there are very few researches related to the job satisfaction, work-life balance, workload and working environment of university non-academic administrative officers in global context. Moreover, existing literature may not fully cover the associations among said parameters towards job satisfaction. Therefore, understanding the relationships among job satisfaction, work life balance, working environment and workload of university nonacademic administrators can be recognized as a needed research scope.

41-58

Authors: Dragoș DANȚIȘ, Ana Gabriela ANUȚOIU

Latterly the community systems are influenced by disruptive scenarios, in practical terms various factors impacting on the effective running of social processes. Among the actors present in the life cycle of the community processes are enlisted the subjects, with roles in the protection and governance of critical infrastructures. Organizations covering these roles have to act accordingly, gathering information on the background, not only to prevent and mitigate the occurrence of risks, contemporarily to govern the operative behavior of their systems. The information collected can be managed in various modalities, using traditional databases or innovative technologies, like blockchain. Present study puts together some considerations identified in other working papers and practical aspects encountered in the management of information to discuss on requirements and proposals. Furthermore contains a high level assessment among the two existing options for particular critical infrastructures in the administration of the information, traditional databases and blockchain.

77-95

Authors: Atupakisye S. Kalinga

The Covid 19 was declared a pandemic by World Health Organization on March, 2020 a situation that drew attention among the world communities. In Tanzania the first case was reported on 16th March, 2020 in Arusha Region and few weeks later other cases were reported in other regions which made the whole country to be devastated. Following the declaration of Covid 19 in Tanzania different social services were closed that led to a decline in demand of various commodities. This situation threatened the livelihoods of various individuals and groups of people including petty traders. This paper assessed adaptation strategies among petty traders in securing livelihoods at the midst of Covid 19 with the case of Ubungo Municipality, Tanzania. Data were collected through questionnaire, focused group discussion (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs) and field observation. SPSS and Microsoft Excel were used to analyse quantitative data while qualitative data was analysis by content analyse. The findings reveals that selling newly demanded Covid 19 safety and hygienic commodities alongside common consumer goods was one of the most important adaptation strategies among petty traders in Ubungo Municipality. Further, the findings reveals that petty traders faced a number of challenges including health risks, financial problem, decline of customers and drastic fall of prices which threatened the profitability of their business. It is recommended that further scientific studies be directed towards solving constraints faced and investigating the opportunities of Covid 19 pandemic to be utilised for resilient business and sustained livelihoods.

113-125

Authors: Maitha AbdulWahid ALKHAFILI , Afraa Mohammad ALAWADHI

Total quality management specifically the business excellence models have been adopted and accepted worldwide in many different organizations, Likewise, these models’ popularity and acceptance are continuously increasing in UAE and Gulf as well. This study aimed to analyze the quality and business excellence models adopted by the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, and Customs & Port Security (ICP), which is an organization in the public sector and has actively implemented TQM and an excellence model since 2004. The study identified the success, implementation, and possible flaws present in the implementation of the model. This study design was qualitative, based on Semi-structured interviews. A total of 20 interview participants were selected and their interviews were conducted within a month and a half. The results of the interviews showed that the organization faced many challenges and issues in the execution of the business excellence model. Moreover, with proper coordination, Communication, and strategies, they successfully adopted the model and the effort has led to the winning of 70 local and international awards. Business excellence approaches of total quality management are very difficult to implement and frequently result in organizational failure. TQM is complex to incorporate into organizational structures; instead, it may require cultural stimulation, significant change, task rearrangement, managerial responsibility clarification, employee growth, and alignment with an organizational business plan.

8

Authors: Nureni Lawal, Dauda Morakinyo, Lukman Olawoyin, Roseline Ojokuku

Promoting social responsibility through social entrepreneurship has become the key issue in the modern-day business world. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) inclined education has remained the key driver of knowledge required for social entrepreneurship knowledge and skills and its link need x-rayed further. This study therefore examined the implication of ICT on social entrepreneurship education to show the impact it has on social responsibility function of businesses in Lagos state. The study employed survey research design and data was gathered through the primary source with questionnaire circulated 200 respondents purposively selected amongst social entrepreneurially inclined organizations. Pearson Correlation technique was used to analyze responses gathered from the respondents. Findings from the study revealed that introduction of E-learning in the process of skill acquisition and efficient utilization of E-business impact social entrepreneurship at r = 0.886 ≤ 0,005 and r = 0.541 ≤ 0,005 respectively. The study from the forgoing recommends that adequate and effective application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the process of knowledge delivery among social entrepreneurs should be encouraged with a view to improving the standard of living of the populace through increasing social responsibility focus of business organizations.

16

Authors: Yunita Devi Rahmawati, Siwi Dyah Ratnasari

The Corona virus, also known as COVID-19, has had a significant impact on several elements in the period of disruption. Digitization enables businesses, industries, and individuals to share information, ideas, expertise, goods, and services while also transforming the workplace into a digital environment. As a result, a number of organizations downsize in order to increase organizational performance, as well as pay attention to the effectiveness of existing leadership in order to assess an organization's level of performance. The goal of this study was to see how downsizing affects organizational performance in the age of disruption and digitalization, as mediated by leadership effectiveness. The participants in this study were 85 PT. Halliburton Indonesia managers (52 persons) and 33 PT. Halliburton Malaysia managers (33 persons). Respondents were given questionnaires to complete, which were used to gather data for the study. The data was analyzed using Smart PLS. The findings revealed that downsizing had a positive and significant impact on leadership effectiveness, a positive and significant impact on organizational performance, a positive and significant impact on leadership effectiveness, and a positive and significant impact on organizational performance via leadership effectiveness as a mediator.

17

Authors: Yasmin A MOBASHER

Integrated information systems are a fundamental component of companies' activity. The existence of such a system allows a much more correct management of the company's resources, streamlining operations and thus bringing a substantial competitive advantage to those who use it. Health is a vast and complex field in which computerization is useful and necessary in both the public and private areas. In the field of health, hospitals that use such integrated information systems can cover the management of the entire activity, from supply, to the management of patients, staff, tests and procedures or the reporting of diagnoses to insurance companies. The desired end result of the introduction of electronic services in health consists in increasing the quality of services and decreasing the costs of these services, for all those involved: patients, healthcare professionals, medical institutions or insurance companies. This paper aims to analyze the importance of implementing an integrated information system in hospitals from theoretical point of view. It presents the particularities of integrated computer systems for hospitals and it details the components of a hospital integrated system as a useful tool for improving the patient care process and reducing costs in these uncertain times.