Abdul Rahman Zahari and Elinda Esa
The purpose of this study is to determine whether COVID-19 had an impact on the brand equity of the Top 100 global brands in the Americas, European and Asian regions over the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine whether COVID-19 had an impact on the brand equity of the Top 100 global brands in the Americas, European and Asian regions over the three years of assessment (2020–2022).
Design/methodology/approach
A secondary data method (document scanning) was used to gather the study’s data from Brand Finance’s Global 500 annual reports from 2019 to 2022. The data for this study was analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0. The data were subjected to a descriptive test and one-way analysis of variance.
Findings
The findings showed that most of the Top 100 global brands from the Americas, Europe and Asia experienced little or no impact due to COVID-19. Thus, no significant differences were found to exist among the Top 100 global regional brands due to COVID-19 in the years 2020 and 2021. However, there is a significant difference in 2022 due to its small effect size.
Originality/value
The findings of this paper contribute to brand equity literature and global branding literature in the context of COVID-19. This paper innovatively frames brand equity and provides guidelines to help brands sustain their financial-based brand equity during a worldwide crisis.
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Abdul Rahman Zahari and Elinda Esa
This paper aims to investigate the drivers and inhibitors of the adoption of renewable energy by residential users. Based on the theoretical framework of consumer decision-making…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the drivers and inhibitors of the adoption of renewable energy by residential users. Based on the theoretical framework of consumer decision-making behaviour, an empirical study of the adoption of renewable energy in Malaysia was conducted.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 501 residential users from the Klang Valley participated in this study. The data were analysed using partial least square (PLS) with Smart PLS 3.0 software.
Findings
The results indicated that the perceived utility of new technology, perceived utility of renewable energy and the perceived benefit of new technology were seen as the drivers of the adoption of renewable energy. At the same time, two inhibitor constructs, namely, perceived risk and perceived no need, were not seen to create a negative connection relating to the adoption of renewable energy. By contrast, as hypothesized, the perceived expense was the only factor that negatively correlated with the intentions to adopt renewable energy. To foster the intention to adopt renewable energy by residential users, more effort should be expended on capitalizing on the constructs of perceived benefits of new technology and the perceived utility of this new technology.
Originality/value
The current study contributes to the use of renewable energy in the country and indirectly to global renewable energy strategies.
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Reezlin Abdul Rahman, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah and Mohd Nor Mamat
The available research works dealing with Halal food are centrally concerned with the Halal certification, logistics, export market, consumer awareness and business ethics with…
Abstract
Purpose
The available research works dealing with Halal food are centrally concerned with the Halal certification, logistics, export market, consumer awareness and business ethics with minimal study explores Muslim consumers’ purchase behaviour of Syubhah semi-processed food. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between Muslim consumers’ knowledge on the wholesomeness, labelling, trust and purchase behaviour of Syubhah semi-processed food.
Design/methodology/approach
The study respondents are Muslim consumers in the semi and rural areas. Through a self-administered survey, 780 usable responses were successfully collected. The study hypotheses were analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling. Mediation analyses were conducted, focusing on the effect of trust on the relationship between consumer knowledge on the wholesomeness, labelling and purchase behaviour of Syubhah semi-processed food.
Findings
This study confirms that lack of knowledge on the wholesomeness and labelling among the semi and rural Muslim consumers influences them to purchase the Syubhah semi-processed food. Trust significantly plays a significant mediation role on the consumer Syubhah semi-processed food purchase behaviour.
Originality/value
This study confirms there is lack of knowledge among the semi and rural Muslim consumers on Syubhah semi-processed food. Such pessimistic indications of Syubhah food products carry varying consequences and implications for Muslim consumers, Halal food producers and the relevant religious authorities.
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Baizuri Baharum, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah and Muhammad A’rif Aizat Bashir
The importance of shopping streets has long been considered a critical aspect of urban tourism. However, limited exploration focuses on the supply side, especially from the tour…
Abstract
Purpose
The importance of shopping streets has long been considered a critical aspect of urban tourism. However, limited exploration focuses on the supply side, especially from the tour operator’s (TO) perspective. This paper aims to investigate TOs’ perceptions and attitudes towards packaging Tuanku Abdul Rahman Street (TARS) as an urban shopping spot in Kuala Lumpur.
Design/methodology/approach
Study data is gathered through qualitative in-depth interviews among 25 TO managers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The coding process was done manually, followed by qualitative data analysis using ATLAS.ti version 8 software.
Findings
The results show that the TOs regarded TARS as a must-visit shopping spot for international tourists. They argue that TARS’s competitiveness as a shopping street depends on the supporting infrastructure and safe environment, which are currently neglected by the relevant authorities and jeopardise the sustainability of TARS as a must-visit shopping street in the future.
Practical implications
This study’s findings generate value-added information on the potential of shopping tourism and TARS as must-visit shopping streets in Malaysia. On the other hand, the TOs’ concern about the lack of supporting infrastructure and unsafe environment generates varying consequences and implications for the individual TOs, tourism policymakers and government-related authorities.
Originality/value
This study offers new insight for urban tourism policymakers, managers and entrepreneurs to capture the attributes of a vibrant shopping street. There is exclusive potential for local tourism operators to take greater responsibility in shopping tourism planning processes and management operations through trustworthy planning partnerships among respective tourism stakeholders related to the shopping street domain.
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Abdul Raheem Jasim Mohammed, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah and Abdul Rais Abdul Rahman
This paper aims to investigate the relationships between travel satisfaction, commitment and revisits intention among the UAE international tourists as well as the moderating…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the relationships between travel satisfaction, commitment and revisits intention among the UAE international tourists as well as the moderating effect of environmental turbulence.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the quantitative approach, the experience of individual foreign tourists who travelled to three UAE major cities, namely, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah, were probed. Through a drop-off and collect approach survey, 413 usable questionnaires were successfully collected and analysed.
Findings
The results of multiple regression path analysis confirm tourist satisfaction towards UAE tourism product and services influences their travel commitment and boosts tourist revisit intention behaviour. This paper also demonstrates how the Arab environmental turbulence moderates tourist satisfaction’s effect on revisit intention adversely.
Originality/value
This study offers valuable input to the UAE’s tourism governing bodies and industry practitioners. While continuously boosting the quality of tourism products and services, they also need to curb the effect of environmental turbulence as it would discourage tourists from revisiting UAE in the future.
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Sharon Wilson, Nor Azlili Hassan, Kheng Kia Khor, Santhidran Sinnappan, Afi Roshezry Abu Bakar and Soon Aun Tan
Scams are indeed malicious attempts to influence people and can take many forms, including online scams. With the increasing availability of technology, scammers have more tools…
Abstract
Purpose
Scams are indeed malicious attempts to influence people and can take many forms, including online scams. With the increasing availability of technology, scammers have more tools at their disposal to create convincing and sophisticated communications that appear to come from legitimate sources, such as emails, text messages or social media posts. These scams can be designed to trick individuals into clicking on malicious links, downloading malware or ransomware or providing sensitive information such as login information, financial information or personal details. Scammers often use social engineering techniques to persuade their targets to take specific actions, such as creating a sense of urgency, offering a reward or prize or posing as a trusted authority. These tactics can be highly effective, particularly if the target is unaware of the warning signs of a scam or is unfamiliar with how to protect themselves from online fraud. This paper aims to explore the extent and nature of this problem and evokes the concern that the general public is vulnerable and susceptible to scams if they are not resilient and aware. This paper also explores why victims fall for online scams and uncovers preventive measures to enable a direction in tacitly strategizing ways to create more impactful and effective awareness campaigns.
Design/methodology/approach
This study explores these aspects through a holistic qualitative approach. Using in-depth interview techniques with six victims, six non-victims, four law enforcement officers, four scammers and seven stakeholders from various agencies such as banks, telecommunication agencies and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission involved in combating the issue of scams.
Findings
The findings generally revealed that participants who were victims of scams felt Malaysians were susceptible to scams, easily fooled and had a nonchalant attitude. Most participants also highlighted that public safety is important for ensuring a high quality of life for citizens that should work closely between the government and non-government agencies, including effective law enforcement and crime prevention strategies.
Originality/value
The uniqueness of this study is the feedback from scammers themselves and their input towards authority and victims. Overall, the respondents provide their views drawing strength from the ever-changing technological background as well as the susceptibility of security features and vulnerability of human engagement.
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Muhammad Nur Amier Zanzaizman, Siti Nur Syazaratul Syafiqah Sheikh Mohamed Safri and Muhammad Safuan Abdul Latip
The purpose of this study is to identify the consumption intention of Baba Nyonya Peranakan ethnic food among the youth generation by examining the effect of media influence and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify the consumption intention of Baba Nyonya Peranakan ethnic food among the youth generation by examining the effect of media influence and curiosity.
Design/methodology/approach
A causal study through the quantitative method is applied. This study focused on the youth generation, and a total of 219 valid responses were used for hypothesis testing using Statistical Package for Social Sciences and SmartPLS software. Purposive sampling, under non-probability sampling, was used. The data were collected through an online survey. The survey link was disseminated mainly on social media groups.
Findings
All of the hypotheses were found to be statistically significant. Media influence was found to directly and indirectly influence the consumption intention of Baba Nyonya ethnic food through attitude and curiosity. The involved stakeholders could also be more alert and improve the strategic planning based on the research finding that can stimulate more interest among consumers, benefiting the national gastronomy heritage tourism development.
Originality/value
The integration of biculturalism is rooted in knowledge about food, media coverage about food and food for social events that influence the formation of national food identity. Baba Nyonya food brings a unique identity with mixed heritage and culture, combined ingredients and recipes between two majority races of Malay and Chinese. However, exposure to ethnic food is lacking and causes the youth generation to unaware and not interested to try ethnic food. This study initiates to examine the effect of media influence and curiosity as food promotion via social media potentially to influence and lead to increased consumption of ethnic food.
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Anis Eliyana, Nurul Iman Abdul Jalil, Desynta Rahmawati Gunawan and Andika Setia Pratama
This research seeks to reveal the mediating role of work engagement and affective commitment as individual aspects that have the potential to bridge the effect of empowering…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to reveal the mediating role of work engagement and affective commitment as individual aspects that have the potential to bridge the effect of empowering leadership on the task performance of Correctional Service counselors in Indonesia, especially due to the limited literature on these two aspects in the context of public organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative research was conducted on 350 counselors throughout Indonesia. The data was collected by distributing questionnaires online. The collected data were then analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling to test the seven research hypotheses.
Findings
Empowering leadership significantly strengthens task performance, work engagement and affective commitment. For indirect effects, this study found that affective commitment partially mediates the effect of empowering leadership on task performance. Meanwhile, work engagement failed to act as a mediator because it did not significantly impact strengthening task performance.
Originality/value
Notably, the unexpected result of work engagement's inability to significantly boost task performance deviates from the prevailing trends observed in previous empirical research, thereby adding a novel dimension to the findings of this study.
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Armanurah Mohamad, Azrain Nasyrah Mustapa and Hanissah A. Razak
Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Malaysian economy since they are the largest category of business in the country and as such provide paramount contributions…
Abstract
Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Malaysian economy since they are the largest category of business in the country and as such provide paramount contributions. However, referring to the past studies on SMEs in Malaysia from the year 2001 to the most recent (2020) studies, it was found that SMEs faced various issues, challenges, and hindrances, thus preventing the growth of their operations. Many SMEs also have problems to ensure their sustainability as well as to remain competitive in the market and changing environment. This chapter will provide an overview of SMEs in Malaysia. The discussion begins with the definition of Malaysian SMEs, followed by the contributions of SMEs in Malaysia. The last part is on issues and challenges faced by SMEs entrepreneurs in Malaysia.
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Jian Pei Kong and Sameeha Mohd Jamil
The aim of this study was to determine the levels of satisfaction (food quality, service quality, ambience, price and portion) among postgraduate Health Sciences students on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to determine the levels of satisfaction (food quality, service quality, ambience, price and portion) among postgraduate Health Sciences students on the cafeteria facilities in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Kuala Lumpur Campus. In Malaysia, the total number of postgraduate in higher institution increase from 75,199 in 2007 to 85,236 in 2010, an increment of 12 per cent. The increasing numbers of higher education postgraduates on university campuses has unquestionably raised the expansion of demand for food service availability and quality on campus.
Design/methodology/approach
A self-reported questionnaire was to 86 subjects at Faculty of Health Sciences, UKM, from September to November in 2012.
Findings
The findings showed that ambience and service attributes turned out to be the most dissatisfied attributes. Malay and non-Malay post-graduate Health Science students showed no significant difference on the satisfaction toward the four attributes. Respondents believed that increasing menu variation and introducing franchise outlet were the two supplementary factors that may increase satisfaction level.
Research limitations/implications
The major drawback of this study is the inability to generalize findings to the students’ satisfaction toward UKM KL food service because data of the current study were only assessing postgraduate students.
Originality/value
The points developed from this study clearly indicate the level of satisfaction among postgraduate Health Science student against food service system in one of the famous research university in Malaysia, UKM.