Search results

Career indecision plays a major role in the way students perceive their future career prospects and how they approach these prospects. In addition, career indecision influences career‐related thoughts and decisions, and plays a role in the way students formulate career goals. A convenience sample from honours students in Accounting Sciences, Financial Management, Economics and Marketing was drawn and their levels of career indecision were measured using self‐administered questionnaires. The study demonstrates that differences exist between students whose employment status differs, and those who were studying for different degrees. Consequently, this study has vital implications for groups (such as career counsellors and educational institutions) involved in the career decision‐making processes of university students.

The purpose of this paper, systematic literature review, is twofold: to identify the factors influencing graduate job choice and to propose a theoretical model that can be useful for future research.

Thematic analysis of the literature available till June 2020 has been reviewed using electronic databases such as ABI/INFORM Complete, EBSCO, Emerald Insight, ProQuest, SAGE Journals, Science Direct (Elsevier), Scopus, Springer Link, Taylor and Francis Online, Wiley Online Library.

Out of more than 5,000 studies, 14 studies were found addressing the issue of career choice among graduating students. The thematic analysis result explored five themes such as internal factors, external factors, interpersonal factors, institutional factors and socio-demographic factors that can be considered critical for graduates’ career choice decision. Details of the subthemes are also identified.

Implications for practitioners have been suggested from the internal factors, external factors, interpersonal factors, institutional factors and socio-demographic factors’ perspectives. The study result can be useful for conducting future research using quantitative data on graduate job choice.

This is the first attempt to present a comprehensive picture of past studies on graduate job choice and exploring the factors influencing graduate job choice.

This study examines the causal relationship between exports and economic growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries during the period 1980 to 2017. The study also examines whether the causality between these two macroeconomic variables depends on the countries' stage of development as proxied by their per capita income.

The study uses a panel cointegration test and panel Granger-causality model to examine the link between exports and growth. The study also incorporates external debt as an intermittent variable in a bivariate setting between exports and economic growth, thereby creating a dynamic multivariate panel Granger-causality model.

Although the study found the existence of a long-run relationship between exports and economic growth, the study failed to find any export-led growth response in both low-income and middle-income countries. Instead, the study found evidence of a bidirectional causality and a neutrality response in middle-income and low-income countries, respectively. The study, therefore, concludes that the benefits of an export-led growth hypothesis may have been oversold, and that the strategy may not be desirable to some low-income developing countries.

These findings have important policy implications as they indicate that the causality between exports and economic growth in SSA countries varies with the countries' stage of development. Consistent with the contemporary literature, the study cautions low-income SSA countries against over-relying on an export-led growth strategy to achieve a sustained growth path as no causality between exports and economic growth has been found to exist in those countries. Instead, such countries should consider pursuing new growth strategies by building the domestic demand side of their economies alongside their export promotion strategies in order to expand the real sector of their economies. For middle-income countries, the study recommends that both export promotion strategies and pro-growth policies should be intensified as economic growth and exports have been found to reinforce each other in those countries.

Unlike the previous studies, the current study disaggregated the full sample of SSA countries into two subsets – one comprising of low-income countries and the other consisting of middle-income countries. In addition, the study uses a multivariate Granger-causality model in order to address the emission-of-variable bias. To our knowledge, this may be the first study of its kind in recent years to examine in detail the causal relationship between exports and economic growth in SSA countries using an ECM-based multivariate panel Granger-causality model.

本研究旨在探討在1980年至2017年期間撒哈拉以南非洲國家的出口、與其經濟增長之間的因果關係，亦探討這兩個宏觀經濟變量之間的因果關係、會否取決於有關國家所處以人均收入來衡量的發展階段。

本研究雖然發現出口與經濟增長存有一個長期性關係，唯未能於低收入國家或中等收入國家、找到任何出口帶動的增長反應。研究反而找到證據，證實中等收入國家為一雙向性因果關係反應，而低收入國家則為一中立性反應。因此，研究的結論是：出口必能帶動經濟增長這假設被過度吹噓，而且，對部份低收入發展中國家而言，實施以出口帶動經濟增長的策略或許是沒有用的。

本研究的結果在政策方面有其重要意義。這是因為研究結果顯示、於撒哈拉以南非洲國家、出口與經濟增長之間的因果關係，會因有關國家所處的發展階段而有所變更。與當代文獻一樣，本研究提醒低收入的撒哈拉以南非洲國家，不要過度依賴以出口帶動增長的策略來謀求踏上持續增長之路，這是因為在這些國家，出口與經濟增長之間的因果關係仍未確立。他們反而應考慮推行新增長經濟策略，方法是在實施推動出口的策略的同時，也要建立其經濟的國內需求面，以擴大其經濟實業部門。就中等收入國家而言，本研究建議他們應增強推動出口的策略及強化促進增長的政策，這是因為在這些國家裏，經濟增長及出口已被證實會互為增強。

有別於過去的研究，本研究把撒哈拉以南非洲國家的整體樣本分解為兩個子集：一個包括低收入國家，另一個則包括中等收入國家。而且、研究使用了多變量面板格蘭傑因果關係模型、以處理遺漏變數偏差的問題。據我們了解，這大概是近年首個同類研究、以基於歐洲共同市場多變量面板格蘭傑因果關係模型、來詳細探討於撒哈拉以南非洲國家、出口與經濟增長之間的因果關係。

Research on consumer innovativeness has been studied in the field of marketing during the past decade, in that it has become critical to firms and businesses introducing new products. Yet as the literature concerning innovativeness in the hospitality sector is extremely limited, the purpose of this study is to better conceptualize and understand innovativeness in the hospitality sector (e.g., hotel, restaurant & bar, food & beverage, and occupational training). Using a qualitative method, personal interviews have been collected in this study from local hospitality managers and data are analyzed by constant comparative analysis. Eight themes emerge from the interview data: (1) novelty seeking, (2) eagerness, (3) vigilance, (4) openness, (5) venturesome, (6) hedonism, (7) value seeking, and (8) social distinctiveness. These intrinsic characteristics capture the concept of innovativeness in a broader range within different perspectives. The resultant data could therefore be utilized in future research to evaluate the level of awareness and use of perceived innovativeness in consumer behavior research and business marketing.

Fashion products such as clothes, accessories, bags and footwear created using 3D printed technology are referred to as 3D printed fashion (3DPF) products. This study investigates consumers' motivation to purchase 3DPF products. In particular, this study adopts a multi-dimensional approach to explore the effects of personality-related traits such as innate, domain-specific and actualized innovativeness, as well as examine the effects of perceptions toward 3D printing technology (3DPT) (i.e. perceived security risk, performance expectancy). Based on the concepts of consumer innovativeness and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), the authors expect the effects of consumers' innovativeness and perception of 3DPT and confirm its significant effects on a positive attitude toward 3DPF products and future purchase intention of 3DPF products.

A quantitative research design (i.e. survey) is utilized to examine the suggested relationships and application of existing theory in this study. All measurement items are adapted from previous literature and use a Likert-scale. The authors examined a total of 326 responses using a series of statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, structural equation modeling and conditional process modeling.

The results of this study confirmed that innate and domain-specific innovativeness are critical antecedents of creating a positive attitude toward using 3DPF products through perceptions toward 3DPT. In addition, 3DPF innovativeness, as actualized innovativeness, was validated to strengthen the relationship between personal innovativeness and attitude, providing evidence that innovation-related traits can predict behaviors. Interestingly, technological innovativeness was not found to be a predictor of perceived security risk. It may be due that 3DPF products are still novel to consumers.

The study participants were people who were interested in technology, not consumers who had prior experience with using 3DPF products. Future studies are encouraged to include consumers who have actually purchased or used 3DPF products.

The findings of this study indicate that consumers' use of new technology is determined by personality and interest in specific product categories. Practitioners may use this information to segment/target consumer groups to introduce a new/unfamiliar product.

The findings of this study contribute to the existing literature on consumer adoption of innovation by combining two approaches, the hierarchy of consumer innovativeness and the UTAUT, in the context of advanced technology adoption behavior.

Investigating the influence of intensive distribution and sales promotion towards customer-based brand equity, repurchase intention and word-of-mouth (WOM) (study on Suzuki car owners in PT Surya Batara Mahkota Wilayah Nusa Tenggara Timur).

The research was conducted in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and the analysis unit was customers of PT. Surya Batara Mahkota NTT (PT SBM NTT) as the owner of the Suzuki car. The population is 1,782 Suzuki car owners who bought their cars from PT SBM NTT, based on data from 2015. The sampling technique is the multi-stage area sampling.

Incentives distribution had significant and positive influence towards brand equity and repurchase intention. Sales promotion had significant and positive influence towards word-of-mouth (WOM), but it did not have influence towards brand equity. Brand equity had significant influence towards repurchase intention and WOM. On the other hand, repurchase intention did not have influence towards WOM.

The originality of this study was that the researchers did not find a previous study that discussed the relationship between intensive distribution and repurchase intention, between sales promotion and WOM and between customer-based brand equity and WOM. Previous studies used different variables as determinants of positive WOM.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the state of the retail sector in Sub-Saharan Africa, to point out the lack of information on some critical issues and to raise some questions about relevant topics for researchers and practitioners in the retail area for the African market.

This paper is comprised of a comprehensive review of the literature and integrates the fragmented body of knowledge on the area of retail internationalisation and food marketing. The gaps in the literature identified here may help to understand the sector better and develop academic research agendas on both the growth of the modern food retail sector and the agribusiness sector in Africa.

Four major topics were identified in the urban agri-food retail business in the African continent: large global retailers in Africa’s food sector; the internationalisation of African food retailers; the procurement practices of international retailers; and, the food-buying behaviour of Africa’s middle class.

This research paper relied heavily on grey literature such as newspapers and unpublished masters’ dissertations and PhD theses. With this material as a context, this paper provides guidance as to how scholars can advance the study of retail internationalisation in Africa, not only through further empirical and conceptual research but also by developing usable prescriptions for agribusiness value-chain actors on the continent.

Zoos are important urban tourism attractions. The challenge for zoos is finding a balance between attracting visitors and enhancing education and conservation management. This research contributes to a greater understanding of the conservation intentions of zoo visitors and how zoos can emphasise conservation management principles sustainably. This study aims to identify the variables that encourage conservation intentions among visitors to a South African zoo.

A destination-based survey was conducted in 2019 at the Johannesburg Zoo, and 445 questionnaires were administered through convenience sampling.

Exploratory factor analyses identified visitors’ conservation awareness because of zoos (pre-conscious, conscious and unconscious), behavioural intentions (advocating and supporting), motives (engagement, edutainment and escapism) and satisfaction (interaction and facility quality, and service and interpretation quality). The behavioural intentions were the dependent variables. Advocating conservation intentions (ACI) is an active role where zoo visitors feel a strong responsibility towards conservation and encourage others to the conservation cause. Supporting conservation intentions (SCI) relates more to loyalty towards visiting the zoo and subsequently supporting conservation. Stepwise linear regression analyses revealed that enhancing ACI relies on SCI, edutainment, conscious awareness, service and interpretation quality and total spending. However, enhancing SCI relies on ACI, interaction and facility quality and the motive, escapism, while engagement revealed a negative relationship.

The results show that zoos can encourage SCI to ACI by using interactive and entertaining interpretations to teach visitors about the zoo’s mandate and the importance of conservation while balancing their need to escape.

This study aims to examine the impact of religiosity on fashion knowledge, consumer-perceived value and patronage intention.

This study applied purposive sampling method. The population size used a minimum number of samples (100) in the WarpPLS analysis. The inferential statistical technique used is structural equation modeling. A tool for analyzing the structural models is the partial least square method.

Religiosity is a consumer belief in religion, which does not generate fashion knowledge so that high and low religiousness cannot increase or decrease fashion knowledge. Consumer confidence in their religion can increase consumer-perceived value of Muslim fashion products. It causes consumers to behave positively toward future behavioral intentions, that is, the patronage intention. Consumer religiosity is not the cause of patronage intention so that the high or low level of religiousness does not increase or decrease in the willingness of consumers to visit the store (or patronage intention). Fashion knowledge has a positive influence on consumer-perceived value. Consumer knowledge of fashion can increase the patronage of consumer intention toward Muslim fashion products. Fashion knowledge brings the knowledge to consumers in regard to Islamic law that regulates the prohibited and allowed actions, especially in wearing fashion. The high or low level of consumer-perceived value does not provide a cause for increase or decrease in the willingness of consumers to revisit the store (or patronage intention).

With regard to the relationship between religiosity and knowledge, it is found that there are still limited studies and differences in the sectors studied regarding the influence of religiosity and knowledge. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the religiosity variable in influencing consumer-perceived value has not been used in previous studies. Religiosity is associated with consumer-perceived value expressed as originality in this study because the researcher has not found this relationship in the previous studies. Regarding the relationship between religiosity and store patronage intention, it is found that there are still different opinions in the research results on the effect of religiosity and store patronage intention. Concerning the relationship between knowledge and consumer-perceived value, it is found that there are still different opinions in the research results on the effect of knowledge and consumer-perceived value. The authors found no use of the knowledge variable in influencing store patronage intention in previous research studies. Knowledge associated with store patronage intention is expressed as the originality trait in this study because the researcher has not found this relationship in the previous studies. As for the relationship between consumer-perceived value and store patronage intention, it is found that there are still different opinions in the research results of the study regarding the influence of consumer-perceived value and store patronage intention.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the customer decision-making journey of high involvement female fashion consumers in the context of omnichannel fashion retailing.

The research is qualitative in nature, using a multi-method approach consisting of focus groups, semi-structured interviews, online diaries and follow-up interviews, with grounded theory applied to analyse the data.

The results of the study include a framework to outline the stages of the omnichannel customer decision-making journey for young high involvement female fashion consumers. The findings also reveal that an omnichannel decision-making journey is the one that predicated on risk and that consumers employ specific strategies to avoid such risks.

Due to the nature of this research, the sample size is limited and may not be generalised. Data collection was confined to Manchester, UK.

Customer journey mapping enables practitioners to view the entire shopping experience through the eyes of the customer and enables retailers' fault-find issues within the customer and brand experience.

The paper advances knowledge about fashion and consumer behaviour. The customer decision journey framework maps the emotional experiences, devices and channels encountered by high-involvement fashion consumers across each stage of the omnichannel journey.