New paper looking at digital government service quality published

Our paper titled "The mediating role of occupational stress: a missing link between organisational intelligence traits and digital government service quality" has been published in the International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management. 

With my PhD student Dr. Subashini Ramakrishnan and my colleagues at Nottingham Malaysia - Dr. Kenny Wong Meng Seng and Dr. Myint Moe Chit.

This paper incorporates the organisational model of stress with public service-dominant logic. The research examines how digital service quality is influenced by today's high-performing public organisation stressors (organisational intelligence traits) and non-technical elements (occupational stress). More importantly, digital government service quality was examined from a less emphasised perspective, namely the supply side or service providers’ standpoint in sustaining the digital government service performance.

This is the summary of this paper:

The study innovatively explores the mediating role of occupational stress between organizational intelligence traits and digital government service quality in Malaysia, emphasizing the significance of specific employee-oriented traits.

Key points:

📊 Respondent Profile: 200 respondents comprised 50.8% males and 49.2% females across various work experience categories.

📈 Hypothesis Testing: The indirect effect of Organizational Intelligence (OI) Traits on Digital Government Service Quality was found significant at different levels via Occupational Stress.

🧠 Focus on Employees: Employee-oriented OI Traits like “Alignment and Congruence” and “Heart” showed significant indirect effects on service quality.

⚖️ Inconsistent Traits: Some OI traits, such as “Shared Fate” and “Performance Pressure,” had an insignificant effect on occupational stress.

📡 Digital Service Quality: The study extends understanding of digital #servicequality beyond technological aspects, emphasizing occupational stress.

🇲🇾 Malaysian Context: The paper stresses the importance of employee-oriented OI traits in the Malaysian public sector, especially for digital service quality.

🆕 Originality and Value: Innovative approach by blending the organizational model of stress with public #servicedominantlogic, focusing on modern public organization stressors.

🧘 Intervention Strategies: Proposes comprehensive strategies at organisation and individual levels to sustain digital service quality without neglecting psychological wellbeing.

Quantitative vs qualitative methods

A popular question I get from many students related to research methodology is whether quantitative methods are better than qualitative ones. This is an ongoing debate and there seems to be a lot of confusion. Here is my opinion. 

First of all, we must understand that the philosophies behind the two approaches are quite different. It is essential to understand the ontological (i.e. the study of being or existence) and epistemological (i.e. study of the way knowledge is obtained) orientation within one’s personal paradigm. That should be the first step.

Most quantitative research follows a Positivist paradigm, where the data collected is believed to be the true measure of reality or representative of the population and aims to produce findings that are generalisable. This contrasts with interpretivism, which mostly applies to the isolated incidents.

According to the hypothetico-deductive methodology, scientific inquiry proceeds by formulating a hypothesis in a form that could be falsified by a test on observable data. However, if you got the hypothesis wrong in the first place, the results will be wrong as well. In other words, "Rubbish in, rubbish out".

In my own field, Marketing, my observation is that currently, the positivist paradigm seems to dominate with most papers published in the top marketing journals following a quantitative methodology. Taking a closer look, research on more traditional issues in consumer behaviour, such as purchase decision making, persuasion, regret and affect, are positivist. While on the other hand, several modern consumer research often uses interpretivist methods that focus on particular consumption experiences and angles of consumer behaviour - sometimes giving totally new insights which might not be possible using a quantitative approach.

As many studies have indicated, the claims of universalism and generalizability used by Positivists can be criticised. For example, no two people are the same - even twins are different in many ways. It can be argued that rich insights into this complex world are lost if such complexity is reduced to a series of law-like generalisations. Sometimes when we do so, we miss the big picture.

In other words, using a quantitative approach is just one way of looking at a problem and may not always give accurate results. In my personal opinion, qualitative methods are not superior to quantitative approaches and vice versa. They may be actually complementary and it is the reason that mixed methods are increasingly becoming popular. 

Note: This is the slightly modified version of my answer which was first posted on Quora. 

Should academic researchers market their papers to create a wider reach?

 This is an updated version of a post I wrote on Quora way back in January 2018.

My answer is always "Yes!"

When I say ‘market’, I would like to point out that I am referring to the academic definition and not the commonly held perception of marketing as "selling". 

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA, 2012):

"Marketing is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large."

According to a study in 2007, half of the academic papers are only read by their authors, referees and journal editors. I guess Academics like me have ourselves to blame. We have tended to focus too much on theoretical contributions and also limit the discussions mostly to the academic community. However, changes in the way our Key Performance Indices (KPIs) are measured have resulted in the way we view research. Most educational institutions of higher learning which have a research focus, now require you to show the “impact” of the research. This impact includes evidence on how the results were circulated on mass media, the implementation by industry or target audiences, etc.

The problem is that many academic are not media savvy and do not really know how to market their research. Moreover, they tend to move on to the next project once they end the previous one. Happy that they have a conference proceeding or two and a journal paper from the research and they move on to the next one. Again this is due to pressure from institutions to churn out research papers regularly to meet KPIs, University rankings and quality certifications.

Coming back to the definition, we can market our research by looking at how we can create value from our research. We also need to be media savvy and should reach out to the general public. Many of us are now active on social media and sharing our research and knowledge with everyone who cares to listen and we are also finding out what people think about our research. Engaging and collaborating with organisations (including NGOs, Governments and Corporates) allows us to fine-tune our research to meet and satisfy specific needs and requirements.

Hopefully, this will increase the reach of our research.

How do some academics publish several papers annually

I received a recent notification from Quora and apparantly my most popular post on the platform was  a post I wrote way back in June 2018 for the question: "How do  some people publish several academic papers a year?" Another discussion on a Facebook page on the same topic reminded me of this old Quora answer and how relevant it still is.

The post is my most popular answer on Quora which has been viewed 79.8K times with 248 upvotes, indicating that this is indeed something that a lot of people and I am guessing mostly academics are interested in or worried about. There were some very interesting comments as well including some which highlighted the dark side.

So here is my updated version of that answer:

I used to ask the same question myself as I was definitely curious how some academics could publish 10 or more papers in a year. Moreover, some Professors manage to do that in some of the toughest-to-get-in, high-impact, top-tier journals.

 I soon realised that my aim of getting at least one journal paper published annually, was simply just not going to cut it. Talking to a few well published professors, looking at how they worked and analysing their papers, I learnt a lot. Here is what I found out - the top 3 lessons:

1.Working Hard:

Yes, you do have to work hard. We are constantly reading, reviewing, discussing and thinking of research ideas. And you keep on writing and writing and submitting. Last year, I submitted more than 20 papers to various journals. Many were desk rejected by the editors, others were rejected by the reviewers, a few went through to the next review rounds. Now this year, I am seeing the fruits of my hard work as I have had several papers published and others accepted for publication.

2. Working Smart

However, besides working hard, you have to work smart as well. I soon realised that a lot of papers by the top professors are with their students, also a number are in association with other academics. You simply cannot do it alone and highlights the importance of having good students researching under you and networking. 

The idea of the lonely professor working alone in his room does not work anymore. Looking the prolific professors, it is clear that they do not do it alone - it is in collaboration with many other authors and of course, with their students. I know of one PhD student who already has 3 publications even before graduation and all papers are with the supervisors.

3. Reading and Reviewing

I also joined the editorial teams of a few journals and am reviewer to several top ranking journals. Reading and reviewing papers of other academics have actually helped me to improve my own submissions and I can see that my success rates are improving over time.

The dark side of academia

Of course there are several criticisms - that we have become paper churning machines, that we are neglecting teaching and learning, and long-term research are often rejected for less impact short-term research. There are increasingly a number of reports indicating that so many academics are suffering from stress and depression because of the requirement to constantly publish papers and not just any paper, but papers in “high ranking journals”. 

Tenureships, increments, promotions all depend on the number of good publications. In fact, in academia, it is our currency. All academics are aware of the phrase “Publish or Perish”. Unfortunately for academics, it is still the major KPI used for evaluating performance, hirings and for promotions in most Universities throughout the World.

Then there is the dark side of academia. We regularly hear of how certain professors have been suspended or fired from their jobs for ethical issues including plagiarism and fudged research findings. Sometimes they go unpunished because it would involve bringing the institution into disrepute. 

Read my original Quora answer here.

Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) 2019 Marketing Journals List

UPDATE: ABDC Marketing Journal Quality List 2022 here. 

This is a long-overdue post. The latest ABDC list was released on 6 December 2019. Marketing journals are listed under Field of research code: 1505.

There are some interesting and exciting developments and a lot of upward movement. I would say that the ABDC list has proven to more inclusive and more advanced as compared to the CABS (UK) list of marketing journals. 

Journal of Consumer Psychology has been promoted to A* and now there are 11 A* journals as compared to 10 in the previous list. 

There are now 38 A journals in the list, an increase from 29 in the previous list.

In the B list, there are now 60 journals as compared to 44 previously.

However, the number of C journals has become smaller, from 61 previously to just 45 in the new list. 

There are a few completely new entries to the list:

Tobacco Control entered directly as a B journal. 

There are also 6 new entries into the list as C journals:

1. Indian Journal of Marketing 
2. International Journal of Healthcare Management
3. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing
4. Journal of Marketing Analytics
5. Journal of Public Relations Education
6. Communication Research and Practice

The new changes are indicated by '*' behind the journal name. 

A* Journals

1. European Journal of Marketing
2. Industrial Marketing Management
3. International Journal of Research in Marketing
4. Journal of Consumer Psychology*
5. Journal of Consumer Research
6. Journal of Marketing
7. Journal of Marketing Research
8. Journal of Retailing
9. Journal of Service Research
10. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
11. Marketing Science

A Journals

1. Appetite
2. Australasian Marketing Journal *
3. Food Quality and Preference
4. Health Promotion International
5. International Journal of Advertising*
6. International Journal of Bank Marketing*
7. International Journal of Consumer Studies
8. International Journal of Market Research*
9. International Journal of Public Opinion Research*
10. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management*
11. International Marketing Review
12. Journal of Advertising
13. Journal of Advertising Research
14. Journal of Brand Management
15. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
16. Journal of Business Research
17. Journal of Consumer Affairs
18. Journal of Consumer Behaviour*
19. Journal of Consumer Marketing*
20. Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management
21. Journal of Interactive Marketing
22. Journal of International Marketing
23. Journal of Macromarketing
24. Journal of Marketing Management
25. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management*
26. Journal of Product & Brand Management*
27. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing
28. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
29. Journal of Service Theory and Practice
30. Journal of Services Marketing
31. Journal of Strategic Marketing
32. Marketing Intelligence & Planning
33. Marketing Letters
34. Marketing Theory
35. Psychology & Marketing
36. Public Relations Review
37. Quantitative Marketing and Economics
38. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics*

B Journals

1. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal
2. Advances in Consumer Research
3. AMS Review*
4. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal
5. Consumption, Markets and Culture
6. Corporate Communications 
7. Customer Needs and Solutions
8. Health Marketing Quarterly
9. International Journal of Emerging Markets*
10. International Journal of Enterprise Network Management
11. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing
12. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences*
13. International Journal of Sports Management and Marketing
14. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship
15. International Journal of Strategic Communication*
16. International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research
17. International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing*
18. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing
19. Journal of Communication Management
20. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior
21. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising*
22. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management
23. Journal of Financial Services Marketing
24. Journal of Food Products Marketing*
25. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing*
26. Journal of Global Marketing*
27. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science*
28. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing*
29. Journal of Interactive Advertising
30. Journal of International Consumer Marketing*
31. Journal of International Food and Agribusiness Marketing*
32. Journal of Islamic Marketing*
33. Journal of Marketing Behaviour
34. Journal of Marketing Channels*
35. Journal of Marketing Communications
36. Journal of Marketing Education
37. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education*
38. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice
39. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing
40. Journal of Political Marketing*
41. Journal of Promotion Management
42. Journal of Public Affairs
43. Journal of Public Relations Research
44. Journal of Relationship Marketing*
45. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing*
46. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship*
47. Journal of Revenue & Pricing Management
48. Journal of Social Marketing
49. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research *
50. PRism
51. Public Relations Inquiry*
52. Qualitative Market Research: an international journal
53. Service Business *
54. Service Industries Journal
55. Services Marketing Quarterly
56. Social Marketing Quarterly*
57. Sport Marketing Quarterly
58. Young Consumers
59. British Food Journal*
60. Tobacco Control* (New entry)

C Journals

1. Advances in International Marketing
2. Advertising & Society Review
3. Arts and the Market (formerly Arts Marketing)
4. Asian Journal of Business Research
5. Asian Journal of Marketing (SING)
6. Canadian Journal of Marketing Research
7. Indian Journal of Marketing * (New Entry)
8. International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
9. International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing
10. International Journal of Healthcare Management* (New Entry)
11. International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising
12. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing* (New Entry)
13. International Journal of Sustainable Design
14. International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development
15. International Journal of Technology Marketing
16. International Journal of Trade and Global Markets
17. Irish Marketing Review
18. Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education (JAME)
19. Journal of Advertising Education
20. Journal of Customer Behavior
21. Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management
22. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing
23. Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing Science
24. Journal of Euromarketing
25. Journal of Food Distribution Research
26. Journal of Hospitality Application and Research
27. Journal of International Marketing and Exporting
28. Journal of International Marketing and Marketing Research
29. Journal of Marketing & Social Research 
30. Journal of Marketing Analytics* (New Entry)
31. Journal of Medical Marketing
32. Journal of Public Relations Education* (New Entry)
33. Journal of Research for Consumers
34. Journal of Selling
35. Journal of Services Research
36. Journal of Sponsorship
37. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing
38. Marketing Bulletin
39. Marketing Education Review
40. Marketing Health Services
41. Research in Consumer Behavior: a research annual
42. Review of Marketing Science
43. Revista Portuguesa de Marketing
44. The Marketing Review
45. Communication Research and Practice* (New Entry)

FASS Research Excellence Award 2019

Was delighted to be recognised by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia for my research contributions for the year 2018. You might be wondering "Why 2018"? Well, it is like the impact factor for journals, we were judged based on our performance in 2018.

I didn't really expect to win but while going through the work I had done last year, I was actually quite surprised I had actually achieved a lot.

This included the completion of a Government-funded project; successful completion of 2 consultancy projects; delivery of 2 guest lectures in 2 public Universities in Malaysia; successful supervision of 8 Masters students; publication of 7 journal papers, an external examiner for 2 PhD theses, reviewed 9 journals and conference proceedings and received an Outstanding contribution in Reviewing award from the journal, Technological forcasting and social change.

New case study book on Management of Shari’ah Compliant Businesses out

The edited case study book titled Management of Shari’ah Compliant Businesses: Case Studies on Creation of Sustainable Value, has been published. This is my fourth edited book and the third from Springer.

I co-edited this book along with Ezlika M. Ghazali, Mamunur Rashid and Jashim U. Ahmed.

The book has 15 case studies with eight cases under Islamic financial management and seven under Islamic marketing and management.

"Muslim consumers represent an untapped and viable market segment, but to date there has been very little research on catering to their needs or running and managing Islamic businesses. Innovations in Islamic business, interest in the use of Sukuk (Islamic bonds) to finance major projects, pressures on Islamic banks to reduce the financing gap in society, and the need to understand Muslim consumers, require a deeper grasp of the issues and opportunities involved, which are quite unique. In similar vein, acquiring expertise on topics specific to Shari'ah-compliant businesses requires a thorough knowledge of matters ranging from financing to branding and, in a broader sense, creating an entrepreneurial framework suitable to the market. This book fills this gap by presenting high-quality and original case studies on Islamic finance, marketing and management from around the world. Equally valuable in business school classrooms and for c-suite strategists, it will help readers shape business strategies to tap into a billion-strong market."

You can now buy the e-book from the Springer site for EUR 53.54.

It is also available on Amazon.com for $70.93

First publication of 2019: Understanding New Religion-Compliant Product Adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic Markets

Just found out that one of my papers, titled "Understanding New Religion-Compliant Product Adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic Markets"  has been published online by the Journal of Global Marketing.

The authors of the paper were: Ali Homaid Al-hajla, Bang Nguyen, T C Melewar, Chanaka Jayawardhena, Ezlika Ghazali & Dilip S. Mutum .

Abstract:

This study examines the relationships between religious beliefs, brand personality, and new religion-compliant product adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic markets. Findings confirm that religious consumers tend to behave in accordance with a society or group that follows the same beliefs, and that these consumers’ behavior and lifestyle are influenced by similar religious groups and social relationships. In addition, the more religious the consumer, the more likely they will adopt or favour/disfavour a new product in accordance with his/her religious beliefs. Finally, the three constructs–relative advantages, compatibility and complexity–are found to partially mediate the influential relationship between religious beliefs and new religion-compliant product adoption. International firms that target Muslim markets, with an aim to profit and fit in these markets, must take into account the Islamic values, standards and guidelines.

Keywords: Religious beliefs, brand personality, new religion-compliant product adoption, Islamic branding, Muslim market

There are 50 free online copies of their article. Use the link below to view and download the paper:

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/MtzrN5BEhsXWuD9kh3fF/full?target=10.1080/08911762.2018.1559907

Year end review post

As the year 2018 draws to a close, I thought I should do a year end review.

This has been a fantastic year:

Two consultancies successfully completed.

Joined the editorial team of International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, as an Associate Editor.

One book review published:

Dilip S. Mutum and Bang Nguyen (2018). Book review: The future of Indian universities: comparative and international perspectives, Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 28(1), 153-154.

One edited book accepted for publication by Springer and coming out early 2019. This would be my 4th edited book:

Management of Shari’ah Compliant Businesses - Case Studies on Creation of Sustainable Value.

Six journal papers published:

1. Ezlika Ghazali, Dilip Mutum and Mei Yuen Woon (2018). Exploring Player Behavior and Motivations to Continue Playing Pokémon GO, Information Technology & People.
2. Butt, M.M., Yingchen, Y., Mohd-Any, A.A., Mutum, D.S., Ting, H. and Khong, K. W. (2018). Antecedents of consumer-based electronic retail brand equity: an integrated model, Asian Academy of Management Journal, 23(2),  69–99. 
3. Ezlika M. Ghazali, Dilip S. Mutum and Nanang Ariswibowo (2018). Impact of Religious Values and Habit on an Extended Green Purchase Behaviour Model, International Journal of Consumer Studies, 42 (6), 639-654. 
4. Ezlika Ghazali, Dilip S. Mutum, Chong Jiu Hui and Bang Nguyen (2018). Do Consumers Want Mobile Commerce? A Closer Look at M-Shopping and Technology Adoption in Malaysia Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics,  30(4), 1064-1086.  
5. Butt, M.; de-Run, E.; U-Din, A.; Mutum, D., (2018). Religious symbolism in Islamic financial service advertisements, Journal of Islamic Marketing  9(2), 384-401. 
6. Mutum, D.S., Ghazali, E.M., Mohd-Any, A.A. and Nguyen, B. (2018). Avoidance of sponsored posts on consumer-generated content: a study of personal blogs, The Bottom Line, 31(1), 76-94.

And finally two journal papers accepted for publication:

Ezlika Ghazali, Dilip Mutum and Mei Yuen Woon (2019, forthcoming). Multiple Sequential Mediation in an Extended Uses and Gratifications Model of Augmented Reality Game Pokémon Go, Internet Research.

Al-hajla, A.H., Nguyen, B., Melewar, T.C., Jayawardhena, C., Mutum, D.  and Ghazali, E. (2019, forthcoming). Understanding the adoption of new religion-compliant products (NRCP) in Islamic markets. Journal of Global Marketing.

Wishing all visitors to my blog a very Happy, Prosperous and Healthy New Year, 2019.

Joined the International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management editorial team

Just wanted to share with all my readers.

I have been appointed as Associate Editor for the International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management.

Published by Emerald, the journal is listed in the Australian Business Dean's Council list (C) as well as the Chartered Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Guide 2015 (1) under Finance.

It is also listed in Scorpus and in the Emerging Sources Citation Index.

To submit to this journal, please visit the Author Guidelines page.

Marketing our research papers

I am an active member on Quora.com and I saw a very interesting question: "Do you think academic researchers should market their papers to create wider reach for the work?"

I wanted to share it with the audience on my blog as well. I have edited the answer a bit.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA, 2012) marketing refers to: 

"the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large."

According to a study in 2007, half of academic papers are read only by their authors, referees and journal editors. I guess we academics have ourselves to blame as we tend to focus largely on the theoretical contributions and also limit the discussions mostly within the academic community.

However, changes in the way our Key Performance Indices (KPIs) are measured and funders disperse their money, have slowly resulted in changes in the way we view and carry out research as well. Most educational institutions of higher learning which have a research focus as well as funders, now require you to show the “impact” of the research. This impact includes evidence on how the results were circulated on mass media, implementation by industry or target audiences, etc.

The main issue is that many academics are not media savvy and do not really know how to market their research. Many researchers feel uneasy with promoting themselves. One Professor told me, "Your research should speak for itself". However, as indicated earlier, this may not be as straightforward if only 3 people read your research. Moreover, researchers tend to move on to the next project once they end the previous one - happy that they have a conference proceeding or two and a journal paper from the research and then move on to the next one. Again this is due to pressure from institutions to churn out research papers regularly to meet KPIs, University rankings and quality certifications.

Coming back to the definition of marketing in this context, we can market our research by looking at how we can create value from our research. We also need to be media savvy and should reach out to the general public. 

Thankfully, I can see that many of us are now active on social media and sharing our research and knowledge with everyone who cares to listen and we are also finding out what people think about our research. Engaging and collaborating with organisations (including NGOs, Governments and Corporates), allows us to fine tune our research to meet and satisfy specific needs and requirements.

Hopefully, this will increase the reach of our research.

Call for Case Study Chapters

I would like to invite all those who are interested to contribute an original, real case study for publication in our book titled: 'Management of Shari’ah Compliant Businesses – Case Studies on Creation of Sustainable Value' which will be published by Springer next year.

Authors are expected to submit original and real life case studies (not published elsewhere) on Islamic finance, marketing and management.

If you are interested, please email me (dilip.mutum@nottingham.edu.my) an expression of interest - a short outline or abstract (maximum of 500 words) by 11th of December, 2017.

More Info about the book:

Editors
Dr. Ezlika Ghazali, Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, Malaysia
Dr. Dilip Mutum, Associate Professor of Marketing, Nottingham University Business School, The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, Malaysia
Dr. Mamunur Rashid, Assistant Professor of Finance, Nottingham University Business School, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Malaysia
Dr. Jashim Uddin Ahmed, Professor of Management, Department of Management, School of Business & Economics, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Type of publication:
The book aims at presenting high quality case studies in the context of Islamic finance, banking, entrepreneurship, insurance, capital market, management, Halal marketing, etc. that deal with consumer perception, services orientation, new product development, risk management,
industry readiness for better customer satisfaction, and policy issues coupling strategy and best practices. Asian countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, hold a larger portion of Islamic assets. Hence, we have decided to limit the scope of this book within the Asian context.

Only original case studies based on primary as well as secondary research that are not published elsewhere will be considered.

Paper on Consumers’ Values for Buying Organic Personal Care Products published

Our paper titled Health and Cosmetics: Investigating Consumers’ Values for Buying Organic Personal Care Products has been published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

This is one of the fastest I have ever had a paper published. It was submitted on 28 March 2017. Revised 24 June 2017. Accepted on 2 August 2017 and available online 10 August 2017.

Here is the abstract of the paper:

In investigating consumers’ intentions to re-purchase organic personal care products (PCP), this study extends the theory of planned behaviour by including perceived value dimensions as the antecedents of attitude in the model. The findings revealed that most of the hypothesised relationships linking the consumer perceived value constructs (namely, health, safety, hedonic and environmental) with attitude towards the rebuying of organic PCP, were supported. Also, better product knowledge about organic PCP would lead to more positive attitudes towards re-purchasing the product. In contrast, social value was not important in predicting attitude. Similarly, the influence of subjective norm on rebuying intention was not supported. In terms of ranking of importance with regards to prediction of re-purchasing intention, attitude was the most important predictor followed by perceived behavioural control, product knowledge, hedonic value, environmental value and safety value.

You can download the paper for free till September 29, 2017 using this link below:

Ghazali, E., Soon, P.C., Mutum, D. S. and Nguyen, B. (2017). Health and cosmetics: Investigating consumers’ values for buying organic personal care products, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 39, 154-163.

Book on Islamic Finance, Marketing, and Management is now out

I am delighted to announce that our latest edited book is finally out. The book 'Advances in Islamic Finance, Marketing, and Management: An Asian Perspective' is co-edited with Dr. Mohammad Mohsin Butt, Associate Professor of Marketing at Curtin University Malaysia and Dr. Mamunur Rashid Assistant, Professor of Finance at Nottingham University Business School.

With contributions from 35 experts, this book is targeted at both academics and practitioners who are interested and assist in making Shariah-centric strategies.

Here is the preface from the book:

The Islamic financial industries have been growing at a double-digit rate for over a decade now. Referring particularly to the post-financial crisis era, challenges of the management of Islamic financial, management and marketing have reached new heights. Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) from the South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle Eastern countries hold a major percentage of Islamic assets. New opportunities are opening up in the Central Asian countries as well. Currently, the knowledge base on Shari’ah-compliant business and finance is particularly limited, and largely written on the development of finance and allied industries. Experts foresee the need for a useful integration of Islamic finance, halal marketing, and management of Islamic businesses.
This book “Advances in Islamic Finance, Marketing, and Management: An Asian Perspective” aims to balance these gaps by focusing on the Asian perspective of Islamic businesses and by incorporating, alongside finance, the development in Islamic marketing and management of Islamic business. The book is divided into three sections, considering:
Islamic finance that includes topics on Islamic equity and mutual funds, risk and performance of Islamic banks, long-term investment and Sukuk, dynamics of credit portfolios, and financial crimes in Islamic perspective.
Islamic marketing that includes topics on Islamic marketing theory, halal marketing in several Asian markets, and halal logistics.
Islamic business management that includes topics on management of Zakat institutions, and the corporate social responsibility in Islamic organizations.
A group of international experts offer original conceptual articles, empirical research findings, case studies, and critical reviews in the areas of Islamic finance, banking, capital market, halal marketing, consumer perception, services orientation, risk management, industry readiness for better customer satisfaction, as well as policy issues coupling strategy and best practices. As expected, major portion of the discussion surrounds already established Islamic finance industry and a preliminary discussion on the management of businesses. The book can be considered as a guidebook for the academicians as well as the practitioners in the areas of Islamic finance, marketing, and management.

Latest paper on online switching barriers and loyalty

Really delighted that our paper titled 'Constructing Online Switching Barriers: Examining the Effects of Switching Costs and Alternative Attractiveness on E-Store Loyalty in Online Pure-Play Retailers' (Yes, it is a really long title), has been published in 'Electronic Markets: - The International Journal on Networked Business'.

I co-wrote this paper with Ghazali, E., Nguyen, B. and Mohd Any, A. A.

It has been published online and should be is now out in print as well. Here is the abstract of the paper.

Abstract

Developing switching barriers to retain customers has become a critical marketing strategy for online retailers. However, research on the role of switching barriers in e-retailing is still limited. Recent trends show that when competitors are just one click away, it is questionable if customer loyalty can be achieved at all in online environments. This leads to the research question on whether switching barriers have any impact on e-loyalty in pure-play retailers. The paper examines the influence of switching barriers on customer retention (i.e., e-store loyalty) and further investigates the moderating effects of switching costs and alternative attractiveness. Data were gathered via a survey of 590 shoppers of online pure-play retailers in the UK. Findings show that customer satisfaction and the two dimensions of switching barriers (perceived switching costs and perceived attractiveness of alternatives) significantly influence customer loyalty. Contrary to findings in earlier studies, it was found that switching costs did not moderate the relationships between satisfaction and loyalty nor between perceived attractiveness of alternatives and loyalty. The paper makes imperative recommendations to develop switching barriers and to foster loyalty along with suggestions for future research.

Please let me know if you would like a soft copy of the paper: dilip.mutum@nottingham.edu.my

To cite:

Ghazali, E., Nguyen, B., Mutum, D. S. and Mohd Any, A. A. (2016). Constructing Online Switching Barriers: Examining the Effects of Switching Costs and Alternative Attractiveness on E-Store Loyalty in Online Pure-Play Retailers, Electronic Markets: - The International Journal on Networked Business. 26(2), 157-171.
DOI: 10.1007/s12525-016-0218-1

Virtual worlds, social media gaming, celebrity branding and personal branding

I recently attended the ANZMAC (The Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy) 2015 conference which was hosted by the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. It ran from the 30th of November to the 2nd of December.

I presented a paper titled "Lady Gaga goes virtual: Social network gaming communities’ response towards virtual branding efforts" which I co-wrote with Dr. Ezlika Ghazali, The University of Malaya and Dr. Bang Nguyen, East China University of Science and Technology.

Here is the abstract of the paper:

"This study examines community members' response towards a one-off online personal branding campaign of Lady Gaga. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, the study critically examines forum messages from the official Zynga forums of the social game, Farmville. The findings reveal that in the context of social network games, the marketers' role is, to some extent, reduced, while the roles of consumers, especially opinion leaders, become paramount. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed."

The background of how I thought about doing a research on this topic is quite interesting (at least to me). While doing my PhD a few years back, I was introduced to Farmville, a game on Facebook. I think that this game as well as other social games helped me through some of the most stressful times during my PhD journey. It was around the time I was writing up my thesis that American
singer and songwriter Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, who brands herself as Lady Gaga, partnered with Zynga, the creators of Farmville to launch and promote her album 'Born this way'. As far as I know, she was the first artist to ever launch an album on a social media game.

I did a bit of preliminary research and realised that this campaign presented several research opportunities to examine the response of members of an online community towards a branding campaign.

Most studies on virtual worlds have focused on World of Warcraft and Second Life and no one has actually looked at games on Facebook. The gaming communities are different from the Brand communities on Facebook and present a totally different context. I also discovered that studies on celebrity branding mostly examined their role as a brand ambassador and specifically how the brand image fits with the personality of the celebrity. There was a lack of studies on the celebrity as a brand - which I feel is linked to concept of personal branding. To my surprise, when I looked at pesonal branding literature and how I could link to celebrity branding, I discovered that most of the papers were in human resource journals and linked to personal development.

There is of course the question of methodology. I could have used the increasingly popular Netnographic techniques made popular by Robert Kozinets. However, in the end I used content analysis method for this research.

I would love to hear from and to collaborate with other researchers who are researching in any of the areas listed here.

Academics and the dark side

Many of us grew up watching Star Wars and the various films has had an impact on a number of us. Anyway, one of my papers is titled  "Customer relationship management: advances, dark sides, exploitation and unfairness." My friend Bang Nguyen (my co-author) came up with the name. He is a big sci-fi fan and though I have not confirmed it with him, you can probably guess where the phrase "dark sides" come from. In fact, he has written a few other papers with the phrase "dark side" in the title.

Today while going through some academic papers, I came across one with "dark side" in the title. This made me wonder and a quick search on Google Scholar reveals that there are around  3,920,000 paper with the phrase "dark side" in the title. When I restrict the search results to publications which came out this year (2015),   there were an astounding 50,100 results including books, chapters and journal papers.

I further narrowed down the search to the keywords "dark side marketing" and restricted to publications this year, gave me 8,770 results.

The Force is definitely with us.

Malaysia is top market for luxury car brands in South East Asia

updated: 15/10/2015; 13/10/2015

The biggest car market in ASEAN is Indonesia (sales of 830096 units in 2014) followed by Thailand (with 579273 units sold) and Malaysia (444551 units sold) (ASEAN automative federation, 2014).

However, when it comes to luxury car brands, my research shows that Malaysia is the leading country in ASEAN.

For example, take the BMW group. 2014 was a fantastic year for them with record breaking sales through out the World (including the 3 countries listed above) with 2,117,965 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles sold. Let us compare the sales in these 3 countries:

1. Indonesia: 9,046 vehicles, comprising 7,808 BMWs, 655 MINIs and 583 BMW Motorrads
2. Thailand; 8,386 vehicles of both BMW and MINI brands
3. Malaysia: 9,419 vehicles with monthly sales upwards of 900 units.

Mercedes-Benz, which is the leading premium car brand in all the three countries also shows a similar trend.

Mercedes-Benz Thailand sold more vehicles with 11,524 units sold as compared to Malaysia (a record-breaking 9,419 vehicles) in 2014. In the first five months of this year, Mercedes-Benz Thailand took the lead in the premium car segment in the country with sales record of 4108 units. However, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia recorded their all-time sales record in the first quarter of 2015 with 5163 units passenger cars sold. This is also higher than in Indonesia which saw sales of 1800 cars between January and July 2015.

Though I cannot generalise based on sales figures of only two luxury car makers, preliminary results from other luxury companies also show that Malaysia is one of the top markets for their cars as well in the ASEAN region.

This thus leads to some interesting questions. Besides population and income, what do marketers also need to take into account when it comes to luxury products?

Sources:

• http://www.bmw.co.th/th/en/general/bmwinsight/news_read.php?id=565&year=
• https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/asia/pressDetail.html?title=bmw-group-indonesia-reports-significant-growth-in-volume-in-2013&outputChannelId=16&id=T0166566EN&left_menu_item=node__4100
• http://paultan.org/2015/01/14/mercedes-benz-malaysia-record-sales-2014/
• http://paultan.org/2015/06/03/mercedes-benz-malaysia-best-ever-sales-in-may-15/
• http://www.mercedes-benz.com.my/content/media_library/malaysia/media_library/About_Us/events___sponsorship/2015_Events/pr-1st-half-sales-pdf.object-Single-MEDIA.tmp/MBM1H2015NewsRelease7Jul15.pdf

Top 10 countries in the World

Was going through some lists and there were some interesting findings. highlighted in Pink are countries which occur on all four lists.


A. Top 10 highest on the 2014 Global Gender Gap Index

1. Iceland
2. Finland
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Denmark
6. Nicaragua
7. Rwanda
8. Ireland
9. Philippines
10. Belgium

B. Top 10 Happiest Countries according to the 2013 World Happiness Report 

1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Switzerland
4. The Netherlands
5. Sweden
6. Canada
7. Finland
8. Austria
9. Iceland
10. Australia

C. Top 10 Best countries for doing business Forbes 2013

1. Ireland
2. New Zealand
3. Hong Kong
4. Denmark
5. Sweden
6. Finland
7. Singapore
8. Canada
9. Norway
10. The Netherlands

A number of countries occur in at least 2 of the lists. However, the 4 Scandinavian countries: namely, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, occur in all three lists. This means that these 4 countries are the richest, happiest and most equal societies in the World. It is also no wonder that Iceland with its strong Scandinavian heritage, is also included in two of the lists. So if we are looking for a good societal model to follow, maybe we should study the societies in these four countries.

Any thoughts?

Article on online loyalty published

One of my papers has finally been published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services (ABS 1* / ABDC A). With co-authors Ezlika Mohd Ghazalib, Bang Nguyen and David Arnott, the paper titled 'Online loyalty and its interaction with switching barriers', expands on Oliver׳s 4 stage loyalty model to include online switching.

The abstract is given below:

The results of empirical research on online retail switching tendencies is quite mixed and only a few have specifically examined the presence, frequency or impact of switching barriers and switching inducements in the context of online services. Empirical evidence shows that there is “stickiness to certain sites” experienced by online customers and that they do less comparative shopping than might be expected. This paper conceptualises online switching behaviour as the interaction of barriers and inducements (both real and perceived) using Oliver׳s four-stage loyalty model. It also highlights the need to re-examine the concept of online loyalty and its interaction with switching barriers and inducements in the online context.

To access the article click the link below:

Mutum, D. S., Ghazali, E.M., Ngyun, B. and Arnott, D. (2014). Online loyalty and its interaction with switching barriers, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(6), 942-949.