- Volume 1 : Issue 1, December 2012
- Table of Contents
- Issue 1 (15 Dec 2012), pp.01-69
| Research Title/ Graphical Abstract |
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| Measuring Intellectual Capital Based on Bozbura Model |
Original Article, A1 ABSTRACT: The purpose of present study is the presentation of a proper definition to intellectual capital, its components, and the relationship between intellectual capital and market value of quoted companies in Tehran exchange based on Bozbura model. Mostly, the components of intellectual capital were defined in three dimensions of human capital, relation capital and structural capital. The researchers tried to represent the effects of intellectual capital on the market value of quoted companies in Tehran exchange. This study addressed four hypotheses based on the nature and significance of the study. Based on the results of data analysis, there was a significant relationship between human capital and market value of quoted companies in Tehran exchange. Also, structural capital was significantly related to human capital and relation capital. |
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| Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: A Literature Review in the Perspective of Customer Relationship Management |
Original Article, A2 ABSTRACT: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the entire process that focuses on the interface between the organization and its customers. The objectives of CRM are to enhance profitability, income, and customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are two main criteria for every organization to get success. A satisfied customer plays a role as a free advertiser for every organization. It was argued that, customer satisfaction alone is not enough to be successful in today’s competitive market. Previous researchers proved that the cost of retaining the exits customer is less than the cost of finding the new one. Therefore, customer loyalty must be considering as an important issue and it is required to increase the customer loyalty by positive impact of CRM strategy and customer satisfaction. In spite of the most essential advantages of CRM, there are some difficulties in CRM implementation for different organizations. Therefore, this study attempt to review the effective relationship between CRM, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty of the selected organization by investigating the key elements factors of CRM. |
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| Determinants of Brand Equity: Offering a Model to Chocolate Industry in Iran |
Original Article, A3 ABSTRACT: This study examined the underlying dimensions of brand equity in the chocolate industry. For this purpose, researchers developed a model to identify which factors are influential in building brand equity. The second purpose was to assess brand loyalty and brand images’ mediating effect between brand attitude, brand personality, brand association with brand equity. The study employed structural equation modeling to investigate the causal relationships between the dimensions of brand equity and brand equity itself. It specifically measured the way in which consumers’ perceptions of the dimensions of brand equity affected the overall brand equity evaluations. Data were collected from a sample of consumers of Shirin Assal brand in Iran. The results of this empirical study indicate that brand loyalty and brand image are important components of brand equity in this industry. Moreover, the role of brand loyalty and brand image as mediating factors in the intention of brand equity are supported. The principal contribution of the present research is that it provides empirical evidence of the multidimensionality of consumer based brand equity, supporting Aaker´s and Keller´s conceptualization of brand equity. The present research also enriched brand equity building by incorporating the brand personality and brand image, as recommended by previous researchers. While earlier studies were conducted using US and Korean and Australian samples, the present study also used a sample of Iranian consumers. Key words: Brand Equity, Brand Personality, Brand Loyalty, Brand Image, Structural Equation Modeling, Iran. |
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| What drives Tunisian Customers to Adopt Internet Banking Services? An Examination from the TAM Perspective |
Original Article, A4 ABSTRACT: This paper aims to empirically examine the factors that affect the adoption of Internet banking in Tunisia. In order to explain the factors, this paper extends the “Technology Acceptance Model” by adding additional external factors such as security and privacy, self efficacy, social influence, and awareness of services and its benefits. The findings of the study suggests that the security and privacy, self-efficacy, social influence, and awareness of services and its benefits have significant effects on the perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and attitude toward Internet banking acceptance. Age and education have also significant impact on the attitude towards the likelihood of adopting online banking. These findings may provide for banks useful guidelines for developing Internet banking services and for marketing Internet banking. Key words: Internet banking; Technology acceptance model; Tunisia; Developing countries. |
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| Influence of Sales Force on B To B Brand Equity in Iranian Industrial Oil and Gas Companies |
Original Article, A5 ABSTRACT: It has been recognized that brands play a role in industrial markets, but to date a comprehensive model of business-to-business (B2B) branding does not exist, nor has there been an empirical study of the applicability of a full brand equity model in a B2B context. Furthermore, it could have hardly found a conceptual framework explaining the influence of the sales force on brand equity relative to the product and promotion elements of the marketing mix, in the context of business-to-business marketing. In this paper, Six research hypotheses, relating to the effects of four key drivers of B-to-B brand equity identified in a review of the relevant literature, were empirically tested with a sample of 150 respondents in B-to-B Iranian oil and gas Iranian firms using partial least squares analysis. The results delineate the high importance of the sales force to the creating and maintenance of a strong B-to-B brand. The most important factor of brand equity is the salesperson’s behavior, followed in sequence by his or her personality, product quality and non-personal marketing communications. The findings are relevant for marketing practitioners, researchers and managers as a starting-point for their B2B brand equity research. Key words: Brand equity, B-to-B branding, Sales force behavior, Sales force personality. |
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| Can Corporate Governance Mechanisms Improve Earnings Quality? Evidence from IRAN |
Original Article, A6 ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to find an answer to this question that can corporate governance mechanisms improve earnings quality? Earnings quality calculated by Dechow and Dichev (2002) accrual estimation error model is used as the dependent variable and corporate governance mechanisms such as independent outside directors on the board, Percentage of institutional ownership, ownership centralization, free float and auditor type as the independent variables. In this study, the numbers of 140 firm-year observations (TSE) have been investigated during the years 2003-2009. To analyze the data has been used EViews software. Our findings show that among corporate governance mechanisms, only relation between PIO & EQ is positive but other variables (such as OC, FF, OBD and AT) have negative relations with EQ. Findings too show that the bigger companies have more quality earnings but companies with more liability ratio (LEV) and less percentage of institutional ownership have less quality earnings. It should be mentioned that about 67% of changes EQ be explained by corporate governance mechanisms in during the study period and this amount increases to 69% by adding control variables to regression model and only relation OBD and LEV with EQ is significant statistically. |
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| Corporate Governance Quality and Dividend Policy |
Original Article, A7 ABSTRACT: Agency theory is one of the theories that has been tested widely in the different articles and gained supportive observations. With regard to agency theory, dividend distribution policy is determined by the agency costs resulted from the difference between ownership and control. Because of the agency costs managers may not ever adopt dividend policy that maximizes stockholder’s value. Instead, they probably use the type of the dividend policy which maximizes their private benefits. It is argued that dividend payouts reduce agency conflicts by the reduction of amount of free cash flow that could be used for manager’s private benefits rather than maximizing stockholder’s wealth. Hence the present study goes to examine the effect of corporate governance quality dividend policy to solve agency costs problems. Our article acts as a descriptive-forth event research and is based on the combined data analysis. Eighty-one Tehran stock exchange listed companies between 2006 and 2010 have been selected as the sample of the research. Furthermore, corporate governance quality calculated according to the four controlling aspects of Board of Directors, ownership structure, financial information transparency which each contains measurable indexes. The Findings indicated that there is significant and positive relationship between dividend policy and Audit Quality, Timely Annual General Assembly, and Financial Information Transparency. On the other hand, Negative relationship between dividend policy and the board of director’s proficiency is confirmed that corroborate substitution hypothesis of dividend policy. Also, the results of this study indicated significant and positive relationship between dividend policy and control variables such as cash dividends of the previous year, free cash flow, corporate profitability, and firm size in all models. Key words: Corporate Governance Quality, Dividend Policy, Agency Costs, Substitution Hypothesis, Outcome Hypothesis. |
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