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Determinants of Brand Positioning : an Evidence From Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan In today's world of globalization brand positioning is extremely crucial because the real worth of the organization lies in the minds of the consumers. Brand positioning is the way in which a corporation develops and takes an advantage over its competitors. For brand positioning, determinants of brand are very important because they help the organizations in positioning their brands. Therefore, the aim of the study is to analyzing the determinants of brand positioning and the evidence is taken from Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan. The study follows positivist approach and is cross sectional field survey, based on primary data collected through self reporting instrument. Population of the study consists of customers at the outlets of Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan. Unit of analysis is individual. Convenience sampling technique is used for drawing representative sample. A sample of 400 respondents is used. The response of the customers regarding the impact of determinants of brand positioning is elicited by way of self administrated survey. The relations of variables have been hypothesized, therefore, apart from descriptive statistics; t-Test, ANOVA and simple linear regression are used for analysis of data and hypotheses testing. Results support the arguments because a total five hypotheses are tested and all of them (i.e. H.1, H2, H3, H4 and H5) are accepted as significant positive impact is found by brand positioning determinants (slogan, logo, colour scheme, animated brand character) on brand positioning. The results also confirm that the two new variables "animated brand character" and "augmented product benefits" not only have significant positive impact on brand positioning but also have strong relation and greater contribution in brand positioning than other three variables. On the bases of results some recommendations were made regarding the careful selection of brand positioning determinants such as a slogan should be small and memorable, a visual front logo and a good mixture of colour scheme that evoke the people's emotions. Augmented product benefits should be provided in form of warranty, guarantee and after sale services.
Leadership styles and Their Effect on Work Outcomes: Mediating Role of Employee Trust This research study seeks to examine the effect of transactional and transformational leadership styles on work outcomes by considering banking sector of Pakistan. The focus of this research was to explore the mediation effect of trust between leadership styles and two work outcomes i.e., organizational commitment and turnover intention of employees. Zhu and Akhtar (2014) found out that trust plays a mediating role between transformational leadership styles and work outcomes, so this study has proceeded their findings by focusing on another leadership style and work outcomes. For data collection, 350 employees were selected by using purposive sampling technique from the banks operating in Lahore. The criteria for selecting purposive sample was established so that effective results can be obtained. Questionnaire with five point Likert scale was used for data collection because it was a comparatively low-cost, fast and effective way of gaining huge quantity of information from a big sample. After distributing 350 questionnaires among bank employees, 304 were found properly filled and appropriate. So the response rate for this study was 86.85% that is usually considered noteworthy. After collecting data, MS excel was used to organize data and to check missing values and unengaged responses. SPSS was also used to check regression assumptions and for hypothesis testing. After dealing with regression assumptions, hypotheses were tested. To determine the mediation effect of employee trust between leadership styles and work outcomes, Sobel test and Baron & Kenny approach was used. The regression result exposed that transactional and transformational leadership styles has no effect on turnover intention of employees of banks operating in Lahore. While transactional and transformational leadership style except individual consideration dimension have significant impact on employee's commitment. This study also found out that transformational leadership style and transactional leadership except management by exception (passive) dimension has significant impact on employee trust. The mediation results showed that trust mediates the relationship between transformational leadership style and work outcomes i.e., organizational commitment and turnover intention of employees. While result of both mediation tests also exposed that trust plays a mediating role between transactional leadership style and organizational commitment of employees but doesn't mediate the relationship of transactional leadership and turnover intention. In the end managerial implications, contribution of study and limitations has also been discussed.
Effects of Abusive Supervision on the Creativity of Subordinates in Presence of Organizational Justice and Perceived Mobility This study analyzes the effect of abusive supervision on the creativity of subordinates in the presence of organizational justice and perceived mobility in context to pharmaceutical companies of Lahore. This study is distinctive in the way that it has studied the effect of abusive supervision on the creativity of the subordinates in the presence of organizational justice and perceived mobility as moderator relationship. Primary data has been collected from the employees of pharmaceutical companies specifically from medical representatives, territory managers and their supervisors from different pharmaceutical companies in Lahore, Pakistan. The measurement instrument was structured questionnaire of four different variables. The study finds out that abusive supervision has negative impact the creativity of the subordinates; organizational justice moderates the relation of abusive supervision and creativity whereas perceived mobility does not moderate this relationship. The theoretical model, defines the stage for future research and theory advancement in considerate w abusive supervision can lower down the creativity level of the subordinates in an organization. This study was actually aimed to discover the effects of abusive supervision on the creativity of the subordinates in the presence of organizational justice and perceived mobility as moderator and the population was the employees of pharmaceutical companies of Pakistan. The process of Andrew F. Hayes is used to measure the moderating role of both moderators i.e. organizational justice and perceived mobility on the basis that this technique is more recent as compare to the treatments given by previous studies. As per the results of this study, the abusive supervision has significant impact on creativity and organizational justice moderates this relationship whereas perceived mobility does not moderate this relationship.
Job Satisfaction in the backdrop of Ethical Dilemma: A Study of Health Care Nurses. This study tends to highlight the role of ethical conflict in changing job satisfaction of the nurses. Ethics stress faced by nurse acts as a mediator and individual ethical orientation as a moderator in the relationships between ethical conflict and job satisfaction. The purpose of the study is to examine how ethical conflict affects job satisfaction. Analyses were conducted using data from a sample of 550 nurses from public sector hospitals of the Multan district, Pakistan and it revealed attention-grabbing findings. Data was collected through a questionnaire based on adopted scales. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to provide statistical evidence for hypotheses. Ethical conflict was found significant in predicting job satisfaction directly and through mediation. Additionally, individual ethical orientation was found to be a significant moderator of the hypothesized path between ethical conflict and ethics stress. Prior studies on job satisfaction have mainly focused on simple models at any given time. However, researchers increasingly argue that a complex representation (as in this study) may give better understanding of job satisfaction.
Predictors of Job Satisfaction in Universities of Multan Districts: A Mediation Study This study highlights the role of job crafting and work family conflict on job satisfaction of lecturers. Further, it analyses how sense of wellbeing acts as a mediator between job crafting, work family conflict and job satisfaction. Data was collected through a questionnaire based on adopted scales from a sample of 280 lecturers of private and public sector universities of Multan district, Pakistan. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and multi-group moderation was conducted to provide statistical evidence for hypotheses. Job crafting and work family conflict were found significant in predicting job satisfaction. This study is the only one of its kind and helps to demystify the level of job satisfaction of lecturers of public and private sector universities in developing country like Pakistan
Determinations of Consumer's Purchase Intention of Counterfeit Luxury Product This study analyzed the influential factors of consumers' purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury products by considering the model of social status, integrity, novelty seeking, and perceived risk. Attitude towards counterfeit product was used as a mediator in the model. The causalities in the model of problematic purchase intention of consumers toward counterfeit luxury products are hypothesized. A total sample of 400 respondents with 385 effective samples was collected by distributing self-administered questionnaires to people from different sectors. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through AMOS was adopted for the analysis. Consumers' attitude towards counterfeit product was found to be positively and significantly related to purchase intention of counterfeit product. As for personality constructs, social status and novelty seeking were found to be positively related to attitude and purchase intention of counterfeit product while integrity and perceived risk did not show significant relationship. This study urges original manufacturers to focus more precisely on personality related factors of people and also need to work closely with policy makers to hinder counterfeiting activity. Replication of the study in other settings is also recommended. Further academic and managerial implications are presented by the research, limitations and future research directions are also discussed.
Predicting Consumer Intention to Use Mobile Payment Service: A Case Study of Pakistan Mobile phones have emerged as one of the most successful electronic products during the last few years. These are not only used as communication devices but are also being used as payment devices. So it is important for cellular companies and banks to understand that what can be the significant factors that are important for customers while taking a decision related to adoption of mobile payment services. Drawing from the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, Technology Acceptance Model, and previous literatures, eight constructs were hypothesized to investigate the factors that play an important role in the adoption of Mobile Payment services of Pakistani customers. For this study, 250 survey questionnaires were distributed out of which 236 responses were received. SEM in AMOS is used to analyze the results of proposed model. The results show that Relative advantage, complexity, Perceived ease of use, and cost are the main factors that affect the behavioral intention of Pakistani customers while taking a decision regarding adoption of mobile payment services. Then mediating effects of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness were also analyzed between cost and behavioral intention and compatibility and behavioral intention and found that partial mediation of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness exists between cost and behavioral intention and compatibility and behavioral intention. Perceived usefulness (PEU) was found insignificant while testing the mediating effect between PEU and trust and security and behavioral intention while there was no mediation through perceived ease of use between relative advantage and behavioral intention. While analyzing the results of uncertainty avoidance, it was also found that uncertainty avoidance does not moderate the relationship between trust and security and behavioral intention. These findings will appeal banks and cellular companies to quickly migrate the customers towards mobile banking which can result in significant decrease in their operating costs.
The Impact of Motivation on Employees Performance: Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction The aim of this study is to testify the affiliation between motivation and employees performance by taking job satisfaction as mediator in Pakistan International Airlines. In this cross sectional study, about 200 participants including Officers and Staff of Pakistan International Airlines based at Peshawar were served using questionnaire technique. Sample of 200 participants were randomly selected. The information so collected was analyzed using regression & correlation techniques through SPSS. The research model was including three key variables like motivation (Independent Variable), job satisfaction (Mediator) and finally employee performance (Dependent Variable). Total three questionnaires were adopted from various sources and thus utilized for each variable in the research study. Data was then encoded in the SPSS and similarly reliability analysis was also done during this process. Regression Analysis was utilized for knowing the prediction of one variable with the other variables while correlation analysis was materialized to check the association between variables. The results were matching to the previously research done on this project and showed that there was relationship between independent and dependent variable of the research model. Likewise the mediating variable also showed a significant relationship between independent and dependent and also performed as a bridge between independent and dependent variable of this research project. The results revealed affirmative correlation between motivation, job satisfaction and employees performance. Moreover, the results shows that participants are highly motivated which positively influences their job satisfaction. Consequently, increase in job satisfaction raises the stage of the performance of labor force in Pakistan International Airlines, Peshawar.
Antecedents of Individual Readiness for Change with the Moderating effect of Behavioral Resistance to Change in Software houses of Islamabad Pakistan The aim of this study is to contribute to the growing research of meaningful individual readiness for change. These topics have attracted interest both in the academia and in the wider public during the last decades. This is due to a growing research in positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship and because increasingly many people want to experience their work as meaningful. My aim is to understand the sources of meaningful work and how do employees actively change themselves according to the rapidly changing environment so that their work to become more meaningful. The target group is software engineers (programmers and developers) working at software houses of Evacuee Trust Islamabad Pakistan. It is an interesting study target as there is no research of this profession and this level of employees related to meaningful work. The perspective of this study is individual readiness for change, and this study aims to understand how meaningful Leadership. Organizational commitment and organizational culture with the moderating effect of behavioral resistance to change are connected to employee readiness for change.
Impact of Credit Appraisal Clients Training Collection Policy on Repayment Performance of Micro Finance Clients in Lahore There has been tremendous growth in microfinance institutions over the number of years. Microfinance Institutions depends a lot on the repayment of loans for getting funds in the future. Unfortunately, the characteristics or a factor of microfinance institution that affects the repayment performance and lead to default is underexplored area of study. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of credit appraisal, client training and collection policy on repayment performance of microfinance clients in Lahore. In this regard a total number of 310 borrowers was observed as a sample from the microfinance population. To select the microfinance institution for data collection the snowball sampling technique was used. Questionnaires were distributed among 310 microfinance clients. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study proclaimed that credit appraisal, client training and collection policy was positively associated with repayment performance of microfinance clients. In order to avoid the problems of repayment, the relationship between the client and lender should be monitored through advisers or in meetings. Lender could also give rewards to the clients who pay the payment on the decided time.
The study of Mediating Effect of Perceived Value Between Brand Equity and Customer Repurchase Intentions of Mobile Phone Users This study is conducted to analyze that perceived value of brand has an impact on the consumer purchasing and revisiting intentions. The study explores the influences of brand consciousness, brand experience, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand association on brand perceived value due to these this influences on revisiting intentions. The sample size of 250 mobile phone users has been taken in this research. The non-probability convenience sampling is used and target respondents are the cellular users living in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Close-ended structured questionnaire is used for data collection and correlation and regression used for data analysis. Six hypotheses were tested in the study. Survey was conducted among mobile phone users in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. In overall perspective and in mobile phone sector, there is a high correlation between the independent and dependent variables. There is strong positive correlation between perceived value (mediating variable) and customer repurchase intentions (dependent variable) brand consciousness, brand experience, brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand associations (independent variables) but with little distinction. For both academics and practitioners, the discoveries of this study hold significant implications. This research escorts the policy makers and academics about the main predictors of consumer's attitude towards repurchase in mobile phones industry.
Effects of Lending Policies of Khushhali Bank Limited on Sustainability of Micro Enterprises This research study investigates the effects of lending policies of Khushhali Bank Limited (KBL) on sustainability of micro enterprises. A sample size of 350 respondents was selected in district Charsadda through random sampling technique. The research study uses multiple regression technique which shows that there is a significant positive impact of independent variables on dependent variable. Majority of respondent perceive that existing criteria of lending is complex and not loan friendly therefore restricts the accessibility to the micro finance. The research also found that training of the borrower enhances the capacity and production level. The research also suggest that well designed monitoring system help in enhancing product quality which in turn produce enough income for the enterprise thereby adding in the personal saving. Most of the respondents viewed poor roads, telecommunications and poor information as main hurdles in and market accessibility and market linkage development. The study recommends that in order to promote sustainable SMEs growth is to review the existing SMEs prudential regulations to improve SMEs access to finance. Training and capacity building of SMEs should be the priority of government, furthermore, banks/borrowing agencies should develop and implement an appropriate system for monitoring utilization of loans.
The Impact of Corporate Entrepreneurship and High Performance working Systems on Employees Attitude with Breach of Psychological Contract as Mediator Purpose of this thesis was to explore the Impact of CE and HPWS on Employees' Attitude in fast moving consuming goods industry of Pakistan and the role of Psychological Contract as Mediator of this relationship through this study. Even though many research have studied these variables individually or their relationships with other variables but not with entrepreneurship and particularly corporate entrepreneurship. The population selected for conducted research was fourteen sales offices of FMCG's working in Pakistan including national, international and multinational organizations from city of textile. Detailed questionnaires were being used for the data collection from FMCG. For the current study data was collected through questionnaire. Most practical random sampling is being used to collect the data from said industry. The questionnaires were administered to 500 individuals and only 365 take part actively in this research process. The response rate to the study is 73%. For data analysis purpose, we had gone through the person's correlation, regression analysis to see the degree of impact and descriptive statistics, common useful tool to elaborate analysis in theory. SPSS 21was used for the data analysis and reporting purpose. As a result of this study it is explored that significant relationship exists between CE, HPWS, OC and Satisfaction of job, all the four dependent and independent variables and also observed that PCB has negative relationship with all studied variables. Correlation and regression table explain more clearly the negative relationship of psychological contract with dependent as well as independent variables. To test the mediating role of psychological contract breach we run Sobel test, which tells us that psychological contract breach work as mediator. By implementing corporate entrepreneurship and High performance work system, national and international FMCGs in Pakistan can create employees' attitude which may lead them to higher enactments and returns.
Determinants of Effective Whistle Blowing: A Case Study of Perception of Employees of Brothers Textile Mills Limited Medium Size Public Limited Quoted Company from Textile Sector. The organizations face lot of problems like malpractices, wrongdoing and expropriation. These problems occur due to the system failure of the organizations. Whistle blowing is policy which helps to prevent from the wrongdoing and other illegal activities. The purpose of this research is to identify the factors and investigate the significance of these factors for the effective whistle blowing. For conducting this research a public limited quoted company has been selected from textile sector. The research approach is quantitative. Quantitative research is essentially collecting numerical data to explain a particular phenomenon. A survey methodology has been adopted for this research. A listed company on the basis of predetermined criteria in order to materialize the study has been selected from the companies listed on Lahore stock exchange. Employees of the company have been taken as population frame. The researcher used the stratified random sampling technique for making the homogeneous sub groups before the sampling. The data for this research has been gathered by using a structured self reporting questionnaire. The questionnaire has been designed on Likert scale. Structured questions were used to obtain the responses from the respondents. For analyzing the data, the descriptive statistics were calculated. The independent samples t-test has been used for analysis with the help of the SPSS. The results show that there is no significant difference of employee's perception between the groups the employees about the whistle blowing exists according to the variables.