With the popularity of smartphones, consumers’ daily lives and consumption patterns have been changed by using multi-functional apps. Convenience store operators have developed membership apps as a platform to promote their brands to consumers to create the benefits of “membership economy”. This study examined consumer behavior towards convenience store membership apps using UTAUT2. Consumers who have installed the convenience store membership apps were recruited as the target population. SPSS 23.0 was used to conduct item analysis and reliability analysis in the pretest questionnaires. The formal questionnaires were distributed online by convenience sampling method, with 375 valid questionnaires collected. Smart PLS 3.0 was conducted by analyzing the confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model analysis. The results of the study, “performance expectancy”, “social influence”, “price value” and “habit” of convenience store member app users showed positive and significant effects on “behavioral intention”. “Facilitating conditions”, “habit” and “behavioral intention” have positive and significant effects on “actual use behavior”. “Gender” affects “habit” to have a significant moderating effect on “use behavior”. “Use experience” affects “habit” to have a significant moderating effect on “behavioral intention”. Based on the study results, the further suggestions of marketing management implications and feasible recommendations are proposed for convenience store operators to refer to in the implementation of membership app marketing management.
The healthcare sector is progressively modest and patients expect higher service quality; therefore, healthcare practitioners’ and academic researchers’ attention upsurges in exploring service quality, intensifying satisfaction and generating behavioral intention. Despite the significance of the healthcare sector and the importance of quality-related matters, there is a paucity of research and publications dealing with healthcare service quality. This conceptual review evaluates the service quality in Pakistani healthcare sector rendering patients’ perspective. The proposed model emphasizes patients’ switching intention caused by poor or inadequate service quality through intervening constructs of satisfaction and alternative attractiveness. Additionally, current review explored the alternative attractiveness as mediator which was neglected in healthcare context. The model also attempts to propose the association between alternative attractiveness and outcome variable by switching costs regarding patients’ perspectives. The conceptual framework enables hospital managers to comprehend how patients assess healthcare quality provided in the presence of alternatives. The perception of patients would assist them in allocating healthcare resources and hospital management attain performance feedback through service quality parameters. Present review developed an inclusive framework as a novel injector in healthcare sector for patients’ perceived service quality.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital marketing, the influence of social media on consumer behavior has become a focal point of scholarly inquiry. This study delves into the intricate dynamics between social media interaction and the quality of relationships in the context of s-commerce, examining how these interactions impact customer loyalty and purchase intentions. It is imperative to note that while the study does explore the mediating role, it is not the primary focus. The core objective revolves around understanding the nuanced relationships between social media interaction and relationship quality. This clarification ensures a precise delineation of the research scope and objectives. Furthermore, it is worth emphasizing that while the study delves into customer loyalty, this aspect is not explicitly reflected in the title. However, the examination of loyalty remains an integral component of the research, providing a holistic view of customer behavior in the digital marketplace. By addressing the interplay between social media engagement and relationship quality, this study aims to provide valuable insights for businesses navigating the complexities of s-commerce. Through this research, we seek to illuminate the pivotal role of social media interactions in shaping customer-company relationships, thus offering actionable insights for practitioners and enriching the academic discourse in the field of digital marketing.
Entrepreneurial intentions, considered to be the best predictor of entrepreneurial behaviour, have attracted extensive attention among academics, practitioners, and policymakers. This study examines the mediating role of the theory of planned behaviour between university students’ proactive personality, entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial opportunities, and entrepreneurial intentions. The results of this study showed that both attitudes toward entrepreneurship and perceived behavioural control mediated these relationships, except that perceived behavioural control did not mediate the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intentions, and subject norm did not mediate any relationship. Lastly, this study guides universities, policymakers and practitioners to fully focus on developing attitude entrepreneurship and perceived behaviour control through education and training among graduates and employees. Suppose there is a presence of good entrepreneurial opportunities. In that case, they will form stronger intentions to start new businesses and expand their businesses to drive socio-economic growth, innovation and job creation among graduates.
The COVID-19 epidemic has given rise to a new situation that requires the qualification and training of teachers to operate in educational crises. Amidst the pandemic, online training has emerged as the predominant approach for delivering teacher training. The COVID-19 pandemic has created potential opportunities and challenges for online training, which may have a long-lasting impact on online training procedures in the post-pandemic era. This study aims to determine the primary potential and constraints of online training as seen by instructors. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) identified online training opportunities and challenges by examining the to-be-applied behavioral intention variables that influence trainees. These variables include individual, system, social, and organizational factors. The study has applied the Phenomenological technique to address the research issues, using the Semi-structured interview tool to get a comprehensive knowledge of the online training phenomena amongst the pandemic. A total of seven participants were selected from a list of general education teachers at the Central Education Office of the Education Department in Bisha Governorate. These people were deliberately selected because of their high frequency of completing training sessions throughout the epidemic. A series of interviews was conducted with these participants. The findings indicated that the primary prospects included both equal opportunities and digital culture within the individual factors, enrollment in training programs and variation in training programs across organizational characteristics, the use of digital material and electronic archiving within the system variables, engaging in the exchange of personal experiences, providing constructive criticism, and fostering favorable communication within the realm of social factors. However, the primary obstacles included deficiencies in digital competencies, compatibility of trainees’ attributes, and dearth of desire as per individual factors, the temporal arrangement of training programs, as well as the lack of prior preparation and preparedness within the realm of organizational factors. Other challenges included the absence of trainer assessment, limited diversity of training exercises, and technological obstacles within the system factors, and ultimately the absence of engagement with the instructor, and lack of engagement with peers are within the social variable.
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