This study aims to investigate the antecedents of trust including Company Reputation, Website Design, Service Quality, and Security and Privacy Policy in an online environment within the Pakistani context. A pre-tested questionnaire survey is used in order to collect the response of e-shopper in three cities, Abbottabad, Haripur and Islamabad, from 200 Pakistani e-shoppers. SPSS was used to analyze the data and three techniques descriptive statistics, regression analysis and correlation analysis are applied. Findings revealed a positive direct relationship between the independent and dependent variables which validate the earlier studies.

The current research copes with the optimization of the surface heat transfer coefficients of a square mild steel test specimen by spray impingement cooling. A laboratory scale experimental setup was developed at School of Mechanical Engineering KIIT University, Odisha, India to investigate the role of various process parameters to enhance the heat transfer from the surface of the heated steal specimen. The mild steel plates of dimension 120 mm × 120 mm, and different thicknesses of 4 mm, 6 mm and 8 mm were used in the experiment. The effect of the process parameters such as thickness of the tested plate, nozzle to plate distance, air and water pressure upon the surface heat transfer coefficient (HTC) was optimized. The optimization of the controlling parameters was carried out by using the desirability functions. The Design Expert 8 software was used to analyze the experimental results. A new correlation was developed for optimization of the surface heat transfer coefficient.

With the progress in technology and innovation in product development, the contribution of computer- aided design (CAD) software in the design and manufacture of parts/products is growing on significantly. Selection of an appropriate CAD software is not a trifling task as it involves analyzing the appositeness of the available software packages to the unique requirements of the organization. Existence of a large number of CAD software vendors, presence of discordance among different hardware and software systems, and dearth of technical knowledge and experience of the decision makers further complicate the selection procedure. Moreover, there are very few published research papers related to CAD software selection, and majority of them have either employed criteria weights computed utilizing subjective judgements of the end users or floundered to incorporate the voice of customers in the decision making process. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a well-known technique for determining the relative importance of customers’ defined criteria for selection of any product or service. Therefore, this paper deals with design and development of a QFD-based decision making model in Visual BASIC 6.0 for selection of CAD software for manufacturing organizations. In order to demonstrate the applicability and potentiality of the developed model in the form of a software prototype, two illustrative examples are also provided.

For decades, entrepreneurship has become a major concern to both scholars and policymakers because of its significant role in economic and social transformation. This paper modeled the direct effects of entrepreneurial skill, environmental factors and entrepreneurial orientation on entrepreneurial intention as well as the indirect (moderating) effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship of entrepreneurial skill and environmental factors with entrepreneurial intention. Quantitative research design was employed using students’ sample. It was found that entrepreneurial skill, environmental factors and entrepreneurial orientation have positive influence on entrepreneurial intention. It was also discovered that entrepreneurial orientation moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial skill and entrepreneurial intention. However, the moderation effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between environmental factors and entrepreneurial intention was not established in this study, thus, called for exploring this moderating effect in other contexts. As implication to policy, government should ensure not only enriching students with entrepreneurial skill and conducive entrepreneurial environment but also well-built entrepreneurial orientation among Nigeria teeming youths as it has a direct effect as well as strong interaction with other factors in explaining entrepreneurial intention.

Emotional intelligence is very critical to the managerial effectiveness. The present study intends to explore the relationships between emotional intelligence and the three roles such as, interpersonal, informational, and decision of managerial effectiveness. Emotional intelligence is measured by using the Emotional Quotient Index (Rahim et al., 2002) [Rahim, M., Psenicka, C., Polychroniou, P., Zhao, J., Yu, C., Chan, K., Susana, K., Alves, M., Lee, C., Rahman, M.S., Ferdausy, S., & Wyk, R. (2002). A model of emotional intelligence and conflict management strategies: a study in seven countries. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 10(4), 302-326.] while managerial effectiveness is assessed by using Tsui’s (1984) scale [Tsui, A.S. (1984). A role set analysis of managerial reputation. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 34, 64-96.]. Data were collected by distributing self-administered questionnaires among the working MBA students using a convenience sampling technique. Respondents are asked to rate their emotional intelligence and managerial effectiveness scales. Finally 127 usable responses are received and, then, analyzed by using the descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation, and regression analysis. Analysis shows that emotional intelligence was positively related with interpersonal role, informational role, and decision role. The main implication is that emotional intelligence could enhance managerial effectiveness guiding the managers, academics, and professionals. The limitations are the sample size and the sampling technique which might limit the generalizability of the findings. Future directions are also discussed.

Credit risk consists of probability of non-return, which may be in the form of bankruptcy or a decrease in financial and credit situation of the lessee. The variables are extracted from the Central Bank. In this study the independent variables are measured with six factors that are called external factors. The external factors are size of leasing, ownership interest rate, foreign exchange, inflation, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The present study uses related observations from 31 leasing companies from 2008 to 2013 to find out the determinants of the credit risk. The combined evidences suggest that internal factors such as upfront prepayment, credit insurance contract, security deposits, time and period contract, collateral and guarantees, contract amount, as well as external factors such as interest rate, inflation, foreign exchange, Gross Domestic Product infrastructure, and credit risk are determinants in the policy-making process involving the industrial leasing. Furthermore, the empirical results indicate the size of leasing and ownership are not the significant determinants of credit risk. The results of this dissertation provide several implications for policy-makers in the leasing industry. Policy-makers will be better off employing different procedures for leasing activities in the leasing industry.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to determine factors influencing on content marketing in banking industry. The study designs a questionnaire consists of 40 questions in Likert scale and distributes it among 550 randomly selected regular customers of Bank Mellat in city of Tehran, Iran and 400 properly filled questionnaires are collected. Cronbach alphas for all components of the survey are well above desirable level. Using principle component analysis with Varimax rotation, the study has determined six factors influencing the most on content marketing including organization, details, having new ideas, quality, sensitivity and power while the last component contains only two subcomponents and is removed from the study.

The term innovation which is about the novelty on products, processes, services, technologies, on strategies or organizational structures is important for companies to stay in the competition and run their businesses well to gain both financial and organizational achievements. By the changing and globalizing world, innovation may require some interaction and cooperation which is called open innovation. In this research, five factors including brainstorming, feedback, benchmarking, open-minded mentality and relationship with supply chain elements triggering open innovation are investigated and ranked by one of the multi-criteria decision making models called ELECTRE III according to two criteria of inbound and outbound innovations.

E-commerce as one of the most significant aspects of innovation in business processes is what takes place in companies across the world. The gap between information and communications technology and e-business application is called the digital divide. It is necessary to understand the reasons for the failure of commercial sites. Here the objective is to assess the commercial sites of Iran. Different methods are adopted to evaluate sites and electronic stores. The balanced scorecard is a rarely adopted method of concern to evaluate these sites in Iran. The survey methodology and Delphi technique are applied in building the research tools, which led to the development of a questionnaire. Through applying the BSC approach, the numbers of indicators in each of the four perspectives of BSC were identified. The DEMATEL technique is applied to determine the importance of different perspectives and to identify the causal correlations among the four perspectives. The results generated by SMART PLS graphics, the Structural Equation Modeling software, confirm the adequacy of this proposed model for websites. The findings here indicate that the growth and learning perspective have the greatest impact on the other perspectives while the other perspectives mostly affect the financial perspective.

The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between procurement risk management practices and supply chain performance among mobile phone service providers in Kenya. The study specifically set out to establish the extent to which mobile phone service providers have implemented procurement risk management practices and to determine the relationship between procurement risk management practices and supply chain performance. The study adopted a descriptive study design by collecting data from the four (4) mobile telecommunication companies in Kenya using a self-administered questionnaire. Means, standard deviation, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data collected. The study established that most of the mobile phone service providers in Kenya had implemented procurement risk management practices. It was also clear that there was a very significant relationship between procurement risk management practices and supply chain performance.