Clientele Base Research Articles

“THE NUMBER ONE CHINA-JAPAN CAMERA HOUSE”: CHIYO YOKO PHOTO SUPPLIES AND THE BUSINESS OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN INTERWAR SHANGHAI

Chiyo Yoko Photo Supplies emerged as a leading specialty store catering to the highly international population of photographers in the international treaty port of Shanghai, the beating heart of art, culture, and commerce in early twentieth-century China. Drawing on Chinese, Japanese, and English-language period sources, this essay reconstructs the profile of this influential Japanese retailer, examining its committed investments in the business and culture of photography during this formative period of amateur photography in China. The store’s multifaceted retail marketing strategies, ranging from advertising in multiple languages to its backing of a photographic society and organization of a large-scale international exhibition, cultivated a cosmopolitan clientele base spanning the diverse communities of Chinese and foreign nationals in the city. This case study recaptures the transnational dynamics and cross-border movements of people and goods that empowered photography as a business, which in turn galvanized the popularization of amateur photography during this period of heightened national consciousness in modern China.

Determinants of private practice in social work: a survey of Zimbabwean social workers

ABSTRACT In developing countries like Zimbabwe, the issue of private practice in social work is at a formative stage. This paper explored the opinion of social workers regarding the issue of private practice in social work in the country. Using quantitative research design, data was collected from randomly sampled social workers (n = 462) from various fields of practices. The study findings revealed that the majority (47%) of social workers (n = 218) strongly believed that they ought to venture into private practice. Based on the regression models, the following factors were statistically significant (ρ < .05) in predicting engagement in private practice: desire to expand resource base, quest to create employment, professional empowerment, professional autonomy, improved quality of services, influence from other professions, favorable regulatory environment, desire to reach new clients, existence of wider clientele base, improving professional identity, and knowledge base. The study recommends increased public debates, development of private practice legal framework, and inter-professional collaboration with other professions. The paper concluded that private practice in social work is a welcome initiative among Zimbabwean social workers and there is a need for increased publicity in this area.

Factors Affecting the Business Performance of the Companies: Evidence from Vietnam Listed Banks

The study was meant to investigate factors affecting the business performance at Vietnam listed joint stock commercial banks. The study aimed at finding out how clientele, source of funds, leadership and promotional strategies, government regulations, macroeconomics factors influenced the business performance of Vietnam listed commercial banks. The study adapted a descriptive research design as a major method of research where questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of Vietnam listed joint stock commercial banks. Data collection was both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using questionnaires distributed to the banks’ employees. They were designed to obtain broad range of answers from respondents which were used to answer the research questions. They comprised of close ended questions and secondary data was gathered from previous studies and annual reports of banks. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data and the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 21.0) and advanced Excel were used. Reports were tabulated using frequency tables for clarity. The results established the relationship between business performance as a dependent variable and the independent variables including clientele, and source of funds, promotional strategies and leadership. The study findings showed a great influence of funds and clientele on the performance of commercial banks, followed by promotional strategies. Leadership was found to have less influence on performance of the bank. The study suggests to the financial sector players to maintain a sufficient clientele base and embrace healthy competition. The findings should draw the attention of scholars, the government and the private sector to help in ensuring economic stability of this country as banking is a major sector of the economy.

Cultivating consumer subjective well-being through online brand communities: a multidimensional view of social capital

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the role of multidimensional social capital and consumer subjective well-being in online brand communities (OBCs). The aim was to provide practical guidance to global brand marketers for cultivating and strengthening OBC operations, optimizing consumer-brand-community relationships and creating value in the digital age.Design/methodology/approachA total of 576 valid questionnaires were collected through an online survey, and the model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling.FindingsIn OBCs, the cognitive dimension of social capital (i.e. shared language and shared vision) strongly affects the relational dimension of social capital (i.e. social trust and reciprocity). Both these dimensions also positively influence consumer community subjective well-being, which, in turn, enhances consumer brand subjective well-being. Thus, community subjective well-being has a mediating role in the aforementioned relationship, and brand community is an antecedent to brand subjective well-being.Research limitations/implicationsFuture studies should investigate other dimensions of social capital and well-being, as well as moderator variables, social environments and types of culture.Originality/valueThis study constructed a conceptual framework that focused on the effect of multidimensional social capital in OBCs to elucidate antecedents of brand subjective well-being from the perspectives of social networks and relationships. Moreover, it examined how brands strategically expand their clientele base with regard to target customers.

Cooperative Unit Systems: 1. Introduction and Raising Market Animals in a Group Setting

Traditionally, organizations such as 4-H have encouraged youth to participate in market animal projects as a way of increasing youth participation and introducing youth to production agriculture. As the demographics shift to a more urban clientele base for 4-H, there are new barriers of entry to market animal projects that were not seen in generations past. To address these barriers of entry, systems such as cooperative animal units have been setup. This 3-page document discusses components and limitations of cooperative animal units. Written by Alyssa Schortinghouse, and published by the UF/IFAS 4-H Youth Development Department, August 2020.

Loan Portfolio Quality of Microfinance Institutions in Uganda: A Qualitative Assessment

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the loan portfolio quality of Uganda’s Microfinance institutions. Specifically, the study investigated respondents’ perception of capital structure, cost of capital, credit risk management, and quality of clientele base and their impact on loan portfolio quality. The study adopted an exploratory research design. The point of saturation was achieved after 16 managers (10 credit managers and 6 senior managers) were interviewed. Data were analyzed using content analysis techniques with the aid of NVivo version 12 software, and verbatism tests were used to explain the emergent themes. The findings indicate that capital structure was perceived as internal and external funding, cost of capital was perceived as pricing of funds, credit risk management was perceived as client/borrower engagement, quality of clientele base was perceived as social capital and loan portfolio quality was perceived as repayment. The findings suggested that funding, pricing of funds, client/borrower engagement, and social capital influence loan repayment. The study recommends that MFIs should source for affordable lines of credit, employ competent staff, ensure due diligence, further financial education, and ensure client sensitization. The study confirmed the relevance of the Modern Portfolio Theory in explaining loan portfolio quality. Future studies could investigate the loan portfolio quality of Microfinance Institutions in Sub Saharan Africa to find out whether the results would be similar.

A Study of Growth Trends in Contemporary Art in Yenagoa: A Historical Account from 1996-2016

Most of the present day artists in Yenagoa, whose artworks have enriched the contemporary art scene in Bayelsa State within the past two decades (1996 to 2016), have not gained much recognition as their counterparts elsewhere in Nigeria, such as those in Lagos, Abuja, amongst others. The reason for this setback has been linked to lack of those basic elements or factors that aid the growth of art in the State. This has its crippling effect on art and its practice in Yenagoa. Consequently, this paper seeks to document the gradually developing trends of contemporary art in Yenagoa. It investigates the factors aiding, or militating against the growth of contemporary art in Yenagoa. The study was entirely carried out on the field, and the method of data collection was by personal interviews. Data from secondary sources were used as well. It adopted the art historical method of enquiry in the humanities, and the approach was basically contextual. The study determined that the growth of contemporary art practice in Yenagoa is hindered by certain factors which range from the dearth of art space, and little or no funding for the artist due to low clientele base; and non-sponsorship for the artist by the government. These factors have resulted in lack of regular exhibitions and nonexistence of other programmes which are fundamental to the development of art. Keywords: art criticism, artistic ecology, art space, clientele DOI : 10.7176/ADS/72-02 Publication date : April 30 th 2019

Effects of Mobile Money on Beige Bank, Ghana

The motivation for this study was that, existing literature have reported on the growth of mobile money (MM) and its clientele base. However, studies on the effects of mobile money service on customers and performance of an individual bank; challenges, threats, and opportunities mobile money service presents to an individual bank are very rare to find so adding to the existing studies on the sector will help provide more insight into the operations of the sector and direct policy decisions of policy-makers, bank officials, and telecom operators. This study sought to find out how mobile money services have affected customers and performance of Beige Bank in Ghana. The research is a descriptive survey design that presents results in mean scores, frequency distribution tables, pie charts, bar graph, and Chi-square test of relationship. The study found that mobile money service had a positive effect on customers’ remittances. Also, mobile money positively influenced customers’ saving habits. Furthermore, majority of the respondents had bank accounts, mobile money accounts, and still engaged in MM transactions. Again, instead of being a threat, mobile money presents opportunities like, cross selling of products, increase in customer base through the registration of mobile money agents, and increased bank commissionIt is recommended that Beige Bank, Ghana and other banks in Ghana should focus on getting mobile agents to save and buy E-cash from them, and develop mobile phone apps which provide access to mobile money service where customers can easily transfer money between their bank accounts and their mobile money wallets.

Impact of banking innovations on customer attraction, satisfaction and retention: the case of commercial banks in Botswana

This study investigates the impact of banking innovations on customers' attraction, satisfaction and retention amongst commercial banks in Botswana. To analyse the data, descriptive and inferential statistics are utilised. The study offers evidence of antecedents of banking innovations from a developing country (Botswana). The results indicate that, innovative banks are likely to attract and satisfy their customers. These findings offer useful understanding of commercial banks, specifically when embarking on introduction of innovative practices that seeks to attract, satisfy and retain customers in the rapidly changing and competitive environment. The conclusion of the study emphasises the application of innovative practices as a way to increase commercial banks' clientele base, which, in turn, results in competitive performance. The research offers insights into commercial innovative practices, which have influence on customers' attraction, satisfaction and retention. The study's key limitations arise from sample size, perhaps a more robust sample size in a different geographical would suffice.

The Ambulance: Toward a Labor Theory of Poverty Governance

This article reimagines poverty governance as a labor process. Extending theories of bureaucratic fields and street-level bureaucracies, the proposed model suggests that the state manages the poor through fragmented activities embedded in horizontal and vertical relations of production. I use an ethnography of 911 ambulance operations in a single California county to advance this perspective. From plugging gunshot wounds to moving sidewalk slumberers, ambulance crews interact with a mostly impoverished clientele base by transforming spaces in bodies and bodies in spaces. This two-sided governance puts the ambulance in recurrent contact with the hospital emergency department and the police squad car. Across these institutions, ambulance crews struggle with their nurse and police counterparts over the horizontal shuffling of burdensome work, shaping the life chances of their subjects in the process. At the same time, bureaucratic and capitalistic forces from above activate a lean ambulance fleet that is minimally wasteful and highly flexible. This verticality structures clientele processing through the ambulance and fuels tensions across the frontlines of governance. In an effort to advance theory and fill an empirical gap, this article proposes a new model for understanding the management of marginality and highlights an overlooked case of poverty regulation.

Relational capital quality and client loyalty: firm-level evidence from pharmaceuticals, Pakistan

Purpose – This study aims to examine the influence of relational capital quality on client loyalty, comprising both behavioral and attitudinal, in the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach – The partial least squares technique is used to test the relationship using a sample of 111 pharmaceutical firms. We applied a non-parametric procedure, the bootstrapping method, to estimate the coefficient path of the relationships. Appropriate construct measures were used based on past studies to measure the dimensions of relational capital quality and client loyalty. Findings – The findings suggest that relational capital quality significantly affects client loyalty. All three dimensions of relational capital quality, commitment, satisfaction and trust, have a significant and positive influence on both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. However, client satisfaction is found to exert the strongest impact on behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. Practical implications – It is important for the pharmaceutical firms in Pakistan to improve client satisfaction to establish behavioral loyalty and sustain their clientele base. Trust and commitment should be managed independently, depending on the focus of firms, either attitudinal loyalty or behavioral loyalty. Originality/value – This study is among the few that was able to empirically examine the role of various dimensions of relational capital quality in influencing clients’ attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. In addition, the study uses a new firm-level data set, compiled from a survey of the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan, which is currently facing challenges in terms of customer–supplier sensitivity.

Strategic Destination Management in the Face of Foreign Competition: The Case of Macao SAR

ABSTRACTThis study illustrates that the gaming market is underutilized in mainland China, and legalizing casino gambling is strategically helpful in mitigating the problem of market underutilization and preventing a mass exodus of capital to foreign gaming establishments. An analytic model is constructed to analyze and predict the possible consequences of such a prospective policy for a major gaming destination: Macao. To maintain its economic prosperity, Macao is advised to upgrade its gaming facilities and service levels, and to promote itself as a world-class gambling destination. In the long term, it must widen its clientele base and diversify its economy.

THE MASSTIGE PARADOX IN CHINA: A BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION OPPORTUNITY FOR INDEPENDENT LUXURY COMPANIES?

Over the years, luxury has built-up a reputation as recession proof industry. Even though the industry growth has slowed down in the mid 2000s, luxury firms have managed to cope with economic contingencies and shortening traditional demand by widening their clientele base to prestige mass consumption-the masstige clientele. Doing so, luxury firms have been pursuing a dual strategy by wooing aspirational consumers as well as their traditional elite customers, thus managing the challenge of handling both a differentiation strategy based on scarcity and uniqueness, and increased volumes of sales. This has been a trend in mature markets such as Europe, the United States and Japan, but was significantly fostered by expanding into emerging markets. Sector specialists thus expect China to remain a major structural growth area in the medium term, where the number of both high-end clients as well as new aspirational consumers will substantially increase and influence firms strategy.

IS SOCIAL MEDIA AN EFFECTIVE STRATAGEM FOR INDIAN LAW FIRMS

After evincing the importance and impact of social media over various sectors, this paper attempts to explore the relationship between social media usage by the Indian law firms. In addition it examines the various factors that are instrumental in influencing the Indian law firms to increase their business development. The paper envisages on the need and ways through which law firms can use the social media to enhance their clientele base. Indian lawyers can have a broadened view on the usage of social media and the related benefit thereof through this study. The application of attribution modeling is also initiated in this study and a framework is suggested for the law firm to enhance the firm's performance. Recently, social media monopoly has gained importance that lead to a need to analyze whether it plays a vital role in Indian law firms too or not. This study ensures if the social media has any business development impact on Indian law firms. The sample size was 75 numbers of Indian law firms. Those attributes that contributes towards social media usage were measured using attribute mapping model. The relationship between the type of social media, its reach and outcome in terms of leads were explored in this study. The assessment of the social media usage by Indian law was done through online-questionnaires and telephonic interview schedules. The methodology for analyzing included rotation matrix of the attributes identified chi square analysis, attribution and engagement mapping in social marketing. The main objective of the study ensured of the below: * Assessing social media's best practices that are bench marked at a global level and compared with that of the findings of the study. * To scale the initiative of social sharing of law firm content and the relevant benefit of sharing. * To measure the internal employee engagement through social media and related aspects namely - morale, team work,collaboration. * To evince the impact of attribution mapping and social media engagement relationships over the business development. * Finally whether Indian law firms can use social media as astratagem and elaborated on how effectively it can be utilized to enhance the business development.

Market Segmentation Strategies Used by Chloride Exide Kenya Limited as a Competitive Advantage Tool

Market segmentation used as a strategy by firms can enhance their profitability and increase their competitiveness. Chloride Exide Kenya Limited has used it to target particular sections of the market and introduce specific products. A firm’s relative position within its industry determines whether a firm’s profitability is above or below the industry average. The fundamental basis of above average profitability in the long run is sustainable competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is a position that a firm occupies in its competitive landscape. A competitive advantage, sustainable or not, exists when a company makes economic sense that is, their earnings exceed their costs (including cost of capital). That means that normal competitive pressures are not able to drive down the firm’s earnings to the point where they cover all costs and just provide minimum sufficient additional return to keep capital invested. Most forms of competitive advantage cannot be sustained for any length of time because the promise of economic rents drives competitors to duplicate the competitive advantage held by any one firm (Porter, 1980).Market segmentation was found to influence the demand for products and services: in that different market segments had tailor-made products and services. The company’s segmentation strategy considered the customer’s needs, the purpose for their use for example power back-up systems ranging from the powering of lights to powering the computers and other electrical appliances. The findings indicate that the company offers a variety of products and services that might not be required by all customers thus they identity each markets’ needs; groups/segment these needs into a ‘market’ and position their products and services. The company’s segmentation is also helped by its wide branch network which covers a wide part of the country. The company covers corporate clients, hotels and hospitals that power backup systems for uninterruptible operations of their firms. It uses cluster system to analyze their customer base, target direct-mail campaigns and select branch locations through which it positions its product to the targeted segments. Apart from religion, it was established that personality, personal values and psychographic/lifestyle determined market segmentation.The study established that market segmentation leads to provision of lower prices, greater benefits and services that justifies the higher price. Lower prices offered by the company attract more clients thereby increasing clientele base. Provision of additional benefits such as longer warranty periods and presentations on how their products are supposed to work, targeting high income earners. This has helped give the company a competitive advantage. The study also established that market segmentation ensured customer retention as varied customer needs are catered for; lower prices for retail banking, shorter queues and personalized attention. The study indicated that the implementation of segmentation strategy is long term in nature. Further as the environment responds to the implementation of strategy is necessary and thus formulation is under constant review to accommodate effects of the interaction between the organization and environment.

The Associations Between Service Quality, Corporate Image, Customer Satisfaction, and Loyalty: Evidence From the Malaysian Hotel Industry

Hotel operators strive to satisfy the needs of their guests and subsequently retain them by trying to understand the factors that could build up a strong loyal clientele base. Previous studies have found that there are four critical perspectives related to the hotel industry that enable hotel operators to cope with the fierce competition in the industry and boost their profit margin: service quality, customer satisfaction, corporate image, and customer loyalty. This study attempts to evaluate the relationships between these perspectives. Systematic sampling approach was adopted in the study. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaires from 200 respondents. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the research model. The findings reveal that the four variables are significantly related to one another and they are useful for hotel operators to promote long-term business growth and ensure sustainability in the hotel industry in Malaysia.

Characterizing Language Usage in Formal and Informal Webpage Text Corpus

Language is an integral part of any culture. English has changed substantially in the last 1500 years of its use, reflecting patterns of contact with other languages and the changing communication needs of people. The significant changes in structure and use of language can be attributed to the effect of medium of communication. English is also the lingua franca of modern corporate world. With the advent of technologies that provide platforms for creation of virtual communities, the scope for influence of medium on language is substantial. Moreover technologies like World Wide Web and Internet has provided infinite communication avenues to corporate world, individual entrepreneurs and professionals to reach a wider clientele base for business. The ever increasing online user population is creating a vast amount of English text corpus which substantially reflects the patterns of language usage. This paper presents a perspective on the influence of computer-mediated communication on language usage in formal and informal context with special reference to empirical studies conducted using webpage text corpus. The issues considered in the analysis include language usage, special aspects of CMC, user population and the overall influence of communication technology on language and its repercussions in society.

Trade credit and supply chain delivery in the Ghanaian construction industry

PurposeTrade credit is treated as a financial intermediation device whereby construction vendors act as financial providers to their customers through deferred payments of goods purchased. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and report upon the key factors and motives influencing vendors' decision on trade credit provision to small to medium sized construction firms.Design/methodology/approachAdopting deductive methodological approach, this paper utilises a combination of primary data emanating from structured survey questionnaires supplemented by secondary source of data from an extensive literature review, to present insightful commentary about trade credit provision in Ghana. The structured survey questionnaire was administered to 100 construction vendor firms/suppliers to elicit relevant data about their trade credit intentions. Drawing upon the principles of a total design method (TDM) of survey, a relatively high response rate of 57 percent was achieved. Principal component (factor) analysis was adopted to obtain simplification of variables and to detect underlying dimensions and reveal potential complex structures within decision variables.FindingsThe underlying constructs and motives of vendors on trade credit were intricately interwoven in two principal factors: risk distribution and liquidity; and sustaining business relationship and liquidity. Despite the uncharacteristic manifestation of the liquidity measure being associated with the two principal components, the findings demonstrate the relative importance of liquidity in the trade credit debate. A critical observation stemming from the analysis was that trade policy was absent within the trade credit market in Ghana; this poses a potential threat to trade credit exchange and its development.Originality/valueThe paper's methodological approach is uniquely positioned between the conceptual and empirical interface and the overarching research is pioneering within the developing world nation of Ghana. The paper's findings will be useful to contractors, particularly, small and medium size contractors who are considering feasible finance options; and vendors who seek to consolidate their clientele base.

Organizational and Leadership Practice of Micro Ethnic Entrepreneurship in Multicultural Context: A Structural Reproduction Analysis

One of the salient developments in North America’s direct selling industry is the increasing diversity in both distributor and clientele base. It has been frequently noted that direct selling organizations comprised of certain ethnic minorities have been exceptional in terms of stability and growth in contrast to the industry’s reputation for a high turnover rate. Focusing on direct selling organizations led by ethnic entrepreneurs of Chinese immigrants, the current study employs structural ritualization theory and the concept of structural reproduction and considers organizational and leadership practices that are adapted by the immigrant entrepreneurs from their culture and pre-immigration experience. Utilizing participation observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions (along with document analysis), this study re-visits the time-honored issues of immigrant economic adaptation in a contemporary, multicultural context. Implications for future research, industry, and public policy based on our findings are also briefly discussed.

Stock splits in a retail dominant order driven market

This paper uses intraday and daily data from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) between 2002 and 2004 to provide evidence that firms use stock splits to bring their stock prices down to a preferred trading range of their clientele base. Stock splits reduce bid–ask spreads and intraday and daily price impact while increasing depths supplied by retail investors who account for 60–70% of trading on the SET. Firms that choose a high split factor experience greater improvement in liquidity. The study finds no evidence that split announcements are used to signal post-split earnings performance.