Mobile Phone Sector Research Articles

Exploring The Factors That Influence Young Customers’ Purchase Intention Towards Smartphone

In an era dominated by digital advancements, mobile phones have morphed into an indispensable part of our daily lives. The market, saturated with a plethora of options, witnesses continuously evolving purchasing behaviors. This essay delineates the patterns and influences that guide consumers in the mobile phone market, emphasizing the pivotal role that brand loyalty, technological advancements, and pricing strategies play in shaping purchasing decisions. In contemporary society, mobile phones are not merely a tool for communication; they embody a person's lifestyle, preferences, and status. The dynamics of purchasing behavior in the mobile phone sector are shaped by several interplaying factors that include technological advancements, brand perception, marketing strategies, and personal preferences. This essay explores these dynamics, highlighting the underlying psychological and market forces steering the consumers' purchasing decisions. One of the critical influencers of purchasing behavior is brand loyalty, which stems from previous positive experiences, peer reviews, and the overall perception of the brand. Companies like Apple and Samsung have cultivated a fervent base of loyal customers ready to invest in their latest offerings, often irrespective of the price point. Brand loyalty is nurtured through consistent quality, innovative features, and a strong brand image that resonates with the target audience. This loyalty is not just an outcome of effective marketing strategies but also a result of establishing trust and reliability over time.

Window of the world: Transparency, digital placemaking, and Shenzhen Urbanism

Shenzhen, the first Special Economic Zone established in 1979 in southern China, has transformed from a global electronics manufacturing hub and counterfeiting capital into a UNESCO City of Design within the span of four decades. This article examines three digital-imaging practices that emanate from the city to explore the city's multiple connections to globalization from above and globalization from below. The first is the 2004 narrative film The World, directed by Jia Zhang-ke (often known as a Sixth-Generation Chinese auteur) and based in part on lead actress Zhao Tao's experience working in Shenzhen's Window of the World theme park. The second is Shenzhen-based company Transsion's design of smart phones for the African market, which have roots in the city's Shanzhai (i.e. “knockoff”) mobile phone sector. The third is large-scale light shows around the city in 2018–2019 that turn the facades of high-rises into electronic screens, featuring LED-light imageries generated by algorithms. Utilizing digital media to illuminate Shenzhen as a networked place in the world, these relational place-making practices simultaneously engage with and reveal the contradictions of transparency as a normative ideal upheld by global tech giants and Euro-American governments. Together, they provide a distinctive window to discern China's cultural and political dilemmas in the 21st century.

Firm exit from open multiparty alliances: The role of social influence, uncertainty, and interfirm imitation in collective technology development

This study examines exit dynamics in open multiparty alliances, an important form of interfirm collaboration that includes committee-based standard-setting organizations, research and technology consortia, and other types of open meta-organizations. Open multiparty alliances differ markedly from more commonly studied dyadic alliances and closed multiparty alliances due to the open nature of membership and the broad diversity of firms that collaborate towards shaping the trajectory of emerging technologies in a sector. Drawing from literature on interfirm imitation, we posit that under conditions of elevated uncertainty about the technologies under development and the ability of diverse alliance members to work together effectively, firms are subject to social influence from their industry peers and thus tend to imitate them in exiting open multiparty alliances. However, we also argue that firms that are central in the wider network of alliances have access to superior information on sector developments as well as key resources that immunize them from such social influence effects. Analyses of the exit dynamics of the nine most influential open multiparty alliances that shaped the global mobile phone sector between 2000 and 2012 support our predictions. Our findings contribute to research on interfirm collaboration in technology-intensive contexts, in particular on open collaboration between multiple partners.

The Mediation Effect of Customer Satisfaction on The Relationship Between Service Marketing Mix, Service Orientation, and The Service Quality and Customer Loyalty:

This study examines the mediation effect of customer Satisfaction on the relationship between service marketing mix, service orientation, service quality, and customer loyalty using a case study of clients of a mobile phone carrier in In Iraq Kurdistan Region.. In this study, the product categories of mobile phone services, which have a variety of items on the market, used. The mobile phone service provider's goods for mobile phone services with various characteristics were the research objects in this study. In 2020, the research sample included all Erbil-resident mobile phone users. The population in this study was unbounded because it was impossible to determine the exact number of clients. Two hundred people took part in the survey. In this study, the structural equation model (SEM) analysis method was used, and the Partial least Squares (PLS) approach was used to analyze and test the study model. The application of the service marketing mix, service orientation, and service quality by the company shows that not all factors can immediately affect customer loyalty; instead, they must first affect customer satisfaction. This means that in order to build customer loyalty, a company must first understand what its customers need by considering the service marketing mix, service orientation, and service quality. This accomplished by tracking customer satisfaction levels. To increase customer satisfaction and loyalty to mobile phone carrier services, particularly in Erbil, the service quality of the mobile phone sector must be improved. This paper is distinguished by the following features: (1) the Sobel test-based mediation effect of customer satisfaction on the impact of service quality, service orientation, and the service marketing mix on customer loyalty; and (2) the research site mobile phone Services in Erbil, Kurdistan, where no previous studies investigated this connection.

Harnessing the potential of digital data for infectious disease surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Despite efforts by the WHO to support local surveillance strategies in developing countries, there is a lack of robust public health surveillance frameworks. As a result, early infectious disease outbreak detection and response remain a significant challenge for local health systems in low-resource settings such as sub-Saharan African countries. In contrast, the growing digital infrastructure, especially in the mobile phone sector, and the global availability of extensive digital data offer promising solutions to enhance and strengthen epidemiological surveillance. Yet, there is little insight into concepts of utilisation and transfer into local public health practice. Using Tanzania as an example, a novel electronic surveillance and early outbreak alert framework is being developed that links signals on emerging diseases with relevant contextual Open Data for rapid outbreak risk assessment. The concept focuses on haemorrhagic fever diseases, specifically dengue virus disease, which is increasingly spreading in sub-Saharan Africa. A data stack framework forms the core of the system, which augments electronic information on the occurrence of acute haemorrhagic fever syndrome, e.g., collected via mobile phone-based surveillance tools, with openly available socio-ecological context data specific to dengue. Preliminary results on the data and information flow within the surveillance framework are presented and strategies for an automated indicator-based risk assessment for dengue outbreaks will be discussed, supplemented by an agent-based simulation framework to model possible short-term outbreak scenarios. In addition, adequate data inputs, identified through an appraisal of various data sources available for Tanzania, are outlined. The framework could serve as a blueprint for designing locally implementable early warning and decision support systems integrated with existing digital surveillance infrastructure. Key messages • Digital health surveillance and Open Data offer great potential for early outbreak detection and supporting health decisions but require tailored solutions to benefit low-resource settings. • Building on existing digital surveillance infrastructure, the framework may serve as a blueprint for designing an enhanced surveillance and decision support system for infectious disease outbreaks.

Assessing the Barriers Towards the Glocalization of India’s Mobile Industry: An IVIFs-DEMATEL with Choquet Integral Method

Although mobile brands from various countries have taken to the global market, some brands are left to be GLOCALised (local to global). The nonGLOCALisation of these brands are due to some unseen hindrances. This paper is unique in its aim to analyze the challenges faced by local mobile phone supply chains (MPSC) from entering the global market in an Indian context. We analyze the barriers’ entry by combining the IVIFs-DEMATEL method with Choquet Integral; also, we compare the obtained results to those from the IVIFs-DEMATEL methodology. The differentiated analysis reveals that ‘Equipment Vendor Restrictions’ and ‘Lack of Awareness about Reverse Logistics’ are the main hindrances preventing local manufacturers from reaching the global space. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest that ‘Carrier Aggregation Complexity’, ‘Equipment Vendor Restrictions’, and ‘Challenge to Recycling of Plastics’ are vital factors nonconducive towards the smooth working of local mobile makers across the country. The results can help domestic policymakers to improve their decision-making while trying to find ways for the globalization of the mobile phone sector.

IIDMCC: An Innovation Idea Discovery Model Using Online Customers Complaint Messages

<p>Online customers’ complaints have attracted increasing attention to innovation developers. By applying text mining and classification-oriented data mining techniques, an innovation idea discovery model using online customers’ complaint messages (IIDMCC) was proposed and implemented in this article. Methods included text mining to derive bags of words, sparsity exclusion to produce a term matrix, and supervised classification data mining to reveal decision rules. The IIDMCC showed 90.63% prediction accuracy based on 14720 complaint messages collected from official forum and online communities of a case company in the mobile phone sector from Taiwan. Validation of data inputs, method, and outputs was conducted via case company specialists. The article concludes that analyses of online complaint messages may potentially contribute to the exploration and discovery of innovation ideas. The paper demonstrates the use of mining open textual data in general and complaint messages in particular in the domain of knowledge discovery in databases.</p> <p> </p>

Customer Retention: Behaviour Perspective Model of Ghanaian Telecommunication Industry Using Multinomial Regression Analysis

To stay competitive, the mobile telecommunication companies spend millions of Ghana cedi each year on building long-term relationships with their customers. Marketing managers are constantly challenged with the problem of where to channel the limited resources in order to retain existing customers. This study approaches the customer retention problem in the mobile phone sector from a behavioural perspective, applying the Behavioural Perspective Model as the main analytical framework and further exploits some other factors that influence customer retention. The model includes a set of pre-behaviour and post-behaviour factors to study consumer choice, and explains its relevant drivers in a viable and comprehensive way, grounded in radical behaviourism. Data for the analysis were collected from tertiary students from Accra and Takoradi. Data collected were analysed using the multinomial regression technique. Analysis of the data revealed that the Behaviour setting factor is the only significant element in Behaviour Perspective Model. Further exploitation of behaviour situation revealed that the number of networks a customer uses, previous experience of a customer and customer’s intention are significant factors in determining customer retention in Ghana’s mobile telecommunication industry.

Effect of strategic leadership capabilities on the development of organizational citizenship behavior

Committed employees always demonstrate their organizational citizenship behavior by offering services beyond their leaders’ expectations. They achieve their goals under the leadership of executives with the capabilities to guide the organization to the future. This study examines the impact of strategic leadership capabilities on organizational citizenship behavior in companies offering mobile services in Zimbabwe. To collect data, a survey research method is employed using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. Ninety-four questionnaires were randomly distributed to employees of three mobile service providers and a sector regulator in Harare province, Zimbabwe. Eighty-seven questionnaires were completed and returned. Data analysis follows a multiple regression method using the IBM SPSS v27 software to test hypotheses. The study also employs the Sobel test to investigate the mediation effect of organizational commitment on organizational citizenship behavior. Regression model results show that strategic leadership capabilities have a significant effect on organizational citizenship behavior. They further have a statistically significant effect on organizational citizenship behavior through organizational commitment. The results suggest that strategic leaders in the mobile phone sector in Zimbabwe should develop and strengthen strategic leadership capabilities to drive the commitment of their employees to encourage the development of organizational citizenship behavior. Committed employees will offer their services beyond their call of duty.

Analysis of Moderating Role of Customer Communication on the Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction: Evidence from Kenya’s Mobile Phones Sector

The study examined the moderating effect of customer communication on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in mobile phone firms in Kenya. By utilizing, correlational survey design, the study focused on primary data collected from Kenya’s mobile phone sectors by targeting 384 sample respondents out of the possible 32.7 million mobile phone subscribers. Specifically, one null hypothesis was formulated and tested. Pre-validated questionnaires were used to collected data. Moderated regression analysis was used to address specific objective on the moderating effect customer communication on the relationship between quality and satisfaction separately as well as test the corresponding hypothesis. The study revealed that relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction was positively moderated by customer communication. The study concludes that customer communication strategies as was practiced by mobile phone firms improve the satisfaction levels through its interactive effect. Thus, it is recommended that Firms in mobile phone sector should consider integrating all customer communications efforts to achieve common purpose of enhancing customer satisfaction.

Strategic responses to extreme institutional challenges: An MNE case study in the Palestinian mobile phone sector

Besides firm-level resources and industrial influences, firms’ strategies have been related to their institutional contexts. Empirical studies have investigated survival strategies in international environments where institutional voids, barriers and violence have had independent influences.This study is the first to analyse strategies in circumstances that combine all these negative challenges. In the Palestinian mobile phone industry, a surviving MNE has faced not only violence, voids and institutional barriers imposed by three different governments, but also the liability of foreignness and its associated uncertainties.In a highly uncertain environment, it is found that being a MNE brings benefits as well as liabilities of foreignness. Furthermore, this MNE discloses many strategic responses to institutional challenges that are associated with positive outcomes, even in a most extreme Palestinian environment that produces the most propitious circumstances for negative responses and outcomes.

Catch-up and the entry strategies of latecomers: Chinese firms in the mobile phone sector

Abstract As interfaces between human beings and the digital world, mobile phones have evolved from relatively simple devices (e.g., feature phones) to complex products (e.g., smartphones). Many firms in emerging countries such as China have successfully entered the mobile phone sector. A research question that emerges from the evidence on China is whether the entry strategies of these catching up firms have been affected by the introduction of smartphones. In order to investigate this question, the article follows the methodology of evolutionary theory and history-friendly models. It first examines historically the various strategies of the Chinese entrants in the mobile phone sector. On the basis of this empirical analysis, it then develops appreciative theorizing on the factors that have affected the catch-up entry strategies. Our results show that the successful catch-up entry strategies differ depending on the sectoral environment. A technology-driven strategy is more appropriate when there is a market sheltered from competition, so that technological capabilities can be accumulated; on the contrary a marketing-driven strategy is more appropriate when standardized technological solutions become widely available. The article contributes to the catch-up literature by identifying a new entry strategy and by pointing at the role of the sectoral environment, and to the sectoral innovation system literature by addressing the catch-up strategies of latecomer firms under different technological, industrial structure, and market conditions.

Circular Economy in Mexico’s Electronic and Cell Phone Industry: Recent Evidence of Consumer Behavior

Circular Economy (CE) models are increasingly referenced in international fora and on many countries’ climate action agendas. This emphasis is associated with the international environmental and climate crisis. The case of the electronics industry remains particularly relevant, given its background in the use of CE models and its potential to enhance their use. This work focuses on consumer behavior regarding electronics products in Mexico. This is a largely under-researched topic not only in Mexico but also in Latin America. This study demonstrates that, by trying to extend the lifespan of their electronic products, consumers have awareness of product circularity. However, there is a lack of incentives to capitalize on this consumer interest, compounded by the limited participation of manufacturers and distributors. It is concluded that with a well-designed public policy, the electronics industry (including the mobile phone sector) in Mexico can move toward a CE model more rapidly. A stronger initiative for CE by design should be part of these policies, not only in Mexico but also internationally. The role of better eco-labelling in promoting consumers’ environmental awareness is essential. The lessons of this case study might be of interest to other countries as well.

EMERGENCE OF ECONOMIC INTELLIGENCE APPROACH IN WEST AFRICA: CASE OF A TELCO IN BURKINA FASO

This paper focuses on the relationship between economic intelligence (EI, understood in the informational sense of the term, Martre (1994) and performance. It raises the question of the impact of the deployment of EI on improving the company’s results. Our theoretical approach is based on the corpus of management of the EI system, which is a dedicated IS. The epistemological positioning is of the constructivist type and the methodological approach, of the qualitative type. As for our approach, it is based on an exploration based on a case study in the mobile phone sector investigated in 2018 in BurkinaFaso, especially in the city of Ouagadougou. Our results showthat steering the dynamics of EI improves the performance of the organization in the terms of achieving pre-established objectives. This case study addresses its own limits and it may be subject to some extensions in the future.

Optimization of Supplier Development under Market Dynamics

Over the last decades, supplier development has become an increasingly important concept to remain competitive in today’s markets. Therefore, manufacturers invest resources in their suppliers to increase their abilities and, ultimately, to reduce their product prices. Thereby, most approaches found in the literature focus on long-term supplier development programs. Nevertheless, today’s volatile and dynamic markets require flexible approaches to deal with this complexity. We apply Model Predictive Control to optimize the number of supplier development projects in order to achieve flexibility while maintaining a certain level of security for all parties. Thereby, the article focusses on a multimanufacturer scenario, where two manufacturers aim to develop the same supplier. These manufacturers can establish different levels of horizontal collaboration. While previous results already show the benefits of applying this approach to a static scenario, this article extends this formulation by introducing market dynamics in the numerical simulations as well as into the optimization approach. Thus, the article proposes to derive regression models using real-world data. The article evaluates the effects of real-world market dynamics on two use cases: an automotive use case and a use case from the mobile phone sector. The results show that assuming market dynamics during the optimization leads to increased or at least close-to-equal revenues across the involved partners. The average increase ranges from approximately 1% to 5% depending on the type and magnitude of the dynamics. Thereby, the results differ depending on the selected collaboration scheme. While a full-cooperative collaboration scheme benefits the least from regarding dynamics in the optimization, it results in the highest overall revenue across all partners.

Cep telefonu pazarında müşteri memnuniyetini etkileyen faktörlerin ACSI modeliyle araştırılması

Cep telefonu sektörü, teknolojiyle beraber her geçen yıl daha fazla gelişerek inovasyonun en önemli faktör olduğu bir sektör haline gelmektedir. Her marka tüketiciyi daha iyiye ve daha yeniye kavuşturmak için çaba göstermekte, yüzlerce ürün tasarlanmaktadır. Bu durum tüketicinin karar vermesi için çok fazla faktörün ortaya çıkmasına neden olmaktadır. Böylelikle özellikle cep telefonu pazarında müşteri memnuniyetini sağlamak büyük önem taşımaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Amerikan Müşteri Memnuniyeti Modeli (ACSI) ile İzmir’de yaşayan ve akıllı telefon kullanan insanların cep telefonu markalarına olan memnuniyet ve sadakatlerini araştırmaktır. Modelin test edilmesinde Yapısal Eşitlik Modeli (YEM) kullanılmıştır. Araştırma modelinde yer alan faktörler; Algılan Kalite, Algılanan Değer, Müşteri Şikayetleri, Müşteri Beklentileri ve Müşteri Sadakatidir. Çalışmada kullanılan veriler, İzmir’de Bornova, Karşıyaka, Foça, Buca, Çiğli, Bayraklı ilçelerinde ikamet eden farklı meslek ve yaş gruplarına ait kişiler arasından rastgele seçilen 319 kişiye birebir görüşme neticesinde anket yapılarak elde edilmiştir. Çalışmada, önerilen araştırma modeli YEM ile analiz edilmiş ve modelin uygunluğu çeşitli uyum ölçütlerine göre değerlendirilmiştir. Model uyumu için hesaplanan ki-kare değeri 290,60 ve (χ2/sd) değeri ise 2,64 olarak hesaplanmıştır. Verilerin analizlerden; memnuniyet ile şikâyet ve sadakat arasındaki ilişki katsayıları sırasıyla 0,76 ve 0,94 olarak hesaplanmıştır.

Does a difference in the number of response categories change the results for ACSI in the mobile phone sector?

This study aims to contribute to making customer satisfaction measurement more efficient in the mobile phone sector. For this purpose, data were collected from 3,342 mobile phone users living in five different cities in Turkey. A self-administered questionnaire was used in this study. Five different surveys were used, with the same questions but with different categories of response (4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, and 10-point scales). The research instrument items were adapted from the American customer satisfaction index (ACSI). With the dataset of each response category, the models were installed and subsequently compared. The originality of the study is due to the comparison of the models created with different datasets. According to the findings obtained, different response categories did not make a considerable difference in the measurement of customer satisfaction.

Does a difference in the number of response categories change the results for ACSI in the mobile phone sector

Does a difference in the number of response categories change the results for ACSI in the mobile phone sector

Workplace fraud and theft in SMEs

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate employee fraud within small enterprises in the Nigerian mobile phone sector. It also seeks to understand the key factors that motivate employees to engage in fraudulent behaviours against their employers, and the consequences of these fraudulent behaviours on small businesses (SMEs) in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study involves the use of quantitative research. Data were collected through structured questionnaires from 159 business owners, sales representatives, cashiers and suppliers. Frequency distribution, percentages, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the collected data.FindingsThe findings from this research show a significant relationship between personal and organisational factors and employee theft. Particularly, organisational factors made the strongest positive contribution to employee theft. The research also revealed that employee theft had significant effects on employers but less significance on employees. In addition, the research revealed that many businesses did not have preventive measures against employee theft in their firms. The findings of this study were compared with existing literature.Originality/valueThis study shows the relationship between different factors that could cause an employee to engage in fraudulent behaviours, particularly in SMEs in Nigeria.

Dissemination of Consumer Law and Policy in South Africa

This article considers to what extent some important areas of South African consumer law have been influenced by the laws of international bodies, other countries or regional bodies or, in turn, influenced other laws in Southern Africa and beyond. It focuses on rules on product safety, product liability, remedies for defective quality of goods, some basic rules on unfair commercial practices and various aspects of consumer law relating to the use of mobile phones by South African consumers. The main piece of legislation considered is the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (“CPA”), which came into force in 2011. The article considers whether aspects of this legislation were influenced by the EC Product Safety Directive, EC Product Liability Directive, EC Consumer Sales Directive, EC Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and EC Directive on Misleading and Comparative Marketing. It shows how the relevant provisions of the CPA influenced the laws of some African countries. The article also considers various issues faced by consumers in the mobile phone sector, including defective handsets, defective services, the high cost of mobile calls and data, the lapsing of “unused” data after short periods, data “disappearing” faster than expected, unfair contract terms, unsolicited marketing and the complexity of mobile phone contracts, which leads consumers to overestimate or underestimate their future usage, therefore paying too much because they are on an ill-suited plan. Conclusion of agreements via mobile phones, marketing of additional services like ringtones and apps and unsolicited marketing via mobile phones are also considered. Some complaints regarding the use of mobile phones should be better provided for in legislation, and enforcement of consumer rights in this sector could be improved.