International journal of business 

About: International journal of business is an academic journal published by Premier Publishing. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Stock exchange & Stock market. It has an ISSN identifier of 1083-4346. Over the lifetime, 1589 publications have been published receiving 12515 citations. The journal is also known as: IJB.

Methods and Techniques of Social Research

Abstract: The purpose of methods and techniques of social research is to offer tools necessary for dealing with social problems through research in a scientific manner. The special emphasis of methods and techniques of social research arises mainly in the coverage of its materials. It contains both methods of collecting observations pertaining to social phenomena and techniques for analyzing them. The greatest advantage of having both methods and techniques within the same covers is that a researcher may easily establish a direct linkage between them and this may help greatly to choose an appropriate technique to analyze data.

Tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty intention: A structural and categorical analysis

Abstract: This study explores the relationship between travel satisfaction and destination loyalty intention. The research was conducted with 486 tourists visiting Arade, a Portuguese tourist destination. Taking as the basis the use of structural equation modelling (SEM), the results substantiate the importance of tourism satisfaction as a determinant of destination loyalty. Also, a categorical principal components analysis (CATPCA) provides a detailed analysis of this cause-effect relationship by establishing that greater levels of satisfaction (measured by overall satisfaction in terms of holiday experience, destination attributes and met expectations) result in increased likelihood of future repeat visits and a keen willingness to recommend the destination to others. Clusters of tourists were also identified and characterized in relation to satisfaction levels and loyalty intentions. These analyses provide a useful background in the planning of future tourist marketing strategies.

Organizational culture: association with commitment, job satisfaction, propensity to remain, and information sharing in Taiwan

Abstract: This study explores the association between organizational cultural values and employee responses in a major diversified manufacturing company in Taiwan. Strong positive associations are found between organizational cultural values of respect for people, innovation, stability and aggressiveness, and employee responses of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, propensity to remain with the organization, and information sharing behaviour. Some associations appear to be universal, cross-cultural tendencies, while others appear to reflect the specific national cultural context of Taiwan. The results also suggest that the organizational cultural values themselves may be more important influences on employee responses than the fit between culture and employee preferences for culture. Keywords: Organizational culture, National culture, Employee attitudes in Taiwan, Job related attitudes, Information sharing I. INTRODUCTION Organizational culture has been an important theme in the business and management literature for some two decades. One reason for this is that organizational culture has consistently been seen as having the potential to affect a range of organizationally and individually desired outcomes. Ritchie (2000, p. 1) notes that, from the time of the earliest writers on organizational culture (including, for example, Deal and Kennedy, 1982, and Ouchi, 1981), "it has been suggested that organizational culture affects such outcomes as productivity, performance, commitment, self confidence, and ethical behavior". Similarly, more recent writers have repeated the assumption that "organizational culture impacts significantly on an organization, its employees' behaviour and motivations and, ultimately, that organization's financial performance" (Holmes and Marsden, 1996, p. 26). Despite these claims, Detert et al. (2000) and Schein (1996) note that little empirical research has been conducted to provide evidential support. In particular, little empirical research has examined the impact of organizational culture on outcomes that have otherwise attracted considerable and consistent attention in the literature, including organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and propensity to remain with (or leave) the organization. These affective outcomes have been extensively studied both because of their intrinsic desirability to the individual employee (in the case of job satisfaction, for example) and because of their linkage to behavioural consequences desirable at an organizational level. (See, for example, Shore et al. (1995) and Lee and Mathur (1998) with respect to links between commitment and outcomes including work effort and productivity; Brief (1998) with respect to links between job satisfaction and multiple behavioural, attitudinal and job performance consequences; and Shaw et al. (1998) and Tsui et al. (1997) with respect to the organizational benefits and costs of employee retention and turnover.) Two studies which have examined organizational culture and outcomes are Sheridan (1992), who found an association between organizational cultural values and the rates at which new recruits voluntarily terminated their employment, and O'Reilly et al. (1991), who found an association between the fit of organizational culture with employee preferences for culture (the person-organization fit) and organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover. However, both these studies were conducted in the U.S. and, hence, within the particular national cultural context of that country. Chow (2000, p. 24), Agarwal et al. (1999, p. 728) and Lee and Mathur (1998) all point out the potential of national culture to influence relations between organizational characteristics (here, organizational culture) and employee outcomes. Because of this potential, and because of the ever-increasing globalization of business, Lee and Mathur (1998, p. 46) caution the extrapolation of "management experiences" in the U. …

Game Design as Marketing: How Game Mechanics Create Demand for Virtual Goods

Abstract: Selling virtual goods for real money is an increasingly popular revenue model for massivelymultiplayer online games (MMOs), social networking sites (SNSs) and other online hangouts. In this paper, we argue that the marketing of virtual goods currently falls short of what it could be. Game developers have long created compelling game designs, but having to market virtual goods to players is a relatively new situation to them. Professional marketers, on the other hand, tend to overlook the internal design of games and hangouts and focus on marketing the services as a whole. To begin bridging the gap, we propose that the design patterns and game mechanics commonly used in games and online hangouts should be viewed as a set of marketing techniques designed to sell virtual goods. Based on a review of a number of MMOs, we describe some of the most common patterns and game mechanics and show how their effects can be explained in terms of analogous techniques from marketing science. The results provide a new perspective to game design with interesting implications to developers. Moreover, they also suggest a radically new perspective to marketers of ordinary goods and services: viewing marketing as a form of game design.

Determinants of Environmental Reporting in Malaysia

Abstract: This study empirically examines the incentives that motivate Malaysian listed companies to disclose environmental information in their annual reports. The study attempts to explain the occurrence of the environmental information with reference to some company specific characteristics from the contracting and political cost perspectives. Six variables are hypothesised to influence companies' decision to voluntarily disclose environmental issues in their annual reports. The results reveal that only two out of the four hypotheses are supported; that is, the voluntary disclosure of environmental information in the annual reports is negatively related to firms' financial leverage and that their accounts were audited by Big-5 firms. Explanations are proffered for these findings. Keywords: Environmental reporting, ' contracting theory, political cost theory, Malaysia. I. INTRODUCTION This study attempts to examine firm-wide factors that motivate Malaysian listed companies to voluntarily disclose environmental information in their annual reports. The disclosure of environmental information attracts attention as the information itself involves the living quality despite the fact that such reporting is voluntary in nature. The current study attempts to explain the occurrence of the environmental information with reference to some company-specific characteristics. Environmental information in annual report is defined as a subset of the corporate social responsibility, which includes information regarding waste management, recycling programs and environment control. Voluntary reporting in corporate annual reports is believed to be costly and therefore it is of interest to examine the motivation of companies' to present such non-mandated information. The said costs include compilation costs as the environmental information is usually not readily available in the financial records. The suggested motivations for companies to voluntarily disclose environmental information are varied. One of such explanations is in the concept of organisational legitimacy as developed by Lindblom (1984), who stated four reasons for such disclosure. The first reason is to reduce the "legitimacy gap" caused by the failure of performance on the part of the organisation by informing its "relevant publics" about changes in respect to how the organisation has performed due to environmental changes. For instance, a major oil spill in one financial year may result in disclosures concerning increasing environmental concern and safety. The second reason is to change the perception of itself, but not necessarily its actual behaviour; for example, a company may have an undesirable waste disposal practice but may show imagery of clean working environment. The third reason is to deflect attention from public concerns by using emotive imagery; for example, a company that pollutes the environment through its production processes may disclose information regarding a recycling program. The final reason for the voluntary disclosure of environmental information is to alter outside expectation of its performance when it feels its "relevant publics" have unrealistic expectations of its social and environmental performance. Apart from the reasons above, findings from prior studies have revealed other reasons for environmental reporting which will be discussed in a later section. The motivation behind the current study not only lies in explaining the reasons for voluntary disclosure but also to evaluate the issue, based on empirical evidence, from a contracting and political cost perspective. The remainder of this paper is organised as follow: Next is a section that discusses issues relating to environmental reporting, followed by a review of selected prior studies. The development of research hypotheses are later deliberated, and then followed by the research methodology. Finally, the paper presents the results and its implications, and some concluding remarks. …