Strategic IT-business alignment is being expanded by researchers and professionals owing to its beneficial effect on the performance of SMEs. Luftman (2000) [Luftman, J. (2000). Assessing business-IT alignment maturity. Communications of the Association of Information Systems, 4(14), 1–50.] created the Strategic Alignment Model (SAM), which integrates various alignment viewpoints to offer a cohesive perspective on IT-business alignment. While SAM was widely implemented for western IT studies by theoreticians and practitioners, its adoption is not evident in the Middle East with few available studies. The goal of this gap is to examine the effect of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) in Iraq of three alignment styles (communication, governance and competency) listed in SAM. The findings of the current study verified the beneficial effect of all sorts of IT alignment centered on a survey of 228 owners, IT managers, but the latter has also shown a strong positive influence across various types of alignment. Theory and implementation implications are addressed, and more research recommendations are suggested.

Most global studies have, to a greater extent, underscored the importance of Total Quality Management (TQM) practices and some marketing aspects concerning the organizational performance. Most studies have focused on establishing the level to which TQM practices influence customer satisfaction and not the whole organization. There is also little evidence on how marketing practices influence organizational performance. This study therefore seeks to assess the impact of TQM practices and marketing on organizational performance. Data was collected from a sample size of 289 respondents who were employees of the different manufacturing industries in Saudi Arabia. Data was analyzed using SPSS and Pearson’s rank correlation coefficient was used to establish the relationship between study variables. The study findings confirmed the presence of a relationship between TQM practices and organizational performance. Similarly, there was a positive relationship between marketing practices and organizational performance. The study concluded that the TQM practices and marketing are great influencers of quality hence should always be applied in organizations.

This study aims to identify the impact of knowledge management through its dimensions; namely knowledge creation, storage knowledge, knowledge sharing, knowledge application and technology knowledge on organizational effectiveness based on the managers’ attitudes in private banks in the Erbil city in Kurdistan region, Iraq. To achieve the study objectives, a questionnaire was constructed consisting of (40) questions distributed to a sample of (80) managers and supervisors, (76) of which were returned, while (69) were valid for statistical analysis. The main objective of this study is to design a default model and test in the study field in order to understand how managers can successfully implement the knowledge man-agement to achieve the organizational effectiveness. The study found that knowledge management had an impact on organizational effectiveness according to the study samples per-spectives. Based on the results, the study presents a set of recommendations regarding the knowledge management which most importantly the private banks should adopt in a logical sequence. This could contribute in achieving an organizational environment supportive of enabling an environment to the practice of radical changes.

The development of Islamic tourism such as Umrah does not get much attention in the literature though there are 6 million people all around the world performing Umrah every year. Nowadays, social media has been recognized as an important tool in building and maintaining the image of tourist destination especially in the Umrah context. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of social media experiences (interactions and sharing of contents) on attitudes and behavioral intentions towards Umrah package (booking decisions and electronic Word of Mouth) among generation X and Y. Sums of three hundred eighty-four respondents were engaged as the respondents. The population of this study was among Malaysian Muslim citizens who had social media experiences in seeking online information and knowledge about Umrah and already performed Umrah. The data then was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and Partial Least Squares (PLS) software. The findings of this study confirmed that sharing of contents of social media experiences has significant and positive relationship on behavioral intentions (booking decisions and electronic Word of Mouth).

Most counterfeit studies engage consumers’ intention to purchase without considering their past experiences. Understanding consumers who have experienced in counterfeit product situations and how this has influenced their actual perceptions, attitudes and behavior on this is-sue is important to understand. Therefore, this study aims to understand the repurchase behavior of experienced consumers in regards to counterfeit products and their demographics, past purchases, materialism, economic and social factors. In addition, this study also investigates the mediating effect of attitude on the relationship between the factors and the repur-chase behavior. The participants are among 200 working adults who have purchased counterfeit products in a six-month period. Multiple regression analysis indicates that gender (female), past purchasing behavior, materialism and social factors had positive relationships with repurchase behavior. Remarkably, the economic factor is found to be significant. However, it has a negative relationship with repurchase behavior indicating that experienced consumers in counterfeit products purchase fake goods to minimize the economic effect. Hierarchical regression analysis indicates the mediating effect of attitude on the relationship between past purchase and materialism on repurchase behavior. The outcome of this study can also be used as a reference and knowledge base for scholars and marketers in understanding the attitude of consumers and their repurchase intention of counterfeit products.

Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) has become a prominent theory in describing the relationship between attitude and behaviour. TPB utilizes attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control to predict ―intention‖. Studies of similar topics concentrating on non-Muslim consumers as respondents particularly exploring in their repurchase intention on Halal food are uncommon. Therefore, this study attempts to demonstrate the TPB in exploring the non-Muslim consumer repurchase intention of halal food products. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire survey of 415 non-Muslim consumers in Malaysia. The result of Structural Equation Analyses indicate that non-Muslim consumers’ attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control toward halal food product positively influenced their intention to repurchase halal food. The conclusions and several recommendations for future research consideration are presented in the final section.

The purpose of this paper is to discover the perception of Umrah travel agents regarding the impact of service quality (SQ) on customer satisfaction (CS) in Malaysia. To perform and accomplish this task, the necessary data were collected through convenience sampling method based on self-administrated structure questionnaire. Out of 500 responses from the respondents, 384 samples were finally chosen and considered suitable for descriptive statistics analysis to fulfil the sole purpose of the paper. There were positive and significant relationship between the retail SQ dimensions and CS. Umrah travel industry contributes significantly on the Malaysian economic growth, and during the last decade the competition has increased dramatically. Therefore, this research study is intended to seek for solid empirical justification to consider SQ as a major and substantial factor in CS in Malaysian Umrah traveling industry.