The goal of the present study was to strategically analyze the value chain of the services based on cell phone in Iran’s capital market and to present solutions for its upgrade. Nowadays, due to focusing on the customer and his needs, services are of great significance to create value for the customers. On the other hand, given the growing trend of online users, the capital market’s future be-longs to the online business. This research was concerned with a strategic analysis of the aforesaid services value chain. By using SWOT method, the data related to the strengths, weaknesses and threats, as well as environmental opportunities, were collected through using two questionnaires and interviews with users, specialists, and experts in technical and regulatory domains. At the end, by using descriptive statistical methods of analysis, suggestions for upgrading every part of the chain have been presented. Regarding the analyses, the weakness in communication networks and the existing infrastructure for the purpose of information transfer could be regarded as the greatest barrier to the services; also, due to the substructure problems, sometimes the users could be faced with problems such as inaccessibility to the information and inability in conducting their transactions. However, it should be noted that the companies providing these services have been success-ful in presenting efficient software and useful information for their users, as well as giving them deep satisfaction. Given the existing high capacity in this competitive market and the growing number of online users, it is predicted that the capital market could have the potential to be greatly prosperous and serve as an appropriate market for newcomers’ activity.

The main objective of facility location problem is the utilization of the facility by maximum number of possible customers so that the profit is maximized. For instance, in some services like wireless sensor networks, Wi-Fi, repeaters, etc., where the service area is limited, some specific equipment is installed in such a way that it could be used by maximum number of users. Here, the number of users for a particular facility is optimized with the help of clustering technique. The study develops a model for facility allocation problem. For the solution algorithm, a hybrid approach which is based on clustering and mixed integer linear programming (MILP) is proposed. The proposed method consists of two parts where in the first part, the K-means clustering technique is used and in the second part, for each cluster an MILP technique is implemented so that the facility which yields the maximum profit is obtained. Numerical examples for clustering and without clustering are presented. Analysis shows that due to clustering the average distance between facility and customer is significantly reduced.

The purpose of the research is to identify critical success factors and model developing for sustaining kaizen implementation. Peacock shoe is one of the manufacturing industries in Ethiopia facing challenges on sustaining. The methodology followed is factor analysis and empirically testing hypothesis. A database was designed using SPSS version 20. The survey was validated using statistical validation using the Cronbach alpha index; the result is 0.908. The KMO index value was obtained for the 32 items and had a value of 0.642 with Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 4503.007, degree of freedom 496 and significance value 0.000. A factor analysis by principal components and varimax rotation was applied for finding the critical success factors. Finding designates that 32 items were merged into eight critical success factors. All the eight factors together explain for 76.941 % of the variance. Multiple regression model analysis has indicated that some of the critical success factors had relationship with success indicators. Due to constraint of time, the researcher focused only at peacock shoe manufacturing industry. Other limitation also includes the absence of any local research that shows the critical success factors at the moment.

Customer satisfaction is one of the main factors in determining the competitiveness of every industry. Along with the technological advances, it will impact on the increasingly intense competition in the business of providing great opportunities to the consumer to find a quality product at competi-tive rates. The purpose of this study is to develop the quality of automotive battery products that meet consumer needs by using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method. The application is then analyzed and its results produced a proposal for product development according to the weight and priority development on product attributes that are considered important by customers. There are two main priorities that are most desired by customers, among others for improving the quality of products maintenance free battery in automotive battery industry with quality function deployment according to consumers. Consumers need a car battery with a good durability and great performance, low price, and environment friendly features, which can be achieved by using absorbent glass mat and expanded machine technology. Based on relative weight in House of Quality, Ab-sorbent Glass Mat receives the highest percentage of technical priority that is equal to 31% whereas technology expanded gets the second highest percentage of technical priority that is equal to 19%. It means that both technologies are more important to develop this product. Therefore, the maintenance free battery products are expected to be attractive for consumers and extensive marketing.

Information and communication technology (ICT) developments and trends in recent years have had great impacts on banking sector worldwide. Therefore, the disruptive innovative technology has accelerated changes in the way of banking business. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence on Pakistani customer’s intentions to adopt internet banking. The sample used in this empirical study includes 265 responses of internet banking users collected through structured questionnaire. For statistical analysis, structural equation model (SEM) approach was used. The present study suggests that internet banking use increases as long as customer perceives it as useful tool. Findings confirmed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and attitude were the key constructs for promoting internet banking usage in Pakistan. Furthermore, the importance performance matrix analysis has shown that attitude was the most important factor. Thus, banks can focus on cultivation of positive attitudinal beliefs about internet banking among prospect cus-tomers.

The aim of this study is to recognize and scrutinize the barriers affecting the utilization of quality tools and techniques (QT&T) in manufacturing organizations. For this purpose, twelve barriers af-fecting the execution of QT&T in manufacturing organizations have been identified from literature analysis and experts’ opinion (academicians and industrial). Questionnaire-based survey has been utilized for the validation of identified barriers. Afterwards, an integrated model of QT&T has been developed by using interpretive structural Modelling (ISM) and Matriced Impacts Croisés Multi-plication Appliquée á un Classement (MICMAC) approach. This research gives an apparent depic-tion to identify and handle the barriers by computing the effectiveness of each barrier. Barriers like accessibility of time and space, inability to change organizational culture and inadequate coordina-tion and teamwork are found to be the key barriers for utilization of QT&T in manufacturing organ-ization. The developed model will help the manufacturing organizations effectively utilize QT&T.

The aim of the study was to examine how consumers integrate into brand communities on social media network sites (SNSs) and how it affects overall satisfaction of social media sites users among students. The study depends on the service-dominant logic (SDL) to develop the constructs for hypotheses testing. The study used a cross-sectional survey research design. The data were col-lected using a web-based survey of university of Nairobi Students. In all, a total of 608 students participated in the survey. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling with AMOS software. The results revealed that frequency of usage of SNSs and duration of usage positively affect the self –perceived relevance of SNSs. Also, the self-perceived relevance leads to building brand community which finally leads to customer satisfaction. The research was limited to only students of Nairobi and selecting students in itself, which is a limitation as well as limiting it to uni-versity of Nairobi. The younger or the millennial are not the only users of SNSs. We have older generations as well, who also use SNSs for various activities such as professional development among others. Understanding why consumers of social media network site would integrate brand community is seminal for both local and foreign firms doing business in a developing country. This would enable marketing practitioners to craft marketing strategies best for community brand building.

This paper presents the case study of fuzzy statistical process control which has been simulated for variable and discontinuous production within a particular time frame in a key manufacturing work-shop. In order to reduce waste production and increase productivity, dimensional inspection from raw product is categorized into three groups: product of type A, product of type B, and discard. In first part, the appearance characteristics of product is defined as fuzzy membership function as the input of the system in order to allocate the output obtained from fuzzy inference of product to one of the three quality levels. Afterwards, each quality level is assigned to its own group by means of Monte Carlo simulation techniques. In the second part, with fuzzy development of a multinomial p chart, the production process is illustrated as a control chart within the particular period of time.

This study aims to investigate the awareness level of Biomedical waste managements in healthcare facilities, and their perception among hospital waste management team, doctors, nurses, lab technicians and waste handlers in Northwest Delhi region in India. The study has been conducted through a questionnaire survey followed by the descriptive statistical analysis method. Questionnaire contains of 38 questions, where the first section deals with the hospital waste management team, the second section is for doctors, nurses and lab technicians, and the third section is for the waste handlers. Out of 311 respondents, there were 16 hospital waste management teams, 81 doc-tors, 92 nurses, 49 lab technicians and 73 waste handlers. It was surprising that only 40% (n=10) hospitals had any kind of waste treatment & disposal facility onsite, only 10% hospitals were using the latest technology and 60% hospitals shred the Biomedical waste before disposal. It was good to see that none of the hospital waste managements disposed the waste with general waste, and 40% of them were exhausting through government agencies and the remaining 60% were using private agencies to dispose the waste. Finally, all the hospitals maintained the record of waste generated. It is concluded that there was a lack of awareness about the biomedical waste generation, legislation and management among healthcare personnel, and they all needed regular audits and training pro-grams at all levels, and a proper management starting from waste generation to its disposal at sites.

Impulse buying occurs when a consumer experiences a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy something immediately. This on-going research considers the affections generated by consumers towards the chocolate brand which is endorsed by a celebrity. The Dual Mediation Hypothesis Model (DMH) is used to ascertain the ad effectiveness of the product/ brand, in this research advertisement featuring the celebrity. The affections generated by the ad leads to generation of affection towards the brand leading to purchase a product/ brand. The chocolate brand selected for the research has high market share and manufactures chocolate based products catering to all classes of consumers. The research primarily focuses on the significance of affections generated by the advertisement for the product. The purchase decision for such products is usually based on consumer impulses and attitudes towards the product/ brand. A convenience sample of 116 individuals was considered for the research and the survey was done using questionnaire method. The findings from the analysis revealed that the consumers purchased the products due to the impulses and affections generated by the ad and brand. There was no clear linkage between the celebrity and brand which lead to purchase intentions of the product/ brand. The Dual Mediation Model was found to be applicable as the affections towards the brand and the ad resulted in purchase intention.