Vol. 1(9) December 2008
Multiple Banking Practices among the Malaysian Working
Professionals
Latifah Sharifah *, Che-Ha Norbani and Leen Ai Yeoh
The liberization of Malayisan financial market has introduced
more foreign banks in Malaysia which have increased pressure among the local banks
as the foreign banks have more varieties of product and services with competitive
interest rate and attractive features. This paper reports on a study on multiple
banking practice of the Malaysian working professional. The study replicates the
work of Denton and Chan5 in Hong Kong and Gerrard and Cunningham7 in Singapore.
The result obtained provides support to earlier researchers that there are five
factors in determining the influence to multiple banking practices. This study also
indicates that convenience is the most important factor that determines the choice
of multiple banking criteria. This study could provide the management of banks to
develop strategies in order to be the most preferred bank.
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Motives and Reasons behind Mergers and Acquisitions
Vinayak Sanjeev* and Aggarwal Rachna
The key determinants for success in the global market
are the ability to achieve size, scale, integration and greater financial strength
and flexibility, in the interests of maximizing overall shareholder value. Whatever
is the fundamental objective, mergers must form part of the business and corporate
strategies aimed at creating sustainable competitive advantage for the firm. It
is believed that mergers and amalgamations are strategic decisions leading to the
maximization of a company’s growth by enhancing its production and marketing operations,
enhanced competition, breaking of trade barriers, free flow of capital, globalization
of business etc. This paper enlightens the objectives or reasons behind the merger
& acquisitions of the companies.
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A demographic study on the accident proneness of vehicle
users in Chennai
Jacob Jayanth* and Suganthi L.
Road accidents have been a major cause of concern in
all developing nations. The metropolitan cities which have seen an exponential growth
in vehicular traffic have also witnessed a similar growth in accident rates. The
city of Chennai, in Tamilnadu (India), a fast expanding metro is a case with significant
growth in vehicular traffic and accident rates. Earlier studies were based on reported
or recorded data on accidents, but a number of present day studies focus on the
demographic dimension as a causer of an accident. A survey (based on area sampling)
was conducted in Chennai among vehicle users to explore relationships between demographic
attributes and their response to having met with accidents. Using Chi-square test
of attributes, a relationship between gender and response to having met with accidents
was identified. There was also a relationship between the average distance traveled
and the response to having met with accidents. Directional and Symmetric measures
confirmed the relationships but indicated the presence of a weak relationship. The
value of Goodman and Kruskal Tau (GKT) was 2.7% as the proportionate reduction in
error in one variable being a predictor of the other, between gender and response
to having met with accidents, which was confirmed with the symmetric measure of
Phi being 16.4%. Similarly, the GKT for average distance traveled (Dependent) was
3.8% and response to having met accidents (Dependent) was 1.7% and the Phi value
was 19.5%. The existences of relationships have been confirmed beyond doubt and
predictive models are possible with further research.
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Organizations’ Employee Engagement Strategy: From
Satisfaction to Engagement
Mahapatro Bibhuti B.* and 2Panda Abhaya Kumar
In the past, it has been labeled the biggest commercial
untruth since "the cheque is in the post". Today, however, there is clear evidence
that business leaders are not simply saying that "our people are our most important
asset" – they are actually beginning to mean it too. Perhaps it is time to evaluate
whether employee engagement is a fad or a new knowledge domain from which HR executives
can help make their companies a better place to work. Employees are in a highly
engaged state when they are doing the non-job roles. In general, we find that most
employees have a sense of fairness and even if their employer treats them poorly,
most will show up to work and do the job role. But having employees show up at work
simply doing their jobs gets an employer nowhere in terms of long-term competitiveness.
It‟s the synergy that comes from people working together and gathering creative
ideas that leads to long-term organization wealth creation. That synergy and “above
and beyond” behavior is evidence of employee engagement. Engagement can not be a
corporate initiative. Employee engagement happens only when you remove barriers
to work and those barriers are unique to every work group. We often think that super
important corporate initiatives will transform our organizations into places where
everyone will come to work and want to be more engaged. Corporate initiatives can
not make the magic. It is fairly easy to run a point-in-time employee engagement
survey and then show scores to managers. When you do this, employee engagement is
an “event.” It is much more difficult to make engagement a way of life in your organization.
It is much easier to join in with the newest fad than to create something lasting.
From the employee perspective these engagement surveys provide an opportunity to
be heard and their opinions expressed. Employee engagement surveys play a more strategic
role of measuring and leveraging overall business performance from an HR perspective,
including industrial benchmarking which contextualizes the company both as an employer
and competitor. There are many individual and organizational factors that determine
whether employees become engaged and to what extent they become engaged. Employers
want employees who will do their best work, or „go the extra mile‟. Employees want
good work: jobs that are worthwhile and turn them on. More and more organizations
are looking for a win-win solution that meet their needs and those of their employees.
What they increasingly say they are looking for is an engaged workforce. It can
be seen as a combination of commitment to the organization and its values plus a
willingness to help out colleagues (organizational citizenship). It goes beyond
job satisfaction and is not simply motivation. Engagement is something the employee
has to offer: it can not be „required‟ as part of the employment contract. As employee
productivity is clearly connected with employee engagement, creating an environment
that encourages employee engagement is considered to be essential in the effective
management of human capital.
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A Study of the Targeted Customers of Credit Cards
1Mohanty Sangeeta* and 2Das Abhishek
Today banks have become the part and parcel of our life.
There was a time when the dwellers of city alone could enjoy their services. Now
banks offer access to even a common man. Apart from their traditional business oriented
functions, they have now come out to fulfill national responsibilities. It has become
increasingly clear that “technology” alone can make bankers sail through the competition.
Computerization of the branches, introduction of the cash management products, remote
access logins for corporate, mobile banking, internet banking, ATM banking and credit
card uses etc. are a few ways by which the bankers use the technology today to beat
the competition.This paper is an attempt to study the consumers' behavior towards
the credit card usage pattern in the city Mumbai, Maharastra.Participants were chosen
randomly at timed intervals in specific areas of the store. Of 350 customers approached,
300 agreed to participate in the survey but the data have been collected from 286
respondents only.
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Change in centrally-planned economies: Adapting in
post-Soviet Russia the case of Sinar: A (newly) vertical apparel company
Runyan Rodney C.
A case study is reported regarding a vertical apparel
company in Russia. The company existed for decades, operating solely as a manufacturer
within the Soviet Union’s planned economy. During the period of liberalization in
the early 1990s, it became a public joint-stock company. Therefore it was required
to operate as a far-profit company in the new transitional economy of Russia. In
response to existing market forces, the company did two things which allowed it
to survive and thrive: it became vertical by opening retail stores through which
its goods were sold directly to consumers; it partnered with other European companies
to expand its retail chain westward. Today it is a successful vertical apparel company.
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How to Take Off? The Ourchip Company
Klich Jacek* and Rosiński Jerzy
The case introduces the post-start-up stage and dilemmas
pertaining to this stage of development of an innovative, high-tech company in a
southern region of Poland. It argues that institutions for promoting entrepreneurship
in the region failed to provide the entrepreneur with adequate assistance. This
case shows that the access to financing and to highly educated programmers is of
prime importance to newly created companies operating in IT sector. Furthermore,
the case underlines the necessity of harmoniously orchestrating the activities at
the meeting point of “triple helix” elements, i.e. universities, local governments
and businesses.
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Socio-Economic Profile of Project affected Persons
- their attitude towards Entrepreneurship Program: Case Study – NLC
Narasimhan Ganesh* and Madhavan B.
This article presents the socio-economic characteristics
of project area in particular reference to Project Affected Persons in Neyveli Lignite
Corporation. The general information was collected using secondary sources, Identifying
the potential of entrepreneurship programs as an effective remedy for project affected
persons, a survey was conducted keeping in mind socio economic profile of project
affected persons, the findings and the analysis.
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