Nadia Batool

Purpose __ The core objective of this study was to explore the relationship between person-organization fit and effective organizational commitment. In addition to examine moderating effect of Emotional stability and extraversion (Personality Traits), whether these strengthen or weaken the association of Person Organization fit and effective organizational commitment. Design/Methodology __ Data was collected through structured questionnaires using Likert Scale which were distributed among a convenience sample of 230 employees of five large public organization of Pakistan. The data was analyzed using SPSS software. Findings __ The results reveal that P-O fit has significant positive impact on effective organizational commitment. In addition, findings suggest that emotional stability and extraversion personality traits of employee do not moderate relationship between person organization fit and affective commitment significantly.  Research Limitations __ Sample size was small and data was collected only from public organizations. The future research needs to be conducted in private sector as well to make general applicability of proposed model in other organizations. Practical Implications __ This study provides means by which organizations can develop schemes and evaluate the personality factors of existing employees which greatly enhance the effective organizational commitment.

Key words __ Employees, Person organization Fit, effective organizational commitment, extraversion, emotional stability, Personality traits

Purpose __ The core objective of this study was to explore the relationship between person-organization fit and effective organizational commitment. In addition to examine moderating effect of Emotional stability and extraversion (Personality Traits), whether these strengthen or weaken the association of Person Organization fit and effective organizational commitment. Design/Methodology __ Data was collected through structured questionnaires using Likert Scale which were distributed among a convenience sample of 230 employees of five large public organization of Pakistan. The data was analyzed using SPSS software. Findings __ The results reveal that P-O fit has significant positive impact on effective organizational commitment. In addition, findings suggest that emotional stability and extraversion personality traits of employee do not moderate relationship between person organization fit and affective commitment significantly.  Research Limitations __ Sample size was small and data was collected only from public organizations. The future research needs to be conducted in private sector as well to make general applicability of proposed model in other organizations. Practical Implications __ This study provides means by which organizations can develop schemes and evaluate the personality factors of existing employees which greatly enhance the effective organizational commitment.

Key words __ Employees, Person organization Fit, effective organizational commitment, extraversion, emotional stability, Personality traits

Within an intense competition in the retail sector, achieving a high store equity may have been be a means to gain competitive advantage for retailers. However, their sole reliance on store attributes may not be sufficient to build a relationship with customers, as prior studies have demonstrated the high likelihood of customers opting to shop at stores with loyalty programs. Accordingly, the current study aims at examining the contribution of loyalty program attributes and store attributes to store engagement and store equity in the context of department stores in Malaysia. Survey responses from 484 department store cardholders are gathered, while Partial Least Square (PLS) – Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) are taken to test the hypotheses. The results show that all hypotheses are supported, while the relative contribution of both attributes towards store engagement and store equity provides insightful implications. From a theoretical perspective, integrating social exchange theory and service-dominant (S-D) logic may offer a significant finding in understanding the effect of loyalty program attributes and store attributes on the relationship between a store and cardholders. From a practical perspective, retailers may need to pay more attention in putting more value in their offerings by incorporating experiential and interactive marketing approaches to stimulate customer relationships to further enhance store equity.

Halal food and Islamic finance industry in Malaysia have been reported to be the two fastest growing Shari'a-compliant industries with an annual growth rate at 15% to 20%. Despite being the largest market in Islamic finance, there is a low penetration of Islamic financing among halal business operators in Malaysia. In fact, there is a limited empirical research on the linkage between halal food industry and Islamic finance industry. Thus, it is important to examine the connection between these industries. Besides, a study on the attitude of business operators towards Islamic financing is important to identify what factors may have influenced the attitude of halal business operators in choosing their financing method to either conventional or Islamic financing. This study aims at theorising attitude towards Islamic financing adoption using the Integrative Model of Behavioural Prediction (IMBP). An empirical study is conducted by reviewing literature and seven antecedents of attitude identified for the study. The proposed antecedents that influence attitude of food service business owners towards Islamic financing adoption include religion obligation, business support, cost benefits, reputation, customer service quality, Islamic financial literacy and Halal literacy. The research findings contribute towards new theoretical knowledge by discovering factors affecting the attitudes towards the adoption of Islamic financing in businesses using the IMBP theory. Besides, it may further help the government and policy makers in formulating strategies and policies related with the development of halal industry especially in integrating the halal production and Islamic financing.

Advertising is a form of communication between producers and their target market. The rise of halal trends and celebrity endorsers who become the icons of a product is expected to increase the buying interest of customers. Celebrity endorsers may produce attractions that give a sensory stimuli for customers. It is similar to the halal labelling. Indonesia, as a country with a Moslem majority, requires halal certification as a top priority in this regard. The country's council of Islamic religious leaders (Majelis Ulama Indonesia-MUI) issues a halal certification based on the critical levels of ingredients, and level of difficulty in tracking the halal level. It follows a Decree of the Director of MUI's Assessment Institute for Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics no. SK07/Dir/LPPOM MUI/IV/11, which explains the categorization of a MUI's halal certification registrar. By using the path analysis, the appeal of celebrity endorsers and halal certificate is found to influence customers' buying interest. The fact that celebrity endorsers have a greater influence compared to halal certification shows that the main task is to create a good association between an endorser and a product being advertised; hence, the resulting positive attitude within the customer can be obtained. Halal certificate itself may strengthen customers' confidence toward offered products since the Indonesian society is predominantly Muslim, thus it may have become a top priority.

Cash holding is one of company's internal funding sources that might be used for investment purposes. In fact, corporate investment funding policy may affect the magnitude of the cash holding because management must decide proper sources of the funds, i.e. internal and external priorities, and which sources will be taken first. This study aims at testing whether diversification strategies may reduce or increase the tendency of companies to save cashes in a company, either a financially-constrained, financially non-constrained or all of them. The sample taken in this study is manufacturing companies listed at the Indonesian Stock Exchange during 2006-2011. They are selected by using a purposive sampling. Analytical techniques applied are the data analysis panel with the Ordinary Least-Squared (OLS) approach. The results indicate that diversification strategies have a negative and insignificant influence to the change of cash holding in a company. Companies tend to keep cash holding in response to a lower positive cash flow in a diversified company. The influence is stronger on a constrained company than a financially non-constrained one. The cash flows have a positive influence on cash holding. The trend is stronger on financially-constrained corporations. Meanwhile, market-to-book value of assets have an insignificant and positive influence to cash holding company. These influences also apply to financially non-constrained ones. However, the influence of market-to-book value of company assets in financially non-constrained companies cannot be determined as they have no systematic pattern on either debt ratio, payout ratio, book-to-market asset ratio or the size of assets.

In Yogyakarta, merchandise business has been developing rapidly in recent years. The phenomenon has made entrepreneurs in the industry compete to retain customers, by which most of them fall into a price war. To create a new market and make the competition irrelevant, Kedai Digital, a merchandise manufacturer in the region, has attempted to implement Blue Ocean strategy, wherein value innovation has a critical position. This study aims at analyzing current value innovation in the company, in which it is supposed to determine value innovation and identify value drivers. A mix-method approach is taken, by which qualitative approach is adopted in conducting an in-depth interview with 12 decision makers from 6 companies currently participating in the merchandise business in Yogyakarta, while quantitative approach is conducted by spreading questionnaire to 100 persons based on a purposive sample over the Kedai Digital's customers. Canvas Strategy and Four Framework Analysis are taken as the tools for analysis. Findings show that 8 value standards serve within the competition, i.e. volume, price, prestige, quality, promotion, service, variation and on-time delivery. Most companies attempt to win the competition in these area. In particular, the Kedai Digital has been creating 3 distinguished value innovation instead of playing in the red ocean. These value innovations are a free design, a unique location and a one-stop shopping concept. These values have made Kedai Digital to be a leading company in the industry and may have made the competition irrelevant.

The significant population of women in Indonesia has indicated a huge potential of the development of women entrepreneurs in the country. Among other ones, intention is considerably a key predictor in determining one's behavior in making decisions; hence, it is necessary to conduct researches underlying women's decision to run a business. This study aims to analyze the influence of environmental factors on perceived behavior control (PBC) towards women's entrepreneurial intentions, particularly to those involved in the micro and small enterprises (MSEs) sector in Indonesia. This study is quantitatively conducted through a survey approach. Questionnaires are distributed, which have gathered responses from 222 women entrepreneurs in Indonesia. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is taken to analyze those responses for doing tests on proposed hypotheses. The results show that PBC significantly influences women's entrepreneurial intentions. Besides, PBC is significantly influenced by competitive environment rather than governmental support; while the support does not have a direct influence on PBC, yet significantly influence competitive environment. This study implies that the government is expected to expand its role in the making of related policies or programs for developing women entrepreneurship.

Visiting stores as the conventional way of shopping has been modernized into an online shopping trend. In fact, the emergence of numerous e-commerce sites leads to an interesting and needs-to-be-anticipated competition. Tokobagus.com (now OLX.co.id), a leading online shopping website in Indonesia with the highest visitors traffic, needs to sustain its position by implementing a good strategy and employing necessary factors in its business, i.e. brand trust, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. These are required to boost profits and sustain the business within the tight competition. This study is conducted as a causal-associative research by using a quantitative approach. One hundred respondents are surveyed through online questionnaires with a convenience sampling. Their responses are analyzed by using descriptive and path analyses. The results show that the brand trust of Tokobagus.com is high, meaning that consumers are satisfied with the business. In parallel, the brand loyalty is high. In fact, brand trust directly affects customer satisfaction, while customer satisfaction directly affects brand loyalty. In addition, brand trust directly affects brand loyalty and, indirectly, brand trust affects brand loyalty with customer satisfaction as a mediating factor.

In the global and dynamic business world, accountants are expected to have more than academic knowledge. One of the important skills needed by the employer is effective communication. However, prior research find that there is a trait to that which known as Communication Apprehension (CA). Most studies show that accounting students suffer higher level of CA as compared to non-accounting students. Accordingly, this paper aims to review existing research to discover the factors that affect the level of CA among accounting and non-accounting students. It is believed that gender, course major and English competency is among factors that contribute to the high level of CA. This study is expected to contribute to the discipline of knowledge, especially in the field of social science by focusing on the current issues and challenges in educational environment. It is also assisting to improve skills in the areas of teaching, learning and also help to improve accounting curriculum.