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Internet technology and social media especially from mobile social commerce are known to have lavish impacts on the economic development. The purpose of this study was to identify the impact of the online market on the level of social welfare of online market traders which is proxies by the level of income. Bulan Terang Utama (BTU) area was used as an object in this study due to the fact that it is a subsidized housing area with a level of middle-income community income. The method used in this study was a quantitative method using the analysis of three-stage least square (3SLS). The results of the 3SLS estimation indicate that there was a significant increase in online seller income with the presence of the BTU online market. This situation happened by the fact that many buyers switch to sellers after they join the BTU Online Market. They began as a buyer and then offered their merchandise through the online market and became a permanent seller in this group. When many residents in these areas are using online markets as their primary place for selling, there will be need for strong connectivity (internet network) in each region to develop current economic activities. Furthermore, the government rule in enhancing technology literacy is also very important especially for the middle to lower regions.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the applicability of a number of performance management techniques in the outsourcing process, in a business services context.

Using a structured outsourcing framework, performance management techniques are applied in a financial services organisation over a three‐year period. A case study approach is employed to undertake the research, which involved the research team engaging directly with the organisation throughout the outsourcing process.

Applying performance management techniques in the outsourcing process is challenging in a number of areas including comparison difficulties, incomplete information and inadequate performance management systems. However, benchmarking and cost analysis are useful mechanisms for improving performance, and reducing costs via internal process redesign or outsourcing. Performance management techniques can be employed to remove inefficiencies from processes both prior to outsourcing and during the outsourcing relationship.

There are a number of limitations of the research approach including gaining full participation from the company, having access to all relevant company information and time constraints.

The research findings highlight the implications of applying performance management techniques in a practical outsourcing setting. As well as identifying the challenges, the research highlights the value of integrating critical success factors, cost analysis, benchmarking and other performance management techniques into the outsourcing process.

There are few studies in the literature of applying performance management techniques in the outsourcing process at an operation's level. The findings have identified the challenges and benefits of performance management techniques in the outsourcing process. The findings have highlighted the importance of operations management concepts such as performance management, operations strategy, business improvement and process re‐design to services outsourcing, and the need for further research in this area by operations management scholars.

While envy has been widely explored in psychology literature, theoretical understanding of the effects of envy on consumers’ emotional responses to brands is promising but under explored. Therefore, this study aims to apply cases of envy and psychological distance to consumers to examine whether the style of brand storytelling can moderate brand preference.

Three experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Experiment 1 investigated the effect of envy on consumer evaluations of an advocated brand, through viewing a series of advertisements that varied in brand storytelling styles. A total of 104 working students were randomly assigned to a 2 (brand storytelling: underdog vs top dog) single factorial design. Experiment 2 investigates the effect of envy on consumer evaluations of the advocated brand through viewing advertisements that varied in psychological distance. A total of 108 working students were randomly assigned to a 2 (psychological distance: proximal vs distant) single factorial design. Experiment 3 investigated the effect of envy on evaluations of the brand through viewing advertisements that varied in brand storytelling style and psychological distance. A total of 208 working students were randomly assigned to a 2 (underdog vs top dog) × 2 (proximal vs distant psychological distance) between-subject factorial design.

Results demonstrate that for consumers experiencing benign and malicious envy, advertisements characterized by brand storytelling (underdog vs top dog) and psychological distance (proximal vs distant) will elicit differential brand preferences.

This research takes up the call to address the limited attention given to envy in the context of brand advertising. Specifically, this research aims to explore how consumer envy influences brand preference and the role of moderating effects such as brand storytelling and psychological distance in this context.