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1 – 10 of 32Chee Wei Cheah, Soo Yeong Ewe and Helen Hui Ping Ho
This study advances network brokerage theory by examining both benefits-driven and altruistic brokerage behaviors within the mutual fund retail markets of emerging economies.
Abstract
Purpose
This study advances network brokerage theory by examining both benefits-driven and altruistic brokerage behaviors within the mutual fund retail markets of emerging economies.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a methodological combination of netnographic observations and in-depth interviews with fund investors, social influencers, sales agents and staffs from do-it-yourself (DIY) investment platforms, it uncovers the digital evolution of the mutual fund industry.
Findings
Our findings illuminate a significant pivot from traditional retail channels to third-party DIY investment platforms, a change accelerated by the recent pandemic. This shift underscores a critical theoretical extension by spotlighting the altruistic actions of social influencers, or key opinion leaders (KOLs), challenging the prevalent focus on solely benefits-driven motives in network brokerage literature. Furthermore, the study reveals a diminishing significance of arbitrage network brokering amidst the industry’s digital overhaul.
Originality/value
Concluding with an insightful discussion on its implications to policymakers and practitioners and acknowledging potential limitations, this research offers valuable perspectives for understanding the dynamics of network brokerage in the context of digital transformation within consumer financial markets.
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Chee Wei Cheah and Kian Yeik Koay
Drawing on the structural hole-bridging perspective of network theory, this paper aims to examine the adaptation strategies undertaken by housing industry actors following the…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the structural hole-bridging perspective of network theory, this paper aims to examine the adaptation strategies undertaken by housing industry actors following the recent pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study was adopted as the research methodology for this research. Data collected through online interviews involving 20 participants was used as primary data, while document analysis (both online and printed documents) was used as secondary data. The interviews were guided by the visual vignette method.
Findings
This study’s findings indicate that a health-based crisis like COVID-19 triggers housing developers to act outside their comfort zones. They undertake arbitrage and collaborative brokerage strategies to cope with business uncertainties. This study revealed the contextual embedding of the owner-occupier market (consumer market) and the investor market (business market). This study also revealed that firms that aggressively located structural holes and built new relationships in B2C and B2B markets before the COVID-19 pandemic were well-equipped to face turbulent times.
Practical implications
The innovative strategies that housing developers adopt are transferable and applicable to other industries and countries. Therefore, awareness of these strategies is essential for industry practitioners, especially those badly hit by health-based crises.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that combines relationship management, structural holes, the housing market and their implications for crisis adaptation. This study examined the grossly understudied phenomenon of demand for housing, which is a durable good, during a turbulent time. The findings of this study provide beneficial guidance for firms, buyers and policymakers facing COVID-19 and/or other similar crises.
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This study examines the institutional setting and decision-making structures among key industry actors in the Malaysian housing industry, using the IMP network approach and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the institutional setting and decision-making structures among key industry actors in the Malaysian housing industry, using the IMP network approach and institutional theory as theoretical lenses. The purpose of this study is to uncover the role of NGOs, housing developers and the government at a collective level within a highly regulated housing market. This study uses “relationships” as the unit of analysis, focusing on triadic interactions of NGOs, housing developers and the government.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies the qualitative case-study-research approach, using 20 in-depth interviews from the purposefully selected industry actors within the housing market, online observations and documents.
Findings
The findings suggest that NGOs play an influential role in housing-industry interactions and outcomes. In particular, the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association can influence the members’ decisions through supportive and disruptive actions.
Originality/value
This study contributes to our understanding of how NGOs interact with their regulator and housing developers and how these three parties co-evolve and respond to institutional demands in a housing market that is bound by a highly restricted housing policy. By understanding how actors interact within a network and how it affects each other’s decision, it may assist policymakers in formulating policies that can improve market efficiency. It also aids businesses in formulating their collective strategies.
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Kian Yeik Koay, Chee Wei Cheah and Yi Xuan Chang
The main purpose of this study is to explore how online food delivery (OFD) service quality influences customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this study is to explore how online food delivery (OFD) service quality influences customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 307 useable data collected from existing users of OFD services in Malaysia are used to verify the proposed hypotheses through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Necessary condition analysis (NCA) is also conducted to identify the necessary conditions for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Findings
The PLS results show that five dimensions of OFD service quality, including assurance, maintenance of meal quality and hygiene, reliability, security and system operation, are significant to customer satisfaction. Traceability is found to have no significant influence on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is a significant predictor of customer loyalty. The NCA results show that all dimensions of OFD service quality are necessary conditions for customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction is a necessary condition for customer loyalty.
Originality/value
Past studies have mainly utilised the sufficiency logic to understand customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the context of the OFD. This study is the first to perform NCA that relies on necessity logic to identify necessary conditions for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
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Chee Wei Cheah and Kian Yeik Koay
Underpinned by the legitimacy perspective, this study explores how ride-hailing services are legitimized through resource exchange among the industry players. The authors explore…
Abstract
Purpose
Underpinned by the legitimacy perspective, this study explores how ride-hailing services are legitimized through resource exchange among the industry players. The authors explore the types of legitimacy involved in the legitimation process. The authors also examine the political games being played by the actors to attain legitimacy.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study involves thirty-one stakeholders/interviewees from emerging Asia. The interview data are supported by online documents and observations.
Findings
Thematic analysis shows that the industry players collaborate to achieve political, market, alliance, social, and investment legitimacy. The collaborations also legitimize industry players' existence through an eclectic mix of the numerous stakeholders' actions. This study shows how Dacin's proposed four types of legitimacy are coexisting and interconnected. It also highlights the neglected political legitimacy.
Originality/value
The findings guide the policymakers and ride-hailing operators experiencing competing requests to legitimize sustainable ride-hailing service development in urban cities.
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Chee Wei Cheah, Brian Low and Christina Kwai-Choi Lee
Rapid urbanization and the influx of rural residents to urban cities has led to the growth of informal settlements globally. Drawing on institutional theory, this paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Rapid urbanization and the influx of rural residents to urban cities has led to the growth of informal settlements globally. Drawing on institutional theory, this paper aims to examine institutional actors’ legitimacy seeking behaviour to housing issues and their responses to regulative, normative and cultural pressures.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative case-study research approach is adopted by conducting 25 in-depth interviews that involved purposefully chosen institutional actors in the housing sector. Online observations and documents are used to support the interview data.
Findings
Thematic analysis of data gathered suggests that these actors, guided by sensemaking, invest in relationship-building to attain market, social, relational and political legitimacy. The relationship-building also leads to the legitimation of institutional actors’ existence via an eclectic mix of economic, social and political actions.
Originality/value
The results not only guide policymakers faced with potentially conflicting demands to legitimize sustainable housing developments policy that could benefit the urban poor’s shelter needs but also to consider the interactive and dynamic processes of stakeholders’ pressures, in a highly regulated housing environment.
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Using a combined Industrial Marketing and Purchasing’s network approach and institutional theory, this paper aims to explore why firms exploit dual marketing strategy that targets…
Abstract
Purpose
Using a combined Industrial Marketing and Purchasing’s network approach and institutional theory, this paper aims to explore why firms exploit dual marketing strategy that targets both the consumer (business-to-consumer) and business markets (business-to-business). This study uses the regulated housing market as its research context in examining how housing developers cope with government intervention when implementing a dual marketing strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies a qualitative case study research approach, using 19 in-depth interviews, from the purposefully selected industry actors within the housing market, observations and documents.
Findings
The findings uncover housing developers’ struggles in dealing with government intervention when they adopt a dual marketing strategy. When dealing with the regulated consumer market, developers formed an issue-based net with other competitors and used their association to bargain with the government for flexibility in public policy. When selling to the business market, in which the private investment club emerged as a powerful actor, they initiated strategic net and influenced property developers’ pricing and selling strategies. The findings also demonstrate that the restrictions imposed on the consumer market have a spillover effect on the business market, which reflects the contextual embeddedness of the two markets.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the understanding of how actors strategize and co-evolve when implementing a dual marketing strategy. It helps policymakers, business actors and other connected actors to understand the interactions of all actors within a network that affects each other’s decisions.
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Kian Yeik Koay, Chee Wei Cheah and Hui Shan Lom
This study aims to investigate the influence of perceived risk, including financial, functional, aesthetic, sanitary, psychological and social risks, on the intention to purchase…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the influence of perceived risk, including financial, functional, aesthetic, sanitary, psychological and social risks, on the intention to purchase second-hand clothing (SHC) between SHC consumers and non-SHC consumers based on perceived risk theory.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 290 responses were collected, with 110 from SHC consumers and 180 from non-SHC consumers. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to validate the hypotheses. Additionally, a permutation test and multigroup analysis (MGA) were performed.
Findings
The findings indicate that different types of risk have varying effects on both SHC and non-SHC consumers’ intention to purchase SHC. In particular, financial, aesthetic and social risks are found to be significant predictors of purchase intention for SHC consumers. By contrast, sanitary and psychological risks are significant predictors of purchase intention for non-SHC consumers. Furthermore, the MGA results indicate a significant difference between SHC consumers and non-SHC consumers in the relationship between financial risk, social risk and purchase intention.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effects of different types of risk on the intention to purchase SHC in both SHC and non-SHC consumers. The findings will provide practitioners with practical insights for developing more effective strategies to target these two distinct consumer groups.
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Kian Yeik Koay, Chee Wei Cheah and Natarsha Ganesan
In recent times, the market for food trucks has been growing due to customers seeking convenient food options. However, not many studies have been carried out to understand why…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent times, the market for food trucks has been growing due to customers seeking convenient food options. However, not many studies have been carried out to understand why consumers choose to visit food trucks. Hence, the purpose of this study is to understand consumers' intentions to visit food trucks through the theoretical lenses of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the theory of consumption values (TCV).
Design/methodology/approach
A purposive sampling method was utilised to gather data from 203 food truck customers through a cross-sectional online survey. Data were evaluated using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The findings indicate that attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control have a significant positive impact on consumers' intentions to visit food trucks. Furthermore, taste value, health value, emotional value and epistemic value have a significant positive effect on attitudes. However, neither price value nor interaction value has a significant impact on attitudes.
Originality/value
This study represents a pioneering effort in combining the theoretical perspectives of the TPB and the TCV to investigate consumers' intentions to visit food trucks. The resulting integrated model provides a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence consumers' decisions to visit food trucks. The findings are expected to furnish food truck vendors with valuable insights on crafting efficient marketing and operational tactics to retain their existing customer base and entice new consumers.
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Chee Wei Cheah, Kian Yeik Koay, Weng Marc Lim and Alberto Ferraris