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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that influence the intention to choose family takaful in Pakistan through using theory of reasoned action (TRA) model. While family takaful is not a new financial solution in the market, the main factors that motivate customers to purchase family takaful remain unexplored. To fill this gap, this paper investigated the impact of attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SBN) with the addition of Halal certification (HCT) to predict the behavioral intention of customers in Pakistan.

The sample data of 250 respondents was drawn for this paper. The respondents were the regular visitors to the Islamic banks in Pakistan and were selected through judgmental sampling. Of 250, total 237 responses were included in the final study, after excluding the inappropriate and missing responses. For the final data, EFA, CFA and SEM were used to test the significance of relationships between the IVs (ATT, SBN and HCT) and DV (BI).

Findings from the SEM analysis suggest that ATT, SBN and HCT have positive significant relationships with BI. SBN appeared to be the most influencing factor that influences the behavioral intention to purchase family takaful.

The paper has practical implications for takaful managers and academics. Bank managers can draw marketing communication policy based on the findings of this paper. While for academics, this paper laid a foundation for future studies by integrating Halal certification in TRA as a predictor to the behavioral intention towards selecting family takaful. The empirical nature of this paper will enhance understanding of the Islamic financial market and its customers specifically.

The findings of the paper also hold significance for managers and policy-makers of Islamic financial institutes. It guides to design the marketing strategies to develop the right attitude of customers, emphasize subjective norms and Halal certification when communicating the family takaful products to customers. As such, brand managers of family takaful may leverage the role of belief in developing the right attitude and then linking it to the family takaful brand. The attitude is rooted in the belief, and for family takaful brands, it potentially be useful to allow it a broader space in the brand strategies. Likewise, subjective norms in terms of choosing family takaful comprises the perceived social pressure of customers feel towards purchasing takaful for families. It highlights the role of social contacts and effect of their behavior and choices over customers. The recommendations and positive feedback customers receive from their social contacts can be instrumental in instilling the sale of family takaful. In the context of Halal certification, the findings of this paper call takaful brand managers’ attention to the significant role Shariah compliance plays for potential customers of family takaful.

The findings of the paper also have significance for managers and policy-makers of Islamic financial institutes. The findings of this paper guide them to develop marketing strategies, develop the right attitude of customers, emphasize subjective norms and Halal certification when communicating the family Takaful products to customers.

Family takaful is relatively a new phenomenon that demands empirical evidence for academics and managers. This is one of the early studies that investigates the determinants of purchase of family takaful through extended TRA model. Therefore, this investigation will serve as a cornerstone to the scant knowledge of family takaful in Pakistan and around the globe.

The purpose of this study is to concurrently test the effect of cognitive absorption and perceived social presence on technology acceptance model core variables, e-satisfaction and e-retention among undergraduate students of Northern Malaysian public universities.

To empirically test the model, the authors developed quantitative research by collecting data from 730 undergraduate students of public universities in the Northern states of Malaysia. Partial least squares–structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The results of the study reveal that cognitive absorption has a direct significant and positive effect on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of e-learning platforms and an indirect effect on e-satisfaction and e-retention. Equally, perceived social presence has a direct positive and significant effect on perceived ease of use and an indirect effect on e-satisfaction and e-retention, while e-satisfaction positively and significantly influences electronic retention. However, perceived social presence has an insignificant effect on perceived usefulness.

The findings of this study provide insights to practitioners, academia and university management, policymakers, designers and marketers on how to use the selected variables to improve the e-learning systems generally, and LearningZone Moodle in particular.

Several studies have been conducted in the domain of electronic learning; none of them, however, concurrently linked cognitive absorption and perceived social presence with technology acceptance model core factors to predict e-satisfaction and e-retention using LearningZone Moodle. This study helps the research community to fill this gap as the literature lacks a concerted discussion concerning these variables to significantly predict e-satisfaction and e-retention in an online learning context.

This paper examines the interaction of human capital and CRM on the performance of SMEs in Yemen.

The study used a quantitative approach in investigating the interacting effect of human capital on the relationship between CRM and SMEs' performance in Yemen. The PLS-SEM analysis was performed to test the hypotheses.

It was observed that key customer focus, technology-based CRM and CRM knowledge management were effective drivers of SME performance, but not CRM organization tools. It was also ascertained that human capital has no moderating effect on the key customer focus and knowledge management relationships with performance, although it does moderate the relationships between performance and CRM organization and technology-based CRM respectively.

Because this study is limited to manufacturing SMEs in Yemen, the results cannot be generalized to other types of industry such as services, whose structure and vision differ from those of manufacturing SMEs. While the current results may be appropriate for SMEs in other developing countries, the researcher believes they are unsuitable for SMEs in advanced economies with different financial structures and employee and management cultures.

The empirical insights of this study are valuable for the owners, managers and professionals in the SMEs manufacturing sector in developing countries, to enrich their organizational performance through CRM adoption, while considering the moderating effect of human capital.

This is the first empirical work to confirm way the main drivers of human capital, including in the analysis the impact of CRM dimensions and SME performance, in the context of the manufacturing sector. In support of an original conceptual model, the insights contribute to the literature on CRM, SMEs in the manufacturing sector, human capital and emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of intellectual capital (IC) on the performance of Malaysian automotive manufacturing firms. It also examines the role of strategic thinking (ST) as a moderating variable in the relationship between IC and performance in these firms.

This study used a quantitative approach, with an initial sample of 228 firms in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the study hypotheses.

The results of the PLS-SEM analysis are as follows: Human capital (HC) and relational capital (RC) have significant effect on performance, but not structural capital (SC). ST has no moderating effect on the relationship between RC or SC and performance although it does moderate the relationship between performance and HC.

Together with the government, CEOs hold responsibility for ensuring that organizations practice effective ST and IC. With the assistance of government, CEOs should exert every effort to be leaders in this matter. In addition, CEOs of automotive manufacturing firm should reduce their emphasis on classical ways of managing organizations processes.

The findings offer guidance to automotive firms considering how to develop IC and ST to improve performance, especially in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

This is the first study to examine the moderating effect of ST on the relationship between IC and performance worldwide.

Several strategies and processes can help companies to enhance the success rate of new products. This study aims to identify a few strategies for that purpose represented by total quality management (TQM) practices, building knowledge and capabilities. Moreover, the current paper discusses the role of applying TQM practices and customer knowledge management in developing the marketing capabilities of the organizations.

This study is a quantitative approach where the data collected from 141 manufacturing small and medium enterprises operating in Malaysia and partial least squares technique was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings of this study highly support all the proposed hypotheses and establish marketing capabilities as a facilitator in the relationship between TQM practices, customer knowledge management and product innovation performance. However, customer knowledge management and TQM were found not to have an impact on product innovation performance.

The introduced model contributes to enhancing the understanding of the impact of customer knowledge on the success of product innovation performance. The model further includes TQM as a process that helps the organization get customer satisfaction information. The incorporation of these two processes will support the organization’s capabilities in the innovation field.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of health-care quality of emergency medical services on brand equity of cardiac institutes by using industry-specific measure, 5Qs model of health-care service quality (HCSQ).

Survey method technique has been used to collect data from the patients availing emergency medical services from 12 cardiac institutes. Effective responses have been received from 393 patients from four localities. Systematic sampling technique has been used to collect data from the respondents. Partial least square structural equation modeling using smartPLS 2.0 has been used to analyze the results.

Findings of the study reveal that HCSQ has weak relationship with hospital brand loyalty but strong relationship with brand image and brand awareness. Furthermore, brand awareness and brand image have strong relationship with brand loyalty. Furthermore, brand image and brand loyalty have strong relationship with overall hospital brand equity but found nonsignificant relationship of brad awareness with overall hospital brand equity.

The principal contribution of the paper is to provide the insight on the impact of emergency HCSQ on brand equity of the private cardiac hospitals. Second, this study is first in branding literature that has used industry-specific scale 5Qs model to measure the service quality of emergency medical care and its impact on private sector cardiac hospital’s brand equity. Previously researchers used generic scales that were insufficient to measure the service quality of specialized industries (Babakus and Mangold, 1992; Carman, 1990; Caro and Garcia, 2007).

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to adopt mobile commerce (m-commerce) by integrating the constructs of Technology Acceptance Model 3 (TAM 3), Universal Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 and Technology-Organization-Environment model. Though numerous m-commerce adoption (MCA) studies have been conducted, lesser attention is paid to how hedonic motivation (HM) can influence organizational users such as SMEs. This study bridges the gap by integrating the three models to provide a new lens to guide SMEs.

To examine the factors that influence the adoption of m-commerce, the researchers collected data from SMEs in Malaysia using an online survey. The sample size of the participants was determined through the available list provided by SME Corp Malaysia. The researchers also used Krejcie and Morgan’s sample size and G * Power techniques to determine that the sample size was appropriate. The data collected were analyzed using partial least square-structural equation modeling.

The findings of this study reveal that technological factors (computer self-efficacy [CSE], result demonstrability [RD] and computer anxiety [CA]) positively and significantly influence MCA. Likewise, the organizational/environmental factors (m-commerce knowledge, pressure from trading partners and pressure from competitors) positively and significantly influence MCA. The moderating influence of HM was also achieved on the relationship between CSE and RD. However, the proposed hedonic moderating relationship between CA and the adoption of m-commerce is not significant.

This study integrates three models to explain the adoption of m-commerce among SMEs in Malaysia and tested the moderating influence of HM. The results obtained better explain the decision by the SMEs to use m-commerce.

The study critically considered how m-commerce can be adopted by SMEs in Malaysia, which previous studies have largely ignored. Considering this, the study, therefore, advances a new relationship by integrating Technology-organization-environment model with TAM 3 and the moderating influence of HM to explain MCA among SMEs. This paper is one of the few research studies to test the moderating influence of HM in this regard.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the combined roles that perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use, perceived security and hedonic motivation play on the adoption of e-banking. It also aims to determine the ability of hedonic motivation to transfer the effect of other determinants of e-banking adoption.

In order to empirically test the conceptual model of this study, data were collected from the users of e-banking in Nigeria. A total of 266 questionnaires were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling.

The empirical results revealed a significant and positive relationship between PU, perceived security and e-banking adoption. The same result was found to be applicable to the relationship between PU, perceived ease of use, perceived security and hedonic motivation. However, support was not found for the relationship between perceived ease of use and adoption of e-banking. Hedonic motivation plays a mediating role between PU, perceived security and e-banking adoption. The study did not find a mediating effect of hedonic motivation between perceived ease of use and e-banking adoption.

The results of this study provide insights for banking practitioners to know which aspect of e-banking to improve and to aid with policies that will increase adoption. Furthermore, improvements in hedonic motivation will also significantly increase adoption of e-banking.

This study is one of the pioneer studies that tests the mediating influence of hedonic motivation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of applying total quality management (TQM) on enhancing knowledge management processes. It also examine the relationship between knowledge management and innovation performance in the Malaysian manufacturing sector.

This study used a survey method to test the formulated hypotheses. Therefore, the adopted questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect the needed data. The population of the study consisted of 800 big and medium manufacturing companies listed in Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (2012).

The results of this paper support a positive and significant impact of TQM practice on knowledge management processes. Furthermore, the relationship between knowledge management and innovation performance has been a proved. However, further analysis on dimension level indicates that knowledge acquisition failed to show significant relationship with innovation performance.

This study addresses one of the recent issues within the Malaysian context of becoming a developed nation, which is innovation performance, specifically for manufacturing companies. To do so, the overlapping relationships among TQM practices, knowledge management, and innovation performance have been tested.

E-learning system has been widely acknowledged to have positive impacts on the learning process. Nevertheless, the intention to use it is globally low, thereby constituting puzzles to be solved. This study aims to proffer some insights to solve the puzzles.

The data of the study were collected through an online survey among 425 students of four private universities using interactive electronic board systems. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The significant results of the study reveal that system quality, information quality and teaching materials significantly influenced perceived usefulness. Technology innovativeness and information quality also significantly influenced perceived ease of use. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use equally influenced e-learning intention.

This research is one of the few studies that conceptualize a framework to study intention to use e-learning generally, and interactive electronic board in particular among four private universities using technology innovativeness, system quality, information quality, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and teaching materials.