Issue #2 (Volume 15 2019)

This study attempts to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the price-volume relation using daily stock prices of all publicly traded firms in Kuwait Boursa over the period 2005–2017. The aim is to provide evidence from an emerging market on the information arrival hypothesis, which is explained by the mixture of distribution and the sequential information arrival hypotheses. The investigation covered two main structural events; the 2008 financial crisis and the activation of Kuwait’s New Securities Law in 2010 (CMA). The GARCH-ARCH test revealed a positive contemporaneous relation between trading volume and market return, which implies that previous information shocks affect current returns and imply that Kuwait stock market is weakly efficient. When trading volume is included in the variance equation in the GARCH model, the test revealed that new information arrival is not simultaneously available to all traders and it takes time to observe, providing support to the sequential information arrival hypothesis (SAIH). Finally, there was no change in the price-volume relation around the two events and urgent assessment of the new market reform is recommended.

The integrated business structures performance is underpinned by a wide range of external and internal factors that from a business unit perspective may have positive or negative implications for brand building. Moreover, in the context of business integration, the interaction among individual business units is of paramount importance that dramatically affects the performance of the entire business structure. The research objective is to provide a methodological framework for branding development through the calculation of integrated complementary and synergistic effects indicators, based on their compliance with the criteria of congruence and compatibility within architectonic elements of integrated business structures. The methodological toolkit design to estimate the integrated indices for complementary and synergistic effects involves the following stages: building a set of partial indicators for assessing complementary and synergetic effects, developing an algorithm to calculate an integrated index for complementary effect from internal and external brand interactions within integrated business structures (IBS), developing an algorithm to calculate an integrated index for a synergetic effect from brand integration within a business structure, individual business unit brand classification by different complementary and synergistic effects manifestations.
The proposed methodological approach contributes to facilitating brand integration in mergers and acquisitions, as well as enhancing the allocation effectiveness of portfolio roles of integrated business structure brands in product offering in the integration framework.

Enterprise innovation activity supposes coordinated technical and business processes of decision-making and its performance required for successful transformation of new product or service from concept to market. The purpose of this study is to develop valuation methods of innovative technology market potential and prospects of their introduction into the production enterprise activity.
In order to achieve this goal, we used brand new evaluation tool, this is technology audit conception, application of which increased significantly the accuracy and reliability of technology market potential evaluation. Clarification of terminological essence of technological audit allowed the authors to discover the content of technology audit components required for the market research and thereupon to develop evaluation mechanism for innovative technology market potential using technology audit. This mechanism is built on structure evaluation table of technology market potential level detection as an object of commercialization. To ensure the efficiency of practical effect of the mechanism proposed, the authors systematized and completed methods of functional analysis and scanning of market environment for the purpose of qualitative comprehensive evaluation and innovative technology market potential forecasting.
Introduction of the proposed evaluation method for technology market potential will result in the improvement of efficiency of enterprise innovation activity due to more rational distribution of available resources and immediate financing of developments with greater market potential.

This study conceptualizes and tests an integrative research model based on extended technology acceptance model (TAM) by integrating electronic service quality to strengthen the customer behavioral intention mediated through brand attitude in the context of e-banking in India. This study applies the cognitive, affective, and conative sequence to measure the antecedents and results of electronic service quality. The study has gathered a total of 455 usable responses by self-administered questionnaire through convenience sampling from young employed graduates aged between 16 and 29 years. Structural equation modelling techniques have been applied to the data and the results have provided that dimensions of electronic service quality model (customer service, web design, assurance, preferential treatment, information provision) relate to the electronic service quality. Electronic service quality and perceived usefulness significantly build customer attitude and intention to use internet banking services. However, against the TAM postulation, perceived ease of use does not influence customer’s intention to adopt internet banking service.

Integrated decisions in the system of the marketing logistics are the main resource for providing the efficient management of the value chain. Moreover, there is not a sufficient number of methodological approaches, which could use in complex the principles of the integrated modelling of decisions in the operational systems “procurement marketing – supply logistics” and “sales marketing – distribution logistics”. Considering that fact, the methodology of selecting strategic alternatives based on the integrated modeling in separate marketing logistics chains and in stage-by-stage formation of the supply chain participants has been developed in the article. The research is based on the application of the AHP method and the method of planning “dual sourcing” (70/30) for grounding the selection of the supply strategy at the market of material resources; methods of optimal planning according to Bayes criterion, linear programming and logistics modelling – for grounding the selection of the managerial decisions on the strategy of distributing the ready produce. The research covers, firstly, grounding the essence of the marketing logistics through the systemic approach to identification of its main and servicing business processes; secondly, improvement in the process of planning decisions in the procurement marketing system by adding the procedure of the logistical selection of the hierarchical estimation with a different degree of advantages in alternative supply strategies; thirdly, formation of the cascade integrated approach toward selection of the alternative distribution channels for the finished produce by estimating the complex marketing effect and application of the logistical model of optimal distribution.

The aim of this article is to define and quantify the significant factors (social environment, access to the financial resources and macroeconomic environment), which determine the perception of the entrepreneurial propensity of students for starting a new business in the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Poland in academic year 2016/2017. Empirical research was realized through questionnaire on the basis of 1,352 students (more than 1%level of significance) of the economic universities in the last year of their study in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Poland. The statistical hypotheses were verified using multiple linear regression modelling. The results showed that the entrepreneurial propensity of students in all countries is mostly affected by the social environment. Czech students gave the social environment higher impact on the entrepreneurial propensity for starting a new business than Polish and Slovak students. The results indicate that access to the financial resources is also important for the entrepreneurial propensity of students in the Czech Republic. As for Polish and Slovak students, the access to the financial resources is not a significant factor to the entrepreneurial propensity in their countries. The results having been processed are the basic information for the academic community, public sector, ministry of education in the country, and other organizations whose effort is to help the students to start a new business in her/his country.

Marketing mix appeared to be one of the most influential approaches on the marketing plans in the organizations. The current study seeks to examine the influence of marketing mix (4Ps – promotion, price, place and product) on the efficiency of CRM (responsiveness, empathy, customer relations, assurance and reliability) within the organic products market in Jordan. The researcher employed the quantitative approach through distributing a questionnaire on total of 37 individuals who were involved in the marketing field of organic products. The results of the study indicated that marketing mix appeared to have an influence of the efficiency of CRM practices within the marketing of organic goods in Jordan. The most influential variable appeared to be the price, which is considered to be high for organic product in Jordan, and that is why customer tend to avoid such product. Following the price came the variable of product, which was important as customers tend to give much emphasis on the specifications of the product and the fact that it is healthy and organic tends to appeal them regardless of the price. The study recommended increasing the level of awareness regarding organic products marketing strategies among the marketing managers in Jordan.

Firms use preannouncements to inform customers about the impending introduction of a new product or service. These preannouncements are significant events because they provide customers with product specific information while signaling the health, strategic intent, and future of a company. One important area of research in this field investigates the performance consequences of product preannouncements (PPA). However, a notable gap in our knowledge exists, because the focus of past research has been on studying wealth effects rather narrowly in certain industries, e.g., high-tech, or under certain contingencies. This restrictive approach is surprising, because PPA are observed in a broad range of product categories. Moreover, product life cycle and consumer switching cost theories predict performance effects of PPA irrespective of category or context. The author addresses this lack of generalizability by using switching cost and life cycle theories to hypothesize positive performance effects of PPA independent of context and contingencies. The event study method from finance is used to empirically test the relationship between PPA and stock prices in a broad sample of events comprising multiple product categories. Using events reported in the Wall Street Journal, evidence of a positive effect of PPA on stock prices irrespective of the type of product or context involved is found. Several managerial implications of the study are noted and avenues for further research are outlined.