Does perceived quality mediate the relationship between country of origin image and consumer buying behaviour in Nigerian hypermarkets?

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the country of origin image of a product and consumers' purchasing behavior in Nigerian hypermarkets, as well as the mediating role of perceived price in this relationship. The research considers four aspects of purchasing behavior: information search, product evaluation, purchase decision-making, and post-purchase behavior. A total of 1272 participants completed an online survey, and the data collected was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that the country of origin image of a product has a significant and positive impact on consumers' information search, product evaluation, purchase decision-making, and post-purchase behavior. The study also found that perceived quality does not mediate the impact of country of origin image on information search and product evaluation, but it does play a significant and positive role in purchase decision-making and post-purchase behavior. As a result, it is important for Nigerian hypermarkets to be aware of the origin of the products they import, as importing from countries with a positive image can enhance their performance. Furthermore, perceived quality can mediate purchase and post-purchase decisions.

Do economic freedom, innovation, and technology enhance Chinese FDI? A cross-country panel data analysis.

This study evaluates the determinants of Economic freedom, innovation and technology concerning Chinese foreign direct investment. The aim of the study is to explore, that how these determinants influence Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) from China toward different regional economies. The study will enrich the existing literature by providing useful policies to the concerned economies to influence more Chinese FDI to host economies. The panel data set includes 27 (African, European, and Asian) Countries data over the period of 2003 to 2018. Moreover, the study employed panel data analysis and the result reveals that property rights, patents residents (pantentAR), Research & Development (R&D), Inflation, official exchange rate (OER), and Tax Burden (TaxB) have a strong positive and significant impact on Chinese OFDI in the selected sample countries, While Government Expenditures (GovE) has positive, but insignificant impact on Chinese OFDI. On the other hand, Chinese OFDI is negatively and statistically significant association with Business Freedom (BusF). This study will put forth considerable policies to the concerned to induce further inflows of Chinese FDI into the host countries. The policymakers should build policies that provide a comfortable environment for business activities and mostly focus on value-added production i.e., expenditures on R&D to enhance high-technology exports because they efficiently attract FDI into host countries. Another key factor is Tax Burden (TaxB), which significantly influences Chinese FDI along with other factors.

The role of self-esteem, optimism, deliberative thinking and self-control in shaping the financial behavior and financial well-being of young adults.

The sustainable financial behavior and financial well-being have been a key concern among the developing societies; thereby encompassing the various psychological factors which play a role in influencing individual's positive financial behavior and financial well-being, this study is conducted. Research focusing on the psychological aspect of human financial behavior and well-being is scarce, focusing more on the cognitive side such as financial literacy and numeracy. The aim of this research study is to find the role played by the non-cognitive factors such as self-esteem, self-control, optimism and deliberative thinking, in forming the financial behavior and financial well-being of the young adults. A sample of 429 university students from public and private sector was collected via an online and field survey using purposive sampling technique. The survey contained measures for demographics, self-esteem, optimism, deliberative thinking, self-control, general financial behavior and financial well-being. SPSS and PLS-SEM tools were used for the exploration of the relationships among dependent and independent variables. The results of PLS path analysis demonstrate that among the non-cognitive factors, self-control and deliberative thinking show a significant association with both financial behavior, and financial security. Self-esteem plays no significant role in forming the financial behavior of the young adults when all the variables are taken together but it exhibits a significant association with financial well-being (financial security and financial anxiety). Optimism on the other hand exhibits no significant association with both financial behavior and financial well-being (financial security and financial anxiety). The results of this study complement the previous studies and also put forth new outcomes. This research is unique as it is the first of its kind conducted in a consumption-oriented economy like Pakistan. In addition to the previous studies which have often established the link of self-esteem with general well-being, this study goes further by analyzing the association between self-esteem and financial well-being and by the identification of the role played by non-cognitive factors like self-esteem, optimism, deliberative thinking and self-control together on the financial behavior and financial well-being of the individuals using PLS-SEM approach.

Implications of Governance, Natural Resources, and Security Threats on Economic Development: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sub-Saharan African countries are known to be bedeviled with some challenges hindering the economic development. Meanwhile, some of these issues have not been exhaustively investigated in the context of the region. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the implications of government effectiveness, availability of natural resources, and security threats on the regions' economic development. Yearly data, spanning from 2007 to 2020, was converted from low frequency (yearly) to high frequency (quarterly) and utilized. Data analysis was conducted using Dynamic heterogeneous panel level estimators (PMG and CS-ARDL). Findings show that while PMG estimator confirms a long-run causal effect of governance, natural resources, and security threats on economic development, only natural resources show a short-run causal effect with economic development, while the CS-ARDL (model 2) confirms the significance of all the variables both in the long and short-run. Moreover, the ECT coefficients for both models were found to be statistically significant at less than 1% significance level, which indicates that the systems return back to equilibrium in case of a shock that causes disequilibrium, and in addition, reveals a stable long-run cointegration among the variables in the model. Finally, this study suggests that the policy makers in SSA countries should place more emphasis on improving governance, managing security challenges, and effectively utilizing rents from the natural resources, as all these have severe implications for the economic development of the region if not addressed.

Performance Evaluation of the Chinese Healthcare System.

This study aims to evaluate the performance of the Chinese healthcare system. It uses sustainable development goal (SDG) 3, set by the United Nations to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages as a benchmark. It uses data of 17 variables ranging from the year 2000 to 2017 and uses a multistage methodology to evaluate the performance. In the first stage, it uses difference in mean test to know whether or not the indicators show an improvement in the second decade of the 21st century compared to the first decade. In the second phase, simple linear regression has been used to know the rate of change of performance of every indicator over the sample period. The third step compares the performance of the healthcare sector with the sustainable goals set by the UN and the fourth phase attempts to forecast performance for the next five years i.e., 2018 to 2022. As per the results, the Chinese healthcare sector has performed very well on many fronts except alcohol consumption in males, road accidents and the incidence of non-communicable diseases. Alcohol consumption by males is touching dangerous levels. Therefore, the policies should focus on educating males to lower their alcohol consumption to stay fit and healthy.

Assessing the Impact of Green Hiring on Sustainable Performance: Mediating Role of Green Performance Management and Compensation.

The global need to preserve ecology has propelled the green movement across the globe. An emerging managerial challenge for all organizations is to protect natural resources by reducing their negative impact on the environment and increase sustainable performance. Greening is the need of the age to conserve natural resources. This study investigates the impact of green human resource management practice-i.e., green hiring-on the sustainable performance of public and private healthcare organizations. A quantitative research approach was used for data collection. Scale survey of 160 responses was gathered from public and private healthcare organizations. Partial least square-structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The study results suggest that green recruitment has a positive and significant impact on environmental performance, economic performance, and social performance. Path coefficients test also revealed that green performance management and compensation significantly mediate the relationship between green hiring and sustainable performance of public and private healthcare organizations. This study is helpful for organizations in adapting GHRM practices that will benefit the organizations in all ways. This study also provides a better understanding to policymakers on how to promote GHRM practices and increase sustainability in organizations.