Innovation has been recognized as a central source of business growth and a key determinant of competitive advantage for many organizations. This paper seeks to address two main objectives. The first objective is to examine the direct effect of organizational structure (i.e. centralization and formalization), transformational leadership, organizational learning and customer orientation on innovation capabilities. The second objective is to examine the effect of innovation capability and organizational performance. Findings show that customer orientation, organizational learning, and transformation leadership had significant positive effects on innovation capability. The results further show that innovation capability had a significant impact on organizational performance.

Entrepreneur support agencies are highly important in the development of small-and medium-size businesses of entrepreneurs. There are a number of studies on support agencies, but studies on entrepreneurial performance from the perspective of a relationship marketing orientation (RMO) between support agencies and entrepreneurs are lacking. This study aimed to investigate the hypothesized relationships between the RMO of an entrepreneur support agency and the financial and nonfinancial performances of small- and medium-size entrepreneurs (SMEs). A total of 276 valid SMEs survey responses based on purposive sampling were collected and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings indicate that trust and reciprocity are the significant factors to financial performance of SMEs. Meanwhile, trust, communication, empathy, and reciprocity indicate a significant positive relationship with nonfinancial performance of SMEs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to provide an interesting avenue to understand the relationship between an entrepreneur support agency and entrepreneurs to work on synergistic relationship approaches in order to remain sustainable in the market. This study has also drawn specific implications for SMEs and government agencies for entrepreneur and policy planning to coordinate appropriate entrepreneurship development programs and strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Considerable evidence shows that religion-secular divide has become an important issue in modern politics which plays a crucial role in voters’ decision-making processes. As more political parties applying marketing concepts and strategies to motivate voters, this study aims to examine the role of political brand religious image (PBRIM) in influencing voters’ citizenship behavior (VCB) and sought to determine whether or not there are any differences between the citizenship behavior of religious and secular voters. This study used social credibility theory to underpin the relationship between variables. The data was collected from 520 voters in Indonesia who participated in the 2014 presidential election. A quota sampling technique and a drop-off and collect survey distribution approach were used in this study. The relationship between PBRIM and VCB (feedback, advocacy, help, and tolerance) was examined using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (SmartPLS-SEM). Findings revealed that there is a significant, positive relationship between PBRIM and the dimensions of VCB. Besides that, there was a significant difference between political parties’ religious and secular images with all the four dimensions of voter’s citizenship behavior namely, advocacy, helping, feedback and tolerance behavior. Although both secular and religious voters are motivated to citizenship behavior, religious voters showed more inclination towards advocacy, tolerance, and helping behaviors. The findings of this research contributed to the body of knowledge in political marketing research by considering the political parties’ religious image in branding metrics. The revealed relationship will help the political parties to design their election campaign for ensuring voters support.

Crowdfunding platforms are seen as potential solutions to facilitate disintermediated giving, where people can go directly to the public for help with their difficulties. Although disintermediation is widespread and active in the crowdfunding industry, the fiercely competitive environment, combined with concerns about personal data use and unethical conduct, has resulted in an enormous number of campaigns failing. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate factors that influence contributors’ intention to participate in the crowdfunding platform. Using a self-administered survey, this research collected data from 339 individuals with initial knowledge of crowdfunding activities. The results of hypothesis testing indicate that gamification has a direct positive impact on affective user experience and trust in the platform but insignificantly affects donation intention on a crowdfunding platform. Interestingly, the mediating role of affective user experience and trust are established. The results lead to the discussion that gamification alone not directly impact donors' intentions to contribute on crowdfunding platforms, it significantly influences intention when mediated by affective user experience and trust in the platform. The substantial contribution of the relationship between gamification and trust in the platform, emphasizing the importance of user experience as a key precursor to positive behavioural intentions in online and gamified environments

The lack of a vaccine for COVID-19 and the limited amount of reliable data on the cessation of the disease have made people feel more vulnerable to the disease. As a result, people in many countries have been found to engage in panic purchasing, which has adversely affected the supply system for the retail market. Applying behavioral inhibition system theory, reactance theory, and expectancy theory, this research examines how psychological factors such as uncertainty, perceptions of severity, perceptions of scarcity, and anxiety affected the panic purchasing behavior of consumers. This study was conducted in Malaysia in light of the 2020 outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from structural equation modeling indicate that uncertainty, and perceptions of scarcity are positively associated with anxiety but not with the panic purchasing behavior of consumers. In addition, anxiety fully mediates the relationship among these variables and the panic purchasing behavior of consumers. Taken together, these findings provide support for doing more empirical research in order to develop a more resilient retail strategy and to improve consumer service.

Research Aims: The halal industry has become one of the fastest growing business in the global market. Halal certification provides assurance to all Muslim consumers because it fulfills the Shariah law and follows the concept of halalan-toyyiban. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of severity of halal violation and CSR on boycott towards the company that involved in halal violation incidents. Design/methodology/approach: In total of 400 questionnaires were distributed amongst customers who were aware and/or had experienced the violation of a halal product. Data were analyzed using structural equation modelling techniques, were partial least squares (PLS) software was used to measure the direct and indirect relationships between the variables.Research Findings: The result of this investigation showed that perceived severity of halal violation is significantly related to consumer boycott. Further results imply that perceived CSR not only contributes negatively to consumer boycott, but also significantly moderates the relationship perceived severity and consumer boycott. Theoretical Contribution/Originality: This study is among the earliest to include CSR from a consumer perspective, particularly in the halal retraction context.Managerial Implication in the South East Asian context: The present study suggests that Halal companies in South East Asian should be proactive in CSR initiatives in order to reduce the negative effect towards company evaluation such as boycott in case if halal violation incidents occur.Research limitation & implications: This study bears several limitations. First, this study employed purposive sampling method and the scope of the study is only limited to the customers who are aware and/or had experienced food halal violation incidents in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Hence, the results may not be able to generalise to other product categories and population.

Companies are increasingly looking for sales professionals. However, most university students are hesitant to consider sales as a prospective job option after graduation. Understanding the determining factors that influence graduates’ willingness to work in sales in Malaysia is critical in persuading more students to engage in sales career and restoring market demand for sales employment. Thus, this study investigates the relationship between perceptions of sales-related skills, perceptions of sales careers, and perceptions of how others view salespeople and the intention to pursue sales career among students in Malaysia’s universities. The effect of feelings towards selling as a mediator is also explored. The study analyses data from 276 business undergraduates using a structural equation modeling approach. The research findings indicate that perceptions of sales-related skills, perceptions of sales careers, and perceptions of how others view salespeople have positive impacts on intention to pursue sales career. There was also evidence that shows feelings towards selling influence intention to pursue sales career directly and indirectly. This study adds to the body of knowledge regarding sales education and provides universities practical insights into the factors determining student intentions to pursue sales jobs.

Most compulsive buyers tend to be highly interested in fashion as well as their physical appearance and attractiveness. This study aims to investigate the impact of depression, materialism, excessive internet usage on compulsive buying behaviour among university students in buying apparels. A total of 177 questionnaires were collected via convenience sampling from university students located at Klang Valley. It is found that, depression and materialism are having a significant impact to compulsive buying behaviour. These findings will appeal to those interested in consumer behaviour in buying apparel.