The Merck & Co. Inc. Case Study
by Jolito Ortizo Padilla
In mid 2005, the huge pharmaceutical firm, Merck &Co. Inc., faces more than 4,200 state and federal lawsuit. In one suit, Merck is alleged to have received payments from third parties, such as insurance companies, unions, and employee health plans. Many suits involve Vioxx, which is a drug that Merck withdraw from the market in September 2004 after a company sponsored test found that there could be an increased risk of heart attacks and stroke for those who took the medicine after 18 months of daily usage.
History
Merck is an American legend and icon of a firm. Its is a global pharmaceutical company and was established in 1891. The company's core business is the discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of a variety of products, mostly to improve human and animal health. Merck sells product through drug wholesalers and retailers, hospitals, clinics, government and managed health service providers.
Overtime, Merck has devoted to increasing access to and delivering donated medicines through far reaching programs to those people who need them-oftentimes doing so for no profit or revenue. Through the 1980's, the company publishes proved to be successful as a research driven firm, keeping the pipeline filled with new and innovative products. More recently, Merck has also discovered and introduced many major new drugs, including Mevacor (for high cholesterol) and Vasotech (for high blood pressure).
In the year 1990, Merck acquired several companies. In 1991, the company's centennial year, Merck's sales were around $9 Billion., which positioned the company to have 5% of the global market share in prescription drugs: the largest share of the world market. In 1994, Merck expanded internationally by forming subsidiaries in Cyprus, Germany, Holland, Peru, and South Korea and it entered a joint venture in China to manufacture and market its product.
In the late 1990's , Merck had pulled several products such as the Wyeth Diet Drug Redux and Pondimin (known as commonly as "fen-phen") off the market. Litigation from these products have lasted for years, and reserves allocated for this problem are in excess of $21 billion. To date Merck spent over $800 million to cover its legal defense,
In 2002, Merck obtained FDA approval for
Martes, Abril 28, 2020
Martes, Abril 18, 2017
THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK OF THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN for the year 2017
Economic Outlook of Bahrain 2017
Real GDP growth of the Kingdom of Bahrain for 2017 is expected to remain
robust at average of 2.8% as compared with 2.3% in 2016. Private consumption will continue
to make a large contribution in growth.
Despite largely a favorable outlook the country will need to pay careful attention to several potentially important downside risks to growth:
· Growth in trade has slow
down over the past five years as in the rest of the world. This is partly due
to factors that cannot be influenced by policy such as China economy is slowing
down; increased focus on area of comparative advantage may help boost exports. The increasing prevalence of
non-tariff barriers (NTB’s) could further impede trade activities.
· Persistent low interest rates, if not managed appropriately may result in market instability. In particular the banking sector needs to be carefully monitored.
· Plateau productivity growth threatens a long term growth prospects. Promoting enhanced productivity requires reform to the business environment and policies to foster emergence of productivity including developing domestic capacities to benefit from international knowledge and technology flows
Recent Developments in Regional Integration
Integration remains a good way for the region to build resilience and improve growth prospects. This is especially true in the current context of slower global growth and the implementation of more inward-looking policies in some parts of the world. The GCC region has the number of sector plans to facilitate the free flow of goods, services, investments, capital and skilled labor. Recent achievements have been made in key policy areas; trade in goods; trade in services, investments and capital markets, competition and consumer protection, infrastructure and connectivity, SMEs, food, agriculture, tourism, human and social development, and the initiative for GCC integration. However, the overall progress of integration is relatively slow with many regional initiatives delayed by challenges in the timely and effective implementation of supportive domestic policies. Such supportive policies facilitate deeper cooperation and improve a long term commitments to regional integration.
Long term projection by the
International Energy Agency (IEA) show the largest used of energy consumption
is expected in the region as a
result of a variety of socio-economic factors, including increasing population,
sustained economic growth and increasing access to electricity. Total energy
supply is expected 4406 million tons of oil equivalent in 2015 to 6998 in 2040,
with fossil fuel remaining the main source of energy used in the region. Much
of the region has adopted specific targets for implementation of renewable energy
capacities, as well as policy mechanics to foster the development that are not
yet competitive with the conventional energy sources
FDI will be an important channel for
investment in renewable that also enables the transfer of capital, technology
and expertise. Dubai and Qatar received the largest inflows in the region,
accounting for more than 60% of the total. FDI is also helping to support the
expansion of job. Setting the right condition for
the development of renewable energy in
GCC region will require solutions to challenges in grid access, administrative
barriers and energy pricing mechanisms.
Key Structural Policy Challenges
Domestic level of structural policy reforms is
critical in providing the conditions to maintain robust and sustainable growth
in the Kingdom of Bahrain economies. In pursuing their plans for national
development, common priority areas are reforms that include
infrastructure, educational and skilled development, tourism, FDI and
energy. Other important issues to be addressed by the country diverse in using
digital economy, economic diversification, capital market development and
entrepreneurship.
Risks and Policy Challenges
The
Kingdom of Bahrain is expected to experience favorable growth over and medium
terms. The growth potential is critical for policymakers to implement effective
policies to cope with various risks, including:
1. Coping with slow export growth
2. Price of Oil in the world market is low.
3.
Managing
the impact of zero and negative interest rates; and
4.
Address
the slow in productivity growth.
New trade strategies are needed to deal with
the reversal in the export recovery. Global trade volume grow has slowed down
substantially for the last three years. Bahrain is poised to register its 20th
straight quarter of less than 3% growth since 2011Q4. Given a current backdrop
of depressed oil prices, the trend of trade revenue depicts grimmer picture. Recent trend maybe promising, but
they also suggest that Bahrain have to calibrate their medium trade program in
a way that would allow their exporting sector to focus on other markets.
Domestic Demand
The strong growth in export, foreign direct investments (FDI) and domestic demands help to support recent growth. Private consumption and fixed investment has been important driver of economic activity in Bahrain as has the expansion of the services sector. The movement in oil prices has seriously affected the exports but the small amount of recovery is anticipated and will remain unchanged for the next five years.
While manufacturing
growth has been slow recently, the service sectors continue to expand quickly
driven by strong domestic demand.
Construction of new residential and commercial has been strong and the
government must continue to focus on the development of infrastructure projects
that connects to other countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia will definitely
improve trade among these countries. GCC as well as Bahrain will be affected by
China’s slow growth from 6.7% in 2016 to an average projected GDP of 6% in 2017.
Industrial overcapacity continues to be
a challenge and export growth has been weak. India on the other hand will see high and relatively stable
growth over the projection period at an average of 7.3%, Philippines continue to
strengthen its GDP growth rate of 7% followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam
and Cambodia. Japan and Korea are still the most prioritized country when it
comes to imports of electronic goods. Liberalizing reform could help to support
robust growth and improve currently weak private investment.
In the financial sector, persistent low interest rates in
advanced economies, if not managed by the policymakers through vigilant
supervision, may result in domestic instability. Apart from its palpable influence
in securities trading, the decrease in the cost of borrowings in large
economies has strained the balance sheet of financial sector corporation as
fixed income earnings decline. At this point, the macroeconomic fundamentals
are stable enough to keep near term risk in bay.
Bahrain would be able to ride out the
wings in the mood of investors when monetary policy direction in advance
economies changes hinges mainly on how reforms would improve the standing of
key financial institutions as well as systematically relevant public
corporations. Global liquidity flooding operations that began in 2014 have
driven the ratio of domestic dit-to GDP upwards across the country.
The
political crisis in Bahrain in 2011 reflects the cautious stance of monetary officials
in mirroring the extent of quantitative easing in advanced economies,
presumably to maintain financial market discipline. This could be one of the
channels that could explain why the impact of low interest rates over ease on
domestic real sectors has been mixed.
Yet
even with some caution in monetary policy making, and then ensuring credit
expansion has exposed vulnerabilities in bank supervision frameworks in light
of the continued weakness in the international markets and subdued oil
prices. Instances of loan default among
highly leveraged corporations have increased and bank portfolios have generally
deteriorated as a consequence even though banks in the country remain well
capitalized. Bahrain’s banking system, in particular, stands outstanding in
terms of relatively high level and growth of its non –performing loans (NPL)
ratio. It is vital that banks maintain a healthy portfolio because fixed income
earnings are already under stress owing to the decline in yields, which dragged
down profitability. To their advantage, prudential regulations in many Gulf
Countries are strong as a result of a series of measure undertaken years before
but the continuation of reforms in Bahrain banking system will be needed. In
addition to the impact on the financial sector, downside risk of fiscal
stability caused by interest rates in advance economies are benign at the
moment. The current evidence concerning impact of low interest rates on the
real economy is mixed
Recent Macroeconomic
Development and Near Term Proposal
Near term growth prospects are solid despite sluggish global growth.
Overall Bahrain have remained solid against increased uncertainty in the form of weak demand in advanced countries like the United States and the Euro area, divergent monetary policy in the advanced economy and persistently low global economy commodity prices. Growth in the global trade has sharply decelerated in real terms since 2011. The major drivers of weak global trade are slow economic growth and lower investment growth. This synchronized slowly down in productivity growth and still posing economic growth.
The economic growth has slowed down in the short term. Private investment
weakened temporarily due to monetary tightening (during the tapertantrum) and
highly leveraged banks and corporate (leverage ratio was about 0.79 in March
2017. An improvement of the investment climate and reliance in public
infrastructure can help catalyze private investment. The investment is expected
to boost GDP growth.
The country has experienced an expansion in economic activity with an
economic growth of 2.0 % in 2016. With inflation of 1.5% in December 2016 (lower
that inflation targeting zone of 3+/1), it boosted over inflation to 2.3% in
January 2017 with resultant economic growth. Key economic factors are private
consumption supported fixed investment and service sector. The service sector
(particularly in tourism) is a main driver of growth. The government has also
recently boosted public spending on infrastructure, education and healthcare.
The country’s main export is petrol and oil and further decline have
reduced their export benefits. This has narrowed the merchandise- trade and
current account surpluses and widened deficits. Diversification in export
sector would help buffer persistent global lower commodities.
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Biyernes, Disyembre 23, 2016
Practicing Mindfulness
Medical students face a lot of pressure, particularly in the
first couple of years. They are often in a new place, surrounded by new people
and expected to learn a lot in a short time. On top of that, students have to
make big decisions about their futures — and it's easy for their minds to go
into overdrive.
Practicing mindfulness for just 10 or 20 minutes each day can
help students slow down. UCLA Neuro- Surgeon Dr. Jolito Ortizo Padilla Jr.
teaches a series on mindfulness and shares a few brain exercises
students can employ to help ease a racing mind and deal with stressful times.
"The term mindfulness is often misused, but it generally
means having an awareness and acceptance of the sensory experience of the
present moment," Safrin says. "Pay attention to your emotions, accept
them and notice what's happening in your mind. Accept what's happening as it
happens."
Although it sounds like a simple objective, it's far from easy
and takes time for anyone to master. The following three strategies can serve
as tools to keep the mind sharp, resilient and ready to learn. It's best to
practice at least one of them every day.
For many, trying to process all the thoughts racing through
their head only leads to a snowball effect. Listening to the mind's stories can
be overwhelming and upsetting them. Instead, try breaking down those thoughts
into parts.
"Pay attention to the sensory aspects. Are there images flashing
through your mind?" Padilla says. "Is there a verbal energy? Get to
know these patterns, without grasping at or suppressing this activity."
To do this, Padilla suggests labeling. Mentally say the word
"seeing" for visual images as they run through the mind, or label the
internal self-talk as "hearing" and emotions as "feeling."
You can even label the type of thought, such as worry, planning or remembering.
Offering the mind real-time, generic labels interrupts its
desire to find meaning and provides a feedback loop for being clear about
what's happening in the present.
Replace ideas
Some ideas are too overwhelming. That's when it helps to have a
positive replacement — similar to the idea of finding a happy place. Choose a
phrase or word that is positive, and repeat it whenever negative thoughts
become overpowering.
Focus on something else
Classic mindfulness practices that focus on the breathing
process are a good example of changing focus. Although many people feel like
they need to find stillness every time they try this, that's not actually the
case. The mind races more when you try to stop it. Instead, don't fight your
thoughts: let them come and go, and always return focus to the breath.
"These strategies help us prevent the mind from getting stuck
in habitual patterns," Padilla says. "This frees up more energy,
keeping the mind more fluid and resilient, yielding insights, creativity and
kindness."
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Linggo, Abril 24, 2016
The 2016 Economic Outlook of the Kingdom of Bahrain by Jolito Ortizo Padilla
The Kingdom of Bahrain Economic Outlook for
2016
GA Consultancy 2016 projection for
Bahrain’s Economy will grow at a steady rate of 2.5% supported by a strengthening
recovery in industrial sectors and soft global commodity prices
The drop in international oil prices is taking pressure off of consumer prices. Inflation will increase to 3.1% in 2016
As low oil prices slow down the economy, a sudden sharp reversal could undermine the outlook and require policy response. Similarly, while capital inflows to the region have been beneficial for growth, policy makers must carefully manage credit expansion to ensure that it does not lead to excessive leverage and asset price bubbles.
Bahrain needs a deep, robust financial sector to sustain growth. Policy makers will be challenged to ensure that financial sector development is inclusive, providing broad access to households and firms. Financial stability must also be maintained to enhance growth and equity.
“Falling commodity prices are creating space
for policy makers across the country to cut costly fuel subsidies or initiate
other structural reforms. This is a key opportunity to build frameworks that
will support more inclusive and sustainable growth in the longer term.”
Bahrain’s economy is expected to moderate in the
first semester of 2016 as investors await clarity on the new government plans for
governance reform and economic policy
Foreign Countries that Influence the
Economic growth of the Kingdom of Bahrain:
Growth in the United States (US),
where recovery seems to have turned a corner, is leading major industrial
economies. While signs are mixed in the euro area and Japan, soft oil prices
and accommodative monetary policy will support growth. As a group, these
economies are forecast to expand by 2.2% in 2015, up 0.6 percentage points of 2.4% in 2016.
With improving external demand for
the region’s outputs, an expected pickup in India and in most members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), could help balance gradual deceleration
of Bahrain.
Growth slowed Bahrain in 2015 due to
weak fixed asset investment, particularly in real estate. As the government
proceeds with its structural reform agenda, further slowing of investment is expected
to diminish growth from 2.8% in 2015 and 2.5 % in 2016. This is a much more
moderate rate than the average growth of 1.8% in the period since the political
crisis.
India is forecast to overtake
PRC in terms of growth as the initial phase of government efforts to remove
structural bottlenecks is lifting investor confidence. With the support of
stronger external demand, India is set to expand by 7.8% in FY2016, a sharp rise from 7% growth in FY2015. This momentum is expected
to build to 8.2% growth in FY2017, aided by expected easing of monetary policy
and a pickup in capital expenditure, thus causing the flow of investments to
the Kingdom of Bahrain that boast the economy of the country. India and Bahrain
has tremendous ties for two decades. They also have a strong Trade Bilateral
relations.
Risks to the outlook include
possible missteps in the PRC as it adjusts to its new normal, less decisive
action on reforms in India than anticipated, potential spillover effects on the
global economy of the Greek debt crisis and the deepening recession in the
Russian Federation. The impending rise in US interest rates may reverse capital
flows to the country, requiring monetary responses to maintain stability. The
benefits flowing from the low price of oil could evaporate if geopolitical
tensions push it sharply higher. Growth
will be stable in Taipei,China, but accelerate in Hong Kong, China, and
Republic of Korea, reflecting rising domestic demand and improving local
economy.
Growth in South Asia accelerated to
6.9% in 2014 and is projected to trend higher to 7.2% in 2015 and 7.6% in 2016,
reflecting the strong performance anticipated in India. Both Bangladesh and
Pakistan are following through with wide-ranging economic reforms that include
efforts to overcome power shortages, though political challenges may limit
progress in 2016.
Bahrain’s economy is expected to moderate in the
first semester of 2016 as investors await clarity on the new government plans for
governance reform and economic policy.
Southeast Asia is poised for a
growth rebound in 2016 after sub-regional growth fell to 5.4% in 2015.
Aggregate growth is seen rebounding from 5.9% in 2015 and 6.5% in 2016 as
recovery in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines leads the way, and with most of the sub-region
expected to benefit from rising exports and lower inflation.
Weak oil prices and recession in the
Russian Federation pushed sub-regional growth in Central Asia down 1.5 percentage
points to 5.1% in 2015. In 2016 growth will slacken in Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as lower petroleum exports constrain domestic
spending. The weak economy in the Russian Federation will curb export and
remittance flows, slowing growth in Armenia, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, and
Tajikistan. Average growth in the sub-region is forecast at 3.5% in 2015 and
4.5% in 2016.
Through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration, Bahrain can fully manage its economy.
Financial System of Bahrain
Financial systems have improved in the past decade but further deepening of banks and capital markets and greater access to finance is essential to enhance growth and equity in the Kingdom, says GA Consultancy report.
“Improving the efficiency of the banking sector and capital market can boost investment, productivity, and innovation,” said Padilla, J of GA Consultancy. “Reducing the dominance of state-owned financial institutions and developing local currency bond markets are some of the important steps needed in promoting Bahrain’s financial development.”
Despite a slow of progress, Bahrain’s financial systems still lag against Dubai by a wide margin. Bank deposits, for example, equal 30% of regional gross domestic product (GDP), compared with an average of 110%. The bond markets equal less than half of GDP, or about a third of the 140% average in advanced economies.
Financing Bahrain’s future growth, Padilla noted is boosting the country average ratio to GDP of liquid liabilities—currency plus checking and interest-bearing accounts in financial institutions—from about 65% to 75% would add almost 0.4 percentage points to average annual GDP growth per capita.
“Data shows that financial development does not necessarily lead to a reduction in income inequality,” said Dr. Padilla. “It is therefore important to also pursue financial inclusion policies—measures that can boost access to financial services by low-income households and small and medium-sized enterprises.”
The empirical evidence in the GA Consultancy report suggests that, while financial development tends to alleviate inequality in its early stages, inclusive growth becomes more likely with concerted government efforts to improve financial inclusion.
Because a financial crisis can both lead to a recession and generate a disproportionate amount of misery for economically disadvantaged groups, as seen during the Asian financial crisis and the more recent global financial crisis, safeguarding financial stability is important for growth and economic inclusion.
The country with better regulation of financial institutions, more foreign direct investment relative to foreign bank loans and foreign portfolio flows, and a more diversified source of international funds, are likely to be more resilient to financial shocks. Padilla says.
The most effective approach to developing the financial sector needs to take into account a country’s circumstances. For low income, further improving their banking sector’s ability to mobilize domestic savings, lower the cost of credit, and improve access for households and firms may be the most important elements of financial development. For middle income, further developing their local currency bond market and stock market is also required in order to stimulate innovation.
Linggo, Disyembre 27, 2015
Entrepreneurship... The Women's Power by Jolito Ortizo Padilla
Entrepreneurship... The Women’s Power… by Jollto Ortizo
Padilla.
Please take note that the name and the company does not
exists in the country. This is an illustration of how women can contribute to
the country’s economic growth.
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1.
Background of the
Entrepreneur
Aisha is the President of Bahrain’s leading construction company, the Aisha Contracting Company and has the stake at the family owned corporation, The Aisha Group of Companies. She perseveres until the company has attained a million Bahraini Dinar. Some of her friends encourage her to retire, but she laughs it off since working hard and loving it is part of her daily life. She is passionate about working with the company and employees. Her father serves as the inspiration and is the motivating factor to work with insights towards achieving the objectives and goals in life.
The Aisha Contracting Company was established in 2005. She was influence by her father to establish the company during the time when the construction sector was booming in the GCC region due to high oil prices worldwide. Her father has predicted what industry will be at the forefront of the future economy in Bahrain; hence this construction company was born. In addition she expanded the business by opening electrical retail outlets in consonant to the contracting company.
When she was young, she has a passion of business. By that time she was taking part with the business of her father because he believed in women’s power which is dominated by men. She was sent to London to learn and acquired business knowledge. The father perception was perfectly right because despite of turmoil and political instability for the past years, the business has dramatically continues to grow into a powerhouse business in Bahrain.
Bahrain’s business slightly fluctuate in the early 2000s due to worldwide economic crisis, but because of her passion motivated by positivism, her struggles succeeded and the company continuously grows as expected. For the last ten years of existence in Bahrain it has grown by 30%. The company has tremendously expanded in the neighboring countries like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Oman where construction sectors grow dramatically. In the late 2000s, the expansion continues to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait where huge investment was being called for, and does not deter the process of expansionism.
The presence of competitors does not hinder such capacity to grow. In fact Aisha thinks of it as a challenge. Armed with her knowledge in Business during her studies in London, she continues to plan ahead with the objectives and goals of becoming the biggest contracting company in the Gulf Countries. The business grows rapidly up to the early 2000s, when the oil started to increase from $100 a barrel to $120 per barrel. This provides Aisha to an aggressive campaign to build more buildings and houses in Gulf Countries. She says; “ There’s no stopping”. She explores this opportunity to build her business empire.
However, in the early decade of 2000s, political turmoil has wrapped Bahrain which part of the so-called Arab Spring. All businesses and construction halted the booming economy of Bahrain. The business was down and most of the investors flew to their country of origin which results to capital flight. The investors went on the “wait and see” attitude and there were speculations among the investors. At that moment, banks have the liquidity problem because of capital flights. The revenue fall by 30% that provides her to go back to her drawing board.
But all of these negative situations did not stop Aisha to relegate her business acumen. She then plan strategic alliances with other investors that give her leeway to reorganized and restructure the systems of the company. Concurrently, the strategic plan works and it creates more employment to most Bahrainis who have the willingness to work in the pressured environment.
2. The decision to start up a Business
Aisha always emphasizes “creativity”. The word is a magic to her in starting a business and convert the empire as the way it is now. She describes it as the ability of the management to apply any thought of imagination that yields innovative solutions to huge problems that beset the organization. She coins the word of Padilla, J (2001) in defining such term as “ Organizations and teams which practice reflexivity and are prepared to continually challenge and redefine their organizational goals, roles and paradigms, via the process of innovation, develop a more comprehensive and penetrating representation of their role. They better anticipate and manage problems, and they deal with conflict as a valuable process asset within the organization and encouraging growth and development. The most reflexive organization are those within which there is a maelstrom of activity, debate, argument, innovation and the real sense of involvement of all employees.
The fascination of Aisha to understand this concept draws her insight of inspiration as she was given a special gift to have such business knowledge with the help of her father’s money. Armed with her background of studies in one of the best business university in London, the London University, and her father’s training from her childhood days to the present time, she was able to establish the company into a million dollar conglomerate.
Her interest is drawn into creativity, innovation, sensitivity and skills in communications become a guide to prepare herself to such big challenge. Being proactive and imaginative in management approach is one of the essential elements that she professes in order to be successful in his chosen endeavor in life. In addition, she believes she could navigate the traditional business practiced by businessmen in Bahrain and can changed into the world of creative mindset thus a generation of innovation can be fulfilled. This according to her without such characteristics can hinder the growth of the business and the fulfillment process is compromised.
Despite the fact that she knew that there are some obstacles that affect the business externally and internally, this does not stops her from pursuing such intensive training and development in order to sharpen her knowledge and improves her level of business knowledge. She knew that one of the characteristics of human activity is learning. There is a growth level if she takes steps to venture into a business as it involves insights and the taking place of change in many ways as a life -long experience. In her mind she needs to learn and develop the way on how to help and support her father to grow the business and provides employment to the citizens of Bahrain. Understanding the concept of dynamism and active dimension of business life draws her attention to such perspective.
Learning from her father’s style of management and financial approaches recognizes a useful process to enhance her effectiveness and this serves as a challenge to her. This creates the idea of how knowledge is link to the learning process. The teaching of her father that knowledge and foresight forms an act of innovation to this competitive world can directly give a direction to an effective and efficient organization. This teaching makes a great track on the mind of Aisha to pursue her career in business.
The thought of being an imaginative and innovative in terms of management capabilities has increasingly brought her to try this method to create a business of the future. Another way is that business requires a creative feeling and intuitive activity that stops the blockage of being creative. The advantage of being coach and mentored by her father contributes to her desire to this challenging business world.
3. The subsequent management and development
of the new venture:
Aisha Contracting has a grade AA,
the highest grade among contractor in Bahrain awarded by the government. It has
several projects from both private sectors and private sector. With the highly
skilled people recruited by the company, it developed many successful projects
which recently includes The Supreme Council for Women, Nissan Garage in Sitra,
Gulf Hotel, RUF Automobile Assembly Plant, Crescent Villas in Amwaj Island and
the a multi-million Addax in Seef. It also built the 400 houses for the
Ministry of Housing in Wadi Al-Sail and the Ebrahim Tower in Seef.
The financial capability of the
company under the leadership of Aisha has been liquid although it has been
affected by external factors such as political conflicts in the region and
economic changes in the US and European countries. It has fully implemented the
quality assurance to ensure reliability and safety among its customers.
A challenging scenario in Bahrain since the political unrest
in 2011 is on its headway. There is a continued volatility in the market that
results to the country instability. Capital flight and uncertainty undermine
the confidence of the investors. The threat towards the economy is going into a
“fiscal cliff” to the fragile construction business. Suddenly Bahrain has the
sluggish market growth and the healthy property sector becomes a nutshell.
Concurrently because of such scenario, the sector is faced with challenges on
the social equilibrium which added to the crisis, The Bahrain Weekend News
(2015)
In line with the strategic priorities, the company has speeded to invest in office buildings continuously as the company key growth drivers that provides an income of BD150 million a year. The company has continued to strengthen its foothold by means of a joint venture with Bahrain Development Bank and disposed some of its non-performing equipments and businesses. The launching of the two constructed building in Seef area last year has been the company’s successful project adding to BD100 million turnovers.
The company has played a major role in leadership by helping resolve some issues such as climate change. The company approach is to be recognized externally and a leader of the sector in Gulf Country and work as a catalyst organization. It seeks to be proud as a key player in the market where they operate. The company’s growth is sustainable and demonstrate the powerful purpose from where it stand that makes the company “fit to win” in the future scheme of endeavor.
The model is to sustain growth in the property sector. They have to address such issues towards the direction of innovative housing and a happy living. The company is duty bound to address such perspectives. The model content is sustainable growth and has a direct impact to the environment. The Company is to invest into an innovative housing in order to double their revenue and profits. To strengthen the components between the property buyers and the company, the equity must be strong to provide leverage by focusing on projects that are huge that improves margin and efficiency. This will drive a product that is superior and innovative that will drive profitable growth. In order to deliver such profitable growth the company deliver value by enhancing service to the customers and quality housing facilities for customers satisfaction and faster innovations to the market where they operates.
The company builds its leadership capabilities by attracting the best talent to support the sustainable model of business and becomes a tool to the regenerative development that gives life. This will reduce cost and improve marginal profit while sourcing the sustainable methods of developing products and the innovative opportunities to improve the lives of the employees.
Aisha also emphasizes that people is the most important at the heart of the organization. They will pursue a sustainable competitive advantage by building their potential through training and development. It requires a challenging set by redefining their capabilities and understands the reality about the organization. Trust and inspiration are the key components that influence them to work with precision and build a model among peers at work.
There appear to have a reflection of complete harmony in the climate of organization. The conflict is being handled and managed by the group and appropriate adoption of the strategies that could damage the harmful effect of conflict.
On a broader approach of
leadership, satisfaction of the job aims to provide a person with greater
autonomy to plan, execute and to control their work. It also gives a person
with a job that is challenging and an opportunity for growth. The company
permits freedom to schedule and pace their work. Giving the workers an
opportunity to challenge their skills is to fully utilize their expertise to
build their skills. Self management provides them with a greater responsibility
to monitor their own performance at the minimal supervision.
Aisha believes that “ In an
organization, empowerment means that each staff member is responsible for
creating that organization’s culture. There aren’t many motivating forces more
potent than giving your staff an opportunity to exercise and express their
idealism, Roddick M , (2013).
References:
The Bahrain Weekend News;
Bahrain’s Elite Business Entrepreneur, pp 13;14; March 2015 edition.
Padilla, J, Strategic
Management, 2nd edition, 2012; pp 345, Pearson
Roddick , Anita. Human Resource
Management, 2nd edition, p234, Pearson
Linggo, Disyembre 6, 2015
Measuring Customer's Perception of E-Commerce Services in Bahrain by Jolito Ortizo Padilla
Measuring
Customer’s Perception of E-Commerce Services in Bahrain by Jolito Ortizo Padilla
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The application of this scale to the consumer sector contrasts sharply with the relative absence of studies employing it in the b2b context (e.g. Durvasula et al., 2012). Moreover, whenever Service Quality was applied results were mixed: While Pitt et al. (2011) report that the instrument’s reliability and validity scored well in the mainframe software sector, Durvasula et al. (2012) found the opposite. In fact, this led the authors to make a call for devising an instrument that will be designed to measure perceived service quality in the b2b context.
1.2 Objectives of the Study
1. The primary objective of the research is to measure the perception
of the customers in e-commerce services in terms of service quality which is a
critical concern in e-commerce because of its impact on the organizational
customers’ own service to their customers.
2. To evaluate the dimensions of perceived service quality in order to
diagnose quality drawbacks in the service they deliver.
1.3 Importance of the Study:
Perceived quality is important because it is related with
satisfaction which is known to influence positively the firm’s performance.
Various studies have investigated the link between perceived service quality
and buyer’s satisfaction and have demonstrated that satisfaction is related
with the ability of the firm’s outcome to meet an optimum level on certain –
specific characteristics that are of importance for the buyer. In turn, these
characteristics are frequently referred to as “satisfaction drivers” and are at
the core of the notion to perceived service quality, as opposed to laboratory
quality (i.e. the level of quality depicted on the service blueprint) and delivered
quality (i.e. the extent to which the firm’s ability to actually match the
standards described in its blueprints). Given that overall satisfaction with
the provision of a service is a function of the buyer’s degree of satisfaction
with various aspects of the service offered, perceived service quality has been
suggested to follow the same rational
1.5 Research Problem
1. The linkage between satisfaction and quality to assess perceived
quality.
2. The increased demand for specialization, which in a way is a
consequence of the increased customization that is required when serving organizational
buyers. As a result, selecting, evaluating and deciding on the continuation of
the relationship with a e-commerce service provider. (Jackson et al., 2012).
1.6 Research Question:
There are questions that need to be answered and explored to resolve
pertaining on how e-commerce in the service company can be perceived.
1. What are the effects that the service offered created for the
customer, after it has been implemented?
2. What dimension of perceived service quality relates to the search
attributes that customers use in order to evaluate the provider’s ability to
perform the service before the relation has actually begun?
3. How to capture the communal elements of the interaction between the
managers from the companies, such as understanding customer’s needs and
personality match?
1.7 Research Hypotheses
The researcher hypotheses measure the customer perception of
E-Commerce Services in Bahrain are as follows:
H1 – The perceived service quality is not the determinant of
performance in E-Commerce transactions..
1.8 Limitation of the Study
1. There is limited time duration of preparing the research study having
only about five months to do the activity that result to inadequate structure
of the concept.
2. The distribution of the questionnaires to respondents greatly
affects the research study. There are some respondents that take time to answer
the questions due to the fact that they don’t have an immediate time to answer
or are busy of their activities.
3. Due to time constraints, the sample size is limited to only 50
respondents that affects the statistical elements of the findings.
4. The travel time to distribute, follow up and collect the
questionnaires to different companies also affects the research studies.
5. The constraints that there will be having a continuation of the
study in the future.
Chapter 2:
Theoretical Framework
Three major issues concerning
e-commerce measure have been raised since it was originally introduced: The
properties of the measurement, the linkage between satisfaction and quality and
the use of gaps (difference scores) to assess perceived quality are perception
on how e-commerce are being measured.
With regard to the properties of service quality, several studies
report similar Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for the five service
quality dimensions (e.g. Babakus and Boller, 2012; Babakus and Mangold, 2012;
Carman, 2000; Cronin and Taylor, 2000) and at least equally high as the Parasuraman
et al. (2008)
reported. These findings validate the internal reliability or cohesiveness of
the scale items forming each dimension. However, the validity of the instrument
has raised major concerns. Most studies imply greater overlap among the service
quality dimensions – especially among responsiveness, assurance, and empathy (Peter
et al., 2003) – than
implied by Parasuraman et al. (1985), which
puts the instrument’s discrimination validity under questioning. A detailed
discussion on the issue is provided by Asubonteng et al. (1996). Convergent validity has also been
questioned since the factor loading patterns in none of the studies are similar
to those obtained by Parasuraman et al. (2008).
In addition, concurrent
validity has also been questioned (e.g. Babakus and Boller, 1992; Brensinger
and Lambert, 2000) and some interesting findings have been documented: For instance,
Babakus and Boller (2002) found that perception scores have stronger
correlations with other dependent measures (e.g. overall quality) than do the
actual service quality scores When it comes to the instrument’s link with
satisfaction, a study in the health care context (O’Connor et al., 2004) reported that certain dimensions of the
original e commerce measure on service
quality were not identified as significant predictors of customer satisfaction.
With regard to the use of gaps (difference scores) to assess quality, Teas
(2003, 2004) pinpoints two potential problems regarding discrimination validity
that are associated with the use of difference scores. Since difference score
measures are usually less reliable than non-difference score measures, they appear
to possess discrimination validity simply because such measures are unreliable
(Peter et al., 2003).
Empirical findings have demonstrated that expectations about the performance of
a service may change after it is used once (Halstead and Page 2002), which in
turn reduces the reliability of a difference score based on those measures.
1.2 Contemporary developments in conceptualizing and measuring perceived
service quality
A recent stream of research that has developed over the last few years treats perceived customer service as
an individual construct. Spreng and Mackoy (2006) as well as Dabholkar et al. (2000) are among those researchers who have
pursued this approach. More specifically, Spreng and Mackoy (2006) studied an integrated
model of perceived service quality and satisfaction among students regarding
their assessment of undergraduate advising. In that study, overall perceived quality
was treated as an individual construct which was assessed by asking the
respondents to evaluate the quality of the service they received with three
seven-point scales anchored by “Extremely poor/extremely good”, “Awful/ excellent”
and “Very low/very high”. Dabholkar et al. (2000) used a similar approach when assessing the quality. In their
study, overall perceived quality was also treated as an individual construct
measured through four items, namely, “excellent overall service”, “service of a
very high quality”, “a high standard of service” and “superior service in every
way”, while factors such as service reliability, personnel attention
are treated as antecedents to perceived service quality.
This approach in conceptualizing service quality has the merit that,
in comparison to the more “traditional” approach, i.e. that service quality
represents the congeries of different estimation of service quality; the
assessment of perceived service quality is more simplified, particularly for practitioners.
The latter, following this approach, have not to measure all the sub-components
of perceived service quality. Instead, they can derive a more holistic
appraisal of the quality of their offering and, given the limited length of the
measure, do so more regularly (Dabholkar et al. 2000).
it is also echoed by Dabholkar et al. (2000, p. 166) who concede that even for practitioners it is
required to evaluate the antecedents/sub-dimensions of perceived service
quality in order to diagnose quality drawbacks in the service they deliver.
It is also echoed by Dabholkar et al. (2000, p. 166) who concede that even for practitioners it is
required to evaluate the antecedents/sub-dimensions of perceived service
quality in order to diagnose quality drawbacks in the service they deliver. Service quality as a multi-level construct alternative approach in conceptualizing service quality has been proposed by Shemwell and Yavas (2009). In
their view, perceived
service quality is better conceptualized as a multilevel-hierarchical notion that is comprised of search, credence and experience attributes. Their
conceptualization was validated
in the consumer services context (health care services) and their study provided strong empirical evidence of face validity. A similar view is also proposed by Brady and Cronin (2011). Using the retail services as the frame
of analysis, they investigated
the possibility of conceptualizing perceived service quality as a three-level construct. In their view, service quality is comprised of three primary
dimensions, each consisting of
three sub-dimensions. Customers aggregate their evaluations of the sub-dimensions to form their perception of the firm’s performance on each of the three
primary dimensions they
propose. Then, these perceptions lead to an overall service quality perception (Brady and Cronin, 2011). In an attempt to bridge the different
perspectives adopted by the
so called “American” perception (based on the disconfirmation paradigm on which service quality was originally developed) with the “Nordic” one
(which focuses on the
technical and functional sub-dimensions of quality), the primary dimensions suggested by the authors
are interaction
quality, physical environment quality and outcome quality.
The rationale behind this multilevel/multi-dimensional conception of
service quality is rooted on the work of Carman (2009) who noted that customers
tend to perceive service quality as the aggregation of different quality sub
dimensions. Subsequent researchers (e.g. McDougall and Levesque, 2004; Mohr and
Bitner, 2005; Carman, 2012) provided support to this approach, despite the
divergence of their findings regarding the sub-dimensions that each study identified.
It also must be noted that, in all previous studies that pursued this approach,
the frame of analysis remained the context of retail services. The main
disadvantage of this approach is that it makes it quite cumbersome for practitioners
to measure perceived customer service since, before an overall evaluation can
be derived, it is required to administer a lengthy instrument. On the other
hand though, the conception and measurement of perceived service quality
becomes robust since verbosity is avoided. Also, this approach is in-line with
marketing theory regarding the multifaceted nature of many constructs, such as satisfaction,
market orientation (e.g. Flynn et al., 2003; Kohli and Jaworski, 2000) and so on. Such constructs (global
constructs), are comprised by distinct subcomponents (subconstructs) which,
however, contain a significant amount of shared variance attributed to their
common relation with the higher order global construct (Bagozzi and Heatherton,
2004).
Chapter 3
Methodology
With regard to the service quality instrument, the items were derived
from the refined version published by Parasuraman et al. (2001). In this version five major dimensions
are employed to capture the elements of perceived quality namely tangible elements,
elements pertaining to the provider’s reliability, responsiveness, assurance
and empathy. All items were measured using a seven-point scale of agreement anchored
“I strongly disagree” to “I strongly agree”.
Yet, given the concerns and the criticism regarding the computation of
difference scores that was presented in previous paragraphs, we assessed
directly the service performance of the service providers as perceived by the respondents.
Note: This is for reference purposes only. The final findings and data is with the author..........................
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