IOSR-JBM   Volume-9 ~ Issue-1 ~ Mar-Apr-2013

Abstract: Need to excel in Business for companies have been emphasized repeatedly in recent global literature. The companies have moved on from quality focus to excellence focus. Several excellence award Models are in use that include European Quality Award given by EFQM, Malcolm Baldrige award in USA and various others. The focus of these models is to win excellence awards and self assessment. Companies should focus on becoming world class organization. There are several business practices that are used by successful and excellent companies. The importance of leadership style, Organization type and strategies, Core values and Growth strategies is fairly established. The companies have been increasingly using Mergers and Acquisitions for rapid inorganic growth to meet global challenges. The paper reports a part of research carried out in sample of best performing Indian listed companies. Less researched determinants used for achieving of business excellence have been explored. The paper presents results of empirical research in Indian companies as also testing of Leadership style typology developed by S. Hart and Organization types proposed by Miles and Snow. Key Words: Factors of excellence, Business Excellence, Determinants of Excellence, Business performance, Excellence in Indian companies

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Abstract: Liquidity and its management determines to a great extent the growth and profitability of a firm. This is because either inadequate liquidity or excess liquidity may be injurious to the smooth operations of the organization. This seeming controversy has attracted a lot of interest in the subject of liquidity management. The primary aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between liquidity and profitability. The analysis is based on a sample of 30 manufacturing companies listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange for the period 2006-2010. The result suggests that current ratio and liquid ratio are positively associated with profitability while cash conversion period is negatively related with profitability of manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The association in all the cases was however, statistically insignificant, indicating low degree of influence of liquidity on the profitability of manufacturing companies. Hence, the overall state of liquidity should be improved by establishing more realistic credit policy which would engender shorter cash conversion period (CCP), hence have a favourable impact on the profitability of the company.

Key Words: Liquidity, Profitability, Management, Manufacturing Sector, Nigeri

[1]. Afeef M.(2011) "Analyzing the Impact of Working Capital Management on the Profitability of SME's in Pakistan" International Journal of Business and Social Science
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[4]. Bhavet (2011) Management of liquidity- A case study of Tisco Ltd. International Journal of Research in IT & Management 149 IJRIM Volume 1, Issue 2 (ISSN 2231-4334)
[5]. Bhunia A. (2011) Liquidity management efficiency of Indian Steel Companies (a Case Study) Far East Journal of Psychology and Business Vol 3 No 3.
[6]. Bhunia, A. and Brahma, S.B. (2011). Importance of Liquidity Management on Profitability Asian Journal of Business Management. Volume3 no.2 pp 108-117
[7]. Bhunia, A. and Khan, I.U. (2011). Liquidity Management Efficiency of Indian Steal Companies: A Case Study. Far East Journal of Psychology and Business: Volume 3 Number 3 pp 3-13
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[9]. Dash, M. and Hanuman R. (2008). A Liquidity-Profitability Trade-Off Model for Working Capital Management. Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1408722
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Abstract: This study investigates the effect of service quality measures of rural bank patrons on the rural banks' performance. From the data collected from four hundred and eighty sample representatives from the study area from the rural communities of Oyo State, it was found that the overall service quality assessment indicates that only service quality of commercial banks operating in the rural areas could not meet rural banks' customers demand. The study further indicates that service quality has a significant effect on financial sustainability of the rural banks but do not have significant effect on the bank coverage in the rural banks.

[1]. Adeleke, M. S. (2012): Evaluating Service Quality of Higher Institutions in Oyo State International Organization of Scientific Research (IOSR/BM) 2278-487X Vol. 1 Issue 3 IOSR0107JBM June 2012, pp. 01 – 07 Available http://iosrjournals.org/journals/iosr-jbm/pages/v1i3.html
[2]. Arasli, H., Katircioglu, S. T. and Smadi, S. M. (2005), "A Comparison of Service Quality in Banking SectorSome Evidence from Turkish and Greek Speaking areas in Cyprus", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 23 (7), pp. 508-526.
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[5]. Kangis, P. and Voukelatos (1997), "Private and Public Banks: A comparison of Customer Expectations and Perceptions", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 15 (7), pp. 279-287.
[6]. Lopez, J., Hart, L. K. and Rampersad, A. (2007), "Ethnicity and Customer Satisfaction in Financial Services Sector", Managing Service Quality, Vol. 17(3), pp. 259-274.
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[9]. Zhou, L. (2004), "A Dimension Specific Analysis of Performance Only Measurement of Service Quality and Satisfaction in China's Retail Banking", Journal of Service Marketing, Vol. 18 (7), pp. 534-546.

Abstract: This paper investigates the challenges faced by life insurers in Akwa Ibom State as well as possible leeway to improving life insurance patronage in the state. This investigation becomes necessary given the growing concern by government toward better healthcare service for its citizen. The study employed a survey research design where data were collected from respondents chosen from eleven select insurance companies and analyzed using simple percentage statistics. The result indicates that income, low level of insurance culture, apathy, customer satisfaction, Information Technology alignment, growth and cost efficiency, and transparency and disclosure all constitute challenges to insurance business in the State. Based on these findings, it was concluded that income, low level of insurance culture etc., exert considerable effect of varying degrees on the life insurance business in the State. It is recommended, among others, that life insurance products should be made affordable by insurance companies by adopting a pricing strategy that will minimize executive excesses and maximize profit even when the product are sold at premium price. More awareness should be created among consumers and government should create jobs for its citizens to empower them reasonably enough to be able to buy life insurance in the State.

Key Words: Insurance Business, Life Insurance, Insurance industry, Insurance policy, Insurance market

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[6] Hofstede, G. Insurance as a product of national values, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, 20 (77), 1995, 423-429.

[7] A. Sayin, Consumer attitudes and behavioural intentions towards life insurance in Turkey: An application of the theory of reasoned action, masters diss., London South Bank University, UK, 2003.

[8] K. Black and H. Skipper, Life and Health Insurance, (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000)

[9] M. Browne and K. Kim, An international analysis of life insurance demand, Journal of Risk and Insurance, 4 (4), 1993, 78-85

[10] O.E. Omar and N. Owusu-Frimpong, Using the theory of reasoned action to evaluate consumer attitudes and purchase intention towards life insurance in Nigeria, The Service Industries Journal, 27 (7), 2004, 1-14

Abstract: The relationship between workers job satisfaction and gender has been examined frequently. However, the results of many of the studies have been contradictory. Some studies have shown females to be more satisfied than men whereas other studies have shown men to be more satisfied than female. However most of the researches in this area report no significant differences between the sexes in relation to job satisfaction. This study analyses gender differences in the key drivers of job satisfaction among a sample of print media journalists in Lagos. Nigeria. Eight drivers of differences in levels of job satisfaction were investigated. Data was collected from two hundred and fifty (250) journalists from the five print media houses selected for the study. The simple random sampling was used to select the 50 respondents from each organization. Using constructs from literature and items from tested scales a questionnaire was developed for the study. Of the 250 questionnaires administered only 236 were returned in useable conditions. The respondents were made up of, 44% female (104), and 56% male (132). Eight independent variables of workers satisfaction namely stability and security; feedback; performance measures; instrumentality; contingent rewards; motivation; control as well as autonomy and challenge were tested and found to be significantly and positively correlated with workers job satisfaction for both females and males. The results indicate that there are no differences in the drivers of workers satisfaction between genders.

Keywords: disparities, drivers, gender, workers, satisfaction.

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[8]. Oloko, O. (2001) Influence of unplanned versus planned factory locations on workers commitment to industrial employment in Nigeria, Socio-Economic planning science (vol.7) Pergamon Press Great Britain Moser, A. (2010).Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Inequality, Power, and Institutional Change.‟‟ New York, NY; Routledge. Giddens, A. (2006). Sociology 5th ed. Polity Press U. K.
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Abstract: The research presented in this article demonstrates that the implementation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) activities seems to be beneficial in building a good image of the organization in the eyes of customers by making them psychologically satisfied. In today's competitive scenario it becomes crucial for firms and specially the service organization's to implement CRM Approach to build up a loyal customer base. The purpose of this research was to increase knowledge and understanding the concept of CRM and its various perspectives. The contribution of this article is to show that what the CRM is and how this approach works for benefiting both customer and organizations.

Keywords - Customer Relationship Management, Implementation, Knowledge, Loyal, Perspectives.

[1]. Gholami Saeed and Rahman Muhammad Sabbir (2012). CRM: A Conceptual Framework of Enablers and Perspectives. Business and Management Research, Vol. 1, No. 1; March 2012. Retrieved from www.sciedu.ca/bmr
[2]. Grabner-Kraeuter, S., & Moedritscher, G. (2002, June). Alternative approaches toward measuring CRM performance. In Research Conference on Relationship Marketing and Customer Relationship Management (Vol. 6, Pp. 9-12).
[3]. Kanitwaranun Chaiwat, Chantaraskul Chomchin, Waiyakarn Somjate, Keokitichai Sindhchai (2010). The Empirical Implementation of Customer Relationship Management on Customer Satisfaction in Health Product Business: A Case of Small & Medium Enterprise in Thailand.
[4]. Parvatiyar Atul & Sheth Jagdish N. (2001). Customer Relationship Management: Emerging Practice, Process, and Discipline, Journal of Economic and Social Research 3(2) 2001, 2002 Preliminary Issue, 2
[5]. Raghuvanshi Dr. Richa, Rashmi Tripathi (2012) Customer Relationship Management as a Strategic Tool in the Indian Banking Sector: A Case Study of Axis Bank at Lucknow, National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012.
[6]. Reinartz, W., Krafft, M., & Hoyer, W. D. (2004). The customer relationship management process: Its measurement and impact on performance. Journal of marketing research, 293-305.
[7]. Rogers, M. (2005). Customer strategy: observations from the trenches. Journal of Marketing, 69(4), 262-263.
[8]. Ryals, L., & Payne, A. (2001). Customer relationship management in financial services: towards information-enabled relationship marketing. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 9(1), 3-27.
[9]. Ryals, L., & Knox, S. (2001). Cross-functional issues in the implementation of relationship marketing through customer relationship management. European Management Journal, 19(5), 534-542.
[10]. Zablah, A.R., Bellenger, D.N. and Johnston, W.J. (2004a) 'Customer relationship management implementation gaps', Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp.280-281.