Vol. 01, No. 1, July 2006
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Item Waiting Line System in Health Sector of Bangladesh: The Case of Dental Care Services in Dhaka City(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Rahman, Mohammad Anisur; Parvez, MahbubWaiting is inevitable in any service organization. Hence queues are formed. A long queue makes customer dissatisfied whereas increasing server to decrease the length of a queue requires costs. Waiting Line Theory provides a platform to that notion. The health sector of Bangladesh has been facing a bad experience for any citizen of Bangladesh. One of the reasons behind this is the queuing system prevailing in this sector. This paper presents an investigation into the prevailing queuing system in the private practices of Dhaka city. On the basis of investigation suggestions are put forward to improve the situation.Item The Serial Cartel: A Mathematical Model of Taxicab Services Market(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Alam, S.M. IkhtiarIn many developing countries and in some small cities in many developed countries, we find taxicabs without meters. These taxicab drivers sometimes form a cartel to avoid competition among themselves. They stand in a queue serially one by one. Only the first driver in the queue can pick up a passenger. The second driver will wait until the first driver leaves the queue. That is, these taxicab operators offer their services serially one by one. They are free to quote any price for a trip they want and can wait as long as they want to get an acceptable passenger. But if they wait, they incur a waiting cost. If a driver quotes a price and the passenger does not accept it and leaves the market or waits for the next cab, then the driver has to wait to get another passenger and as a result, his waiting cost increases. Such a cartel can be best described as a Serial Cartel. A serial cartel can be of two types on the basis of its continuity: (1) Discontinuous Serial Cartel, and (2) Continuous Serial Cartel. Discontinuous serial cartels are formed where demand is temporary. On the other hand, continuous serial cartels are formed where demand is permanent. These serial cartels have many features which are not present in other forms of cartels available in the existing literature. This paper presents two models of serial cartels of taxicab services market ⎯ one is a Discontinuous Serial Cartel Model, and the other one is a Continuous Serial Cartel Model. The two models are based on some plausible assumptions and two hypotheses about the willingness of passengers to pay for taxicab services. The models use differentiable negative exponential probability distribution functions to measure the willingness of the passengers. It is found that the equilibrium price, supply function, optimal size of a serial cartel, entry decision of a driver, and welfare effects of these serial cartels are totally different from the basic features of the centralized and market sharing cartels.Item Strengths and Limitations of Different Teaching Modes: A Comparative Study(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Saha, Mili; Talukdar, Md. Ali RezwanWhether in language teaching or elsewhere, sustainable attainment of a pedagogical goal is closely related to a successful teaching mode. In a bid to have a gambit in a teaching procedure with a proper choice of a teaching mode, a teacher is expected to be well acquainted with the strengths and limitations of the prevailing teaching modes. Regarding this, over the years researchers have made efforts in exploring the immense ideological horizons, while in our country, still, lecture mode is the most commonly found one. Along with making thorough study of different aspects of various teaching modes, this current study scrutinizes some practical cases and examples in the academic context of Bangladesh. It attempts to recommend the optimum success level of lecture mode and to which extent lecture mode needs to be alternated or to be assimilated with others as well as how to minimize the weakness of it and ensure the maximum potentiality of the other teaching modes, basing on the established ideas in this field and the empirical studies done by these authors.Item Second Order Biases and Mean Squared Errors of Some Estimators Using Single Auxiliary Variable(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Hossain, M. I.; Rahman, Masud Ibn; Tareq, MuhammadThe ratio, product, chain ratio, chain product, chain regression and ratio-cum product estimators have been considered by Chand (1975), Kiregyera (1980, 1984), Upadhyaya et. al. (1990, 1992), Srivastava et. al. (1990), Prasad et. al. (1992), Sahoo and Sahoo (1993), Singh (1993). Most of them discussed these estimators along with their first order bias and mean square error. In this paper, we have tried to find out the second order biases and mean square errors of these estimators based on simple random sampling. Finally, we have compared the performance of these estimators with some numerical illustration.s.Item Revisiting SME Financing in Bangladesh(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Siddiquee, Mohammad Moniruzzaman; Islam, K. M. Zahidul; Rahman, Masud IbnSmall and Medium Enterprise (SME) Financing is a topic of significant research interest to academics and an issue of great importance to the policy makers around the world. Economic, as well as technical and social arguments warrant the promotion of SMEs, as they create large scale, low-cost employment opportunities, use locally available inputs and technologies, mobilize small and scattered private savings, develop entrepreneurship, and correct the regional imbalance in development that exists in developing countries. Despite all these potentials, SMEs are disappearing, abandoning the potential role they could have played in economic development. Several studies have identified the major obstacles that include, but not limited to, financing, infrastructure facilities, taxes and regulations and stability in policies. This paper focuses on the financial constraints in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, among the formal sources, commercial banks are not interested because of the high risk and high supervision cost associated with this type of financing. Absence of sound collateral puts SMEs at a relative disadvantage. However, we have found that some of the commercial banks have some ‘innovative’ products or services targeting at SMEs only, while others have ‘repackaged’ some of their existing products as SME products. The contribution of commercial banks is meager except BASIC Bank Ltd. and BRAC Bank Ltd. It has been observed in the study that commercial banks disburse loans to this sector only when government introduces ‘credit guarantee scheme’ in different capacity. ‘Relationship lending technologies’ should be introduced in case of the existing ‘transaction lending technologies’.Item Prospects of Super Market Concept in Dhaka City(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Gurung, Hemanta Bahadur; Rahman, Masud Ibn; Chowdhury, Tamzid AhmedWith over twenty super markets that follow the theme of arranging all kinds of products under one roof for the consumers operating in full swing, the shopping style of city dwellers has changed dramatically. These super markets are also expanding the market for local products, encouraging new entrepreneurs and also catering for a variety of imported products. The numbers of super shops that have sprouted at different locations of Dhaka over the last two years are showing an upward trend in business and they have further implications for entrepreneurs.Item Newspaper Marketing in Bangladesh: A Case Study on the Prothom Alo(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Reza, Syed Maruf; Iqbal, Mohammed Masum; Uddin, Mohammad RiazNewspaper has become a part of any modern society. This is one of the most important consumer products of our daily life. Like all other consumer goods newspaper industry requires some special marketing efforts. The main focus of this article is to describe the various tools of marketing mix i. e. 4Ps of newspaper marketing. To do so the researchers have selected Prothom Alo, as it is the number one daily (in terms of circulation) of our country. The article has also attempted to point out the marketing problems of Prothom Alo. It is found that the management of Prothom Alo does not have proper concept of marketing; they don’t have any marketing manager; they don’t conduct regular marketing research; the distribution channel is very long and costly; the price is comparatively higher and so on. At the same time researchers have suggested that to solve those problems Prothom Alo should adopt modern marketing concepts in their decision making process, hire people with proper background, follow differentiated pricing, target different consumer segments to increase the market share, minimize the distribution cost, develop Prothom Alo as a brand and the like.Item Job Satisfaction of Female Workers in Different Garments Factories in Dhaka City: An Intertemporal Comparison(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Alam, S. M. Ikhtiar; Kamal, MostafaJob satisfaction is an attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is gratified by or fulfilled in his/her job. It is an affective or emotional response toward various facets of one’s job. This meaning of job satisfaction implies that job satisfaction is not a unitary concept. Rather a person can be relatively satisfied with one aspect of his or her job and dissatisfied with one or more other aspects. Thus, we can differentiate at least two aspects of job satisfaction ⎯ facet satisfaction and overall satisfaction. Facet satisfaction is the tendency for an employee to be more or less satisfied with various facets of his or her job. A large number of related research has been conducted in different countries including Bangladesh. Alam (1986) conducted a research on the job satisfaction of female workers in different garment factories in Dhaka City in 1983. He measured the level of overall satisfaction and analyzed the nature of facet satisfaction of 200 female workers. He concluded that a minor percentage of female workers in different garment factories are satisfied with their jobs, and there is a positive relationship between their level of job satisfaction and the level of wages/salaries and other identified factors. The objective of the present study is to measure the overall level of job satisfaction of female workers in different garment factories and to identify factors contributing to job satisfaction and factors contributing to job dissatisfaction. The present study also ranks all identified factors according to their relative importance by using a formula developed by Alam in 1983 (Alam, 1986). Finally, the present study makes intertemporal comparisons of overall job satisfaction level and of the nature of facet satisfaction over the twenty two-year period (between 1983 and 2005). Such intertemporal comparisons are necessary because of the fact that over the last twenty two years, as the garment industries of the country has expanded significantly, the nature of human resource management in this sector has changed in many aspects. As a result, job satisfaction status and the absolute as well as relative importance of factors contributing to satisfaction level are expected to change.Item Financial Globalization and Vulnerabilities: Lessons for Bangladesh(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Houqe, Muhammad Nurul; Kabir, Mohammad ReazulThis paper examines and measures the state of external financial openness and financial integration of Bangladesh and the impact of external policy changes and financial integration on the economic growth of Bangladesh. This study also focuses on the experiences of crisis affected economies for identifying vulnerabilities of reforming Bangladesh under free capital mobility in near future.Item Consumers’ Opinion about Mass Customization in Dhaka City(Daffodil International University, 2006-07-01) Iqbal, Mohammed Masum; Jui, Rokeya Parvin; Gurung, Hemanta Bahadur“Mass customization” is an important strategic approach where elements of the marketing mix are individualized for each customer. This article describes an empirical study in which 200 consumers who lived in Dhaka city were interviewed regarding their experiences with and opinion about mass customized products. The principal findings are that opinion about mass customization are gradually positive, nearly half of the respondents reported buying a personalized product, they were very satisfied with their purchase. It is found that most of the consumers of this type of product tend to be higher educated, younger, and higher than average income levels. Our findings suggest that there is a market for all kinds of customized products, at least in Dhaka city. Marketers should target downscale consumers with strategies designed to change negative opinion before sales are made.