Department of Marketing

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A study on development strategies of tourism in Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2014-08-27) Islam, Md. Khairul
Tourism has grown from the pursuits of a privileged few to a mass movement of people with the urge to discover the unknown environment, to undergo new experiences and the desire to be both educated and entertained. Tourism, today, has become a very emerging and the fastest growing industry both in the global and rural economy, and particularly in the developing countries. The importance of tourism as an instrument of economic development and employment generation is recognized all over the world. The data released by different global bodies, including the World Tourism Organization (WNWTO) indicate significant contribution of tourism to country's GDP and foreign exchange reserves. Bangladesh is a land of scenic beauty of verdant forests, reverie countryside and long structures of sun-bathed beaches, fearsome wilds, meandering rivers and venerable shrine, which hold high potential for tourism. This country needs proper strategy and policy to attract both foreign and domestic tourists. Government as well as private sectors may come forward to create the base of the tourism industry. Though BPC and other private sectors are playing an important role for the development of tourism in Bangladesh, it is not enough to compete with many other tourist destination countries. Given the potential that prevailed in Bangladesh in terms of the country’s possession of a diversified tourism product-base and also given the congenialities created by the objective conditions, tourism industry of Bangladesh has not grown to the desired level. Therefore, it is important to examine to what extent the country was proactive satisfactorily to capture tourism opportunities in a meaningful way. Against the above backdrop, the study focuses on the issues relevant to the development strategies and the development of tourism industry in Bangladesh. It presents the findings of surveys undertaken in the course of the study and throws light on the profile, preferences and perceptions regarding Bangladesh as a tourist destination country of the foreign tourist to coming Bangladesh, Executive of BPC, Members of TOAB, and Managers and Receptionist of Hotel & Restaurants in Bangladesh. In each section, the study also highlights the areas of weakness where priority should be given if Bangladesh is to promote herself as a destination in the global tourism market. In addition, this report also examines the association between destination dimension parameters index for Bangladesh and other neighboring countries to reveal the values of seventy nine variables, based on the data released by the World Economic Forum in its Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013. A modest attempt in the study has been to delineate the analysis of the tourism master plan aimed at bringing the economy to a higher growth path and making it more competitive, flexible and adaptable and the analysis of the present situation of the tourism sector in Bangladesh to catch the real picture existing in the industry. To draw tourism development goals and objectives, the analysis of Bangladesh tourism vision, starting points for future tourism development, global and regional trends, competitive destinations and SWOT analysis have also been considered. Finally, this research comments on the development of a comprehensive tourism strategy and implementation that will guide in developing a tourism sector giving importance to forming of a strong and sustainable economy throughout Bangladesh. A set of recommendations have also been put forward for sustainable development of tourism industry in Bangladesh.
Development of tourism industry in Bangladesh: Issues and strategies
(University of Dhaka, 2015-01-22) Rahman, Md. Anisur
Bangladesh is one of the countries of South Asia and located in North-Eastern part of this region. If Bangladesh is known at all in the world of tourism, it is essentially because of the world’s longest unbroken, clean sandy beach at Cox’s bazaar, the largest mangrove forest of the world-the home of the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger and spotted deer at Sundarban and the hospitable and open hearted people of Bangladesh. This is a country where genuine adventure is not just a possibility but a certainty. Lonely Planet ranked Bangladesh as the best value destination for the year 20111 2. As a destination for tourism, Bangladesh is truly hard to beat. Yet the most notable feature of the country’s topography is the diversity of its landscape; it is characterized by wooded marshy lands and jungles with deep forest regions in sylhet, Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban hill districts, Sundarbans ( the World Heritage site), Mymensingh and Tangail; rare beauty spot of sunrise and sunset in fascinating kuakata; the oldest archeological site in Mahasthangarh; the unseen relics of long forgotten Buddhist kingdoms, lush and lurid tea plantations; tribal groups with Burmese faces; glorious beaches that stretch for eternity; fresh water dolphins and deep water whales and many other delightful beauties of cultural and historical heritage. These treasures are relatively unknown in the world and are rich resources for the development of tourism in Bangladesh. But time has not yet past over. Still there are lots of scopes and opportunities if Bangladesh attempts to highlight it as a tourist destination to the potential tourists properly through implementation of some strategies like taking an effective promotional measure, can take some initiatives to develop some infrastructural facilities, facilitate easy access to different destination, building better image of Bangladesh and ensuring safety and security of tourists, the country would be able to earn many times higher than the present by attracting more tourists within a short time. But unfortunately, this sector has remained almost in the dark and failed to draw proper attention to the government and the policy makers. Against this back drop, research needs to explore the facts related to the sector for its ongoing development in terms of developing various sectors of the tourism industry. Hence a study on this area is essential to uncover the relevant facts. The main objective of this study is to examine the various issues towards tourism development of Bangladesh and take an attempt to establish overall directions for tourism development and suggest effective tourism strategies and policies to alleviate the problems resulting from previous unplanned tourism development. With this motto the research has been conducted which was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. Research data were collected from the tourists, local government officials, police officers, local community, owners / top executives from the hotels and tour operators in each study area of Coz’s Bazar, St. Martin, Sundarban and Kuakata. The respondents were randomly selected to complete the questionnaire at the time of their visit in the study area. The responses were analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) and computer programme. This software helped to organize the data into tables, charts and graphs and also perform statistical calculations that were pertinent to the data analysis process. The research findings identify that there are some gap between expectation and experience regarding some issues like current tourism performance by tourism stakeholders, promotional measures undertaken by tourism stakeholders, destination image building, enhancing tourist satisfaction and safety and security issues of tourists which hinder the development of tourism industry in Bangladesh. As a result, policy implications emerging from the results presented in this thesis are discussed and future strategies are suggested.
Promotional Strategy of Electronic Media in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study on Three Televisions
(University of Dhaka, 2015-04-24) Hossain, Md. Emran
Media industry in Bangladesh is the most important sector in our country. It contributes a lot in our economy in each year. At present Television is one of the most popular electronic media among the natives of this country and important sector for our national economy. This sector is turning into profitable day by day. Now Television is available at everywhere in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a country with 155 million people; 70 per cent of them live in rural areas, and the rest in cities and towns, including 6 major metropolitan areas (metros). Currently their per capita income is 1,466/- in US$ which is increasing with rapid growth in their purchasing power. Currently, we have a national literacy rate of 75.4%, which was 20 per cent three decades ago. As expected, the urban population (86 per cent) is more literate than the rural people. Current access to electricity is 70%. Growth of access to television media in our country is impressive. In 1995, there were 31% people watched TV of the total number of the population. This has reached 72% in 2016 because of expansion of power supply and awareness of public in the rural area of Bangladesh. According to the media practitioners, Bangladesh media is ranked at 136th out of 178 countries of the world on the reporters without borders press freedom index. The country is now experiencing ‘media boom’ dominantly by the prevalence of electronic media, i.e. the satellite television channels. But, even before 1990s, Bangladesh media was strongly dominated by the print media. The privatization policy of the government has created a congenial environment for expanding the private television channels and FM Radios. In the early 1990s, Cable TV was introduced and it became popular quickly. As such growth of private television channels has tremendously increased over the last 20 years. There are about 29 television channels airing in Bangladesh including terrestrial channels and the broadcast of Channel 16, Diganta TV, Islamic TV, CSB news and Channel 1 has been suspended as per BTRC circular. The main reason behind the increasing of the TV Channels and its viewership is that the economy of our country is expanding rapidly. Therefore, this is the first time South Asia has experienced the phenomenon of a TV media 'boom' in Bangladesh. This unprecedented growth of Television channels brings a dire competition among the channels and try to boost up its image & trust to its viewers to survive in the market. As more competitors join in, the audience becomes larger, but the market is more fragmented. Therefore, In the channel industry each TV tries their level best to beat their opposition in the race of high rise of TRP business. For being strong and to form a brand image each firm form different types of strategic moves, constantly communicate with the audience/viewers and to be innovative as their strategy to sustain or survive in the market. The study has been conducted applying exploratory methods. The major emphasis in exploratory research is on the discovery of ideas and insights. Exploratory research begins with a review of secondary data, such as published or syndicated data, or trade literature that discuss similar case. Exploratory research may then involve interviewing knowledgeable people or conducting focus groups and case study etc. Both Qualitative and Quantitative research approach method is applied in this thesis. Primary data is collected from interview (E-mail and telephone) and survey, while secondary data is gathered from books, journals, and internet source. This thesis builds on multiple case study so that the research usually takes place at a much more detailed level for which the aim often is to produce comparative analysis & optimal knowledge. Out of 29 TV Channels, three Televison namely NTV, Channel-I & ATN Bangla were analyzed. While selecting channels, besides TRP, following aspects were taken into consideration: i. NTV was selected since it is one of the popular satellite channels of second generation. ii. Channels-i was selected for the first digital Bangla channel. iii. ATN Bangla was selected since it was one of the first generation satellite channels of the country. Throughout the research we gain an understanding of socio economic condition of the country as well as overall electronic media history from its inception to the present in Bangladesh. This study also focuses on promotional strategy of electronic media and what its role and objectives and also came to know how the channel employ effective promotional tools and techniques to create strong brand in the customers mind. We found from the survey that the selected TV Channels are the most popular channels in our country. The study reveals that 45% respondents are strongly aware about NTV where 51% respondents are strongly aware about Channel i & and 42% respondents are strongly aware about ATN Bangla. This data represents that Channel-1 is the most recognizable brand among the TV viewers. The findings also reveals that the most of the channels are using promotional mix strategy through blending all the promotional tools including Personal Selling, Advertising, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion, Internet marketing, Publicity, Sponsorship and events etc but given the most priority on advertising. Researcher found in survey 42 % respondents of NTV think Advertising media is the most powerful media to create strong corporate brand, 46 % respondents of Channel-i thinks where 18% respondents of ATN Bangla thinks so. Hence, advertisements are also significant for TV Channels to promote their programs in the competitive business environment. They also focus on digital media especially social media is a great concern to them. The finding shows that most of the channels intend to apply more strong promotional campaigns through digital media and social networks. In study reveals that NTV usage social media 63%, Channel-I use 65% & ATN Bangla use 60% which means that Social Media can be the most efficient and effective e- source of creating brand awareness for TV Channels. However the study highlights that Public Relations/Publicity is one of the cost effective brand building tools. The respective TV Channels frequently got a wide range of exposure and obtained desired response from the viewers using all kinds of PR activities such as press releases, media interviews/campaigns, press conferences, features articles, interviews, newsletters, photographs, films and tapes, sponsorship, event marketing. This frequent exposure certainly affects to the viewers with a credible way as we see publicity /PR is more effective than any other promotional tools in terms of cost effective, innovative & trustworthy. Because publicity is always highly credible for its news value. In the study we also found that Channel-I comparatively spent more promotional expenditure than other channels. Especially they emphasize on digital media or web media marketing whereas NTV emphasize on Event/Sponsorship and ATN Bangla spent comparatively lower than others. The research has also attempted to point out the marketing problems especially in the use of new communication tools & techniques and at the same time researchers have suggested that the electronic media should utilize different promotional tools such as advertisement, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling, publicity, digital / internet marketing in a way that address the spectrum of different programs properly and coordinate between the media and its reference people with a view to creating strong brand awareness and make long term relationship with viewers.
Sustainable development of mobile phone telecommunication industry of Bangladesh: a holistic marketing approach
(University of Dhaka, 2015-05-05) Sarbabidya, Surajit
High speed technological development, convergence of the state-of-the-art technologies, more or less forced liberalization, etc., have turned the mobile phone telecommunication into a dynamic industry with very large base of customers. In Bangladesh, there are currently six such companies of local and multinational origin which aim to serve the rapidly changing telecommunication requirements of customers with affordable but value added service packages. Thus, this industry has been hyper competitive for the concerned market players with 116.871 million active subscribers till July 2014. As a result, there are greater challenges at increasing profitability, business volume, business growth and market share for the concerned market players. From this perspective, the implementation of the holistic marketing is seemed to be significant to mitigate the challenges in one hand and on the other hand for the sustainability issue. Hence, it is imperative for each of the mobile telecommunication service providing companies in Bangladesh to engage themselves in holistic marketing to develop loyal customers as part of relationship marketing, to make happy employees as part of internal marketing, to integrate well managed round the clock anywhere service as part of the integrated marketing and excellent performance through high quality service as part of performance marketing. The principal objective of this research is to examine how holistic marketing through its four components namely internal marketing, relationship marketing, integrated marketing and performance marketing can ensure sustainable development of the mobile phone telecommunication industry of Bangladesh.
High-value agriculture products in Bangladesh: an empirical study on agro-business opportunities and constraints
(University of Dhaka, 2015-06-02) Syed Abul Kalam, Azad
Measurement of service quality in Bangladesh mobile phone sector: issues, standards and practices
(University of Dhaka, 2015-06-07) Afza, Syeda Rownak
Service quality is a very emerging issue in the area of marketing research at present. It is applicable to every sector and organizations profitability highly depend on this. In our country, Mobile telecommunication is playing a vital role to our economy. But, there were hardly any research addressing the issue of service quality in the mobile telecommunication sector particularly in our country. Although, there have been some research done in other countries, linking service quality and customers' satisfaction and continuance intention has neglected in most of the previous research. This study has tried to present an empirical investigation regarding service quality issues and practices in the Bangladesh mobile telecom area. This study also tried to make an association with service quality and customers' perceived value, satisfaction and their continuance intention. Also, an empirical study has been made to identify the net promotion score of the different mobile operators in Bangladesh, which the researcher believes as an unique contribution of this research. To validate the study, this study used a quantitative‐positivist approach as a research paradigm, cross‐sectional design as a survey method for collective quantitative data, Key informant interview and Focus group for collecting qualitative data, convenience sampling as a sampling technique and mainly multivariate analysis ( Exploratory Factor Analysis and Multiple regression analysis) as a data analysis technique. The findings of this study represents some particular service quality parameters that are used as benchmark to measure the service quality of the mobile operators in Bangladesh. A number of factors in service came up, which have a significant association with customers' perceived value, satisfaction and continuance intention. Most importantly, this study found that, even customers perceived service quality is low, they still want to continue the service of their mobile operators due to different switching barriers. Also, the Net Promotion Score of the different Mobile operators are significantly low, even in some cases it shows negative score, which may have a strong effect on the organizations profitability and growth. Theoretically, the study extends service quality research by reframing the concept as a reflective, hierarchical model and framing its impact on satisfaction, continuance intentions in the developing country context like Bangladesh. Practically, for the practitioners and policy makers of various mobile telecom operators in Bangladesh, this study provides a conceptual service quality model for conducting integrated analysis and design of service delivery systems. Overall, in the mobile telecommunication service quality research in Bangladesh, this study makes a significant contribution by identifying the benchmarks and its association with customers' perceived value, satisfaction and continuance intention.
Standardization of multinational marketing: A study on three multinational companies
(University of Dhaka, 2015-06-23) Khan, Farhana
The worldwide marketplace has become so homogenized that multinational corporations can market standardized products and services all over the world, by identical strategies, with resultant lower costs and higher margins. This study is an attempt to provide a conceptual framework for gaining insights into the standardization issue with a systematic review of literature on marketing mix standardization in multinational corporations. The objective is to extract and synthesize ‘best evidence’ regarding marketing mix standardization practices in multinational corporations and to identify evidence regarding the performance impact of marketing mix standardization. Beyond relevance to an academic audience, this study could be useful for management practitioners in multinationals seeking to integrate operations across borders. In this context, the study seeks to make a contribution to evidence based policy and practice. It examines whether multinational companies are adapting or standardizing their marketing mix elements/7Ps (product, place, promotion, price, people, physical elements, process management) when they cross geographical borders and expand their operations to foreign markets. This study identified that both adaptation and standardization are used at the same time and that the level of integration is dependent upon a consideration of the relationship between the reasons and elements identified and an understanding of how these are affected by a number of factors. Based on the results of the analysis, this study proposes a new modelling approach, the AdaptStand Process, which outlines the different stages to be undertaken by multinational companies towards identifying the level of integration across the marketing mix elements. Consequently, this study aims to contribute to theoretical knowledge and at the same time guide marketing practitioners in deciding on implementation of marketing tactics when competing in the international marketing arena. The findings suggest that the extent to which multinationals standardize their international strategies depends on the degree of similarity between home and host countries in terms of customer characteristics, legal environment, economic conditions, and to a lesser extent stage of product life cycle. The study also reveals that standardization is inversely associated with subsidiary performance. The implications of the findings for business practitioners are highlighted and future research directions discussed, along with limitations of the study.
Promotional measures in developing tourism industry in Bangladesh: An empirical study
(University of Dhaka, 2016-06-06) Hossain, Md. Jakir
Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Many countries are now considering the tourism industry as an important sector for their economies. This importance has necessitated the destination countries to adopt appropriate and effective promotional measures to remain competitive and attract sufficient number of tourists to their destinations. Bangladesh is no exception to this. But the fact is that though the tourism industry and its market have grown phenomenally worldwide, the industry and its market have not grown in Bangladesh due to many reasons. Out of these reasons, insufficient and ineffective promotional measure is one of the major reasons responsible for not developing tourism in Bangladesh. As tourists want to know in advance about the attractions and the facilities of a particular destination and other related information of his/her visit to make the visit a safe, secured and enjoyable, dissemination of information on travel and tourism-related products and services are highly important to the potential tourists. Tour operators provide the necessary information by using the different tools of promotion in order to influence the potential tourists’ attitudes in favour of their destination. Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation and the private tour operators in Bangladesh fail to do so which led to the failure of this industry to grow properly. But time has not yet passed over. There are lots of scopes and opportunities if Bangladesh attempts to highlight it as a tourist destination to potential tourists properly through an effective promotional measure. This thesis is an outcome of the study on “Promotional Measures in Developing Tourism Industry in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study” where the attempts have been made: (i) to examine the existing promotional approaches of both the public and private tour operators, (ii) to identify the problems and the limitations of their promotional activities, and (iii) to prescribe necessary policy measures for effective promotional actions for the industry in Bangladesh. In addition, it was also attempted to investigate the current development trends of tourism industry in global perspective as well as in Bangladesh perspective and to examine the role of promotional measures in developing tourism industry in Bangladesh. The promotional activities and its effectiveness were also evaluated in order to identify the problems and limitations of the said activities. Finally, based on the findings, some suggestions have been put forwarded to the policy makers of the concerned authority. In addition, by considering the importance of promotional activities in tourism, the present study were conducted based on some assumptions like: (i) Promotional activities of tour operators in Bangladesh is not proper, adequate and effective. Based on this assumption, the following supporting assumptions were taken into consideration: (i) Tourists consider the promotional tools used by the tour operators as important source(s) of information, (ii) Promotion activities play a vital role for the development of tourism industry and the promotional activities undertaken by different tour operators have significant effect on tourists’ decision-making (iii) The promotional activities undertaken by different tour operators have not been sufficient; though promotion can play a vital role for the development of the tourism industry, (iv) The tour operators and the tourists assign the same level of importance on promotional activities, (v) Both the tour operators and the tourists perceived that the undertaken promotional activities are not appropriate (vi) The ongoing promotional activities undertaken by different tour operators are not effective (vii) The development of tourism does not depend on only the promotional activities rather it depends on tourism and tour operators’ related serveral issues, (viii) There is no specific promotional tool(s) preferred by the tourists to get tourism related information. In consideration of the above assumptions, here the researcher followed descriptive research to determine the frequency with which something occurs or the relationships among variables. Since the purpose of the present study is to describe and analyze the use of promotional activities in Bangladesh tourism industry is an attempt to highlight the issues related to promotion and put forward some suggestions to what actual promotional measures are best suited for attracting more tourists to Bangladesh and contribute more positively to the economy of the country. For this purpose, three different sets of structured questionnaire were developed to collect the primary data. Primary data was collected from the 515 local tourists, 125 foreign tourists and 20 tour operators. In addition, 3 executives of BPC, 2 executives from TOAB and 3 academicians were also interviewed to get a clear understanding of issue under study and also to collect some necessary information. To analyze the collected data, conventional statistical tool like percentage, weighted average etc. have been used. In addition correlation, regression analysis, variance analysis, standard deviation, factor analysis, test of hypothesis, paired sample t- test etc. have been used. Finally, interpretation of the result has been made to draw the conclusion. The present study found that: (i) the promotional influence the tourists’ decision-making process but the promotional measures of Bangladesh tourism are inadequate and depending on mainly local media and some printed materials like brochures, folders, souvenirs, tourists maps, tourist guides etc to promote the same, the marketers should rethink this important issue, (ii) the undertaken promotional activities are also inappropriate and ineffective even the use of information technology to promote tourism in Bangladesh is not at a satisfactory level, (iii) the tourism development does not depend on only promotional measures; rather it needs some infrastructural facilities to the standard of international levels to its destination places. This important issue needs to be considered immediately and on priority basis before going to promoting the same sector in order to develop the industry. To gain full potential of tourism, an effective and coordinated promotional campaign is a must. In addition, sufficient level of promotional activities is required to implement at the target markets from where the country wants to attract more tourists. Both the government and the private investors should have some coordinated and joint efforts to develop some world standard tourism products and service and other infrastructures. At the same time, coordinated efforts are required among various institutions to promote Bangladesh tourism. It must be remembered that the success of any country in this regard does not depend only on what they have to offer rather it is largely determined how can they market it. It indicates that the marketers require adopting an innovative and creative marketing approach and promotion is one of the most important issues in tourism marketing. Though the study found a positive trend in arrivals and earnings from tourism in Bangladesh, but if effective promotional measures could be undertaken, the same could be increased to a significant level. In addition, promotional activities should also be directed in correcting the present negative image towards Bangladesh as tourists’ destination. It is also expected that the findings and analysis of this study will help formulate appropriate promotional measures and thus motivate effectively more potential foreign tourists to visit Bangladesh as well as to contribute to the economy of the country. At the same time, this study may be helpful for the policy-makers of the country to devote their attention to the segments of the tourism market that they expect to attract. Finally, it can be expected the by ensuring these measures, Bangladesh tourism industry can emerge as one of the major contributors to the national economy of Bangladesh.
Strategic corporate social responsibility practice in private commercial banks in Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2016-06-07) Tania, Ishrat Jahan
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a subject of much current interest within the managerial world. Generally, CSR is understood to be the way firms integrate social, environmental and economic concerns into their values, culture, decision making, strategy and operations in a transparent and accountable manner, and thereby establish better practices within the firm, create wealth and improve society. On the contrary, many scholars and management thinkers proclaimed that such type of CSR activities seemingly concerning each and every social problems were neither doing good to business nor was doing good to the society. Strategic CSR, the latest emergent thought in CSR literature, means that CSR, apart from bettering the society, should make business sense. In light of the known positive effects, CSR strategies have been embraced by the international banking Community. Strategic CSR should help in attaining the CSR initiative that should lead to better effectiveness and efficient in business function activities by enhancing reputation and should differentiate the firms’ products in the socially responsible features or environmentally friendly performance dimension. Thus strategic CSR should help in attaining strategies for achieving competitive advantage. However, the implication of this study is to explore the business benefits of strategic CSR that has been seen as an intervention which can truly enhance company’s business performance while attending to social causes, a sustainable win-win proposition for both business and society as in the long run.
Customer relationship practices of five star hotels in Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2016-08-18) Sarwari, Sara
To keep the customer loyal, today relationship marketing get more and more attention in hospitality industry especially in the hotel business. It is necessary to keep in mind that acquiring new customers is far more expensive than maintaining existing ones. Different researchers prefer different antecedents to achieve this aim. In response, this thesis develops a model of relationship marketing to empirically investigate: (1) the affect of relational bonds (financial, social and structural) on customer emotions; (2) emotions on relationship quality; and (3) the ultimate affect of both relationship quality and emotions on customer loyalty. In particular, this thesis seeks to investigate the role of the emotions variable as a consequence of relational bonds (financial, social and structural), and antecedent of relationship quality. Here empirical findings are derived from a survey of 284 loyal guests at five-star hotels in Bangladesh by using structural equation modeling (AMOS 21.0). The findings of this thesis mostly support the hypothesized relationships proposed in the theoretical model. Specifically, the results revealed that financial, social are important in affecting relationship quality and whereas structural bonds are needed to create positive emotions of the customer. The results also provide strong evidence of the relationship between emotions and relationship quality, which in turn are necessary determinants of customer loyalty. The emotion, which is considered to be an important construct here is used never before to investigate the loyalty of the customers in five star hotels in Bangladesh. By using this construct the model become a complete one within a hospitality context. Findings imply the need of relational bonds in service firms especially in hotels business, to increase the positive emotions of customers which in turn increase the relationship quality between the hoteliers and the customers so that more loyal customers are introduce in the five star hotels in Bangladesh and make the hotels pursuit more competitive advantage, and long-term profit.
Service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction of the solar home system service in Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2017-06-06) Momotaz, Shamsun Nahar
This thesis has involved in emperical investigation of the service quality dimensions and customer Satisfaction of SHS service in Bangladesh. Solar Home System (SHS) is considered as an important emerging option to supply electricity with quality light, reliable service and long term sustainability. There is a clear need to conduct a research on assessing the dimensions of its service quality and the customer satisfaction of the Solar Home System service in Bangladesh and to provide guidance to the Solar Home System providers to help making strategies and priorities for the improvement of the service quality and customer satisfaction. To address this research question and to acheive the research objective, a comprehensive review of literature was conducted from the international and local (Bangladesh) literature and a quantitative model was developed. To achieve the research objective, primary data were collected by surveying the end-users through a structured questionnaire. The study has observed that the service depends on eight distinct service quality dimensions as responsiveness, assurance, empathy, reliability, communication, image of PO, after sale service, reliability and technology of the service. The hypothesized model was tested by adopting Mediation Analysis and from the analysis it can be concluded that 32.3% variance in the Customer satisfaction can be explained by the service quality dimensions. Four service quality dimensions like responsiveness, tangibility, technology and image of PO are found positively related with customer satisfaction of SHS service in Bangladesh. A positive relationship between five service quality dimensions like reliability, assurance, tangibility, technology and image of PO and perceived value of SHS service has also been found. From the study a positive relationship between perceived value and customer satisfaction of SHS service has also been found. The perceived value has been found as partial mediating factor in the relationship between the service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction of SHS service in Bangladesh. The findings of this thesis offer important implications for theory and management implications to improve the overall service quality and customer satisfaction of SHS service in Bangladesh. The result suggested that determining service quality dimensions of SHS service is no doubt important to enhance customer satisfaction of the service. As this study is the first one that analyses the service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction of SHS service in Bangladesh, it will therefore provide useful policy insights to the policy makers as well as researchers for improving customer satisfaction of SHS service in Bangladesh. In general, it will help the government to realize the importance and develop ways of providing quality service to rural people and make them satisfied.
Customer relationship management practices: A study on retail banking In Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2017-06-06) Yasmin, Imrana
Customer Relationship Management is critical to conducting business in today’s competitive marketplace, and banks are no exception. Commercial banks in Bangladesh have embarked different management strategies to promote customer satisfaction and loyalty, which in turn, possibly influence behavioural pattern of retail banking customers’ and one of them is customer relationship management. Customer relationship management has been widely regarded as a set of methodologies and organizational processes to attract and retain customers through their increased satisfaction and loyalty (Campbell, 2003; Hansotia, 2002; Khodakarami and Chan, 2014). Practices of customer relationship management in private commercial banks need to determine because retaining loyal customers are more profitable than attracting new customers’ (Eid, 2007). Furthermore, services and offerings in banking sector are more or less alike among the rivals which cause higher rate of lost customers’. Researchers found that marketers should take precautions before implementation of customer relationship management programs because of its high failure rate (Bolton, 1998; Boulding et al. 2005; Osarenkhoe and Bennani, (2007). However, although the positive impact of CRM on organizations has been addressed in many studies (Avlonitis and Panagopoulos, 2005; Hart et al., 2004; Kaura et al. 2013; Vijaykumar, 2013; Vijaykumar and Velu, 2011; Xu et al., 2002), there are a few studies pointed to the effectiveness of CRM practices in Retail banking sector. For that reason this thesis aims to measure the effectiveness of customer relationship management in the private commercial (domestic) banks in Bangladesh and specially focused on retail banking sector.
Perception of entrepreneurs In Bangladesh towards social business: An empirical investigation
(University of Dhaka, 2018-03-21) Moktar Ali, Md.
In the capitalist system, on the one hand, companies can be seen as profit maximizing business whose main purpose is to create shareholder value. On the other hand, non-profit organizations exist to fulfill social objectives. Social business is a new form of business that can be located somewhere between a profit-maximizing and non-profit organization whose primary purpose is to solve human problems. Social business has its products, services, customers, expenses, markets as well as revenues like a regular business. Social business is a non-loss, non-dividend, self-sustaining company and investors can get their money back if they wish. The owner of the social business never intends to make a profit for himself. The aim of this study was to analyze perception of entrepreneurs in Bangladesh towards social business. The targeted entrepreneurs were classified as profit seeking entrepreneurs located at Dhaka and Chittagong City. Simple random sampling technique was used to collect data via structured questionnaire. Both descriptive and statistical statistics analysis were used for interpreting data. This study used SPSS version 22 (Statistical Package for Social Science) for descriptive analysis. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was conducted using AMOS 22 to test the proposed relationship among the study variables. The results of this study reveal that most of the entrepreneurs are somewhat agree with several principles of social business and their expectations are also consistent with the objectives of social business. But entrepreneurs are somewhat disagree on receiving invested amount over a period of time. Entrepreneurs are neither agree nor disagree to take risk and challenges of implementing social business. The results of this study also describe that the overall perception of entrepreneurs changes with the changes of motivation, experience, Risk taking, proactivity, expectation and cultural factors. There are some challenges of implementing social business in Bangladesh. Lack of social business skills, risks of managing social business, inadequate data of social business, lack of designing successful social business model, profit seeking mindset of entrepreneurs and inadequate marketing programs of social business are the most challenges of implementing social business in Bangladesh. In spite of the challenges of social business, the prospect of social business in Bangladesh is bright. Bangladesh is full of raw materials of various types of social businesses; Bangladesh has experience of implementing microcredit programs, and has a supply of low cost human resources. Awareness creation regarding social business, promotional programs of social business, training program of social business, support services and changing mindset programs of entrepreneurs towards social business can make the social business development effective as well as efficient.
Role of store image influencing store loyalty: A study of the retail industry in Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2018-07-10) Shamsher, Robaka
Over the last few decades the retail industry is experiencing dynamic changes globally through the emergence of supermarkets as the dominant retail form. This is due to the fact that consumers` behavior and preferences has changed and shifted towards convenience, high quality products, provision for customer care, greater emphasis on value for money, flexible payment methods, and sophisticated channels of distribution. Like other developing countries of the world, the retail sector in Bangladesh has been witnessing a gradual uprising for the last and half decade as the traditional markets made ways for new retail formats with the emergence of large scale retail stores especially in the urban areas of the country. This has led to the creation of an environment in which the retail industry faces severe competition. The retail environment of Bangladesh is in the phase of experimentation where customers, as well as store owners, are experiencing larger and diverse retail formats. In this scenario, the retail stores have to work on what attracts consumers and what will make them not shift their store preference. Today’s customers’ preference has shifted for newer service dimensions, product excellence, pleasing store atmosphere etc. which are creating unique shopping experiences. They develop specific expectations for the selection of stores. Hence, it becomes important to understand the overall customer perceptions regarding store image that will have an impact in customer satisfaction and store loyalty. This dissertation has been conducted to identify the influence of store image on store loyalty in the context of the Bangladesh retail market. The study presents and discusses the empirical findings from a survey of 534 supermarket shoppers and examined the shoppers’ perspectives to understand their loyalty status by using Partial Least Square (PLS) method based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings of this thesis largely support the hypothesized relationships proposed in the theoretical model. The results revealed that store image has both direct and indirect relationships with store loyalty. To validate the general findings of the dissertation a case study has been conducted on the leading supermarket Agora. This thesis contributes to theoretical and practical knowledge by emphasizing the marketing approach on consumer perception of store image and to formulate effective retail marketing strategies to create and enhance a favorable image perception which will have a positive effect on the customers’ store revisiting intentions. At the end of the thesis a few recommendations along with some agenda for future research are put forward for consideration.
Impact of the initiatives of world trade organisation on export of readymade garments from Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2018-10-17) Moshiul Azam, Md.
Impact of technology-based service encounter on customer brand loyalty: Bangladesh perspective
(University of Dhaka, 2018-10-19) Ghosh, Sagib Kumar
Consumers’ Attitude towards Brand Switching: A Study on Telecommunication Sector in Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2018-12-09) Neger, Meher
This study is conducted empirically for measuring consumers’ attitude towards brand switching on telecommunication sector in Bangladesh. A conceptual model has been developed based on two constructs and some factors. Telecommunication service related intrinsic and extrinsic constructs where five individual attributes are included (network availability, service quality, service charge strategies, brand image, offered value) and some influential factors (strong advertisement policy, huge offering packages, perception about network coverage, FnF tariff, perception about age of the consumer, profession of the consumer, marital status and user satisfaction level about the current usable SIM , call rate, SMS charge, income, and age of the consumer ) are considered for the final study. Tricomponent Attitude Model has been applied to find out the attitude formation towards telecommunication sector. A descriptive analysis technique (say, arithmetic mean) is used to find out the weighted average of intrinsic & extrinsic attributes which are considered by consumer for receiving telecommunication service. Fishbein’s Multiattribute Attitude model has been used for measuring the overall attitudes of consumers’ toward telecommunication sector in Bangladesh, which could help for successful business operation, management, and long-term sustainability of attitude measurement in order to improve product or service quality as per consumer expectation level. Next guideline of this study was that the support of Markov Chain (Transition Probability) for assessing the brand switching tendencies of the consumer from one state to another, which could help to take right strategies for improving the brand quality of different service providing organization and to capture high market share by reducing the brand switching behavior of the consumer. After that binary logistic regression Model has been applied to find out the significance of the influential factors which are considered by the consumers for switching from one to another brand of telecommunication sector. A total of 840 respondents who have direct role for receiving telecommunication service are selected on the basis of stratified random sampling to fill up the questionnaires where some of the information gathered by using Likert and Semantic Differential scales. Data has been collected from students and different professional (Universities Teacher, Bankers, Corporate officers, Housewife, Government and Nongovernment employees) through a set of structured questionnaire. To measure the overall evaluation (ei) regarding the selected attributes for the specific firm rating scale ranging from extremely good to extremely bad (+3 to -3) was used and asked to encircle the point to express their opinion. The respondents were also asked through the Seven Point Likert scale ranging from 7 indicates very strongly believe, and 1 indicates very strongly disbelieve to know how strongly they believe that the individual firm contains the said attributes. The result of Tricomponent Attitude Model proved that the consumers of Grameenphone Ltd. are showed significantly positive feelings on the network availability, brand image and service quality dimensions (p<0.01). The score indicates that the service charge strategies and offered value of Grameenphone Limited are not up to the mark.
Agricultural Marketing System for Sustainable Dairy Industry with Triple Bottom Line Framework in Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2019-01-23) Sirajul Islam, Mohammad
Sustainable development of dairy industry is an international focal point of institutions like the United Nations (UN) and its member countries. Today, the dairy industry is facing a list of problems due to different types of uncertainties and interruptions all over the world. The dairy farms developed alternative approaches to enhance the ability to manage uncertain situations and fails to satisfy the stakeholders need in a sustainable manner. In agriculture -based industry, this is very important to develop a suitable marketing system to improve performances, establish a suitable governance approach and reduce the probable misfortunes that have disrupted the road of the sustainable performance (SUP) of the dairy industry in the world. Similarly, the dairy industry in Bangladesh requires exploring alternative resources as well as immediate actions for reducing the uncertainties to overcome adversities. Inability to establish an appropriate agricultural marketing system immediately may be the cause of financial loss, the social and environmental imbalance that have made the task of sustainable performance (SUP) of the dairy industry a difficult proposition. There are some limitations of the present literature regarding the agricultural marketing system, namely is uncertainty, sustainability and lack of an empirically tested model of agricultural marketing systems to be adopted for the long-term sustainable performance (SUP) of the dairy industry in Bangladesh. These research gaps highly encouraged me to conduct this research work to develop a model of agricultural marketing channel relationship (AMCR) for sustainable performance (SUP) applicable in the dairy industry in Bangladesh after extensive review of earlier studies in this area. Reviewing the earlier research works the present research model was evaluated in the light of two theories, namely social exchange theory (SET) and stakeholder theory (ST). Moreover, the key constructs and hypothesized relationships are justified, based on those theories while, constructs and variables of the proposed research are justified and validated by an exhaustive field survey. This research has applied a ‘mixed method’ which has incorporated both qualitative and quantitative approach. In the qualitative research approach, this study used semi-structured interview procedure, in which the field study data were collected from 19 marketing channel decision makers, particularly farmers (dairy farms), milk processing companies (formal buyers) in Bangladesh. Data collected from field survey (qualitative data) have been analyzed using the content analysis technique. According to the outcome of the content analysis, a field study model was developed. Then, based on the comparison of the conceptual model and the field study model, a comprehensive and final research model was developed. In addition, the field study explored a new dimension namely, political uncertainty in the context of the dairy industry in Bangladesh. Finally, qualitative research approach has been combined with the view of the mixed method. In addition, in quantitative phase, total 320 usable responses were attained from the dairy farmers in Bangladesh. Samples were selected through using the random sampling technique. Those collected data were analysed using partial least squares (PLS) -based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. Furthermore, the findings of the quantitative analysis explored that the key constructs agricultural marketing channel relationship (AMCR) reflected by several dimensions like trust, commitment, satisfaction, power, cooperation, and communication. In addition, the construct sustainability governance (SUG) is reflected through several dimensions like business sustainability, integration, governance power and financial control. As well as, environmental uncertainty (EU) was determined by several dimensions like demand uncertainty, supply uncertainty, competitor uncertainty, climate uncertainty and political uncertainty. The outcome of the study was also critically examined through measuring the agricultural marketing relationship (AMCR) with sustainability governance (SUG) and sustainable performance (SUP) for ensuring long-term sustainable dairy industry, i.e. economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environmental sustainability in the context of Bangladesh. This study discovered that sustainability governance has been partially mediating the relationship between the agricultural marketing channel relationship (AMCR) and sustainable performance (SUP). This finding also substantiated that sustainability governance (SUG) is another essential construct for supporting the way of sustainable performance (SUP) in the context of dairy industry in Bangladesh. In addition to this, this research investigated that insignificant role of moderating construct the environmental uncertainty (EU) on the sustainable performance (SUP) in the context of the dairy industry in Bangladesh. These results have supported by the earlier studies and replicated the role of the agricultural marketing channel relationship (AMCR) and sustainability governance (SUP) for reducing uncertainties. Therefore, the present research has both theoretical and managerial implications. The findings brought out by this research have a distinctive contribution to the literature. Hence, this study supplements the existing branch of knowledge of agricultural marketing systems, particularly agricultural marketing channel relationship (AMCR), sustainability governance (SUG), and sustainable performance (SUP).q The constructs, dimensions and items dealt with in this research may help directly the stakeholders and national as well as international decision makers to identify and measure the agricultural marketing channel relationship (AMCR) and sustainability governance (SUG) and to overcome the difficulties associated with unforeseen and interruptive factors. It may also assist the managers in ensuring the economic sustainability, social sustainability and environmental sustainability by developing a new approach to agricultural marketing systems like agricultural relationship marketing and sustainability governance. Finally, this study makes the task of the managers simple and practicable in building agricultural marketing channel relationship and sustainability governance and sustainable dairy industry in Bangladesh. Besides, the implications of this study may be useful to the other countries and other industries as well. This research also recommended some specific guidelines to the future researchers on the basis of the major difficulties faced by them.
supply chain management processes of some selected agricultural commodities in Bangladesh: Efficiency, constraints and a proposed model
(University of Dhaka, 2019-03-25) Siddique, Mohammad Abu Bakar
A comparative study of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) banking services in Bangladesh and Canada
(University of Dhaka, 2019-03-31) Bhuiyan, Md. Tabarak Hossain
Economy is the key feature to measure the country’s position or condition in terms of its progress and prosperity. The economy of a country is dominated significantly by its own Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in almost all the developed and developing countries around the world. SMEs covered more than 95 percent of enterprises across the world, accounting for around 60 percent of private sector employment. On the basis of economic structure of the countries, the SMEs contribute around 50 percent of global gross value added and from 16 percent to around 80 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Increasing their funding efficiency and service provided by the banks or financial institutions offer considerable value for SMEs themselves as well as economies. Worldwide the SMEs are considered as accelerated tools for economic growth. In the European Union, SMEs employ almost 90 million people, generate about 1.1 million new jobs per year and contribute almost 30 percent of GDP, worth USD 5.5 trillion. SMEs also drive revolution. They carry out nearly more than half of R&D in some OECD countries. Great deals of R&D activities are concentrated in the services sector and Canada's activity in non-technological advance is reflected in the trademark data. SMEs also play a vital role in R&D. This study focuses on the association and variability of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in terms of deferent parameters between two countries Bangladesh and Canada. Specifically, it examines the impact of banking services on SMEs between two deferent economies. It looks at the financial enabling environment for SMEs and provides conclusions and recommendations for change. To improve the precision of the judgments in this research, methodological triangulation strategy, which mixes both qualitative and quantitative approaches, was employed. At the same time, data-source triangulation was applied to decrease the effect of potential biases. The study is divided into six (06) distinct chapters. First chapter contains the economic status of the countries, SME definition and SME development policies. In second chapter, methodology of the study is explained. Literature review is placed in the third chapter. Fourth chapter explains the role of SME, problems of SME and eligibility criteria for SME loan in Bangladesh and Canada. Chapter five is the core chapter in our study. Fifth chapter is divided into two parts (Part-1 and Part-2) for two countries. Part-1 contains the deferent numerical analysis for Bangladesh and part-2 contains the numerical analysis for Canada. Discussion and conclusion are placed in the last chapter.