Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review

Sultanate of Oman is a fast developing country flooded with branded products/services offered by multi-national companies. The performance of any organization system in the complex business world rely heavily on its plans for marketing sub-system. Too many brands in a product/service segment makes it difficult for corporate houses to differentiate their products/services based on their inherent features/attributes. Brand positioning is a vital element of a marketing plan that facilitate organizations to differentiate and occupy a mind space in the customers. Marketers use brand positioning to communicate product attributes prudently to their target market keeping in view the target market needs and constrains in its competitive environment. Effective brand positioning protects the organization through its carefully worded messages to the target consumers. Perceptual mapping is a measuring technique used by marketing community to identify and understand the position of various competing brands on spread of various attributes. Multi-dimensional scaling and Brand image analysis are tools to conduct perceptual mapping of brands on attributes of products. The researchers attempt to study the position of brands of select consumer durables products based on various product attributes ranked on a ranking scale. There has not been any study conducted in this domain in Wilayat of Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman and to that extent this study is considered to be significant.

Due to its perceived success, Public Private Partnership (PPP) is accepted and recommended worldwide as a tool for efficient, transparent and effective strategy which guaranteed value for money for public sector projects which had previously known persistent and consistent failure leading to disappointments. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of construction risks on completion of PPP projects. The objective of this research was to investigate the influence of construction risks on completion of Public Private Partnership projects. The study tested the null hypothesis that: Construction risks do not significantly influence the completion of Public Private Partnership Project in Kenya. The study adopted descriptive survey design and targeted the entire management of Sondu-Miriu Hydroelectric Power project totaling 85 obtained from the contracting parties where a sample of 71 was selected through proportionate sampling. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used for data collection while Cronbach Alpha was used as a measure of reliability and established that the overall questionnaire reliability was α=0.753. Quantitative and qualitative techniques were used in data analysis where multiple regression analysis was used to establish the relationship between the variables. The study found a response return rate of 39/71 (54.93%) where 64.1% had worked for at least 3 years in their respective organizations, 61.5%) were graduates and majority of the study participants 28 (71.8%) had engineering training. The study concludes that: construction risks: construction time overrun, construction cost overrun and labor related risks significantly influence completion of construction PPPP projects such that as construction risks increase, completion of PPP projects decline. The study recommends that the Government, as the key employer in PPPs should design and implement effective policies that will minimize if not eliminate construction time overrun, cost overrun and labor related risks.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to explore the psychological construct; whether this construct (hope, strength, optimism and efficiency) have a relationship with task performance and employee turnover.

Design/methodology: This study used qualitative method and semi structured interviews were conducted in order to obtain data from banking sectors. NVIVO Software was used to utilizing semi structure interviews. Findings: The results show that positive psychological capital positively relevant to their task performance at work, and negatively related to turnover.

Practical Implications: The benefits arising from this study is organization and staff to provide a good climate of positive development in order to develop positive psychological capital.

Originality: This study explores the spectacle of positive psychological capital; development must be integrated into the programs and organization of human resources and performance management development.

Understanding and predictions of investment and undercurrents of it for a section of society is a difficult job for any economist or an avid researcher due to the presence of a variety of variables. This research utilizing qualitative research with the focus on in-depth interviews for a select section of society i.e. the middle-class sheds some light on this class’s existing investment behavior. From these interviews, it became evident that the middle-class investor in Pakistan takes interest in the purchase of property specifically residential plots and apartments. The factors contributing towards this choice are the current trend of asset’s availability on installments, brand name, utility of investment from investor’s standpoint, investor’s experience in the property market, investor’s personal relations with realtors, pursuance of better lifestyle, perception of security of investment and family size.