MBA in Marketing

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    Bond Immunization: Beyond the Theory
    (2005) Missakian, Hagop Antranik
    Several authors in financial investments have investigated the validity of immunization in theory and in applied work. These authors assume different immunized portfolios, apply a few changes in interest rates, and evaluate the process by examining the results. In this study, we examine different portfolios and define the scope of bond diversification and the selection process of the bonds in order to have more immunized outcomes. Actually, we find that forming immunized portfolios from composites of only two bonds simplifies the selection process and serves in maximizing the overall return of the investment. We also rely on different websites to gather information on various bonds currently trading in the market. Furthermore, we form a number of immunized portfolios using different pairs of these bonds. Because the path of interest rates is unknown, we simulate every possible path that interest rates may have for a five years time horizon by using a program in Microsoft Excel, which also calculates the end results of each portfolio in relation to each path of interest rates. Because the range of the outcomes is quite large, we use different statistical summaries and tests in order to evaluate the overall outcome of the portfolios and eventually to validate the theory of immunization. We use histograms to plot the outcomes of each portfolio and realize that not all portfolios' outcomes have normal distributions as their corresponding data are scattered away from the mean thus increasing the risk of not being able to meet the obligation. The analysis shows that although all the selected portfolios have means greater than the desired outcome, these portfolios do not have similar risks nor do they have the same probabilities in scoring satisfactory results and we find a relation between the risk and the realized yield of the portfolios. We conclude by saying that immunization is workable and our analysis provides enough proof to be able to validate this theory especially that we do not use rebalancing in our study, which is one of the problems of the theory, yet we still have positive results.
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    Consumer Motivation When Shopping at Malls: Case of Lebanese Consumer
    (2010) El Chafei, Oussama
    The study is about consumer motives when shopping at malls. It presents a brief summary of what researchers, psychologists and academicians have done regarding classifying shoppers in general and mall shoppers in particular according to their behavior, motives and satisfactions. The study summarizes the evolution of the marketing concepts, motivation theories, emergence of malls and goes into differentiating mall shoppers' experience and motives into hedonic motives and utilitarian motives. Using already established and tested items for hedonism and for utilitarianism, the study test these items on 770 active shoppers in City Mall, Beirut, Lebanon. The study presents the effect of demographic factors on the motives of mall shopping. It studies the effect of mall visits and mall spending on these motives. The study presents active shoppers' appraisal of specific areas at City Mall and calls for improvement. This study is very important to mall administrators and mall developers as it reflects the profile of active shoppers with their spending patterns and their number of small visits.
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    Corporate Social Responsibility in Lebanon
    (2008) Sagherian, Hera Hrayr
    The popularity and importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasing in recent years. In fact, being active in CSR is becoming a competitive advantage for many international companies. Furthermore, in order to survive and compete in a global market, companies need to engage in CSR activities, because CSR is becoming a criterion for investment opportunities and expansion plans. The purpose of this study is to provide insight into how well Lebanese companies and industries, understand and implement CSR. Focusing on the concepts and theories presented in literature, a qualitative research method including the design and administration of a questionnaire has been used. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed qualitatively to explore the situation of CSR in few companies of different industries in Lebanon. As a result of the conducted analysis, hypotheses were posed that will help further research uncover the constituents of CSR in Lebanon and its effect on Lebanese companies.
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    Impact of Television Advertising on Food Habit of Children: The Case of Lebanese Armenian Private Middle Schools 8th and 9th Graders
    (2013) Nalbandian, Tamar Kevork
    Children have always been a lucrative target for advertisers and marketers due to their spending power and their influence on their parent's purchasing decisions. Marketers reach children by all types of promotions from television to smart phones, internet, and newsprints. The observed growing interest of certain food categories marketers in targeting children and teen eventually started to create concerns about the effects of those aggressive advertising messages on children. Consequently, certain countries like the USA, Switzerland, Canada and Australia have discussed and even established laws that protect children from the excessive targeting through television advertisements by certain food categories marketers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of television advertisements on the food habits of 8th and 9th graders of six Lebanese Armenian middle schools selected at random from the study target population of Lebanese Armenian middle schools. A thirty items Survey Questionnaire was administered to the 352 8th and 9th graders. A Cronbach Alpha and Factor Analysis were used to establish the reliability and validity of the administered Questionnaire. Five research questions were investigated: (1) Do Television food advertisements targeting 8th and 9th graders have an impact on their food consumption habits? (2) Is there a relationship between socio-economic status (tuition level) and attitude toward 8th and 9th graders' food consumption habit? (3) Is there a relationship between socio-economic status (tuition level) and TV watching habit of the 8th and 9th graders? (4) Do gender differences influence food consumption habits of the 8th and 9th graders? (5) Do gender differences influence TV watching habit of the 8th and 9th graders? Results of this study showed that that the more the 8th and 9th graders view television, the more they are aware, know and like television food ads and the worse is their eating behavior habits. Furthermore, the more positive is their attitude toward those advertised food categories the worse is their eating behavior habits. Consequently, the more the 8th and 9th graders trust advertised food categories on television the worse is their eating behavior habits. The study also showed that the lower the socio economic status the higher is the consumption of advertised food and television viewing habits. Finally, results showed that gender differences and nature of food consumption habit of the 8th and 9th graders are not dependent and they are dependent with their television viewing habit. From the results of this study, we can conclude that certain food categories companies and marketers are relatively successful in targeting through television advertisements middle school age children (11-14 yrs). Thus, in order to minimize the negative impacts of television advertisements targeted to children, parents should be encouraged to monitor their children's television viewing habits, school officials need to introduce nutritional educational programs in their curriculum. Lebanese government and health organizational agencies should introduce laws that force advertisers to conduct themselves ethically to protect children from misleading television food commercial appeals.
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    The Effectiveness of Promotional Tools on Moviegoers Choices and Attendance of Films in Lebanon
    (2014) Keloukian, Gassia
    When we take a look at the cinema and movie industry in Lebanon in the last four years, it wouldn't take us a wild guess to find out that this is a fast-booming and ground breaking industry. Every year, there was an opening for two new cinema locations, and every week there was a release of three to four new Hollywood movies, which is a total of 220 films per year approximately. Most importantly, the local movies have jumped into a renaissance era since 2010 where every year the number of local movies production is logarithmically increasing, closing the bar of thirteen new movies in 2013. To note, in 2009 only two Lebanese movies were released. This, per se, is very healthy, but what's alarming about it is the distinct marketing behaviors of these new products and brands, whereby the exaggerated and inflated publicity of movies is being very explicit. My primary aim behind this study is to uncover the top promotional tool/s that drive people to watch a particular movie at the cinema, and in what circumstances. Also as a sub-objective, is to test to what extent these tools contribute in the Tickets sales performance. My secondary aim is to reveal whether or not the local movies investors are already aware of the resulted figures and to reveal what they are pillaring their marketing strategies on. I adopted two different methodologies, the first is qualitative data analysis generated from questionnaires and interviews with moviegoers and investors, while the second is factual database collection and statistics. The results reported that only the TV campaign holds direct impact on the ticket sales, while online advertising is the utmost effective promotional tool on the moviegoer. As for the movie investors, no one had ever conducted any similar survey previously. The implication of these results annotate that throughout the previous years and until today, movie marketing has been off track. However, the current studies' results ought to be the compass for every movie investor in the country. Over spending on non profitable tools is not intolerable anymore.
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    The Impact of Positive Restaurant Reviews on the Visit Intention of the Reviewed Restaurant: the Case of Lebanese Restaurant Review Readers Residing in Lebanon
    (2015) Krikorian, Sarine Sarkis
    With the increased popularity of online restaurant guides in Lebanon and the growing restaurant industry in Lebanon in parallel, this study was done to investigate if the reviews mentioned on those guides have any influence on the Lebanese consumer‟s restaurant visit intention. In specific, this research focused on understanding 5 key aspects: Whether the review readers‟ normative susceptibility, perceived credibility of positive restaurant reviews, perceived quality of the restaurant reviews, the quantity of positive restaurant reviews and the perceived familiarity of the reviewed restaurant‟s brand have a significant impact on the restaurant visit intention. An online questionnaire composed of 32 questions was distributed on Facebook pages of restaurants, online restaurant guides, universities and other social pages. The link was also published by 3 online restaurant guide Facebook pages, on an influential foodie‟s Facebook account, on a famous blogger‟s Facebook account and on a famous online restaurant guide website. Out of 320 respondents, 255 were qualified and their responses were analyzed on SPSS .No significant relationship between normative susceptibility and the restaurant visit intention was shown. However, a significant relationship was shown between restaurant visit intention and 1) perceived credibility of positive reviews, 2) perceived quality of positive reviews, 3) quantity of positive reviews and 4) perceived brand familiarity of the reviewed restaurant. Based on the findings, recommendations such as keeping a close eye on the reviews, monitoring the quality/quantity of reviews written about the restaurant and boosting restaurant brand awareness through reviews on the restaurant guides was given to restaurant owners.
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    The Impact of the Macro-environment on the Performance of Airlines Operating in Lebanon: Empirical Study Conducted in Eighteen Airlines Operating in Lebanon
    (2010) Feslian, Maria Bedros
    Airlines, these last few years, have been attracting the attention of the world because of the major tragedies they are producing. Often, the macro-environment is the major driver of the dramatic events hitting the airline industry. Airlines operating in Lebanon are as strongly affected by the macro-environment as any other airline. The literature review suggests the following: airlines that systematically scan and review their macro-environment using the appropriate scanning and forecasting techniques to then formulate or reformulate strategies based on the findings of the environmental scanning register high performance scores. I will be studying whether the airlines operating in Lebanon that use the proper approach to scanning and the suitable scanning tools or techniques display first-rate or exceptional results compared to airlines using adhoc approaches. The methodology used to study my research question was through the analysis of the data obtained by administering a questionnaire. The sample of my study was eighteen airline managers or supervisors. At the time of my study, there were only thirty-four airlines operating flights to and from Lebanon. Thus, my sample represents 52.94% of the entire population. The results were analyzed using various statistical techniques such as descriptive analysis, hypothesis testing, regression, and factor analysis. Our results indicate that airlines operating in Lebanon that follow the appropriate channels when it comes to scanning their macro-environment and that strategize according to the findings of the environmental scanning exhibit a certain difference in performance compared to airlines that do not follow the appropriate channels; however, the difference is not significant.
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