Loss of customer goodwill is one of the greatest losses a business organization can incur. One reason for such a loss is stock outage. In an attempt to solve this problem, an overstock could result. Overstock comes with an increase in the holding and carrying cost. It is an attempt to solve these twin problems that an economic order quantity (EOQ) model was developed. Information on fifteen items comprised of 10 non-seasonal and 5 seasonal items was collected from a supermarket in Ikot Ekpene town, Nigeria. The information includes the quantity of daily sales, the unit price, the lead time and the number of times an item is ordered in a month. Based on this information, a simple moving average and y-trend method of forecasting were used to forecast the sales quantity for the following month for the non-seasonal and seasonal items. The forecast value was used to compute the EOQ for each of the items. Different scenarios were created to simulate the fuzzy logic EOQ after which the result of the conventional method, EOQ method, and fuzzy EOQ methods were obtained and compared. It was revealed that if the EOQ method is adopted, savings of 43% of holding and carrying cost would be made. From the scenarios of a fuzzy EOQ, a savings of 35.65% was recorded. It was however observed that in a real-life situation, the savings on a fuzzy EOQ is likely to be higher than that of an EOQ considering the incessant public power outages and the increase in transportation fares due to the high cost of fuel and the bad state of roads in Nigeria. To this end, a Decision Support Tool (DST) was developed to help the supermarket manage its inventory based on daily predictions. The DST incorporates a filter engine to take care of some emotional and cognitive incidences within the environment.

Two self-report experiments examined how religiosity affects attributions made for the outcome of a tornado. Undergraduate students (N = 533) and online adults (N = 537) read a fictional vignette about a tornado that hits a small town in the United States. The townspeople met at church and prayed or prepared emergency shelters for three days before the tornado; either no one died or over 200 people died from the tornado. Participants made attributions of cause to God, prayer, faith, and worship. In both studies, individuals identifying as Christian made more attributions to God, prayer, faith, and worship, but only when no one died; when townspeople died, Christian participants made fewer attributions to God, prayer, faith, and worship (the God-serving bias). Individuals identifying as agnostic or atheist did not show this bias. Directions for future research in terms of implicit religious beliefs and normative evaluations of religion are discussed.

Existing knowledge about the characteristics and marketing implications of the low income consumers have not been well articulated by managers and academics alike. Yet research has demonstrated the strategic benefits of this market in contributing to market share and return on investment. This paper begins by discussing the importance of this market by reporting the insights obtained in an exploratory research by reviewing the limited number of studies in this area, highlighting its nature and characteristics, drawing some specific implications and offering propositions to stimulate further research about the low income market

In this study, the influence of performance management on employee retention in commercial banks in Akwa Ibom State was studied. The survey research design was considered and adopted in the study. The study had a population of 497. The sample size was 384 as determined through Cochran’s sample size determination formula. The sampling method employed in the study was random sampling. The questionnaire was used in data collection. Data obtained in the study were analyzed using simple regression method. It was established that performance management (Beta =0.046, t=4.182, p<0.05) has a significant influence on employee retention in commercial banks in Akwa Ibom State. It was concluded that performance management could account for employee retention in commercial banks in Akwa Ibom State. It was recommended that commercial banks in the state should strengthen their performance management practice as this had the capacity to influence employee retention.

How Effective is the Balanced Scorecard in Business Performance Evaluation of Hospitality Industry in Nigeria? 1. Introduction The hospitality industry is seen as a key driver of economies globally. So many investments are being made by both private and public owners of hospitality outfits. These outfits provide accommodation, meals and related services to guests. Compared to other business areas in a given economy, hospitality business is quite unique. Its uniqueness stems from the nature of its industry which is service-oriented and also promotes human exchange in service delivery to clients. Furthermore, hospitality business possesses other features such as clients patronizing both tangible and intangible products at the same time, need for interaction and communication between customers and service providers in service delivery, issue of cultural diversity as many individuals of different origins visit for services, hence it is labour intensive (Chan, 2012). As a country, Nigeria prides itself with a number of hospitality outfits in their various classes. Like any other business, hospitality business requires the quality of management that can provide for its profitability and sustainability. Hence, there is need to have a performance measurement system in place. In contemporary dynamic environment of business, it has been quite challenging for hospitality businesses to manage and maintain their performance and competitive advantage (Neely, 1999).However, these challenges can be effectively addressed through the application of the balanced scorecard (BSC), which offers the model for dealing with critical and appropriate variables and directions for implementing the right strategies for business success. The Balanced Scorecard(BSC) is the brainchild of Kaplan and Norton who in the 1990s, came up with the idea that relying on financial performance metrics when analysing the performance of organizations was unbalanced and therefore misleading. Kaplan and Norton (1992) instead, proposed the use of BSC because of its strength in combing financial perspective and three other perspectives, namely, internal business process, customer and; learning and growth perspectives. The BSC serves a number of purposes. For Niven (2002), the BSC can be variously used: As an evaluation model, a tool for communicating with employees and stakeholders and a system for strategic management. Umoh (2018)