21-07-2012, 02:24 PM
On the Relationship between International Telecommunications Development and Global Women's poverty
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Abstract
The article discusses the relationship between international telecommunications development and global women's poverty by examining three questions: (1) Who benefits economically from international telecommunications development? (2) Why is women's poverty a peripheral concern in neoclassical economics? (3) How and by whom should women's poverty be defined? By focusing on the World Bank's policies, programs and lending to telecommunications, and women's empowerment since the 1980s, and drawing on the perspectives of the political economy of communication, feminist economics and critical studies of global women's poverty, this article argues that the problem of global women's poverty should be understood in the contexts of an unequal distribution of goods and services across the globe and between men and women, the androcentrism and ethnocentrism of neoclassical economics and the processes of women's poverty and poor women's agency in poverty alleviation at a local level.
International Communication Gazette April 2007 vol. 69 no. 2 193-213
Indian Cellular Mobile Service
In the last ten years, the mobile revolution has truly changed the socio-economic landscape of India and played a pivotal role in the growth and development of the economy. According to Cellular Operator Association of India (COAI), India ranks between the top ten telecom network in the world and the second largest in Asia. India is also one of the fastest growing markets in mobile communications. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's report on Telecom Services Performance (TRAI, 2010) indicates cellular mobile subscriber base touching 635.71 million in June 2010. Growth in India's mobile telephone sector has been nothing short of spectacular in the past few years, aided by higher subscriber volumes, lower tariffs and falling handset prices. India is home to a number of global mobile operators working with local companies and mobile market has consistently experienced very high annual growth rates with the continuous decline in tariff.
Service Quality of Cellular Mobile
The success of telecommunication industry depends on prudent efforts and feasible investments. In a competitive market, service providers are expected to compete on both price and quality of services and also it is necessary for the service providers to meet the consumers' requirements and expectations in price and service quality (Melody, 200I). The positive relationship of service quality with customer satisfaction (Danaher and Mattsson, 1994; Kim et al., 2004), customer preference (Ranaweera and Neely, 2003), profitability (Fornell, 1992; Danaher and Rust, 1996), competitiveness (Rapert and Wren, 1998), is well proven in the academic literature.
Research Methodology
As the major purpose of the study is to understand the consumers' perceptions in the selection of cellular mobile telecommunication service provider in India, a structured questionnaire was developed to collect the required primary data from the consumers. The survey questionnaire consists of six distinct sections, each of which contains relevant questions pertaining different parts of the study. Questionnaires were systematically distributed utilizing a non-probability convenience sampling from walk in customers at market places and educational institutions. The questionnaire was framed in the format of Likert scale to be distributed into the selected sample, and no specific characteristics were defined for the respondents except being a cellular mobile user. The sample, it was logically assumed that the sample represented the whole population of mobile telecommunication services users in India.
Results and Discussion Reliability Coefficient
Reliability coefficient tested by using Cronbach's alpha (a) analysis. In order to measure the reliability for a set of two or more constructs, Cronbach alpha is a commonly used method where alpha coefficient values range between 0 and I with higher values indicating higher reliability among the indicators (Hair, et al., 1992). In accordance with the Cronbach alpha test, the total scale of reliability for this study varies from 0.679 to 0.9778 indicating an overall higher reliability factors. The reliability of this study is substantial in every perspective, as the highest reliability value that can be achieved is 1.0.
Factor Analysis
The results obtained from 212 respondents have been thoroughly analyzed. Using the statistical software package SPSS, factor analysis was carried out. The extraction method the principal component analysis (PCA) and veri-max rotation were carried out to explore the underlying factors associated with 18 items. The constructs validity was tested applying Bartlett's Test of Sphericity and The Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin Measure of Sampling adequacy analyzing the strength of association among variables. The Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO) was first computed to determine the suitability of using factor analysis. It helps to predict whether data are suitable to perform factor analysis. KMO is used to assess which variables to drop from the model due to multicollinearity problem.