An empirical investigation on EDI determinants and outcomes in Malaysian industry

Government involvement is the main cause for the EDI acceptance in Southeast Asian countries (United Nation of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific - UNESCAP, 1996). This is significantly different from the EDI developments in the western countries in which private sector involvement in EDI is substantial (UNESCAP, 1996). As an initial step to spur EDI implementation in private sector, the Malaysian Government has imposed all companies that engage in international trade to implement EDI by doing electronic customs declarations through CIS (Customs Information System) DagangNet. For this, the Government also spent over RM 300 million to fully implement EDI nationwide (Star, 2003 December 3). Nevertheless, such implementation is not successful and it has been claimed that “EDI is not yet fully implemented even though it had been initiated since late 1990s, besides electronic data is also still not recognized for legal customs declaration purposes even if it was meant for paperless and electronic customs declarations” (Star, 2003 December 3). To date, there are dual customs declarations, both electronic and manual, in practices where the sole typical electronic transaction is registration of the customs form (Jimmy, 2005; Star, 2005 July 11). This is in contrast with electronic customs declarations by other countries such as Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore where there is a full electronic declaration including electronic payment for declarations charges (Jimmy, 2005; Star, 2005 July 11; Chau, 2001)

Antecedents and Impacts of E-Business Aligment Amongst Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

E-business has great potentials for firms to extend their business efficiency. Nevertheless, due to various problems and constraints, the e-business deployment within SMEs sector has been reported as not effective. To ensure effective e-business deployment, necessary measures are needed to assess how firms align diverse ebusiness capabilities in support of their business operation. This study therefore aims to investigate the extent firms align diverse e-business capabilities across business processes (e-business alignment). Using a strategic fit perspective, this study has observed two major propositions. First, firms‟ ability to align e-business to support the most crucial business processes has potentially led to better realisation of ebusiness values. Secondly, certain managerial and environmental conditions have explained the differing characteristics of e-business alignment amongst firms. This study employs quantitative research approach using survey method to collect and collate evidences from 140 owner/managers of SMEs. Preliminary analysis has indicated e-business alignment/misalignment patterns across business functions. The cluster analysis further reveals three distinct profiles with different characteristics of e-business alignment. These profiles are labelled as 'highly fit', 'moderately fit' and 'low fit' based on their e-business fit characteristics. This result confirms the first proposition where highly aligned firms will report greater and wider e-business impacts. The second proposition reveals that environmental uncertainty, IT sophistication, owner/manager knowledge on advanced IT/IS, e-business deployment status, and support network are significant predictors to different e-business alignment characteristics among firms. This study suggests that firms relatively have different priority over e-business solutions to support their business. These findings have demonstrated why some firms do not progress to a higher e-business ladder. It further justifies unequal deployment of e-business solutions to support functions across firms

A preliminary meta-analysis of SME ebusiness journal publications: current trends and future research opportunities moving beyond adoption factor studies

Previous meta-analyses of SME-eBusiness journal research focuses on analysing adoption factors, pre-2000 articles and a small number of journals. This paper departs from this research by analysing 100 articles published between 2003 and 2006 in 41 journals on the basis of the research approaches employed, countries and eBusiness technologies studied, and research objectives focused upon. The paper presents preliminary insights into current major research trends based on this analysis, such as the predominant focus on adoption factor by many studies. It also identifies future research opportunities, and proposes a research agenda which aims to progress SME-eBusiness research beyond adoption factor studies by outlining research objectives to help SMEs overcome barriers and exploit drivers.<br /

Fuzzification of quantitative data to predict tumour size of colorectal cancer

Regression analysis has become more popular among researchers as a standard tool in analyzing data. This paper used fuzzy linear regression model (FLRM) to predict tumour size of colorectal cancer (CRC) data in Malaysia. 180 patients with colorectal cancer received treatment in hospital were recorded by nurses and doctors. Based on the patient records, a triangular fuzzy data will be built toward the size of the tumour. Mean square error (MSE) and root mean square error (RMSE) will be measured as a part of the process for predicting the size of the tumour. The degree of fitting adjusted is set between 0 and 1 in order to find the least error. It was found that the combination of FLRM model with fuzzy data provided a better prediction compared to the FLRM model alone. Hence, this study concluded that the tumour size is directly proportional to several factors such as gender, ethnic, icd 10, TNM staging, diabetes mellitus, Crohn’s disease

Strength properties of rice husk ash concrete under sodium sulphate attack

The use of pozzolanic materials in concrete provides several advantages, such as improved strength and durability. This study investigated the strength properties of rice husk ash (RHA) concrete under severe durability (sodium sulphate attack). Four RHA replacement levels were considered in the study: 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% by weight of cement. The durability performance of the RHA blended cement exposed to sodium sulphate solution was evaluated through compressive strength, reduction in strength, and weight loss. Test results showed that RHA can be satisfactorily used as a cement replacement material in order to increase the durability of concrete. Concrete containing 10% and 20% of RHA replacements showed excellent durability to sulphate attack. The results also indicate that the amount of Ca(OH)2 in the RHA blended cement concrete was lower than that of Portland cement due to the pozzolanic reaction of RH

Why should small firms adopt ebusiness? A framework for understanding the SME ebusiness context

eBusiness research typically questions why small firms do not adopt these powerful technologies and suggests explanatory factors for these perceived shortcomings. This paper argues against the technological expansionist view by questioning why small firms should adopt eBusiness. Specifically, it proposes a new conceptualisation showing that each small firm has different circumstances and associated business goals, and that researchers and practitioners must convince each small firm why eBusiness should be used for its goals in preference to non-technology solutions. The paper also provides some preliminary insights, based on this view, into future theoretical and empirical directions to guide researchers who conduct small firm eBusiness adoption studies.<br /

Encouraging small firm up-take of SCM using education: a future research agenda

The success of supply chain management (SCM) practices often depends on small firms in the supply chain adopting these practices, yet they are often reluctant to do so. The existing literature mostly explores SCM adoption barriers rather than approaches to encourage adoption. This paper argues that an educational perspective has promise, and proposes a research agenda which should guide future studies by all researchers studying small firm SCM up-take. The agenda encompasses the diversity of small firms, the major educational players, appropriate types of education approaches and the theoretical framework to underpin this research. The paper then gives an example of how this research agenda can be applied to a specific research project which will explore the impact of the Supply Chain Knowledge Centre (SCKC), a state of the art SCM education facility developed by GS1 Australia, on small firm SCM up-take.<br /