Non-business e-commerce in Malaysia: An investigation of key adoption

Problem statement: Non-business EC is a relatively new research niche in the general e-commerce stream. Application of e-commerce by profit oriented organization already become bread and butter but still limited applied in non-business sectors such as academic institutions (as in the present study), non-profit organizations, religious organizations and government agencies. Nowadays e-commerce becomes crucially essential in reducing their expenses and improving their operations.Therefore, application of this new innovation should enhance to no non-business sectors to be livelier.Understanding the key factors of facilitating and adopting the e-commerce in non-business are still need to enrich in particularly within Malaysian context. A field survey was conducted to determine key factors that facilitate the adoption of non-business EC in Malaysian Universities. Approach: One main focus of IT implementation research has been to determine why people accept or reject new technology. The current research will explore why Non-business institutions will accept or reject e- commerce. Since e-commerce adoption decision is a strategic one, a comprehensive list of potential facilitators and non-facilitators for the strategic use of information technology was derived from past research. Thus factors used as the basis for collecting data from 65 schools, centers and units from 5 public universities in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur. These data were factor-analyzed to determine the key underlying dimensions of facilitators. On the basis of the resulting 5 dimensions namely, relative advantage, network orientation, information efficiency, innovativeness and competitiveness, regression analysis was done to determine the impact of the 5 dimensions on adoption. Results: They suggest that relative advantage, network orientation and information efficiency are the most important facilitators to the used of e-commerce in non-business sectors. Inhibitors were not estimated eventually, as there were no non-users among the respondents. Conclusion: The results implies the non-business sectors should look into advantages, network orientation and information efficiency as a strategic based for implementing e-commerce in more effective manner to achieve their goals

Validity of the technology acceptance model (TAM) : A sensemaking perspective

This study investigates whether sensemaking activities influence technology acceptance and if the strength of relationship between TAM’s constructs changes over a period of time. This study was a panel-based longitudinal study, whereby data was collected in three stages within a single semester. The setting of the study was at the School of Management, USM. The major findings of the study showed that sensemaking does influence the TAM if activities are undertaken at high and low levels and also sensemaking influences individual constructs of TAM rather than the whole model. This study failed to prove that there is a significant change in the strength of relationship between TAM constructs over a period of time under sensemaking influence, which is that sensemaking activities were found not to exhibit any moderation effect on the TAM constructs. Sensemaking acts as an external variable which influences TAM rather than moderate the strength of the relationship between TAM constructs. This could be because the technology in question was mandatory to be used by the subjects rather than voluntary. Implications for managers are discussed

Quality management and profitability linkage: Does the length of QM adoption act as the moderating variable?

Manufacturing companies in Malaysia have never had it so tough. They are now confronting increasing prices of oil and raw materials, high advancement in innovation and technology, as well as high customer expectation on the quality of products and services. In addition, managers of these companies are well aware of the increasing competitive pressures in the world market. It is clear today that these pressures are due largely to the increased performance of those firms that have successfully implemented quality improvement.This paper presents the findings from an empirical study examining the relationship between quality management (QM) practices and profitability in the electronics and electrical industry in Malaysia. It is said that QM has the potential to not only enhance production efficiency and effectiveness, but also improves bottom-line results. Much has been written about the relationship between QM and performance. However, the link of QM practices to profitability in the electronics and electrical industry in Malaysia has not been fully addressed in empirical studies. To address this issue, this paper investigates the impact of QM practices on profitability in the Malaysian electronics and electrical industry using correlation, multiple regression,and hierarchical regression analyses. The findings revealed that quality measurement, supplier relations, and benchmarking in particular, appear to be of primary importance and exhibit significant impact on profitability. Findings of the study provided a striking demonstration of the importance of implementing effective QM practices for the electronics and electrical industry in Malaysia in enhancing its profitability. However, the study failed to provide the statistical evidence of the existence of the moderating effect of the length of QM adoption on the QM and profitability linkage

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

The development of a new Malaysian Skills Qualification Framework (MSQF) in the context of National Dual Training System (NDTS)

The Malaysian Skills Qualification Framework (MSQF) was formulated to classify skilled qualification that indicates the level of capabilities on competency descriptors. MSQF currently enforces competence-based training approach in skills training which is in line with National Occupational Skills Standard (NOSS). With the advent of National Dual Training System (NDTS), the existing MSQF may need to be revamped due to new requirements resulting from new orientation toward work process. Thus, the purpose of the study was to analyze the effectiveness of the existing MSQF for MSC shop-floor automotive technicians at level 3 to qualify as knowledge workers (K-workers). The study adopted the interpretive qualitative research design which was premised on the phenomenological method by using interview and observation. For purpose of data collection, participants selected for this study were those who have more than five years of experience in automotive industry and understand NOSS-based training and NDTS. The data analysis forms the themes and the categories that are useful to develop a new framework to show the relationships that exist among the categories under study. This study found that NOSS standards qualify students with specialized skills which restricts them in carrying out other duties and to understand the whole work process were facing challenges especially in fulfilling the industry needs due to technological and work organization changes. Secondly, NDTS based on the work process concept builds upon the business process orientation of new industry and supported by the whole work processes rather than specific or functional units only. Thirdly, based on the research data the new MSQF for MSC shop-floor automotive technicians at level 3 needs to be characterized in line with the two descriptors that are professional competence (knowledge and skills) and personal competence (social skills and autonomy). It is recommended that the new MSQF must be put in place in order to qualify appropriate K-workers for the automotive industry in Malaysia

Navigating an auto guided vehicle using rotary encoders and proportional controller

Auto Guided Vehicle (AGV) is commonly used in industry to reduce labour cost and to improve the productivity. A few programmable devices are combined in an AGV to optimize the usage of time and energy. AGV is widely used to transport goods and materials from one place to another place. For the first generation of AGV was used the track to guide the AGV but it was not flexible enough. This study investigates an alternative to control an AGV using two rotary encoders and proportional controller. Arduino Mega 2560 was used as a microcontroller to receive and process the signals from the rotary encoders. Logic controller and proportional controller were implemented to control the AGV, respectively. The coefficient of proportional controller was optimized to improve the performance of the AGV during navigation process. Findings show that AGV with the proportional controller with coefficient 1.5 achieved the best performance during the navigation process

Human Resource Management And The Performance Of Selected Small And Medium Manufacturing Enterprises

Despite many studies on human resource management can be found in the literature, until recently, studies on the moderating effects of this factor on the relationship between innovation and firm performance are hardly existent. In filling the literature gap, this study attempts to address the questions of how HRM practices and its interactions with innovation affect the performance of SMEs. Two hundred eighty-four samples were obtained from the food and beverage, textile and clothing and wood-based small and medium manufacturing enterprises in Malaysia. Using the multiple regression analysis, this study found that human resource management practices in terms of employee and employer’s trainings interacted with innovation and significantly affected the performance of SMEs. Keywords: Human Resource Management, Innovation, Firm Performance, Malaysi

Quality modeling in electronic healthcare: a study of mHealth Service

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to radically transform health services in developing countries. Among various ICT driven health platforms, mobile health is the most promising one because of its widespread penetration and cost effective services. This paper aims to examine Quality Modeling in Electronic Healthcare by using PLS based SEM

Electronic government procurement adoption behavior amongst Malaysian SMEs

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between a model of electronic procurement (e-procurement) adoption behavior and the level of Government e-procurement adoption amongst Small Medium Enterprise (SME) in Malaysia. Data was collected through questionnaires that were distributed to SME selected randomly in all SME in Malaysia.The data were analyzed using factor analysis, reliability analysis, independent-sample t-test, descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation and multiple regressions. Regression results reveals that ‘power’, ‘trust’ and ‘value’ have a positive relationship with the level of e-procurement adoption amongst SME in Malaysia.All dimensions, namely; the power of supplier, power of procurement, trust on supplier, trust on information technology, value of implementation system efficiency and value of cost efficiency were also correlated with the level of e-procurement adoption amongst SME. Past studies on e-procurement are beset by problems of buyer-seller relationship perspective.In addition, these studies are skewed towards Government-SME relationship perspective which the Government possesses more power than SME and provide a better incentive to educate and influence SME to adopt e-procurement.In investigation the relationship between a model of e-procurement adoption behavior and the level of Government e-procurement adoption amongst SME in Malaysia, this study also tries to provides recommendation to Malaysian government for improving the level of e-procurement adoption amongst SME