The doctoral research abstracts Vol:1 2012 / Institute of Graduate Studies, UiTM

Foreword: Congratulations to Institute of Graduate Studies on the 1st issue of The Doctoral Research Abstracts. This inaugural issue consists of 40 abstracts from our PhD graduands receiving their scrolls in the UiTM’s 76th Convocation. This convocation is very significant especially for UiTM since we are celebrating the success of 40 PhD graduands from 12 of the university’s 25 faculties – the largest number ever conferred at any one time. To the 40 doctorates, I would like it to be known that you have most certainly done UiTM proud by journeying through the scholastic path with its endless challenges and impediments, and by persevering right till the very end. Let it remain in your thoughts and hearts that knowledge is Godgiven, and for those of us who have some to spare, never fear to share with those around us, and never be sparing in serving the community and the country, in the name of the Almighty. Dato’ Prof Ir Dr Sahol Hamid Bin Abu Bakar , FASc Vice Chancellor Universiti Teknologi MAR

The impact of customer satisfaction on purchase intention in Malaysian takaful industry

To date the study of customer satisfaction and purchase intention have dominated the services literature. This study is aimed to investigate the impact of customer satisfaction on purchase intention among Takaful participants in Malaysia. A self-administered questionnaire is distributed to eight Takaful companies in Malaysia as a study setting for this study. Out of the total 600 distributed questionnaires 390 were finally selected for data analyses. It is expected that findings from this study will contribute to the existing literature to both theoretical and managerial approaches in order to better understand the pattern of customer satisfaction and purchase intention in Takaful industry settings

Eco-innovation Adoption in Malaysian Contractor Firms: Understanding the Components and Drivers

Eco-innovation (EI) is a concept that integrates eco-consciousness within innovation development.  While EI has been widely applied in the manufacturing industry, its adoption in the construction sector remains uncertain. The rising concern of environmental impacts on construction necessitates the importance of finding more innovative ways to push environmental needs within the complexity of projects’ design and methods. Contractors hold a strategic position to promote and adopt EI into management, construction, and development. This paper explores 1) the adoption level of EI practices and 2) the relationship between the adoption of EI practices and the factors that drive EI, within the Malaysian contractor firms. A questionnaire survey was developed using 18 EI components and four driving factors. A total of 95 Grade G7 contractor firms responded to the survey. The survey revealed that the level of EI adoption in contractor firms is still at a moderate pace. The results showed that organisational EI is a crucial component that supports the firm’s eco-innovative management approach to improve firm’s environmental performance. The results indicated that all four driving factors have a positive relationship with the implementation of EI. Technology factor was identified as crucial in influencing better adoption of EI in contractor firms. Findings from this study are beneficial to develop a framework on strategies to increase the EI adoption rate among the contractor firms and deepen the understanding of EI implementation at the firm level, further extending to the project site level

Halal food logistics: the challenges among food & beverages small and medium sizes manufacturers

This paper presents a part of a larger study in the perspective of halal food logistics (HFL) towards halal food & beverages (F&B) manufacturers in Malaysia.The rising of halal product demands of Muslim consumers, mainly F&B has increased the potential for implementation of HFL services. However, the current condition suggesting that there is a low demand of HFL due to some challenges arose throughout the halal supply chain.These challenges are described from two perspectives; logistics service providers (LSPs) that offering HFL services and the halal product's manufacturers, mainly from small and medium enterprises (SMEs).Some of the challenges were identified such as the complex management of warehousing and terminals, the lack of trust and knowledge, perceived risk, and others that related to the halal matters

The moderating effect of environmental regulation and policy on the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and organizational performance in the Malaysian food and beverage companies

There have been inconsistent findings in the literature concerning the relationships between TQM and organizational performance. Hence this research has prompted further investigation on the effect of other variables that may better explain the nature of these links. In the related literatures, many theories have suggested that the compatibility between strategies, resources, and capabilities are the keys for organizational success. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating effects of environmental regulation and policy (ERP) on the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and organizational performance (OP). Quality assurance (QA) and continuous process improvement (CPI) as TQM elements considered in this study were moderated with their respective relationships with organizational performance. Therefore, to achieve this purpose, this study has integrated different theories such as the contingency and the institutional theories in order to provide the effect of QA and CPI on successful strategy implementation. Questionnaires were distributed to 250 Malaysian food and beverages companies. 71 questionnaires were returned and used in the analysis using the PLS-SEM. Studies revealed that TQM can be divided into the management or soft aspects (management concepts and principles) of TQM and the technical or hard aspects (management tools and techniques) of TQM . This study is exclusively based on the soft elements of TQM. The results of this study revealed that QA and CPI have always been significant predictors of organizational performance by following the regulations and policy related to environment. More importantly, the results have also confirmed the moderating effect of environmental regulation and policy on the relationships between TQM and organizational performance. This study also supported the premises of the contingency theory and the institutional theory by reaffirming the importance of the supportive ERP for any successful strategy implementation in enhancing organizational performance through the implementation of innovative practices. However, this result cannot be generalized as data were collected through a cross-sectional approach. Future research can extend it to longitudinal researc

Halal Food Logistics: The Challenges among Food & Beverages Small and Medium Sizes Manufacturers

This paper presents a part of a larger study in the perspective of halal food logistics (HFL) towards halal food beverages (FB) manufacturers in Malaysia. The rising of halal product demands of Muslim consumers, mainly FB has increased the potential for implementation of HFL services. However, the current condition suggesting that there is a low demand of HFL due to some challenges arose throughout the halal supply chain. These challenges are described from two perspectives; logistics service providers (LSPs) that offering HFL services and the halal product's manufacturers, mainly from small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Some of the challenges were identified such as the complex management of warehousing and terminals, the lack of trust and knowledge, perceived risk, and others that related to the halal matters

Determinants of SME Internationalisation and the Impact on Business Performance: An Empirical Study of Outward Internationalisation Adoption by Malaysian SMEs

The reduction in trade barriers, rapid governments’ bilateral agreements and the improvement of communication technology have increased opportunities for businesses to expand their activities in foreign markets (Javalgi et al., 2003). In conjunction with this phenomenon, previous studies suggest that there is an increasing number of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) conducting international business (e.g. Oviatt and McDougall, 2005; and Ketkar and Acs, 2013). However, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Policy Support Unit (2010) has recorded a slightly lower share of total export value by SMEs in developing countries vis-a-vis developed countries. This research investigates the different factors influencing SMEs’ decision to internationalise in developing countries (such as Malaysia). This research also examines the relationship between the SME internationalisation adoption and its business performance since the relationship remains vague (Kuivalainen and Sundqvist, 2007; Lu and Beamish 2006; and Zahra et al., 2000). Furthermore, the study deepens understanding of the complex interrelationship between internationalisation determinants (that influence top management’s decision to internationalise) and how such factors (internal and external) have an impact upon SME’s business performance. This paper underlines the following research questions: i) what are the different determinants impacting internationalisation adoption of Malaysian SMEs? ii) how the integration of internal and external determinants impact internationalisation adoption by Malaysian SMEs? iii) what is the role of ethics attributes in influencing Malaysian SMEs’ decision to internationalise? iv) what are the impacts of internationalisation adoption on Malaysian SMEs’ financial and non-financial performance? This research has designed the research methodology based on the post-positivist approach to achieve the research aims and answer the research questions. The triangulation approach was started from an in-depth literature review by systematically stratifying previous research studies in the field. The researcher subsequently conducted semi-structured interviews to purify the findings in the extant literature. 20 vii Malaysian experts including Malaysian internationalising SMEs and public officials were interviewed during the purification phase. The research samples were selected purposefully from a publicly available export directory which was obtained from Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) website. This research has developed the research framework and hypotheses based on the findings of exploratory interviews. The following step tested the framework through empirical research to prove its validity in explaining SMEs’ internationalisation in Malaysia. A mix of online and mail survey questionnaire was conducted to test the research hypotheses empirically. Finally, the research analysed 218 survey data in various statistical techniques including Cronbach-Alpha test, simple linear regression, multiple regression, structural equation modelling (SEM) and one-sample t-test. This study found that factors influencing internationalisation of Malaysian SMEs vary. While all measures related to entrepreneur/ human capital, firm and environmental attributes have a significant positive relationship to internationalisation adoption, the measures related to ethics attributes are found not impacting internationalisation adoption by Malaysian SMEs. However, the research found environmental attributes and perceived level of internet fraud mediate the relationship between firm attributes and internationalisation adoption by Malaysian SMEs. Finally, internationalisation adoption is found positively significant in impacting the financial and non-financial performance of SMEs in Malaysia. This research will contribute to the academic activities, practitioners and policymakers. For academic activities, research contribution is about understanding the different factors impact on internationalisation adoption, which several factors are yet, undiscovered in Malaysia such as ethics attributes and management entrepreneur orientation (as discussed in chapter 3 and chapter 11). Furthermore, this research contributes to fulfilling the limited number of study in determining difference factors of Malaysian SMEs internationalisation by adopting a holistic research approach involving quantitative and qualitative methods. Also, it contributes to differentiating internationalisation determinants across sectors as previous literature concentrated only upon the manufacturing sector in Malaysia context. Furthermore, the research expands the integrative model of understanding SME internationalisation by Coviello viii and McAuley (1999) in investigating the role of ethics attributes in internationalisation adoption which have never been studied. For practitioners, this research provides a guideline to entrepreneurs or managers who look for determinants that can accelerate internationalisation process of their firms. Also, internationalised SMEs may use the result of this research as a guideline to strengthen their firms and to be more competitive in foreign markets. Policymakers, government and business support agencies may also benefit from this study regarding accommodating the most appropriate support to SMEs who wish to diversify their business abroad, which in turn, will help the government in increasing country’s GDP performance and providing more employability opportunities for citizens

Lean Principles in Small-Medium Enterprises in Malaysia: Creating A Web-Based Training

Lean principles (LP) are established strategies to increase the throughput of business organizations.  Many large companies have benefited from the implementations of LP in their organizations. However, the acceptance of LP implementations among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) remained low, primarily due to continued prejudice and lack of accessibility to the LP tools. This paper presents a Web-based Training (WBT) approach to alleviate such constraints and to accommodate the circumstances of SMEs in term of their financial, time and knowledge resources. In the first part of this paper, the fundamental concepts of   LP, SME, and WBT are presented based on the review of literature studies. Subsequently, the development of the optimal modules for WBT, based on survey validations on the connectivity of LP and SMEs in Malaysia, is elaborated, highlighting the use of simple words and terms for ease of comprehension of the targeted SME users

Exchange rate misalignments in ASEAN-5 countries

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the exchange rate misalignments for Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand before the currency crisis. By employing the sticky-price monetary exchange rate model in the environment of vector error-correction, the results indicate that the Indonesia rupiah, Malaysian ringgit, Philippines peso and Singapore dollar were overvalued before the currency crisis while Thai baht was undervalued on the eve of the crisis. However, they suffered modest misalignment. Therefore, little evidence of exchange misalignment is found to exist in 1997:2. In particular, Indonesia rupiah, Malaysia ringgit, Philippines peso and Singapore dollar were only overvalued about 1 to 4 percent against US dollar while the Thai baht was only 2 percent undervalued against US dollar

The influence of open innovation on firm performance

Innovation is crucial for growth and business development, and represents a reliable way through which to gain competitiveness within the marketplace. Open innovation is expressed through three different processes: the acquisition of external technology (inbound innovation); the external exploitation of technology (outbound innovation); and coupled innovation. Based on a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature best able to detect the main thematic areas of the research topic, the aim of this paper is to investigate how the paradigm of open innovation influences firm performance and to provide suggestions for future research avenues