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

SMEs, electronically-mediated working and data security: cause for concern?

Security of data is critical to the operations of firms. Without the ability to store, process and transmit data securely, operations may be compromised, with the potential for serious consequences to trading integrity. Thus the role that electronically-mediated working plays in business today and its dependency on data security is of critical interest, especially in light of the fact that much of this communication is based on the use of open networks (i.e. the Internet). This paper discusses findings from a 'WestFocus' survey on electronically-mediated working and telework amongst a sample of SMEs located in West London and adjacent counties in South-Eastern England in order to highlight the problems that such practice raises in terms of data security. Data collection involved a telephone survey undertaken in early 2006 of 378 firms classified into four industrial sectors ('Media', 'Logistics', 'Internet Services' and 'Food Processing'). After establishing how ICTs and the Internet are being exploited as business applications for small firms, data security practice is explored on the basis of sector and size with a focus on telework. The paper goes on to highlight areas of concern in terms of data security policy and training practice. Findings show some sector and size influences.WestFocus* under the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF 2

Sale the seven Cs: Teaching/training aid for the (e-)retail mix

The ‘4Ps’ of the marketing mix have long been popular with students, tutors, trainers and practitioners as a learning and teaching aid. The purpose of this paper is to present an equivalent tool for retail and e-retail: ‘Sale the 7Cs’. The approach is by reference to other authors’ versions of the marketing, retail and e-retail mixes, distilled into a simplified framework: C1 Convenience; C2 Customer value and benefit; C3 Cost to the customer; C4 Computing and category management; C5 Customer franchise; C6 Customer care and service; C7 Communication and customer relationships. This simplified mnemonic is new for (e-)retail. Mini case examples are used to illustrate the applicability. These have a practical value for trainers and educators as specimen answers to activity exercises. Retailers may find the convenient 7Cs structure useful when planning strategies and tactics

EDI - XML Standards and Technologies in the Agri-Food Industry

Due to globalisation, the new technological developments and the complexity of food supply processes, the European food sector is increasingly becoming more complex. The consumers’ trust in food, triggered and affected by a number of food crises, is low. Today, consumers increasingly expect safe and high quality food and demand information about the origin of their food. Also, the economic health of the food industry can be greatly affected by food crises; therefore, efficient and effective mechanisms are required to assist the food industry in tracking and tracing products along the food chain. In this paper, we discuss the criteria for an efficient and effective traceability system from an IT perspective (mainly data exchange) and we identify key requirements for ICT enabled traceability

Value-driven Security Agreements in Extended Enterprises

Today organizations are highly interconnected in business networks called extended enterprises. This is mostly facilitated by outsourcing and by new economic models based on pay-as-you-go billing; all supported by IT-as-a-service. Although outsourcing has been around for some time, what is now new is the fact that organizations are increasingly outsourcing critical business processes, engaging on complex service bundles, and moving infrastructure and their management to the custody of third parties. Although this gives competitive advantage by reducing cost and increasing flexibility, it increases security risks by eroding security perimeters that used to separate insiders with security privileges from outsiders without security privileges. The classical security distinction between insiders and outsiders is supplemented with a third category of threat agents, namely external insiders, who are not subject to the internal control of an organization but yet have some access privileges to its resources that normal outsiders do not have. Protection against external insiders requires security agreements between organizations in an extended enterprise. Currently, there is no practical method that allows security officers to specify such requirements. In this paper we provide a method for modeling an extended enterprise architecture, identifying external insider roles, and for specifying security requirements that mitigate security threats posed by these roles. We illustrate our method with a realistic example

Keberkesanan carta pembelajaran Omygram terhadap tahap pencapaian pelajar PVMA dalam mata pelajaran Bahasa Inggeris bagi topik plurals

Pembinaan bahan bantu belajar untuk tujuan PdPC sememangnya digalakkan oleh Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia bagi meningkatkan kualiti pendidikan. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk membangun dan mengenalpasti keberkesanan carta pembelajaran Omygram terhadap tahap pencapaian pelajar PVMA dalam mata pelajaran Bahasa Inggeris bagi topik plurals. Kajian ini adalah kuasi-eksperimen yang melibatkan dua buah sekolah menengah harian di daerah Batu Pahat. Instrumen kajian yang digunakan ialah soalan ujian pra dan pasca, soal selidik dan senarai semak. Dapatan kajian telah dianalisis menggunakan perisian Statistic Package For The Social Science Version 22.0 (SPSS). Analisis deskriptif dalam bentuk frekuensi, peratus, min dan sisihan piawai digunakan semasa penganalisaan data. Ujian-t pula digunakan untuk melihat perbezaan pencapaian antara ujian pra dengan ujian pasca bagi kumpulan rawatan dan kumpulan kawalan. Kumpulan rawatan diberi set soal selidik tentang motivasi pelajar selepas menggunakan carta pembelajaran Omygram dalam PdPC. Hasil dapatan kajian mendapati bahawa, terdapat perbezaan pencapaian yang signifikan antara skor ujian pra dengan skor ujian pasca bagi kumpulan rawatan. Motivasi pelajar selepas menggunakan carta pembelajaran Omygram juga berada pada tahap tinggi

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Adjustments to Information Technology (IT) in Trade Facilitation: The South Korean Experience

This report examines how IT was incorporated into cargo clearance procedures in Korea, and what its implications are for traders, SMEs in particular. After a short introduction in Section I, Section II examines the definition of SMEs in Korea, and SMEs’ role in Korean trade. In Section III, we describe the history of the adoption of IT in Korean cargo clearance. The introduction of IT to cargo clearance procedures in Korea can be roughly divided into two stages. The first stage includes the implementation of: Preparation for Customs Clearance Automation (1980s-1992), EDI Customs Clearance Automation Six Year Plan (1992-1997), Establishment of Paperless Customs Clearance System (1997-2001); and the Plan for Establishment of Infrastructure for Information Technology and Knowledge Management (2001-2003). The main accomplishment of the first stage was a Value Added Network / Electronic Data Interchange (VAN/EDI) which linked KCS and traders in 1996. The system was subsequently expanded so that traders could access the system through the Internet.. The second stage begun in 2003, and has nearly reached completion in 2008. The goal of the second stage is to build an e-trade system where IT is used at every stage of trade, encompassing not only government-business (traders) transactions such as cargo clearance, but all trade-related transactions including business-business transactions as well. This second stage involves the establishment of an e-trade network and “uTradeHub,” which ties not only government with traders, but other trade-related organizations and private agencies such as shippers, insurers, banks and financial institutions. These projects were carried out with considerations for SMEs in mind. Section IV describes the results of the adoption of IT into cargo clearance. We find that IT has significantly lowered costs and sped up the cargo clearance process. Section V includes some case examples of individual firms which use the e-trade network for cargo clearance. Lastly, section VI tries to draw some lessons for other countries which seek to adopt IT into cargo clearance. These lessons include: 1) Adopting IT to cargo clearance must be a part of a comprehensive customs procedure reform. 2) Legal framework must accompany the adoption of IT and e-trade 3) Single network and single standard may be more useful than variety 4) Keep It Simple 5) The e-trade system and paperless trade system is meant to be used by the widest number of people. 6) Trust must be built between SMEs and government agencies. 7) Usefulness of e-trade will increase exponentially when more countries join.SME, Information Technology, Trade Facilitation, Korea