Entrepreneurial characteristics of indigenous housing developers: the case of Malaysia

Since the colonisation era, the immigrants from mainland China (and now their descendents) dominate the Malaysian housing industry. Their high entrepreneurial ethics stimulated early venture in all economic sectors to become dominant in business. To increase the participation of indigenous entrepreneurs in economic activities, Malaysia has practiced its own version of the affirmative policy since the 1970s which is known as National Economic Policy (NEP). Unlike other economic sectors such as construction, manufacturing and agricultural, the government has not provided special assistance (other than those that are generic in nature) for the indigenous populace to penetrate and thrive in housing development. As a consequence, their participation in this sector is conspicuous by their absence. A study was conducted to look into the involvement of indigenous housing developers in housing industry. Data was collected through postal questionnaires followed by face-to-face interviews. The discussion on the data analysis is presented together with interview findings.indigenous housing developer, housing development industry, entrepreneur characteristic

Small farmers and sustainability: Institutional barriers to investment and innovation in the Malaysian palm oil industry in Sabah

The Malaysian palm oil industry is well known for the social, environmental and sustainability challenges associated with its rapid growth over the past ten years. Technologies exist to reduce the conflict between national development aims of economic uplift for the rural poor, on the one hand, and ecological conservation, on the other hand, by raising yields and incomes from areas already under cultivation. But the uptake of these technologies has been slow, particularly in the smallholder sector. In this paper we explore the societal and institutional challenges that influence the investment and innovation decisions of micro and small enterprise (MSE) palm oil smallholders in Sabah, Malaysia. Based on interviews with 38 smallholders, we identify a number of factors that reduce the smallholders' propensity to invest in more sustainable practices. We discuss why more effective practices and innovations are not being adopted using the concepts of, firstly, institutional logics to explore the internal dynamics of smallholder production systems, including attitudes to sustainability and innovation; and, secondly, institutional context to explore the pressures the smallholders face, including problems of access to land, labour, capital, knowledge and technical resources. These factors include limited access to global market information, corruption and uncertainties of legal title, weak economic status and social exclusion. In discussing these factors we seek to contribute to wider theoretical debates about the factors that block innovation and investment in business improvements in marginal regions and in marginalised groups

Institutional Change and Firm Adaptation

We develop a typology of organizational forms found in Southeast Asia that contains four major archetypes, Colonial Business Groups, Family Business Groups, Government Linked Enterprises, and New Managers. We explain how the institutional environment prevailing at their founding profoundly influence the strategies and capabilities of each form. Consequently, strategic repertoires and competencies that are imperfectly aligned with environmental conditions largely delimit the capacity for organizational adaptation in the face of environmental change. We discuss the consequences of such a pattern of path dependence for each organizational form as well as the social and economic systems in which they are embedded.family business groups;Southeast Asia;colonial business groups;institutional change;organizational adaptation

Entrepreneurial Orientation Among Malaysian Indian Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Some Preliminary Findings

Entrepreneurial orientation of ethnic minority small businesses has prompted thus study to explore entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of Malaysian Indian ethnic entrepreneurs. This paper, reveals an overview of profile of Malaysian Indian ethnic entrepreneurs’ and the level of entrepreneurial orientation. The paper reports and analyses the findings of 201 questionnaires which were collected from selected areas in Malaysia such as Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Perak, Penang and Kedah. The paper illustrates an overview entrepreneurial profile among Malaysian Indian ethnic entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the result also shows that the is no gender difference in term of entrepreneurial orientation level among Malaysian Indian ethnic entrepreneurs. Discussion and implication of this study introduced in the last section on this paper

Determinants of entrepreneurial intention: The case of UUM's business undergraduates

Due to the inclination numbers of Malaysia‟s entrepreneurs nowadays, the youth have shown a great involvement in entrepreneurship and have been one of the biggest contributors to the country‟s economic growth. As this emergence took place, it is crucial for the related stakeholders such as government, educational agencies and policy makers to keep on encouraging the youth in Malaysia to participate in any entrepreneurship activities. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that will influence the intention to start up the business among the youth especially among university students. The main objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between risk taking propensity, family support, self-efficacy and entrepreneurship education with the entrepreneurial intention among the undergraduates under the School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia. Data was collected by using the questionnaire that has been distributed to 260 respondents; however, only 200 questionnaires have been successfully collected for the data analysis. Findings of the research revealed that only two (2) out of four variables having significant relationship with the entrepreneurial intention, which are self-efficacy and entrepreneurship education. The recommendation for the related stakeholders and future research were also discusse

New Industries in Southeast Asia’s Late Industrialization: Evolution versus Creation - The Automation Industry in Penang (Malaysia) considered

Discourse on industry development and policy practice in late industrialization countries in East and Southeast Asia has predominantly tended to relate the emergence of new industries to ‘creation’ by the state and thereby to the role of state intervention or involvement in industrial growth and restructuring. On the other hand the role and position of (local) entrepreneurship in the genesis of new industries has been rather neglected, as little room was perceived for ‘autonomous’ development. Southeast Asian late industrialization is currently being confronted with the limits of development and expansion of specific (FDI-driven) export industries and thus with the necessity to devise new growth paths in industry (on the basis of high tech industries). This compels a reconsideration of policy practice and perceptions of modes of industry development on which it is based. In this paper we argue that a state-orchestrated ‘creation’ of priority industries is not the only possible route to new high tech industries in Southeast Asian late industrialization. This emanates from an analysis - based on field research - of the emergence and development of a recent growth industry in Malaysia, i.e. the manufacturing of automated equipment (or, automation industry) and its constituent firms in the Penang region. The analysis demonstrates that the mode of development of this industry conforms rather well to a number of notions from evolutionary economics on firm genesis and development in new industries. This suggests that successful industrial policies can be based on supporting an evolutionary ‘birth and development’ path, i.e. industry genesis and evolution as a more or less autonomous incremental process of the development of firms and their capabilities.industrial policy, late industrialization, automation industry, Malaysia, co-evolution, spin-out, diversification

Determinants of information technology adoption among Malaysian farm-based enterprises

Information technologies (ITs) have been employed in various fields of human endeavour especially to engender socio-economic development. One key sub-sector in which the adoption of ITs is increasingly becoming critical in Malaysia is the farm-based (agri-based) enterprises. However, previous studies have suggested that a number of factors influences the adoption of ICT by enterprises, especially small and medium firms. This study was prompted by the need to determine the factors that influence the adoption of IT among farm-based enterprises. A pre-test study was conducted with 50 IT-using entrepreneurs selected from five farm-based firms that were selected using systematic random sampling from a population of 500 farm-based entrepreneurs (selected from 50 farm-based firms) in Selangor, Malaysia. The study applied modified Entrepreneurial Event Model (EEM) theory with System Support and Readiness and Perceived Benefits as independent variables, while IT Adoption was the dependent variable. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analyses. The findings revealed that System support and readiness and Perceived benefits are the critical factors that determine IT adoption and that most of the enterprises (M = 3.81, SD = 1.00) adopted basic entrepreneurial ITs while a number of them (M = 3.68, SD = 1.23) adopted advanced entrepreneurial ITs. The limitations of the study include the size of the sample. Recommendations for effective application of IT into practical usage for farm-based enterprises development were included

Factors affecting entrepreneurial intention among postgraduates

Entrepreneurial intention among students has been getting attention from numerous of researchers. It has been considered as an important phenomenon that becomes very famous among today‘s youth and students in most countries across the globe. This study aims to revisiting the effect of a number of internal and external factors revealed in previous studies on entrepreneurial intention, and examining the importance of conducive business environment at the university that affecting the entrepreneurial intention among postgraduate students. The total number of respondents chosen randomly to participate in this study was 357 postgraduate students from Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Using questionnaires, the data is collected from students in classes, in the library, and online. The Smart-PLS 3 as one of the leading software tools for partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to test the hypotheses. The study results display that self-efficacy is the only factor from internal factors that has a positive and significant effect; while, in term of the external factors, financial support, family support; likewise, role model and entrepreneurial education, as the dimensions of the university environment, have positive and significant relationships with entrepreneurial intention. The results suggest that entrepreneurial intention has the potential to be supported more in the universities to create the supportive environment that promotes intention of postgraduates to choose their future career in entrepreneurship sector

Tahap kemahiran insaniah dalam kalangan pelajar kejuruteraan tahun akhir di Politeknik KPM

Dalam dunia yang semakin berkembang dengan pesat, majikan tidak hanya mementingkan kemahiran teknikal sahaja tetapi juga kepada kemahiran insaniah agar pelajar mereka dapat menyesuaikan dan melengkapkan diri dengan semua jenis pekerjaan dan dalam masa yang sama memiliki pelbagai kemahiran. Sehubungan dengan ini, kajian ini dilaksanakan adalah mengenal pasti tahap kemahiran insaniah dari segi komunikasi, menyelesaikan masalah secara kritis dan kerja berpasukan dalam kalangan pelajar kejuruteraan tahun akhir di Politeknik Premier Malaysia. Sampel kajian terdiri daripada 350 orang pelajar diploma tahun akhir sesi 2013/2014 dari bidang kejuruteraan yang ada ditawarkan di Politeknik Ungku Omar, Politeknik Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah dan Politeknik Ibrahim Sultan. Kajian yang dijalankan adalah kajian kuantitatif berbentuk tinjauan dimana untuk menjawab setiap persoalan kajian. Instrumen kajian yan digunakan adalah satu set soal selidik yang mengandungi maklumat diri dan item elemen kemahiran insaniah. Data yang diperolehi dianalisis secara diskriptif dan inferensi. Hasil dapatan kajian mendapati tahap kemahiran insaniah pelajar Politeknik Premier Malaysia berada pada tahap tinggi dengan nilai min keseluruhan adalah 4.16, dimana aspek kemahiran komunikasi adalah 4.17, kemahiran menyelesaikan masalah secara kritis adalah 4.15 dan kemahiran kerja berpasukan adalah 4.16. Untuk melihat perbezaan tahap kemahiran insaniah berdasarkan jantina, Ujian-t tidak bersandar digunakan dan hasil dapatan menunjukkan bahawa tidak terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan tahap kemahiran insaniah bagi pelajar lelaki dan pelajar perempuan. Secara keseluruhannya, tahap kemahiran insaniah pelajar kejuruteraan tahun akhir di Politeknik Premier adalah tinggi berdasarkan persepsi dan ini telah membuktikan setiap pelajar menitikberat kemahiran insaniah agar mereka dapat bersaing di pasaran