Small Medium Contractor Enterprises (Smces) In Malaysia: Investigating The Impact Of Core Competencies And Financial Support On Project Success

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship of core competencies which is entrepreneurial competence, technical competence, evaluative competence and relational competence and financial support on success of the project among small and medium contractor enterprises (SMCEs) in Malaysia. Tujuan kajian ini dikendalikan adalah untuk mengkaji hubungan di antara kompetensi utama usahawan iaitu kompetensi keusahawan, kompetensi teknikal, kompetensi penilaian dan kompetensi hubungan serta bantuan kewangan ke atas kejayaan projek di untuk kontraktor kecil dan sederhana di Malaysia

Current Advancements of and Future Developments for Fourth Party Logistics in a Digital Future

This paper aims to analyze the potential future of the 4PL concept based on expert opinions with special regard to the influence of digitalization coming with a disruptive trans-formation of supply chains. Service arrangements, provider capabilities and benefits resulting from a 4PL partnership are compared in current and future configurations. The research follows an explorative mixed methods approach with semi structured interviews followed by an expert panel. This builds a basis for an online survey questionnaire to inquire on important future aspects for the 4PL concept by a sample of respondents from multinational companies. Our results show a clear trend away from simply organizing transportation and logistics activities towards the provision of an IT platform as well as further value-added service activities such as planning, analytics and monitoring. Along with this, IT capabilities appear to be an important differentiator for 4PL providers in the future. Moreover, relationships between 4PL providers and their clients become closer and more strategic, which leads to a customer valuing not only direct cost reductions but rather improvements resulting from optimized operations through superior analysis and planning functions

Constraints and autonomy for creativity in extracurricular gamejams and curricular assessment

The engagement observed by the players of the games that they play is a desirable quality that has not gone unnoticed in the field of education, leading to concepts such as gamification of education, game-based learning and serious games for training. Game designer Sid Meier is often cited as defining games as being ‘a series of interesting decisions’. The concept of choice implies an autonomous selection from a constrained set of options. This article reflects on the impact of autonomy and constraints, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivators on students’ software development work during both curricular and extracurricular activities. Finally, a model for the design of games for game-based learning is proposed in terms of autonomy and constraints with respect to learning outcomes

Framework of Socialisation, Authentic Leadership and Affective Commitment for Construction Professionals

This paper highlights the human resources (HR) or behaviour-related success factors in construction projects, and these are training, understanding, co-worker support, future prospects, authentic leadership, and affective commitment. There exists discrepancies in existing literature regarding the factor structure of organisational socialisation and authentic leadership. Therefore, this study aims to explore the factor structure of socialisation, authentic leadership and affective commitment. Data was gathered from 301 newly joined construction professionals and  Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the factor structure for organisational socialisation, authentic leadership and affective commitment. A measurement model was further developed using the domains of organisational socialisation, authentic leadership and affective commitment. The results of CFA revealed that there exists four zero-order factor structure for organisational socialisation, and one zero-order factor structure for authentic leadership. The study contributes to both the researcher and practitioner communities by integrating the three constructs and validating the factor structure in the new context (i.e. construction). Further, the study contributes towards improving HR processes, namely, training, reward system, and induction process. It also helps in augmenting the authenticity among the project participants

Development of employability skills assessment tool for manufacturing industry

Mastering employability skills is one of the global problems which employers are facing with graduates or their future employees. Various research on employability skills have been conducted nationally and internationally and it was found that many technical graduates nowadays are lack of employability skills rather than technical skills. The main goal of this research is to develop an employability skill assessment tool using the Kepner-Tregoe (K-T) method in which weight factor is set. Samples for this research consisted of 107 employers from five types of Malaysian manufacturing industry. The results showed that employers in all five categories of manufacturing industry are in consensus on the importance for all seven of the employability skills. These skills were ranked as follows; interpersonal skills, thinking skills, personal qualities/values, resource skills, system and technology skills, basic skills and informational skills. From these means, an employability skills assessment tool was developed using the K-T Method and an Employability Skills Assessment Tool Development Model was produce

Crystalline phase, surface morphology and electrical properties of monovalent-doped Nd0.75Na0.25Mn1-yCoyO3 manganites

Perovskite-type manganites Nd0.75Na0.25Mn1-yCoyO3 (y = 0 – 0.05) have been investigated to clarify the influence of Co-doped on crystal phase and morphological study as well as electrical transport properties. The Nd0.75Na0.25Mn1-yCoyO3 samples are prepared via solid state synthesis method. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed all the samples are essentially single phased and the peaks are indexed to an orthorhombic structure with Pnma space. The morphological study from scanning electron microscope shows the improvement of the grains boundaries and sizes as well as the compaction of particles can be seen as cobalt doping increased. On the other hand, the temperature dependence of electrical resistivity measurements using four-point-probe technique indicates all samples maintained an insulator like behaviour down to low temperature. Analysis of the resistivity change with respect to temperature, dlnρ/dT-1 versus T reveals a slope changes of resistivity has been observed and a boarder peak exist for y = 0 sample and the peaks become significantly obvious for y = 0.02 and 0.05 samples. The peaks are observed in the range of charge ordering (CO) transition indicate the existence of CO in the system

Heidegger, technology and sustainability: between intentionality, accountability and empowerment

Transition is the adequate term for characterising contemporary societies. Norms and values are in transit, led by a technological revolution, which is, in itself, the tip of the iceberg of millenary social and cultural changes. Heidegger, one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century, captured this tension between social change and innovative technology and showed that the Western civilisation was captive of ontological instances whose role was already pin-pointed by Greek Antiquity philosophy but which went underground with Modernity. The product of Heidegger’s work was a revolution in Western thought, which found echoes across all areas of society. Taking Husserl’s call for “back to the things themselves”, Heidegger’s impact has empowered the calls for more sustainable and resilient societies. Sustainability models, with its three pillars of environmental, economic and social sustainability, are directly dependent upon the role of technology and of information science in shaping current patterns of production and consumption in contemporary societies. Industrial, academic and political discourses already voice such taken for granted assumptions. Nevertheless, it is crucial to clarify and to highlight the links between economic evolution and progress, social change and the catalysing role of technology, taken as an enabler of human action.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Between vision and reality: promoting innovation through technoparks in Kazakhstan

A common motivation for the technopark movement is the belief that technoparks promote innovation and economic growth at regional and/or national levels. The paper analyses the role of technoparks as instruments of innovation promotion in Kazakhstan using data from a firm survey and interviews. Our results suggest that, unlike what is assumed in the innovation policy literature, technoparks do not house firms dealing with the commercialisation of innovations that are ready for introduction to the market. Technopark firms are no more innovative than other firms. They are oriented largely towards the local market, and operate in traditional sectors; the frequency and intensity of their external links are more developed than are their internal links. The key motivations for relocating to a technopark seem to be lower rents and the possibility of accessing finance. Overall, Kazakh technoparks seem to be successful in terms of facilitating business incubation, but much les so in terms of innovation promotion and diversification of the economy. Currently, Kazakh industry does not make any demands for local R&D, and its sources of competitiveness lie in non-R&D activities. This suggests that innovation policy should focus on assisting companies to upgrade their technological capabilities to the level that they can articulate their R&D demands. Focusing on technoparks as the main mechanism to improve competitiveness and diversify the economy is an ineffective and uncertain a policy option at this stage of the country's economic development. However, there seems to be significant scope for supporting business incubation. These conclusions are of relevance to other emerging economies

Designing an Adaptive Interface: Using Eye Tracking to Classify How Information Usage Changes Over Time in Partially Automated Vehicles

While partially automated vehicles can provide a range of benefits, they also bring about new Human Machine Interface (HMI) challenges around ensuring the driver remains alert and is able to take control of the vehicle when required. While humans are poor monitors of automated processes, specifically during ‘steady state’ operation, presenting the appropriate information to the driver can help. But to date, interfaces of partially automated vehicles have shown evidence of causing cognitive overload. Adaptive HMIs that automatically change the information presented (for example, based on workload, time or physiologically), have been previously proposed as a solution, but little is known about how information should adapt during steady-state driving. This study aimed to classify information usage based on driver experience to inform the design of a future adaptive HMI in partially automated vehicles. The unique feature of this study over existing literature is that each participant attended for five consecutive days; enabling a first look at how information usage changes with increasing familiarity and providing a methodological contribution to future HMI user trial study design. Seventeen participants experienced a steady-state automated driving simulation for twenty-six minutes per day in a driving simulator, replicating a regularly driven route, such as a work commute. Nine information icons, representative of future partially automated vehicle HMIs, were displayed on a tablet and eye tracking was used to record the information that the participants fixated on. The results found that information usage did change with increased exposure, with significant differences in what information participants looked at between the first and last trial days. With increasing experience, participants tended to view information as confirming technical competence rather than the future state of the vehicle. On this basis, interface design recommendations are made, particularly around the design of adaptive interfaces for future partially automated vehicles