An exploratory study on social engagement using Facebook among hotel operators in Malaysia

The use of social media has changed the way communication and interaction with each other and also with business companies such as how hotel industries take place. Currently, social media is the main tool in hotel industry in facilitating the marketing besides being used in engaging with customers. Indeed, recent studies had discovered that customers make decision largely based on the influence of user-generated content and word of mouth. However, there are limited studies which examined the use of Facebook as a tool to engage with customers especially in Malaysia. Thus, this study aims at exploring the use of social media among Malaysian hotels and how these hotels engage with customers through Facebook. Besides, this study also attempts to identify the metrics used by Malaysian hotels to measure the engagement of their customers. Data were collected through interview and content analysis over the Facebook page of selected hotels. The results had indicated that hotels use Facebook as an important communication tool to engage with their customers in various ways. Besides the benefits, this study also discovered some difficulties faced by the hotels when they communicate socially with their customers. On top of that, this study determined that hotels measure their engagement with customers through Facebook in two ways: (i) using software; and (ii) monitoring the page from inside. The results also had shown that some of the hotels are confused about the way to measure the engagement, in which they only focus on certain metrics while others are neglected. In a nutshell, Facebook pages of Malaysian hotels have a relatively weak engagement with customers especially in voice opinion and advocacy. In contrast, attitude expression has a moderate level

Business Intelligence System Adoption Model for SMEs

Many prior studies on the business intelligence system (BIS) adoption stories are coming from the developed countries, while recent adoption stories on the developing countries are usually from Thailand, Singapore and Philippines. Rarely, research focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) being reported, especially from the developing countries such as Malaysia even after the introduction of BIS by Malaysia’s SME in September 2013. Since, SMEs are the primary drivers for national development in Malaysia, the research on the BIS adoption in SMEs is important to promote the resilient growth of SMEs. This study aims to study the BIS adoption theories and determinants as reported by prior researchers and propose the BIS adoption model for SME in Malaysia. The developed research model contains ten, enabling determinants covering four characteristics: technological innovation, environment, organization, and CEO. The findings revealed that out of ten determinants, only six are relevant to the decision-making in BIS adoption

Intention to use mobile coupon among millennials consumer in UUM

Mobile marketing platform (such as mobile purchase and mobile coupon) relatively new in Malaysia, as compared to other Southeast Asia countries. Hence, little is known on how millennials perceived and behave towards mobile coupon. Guided with UTAUT model, the purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and intention to use mobile coupon among millennials consumer in UUM. Product awareness is introduced as a mediator variable in the UTAUT model. The survey of 314 millennials analyzed by using SmartPLS indicated that the model is well accepted with reliable and valid instruments. The findings showed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions have significant relationship with intention to use. However, social influence was found to has a negative relationship towards intention to use. Besides, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions have significant relationship towards product awareness. Using sample of the study, product awareness mediates the relationship between performance expectancy and effort expectancy. Both theoretical and practical contributions of the study also discussed at the end of the thesis

Business coping strategy, entrepreneurial orientation, improvisational competence, and crisis readiness of the Malaysian medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in recessionary times

The main issue of this thesis was the hampered performance of the manufacturing small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia during economic recessions. The bona fide respondents of the study were the medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (MMEs). Crisis readiness (CR) was proposed as the surrogate measure for firm performance. While CR was examined in relationships to business coping strategy (BCS) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO), this study also assessed the mediating effect of improvisational competence (IC) on the BCS-CR relationship. Altogether, a three-pronged-objective research framework was theoretically underpinned by resource-based view. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the targeted respondents. Of the 295 usable responses, a random near-split-half of 145 and 150 were used for exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis respectively. Statistically significant positive relationships were found in two direct relationships: BCS-CR and EO-CR, while IC was found to mediate the BCS-CR relationship. Significant positive relationships were also evident between all dimensions of EO and CR, except risk-taking. While CR was a new performance surrogate, its examination with BCS, EO, and IC contributed nascent theoretical insights. Other theoretical gaps included the development and validation of the BCS and bricolage scales, psychometric revisions of the CR and IC scales, and the incorporation of a vignette into the measurement to provide standardization as to the recessionary context understudied. Practically, the findings provided the manufacturing entrepreneurs some guidance on the appropriate response strategy and decision making which would better-position them in recessionary situations. Likewise, the understandings may also assist the policy makers to develop or to adjust policies to better-fabricate assistance channelled to MMEs. Towards the end, methodological limitations and potential avenues for future research were also identified

LA VISIBILITÀ ON-LINE DELLE IMPRESE ALBERGHIERE: UN POSSIBILE MODELLO DI MISURAZIONE

none4noIn a tourist scenario profoundly transformed by the advent of new online players, hotel companies are called today to exploit the online communication tools in a more and more conscious way. In this context, for hotel SMEs, it becomes fundamental to achieve a correct perception of the online presence in order to intervene in real time with specific web marketing actions. The research objectives are 1) to explore the firms’ online presence through an economic literature review 2) to define an online visibility measurement indicator. The research has provided for three sequential phases: 1) the economic literature analysis (to explore the online presence issue/ its principal dimensions) 2) creation of an Index of Online Visibility of Hotel 3) test through three successive measurements of the online visibility of all 227 Hotels of Cattolica. The research has produced three mutually coherent online visibility charts, showing, albeit with some limitations, the validity and the efficacy of the index.openMarco, Cioppi; Ilaria, Curina; Fabio, Forlani; Tonino, PencarelliCioppi, Marco; Curina, Ilaria; Forlani, Fabio; Pencarelli, Tonin

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

6th International Conference on Libraries (ICOL) 2017 “Towards Lean Libraries”

The International Conference on Libraries (ICOL2017) held in Penang, Malaysia on 2-3 August 2017, was the sixth international ICOL conference, a once-every-two-years opportunity that provides platform for participants and presenters to access the best information, discover new ideas and network with people in the profession. More than 20 abstracts submitted by interested authors, however, after being reviewed, only 18 papers have been accepted. Two accepted papers were withdrawn by their authors by the time of publishing. There were two speakers sponsored by the vendors who gave inputs on topics relevant to the conference but not included in this proceeding. A total of 14 full papers are included in this publication which covers the section of Managing Libraries; Creativity and Innovation; Right Tool at the Right Time and Improve while Reduce

The relationships between managing talent practices, knowledge management and organizational performance of Malaysian private colleges

The purpose of this study was to investigate the organizational performance of private colleges in association with managing talent practices, and to evaluate the mediation role of knowledge management on the relationship between practices of managing talent attraction and recruitment, talent development and talent retention with the organizational performance of private colleges. PLS-SEM technique was deployed to test the hypothesized relationships in the model. A questionnaire was developed with 41 items adapted from previous validated scales. The survey method was used to collect quantitative data for all the variables in the study. The non-probability sampling approach of convenience sampling was utilized. 1300 questionnaires were administered to 260 private colleges in Malaysia. The unit of analysis was at the individual level. Five respondents per college were surveyed and this provided a sample size of 243 representing 49 private colleges. A response rate of 18.7% was achieved. Empirical findings in this study highlighted that managing talent development has a significant positive relationship with the organizational performance of private colleges. Knowledge management has a significant direct positive relationship with the organizational performance of private colleges. The practices of managing talent attraction and recruitment, talent development and talent retention show significant positive influence on knowledge management among private colleges. The mediation effects of knowledge management are statistically significant, and partially mediates the relationship between practices of managing talent attraction and recruitment, talent development and talent retention with respect to the organizational performance of private colleges. The model shows a moderately strong explanatory power, besides making some theoretical and practical contributions