New paradigms in business research

This paper examined the nature of research business management, the problems in defining research in business, the clues form existing theory of research, and proposed a framework for defining research in business. The nature of research in business covers a wide scope, and is interrelated to sociology, psychology, political science, mathemathics, economics and other sciences. The problems in defining research in business relates to basic versus applied research, the field of study, the place to study, the method, theories and concepts, and the levels of research quantitative versus qualitative research. From the existing theory of research, the author proposed that research in business may be redefined on the basis of three dimensions: the field of study, the methodology, and the theories and concepts. Eight typologies of research and advanced: case study, pure research, transfer, instrumental research, theoretical research, theoretical transfer research, instrumental transfer research, and theoretical instrumental research. Implications of the proposed model are presented

Perceived ethical values of Malaysian managers

This paper examines the perceived ethical values of Malaysian managers. It is based on the opinions of 15 hypothetical ethical/unethical business situations from the 81 managers who agreed to participate in the survey. The findings of this study showed that these Malaysian managers have high ethical values. However 53% of the respondents believed that the ethical standards of today are lower than that of 15 years ago. Apparently, this is related to the existence of many unethical business practices prevalent in the modern business world. The behavior of one's immediate superior is the most important factor in influencing managers to commit unethical practices. The results also indicate only a slight variation among the managers in terms of perceived ethical values by virtue of job position, job specialization, type of business activity or the size of the business organization

The influence of organizational culture on attitudes toward organizational change

This study investigates the influence of organizational culture on attitudes toward organizational change in Malaysia. Based on the work of Goffee and Jones and Dunham et al., a structured questionnaire was developed and self-administered to 258 companies listed in the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturing directory. The results showed that there is an association between organizational culture and the affective, cognitive, and behavioral tendency of attitudes toward organizational change. The findings also showed that different types of organizational culture have different levels of acceptance of attitudes toward organizational change. This means that certain type of organizational culture could facilitate the acceptability of change, while other types of culture could not accept it. The implications of this research are also discussed. (Authors' abstract

Measuring Customers' Perceived Service Quality in Hotel Industry

This research attempts to study customer's perceived se",ice quality in the hotel industry. This paper aims to discover what customers think of the quality of service as can be found in the hotel industry by looking into factors influential on this perception such as personal service, technological innovations and quality of food served. The method employed to gather the research resources was adopted from SERVQUAL which is a popular method in measuring perceived service quality. The descriptive and inferential methods were also used in testing and analysing the hypotheses. Data were analysed by using the SPSS package. The research findings indicated that generally, customers were dissatisfied with the service quality provided by the hotel management. From the research, it was also discovered that personal services technology innovation and quality of food served were vital in improving customers' outlook on the service quality. Therefore, the hotelier should try to meet or exceed the customers' expectations, in order to ensure the customers are satisfied. It is very important for the hotelier to take an effort in comprehending and understanding customers' expectations in order to deliver good service, in which if the perceived service equal or exceeded the expected service, they perceived that there is a quality in the service

Service Quality in the Open and Distance Learning

The purpose of this paper is to examine the learner’s perceptions of the service quality in an open and distance learning institution in Malaysia. Focus group sessions and structured questionnaires were used to collect the relevant information from the respondents. A total of 44 respondents participated in the focus group and 1197 participated in the self-administered questionnaire survey. The results of the study showed that service quality in the open and distance learning has several characteristics different from traditional higher institutions. As such new perspectives on service quality was proposed and subsequently tested in a Malaysian institution. It was also found that the overall satisfaction was related to each of the key dimensions of service quality. The results of the t-tests and ANOVA showed that gender, ethnicity, type of academic programs, and location of learning centers have an effect on perceived service quality in the open and distance learning. The implications of the study are also discussed. (Authors' abstract

The influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on performance

This paper examines the influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on financial performance in Malaysian companies. Based on the work of Deshpande and Farley on corporate cultural types and Allen and Meyer on organisational commitment, a structured questionnaire was developed and self‐administered to managers in Malaysian companies. A total of 202 managers in public listed companies participated in the study. The results show that there is a significant correlation between corporate culture and organisational commitment. Both corporate culture type and organisational commitment have an influence on the financial performance of these companies. The implications of the study are also discussed

Social Entrepreneurial Intention among Business Undergraduates: An Emerging Economy Perspective

Social entrepreneurs are viewed as having the abilities to combat social and economic problems in which government, businesses, and non-profits may not be able to solve the problems alone. Consequently, with the collaboration among these sectors, more social enterprises can be established to create social values and development in a nation, specifically among the emerging economies. Therefore, it is timely to investigate what motivates undergraduates to develop social entrepreneurial intention. Drawing from the entrepreneurial models of Shapero and Sokol (1982) and Kruger and Brazeal (1994), this study aims to examine the social entrepreneurial intention among undergraduates from the perspective of an emerging economy. The proposed conceptual model differs from the existing entrepreneurial intention studies by adding the concepts of empathy and social entrepreneurship exposure as the antecedents to perceived desirability and perceived feasibility of social enterprising start-up, which in turn link to social entrepreneurial intention. Using the quota sampling technique, data were collected from 257 business and economics undergraduates from both public and private higher education institutions in Malaysia. The survey instrument was adapted from prior related studies, for instance, Davis (1983) for empathy; Shapero and Sokol (1982) for social entrepreneurship exposure; Krueger (1993) for perceived desirability and perceived feasibility; and Chen et al. (1998) for social entrepreneurial intention. Partial least squares path modelling was used to analyze the hypothesized relationships in the proposed conceptual framework. It is hoped that the findings of this study will shed light on the existing literature of social entrepreneurship, specifically the social entrepreneurial intention studies from the emerging economies perspective.