The extent of e-business usage and perceived cumulative benefits: A survey on small and medium-sized enterprises

Internet-based application (e-business) is well-recognized as a useful mean to extend business efficiency.Owing to the idiosyncratic nature of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), considerable works have been initiated to explain why firms within this sector embrace e-business. Despite extensive research to identify factors that explain the firm’s e-business practice, works are still limited to examining as to what extent the e-business assimilates into business operation. Furthermore, firms would experience varying degrees of benefits by deploying e-business.Therefore, this paper reports intensity of e business usage across various business processes and its relationship with cumulative benefits.A survey of 140 SMEs has revealed the diversity of e-business usage across business processes.A cluster analysis has further proposed three distinct profiles of firms based on the intensity of their e-business usage.Finally, the empirical evidence obtained has also ascertained positive association between the intensity of e-business usage and cumulative e-business benefits. Despite limitations highlighted, this paper provides evidence on the current state of e-business usage across firm operation and its likely impact to the firm operation

Sikap dan Kesediaan Pelajar Tingkatan Empat Terhadap Perlaksanaan Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi dalam Pembelajaran Matematik

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk meninjau tahap sikap dan kesediaan pelajar Tingkatan Empat terhadap perlaksanaan KBAT dalam pembelajaran matematik. Di samping itu, kajian ini turut melihat sejauh mana perbezaan sikap dan kesediaan pelajar terhadap perlaksanaan KBAT dalam matematik berdasarkan faktor jantina disamping melihat kewujudan hubungan sikap dan kesediaan terhadap perlaksanaan KBAT dengan prestasi matematik pelajar. Seramai 132 orang responden yang terdiri daripada pelajar Tingkatan Empat di sebuah sekolah menengah di Daerah Simunjan, Sarawak telah terlibat dalam kajian ini. Kajian ini merupakan kajian kuantitatif menggunakan reka bentuk tinjauan dan soalan soal selidik telah digunakan sebagai instrumen untuk mengumpul data kajian. Data kajian dianalisis menggunakan perisian Statistical Package For Social Sciences (SPSS) versi 23 bagi menganalisis data secara statistik deskriptif dan statistik inferensi yang melibatkan analisis ujian Mann-Whitney U dan ujian Korelasi Spearman rho. Dapatan kajian mendapati bahawa tahap sikap dan kesediaan terhadap perlaksanaan KBAT dalam pembelajaran matematik masing-masing pada tahap sederhana tinggi. Kajian ini juga telah mendapati bahawa terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan antara sikap pelajar lelaki dan pelajar perempuan. Walau bagaimanapun, kajian ini mendapati bahawa tidak terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan bagi aspek kesediaan berdasarkan faktor jantina. Sementara itu, kajian ini juga mendapati tidak terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara sikap dan kesediaan dengan pencapaian matematik pelajar. Oleh itu, tindakan berterusan perlu dilakukan terutamanya oleh guru semasa melaksanakan pengajaran dan pembelajaran supaya sikap dan kesediaan pelajar dapat ditingkatkan ke tahap tinggi dan pencapaian matematik pelajar dapat ditingkatkan ke tahap yang lebih baik

The moderating role of power exercise in B2B E-commerce adoption decision

B2B E-commerce (B2B EC) is a technology that supports relationship between business partners.In adopting such technology, power exercise plays a crucial role. Misunderstood power exercised within B2B EC may generate unrealistic or inaccurate outcomes. Unfortunately, the role of power exercise is nearly ignored in B2B EC adoption literature.In response, using the Resources-Dependency-Theory (RDT) and Diffusion-Innovation-Theory (DIT), this paper argues on the interaction between the influence of innovation characteristics and power exercise, so as to explain B2B EC adoption.This proposition could improve understanding B2B EC adoption and help to resolve inconsistency of findings in the literature

On a class of non-ergodic Lotka–Volterra operator

In present paper, we study dynamical systems generated by a class of Lotka–Volterra operators. It is proved that such class of operator has non-ergodic property

Developing e-business model for Malaysia SMEs using a fit perspective

Due to limited resources and the unique nature of SMEs, firms tend to be more prudent with e-business solutions. Therefore, there are tendency for the firms to provide greater priority to invest on e-business solutions to extend the efficiency of most strategic business functions. The aim of this study is to explore the current state of e-business alignment amongst Malaysian SMEs.Specifically, the objectives of this study are: [i] to investigate the extent of firm’s e-business capabilities correspond to the strategic importance of various business functions; [ii] to reveal meaningful profiles that reflect distinct ebusiness alignment characteristics across firms; [iii] to re-establish alignment and performance relationship within the context of e-business technology, and [iv] to investigate antecedents that are perceived as most crucial to facilitate firms in aligning e-business with their business strategic needs.A research framework was developed to investigate the e-business alignment issue using a strategic fit perspective.This study has considered two major propositions.First, firm’s ability to appropriately align e-business capabilities to support the firm’s most crucial business functions would potentially lead to better realisation of e-business values.Secondly, certain managerial and environmental conditions in which firm operate would have substantial roles to facilitate e-business alignment across firm’s operation.This study has employed quantitative approach to collate empirical evidences to support the study propositions.Firm’s perceptions are solicited from 140 owner/managers of selected firms using a self-administered mail questionnaire technique.Preliminary analysis indicates the presences of e-business alignment/misalignment pattern across business functions with greater alignment are more obvious on information searching and sales-related functions compared to other functions.The cluster analysis further reveals and validates three distinct groups of firms with different degree of e-business alignment.Results further provide empirical evidences that firms with highly aligned e-business would experience greater and wider impacts across various aspects of firm operation.Finally, a logistic regression results suggest that firms operating under greater uncertainties, having more extensive IT/IS applications, competent owner/manager are more likely to achieve greater ebusiness alignment.In addition, despite the relative importance of various sources of e-business advices, firms in least aligned group tend to rely most on support network from government agencies and institutions for e-business related advices.Finally yet important, firms in more aligned category are currently operating at higher e-business ladder than those that are still operating at an early stage of e-business (web presence).In conclusion, this study suggests that firms relatively have different priority over e-business to support their business.These findings provide useful insights why some firms do not progress to higher e-business ladder.It further justifies unequal deployment of e-business to support functions across the firm

On non-ergodic volterra cubic stochastic operators

Let Sm−1 be the simplex in Rm , and V:Sm−1→Sm−1 be a nonlinear mapping then this operator satisfies an ergodic theorem if the limit limn→∞1n∑k=1nVk(x) exists for every x∈Sm−1 . It is a well known fact that this ergodicity may fail for Volterra quadratic operators, so it is natural to characterize all non-ergodic operators. However, there is an ongoing problem even in the low dimensional simplexes. In this paper, we solve the mentioned problem within Volterra cubic stochastic operators acting on two-dimensional simplex

On orthogonality preserving cubic stochastic operator defined on 1-dimensional simplex

In this paper, we consider the cubic stochastic operator (CSO) defined on 1-dimensional simplex, S 1 . We provide a full description of orthogonal preserving (OP) cubic stochastic operators on the simplex. We provide full description of the fixed points subject to two different parameters for the Volterra OP CSO on the simplex. In the last section we describe the behaviour of the fixed points

Application of Computer-Assisted Audit Tools and Techniques (CAATTs) in audit firms

This paper explores the application of Computer-Assisted Audit Tool and Techniques (CAATTs) and the reasons for the use of CAATTs application among audit firms in Malaysia. The study uses survey and interview methods to explore the types of CAATTs applied by the respondent firms. The results demonstrate that the application of CAATTs among audit firms varies by firm size. The application of advanced CAATTs, i.e. Embedded Audit Modules, Parallel Simulation Software, Test Data were the highest in Big-4 firms, as compared to medium and small sized firms. The reasons that influence them to practice the use of CAATTs are availability of financial resources, partners’ expertise and their clients’ nature of operation. The application of CAATTs is not compulsory by the law or standards. However, there is an encouragement from the authorities and accounting bodies for the practitioners to apply CAATTs in their audit works. The findings contribute in providing inputs to the policy makers and practitioners on how to enhance the application of CAATTs into the current practice of auditing process and future regulations. The present study also opens up opportunities and provides avenues for more indepth research on the subject of CAATTs

Influence of hydrophilic polymer on proteins separation, molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) and average pore size of polysulfone blend membrane

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of different composition of cellulose acetate phtalate (CAP) on the membrane structural properties of polysulfone (PSf) membrane which in turn affect the separation performance of PSf/CAP blend membrane. The PSf/CAP blend membranes were prepared by using casting solutions contain 17 wt% of polymer via wet phase inversion process. The results showed that increasing the composition of CAP in PSf/CAP blend membranes increased molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), average pore size and pore density which then increased protein solution permeate fluxes but reduced proteins rejection of PSf/CAP blend membranes. Pure PSf membrane has the lowest membrane structural properties compared to blend membranes. This characteristic contributed to decrease in protein permeation flux and increase proteins rejectio