Customer Satisfaction Towards KR1M Products

The objective of this study was to investigate the association between product flexibility, product quality and advertising on consumer satisfaction among the consumers of Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M), which was established by the government of Malaysia in order to provide common households products at a affordable price to the poor and low income households in Malaysia. This study employed a cross-sectional design and used a self-administered questionnaire and collected data from 150 KR1M consumers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. Findings of this study noted that product flexibility, product quality and advertising has a significant positive association with consumer satisfaction. In order to reach its full potential and achieve the overall goal of this development initiative, KR1M initiative should be more focus on providing more shopping options through increasing product flexibility, improve product quality and increase advertising

Learning together through international collaboration in teacher education in Malaysia. Report of a project to develop a Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Primary Mathematics

Copyright University of Hertfordshire, School of Education 2011Learning together through international collaboration in teacher education in Malaysia is the report of an enterprising partnership between the University of Hertfordshire, UK, the Ministry of Education Malaysia and two Institutes of Teacher Education in Malaysia. Working collaboratively with colleagues in Malaysia, the University of Hertfordshire School of Education designed, validated, supported and quality assured a Bachelor of Education (Honours) degree programme for initial teacher training for a single cohort of 120 students over four years. All the students graduated in 2010. Learning together through international collaboration in teacher education in Malaysia provides a record of the project itself. It also documents in-depth insights from contributors to the project in two main areas: the collaborative approach to working together and issues relating to learning and teaching, including the Action – Reflection – Modelling (ARM) pedagogical approach, which underpinned the degree programme. Senior managers, teacher educators and lecturers share some of their learning from working together to develop and implement the new degree programme. Student teachers voice some experiences from their school placements. They describe how they used ARM; highlight some of the benefits of the approach and identify some of the challenges associated with introducing a different pedagogy in schools as they were 'learning to teach'. There are glimpses of 'lively and attractive' classes in which 'pupils enjoy and feel comfortable to learn' and 'are eager to answer my questions'. School mentors provide additional insights into the student teachers' learning and teaching practice. The richness of the contributions is reflected in the many quotations included in the report. The successful completion of this project was due to the dedication and expertise of many contributors. The findings documented in this report are relevant for all those engaged in international collaboration and teacher education.Final Published versio

Quantifying recreational value and the functional relationship between travel cost and visiting national park

Abstract Estimation of recreational benefits is an important tool for both biodiversity conservation and ecotourism development in national parks and sanctuaries. The design of this work is to estimate the recreational value and to establish functional relationship between travel cost and visitation of Lawachara National Park (LNP) in Bangladesh. This study employed zonal approach of the travel cost method. The work is grounded on a sample of 422 visitors of the LNP. Results showed that the total value of environmental assets of the LNP is 55,694,173 Taka/Year. Moreover, our suggestion based on visitors' willingness to pay is that the park entrance fee of 25 Tk per person should be introduced that could generate revenue approximate 2.3 million Taka/ year, beneficial for the park management and conservation of biodiversity

Technical Efficiency Analysis of Terubok Fisheries in Malaysia

Terubok fish is an estuarine fish that is significant among local fishermen because of high commercial value and it also constitutes to source of income for Terubok fishermen during its catching season. Therefore, due to high commercial value, Terubok fish has been subject to overfished and the population has been declining throughout the years. This study is carried out to analyse the efficiency performance of Terubok fisheries in Malaysia. A sample of actively Terubok fishermen was selected through stratified random sampling and the field survey has conducted at three different places in Sarawak. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Tobit Analysis were employed to determine the technical efficiency level and factors influencing technical efficiency among Terubok fishermen. The results of the study show that, most fishing units exhibit a low level of technical efficiency. This implies that either fishing inputs were used inefficiently, or insufficient inputs were used in fishing operations. The mean technical efficiency of the sample was estimated to be 0.304 using CRS Model, 0.406 using VRS Model and Scale Efficiency is 0.805. The determinant factors of efficiency among Terubok fishermen was among all, hours in a day, days spent in fishing per month, engine horsepower and fisherman association show positive sign towards efficiency contradictorily other determinant such as age, education, distance and length of vessels possess negative sign towards efficiency. These findings suggest that there’s urgent need to the efficiency level of the fishermen as this will indicate the impact of their living standard. With appropriate training and using more advanced technologies by the fishermen, the level of technical efficiency can be raised, segmented for inshore fisheries

Effect of economic vulnerability on entrepreneurial competencies among Malaysian micro-entrepreneurs

Purpose - This study aims to investigate the impact of economic vulnerability upon entrepreneurial competencies (i.e. commitment competency, conceptual competency, opportunity recognition competency, organizing competency, relationship competency and strategic competency) among respondents from varied development initiatives established by the eKasih program (National Poverty Data Bank) in Peninsular Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach - Upon adopting the cross-sectional design, data were randomly gathered from selected 300 micro-entrepreneurs from the list of development organizations available in the eKasih (National Poverty Data Bank), located at four states in Peninsular Malaysia. The quantitative data were gathered by performing structured interview sessions from September until November 2017. Findings - The outcomes of the study displayed that economic vulnerability has a significantly negative effect upon commitment, opportunity recognition, organizing and strategic competency. On the other hand, the results showcased that economi c vulnerability has a significantly positive effect on competency, but insignificantly positive impact upon conceptual competency. Originality/value - These study outcomes appear to extend the scope of the resource-based view, apart from enriching the existing entrepreneurial competency literature, particularly within the Malaysian context. Hence, it is recommended that the government of Malaysia and development organizations should focus on maximizing the level of competency among micro-entrepreneurs as a viable approach to decrease the effect of economic vulnerability

Development of Subsea Altimeter Sensor System (SASS) Using Portable Sonar Sensor Fish Finder Alarm for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

This paper describes the development of Subsea Altimeter Sensor System (SASS) for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) Application using portable sonar sensor fish finder alarm system. Altimeter Sensor system is used to measure the depth of water. This altimeter sensor design valid for shallow water depth ranges maximum 100 m. This SASS will be applied to Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) design to verify the SASS performances. Experiments conducted to measure a depth of lab test, swimming pool test and Ayer Keroh Lake test. The experiments conducted in lab pool and swimming pool to measure and estimate the error and accuracy of SASS performances because of known the depth of water. The error of Altimeter Sensor System is 10% or ± 5 cm depth and accuracy of SASS very high about 90% for the both experiments. The results on Lake of Ayer Keroh at certain point can be acceptable. The 3D design of seabed mapping is plotted using MATLAB and Excel