Students’ satisfaction towards online learning systems: assessing its internal and external factors

This paper examines the internal factors (Internet self-efficacy and self-motivation) as well as an external factor (interaction) which affect university students’ level of satisfaction towards online learning systems. Field data were collected from 282 students from a public university. Data were analysed using multiple regression analysis. The outcome of the analysis suggests that these factors are significant predictors to students’ level of satisfaction when using a university’s online learning system

Synergizing Lean and Green Management for Sustainable Performance of Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia

Despite the undeniable importance role of public universities in educating the Malaysian citizens, the universities these days are struggling to generate wealth for their own development. Generating wealth is becoming one of the important strategy for public universities as the allocation from the federal government for their operating expenditures has been drastically reduced. In fact, this strategy has been clearly outlined in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025. Despite this significant reduction of source of income, the universities have to find a way to overcome this challenge by becoming more efficient and effective in their services to the stakeholders by becoming leaner. Lean universities will remove the existing waste or non-value added activities in many aspects in the universities' operations, which would yield higher returns and savings. In addition to lean, universities have also the responsibility to protect the environment. As a matter of fact, lean and green practices, share the same objective - that is to reduce waste. However, studies on lean and green universities is rather scarce. Even though there are evidences that these two concepts can be integrated, the synergy between the two concepts has yet to be discovered. This paper will elaborate on how lean and green can be integrated and the potential benefits towards sustainable higher education institutions performances

The relationship between servant leadership, organizational citizenship behaviour, and dysfunctional turnover

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide a framework to enhance the understanding of factors that influence the turnover rate among high performers in an organization. The focus of this proposed conceptual framework is the study of the relationship between leadership style, organizational citizenship behaviour, and dysfunctional turnover. Based on literature reviews, evidences reveal a negative relationship between servant leadership and dysfunctional turnover which is mediated by the variable of organizational citizenship behaviour. From a practical standpoint, this paper provides additional knowledge in the area of dysfunctional turnover which can assist the relevant stakeholders in an organization to reduce brain drain and enable HR practitioners to have a better understanding on how to reduce turnover rate among high performers; whilst at the same time, contributing to the existing number of valuable researches that provide the much-needed knowledge in understanding the turnover phenomenon. Hence, there is a need to conduct an empirical based study to validate the proposed conceptual framework and to ascertain the relationship among the various variables in this framework

An overview of leadership and the emerging of relational leadership

Purpose: The purpose of this general review paper is to provide an overview of leadership with the focus on the evolution of leadership and current leadership theories which is the relational leadership theory. Methodology: This paper reviews the existing literatures in the area of leadership and further a discussion on the development of leadership. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: This review paper advances our knowledges in leadership by providing a detail discussion on leadership evolution and the current leadership theories

Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Intention Of Malaysian University Students

Entrepreneurship development has been designated as a key component in economic transformation and educational programs in Malaysia. The government has introduced various initiatives to cultivate entrepreneurial spirit among younger generations, especially the university students. Despite the magnitude of these efforts, little is known whether university students today are entrepreneurial. Notwithstanding the abundance of literature on entrepreneurship, factors affecting students’ entrepreneurial behaviour and why certain students are more entrepreneurial than others require continual assessment. Hence, the present study is aimed at investigating entrepreneurial intention among university students in Malaysia. Theory of planned behaviour is adopted to specifically look at the effect of behavioural factors on entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, contextual factors are incorporated into the model to articulate the impact of perceived support and barriers towards such intention. Using field data collected from 204 university students in Malaysia, this study examines the impact of behavioural factors as well as the contextual factors on students’ entrepreneurial intention by means of multiple regression using SPSS. The findings show that behavioural factors, namely attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control, have significant effect on entrepreneurial intention. It is also found that perceived positive image about entrepreneurs and perceived difficulty to get financial support have impact on their intention. This confirms the need to inculcate entrepreneurism into university students and highlights the importance of providing them conducive surroundings to allow them to develop as entrepreneurs. It also suggests the misleading mentality among students about entrepreneurship as they might have perceived it to be about doing business with strong reliance on financial resources

A behavioral approach to modelling strategy execution: The role of organizational support and the moderated mediation effect of engagement and communication

Much of the failure in strategy execution in organization is attributed to human factors. While there is abundance of studies which delve into strategy execution, literature pertaining to the behavioral strategy and its impact on strategy execution remains scarce. Interest towards behavioral strategy is recently renewed as a result of the rising concern of the non-progressive rate of successful strategy implementation in the practicing world. This study answers the call for more research on behavioral strategy by examining the role of engagement, a concept drawn from the theory of engagement and work-psychology literature, in explaining the support-execution relationship. Subsequently, the support-execution model of strategy execution is advanced by a joint investigation of the mediating role of strategy engagement as well as the moderating role of strategy communication in the mediated relationship. Using process macro in Statistical Package for Social Sciences, the model was tested with 224 middle level managers selected from the service industry in Malaysia. The result shows that strategy engagement mediates the relationship between organizational support and strategy execution. Moreover, strategy communication is found to moderate the relationship between firstly organizational support and strategy execution, and secondly strategy engagement and strategy execution. The moderated mediation analysis reveals that strategic communication moderates the mediated relationship between organizational support and strategy execution via strategy engagement. Results from the integrated moderated mediation model provide new insights into the interaction of behavioral variables and their effect on strategy execution in contemporary business environment

Revisiting Attitude towards Advertising, its Antecedent and Outcome: A Two-Stage Approach using PLS-SEM

Attitude towards advertising, its antecedent and outcome are well documented in advertising literature. Moreover, the theory of reasoned action is often used to support the relationships between belief, attitude and intention towards advertising, especially in the western context. However, little is done to attest the dimensionality of belief factors in explaining attitude and intention towards advertising in the developing markets. Consequently, misspecification of model and omission of measures due to deficiencies in analysis may likely lead to irrelevant conclusion to knowledge and practices. Hence, the present study is aimed to revisit the belief-attitude-intention model in advertising research using two-stage approach in PLS-SEM. Belief factors are constructed as formative measurement to form personal and societal belief factors in higher order component model. Questionnaire-based survey was administered at universities in Malaysia and 347 respondents were subsequently sampled. The findings show that attitude of Malaysian young consumers towards advertising is formed by both positive and negative beliefs. In particular, personal belief factors are found to have greater impact on their attitude and intention than societal belief factors

A review of the methodological misconceptions and guidelines related to the application of structural equation modeling: a Malaysian scenario

Although structural equation modeling (SEM) is a powerful statistical technique, understanding its methodological assumptions before data analyses is essential to attaining more robust results. In this editorial, we outline four major methodological issues which are related to the application of SEM in Malaysia along with their respective guidelines. These issues include 1) probability and non-probability sampling, 2) pre-testing and pilot study, 3) CB-SEM and PLS-SEM, and 4) exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. We also recommend the steps that the local research community, especially the postgraduate students, should consider taking to keep themselves up-to-date with methodological advances and to make informed decisions about the use of SEM. This humble effort will help to clarify the confusion and doubts many lecturers and postgraduate students in Malaysia might have, and provide directions to help them proceed in a practical manner