THE DEVELOPMENT OF E-COMMERCE CAPABILITY AND ITS IMPACT ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE: A CASE OF MALAYSIAN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

Firms around the world are embracing electronic-commerce (EC) technologies as strategic marketing tools to enhance the competitive advantage and organizational performance. Over the last two decades, EC obtained prominent importance and has become a key dimension to a firm value. Many firms have invested in this technology to compete in the fast paced business environment. However, the literature contains mixed findings of EC on overall business performance and the success of EC implementations is scarce in the literature. This study attempts to investigate why some firms are getting advantages from EC while some are not. By examining the attributes of firm’s business, human and IT resources, this research seeks to enhance an understanding of the relationship between EC capability and business performance. A total of 287 participants from manufacturing companies throughout Malaysia completed 63 items survey instrument. The instrument measured business resources, human resources, IT resources and business performance factors. Reliability and factor analysis were assessed for data screening; estimation of construct validity by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the relationships between factors were established with structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of descriptive statistics and reliability presented data usability for current study and by examining firm’s business, human and IT resources the results of SEM provided the evidence of significant relationship between EC capability and business performance. This strongly suggests the necessary investments for the utilization of firm’s resources for the implementation and usage of EC technologies. The significant relationship between EC capability and business performance also provides a base to explain that EC is not only a technology; but also a complete business process needing proper strategies to gain its value. The results of this study may explain the issue of mixed business benefits from the implementation of EC technologies. Finally this investigation offers new insights that applicable to the development of EC capability and its returns. In so doing, this study may help theorists and practitioners, especially within the manufacturing industries, to develop EC strategies at post- and pre- implementation levels of EC application. This study is helpful in providing the resource-based and dynamic capability perspectives of EC in terms of better understanding and usage of the resources for the implementation of EC technology. The findings of this study can be taken into consideration for the successful usage of EC. Index terms: electronic-commerce, capability, resources, implementation, manufacturing industrie

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-2005, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising provision of education in Pakistan, as well as the trend in coverage and public sector spending on education facilities in Pakistan. The study examines the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision in relation to the government education expenditure. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the education facilities. Overall, the expenditure on the education sector is progressive, both at the regional and the provincial levels. However, variation exists in the shares of different income groups benefit from the provision of educational facilities created by public expenditure.education, public expenditure, Public Policy, Gini Coefficient, Concentration Coefficient, Benefit Incidence Approach

Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-05, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach (BIA) methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising health services as well as the trend in access to and public sector spending on health care facilities in Pakistan. The study explores the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision against the government health expenditures. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the health care facilities. The expenditures in health sectors are overall regressive in rural Pakistan as well as at provincial and regional levels. Mother and Child subhead is regressive in Punjab and General Hospitals and Clinics are regressive in all provinces. Only the Preventive Measures and health facilities sub-sector is progressive in Pakistan. Public health expenditures are pro-rich in Pakistan.health, Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini, Concentration Coefficient, Mother and Child, Preventive Measures, Hospital and Clinics

Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-05, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach (BIA) methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising health services as well as the trend in access to and public sector spending on health care facilities in Pakistan. The study explores the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision against the government health expenditures. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the health care facilities. The expenditures in health sectors are overall regressive in rural Pakistan as well as at provincial and regional levels. Mother and Child subhead is regressive in Punjab and General Hospitals and Clinics are regressive in all provinces. Only the Preventive Measures and health facilities sub-sector is progressive in Pakistan. Public health expenditures are pro-rich in Pakistan.Health, Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini, Concentration Coefficient, Mother and Child, Preventive Measures, Hospital and Clinics

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-2005, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising provision of education in Pakistan, as well as the trend in coverage and public sector spending on education facilities in Pakistan. The study examines the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision in relation to the government education expenditure. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the education facilities. Overall, the expenditure on the education sector is progressive, both at the regional and the provincial levels. However, variation exists in the shares of different income groups’ benefit from the provision of educational facilities created by public expenditure.Education, Public Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini Coefficient, Concentration Coefficient, Benefit Incidence Approach

THE DEVELOPMENT OF E-COMMERCE CAPABILITY AND ITS IMPACT ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE: A CASE OF MALAYSIAN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

Firms around the world are embracing electronic-commerce (EC) technologies as strategic marketing tools to enhance the competitive advantage and organizational performance. Over the last two decades, EC obtained prominent importance and has become a key dimension to a firm value. Many firms have invested in this technology to compete in the fast paced business environment. However, the literature contains mixed findings of EC on overall business performance and the success of EC implementations is scarce in the literature. This study attempts to investigate why some firms are getting advantages from EC while some are not. By examining the attributes of firm’s business, human and IT resources, this research seeks to enhance an understanding of the relationship between EC capability and business performance. A total of 287 participants from manufacturing companies throughout Malaysia completed 63 items survey instrument. The instrument measured business resources, human resources, IT resources and business performance factors. Reliability and factor analysis were assessed for data screening; estimation of construct validity by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the relationships between factors were established with structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of descriptive statistics and reliability presented data usability for current study and by examining firm’s business, human and IT resources the results of SEM provided the evidence of significant relationship between EC capability and business performance. This strongly suggests the necessary investments for the utilization of firm’s resources for the implementation and usage of EC technologies. The significant relationship between EC capability and business performance also provides a base to explain that EC is not only a technology; but also a complete business process needing proper strategies to gain its value. The results of this study may explain the issue of mixed business benefits from the implementation of EC technologies. Finally this investigation offers new insights that applicable to the development of EC capability and its returns. In so doing, this study may help theorists and practitioners, especially within the manufacturing industries, to develop EC strategies at post- and pre- implementation levels of EC application. This study is helpful in providing the resource-based and dynamic capability perspectives of EC in terms of better understanding and usage of the resources for the implementation of EC technology. The findings of this study can be taken into consideration for the successful usage of EC. Index terms: electronic-commerce, capability, resources, implementation, manufacturing industrie

School Quality and Parental Schooling Decisions for Their Children: Public and Private Schools in Rural Pakistan

This study uses the Pakistan Rural Household Survey 2004-5 (PRHS), a rich set of households and school data, to examine parents’ schooling decision in rural Pakistan. Nested logit regressions are used to quantify the determinants of child school attendance. The analysis confirms that the greater the number of schools (public or private) in the local communities the higher is the attendance. Lower school attendance of boys seems to be the outcome of lower school quality more than it is for girls. A marginal increase in school quality correlates with increased school attendance in government schools more than in private schools. Nearly all school quality variables including control for number of schools in a community stand insignificant for girls. This shows that other factors might be of more importance than school quality of local schools for girl’s low attendance in rural Pakistan. Besides, parental education, especially mother’s education, and household income have strong positive impact on child school attendance. The greater the number of children in the household the lower is the child school attendance. Credit constraint seems not to be problematic as the estimated effect is statistically insignificant. The size of landholding seems to be important only in the case of girls schooling. JEL Classification: I21, I25, D13, C25 Keywords: Demand for Schooling, Public Education, Private Education, Pakista

RESOURCE USE AND FARM PRODUCTIVITY UNDER CONJUNCTIVE WATER MANAGEMENT IN PAKISTAN

The paper describes a study of canal and supplemental ground water used by 544 farmers for wheat crop in the Rechna Doab catchment of Pakistan. The main objective was to assess the on-farm financial gains through conjunctive water use. For econometric analysis, a linear relationship between the wheat production and different determinant variables was assumed. The results highlighted the problem of increased use of tubewells water in the saline zones that had resulted in the deterioration of the groundwater quality and led to the problem of permanent upconing of saline groundwater. Conjunctive water management increased the farm income by about Rs. 1000 and 5000 per hectare compared to only using the canal and tubewell water, respectively The results of financial analysis show that the net-gains were 30 percent higher on the farms using conjunctive water management as compared to the farms using only tubewell irrigation.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Pro-poor intervention strategies in irrigated agriculture in Asia: poverty in irrigated agriculture: issues and options: Pakistan

Irrigated farming / Poverty / Irrigation management / Irrigation systems / Water policy / Water rights / Water law / Irrigation scheduling / Organizations / Social aspects / Households / Economic aspects / Expenditure / Irrigation programs / Performance evaluation / Water delivery / Equity / Models / Crop production / Productivity / Wheat / Pakistan