Propositions and future directions of marketers’ relationship effectiveness in mergers and acquisitions integration

Research on marketing integration related to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has paid little attention to the combination of similar resources between two similar departments, particularly in the M&A context. Furthermore, existing research does not clearly demonstrate the role of relationship among marketers within the amalgamation process between acquirer and target firm.Hence, this paper addresses a few propositions that relate to strengthening the relationship effectiveness among the marketers in both firms, which at the same time uphold the M&A performance. Collaboration and interaction are proposed as drivers to increase optimistic relationship among the marketers.A quantitative research design is suggested as this method is not popular compared to qualitative methods such as case study, event-study and longitudinal approach in M&A.Drawing from the extant literature, propositions are developed and future directions are presented elaborating success factors to improve M&A integration performance

Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide Fed Broadband Nano-antenna for Nanophotonic Applications

In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid plasmonic waveguide fed broadband optical patch nano-antenna for nanophotonic applications. Through full wave electromagnetic simulation, we demonstrated our proposed antenna to radiate and receive signal at all optical communication windows (e.g. $\lambda$ = 850nm, 1310nm & 1550nm) with around 86% bandwidth within the operational domain. Moreover numerical results demonstrate that the proposed nano-antenna has directional radiation pattern with satisfactory gain over all three communication bands. Additionally, we evaluated the antenna performances with two different array arrangements (e.g. one dimensional and square array). The proposed broadband antenna can be used for prominent nanophotonic applications such as optical wireless communication in inter and intra-chip devices, optical sensing and optical energy harvesting etc.Comment: 4 Page, 7 figure

Phytochemical Constituents and Biological Activity of Curcuma Aeruginosa Roxb., C.Ochrorhiza Val. and Andrographis Asculata Nees

Tropical plants have been acknowledged to be the source of variety of forest products that could be exploited as potential pharmaceutical, natural insecticides, oils, foods and other industrial goods. Out of these only a small proportion has been systematically investigated. This research has been carried out to investigate the chemical constituents and bioactivities of Curcuma aeruginosa, Curcuma ochrorhiza and Andrographis asculata. In this present study, the rhizomes of Curcuma aeruginosa and Curcuma ochrorhiza and also the leaves of Andrographis asculata were investigated and have resulted in the isolation of eight pure compounds and three mixtures. The structures of the pure compounds were elucidated by using spectroscopic experiments namely NMR, MS and IR, while the constituents of the mixtures were identified using GC-MS technique. Detailed chemical studies on Curcuma aeruginosa have yielded three sesquiterpenes, curcumenol (10), zedoarol (6) and isocurcumenol (43) and phytosterol mixtures containing stigmasterol (52) and α-sitosterol (53). Isocurcumenol (43) was isolated for the first time from this plant species, whereas the occurrences of other compounds have been reported previously. Meanwhile investigations on Curcuma ochrorhiza have afforded three sesquiterpenes, zederone (13), zerumbone (46) and furanodienone (2), two triterpenes namely stigmasterol (52) and α-sitosterol (53) and mixtures of long chain compounds comprising of tricosanoic acid (54) and ester of tetradecanoic acid (55). Zerumbone (46) and furanodienone (2) were isolated for the first time from this species. Studies on Andrographis asculata have yielded α-sitosterol (53) as the major constituent and mixtures of docosanoic acid (56), hexadecanoic acid (57), tetradecanoic acid (dodecyl ester) (58) and hexacosanoic acid (59). Cytotoxic tests were performed using HL-60 cell lines and CEM-SS cell lines. The crude chloroform extract of Curcuma aeruginosa and crude hexane extract of Curcuma ochrorhiza were consider being active against CEM-SS cell lines with IC50 values 6 μg/mL. Meanwhile, pure compounds isolated from Curcuma ochrorhiza, zederone (13) and zerumbone (46) were found to be very active against CEM-SS and HL-60 cell lines. As for antimicrobial test, crude chloroform extract of Curcuma aeruginosa were mildly active against four bacteria used in the test, while crude methanol extract of Andrographis asculata exhibited mild activity against Bacillus substillis. In addition, two isolated compounds isocurcumenol (10) and zerumbone (46) were found to be moderately active against some of the microbes. The antioxidant activity of all extracts from Curcuma aeruginosa were close to or lower than quarcetin, and this suggest that the crude extract posses antioxidant activity. The results also showed the same pattern with all crude extracts of Curcuma ochrorhiza. Two pure compounds from Curcuma aeruginosa were also subjected to the screening of antioxidant tests and the results showed curcumenol (10) and isocurcumenol (43) did posses antioxidant activity. Meanwhile, the crude hexane and CHCl3 extract of Andrographis asculata also showed antioxidant activity, while the crude methanol extract was not active

Development Of An Indirect Elisa Using The Recombinant Nucleocapsid Protein As Antigen For Detection Of Antibodies To Newcastle Disease Virus

Newcastle disease (ND) is a virulent form of poultry disease that has the potential to cause 100% mobidity and mortality. The continuing threat of ND to the poultry industry requires routine testing of vaccinated chickens to determine that they have been adequately immunised by vaccination. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) which use commercially available reagents are presented as alternatives to the procedure for detection of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) antibodies. The nucleocapsid protein has been shown to immunogenic in nature, and play key roles in diagnostic ELISA for detection of antibody. A purified recombinant nucleocapsid protein (NP) of NDV highly expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli) was used as the coating antigen in an indirect ELISA to detect the presence of NDV antibodies in a cohort of chicken sera. The test was standardised using sera from vaccination study and obtained from Charles River SPAFAS Laboratories, USA. The NPELISA was standardised at an antigen concentration of 1.5 μg/ml, test serum dilution of 1:200 and conjugate dilution of 1:2000. The cut-off value of the NP-ELISA of 0.238 was determined by a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. An assay of 315 chicken serum samples against NDV antibodies showed that the NP-ELISA had 92.06% sensitivity and 93.2% specificity compared to NDV hemagglutination–inhibition (HI) test. This was in good agreement between the two serological methods (κ =0.848). In the serum neutralization test (SNT), the result shows that there was no correlation observed between HI and SNT. It was observed that the field serum samples found positive or with high titer in the HI test were negative or have low titer for SNT. This suggests that different epitopes on the antigen have been recognized by each of the tests. The result shows that the recombinant NP antigen is recognized by antibodies specific to the other poultry pathogens and the cross reactivity is high for Paramyxovirus-2 (PMV-2) and Paramyxovirus-3 (PMV-3) but low reaction by other poultry pathogen [avian influenza (AI), avian encephalomyelitis (AE), infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT), infectious bronchitis (IB), and infectious bursal disease (IBD)]. The titre of ND antibodies can be determined using NPELISA formula, Log10Titre = 1.0* Log(S/P) + 3.45. This formula was derived after getting the linearity graph between NP-ELISA to commercial ND test kit. This finding indicates the potential application of the E. coli produced NP protein as antigen in indirect ELISA for the detection of NDV antibody. The NP-ELISA was successfully developed and very useful which is more or as efficient as commercial kits, thus the cost of NP-ELISA is cheaper than commercial kits

Microfinance and Prospect for Islamic Microfinance Products: The Case of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia

Abstract - Studies have shown that microfinance is capable of reducing poverty in rural areas in several countries around the world. Microfinance products are however, still dominated by conventional products despite a demand for shariah compliant microfinance products by Muslim clients. A survey conducted in Bangladesh found that even though Bangladesh has the largest conventional microfinance outreach serving almost 8 million clients, Islamic microfinance represents only 1 percent of the microfinance market. Another survey found that in all Muslim countries, Islamic microfinance still represents a small percentage of the country’s total microfinance outreach. The survey also found that Islamic microfinance institutions lack of product diversification, offering only one or two Islamic financing products and over 70 percent of the products offered are murabahah. Islamic microfinance is still in an infancy stage in Malaysia. Commercial banks offering microfinance services in Malaysia limit their products based on bai-al inah, a controversial debt-based lending. The largest microfinance in Malaysia, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), claims that its loans are based on qard-hasan (interest-free) principles, however, AIM imposes a 10% service charge on its loans. This study explores the possibility of introducing Islamic financial products to clients of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia. A survey was conducted on the business activities of AIM borrowers to identify suitable Islamic microfinance products to finance various types of business activities. Based on the three major economic activities of AIM clients, Murabahah, Musharakah, Mudarabah, Muzaraah, Ijarah, and Qard al-hasan principles are found to be applicable to finance the different economic activities

An analysis on the efficiency of takaful and insurance companies in malaysia: a non-parametric approach

This study examines the efficiency of general or non-life takaful and insurance industry in Malaysia during the period 2007 to 2009. In order to measure their efficiencies, the output-input data consists of a panel of 28 general or non-life takaful and insurance companies are used. The most commonly used non-parametric approach, namely, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is adopted to measure the efficiency of the Malaysian takaful and insurance companies. In the DEA technique, efficiency is measured by the Malmquist index. The Malmquist efficiency measures are decomposed into two components: efficiency change and technical change index. Efficiency change is again decomposed into pure efficiency and scale efficiency. It is found that, on average, the TFP of the non-life takaful and insurance industry in Malaysia is mainly due efficiency change and the main sources of the efficiency change are both scale efficiency and pure efficiency

Tingkah laku kepimpinan pengajaran dan kepimpinan transformasional dalam kalangan Pengetua Kanan dan Pengetua Biasa di sekolah cemerlang serta pengaruhnya ke atas komitmen guru

The purpose of the study is to determine the leadership style of Pengetua Kanan and principals of performing secondary schools in Kedah in respect of instructional and transformational leaderships. The study also seeks to compare the influence of these two leaderships on teachers' commitment in schools. The cross-sectional survey method using standardized-item questionnaires was employed in this study. The respondents consisted of 41 9 teachers chosen randomly from 12 Pengetua Kanan schools and 10 performing secondary schools in Kedah. The Instructional Leadership Survey Questionnaire by Lahui-Ako (2001) was used to measure the dimensions of instructional leadership. The Transformational Leadership Survey Questionnaire by Griffith (2003) was used to measure transformational leadership dimensions, while the Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment Scales by LaMastro (2000) was used to measure teachers' commitment in schools. Fourteen null hypotheses were generated and tested using t-test and stepwise regression statistical methods. The findings of the study showed that both categories of principals practiced instructional leadership significantly more dominant than transformational leadership. It was also found that there was no significant difference in the practice of the dimensions of these leaderships by both categories of principals. However, defining and communicating the school gods of instructional leadership was found to be more pronounced in the leadership of Pengetua Kanan. The study also showed that the level of commitment displayed by teachers in Pengetua Kanan schools was comparatively higher. In addition, both transformational and instructional leaderships were found to have significant influence on teachers' commitment through the dimensions of intellectual stimulation and defining and communicating the school goals respectively. However, the impact of transformational leadership on teachers' commitment was found to be significantly more dominan

The Acquisition of Tacit Knowledge in International Outsourcing Relationships: The Malaysian Supplier Perspective

Tacit knowledge has been acknowledged to be a strategic source of sustainable competitive advantage. Thus, there is a great urgency for a firm to accumulate a stock of tacit knowledge. The acquisition of tacit knowledge through relationships with foreign business partners is deemed significant in increasing a firm’s competitiveness as it allows the firm to access not only tacit knowledge but other idiosyncratic resources belonging to its partners. A manufacturing supplier who engages in international outsourcing relationships can use the opportunity provided by collaborating with its foreign buyers to obtain tacit knowledge that is new and valuable to it. Once the external tacit knowledge is assimilated and applied within the supplier firm, its level of competency and business opportunities are expected to increase. Using survey data from 122 Malaysian manufacturing suppliers, this study attempts to analyze the effects of absorptive capacity and relational capital components on the Malaysian suppliers’ acquisition of tacit knowledge from their international outsourcing relationships. It also investigates the implications of the newly acquired tacit knowledge in enhancing the suppliers’ capabilities and opportunity recognition. -- Three important absorptive capacity components of prior related knowledge, business relatedness and interactive involvement have been identified as important in facilitating the supplier’s learning process. From the relational capital perspective, this study examines the roles of trust, interaction and cultural sensitivity play in the supplier’s tacit knowledge acquisition. In reference to the absorptive capacity, the findings reveal that the interactive involvement appears to be the most critical factor, while prior related knowledge is not significantly related to the success of tacit knowledge acquisition

Selecting high-income generating activities for micro-entrepreneurs: the case study of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia

Poverty eradication has been one of the most important concerns in developing countries. Many of the governments of these countries have initiated some forms of poverty alleviation programs to reduce poverty level in their respective countries. Studies have shown that microfinance is proven to be an effective tool to fight poverty in many developing countries. This study looks at various income generating activities taken up by micro-entrepreneurs who obtained micro-credit from Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), the biggest microfinance institution in Malaysia, and identifies which activities result in high income. A survey was conducted to obtain primary data on economic activities assumed by AIM members and also income obtained from these activities. The results of the survey show that economic activities in the trading sector are found to be very lucrative and result in higher average income compared to activities in the production and service sectors. Among activities which result in high monthly incomes are rubber trading, sales of cooking gas, hawking in night markets, sales of cosmetics and body wear, paint products, jewellery, used cars, electronics, health products, and food