Competitive Advantages Through it Innovation Adoption by Smes

Purpose—This paper seeks to explain the impact of IT innovation on competitive advantage; the barriers and the benefits companies gain from adopting and using these innovations and propose a model with which it is possible to measure determinants of IT innovation adoption among SMEs.Design/methodology/approach—This paper presents conceptual consideration on the role of SMEs in the Malaysian economy and the effect of government policy in encouraging companies to adopt IT innovation. The proposed research framework will be empirically validated using survey data. This study is an ongoing research, in the existing stage a theoretical argument is developed and methodology is in the process of being tested through regression analysis.Findings—Conclusions are drawn on the status of Malaysian SMEs to adopt IT innovation. We added attitude and self-efficacy to the Innovation Diffusion Theory to suit it to the individual situation. Therefore a novel approach is needed in order to study and understand it.Research limitations/implications—The paper represents work in progress.Practical implications – This paper present the theoretical framework for further study of IT innovation adoption among Malaysia SMEs.Originality/Value—The Information Technology concept is considered a powerful competitive weapon in the modern economy. This study used Innovation Diffusion Theory as the base theory, and added attitude and self efficacy as determinants to measure the individual’s perception toward innovation adoption. Individual self-efficacy and attitude toward innovation adoption shape beliefs and perceptions toward innovation, leading them to adopt or reject an innovation. Adding these factors to Innovation Diffusion Theory will narrow the breadth of the theory and possibilities to frame a single study which allows examination of the individual and technological dimension toward technology adoption.Keywords: IT innovation adoption, competitive advantage, Innovation Diffusion Theory, SMEs, Malaysia.Research type: conceptual paper

Impact of Perceived Desirability, Perceived Feasibility and Performance Expectancy on Use of IT Innovation: Technology Adoption Decisions and Use Behaviour

Theoretical perspectives from the field of entrepreneurship can be used to examine entrepreneurs’ intention to use IT innovations. This study collected 412 completed survey responses from entrepreneurs and used structural equation modelling to test the proposed technology acceptance decision model. The results showed the significant effect of perceived desirability, perceived feasibility and performance expectancy as the salient antecedents of intention to adopt and use IT innovation. This study examined the effect of external factors which prevent or facilitate the adoption and use of new technology. The moderating effect of the propensity to act is examined and the results indicated that when the individual propensity to act is high, taking action becomes more desirable and feasible. This study revealed that, in the current IS environment, individuals adopt and use a new system due to the attractiveness of the system and perceived feasibility, which are derived from intrinsic interest and affective beliefs.KeywordsEntrepreneurial Potential Model, IT Innovation, Precipitating Events,Technology Adoption Decisio

Effective utilization of excess energy in standalone hybrid renewable energy systems for improving comfort ability and reducing cost of energy: A review and analysis

One of the features that characterize renewable energy sources is their variability and intermittency. Intermittency covers both the predictable and unpredictable variations of their power outputs and uncertainty in the power availability. To overcome the drawback of intermittency, special design considerations should be taken into account. These additional design considerations increases the overall cost of the renewable energy systems. Adding storage system and/or backup source to the renewable sources is one of the measures used to guarantee the continuity of power supply to the loads, and therefore improve the reliability of the renewable energy systems. The operation of renewable energy systems results in the creation of surplus energy, which is the energy generated by renewable energy systems, but is not consumed by the loads in standalone power systems. Effective utilization of this excess energy has the potential to decrease the cost of energy (COE) production by these hybrid renewable energy systems. In this paper, a review of the literature will be carried out in order to provide further insight into the approaches suggested in the literature on how to deal with the utilization of excess energy. Furthermore, various possible configurations of hybrid systems will be analyzed in detail for the effective utilization of the excess energy produced by hybrid systems. This is done in order to evaluate the effectiveness of utilization of excess energy by various means, especially for improving the living space comfort ability and decreasing the COE. Case studies will be carried out to demonstrate the proposed configurations for the effective utilization of the excess energy, and the results will be presented

Effect of trust and perceived reciprocal benefit on students' knowledge sharing via Facebook and academic performance

This paper explored the effect of trust and perceived reciprocal benefit on students' knowledge sharing via Facebook and on students' academic performance and reputation. The research model was tested using 170 undergraduate students in Malaysia via structural equation modeling. The results show that trust and perceived reciprocal benefit are two strong predictors of knowledge sharing amongst students, which affects their academic performance and recognition. Students with high levels of altruism are more open to sharing knowledge without preconditions compared to those with lower levels of altruism. The findings of this research would help educational institutions use Facebook as a knowledge sharing platform and also convert their academic procedures to an e-learning environment with Facebook as its platform. Creating a virtual environment and facilitating knowledge sharing among students will encourage a more productive and constructive learning environment. Facebook groups are regarded as an online community that increase students' interaction, collaboration, and trust

Compulsive YouTube usage: A comparison of use motivation and personality effects

This paper explores compulsive use of YouTube by university students and investigates how the uses and gratifications perspective and the personality perspective work together to explain compulsive use of the social medium. It compares the effects of motivation to use YouTube for information with motivation to use the platform for entertainment, and examines how the different motivational effects compare with those of personality. It also explores the influence of compulsive use of YouTube on academic motivation. Data from 807 students at a Malaysian university were analysed using hierarchical multiple regression. Stronger motivation to use YouTube for information and learning is associated with lower compulsive use, while stronger motivation to use YouTube for entertainment is associated with higher compulsive use. Entertainment motivation has a stronger effect than information motivation. Although tendency to compulsive use differs with personality traits, the motivation effects are independent of personality. Compulsive YouTube use negatively influences academic motivation. While educators can take risks of compulsive use into account when they propose YouTube resources to their students, information literacy education and training can play an additional role in risk reduction by alerting social media users to the risks of compulsive use and helping them to develop self-management strategies

Impact of infrastructural policies to reduce travel time expenditure of car users with significant reductions in energy consumption

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd The increasing number of vehicles and drivers have led to a marked increase in travel time expenditure (TTE), congestion, demand for fossil fuels, and adverse environmental impacts. Improving energy efficiency in the transportation sector, public awareness of the behavior of the people vis-à-vis energy efficiency, implementing policies that encourage other modes of transportation (e.g., public transit, ride-sharing, bicycles, and walking, etc.) that decrease vehicle dependency are some effective approaches that mitigate the aforementioned negative effects, which will lead to significant reductions in the total energy consumption. This article investigates the effect of governmental policies on vehicle dependency reduction and the decrease of TTE by vehicle owners, and propose a novel method to calculate the current and future TTEs by individuals. The effect of demographic variables and the region on vehicle dependency and TTE for students of three of the most populated universities in Malaysia (University of Malaya, University Putra Malaysia, and University Technology Malaysia) were investigated as well. The peoples’ expectations from individual modes of transportation such as cycling and walking were also analyzed. The results showed that all demographic factors, except nationality, affect the levels of vehicle ownership, while income levels and nationality affects TTE by personal vehicles. The results show that the average TTE can be reduced by 89% if the recommended infrastructure (e.g., increase bus routes, train routes, train services, frequencies of buses and train, and facilities for cyclists, etc.) is provided. These outcomes can assist policy makers to efficiently manage transportation budgets, and would also help people decrease vehicle usage, which will subsequently decrease their corresponding TTE and fuel consumption

The price of the current civilisation

This paper is an extract from the public lecture delivered by Professor Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs, at the invitation of Genting Berhad, in the Lim Goh Tong Lecture Hall of the Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya. The lecture was the second in its series delivered on 23 October 2012

Redundant manipulators kinematics inversion

A robotic system is kinematically redundant when it possesses more degrees of freedom than those required to execute a given task. This paper reviews the well-known methods used to find the inverse kinematics of redundant manipulators. Because redundant manipulators have infinite solutions for their inverse kinematics, therefore the conventional method that was used to calculate the inverse kinematics of non-redundant manipulators cannot be used. The methods used to calculate the inverse kinematics of redundant manipulators are divided into three main categories in this paper: pseudoinverse, artificial intelligence and geometrical methods. These types have been explained, their advantages and disadvantages are also discussed in this paper

Geometrical approach of planar hyper-redundant manipulators: inverse kinematics, path planning and workspace

A new method for inverse kinematics for hyper-redundant manipulators is proposed in this paper to plan the path of the end-effector. The basic idea is that for a given smooth path consisting of points close enough to each other; computing the inverse kinematics for these points is carried out geometrically using the proposed method. In this method, the angles between the adjacent links are set to be the same, which makes lining up of two or more joint axes impossible; therefore, avoiding singularities. The manipulability index has been used to show how far the manipulator from the singularity configuration is. The determination of the workspace of the manipulator using the proposed method has been presented in this paper. The simulation results have been carried out on a planar and a three dimensional manipulators. The effectiveness of the proposed method is clearly demonstrated by comparing its result with results calculated by the well-known method of measuring manipulability which is used for singularity avoidance for the last two decades

The design of an intelligent wireless sensor network for ubiquitous healthcare

This paper proposes the architecture of a wireless sensor network for remote monitoring of biomedical signals from multiple patients in hospital setting. The system addresses the strict requirements of high-density and moderate-mobility scenarios such as energy-awareness, self-healing, low data delivery delay and transmission reliability. The network is based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard and emerging ZigBee technology for low power and low rate data transmission. An optimized source routing protocol has been presented to control the network traffic load and energy consumption of the battery-powered nodes and hence increase the average delivery rate and effective network lifetime. The preliminary prototypes acquire and transmit 2-lead ECG through the license-free 2.4 GHz ban