Facilitators Of Internet Promotion (E-Brochure) Adoption By Non-Profit Organisations

Internet promotion, otherwise e-brochure (EB) or partial e-commerce adoption by nonprofit organisations denotes the use of the Internet to provide business and service related information by academic institutions (as in the present study), non-profit organisations, religious organisations, and government agencies to reduce their expenses or to improve their operations and customer service. A field survey of Malaysian universities was conducted to determine the key factors that facilitate the adoption of non-business EB. Since EB adoption decision is a strategic one, a comprehensive list of potential facilitators for the strategic use of information technology (IT) was derived from extant literature and used in collecting data from 65 schools and centres in five public universities in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The data were factoranalysed to determine the key underlying dimensions of facilitators. On the basis of the resulting five dimensions namely, relative advantage orientation, network orientation, information efficiency orientation, innovativeness orientation, and competitiveness orientation, regression analysis was done to determine the impact of the five dimensions on non-business EB adoption

KM initiatives in the academia: In search of for KM as an emerging field

The academic community has since joined the KM bandwagon set in motion by management consultancy firms and information practitioners. A number of members of the academia and researchers have clamored and are still clamoring for individuals and organizations to view KM as an emerging field, to embrace it, and benefit from its numerous advantages.Yet the nature, scope method, and validity aspects of KM remain ill defined.In fact there is no consensus regarding the claim that KM is a new field with its own research base, since much of the terminology and techniques used, such as knowledge mapping, seem to have been borrowed from both IM and librarianship.The discrepancy has ranged from authors who see KM as an emerging discipline, to others who claim that firms and information professionals have been practicing KM-related activities for years, and to those who insists that there is no such thing as KM.In this study, the concept of KM is examined in the Web sites of leading business schools.A few cases were identified through a literature search of ABI Inform and the Internet.Each case was reviewed and details of each area of interest were extracted and recorded.The data were compared and analyzed. Secondly, in addition, to the review of journal publications on KM, a survey of experienced academicians was conducted to understand what KM means to them, and KM initiatives in their faculties, departments, or units.Findings are discussed

SME Development in Malaysia: Domestic and Global Challenges

The primary objectives of this paper are to analyze and discuss the development of Malaysian SMEs and their role, as well as various contributions, in the national economy. The paper goes further by reviewing extant literature to identify the major challenges facing this sector in Malaysia as well as government policies aimed at the development of SMEs. We find that, while the government has implemented many programs to strengthen the performance of SMEs in the economy, Malaysian SMEs still face many challenges, both domestic and external, which could hinder their resilience and competitiveness. A number of strategies which could assist them to access new markets, increase their revenues and expand their customer bases are identified.Malaysian economy, Malaysian SMEs, government assistance programs

Mindfulness, socioemotional wealth, and environmental strategy of family businesses.

The study advances knowledge in the field of business strategy and the environment by incorporating mindfulness theory into the research on socioemotional wealth (SEW) and its environmental consequences in family businesses. Using an integrative model, the paper investigates the relationship between mindfulness SEW dimensions and family firms' environmental strategies, specifically in developing sustainable products and processes. This study also proposes the firm's capabilities as a mediator in this relationship, while market turbulence is a moderator in the relationship between the firm's capabilities and sustainable products and processes. The empirical results show that in protecting SEW, specifically in the identification of family members with the firm and binding social ties, mindfulness provides a rich endowment that develops appropriate capabilities to produce sustainable products and processes. While the moderating role of market turbulence is insignificant, we can infer that irrespective of how turbulent (or not) the market is, the firm's capabilities are a key determinant of sustainable products and processes. Our findings offer theoretical and managerial implications for sustainable practices in the family business context

Non-business e-commerce in Malaysia: An investigation of key adoption

Problem statement: Non-business EC is a relatively new research niche in the general e-commerce stream. Application of e-commerce by profit oriented organization already become bread and butter but still limited applied in non-business sectors such as academic institutions (as in the present study), non-profit organizations, religious organizations and government agencies. Nowadays e-commerce becomes crucially essential in reducing their expenses and improving their operations.Therefore, application of this new innovation should enhance to no non-business sectors to be livelier.Understanding the key factors of facilitating and adopting the e-commerce in non-business are still need to enrich in particularly within Malaysian context. A field survey was conducted to determine key factors that facilitate the adoption of non-business EC in Malaysian Universities. Approach: One main focus of IT implementation research has been to determine why people accept or reject new technology. The current research will explore why Non-business institutions will accept or reject e- commerce. Since e-commerce adoption decision is a strategic one, a comprehensive list of potential facilitators and non-facilitators for the strategic use of information technology was derived from past research. Thus factors used as the basis for collecting data from 65 schools, centers and units from 5 public universities in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur. These data were factor-analyzed to determine the key underlying dimensions of facilitators. On the basis of the resulting 5 dimensions namely, relative advantage, network orientation, information efficiency, innovativeness and competitiveness, regression analysis was done to determine the impact of the 5 dimensions on adoption. Results: They suggest that relative advantage, network orientation and information efficiency are the most important facilitators to the used of e-commerce in non-business sectors. Inhibitors were not estimated eventually, as there were no non-users among the respondents. Conclusion: The results implies the non-business sectors should look into advantages, network orientation and information efficiency as a strategic based for implementing e-commerce in more effective manner to achieve their goals

Viability of e-commerce as an alternative distribution channel

This paper proposes a framework for evaluating the impact of e‐commerce on the roles of distributors in the semiconductor industry for four different types of products, namely differentiated products, architectural products, technological products, and complex products. Questionnaire and the purposive sampling method were used to collect data from respondents in the distribution industry. The results of the study show that the salience of the roles is increasing. In addition, there is strong likelihood of e‐commerce replacing the traditional distributors, more so for less standardized products such as complex, technological, and architectural products

Antecedents to high (low) performances by international technology ventures

Given that innovation can be critical to the survival of international technology ventures (ITVs), this study investigates the relationships among organizational learning, international marketing dynamism (IMD), and innovation performance in ITVs based in Dubai (UAE). Based on a review of extant literature, a questionnaire was developed and administered among these ITVs. The resulting data were analyzed using SmartPLS version 3. Of the nine hypothesized direct and indirect relationships, seven receive support. The results indicate that three of four hypothesized relationships between organizational learning dimensions and IMD were supported. The relationship between IMD and new product performance (innovation performance) was supported. Moreover, IMD mediates the relationship between three of four organizational learning dimensions and innovation performance. The findings and implications of this research are discussed, and conclusions are stated

Global business services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of global business services to improved productivity and economic growth of the world economy, which has gone largely unnoticed in service research. Design/Methodology/Approach – The authors draw on macroeconomic data and industry reports, and link them to the non-ownership concept in service research and theories of the firm. Findings – Business services explain a large share of the growth of the global service economy. The fast growth of business services coincides with shifts from domestic production towards global outsourcing of services. A new wave of global business services are traded across borders and have emerged as important drivers of growth in the world's service sector. Research Limitations and Implications – This paper advances the understanding of non-ownership services in an increasingly global and specialized post-industrial economy. The paper makes a conceptual contribution supported by descriptive data, but without empirical testing. Originality/Value – The authors integrate the non- ownership concept and three related economic theories of the firm to explain the role of global business services in driving business performance and the international transformation of service economies

A Comparative Analysis Of Qatar’s Tourism Competitiveness With Egypt, Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates And Turkey

Purpose- Qatar has placed its tourism sector as a focal sector in its economic diversification strategy. The country aims to develop diverse tourism products, ranging from cultural, urban, and nature tourism to education. Qatar plans to invest $45 billion in the tourism sector to increase international tourist numbers to seven million per annum by 2030 (Gulf Business, 2014). Given these significant tourism investments, it is unquestionable that the country reaps commensurate long-term benefits in terms of growth of its tourism sector and possible ripple effects in other sectors of the economy. However, Morakabati et al. (2014) argued that the country’s success in attracting tourists was limited due to several reasons. First, it lacks an appealing destination image. Second, civil liberty and political stability in the region are not well acknowledged by potential tourists and third, the country lacks strong promotions of religious and cultural traditions. This current research paper intends to conduct a comparative analysis of Qatar’s tourism competitiveness with its strong rivals, namely the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The main objective of the paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Qatar relative to the competing destinations based on a SWOT analysis. Methodology- The study employs the Global Competitiveness Ranking from Euromonitor and various tourism data sources from the World Bank and Google and conducts a comparative analysis to identify the strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) associated with Qatar’s tourism relative to its competing destinations. Findings- The analysis reveals that the average daily cost of living in Qatar is USD160, which is considerably high compared to Saudi Arabia (USD31), Egypt (USD28) and Turkey (USD98). Even though Qatar’s average daily cost is lower than the United Arab Emirates (USD198), the latter destination offers more variety of tourism products than Qatar. Furthermore, the competing nations have invested more resources in tourism development than Qatar. For instance, Qatar’s capital investment in travel and tourism services in 2019 was the lowest (USD2.05billion), compared to the United Arab Emirates (USD8.2billion), Saudi Arabia (USD26.87billion), Turkey (USD21.31billion) and Egypt (USD16.2billion). In terms of global competitiveness ranking, Qatar performed the best in health and financial system among its competitors. Conclusion- Based upon the analysis, it can be concluded that Qatar has lost its price competitiveness to its neighboring countries. In order to increase its tourism, the country should focus more on developing the highest quality of health tourism products and targeting on wealthy health conscious tourists. Qatar may also consider creating opportunties for those who can afford to buy a property and live in Qatar as second-home residents

Can Tourism Market Diversification Mitigate the Adverse Effects of a Blockade on Tourism? Evidence from Qatar

This study examines the effects of an unfavorable political event or environmental hostility, namely a blockade affecting international tourist inflows, and how tourism market diversification (TMD) could mitigate the adverse effects in the case of Qatar. To quantify these effects, we adopted a standard tourism demand model and augmented it with a Herfindahl index (HI) for the geographical diversification of tourism exports, a dummy variable for the blockade, and an interaction variable. We further analyzed the tourist inflows from various regions using regional dummies and their interaction terms to capture the different impacts of the blockade on Qatar’s inbound tourists from 46 source countries between 2006 and 2019. This study applied a panel-based differenced system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation to reveal several interesting findings. First, there was a significant positive individual effect of TMD on inbound tourism. Second, during the blockade, Qatar witnessed growing tourist inflows from Asia and Australasia, the Americas, and Europe. However, the incident inevitably placed severe constraints on some tourist flows to Qatar, primarily from Middle Eastern and African countries. Moreover, although the HI has a positive impact on tourism growth, our study revealed that the interaction terms between the HI and the blockade are only statistically significant in some cases, implying that a diversification strategy cannot completely mitigate the harmful effects of a blockade on tourism due to the severity of blockade effect. Nevertheless, a TMD strategy appears to be successful at the individual level