The degree of cooperation in international strategic alliances and value creation outcomes: Empirical study on service firms in Yemen

International strategic alliances (ISAs) are one of the partnership options that may be used by firms in achieving their goals.It is an inter-firm cooperation where firms commit some of their resources and capabilities towards the alliance to create a competitive advantage.Yemeni services industry need to improve its competitiveness and the quality of services it provides to the people and therefore, forming a strategic alliances with foreign partners is considered as one of the best strategies.Although the involvement of Yemeni’s service firms in ISAs are evidence, but there is no previous study conducted to determine whether these alliances do create value to the firms or not.Therefore, this study is conducted with the objectives of determining whether Yemeni’s service firms’ involvement in ISAs do create value to the firms or not, and what kind of value creation outcomes are created by this ISAs. Alliances may also come in various forms with different degree of cooperation.This study will also look at the influence of the degree of cooperation in ISAs on the value creation outcomes.Survey of 214 service firms’ managers revealed that ISAs do create value to the organization with financial value top the list.Improvement in customer service and better return on investment (ROI) are among the most important advantage gain by these service firms from their involvement in ISAs.This study also posits a significant positive relationship between the degree of cooperation in ISAs and the value creation outcome

Technology readiness and users satisfaction towards self-service technology at Malaysian Airport

This study examines the relationship between four dimensions of Technology Readiness Index (TR) namely optimism, innovativeness, insecurity, discomfort, and the level of customer’s satisfaction towards the use of self-service technology (SSTs) at the airport.SSTs used by the airport operators or airlines at the terminal for check-in or when performing other transactions includes booking airline ticket online, kiosk check-in and mobile check-in.At the same time, this study also tries to look at whether there is any difference in technology readiness between different demographic groups of Malaysians.Survey questionnaires were distributed to passengers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia.The result of the analysis shows that innovativeness and optimism have a positive relationship with customer satisfaction.There are also differences in technology readiness among different gender for innovativeness and insecurity index.The implication of the study suggests that Malaysia’s airport or airline providers should increase customer satisfaction especially by introducing new innovative technology at their premises.The findings may also help firms develop their strategy to further increase the customer’s satisfaction when using the self-service technology (SST) at airports in Malaysia

Inter-firm dependency and the adoption of e-procurement system: Case study of Malaysian manufacturers

E-procurement is an automated purchasing system that may help improve the coordination and efficiency of procurement activities between component or materials suppliers and manufacturer. There has been much research conducted to identify factors that encourage the adoption and diffusion of e-procurement technology but there is no evidence of study that looks from the resource dependency theory perspective.Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the impact of dependency among supply chain members on the diffusion of an e-procurement adoption system by using a case-study interview method.This paper will discuss the findings of case study interviews conducted with two manufacturers in Malaysia that supply components and parts to a relatively larger manufacturer in Malaysia.With support from the resource dependency theory, the findings of this paper highlight the extent to which supplier's dependency to their major business partners may lead to the adoption of e-procurement system

Knowledge sharing between multinational corporation’s headquarters and subsidiaries: The impact of manager’s role, compensation system and cultural differences

Knowledge sharing is a systematic process for creating, acquiring, synthesizing, learning, sharing and using knowledge to achieve organizational goals.It is also a source of competitive advantage especially for multinational companies. The objective of this paper is to discuss the impact of subsidiary manager’s role in knowledge sharing, manager’s compensation system, and the level of cultural differences between home and host country on the level of knowledge sharing between the headquarters and subsidiaries of multinational companies.A study has been conducted at a subsidiary of a large manufacturing company in Malaysia. Data were collected via self administered survey questionnaire.The respondents consist of 100 executives and managers of the company, and all the questionnaires distributed were filled and returned back for data analysis. Findings indicate that all three factors significantly influence the level of knowledge sharing with the manager’s compensation system has the strongest impact.MNC therefore should clearly define the manager’s role in knowledge sharing and provide attractive rewards and remunerations to encourage knowledge sharing.At the same time, cultural differences should not be considered as a barrier to knowledge sharing as this study indicates that it can be a driver for effective knowledge sharing between headquarters and subsidiaries

Examining the Most Severe Logistics and Supply Chain Issues Experienced by Malaysian SMEs

Literature revealed that both the internal and external factors may result in business failure among Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME). One of the external factors identified is non-availability or deficiency in logistics and supply chain operations. Thus, this study was conducted with the objective to identify the most severe logistics and supply chain issues faced by SMEs in Malaysia. Quantitative research design was employed, where data were collected through mail survey questionnaire. The frequency of respondents selecting 4 (Severe) and 5 (Very severe) for each survey item were calculated, in order to determine which issues are the most severe among Malaysian SMEs. The items are then ranked based on the highest number of respondents selecting 4 and 5. It provides more meaningful information on the most severe logistics and supply chain issues faced by SMEs, if compared to analysing the mean score of each item as the mean value may be distorted by high standard deviation. Findings indicate that difficulties and inaccuracies in forecasting inventory top the list, followed by inability to fulfil orders due to inventory shortages and keeping wrong mix of inventories. Thus, it can be concluded that inventory related issues are the most critical problems faced by Malaysian SMEs. This study contributes towards logistics and supply chain management literature as it provides an in depth information on the logistics and supply chain related issues faced by SMEs. For practitioners and the relevant government agency, this study sheds light on the most severe issues so that firms and government agency can focus their efforts on rectifying these severe logistics and supply chain issue

Sustaining port competitive advantage: An application of resource-based view approach

This research aims to determine the relationship of port resources and capabilities with the port performance. The data was collected through self-administered survey and mail questionnaires.The results from the findings indicate that port tangible resources such as financial assets, technology assets and physical assets are playing a significant role to increase performance of Malaysian port.Meanwhile, for port intangible assets such as intellectual property assets, organizational assets and capabilities, the study found that these resources have significantly contributed to the higher port performance as compared to port tangible assets.Most interestingly, the findings also discover that the organizational assets such as port culture, structure of the firms, firm human resource policies, port contract in the vertical and horizontal integration and port reputation show the highest significant level as compared to other components in the port intangible assets.This study extends the body of literature related to the source of port competitive advantage. The findings of this research are also providing important contributions for practitioners and policy makers in developing policies and strategies for promoting Malaysia as a world maritime nation

The Role of Knowledge Adoptive Capacity towards Exports Performance: An Evidence from Textile Sector

Purpose - Knowledge absorptive capacity plays a significant role in export performance. It is a dynamic capability that firms apply to gain competitiveness in today’s knowledge-based economies. The aim of the present research is to identify relationship among dimensions of KAC and export performance. Design/Methodology - Nature of study was descriptive and quantitative. Data was collected through questionnaires from 291 large scale textile firms of Pakistan. Smart PLS was used in analyzing data by incorporating CFA and SEM techniques to test the hypotheses. Findings - The results reveal that knowledge acquisition, transformation, and exploitation have significant positive relationship with export performance

Examining hierarchical importance of competitive strategy components of Penang Port of Malaysia: A preliminary study

This study is aimed at investigating the importance of Porter’s competitive strategy components for main seaport in the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), the Penang Port.This study examines, priority perspectives on the competitive strategy components from various relevant experts or academia using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach.The data were gathered from a study conducted within the NCRC research grant project.About 3 components of Porter’s competitive strategy, namely; cost leadership, focus and differentiation were examined.The findings show the hierarchy of importance for each component to be considered by Penang Port authority.This study highlights new implications of using appropriate competitive strategy for Penang Port growth based on its hierarchical approach

Reverse logistics: Pressure for adoption and the impact on firm’s performance

One of the new challenges faced by Malaysian firms that want to go global is the fact that many countries have introduced legislation or directives to ensure effective disposal of manufactured products and its waste.Furthermore, the increase in awareness on environmental issues, sustainable development, corporate citizenship and the benefit of recycling had also placed more pressure on firms to adopt sustainable business initiatives such as a better reverse logistics strategy.Manufacturing firms however often focused on forward logistics and as a result, they tend to overlook at the importance of reverse logistics activities and its potential of improving the firm’s performance.The objective of this study is to look at the current level of reverse logistics adoption among manufacturers in Malaysia and to identify the influence of customer/stakeholder pressure, regulatory pressure, financial and competitive pressure, and corporate citizenship pressure on the level of reverse logistics adoption. In addition, this study also aims to determine the relationship between reverse logistics adoption level and firm’s performance. Data was collected through survey questionnaire, and the respondents consist of managers at manufacturing firms located in the Northern State of Malaysia and the Klang Valley. 101 samples were collected and data analysis was conducted using the Partial Least Square (PLS) regression analysis, through SmartPLS 2.0 software. Findings indicate that the level of reverse logistics adoption among Malaysia manufacturers is considerably low. Out of four independent variables, only the regulatory pressure has a significantly strong influence on the level of reverse logistics adoption, while customer and stakeholder pressure has a significant but moderate influence. No significant relationship was observed between the level of reverse logistics adoption and firm’s performance

The pressure for reverse logistics adoption among manufacturers in Malaysia

This study aims to examine how the level of reverse logistics adoption among manufacturers in Malaysia can be influenced by customer/stakeholder pressure, regulatory pressure, financial and competitive pressure, and corporate citizenship pressure.Data were collected through a survey questionnaire, and respondents were managers of manufacturing firms located in the Northern States of Peninsular Malaysia and the Klang Valley.Partial Least Square (PLS) regression analysis was applied and the findings indicate that regulatory pressure has a significantly strong influence on the level of reverse logistics adoption, while customer/stakeholder pressure has moderate influence