The effects of entrepreneurial management, entrepreneurial orientation and ethics on the women-owned SMEs business performance in Malaysia

Being one of the major players in economic growth, the number of women-owned SMEs in Malaysia is increasing and researches are directed on their business performance. Notwithstanding the vital importance of this area, very few studies have been done to look at the relationships between entrepreneurial management, entrepreneurial orientation and ethics, and the performance of women-owned businesses particularly in Malaysia. Therefore, this study focused primarily on testing the possibility of ethics as the mediating variable in the relationships between entrepreneurial management and entrepreneurial orientation, and women-owned SMEs business performance. Based on the literature, six dimensions of entrepreneurial management: entrepreneurial culture, growth orientation, management structure, resource orientation, reward philosophy, and strategic orientation; and three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation: innovativeness, pro- activeness and risk taking, were selected, and 18 direct and indirect hypotheses were developed. Measurement tools were based on scales previously established in the literature for measuring entrepreneurial management, entrepreneurial orientation, ethics, and also business performance. A total of 207 usable data were gathered through a mail questionnaire survey, and multiple regressions analysis was employed to analyse the data. The empirical findings revealed significant relationships between women-owned SMEs business performance and resource orientation, reward philosophy, strategic orientation, innovativeness, pro-activeness as well as risk taking. Ethics was found to mediate the relationships between reward philosophy, strategic orientation, pro-activeness, risk taking and women-owned SMEs business performance. The research framework of this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge of women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship literature. The theoretical contributions and practical implications are also significant findings for women owners-managers of SMEs and women entrepreneurial development in the country. Finally, some limitations are also acknowledged that indicate future research directions

Market Research and Target Market Segmentation in City’s External and Internal Environment

Marketing segmentation have to be massive enough to fulfil the financial necessity of the organization and its products. Segmentation can be picked primarily based on demographics, psychographic, behavioural or geographic place. The segmentation has to be reachable by way of promotional means. Customer contentment, consumer allegiance and consumer retention are critical intermediate goals for education carriers on their ride to higher economic success in the liberalized markets. (Christopher, Payne, & Ballantyne, 2013) suggest the use of segmentation as a way to improve client satisfaction, client loyalty and consumer retention

Covid-19 and marketing strategies

COVID-19 is the disease caused by a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. It was named a coronavirus because the virus represents crown-like spikes on the outer surface of the virus (WHO, 2020). According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020), the first case reported was on December 31, 2019. The first case reported was a 'viral pneumonia' cluster at a Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China. On March 11, 2020, WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic. This disease was characterized as a pandemic because of its rapid spread, affecting many people and occurring worldwide. Common symptoms of this disease are high fever, dry cough, and fatigue. Other symptoms can be loss of taste and smell, headache, muscle pain, etc

Covid-19 and its impact on the Malaysian SMEs

The spread of the first Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China, shocked the whole world at the end of 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared this epidemic a global pandemic for different countries worldwide on March 11, 2020 (Cucinotta & Vanellli, 2020). Due to this, many countries limited the movement of their people and business activities, and large gatherings, including schools, to effectively transmit the disease (Toda, 2020). On March 18, 2020, the Malaysian government had also announced the Movement Control Order (MCO). People of the country were instructed for a 'social distancing' to enable and resolve the spread of COVID-19

The level of adoption of green supply chain management and green innovation in Malaysian manufacturing industries

Recently, corporate environmental practice such as Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) and green innovation appears as a novel organized environmental practice for manufacturing companies to handle the increasing environmental issues. The aim of this paper is to assess the level of adoption of GSCM and green innovation practices. A total of 123 responses from Malaysian manufacturing companies were collected from mail questionnaire. The results showed Malaysian manufacturing companies are in trial adoption stage for both GSCM practices and green innovation. Internal environmental management practice of GSCM practices are relatively high adopted in Malaysian manufacturing organisation. Meanwhile, most of all green innovation practices are heavily implemented in Malaysian manufacturing companies. This paper empirically attempts to provide understanding and new insights for sustainability management area where GSCM and green innovation practices are important to improve organisational environmental performance, which can directly offer great benefits for both researchers and practitioners

Understanding stakeholder pressures in adopting environmental management practices based on stakeholder theory: a review

The concept of green business is generated from the emerging of environmental pressures that mainly focused on eliminating negative environmental impacts throughout companies’ activities. This purpose of this paper is to review and provide understanding on the stakeholder pressures based on stakeholder theory in driving organization to implement any environmental management practices such as green supply chain management and green innovation. This paper concludes by suggesting the stakeholder theory can be as an underlying theory in supporting the connection between the implementation of an environmental management practices and organizational performance

Usage behavior among paywave card users in Kuala Lumpur

PayWave cards are used to make contactless payment be faster. However, the issues on data theft has been questioned by the bank's union. This study has been developed to identify the level of usage of payWave cards among consumers in Kuala Lumpur, as well as identifying the relationship between data security and data privacy towards the usage behavior of the payWave cards. A total of 204 data were collected through questionnaires and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) had been used to analyze the data. The level of usage of payWave cards among consumers in Kuala Lumpur was found moderate. Meanwhile, there was a significant relationship between the data security and privacy and the usage behavior towards payWave cards. The findings of this study enhance the knowledge regarding payWave cards and provide practical contributions to the banking institutions and policy makers in increasing the use of payWave cards among consumers

THE INFLUENCE OF SERVICE BRANDING PERCEPTION ONCUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF LOW COST AIRLINES: AIR ASIA AND MALINDO AIR

The main challenge of low cost airline such as Air Asia and Malindo Air is to make the brand of the airline echoes with quality. Both airlines are perceived differently even though they are in the same industry due to their branding efforts. Thus, this study aims to understand the relationships of service branding (amenities, word-of-mouth, employee, feelings, reliability and publicity) with customer satisfaction amongst Air Asia and Malindo Air customers. A total of 270 questionnaires were distributed to the customers in the airport through a convenience sampling. The multiple regression analysis indicated only three variables of service branding have significant relationships with customer satisfaction namely amenities, word of mouth and employee. Low cost airlines in general will find this data or information helpful particularly in their endeavour to best serve their customers through service branding efforts which in the long run will help them to sustain and expand their business to another level.Â

What matters to Malaysian students retention: university image or external environment?

In Malaysia, the growth of higher education institutions provides not only more opportunities but increasing competition within the industry. Despite its enormous potential, investigating student retention and its antecedents will provide vital input for the industry to sustain and strategize the most appropriate marketing actions. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how university image (program, facilities, reputation, and cost) and external environment (influences of peers and family and students’ achievement) have a relationship with students’ retention. A total of 300 university students participated in this study, which they were required to complete the online questionnaire. This study employed a correlational study using a cross-sectional design and close-ended questions. Remarkably, the finding of the current study confirmed only one dimension of the university image, namely reputation, had a positive relationship with students’ retention. In contrast, university image attributes such as program, facilities, cost; and external environment, which is peer/family influence and achievement, have no relationship with students’ retention. Future recommendations are also discussed in dealing with the students' retention issues concerning students’ characteristics such as socioeconomic status and the mediating variable effects

Investigating the Factors on E-commerce Adoption among SMEs: A View of Technology Acceptance Model

The adoption of e-commerce has become crucial for organizations, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to gain a competitive edge in the market since the emergence of the World Wide Web. Although previous research has investigated e-commerce adoption in different countries, there still needs to be studies, particularly in the Malaysian e-commerce industry, which has experienced accelerated growth due to the consumers' increased online shopping in response to the nationwide lockdown and movement restrictions. To address this gap, this study utilized the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to examine the relationships between organizational awareness (OA), perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), and e-commerce adoption (EA) among SMEs in Johor. The study employed a quantitative approach and distributed an online questionnaire to the targeted respondents, resulting in 384 data sets that were analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, including descriptive and correlation analysis. The findings indicated that organizational awareness (OA), perceived usefulness (PU), and perceived ease of use (PEOU) had significant effects on e-commerce adoption (EA) among Johor SMEs. The results could assist the Johor State Government in developing and enhancing policies for the Digital Economy agenda and contribute to a better understanding of the factors that affect e-commerce adoption among SMEs in Johor. Finally, the study suggested future research directions based on the limitations and implications of the research