An investigation of performance and productivity in petroleum retailing in Malaysia

ABSTRACT The petroleum retailing industry in Malaysia has long been established since after World War two. The business environment of petroleum retailing industry is very much difficult with issues such as eroding real margins and rising costs that impact on the industry. The Malaysian petroleum retailing industry is a regulated industry and operating costs have been increasing for time to time. The automatic pricing mechanism was established in 1983 and the margins which were set by the government have never changed. However, the industry has grown and the market continues to be very competitive. The operators or dealers of service stations are required to do something in the market in order to survive in the industry. There are many factors can influencing the performance and/or productivity in this industry. The owners or managers should have to know and identify the external and internal environments which can dictate or affect their operations. Based on the external and internal environmental factors, two groups 0f variables were chosen from both factors to investigate the effect and impact of these factors on the industry. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase of the study, the researcher analyzed the common problems areas and the techniques used to approach these problems by service station owners and managers. With the initial stage completed, the researchers utilized this information in attempting to identify a methodology for analyzing performance and productivity of service stations. In the second phase of the study, the survey with structured questionnaire was done in southern part Of Peninsular Malaysia. The results of this research, mainly based on the study of the performance and productivity show that both internal (in this study represented by owner/manager and store characteristics) and external (represented by location and competitive characteristics) environmental variables played the significant roles in performance and productivity of service stations in Malaysia. Interestingly, while both internal and external environmental variables are significantly related to performance, only internal environmental variables can predict the productivity. In other words, internal environmental variables are better predictors of performance than productivity by service stations in this industry. Beside that, the study also found. that there is a differences between owner and manager regarding performance and productivity. As a conclusion, the researcher suggested that both measurement should be considered when any study need to be done on any industries especially in business and retailing in the future

The concepts through the mediating effects of psychographic constructs in tourist behavior

The relationships of subjective norms as well as their roles in the causal relationships as constructs are main issues for understanding consumer behavior. Hence, the importance of subjective norms is not covered as a valuable subject. Since there are a few studies about causal relationships of latent variables as mediating effect in the tourism literature; the aim of this article is to pursue and present to discover those precise associations among subjective norms as variables which lead to a new model of them. Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) are employed as the base of created model from Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Moreover, investigating of subjective issues is very useful to find out consumer behavior, while their concepts are as latent variables or intangibles are very complicated and sophisticated. Besides, tourism literature has a little information through the mediating effects of psychological variables which are led to tourism loyalty. However, the importance of mediating effects is valuable to know the customers how and why to do as well as to predict behavioral intentions. Further, the lack of conceptual framework from mentioned issues is improved by considering variables as subjective and their roles as mediating effects like lifestyle, personality and travel satisfaction between destination image and loyalty

The influences of strategic orientation and innovation capability on small and micro firm performance

The objective of this paper is to examine the determinants of strategic orientation (SO), which consist of market learning orientation (MLO) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and innovation capability (IC) towards small firm’s performance. According to the resource based view theory, MO and LO are significant antecedents of firm performance but many of the studies measured both as separate constructs. These two orientations are complementary in term of behavioral perspective where firm will learn and focus on market and later can help in the contribution of marketing towards business strategy. While the combination of MLO and EO is significant to proactively identify any changes related with the environment. Considerably, IC is regard as a dynamic capability approach to enable firm to sustain in this volatile market. The study is to explore the MLO, EO and IC of small and micro farmers of Malaysia using 235 respondents from Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern regions. The statistical analysis were done through scale’s reliability, factor loading determination and hypotheses testing. The testing showed that MLO and EO have positive impact to IC as well as farm performance. The contribution of this paper are on the conceptual model as well as the hypotheses development, particularly how MLO and EO give small and micro farmers’ ability to innovate and implement it towards farm’s performance

Changing skills required by the industries: perceptions of what makes business graduates employable

This study relates to the employers assessment of graduates skills as deem required by the industries. The business need for accelerated performance levels induces a responding desire for rapid changes in the skills required by universities graduates. A changing environment with resultant organizational restructuring means graduates now find jobs are more demanding as the needs of business to be more competitive. Whereas in the past, managerial competence went hand in hand with the possession of specific skills and abilities, it now seems to involve more. Empirical evidence from the research suggests that respondents share a basic commitment to the development of common skills within the context of a business and management studies programme. Clearly the employers participating in this study placed greater emphasis on major subjects of management and business (53.5%) and less on elective subjects (18.4%). Interestingly, the Quality Assurance Unit in Ministry of Higher Education in Malaysia also made a guideline of 50-60% of major subjects in Management and Business programme for undergraduate programme. On the other hand, this study confirmed that the industry also have the same views on programme composition in Management and Business programme in Malaysia.In-term of key skills in management and business programme, verbal and written communication skill were ranked higher and less on innumeracy skill. This finding also supported findings in the programme structure, where is the communication subject must play an important role in designing management and business syllabus. In academic and intellectual skills, be independence and ability to solve business problem placed most important skills by the employers. In line with that result, the employers also expected that the graduates will be able to carry out responsibilities assigned and always on time or can keep appointments. From this finding, it is imperative that higher learning institutions gave greater emphasis in developing soft skills of the students as well as preparing them with good attitude for employment

Acceptance of Islamic finance products: a study on muslim consumers attitude in a non Muslim country

In accordance with the teachings of Islam which prohibit the utilisation of Riba (interest), this has led to the development of a banking approach which are based on the laws of shariah. Although these methods are not totally new or revolutionary as it has been written and practiced during the renaissance of the Islamic civilisation, it has yet to establish itself and tested in the modern world as compared to the conventional banking. Many Muslims worldwide still engage in non-interest-free in financing their purchases especially those who are staying in non-muslim countries. There are many reasons why Muslims still engage in non-interest-free products. one of the reasons is the availibility of Muslim financial product or non-interest bearing financial instruments offers by the banks. it is quite difficulut to find such instruments as most of them are not easy to get. To some extent, there are only a few financial instituitions that offer such products products among Muslims outside the Islamic world and will explain whether there is demand for such product from Muslims staying in non Muslim countries. The study reveals that Muslims living in non Muslim countries are very much willing to change their practices from the conventional system into the new system – the Islamic financial system

International and local students satisfaction of healthcare services

This research aims to measure the international and local students satisfaction toward university healthcare services provided by one public university.The study determines the students expectations, perception and the gap between them based on the five dimensions of service quality of a modified SERVQUAL instrument.A total of 273 respondents answered the questionnaires consisted of 134 international students and 139 local students. The study shows that both groups of students were generally not satisfied with the services provided by the healthcare centre. Dissatisfaction among the International students was more closely related to the assurance-dimension; while the local students were dissatisfied with the reliability-dimension. Furthermore, the results show significant differences between the international and local students satisfaction with regard to assurance-dimension only

Provide good service quality to satisfy students' needs and make them become loyal students

This research studies the relationship between student satisfaction and student loyalty within the higher education service. More specifically, it examines the cognitive and affective aspects of students satisfaction, to see whether the satisfaction will lead to loyalty. From the 329 responses obtained from students in the public university in Malaysia, the study finds that the relationship between student satisfaction and student loyalty was only partially supported. For cognitive dimensions, feedback and assessment and perceived benefits of each course showed positive and significant relations to positive word of mouth. But, feedback and assessment showed negative relations to complaining behaviour. Physical environment, and feedback and assessment were found significant and having positive relations to the willingness to pay more. Physical environment showed negative relation to switching behaviour. For the affective dimensions, negative emotions showed negative significant relations to positive word of mouth. The study has shown the relationship among the variables that contribute to satisfaction and loyalty. Higher educational institutions could consider these factors as indicators or pointers which would offer as an added advantage to providing standards of service quality to satisfy students needs and make them become loyal students

Measuring online ads avoidance in the context of social media a conceptual study in Pakistan

Users of social media avoid visiting the sites related to social networking to behold ads. They probably go for browsing a site or searching a certain item of information. As a result, the content of advertisement is likely to be avoided. In this article, the impact of controversial perception of social media ads will examine with moderating function of ethical judgment of social media on intent to avoid ads, will be highlighted through an experimentation conducted online. This study will indicate probable features which can reverse the customers’ perceptions towards controversial ads avoidance on the environment of social media. With the help of data of more than 100 social media users in Pakistan, a conceptual research model of social media ads avoidance will test by means of structural equation modelling. The findings of this study will show that controversial perceptions of social media ads relation with social media ads avoidance behavior of consumers, but, this relation is moderated by personal reasons like ethical judgment

Adoption of Supply Chain Management in SMEs

AbstractThere has been a massive surge of interest in supply chain management (SCM) due to its innovation approach to business and competitive advantage. Large companies are well recognized the benefits of SCM, but small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are lagging behind in appreciating how integrated supply chain drives remarkable changes in business processes and work with positive results in better quality services, cost reduction and efficiency. Specifically, SMEs in Malaysia have insufficient knowledge on SCM and they underestimate the potential benefits of SCM. As SMEs is important growth engines in Malaysia, therefore, a great potential can be discovered to develop Malaysian SMEs through SCM. As such, this article includes a discussion of the applicability of SCM to SMEs by highlighting the needs and challenges of SMEs. The paper concludes that implementation of SCM could deliver a number of potential benefits to SMEs