Impact of food advertising in social media among local university students in Malaysia

Malaysia is well-known for its multi-cultural people and foods. With the emerging on the social media, it influences the food choice decision among Malaysian Consumers especially the university students who are technology savvy. There are many studies on food advertising, but so far limited studies have been conducted to understand the impacts of social media in food advertising among local university students in Malaysia. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the overall attitude and behavioral intention of local university students toward food advertising in social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs). 231 samples were recruited with convenient sampling method. With the findings, it can help the academicians and industry practitioners to have better understanding on attributes of food advertising in social media that contribute significantly to students’ food purchase decision

Motives for millennials' choice on traditional food and their level of consumption: A cross-cultural comparison.

Malaysian cuisine is known for its vibrant and diverse flavours which reflects the multi-ethnic makeup of its population. Hence, it is interesting to investigate how the differences of background and cultures lead to different food consumption and motives for food choices among different ethnic groups. This study aims to investigate the relationship between consumption of traditional food and motives for food choice among millennial in Malaysia with ethnicity as the moderator. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 922 representative millennial which consisted of Malays (31%), Chinese (35.9%) and Indians (33.1%). The results of this study indicate that health concern, familiarity, mood and ethical concerns significantly influence the millennials’ general attitude towards traditional food consumption. Additionally, PLS-Multi-Group Analysis (MGA) was employed to study the association of food choice motives, general attitude and the level of consumption among the young Malays, Chinese and Indians in Malaysia. The results show that the differences in background and cultures between Malays and Chinese, and Malays and Indians, moderate the effect of mood on the general attitude towards traditional food. While for Chinese and Indians, different background and cultures moderate the influence of convenience on the general attitude towards traditional food

Antecedents affecting employee service recovery performance in five star hotel

Studies on service recovery have been dominated by the investigation on customer’s perceived value after service recovery in the past. However, not many have taken concerted efforts in examining the possible factors that influencing employees’ service recovery performance (SRP). This study examines the role of organizational’s characteristics (reward system, guest focus and commitment, system, policy and procedures of recovery) and employees’ characteristics (organizational’s commitment and prejudgment towards customer’s complaint) on employees’ service recovery performance (SRP) in Malaysia luxury hotels. The finding shows that rewarding system and prejudgement towards complaints has positive influences on employees’ service recovery performance. The result *is contradicting with the findings from past research in which prejudgement towards complainers has adversely affect employees’ service recovery performance

An evaluation of organizational change in the Housing & Development Board

The need for change is constant in the current business environment. As customers become more informed and demanding, organizations must undergo transformation to meet customers’ expectation. While organizations understand the need for change, organizational transformation is never an easy task. Theories indicated that successful organizational changes are results oriented. They often include a series of critical steps with pitfalls that organization must avoid. The critical steps include establishing an urgent need for change and translating this need to a vision. This vision will then need to be communicated and shared among all stakeholders. When effectively communicated, the vision will empower stakeholders to spread revitalization effort to achieve the vision. The transformation effort can only be sustained and internalized by staff if systems and structures are also reviewed accordingly. Besides managing the change process, it is also important to address resistance in behaviour of people involved in the change. This requires robust communication plan that builds trust and reinstates personal compact in employees. The study examined the organizational change that took place in the Housing & Development Board where two service counters were merged to provide value added services to customers and to increase the job value of staff. The change process was examined and compared with successful change models described in literature. The objective is to ascertain if adherence to these change models would lead to successful organization change. The findings based on the HDB change process revealed that adherence to change models described in the literature would indeed lead to successful organizational change. However, management must also ensure that communication efforts are extended to customers, training programmes are effective in preparing staff for the change and customized to suit staff’s learning ability. Further, time and space must be adequately provided to prepare staff for the change

(2 Z )-3-Hydroxy-1-(pyridin-2-yl)-3-(pyridin-3-yl)prop-2-en-1one: crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis

The title compound, C13H10N2O2 [also called 1-(pyridin-2-yl)-3-(pyridin-3-yl)propane-1,3-dione], features an almost planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0095 Å) central C3O2 core consolidated by an intra­molecular hy­droxy-O-H...O(carbon­yl) hydrogen bond. Twists are evident in the mol­ecule, as seen in the dihedral angles between the central core and the 2- and pyridin-3-yl rings of 8.91 (7) and 15.88 (6)°, respectively. The conformation about the C=C bond [1.3931 (17) Å] is Z, and the N atoms lie to the same side of the mol­ecule. In the mol­ecular packing, supra­molecular chains along the a axis are mediated by [pi](pyridin-2-yl)-[pi](pyridin-3-yl) inter­actions [inter-centroid distance = 3.7662 (9) Å]. The observation that chains pack with no directional inter­actions between them is consistent with the calculated electrostatic potential, which indicates that repulsive inter­actions dominate

Expression profiles of putative defence-related proteins in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) colonized by Ganoderma boninense.

Basal stem rot (BSR) is a major disease of oil palm caused by a pathogenic fungus, Ganoderma boninense. However, the interaction between the host plant and its pathogen is not well characterized. To better understand the response of oil palm to G. boninense, transcript profiles of eleven putative defence-related genes from oil palm were measured by quantitative reverse-transcription (qRT)-PCR in the roots of oil palms treated with G. boninense from 3 to 12 weeks post infection (wpi). These transcripts encode putative Bowman-Birk serine protease inhibitors (EgBBI1 and 2), defensin (EgDFS), dehydrin (EgDHN), early methionine-labeled polypeptides (EgEMLP1 and 2), glycine-rich RNA binding protein (EgGRRBP), isoflavone reductase (EgIFR), metallothionein-like protein (EgMT), pathogenesis-related-1 protein (EgPRP), and type 2 ribosome-inactivating protein (EgT2RIP). The transcript abundance of EgBBI2 increased in G. boninense-treated roots at 3 and 6. wpi compared to those of controls; while the transcript abundance of EgBBI1, EgDFS, EgEMLP1, EgMT, and EgT2RIP increased in G. boninense-treated roots at 6 or 12. wpi. Meanwhile, the gene expression of EgDHN was up-regulated at all three time points in G. boninense-treated roots. The expression profiles of the eleven transcripts were also studied in leaf samples upon inoculation of G. boninense and Trichoderma harzianum to identify potential biomarkers for early detection of BSR. Two candidate genes (EgEMLP1 and EgMT) that have different profiles in G. boninense-treated leaves compared to those infected by T. harzianum may have the potential to be developed as biomarkers for early detection of G. boninense infection

Epidemiology and Control of Legionellosis, Singapore

To determine trends and clinical and epidemiologic features of legionellosis in Singapore, we studied cases reported during 2000–2009. During this period, 238 indigenous and 33 imported cases of legionellosis were reported. Cases were reported individually and sporadically throughout each year. Although the annual incidence of indigenous cases had decreased from 0.46 cases per 100,000 population in 2003 to 0.16 cases per 100,000 in 2009, the proportion of imported cases increased correspondingly from 6.2% during 2000–2004 to 27.3% during 2005–2009 (p<0.0005). The prevalence of Legionella bacteria in cooling towers and water fountains was stable (range 12.1%–15.3%) during 2004–August 2008

The impact of Asian financial crisis and global ICT sectors correction on the relationships between stock prices and exchange rates in ASEAN-5

This paper has investigated the dynamic impacts of the Asian financial crisis and global Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector correction on the relationships between exchange rates and stock prices for the ASEAN-5 funding countries. They are Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Using daily data 1995 – 2001, the results of variance decompositions analysis suggest that during pre-crisis, crisis and ICT bubble, the exchange rates have more influential power in influencing stock prices. Thus, this finding is in line with the traditional approach of stock prices determination, where exchange rate change is expected to give rise to stock price change. However, during post-bubble period stock prices become the dominant explanatory variable in all countries