Corporate Governance, Ownership Structure and Expropriation of Rights: Case of Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises

SMEs serve as the financial backbone of the developed and developing economies, and a major contributor in many countries' GDP. A sustainable SME sector is vital for a developing country like Malaysia where SMEs represent 99.2 % of the overall business establishment and a major employment sector in the country. Although, the Malaysian SME sector faces a critical problem, which results in 50 % of SMEs collapse during the first five years of operation and a 60% rate of failure among SMEs. in addition, unauthorized use of company property, misappropriating company funds, making false statements, illegal investment schemes and many other allegations have been put on the Malaysian SME owners and directors in the past. The objective of this paper is to investigate the Malaysian SMEs structure, past allegations and the corporate governance practices in the medium sized manufacturing SMEs. This study has adopted a qualitative approach, face-to-face interviews were conducted with SME owners/directors, and regulatory body officials. The results show that the Malaysian SMEs are mainly family based and higher management positions are kept by the family. Furthermore, it was revealed that there is no corporate governance code for the SMEs.This provides room for the family to expropriate minority shareholders' rights and perform illegal activities. Hence, the results stressed on the need of the implementation of corporate governance code for Malaysian SMEs. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Ownership Structure, Family Ownership, Foreign Ownership, Expropriation of rights JEL Classifications: L25, L26, L60, M10, Y

Analyzing oral communication apprehension prevailing among engineers in engineering workplace of Pakistan

Communicative apprehension affects job performance of engineers at workplace and it is never in the better interest of organizations. The purpose of this research was to investigate communication apprehension prevailing among engineers in engineering workplace of Pakistan. Five (5) engineers from 2 engineering organizations of Pakistan participated in this study. Purposive sampling method was employed since participants were drawn on specific criteria of engineers with minimum five years’ industry experience. All presentations were video recorded to explore communication apprehension traits that affected oral presentation performance of engineers. Data were analyzed qualitatively using oral presentation assessment rubric based on communication apprehension traits. This assessment rubric contained four communication apprehension traits such as oral communication skill, credibility or confidence, gestures or purposeful use of body and appearance of nervous mannerism. The results of the study revealed that due to communication apprehension engineers’ possessed poor credulity or confidence, poor gestures or purposeful use of body and faced nervousness that affected their effective oral presentation performance. The findings of this study can be used as a guideline to overcome communication apprehension of engineers through oral communication and oral presentation skill trainings in order to make them productive for organizations

Analyzing Communication Apprehension of Engineering Students of Pakistan for Workplace Environment

Communication apprehension is present in academic and non academic settings that affect oral presentation performance of engineering students. The purpose of this research was to explore communication apprehension prevailing among engineering students of Pakistan. Ten (10) engineering students from two engineering universities of Pakistan participated in this study. Purposive sampling method was used since respondents were selected on specific criteria of only final year engineering students. All presentations were video recorded to capture communication apprehension related barriers that influenced effective oral presentation performance of engineering students. Data were analyzed qualitatively using oral presentation assessment rubric based on four communication apprehension traits such as oral communication skill, credibility or confidence, gestures or purposeful use of body and appearance nervous mannerism. Three assessors assessed these presentations to overcome researcher bias. The results of the study revealed that communication apprehension affected oral communication skill and credibility or confidence of engineering students. In addition, due to communication apprehension they faced nervousness during oral presentation performance. The findings of the study can be used as a guideline to overcome communication apprehension of engineering students to prepare them productive engineers for modern industry. Keywords: Communication apprehension, Engineering Workplace, Engineering student

Workplace Communication: Oral Communicative Competence of Engineers in Engineering Workplace of Pakistan

Communicative competence plays important role for engineers to perform workplace jobs efficiently in this wide spread business environment of organizations. The respondents of the study who participated in oral presentations were six engineers from 2 engineering workplace of Pakistan. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection purpose. Oral presentations were video recorded to capture communication strategies employed by engineers to overcome communication deficiencies during oral presentations. The data were analyzed qualitatively using strategic competence framework proposed by Canale and Swain (1980). In addition, Dornyei and Scott’s (1995) compiled Inventory of Strategic Language Devices was used to investigate types of communication strategies used by engineers to overcome their communication deficiencies during oral presentations. Open coding (Richards, 2005; Strauss and Corbin, 1998) was used to code the oral presentation data. The results of the study indicated that engineers employed four communication strategies namely message abandonment, code switching, self repetition and use of fillers. The findings of the study can be used as a guideline to add communication strategies in engineering curriculum to prepare productive engineers for modern industry. Key words: Communicative Competence, Engineers, Engineering Workplac

How Different Ownership Structures Perform in Industry 4.0: A Case of Malaysian Manufacturing SMEs

Small and medium enterprises are vital components for economic growth globally. Similarly, the Malaysian manufacturing SMEs has contributed greatly in developing Malaysia’s economy. However, higher failure rate of the Malaysian SMEs is a great concern among researchers and government bodies. Currently, the industry 4.0 has changed the business environment globally. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the relationship of ownership structures on firm performance with a mediating role of innovation. Baron and Kenny approach of mediation analysis was used on the sample of the Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. The results revealed that, majority SMEs prefer traditional business methods, which causes the higher failure rate in the industry

Industrial advancements and emerging need between industry and engineering universities of Pakistan

Industry academia collaboration plays paramount role for both stakeholders and there are numerous benefits of that collaboration. This study aims to determine the role of this collaboration and its potential advantages for both the parties. The respondents for this study were 40 working engineers from two engineering organizations of Pakistan. Purposive sampling method was used to draw the participants. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 15.0) to draw percentages for each variable such as gap between technical and non technical skills at workplace and communication skills in engineering curriculum that assists engineering graduates to perform workplace jobs efficiently following graduation at workplace. The results of the study suggest that there is a gap between technical and non technical skills at workplace and the subject of English or communication skills taught to engineering students does not significantly improve communication skills of engineering students. The findings of the study can be used as a guideline to overcome prevailing technical and non technical skills gap at workplace and to add more communication skill subjects in engineering curriculum in order to better train future engineers for the workplace which has become more demanding in terms of skills of engineers compared to past decade engineers

How Different Ownership Structures Perform in Industry 4.0: A Case of Malaysian Manufacturing SMEs

Small and medium enterprises are vital components for economic growth globally. Similarly, the Malaysian manufacturing SMEs has contributed greatly in developing Malaysia’s economy. However, higher failure rate of the Malaysian SMEs is a great concern among researchers and government bodies. Currently, the industry 4.0 has changed the business environment globally. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the relationship of ownership structures on firm performance with a mediating role of innovation. Baron and Kenny approach of mediation analysis was used on the sample of the Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. The results revealed that, majority SMEs prefer traditional business methods, which causes the higher failure rate in the industry

Analyzing communication apprehension of engineering students of Pakistan for workplace environment

Communication apprehension is present in academic and non academic settings that affect oral presentation performance of engineering students. The purpose of this research was to explore communication apprehension prevailing among engineering students of Pakistan. Ten (10) engineering students from two engineering universities of Pakistan participated in this study. Purposive sampling method was used since respondents were selected on specific criteria of only final year engineering students. All presentations were video recorded to capture communication apprehension related barriers that influenced effective oral presentation performance of engineering students. Data were analyzed qualitatively using oral presentation assessment rubric based on four communication apprehension traits such as oral communication skill, credibility or confidence, gestures or purposeful use of body and appearance nervous mannerism. Three assessors assessed these presentations to overcome researcher bias. The results of the study revealed that communication apprehension affected oral communication skill and credibility or confidence of engineering students. In addition, due to communication apprehension they faced nervousness during oral presentation performance. The findings of the study can be used as a guideline to overcome communication apprehension of engineering students to prepare them productive engineers for modern industry

Industrial Advancements and emerging need for Collaboration between Industry and Engineering Universities of Pakistan

Industry academia collaboration plays paramount role for both stakeholders and there are numerous benefits of that collaboration. This study aims to determine the role of this collaboration and its potential advantages for both the parties. The respondents for this study were 40 working engineers from two engineering organizations of Pakistan. Purposive sampling method was used to draw the participants. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 15.0) to draw percentages for each variable such as gap between technical and non technical skills at workplace and communication skills in engineering curriculum that assists engineering graduates to perform workplace jobs efficiently following graduation at workplace. The results of the study suggest that there is a gap between technical and non technical skills at workplace and the subject of English or communication skills taught to engineering students does not significantly improve communication skills of engineering students. The findings of the study can be used as a guideline to overcome prevailing technical and non technical skills gap at workplace and to add more communication skill subjects in engineering curriculum in order to better train future engineers for the workplace which has become more demanding in terms of skills of engineers compared to past decade engineers. Keywords: Collaboration, Industry, Engineering Universitie