The mediating effects of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between leadership styles and performance of SMEs in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between leadership styles, entrepreneurial orientation and business performance of SMEs in Malaysia. A total of 391 owner/managers participated in this research. The owner/managers were sent a package of questionnaires which comprised the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire MLQ 5X (Bass & Avolio, 1995, 2000, 2004), the Entrepreneurial Orientation Questionnaire EOQ (Covin & Slevin, 1991), the Business Performance BP (Dess & Robinson, 1984; Allen & Helms, 2002; Choi & Lee, 2003; O'Regan, Ghobadian & Sims, 2005) questionnaire and the demographic questionnaire. Out of 391 questionnaires answered only 371 questionnaires were usable for this research. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS version 16. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. This study found that there were significant positive relationships between i) transformational leadership and business performance, ii) transactional leadership and business performance, iii) transformational leadership and entrepreneurial orientation, iv) transactional leadership and entrepreneurial orientation, and v) entrepreneurial orientation and business performance. This study also found that passive-avoidant leadership was negatively correlated with either business performance or entrepreneurial orientation. Although entrepreneurial orientation was supposed to be fully mediating the relationship between leadership styles and business performance, the results showed that the mediating effect was only partial. The findings can be generalized as follows: (i) the study found that transformational and transactional leadership styles were the dominant form of leaderships displayed by the owner/managers of the SMEs and (ii) the direct effect relationships between leadership styles and business performance were more significant than the effect of using the entrepreneurial orientation as a mediator. The findings demonstrated that SMEs owner/managers need to upgrade their leadership skills and improved the company's entrepreneurial orientation in order for them to survive the competitive market environment. The owner/managers must be willing to be more innovative, pro-active and able to take higher risk. In ensuring that SMEs will continue to contribute to the national economy, the government is urged to develop higher level training programs that will help the owner/managers to upgrade their leadership skills. This study also provides an opportunity to expand the research on other industries such as manufacturing, constructions, agricultures and telecommunications. Future researchers perhaps may want to investigate the effect of leadership styles and entrepreneurial orientation on Malaysian SMEs going abroad, as international expansion offers a potential way for these firms to increase growth and improve performance

Engineering properties of cemented peat bricks

Housing is a great problem in today’s world and the world future. The most basic building material for infrastructure construction and housing is the usual brick or blocks. Conventional bricks, which are burnt clay, create environmental problems. The purpose for this study was undertaken on the production of peat; siliceous sand, composite cement and lime solid bricks to solve the economic problems of housing and construction building by utilizing local materials. The compressive strength, water absorption and density of these bricks were investigated. It was observed that these bricks had sufficient strength for their use in low cost housing development. Tests were also conducted to study the influence of curing type on the increase in strength and hardening of the bricks with time

Optimization of extraction conditions of antioxidant activity from zingiber zerumbet oleoresin

The health promoting capacity of natural antioxidant from phytochemicals has increase attention from researchers and public. However, processing is affecting the activity and the bioavailability of bioactive compounds. Therefore, the optimization of extraction condition of antioxidant activity from Zingiber zerumbet oleoresin was investigated. A Box-Behnken design technique was employed to study the effect of different range parameters of soxhlet extraction. Analysis of variance and response surface methodology were applied to identify the optimal processing parameter. Independent variables were extraction time (8, 10 and 12), type of solvent used (hexane, acetone, ethanol) and blanching treatment (steam treated, boil treated, untreated). The response and variables were fitted well to each other by multiple regressions. All the independent parameters affected oleoresin yield and antioxidant activity significantly. The optimal processing parameter that fulfilled the requirement for yield of oleoresin and antioxidant activity were found to be 12 h extraction time, ethanol as the solvent used and untreated sample. While, the optimal yield of oleoresin was 13.05% w/w and antioxidant activity was 16.01% w/w

Daya tahan dalam kalangan guru alaf 21

Seorang guru itu dikatakan mempunyai daya tahan apabila guru tersebut mampu menghadapi segala cabaran termasuklah perubahan yang berlaku dalam sistem pendidikan. Mereka yang mempunyai daya tahan menjadikan perubahan ini sebagai satu cabaran dan bukannya halangan atau satu masalah kepada mereka. Daya tahan berkembang dari semasa ke semasa dan kebolehan atau kapasiti yang muncul dalam individu adalah dalam bentuk kemahiran. Kemahiran ini akhirnya akan menjadi kekuatan yang berkekalan dan menjadi sebahagian daripada diri individu. Terdapat beberapa faktor yang menyumbang kepada daya tahan, sama ada faktor individu atau faktor persekitaran. Antara faktor yang menyumbang kepada daya tahan guru adalah seperti kecerdasan emosi, kecerdasan sosial dan kecerdasan spritual. Guru yang dikatakan kurang daya tahan tidak dapat menjalankan tugas dengan baik serta produktivitinya juga kurang dan ini seterusnya akan menjejaskan komitmen mereka. Selain itu kesan daya tahan yang rendah juga dapat mencetuskan tekanan dan "burnout" dalam kalangan guru

The Relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance of SMEs in Malaysia

This paper investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and the business performance of SMEs in Malaysia. The owner/managers were sent a package of questionnaires which comprised the Entrepreneurial Orientation Questionnaire EOQ, the Business Performance BP questionnaire and the demographic questionnaire. The finding revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance of SMEs in Malaysia. This study also provides an opportunity to expand the research on other industries such as manufacturing, constructions, agricultures and telecommunications

Is Khat chewing habit a risk factor for occlusal caries progression?

Backgrounds: People in Yemen and in East African countries chew khat more than five hours daily. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between khat and occlusal caries progression. Methods: A cohort study was carried out among 98 Yemeni khat chewers and 101 non-chewers aged 18-35 years old with early occlusal caries lesions. All participants answered questions on socio-demographic, khat , oral hygiene , sugar intake, and oral health knowledge at baseline. All posterior teeth with an early enamel lesion on occlusal surfaces detected by visual inspection at baseline were also subjected to DIAGNOdent assessment to confirm early lesion (DIAGNOdent reading 13-24). Participants were re-examined after 12 weeks. Caries progression was considered to occur when the DIAGNOdent reading was >25. Data were analyzed using Relative risk, Mann\u2013Whitney U test, a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test and logistic regression analysis. Results: Occlusal caries progression incidence between khat chewers and non-chewers, with the relative risk was 1.68. There was no significant difference in occlusal caries progression on chewing side and non-chewing side among khat chewers. Khat chewing was a statistical predictor for those with low income. Conclusion: Khat is a risk factor for occlusion caries progression among low income group

Preliminary analysis of Malaysian Corpus of Financial English (MaCFE)

This paper presents the findings of the preliminary analysis conducted on the Malaysian Corpus of Financial English (MaCFE). MaCFE is a specialised corpus consisting of written documents compiled from banks in Malaysia and the corpus is currently housing approximately 4.3 million word tokens. The aim of the analysis was to evaluate the suitability of the texts chosen to represent the financial domain. The preliminary analysis involved generating the word list and lists of co-occurrences from MaCFE. RapidMiner Studio Educational 7.5.001 and an in-house Java programming solution was utilised to perform the analysis. The word list and lists of 50 most frequent two-word and three-word co-occurrences generated from the analysis reveal that the text compilation is representative of the financial domain in Malaysia. The study concludes by discussing the pedagogical implications of the findings

Diuretic properties of Orthosiphon stamineus Benth.

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Orthosiphon stamineus has been used in traditional medicine for centuries especially to treat diseases of the urinary system. Aim of the study: To investigate the diuretic activity, to elucidate its possible mechanism and to evaluate the renal effects of Orthosiphon stamineus extract. Materials and methods: Water extracts were administered orally at doses of 5 and 10 mg/kg to Sprague-Dawley rats and the control groups were given commercial diuretic drugs either furosemide or hydrochlorthiazide at 10 mg/kg. Urine volume, urine pH, urine density and urine electrolytes were determined every hour for 4 h. Blood was assayed for glucose, albumin, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine. Results: O. stamineus extract exhibited dose-dependent diuretic activity. However, excretion of Na+ and Cl- was not markedly elevated, but urinary excretion of K+ was significantly increased. O. stamineus extracts slightly increased the serum BUN, creatinine and blood glucose level. Although these levels were statistically significant when compared to control, these levels were still within normal range. Conclusions: O. stamineus exhibited diuretic activity, but was less potent than furosemide and hydrochlorothiazide. Care should be taken when consuming this herb as slight increase of kidney function enzymes was recorded

Is The Covid-19 Vaccine Halal? Revisiting The Role of National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) and JAKIM

The urge to be vaccinated has increased rapidly during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Resorting vaccine products is seen as the only way to break the chain of COVID-19 spread and eventually stop the pandemic. To this dire need, many consumers face the dilemma to be vaccinated or to opt-out of the vaccination program when the safety issues of vaccine products are widely circulated. The Muslim consumers, particularly, experiences double worry on the issue of safety and halal status of the vaccine product. Due to the emergency call to have the vaccine in the market as soon as possible, the innovation and production were carried out in an expedited manner, and the necessity to have the vaccine be certified as halal was bypass. When the news on the vaccine product uses non-halal ingredients reaches the Muslim community in Malaysia, they were taken aback and demanded immediate answers from the authorities. Thus, in addressing this issue, this study intends to critically analyse the role of NPRA and JAKIM in ensuring the safety and halal status of a product with the aim of suggesting a review of the existing role. This article adopts a qualitative research methodology where interviews will be the supporting method to a library-based and doctrinal study

Optical emission spectroscopy of carbon arc discharge plasma

The arc discharge plasma is one of the efficient technique to fabricate nano-structures such as nanotubes, nanoparticles and thin films, which have variety of technological applications. In this study, plasma dynamics such as the electron density and temperature for arc discharge carbon plasma in methane ambient environment is presented to investigate the impact and contribution of physical parameter as arc current and ambient pressure on the plasma dynamics. The electron temperature and density is estimated applying in situ optical emission spectroscopy. The optical spectra are recorded for applied arc current 50A, 60A, 70A, 80A and 90A for ambient pressures 100torr, 300torr and 500torr. A rise in electron temperature and electron density is detected with increase in applied arc current and ambient pressure. The obtained results reveal that in arc discharge process, the arc current and ambient pressure have significant contribution towards the kinetics of the plasma species