Sustainability – Driven Entrepreneurship: The Mediating Effect of Opportunity-Based Management Structure on the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Environmental Sustainability Management of SMEs: A Conceptual Framework

Generally, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises have been given high priority in Malaysia and identified as one of the engines of economic growth to drive Malaysia towards the New Economic Model (NEM) transformation. However, the environmental sustainability management of SMEs need to be taken into deep consideration in order to ensure sustainable entrepreneurship in Malaysia.  This study focuses on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and opportunity–based management structure on environmental sustainability management of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the prime intention to enlarge the element of sustainable entrepreneurship.  The problem to be addressed in this quantitative study is to look into the level of commitment of entrepreneurial firm in indicate towards the effort to ensure sustainability of environment; the main concern of entrepreneurial firm in making as much profit and growth, it is also the importance of the society to know their perceptions and commitment towards maintaining the environment.  Therefore, the main focus will be given on the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and Opportunity-based Management Structure with environmental sustainability management in the Malaysian SMEs context.  Finally, this paper concludes by presenting the conceptual framework of entrepreneurial orientation, opportunity-based management structure and environmental sustainability management in SMEs. Keywords: Effect, Relationship, Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises, Opportunity-based management structure, Entrepreneurial orientation, Environmental sustainability managemen

ANALYZING MARLET STARTEGY

Analyzing the marketing strategy elements that influence the effectiveness of its implementation has been the subject of sizeable empirical research. The purpose of this paper is to address simultaneous management of market exploitation and market exploration in the marketing strategy on implementation effectiveness among the most relevant new product introduction success factors in Malaysian fertilizer industry. The proposed framework has theoretical significance in filling the gap in the body of knowledge in the implementation of marketing strategy in the Malaysian fertilizer industry. This paper discusses issues in relation to the role of marketing strategy which have profound impact on organizational implementation effectiveness

Factors Associated with Propensity for Sustainable Entrepreneurship

AbstractEntrepreneurship has both positive and negative contributions to our society. On the negative side, the degradation of environmental quality caused by entrepreneurial activities requires serious attention. As such, sustainable entrepreneurship has been suggested as an attempt to alleviate environmental problems. However, embarkation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on environmental management is still not promising. Furthermore, there are scant studies in regard to motivation and propensity in the development of sustainable entrepreneurs among SMEs practitioners. Thus, this study was conducted to address the factors associated with propensity for sustainable entrepreneurship among owners-managers of SMEs. A total of 249 SMEs were randomly selected as the sample of this study and surveyed through self-administered questionnaires. Based on the descriptive analyses, this paper found that owners-managers of SMEs generally possessed positive or favorable attitude towards sustainability, concerned about social pressures on sustainability, perceived that sustainable entrepreneurship was attractive and perceived themselves as having sufficient ability for sustainable entrepreneurship. Furthermore, they also exhibited high level of propensity for becoming sustainable entrepreneurs. The correlation analysis revealed that all the hypotheses were supported. Specifically, sustainability attitude, social norm, perceived desirability and perceived feasibility recorded positive association with propensity for sustainable entrepreneurship. However, perceived feasibility recorded a stronger strength of association than sustainability attitude, social norm and perceived desirability. This paper also suggested that future researchers should employ different types of analyses and could attempt to investigate the actual sustainable entrepreneurial behavior among SMEs

INTENTION TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Researchers have agreed that entrepreneurs are important to a country’s economic development. Despite their constructive contributions on economic development, entrepreneurial activities have also led to environmental degradation. Thus, it is believed that environmental issues should be solved by entrepreneurs themselves. In recent years, linking entrepreneurial activity and sustainable development has become a vital practice for all corporations nowadays. It is due to the popularization of sustainability development concepts such as triple-bottom-Line (TBL). However, there are limited literatures on sustainable entrepreneurship, particularly in the local setting. In addition, intention of practicing entrepreneurs, specifically among the owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) towards sustainable entrepreneurship has not been fully explored. As such, by extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this conceptual paper suggests a framework and further discusses the factors that influence the intention of SMEs owners towards sustainable entrepreneurship. It is hoped that this paper could flourish the literature collection and shed lights on practicing entrepreneurs’ intention towards sustainable entrepreneurship

Customer relationship management practices: the impact on organizational performance in SMEs of food manufacturing industry

The successful implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) practices is becoming widely accepted within marketing and sales department in manufacturing industry. Moreover, establishing the customer relationships have always been an important aspect of business. Hence, this study aims to explain the impact of CRM practices to organizational performance through a proposed conceptual model in Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) food manufacturing industry. A model developed and empirically tested through survey data obtained from 369 organizations. The results indicated that CRM practices have a significant positive effect on organizational performance. Similarly, the results revealed that enhanced key customer focus and relationship marketing leads to better organizational performance. Market turbulence was found to have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between CRM practices and organizational performance. This paper contributes to existing literature by incorporating CRM practices as a construct in the proposed model. The conclusions drawn have implications for CRM practices of key customer focus, relationship marketing and market turbulence in research literature

Women Micro And Small Business Sustainability In Malaysia Through Microcredit

Micro and small enterprises sustainability. An explorative case study was conducted through semi interviews with 22 of women borrowers who received loan from Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) since three years in Selangor. We find that the majority of women who received loan three years ago have successfully operated their micro and small enterprises. However, they still suffer of sustainability and the majority of them still in the infant stage. There are many causes that affect the sustainability of women micro and small enterprises such as lack of product diversity and the inflexible of the implementation process of loan disbursement and repayment. Therefore, re-innovate AIM product as well as process is an important factor for women small business sustainability. In addition, control market competition and protect micro businesses is another important factor towards sustainability

Customer Relationship Management Practices: The Impact on Organizational Performance in SMEs of Food Manufacturing Industry

The successful implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) practices is becoming widely accepted within marketing and sales department in manufacturing industry. Moreover, establishing the customer relationships have always been an important aspect of business. Hence, this study aims to explain the impact of CRM practices to organizational performance through a proposed conceptual model in Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) food manufacturing industry. A model developed and empirically tested through survey data obtained from 369 organizations. The results indicated that CRM practices have a significant positive effect on organizational performance. Similarly, the results revealed that enhanced key customer focus and relationship marketing leads to better organizational performance. Market turbulence was found to have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between CRM practices and organizational performance. This paper contributes to existing literature by incorporating CRM practices as a construct in the proposed model. The conclusions drawn have implications for CRM practices of key customer focus, relationship marketing and market turbulence in research literature. Keywords: customer relationship management practices, market turbulence, organizational performance, small and medium enterprises, food manufacturing industr

Employers’ perception on engineering, information and communication technology (ICT) students’ employability skills

This article is based on the findings of a survey of employers having Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) engineering and ICT students undergoing industrial training at their organisations. The study seeks to explore the employers’ perceptions of the employability skills that technical students need to possess, as well as assessing the employers’ level of satisfaction with the students’ employability skills. A 13-item scale of engineering employability skills adopted from the Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) manual and the Future of Engineering Education Report 2007 were utilised as the main instrument to gauge the employers’ perception of UTeM’s students. The findings revealed that problem-solving, tool handling competency and presentation skills feature highly amongst the skills demanded of students by employers. The findings are useful for the University to understand how to equip its students and graduates according to the requirements of industry and to ensure they are highly employable after graduating from the University

Personality-Environment Congruency of Land Settlement Youth Entrepreneurs in Malaysia

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effect of person-environment congruency on the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment. Data were obtained from entrepreneur youth who were member and in the leadership position of FELDA Youth Organisation in Malaysia (n=408). Person-environment congruency was found to be a significant mediator of the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment. This has wide-ranging implications for organisational development consultants who intend to shape the culture of various organisations, on the assumption that certain organisational cultures directly lead to certain desirable employee outcomes. Leaders need to pay attention to not only their organisational culture such as training, rewards, teamwork and communication, but to also ensure that they are aimed towards improving the fit between individuals and their work environment. Whereas previous research tends to look at P-E congruency as a predictor of employee outcomes, this is one study to provide evidence of P-E fit as a mediator of the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment

Customer relationship management (CRM): The impact on SMEs performance

The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy has become very popular among organizations and companies; hence it’s very common in large companies implement CRM to compete and promote their businesses. However, CRM strategies are not very common in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs have to implement customer relationship into their business operations in order to strategies on establishing high performance and high value-added with strong technical, innovative capability and competitive advantage over rivals. CRM strategies have the potential to help improve the business value and competitive capabilities of SMEs, yet have received mixed performance reviews in the extant literature. Therefore, this research presents a conceptual model on the antecedents of achieving successful implementations of CRM strategies by Malaysian SMEs. The model incorporate CRM strategies construct; key customer focus, knowledge management, relationship marketing and technological CRM resources, and investigated the impact of CRM strategies on these constructs and relationship performance. In addition the firm’s market orientation has considered as critical antecedent to the practices of CRM. The model then enables several empirically testable propositions that are relevant to develop a survey instrument for this study