4th Industry Revolution Digital Marketing Adoption Challenges in SMEs and its Effect on Customer Responsiveness

4th industrial revolution of cyber-physical technologies (4IR) intersecting digital technologies and entrepreneurship serves as an external stimulus in fostering a new method of venture creation transforming customers’ purchasing and consuming behavior. Large corporations are leading in leveraging on 4IR digital marketing for their marketing strategy but SMEs are lacking behind. This study explores the conundrum using an exploratory sequential mixed method. Semi-structured interviews were carried out on a sample selected using non-probability purposive sampling and determined through attaining thematic saturation of discursive patterns. Scale development for quantitative instruments performed using SPSS statistical software. A quantitative study was carried out on a sample size of 153 SME respondents. Analysis was undertaken by paired-sample T-test. Kuskal-Wallis H test and Spearman’s rho correlation test due to the nonparametric nature of data distribution. The outcome reveals that although SMEs are increasingly reliant on DM for their marketing strategy, most of these SMEs are only willing to invest in building low-level DM capability citing a lack of financial budget, inadequate technology infrastructure to support such setup, cyber security issues and lack of DM knowledge. Financial budget and technology infrastructure are considered the most critical concerns by SMEs with low and moderate DM adoption. However, these concerns are less pronounced in SMEs with high DM adoption. Finally, the weak but significant correlation between SMEs’ DM adoption and customer responsiveness infers the significant role of 4IR technology as an enabler of digital marketing strategy that also depends on other critical contributing factors such as price and qualit

Job related factors and moderating effect of flexible work arrangement on job satisfaction among Malaysian offshore outsourcing support employees

Job Satisfaction, organization performance and employee turnover intention are closely interlinked. High performance culture organizations that promote both job satisfaction and work-life balance often produce good results and have the ability to attract and retain talented employees. Job satisfaction of fixed scheduled employees in the Malaysian offshore outsourcing support is constantly challenged from working long irregular hours to fulfill global "Follow-the-sun" workflow commitment and maintaining effective communication in a temporal dispersed virtual organization. The work time demand is felt more as the temporal dispersion variance between parties in communication widens. This research was initiated with the objective of understanding employees working under such conditions and whether having good management policies such as flexible work arrangement buffer the impact and restore job satisfaction. For this quantitative survey, 306 Information Technology Outsourcing, and Business Process Outsourcing respondents, located in the MSC flagship town of Cyberjaya, were identified. The results reveal that Malaysian offshore outsourcing workers are generally satisfied with their work environment. Whilst global communication remains a temporal dispersion challenge, flexible work arrangement does not alleviate the impact of long irregular work hours; however, it promotes job satisfaction. The findings also confirm the importance of co-workers and supervisory support in mitigating the demands of work. Contrary to the belief that globalization emphasizes cost optimization and reluctance of MNCs in spending and developing resources, most respondents acknowledged that good support from their co-workers and supervisors are vital. The study highlights the critical impact of globalization and temporal dispersion on job satisfaction among fixed working arrangement employees who support Malaysian offshore outsourcing

Temporal dispersion separation and schedule flexibility impact on job satisfaction for Malaysian virtual teams

Job satisfaction of Malaysian virtual teams supporting e-commerce and shared service support are constantly challenged from working long irregular hours fulfilling global supply chain management in a temporal dispersed virtual organization.The work time demand is felt even more as the temporal dispersion variance between parties in communication widens.This research was initiated to understand how satisfied employees are working under such conditions and whether having good management policies such as flexible work arrangement reduce the impact and restore job satisfaction.Findings from the quantitative survey of 301 ITO and BPO respondents located in the MSC flagship town of Cyberjaya reveal that Malaysian virtual teams are generally satisfied with their work condition.Whilst work time demand remains a temporal dispersion challenge, flexible work arrangement has no interaction effect to improving relation of work time demand and job satisfaction.It nevertheless is a predictor of job satisfaction

Work time demand and job satisfaction of geographically dispersed team: The mediating role of organizational support

Employee job satisfaction is often attributed to amongst others the level of co-worker and supervisory support in an organization.For geographically dispersed teams (GDT), the ability to support team members remains a spatiotemporal challenge with limited face-to-face contact, time zone differences, cultural and language impediments.The inability to collaborating and organizing work across different time zones with few overlapping hours exert psychosocial stress that impedes job satisfaction.This research was undertaken to gauge the satisfaction level of Malaysian GDTs working under such conditions and the effect of organizational support to buffer the impact and restore job satisfaction. Outcome of the quantitative survey involving 306 Information Technology Outsourcing and Business Processing Outsourcing respondents located in multimedia-super corridor flagship town of Cyberjaya shows a causal linkage between work time demand and job satisfaction. The finding also reveals that job satisfaction is partially mediated by organizational support in relation with work time demand

Effectiveness of Typology and Learning Environment in Developing Entrepreneurial Competencies: A Comparative Study

The introduction of entrepreneurship course as a core module in higher education institutions (HEIs) under the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB) 2015–2025 has not increased entrepreneurship initiatives. This is partly attributed to ineffective implementation of entrepreneurship skills in the HEI curriculum. Although attempts were made to delineate the central phenomena of entrepreneurship learning to develop entrepreneurial competencies and intention, there was no consistent outcome. This comparative study used empirical data to investigate the contribution of multidisciplinary learning environment and the use of “Through” methodology as an entrepreneurial education pedagogy to develop entrepreneurial competencies and intention among students. A two-phase stratified single-stage cluster sampling approach was adopted that involved stratifying the entire population of 260 second-year degree students into learning environment strata and partitioning the strata into mutually exclusive entrepreneurial education pedagogy clusters. Data was collected from every single subject within the clusters. Descriptive analytical statistics was used in gauging the effectiveness of the research learning environment and typology pedagogy. The findings revealed that even though entrepreneurial intention remains a challenge, multidisciplinary learning environment that involves students from different disciplinary programs doing entrepreneurial ventures such as experiential learning and taking calculated business risks are most effective in inculcating entrepreneurial competencies. This study has shown that having the appropriate learning environment and typology pedagogy, including consideration of the psychological appeal of students are essential in nurturing entrepreneurial competencies among students. The outcome of this study provides a better understanding for both, HEI academicians and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in making entrepreneurship learning more relevant to produce students with entrepreneurial competencies

Online learning motivation during Covid-19 pandemic: The role of learning environment, student self-efficacy and learner-instructor interaction

Purpose - Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Malaysian government declared a Movement Control Order (MCO) to prevent the spread of the virus. Educational institutions were forced to switch their pedagogy to online learning to complete the semester curriculum, catching academicians and students off-guard that resulted in makeshift online lesson delivery. Previous online learning motivation studies have neglected the impact of an unplanned or sudden transition to online learning during a pandemic on student motivation to learn. This study aims to examine location learning environment, learner-instructor interactions, and self-efficacy of students more succinctly on their learning motivation during an unplanned transition to online learning. Method - This study used a sequential explanatory mixed method strategy with a sample size of 535 randomly collected from a public and two private higher education institutions in Malaysia. IBM SPSS statistical software v22 was used for descriptive statistics. Regression testing was carried out using AMOS statistical software v21 structural equation modeling. Findings - Revealed the importance of location learning environment in fostering student motivation and the positive influence of learner-instructor interactions on students achieving the desired learning outcomes during an unplanned transition to online learning. However, there is no evidence to suggest a causal effect between student self-efficacy and online learning motivation during such conditions. The theoretical implication indicates that having conducive hygiene factors are essential to driving student motivation under such situations. Significance - The COVID-19 pandemic provides opportunities for researchers to examine the role of various motivational theories to explain student motivation in learning under challenging conditions. Educators and students would benefit on ways to increase student online learning motivation in lockdown conditions. Setting up a more efficient online delivery approach could lead to higher student satisfaction and potential enrolment