Farrah Merlinda Muharam

HrMars - This study conducts a systematic literature review of how organisational characteristics and environmental uncertainty jointly shape the technological innovation…

Since the pandemic first appeared in early 2020, the manufacturing industry across the globe has experienced a decline. Concerns regarding public health were present at the start of the new decade, and as the pandemic reached its peak in March 2020, manufacturers all over the world were forced to contend with high demand, reduced workforce requirements, subsequent lockdowns, and major disruptions to their supply chains to prevent the global spread of the pandemic. No research has been done on the interaction of these variables because the idea of VSCM is still relatively new, particularly in Malaysia’s manufacturing industry. The purpose of this study is to present management researchers with a novel idea for coping with a pandemic situation in today’s business environment. Furthermore, the purpose of this research is to determine VSCM practices that contribute to company sustainability so that such future incidents can be controlled and revamped. The report also advocated a VSCM framework to improve supply chain resilience and sustainability. This study’s objective is to analyze the relationship between viable supply chain management (VSCM) practices and company sustainability for manufacturing companies in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic. 197 respondents from Malaysian manufacturing companies were surveyed using a quantitative approach. Using PLS-SEM analysis, all surveys are examined. As a result, the direct relationship between VSCM and company sustainability has demonstrated a significant positive effect. The implication of this study is to strengthen the viability and reliability of viable supply chain management and contribute further to the COVID-19 outbreak’s impact on company sustainability. Moreover, a successful supply chain model would guarantee that manufacturers are compelled to respond swiftly to safeguard and support their employees and maintain operations that are critical lifelines for consumers and communities.

In today’s fast-paced and interactive business environment, engaging fans is imperative for companies to elevate their competitiveness in marketplace. Internet has ushered a new age of social media marketing where companies are formed their social networking sites (SNSs) presence to promote their businesses online. Due to the increased users in Facebook nowadays, transportation network companies (TNC) have embraced Facebook as a key marketing channel to attract new fans and engage with fans. However, there is a lack of research on fans’ engagement in TNC Facebook brand page. The research aims to examine the influence of perceived value on customer brand engagement (CBE). This paper will investigate a TNC’s Facebook brand page. A correlational research will be conducted and online questionnaire will be disseminated to the fans of TNC’s brand page in Facebook. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) will be adopted to analyse data collected. The findings of this paper are expected to offer useful guidance for companies to formulate better strategies for enhancing fans’ engagement.

Technology assessment is crucial in managing technology for the purpose of technology exploitation. Technology is considered one of the important elements to evaluate performance and gain competitive advantage. This purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of technology assessment towards firm’s performance and identify the most prevalence indicator that available for organizations to measure their performance. Furthermore, this study also identifies the current assessment practices that create competitive advantage. This research used qualitative method to gain data and used purposive sampling to select the respondents. The respondents consist of two spin off company listed under ICC UTM involving in skincare and wellness products. The findings show that technology assessment give impact either positive or negative towards firm performance. Besides that, this study able to analyse the important factors of technology assessment that can contribute NTBFs to gain better performance and create competitive advantage in marketplace.

Generation Y appears to be an enormous market in digital era and they have big impact in click-only marketers. Managing online brand community among Generation Y is one of the important strategies for e-marketers. As seen, many companies have been striving hard to engage the Generation Y consumers and build the online communities using social media platform. Building a strong online community with positive online customer experience will generate greater sales. As such, this paper explores the factors including social benefits, entertainment benefits and trust which affect customer satisfaction and loyalty within the context of online communities among Generation Y. The relationships will be examined through multiple regression. Students from one of the Malaysian universities will be the respondents of the study. The expected relationships will be important for e-marketers to develop online community as one of the vital components of marketing mix since many generations Y are structured through social and entertainment purposes, as well as trust. Lastly, there is a paucity of literature on Generation Y satisfaction and loyalty in online brand community, particularly in Malaysia.

Complex components of investment projects can only be analysed accurately if flexibility and comprehensive consideration of uncertainty are incorporated into valuation. Discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis has failed to cope with strategic future alternatives that affect the right value of investment projects. Real option valuation (ROV) proves to be the right tool for this purpose since it enables to calculate the enlarged or strategic Net Present Value (ENPV). This study attempts to provide an insight of the usage of ROV in capital budgeting and investment decision-making processes of SMEs. Exploring into the first stage processing of steel industry, analysis of alternatives to cancel, to expand, to defer or to abandon is performed. Completed with multiple options interaction and a sensitivity analysis, our findings prove that the application of ROV is beneficial for complex investment projects independently from the size of the company and particularly suitable in scenarios with scarce resources. The application of Real Option Valuation (ROV) is plausible and beneficial for SMEs to be incorporated in the strategic decision making process.

One of the toughest challenges in social marketing is behaviour intervention. Previous research have developed various models and theories to simultaneously examine behaviour changes and their effects. Due to resources scarcity and global warming, automakers have come out with an innovative idea of Energy Efficient Vehicle (EEV) which has been a great improvement in the automotive industry. This invention targets for behavioral change or behavioral adoption for consumers to adjust their preferences from conventional vehicle to EEV. High market growth in automotive industry have encouraged social marketers, policymakers, governments and academics to propose suitable intervention approach in motivating preferences toward EEV. This study will explore the causal model of Environmental Responsible Behaviour (ERB) in measuring the purchase intention of EEV in Malaysia. In specific, this study focuses on two types of EEV – hybrid car and fuel efficient car. This study will hopefully add onto the body of knowledge for value orientation that influences green behaviour. From the practical perspective, this study may provide insights in assisting the stakeholders and automotive industry players on promoting the pro-behaviour toward EEV.