Evaluating non-business e-commerce adoption decision processes and gender roles

Non-business e-commerce adoption refers to the use of e-commerce by not-for profit organizations such as religious organizations, government agencies and academic institutions to reduce their expenses or to improve their operations and customer service. Being a new research niche in the field of e-commerce, non-business e-commerce has received very little or no research attention. This has resulted in a very poor understanding of this niche, especially with regards to its adoption facilitators and inhibitors. Based on this impetus, a field survey of Malaysian Universities was conducted to determine the key factors that facilitate non-business EC adoption as well as the role of gender differential. A comprehensive list of potential facilitators for the strategic use of information technology was derived from extant research reports and used to collect data from five public universities in Malaysia. The data were factor-analysed to determine the key underlying dimensions of facilitators. On the basis of the resulting five dimensions namely, relative advantage orientation, network orientation, information efficiency orientation, innovativeness orientation and competitiveness orientation, regression analysis was done to determine the impact of the five dimensions on adoption. Dummy variable was created for gender and applied in the regression analysis in order to estimate the moderation effect of sex typing on the relationship between the resulting dimensions and adoption. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Exploring factors influencing consumers’ behavioral intention to adopt broadband in Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to examine various normative, attitudinal and control factors influencing consumers’ intention to adopt broadband internet in a developing country such as Malaysia. This study is based on empirical data collected using a self-administered questionnaire relating to the normative, attitudinal and control variables. Structural equation modeling analysis is conducted to test the role of numerous variables on consumers’ behavioral intentions to adopt broadband internet in Malaysia. Results revealed that Primary Influences (PI), Relative Advantage (RA), Hedonic Outcomes (HO), Facilitating Conditions Resources (FCR), and Self-Efficacy (SE) are positively associated with consumers’ Behavioral Intention (BI) to adopt broadband in Malaysia. The significance of this research study is twofold. Practically, this research study provide some useful guidelines to industry players, be it the internet service providers (ISPs) or the policy makers, to understand which are the factors (primary influences, self-efficacy, relative advantage, hedonic outcomes and facilitating conditions resources) that can have an influence on consumers’ intention to adopt broadband technology. It was found that primary influences, self-efficacy and relative advantage are the key determinants that influences consumers’ broadband adoption. From here, practitioners could take into consideration our findings when revising and restructuring their marketing strategy. Theoretically, the research framework used in this study is an extension from the past research models used (i.e. TPB, DOI and MATH). With the newly integrated framework, a greater level of comprehension can be attained with regards to the broadband acceptance among the Malaysian consumers.     

Estimating and decomposing productivity growth of the electricity generation industry in Malaysia: A stochastic frontier analysis

This study examines the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of the Malaysian electricity generation industry over the 1998 to 2005 period. The stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) approach is used to measure TFP change and decompose TFP growth into efficiency change and technical progress. We find that it achieved average annual TFP growth of 2.34%, with technical change contributing the most to the TFP growth over the eight year period. We hence hypothesise that the new power plants with their newer capital-embodied technologies commencing during the sample period are likely to be the main reason for this strong technical change. In addition, it is also noted that this estimate for the Malaysian electricity generation industry is larger than the estimate obtained for the electricity sector as a whole, where we obtain 1.34% per year for a comparable period.     

Palm Oil: A New Ethics of Visibility for the Production Landscape

The explosion of the palm oil industry in recent decades has transformed vast swathes of the Malaysian and Indonesian countryside. Milica Topalovic , Assistant Professor of Architecture and Territorial Planning at ETH Zurich, asserts that the resulting agro-industrial landscapes challenge the very concept of what is rural, and considers how such areas should be conceptualised.     

An analysis of construction productivity in Malaysia

The construction industry is an industry of major strategic importance. Its level of productivity has a significant effect on national economic growth. Productivity indicators are examined. The indicators consist of labour productivity, capital productivity, labour competitiveness, capital intensity and added value content of data, which are obtained from the published census/biannual surveys of the construction industry between the years 1999 and 2011 from the Department of Statistics of Malaysia. The results indicated that there is an improvement in the labour productivity, but the value-added content is declining. The civil engineering and special trades subsectors are more productive than the residential and non-residential subsectors in terms of labour productivity because machine-for-labour substitution is a more important process in those subsectors. The capital-intensive characteristics of civil engineering and special trade works enable these subsectors to achieve higher added value per labour cost but not the capital productivity. The added value per labour cost is lower in larger organizations despite higher capital productivity. However, the capital intensity is lower and unit labour cost is higher in the larger organizations.     

Economic development and construction productivity in Malaysia

The productivity of the construction industry has a significant effect on national economic growth. Gains from higher construction productivity flow through the economy, as all industries rely on construction to some extent as part of their business investment. Contractions and expansions of economic activity are common phenomena in an economy. Three construction cycles occurred between the years 1970 and 2011 in Malaysia. The relationships between construction productivity and economic development are examined by the partial correlation method to establish the underlying factors driving the change in construction productivity. Construction productivity is statistically significantly correlated with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in a positive direction for the 1985–98 and 1998–2009 cycles, but not the 1970–85 cycle. Fluctuations in construction activities and the influx of foreign workers underlie the changes of construction productivity in the 1985–98 cycle. There was less fluctuation in construction activities in the 1998–2009 cycle, with changes being mainly due to the fiscal stimulation policies of the government in attempting to stabilize the economy. The intensive construction of mega-projects resulted in resource constraints and cost pressures during the 1980s and 1990s. A better management of the ‘boom-bust’ nature of the construction business cycle is required to maintain the capability and capacity of the industry.     

Exploring the internationalization of Malaysian contractors: the international entrepreneurship dimension

The internationalization of construction companies is a subject of enduring interest among construction management scholars. The internationalization pattern of Malaysian contractors was explored, this time mainly using the international entrepreneurship body of literature as the theoretical basis. In doing so, the focus of the internationalization process was on the entrepreneurs or top management. Data were collected with a postal questionnaire survey and follow‐up semi‐structured interviews. The findings underscore the importance of the entrepreneurs’ decision in the surveyed firms’ internationalization trajectory. Top management’s perception of how their companies might benefit from internationalization was the highest ranked foreign market entry consideration. Top managements’ initial and subsequent motivation also fashioned their companies’ degree of internationalization and tactics for securing contracts. The characteristics of the entrepreneurs which drove their companies to internationalize were also captured. The international entrepreneurship domain continues to expand into previously uncharted areas. As such there is potential to uncover even more interesting findings from future research endeavours on international contractors using the international entrepreneurship approach.     

Gonflement de la chaux dans les briques

Le problème de l'éclatement des briques dû à l'action de la chaux devient grave dans la fabrication des briques en différents endroits de l'lnde et d'ailleurs. Des briques cuites tombent en poussière lorsqu'elles sont exposées à l'air libre, du fait de la présence de particules de chaux. L'Institut central de recherche de la construction de Roorkee s'est attachée à l'étude du mécanisme par lequel les chlorures peuvent prévenir cet inconvénient.     

A survey of tap water quality in Kuala Lumpur

A safe drinking water programme known as The National Drinking Water Quality Surveillance Programme (NDWQSP) was launched by the Ministry of Health, Government of Malaysia in 1983 to ensure safe practices in water treatment and distribution. The aim of this work was to assess the effectiveness of this programme in the improvement of tap water quality in and around Kuala Lumpur. The results indicate that there was no microbial contamination in 100 random samples collected from 20 selected areas. Other quality parameters such as colour, pH, turbidity, hardness, magnesium, sulphate and chloride were within acceptable limits. Heavy metals such as Cu²⁺, Pb²⁺, Cr (total), Ni²⁺, Cd²⁺, Fe (total) and Mn (total) were also under control. The only exception was Ba²⁺, which did not comply with the standard and was up to ten times higher than the guideline value. Moreover, there was significant variation in water quality as indicated by the test results.