Search results

At the age of 92, Mahathir Mohamad served his country as the Prime Minister for the second time. But unlike his first stint as the head of the government, which lasted 22 years, this time, his tenure was less than two years. His resignation, which was linked to some internal issues within the Pakatan Harapan (PH) allied parties, came at a time when many countries in the world were in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak. Mahathir was aware of the power struggle that was adversely affecting the government's response to combat the virus transmission and reduce the rising number of COVID-19 infection cases. With his long experience in governance and as a former medical officer, Mahathir offered some advice and recommendations to the existing government on ways to address the public health crisis. Since the coronavirus outbreak, the domestic political and economic developments also drew his direct criticism and critical commentaries.

Entrepreneurship, Strategic Marketing, Innovation, New Product Development (NPD).

This case is suitable to be used in advanced undergraduate and MBA/MSc.

This case illustrates the challenges related to designing and launching an innovative product in the market. It revolves around the issues pertaining to smart organic fertilizer's (SOF) pre- and post-launch experiences. Haji Sani Kimi, a Senior Research Officer of the Strategic Research Centre at MARDI, had developed a zeolite-based organic fertilizer which he believed to be the first of its kind in Malaysia. He had taken five years to complete his research in developing SOF. Seeing its potential benefits for the land and farmers, the then Director General of MARDI asked Sani to speed up the process of technology transfer to be the first to launch the product in the market. In 2005, MARDI established a five-year agreement with Hicotech Sendirian Berhad to license its intellectual property rights (IPR). Adnan, a successful automobile business entrepreneur, ventured into the organic fertilizer business, as this product was in high demand and extensively used by paddy farmers in Malaysia and was subsidized by the government. However, Hicotech failed to get government contract to supply organic fertilizer under the government subsidy program. As such, it had to compete in the open market which was dominated by already-established Chinese entrepreneurs. At the beginning, SOF was doing well in the market, but, during 2007, Hicotech experienced great financial loss due to its mismanagement of collecting payment from its customers. Hicotech tried to work in partnership with ABH Mega Sendirian Berhad to overcome its financial difficulties. However, due to some disagreements, the collaboration was terminated within a short period of time. From 2005 to the end of 2009, Hicotech was not able to pay any royalties to MARDI and the license of Hicotech was to expire in February 2010. Haji Sani was trying to get a solution to revive SOF in the market. Moreover, he was confused whether to renew the license of SOF IPR with Hicotech or to search for another company.

Using this case, students can learn how a small- and/or medium-scale companies can strategize their new product launch. Based on the given industry scenario, students can realize the potential challenges that are related to launching a new product. Furthermore, this case demonstrates that producing a high-quality product is not enough to succeed in the market; the right strategy also plays an important role in making it successful. Last, it can be also learned that proper managerial control and financial support are two important factors that contributes in any business success. Overall, strategic marketing/management students will learn the importance of adopting proper strategy, while the students who are undertaking the new product development course benefit by seeing the practical situation of a new product launch, its rise and its fall.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

The popularity of financial technology (fintech) is rising in society due to fintech's direct benefits to users. This digital-based approach is one of the outputs of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, which transformed the path of human history and resulted in the development of digital transformation strategy innovation, more commonly referred to as digitalisation. Previous literature has predicted that integrating fintech into waqf management will facilitate fintech's growth and expand waqf outreach in Malaysia. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the impact of “Industry 4.0” on the expansion of fintech into cash waqf in Malaysia.

This study uses Rogers' (2003) diffusion of innovation (DOI) model. In addition, a quantitative approach based on structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilised to analyse the relationship between awareness, knowledge, relative advantage, social norms, perceived trust and fintech adoption in waqf institutions by using the tool Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) version 23.0 with maximum likelihood estimation.

The overall indicate that perceived trust and social norms significantly influence the adoption of fintech by Malaysian waqf. At the same time, other factors such as awareness, relative advantage and knowledge do not appear to significantly influence the adoption of fintech amongst Malaysian waqf institutions.

This study contributes significantly to the current literature concerning the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the wave of technologies. In addition, this study supports relevant theories, including DOI and other technology adoption theories. Aside from this, the study provides empirical contributions to waqf management regarding collecting and distributing waqf, improving the level of regulation of the waqf institutions and enhancing trust between donors, waqf management and beneficiaries. This study is amongst the first in the area of waqf that focus on Malaysian waqf intitutions.

This is important for policy development to support the utilisation of fintech for waqf institutions, which leads to more transparency and efficiency.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2022-0264

This paper aims to construct a conceptual framework which explains the relationship between governance of zakat institutions and zakat payment compliance by using the organisational legitimacy theory.

This paper adopts content analysis and a review of multidisciplinary literature that primarily relate to zakat institutions, public governance and compliance behaviour.

The paper has developed a model, adapted from Abioye et al. (2013), concerning the influence of governance mechanisms on zakat payers’ compliance using trust as a moderator. The model comprises four governance mechanisms which influence zakat payment compliance. The four mechanisms include the board and leadership attributes, transparency and disclosure practices, stakeholder management practices and procedural justice. Trust has a moderating effect on the relationship between governance and zakat compliance.

This model is applicable to regulated zakat systems, where the state has established zakat institutions and regulations for the collection and distribution of zakat, such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Sudan and Malaysia.

This paper proposes a model, based on Abioye et al. (2013), to explain the influence of governance on zakat payment compliance. The novelty of the study is the addition of one new critical variable, procedural justice, to the Abioye et al.’s (2013) framework. Secondly, the model is proposed for regulated zakat jurisdictions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits of benchmarking among Nigerian facilities management (FM) practitioners.

Data collection was through semi-structured interviews with 34 FM heads from three selected cities in Nigeria. Of this number, 16 were from Lagos, 10 from Abuja, while 8 managers were from Port Harcourt. These managers were selected using purposive sampling based on their experience in the field of FM across the various sectors of the economy. The interviews were analysed with Nvivo 10 software qualitative computer software so as to reduce manual tasks, discover tendencies and recognize themes on the practice, meaning and benefits of benchmarking. Matrix coding of the Nvivo software was used to distinguish between benefits realized by those that conduct formal and informal benchmarking.

The paper found that those that perform informal benchmarking find that the benchmarking tool helps them to improve performance, service quality and their processes. On the other hand, those that perform formal benchmarking affirmed that benchmarking helped them in making strategic plans, striving to be the best in the industry and obtaining explanations for those improvements that are made now and in the near future.

The results, therefore, suggest that formal benchmarking in Nigeria is needed in performing strategic role in FM, as well as in making good business case agitations. Practitioners also need to know the benefits of benchmarking to improve its usage.

The paper categorised FM benchmarking benefits. Also, there are limited empirical studies on benchmarking benefits in developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to present a comprehensive knowledge mapping and an in-depth analysis of pro-environmental travel behaviour research to better understand the global trend in this field that have emerged between 2000 and 2021.

In this study, a visual analysis of 187 scholarly articles between the year 2000 and 2021 related to pro-environmental travel behaviour (PETB) is presented. Using the knowledge mapping based on CiteSpace it presents the current research status, which contains the analysis of collaboration network, co-citation network, and emerging trends.

The results revealed that the PETB is an emerging topic, which has an increased number of publications in recent years. Though the collaboration network between scholars is dispersed, some countries exert stronger collaboration network. Researchers from England, USA and China have worked more on this topic comparatively. “Pro-environmental norm” is found to be the major concern in regard to PETB, and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is the most common theory used by the scholars around the world. Ten articles with the highest citations are found to be the most valuable articles. COVID-19, value orientation, negative spillover, carbon footprints, biospheric and adolescent are some of the latest keywords based on the past two years' literature review, all of which have huge research potential in the future.

This study is among the pioneers to shed some light on the current research progress of PETB by using a bibliometric analysis to provide research directions for scholars. Moreover, this study utilized latest data from 2000 to 2021. The studies which are published before and during the pandemic are also incorporated.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of moral disengagement, perceived penalty, negative experiences and turnover intention on the intention to violate the established security rules.

The method used involves two stages of analysis, using techniques of structural equation modeling and artificial intelligence with neural networks, based on information collected from 318 workers of organizational information systems.

The model provides a reasonable prediction regarding the intention to violate information security policies (ISP). The results revealed that the relationships of moral disengagement and perceived penalty significantly influence such an intention.

This research presents a multi-analytical approach that expands the robustness of the results by the complementarity of each analysis technique. In addition, it offers scientific evidence of the factors that reinforce the cognitive processes that involve workers’ decision-making in security breaches.

The practical recommendation is to improve organizational communication to mitigate information security vulnerabilities in several ways, namely, training actions that simulate daily work routines; exposing the consequences of policy violations; disseminating internal newsletters with examples of inappropriate behavior.

Results indicate that information security does not depend on the employees’ commitment to the organization; system vulnerabilities can be explored even by employees committed to the companies.

The study expands the knowledge about the individual factors that make information security in companies vulnerable, one of the few in the literature which aims to offer an in-depth perspective on which individual antecedent factors affect the violation of ISP.

Inconsistencies and contradictions in the US government's story of hijackers and their masterminds are examined to account for what happened on 9-11. A little-known initial FBI list of 19, scrutinized for four names not on its final list, calls into question the FBI naming process. We discovered 11 of the FBI-named finalists could not have been on those planes, with 10 still alive and another's identity improvised by a double. The Dulles videotape, essentially the government's case that hijackers boarded the 9-11 flights, is found to have serious problems including authentication, as does the so-called bin Laden “confession” video.

Were “hijackers” known to be in the US before intelligence alleges it knew? Evidence is examined which shows that they were closely monitored by agencies which denied this knowledge; in particular, an undercover FBI agent lived with them the prior year.

Noting government refusal to disclose evidence called for by investigators, we find some pieces altered or fabricated and others confiscated or destroyed. Other revelations point to hijackers with national security overrides, protection in their alternate roles as drug traffickers, and deep political connections with government elites. We investigate patterns, reminiscent of historical intelligence involvement, revealing the presence of a covert intelligence operation disguised as an outside enemy attack.

With the increased stress on sustainability and food security, in addition, the need towards halting environmental deprivation has focused attention on green fertilizer technology (GFT), which is the means of improving the situation causing the rising environmental concern. It also gives efficient use of farm resources which can help to protect crops. Moreover, the adoption of GFT is one aspect to answer the problem in regards to the sustainable environment. In the year 1980, an initiative took place to simplify the adoption decision in the developing countries. Regardless of the low adoption rate elsewhere, comparable exertions in the current year have originated in developing countries. Accepting those primary factors that influence the adoption of GFT is very important. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study re-examines these factors and draws policy implications from that review for future actions. This research study re-examines them, based on other studies examining the inadequate adoption of GFT in developing countries, by generalising their conclusions to clarify why farmers have or have not made the decision to adopt GFT. The ability to address that awareness enables the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model to predict the farmer’s intention of acceptability of the GFT. By following a socio-psychological approach, by using TPB, the researchers have found out the paddy farmers’ adoption decision towards GFT. The researchers later discuss the implications for promoting the adoption of GFT, which delivers suggestions for the upcoming research study.

The idea of this research study is to seek farmers’ understanding about environmental attitudes in connection with conservation behaviour. The overall aim of this paper is to conceptualise the framework created by amending the environmental concern amongst paddy farmers towards GFT.

This research study will allow more academic consideration and may direct future research on the empirical findings on the environmental concern through the proposed conceptual framework amongst paddy farmers in Malaysia.