Search results

Built heritage constitutes the uniqueness and identity of a place. While being overlooked in existing research, built heritage in small towns is increasingly threatened by dilapidation, exhaustion and disappearance. Therefore, this study aims to examine the challenges in protecting the unique features and identity of small towns with regard to building regulations, guidelines and policies.

A semi-structured interview was conducted amongst a purposive sample of nine stakeholders from different organizations involved in heritage matters in Malaysia to investigate the issues and challenges facing the protection of small towns’ identity with regard to existing protection mechanisms impacting development of the towns. The data were then analyzed using the qualitative software package NVivo 8.0. The summary models imported from NVivo were created to visualize the connections between various dimensions of constructs, concepts and categories identified in the interviews.

The study found that the current issues of built heritage protection at the local level can be classified into five emergent themes: legislative, institutional, economic, social and technical issues. While absence of specific guideline for identifying local cultural places has been identified as the most fundamental issues facing the protection of unique and distinct resources in small Malaysia towns, the paper concludes with a framework of measures that can then be used for identification and protection of small town identity.

This study is the first of many fruitful contributions that examine heritage identification and protection mechanisms at the local level.

A walkability friendly environment is crucial in historical towns and cities built with minimal number of motor vehicles. This research aims to assess physical attributes of pedestrianization in Georgetown, Penang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site regarding walkability. A structured interview was conducted among 170 respondents at six different streets to examine citizens' satisfaction on the pedestrian facilities using six walkability features including a) pathway, b) zebra crossing, c) signage, d) personal safety, e) traffic flow and, f) aesthetics & amenities. Relative Importance Index (RII) analysis show that existing pathways do not meet acceptable standards in promoting a walkable environment. Aesthetic and amenities scores the lowest in satisfactory level and zebra crossing scores the highest in unsatisfactory level. The level of walkability in the World Heritage Site in Georgetown, Penang are found inadequate. Provision of physical walking and built heritage features without providing sufficient activities along the streets do not yield high walkability.

Each place possesses characteristics that confer on it a sense of place and identity through the meanings and values that they provide. The role of the physical built environment in place and identity development has not received adequate attention in built environment literature. This paper attempts to identify the unique and exceptional characteristics of places which create a unique environment and make a continuing contribution to the overall sense of the place. A preliminary survey was conducted in Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB), a small town in the northern part of the Malaysian state of Selangor; to examine the characteristics of the place that influence and contribute to the identity of the town. The survey results demonstrate that the cultural heritage of the physical built environment acts as an important trigger for the town’s identity. While it is undeniable that cultural heritage is indeed greatly the product of non-visual sources; subjective meanings, experiences, beliefs, ideology and past history of the place, this paper highlights the significance of the physical built environment in influencing the very individuality of the place.

Abandoned buildings which are exposed to weather and human threat may lead to deterioration in building quality. Indirectly, the buyer is not satisfied when the abandoned buildings is completed and occupied. This study seeks to assess residents' satisfaction towards residential building quality which was abandoned. This research combined quantitative and qualitative methods. Respondents are randomly selected based on reports and information obtained through the Ministry Housing and Local Government (MHLG) and Local Authority (LA). Subsequently thirty (30) housing projects were selected to answer the questionnaires. Based on thirty (30) housing projects which have been completed, only three (3) housing projects ranged between six (6) months to two (2) years and have been occupied by the buyers. A total of ten (10) developers were interviewed with respect to rehabilitation of abandoned projects. Thus 194 respondents were randomly selected to achieve the objective of the study. The data was analysed through descriptive statistical analysis and inferential statistics. This research demonstrated that abandoned housing project can lead to residents' satisfaction towards building quality. In order to rehabilitate abandoned housing, the study subsequently suggested build then sell approach towards achieving better housing quality.

Proper maintenance management ensures a long-term investment and provides a support function in business continuity to achieve organisational goal. However, inadequate involvement and participation of key stakeholders in maintenance management limit the continuous improvement of maintenance performance. Currently, there is a lack of studies about the influence of key stakeholders’ involvement in maintenance. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to deal with enhancement of maintenance management through the involvement of key stakeholders.

This research adopted a mixed method approach to determine the relationship between involvement of key stakeholders in maintenance management and maintenance effectiveness. The approach comprised of literature review, questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews.

This research suggests a positive correlation between involvement of maintenance manager (MM), maintenance staff, organisation, user and maintenance service provider (SP) in improving the effectiveness of maintenance management. The logistic regression analysis indicated that the involvement of MM and SP are significant predictors of maintenance effectiveness. The research further identified that there was a lack of involvement of the user and SP in maintenance management.

The research demonstrated that all key stakeholders should value the important roles of their participation in maintenance management to ensure an optimum return on a long-term investment. To create the awareness for the involvement of key stakeholders in building maintenance, studies on the advantages of participating in building maintenance and the impacts of ignorant towards building maintenance can be beneficial to the industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how planning factors affect urban housing development in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The paper encompasses planning approval process, legislative provisions, and planning decisions.

The paper analyses published literatures on land‐use planning to unveil diverse negative effects on property development, particularly on urban housing supply. Primary data are gathered through questionnaire surveys to 137 private housing developers and in‐depth interviews with seven local planning authorities to obtain feedback on the issues affecting urban housing development.

The paper establishes that some components of the town planning control can be exploited towards achieving the housing aspiration of a nation.

The findings of this paper are based on planning controls on urban housing development in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The paper attempts to encourage public policy makers and local authorities to undertake a more active role in providing better quality of urban housing through utilisation of town planning tools such as development plans, development control, and planning decision.

The paper provides information on how the government can utilise town planning controls to achieve urban housing policy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to present how the state government can successfully intervene in providing better quality of urban living standard in Malaysia.

The paper approaches the issue of state intervention by using a case study of a former squatters’ colony area in Bandar Baru Sentul in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

The paper establishes that for many decades the governance of Kuala Lumpur has played an active role in designing and implementing a wide range of housing policies to eradicate squatters’ settlement in the city, consequently fulfilling the aspirations of low‐income people to become part of the home owning democracy.

This paper attempts to encourage public policy makers and local authorities to undertake a more active role in providing better quality of urban living standard through the establishment of strong institutional capacity.

The paper provides information on how the state government provides a range of mixed policies to rehabilitate squatters’ colonies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

High-maintenance cost is the common issue in building industry due to low service quality of maintenance management in Malaysia. Lack of preventive measure is the problem that implicates poor maintenance performance. Scheduled maintenance is suggested to improve the maintenance performance. However, the effectiveness of scheduled maintenance can be greatly influenced by the availability of skilled technicians. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify the aspects of skilled technician to be concerned in maintenance management, as well as to establish the relationship between the aspects and maintenance cost performance.

A quantitative approach is adopted and carried out through questionnaire survey. Furthermore, descriptive analysis and correlation analysis are used to analyse the research data.

The literature review identifies three aspects of skilled technician to be concerned in maintenance management. Then, research result demonstrates that the skill and knowledge of technician is significantly correlated to the maintenance cost variance. The skill and knowledge of technician must be considered in maintenance planning and execution.

The research recommends the maintenance management to employ skilled technician through thorough hiring process and to encourage the existing maintenance staff for participating the relevant training, workshop, or seminar.

Scheduled building maintenance requires appropriate and adequate spare parts to replace existing parts on a regular basis. Management of spare parts is seen as an important criterion to ensure the efficiency of scheduled maintenance. The purpose of this paper is to identify the contributors of spare parts management and investigate the relationship between these contributors and maintenance cost performance.

This research adopted a quantitative approach, which utilised questionnaire surveys to study the relationship between the contributors of spare parts management and maintenance cost performance. The data were analysed through descriptive analysis, correlation, and regression analysis. Additionally, a case study was examined to validate the results obtained from the survey.

The results of this research demonstrated that the quality of spare parts (QSP), budget allocation for acquisition of spare parts, and level of stocks were significantly correlated to the maintenance cost variance (MCV). Moreover, the results of the regression analysis indicated that the QSP was the significant predictor of MCV.

This research highlights the importance of spare parts management in building maintenance. It recommends that maintenance management set up a spare parts management department for updating stocks frequently. Meanwhile, the management should avoid ad-hoc acquisition of spare parts, as this is always more expensive. The management should also select spare parts based on quality instead of lowest cost. In addition, building managers should also apply the developed regression model in practice to predict and improve maintenance performance.

This paper aims to explain the relationship between strategic technological and non-technological innovation ambidexterity and the internationalization performance of HbSMEs.

The theory of dynamic capability is highlighted as the main approach to enhance the internationalization performance of HbSMEs. It spells on the importance of continuous improvement, which can be realized by renewing and reconfiguring businesses competencies in response to the changing nature of business environment. The respondents composed of 310 HbSMEs that involve actively in international business activity. The data is analyzed using partial least squares.

The results indicate that only strategic non-technological innovation ambidexterity plays critical role in determining the internationalization performance of HbSMEs, while strategic technological innovation ambidexterity creates non-significant impact.

As resource-constrained enterprises, innovation activity imposed undue burden to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). However, since people are started to shift their preferences on herbal-based products, strategic innovation ambidexterity is critical for HbSMEs to respond to the global herbal market. This research may provide information in which area of innovation should be emphasized by HbSMEs. Here, strategic non-technological innovation ambidexterity has been observed to create positive and significant impact on the internationalization performance of HbSMEs. Therefore, exploiting the existing marketing capability and concurrently exploring new marketing capability are critical for HbSMEs so that businesses could improve its performance in the turbulent nature of international business environment.