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This book chapter aimed to examine the relationships between green supply chain practices and environmental performance in Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The practices of green supply chain in achieving environmental performance have been one priority concerns in Malaysia. However, green supply chain practices adoption remains emergence.

This manuscript adopted the multiple regression analysis in investigating the green supply chain (GSC) practices and environmental performance's variables. The self-administered surveys were randomly disseminated to Malaysian SMEs and 59 responses were returned. The result theoretically ascertained the positive relationship between GSC practices and environmental performance measures.

The findings are in aligned with the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory that conceptualized the GSC practices and strategies to sustain the environmental performance within the SMEs. In a nutshell, these findings would serve as the research implications and recommendations to the scholars, industrial practitioners, and policymakers who are interested in these GSC practices and environmental performance. This would further serve as a guideline for companies that tend to implement these GSC practices for improving its environmental performance.

The research revealed that ‘eco-design and packaging’ and ‘reverse logistics’ are significant to environmental performance, but both ‘green procurement’ and ‘investment recovery’ are not significant to environmental performance. The literature gaps exhibited for this manuscript; hence, future studies should be carried out on supply chain practices and environmental performance since there is no prescriptive method in sustaining environmental performance that matches all conditions in Malaysian SMEs.

When analyzing modes of navigating a multi-cultural environment in a multinational corporation (MNC), most studies employ an etic approach that delineates how, for example, multi-cultural companies thrive and maneuver in a likewise multi-cultural business contexts. This approach implies the use of theoretical models and empirical observations that from a methodological view identify an employee as either an objectified agent or as an anonymous “other,” indicating that such approaches are rooted in an ethnocentric academic tradition. Acknowledging the merits of this tradition, we take the methodological approach a step further and introduce an emic or contextualized approach that makes employees themselves provide the bulk of data on how and why they position themselves in a multi-cultural organization the way they do. The main objective of this chapter is thus to discuss how employees develop personal strategies to navigate in a complex multi-cultural organization. The study takes off by developing a theoretical model for how to approach emic studies and then proceeds to suggest a methodological approach that is capable of providing empirical data for a model based on a combination of both etic and emic approaches. This constitutes a first step towards developing a generic model of how to deal with context. In order to test the model, the empirical focus will be on the relationship between the headquarter of the Danish MNC, Maersk Line, in Denmark and its subsidiaries in Asia. This relationship is analyzed on the basis of interviews in the Danish headquarter and in the local offices in Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and Penang.

This chapter aims to extend the knowledge and understanding on the role of halal ports in halal logistics. Halal logistics is a relatively new area in supply chain management. It refers to the process of managing the logistics operations such as fleet management, storage/warehousing, and materials handling according to the principles of Shariah law in ensuring the integrity of the halal products at the point of consumption.

This chapter studies how, in halal logistics, ports play an important role as the main processes of delivering halal products to the end consumers should be performed through their gateway. At port, the logistical handling of goods is performed through four systems, namely, transfer, delivery/receipt, ship, and storage.

The halal control and assurance activities conducted at transport, terminal, and warehouse should be clearly inspected in preserving the halal status of the products, thus enhancing the halal supply chain performance. Such activities include having a dedicated halal warehouse and transport, use of tertiary packaging in shipment as well as segregation of halal products from non-halal products to avoid contamination.

This chapter also highlights the issues and challenges of adopting halal logistics faced by the industry. The issues and challenges discussed in the literature includes disunity of halal certification, high cost and low demand of the halal processes, inadequate Shariah compliant personnel and lack of a general and worldwide acceptable halal compliant process.

The chapter concludes with recommendation to perform qualitative research and case studies at specific ports in order to assess the role and implementation of halal ports in their supply chain processes.

Logistics play a vital role in today's economy. As the critical component in the supply chain, logistics is a sector able to be translated as a competitive weapon to the businesses and the nation. Malaysia is a developing country which, laid in the middle of the trade route between west and east, constantly eyes the opportunity to exploit the logistics sector as a platform to bring out its domestic products to the international market and to bring in investment from the global players. Good transport infrastructure and conducive business environment are the ingredients for positioning Malaysia as a hub of logistics activities at the regional and global level. One of the initiatives to achieve the objective is the commencement of Digital Free Trade Zone as a regional e-commerce e-fulfillment hub and drive export of Malaysian SME via e-commerce. As the government is looking toward shifting manufacturing approaches from labor-intensive to capital-intensive strategy, the container ports and airports are equipped with the state-of-the-art technology to ensure efficient movement of cargoes and passenger at the terminal. The progress of logistics and transport activities in Malaysia, coupled with recent development in the commercial and business-related projects, maybe becoming the most important reasons why the foreign investor should consider investing in Malaysia.

The racial diversity of the Caribbean stemmed directly from the historical processes of colonialism, imperialism, slavery, and indentureship. Since the early 17th century, slaves have been imported from Africa to work in the Caribbean. In the British West Indies, slavery was abolished in 1834 but these African slaves worked on the sugar estates until the apprenticeship was abolished on August 1, 1838. Even before 1838, planters frequently complained of labor shortages and appealed to Britain for the approval of imported labor. Thus, there were attempts by the planters in colonies, such as Trinidad, to introduce Chinese labor to the plantations. As early as 1806, there was the importation of 192 Chinese from Macao and Penang into Trinidad. However, this experiment soon failed. In 1834 and 1839, laborers from Portugal were imported into Trinidad. This soon ended as Portuguese workers could not withstand the rigorous conditions of the contract labor system.

Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

This study aims to determine whether destination awareness, destination image, and tourist motivation have a direct or indirect effect on tourists’ intention to revisit, with word of mouth (WOM) as a mediating variable. The study conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey and its target population was the visitors who came to the Batu Secret Zoo. The sample consisted of 170 respondents, who had visited the Batu Secret Zoo in the last six months. A survey research design was used. The measures used in the questionnaire were adapted from previous scales. The research was conducted using a quantitative method.

The findings indicate that destination awareness, destination image, and tourist motivation have a significant effect on tourists’ intention to revisit. This study also analyzed the possible mediating effect of WOM on tourists’ intention to revisit. The results showed that WOM plays a significant mediating role for destination awareness and destination image on tourists’ intention to revisit. These causal relationship variables were consistent with previous findings and conceptualized related studies. Several implications of the findings are discussed later.