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Volume 2 Number 1

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Determinants of the New Manufacturing Venture's Performance in Vietnam

This paper focuses on analyzing the factors determining the growth of the new manufacturing ventures in Vietnam. We reviewed the comprehensive framework of the new venture performance and applied it partly for Vietnam’s case. A total of 312 new manufacturing ventures were sampled from the secondary dataset of the World Bank. The results indicate that the international market expansion strategy through exporting, geographic location, financial resources, ownership structure of Limited and FDI Company are significant predictors. That significance differs by the technological levels among industry sectors. Finally, several implications for practitioners, government sector and researchers as well as future research direction are provided.

Assessing the Effect of Trust and Security Factors on Consumer's Willingness for Online Shopping among the Urban Moroccans

This study attempts to examine the customers’ willingness to shop online by taking into account demographic factors as well as trust, and security-related factors. The research area of the study included the most prominent cities of Rabat, Casablanca and Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. A logistic regression analysis was demonstrated and the findings indicate that the customers’ willingness to shop online is explained by age, trust, security, awareness and piracy factors. The findings of the study also indicates that majority of the respondents intends to shop online. The research outcomes are undoubtedly useful for both the government and online vendors for better understanding online shoppers. The study also facilitates policy makers to set and develop a better online shopping infrastructure with the technological competitive advantage for both online vendors and consumers.

Information and Marketing Competency of Malaysian Firms Exporting to Asian Markets

Malaysian firms have often been advised to increase trade relations with fellow ASEAN nations. This paper reports the findings of a study involving seventy two firms that have ventured into ASEAN markets, namely Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam. The data were collected via mail survey. Four major sources of export-related identified were government and commercial sources, SMI agencies, personal sources and international research agencies. The findings reports that personal sources are significantly related to the enhancement of all the five marketing competencies. The government and commercial association sources are also significantly related to the enhancement of all but one of the five marketing competencies. The SMI agencies and international research agencies do not contribute to the enhancement of the five marketing competency.

Relationship between the Full-Range Leadership and Insurance Salesperson’s Job Satisfaction

The purpose of this paper is to use the Full-Range Leadership Theory to study the insurance salespersons’ job satisfaction level. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed and collected from 303 insurance salespersons from four major insurance organizations in Malaysia (response rate of 86.57 percent). The Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis was applied to test the theoretical model and the relationship between the Full-Range Leadership Theory and insurance salespersons’ job satisfaction.  The results revealed a significantly positive relationship between the job satisfaction with some of the perceived transformational leadership and transactional leadership factors.

Scenario Planning Approach to Strategic Management of Small Travel Business in Malaysia

Scenario planning, an alternative strategic management tool, has given a new meaning and dimension to the way strategy should be thought, discussed and implemented in organizations. This paper introduces scenario planning in the way the turbulent world should be better managed by looking for possible futures and not predicting the only future. No matter how rational strategic planners are, the complexity of the business environment would still leave the planners guessing of their planned and predicted future. This study undertaken using scenario planning technique by looking at the future of the small travel business in Malaysia. The three plausible scenarios discovered were ‘stormy weather’, ‘blizzards’ and ‘occasional shower’. The study recommended that strategic options available for the businesses were ‘differentiation’, ‘new services’, ‘diversification and mergers/acquisition’. These options are applicable for all scenarios.

Exploring the Relationship of Key Strategic Orientations towards Sustainable Organisational Performance 

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between market and quality orientation of manufacturing organisations in Malaysia. Data was collected using the mail questionnaire survey approach with the simple random sampling procedure in selecting the organisations for inclusion in the sample. One hundred and fifty eight Malaysian manufacturing organisations participated in this study. The results from the study shows that market orientation associated positively with quality orientation. This result confirms that integration between marketing and operation departments in an organisation is essential to ensure sustainable organisational performance. However, despite their importance many organisations have not fully adapted to become a market driven and quality oriented organisation.