Readiness to Adopt E-Business Among SMEs in Malaysia

Author(s):  
Malliga Marimuthu ◽  
Azizah Omar ◽  
T. Ramayah ◽  
Osman Mohamad

The adoption of the Internet as a business strategy tool is becoming an important way for firms to expand their business through innovative strategies. This study provides an insight concerning the factors that influence the adoption of the Internet to support business activities, also known as e-business among SMEs in Malaysia. In addition, the study also examines the relationship between e-business adoption and the business performance of the SMEs. Using a structured survey questionnaire, a usable response was received and statistically analyzed from 177 SMEs that currently use e-business. The research found that organizational characteristics, technology characteristics and environmental characteristics influence e-business adoption and that the adoption of e-business has a direct influence on the business performance of the SMEs. The findings of this study can aid and encourage the SMEs in developing countries to build a competitive advantage by using the Internet in their business strategy practices.

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malliga Marimuthu ◽  
Azizah Omar ◽  
T. Ramayah ◽  
Osman Mohamad

The adoption of the Internet as a business strategy tool is becoming an important way for firms to expand their business through innovative strategies. This study provides an insight concerning the factors that influence the adoption of the Internet to support business activities, also known as e-business among SMEs in Malaysia. In addition, the study also examines the relationship between e-business adoption and the business performance of the SMEs. Using a structured survey questionnaire, a usable response was received and statistically analyzed from 177 SMEs that currently use e-business. The research found that organizational characteristics, technology characteristics and environmental characteristics influence e-business adoption and that the adoption of e-business has a direct influence on the business performance of the SMEs. The findings of this study can aid and encourage the SMEs in developing countries to build a competitive advantage by using the Internet in their business strategy practices.


Author(s):  
Javier Amores Salvadó ◽  
José Emilio Navas López ◽  
Gregorio Martín de Castro

The proposal below provides a special emphasis on the relationship between businesses and natural environment. It is argued that the inclusion of environmental criteria to business activities promotes the creation of new core competencies, offering a creative and innovative perspective to the organization that can lead to the achievement of sustainable competitive advantages. More specifically, we analyze both the existence of a direct relationship between Environmental Innovation and Firm Performance and the existence of an indirect relationship between the two, which highlights the mediating role of the kind of competitive advantage generated. It also provides an innovative approach, as it explains the Environmental Innovation from the literature on Social Innovation, considering Environmental Innovation as an expression of Social Innovation through the incorporation of ethical arguments to products, processes and organizational modes of the company. The main contributions of this work can be summarized as follows: (1) It explains the nature of Environmental Innovation through the Social Innovation literature, which allows consideration of some key aspects of administrative and technological innovations that have not been taken into account the academic literature. (2) The different types of environmental innovations are analyzed as a necessary step to understand the strategic options in the environmental field. (3) Environmental Innovation is related to business performance. The practical implications of the relationship between environmental innovation and performance are of great importance, since it directly influence the type of environmental strategy chosen, allowing the company to choose from innovative strategies (based on pollution prevention) or more conservative strategies (emissions control).


Author(s):  
Eny Sulistyowati ◽  
Nining Sofiati Lestari

<p><span class="fontstyle0">This research was conducted with the aim to explain the influence of the characteristics of the owner/manager of the business strategy, describes the influence of business strategy on business performance, explaining the influence of the characteristics of the owner/manager of the business performance. Variables used in this research is variable owner/manager, business strategy (independent variable) and variable performance or Small Bussinis Performance (dependent variable). The results obtained show that a direct influence on the performance characteristics of the manager of small and medium businesses in the </span><span class="fontstyle0">city of Yogyakarta strong with R2 values of 0.224, or 22.4%, the effect of business strategies on business performance </span><span class="fontstyle0">of small and medium businesses in urban areas with R2 values of 0,049 or 4.9%. Meanwhile, indirectly influence the characteristics of managers' business performance through business strategy in the city of Yogyakarta only has value R2 value of 0.080 or 8.0%.</span></p>


2012 ◽  
pp. 684-701
Author(s):  
Fasil Taddese ◽  
Hiroshi Osada

Challenged with intense market competition, developing countries are searching for methods to ensure sustainable development through business performance. In this regard, TQM and NPD play a major role. However, research is limited in the area of addressing the contextual link between TQM, NPD, and sustainable development. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship between the three and the outcome of the relationship. The results show that TQM in the context of NPD for sustainable development in developing countries focuses on adaptive products through incremental improvements on production technology, NPD system, product development, production process, and employee know-how. It is also found that TQM revolutionizes the conventional R&D system by enhancing innovation capabilities. It reduces development costs and time alleviating financial limitations. The results further reveal that process focus on the TQM framework has contributed to sustainable ecology management through various environmental management systems.


2011 ◽  
pp. 2631-2645
Author(s):  
El-Sayed Abou-Zeid

With the growing awareness of the crucial role that knowledge can play in gaining competitive advantage, several issues with regard to knowledge management (KM) initiatives have challenged executives. The articulation of the relationship between an organization’s competitive strategy and its knowledge strategy is the most eminent. This chapter addresses the issue of how to align knowledge strategy with enterprise business strategy. Based on the premise that the realization of business value from KM investments requires alignment between business and knowledge strategies, the issue is addressed by developing a strategic alignment model for KM. This model, which is based on the Henderson-Venkatraman strategic alignment model, includes the external domains (opportunities/threat) and internal domains (capabilities/arrangements) of both business (B-) and knowledge (K-) strategies and the relationships between them. Furthermore, it provides alternative strategic choices. The model is used to study a KM initiative at Buckman Laboratories.


Author(s):  
Kujtim Mustafa ◽  
Isak Shabani

<p>We are living in the era of internet and smartphones. Almost everybody in developing countries has at least one smartphone or connection to the internet through any other mobile device. So developing mobile software for the people or government is a big chance to make people life easier. The time has become a very important factor for which you can’t even pay for extra time, so making life easier for those people who don’t have time is big chance not losing it. All the data that are generated from the software or services is the best match to store those data on cloud, with which we don’t care about privacy and protection, availability to access them, manipulation of them and so on. In this paper, we describe how this newly emerged paradigm of cloud computing can be helpful for mobile e-Governance. Using cloud of course has a cost, but if you can’t give the same conditions that cloud gives, it is best choice to store the data on cloud. If we use cloud you don’t have to pay for all the IT staff who cares about the data, servers, databases, networks, with those money you can pay for cloud services. We start by an introduction about the cloud and e-Government, continuing with what the benefits and challenges of the e-Government and cloud are computing, the relationship of e-Government and cloud computing, mobile e-Governance in cloud and some examples of some countries that are using mobile e-Government in cloud. <br />Keywords: e-Government, e-Governance, Cloud Computing, Mobile, Data Storage</p>


Author(s):  
Ehab Mohiuddin Hashlamou ◽  

The current study aims to identify the extent to which the competitive advantage - the natural cosmetics sector - was achieved in light of the factors of the Porter model, and on the Hashlamoun cosmetics factory in the West Bank between 2018 and 2019. Where the study was formulated through the main question: What is the extent of achieving the competitive advantage - the natural cosmetics sector - in light of the factors of the Porter model, and on the Hashlamoun cosmetics factory in the West Bank? This question is divided into a set of sub-questions. In order for the study to achieve its goals according to the scientific methodology, a qualitative exploration method for secondary sources and data has been used to uncover criticism and support for Porter models through relevant books and references. Work has also been done on the descriptive analytical approach in the study to analyze the sector and case study through several tools, including the questionnaire It was prepared appropriately based on the main factors of the Porter model for analyzing the sector's attractiveness and other external factors, in order to collect the required data on (8) cosmetic companies natural, conduct interviews and take notes in a case study of a factory Hashlamoun p. For cosmetics, the study used descriptive and inferential methods, through the statistical analysis program (EXCEL ). The study reached a number of results, the most important of which are: Based on the Porter factors to analyze the sector and build a competitive advantage, the researcher showed when applying the model that the natural cosmetics sector has an average attractiveness to invest in it, and that the Hashlamoun Cosmetics Company for the industrial environment in the sector has a medium appeal to continue in it, but after applying the forces and modern factors to the sector Natural cosmetics turned out to be of low attractiveness and also the Hashlamoun Company for Cosmetics for its industrial environment is of high attractiveness. The Porter model assessment of the five powers of sector analysis with the researcher’s assessment is weak and not sufficient, because it is unable to give information and expected challenges to the market and the sector adequately and inappropriate for the current sectors and different markets for several reasons: the inconsistency of the conditions and assumptions that are required to apply the model to the sectors and modern markets, the sector The model was applied to in Palestine and it is one of the developing countries, which means the model is unable to deal with the analysis and understanding of the sectors and markets of developing countries. The organization under study is from the small organizations sector and the Porter model is not appropriate for this sector because it has structures organization and clear and depend on the manpower, expertise and skills while the model is based on clear organizational and divided structures is the basic value of the equipment, machinery and external resources, and the presence of factors, modern forces weighed heavily on the markets and sectors and their ability to build a competitive advantage, did not mention the five Porter powers model. It became clear to the researcher that the company is using a differentiation strategy to build a competitive advantage for it, but there are better and more modern strategies that are more suitable for modern markets, and this strategy used has many flaws. After discussing the results, the study concluded with a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: Establishing a committee representing companies in the natural cosmetics sector and caring for them, companies that want to invest in or are present in the sector to counter the intensity of competition by using information technology methods and taking advantage of globalization and the Internet to market and promote their products, also that Al-Hashlamoun Cosmetics Company adopts the new thought of total quality management, Reduce damage, arrange production activities and processes to save time and effort, and communicate between management and workers to solve problems, access the market quickly and on demand on time, and a hybrid modern strategy that integrates cost leadership with differentiation, and The companies use to analyze the market recent modern models for all factors and variables, and if Porter models are used to be just a simple look or a starting point and use other tools, also amend the Porter strategies and models to become appropriate for the modern economy and the variables and taking into account modern forces from the Internet and globalization and free trade, and adding factors On its models to accommodate the economy in developing countries and focus on the role and impact of government on sectors.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Mungai ◽  
Madara Ogot

Micro-enterprises (MEs) have been shown to collectively be the largest employer in most developing countries thus playing a significant role in the countries economies. Using informal sector micro-enterprise furniture makers (wood and metal) in Nairobi, Kenya and based on Porter's competitive business strategies typology, this study sought to determine if the strategies employed by the informal sector MEs fit within the typology framework, and if membership within the strategic groups in the typology are a predictor of better business business performance. From the study, although membership within the two focus strategic groups of differentiation and low cost was confirmed, unlike studies done with medium and large enterprises, membership was not found to be a predictor of better business performance. Porter's typology may therefore not adequately capture the competitive business activities relevant to and directly by MEs, presenting an opportunity for research into the development of competitive business strategy typologies directly derived from their activities and therefore applicable to them.


Author(s):  
Yulia Wati ◽  
Chulmo Koo

This chapter introduces the Green IT Balanced Scorecard by incorporating an environmental aspect of technology into the scorecard measurement method. The authors conceptualized the Green IT balanced scorecard as “a nomological management tool to systematically align IT strategy with business strategy from an environmental sustainability perspective in order to achieve competitive advantage.” The objectives of the Green IT balanced scorecard include the measurement of technology performance via the effective integration of environmental aspects, the investigation of both tangible and intangible assets of Green IT investment, the alignment of IT performance and business performance, and the transformation of the results into competitive advantage. This concept offers a new possibility for both practitioners and researchers to translate their sustainable business strategies into Green IT actions.


Author(s):  
Vural Çağlıyan ◽  
Melis Attar ◽  
Aleem Abdul-Kareem

Purpose This study aims to assess the mediating effect of sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) on the relationship between organisational innovativeness (OI) and performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Konya, Turkey. Design/methodology/approach A survey method is used to collect the necessary data for this research. A total of 264 respondents from 83 SMEs partook in the study. In choosing the sample size, both purposive sampling and simple random techniques are used. The data gathered are analysed using SPSS program and Hayes PROCESS macro v.3.4.1. Findings The results of the analyses reveal that OI has a statistically significant positive effect on SCA and firm performance (FP). Moreover, SCA is found to have a mediating effect on the relationship between OI and FP. Practical implications Policymakers and management of SMEs need to show great commitment to innovativeness and relate it to SCA to create superior customer value, thereby leading to a holistic and long-term FP. Originality/value This study brings to the fore empirical evidence on how SCA serves as a mediator between OI and FP. It also contributes to the literature by focusing on three distinct but related variables. The study makes theoretical contribution by highlighting the role of the resource-based theory in enhancing business performance and SCA through strategic internal resources and innovative activities.


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