Azmawani Abd Rahman

Consumers and Halal cosmetic products: knowledge, religiosity, attitude and intention

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to add to the body of knowledge about attitude and intention to choose a Halal product. Despite the importance of the Halal cosmetic market for both producers and consumers, the existing literature focusses on Halal food products, and only a limited number of studies exist about Halal cosmetic products. This study assesses the effects of knowledge and religiosity on attitudes towards Halal cosmetics products, as well as the effect of those attitudes on the intention to buy the Halal cosmetic products. This study also investigates the existence of differences between consumers’ attitudes towards Halal cosmetics and Halal food products. Design/methodology/approach – This study used a self-administrated questionnaire with closed-ended questions. The questionnaire was distributed using non-probability convenience sampling. At the end of data collection period, a total of 110 usable questionnaires from Muslim respondents over the age of 18 years old were used for further ...

The Precursors and Impacts of BSR on AMT Acquisition and Implementation

This paper reports on the results of research into the connections between transaction attributes and buyer-supplier relationships (BSRs) in advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) acquisition and implementation. The investigation began by examining the impact of the different patterns of BSR on the performance of the AMT acquisition. In understanding the phenomena, the study drew upon and integrated the literature of transaction cost economics theory, BSRs, and AMT, and used this as the basis for a theoretical framework and hypotheses development. This framework was then empirically tested using data that were gathered through a questionnaire survey with 147 companies and analyzed using a structural equation modeling technique. The results of the analysis indicated that the higher the level of technological specificity and uncertainty, the more firms are likely to engage in a stronger relationship with technology suppliers. However, the complexity of the technology being implemented was associated with BSR only indirectly through its association with the level of uncertainty (which has a direct impact upon BSR). The analysis also provided strong support for the premise that developing strong BSR could lead to an improved performance in acquiring and implementing AMT. The implications of the study are offered for both the academic and practitioner audience.

Assessing knowledge and religiosity on consumer behavior towards halal food and cosmetic products

This paper investigates the relationship between knowledge and religiosity on attitude towards Halal food and cosmetic products. It also looks at existence of significant difference between consumers’ attitude towards Halal cosmetic and Halal food products were investigated. Based on the sample of Malaysian Muslim consumers, results show that religiosity is more influential towards behavior compared to knowledge pertaining to halal matters and there is a significant difference on respondent’s behavior between halal food products and halal cosmetic products. The results of the study give implication to firms competing in cosmetic industry. Religiosity is one of the main factors that should be taken into account in promoting their cosmetic products.

Training and Organizational Effectiveness: Moderating Role of Knowledge Management Process.

Purpose – Training alone is not sufficient to enhance organizational effectiveness to a greater level because not all knowledge obtained from the training is properly transferred and applied to the organization. This study aims to investigate whether efforts invested by Malaysian manufacturers in employee training and knowledge transfer affect organizational effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopted a quantitative research design. The questionnaire developed for this study captured the training related to individual/managerial skills, the knowledge management process in place to capture and apply the knowledge obtained through training, and the organizational effectiveness. A closed-ended online survey was sent to 1,000 members of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) throughout Malaysia and 88 manufacturers responded. The unit of analysis was an organization. Findings – The study found the following: training employees to acquire individual/managerial skills and process sk...

Transaction attributes and buyer-supplier relationships in AMT acquisition and implementation: the case of Malaysia

This paper explores how transaction attributes of technology affect differences in the relationship between technology buyers and suppliers. It also examines the impact on performance of different patterns of relationship between technology buyers and suppliers. Data obtained from 147 manufacturing firms in Malaysia are used to test several hypotheses, which were derived from a review of the literature on technology, transaction cost theory and buyer–supplier relationships (BSR). The research results indicate that the higher the level of technological complexity, specificity and uncertainty, the more firms are likely to engage in a closer relationship with technology suppliers. Even though the majority of firms reported improvements in their performance, results indicate that firms demonstrating a closer relationship with technology suppliers are more likely to achieve higher levels of performance than those that do not. It is also shown that with high levels of transaction attribute, implementation performance suffers more when firms have weak relationships with technology suppliers than with moderate and low levels of transaction attribute.

A Review on Drivers and Barriers towards Sustainable Supply Chain Practices

The rising environmental concerns are encouraging consumers to have greater awareness of their purchase decisions. Firms are implementing measures geared to offering green substitutes for traditional products and services. However, the effort towards sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is not as straightforward since organization would face obstacles. The aim of this paper is to identify the barriers and drivers towards the implementation of the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). Through the review of the literature, it was found that there are various factors that have been documented to influence an organization in making the decision towards SSCM implementation.

Explaining and predicting online tourists’ behavioural intention in accepting consumer generated contents

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the factors influencing Iranian tourists’ behavioural intention to use consumer-generated contents (CGC) websites whilst browsing the web when it comes to travel planning, based upon the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) extension. Design/methodology/approach The total of 211 valid responses were collected through an online questionnaire survey. Data collected from Iranian online tourists were used to test the proposed research model by using the partial least squares structural equation modeling method of analysis. Findings The results of the study indicate that perceived source credibility is the strongest predictor for behavioural intention. Furthermore, in this study, the most significant relationship is between perceived enjoyment and perceived ease of use. However, the findings of this study show that perceived ease of use is unable to predict behavioural intention of Iranian tourists while using CGC websites. Research limitations/implications This study provides clear evidence for the importance of additional key variables in improving the authors’ understanding of the Iranian adoption behaviour concerning CGC websites for travel planning purposes. Implications of this research can aid both academicians and practitioners towards a better understanding of tourists’ adoption behaviour when associated with the social media. Originality/value This paper adopts TAM and extends it with other variables, namely, perceived enjoyment, perceived source credibility and perceived risk. It examines their influence in the behavioural intention of using CGC for travel planning in the context of Iran for the first time.

Revealing factors hindering halal certification in East Kalimantan Indonesia

Purpose – This study aims to explore various factors that hamper halal certification in food service industries in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. World halal business as well as awareness in halal products and services consumption has been growing rapidly for the past few years. However, many industry players have not yet realized those huge potential concepts of halal business. Food service industries such as restaurants and caterings show less concern in putting priority on the issue of halal certification. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative data collection technique called nominal group technique (NGT) was used in this study. Four categories of stakeholders participated in this NGT to represent certifying body, consumers, industry player and government. Each category was given a fundamental question: “What factors are hindering restaurant and catering in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, in obtaining halal certification?” Findings – The authors found that through NGT, the authors can obtain top priorit...

Relationship among local content policy, indigenous oil firms’ participation and job creation in nigeria: A theoretical concept

The focus of this paper is to explain in more detail the theoretical concept of the relationship among local content policy (LCP), indigenous oil firms’ participation and job creation in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. There is no doubt about that “capital-intensivity” of oil and gas sector and that it creates little amount of jobs in the economy. However, it has been argued that if the sector is well managed and regulated, it has potential to create sizable employment. This mounts on the perception that several medium-scaled services often required in stages of production of oil products which may generate many employments. Recently, the motive for job creation in oil and gas sector, particularly for local labours, has led many established oil-producing countries to implement some regulatory policies in their hydrocarbon sectors. One common of such policies is the so-called local content policy (LCP). Generally, the LCP often aims at increasing participation of local oil service companies through which employment opportunities would be created for local workforce. Nigeria, a nascent oil-export country, introduced LCP in its hydrocarbon sector early 2001. The core objective of this policy in Nigeria is not uniquely different from other oil-rich countries where the policy has been practiced. The policy is mainly designed to increase participation of Nigerian indigenous firms for value addition to local economy, especially, in terms of creation of more employments for Nigerian workforce within the sector. Some corpus of studies has described the relationship between LCP and local firms’ participation in the oil sector, many of which relied on theory of firm. However, they provide little understanding on how such influence relate to job creation. This paper demonstrates and explains in more detail a theoretical relationship that likely to exist among the LCP, indigenous oil firms’ participation and job creation in the oil and gas sector. The focus is not on empirical examination of the effect, rather on explanation of conceptual relationship among these variables, which has seen as an indispensable. In this paper, we infer that there might be a linear link between LCP and indigenous oil firms’ participation in the industry. This paper argues that the credence of LCP relies on the amount of job it evolved. However, if interaction between LCP and indigenous firms’ participation fails to relate to job creation, then, the focal objective of the policy on value addition, as regard to job creation, may not achieved.

A systematic literature review on the success factor of innovation commercialization performance

This paper explores and describes some of the directions within the field of innovation commercialization collaboration. The directions are derived from the results of examining 182 research articles that had been published from year 2007 to year 2013 from various established databases. From the systematic literature review process, six main factors have been identified as success factors of innovation commercialization. The factors are organizational resources, knowledge management, strategic orientation, organizational support, contextual factor and lastly collaboration.