Kamariah Ismail

Factors influencing venture capital assessment of high growth companies in Malaysia

The urge to develop Malaysia through the growth of technology entrepreneurship has necessitated the government in establishing some technology financing agencies aimed at providing full assistance to technology entrepreneurs. This is because they are perceived to lack in certain support in technical expertise, training, disseminating information and, above all, in financing. The establishment of venture capital firms by the Malaysian Government is with the intention to encourage investments in high growth firms because they find it difficult to raise adequate financing at the early stage for growth due to their perceived high risk and opportunity uncertainty nature. This study elaborates on the assessment criteria of venture capital firms in Malaysia. Multiple case study approach is utilised to collect data for this study. Data is collated, transcribed and manually analysed. This study reported the factors considered by Malaysian venture capital firms when decisions to finance high growth companies are to be taken. The findings from this study will be useful to decision makers in public and private sector, professionals, researchers in Malaysia and other countries.

An Application of a Hybrid MCDM Method for the Evaluation of Entrepreneurial Intensity among the SMEs: A Case Study

This study presents one of the first attempts to focus on critical success factors influencing the entrepreneurial intensity of Malaysian small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as they attempt to expand internationally. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and prioritize the entrepreneurial intensity among the SMEs using multicriteria decision (MCDM) techniques. In this research FAHP is used for finding the weights of criteria and subcriteria. Then for the final ranking of the companies, VIKOR (in Serbian: VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) method was used. Also, as an additional tool, TOPSIS technique, is used to see the differences of two methods applied over the same data. 5 main criteria and 14 subcriteria were developed and implemented in the real-world cases. As the results showed, two ranking methods provided different ranking. Furthermore, the final findings of the research based on VIKOR and TOPSIS indicated that the firms A3 and A4 received the first rank, respectively. In addition, the firm A4 was known as the most entrepreneurial company. This research has been done in the manufacturing sector, but it could be also extended to the service sector for measurement.

The commercialisation process of patents by universities

The commercialisation process of university patents and how the decisions were made to patent new scientific discoveries and to commercialise them have not been studied extensively. This paper attempts to understand in detail, the process of commercialisation of university patents from the initial scientific disclosures through patent filings to the choice of commercialisation routes. A series of interviews were conducted with seven directors of technology transfer offices (TTO) of UK universities. The interviews were structured in a way so as to discover how new disclosures in their universities were chosen to be patented and how the patents were commercialised. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed with the help of Nvivo software. Then, case and cross case analysis were done. The result of the study showed that there are variations in practices between universities in how they decide to patent and in the routes of exploitation. Universities do differ on which inventions need to be patented and which route to go for their commercialisation. Universities that practice very highly selective procedures would only patent an invention after a very thorough market analysis. But there are universities that practiced low selective procedures; as such, they file for patent as long as the invention fulfils an expectation of potential value. Decisions on which route to commercialise are sought after the patent filings. Overall, only one university practice a very systematic selection procedure, from which, inventions were patented and specific route of commercialisation was chosen. Most of the universities based their selection criteria on motivations of the inventors, either to patent and which commercialisation route to utilise for their inventions.

Multi criteria decision making for assisting business angels in investments

AbstractThe roles of business angels (BAs) are especially important in view of both decreasing the levels of formal venture capital investment and growing the average amount of individual deals. Angel investors typically invest at an earlier stage of growth and provide more business guidance than venture capital providers. Therefore, angel investors are the key players in generating high-growth companies, essential to regional economic development. As a result, they have attracted the attention of policy makers. Thus, this research attempted to improve the conception of decision-making criteria used by the BAs for investment, and reports the findings of an exploratory project that analysed the Malaysian BAs’ decision-making process. A hierarchy of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) model based on fuzzy sets theory and VIKOR (in Serbian: Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) method were proposed in order to look into the decision making process. For this reason, 5 main criteria and 2...

Decision making process in the commercialization of University patent in Malaysia

Commercialization of university patent has become a major issue around the world, where many universities are moving into technology and entrepreneurial based universities. Even though the university possessed a number of patents, still a big portion of them are yet to be commercialized. This may be as a result of the complexity of the process involved and also the commitment of the parties involved in the decision making process. The purpose of this research is to find out how the commercialization process is done and understand why just a few of the university patents are commercialized. The study uses qualitative method incorporating a case study approach. Interviews were conducted with the relevant respondents from faculty of mechanical engineering, faculty of chemical engineering and natural resources, faculty of science and faculty of electrical engineering who have registered their inventions with Research Management Centre (RMC) of University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). The study finds that the commercialisation process is influenced by: first, the motivation and opportunity recognition of the inventor and industry; second, the royalties and funding opportunity; and lastly, and most importantly, the role played by the RMC and Innovation and Commercialization Centre (ICC) in the whole process. The study concludes with suggestions on how the decision making process in commercialising university patents could effectively be carried out. Further study should adopt multiple cases from two or more universities and could also consider patents that have not been exploited.

Investigating the moderating effect of family on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and success of enterprise: case of Pakistani manufacturing SMEs

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is one of the widely researched areas in entrepreneurship studies. Yet researchers have to come to agreement to the dimensionality of this important construct. EO is a multi-dimensional construct with varying impact on the performance and success of an enterprise in a developing context. Likewise, family ownership of the entrepreneurial business is one of the oldest phenomena in business circles. In developing countries family owned businesses makeup sizeable majority. The present study is conducted to investigate the role EO plays in the success of an enterprise with the moderating influence of family involvement. The study results indicate that proactiveness and autonomy are the most significant dimensions in the success of an enterprise. The results indicate that when family is taken as a moderator, the overall influence of EO dimensions is considerably reduced. The study concludes that cultural setting of entrepreneurial businesses and entrepreneurs themselves are subject to cultural norms and values and this cultural setting inhibit certain aspects of entrepreneurial activity, limiting the growth of entrepreneurship in a country. The study also recommends and points out future directions for further research.

Critical success factors of new product development in technology based firms: A case study

In today’s advanced technological era, new products are emerging rapidly and market competition is increasing. It is important for Malaysian companies to invest more in research and development (R and D) and to develop their own design capabilities and innovative products. New product development (NPD) refers to the complete process of bringing a new product or service to the market. The quest has been going on for decades to find the answer why some businesses are so much more successful at NPD as compared to the rest. That leads to the main theme of this paper which is the critical success factors (CSFs) of NPD. This case study is based on a company in Malaysia to explore the CSFs of NPD in a technology-based company. A survey utilizing the means of interview and questionnaire were conducted to discover the factors that are important to the NPD success. The company’s strengths and weaknesses that affect NPD performance were also explored. Support with the interview results from the engineers, the role of top management is the most critical factor that leads to NPD success. As a result of the research, an adapted model of CSFs of NPD for the company was developed. Finally, the study provides discussion of the implications and recommendations for both researchers and managers in the area of NPD management.

Entrepreneurial management and technology-based firm performance

A computer-aided surface lofting, fairing and manufacturing program, called G-SURF, has been developed for, and successfully implemented in, a small shipyard. The interactive menu-driven package runs on an IBM-AT or equivalent personal computer and interfaces with standard three-dimensional wire frame drafting packages.The naval architects small scale design drawing is approximated by a minimum number of smooth three-dimensional skeletal-lines running along the entire length of the surface. The skeletal-lines are formed by parametric taut-cubic polynomial splines and represent the essential features of the hull form. These lines are normally the profile, shear, chine and intermediate lines as necessary and are individually adjusted in three-dimensional space until smooth. A set of station-lines is formed as required through the skeletal-lines to fully define the hull surface.The hull can, if required, be lofted and faired as a developable surface that can be formed from flat sheet plate. The algorithms embodied in the program ensure developability and produce flat plate definition of the unwrapped hull form. The individual component plate shapes can be displayed on a graphics screen and interactively arranged to fit on a standard size of sheet plate material. During this ‘nesting’ process, the spacing between components, location of bridges, and direction, path and speed of cut are all specified.Positional nested plate data are postprocessed to give G-code data for a plasma-arc plate burning machine. G-code machine instructions can be sent directly from the host computer via an RS-232C serial line to the machine tool or can be stored on a disk for later use. The storage and transmission of part programs avoids the medium of punched paper tape, is flexible, reliable and can handle large amounts of data.Implementation of the G-SURF package has reduced the lofting, fairing and manufacturing time for ship hulls by a factor of three.

A theoretical framework for mentor–protégé matchmaking: the role of mentoring in entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial mentoring may not only help entrepreneurs to survive, but can also help them to avoid having to compromise their own responsibilities in a better and more sustainable environment, rather than simply pursuing a quest for profit. New start-ups will be more focused on using green technologies while developing their products at the same time. Research shows that such people are more inclined towards using greener products, provided the functionality and the price of the products are equivalent. This study proposes a theoretical framework for this purpose based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and Social Exchange Theory (SET). Integration of these theories will help explain why entrepreneurs want to be mentored, who influenced their intentions towards mentoring, what their preference is, in selecting a mentor, and what factors affect their relationship with a mentor. This conceptual model will help in the matchmaking of the right mentor with the right protege.

Cost management skills among the owners of Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the era of globalisation

In the era of globalisation or internationalisation, as a developing country, it is crucial for the Malaysian Government to propose an SME development plan to assist the SMEs to meet the new business challenges in the competitive global business environment. This is because SMEs in Malaysia need to prepare themselves in various aspects, especially in respect of entrepreneurial skills and knowledge to face the challenges in this new economic era. From the literature, globalisation or internationalisation is considered to be among the most important motivations for Malaysian SMEs owners to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills and knowledge to compete with the big world players. Among the important skills that have been discussed in the literature is cost management skills. Therefore, this paper will give an overview of the skill in costing among the owners of Malaysian SMEs in the era of globalisation. Furthermore, this paper will provide recommendations concerning how to improve cost management skills among Malaysian SMEs.