Kamarulzaman Ab. Aziz

Smart Partnership or Cronyism? A Malaysian Perspective

Proposes that, arms length economic system (ALS) is not always appropriate for developing nations. The alternative of a relationship based system (RBS) which is often mistaken for crony capitalism as practiced in Malaysia is offered. Entrepreneurial spirit so fundamental to the development of an economy may be so lacking as to perish under an ALS yet be able to flourish under RBS. Explains three major aspects of how the Malaysian Economy was able to flourish under the RBS (1) the cultural reform of the majority indigenous group (2) the multi‐cultural cooperation between the economically superior Chinese and the less economically developed Malays and (3) The spill‐over effect from privatisation policies. Recognising the existence and legitimacy of an RBS as an economic model may offer a new approach towards poverty eradication and economic development of Third World countries.

ICT Clusters as a Way to Materialize a National System of Innovation: Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor Flagships

Developing countries have realised the need to develop the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector to compete in an environment of increasing globalisation and also the emergence of the knowledge based economy. But given the limited resources, one approach seems to be popular among many countries is the ‘cluster’ based approach for industrial development This paper seeks to highlight one such effort viz. Malaysias Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Cluster with its Flagships approach. The MSC is presented in the paper as a physical manifestation of the NSI, to illustrate how a policy driven – cluster based regional development approach has helped to further national innovative performance and competitiveness

Success strategies of SMEs in the creative sector in Malaysia: a case study of Les Copaque

The creative sector has been acknowledged by the Malaysian government as a major driver in the transformation of economies. Although the Malaysian government recognises the importance of nurturing the creative sector and has provided a range of facilities, the onus is on the firms to take advantage of these facilities. Hence, in this paper, a case study of a pioneer animation production company Les Copaque is presented drawing insights on their approach for sustaining performance in a challenging sector by leveraging on government facilities and through effective Intellectual Property (IP) management strategies. This paper looks at how the process Malaysian pioneering animation production company, Les Copaque overcame the technological and market challenges in the creative industries. Specifically, Les Copaques strategies for managing its IP and resources by (a) leveraging on government provided facilities specifically for financial assistance and distribution of its products and (b) selective IP protection strategies.

Inter-organisational collaborative knowledge management (CKM): a conceptual model

The momentous role and positive impact of knowledge and knowledge management (KM) on business performance is widely accepted. KM adoption among the MNCs and larger firms is well documented. However, there is a general lagging trend among the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs often perceive KM implementation as infeasible or unrewarding. This paper believes that SMEs performance would be enhanced multifold if given access to KM facilities and practices. Do the SMEs need a leg up to get on the KM bandwagon? Can this be done collaboratively? To explore these questions, the paper reviewed the concepts of CKM; collaborations, alliances and networks; online social networks and Enterprise 2.0. It is found that the trends are creating an environment suitable for the implementation of inter-organisational CKM. The paper proposes an inter-organisational CKM model that is based on Enterprise 2.0 concept designed to enhance the level of KM adoption among SMEs.

Synchronous gravitational search algorithm vs asynchronous gravitational search algorithm: a statistical analysis

Gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is a new member of swarm intelligence algorithms. It stems from Newtonian law of gravity and motion. The performance of synchronous GSA (S-GSA) and asynchronous GSA (A-GSA) is studied here using statistical analysis. The agents in S-GSA are updated synchronously, where the whole population is updated after each member’s performance is evaluated. On the other hand, an agent in A-GSA is updated immediately after its performance evaluation. Hence an agent in A-GSA is updated without the need to synchronize with the entire population. Asynchronous update is more attractive from the perspective of parallelization. The results show that both implementations have similar performance.

Commercialisation of University Research: An Investigation of Researchers ' Behaviour

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have been identified as one of the key factors for the growth and development of a nation. This is reflected in the vast amount of investment of public funds into research activities among the HEIs by the Malaysia government. Such a move is embraced by both developed and developing nations in the hopes of reaping the benefits in terms of the enrichment of knowledge, development of expertise and human capital and more tangibly in terms of the intellectual properties (IPs) produced by the research activities. Often the IPs would have commercial potential and there are numerous avenues for commercialising such IPs. However, often only small percentages of the RD most are treated as just another academic exercise. Thus, the challenge is driving the researchers in the HEIs to ensure R&D doesn’t end with publication of findings only, but it flows continuously into C – commercialisation, which includes the creation of university spin-out (USO). This study investigates the researchers’ behaviour in terms of conducting research, exploiting the results and ultimately commercialising their innovations.

Intellectual Property Valuation Decision Support System for University Research Output: A Conceptual Model

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Sales incentive scheme: insights from the Malaysian telecommunication sector

Pay is often the most important staff motivator and an effective system of incentives could help retain existing staff; increase staff motivation, morale and loyalty; boost productivity of the organisation; link individual and business performance; focus employees on achieving targets and also build teamwork among themselves. Appelbaum and Mackenzie (1996) stated that incentive plans are cash payments made to employees when they exceed predetermined job or organisational goals, and serve as inducements to produce specific results desired by the organisation. These metrics can be fiscal targets (sales and bookings), production output, or productivity gains (cost reduction, quality), etc. Both merit and incentive pay plans are considered forms of result-oriented compensation, recognising superior job performance in the belief that such performance has made a valuable contribution to the organizations effectiveness (Kanungo and Mendonca, 1992). This study specifically will look into how an organisation (a major telecommunication organisation in Malaysia) introduced a more attractive pay system via a sales incentive scheme (SIS), and was able to recognise and reward its highly competent employees. This then impacted positively on the performance of the said employees.

Innovation, convergence and the disenfranchised: Investigating the inclusiveness of convergence in Malaysia

This study proposes to explore the level of inclusive innovation adoption in converged telecommunications as perceived by industry players in Malaysia as well as their attitudes towards the idea using Ajzens theory of planned behavior (TPB). The paper shares the findings of the pilot study conducted in a focus group of Malaysian telecommunications industry players. Discussions on the robustness of the tool developed, some descriptive statistics, preliminary findings and recommendations for the communications sector are given as well as implications for next stages of the work. In general, the findings indicated that the Malaysian communications industry players moderately agreed on the inclusiveness of the convergence goods currently available in the markets. However, the findings also indicated more can be done to enhance the level of inclusiveness. Furthermore, there appear to be certain differences in attitude towards inclusive innovation according to gender and generation.

Drivers for University Research Performance: Investigating the Researchers' Dynamics

Universities provide the foundations for a nation’s social, cultural, economic and technological progress. Beside the academic programmes offered by the universities that build the human capital, research activities are the other pillar of academia that help to drive a nation’s progress. Andersson (2010) identified research environment and researchers dynamics as the key factors that impact the quality of research in universities. The aim of this paper is to investigate the researchers’ dynamics resulting in excellent research performance by a university, and hence to derive lessons regarding university research performance. Specifically, the paper explores researchers’ profiles in terms of their achievements over the past five years, their attributes, behaviour and attitude. This was achieved by using a case study approach (Eisenhardt, 1989 and Yin, 1994). The identified top commercialisation producer among the universities in Malaysia, namely Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), was selected for the case study. This paper highlights the findings.