Mohar Yusof

Women Entrepreneurs: Making A Change from Employment to Small and Medium Business Ownership☆

Abstract This study explored women entrepreneurs who made a change from salaried employment to ownership of small and medium businesses. The study used a convenience sample comprising 153 women started their own businesses. The study focused on; first, the factors that cause women to leave employment for business ownership; second, their personal and entrepreneurial characteristics and; last, the challenges they faced during the transition from salaried employment to business ownership. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed by hand, email and fax. The main factors identified to have spurred women to leave employment for business ownership were a need to achieve personal growth, independence and the economic payoff. Passion for the business, listening and communication skills, and self discipline were among the most common personal skills. The prime entrepreneurial skills that were indicated include confidence, leadership, creative thinking in problem solving, being efficient and effective in executing plans, entrepreneurial and business knowledge, being analytical, balancing skills between personal and business life, and flexibility. The challenges faced by the respondents were a shortage of professional staff, shortage of general staff, issues of development and growth, financial constraints due to high overheads and a lack of consultation advice from experts.

Internal Factors of Academic Entrepreneurship : the Case of Four Malaysian Public Research Universities

This paper focused on academic entrepreneurship, an emerging phenomenon in Malaysian public research universities. The research demonstrated that academic entrepreneurship produced positive impact on research commercialization and university technology transfer for these public research universities. Academic entrepreneurship was also found to be one of the missing gaps in fulfilling the complete process of research and development up to commercialization. This study provided evidence of the appropriateness of using an organizational framework of academic entrepreneurship to measure the influence of the internal environment in stimulating the level of academic entrepreneurship. The results demonstrated that control systems, organizational culture, human resource management systems and entrepreneurial leadership behaviour were key predictors of academic entrepreneurship in these universities.

Developing next generation leaders for transgenerational entrepreneurial family enterprises

This illustrative book considers the interface of business structures, contexts, and leadership building blocks to explore the contingent nature of leadership development in transgenerational entrepreneurship. Longitudinal case studies of 27 family firms in nine different countries provide a rich, global selection of leadership development insights by examining the role of values, professionalization, leadership style and other contingent factors.

Virtuous CSR: an Islamic family business in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to postulate, in addition to “moral” and “strategic” considerations, a third general standard for corporate social responsibility (CSR). That third approach is what moral philosophers call “virtue ethics.” Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a single organization case study of a Malaysian publisher to put forward the practice of virtuous CSR based on Islamic values and principles in a family business. Findings – By focussing on creating or maintaining virtuous habits in the family and the firm, the family business has avoided the equally unrealistic notions that CSR must be entirely selfless or entirely strategic to be legitimate. Virtues that foster a successful strategy such as vision and competence can be enhanced rather than hindered by virtues such as integrity and generosity. Research limitations/implications – This is a case study of a single family. Nevertheless, this paper has implications for strategy and CSR for non-family business as well becaus...

Entrepreneurial Engagements of Academics in Engineering Universities of Pakistan

Abstract This paper gives an account of entrepreneurial engagements of academics in engineering universities of Pakistan. The study adds to literature on academic entrepreneurship in developing economies perspective. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaire from six engineering universities of Pakistan and 306 academics participated in the survey. Findings reveal that academics are involved in all the categories of academic entrepreneurship. However, it is quite evident that academics prefer the soft side of entrepreneurship than hard side. External teaching, seminars and consultancy are the preferred strategies compared to formation of companies within universities or without universities. The paper presents policy recommendations and future research opportunities in developing economies.

ScanMed: A Mobile Medicine Adherence Application with Intake Validation Using QR Code

The impact of medication adherence is proven to affect hospitalization risk and healthcare cost. In Malaysia, failure in taking medication as prescribed is a complicated and common problem. There are many reasons people fail to take their medication as prescribed. Some of the few common issues are remembering to consume their medicine timely, doubts in medication effectiveness, concerns on side effects or having difficulty in taking the medication (especially with injections or inhalers) and rising cost of prescribed medications. Tracking patient medication intake leads to many advantages, one of which is lower medication due to adherence, health-care cost which effects insurance coverage premiums. In this paper, we develop an application to track medication using a smart phone and the use of QR code. Each medication transaction requires a proof of work to signify that the user have taken their medication at the correct date and time. A QR-Code reader will be used to capture medication taken printed on medication labels and each scan is considered as a proof of work. Our contribution is to create a mobile application that can help track medication intake, as well as remind, inform and warn users about the medication that they are taking.

Developing next generation leaders

Transgenerational entrepreneurship is defined as the ‘processes through which a family uses and develops entrepreneurial mindsets and family influenced capabilities to create new streams of entrepreneurial, financial, and social value across generations’ (Habbershon, Nordqvist, and Zellweger, 2010: 1). Developing next generation leaders lies at the heart of transgenerational entrepreneurship as it squarely focuses attention on those individuals – family or nonfamily members – who alone, or in collaboration, are responsible for the success and longevity of a family enterprise. This book aims to understand the pathways used by enterprising families around the world to develop next generation leaders. We set out to explore how leadership becomes an enduring source of advantage that is less dependent upon who is in a formal role and relies more upon the process by which the family’s core values shape and build the next generation of leaders. When leadership development is considered as an underlying process, generational transitions become less rigid and episodic, thereby potentially less disruptive. Continuous shifting of roles and ongoing development of the current and next generations becomes an enduring source of advantage. In practical terms, our interest was to understand how the next generation members are introduced to the business and what it stands for. How do they become aware of the key decisions and defining moments of the past and the influences of those decisions on current practices? How do they become involved in entrepreneurial activities and decisionmaking of their family business? What opportunities – inside and outside the business – prove useful in their development and growth as responsible owners? These are but a few of the types of research questions explored in this book. Scholars affiliated with the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) project were invited to develop chapters to enhance