Mohd Sobri Minai

Re-investigating the effect of individual determinant, external factor and firm characteristics on small firm performance during economic downturn

There have been inconsistencies with regard to the different entrepreneurial factors that influenced firm performance, particularly in normal time. However, during economic downturn or turbulence, it is believed and expected that the three major characters (entrepreneur, environment and firm) in the economy that are actively involved in entrepreneurial activities would be badly and negatively affected. Despite this, an empirical study substantiating these arguments seems to be lacking, particularly in the small business and entrepreneurship domain. This therefore suggests that some of the major influential factors of individual determinant, external factor and firm characteristics in entrepreneurial development and small businesses should be re-investigated in line with the current situation in order to see if they remain significant during economic downturn. Based on this, a cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire survey research design, and data were generated from 182 entrepreneurs or owner-managers of small firms in both manufacturing and service industries. The questionnaires were distributed through drop-off and pick procedure of data collection. The findings indicated that the relationship between individual determinants, external factor and firm characteristics, and firm performance remain significant during economic turbulence.

The Network Characteristic of Chinese SMEs in Malaysia and Their Performance

The Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) play a salient role to prosper the economic and market development in Malaysia. Among the significant contribution of SMEs are create a lots of job opportunities, increase tax income and exports duties and improve economic stability. However, the path of SMEs development and growth is not a smooth sailing journey. In fact, SMEs always face a lot of problems and obstacles that are possible to influence their development, survival and growth in the economic market. Among major constraints encountered by SMEs are financial difficulty and lack of information. These problems arise could be due to the entrepreneurs of SMEs not being able to establish a good relationship with their network contacts. Even though there are many past researches had been discussed about network characteristic among owner-manager, however study on Chinese owner-manager in Malaysia still limited. Therefore, this paper investigates the network characteristics among Chinese owner-managers and their relationship with SMEs performance. The findings showed that total network size is 44 persons, network diversity is .16 (race), .37(relationship), .38 (occupation) and .16 (gender). While the network density obtained by Chinese is .69. The networks size of Chinese owner-managers (family members, relatives, friends, suppliers, customers, bankers, trade organization, social organization, government officials and total network size) indicate significant result on the overall performance.

Empirical evidence on the entrepreneurial mind of the female graduate-to-be in Malaysia

Despite the few researches on entrepreneurial mind of the graduates, the entrepreneurial mind of the female graduate-to-be is yet to be ascertained and therefore remains unexplored. A cross-sectional study of quantitative questionnaire survey approach was conducted. A convenience sampling technique was used to draw 200 Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of entrepreneurship students who are in their final semesters Universiti Utara Malaysia. A questionnaire data was generated from 154 female graduates to be through self-administered procedure at UUM. SmartPLS analysis technique was used to analyse the data generated. Overall, the result indicates that attitude, entrepreneurial skill, culture and knowledge are significantly related to entrepreneurial mind of the female graduates to-be. Based on the findings obtained, the study concludes that attitude, entrepreneurial skill, knowledge and culture are very crucial in determining the entrepreneurial mind of the female graduate to-be. The implications, limitations and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

Agency costs and Islamic bond issuers' long-run performance in Malaysia

The extensive issuance of Islamic bonds in different parts of the world raises the question of whether such a financing activity leads to better firm performance or not and what the determinants are of this performance. The literature offers scant answers. Thus, this study measures the long-run performance of Malaysian firms following their Islamic debt issues and explores the agency cost explanations of the performance. One-, two-, and three-year stock return performances are measured by the buy and hold abnormal return (BHAR) of Islamic debt issues using samples of 113, 101, and 86 Islamic debt issues, respectively, in the 2001-2009 period. The significance of the performance is tested by heteroscedasticity-and-serial correlation-consistent t-statistics. The determinants of BHAR are investigated using the ordinary least square regression method. The results show a significant positive long-run performance beyond a one-year period that is negatively influenced by growth opportunity and free cash flow when the issue increases the debt ratio.

Employee's job security during economic downturn

This concept paper proposes a conceptual model of employee’s job security during economic downturn. Due to the turbulent global economy, natural resources are under strain, austerity cuts are threatening public sector jobs. Organisations are laying off their workforce in order to cope with the economic conditions. The future has become more unpredictable and uncertain about the workers keeping their jobs. The fear of losing their jobs in the midst of uncertainty becomes a great concern that needs an urgent attention. The question remains, should the organisations lay off their workforces? Or should the employees continue to holding on to their jobs in the midst of this economic turbulence? Based on this, the paper examined theoretical issue relating to employees job security in relation to economic downturn. It presents a conceptual model to examine employees’ job security during economic downturns, and further argued on the possibilities of employees holding on to their jobs during economic turbulence.