Razli Che Razak

The determinant factors influencing young consumers' acceptance of mobile marketing in Malaysia

This paper examines the factors influencing the intention to use mobile marketing among young consumers in Malaysia. This study employed the decomposed theory of reasoned action as underpinning theory in explaining intention to use. The survey was conducted using self-administered questionnaire. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed but only 277 were usable with a response rate of 58%. Results of the study revealed that attitude and subjective norm have a direct positive relationship with intention to use mobile marketing. Attitude was significantly influenced by three antecedents namely perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived image. Perceived ease of use showed different findings. Subjective norm was significantly influenced by friends and family influence as two antecedents. The proposed model can shed light on the important factors determining the behavioral intention to use mobile marketing and will aid managers understand and identify the specific antecedents of attitude and subjective norm that may influence consumers’ acceptance of mobile marketing.

Social Classes of Intelligence, Economic Growth and Technological Achievement: Robust Regression and Outlier Detection:

A previous study has shown that the intellectual class, which is represented by the 95th percentile intelligence quotient (IQ) at a normal distribution, displayed the strongest impact upon economic growth. Meanwhile, those with average ability (50th percentile IQ) exhibited the second strongest impact, and followed by the non-intellectual class (5th percentile IQ). In addition, the researchers discovered that only the intellectual class was significant for technological progress. As such, this article re-analysed the dataset employed in prior study via robust regression. As a result, after eliminating several outliers, the levels of IQ for the intellectual class and the average ability group displayed equal impacts on economic growth, and the impacts were larger than that of non-intellectual. Furthermore, the IQ of the average ability group was significant for technological achievement, although not as strong as the intellectual class. Besides, the number of professional researchers employed in the research and development (R&D) sector did not reflect similar paramount effects as the impact of the average ability IQ in generating technological development. Thus, based on the conclusions drawn, this study suggests that the R&D sector should employ professionals who possess not only high academic qualifications, but also exceptional levels of cognitive skills, especially to spark new innovations. JEL: J24, O31, O47, Z13

Manufacturing Technology Impact on Environmental Factors and Manufacturing Performance

The purpose of this study is to study the impact of manufacturing technology in facilitating lean manufacturers in achieving superior manufacturing performance while operating with by various challenges from external environment. The paper is based on a survey research done on lean manufacturers in Malaysia and their adoption of manufacturing technology to couple the implemented lean system in mitigating challenges. The challenges faced by lean manufacturing firms in many developing countries includes adopting the right technology, using it efficiently and continuously reviewing production technology in order to gain maximum output. Model from this empirical study is expected to contribute towards the enhancement of theory on contingency and its effect on performance. At theoretical level, the study results showed that of manufacturing technology mediate the relationship between environmental factors and performance of lean manufacturers.