Wan Fauziah Wan Yusoff

Dehydration of Traditional Dried Instant Noodle (Mee Siput) Using Controlled Temperature & Humidity Dryer

Drying process is an essential step to produce instant noodles. Yet, the industries especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), is seeking for an efficient method to dry the noodles. This paper discusses the performance of an invented drying system which employed heating and humidifying process. The drying system was tested using 30 kilogram of the raw noodle known as “Mee Siput”. Temperature controlled system were used in the study to control the temperature of the drying process and prevent the dried noodles from damage by maintaining the temperature of lower than 80oC. The analysis shows that the system was drastically decreased the humidity from 80% to 40% just after 200 minutes of the drying process. The complete dehydration time of noodle has also decreased to only 4 hours from 16 hours when using traditional drying system without sacrificed the good quality of the dried noodle. In overall, the invented system believed to increase the production capacity of the noodle, reduce cost of production which would highly beneficial for Small Medium Industries (SMEs) in Malaysia.

Human Capital of Company Directors: A Study of Malaysian Public Listed Companies

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore directors’ characteristics (demographic backgrounds, personality characteristics and values, and competencies) and their effects of the effectiveness of the boards of directors. The characteristics discovered in this study are discussed from both, theoretical and empirical perspectives. Design and findings: In a qualitative approach, thirty-three Malaysian PLCs’ directors and eight representatives of Malaysian corporate governance organizations were interviewed. The research resulted in identifying the rank order of five components of human capital that were found to be essential for achieving effective performance in Malaysian PLCs’ directors. These were experience in business and corporate management, financial or accounting knowledge, business knowledge, legal knowledge, and communication skill. Theoretical and practical implications: In the present study, the two theories namely, resource dependency theory and human capital theory, were each supported, by the findings of this study. The findings add further to the view that no single theory explains the importance of human capital of company directors to firm performance. Secondly, as much of the existing board effectiveness research reported in the literature has focused on developed countries’, this paper contributes to research by providing evidence human capital of company directors using primary data from Malaysia. In doing so, the results of this study add to the knowledge base for countries with developing economies. From a practical perspective, this study provides some basis for the Malaysian corporate governance regulators and policy-makers (i.e. Bursa Malaysia, Securities Commission and MCCG) to be used in developing policies that support the importance of human capital in the selection of boards of directors members. Originality/value: This study extends existing research by proposing ways to reduce the ambiguity of recent research results regarding the importance of human capital of company directors. It is based on an empirical research and offers theoretical and practical implications.