Research in entrepreneurship field has magnetized the interest of many researchers as a tool of development for many countries. The study of the factors that leads people to become entrepreneurs has been a question of many researchers. This study explores the relationship between the Big-Five personality factors, contextual factors and entrepreneurial intention. As such, it fits squarely into the literature on the antecedents of entrepreneurship. Previous research has focused on the need for achievement as well as social psychological characteristics such as attitude and self-efficacy. This study looks at the extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, neuroticism, perceived barriers, perceived support and close support which are determinants of entrepreneurial intention. The data was gathered from 123 undergraduate students at one of the university branch campuses in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. Data collection was based on voluntary basis, informed consent, and anonymity. Regression analyses indicate that entrepreneurial intention is positively correlated with extraversion, openness, and close support. In the final section, we discuss these results and discover a future research agenda.

This paper examines the relationship between OCBs and turnover intention. The sample consisted of 557 non manager employees across 63 hotels in Malaysia. Managers' ratings of employees' OCBs were collected and matched with 557 employees' self ratings of turnover intention and demographic. Factor analysis of OCB items revealed a new dimension of OCB, labeled as patience, together with four common dimensions -helping behavior, conscientiousness, sportsmanship and civic virtue. Consistent with cognitive consistency theory, the results show that helping behavior, Asian Social ScienceJune, 2009 109 conscientiousness, patience and civic virtue were significantly and negatively related to turnover intention. Moreover, the OCB dimensions explained a meaningful portion (25%) of the turnover intention measure. The results indicated that gender moderated the relationship between helping behavior and turnover intention and this relationship was stronger for females than males. These results point to the importance of considering behavioral factors in effort to predict and manage employee turnover.

This study employed social exchange theory to examine the connection between one of the elements of teaching strategies, that is, lecturers' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and students' academic achievement. Student needs for achievement was used as moderator. Analysis was conducted on a survey data of 196 students in one of the local public institutions of higher learning. The results revealed that OCB dimension of altruism and courtesy were significantly related to students' academic achievement. In addition, conscientiousness positively predicted students' academic achievement among students with high needs for achievement. These findings indicate that, in order to enhance motivation and learning among students, altruism, courtesy and conscientiousness are some of the important behaviors among lecturers. Interpretations of results, implications and future research are discussed.

This research is focuses on the practice of risk management (RM) in Client's organization and aims to identify the level of awareness among construction professionals towards risk management and to examine the policy undertaken when dealing with risks in a construction project. Apart from that, it also aims to identify the problems and challenges for the implementation of risk management in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Questionnaire survey and interviews were carried out in order to obtain a better view on the implementation of risk management in the Malaysian construction industry. It was found that construction professional especially those who are working in client's organisation are slowly accepting risk management as a management tool that will help in managing a construction project effectively and successfully. Based on the findings of the questionnaires and interviews there are a number of construction professionals who know about risk management and who have attended training and some of them have even practice risk management in their organizations. At least, it has been proven that there are organizations that have implemented risk management in their operations although this is only on a small scale. It can be concluded that risk management still has a long way to go in order to be accepted and recognized in the Malaysian construction industry.

The paper adds a new perspective towards understanding how the concept of service quality is adopted in a health care setting.

This paper discusses the impact of exchange rates on the export performance of selected Southeast Asian economies, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. We construct an empirical model to account for the role of the real exchange rate and other economic fundamentals such as macroeconomic stability, terms of trade, capital goods investment, external demand and human capital. The study makes use of a panel data and estimates an export equation using a fixed effect model. The findings in this study strongly corroborate results from the theoretical framework that exchange rate misalignment and exchange rate variability have significant impacts on export performance. The study also finds evidence that the export growth path or these selected economies are dependent on global demand conditions, especially demand from OECD countries.

Power transmission lines routes mapping is an important technique for locating power transmission line routes and towers on mountain/hilltops to assist viewing of their impacts on the environment, operations and allocation of public utilities. A study was therefore conducted to map the power transmission lines within Bukit Lanjan PLUS highway. The main objective of this study is to assess the capability of airborne hyperspectral sensing for mapping of power transmission. By using ENVI software, the airborne hyperspectral imaging data was enhanced using convolution filtering technique using band 3 which produced a gray scale image which appeared clearer and sharper. The spectral reflectance curves were acquired for each power line which showed the same spectrum characteristics in curve or the reflectance energy. This is because of the same power lines composition material for all power lines. Ground verification was done by comparing the UPM-APSB's AISA Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates readings with ground GPS coordinates readings of the power transmission lines footings. The ground verification result from the two matching power transmission line footings showed that the accuracy of power lines identification was acceptable. This study implies that airborne hyperspectral imagers are powerful tools for mapping and spotting of suitable large transmission towers and lines.

Subtle sensitive changes in leaf canopy reflectance of a disease infected trees can be detected by a spectroradiometer. A typical method of detecting tree stress caused by diseases or pest infestations includes the analysis of spectroradiometry. Early detection of forest tree stress would be useful to minimize tree losses especially in a forest plantation area.  The main purpose of this study is to develop the spectral library of individual rubber trees being attacked by diseases using a ground-based handheld field spectroradiometer. The specific objective is to identify the spectral signature characteristics of healthy (control) and “unhealthy” or stressed rubber trees due to leaf diseases as causal factors. The spectral reflectance of each infected rubber tree was separated according to the different wavelength and percent reflectance. The spectral signatures of rubber trees being attacked by diseases were characterized by a low reflectance probably due to the low chlorophyll content in the leaves leading to the tree under stress, thus easily separated from the healthy rubber. Results indicated that three groups of infected trees were well separated at the 530 - 650 nm (visible) wavelength averaging from 0 – 30 percent reflectance. The spectral reflectances of rubber trees with leaf disease in visible (VIS) wavelength were not consistently separable. However, the spectral reflectance of leaf diseases can be well separated at the near infrared range region covering from 700 - 850 nm wavelength with a 30 – 80 percent reflectance for leaf diseases, respectively. The study implies that leaf diseases for rubber trees can only be identified successfully at the NIR range of wavelength from 700 – 850 nm with a 20-80 percent reflectance. The development of such signature library profile of disease affecting rubber trees will certainly assists in the development of an early disease warning system using an airborne hyperspectral imaging system technology being currently developed in UPM’s Forest Geospatial Information & Survey Laboratory, at Lebuh Silikon, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang.