Tremendous changes in technology, political and social frameworks, as well as the impacts of globalization, have put pressure on countries to become competitive. One strategy for creating an engine of economic growth is the creation of clusters. These clusters, be they naturally or artificially conceived, hold the promise of becoming the economic weapons of a country. Many studies have been done to understand the factors behind the successes and failures of clusters. One of the reasons behind the inconsistent success of existing cluster policy frameworks in managing cluster performance is the fact that clusters often are at different levels of development, and it will require different strategies to create, enhance, and sustain their competitive advantage. This paper aims to propose and demonstrate a more holistic framework designed to understand key cluster dynamics that drives cluster performance, which then will enable policy makers to work toward ensuring sustainable cluster development.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and intrapreneurial intentions among knowledge workers in the Iranian R&D sector using transformational leadership (TL) as a moderator and to also investigate the extent of the knowledge workers’ intrapreneurial intentions. Design/methodology/approach The research was tested as a cross-sectional survey of knowledge workers involved in the R&D centers in Iran under the Society of the Centers for Research. The sampling method in this study was based on simple random sampling. Finally, 380 valid questionnaires were collected from 48 R&D centers of different industries. Findings The findings of this study reveal that except for the “need for achievement (NFA),” other variables such as “innovativeness,” “proactiveness,” “risk taking,” and “networking” had a significant and positive relationship toward “intrapreneurial intention.” Moreover, it was found that “TL” had a moderating role in the relations between innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking with intrapreneurial intention; however, TL did not have a moderating role in the relations between NFA and networking with intrapreneurial intention. Research limitations/implications Reliance on cross-sectional questionnaires instead of an experimental design imposes caution about the relationships between the predictors and intrapreneurial intention. Originality/value This paper is one of the few studies on the EO at the individual level with new dimensions on the intrapreneurial intention, which examined moderating role of TL at this relationship, which took place in Iranian R&D sector.

Proposes that, arms length economic system (ALS) is not always appropriate for developing nations. The alternative of a relationship based system (RBS) which is often mistaken for crony capitalism as practiced in Malaysia is offered. Entrepreneurial spirit so fundamental to the development of an economy may be so lacking as to perish under an ALS yet be able to flourish under RBS. Explains three major aspects of how the Malaysian Economy was able to flourish under the RBS (1) the cultural reform of the majority indigenous group (2) the multi‐cultural cooperation between the economically superior Chinese and the less economically developed Malays and (3) The spill‐over effect from privatisation policies. Recognising the existence and legitimacy of an RBS as an economic model may offer a new approach towards poverty eradication and economic development of Third World countries.

No abstract

Study of Malaysian adoption of mobile learning (m-learning) is still in the early stages. However, there are numerous researchers in the country exploring the potential and application of m-learning in the Malaysian education system, including special education. A key question is whether teachers are prepared to incorporate mobile technology as part of their teaching tools or do teachers perceive mobile technology only as personal communication gadgets. This paper investigates teachers' perception of m-learning applications in special education classes. Interviews were conducted to collect related information on teachers' perceptions of m-learning in the selected schools. The teachers expressed that there are limited resources to cater to the attention of special needs learners and they believed edutainment technologies such as augmented reality, game-based educational software and animation projects could be the answer. The benefits and challenges of implementing blended learning for special education are also discussed. The paper concludes by summarising the current environment of m-learning in Malaysian special needs education, together with recommendations for future use of the technology.

Abstract. The review of past researches discussed that factors such as climate change and movement toward urbanization will result in more frequent and severe disasters in the near future (Yasuhara et al., 2011). Flash flood is the most common type of disaster that residents of Kuala Lumpur (KL) come across, thus in this study, it was desired to discover the factors affecting preparedness among residents of KL as well as assessing the variation of individual preparedness among residents. With the aid of SPSS analysis, the reliability of data, correlation and regression analysis between the investigated factors and disaster preparedness were obtained. According to this research it was found that level of preparedness of residents of KL is still below average; majority of social demographic indicators such as income, education, age, and property ownership showed significant contribution to the variation of disaster preparedness among the residents. For instance men were much more prepared in comparison to women; residents with high level of income and education had also significantly higher preparedness compared to those with low level of income and education. Race was the only factor that differs from the findings of previous studies; since race does not affect the preparedness.

Universities provide the foundations for a nation's social, cultural, economic and technological progress. Beside the academic programmes offered by the universities that build the human capital, research activities are the other pillar of academia that help to drive a nation's progress. Andersson (2010) identified research environment and researchers dynamics as the key factors that impact the quality of research in universities. The aim of this paper is to investigate the researchers' dynamics resulting in excellent research performance by a university, and hence to derive lessons regarding university research performance. Specifically, the paper explores researchers' profiles in terms of their achievements over the past five years, their attributes, behaviour and attitude. This was achieved by using a case study approach (Eisenhardt, 1989 andYin, 1994). The identified top commercialisation producer among the universities in Malaysia, namely Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), was selected for the case study. This paper highlights the findings.

No abstract