This study presents an overview of glass-ceiling type barriers in organizations based on the perceptions of a sample of Singaporean and Malaysian mid-level women managers. Previous studies indicated the existence of a glass ceiling in organizations and presented strategic recommendations with regard to what corporations could do to remove or reduce the glass ceiling. This study investigates how women in middle management perceive their career advancement opportunities and what they consider their organizations to be doing to support their advancement. Glass ceiling and informal structures in the organizations will be analyzed from the aspects of corporate climate, corporate practices, and corporate culture. The relevant questions are derived from the model developed by Bergman and Hallberg (2002). This study aims to answer whether there is a glass ceiling present in Singaporean and Malaysian companies and further make the comparative analysis of the results. The study begins with an introduction of the concept of a glass ceiling that prevents women from advancing, and then continues with previous studies on corporate climate, corporate practices and corporate culture, and data analysis of samples from Singaporean and Malaysian organizations. The findings show that women middle managers in both Singaporean and Malaysian organizations face a glass ceiling in their working environment which, for example, inhibits the promotion of female managers, and entails a barrier to the career development opportunities of women and entails that women do not have enough organizational support, including networking, mentoring, and family friendly initiatives.
This study analyzes strategic factors that can influence the performance of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. The conceptual framework is developed based on the distinctive capabilities and the performance of the SMEs. This study is based on a sample survey of 121 SMEs in the manufacturing sector. Using structured questionnaires, the data is collected by mailing as well as interviews with owner-managers of the SMEs. Using the Statistical Package of Science Social (SPSS) program, the analyses were made to show the relationship between the distinctive capabilities and the performance of SMEs. The findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between distinctive capabilities and the performance of SMEs.
Digital entrepreneurship platforms have created opportunities to marketers and manufacturers to achieve their marketing objectives with digital technologies through various digital platforms. Implementation of digital platforms have changed the traditional ways of doing business in bricks and mortar to digital channels such as online marketing, App store, purchase via internet or smartphone, e-transaction and e-commerce. There is a general belief that by moving firms towards digitalization world and selling products or services through digital platforms will increase firms’ capabilities and directly increase sales finally lead to better firms’ performance. In fact, this is not applied to all the firms involving selling and buying in digital platforms. The main advantages of doing digital platforms business are do not need much capital in starting up the business and this business model allows digital entrepreneurs to work from anywhere and anytime without the restriction of locations and time constraints. There are many factors in influencing the success or failure of digital entrepreneurship of an individual, team or firm. First and foremost is the innovation factor which determines the successful path to the ultimate goal of the business. This paper discusses the digital entrepreneurship opportunities, digital platforms practices, challenges, risks and constraints faced in promoting and expanding digital platforms from a Malaysian perspective, such as firms’ organizational structure and human resource in digital expertise, digital technologies readiness, financial supports, market changes and unprecedented risks. This paper argues the importance and development of digital entrepreneurship that incorporates strategic innovation to enhance firms’ capabilities. The findings of the paper highlighted the potential of digital entrepreneur platforms in increasing new career for individual, enhancing economy growth and welfare for consumers. Hopefully the discussion outcomes will raise further awareness and attention of individual, team and firms to integrate digital entrepreneurship into their businesses.
The glove industry in Malaysia continues to grow with the strong demand from the domestic and international markets. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the worldwide demand for gloves surges to a higher level due to huge demand for the medical and healthcare usage. This creates opportunities for gloves manufacturers to increase their production lines and produce more gloves to fulfil the markets’ demand. The paper studies the glove industry in Malaysia and applies a case study of Comfort Gloves Berhad, which is a glove manufacturer in Malaysia to look in depth the opportunities and threats faced by glove manufacturers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors studied the published resources to collect information and further analysed the data and information collected. This paper discusses the SWOT analysis and Porter Five Forces in influencing the markets. The recommendations and conclusion are provided at the end of the paper.
Since a couple of years ago, the development of shopping malls is booming in the Klang Valley-Kuala Lumpur area in Malaysia. Motivating consumers for frequent visits to shopping complexes is imperative in order to run a successful shopping mall in such a competitive retail environment like the Klang Valley-Kuala Lumpur with over 100 shopping plazas. Getting knowledge of the elements attracting consumers to visit a shopping mall and make purchases is of greatest importance in order to achieve high profit return and increase economic growth and development of a nation. The objective of this research paper is to study the factors influencing the consumers’ buying behaviours in the shopping malls. The environmental related factors (building structure, atmosphere, sounds and music and fragrance and smell), services related factors (personal services, price, advertising and promotion), administrative related factors (tenant mix, anchor tenant, entertainments) as well as transportation and location related factors (parking, location, accessibility) were identified as independent variables and consumer’s buying behaviour within the malls as a dependent variable. A research framework was developed based on a thorough literature review. There were 200 responses collected from consumers in four shopping malls in Klang Valley-Kuala Lumpur area. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were carried out using the SPSS software package to obtain the results. The results of this research indicate that environmental, transportation and location related factors have significant impact on consumers’ buying behaviours in the shopping malls. The results congruent with previous studies by Brengman et al. (2012) and Grimmer et al. (2016) that indicated that environmental related factors have positive effects on consumers’ purchase behaviours. Additionally, this study also found that transportation and location related factors have significant relationship with consumers’ purchase behaviours as mentioned by Saber et al. (2017) and Samiran et al. (2015). The findings can be adopted by the shopping malls’ managers to improve overall shopping malls’ performance as well as by mall developers to evaluate the mall site’s location and construction designs. For academicians, this study could be used as a ground work for further exploration of the possibilities to influence consumers’ purchase behaviours through different marketing strategies to increase sales and profits.
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