Published Scholarly Output

Pacific island countries (PICs), ever since their independence during the second half of the last century, have been among the world's top ten recipients of official development assistance (ODA) on a per capita basis. Until the mid 1990s, most of them were receiving aid from their erstwhile colonial masters for budgetary support. With the introduction of reforms in ODA delivery in the late 1990s with focus on program and project-tied aid, it was expected that aid would directly facilitate creation of much-needed growth enhancing infrastructures, physical as well as social, since domestic savings were found to be insufficient to finance them. However, continued stagnation in some PICs and deterioration in some others have been causing concerns. This paper seeks to examine the effectiveness of aid by undertaking a case study of Fiji, which has a longer time series data needed for econometric investigation. Based on the study's findings, the paper lists some policy conclusions relevant to the region.

Remittances have been a great support to Pacific island countries (PICs). Aside from providing additions to domestic savings and, hence, real resources, they have been one of the major sources of foreign exchange earnings. In the context of falling exports and limited options to diversify their exports, inward remittances have assumed greater importance. This paper examines the nexus between growth and remittances in Samoa.

Purpose The objective of this paper is to examine the influence of interorganizational relationships on the adoption of e‐business in the supply chain of Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was distributed to 200 Malaysian SMEs with a response rate of 68 percent. Data were analyzed by employing multiple regression analysis. Findings Interorganizational relationships such as communication, collaboration and information sharing were found to be significant in affecting Malaysian SMEs' decision to adopt e‐business in their supply chain. Contrary to existing literatures, this research found that trust and trading partners' power have no significant influence on the adoption of e‐business in the supply chain of Malaysian SMEs. Practical implications Organizations that would like to adopt e‐business in their supply chain with their trading partners will be able to apply strategies based on the findings from this research. Based on these finding, organizations that would like to implement e‐business with their trading partners in Malaysia should focus on improving interorganizational relationships such as communication, collaboration and information sharing. Originality/value The findings created an understanding of what attributes of interorganizational relationships influence the adoption of e‐business in the supply chain. In terms of theoretical contributions, this study has extended previous researches conducted in Western countries and provides great potential by advancing the understanding between the association of adoption factors and e‐business adoption in Malaysian SMEs. SMEs planning to adopt e‐business in their supply chain would be able to applied strategies based on the findings from this research.

This research deals with two important aspects of Knowledge Management (KM) within the context of Supply chain Management (SCM): Knowledge Acquisition and Knowledge Application. Supply Chain Learning (SCL) and Applied Supply Chain Process Knowledge (Applied SCPK) are used as proxies for Knowledge Acquisition and Application. This study aims to test the relationship between Applied SCPK, SCL, and Organization Performance. This study also looks at the effect of Environment Knowledge as a moderating variable. About 1608 questionnaires were distributed to all the manufacturing firms in Malaysia. Path Analysis and ANOVA were used to study the various relationships. Results indicate existence of strong relationships between the variables. The combined effect of SCL and Applied SCPK on Organization Performance is more significant than looking at the effects separately. Furthermore, Environment Knowledge is found to have moderating effect on the relationship between Applied SCPK and Organization Performance. This paper demonstrates the application of KM in SCM and shows the effect on Organization Performance. This may guide supply chain managers to create an environment conducive to acquisition and application of knowledge. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between total quality management (TQM) practices and customer satisfaction (CS) as perceived by managers' perspectives in Malaysia's service sector. Design/methodology/approach The data are collected from 140 managers of Malaysia's service firms. The structural analysis is conducted to test the hypotheses in this paper. Findings Results reveal that leadership, customer focus, information and analysis, and human resource focus are found to have significant and positive association with CS as perceived by Malaysian service sector's managers. Research limitations/implications There are a few limitations for this paper. First, the time sequence of the relationships between the variables could not be determined since cross‐sectional data are used. Second, this paper is confined only to service industry. Lastly, the paper is only focused on managers instead of study employees at different hierarchical levels. Practical implications This paper serves as a valuable guideline for top management to review their TQM programs and conduct assessments on a regular basis in order to facilitate CS within their organizations. Originality/value This paper shows the importance of TQM in contributing to CS within the service context which is not studied in many past researches. This paper only looks at TQM practices from the Malaysian service industries. As Malaysia is a developing country which is moving towards the service sector, this paper will help many organizations that are in other fast growing developing nations which are moving towards the service industry.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the total quality management (TQM) practices of both manufacturing and service firms in order to determine the relationship between the multidimensionality of TQM practices and role conflict of employees. Design/methodology/approach Questionnaires are distributed to 433 employees of 98 different firms from manufacturing and service industries in Malaysia. Findings The results support significant negative correlation among all TQM practices (i.e. leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, human resource focus, process management and information analysis) and role conflict. By employing multiple regression analysis, leadership, process management and information analysis are found to have significant and negative relationship with role conflict. Human resource focus is reported to have a significant and positive relationship with role conflict. Practical implications This model is ideal for practical usage by managers to evaluate the perceptions of role conflict of employees in TQM‐oriented firms. The findings suggest that firms should look into ways of developing the major roles of leadership and process management as well as improving efficient use of information analysis in order to reduce the detrimental role conflict of employees. This finding may also help administrators and individuals to attain a fine‐grained understanding of different dimensions of TQM in relation to role conflict. Originality/value TQM practices appear to be related to role conflict, addressing an apparent noticeable gap in the literature of TQM and the psychological well‐being of employees. This paper also lays the foundation for formation of a theoretically based model which integrates the elements of TQM and role conflict.

The main aim of this paper is to examine the factors that affect consumers' decisions to adopt 3G. The factors that are studied in this research include perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), perceived cost (PC), social influence (SI), self efficacy (SE), privacy and security (PS), and fun or enjoyment (FE). The collection of data comprises of 371 mobile phone users in Malaysia. Structural equation modelling was applied to test the hypothesis developed in this research study. The findings from this study indicated that PU, SE and PS have a significant impact on consumers' decision to adopt Third Generation (3G). There are several implications from this study. Firstly, this study focuses on 3G adoption in a fast growing, developing country. Secondly, our study has also extended traditional TAM models by incorporating additional variables related to culture. As many developing countries are starting to embrace 3G technology, our study allows the government as well as service providers of these countries to formulate appropriate business strategies based on our study.