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Purpose of the study: The main aim of this study is to propose the conceptual model for developing frontline employees’ behavioural engagement towards value co-creation. Methodology:This research has useda qualitative approach to explain how service firms’ attempt to create value for their frontline employees by facilitating interaction capabilities. Secondly,how facilitation of interaction capabilities help the service firm to engage the frontline employees to co-create the value with the customers, thus,to answer the research questions towardsthe development of a conceptual model through the lens of value co-creation, this studywas conducted(a) in-depth literature review and (b)input from 6 industrial and academic experts. Principal Findings: Through the theoretical support of the S-O-R Model and expectancy theory, the studyconcluded that frontline employees’behavioural engagement in value co-creation mainly depends on interaction capabilities and their motivation. Frontline employee's motives are derivedthrough their expectancies, which they perceive from the service interaction. The capabilities are mainlyfacilitated by the service firms, which, in turn, motivate the frontline employees towards their engagement in value co-creation. Applications of this study: The proposed model has practical implications in complex service settings like automotive, Oil and Gas sectors where frontline employees’ have regular service interaction with the customers. Novelty/Originalityof this study: The proposed model has been developed by taking the theoretical implications of the S-O-R model by focusing on frontline employees’behavioural engagement in value co-creation. However, previous literature on value co-creation has concentrated more on the customer's domain.

This article aims to investigate the level of public awareness and perception regarding carbon capture and storage (CCS) and climate change in Malaysia. The article also aims to identify those social, economic and environmental issues which affect CCS and combating climate change in the country. The findings revealed that more than 79 percent of the respondents were willing to have government initiatives to implement CCS projects. However, about 21 percent were against these initiatives due to their different perceptions and opinions regarding CCS. By using partial least squares (PLS) model through SmartPLS 2.0, it is found that social and economic issues of CCS have significant positive while environmental issues have no significant impact on combating climate change. The findings offer significant implications for regulators, policy makers, and practitioners regarding social, economic and environmental issues of CCS and climate change in Malaysia.

Background Psychological conditions are experiences of the conscious and unconscious elements of the work context, which revolve around workers' perceptions of feeling either engaged or disengaged with the assigned tasks. In the psychosocial work environment of hazardous industries like petrochemicals where production lasts twenty-four hours a day and continues seven-days-a-week, a psychologically available worker is extremely important. Psychological availability refers to when workers who are physically, emotionally and psychologically engaged at the moment of performing tasks. Objective The broad objective of this study was to investigate the direct and indirect effects of behavioral factors on the psychological and physiological health of workers. Methods The latest, second generation technique, which is structural equation modeling, is used to identify the relationships between behavioral antecedents and health outcomes. A total of 277 technical workers participated, aged between 20 and 49 and were healthy in all aspects. Results The study results showed quantitative demands, emotional demands, work-family conflict, and job insecurity were significantly associated with both psychological (stress) and physiological (Body Mass Index) factors. The social support of colleagues produced mixed findings with direct and indirect paths. Stress also significantly mediates the psychosocial factors and burnout of the workers. Conclusion The study concluded that workers were physically available, but they experienced distractions as members of social systems, affecting their physiological and psychological health.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze issues pertaining to maintenance performance and to develop a framework that addresses challenges of maintenance management of an international lube blending plant in Malaysia. This study capitalizes on the contribution of selected maintenance department stakeholders from within the plant to develop “tailor-made” intervention strategies for maintenance performance improvement. Design/methodology/approach The study employed two focus group workshops to ascertain issues facing the maintenance department and identify intervention strategies. The final phase of the study employed fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) to prioritize and rank the intervention strategies for performance improvement. Findings The first focus group workshop identified 106 issues which could be classified under aspects of spare parts (n=8), equipment (n=14), communication (n=12), non-technical resource (n=8), health, safety and environment (n=4), technical skills and recruitment (n=27), and handling and procedures (n=33). Based on these findings, the second focus group revealed 28 significant performance initiatives to improve the issues identified for maintenance performance improvement. Through the FDM, 18 performance initiatives were ranked and prioritized. Performance improvement through leadership category leads the overall initiatives followed by equipment maintenance management, talent management, work environment and vendor management. Research limitations/implications Interesting implications for maintenance management theory would be realized if future research were able to demonstrate that certain aspects or dimensions were related to high performing plant maintenance, and not with low performing ones. Apparently, the present study is not able to provide this clue because it is merely a case study of a single company. Practical implications As ILBP attempts to implement maintenance performance improvement, it is pertinent for the management to understand the relevant performance issues and concerns. The appropriate enablers have been identified and must be initiated to chart the strategic role of their maintenance organization. Social implications This study contributes toward further understanding of the maintenance performance management. It has demonstrated the need of organizations to make infrastructural investments such as quality leadership, employee training and empowerment, to name a few, to strategically enhance their maintenance capabilities. Originality/value This study uses the FDM for the decision-making process of improving plant maintenance performance. It adds value to the body of knowledge of plant operation management.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology deployment in developing Asian countries largely depends on public acceptance, which is highly dependent on the stakeholders involved in CCS. This paper illuminates how stakeholder issues could be strategically managed in the deployment of CCS, in a manner customized to such developing countries. Based on the input from 28 stakeholders of various interests and nationalities (i.e., from China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia), this study applies Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and MICMAC analysis, in order to develop a management model to address stakeholder issues regarding the deployment of CCS. Our findings revealed eight legislative issues, four social issues, three economic issues, five technological issues, and five environmental management issues. The model revealed that legislative issues, such as those relating to CO2 definition, licensing, land acquisition framework, and expertise, should be managed prior to other issues, that is, in the early stage of CCS deployment. Addressing environmental issues related to promoting public awareness and perception of CCS benefits are among the key drivers in deploying CCS. The study may serve as a reference for CCS deployment in developing Asian countries.

In the context of non-fuel retailing, the goal of this study is to find out what motivates frontline employees to participate in value cocreation activities with consumers. According to this study, frontline employees participate in value cocreation activities to attain the expected or perceived value they desire. Through the conduction of six interviews in Malaysia's automotive sector, this study used an exploratory technique to investigate the underlying characteristics of frontline employees' motives. Semi structured interviews were done with the use of a topic guide, but the researchers were not confined in their frame of reference, allowing them to explore for clarification and confirmation. The results of the interviews were examined using an idiographic technique and then compared using cross-case analysis. Professional identity, financial benefits, career progression opportunities, and workplace recognition are all motivators for frontline employees to cocreate value. Due to variances in the employees' past expectations, these reasons may change across different service situations. Managers may begin measuring and managing service interactions between frontline personnel and customers by understanding their motives to cocreate value.

This article aims to investigate the level of public awareness and perception regarding carbon capture and storage (CCS) and climate change in Malaysia. The article also aims to identify those social, economic and environmental issues which affect CCS and combating climate change in the country. The findings revealed that more than 79 percent of the respondents were willing to have government initiatives to implement CCS projects. However, about 21 percent were against these initiatives due to their different perceptions and opinions regarding CCS. By using partial least squares (PLS) model through SmartPLS 2.0, it is found that social and economic issues of CCS have significant positive while environmental issues have no significant impact on combating climate change. The findings offer significant implications for regulators, policy makers, and practitioners regarding social, economic and environmental issues of CCS and climate change in Malaysia.

The purpose of this research is to develop a scale for measuring customer value co-creation attitude (CVCCA).,Scale development procedures are used for item generation, item purification and validation. Two studies are conducted. In Study 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis is used to generate and confirm the factorial structure of the CVCCA construct. Study 2 validates the scale on a large field sample.,The study develops a new scale for measuring CVCCA. Results suggest that CVCCA is a higher-order construct comprising three dimensions: interaction attitude, knowledge sharing attitude and responsive attitude. Additionally, experiential value significantly predicts CVCCA, which subsequently leads to customer value co-creation behaviour confirming nomological validity of the scale.,The CVCCA scale should be of interest for researchers in exploring factors and outcomes of CVCCA. The scale is useful to managers who are interested in measuring their customers’ co-creation of value attitude and their willingness to engage in value co-creation behaviour.,This is the first scale using the service logic of marketing lens. The scale is found to be a valid and reliable tool to measure customer attitude to engage in value co-creation.

Heavy vehicle commercial drivers possess a vibrant role in the transportation industry. Driver’s fatigue is one of the most important concerns for the transportation business. The extant literature review indicated that many factors are contributing to driver’s fatigue but still, there is a dire need to explore other factors that can influence heavy vehicle driver’s fatigue in the case of Malaysian Oil and Gas Industry. Hence, the study aims to identify the factors contributing to the heavy vehicle driver’s fatigue and develop a quick assessment tool for this Industry. A mix method approach will be used for data collection. We aim to select heavy vehicle drivers as unit of analysis. The findings of the study will contribute to heavy vehicle driver’s fatigue and further enhance the fatigue literature. Identified indicators will be further used to develop a quick assessment tool for the heavy vehicle commercial driver’s fatigue. © 2017 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved.

A workplace never resides in isolation and hence in the workplace employees experience both psychological and social conditions which often called as psychosocial work environment. The psychosocial work environment has become continuous component in studies of occupational health and stress and encompasses concerns on the risks which generate from the psyche perceptions of the individual's concern in accordance with the risks of the societal environment. The psychosocial environment at work has a deteriorating effect on the general health of workers such as musculoskeletal disorders, mental disorders, cardiovascular diseases, stress, burnout, sickness absence, labor turnover along with the organizational outcomes like the effectiveness of work, motivation, and performance. Psychosocial factors in response to the health repair process have become increasingly important in both developed and developing countries. Such factors have not frequently been studied or addressed in developing countries even though 80 percent of the working population lives in developing countries.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of corporate brand experience (CBE) on customer value co-creation attitude and behaviour (CVCCA and CVCCB). By integrating congruity theory with the theory of reasoned action, the study proposes an integrated model for developing CVCCB in a retailing context.Design/methodology/approach– Structural Equation Modelling, using AMOS software was conducted using a sample of 711 respondents from four hypermarkets located in five Malaysian states.Findings– The research findings indicate that CBE plays a significant role for developing customer attitude and behaviour of value co-creation activities. Results show that CBE has a strong positive influence on CVCCA and subjective norms (SN) which further lead to CVCCB. SN were found to be a partial mediator between CBE and CVCCA. CVCCA was found to be a partial mediator between SN and CVCCB. Full mediation of CVCCA and SN between CBE and CVCCB is confirmed.Originality/value– The research contributes to value co-creation literature by proposing an integrated model for developing CVCCB in retailing. This research opens avenues for future research to consider the importance of brand experiences in value co-creation practices.

Value Co-Creation (VCC) is an emerging concept that has vast applications in theory and practice. Though previous research has provided enough insights on the customers' role in VCC, relatively less research exists on employee motivation to co-create value (EMCCV) with customers. Among other reasons for such less empirical investigations, one is the unavailability of measurement scale for EMCCV. Therefore, the drive of this study is to conceptualize, develop, and validate a scale to measure EMCCV. Drawing from the expectancy theory and adapting the standard scale development procedure, this study develops EMCCV as a higher-order construct that constitutes four dimensions namely professional identity, financial motives, recognition motives, and career opportunities motives measured by 17 items. The measurement scale is developed in the context of automotive service centers; however, it has a broader application on the frontliners of all service industries and can be adapted in other service-oriented contexts. The scale is tested in a theoretical framework and has provided sound reliability, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of corporate sustainability (CS) practice by Malaysian Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and property listed companies, following the three dimensional (economic, environmental, and social) framework of CS. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative content analysis procedure was undertaken using 113 reports, including 23 REITs and 90 property companies. For the data collection company websites, annual reports, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and sustainability reports were employed. The global reporting initiative (GRI), reporting framework was used for data collection and recording. The content analysis examined the level of disclosures for three dimensions of sustainability, namely economic, social and environmental. Findings – The content analysis indicates that the majority of companies among the sample have their social responsibility and sustainability strategies for the satisfaction of stakeholders and legitimizing firm practices. However, there are variations in their approaches and reporting processes. Among the three dimensions, environmental disclosures are on its least and social dimension has priority in the level of disclosures. Though the overall reporting is low, but having upward trends over time. Research limitations/implications – This study has a limitation that it investigates the level of CS practices in REITs and property companies among Malaysian listed companies. The findings of the study are helpful for the government of Malaysia, practitioners, academia, researchers, banks, Bursa Malaysia, security commission and CEO’s of the listed companies to improve their organizational practices and reporting quality of CS. Originality/value – There has been limited literature on CS practices among Malaysian REITs and property industry. The previous studies have only focused top companies or a single dimension of CS, while this study addressing all the three dimensions of sustainability. This is the first study addressing all the three dimensions (economic, environmental, and social) of CS after the 10th Malaysian Plan (2010-2015). The study using a large sample of REITs and property companies during 2011-2013. The study will significantly add value to CS practices in emerging economies like Malaysia.

This article studies the DART model and its importance in developing actors value co-creation attitude and behavior within the firms’ micro-level ecosystem. Fifteen propositions are proposed based on the literature from service-dominant logic perspective. Two major contributions are made. First, the article provides the importance and need of co-creation between the actors such as frontline employees with internal service providers in firms’ micro-level ecosystem. Second, it highlights the dialogue, access, risk and transparency as important factors that can develop actors’ attitude towards engagement in co-creation which subsequently lead to actors’ actual engagement in co-creation. The article is conceptual and needs empirical validation.

The general argument is that individuals choose those conflict styles that fit their cultural values. The concept of culture fit elucidates why organizational practices are effective with regards to employees work-related performance if these practices fit the cultural values of the workforce. Mismatch of organizational practices with employees’ cultural values may result in dissatisfaction and demotivation to perform well. This present study determined the link between plant turnaround maintenance (TAM) workers culture values, and their preference for a specific method for managing conflict. The research methodology is based on questionnaire survey focusing on plant TAM employees during execution phase. Data was gathered from TAM workers in 13 petrochemical plants in east and west Malaysia. Stated hypotheses were tested using SmartPLS software. Results shows all five cultural dimensions positively predicted integrating, obliging, compromising and avoiding, and negatively predicted dominating conflict management styles. The study concludes that employees will generally favor conflict styles that are consistent with their cultural values. Compared to previous findings, the current results revealed both culture and temperament as predictors of conflict management styles, providing a comprehensive evidence of the predictors of conflict management style preference.

Psychosocial risks are considered as a burning issue in the Asia-Pacific region. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of psychosocial work environment factors on health of petrochemical industry workers of Malaysia. In lieu to job demands-resources theory, significant positive associations were found between quantitative demands, work-family conflict, and job insecurity with stress, while a significant negative association of role clarity as a resource factor with stress was detected. We also found that quantitative demands were significantly associated with the mean arterial pressure (MAP). Multistage sampling procedure was used to collect study sample. Structural Equation Modeling was used to identify relationship between the endogenous and exogenous variables. Finally, the empirically tested psychosocial work environment model will further help in providing a better risk assessment in different industries and enterprises.

Resilience is the vital feature of supply chains that confers the ability to withstand the adverse effects of disruptive events. Most of the previous studies have been conceptual, theoretical, normative, or at best qualitative in approach, concentrating on identifying the elements of resilience. In spite of the proliferation of studies, an empirically validated quantitative study on justifying the measurement dimensions of supply chain resilience is rare, thus the need for further quantitative empirical studies. The context of the present study is the manufacturing supply chain of halal pharmaceuticals in Malaysia. A quantitative cross-sectional design was applied by means of self-administered structured questionnaire survey, using the Supply Chain Resilience Assessment and Management instrument (SCRAM© 2.0). The survey yielded usable responses from 106 manufacturing companies engaged in the production of halal pharmaceuticals in Malaysia. Descriptive statistics as well as partial least square-based structural equation modelling was used to analyze the survey data. This was facilitated by IBM SPSS statistics software (version 21.0), and Smart PLS 3.2.4 respectively. The results suggest that the psychometric properties of the supply chain resilience dimensions (vulnerabilities and capabilities) in the context of the present study are reliable and valid.

This paper is a conceptual study that introduces the role of collaborative regulation into the supply chain resilience debate. The manufacturing supply chain ofhalalpharmaceuticals in Malaysia forms the context of the paper. In this paper, a critical review of previous studies on supply chain resilience, joint working relationships between supply chain actors, and collaborative involvement of regulatory authorities in supply chain relationships was carried out. Collaborative regulation for improved supply chain resilience is the coordinated, consistent, and strategic activities that includes: effective, as well as regular coordination and interactions; knowledge and information sharing, verification, and periodical monitoring, as well as enforcement of collaborative approaches to policy and regulatory control mechanisms via coercive force of isomorphism. The arguments put forward, contribute to improving knowledge, by specifying the conditions in which supply chain resilience is stronger in highly regulated contexts. This is an aspect that is ill reflected in the supply chain management literature.

Improvement of construction industry will contribute to the economy of Malaysia because it is one of the five sectors used to calculate the national GDP. This fact is encouraging the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) of Malaysia to prepare many development plans like Roadmap 2003-2010, CIMP 2006-2015, and Roadmap 2011-2015. Adoption of the Industrialized Building System (IBS) is the step stone for all these plans. CIDB has created an indicator to assess the degree on industrialization for applied building system; IBS score. Furthermore, CIDB has specified the minimum values of this score for the building projects of government and private sector. This paper discusses the effects of adjusting these values on the structural design of an office building. The CIDB method of calculating the IBS score, the moment distribution method of structural analysis and BS8110 code of design will be used to analyze the selected case study.

The number of research studies has been conducted over the importance of service and construction sector in an economy and confirmed that these two sectors are always being closely associated to the aggregate economy and play crucial role in the socio economic development of a country. The objective of this study is to examine the link between the construction and service sector of Malaysia during the last two decades by using time series econometric analysis. The Granger causality approach is used to obtain the objective of the study. The results of the study suggest that there is a uni-directional (one way) association between the service and construction sector in Malaysia i.e. construction sector to service sector. The construction sector plays a significant role to motivate the economic activities of the service sector in Malaysia and the service sector take 6 months (two quarters) to absorb the impact of a shock coming from the construction sector. The results of the study are important and useful for developing future policies for the construction and services sectors of Malaysia. The results are also important and informative for interested parties of the sectors.

Malaysian economy has to perform efficiently and to play effective role in making true the dream of developed nation status. This study examines the role and performance of construction sector of Malaysia during the last two decades of Vision 2020 i.e. 1991 to 2010. The time series data over the period 1991-2010 for construction sector and economic growth of Malaysia is obtained from statistic department Government of Malaysia. The results exhibit that there is a strong correlation between construction sector and economic growth of Malaysia. The construction sector has been playing a significant role in aggregate economy of the country in term of its contribution to revenue generation, capital formation and employment creation which ultimately support the gross domestic product (GDP) and the socio-economic development of Malaysia. Considering the substantial role of construction sector in economic development of Malaysia, it is necessary for Malaysia government to give due attention and focus on construction sector for qualifying the title of developed nation.

The paper seeks to explore why most Malay micro-entrepreneurs still lag behind in entrepreneurship as compared to other races, determine what needs to be rectified and outline the skills sets that the micro-entrepreneurs need to become successful and break- out into larger enterprise. This paper proposes a breakout model approach that can serve as a basis to identify critical success factors in developing tools to assist micro business owners. This is the results of an extensive review of literature concerning lack of success among micro entrepreneurs and how this can be preceded the conceptualization of a Breakout model. Lastly, once in the business, the micro-enterprises need to overcome certain negative influences (disablers) and how certain positive influences (enablers) may help them succeed to stay competitive and sustainable.

The sustainable development (hereafter, S.D.) aims a growth that could satisfy the wants and needs of present generation without affecting future generations. Accordingly, this study investigates the role of HEIs in S.D. by selecting the case of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. The study adapted the universities sustainable development initiatives checklist/index for qualitative analysis of the main website, operational documents, and practical initiatives of the university for S.D. The findings revealed that the university has good and meaningful contributions towards three dimensions of S.D. i.e. economic, social and environment. The study proposed an improvement in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and implementation of S.D. framework for universities. The findings have significance and practical implications for academia, regulatory bodies, policy makers, and HEIs. Also, the findings are significant in association with new economic model (NEM) and vision 2020 of Malaysia.

The aim this paper is to investigate the impact of customer citizenship behavior on corporate brand experience in hypermarkets. The data were collected from 711 respondents of four hypermarkets located in five different states of Malaysia. Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling was used for the data analysis. Three dimensions of customer citizenship behavior namely helping behavior, feedback and tolerance were regressed on corporate brand experience. Findings reveal that customers' helping behavior and tolerance behavior has positive impact on corporate brand experience while customers' feedback has insignificant impact on corporate brand experience. This research is unique in its investigation as corporate brand experience as consequence of customer citizenship behavior has not been investigated in the past literature.

Firm's response to environmental sustainability has increasingly become important to business research and practices over the past decades. The rapid depletion of natural resources, climate change, and concentration on greenhouse gas emissions grabbed much of the attention of regulators, researchers, academia and practitioners around the world. This paper focuses on Malaysian construction sector which has low status of CO 2 emissions as evidenced in a sample of 32 companies from 2011 to 2013. The content analysis procedure of the annual reports for the sample companies revealed that most of the companies are committed towards environmental sustainability but only few disclose their efforts for CO 2 emissions. Moreover, most of their disclosures are superficial and repetitive in nature for the sake of reporting only which have no practical value. Thus, this paper strongly recommends the implementation of effective strategies and taking further practical steps to mitigate CO 2 emissions in the Malaysian sector. The paper has implications for researchers, academia, regulatory bodies and practitioners. The paper also fills the exhibited gap in literature.

Globally, there is an ongoing effort for all the working population to provide them with safe and healthy workplace environment. World Health Organization has disseminated the goal of promoting health in the work place by controlling the psychosocial risks at work in their global plan of action 2008–2017. Yet, WHO finds that the limited focus on psychosocial and work related stress creating deteriorating effect on safety, health and risks associated with the workplace environment within and amongst countries. Copenhagen psychosocial work environment factors will be used in this proposed study to hypothesize the relationship between psychosocial risks and its effect on health and wellbeing with the help of job demands-resources theory. Mixed methods approach i.e. qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and/or analysis will be used for this study to attain and achieve a range of outcomes. To the best of researcher's knowledge this is the first proposed study where biomarker (blood pressure) is going to be used to measure the health and well-being in public health perspective in relation to psychosocial workplace factors in the petrochemical industry of Malaysia.

The research on customer citizenship behavior is getting much attention in service marketing literature. However, past researches in finding antecedents of customer citizenship behavior are limited to intrinsic value while the role of extrinsic value in customer citizenship behavior is largely ignored. The aim of this study is to fill this gap by investigating the effect of extrinsic experiential value on customer citizenship behavior. The data was collected from 800 customers of four hypermarkets located in five states of Malaysia. The covariance-based structural equation modeling approach was used to analyze the data. Findings indicate that extrinsic value has significant and positive impact on all four dimensions (feedback, helping, advocacy, tolerance) of customer citizenship behavior. The findings suggest that extrinsic value, that is, customer return on investment and service excellence, are important source for developing customer citizenship behavior. Therefore, there is dire need to focus on extrinsic value to achieve customer citizenship behavior which will subsequently lead to gain competitive advantage.

The plant turnaround maintenance is a maintenance activity in which the machinery and equipment of the plant are shut down for repairing the worn out parts or installing new machinery. The event is costly and time consuming requiring a competent maintenance management. The large work activities of the event requires the services of large number of people. These people work in congested areas which might cause conflicts among the members and requires team alignment. It helps in attaining high performance of the event and the company. The current study uses survey approach for the data collection from oil & gas refining companies, petrochemical plants, cement plants, palm oil refineries and electric power generating plants. The simple random sampling technique was used for collecting the data. The data collected from 31 out of 96 companies yields an acceptable response rate of 32%. The empirical results of the current study shows that the performance of the plant turnaround maintenance increases with coordination and team alignment in plant turnaround maintenance.

Malaysia has been trying to shift toward from developing nation status to developed nation status. Hence it becomes important for the Malaysian government to study and understand the dynamics of inter sectoral linkages in order to obtain positive growth, development to sustain the economic growth momentum and to achieve higher level of socio-economic development. The objective of this study is to investigate the causal relationship and make a comparative analysis between the two key sectors (construction and agriculture) of the Malaysian economy. A descriptive statistics is used for comparison and sophisticated econometric techniques. Granger causality test and the vector auto regression (VAR) technique used to determine the causality link between the two sectors and measure the effect of changes in the output of one sector on the output of another sector. Results of empirical analysis exhibit that there is strong correlation and bi-directional causal relationship between construction and agriculture sectors of Malaysia. Agriculture sector takes only 3 quarters to respond to the impact of shock emanating from the construction industry while the construction sector responding time is 13 quarters against the shock of agriculture sector.

Malaysian construction sector in 2010 contributed five per cent to the Malaysia gross domestic product (GDP); the rate is very attractive to business investment. However this sector is considered to be responsible for high pollution level, climate changes and other environmental threats. All businesses seek to obtain local and global competitive advantages, corporate citizenship and public relation. These advantages can be achieved by improving business performance to be more people- or/and environment-friendly. This is one of the reasons for a construction company to improve its environmental management system (EMS) via Project Environmental Management. This includes the processes required to ensure that the impacts of the project execution to the surrounding environment will remain within the limits stated in the legal permits. The shortest way to improve business EMS is to manage and reengineer its process, thus improving its public image. The aim of this paper is to present literature review about characteristics, drivers, benefits, and barriers related to EMS, to Business Processes Management (BPM) and Business Processes Reengineering (BPR). This paper also suggests a Process Oriented Environmental Management System (PO-EMS) framework based on EMS of ISO14001, BPM and BPR.

This study explored common sources of conflict during plant turnaround maintenance (TAM) project and the intensity of these conflicts. Also examined are the conflict management styles used by TAM workers and how these choices are influenced by individual and organisational factors. Data was gathered from 21 petrochemical companies in East and West Malaysia. Results revealed the commonest sources of conflict are conflict over schedule and sequencing of work, communication breakdown and personality issues. Integrating was the most utilised conflict management style and the least used was compromising. The results also highlighted a predictive relationship between organisational and individual factors and conflict management style, reiterating the fact that organisational and individual characteristics contributes to the management of conflict. The findings were discussed in relation to conflict management in stable organisation. The novelty of this study lies in finding the major sources of conflict and conflict management styles in TAM in Malaysia.

Construction and manufacturing are the key sectors of Malaysian economy. These sectors play significant role in socio economic development of Malaysia, generate substantial amount of revenue for Malaysian economy and provide employment opportunities to number of skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled, educated and uneducated people. Construction and manufacturing sectors are greatly interlinked with each other through their backward and forward linkages. The purpose of this study is to measures the causal relationship and linkage between construction and manufacturing sectors of Malaysia by using sophisticated econometric approach. Granger causality test and the vector auto regression (VAR) technique is used to determine the causal relationship between the two sectors and measure the effect of changes in output of one sector on the output of other sector. The results of the study show that there is strong correlation and bidirectional causal relationship exists between the construction and manufacturing sector of Malaysia during the study period 2000–2010. The construction sector takes approximately 21 months to respond the impact of shocks coming from manufacturing sector while the manufacturing sector responding time is 15 months.

The paper analyzes the economic justification of an investment proposal for two units of waste heat boilers (WHBs) to replace existing two units in an integrated petrochemical complex in Malaysia. The WHBs have a number of operational and technical advantages. However, due to the huge capital investment, economic justification is primary in deciding the feasibility of this undertaking. The engineering economy analysis model employed includes net present worth, payback period, rate of return, investment balance analysis, sensitivity analysis, and after-tax economic analysis. Four factors namely initial investment, operating costs, annual demand, and salvage value were analyzed to determine their impact on the overall economics of the investment proposal. The analysis highlights a satisfactory return on investment. The overall project is quite sensitive to the variation in demand of the medium pressure steam. However, it is impervious to the variation in the other three factors considered initial investment, operating costs and salvage value. The after-tax net present worth and rate of return further support the economic justification of the proposal.

The technological complexity of plant maintenance has placed the contractors' evaluation and selection as one of the central components of asset management processes. Evaluation and selection of contractors has become a complex decision process that requires large number of qualitative and quantitative input to be simultaneously assessed. This study proposes a multi-criteria decision model as a mean of facilitating contractors' selection for a petrochemical company in Malaysia.

The majority of micro-entrepreneurs in Malaysia operate very small-scaled business activities such as food stalls, burger stalls, night market hawkers, grocery stores, constructions, rubber and oil palm small holders, and other agro-based services and activities. Why are they venturing into entrepreneurship - is it for survival, out of interest or due to encouragement and assistance from the local government? And why is it that some micro-entrepreneurs are lagging behind in entrepreneurship, and what do they need to rectify this situation so that they are able to progress further? Furthermore, what are the skills that the micro entrepreneurs should developed to transform them into successful micro-enterprises and become small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)? This paper proposes a 7-Step approach that can serve as a basis for identification of critical entrepreneurial success factors that enable policy makers, practitioners, consultants, training managers and other agencies in developing tools to assist micro business owners. This paper also highlights the experience of one of the successful companies in Malaysia that has transformed from micro-enterprise to become a large organization in less than 10 years., {"references":["Chaston, I (1996), \"Critical Event and Process Gap in the Danish\nTechnological Institute Structured Networking Model\" International\nSmall Business Journal. 14(3), pp 35-47.","Herring, S. C. (2004). Content analysis for new media: Rethinking the\nparadigm. In: New Research for New Media: Innovative Research\nMethodologies Symposium Working Papers and Readings (pp. 47-66).\nMinneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota School of Journalism and\nMass Communication.","Mike Simpson, Nicki Tuck, Sarah Bellamy, (2004) \"Small business\nsuccess factors: the role of education and training\", Education +\nTraining, Vol. 46 Iss: 8/9, pp.481 - 491.","Landry, P and Jalbert, T (2001). E-commerce strategies your\nshareholders will love, Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance\nVolume 12, Issue 2, pages 45-53, January/February 2001","Hofer, C.W. & Charan, R. (1984). The transition to professional\nmanagement: Mission impossible? American Journal of Small Business,\n9(1), 1-11.","BH online 2 June 2010. http://www.bharian.com.my/","National SME Development Council of Malaysia Small and Medium\nIndustries Development Corporation (SMIDEC), 2004.\nhttp://www.smidec.gov.my/","Wennekers, S. and A.R. Thurik (1999), Linking entrepreneurship and\neconomic growth, Small Business Economics 13, nr. 1, 27-55.","Audretsch, D.B., M.A. Carree and A.R. Thurik (2001), Does\nentrepreneurship reduce unemployment? Tinbergen Institute Discussion\nPaper TI 2001-074/3, Rotterdam: Tinbergen Institute.\n[10] Audretsch, D.B. and A. R. Thurik (2000), Capitalism and democracy in\nthe 21st century: from the managed to the entrepreneurial economy,\nJournal of Evolutionary Economics 10, 17-34.\n[11] Carree, M.A. and A.R. Thurik (2003), The impact of entrepreneurship\non economic growth, in Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research, D.B.\nAudretsch and Z.J. Acs (eds), Boston/Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic\nPublishers, 437-471.\n[12] Department of Statistic Malaysia official website 2010.\nwww.statistics.gov.my/\n[13] BH online 28 June 2010. http://www.bharian.com.my/\n[14] DTI (1999), Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Statistics for the\nUnited Kingdom, 1998, Statistical Press Release, 5 August.\n[15] Campbell, M., Daly, M., Gallagher, C. and Robson, G. (1991), \"Job\ncreation 1987-1989: the contributions of small and large firms'',\nEmployment Gazette, November, pp. 589-96.\n[16] LMQR (1993), Job Creation: The Contribution of Small and Large\nFirms, Department of Employment, August.\n[17] Cosh et al., (1996). \"Size, Age, Survival and Employment Growth,\nChapter 1 in Cosh, A. and A. Hughes (eds.), The Changing State of\nBritish Enterprise: Growth, Innovation and Competitive Advantage in\nSmall and Medium Sized Firms 1986-85. ESRC Centre for Business\nResearch, University of Cambridge.\n[18] Siu, W. (2000). \"Marketing and company performance of Chinese small\nfirms in Hong Kong\", Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol.18 No.\n5, pp. 292-307.\n[19] www.flyingsolo.com.au/\n[20] Romano,C. and Ratnatunga, J. (1995). \"The Role of Marketing\": Its\nImpact on Small Enterprise Research\", The European Journal of\nMarketing, Vol. 29, No.7, pp 9-30.\n[21] Gilmore, A., Carson, D. and Grant, K. (2001), \"SME marketing in\npractice\", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 6-11.\n[22] Hogarth-Scott, S., Watson, K. and Wilson, N. (1996), \"Do small\nbusinesses have to practice marketing to survive and grow?\", Marketing\nIntelligence and Planning, Vol. 14 No.1, pp 6-13."]}