...Introduction In the knowledge society, firms need to develop competitive advantages based on an adequate and intensive use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), which is an essential element of success in today’s market. This fact is especially relevant for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), whose survival depends, among other factors, on the use they make of ICTs to develop new organizational models, compete in new markets or enhance their internal and external communication relationships. To be successful in the 21st century, any country in the world needs to develop an ideas-based can do economy and society. This implies an economy and society that are proficient at both creating ideas and translating a considerable proportion of them into new business opportunities. The payoffs are jobs, wealth and a better quality of life. In this scenario, many developed countries have already concluded that their future relies on increasing investment in the underlying capability of the knowledge economy and creating an environment favourable to the rapid translation of new ideas into new business opportunities. In particular, small and medium sized companies (SMEs) will be able to seize this opportunity in a wide variety of ways and small entrepreneurs have a critical role to play. Therefore, it is important that small entrepreneurs take into account that the world in which organizations exist and operate is continuously changing. Changes in interdependencies...
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...(http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/jibc/) ICT Adoption in Malaysian SMEs from Services Sectors: Preliminary Findings Alam, S. S., Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Business Management, MARA University of Technology, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia E-mail: syedshah@salam.uitm.edu.my Dr. Syed Shah Alam is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Business Management at MARA University of Technology, Shah Alam, Selangor Malaysia. He holds a B.Com (Marketing), M.Com (Triple) Marketing, Finance and Banking and Management, Ph.D. in E-Commerce. His research interest includes Mobile E-commerce, E-business, Ecommerce and online trust. Mst. Nilufar Ahsan, Research Fellow, Faculty of Business & Law, Multimedia University, 75450 Melaka, Malaysia E-mail: nilu-far70@yahoo.com Mst Nilufar Ahsan holds a B.Com (Management), and M.Com in Management. Her research interest includes organizational behaviour, and ICT management area. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Business and Law, Multimedia University, Melaka Malaysia. Abstract The purpose of this research was to investigate the extent to which small and medium size businesses in the southern region in Malaysia are prepared for ICT adoption. Most of the businesses have now accepted ICT as an important tool to increase its business in the domestic as well as global market place. In future ICT will grow more rapidly in the Malaysian SMEs sectors. In order to increase the effectiveness of ICT, companies can use Internet to present almost...
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...expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views expressed do not necessarily represent the decisions or the stated policy of the United Nations. Mention of firm names and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of the United Nations. This publication has been issued without formal editing. ii PREFACE The role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in national competitiveness and development, as well as in generating jobs and revenues for countless citizens, is well documented. Their meaningful and useful access to Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), particularly the Internet, will significantly enhance this critical role and will drive demand for and innovation in the ICT sector even more. This set of training modules was therefore developed to serve as a policymaking reference on Internet Use for Business Development, principally for middle- to senior-level Internet policy makers and implementers of public policy issues of Internet governance. More particularly, it is intended as an introductory guide to the various issues and legislative/policy options that developing countries should consider as they put into place the policies and...
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...influencing the adoption of e-business technology by SMEs. To this end, the paper draws on a range of literatures on the diffusion of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), many of which have hitherto been treated as separate. The reasons for this are two-fold. First, e-business technologies are the latest in a line of new ICT technologies. When exploited successfully, ICTs have increased firm competitiveness either by raising the efficiency of internal communication and organisation and/or supply chain relationships, or by facilitating the development of new/improved products and services. Second, it is hypothesised that many of the factors affecting the successful adoption of new technologies are generic in nature. With regards to SMEs specifically, consideration of earlier research may assist us in identifying a set of enablers and barriers to e-business adoption. Hence, by explicitly acknowledging the context and prior history of research in the area, we are able to map out the dimensions of future theoretical and empirical research in e-business adoption by SMEs. In addition to drawing together factors identified by existing research, the paper highlights the implications of network externalities for the timing of technology investments and the returns that accrue to early and late adopters. It also draws attention to a number of problems associated with the analytical concept of ‘the SME’ when it is applied to this area. The research proceeds...
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...in the world, and the adaption methods to both social and demographic changes. It will also outstanding on the technological impact to the business operations and reliability in the ensuring that they meet people’s needs. The development in technology has led to increase in the number of people in the world, leading to faster depletion of resources. This, therefore, necessitates improvement in company production and improved services so that they can be able to meet the increased requirements of the population. These companies also need to adapt to both social and demographic changes to enable them work efficiently and effectively (Wothington & Britton, 2009, 12). Growing firms invest more in Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and are more efficient in terms of the services and products that they offer. The change in technology has enabled people to get access to services quickly and is of satisfactory quality. Improving companies’ performance helps them relate well with their customers socially and assists them to deliver the products to customers on time. This makes the customers appreciate the fact that they can be able to meet their requirements at the right time despite having requested for them a bit late. Research shows that, in the ancient times, people were not in a...
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...CLUSTERING STRATEGY IN SME DEVELOPMENT : An Integral Development Supports By: Noer Soetrisno Presented at : 2004 APEC INFORMATIZATION POLICY FORUM FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES July, 15-16, 2004 SMEs in Economic Development 1. There is no Regional or Global Consensus on SME The Coverage of SME definition are Commonly Associated With : - SMI (Manufacturing Industry) - SMI + Services (Selected) - All Sectors Except Agriculture - All Sectors Include Agriculture 2. Variable to Measure SME - No of employee (Industry) - Assets (Fixed Asset, Asset other than lands building) - Sales 3. The Role of SME in Economic Development - Contributor to Value added (Growth) : About 57% of GDP - Provider of Employment : Contribute to 99.5% of total employment - Potential Contributor to Export : Share about 16-21% of total export - Flexibility and Resilience to Shocks : continue to survive during the crisis, micro and small enterprises more resilience, but medium enterprises are not fully recovered from the crisis up to 2003 •SME Cluster Development in Indonesia - Cluster development approach has been adopted since 1970’s * Small industry zone * Export processing zone * Agglomeration of SME activities - At present exist about 9800 units of Small Industry Cluster : * 78% Low technology group * Productivity / worker : • Low technology IDR 970 Thousand (100) • Medium technology IDR 2 Million (212) • High technology IDR 8.24 Million (849) Government Policies...
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...1.0 INTRODUCTION The multimedia super corridor (MSC Malaysia) is the government and major national initiative that was designed as a catalyst for the growth of ICT and to satisfy the country’s ambitions in producing fully develop status by the year 2020. In 1996, MSC was set to aimed to build competitive cluster of local ICT and attract word class companies with the passion of becoming a global ICT hub and multimedia variation, procedure and maintenance. The initiative spearheads a number of ICT projects that are intended to transform Malaysian society into a k-economy through the use of ICT including education, healthcare, commerce, governance and industries. The development of MSC has created a lot of incentives and policies that were designed...
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...THE IMPORTANCE AND CHALLENGES OF MANUFACTURING IN MALAYSIA Recently, manufacturing industries in Malaysia grow very rapidly if compared to previous decades. With the rapidly grow of manufacturing industries, the government has to play its role in order to ensure every aspect of current trading policies and regulatory to be obeyed. Other than that, this will ensure that the current trading and manufacturing environment in Malaysia to be peaceful yet globally competitive. In this report, a number of importance and challenges faced by manufacturing sector in Malaysia will be focused on. The scope of this report only covers the situation in Malaysia manufacturing environment and at the same time, it will explain some benefits that our nation can get from the cooperation with developed countries such as Australia and Japan. Manufacturing Sector in Malaysia and its Importance To start with, manufacturing sector in Malaysia contributes almost 80% of overall country’s export and besides, Malaysia also known as the 17th largest exporting nation in the world [1]. For that reason, Malaysia’s government has to work hard in order to maintain, preserve and enhance our manufacturing sector. From [1], it is stated that products manufactured in Malaysia are accepted in developed countries such as US, EU and Japan. This shows that our manufacturing sector already achieved a level that can be proud of. Due to exporting her product to other countries, Malaysia has to obey some...
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...enterprise (SME) in Malaysia. The first category comprises agriculture, services, information and communication technology (ICT) with less than 50 full-time employees or annual sales turnover fewer than RM 5 million. The second included manufacturing and agro-industries with less than 150 full-time employees or annual sales turnover not exceeding RM25 million. Small and medium sized enterprise (SME) is the engine for economic growth. Development of SME brings technology development and employment creation. Michael and John (1998) have noted that relative to larger firms, SMEs are well prepared for facing the challenges of increasing competition and globalization of markets. Planning is usually done first by entrepreneur when decided to start a SME. This is because everything else will be depends on the planning makes by the entrepreneur. A business plan plays an important role in obtaining funds and as a blueprint for the enterprise operates towards success. As Peel and Bridge (1998) and George and Jonathan (2002) reported, there is a strong connection between the success of a SME and its long-term planning. In Malaysia, National SME Development Council (NSDC) was established in June 2004. It acts as the highest policy-making body to chart the direction and strategies comprehensive and coordinated development across all sectors of the economy. Some examples of successful SMEs in Malaysia are Unico Holdings (Unico) and Hockpin Precision Sdn Bhd (HP). A SME have better...
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...TITLE: IMPROVING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE IN MALAYSIA: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS. INTORDUCTION Nowadays, there are a lot of women are involved in business activity. Most of them tend to involved in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME). Based on the previous studies from Multimedia University, Malacca, they mention that SME has been recognized as a major source of global economic growth and employment of women entrepreneurs have been acknowledged to play critical roles for bringing their ideas and capabilities towards successful achievement of the SME development in their countries. Malaysia government was realizing of the important of women entrepreneur to the growth and development of economic and tries to make available to the women entrepreneurs of funds and grants through many of its agencies such as the Special Assistance Schemes through the Small and Medium Industries Development Corporation (SMIDEC). Based on previous studies, they indicated that the capital, networks affiliation, education, training and counseling, and usage of ICT are important factors influencing the growth of women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. These factors have become barriers to women entrepreneur to success. SUMMARY According to studies that made by previous researchers, they mention that financial problem is some of barriers that make the women entrepreneur is hardly to success. Financial problem including difficulties to obtain start-up funds, financial management...
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...identification of differential product strategies, building or reshaping core competencies, acquiring unique technologies, and accumulation of intellectual property, all of which can all be harnessed to make the company successfulin a highly competitive marketplace. Due to the emergence and widespread use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), organizations have faced many challenges that have led to several changes in their business practices in recent times, particularly in the last two decades. Findings After investigating the literature in strategic technology usage, and interviewing key decision-makers, a conceptual framework was proposed. IT innovation adoption occurs at the functional/operational level by enhancing various aspects of efficiency, effectiveness and resiliency. In order to select a few customer to be interviewed, heterogeneous purposive sampling technique which aimed to achieve a heterogeneous sample. The first condition (value) is necessary for the second (competitive advantage) to occur. There has been significant research on ICT value—with numerous studies examining and finding a relationship between ICT investments and business performance....
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...ICT IN ADMINISTRATION 1 ICT IN ADMINISTRATION ICT IN ADMINISTRATION AND IMPLICATIONS ANTHONY K MUKUCHE D61/69173/2013 UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI ICT IN ADMINISTRATION 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction The study reviews relevant literature in the area of ICT in government administration. It will discuss the concept of ICT, in the day to day running of activities in government departments and the advantages of using it. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Introduction This chapter describes the methods that will be used in the collection of data pertinent in answering the research questions. It is divided into research design, population and sampling design, data collection methods and data analysis methods. Target Population and sample Size The target population will be all the employees of government. Employees in government are quite a number to get feedback from. The sample size will be 50 – 100 employees of government. Data Collection Primary data will be gathered directly from respondents and for this study; the researcher used a questionnaire. The questionnaire will consisting of close and open-ended questions. The questionnaire consisted of two sections. Data Processing and Analysis Data analysis is the whole process, which starts immediately after data collection and ends at the point of interpretation and processing data. The researcher will peruse the completed research instruments and document analysis-recording sheets. ICT IN ADMINISTRATION 3 ...
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...sector product and services that are responsive to the needs of citizens and businesses as well as capacity creation. For a variety of reasons (economic and policy), developing countries like Kenya are less equipped to take advantage of the potential in ICT to stimulate growth, and are likely to fall behind advanced economies. The Kenya ICT Master Plan is therefore not designed in isolation, given that there is evidence from developed countries that investment in ICT facilitates economic growth by increasing productivity. As the Kenya Government ensures an enabling ICT environment and regulatory framework, this plan aims at stimulating the setup of ICT-related businesses to enhance employment creation. At the heart of this document is a strategic intent to develop a robust ICT sector that will enhance economic growth through creation of businesses and hence employment. In the execution of this plan, Kenya will become a leading ICT hub for the region, improve the lives of her citizens and see significant ICT-led economic growth in line with Vision 2030. This ICT Master Plan aims at building and promoting an environment where more service sector businesses are created and are able to thrive through leveraging on ICT. ICT offers key benefits that make life simpler and more convenient for citizens and businesses and...
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...institution’s view on financing opportunities for SME institutions. As a financial organization the report shed light on BSRS and its BCC/BASIS/ICT Incubator and its adjacent financing modules. From entrepreneur’s point of view a number of incubator listed firms were selected and their financing process has been introduced. This report exclusively focused its view toward ICT SMEs. The fact that ICT Incubator is only accessible to IT companies and the importance of ICT in Bangladesh economy growth has an implicit importance in this regard. The report took this issue further by listing the bars that remains in today’s financial market for an ICT SME. The report also contains critical analysis of the whole financing process and its pro/cons. The submitters took the liberty of comparing BSRS normal SME financing schemes and its past data with BSRS/BCC/ICT Incubator financing schemes. This report also showed the Requirements, Paper works, Validation process, Other payment options & Follow through of the whole financing process. Past data of BSRS financial investments and loan disbursements as well as data on participation in ICT incubator has also been included. Recent times have seen an encouraging up rise of women participation in SME institutions. This fact has not been ignored and an analysis with relevant data on women participation in BSRS and ICT Incubator scenario has been introduced. The investment process for SMEs has been presented with diagrams and charts. A relatively...
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...ICT IN MALAYSIA: POLICY, REGULATION & INDUSTRY PROGRESS (1996-2000) AND PROSPECTS (2001-2005) Presented by Gazali Abas at ITU-Waseda University Workshop for Regulators and Policy-Makers “New Trends in ICT” 13th-24th November, 2001 Waseda University Tokyo, JAPAN CONTENTS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. INTRODUCTION PROGRESS (1996-2000) PROSPECTS (2001-2005) ALLOCATION CONCLUSION 14 Nov.2001.Gazali A. 2 1. INTRODUCTION THE BIG PICTURE - Human Capital 23 m - Vision 2020 - Long-term Outline Perspective Plan - Five-year Development Plan - K-Economy - ICT policy, regulation and industry 14 Nov.2001.Gazali A. 3 2. PROGRESS, 1996-2000 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Utilization of ICT National IT Agenda Development of the Multimedia Super Corridor MSC Flagship Applications Development of Communications Infrastructure Electronic Commerce Human Resource Development for ICT Funding for ICT Industry 14 Nov.2001.Gazali A. 4 2.1.1 - UTILIZATION OF ICT: ICT Expenditure by Sector, 1995-2000 Total expenditure on ICT increased 9.2% p.a. in 1996-2000. Big spenders on ICT: 1995 2000 AAGR Banking & Finance 27% 15% -4% Manufacturing 13% 16% 19% Distributions 8% 10% 16% Government 10% 8% 7% Home 2% 8% 44% 14 Nov.2001.Gazali A. 5 2.1.2 - SELECTED ICT INDICATORS, 1995-2000 Indicator PC (units installed) PC per 1,000 pop. Tel.lines/1,000 pop. Tel.Subscribers Mobile Phones Internet Subscribers 14 Nov.2001.Gazali A. 1995 610,000 29.5 161.7 3,332,447 700,000 13,064 2000 2,200...
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