bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Relationship Marketing as a Determinant of Customer Satisfaction in Islamic Banking Services Management
Authors: Md Noor Nur Syamilah , Omar Hydzulkifli Hashim
Published: August 2020

The purpose of this study is to identify the dimensions that determine whether customer satisfaction in Islamic banking services has been conducted at the Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA) in Perlis involving two institutions, namely Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UNIMAP) and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UITM) Perlis. The collection of the principal data was accomplished by using a survey paper to answer the study’s research questions. It involved 224 customers using the Islamic banking services. This study was analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) by applying descriptive analysis and inferential analysis (Independent T-test, One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Correlation Pearson). This study finds that there are some different relationships in terms of position at the university level of education in the demographic characteristics analysis towards customer satisfaction. Most of the dimensions related to customer satisfaction in the Islamic banking services are positively correlated with each other (commitment, product knowledge, competence, service encounter).This study proves that this research is useful to academicians by providing new empirical evidence of relationship marketing with customer satisfaction in the Islamic banking industry. The results of this study can encourage bank managers to learn how to improve commitment, product knowledge, competence and service encounter in Islamic banks’ services to customers.   Keywords: Islamic banking services, customer satisfaction, relationship marketing, service quality, service encounter, commitment, product knowledge and competence.
Employees Brand Citizenship Behaviour: Front-Liner Versus Backstage Employees’ Perspective
Authors: Shaari Hasnizam , Md Salleh Salniza , Hussin Zolkafli
Published: August 2020

Brand citizenship behaviour is a relatively new construct developed in brand literature specifically in internal branding. The main assumption is that employees’ readiness and willingness to engage in brand-consistent behaviour could contribute to overall brand success. With a limited understanding of what constitutes brand-consistent behaviour, this study attempts to identify possible brand-consistent behaviour among hotel employees and compare both front-liner and backstage employees by extending the concept of organizational citizenship behaviour. Using 286 respondents from three- to five-star hotels, this study suggests a few theoretical and practical implications for the betterment of an organization’s sustainable brand competitive advantage.   Keywords: Brand citizenship behaviour, brand-consistent behaviour, internal branding, brand management.
Aspek Pengurusan Program Latihan dan Kesannya Terhadap Kepuasan Atlet Sekolah Sukan
Authors: Din Anuar , Abd Rashid Salleh , Awang Mohd Isha
Published: August 2020

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti kesan aspek Pengurusan Program Latihan terhadap kepuasan atlet sekolah sukan. Seramai 206 orang atlet dari dua buah sekolah sukan di Malaysia telah dipilih menggunakan persampelan rawak sebagai responden kajian. Kajian ini ialah satu kajian kuantitatif yang menggunakan kaedah tinjauan untuk menjawab objektif kajian. Satu set soal selidik telah digunakan dalam kajian ini berdasarkan Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) oleh Reimer dan Chelladurai (1998) sementara bagi Pengurusan Program Latihan Jurulatih (PPLJ) oleh Anuar (2010). Analisis statistic inferens seperti ujian t, Korelasi Pearson dan Regresi Pelbagai digunakan untuk menguji lima hipotesis nol pada aras signifikan p < 0.05. Program yang digunakan untuk menganalisis data ialah program SPSS versi 20. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan terdapat hubungan yang positif dan signifikan (r = 0.548, p < 0.05) antara Pengurusan Program Latihan Jurulatih dengan kepuasan atlet. Selain daripada itu, aspek pengetahuan jurulatih, aspek kemudahan dan fasiliti serta aspek program latihan merupakan pengaruh Pengurusan Program Latihan jurulatih yang utama terhadap kepuasan atlet. Para jurulatih perlu merangka program latihan selaras dengan perkembangan Sains Sukan moden tanpa melupakan aspek fasiliti dan kemudahan. Teknologi moden dalam fasiliti dan kemudahan harus digunakan oleh jurulatih dan atlet dengan mengurangkan pendekatan secara tradisional.   Kata kunci: Atlet, pengurusan program latihan, jurulatih, fasa, kepuasan.
Hubungan Antara Pengurusan Sumber Manusia, Budaya Organisasi dan Prestasi Organisasi: Pemodelan Persamaan Struktur
Authors: Mei Tang Swee , Yahya Khulida Kirana , Teong Lim Kong
Published: August 2020

Kajian ini menyelidik hubungan antara pengurusan sumber manusia (PSM), budaya organisasi dan prestasi organisasi menerusi pemodelan persamaan struktur. Kajian ini berasaskan reka bentuk tinjauan dan bersifat keratan rentas. Sebanyak 137 soal selidik dikutip daripada organisasi pembuatan di Malaysia dan digunakan dalam analisis statistik. Amalan PSM termasuk pengambilan pekerja, penilaian prestasi, latihan dan pembangunan, ganjaran berasaskan prestasi, pengurusan kerjaya, perkongsian maklumat, dan jaminan pekerjaan. Pemboleh ubah budaya organisasi meliputi penglibatan, koordinasi dan integrasi, komunikasi terbuka, kepercayaan, penambahbaikan, dan kerjasama. Sementara pemboleh ubah prestasi organisasi merangkumi kadar pertumbuhan jualan, hasilan operasi dan hasilan sumber manusia. Hampir 57 peratus daripada varians dalam konstruk budaya organisasi dapat diterangkan oleh konstruk PSM. Sementara kedua-dua konstruk PSM dan budaya organisasi dapat menerangkan kira-kira 68 peratus varians dalam konstruk prestasi organisasi. Model persamaan struktur menunjukkan budaya organisasi berperanan sebagai pengantara dalam hubungan antara PSM dengan prestasi organisasi.   Kata kunci: Pengurusan sumber manusia, budaya organisasi, prestasi organisasi, LISREL.
Investigating Factors Affecting the Intention to Use Islamic Personal Financing
Authors: Nik Abdullah Nik Safiah , Abd Wahab Norazlina
Published: August 2020

The purpose of this paper was to examine the main factors that influence consumers’ intention to use Islamic personal financing. A sample of 308 employees from Universiti Utara Malaysia was surveyed. Attitude, social influence, perceived behavioral control, religious obligation and religiosity were examined towards the intention to use Islamic personal financing. The results show that perceived behavioral control proved to be a strong predictor. The findings of this study provide key inputs to an Islamic bank for better planning of Islamic personal financing facilities.   Keywords: Islamic personal financing; intention; usage; shari’ah compliance; religiosity.
Similarities and Differences Between Ethical Codes of Conduct of AICPA and IFAC
Authors: Al-Aidaros Al-Hasan , Md. Idris Kamil , Mohd. Shamsudin Faridahwati
Published: August 2020

An accountants’ ethical code of conduct represents the moral values, principles and rules that accountants should have. The ethical codes of conduct of AICPA and IFAC are the two main codes most countries adopt to guide their members on how to deal with accounting information from the ethical perspective. While the AICPA ethical code of conduct was developed specifically for the USA, the IFAC ethical code of conduct was developed by taking into account the different practices of ethical code of conduct in various countries. The main purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the similarities and differences of these two codes. The comparison of the two documents is made on the following issues: establishment, structure and approach of the codes, the public interest principle, and the independence principle. The comparative analysis shows that the AICPA and IFAC codes are more similar than different even though some differences are noticeably important.   Keywords: Ethical code of conduct, Accountants, AICPA, IFAC.
The Effect of Business Process Reengineering Factors on Organisational Performance
Authors: Almansour Yaser , Aladwan Atef , Alsaudi Musa
Published: August 2020

This study empirically investigated the effect of business process reengineering factors on organisational performance in the Saudi context. A quantitative approach was employed whereby this study focused on Riyadh factory for re-refining oils employees. A total of 110 useable questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. Business process reengineering factors that were investigated include the major improvements after business process reengineering, the major changes after implementation of business process reengineering and the personal gain after business reengineering process. The results showed that the only two factors out of the three do affect organisational performance in Riyadh factory for re-refining oils employees namely the major improvements after business process reengineering and the major changes after implementation of business process reengineering.   Keywords: Business process reengineering, organizations performance, personal gain.
The Role of Board Structure in Predicting Financial Distress in Malaysia
Authors: Md Rus Rohani
Published: August 2020

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of board characteristics on financial distress companies. Specifically this study examines board attributes (size of board, percentage of inside directors, CEO is founder, CEO is chairman and CEO duality) and its relation with companies that experienced financial distress after controlling for leverage, market return, lagged of market return, and GDP growth. Compared with previous studies in Malaysia, this study uses PN17 criterion to select the sample and that is defines as the shareholder’s equity is less than 25% of issued and paid-up capital of a firm. Using a data, the results show size and CEO-founder are negatively significantly related to distress while CEO duality and fraction of independent director affect distress positively. This study could be used to measure the effectiveness of The Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG). This study is also useful to directors, investors and authorities who would want to know which corporate governance factors explain distress.
Memimpin Pengambilalihan Perniagaan Keluarga: Kaedah, Masalah dan Cara Mengatasinya (Leading a Family Business Acquisition: Methods, Problems and How to Handle Them)
Authors: Mohamad Armanurah , Naiimi Nasri , Abdullah Syahrina
Published: August 2020

Kajian ini mempunyai tiga objektif, iaitu 1) untuk meneroka kaedah yang digunakan oleh pengganti dalam memimpin pengambilalihan perniagaan keluarga, 2) untuk meneroka masalah yang dihadapi oleh pengganti dalam memimpin pengambilalihan perniagaan keluarga, dan 3) untuk meneroka kaedah yang digunakan oleh pengganti bagi mengatasi masalah dalam memimpin pengambilalihan perniagaan keluarga. Kajian ini dijalankan secara kualitatif menggunakan pendekatan kajian kes. Teknik temu bual digunakan untuk pengutipan data. Responden kajian terdiri daripada lima unit perniagaan keluarga yang beroperasi di utara Malaysia. Protokol temu bual secara berstruktur dibangunkan untuk menerokai maklumat berkaitan dengan ketiga-tiga objektif di atas. Kajian ini mendapati kaedah yang digunakan dalam memimpin pengambilalihan perniagaan keluarga ialah penerusan gaya memimpin perniagaan daripada pengasas, penggunaan mentor atau penasihat, perbincangan ahli keluarga dan peranan orang berpengaruh. Masalah yang dihadapi oleh pengganti pula adalah dari segi ketidakpuasan kepimpinan dalam kalangan ahli keluarga kerana faktor umur pengganti yang muda berbanding dengan ahli keluarga lain. Kaedah memimpin yang digunakan oleh pengganti untuk mengatasi masalah tersebut ialah bersikap mengalah dalam mengurus perniagaan keluarga yang akhirnya kepimpinan pengganti diterima oleh ahli keluarga. Implikasi kajian ini adalah untuk memimpin pengambilalihan perniagaan keluarga, pengasas dan pengganti perlu memahami pelbagai kaedah dalam memimpin perniagaan keluarga. Pengganti juga perlu mengetahui kaedah yang bersesuaian dalam menyelesaikan masalah memimpin pengambilalihan perniagaan keluarga serta cara menjalankan pengurusan secara profesional untuk membolehkan perniagaan keluarga berfungsi secara berkesan.   Kata kunci: Perniagaan keluarga, Pengambilalihan perniagaan keluarga, Pengasas perniagaan keluarga, Pengganti perniagaan keluarga.
Determinants of Accounting-based Performance: Evidence from Bursa Malaysia
Authors: Ismail Rusmawati , Abdullah Nur Adiana Hiau , Taufil Mohd Kamarun Nisham
Published: August 2020

This study aims to examine the determinants of accounting-based performance of 531 non-financial Malaysian listed companies over the period 2004 to2012. System generalized method of moments reveals that both prior risk-taking behaviour and size are found to be important determinants of performance. A significant positive influence of prior risk-taking behaviour on performance implies that risk-averse managers are cognitively influenced by their capability in handling risky investments in the past; consequently enhance confidence in their ability to manage profitable investments. The result appears to support the capital asset pricing model implication. Meanwhile, a significant positive size-performance relationship suggests that investors and fund managers should focus on larger companies as they can have better stock performance. Keywords: Risk-Return Relationship; Reverse Size Effect; System-GMM
The Role of Entrepreneurial Orientations in Talent Retention Amongst Malaysian Engineers
Authors: Osman Idris , Noordin Fauziah , Mohd Idaya Husna , Loon Koe Wei
Published: August 2020

This paper examines the linkage between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and talent retention amongst Malaysian engineers from the perspective of entrepreneurial orientation theory.A cross-sectional survey of 104 engineers from private organisations in Malaysia was conducted to test the hypothesised relationships between constructs. The population comprised graduate and professional engineers who were registered under the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). The purposive sampling method was employed for data analysis purposes. Data was analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling technique. The results of this study indicated a significant relationship between innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking, and competitive aggressiveness and the intention to stay (ITS). Autonomy was found not significant in predicting engineers’ ITS the same jobs. Engineers require EO to support their freedom of ideas and thoughts to exploit opportunities, produce creativity, and solve engineering task-related problems and uncertainty situations. EO dimensions can be used to predict engineers’ ITS current employments. This study provides crucial information for the organisations and policy makers to develop mechanisms and policies to enhance the engineers’ involvement of effective EO for increasing retention. Keywords: Engineers, Entrepreneurial orientation, Intention to stay, Talent, Malaysia
A ROLE A CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FIRM’S ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE: A MODERATING ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL REGULATIONS
Authors: Akram Farheen , Abrar-ul-Haq Muhammad , Raza Saqlain
Published: August 2020

Climate change has become one of the biggest issue across the globe as most countries have been bearing the consequences of this phenomenon on a global scale. Countries have been drafting environmental regulations to help mitigate the environmental pollution caused by climate change. Therefore, the implications of environmental policies in various sectors of the economy are dependent on state regulations. The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of corporate governance on environmental performance. Furthermore, this study examines the impact of institutional regulations on the relationship of corporate governance and firms’ environmental performance. The data was collected from the top 120 manufacturing companies that are based in Pakistan, India, China and Bangladesh. The binary logit regression methodology was employed in this study. The results indicate that the attributes of corporate governance have a positive and significant impact on green performance. In addition, the results were also positive and significant on the moderating role of institutional regulation for corporate governance and firm performance. Hence, based on the empirical findings, this study recommends strict environmental institutional regulations to further enhance environmental performance. Keywords:Green performance, corporate governance, environment, institutional policies
EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF ISLAMIC FINANCING TO FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM OIC COUNTRIES
Authors: Maamor Selamah , Hasan Hafnida , Abdullah Hussin
Published: August 2020

The development of Islamic finance is governed by Islamic laws (Shariah). The main principles that regulate all forms of transactions in Islamic banking activities include the prohibition of interest or usury (riba),the use of excessive risk (gharar), and gambling (maysir). The Islamic finance industry has become a prominent sector and is one of the fastest growing components of financial developments over the last decade in the global financial system. The availability of large numbers of Islamic finance products will increase significantlyas there have been a growing demand throughout the world, especially in OIC participating countries. Hence, the objective of this study is to identify the important factors that enhances financial development in the selected OIC countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen). Three indicators of financial development were used; Islamic finance, broad money and liquid liabilities. The data used in this study is the panel data from the year 1990 to 2012 which were obtained from the International Monetary Fund, Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions Information (IBIS), and World Bank databases. This study employed pooled OLS, fixed and random effect model. The results indicate that there are significant relationships between Islamic finance and financial development. Specifically, this study found that liquid liabilities and Islamic finance are two factors that have significantly influenced financial development in the OIC countries. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the OIC governments are required to develop policies that would integrate Islamic finance into their financial system. These policies should be centred around regulatory framework and supervisory role to utilize Islamic finance for greater economic growth. Keywords: Islamic finance; financial development; OIC countries; pooled OLS, fixed effect; random effect
EFFECTS OF INTEGRATING DIRECT CASH AID INTO FUEL SUBSIDY REMOVAL IN THE DOMESTIC COMMODITY MARKET IN MALAYSIA USING COMPUTABLE GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM (CGE) MODEL
Authors: Ying Loo Sze , Harun Mukaramah
Published: August 2020

Direct cash aid has been introduced to protect the poor from the impact of rising fuel prices in efforts to remove subsidies in Malaysia. Thus, this paper is aimed at evaluating the changes in prices and quantities of consumer commodities produced by 17 sectors in response to the integration of direct cash aid into fuel subsidy removal. Specifically, the direct cash aid was a reallocation of saved resources through the complete removal of fuel subsidy. This study was carried out using the Lofgren-based computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, by simulating the before and after imposition of fiscal integration. With the withdrawal of government fuel subsidy, the findings showed that recipients of the cash aid tended to spend on basic necessities such as food and beverages, and petrol (for individual vehicle consumption). Nonetheless, the sudden increase in consumer expenditure led to higher consumer prices as current supplies was unable to catch up with increase in demand. Thus, it is advisable to have other effective, concurrent development programs to stimulate future economic development. Keywords:  Fuel subsidy removal, Direct cash aid, Computable general equilibrium (CGE) model.
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS OF NURSE MANAGERS AND NURSING PERFORMANCE
Authors: Ibrahim Yuliani , Ahamat Amiruddin
Published: August 2020

Interpersonal communication between the nurse manager and the executing nurse is needed for the continuity and productivity of the profession, whereby one’s productivity is strongly influenced by performance. Therefore, this study aims to know the extent of the relationship between the interpersonal communication skills (leadership, communication process, motivation, and negotiation skills) of the nurse managers, (independent variable), and the performance of nurses, (dependent variable) at Tgk. Chik Ditiro Sigli Hospital and Harapan Bunda Banda Aceh Hospital in Indonesia. The population in this study were all nurses at the two hospitals consisting of 331 respondents. The results showed a significant relationship between the interpersonal communication skills of the nurse managers and the performance of the nurses at the two hospitals. The test results also showed that there was a significant difference between the interpersonal communication skills of the nurse managers and the performance of nurses at Tgk. Chik Ditiro Sigli Hospital and at Harapan Bunda Banda Aceh Hospital. The only variable that showed similarities between the two hospitals was motivation.     Keywords: interpersonal communication, leadership, communication process, negotiation, motivation, performance.
JANGKA MASA PELAKSANAAN PEMBUATAN LEAN MEMPENGARUHI PRESTASI ORGANISASI: ANALISIS SYARIKAT PEMBUATAN DI MALAYSIA MENGGUNAKAN MODEL RASCH (TIME FRAME OF LEAN MANUFACTURING IMPLEMENTATION AFFECTS ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE: AN ANALYSIS ON MANUFACTURING COM
Authors: Mohd Asaad Mohd Norhasni , Iteng Rosman , Saad Rohaizah
Published: August 2020

Pasaran global hari ini memerlukan strategi pembuatan baru untuk meningkatkan kecekapan dan pembuatan. Matlamat utama industri perkilangan hari ini ialah untuk meningkatkan produktiviti melalui pemudahan sistem, potensi organisasi dan penambahbaikan berterusan dengan menggunakan teknik canggih seperti sistem pembuatan lean. Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk melihat secara khusus sama ada jangka masa pelaksanaan lean mempengaruhi prestasi organisasi dengan  menggunakan penganalisisan Model Rasch. Kajian ini menggunakan dua ratus lima syarikat pembuatan, yang dipilih secara rawak dari direktori Pengilang Persekutuan Malaysia. Kajian ini mengukur persepsi eksekutif kanan atau para pengurus mengenai tahap pelaksanaan pembuatan lean di syarikat mereka. Hasil kajian mendapati jangka masa tahun pelaksanaan lean tidak mempengaruhi secara terus terhadap pencapaian prestasi organisasi. Selain itu, cabaran yang paling sukar dihadapi syarikat dalam melaksanakan pembuatan lean ialah berkaitan membina program pembangunan pembekal yang sistematik. Dapatan kajian ini akan memberi panduan yang bermanfaat bagi para pengurus untuk merancang dan mengekalkan pembuatan lean dalam organisasi mereka serta menjana langkah-langkah baru untuk meningkatkan prestasi organisasi supaya dapat berdaya saing.     Kata kunci:  Pembuatan lean, prestasi organisasi, Model Rasch.      Abstract   Today’s global market requires new manufacturing strategies to enhance efficiency and manufacturing. The main aim of today’s manufacturing industry is to increase productivity through systems facilitation, organisational potential and continuous improvement using state-of-the art techniques such as lean manufacturing system. The aim of this study is to specifically examine whether the time frame of lean implementation affects organisational performance using the Rasch Model analysis. This study employed 205 manufacturing companies, which were randomly selected from the directory of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers. This study measured the perception of senior executives or managers concerning the implementation level of lean manufacturing in their companies. Results of the study showed that the year period of lean implementation did not directly affect achievement in organisational performance. Besides, the most difficult challenge faced by companies which implemented lean manufacturing was related to building a systematic supplier development program. Findings of this study will serve as a beneficial guide for managers in planning and sustaining lean manufacturing in their organisation including generating new measures to improve organisational performance in order to be competitive.     Keywords: Lean manufacturing, organisational performance, Rasch Model.
OPTIMIZING WORKLOAD ALLOCATION IN A NETWORK OF HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTERS
Authors: Rahim Rahela , Ku-Mahamud Ku Ruhana
Published: August 2020

The allocation of workload to a network of computers is investigated. A new workload allocation model based on Generalized Exponential (GE) distribution is proposed for user-level performance measures. The criterion used for effective workload allocation is the one that minimizes the expected response time in systems to which jobs are routed. A closed-loop expression for workload arrival to minimize systems means queue length and response time are derived using the optimization technique. Results are presented with numerical examples and sensitivity analysis with respect to changes of total workload. Results are verified using the simulation technique.
GOAL-ONTOLOGY ETL PROCESSES SPECIFICATION
Authors: Ta’a Azman , Abdullah Mohd. Syazwan , Md. Norwawi Norita
Published: August 2020

The design-related problems for extract, transform, load (ETL) processes are far away from being resolved due to the ambiguity of user requirements and the complexity of operations. Current approaches are based on existing software requirement methods that have limitations on reconciliation of the requirement semantics toward generating the ETL processes specification. The solution is to apply the RAMEPs (Requirement Analysis Method for ETL Processes) that was developed to facilitate the design of the ETL processes in the perspectives of organization, decision-maker, and developer. The results are the ETL processes specification, which was validated on the correctness of the goal-ontology model and evaluated in the case study of Gas Malaysia Data Warehouse (DW) system. The case study illustrated how the goal-ontology approach was successfully implemented in designing and generating the ETL processes specification.
PROJECTING NAMED ENTITY TAGS FROM A RESOURCE RICH LANGUAGE TO A RESOURCE POOR LANGUAGE
Authors: Zamin Norshuhani , Oxley Alan , Abu Bakar Zainab
Published: August 2020

Named Entities (NE) are the prominent entities appearing in textual documents. Automatic classification of NE in a textual corpus is a vital process in Information Extraction and Information Retrieval research. Named Entity Recognition (NER) is the identification of words in text that correspond to a pre-defined taxonomy such as person, organization, location, date, time, etc. This article focuses on the person (PER), organization (ORG) and location (LOC) entities for a Malay journalistic corpus of terrorism. A projection algorithm, using the Dice Coefficient function and bigram scoring method with domain-specific rules, is suggested to map the NE information from the English corpus to the Malay corpus of terrorism. The English corpus is the translated version of the Malay corpus. Hence, these two corpora are treated as parallel corpora. The method computes the string similarity between the English words and the list of available lexemes in a pre-built lexicon that approximates the best NE mapping. The algorithm has been effectively evaluated using our own terrorism tagged corpus; it achieved satisfactory results in terms of precision, recall, and F-measure. An evaluation of the selected open source NER tool for English is also presented.
STATISTICALLY CONTROLLED ROBUST TRUST COMPUTING MECHANISM FOR CLOUD COMPUTING
Authors: Firdhous Mohamed , Ghazali Osman , Hassan Suhaidi
Published: August 2020

Quality of service plays an important role in making distributed systems. Users prefer service providers who meet the commitments specifi ed in the Service Level Agreements to these who violate them. Cloud computing has been the recent entrant to the distributed system market and has revolutionized it by transforming the way the resources are accessed and paid for. Users can access cloud services including hardware, development platform and applications and pay only for the usage similar to the other utilities. Trust computing mechanisms can play an important role in identifying the right service providers who would meet the commitments specifi ed in the Service Level Agreements. Literature has reported several trust computing mechanisms for different distributed systems based on various algorithms and functions. Almost all of them modify the trust scores monotonously even for momentary performance deviations that are reported. This paper proposes a trust computing mechanism that statistically validates the attribute monitored before modifying the trust scores using a hysteresisbased algorithm. Hence the proposed mechanism can protect the trust scores from changes due to momentary fl uctuations in system performances. The experiments conducted show that the trust scores computed using the proposed mechanism are more representative of the long-term system performance than the ones that were computed without the validation of the inputs.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE MODELLING FOR GRADUATE ENTREPRENEUR PROGRAMME
Authors: Abu Bakar Muhamad Shahbani , Ta’a Azman
Published: August 2020

Business Intelligence (BI), which is the process of collecting, analysing, and transforming data using Data Warehouse (DW) is seen as one of the growing approaches to provide meaningful information for the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). MOHE is responsible for managing various activities to encourage graduate entrepreneurs to venture into businesses and ensure that the country has many successful entrepreneurs. Therefore, systematic and accurate information needs to be available for planning, implementing, and monitoring entrepreneurs’ performances. This paper proposes the modelling and designing of the graduate entrepreneur profi le system – Intelligent Profi le Analysis Graduate Entrepreneur (iPAGE) using the BI approach. Two main methodologies were used, namely the Requirements Centric Operational Data Store (ReCODS) and the Rapid Application Development (RAD) to model and design this system. The iPAGE was validated and evaluated by users, entrepreneurs’ personnel and DW experts. Indeed, the approach will be used to benchmark the development of an entrepreneurial information system in the future.
ACCEPTANCE OF WEB-BASED TRAINING SYSTEM AMONG PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES
Authors: Ibrahim Huda , AL-Rawashdeh Thamer Ahmad
Published: August 2020

Applying web-based training system is highly preferable in meeting time constraints, however, its success is subject to users’ acceptance. Previous studies highlight human challenge as the most important barrier in the implementation of an ICT-based training system. Users tend to show resistance in using new technology and online approaches. They favour the traditional way such as the face-to-face method of training. This paper presents the results of a study conducted to assess the acceptance of a web-based training by public sector employees. The study applied the Unifi ed Theory of Acceptance and Use Technology (UTAUT) with the focus on three system characteristics; system flexibility, system enjoyment, and system interactivity. A total of 290 employees from the Jordanian Public Sector participated in the study. The fi ndings revealed that system fl exibility and system enjoyment have direct effects while system interactivity has an indirect effect on the employees’ intention to use the web-based training system. In addition, system flexibility is proven to have the strongest relationship to users’ intention to use the web-based training system.
COST-SENSITIVE STRUCTURED PERCEPTRON INCORPORATING CATEGORY HIERARCHY FOR NAMED ENTITY RECOGNITION
Authors: Higashiyama Shohei , Mathieu Blondel , Seki Kazuhiro , Uehara Kuniaki
Published: August 2020

Named Entity Recognition (NER) is a fundamental natural language processing task for the identifi cation and classifi cation of expressions into predefi ned categories, such as person and organization. Existing NER systems usually target about 10 categories and do not incorporate analysis of category relations. However, categories often belong naturally to some predefi ned hierarchy. In such cases, the distance between categories in the hierarchy becomes a rich source of information that can be exploited. This is intuitively useful particularly when the categories are numerous. On that account, this paper proposes an NER approach that can leverage category hierarchy information by introducing, in the structured perceptron framework, a cost function more strongly penalizing category predictions that are more distant from the correct category in the hierarchy. Experimental results on the GENIA biomedical text corpus indicate the effectiveness of the proposed approach as compared with the case where no cost function is utilized. In addition, the proposed approach demonstrates the superior performance over a representative work using multi-class support vector machines on the same corpus. A possible direction to further improve the proposed approach is to investigate more elaborate cost functions than a simple additive cost adopted in this work.
NON-TAYLOR SERIES BASED POSITIONING METHOD FOR LOCATION BASED SERVICES
Authors: Geok Tan Kim , Reza Ahmed Wasif , Liew San Choy
Published: August 2020

Location Based Services (LBS) has gained increasing popularity in major cities. Due to blocking from man-made structures, the existing Global Positioning System (GPS) could not satisfy LBS applications, especially in street canyon and indoor surroundings. This has lead to the development of Assisted GPS (A-GPS) which can provide better service availability and accuracy gain. In the conventional positioning method, Taylor series expansion is applied to solve non-linear distance equations. This method requires an initial estimation of A-GPS receiver’s position. This paper investigates the positioning method for LBS based on hybrid E-OTD/GNSS. The proposed positioning method is non-Taylor series based. Therefore, it involves less complicated mathematical expansion and substitution. A flexible LBS positioning tool is developed which can generate position information in convenient way. It supports both Taylor series and non-Taylor series based positioning methods. The obtained results showed that the proposed non-Taylor series based positioning method can achieve better positioning accuracy.
ENHANCED MAINTENANCE PROBLEM RECOGNITION TECHNIQUES AND ITS APPLICATION TO PALM OIL MILLS
Authors: Hasan Basari Abd Samad , Herman N.S , Asmai Siti Azirah
Published: August 2020

This paper discusses the application of enhanced maintenance problem recognition techniques. The main contribution of this study is the proposed combined techniques, namely snapshot model, failure mode, effect and criticality analysis (FMECA), Pareto analysis, and decision analysis by using information technology (IT). The snapshot model is part of the maintenance modelling technique while FMECA, Pareto analysis, and decision analysis are part of maintenance reliability techniques. Each of the techniques and the proposed combined techniques is explained. The case study used for this enhanced technique was the palm oil mills maintenance problem. The result and possible further enhancement is also discussed.
DATA LEAKAGE IN ICT OUTSOURCING: RISKS AND COUNTERMEASURES
Authors: Lin Yap May , Zakariah Mas Idayu , Mohamed Azlinah
Published: August 2020

Having been among the top ranks of worldwide ICT outsourcing indices for a number of years, Malaysia is familiar with the role outsourcing has played in changing today’s business landscape. However, concerns of data privacy and security, and the risks of data leakage arise during the course of outsourcing as the process may involve the exposure or handling of sensitive and confidential client and organization information to outsource providers since the company has little control over its outsourced data when it is in the provider’s possession. Empirical findings on the risks and countermeasures of data leakage are presented, in the context of outsourcing in Malaysia. From the findings, it was apparent that the inherent risks were signifi cant and that the countermeasures were positively correlated to reducing the risks. This study contributes to the limited pool of knowledge on data leakage issues in outsourcing. Organizations engaging in or contemplating outsourcing will find the results beneficial not only in understanding the data leakage concerns but also in supporting the high priority for these concerns to be addressed. However, more effort is required to enforce the countermeasures as prudent precautionary routines to reduce data leakage risks.
DAMAGELESS DIGITAL WATERMARKING USING COMPLEXVALUED ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK
Authors: Olanweraju Rashidah Funke
Published: August 2020

Several high-ranking watermarking schemes using neural networks have been proposed in order to make the watermark stronger to resist attacks. However, the current system only deals with real value data. Once the data become complex, the current algorithms are not capable of handling complex data. In this paper, a distortion-free digital watermarking scheme based on Complex-Valued Neural Network (CVNN) in transform domain is proposed. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) was used to obtain the complex number (real and imaginary part) of the host image. The complex values form the input data of the Complex Back-Propagation (CBP) algorithm. Because neural networks perform best on detection, classification, learning and adaption, these features are employed to simulate the Safe Region (SR) to embed the watermark, thus, watermark are appropriately mapped to the mid frequency of selected coeffi cients. The algorithm was appraised by Mean Squared Error MSE and Average Difference Indicator (ADI). Implementation results have shown that this watermarking algorithm has a high level of robustness and accuracy in recovery of the watermark.
AN ANALYSIS OF EDUCATIONAL GAMES DESIGN FRAMEWORKS FROM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PERSPECTIVE
Authors: Ahmad Mifrah , AB. Rahim Lukman , Arshad Noreen Izza
Published: August 2020

Game-based learning has dominantly embedded itself into a tool of education in the 21st century. In developing educational games, many researchers have proposed frameworks to defi ne elements of an educational game. This paper presents a survey of the different frameworks for educational games and analyzes these frameworks against several criteria for effective video games, well-designed games and key elements of educational games. The authors will also look at the frameworks support towards learning theories. In addition, the analysis continues in the context of software engineering practices to develop effective educational games.
ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS’ COGNITIVE–AFFECTIVE STATES IN LEARNING WITHIN A COMPUTER-BASED ENVIRONMENT: EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE
Authors: Wang Ruili , Ryu Hokyoung , Katuk Norliza
Published: August 2020

Students’ cognitive-affective states are human-elements that are crucial in the design of computer-based learning (CBL) systems. This paper presents an investigation of students’ cognitiveaffective states (i.e., engaged concentration, anxiety, and boredom) when they learn a particular course within CBL systems. The results of past studies by other researchers suggested that certain cognitive-affective states; particularly boredom and anxiety could negatively infl uence learning in a computer-based environment. This paper investigates the types of cognitive-affective state that students experience when they learn through a specifi c instance of CBL (i.e., a content sequencing system). Further, research was carried to understand whether the cognitive-affective states would infl uence students’ performance within the environment. A one-way between-subject-design experiment was conducted utilizing four instruments (i) CBL systems known as IT-Tutor for learning computer network, (ii) a pre-test, (iii) a post-test, and (iv) self-report inventory to capture the students’ cognitive-affective states. A cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis were employed to identify and classify the students’ cognitiveaffective states. Students were classifi ed according to their prior knowledge to element the effects of it on performance. Then, non-parametric statistical tests were conducted on different pairs of cluster of the cognitive-affective states and prior knowledge to determine differences on students’ performance. The results of this study suggested that all the three cognitive-affective states were experienced by the students. The cognitive-affective states were found to have positive effects on the students’ performance. This study revealed that disengaged cognitive-affective states, particularly boredom can improve learning performance for lowprior knowledge students.
FACTORS INFLUENCING CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION IN SMALL MEDIUM ENTERPRISES
Authors: Hassan Haslinda , Mohd Nasir Mohd Herry , Khairudin Norhaiza , Adon Iskandar
Published: August 2020

Cloud computing offers information technology (IT) infrastructure, platform, and various applications via the Internet with minimum start-up cost, network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources, and pay-per-use services. Although the potential for cloud computing is evident and much of the extant research has been carried out on cloud computing adoption, empirical studies on the factors that influence cloud computing adoption in the Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are, however, lacking. The objective of this study was to examine the factors that influence cloud computing adoption by the SMEs. We conducted a quantitative survey-based study to examine the relationship between perceived benefits, top management support, IT resources, external pressure, and cloud computing adoption. A free-form comment provided at the end of each section of the survey questionnaire was treated as qualitative data. We find that IT resources and external pressure significantly influence cloud computing adoption. Nonetheless, there is not enough evidence to support perceived benefits and top management support as significant factors of cloud computing adoption.
A HIGH AVAILABILITY CLUSTER-BASED REPLICA CONTROL PROTOCOL IN DATA GRID
Authors: Mabni Zulaile , Latip Rohaya , Ibrahim Hamidah , Abdullah Azizol
Published: August 2020

Data replication is widely used to provide high data availability, and increase the performance of the distributed systems. Many replica control protocols have been proposed in distributed and grid environments that achieved both high performance and availability. However, the previously proposed protocols still require a bigger number of replicas for read and write operations which are not suitable for a large scale system such as data grid. In this paper, a new replica control protocol called Clusteringbased Hybrid (CBH) has been proposed for managing the data in grid environments. We analyzed the communication cost and data availability for the operations and compared CBH protocol with recently proposed replica control protocols called Dynamic Hybrid (DH) protocol and Diagonal Replication in 2D Mesh (DR2M) protocol. To evaluate CBH protocol, a simulation model was implemented using Java. Our results show that for the read operations, CBH protocol improves the performance of communication cost and data availability compared to the DH and DR2M protocols.
UNIVERSITY WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY FOR TOTALLY BLIND USERS
Authors: Hassouna Mohammed Saleh , Sahari Noraidah , Ismail Amirah
Published: August 2020

Researchers have discovered significant faults in the accessibility of university websites, especially for visually-impaired users. To determine the requirements for totally blind users, this study conducted a comprehensive literature review and accessibility evaluation on 15 Palestinian university websites. The determined factors were used in designing an accessible web page prototype. An online questionnaire was constructed to evaluate the accessibility of the prototype from the blind users’ perspective. From the evaluation of 16 blind participants, it was found that the prototype was highly accessible (mean score 4.19). The regression analysis test was utilised to determine the relationship between the items and the main principles of accessibility. The results show that there are statistically significant differences between these items. In conclusion, the accessibility factors have been indirectly validated.
MILITARY-BASED CYBER RISK ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK FOR SUPPORTING CYBER WARFARE IN THAILAND
Authors: Hemanidhi Aniwat , Chimmanee Sanon
Published: August 2020

Information Technology (IT) Risk Management is designed to confirm the sufficiency of information security. There are many risk management/assessment standards, e.g. IS0 27005:2011 and NIST SP 800-30rev1, which are mainly designed for general organizations such as governments or businesses. Cyber risk assessment focused on military strategy has been rarely studied. Hence, this paper presents an innovative cyber risk assessment conceptual framework named “Cyber Risk Assessment (CRA)” which is extended from previous work with Military Risk Evaluation (MRE). This proposed CRA is the collection and integration of both quantitative and qualitative data. The Vulnerability Detection (VD) tools in Network Risk Evaluation (the previous studies) were used for the quantitative data collection and the focus group in the MRE (the proposed method) was used to collect qualitative data, which enhance the general risk assessment standard to achieve the objective of the research. The complexity of cyberspace domains with a military perspective is thoughtfully contemplated into the cyber risk assessment for national cyber security. Results of the proposed framework enable the possibility of cyber risk evaluation into score for national cyber security planning.
THERAPEUTIC SERIOUS GAME DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR STIMULATING COGNITIVE ABILITIES OF CHILDREN WITH SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DELAY
Authors: Ahmad Zaki Nadia Akma , Tengku Wook Tengku Siti Meriam , Ahmad Kartini
Published: August 2020

The creation of an effective therapeutic serious game (TSG) is highly dependent upon its design and the fundamental knowledge of the users. Furthermore, the TSG is designed for a purpose to the users by incorporating the needs of the users in all design components. Although numerous studies have been conducted on guidelines for designing serious games, to date, studies on the specific TSG’s design guidelines for stimulating the cognitive ability of children with speech and language delay (CSLD) has yet to be comprehensively studied. Therefore, this study focuses on the set of design guidelines for the development of TSG for CSLD, specifically on cognitive stimulation. The TSG design guidelines in this paper are derived through the study of relevant literature, and best practices gained from interviews with experts in the area of speech pathology. These guidelines would be useful for researchers and game designers to design TSG for CSLD focusing on cognitive stimulation.