UNIMAS Journal (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak)
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A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Approach on the Production of Sago Sucker for Cultivation
Get PDFSago palm is one of the commodities being cultivated and traded in Malaysia for its high starch content. Sago seedling, or commonly referred to as sucker, is the planting material for sago cultivation. This paper discusses the life cycle assessment approach for the calculation of life cycle inventory for the production of one sago sucker. In this study, the functional unit is defined as one sago sucker. The process starts from the reception of suckers from suppliers, raft preparation, planting sago suckers in rafts, fertilization, and ends with transportation of the suckers to the plantation. Interviews and data verification were done on-site at the Crop Research and Application Unit (CRAUN) Sungai Talau Research Station. LCI data showed that water was the main input for the production of sago sucker, followed by diesel for transportation, pesticides, and fertilisers. The outcome of this study provides a basis or guideline to planters in implementing sago best agricultural practices for the production of sustainable sago
Atmospheric Iron and Aluminium Deposition and Sea-Surface Dissolved Iron and Aluminium Concentrations in the South China Sea off Malaysia Borneo (Sarawak Waters)
Get PDFSouth China Sea (SCS) is an oligotrophic sea which usually receives low nutrients supply. However, massive atmospheric dust input was occurred during the haze event in Southeast Asia for almost every year. The input of dissolved iron (DFe) and dissolved aluminium (DAl) from dust and nearby land into SCS off Sarawak Borneo region during the worst haze event in 2015 of the Southeast Asia were investigated. The estimation dust deposition during this study was 0.162 mg/m2/yr. The atmospheric fluxes of total Fe and total Al at the offshore Sarawak waters were 0.611 µmol/m2/yr and 2.03 µmol/m2/yr, respectively, where the readily available dissolved Fe and Al from the dust were 0.11 µmol/m2/yr (DFe) and 0.31 µmol/m2/yr (DAl). Fe has higher solubility (17.78%) than Al (15.21%). The lateral fluxes (e.g. from the nearby land) were 37.08 nmol/m2/yr (DFe) and 125 nmol/m2/yr (DAl), with strong Fe organic ligand class L1 (log K:22.43 – 24.33). High concentrations of DFe and DAl at the surface water of the offshore region, coincided with high concentration of macronutrients due to the prevailing south-westerly winds originated from the west Kalimantan. Low residence times, ~0.92 (DFe) and ~1.31 (DAl) years, corresponded well with DAlexcess in surface seawater due to biological utilization of DFe. Future works emphasize on natural organic Fe(III) ligands and phytoplankton study are needed for better understanding on biogeochemistry of Fe and Al at SCS off Malaysia Borneo
The Influence of Debt Financing on Firms’ Performance: Empirical Evidence from Malaysia
Get PDFThis study investigated the relationship between the listed firms’ debt level and performance in Bursa Malaysia during a five-year period. Based on the results of the Hausman test and Breusch-Pagan LM test, the fixed-effect model is the most appropriate model that used to analyze the panel data of 50 Malaysian listed companies within the property sector from the year 2015 to 2019. The results indicated that the short-term debt (STD) and long-term debt (LTD) have positive and insignificant effects on return on asset (ROA), which means that the increase in the short-term debt and long-term debt will lead to an increase in the return on assets. Besides that, account payables (AP) has a negative and insignificant effect on the profitability of property sector companies. According to the outcome of the Granger Causality test, the return on assets does not affect by the account payables, short-term debt, long-term debt and firm size. There is only one unidirectional causality relationship that proves that short-term debt is affected by long-term debt. Additionally, this study focuses on enhancing the existing empirical knowledge of debt financing's influence on the profitability of the listed firms in the property sector
Producing Black Pepper (Piper Nigrum L. cv. ‘Kuching’) Rootstock in a Deep-Water Culture Hydroponic System
Get PDFStem cutting is the common planting material for black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) farmers mainly because the method is cheap, easy to obtain, and produces satisfactory number of new plantlets, which are relatively genetically uniform to their parent. However, soil propagation of stem cuttings renders both the stem and developing roots susceptible to soil borne pathogens, ultimately compromising the quality of the plant. Good quality rootstock of the new plant promotes faster, safer, and better black pepper plant establishment. Hydroponic farming thus offers a good platform for producing quality rootstock of the new plants and has gained importance to many farmers due to its flexibility in manipulating plant growth conditions and timely pathogen management, thus safer, healthier, and faster growth. This study investigated the growing media suitable for rootstock growth of P. nigrum L. cv. ‘Kuching’ and compared the rooting ability between stem cuttings with adventitious roots at the time of planting and stem cuttings without any root at the time of planting. In a laboratory setting, a total of 210 stem cuttings were hydroponically planted in seven nutrient compositions, with each nutrient composition containing an equal number of stem cuttings with adventitious roots at the time of planting and stem cuttings without any root at the time of planting. Hoagland solution supplemented with 0.005 mM potassium silicate solution (T4) and Hoagland solution supplemented with 2 mM salicylic acid solution (T6) showed faster root initiation whereas T1 (Hoagland solution only) produced the highest increment in root length followed by T6. The least suitable nutrient composition was T5 [T4 + 6 mL of 1 M Ca (NO3)2.4H2O solution]. The total number of roots was highest in plants from stem cuttings which had some adventitious roots at the time of planting, whereas roots in plants from stem cuttings which did not have any root at the time of planting, increased in root length faster than plants withstem cuttings which had adventitious roots at the time of planting
Effects of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Growth and Plant Nutrient Uptake by Terung Asam (Solanum lasiocarpum Dunal)
Get PDFTerung asam (Solanum lasiocarpum Dunal) is a native fruit vegetable that is gaining interest as a commercial crop in Sarawak and Malaysia. Malaysia is covered by soils that are highly weathered, acidic, and low in fertility and depend on chemical fertilisers to promote good plant growth. Alternative means to reduce dependency on chemical fertiliser, for example arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF), must be sourced. Very few research on terung asam has been documented particularly on nutrients uptake. The objectives of this research were to investigate the effect of indigenous and non-indigenous AMF on nutrient uptake by terung asam. A greenhouse experiment was conducted consisting of three treatments namely control (T1), indigenous AMF (T2), non-indigenous AMF (T3). The treatments were arranged in a complete randomised design with four subsamples and four replicates. Thirty-day-old seedlings were transplanted and measured for their heights and stem diameters for 90 days. Fresh and dry shoot and root weights were taken during harvesting. Plant nutrient analyses were conducted using Kjeldahl method for total N, single ashing for P and single ashing and double acid for K, Ca and Mg. The results revealed the addition of AMF spores at 200 spores per pot, increased plant height by 13 to 33% and stem diameter by 5 to 25% and more leaves were retained by T3 plants at harvesting. T3 recorded higher fresh shoot (11.27%) and dry shoot (14.98%) as well as fresh root (23.67%) and dry root (22.77%) weights than T1 plants. Addition of AMF in treatments T2 and T3 promoted better nutrient uptake by aboveground and belowground biomasses particularly for K, Ca and Mg. T3 was superior in terms of the nutrient uptake for most nutrients. AMF used in T3 showed better results as the AMF spores were proven effective in promoting plant growth while AMF used in T2 were obtained from the field and untested. The findings of this study showed the potential of indigenous and non-indigenous AMF in promoting growth and nutrient uptake by terung asam plants
Diversity of Freshwater Fish in Fragmented Forest of Wilmar Oil Palm Plantation, Miri, Sarawak
Get PDFThe study was conducted in the river system located at Wilmar oil palm plantation in Miri, Sarawak. The objective of the study is to determine the fish species diversity and composition in the streams and rivers in the oil palm plantations. Fish were sampled using a variety of fishing methods, including, scoop nets, cast net, and gill nets of different mesh sizes (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.75 and 4.0 cm) from 2 to 7 of February 2014. A total of 326 individual fish including 32 species of native fishes and one species of non-native fish from 19 genera, seven families and five orders were collected from seven locations. The cyprinid fish represented 62.20% of the total fish caught and was found in all the rivers surveyed. About six endemic species in Borneo such as Barbonymus collingwoodii, Barbodes banksi, Barbodes sealei, Hampala bimaculata Nematabramis borneensis and Nematabramis everetti were identified. However, only one species from families Bagridae, Balitoridae, Clariidae, and Hemiramphidae was sampled from the study sites. The higher fish species composition found in streams and rivers of the oil palm plantation landscapes could be attributed to the conservation of some areas of the plantation as high conservation value forest (HCVF) status, which have provided suitable habitat for fish species within the plantation aquatic environments
Can Customer Relationship Management Create Customer Agility and Superior Firms’ Performance?
Get PDFThe growing importance of Customer relationship management (CRM) and agility in any business are universally accepted and extensively investigated in different disciplines. However, lacking empirical evidence for the suggested theoretical framework of agility and their interrelationships with CRM and superior’s financial performance hinders its application in the practices. Thus, this study attempted to address this issue by drawing on the Resource-Advantage theory of sustainable competitive advantages to examine a mechanism through which CRM implementation can generate sustainable competitive and achieve superior financial performance using the Vietnamese tourism industry context. The framework was tested on data collected from 231 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings suggested that different types of CRM processes do not equally influence customer agility, and not all attributes of customer agility exert positive impacts on firms’ performance as well. Also, CRM performance measurement systems were found to moderate these effects positively and substantially. Several practical implications were also derived from the research findings
Determinants of e-Commerce Adoption: Evidence from Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in India
Get PDFInformation technology (IT) is driving the business world in contemporary times. Large, medium, and small organisations in developed and developing countries are trying to adopt electronic commerce (e-commerce). Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are abundant in India, which is a rapidly developing country. Despite enormous efforts to adopt e-commerce, SMEs must address many hurdles. The major objective of this paper is to investigate the determinant factors that influence the adoption of e-commerce in SMEs. In this study, three categories and a three-stage model were used to demonstrate the various factors and stages that are involved in the adoption of e-commerce. A structured survey was conducted and data was collected from 148 firms in Coimbatore, a major industrial city in India. The data was analysed using binomial logistic regression to determine a significant relationship between a set of independent variables and the dependent variable. The results indicated that Top Management Support, Learning Orientation, Receptivity towards Change, Strategic Orientation, IT Readiness, Cost, and Relative Advantage as statistically significant determinants of e-commerce adoption. This study provides insight to the managers of organisations who are responsible for implementing e-commerce, and it will help to spread e-commerce use across SMEs in India
Women Leadership and Its Association to Individual Characteristics, Social Support, and Diversity of Work Environment
Get PDFThis research was conducted to see the association of women leadership and individual characteristic, social support, and the diversity of working environment on women leaders. It was conducted on one of the largest textiles listed company in Indonesia with a market capitalization of more than six trillion Rupiah. This type of research is quantitative associative explanation. Purposive sampling method was used to obtain a popu-lation that fits in the criteria of a leader who have position as supervisor above to be the respondents. 100 female leaders who have been working more than a year in the company were qualified as respon-dents. Questionnaires were used with closed and opened questions. In order to analyzed the association between variables, the data was analyzed by Chi-Square analysis using SPSS. The respondents were 100 women leaders of a listed textile manufacturing company in Indonesia. The result showed that women leaders, who had high leadership capabilities due to the individual characteristic fit as a leader. They received social supports, especially from their spouses. Moreover, high diversity of working environment helped their networking. There were two kinds of individual characteristic (age and marital status) had no associative with women leadership
Hiring the Right CEO: How Does the Type of CEO Industry Experience Affect Firm Performance, Firm Risk-Taking Behavior, and CEO Compensation?
Get PDFThis paper examines how the type of CEOs’ industry experience (whether a CEO has cross-industry or specific-industry experience) on firm performance, firm risk-taking behavior, and their own compensation. We find that CEOs with cross-industry experience tend to relatively lower the firm performance as well as invest less on R&D. On the other hand, CEOs with specific-industry experience lead firm to higher performance and invest more on R&D expenditures until it reaches a certain threshold, especially among high-growth firms. Total compensation paid to the CEO does not seem to be affected by the type of CEO industry experience. This paper contributes to the literature that examines the impact of CEO characteristics on firm outcomes and CEO compensation. One important business application of our paper is that to optimize firm performance, firms should hire CEOs with the length of specific-industry experience not beyond the threshold levels