• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.7-18
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• 2020

Purpose: This research investigates the impact of technology adoption on organisation productivity. The framework has three independent variables viz. technological change, information technology (IT) infrastructure, and IT knowledge management and one dependent variable as organisational productivity. Research design, data and methodology: An explanatory research design with a quantitative research method was employed, and data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire using online as well as an offline survey. The sample consisted of 300 IT managers and senior-level executives (production as well as service team) in leading IT companies in Malaysia selected using snowball sampling. Normality and reliability assessment was performed in the first stage utilising SPSS 22, and Confirmatory Factory Analysis (CFA) was performed with maximum likelihood estimation to assess the internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Finally, Structural Equation Model (SEM) and path analysis are conducted using AMOS 22. Results: The research findings demonstrated that technological change and IT infrastructure positively and significantly impact the organisation's productivity while IT knowledge management has significant but negative impact on organizational productivity of IT companies in Malaysia. Conclusion: The research concludes that all three factors plays important role in deciding organizational producvity. Recommendations, implications, limitations and future research avenues are discussed.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2017

There has been a pronounced increase in research and development (R&D) expenditure in Singapore over the last two decades, with government spending accounting for a sizeable share. This increase has been spurred by public policy emphasis on research and innovation as engines of economic growth. This paper analyses the impact of R&D on economic performance in Singapore from 1978 to 2012 through the use of time series analysis. The Cobb-Douglas based analysis shows a long-run equilibrium relationship between Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and R&D investments. We found that the short-run productivity of R&D in Singapore is comparable to smaller advanced economies in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). However, in terms of long-run R&D productivity, Singapore lags slightly behind the smaller OECD nations and far behind the G7 countries. This suggests leakage of value capture and low absorptive capacity in local firms. Possibility of productivity improvements induced by policy changes in the 1990s was considered, but no evidence of significant structural breaks was found. Lastly, Granger causality analysis reveals that public sector R&D augments private sector R&D capital, thus playing an important role in generating externalities and spillover effects. Policy implications and lessons for other middle-income countries are discussed.

• International Journal of Reliability and Applications
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2000

The global marketplace is highly competitive and organisations, who want to survive long-term, have to continuously improve, change and adapt in response to market demands. These improvements should focus on cost cutting, increasing productivity levels and quality and guaranteeing deliveries in order to satisfy customers. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is one method, which can be used to achieve these goals. TPM is a change management approach that involves employees from both production and maintenance departments. The purpose is to eliminate major production losses by introducing a program of continuous and systematic improvements to production equipment. TPM should be developed and expanded to embrace the whole organisation and all employees should be involved in the process as members of improvement teams. This paper gives a short description of the development of TPM and the TPM implementation process. Findings are reported from a case study in which one of the authors had the possibility of following and guiding a company through their TPM implementation. The implementation process takes several years and the research has focused on the initial three years. The study demonstrates that driving forces, obstacles and difficulties often are dependent on the organisation, its managers and the individual employees.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.549-560
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• 2020

The purpose of the study is to explore the psychological empowerment of the worker as a moderator to explain the link between knowledge sharing and innovative work behaviour within the telecommunication sector of Saudi Arabia. This study is based on a quantitative approach, having collected data through a series of questionnaires developed on previous studies. This study has applied Smart-Partial Least Squares (PLS) for the data analysis. The results revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between knowledge sharing and innovative work behaviour. The knowledge sharing increases the competencies of the workers, bringing about more creativeness and perfection. Furthermore, this study elaborates that psychological empowerment plays an important role as a moderator in making a strong relationship between knowledge sharing and innovative work behaviour. This study concluded that the innovative work behaviour in any organisation depends on the practice, experience, and capabilities of the workers and, most importantly, the interdepartmental knowledge shared amongst them. The sharing of knowledge psychologically empowers the worker to bring creativity, modernization and excellence in the work that affects the marginal productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction at a great extent. These factors provide long-run sustainability to business in a highly competitive market environment.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 2022

Background: Industrial accidents can determine the overall level and quality of the work environment in industries and companies that contribute to national economic development. Korea has transformed the country from an international aid recipient to a donor country, but it has ranked first among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries in the number of fatal industrial accidents. Little has been known about the policy effects in terms of the workers' insurance for their industrial accidents and rehabilitation. This study raises two research questions about the influence of workers' personal characteristics and vocational rehabilitation services on their return to workplaces. Methods: The study implements weighted logistic regression analysis using propensity score matching. This research utilizes the relevant dataset (3,924 persons) of Korea's industrial accident and insurance. Results: The findings show that the level of workers' awareness of health recovery and their counseling for rehabilitation by physicians had positive effects on their return to work. Environmental factors such as workers' job stability at the time of industrial accidents and the temporal effects of industrial accidents (e.g., the level of disability, their age) had negative impacts on their return to work. Conclusions: These findings have policy implications that the concentration of rehabilitation services for patients who have been mildly affected by industrial accidents would be effective in the short and medium term. The findings also highlight the necessity of ongoing policies about workers' vocational recovery with concrete evidence about policy impacts.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.4_spc
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• pp.730-741
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• 2024

Pig production is one of the viable enterprises of the livestock sub-sector of agriculture. It contributes significantly to the economy and animal protein supply to enhance food security in Africa and globally. This article explored the present status of pig production in Africa, the challenges, prospects and potentials. The pig population of Africa represents 4.6% of the global pig population. They are widely distributed across Africa except in Northern Africa where pig production is not popular due to religio-cultural reasons. They are mostly reared in rural parts of Africa by smallholder farmers, informing why majority of the pig population in most parts of Africa are indigenous breeds and their crosses. Pig plays important roles in the sustenance of livelihood in the rural communities and have cultural and social significance. The pig production system in Africa is predominantly traditional, but rapidly growing and transforming into the modern system. The annual pork production in Africa has grown from less than a million tonnes in year 2000 to over 2 million tonnes in 2021. Incidence of disease outbreak, especially African swine fever is one of the main constraints affecting pig production in Africa. Others are lack of skills and technical know-how, high ambient temperature, limited access to high-quality breeds, high cost of feed ingredients and veterinary inputs, unfriendly government policies, religious and cultural bias, inadequate processing facilities as well as under-developed value-chain. The projected human population of 2.5 billion in Africa by 2050, increasing urbanization and decreasing farming population are pointers to the need for increased food production. The production systems of pigs in Africa requires developmental research, improvements in housing, feed production and manufacturing, animal health, processing, capacity building and pig friendly policies for improved productivity and facilitation of export.