The factors influencing knowledge entrepreneurship in Malaysian manufacturing companies

Established firms that continuously and systematically implement entrepreneurial initiatives exhibit behavior that corporate entrepreneurship researchers label as ＂sustained regeneration＂. A prime example of sustained regeneration is new product development activity in industries such as computers, electronics, and textiles where the introduction of new products is on-going and firm＇s creativities have important implications to its performance. On the other hand, knowledge entrepreneurship describes the organizational ability to respond to learn to capitalize on an opportunity, or to protect against a threat by adopting an innovation. Successful adoption of innovation requires an organizational ability to manage the process within the organization that deals with new or newly interpreted knowledge and under conditions of uncertainty and in the face of controversy, develop and initiate a plan of action to respond with goal-oriented organizational behavioral changes. Knowledge entrepreneurship connotes a ＂drive to implement change, to accomplish this goal, and to adopt an innovation＂. Knowledge entrepreneurship involves a motivated pursuit of competitive advantage, using knowledge as a means of developing sources of advantage similar to those described in the market orientation and absorptive capacity literatures. It describes a driven effort to utilize knowledge through innovation. This article is identifying knowledge entrepreneurship, and determining which factors may affect the nature of this concept. The selected criteria have been assessed according to their relative importance by utilizing analytical hierarchy process （AHP） approach and expert choice software program.     

Cluster Policy and Smart Specialisation The Case of Bulgaria

Smart specialisation is an innovative policy concept which emphasizes the principle of prioritisation in a vertical logic and has attracted a wide interest in recent years, being implemented in many national technology and innovation strategies. Clusters are considered to be a major driver of innovation and competitiveness and for years, have been assigned a key role in various economic development strategies around the world. The paper looks at the interrelationship between clusters and smart specialisation. While clusters are an important building block of Smart Specialisation Strategies （$3）, cluster policies are also influenced by the concept of smart specialisation as they have increasingly started to target specific industries. The principal objective of the paper is to provide an overview and evaluation of the cluster policy pursued in Bulgaria during the last decade. The extent to which the country has used the principle of smart specialisation in its cluster initiatives is assessed. It has been argued that namely due to the lack of clear focus and prioritisation, Bulgaria＇s cluster policy proved to be highly inefficient. Finally, some policy recommendations for its improvement are put forward.     

The Ambivalent Character of Reconstruction： Winners and Losers of the Lobito Transport Development Corridor

In Angola where poor and scattered communities extend over great distances, an efficient transport system is very important. Nevertheless, in the post-war context its reconstruction has an ambivalent character. On the one hand, it is an indispensable part of the process of economic reconstruction and development where it is possible to identify complementary linkages influencing the dynamics of road and railway reconstruction that can reduce poverty. On the other hand, the post-war transport economy, like the war transport economy, is a site of private accumulation and change where social stratification goes in parallel with increased socio-economic inequality and unfavourable conditions in the labour transport market. The infrastructural reconstruction process is not fulfilling its potential for generating domestic linkages or multiplier effects through wage employment of Angolans. The creation of employment and other income earning opportunities have been limited, meaning that communities might lack the financial capacity to make use of the transport network. The ambivalent character of the modernisation of the transport system was already a feature in the first half of the 20th century as the transport network＇s creation of regional and national spaces with new centres and peripheries established a new hierarchy of social groups and gave rise to significant cultural changes. The effects of roads, railways, and other new means of transport were experienced in very different ways by different actors （means of wealth as well as poverty; inroads of repression as well as paths to personal liberation; and as tools of fragmentation as well as of unification）.     

Business Angel and risk capital： The impact on innovation

The aim of the analysis is to understand if the risk capital carried by Business Angels （B.A.） could affect firms with high innovation propensity in creating more innovations than receiving risk capital from other financial operators. Innovation is a critical factor for the competitiveness of national system especially when the economy of the latter has come to maturity. For realizing ＂the successful exploitation of ideas, into new products, processes, services or business practices, and the critical process for achieving two complementary business goals of performance and growth, which in turn will help to close the productivity gap＂ （DTI＇s Innovation Report, 2003, p. 8）, firms have to understand which are the right competences to increase. In this context, the authors have developed a framework that measures the propensity to innovate in the firms. The model considers the firm＇s competences （grouped into four macro areas as management, organization, ITC and marketing） to improve the creation, development and diffusion of the innovation. The work is structured as an empirical analysis as follows： （1） The authors analyzed a sample of 12 business plans （choices for high level of innovation in their business） that received risk capital from B.A. and other financial operators; （2） For each firm, their innovation propensity is measured through the author＇s model during their start-up period （the data analyzed are business plan＇s data）; （3） After a period of time （3 years）, the authors checked if the firms with high innovation propensity have created real innovation and if a correlation exists between risk capital origin （from Business Angels or not） and innovation propensity. The conclusion of the work is the finns with B.A.＇s risk capital have a high innovation propensity and create after a medium term period more innovation compared with the others.     

Fuel Distribution in Brazil： Profile and Stability of Plural Governances

This paper is dedicated to the study of governances adopted by fuel distributors in their transactions with gas station retailers in the State of Sgo Paulo. With the deregulation of the market, plural forms were allowed and have been a recurring presence. The main aim of the paper is to investigate why these plural forms have remained on the market The main hypothesis of this paper is that the plural forms found are transitory, not as a result of increased efficiency and reduced transaction costs, but because plural forms have become a key strategic step in securing business partners and promoting greater growth of the firm. Moreover, it is argued that the institutional environment has a significant influence on the coordination of plural forms, directly interfering with their stability. The research method was qualitative research with a group of 25 distribution companies which account for about 80% of sales of ethanol and gasoline in the domestic market.     

Factors of efficiency of multinational companies in Slovenia

This paper investigates factors of the company efficiency for the sample of the multinational companies in Slovenia. Their efficiency performances are compared with similar Slovenian non-multinational companies. The unique in-depth survey evidence is combined with the secondary data from the official registry of companies. The paper finds that efficiency of the multinational companies in Slovenia is determined by the leadership factors in a way of the decision-making in the company and by the way of the motivation of the employees in the company. Among the motivation factors, there are found significant association for the flexible working time, good relations with collaborators and security of employment. The company innovativeness in terms of the considering of new ideas for the improvement of working conditions are also found as factors to significantly contribute to the efficiency of the multinational companies in Slovenia, but less so the company economic culture and the satisfaction of the employees.     

The Role of Latvian Student Clubs and Associations in Citizenship Education

At the beginning of the 21st century, a new situation has developed in Latvia as a result of social and economic transformations. Along with the formation of civil society, issues concerning the social, legal, and spiritual life of student population have come to the foreground. There can be observed new features of behavioural culture and standards of thinking, readiness to live in a democratic environment. The young generation perceives freedom and equality as necessary preconditions for varied activities, as an opportunity for individual＇s self-actualization. The institutions of higher education play an important role in the formation of social consciousness and serve as the environment for the development of citizenship. One of the most important subjects of educational environment is the aggregate of various student interest groups and clubs, the main purpose of which is to promote students＇ readiness to live in civil society by developing students＇ creative potential and public administration skills. The aim of the article is to study, analyse, and evaluate the experience of various student clubs and associations in the institutions of higher education in Latvia aimed at the development of citizenship.     

Permissibility of Istibdal in Islamic Law and the Practice in Malaysia

lstibdal is a topic in the field of Islamic endowment （waqf） which means exchanging something with something else. The issue of istibdal and its administrative cases raised as an attractive discussion among Muslim scholars since the permission for exchanging （istibdal） is against the principle of Islamic endowment itself, which functions under the concept of perpetuity and everlasting. The action of altering or exchanging of the waqf property is contrary to the concept of waqf, which should exist forever, perpetual and cannot be changed or amended. In fact, a waqfproperty was no longer owned by man as the owner, but the ownership was transferred to the God. However, most of the Muslim scholars permit istibdal for a specific reason so as to ensure that the waqf property is functioning as intended, to maintain the intention of the waqif （donor） in a new form of asset and to ensure its benefit for the interest of all Muslims. In the Malaysian context, the issue in administrating istibdal arose as the country was dominated by the Shafi＇i sect which was more to not allow the istibdal. Therefore, this study aimed to examine this issue in the context of administrative law ofwaqfin Malaysia under the topic of istibdal. The data will be collected from the results of fatwa committee （Islamic ruling decision） from States and the Federal, also will look into some cases ofistibdal and the provisions in the Enactment of Waqfin certain states in Malaysia.     

Sustainable Design and Social Entrepreneurship A Common Path Toward Social Innovation？

The purpose of this article is to introduce the connection of social entrepreneurship （SE） and sustainable design （SD） as a successful strategy for social innovation. Design is increasingly recognized by different stakeholders as an important contribution to social innovation. However, research linking SD and SE as a tool to sustain these social ventures is limited. This article takes an international approach to viewing SE. It presents concepts and main characteristics of both SE and SD, and discusses its similarities and differences of these concepts, based on a literature review and the analysis of two case studies addressing SE. The case studies presented in Norway and the United States are evaluated based on the role that SD strategies played in their establishment and implementation phase. Finally, this article seeks to contribute to the discussion of SE challenges and benefits, in addition to furthering research on the connection of SE and SD. Analyzing this connection means exploring uncharted paths toward sustainability and socially responsible growth.     

Effective Unemployment Counteraction as a Determinant of National Security

Management process, which is an attempt to cater for an infinite number of human needs with a finite number of production factors, takes place in a closed flow of money and goods. Labour market, characterized by a high level of entropy, is one of the elements of this flow. In the view of the disorder which presents in the labour market, it is understandable that the state intervenes in this market. Interventionism usually takes place in such areas of the economic policy as employment policy and labour market policy. When state intervention in this market is characterised by economisation, which means making activities more efficient or more economical, the level of the national security is rising. This is due to the fact that the unemployment rate actually decreases and the amount of funds earmarked for interventionism, which come from non-repayable obligatory public levies is optimized.     

From local to global： Can local journalism be a new approach to environmental awareness？

Turkey＇s media agenda mostly consists of European relations, the Middle East question and Iraq. The rest of this agenda is predominantly economic news. Because of its geographical location, it is difficult for environmental problems to be perceived as leading problems and find places in Turkey＇s national newspapers. The importance of the local media arises in creating awareness about the environmental issues and forming public opinion in order to find solutions. Due to the immediacy component of news, creating public opinion about the environment through local as opposed to national media is considered to be a more effective method. It is purpose of researcher to determine whether this which is seen to be effective theoretically will also have the same effect in practice. In this research, content analysis will be applied to three local newspapers in Turkey. It has seen that the local media reports environmental news, its source are government and city hall. It has given information to form awareness to the environmental issues.     

Preventing unethical behavior of firms＇ managers through shame as a corporate culture

The series of big scandals in the US and other countries have been sensational news around the world. Big companies with good corporate governance mechanism also suffer from the unethical behavior done by the corporate leaders. When good corporate governance mechanism are not able to prevent corporate leaders from doing unethical behaviors, then this is a sign for a corporation to look for another mechanism that can prevent corporate leaders from doing unethical behaviors. Therefore, this paper proposes that shame value may be able to lead people to think before taking any action so that unethical behavior can be minimized. This idea is developed on the basis of assumption that in the nature of people, doing unethical behavior can make people feel ashamed. By adopting shame value as a corporate culture, a firm can instill a value to the corporate leaders and other employees as an early warning system to prevent them not doing unethical behaviors. Shame value as a corporate culture creates a role model through corporate leaders to strengthen the implementation of shame value as a corporate culture and formulate the policy that can motivate employees to hold this value. Apart from that, employing values explored from religion of conduct to strengthen and maintain shame value in the organization is also suggested. Nevertheless, the limitation of shame values is that it cannot be instilled in all organization as corporate culture since the boundary of shame is different for different cultures.     

One-Stop Shops Reform in China as Sequencing： A Case of Chuzhou City

The article describes the action trajectory and the value concept of e-government service innovation in Chuzhou City, Anhui Province during 2006-2012. The background, value orientation, innovation, and reconstruction results as well as implementation strategy of the sequence of four rounds of reorganizing a one-stop shop structure are analyzed. From the perspective of overall efficiency of government services, some recommendations are put forward to break fragmented services of local government. At the level of central government, ideas and future directions have been discussed. In this respect, the Chuzhou City Government has been a pace-setter. Last year, it launched a new round of government reorganization. The aims are to realize every ordinary matter by applying one examination and approval and one review exercise; further increase the rate of on-spot handling; and try to ensure that for every complex matter, the three steps of reception, examination, and approval procedure should be completed in five days.     

Development of E-Governance and Electronic Services in Ministry of Finance

Over the last two decades, government has made essential changes in order to improve public administration functioning. These changes were driven by a new government philosophy. The key concept in this new public policy is to connect information society, and public administration. In this context, the purpose of this study is through analyzing the process of computerization of public administration to determine the specific services provided electronically to the National Revenue Agency （NRA） in Ministry of Finance. Ministry of Finance and NRA are the administrative bodies that are reformed significantly in this field. E-governance is a political concept and philosophy which includes principles and the public administration working mechanism. E-government is electronic services provision platform that uses information and communication technology. The extensive monitoring and analysis lead to conclusions in two key areas--legal and technical organization. The lack of consistency between governments and the total reorganization of some areas of the state causes difficulties in implementing cyber plan in administrative services. There are other essential weaknesses that corrupt the system electronic reforms. It is important to be created a digital broadband market in Bulgaria. This will integrate the network systems of Bulgarian official institutions in a common electronic network.     

Insurances as a Method of Reducing the Financial Consequences of Environmental Disasters

On the market of industrial customers in the European Union （EU） as well in Poland have not yet been disseminated information related to environmental threats. The purpose of this study is seeking understanding and analyzing the functioning of business insurance as a method of financing the effects of environmental disasters, potential environmental threats, the costs of restoring the polluted environment to its original form. The design of the article was subordinated to the thesis according to which business insurance can be a method of financing the risk of environmental damages and prevention for protecting against the effects of these disasters. According to the subject of discussion it used： elemental analysis--if the object of study requires the distribution of the elements without looking for mutual dependence between them; casual analysis--when there was a need of looking for the cause-effect relationships between the elements of the object of the study.     

Vietnamese ethnicity networks maintenance process in the urban context Case study in Tainan Park,Taiwan

In Taiwan, the initiated policy for receiving foreign workers from the early 1990s has created prerequisite for workers and migrants from the Southeast Asian countries to access Taiwan labour market, including a great quantity of migrants from Vietnam. The appearance of new wave of immigrants over the past decade has created new ethnoscapes in Taiwan society. This paper considers the formation and characteristics of Vietnam ethnoscape in the urban context. The author adopts Tainan Park as public space--an ethnoscape with big concentration of Vietnamese in Tainan city for analysis. Based on geographical advantage factors and traffic convenience, Tainan Park became an important sociospatial pattern of Vietnam immigrants gathering. The paper then analyzes the locations and roles of immigrant gathering places as sites of ethnicity networks maintenance. The author studies the way to maintain directly opposite relationships in Tainan Park context. This park is an important space pattern for Vietnamese ethnicity networks maintenance.     

Can Minimum Wage Standards Reduce Wage Inequality in China？

Along with rapid economic growth over the past several decades in China, wage and income inequalities have also widened over time. This paper analyzes the relationship between the labor market institutions and the labor market outcomes by focusing on the effects of China＇s compulsory minimum wages on wage inequality. The study chooses the year of 2004 as a starting point in consideration of the fact that the new regulation of minimum wages begun to implement in 2004. The main purpose of the study is to utilize quantitative methods to investigate whether the new regulation played a role in preventing wage inequality from further widening. The results show that, without the increases of minimum wages from 2004, the overall wage inequality could further widen in 2006. This observation holds true for male and female workers and for different regions. The paper concludes that China＇s compulsory minimum wages might raise the wages of poor-paid workers, but the system itself is only one instrument in helping poor-paid workers. To a large extent, the rise of workers＇ wages depends on tripartite collective wage bargaining. For China, where the real function of trade union has been questioned, solving the issues of widening wage and income inequalities still has a long way to go.     

Democratic Transition and Economic Transition： The Case of Tunisia

This paper develops the issue of economic transition linked to a democratic transition that a developing country, Tunisia, is living following the revolution of 2011. Tunisia has made a profound change, it is currently developing new institutions, however, it is not an annuitant country, its activities and economic performances depend on political stability and the choice of the implemented politico-economic system. The question is whether the operating political forces will affect the direction of structural changes, thus toward a transition of breakage or the direction of adaptive transition. Neo-liberalism, practiced for 30 years, has developed an entrepreneurship structured as small and medium enterprises, whose performances are variable according to the sector and the state role. With the revolution, the country entered in a phase of political, social, and economic instability. A new constitution is passed, the political system installs the multiparty system, the country has a tradition of openness to the rest of the world, the challenges are numerous and the question of the role of the state in the economic sphere is very acute. The analysis is based on the observation of facts and the review and analysis of data relating to politics and economy, observed in the period before the revolution and after the revolution.     

Recent trends in the European Union trade and investment policy towards China

The last decades＇ trend towards the creation of a world market of goods and services and the upsurge of China as a global competitor ought to be considered as an important challenge for the European Union. In contrast to this interpretation, the European Union policy towards China has suffered from an absence from a long run view. European institutional behaviour has been based on applying measures that were solely reactions to the policies launched by the United States. Finally, the difficulty of finding common interests among all member countries has been a constant in the relationship with China. The European Union has recently shown a clear concern about the unavoidable need of improving European firms＇ competitiveness, especially in order to overcome the Chinese access to the internationalised division of labour. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to observe a thorough treatment for the economic challenge of emergent economies as a whole in many European policy measures.