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This study investigated the effect of economic vulnerability upon competitive advantages, performance, and sustainability of micro-enterprises owned and managed by micro-entrepreneurs who participate in varied development initiatives in Peninsular Malaysia. Upon adopting the cross-sectional design, data were randomly collected from selected 300 micro-entrepreneurs from the eKasih program (national poverty data bank) located in four states of Peninsular Malaysia. The quantitative data were collected by conducting structured interview sessions with the respondents held from September until November 2017. The findings revealed that the state of economic vulnerability among the respondents had a significantly negative effect on the aspects of competitive advantages, performance, and sustainability among micro-enterprises in Peninsular Malaysia. Despite of the widely acknowledged and empirically examined effects of socioeconomic antecedents upon micro-enterprise performance, the focus on the effect of a more comprehensive measure of socioeconomic condition, that is, economic vulnerability, among low-income households appears to be scant. Hence, the outcomes of this study are able to provide critical insights for development organizations pertaining to development programs and their effectiveness on economically vulnerable, particularly among low-income households in Peninsular Malaysia.

Conducting business nowadays has become much more challenging, and the importance of collective behavioral capacity is paramount regarding the behavior of employees along with internal information systems that form the backbone of many organizations in terms of competitiveness and survivability. This study, therefore, examined the effect of commitment, communication, competency, community, connection, consideration, and coordination on information system artifacts and the effect of information system artifacts on organizational resilience among Malaysian SMEs. To verify these statements and positioning, a sample of employees from registered organizations of the Malaysian Digital Economic Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDEC), participated in this study to examine a number of aspects. Quantitative data were collected from a total of 252 respondents through a questionnaire survey and data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. We performed the endogeniety assessment for the all the seven input variables and confirmed lack of endogeniety issues. The findings of this study constitute essential results that the commitment, communication, competency, community, connection, consideration, and coordination positively influenced the ISA. Furthermore, the mediating effect of ISA on the relationships of organizational resilience with commitment, communication, competency, community, connection, consideration, and coordination, had been revealed. The study concluded that a positive set of behavioral capital, if it exists inside organizations, enables the organizations to prosper and survive. Similarly, policymakers need to address the issue surrounding resilience in SMEs by establishing the correct benchmarking mechanism by introducing it as a formal activity to be undertaken regularly within the SMEs. Given the vast majority of employment in Malaysia and globally is provided through SMEs, if they become more resilient to change and to unforeseen events, then the employment of the vast majority of the working class can be secured across different nations.

This study explored the effect of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, facilitating condition, lifestyle compatibility, and perceived trust on both the intention to use an e-wallet and the adoption of an e-wallet among adults by using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). This quantitative study adopted a cross-sectional research design to gather data from 501 respondents using a Google Form. The collected data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). As a result, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, lifestyle compatibility, and perceived trust displayed a significant positive effect on both intentions to use an e-wallet and adoption of an e-wallet. This study evidenced the mediating effect of the intention to use an e-wallet on the correlations between the predictors and adoption of an e-wallet. Both the age and gender of the respondents moderated the effect of lifestyle compatibility on intention to use an e-wallet. The study outcomes serve to inform managers and policy makers to devise effective strategies that capture consumers’ intention to use and experience of using an e-wallet in the midst of a turbulent market. Ultimately, such carefully sculpted policies may promote the digital platform and web-based application, apart from encouraging higher rates of e-wallet adoption in developing countries.

The nursing profession is a much-demanded profession that requires the individual capacity to work under intense physical and emotional dynamics in the workplace. Work related factors cause burnout and need attention from scholars and professionals to reduce the effects of the burnout among nursing staff. This study aimed to examine the meditational role of psychological empowerment and work-life quality on the burnout experiences of nursing staff in Malaysia. This study investigated a sample of 432 nursing staff from 10 registered hospitals in the Selangor area that have been listed on the Malaysian Health Tourism Council (MHTC) website. The responses collected via a self-reported questionnaire, and the data was analyzed using partial least square regression structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings statistically support the argument that the provision of quality of work-life (adequate and fair compensation, constitution in the work organization, safe and healthy working conditions, social integration in the work organization, social relevance of work-life, and work and life span) could promote psychological empowerment among nurses. Psychological empowerment statistically resulted in reducing the burnout effects by mediating the effect of work-life quality (QWL) on burnout. This study contributes to the literature that QWL factors need to be studied separately, and its affects on psychological empowerment, and how psychological empowerment permits curtails the effects of the burnout among nursing staff providing the services to health tourists. This study also provided important implications for the management staff of the nursing industry to initiate the management of burnout with the provision of psychological employment. The present study contributed to the current literature of burnout management through the psychological empowerment provided by the factors of the quality of work life.

Climate change hinders economic growth across the globe, whereas green products and/or the adoption of green practices can effectively mitigate the deteriorating conditions of climate. A large proportion of the world population is living in remote areas with low income, and they should be included in the mitigation efforts to reduce the damaging effects of climate change. Therefore, this study intends to examine the intentions and behaviors towards green composting among low-income rural households to generate income, improve agricultural productivity, and reduce dependency on chemical fertilizers. This study adopted a cross-sectional research design and used structured interviews to collect quantitative data from 420 low-income households living in rural areas in Peninsular Malaysia. This study adopted the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and extended the TPB by embedding the constructs of perceived benefits and eco-literacy into the attitude towards the environment, normative beliefs by extending the subjective norms, and perception of startup resources by extending the perceived behavioral control. The study outcomes revealed that eco-literacy and perceived benefits had a significantly positive effect on attitude towards the environment; normative belief on subjective norms; perception of startup resources on perceived behavioral control; attitude towards the environment on subjective norms; perceived behavioral control on intention towards green composting; and intention towards green composting on green composting adoption behavior. The findings may serve as a guideline to policymakers for the adoption of composting, which can mitigate environmental issues in addition to generating economic activities for low-income residents in Peninsular Malaysia. The study’s limitations and future research opportunities are reported as well.

This study examines the effect of financial literacy, saving attitudes, social influence, and goal clarity on the retirement planning construct. In addition, it investigates how the public demographic profile moderates these relationships. The questionnaire approach was utilized to collect data by adopting and customizing the measurement scale from previous studies. A systematic random sampling approach was employed on 323 prospective respondents. The outcomes of this study illustrate that all relationships are significantly and positively associated with retirement planning using structural equation modeling (SEM). Furthermore, all moderator variables (gender, age, status, income, and education) moderated the relationships. The government should construct a holistic retirement planning model that is based on demographic characteristics.

The purpose of the study is to predict the intention and behavior towards environmentally friendly businesses (EFB) among low-income families in rural Peninsular Malaysia within the framework of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Data were collected from 420 low-income household heads through structured interviews. The results reveal a significant impact of environmental concern (EC) and eco-literacy (EL) on the attitude towards the environment (ATE); normative belief (NB) and motivation (MO) on subjective norms (SUN); and skills and knowledge (SK) on perceived behavioral control (PBC). Additionally, there was a positive and statistically significant effect of ATE, SUN, and PBC on the intention towards environmentally friendly business (ITEFB) and the ITEFB on environmentally friendly business adoption behavior (EFBAB). This study provides empirical evidence with a proposed research model to address the environmental issues through improving the socioeconomic condition of low-earner families. The Malaysian government and relevant agencies should focus on improving EL, EC, MO towards EFB, and the SK regarding EFB among the low-income households.

Sustainable enterprises are essential for developing economies’ progress and prosperity. Micro-enterprises (MEs) play an important role in creating jobs and actively participating in socioeconomic activities. However, little is known about how MEs use internal capabilities to achieve long-term success. This study explores the influence of the strategic orientations (i.e., sales, consumer, competitive, emotional, business, and networking) instigating the sustainability orientation. The sustainability orientation nurtures the sustainable performance of the MEs. The cross-sectional data collected from the 450 MEs with the structured interviews and samples were randomly selected from the list of MEs registered in seven districts of Kelantan, Malaysia. The collected data were analyzed with partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The data analysis discovered that the sale, consumer, competitive, and emotional orientation significantly impact the MEs’ sustainable orientation. The business and networking orientations insignificantly facilitate the sustainable orientation among the samples. The MEs’ sustainable orientation suggestively influences the sustainable performance among the MEs. Furthermore, the study analysis postulated a significant mediating effect of sustainable orientation among the orientations (sale, consumer, competitive, and emotional) on the MEs’ sustainable performance. Our study offers a better understanding of the RBV in the MEs and brings significant empirical evidence to attain sustainable performance with the firm’s level orientation for the MEs. The study brings forward the practical implication for business and policymakers that the MEs require internal and external support to align the business and networking orientation to harness the sustainable performance among the MEs. In the end, the study limitations and future research options are highlighted.