EDITORIAL

Volume 16, Issue 1, 2021

1.Challenges of Starting a Small Business in Jordan

- Mohammed Issa Ala eddin

History has shown us a variety of ways to ensure employment, from working as servants of various kinds, travelling with tools of the trade to seek customers, or being part of big enterprise as an employee. The twentieth century brought high job security, where some could leave school and then work for the same company, moving up the scale, until they retired. That is now rare, and people need to seek security in other ways. One way is to become your own boss and start a business using and developing skills in that area. There are many challenges - finding customers, early funding when revenue is low, fulfilling obligations, building trust. These apply to any business anywhere while bureaucratic procedures vary from country to country. This paper looks specifically at Jordan. With many vast organisations going bankrupt and the previous apparent job security gone, small businesses look like the way forward. Having thousands of small businesses to support the economy has to be stronger than a handful of huge enterprises that collapse. 'Too big to fail' has come to look like 'too big to succeed.

 

2.Impact of Leadership Styles on Employee Performance in Tradewinds Plantation Berhad (Malaysia) with Exploration of Mediating Variables

- Charles Chow Kok Cheng & William Chua

Effective leadership is key to follower performance. Even high quality workers cannot perform at their best if leadership is poor. This paper looks at three types of leadership, situational, transactional, and transformational. Situational means adapting to the situation, not being stuck in one type of leadership behaviour. Transactional regards the relationship between leader and employee as a type of transaction, labour in exchange for reward. Reward generally means pay, but also covers work conditions, fringe benefits, career development opportunities. In the best relationships, this includes self-fulfilment, a very effective reward. Transformational means leadership that inspires the workforce with the vision, so they want to achieve the goals as much as the leaders. Leaders and workers then work in synchrony for the same purpose. Empowerment is a factor here. If the workers are motivated, they need the autonomy to make decisions without barriers of red tape. At the heart of it all is job satisfaction. People who are bored with their work, or worse, angry about it, they will not perform well. Laying the foundation for workers to feel satisfied, or better, fulfilled with their work, is not just being kind, it’s good for productivity and profit.

 

3.A Study on the Effectiveness of Promoting Fast Food Restaurants through Traditional Advertisements Amongst the Youths in Cities in Peninsular Malaysia

- Ng Chin Hooi & Ian Mackechnie

Any product or service needs publicising to ensure people who might buy know it exists and where to get it. Advertising needs to be directed at those who are likely to benefit from the offer. This paper looks specifically at city youths and fast food, but the principles apply to any product, service, location, and customer base. It follows the acronym AIDA, which covers four essentials for successful advertising. The first A stands for Attention, or Awareness. The advert must get people's attention, and make them aware of the offer. I stands for Interest. This is partly self-selection, as people who have no use for the product will not be interested, but adverts giving dry facts only will interest very few. D is far Desire. Being aware of an interesting offer will awake desire for that product or service. Desire is not enough without Action, which is the second A. Awareness plus Interest plus Desire plus Action equals Purchase.

 

4. Managed Corporate Venture Capital as an Engagement Model for Co-Creating 5G-Ready Services in Telecom – Start-up Collaborations: Success Factors for Creating Shared Value in Emerging Markets

- Mothilal De Silva & William Chua

Corporate venture capital needs to be managed, especially in times of rapid change when innovation is essential despite the risks involved. This paper looks at telecommunications, where investment required is colossal. For a healthy economy, there need to be start-ups as well, and risk is very high. Currently the shift is towards 5G, but no doubt there will be 6G, 7G, and so on. It is not feasible to make a sudden jump from one stage to the next, so there is an overlaying process while the previous technology continues while the new technology is introduced and developed. Later the new technology will become the old technology and be overlaid by what comes next. The process is rapid and continuous, risky and essential. There are multitudinous factors to be taken into account, including involving strategy, culture, structure, process, leadership, collaboration, co-creation. The paper offers a framework on which to build policies to take all these into account. Meanwhile, it is essential to take account of stakeholder needs and desires, including employees who provide the work, and customers, who are free to go elsewhere. It is a complex world out there.