Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics

1-21

Authors: Ridzwan Bakar, Riyad Neman Darwazeh, Wardah Sakinah

There is a growing consensus in the literature that privatization program has positive impact to the country’s productivity and competitiveness. At micro level, empirical analyses both in Malaysian and Jordan have shown the significant contribution of privatization program on firms’ profitability, productivity and better leverage. Generally, privatization leads to better profitability which theoretically should provide higher return to shareholders in terms of dividend as well as higher contribution to stakeholders in terms of zakat to the asnaf (zakat recipients including the poor and needy). However, studies on privatization impact towards zakat and dividend payment are almost absent. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the effect of privatization on zakat and dividend disbursement. This paper focuses on two developing nations namely Malaysia and Jordan. The sample size of this analysis includes 17 Malaysia Government Link Corporations (Top GLC20 companies) and 23 Jordan State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The duration of the study is eleven (11) years from 2003 to 2013. The data were collected from Bloomberg, Amman Stock Exchange and Bursa Malaysia. Using statistical models and Wilcoxon signed rank test, the results show that privatization has contributed to higher payment in terms of dividend to shareholders in both countries. In addition, zakat paid by Malaysian GLCs is steadily increasing and significant. The findings also indicate that global financial crisis 2007-2008 has no impact on corporate zakat payable in Malaysia, while dividend growth is slow during this period. The paper then provides discussion on few pertinent issues and finally suggests the need for new tax and zakat Law in Jordan as well as improvement in current zakat accounting practices in Malaysia. Research paper

45-72

Authors: Ernest Lim Kok Seng, Cho Cho Wai

Numerical studies have been conducted to determine the employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment particularly in the corporates’ settings. There are few studies pertaining to the institutional staff’s job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Therefore, this study seeks to identify the influence of job satisfaction on organizational commitment among the academic and non-academic staff in institute of higher learning. The antecedent selected to identify the organization commitment was staff’s job satisfaction. Questionnaires were constructed and distributed to the academic and non-academic staff of an institute of higher learning. This study identified three important findings namely male staff were more satisfied with their jobs compared to female staff, there was no significant difference between male and female staff on organizational commitment and levels of job satisfaction has significant influence on staff’s organizational commitment. The results showed that staff who were satisfied with their jobs demonstrated higher level of commitment and more unlikely to change their job. Research paper

85–107

Authors: Shiva Shabani

The present research studies the composite technology in construction industry as a platform for entrepreneurial activity. Due to the importance of using composite technology and its important role in job creation, economic growth in construction industry and simultaneously its potential profitability, it shows an untapped market for Iranian entrepreneurs that tend to create added value and active participation of SMEs. Due to the lack of entrepreneurial researches in this context, conducting a research to form a scientific approach in this industry is essential. The research method was a combination of structured and semi-structured interviews and analysis and investigation of environments, needs, obstacles and results of the interviews, a questionnaire was prepared by certified teachers and was answered by a population by 70 experts and engineers. And it became the basis for identifying opportunities in this industry. According to the conducted analyses and investigations and with executions and performance of programs such as "Laws and Regulations", "Standards", "Culturalization", "Notification" ‘’ Quality Raise ", "Costs Reduction", ‘’Books Publication ", " Advertising ", demands for start-up businesses in this regard can be facilitated and identified opportunities cab be analyzed and evaluated. Research paper

128–147

Authors: Naghmeh Khademian

This study indicates the theoretical perspective and examines the relevant literature that supports the significance of leadership style and professional ethics among employees. The methodology for conducting the study was the use of two quantitative questionnaires aimed at determining the relative contribution that task-oriented and relations-oriented styles of leadership have on different dimensions of professional ethical behavior. This study is conducted in a manufacturing company and data were collected from 200 employees working in the cement factory. Firstly, the study revealed the type of leadership in this factory and then examined the relation between the leadership style and ethical behavior. To test the hypothesis structural equations modeling was used. The results showed that simultaneous high relations-oriented and high task-oriented leadership styles (i.e. supportive behavior) have significant effect positively on professional ethics among employees. Research paper