SMEs represent more than 90 percent of the establishment in many countries including Malaysia. However, from 98.5 percent of SMEs establishment, only 37 percent represent bumiputera SMEs. Human capital and self-efficacy are identified as internal factors of the organisation and function as a possible solution to address bumiputera SMEs’ difficulties. Hence, the primary objective of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of self-efficacy in the interaction between human capital and the SMEs performance in Malaysia. This study has investigated 203 Malay-owned small and medium enterprises. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was employed to analyse the data. The results demonstrated that human capital and self-efficacy influence each other and have a significantly positive impact on firm performance. Mediation simultaneously affirms that the relationship between human capital and firm performance is mediated by self-efficacy. This study concluded that these two internal factors can provide a holistic model to improve bumiputera SMEs performance in Malaysia.

Post-traumatic growth is a compelling idea (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2014), yet, extant research has often employed retrospective reports of change, rather than examining change over time. In Karakter, we followed a sample of Syrian origin young adults who recently resettled in the Netherlands (initial N = 168) four times over a 13-month period to examine experiences of adversity, emotions, and positive personality change. We provide initial insights by narrating the changes, challenges, and opportunities we encountered in the research. We describe how we incorporated open science practices in Karakter. We propose analyses that describe the demographic characteristics (e.g., education level, length of stay in the Netherlands, and family members present in the Netherlands and in Syria), experiences of adversity (i.e., past traumatic experiences and current post-migration problems), positive personality traits (i.e., attachment, resilient coping, empathy, gratitude, and compassion), and the Big Five personality traits of the people in our sample. We close by suggesting good practices for researchers who are interested in conducting similar studies with populations that are traditionally considered hard-to-reach in the future.

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The e-commerce trend has increasingly grown in Malaysia. The revenue for e-commerce platforms in 2019 is USD3.7 billion with more than 20 million users. There were various calls from the ministries for Malaysian to take up e-commerce as it is progressively contributing to the country’s GDP. Bumiputera entrepreneurs have been demanded to play active roles in e-commerce, however their participation and performance are in an alarming state. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the challenges faced, examine the awareness of the existing business support and identify support and assistance which can be implemented to address the issues faced by Bumiputera SME online entrepreneurs. The research was done using survey format. Questionnaire was distributed via online survey. The population is the online entrepreneurs from Malaysian Internet Entrepreneurs Association (PUIM). 493 respondents participated in this study. Findings show that the main challenges were the lack of access to financial assistance and lack of knowledge to conduct market study. While the training needed are Facebook Ads and Business Coaching. Research also shows that the higher the level of education, the lesser the constraints experienced and the greater the level of confidence in business success. Finally, several improvements and suggestions have been proposed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the social and economic well-being of the world. From an economic perspective, nations around the world have been negatively impacted by the pandemic, including Malaysia. Billions of Ringgit Malaysia have been lost, and businesses, especially SMEs, have suffered tremendously. However, the number of online businesses has increased due to the pandemic response that forced people to stay home. Thus, this paper studies the online business phenomenon among SMEs in Malaysia. The study employs a quantitative survey among online business entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Based on the findings, it reveals that of the SMEs in Malaysia that ventured into online business, most were motivated by the pandemic as they saw it as a business opportunity. Surprisingly, the majority of them agreed that the pandemic positively impacted their business and their sustainability.