This study explored the factors influencing students’ willingness to continue with the online learning system during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by adopting the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theory. This study also incorporated e-learning readiness, performance, and satisfaction as mediators. The present study employed the purposive sampling method, whereby 2215 data of undergraduate students from a public university were gathered using an online survey and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) with Smart Partial Least Squares (SmartPLS). The results revealed that students’ e-learning readiness, performance, and satisfaction positively influenced their willingness to continue online learning. Besides, students’ e-learning readiness, performance, and satisfaction sequentially mediated the relationship between the online learning system quality and willingness to continue online learning. Significantly, this study provided new insights into the literature on students’ willingness to continue online learning by providing empirical evidence on the factors that support their willingness to continue online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to investigate the effect of soft skills and ethics and value on the employers’ willingness to continue recruiting Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) graduates, together with the moderating effect of knowledge on the relationship between soft skills and the employers’ willingness to continue recruiting UMT graduates. The study’s respondents comprised of 208 employers in Malaysia who responded through an online survey using Google Forms. The survey data was then analyzed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), indicating that soft skills positively affected the employers’ willingness to continue recruiting UMT graduates. Nevertheless, ethics and value were found to be insignificant factors on the employers’ willingness to continue recruiting UMT graduates. It was also revealed that knowledge had the moderating effect on the relationship between soft skills and the employers’ willingness to continue recruiting UMT graduates. Therefore, universities were recommended to invest in soft skills and knowledge education to ensure that graduates met the employers’ professional recruitment standards in areas of expertise.

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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the agriculture sector in Malaysia are still seen to contribute only a small portion towards Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the total number of the national workforce. As for agricultural SMEs, innovation activities are needed to produce quality agricultural-based products to meet the increasing of Malaysia and world market demand. Nevertheless, innovation among agricultural SMEs is still less encouraging. Hence, this study aims to investigate the effect of innovation capabilities towards performance of agricultural SMEs in Malaysia and determine the role of strategic alliance as a moderator in influencing the performance of agricultural SMEs. The conceptual framework of innovation capabilities is based on Resource-Based View Theory and Schumpeter Innovation Theory that considers strategic alliance will positively affect the relationship between innovation capabilities and SME performance. A total of 136 respondents from Agricultural SMEs were used for data analysis process using SmartPLS 3.0 software. The results show that innovation capabilities have a positive impact on the performance of SMEs, while strategic alliance does not affect the relationship between innovation capabilities and agricultural SME performance. Although strategic alliance has insignificant effect, this might be resulted from the emphasis of this study as it defined strategic alliances as acquisitions of companies. For agricultural SMEs in Malaysia, entrepreneurs need to look at an alliance from a positive perspective by looking it as a joint venture process in resource sharing that will benefit the enterprises, thus it is not only meant acquisition. The implication of this study is expected to contribute and enhance the role of innovation capabilities among entrepreneurs and strategic alliances in the Malaysian agricultural SMEs.

Without proper preparation by higher institutions, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the world to rely on online learning. Even students of social science and science are looking for different knowledge and skills. Currently, both groups rely on the same method to gather knowledge for future undertakings. Given the uncertainty regarding the resolution of COVID-19, which has driven students to continue using online learning, the current study aims to identify the factors of willingness to continue online learning among social science and pure science students by extending the use of expectation-confirmation theory. Applying a purposive sampling method, 2,215 questionnaires were collected among undergraduate students from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) using an online survey. Current study found that expectation and confirmation positively affect satisfaction. Attitude, satisfaction and readiness were found to have a positive relationship with willingness to continue online learning. Meanwhile, self-efficacy was found unsupported hypothesis for the direct effect. For multigroup analysis, readiness was found to have a significant difference between students of social science and pure science. The findings of this research enrich the literature about online learning, especially in the COVID-19 setting. Moreover, this work is useful for higher education institutions seeking to design a better strategy that allows students to return to campus.