Best Paper Award at 3rd CoMBInES

Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) Doctor of Philosophy student Zhu, Zining was awarded the Best Paper Award at the 3rd Conference on Management, Business, Innovation, Education and Social Science (CoMBInES), which was held on 4 March 2023 at UTAR Sungai Long Campus. The hybrid conference was also broadcasted online.

Supervised by FBF academics Dr S. Charles Ramendran and Dr Wong Lai Soon, Zhu walked away with a Best Paper Award certificate for her research, titled “Employee Engagement as a Moderator between Customer Value Proposition and Company Performance during Covid-19”.  

“I am very grateful and glad that my idea has been recognised and my paper has been awarded the best paper at the conference. I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Charles Ramendran and Dr Wong Lai Soon for the courage and confidence they have given me in my research journey. They have been very enthusiastic about research. They encouraged me to be part of the conference as well as the publication. I truly appreciate the opportunity that was given to me. I can now learn and enhance my knowledge in research activities and uphold my motto, which is ‘overcome obstacles and move forward’. I have come very far to achieve what I have done now,” said Zhu.

Zhu also enthused, “I can finally honour the trust and confidence my supervisors placed in me through this award. Thanks to their confidence in my research model, I can now investigate broader areas and explore beyond the horizon. This recognition will be a pushing factor for my future work on research. The information gathered and presented in the paper is useful for the SMEs as well as the welfare of the employees because it provides a win-win situation for productivity.”

When asked to describe the research, Zhu explained, “Due to their vulnerability to economic losses, many Chinese businesses, especially SMEs, are on the edge of bankruptcy in the context of COVID-19. The performance of the employees and organisation is impacted by this predicament. Understanding employee status, such as employee engagement and offering organisations appropriate solutions, such as delivering appropriate value propositions to consumers are crucial and advantageous for the company’s continuous success and growth. The results of this study add to the body of knowledge in the field and advise practitioners to pay attention to both the needs of their internal workforce and those of their consumers to expand their enterprises.”

Jointly organised by UTAR, Tunghai University (THU) and Universitas International Batam (UIB), the 3rd CoMBInES was attended by lecturers and students from both local and international university partners. The conference aimed to disseminate the research works of the researchers as well as share their knowledge and motivation in the application of sustainable research activities.