e-Academia Journal

Exploring Sentiment Trends in TikTok Comments Using GPT for Influencer Content Strategy

2025-03-07T10:22:11+08:00

The growth of TikTok has reshaped social media marketing, with influencer-driven content playing a crucial role in consumer engagement and purchasing decisions. In the Malaysian Beauty and Personal Care category, TikTok comments serve as direct consumer feedback, yet extracting meaningful insights from this highly expressive data remains challenging. Traditional sentiment analysis methods struggle with multilingual text, slang, abbreviations, and emojis, limiting their effectiveness in interpreting user sentiment. This study addresses these challenges by leveraging GPT-based sentiment analysis to analyze TikTok comments, examining sentiment trends, linguistic patterns, and their correlation with influencer revenue. The study focuses on the top 20 highest-revenue influencers within the Malaysian Beauty and Personal Care category, collecting 34,597 comments from 3,912 videos using Apify’s TikTok scraping API. The dataset was preprocessed using GPT-based text normalization, slang resolution, and emoji-to-text conversion, ensuring consistency in sentiment classification. It categorized comments into Positive, Neutral, or Negative, followed by a detailed examination of frequently used words and sentiment patterns across different influencers. Results indicate strong positive sentiment overall, highlighting consumers' enthusiasm. However, neutral comments typically product-related questions also revealed significant engagement. Interestingly, influencers receiving more neutral inquiries still achieved high revenue, suggesting that active audience interaction, rather than purely positive sentiment, is critical for financial success. This underscores the importance of aligning content and engagement strategies rather than relying solely on sentiment analysis. The findings offer practical guidance for brands and influencers, emphasizing the integration of sentiment insights into broader marketing strategies.

Heritage on a Plate: Investigating the Antecedents of Intention to Sustain Malaysian Heritage Food among Young Adults

2025-03-06T07:25:06+08:00

Malaysia’s rich culinary heritage in today’s realm faces challenges in sustainability due to globalisation, urbanisation, and changing lifestyles, particularly among young adults. As traditional food practices gradually decline, understanding the factors influencing young Malaysians’ intention to sustain heritage food becomes crucial. This study investigates the role of social media influence, accessibility, and knowledge in shaping young adults’ intention to preserve Malaysian heritage food. Using a quantitative research approach, data were collected through surveys from young adults aged 18–25, with a total of 142 respondents. The study employed descriptive and regression analyses to examine the relationships between the identified factors and their impact on the intention to sustain heritage food. Findings reveal that social media and knowledge significantly influence young adults’ commitment to heritage food sustainability, whereas accessibility alone does not strongly impact their intention. The study highlights the growing role of digital platforms in promoting culinary heritage by enhancing awareness, fostering engagement, and facilitating knowledge transmission. Additionally, it underscores the importance of cultural education in strengthening young adults’ appreciation and willingness to sustain traditional food practices. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and cultural institutions to develop targeted strategies for preserving Malaysia’s gastronomic heritage. Future efforts should focus on integrating digital engagement with educational initiatives to ensure the continued relevance of heritage food in contemporary society. By addressing key determinants of heritage food sustainability, this study contributes to the broader discourse on cultural preservation and offers practical recommendations for fostering Malaysia’s culinary legacy among younger generations.

The Effect of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards on Employee Performance with Mediator of Distributive Justice at Full-Fledged Islamic Banks in Malaysia.

2025-03-07T14:10:11+08:00

The issues of unfairness rewards that can affect the employee’s performance makes this study aims to examine the effect and relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic on employee performance with mediator of distributive justice at full-fledged Islamic banks in Malaysia. Besides, the equity theory is used since it has relations in explaining the rewards and employee performance with mediation of distributive justice as well as in the methodology, a questionnaire (5-Likert Scale) is designed to collect relevant data and the minimum required sample size in this study needs about 77 respondents. The data will be analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis. The population that will be chosen is the employees from executive, non-executive and managerial positions who work with Islamic Banks in Malaysia (Sabah states). The findings revealed that both rewards (extrinsic and intrinsic) and employee performance has a significant effect and relationship to distributive justice as a mediator variable. To ensure equitable and equal distribution of rewards among employees, organizations should establish their policies, organizational structures, and reward systems. This will undoubtedly improve the organization's growth and goodwill. The organizations should design their policies, organizational structures and reward systems that ensure just and fair based distribution of rewards among employees and it surely led to enhance the goodwill and growth of organization.

Drivers of Tax Planning Among Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Manufacturing Sector

2025-03-05T04:58:07+08:00

Tax planning is a critical aspect of financial management for small businesses in Kedah, Malaysia. However, many SMEs struggle with it due to the tax system's complexity, frequent changes to tax regulations and laws, and the lack of tax understanding among small business owners. Acknowledging this predicament, this study examines drivers of tax planning among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector using the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory. An online survey method was employed to collect data, yielding 158 responses. The findings reveal that tax fairness, tax penalties, and tax incentives are significant drivers of tax planning among manufacturing SMEs. On the other hand, tax knowledge was not significantly related to tax planning. This study enhances the understanding of tax planning among manufacturing SMEs. It highlights the need to create a fair tax environment, effective tax penalty systems, and provide tax incentives to encourage tax planning in this sector.

Integration of Agri-Tech Tools Among Malaysian Women Agripreneurs in Sustainable Farming

2025-03-07T12:06:02+08:00

This study investigates how women agriprenuers in Malaysia adopt agricultural technology (Agri-Tech) to support sustainable practices. Though 16% of the Malaysian workforce is in the agricultural workforce, contributing 8.4% of its GDP, the women agripreneurs struggle to adopt the latest agricultural technologies with Agri-Tech investments only accounting for 2.10% of the total digital expenses of the sector. Using a qualitative approach under the interpretative paradigm, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 women agriprenuers across Malaysia who participated in the Farmers and Entrepreneurs Training Course organized by Department of Agriculture Malaysia. Based on the results of the thematic analysis, participants utilized various Agri-Tech tools categorized as digital farm management systems, precision agriculture, digital marketing platforms, sustainable energy and water management system. Benefits included improved market access, reduced costs, optimised resource management, enhanced efficiency, and environmental sustainability through data-driven decision-making. However, challenges persisted, including financial constraints, skills gaps, infrastructure deficits, operational challenges, technical support shortages, and inadequate policy frameworks. Recommendations include increasing financial aid, expanding digital training, improving rural internet access, providing technical support, and revising policies to prioritize small-scale women agriprenuers.These measures would make will make Agri-Tech more accessible, practical, and sustainable, ensuring a stronger and more resilient agricultural sector.

Adoption of Gig Economy in the Real Estate Industry: Drivers, Challenges, and Impact on Innovative Business Strategies

2025-03-07T13:50:26+08:00

The gig economy has transformed various industries, including real estate, by introducing flexible work arrangements and innovative business strategies. Despite its growing significance, there is limited research on the adoption factors, challenges, and strategic impacts of gig work in the real estate sector. This study aims to (i) identify the key factors driving the gig economy in real estate, (ii) analyze the challenges faced by both gig workers and companies, and (iii) investigate the impacts of the gig economy on the industry through innovative business strategies. A qualitative research design was employed, utilizing semi-structured interviews with four industry experts through purposive sampling. Thematic analysis revealed that flexibility in work hours, cost-effectiveness, demand for specialized skills, digital tools adoption, and workforce agility are the primary drivers of gig work in real estate. However, companies struggle with assessing gig workers' reliability, skills, and qualifications due to a lack of standardized regulations. Gig workers, in turn, face job instability and intense market competition. In terms of business strategies, the findings highlight that flexible rental options and co-living spaces are emerging as significant trends catering to gig workers, while affordability and short-term rentals remain secondary concerns. This study fills a critical research gap by providing empirical insights into how the gig economy influences the real estate industry, particularly through flexible work structures and innovative housing solutions. The findings contribute to both academic and industry discourse by emphasizing the need for structured platforms and regulatory frameworks to support gig work in real estate. Future research should explore policy interventions and the long-term sustainability of gig work in the sector.

Examining the Influence of Employee Engagement on Employee Performance: A Case Study of the Dungun Municipal Council

2025-03-06T04:37:36+08:00

Employee engagement is defined as the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values. When an employee is engaged, he is aware of his responsibility related to the business goals and motivates his colleagues alongside for the success of the organizational goals. This research was about a study on the effect between employee engagement and performance of employees in Dungun Municipal Council, Dungun, Terengganu. This research was to determine that there is an existence of influence between these variables. The type of research is correlation research. The sampling frame is the employees from all the departments of Dungun Municipal Council, which are 284 employees, and by using the stratified sampling technique and referring to the Sekaran table, 162 employees were selected as the sample size. The unit of analysis was the individual, with the instrument being Likert Scale questions. The questionnaire was used to collect the data, and SPSS data software analysis was used to compute the influence of the variables. A series of statistical analyses were applied, including descriptive analysis, normality analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The finding of this research found that only organizational commitment has a positive effect on employee performance, while organizational culture, intrinsic motivation, creativity, and job satisfaction have no significant effect on the employee performance of Dungun Municipal Council. This research may contribute to the understanding of the effect between employee engagement and performance among the employees in the Dungun Municipal Council.

Forecasting Tourist Arrivals in Langkawi Island: A Time Series Analysis

2025-03-07T11:47:39+08:00

Langkawi, a renowned island in Malaysia, is one of the country's main tourist attractions celebrated for its natural beauty and unique features. The Covid-19 pandemic had a major effect on travel worldwide, resulting in major disruptions and a huge drop in tourist arrivals. To aid the economic recovery and strategic planning endeavours, a programme 'Visiting Kedah 2025' has been announced by the state government of Kedah to encourage the tourists to visit all the tourist attractions in Kedah, especially in Langkawi. Overall, it is reasonable to forecast the number of tourist arrivals in Langkawi as the island is predicted to be visited more often by tourists by the year 2025. Hence, this study aims to analyse the tourist arrival pattern, identify the best forecasting model, and provide monthly forecast value for tourist arrivals in Langkawi for the next 13 months. Therefore, the number of tourist arrivals is modelled and forecasted using the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model to have a better understanding towards the trend pattern. This study used the data set of the number of tourist arrivals for both domestic and international arrivals from January 2010 until June 2024, which was obtained from the official website of the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA). The best model was chosen based on the lowest value of Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC) and Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). The SARIMA model was chosen to be the most suitable for forecasting the tourist arrivals in Langkawi from July 2024 to July 2025. Based on the findings, the forecast value for the number of tourist arrivals is projected to rise from 239067.7 in July 2024 to 246778.0 in July 2025.