All Research

Qian Long Kweh · Norazlin Ahmad · Irene Wei Kiong Ting · Cheng Zhang · Hasahudin Hassan ·Institutions and Economies ·2019 ·JEL: G34; L21

This study investigates the influences of board gender diversity and board independence on firm performance. Ordinary least squares, two-stage least squares and generalised method of moments are employed to test the relationships among board gender diversity, board independence, and firm performance in firms listed on Bursa Malaysia between 2010 and 2015. The regression results indicate that female directors and independent directors significantly and negatively affect firm performance, respectively. However, the interaction term of board gender diversity and board independence is statistically insignificant. Overall, managers must consider that board gender diversity and board independence may not have an interactive effect on improving the performance of their firms.

Muralitharan Paramasua · Evelyn S. Devadason · Pardis Moslemzadeh Tehrani ·Institutions and Economies ·2019 ·JEL: H70; P48; P45

Environmental regulation is a key driver for the growth of environmental goods and services (EGS), while trade facilitates the diffusion of these goods and services. There has been no shortage of initiatives to develop the EGS sector in Malaysia.However, some policy (non-market) failures are already observed in the governance of this sector. This paper identifies the inadequacies in the regulatory framework (environmental institutions and laws) for creating an enabling environment for the EGS sector. The paper also reviews the trade direction for EGS and delineates concerns related to the sectoral approach of policy making for the sector. The findings from the documentary analyses suggest that the laws and policies related to the EGS are fragmented as they come under the purview of different agencies. As a result of this regulatory incoherence, the coordination and enforcement are weak leading to low uptake of EGS. The absence of a national policy for EGS also obscures the trade direction for this sector. The policy priority and generous support accorded to the renewable energy segment, more specifically, are also a concern given the limited and uncertain role that this segment is expected to play in global energy use.

Maya Puspa Rahmana · Nurfatihah Senusia ·Malaysian Journal of Consumer and Family Economics ·2019

This study explores the understanding, role and participation of the SMEs on digital economy, in line with the aspiration by the Malaysian government to have higher growth contribution coming from this segment. The primary data is collected from a semi-structured interview with six SMEs around Klang Valley from various industries and the analysis is conducted using coding and thematic analysis. Most of the SMEs interviewed are aware on the importance of online presence but lack the understanding on its contribution towards digital economy. While a high number of them are ready to embrace technology driven tools for sales, several others are still quite skeptical and facing difficulties in related cost management. This paper aims to offer specific insights from the SMEs on digital economy and the Malaysia’s move towards adopting the relevance of the fourth industrial revolution. It also identifies some of the issues to be tackled by the government in order to have more SMEs participation in the Malaysian digital economy.

Mohd Yassir Jaafar · Anuar Nawawi · Ahmad Saiful Azlin Puteh Salin ·Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities ·2019

This study is intended to examine the levels of directors’ remuneration disclosure among public-listed companies in Malaysia. It further aims to examine the relationship among total directors’ remuneration, directors’ education level, size of external auditors, and proportion of managerial ownership and directors’ remuneration disclosure. The analysis is conducted based on three models, which are constructed from the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (Model 1), Global Practices (Model 2), and a combination of both Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance and Global Practices (Model 3). This study found that the size of external auditors had a positive significant relationship, while the proportion of managerial ownership had a negative significant relationship with the disclosure. This study contributes to the improvement of policymaking and body of knowledge by highlighting the relationship between the selected corporate governance characteristics and directors’ remuneration disclosure in the context of Malaysia.

Mohammad Sharif Karimi ·International Economic Journal ·2018 ·JEL: C22; O11

In this study, we examine the nonlinear relationship between international tourism arrival and economic growth of Malaysia by using asymmetric models over the periods 2000:1–2015:4. The results show that the tourism arrival is positively related to Malaysia’s economic growth in the long run, but there is no short-run relationship and other traditional growth factors such as trade, exchange rate and Consumer Price Index are important for economic growth in the case of Malaysia. This implies that tourism can be one of the important factors for Malaysia’s economic growth in the long run and development and can be used to stimulate the overall economic growth and hence, policy-makers should pay greater attention towards promoting inbound tourism.

Md Fauzi Ahmad (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Siti Norziah Ismail (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Mohd Fahrul Hassan (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Chan Shiau Wei (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Norhadilah Abdul (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Ahmad Nur Aizat Ahmad (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Mohd Nasrun Mohd Nawi · Nor Aida Abdul Rahman ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2019

Green Factory is a management tool for eliminate environment burden such as waste, chemical and pollution. Economic development grew too fast has effected major impact to environment. Carbon dioxide, loss of biodiversity, degradation of natural resources, global warming, ozone layer depletion and deforestation have effected on the environment. Based on world statistics, Malaysia has produced 29 million tonnes carbon dioxide and ranked 26th (0.66%) of the 215 countries in the world. 110 world leaders including Malaysia has agreed to work for reducing carbon dioxide gas in the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit 2009. Five main criteria for Green Factory have been identified; (1) Solar power generation systems, (2) Fuel cells system, (3) Cogeneration systems, (4) Air conditioning units and (5) Recycling system. A study was conducted to manufacturing companies that adopted Green Factory practices to assess its their green practices for minimizing environmental problems. The samples were 300 companies in Malaysia. Finally, 20% response rate has been received, with 60 respondents. Based on descriptive result, recycling shows the highest level of practices, followed by solar power cogenerations system, air conditioning units and fuel cells system. This study result shows Green Factory has significant relationship with environment performance (r=0.684, P<0.05) and business performance (r=0.510, P<0.05). Overall, the survey result shows green factory practices has significant impact on Malaysia manufacturing companies. In conclusion, Green Factory can be used as effective tool for improving not only for environment performance but also for business performance.

Habib Ahmed · Ahmed H. Elsayeda ·Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance ·2019

This study examines the decoupling hypothesis between Islamic and conventional capital markets by analysing the dynamic interdependencies among conventional stock, Islamic stock, bonds and sukuk markets in Malaysia over the period January 3, 2007 to March 31, 2017. Empirical findings on the total spillover index show that, on average, one third of the total forecast error variance attributed to spillovers has affects across four markets, indicating that conventional and Islamic markets are highly interconnected. The conventional stock and bond markets are considered to be the main net transmitters of spillovers towards other markets, whereas the sukuk market is a net receipt of modest levels of return shocks from conventional, Islamic and bond markets throughout the sample period. The interlinkages and connectedness between sukuk and conventional bonds are robust compared with other markets but show variations in the spillovers over the period. While one way to explain the differences in the spillovers between the conventional bond and sukuk indices can be attributed to external factors such as the financial crisis, changes in the legal regime and political uncertainties, another explanation may lie in the differences in the contractual structures of these instruments.

Ahmad Fakrul Ramli · Zarina Ab Muis · Wai Shin Ho · Ahmad Muzammil Idris · Aminullah Mohtar ·Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy ·2019

The energy sector has grown significantly over the years, causing an increase in carbon emission that has led to serious global warming problems. Consequently, electric vehicles (EVs) have become a favourable solution in the transportation sector due to their green technology attributes. This paper aims to apply the Carbon Emission Pinch Analysis (CEPA) method to the transportation sector in Iskandar Malaysia. The modified CEPA method is applied by constructing a composite curve for transportation modes and the total carbon emission was plotted in order to study the minimum electricity requirement that needs to be generated to implement the use of EVs. Road and rail transportation were considered in the transport composite curve based on the current policies available and to achieve the new carbon emission target by the year 2025. The alternatives available to reduce carbon emission in Iskandar Malaysia include increasing public transport modal share; fuel switching from petrol and diesel to natural gas and biofuels; and increasing transport efficiency via plug-in hybrid and EVs. Four scenarios were established and evaluated based on economic and environmental aspects. As a result, Scenario 4 which considered all policies available (transport management, fuel switching and fuel efficiency) have showed the most promising fuel mix for future transportation demands. An estimated total amount of 0.25 TJ of electricity is needed for EV implementation with a total estimated cost of RM 1.3 billion. The total carbon emission for this scenario is 1101.96 kt-CO2. This research can benefit the Government, town planners, or policy makers, for preliminary energy planning.

Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh · Le Chang · Yemo Zhang ·The Chinese Economy ·2019

With trade volume registering more than US$10 billion in recent years, Malaysia has already been China’s largest Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trading partner since 2008 and its third biggest Asian trading partner after Japan and South Korea. It is expected that China–Malaysia bilateral trade with an 8% annual growth rate will continue to expand, and this strong bilateral tie is set to be strengthened in the face of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s efforts to enhance regional connectivity and especially maritime linkage by proposing the “One Belt One Road” (OBOR) construction. Malaysia is well placed, probably even better than most of its ASEAN neighbors, to embrace the opportunities brought about by the surge of infrastructure development and trade deals that is going to come with the progress in constructing the ocean-based Maritime Silk Road (MSR), one of the two initiatives of OBOR, the other being the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt. With Malaysia’s traditional linkage with China’s southeastern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, and as the holder of the Strait of Malacca, Malaysia is occupying a key strategic location that can serve well as China’s gateway to the ASEAN Economic Community. A statement made by the Malaysian transport minister has declared that a few ports in Malaysia has been identified to be part of the MSR. The close ties between both countries have resulted in cooperation in the transportation field such as railway projects and purchasing of trains from China. Indeed, Malaysia is in the process of developing inter–port city collaboration between China’s Qinzhou Port and Malaysia’s Kuantan Port. In recent years, China’s Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group has bought a 40% stake in Malaysia’s Kuantan Port Consortium from the construction group IJM Group for a total of US$102 million. It is in such context and with due consideration of such developments that this paper will explore the prospects and challenges facing China–Malaysia cooperation within the overall framework of China–ASEAN strategic relations.

Nur Ainna Ramli · Hengky Latan · Grace T.Solovida ·Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance ·2019 ·JEL: G14; G10; M41

We examine the impact of capital structure determinants on firm financial performance together with the mediation effect of firm leverage in Malaysia and Indonesia over the period of 1990–2010. Our results show that certain of the capital structure determinants directly affect firm financial performance. We also observe that only the Malaysian sample has a positive significant correlation between firm leverage and firm financial performance. Malaysian firms use external financing instead of internal financing to heighten performance. Our results also show that firm leverage plays a mediating role in Malaysia but not for the Indonesian sample. The asset structure, growth opportunities, liquidity, non-debt tax shield and interest rate are the attributes that were indirectly influenced by firm leverage on firm financial performance. Further analysis for multi-group analysis (MGA) in PLS was also used to test the equality of the parameter estimates. We observe that certain attribute coefficients in the determinants of capital structure and firm financial performance are significantly different between Malaysia and Indonesia.

Christine Nya Ling Tan · Adedapo Oluwaseyi Ojo · Ramayah Thurasamy ·Young Consumers ·2019

Purpose This study aims to investigate the factors, which may potentially influence green product buying decision among young consumers in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach A perceived lack of intention to buy green products observed among the Malaysian Generation Young consumers has sparked the interest to carry out this study. With the aid of structured questionnaires, data were collected from a total of 217 respondents, between 18 and 25 years of age. Findings The results of data analysis indicated that environmental consciousness, eco-label, price and advertising were significant predictors of green product buying behaviour. Contrary to the hypothesis, attitude was not a significant predictor of green buying behaviour among young consumers. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are outlined at the end of this paper. Originality/value This study offers empirical insights from the perspective of an emerging economy on the determinants of green products buying behaviour among young consumers.

Norfaiezah Sawandi · Norazita Marina Abdul Aziz · Ram Al Jafri Saad ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2019

The objective of the study is to explore and examine the forms and means employed by one zakat institution in Malaysia in discharging its accountability to the stakeholders. Case study approach was used in the study involving the use of both of primary and secondary data. The primary data was gathered via the face to face in-depth interviews that were conducted with the representatives of the zakat institution. The secondary data was gathered from different sources such as the zakat collection and distributions reports of the zakat institution. The interview data was analysed using a manual coding and the secondary data was content analysed using a thematic analysis. The study finds that the zakat institution studied has been discharging two categories of accountability that are financial or formal and social or informal form of accountability. The financial/formal form of accountability has been discharged mainly via the zakat collection and distribution reports. Meanwhile, it is observed that the latter category of accountability has been discharged through both of means that are account- and action-based mechanisms, which include zakat collection and distribution reports and various non-zakat society/community programs respectively.

Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling · Pau Chung Leng and Chin Siong Ho ·Economies ·2019 ·JEL: D01; D02; D23; D62; K11; O21; P25; Q24; Q26

There are severe issues of public open space (POS) underinvestment and overexploitation. However, few studies have been conducted on the property rights structure and its impacts on rural commons governance, specifically concerning local neighbourhood residential POS quality and sustainability. The social-ecological system framework and the new institutional economics theory were employed to examine the local diverse property rights system and its e_x000B_ects on the emergence of POS dilemmas. Rural commons covering neighbourhood residential Country Lease (CL) and Native Title (NT) POS from the districts of Kota Kinabalu and Penampang, Sabah Malaysia were selected. A mixed-method phenomenological case study, involving multi-stakeholders’ perspectives across public-private-user sectors, was employed. This study revealed four main interconnected property rights issues, including attenuated rights, incomplete rights, maladaptive rights, and security-based de facto perceptive rights, under the complex state-private regime, which incentivise the opportunistic behaviour of individuals in externalising POS commons dilemmas. The findings further inferred that the local diverse property rights issues and POS dilemmas caused, and are associated with, other rights issues and dilemmas, forming a rights-dilemmas nexus. Not only do the institutional failures actuate POS dilemmas, but the former also engender other forms of property rights failures, while the latter cause other POS dilemmas. This paper suggests policy and management insights to public o_x000E_cials, in which the importance of the institutional-social-POS behavioural factor and the re-engineering of POS governance via adaptive property rights realignment are emphasised.

Abdul Ghafoor · Rozaimah Zainudin · Nurul Shahnaz Mahdzan ·Journal of Business Ethics ·2019

This study investigates the key factors that elicit financial reporting fraud among companies in Malaysia. Using enforcement action releases issued by the Security Commission of Malaysia (SC) and Bursa Malaysia, we identify a sample of 76 firms that had committed financial reporting fraud during the period of 1996–2016. We use the fraud triangle framework and the Malaysian International Standards on Auditing 240 to identify the factors. Since the simple probit model fails to address the identification problem (partial observability), we estimate our results using a bivariate probit model. The new model estimates the effects of pressure, opportunity, and rationalization on the probability of fraud likelihood by disentangling the detection probability of fraud. Among several proxies used for pressure, our results suggest that aggressive tax reporting and financial difficulties increase the likelihood of fraud commission. In regard to opportunity, we find that dedicated institutional investors, independence of the board, effective audit committee, and the presence of a female on the board provide active monitoring and oversight in reducing fraud occurrence. Results for rationalization suggest that prior violations and frequent changes of external auditors increase the chances of fraud occurrence. This research offers possible insights to auditors, managers, and regulators to prevent, detect, and react to fraud. Specifically, it highlights the specific factors that may exacerbate the fraudulent intentions of firms.

Kartini Muniandy · Suzari Abdul Rahim · Aidi Ahmi · Nor Aida Abdul Rahman ( Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology (UniKL MIAT)) ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2019

In recent years, the hospitality Industry has overcome numerous challenges to initiate green practices. Greater interest in customers green behaviours has led the hotel industry to practice more environmentally friendly activities. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors that influence customers in visiting green hotels in Malaysia. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) has been embedded to investigate the factors. Data was collected via questionnaires through online by invitation through email and offline from travellers in selected airports. IBM SPSS Statistics software was used to analyse the data. The results discovered that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and environmental concern significantly influence customers in visiting green hotels. Meanwhile, attitudes mediate subjective norms and perceived behavioural control and finally attitudes, and perceived behavioural control possess a positive relationship with the environmental concern of visitors in visiting green hotels. Findings from this research can help the Malaysian government and hoteliers to integrate the research framework in their current business model and imposed more effective strategies on a green environment in developing green hotels.