Research

Yuegang Song · Ruixian Huang · Sudharshan Reddy Paramati · Abdulrasheed Zakari ·Economic Analysis and Policy ·2021

This study empirically examines the impact of economic integration on stock market co-movements of India with major Asian markets such as China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. We collect daily data on stock market indices from September 1999 to December 2017. The asymmetric generalised dynamic conditional correlation GARCH model is applied to estimate the time-varying conditional correlations among the various stock markets. Next, the panel autoregressive distributed lag method is applied to investigate the impact of economic integration on stock market co-movements. Our results show that economic integration has a significant positive impact on stock market co-movements in the region. The results also provide supporting evidence that the global financial crisis positively contributed to stock market interdependence in the Asian region.

Syed Shahzad Hasan · Chia Siang Kow · Dalia Dawoud · Omneya Mohamed · Darrin Baines · Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar ·Value in Health Regional Issues ·2018

Medicine price directly affects affordability and access to medicines particularly in countries where a major portion of pharmaceutical spending is through out-of-pocket payment, such as in the Asia Pacific region. We have undertaken a detailed appraisal of the pharmaceutical policy reforms to regulate drug prices in 3 developed (Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea) and 3 emerging (China, India, and Malaysia) economies of the Asia Pacific region. Despite continuous efforts by the authorities in adopting a wide range of reformatory pharmaceutical pricing policies to ensure affordability of medicines, these policies may not be optimal where drug prices were not lowered as expected (eg, in Korea). On the contrary, considerable price reductions of various pharmaceuticals have been observed in New Zealand and India because of the reform in pharmaceutical pricing policy. This review of pharmaceutical pricing reforms reinforces the need for constant monitoring by policy makers in Asia Pacific countries to regulate drug prices and to undertake reform in pharmaceutical pricing policies when necessary to ensure affordability and access to medicines.

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.

Tauchid Komara Yuda ·Sociam Policy; South East Asia; Political economy;Islamic welfare regime ·2019

PurposeSallahuddin Hassan* School of Economics, Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia. Using evidence from Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Indonesia, the purpose of this paper is to explore how Islamic welfare regime notion evolves in a South East Asian (SEA) context. Design/methodology/approach To gain a broad frame of reference in discussing Islamic welfare regimes in SEA, this paper employs a combined political-economic and cultural approach to analyze how Islamic welfare ethics in Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Indonesia are developed. The specific criterion used to make a comparative analysis of these countries is an interconnection between four levels of Islamic welfare actors (state, market, community and household/relatives) in providing social welfare. Findings Malaysia and Indonesia have demonstrated the most balanced form of “Islamic welfare diamond” in the relationship between welfare actors, even as the state-centered welfare initiative continues to be expanded, while Brunei has taken a different route. A monarchical political system underpinned by high economic growth has enabled the state to play a major role in welfare distribution, rather than other welfare actors. For this reason, Malaysia and Indonesia are described as having an “Islamic inclusive welfare regime,” while Brunei is reported to have an “Islamic welfare state regime.” Originality/value For the purpose of theoretical advancements, there is no doubt that this paper has proposed an alternative framework to developing an understanding of how the Islamic ethical code is articulated in a wide range of welfare configurations within the “South East Asian context.”

Harriman Samuel Saragih · Peter Jonathan ·Journal of Asia Business Studies ·2019

Purpose Indonesians are known for their unique behaviour and willingness to travel abroad for healthcare treatments. More than half of the healthcare “tourists” who travel to Malaysia come from Indonesia, followed in numbers by those in India, Japan, and China, Libya, the UK, Australia, USA, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Malaysia is also geographically located near two Indonesian main islands, i.e. North Sumatera and North Kalimantan. These reasons contribute to making Indonesia one of the most productive healthcare consumers in Malaysia. This study aims to examine these Indonesian consumers’ through the use of behavioural lenses to examine their medical tourism experiences in Malaysia, its neighbouring country. Design/methodology/approach The theory of planned behaviour is used as the basis of these analyses and hypotheses development. In total, 7 variables and 18 indicators that built both the exogenous and endogenous variables were developed from previous literature. Through a purposive sampling technique, the authors collected 200 samples of individuals where each respondent must at least have been to Malaysia once for medical treatments related to a general check-up, cardiovascular, cancer, orthopaedics, nervous systems or dental problems. A partial least squares – structural equation modelling analysis was carried out to examine both the measurement model and the structural model. Findings Behavioural belief positively affects the attitude of Indonesian patients and their intentions to visit Malaysia for medical treatment, i.e. attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. Results show that as individuals, Indonesians have a strong belief that undergoing medical treatment in Malaysia will be more favourable than having that same medical treatment in Indonesia. The study also shows that people who are considered important to patients, e.g. family members or relatives, significantly influence their intention to visit Malaysian medical institutions. The authors also found that patients’ resources and capabilities – e.g. financial strength, supporting infrastructures and time availability – are essential factors for Indonesian patients to choose medical tourism and to visit Malaysia as their venue for medical services. Research limitations/implications The results of this study are consistent with the previous research, which has shown that attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control positively affect visit intention. The results also suggest new interesting theoretical findings that Indonesia’s medical tourist intention to visit Malaysia is most strongly caused by subjective norms followed by individual attitudes and perceived behavioural control, all reasons that are identical to Japanese medical tourists’ visiting South Korea for similar purposes. Indeed, there are similar behavioural practices and beliefs among both Indonesian and Japanese medical tourists, despite the gap existing in these two countries’ economies. Practical implications The study proposes two managerial implications using its findings. First, this study can be a basis for the Malaysian medical tourism business to better understand Indonesian medical tourists’ behaviour when visiting their country. The study explicitly suggests that it is both collective and individual beliefs that drive Indonesian patients, who have the sufficient resources, to visit Malaysia because of better quality and affordability available there compared to Indonesian medical services. Second, this study raises a fundamental question about Indonesian stakeholders in the medical industry. In the near future, this type of medical tourism behaviour will, without a doubt, affect the Indonesian economy at large. Originality/value The contributions of this study are twofold. First, compared to previous studies that focussed specifically on the developed countries, this study focusses on Indonesian consumers’ point of view as an emerging country towards Malaysia’s medical tourism business. Second, this study provides quantifiable insights on the Indonesia-Malaysia medical tourism phenomenon, which previously has been frequently discussed, but only using a qualitative exploratory approach.

Filzah Md Isa · Nik Maheran Nik Muhammad · Azizah Ahmad · Shaista Noor ·Journal of Economics and Business ·2021

Women entrepreneur has gained utmost importance in the past few decades in Malaysia due to their significant contribution to the country's economic development. However, few business challenges create a constant obstruction for many women entrepreneurs such as lack of ICT knowledge, time constraint to learn ICT, lack of technological expertise, etc. The present study aims to identify the effect of ICT adoption on business performance and examine how ICT usage helped them handle operational business matters. The present study adopted the qualitative research strategy, and researchers interviewed ten (10) women entrepreneurs for this study. A semistructured interview technique was applied, and six Malay and four Chinese entrepreneurs made the study population. The result highlights that Malay and Chinese entrepreneurs use ICT in their business operation such as warehousing system, purchasing system, HRM software and accounting system, purchase order system, production system, internal communication, and AutoCAD. The present study may support the prospective entrepreneurs in considering the ICT usage to embark on technology and innovation and provide inputs to policymakers to design a proper support system for Malaysian women entrepreneurs, particularly those new entrepreneurs who are mostly young and inexperienced.

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.

Muhammad Hafiz Abd Rashid · Muhammad Iskandar Hamzah · Amirul Afif Muhamat · Aida Azlina Mansor · Rahayu hasanordin ·Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business ·2022 ·JEL: M10, M30, M31

Studies examining the interplay between brand transgression and brand forgiveness is notably sparse especially in the context of Southeast Asian banking customers. The purpose of this research is to add to the existing literature by examining the impact of brand transgression, which is represented by negative past experience image incongruence, and corporate wrongdoing on brand forgiveness among Islamic banking customers in Malaysia. The increasing surge in interest in unfavorable brand relationships has sparked concerns about its impact on brand forgiveness. As a result, this theoretical argument, which lacks empirical proof, has to be statistically tested. The current study was conducted utilizing a non-probability purposive sampling technique among clients in the Klang Valley who had poor experiences with Islamic banking services. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple regression on a total of 211 valid replies. The findings show that two elements of brand transgression, image inconsistency, and corporate wrongdoing, have a major impact on brand forgiveness. However, the other dimension namely negative past experience was found to be non-significant to brand forgiveness. Research implications and directions for future studies are also discussed in this paper.

Zaharah binti Yahya · MarianiAriffin · Sabrina Ho Abdullah ·Resources Policy ·2018

The Malaysian State of Selangor has been blessed with an abundant reserve of granite rocks located in the districts of Kuala Langat, Hulu Selangor, Gombak, and Hulu Langat which supply raw materials to develop physical infrastructures including highway roads, building, airports, and townships particularly in Cyberjaya and Putrajaya and supply raw materials to the buildings of the Klang Valley. An active industry, however, comes with shortcomings related to the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere of the ecosystem. In 2009, there were 314 active quarries in Malaysia of which only 12 practiced the best greening effort. Quarry rehabilitation prevents pollution and leads to a cost-effective measure for sustainable quarrying. At present, there is a need to enhance the existing law and policy to ensure the rehabilitation of quarries. Quarry rehabilitation can strike a balance between the need for development, economic aspect, environment, and social aspects in the long term that produces a sustainable quarrying industry that can benefit the Selangor State Government as well as the Federal Government. Generally, this paper aims to identify factors hindering quarry rehabilitation in Selangor. The specific objective of this research is to identify the present status of quarry rehabilitation implementation and examine what the existing legislative framework provides on quarry rehabilitation. By using a qualitative approach, it focuses on Selangor as a case study. A Doctrinal Approach was used to analyze Primary Legal Documents based on the seven Parameters of Quarry Rehabilitation produced by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) established in 2011. The seven parameters are a vital tool to ensure legal frameworks and policies related to quarry rehabilitation are effective.

Khanifah Khanifah · Pancawati Hardiningsih · Asri Darmaryantiko · Iryantika Iryantik · Udin Udin ·Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business ·2020 ·JEL: E44, M14, Q56

A series of corporate failures and financial crises have raised attention to organizational governance issues, especially for financial institutions. In the banking system, corporate governance further plays a unique role because of the uniqueness of the banking organizations. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of corporate governance disclosure on bank performance by building a corporate governance disclosure index (CGDI) for 10 Islamic banks operating in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The data used in this study are secondary data taken from annual reports and sourced from the official websites of each banks include Iran Exchange, Stock Market Quotes and Financial News, and Bursa Malaysia. This study uses content analysis of the annual bank report within five years (2014-2018). The results show that Islamic banks comply with 72.4% of the attributes discussed in the CGDI. The most frequently reported and disclosed elements are board structure and audit committee. The regression results provide evidence that Islamic banks with a higher level of corporate governance disclosure reported high operating performance measured by ROA. In contrast to the expectation, the financial performance of ROE and Tobins'q are not significantly related to the disclosure of sharia bank governance.

Christopher Richardson · Guat-Hoon Tan · Shaian Kiumarsi ·Journal of Asia Business Studies ·2018

Purpose This paper aims to investigate and reflect upon the effects of personality traits on expatriate adjustment within the context of Malaysia’s multicultural society. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the multicultural personality questionnaire (MPQ) and extrapolating from the literature on expatriate adjustment, the authors introduce five hypotheses, which are then tested based on data derived from 101 expatriates working in Malaysia. Findings The results indicate a positive relationship between both open-mindedness and adjustment as well as between flexibility and adjustment. However, the authors did not observe any significant positive relationship between the three remaining MPQ personality traits and expatriate adjustment. Originality/value While various studies have investigated the relationship between personality and expatriate adjustment in an Asian context, the majority have been conducted in largely monocultural settings, or at least on the implicit assumption of a single societal culture within the host country. This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the relationship in the context of a multicultural Asian host country.