All Research

Kunal Sen · Matthew Tyce ·Structural Change and Economic Dynamics ·2019

Both Malaysia and Thailand were seen to be part of the miracle growth economies of East Asia and fast moving into high income status in the early 1990s. Following the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) of the mid 1990s, both countries have observed prolonged growth slowdowns. In this paper, we offer a political economy explanation of the growth slowdown in Malaysia and Thailand in their post AFC phases. We argue that the nature of the political settlement in these two countries determined a growth strategy that was predicated on offering open deals in the export-oriented manufacturing sector that were accessible to most firms, while at the same time, offering closed deals to politically connected firms in the natural resource and services sectors. As the political settlement moved to a vulnerable authoritarian one in both countries, such a dualistic deals strategy became patronage based over time and detrimental to growth.

Muhammad Haseeb · Irwan Shah Zainal Abidin · Qazi Muhammad Adnan Hye · Nira Hariyatie Hartani ·International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy ·2019 ·JEL: I31; Q22; Q52

This present study examines the role of renewable energy in influencing economic well-being in Malaysia. We used annual data over the period of 1980–2016 in order to apply recent econometrics. The study used renewable energy and economic growth as a proxy of economic well-being to examine the long run connection between renewable energy and economic well-being. The results of auto regressive distributed bound testing approach confirm the valid long-term connection among renewable energy and economic well-being in Malaysia. Furthermore, the results indicate that renewable energy have significant and positive impact on economic well-being in short and long run. It is therefore recommended that the policymakers are required to focus on the green energy generation sector by increasing renewable energy production from the existing sources.

Veera Pandiyan Kaliani Sundram · Irwan Ibrahim · Mashitah Mohamed Esa · Natasya Nabilah Mohd Azly ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2019

Picking and packing is the one of the main principle action in a distribution centre. Picking and packing action ensures the right product at the right quantity reaches the right customer. As such, this study is purported to recognize the issues related to picking and packing error and to know how to overcome it. The study was conducted using a semi-structured interview to elicit response concerning picking and packing issues and error. Five respondents were selected to participate in the semi-organized interview and these respondents are from different designations in the picking and packing unit in a distribution centre from a leading pharmaceutical company. There are several issues that relates to picking and packing error, such as multiple items/barcodes in one location, wrong carton label, and employees miscommunication. Findings from this study will explicitly provide solution for better picking and packing approaches to provide solution to picking and packing error. The novelty of this study lies on the issues of order picking and packing in a leading pharmaceutical organization in Malaysia through vigorous investigation.

Alexandra Dales · Neil M. Coe · Martin Hess ·Economic Geography ·2019

The last two decades have seen a major wave of retail globalization that has driven the transformation of retail markets in the emerging economies of Southeast Asia and beyond. This article provides a systematic analysis of the divergent pathways of retail market transformation in Malaysia and Thailand through exploring the interface of foreign retailers’ strategies of market development and regulatory efforts by the state. Drawing on the variegated capitalism approach and relational economic geography perspectives, the article develops a dynamic analytical framework for investigating and contrasting contestation and negotiation in the process of market transformation. Based on extensive fieldwork and comprehensive secondary data analysis carried out in Malaysia and Thailand, it demonstrates the different trajectories of the Malaysian and Thai retail markets since the turn of the millennium, and explains the political-economic context, and state-regulatory and retail firm strategies that interactively shape market change. While Malaysia has seen substantial levels of state intervention to protect domestic interests and create a two-tier retail system, the Thai retail market transformation has been based on less rigid but more geographically varied state regulation and foreign retail firm strategies. Thus, this article sheds new light on the host economy impacts of retail globalization in the context of local and national contestation and regulation. It concludes with a summary of the findings and reflections on the value of the analytical frame developed here for research on comparative capitalism beyond the retail sector.

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.

Johannes Machiel Dreyer · Noor Azlin Yahya · Nik Azyyati Abd Kadir ·Environment, Development and Sustainability ·2019

The campus of the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) is forest plantation research site established since 1926. Urbanization and other development affecting Kuala Lumpur led to FRIM being one of the few remaining green open spaces near the capital city area. To share the benefits of the green space, FRIM opened its grounds to visitors, and it is now a popular site for educational and recreational use by the urbanized population. However, visitor’s opinion may vary about the utilization of FRIM’s facilities as FRIM’s ground is also used for other activities. A study was done to determine what the perceptions of visitors’ were regarding FRIM’s suitability as a natural open space with its associated benefits such as health, quality of life and environmental sustainability and whether it offers a suitable site for environmental learning. From a qualitative study conducted at three sites within FRIM, it was found that FRIM provides in the needs of the surrounding urban population as a natural open space for escape from the city and a very suitable site for environmental learning. Some participants actually expressed a need to introduce further opportunities for environmental learning.

Saeed Solaymani ·Journal of Economic Studies ·2020 ·JEL: H2, H24, H25, O15

This study is the first attempt to analyze the effectiveness of recent two major tax policies, the reductions in personal and corporate income taxes and a rise in indirect tax and their combine, under both balanced and unbalanced budget conditions, on the economy and social aspects of Malaysia. This study uses a computable general equilibrium model to investigate the impacts of all simulation scenarios on the key macro and micro indicators. Further, based on the 2012 Malaysia Household Income and Expenditure Survey, it uses a micro-data with a significant number of households (over 56,000 individuals) to analyze the impacts of tax policies on poverty and income inequality of Malaysian. Simulation results show that, under the balanced budget condition, personal and corporate income tax reductions increase economic growth, household consumption, and investment, while the rise in indirect tax has adverse impacts on these variables. However, in the unbalanced budget condition, all tax policies, except indirect tax policy, reduce real GDP and investment in the economy and the indirect tax policy has insignificant impacts on all indicators. All policy reforms reallocate resources, especially labor, in the economy. In both budget conditions, the reductions in corporate and personal income taxes, particularly the corporate income tax, decrease poverty level of Malaysian households. Results also indicate that both tax policies are unable to influence income inequality in Malaysia.

Hamizah Abd Hamid ·Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review ·2020

The objective of the article is to explore the challenges experienced by immigrant entrepreneurs in a developing non-Western immigrant-receiving country. Through a qualitative approach, this study examined the experiences of immigrant entrepreneurs from Indonesia, Pakistan, and South Korea in one host country, Malaysia. The findings suggest that the formal aspects of host country institutions are mainly instrumental in the commencement stages of immigrant entrepreneurs’ ventures and the informal aspects of institutions are predominantly influential in the developmental stages of immigrant entrepreneurs’ ventures. Specifically, the findings indicate that the challenges experienced by immigrant entrepreneurs in the host country mainly stem from (1) governing institutions, (2) resource-providing institutions, (3) local society and (4) competition in the host country.

Miao Zhanga · Md Aslam Mia ·Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy ·2020 ·JEL: D22 F23 L60 O14

With cognizance to firms’ heterogeneity in an industry, this paper employs the most recent, unpublished and large-scale firm-level data of 14,687 manufacturing firms in Malaysia in 2015 to revisit the drivers of manufacturing exports. Applying the OLS and logistic regressions, we observed a strong positive relationship between a firm’s labor productivity and export intensity. Firms’ foreign ownership, size and age are positively connected to their export competitiveness. The incorporation of location variables into the regression reveals that firms in the Southern peninsula of Malaysia (e.g., Johor) have a positive effect and demonstrate the highest probability to engage in export activities. Our study is informative to trade policymakers on the key drivers of manufacturing exports, providing references to not only Malaysia, but other economies in Eastern Asia and developing nations.

Muhammad Adli Amirullah · Mario Arturo Ruiz Estrada · Mohamed Aslam ·Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics ·2020 ·JEL: C00, E60, H53

This article models the interconnection between the public transfer payment policy in Malaysia and the overall Malaysian economy using an inter-linkage coordinate space. This space is represented graphically, with the public transfer payment distribution in the centre and the number of periods plotted along rays (axes) that are drawn from the centre, each of which can have as many windows as required at the predetermined perimeter levels. Using this model, this article evaluates whether and how the implementation of public transfer payment policy in Malaysia can simultaneously affect the overall Malaysian economy through selected macroeconomic indicators. Finally, this article proposes the use of computer graphical animation when sufficient data are available to provide a more accurate measurement and visual representation of the economic ripple effect in the same graphical space.

Fazal Akhbar · Rao Aamir Khan · Fazli Wadood · Abdul Talib Bin Bon ·Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review ·2020 ·JEL: L20

The main objective of this study is to verify the impact of entrepreneurial orientation dimension on firm performance of furniture industry in Malaysia. In this study, we used a quantitative research method and collected data through a questionnaire from 391 furniture manufacturing company owners and managers, while following purposive sampling approach. The collected data was analysed using structural equation (Partial Least Square). To measure five entrepreneurial orientation dimensions, we adopted specific measuring instruments. The study shows that the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation – i.e. innovation, risk-taking, and competitive aggressiveness – make unique statistical contributions to the considered model. Findings indicate low levels of autonomy and proactiveness. However, the entrepreneurial orientation and FP models significantly influence the unique contribution of individual entrepreneurial activities in the Malaysian furniture industry.

Imtiaz Sifat · Azhar Mohamad ·Journal of Economic Studies ·2020 ·JEL: D43, D47, D53

Despite regulatory claims of straitening volatility and preventing crashes, evidences on circuit breakers’ ability to achieve so are nonconclusive. While previous scholars studies general performances of circuit breakers, the authors examine whether Malaysian price limits aggravate volatility, impede price discovery, and interfere with trading activities in both tranquil and stressful periods. The study uses a combination of parametric and nonparametric techniques consistent with Kim and Rhee (1997) to examine the major ex-post hypotheses in circuit breaker research. For calm markets, the authors find significant success of upper limits in tempering volatility with low trading interference. Lower limits show mixed results. Conversely, in crisis markets limits fare poorly in nearly all aspects, particularly for lower limits.

Christopher Gan · Rafiatul Adlin Hj Mohd Ruslan · Baiding Hu · Nguyen Thi Thieu Quang ·International Journal of Business and Economics ·2020 ·JEL: L26; O53

This study investigates the relationship between access to microcredit and SMEs’ performance. Using survey data on SME’s owners/managers in Terengganu, Malaysia in 2016, the study investigates how access to microcredit affects SME sales and employment growth. Employing the Propensity Score Matching method (PSM), the study showed that SMEs with microcredit borrowing had their sales 25.6% to 25.7% higher than nonmicrocredit borrowers. After minimizing the selection bias from both observable and unobservable characteristics using Differences in Differences method (DID), the difference was much larger (28.7%). However, both PSM and DID analyses revealed no impact of microcredit access on SME employment growth. The Endogenous Switching Regression method (ESR) confirmed these findings.

Mujeeb Saif Mohsen Al-Absy · Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail · Sitraselvi Chandren · Shehabaddin Abdullah A. Al-Dubai ·Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business ·2020 ·JEL: M40, M41, M42, M48

This paper investigates the effect of the involvement of the board chairman in the audit committee (AC) on earnings management (EM). It examines Bursa Malaysia-listed companies with the lowest positive earnings for the years 2013 to 2015. The Modified Jones Model by Kasznik (1999) was used to determine discretionary accruals. An AC that includes its board chairman as an ordinary member is associated with greater discretionary accruals. However, a board chairman who is also the chairman of the AC does not seem to influence discretionary accruals. This paper supports the agency theory and policy-makers’ efforts to prevent board chairmen from sitting on ACs. It is the first study that uses the agency theory to describe the association between the board chairman’s involvement in the both AC and EM. This study alerts policy-makers, stakeholders and researchers to the influence of a board chairman serving on the AC in curbing EM. Furthermore, it provides empirical evidence that the majority of Malaysian companies whose board chairmen are involved in the AC appoint the chairman as an ordinary member of the AC. This indicates that executive directors may affect such actions. Hence, more policies are needed to improve AC independence.

Azadeh Hadian · Cahit Adaoglu ·Journal of Asian Economics ·2020 ·JEL: F30, G32

This study examines the value effects of financial and operational hedging in a managed floating exchange rate regime with strict limitations on the trading of Malaysian Ringgit for a sample of 109 Malaysian multinationals from 2004–2018. Using Tobin’s Q as a proxy for company value, the two-step system GMM estimation results show that, on average, derivatives hedging creates a value premium range of 7.88–8.21 % in the short-run, and 18.81–19.80 % in the long-run. This value premium emerged both after controlling for non-operational foreign exchange profits (losses), and its two components: transaction and translation profits (losses). In contrast, foreign debt hedging, on average, creates a value discount range of 8.19–8.54 % in the short-run and 12.70–13.12 % in the long-run. No evidence shows value effect for operational hedging though. The positive value effect of derivatives hedging should motivate managers of Malaysian multinationals to hedge foreign currency exposure through derivatives and encourage policymakers to take steps in developing derivatives market and products. However, the negative value effect of foreign debt hedging indicates that it destroys value. This negative effect might reflect two potential causes; higher company risk due to FC debt financing, and improper hedging practices including high costs of hedging in the underdeveloped derivatives market. These potential causes need further empirical evaluations.