All Research

Helena Varkkey · Adam Tyson · Shofwan Al Banna Choiruzzad ·Forest Policy and Economics ·2018

Intensification and expansion are two essential tenets of commercial agriculture. This paper analyses trends of intensification and expansion at the national level, particularly in the oil palm sector in Indonesia and Malaysia. Despite similar starting points and also comparable rates of increasing productivity and profit in this sector, both countries have developed almost opposite trajectories of land use. While both intensification and expansion has occurred in these countries, national indicators show that Malaysia has largely pursued intensification while Indonesia has overwhelmingly favoured expansion. Using the framework of the Jevons paradox, this paper contributes to the existing literature by arguing how and why political and social factors, rather than technology and market incentives, can better account for the differences between yield and land use efficiency in Indonesia and Malaysia today. The paper argues that expansion in Malaysia has been curtailed by the Malaysian government's pledge to maintain at least 50% forest cover in the late 1990s, coupled with a government supported corporate strategy of establishing plantations in Indonesia. Indonesia has made no such pledge, leading to expansionist policies focused on market creation and production goals with limited incentives for technology-driven intensification. It also notes however that in recent years, new socio-political developments in both countries may yet change this clear dichotomy of opposing land use strategies between these two countries, namely Sarawak's recent autonomous tendencies over land use and Indonesia's new leadership and international No Deforestation Peat and Exploitation (NDPE) commitments.

Rosnani Mohamad · Suhaiza Ismail · Julia Mohd Said ·Journal of Asia Business Studies ·2018

Purpose The objectives of this present study are twofold. First, it aims to investigate the performance objectives of PPP implementation in Malaysia. Second, it aims to examine the differences in the perceptions of two PPP key players – the public and private sectors – pertaining to the performance objectives. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was used to elicit the perceptions of the public and private sectors concerning the performance objectives of PPP projects in Malaysia; 237 usable responses were obtained and analysed using SPSS to rank the importance of the performance objectives and to examine the differences in the perceptions between the government and private sectors. Findings The results reveal that the five most important performance objectives for PPP implementation in Malaysia based on overall respondents’ perceptions are “High-quality public service”, “Provide convenient service for society”, “Within or under budget”, “On-time or earlier” and “Satisfy the need for more public facilities”. As for differences in the perceptions of the two key players, only one objective was perceived as statistically more important by the public sector respondents than by their private sector counterparts. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is that it not only provides empirical evidence for the performance objectives for PPP implementation in Malaysia, but also offers evidence concerning the differences in the perceptions of the public and private sectors pertaining to the performance objectives.

Kim-Leng Goh · Nai-peng Tey ·China; cooperation; investment; Malaysia; trade ·2018

Many studies on income disparities in Malaysia tend to use household data, focus on mean income, and ignore the distribution of income. The linkage to some of the characteristics of the individuals has not been examined. Using nationally representative data at the individual level, this paper shows empirically that the impact of demographic and socio-economic variables on income varies according to different income quantiles. The results of quantile regression suggest that education has a u-shaped effect on income among the graduates. Age and some occupational categories have stronger effects on income differentials at the top end of income distribution. On the other hand, the differentials attributed to gender, ethnicity and employment sector tend to decline as income level rises.

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.

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.

Chwee Ming Tee ·Journal of Multinational Financial Management ·2018 ·JEL: G30; G32; G34; P26

This study extends prior work on the relationship between politically connected firms (PCFs) and the cost of debt in Malaysia. Motivated by the results of Bliss and Gul (2012), this study employs a longer and comprehensive dataset to re-examine the association between PCFs and the cost of debt. First, political connections are associated with lower cost of debt. Second, CEO duality is associated with higher cost of debt. Third, higher audit committee independence leads to lower cost of debt. Although the results are intuitive and in line with established theories and prior evidence, they differ from the findings of Bliss and Gul (2012). Overall, we provide further evidence that studies examining the influence of political connections on firm outcomes should employ a longer period of study in order to capture the dynamic changes in leadership.

Scott A. McDonald · Amirah Azzeri (University of Malaya · Fatiha Hana Shabaruddin · Maznah Dahlui · Soek S. Tan · Adeeba Kamarulzaman · Rosmawati Mohamed ·Applied Health Economics and Health Policy ·2018

Introduction The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set ambitious goals to reduce the global disease burden associated with, and eventually eliminate, viral hepatitis. Objective To assist with achieving these goals and to inform the development of a national strategic plan for Malaysia, we estimated the long-term burden incurred by the care and management of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We compared cumulative healthcare costs and disease burden under different treatment cascade scenarios. Methods We attached direct costs for the management/care of chronically HCV-infected patients to a previously developed clinical disease progression model. Under assumptions regarding disease stage-specific proportions of model-predicted HCV patients within care, annual numbers of patients initiated on antiviral treatment and distribution of treatments over stage, we projected the healthcare costs and disease burden [in disability-adjusted life-years (DALY)] in 2018–2040 under four treatment scenarios: (A) no treatment/baseline; (B) pre-2018 standard of care (pegylated interferon/ribavirin); (C) gradual scale-up in direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment uptake that does not meet the WHO 2030 treatment uptake target; (D) scale-up in DAA treatment uptake that meets the WHO 2030 target. Results Scenario D, while achieving the WHO 2030 target and averting 253,500 DALYs compared with the pre-2018 standard of care B, incurred the highest direct patient costs over the period 2018–2030: US$890 million (95% uncertainty interval 653–1271). When including screening programme costs, the total cost was estimated at US$952 million, which was 12% higher than the estimated total cost of scenario C. Conclusions The scale-up to meet the WHO 2030 target may be achievable with appropriately high governmental commitment to the expansion of HCV screening to bring sufficient undiagnosed chronically infected patients into the treatment pathway.

Nor Azimah Chew Abdullah (Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)) · Nazlina Zakaria (Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)) ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2018

This study aims to investigate factors like driving anger, support for counter measures and situational factors affect drivers’ driving behavior. One important reason for studying driver’s aggression is that it has been cited as a frequent contributing factor in traffic collisions. The sample size was collected using convenience sampling as the actual number of driver who drove to work around all the targeted area cannot be identified by the Road Transport Department. The questionnaires were given to the driver who passed the targeted area during normal day. Further sample was taken from participants from commuting accidents and safety and health seminars. The data analysis was done using statistical analysis from the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0. Analysis of data was done using correlation and multiple regressions to test the hypotheses. The results revealed a positive relationship between driving anger, situational factors and driving behavior. Results of regression showed that driving anger, support for counter measure and situational factors influenced driving behavior. Thus, it is suggested for future research to identify more factors that will affect driving behavior. Thus, the study contributes by providing other potentials antecedents for aggressive driving which includes attitudes, styles and habits of driving.

Moau Yong Toh · Christopher Gan · Zhaohua Li ·Emerging Markets Finance and Trade ·2018 ·JEL: E44; G10; G21

This article examines the impact of stock market liquidity on bank liquidity creation in Malaysia. Our results indicate that a stock market enhances the liquidity creation of banks both on and off the banks’ balance sheets when the market liquidity increases. Further analysis shows that the positive impact of stock market liquidity is evident on the liquidity creation of publicly listed banks as the banks’ cost of equity finance becomes cheaper. Our results are robust to the influence of the 2008 financial crisis and different estimation methods. Our results refute the traditional view that increased stock market liquidity “steals” banks’ business and crowds out bank liquidity creation.

Gabriel M.S.Vianna · Mark G.Meekan · Abbie A.Rogers (The University of Western Australia · Marit E.Kragt · James M.Alin · Johanna S.Zimmerhackel ·Marine Policy ·2018

This study estimated the economic value of the shark-diving industry in Semporna, the most popular diving destination of Malaysia, by surveying the expenditures of diving tourists and dive operators through the region. A willingness-to-pay survey was also used to estimate the potential of the industry as a financing mechanism for enforcement and management of a hypothetical Marine Protected Area (MPA) to conserve shark populations. The study showed that in 2012, shark-diving tourism provided direct revenues in excess of USD 9.8 million to the Semporna region. These economic benefits had a flow-on effect, generating more than USD 2 million in direct taxes to the government and USD 1.4 million in salaries to the community. A contingent valuation analysis indicated that implementation of a fee paid by divers could generate over USD 2 million for management and enforcement of the MPA each year. These findings suggest that shark diving is an important contributor to the economy of the Semporna region that could be used as a mechanism to assist financial resourcing for management and conservation strategies.

Junaina Muhammad · Mohamed Hisham Dato' hj Yahya · Sabarina Mohammed Shah · Mohammad Mizanur Rahman ·Asian Economic and Financial Review ·2018

Islamic financial market is the growing innovation of global financial market which moves together with conventional and sectorial counterpart in many countries. As the fastest growing investment component, Shariah compliant stock index in Bursa Malaysia has picked up positive momentum and attracted more attention to the investors, policy makers, issuers and researchers. The main objective of this study is to investigate the co-movement between Shariah compliant stock and sectorial stocks indexes performance in Bursa Malaysia using a standard time series techniques. For understanding a long run and short run co-movement among the Shariah compliant stock index, composite stock index and sectorial stock indexes, a co-integration approach, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) have been applied respectively in this study. In addition, Granger causality test have been adopted to determine the lead-lag relationship. The findings show that in the long run, Shariah compliant index stock price and sectorial indexes stock price move together but in short run, speed of adjustment varies among the variables. Ganger causality test shows that there are bidirectional, unidirectional and no causality relationships between Shariah compliant and sectorial indexes.

Tulus Suryanto · Muhammad Haseeb · Nira Hariyatie Hartani (Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)) ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2018

Over all businesses are ever changing competition environment, organization are always required to make modification internally and externally to compete globally successfully into marketplace. Supply chain management is key sources for firms to gaining superior performance. The basic purpose of this paper is to examine the level of association between the two indicators management support and their organization learning with the concept of green supply chain management environment. Supply chain is globally increasingly important concerns for all business and challenge for them are logistics management. Total quality management (TQM) and environmental management come from firm’s experiences and procedure of organizational learnings. This study computed positive significant relationship with organizational learning mechanism; support of organization and GSCM practices adopted controlled variables from organizations size, regulations of country perspective, cost pressure by organization, practices of industry at different levels. Over all findings and implications of logistics management are discussed.

Mui-Yin Chin · Chin-Hong Puah · Cia-Ling Teo · Justina Joseph ·International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy ·2018 ·JEL: F18; F43; Q43

In light of the deterioration of environmental quality, this study aims to identify the determinants of CO2 emissions in Malaysia using the autoregressive distributed lag and the decomposition-type threshold methods. This study signifies that economic growth is the main contributor to CO2 emissions which is in line with the theory of the Environmental Kuznets Curve curve. Meanwhile, this study also confirms that vertical intra-industry trade between Malaysia and China together with the bilateral FDI from China to Malaysia are the significant determinants of CO2 emissions in Malaysia. As such, this study suggests that the Malaysian government should monitor the implementation of the green growth strategy to enhance the sustainability of the economic and trade growth without compromising environmental quality

Stany Wee Lian Fong · Tan Pei Kian · Yeo Sook Fern · Soh Long Quan ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2018

Travellers today tend to believe more on peer reviews in selecting tourism products and services instead of information provided by the businesses. With the rise of communication technologies such as Web 2.0, there is pool of opinions on hotels, tourism destinations, and even travel services that are expressed from the perspective of consumer consumption in the internet. As online review becomes an important source for travellers to evaluate the quality of hospitality services, only hoteliers that take advantage of online review are able to attract the attention of travellers that utilize the digital channel for information searching. The increment of hotels and rooms in Malaysia has somehow exceed the increment of tourist arrivals in the recent years. Hoteliers are worried that the supply would go beyond the demand in the future with the continuous growth of hotels but average occupancy rate remains at 62 to 63 percent. Thus, this study aims to examine the causal relationship between the attributes of the online consumer reviews and the online hotel booking intention specifically in Malaysia context. 200 survey responses were collected from local travellers that have at least once booked hotel through online method. The results show that usefulness (t = 3.478, p < 0.01), valence (t = 2.462, p < 0.05), and timeliness (t = 2.145, p < 0.05) of the online consumer review significantly affect the online hotel booking intention in Malaysia. This findings provide an insight to hoteliers on how to manage and improve the online consumer reviews that are accessible.

Md Fauzi Ahmad (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Khor Chun Hoong (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Norhadilah Abdul Hamid (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Norliana Sarpin (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Rozlin Zainal (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Ahmad Nur Aizat Ahmad (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Mohd Fahrul Hassan (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)) · Mohd Nasrun Mohd Nawi (Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)) ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2018

New product design and process design are vital aspects for a company to survive in in global competition market. Product design determines in the success of a company through how product design can accomplish in today's marketplace and customer needs. Nevertheless, many new products which have been developed from research and development fail to compete in global market due to product performance issue such as quality, cost and delivery. Besides, many new product design is not capable to match with the process design and machine capability in production process. The objective of this paper is to identify the relationship between new product design and new product process design towards new product performance in manufacturing industry. Random sampling techniques have been used by distributing questionnaire to 400 companies in Malaysia manufacturing sector. 80 companies had replied with the respond rate of 20%. The result shows that the extent level of new product design and process design are moderate and high level respectively. Furthermore, there is a significant relationship between new product process design and new product performance (r(80) = 0.570, p < 0.05). However, there are no significant relationships between new product design and new product performance (r(80) = 0.092, p > 0.05). The study is important to gain insight on the effect of new product design and new product process design towards new product performance.