UNIMAS Journal (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak)
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Financial Sources and Firms’ Innovation Outputs: Analysis of JASDAQ Market
Get PDFThe consensus that innovation is an essential strategy for firms, which aim to competitively survive over the long term, motivates growing literature to understand the drivers of firms’ innovation outputs. It is widely acknowledged that access to financial sources is fundamentally important for the survival of innovative firms. The lack of financial support may prevent the firms from entirely pursuing innovation activity and producing innovative outputs. However, this is rarely addressed in the finance literature. Focusing on both types of financing sources (internal and external), this study investigates their influence on firms’ innovation outputs. Leveraging on the spirit in Pecking Order Theory, this study proposes that firms adopt a hierarchy between types of financing from internal or self-financing to external, starting from low risk to risky debts and followed by the issuance of shares on their efforts in financing innovation and producing the outputs. Poisson regression results, using a sample of 113 manufacturing firms listed in JASDAQ market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, revealed that both financing sources (internal and external) are important in driving volume and value of firms’ innovation outputs. However, the reliance of firms on self-generated financing conquers. This study, using patent-based data (application, publication, citation) to estimate firms’ technology outputs, also finds the complementary power of debt financing as an important financial source, particularly when firms’ internal financing source has exhausted. The findings of this study offer support to the assertion in the Pecking Order Theory concerning the risk inherited in the different financing sources
State-Owned Holding Company and Value of Cash Holdings in Vietnam
Get PDFOwnership structure, which specifies the owners of the firm, is crucial to corporate governance as it one of the foundation explanation sources of agency conflicts. Roles and impacts of different corporate owners on corporate governance have been studied worldwide, but are not as popular for the role of a State-Owned Holding Company (SOH) as a model of state capital investment agency. This study examines the role of SOH in the management and governance of listed companies with state capital in Vietnam through cash holdings models. SOH-linked companies (SLCs) are found to hold more cash and the shareholders appreciate the cash hold by the SLCs as robust to the firms’ characteristics. SOH ownership significantly increases the value of cash holding, and the better value of cash holdings in SLCs is supposed to be a result coming from good corporate governance. This study contributes to the literature of ownership structure and corporate governance and provides evidence for SOH as a positive ownership and monitoring mechanism in improving corporate governance and firm performance in companies with state-owned capital in Vietnam
Indonesian Islamic Bank Credibility and Customer Loyalty: Does Customer Satisfaction Really Serve as a Mediator Variable?
Get PDFThis research examined the influence of credibility on customer satisfaction and loyalty and to know whether the satisfaction mediated the credibility effects on customer loyalty of Islamic Banks in Indonesia or not. This study used primary data taken by distributing questionnaires to 280 respondents using a purposive sampling technique. The method of data analysis was Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using Amos. The results indicated that the credibility of Indonesian Islamic banks significantly influenced customer satisfaction, Customer satisfaction significantly influenced customer loyalty, and Customer satisfaction could mediate the effect of credibility on customer loyalty. Then, credibility did not directly affect customer loyalty at Islamic banks but indirectly influenced customer loyalty. This research can be meaningful for universities to develop curricula, lecturers to develop teaching materials, students as references, Islamic banks to improve policies to increase customer loyalty, and central banks to develop regulations related to customers. Besides, in this research, the models of Islamic bank credibility, customer satisfaction, and loyalty were presented comprehensively and completely
The Exogenous Shock of General Elections: Politically Connected Firms and Stock Price Crash Risk
Get PDFMalaysia experienced unusual political turmoil during the general elections in 2008 (GE 2008) and 2013 (GE 2013). This study examines how such exogenous political shocks affect the stock price crash risk of politically connected firms (PCFs) compared to non-PCFs in Malaysia. The data for this study covers from the year 2002 to 2017. A balanced panel of 529 firms from 2002-2017 is used for analysis. This study finds that PCFs display a significantly lower stock price crash risk after GE 2008 and GE 2013 but not before GE 2008. However, the results are only applicable to the PCFs through the politically connected board of directors and businessmen. Further analysis reveals that increasing foreign (government) strategic free float shareholdings result in lower stock price crash risk of PCFs through the politically connected board of directors (government direct shareholdings). Our results provide several perspectives on the connection between stock price crash risk and political stability
Effect of Cow Urine on the Biochemical and Microbial Properties of Cow Dung Derived Biogas Slurry
Get PDFBiogas slurry (BGS) is an anaerobic digested organic material that can be used as an organic fertiliser. As cow urine (CU) is rich in plant nutrients, it may be used as diluting agent in biogas production to enhance the fertiliser quality of BGS. To explore the potency of CU on the fertiliser quality of BGS, four experimental trials were constructed by mixing cow dung (CD) and CU in varying proportion designated as T0 (50% CD + 50% Water) as control, T1 (50% CD + 50% CU), T2 (40% CD + 60% CU), T3 (30% CD + 70% CU) for biogas production. The quality of BGS was evaluated by studying its biochemical and microbial properties. The enzymatic activities revealed that all the CU amended samples showed better activities than control and were increased with the increase in CU. Compared to the control, the increase in urease, protease and phosphatase activities were 11.6% to 64.6%, 4.6% to 29.6% and 22.1% to 50.0%, respectively while cellulase activities were decreased from 25.9% to 3.1%. Most of the bacterial populations also increased in CU amended samples; total bacteria (TB) 20% to 60%, phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) 33% to 67% and nitrogen fixing bacteria (NFB) 0% to 33%. Phytohormone, indole acetic acid (IAA) content and glycemic index (GI) were also increased with increase in CU (IAA- 23.5% to 59.5% and GI- 6.2% to 100.5%). With respect to all parameters analysed, CU amended samples can be considered superior to the control one except for their cellulase activities. Thus, utilization of cow urine improves the quality of BGS as organic fertiliser. This finding will help in reducing environmental pollution by utilizing hazardous cow urine as well as improving fertiliser quality of biogas slurry for agronomic use
Asymmetric Effects of Trade Openness on Malaysian Fish Trade Balance
Get PDFAlthough Malaysia is a small open economy surrounded by the ocean, it still experiences a critical fish trade deficit. This study examines the nonlinear effects of trade openness on Malaysian fish trade balance from 1976 to 2016, using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) approach. The other independent variables applied in the model are the exchange rate and domestic income. Findings show that the variables are cointegrated. In the long-run, positive change in trade openness has a significant negative effect on the trade balance. The emphasis of the study is also placed on shreds of evidence of the long-run and short-run asymmetric effects of trade openness. Domestic income and depreciation of the exchange rate offer significant positive impacts on the trade balance. In the short-run, all the variables yield an opposite effect. The outcome of the exchange rate supports the J-curve effect and the Marshall-Lerner condition. This research may help the policymakers and traders to have a better understanding of the sector and thus develop suitable long-term strategies to improve the fish trade balance
The Moderating Role of Anxiety in the Relationship between the Perceived Benefits, Online Trust and Personal Information Disclosure in Online Shopping
Get PDFThe e-commerce market in Vietnam has shifted in a positive direction in recent years, typically due to the continuous increase in buyers, sellers, and online transactions. This study aims to understand the moderating effect of anxiety on the relationship between perceived mental benefits, online trust, and personal information disclosure when dealing with e-commerce sites. The phenomenological research with eight e-commerce experts and a survey of 917 respondents were made to achieve research objectives. The result showed a positive relationship between perceived mental benefits, online trust, and personal information disclosure. Moreover, there were differences between the study's components under anxiety level (low, medium, high). Some implications are also proposed based on research results
Rural Residents’ Perceptions on the Poverty Alleviation and Governance in Sarawak, Malaysia
Get PDFPoverty alleviation has continuously become one of the main concerns of the socio-economic policy worldwide. This crucial phenomenon is bounded on necessity toward monetary and comprehends by social, economic, political, and physiological aspects. In Malaysia, although the New Economic Policy in 1971 has succeeded in reducing the country's poverty incident, poverty's pocket continues to exist with high incidences of poverty among specific ethnic groups and localities. For instance, rural poverty among the Iban community in Sarawak has occurred since Malaysian independence. Therefore, this paper examines the rural residents' perceptions of the State's role in poverty alleviation in Sarawak using a qualitative approach. Findings revealed that although the government has various programs to alleviate poverty, the social assistance related to poverty was not efficiently distributed in Sarawak's rural areas. This study also revealed that a lack of social infrastructures, such as road accessibility, has significantly influenced social assistance's efficiency distribution in rural areas
Cashless Payments and Banking Performances: A Study of Local Commercial Banks in Malaysia
Get PDFThe banking industry plays a facilitatory role in moving toward a cashless society. This study investigates the impacts of cashless payments (ATM, internet banking, mobile banking, credit card, debit card, charge card and e-money) on banking performance for eight local commercial banks in Malaysia over the period of 2005 to 2018. The findings show that cashless payments are positively related to the return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) of banks, except e-money. Furthermore, the study demonstrates cashless payments have improved the cost-to-income ratio of banks, except ATMs. Meanwhile, this study disaggregates the sample into subperiod analysis to further examine the transition effect of cashless payments on banks’ performance. The results show that banks’ profitability performance is mainly driven by the usage of cashless payments in the first wave of progressive development, while cashless payments do not show progressive impact on banks’ efficiency performance. This suggests that cashless payments do not add value to banks’ performances in the long run
The Moderating Role of Organisational Support Towards Achieving a Good Work-Life Balance in the New Normal: A Malaysian Lecturers’ Perspective
Get PDFThis study aims to examine the role of organisational support as a moderator in the relationship between emotional intelligence, job engagement, and the work-life balance of Malaysian lecturers. A quantitative approach with a structured questionnaire was used for data collection and it was distributed to the randomly selected population of lecturers via their respective emails. The sample of this study consisted of 132 lecturers from public and private universities in Malaysia. Descriptive statistics and statistical inference were conversant in analysing the correlation and multiple regression using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25.0. The finding concludes that an increase in emotional intelligence and job engagement further increases the ability of the lecturer to achieve a good work-life balance. The results also indicate that organisational support does not affect the relationship between emotional intelligence, job engagement, and work-life balance. Besides, the study failed to find the influence of organisational support as a moderator on the work-life balance among lecturers in Malaysia. The implication of the study is crucial for institutions and management to be alert to the situational needs of the lecturers to ensure work and life expectations are optimised without ignoring other variables