UNIMAS Journal (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak)
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MAPPING TRENDS IN INFORMATION ASYMMETRY RESEARCH: A BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY
Full text linkThis study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of information asymmetry research from 1979 to February 2024, focusing on subject areas within Economics, Econometrics, and Finance; Business, Management, and Accounting; and Social Sciences. Utilizing tools such as biblioMagika, OpenRefine, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel, we examine the publication landscape, identify prolific contributors, and highlight influential journals and highly cited documents. Key findings reveal the dominance of the United States in both quantity and impact of publications, with notable emerging contributions from countries like China. Journals such as the Journal of Accounting and Economics and Economics Letters are pivotal sources for information asymmetry research. The co-occurrence analysis uncovers core themes such as adverse-selection costs, signalling, and corporate governance. Temporal analysis indicates a shift towards topics like investment efficiency and firm value in recent years. This study also identifies research gaps, suggesting opportunities for future studies to address underexplored areas. Overall, this research provides a foundational understanding of information asymmetry, guiding future scholarly inquiries and practical applications
Towards A Sustainable Growth: How Environmental, Social And Governance (ESG) Factors And Firm Attributes Drive Financial Success In The FTSE4G Bursa Malaysia Firms.
No full textIn recent years, there has been growing interest in the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions and assessing firm performance. This study examines the impact of ESG factors and firm characteristics on financial performance of 96 firms listed on FTSE4G Bursa Malaysia between the years 2014 and 2022. The study applies four models using the integration of accounting-based measurements, namely, net profit margin, return on assets, return on equity, and Tobin’s q. This study yielded mixed findings. Firstly, it revealed a positive relationship between ESG factors and financial performance, which was measured using Tobin’s q. Nevertheless, the impact of ESG factors on net profit margin, return on assets and return on equity are insignificant. This indicates the increased importance of ESG factors in the process of making investment decisions and assessing the value of the market. Furthermore, Tobin’s q possesses a distinctive characteristic as it measures a company’s market value relative to traditional financial performance metrics. Secondly, the study found that the impact of ESG factors is minimal on financial performance, including Tobin’s q. It indicates there are potential trade-offs between short-term financial impact and long-term ESG goals in the firm. This study suggests that firms should be incentivised to integrate corporate strategy and investment decisions
MARKETING BOYCOTT MODEL IN INDONESIA: A STUDY USING SOCIAL IDENTITY AND PLANNED BEHAVIOR THEORIES
No full textThis paper explores the role of self-identity expressiveness and social-identity expressiveness within the framework of marketing boycotts of products perceived to be affiliated with Israel in Indonesia. An extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), incorporating a broader range of identity and social influences, is developed and tested. The sample size consists of 571 individuals from Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi. Purposive sampling was employed for data collection. The data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM) with IBM SPSS AMOS software. As hypothesized, self-identity expressiveness and social-identity expressiveness are significant determinants of behavioral intentions. The paper also examines the relationships between self-identity expressiveness and attitude, and between social-identity expressiveness and subjective norm. The results show that the concept of subjective norm alone is sufficient to capture the broad range of identity and social influences driving behavioral intentions. Implications for marketing managers and scholars are discussed.
Keywords: social-identity expressiveness; self-identity expressiveness; marketing boycott; Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB
SOCIAL SECURITIES SCHEME, FINANCIAL INCLUSION, AND ITS IMPACT ON POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN INDONESIA: CASE OF ZAKAT RECIPIENT
Full text linkThis study examines the impact of social security’s programs, and financial inclusion on poverty alleviation and household consumption in Indonesia. The samples of this study is 2835 zakat recipient in 25 of 34 provinces in Indonesia. Using panel regression analysis, the research explores key variables, including the Family Welfare Deposit (Kartu Keluarga Sejahtera, KKS), Family Hope Program (Program Keluarga Harapan, PKH), Non-Cash Food Assistance (Bantuan Pangan Non-Tunai, BPNT), Social Health Insurance (ASKES), and financial inclusion indicators such as bank account ownership, mobile phone usage, and digital payment adoption. The findings reveal that PKH and BPNT significantly reduce poverty, and promoting total household consumption. It revealed their effectiveness in addressing immediate needs and improving welfare. Financial inclusion variables, particularly mobile phone usage and digital payments, also show positive effects on consumption but mixed results on poverty measures, suggesting the need for broader accessibility and digital literacy. Comparisons with prior studies underscore the consistency of social protection programs as tools for poverty eradication, while emphasizing the complementary role of financial inclusion in fostering long-term economic resilience. The study recommends enhancing digital financial services, expanding the coverage of social protection programs, and especially integrating with Kampung Zakat program as sustainable strategies to strengthen their impact on poverty alleviation and economic development
WHY GO THE EXTRA MILE FOR APPLE? A DIVE INTO BRAND LOVE AND BRAND JEALOUSY
Full text linkShifting brand strategies increasingly emphasize fostering emotional connections, such as brand love and brand jealousy, to enhance consumers’ willingness to pay a premium. Although extensive research has examined these emotional constructs, their relevance in the “masstige” context—brands that combine mass appeal with prestige, exemplified by Apple—remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by investigating how brand experience and self-expressiveness act as antecedents to brand love and brand jealousy, which subsequently influence willingness to pay a premium, framed through the lens of attribution theory. Data were collected from 378 Indonesian Apple users through offline and online surveys and analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling with AMOS software version 24. The results demonstrate that brand experience significantly strengthens both brand love and brand jealousy, thereby enhancing consumer-brand relationships. While self-expressiveness also contributes to both emotional constructs, its impact is comparatively weaker than that of brand experience. Both brand love and brand jealousy were found to positively influence consumers’ willingness to pay a premium. This study presents a comprehensive model linking emotional bonds to consumer spending behavior in the masstige context, providing actionable insights for brand managers to enhance emotional connections and drive premium pricing strategies
ASSESSING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PURCHASE INTENTION TOWARD THE ECO-FRIENDLY STATIONERY: THE MODERATION ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN
Full text linkSustainable products like eco-friendly stationery have gained much attention recently due to the increasing awareness and consciousness of consumers towards environmental issues. Numerous sustainable products have been studied in the literature but very limited studies have primarily concentrated on eco-friendly stationery from the perspective of university students. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the factors that affect Malaysian university students’ purchase intention (PI) towards eco-friendly stationery. Two environmental factors (perceived environmental responsibility (PER) and environmental knowledge (EK)) have been incorporated into the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model together with environmental concern (EC) proposed as a moderator to develop this study’s research model. In this study, 261 usable responses were gathered via purposive sampling. This study utilised the partial least square-structural equation modelling to validate the proposed hypotheses. The result first showed that attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SN), and PER played significant roles in affecting students’ PI towards eco-friendly stationery. Additionally, the moderation analysis further revealed that the influence of SN on PI is significantly strengthened by EC. These findings signified that the students’ PI is directly impacted by ATT, SN and PER only, while the greater EC tends to further enhance the effect of SN on PI. This study’s findings firstly enrich the literature by offering new evidence on the students’ sustainable behaviour, especially in eco-friendly stationery. Besides, the moderating effect of EC on sustainable behaviour is also proven in this study. Moreover, numerous practical implications have also been resulting from this study and it’s useful for the stakeholders to cultivate the students’ sustainable behaviour
TOURIST VOICES ON TWITTER: SENTIMENT AND TOPIC ANALYSIS FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN PENANG
Full text linkThis research aims to analyse the opinions expressed in tweets about a tourism destination in Malaysia and elucidate the dominant topics discussed on Twitter. This research examines tourist sentiment on a Malaysian destination from a sustainability perspective by analysing 18,018 tweets, collected from November 9, 2021, to January 9, 2022, using Lexicon-based sentiment analysis for polarity detection and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for topic modelling. Results revealed that 46% of sentiments were positive, 39% were neutral, and 15% were negative. Tourists primarily discussed food, tourist spots, events, hotels, traffic, and driver attitudes. Core tourism services received positive feedback, whereas additional fees were noted as less favourable. The integration of sentiment analysis and LDA enables a nuanced understanding of tourist experiences, providing actionable insights for policymakers and businesses to enhance sustainable tourism practices and optimize resource management in Penang
Recognition of Sesquiterpenoids and Piperidine Alkamides as Two Discerning Metabolite Classes in the Fruits of Piper nigrum 'Semongok Aman'
Full text linkThe Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB) has recommended the plantation of three over seven Piper nigrum L. cultivars, owing to their beneficial agronomic traits. Currently, distinction between the cultivars is assessed based on morphological characters. The MPB has also proposed the concept of monovarietal farm, which is believed to have the potential of strengthening the quality of pepper in the global market. However, there remains a need for a fair assessment of the specialised metabolites’ variation among P. nigrum cultivars in search of a cultivar with distinctive metabolites profile, which may be the most suitable candidate for the application of such concept. We hereby describe revised protocols aimed at minimising the oxidation of the fruits of five P. nigrum cultivars and reducing the experimental run time that allowed utilisation of the same samples in GC-MS and 1H-NMR metabolomics. Subsequently, feature-based molecular network (FBMN) was used to verify the patterns observed in the principal component analysis (PCA) of the 1H-NMR and GC-MS data. PCA of both datasets revealed that the clustering pattern of the five cultivars paralleled the origin of their parent plants, with the genetically more similar cultivars, 'Kuching', 'Semongok Emas', 'India', and 'Yong Petai', being closer to each other compared to 'Semongok Aman'. 'Semongok Aman' was found to contain a higher abundance of the sesquiterpenoids germacrene B and γ-elemene, as well as the piperidine alkamides piperine and its isomers. FBMN further highlighted the higher abundance of the two metabolite classes in the fruits of 'Semongok Aman'. 'Semongok Aman' might be a suitable cultivar for the implementation of monovarietal pepper farm concept owing to its distinctive metabolite profile
Modelling of Schiff Base Vanillin Derivatives Targeting Streptococcus Pneumoniae Bacterial Neuraminidase
Full text linkStreptococcus pneumoniae is a pathogenic bacterium which has led to serious pneumococcal infections. Despite the fact that efficient therapeutic agents and vaccinations are available for the treatment of Streptococcus pneumoniae infections, more strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae have acquired significant resistance towards the available antibiotics. The neuraminidase of Streptococcus pneumoniae possess significant contribution in pathogenesis, aiding the release and spread of virus. Simultaneously, Schiff base vanillin derivatives were reported in past literature for their great deal of potential as inhibitors of influenza virus neuraminidase. Hence, the research aims to evaluate the inhibitory activity of Schiff base vanillin derivatives against Streptococcus pneumoniae neuraminidase via ligand-based pharmacophore modelling and structure-based molecular docking using LigandScout 4.4.9 and AutoDock 4.2. Ligand-based pharmacophore modelling was performed to analyse the anti-neuraminidase activity of Schiff base vanillin derivatives based on their pharmacophore fit values and matching pharmacophore features with a pharmacophore model, generated from a list of training sets, which are reported drugs against Streptococcus pneumoniae neuraminidase. In structure-based molecular docking, the Schiff base vanillin derivatives were evaluated based on their docking performances with the active sites of the crystal structure of PDB:2YA8. Evaluations were based on their pharmacophore scores, binding affinity and matching interactions with the inhibitory ligand of 2YA8. 20 out of 21 Schiff base vanillin derivatives successfully show good results in ligand-based pharmacophore modelling, as well as satisfying docking performances in structure-based molecular docking. Furthermore, they also fulfill the Lipinski’s Rule of 5, thus displaying appreciable potential as inhibitors of Streptococcus pneumoniae neuraminidase
Microplastic Quantification in Meretrix lyrata through Rapid Screening Method using Nile Red
Full text linkMicroplastic have emerged as a significant form of plastic pollution. Many ingestions in biota were reported worldwide. Filter feeder such as bivalves are prone to microplastic ingestion due to the non-selective feeding behavior. Shellfish are usually consumed as whole, without gut removal, which can pose a threat towards human consumption. Meretrix lyrata was chosen in this study to investigate the rate of microplastic ingestion under two factors: size class and harvesting seasons. This will be the first documentation of microplastic ingestion in M. lyrata using a rapid screening approach. Rapid screening approach is using fluorescent tagging on microplastic for biota samples in microplastic quantification. All samples (n = 81) in this study were positive with microplastic ingestion. A total of 15,867 microplastic were quantified, with the average microplastic ingestion of 195.90 ± 43.6 microplasticindividuals-1. Smaller sized clam tended to ingest more microplastic compared to larger sized clams but no significant differences (p = 0.05) in microplastic ingestion were observed according to harvesting season. Polyvinylchloride, polypropylene with silicate mix, resin dispersion and polydimethylsiloxane were identified. Microplastics pose threats by carrying toxic substances, causing harmful behavioral changes in marine life, damaging health when combined with contaminants, and increasing human exposure through contaminated seafood. Result from this study indicate that habitats for M. lyrata have pervasive microplastic pollution and raise the issue of high microplastic uptake in humans via M. lyrata consumption