UNIMAS Journal (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak)
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‘Relative Social Standing’: Reference Group Effect on Wealth Accumulation – An Experimental Approach
Get PDFThis study intends to find the effect of reference group influence on wealth accumulation using a lab experiment. Specifically, it seeks to find the link between the scores of the participants in the experiment and the effect of comparison with their chosen referents. The effect of comparison with reference group that contributes to wealth accumulation is termed ‘Relative Social Standing’. 220 university students were recruited and assigned randomly to treatment or control group. A game is used as the activity to produce a measurable outcome which is the number of coins obtained. The treatment group was allowed to view the scores of coins obtained by their referents before the game while the control group did not view any score of others. The difference of outcome between these two groups are attributed to the intervention of viewing others’ scores which creates the effect of comparison. The total amount of coins accumulated in the experiment represents wealth accumulation. The findings showed that the effect of intervention is statistically significant, and there is a negative correlation between the change in score and the effect of comparison. This study gauged the effect of reference group using an experimental approach instead of conventional self-reporting questionnaires
The Impact of Tax Audit and Corruption Perception on Tax Evasion
Get PDFThis study is aimed to determine the impact of tax audit intensity and perception of corruption on tax evasion activities. Some research that explains the impact of tax audit on tax evasion tends to give a varied result one and another. It is reasonable to assume that there is another factor that simultaneously influences tax evasion. Tax audit and perception of corruption were chosen because of their relevance and intertwine relation in tax authorities function and program, namely tax enforcement and the eradication of corruption. This research is also in line with the challenges faced by many countries in increasing tax compliance. We conduct a panel data regression method with a fixed effect model. We found that tax audit proved insignificant to tax evasion, and perception of corruption positively significant to tax evasion. We conclude that corruption significantly increases tax evasion and undermine the benefit of tax audi
Is Village-Level Microfinance Beneficial at the Community, Enterprise and Household Levels? A Case Study from Indonesia
Get PDFThe local governments of the Riau Province of Indonesia had been given the mandate to use UED-SP as a microfinance programme to serve the financial needs of the rural poor, to promote rural economic activities and to create employment opportunities. Despite the village-level microfinance programme was able to accomplish rural outreach with financial sustainability (Rifai et al., 2019), there is limited evidence to validate its real impact on the rural MFI participants at three different levels of village development. The findings reveal that microloans appear to have positive impacts on the microfinance participants at the community level, at the level of micro-enterprise and at the household level. The rural MFIs should be targeting this village segment of the rural poor, while the local governments should provide the support to warrant deeper outreach
Loss of Employment, Lockdown Measures and Government Responses in Malaysia during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Note
Get PDFIn this paper, we use daily administrative data from January 25, 2020 to December 31, 2020 to examine the relationship between job losses and the Malaysian lockdown measures. The Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach is used to estimate both the long-run and short-run models. The results of the Bounds F-test for cointegration reveal that there is a long-run link between job losses and the Malaysian government lockdown measures (both linear and non-linear). The positive association between job loss and lockdown measures shows that as the lockdown gets tighter, more people will lose their jobs. However, as time passes, especially in conjunction with the government stimulus package programmes, job losses decrease
Factors Influencing Financial Planning for Marriage amongst Young Malaysian Couples
Get PDFFinancial planning for marriage contributes to happier, more satisfying and longer-lasting unions. However, there is increasing evidence that young Malaysian couples are burdened by excessive debts and have a tendency to overspend on their wedding. Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the current study investigates key factors — financial literacy, attitude towards money, attitude towards debt, financial goals and social influence — that are likely to influence the degree of financial planning for marriage undertaken by married and soon-to-be-married couples. The study also examines the mediating role of financial literacy on the relationships between the aforementioned key factors and financial planning for marriage. The study collected data from a sample of 201 respondents recruited via purposive sampling and used a bootstrapped partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach for data analysis. The results showed that (i) financial literacy positively influences financial planning for marriage; (ii) attitude towards money, financial goals and social influence positively influence both financial literacy and financial planning for marriage; (iii) attitude towards debt has a negative influence on financial planning for marriage but no influence on financial literacy; and (iv) financial literacy has a mediating effect. The findings highlight the importance of financial counselling, education as well as discipline in bringing about successful marriages
Getting the Message Across: Examining Malaysia’s Covid-19 Public Service Announcement (PSA) Infographics
Get PDFThe current COVID-19 pandemic has become an unprecedented public health crisis and there is much ongoing research investigating its wide-ranging impacts on all areas of society and people's everyday lives. This article presents preliminary findings of an ongoing study that inquires into Malaysia's COVID-19 public service announcement (PSA) infographics and how they convey much-needed information to the general public during the pandemic period. Drawing upon research on infographics in healthcare and health risk communication, the article examines COVID-19 PSA infographics that have been produced in Malaysia and the ways they achieve what they are designed to do. The findings show that the infographics 1) are numerous and mostly presented in the informational and process-based types, 2) cover various topics related to the information on the novel virus, its risks, and recommended preventive and control measures, 3) possess key components of infographic and (4) adopt a three-way process of engaging the target audience. The findings also reveal several key points worth considering in thinking about the infographics, including whether they communicate the right message to the right audience at the right time and whether they are designed according to the principles of message design in health risk communication
Dividend Policy and Share Price Volatility: Evidence from Listed Non-Financial Firms in Sri Lanka
Get PDFThe prime objective of this research is to investigate the impact of dividend policy on share price volatility in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). A sample of 81 listed non -financial firms from CSE in Sri Lanka is examined using panel data analysis for a five years period from 2013 to 2017. Dividend policy of the firms has been measured by dividend pay-out, dividend yield and dividend per share and which are explanatory variables of the study after controlling for firm size and financial leverage. According to the random effect regression analysis, only 25% of the movements in share prices are explained by the explanatory variables considered in this study. Dividend yield shows significant positive impact on share price volatility whereas dividend per share shows the significant negative impact on share price movements. Firm size illustrates significant negative influence on share price volatility by indicating large size of companies share price volatility is high. But, dividend pay-out and financial leverage are not significantly persuaded on share price volatility in this study. Therefore, it is concluded that dividend yield, dividend per share and firm size have significant impact on price volatility in Sri Lankan context and findings of the study are in line with the dividend relevance theory. Dividend policy can be considered as the protective mechanism to maintain share price volatility in order to enhance the shareholders wealth
Determinants of Non-Performing Loans in Asia: Is Southeast Asia Different?
Get PDFIn this paper, we explore the determinants of non-performing loans (NPLs) in Asia using a panel data set across 9 countries covering the Middle East, Southeast Asia (SEA) and South Asia countries over a period of 2000 to 2014, and test whether those determinants affect the Southeast Asia differently. The two-step System GMM results indicate that the GDP growth and liquid assets to total assets significantly affect NPLs in a negative manner, while the Southeast Asia is no different from the other regions despite their successful management in NPLs during 2008 crisis. It suggests that other regions may adopt the successful strategies implemented by the SEA countries. Apart from the above, the regulatory variables show mixed results with supervisory power significantly and positively affect the NPLs while the capital stringency requirement is insignificant, contrary to the theoretical expectations. The results are robust to model specification
Emotional Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence and Employee Performance: The Mediating Role of Communication Competence
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence on employee performance and the role of communication competence in mediating the influence of emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence on employee performance. The samples are selected from employees (n = 196) of Islamic Microfinance Institutions in Pati, Central Java, Indonesia. The results of path analysis reveal that emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence have a positive and significant influence on communication competence and employee performance, and communication competence partially mediates the influence of emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence on employee performance. Therefore, it is recommended that Islamic Microfinance practitioners should improve employee performance through emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and communication competence
Synergized Network Asset: A Driver for Indonesia’s Furniture Industries to Elevate Marketing Performance
Get PDFThe main focus of this study is developing synergized network asset as a mediator variable for improving marketing performance. The research model was tested using AMOS SEM on 280 local market-oriented furniture makers. The output of the statistical analysis confirms that two buffer variables, namely relational capability and market dynamic adaptability, sustain synergized network asset and marketing performance. However, synergized network asset does not play a strong mediation role in increasing marketing performance. The slow-growing furniture industry is in greater need of responsive rather than synergistic cooperation. The concept of synergized network asset, which is characterized by the sustainability of collaboration quality, contributes to the development of business network theory as one of the main factors in marketing relationships