UNIMAS Journal (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak)
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Politically Connected Firms and Their Stock Return Volatility during High-Visibility Events: Evidence from Malaysia
Get PDFThis study investigates the relationship between political connection and firm stock volatility. We examine whether stock return volatility of politically connected firms differ from non-connected firms during four events. These four events are general election, change of leadership, announcement of government budget, and announcement of policies by the government. This paper uses a volatility event study technique to calculate the abnormal stock return volatility during the four events. We use the data of public-listed firms in Malaysia from 2002 to 2013. The result shows that political connection is associated with higher stock volatility in certain events. They appear to be the most volatile in the event of general election and least volatile during budget announcement. Besides budget announcement, the other three events showed a stronger volatility as they are considered as more of a surprise announcement rather than scheduled announcement. The paper adds to a limited body of literature investigating the relationship between political connection and market behavior in Malaysia and hopes to show that political connection can impact the stock return volatility of firms during high-visibility events in Malaysia
Length-Weight Relationship, Condition Factor and Feeding Habit of Fishes from Mangrove of Santubong Estuary, Sarawak, Malaysia
Get PDFLength-weight relationship (LWR), condition factor (K) and feeding habits of Coilia dussumieri, Nemapteryx nenga and Nibea soldado from Santubong Estuary, Sarawak, Malaysia were reported in the present study. The sampling was conducted during the non-monsoon season and monsoon season from April to November 2017 at Buntal, Penambir and Demak rivers using three-layered gillnets. A total of 182 fish samples were caught and measured for the total length and body weight. Then, the data were analysed by the equations for LWR and K. The feeding behaviour analysis was carried out using Relative Gut Index (RGI) and Frequency of Food Occurrence method. The log-transformed regression showed that most of the fishes exhibited negative allometric. K showed a significant difference between seasons. The RGI values of the fishes showed that they were carnivorous. The highest frequency of food occurrence in both seasons was gastropods (94-95 %) and the food items were found to be more variable during monsoon season (gastropods insect, worms, fish, asteroidea, phytoplankton and bivalve). The b value is an exponent to measure the growth pattern of fish and in this study, the b values were in the expected range of 2.5-3.5 and not affected by seasonal variation. The K values suggesting that most of the species were surviving well in the river and was influenced by seasonal change. The RGI and frequency of food occurrence showed that all fish in this study species were carnivorous with more variability in food was observed during the monsoon season. The data of this study are important for a sustainable fisheries management in this area
The Growth and Morphological Characterization Of Tropical Thermophilic Bacterium Parageobacillus caldoxylosilyticus ER4B
No full textParageobacillus caldoxylosilyticus is a rod-shaped thermophilic bacterium that can grow optimally at high temperatures. The thermophilicity of the bacterium is expected to be largely accounted for by the production of thermostable enzymes which has valuable applications in many fields. However, the species is poorly studied, hence, the growth conditions at high temperatures remained unclear until today. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the growth characterization of P. caldoxylosilyticus, including growth media preferences, optimal growth temperature, as well as minimum and maximum growth temperature. P. caldoxylosilyticus strain ER4B isolated from oil palm empty fruit bunch compost was used in this study. The bacterial strain was first identified using 16S rRNA sequencing, and the subsequent BLAST result showed that it is closest to P. caldoxylosilyticus strain UTM6. It is found that ER4B grew best in LB as compared to R2A, TSB, and NB medium. Further temperature tests determined the optimum growth temperature of the strain to be at 64°C Besides, the bacterium forms mucoid circular punctiform colonies that are yellowish in color on an agar plate, and the colony is usually 2 mm to 4 mm in diameter. The microscopic analysis also revealed that strain ER4B is a Gram-positive rod-shaped bacterium that has a length ranging from 3 µm to 6 µm, with a diameter of around 0.5 µm
Factors Affecting Fishers’ Attitude and Willingness to use Cage Aquaculture as an Alternative Livelihood for Reducing Fishing Pressure in Haor Areas, Bangladesh
Get PDFInland capture fisheries are providing cost of livings of about 1.2 million BDT in Bangladesh. However, overexploitation causes the declination of the abundance of native fish species which adversely affects the livelihoods of haor dwellers. The present study was conducted in two haor villages (Sutarpara and Changnoagaon) of Kishoreganj, Bangladesh to explore the factors (economic and non-economic) affecting fishers’ attitude and willingness about cage aquaculture considered as livelihood alternative for reducing fishing pressure. The methodologies applied to do this study were semi-structured face-to-face interview, key informants and questionnaire survey using Likert scale (LS), focus group discussions (FGD). The result revealed that willingness to switch from traditional way of fishing to cage aquaculture activities was significantly (p<0.05) higher in those fishers’ groups that had more inclination in fishing activities. Simultaneously, non-economic factors like powerful traders and fishers, traditional belief, taking risk, launching period of cage aquaculture venture and investment duration played vital role in decisions on whether to fish or not. The economic factors were fewer in number than non-economic factors. This comparative research is significantly important for future social aquaculture researchers as well as the country policy makers for giving emphasis to gather data based on the prevailing economic and non-economic factors to innovate alternative livelihood activity concurrently
Qualitative and Molecular Screening of Potential Ligninolytic Microbes from Termite (Coptotermes curvignathus) Gut
Get PDFLigninolytic microbes have great potential in converting high lignin by-products to more utilisable products by decomposing the lignin-rich agricultural and industrial wastes. Thus, the aim of this study are to screen and identify the potential ligninolytic microbes from the termite (Coptotermes curvignathus) gut. The study was conducted at Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Sarawak Campus, Malaysia. Twenty-seven microbes isolated from termite gut obtained from the Microbiology Laboratory, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Forestry, were used for the ligninolytic activity screening. Media with four different ligninolytic indicator dyes (Azure B, phenol red, methylene blue, and Remazol Brilliant Blue) were streaked with microbial isolates and incubated at 37 °C for 48 h. Out of twenty-seven microbe isolates, only three (CH2, CH5, and CH9) isolates showed decolourisation zone indicating the positive presence of ligninolytic activity. The 16S rRNA gene sequence data indicated the isolates are highly homologous to Bacillus spp
Factors Influencing the Natural Forest Regeneration at Khadimnagar National Park, Bangladesh
Get PDFNatural regeneration is an indicator of a healthy forest, hence, understanding the influence of site factors on natural regeneration is a significant concern for ecologists. This work aimed to assess the impact of site factors on natural tree regeneration at Khadimnagar National Park (KNP). Biotic factors (tree density, tree species richness, and basal area), physical factors (elevation, canopy openness), and soil properties (bulk density, moisture content, soil pH, organic matter, sand, silt, and clay) data were investigated from 71 sample plots to examine their effects on natural regeneration density and richness in KNP. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was done to predict both regeneration density and regeneration richness. The results showed that soil pH (p<0.001), canopy openness (p<0.001), tree species richness (p<0.01), and bulk density (p<0.01) had a significant effect on regeneration density, explaining 42% of the total variation. Regeneration richness was driven by four factors: tree species richness (p<0.01), soil pH (p<0.001), elevation (p<0.01), and canopy openness (p<0.01) with a model that explained 60% of the total variation. This study observed that soil pH, tree species richness, and canopy openness are the main controlling factors that influenced both the density and richness of regenerating species in KNP. Therefore, these findings have implications for natural resource management, especially in selecting suitable silvicultural systems in a tropical forest under protected area management where enhanced tree cover and conservation of biodiversity are needed
Capital Structure and Firm Performance: Evidence from Malaysian Public Listed Plantation Companies
Get PDFThis paper examines the relationship between capital structure and performance of firms. The study is confined to plantation sector companies in Malaysia and is based on a sample of 39 firms which listed in Bursa Malaysia for the period from 2009 to 2019. This study uses two performance measures which are ROA and ROE as the dependent variable. Besides, the capital structure measures are the short-term debt, long-term debt, total debt and firm growth, which as the independent variables. Size will be the control variable in this study. Moreover, a fixed-effect panel regression analysis has been used to analyse the impact of capital structure on firm performance. The results indicate that firm performance, which is in term of ROA, have an insignificant relationship with short-term debt (STD) and long-term debt (LTD). For the total debt (TD) and growth, there is a significant relationship with ROA. However, for the performance measured by ROE, it has an insignificant relationship with short-term debt (STD), long-term debt (LTD) and total debt (TD). Furthermore, there is a significant relationship between the growth and the performance firms from plantation sector in Malaysia
Economic Liberalization And Its Link To Convergence: Empirical Evidence From RCEP and TPPA Countries
Get PDFEconomic liberalization has been the emphasisof adjustment policies in developing countries; ASEAN countries jumped on the bandwagon and espousedeconomic reforms by liberalizingits international trade andfinancial policies. Through the development of free tradeagreement policies such as AEC and RCEP,regional economic integration is accelerating in South East Asia; not leaving behind the less developed member countries such as Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV). Hence, the objectives ofthis paper are to examine the dynamic impact of economic liberalization (financial and trade liberalization) on ASEAN’seconomic growth and to assess the possibility of the existence of convergence club between ASEAN and its RCEPcounterparts. Using the annual data covering the period of 1994to 2014, the analysis is based on the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimations for liberalization analysis while the Phillips and Sul (2007) methodology is used to assess the economic convergence clubs. The empirical evidence suggests that both trade and financial liberalization play a significant role in ASEAN’seconomic growth. For convergencein RCEP,full sample find an absence of homogenous convergence;as a result, four club convergencesare formed.The result highlights the importance of trade and financial liberalization in enhancing economic growth of ASEANandimpliesthat strong commitments in continuation of liberalization and integration policies arerecommended to promote a sustained economic growth
Barriers to Prisoners’ Re-Entry into Formal and Informal Labour Market
Get PDFAside from academics suggesting that low-physical-attractive prisoners may face difficulty reentering the labour market: permitting employers to access criminal history records aggravates the situation. The current study aims to alleviate this discrimination by generating more beauty premiums to prisoners through cosmetic surgery. The choice experiments (CEs) on hypothetical cosmetic surgery faces of 18 Thai male prisoners were conducted. In which every choice set, the respondents were required to make a tradeoff between beauty and criminal history records. The results show that cosmetic surgery generates beauty premiums to prisoners in both the formal and informal sectors with the odds ratio or increase of the utility of 1.75 and 1.754, respectively. Contrarily, the criminal history records result in discrimination to prisoners’ employments: decreasing job opportunities by 82.8% and 51% in the formal and informal sectors, respectively. The MWTP values show an additional salary to the cosmetic surgery groups for 2,600 baht approximately in both sectors. Besides contributing to the literature, the current study sheds light on the importance of physical appearance and criminal history records as one of the main barriers to prisoners’ re-entry. The findings could serve as new knowledge for policymakers to improve the success rate of prisoners’ reintegration
Innovation Capabilities and Performance of Malaysian Agricultural SMEs: The Moderating Role of Strategic Alliance
Get PDFSmall and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the agriculture sector in Malaysia are still seen to contribute only a small portion towards Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the total number of the national workforce. As for agricultural SMEs, innovation activities are needed to produce quality agricultural-based products to meet the increasing of Malaysia and world market demand. Nevertheless, innovation among agricultural SMEs is still less encouraging. Hence, this study aims to investigate the effect of innovation capabilities towards performance of agricultural SMEs in Malaysia and determine the role of strategic alliance as a moderator in influencing the performance of agricultural SMEs. The conceptual framework of innovation capabilities is based on Resource-Based View Theory and Schumpeter Innovation Theory that considers strategic alliance will positively affect the relationship between innovation capabilities and SME performance. A total of 136 respondents from Agricultural SMEs were used for data analysis process using SmartPLS 3.0 software. The results show that innovation capabilities have a positive impact on the performance of SMEs, while strategic alliance does not affect the relationship between innovation capabilities and agricultural SME performance. Although strategic alliance has insignificant effect, this might be resulted from the emphasis of this study as it defined strategic alliances as acquisitions of companies. For agricultural SMEs in Malaysia, entrepreneurs need to look at an alliance from a positive perspective by looking it as a joint venture process in resource sharing that will benefit the enterprises, thus it is not only meant acquisition. The implication of this study is expected to contribute and enhance the role of innovation capabilities among entrepreneurs and strategic alliances in the Malaysian agricultural SMEs