The own price, income and price of a substitute are the determinants of demand in the classical theory of consumer behavior. We used the theory to analyze the demand for local rice in Malaysia by using time series variables. We examined whether there is a long run relationship among the variables by using the unit root and cointegration tests. We then conducted the Granger causality, variance decomposition and impulse response function tests to examine their directions of causality as well as short term dynamics. The results show that there is a long run relationship among the variables and a unidirectional causality from price and income to demand. There are also lagged and short term dynamics among the variables.
The practice of development planning does not empower the local authority to prepare a development
plan, as planning and development control is under the jurisdiction of the State Planning Authority
(SPA). Rapid growth in the housing sector shows a positive indicator towards urbanization in Sarawak.
This study showed that the current centralised process is fair to all parties, for it ensures equilibrium in
all areas. Beside that, the study also found that there is some confusion in the roles played by the
involved parties. The study also identified few problems that often occur, among them complicated
procedures, slow approval process, bureaucracy, and risks in planning and marketing. However, the
practice of development planning is concerned with aspects quality and quantity so as not to burden the
purchaser. The state government, through the SPA, controls the price of housing to ensure equilibrium
and to avoid the occurrence of abandoned housing projects.
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most attractive tools employed nowadays by environmental policy-makers as well as business decision-makers to ensure environmentally sustainable production/consumption of various goods/services. LCA is a systematic, rigorous, and standardized approach aimed at quantifying resources consumed/depleted, pollutants released, and the related environmental and health impacts through the course of consumption and production of goods/service. Algal fuels are no exception and their environmental sustainability could be well scrutinized using the LCA methodology. In line with that, this chapter is devoted to present guidelines on the technical aspects of LCA application in algal fuels while elaborating on major standards used, i.e., ISO 14040 and 14044 standards. Overall, LCA practitioners as well as technical experts dealing with algal fuels in both the public and private sectors could be the main target audience for these guidelines.
Investment funds are growing in Malaysia since people are more knowledgeable about
investments and aware of investment opportunities in order to secure good savings for the
future. These investments include unit trusts, gold, fixed deposits, stock prices and property
investments. It is essential for individuals or organisations to know the value of future share
prices of their investment portfolio in order to predict the profit or loss in the future. The
purpose of study is to identify the best duration of historical data and forecast days in order
to accurately forecast share prices. The study uses Geometric Brownian Motion model in
forecasting share prices of companies in Bursa Malaysia. This study focused on 40 listed
companies in Bursa Malaysia from the top gainers list. It was found that 65 historical days
could forecast the share prices for 21 days accurately.
There is widespread agreement among experts that a fundamental reorientation of global, regional, national and local food systems is needed to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals Agenda and address the linked challenges of undernutrition, obesity and climate change described as the Global Syndemic. Recognising the urgency of this imperative, a wide range of global stakeholders - governments, civil society, academia, agri-food industry, business leaders and donors - convened at the September 2021 UN Food Systems Summit to coordinate numerous statements, commitments and declarations for action to transform food systems. As the dust settles, how will they be pieced together, how will governments and food corporations be held to account and by whom? New data, analytical methods and global coalitions have created an opportunity and a need for those working in food systems monitoring to scale up and connect their efforts in order to inform and strengthen accountability actions for food systems. To this end, we present - and encourage stakeholders to join or support - an Accountability Pact to catalyse an evidence-informed transformation of current food systems to promote human and ecological health and wellbeing, social equity and economic prosperity.
Energy efficiency (EE) is an evolving research aspect for researchers, businesses, and policymakers for its undeniable role in meeting increasing energy demand, reducing CO2 emissions, and tackling climate change. This paper provides a review of the current state of EE research by mapping the research landscape in business and economics to understand the socioeconomic dimensions within these research areas. To identify key information, we examine the trends and characteristics of 2935 relevant scientific publications over a 30-year period from 1990 to 2019 in the Social Science Citation Index of the Web of Science database using bibliometric analysis with a R language package called 'bibliometrix'. Our analysis shows an increasing trend in publications from 2006 onwards; the period remarkably coincides with the implementation phase of the Kyoto protocol in 2005. Accordingly, we observe that EE research has a strong association with issues like CO2 emissions, climate change, sustainability, and the growing importance of these issues in recent years. Thus, our findings provide crucial understandings by incorporating a wide array of scientific outputs in response to calls for greater theoretical clarification of EE research. These findings provide insights into the current state of the art of, and identify crucial areas for future, research. Hence, our research assists in formulating environmentally sustainable policies to tackle the adverse effects of CO2 emissions and related climate change through providing critical grasps on the scholarly development related to EE.
This study examined the effect of air pollution on the initial return of IPOs in Pakistan. Cross-sectional data were used to examine 102 listed IPOs on Pakistan Stock Exchange between 1996 and 2019. Ordinary least squares and quantile least squares were employed to examine the influence of air pollution on IPO initial returns. Lastly, stepwise regression was utilised for additional analysis. According to the findings, in the presence of high air pollution, IPO initial returns also increase due to higher uncertainty. The findings demonstrate that air pollution intensifies a company's information environment and financial uncertainty. Therefore, addressing environmental challenges is critical for both public health and capital formation. This study's findings will increase companies' awareness of the economic effect of air pollution, particularly in a country where air pollution is strictly regulated. This study provides businesses with an economic reason to reduce their pollution levels, and it can also help regulators pass environmental laws that are aimed at addressing this issue.
The objective of this study is to explore the similarities and differences in the barriers and motivations between the plastic and resins and food and beverages industries as these two industries are the major contributors of solid waste in Malaysia. Prior studies are lacking with regard to explaining the barriers and motivations in solid waste management from the Malaysian context. This study is focused on 10 firms from the plastics and resins industry and 9 from the food and beverages industry in Malaysia. Through Rasch measurement theory, the results indicate that the barriers of lack of skills and qualifications and lack of closed-loop control and the motivations of cost savings and a business model are performed differently. The findings further confirm that the lack of skills and qualifications is a more difficult barrier to overcome than the lack of closed-loop control, while the motivation factor of a business model is more difficult to achieve than cost savings. In terms of practical contribution, this study provides results that can help policy makers in Malaysia to close the gaps present regarding the adoption of solid waste management practices and to devise appropriate incentives. The study also supports managers of companies in regard to working on the most pressing hindering and promoting factors in the field of solid waste management.
Knowledge Management (KM) addresses the critical issues of organizational adoption, survival and competence in the face of an increasingly changing environment. KM embodies organizational processes that seek a synergistic combination of the data and information processing capabilities of information and communication technologies (ICT), and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings to improve ICT In that role, knowledge management will improve quality management and avoid or minimize losses and weakness that usually come from poor performance as well as increase the competitive level of the company and its ability to survive in the global marketplace. To achieve quality, all parties including the clients, company consultants, contractors, entrepreneurs, suppliers, and the governing bodies (i.e., all involved stake-holders) need to collaborate and commit to achieving quality. The design based organizations in major business and construction companies have to be quality driven to support healthy growth in today's competitive market. In the march towards vision 2020 and globalization (i.e., the one world community) of many companies, their design based organizations need to have superior quality management and knowledge management to anticipate changes. The implementation of a quality system such as the ISO 9000 Standards, Total Quality Management, or Quality Function Deployment (QFD) focuses the company's resources towards achieving faster and better results in the global market with less cost. To anticipate the needs of the marketplace and clients as the world and technology change, a new system, which we call Power Quality System (PQS), has been designed. PQS is a combination of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings to meet the challenges of the new world business and to develop high quality products.
Publication year= 2001 Jan-2002 Mar
With the increasing scarcity of traditional energy sources, global warming and environmental degradation, the increased use of renewable energy (RE) has become an effective path for sustainable development. Therefore, countries are paying more and more attention to the development of the RE industry, and the world trade in renewable energy products (REPs) is developing rapidly. First of all, this paper defines REPs, refines the scope of REPs, and proposes the "Equalization Technology Classification" method for the technology classification of REPs. Second, based on the United Nations Comtrade (COMTRADE) data, the export technology structure of China's REPs from 2007 to 2016 was empirically measured. Finally, a comparative study was conducted on the renewable energy product (REP) export technologies of major REP exporting countries (or regions) in the world. We found that (1) China's exports of REPs are mainly medium-high and medium technical complexity products, and that there are few high technical complexity products; (2) the export technology structure of China's REPs is deteriorating, and its overall technical level is in the middle of the global industrial value chain. The export technology of China's REPs has a gap compared with that of Denmark, Hong Kong China, and Singapore; (3) the technological competition of the world's REPs is becoming increasingly fierce. The growth rates of REP technologies in South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia's REPs are significantly higher than that of China.
Ninety-nine samples of common Chinese medicines were purchased from Chinese medical shops in Singapore and Malaysia and analyzed for mercury, lead, copper, cadmium, cobalt, iron, and nickel. The majority of these medicines were manufactured in China, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. A few of them were of Singapore and Taiwan origin. Atomic absorption method (both flame and flameless) was used for the analyses. Mercury was found to be present in high concentrations in several of the medicines that were for oral consumption.
Internationalization procedure of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is part of the increasing economy. The study aims to identify relationships between the factors influencing the SMEs to internationalize and identifying the most impactful factor that affects the internationalization of SMEs. The factors affecting internationalization of SMEs identified were external, internal, networking as well as barriers and challenges. The study focusses on SMEs in the service sector in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The methods used to conduct the survey is by distributing the questionnaire through email. There are 100 selected SMEs in the service sector which are listed in SME Corp Malaysia website and MATRADE website. Regardless of whether the SME’s are practising international business or not, they will still be one of the potential respondents. The data were examined and obtained using the statistical software SPSS. The analysis used is reliability analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis to meet the research objectives. The expected outcome from this research is to analyze the factors that will impact the internationalization of SMEs. The results of the analysis show that all the variables have a low positive correlation. The most influential factors that effects SMEs decision to go international are barriers and challenges.
Customer is considered as the king in the world of business. The issue of customer satisfaction in electronics home appliances has received greater attention from academics and practitioners. In other words, customer satisfaction is a vital consideration in marketing. With the development of technology, new and innovative electronic home appliances are available in the market. Customers purchase and use the costly electronic home appliances where the satisfaction issue is an important concern. In Bangladesh, working families find the electronic home appliance very necessary. Companies offer state-of- the-art appliances for customers' household works. Therefore, the study intends to investigate the effect of product quality (PQ), quality of service (SQ) and perceived value on customer satisfaction (CS). In addition, this study also seeks this relationship shaped by customer's perceived value (CPV) as a key mechanism and interacted by social media usage. A total of 300 households were selected on a judgmental basis from Dhaka city in Bangladesh using a structured questionnaire. Collected data were CB-SEM (AMOS-v24) and SPSS. The findings showed PQ and SQ have positive effects on CS; SQ affects, but PQ does not affect CPV. CPV has a mixing mediating effect on SQ and CS relationship and PQ and CS relationship. Importantly, the positive impact of PQ, SQ and CPV is greater on customers who exhibit higher social media use. The conceptual framework was buttressed by EDT theory. The study contributed to contextual and theoretical knowledge in regards to home appliances. The practicing managers can collect an insight of customer satisfaction for their business.
The aim of this study is to identify and highlight the positive and negative indirect environmental impacts of COVID-19, with a particular focus on the most affected economies (USA, China, Spain, and Italy). In this respect, the empirical and theoretical dimensions of the contents of those impacts are analyzed. Research findings reveal a significant relationship between contingency actions and positive indirect impacts such as air quality improvements, clean beaches, and the decline in environmental noise. Besides, negative indirect impacts also exist, such as the rise in waste level and curtailment in recycling, further threatening the physical spaces (land and water), besides air. It is expected that global businesses will revive in the near future (though slowly), but the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions during this short time span is not a sustainable way of environmental mitigation. Thus, long-term mitigation policies should be strengthened to cope with the undesirable deterioration of the environment. Research findings provide an up-to-date glimpse of the pandemic from the perspectives of current and future indirect environmental impacts and the post-pandemic situation. Finally, it is suggested to invent and prepare action plans to induce a sustainable economic and environmental future in the post-pandemic world scenario.
Previous research has emphasized the need to further investigate the impact of ISO 9001 on company performance in the manufacturing sector of developing countries. Indonesia is one of those developing countries where the implementation of ISO 9001 is yet to be adequately researched. The Indonesian automotive manufacturing industry is still unable to compete with Malaysia and Thailand even though many companies have implemented ISO 9001. This study aimed to examine the relationship between ISO 9001 and operational (productivity, customer satisfaction, and product quality) and business (sales growth, profit rate, and market share) performance of Indonesian automotive component manufacturing industries. It also aimed to identify major obstacles in the effective implementation of ISO 9001. Multiple linear regression analyses about operational and business performance were employed for this purpose. The sample size comprised 50 automotive component manufacturing industries located in the Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang, and Bekasi region of Indonesia. The study demonstrates that the implementation of the ISO 9001:2015 quality management system has a significant positive impact on the operational performance as well as the business performance. Additionally, the operational performance has a significant positive impact on the business performance. This study also reveals the major obstacles in the effective implementation of ISO 9001 in the manufacturing industry, which include a lack of qualified personnel, inadequate training, employee resistance, and lack of commitment among top-level management executives. It offers clear implications for managers who focus on elements that will enhance the effectiveness of ISO 9001 implementation by choosing the correct strategies, allocating sufficient resources, and improving their firm's performance. The novelty of this study lies in filling the existing research gap, which involves a detailed examination of the relationship between the implementation of ISO 9001 and the company's performance, particularly in manufacturing industries of developing countries.
Recommending a retail business given a particular location of interest is nontrivial. Such a recommendation process requires careful study of demographics, trade area characteristics, sales performance, traffic, and environmental features. It is not only human effort taxing but often introduces inconsistency due to subjectivity in expert opinions. The process becomes more challenging when no sales data can be used to make a recommendation. As an attempt to overcome the challenges, this study used the machine learning approach that utilizes similarity measures to perform the recommendation. However, two challenges required careful attention when using the machine learning approach: (1) how to prepare a feature set that can commonly represent different types of retail business and (2) which similarity measure approach produces optimal recommendation accuracy? The data sets used in this study consist of points of interest, population, property, job type, and education level. Empirical studies were conducted to investigate (1) the overall accuracy of proposed similarity measure approaches to the retail business recommendation, and (2) whether the proposed approaches have a bias toward certain retail categories. In summary, the findings suggested that the proposed similarity-based techniques elicited an accuracy of above 70% and demonstrated higher accuracy when the recommendation was made within a set of similar retail businesses.
Internet of Things (IoT) should not be seen only as a cost reduction mechanism for manufacturing companies; instead, it should be seen as the basis for transition to a new business model that monetizes the data from an intelligent ecosystem. In this regard, deciphering the operation of the value creation system and finding the balance between the digital strategy and the deployment of technological platforms, are the main motivations behind this research. To achieve the proposed objectives, systems theory has been adopted in the conceptualization stage, later, fuzzy logic has been used to structure a subsystem for the evaluation of input parameters. Subsequently, system dynamics have been used to build a computational representation and later, through dynamic simulation, the model has been adjusted according to iterations and the identified limits of the system. Finally, with the obtained set of results, different value creation and capture behaviors have been identified. The simulation model, based on the conceptualization of the system and the mathematical representation of the value function, allows to establish a frame of reference for the evaluation of the behaviour of IoT ecosystems in the context of the connected home.
Malaysia is a member of Developing-8 (D-8), which facilitated the formation of bilateral trade relations among member countries. This study focuses on Malaysia’s foreign direct investments (FDIs) within D-8. The purpose of this study is to strengthen the FDI ties with D-8 member states, where Malaysia must focus on cooperating for long-term investments and examining the existing FDI policies under Malaysia and its D-8 counterparts, as well as studying the opportunity of interdependence between Malaysia’s FDIs with D-8 member states. The main issue is the imbalance of Malaysia’s FDI preference with D-8 member states, which is followed by the weakness of Malaysia’s FDI outwards policy, specialised among the D-8 counterparts. Thus, Malaysia’s FFDI lacks penetration with D-8 member states. The qualitative research method, data collection, interviews, and content analysis method are used for this study. The respondents’ agencies for interviews are experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), The Bilateral Economic and Trade Relations Division of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI and the Foreign Investment Promotion Division of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA). Coding techniques are applied for the coding process of the content analysis. This study also uses the theories of interdependence and political economy with SWOT analysis to examine the implementation of Malaysia’s FDI with D-8 counterparts. The findings of the study show that Malaysia is looking for quality investments without choosing where the investments come from, and FDIs with D-8 counterparts in several sectors can still be implemented if the D-8 counterparts are offering quality investments for Malaysia.