This study is primarily focused on the effect of total quality management (TQM) on organization performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) service sector in Selangor, Malaysia. The four critical elements of TQM; namely customer focus (X1), continuous improvement (X2), strategically based (X3), and total employee involvement (X4) are used as an important factors influencing on organization performance (Y). The necessary data are collected from 350 managers/owners of service sector SMEs in Selangor, Malaysia using some questionnaire. Multiple linear regression analysis is performed in this study by using SPSS 23. All hypotheses are positively fit with the conceptual model and show a positive impact of TQM on organization performance. The research finding indicate that TQM elements; namely customer focus, continuous improvement, strategically based, and total employee involvement have a positive and significant effects on organization performance.

The research aims to highlight the importance of market structure and behavior on Islamic banking performance by using the Structure Conduct Performance (SCP) analysis to approximate the growth of Islamic banking performance in the short and long term using error correction model. The data used in this study is time series obtained from the financial statement of each Islamic bank, Fi-nancial Service Authority and Bank of Indonesia on Islamic banking statistics monthly reported from April, 2015 to October, 2018. Population of this study covers all Islamic commercial banks in Indonesia. The purposive sampling method is used to select samples based on criteria to get samples that are feasible to be analyzed. Error correction model is applied to characterize the joint dynamic of variables in both in the long and short term relationships. The Johansen co-integration results indicate a stable long term relation between market structure and Islamic banking performance. Results show that Market structure variable outside market share of financing in the long term had a significant effect on the Islamic banking performance, but in the short term market structure, the variable had no significant effect on the Islamic banking performance in Indonesia.

This paper analyzes the effects of market orientation and innovation on competitive advantage and business performance. The method of collecting data is a designed questionnaire. The sample size is 150 textile SMEs in Selangor, Malaysia. Path analysis by operating SPSS 20.0 is used in analyzing the research. The result shows that market orientation and innovation had positive and significant effects on competitive advantage, partially. Market orientation and innovation give contributions to the competitive advantage of 46.3% while the rest of 54.7% are influenced by other variables which are not described in this study. Competitive advantage partially has a positive and significant influence on business performance. Market orientation and innovation also have significant effects on business performance both directly and indirectly through competitive advantage. Market orientation, innovation, and competitive advantage give contributions to the business performance of 58.4% while the rest of 41.6% are influenced by others variables which are not described in this study.

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of client, consultant and contractor related fac-tors on mismanagement in public and private contracts in the region of Indonesia. A structural questionnaire is developed for the selected items after detailed investigation of present literature. A final sample of 137 respondents associated with various contracts in the region of Indonesia is collected with demographic details and regression analysis. It is observed that factors like lack of strategy, failure to compile the documentary requirements, poor planning, delay in decision making, financial issues, late payments, difficulty in getting work permits and lack of management expertise are core issues, creating mismanagement in public and private contracts. In consultant related factors, role of inexperienced consultant, poor planning, late of instructions from architects, poor contract management, and poor-quality assurance are the key determinants of mismanagement in contracts. While contractor related factors like poor planning and scheduling, late or improper submission of con-tract, inadequate site supervision and inspection, poor construction methods, weak leadership, and lack of communication between the parties are the key indicators of mismanagement in contracts. As per significance, this study is found to be a reasonable addition in the present literature from the context of contract management. Originality of the study covers the significant findings for the policy makers in the field of public and private contracts. Study can be reworked in future through better sampling, and addition of more factors related to materials, equipment and labor causing for the poor delivery of the contracts.

The tourism sector has developed over the years as one of the main contributors to the nation’s socio-economy. However, tourism has also said to be the cause of the depletion of the natural environment especially the marine ecosystem due to the irresponsible behavior of tourists. There is a growing interest in understanding the impact of tourism towards the sustainability of a particular ecotourism destination, thus this study aims to examine the drivers of tourists’ intention to behave in an environmentally responsible manner specifically in marine parks. This study utilizes the responsible environmental behavior model with the addition of consumption values theory and destination image in hope to provide a more comprehensive explanation. A researcher-administered face-to-face survey was conducted among 103 tourists and analysed using partial least squares technique. The results empirically revealed that environmental knowledge and destination image significantly influenced the tourists’ intention to behave in an environmentally responsible manner. Thus, in fostering a more responsible behavior among tourists, more emphasis can be placed on enhancing their knowledge while capitalizing on the destination’s image.

This study is motivated by the high frequency of loss occurrence since late 1990s among Malaysian public listed firms, and the conflicting findings of the impact of the macroeconomic conditions and firm-specific attributes on different measures of earnings quality. In addition, this study examines the impact of firms’ specific attributes on earnings quality using a better established theory, known as the life-cycle hypothesis. The objectives of this study are; (1) to examine the relationship between firms’ loss condition on conservatism as an earnings quality measure as well as the moderation of macroeconomic condition on the relationship and (2) to examine the relationship between life-cycle stages and conditional conservatism. Samples for the study are companies listed on Bursa Malaysia from 1995 to 2010. Using the C_Score measure of conservatism as the dependent variable, firms with loss condition, have been found to be significantly more conservative than profit firms. In addition, macroeconomic condition, strengthen the relationship between loss and conservatism when the results indicate that loss firms undergoing economic crisis are significantly more conservative than loss firms under normal economic condition. Incorporating the firms’ life-cycle stages, the study found that growth firms signal fewer losses than mature firms, thus accepting the set hypothesis. Implication of this study is that ignorance of these issues could lead to significantly misleading interpretation of earnings quality.

Automotive industry in Malaysia started in 1985 with the launch of the first national car. However after thirty years, overall performance of the industry is still far behind the neighboring countries like Thailand and Indonesia which ranked first and second top producers in the automotive industry. In order for the automotive players in Malaysia to be globally competitive, innovation is an important element to drive competitiveness. Thus, the aim of this study is to determine the relationship between NAP strategies and innovation performance in the Malaysian automotive component industry. NAP was launched in 2006 with six main directions and strategies. Study is focused on local automotive vendor and a completed survey was completed with 300 respondents. Data was ana-lyzed through structural equation modelling (SEM) using SmartPLS 3.0. Empirical evidence shows that NAP supports all types of innovation among automotive vendors in Malaysia. The study also found innovation mediates between National Automotive Policy (NAP) and vendor’s performance except in the process innovation. This supported previous research in this area where government policy partially mediates on firm competitiveness. The finding of the study suggests NAP is still relevant for the automotive vendors in Malaysia in improving innovation and performance.

A noteworthy feature in the monetary policy decision making is that interest rate can play a significant role in addressing economic uncertainty. Although the empirical studies on monetary policy reaction function routinely include the output gap and the inflation, not many studies take into account the exchange rate uncertainty and terms of trade uncertainty. To overcome this shortcoming, this paper examines the monetary policy reaction function by including the external economic uncertainty. Based on 30 selected countries, the estimation is relaxed by using the panel heterogeneous cointegration technique. The findings suggest that (i) the interest rate can serve as an important instrument for the central bank policy decision making to combat the economic uncertainty arising from output, inflation, exchange rate and terms of trade (TOT), and (ii) the economic uncertainty (i.e., output uncertainty, inflation uncertainty, exchange rate uncertainty and TOT uncertainty) can serve as a useful information for monetary policy action to avoid and/or mitigate a negative impact of uncertainty.

This study intends to cover the relationship between contract management and performance characteristics from the context of Indonesia. To address this objective, contract management is observed as the main independent variable while performance through nine items is considered as dependent variable. A questionnaire is developed through some selected factors and distributed among various respondents, dealing directly or indirectly with the projects. A sample of 70 respondents is finalized with no missing values. Empirical findings suggest that for the firm performance different variables such as nature of the solution, cost & benefit analysis are significantly associated with the contract length. While project delivery and project quality are negatively associated with the contract length. Findings of the study are highly recommended for the contract managers and similar individuals, responsible for the smooth business performance. However, future studies can be conducted with the addition of more explanatory factors for contract management with better sample size. Manage-rial implication of the study defines that Government and construction companies should reconsider the stated factors for the improved results through resolution of the conflict with the customers, cost benefit analysis and timely delivery of the project with budgetary compliance.

This study aims at discovering the relationship between the improvement in the capacity of tax authorities and its effect on the transfer pricing activities of foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises in four provinces/cities of Vietnam: Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh, Dong Nai, and Binh Duong province. These are the first localities in Vietnam to establish the Division of Transfer Pricing Inspectorate in local Tax Department, under the direction of General Department of Taxation of Vietnam. The paper then proposes a further study on how the tax authorities of Vietnam should improve their capacities to make FDI enterprises more compliant with the transfer pricing regulations in Vietnam. The authors deploy the method of quantitative research through collecting self-administered closed format questionnaires from people in charge of finance/accounting/transfer pricing of FDI enterprises operating in Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh, Dong Nai, and Binh Duong province of Vietnam. The findings suggest that there was a strong probability that the capacity of tax authorities would impact on the transfer pricing activities of FDI enterprises in Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh, Dong Nai, and Binh Duong of Vietnam. Vietnamese Government should enhance the capacity of the tax authorities; establish Transfer Pricing Inspectorate Division in all local Tax Departments of Vietnam. The authors believe that the improvement of tax officials’ capacity especially those in charge of transfer pricing auditing will prevent the FDI enterprises from transfer pricing manipulation, hence these enterprises will be more compliant to transfer pricing regulations of Vietnam. The most significant value of the study is to support Vietnamese policymakers, especially those in the field of Finance (Ministry of Finance, General Department of Taxation) to improve their capacity when carrying out transfer pricing audit in FDI enterprises. The more transparent and aggressive the tax officials are, the better these enterprises follow the regulations.