The effects of management policy on the performance of Islamic banks

This study examines the effects of management controlled variables on the performance of Islamic banks. Management controlled variables are related to assets, liabilities and expenses management. This study indicates that three major investment activities are revenue generating activities for Islamic banks, whereas savings and investment deposits are costs to the banks. As expected, total expenses are positively correlated with profitability.The author is Associate Professor of Banking and Finance at the School of Management, The Northern University of Malaysia, Malaysia. He wishes to thank an anonymous referee for providing helpful comments and suggestions.     

Towards sustainable consumption: an examination of environmental knowledge among Malaysians

Environmental problems are mainly attributable to the impact of humans on natural systems. In the case of Malaysia, rapid urbanization and Malaysian consumer’ pursuit of consumption‐oriented lifestyles have intensified the solid‐waste management problem faced by the government. Increasing public environmental awareness is a potential way of addressing this. The objectives of the study described here were to assess the level of environmental knowledge among households in Selangor in Malaysia, examine the sources of their environmental knowledge, determine factors that lead to different levels of knowledge and analyse the relationship between knowledge and environmental attitude, behaviour and participation. The results of the study indicate that, in general, respondents’ basic or general environmental knowledge was high. However, when questioned on various scientific environmental terms, the majority of the respondents were not familiar with most of them. Respondents indicated that their main sources of environmental knowledge and information were newspapers, television and radio. Lower levels of education were reflected in the level of environmental knowledge. Participation in environmental activities had a positive influence on knowledge. The study also found that knowledge correlated positively with environmental attitudes, behaviours and participation.     

Effect of personality on fraud detection： The Malaysian case

Auditing standards require external auditors to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatements, either due to fraud or error. Inability of the external auditors to detect the material misstatements, particularly fraud, may expose them to litigation. The present study aims to examine the effect of personality factors （i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience and agreeableness） on the external auditors＇ ability to detect the likelihood of fraud. An experimental approach is adopted by sending case materials to audit partners and audit managers attached to auditing firms operating in Malaysia. The result shows that personality does not have a positive effect on the external auditors＇ ability to detect the likelihood of fraud.     

Income differences among elderly in Malaysia: a regional comparison

Malaysian economic development, formally launched in 1970 through a series of 5‐year development plans, has tremendously improved the quality of life of its citizens. Unfortunately, varying degrees of regional development that lead to regional imbalances produce differential impact on different sets of population in each region. This is especially true for the poverty‐prone groups, which include the elderly, women and children. This study attempts to assess regional differences (between West and East Malaysia) in the well‐being of the elderly as indicated by the income inequality. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to identify sources of elderly income, to determine the mean monthly income and to examine elderly income disparity in the three regions of Peninsular, Sabah, and Sarawak in Malaysia. A total of 2327 elderly respondents were randomly selected nationwide using the stratified random sampling technique. The study indicated that generally, the income of the elderly in Malaysia is very low as most of them had received no formal education or had only obtained primary school education. In terms of income disparity, the elderly income distribution in Sabah showed an interesting pattern, whereby a high percentage of the elderly was clustered in the bottom 20 and top 20 percentile. However, the distribution of the elderly in Peninsular Malaysia was clustered around the bottom 40 percentile, the middle 60 and the top 40 percentile.