Macroeconomic factors and firm’s cross-border merger and acquisitions

This study investigates the impact of macroeconomic variables on the wealth effects of cross-border acquisitions by Malaysian multinational companies. The sample consists of 159 cross-border acquisitions by Malaysian MNCs bidding in 22 countries around the world from 2000 to 2007. The macroeconomic variables examined in this study are foreign economic condition, GNP correlation between countries, and level of economic development of target country. The findings indicate that, foreign economic condition affects the wealth effect negatively, while the level of economic development of target country affects the wealth effect positively. Aside from the macroeconomic variables, we also find that English or non-English language, government’s rules index and the telecommunication infrastructure all play certain roles in the Malaysian cross-border acquisitions. Implied from this study is that, value creation of the Malaysian cross-border acquisitions is a function of the foreign economic condition and the level of economic development of the target foreign country.     

Food Labels’ Impact Assessment on Consumer Purchasing Behavior in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to validate the impact of food labels among Malaysian consumers using an extended theory of planned behavior model (TPB). In doing so, the study assessed the direct and indirect effect of food labeling on consumer intention to purchase or otherwise the food products of interest. A stratified random sampling technique was adopted in selecting 2,014 consumers in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The results of structural equation modeling supported the adequacy of the proposed model. This study contributes to and extends the understanding of food labeling and purchasing behavior, identifying the rationales for purchasing of food products with labels that contains information such as halal logo, ingredients, and nutritive value.     

What drives global B2B e-commerce usage: an analysis of the effect of the complexity of trading system and competition pressure

The purpose of this paper is to examine the conditions in which B2B e-commerce is most likely to diffuse widely at the country level. This paper examines the role of trading system complexity and pressure of competition on B2B EC diffusion by controlling Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure. Our sample comprises a pool of country-year dataset from 143 countries over a three-year period (2014–2016). The data were collected from Network Readiness Index Report and Global Competitiveness Report. The findings provide evidence that greater the complexity of trading relationships with the global economy and high level of pressure from the competition are the main forces for B2B use across countries. Consequently, the authors suggest that having a strong trade relationship with developed countries with matured B2B e-commerce practice is helpful in sustaining B2B e-commerce use across countries.     

Return home and start new businesses: internal migration in China

Internal migration patterns in China are characterised by rapid urbanisation and cross‐regional movement and more recently by the return of migrants to their native counties. This study investigates the drivers of migrants' permanent return and their likelihood of starting new businesses in their counties of origin. The results suggest that migrants are discouraged from permanent resettlement in urban areas because of family ties and the aspiration to start businesses in their villages of origin. The study also provides evidence that the probability of starting a business upon return is affected by the migrants' accumulation of work experience, business experience, the savings earned while away, financial stability, and the social capital they have in their home counties. The results provide important insights for emerging countries in overcoming rapid urbanisation and imbalanced regional economic growth.     

Effects of Illegal Behavior on the Financial Performance of US Banking Institutions

This study investigates whether financial performance is affected by corporate violations of laws and regulations. In a sample of 128 publicly traded banks that were subject to enforcement actions by US regulatory authorities over a 20-year period, we observed a significant negative market reaction pursuant to the violations. However, the market reaction did not vary meaningfully in accordance with the severity or repetitiveness of the violation. The results of this study are in conformity with previous research on industries other than banking, notably with regard to negative market reaction. This confirms that shareholders in the banking industry react in a manner considerably similar to their counterparts in other industries.     

Learning outcomes in affective domain within contemporary architectural curricula

Contemporary architectural education has shifted from the traditional focus on providing students with specific knowledge and skill sets or ‘inputs’ to outcome based, student-centred educational approach. Within the outcome based model, students’ performance is assessed against measureable objectives that relate acquired knowledge and skills to performance expectations in higher level courses or real world architectural practice. Bloom’s taxonomy has been widely accepted as a useful tool for defining learning outcomes. It references three domains that impinge on the learning process including the ‘cognitive,’ ‘affective’ and ‘psychomotor.’ In practice, most of the attention is paid to the cognitive domain. Considering the interdisciplinary and multivalent character of architecture (as discipline), curriculum design cannot be founded primarily on cognitive-based outcomes. This paper argues that affective domain, especially in the field of building learners’ personalized value systems, is essential to designing outcome based architectural programs. Interactive studio-based education provides a platform to integrate cognitive and behavioural skills that are necessary for professional practice.     

Oil Prices and Personal Consumption Expenditures: Does the Source of the Shock Matter?

This paper studies the effect of structural oil shocks on personal consumption expenditures (PCE). First, we estimate a nonlinear simultaneous equation model, compute impulse responses by Monte Carlo integration, and conduct a test of the symmetry of the impulse response functions. We find that aggregate PCE responds asymmetrically to positive and negative oil‐specific demand shocks. Second, we find that aggregate PCE responds negatively to positive oil demand shocks, while adverse oil supply shocks are of limited effect. Third, we find important heterogeneity in the magnitude, sign and timing of the disaggregate PCE responses to structural shocks in the crude oil market. Our results clearly indicate that the response of PCE to an unexpected oil price increase depends on the source of the oil price shock. Our findings are robust to different nonlinear transformations for the real price of oil.     

Electricity Tariff Changes and Consumer Sentiment on Household Consumption Expenditure in Malaysia

Purpose

This study investigates the impact of the current electricity tariff, represented by optimized tariff calculation, on Malaysian household’s consumption across different levels of income.

Design/methodology/approach

The input-output (IO) model has vastly been used in many energy economics literature that presented the matrix of production between various sectors in an economy. This study aggregated the 124 subsectors in IO Price Table 2015 into 12 groups of consumption of goods and services based on Household Expenditure Survey 2019 (HES 2019) to meet the study’ objectives.

Findings

This study found that in all simulations, high-income earners would be highly affected by the tariff changes. The lower the increment level in electricity tariff rate, the lower the magnitude would be on the changes of household expenditure level.

Research limitations/implications

Optimization in electricity tariff consumptions can pattern the Malaysian household’s consumption across different levels of income efficiently.

Practical implications

Useful to all consumer in the Malaysia economic business sector to predict their energy consumption up to optimum level.

Social implications

The study’s findings can benefit the society in optimiza their electricity consumption since everyone requires the energy for basic needs in their life.

     

Income distribution and the economy: Evidence from the vector autoregression model

Using the vector autoregression model, this research explores the impact of income concentration on GDP. The estimated results of the model and its impulse response confirm earlier studies which used different methodology or different data sets indicating that a higher concentration of income adversely affect GDP in the short run, although the effect turns positive in the long run.     

View from practice: Stock market reaction to sukuk credit rating changes in Malaysia

Documented evidence on conventional bond markets shows negative market reaction to bond credit rating downgrade and no reaction to credit rating upgrade. Despite the fact that sukuk issuances make up more than 58.8% of the value of outstanding bonds in the country and Malaysia issues at least half of the world's sukuk and is widely recognized as a leader in the sukuk space, there is no documented evidence on the stock market reaction to sukuk credit rating changes. This study analyzed the wealth effect of sukuk credit rating changes in Malaysia using 16 sukuk upgrades and 20 sukuk downgrades for the period 2000–2014. The evidence shows negative market reaction to downgrades and positive significant reaction to sukuk rating upgrade. This symmetrical market reaction to sukuk credit rating changes implies the market was indifferent between bonds and sukuk from the credit rating perspective. This finding supports the notion that the credit rating agencies are Shariah‐neutral when rating these capital market instruments.