A Qualitative Study of Malaysian Parents’ Purchase Intention of Functional Weaning Foods using the Theory of Planned Behavior

Background: In this study, qualitative research methods were used to explore the behavioral, normative, and control beliefs underpinning parents’ decisions to purchase functional weaning food products.

Methods: Seven focus groups were conducted with 44 parents in two locations in Malaysia (Sabah and Selangor). Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior theoretical framework, participants were prompted with questions about commercial weaning foods including functional weaning foods and shown several different products to stimulate discussion.

Results: Important behavioral beliefs (product attributes, babies’ needs and suitability of the product, perceived healthiness), referrals and influences (family and friends’ opinions and experiences, internet and social media influence, health professionals’ recommendation and advice) and facilitating and inhibiting factors (trust and confidence, brand and cost, and product availability and options) were identified.

Conclusions: Overall functional weaning food purchase intention was influenced positively and negatively by behavioral, normative and control beliefs. To increase the awareness and commercial product knowledge on weaning food are suitable for their children, more information on functional weaning food products from reliable sources that can reach the parents and other potential customers is needed. Government, health professionals and manufacturers should work together to develop a better way to inform parents about functional weaning foods.     

Study on the Customer Perception of the Tropical Fruit Vinegar in Kelantan and Kuala Lumpur

This research will be focus on the differences of perception of customers in Kelantan and Kuala Lumpur toward tropical fruits vinegar. Tropical fruit vinegar was used in this research with Rambutan and Dokong vinegar as the choice. Dokong and Rambutan are tropical seasonal fruits. The production quantity is getting higher these few years, and it results that farmers have to face all negative impact. Next, this study also reduces the import of vinegar product. Furthermore, this study also helps in fulfilling the national agenda in National Agro Food Policies 2011–2020. The amount of respondents are 108 in Kelantan and 69 in Kuala Lumpur. The major finding is Customers in Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan both accepts Natural Fruits Vinegar products. The result also shows that consumers are concern about the quality, safety, and nutritional content of products and prefer glass material for packaging than plastic material.     

The role of business schools in managing the incongruence between doing what is right and doing what it takes to get ahead

This paper accepts as given that business students want to get ahead. It criticizes business schools for their failure to reduce the incongruence between doing what is right and doing what it takes to get ahead. Because of this failure business school graduates carry negative ideas, attitudes and behaviors vis-à-vis social responsibility from business schools into the business world. Recommendations are made for increasing the social responsibility of business schools. Robert H. Schwartz is an Associate Professor of Management and Coordinator of the Health Care Administration Program at the University of Toledo. He is the author of Coping With Unbalanced Information About Decision Making Influence For Nurses, Hospital and Health Services Administration (Winter, 1990), and of other papers pertaining to health administration and career choice.Sami Kassem is Professor of Management at the University of Toledo.Dean Ludwig is Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Toledo.     

How Visitor and Environmental Characteristics Influence Perceived Crowding

This paper aims to investigate tourists’ perceptions of crowding and factors influencing those perceptions. The effects of visitor socio-demographic characteristics, economic factors, and destination situational characteristics are investigated. Questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 362 tourists at Pantai Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island. The results confirmed the significant effect of visitor socio-demographic characteristics on perceived crowding. Among the economic factors, although the findings did not confirm an effect for level of income, the results showed a positive effect for spending money per day on perceived crowding. Furthermore, the hypothesized effect of situational characteristics on perceived crowding could not be verified. In light of the absence of studies investigating the factors influencing perceived crowding using partial least squares–structural equation modeling, this study contributes theoretically and methodologically to the perceived crowding literature. Moreover, the results can assist the local authorities to understand the perceptions of tourists for future development.     

Measuring the financial and social performance of French mutual funds: A data envelopment analysis approach

Socially responsible investors pursue both financial and non-financial goals. In this paper, we attempt to assess the performance of French socially responsible mutual funds (SRMFs). We consider the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, which allows us to assign a unique efficiency score while combining financial and social characteristics, using various combinations within different types of risk (total risk, market risk, and downside risk). We report the list of funds found to be DEA efficient using various output-oriented models. We also compare our obtained results with the traditional and modern measures used in the literature (Sharpe, Treynor, and the information ratio). We contribute to the literature by testing the validity of the DEA methodology in the financial context. The findings have important implications for fund selection processes and would be mainly of interest to investors and fund managers who integrate environmental, social, and governance criteria into their investment choices.     

Foreign exchange exposure and impact of policy switch – the case of Malaysian listed firms

This article undertakes an in-depth study of the foreign exchange exposure of Malaysian listed firms. We examine several issues related to firm-specific and overall exposure, including an evaluation of the efficacy of adopting a hard-peg on such exposure. Our sample consists of 158 listed firms and spans the 16 year period, 1990–2005. A multivariate model using four bilateral exchange rates is used to determine firm level exposure while panel data analysis using a random-effects Generalized Least Squares (GLS) model is used to determine system-wide or aggregate sample exposure. We find a total 71% of our sample firms to have significant exchange rate exposure, a rate substantially higher than that reported for most countries, especially developed ones. The US$ is by far the single most important source of exposure with 63% of sample firms exposed to it. The sign of the beta coefficient for three of the four currencies are negative, implying that our sample firms are largely net importers in these currencies. We find exposure to be time variant and dependent on the sector within which a firm operates. Interestingly, the panel data analysis which measures aggregate exposure, shows the US$ to be a significant source of exposure even with the adoption of the hard peg. The change in policy regime to a fixed peg following the crisis appears to have had no impact at either firm-level exposure or overall system-wide exposure.     

The behavior of MENA oil and non-oil producing countries in international portfolio optimization

It is well documented in developed economies that portfolio investment across national borders brings benefits of increasing returns and/or reducing risk. Dividing MENA stock markets into two main groups (oil producing and non-oil producing countries), this study examines the potential role of each group in providing diversification benefits for international investors. In addition, the behavior of the long and the short-run Efficient Frontiers (EFs) constructed by each of the sub-groups and the combined MENA markets is explored. Multi-objective international portfolio models are proposed under Mean-Variance and Mean-Lower Partial Moment frameworks, and the Multiple Fitness Function Genetic Algorithm (MFFGA) is used to find the EFs of optimal portfolios. The findings indicate that the stock markets of oil producing countries can be considered as a potential avenue for international portfolio diversification for investors not only from the same countries but also from the other MENA markets. It was also found that international portfolios constructed from the combination of MENA equity markets are more stable compared to the portfolios of sub-group markets. Further, the findings indicate that the behavior of short-term EFs in the MENA region cannot be predicted by the behavior of long-term EFs.     

On the optimality of escalating penalties for repeat offences against the academic honour code

Although academic dishonesty has a long history in academia, its pervasiveness has recently reached an alarming level. Academic dishonesty not only undermines the purpose of education and the assessment process but also threatens the creditability of academic records. We propose a framework for analysing students’ behaviour with respect to academic policies and honour codes. We draw an analogy between law enforcement and academic integrity enforcement and highlight similarities and differences. The proposed framework captures major determinants of academic dishonesty reported in the literature, namely detection probability, punishment severity, class average and record of academic deviance. The framework models both students’ development of nonacademic skills to improve their grades and teaching assistants’ development of detection skills, which both affect the detection probability. Our analysis demonstrates that the optimality of escalating penalties is conditional on the offenders and academic policy enforcers learning. Use-case scenarios are presented to facilitate the implementation of our results in classrooms.     

Environmentally responsible inventory models: Non-classical models for a non-classical era

Mathematical models of inventory typically include the three inventory associated costs of surplus, shortage and ordering. These classic inventory models are then analysed so as to choose inventory parameters that usually minimise the total cost of operating the inventory system being investigated.Unfortunately, classic inventory models do not provide a meaningful basis for analysing many real and increasingly important practical inventory problems and situations. It is therefore not surprising that over recent years, several authors have discussed these issues in broad terms and suggested that a new paradigm needs to be developed.This paper develops some specific aspects of this discussion. In particular, the paper identifies a range of inventory problems that are not covered appropriately by traditional inventory analysis. One of these is to design responsible inventory systems, i.e. systems that reflect the needs of the environment. The paper then examines the importance of inventory planning to the environment in greater detail. For example, packaging is important, not only because of its costs and the protection that it provides to the inventory items, but also because of its eventual effects on the environment in terms of the use of resources and potential landfill. For similar reasons, waste, which can result from poor inventory management, is highly important. The location of stores is important because location affects transport costs. Thus the influence of the secondary aspects of most inventory models; packaging, waste and location are important but, even more important are the inter-relations with the total system. In particular, the location of the manufacturing plants and the effect that inventory planning has on the logistics chain, potentially have considerable environmental implications. Inventory is part of a wider system.However, until the cost charged for an activity reflects the true environmental cost of that activity, it is likely that decisions will be made on the basis of erroneous data. In that situation, we are faced with either determining the environmental cost of specific actions or to use environmental costs that are somewhat contrived; in which case it may be more sensible to use very different performance measures and models. The paper discusses these ideas and ways in which inventory policies may reassure us with our environmental concerns.     

Telecommunications reform and efficiency performance: Do good institutions matter?

Until recently, most studies investigating telecommunication reforms performance have failed to incorporate the importance of institutions into the empirical analysis. This study highlights the importance of institutional governance on telecommunications efficiency and provides empirical results for the impact of institutions on reform outcomes. It provides significant evidence that the institutional environment in which reform progress takes place is an important determinant for successful reform. This study uses the stochastic distance function approach to capture the role of institutions in explaining efficiency differences across 70 countries. The empirical analysis reveals that policy stability in the form of substantive checks and balances on executive power is the most important aspect for successful reform. Independently, legal integrity improves telecommunications efficiency through privatization, while greater freedom from corruption influences the effectiveness of a regulatory body.