The effectiveness of internal audit in Malaysian public sector

Internal audit in Malaysian public and private sector organizations underwent a steady organic growth since gaining a foothold in the management process in the 1970s. The management of the Malaysian public sector is continuously maturing in facilitating foreign input in national development, echoing similar advances expounded by the internal audit units of private sector organizations. The main difference being the public sector addresses the interest of a much wider group of stakeholders. Rapid development in infrastructures and industries positioned Malaysia on the fringes of globalization and the world market. This enlarges the crucial role of internal auditing to ensure transparency, integrity, quality and improved service delivery; among myriad positive aims, remain the end point of any process area. This study explored the significance of internal auditing in the Malaysian public sector, and its subsequent extent and influence in public sector hierarchy and decision making. Data was collected from responses to a questionnaire distributed to head of internal auditors, internal auditors and other staff of internal audit departments from various categories of public sector departments and agencies in Malaysia. The study concluded that the internal audit function in the public sector in Malaysia is curtailed by understaffing and hampered by inadequate support from top management while, the auditors seldom extend their full cooperation. The auditors themselves lack appropriate knowledge and training on effective auditing approaches. The negative perception accorded to internal audit led to inaction by management on recommended remedies which only serve to nullify the positive contribution internal audit potentially holds to elevate the service delivery quality of the public sector.     

Segmental reporting by Malaysian companies： IAS 14 versus MASB 22

This paper reports on the effects of a local standard, MASB 22, on disclosure practices among Malaysian companies and whether the introduction of MASB 22 has resulted in greater level of disclosure with respect to segmental reporting in Malaysia compared to its predecessor segmental reporting under IAS 14. Based on the Annual Reports of top 53 by market capitalization companies listed on the main board of Bursa Malaysia in 2003, findings indicate that MASB 22 has improved segment disclosure practices of sample companies compared to IAS 14 regime, with greater number of line of business and geographical segments reported by sample companies.     

Export Performance of China: A Constant Market Share Analysis

In the light of the fact that there has been substantial growth in China's exports in last three decades, particularly after China joined the WTO in 2001, this article investigates the major sources of China's export performance during 2002-2014 by using the constant market share (CMS) model. In this study, exports are further decomposed in three categories based on their technological intensity using Lail (2000) classification on 3 digit SITC Revision-3 data provided by UN Comtrade via WITS database. The categories are high technology, medium technology and low technology. It is found that growth of China's exports has, moreover, remained above world exports growth in all three categories during the period of study. The analysis reveals that export performance is mainly attributed to 让s competitive strength in the global market, though decreasing trend has been observed in the competitiveness of all three categories. Increasing cost of labor and appreciating RMB could be the causes behind decreasing competitiveness of Chinese exports. Product structure effect, on an average, has turned out to be negative in all the categories which is the most disturbing aspect of China's export performance. On the other hand, geographical structure effect has positive impact on export performance of high-technology based exports whereas it has negative impact on export performance of low-technology and medium-technology based exports. China being the world's largest exporter, decreasing competitiveness and wrong product structure effect could adversely influence its export performance in particular and its growth in general.     

Sustainability Reporting by New Zealand's Local Governments

This study examines New Zealand (NZ) local government's sustainability disclosure during the five years prior to changes in the legislative environment through the introduction of the Environmental Reporting Bill. Local councils appeared to persistently increase their social and environmental disclosure practices in view of the forthcoming Bill. This is consistent with the underpinnings of legitimacy theory in that pending legislation may introduce restrictive policies and rules in the future that are not consistent with current reporting practices. The highest reporting categories were public agency and the environment, which indicates councils’ drive to maintain legitimacy. Further, the results show that local government environmental reporting focused on non‐monetary, and to a lesser extent monetary, information. In the absence of mandatory guidelines, the results also indicate that NZ local councils have voluntarily reported sustainability information consistent with GRI indicators.     

The role of corporate governance strength in crisis and non-crisis times

This study evaluates corporate governance practices of listed firms in the United Arab Emirates and investigates whether corporate governance mitigates/exacerbates the impact of leverage and risk on firm performance during crisis and non-crisis times. The study constructs a corporate governance index not only to examine the dispute of the role of corporate governance during the crisis but also its influence on other factors that fuelled the crisis. A firm-level panel data is used that spans the period 2008–2012 of all listed firms on Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and Dubai Financial Market (DFM). The study finds a positive influence of corporate governance strength on the accounting performance, but a negative influence on the firms’ economic performance. In normal times, corporate governance mitigates the negative influence of leverage and risk on the accounting and economic firm performance. However, this synergy effect varies across performance indicators during crisis.     

Spectrum auction designs and revenue variations

This study examines a sample of 93 national 3G spectrum auctions for the period 2000–2011 to identify the sources of substantial revenue variations. An implied reduced-form econometric model that recognises the censored nature of the sample relates per capita winning bid (per Mhz, per million populations) values to regulator-determined auction design characteristics, auction competitiveness, mobile wireless market conditions and spectrum package attributes identified from tender documents. The analysis reveals that among other factors, all auction design characteristics independently impact on realized 3G spectrum auction revenues.     

Inherent factors of family business and transgenerational influencing tourism business in Malaysian islands

ABSTRACT

There is an indication that the existence of transgeneration enterprise has unique ability as a ‘resilient factor’ in sustainable tourism development. It bridges the relationship between resilience and sustainability. This paper highlight evidences of the relationship using two successful case studies of Small-Medium scale tourism enterprises on the islands in Malaysia, namely the islands of Langkawi and Tioman. The most important factors influencing successful family business in transgeneration enterprise by priority within the business wealth point of view are aspect of survival, followed by low-entry barriers, ‘passing the baton’, bridging relationship, ‘smallness’, and adapt and change. From the socioemotional wealth point of view, aspect of belonging followed by family welfare priorities, structural generation change, contextual embeddedness, attitude, informal decision making and friendly working environment influence the success of family business in transgeneration enterprises. Hence, sustainable tourism development in the context of local community empowerment might only be achieved once the ‘resilient factor’ is present or in place and ready at the tourism destination.