Towards a spirituality-based platform in tourism higher education

This conceptual paper contributes to tourism knowledge by proposing a spirituality-based platform in tourism higher education. Through this platform, the authors show how tourism education that supports discussion on spiritual development can help to create global citizens who are able to understand their potential as social, cultural and environmental stewards. This paper reviews recent developments shaping tourism education and examines the contemporary tourism educational landscape that supports a spirituality-based educational approach. The 7th platform of tourism studies is offered through a spirituality-based approach to knowledge and examples are given of how we can develop such a platform in tourism higher education.     

Economic well-being and morbidity of the elderly in Malaysia

Studies about the elderly are mostly focused on morbidity and psychological conditions of the elderly. Effects of social relations have been noted to be important for the well-being of an elderly person. Later studies have begun to look at socioeconomic status of the elderly to see its relation to the level of morbidity. This paper is based on a nationwide survey. A total of 10 percent of elderly total population was interviewed to obtain socioeconomic and lifestyle information. A self reporting method was used as it was easiest to obtain the answers from the elderly. A total of 1410 elderly respondents aged 60 and above were interviewed from the regions of northern, eastern, middle and southern Peninsular Malaysia and also from Sabah and Sarawak. The data was analyzed using the SPSS 16. Quantitative analysis based on mean, standard deviation and multiple regressions was done. Findings show that higher morbidity rate lowers ones economic well-being. Females report higher morbidity then males, while those who are married and residing in rural area also reoort lower morbidity.     

Export Competition between Landlocked and Coastal Countries: An Analysis of Strategic Export Policies

This paper analyzes economic rivalry between two firms using an international Cournot duopoly model, where a firm from a landlocked country (LC) and a firm from a coastal country (CC) compete in a third‐country market. It is assumed that the landlocked country firm adopts a transport‐cost reducing R&D subsidized by its government, while the CC government imposes a toll fee on the LC firm. The findings show since a change in the LC's transport‐cost reducing R&D subsidy has a positive effect on its export and a negative effect on the CC's export, both measures have effective strategic export policies.     

Productivity of Foreign and Domestic Firms in the Malaysian Manufacturing Industry*

The relative position of total factor productivity (TFP) of both foreign and domestic ?rms in the manufacturing industry in Malaysia is estimated for three‐ and ?ve‐digit level subsectors. It was found that the differences between foreign and domestic ?rms varied widely from sector to sector. However, for the manufacturing industry as a whole, TFP was approximately the same for foreign and domestic ?rms for the period 1994–1996.     

Board monitoring and covenant restrictiveness in private debt contracts during the global financial crisis

We examine the association between board independence and restrictiveness of covenants in U.S. private debt contracts around the global financial crisis (GFC). We show that board independence is associated with less restrictive covenants suggesting lenders willingness to delegate some monitoring of firms with independent boards. More nuanced analysis between the pre-GFC, GFC and post-GFC periods shows mixed results and we suggest that, during the GFC and its aftermath, lenders place more emphasis on ex ante screening relative to ex post monitoring. We contribute to the literature by providing evidence on covenant use and lenders choices in periods of credit rationing.     

The association between training and organizational commitment among white‐collar workers in Malaysia

The exploration of the relationship between organizational commitment and training is still in its early stages. Although there have been several studies reported on training and organizational commitment in Western countries, very little has been done in respect of the local professionals in Malaysia. This research investigates the association between five training variables (availability of training, support for training, motivation to learn, training environment and perceived benefits of training), and various aspects of organizational commitment (affective commitment, normative commitment, continuance commitment and overall organizational commitment). The availability of training, support for training, motivation to learn, training environment, perceived benefits of training were all significantly correlated with affective commitment, normative commitment and overall organizational commitment. The training environment and perceived benefits were also significantly correlated with continuance commitment. However the availability of training, support for training and motivation to learn were not significantly correlated with continuance commitment. This suggests that despite other forms of commitment, Malaysian workers do not feel that they need to remain in an organization that has made available the training, given support for the training and were motivated to learn. Otherwise, results suggest that on the whole, training does seem to have an influence on organizational commitment. The practical implication of this is that managers, who are so desirous of enhancing organizational commitment among their subordinates, should pay more attention to training. Annual income was found to correlate positively with affective commitment and overall commitment. Age and tenure were not significant predictors of overall organizational commitment contradicting studies in the West. This demonstrated that Malaysians might have different attitudes towards organizational commitment. The older they are and the longer they stay within an organization do not imply that they will be committed towards their organization. This phenomenon can be attributed to the uncertain business environment in Malaysia.     

The influence of Flexible Manufacturing Technology adoption on productivity of Malaysian manufacturing industry

This paper investigates the influence of the adoption of Flexible Manufacturing Technology (FMT) on the Total factor Productivity Growth (TFPG) of Malaysia Manufacturing Industry. The Principal Component Analysis has been adopted to extract the most appropriate underlying dimensions of FMT to use in place of the eight FMT variables owing to the potential multicollinearity. The study has been conducted within FMT intensively adopted 16 three-digit industries that encompass 50 five-digit industries covering the years 2000–2005. The results obtained from the two situations, one, including the industry fixed effects dummy variables and the other without these, are contrasted. It is established that the model that included the industry fixed effect dummy variables has a greater explanatory power. The two principal components that account for the greater variation in FMT show positive and moderately significant relationship with TFPG. The study provides sufficient evidence to conclude that FMT has a direct and moderately significant relationship with TFPG.     

New composite models for the Danish fire insurance data

In recent years, several composite models based on the lognormal distribution have been developed for the Danish fire insurance data. In this note, we propose new composite models based on the lognormal distribution. At least one of the newly proposed models is shown to give a better fit to the Danish fire insurance data.