International Journal of Business and Society

BUSINESS WHERE SOCIETY MATTERS: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF ERNEST DE RUN, RUJHAN MUSTAFA, HAMRI TUAH AND SALBIAH EDMAN

Rajah Rasiah, Rohaya Mohd-Nor, Kartinah Ayupp — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

At a time when businesses are attempting to acquire socially good practices, especially since the landmark agreement at the 21st Conference of Parties meeting that led to the Paris Accord to cap temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next 100 years with 2005 as the starting year. Not only was business then dominated by practices that overly emphasized profit making. Indeed, this was still the prevailing environment when the International Journal of Business and Society (IJBS) was launched in 2000 at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). Ernest De Run, Rujhan Mustafa, Hamri Tuah, and Salbiah Edman were among the founding members of the journal that came together to launch the journal to promote ethics and societal objectives in academia. Consequently, this introductory paper provides the background to honor these four founding scholars. In doing so, the introduction addresses the key topics the founding editorial established as specially promoted societal pillars of the journal

BRETTON WOODS INSTITUTIONS, GLOBAL RECESSIONS AND THE MALAYSIAN ECONOMY

Dayita Priya Rajah, Rajah Rasiah — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

The Bretton Woods Institutions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank were established in 1944 to assist all countries to coordinate trade and investment towards supporting development. When Keynes orchestrated its launching, he had sought an egalitarian governance framework to support trade and investment. A fixed exchange rate mechanism was established to support trade and investment flows, and the settlement of balance of payment deficits, and debt. The early major fissure to such a system to threaten such a goal came in the form of the US withdrawing from the fixed exchange rate mechanism in 1971. It has since faced considerable contentions as many considered the US to enjoy asymmetric powers to shape the conduct of the IMF and the World Bank. The latest of such problems arose following the breakout of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 and the subsequent introduction of trade sanctions against Russia. This paper analyses the economic consequences of trade sanctions and their implications for the Malaysian economy.

CHARTING THE ECONOMY: REVISITING THE INDUSTRIAL POLICY EXPERIENCE OF MALAYSIA

Rajah Rasiah, Rohaya Mohd-Nor, Miao Zhang — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

The much-maligned industrial policy approach by mainstream economists got a major push when the United States and European Union began introducing subsidies to support the import-substitution development of micro-chips to offset shortages caused by a fall in imports from China triggered by geopolitical developments since the turn of the millennium. Consequently, it opened the floodgates for the introduction of more assertive interventions through industrial policies. This paper revisits Malaysia’s historical experience with industrial policies, and examines its impact on industrialization and the Malaysian economy. In doing so the paper critically assesses the capacity and effectiveness of the New Industrial Policy 4 (NIMP4) in successfully transforming the Malaysian economy from low- and medium-value-added economic activities in 2023 to high value-added economic activities in 2030, so as to support the achievement of progressive wages from a median of RM2,600 in 2023 to RM4,500 in 2030.

CONSUMER RIGHTS & CUSTOMER LOYALTY OF ONLINE FOOD DELIVERY SERVICES AMONG CONSUMERS IN SARAWAK

Fadilah Siali, Mahani Binti Mohammad Abdu Shakur, Muhammad Hafiz Mohd Shukri — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Online Food Delivery Services (OFDS) is gaining popularity as one e-commerce platform. This paper aims to empirically evaluate consumers' awareness of their rights using OFDS services, determine whether their experience exercising consumer rights when using OFDS, and examine whether their experience exercising these rights affects their loyalty to their preferred OFDS. The selected consumer rights for this investigation include Rights to Basic Needs, Rights to Information, Rights to Choose, Rights to Safety and Rights to Redress. Employing a quantitative approach, this study surveyed questionnaire distribution across four main divisions in Sarawak: Kuching, Samarahan, Sibu and Miri. The data was analysed using multiple regression analysis techniques. The results indicate that Consumer Rights to Basic Needs, Rights to Information, and Rights to Choose significantly influence loyalty. Both the Rights to Safety and Rights to Redress positively affect loyalty, but their influence is not statistically significant. Furthermore, Mann-Whitey U Test was employed to compare the means of two prominent OFDS platforms preferred by the respondents, namely GrabFood and Foodpanda. The findings suggest no significant difference between the sample means for all the variables used in this study. This study provides a fresh insight into the consumer rights and protection of OFDS from both marketing and consumerism perspectives.

ADOPTION OF PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) FINTECH LENDING: A STUDY OF SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS

Rayenda Khresna Brahmana, Evan Lau — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

This research examines the socio-demographic factors of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) fintech lending within the Indonesian context. This research takes three different P2P Fintech lending measures: total fintech accounts, total fintech transactions, and total fintech loan disbursement. Using provincial data from 2019 to 2022, our robust panel regression found that education, internet literacy, poverty, and gender play important roles in P2P Fintech lending, specifically the total accounts and transactions. However, the total fintech loans were only determined by education and Gender. This study contributes significantly to the digital economy literature, specifically within the fintech domain, offering valuable insights for policymakers and financial authorities in Indonesia to enhance regulatory frameworks and foster a more inclusive P2P Fintech landscape.

Business Intelligence and Organizational Effectiveness in The Malaysian Newspaper Industry: Mediating Effect of Market Capitalization and Operational Agility

Amran Ahmad, Fumitaka Furuoka, Rajah Rasiah — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

The Malaysian newspaper industry faces prospective challenges due to growing competition, technological advancements, and changing customer demand. To ensure sustainability, Malaysian companies must focus on business intelligence to overcome these challenges. Therefore, this study aims to examine the impact of business intelligence on organizational effectiveness, and the mediational role of market capitalization agility and operational adjustment agility in the relationship between business intelligence and organizational effectiveness in the context of the Malaysian newspaper industry. This study collected data from the 504 managerial-level employees working in the Malaysian newspaper industry. The outcomes showed business intelligence plays a crucial role in enhancing organizational effectiveness, as managers can enhance performance by ensuring market capitalization and operational adjustment agility. Operational adjustment and market capitalization agility ultimately enhance the organization's overall effectiveness. Further, the findings of this study provide practical implications to policymakers and suggest that policymakers should enhance managers' agility by providing comprehensive training on business intelligence systems, enhancing their knowledge of the business environment, and promoting change-responsiveness.

THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POOR AND DESTITUTE ASNAF IN KUALA LUMPUR

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

From an adapted method originally developed as the Multidimensional Poverty Index by Alkire and Foster, this paper examined the multidimensional poverty characteristics of the poor and destitute asnaf in Kuala Lumpur with a sample of 380 poor and destitute asnaf households. The survey was conducted from March 2022 until January 2023, still very much affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of the study reveal significant dimensions of deprivation experienced by the poor and destitute asnaf in Kuala Lumpur, which were not sufficiently captured by previous assessments. In addition to the headcount and intensity of the poverty experienced, the study captures the dimensions and indicators that contribute to the poverty scenario of the poor and destitute asnaf in Kuala Lumpur. Consequently, zakat institutions are recommended to integrate non-monetary poverty indicators into their assessments to obtain a rigorous framework to address poverty-related issues and the factors that affect the well-being of the poor and destitute asnaf households in Malaysia. The results bring wide ramifications for casting the poverty net more exhaustively than before but also for identifying the indicators that the poor and destitute are most vulnerable to. In light of the findings, it is critical that future programmes that are designed address the non-pecuniary dimensions of poverty so that zakat resources are allocated effectively.

EXPLORING SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP: TRENDS AND INSIGHTS FROM A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

Ahmad Jusoh, Alhamzah F. Abbas, Hamrila A. Latif — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of sustainable leadership using 645 documents from the Scopus database, analyzed with VOSviewer software. It examines publication trends, keyword trends, co-citations, co-authorship, and contributions by countries and institutions. The findings highlight the rapid growth of literature in this field, with the United States leading in research output. The analysis shows that sustainable leadership positively impacts organizational performance, including financial outcomes and employee engagement, while cultural factors influence leadership practices across regions. Ethical and transformational leadership are critical in promoting sustainability, especially in supply chain management and innovation within emerging industries. This study identifies key research gaps and offers opportunities for future exploration in sustainable leadership.

FDI-ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY NEXUS: SOUTHEAST ASIAN TIGER CUB ECONOMIES

Yong Sze Wei, Jerome Kueh Swee Hui — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a crucial catalyst for economic growth in countries, especially in the Southeast Asian Tiger Cub economies, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Nonetheless, the impact of foreign direct investment on environmental quality may differ by region. This study aims to investigate the impact of the FDI on carbon dioxide emission among Tiger Cub economies. Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and quadratic estimation methods are adopted in the study to estimate the relationship between FDI and carbon dioxide emission from 1995 to 2022, in view of linearity and non-linearity aspects. Empirical findings indicate that there is a negative relationship between FDI and carbon dioxide emission in the long run under the linearity model and supported the Pollution Halo Hypothesis (PHH). Furthermore, the non-linearity results show that existence on inverted U-Shaped relationship between FDI and carbon dioxide emission. There is a positive impact of FDI on carbon dioxide emission when FDI is below the threshold level, while there is a negative impact of FDI on carbon dioxide emission when FDI is above the threshold level. The government should encourage green investment by offering business incentives or carbon credits, with a focus on high-value sectors such as advanced manufacturing, technology, renewable energy and research and development, as well as promoting technology transfer and innovation to attract foreign direct investment and stimulate economic growth, all while reducing environmental degradation.

BUSINESS SCHOOL-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION: WHAT MOTIVATES THEM?

Obed Rashdi Syed, Shahid Rasool — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Business schools and industry collaboration helps the business schools to produce relevant research, resolve industrial issues, and enhance knowledge and skills of students of management education programmes. However, questions have been raised regarding weak ties of business schools with the industry, which then questions about the quality of management graduates and research outcomes. Many theorists have thoroughly studied university-industry collaboration for over two decades. Similar theoretical studies in the context of business schools need to be explored. Previous studies on business school and industry collaboration are mainly conducted in Western and developed nations, and the implications are irrelevant to Asian business schools. This study uses qualitative interviews to explore the motivations for collaborations. Three business schools in Malaysia are selected, and research participants include deans, faculty members, administrators, and industry partners of the selected business schools. Findings highlight four primary motivations of the schools to foster collaborations, namely relevance, sustainability, networking, and exposing students of management education. The industry partners are mainly interested in grant projects, management education for their employees, and they show little intention to support the schools in enhancing the relevance. The weak ties with industry are instigated by the business schools. Thus, the study provides recommendations for business school leaders, policymakers, and faculty members.