Fostering Interdisciplinary Research Culture, Challenges and Way Forward: The Universiti Malaya Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Puteri Shafinaz Abdul-Rahman ◽  
Haryana Rozana Abdul Rahim ◽  
Normaniza Osman

Interdisciplinary research (IDR) exploring beyond the purview of a single discipline is critical for providing the requisite solutions to real-world issues. Furthermore, the process of translating research that could have a positive impact on and benefit the government, industry and society, typically requires a multipronged approach with inputs and solutions integrated from various disciplines. Therefore, IDR is vital in pushing the different disciplines forward and accelerating scientific discovery in innovative ways. Nonetheless, the move towards encouraging researchers to break away from working in silos to working together has been an extremely challenging task. Doubtlessly, interdisciplinary programmes demand much more involvement and exhaustive effort from researchers per se as they require not only academic scholarship but also soft skills to communicate, network and engage with other researchers from diversified disciplines, various stakeholders and beneficiaries. In addition to that, good leadership and all-rounded teamwork support are required in navigating and ensuring the success of the research programme to deliver its intended outcome and impact. In light of this, this opinion paper discusses some of the challenges confronted in fostering IDR at the Universiti Malaya and suggestions on approaches that could be adopted to garner the interest and move it forward.

AKADEMIKA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Misbahul Khoir

In order for humans could reach the so-called falah (goodness), human behavior needs to be colored with the spirit and norms of Islamic economics reflected in its values. The principles and values of Islamic economics are considerably two inseparable things. The implementation of economic principles without being colored with values or values without being based on principles could keep people far away from their purpose, namely falah. The implementation of values not based on principles will tend to bring with it the normative economics, which would cause it trapped into injustice. While the implementation of values on the Islamic economic development is based on the five universal values, namely akidah (belief), 'adl (justice), nubuwwah (prophetic), khilafah (the government), and ma'ad (results). The five principles are used as the basis for building theories of Islamic economics. But strong and adequate theories not applied into a system will make the Islamic economics just as the study of science without giving positive impact on the economic life. Therefore, based on the five universal values, the three derivative principles should be built into the characteristics and the forerunner of the Islamic economic system. The Islamic economic system makes sure that there are no economic transactions that are contrary to the Shari'a. But business performance depends on the man behind the gun. For that reason, the economic actors within this framework could be held by non-Muslims. The Islamic economics could only be developed if the mindset and behavior of Muslims are already itqan (diligent) and ihsan (professional). It "may be" one of the secrets of the Prophet's statement, saying "Truly I was sent to perfect good character". Because good character could be an indicator of knowing good or bad behavior in determining both the success and the failure of business itself.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 229
Author(s):  
Muhammad Eko Atmojo ◽  
Helen Dian Fridayani

Kulon Progo Regency is one of the districts that has many innovations, one of which is community empowerment in collaboration with a modern shop abbreviated as the shop name owned by the people (tomira). This research was motivated by the achievements of the Kulon Progo district government in carrying out development and innovation in the development of the Kulon Progo region by fully involving the Kulon Progo district community through community empowerment. This initiative was taken by the government of Kulon Progo Regency to improve community empowerment and protect the people of Kulon Progo Regency from various economic threats. Considering that in the past few years many modern shops have mushroomed in each district/city, so this is what makes Kulon Progo Regency move quickly to empower the community by collaborating between MSMEs or cooperative with modern shops. This study uses a qualitative method which case study approach. With the empowerment that has been done, the original products of Kulon Progo Regency or local products can be traded in modern stores so that local products in Kulon Progo Regency can compete with national products in these modern stores. The existence of such cooperation will indirectly improve the image of Kulon Progo Regency and lift the original products of Kulon Progo Regency. The lifting of the original products of Kulon Progo Regency will have a positive impact on the community, where indirectly the economy of the community will increase so that there will be prosperity for the community. Kabupaten Kulon Progo adalah salah satu kabupaten yang memiliki banyak inovasi, salah satunya adalah pemberdayaan masyarakat bekerja sama dengan toko modern disingkat nama toko yang dimiliki oleh masyarakat (tomira). Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi oleh pencapaian pemerintah kabupaten Kulon Progo dalam melakukan pengembangan dan inovasi dalam pengembangan wilayah Kulon Progo dengan melibatkan sepenuhnya masyarakat kabupaten Kulon Progo melalui pemberdayaan masyarakat. Inisiatif ini diambil oleh pemerintah Kabupaten Kulon Progo untuk meningkatkan pemberdayaan masyarakat dan melindungi masyarakat Kabupaten Kulon Progo dari berbagai ancaman ekonomi. Menimbang bahwa dalam beberapa tahun terakhir banyak toko-toko modern telah menjamur di setiap kabupaten/kota, jadi inilah yang membuat Kabupaten Kulon Progo bergerak cepat untuk memberdayakan masyarakat dengan berkolaborasi antara UMKM atau bekerjasama dengan toko-toko modern. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus, dengan metode yang digunakan adalah dokumentasi. Dengan pemberdayaan yang telah dilakukan, produk asli Kabupaten Kulon Progo atau produk lokal dapat diperdagangkan di toko modern sehingga produk lokal di Kabupaten Kulon Progo dapat bersaing dengan produk nasional di toko modern ini. Adanya kerjasama tersebut secara tidak langsung akan meningkatkan citra Kabupaten Kulon Progo dan mengangkat produk asli Kabupaten Kulon Progo. Pencabutan produk asli Kabupaten Kulon Progo akan berdampak positif bagi masyarakat, di mana secara tidak langsung perekonomian masyarakat akan meningkat sehingga akan ada kesejahteraan bagi masyarakat.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0958305X2110153
Author(s):  
Chao Li ◽  
Xiangyou Li ◽  
Deyong Song ◽  
Meng Tian

Based on the panel data of 277 cities between 2003 and 2017 and a unique city-level dataset of green patent applications, this study employs the difference-in-differences (DID) method to evaluate the effect of China’s carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) pilots on urban green innovation. The findings indicate that China’s ETS pilots have a positive impact on urban green innovation, and that impact is more significant for municipalities than for prefecture-level cities. Furthermore, the impact on different categories of urban green innovation is heterogeneous. More specifically, China’s ETS pilots have significantly spurred urban green innovation that is closely related to energy conservation and emission reduction, including alternative energy production, transportation, energy conservation and so forth. Moreover, the facilitating effect of China’s ETS pilots on urban green innovation suffers from a lagging effect, which began to show a significant positive effect in 2016. Overall, this paper identifies the effect of China’s ETS pilots on urban green innovation, and suggests that the government should consider the heterogeneity of urban green innovation when designing national ETS policies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 097674792096686
Author(s):  
Yudhvir Singh ◽  
Ram Milan

Public sector banks have been merged by the government in the last few years. This is the rationale behind conducting this study. The purpose of this article is to determine the factors affecting the performance of public sector banks in India and the interrelationship between bank-specific determinants and performance of public sector banks. In this article, we shall analyse the financial data of all the public sector commercial banks for a period spread across 11 years (2009–2019); Capital adequacy, Assets quality, Management efficiency, Earning, and Liquidity (CAMEL) has been used as a performance determinant; system generalised method of moments (GMM) analysis has been used to find the effect of determinants on the performance measurement of public sector banks; and CCA (canonical correlation analysis) has been used to find the interrelationship between the bank-specific determinants and the performance of public sector banks. The finding has important implications in terms of performance in the banking sector. Certain limitations of this study are: It is based on secondary data. The study only covers the financial aspects and not the non-financial aspects. It is found that the asset quality is negatively related with performance of public sector banks. Liquidity and inflation are inversely related to performance of public sector banks in India. Capital adequacy is positively related with banks’ performance, but inversely related with banks’ interest margin. GDP growth has a significant positive impact on banks’ performance, but inversely related with banks’ interest income. Inflation rate is inversely related with banks’ performance. Banking sector reforms are insignificantly related with banks’ performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7478
Author(s):  
Hyunjung Kim ◽  
Eun Jung Kim

Since the dawn of the 21st century, Japan has switched its national industry strategy from traditional industries—manufacturing and trading—toward tourism. Regional revitalization is a particularly important issue in Japan, and by uniting regions as an integrated tourism zone, the government expects an increase in visits to tourism zones. This study quantitatively evaluates whether the regions that contain a tourism zone experience a significant increase in visitors by using a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design. Additionally, it examines the effects of subsidies through regression modeling. The results indicated that the tourism zones that were comprised of a narrow region in the same prefectures experienced a significant increase in visitors. The subsidy on information transmission, measures for the secondary traffic, and space formation had a significant positive impact on the increase in visitors to these tourism zones. Implications on tourism policies, urban and regional development, and community development can be obtained through this study.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e031187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria-Jose Santana ◽  
Sandra Zelinsky ◽  
Sadia Ahmed ◽  
Chelsea Doktorchik ◽  
Matthew James ◽  
...  

ObjectivesThe overall goal of this study is to identify priorities for cardiovascular (CV) health research that are important to patients and clinician-researchers. We brought together a group of CV patients and clinician-researchers new to patient-oriented research (POR), to build a multidisciplinary POR team and form an advisory committee for the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta.DesignThis qualitative POR used a participatory health research paradigm to work with participants in eliciting their priorities. Therefore, participants were involved in priority setting, and analysis of findings. Participants also developed a plan for continued engagement to support POR in CV health research.SettingLibin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada.ParticipantsA total of 23 participants, including patients and family caregivers (n=12) and clinician-researchers (n=11).ResultsParticipants identified barriers and facilitators to POR in CV health (lack of awareness of POR and poor understanding on the role of patients) and 10 research priorities for improving CV health. The CV health research priorities include: (1) CV disease prediction and prevention, (2) access to CV care, (3) communication with providers, (4) use of eHealth technology, (5) patient experiences in healthcare, (6) patient engagement, (7) transitions and continuity of CV care, (8) integrated CV care, (9) development of structures for patient-to-patient support and (10) research on rare heart diseases.ConclusionsIn this study, research priorities were identified by patients and clinician-researchers working together to improve CV health. Future research programme and projects will be developed to address these priorities. A key output of this study is the creation of the patient advisory council that will provide support and will work with clinician-researchers to improve CV health.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1457-1476
Author(s):  
Valentina L. ZAZIMKO ◽  
Nadezhda V. SEDYKH

Subject. This article analyzes the implementation of the government programme of the Krasnodar Krai, Development of Agriculture and Regulation of Markets for Agricultural Products, Raw Materials and Food. Objectives. The article aims to assess the measures of budget support for the agricultural sector of the Krasnodar Krai. Methods. For the study, we used a correlation and regression analysis of official statistics. Results. The article finds that the government programme of the Krasnodar Krai, Development of Agriculture and Regulation of Markets for Agricultural Products, Raw Materials and Food has a positive impact on the progress of production in the agriculture of the region, but it does not contribute to the growth of investment in the industry. Conclusions. It is necessary to move from targeted support for individual agricultural producers to the creation of a modern sectoral infrastructure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Rahmat Kurniawan ◽  
Azhar Azhar

This research is to find out the perceptions of micro, small and medium enterprises to modern stores, MSME partnerships with modern stores, constraints, and the role of the government in overcoming the problems of modern shops and MSMEs in Padangsidimpuan City. This research is a descriptive qualitative study by conducting in-depth interviews. The results showed the perception of MSMEs towards modern stores had a negative and positive impact. The negative impact, the income of MSMEs has decreased. The positive impact, the presence of modern stores motivates MSMEs to evaluate themselves from modern stores. The partnership established by MSMEs with modern stores is the use of business locations provided by modern stores. The constraints of MSMEs are business capital, human resources, business legality, business permits and products, while the constraints of modern stores are business permits, human resources and partnerships with MSMEs. The role of the City Government of Padangsidimpuan is for modern stores, namely to give an appeal not to add to modern store outlets and to call for partnerships in terms of marketing local MSME products. For MSMEs, facilitate MSMEs with banking institutions in terms of providing venture capital, training and guidance to MSMEs, and making packaging houses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-137
Author(s):  
Sadaf Khan ◽  
Ubaid Ur Rehman

This research aims to analyze the impact of insider trading laws and corporate governance on investment decisions. For this purpose, the data of 400 potential and actual investors employed who provided their feedback on a structured questionnaire. When the data is collected, it was cleaned. The normality of data and reliability of items were also checked and within limits. Simple Regression was applied to test hypotheses. It was concluded that the perception of insider trading laws and corporate governance have a positive impact on investment decisions. The study has wide implications and the government and corporation both can be beneficial from its insight and findings, and exercise good corporate governance practices and follow stringent insider trading laws. The study also paves the way for future research.


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