Electronic Payment Performance

The increasing speed of e-payment adoption is driven by multiple factors: Generation Z (individuals born between 1990s to early 2010s), easy payment methods, open banking ecosystem, rewards incentive, network, and the onset of COVID-19 in 2020. The Malaysian government hopes through collaboration with banks and payments industries to reach a cashless society, leveraging on the existing infrastructure to accelerate the migration to e-payments. The problems that emerge in a cashless society and secured e-payment need to be well considered by the related parties, particularly the policymakers and regulators, to position Malaysia on the right path to embark on the most advanced global trend. Therefore, this chapter aims through contextual analysis to investigate the trend performance and social impact on secured electronic payment (e-payment) in Malaysia during the period of 2016-20.

Selective Language Maintenance in Multilingual Malaysia

Aiming to understand the phenomena of language maintenance and shift in Malaysia, this chapter focuses on efforts by Penang's Chinese community to maintain Penang Hokkien alongside other Chinese community languages. The Malaysian Government has explicitly allowed the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in Chinese-medium schools, which resulted in the reduced use of Penang Hokkien and other Chinese community languages among the Malaysian Chinese community. Such a situation has caused sociolinguistic realignment in many Malaysian Chinese families, including in Penang, and raised questions about the survival of these languages in Malaysian society. Based on interviews with participants from Penang's Chinese community, the findings reveal that although past studies have demonstrated a decline in the use of Chinese community languages, the participants expressed their willingness to regularly use them in their daily life in various domains. Despite the announced desuetude of these languages, participants consistently used them and indicated their determination to pass on to the next generation.

Entrepreneurial Orientation, Market Orientation, Managerial Accounting and Manufacturing SMEs Satisfaction

From a management accounting perspective, this study aims at examining the relations of entrepreneurial and market orientations and SMEs satisfaction in terms of financial and non-financial performance. SEM was conducted on 107 responses including management accountants from the manufacturing SMEs in Malaysia. The results reveal a null relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and financial-performance satisfaction, while it shows a positive impact on non-financial performance. In contrast, market orientation affects financial and non-financial performance positively. However, to understand the null impacts, interviews were conducted with owner-managers of manufacturing SMEs in Penang. Based on the interviews and the analysis, practical implications are provided to entrepreneurs of SMEs, the Malaysian government, and researchers.

Factors Influencing Intent to Adopt Big Data Analytics in Malaysian Government Agencies

In Big Data Analytics (BDA), many government agencies directly raised their ICT expenditure in their effort to understand the attitude of the users towards new technologies. This research is intended to analyze factors affecting IT practitioners’ behavioral intentions in adopting (BDA) using a combination of multiple technology acceptance models. The synergistic three IS theory strengths: (1) Task Technology Fit (TTF), (2) Unified Technology Acceptance and Utilization Theory (UTAUT), and the (3) Initial Trust Model (ITM). The concept was validated in Malaysian government agencies, one of the highly dependent BDA promoters and initiators. 186 respondents in the Information Management departments of public agencies were recruited as part of the rigorous methodology to gather rich data. Partial least squares were analyzed by the structural models (PLS). The two key factors determine behavioral intention to adopt BDA in government agencies. Firstly, the assumption that the technology is going to produce great results raises the expectation of performance. Technological fit was the second determinant factor. Initial trust, on the other hand, was found to be adversely related to the BDA intention. Implicitly, the proposed model would be useful to IT officers in public agencies in making investment choices and designing non-adopter-friendly outreach strategies because they have more barriers to acceptance than adopters and lead adopters in the reward ladder. All public agencies will benefit from the findings of this study in gaining awareness of BDA application and fostering psychological empowerment of employees to adopt this revolutionary approach. The article outlines how dynamic TTF, UTAUT and ITM are for researchers to integrate in their emerging decision support framework for the study of new technology adoption.

DETERMINATION OF SPECIAL PERMIT RATE FOR LARGESCALE SOLAR DEVELOPMENT IN JOHOR BASED ON PLANNER PERSPECTIVE

Over the past decade, the Malaysian government has put its effort into various programmes to promote solar energy in the country. As for now, Large Scale Solar (LSS) is the biggest programme conducted by Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) and permitted by Energy Commission (EC). As the large-scale solar does not have any proper guideline, especially in development approval consideration, Johor land administrators have put telecommunication tower development as a benchmark in approving large-scale solar developments that use the Special Permit method. However, the Special Permit fee appears unfitting for the development. Thus, this paper aims to determine the Special Permit rate for large-scale solar development which are profitable to the stakeholders. Its drawback is particularly related to solar radiance, which is the key criterion of site selection to develop the most profitablesite. Selected respondents have been interviewed and the findings have led to a direction to standardise a legal framework for large-scale solar, especially in Johor.

Pertanian Menurut Perspektif As-Sunnah: Tinjauan Umum Pemikiran dan Sumbangan Tokoh-Tokoh Ilmuwan Islam

Engaging in the agricultural sector is Islamic demand. Rasulullah PBUH's suggestion clearly emphasizes the importance of this sector in prospering the greenery of this earth. This article collected several hadiths related to agriculture that explain the benefits of agriculture from the perspective of al-sunnah and its management, agriculture as an economic driver and the challenges of implementing al-sunnah recommendations in the era of globalization. Besides, this article also highlights some Islamic scholars who made significant contributions in the field of agriculture, namely al-Dinawari, Ibn Sina, Ibn Sidah, Ibn al-Rumiyyah and Ibn al-Baitar. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the collected study text. The main objective of this paper is to list the hadiths related to agricultural incentives as well as to present to the community that Islam since the heyday of Islamic civilization has emphasized the aspect of agriculture as one of the main sources of economy. Therefore, it is hoped that this article can contribute to the replenishment of human capital in the agricultural sector. This is further strengthened by the recommendations of the Malaysian government which places great emphasis on the agricultural sector.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy response on single-parent families in Malaysia

PurposeThe study focuses on the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and policy measures implemented by the Malaysian government to address issues during this period. The study examines the impacts on the financial security and mental health of single-parent families in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a cross-sectional survey to obtain data about single-parent families. To support the information collected with the survey, interviews were conducted with six representatives from six single-parent associations.FindingsThe study identified that policy measures implemented by the Malaysian government have helped improve the financial security of single-parent families. However, for mental health, the support single parents received was not able to provide better quality of life, as the majority were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during lockdown, before they received any assistance from the government.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted during the pandemic; thus, the study was not able to include a larger sample of single parents. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to explain nationwide issues. However, the study provides important insights into understanding the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on people, especially single-parent families.Practical implicationsThe study confirmed that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected single parents in different ways. Financial security and mental health, the focus of this study, have provided a clear justification for how pandemics could affect people’s lives. Specifically, the situation was exacerbated after the implementation of movement control orders in Malaysia, and it has continuously affected the living conditions of single-parent families.Social implicationsThe study focuses on single-parent families, a group that receives less attention from the government and policies, although this group is recognized as one of the vulnerable groups. Understanding this context helps to provide a clear guide for how policies can be formulated and provides equal attention to assist this group in the future.Originality/valueThis study focuses on single-parent families. Few studies have examined this perspective using Malaysia as the study context. Moreover, the study analyzes the pandemic situation, and this area is still new and underexplored.

VACCINATION AGAINST COVID-19: A PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the level of human health and economic development around the world. The Malaysian Government has implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO phase 1-4) from 18th March to 12th May 2020 and Conditional MCO (CMCO phase 5) from 13th May to 9th June 2020. While MCO 3.0 has come into force from 28th May to 7th June 2021 and continued until July 2021. The measure aims to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection and recover the country immediately. Next, the effort against COVID-19 was continued with the National Recovery Plan Strategy which started on 10th August 2021 by setting four phases and involving the MCO phase transition plan in stages. As of 18th August 2021, the total number of COVID-19 infections in Malaysia is 1,466,512 people and a total of 13,302 deaths have been recorded from 2020. While the number of active cases is still high at 254,484 cases. The first objective of this study is to discuss the threat of COVID-19 to human health. Second, to examine the trend of COVID-19 infection, and third, to analyze the vaccination process in Malaysia. This study uses a qualitative method that is secondary data by taking data from online. The results of the study found that C0VID-19 has threatened human health resulting in infection and death in large numbers. Therefore, as a current solution like other countries around the world, the Malaysian government also took the initiative to use vaccines in combating the COVID-19 pandemic through the National Covid-19 Immunization Program. This action is in line with SDG’s third goal which is Good Health and Well-Being.