THE MODERATING EFFECT OF INDUSTRY EXPERT TO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COOPERATIVE CHARACTERISTICS AND ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY

The main focus of the National Cooperative Policy 2011-2020 is to ensure that cooperatives in Malaysia comply with cooperative legislation. This study aimed to test the relationship between the characteristics of the cooperative with the quality of the cooperative’s annual financial reporting. The independent variables of the cooperative characteristics tested were the size and type of business. The selected study data is the annual report of the cooperative and a total of one hundred and twenty annual reports for 2010 and 2014 were used. Data were analysed using multivariate regression analysis and hierarchical multivariate regression. The results showed that the size and type of business had a significant relationship with the quality of the cooperative’s annual financial reporting at the ninety five percent and ninety nine percent confidence levels, respectively. The results of the moderating factor analysis of industry experts showed the effect of the relationship between business type and the quality of cooperative’s annual financial reporting at a confidence level of ninety five percent. While the moderating factor of industry experts did not show an effect on the relationship between the size of the cooperative and the quality of the cooperative's annual financial reporting. Thus, it can be concluded that the characteristics of cooperatives and industry experts are important elements that influence the quality of annual financial reporting of cooperatives in Malaysia.

NON-SHARI’AH COMPLIANT INCOME GAIN OF ISLAMIC BANKS AND ITS IMPACT ON CUSTOMERS TRUST AND COMMITMENT: A QUALITATIVE APPROACH

The aim of this paper is to focus on the impact of non-sharia compliant income of Islamic banks on customers’ trust and commitment. The research work has followed the qualitative strategy as it has worked on secondary qualitative data. Books, journals, and credible websites have been reviewed as the primary methods of collecting secondary qualitative data. Thematic analysis has been used to analyse the gathered data. According to the findings of this paper, those banks which are not focusing on shariah compliance cannot achieve the trust of the customers which ultimately leads to a lack of customers commitment.

THE IMPACT OF MONETARY POLICY ON THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF KUWAIT FOR THE PERIOD OF 1980-2020

The government of Kuwait has shifted its focus from the dependence on oil and has concentrated on applying a long-term strategic vision that seeks to recover the economy and raise the citizens’ standard of living. To accomplish these objectives, monetary policy should be formulated appropriately by the government. However, it seems that the effects of monetary policy instruments on the economic growth of Kuwait are not obvious. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to empirically explore the effect of monetary policy on Kuwaiti economic growth. This research uses annual time series data on real GDP, exchange rate, broad money supply (M2), consumer price index, and deposit interest rate over the period (1980 - 2020) and applies Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results of the empirical analysis show the presence of a long-run relationship between real Gross Domestic Product and monetary policy instruments. Specifically, it finds that broad money supply (M2), deposit interest rate, and consumer price index affect economic growth positively and statistically significant. While the exchange rate affects real Gross Domestic Product negatively and statistically insignificant. The Granger causality test based on VECM shows two unidirectional causal relationships running from broad money supply and consumer price index to real GDP in the short run. Thus, the study suggests that policymakers concentrate on improving the economy by managing interest rates and maintain supporting environment for sustainable economic growth and development.

BOARD COMPOSITION AND CORPORATE CONTRIBUTIONS RELATED TO CORONAVIRUS 2019 DISEASE: A REVIEW

The spread of COVID-19 has led to unexpected impacts on the country. Not only health, but the pandemic also affects the social, educational, and economic aspects which need some attention by the government as well as corporate citizens. As a group of individuals who govern the direction of a company, the board of directors plays an important role in shaping the company's philanthropic policy, especially in the challenging COVID-19 pandemic environment. Through the review of relevant literature, particularly to corporate governance and corporate philanthropy, this article discusses how the diversity of board members can influence decisions on the determination of COVID-19 related corporate contributions. Determining the type and amount of contributions to relevant recipients is crucial, particularly for groups of stakeholders who are really in need. Thus, relevant and diverse backgrounds of board members are able to bring wider perspectives and points of view as well as the understanding of the problems and needs of different stakeholders. Diversity in terms of education, experience, gender, and community influence is believed to bring different contributions in tackling problems posed by COVID-19. The discussion in this article contributes to the enrichment of the corporate philanthropy literature. It also gives the industry a perspective on the composition of the company's board of directors.

THE ELEMENTS OF COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE MODEL IN MALAYSIA

The contribution of the cooperative sector in Malaysia to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is still at an unsatisfactory level. Some reports state that the country's GDP was only achieved between 3% to 4% until 31 December 2019 compared to the target of 10% as set in the National Cooperative Policy (NCP) 2011-2020. Based on NCP 2011-2020, one of the achievements that contribute to the increase in GDP is good regulation and governance. The same achievement strategy is continued in the fourth strategic thrust proposal of NCP 2021-2030, which is to create effective regulation. Therefore, to solve the problems of the study, the objectives of the study is to identify the elements of cooperative governance model based on cooperative governance guidelines in Malaysia and investigate the effect of cooperative governance model based on cooperative governance guidelines on cooperative performance in Malaysia. This study will use quantitative research method to achieve the objectives that have been set, namely questionnaire techniques and content analysis. Validation of the study framework model will be conducted using quantitative analysis techniques using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The expected output of the study is the Cooperative Governance Model that can be referred to by the Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development (MEDAC) and government agencies such as the Malaysian Cooperative Commission (MCC), Malaysian Cooperative Institute and other cooperatives. The significant results of this study are expected to provide input to the MCC related to the elements of good cooperative governance and can be used as additional information to be disseminated to cooperatives in Malaysia. The improvement in the achievement of cooperative governance is expected to contribute to the increase in cooperative revenue which in turn achieves the target contribution to the national GDP.

BANK TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY, PURE TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY AND SCALE EFFICIENCY, DOES ECONOMIC FREEDOM MATTER? EVIDENCE FROM CENTRAL EUROPE

The current study attempts to investigate the impact of the limitation of economic freedom on conventional bank technical efficiency and its components (pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency) by using data from the region of central Europe. Non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is employed to measure the bank's technical efficiency and its components levels. The applied method of estimation consists of “pooled Ordinary Least Square (OLS), Fixed Effect Model (FEM), Random Effect Model (REM), and the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM)” to investigate the influence of economic freedom and other potential determinants on bank efficiency. This study has found that the indicators of Government Spending, Fiscal Health, Business Freedom, Labor Freedom, and Financial Freedom have positive relationships with bank’s technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency, and scale efficiency. Contrariwise, Overall Economic Freedom, Monetary Freedom, and Investment Freedom exhibit a negative impact on a bank’s technical efficiency and its components. Implications from the study permit the related parties to identify the significant dimensions of economic freedom to the efficiency of the banks to ensure better bank performance.

BANK LENDING BEHAVIOR: EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIAN DUAL BANKING SYSTEM

This study investigates the internal and external factors that influence bank lending behaviors in Malaysian’s dual banking system. The final regression of 24 commercial and 15 Islamic banks using the pooled ordinary least square (POLS) method revealed that the size of the bank proxies by the logarithm of total assets as the most significant factor influencing bank lending behavior in Malaysia from 2010 to 2018. This suggests that larger banks are more diversified and have a larger pool of funds to be loaned out. Because banks rely on deposits to issue loans, the deposits received by the bank have a substantial impact on bank lending. The greater the number of deposits obtained; the more bank lending activities will occur. The data also demonstrated that commercial and Islamic bank lending behavior in Malaysia is strongly connected with deposit volume (DEPO), GDP, and bank size (SIZE).

ZAKAT ACCOUNTING COURSE: VALUABLE INPUT TO HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTIONS

The objective of this study is to investigate the factors that encourage students to choose Zakat Accounting as their elective course at one of the Higher Learning Institutions in Malaysia. Primary data for the study were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from three classes. Overall, a total of 59 respondents were engaged as the sample of this study. The findings revealed that the factors influencing the students' selection were personal interest in the subject matter, opportunity to learn a new area of accounting, ease of subject matter, quality of the lecturer teaching, and religious belief. The talk given by the Faculty was regarded as the most convincing source of information for the students in selecting the elective course. Although this study only focuses on one university in Malaysia, it could become a catalyst for future studies in the area of Zakat Accounting. Despite the limitation, it still provides some insightful findings of the students’ acceptance determinants of an Islamic course in a university. In conclusion, this study hopes to provide invaluable input to the management of the Higher-Level Institutions on factors to consider before offering any new courses to students.

THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) ON ISLAMIC BANKING PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIA

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities can lead the company to gain better recognition from citizens and investors. CSR has become one of the added values for a company in increasing competition from global and domestic. However, there are some critics who contend that the CSR benefits surpass the actual cost and some also claim that for the company to be socially responsible is too expensive. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) impacts on the Islamic Banks' financial performance, specifically in Malaysia. This study used Fixed Effect Regression Model to achieve the objectives of this study. The independent variables used to determine CSR comprise of environment, community, and workplace and marketplace expenditure ratio. Meanwhile, to measure the financial bank performance that is the dependent variable, Return on Asset (ROA) is used in this study. Based on this model, the researcher concluded that CSR’s elements which are environment, community, and marketplace have significant impacts on banks financial performance. This is consistent with Stakeholder Theory which states that the firm financial performance is determined by external stakeholders. In order to enhance the study future research may segregate the focus of the study specifically on Islamic Bank or conventional banking. Future research may also conduct research on the different industries.

FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN MALAYSIA FROM 1990 TO 2019: VECM APPROACH

Economists believe that efficient financial development is significant for building sustainable economic growth in any country. The global financial crisis, economic events and country’s uniqueness has resulted in continuous research to examine the relationship of financial and economic development using numerous methods and indicators which presented various simulation that led to different views on the linkages. Most of the studies had tested the indicators individually which resulted in less dynamic findings and creates a gap in the research. Hence, this paper aims to examine the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Malaysia by observing different economic indicators concurrently. This study using Malaysia’s annual time series data from 1990 to 2019. This study employs descriptive statistics, regression estimations, unit root test, Johansen co-integration test, VAR, and VECM modeling. The FTSE Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBMKLCI) and domestic credit as a percentage to GDP (DC) have been used as proxies for financial development while GDP per capita and Industrial Production Index (IPI) as proxies for economic growth. The findings reveal that FBMKLCI and domestic credit produces a significant relationship towards GDP per capita in the long run and short run. Contrary results found in FBMKLCI-domestic credit-IPI nexus whereby FBMKLCI and domestic credit demonstrate negative association towards IPI. As this study uses the same variables to indicates the relationship towards unalike economic growth gauge, more dynamic work and effort shall be considered to enhance the results. Government and respective institutions shall play their role effectively to revisit or formulate policy and law of the financial system to stimulate the growth of the Malaysian economy.