Service Quality Analysis of Mhealth Services Using Text Mining Method : Alodokter and Halodoc

The digital transformation of health services causes an increasing number of digital health service providers in Indonesia. The user shares their experiences and reviews each other on the online platform. This study aims to understand user perceptions of m-health services in Indonesia based on m-health service quality with a big data approach. Research using text mining is derived from the results of the reviews of the application Alodokter and Halodoc. User-generated content was gathered from the platform Google Play Store in the period April to December 2020. Based on the sentiment analysis, Alodokter performs well with 73% positive and 27% negative, while Halodoc also dominated with 86% positive and 14% negative. User reviews are categorized based on three dimensions of health service quality with a multiclass classification. It is possible to identify the word networks that often appear in user reviews through text network analysis. The dimension that reviews chiefly on Alodokter and Halodoc is perceived outcome quality. The result of this study could help or use as guidance to be a reference for evaluations to improve Indonesia's quality of m-health services.

Money Supply and Economic Activities in Malaysia

This study examined how economic activities affect the direction of money supply in Malaysia. The overnight policy rate is the interest rate set by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) as its monetary policy tool. Based on the Keynesian Economic Theory, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was applied to analyse how the industrial production index, interest rate and consumer price index influenced money supply. The findings of this study supported the notion that economic growth significantly affected the money supply in the short run. There was no evidence of such a relationship in the long run. Maintaining a stable money supply is vital to limit adverse variations in economic activity. A stable money supply allows Malaysia to respond effectively during difficult times, especially the current covid19 pandemic.

Leveraging Business Data Analytics and Machine Learning Techniques for Competitive Advantage: Case Study Evidence from Small Businesses

Data analytics is the essential component in deriving insights from data obtained from multiple sources. It represents the technology, methods and techniques used to obtain insights from massive datasets. As data increases, companies are looking for ways to gain relevant business insights underneath layers of data and information, to help them better understand new business ventures, opportunities, business trends and complex challenges. However, to date, while the extensive benefits of business data analytics to large organizations are widely published, micro, small, and medium sized organisations have not fully grasped the potential benefits to be gained from data analytics using machine learning techniques. This study is guided by the research question of how data analytics using machine learning techniques can benefit small businesses. Using the case study method, this paper outlines how small businesses in two different industries i.e. healthcare and retail can leverage data analytics and machine learning techniques to gain competitive advantage from the data. Details on the respective benefits gained by the small business owners featured in the two case studies provide important answers to the research question.

The Determinants of House Prices in Malaysia

This paper studied how house prices were affected by macroeconomic factors from Q1 2009 to Q4 2018. The short and long-run effects of real income, nominal interest rates, inflation rate and stock prices on house prices in Malaysia were examined with the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) of a restricted error correction model (ECM). It was discovered that the selected macroeconomic factors were cointegrated with house prices. Income, represented by real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), significantly affected house prices in the short and long-run. Inflation and interest rate, proxied by Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Overnight Policy Rate (OPR), respectively, affected house prices significantly in the long-run. The stock market, tracked by Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI), had no significant impact on house prices signifying no wealth effect. Through the findings of an inelasticity of demand and an undesirable result of monetary policies, this paper concluded that more effective solutions needed to be carried out to ensure affordability of house ownership in Malaysia.

A Roller Coaster Ride

Fun Extreme Park is a new theme park in town. After a few years in operation, the park is facing a crisis in declining number of visitors. Revenue is greatly affected as the biggest revenue stream comes from the sales of tickets. A few other challenges have been identified that may further contribute to the decline in the visitors’ numbers. The sales of retail products are not promising and there has been an increasing complaint from customers on the quality of food and services at their restaurants. Despite having ten rides in the park, some of the popular rides are not operable due to maintenance issues. These added to the customers’ complaints further. The case dilemma involves getting the best options in improving the park’s performance by way of getting the best strategies in each of the challenges highlighted. Appendices are attached to provide more information for better understanding of the park’s operation

Factors Affecting Accumulation of Household Debts in Malaysia

Since 2000, the ratio of debt to income among Malaysian households has been showing an upward trend. This paper examines the factors affecting accumulation of household loansinto two main categories, housing loans and consumption loans. The purpose of this separation is to study the impact of savings on housing loans and consumption loans individually, which has not been researched in a Malaysian context prior to this. By adopting the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), we found that cost of living, house prices and savings impacts accumulation of housing loans and consumption loans differently. There is a positive relationship between savings to housing loans. Cost of living on the other hand has a negative relationship with accumulation of consumption loans. House prices is negatively related to consumption loans. This study fills in the literature gap on the impact of household’s savings on accumulation of both housing and consumption loans. Among the policy implications proposed by this paper is to rectify and influencethe root causes of inflation.

Driving Inclusiveness from the Grassroots: The Tambunan Inventors

Reviews of recent studies indicated the growing importance of development and attainment of inclusive societies via inclusive innovations. This is especially relevant for addressing the disenfranchised or those at the base of the economic pyramid (BOP). Gaps in the literature pointed to; l) the need for understanding of inclusive innovation processes among small, medium and micro enterprises vis-à-vis among local entrepreneurs, ll) there is a lack of studies on inclusive innovation movement in Malaysia. Specifically under the SME Masterplan 2012-2020, there are a number of high impact programmes defined to drive numerous aims. Specifically, for driving inclusive innovation among Small and Medium Entreprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, the High Impact Programme 6 (HIP6) is designed with the focus on development of grassroots innovations. In order to get some insights, case studies were carried out among participants of the HIP6. Cases were recommended by the lead agency entrusted with the implementation of the initiative. Among the cases, a cluster in the area of Tambunan in the state of Sabah, Malaysia was identified. Thus, this paper presents the cases of the Tambunan grassroots inventors.

Aurora: The Pandemic Within

Aurora Layar Group (Aurora) had been experiencing losses for three consecutive years since 2017. Among factors contributing to these losses were high depreciation due to high capital expenditure and recognition of impairment losses. However, Aurora managed to reduce its losses from RM252 billion in 2017 to RM79.5 billion in 2019. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic had hammered many industries worldwide including Aurora, in the travel, leisure and hospitality sector. The implication from the restrictions on business operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic on Aurora was evidenced by its reported losses of RM371.3 billion in the first six months to June 2020 during which most of its cruise operations suspended since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The reported losses were extremely higher compared to the first six months to June 2019 of RM28.3 billion. While many cruise companies globally fighting for survival, the Deputy CEO of Aurora, Miss Salina Hasan, tendered her resignation. In May 2020, the Chairman and CEO, Tan Sri Salmah Ali, had pledged 60 per cent of her shares in the company as collateral for loans. The decision was made a day after Aurora decided to suspend all payments to creditors

Freedom Indices and Capital Asset Pricing Model: Some Malaysian Evidence

Human rights and fundamental freedoms such as economic, political, and press freedoms vary widely from country to country. It creates opportunity and risk in investment decisions. Thus, this study is carried out to examine if the explanatory power of the model for capital asset pricing could be improved when these human rights movement indices are included in the model. The sample for this study comprises of 495 stocks listed in Bursa Malaysia, covering the sampling period from 2003 to 2013. The model applied in this study employed the pooled ordinary least square regression estimation. In addition, the robustness of the model is tested by using firm size as a controlled variable. The findings show that market beta as well as the economic and press freedom indices could explain the cross-sectional stock returns of the Malaysian stock market. By controlling the firm size, it adds marginally to the explanation of the extended CAP model which incorporated economic, political, and press freedom indices.

The Nexus of Economic Growth, Education, Fertility Rate and Female Labour Supply: Empirical Evidence in Malaysia

Malaysia, a fast-growing developing country in Asia, has envisioned Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 to become a developed economy with high income via sustainable and inclusive economic growth by the year 2030. To accomplish this vision, female labour participation is needed as the female population constitutes almost half of Malaysia’s total population. However, female labour participation rate is way lower than Malaysia’s overall labour force participation rate.The relatively low female labour participation rate can be a barrier to Malaysia’s economic development and thus the realization of its goal of a high income nation.Therefore, this paper makes an attempt to examine empirically the long-run causal association among female labour force participation, economic growth, education, and fertility rate. The interrelationships among the variables are examined using the bounds test and Toda-Yamamoto granger non-causality methodology. The result of the study indicates a strong evidence of long-run relationship among the variables. Besides, we have found a significant inverted-U-shaped association linking the female labour force participation to the economic growth in Malaysia. The results of Granger causality tests further confirm that there is a strong evidence of bidirectional causality from education to economic growth as well as female labour participation. Besides, the results also show significant unidirectional causality from female labour force participation and fertility to economic growth.