The impact of brand familiarity, perceived trust and attitude on investors’ decision-making in Islamic stock market

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the influence of investors’ attitudes on their decision-making. Two subjective perception factors, brand familiarity and perceived trust, were proposed to influence investors’ attitudes and decision-making. This paper also suggests the potential mediating effect of attitude on decisions on Islamic stock investment. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using a primary data collection method. Questionnaires were used and distributed to a sample size of 250 Malaysian investors in the Klang Valley aged between 25 and 50 years old. Data were analysed using SPSS and Structural Equation Modelling–Partial Least Squares. Findings: Seven hypotheses were proposed, and six were supported. The findings show that brand familiarity and perceived trust have a significant relationship with attitude. Brand familiarity and attitude have a significant relationship with investment decision behaviour. The relationship between perceived trust and attitude also reveals significant findings. However, perceived trust was found to have an insignificant relationship with investment decision behaviour. Mediation analysis shows that attitude mediates the relationship between brand familiarity and investment decision behaviour. Attitudes are also found to mediate the relationship between perceived trust and investment decision behaviour. Practical implications: It is recommended that publicly listed companies emphasize and devote extra efforts to enhancing investors\u27 familiarity with and favour their brand. In addition, to build an investor’s trust, a company must be consistent in dividend payments. Such action may improve the probability of the company’s stock being chosen for investment. Originality/value: Subjective perceptions of investors\u27 decision-making in Islamic stock investment have yet to be thoroughly explored in the literature, especially in the Malaysian context. In this paper, the indirect relationship between brand familiarity and perceived trust in attitude is tested. This paper contributes to consumer behaviour and marketing of Islamic stock investment research area

Power, IntraTeam Conflicts, Conflict Contagion and its Impact on Performance

The objective of this study is to examine the importance of power, intrateam conflict, conflict contagion and its impact on organizational performance. This study has used past literature to extend work on power, intrateam conflict, conflict contagion and its impact on performance by providing prepositions. The study demonstrates the importance of power and its impact on intrateam conflicts, which form the shape of conflict contagion and ultimately affect performance. Study found that power leads to more conflicts and its process of spreading hastens because of its contagious nature negatively influences the team’s performance. The paper has highlighted the untapped element of power and creates a bridge between power, conflict and its impact on organizational performance. Many researchers have focused separately on power, teamwork and conflict. However, still, there is a need to assess whether individual power interests also takes the form of conflict contagion, which might affect performance of the organization

Intention to Purchase Family Takaful Policy: Evaluation of the Mediating E

This paper aims to investigate the factors affecting individuals' intention to purchase family takaful policies in Pakistan. The extended version of the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) with perceived trust was adopted as a theoretical foundation of the current study model. A total of 449 questionnaires were collected using a judgemental sampling technique and analyzed using SmartPLS. Of all the hypotheses, one was rejected. Attitude and subjective norms were found to have a positive relationship with intention. Perceived religiosity and knowledge were found to have a positive relationship with attitude. In addition to that, media referent and word of mouth were found to have a positive relationship with subjective norm while financial self-efficacy and resource facilitating conditions were found to have a positive relationship with perceived behavioral control. The mediating analysis suggested that trust mediates the relationship between religiosity and attitude. However, perceived behavioral control was found to have an insignificant relationship with intention. The results of this study highlight the applicability of DTPB into life insurance research and suggest marketing strategies for sustainable and survival of the takaful companies in Pakistan. The value of this paper lies in its presentation of a model for factors that affect an individual's intention to purchase family takaful policy.

Accounting Discretion, Loan Loss Provision in Financial Distress: Evidence from Commercial Banks

This study explores the association between earning management practices and financial distress in commercial banks. Earning management is measured through discretionary loan loss provisions and non-discretionary loan loss provisions. Modified Altman’s Z-score has been used as a proxy for financial distress. Panel regression with fixed and random effect has been employed for empirical analysis. The study finds a significant positive association between DLLP, NDLLP and financial distress in terms of the Altman Z-score. In the case of NDLLP, liquidity reduces the probability of financial distress. Whereas, a bank’s SIZE, LEVG and AQ enhance the likelihood of financial distress. The robustness tests were applied to find the association between NDLLP and FD using logistic regression to validate baseline estimates results of the random effect model. The findings of this study have implications for the policymakers, regulators and internal stakeholders to devise effective regulatory measures for well-informed investment decisions

Microbial degradation of chitin materials by Trichoderma virens UKM1

The current increase in amount of seafood wastes produced by the shrimp industry has lead to the finding of new methods for shrimp waste disposal or waste reused. For this respect, chitinase-producing fungi have been extensively studied as biocontrol agents. Locally isolated Trichoderma viren UKM1 was used in this study. From preliminary study, commercialized Trichoderma Minimal Medium (TMM) was selected for the degradation study. The substrates used were colloidal chitin as control substrate, sun dried ground and unground shrimp shells. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) studies showed penetration of fungus mycelium into the colloidal chitin as compare to sun dried ground and unground. This observation suggested that colloidal chitin was the best carbon source for modeling the degradation of chitin materials. Stereo microscope studies suggested that the fungus removed (degraded) the chitinous materials layer by layer as indicated by the significant reduction in shell thickness. Shrimp shells were further evaluated for end products in the crude medium using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). A simple, rapid, selective and specific HPLC method was developed to quantify glucosamine indirectly using the value of total N-acetyl-glucosamine (NAG) produced which the production of chitooligomer was used as marker. Results showed that the Trichoderma virens UKM1 secretes a significant amount of exochitinase compared to endochitinase by the identification of monomeric N-acetyl-glucosamine (NAG) from the chitinous substrate. The highest specific enzyme activity obtained using colloidal chitin was 14.59 U mg-1. Percentage of residual chitooligomer in impure chitinases samples was 86%

Performance of Islamic and Conventional Banks in Pakistan: A Comparative Study

This study is conducted to find out financial performance of Islamic and conventional banks operating in Pakistan for the year 2006-2014. For comparison purpose five Islamic and five similar sized conventional banks have been selected. The comparison has been made on average values of different ratios of both Islamic and conventional banks. The comparison shows that Islamic banks performance has been better in terms of efficiency, return and asset quality. However Islamic banks are struggling in terms of advances, investment, liquidity, deposits and capital as conventional banks performance is better in these areas. Islamic banks are charging higher spread and share of distributable income to depositors is far less as compared to conventional banks. Islamic banks need to focus on fair distribution of profit to its depositors in order to increase its credibility and help in achieving overall Islamic socio economic objectives of justice and equality. Islamic banks should focus on new products development and innovative solutions to meet client's needs, also Islamic banks needs to strengthen their equity base.    Keywords: Financial Performance, Financial Ratios, Comparison, Islamic banks, Conventional Banks JEL Classifications: E44, G2

Organizational Culture and Knowledge Sharing in Banking Management

The objective of the chapter is to explore the importance of knowledge sharing in the banking management along with organizational culture. To meet the objective of the study, a framework is proposed with knowledge sharing (KS) that is expected to be influenced by organizational culture (OS). OS itself is contributed by uncertainty avoidance, performance orientation, and gender egalitarianism

Stock investment decision: the impacts of investor’s perceived trust, religiosity and attitude

This paper investigates the relationship between religiosity in influencing perceived trust and attitude to invest in the Islamic stock market. In addition, this paper examines the relationship of attitude on investment decision behavior as well as the mediating role of attitude in mediates the relationship between religiosity and investment decisions as well was perceived trust and investment decisions. Using nonprobability, judgmental sampling techniques, questionnaires were collected from 247 Bursa Malaysia’s retail investors. SPSS and SmartPLS were utilized to analyze the data. All hypothesized relationships generate significant results. Religiosity and perceived trust have a significant relationship with attitude to investing in Bursa Malaysia. Attitude has a significant relationship with investment decision behavior, and religiosity has a significant relationship with perceived trust. Besides, the mediating assessment found that attitude mediates the relationship between religiosity and investment decisions. Attitude also mediates the relationship between perceived trust and investment decisions. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge in finance literature at the theoretical and practitioner level. First, it provides an empirical investigation to the body of knowledge that links religiosity and perceived trust to stock investment decisions through attitude. Second, it provides evidence on the impact of religiosity in the context of investment decisions by Muslims. Policymakers and investment institutions might benefit from this research by understanding the effect of investors' religiosity and trust on attitude to investing in the Islamic stock market and taking this as an essential factor when designing regulations and promoting the products and services

A phantom study for in-vivo dosimetry of high dose rate brachytherapy applicators

Purpose: The aim of the current investigation was to calibrate the diode in-vivo dosimetry (IVD) system for high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy and to design a phantom study for in-vivo dosimetry of HDR brachytherapy applicators.Methods: Gamma Med Plus with Abacus 3.1 treatment planning system (TPS), and diode dosimetry system has been used in this study. Calibration and different correction factors of diode have been measured in water phantom. Treatment simulation, planning of different applicators for esophagus, rectum/vagina and cervix (fletcher & ring), dose delivery and finally in-vivo verification at prescription point using diode in water phantom has been performed.Results: The mean calibration factor for diode for Ir-192 HDR source is 1.256 (N=15) with σ ± 0.0015. The overall average percentage difference between TPS dose and diode dose was 1.87% (σ ± 2.64) for all measurements, 1.86% (σ ± 2.73) for esophagus, 1.86% (σ± 2.94) for rectum/vagina and 1.67% (σ ±2.81) for fletcher and 2.07% (σ ± 2.26) for ring applicators, respectively. These results advocate that the dose calculated by TPS and dose measured using diode for the various clinical situations deliberated here are in good agreement (~2%) at the points of clinical importance.Conclusion: The in-vivo phantom dosimetry study gives both a confidence that the treatments are being delivered as prescribed and enhance the reliability of the HDR brachytherapy treatment. This may be used for acceptance testing/commissioning of new treatment planning system and to validate the new brachytherapy techniques in the clinics.

Nyereségmenedzsment és pénzügyi nehézségek kialakulásának valószínűsége a bankoknál – Bizonyítékok a pakisztáni kereskedelmi bankoktól

A tanulmány a pénzügyi nehézségek (financial distress, FD) és a diszkrecionális elhatárolások alkalmazása közti kapcsolatot hivatott vizsgálni, húsz, a Pakisztáni Értéktőzsdén (Pakistan Stock Exchange, PSX) jegyzett pakisztáni kereskedelmi bank nyereségmenedzsment-gyakorlata alapján. A tanulmány a 2010–2015-ös évek adatait használja fel. A pénzügyi nehézségek felmérésére Altman-féle Z-mutató került alkalmazásra. A Z-mutató értékét a bankok veszélyeztetett és nem veszélyeztetett csoportokba való kategorizálására is alkalmazzák. Emellett a nyereségmenedzsment nem diszkrecionális (non-discretionary accruals, NDA) és diszkrecionális elhatárolások (discretionary accruals, DA) szerint került kategorizálásra. A változók közti kapcsolat tanulmányozására logisztikai megközelítés került alkalmazásra. A megállapítások mutatják, hogy a bankok nem diszkrecionális és diszkrecionális elhatárolások útján kezelik pénzügyi nehézségeiket. Jelen kutatási tanulmány hasznos betekintést kínál a befektetők, könyvvizsgálók és szabályozó hatóságok számára, mivel azonosítja a vezetés által a szigorú szabályozások ellenére alkalmazott intézkedéseket