The use of choice modelling in assessing tourists destinations : a case study of Redang Marine Park (RMP) Malaysia

PhD ThesisThis study employs the Choice Modelling (CM) Technique, in particular the Contingent Ranking (CR) method, to measure the economic value of the Redang Marine Park (RMP) system in Malaysia. The reason for using CR is to understand which islands in the RMP system the tourists prefer. Knowing the islands’ ranking is crucial for the planning and development of this particular island as a tourism product and destination, and at the same time, for maintaining the islands’ ecosystem as a protected area. The study is divided into three major components. The first investigates destination choices amongst tourists. In this component, the attributes of interest include choices of island, types of accommodation available at the destination, facilities provided at the place of accommodation, distance of accommodation sites to the beach, and types of transportation used to reach the destination. These attributes are measured using the 3-day/2-night (3D2N) package prices offered as holiday packages to tourists. The second component measures the importance of environmental attributes, namely the status of available fish and coral species, the numbers of nesting turtles and the degree of congestion that the tourists experience while participating in water activities such as snorkelling and diving. These attributes are measured through the conservation fees collected by the park authority from tourists visiting RMP. The final part of this study is concerned with the members of local community on the island. Their perceptions towards tourism, their readiness to participate in tourism activities and their attitudes towards MP development are issues explored in this study. A total of 189 local tourists and 94 foreign tourists were interviewed in this CR study, while 200 local residents were interviewed in the community study. This study finds that, in terms of the choice of destination, different islands do matter and are statistically significant for both local and foreign tourists. In terms of overall ranking, both local and foreign tourists rank Kapas as their first choice, while Tenggol ranks last. The main attributes in the destination choice are statistically significant for local and foreign tourists, except for facilities provided at the sites of accommodation. WTP for almost all attributes concerned are higher for local tourists than for foreign ones, except for the reduction in distance between the accommodation sites and the beach. Specifically, the improvement in terms of types of accommodation ranges from RM113.33 to RM205.50 for local tourists and RM136.50 to RM169.71 for foreign tourists. WTP for improved travel time from the mainland to the island ranges from RM0.43 to RM1.75 for the domestic tourists, as opposed to the values given by foreign tourists, ranging from RM0.29 to RM1.50. WTP for the option of accommodation situated closer to beach areas ranges from RM3.14 to RM11.25 for local tourists. These values are lower than WTP given by foreign tourists, which range from RM10.55 to RM15.57. Further analyses on marginal WTP are also discussed. Regarding environmental issues, this study finds that all attributes are statistically significant for both local and foreign tourists. The local tourists’ WTP for changes in the number of fish and coral species ranges between RM4.31 to RM6.70, while foreign tourists’ WTP ranges between RM3.50 to RM6.73. As for the number of nesting turtles, locals are willing to pay between RM3.78 and RM4.76 while foreign tourists are willing to pay between RM2.28 and RM4.14 for different attribute levels. Finally to avoid congestion while participating in the water activities, WTP by locals ranges between RM2.80 to RM13.37, and WTP amongst ii foreign tourists ranges from RM1.99 to RM11.37. Similar to the destination choice, further analyses on marginal WTP are also discussed. Regarding the local community, this study deduces that community members perceive the tourism industry positively and are willing to participate in tourism-related activities. However, they have some reservations surrounding the presence of tourists in their village, based on social and religious grounds. Their attitudes toward the development of the MP are also positive. Finally this study highlights the economic potentials that players in the tourism industry may tap and capitalize upon, mainly through practising pricing mechanisms in selling and promoting holiday packages in RMP. To the park managers and local authorities, this study may suggest some guidelines for future development processes. Such processes should consider selective development as an option while safeguarding the natural beauty of RMP. The possibility of revising the current conservation fee to resemble tourists’ WTP is also highlighted in this study. Finally, the study recommends the implementation of price discrimination and peak-load pricing in charging and collecting conservation fees as methods, not only for the purposes of increasing revenue but also for acting as tools to monitor and control the number of tourists to RMP.Government of Malaysia: The Universiti Utara Malaysia

Financing Mechanisms for Small Scale Renewable Energy Projects in Malaysia

The purpose of this analytical research paper is to find some feasible measures regarding financial issue faced in Malaysia’s renewable energy project and globally, and to promote biomass technology to the industrial development of Malaysia’s small scale renewable energy projects. The paper summarizes the status and studies the problems of renewable energy development (financing gap), and then puts forward some proposals for the financing mechanism and potential of palm’s biomass in Malaysia’s small scale renewable energy project based on international report and local research. As this is only a analytical research paper and many of its suggestions require rigorous testing and previous secondary data. The authors would suggest that further research is needed to compare experience of local industry in financing mechanism and technology used in small scale renewable energy project

A Query-Driven Spatial Data Warehouse Conceptual Schema For Disaster Management

Malaysia has experienced various types of disasters. Such events cause billions of USD and posing great challenges to a nation’s government to provide better disaster management. Indeed, disaster management is an important global problem. The National Security Council’s (NSC) Directive No. 20 outlines Malaysia’s policy on disaster and relief management demonstrates government efforts and initiatives to efficiently respond to disasters. In this regard, decision making is a key factor for organizational success. Positive outcomes are dependent on available data that can be manipulated to provide information to the decision maker, who faces the difficult and complex task of anticipating upcoming events and analyzing multiple parameters. Disaster management involves multiple sources for data collection at various levels as well as a wide array of stakeholders. Hence, accessibility to heterogenous spatial data is challenging. It is crucial to address this problem in terms of data distribution, query operation, and the analyzation task because each resource, level, and stakeholder involved has personal preferences with regard to its format, structure, syntax, and schema.The main purpose of this research is to support the complex decision-making process during disaster management by enriching the body of knowledge on spatial data warehousing, particularly for conceptual schema design. A major research problem identified are the heterogeneity of a spatial resource data model, the most appropriate approach to schema design, and the level to which the schema is dependent on the given tools. These problems must be addressed as they are main roadblocks to the process of accessing and retrieving information. The existence of heterogeneous data sources and restricted accessibility to relevant information during a disaster causes several issues with spatial data warehouse design. It can be classified into three considerations namely, the need for guidelines and formalism, schema generation model and a schema design framework and finally, a generalized schema. Four strategies have been designed to address the aforementioned problems: identifying relevant requirements, creating a conceptual design framework, deriving an appropriate schema, and refining the proposed method. User queries are prioritized in the conceptual design framework. Outputs from the formalization process are used with a schema algorithm to effectively derive a generalized schema. The conceptual model framework is taken to be representative of a potential application/ system that has been developed to design a conceptual schema using the problematic heterogeneous data and a restricted approach concerning any corresponding query formalisms. In the schema derivation phase, the conceptual schema that was produced by implementing the proposed framework is presented along with the final conceptual schema. This design is then incorporated into a tool to run an experiment demonstrating that queries from a heterogeneous context are capable of performing context-appropriate conceptual schema design in generic way. Such results outshine the capabilities of a restricted design approach and could potentially answer any relevant queries in less time

Analisis Sistem Rantai Pasok Pt. Semen Gresik (Persero) Tbk

The cement industry is an industry that requires a supply chain system is structured and well organized, it is influenced by several things, namely the level of demand for raw materials (raw material), resources, production processes, scheduling, transportation, supplier, allocation, distributors, retailers, product until they reach the consumer. This paper discusses the supply chain system on PT. Semen Gresik ranging from an overview of the company, Aggregate planning, process and production scheduling and logistics of PT Semen Gresik and supply chain management to pursue the relationship and coordination between the processes of other firms in the business pipelines, ranging from suppliers to give priority to current customers as well goods between the company, since most upstream to most downstream. The  decision  to  determine  the  transportation  used  to  distribute  the  products  is  very important. Selection of transport strategy used to obtain the type of transport that provides a fast time in the distribution is done by comparing the transport strategy transport using trucks and trains. Stages of the bidding process conducted by the company Semen Gresik to the winning vendor specified delivery of bidder list, create request for quotation, quotation maintain vendor, price comparison, process purchase order, payments, and evaluation. Keywords : Supply chain, logistics, strategy, supplie

A Critical Evaluation of the Proposal for the Privatization of Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia

The purpose of this critical evaluation is to highlight the main issues regarding the efficiency and equity of the proposal for the privatization of the higher education system in Malaysia. The issues will be criticized and some words of caution regarding the possible predicted outcome will be discussed. The government's main objective in privatizing higher education institutions, in the form of corporations, is to reduce the financial burden of providing education. It is due to take place in Malaysia by next year (1996). However, the underlying objectives are not that clear. The original concern came from the current problem of brain drain among academics. Pressures to provide higher salaries at the competitive rate compatible with the private sector, made the government accept an alternative to the current public sector system of higher education. The idea of an independent education institution that can generate its own revenue funds and pay its own staff became the major incentive for future privatization. However, in the midst of all this enthusiasm, not enough emphasis was given to the impact that privatization might have on the higher education system under market forces. This evaluation is mainly concerned with the possible outcome, especially on the efficiency and equity grounds, that should be expected if privatization is to take place, and this will be discussed at length

Impact of IPO lockup expirations and its determinants: Malaysian evidence

This dissertation examines the impact of lockup expiration and its determinants in Malaysia using 292 IPOs during the period 2003-2012. Impact of lockup on abnormal returns, impact of lockup on abnormal trading volume, impact of regulatory changes on abnormal returns, and determinants of share price behavior as a proxy of abnormal returns at lockup expiration are the four study objectives. The research hypotheses are tested using event study method and multiple regressions. Results show the existence of significant negative abnormal returns surrounding the date of lockup expirations, hence contradicting evidence of the efficient market hypothesis. Further, this study also finds the existence of abnormal trading volumes. Both of these results are in line with those of the US studies. Meanwhile, there are two lockup regimes involved in this study arising from regulatory change that takes effect on 1 May 2003 and 3 August 2009, referred to as Regime #I and Regime #2, respectively. However, the results show that the change in lockup regulation does not have an impact on the abnormal returns at lockup expiration. Furthermore, the variables identified in the regression analysis are lockup regime, fractions of insiders buying and selling before and after expiration, company size and age, offer price, underwriter, auditor, and technology company. Results show that company size, fraction of insider selling and buying after lockup expiration are the significant factors in relations to abnormal returns which is driven by Regime #l. Implications of the study to SC are improving the present regulation by imposing the minimum requirement and allowing for longer lockup period to be determined between underwriter and IPO issuer, to Bursa Malaysia in posting the upcoming lockup expiration dates on their website to alert investors, and to research houses by starting coverage on earnings forecast and providing recommendations surrounding lockup expiration

ANALISIS FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI AKTIVITAS INSTRUMEN DERIVATIF VALUTA ASING SEBAGAI PENGAMBILAN KEPUTUSAN HEDGING (Studi Kasus Pada Perusahaan Manufaktur Yang Terdaftar Di BEI Periode 2009-2012)

The greatest risk of international trade transactions is the risk of fluctuations in foreign exchange rates . Changes in the value of foreign currency that can unexpectedly significant impact on the company , therefore the company needs to do a risk management one of which is the hedging derivative . The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of leverage (LEV), Firm Size (FS), Market to Book Value (MTBV), Liquidity Ratio (LQ1), and Current Ratio (LQ2) on derivatives hedging activities in manufacturing firms in Indonesia in 2009 -2012. The population in this study is a data companies listed on the Stock Exchange 2009-2012 period. The sample in this study amounted to 92 companies by using purposive sampling. The variables in this study include leverage (LEV), Firm Size (FS), Market -to-book Value (MTBV), Liquidity Ratio (LQ1), and Current Ratio (LQ2). The analytical tool used is the logistic regression analysis. The results of multivariate test showed that the variable Leverage (LEV) negatively affect corporate hedging derivatives at α = 5 %, but not the same as predicted. Variable Firm Size (FS) and Market -to-book Value (MTBV) has a positive sign and equal to those predicted. Variable Liquidity Ratio (LQ1) and current ratio (LQ2) has a negative sign and is equal to that predicted. In general, the overall results were not receiving Ha. The accuracy data of prediction of the probability of hedging derivatives in the company amounted to 83.7 %

Aesthetic Objectivism : Instapoetry ‘Dark Love’ through Lang Leav’s Poetry (2013-2016)

The themes of Lang Leav's poems are mostly about love, loss and loneliness. Her poetry is very well received by many and is also said to promote a toxic view of love. This paper aims to examine the themes of love which we argue contain the elements of dark love. Dark love is divided into 'love as a sad notion' and 'love as a hopeless infatuation'. A textual analysis is done on selected poems using Frank Sibley's aesthetic theory of objectivism (1959). The analysis reveals that the poems promote 'dark love' that is grim, disappointing and pessimistic. Keywords: Lang Leav,  Dark Love, Aesthetic Theory of Objectivism, Poetry Meaning eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DO

PERAN INTERACTION CAPABILITY DALAM MENINGKATKAN CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION DAN HOLISTIC PERCEIVED VALUE

Studi ini bertujuan menguji peran Interaction Capability dalam mendorong Customer Participation menuju terciptanya Perceived Holistic Value pada human transformative service, yaitu jenis jasa yang bertujuan untuk menciptakan perubahan yang menyenangkan dan peningkatan kesejahteraan pelanggan. Religious Interaction Capability merupakan dimensi baru sebagai penguat dimensi Interaction Capability yang sebelumnya hanya terdiri dari Individuated Interaction, Relational Interaction, Empowered Interaction dan Ethical Interaction Capability. Responden dalam penelitian ini adalah pasien rawat jalan rumah sakit Islam di Propinsi Jawa Tengah Indonesia yang berjumlah 192 pasien. Pengambilan sampel menggunakan purposive sampling. Structural Equation Model (SEM) digunakan untuk menganalisis data dan menguji model empiric. Studi ini berhasil membuktikan peran Religious Interaction Capability bersama dengan kapabilitas interaksi lainnya dalam mendorong pasien religiocentric untuk melakukan information seeking, information sharing dan responsible behaviour. Semua komponen pembentuk Customer Participation itu juga terbukti mampu menciptakan Perceived Holistic Value, yaitu persepsi nilai yang tidak hanya pada level transaksional yang diukur dari process value dan outcome value saja, namun sudah pada tataran yang lebih holistic dengan meningkatnya religious value. Hasil studi ini bermanfaat bagi penguatkan Resource Based View Theory

Board independence and accounting conservatism in Malaysian companies

This paper examines the relationship between board independence and accounting conservatism among Malaysian companies in year 2000 until 2012.What triggers the researchers to carry out this study is that studies found that the implementation of Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance to Malaysian companies has created a higher confidence level to investors and enhances the company's image.Further, one of the elements of good corporate governance is the board independence.However, few studies discuss on accounting conservatism. It is argued that accounting conservatism is an effective mechanism to address the agency problem.Based on the findings, interestingly, this study found that higher board independence does not align with higher conservatism.Instead, the independent non-executive directors do not actually have the power of ‘independence’, monitoring and advising the board of directors