Muslim women in contemporary societies: realities and opportunities

This book brings to focus, ideas articulated by some contemporary Muslim writers during a three-day conference organized by the International Institute for Muslim Unity (IIUM), on the politico-religious and socio-economic challenges of Muslim women in our time. Edited by Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim and Zaleha Kamaruddin, the book which features seventeen essays with an introductory note, addresses the challenges facing Muslim Women across diverse cultural and national backgrounds. With a gist that discrimination against women has no basis in Islam; the authors suggested what should be done in order to remedy the dominant misrepresentation in many Muslim countries where women are held inferior. The progress made by some Muslim countries where women enjoy political rights and are allowed participation in the public domain were highlighted while places and areas where much need to be done were also given due attention. By and large, the book opens a vista on how Muslim women can be empowered such that the Ummah can optimize their contributions to its civilizational development

Strategic use of social media for small business based on the AIDA model

This study proposes a strategy for using social media as a marketing tool for small business based on the Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA) model. The AIDA model has been applied widely for online marketing strategy but its applicability for social media remains unknown.The focus group discussion was used for data gathering involving twenty two small business entrepreneurs.The finding shows that the model can indeed be applied in strategizing the use of social media for marketing purposes. The proposed strategy serves as a guideline for small business entrepreneurs on how to strategically use social media for marketing

The detection and comparison of antimicrobial resistance pattern of vancomycin-resistant enterococci and Salmonella isolated from eggs of commercial layers and free-range chickens

The prevalence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and Salmonella in eggs produced by free-range chickens and commercial layers was compared to establish the microbial safety of the food and to determine if management, especially feeding management and the environment, playa role in the occurrence of the two organisms. The isolates were subjected to an antibiotic sensitivity test to determine the antibiotic resistance pattern. It was observed that there was a slight difference in the occurrence of the organisms and in the pattern of antibiotic resistance of isolates from free-range chickens' eggs and those from commercial layers. Enterococcus was detected in 10% and 7.7% of eggs from commercial layers and free-range chickens respectively. Salmonella spp occurred in 7.5% and 12.8% of commercial layers and free-range chicken eggs, respectively. The study suggests that free-range eggs may not be as wholesome as often believed and that the environment plays an important role in the development of antibiotic resistance

The impact of health care expenditure and infectious diseases on labour productivity performance in Africa: do institutions matter?

This study was rooted from the findings that for many years infectious diseases remain the major cause of death around the globe especially in Africa. Economic theory also predicts among others that HIV/AIDS reduces labour supply and productivity, and the GDP of Africa declines by 2-4% annually. In addition, institution is one of the reasons for slower growth in Africa. The study, therefore, examined the impact of health care expenditure per capita and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) on labour productivity performance in Africa using System GMM Estimation methods for 50 panels of African countries from 2002-2011. The results show that health-care expenditure per capita is positive but insignificant to labour productivity performance in the region. The results also confirm the negative impact of infectious diseases on labour productivity performance in the region. Government effectiveness and control of corruption are positive and significant to the improvement of health care expenditure in Africa. In addition, the study also revealed that political instability and conflict also contribute positively to the spread of infectious diseases in the region. Thus, it is recommended that African governments and health-related development partners increase the financial amount allocated to the health sector. At the same time, more efforts are needed to curb and control the spread of infectious diseases through strengthened institutions to improve health-care expenditure in the region

Underinvestment and value relevance of earnings management

The aim of this study is to examine whether earnings management among underinvestment firms is positively related to share price. Firms are said to have high growth opportunity but is unable to fund investment projects due to liquidity constraints because of the information asymmetry between the firm and the investors. As a result, firms have to provide high quality accounting information (i.e. value relevant information) to reduce information asymmetry and hence be free from liquidity constraints. One type of accounting information that can be provided is discretionary accrual (proxy for earnings management). The sample of this study is firms listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia from year 2001 to 2007. We use Ohlson’s model to examine the value relevance of earnings management. We separate earnings into managed and unmanaged earnings. Panel data regression analyses were performed to examine the role of underinvestment on the relationship between earnings management and share price. We also examine the value relevance of earnings management using the return model. The results from the panel data regression analysis indicate that earnings management increases the value relevance of accounting information. Further, underinvestment moderates the relationship between earnings management and share price. Nevertheless, the results suggest that earnings management among firms can decrease the value relevance of accounting information. In general, it is concluded that underinvestment weakens the relationship between earnings management and share price/return, hence it motivates managers to convey opportunistic earnings management

E-commerce implication: Potential tax problems and challenges in Malaysia

The shift in business models to incorporate e-commerce by great expectations of future growth, have naturally attracted the attention of both private sector tax professionals and government tax authorities.With the use of internet as a medium in conducting business transactions, people are now taking the opportunities to expand business has triggered problems to the government in taxing the transactions since there is no physical presence exist, and therefore, creates problems for tax collection.Thus, this study draws attention to the importance of taxing e-commerce transactions and investigates tax problems and challenges posed by e-commerce businesses in Malaysia.A survey approach was conducted in gathering the necessary data.The results show that tax administration is ranked as the highest tax problem posed by e-commerce business in Malaysia and there is no significant difference in the opinion of the subjects in relation to taxing of either tangible or intangible product.In addition, overall findings also reveal that occupation, business nature, and experiences do not influence the subjects' opinions towards e-commerce tax liability in regards to tax problem and legality of claiming taxes in various jurisdictions, and residence-based system appears to be the best solution to solve the problem of internet trading

Measuring Internet Financial Reporing (IFR) disclosure strategy

There is a significant development in the accounting practices and communication due to the rapid growth of internet technology. Nonetheless, until today, financial reporting through the internet still has no legally structured standard compared to the formal international financial reporting standard (IFRS) that firms need to adhere. Yet, firms must still consider stakeholders’ decision making based on internet accounting disclosures. Since the 1990s studies on Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) apply various indexes to measure disclosure practices. However existing indexes mainly focus only on the level and quality of IFR disclosure. Our study develops a new checklist – IFR disclosure strategy checklist – to measure IFR disclosure strategy based on a taxonomy proposed by Williams (2008) which has not yet been empirically tested until today. However, the taxonomy only outlines the characteristics of each proposed strategy. Our study takes the challenge to interpret the taxonomy by developing a checklist for each characteristic that were describe in the taxonomy. Utilizing content analysis, detailed consideration was made about items in the checklist based on prior studies, available regulations in several countries as well as current practices by reporting entities. Results from reliability test indicate that our checklist is a valid and reliable instrument with regards to our sample of study. It is expected that our checklist will be referred to by reporting entities in order to assist stakeholders’ decision making. Eventually we hope that with the knowledge about the disclosure strategy, stakeholders might reduce their time and effort in searching for the best business entities when deciding upon their investment portfolio

Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) disclosure position and firm value

Nowadays, Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) disclosure is the global way to display firm performance to investors and stakeholders. Hence, it is imperative that firms properly manage their IFR disclosure to ensure their existence is conspicuous to the world in order to foster their firm value. We believe that in order to manage IFR disclosure, firms would probably behave either ritualistically or opportunistically in terms of their IFR disclosure position. In this study, we propose a quantitative measurement for the IFR disclosure position, i.e. utilizing IFR presentation score, taking into consideration latest IFR rules and regulations worldwide as well as relevant extant empirical studies. Based on a sample of 320 Malaysian listed firms in year 2012, our regression analysis shows that our quantitative measurement for the IFR disclosure position variable has a positive association with firm value. We found that 87 firms, categorized as poor performing seems to manage their IFR disclosure position ritualistically. While 233 firms, categorized as well performing manage their IFR disclosure position opportunistically. Hence, our study provide circumstantial evidence that firms’ financial performance has a relationship with IFR disclosure position. In further analysis, our findings show that stakeholders seem to perceive ritualistic IFR disclosure’s position is empirically valid to value poor performing firms. However, stakeholders seem to negate the opportunistic IFR disclosure position in valuing well performing firms even though theoretically the opportunistic IFR disclosure position should be able to offer vast benefits that could enhance firms’ value. Our findings should be useful to firms and stakeholders likewise in making firms’ valuation taking into consideration the existence of firms’ financial performance and IFR disclosure position

Assessing the efficiency of health-care expenditure among low- and middle- income African countries: Sfa approach

This study used stochastic frontier analysis to determine the level of efficiency of health-care expenditure using three health outputs among low- and middle-income countries in Africa, from 2002–2011. The technical efficiency result shows that; among the health outcomes estimated, life expectancy at birth recorded higher efficiency among both low and middle-income African countries, while Anti-retrieval was the least efficient outputs. The study also calculated the expenditure savings when maximum efficiency is attained, where the average was 0.21 % and 0.29% of GDP for low and middle income countries respectively. The study recommends that governments improve not only health care expenditure but also factors affecting health other than health care to reduce the burden on health-care facilities and reduce the burden of disease in the region