Private finance initiative in the United Kingdom

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) has become a widely used mechanism for delivering public services in the UK. The crucial requirements for entering into a PFI scheme are that the scheme must offer better value for money (VFM) than conventional procurement and be affordable. Since it was first introduced in 1992, there has been much controversy surrounding PFI. This study attempts to contribute to the debate over the benefits and costs of the scheme. Particularly, the study considered the extent to which VFM and affordability are actually demonstrated by the existing PFI projects and the performance of the PFI private sector providers. The study also recognised several other PFI issues such as the transfer of risks and the credibility of the public sector comparator (PSC) which are crucial to the assessment of VFM. The study consists of four parts. The first two parts analysed the extant literature on the performance of PFI projects. The first part looked at the audit reports by the official audit bodies, while the second part examined the published research carried out by non-audit organisations and individual researchers. Part three examined the profitability of several private sector companies which are heavily involved in the PFI projects. In response to calls for review of the fully operational PFI projects, the final part provided further evidence on VFM and affordability based on the results of a survey of the perceptions of users of PFI facilities and services in schools. The review of previous research revealed mixed evidence about the performance of PFI projects. There was evidence of both good and poor VFM delivered by the projects. The analysis of the performance of private sector companies suggested that no clear evidence of excessive profits were made by the companies from their PFI involvement. The results from the survey demonstrated that the majority of users were satisfied with the quality of the PFI facilities and services provided in their schools, and clearly felt that the PFI facilities provided were better than the pre-PFI facilities. The survey also suggested that there was little consensus in the perceptions about the VFM achieved from the PFI schemes. There was also mixed evidence concerning the issue of affordability. Overall, the study concluded that there was inconclusive evidence about the performance of PFI schemes. However, due to the long term nature of PFI contracts,it might be still too early to measure the true success of the PFI

A Meta analysis of research on private finance initiative (PFI) or public private partnership (PPP)

Purpose: The study aims to evaluate systematically the key characteristics of PFI/PPP research in top public-sector journals and to offer suggestions on the future direction of research on PFI/PPP. Methodology: A qualitative meta-analysis method is used to analyse 134 PFI/PPP published papers from twenty nine selected public sector journals from 1992 to 2009. Findings: There is evidence of a growing trend in the number of PFI/PPP literature since its inception. The extant research that has used various methods were contributed by authors from diverse countries, particularly the United Kingdom. Past literature also mostly focuses on specific PFI/PPP issues such as risk, value for money, and performance of PFI/PPP, although other issues have been investigated from time to time. Research limitations: This present comprehensive content analysis of prior research on PFI/PPP only considers research published in public sector journals and not literature from all other relevant fields of knowledge where PFI/PPP is one of the important areas of research. Originality/value: This study offers some insights into the trends of PFI/PPP literature in top-ranking public sector journals. Keywords: content analysis, meta-analysis, PFI, PPP, public sector

Factors attracting the use of public private partnership in Malaysia

The study aims to investigate the factors that attract the adoption of public private partnership (PPP) in Malaysia. It also intends to examine the differences in the perception of those factors by the government and private sector. A questionnaire survey was used to elicit the perceptions of the public and private sectors on the attractive factors of PPP adoption in Malaysia. One hundred and twenty two usable responses were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) to rank the importance of the factors based on the overall responses, as well as the responses from both the public and the private sectors and to examine the differences in the perceptions between the two sectors. The overall results show that "facilitate creative and innovative approaches", "solve the problem of public sector budget restraint", "provide an integrated solution", "benefit local economic development" and "accelerate project development" are the top five attractive factors for adopting PPP in Malaysia. In terms of the differences in the perception between the public and private sector groups, the statistical test results indicated that there are significant differences in the perception for a number of factors. Keywords: Public private partnerships, Attractive factors, Malaysi

Accounting Student\u27s Learning Approaches and Impact on Academic Performance

The objective of the study is threefold. Firstly, the study explores the learning approaches adopted by students in completing their Business Finance. Secondly, it examines the impact that learning approaches has on the student\u27s academic performance. Finally, the study considers gender differences in the learning approaches adopted by students and in the relationship between learning approaches and academic performance. The Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) was used to assess the approaches to learning adopted by students whilst the students final examination result was considered in examining the performance of the students. The results indicate that majority of the accounting students, both male andfemale groups prefer to use the deep approach in studying Business Finance. The findings also reveal that there were significant relationships between learning approaches and academic performance with positive direction appears for deep and strategic approaches whilst negative relationship reveals for surface approach

Influence of ethical ideology and emotional intelligence on the ethical judgement of future accountants in Malaysia

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the influence of personal factors on the ethical judgement of future accountants in Malaysia. In particular, there are two research objectives for this study: first, to investigate the influence of ethical ideology on the ethical judgement of accounting students and second, to investigate the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on ethical judgement. Design/methodology/approach – The respondents of the study were final year undergraduate accounting students from three public universities in Malaysia. A survey questionnaire comprising instruments about ethical ideology, EI and ethical judgement was distributed. A total of 205 responses were received and were deemed as useable. To achieve the research objectives, multiple regression was performed. Findings – The findings indicate that idealism and EI have a positive influence on the ethical judgement. In contrast, the study discovered that relativism influences ethical judgement negatively. Originality/value – This study fills the research gap as research on personal factors on the ethical judgement of future accountants is very limited and scarce. It gives insights to the various parties concerning how to enhance ethical judgement among future accountants, which ultimately will improve the credibility of the accounting profession

Accounting for Non-Accounting Students: What Affects Their Performance?

This study aims to examine the factors affecting the examination performance of non-accounting students in completing an accounting course, that is, Management Accounting. A questionnaire survey was administered to a total of 147 non-accounting students who enrolled in a Management Accounting course for a semester. The factors considered are gender, prior academic performance, year of study and learning approaches adopted which include deep, surface and strategic approaches. Using multiple regression analysis, the results reveal that prior academic performance and year of study have a positive significant impact on performance while the surface approach of learning has a negative significant impact on the performance of the students. This present study mainly focused on the overall performance of the students and did not investigate the effect of the factors on the performance of the various assessment components in Management accounting course. The findings imply that the Management Accounting course should be offered to higher level non-accounting students. In addition, for completing the course with good results, the surface approach to learning should be avoided. The present study is unique as it considers the students performance in a subject that is not the main discipline of the students (i.e., accounting course for non-accounting students)

Determinants of dividend policy of public listed companies in Malaysia

Purpose: This study investigates the determinants of the dividend policy of public listed companies in Malaysia. The factors examined in this study include earnings, cash flows, free cash flows, debt level, growth, investment, size, largest shareholders, risk, and lagged dividend. Design/methodology/approach: Data were obtained from the relevant databases and annual reports of the sampled companies. The study examines a total of 147 listed companies. In analyzing the data the study used fixed and random effects, pooled least square model, robust standard errors on fixed effects, and random effects models. Findings: The results revealed the five factors that are earnings, debt, size, investment, and largest shareholder have a significant influence on dividend policy with earnings, firm size and investment revealed to have a positive significant effect, whilst debt and large shareholders have a negative significant effect. Practical implications: The findings from this study are useful to the board of directors and management team of companies in deciding an appropriate dividend policy for the company. The results are also useful to shareholders in making investment decisions. Originality/value: The study extends empirical evidence on dividend policy determinants which are currently reported to be inconclusive. In addition, the study fills the lacuna in the existing literature by focusing on the issue of dividend policy determinants in the context of an emerging economy, namely Malaysia

Effect of ethical ideologies on ethical judgment of future accountants: Malaysian evidence

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of ethical ideologies on ethical judgments of future Malaysian accountants in general situations and based on the legality of the situations. The examination covers the relationships of both the specific ethical dimension (i.e. idealism and relativism) and the specific categories of ideology (i.e. absolutist and subjectivist) on ethical judgments. Methodology: Using a survey questionnaire comprising of the Ethical Position Questionnaire (EPQ) and ethical dilemma vignettes, 396 usable responses were received. In achieving the objectives, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), correlations and univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed. Findings: The study discovered a significant impact of ethical ideology on judgments regardless of the legality of the cases. In addition, the study found a significant positive and negative impact of idealism and relativism, respectively, on ethical judgment. Moreover, the study reported that absolutists are stricter whilst situationists are more lenient in making ethical judgments compared to other ideologies. Originality/Value: The present study investigated the effect of ethical ideologies on ethical judgment, in general, as well as the effect on ethical judgment based on the legality of the ethical dilemma. This study also considered the effect of the two dimensions of ethical ideology – idealism and relativism – on ethical judgment and captured the four categories of ideology based on the taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Keywords: ethical ideology, idealism, relativism, absolutist, subjectivist, future accountants, Malaysi

Critical success factors of public private partnership (PPP)implementation in Malaysia

Public Private Partnership (PPP) or Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is an increasingly popular choice for policymakers in implementing important public projects. PPP was officially announced in Malaysia in 2006 under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. Since then, many government projects were delivered via PPP. To ensure the ultimate objectives of PPP/PFI, identifying the critical success factors (CSFs) of PPP implementation is crucial.There are three objectives of this study. First, it aims to examine the importance of the CSFs as perceived by the overall respondents. Second, it intends to identify the differences concerning the importance of the CSFs between the public and private sectors. Third, it compares the importance of the top CSFs for PPP implementation in Malaysia with three other countries that have adopted PPP. A questionnaire survey was used to elicit the perceptions of public and private sectors on the key CSFs of PPP project in Malaysia. In total, 179 usable responses were analysed using SPSS to rank the importance of the CSFs and to examine the differences in the perceptions between the government and the private sector. Evidence obtained from prior studies on the CSFs of Hong Kong, Australia and Malaysia was compared to the top CSFs for PPP in Malaysia. The results show that good governance, commitment of the public and private sectors, favourable legal framework, sound economic policy and availability of finance market are the top five CSFs of PPP implementation in Malaysia. Although the rankings of many factors were different between the public and private sectors, there were no significant differences in the perception of the public and private sectors concerning the importance of the CSFs except for a few factors. There were mixed results concerning the comparison of CSFs between Malaysia and three other countries

Challenges in implementing Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Malaysia

The objective of this present study is to scrutinize the challenges in implementing PPP by examining the factors that hinder the successful adoption of PPP in Malaysia.A questionnaire survey was used to elicit the perceptions of the public and private sectors concerning the constraints of PPP implementation in Malaysia.A total of 122 usable responses were obtained.The overall results show that ‘lengthy delays in negotiation’, ‘lack of government guidelines and procedures on PPP’, ‘higher charge to direct users’, ‘lengthy delays because of political debate’ and ‘confusion over government objectives and evaluation criteria’ are the top five constraints for adopting PPP in Malaysia