Management Training for Small and Medium Industries: A Case Study Approach

In recent years, great emphasis has been placed by the Malaysian government on developing the skills of the managers and employees in order to input into the reaching of industralised nation status by the year 2020. Also, there is considerable interest in management training and development in the small and medium size industries.This research, examines the management training needs of small medium enterprises in terms of training content and method of delivery of the the training. The secondary aim is to utilise insights into the shortcomings of management research as a frame within which to develop an innovative methodology to reduce and/ or circumvent the shortcomings associated with management research. Therefore to fulfill both of these objectives, two case studies were conducted with understanding being built out of the development of an interview instrument and analytical framework based on derived out of li-ames of insight produced by review of relevant small business literature. Resultant case studies offer findings as a “first stage case study insight” to form the basis for on-going “firming up” process whereby a later further working together between the trainer and owner-manager can take place to strive toward depth of understanding, with the foundations of case insights being used as a basis from which to allow owner manager and trainer(or researcher) to work together to subsequently enable the owner-manager himself to identify, recognise and accept area of management difficulty and appropriate training actions to reduce those difficulties. The first case relates to small business start-up where the aim is to identify in terms of the company’s problems, potential management action which it might undertake to counter these problems and raise apparent management training issues. The second case relates to a successful “post start up” high growth small business where the aim has been to derive understanding of management actions and activities which are driving this firm’s success. Management training issues are thus raised in terms of what insight can be gained from what this business management appears to be doing right. Inherent problems are also highlighted and implications for future management training are considered. In total this research underlines the potential benefits of examining the small business in its full context and considering the firm value chain, linkages between components of the value chain and between other actors value chains(e.g suppliers, distributors etc) and the firms own emphasis is on the need to consider training through analysis of strengths and weaknesses of processes and sub processes and involving the owner manager in the actual analysis. In the final analysis transfer of “pure knowledge” by training programmes may have limited application in small firms - rather owner manager identification of weakness in particular processes or sub-processes and nurturing of appropriate corrective actions may have more credence

Internal audit function, board quality and financial reporting quality: evidence from Malaysia

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the impact of the internal audit function (IAF), an increasingly common internal governance mechanism, on a firm's financial reporting quality. Specifically, this paper investigates the association between the quality of the IAF and abnormal accruals (as a proxy for financial reporting quality) and whether the board of directors play a role in moderating the relationship. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a unique dataset of survey responses and archival data. Regression analysis was used to test their hypotheses. Findings Although their initial findings show an unexpected positive relationship between internal audit quality and abnormal accruals, this relationship is contingent on whether firms outsource their internal audit activities and/or whether they are politically linked. In estimations excluding outsourcing and political connections observations, this paper shows that the association between internal audit quality and abnormal accruals is negative and in particular internal audit organisational independence, financial focus audit activities and investment are associated with lower income-increasing (opportunistic) abnormal accruals. Next, when this paper interact board quality with internal audit quality, this paper finds although the lower ordered variables board quality and internal audit quality coefficients are negatively related to abnormal accruals, the interaction variable between these two variables is positively associated with abnormal accruals, indicating the possibility of a substitution relationship between board quality and internal audit quality. Research limitations/implications Their findings show that certain internal audit attributes play an important role in the financial reporting process and thus these findings are expected to inform the Institute of Internal Auditors and other regulatory bodies on the role of internal audit (being an important internal governance mechanism) in financial reporting, which in turn can assist in market/regulatory reforms/changes and inform the revised Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance. Originality/value This paper extends prior internal auditing literature by examining the relationship between internal audit quality and financial reporting quality in the context of a developing country, namely Malaysia, and whether the board of directors moderate the examined association

Corporate Governance, Ownership Structure and Expropriation of Rights: Case of Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises

SMEs serve as the financial backbone of the developed and developing economies, and a major contributor in many countries' GDP. A sustainable SME sector is vital for a developing country like Malaysia where SMEs represent 99.2 % of the overall business establishment and a major employment sector in the country. Although, the Malaysian SME sector faces a critical problem, which results in 50 % of SMEs collapse during the first five years of operation and a 60% rate of failure among SMEs. in addition, unauthorized use of company property, misappropriating company funds, making false statements, illegal investment schemes and many other allegations have been put on the Malaysian SME owners and directors in the past. The objective of this paper is to investigate the Malaysian SMEs structure, past allegations and the corporate governance practices in the medium sized manufacturing SMEs. This study has adopted a qualitative approach, face-to-face interviews were conducted with SME owners/directors, and regulatory body officials. The results show that the Malaysian SMEs are mainly family based and higher management positions are kept by the family. Furthermore, it was revealed that there is no corporate governance code for the SMEs.This provides room for the family to expropriate minority shareholders' rights and perform illegal activities. Hence, the results stressed on the need of the implementation of corporate governance code for Malaysian SMEs. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Ownership Structure, Family Ownership, Foreign Ownership, Expropriation of rights JEL Classifications: L25, L26, L60, M10, Y

Assessment of Top Management Commitment and Support on IS Risk Management Implementation in the Business Organization

Information system has become a strategic tool for business organization, its wide usage and acceptance has increased the flexibility of commercial activities and business sustainability. The use of internet technology has also promoted business networking, information sharing, knowledge acquisition, and prompt decision-making. Meanwhile, efficiency of IS is anchored on the commitment and support of top management in terms of policy and strategy formulation. This paper analyses the impact of top management commitment and support on IS risk management implementation in the business sector. The study employed a narrative method of literature review that critically analyzed the importance of top management commitment and support on information system risk management implementation within the business organization. Relevant information was obtained from Scopus, Web of Science, Research Gate and google scholar. It was found that IS improves task efficiency through effective communication and job automation. Therefore, organizations need to control and prevent the possibility of IS risk occurrence in their operations to promote competitive advantage and sustainable performance. Hence, and it is the responsibility of executive arm of organization to guide, direct, and control IS risk management implementation for performance advantage

Reshaping Tomorrow through Green Governance and Circular Economy: An Emerging Paradigm

Circular economy and green governance are gaining momentum and traction with industry and policymakers. The circular economy is viewed as a restoration and regeneration system in which resources, energy usage, and greenhouse gases are minimized. At the same time, the Green Governance structure is a good transition to a circular economy and helps enterprises to move toward sustainable development. This study’s objective is to explore the hidden possible relationship that exists between the Green Governance of companies and the much-anticipated Circular Economy for low waste and carbon society. Furthermore, an extensive literature review was undertaken to create the first green governance circular economy framework (GGCE) for businesses to integrate the proposed model into their operational activities. This GGCE framework will be developed by exploring the similarities between green governance and circular economy. This study has three expected findings; firstly, the proposed framework will help firms to change their business approach to addressing climate change. Secondly, the GGCE framework will help policymakers to develop policies for circular economy governance. Lastly, it will be the point of reference to the academician for further extension of the GGCE framework. Keywords: green governance, circular economy, GGCE framework, Nigeria oil and gas secto

Corporate Regulations and Quality of Financial Reporting: A Proposed Study

Most of the corporate demises evidenced poor quality of financial information reporting. Besides others, this is due to inefficiency of board which couldn't ensure effective monitoring of management. Subsequently, the regulators have focused independence of the board among others. Accordingly, the recently introduced Malaysian Code on corporate governance (MCCG 2012) also recommended independence of the board like many other CG regulations around the world. Therefore, this paper proposes to examine few attributes of the new code regarding independence of the board in relation to quality of financial information reporting. These attributes includes separate leadership, independent chair and proportion of independent directors on board and nomination committee. To find distinct impact of the code, the paper divides study period into 2 years pre (2010-11) and 2 years post (2013-14) context of the code. The proposed study will fill the literature gap particularly in developing economies like Malaysia. The study will also provide important guidance for regulators, shareholders, security commission, Bursa Malaysia and other stakeholders in Malaysia. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Quality of Financial Information Reporting, Non-Financial Malaysian Listed Companies, MCCG 2012 JEL Classification: 22

Fusion of Blockchain and Sustainable Development Goals: A Bibliometric Analysis for Future Trends

Blockchain technology has emerged as a transformative solution for enhancing transparency and accountability across various dimensions of sustainable development. Given the limited exploration of Blockchain’s synergy with sustainable development goals, there exists a compelling rationale to undertake a bibliometric literature review aimed at identifying forthcoming research trajectories. Employing the ”Blockchain” AND ”Sustainable Development Goals” keywords, an extensive search was conducted across Scopus and Web of Science databases. This endeavor yielded a corpus of 271 articles published within the span of 2017 to 2023. Subsequent adherence to inclusion and exclusion criteria refined this collection to 183 documents for meticulous Bibliographic Analysis through the Biblioshiny application of the Bibliometrix R package. The study charts a promising trajectory characterized by upward trends in recent years, unveiling the most prolific authors, productive nations, frequency of keywords, thematic evaluation, and collaborative endeavors. Delving into the systematic literature review, the research introduces five discernible future trends, along with a comprehensive research framework designed to amplify the generalizability of findings to pertinent stakeholders. Keywords: blockchain, sustainable development goal, environmental challenges and bibliometric analysi

Getting It on Record: Issues and Strategies for Ethnographic Practice in Recording Studios

The recording studio has been somewhat neglected as a site for ethnographic fieldwork in the field of ethno-musicology and, moreover, the majority of published studies tend to overlook the specific concerns faced by the researcher within these contexts. Music recording studios can be places of creativity, artistry, and collaboration, but they often also involve challenging, intimidating, and fractious relations. Given that recording studios are, first and foremost, concerned with documenting musicians’ performances, we discuss the concerns of getting studio interactions “on record” in terms of access, social relations, and methods of data collection. This article reflects on some of the issues we faced when conducting our fieldwork within British music recording facilities and makes suggestions based on strategies that we employed to address these issues

Corporate entrepreneurship and corporate governance : an empirical analysis

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