The evolution of the day-of-the-week effect and the implications in the crude oil market

The movement of prices in the crude oil market are important to the international economy and financial asset returns. Day-of- the-week effect is a great challenge to the market's effectiveness. We examine the evolution of day-of-the-week and investigate its implications based on the West Texas Intermediate crude oil return from 14 May 2007 to 14 May 2021. We have obtained convincing findings that there is abnormal positive return on Wednesdays because the inventory shock schedule. Abnormal negative return on Mondays disappears sometimes, because bad sentiment is not the only decisive factor, as it is also determined by reactions to good sentiment. The results provide implication for the day-of-the-week effect and new evidence that crude oil market's efficiency changes over time. Policy makers, investors and producers can benefit from this

Guideline for privacy and security in Cloud First Security Environment

This is a guideline for Cloud adopters to leverage on Cloud’s benefit while managing to avoid possible risks that may be encountered. The discussion of privacy and security in Cloud computing platform which includes data classification, security and privacy governance, guideline implementation and security cases brings a thorough understanding on Cloud and its policy

Business model shifts: masjid kitchens as soup kitchens, jobs employment and empowering asnaf entrepreneurs, and income generation for the masjid

The UNICEF report titled “Families on The Edge” dated October 2020, stated that COVID-19 crisis has pushed more low-income or poor B40 urban Malaysian families into poverty. The poverty rate of these B40 urban families in 2020 is higher than last year, with 50% of the families now living in absolute poverty. 70% of these households reported that COVID-19 had affected their ability to meet their basic living expenses. 37% reporting that they struggle to purchase enough food for their families, while 35% are unable to pay their bills on time. This paper adapted the Design Thinking (DT) methodology. This is to understand and define the key B40 urban families problems; ideation of possible solution options, validation of solution options by various customer segments; and to suggest a conceptual business model as possible solution. This includes conducting literature review and benchmarking, and conducting interviews. An initial business model using Business Model Canvas (BMC) framework was formulated; tested and validated by various customer segments. Hence, the main contribution of this paper is to offer a validated conceptual business model in transforming current masjid kitchen (or mKitchen) as a potential in (a) providing soup kitchen for the poor B40 and Asnaf community, (b) providing job employment while reskilling, empowering, and nurturing the Asnaf as food entrepreneurs, and (c) generating income for the masjid via rental of existing kitchen facilities. This is to turn the Asnaf community ‘Dari Penerima Zakat ke Pembayar Zakat’ or from Zakat receivers to Zakat contributors. The conceptual mKitchen business model can be adopted or adapted for possible implementation, in general, by masjid or mosques

Redesign business model of masjid kitchens as soup kitchens, providing jobs employment and nurturing of asnaf as entrepreneurs, and income generation for the masjid

A survey conducted by the Department of Statistics Malaysia in May 2020 has found that: (a) 46.6% of self-employed respondents had reported losing their jobs; (b) an estimated 90% respondents were still working with lower than usual salaries; (c) more than two-thirds (71.4%) of self-employed respondents have sufficient financial savings for less than one month; and (d) the majority of respondents said they are unprepared if the duration of the MCO was extended except for employees under Government Linked Companies and multinational companies. In the “Families on The Edge” UNICEF report dated October 2020, COVID-19 crisis has pushed more low-income (or B40) urban Malaysian families into poverty. The poverty rate in the B40 community is higher than last year, with 50% of the families now living in absolute poverty. 70% of these households reported that COVID-19 had affected their ability to meet their basic living expenses, with 37% reporting that they struggle to purchase enough food for their families while 35% are unable to pay their bills on time. Hence, the main objectives of this paper is to offer a conceptual business model in turning masjid kitchens (or mKitchen) as a potential (a) soup kitchen for the B40 and Asnaf community, (b) job employment and nurturing of the Asnaf as entrepreneurs, and (c) income generation for the masjid via rental of kitchens. This is to turn the Asnaf community ‘Dari Penerima Zakat ke Pembayar Zakat’. The conceptual mKitchen business model can be adapted for possible implementation by masjid or mosques

Budiman Mahallah kitchen

This book narrates budiman journey in Mahallah Kitchen. Budiman Mahallah Kitchen who are searching for adab (virtue), budi (kindness) and sejahtera (peace). By doing so, budiman and budiwati will have the capacity of bijak berbudi (wisdom in kindness), berani (brave) and bijaksana (full with wisdom). Budiman and budiwati with these attributes will manifest budi bahasa (rasa), budi pekerti (rupa), and budi bicara (roh). Thus, budiman and budiwati will have sejahtera niat (peaceful intentions), sejahtera keputusan (peaceful decisions), and sejahtera tindakan (peaceful actions). Budiman and budiwati will be continuously making contribution of sejahtera to self and others. The foundation of adab (virtue) is based on formula A-D-A-B. A is amanah (trustworthy), dakar (staunch), akhlak (ethics), and bestari (intelligent)

A Journey of Ta’awun (Cooperative Behaviour) in Edu-Action at IIUM Mkitchen® and Masjid al-Syakirin Gombak (MASG)

This book narrates the journey of ta’awun (cooperative behaviour) at IIUM Mkitchen® project with Masjid Al-Syakirin Gombak (MASG). The main objective of the project is transform the mosque as a platform to provide free food, to up skill in foodpreneurship, to create new employment opportunities, to give empowerment and to nurture entrepreneurship (3Es) for poor and needy people in the surrounding area of it. Ta’awun refers to cooperative behaviour among the participants, the sponsors, and the beneficiaries in initiating, planning, sponsoring, executing and evaluating the Mkitchen® project at Masjid Al-Syakirin Gombak (MASG). The journey officially started on 24th January 2021 through its first meeting among the interested as well as committed members. After executing two events, the project was continued with a full scale project for a month. The project has secured its proof of concept (POC). Nevertheless, the project has been continued with a small scale due to the movement restriction by the authority to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Inaugural edu-action journey with cooperative behavior (Ta’awun) of mKitchen® students in free food for the needy

This book narrates the inaugural edu-action journey with cooperative behaviour (ta’awun) in free food for the needy people at IIUM mKitchen® with Sri Mutiara Teguh Enterprise (cafeteria vendor at Mahallah Aminah IIUM Gombak). The main objective of the project is to transform Mahallah kitchen as a platform to provide free food, to up skill in food-preneurship, to create new employment opportunities, to give empowerment and to nurture entrepreneurship (3Es) among students. Ta’awun refers to cooperative behaviour among the participants, the sponsors, and the beneficiaries in initiating, planning, sponsoring, executing and evaluating the mKitchen® project at Sri Mutiara Teguh Enterprise, Mahallah Aminah. The journey officially started on 1 July 2021 with various student development entities at IIUM. After providing a 4-day online training on business model and plan, financial modelling, and digital marketing, the steering committee has decided to provide the real experience to the students. In conjunction with Malaysia Day on 16 September 2021, the students proposed for cooking and distributing free food to the needy as part of the first proof-of-concept for mKitchen students with the “Keluarga Malaysia” spirit. Nevertheless, the project has to adhere to movement restriction by the authority to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The second proof-of-concept is cooking food based on mKitchen students’ business plan

The effect of customer concentration on firm risk, growth and corporate diversification

Despite many empirical studies, research on the relationship between customer concentration and firm performance has not yet reached a definitive consensus on whether companies are better off remaining diverse or concentrated in terms of customers. The research findings on the effect of customer concentration on firm risk and growth provide an idea of risk-growth trade-off. Customer concentration brings benefits on the one hand and costs to the firm on the other hand. Optimal customer concentration will vary from firm to firm. The risk-growth trade off states that potential growth increases with an increase in risk. As managers and board of directors are likely to be well aware of the risk of dealing with major customers, they will most likely opt for following an unrelated diversification path than a related diversification path. This is often less risky for a company with high customer concentration to tackle an unrelated industry. The potential benefits are also significant for businesses that have successful growth strategies. The stand-alone company does not guarantee the firm an advantage. The supply chain integration required to exploit economies of scale and scope is not without cost. Integration along the supply chain is fraught with contracting problems between customers and suppliers. Critical factors in determining success can be good corporate governance practices and a good level of management expertise

ICT and the dual banking efficiency nexus: A cross-country analysis with country governance moderation in GCC countries

AbstractOur study investigates the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) applications at the national level on the efficiency of Islamic banks (IBs) and conventional banks (CBs) operating in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. We analyze data collected from both CBs and IBs in GCC countries over the period spanning from 2006 to 2021. Specifically, ICT in this context refers to the extent to which ICT is applied on a national scale, encompassing activities both within and outside the banking sector. In our basic regression, we observe that ICT negatively impacts both types of bank efficiency, with the effect varying depending on the type of bank. Notably, the coefficient of IBs is slightly higher than that of CBs. Country governance (GC) moderates the negative effect of ICT on both types of bank efficiency. Additional robustness tests indicate that ICT is negatively related to both types of bank efficiency