Potential fishery industry activities and financial aspects of east Malaysian marine fisheries

The South China Sea separates East Malaysia from Peninsular Malaysia that is consisted of two big states; Sarawak and Sabah. The marine resources of peninsular Malaysia have been adequately explored in last few decades whereas East Malaysian marine fisheries resources are still potential to be explored. The fisheries sector of Malaysia plays an important role by generating income and employment with foreign exchange. The contribution of marine captured fisheries was up to 89.8% of the total fish production with a value of RM3.81 billion in 1998 (Annual Fisheries Statistics, 1998). The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Malaysia in the South China Sea is approximately 198,173 km2 (Earth trend, 2004). Mainly the bulk of the unexploited resources come from offshore demersal fish, small pelagic fish, coastal tuna and oceanic tuna. Trash and low value fishes are usually dumped into the sea considering it has no market value. These unwanted fishes are potential as raw material for making fishmeal that could generate good profit. Despite having good resource base due to lack of ready and skillful labor with infrastructure, port facilities and expert advices, East Malaysian fisheries sector is not adequately contributive to the economy of the country. The study attempted to find out the potential fishing industry activities in East Malaysia. It also focuses on the financial aspects of various fisheries related activities such as fishmeal plant and ice plant by carrying out a simplified benefit-cost analysis. Fishery business makes much profit not from the capture side rather from the fish processing, marketing, ice plant and fish storage services. The study recommends that establishing and facilitating fishery industries is potential to contribute to the sector as well as to the economy significantly.East Malaysian marine fishery, Fishing industry, financial aspects, Benefit-cost ratio

NGOs’ role in improving social forestry practice:does it help to increase livelihood, sustainability and optimum land use in Bangladesh?

At present, encroachment rate is too high and increasing alarmingly that causes environmental degradation as well as low forest cover and productivity in Bangladesh. Rural poverty accelerates the encroachment in meeting the demand of dwelling place and forest products. The natural encroached and degraded forest is under public management regime while a substantial amount of marginal land belongs to other semi-public agencies such as Roads and Highways, Water Development board and so on. Due to lack of initiatives and proper management these lands have been left unused and under utilized. In contrast, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are with appropriate management structure and technologies to utilize these lands in reducing poverty and enhance rural livelihood. In order to rehabilitate these encroached forests non-governmental organizations have been found to be very active and successful. They have added a new dimension in the forest management, which has ensured participation of the community people and protection of the forest, no matter artificial planting or natural. The study attempted to evaluate the social forestry activities of Four large NGOs namely BRAC, PROSHIKA, CARITAS, CARE. The study also discussed the public social forestry activities to find out the nature of the program and the involvement of the local people. By following a framework of common partnership between public and private management systems, the issue ‘property right conflicts’ has been resolved and enhanced rural life as well as created scope of utilizing the marginal lands. As an outcome of this common partnership 33,472 km roadside plantation, 53,430 ha reforestation activities and so on have been carried out in last two decades. The achievement of NGOs’ partnership in managing forest resource seems to be effective towards poverty irradiation and better livelihood.NGO, socio-economics of social forestry, positive and negative sign of NGO

Ethics and decision making in publishing journal: Issues to be taken into account

One of the most prioritized questions of publishing a new journal in the almost similar fields covered by many other journals warrants certainly some clarification which needs to be addressed in the inaugural issue. A very straight response to this query is promoting business and management science in the country as well as in the region. The unique aim of IJBMR is to focus on quantitative aspects of business and management research. IJBMR has envisioned a future for IJBMR to surrogate the research works that centre around business and management problems of this century with a quantitative view. In this editorial ethical issues in publishing journal articles has been discussed from the perspective of editor, author and reviewer. For decision making in journal publication a new method has been proposed which is known as the SAFA system. the SAFA stands for the "Standardized Acceptance Factor Average". The SAFA of the articles included in this issue are also analyzed.Standardized Acceptance Factor Average, the SAFA system, IJBMR, ethics, PR-PR dilemma, Texoplagiarism

Poverty-environment interaction through participatory forest management in Bangladesh: an evidence of poverty reduction

Poverty is an obstacle in the process of socio-economic development of Bangladesh. Majority people of the country live in the rural area where subsistence income generating activities are mainly related to exploring natural resources. A high population and its basic needs, thus, cause overexploitation of resources. Forest resources are one of the most overexploited resources in the country. Presently the forest cover is 13.36% of the total land that is alarming for the environmental sustainability. In order to protect forest resources from such overexploitation, participatory forest management approach was followed by the Forest Department involving rural poor. They were provided 1ha of degraded land for plantation and in a few cases 0.5 ha for homestead area. The objective of such initiative was to develop a strong interaction between the over-exploiters and their involvement in protecting forest. The study was conducted in the sal (Shorea robusta) forest of Bangladesh with a sample size of 120. Using non-parametric statistics, the standard of living was examined. A list of opinions was sought for assuming the change in environment due to the participatory management. BCA approach was applied to estimate the distribution impact and poverty reduction impact. The findings of the study reported that there was a significant change in livelihood as well as conservation measurement. The distribution impact analysis showed that the poor people were benefited substantially. The PIR (0.95) gave the positive indication of poverty reduction impact. It was found that the involvement of rural poor could be a process of poverty-environment interaction. The approach of participatory management is useful to increase the interaction between rural poor and resource management towards environmental sustainability.participatory forest management; distribution impact Analysis; poverty reduction impact; poverty impact ratio; agroforestry program

TOURISM IN CHINA: AN OVERVIEW OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF SHANGHAI TOURISM INDUSTRY TO THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The present study has attempted to investigate the contribution of tourism to various macroeconomic variables of China. Secondary data has been used in the study for the five-year period of time. The findings of the study shows that over the last five years there was a gradual positive growth in tourist receipt, employment, development of supportive industry and so forth except a sharp fall in 2003. The growth in each variable was lower in 2002 than that of 2004. The study has concluded that there was a positive impact of tourism industry on the macroeconomic development of Shanghai

Scenario planning approach to strategic management of small travel business in Malaysia

Scenario planning, an alternative strategic management tool, has given a new meaning and dimension to the way strategy should be thought, discussed and implemented in organizations. This paper introduces scenario planning in the way the turbulent world should be better managed by looking for possible futures and not predicting the only future. No matter how rational strategic planners are, the complexity of the business environment would still leave the planners guessing of their planned and predicted future. This study undertaken using scenario planning technique by looking at the future of the small travel business in Malaysia. The three plausible scenarios discovered were ‘stormy weather’, ‘blizzards’ and ‘occasional shower’. The study recommended that strategic options available for the businesses were ‘differentiation’, ‘new services’, ‘diversification and mergers/acquisition’. These options are applicable for all scenarios.Scenario planning, strategic management, entrepreneurship, small travel industry, management imperfection, evolutionist, revolutionist

Business cycle transmission between the USA and Indonesia: A vector error correction model

There are several mechanisms that can account for short-run business cycle transmission. International trade is probably the major vehicle, and it forms a direct channel through which income and price shocks may be transmitted. Capital flows provide a second mechanism which is most likely to be responsible for the transmission of interest rate, monetary and exchange rate shocks. The study attempted to focus on the income shocks transmitted between a developed country and a developing country such as the USA and Indonesia. The transmission of industrial production, prices and interest rate shocks between the two countries have been examined along with an objective to test this proposition focusing on Indonesia. The study also considered the USA-Indonesia proposition by estimating a vector error correction model. The findings of the study show that there is no co-integration between U.S. and Indonesian industrial production. Therefore it does not appear that the USA drives Indonesian business cycle fluctuations and vice versa.Business cycle; co-integration; error correction model, business transmission

Influential decision factors of counterfeit consumers in Shijiazhuang city of China: A Logit analysis

The policies implemented towards open-economy by the Chinese government encouraged adopting foreign technology or marketing techniques. Counterfeiting has been found to be an antagonistic consequence of the policy. The study has attempted to determine the socio-demographic attributes that influence the decision of buying counterfeit. Using convenience sampling technique 301 samples were collected. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric mean test, spearman correlation and logit analysis were employed to fulfill the objectives of the study. Most of the socio-demographic attributes were found to be significant in hastening the intension to buy counterfeit. The findings showed that the deceptive consumers are slightly older than the non-deceptive consumers though the non-deceptive consumers had lower education. The study recommended that motivational work and implementation of effective legal system could protect expansion of counterfeit marketing in the study area as well as in china.Counterfeit product, china, logit model, influential factor, decision factor

TQM practices and affective commitment: a case of Malaysian semiconductor packaging organizations

The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of the five elements of TQM practices on employees’ affective commitment within six major Malaysian semiconductor contract manufacturing organizations. Despite extensive research on TQM practices, the issue of linking TQM practices with affective commitment has been found to be less focused. Sample size of the study was 377 resulting in a response rate of 75.4 percent. Regression analyses were employed to explore the relationship between TQM practices and affective commitment. Findings of the study reveal that teamwork, organizational communication, organizational trust and teamwork are positively associated with affective commitment. The study also shows that the organizational communication is perceived as a dominant TQM practice and is strongly associated with affective commitment.Total quality management, affective commitment, Malaysia, semiconductor industry

Ethics and decision making in publishing journal: Issues to be taken into account

One of the most prioritized questions of publishing a new journal in the almost similar fields covered by many other journals warrants certainly some clarification which needs to be addressed in the inaugural issue. A very straight response to this query is promoting business and management science in the country as well as in the region. The unique aim of IJBMR is to focus on quantitative aspects of business and management research. IJBMR has envisioned a future for IJBMR to surrogate the research works that centre around business and management problems of this century with a quantitative view. In this editorial ethical issues in publishing journal articles has been discussed from the perspective of editor, author and reviewer. For decision making in journal publication a new method has been proposed which is known as the SAFA system. the SAFA stands for the "Standardized Acceptance Factor Average". The SAFA of the articles included in this issue are also analyzed