Corporate Integrity System: Comparative Analysis of Two Giant Government Linked Companies

AbstractThis study aims to assess the level of companies’ commitment to comply with a corporate integrity system in their day to day operation. Based on 105 and 230 questionnaire distributed and received from employees in Company A and Company B respectively, the findings revealed that for Infrastructure dimension, both GLCs score below 50% indicating that these companies may need to invest in financial and intangible resources annually to the ethic function as a part of organization's budget cycle. Overall, both companies score more than 50% indicating their progress towards higher level of corporate integrity system

The influence of financial management practices, board effectiveness and accountability towards performance: empirical test of non-Profit organizations / NurAfifah Shuib, Jamaliah Said and Ruhaya Atan.

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) rely on a variety of activities and resource providers to support their mission-related work. Prior researches on the factors influencing the performance of non-profit organizations were largely based on conceptual argument with no empirical support. The Resource-Dependency Theory (RDT) has suggested that external resources of organizations affect NPOs performance. In the light of RDT, this paper examines how financial management practices, level of accountability and board effectiveness affect the performance of NPOs. Based on the analysis from 107 questionnaires received from top level management of NPOs, the finding revealed that there is significant positive relationship between the financial management practices, board effectiveness and the performance of NPOs. This provides an indication that for NPOs to sustain and remain relevant, they need to adopt adequate level of financial management and appoint only board that are actively involved in NPOs strategic direction. This study is important to provide guidelines to NPOs on the strategies that need to be adopted to enhance their performance

The influence of strategy formation capability on firm’s value creation: An empirical review

Value creation analysis is a critical element yet often disregarded by the financial management as one of the important elements in an organization, including Malaysian Government Linked Companies (GLCs).The creation of use value is essential for sustaining the firm.Without this component, firms would have no added value and there would be no reason for firms to exist.These use values are recognized when someone perceives the resources or products of a firm as valuable and people might perceive values differently.GLCs hold a main profit-making objective, in which the Malaysian Government possesses a direct controlling stake and serves as the backbone of the Malaysian economy.By possessing the value creation element, GLCs are expected to create sustainability, have a competitive advantage and produce a better business performance in order to enhance the interest of shareholders, creditors, employees, suppliers, customers, governments and communities. Prior studies have shown that value creation can be created through strategy formation. Strategy formation is the core of strategic management and is related to the effectiveness of the firm’s strategy, which leads to better performance.An effective strategy formation capability is valuable because it enables the firm to create strategies that increase its effectiveness or efficiency and when it matches the firm’s environment that eventually leads to a competitive advantage. This paper tried to ascertain the influence of strategy formation capability on value creation, which then improves a firm’s reputation, product differentiation and process innovation in GLCs.The strategy formation capability tends to provide an empirical review that enables the top management and policy makers to review the strategy formation capability in order to create the firm’s value, achieve sustainable growth and improve GLCs competitiveness in the global market

The effectiveness of e-procurement system in reducing lobbyist involvement in public procurement / Jamaliah Said, Marlina Wati Ishak and Normah Omar.

Corruption represents a major leakage of public fund in many countries in the world. It has been highlighted that the involvement of unnecessary lobbying in the procurement contributes to the corruption. As a result, the Malaysian government has introduced the E-Procurement System to improve its services and to promote transparency in the procurement processes. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of the E-procurement system in reducing the lobbyist involvement in one of the largest statutory bodies in Malaysia. For this qualitative study, five procurement officers and three suppliers who had been using the system since it was implemented in the year 2011 were interviewed. Document review was also performed to access information on the processes in the system in support of the feedback from the respondents. The interview results showed that the E-procurement system was effectively implemented in largest statutory body (ACED) and reduced the involvement of lobbyist in the procurement processes. Both groups of informants agreed that the E-procurement system was an effective mechanism to curb procurement fraud because the processes were automated and transparent at every stage. Each process was conducted by a different person and it promoted integrity and transparency in the system. The E-Procurement System was found to be effective in preventing direct communication between the procurement officers and suppliers, therefore reducing the risk of lobbying. The E-procurement System was also bound by specific laws and regulations governing both parties, to which they must comply. The present study concludes that the system can reduce the unethical behaviour by lobbyist and that it should be implemented

Part Time Students’ Benefit Perception on Online Shopping in Malaysia

In Malaysia, studies on consumers’ benefit perception have been extensively examined. Results of the studies show that Malaysian consumers are still sceptical in this form of shopping due to factors linking to their preference in becoming recreational shoppers. These studies, however, examined this issue using consumers in general as their sample study. This study used a more specific sample group, namely, the part-time students, in examining consumers’ benefit perception on online shopping in Malaysia. Part-time students were chosen in this study as they represent the group of people whose time are highly occupied with working and studying. Therefore, they are likely to become convenience shoppers and may opt to shop online. The results show similar pattern to previous studies using other samples. The findings shed some lights to the marketing managers on the importance of the internet as a shopping medium to cater for people who are lacking luxury of time. Key words: Online shopping; part-time students; Malaysia, benefit perception Résumé: En Malaisie, on a beaucoup étudié la preception des avantages des consommateurs. Les résultats de ces études montrent que les consommateurs malaisiens restent toujours sceptiques sur cette forme d’achat en raison des facteurs liés à leur préférence d’être des acheteurs de divertissement. Ces études, toutefois, ont examiné ce sujet en utilisant les simples consommateurs en tant que leur échantillon d'études. Cet article a utilisé un groupe de consommateurs plus spécifique, à savoir les étudiants à temps partiel, pour examiner la perception des avantages de l’achat en ligne des consommateurs en Malaisie. Les étudiants à temps partiel ont été choisis dans cette étude car ils représentent le groupe de personnes très occupées par le travail et les études. Par conséquent, ils pourraient probablement devenir des acheteurs qui préfèrent la commodité et opter pour l’achat en ligne. Cette étude montre des résultats similaires à ceux des études précédentes utilisant d'autres échantillons. Ces découvertes permettent de mettre en lumière l'importance de l'Internet comme un moyen d'achats pour les managers de marketing, à fin qu’ils puissent penser à mieux répondre aux besoins des personnes pour qui le temps est un luxe. Mots-Clés: achat en ligne; étudiants à temps partiel; Malaisie; perception des avantage

Examining the Link between Ethical Culture and Integrity Violations: The Mediating Role of Integrity Climate

Integrity violations are actions that can cause harm to the economy and society at large. These violations would cost the organisation losses or devalue their reputation. Many initiatives were taken to mitigate integrity violations at the organisation level. Creating a positive ethical culture was argued as a crucial approach to minimise the incident of integrity violations. However, to date, little research was done to provide empirical support on whether ethical culture contributes significant effect to integrity violation. This paper aims to investigate whether ethical culture can impact integrity violations. Data were collected using questionnaires distributed to 459 state government departments. There are a total of 343 out of 459 (75%) questionnaires distributed to Malaysian state government departments were received. The findings indicate that integrity climate mediates the relationship between ethical culture and integrity violations. The practicality of the research provides a further understanding of public sector organisations and their behaviours. The viewpoint of whether having ethical culture as a social norm in an organisation provides insight towards the occurrence of integrity violations

Does Consumers’ Demographic Profile influence Online Shopping?: an Examination using Fishbein’s Theory

Using questionnaire survey, this study examines whether demographic profile could influence the consumers’ attitude towards online shopping behavior. Five demographic profile variables that could be linked to attitude were chosen: gender, age, job designation, marital status and salary. The results show that all variables are important determinants to online shopping behavior. Such results support Fishbein’s attitude theory that states demographic profile as important variable in influencing attitude towards an object. The findings of this study provide some understanding to the service providers and the government on the effect of demographic profile on online shopping. Of consequence, such understanding would help them in finding and implementing suitable strategies to enhance online shopping. Keywords: online shopping; part-time students; Fishbein’s attitude theor

EVOLUTION OF FRAUD-RELATED THEORIES: A THEORETICAL REVIEW

Background and Purpose: Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) in their report projected that over 4.5 trillion dollars are globally lost due to fraud, with individual organizations losing about 5 per cent of their revenues to fraud annually. Thus, organizations need to understand what contributes to fraud from an individual to organizational perspective, so that strategies to mitigate fraud are formulated. The objective of this paper is to identify various fraud-related theories used in research and their evolution. Subsequently, this study tries to identify the most commonly used fraud theory, approach and unit of analysis.   Methodology: This paper employed a systematic review process and the name of the theory was used as the keyword in the Scopus database to identify papers that discussed the theories. A total of 342 papers were initially identified and analysed after which repeated papers were eliminated. Following this, 39 most recent papers were further analysed to identify the most common theories, research approaches and units of analysis, used in fraud research.   Findings: The analysis found that fraud theories comprised of theories discussing individual factors and organizational factors, which contribute to fraud. The findings further reveal that the Fraud Triangle Theory is the most frequently applied theory in fraud research, where quantitative approach is most adopted with individuals as a unit of analysis.   Contributions: This paper contributes to the growing interest in the study related to fraud by providing a comprehensive analysis of theories related to fraud by bringing together most commonly used theories in fraud research.   Keywords: Fraud theories, theoretical review, social control theory, theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behaviour.   Cite as: Rasheed, F., Said, J., & Khan, N. I. (2023). Evolution of fraud related theories; a theoretical review. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 8(TI), 322-350. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol8issTIpp322-35

Assessment of accountability practices in the public sector in Malaysia / Jamaliah Said, Md. Mahmudul Alam and Razana Juhaida Johari.

Ensuring accountability in the public sector is a very crucial issue as it could lead to failures in governance, fraud, inefficacy, corruption as well as weak financial management. This study evaluated the state of the present accountability practices among public sector employees from various Malaysian service schemes. Primary data were collected, using a questionnaire survey approach with 194 heads of departments in the Malaysian federal ministries. Data was collected in accordance with the perspective of 12 factors in accountability practices, using a five-point Likert scale. Factor analysis and descriptive statistics were utilized for data analysis. In addition, data reliability was checked by the Cronbach’s alpha test; data normality was examined by the Skewness and Kurtosis tests, and data validity was tested by using the Kaiser-Meyer Olkin test and Barlett’s test. The findings show that 94.9% of the participants reported that they practised accountability within their departments. Nevertheless, the priority for these accountability factors varied according to the service schemes. In general, the perceived accountability practice was the highest within the group in the administrative scheme and the lowest among the employees under the accounting scheme. Moreover, the perceived accountability practice of the audit scheme was below the general average level. These findings would help policy makers to take necessary steps to improve the practices of accountability for creating a more dependable and efficient public sector in Malaysia