Cultural interpretation of e-commerce acceptance in developing countries: Empirical evidence from Malaysia and Algeria

Global deployment in information and communication technology requires understandings of the cultural constraints in technology acceptance and usage behavior. Prior research indicates that the salient technology acceptance models may not be applicable to all cultures since empirical support was mainly obtained from North America and developed countries. There has been little research done on technology acceptance and usage behavior in the context of developing countries which exhibit distinctive cultural differences from developed countries. The purpose of this study is to test the cross-cultural applicability of technology acceptance model in two developing countries, Malaysia and Algeria, and to investigate the influence of cultural values on the acceptance of e-commerce. The four cultural values of individual-ism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/femininity identified by Hofstede are posited to comparatively explain the e-commerce acceptance in the context of the two countries. Only uncertainty avoidance was found to moderate the relationship between perceived usefulness and intention to use e-commerce, whereas the other three national culture dimensions did not moderate the relationship, which validate the longstanding notion of important cultural differences between Malaysia and Algeria and show that those differences extend to the e-commerce context

Real interest rates equalization: The case of Malaysia and Singapore

This study provides some evidences showing high degree of financial integration from both evidences of common shocks and real interest parity in the context of two small and open economies, that is, Malaysia and Singapore. Few key policy implications may be suggested from the findings in this study. First, foreign investors who invest in these two countries may need to look for sources of diversification to protect their wealth against the occurrence of contagion effect due to the strong trade and finance relationship between these two countries. Second, the banks and businesses that set rules for interest rates on deposits and loans should be kept consistently with commercial banking practices and key developments in the financial sectors for the betterment of both Malaysia and Singapore economies. Third and most importantly, as two financial markets are highly linked, the monetary and fiscal authorities of both countries should work hand-in-hand to avoid any potential macroeconomic instability in this region.Real Interest Rate Parity; Malaysia; Singapore

Fisher hypothesis: East Asian evidence from panel unit root tests

This study provides evidence supportive of Fisher hypothesis in East Asian economies using panel unit root tests, which allow for cross-country variations in the estimation. Among others, one important implication is that monetary policy will be more effective in influencing long-term interest rates and long-run macroeconomic stability in these East Asian economies under regional collaboration.Fisher hypothesis; panel unit root; univariate unit root; East Asian

Emotional intelligence under stress: valuable or overrated?

Stress has created a vigorous discourse among researchers of various fields and considered as one of the most vital issue that has not yet been solved. A growing interest has been developed on the influence of emotional intelligence in reducing stress level among students. This study examined emotional intelligence as four interrelated processes which were postulated from the four-branch emotional intelligence theory of Salovey and Mayer. A self-reported measure of the Assessing Emotions Scale (AES) and the Perceived Stress Scale was used respectively to measure emotional intelligence and stress level of the participants involved. PLS-SEM was employed to assess the measurement construct and structural model of this study. The findings indicated a significant negative relationship between the ability to perceive emotion, the ability to manage one’s own emotion, and the ability to manage others emotion with stress. However, no significant associations were identified between the ability to utilize emotion and stress among the participants involved. Results also confirmed that the ability to perceive and assess emotion accurately as the most prominent emotional intelligence dimension in predicting stress. The applied utilities of emotional intelligence are discussed and the potential value of integrating emotional intelligence in formal tertiary education systems is also highlighted

Does Fisher hypothesis hold for the East Asian Economies? an application of panel unit root tests

This study provides evidence supportive of Fisher hypothesis in East Asian economies using panel unit root tests, which allow for the consideration of cross-country interdependence of real interest rates in the estimation. One important implication of our finding is that monetary policy will be more effective in influencing long-term interest rates and long-run macroeconomic stability in these East Asian economies with regional collaboration.Fisher Hypothesis; macroeconomics; East Asia; panel unit root; interest rates

Sistem Kenaikan Pangkat dan Kepuasan Kerja : Satu Kajian Kes Ke atas Perkhidmatan Awam Persekutuan Di Malaysia

This research is a case study exploring the relationship between the promotion system and job satisfaction among federal civil servants in federal departments and agencies in Malaysia. The samples involved in this study are government officers serving in federal departments and agencies in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. A quantitative method was used in this study. A total of 700 questionnaires were distributed among federal civil servants in grades 41 to grades 54. A total of 420 questionnaires were returned but after screening only 380 questionnaires were found useable and analysed in the study. Questionnaires were distributed to respondents based on purposive sampling methods. A significant positive relationship was found between the promotion system and job satisfaction. This study will contribute knowledge through the empirical data obtained as well as gaining a better understanding of the relationship between the promotion system and the level of job satisfaction among federal public servants in Malaysia. From a practical perspective, the findings of this study can be used by policy makers, managers and researchers who are interested in improving the policy of human resource management within the public sector in Malaysia

Emotional Intelligence under Stress: Valuable or Overrated ?

Stress has created a vigorous discourse among researchers of various fields and considered as one of the most vital issue that has not yet been solved A growing interest has been developed on the influence of emotional intelligence in reducing stress level among students This study examined emotional intelligence as four interrelated processes which were postulated from the four-branch emotional intelligence theory of Salovey and Mayer A selfreported measure of the Assessing Emotions Scale AES and the Perceived Stress Scale was used respectively to measure emotional intelligence and stress level of the participants involved PLS-SEM was employed to assess the measurement construct and structural model of this study The findings indicated a significant negative relationship between the ability to perceive emotion the ability to manage one s own emotion and the ability to manage others emotion with stress However no significant association were identified between the ability to utilize emotion and stress among the participants involved Results also confirmed that the ability to perceive and assess emotion accurately as the most prominent emotional intelligence dimension in predicting stress The applied utilities of emotional intelligence are discussed and the potential value of integrating emotional intelligence in formal tertiary education systems is also highlighte

Calendar anomalies in the Malaysian stock market

This study examines the calendar anomalies in the Malaysian stock market. Using various generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity models; this study reveals the different anomaly patterns in this market for before, during and after the Asian financial crisis periods. Among other important findings, the evidence of negative Monday returns in post-crisis period is consistent with the related literature. However, this study finds no evidence of a January effect or any other monthly seasonality. The current empirical findings on the mean returns and their volatility in the Malaysian stock market could be useful in designing trading strategies and drawing investment decisions. For instance, as there appears to be no month-of-the-year effect, long-term investors may adopt the buy-and-hold strategy in the Malaysia stock market to obtain normal returns. In contrast, to obtain abnormal profit, investors have to deliberately looking for short-run misaligned price due to varying market volatility based on the finding of day-of-the-week effect. Besides, investors can use the day-of-the-week effect information to avoid and reduce the risk when investing in the Malaysian stock market. Further analysis using EGARCH and TGARCH models uncovered that asymmetrical market reactions on the positive and negative news, rendering doubts on the appropriateness of the previous research that employed GARCH and GARCH-M models in their analysis of calendar anomalies as the later two models assume asymmetrical market reactions.calendar anomalies; Malaysia; stock market; GARCH models; day-of-the-week effect; month-of-the-year effect

Predictors towards entrepreneurial intention: a Malaysian case study

The bumiputra population in Malaysia seems unable to match the nonbumiputras especially the Chinese in terms of their entrepreneurial character. The small number of small business startup by the bumiputras in Malaysia evidently shows this. One reason suggested by many academics is the risktaking propensity by the bumiputras. This research intends to investigate the relationship between risk taking propensity and entrepreneurial intention among the bumiputras and Chinese in Malaysia. The respondents for this study were 746 students studying in Universiti Malaysia Sabah. Questionnaires were used in the data collection process. The results revealed that the Chinese respondents had significantly higher risk taking scores than the bumiputras. The Chinese were also found to be more intent to become entrepreneurs upon graduation from the university. This clearly explains why the Chinese are predominantly involved in business in Malaysia as compared to the bumiputras. Significant differences were also found between genders whereby male respondents were found to have higher risk taking scores and more intent to become entrepreneurs than the females. The degree programs in which the students are enrolled in also showed significant differences with the Science students having the highest risk taking scores followed by the Business and the Arts students. The regression result examining the relationship between risk taking propensity and intention to become an entrepreneur was found to be significant. However, the ability of risk taking propensity to explain the variance in entrepreneurial intention is very small. Suggestions were given to overcome the problems of low risk taking propensity among the bumiputras