The Key Predictive Indicators of Efficiency Among The Applicants of Accounting Discipline: An Empirical Study of Mathematics Excellency.

Many organizations and universities wish to identify efficient and high caliber applicants who could excel over the Accounting discipline while scholarships and admissions are still not offered. It is believed that undergraduate accounting students with major in mathematics from pre-university institutes perform much better than those with arts or social sciences back grounds. This paper examines the mathematics perception level as well as pre-university’s CGPAs as main indicators of efficiency and better performance for accounting undergraduate students. By choosing all accounting undergraduates candidates whom had been admitted for 2009-2010 academic-calendars in four different universities, students’ mathematical talents highly and to a lower extent the CGPAs will influence positively the performance in accounting courses

The Strategic Planning Process And Current Practices: A Comparative Empirical Study of UMW Toyota Motor And Chemical Company of Malaysia.

This article focuses on the strategic planning process and its best practices that are applied by companies in general and by two prominent, non-competing companies operating in Malaysia: UMW Toyota Sdn. Bhd. and the Chemical Company of Malaysia-Fertilizers Division (CCMFD), in specific. Applying a comparative qualitative case study research methodology, the major objectives of the study are to investigate in depth the different aspects, processes, personnel, and practices employed by these top, well-known companies for their strategic planning. Using the grounding theory as a framework of analysis, the research findings revealed common as well as distinctive strategic planning practices between the companies under the study. The output of this project is a set of best practices to strategic planning that are followed by UMW Toyota as well as CCMFD. Some of these best practices are found to be related to the flexibility of the strategic plan, formulation via consensus, and continuous follow up through a centralized strategic planning unit. Eventually, studying such topic can help researchers, strategic management students and junior managers in linking theory to practice and understand the process as it is adopted by the strategic planners of these prominent companies within their real business context

Some issues on murabahah practices in Iran and Malaysian Islamic banks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nature of Murabahah contract in the fully grounded Islamic banking system i.e., Iran and Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken is descriptive. Findings – Although the main principle of Islamic financial institutions is prohibition of usury, it is surprised to see that Islamic financial institutions are still practicing usury in their transaction as evidenced in Iran. In the case of Malaysia however, BBA home financing is used by Islamic financial institutions and the profit rate is still dependent on the market interest rate due to arbitrage activities. Research limitation/implications – There is no transparent framework for Murabahah contract in Islamic banks. Indeed there is a need for the banking standard regulators to set a clear and disciplined framework for this type of banking contract. Originality/value – The study hopes to improve the overall competency and reliability of the Islamic banking system in the world. The finding of this study will be a basis for further research in Murabaha with respect to the regulatory environment and Shari’ah compliance in particular in Iran

The academic gender gap take phenomenon: the application of TRA to the behavioral beliefs of female students toward accounting discipline in IIUM and TARC

The aim of this study is to examine the factors affecting Malaysian male and female students’ intention to enroll in accounting program. The study is based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) as a theoretical framework. Based on TRA model, the factors that may affect students’ behavioral intention to choose accounting program are categorized into three dimensions: attitudes toward choosing accounting program (ATT), subjective norm (SN) and amount of information on accounting (AIA). The questionnaire is employed to collect data from a sample of 400 male and female students in IIUM and TARC in Malaysia currently enrolling in accounting program. According to our results ATT and SN have significant influence on behavioral intention of both male and female students to enroll in accounting program. In case of AIA, the results support its significant impact on males but not females’ behavioral intention to enroll in accounting program. Several implications and recommendation are also discussed in the light of our findings

Lynas Advanced Materials Plant

This case study illustrates the issues regarding Lynas Advanced Material Plant. The Lynas Corporation Ltd of Australia first looked at China before settling on Pahang, Malaysia to establish its rare earth processing plant. Rare earth is a slightly radioactive material. Despite reassurances by the company and the State and Federal governments that the Lynas Advanced Material Plant is not dangerous to the employees and the community, some NGOs and the public are still skeptical. They say the benefits derived from investment may not outweigh the risks. The case presents a balanced perspective on both the benefits and risks of this project

Some issues on Murabahah practices in Iran and Malaysian Islamic banks.

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the nature of Murabahah contract in the fully grounded Islamic banking system that is, Iran and Malaysia. The approach taken was descriptive. Although, the main principle of Islamic financial institutions is prohibition of usury, it is surprising to see that Islamic financial institutions are still practicing usury in their transaction as evidenced in Iran. In the case of Malaysia however, BBA home financing is used by Islamic financial institutions and the profit rate is still dependent on the market interest rate due to arbitrage activities. There is no transparent framework for Murabahah contracts in Islamic banks. Indeed there is a need for the banking standard regulators to set a clear and disciplined framework for this type of banking contract. There are currently, Murabahah security (Sukuk) for finance, Murabahah security (Sukuk) for liquidity, companies Murabahah security (Sukuk) and mortgage Murabahah security (Sukuk) products in the Islamic niche of the financial market. A combination of Murabahah Security for Finance and Mortgage Murabahah Security has been the underlying Murabahah instrument. The study hopes to improve the overall competency and reliability of the Islamic banking system in the world. The finding of this study will be a basis for further research in Murabaha with respect to the regulatory environment and Shari’ah compliance

Sime Darby goes to Liberia.

This case study discusses the issues arising from Sime Darby Corporation being given a concession agreement to develop 220,000 hectares of land with palm and rubber plantations in Liberia for a period of 63 years. Sime Darby Bhd is a Malaysian multinational company with diverse interests. Its main focus is plantations with its major crops being oil palm and rubber. It has large plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. With land becoming scarce in Southeast Asia, Sime Darby looked for opportunities in Africa. They found a partner in Liberia which needed foreign investment to revive its economy after two civil wars. While the opportunities looked great on papers, questions arose over the risks involved

The impact of direct benefits of control on the price informative value of voluntary information disclosure: An empirical study of the Iranian public listed companies

The confiscations of properties left by the Royal family and the nationalization of large corporations and public companies following the Islamic Revolution in 1979 enlarged the State’s presence and activity in every sector of the economy, either through regular government agencies or public institutions such as charity foundations in Iran. The uncertainty over business dealings after the Revolution and no true financial picture of public companies listed on the TSE affected investors’ confidence level. These factors continued to stifle the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) until the Iranian second economic reform program was approved by the Parliament. According to the program, the government is committed to become a free market country with dispersed ownership and to sell out its block holdings in confiscated firms to private investors through the TSE.This paper seeks whether the voluntarily information disclosed by public companies listed on the TSE where the institutional block holders possess the Direct Benefit of Control (DBC) is useful and relevant information as a proxy for presenting true financial picture. We assumed that the relevant voluntary disclosure indicates more transparency so chose the annual reports of all public companies listed on the main board of TSE in 2009. Two types of indices were constructed, an index for the extent of voluntary disclosure (VD), and an index for the price informative voluntary disclosure (PID). The results show that the institutional block holders meet the needs of market for information by disclosing a lot of information (VD) but with less-relevant content in order to cover up their perks’ consumptions. The block holders would like to show the market is efficient with no information asymmetry however such transparency is not genuine. This paper may contribute to the literature where the presence of block holders shall increase the extent of voluntary disclosure (VD) while the transparency may decline

The impact of direct benefits of control on the price informative value of voluntary information disclosure: an empirical study of the Iranian public listed companies

The confiscations of properties left by the Royal family and the nationalization of large corporations and public companies following the Islamic Revolution in 1979 enlarged the State’s presence and activity in every sector of the economy, either through regular government agencies or public institutions such as charity foundations in Iran. The uncertainty over business dealings after the Revolution and no true financial picture of public companies listed on the TSE affected investors’ confidence level. These factors continued to stifle the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) until the Iranian second economic reform program was approved by the Parliament. According to the program, the government is committed to become a free market country with dispersed ownership and to sell out its block holdings in confiscated firms to private investors through the TSE.This paper seeks whether the voluntarily information disclosed by public companies listed on the TSE where the institutional block holders possess the Direct Benefit of Control (DBC) is useful and relevant information as a proxy for presenting true financial picture. We assumed that the relevant voluntary disclosure indicates more transparency so chose the annual reports of all public companies listed on the main board of TSE in 2009. Two types of indices were constructed, an index for the extent of voluntary disclosure (VD), and an index for the price informative voluntary disclosure (PID). The results show that the institutional block holders meet the needs of market for information by disclosing a lot of information (VD) but with less-relevant content in order to cover up their perks’ consumptions. The block holders would like to show the market is efficient with no information asymmetry however such transparency is not genuine. This paper may contribute to the literature where the presence of block holders shall increase the extent of voluntary disclosure (VD) while the transparency may decline

Current practices of Murabahah in Islamic banks: a comparative study of adopted rates in Iran and Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nature of Murabahah contract in the fully grounded Islamic banking system i.e., Iran and Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken is descriptive. Findings – Although the main principle of Islamic financial institutions is prohibition of usury, it is surprised to see that Islamic financial institutions are still practicing usury in their transaction as evidenced in Iran. In the case of Malaysia however, BBA home financing is used by Islamic financial institutions and the profit rate is still dependent on the market interest rate due to arbitrage activities. Research limitation/implications – There is no transparent framework for Murabahah contract in Islamic banks. Indeed there is a need for the banking standard regulators to set a clear and disciplined framework for this type of banking contract. Originality/value – The study hopes to improve the overall competency and reliability of the Islamic banking system in the world. The finding of this study will be a basis for further research in Murabaha with respect to the regulatory environment and Shari’ah compliance in particular in Iran