Innovative Teaching Methods and Entrepreneurship Education: A Review of Literature

The objective of this paper is to synthesise through the review of literature the various innovative teaching methods and how they have influenced the practice of entrepreneurship education. The various methods identified are case studies, business plan creation, problem-solving, simulation and games, team based or group discussions, guest speaker, seminars, individual and group projects, role play and lectures with latter being teacher centred while all the former are student centred. It was however, established that no one method can be used solely on its own, hence, the need for collective adoption under a given circumstance. Practically, all trainers, instructors and educators in the entrepreneurship field need to focus both on the design and implementation of entrepreneurship teaching and course programs based on the various aspects in terms of the teaching model(s) being adopted from the perspectives of providing answers to the questions of the why (purposes of the learning), what (contents), how (methods and pedagogies), for whom (audiences, participants), and for which outcomes (assessment) (Fayolle and Gailly, 2008).There are no enough models to conceptually drive the curriculum design and teaching methods of entrepreneurship education (Slattery and Danaher, 2015). The limitation of this study is that not all research work in the area of teaching methods and entrepreneurship education have been reviewed, due to language barriers, cost and time constraints. More research efforts are required to clarify which of the students benefit most from active learning and how to design activities to motivate and increase the understanding level of the students over time and determination of the most relevant ‘teaching model’ configuration in entrepreneurship

The impacts of physical, psychological, and environmental factors on employees job satisfaction among public accounting professionals in Malaysia / Sze Yin Koh, Tze San Ong and Adedeji Babatunji Samuel.

The issue of employees’ job satisfaction among public accounting professionals has become a very critical issue for employers as it might affect the quality, productivity, and sustainability of public accounting firms in today’s economy and business environment. Therefore, this research was attempted to provide insights on the variables influencing job satisfaction. Besides that, this research paper was also aimed at exploring whether job satisfaction plays a role in mediating the relationship between the six factors, organizational commitment, and employees’ loyalty. For data collection, a structured questionnaire was developed and a total of 103 responses were received from accountants, auditors, tax advisors, consultants and secretaries. Furthermore, the four step regression analysis was employed in this study in order to evaluate the mediating role of job satisfaction. The results have revealed that all the six variables (remuneration, relations with supervisors & co-workers, job security, job promotion, management/leadership style, and organizational culture) are significant factors in explaining the job satisfaction among public accounting professionals. Moreover, the findings have also shown that job satisfaction significantly mediates not only the relationship between supervisors & co-workers and organizational commitment, but also the relationship between job security and employees’ loyalty. These results have provided insight for public accounting firms in overcoming the issues of job satisfaction among their employees

Auditors switching in the relationship between corporate governance and financial performances - evidence from Malaysian Public Listed Companies (PLCs)

Due to the corporate scandals in the business world, corporate governance is big concern and becomes an alarming issue. Bursa Malaysia required all PLCs to have corporate disclosures in order to cultivate sound corporate governance, meanwhile auditors act as watchdogs in ensuring the disclosures. However, auditor switching is evident and disorder of auditor switching often takes place in Malaysia. Thus, this paper seeks to empirically investigate the association between corporate governance, auditor switching, and financial performance of Malaysian PLCs. Secondary data on a total number of 100 PLCs from years 2009 to 2013 are used. The results reveal that separation of position for BOD chairman and CEO as well as large board size lead to better overseeing of the management on behalf of shareholders, which drives the firm performance. Surprisingly, independent directors do not definitely lead to good firm performance, especially when they do not play their role properly. When there is CEO/chairman duality, tendency of auditor switching is low due to a long-tenure relationship with auditor. A high powered structure in Malaysia that concentrates on top-down relationship prompts no objection from board members and independent directors when a less crucial decision such as auditor switching decision is made. Auditors as the mediator play significant roles between corporate governance and financial performance since they provide creditability and greater assurance to investors. Therefore, this paper has vital implications and gives insight for government to emphasize the auditors’ roles as agents for ensuring impacts on the association between corporate governance and financial performance

National culture and corporate governance: a conceptual review

This book contains thirteen chapters contributed by the authors who specialized in their own areas of business studies. This publication provides a platform for contributors to address the topics of their choices that are generally current in nature. It is also a platform for PhD students to write together with members of their supervisory committees. The readers would find a wide array of findings, conceptual frameworks and suggestions for further research being offered by the respective authors. It is hoped that this book is of great value to the readers for its informative and useful nature. The Chapters in this book contain current challenges and opportunities in the areas of organizational behavior and leadership. The Editor would like to thank all contributors of the chapters for their commitment and dedication; and to the Head of Department of Management and Marketing, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Jo Ann; and the Dean of Faculty of Economics and Management, Professor Dr. Azali Mohamed, for their endless support in making this publication possibl

Capital Structure and Commercial Banks Performance in Nigeria

Decision relating to capital structure is of great important to an organization as capital performs several indispensable functions in the operations of banks, among which are to mitigate against risk and fragility, maintenance of public confidence as well as enhancing deposits mobilization and efficiency. It is imperative for managers to choose an appropriate financing mix which is a key decision for the growth and going concern of any financial institutions. This study used profit after tax and earnings per share as a measure of performance and employed panel regression technique to analyse data collected from a sample of fourteen quoted commercial banks between 2009 to 2016. The result shows a significant relationship between debt and profitability of commercial banks in Nigeria. The study concludes that debt can be significantly influenced by liquidity and shareholders’ wealth. Consequently, the study recommend that commercial bank managers should not depend on debt capital as a source of financing the organization capital structure but rather use retained earnings of the business and consider debt as the least alternative

An empirical study of auditors switching, corporate governance and financial performances of Malaysian Public Listed Companies (PLCs)

In the past years, regulators and the business communities had expressed worries about the alarming rate at which firms or corporations collapse due to the mismanagement and manipulation of resources as seen in the cases of Enron, WorldCom in the United States of America; and to be specific in Malaysia, the cases of Megan Media Holdings Berhad and Transmile Group. Auditor switching is evident and the disorder of auditor switching often takes place in Malaysia; however, as time goes by, it is decreasing. Thus, this paper seeks to empirically examine the effect of auditor switching and corporate governance on financial performance of Malaysian PLCs. Secondary data on a total number of 100 PLCs from years 2009 to 2013 are used. The results reveal that the effect of auditor switching on performance does not vary with duality role and the board size. However, the independent director does not cause a good firm performance. Nonetheless, auditors do not have a direct effect on financial performance since they are not directly involved with the management of the firms which negates the results of previous study. Therefore, this paper has vital impact in that regulators and the public need to be educated through awareness campaigns to emphasize on the auditors’ roles as agents in understanding the impact of the association between corporate governance and financial performance. Furthermore, auditor switching should embrace not only rotation of audit partners, but rotation of audit firms as well in view that this will help in infusing discipline from the top to the bottom of the audit firms and the companies

The impacts of physical, psychological and environmental factors on employee job satisfaction among public accounting professional in Malaysian university

The issue of employees’ job satisfaction among public accounting professionals has become a very critical issue for employers as it might affect the quality, productivity, and sustainability of public accounting firms in today’s economy and business environment. Therefore, this research was attempted to provide insights on the variables influencing job satisfaction. Besides that, this research paper was also aimed at exploring whether job satisfaction plays a role in mediating the relationship between the six factors, organizational commitment, and employees’ loyalty. For data collection, a structured questionnaire was developed and a total of 103 responses were received from accountants, auditors, tax advisors, consultants and secretaries. Furthermore, the four step regression analysis was employed in this study in order to evaluate the mediating role of job satisfaction. The results have revealed that all the six variables (remuneration, relations with supervisors & co-workers, job security, job promotion, management/leadership style, and organizational culture) are significant factors in explaining the job satisfaction among public accounting professionals. Moreover, the findings have also shown that job satisfaction significantly mediates not only the relationship between supervisors & co-workers and organizational commitment, but also the relationship between job security and employees’ loyalty. These results have provided insight for public accounting firms in overcoming the issues of job satisfaction among their employees

National culture and sustainability disclosure practices: a literature review

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which national culture is an explanatory variable for firm’s disclosure choices for sustainable development in the advanced, emerging and developing nations of the world, especially that entities interact in globally knowledge-based economies. A review of theoretical and empirical studies carried out on some developed, emerging and developing nations was undertaken with particular reference to traits characterised in specific national cultural environments about their effects on sustainability disclosures. The reviews show that not much work had been done in this area of study, in particular concerning social and environmental disclosures. Furthermore, studies are in the developed nations as compared with the emerging and developing economies. The studies reviewed focused more on cross-national design with less attention on the longitudinal aspect. It was not possible to review papers that were not written in English language, just as it is also important to state that, not all published works were reviewed, especially with access denied to some online. There is a need for more empirical evidence to further justify the relevance of this study area for global sustainability disclosures and development. The review adds value with the recognition of the need to gear up researchers and policy making bodies to encourage advancement of studies on the intellectual capital concept and resource-based value theory to enhance sustainability development globally

Online Learning in Bangladesh during COVID-19: Perceived Effectiveness, Challenges, and Suggestions

The primary purpose of this research is to highlight the effectiveness and challenges of Online Learning (OL) for Bangladesh during COVID-19. Besides, the researchers have proposed some suggestions based on the findings of this research to overcome from those challenges. Fifteen students using purposive sampling from Bangladesh's private, public, and national universities have taken as a study sample. Researchers generated headings which will be asked to the respondents in relation to the research questions through the secondary sources (published articles, journals, reports, conference proceedings, newspapers, and government records). After that, data triangulation has been validated by the semi-structured interview of 15 students. According to the findings, online learning is now somehow effective; but, it faces several challenges in Bangladesh's educational system. The students, guardians, university authorities such as University Grant Commission (UGC) and the Ministry of Education will be benefited from these findings.  The study only looked at Bangladeshi students' viewpoints, which may or may not be similar to those of other countries. As a result, generalization of the findings is less possible; consequently, more students from other countries should be included in the future

Corporate governance and performance of medium-sized firms in Nigeria: does sustainability initiative matter?

Purpose: The non-existence of the corporate governance (CG) concept for practices by non-financial medium-sized firms (MSFs) in Nigeria informed. This study aims to determine whether CG practices influence firms’ performance and whether sustainability initiative (SI) mediates the relationship between CG and MSFs’ performance in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 300 firms were selected on convenience sampling basis from South Western Nigeria using a structured questionnaire. The authors used Statistical Package for Social Sciences for exploratory data analysis and hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modelling. Findings: The results show that CG has a significant positive effect on performance [financial performance (FNP) and non-financial performance (NFP)] and SI. SI has a mixed impact on performance, e.g. a significant positive impact on NFP but insignificant negative impact on FNP. Similarly, SI has a combined mediating effect in the relationship between CG and performance, e.g. fully mediates CG → NFP and does not mediate CG → FNP. Firms are to invest in social and environmental initiatives substantially. CG codes will complement the International Financial Reporting Standards for MSFs. Research limitations/implications: This study supports the assumptions of theories (institutional, stakeholder and agency) as the basis for the usage of multiple approaches to determine the outcome of hypotheses, especially in developing climes. Practical implications: The study contributes to CG and performance literature by examining the mediating effects of SI. The paper also shows the necessity to emphasise NFP aspect. Policymakers should evolve CG codes to encourage stakeholders to believe more in the corporate existence of MSFs for strengthening capital-base and quality personnel engagement. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first empirical attempts showing the evidence on the relationship between CG and NFP in Nigeria