The influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities on consumers’ purchasing behavior

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, which include economic, environmental, social, and legal concerns on consumers’ purchasing behavior in the Malaysian context. A questionnaire was developed to collect data from the respondents using snowballing sampling. This research found mixed results in term of significance of the relationships between economic, social, and legal concerns and consumers’ purchasing behavior. Environmental concerns had an insignificant relationship with consumers’ purchasing behavior. The results of this research may help managers in managing their businesses, since a single CSR strategy cannot be competitive for corporations to participate in the current global business environment. The findings may be useful to policymakers as it encourages corporations to engage actively in CSR. The outcome of this research may expand the knowledge base on CSR, since most of the investigations on consumers’ responses to CSR have been limited to a few states in Malaysia

Good Faith in Construction Contract: A Common Law Perspective

The good faith principle requires contracting parties to be honest as well as considering their contracting partners in performing their contractual duties. In the event, contract clauses are insufficient to protect the interests of the innocent party in a breached contract, the said innocent party may rely on the good faith principle to ensure the fair. However, applying good faith principles to construction contracts is a difficult task. By nature, construction contracts are unique due to the fact that parties (Client and Contractor) are presumed competent to carry out their parts of the contractual obligations. Controversially, the construction contract is often unfairly prejudicial as the Client would customarily have the upper hand in deciding the terms and conditions of a contract. It is the objective of the research to examine the relevancy of application of good faith principle in construction contracts by employing qualitative content analysis. This study adopts a qualitative research approach, mainly employing library and internet resources with the intention to explore relevant legislation, textbooks, journals, research papers and articles. The comparative approach in this paper used content analysis from primary and secondary legal resources of different jurisdictions in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Australia to compare the application of the good faith principle in the context of construction contracts.  The findings of the research reveals that the adoption and application of the good faith principle in construction contracts is of limited usage even though it is widely used in general contract law of United Kingdom, Malaysia and Australia. This article contributes to the knowledge of the good faith principle in construction contracts, particularly with standard form contracts, by highlighting the importance of the good faith principle in achieving a fairer functioning of construction contracts in its application.  

Investigating the factors influence adoption of internet banking in Malaysia: adopters perspective

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that influence adopters to take up the Internet banking services in Malaysia. The sampling units in this survey are the adopters of Internet banking who were using it for at least six months. A total of 116 useable questionnaires was coded and analyzed by using SPSS software. Statistical methods like descriptive analysis, factor analysis and regression analysis were used in this research. The regression results showed that Complexity, Security and Ccustomer Experience were the influencing factors of Internet banking services. However, Individual Characteristics was found to be partially influencing the adopters in their decision to adopt the Internet banking facilities

Diagnostic Accuracy of the Electrocardiogram for Heart Failure With Reduced or Preserved Ejection Fraction

Current heart failure (HF) guidelines recommend electrocardiography (ECG) as an essential initial investigation in a patient's workup. 1 However, these recommendations were based on studies primarily including patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). 1 , 2 , 3 Guidelines do not distinguish HFrEF from HF with preserved and mid-range ejection fraction (HFpEF and HFmrEF) in their ECG recommendations. We hypothesized that a normal ECG does not exclude HFpEF and has a considerably lower sensitivity for diagnosing HFpEF than HFrEF

Mapping privity of e-commerce consumer contracts for sale of goods

E-commerce has change conventional sale of goods through global access in online marketplace. The borderless online marketplace provides a worldwide platform for sale of goods to consumers. A new group of tech-savvy consumers, also known as e-consumers emerge and growing rapidly over the years for cheaper, easy access, convenient, more varieties, quality of goods in e-commerce. E-commerce transactions on sale of goods involve many parties, among others, the platform provider, the seller (either manufacturer, intermediary, wholesaler or retailer), the internet provider, the financial service provider that provides the transfer of money using data, the website, the logistics provider, the shipping company, the delivering company and the consumers as buyer at the end of the transaction. In some circumstances, consumers can even be the seller in e-commerce. The parties to the e-commerce contract is essential to determine the rights and liabilities of the contracting parties, which raise the issue of privity of contract and other related issues on contract law. The nature and the complexity of e-commerce consumer contracts for sale of goods trigger many legal issues; form the beginning of forming of the contract to the conclusion of the contract. This paper focusing on the issue arising on the contractual rights and obligations of the e-commerce contract for sale of goods. Pure doctrinal legal research by employing content analysis method, this paper aims to draw connection among the parties direct and indirectly involved it the contract. This paper also seeks to identify and analyses the relationship of various parties involved in e-commerce consumer contracts for sale of goods. To examine and review the relationship of the parties in e-commerce sale of goods contract with regard to their rights and liabilities involved, with the aim to ascertain its’ coherent with the privity of contract doctrine

Towards harmonisation of the ASEAN contract law: the legal treatment of unfair consumer contract terms among selected ASEAN member states

The rise of standard form contracts and the use of unfair terms to deprive consumers from their rights have indeed inspired the law in many countries to react against the increasing decline of the individual’s capacity to make free and rational choice. The legal development in this area illustrates the role of contract law, that is, to develop criteria and procedures through which contractual fairness can be assured. The development of contract laws throughout the Southeast Asian region is impacted by the tremendous historical and social diversity among the various countries, as demonstrated by the Malaysian, Singaporean and Bruneian contract laws, which reflect English common law due to historical development. However, countries such as Indonesia have been profoundly affected by long periods of civil law influence. The experience of the common law countries of the ASEAN member states in controlling the use of unfair terms in consumer contracts demonstrate a different regime of protection as opposed to the civil law countries. Harmonisation of ASEAN contract laws is essential for the regional cooperation of ASEAN countries in order to accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development of the region. Bringing harmony between various contract laws of ASEAN countries would enhance economic prosperity as the laws of contract serve the economical and cultural values of society, in particular, consumer protection. Adopting the content analysis method, this paper aims at exploring the legal treatment of unfair terms in consumer contracts among the selected ASEAN member states. The paper will discuss and analyse the legislative provisions on unfair terms in Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines, focusing both on the legislative provisions as well as the judicial treatment of these terms. An analysis in the legal treatment in these three countries will then be undertaken in respect of harmonizing ASEAN contract law. The legal regime of all three countries reflects that the statutory control of exemption clauses in Singapore, Brunei and Philippines has taken many forms, however, since there are common features in the legislation, harmonizing it in respect of consumer protection can be achieved by reasonable compromises among the member states

Current High-Throughput Approaches of Screening Modulatory Effects of Xenobiotics on Cytochrome P450 (CYP) Enzymes

Cytochrome P450 (CYP) is a critical drug-metabolizing enzyme superfamily. Modulation of CYP enzyme activities has the potential to cause drug–drug/herb interactions. Drug–drug/herb interactions can lead to serious adverse drug reactions (ADRs) or drug failures. Therefore, there is a need to examine the modulatory effects of new drug entities or herbal preparations on a wide range of CYP isoforms. The classic method of quantifying CYP enzyme activities is based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), which is time- and reagent-consuming. In the past two decades, high-throughput screening methods including fluorescence-based, luminescence-based, and mass-spectrometry-based assays have been developed and widely applied to estimate CYP enzyme activities. In general, these methods are faster and use lower volume of reagents than HPLC. However, each high-throughput method has its own limitations. Investigators may make a selection of these methods based on the available equipment in the laboratory, budget, and enzyme sources supplied. Furthermore, the current high-throughput systems should look into developing a reliable automation mechanism to accomplish ultra-high-throughput screening in the near future

Business network and balanced scorecard: an analysis of small and medium enterprises in Malaysia

The aim of this paper is to characterise the association between business network and the balanced scorecard used by Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as a method for assessing firm efficiency. The business network takes into account both the dimensions of stability and efficiency. The business network can help SMEs, with fewer resources to remain competitive. By having a secure business network, the performance of SMEs in Malaysia can be further improved. A business network can facilitate swift coordination amongst distant geographies to create new competitive advantages by accessing market segments, resources as well as building strategic business alliances

Interactive evolutionary programming for mobile games rules generation

In this paper we present the possibilities of implementing evolution algorithm on a mobile platform. To inspect such possibilities we have created a Pac-man like mobile game that is implemented together with evolutionary programming. Here the interest does not only lie on performing the evolution algorithm on the mobile platform but also to examine the possibilities in implementing interactive evolution and create outputs that are based on the user preferences via reactive feedback, thereby creating a game design that is based upon the users' preferences. By explicitly examining the interactive evolution algorithm on a new testing platform, we have successfully created game rules that are based on the users' playing preferences