Income Disparity between Japan and ASEAN-5 Economies: Converge, Catching Up or Diverge?

The objective of this study is to empirically examine the income disparity between Japan and each of the five major economies of South East Asia (ASEAN-5) during the period of 1960 to 1997, utilizing the popular augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test. The results provide evidence of income divergence between Japan and each of the ASEAN-5 economies. To avoid the problem associated with structural break, this study proceeds with the jointly crash and changes in trend model proposed by Zivot and Andrews (1992), and is able to obtain evidence of long run income convergence between the Japanese and Singaporean economies. As for the rest of the four ASEAN countries- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, the earlier results of income divergence remain valid and hence suggest that it would be a more realistic and urgent goal to narrow the income gap among these five core economies of ASEAN.

Is There Any International Diversification Benefits in ASEAN Stock Markets?

This study finds that there is a common force which brings all the five ASEAN stock markets together in the long run by the nonparametric tests. This suggests that shocks from any of these five markets may spillover to the other markets in the same region. The recent Asian financial crisis bears a good testimony to this ‘contagion effect'. Subsequently, there would be no long run gain from international portfolio diversification. Specifically, investors with long run horizons may not benefit from an investment made across the countries in this ASEAN region. One possible explanation for this intra-ASEAN stock markets integration is their strong economic ties, especially intra-ASEAN trade and investment that has indirectly linked their stock indices.

Engaging academically at risk primary school students in an ICT mediated after-school program

This case study documents how a group of 14 academically at risk Primary 5 students (11 year olds) were engaged in academic related tasks in an after school program mediated by a 3-D Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE). Although there was no significant difference in the students\u27 academic performance, they were found to be more engaged in the learning tasks and had acquired a range of information and communication technology (ICT) skills. At the start of the program students attended irregularly, but this improved gradually over the weeks, and other Primary 5 students were attracted to enrol in the program. The planned schedule of the after school program and the 3-D MUVE provided the structures and online learning environment to engage these students. This paper reports on the after school program from the perspectives of the students and teachers, emphasising its context, that is, the school setting. The main finding suggests that the role of ICT has to go beyond the role of a mediating tool. It has to entice these students to be first interested in the virtual learning environment and subsequently in the content embedded within this environment. Thus ICT becomes a means to an end as well as an end by itself, in this process of engaging students. This finding has design implications especially for the use of ICT to engage academically at risk students

Moderating effect of affective commitment on the relationship between personality traits, job satisfaction and customer-oriented behavior among nurses

Rapid growth of the healthcare industry and existence of a more educated population have resulted in higher demand and expectation of the nursing care services. Healthcare providers need to meet the demand and expectation by introducing customer-oriented behavior among nurses. Previous studies on customer-oriented behavior have been inconclusive and almost non-existence in Malaysian public hospitals. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between personality traits, job satisfaction and customer-oriented behavior and the moderating effect of affective commitment on these relationships. Trait theory, affective theory of social exchange and self-determination theory were used to explain the study?s framework. The population of this study were nurses from Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Sultanah Aminah Hospital and Pulau Pinang Hospital. Data was from 361 usable self-administrated questionnaires, and were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for descriptive analysis and hierarchical multiple regression. The findings revealed that the level of nurses? customer-oriented behavior was generally high with a mean of 4.23. There were significant differences in the level of customer-oriented behavior based on gender and age groups of the nurses. Multiple regression analysis showed that customer-oriented behavior was significantly and positively related to openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness and job satisfaction. Affective commitment was found to be a quasi moderator which had a dual role of direct and interaction effects on customer-oriented behavior. The findings can assist healthcare service providers use the personality traits and demographic factors as the basis to identify nurses? customer-oriented behavior during recruitment process. Additionally, the providers can initiate programs that motivate nurses in sharing new ideas to generate a cohesive nursing workforce with job satisfaction and high commitment in exhibiting customer-oriented behavior. Policy makers can include customer-oriented behavior in the key performance indicator (KPI) during performance appraisal. Several directions were also drawn for future studies such as conducting a comparative study of nurses? customer-oriented behavior in other healthcare centers that are equally important such as public clinics, community clinics and dental clinics or other public service sectors

Is MYR/USD a random walk? New evidence from the BDS test

This study empirically investigates the daily MYR/USD exchange rate return series in the light of the random walk hypothesis. Recent breakthroughs pertaining to non-linear dynamics and chaos, coupled with the rapid acceleration in computer power, have made it possible to more robustly test for the random walk in financial and economic data. This study uses a new non-linear statistical test, namely the Brock-Dechert-Scheinkman (BDS) test to examine whether the MYR/USD exchange rate return series are random walk with the property of being independent and identically distributed. The results overwhelmingly reject the hypothesis that the MYR/USD data examined in this study are random, independent and identically distributed since some cycles or patterns show up more frequently than would be expected in a true random series. These results may have implications for the weak form market efficiency, if the underlying structure can be profitably exploitable, which remains an avenue for further research

Non-linear dependence in the Malaysian stock market

This study empirically investigates the presence of non-linearity in the Malaysian stock market, employing the Brock-Dechert-Scheinkman (BDS) and Hinich bispectrum tests. The BDS results reveal that the characteristics of the returns series in the Malaysian stock market are driven by non-linear mechanisms. Subsequent application of the Hinich bispectrum test confirms the results of the BDS test. The result of the present study has strong implications on the empirical work involving the Malaysian stock market as the existence of non-linearity suggests the inappropriateness of using linear methods for drawing inferences

Linearity and stationarity of South Asian real exchange rates

The linearity and stationarity of the real exchange rates of India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are investigated using formal linearity and the recently developed nonlinear stationary test procedures. Results obtained show that these real exchange rates are stationary albeit the presence of nonlinearity

Personality traits and job performance among academic staff in a private academic institution

This study investigates the association between the personality traits of academic staff members and their job performance in a Malaysian private educational institution. The personality traits were based on the Big Five model, which has five dimensions: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. About 110 participants from this institution were surveyed using a quantitative questionnaire, and their data were gathered. Throughout the study, the data were examined utilizing multiple regression analysis and factor analysis. According to the study’s findings, conscientiousness, and openness to experience significantly positively affect job performance. However, it was determined that extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism were not statistically significant and had no connection to job performance. As a result, in this institution, openness to experience is the most essential predictor of job performance. The findings of this study showed the management that openness to experience and conscientiousness are crucial for improving job performance inside the institution. Therefore, the management should pay more attention to these areas and recruit new employees with openness to experience and conscientious personality traits

Non-parametric cointegration analysis of ASEAN-5 real exchange rates

This study employs the Bierens's (1997) non-parametric cointegration methodology to test the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) hypothesis forfiz~e major ASEAN economies - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, with the U.S. and Japan data as base countries. The results provide evidence of mean reversion in dollar denominated real exchange rate for three ASEAN countries - Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. These findings are in sharp contrast with those earlier studies using Johansen cointegration technique. Consistent with the interpretation of Coakley and Fuertes (2001), the discrepancy between the findings from both approaches is interpreted as a consequence of significant non-linearity in the real exchange rate adjustment to PPP. Further analysis reveals that the evidence of PPP is much stronger with the Japanese yen as the numeraire currency, thus supporting the notion that the choice of numeraire currency can and does matter for testing PPP hypothesis. These results provide strong evidence of the integration between the Japanese economy and those of ASEAN countries, which are closely linked in geographical, economic and trade terms. The increasing role of Japanese yen in the ASEAN region can be taken as providing empirical support for the formation of a yen dominated ASEAN exchange rate system, or a 'yen bloc'

Factors influencing employee retention of academic home tutors in a private school

This study’s goal is to investigate the links between pay and benefits, worklife balance, professional development, and employee retention among academic home tutors in a Malaysian private school. Data from 80 respondents from this private school were gathered using a quantitative survey method. Statistical package for social science (SPSS) was employed throughout the study to analyze the data. The study results showed that salary & compensation and career enhancement positively correlate with employee retention. Meanwhile, work-life balance was not statistically linked with employee retention. The management should revise the human resource management practices by including these elements. The management should design salary & compensation packages that fit with individual knowledge, capabilities, and performance. The management may also consider offering flexible work schedules, such as training, mentoring, job mobility, and a reduction in working hours, as well as wellness assistance, such as counselling services and health and wellness initiatives. This will give employees the chance to advance their careers