Economic and legal accountability in Malaysian unit trust industry

This paper, by drawing upon accountability theories, aims to explore and examine practices related to discharging economic and legal accountability in Malaysian unit trust industry. The evidence was primarily constructed from two main sources, documentary review and in-depth interviews.Document review was undertaken on various documents issued by the industry regulators and industry players. Meanwhile, semi-structured interviews were carried out with representative from the regulators, unit trust management companies (UTMCs), a unit trust distributor company, and unit trust advisors. Evidence suggests that economic and legal accountability, which are commonly exercised as a form of external oversight and control, has been dominated the industry, for example, via the issuance and enforcement of various rules, acts, regulations, and guidelines over the industry players.While economic and legal accountability, which typically prioritized a limited range of influential stakeholders, are important and crucial for investors’ protection and in developing a sound unit trust industry, too much emphasis, may cause other stakeholders affected – directly or indirectly- by UTMCs activities left unconsidered or received inadequate attention

CSR practices in Malaysian unit trust industry: Case study of FGU and PSU

This paper, by employing Robert’s (2003) framework of CSR, aims to assess organizations’ CSR initiative particularly the voluntary education initiative of two case organisations.The case organisations, FGU group and PSU group, are among the main players in Malaysian unit trust industry.The case evidence was primarily constructed from three main sources, in-depth interviews, documentary review and observation. Evidence suggests that PSU’s voluntary education initiative is carried out merely as public relations or as windowdressing exercise Meanwhile, the evidence suggests that there are mix drivers behind FGU’s education initiative which include social and economic factor

Broadening corporate accountability: An ‘idealised’ downward accountability model

The purpose of this paper is to provide discussion on competing but overlapping theorization of accountability with primary focus given to downward accountability.In this paper the conception of downward accountability is extended via development of an ‘idealised’ downward accountability model.The paper is primarily theoretical and conceptual, extending the conception of downward accountability with its three idealised hybrids.The paper finds downward accountability may interact and overlap with other forms of accountability.Consequently, dependent on the key elements, mainly motivation and intention, the organization’s accountability practices can ‘genuinely’ serve a broad range of stakeholders. The model developed in this paper is an early attempt in understanding and assessing the effectiveness of different practices of discharging downward accountability

Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Malaysian Unit Trust Industry: An Evaluation

This paper aims to assess CSR initiative, particularly the voluntary education initiative, and CSR reports of two case organisations. The author applies case study approach. The case evidence is primarily constructed from three main sources, in-depth interviews, documentary review, and observation. The case organisations, FGU group, and PSU group are among the main players in Malaysian unit trust industry. Evidence suggests that PSU's voluntary education initiative is carried out merely as public relations or as window-dressing exercise. Meanwhile, evidence suggests that there are mix drivers behind FGU's education initiative which include social and economic factor. The study is subject to common limitations of case-based research. Although care must be exercised in interpreting the findings from the case organisations, this study does allow some tentative conclusions to be reached about CSR initiatives and reporting in the context of the Malaysian unit trust industry. Keywords: CSR initiative, CSR report, social factor, economic factor, Malaysian unit trust JEL Classifications: M49, M

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in mobile telecommunication industry: Case study of Malaysia

In a very competitive global market, mobile telecommunication companies must strive to portray a picture of themselves as highly socially responsible companies. Active involvement in socially beneficial programs provides extra advantages to the company. This study examines the concentration of CSR activities of mobile telecommunication companies in Malaysia. Furthermore, this study also determines the motives and the most influencing factors in their concentration of involvement in CSR. Generally, involvements in CSR activities are inspired by several construct motivational factors and follow the agency theory assumption. One of the primary motivating factors is the belief that CSR can increase long term profitability and sustainability of the company as well as enhance the reputation of the organization. Companies A, B and C show satisfactory level of involvement in five (5) main categories; environmental concerns, welfare or charity, community involvement, products or services improvement and natural disasters awareness programs. Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as the regulatory body has determined that the mobile telecommunication companies will actively be involved in CSR as the customer-oriented factors in their business operation is of utmost importance. Overall, it can be concluded that all of the three mobile telecommunication companies in Malaysia have high initiative in CSR activities with several constructive motives

Management Control Systems and Its Effect on Performance

This paper discusses how Management Control Systems is used to control performance in local government owned companies in Indonesia. Performance becomes important and unique in local government owned companies since those companies are not only targeted by profit but they also have responsibilities for social function. This study focuses on performance control in water supply companies as typical local government owned company in Indonesia. Balance Scorecard is chosen as the performance measurement tool in all water supply companies in Indonesia. This research applies quantitative research in order to analyze cause effect relationship between variables by using Multiple Regression Analysis. Data is collected through survey by using questionnaires. The respondents were the managerial team and employees of local government owned companies in Indonesia. The results show that four perspectives of Balance Scorecard are modified into four types of performance i.e. financial, service, operational, and human resource performance. This performance measurement is used to control people in achieving targeted performance. Moreover, this performance measurement becomes an important part of management control systems. This research also discovers that management control systems is effective to influence performance, even when some interventions exist

Firm performance, ownership structure, and CEO selection: the case of Nigeria.

This paper attempts to examine the effect of ownership structures, corporate performance and board political connectedness on CEO selection. The sample of the study is all Nigerian non financial firms from the year 2011 to 2015 consisting of 72 CEO selection events. This study uses logistic regression analysis to provide evidence that firms dominated with blockholder ownership favour external successors while managerial ownership-controlled firms are inclined to select internal candidates as successors. However, this study fails to support the argument that corporate performance and board political connectedness do influence the choice of CEO selection in the Nigerian public listed companies. In sum, the findings suggest that blockholders and managerial ownership significantly influence the choice of the origin of the successor CEOs in the Nigerian corporate landscape. This paper enriches the literature about CEO selection choices in developing economies with weak corporate governance structure like Nigeria. In addition, the findings from this study could be of immense benefit to the shareholders and corporate board members in making a decision on recruiting their CEOs; and the regulatory agencies in the formulation and enforcement of reforms that guarantee good corporate practices by the boards

DISCHARGING ACCOUNTABILITY: A CASE STUDY OF A ZAKAT INSTITUTION IN MALAYSIA

The objective of the study is to explore and examine the forms and means employed by one zakat institution in Malaysia in discharging its accountability to the stakeholders. Case study approach was used in the study involving the use of both of primary and secondary data. The primary data was gathered via the face to face in-depth interviews that were conducted with the representatives of the zakat institution. The secondary data was gathered from different sources such as the zakat collection and distributions reports of the zakat institution. The interview data was analysed using a manual coding and the secondary data was content analysed using a thematic analysis. The study finds that the zakat institution studied has been discharging two categories of accountability that are financial or formal and social or informal form of accountability. The financial/formal form of accountability has been discharged mainly via the zakat collection and distribution reports. Meanwhile, it is observed that the latter category of accountability has been discharged through both of means that are account- and action-based mechanisms, which include zakat collection and distribution reports and various non-zakat society/community programs respectively

A qualitative case study on the use of balance scorecard to control performance of a local government-owned water supply company in Indonesia

This paper discusses how the Balance Scorecard is applied in a water supply company in Indonesia. The company investigated in this study was a local government-owned water supply company is responsible for generating profit, as well as having a social function. Performance becomes an important issue in this type of company, not just from the financial aspect, but also regarding non-financial performance. This research was a longitudinal case study. By applying ethnography, the researcher participated in the process of controlling performance while performing the research, where the case company modified the four perspectives of balance scorecard into four aspects of performance, i.e., financial, service, operational, and human resource performance aspects. This modified balance scorecard was used to control people in achieving their targeted performance. A management control system model was then used as a tool and mechanism to control performance

Islamic accountability framework in the zakat funds management

The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion on the Islamic accountability in the zakat funds management.The in-depth understanding over the accountability system and practices of zakat institutions may assist to identify the underlying factors that lead to inefficiency in zakat distribution.The article is primarily theoretical and conceptual in nature.The paper discusses the suitability and applicability of the Islamic accountability framework in the zakat funds management.The Islamic accountability framework presented here, however, is an early attempt in understanding and assessing the effectiveness of accountability practices in managing zakat funds