The main purpose of this study was to identify the determinants of recycling behaviour among academicians by utilizing the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). It also examined the mediating role of attitude in the relationship between environmental beliefs and recycling be-haviour. An online survey was conducted among lecturers in a public university in Malaysia and 101 valid responses were received. Data was analysed using Partial Least Squares Struc-tural Equation Modelling. Out of the six proposed hypotheses, five were supported. Among the important and interesting findings were: (1) perceived behavioural control has an insignif-icant effect on recycling behaviour and (2) attitude plays a mediating role in the relationship between environmental belief and recycling behaviour. This study contributes to both theory and practice; it extends the TPB and also provides insightful information for university administrators and policy makers that help them plan effective strategies to enhance recycling behaviour among academicians and other stakeholders in the future.

Regioselective acylation of monosaccharides are highly significant for the preparation of both natural and non-natural carbohydrate compounds and their synthetic intermediates. In this respect, an efficient simple method for site selective 6-O-hexanoylation of octyl β-D-glucopyranoside (OG) at low temperature is described. The 6-O-hexanoylglucoside, thus formed, was then treated with five acyl halides and obtained novel corresponding O-acylglupyranosides at C-2, C-3 and C-4 positions with high yields. Activity spectra prediction for substances (PASS) indicated that these glucoside esters are potential against antimicrobials especially against fungi. In vitro antibacterial test indicated them as weak to moderate inhibitor of Gram-positive organisms. ADMET prediction indicated that these OGs are overall safe to use. Density functional theory (DFT) optimized electronic energy, enthalpy (ΔH), Gibbs free energy, entropy, dipole-moment (μ), and molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) are also discussed.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role for the economic development of most countries, particularly in developing economies such as Kuwait. There are, however, challenges and problems that have to be addressed in an effort to achieve a better performance and ensure longer-term success. In the pursuit of entrepreneurial leadership (EL), SMEs frequently adopt total quality management (TQM) practices as their key strategies to enhance their competitive advantage. However, there is a dearth of studies that investigate the relationship of these concepts with the performance SMEs in developing countries. This paper seeks to examine the association between determinants of organizational performance, such as entrepreneurial leadership (EL) and TQM practices, of Kuwait's SMEs. This study uses a quantitative method. A survey questionnaire is administered to collect data from 500 SME owners and CEOs in Kuwait, and 384 are found to be usable. The outcomes of this study show beneficial and considerable influence of entrepreneurial leadership and TQM practices on organizational performance. The association of entrepreneurial leadership with organizational performance of SMEs is fundamentally mediated by TQM practices.

The major objective of this study is to analyze the effect of the shopping environment and situation as perceived by modern retail shoppers into perceived crowding, store image, and shopping motives toward emotions and repurchase intention in the context of a grocery modern retail. The cross-sectional design method was used in this study, and the data were collected from a customer survey with randomly selected 244 respondents using an online questionnaire. According to the findings the perceived crowding, store image, and shopping motives affected positively on the customer emotions. The perceived crowding was revealed as the most influential variable on the emotions. We also found a direct effect of perceived crowding and store image on repurchase intention. Furthermore, the high-density retail condition shoppers tend to feel pleased with the shopping environment and give a positive appraisal to the store image. But unfortunately, a high-density retail condition could discourage the shoppers to have repurchase intention. Interestingly, when the emotions were used as a mediating variable of perceived crowding and repurchase intention, those independent variables affected on repurchase intention, positively. Therefore, the shoppers' emotions were the most important factor affected on repurchase intention in modern retail. The more they enjoy the shopping environment and situations, the more they are interested in making future purchases.

This paper reports the findings of a study examining the relationship between transformational leadership, work engagement and workplace spirituality of academic employees in four PHEIs in Malaysia. The perceptions of academic employees regarding the transformational leadership style, work engagement and workplace spirituality were assessed in an empirical study on a sample of 369 full-time academic employees working in higher education institutions in Malaysia. The study found a satisfactorily good level of influence between transformational leadership and workplace spirituality and work engagement. The paper also provides insights into enhancing employees work engagement via transformational leaders through their abilities to create work-place spirituality. The findings also provide evidence that transformational leaders play a crucial role in shaping workplace spirituality and employee’s level of work engagement in an emerging country work setting.

Financial Stability and Payment Systems Report of the Bank Negara Malaysia reported that household debt grew by 5.4% to RM1.09 trillion from a year earlier. Notably, households merely borrow or use credit for pur-chasing in order to smoothen their consumption. Less secure and vulnerable current, and retirement stages would be the result among public employees in Malaysia due to high household debts. Enhancing trend of better financial management practices is essential, especially for working employees due to the increased levels of existing personal indebtedness, and increasing focus on personal responsibility for financial planning among them. Nowadays, employee’s role in managing their finances is becoming complex due to experiencing with the complexity of financial commodities in the marketplace. Therefore, studying of the determinants of employees’ financial well-being (FWB) among employees in Malaysia is the major objective of this research. The sample of 590 employees in the public sector from four states was selected by applying multi stage sampling technique. The data gathering was accomplished using a self-administered questionnaire. According to the re-gression analysis, contribution of the variables to the model was 32.3%. Money attitude, financial practices, self-efficacy, and emotion coping had conspicuous contribution to FWB, while financial practices were identified as the key performing aspect to FWB. The findings of this study are beneficial to the government, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to create a comprehensive approach specially to advance the living standards, and enhance the FWB of the lower-household income cluster of employees. More comprehension about the determinants of FWB plays a vital role to support workers to equip with financial prudence, and in the long-run would minimize the rate of Malaysian workers with financial difficulties.

For a country to support the transition of all economic sectors to a knowledge-driven one, attract foreign investment, and drive labor productivity, it is necessary to have access to skilled workforce. However, there is currently an insufficient talent supply and the workforce demand does not match the talent supply because of low graduate employability stemming from the low quality of higher education in Malaysia. To address this issue, this study proposed a conceptual framework to illustrate the perception of graduates towards the impact of curriculum design, the curriculum vision, the operationalization of the curriculum vision, the curriculum delivery, and curriculum evaluation, on employability competency. A sample of 299 employed graduates participated in this research. Smart Partial Least-Squares (SmartPLS) version 3 software was used to evaluate the hypotheses of the survey. The findings of this study reveal that curriculum design positively and significantly influenced employability competency. Hence, this study contributes important insights into the implementation of effective curriculum design, striking a balance between practical and theoretical bases, in private and public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

In industrialized countries, about 30% of the population may suffer from foodborne illnesses each year. Ma-laysia has proven to be a country that has very serious focus on food, but the people do not care much about their food safety. Food safety and hygiene is usually explained as the multiple conditions and ways to pre-serve food quality, so that foodborne diseases and contamination is prevented. University students face with high risk because of their unsafe behaviors in consuming food. There have been many studies accomplished on comprehension, behavior and implementation towards food safety among food handlers. The current research desires to determine the current knowledge, attitude and practice status among students in Management & Science University (MSU) on food safety. The study framework focuses on testing the relationship between knowledge, attitude and practices and whether or not attitude will be a mediating factor towards practices on food safety among university students in MSU. Using a quantitative and descriptive method, a structured questionnaire was distributed among 430 respondents. The result of the study was analyzed using regression test and indirect method. The result shows that the students had a good knowledge, attitude and practice status towards food safety and attitude was a partial mediating factor in the relationship between knowledge and practice.

The premium is a deterministic function to compensate for losses due to random events and it is an essential part of an insurance company operation. Numerous issues are faced by the Takaful operator in the practice of insurance, one of them is “validity of life insurance” which is still under discussion among Islamic scholars. Their conversation leads to the issue of approach which are utilised by the Takaful operator to create a sales illustration product. Based on their current discussion, there are still some hidden elements and some missing points related to the concept of loss and surplus sharing utilised by Takaful operator. Therefore, this paper focuses on the practice of Family Takaful for producing the sale illustration product which Shariah compliant. The study develops a new model of the premium for an equity-linked policy (Unit-linked product) by considering the properties of Takaful contracts namely Tabarru and Mudarabah. It aims to ensure that a new model developed can comprehensively demonstrate Shariah compliance. The model adapted and derived from the current Takaful Business Model. We add several assumptions to implicate the approach in a real problem associated with the ratio of profit-sharing (Mudarabah) and loss-sharing (Tabarru). Secondary data are used to test and produce a sales illustration product by utilising a new integrated model of the premium developed. Based on the empirical results, a new model of premium is used to create a sales illustration product that comprehensively complies with Shariah and also more profitable and beneficial when compared with a standard approach used by Takaful operator.

The development of the Islamic State (IS) in Southeast Asia creates changes in the social order in a direct and indirect manner. This study aims to identify the factors that influence the development of the Islamic State (IS) and analyze the influence of its development on social vulnerability in Southeast Asia. This study employed a mixed-method supported by the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), and System Dynamics (SD). Based on the results of research from relevant experts, this study uncovered seven the most dominant and structured problems. Furthermore, there are fourteen elements related to the social vulnerability of the Islamic State (IS) in Southeast Asia. The social vulnerability value is 0.01 and is categorized as Low Vulnerability. The aspects that influence the development of Islamic State indicate that the existing social system in Southeast Asia is strong enough in encountering the influence of ideology and the development of the Islamic State.