The damaging effects of market globalization towards developing countries necessitate the exhibition of favorable attitudes towards purchase intention for local brand automobiles manufactured locally. With the application of moral foundation theory (MFT), a quantitative and cross-sectional study that involved 373 Proton potential consumers through a mall intercept survey in Malaysia was analyzed. The results show that Proton’s potential consumers had favorable attitudes towards purchase intention for Proton automobiles. Subsequent to a high mean score of collectivism and a moderate mean score of ethnocentrism, Proton potential consumers’ ethnocentric tendency offers a contradiction to extant literatures on consumer ethnocentrism in developing countries. Thus, our study posits that consumers from collectivistic societies are ethnocentric and further display favorable attitudes towards local products. Additionally, the predictive effects of consumer ethnocentrism and collectivism on attitudes towards purchase intention for local brand automobiles manufactured locally were ascertained. Our findings validated the applicability of MFT in explaining consumers’ attitudes towards local products. Other implications are also discussed.

COVID-19 has spread to more than a hundred countries worldwide since the first case reported in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. As one of the countries affected by the spread of COVID-19 cases, the local government of Malaysia has issued several policies to reduce the spread of this outbreak. One of the measures taken by the Malaysian government, namely the Movement Control Order, has been carried out since March 18, 2020. In order to provide precise information to the government so that it can take the appropriate measures, many researchers have attempted to predict and create the model for these cases to identify the number of cases each day and the peak of this pandemic. Therefore, hospitals and health workers can anticipate a surge in COVID-19 patients. In this research, confirmed, recovered, and death cases prediction was performed using the neural network as one of the machine learning methods with high accuracy. The neural network model used is the Multi-Layer Perceptron, Neural Network Auto-Regressive, and Extreme Learning Machine. The three models calculated the average percentage error (APE) values for 7 days and obtained APE values for most cases less than 10%; only 1 case in the last day of one method had an APE value of approximately 11%. Furthermore, based on the best model, then the forecast is made for the next 7 days. In conclusion, this study identified that the MLP model is the best model for 7-step ahead forecasting for confirmed, recovered, and death cases in Malaysia. However, according to the result of testing data, the ELM performs better than the MLP model.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to discover the perception of Umrah travel agents regarding the impact of service quality (SQ) on customer satisfaction (CS) in Malaysia. To perform and accomplish this task, the necessary data were collected through convenience sampling method based on self-administrated structure questionnaire. Out of 500 responses from the respondents, 384 samples were finally chosen and considered suitable for descriptive statistics analysis to fulfil the sole purpose of the paper. There were positive and significant relationship between the retail SQ dimensions and CS. Umrah travel industry contributes significantly on the Malaysian economic growth, and during the last decade the competition has increased dramatically. Therefore, this research study is intended to seek for solid empirical justification to consider SQ as a major and substantial factor in CS in Malaysian Umrah traveling industry.

This paper mainly aimed to identify the impact of critical factors of advertisement on consumer buying behaviour for skincare products. Data for this study were collected from 428 people from all around Malaysia using self-administered questionnaires. The acquired data went through an exhaustive process of screening and cleaning to ensure that it was ready for analyses in SPSS software. Various robust tests were conducted to reach the findings. These include, frequency tests, reliability tests, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and also hypotheses testing. Structural equation modelling was used to test for the fitness of the proposed model. The results revealed that two elements of advertisement; namely, usefulness of advertisement and features of advertisement had significant positive impacts on consumer buying behaviour. A unique attempt was also made to search for a suitable nested model, where features of advertisement resulted in a strong positive significant impact on usefulness of advertisement. This research has invaluable implications for policy makers, especially in cosmetic and health industry of Malaysia. It is hoped that the findings of this study can be considered while making marketing plans for a skincare brand.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationship between the determinants of internationalisation and innovation on balanced scorecard (BSC) among Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Internationalisation covers the dimensions of knowledge, trust, commitment and opportunity development, which can benefit the firm performance in Malaysia by increasing the involvement of SMEs in international business activities. A sample of 202 firms was considered for this study and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used. The dimensions of knowledge, trust, commitment and opportunity development were observed to examine the proposed hypotheses. The results indicate that internationalisation as a whole; such as knowledge, trust, commitment and opportunity development played an important role in innovation and balanced scorecard among Ma-laysian SMEs. However, this also can solve the existing myth of a role in the internationalisation on innovation towards a balanced scorecard of SMEs in Malaysia because family businesses are a critical pillar of many Malaysian enterprises. Therefore, this research conveys an understanding to the owners and managers to quickly achieve innovation and balanced scorecard results. Finally, this study brings some conclusions to the policy makers and regulators as well.

During the past three years, Malaysian Islamic banking Institutions’ (IBIs) asset has shown an aggressive growth of 13%. Furthermore, Malaysia is currently focusing to become the world hub leader in Islamic banking. Hence, these two factors have increased the competitiveness among IBIs to find qualified talents in various fields to be attracted. Despite abundant new talents in the job market, the IBIs could not attract the qualified or right talent into their institutions. This paper attempts to identify an appropriate EVP for new Malaysian IBIs talents to attract qualified talents. To do so, a study is conducted with a structured interview of the questionnaire. The questionnaires were evaluated by a group of Malaysian graduates on the required EVP for IBIs. The results indicate that basic salary, employee benefit package and flexible working hours play an important role for talent shortage.

In the Malaysian Umrah industry, there are so many new entrants selling and offering similar products and services. As a result, Umrah providers must compete to survive in the Umrah travel industry, as there are currently so many competitors. They need to focus on customers’ special needs and preferences to maintain the long-term relationship. Hence, the purpose of this research is to identify the relationship between service marketing mix and customer’s loyalty towards Umrah travel agents in Malaysia. The customers who performed Umrah more than once were on the focus of this study. The necessary data were collected from 384 respondents through a structured questionnaire using a convenience sampling technique. The results of the research confirm that all “service marketing mix” elements (“price, product, place, promotion, process, people, and physical evidence”) show significant positive effects on customer loyalty. This study will be of interest to the Umrah travel industry in understanding how marketing mix strategies are essential for maintaining a long term relationship with customers.

This study examines the acceptance level of Accrual Accounting System (AAS) among the accountants in the public sector. Subsequently, this study examines whether the accountants’ acceptance level of AAS influences their motivation, job satisfaction and job performance. Using a cross sectional study via a questionnaire survey on 166 public sector accountants in the public sector, the study shows that the accountants accepted AAS. The study also shows that the acceptance of AAS among the accountants significantly influences their motivation, job satisfaction and job performance. Further analyses show that the accountants’ motivation to accept AAS significantly influences their job satisfaction and subsequently, job performance. The findings of this study indicates that acceptance of a technology could lead to positive attitude and ultimately, ensuring AAS implementation success in the public sector.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influences of self-identity, subjective norm and attitude on the intention to purchase luxury fashion goods. It also demonstrates how purchase intention influences on customers' intention to pay premium prices for luxury fashion goods. A theoretical model is established and assessed in this study on a sample of luxury fashion consumers in Malaysia. By means of a self-structured questionnaire, 240 valid submissions are included for data analysis with the Smart-PLS software 3.2.0. The results support all hypotheses on the correlation of self-identity, subjective norm and attitude with purchase intention and price premium, except the correlation between self-identity and purchase intention. This is the first research paper investigating self-identity as an antecedent of purchase intention, and price premium as a consequence of purchase intention. It also justifies the behavior of luxury fashion consumers with regards to luxury fashion products. Findings from this study may help marketers develop effective strategies which would yield them a competitive advantage within the luxury fashion market.