Faizan Abd Jabar

A Study on the Relationship Between Awareness and Knowledge of Muslim Retailers Toward Halal Cosmetic Products

The concept of halal cosmetic is very new to the Muslim world. Muslim consumers around the world are now more selective and seek for product that is halal, clean, and safe to consume. Existing and new players in the cosmetic industries are taking advantage of this situation and are competing with one another to produce halal cosmetic products. As such, it is essential to place responsibility on cosmetic product sellers to sell products that fulfill the syariah requirements. The sellers need to have awareness and knowledge regarding the concept of halal and haram. Thus, the objective of this study is to determine the relationship between awareness and knowledge of Muslim retailers toward halal cosmetic products. Self-administrated questionnaire that comprises measurement of awareness and knowledge on halal cosmetic product was distributed to 74 Muslim retailers of cosmetic products from four small townships in Pahang, namely, Bandar Jengka, Jerantut, Temerloh, and Maran. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 20. The findings indicated that the Muslim retailers in this area are aware and have knowledge on halal cosmetic products, but the level of awareness differ between each township. It is recommended that authorized agencies such as JAKIM initiate more activities to create awareness among Muslim retailers on the concept of halal for consumers’ benefits.

The Influence of External Auditor's Working Style, Communication Barriers and Enterprise Risk Management toward Reliance on Internal Auditor's Work☆

Abstract The extent to which external auditors rely on the work of internal auditors is an important judgment. Audit methodology reform of Business Risk Audit (BRA) and Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires external auditors to give an opinion that there is a comprehensive, efficient and effective control framework clearly documented and consistently applied to prevent material misstatement in financial statements. Recently, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has recommended that external auditors “rely more on the work of others” to reduce the greater-than-expected costs associated with compliance with Section 404 of the SOX. External auditors’ reliance on internal auditors have been researched for almost three decades, but the main focus of many studies has been on objectivity, work performance and competence of the internal audit function. This current study is therefore different. Its main objective are to explore the effects of external auditors’ working styles, perceived communication barriers and moderating effects of clients risk management on the reliance of internal audit work. In order to obtain the necessary information and opinion, questionnaires were distributed to 250 audit firms in the Wilayah Persekutuan Malaysia and only 109 responses were received. The results showed that two factors, which are external audit working style and communication barriers, had a significant relationship with external audit reliance on the internal audit work. The relationship was found to be stronger with the moderating effect of clients’ enterprise risk management (ERM). In addition, consistent with expectations, auditors’ rank (manager versus senior) did influence the reliance judgment.

Internationalization of Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) including microenterprises help in fostering growth, employment and income in the country. In recent years, SMEs have performed well and they are critical about the economic transformation as they form the domestic source of growth and bedrock of private sector activities. SMEs are also important in stimulating innovation and act as stabilizers of growth during an economic slowdown. Since they are important to the economic growth, they should be brought up towards internationalization. However, in order to accomplish this, the SMEs need institutional supporters such as Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA), Tabung Ekonomi Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (TEKUN), Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Berhad (PUNB), etc. This paper is aimed towards drawing attention to SMEs that intend to embark on internationalizing their businesses. This paper also intends to encourage SMEs to assist the government to attain its envisioned objectives towards SMEs plan (2011–2020) by upgrading and promoting SME businesses to embark on a new business environment.

Determining Factors Influencing Self-employed Intention Among Tertiary Education Students in East Coast Malaysia

This chapter investigates the factors of becoming self-employed among tertiary education students in East Coast Malaysia. Among others, three motivating factors obtained a positive response; intention to upgrade income to a higher level, be independent at work, and acquire more satisfaction as an entrepreneur. Self-administered questionnaires adapted from a previous research were distributed to tertiary education students in East Coast Malaysia. 104 questionnaires were analyzed and found to be usable for this study. Generally, the results of the study indicated that the respondents had a positive interest towards becoming self-employed with a very significant level through the research findings. This is a good sign to the related tertiary education institutions and country as a whole in which most of the future graduates are interested in being independent entrepreneurs. Thus, Malaysia will be able to increase the statistics of those who are self-employed among tertiary graduates. Not only that, the Ministry of Education can emphasize more activities, programmes and courses that are able to develop the skills to become entrepreneurs among tertiary education students.

Peer Leadership in Archery: The Effect of Personal Characteristic and Leader Behaviour on Team Performance

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of team captain characteristic toward team performance, to examine the relationship of team captain behaviour towards team performance and to examine the impact of personal characteristic and leader behaviour towards team performance. Thirty archers (N = 30) participated in this study. The result of this study showed that personal characteristic has significant difference (P < 0.01) and has no significant difference (P = 0.36) in leader behaviour. The result also shows that personal characteristic and leader behaviour give an impact to team performance. The results revealed that the peer leadership has an impact on the team performance.

Factors Contributing to the Entrepreneurs’ Awareness Towards Halal Cosmetics

Halal cosmetic products have become a topic of interest in Malaysia recently. Muslim consumers have begun to question the halal status of the ingredients used in these products. One of the reasons behind this issue could be due to the consumers’ own growing interest on the concept of halal products as well as technology advancement that has enabled them to gain necessary information from the Internet. Thus cosmetic products’ entrepreneurs too need to have the awareness and knowledge of halal concept to enable them to recommend suitable products to Muslim consumers. The objective of this study is to determine the factors contributing to entrepreneurs’ awareness towards halal cosmetics. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 74 Muslims entrepreneur of cosmetic products from four small townships in Pahang. The result indicated that there are five factors that influenced the awareness on halal cosmetics, namely, entrepreneurs’ knowledge, influence from environment, product safety, education level and age. The significant factors that contributed to the awareness among entrepreneur with education of SPM or below are product safety and influence from environment, while knowledge is the significant factor for the higher educated group. Furthermore, young entrepreneurs are more concerned with product safety compared to their more experienced counterpart. The latter are more knowledgeable on the product and more influenced by the environment factor. The intention of this paper is to provide insightful information to supporting bodies such as Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) and Halal Development Centre (HDC) to assist them in constructing suitable programmes and activities to educate the entrepreneurs especially in Islamic business.

The Impact of Textile Centre Towards Textile Traders: A Case Study in Bandar Tun Abdul Razak, Pahang

Business can run very best by gaining the best profit that directly depends to the customer. Recently, customers are very smart to buy any products or services to fulfil their needs. For sure, the product or services with the best quality and the best price offered will be chosen. A case study among 40 textile traders at Bandar Tun Razak Jengka, Pahang has become a platform to identify the impact of existence the textile centre, known as Jengka Street to them. A self-developed questionnaire has been used to collect the data and the data collected was analysed using SPSS 20.0. The present study shows that the overall average of monthly income among the selected traders has been decreased significantly by RM397.10 after Jengka Street was operated. However, the impact more serious faced by male traders with loss RM1055.55 per month. In addition, the impact of Jengka Street related to the price and the choices of textiles and its location itself. The number of choices of textile become the most important factor that make them lost many customers. Hopefully, this study will give a potential action should be taken by textile traders in order to improve their business without any malicious feelings.