Halimahton Borhan

The impact of financial ratios on the financial performance of a chemical company

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of financial ratios on the financial performance of a chemical company: LyondellBasell Industries (LYB). Some selected ratios: current ratio (CR) and quick ratio (QR) represent the liquidity ratios, debt ratio (DR) and debt equity ratio (DTER) represent the leverage ratios, while operating profit margin (OPM) and net profit margin (NPM) represent the profitability ratios. LYB faced financial problems after its merger and the financial performance of the company shrank to negative due to the world financial crisis. However, this company has bounced back after a year and is now the worlds third largest chemical company based on revenue. Design/methodology/approach – The financial ratios were measured from 2004 to 2011, quarterly. A multiple regression model has been used and secondary data has been analyzed. Findings – The results shows that CR, QR, DR and NPM have a positive relationship while DTER and OPM have a negative relationship with the c...

Exploring customer attachment behaviour to sustain the retail industry in Malaysia

Purpose – The effectiveness of customer experience management to current market growth and perhaps business sustainability has drawn the attention of practitioners and academicians. This paper aims to address the gap by empirically investigating the effect of service encounter, trustworthy promotion and customer attachment behaviour with the moderating influence of customer emotional experience and commitment. Design/methodology/approach – The study has used a survey approach with a self-administered questionnaire distributed in a retail store intercept: a drop off and collect technique. A hypothesized model was developed, analyzed and tested rigorously using the structural equation modelling procedure. Findings – The findings reveal that customer emotional experience has positive significant effects on customer attachment behaviour, but not commitment. However, consumers in general will look for the trustworthiness of promotional activities when purchasing both local and international products. Originali...

Pollution as one of the determinants of income in Malaysia: Comparison between single and simultaneous equation estimators of an EKC

This study aims to examine the relationship between economic growth and different indicators of air and water pollution in Malaysia. Air pollution indicators were assessed on a number of measures: carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide (SO), nitrogen dioxide, ozone and particulate matter (PM) while water pollution indicators were evaluating on a number of measures: biochemical oxygen demand, cadmium and arsenic. The income level per capita gross domestic product per capita were measured from the year 1996 to 2006 quarterly. Being different from the study by Hung and Shaw (2004) and Shen (2006), this study estimates population density as an endogenous variable. It formulates a fourequation simultaneous model for empirical research. Testes for exogeneity with the Hausman test and estimates the simultaneity model using the two‐stages least squares method. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is supported in the cases of SO and PM, and there are several differences found between single polynomial equation estimators commonly used in EKC literatures and simultaneous equation estimators.

Modeling firm resources –enterprise risk management relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus, explore, and provide an in-depth analysis of the relationship between company resources and the process of enterprise risk management (ERM) in order to strengthen corporate structures against emerging uncertainties. Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes a strategic risk management framework for the development and sustainability of corporate performance by focussing on the dimension of firm resources extracted from the resources-based theory. This paper focussed on using Malaysia listed firms under Malaysian Bourse as sample frame using the random sampling technique whereby questionnaire were distributed among head of risk management department. Of the 600 questionnaires distributed, 223 were returned completed. Findings – The survey results indicate that intangible resources play a significant roles in resources – performance relationship while the other two main dimension that are tangible resources and capabilities have shown contradictory re...

Sense of Community Among Malay Customers: Evidence from Western Food Outlets in Malaysia Using Structural Equation Modelling Approach (SEM)

Malay customers are becoming western food lovers nowadays. Malay consumers contribute to the nation’s economy; thus, the survival of the food industry and its longevity prompted the current investigation. The central issue of this research is to unravel empirically the effects of antecedents on customer’s experience and subsequently examined its effect on their sense of community. Creating customer experience that is synonymous with a particular brand is becoming increasingly recognized as a vital driver of sense of community. This paper aims to address the gaps by empirically investigating the impact of customer’s experience on sense of community. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed through store intercept at selected western food restaurants such as Starbucks, Kenny Rogers and Nando’s. Two hundred fifty useable data from Malay consumers were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure. Several interesting findings are confirmed: (1) service quality is not a significant predictor of customer’s experience; (2) customer’s experience has a positive effect on sense of community. These findings have important implications for consumer behaviour literature and retail industry.