Laily Paim

Environmental concerns, knowledge and practices gap among Malaysian teachers

Environmental problems are caused directly or indirectly by the patterns of production by industries, patterns of consumption and behavior of the consumers. The shaping of attitude and values, commitment and skills needed to preserve and protect the environment begins at an early age. Hence educators play an influential role in developing new patterns of behaviors for individuals. Accordingly, aims to determine the level of knowledge, environmental concern and ecologically conscious consumer behavior and identify the extent of involvement in nature‐related activities of school teachers. Also investigates the relationships between these variables. The subjects were 285 school teachers who were randomly selected from ten regular government schools in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. A survey was conducted using drop and collect method. The data illustrated the presence of high level of environmental concern among the teachers. The environmental knowledge was fair but generally poor in understanding of the underlying causes of environmental problems. The practices of environmentally responsible behavior were not in concert with the level of concern and knowledge. The respondents were not actively involved in nature‐related activities. Proposes ways of enhancing the ecological awareness and responsibilities of the teachers.

A typology of personal factor attributes among shoppers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to derive a comprehensive model with integrated dimensions of trait constructs to understand the shoppers’ dispositional traits in consumption. This study endeavors to gain empirical validation of a motivational network of shoppers’ traits in consumption as well as to ascertain different shoppers’ typology from the configurations of personal factor attributes. Design/methodology/approach – Store-intercept method was used to collect data from a sample of 600 apparel adult shoppers at five shopping malls in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The factor structure of personal factors was achieved using confirmatory factory analysis. The hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analysis was employed to develop the shoppers’ typology. Findings – A relatively good fit in confirmatory factor analysis validates the applicability of the conceptualized personal factor attributes measurement model. The constitution of personal factor attributes results in three shoppers typology of Confid...

Experiencing financial problems among university students

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between financial attitude, financial socialization, and secondary socialization agents on experiencing financial problems among university students.Design/methodology/approach – The sample for the present paper comprises data collected from 11 universities across Malaysia using the stratified sampling method. A multi‐group analysis approach using Amos was applied to assess the moderating effect of gender.Findings – The findings indicated that gender significantly moderates the effect of financial attitude, financial socialization and secondary socialization agents on financial problems among students.Research limitations/implications – There are few empirical studies on the moderating effect of gender on financial matters, and this research is one of the first that contribute to a better understanding of the gender influence on financial matters, particularly for family economics and gender educators.Ori...

Food Variety and Dietary Diversity Scores to Understand the Food-Intake Pattern among Selected Malaysian Households

Food variety scores (FVS) and dietary diversity scores (DDS) were estimated based on foods consumed weekly by 285 Malaysian households using a food frequency questionnaire. The scoring system of FVS and DDS was based on a scale of 0–7 and 0–6 respectively. The mean household FVS and DDS was 164.1 ± 93 and 6 ± 0.4. The age of respondents (husbands or wives; p < .01), sex (p < .05), and household food expenditure (p < .01) had a significant influence on both FVS and DDS. The food-intake pattern of Malaysian households showed that their typical diets had high protein and energy-based foods.

Students’ online purchasing behavior in Malaysia: Understanding online shopping attitude

Abstract Studies examining the factors that affect the online purchasing behavior of consumers are rare, despite the prospective advance of e-commerce in Malaysia. The present study examines particular factors that influence the attitude of potential consumers to purchase online by using the attributes from the diffusion of innovations theory of Rogers, the attribute of perception of risk, and the subjective norms toward online purchasing. Consumers’ perceived risks of online shopping have become a vital subject in research because they directly influence users’ attitude toward online purchasing. The structural equation modeling method was used to analyze the data gathered on students using e-commerce, and, thus, to validate the model. According to the results, consumers’ attitude toward online purchasing affects the intention toward online purchasing. The other influential factors are compatibility, relative advantage, and subjective norm.

The moderating effect of culture on the construct factor of perceived risk towards online shopping behaviour

Abstract Recently, advances in Internet communication have changed the performance of business and interactions between producers and consumers. Various endeavours have been made by Malaysian Government to equip the society with electronic gadgets to facilitate Internet commerce or e-marketing. Paying attention to the factors affecting online shopping attitude is of paramount importance for marketers to develop their marketing strategies and improve sales. This research examines the factors affecting students’ online shopping attitude in universities around Klang Valley area in Malaysia. The study has shown that collectivism/individualism to be at individual level. Past research revealed that the most widely utilized approach in cultural consumer behaviour seems to be the individualism/collectivism. This study examines the moderating effect of collectivism/individualism as a dimension of culture on the relationship between attitude and other factors such as; perceived risk, privacy, security and subjective norms. These results revealed that significant moderation effects with regards to the association of subjective norm and attitude, perceived risk and other factor were significantly correlated with the attitude towards online shopping while perceived risk was observed to be negatively significant on attitude. Accordingly, the findings of the study suggested that online retailers are required to consider the online shopping to enhance their success in retailing business via Internet.

Consumption Model of Financial Products among Minangkabau & Chinese in Bank Nagari, Sumatra

The purpose of the present study are first to analyze the differences in customer product preferences between Minangkabau and Chinese customers of Bank Nagari. Second, to determine factors affecting the use of Bank Nagari products among Minangkabau and Chinese customers. Third, to determine the Minangkabau and Chinese consumption models. The sample size amount 216 customers consisted of Minangkabau would amount to 162 persons and Chinese would amount to 54 persons. Systematic sampling is applied in this study as it often yields sampling error which is smaller. Data analysis technique is use consisted of factor analysis, cluster analysis, and logistic regression. Results of this study indicate the characteristics of Minangkabau customers are divided to three which are sociable (60%), supportable (30%) and friendly (10%). Similarly, there are also three types of Chinese customers namely supportable (60%), sociable (23%) and friendly (17%). The Minangkabau customers can be concluded as having social characteristics that seek for sympathy and reassurance, dependable. excited, institutes values of fun and enjoyment in life as well as warm relationships with others. These social signal are influenced by cultural values, which have been cultivated in the Minangkabau society. Conversely, Chinese customers assist and coalesce with one another to reach a common target. Such nature observed among the Chinese customers are not found in the Minangkabau customers. The result of logistics regression test for credit and saving products show partial significance at probability level of .050 and result of Hosmer and Lemershow Goodnes-of-Fit test show total significance at .050. Test result of ANOVA indicates that there is ethnic difference in the consumption of financial products. Thus, from the ethnic graph plot there are differences of the consumption pattern of credit and saving products. This means that Minangkabau customer have been using bank products optimally. On the contraly the plot graph of the ethnic Chinese usage of product is very strange. This means that Chinese customers only use credit products to support business activities. Cultural factor, saving and credit perception very much determine the consumption of ethnic Minangkabau and Chinese. The result of factor analysis indicates that there are three dimensions of saving products and three dimensions of credit products. The dimensions for saving products are labelled SSERVQUAL- I (certain time, sympathy and reassurance, dependability, saving service, accurate records, prompt service, willingness to help consumers, prompt response to consumer request, trusted employees, and safe feeling), 4 SSERVQUAL-2 (politeness, best interest at heart. convenient hours, up-to-date equipment and technology, visual appeal, well dressed and neat appearance and service type), and SSERVQUAL-3 (consumer information, adequate support, individual attention, personal attention and consumer needs). Whereas, the dimensions of credit products are labelled CSERVQUAL-I (certain time, sympathy and reassurance, dependability, credit senlice. accurate records, prompt service, willinpess to help consumers, prompt response to consumer request, trusted employees, safe feeling, and politeness). CSERVQUAL-2 (best interest at heart, convenient hours, up-to-date equipment and technology, visual appeal, well dressed and neat appearance and service type), and CSERVQUAL-3 (consumer information. adequate support, individual attention, personal attention and consumer needs). The findings of the study can be used by Regional Development Banks, Bankers and financial customers. It hopes to facilitate Regional Development Bank, in attaining optimal profit. Bankers would be able to offer optimal service to its customer. This will encourage customers to use banking products and services and provide alternatives to customers in the use of banking services. The study could also be used in identifying and developing relevant policies in helping the traders (especially small traders) managing credit and savings.