Mamunur Rashid

A model of customer-centric banking practices for corporate clients in Bangladesh

Purpose – Customer-centric banking envisions that banks should meet both tangible and intangible satisfaction criteria of their customers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the customer-centric banking practices that drive satisfaction of corporate customers in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – Financial managers from a sample of 112 non-financial listed companies were interviewed. The study employed a structured questionnaire using Likert scales. Exploratory factor analysis followed by multiple regression analysis were used to test the effects of both tangible and intangible factors. Findings – The findings of the study indicate that customer-centric banking is primarily influenced by intangible factors. Among six bank selection criteria analyzed in this study, corporate image, commitment, compassion and consistency are the four significant intangible factors that drive corporate customer satisfaction. The two tangible factors: cost-benefit and convenience were not significant determina...

Political stability and FDI in the most competitive Asia Pacific countries

Purpose - Competitiveness is vital to attracting FDI into a country, which has led us to investigate the determinants of FDI in the top 15 most competitive countries in the Asia Pacific region. Design/methodology/approach - We have analysed political stability alongside other commonly studied determinants of FDI. We have employed a panel data fixed-effect model on a 14-year sample data (2000-2013) involving the top 15 most competitive Asia Pacific countries. The Global Competitiveness Index was taken as the yardstick to identify these countries. We have used fixed effect, GMM-system, and Panel ARDL tests for robust results. Findings - The GDP, trade openness and political stability positively influenced FDI inflows while inflation rate negatively impacted FDI inflows in the selected countries. Political stability was the most influential variable in the presence of other indicators. GDP, openness, and political stability exhibit significant long-run relationship with FDI inflows. Research limitations/implications - To increase FDI flows, regulators should focus on building the image of the country, and possibly the region, by ensuring stable economic and political environment, maintaining macroeconomic stability through bi- and multi-lateral arrangements with neighbouring countries. Originality/value - Regional relationships with neighbouring countries can be considered as the building blocks for attracting FDIs. These relationships can be strengthened based on liberal trade policies, openness in capital control, and cooperation in terms of political actions. One such recent issue in regional political cooperation include actions to reduce terrorism and corruption that help boost the confidence of the investors.

Reporting of zakat and charitable activities in Islamic banks: theory and practice in a multi- cultural setting

This study aims at understanding the theory and practice of the reporting of zakat and charitable activities in Islamic banks in selected countries, an average size of the zakat amount, and how the reporting of zakat and charitable activities stands against other ethical identity indicators. Existing theories of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the selected countries are discussed. The selected banks are a mixture of purely Islamic banks and banks offering dual banking services. The countries are Bangladesh and Malaysia. To understand the practices of zakat and charitable reporting, the study employs Weber’s appearance-based content analysis where a score of ‘1’ was assigned for the presence and ‘0’ for the absence of any zakat and charity activity. An average was calculated for each activity, year and country. zakat reporting is further divided into pre- and post-crisis periods where the year 2008 was considered as the cut-off year (2009 onward was the post-crisis period). The zakat and charitable activity reporting indices were analysed against other ethical identity indicators for the same pre- and post-crisis periods. The amount of zakat as a percentage of total asset and as a percentage of net profit after tax for the post-crisis period was determined in order to gain an understanding of the charitable contribution by Islamic banks.

The Last Alibi: Shari'ah Compliant Stocks on Momentum Profitability Assessment

Abstract Purpose Ever since the publication of the original Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) study, momentum effect has been tested vigorously to validate its pervasiveness for different time periods and across different markets. In spite of numerous out-of-sample tests, there is one apparent alibi – little research has been devised for steady increasing of Shari’ah compliant stocks. Methodology/approach This study is to examine the momentum strategy returns in a global Shari’ah compliant stock setting. Findings It finds strong presence of stock momentum returns for Pakistan and Malaysia. And the momentum returns are neither driven by industry momentum nor by the small size stocks. Though no momentum profits are found for the portfolios formed by global Shari’ah compliant stocks, this seems to be largely due to return reversal for the small size Shari’ah compliant stocks. Originality/value The strong presence of momentum profits for relatively large Shari’ah compliant stocks is a desirable trait as it indicates that the momentum trading strategies are practical and implementable.

Divergence of opinion and moderating effect of investors’ attentions in IPO market: Malaysian evidence

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between the theory underlying divergence of opinion (DOP) and a cognitive concept termed as attention by specifically focussing on the volume and price behaviour in initial public offering (IPO) settings. Design/methodology/approach Employing the hierarchical regression for a sample of 282 Malaysian fixed price IPOs issued from 2004 to 2014, this research investigated the effect of investors’ attention on other information that complements the information revealed by initial return on DOP. Measure of market adjusted turnover (AbTO) from non-IPO setting was used to capture the DOP in the after-market, while investors’ attention was on a dichotomise scale variable which was captured by the increase/decrease of the Google search index (GOGC2) on the month of listing compared to a month prior to listing. Findings The findings indicate that attention moderates the relationship between initial return (also surrogates underpriced IPOs) and DOP. The findings suggest that disagreement to initial returns is reduced, while liquidity in the after-market is promoted, when investors pay more attention to other information that complements price change. The findings also indicate that behavioural tendency is less when individual participation is weak. Research limitations/implications This paper highlights the importance of interaction effects in explaining the behavioural tendency in the after-market. Practical implications The weak individual investors’ participation and greater attention reduce the market inefficiency in Malaysia. Originality/value The finding is consistent with the view that the level of individual investors’ participation and information disclosure requirements has an implication on behavioural bias, which affects DOP in the after-market.

Economy-wide Impact of Tourism in Malaysia: An Input–output Analysis

Because previous empirical research offers inconclusive evidence of the induced impact of tourism expenditure in Malaysia, this study utilizes a closed input–output model to analyze the total economy-wide impact of international tourist expenditure in Malaysia. The results reveal that international tourist expenditure has both a direct primary impact on tourism-related sectors and a significant secondary impact on other sectors of the economy. The findings of this study suggest that minimizing multiplier variation by adding value to tourism products and curbing import dependency increases the significance of the multipliers and impacts that are generated by international tourist expenditure. The results of this study also indicate that both the primary and secondary economy-wide impacts of tourism should be considered on the basis of many multipliers across various sectors, which is largely absent in the extant literature on the Malaysian tourism industry.