Mohamed Albaity

A review of the critical factors affecting Islamic market mechanisms in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the critical factors that influence Muslim consumers’ motivation towards the Islamic market mechanism. Design/methodology/approach – The paper also attempts to formulate Ibnomer Mohamed Sharfudddin’s “Islamic Administrative theory and Klaus Hurrelmann’s socialization theory” based on the “productive processing of reality (PPR)” model. The data were collected by distributing a self-administered questionnaire to a sample of 147 participants residing in the major cities in Peninsular Malaysia. The constructs and items used in the questionnaire were derived from the basic guidelines provided in the literature review and Al-Qur’an and Sunnah (Prophet’s deeds) on the conduct of Malaysian business practices. Findings – The results suggest that while awareness of the Islamic market mechanisms exists amongst businesses, in practice, not many obey such rules. However, a significant relationship does exist between the Muslim consumer motivational factors and Islamic ...

Determinants of employees’ innovative behavior

This study aims to examine the impact of workplace happiness, coworker support and job stress on employee innovative behavior. The mediating effects of coworker support and job stress are also explored.,The study uses survey data from 328 employees from different departments in four- and five-star hotels in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based on an extensive literature review, five main hypotheses were formulated and explored. These were tested through multiple regression analysis using the SPSS Process Macro plugin.,Workplace happiness is the most significant determinant of employees’ innovative behavior, while coworker support plays a significant mediating role. Contrary to the study hypothesis and assumption, job stress alone is not a significant mediator; it only plays a mediating role when combined with coworker support.,The sample is from a single sector (hotels) in a single country. Future research would benefit from examining the above relationships in other sectors (such as health and education) in the UAE. It could also explore the validity of these relationships in the tourism/hotels sector of other countries in the Middle East and Gulf regions.,Few studies have attempted to investigate factors that may promote or impede innovative behavior among employees in the hotels sector, particularly in the UAE. The data, model and findings of this study address this gap and add to the current state of knowledge.

Impact of Open-Market Share Repurchases on Long-Term Stock Returns

After the Asian financial crisis in 1997, firms listed on Bursa Malaysia were allowed to repurchase their shares on the open market. The number of companies engaged in share buyback is increasing and has become a tool to stabilize price by signaling undervaluation of the share. However, studies on share buyback in Malaysia are limited to the price performance surrounding the buyback events. This study aims to fill this gap by examining long-run price performance after the actual share buyback event over a sampling period of 2 years from 2009 to 2010 for Malaysian firms listed on FTSE Bursa Malaysia. There is no evidence to conclude that there exist long-term abnormal returns using the calendar-time portfolio approach that support the inefficient market hypothesis. On the contrary, buy-and-hold method was found to be significant supporting that the Malaysian stock market is semi-strong efficient.

Determinants of debt across sectors: Evidence from Chinese a-share listed firms

Almost all studies carried out so far in China regarding debt examinations do not recognize difference among business sectors. China completed the second split share structure reform of listed firms by the end of 2007, which converted 97% non-tradable shares into tradable shares. However, there has been no study conducted to analyze whether determinants of debt have changed since the reform. Therefore, this study aims to find determinants of debt of listed firms in China by analyzing data after the completion of reform across sectors. Data sample used in this study includes all A-share listed firms in China from 2008 to 2012. After deleting missing values, there are in total 547 firms with 2,735 observations, which are taken as the initial full data sample. The method employed by the study is a panel data model, because it has the advantage of taking both cross-section and time series into consideration. In addition, a Hausman test is employed to identify whether a model with fixed effects or random effects should be used for analysis. The main findings are: (1) Total debt is mainly dominated by short-term debt, while long-term debt is lowly financed. During 2008 - 2012, total debt as well as long-term debts increase, but short-term debt decreases; (2) Determinants have different effects on long-term and short-term debts; (3) The effects of determinants are different across different sectors, indicating that specific sectorial factors are at work; (4) The debt decision tends to follow the static trade-off theory with consideration for effects of non-debt tax shield and profits. In general, both long-term and short-term debts are affected positively by profits at different levels. Firm size is the most important determinant and is positively related to long-term debt, while non-debt tax shield contributes negatively to short-term debt. This paper presents an in-depth understanding of debt decision in listed firms in China using a joint model to test the interaction between employee productivity and debt. It, therefore, provides a new perspective on investigations of debt decisions of firms across sectors.