Sharifah Norhuda Syed Wahid

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.

Modelling of volunteer satisfaction and intention to remain in community service: A stepwise approach

The purpose of this study is to obtain the most significant model of volunteer satisfaction and intention to remain in community service by using a stepwise approach. Currently, Malaysians, young and old are showing more interests in involving themselves in community service projects, either locally or internationally. This positive movement of serving the needy is somehow being halted by the lack of human and financial resources. Therefore, the trend today sees organizers of such projects depend heavily on voluntary supports as they enable project managers to add and to expand the quantity and diversity of services offered without exhausting the minimal budget available. Volunteers are considered a valuable commodity as the available pool of volunteers may be declining due to various reasons which include the volunteer satisfaction. In tandem with the existing situation, a selected sample of 215 diploma students from one of the public universities in Malaysia, who have been involved in at least one commu...

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.

Malaysian Life Expectancy by Gender and Ethnic Group: A Comparative Study

The purpose of this study is to describe the Malaysian life expectancy at birth from year 1991 to 2015 by different sex and ethnic groups. Malaysia’s population shows that the life expectancy for male increased from 69.2 to 72.5 years and female also increased from 73.4 to 77.4 years within the time duration. In addition, the study found that the female life expectancy is longer than male by almost 5 years in 2015. The trend of the life expectancy for three major ethnic group in Malaysia, Malay, Chinese and Indian shows that the Chinese ethnic have longer life expectancy compared to the other two ethnics whereby Chinese females were estimated to have longer life expectancy. This comparative study may help other researcher to find out the factors that influenced Chinese females to have longer life expectancy.

Structural equation modeling for identifying factors affecting health-related quality of life among school children in Klang, Selangor

The study of Quality of Life (QoL) issues can ultimately help people especially for primary school children to live more meaningful and enjoyable lives. It will also help parents to better understand a child’s life experiences, in the context of the child’s whole life. Development of appropriate counseling and educational programs by policy makers can be designed to minimize the potential harmful impact of physical, emotional, social and school functioning and its management on QoL among children. Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among children 8 to 11 years old might be helpful for parents to take preventive action early in the children’s life and development whereby HRQoL is a multi-dimensional concept that includes domains related to physical, mental, emotional and social functioning. Therefore, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is usedin this study to determine factors affecting HRQoL among school children in Klang, Selangor. Primary data wereemployed in this study and 204 school children responded to the PedsQL 4.0 Generic Scale Score questionnaire. SEM analysis indicated that the measurement model was valid, reliable and achieved an acceptable level of goodness-of-fit.The study indicated that school functioning contributed most to Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) followed by social functioning, physical functioning and emotion functioning.The findings of the study suggested that schools management should monitor continuously children activities and develop school-based programs to get better HRQoL score.The study of Quality of Life (QoL) issues can ultimately help people especially for primary school children to live more meaningful and enjoyable lives. It will also help parents to better understand a child’s life experiences, in the context of the child’s whole life. Development of appropriate counseling and educational programs by policy makers can be designed to minimize the potential harmful impact of physical, emotional, social and school functioning and its management on QoL among children. Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among children 8 to 11 years old might be helpful for parents to take preventive action early in the children’s life and development whereby HRQoL is a multi-dimensional concept that includes domains related to physical, mental, emotional and social functioning. Therefore, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is usedin this study to determine factors affecting HRQoL among school children in Klang, Selangor. Primary data wereemployed in this study and 204 school chil...

Effect of mathematics anxiety on students’ performance in higher education level: A comparative study on gender

Mathematics has been viewed as a tough subject due to factors like anxiety and methods used for teaching. Anxiety itself has resulted to poor performance in Mathematics subject. The study seeks to ...

A structural equation modelling approach: Adoption of smartphone banking among working adults

Being a nation rapidly progressing to its final phase in becoming a developed nation in 2020, Malaysian businesses have been supporting the transition by providing better goods and services through the use of interoperability advanced communication and computing devices among consumers. The rapidly evolving atmosphere encourages the public to use smartphonesin almost every business transactionsthus, making it the leading device taking the front end and playing the role of universal mobile terminal. This study investigated the adoption of smartphone banking among working adultsbased on the elements of perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use and perceived credibility of the system. Primary data was employed in this study and 124 respondents responded to the questionnaires adapted from Technology Acceptance Model. Statistical Package for Social Science software and Structural Equation Modellingthrough Analysis of Moment Structure software were used to analyse respondents’ profile and to test the hypotheses of this study respectively. The findings indicated that the measurement of Technology Acceptance Model was valid, reliable and achieved an acceptable level of goodness-of-fit. The study revealed that there is no significant relationship between perceived usefulness and intention to use, thus adopting the smartphone banking system (β = .213, p-value > .05). In contrast, theelements ofperceived ease of use and perceived credibility have significant positive effects on intention to use smartphone banking among working adults (β = .340, p-value <.01; β = .465,p-value <.01). It was concluded that to increase the intention to adopt smartphone banking system, efforts should be undertaken bythe banks to provide sufficient channels of communication to pre-assist the consumers in using the system as well as to formulate reliable security and privacy strategies associated with smartphone banking.Being a nation rapidly progressing to its final phase in becoming a developed nation in 2020, Malaysian businesses have been supporting the transition by providing better goods and services through the use of interoperability advanced communication and computing devices among consumers. The rapidly evolving atmosphere encourages the public to use smartphonesin almost every business transactionsthus, making it the leading device taking the front end and playing the role of universal mobile terminal. This study investigated the adoption of smartphone banking among working adultsbased on the elements of perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use and perceived credibility of the system. Primary data was employed in this study and 124 respondents responded to the questionnaires adapted from Technology Acceptance Model. Statistical Package for Social Science software and Structural Equation Modellingthrough Analysis of Moment Structure software were used to analyse respondents’ profile and to test the hypothes...

Association between litterers’ profile and littering behavior: A chi-square approach

Littering is not a novelty, yet a prolonged issue. The solutions have been discussed for a long time; however this issue still remains unresolved. Littering is commonly associated with littering behavior and awareness. The littering behavior is normally influenced by the litter profile such as gender, family income, education level and age. Jengka Street market, which is located in Pahang, is popularly known as a trade market. It offers diversities of wet and dry goods and is awaited by local residents and tourists. This study analyzes association between litterers’ profile and littering behavior. Littering behavior is measured based on factors of trash bin facilities, awareness campaign and public littering behavior. 114 respondents were involved in this study with 62 (54.39%) are female aged more than 18 years old and majority of these female respondents are diploma holders. In addition, 78.95% of the respondents have family income below than RM3,000.00 per month. Based on the data analysis, it was foun...

Perceived Service Quality of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on Banks’ Lending and Loan Service Quality in Malacca

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia have been playing an important role in the development of Malaysian economy since the 1970s. They are now considered as the new engine for economic growth and development. In support to the government’s effort to help the SMEs, banks offer lending and loan facilities to finance the businesses. Being in the service industry, quality is considered as the key element to maintain a positive public image and customer loyalty. Setting customer service standards help to ensure that companies reach, and exceed, customers’ expectations. The main objective of the study is to assess the perceived service quality on banks’ lending and loan services among the 93 selected SMEs located in Malacca based on the service quality dimensions of SERVQUAL. The result of the study indicated that the overall service quality provided did not meet customers’ expectations even though a significant difference between perceptions and expectations for all dimensions does exist, except for the neat appearance of staff which did meet customers’ expectation. The reliability dimension was rated as the most important dimension that requires serious attention in meeting the customers’ expectation followed by responsiveness, empathy, assurance and tangibility. The findings are hoped to provide a direction for service quality improvement to the banks and the service industry in general. In addition, the findings of this study could also be used for future research in the subject of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Malaysia’s Ageing Population Trends

Population ageing has been on the policy agenda for over a decade, and it will become a more important policy issue in the future. Malaysia has completed its demographic transition in less than four decades. Declining in fertility and mortality rates has led to an improvement in the life expectancy of the population which has resulted an ageing population in Malaysia. The age distribution of Malaysia’s population had changed dramatically from 1970 to 2010 where the percentage of the population aged less than 20 years old had decreased by 18.3 % from 55.6 % in 1970 to 37.3 % in 2010. On the other hand, the share of elderly population (age 60 years or over) had increased from 5.5 to 7.9 % for the same period. The proportion of elderly is projected to reach 16.3 % of the total population by the year 2040. Furthermore, the old age index of Malaysia’s population has grew from 11.7 in 1970 to 28.7 in 2010. Malaysia is expected to become an ageing nation by the year 2030 where the elderly population comprises 15 % of the total population. This paper analyses ageing population trends and its changes in Malaysia. In addition, the implication of ageing population to societies and nation is also being discussed.