Siti Khadijah Ab. Manan

Risk Management of Islamic Microfinance (IMF) Product by Financial Institutions in Malaysia

Abstract Maintaining microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) sustainability is extremely significant owing to the fact that it aims at alleviating poverty and improving the living standard of the poor at the same time. Hence, a sustainable Micro Finance Institution (MFI) is necessary in order to achieve the objective thereby realizing a just economic growth. Nevertheless, there are issues and challenges being faced by the institutions that could give impact towards their sustainability. Among others are moral hazards and adverse selection problems among participants that would ultimately give potential risks to the institutions. Hence, maintaining its sustainability by way of risk management is significant in ensuring financial inclusion of the poor and materializing the objective of poverty alleviation. This quantitative study was conducted to examine the practice of risk management in the specific context of Islamic microfinance (IMF) product offered by several Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia. Primary data were collected through the distribution of questionnaires to the selected officers of the bank. Findings of the study indicated that the institutions had taken the necessary steps in managing the risks.

Welfare Survival Index of Working Spouse: Income Sharing Dimension

Working wives’ phenomenon has become a norm in Muslim families in Malaysia where wives work to assist their husbands financially. It is purportedly aimed to ease the financial burden of the family. However, working wife may affect the family in managing the household chores, educating the children and taking care of them. The children might be somewhat neglected while the household chores might be out of control. In fact, there were also cases where financially independent working wives resulted in the husband being negligent in spending for the family needs, causing the wives to take care of almost all of the expenses of the household. This has led to many cases of marital problem. Hence, this study aims to examine the existing literatures on the welfare survival index of families where both husband and wife are working. There are several dimensions of survival index such as the income and spending aspects of working spouses, time spent with family, conflicts encountered, health of family members and balance of savings at month end. This study only focused on the income and spending aspects of working spouses. The study adopts qualitative method through library research. Finding of the study implied that sharing of income by the wives would contribute to the sutainability and happiness of a marriage. This study is expected to add to the new frontier of knowledge in understanding the importance of income sharing between working husband and wife including the challenges they might encounter.

Toward Implementing Islamic Values in Governmental Reforms: A Malaysian Experience

The lack of values in management has been resulted in discouragement, misuse of power, disunity, selfishness, and other negative repercussions. This can be proven by the collapse of large profitable companies, such as Enron and WorldCom, which have been known, caused by ethical issues. Therefore, organizations need to nurture and maintain good values. Management from the Islamic perspective has highlighted abundance of values underpinned by the Quran and Prophetic traditions. Since the 1980s, Malaysian government has consistently exhibited a tendency to internalize Islamic values in its administration policies. The country also established several Islamic standards in relation to management system which largely emphasize on Islamic values. This article reflects on Malaysian effort in internalizing Islamic values. Subsequently, this article discusses the apparent trend, including several common supporting factors. Finally, this article concludes with prospects for further research.

Shariah Compliance in Fair Distribution of Matrimonial Asset

The divorced spouse often face obstacle in distribution of matrimonial asset especially in determining a fair portion of share of the asset. The problems in managing the dispute of dividing the asset caused delay and prolonged litigation process. Thus, to safeguard the interest of the parties in the marriage, Malaysian family law for Muslim regulates the right for the divorced wife to apply for division of matrimonial assets where it regulates criteria in division of the assets. Thus, the study is undertaken to investigate the effective law in dividing the assets through court practices. For that purpose, a case study was designed by using a qualitative method where analysis was conducted on a careful selected sampling of 215 unreported cases within the time frame of 2000–2012 collected from six zones representing Shariah Courts in Malaysia where analysis is made based on several variables such as mode of division, scope of matrimonial asset, elements of consideration, and proportion of share. Based on that sampling, it has been discovered that contribution remains as a sole criteria used by the court to ascertain the proportion of share to parties. Thus, this study suggests that the court should use more generalized considerations in determining the proportion when dealing with the division of matrimonial assets after divorce to prevent a costly and lengthy litigation process and to ensure fair distribution is conducted by the court. There is a need for a reform of provision to consider other factors too other than contribution as sole determinant in division.

Illustrating the Development of Quality Management Instrumentation: A Systematic Literature Review

Quality management (QM) of an organization is essential to develop customer loyalty hence organizational sustainability. Studies after studies have been conducted to come up with an enhanced and a more comprehensive instrument to measure the QM. Replicated studies have been done in many different localities and setting to improve the generalizability of a particular instrument. Nevertheless, a more comprehensive and universal instrument is yet to be found. Employing a systematic literature review (SLR) protocol, this paper summarizes several selected instruments. Selection is made based on predetermined criteria, in order to allow a focused analysis. Subsequently, this article illustrates the trend in studies which develop and validate instruments. A table of frequency analysis is also presented which explains the popular dimensions. Finally, this article concludes with opportunities for future research.

Empirical analysis on the relationship between debt level and SMEs profitability

The present study examines the relationship between debt level and profitability of SMEs, taking into consideration major characteristics of the enterprises such as size and age. A total of 184 Malaysian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) registered under Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) were examined. The study employed regression method to estimate the impact of debt level on profitability (measured by Return on Asset or ROA). The empirical findings indicate that high debt level causes significant negative impact on ROA. The study suggests that the SMEs should give due consideration in optimizing their capital structure.