• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.53-67
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• 2022

The study's goal is to look at the factors that influence people's willingness to whistleblow in the Malaysian public sector by applying two elements from the Moral Intensity Theory: the magnitude of consequences and societal consensus with professional commitment as an additional variable. The cross-sectional study used primary data collection through questionnaires adopted from previous studies. The survey questionnaires were distributed to target respondents from 27 ministries in Malaysian public sectors selected based on their grade positions in the departments ranging from Grade 29 and above. The findings revealed that societal consensus and professional commitments significantly impact the intention to whistleblow. The findings imply that closed people's opinions may have certain persuasive elements that influence the act of whistleblowing as a moral and ethical activity, thereby increasing their whistleblowing intention. The results also suggest that when individuals are more committed to their career and organization, they will act ethically and under the professional norm, hence, they will be inclined to whistleblow. On the other hand, the magnitude of consequences suggested an insignificant relationship with the intention to whistleblow. The results could facilitate the government in curbing the whistleblowing issue by defining its root before the implementation of necessary policies.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2022

Pyroprocessing is a promising technology for managing spent nuclear fuel. The nuclear material accounting of feed material is a challenging issue in safeguarding pyroprocessing facilities. The input material in pyroprocessing is in a solid-state, unlike the solution state in an input accountability tank used in conventional wet-type reprocessing. To reduce the uncertainty of the input material accounting, a double-stage homogenization process is proposed in considering the process throughput, remote controllability, and remote maintenance of an engineering-scale pyroprocessing facility. This study tests two types of mixing equipment in the proposed double-stage homogenization process using surrogate materials. The expected heterogeneity and accounting uncertainty of Pu are calculated based on the surrogate test results. The heterogeneity of Pu was 0.584% obtained from Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) spent fuel of 59 WGd/tU when the relative standard deviation of the mass ratio, tested from the surrogate powder, is 1%. The uncertainty of the Pu accounting can be lower than 1% when the uncertainty of the spent fuel mass charged into the first mixers is 2%, and the uncertainty of the first sampling mass is 5%.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.239-250
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• 2022

This study examined the level of capital structure and its determinants of publicly traded companies in Malaysia before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The data for this study was examined using Python Programming Language and time-series financial data from 2,784 quarterly observations in 2019 and 2020. The maximum debt is larger before the COVID-19 period, according to the findings. During the COVID-19 period, short-term debts and total debts have both decreased slightly. However, long-term debts have increased marginally. As a result, this research demonstrates that the capital structure has changed slightly during the COVID-19 period. The findings imply that independent of the capital structure proxies, tangibility, liquidity, and business size had an impact on capital structure in both periods. It was found that profitability had a significant impact on total debts both before and after the COVID-19 crisis. While higher-profit enterprises appear to have lesser short-term debts before the COVID-19 periods, they are also more likely to have lower long-term debts during the COVID-19 periods. Even though growing companies tend to have higher short-term debts and thus total debts during those periods, longterm debts are unaffected by potential growth.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.25-36
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• 2023

Purpose: Brand community in higher education institutions comes up as an important topic to be discussed because the relationships among consumers can support the institutional brand and ultimately give meaning and vitality to the market-oriented strategy. This study aims to investigate how the literature on brand community in higher education have been distributed in research trends, theoretical frameworks, and methods. Research design, data and methodology: A total of 24 articles were organized from four reputable international databases. Content analysis were performed followed by synthesis toward potential directions and suggestions. Results: The researches in this area have increasingly focused on online interaction. Social identity theory and relationship theory were the two most prevalent theories used. Since the internet provides any social relationship with a specific relationship to form the brand community, its contextualization in higher education resulted in new concept implementation. Conclusions: The relationship within online participati on has impacted the market-oriented strategy of higher education in searching for ways toward a long-term and enduring bond among students, alumni, institutions and brands. As there is a plenteous prospect of data availability combined with big data analysis technology, the online participation will pique the interest of scholars to conduct further research on it.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.201-208
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• 2023

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic poses disastrous effects on human lives and hinders global efforts to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The study examined the effects of the pandemic on unemployment toward realizing the SDGs. The downsizing and collapse of businesses have forcibly left many unfortunate Malaysians jobless and without income. The situation may directly influence government efforts to achieve SDG 8 'Decent work and economic growth', which indirectly affects SDG 1 'No poverty', SDG 2 'Zero hunger', and SDG 3 'Good health and well-being'. Pre-and post-pandemic assessments on unemployment and retrenchment level by sector were performed by adopting observation and data comparison methods. Critical findings revealed that the unemployment rate has risen among males and females and the youth, as well as the number of retrenchments. The services sector, specifically the wholesale, retail, trade, and hotel industry showed the highest number of retrenchments. Some important unemployment issues were also covered in this study, including the demand for employment, the role of government and business, and the effect of the gig economy on the current employment landscape. The avenue for future studies can focus on additional societal effects that could prevent the country from attaining the SDGs by 2030.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2023

The banking industry regulators have imposed on commercial banks to maintain a certain level of liquidity to ensure that they can meet their obligations to the depositors and third parties. This study examines the factors influencing liquidity creation among commercial banks in Uzbekistan. Specifically, this study examines three internal factors namely, risk assets, deposits, and inter-bank loans on the creation of liquidity in commercial banks of Uzbekistan. This study uses content analysis on financial reports of 33 commercial banks in Uzbekistan over 21 years. This study shows all the factors chosen in this study significantly influence liquidity creation among the commercial banks in Uzbekistan. While deposits and inter-bank loans significantly and positively influence liquidity creation, this study shows that risk assets significantly and negatively influence liquidity creation. Further analysis shows that these three factors contribute to a 92.4% variance in liquidity creation among commercial banks in Uzbekistan. The findings of this study provide valuable insights to the stakeholders in the banking industry on the factors influencing liquidity creation in banks. In addition, this study adds to the existing literature by providing insight into the internal factors' role in influencing liquidity creation in the context of an emerging economy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 1993.06a
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• pp.1051-1054
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• 1993

The International Atomic Energy Agency's Statute in Article III.A.5 allows it“to establish and administer safeguards designed to ensure that special fissionable and other materials, services, equipment, facilities and information made available by the Agency or at its request or under its supervision or control are not used in such a way as to further any military purpose; and to apply safeguards, at the request of the parties, to any bilateral or multilateral arrangement, or at the request of a State, to any of that State's activities in the field of atomic energy”. Safeguards are essentially a technical means of verifying the fulfilment of political obligations undertaken by States and given a legal force in international agreements relating to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The main political objectives are: to assure the international community that States are complying with their non-proliferation and other peaceful undertakings; and to deter (a) the diversion of afeguarded nuclear materials to the production of nuclear explosives or for military purposes and (b) the misuse of safeguarded facilities with the aim of producing unsafeguarded nuclear material. It is clear that no international safeguards system can physically prevent diversion. The IAEA safeguards system is basically a verification measure designed to provide assurance in those cases in which diversion has not occurred. Verification is accomplished by two basic means: material accountancy and containment and surveillance measures. Nuclear material accountancy is the fundamental IAEA safeguards mechanism, while containment and surveillance serve as important complementary measures. Material accountancy refers to a collection of measurements and other determinations which enable the State and the Agency to maintain a current picture of the location and movement of nuclear material into and out of material balance areas, i. e. areas where all material entering or leaving is measurab e. A containment measure is one that is designed by taking advantage of structural characteristics, such as containers, tanks or pipes, etc. To establish the physical integrity of an area or item by preventing the undetected movement of nuclear material or equipment. Such measures involve the application of tamper-indicating or surveillance devices. Surveillance refers to both human and instrumental observation aimed at indicating the movement of nuclear material. The verification process consists of three over-lapping elements: (a) Provision by the State of information such as - design information describing nuclear installations; - accounting reports listing nuclear material inventories, receipts and shipments; - documents amplifying and clarifying reports, as applicable; - notification of international transfers of nuclear material. (b) Collection by the IAEA of information through inspection activities such as - verification of design information - examination of records and repo ts - measurement of nuclear material - examination of containment and surveillance measures - follow-up activities in case of unusual findings. (c) Evaluation of the information provided by the State and of that collected by inspectors to determine the completeness, accuracy and validity of the information provided by the State and to resolve any anomalies and discrepancies. To design an effective verification system, one must identify possible ways and means by which nuclear material could be diverted from peaceful uses, including means to conceal such diversions. These theoretical ways and means, which have become known as diversion strategies, are used as one of the basic inputs for the development of safeguards procedures, equipment and instrumentation. For analysis of implementation strategy purposes, it is assumed that non-compliance cannot be excluded a priori and that consequently there is a low but non-zero probability that a diversion could be attempted in all safeguards ituations. An important element of diversion strategies is the identification of various possible diversion paths; the amount, type and location of nuclear material involved, the physical route and conversion of the material that may take place, rate of removal and concealment methods, as appropriate. With regard to the physical route and conversion of nuclear material the following main categories may be considered: - unreported removal of nuclear material from an installation or during transit - unreported introduction of nuclear material into an installation - unreported transfer of nuclear material from one material balance area to another - unreported production of nuclear material, e. g. enrichment of uranium or production of plutonium - undeclared uses of the material within the installation. With respect to the amount of nuclear material that might be diverted in a given time (the diversion rate), the continuum between the following two limiting cases is cons dered: - one significant quantity or more in a short time, often known as abrupt diversion; and - one significant quantity or more per year, for example, by accumulation of smaller amounts each time to add up to a significant quantity over a period of one year, often called protracted diversion. Concealment methods may include: - restriction of access of inspectors - falsification of records, reports and other material balance areas - replacement of nuclear material, e. g. use of dummy objects - falsification of measurements or of their evaluation - interference with IAEA installed equipment.As a result of diversion and its concealment or other actions, anomalies will occur. All reasonable diversion routes, scenarios/strategies and concealment methods have to be taken into account in designing safeguards implementation strategies so as to provide sufficient opportunities for the IAEA to observe such anomalies. The safeguards approach for each facility will make a different use of these procedures, equipment and instrumentation according to the various diversion strategies which could be applicable to that facility and according to the detection and inspection goals which are applied. Postulated pathways sets of scenarios comprise those elements of diversion strategies which might be carried out at a facility or across a State's fuel cycle with declared or undeclared activities. All such factors, however, contain a degree of fuzziness that need a human judgment to make the ultimate conclusion that all material is being used for peaceful purposes. Safeguards has been traditionally based on verification of declared material and facilities using material accountancy as a fundamental measure. The strength of material accountancy is based on the fact that it allows to detect any diversion independent of the diversion route taken. Material accountancy detects a diversion after it actually happened and thus is powerless to physically prevent it and can only deter by the risk of early detection any contemplation by State authorities to carry out a diversion. Recently the IAEA has been faced with new challenges. To deal with these, various measures are being reconsidered to strengthen the safeguards system such as enhanced assessment of the completeness of the State's initial declaration of nuclear material and installations under its jurisdiction enhanced monitoring and analysis of open information and analysis of open information that may indicate inconsistencies with the State's safeguards obligations. Precise information vital for such enhanced assessments and analyses is normally not available or, if available, difficult and expensive collection of information would be necessary. Above all, realistic appraisal of truth needs sound human judgment.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.191-197
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• 2017

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has developed a safeguards technology for pyroprocessing based on the Safeguards-By-Design (SBD) concept. KAERI took part in a Member-State Support Program (MSSP) to establish a pyroprocessing safeguards approach. A Reference Engineering-scale Pyroprocessing Facility (REPF) concept was designed on which KAERI developed its safeguards system. Recently the REPF is being upgraded to the REPF+, a scaled-up facility. For assessment of the nuclear-material accountancy (NMA) system, KAERI has developed a simulation program named Pyroprocessing Material Flow and MUF Uncertainty Simulation (PYMUS). The PYMUS is currently being upgraded to include a Near-Real-Time Accountancy (NRTA) statistical analysis function. The Advanced Spent Fuel Conditioning Process Safeguards Neutron Counter (ASNC) has been updated as Non-Destructive Assay (NDA) equipment for input-material accountancy, and a Hybrid Induced-fission-based Pu-Accounting Instrument (HIPAI) has been developed for the NMA of uranium/transuranic (U/TRU) ingots. Currently, performance testing of Compton-suppressed Gamma-ray measurement, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), and homogenization sampling are underway. These efforts will provide an essential basis for the realization of an advanced nuclear-fuel cycle in the ROK.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2017

Hand phones are standard paraphernalia among university students. Factors that motivate them to own the gadget would be of interest to both the students as well as marketers. Hand phone usage is an unexamined field in academic literature, this exploratory study attempts to investigate student purchasing motives in cellular phone markets. It also intends to know the student's satisfaction with the different services and its future impact on socio economic changes. In this study, undergraduates (n=336) were requested to specify their purchase criteria of hand phone. The instrument used in the study to collect feedback from the respondents contains a combination of open-ended and scaled questions, and some background demographics. The study employed content analysis, Pearson's correlation, and t-tests as the primary tools to analyze the responses. Results show that brand was rated as the most important factor in student purchase decisions. Other factors, arranged in decreasing order of importance comprise price, product quality, features, durability, availability, promotion, and post purchase service. Brand and price correlated significantly. It is also observed that there is very little difference regarding preference between brand and price in purchasing a hand phone. Marketers may formulate suitable strategies out of the findings to promote hand phones to university undergraduates in Malaysia by emphasizing at brands and price.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.415-424
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• 2023

Background: Occupational safety & health management (OSH) has garnered greater attention for its significance in promoting corporate sustainability for organizations in recent decades. The construction industry, in particular, is a major contributor to Malaysia's thirst for corporate sustainability in order to provide long-term support for the country. Thus, the main tenet of this study is to examine the mediating effect of employee affective commitment on the relationship between OSH and corporate sustainability. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to 273 full-time employees of listed construction companies in Malaysia. Smart PLS software version 3 was used to test the proposed model and hypotheses. Both the measurement model and the structural model were evaluated. Results: According to the findings, OSH and its dimensions are positively related to employee affective commitment. Employee affective commitment, on the other hand, has been found to be significantly related to corporate sustainability and its dimensions: economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Apart from this, the prominent results reveal that employee affective commitment partially mediates the relationship between OSH and corporate sustainability and its dimensions: economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Conclusion: This empirical finding adds to the existing literature in explaining how OSH and affective commitment led to corporate sustainability. Several implications are offered to various stakeholders, such as construction companies, policymakers, and relevant regulators.