• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.329-338
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• 2020

The present study aims to investigate the perceived usefulness of business coaching as a moderator between the association of entrepreneurial competencies and business success of women micro-entrepreneurs. This study employs a stratified random sampling technique to collect data from women micro-entrepreneurs who attended business coaching sessions. In total, 261 questionnaires were distributed and collected. This study has divided the moderator (i.e., perceived usefulness of business coaching) into two groups, namely, group 1 (with a low mean) and group 2 (with a high mean) for moderation analysis. By using a comparative analysis of the path coefficient for groups 1 and 2, the path is moderated by the perceived usefulness of business coaching if the beta value for group 1 is significant, and the beta value for group 2 is non-significant. The results show that eight out of a total of sixteen hypotheses were supported, while the remaining hypotheses were rejected. The findings of the study suggest that the domains of entrepreneurial competencies for women micro-entrepreneurs, including strategic, commitment, conceptual, opportunity, and relationship competencies, together with the perceived usefulness of business coaching, are vital for the business success and should remain the principal focus of future research in women entrepreneurship.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.951-959
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• 2021

The study investigated the effect of food safety knowledge, food safety trust and the factors influencing organic food purchase intention in the 'new normal' of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employed non-contrived and cross-sectional methods. The data was collected in Malaysia using convenience sampling. A total of 330 valid questionnaires were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and PROCESS for hypothesis testing. The study revealed a significant relationship involving food safety knowledge on personal attitude, perceived social pressure, and perceived autonomy. Moreover, organic food purchase intention was found to be influenced by personal attitude, perceived social pressure, and perceived autonomy. Interestingly, trust in organic food safety moderated the relationship between perceived autonomy and organic food purchase intention. The study proved valuable for stakeholders and organic food producers to understand the 'new normal' COVID-19 market scenario for a sound understanding of the market and the sustainability of the organic food industry. A new research framework is proposed and validated, related to individual purchase decision in global health issues which is limited in current literature. Hence, the study contributed to a better comprehension of green consumerism mainly in the Asian market.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.17-33
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• 2022

While the term is nothing new, 'cybersecurity' still seems to be defined quite loosely and subjectively depending on context. This is problematic especially to legal writers for prosecuting cybercrimes that do not fit a particular clause/act. In fact, what is more difficult is the non-existent single 'cybersecurity law' in Malaysia, rather than the current implementation of 10-related cyber security acts. In this paper, the 10 acts are compiled into a corpus to analyse the language used in these acts via a corpus linguistics approach. A list of frequent words is firstly investigated to see whether the so-called related laws do talk about cybersecurity followed by close inspection of the concordance lines and habitually associated phrases (clusters) to explore use of these words in context. The 'compare 2 wordlist' feature is used to identify similarities or differences between the 10 Malaysian cybersecurity related laws against a corpus of cyber laws from other ASEAN countries. Findings revealed that ASEAN cyber laws refer mostly to three cybersecurity dominant themes identified in the literature: technological solutions, events, and strategies, processes, and methods, whereas Malaysian cybersecurity-related laws revolved around themes like human engagement, and referent objects (of security). Although these so-called cyber related policies and laws in Malaysia are highlighted in the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA), their practical applications to combat cybercrimes remain uncertain.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.63-79
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• 2022

Past studies on the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on firms have been inconsistent, highlighting the significance of examining how CSR affects the performance of Malaysian government-linked companies (GLCs). The study aims to investigate the impact of CSR dimensions (economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic) on firm performance from 2016 to 2020 using a sample of 31 GLCs from the top 100 companies under the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia. A total of 35 GLCs were selected as the study sample size based on the top 100 businesses listed under the board of Bursa Malaysia as of 31 December 2020. The study employed correlation and multiple linear regression models to examine the relationship between CSR dimensions and firm performance. Financial performance is evaluated using accounting-based models of return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) and market-based models of earnings per share (EPS) and market value (MV). The CSRHub database was employed to collect information on the performance of company CSR dimensions. The findings suggested a significant positive relationship between ethical and philanthropic CSR and firm performance regarding ROE. Thus, GLCs prioritized ethical and philanthropic CSR over other dimensions.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.59-66
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• 2021

Many incidents of Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning have occurred because of people being unaware of its presence. There are currently available systems on the market, but they are limited to measuring CO in a certain area and lack vital functions. Additionally, little to no evidence-based information on their quality was available. Thus, a mobile application for detecting CO gas leakage in a vehicle and critical features to assist victims was developed. A usability and functionality test were conducted to determine the product's quality utilizing nine usability and six functionality task scenarios (n=5). Then, a System Usability Scale test was performed to obtain system satisfaction, usability, and learnability (n=50). The usability and functionality test shows that all the tasks given for both tests were 100% successful. The overall score obtained for SUS was 71.4, which indicates good acceptance and usability. Around 20% of respondents claimed that they would need the support of a technical person to be able to use the application and that they needed to learn a lot of things before they could use the application, which indicates the overall high learnability of the application. The result provides empirical evidence that the CO gas leakage detection mobile application is successful and receives good usability, functionality, acceptability, learnability, and satisfaction assessments. DetGas could benefit automobile owners and other stakeholders by mitigating the risk and harm associated with gas leaking that exceeds the safe limit.

• 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.

• 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.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.1532-1543
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• 2021

Objective: This study was aimed to establish a quantitative detection method for meat contamination based on specific polypeptides. Methods: Thermally stable peptides with good responses were screened by high resolution liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Standard curves of specific polypeptide were established by triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Finally, the adulteration of commercial samples was detected according to the standard curve. Results: Fifteen thermally stable peptides with good responses were screened. The selected specific peptides can be detected stably in raw meat and deep processed meat with the detection limit up to 1% and have a good linear relationship with the corresponding muscle composition. Conclusion: This method can be effectively used for quantitative analysis of commercial samples.

• 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.9 no.5
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• pp.325-333
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• 2022

This study examined the influence of three elements of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO), namely innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It is worth noting that SMEs have experienced low productivity, low profit, and low performance during the COVID-19 pandemic era. Although several studies have shown that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is a key factor of company performance, few have focused on IEO. This study employed a quantitative research design because all variables were measurable. It used a questionnaire to survey 384 SMEs in the service sector and employed structural equation modeling (SEM) in data analysis. The findings suggested that SMEs' performance was influenced by risk-taking and proactiveness. This could be related to the fact that SMEs have a less formal structure, allowing owner-managers to take risks and make quick decisions. Furthermore, high performance was ensured by being very sensitive to market trends and changes in the business environment. Innovativeness was not a significant factor in influencing the performance of SMEs. Perhaps it was rather difficult for SME owner-managers to be innovative due to the lack of various resources. This study successfully re-confirmed the effect of IEO on business performance and highlighted the importance of risk-taking and proactiveness in improving the performance of SMEs.