This study is undertaken to determine the effects of branding on performance of SMEs in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Quantitative research methodology is adopted to identify branding factors affecting SME performance. Data is collected from 175 SMEs, indicating a high usable response rate of 86.63%. Five factors emerge from the factor analysis. They are Branding Practice, Branding Management, Branding Strategy, Branding Media & Technology, and Branding Association. Subsequently, multiple regression technique is used to test the hypotheses.The results of multiple regression support the hypotheses on the relationship between branding factors and performance. Branding factors comprising Branding Practice, Branding Strategy and Branding Association have significant relationship with Company Performance. This is rather expected which firmly supports branding literature and the Resource-based View (RBV) theory that states firms possessing valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and non-substitutable resources have capability to achieve superior performance. On the other hand, Branding Management and Branding Media & Technology are tested negative with no significant relationship with performance. This could be explained that SMEs have limited resources and therefore, do not adopt Branding Management as much as the large organizations. Similarly, SMEs do not readily adopt Branding Media & Technology due to high cost of acquiring and maintaining media and technologies. This study therefore contributes to the body of knowledge in strategic management and marketing for SMEs in Klang Valley. Branding could enhance their performance and help them contribute towards achieving higher Malaysian GDP target in the future. With the introduction of much anticipated Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and its implementation in the next two years, SMEs in Klang Valley will face greater opportunities and challenges. Branding could be the answer to equip the SMEs, that would allow them to uniquely differentiate their products and services.Further research on the subject is highly recommended to identify other possible branding factors, or to acquire deeper insights that could further contribute to the increase of SME performance.

In order to transform Malaysia from a middle income to developed nation, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are seen as a key enabler to this transformation. As a result, the government has invested a lot of effort in numerous development programs that enhance financial accessibility and human capital development in order to achieve the transformation objective. Bank Negara Malaysia gave a mandate to various development financial institutions and selected financial institutions under the microfinance scheme, to provide loans and advisory services to MSMEs, in order to solve some of the challenges that they faced. These include; financial accessibility and limited business skills among MSME owner managers. It is upon this background that this study contributes to the understanding of the factors that determine MSME performance, by examining the role of loan amount and advisory services together with firm characteristics, owner manager characteristic and other business strategies on MSME performance. This study used original data from 381 MSMEs which are clients of Ehsan developmental financial institution in order to run a couple of inferential statistics. These included Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis test and multiple regression analysis. In order to reduce the variable that gave the best prediction of MSME performance, categorical regression analysis (CATREG) was utilized using lasso regularization. The results in the study showed strong contribution of loan amount and bookkeeping to enterprise performance. Similarly, firm size in terms of number of employee, gender, assets and number of customer had statistically significant results. The study contributes to theoretical and knowledge bases, as well as empirical justification on variables in Storey’s framework. The results also had a bearing on different stakeholders, such as owner-managers, financial Institutions (FIs) and policy makers. There is a need for policy makers to review the information and advisory service programs as well as the method of delivery due to low levels of implementation. Training, planning and insurance were other aspects that all stake holders had to look into in order to improve the current performance. The findings of the study also added to the existing empirical knowledge by supporting resource based view theory assumptions, on the influence of both internal and external resources on firm performance. Similarly, information and advisory services and loan amount (external credit) variables from Storey’s framework were examined in the context of Malaysia, and the results were robust in the overall regression. However, the study is limited to a single case study and survey, using cross sectional data in the service sector.

Corruption is one of the major diseases that affects different countries worldwide in different ways. It is a tragedy which threatens both human existence and what they heavily stand for in their survival. Tanzania is one of the countries which has been affected by corruption. Throughout the years it has lost its direction in sustaining its economy and corruption is to blame. This has resulted in the country to suffer as damage has been incurred in all dimensions be it economic, political, financial or social. Unfortunately the effects of corruption have become massive as the level of poverty has been observed to increase significantly. Several studies present issues concerning corruption but between their contexts are very limited, not covering the relationship between corruption with poverty alleviation and economic growth. With that in mind, this study has been designed to investigate the impact of corruption on poverty alleviation and economic growth in Tanzania. The data was collected from 33 respondents: 10 from public officials’ category, 10 from businessman/woman category, 10 from household category, and 3 from experts. Economic and governance dimensions were used for the purpose of collecting sufficient data which address the impact of corruption on poverty alleviation and economic growth in Tanzania. From the economic dimensions, the results show that corruption in Tanzania discourages foreign and domestic investments, costs entrepreneurship highly, lowers the quality of public infrastructure, distorts the composition of public expenditure, increases inequality, decreases progressivity of the tax system, decreases tax revenue and targets the social program for the poor. From the governance dimensions, the results show that corruption lowers the quality of the public services, decreases public trust in governance and threatens democracy and governance system in Tanzania. At the end of this study, governance and public awareness remedies have been provided in order to improve the situation in Tanzania. In future studies, the focus can be more specific on different types of corruption in order to understand the root of the problems and to come up with systematic solutions to solve those problems. Finally, the implication of the study is discussed.

The current practice measuring oil reservoir efficiency uses ratio analysis from cumulative oil production to oil initially in place. It does not mention any input parameters that contribute to the output. There is no explanation which input is in excess to generate output, and which oil reservoirs are measured on an individual basis, leaving no indication of efficient input targets from inefficient ones. This research measures relative efficiencies of oil reservoirs and identifies the inefficient ones. The efficiency is measured as a distance between the input and output quantity of a decision making unit (DMU) and the input and output quantity defined as a frontier line. A slack improvement is used to modify the input to optimise an inefficient DMU. Started with performing optimisation of each DMU for no further action (NFA) stage and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process by utilizing a reservoir simulation model (RSM), then efficiency of each DMU is measured using DEA method. Utilising this method, the efficient input target from inefficient ones is estimated to measure a slack improvement to modify the RSM inefficient inputs before rerunning the model. To this end, 12 oil reservoirs as DMUs operating in NFA and EOR development stages are analysed. The constant return to scale (CRS) input-oriented model is selected to measure the efficiency. The first case shows that DMU8 has 100% efficiency and DMU11 is found to be the least one and therefore it is selected for optimisation. The efficient input target generated by the DEA model is to recalculate the output using RSM. By rearranging the well locations, RSM can produce the same output as the initial input. The number of producers could be reduced from 21 to 5 wells to get the same level of output. Similar for the EOR case, we reduce the number of producers from 21 to 12 wells and injectors from 6 to 4 wells to get the same level of output. The contributions of the research include methodological and practical contributions. The methodological contribution includes developing an integrated DEA model and RSM to improve an inefficient DMU to become an efficient one and developing a framework optimization model to maximize oil recovery. The practical contribution includes assigning an oil reservoir as a DMU in the DEA model for measuring its efficiency with multiple inputs and outputs. The other practical contribution is providing a solution to improve a project economic by reducing its cost to get the same output.

Private Institutions of Higher Education (PvIHE) are the hub for regional education and contribute toward an income to nations. Serious efforts in ensuring the quality of education are to increase the number of quality generations. The enrollment and graduates from higher educational institutions have shown increments over the years. It has no doubt of how important is educational services to our nation. To align with demand in education services, academics play a vital role in the development of quality graduate students. To deliver that, maintaining quality academics are vital. In line with retaining quality academics and increasing demands of job responsibilities, academics might experience work stress. Severe work stress may influence the occurrence of psychological contract breach. The prevalence of work stress in private universities was under explored with regards to the increase number of PvIHE registered in Malaysia and past research could not provide a clear picture between stressors and work stress among academics in private universities. Therefore, this research seeks to examine the relationship between specific stressors and the psychological contract breach among academics in Malaysian Private Institutions of Higher Education with the mediating role of work stress and moderating role of religious orientation coping. Religious orientation coping is one type of coping styles as a way to curb the work stress on psychological contract breach. The items of stressor dimensions in this study are role conflict, career development, responsibility for people, and student misbehaviour. The research model for the recent study is extended from Transactional Model. The structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to answer the hypotheses. Surveys were distributed to the respondents who are among the academics in five selected Private Institutions of Higher Education (PvIHE). Cluster probability sampling is used in this study as the PvIHE in Malaysia are separated by state division. This study contributes to the knowledge and practical spectrum. Not only that, it creates a positive dynamic in the previously established theoretical aspects. The findings of this study showed that there is a positive significant effect of several stressors (role conflict, concern about career development, responsibility for people, and student misbehaviour) on work stress. The findings contribute to the psychological contract literature by showing that perceptions of stressors influence perceptions of psychological contract breach. The results of this study could help institutions and academics to eliminate unnecessary stress variables. Keywords: Role Conflict, Concerns about Career Development, Responsibility for People, Student Misbehaviour, Work stress, Religious Orientation Coping, Psychological Contract Breach.

In today's dynamic competitive business environment, employees are crucial for organisational sustenance and growth. Organisational leaders should be more focused on employees' abilities to enhance innovative behaviour and apprise different roles in organisations. This study compares leadership styles (Ethical and Relational) and identifies the effects on the innovative work behaviour of managers in the Yemeni transportation sector. A random sample of 364 managers working in the three main cities (Aden, Hadramout, Hodeida) in Yemen was selected. Four measurement scales are integrated to develop the research instruments. The ethical leadership survey (ELS) measures the managers' ethical leadership styles, the relational leadership questionnaire (RLQ) detennined the relational leadership style, and the employee innovative work behavior scale and organisation culture index (OCI) were also integrated. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS.20 and AMOS software for Structural Equation Model (SEM) were used for conducting the quantitative data analysis. The major findings of the study were that the relational leadership style has a significant positive effect on employee innovative work behaviour while ethical leadership did not have a significant positive effect. Furthermore, organisational culture plays a mediating role between the relationship of leadership styles and employee innovative work behaviour.

Women’s employment has been a concern since before and even more so after the current outbreak of COVID-19. Furthermore, this situation persists despite the high literacy rates of women as perceived in Malaysia. On top of this, marital status and education level are often cited as significant factors affecting their labour participation, as women have crucial roles in supporting their families. As each organisation culminates its culture, it may pose favourable or non-favourable factors for the employees according to their gender. Some may have consequences on the loyalty of female employees to their current organisations. Henceforth, this study investigates women’s employment retention from the perspectives of organisational culture, gender discrimination practices, the individual’s marital status and education level. The theories of organisational culture, relative deprivation and equity are applied to explain the phenomenon understudied. 515 samples were obtained through the simple random sampling method, comprising women working in STEM-associated private services and manufacturing industries in W. P. Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Then, survey questionnaires were disseminated to collect data. The data was run through descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis. The results corroborate most of the predicted relationships, except for the moderating role of marital status in the relationship between gender discrimination and women’s employment retention. Organisational culture is positively linked with women's employment retention and negatively linked to gender discrimination practices. Gender discrimination practices increase women's employment retention and mediate the relationship between organisational culture and women's employment retention. Education level has a moderating role in the relationship between gender discrimination practices and women's employment retention. Based on Denison's model of organisational culture, Malaysian private services and manufacturing firms are very stable, focused on their mission and know how to achieve it. Private firms initiate strategic planning processes which foster a participative environment where female employees can contribute. Furthermore, many Malaysian women do not consider female gender roles as a factor contributing to or associated with gender discrimination. Higher education levels are encouraged as they weaken the influences of gender discrimination and open the door to many employment opportunities. Furthermore, identifying with organisational values and goals encourages organisational loyalty and women's employment retention. However, as the study is contextual, descriptive, and quantitative, the results are limited in generalisability and details. Future studies may replicate the study in different contexts, adopt exploratory qualitative research, and consider different perspectives when exploring the link between marital status, gender discrimination and women’s employment retention. Based on the study results, relevant authorities should weigh conventional female gender roles and responsibilities heavily in enacting reasonable employment policies.

Today, corporate governance is seen as one of the most important topics in the contemporary business world and it has been introduced in the 1980s’ literature as a mechanism to improve accountability, efficiency, transparency and effective corporate management in business environment. Moreover, the corporate governance is categorized as one of the key determinants of the sound enterprise system, since it has the capacity to mitigate economic hits and it shows how the individual elements of the organization are linked together to improve that system. Saudi authorities have recalled corporate governance as a corruption uprooting tool and an approach to create sustainable business across the world. The Saudi Vision 2030 requires that the company directors, management and other stakeholders should acquire the strategic vision on good corporate governance practices, particularly the economic development as a crucial element in Vision 2030. This study aims at identifying and prioritizing the characteristics that are expected to enhance effective corporate governance practices in Saudi joint stock listed companies. This research adopted a sequential mixed method (qualitative followed by quantitative) approach to pursue the research objectives. The quantitative phase was implemented following an approach usually adopted in a case study research. The findings resulted from the qualitative analysis explained that 16 characteristics were identified as positively enhance governance practices in Saudi joint stock listed companies. The results obtained from the quantitative part showed that board independence is relatively the most important characteristic while ownership structure is the least important in enhancing good governance practices in Saudi listed companies. Finally, the overall findings resulted in developing a new model for effective corporate governance practices in Saudi listed companies.

The Malaysian government instituted the 'cashless society' programme in 2018 to increase financial transaction transparency. Since the advent of eWallet in Malaysia, customers’ and SMEs’ uptake has been slow. Hence, a study such as this is deemed necessary to investigate the real reasons behind the hesitance in using eWallet amongst the Malaysian public. In other words, it is timely to find out the prioritizing factors that could increase the adoption of eWallet transactions. This study fills the void in literature about this matter by developing a Hierarchical Model which enables the prioritize of certain prioritizing factors that could increase the adoption of eWallet transactions. The main objectives of this study are to develop a hierarchical model which prioritize the factors that could increase the adoption of eWallet transactions among customers and SMEs entrepreneurs in Klang valley, Malaysia. The Sequential Mixed Method was adopted by combining the qualitative and quantitative approaches in this study. Data for both the stages was purposely gathered from the Customers and SME entrepreneurs in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The Customers comprised of senior managers, managers from the public and private sectors while the SMEs were represented by their respective entrepreneurs. Semi structured interviews with 28 participants were initially performed to identify the factors benefitting from the use of eWallet and factors that enhanced SMEs growth through higher usage of eWallet. This was then followed by a questionnaire survey collected from 271 respondents who prioritized the identified findings. Thematic Analysis was utilized in the Customers’ qualitative stage, uncovering six identified factors namely ‘Convenience’, ‘Super App’, ‘Acceptability’, ‘Promotion’, ‘Security’ and ‘Rewards’. Meanwhile, for the SME entrepreneurs’ qualitative stage, five identified factors were identified namely ‘Convenience’, ‘Super App’, ‘Trust,’ ‘Promotion’ and ‘Security’. The survey results were analyzed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a mathematical model, and was further synthesized using the Super Decisions software. As a result, ‘Security’ came up as the most crucial prioritization factor for both the Customers and the SME entrepreneurs. The Hierarchical Model developed by this study is expected to provide valuable guidance to eWallet service providers, banking industry practitioners, and financial institutions. In the long run, an expanding mobile payment ecosystem in Malaysia's landscape will contribute to the country's robust economic development. Indeed, eWallet is a convenient method of payment even for laymen too. Keywords: Cashless society, cardless, ePayment, eWallet, eBanking, eCurrency, Analytic Hierarchy Process.