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Purpose: This study proposes an alternative perspective on why firms issue convertible debt, to supplement the largely theoretical motives identified in the existing literature. It hypothesises that the separate presentation of convertible debt into its equity and liability components has economic consequences and advantage that explain why firms issue convertible over non-convertible debt, consistent with the debt covenant hypothesis. The purpose of this paper is to address the proposed perspective and hypothesis. Design/methodology/approach: Data on convertible debt, gearing (debt assets and debt equity), debt issuance and retirement, etc. were collected for a sample of 1,104 firms listed on Bursa Malaysia. Regression analyses were then used to assess the hypotheses on how gearing affects the use of convertible debt and the impacts of its use on changes in gearing over the financing cycle. Findings: Firms with higher gearing, and possibly those close to violating debt covenants, are more likely to issue convertible than non-convertible debt. In addition, the use of convertible rather than non-convertible debt both reduces the increase in gearing when debts are issued and leads to a larger decrease in gearing during debt retirements via conversion. Practical implications: These effects on gearing provide firms with additional financial flexibility and enhance firms' capacity to borrow more from other sources, a lower-debt advantage. Originality/value: This study demonstrates the informational role of financial reporting in addressing the stewardship emphasis, as part of the decision usefulness objective of financial reporting in the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of subjective norm, relative advantage, simplicity, compatibility and perceived behavioural control on the Islamic home financing adoption. It also examines the effects of subjective norm, relative advantage, simplicity and compatibility on attitude. Analyses of attitude as a mediating factor are also provided. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data from 237 usable questionnaires are employed to test the hypothesized relationships. The proposed hypothesized relationships are examined using partial least squares (PLS). Similarly, PLS is also extended to analyse attitude as a potential mediator for the relationships between subjective norm, relative advantage, simplicity and compatibility with the Islamic home financing adoption. Baron and Kenny's (1986) procedure is used to evaluate the role of attitude as a potential mediating factor in the research's framework. Findings – This study discovers an integrative approach that is valid in the case of Islamic home financing. The paper's results, however, have not supported the effect of compatibility on attitude towards Islamic home financing preference and it is also reported that attitude does not mediate for the relationship between compatibility and the Islamic home financing adoption. Research limitations/implications – This study, however, suffers from three limitations which further stimulate new researches in this area. First, this research does not consider additional measures to capture Islamic home financing adoption. Second, this study discovers attitude does not mediate the relationship between compatibility and the Islamic home financing adoption. Third, there is a possibility that attitude also serves as a moderator, however, but it is presently unconsidered. Practical implications – This study has several implications for Islamic banks to develop proper planning for Islamic home financing products. Those implications are provided. Originality/value – This study is the first research in Islamic home financing's area to integrate two models namely the theory of planned behaviour (the TPB) and the innovation diffusion theory (the IDT) in a single research in order to expound Islamic home financing adoption. This study contributes to the literature by examining an integrative approach for understanding Islamic home financing adoption in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This research has been carried out to look into the long run impact of the controls on capital inflows imposed during the years 1998-2001 in Malaysia. The paper intends to capture the long-term impact of capital controls in changing the composition of capital flows into Malaysia and to examine whether the controls have been able to divert the short-term capital inflows to longer-term investments. Design/methodology/approach – The autoregressive first differenced ordinary least square models have been used to examine whether the controls have been able to divert the short-term capital inflows to longer-term investments. Findings – The capital controls have been successful in the short run in switching some of the short-term capital inflows into longer-term portfolio investments, without jeopardizing the Malaysian investment environment in the longer-term. Such controls did not have an impact on the decisions of foreign investors in the long run even if the rating agencies downgraded the Malaysian investments immediately after the controls were imposed. This paper suggests that capital flows into Malaysia were more a result of interest rate differentials between the domestic and the US interest rates and hardly depended on the Malaysian risk adjusted returns. Research limitations/implications – One of the limitations of this research is the ephemeral nature of the econometric analysis. All the variables, except government spending, are first differenced, in order to overcome the problem of spurious regression. However, while taking the first difference, there is a possibility of losing valuable long-term relationship between the capital flows and the explanatory variables. Further, the analysis was carried out without much reference to the derivative market, which might have disguised some of the capital flows. Social implications – Capital controls are adopted to prevent the volatility in domestic markets caused due to capital flight. The capital flight has huge macroeconomic implications on a society, including unemployment, interest rate volatility and subsequent economic slowdown and recession. If adopted with an intention to provide a temporary breathing space, it might help the countries manage their domestic imbalances. Originality/value – This paper provides a fresh look at the implications of capital controls with longer-term data that also include the period after the controls were withdrawn. The study is expected to be independent of market distortions, which might arise with narrow time frames that cover periods during and/or immediately after the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of consolidation on Malaysian banking sector's market structure and competition. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs the Panzar-Rosse (P-R) method to compute the H-statistics of the Malaysian banking sector. Findings – The results from the P-R method indicate positive H-statistics ranging from 0.680-0.747 under the TREV estimation and 0.547-0.714 under the TINT estimation. The Wald χ2 test statistics seem to reject the market structure of monopoly or perfect competition hypothesis. The results clearly indicate monopolistic competition behavior in the Malaysian banking sector. During the period under study, the paper finds evidence of greater competition in the overall market segment, which is comprised of operating income from fee and commission based products compared to the traditional interest-based market. Research limitations/implications – The empirical findings from this study clearly indicate that competitive behaviour of banks may be explained by factors other than the number of banks operating in the banking sector and their levels of concentration. However, the results need to be interpreted with caution since the liberalization and deregulation of the Malaysian banking sector remains an ongoing process. Originality/value – Despite substantial studies performed to examine the impact of consolidation on banks' competitive behaviour, these studies have concentrated mainly on the banking sectors of the western and developed countries. On the other hand, empirical evidence on the developing countries banking sectors is relatively scarce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To investigate the impact of EMS certification on the performance of firms, including economic and environmental aspects and perceived customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach - The purpose of this study is hypotheses testing in order to explain the variance in the dependent variable (firms' performance in terms of economic and environmental aspects) by establishing the nature of the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables through the testing of the hypotheses. Findings - The results reveal that certification impacts positively on both the environmental and economic performance of enterprises. Respondents perceived ‘enhanced corporate image’ to be the strongest impact of certification, and they believe that the benefits obtained from EMS certification far outweigh the cost of its implementation. Research limitations/implications - The study only surveyed ISO 14001-certified firms. Future research should include non-certified firms. Practical implications - To improve the quality of the environment there needs to be a partnership between government, businesses and the community. Originality/value - ISO 14001 certification has a positive impact on firms' performance, specifically on perceived economic impact, perceived environmental impact and perceived customer satisfaction. By failing to perceive a marketing opportunity from using this well-known standard, firms can lose market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]