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PurposeThis study examined the economic and social impact of Malaysian universities on their communities from stakeholders' perspectives. It analysed whether university stakeholders' spending, human capital (HC) and knowledge exploration (KE) will impact aggregate income (AI), quality of life (QOL) and business growth (BG) in surrounding communities.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted among 540 university stakeholders from the southern, northern and eastern regions of Malaysia, representing the alumni, community and industry. Data were subjected to factor analysis using structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsResults showed that universities impacted communities' economic development and wellbeing, thereby fulfilling their community-related role.Originality/valueThis study addressed universities' role in communities' economic growth and social development. Universities' contributions towards communities can be improved through the proposed model, which suggests ways to maximise their impact. A more detailed study of a particular university is needed to identify other factors that can strengthen universities' impact, even at national and global levels.

Malaysia is targeting to becoming a develop nation by 2020. However, income disparity between the developed and less developed states in Malaysia has persisted for more than 50 years without any sign of narrowing the gap in the future. Despite the various Malaysia Development Plans for the past several decades, regional disparity between states remains. Thus, the objective of the present paper is to address the question whether the less developed states, namely; Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Perlis, Sabah, Sarawak and Terengganu are catching-up with the more richer state of Selangor. Using annual data for the period 1970 to 2013, by employing the error-correction model our results suggests that there is cointegration and thus, imply convergence between less developed states and Selangor. Our catch-up analyses suggest that there is narrowing of disparity between Selangor and the less developed states. In this respect, the state government has an important role to play in enhancing growth by continuously providing stable economic environment for investment and other productive economic activities. This will ensure full convergence can take place at a faster rate in the future.

This article presents data on digital adoption by enterprises in Malaysian industrial sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected during the periods of Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) and Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) from October 11 to December 31, 2020. Data collection was completed through an online questionnaire survey conducted among a sample of 432 enterprises from four industrial sectors, namely services, retail, manufacturing, and tourism, in all states in Malaysia. The sample was selected using cluster and systematic random sampling. The questionnaire asked respondents to state whether they used the Internet, computers, phones, web sites, e-payment, and e-commerce to complete their activities relating to finance, production and operations, human resource management, and marketing. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation. The data show the extent of digital adoption by Malaysian enterprises during the pandemic in comparison to the situation before the pandemic. The data may be of use to other similar researchers as comparison and to policy makers as guides in devising related policies.

Since the launch of the InvestSmart™ initiative in 2014, the government agencies in Malaysia have been actively engaging community and university students via their outreach programs to promote investment literacy. Given this background, the state of the investment literacy of Malaysian undergraduates and their readiness to invest is intriguing. Therefore, this article offers a dataset of Malaysian undergraduates’ readiness to invest and the role that investment literacy and social influence play in their readiness to invest. Using a non-probability sampling technique, 500 undergraduate students in Malaysia were engaged to participate voluntarily in this survey. Descriptive statistics are presented in this paper. The dataset provides insights into the current state of investment literacy among Malaysian undergraduates, the sources of information on stock investment, and the readiness of these undergraduates to participate in the stock market.

Since the early 21st century, the educational tourism sector has been growing rapidly especially in developing countries and it is one of the major sources of export in a number of developed countries. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to determine the impact of educational tourism on economic growth with controlling the impact of exports of goods and foreign direct investment. A panel dataset of 11 countries was selected as the main group in international education exporter for the years 2002-2017 and this study utilised static panel data analysis. The results found that educational tourism and exports have positive impact on economic growth. The study also found that there is a country specific effect through different constant. This study proved that other than exports of goods, certain countries can benefit from the educational tourism sector as the new engine of economic sustainability.

Livelihood in river settings may appear simple, but upon closer examination, it is multifaceted and dynamic. The elements of uncertainty in sustaining a satisfactory livelihood are always present. The concept of resilience is about individuals, households or groups making a living and attempting to satisfy their consumption and economic necessities, surviving with uncertainties and responding to new opportunities. The earlier approaches in livelihood studies regarded poor people as inactive or passive victims. However, the trend has changed with greater interest to study on the survival strategies of the poor. In particular, consideration is given to the living experiences of households and the community. The objective of this study is to apply the concept of resilience as a diagnostic approach to the understanding of rural communities’ livelihoods. The analysis highlights the resilience aspects of the rural community and their livelihood strategies for comfortable living.

Islamic financial instruments are subject to taxes and zakat for Muslim shareholders and debt holders. Therefore, it is important to investigate the implementation of corporate taxes and corporate zakat in capital structure compositions. In order to model corporate zakat in terms of conventional capital structure theories, this study will discuss the conventional view of those theories in depth. The introduction of zakat are based on the conventional static trade-off theory developed by previous researchers Keywords : wealth tax; optimal capital structure; Islamic financial instrument.