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The aim of this study was to contribute towards the systematic management of the natural stand bamboo resource at Nami, Kedah, Malaysia and to improve the forest environment rather than leaving it neglected and unmanaged. In addition, the study examines the commercial value of the abundant bamboo culms for a sustained industry in Malaysia.

A one‐hectare experimental plot of Gigantochloa scortechinii (buluh semantan) was established with a split plot design of fertilizer treatments 0, 2 and 5 kg of NPK 15:15:15 and felling intensities of 0, 40, 60 and 80 percent. The experiment was conducted for four years. Parameters such as the number of shoots, culms and basal area were observed throughout the study.

From this study significant results were obtained and management principles were formulated. Due to the effect of fertilizer application, there was an increment of 30 percent of shoots sprouted per clump per application. Thinning should be done selectively and mature culms aged more than three years old well spaced within the clump need to be felled first.

This new knowledge would be of value to managers and policy makers in formulating the proper management plan for the exploitation of future resources in the country.

The current study seeks to answer the puzzle as to why firms issuing equity produce poor returns to investors in the long run by exploring whether the post issue performance is being influenced by the potential opportuities of earnings management during the period prior to public listing. Using a sample of 187 IPO firms, results in the study shows that firms that go public over the period 1989‐1998 obtained significant negative share return relative to their control firms in the long run. Further analysis provides evidence that managers of Malaysian IPO firms manage their earnings prior to public listing. However, no significant relation is observed between prior earnings management and post issue long run performance. The result is robust with respect to IPO firms with either high or low level of earnings management. Thus, there is no evidence to suggest that the pre offering earnings management is able to predict the negative share return performance post issue. The decline in the post offering share price may be the result of price correction by investors on their beliefs of future earnings based on unfavourable earnings revealed over time by media, analysts reports and subsequent financial statements after listing.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the modified integrated Islamic CSRD index (MIICSRDi) and financial performance of Malaysian Islamic banks as perceived by the stakeholders.

This paper used survey questionnaire with a purposive sample of 343 stakeholders of Malaysian Islamic banks. A theoretical framework was developed and tested by using partial least square analysis.

The findings reveal that there is a significant positive relationship between the MIICSRDi and financial performance as perceived by the stakeholders.

There is a lack of empirical research proposing an Islamic CSRD framework that is suitable to be applied within the context of the Malaysian environment. Hence, this paper shows that MIICSRDi in line with the stakeholder theory, Shariah principles and ‘urf principle (customary practice) can be used by Malaysian Islamic banks to increase their performance.

MIICSRDi can be used as one of the strategies to improve the financial performance of Islamic banks. In fact, it can be instilled in the value-based intermediation introduced by Bank Negara Malaysia for the rebranding of Islamic banks.

The relationship between perceived MIICSRDi and perceived financial performance is explained in light of the stakeholder theory, Shariah principles (unity, equilibrium, free will, responsibility and tazkiyah) and ‘urf principle (customary practice).

The chapter focuses on the personal characteristics of top executives in companies involved in corporate financial crime as well as the introduction of human governance as one of the mechanisms in preventing corporate misbehaviour. This chapter discusses directors’ and top management teams’ personal characteristics – in the context of corporate governance – that may influence the occurrence of corporate financial crime. The study further proposes the human governance factor as a possible mechanism to improve corporate governance in preventing such misbehaviour. This chapter highlights the personal characteristics of top executives, which may become the indicators of corporate financial crime, as well as human governance, which is shown to be one of the most important mechanisms of corporate governance for corporate financial crime prevention.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect impact of firm-specific characteristics on the level of underpricing among Malaysian initial public offerings (IPOs).

Content analysis of IPO prospectuses was used for 331 firms underwent listing between 2002 and 2008. The extent of disclosure was computed by applying the disclosure index of Bukh et al. (2005).

Of the five firm characteristics examined, there is a direct relationship between the firm’s financial performance and the level of foreign activity, and the level of underpricing, instead of being mediated through disclosure. However, some firm characteristics have direct influence on the extent of disclosure but do not have any influence on underpricing.

This empirical study concentrates on the Malaysian IPOs on a single disclosure mechanism. Other disclosure items can be examined together with the intellectual capital disclosure items.

As the findings reveal that the extent of disclosure is relatively low in influencing the level of underpricing. Had the disclosure been higher, it may have some influence on underpricing. The accounting governance board need to regulate the disclosures of the intangible resources so that the level of underpricing can be minimized.

This study provides new insight for the examination of direct and indirect (through disclosure) association between firm-specific characteristics and underpricing. The findings shed some lights to the IPO issuers to enhance disclosure so that the cost of capital can be reduced.

The authors examine the determinants of ESG disclosure and differentiate between voluntary and mandatory disclosure regimes in Hong Kong.

The authors analyse both Bloomberg ESG scores and a disclosure index score, manually constructed according to the 2019 Hong Kong Exchange ESG Guide using regression tests.

The results indicate that the level of concentrated ownership is negatively associated with the quantity of ESG disclosure only in the voluntary disclosure period, suggesting that agency problems are alleviated when ESG reporting is mandatory. The findings also show that larger firms significantly disclose higher levels of ESG information in both voluntary and mandatory disclosure periods. Furthermore, the extent of ESG disclosure significantly increases when firms' sustainability reports are audited by Big 4 accounting firms only in the voluntary disclosure period. Finally, the control variables are significantly related to the level of ESG disclosure showing that ESG disclosure increased over time and is significantly different among industries.

The authors make contributions to the literature on non-financial disclosure in relation to ESG reporting by examining the relationship between firm characteristics and ESG disclosure in the Hong Kong context under both voluntary and mandatory disclosure regimes. This study also provides important implications for other stock markets and relevant stakeholders including preparers, users and the sustainability profession.

Aims to investigate the extent of the effectiveness of monitoring functions of board of directors, audit committee and concentrated ownership in reducing earnings management among 97 firms listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia over the period 2002‐2003.

The current study employs the cross‐sectional modified version of Jones, where abnormal working capital accruals are used as proxy for earnings management.

The study reveals that earnings management is positively related to the size of the board of directors. This supports the view that larger boards appear to be ineffective in their oversight duties relative to smaller boards. A possible explanation for the insignificant relationship between other corporate governance mechanisms (independence of board and audit committee) and earnings management is that the board of directors is seen as ineffective in discharging their monitoring duties due to management dominance over board matters. The apparent reason for this phenomenon is attributed to the board of directors' relative lack of knowledge in company's affairs. The study also found that ethnicity (race) has no effect in mitigating earnings management, possibly due to the more individualistic behaviour of the Bumiputra directors. The modernisation of Malaysia and also the increase in Bumiputra ownership of national wealth may have caused the Malays to be more individualistic, similar to their Chinese counterpart.

Since, there are relatively few studies conducted in this area specifically among Malaysian firms, this study will broaden the scope by providing empirical evidence of the relationship between various corporate governance characteristics, cultural factors and earnings management.

This paper aims to explore the role of ownership structure on integrated reporting quality (IRQ) in an emerging market.

This study includes a sample consisting of 64 firms from Bursa Malaysia, with 173 firm-year observations from 2017 to 2020. Feasible Generalised Least Square model has been used to test the hypotheses.

The findings show that government ownership has a positive effect on IRQ and that the integrated reports and <IR> framework are well aligned. Foreign ownership influences IRQ positively. However, the results did not support the effect of family ownership on IRQ as hypothesised.

The findings of this research hold practical implications for companies and regulators in Malaysia. The results demonstrate to investors that both government and foreign ownership have a positive impact on IRQ. Therefore, investors can make well-informed investment decisions regarding companies with a high level of government or foreign ownership.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to explore the effect of ownership structure on IRQ in the Malaysian context.

This paper aims to review the elements of facilities condition index (FCI) as one of the most widely used metrics for describing the physical condition of facilities and as a measure of financial indicator related to maintenance activity. This research will benefit future studies that focus on implementation of FCI and encourage the best practice when assessing the physical condition to evaluate the performance of facilities as well as to plan for maintenance action to be taken and financial implication involved based on the findings from FCI.

A total of 33 studies from 2012 to 2022 were identified and extracted from four academic databased, named Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Mendeley. These published studies were selected because it matches with the inclusion requirements for research question, “What are the elements of facilities condition index discussed in the literature from 2012 to 2022?”. To answer the research question, the studies in ATLAS.ti were grouped into five major themes based on the codes and categories found.

This paper presents the findings of a thematic analysis of the current literature discussed about FCI. A total of 33 studies from 2012 to 2022 were identified and extracted from four academic databased, named Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Mendeley. A themed review was conducted, and five themes were identified as elements of FCI, which are named as follows: “Condition Assessment”, “Deferred Maintenance”, “Facilities Performance”, “Financial and Fund Allocation” and “Decision Making”.

This paper fulfils the fundamental elements on current FCI practices as well as intended to highlight existing practices that are essential to evaluate facilities performance and planning for maintenance strategies.

This paper aims to examine the effects of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure in the annual reports of listed companies in Bursa Malaysia (BM) on their market capitalization (MCAP).

The paper uses secondary data for listed companies on BM for the years 2002 and 2006. A disclosure index was used to measure the extent of IC information disclosed in the annual reports. The MCAP data were obtained from the Bloomberg database. The data were analyzed using correlation and regression analyses.

The paper finds that the extent of IC disclosure by Malaysian‐listed companies has a positive significant effect on their MCAP. In addition, the paper found that there is significant positive impact of the control variables (i.e. book value, net profit, firm size and leverage) on the MCAP.

Although the paper was focused on the IC information and MCAP data for two years (i.e. 2002 and 2006), it provides empirical evidence that IC disclosure does affect the MCAP of companies. Hence, it means that the IC information is picked up by the market. Future research may incorporate more control variables and years.

The findings provide empirical evidence that IC information disclosed by the Malaysian‐listed companies positively affects their MCAP. These findings can be considered to be useful for these companies and work as a signal towards the need for more IC disclosure. In addition, the findings could be useful for the regulatory bodies, e.g. the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board and BM, perhaps to develop guidelines on IC disclosure to enhance transparency and increase confidence in the capital market.

The paper is considered the first empirical study to examine the effects of IC disclosure in the annual reports of Malaysian‐listed companies on their MCAP.