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The main purpose of this paper is to examine cost efficiencies of the selected Islamic and conventional commercial banks over the period of 2006 to 2009 in Malaysia.

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was initially used, to investigate the cost efficiency of the Malaysian banking sector and followed by Tobit regression analysis determine factors influencing the efficiency of Islamic and conventional banks in Malaysia.

The DEA results reveal technical efficiency as the main contributor of cost efficiency for conventional commercial banks and allocative efficiency as the main contributor for cost efficiency of Islamic commercial banks. This indicates conventional commercial banks have been efficient in utilizing information technology and electronics. Islamic commercial banks conversely have been efficient in allocating and utilizing their resources. Additionally, scale efficiency is found to be the main source of technical efficiency for both Islamic and conventional commercial banks, denoting that size is important in improving bank efficiency. The results of Tobit regression analysis are twofold. First, it documents capitalization and bank sizes are positively and significantly associated to efficiency. Secondly, loan quality is found to be negatively and significantly associated to efficiency.

This paper contributes to the body of knowledge through its literature discussions on the efficiency of both Islamic and conventional banks and the effect of banks' specific characteristics on their efficiency.

This study aims to investigate the implication of workplace incivility among employees in the public service department in Putrajaya involving job satisfaction, work stress, psychological contract, knowledge sharing and work engagement.

This cross-sectional study examines the implication of workplace incivility among 180 employees in the Malaysian public service organization. Purposive sampling was used in this study. Partial least square was used to examine the measurement and the structural model of this study.

The result demonstrated that workplace incivility was associated with the psychological contract, job satisfaction, work stress and work engagement. The study also found that workplace incivility does not impact knowledge sharing in the public service organization department.

Future research could provide a more broadened scope to ensure the generalization of the results for the overall public service in Malaysia. Human resource development researchers could look into experimental studies to raise the awareness of workplace incivility that may lead to the decline of workplace incivility.

The research could trigger more empirical research toward understanding the phenomenon and implication of workplace incivility in the perspective of Malaysian public service organizations specifically in Asian countries, which are currently limited.

Despite the world’s effort in grappling with the coronavirus disease that has affected many sectors globally, knowledge and research on the COVID-19 pandemic as well as on the halal food and beverage industry remain limited, particularly in Brunei Darussalam. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the challenges that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the halal food processing industry face amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the sultanate.

A qualitative approach based on four semi-structured interviews was employed using a purposive sampling of managers and business owners of the manufacturing SMEs. Several government agencies were also interviewed to further supplement the findings. This paper also uses the support from a review of relevant academic journal articles, and other secondary data including newspapers and websites, to uncover the hindering factors surrounding the phenomenon.

Four themes emerged, covering four overarching and inter-related challenges including limited production; closure of retail stores; delay in exporting; and less sales to cover overheads.

This study positively contributes to the understanding of the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into the country as well as adds and enriches the halal research sphere. Several implications for the SMEs, policymakers, as well as academic scholars, and limitations are also discussed.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to investigate the halal food processing industry in Brunei Darussalam especially, during the time of uncertainties such as the COVID-19 era. The paper’s value also lies in addressing the gap that there is a need to study on the impact of this outbreak on SMEs in the developing countries, inclusive of Brunei Darussalam.

The main value in a culture of tolerance is wasatiyyah. The fragility of relationships and misunderstanding between Muslim and non-Muslim communities occurs when attention to values of tolerance which need more attention on moderation was not practiced especially in the life of a new Muslim convert community. Thus, the practice of moderation is one mechanism proposed by the government to ensure a harmonious continuation of life in a religious community can be achieved. For that, a qualitative study design was used to describe the current status of a phenomenon that occurs among new Muslim converts. The purposive sampling method is used to determine the applications of wasatiyyah in new Muslims’ life tolerance at Kota Kinabalu (East Malaysia) and Kuala Terengganu (West Malaysia). Although the study was conducted at two different locations, there is a relationship between religious phenomena that occur in the new Muslims community in Malaysia. The purpose of this study is to see the practical concept of moderation in the life of new Muslims and their relation with Muslims and non-Muslims. The results showed that the value of moderation was applied in the aspect of tolerance. The application of Wasatiyyah in practice of tolerance had helped non-Muslims family members to change their attitudes and perception towards Islam. This study suggests the values of wasatiyyah in the life of religious tolerance, need to be nourished especially in multiethnic society when sharing a living places, education and employment for better social development as well as a well-being pluralistic society.

The study was conducted through descriptive data qualitative methods. Purposive sampling was used which refers to a group that has the characteristics of samples required by researchers (Mohd Najib Abdul Ghafar 2003). This study applies the method of in-depth interview with the selected new Muslims around Kota Kinabalu (representing East Malaysia) and around Kuala Terengganu (representing Peninsular Malaysia/West Malaysia). Thus, data accumulation involves new Muslims (new Converts) from various ethnics (Sabahan and Sarawakian) which comprise Kadazandusun, Murut, Rungus, Sino and Iban. Secondly, those are from the Peninsular Malaysia which includes Chinese and Indian. Whereas in Kuala Terengganu, data accumulation involves new Muslims from various ethnics (Chinese, Indian, Sarawakian and others). The result of the interview is shown through descriptive narratives which display the practice of tolerance in the form of supportive interaction from the non-Muslim families towards the new Muslims in Islamic lifestyle.

The concept of wasatiyyah has nurturing tolerance among Muslim, newly Muslim and non-Muslim as well as fostering harmony among the diverse ethnics in Malaysia. Based on the discussion, it was observed that the concept of wasatiyyah had a great influence on the relationship among Muslim, newly Muslim and non-Muslim, as it had a strong link with the value of akhlaq that have been embedded in the Muslim community. The wasatiyyah is the main element that shapes the relationship, and it is the results of interaction with social norms, for it has bred certain social values that include tolerance, compromise, modesty, respect and cooperation as transpired when they (Muslim and newly Muslim) interact among themselves or with other communities. Furthermore, the main goal for the concept is to maintain peace and built well-being in the society as well as bracing racial ties in Malaysia, especially among Muslim, newly Muslim and non-Muslim.

Tolerance is a culture that founded the co-existence of pluralistic society in Malaysia. The culture of tolerance can only be built if ethnic tolerance and religious tolerance is accepted as a common practice – Muslims and non-Muslims alike. The description of wasatiyyah in the practice of religious tolerance among the families of new Muslims is the platform towards the acculturation of tolerance in the societal life from different faith and ethnics. It can be said that the higher the tolerance of ethnic, the higher is the religious tolerance, which is manifested through the application of wasatiyyah between people from different religions. This situation is highlighted in the relations of Muslim, newly Muslim and non-Muslim in Sabah and Terengganu where the culture of tolerance is apparent in the life together. Extensive interaction through encounters, acquaintance and co-existence that shape the friendship, brotherhood and kinship is the best formula in nurturing the culture of tolerance in the pluralistic society of Malaysia. Perhaps, the concept of wasatiyyah may be implemented in the whole aspect of life in the context of Malaysia. It is because the term wasatiyyah has the main sources of Islamic epistemology as well as sustaining the well-being pluralistic society without destroying the differences.

Built heritage constitutes the uniqueness and identity of a place. While being overlooked in existing research, built heritage in small towns is increasingly threatened by dilapidation, exhaustion and disappearance. Therefore, this study aims to examine the challenges in protecting the unique features and identity of small towns with regard to building regulations, guidelines and policies.

A semi-structured interview was conducted amongst a purposive sample of nine stakeholders from different organizations involved in heritage matters in Malaysia to investigate the issues and challenges facing the protection of small towns’ identity with regard to existing protection mechanisms impacting development of the towns. The data were then analyzed using the qualitative software package NVivo 8.0. The summary models imported from NVivo were created to visualize the connections between various dimensions of constructs, concepts and categories identified in the interviews.

The study found that the current issues of built heritage protection at the local level can be classified into five emergent themes: legislative, institutional, economic, social and technical issues. While absence of specific guideline for identifying local cultural places has been identified as the most fundamental issues facing the protection of unique and distinct resources in small Malaysia towns, the paper concludes with a framework of measures that can then be used for identification and protection of small town identity.

This study is the first of many fruitful contributions that examine heritage identification and protection mechanisms at the local level.

Islamic finance and Halal product sectors are thriving successfully. This chapter is a general review of the perception of Asian consumers on Islamic finance and Halal sectors in the global Halal economy.

The first section will briefly describe the Halal concept in both Islamic finance and Halal industries, and the growth of both sectors in Asian countries. The second part highlights the review of Asian consumers’ perception towards Islamic finance products and Halal products.

The review found that the consumers’ perception towards the Islamic finance products and Halal products is distinctive. This is due to the diversity of Asian countries in terms of geography, religion, culture, ethnic, school of thoughts (madzahib), income per capita and government’s involvement.

The third part of the chapter concentrates on planning towards Halal marketing, which involves the move and future challenges in different layers of industries to gear up and strengthen the Halal economy.

This research attempts to highlight the concept of big data analytics in predictive maintenance for maintenance management of government buildings in Malaysia.

This study uses several empirical analyses such as vector autoregression (VAR), vector error correction model (VECM), ARMA model and Granger causality to analyse predictive maintenance by using big data analytics concept.

The results indicate that there are strong correlations among these variables, which indicate reciprocal predictive maintenance of maintenance management job function. The findings also showed that there are significant needs of application of big data analytics for maintenance management in Putrajaya, Malaysia, to ensure the efficient maintenance of government buildings.

The conducted case study has demonstrated the empirical perspective which streamlines with the big data analytics' concept in maintenance, especially for analytics' support with appropriate empirical methodology

This paper aims to analyse the implementation of Islamic principles and values within the budgetary management of one of Indonesia’s local governments, that of Aceh provincial government. The authors investigate the extent of Islamic teachings in Aceh’s public budgeting to gain an understanding of the challenges in implementing such ideas in practice.

To investigate these issues, the authors used a qualitative interpretive approach in this study, gathering written materials related to the budgeting process and conducting 19 interviews with local government officials, politicians, scholars and a corruption watchdog. Data was manually coded and thematically analysed.

In this study, the authors find that the budgetary management problems Aceh provincial government faces (including poor resource allocation, budget delays and poor accountability and transparency) indicate unsatisfactory performance in incorporating Islamic principles and values into government. The authors argue that a key challenge to a more complete implementation is that the Acehnese’ perspectives of Sharī’ah and its enactment remain limited to particular aspects, such as criminal law, rituals and symbols, and are not extended to wider governance and budgetary practices.

The findings are likely to be of interest to policymakers and those who hold them to account, in a region/country where Islamic values and principles largely influence the government and social affairs. They indicate that a broader conception of Sharī’ah would facilitate a more thorough implementation of Islamic principles and values within public budgeting.

This study is one of a handful of studies exploring Islamic public budgeting, with its originality lying in the investigation of the challenges faced in implementing Islamic principles in government budgeting.

This paper aims to examine the importance of the success factors as perceived by the overall respondents. Also, the study intends to identify the differences concerning the importance of the success factors between the public and private sectors.

A questionnaire survey was used to elicit the perceptions of public and private sectors on the key success factors of a PPP project in Malaysia. In total, 179 usable responses were obtained and analysed using SPSS to rank the importance of the success factors and to examine the differences in the perceptions between the government and the private sector.

The overall results show that “good governance”, “commitment of the public and private sectors”, “favourable legal framework”, “sound economic policy” and “availability of finance market” are the top five success factors of PPP implementation in Malaysia. Although the rankings of many factors were different between the public and private sectors, there were no significant differences in the perception of the public and private sectors concerning the importance of the success factors except for a few factors.

This paper highlights not only the important success factors for PPP implementation in Malaysia, but also offers evidence concerning the importance of the factors of the two key parties involved in PPP – the public sector and private sector.

This study aims to examine the impact of learning organizational culture on organizational effectiveness. The study also explores the role of employee work engagement as the intervening mechanism in the learning organizational culture-organizational effectiveness association.

The data were collected from middle and top managers using the survey approach from the manufacturing and services sectors in India. Structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) were used to analyze the data.

We found that organizational effectiveness is positively affected by learning organizational culture and that employee work engagement mediates this relationship. Our findings provide an essential building block in the research of learning organizational culture, work engagement and organizational effectiveness.

This study establishes linkages among the variables of interest by examining the impact of a learning organizational culture and work engagement on organizational effectiveness. It augments the existing literature on organizational effectiveness by elucidating the role of a learning organizational culture and work engagement as critical enablers of organizational effectiveness. Additionally, the study furnishes empirical evidence demonstrating the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between a learning organizational culture and organizational effectiveness.