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The collapse of the Malaysian exchange rate and the stock market during the Asian financial crisis had elevated uncertainties in the financial market and increased the instability of the bank stock returns. Whilst it is commonly known that the crisis rooted from a complex interplay of various factors, there seemed to exist some fundamental and systemic problems in the banking sector. Besides, the challenges from the wave of financial globalization also urged the authorities to conduct structural enhancement in the sector. This paper briefly outlined the main aspects of the Malaysian bank merger program, and tracked as well as evaluated the effects of the program on the volatility of the Malaysian bank stock returns. It was found that the proposed merger did bring about stability for the banks’ stock prices and returns, especially after the initial consolidation announcement of 29 July 1999 based on the estimations of conditional variances. The analysis also documented a persistency positive risk returns tradeoff and asymmetrical news effects in the bank stocks before the announcement. After the announcement, bank stocks clearly enjoyed a huge reduction in the volatilities and the asymmetrical news effects.

The excellent material properties of fibre reinforced composites make them especially attractive for applications in the aerospace and automotive industries. Traditional methods of manufacturing composite structures have proven to be labour intensive and time‐consuming. Robotic fibre placement for fabrication of composite components has been proposed. This approach greatly reduces production cost and time. This paper briefly presents the overall strategy for the establishment of a robotic fibre placement facility. The methodology for development of process planning and programming, simulation, program generator and control is described. In addition, the algorithms for automatic fibre path generation for open and closed surfaces will also be discussed, as well as the control system architecture for the process.

The objective of this paper is to assess the relative efficiency of 12 selected Asia Pacific countries in their development of knowledge‐based economies (KEs).

The performances of the selected countries are evaluated using data envelopment analysis (DEA).

The DEA scores indicate that four of the emerging countries (India, Indonesia, Thailand and Mainland China) are relatively inefficient in K‐E development compared to the other eight which are equally efficient. The main reason for their backwardness is due to the outflow of their human capital resource to the developed countries. This seriously undermines the level of their K‐E development compared to their counterparts. The results also indicate that knowledge dissemination is generally not a serious problem, except for India.

The results and the discussion should be taken as the first step in an analysis which warrants further research. The knowledge clusters identified earlier could suggest that the k‐economy may be better studied by its components where the more diagnostic versions of the DEA model can be applied.

The importance of this study however, is not so much the immediate result which highlights comparative efficiencies, but rather that DEA is a workable model which can take the study of KE further in investigating the contributory factors of KE.

This paper makes an original contribution because a comprehensive analysis of this type, of relative performance measures of the knowledge economy in the Asia Pacific countries, has not been done before using the quantitative technique of DEA.

Maintaining a low and stable inflation rate has become one of the challenges in the macroeconomic management of most countries. Among others, Malaysia has a very unique experience in terms of inflation. The economy has experienced episodes of high (1973‐1974, 1980‐1981) and low (1985‐1987) regimes of inflation, and was able to contain low and stable inflation during the high economic growth period of 1988‐1996. The objective of this study is to identify important factors that contribute significantly to inflation in Malaysia. This study also aimed to examine the possible existence of international and intra‐ASEAN inflation transmission to Malaysia. The analysis is carried out based on the time‐series approach of multivariate cointegration, vector error‐correction modeling, impulse response functions and variance decompositions. The empirical results of this study show that external factors such as exchange rate and the rest of ASEAN’s inflation are relatively more important than domestic factors in explaining Malaysian inflation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors of exchange rate volatility from the macroeconomic perspective for four neighbouring ASEAN economies.

This study has scrutinised the link between macroeconomic factors and exchange rate volatility in both the short and the long run by applying econometrics techniques.

This study further suggests the link between macroeconomic factors and exchange rate volatility in both the short and the long run for the selected economies. The empirical results, however, indicate that a set of common factors seems to influence the exchange rate volatility, whereby the stock market is a great influence commonly found across countries. The Indonesian rupiah seems to be the most sensitive to the innovations in macroeconomic factors, while the Singapore dollar is the least.

The macroeconomic factors are believed to be the forces behind exchange rate volatility through the presumable rigidities of their exchange rates, resulting from the managed float exchange rate system adopted by those countries. Their capital markets are vital in maintaining exchange rate stability, hence suggesting the imperative role of respective authorities and market players in managing a viable capital market.

Little attention has been given to developing countries' experiment with their exchange rate systems due to their presumed rigid volatility. This study adopts a more sophisticated approach in measuring the volatility of the exchange rate and examines the underlying factors of exchange rate volatility instead of the level of exchange rate.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the significance of branding management by property developers in the Malaysian housing market and to examine the pivotal brand identity traits of property developers.

An explanatory sequential mixed-methods research approach was adopted. The quantitative data from the questionnaire survey were subjected to descriptive statistics, and the ranking with category of significance of the hypothesised branding traits was determined using relative importance index technique. The findings were further validated through semi-structured interviews with five experienced industry practitioners.

Results showed that the extremely significant (ES) branding identities are value for future investment and location, while the very significant (VS) traits are quality assurance, near to supporting infrastructure, reliability, professionalism, experience, warranties and technical ability. Industry experts affirmed the prospect of exploiting branding in enticing property buyers.

It is reasonable to infer that good branding positively stimulates buyer’s decision-making on purchasing residential property. This study attempts to discover the critical brand identity traits for property developers apt in the context of Malaysian housing market.

Apart from the archetypal locational and financial factors, the findings suggested that top developers should emphasise innovative family-oriented design with an acceptable level of quality score for brand differentiation to further enhance the future value of their end products.

The efficacy of brand management in the housing market has not yet been fully explored in research. This paper is expected to offer more profound insights into the strategic brand management towards “branded” property developers in the context of Malaysia and perhaps other countries with comparable backgrounds.

The emergence of social media has brought the influencer marketing landscape to an unprecedented level, where many ordinary people are turning into social media influencers. The study aims to construct and validate a model to yield strategic insights on the relevance of content curation, influencer–fans interaction and parasocial relationships development in fostering favorable endorsement outcomes (i.e. purchase intention).

The present study analyzes data from a survey of 411 consumers using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to understand the net and combined effects of content attributes, interaction strategies and parasocial relationships on purchase intention.

PLS-SEM results reveal that content attributes (i.e. prestige and expertise) and interaction strategies (i.e. interactivity and self-disclosure) positively influence parasocial relationships, and in turn, lead to high purchase intention. Findings from fsQCA indicate six solutions with different combinations of content attributes, interaction strategies and parasocial relationships that sufficiently explain high purchase intention.

The present study demonstrates the roles of content attributes and interaction strategies in engendering parasocial relationship and the endorsement outcome (i.e. purchase intention) from both linear and non-linear (complexity) perspectives.

This paper studies the critical factors from the perspectives of technological quality, personal compatibility and organisational commitment using the technological adoption framework (TAF). The proposed TAF studies the critical factors that influence the intention to use building information modelling (BIM) taking into consideration of the “Perceived Ease of Use (PEU)” and “Perceive Usefulness (PU).”

The proposed study is a quantitative research study using the TAF model and the statistical analysis using “Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM).” The questionnaires are developed based on the literature review study and disseminated to the stakeholders in the Malaysian construction industry, including consultants, contractors, and clients. The data collected are analysed using PLS-SEM to identify the correlation between the critical factors influencing BIM adoption and the moderation influence of the PEU and PU towards the “Intention to Use (IU)” BIM.

The data collected from 185 construction industry stakeholders in Malaysia was utilised to develop the structural equation model. The measurement model was analysed in terms of composite reliability, discriminant validity, and collinearity issues. Subsequently, the SEM is analysed, and the findings on the hypothesis on the correlation between the critical factors and the intention to use BIM are examined. The study also examines the mediation effects of the PEU and PU towards the BIM adoption in the Malaysian construction industry.

This research conceptual framework, TAF, is derived from the integration of the existing underpinning theories of the technological adoption model and the technology–organisation–environment framework. This new TAF can be used for the study of new technology adoption. This cross-sectional research study is in line with the “Construction 4.0 Strategic Plan” in Malaysia to establish the current BIM adoption scenario and formulate the framework to promote incentives to promote BIM adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the affordability of Malaysian housing market, sufficiency of affordable housing and factors influencing the housing affordability in Malaysia.

In this study, qualitative research approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten industry practitioners from developers and real estate agencies and further validation with three industry experts.

The findings reveal that housing affordability is a grave concern to average Malaysians, and the supply of affordable housing is insufficient in the current residential property market. Income, property price, land cost and demand and supply are identified as significant factors affecting housing affordability.

The research findings provide an insight rather than definitive information, as the small sample size could limit the generalizability of the findings. Future research can include participants from the public sector and focus on the policy options.

This paper provided numerous policies to ensure successful deliverability of affordable housing which eases government to partner with private sector to formulate a systematic framework for implementation of affordable housing programs and schemes.

There is a need for government to pay more attention to housing needs of middle-income groups. Also, the government is urged to ensure transparent balloting process in every implementation of affordable housing programs.

The paper emphasised the issues of undersupply of affordable housing and mismatch of property price and income. The paper also highlights the key reasons behind high housing affordability index. Hence, it is hoped that this paper will encourage positive debate and gain some attention from the policymakers, practitioners and researchers in Malaysia and beyond.

Knowledge management (KM) is the central know how for the construction industry. However, the delivery of construction projects is often plagued by schedule delays and cost overruns due to lack of working knowledge of project personnel. Hence, the need to appraise the practices of knowledge management in the construction industry has become all the more germane. This paper aims to determine the awareness of KM practices in Malaysia-based construction small and medium enterprises, and to investigate the benefits, tools and techniques, and challenges associated with knowledge management implementation so that effective measures can be devised to address them.

The research data were gathered using a structured questionnaire survey disseminated in the Klang Valley region in Malaysia. Responses were collected from 107 industry practitioners. The quantitative data are subjected to descriptive statistics, and the ranking with category of significance of the hypothesised variables is determined using the relative importance index (RII) technique.

The key benefits of KM practices are predominantly raising efficiency, quality, productivity and decision-making. The most preferred KM techniques are “face-to-face interaction”, “mentoring” and “documents and reports”. The highly significant tools are “groupware” and “telephone”. The major organisational issue hampering the implementation of knowledge management practices is “lack of motivation” while the critical cultural issue is relating to “bureaucracy and hierarchical”, and the vital people issue concerns “lack of trust”.

The respondents were limited to only small and medium construction enterprises located in the Klang Valley region in Malaysia, which makes generalisation challenging.

KM provides not only a pragmatic but also a proactive approach to raising the competitive edge and capabilities of a construction company. Identification of the critical attributes of KM provides the basis for project managers in formulating KM strategies to enhance the chances of successful delivery of future projects.

The study contributes to the debate on the knowledge agenda in the construction industry, particularly from a fast developing economy’s perspective, where an effective KM can further contribute to realising a reasonable level of competitiveness operation.