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Since the 1970s, the sustainable development was developed from science and environmental crusade. Since then, there were many programs done in the field but not named as “Sustainable Development.” The environments have affected because of the process of the development which was noticed by the world community. Malaysia has made a commitment to the 2030 Agenda in September 2015 for the future of mother earth. Despite the increasing attention toward sustainable development and circular economy across the world, understanding of the potential sustainability synergy among developing countries remains sluggish. This chapter therefore briefly discusses the development of circular economy within developed and developing countries. The chapter then narrowed the discussion toward Malaysian practices of the circular economy. Malaysia also recorded among the countries that faced waste management issues in Asia. The detailed discussion includes Malaysian acceptance and initiatives in reaching a circular economy within the past years, present, and future. The discussion surrounds the circular economy practiced by Malaysian industrial players as well as government's initiatives in encouraging and educating Malaysian toward embracing the idea of circular economy and sustainable consumption. As most countries embrace green technologies, Malaysia has taken proactive steps toward adopting green technology. Among the four main policy priorities are energy, environment, economy, and social, the key to green technology in driving the country's economy while promoting sustainable development. In fact, the major economic drivers of the Malaysian economy involve industrial activities such as palm oil, mining, and manufacturing, which are now beginning to take steps toward the development of green technology development. The application of green technology can provide a balance between economic development and environmental preservation as well as solutions to climate change issues. The initiative aims to make Malaysia one of the best countries in the world with sustainable economic growth, innovation, and prosperous citizens by 2050.

Undertakes the formalization and development of a simulational interactive macroeconometric model for Malaysia. Focuses on theoretical perspectives but covers applied aspects of the model relating to the factual case of Malaysia. Discusses the principal goals of attaining economic growth with distributive equity as spelt out in the Malaysian New Development Plan. Formalizes and interprets the structural model system and its reduced forms. Concludes that a demand‐driven economy governed by profit rates (yield rates) is the centrepiece of a dynamically growing economy. Shows that the interactive model system learning in and through an econometric modelling must evolve from an extensive economy‐institution‐society interface.

This study examines the effect of the substantial changes in economy and culture on Malaysian accounting practices during the economic growth of 1987 to 1997. This paper provides evidence that accounting practices changed in order to adapt to their new environment. This study provides further evidence that relationships between culture and accounting hold in a changing environment and that Gray's (1988) theory can explain this relationship within the Malaysian context.

The paper focuses on Malaysia's huge waste challenges and how circular economy practices can turn that into increased and sustained economic growth.

Published official reports on the country's sustainable development initiatives, policy statements from local authorities and government agencies as well as UN bodies and other secondary materials were sourced for this article.

The paper finds that Malaysia's waste can be used in generating wealth for the country if and when a conscious effort is made towards establishing a sound circular economy in the country. It also sees enormous opportunities that exist for cooperative models of social enterprises and business innovations.

The paper details the numerous policies and initiatives that the Malaysian government has embarked upon in recent times and scrutinises them to decipher the direction of country's bid for sustainable development. It also carries details of what can be done to achieve circularity as well as the benefits that can accrue from that.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the historical influences and chronological development of foreign investors on Malaysian Bumiputera (indigenous) new technology-based small firms (NTBSFs).

Weick’s (1989) conceptual theory building approach is used to conduct a critical historical documentary analysis of the international, local, academic and government inward foreign investments literature from prior Malaysia’s independence (1957) through to 2016.

Increased foreign investment between 1957 and 2016 proved to be effective for Malaysia to transform its economy from a reliance on primary production to a focus on innovation and value-added industries such as the biotechnology and the information and communication and technology sectors.

Local and international literature addressing inward foreign investments towards host countries yielded four key research implications: employment effects, strategic alliances, technology transfer and knowledge transfer. Creation of firm-specific resources in addition to government assistance, particularly through grants and advisory services, significantly contribute to the sustainability of Bumiputera NTBSFs.

Inward foreign investment through subsidiary multi-national companies (MNCs) leads to the formation of strategic alliances between MNCs and Bumiputera NTBSFs, generating employment opportunities, contributing to Malaysia’s development aims.

Charting the chronological development and historical influence of foreign investment from a Malay-Bumiputera perspective provides an in-depth understanding of the evolution of what is now a multi-cultural Malaysian society.

This study provides a chronological development and discussion of the historical influences and implications of foreign investment towards the evolution and sustainability of Malaysian Bumiputera NTBSFs.

This study examines the intangible assets value of the Malaysian market. It measures the relationship between intangible assets and corporate market value of Malaysian firms and whether they are consistent with findings in other advanced markets.

Firstly, the development of intangible assets of Malaysian companies over 2000 to 2006 were measured statistically using Landsman's balance sheet identity model. Then, cross‐sectional multi‐regression procedure was used to ascertain the relationship between intangible assets and financial performance.

The findings reveal that the Malaysian market developed intangible assets at a rather slow pace, with significant development from year 2004 onwards. It also reveals that the book value of net assets (BVNA) are still dominant in Malaysian corporate valuation but this trend is declining as greater interest has now been developed in employing intangible assets and earnings as important variables. Furthermore, the results indicate that there is a positive trend in intangible assets development in Malaysia, consistent with those of advanced markets such as the US, Europe and Australia. However, the Malaysian market lags by about 20 years as compared to the more advanced ones.

The limitations of this paper are as follows: the time frame for this study was seven years and it looked at the post‐financial crisis period. A longer time frame may be desirable covering both pre‐ and post‐crisis periods. Secondly, this study did not look into intangible assets at the micro‐level perspective. Unless solid definition, classification, measurement and valuation of intangible assets have been ascertained, it is not worth dwelling on individual assets, such as brand, research and development (R&D), and human capital.

The main contribution of this study is that it provides empirical evidence that intangible assets or intellectual assets are strategic assets that require close attention in line with development of the knowledge‐based economy.

The objective of this paper is to examine the determinants (i.e. firm size, profitability, leverage, type of audit firm and industry type) of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure in the annual reports of Malaysian listed companies.

The data were collected from the 2006 annual reports of the selected listed companies; and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t‐test, correlation and regression analyses.

The paper found that firm size, profitability, industry type are determinants of IC disclosure (ICD) in the annual reports of Malaysian listed companies, while leverage and type of audit firm did not statistically influence ICD.

The paper only used data from the 2006 annual reports. However, the findings have highlighted the importance of ICD determinants based on data from an emerging economy (i.e. Malaysian economy).

The paper provides empirical evidence on the current practices and determinants of ICD in the annual reports of the Malaysian listed companies. This evidence would help in understanding and determining factors that influence the extent of ICD. Subsequently, it could assist in enhancing ICD in the annual reports.

The paper contributes by extending the limited ICD literature in Malaysia. Furthermore, the paper has tested more determinants, deemed to influence ICD, compared to prior Malaysian studies. In addition, the paper used a larger sample size with a wider industry coverage compared to previous Malaysian literature.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the market structure and financial performance of Malaysian commercial banks over the period of 2000 to 2011 by testing the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) and efficient-structure (ESH) hypotheses.

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is employed to measure the efficiency of banks, while concentration ratio is used to assess the market structure of Malaysian banks. Next, utilizing the least squares method, both variables – market structure and efficiency of banks – among other explanatory variables (market share, operating expenses, loans ratio and size of banks) are regressed upon the dependent variable, namely financial performance of banks represented by return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and net interest margin (NIMTA).

The concentration of Malaysian banking industry is at a declining trend; structurally speaking, Malaysian banks are more competitive due to less market concentration. In terms of efficiency, the DEA results reveal that Malaysian banks are operating below their capacity at 40 per cent of efficiency. Thus, Malaysian banks could reduce their utilization of inputs by 60 per cent to operate on the efficient frontier. Next, the results offer support to ESH, which implies that market concentration and banking efficiency determines the profitability performance of Malaysian commercial banks.

Past studies on Malaysian banking sector had tended to focus either on measuring the performance or assessing the market structure of banks. Thus, this study attempts to fill the gap in the literature by testing the nexus between the market structure and the performance of banks.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of total quality management (TQM) practices at the small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) level within the under‐researched context of the Malaysian economy.

Malaysia is an economy that is dependent on SME businesses and the improved performance of these organizations to meet the challenges of the economy in the transition to a modern manufacturing state. Following the extensive literature review and interviews with academics experts in the field of TQM, the objectives of this study were designed. The objectives of this research were to determine differences in performance and the differences in features engaged at high and lower performing businesses. In order to achieve this objective eight purposively selected (three awards winners and five non‐award‐winners) and in‐depth case studies of Malaysian SME were employed.

The findings of this research show those three levels of TQM application starting with quality control, then a broader application of management involvement with quality assurance process and finally a system‐wide application of TQM that involves a high degree of strategic integration of TQM principles. The integration between functional areas in the factory, formalization of activities and clear strategy were present at the TQM businesses and resulted in effective and efficient systems of customer service, operational excellence and human resource integration.

This research focuses on eight SME businesses that employed simple technology such as plastic injection molding and metal stamping. Therefore, the finding of this research could be generalized between similar businesses in similar industries.

This paper provides an understanding of TQM practices offering design advice for professional managers and academia who work within SME businesses. The research also helps to identify and inform areas of government policy that might assist the performance improvement of such firms.

The paper finds that there is a logic and structure to high performance businesses and the application of TQM; the award‐winning companies perform better over their closest rivals. The importance of promoting TQM on a national scale cannot be under‐estimated and could bring a renewed interest to the relationship between TQM implementation and SMEs' improvement.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.