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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the quality of services provided by local authorities (LA) to the public. An FM‐SERVQUAL instrument was developed to meet an appropriate measurement of such services.

The development of FM‐SERVQUAL based on integrated facility management (FM) framework. It involved measurements of 40 elements of human capital components, property, technology and ICT, and working processes of Johor Bahru City Council which is one of the major cities in Malaysia. Primarily, two phases of data collection were carried out, of which 100 and 191 respondents were involved during the first and second phases, respectively.

The study revealed that, five elements in technology and ICT and six elements of property which were identified below the service quality (SQ) level. On the other hand, 29 elements of other services were achieved with minimum quality level.

The LA executives recognized FM‐SERVQUAL, as it is very useful to measure the service delivery performance of their organization. Consequently, the elements which are below SQ level can be easily identified.

An FM‐SERVQUAL instrument set under the integrated FM framework was developed through an empirical basis. It is an efficient and effective instrument with a capability to measure the quality of services the delivery system. FM‐SERVQUAL also serves as an essential gauge in policy formulation and future planning of an organization.

The paper aims to provide better understanding of internal customer perspectives, i.e. the employees of local authorities (LAs) as a service provider in Malaysia. The research attempts to identify the contributing and the constraining factors affecting the quality of the services to the public.

The paper employs a qualitative approach of primary data collection. Data were obtained through semi‐structured interviews and open‐ended question interviews. The study conducted involved service providers and officials from Johor Bahru City Council in the capital of Johor state, Malaysia.

The paper revealed that substantial measures should be taken to ensure that the service provider is able to provide better service quality in the delivery system. It was also found that before the service providers are able to offer quality services to the public, the service providers have to first overcome the problems they face.

The paper suggests that it is equally important to understand internal customer satisfaction in advance before the authors expect the service providers to offer better service delivery processes to the service receiver's, i.e. external customers in LAs.

The management of public real estate assets by government agencies has been in place for many years as government agencies own their real estate assets in order to provide services to their communities. The management process becomes progressively complex and difficult because real estate ownership by agencies increases in amount, value and diversity over time. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current characteristics of the real estate management practice that is being implemented by the Malaysian Government agencies.

A qualitative approach has been used for this study where the data were collected through the use of interviews. The respondents to the study were government officers who execute real estate management functions within the ministries. The collected data were subsequently analyzed through the framework analysis method.

The results have shown that eight characteristics can be used to illustrate how the government's real estate assets are managed by the agencies. The characteristics include ad hoc management, a reactive approach, stages of implementation based on property life cycle, more focus on the maintenance management function, management by insufficient and non‐expert staff, management by fragmented departments, lack of information management systems and lack of performance measurement.

Most of these characteristics proved that the practice of real estate management by government agencies is not being carried out efficiently and is unsystematic. Therefore, the Malaysian Federal Government should plan, design and implement a strategic approach to ensure all the negative characteristics are eliminated because, if left unattended, this practice is bound to produce increasingly negative impacts over time.

This paper exposes the status of real estate management practice being implemented by the Malaysian Federal Government agencies. The findings will allow the federal government to determine the advantages and disadvantages of its real estate management operations and could be used to evaluate the capabilities of its agencies. The research output may also be utilized as a reference point by other countries with similar governance structures to assist in improving their public sector real estate management processes.

The goal of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is to ensure that organisations embrace social responsibility and cultivate activities that provide positive impact on the environment, society, consumers, employees, communities and all other members of the public sphere. Therefore, it is highly important to enhance and augment the teaching of CSR across various disciplines in higher learning institutions. Since 2006, most organisations in Malaysia have been highly encouraged to carry out their Social Responsibility activities, with the government providing support for CSR policies through its tax reduction incentives. Various CSR awards and acknowledgement of the awards provide high value and positive reputation to the organisations that implement CSR-related activities. As a result there is an increasing awareness among businesses to focus beyond compliance with laws in order to respond to the dynamic economic, societal and environmental changes.

Demand for dietary fibre-enriched and low sugar bakery products is increasing rapidly due to current high incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Overripe banana has been discarded due to its low quality and appearance. However, overripe banana exhibits rich sources of natural sweetener and dietary fibre which could potentially be used as a novel food ingredient in bakery product. Thus, the study aims to determine the nutritional properties, sensory acceptability and glycaemic index (GI) value of chocolate cookies formulated with overripe banana sweetener (OBS) as partial replacement (10, 15 and 20%) for table sugar and utilization of overripe banana residue (OBR) as partial replacement (8%) for wheat flour.

Nutritional composition was analysed using AOAC methods and sensory acceptability using 7-point hedonic scaling method. In Vivo GI determination was continued according to FAO/WHO method.

Incorporation of OBR and OBS significantly (p < 0.05) increased nutritional values of chocolate cookies. Chocolate cookies formulated with 8% OBR +20% OBS recorded the highest TDF (7.80%) and ash (1.47%) content. Sucrose content of chocolate cookies was reduced significantly with increasing level of OBS. Sensory scores for control and 8% OBR-incorporated cookie were not significant difference for all the sensory attributes. Moreover, incorporation of OBS up to 15% produced higher scores in term of aroma, flavour and overall acceptance. Three formulations of chocolate cookies (control, 8% OBR and 8% OBR +15% OBS) were selected for GI testing and recorded GI values of 63, 56 and 50, respectively.

Overripe banana can be used as a food ingredient in developing high fibre and low-GI cookie.