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Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide credit to low-income beneficiaries, enabling them to gain access to financial assistance. To ensure that clients are protected, all MFIs should adhere to basic corporate governance principles to guarantee uniform standards, transparency and good corporate governance practices in their institutions. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the client protection practices and sustainable performance of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), a leading MFI in Malaysia.

Closed-ended questionnaires were distributed to managers and assistant managers at 76 AIM branches across the peninsular Malaysia. A response rate of 68 per cent was achieved from the total questionnaires distributed.

The result shows that the level of client protection in AIM is high. It shows that accountability and debt collection process have a significant influence on the level of sustainable performance of AIM, whereas transparency and transaction costs have an insignificant impact on the level of sustainability of AIM. Consistent with the agency theory and institutional theory, the result also implies that having better debt collection process policy and structure, and accountability among management will enhance the level of sustainability of AIM.

Previous studies focused on the single issue of sustainability in microfinance, such as on repayment performance among the poorest people whom AIM served as clients. However, studies on the accountability towards clients are still underdeveloped by researchers. Hence, the current study fills the gap by examining whether client protection affects the sustainability of AIM.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of institutional shareholdings on earnings management activities of their portfolio firms.

Using a final sample of 94 top firms on the Bursa Malaysia based on market capitalization as at 31 December 2007, this paper uses the magnitude of discretionary accruals as the proxy for earnings management. The paper measures the aggregate institutional ownership percentage of shareholdings of the five top institutional investors which are further divided into two categories: pressure sensitive consisting of percentage ownership by banks and insurance companies; and pressure insensitive institutional investor consisting of percentage shareholdings by unit trusts, pension funds and state‐owned institutions. Data were collected over a six‐year period from 2002 to 2007. The year it started was also when all the listed companies in Bursa Malaysia started adopting the MCCG requirements as mandatory reporting in annual reports.

The results show that only Malaysia Shareholders Watchdog Group (MSWG) institutional shareholdings are effective in mitigating self‐serving earnings management behavior of their portfolio firms. Within MSWG shareholdings, Permodalan National Berhad (PNB) is the most effective institutional shareholder in mitigating opportunistic earnings management behavior. Overall, the findings suggest that ownership may not be enough to mitigate earnings management. Firms may have to engage in shareholder activism such as through proxy voting and establishing direct dialogues with management in order to preserve the value of their investments.

One of the limitations in this study is measurement error which is a critical problem for studies on earnings management. Hence, this study inherits all the limitations of the Jones model although it is noted that it and the modified Jones model are extensively used in earnings management literature. Overall, this study provides empirical evidence to assess the merits of calls for institutional investors to play a greater role in portfolio firms' corporate governance practice in Malaysia. In essence, the results from the study provide evidence that ownership alone is not enough and institutional investors need to be involved in shareholder activism in order to be effective as an external monitor. In other words, by engaging in shareholder activism, institutional investors would be better able to safeguard the value of their investment. Moreover, the size of their shareholdings should provide powerful incentive for them to monitor their investee firms.

This is the first published paper that focuses on institutional investors and earnings management in Malaysia, as previous studies have focused more on developed countries. This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of institutional investors in mitigating opportunistic earnings management, in order to ascertain their generalizability to developing countries like Malaysia.

Using secondary sources, this study strives to appraise both the revenue and development budget allocation for education in Bangladesh compared to other South Asian countries giving special emphasis to higher education. It is observed that an insufficient budget for education in Bangladesh has a negative impact on expansion of higher education and the human development index (HDI). Inappropriate distribution among different subheads and noncompliance of the guideline for implementation of a higher education budget are two serious problems. Besides getting adequate budgetary support from the government, public universities should generate more funds from internal and other external sources. The university budget allocation should be thoroughly reviewed and revised accordingly to make it more productive and with an emphasis on teaching, research and curriculum development.

The aim of this paper is to propose and verify a structured model for Islamic micro-finance in Bangladesh. The Islamic micro-investment model (IMIM) aims to harness the role of the Waqf/philanthropic sector to empower micro-entrepreneurs.

The researchers use the survey technique to investigate the micro-entrepreneurs’ intention to adopt the model. A total of 400 questionnaires are distributed with 207 responses being returned (51.75 per cent). In this study, a structural model is tested to examine the relationship of the behavioural intention to adopt Islamic micro-investment with the attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm, normative belief and behavioural belief.

The findings of the research show that, overall, the model fits the data and can be used to advance Islamic micro-finance in Bangladesh. However, out of the four hypotheses tested, only two are accepted vis-à-vis the influence of behavioural belief and normative belief on attitude and subjective norm, respectively.

The research suggests the need for an awareness programme on Islamic micro-finance and the role of Waqf in the economic empowerment of the populace.

The IMIM aims to harness the role of the Waqf/philanthropic sector to empower micro-entrepreneurs.

The model of Islamic micro-finance may empower poor micro-entrepreneurs and harnesses the potential of Waqf for socio-economic development, thereby, among others, reducing the cost of capital.

Only a few studies have been conducted on micro-finance from an Islamic perspective in Bangladesh. The IMIM, which has been developed by Muhammad (2012) and tested in Nigeria, is the first to be validated through an empirical study in Bangladesh. Thus, testing the viability of IMIM in the Bangladesh context will certainly add value for the clients, institutions and policymakers in Islamic micro-finance.

Without prejudice to the efficacy of other poverty alleviation mechanisms, micro-financing arguably enjoys relative prominence. However, notwithstanding the remarkable loan repayment rate that the microfinance firms report, they still face the challenge of sustainability. The paper aims to provide insights into how three dimensions of market orientation, namely, customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-function coordination, affect the two aspects of the sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs; management and financial).

To achieve this goal, this study focuses on Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), a leading microfinance provider which is also the largest MFI in South East Asia. Data elicited via a survey questionnaire administered on 190 management staff of AIM across Malaysia are subjected to statistical analysis via the partial least square-structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 2.0.

The results provide empirical evidences that indicate that management sustainability is significantly influenced by customer orientation and inter-function coordination. However, only customer orientation affects the financial sustainability of AIM. Nevertheless, competitor orientation has non-significant effects on both aspects of sustainability of AIM.

The result of the paper contributes to the literature in understanding the long-term sustainable financial and social performance-based market orientation.

Findings are useful for policy makers, management of MFIs, practitioners and academics to enhance microfinance system. Managerial implications, limitation of the study and suggestions for future research are also included.

This paper aims to examine the moderating effect of government ownership (GO) on the association between corporate governance (CG) and voluntary disclosure (VD).

This study used multivariate analysis to examine the moderating variable.

GO has a moderating negative effect on the association between CG factors [e.g. board size, non-executive directors (NEDs)] and VD, which indicates that GO plays a negative role in the effectiveness of CG. The study also found that audit quality is not affected by the influence of GO, indicating that companies without GO are better than companies with GO in terms of applying the best practices of CG to provide sufficient and high-quality disclosure.

This study has important implications for governments to be more effective in implementing the best practices of CG. Additionally, the findings could have implications for authority regulators, policy makers and shareholders to require effective implications for CG to reduce the effects of GO the implementation of best CG practices and the disclosure of quality information.

This study focused on analysing the effect of acquisition characteristics on post‐acquisition operating performance for 83 bids consisting of 83 public listed bidders acquiring 80 private, 2 public listed and 1 non‐public listed targets in Malaysia during the period 1988–1992. The specific bid characteristics analysed are business relatedness, management turnover, the relative size of targets to bidders, the method of payment offered and board of directors' ownership structure. Since the specific feature of the current sample is that it consists mainly of privately owned targets, the characteristics of disciplinary bids found in acquisitions of public listed targets were not expected in agreed bids between the bidders and targets in this study. The results indicate that the target directors' turnover and the directors' share ownership do not have a significant effect on the post‐acquisition performance. Rather it appears that, if anything, retention of existing management is more likely to lead to performance improvement. Further analysis shows that replacement of target management has no impact on post‐acquisition performance regardless of the relatedness line of business. The latter findings reinforce the unique characteristics of the data set used in the current analysis of acquisitions of privately owned Malaysian companies in which unique skills of previous directors may often be retained post‐acquisition regardless of the business relatedness. The study also provides evidence that acquisitions of highly related business between target and acquiring firm, large relative size of target to bidders and payment for the acquisition by shares have a significant positive impact on post‐acquisition control‐adjusted performance. However, highly related business between target and bidder and payment by shares are the only significant acquisition characteristics that have a significant positive impact on the post‐acquisition control‐adjusted performance when multiple regression is used.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether political connections further impair auditor independence by investigating the relationship between non-audit fees and audit fees and as to whether political connections moderate such relationship.

This study employs panel regression analysis. The panel data set consists of 379 firm-year observations for three years from year 2001 to 2003.

Based on 379 firm-year observations for the period of 2001-2003, grounded on two proxies of political connections namely politically connected firms and the proportion of Bumiputras directors, the authors find a positive and significant relationship between non-audit fees and audit fees, and the relationship becomes weaker, only for Bumiputra-dominated firms connected firms.

This study contributes to the extant literature by examining the role of political connections in the context of auditor independence. In addition, this study is conducted in Malaysia, which provides a unique institutional environment with the existence of political connections that is built on ethnic grounds.

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.

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.