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The chapter aims to examine the challenges and the opportunities for the development of Islamic stockbroking in Malaysia.

The chapter adopts library research to discuss the concept of Islamic stockbroking. It also employs a semi-structured interview with industry players to prognosticate the future development of Islamic stockbroking in Malaysia.

The study concludes that the future of Islamic stockbroking in Malaysia is very promising, triggered by drivers on both the supply side and the demand side. The large Muslim population, wealth and economic growth are among the key factors for the development of Islamic stockbroking from the demand side. On the other hand, the Shari’ah compliance of 89% of Malaysian stocks, Malaysia’s position as an Islamic finance hub and the natural progression of Islamic finance are all factors underpinning the future of Islamic stockbroking from the supply side. However, lack of qualified human resources, political inconsistency, information technology infrastructure, product innovation as well as public perception are obstacles to its development.

This chapter will add new literature in contemporary Islamic finance, as not many studies have been done on the subject.

The purpose of this paper is to offer theoretical and methodological guidance for ethnographers of finance and financialization. It critiques the notion of financialization as a macro process and argues for more in-depth ethnographic studies of professional financial actors.

The author analyzes existing ethnographies of financial “elites” and “non-elites” and draws on his years of employment at two contrasting British retail stockbroking firms. The concepts of “identity” and “self” are used to analyze the ways in which professional financial actors are shaped by their activities and working cultures.

The processes through which financial actors are constructed and the consequent ways in which they come to understand their professional selves are influenced by a variety of dynamics: occupational and organizational cultures and practices, the nature of the work itself, technological development, and social interactions with colleagues.

The paper demonstrates the situated nature of financial action and suggests that future research grapples with these dimensions.

The application of an ethnographic perspective to British retail stockbroking and the method of “ethnographic reflection” evoked to achieve this are new contributions. The broad analysis of ethnographies of finance through the lens of identity offers a fresh view of the literature. The paper may be of interest to those wishing to study stockbrokers, financial actors, and financial organizations, as well as those in the social sciences, more generally, who are interested in the micro-dynamics of organizations, financialization, and capital circulation.

Since the financial services industry has reached a level of maturity in terms of products and quality of delivery of services and the advent of foreign players, there has been virtual war for talent among the premier stockbroking companies in India and it is observed that the need of the hour is to ensure long‐term association of the employees with the company. It is necessary to understand how best one can integrate the aspirations of the employees in this industry with the mission and goals of the organization.

This paper presents the modern trends involved in changing office dynamics and people associated with it, growing Intellectuality and aspirations, the changing face of the stockbroking industry and how the job of a stockbroker has been adding value to business. This paper provides an overview of the environmental factors, workplace factors and trade factors and the intensity of their influence on various functions of stockbroking.

The stockbroking firms require professionals of different cadre: dealers, research analysts, business development executives, operation executives, executives associated with surveillance and risk management. This paper analyses the nature of the job of these professionals, the soft skills and hard skills the job demands on the part of the doer. Employee engagement may not be easy unless one promotes among one's employees a clear understanding about the interdependence of the various functions of stockbroking – operations, dealing, research trends, business development and surveillance and risk management processes. In the process, it indicates how the players in the stockbroking industry need to gear up to ensure a hassle‐less flow of the business.

The paper concludes with a discussion on “biting the bullet before it pricks” and strategies the stockbroking companies need to follow for ensuring long‐term association with their employees.

Stockbroking firms have openly adopted information and communication technology to improve their competitiveness and responsiveness in market conditions. Changes in business practices have resulted from the widespread adoption and diffusion of information and communication technology. Changes experienced by a firm can be viewed as a process of individual adaptations running parallel to the evolution of the business environment. To examine the diffusion of information and communication technology an ecological approach is used. This paper therefore develops a conceptual framework to explore the ICT diffusion in the stockbroking industry in the context of environmental evolution and selection. It is argued that the acceptance of an innovation is affected as much by the complexity of the interactions between the stockbroking firms and technology. The proposed framework can be used to provide an ameliorated understanding about the way in which ICT‐enabled innovation is diffused within a technology‐oriented industry.

This paper aims to present a study which uses an innovative two‐stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model that separates efficiency and effectiveness to evaluate the performance of 28 online stockbrokers in Taiwan from 2003 to 2005.

The approach is based on two‐stage DEA.

The results show that seven companies are CCR‐efficient in their operating efficiency; five companies are CCR‐efficient operating effectiveness and only two companies are CCR‐efficient both in operating efficiency and effectiveness. There is no apparent correlation between efficiency and effectiveness.

This paper presents a two‐stage DEA study to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness in the online stockbroking sector. The online stockbroking business is a development from the integration of the internet and the stock trading. As the stock brokerage industry is undergoing a rapid change due to the proliferation of the internet, analyzing the relative efficiency and effectiveness of online stockbrokers is important for management to understand, monitor and sustain performance.

The originality of this paper is in the use of a new conceptual framework to assess the performance of online stockbrokers in Taiwan. This study uses the two‐stage DEA in conjunction with return on assets ratio, which is widely used in financial analysis, to define and assess performance in the framework.

The knowledge base of companies is increasingly seen as underlying a firm’s performance, and the role of knowledge workers within this framework is seen as strongly associated with a firm’s competitive performance. This perspective views the effective management of knowledge workers as crucial in sustaining an organisation’s competitive advantage. The paper views the financial industry as a knowledge intensive sector which nurtures the idea that financial firms rely on specialists’ knowledge or expertise relating to a specific technical and functional domain. It is an exploratory study that aims to investigate the motivational needs of, and organisational environments best suited to, company analysts within the Japanese financial system. It identifies three key motivators as having an impact on the company analysts: monetary incentives; human resource development; and job autonomy. The paper concludes that the traditional Japanese management system is incompatible with the expectations of company analysts in the Japanese financial industry.

Advises bosses of firms large and small about how to prevent their talented staff leaving mid‐career now that employees are increasingly reluctant to work long hours.

Discusses changing employee attitudes and how HR managers should react to these changes.

Urges organizations to put in structures that ensure all staff are working efficiently and fairly. Suggests that, with the right structure, regular monitoring and “policing”, enormous amounts of time will be liberated, enabling staff to reduce their working hours and take longer holidays. Argues that there is a balance to be struck in giving employees the right amount of responsibility: they should have enough, so that their judgment and intelligence are fully used, but not so much that they feel overburdened and are unable to relax after work. Contends that holiday cover should be provided so that employees do not return to a mountainous in‐tray.

Stresses the key role of HR managers in ensuring that employees do not become overburdened with work and opt to leave the organization.

Provides a viewpoint from the front line – the chief executive of City of London stockbroking firm Corporate Synergy, who has had to confront the issues about which he writes.

This study examines performance measurement in on‐line securities companies in the Australian marketplace. Marketing managers of seven on‐line stock brokerage companies in Australian capital cities were interviewed and their on‐line strategies and approaches were systematically reviewed and analysed. The findings suggest that only four of the seven companies were able to articulate a core value proposition and that only two companies used performance measurement in strategic decision‐making about the on‐line component of their businesses. None of the firms was able to draw a direct connection between the performance measures implemented and the value proposition they claimed to offer to their customers. These findings have important implications for both practitioners and academics as they indicate a substantial deficiency in both the theory and practice of on‐line performance measurement. Avenues for further research in the area of on‐line performance measurement are suggested.

An investigation of what effect online trading is having on the traditional stockbrokerage industry. There have been lots of discussions and articles written over the last couple of years debating whether the traditional stockbrokerage model is about to be upstaged by the new online version touted by the online brokerage industry. With so many diverse views being portrayed it is difficult to fully gauge the real impact that online trading is having on the traditional stock brokerage industry. A large‐scale questionnaire and interview study was conducted to get some answers.

Increasing deregulation in personal financial services in the UK raises important issues about the future of banks. This survey attempts to quantify the major trends in the personal financial services market, particularly from a bank perspective. A postal survey by the Nottingham Institute for Financial Studies of major financial institutions was earned out in early 1985. A response rate of 43.5 per cent was achieved from an initial mailing of 487 questionnaires. The results show a major diversification into banking and increased competition for the banks from current non‐banking institutions (mainly building societies). Strong moves into stockbroking and estate agency activities are expected, as is diversification by banks into closely related areas. Those banks which will be affected by internal growth and direct marketing will diversify activities. Diversification by building societies is perceived as the major source of increased competition in the personal financial services sector, and further entry by US banks is expected.