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The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Thematic Review of Banking & Insurance sectors conducted by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in 2013 indicated that oversight functions are still inadequate in the areas of compliance, internal audit, board of directors and senior management. The oversight functions refer to the AML/CFT compliance programme, which financial institutions, including Islamic banks, are obliged to execute as a part of mitigating activities against money laundering and terrorist financing. The main purpose of this chapter is to analyse whether there is any improvement in the oversight functions at the Islamic banks in Malaysia since the release of the thematic review report by BNM on 17 September 2014. This research is important as penalty for non-compliance under Section 22 of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLATFPUAA) is severe. Section 22 of AMLATFPUAA entails personal responsibility on the compliance officer of an Islamic bank and not the reporting institution as a whole. Qualitative research method via interview is employed to gauge the extent of Islamic banks’ adherence to AML/CFT compliance programme. This chapter is significant as it provides Islamic banks and future researchers with the details of the compliance study as well as the current status of AML/CFT compliance programme within the Islamic banks in Malaysia.

Dynamism of digital economy requires innovation in the mobile payment system to provide for the free flow of information to facilitate electronic transactions. However, regulations and standards were introduced at the global and country levels to impose limitations on mobile payment system to protect consumers’ interests. The Malaysian government introduced the Anti-money Laundering, Anti-terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (Act 613) (AMLA) to protect the people from being involved in offences both locally and internationally and an unlawful activity carried out physically or by using virtual mechanisms. It is argued in this study that AMLA has hindered the innovation of the digital economic system that is promoted by the government in line with global developments. The research method adopted is personal interview with selected respondents to gather their views on the challenges posed by the restrictions imposed by AMLA that has had the impact of limiting innovations in the mobile payment system sector.

Money laundering and terrorism financing are financial crimes which affect the economic stability and integrity of the country. In this respect, the relevant regulator has a duty to preserve and protect the financial stability of the country. This duty is in line with the concept of the protection of wealth (hifz al-mal) under the maqāsid al-Sharīʿah or higher objectives of Islamic law framework. The objective of this chapter is to examine the protection of wealth vis-á-vis money laundering and terrorism financing from the maqāsid al-Sharīʿah perspective. This study analyses the primary and secondary legal sources on the laws and regulations on anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism while also considering the primary and secondary sources of Islamic law. This study is significant as it makes an exploration of the maqāsid al-Sharīʿah perspectives and discusses the position of unlawful wealth that is acquired from the illicit gain of property from the abuse of money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities. This chapter suggests that Islamic law emphasises on the lawful ownership of wealth and prohibits a person from acquiring illicit wealth. This study will contribute towards the study on the deployment of maqāsid al-Sharīʿah, which is beneficial in safeguarding an individual action as well as the country’s commitment against abuse and misuse of wealth for financial crimes.

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that was unprecedented in human history. The scale of infection was unusual with most countries succumbing to this disease. Various mitigation plans were introduced by governments around the world to contain the spread of the virus. The Southeast Asian region is not spared from the harmful effects of COVID-19. Most Southeast Asian countries responded swiftly to COVID-19 by introducing stringent policies such as contact tracing, mandatory quarantine, restriction of movements, cancellation of public events, health screenings, and border closures early on to tackle the rapid spread of the virus. The adoption of technology for contact tracing such as MySejahtera (Malaysia), TraceTogether (Singapore), PeduliLindungi (Indonesia), Mor Chana (Thailand), and Stay Safe (Philippines) shows the rapid response from the governments to contain the spread of COVID-19. The variation in the degree of success stories at different timelines in managing COVID-19 in the region indicates that COVID-19 management requires short and long-term planning, especially in the public health policy. In the case of Malaysia, the first phase of movement control order (MCO, 18–31 March 2020) took place on the background of political turmoil. The newly formed government under the leadership of Muhyiddin Yasin announced the first phase of lockdown in Malaysia to control the rising number of COVID-19 cases. The lockdowns then evolved into different forms at different phases of implementation until it was announced on 8 March 2022 that the country is transitioning to the endemic phase on 1 April 2022. This study shows that the respondents to our survey during the first phase of MCO are highly aware of the government’s initiatives to manage COVID-19 and the Malaysian public has a high level of trust and confidence in the government’s initiatives. The stringent measures taken by the government in the first wave of COVID-19 were seen as a necessity and it provided legitimacy to the government despite being the first unelected government in Malaysian history.

The development of cities and regions is important for the economy. The most of the possible beneficial mechanisms of this growth can be achieved through the improved organizational performance. This chapter proposes the triadic analysis to the ethnic diversity with the implementation of talent and diversity management practices, in which diasporans serve as mediators. The research contributes to both theory and practice. First, since diasporans create spillover effect and provide transfer of knowledge and other capacities to destinations, their positive impact on cities and firms' performance is introduced. Second, we emphasize the specific practices, which are important to manage diversity issue and attract more skilled individuals, who can be further turned into diasporas. The research has implications for managers and policymakers emphasizing the benefits of diverse talent diasporans and possible strategies on how to leverage their skills and expertise.

Despite arguments that traditional product costing and variance analysis operate contrary to the strategic goals of advanced manufacturing practices such as just in time (JIT), total quality management (TQM), and Six Sigma, little empirical evidence exists that cost accounting practices (CAP) are changing in the era of continuous improvement and waste reduction. This research supplies some of the first evidence of what CAP are employed to support the information needs of a world-class manufacturing environment. Using survey data obtained from executives of 121 U.S. manufacturing firms, the study examines the relationship between the use of JIT, TQM, and Six Sigma with various forms of traditional and non-traditional CAP. Analysis of variance tests (ANOVA) indicate that most traditional CAP continue to be used in all manufacturing environments, but a significant portion of world-class manufacturers supplement their internal management accounting system with non-traditional management accounting techniques.

Interpersonal and informal ties and networks, known as wasta in the Arab Middle East region, remain a major force in Middle Eastern societies, determining most economic, social and political outcomes. Yet the literature on informal ties and networks is largely characterized by a lack of contributions from the Arab world, despite the adverse effect that lack of understanding of the wasta phenomenon is having on the effectiveness of expatriate managers and subsequently on business performance. This chapter therefore aims to shed light on the meaning, characteristics, structure, and role of wasta in establishing and maintaining successful business relationships. It ends with recommendations for foreign investors and international managers who wish to establish and maintain successful business relationships in the Middle East on how to capitalize on interpersonal networks within this process.

This chapter explores how the recognition of opportunities regarding developing technology and entering a new market is influenced by the systemic effect of social forces. These include institutions, social networks and the entrepreneur’s cognitive frames. This study adopts a longitudinal perspective by capturing and analysing the phenomenon in two moments: first, when the businesses started to operate domestically and second, when they began to internationalise. The cases of five Brazilian technology firms are analysed. The findings reveal the systemic and mutually reinforcing effect of these social forces on the recognition of opportunities. The entrepreneurs’ cognitive frames were particularly vital in recognising opportunities to enter the Brazilian market. The institutional support provided by universities along with government mechanisms and entrepreneurs’ social networks were essential to accrue experiential and non-experiential knowledge of international markets, therefore contributing to the recognition of international opportunities. The temporal perspective employed in this research assists the understanding of how historical events shape entrepreneurs’ capabilities to recognise and change company discourse to pursue the recognition of international opportunities. The results provide guidelines for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers, particularly in the emerging economies in Latin America, to support the growth and flourishing of entrepreneurial ventures through pursuing international opportunities.

The changing environment and competitive market forces have brought many changes in the business sector that have put organisations under immense pressure. The use of psychometric assessments and behavioural profiling help organisations to determine individuals' abilities, aptitudes, personality traits, values and factors which intrinsically motivate them and assist in bringing the right people on board who fit well within the organisational culture and can contribute towards the performance goals. Although behavioural profiling and psychometric assessments are accepted worldwide, however, developing countries particularly the public sector still relies on conventional recruitment methods and the adaptation of contemporary behavioural profiling and psychometric assessments is a challenge. Therefore, this chapter evaluates how the adaptation of behavioural profiling and psychometric assessments in the civil service exams in developing countries can improve the selection process and ultimately can help to improve the quality of public services, capacity building and achieving sustainability goals.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) gained attention, particularly SDG 4 which focuses on quality education. Tecnologico de Monterrey, popularly known as TEC, is one of the few elite private universities in Mexico that took significant steps to enhance the quality of education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, in view of students’ career plans. In this empirical research, an online survey was employed to investigate the mediating role of peers’ feedback on team-based learning (TBL) and career planning skills among university students. The study included 86 students from bachelor’s and master’s programmes. IBM SPSS version 26 and PROCESS Macro v 3.5 were used for the quantitative data analysis. The results confirm that peers’ feedback partially mediates the relationship between TBL and the career planning skills of students. This study provides recommendations to university authorities to develop educational policies in-line with SDG 4, thoroughly revise course curricula of the degree programmes offered, and include online learning activities for solving problems in the current world scenario.