Research and publications
Research projects
The Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Determinants of Credit Card Debt
Dr Priscilla Lim and Dr Patricia Ang were selected to collaborate on this research project with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). The Central Bank of Malaysia initiated the collaboration in an effort to foster closer ties between the Central
Bank and academic community and to create opportunities for the transfer of knowledge and skills. The research
aims to identify the demand-side risk factors of credit card debt to the financial system as well as the determinants of debtors’ success in reducing their credit card debt. The project takes a unique two-pronged approach and examines the issue from a national (macroeconomic) and individual-level (microeconomic) perspective. The findings of the research could have an impact of the conduct and design of the Central Bank’s policies and programmes.
Modelling Antecedents and Consequences of Credit Card Usage and Debt: Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Perspectives
by Dr Roy Khong Wye Leong, Dr Patricia M Ang and Dr Priscilla Lim Yin Pheng
Through funding from the Ministry of Education’s Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), this three-year multi-method study aims to model the pathways of credit card consumption behaviour, its antecedents and the resulting consequences. From a microeconomic lens, the role of financial literacy and other predictors in credit card usage and debt will be examined. In addition the significance of government policy, consumer confidence and other
macroeconomic variables in predicting credit card indebtedness will be investigated. Findings can inform policy
research and the design of social welfare policy.
Journal articles
Social Marketing: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
By Dilip Mutum, Ezlika Ghazali and Anvita Kumar
This chapter seeks to understand the challenges and barriers to social marketing campaigns in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It examined in detail the contraceptive and family planning social marketing campaigns in these three countires and found that these countries have had some success in lowering population growth rates. The barriers hampering the campaigns were also identified. The model proposed by the IIM in India has been analysed using the marketing mix. Some areas for future studies have been provided. From Bang Nguyen and Chris Rowley (Eds), Ethical and Social Marketing in Asia, 145-159 (2015).
Reshaping Malaysian Subsidiaries in the Wake of China’s Rise as the Preferred Location for Foreign Direct Production
By Lim, N C, Edwards, R and Tee, D D
This paper examines the locational behaviour of multinational enterprises, particularly the role of Malaysian
subsidiaries in relation to other subsidiaries in the region. Survey results showed that rising wage costs have led to
low cost, labour intensive and mature technology production being moved to China. Concurrently, Malaysian subsidiaries, particularly the export-oriented, have taken on production of more sophisticated goods. They play
regional coordination roles, are sources of ethnic Chinese managerial talent for the region, and provide back-up production for less reliable plants in China. Their strategic role appears to have evolved from being export platforms towards regional mandated hubs. From Journal of Asia-Pacific Business, 16(1), 66-87 (2015).
Towards an Integrated Academic Assessment: Closing Employers’ Expectations?
By Lim, N C
This paper shows that the integration of academic assessment with workplace performance appraisal practices can
help to address the gap between graduate employability skills and employers’ requirements – employability refers to learning of transferable skills. Such integration strengthens the theoretical argument on the importance of formative assessment as a way to nurture students’ learning. The transferable skills that students appeared to have learnt include:
- use of relevant data
- meticulous, attention to detail
- structure and systems thinking
- critical thinking
- writing skill
The findings from this paper allow employers to be more aware of the quality of the management students graduating from UNMC. The learning of transferable skills reflects creativity development, and this contributes to the theory of knowledge which emphasises the importance of developing creativity through education. From Education + Training, 57(2), 148-169 (2015).
The Troika of Business Cycle, Efficiency and Volatility. An East Asian Perspect
By Syed Aun R Rizvi
The efficient-market-hypothesis (EMH) has been the subject of much debate over the past few decades, with a
recent surge in interest in Asian markets. Asian markets, which traditionally comprise many emerging markets,
are more volatile and speculative in nature. The heart of our study focuses on the East Asian economies, which
have experienced massive capital inflows. This begs the question of whether or not the stock markets are efficient enough for further investment and development. Our paper differs from existing literature as it focuses on deriving
weak form efficiency rankings during different business cycle phases. We also assess the volatility and business cycle phases. Due to their economic and financial development, we looked at Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South
Korea. We used multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) to derive efficiency rankings and learn that the overall efficiency has improved over the past two decades and that markets are more efficient in growth phases in comparison to its preceding decline. Similarly, employing wavelet decomposition in conjunction with exponential generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (EGARCH), we obtain volatility of stock markets in two
distinct time horizons, i.e. short term and long term. We find the markets to be more stable during economic boom
than its preceding bust. Our results confer with mainstream literature. From Physica A, 419(A), 158–170 (2015).
Debt Financing and Its Determinants: Empirical Evidence of SMEs in China
By Sun, F and Too, S W
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been continuously contributed to an economy. Unfortunately there are some restrictions on the growth of SMEs as they face difficulties in accessing external financing resources, particularly debt financing instruments. Stricter credit policy and shorter term loan financing are some of the obstacles that are faced by SMEs, and as such its business sustainability may be a prominent issue in an economy. What are the antecedents of debt financing that are applicable to the SMEs? This study provides empirical evidence on some firm
and managerial-specific characteristics as the determinants of the extent of debt financing for a sample of 200 SMEs
in China. The findings of this study indicate that most firms’ characteristics are related to the firms’ leverage. However, size of the board of directors is not seen to be the determinant of firm leverage. This study is relevant as it provides
the insight that it might be easier for Chinese SMEs to obtain debt financing source for larger firms or firms with more tangible assets resources than the other counterparts. In addition, it would be easier to access to the debt capital if
the firm has more independent directors sitting in the board to monitor the managers’ behaviour. From Business
Journal for Entrepreneurs. 4, 11-26 (2014).
Does Education Empower Women? Evidence from Indonesia
By Samarakoon, S and Parinduri, R A
This paper examines whether education empowers women. We exploit an exogenous variation in education induced
by a longer school year in Indonesia in 1978, which fits a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. We find education reduces the number of live births, increases contraceptive use, and promotes reproductive health practices. However, except for a few outcome measures, we do not find evidence that education improves women’s decision-making authority within households, asset ownership, or community participation. These results suggest that, to some extent, education does empower women in middle-income countries like Indonesia. From World Development, 66, 428-442 (2015).
Business Driven Science and Technology Parks (STPs) for Accelerating Innovation: Cases from Malaysia and India
By Avvari V Mohan
This paper presents two cases of Science and Technology Parks (STPs) from Malaysia and India that are driven
by business organisations in partnership with governments. The need to locate the STP near to a university or a research institute has been considered crucial to attract firms to the STP. In this paper, we illustrate the efforts to develop a locally relevant STP through the cases of Pahang Bio Science in Malaysia and the ICICI Knowledge Park
(now known as IKP) in Hyderabad India. These two developments are anchored by business organisations that are playing a pivotal role in their development. Government also plays a supporting role in terms of policy and supplying certain complementary resources. In addition, we note that government support also provides legitimacy for the business organisation developing the STP. In the case of the Malaysian STP, we note the approach is towards
inclusive development by developing linkages to local communities. In the case of the Indian STP, we see the
dynamic development of the STP as it changes according to the needs of the sector. Especially interesting is the foresight by the modal business organisations in developing the STPs. World Technopolis Review, 3(3) 114-121(2014).