PurposeThe purpose of this study aims to empirically examine the corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) levels of conventional and Islamic banks in Malaysia. Additionally, as Malaysian banks have different shareholding patterns that are more highly concentrated than those in the developed economies, this study also investigates the impact of ownership concentration on CSRD in both types of banks.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs hand-collected corporate social responsibility (CSR) data from the annual and sustainability reports of 21 conventional banks and 16 Islamic banks in Malaysia during 2010–2017. The data are then run using the pooled ordinary least square (OLS) with robust standard errors and robust regressions models together with all possible factors determining CSRD in the banking sector.FindingsThis study discovers that Islamic banks disclose a higher level of total CSRD than their conventional counterparts after controlling a number of important determinants of CSRD. These results remain consistent for four different dimensions of CSRD, i.e. employees, communities, environment and products and services. In relation to the impact of ownership concentration on CSRD level, the results show that high ownership concentration reduces the level of CSRD by Malaysian banks. However, in an additional interaction test, the result exhibits a complementary relationship between Islamic banks and ownership concentration in influencing CSRD level.Research limitations/implicationsThis study finds that the principle of Islamic accountability has been internalised by Islamic banks, and shaped them to put equal emphasis on the disclosure of CSR practices and the financial information disclosure.Practical implicationsIt is recommended for all banks to ensure the integration of a more comprehensive ethical system, such as theological ethical values in every aspect of their business activities. The findings from this study also highlight the necessity for the central bank to increase their monitoring role, especially towards banks with a more concentrated ownership structure by limiting the size of shareholdings by any particular types of owners.Originality/valueOnly a few studies have compared CSR practices between these two types of banks, and most of them are descriptive and qualitative in nature. This study is the first that uses a robust model with a high R-squared value, which control for all possible factors determining CSRD in the banking sector.

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic is still spreading rampantly in almost every country in the world, causing around 1.5 million dead at the point of time, and the death rate is still going up even though inoculation of vaccine has started. It is widely recognized that this pandemic Covid-19 is caused by infectious pathogens from the animal. Aim: This study investigates the relationship of biodiversity loss and zoonotic disease pandemic. The main reason for this migration is habitat (biodiversity) loss which is primarily caused by deforestation. Subject and Methods: Using Pooled Ordinary Least Square (POLS) models and worldwide data collected by using biodiversity in 170 countries. Results: It was found that biodiversity loss is positively related to the emergence of contagious disease. Conclusion: This verifies once for all that deforestation must be controlled so that the chance of emergent of next pandemic is mitigated.

As the world is becoming more globalised, cross border education continues to preoccupy the agenda of internationalisation of higher education with more and more countries participating as education providers. Competition for students requires the education providers to step-up in their quality assurance and governance as to ensure their sustainability in years to come. The shift of intention from merely focusing on internationalisation as a source of revenue generation to a more diverse objective of talent development that promotes research and innovation is imperative. Thus, the ability of the host countries to attract high quality students and retain them for further degree is nevertheless essential. Despite huge literature concentrating on identifying the factors that can attract potential international students to enrol in host countries, few known studies have been carried out to identify the factors that are able to influence the choice of the currently enrolled international students to remain in Malaysia for their further degrees. Using the data of 753 international students, gathered from a sample of few universities in Malaysia, this particular study employs a Logit Model in an attempt to identify the educational choice motives that influence the decision of the currently enrolled international students to remain in Malaysia for their higher level of study. The finding shows that the consumption motive dominates the investment motive, suggesting that students' decision to remain in Malaysia for further degree is highly related to the consumption motive as compared to the investment motive. A comfortable study environment, high quality services and facilities, excellent faculty members and easy access to information regarding matters related to education in Malaysia significantly influence the students' decision to stay to further their studies. The findings from this study lend support to a commonly held view that the quality of education matters.

Malaysia has positioned itself to be a regional higher education hub and targeted to increase its number of international students to 250,000 by 2025, from 81,424 students in 2013. In the face of COVID-19, Malaysia is expected to experience stiff competitions with other countries in attracting international students. In essence, apart from attracting new students to come and study, pursuing the currently enrolled international students to stay on for advanced degrees is equally crucial to achieving the objective of the internationalisation agenda. Many studies have been done on factors affecting the decision of international students in choosing a host country. However, the retention and its sequential nature have been largely ignored. This paper aims to examine the probability of retention using a sequential approach. The descriptive statistics analysis found that Malaysia could expect that around 42% of its currently enrolled international students will remain in Malaysia. Results of the estimated sequential logit model reveal that university services are the significant factor that influences the probability of retention, whereas the education cost is found to be insignificant. Thus, consumption motives dominate the investment motives in terms of the probability of retention. Based on the findings, various policy implications are suggested to improve the retention rate of international students in Malaysia.