Over the last few years, many activities conducted by university employees have contributed greatly to the global rise of greenhouse gases responsible for the warming of the planet. This phenomenon can be attributed primarily to altering lifestyle, consumption, and portability patterns. Even though there is a significant applicability, understanding the factors determining the pro-environmental behavior (PEB) of university employees is lacking. Thus, this study extended the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain PEB among university employees. Ten hypotheses were suggested regarding the relations between the initial TPB constructs, environmental ethics, and emotional intelligence. A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data from a randomly selected sample of 302 university employees from six Malaysian higher educational institutions listed in the UI Green Matrix 2016. The findings revealed that environmental ethics significantly affected attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms. Furthermore, pro-environmental behavioral intentions (PEIs) were directly influenced by attitude and perceived behavioral control, while emotional intelligence mediated the relationship between PEIs and PEB. Moving forward, this study will provide new insights into the literature of university employees’ PEB using an expanded TPB model.

(1) Background: Social capital linking, bridging, and bonding have become fascinating options for sustainable development in rural Malaysia. (2) Objective: The aims of this research were (i) to evaluate how leadership styles affect the social capital in rural Malaysia, and (ii) to examine the moderating role of motivation in enhancing these relationships. (3) Methods: The researchers utilized a quantitative approach to analyze data collected through a self-administered survey involving 190 members of the Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK) in Malaysia. The concept of “leadership quality” was measured based on transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership, while “motivations” cover its extrinsic and intrinsic components. The data were analyzed using a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. (4) Results: The findings reveal that transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership types are essential to increase social capital in rural Malaysia. It may therefore be suggested that community leadership and its effective styles should be nurtured within the rural community to address more complex problems regarding social capital development. On top of that, extrinsic and intrinsic motivations also appeared to be significant moderating factors in determining social capital development in rural Malaysia. (5) Conclusions: Based on the results, community leaders with different leadership styles may offer better social benefits to the rural community by using various incentives to engage rural residents in facilitating social activities. (6) Policy recommendations: This study suggests further implications for academics and policy makers focused on social capital for sustainable rural development in Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the ongoing reform at the local government level continues to shape the role of local leaders in rural development. This study aims to identify several challenges faced by rural community leaders and to suggest some ways in which rural leaders can weather and benefit from them. This qualitative study, which used content analysis, employed purposive sampling to firstly select the interviewee, and then was sustained throughout until data saturation. The respondents were from a 60-member cohort from Malaysia’s Villages Development and Safety Committee who held the positions of chairpersons and ordinary members. For data collection and analysis, this study used semi-structured interviews and an inductive approach respectively. The data analysis led to the development of eight main themes of “difficulty in decision making”, “strengthening external network”, “disseminating the precise information”, “Comprehensive participation of the community members”, “preparing an efficient work plan”, “overlapping functions of government agencies”, “political control”, and “the lack of facilities and infrastructure”. Identifying these challenges for rural community leaders will help the local government take proactive action on community leadership in terms of social capital, networking, communication, trust creation, and leadership qualities. Going forward, the government should place serious attention to developing the potential and skills of local leaders as a reward for their profound commitment to developing their community.

Faced with lockdowns and social isolation because of COVID-19, alternative teaching methods such as online teaching allow academics and lecturers to teach students. Hence, the study aimed to investigate academics’ intention and behavioral patterns in adopting online educational technologies in Malaysia via the unified theory of acceptance and the use of technology (UTAUT) with an additional academics’ ethical considerations. The data were collected randomly from a sample of 321 academics from five Malaysian research universities using a questionnaire. For model and hypothesis testing, partial least squares (PLS) regression was utilized. The findings revealed that (1) ease of use, social influence, and ethical considerations all influenced behavioral intention significantly; and (2) facilitating conditions had positive relationships with usage behavior. The present results are consistent with the original UTAUT model and ethical considerations as an additional factor. The study findings serve as a beneficial guide for universities and educational planners who are programming online teaching technologies for use in universities.

The annual report is a document that provides key information for stakeholders to understand a company's performance to enable them to make decisions. This paper reports the results of an exploratory study on users' perceptions of the importance of tax disclosure, current state of tax disclosure and usefulness of more tax disclosure in the annual reports of listed companies in Malaysia. A survey questionnaire was used for data collection through the convenience sampling technique which elicited 207 usable questionnaires for analysis. Respondents include professionals, tax officers, management executives, academics and postgraduate students attending a tax seminar. The findings show that users of annual reports agree that the tax disclosure section is an important part in the annual report and more tax information must be disclosed. They believe that tax disclosure is beneficial in facilitating decision-making and assisting tax authorities in handling tax audits. Users also perceive that tax disclosure is limited, too technical to be interpreted and agree that more tax disclosure would be useful for stakeholders to comprehend companies' tax matters. This study recommends more research on tax disclosure to be conducted, including examining the disclosure behaviour of companies from various industries in Malaysia.