Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is any improvement in the extent and quality of corporate social responsibility disclosures (CSRD) in Malaysia between 2011 and 2014 and to determine the factors that influence the extent and quality of CSRD in these two years. Also, this study examines the methods of disclosures and the items that largest Malaysian companies addressed. Design/methodology/approach A self-constructed CSR is utilised to measure the extent and quality of CSRD in the annual reports of the top 71 Malaysian companies listed in Bursa Malaysia for the years 2011 and 2014. Multiple regressions along with their associated toolkits for data verification and diagnostic tests are used to assess the improvement in CSRD between 2011 and 2014 and the factors that affect CSRD. Findings Results show a slight increase in the extent and quality of CSRD between 2011 and 2014. With regards to the factors influencing CSRD, only awards are found to be significant in determining the extent and quality of CSRD either in 2011 or in 2014. Board size, ownership concentration, independent non-executives and return on assets influence both the extent and quality of CSRD in 2011. Director ownership and firm size determine the extent and quality of CSRD in 2014. Government ownership only influences the extent of CSRD in 2011. Research limitations/implications Some traditional limitations are found to be considered in future research, such as the use of annual reports as the only source of CSRD information. Results support the legitimacy theory that assumes that Malaysian companies disclose CSR information as a reflection of the incidents that happen in that environment of the firm without ignoring the role of the government in pushing those companies towards being socially responsible by issuing regulations, or in motivating those companies by introducing awards and giving fiscal facilities. Practical implications The results help the policymakers to introduce more awards in some domains that were less addressed by Malaysian companies and also to examine the causes behind the non-influence of the new Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG 2012) on CSRD. Originality/value The study can be considered as one of the limited empirical studies that assess the changes in CSRD before and after the issuance of MCCG 2012 in Malaysia.

This study, by employing structural vector auto regression models, investigates the macroeconomic effects of world oil and food price shocks in the context of selected Asia and Pacific countries. The study reveals that the economic activities of resource‐poor countries that specialise in heavy manufacturing industries, like Korea and Taiwan, are highly affected by world oil price shocks. On the other hand, the economic activities of oil‐poor nations such as Australia and New Zealand, with diverse mineral resources other than oil, are not affected by oil price shocks. Furthermore, countries that are oil poor but specialise in international financial services, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, are also not affected by oil price increases. Moreover, some developing countries, in this case, India, with limited reserves of oil are not affected by oil price shocks, whereas other such countries, like Thailand, possessing a number of natural resources other than oil are more strongly affected by oil price shocks. With regard to food price shocks, limited impacts from food price increases can be recorded for India, Korea and Thailand. Overall, the effects of external oil and food prices depend on the economic characteristics of the countries.

Most of the enterprises of the World belong to the class of microenterprises and thus, the contributions of microenterprises to the national economic growth and development of the countries are not ignorable. Establishing a microenterprise does not involve the huge formalities and substantial funds that small, medium and large enterprises require. However, for a healthy growth of microenterprises, the determining factors must be identified and policies should be undertaken and implemented in an appropriate manner. The objective of the current study is to identify different potential factors that contribute to the overall growth of the Malaysian microenterprises. Computing descriptive statistics and applying multiple regression analysis to data for 253 microenterprises of Malaysia, the study finds that a certain number of entrepreneurial and enterprise characteristics along with several economic factors affect the overall performance of microenterprises. Specifically, it is found that competition and the age of the enterprises negatively affect overall performance of the microenterprises whereas age of the entrepreneurs, education, business training, demand for the product/service, availability of physical space for business expansion in the city area, availability of financing and sufficiency of secured amount of finance pose positive impacts on the growth. The results of this study provide some insights to policymakers and business practitioners to address the determinants pertaining to microenterprise growth.

No abstract

This study has twofold objectives. Firstly, to examine the short‐ and long‐run relationships between diesel or petrol retail prices in New Zealand and crude oil prices and, secondly, to assess the response of retail sector price movements to changes in crude oil prices. The study uses both standard and hidden asymmetric cointegration methods. The major findings are as follows: the prices of diesel and petrol maintain both short‐ and long‐run relationships with crude oil prices although the pass‐through rates differ. Diesel prices are found to be symmetric in response to the changes in crude oil prices, while petrol prices respond asymmetrically to changes in crude oil prices. When crude oil prices increase, petrol prices in New Zealand increase immediately and not vice versa. The reasons for the asymmetric pricing behaviour might include higher demand for petrol than diesel, individual and tourist‐type customers rather than commercial and industrial customers, search costs, revenue‐maximising behaviour of retailers based on high demand, and government taxes and levies.