This paper examines the short- and long-run relationships between trade balance, real exchange rates, income and money supply in the case of Malaysia. The inclusion of income and money variables in the study is purposely to examine the monetary and absorption approaches to the balance of payments beside the conventional approach of elasticity, using exchange rates. Using the bound testing approach to cointegration and error correction models, developed within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework, we investigate whether a long-run equilibrium relationship exists between trade balance and the determinants. Additionally, we adopt an innovation accounting by simulating variance decompositions (VDC) and impulse response functions (IRF) for further inferences. Using this approach, we find evidence of a long-run relationship between trade balance and income and money supply variables but not between trade balance and real exchange rate. The findings also suggest that Marshall-Lerner condition does not hold in the long-run for Malaysia and for policy wise the Malaysian trade balance/balance of payments should be viewed from absorption and monetary approaches.Trade balance, cointegration, ARDL, variance decompositions, impulse response functions,

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This paper examines whether attitudes towards electric vehicles (ATEVs), subjective norms (SNs) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) have significant associations with consumer purchase intention (PI) and the purchase behaviour of environmentally friendly vehicles (EFVs). The results from the survey questionnaires are analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings of this paper indicate that ATEV, SN and PBC significantly influence PI. This finding also indicates that environmental consequence and individual preferences do not influence the PI of the respondents. We found that Malaysian car owners are largely unaware of the greenhouse effects on the environment or attach to it little importance, which is reflected in their PI towards EFVs. The outcomes of this study could help policymakers design programmes to influence attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and purchase behaviour to prevent further air pollution and reduce CO2 emissions from the transportation sector.

Water pollution is a major problem in the global environment. This necessitates continuing assessment and review of water resource policy at all levels. The main objectives of this article are to investigate major sources of water pollution, water resource policies and challenges to improve water quality in Malaysia. The findings indicate that the major problem associated with water pollution is that human heart and kidneys can be adversely affected if polluted water is consumed regularly. Other health problems associated with polluted water are poor blood circulation, skin lesions, vomiting, cholera, gastroenteritis and damage to the nervous system. It also highlighted that residential, agricultural and industrial wastes are three main sources of river pollution in Malaysia. This article also identified several challenges fronting as rural water supply and sanitation, recreational water and safe drinking water in Malaysia. Finally, we discuss the water resource policies in Malaysia and provide some recommendations that will be helpful for policymakers to improve river water quality, particularly in Malaysia. 水污染：马来西亚水资源管理政策的挑战和未来方向水污染是全球环境的一大难题。这需要持续的对水资源政策进行全方位的评估和审查。本文的 主要目的是探讨水体污染的主要来源、水资源政策和马来西亚改善水质的挑战。研究结果表明 一些重大问题均与水质污染相关，比如如果经常食用被污染的水，人的心脏和肾脏都会受到不 利影响。其它与水污染有关的健康问题还包括血液循环不畅、皮肤损伤、呕吐、霍乱、肠胃炎 和神经系统损伤。研究还强调了生活、农业和工业废物是马来西亚河流污染的三个主要来源。 本文还确定了马来西亚面临的一些挑战，比如：农村供水和卫生、娱乐用水和安全饮用水。最 后，我们对马来西亚水资源政策提供了一些建议，这将有助于政策制定者改善河流水质，特别 是马来西亚的水质。 关键词：水污染；政策；挑战；健康和马来西亚 Environment and Urbanization AsIA 5(1) 63-81

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the effect of capital structure on Islamic banks’ (IBs) performance to provide guidance to finance managers for raising capital funds. As newcomers to the markets, IBs are facing a trade-off. They can either use high capital ratios which increase the soundness and safety of the bank and lower the required return by investors, or depend on deposits and Islamic bonds which are considered cheaper sources of funds due to their tax rebate. An IB’s management must carefully decide the appropriate mix of debt and equity, i.e. capital structure, to maximize the value of the bank. Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of 85 IBs covering banking systems in 19 countries, the study uses a two-stage least squares method to examine the performance determinants of IBs to control the reverse causality from performance to capital structure. Findings – After control of the macroeconomic environment, financial market structure and taxation, results indicate that IBs’ performance (profitability) responds positively to an increase in equity (capital ratio). The result is consistent with the signaling theory which predicts that banks expected to have better performance credibly transmit this information through higher capital. Optimal capital structure results of the IBs found a non-monotonic U-shaped relationship between the capital-asset ratio and profitability, supporting the efficiency risk and franchise value hypotheses. Research limitations/implications – Due to limitations for market data, the study uses book accounting ratios. Future research where market data are available could use performance measures, such as Tobin’s Q in performance determinants models. Practical implications – The non-monotonic relationship found between IBs’ return on equity and capital ratios suggests that equity issuances for IBs’ with low capital ratios (lower than the turning point of 37.41 per cent) are expensive and have a negative effect on their profitability. On the other hand, managers of well-capitalized IBs (banks with capital ratios beyond 37.41 per cent) are advised to rely on equity when faced by a decision to raise capital, as the capital ratio starts to affect their profitability positively. Originality/value – Islamic banking literature has been silent on IBs’ capital structure and its relevance; this study will try to fill in the existent gap.

Purpose Crowdfunding has become one of the preferred mechanisms to raise funds by startups and small entrepreneurs. As such, this paper aims to develop an appropriate framework for Sharīʿah-compliant equity-based crowdfunding (SEC) in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach The research begins by analyzing the intention of 200 entrepreneurs in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor regarding the use crowdfunding to raise capital. The analysis is based on the theory of reasoned action, which is also associated with the technology acceptance model (TAM) and is effected by using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings The entrepreneurs agree on the ease of use of crowdfunding in raising capital, although it appeared that they are quite reluctant to share their business ideas online. Subsequently, an SEC framework is proposed, to further enhance entrepreneurship development in Malaysia particularly in meeting the need for raising funds in line with Sharīʿah principles. Practical implications This paper aims to contribute more to the development of a blueprint for an SEC platform for market players and regulators in Malaysia. Social implications This paper also aims to highlight the growing needs of entrepreneurs, particularly in Malaysia to have a Sharīʿah-compliant alternate to raise funds via crowdfunding. Originality/value This paper makes two main contributions. First, it provides evidence on Malaysian entrepreneurs’ intention to use crowdfunding for fundraising through TAM and SEM analysis. Second, it proposes an SEC framework for the development of entrepreneurs in Malaysia.

This article observes how the individual values and attitudes of consumers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia influence their purchase intention of electric vehicles (EVs) using the well-known theory of reasoned action (TRA). This study analyzed the data collected from 200 respondents from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. These respondents were asked about their views concerning their value sets, attitudes and purchase intention of EV using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. Findings of this study indicate that individual consequences relating to cost and convenience of consumers is negatively related to intention to purchase EVs. Environmental consequences are not a significant predictor of purchase intention. Conservation value was found to be positively related to the attitude of the respondents on environmental consequences but less intensely with individual consequences, while both selftranscendence value and self-enhancement value were positively related to individual consequences. Individual consequences and self-enhancement values were negatively related to environmentally responsible purchase intention. This article shows that the extended TRA might be applicable to the Malaysian context. The results of the study also suggest that domestic and foreign manufacturers of EVs should also take into consideration the perceptible easiness and convenience of users to recycle and reuse battery by using special materials that are recyclable and not harmful to the users. KeywordsPurchase intention, electric vehicle, environmental consciousness, structural equation modelling ArticleEnvironment and Urbanization ASIA 6(2) 1-18

Problem statement:The nature of Islamic banks is different from conventional banks which may lead to a different deposit behavior of their depositors. This study aims to analyze the dynamic effects of interest and profit rate changes, production level, inflation and financial crisis towards the fluctuation of total deposits in Malaysian Islamic banks. Approach: Using monthly data from January 2000 to December 2010, cointegration test and vector error correction model were utilized to uncover the dynamic relationship between macroeconomic variables and crisis with total deposit of Islamic banking. Results: The results show that changes in interest and profit rate as well as production growth has no significant effects. Meanwhile, inflation has negative effect on total deposits of Islamic banks which reflects the changes on depositors' consumption pattern during the recession. Interestingly, financial crisis is positively affecting total deposits in Islamic banks. Conclusion: This study provides evidence of general consumer sentiment and deposit behavior. It indicates that in general, due to the 1997/1998 financial crisis experience, bank depositors have trusted Islamic banking to be more resilient in facing financial crisis and hence, inflow of deposits to Islamic banks was happened during 2007/2008 financial crisis.