Purpose -This paper aims to examine the factors that measure different satisfaction levels between the Asian and Western travellers during their stay in hotels in Malaysia. The paper also seeks to analyse the importance of the tangible and intangible factors in the hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach -The research questions are utilised to measure the differences between Asian and Western perception of hotel attributes. A questionnaire with five-point Likert scale is applied to measure customer satisfaction. Data is analysed using SPSS software by employing factor analysis, multiple regression, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Findings -Results indicate that there are significant differences between Asian and Western evaluations of hotel quality, with clear indication that satisfaction levels Malaysian hotels were higher among Western travellers than the Asian travellers. Both Asian and Western travellers perceive hospitality as an influential factor in determining the overall satisfaction level.Research limitations/implications -The limitation of the study is that the sample is taken only from travellers who are leaving Malaysia by plane. Future research can be carried out on the travellers arriving at and depart from Malaysia using different mode of transportations. Practical implications -For practitioners, it is worth noting that Asian travellers are exclusively concerned with the value for money services, while Western travellers regard security and safety, and food and beverage as important factors for them to stay in the hotels or revisit the country. Originality/value -Malaysia is an emerging market for tourism industry and the information obtained from the travellers can be utilised to enhance a much more efficient marketing strategy in the hotel industry. This paper contains material relevant to education as well as to the tourism industry, and implementable solutions are sufficiently well suggested.

With the development of computerization and networking capabilities, there is a significantly enhanced opportunity for sharing information and knowledge world‐wide. For an organization to survive in these turbulent times, there is a great need for its continuous renewal through the introduction of new, innovative products and processes that are based on new knowledge. As a result, the management and measurement of intellectual capital have attracted a lot of attention in recent years both in the media and from academia. This paper assesses different methodologies of intellectual capital measurements, both from a macro valuation standpoint and from the operating perspective. Valuation metrics are suggested and it demonstrates how it is applied to a cross‐section of firms. The paper also shows that there is no conceptual framework commonly accepted and there is a considerable lack of consistency both inter‐country and intra‐country. This paper has taken three firms from distinct industries and has applied human, relational or structural capital metrics depending on which is the most relevant.

The advance of online technology and instructional delivery such as Web-based learning (WBL) has heralded new changes in education. Students using the WBL environment in various courses at eight universities in Malaysia were surveyed. Results showed that five main factors influence the effectiveness of the online learning process: students' behavior, characteristics of lecturers, interactive application, technology or system, and the institutions. Results indicated that students' grades are highly correlated with student perception, self-efficacy and interactivity. The WBL learners do not outperform traditional learners. There is also a need to improve the quality of WBL due to differences in adaptation styles of learners in the process.

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