The main objective of this proposed research is to develop a new model in explaining the factors affecting firms' decision with respect to its capital structure. Although there is already abundant amount of literature on this topic, there are some limitations in which work to date can be improved. With regards to the existing literature, two issues have been identified for which improvements can be made: (1) the use of new sample and population -financially distressed firms classified as shariah compliant, and (2) the use of variable selection techniques in deciding the most optimal combination of predictors. The findings of this proposed research should be able to provide the answer to these two important questions:(1) what is the best combination of variables to be included in the final model? (2) how would the selected independent variable affect the firm capital structure decision? The answer to these questions is important as it will enable the management of a firms to design the appropriate capital structure policy and construct a package of financial instruments that need to be sold to investors. This proposed research expected to provide a better understanding of factors affecting capital structure and serve as a guide for future research, policy makers and the regulators in formulating the best policies, rules, and regulations to support the firms, especially financially distressed and shariah complaints firms with regards to their capital structure.

The main objective of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the size and determinants of the indirect financial distress costs for Malaysia's financially distressed firms. The use data from non-financial shariah-compliant financially distressed firms is the unique contribution of this paper. The analysis used the opportunity costs as the proxy for indirect financial distress cost. The population for this research is all shariah-compliant firms classified as financially distressed under the requirement of Practice Note 17 of Bursa Malaysia. The overall sample consists of 341 observations. The average size of the cost for the period of study is 13.41%, and it ranges from a minimum value of -241.43% to a maximum value of 111.76%, indicates the existence of both cost and benefit of financial distress. The regression result suggests that the model fits the data well at the 0.05 significance level. The results of the regression also suggest firm size is the only independent variable was found to have a statistically significant relationship with the dependent variable, whereas change in investment policy, time in distress and leverage do not appear to be significantly related to the level of indirect financial distress cost.

The main objective of this study is to provide further evidence on the determinants of firm's profitability in Malaysia. A better understanding of this topic is important not only for the purpose of enriching empirical studies in this field but also for the purpose of sectoral and cross-country comparison. The use data from non-financial shariah compliant firms are the unique contribution of this paper. The data for the final sample consists of 169 firms and analyzed using the panel data analysis techniques to identify the key determinants of firm's profitability. The study finds that the profitability of these firms significantly affected by the size of the firms, efficiency, and the level of sales. In addition, firms' efficiency suggested to be the most important variable affecting firm's performance. Although this paper provides empirical evidence, several areas need to be refined with future empirical research. First, this paper uses only limited number of variables, the inclusion of other firm specific variables might lead to a new set of findings and conclusion. Second, this paper has not taken into consideration the effect of using different data analysis technique. Future studies might want to explore the used of other techniques in analyzing the data.