PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of users' adoption momentum of e‐banking in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire with four‐point Likert scale is applied to 324 usable responses. Ten attributes are tested, namely convenience of usage, accessibility, features availability, bank management and image, security, privacy, design, content, speed, and fees and charges.FindingsResults indicate that all elements for ten identified factors are significant with respect to the users' adoption of e‐banking services. Privacy and security are the major sources of dissatisfaction, which have momentously impacted users' satisfaction. Meanwhile, accessibility, convenience, design and content are sources of satisfaction. Besides, the speed, product features availability, and reasonable service fees and charges, as well as the bank's operations management factor are critical to the success of the e‐banks. WAP, GPRS and 3G features from mobile devices are of no significance or influence in the adoption of e‐banking services in this study. Results also reveal that privacy, security and convenience factors play an important role in determining the users' acceptance of e‐banking services with respect to different segmentation of age group, education level and income level.Research limitations/implicationsThe use of convenience sampling in this study weakens research objectivity. This study excludes the voice of non‐users and non‐users' views should be taken into account in future study.Practical implicationsThe results are expected to provide a practical contribution in the area of retail banking and in understanding consumer behavior in the Malaysian business‐to‐business financial services industry.Originality/valueThis paper is the extension of an earlier study by Suganthi et al. which identified seven factors affecting the adoption of internet banking, with 17 elements. This study examines a wider scope of factors that consist of ten attributes with 78 elements based on the extant literature.

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.

A survey of the cultural notions related to happiness and the existing empirical evidence indicate that some individuals endorse the belief that happiness, particularly an immoderate degree of it, should be avoided. These beliefs mainly involve the general notion that happiness may lead to bad things happening. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel modeling, this study investigates the measurement invariance, cross-level isomorphism, predictive validity, and nomological network of the fear of happiness scale across 14 nations. The results show that this scale has good statistical properties at both individual and cultural levels. The findings also indicate that this scale has the potential to add to the knowledge about how people conceive of, and experience, happiness across cultures.

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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.

The belief that happiness is fragile-that it is fleeting and may easily turn into less favourable states-is common across individuals and cultures. However, not much is known about this belief domain and its structure and correlates. In the present study, we use multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel modelling to investigate the measurement invariance, cross-level isomorphism, predictive validity, and nomological network of the fragility of happiness scale across 15 nations. The results show that this scale has good statistical properties at both individual and cultural levels, and is associated with relevant psycho-social concepts in expected directions. The importance of the results, limitations, and potential directions for future research are discussed.The contribution of authors other than the corresponding author was equal and thus the second to last names are ordered alphabetically.Happiness is like trying to hold water in your hands. Michelangelo Antonioni. Happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment.

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PurposeThis paper aims to examine the non-linear impact of inflation on financial development, and the moderating role of GDP in the relationship between inflation and financial development in a panel of 125 countries.Design/methodology/approachIt employs the dynamic common correlated effects (CCE) that can control for heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. This technique enables us to conduct both panel and country-specific analyses.FindingsThough there is no significant evidence that inflation has a non-linear impact on financial development in the panel, the country-specific estimations reveal that inflation has a non-linear impact on financial development in 66 countries. The results also show that GDP mitigates the detrimental effect of inflation on financial development in 45 countries. An insight into the non-linear relationship between inflation and financial development is crucial for policy decision-making. Besides, knowledge of the moderating role of GDP in the relationship between financial development and inflation is fundamental for policy formulations.Originality/valueAlthough the extant literature has shown that the inflation rate plays a negative role in financial development, the literature overlooked the non-linear relationship between the two variables. Besides, the studies have not considered the role of GDP in moderating the impact of the inflation rate on financial development. This study fills these gaps in the existing body of finance literature.