Vol. 18 No. 4(I) (2026)

This study examines whether professional skepticism is associated with tax ethical judgement among Malaysian tax practitioners and whether the association differs across audit-firm settings. The paper uses archived data and preserved statistical outputs from a broader postgraduate research project completed in 2016, comprising 140 usable responses from practitioners in Big Four and non-Big Four audit firms. Professional skepticism was measured using an adapted 30-item Hurtt scale, while two scenario-specific case scores were retained as separate outcomes. Archived hierarchical regression results show a positive association between professional skepticism and the case outcomes in both scenarios (Case 1: B = 0.133, p = 0.012; Case 2: B = 0.069, p = 0.038). Audit firm type also moderates the relationship (Case 1: B = -0.220, p = 0.034; Case 2: B = -0.305, p = 0.007), with archived firm-specific regressions showing stronger positive slopes among Big Four practitioners. Social Cognitive Theory is used to interpret professional skepticism as a personal/cognitive factor operating within an organizational environment. Because the underlying observations are historical and the respondent-level raw data are no longer available, the findings should not be interpreted as estimates of current Malaysian practice or as newly revalidated measurement evidence. Instead, they provide historical empirical evidence on the relationship among professional skepticism, organizational context and scenario-based tax ethical judgement, considered alongside more recent tax-practice and professional-skepticism research.

Experiential pedagogies are increasingly used in entrepreneurship education to develop the entrepreneurial mindset. However, participation in entrepreneurial activities does not automatically result in meaningful entrepreneurial learning. This conceptual paper explores how entrepreneurial experiences may foster the development of an entrepreneurial mindset through processes of adaptability. This paper proposes an Adaptive Experiential Learning Framework for Entrepreneurial Mindset Development through an integrative review of the literature on entrepreneurial mindset, experiential learning, and adaptability. The framework proposes four dominant developmental associations based on Kolb’s experiential-learning cycle: concrete experience with emotional adaptability, reflective observation with cognitive adaptability, abstract conceptualization with strategic adaptability, and active experimentation with behavioral adaptability. These associations are not presented as exclusive or sequential causal pathways; rather, emotional, cognitive, strategic and behavioral adaptability are conceptualized as interlinked processes operating recursively across repeated experiential-learning cycles. Five conceptual propositions are offered as guides for future empirical investigation. The framework advances entrepreneurship education by highlighting the role of adaptiveness as a developmental mechanism linking entrepreneurial experience with entrepreneurial mindset, and by differentiating among various types of adaptive change that take place during experiential learning. It also implies that experiential activities should be designed and assessed not just based on participation or successful entrepreneurial outputs but based on learners’ ability to regulate responses to uncertainty, rethink assumptions, reframe strategies and change subsequent behavior. The framework is still conceptual and needs to be empirically validated through longitudinal, mixed-methods, and experimental research

The challenge of retaining employees is an essential issue in the health care setting worldwide, where turnover directly affects the quality of patient care, organisational financial welfare, and institutional stability. In the context of the Malaysian healthcare industry, namely, in public and private hospitals in Klang Valley, Selangor, this master's thesis proposal will quantitatively study the effect of four human resource management practices, including Compensation and Benefits, Training and Development, Work Environment, and Reward and Recognition, on employee retention in the medical sector. The research is based on the Hierarchy of Needs developed by Maslow and the ERG Theory by Alderfer and includes the use of a cross-sectional survey design and a structured questionnaire based on validated instruments. SPSS version 30.0 will be used to perform the data analysis, where descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression will be used to find out the predictive power of each independent variable on employee retention. The proposed study will result in an evidence-based and hierarchical retention driver model, which will enable healthcare administrators and policymakers to implement a strategic model to efficiently allocate resources to minimize turnover and increase the sustainability of the employee workforce in Malaysia.

This study examined the relationships between selected motivational factors—namely pay and benefits, working environment, training and development, and promotion—and job performance among Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) staff. A quantitative research approach was employed, involving 115 respondents from LTAT. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that the regression model was statistically significant and explained 44.8% of the variance in job performance. Among the selected motivational factors examined, training and development was the only factor that demonstrated a significant positive relationship with job performance. In contrast, pay and benefits, working environment, and promotion were not significantly related to job performance. These findings indicate that employees who perceive greater access to training and development opportunities are more likely to demonstrate higher levels of job performance. The study highlights the importance of employee development initiatives in enhancing employee competencies, skills and workplace effectiveness. The findings provide valuable insights for organizational leaders and human resource practitioners in designing human resource strategies that support employee development and improve organizational performance. It is recommended that organizations continue investing in training and development programs to strengthen workforce capabilities and achieve long-term organizational success.

The green transition is often presented as a problem of technology, finance, and policy. That framing is useful, but it says less about the entrepreneurial activity that translates broad ambitions into products, services, and workable local solutions. This conceptual paper develops a Triadic Entrepreneurship-Regeneration Framework that brings digital, creative-cultural and social entrepreneurship into the same discussion while keeping their different starting points visible. We use a dynamic-capabilities lens and an integrative review of recent literature to examine how these pathways may build sustainability-oriented innovation capability. Digital ventures contribute technological reach and experimentation; creative-cultural ventures work from heritage, design and place-based knowledge; and social ventures begin with unmet social or community needs. The common mechanism is not the type of venture itself, but the ability to recognize opportunities, recombine resources and turn ideas into viable forms of economic, environmental or social value. Whether that capability contributes to green transition also depends on finance, skills, infrastructure, standards and institutional support. The framework therefore treats transition quality as more than environmental efficiency. It also asks whether new opportunities are inclusive, livelihoods remain viable, communities are resilient and human well-being improves. The paper offers a conceptual basis for later empirical work in ASEAN economies.

With the rapid uptake of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education, academic risks need to be viewed as not only technical issues but as socio-institutional harms that impact equity, trust, and accountability. The methodology used for this study is a conceptual literature review and qualitative synthesis of existing academic research. This study tackles the problem existing in the literature, which is unstructured definitions, by synthesizing the literature to create a complete conceptual framework for Social Risk Management (SRM). The proposed framework places SRM in a unique role, serving as the institutional interface between the introduction of AI and social outcomes, with the role of a mediator and moderator between the raw technical inputs and the negative effects of AI on society. There are four main operational pillars of SRM identified in the synthesis. This study also adds the competency of SRM as a core competency of governance, not only for its ethical dimension but also for being a proactive competency. Moreover, it offers a clear research program for future empirical studies, detailing potential ways to measure SRM and to investigate its differences in various application areas of universities, such as admissions, financial aid, tutoring, and even assessment.

Virtual reality (VR) provides options to achieve higher levels of engagement, personalization, and service delivery in the industry of business events. However, to adopt it, it is necessary to meet the technology requirements, because its value for different stakeholders is perceived differently in the context of organizations and institutions. The present research studies the situation concerning the case of technology adoption in the business events industry in Malaysia from the perspective of stakeholder sensemaking. It studies how the actors in the process of technology adoption- organizers of events, providers of technology, and policymakers- perceive both the possibilities of VR and its challenges, and how their perceptions influence the adoption process. This paper presents a conceptual discussion based on the literature; primary data have not yet been collected. Semi-structured interviews, observations, and thematic analysis are proposed for future empirical investigation. The literature reviewed suggests a contradiction between the idea of the advantages of VR technologies and the difficulties connected with the implementation of these technologies. Besides, organizational readiness, digital capabilities, and cooperation of stakeholders are discussed as potential factors influencing the process. The paper emphasizes that VR technology adoption is a process of interpretation and cooperation rather than a simple technology choice. The researchers recommend gradual or phased adoption of VR technologies, training of staff, support policies, and greater cooperation between event organizers and technology providers.

Rapid industrialization and urbanization in Malaysia have driven substantial economic expansion alongside a sharp escalation in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, creating a major policy tension regarding its commitment to reduce carbon intensity by 45% by 2030. This study examines the symmetric and asymmetric long-term relationships, cointegration, and dynamic causality among GDP, energy consumption, renewable energy, urbanization, industrialization, and CO2 emissions within a unified dynamic framework. Empirical results reveal that energy consumption is the sole statistically significant driver of Malaysia's long-run carbon emissions, whereas GDP, renewable energy, urbanization, and industrialization exert no statistically significant direct impact. Crucially, the statistical insignificance of GDP refutes the applicability of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in Malaysia, demonstrating that higher income levels will not automatically induce environmental recovery past a specific development threshold. Therefore, policymakers cannot rely on passive economic growth to achieve sustainability. To effectively decouple economic progress from carbon output, national frameworks must move beyond income-driven assumptions and implement targeted interventions focused on direct energy demand management, fossil fuel subsidy reforms, and aggressive clean-energy substitution.

The rapid growth of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing has coincided with the increasing reliance of young investors on social media for financial decision-making. While digital platforms and financial influencers ("finfluencers") accelerate information dissemination, limited empirical work explains how digital cues interact with psychological biases in emerging markets. Drawing upon the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Social Influence Theory, this conceptual study proposes a framework to investigate the effect of social media exposure on ESG investment intentions among young retail investors in Malaysia, while examining herding behavior as a moderating mechanism. The proposed framework outlines a quantitative cross-sectional research design utilizing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the structural relationships. The paper provides theoretical insights into the convergence of digital media dynamics, psychological biases, and sustainable finance in emerging markets, offering practical implications for policymakers, financial institutions, and regulators.

The study looks at how students perceive a video presentation task as a form of multimodal learning and assessment in Economics courses. A quantitative descriptive survey method was used, with a sample consisting of 262 undergraduate students. The data were gathered through a structured questionnaire containing 5-point Likert-scale items, and descriptive statistics were applied. The instrument showed good internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.918. The results show that students had positive views in all the areas measured. They reported relatively high levels of perceived understanding of the subject matter (Mean = 4.17), of critical and creative thinking (Mean = 4.22), of communication or critical-thinking skills (Mean = 4.29), and of overall satisfaction with the video production experience (Mean = 4.09). The students also said that preparing questions for a public audience helped them to understand the topic better (Mean = 4.22), while creating a tagline encouraged them to think more deeply about the topic (Mean = 3.98). Yet their confidence in speaking in front of a camera or an audience was still comparatively low (Mean = 3.86), indicating that some additional support might be useful in building up this kind of presentation confidence. In general, the findings show that students viewed the video presentation assignment favorably as an engaging method of learning and assessment. The study provides practical insights into the use of learner-generated video activities to promote active, experiential and multimodal learning in Economics education.