The main objective of the study is to measure the vulnerability of Indonesia's financial system stability in response to external shocks, including from regional economies namely three biggest Indonesia major trading partners (China, the U.S and Japan) and other external factors (oil price and the federal funds rate). Using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and Orthogonalized Impulse Response Function (OIRF) with quarterly data over the period Q4 2002 - Q1 2016, results confirm that, 1) oil price response has the largest effect to Indonesia financial stability system and the effect period is the longest compared to others, represented by NPL and IHSG; 2) among those three economies, only China’s economic growth has significantly positive effect to Indonesia financial stability system. Based on the findings it is better for the authorities to: 1) Diversify international trade commodities by decreasing share of oil, gas, and mining export and boosting other potential sectors such as manufacture, and fisheries; 2) Ensure the survival of Indonesia large coal exporter companies without neglecting burden of national budget; and 3) Create buffer for demand shock from specific countries by diversifying and increasing share of trading from other countries particularly from ASEAN member states.

It is undisputable that crude oil and its price fluctuations are major components that affect most of the countries’ economies. Recent studies have demonstrated that beside the impact that crude oil price fluctuations have on common macroeconomic indicators like gross domestic product (GDP), inflation rates, exchange rates, unemployment rate, etc., it also has a strong influence on stock markets and their performance. This relationship has been examined in a number of settings, but it is yet to be unraveled in the Omani context. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study is to examine the possible effect of the oil price fluctuations on stock price movements. The study applies Toda and Yamamoto’s (1995) Granger non-causality test on the daily Oman stock index (Muscat Securities Market Index) and oil prices between the period of 2 January 2003 and 13 March 2016. The results indicated that the oil price fluctuations have a significant impact on stock index movements. However, the stock price movements do not have a significant impact on oil prices. These findings have significant implications not only for the Omani economy but also for the economy of similar countries, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The latter should carefully consider their policies and strategies regarding crude oil production and the generated income allocation as it might potentially affect the financial markets performance in these countries.

Subsidies are an instrumental policy making tool for many governments, but their importance depends on the market situation of the national economy. Efficient subsidy implementation would allow the government to correct market failure thereby aligning social and private costs and benefit. The general objective of this study is to justify the need to rationalise subsidies for food items such as flour. This study assessed the structure and conducts of the general purpose flour market in Malaysia; and analysed the impact of subsidies on market performance to recommend policies to increase market efficiency under the subsidy rationalisation program. To accomplish these objectives, the study adopted a microeconomics market analysis as well as the standard structure and performance analysis method. These two approaches showed the characteristics of an industry’s consumer behaviour, competition, as well as the efficiency associated with government regulatory policies on the flour industry. One of the biggest influences on the domestic market is related to the food consumption behaviour of the general population. Food consumption behaviour reflects global trends. As income rises, food trends tend to be consumed in processed form or in such a way that adds value in another manner such as the preparation of food products.

This research is devoted to the development of methods general and standard methodological approaches and approbation those for the evaluation of economic potential and level of concentration of the regions of Kazakhstan. This paper presents the results of development of the authors on the selection and justification of the methodological approaches for quantitative evaluation of the economic potential (the degree of territorial differentiation of the profile) and concentration of regions. In this study, we used scientific methods: method of analysis the main trends of economic development, and method of evaluation of concentration of the region. Based on the analysis of foreign techniques developed and tested methodical approaches to the assessment of the economic potential (index and coefficient methods). Proposed methodological approaches to the assessment profile of the territory and developed a system of indicators, which includes an aggregated index of spatial concentration, which accurately reflects the concentration of production in the region. This study shows the results of the analysis of the potential regional disparities and trends of economic development of Kazakhstan. By using, the proposed methodology shows the possibility of their use; we calculated the indicators of integrated assessment of the economic potential and indicators of spatial concentration.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that have an impact on public policy, green products and technology in Kuala Lumpur, given government initiatives to boost the environment awareness. The data used in this study was collected by distribution questionnaires randomly in six areas of Kuala Lumpur and 400 respondents were interviewed. Based on a literature review, three hypotheses were stated and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM is a statistical analysis method that involved two or more variables in analyzing structural relationships among the variables. The SEM model shows that green products and government policies have a direct influence on environmental awareness. However, green technology does not have a direct influence on environmental awareness. Since, knowledge on green technology does not have a significant impact on raising environmental awareness among the public, a much more pragmatic awareness campaign needs to be put in place to use green technology as a part of modern living. The study suggests that the urban population needs to be more aware of the environmental issue as cities tend to have better infrastructure to raise public awareness on green issues. Moreover, the government should increase the environmental awareness among younger generation through workshops, seminars, campaigns, and pamphlets.

This research is carried out to investigate the relationship between sustainability practices and performance in a financial sense for Malaysian Oil and Gas sector. Objectives include to study the state of sustainability disclosure among Malaysian oil and gas companies, to understand if companies that practiced sustainability had better performances to their financial bottom-line and to conduct a data analysis to understand the relationship between Environmental, social and governance performance [represented by the acronym ACSI] and financial performance. Sustainability performance is measured using ACSI checklist, which is an adaptation of the GRI 3.0 by Global reporting initiative while financial performance was measured on financial and profitability parameters namely EBITDA, EPS and PE ratio. Secondary data sources are used which were then converted into a rating scale to develop quantitative data. SPSS 21 is used for the analysis. The result shows that the majority of oil and gas companies in Malaysia had poor performance in terms of sustainability disclosure. On all three chosen profitability parameters, the companies that practiced sustainability were found to perform better than their counterparts that did not. Strong and significant relationship exists between sustainability practices and better financial performance.

The purpose of this research is to be acquainted with the awareness and approval of halal supply chain among Indian manufacturers and distribution network members for haulage and warehousing activities from the perception of respective service suppliers. A total of 20 respondents, which consist of 10 transportation companies and 10 warehousing companies from the State of Andhra Pradesh in India were selected for the study by using purposive sampling method. The principal focal points of the discussions are on awareness and adoption of halal transportation and warehousing services chosen for the study in the comprehensive halal supply chain. A total of 90 percent and 70 percent of respondents from the transportation and warehousing companies respectively agreed that they know only about the concept of halal but do not have any exposure and ken on the halal supply chain. However, findings of this research won’t have extensive validity in the market, gaining an enough familiarity with the halal supply chain in the Indian social context is of immense importance. This is a pioneering attempt aimed to investigate the awareness and adoption levels of halal supply chain among Indian businessmen which are precious for supply chain companies to customize their services in the country as well to the world of academia.

Hand phones are standard paraphernalia among university students. Factors that motivate them to own the gadget would be of interest to both the students as well as marketers. Hand phone usage is an unexamined field in academic literature, this exploratory study attempts to investigate student purchasing motives in cellular phone markets. It also intends to know the student’s satisfaction with the different services and its future impact on socio economic changes. In this study, undergraduates (n=336) were requested to specify their purchase criteria of hand phone. The instrument used in the study to collect feedback from the respondents contains a combination of open-ended and scaled questions, and some background demographics. The study employed content analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and t-tests as the primary tools to analyze the responses. Results show that brand was rated as the most important factor in student purchase decisions. Other factors, arranged in decreasing order of importance comprise price, product quality, features, durability, availability, promotion, and post purchase service. Brand and price correlated significantly. It is also observed that there is very little difference regarding preference between brand and price in purchasing a hand phone. Marketers may formulate suitable strategies out of the findings to promote hand phones to university undergraduates in Malaysia by emphasizing at brands and price.