The purpose of this research is to review historical development of Islamic finance in individual East Asian economies, including China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, and examine the success factors of the Hong Kong Sukuk issuances in 2014-2017. The research is a qualitative study applying case study method. It is found that the East Asian economies do play efforts to develop their Islamic capital markets although they have very limited size of Muslim population. Their progress on this development generally remains to be slow. The Hong Kong Sukuk is a breakthrough, carrying a total issuance value of US$3 billion. The Sukuk issuances, treated as a kind of asset-backed securities with restrictions on financing purposes, are distributed to international investors by investment banks from Hong Kong, Middle East and Malaysia. Success factors of these issuances include involvement of an issuer with high credit quality, recognition by central bank for using the Sukuk in its discount facility for commercial banks, centralized clearing services for the Sukuk and global banking network for underwriting the Sukuk. The lessons from the Hong Kong Sukuk are good references for other economies to develop their regional Islamic capital markets and to integrate the markets into the global capital market.

The study investigates the impact of accrual anomaly on stock return ratio of listed firms in Vietnam. Data were collected from listed firms for the period from 2008 to 2018. To learn about the causes of accrual anomaly in returns and future rate of returns on the Vietnamese stock market, this research is based on accrual analysis of Richardson, Sloan, Soliman, and Tuna (2006) on growth and effective components. We employ GLS regression model for examining the impact of accrual anomaly on stock return ratio and T-test for checking the difference between the lowest and the highest portfolio. The results show that accounting distortion is the main factor impacting the stock return, not growth determinant. Both two determinants of accounting distortion and growth contribute the explanation of the impact of accrual anomaly on profit and future stock return ratio. Experimental evidence confirms an abnormal existence of accrual in the  Vietnam stock market. Aggregate accrual is negatively correlated with future operating profit and future stock return. However, after considering the factors contributing to the impact of future profitability and return on stock returns, the study results show that accounting distortion can account for low sustainability of income that is not growth.

The paper examines the level of disclosure on Islamic banks’ performance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The data was collected through content analysis of annual reports and financial statements of all fully-fledged Islamic banks working in the UAE over the period 2009 to 2013. Return on Assets is used as a proxy for the performance of Islamic banks while disclosure index is used as a proxy for Islamic banks’ disclosure. Also, predetermined variables are used in the study like Size, Deposits, Non-Performing Investments and Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio. Two-Stage Least-Square regression method is used to check the interdependence relationships between disclosure and performance of Islamic banks in the UAE. The results show a significant relationship between performance and disclosure in the UAE Islamic banks. Our regression results show that Islamic banks with higher levels of disclosure lead to higher operating performance. Furthermore, the performance has a great impact on the level of disclosure which means Islamic banks with high performance measures will disclose more information for investors and other institutions in order to reduce the cost of equity and increase their values in the market. This study is considered as a battery for further studies in the relationship between disclosure and financial performance of Islamic banks at a global level.

The research aims to study the relationship between export performance and stock return of Vietnamese fishery companies. To conduct this study, quarterly data was collected for period from 2010-2018 of 13 fishery companies listing in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) and Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX). The export performance was measured by export intensity, export growth and export market coverage. In addition, interest rate, exchange rate, GDP, firm size, profitability, and financial leverage were considered as the control variables in the research model. Panel data analysis with Generalized Least Squares model was employed to estimate the predictive regression. The findings indicated that export intensity and export growth have a significant and positive relationship with stock returns. However, export market coverage has not a significant relationship with stock return at the 0.05 level. Profitability, financial leverage, and exchange rate have a positive relationship, while interest rate and GDP have no relation to stock return at the 0.05 significance level. The findings imply that investors should consider the export intensity instead of export growth and export market coverage as selecting stock of fishery exports firms to invest; managers should increase export intensity to increase company’s stock price or firm market value.

The current study aims to investigate the relationship between tax avoidance and firm risk in an emerging market called Iran. The study population consists of 400 observations and 80 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) over a five-year period during 2012 and 2016. The statistical model used in this study is a multivariate regression model; besides, the statistical technique used to test the hypotheses proposed in this research is panel data. The results showed that low effective tax rate (tax avoidance) is more consistent than the higher effective tax rate. Moreover, there is no significant relationship between tax avoidance and future tax rate volatility. The findings also proved that lower effective tax rates are positively associated with future stock price volatility. This implies that since Iranian firms have many financial problems because of economic sanctions, they have a tendency to delay the disclosure of bad news about their firms. Needless to say, when a huge number of negative news reaches its peak, they immediately will enter the market and lead to a remarkable fluctuation in stock prices.

The paper examines the influence of profitability on distance to default (DD) in Vietnam securities market. The investigated sampl e consists of 211 companies listed on HOSE during 18 years from 2010 to 2017. We apply KMV model to calculate distance to d efault and use both macroeconomics factors and firm specific factors as independent variables. Using General Least Squared (GL S) method, we find evidence to confirm the positive relationship between profitability and distance to default. This result showed t hat, although profitability did not directly reflect the cash flow generated, a good profitable enterprise would be an important facto r to help facilitate and generate cash flow and at the same time debt was guaranteed when it was due. Besides, the test results rev ealed that the financial structure and sales on assets have the inverse effect on the distance to default at the significance level o f 5%. The results also revealed that a group of macro factors had an influence on the distance to default of businesses, including spre ad, GDP and trade balance (via exchange rates). Gross domestic income had certain impacts on the distance to default of businesse s. This was also a basic indicator measuring the national economic cycle.

This study has two main purposes; first, it examines the effect of capital structure on profitability of Islamic and conventional banks; second, it determines that whether the capital structure of Islamic and conventional banks is same or not. A sample of ten banks was taken over the period 2006-2016. Independent samples T-test was used for finding the comparison between the capital structure of Islamic and conventional banks while for assessing the impact of capital structure on profitability, regression analysis (Fixed effects model) was used. Results showed that the capital structure of both types of banks was similar except for bank size which differed significantly. Moreover, ROA was negatively correlated to the capital structure of both conventional and Islamic banks. In contrast, ROE was positively correlated to the capital structure of both conventional and Islamic banks. In addition to that, two explanatory variables were positively correlated while two were negatively correlated to EPS for both Islamic and conventional banks. This study proves the existence of prominent theories of capital structure (pecking order theory and trade-off theory) for both conventional and Islamic banks in Pakistan and also validates the economies of scale.

The paper aims to investigate the linkage among prior financial performance, organizational reputation and earnings quality. Firstly, it examines the influence of prior financial performance on organizational reputation and on earnings quality. Secondly, this research explores the moderating role that prior financial performance plays in the causal relationship from organizational reputation to earnings quality. Thirdly, the mediating role of organizational reputation in the effect of prior financial performance on earnings quality is analyzed. The empirical findings show that, prior financial performance positively affects both earnings quality and organizational reputation that in turn partly mediates the causal connection from prior financial performance to earnings quality; whereas prior financial performance imposes a positive moderation in the influence of organizational reputation on earnings quality. This research is expected to provide scholars and practitioners with a thorough understanding of the complex link among prior financial performance, organizational reputation and earnings quality. That helps them to deliver good decisions on the investment of suitable resources in maintaining and enhancing their organizational reputation, which assures a higher quality of reported earnings that in turn improves involved stakeholders’ confidence in their firm. This likely leads the firms to gain better performance in the future.

The purpose of this study is to test the effect of business strategy on valuation error. Business strategy includes managerial decision making and managerial tendency. In previous research, there is a negative relationship between business strategy and accounting quality. In this study, we try to confirm whether strategy tendencies affected valuation errors. In order to confirm empirically between business strategy and overvaluation, we use 8,117 firms that between 2006 and 2017 and listed in KSE and KOSDAQ. We calculated business strategy which is introduced by Bentley, Omer, and Sharp (2013). We also used the overvaluation method introduced in Rhodes-Kropf, Robinson, and Viswanathan (2005). The results show that the more the leading business strategy is, the greater the value error becomes. In the case of dividing into leading and defensive companies, the lead firms showed a significant positive correlation with the valuation errors, while the defensive firms showed the negative relationship with overvaluation. This study examined the business strategy and the overvaluation. we confirmed whether the management strategy deepens the evaluation error caused by the firm characteristics. The results are meaningful that we extended the study on the quality of financial reporting of leading strategic firms.

Dividend policy is an important business decision and is considered a channel to communicate a firm’s performance to shareholders. Given the empirical findings that earnings quality significantly affects financial analysts’ forecasting activities, it is predicted that higher earnings quality would positively influence forecast accuracy. Specifically, it is expected that financial analysts would forecast dividends more accurately for firms with higher earning quality. Unlike the research on financial analysts’ earnings forecasts was heavily conducted, there is little study about financial analysts’ dividend forecasts. This paper examines the effect of earnings quality on financial analysts’ dividend forecast accuracy. We use a sample of South Korean firms for the period of 2011–2015 for multivariate regression. Earnings quality is measured by accruals quality and performance-adjusted discretionary accruals followed by prior studies. We first compare the accuracy between dividend forecasts and earnings forecasts using t-test and Wilcoxon singed-rank test. It is confirmed that financial analysts’ dividend forecasts are more accurate than earnings forecasts in Korea. We find that financial analysts’ dividend forecasts are more accurate for firms with higher earnings quality. We also find that the result is still valid after controlling for the accuracy of financial analysts’ earnings forecasts. This confirms that earnings quality positively affects financial analysts’ dividend forecasts.

This paper is intended to study the relationship between state budget revenue and economic growth in Vietnam. The ordinary leastsquares regression method is used with secondary data collected from General Statistics Office of Vietnam in the period of 2000- 2017. Vietnamese state budget revenue includes domestic revenue (excluding oil revenue), oil revenue, custom duty revenue, and grants. The testing result shows that the state budget revenue has a positive correlation with economic growth of Vietnam. However, the components of state budget revenue have different levels of impact on the economy. Domestic revenue and oil revenue are statistically significant and have a positive effect on the economy, while the impact of custom duty revenue and grants on the economy is invisible. Vietnamese state budget revenue should be restructured toward the sustainability and by way of boosting the economy, specifically: (1) Increase the proportion of domestic revenue to state budget revenue and domestic revenue should be based on the ground of production and business activities rather than collection from state-owned assets; (2) Reduce the proportion of custom duty revenue and grants to state budget revenue; (3) Keep the volume and ratio of oil revenue in state budget revenue at an appropriate proportion.

The purpose of the study to evaluate the contribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourism receipts (TR) to Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product (GDP). This study employs time series annual data for the period from 1978 to 2016 and EViews 10 econometrics software was used for the time series data analysis. Unit root test was done on the variables and the method chosen was the Augmented Dicky – Fuller test. Co-integration analysis was used for the long run relationship and the Granger causality test was performed to investigate the causal relationship. Recently a more conducive environment has been established after the three decade long ethnic war came to an end. In this context, the Sri Lankan government has taken positive measures to attract foreign direct investment and boost tourism in the country. This study intends to evaluate the contribution of Sri Lanka, as these two factors are considered to be very effective at increasing the GDP of a country. The empirical study shows that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the variable’s TR and FDI to the GDP in the long run. Results of Granger causality test implied that the two-way causality promoted the economic growth of Sri Lanka.

The study aims to investigate the pattern of relationships such as symmetric or asymmetric, between exchange rate and foreign direct investment in Bangladesh by applying Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) and nonlinear ARDL. In this study, we employed quarterly data for the period of 1974Q1 to 2016Q4. Data were collected and aggregated from various sources namely, Bangladesh Economic Review published by Ministry of Finance and statistical yearbook published by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and an annual report published by Bangladesh Bank. The relationship between exchange rate and FDI inflows attract immense interest in the recent periods, especially for developing countries’ perspective. The results of the study ascertain the long run relationship between FDI, exchange rate, monetary policy, and fiscal policy. Considering the asymmetric assumption, the findings from NARDL confirm the existence of a long-run asymmetric relationship in the empirical equation. In the long run, it is observed that positive change that is the appreciation of exchange rate against USD decrease FDI inflows and negative shocks results in grater inflows of FDI, however, the positive shocks produce higher intensity that negative shocks in Exchange rate. For directional causality, the coefficients of error correction term confirm long-run causality, in particular, bidirectional causality unveiled between FDI and exchange rate.

Tax can be categorised into direct tax and indirect tax. This paper uses the ordinary least-squares regression method to study the impact of direct and indirect tax on economic growth in Vietnam in the period 2003-2017. Statistical data is collected from the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam. Theoretically, tax generates the state budget revenue and is a tool to regulate the economy. The results of statistical tests show that tax has a positive impact on Vietnam's economic growth. However, the effects of direct tax and indirect tax are different. The indirect tax has a positive influence and promote Vietnam's economic growth, while the impact of the direct tax is invisible. There has not been sufficient evidence to confirm that the indirect tax has a more positive impact than the direct tax. To promote economic growth, Vietnam needs to restructure its tax system towards: (1) Increasing the proportion of indirect tax, reducing the proportion of direct tax in the state budget revenue; (2) Expanding tax bases; (3) Reducing tax rates of corporate income tax and personal income tax; (4) Increasing tax rates of environmental protection tax, natural resources tax, value added tax and excise tax on some types of goods which harm health and environment.

This study examines the dynamic linkages between food price inflation and its volatility in the context of Sri Lanka. The empirical evidence derived from the monthly data for the period from 2003M1 to 2017M12 for Sri Lanka. The relationship between inflation rate and inflation volatility has attracted more attention by theoretical and empirical macroeconomists. Empirical studies on the relationship between food inflation and food inflation variability is scarce in the literature. Food price inflation is defined as log difference of food price series. The volatility of a food price inflation is measured by conditional variance generated by the FIGARCH model. Preliminary analysis showed that food inflation is stationary series. Granger causality test reveals that food inflation seems to exert positive impact on inflation variability. We find no evidence for inflation uncertainty affecting food inflation rates. Hence, the findings of the study supports the Friedman-Ball hypothesis in both cases of consumer food price inflation and wholesale food price inflation. This implies that past information on food inflation can help improve the one-step-ahead prediction of food inflation variability but not vice versa. Our results have some important policy implications for the design of monetary policy, food policy thereby promoting macroeconomic stability.

The purpose of this study is to identify differences based on demographic characteristics and travel-related characteristics: first, whether travelers used a domestic travel agency and second whether travelers purchased a full-package travel program. A sample selection probit model was used to provide simultaneous evaluation of the different characteristics of outbound travelers. The present study investigates how tourists make decisions based on two travel-pattern choices. It then goes on to explore the characteristics of outbound travelers from South Korea. The data is drawn from a nationwide survey in South Korea, and a total of 859 surveys were used for analysis. Due to the interdependent nature of the choices, a sample selection probit model was used to estimate outbound tourists’ use of domestic travel agency and purchase of full travel package. Significant determinants of domestic travel agency use are identified as age, gender, marital status, party size, children, length of travel, and travel distance, while those of full travel package purchase are age, marital status, and travel purpose. Estimated results provide manifestations of differing travel needs of outbound travelers. the results of this study demonstrate differences between travel-agency users and full-package travel-program consumers and provide determinants that affect the purchase of full-package travel.

The paper aims to understand the mediating effect of Country Image (CI) on the relationship between consumer cosmopolitanism and consumers’ purchase, visit and investment intentions towards a foreign country, considering the moderating effects of ethnocentrism, materialism, product familiarity, and visits to a country in a global market. The study extends research on the global and local consumption by simultaneously analysing the influence of country image dimensions and several moderating effects on consumers’ behavioural intentions. Four hundred and fifty-seven valid responses from international consumers were collected through a questionnaire measuring country image dimensions. Findings indicate that cosmopolitanism has a significant and positive effect on foreign consumers’ behavioural intentions and country image dimensions mediate this relationship. Moreover, a moderating effect was found for ethnocentrism, materialism, product familiarity, and visits to a country on the relationship between country cognitions and the intentions to visit the country. This study shows the importance of considering cosmopolitanism as a potential segmentation variable in international markets. The results can help managers and policymakers to better understand the image that foreign consumers hold about Portugal, their intentions to buy or invest in the country, as well as to think of Portugal as a tourism destination.

This study aims to investigate the effect of eating-out types on the acceptance intention of artificial seasoning when consumers eat out at restaurants. Eating-out types considered to be typical when customers visit restaurants, such as the food-exploratory type, healthoriented type, and convenience-seeking type, were studied. Based on the research of previous studies, three eating-out types were selected for the study, which were “food-exploratory”, “convenience-seeking”, “health-oriented”. This study was conducted by AMOS 22.0 with 300 questionnaires, and the Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used for examining the hypotheses as statistical method in this study. As a result, eating-out types such as “food-exploratory” and “convenience-seeking” were found to significantly affect the acceptance intention of artificial seasoning. However, consumers’ acceptance intention of artificial seasoning differed depending on their consumption value. The path coefficients from food-exploratory type and health-oriented type to acceptance intention were more significant in the hedonic-oriented group than the utilitarian-oriented group. The results of this study suggest eating-out types relate to acceptance intention of artificial seasoning and provide meaningful implications for consumers’ psychological consumption value when they consider artificial seasoning.

This study aims to investigate the effects of market commonality and resource similarity on price competition and the recursive consequences in the Korean lodging market. Price comparison among hotels in the same geographic market has been facilitated through the development of information technology, rendering little search cost of consumers. While the literature implies the heterogeneous price attack and response among hotels, a limited number of empirical researches focus on the asymmetric and recursive pattern in the competitive dynamics. This study empirically examines the price interactions in the Korean lodging market based on the theoretical framework of competitive price interactions and countervailing power. Demonstrating superiority to the spatial lag model and the ordinary least squares in the estimation, the results from spatial error model suggest that the hotels with longer operational history pose an asymmetric impact on the price of the newer hotels. The asymmetry is also found in chain hotels over the independent, further implying the possibility of predatory pricing. The findings of this study provide the evidence of a hierarchical structure in the price competition, with different countervailing power by the resources of the hotels. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed, with suggestions for future study.

The objectives of this study are to propose the Integrated Waqf Environmental Protection Model (IWEP) and investigate the farmers’ intention to adopt it. In developing the IWEP model and investigating farmers’ willingness to adopt it, this study surveyed 400 farmers in Kedah. The intention of the farmers to adopt the proposed model was analysed by adding perceived barriers and socioeconomic variables into the theory of reasoned action (TRA) model. The collected data were processed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The SEM results show that the subjective norm is positive and has a significant impact on the intentions of lowincome farmers to accept the IWEP model. This indicates that the decision of the low-income farmers to accept the IWEP model is significantly influenced by their family members, neighbours and friends. Furthermore, awareness and perceived barriers have a greater impact on the elderly, highly educated and wealthy farmers. The findings indicate that the elderly, highly educated and wealthy farmers are aware of climate change and they perceive higher risks or barriers to climate change. As a result, they are more likely to have an adaptation intention. If we encourage people to create waqf fund, we can increase the value of the farmer and the country’s total GDP.