Vol.1, No. 4, December 2010

Article 1: E-COMMERCE INTERACTION AND THE ELEMENT OF TRUST, pp. 1-7
By: Mohd Sazili Shahibi, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
Zaitun Abu Bakar, Jazan University, Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this paper is to identify the elements of trust in e-commerce interactions and how far the element of trust has influence a business transactions electronically. A survey was conducted on Information System Personnel in Selangor State government office. The result revealed policy clearly stated on the website has been identified by the researcher as a dominant element to the Internet user to trust a certain website. 69.4 percent of the respondents considered the element of return policy in e-commerce website as significant and a core trust element in e-commerce applications.
Keywords: Trust, e-commerce, interaction

Article 2: MEASURING AND EVALUATING TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF A LIBYAN CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES THROUGH DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS, pp. 8-21
By: Abdullah Ahmad A Eltaief, Libya and Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam Malaysia
Saadiah Mohamad and Badrul Hisham Kamaruddin, Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam, Malaysia

This paper attempts to investigate this claim through measuring the technical efficiency for 26 companies surveyed in 1995-2005 in Libyan construction industry. In measuring technical efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) will be adopted. Further, this paper looks at determine the level of technical efficiency where as the input variables comprise assets, equity and number of employees. The output variables used were revenue and profit. The results from this study show that the majority of the Libya companies are operating inefficiency. The overall (pooled) technical efficiency (TE) estimate was 0.807. Whereas 69 percent of the firms were operate above the average, and 31 percent below it. Only 2 firms scored full efficiency (TE = 1.00) while 24 others were inefficient. Detailed analysis showed that majority of firms suffer over employment of workers, overstatement of assets and equity and using obsolete technology. The results also showed that larger firms are more efficient than the smaller firms, and technical efficiency is not a consequence of firm’s age, and that change of government policy has a strong effect on technical efficiency. That is, after the government implemented the open door policy, technical efficiency scores gradually increase.
Keywords: Libya, technical efficiency, data envelopment analysis, construction firms, scale of production, optimal.

Article 3: CREDIT GUARANTEE CORPORATION(CGC)MALAYSIA BERHAD OPERATIONS:AN EXTENDING CREDIT GUARANTEE TO MALAYSIAN SMEs, pp. 22-33
By: Amirul Afif Muhamat and Hardi Emrie Rosly, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the operations of CGC’s Islamic and conventional guarantee scheme. The findings suggested that the performance of the Islamic guarantee scheme has not performed as expected and has not been as competitive as the conventional guarantee scheme. This paper provides insights into the implementation of Islamic guarantee scheme in Malaysia, which can be a source of reference for other organizations or countries in formulating the similar concept of guarantee. Moreover, this paper is one of its kinds in evaluating and investigating the process of Islamic guarantee scheme.
Keywords: Islamic finance, credit guarantee, Credit Guarantee Corporation, SMEs

Article 4: PORTFOLIO CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN MALAYSIA: A CONCEPTUAL STUDY, pp. 34-59
By: Irfah Najihah Basir Malan, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia

The main objective of this paper is to highlight a conceptual understanding on the portfolio capital investment in Malaysia. It constitutes an overview of features, facts and figures over the financial account in the Malaysia balance of payment, Malaysia external trade, heightened exposure to mobile capital flows, total of portfolio capital inflow by country, total portfolio investment by country, the net inflow of portfolio capital investment in total and from four major countries and currency exchange rate of major portfolio capital investment by country. The findings of the paper show that the trends of portfolio capital investment are on uptrend after Asian crisis. Asian crisis had brought terrible effects to Malaysia especially during Asian crisis. But the situation become well after Asian crisis.
Keywords: Portfolio capital, investment, Asian crisis, Malaysia.

Article 5: THE EFFECT OF CORPORATE IMAGE, CUSTOMER PERCEIVED VALUE, RELATIONSHIP QUALITY AND SWITCHING INTENTION AMONG ISLAMIC BANKING CUSTOMERS IN MALAYSIA, pp. 60-74
By: Nor Hashima Hashim, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia
Sharifah Latifah Syed A.Kadir, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia

Considerable attention is now given to the concept of relationships between service providers and their customers due to the rapid changing marketing environment and in particular the retail banking sector. The switching behavior phenomena are worth investigating because by assessing switching intentions service providers can implement defensive or offensive marketing strategies for their customers. This study develops and empirically tests for examination of the relationships among corporate image, customer perceived value, relationship quality and switching intention in an Islamic retail banking context. The model is tested using structural equation modeling analysis approach. The conceptual model allows Islamic banking service providers to determine which among the two factors impact switching intention, enabling Islamic service providers to determine appropriate strategies to reduce defection among their bank customers.
Keywords: Islamic banking, customer perceived value, service quality, relationship quality, switching intention