This study investigated the relationship between students’ knowledge, attitude and practice of the environment and effective communication of environmental messages. For this purpose, a knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) survey was conducted, involving 895 students from 16 higher learning institutions in Malaysia. The findings revealed that students in general, have a good level of environmental knowledge. However, knowledge does not necessarily lead to practice. There was a weak relationship between students’ level of knowledge and sustainable environment practices. Similarly, there was a weak relationship between students’ attitude and sustainable environment practices. Hence, attitude is not a good predictor for sustainable environment practices. These findings highlight the complexity of the relationship between students’ knowledge, attitude and sustainable environment practice. The findings of this study also suggested that, the internet is regarded as students preferred choice of media which can be utilised to disseminate environmental information. It is important, however, not to disregard the roles of more traditional media such as television and newspapers, as they can also be effectively used to deliver environmental information. Besides media, educational institutions and family also have crucial roles to disseminate environmental information and encourage good practice. Since many of the earlier studies of this nature have been conducted in at other places, particularly in the first world countries, this study is expected to contribute to the knowledge based on Malaysia’s own experience as a developing nation that aspire to champion sustainable environment.

Universities need to be aware of the impact of knowledge management (KM) in order to become world-class academic institutions. This research fills an unexplored gap in regards to the impact of KM enablers (i.e. trust, knowledge self-efficacy, reciprocal benefits, top management support, organizational rewards, organizational culture, KM system infrastructure and KM system quality, openness in communication, and face-to-face (F2F) interactive communication) on knowledge sharing (KS) that supports research collaboration by faculty members. No prior research has focused on the impact of KM enablers that influence research university members to share knowledge. A self-administered questionnaire was employed on members of five research universities in Malaysia to collect data; subsequently, 421 usable responses were analysed using partial least squares path modelling. KS by members was influenced by trust, organizational rewards, organizational culture, KM system quality, openness in communication, and F2F interactive communication; in addition, research collaboration was strongly influenced by KS. The KM–KS–collaboration model shows a KM influence of individual–organizational–technological–communication constructs that encourages KS by members to support research collaboration.

The capacity of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site (WHS) to sustain its designated criteria into the future is a function of how valuable local residents perceive the WHS to be, and how motivated they are to contribute toward efforts to maintain its status. In June 2012, Malaysia’s Lenggong Valley became a WHS. We investigate the effectiveness of a campaign targeting young local residents to increase their awareness of the importance of preserving the heritage of Lenggong. We undertook a questionnaire — designed to assess participants’ awareness of the value of the WHS and their willingness to participate in efforts to maintain the WHS — aimed at students from all three secondary schools in Lenggong before and after the campaign. In all, 175 completed questionnaires were analysed: the data revealed that the campaign had a significant effect on improving participants’ awareness of the value of the WHS and on improving their willingness to participate in WHS conservation activities.

We investigate the effects of three communication factors (i.e. variety, interactivity, and personal connection) as used in three different types of media (i.e. exhibits, guided tours, and printed materials) on the state of mindfulness of visitors at the Malacca World Heritage Site. Mindfulness refers to a state of mind in which a person actively processes available information. For a relatively new heritage site, such as Malacca, improving a visitors’ state of mindfulness is important because mindful visitors have been shown to have superior understanding and learning, thus benefiting the heritage site’s management authorities by cultivating responsible and sustainable tourism behaviours. The survey method was employed to measure the state of mindfulness of 200 respondents visiting the Malacca World Heritage Site. The survey results indicate that each communication media has one key communication factor that significantly induces a state of mindfulness in the visitor. For exhibits, variety was found to be the key communication factor while for guided tours and printed material, the key communication factor was interactivity. In response to these findings, we outline a number of specific directions for heritage site management and authorities to identify the most effective communication factors in commonly used communication media.

This paper investigates three issues concerning younger residents of the Lenggong Valley World Heritage Site (WHS) in Malaysia: their perceptions of tourism development, their perceptions and attitudes regarding their contribution to and promotion of the WHS, and the effects of an awareness campaign regarding the benefits of tourism development and WHS recognition on their perceptions. The awareness campaign was based on social exchange theory. A questionnaire was administered to secondary school students in Lenggong before and after the campaign. Responses revealed that younger residents have overall positive perceptions of tourism development and WHS recognition, and that they want to contribute towards promoting and supporting the WHS. Significant pre- and post-campaign differences in perceptions of younger residents demonstrate the importance of awareness regarding the benefits of tourism development and WHS recognition. The findings have implications for key stakeholders in the promotion of sustainable tourism development and conservation programmes in Lenggong.