Malaysia is becoming an increasingly active player in international education and ranks as the 11th largest exporter of education in the world. Malaysia’s recognisable advantages in the international education market include its strategic location between the East and the West, cultural diversity, and a relatively stable socio-economic environment. In addition to these natural advantages, it is important for the Malaysian Government and its higher education institutions to develop a holistic strategy to create a conducive learning environment and to build a regional higher education hub. By taking a demand-side approach, this study highlights factors attracting foreign students to study in Malaysia. Rich information about the country and learning institution and referral by family and friends appear to be the most important sources of influence for foreign students to choose Malaysia. Other considerations include cost and quality of educational programmes, while geographical and cultural proximity are less important than expected.

Several studies in higher education have attempted to study the impact of quality management practices on organisational innovation processes and outcomes in higher education institutions (HEIs). However, there is relatively limited research examining the impact of multidimensional quality management practices (QM-practices) on academics’ innovative behaviour and performance. This paper aims to explore the relationship between QM-practices and academics’ innovative work behaviour and examine how innovative behaviour affects academics’ innovative work performance. A total of 586 responses were collected from public and private universities with self-accreditation status in Malaysia. The results indicated a significant and positive relationship between Social QM-practices and academics’ innovative work behaviour. Also, a significant and positive relationship was found between innovative work behaviour and work performance. However, there is no direct impact between Social and Technical QM-practices on academic work performance. The relationship between Social QM-practices and work performance is indirectly established through innovative work behaviour. The findings signified the importance of innovative work behaviour on academic's work performance and highlighted the indirect impacts of Social QM-practices on innovative performance through innovative work behaviour in Malaysian HEIs. Efforts to improve Social QM-practices especially in promoting leadership for quality management, developing strategic vision, and providing effective educational support, as well as training may facilitate innovative work behaviour and enhance work performance at Malaysian HEIs.

Background - With the recent evolution of Financial Technology (FinTech), 11 peers to peer (P2P) lending platforms have been regulated by the Securities Commission in Malaysia since 2016. P2P lending platforms offer new investment opportunities to individual investors to earn higher rates on return than what traditional lenders usually provide. However, individual investors may face higher potential risks of default from their borrowers. Therefore, individual investors need to understand the potential exposure to such P2P lending platforms to make an effective investment decision. This study aims to explore the potential risk exposures that individual investors may experience at Malaysia's licensed P2P lending platforms. Methods - Based on data collected manually from nine P2P lending platforms over five months, relationships between interest rates and various risk classifying factors such as credit rating, industry, business stage, loan purpose, and loan duration are examined. Results- This study shows that loans with a similar credit rating and with or without similar loan purpose; and a business stage may offer investors significantly different interest rates. In addition, loans with shorter durations may provide investors with higher interest rates than those with longer durations. Finally, loans issued by companies from the same industry appeared to be charged with similar interest. These findings are valuable to investors to prepare themselves before making their investments at the P2P lending platforms. Conclusion- With first hand-collected data, this study provides an original insight into Malaysia's current P2P lending platforms. Findings obtained for relationships between interest rates and risk classifying factors such as credit rating, industry, business stage, loan purpose and loan duration are valuable to investors of Malaysian P2P lending platforms.

Rapid advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) have accelerated the expansion of the digital economy (DE). However, the lack of a universally accepted definition has hindered a systematic assessment of the progress of the DE. A robust framework to evaluate various aspects of DE activities is crucial to fully capture the potential of the DE. This study conducts a systematic review of academic literature to identify and analyse various dimensions of the DE, aiming to propose a framework to assess the development of the DE. A comprehensive analysis of 161 articles from the Scopus database (2010–2024) identifies four core dimensions, namely digital infrastructure, digital industrialisation, industrial digitisation and digital innovation as the primary focus of existing DE research. These findings lay the groundwork for developing the framework to assess the development of the DE.