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The goal of tourism has several advantages, including offering novel experiences and fostering intercultural understanding. However, tourism also has drawbacks, such as overdevelopment and ecosystem deterioration. Different factors prompt tourists to revisit a destination more frequently than others. These factors can be divided into physical and social factors. Physical elements could include a destination's image and transportation infrastructure. Social aspects may consist of how welcoming the residents are. Thus, this study explored the relationship between destination image, transport infrastructure and tourist revisit intention. A quantitative method was used for this study, and the data were collected through questionnaires from the tourists. Three hundred sixty-three respondents were used for the survey; the sample was drawn using a simple random sampling procedure. Two hypotheses were developed and tested. The researchers hypothesised that destination image positively affects revisit intention and transport infrastructure positively affects revisit intention. The data were analysed using regression analysis. The results showed that destination image significantly positively affected revisit intention. The study also found that transport infrastructure significantly positively affected revisit intention. The result of this study would inspire the government, policymakers, and tourist management to develop a customised responsiveness program. The findings will also help tourism stakeholders comprehend tourist perception and why travellers resist.

Industrialized and developing countries today are plagued by the gravity of the problem of e-waste. Managing e-waste is a global environmental problem that has created significant environmental damage in some parts of the world. Although Malaysia has plans to manage e-waste, there are still difficulties, and the need to manage e-waste is now even more pressing. Therefore, to manage e-waste effectively, it is necessary to develop general, structured policy measures to address the issue within the nation and globally. This chapter aims to explore the sustainability issues in Malaysia, challenges towards e-waste management in Malaysia, an overview of e-waste policy implementation, the effects of e-waste on the environment, the activities organized by the government and other organizations, and the mechanism of e-waste management in Malaysia. By making diverse research contributions, it would eventually encourage the growth of sustainable e-waste management in Malaysia.

Islamic tourism is an innovative tourism that promotes Islamic way of life. The service not only aims for Muslim travellers but also benefited to non-Muslim. One of the various strategies to promote Islamic tourism is to introduce Muslim-friendly hotels (MFHs), and Malaysia could lead the way in doing so. MFH characteristics are still unclear as many hoteliers were perplexed by this circumstance, which hampered hotels' efforts to implement it. So, this study objective to examine level of Islamic attributes practices by the MFH in Malaysia. A total of 380 respondents were selected using a convenient sampling method and data was analyzed using descriptive statistic. The result shown that “Placement of Qibla stickers /direction (Qibla stickers/direction point towards Mecca city)” in hotel’s room most likely favourite variable during guest’s stay in MFH. As an important variable was pointed out, it helps hotel management to market their products and services in proper way. Also, support government to boost up market of halal hotel in future as an effort for branding Malaysia as halal hub globally, in the same time, to help Malaysia’s authorities to determine Islamic attributes that may satisfy the guests’ needs.

Homestays are a form of community-based tourism that offers local experiences of village lifestyle to travellers. In addition, it is a human-oriented services industry. An increase in tourist arrivals (both domestic and international visitors) to Malaysia has seen a yearly increase in the number of accommodations available, especially environmentally friendly ones. However, being environmentally friendly is a challenge for the tourism industry, especially with regard to the accommodation sector. Previous studies have also found several factors that complicate green practices among homestay operators. Among them are lack of green information and knowledge, lack of professional advice, the uncertainty of outcomes, lack of verifiers, lack of resources such as workforce and equipment, lack of support from owners and management, high maintenance cost, managerial attitudes, employee support, customer attitudes, and quality of service. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of environmental knowledge towards green practices among homestay operators in Selangor, Malaysia. In this study, 147 homestay operators were selected using simple random sampling among 16 homestays in Selangor, Malaysia, registered with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia. The analysis of this study used SPSS software for descriptive and inferential tests such as T-Test and ANOVA Test and AMOS software to build Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The T-Test and ANOVA Test show that there are not many differences in the green practices implemented among homestay operators based on age, gender, and education level. In addition, the findings also indicate that environmental knowledge has a positive and significant relationship with green practices among homestay operators. This result means that the green practices are not different based on the demographic factor as long as they have sufficient environmental knowledge. This research will significantly impact hospitality management through environmental knowledge and help academicians identify new indicators that contribute to green practices in homestays in Malaysia.

The purpose of this study is to explore the employees’ perceptions towards the role of HRM policies and practices in assisting them to perform the desired behavior in contributing to the organizational goals achievement. Employees’ perceptions are explored through their actual experiences with the implementation of HRM policies and practices. Interviews were conducted with employees in five different star-rating hotels to understand contextual factors that can be observed. Different perceptions on the role of HRM policies and practices in influencing employees’ performance are reported from the interviews. Instead of acting as a medium to transmit the message of their work expectations, employees view the HRM policies and practices as a common process happening in their organization and unrelated to their work demand. Therefore, findings of this study could light a torch of awareness for organizations to give more attention to the employees’ responses and feedback to minimize their dysfunctional behaviors that are detrimental to organizational achievement. Suggestions are given to increase the employee desired behavior relevant to the organizations from the perspective of AMO theory.

The organizational performance at public hospitals differs from the corporate sector and faces maladministration. Further, performance at public hospitals is crucial as it directly affects human lives and endeavors for accessibility to medicines and equipment. This research is designed to determine the mediating role of inventory control practices in proficiency and organizational performance at public hospitals. This paper uses a quantitative research with a survey method using multistage cluster sampling which was performed on a sample size of 200. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis validated the model for Structural Equation Modeling. The findings of this research indicate a significant positive effect and full mediation of inventory control practices between the study variables. Further, the significance indicated that competent and well-trained staff manages inventory efficiently for improved organizational performance through better service quality and reduced cost. An integrated second-order model of this research will benefit the public hospitals, healthcare industry at large, organizations managing mega structured inventory, and to the body of knowledge.

Recreation centre become one of the centres for a family to bring their children for recreation and leisure activity. Moreover, the recreation centre is the place for education, research, and awareness to the public. The main objective of this study is to investigate factors that relate to tourist perception in their reference to their interest, expectations, satisfaction, and a general understanding of the recreation centre. The antecedent factors are awareness of the surrounding environment, visitor experiences, and destination image. This research using a quantitative method via a survey questionnaire and a domestic tourist as a sample. A sample is consist of 384 respondent of domestic tourists who visited the recreation centre in Malaysia. This survey has been done in Zoo Negara, Aquaria KLCC, and FRIM, Kepong. The results show the majority of respondents are female, age below 26 years old, single, obtained higher education, working, and had an income below RM1000. The respondents are mostly from Selangor and their purpose of visit to the recreation centre is for leisure and recreation. The major source of information to visit the recreation centre was from the internet. There were have a significant relationship between an antecedent factor with tourist perception towards the recreation centre in Malaysia. The result of this study will help marketers and management of recreation centres to understand the perceptions of their future visitors. Based on the study, it is should be used as an initial benchmark for the future study, however, they may execute a depth analysis on the tourism that related to the recreation centre in Malaysia.

With the rise of environmental consciousness among the management of the accommodation sector, green hotels seem to be a growing niche in the competitive lodging industry, as evidenced by the increase in the total number of customers who are attracted to stay in green hotels. Moreover, nowadays, hotel guests prefer to stay in a hotel that is concerned about the environment. This means that green practices are essential in the hotel industry. The aim is to expand the previous research and will examine the level of green practices in respect of guests in the Malaysian hotels. A total of 300 respondents were selected using a random sampling method and analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. The result indicated that all the items for the green practices’ variable had good values. The theoretical contribution of this study is to the added level of green practices information into the marketing research base, especially in the hotel industry to help marketers create the target market.

Malaysia is a popular tourist destination in Southeast Asia. An increase of tourist arrivals (both domestic and international visitors) to Malaysia has seen a yearly increase in the number of accommodation available, especially those that are environmentally friendly. However, being environmentally friendly is a challenge for the tourism industry, especially when involving the accommodation sector. This is evidenced by the findings of a previous study that issues related to environmental sustainability are among problems faced by homestays in Malaysia. Since environmental awareness has been increasing across the world, these issues are important aspects that should be explored, especially relating to the tourism industry and specifically in the accommodation sector. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the level of environmental awareness and knowledge among homestay operators in Selangor, Malaysia. In this preliminary study, 100 respondents were involved, who were selected using simple random sampling among homestay operators in Selangor, Malaysia. The descriptive analysis was done using SPSS software. The results show that the mean value for environmental awareness and knowledge is good. This shows that there is a high level of awareness and knowledge among homestay operators.

Homestay operators in Malaysia have long been pursuing their homestay program assisted by the government and their respective communities. However, the homestay operators are still confronted with issues such as the declining number of tourist arrivals which could not generate additional income as expected. This has created other problems such as low commitment level among themselves. Therefore, this study was undertaken to identify the determinants that affect the commitment among homestay operators in Malaysia such as quality of life attributes, attitudes, community roles and the role of government. This study used a survey method using a questionnaire involving 394 homestay operators throughout Malaysia. The study population comprised of 3,211 homestay operators who were registered with the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia as at December 2011. The sample was selected using probability sampling method through multistage cluster sampling procedure. A total of 396 questionnaires were distributed using face to face method but only 337 questionnaires were used for purposes of data analysis. The finding showed that the level of commitment among homestay operators was moderate. The four determinants of the study namely quality of life attributes, attitudes, role of community and the role of government have had positive relationships and become significant predictors to the commitment of the homestay operators in Malaysia.

The organizational performance at Punjab healthcare is crucial and often faces stock-outs of critical medicines and equipment at emergency department of different hospitals, which increased the mortality rate. Therefore, the study determined the effect of disruptive factors and inventory control as a mediator on organizational performance. Quantitative method with survey questionnaires on a 200-sample size through cluster sampling was used. SPSS and AMOS were used to examine Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling. The results found full mediation with a significant positive effect between study variables. Further, the study indicated that strict compliance of standardized operating procedures, professionally well-equipped staff, stock availability, and accurate inventories could reduce costs with improved service quality. This study is useful for the public healthcare facilities, ministries managing inventories and body of knowledge. Finally, the backlog inventories at public sector organizations need to be researched in future.

Small island tourism is susceptible to the adverse impacts of climate change and is expected to challenge the business model of hotel operators. Thus, it is imperative for them to understand the interactions between climate change and hotel management to mitigate the unfavourable impacts. This study aims to investigate the perceptions among hotel managers in Kapas Island, Malaysia on the climate change impact to their hotel operation. It represents their readiness when experiencing adverse conditions brought by climate change. Qualitative research through case study is conducted to get an in-depth investigation of the understanding about climate change among managers. Results showed that there are mixed views among respondents on the impact of climate change to their hotel management. Most hotel management in Kapas Island perceived that climate change impact are irrelevant for their hotel operation. Thus, no serious actions in terms of business operation and adaptation strategy were taken by the owners to prepare for any unexpected climate event. This study contributes to the literature on climate change adaptation by providing information from the Malaysian perspective.

The objective of this study is to systematically identify the important marine resources usedfor producing traditional medicine for heart disease in Malaysia. To achieve the objective ofthis study, a qualitative method was employed through in-depth face-to-face interviews usinga prepared questionnaire. The results indicate that twelve types of marine resources are usedfor producing traditional medicine for treating heart disease. Furthermore, the results alsoindicate that some of the marine resources are used as a food as well as to treat heart disease. Finally, the findings of this study will help demystify traditional medical practices in Malaysia and assist academicians in understanding the Malaysian culture of traditional medicine.Keywords: Marine resources; heart disease; traditional medicine; marine materials;complementary medicine.

Global issues such as climate change, global warming and pollution have become some of the most critical issues happening around the world for quite some time. Previous research has found that the environmental issues are closely linked with human activities. Generally, the hotel industry is closely related to the environment, particularly through daily operations that can lead to these environmental issues. Beginning a few decades ago, there was an increase in environmental awareness in the hospitality industry. In this light, green hotels seem to be becoming a growing niche in the competitive lodging industry and the number of customers who are interested in staying at green hotels has also increased. Due to the lack of studies that explore the green efforts that influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, this study was therefore conducted to investigate the effect of environmental management practices towards customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the Malaysian hotel industry.

Management of painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy remains challenging. Most therapies provide symptomatic relief with varying degrees of efficacy. Tocotrienols have modulatory effects on the neuropathy pathway and may reduce neuropathic symptoms with their antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activities.To evaluate the efficacy of oral mixed tocotrienols for patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.The Vitamin E in Neuroprotection Study (VENUS) was a parallel, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that recruited participants from January 30, 2011, to December 7, 2014, with 12 months of follow-up. This trial screened 14 289 patients with diabetes from 6 health clinics and ambulatory care units from 5 public hospitals in Malaysia. A total of 391 patients who reported neuropathic symptoms were further assessed with Total Symptom Score (TSS) and Neuropathy Impairment Score (NIS). Patients 20 years or older with a TSS of 3 or higher and an NIS of 2 or higher were recruited.Patients were randomized to receive 200 mg of mixed tocotrienols twice daily or matching placebo for 12 months. Patients with hyperhomocysteinemia (homocysteine level ≥2.03 mg/L) received oral folic acid, 5 mg once daily, and methylcobalamin, 500 μg thrice daily, in both groups.The primary outcome was patient-reported neuropathy TSS (lancinating pain, burning pain, paresthesia, and asleep numbness) changes at 12 months. The secondary outcomes were NIS and sensory nerve conduction test result.Of 391 eligible patients, 300 were recruited (130 [43.3%] male; mean [SD] age, 57.6 [8.9] years; mean [SD] duration of diabetes, 11.4 [7.8] years) and 229 (76.3%) completed the trial. The TSS changes between the tocotrienols and placebo groups at 12 months (-0.30; 95% CI, -1.16 to 0.56; P = .49) were similar. No significant differences in NIS (0.60; 95% CI, -1.37 to 2.65; P = .53) and sensory nerve conduction test assessments were found between both groups. In post hoc subgroup analyses, tocotrienols reduced lancinating pain among patients with hemoglobin A1C levels greater than 8% (P = .03) and normohomocysteinemia (homocysteine level2.03 mg/L; P = .008) at 1 year. Serious adverse events in both groups were similar, except more infections were observed in the tocotrienols group (6.7% vs 0.7%, P = .04). Results reported were of modified intention-to-treat analyses.Supplementation of oral mixed tocotrienols, 400 mg/d for 1 year, did not improve overall neuropathic symptoms. The preliminary observations on lancinating pain among subsets of patients require further exploration.National Medical Research Registry Identifier: NMRR-10-948-7327 and clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01973400.

Line managers’ performance in enacting the HRM role has been criticized as they failed to meet the expectations of organizational members. Meanwhile, limitations in exploring the development of the line managers’ HRM role have been identified in several areas. One of these limitations is the tendency of research to focus on HR specialists view, but failed to place line manager at the centre of the research analysis. To gain a deeper understanding of the causes and outcomes of line managers’ HRM role, it is important to gather line managers’ experience as a role holder. Drawing on a role theory concept, case studies are conducted at three Malaysian airports to gather in-depth data about line managers’ HRM role. 23 interviews were carried out with line managers at the selected airports to understand the challenges they experience in enacting their HRM roles. Line managers’ challenges are measured on five factors: desire, capability, competencies, support and HRM policy and procedures. This study revealed that line managers perceived no real challenges hindering them from performing their HRM role. Work environment is a new challenge identified in this study that influence line managers’ performance in enacting their HRM role. Importantly, line managers suggested some improvement would assist them in performing better, particularly in terms of sufficient and consistent support from superiors and HR specialists. A clear feedback regarding the implementation of HRM policies and procedures from superiors is regarded as an important tool for line managers in improving their HRM role performance. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3p535

Environmental issues are one of the most pressing global concerns the world has currently to address and which has become most critical recently. Malaysia is having to determine its own response to contemporary problems such as water pollution, air pollution, waste disposal, climate change, global warming, deforestation and haze which have plagued Malaysia for some time. Green practices are an important aspect to be explored in the hotel industry. This study aims to measure the impact of green practices in non-green hotels on customer satisfaction and their loyalty. The structural model of the inter-relationships among green practices, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is developed and executed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The study found that Green Practices in the hotel industry have a significant effect on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty. Furthermore, Customer Satisfaction mediates the relationship between Green Practice and Loyalty. Thus, hoteliers, of both a green and a non-green status, need to show concern and to participate in conserving the environment to survive in a competitive environment.

Digital watermarking is a huge research area which is progressively growing. It covers theoretical studies, novel techniques, attacks and performance analysis. An embedded watermark may unintentionally or inadvertently be impaired by such processing. Other types of processing may be applied with the explicit goal of hindering watermark reception. In watermarking terminology, an “attack” is any processing that may impair detection of the watermark or communication of the information conveyed by the watermark. Broadly it can be classified as Intentional Attacks and Non-Intentional Attacks. The processed watermarked data is then called “attacked data”. An important aspect of any Watermarking scheme is its robustness against attacks. The notion of robustness is intuitively clear: A watermark is robust if it cannot be impaired without also rendering the attacked data useless. Watermark impairment can be measured by criteria such as miss probability, probability of bit error, or channel capacity. For multimedia, the usefulness of the attacked data can be gauged by considering its perceptual quality or distortion. Hence, robustness can be evaluated by simultaneously considering watermark impairment and the distortion of the attacked data. An attack succeeds in defeating a watermarking scheme if it impairs the watermark beyond acceptable limits while maintaining the perceptual quality of the attacked data. In this paper, JPEG compression (quality 50 and 75), noise (Gaussian noise), distortion (blurring) and contrast enhancement (histogram equalization and intensity adjustment) are testified. Results shown that embedding gain and DWT decomposition subbands were among the contribute against attacks performed

There are quite a number of researches in proposing digital image watermarking using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). However, it is clearly observed that each of them is individually distinctive in terms of its scopes and applications. In this paper, a proposed system was thoroughly explained. It includes general work flow, proposed algorithms for both original method and improved method, which were named as subband matching and selective subband matching, respectively and various attacks performed for evaluation. Modification was made to the algorithms where only selected matching subbands were used in embedding and extracting the watermark in this improved method. These methods were compared and tested against attacks using standard benchmark, Stirmark. Experimental results of the proposed methods' performance were analyzed using Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) calculations and Structural SIMilarity (SSIM) index for watermark imperceptibility and robustness, respectively. The improvement could be seen in quality of the watermarked image (imperceptibility) and of extracted watermark (robustness).

The field of digital watermarking has recently seen vast interests covering theoretical studies, novel techniques, attacks and analysis. This is due to the fact that over the last 15 years, the watermarking community has focused on developing and introducing new techniques for watermark embedding and detection. Analysis of these techniques leads to methods for attack and development of countermeasures which then used to discover faults and limitations in applications, encouraging the development of better ones. In this paper, comprehensive overview of digital watermarking are discussed. This includes the general model, types, applications and future trends of current implementations. The proposed technique is described and analyzed. The paper concludes with future plans of the chosen method in digital watermarking.

Unhealthy eating behaviour has been linked to the risks of many chronic diseases all around the world. Functional foods and its association with health benefits and reducing the risk of diseases open a promising avenue for consumers to pursue a healthier life as well as extending their life expectancy. This provides a great market opportunity for functional foods to be developed. Consequently, it has generated considerable consumer interest in functional food consumption. This study describes the profiles and behaviours of the consumers who are willing to consume functional foods in Malaysia. By using mall intercept surveys, data were collected from consumers shopping at hypermarkets in Malaysia. From the analysis undertaken, it was found that the level of consumer-behavioural intention to consume functional food is encouraging. The results indicated that behavioural intention towards functional food tends to be different across gender, age and marital status. However this study found that the extent of consumer-behavioural intention does not vary by ethnicity, religion, income and education. Future study was also proposed.