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Access to capital is a critical factor in stimulating small business creation and growth especially in developing companies. The failure of small business entities in securing the needed capital would entail them remaining small and limit their ability to create goods, services, and innovations in the marketplace, including jobs. This study focuses on manufacturing SMEs by examining the influence of managerial characteristics (age, gender, work experience and level of education) on capital structure towards technology improvement. Based on a survey of 219 respondents, the results indicated that male managers, managers with a lot of work experience and educated managers preferred internal and external financing. Furthermore, internal and external financing also showed positive relationships to improve manufacturing technology performance. This study provides and adds new knowledge to corporate managers to serve as benchmarks in making decisions on company performance. It could also enhance company ability to deal with competitive environments.

This study investigated the relationship between board characteristics and capital structure, namely total debt, short-term debt, and long-term debt of firms in the Malaysian consumer products sector for the period 2010 to 2014. Based on 109 firms selected for the study, the firms’ decision about capital structure regardless of total debt, short-term debt or long-term debt is not influenced by the size of the board. However, if the board membership constitutes more independent directors, the proportion of short-term debt is even higher than the long term-debt. Board meetings were found to have a significantly negative influence on firms’ decisions concerning total debt financing. The findings also revealed that large firms hold more short-term and long-term debts when there is an increase in the number of members on the board. The firms that have been long in existence focused more on short-term debt financing and their growth in terms of capital expenditure. Consequently, the total debt of the firms also increased.

Problem statement: Women in Asia are making their mark with distinct styles of leadership, but have a long way to go to reach the critical mass needed to level a political playing field that remains much easier for men to take part. Yet far from being included in the decision-making process, women find themselves under-represented in political institutions.Approach: Numerous challenges confront women entering politics.Many feel that Malaysian society is still male dominated and men are threatened by the idea of women holding senior posts. Thus the objective of this study tries to identify the model of political support of women by looking at relationship with political parties in the northern states.The result of findings shows that there is a significant relationship between them. Results: The recommendations were proposed such as women should be more participate in political parties activities from the women wings from the grass-root and women representatives should be given more opportunities in voice their idea as men in political arena.Conclusion: In future research, political parties and government should open widely the platform for women active in politics and give them an opportunity to exercise the political power as men earned in decision-making process.