volume-21-number-4

Author: Romeo B. Lee

Preliminaries

Year: 2021, Volume 21 Number 4

Pages: 1 – 22

The paper examines the impact of the restricted energy supply chain on key business sectors of Vietnam’s economy during the COVID-19 period by using structure path analysis combined with constrained fixed price multiplier to examine energy price changes for key business sectors of the economy between 2019 and 2020. The result shows that the change in coal price will likely lead to a downward trend in the overall price of the production. In particular, when the government restricts 10% of the energy supplies chain, the travel services, transportation services, trade, and repair services sectors will have the strongest impact on the economy. Meanwhile, other key industries such as agriculture and construction were not significantly impacted by the restricted energy supply chain in 2020. The study also provides some important recommendations for the Vietnamese government to proactively seek energy under different scenarios of the energy supply chain. In consequence, policymakers will have appropriate policies for sustainable economic development, especially in the context of complicated COVID-19 adversely affecting the economies of many countries and territories all over the world. 

Keywords: Energy supply chain, Business management, COVID-19, Vietnamese economy 

Pages: 23 – 35

This study attempts to investigate how ethical leadership enhances nurses’ in-role and extra-role performances with the mediation of psychological empowerment. We used a cross-sectional time-lag design and collected data from 371 nurses and their immediate supervisors through a questionnaire-based survey. The data on ethical leadership and psychological empowerment were collected from nurses at T1, whereas data on in-role and extra-role performance were collected from their immediate supervisors at T2. The results revealed positive associations of ethical leadership with psychological empowerment, in-role, and extra-role performance. Further, hierarchical regression confirms the mediating role of psychological empowerment between the associations of ethical leadership with in-role and extra-role performance. 

Keywords: Ethical leadership, In-role performance, Extra-role performance, COVID-19, healthcare 

Pages: 36 – 49

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has presented the world with a major challenge in curbing infection. Information is important for public awareness of the pandemic and its prevention as part of the problem-solving efforts. Grounded on the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS), this study extends the theory by adding religiosity, an important factor that affects health-related behaviors, to examine its role as an antecedent to the situational perceptions that motivate people to take communicative action in preventing COVID-19, and to investigate the factors that lead to precautionary behavior in response to the pandemic. Based on the online survey responses from 371 respondents, the findings of the current study suggest that religiosity predicts problem recognition and constraint recognition, which further lead to communicative action in problem solving. Religiosity, however, does not predict involvement recognition. Religiosity and situational motivation were also found to be significantly related to precautionary behavior. The outcomes can serve as a guideline for the Malaysian Health Promotion Board in information dissemination during a pandemic. 

Keywords: COVID-19, Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS), religiosity, precautionary behavior, communicative action 

Pages: 50 – 71

The Philippine government passed the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) in 2019, despite a strong and united peasant opposition to rice industry liberalization, which the RTL facilitates and further accelerates. Amid falling Filipino farmers’ incomes due to the deluge of imported rice, negligible milled rice price decreases for consumers, rising rice prices globally, and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that has already disrupted food supplies and is poised to cause continuing instability in the price of imports, this paper is aimed at reviewing recent rice tariffication policy literature. Such review will be a springboard in making a case in favor of RTL’s reversal and presenting alternative policies towards prospective rice self-sufficiency in the Philippines. The paper contends that the RTL will only encourage the Philippines to rely on imports and also fail to make the local rice industry more competitive. Hence, the local rice industry must be supported rather than allowed to be gobbled up by liberalization, especially that the COVID-19 pandemic proved that countries cannot always rely on food imports. The paper prescribes drastic investments in agriculture and R&D, rural solar electrification, and promotion of more agriculture-oriented research focused on increasing yields, boosting productivity, and planting sustainably as feasible steps in the road to rice self-sufficiency. 

Keywords: food policy, rice tariffication, rice industry, COVID-19 economy, Philippines 

Pages: 72 – 85

The purpose of this study is to introduce income mobility analysis to examine households’ welfare through time. Income mobility in the Philippines has been characterized by offsetting forces of upward and downward mobility. In this kind of scenario, policy targeting for households’ welfare can be done by examining the drivers of income mobility. Pseudo-longitudinal panel data generated from the Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES), through the household matching method, were used to identify the households included in the study. The needed information on the levels of living and differences in income and expenditure of Filipino families were provided by FIES. In addition, the Becker, Kominers, Murphy, and Spenkuch (BKMS) framework was utilized to determine the factors that affect income mobility. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and multinomial logit regressions were used to explain and examine absolute and relative income mobility, respectively. The findings showed that households’ income mobility was influenced by geographical location, household heads’ marital status, educational attainment, and occupation. In addition, government investments in human capital development such as education, health, and social services were significant factors of income mobility. On the other hand, because of the country’s preparedness and planning before the onset of a natural disaster and immediate solutions in the aftermath of a disaster, natural shocks were found to be an insignificant factor of income mobility. 

Keywords: economic status, human capital, income mobility, natural shocks, socioeconomic characteristics 

Pages: 86 – 99

Nowadays, the COVID-19 pandemic has led Malaysian educators to experience more significant burnout due to job demands. This paper is an effort to examine the reasons that caused burnout among Malaysian educators. A total of 413 Malaysian educators participated in the study. This study’s findings revealed that PSC has a significant negative relationship with hindrance demands and burnout, whereas both challenge and hindrance demands have insignificant positive relationships with burnout. Furthermore, the study showed that two variables—challenge demands and hindrance demands—played significant mediators in the relationship between PSC and burnout. As a result, it is concluded that PSC can reduce the unfavorable characteristics of hindrance demands and burnout among Malaysian educators. This paper’s findings are valuable to academics and experts who wish to minimize the burnout pervasiveness among Malaysian educators. 

Keywords: psychosocial safety climate, PSC, burnout, job demands, challenge demands, hindrance demands, Malaysian educators, education, Malaysia, Covid-19 

Pages: 100 – 111

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Penang Island hoteliers cannot perform their job to meet the customers’ expectations due to their high job demands. Hence, this paper intends to examine the predictors of job performance among Penang Island hoteliers. Furthermore, the paper intends to investigate the potential role of challenge demands and hindrance demands as mediating variables. A total of 107 hoteliers from Penang Island hotels participated in the study. The study results showed that psychosocial safety climate and challenge demands possess a significant positive relationship with job performance, whereas psychosocial safety climate has a significant negative relationship with hindrance demands. Moreover, hindrance demands were found to serve as a significant mediator on the relationship between psychosocial safety climate and job performance. The study’s findings are to help practitioners who wish to increase job performance among hoteliers in Malaysia. 

Keywords: psychosocial safety climate, challenge demands, hindrance demands, job performance, hoteliers 

Pages: 112 – 129

This study aimed to find out if there are gender differences in how Filipinos adhere to the COVID-19 quarantine protocol. This research utilized the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a framework. According to the TPB, the behavior to follow the COVID-19 protocol will be determined by one’s attitude, subjective norms, controllability, and self-efficacy. Media was added as a moderating variable between these predictors and the behavior to follow the COVID-19 protocol. An online survey was conducted amongst 200 females and 200 males in Metro Manila. This research locale was chosen as it had the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the Philippines. The study results showed no statistical differences between gender in their compliance to quarantine protocol except for attitude and controllability. These two variables and media were significant to the adherence to the COVID-19 protocol. Further, the media moderated the relationship between attitude and adherence to the COVID-19 protocol. The results showed that media exposure, whether traditional or new, moderated the adherence to quarantine protocol in both groups. This study concludes that media can be used to encourage adherence to quarantine protocol for both genders. Thus, it is recommended that marketers design the same mass media campaign to follow the quarantine protocol for both genders. 

Keywords: Gender, COVID-19, Theory of Planned Behavior

Pages: 130 – 147

A sustainable development agenda has always been at the core of BRICS cooperation. However, the progress has been limited for many reasons, including economic diversity, over-reliance on Western technologies and capital, lack of own sources of financing, and common strategy. At the same time, accounting for over 40% of the global population, over 20% of the world’s GDP, and contributing to more than 40% of global CO2 emissions, BRICS countries are among the world’s most important players in sustainability and climate. Therefore, finding organic ways of sustainable growth in these countries is crucial to global efforts in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). Using a qualitative data analysis, a review of the literature and reports of international organizations, this paper aims to analyze the current trends, risks, and opportunities in the advancement of BRICS cooperation on SDGs while placing a special emphasis on impact investment as a way to bring additional finance to BRICS countries.

Keywords: sustainable development, impact investment, BRICS, COVID-19

Pages: 148 – 158

To respond to the increasing demand for Chinese language teachers in Thailand, Hanban, a non-governmental, public organization affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education, has employed many Chinese teachers on a voluntary basis. Weighing on this matter, this study explored the perceptions of 13 Chinese language teachers of the difficulties and challenges of being Chinese teachers in Thailand. Online survey questionnaires and individual follow-up interviews were used to collect the data. Findings revealed that participants held a positive perception with regards to being Chinese language teachers in Thailand. Some reasons why they came to teach in Thailand included Thailand’s ancient culture and a chance to broaden their working experience and horizon. However, they also reported that the language barrier, lack of classroom management experience, and inappropriate textbooks for tertiary education hampered their teaching. The findings indicated that Chinese language teachers urgently need professional and ongoing training to ensure their teaching quality. In addition, further efforts for developing textbooks for higher education are demanded. 

Keywords: Chinese teachers, teaching in Thailand, volunteer teachers, teaching challenges, teaching motivation 

Pages: 159 – 180

Deficiencies in the quality of risk reporting impede investors’ ability to make well-informed investment decisions. In the wake of unexpected corporate collapses, calls for a greater amount of voluntary risk disclosures by the regulators are entirely legitimate, in the expectation that improved risk reporting published in the annual report enables investors to assess a firm’s risk profile and its firm value more accurately. This study investigates the relationship between the voluntary corporate risk disclosures (VCRD), board leadership effectiveness, audit committee financial expertise, and firm performance of 290 companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE). To collect and measure the quality of risk disclosures, we performed a manual content analysis method. We employ the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique, and the empirical results show that the relationship between VCRD and firm performance is positive and significant. We found a significant and positive relationship between board size and the level of firm performance, as measured by both accounting (ROA) and market-based performance (Tobin’s Q) measures. However, CEO duality is found to be non-significant in its association with firm performance. SEM results further demonstrate that audit committee financial expertise has a positive and significant moderating influence on the VCRD-ROA nexus. Overall, the findings of this study demonstrated that the exogenous latent constructs collectively accounted for 30.8% and 69.3% of the variance in ROA and Tobin’s Q, respectively. Research contributions, policy implications, and future directions are also discussed in this paper. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has yet to examine the interplay between the extent of VCRD, governance mechanisms, and firm performance in Malaysia, following the implementation of the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance (MCCG) 2017. 

Keywords: Risk disclosure, Board Leadership Effectiveness, Firm performance, Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance, Structural Equation Modeling 

Pages: 181 – 191

This study examines two documentaries on the impact of Agent Orange in post-war Vietnam: Where War Has Passed (1997), by the Vietnamese director Vu Le My and Agent Orange: A Personal Requiem (2007), by Japanese director Masako Sakata. In order to depict the destructiveness of Agent Orange, these directors focus exclusively neither on the footprints of war in Vietnam’s physical landscape nor the sufferings of Vietnamese victims. By highlighting the existence of Agent Orange victims in the landscape that was once the target of a series of American spraying missions, both documentaries urge the audience to remove the boundaries between humans and the natural environment. While Vu explored local people’s perceptions, Sakata provided a constructive representation grounded in historical and scientific references. In this way, Vu focused on exploring the “sense of place” by revealing how both local people and the landscape have suffered from the impacts of Agent Orange. By contrast, Sakata utilized a framework of the “sense of planet” by tracing the long historical process beyond the American spraying missions. 

Keywords: Agent Orange, Vietnam War, Human-Nature Boundaries, Destruction, Documentary 

Pages: 192 – 206

The research is based on the Russian approach to implementing the BRICS Plus concept. The “BRICS Plus Circle” could unite the members of the five integration blocks, driven by the BRICS countries, which are mainly developing countries. These countries call for the creation of a more balanced global architecture based on the principles of non-discrimination, equal access to resources, and their fair distribution. Multilateral cooperation in the Bretton Woods institutions (the WTO, IMF, and the World Bank) may become one of the main modalities of the BRICS Plus interaction. In this regard, the paper aims to analyze the prospects for such cooperation and the potential instruments and mechanisms for maintaining a collective position. The authors conclude that the creation of a multilateral coalition of the BRICS Plus countries in the WTO could contribute to the reshaping of the WTO agenda, strengthening opposition to rising trade protectionism from the advanced economies, as well as advocating a shift from discussing trade facilitation and liberalization issues towards such new issues as e-commerce and investment facilitation. The cumulative BRICS Plus vision of IMF reform may include expanding the use of the IMF’s SDRs, increasing the set of reserve currencies, expanding the basket of currencies that form the basis for SDR valuation to include currencies of all major economies, and including GDP as a factor in currency selection for the SDR. The BRICS Plus bloc may help shift the World Bank’s agenda due to its close cooperation with the NDB and the AIIB. 

Keywords: BRICS Plus, global governance, international organizations, integration of integrations, South-South cooperation 

Pages: 207 – 219

The globalization in financial markets has highlighted the importance of a clear understanding of volatility transmission among equity markets in different countries. This paper looks into the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volatility transmission between the U.S. stock market and five emerging equity markets called Tiger Cub economies in Southeast Asia. As the result of the dynamic conditional correlation GARCH (DCC-GARCH), the U.S. stock market’s volatility links positively to these smaller economies’ volatilities, and these linkages become stronger during the pandemic. We also find evidence of statistically significant co-volatility across five Tiger Cub markets. Due to the increase in financial globalization over the last few decades, the finding has relevant implications for policymakers, international investors, and portfolio managers. 

Keywords: volatility transmission, DCC-GARCH, Tiger Cub economies, COVID-19, emerging market 

Pages: 220 – 235

With the heightened demand for the public sector to adopt various measures needed for disaster management, local governments are expected to employ adaptive and innovative organizational approaches in enhancing the quality of local disaster management. Primarily, although studies have examined various predictors of disaster management performance, few explored the possible contribution of the performance management system through the lens of the expectancy disconfirmation model (EDM). Also, the study examines and finds support for EDM, positing that it functions well in light of local government employees’ perception of disaster management performance. Employing data from a regional survey in the Philippines of disaster risk reduction management officers from 98 municipalities and cities in the Cagayan Valley region, the expanded EDM was tested via the expectation maximization and estimate structural equation models. Results of the study largely support the application of EDM to the areas of services included in the local disaster management, focusing on the employee perspective. The study confirmed direct relationships of variables, that is, expectation on DRRM performance, perceived DRRM performance, perceived disconfirmation, and satisfaction. The study also finds that performance management system effectiveness has a direct relationship with the local disaster management performance in line with EDM perspectives. Finally, the study concludes that the notion of performance management for public managers highlights the need to activate and effectively implement cyclical performance management processes. 

Keywords: disaster management, performance management, expectancy disconfirmation model, local government, structural equation model