Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the risk-adjusted performance of rated funds and determine the usefulness of Lipper Leader rating of unit trusts in Malaysia during the period 2000 to 2010. Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilizes the Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, Jensen’s alpha and Fama-French three-factor model to measure performance. Findings – During the period of study, the performance of the market index and risk-free rate outperformed that of 68 equity unit trust funds in the 3-year, 5-year and 10-year investment horizons. The ranking, based on four performance measures, corresponds to Lipper rating for the lowest rated and leader funds, but not for the three- and four-key rated funds. Further, there is a significant difference in the performance of the five-key, four-key and three-key rated funds which outperform the lowest rated funds, indicating that Lipper rating is able to distinguish superior and inferior unit trust funds. Research limitations/implications – Some of the limitations in this study are that the indexes could be self-constructed. The existing index might not represent the asset allocation of the funds concerned. Additional variables might have to be considered when examining fund performance as they should correspond to the characteristics of a fund. Practical implications – The results indicate that Lipper rating classification could identify the highest and lowest performing funds. Therefore, investors could use this rating to make informed investment decisions without undertaking time-consuming analysis to ascertain the good- and bad-quality funds in the market. Social implications – The findings of this study could be used by the academia as another source of reference to enhance their understanding of the applicability of Lipper rating for unit trust funds in an emerging market. Originality/value – The contribution of this study is that it analyzes the effectiveness and capability of Lipper Leader rating in identifying quality funds in the context of an emerging market. Performance comparison between Lipper Leader rating and methods used in the portfolio theory bridges the theory-practice gap between practitioners and academics. To date, there have been no attempts to study and compare the ratings of advisory firms with theoretical performance measures, particularly in the context of Malaysia.

This study aims to investigate the impacts of soft skills possessed by graduates from a public university on their employment opportunity. Previous studies revealed that soft skills are crucial for their employability. A total of 234 graduates were selected as the sample of this study. The data analysis by SPSS found that employability was positively associated with leadership skills, teamwork skills, and communication skills. Furthermore, leadership skills possessed by graduates have the strongest influence on employment opportunities among the three independent variables. The study adds more information to the current debate in this area and provides practical contributions to the management of the university, particularly in planning various students' upskilling programmes to increase the rate of graduate employability. The findings suggest that the university should focus on leadership, teamwork, and communication skills in the teaching and learning process.

The assumption of the unlimited human wants (UnHW) is based on a conventional economic philosophy. Economic philosophies are often derived from theories by post-classical philosophy that founded the capitalist system and theories of Marxist. Besides that, post-Marxist philosophy founded the socialist and communist systems. Both capitalist and Marxist philosophers believe that human's wants are unlimited.Abstrak -Andaian ketidak-terhadan kehendak manusia (KTKM) berasal daripada falsafah ekonomi lazim. Falsafah ekonomi lazim terbit daripada teori-teori yang lahir daripada falsafah Pasca-Klasikal yang melahirkan sistem kapitalis dan teori-teori daripada falsafah Marxis dan Pasca-Marxis yang melahirkan sistem sosialis dan komunis. Kedua-dua falsafah kapitalis dan Marxis percaya terhadap andaian bahawa kehendak manusia tidak terhad. Andaian KTKM diambil oleh ahli ekonomi Islam lalu diolah dan diasimilisasi dengan elemen-elemen Islam agar ianya boleh dipanggil andaian dalam ekonomi Islam. Persoalannya, sesuaikah andaian KTKM ini diterima dalam ekonomi Islam? Sekiranya tidak sesuai, apakah andaian kehendak manusia yang sesuai menurut tasawur Islam? Kertas kerja ini ditulis dengan matlamat untuk mencapai satu tujuan iaitu mengenal pasti dan menganalisis andaian KTKM berlandaskan

This study aims to investigate the impacts of soft skills possessed by graduates from a public university on their employment opportunity. Previous studies revealed that soft skills are crucial for their employability. A total of 234 graduates were selected as the sample of this study. The data analysis by SPSS found that employability was positively associated with leadership skills, teamwork skills, and communication skills. Furthermore, leadership skills possessed by graduates have the strongest influence on employment opportunities among the three independent variables. The study adds more information to the current debate in this area and provides practical contributions to the management of the university, particularly in planning various students’ upskilling programmes to increase the rate of graduate employability. The findings suggest that the university should focus on leadership, teamwork, and communication skills in the teaching and learning process.

This study assesses the spiritual’s post-covid Asnaf entrepreneur’s toward zakat on business. It indicated the new insight of Asnaf entrepreneur’s spirituality after covid. After participating in the AEP, Asnaf became the zakat payer and directly will be give the positive effect to zakat collection. However, many small businesses, especially business from Asnaf entrepreneurs are financially fragile because of Covid- 19 challenges. To meet the challenges posed by the Covid-19, the Asnaf entrepreneurs had to react in agile and decisive ways by relating the spirituality toward business and able to maintain as the zakat payer soon. This involves conducting an after-action review in spiritual by lessons learned from the pandemic and enhance the business value. Therefore, in this paper, we explore the Spiritual’s Asnaf entrepreneurs toward zakat on business after facing the Covid-19. The analysis was performed to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement, and the structural equation modelling techniques (SEM). Spiritual among Asnaf entrepreneur’s toward zakat on business after Covid-19. Hence, the study provides an insight to zakat institution that the Covid-19 seek out the opportunities emerging in the recovery and stability return by move to digitalization business. Keywords: asnaf, entrepreneur, spiritual quotient, post covid