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.

The internet has opened doors for electronic voting (E-voting). A review of the loopholes of the 14th General Election in Malaysia including the delay of votes from overseas voters, the declaration of a public holiday on voting day and the extraordinary heavy traffic, implies that E-voting could be a better alternative to the paper-based ballot voting. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the determinants of the intention to use the E-voting system among Generation X in Malaysia. This study focused only on Generation X because most internet users are from this age group (22 to 37-year olds) compared to other age groups. Hence, Generation X may be the focus of E-voting. A survey of 351 respondents on their intention to use E-voting system was conducted throughout 13 states and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (Wilayah Persekutuan). Additionally, an empirical model was drawn from adopted theories and data was analyzed using the Partial Least Squares – Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The findings showed that compatibility, relative advantages and perceived ease of use significantly contributed to the intention to participate in E-voting. However, perceptions of image, complexity of use, perceived usefulness, trust in the internet and in the government are not significantly related to the intention to use E-voting.

The credit card market has witnessed tremendous growth resulting from a paradigm shift in technology. The genuine usage of credit cards as a form of convenience has diverged to overspending, irresponsibility, revolving liability and bankruptcy. This implies that possession of credit cards has brought about a change in users’ repayment behavior. Thus, this study aims to determine academicians’ credit card repayment pattern in a private tertiary institution in Malaysia. The dependent variable is the repayment pattern and the independent variables that serve as the attributes include personal attitude and spending pattern, while, gender and parenthood serve as the moderating variables. Findings revealed that personal attitude and spending pattern were important attributes in determining the repayment pattern among the academicians. Gender and parenthood were found to play a moderating role in the repayment pattern. Findings from this study is expected to facilitate the government and credit card companies to work towards nurturing a financially healthier and informed society, and also to  each out positively to the younger generations through the influence of the academicians.

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.

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