ARI's Niche Research Area

As one of the Ministry of Higher Education's centres of excellence or aptly called MOHE HiCoE, ARI's research focus will be in the area of financial criminology. As such, all ARI's fundamental research projects will include the following (additional) requirements:
1. ARI members to assume the role of principal investigators
2. Other research team members will include at least one person from the industry/professional bodies from Malaysia and another one from other Malaysian universities
3. At least one renowned international member from foreign universities
4. Expected two publications in indexed journals for each research project

In today's monthly meeting with members, ARI has identified some research titles to be conducted for the years 2010-2012.

ISIEA 2010

The 2010 IEEE Symposium on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ISIEA 2010), an international conference will be held in Penang on 3-6 October 2010. The conference is SCOPUS- and ISI Thomson-Indexed. It is great opportunity for ARI members to participate as a special track for business management has been allocated. Two ARI members, Prof Dr Rozainun and myself have been appointed as committee members of the international symposium. The deadline for abstract submission is 2nd February 2010. I look forward to seeing a lot of papers from ARI and faculty members...

Corporate Integrity System

The Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM) through its private sector director encik Mohd Nizam Mohd Ali proposes an initiative to develop a comprehensive Corporate Integrity System (CIS) for Malaysian corporations.
The CIS is premised on four fundamental concepts namely (1) Ethical leadership; code of conduct & corporate citizenship, (2) Regulatory oversight, civil & criminal liabilities & law enforcement, (3) Compliance systems, whistle blowing, corporate governance, Roles of accountants & auditors adn (4) Investors, public reporting, civil society watchdogs, investigative journalism and consumer campaigns. As a director of ARI, I have appointment as one of the working group members of this initiative.

Research in Financial Criminology

ARI wishes to invite interested researchers to submit fundamental research proposals on financial criminology. All proposals must include collaboration with either the professional bodies, Industry and international university researchers. All applications should be emailed to me at either dr.normah@accountant.com or normah645@salam.uitm.edu.my by 28th Febriary 2010. Prospective master and phd students are also encouraged to apply.

MIMOS Convention & networking

I was invited to MIMOS convention recently and I met a former UiTM-Cardiff MBA student Zurina. I was teaching the management accounting course for that proagram. Currently Zurina is attached with MIMOS. Zurina and her colleague Dr Haniza are researchers speacialising in "Measurement & Psychometrics". ARI can now network with these researchers and they should be able to facilitate us with our research measurement. They have sort of agree for a possible research collaboration. Thanks Zurina

Marvelous Tampin

The 1/2010 FRGS research proposals evaluation meeting was held recently at the A farmosa Resorts from 18/1/10 to 22/1/10. Apart from serious evaluation, I had the opportunity to visit a nearby town which is about four kilometers from the hotel. The Tampin town has some very interesting characteristics. Though small, it has what it takes to sustain its existence for a long time. One of the most prominent characteristics is its ability to portray itslef as a textile/garment town. The textiles and garments are mostly sold at wholesale prices. I am particularly amazed by the many Kampuchean-originated entrepreneurs who provides good and efficient tailoring services for tourist (you can get your garment ready within two days!). Another interesting characteristic is the avialbility of many restaurants that sell authentic Negeri Sembilan delicacies - I had sambal tempoyak daun kayu. As researchers, it would be interesting to study how Tampin survives the mushrooming of hypermarkets and supermarkets....

Fancy That....

Recently I had the opportunity to visit a full board school in Seremban, the Sekolah Datuk Abdul Razak (SDAR). The school has been named as one of the twenty top schools in the country. It is interesting to research on how top schools like SDAR are able to produce good and talented individuals. Our very on Assistant Vice Chancelor Prof Abu Bakar Majeed was a SDARian and I saw this listing proudly showcased by the school. Prof Bakar was the school's best student in 1977. Congratulations Prof Bakar...

My Favorite Innovators...

There are some very good inventors at the recent IID 2010. However they lost simply because there's no publication or any form of intellectual property protection either through copyright, trademarks or patents. My choice is of course confined to the products that I have personally reviewed. The first one is the development of a template to analyse previous studies or literature review in a research. The second one is on e-bulletin, where books or annual reports are just electronically presented.
Third is the product "teaching accounding made simple". I have shown the literature review template in my previous entry. I am showing the other two in this entry.

Learning How to Do Literature Review?

I have been appointed to be one of the judges for UiTM's Invention, Innovation and Design (IID 2010) exhibition held on 12-14 January 2010. Today, I met one of the exhibitor, Dr Teoh from the faculty of Education who has invented a template for researchers to do their literature review analysis. I am basically impressed by her invention. Dr Teoh has co-written a book with another researcher, Dr Kor from the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Computer Sciences and Quantitative Analysis, titled From Literature Review to Developing Conceptual Framework for Journal Writing. It is highly recommended that researchers read the book. ARI is buying the book from her.

CPA Council's First Meeting 2010

The first 2010 council meeting for CPA Australia (Malaysian Division)was held this afternoon.
The newly elected president Mr Andrew Heng chaired the meeting. Two newly elected deputy presidents are nemely Ms Josephine Phang and Mr Alex Oi. Another new council member is Mr Billy from BP. Good mix to start the new year.

Research on Langkawi Island

I was in the Langkawi Island over the weekend and a lot of research potentials that ARI or other researchers could embark on the island itself.
As a tourist destination, Langkawi has basic infrastructures such as an international airport; fully equipped jetty for boats/ferries; natural beauty spots & heritage; shopping complexes; hotels & motels; restaurants. Unfortunately, over the years, the island "has lost its shine". Now, so many smaller shops have closed down, roads and other amenities have not been properly maintained. I reckoned the Island requires a "comprehensive research project" to find out ways to "bring back" Langkawi as we knew it in the mid 1990s - full of vibrants and excitements.