Democracy and Economic Growth: A Meta-Analysis

Despite a sizeable theoretical and empirical literature, no firm conclusions have been drawn regarding the impact of political democracy on economic growth. This article challenges the consensus of an inconclusive relationship through a quantitative assessment of the democracy-growth literature. It applies meta-regression analysis to the population of 483 estimates derived from 84 studies on democracy and growth. Using traditional meta-analysis estimators, the bootstrap, and Fixed and Random Effects meta-regression models, it derives several robust conclusions. Taking all the available published evidence together, it concludes that democracy does not have a direct impact on economic growth. However, democracy has robust, significant, and positive indirect effects through higher human capital, lower inflation, lower political instability, and higher levels of economic freedom. Democracies may also be associated with larger governments and less free international trade. There also appear to be country- and region-specific democracy-growth effects. Overall, democracy's net effect on the economy does not seem to be detrimental.     

Jihad in the Bastion of “Moderation”: Understanding the Threat of ISIS in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Malaysia has long been hailed as a beacon of moderate Islam. Yet, at present, there is considerable support for ISIS amongst Malaysians, and it represents a unique articulation of contemporary violent Islamist extremism. Malaysians who joined ISIS in Syria and its supporters at home are characterized by a sense of Islamic righteousness. Also, they share distinctive features that differentiate them from the old jihadi generation: a diverse occupational background, the lack of either formal or informal religious training, and the growing nexus of criminality-radicalization. Malaysian support for ISIS can be historically and politically contextualized in relation to the Islamization race between the main political parties, the presence of Salafi-jihadi discourse and ISIS’s discursive construction of authentic Islam.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Factors Affecting the Use of Social Networks in Human Resources Recruitment

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the use of social networks towards recruiting human resources for organizations. Through an in-depth review of the relevant literature, a questionnaire was designed and distributed among the sample and collected data were analyzed using PLS-Software. Results revealed that 50?75% of organizations use social networks in their organizations and all the identified effective factors in the use of social networks for human resources recruitment were confirmed, except for “hope for performance”. “Facilitating conditions” have the highest impact on the usage of social networks in recruiting, “Social influence” identified as one of the most important factors in people’s behavioral intention for the usage of social networks in recruitment and “Effort expectancy” had the least impact on behavioral intention. In addition, Gender and the level of education have no impact on the behavioral intention and the behavior of usage of social networking.     

Preventing radicalism in educational institutions: Pakistan a case in point

With the recent drastic shifts in societies, thinking styles, and most importantly, the degree of online‐and‐offline exposure, it is easy for the young and developing mind to fall prey to radical or extremist ideas. Radical organizations direct their recruiting efforts toward those who have yet to reach adolescence and are incapable of forming well‐informed and educated decisions. Since it is in human nature to target the weak and the vulnerable, these organizations look for dissatisfied, isolated and friendless young people. They are especially allured when these organizations promise to get them all they lack. As there have been incidents recently reported on young students' involvement in terror activities, the study proposes alternatives to prevent them from falling prey to radical thoughts. The proposed alternatives are judged through TOPSIS (Technique of Order Preference Similarity to the Ideal Solution) and the ideal alternative is singled out after mathematical calculation. Out of the five proposed alternatives, the study, through TOPSIS analysis, proposes that parents may be trained to handle their children in order to keep them from radical thoughts. In addition to the ideal alternative, the study also suggests that the government take preventive measures to curb the evil of radicalism.     

Exporting to China and ASEAN countries： Perceived advancement in marketing competencies and export performance

Malaysians firms have made inroads into the non-traditional export markets. Such ventures are expected to result in increased knowledge about the marketing systems that are posited to be different from the traditional export markets. This paper reports on the perceived improvement in marketing competencies of Malaysian exporters. The results of data analysis show that there are five dimensions of marketing competency. In ranking order, segmenting and targeting competency is ranked highest followed by product management, export management, product differentiation and promotion. Multiple regression analysis was performed to test the explanatory power of each marketing competency on export performance of firms exporting to China and ASEAN countries. The result revealed that none of the marketing competency explained the variation in export performance for the China market. However, among exporters in ASEAN countries, it was noted that promotion competency resulted in a negative impact on both measures of export performance. Product competency is positively associated with financial measure of export performance. Competencies in segmenting and targeting, and export management are positively associated with non-financial performance.     

Leviathan resists: the endogenous relationship between privatization and firm performance

Using a panel dataset of privatized cement firms in Turkey, this paper models and finds support for the simultaneous relationship between privatization and firm performance. It is found that favorable short-run performance, weak market potential, higher employment, lower socio-economic development, concentrated voter preferences, and weaker representation of right-wing parties in the firms’ locality delay the timing of privatization. The paper also finds that privatization increases output in the medium-term by reducing the labor stock and promoting the adoption of more advanced technology, such that production shifts from constant to decreasing returns to scale.