Call for Paper in Islamic Finance

ARI is reproducing the "Call for Papers" obtainable from the International Shari`ah Research Academy of Islamic Finance (ISRA)portal. All ARI and faculty members who interested to participate can submit their papers accordingly.

CALL FOR PAPERS

We seek papers that improve on the best academic research or the best practical applications, which include current applications and/or potential applications. Papers that address emerging issues, potential problems and the strategies to deal with it are also very much welcomed. Articles should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words in length and should adhere to the Journal’s submission guidelines.


The Journal’s topics of interest includes, but is not be limited to the following:

1. Fundamentals of Islamic finance;
2. Fundamentals of Shari`ah’
3. Islamic banking;
4. Islamic capital market;
5. Islamic money market;
6. Islamic insurance/takaful;
7. Fundamentals of Shari`ah and Fiqh and their application to modern finance;
8. Corporate governance from the Islamic perspectives;
9. Corporate Social Responsibility form the Islamic perspectives;
10. Shari`ah-compliant investment;
11. Shari`ah-compliant risk management;
12. Islamic derivatives;
13. Sukuk, Islamic securities, Islamic funds and Islamic unit trusts;
14. Islamic venture capital;
15. Dynamism and mechanism of Islamic jurisprudence in the light of modern finance;
16. Islamic economics and monetary system;
17. Islamic wealth management;
18. Islamic accounting; and
19. Shari`ah auditing.


Please send your manuscript to:

Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki
Editor-in-Chief
International Shari`ah Research Academy of Islamic Finance (ISRA)
2nd Floor, Annexe Block
Menara Tun Razak
Jalan Raja Laut
50350 Kuala Lumpur
MALAYSIA
( israjournal@isra.myThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

International Research Grant in Social Sciences Research

This internet posting is reproduced for the benefit of ARI researchers. Staff and post-graduate students may want to explore this opportunity.

Hermes Fellowships for Foreign Researches in Humanities and Social Sciences

Filed under Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Research Funds, South Africa
Hermes Fellowships were designed to offer young and promising foreign researchers in the humanities and social sciences the chance to be visiting researchers in French universities and research centers. This program is open to researchers from: China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and South Africa.

The Hermes Program is financed by the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Education and Research, the Department of Human and Social Sciences of the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS), and the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH).

Hermes fellowships are granted for 3 to 9 month periods. They were designed in order to give foreign researchers the opportunity to:

• carry out an individual research project within a hosting laboratory;
• become part of French and European scientific networks;
• set up lasting partnerships between their home institutions and the hosting institutions in France

The hosting laboratories in France – university research units or research institutions in Paris or elsewhere in the country – are chosen by the invited researchers. This decision is made in agreement with the fellowship selection committee and the scientific board of the FMSH. This joint process is intended to help candidates make the necessary contacts.

Scientific Fields Covered by the Hermes Program

All disciplines in the humanities and social sciences are eligible. However, priority is given to research projects addressing issues facing the contemporary world and those that have an interdisciplinary dimension.

Application deadlines: March 31 and September 30 of the current year

Scientific director: Hinnerk Bruhns
Program administrator: Neli Dobreva

Web Link

http://www.msh-paris.fr/en/research/mobility/hermes-fellowships/

Congratulations Dr Nizal

ARI wishes to congratulate one of ARI's research fellows Associate Professor Dr Mohd Nizal Hanif for his recent promotion to an associate professor.
Since his research interest is in the area of finance and capital market, he is also the head of the same-title SIG. Another congratulatory note is also in order for the recent publication of his new book. Congratulations and may you produce more in years to come.

New Openings for Young Researcher Scheme at ARI

ARI wishes to invite suitable candidates to apply for new 2011 positions of Young Researcher Scheme (YRS) at ARI. Those with first degree qualifications can pursue their Master by Research program whilst those who are in their final year of Master Program (or a Master graduate) can continue with their PhD program. Currently openings are in four specific areas namely: (1) Islamic Accounting & Muamalat,
(2) Islamic Financial Criminology, (3) Financial Criminology & Forensic Accounting and (4)Islamic Finance and Shariah. The post graduate program will start in July 2011. Those who want to know details, please contact ARI at 603 5544 4924 or email normah645@salam.uitm.edu.my

Integrated Case Study Workshop

A two-day workshop has been organized by the Faculty of Accountancy to discuss on approaches and techniques of developing successful case study write up Malaysian companies. In the past, our usage of the case study has been confined to Western cases. It is timely that more Malaysian cases be showcased and discussed in class. The integrated case study is one of the courses offered to the accounting undergraduates at the university. For the Accountancy track, a case study book has been written and launched by the Ministry of Higher Education in early 2010.

Master by Research in Islamic Financial Criminology at ARI

ARI and the Faculty of Accountancy are calling for good and interested undergraduates to undertake a Master by Research program at the institute. The two year program focuses on specific research areas which involve Islamic Accounting, Shariah Audit, Islamic Financial Criminology, Anti Money Laundering, Counter Terrorism Financing. Prior to embarking on the research project, candidates will be exposed to three non-credit courses such as (i) Research Methodology, (ii) Quantitative and qualitative data analysis and (iii) Seminar in Islamic Financial Criminology

CORE - Community of Research Meeting

The university, through the Research Management Institute (RMI) has recently established the Community of Research (CORE)group to spearhead transdiciplinary research. Basically, CORE researchers comprise those serious researchers who are not members of specific centre of excellence. Whilst CoE members are very focused in their respective niche areas, CORE members are grouped into seven other research areas. The CoRe areas have been carefully selected based on international foresighting and scanning and nationally recognised research niches. These thrusts have been alludded to in the New Economic Model, Government Transformation Programmes, National Key Result Areas, National Key Economic Areas and Tenth Malaysia Plan. The seven CORE areas are namely:(1)Green Technology & Sustainable Development, (2) Frontier Materials & Industry Aplications; (3) Advanced Computing & Communications; (4)Drug Discovery & Health; (5) Humanities & Quality of Life; (6) Forensic Sciences and
(7)Brain & Neuroscience. Today, the Forensic Science CORE group met to discuss possible research topics to be submitted to the various national and international fund providers.

ARI Strategic Retreat 2010

Day Three
The third day is basically scheduled for two main events. Firstly, all researchers who have been awarded the ARI HICoE research grants presented their research progress and submitted their interim reports. Secondly, based on discussions and commitments deliberated durings the first two days of the retreat, all heads of research centres presented their "report card" related to thier centre's activities for 2010. More importantly, they also presented their plans and strategic initiatives for the years 2011 to 2015.
Seven research centres namely the CIMA-UiTM Asian Management Accounting Research Centre (AMARC), UiTM-MICG Corporate Governance Research Centre (CGRC), UiTM-ACCA Financial Reporting Research Centre (FRRC), Asia-Pacific Centre of Sustainability (APCeS), Asia-Pacific Forensic Accounting Research Centre (AFARe), Government-Linked Companies Research Centre (GLCRC) and UiTM-CPA Australia Public Sector Accounting Research Centre (PSARC) made their respective presentations. All in all, it was an effective three-day retreat. ARI's five-year strategic planning 2011 to 2015 will be documented and published by the end of 2010. ARI wishes to congratulate the strategic planning facilitators: Prof Dr Rashidah Abdul Rahman (she is also ARI's Deputy Director) and Dr Norli Ali (ARI's research fellow) for showcasing brilliant leadership. Congratulations all

Strategic Planning Retreat for ARI

Day Two:
The second day saw more serious discussions being made by members. Based on the eight dimensions used for MyRA score, members discussed about strategies, initiatives, action plans and key performance indicators for the next five years. Questions like how to increase the quantity and quality of ARI's principal researchers?. What actions should be taken to encourage researchers to publish in journals with impact factors?. How to increase the number of phd students and phd graduates?. What policies and incentives should be formulated to enhance post graduate programs at ARI?. Who should be our strategic partners and collaborators? What initiative should be taken to enhance industry and international linkages?. How to spearhead research and business innovations? What futuristic research areas should we focus to remain competitive and relevant?. Interestingly, when members are empowered and encouraged to "think from outside the box", ARI receives a lot of brilliant ideas and realistic targets that we must focus on within the next five years. Seven research centres and five special interest group members give their commitment to take ARI to a much greater height within the next five years. In the evening, we all had an enjoyable BBQ with members of ARI family. After a long-day meeting, everyone deserves a little break and to have fun. ARI also wishes to thank Prof Omar Masood and his lovely wife Fatima for joining us that evening. Almost eighty persons, comprising participants and family members of the partipants attended the BBQ event. The Faculty of Accountancy's Dean, Prof Dr Ibrahim Kamal Abdul Rahman who is also ARI's associate member took time off from his busy schedule to join us at Genting Highland. Congratulations and thank you everyone.

ARI Strategic Planning Meeting

Day One:
The group left the university to spend three days in Genting Highland to discuss ARI's next five-year strategic planning Blueprint for 2011-2015. A total of 39 ARI members attendend the meeting. Premised on the MyRA form which is used to evaluate centres of excellence, our strategic discussion will be based on eight dimensions. They are namely (1) Quantity and quality of researchers, (2) Quantity and Quality of research, (3) Quantity of postgraduats, (4)Quality of postgraduates, (5) Innovation, (6)Professional Services and gifts, (7) Networking and linkages and (8) Support facilities. The strategic meeting is attended by research fellows, heads of research centres and special interest groups. The first day started with a briefing on "Securing International Research Grants" by ARI's distinguished visiting professor, Dr Omar Masood.

NAfMA 2010 Winners

The National Award for Management Accounting (NAfMA) 2010 award dinner was held last night at the One World Hotel, Bandar Utama. The event was to celebrate NAfMA winners. ARI wishes to congratulate Maxis Berhad for winning the most prestigous NAfMA 2010 Excellence award. This award is given to a participating company with outstanding management accounting practices which have created value for the organization. Malaysia Airline Berhad and PLUS Berhad won the Best Practice and Practice Solution awards respectively under the public listed companies category. For the Non-listed companies, DIGI Sdn Berhad won the Best Practice Award and NST the Practice Solution Award.
Meanwhile, Century Software won the SME STAR Award and Tex Cycle took home the Practice Solution Award. Congratulations to all. NAfMA is jointly organized by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). Two other organizations namely UiTM and MPC are Awarding Partners.

ICFC 2010: Making a Presence

Day Two:
ARI wishes to congratulate all members of the organizing comittee under the chairmanship of Prof Dr Rozainun Aziz for organising a very successful international conference on Financial Criminology. The second day started with a high benchmark set by the Comissioner of MACC, Dato Seri Abu Kasim. An outstanding speaker indeed, he spoke on "Fraud and Corruption". This was followed by several papers on anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism by speakers from the Financial Intelligence Unit, Central Bank of Malaysia and the Association of Certified Anti Money-Luandering Specialists (USA). The last two speakers for the morning session were from the Securities Commissions (SC) and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM). Both spoke on financial criminology and fraud deterrent mechanisms. In essence, fraud knows no boundry. There's a need for a new breed of professional - the forensic accountants. The afternoon session continued with an international speaker who spoke and discussed about financial criminology and insurance fraud. This was followed by a panel discussion which was moderated by ARI's own professor, Prof Dr Syed Noh Ahmad. All was well, congratulations.

ICFC 2010: Deterring Fraud Through Financial Criminology with Islamic Perspective

Day One
2010 marks the third series of international conference in financial criminology being organized by the Asia-Pacific Forensic Accounting research Centre (AFARe), one of the leading research centres within the Accounting research Institute (ARI)administrative framework. The first conference was held at the Securities Commission in 2008. In 2009, the second ICFC was organized collaboratively with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and being held at the Kuala Lumpur Tower. ICFC 2010 is jointly organized by Universiti Teknologi MARA and the Companies Commission Malaysia (CCM) at the CCM Auditorium at KL Central. Themed "Deterring Fraud through Financial Criminology with Islamic Perspective", ICFC 2010 one of ARI's main initiatives to support its role as a HICoE whose niche research area is Islamic Financial Criminology. The conference was graced by one of the university's pro-chancellor, Ybg Tan Sri Dato' Seri Arshad Ayub. For the Faculty of Accountancy and ARI, Tan Sri Arshad has been instrumental in establishing and introducing the accounting professional program way back in the 1960s. Y. Bhg Dato' Dr Nik Mustafa, the Director General of IKIM presented a keynote paper that set the direction and flow of the conference discussions. Following the keynote paper, Prof Sofian from Indonesia, Dr Nawal from ARI, Prof Dr Syed Musa from Unirazak, Mr Selamat from Al-Rajhi Bank discussed the fraud deterrent mechanisms from the Shariah and Islamic perspectives.

MAR Special Issue on Islamic Financial Criminology

The Asia Pacific Forensic Accounting Research Centre (AFARe) of the Accounting Research Institute, Universiti Teknologi MARA will be hosting a two-day international conference on financial criminology (ICFC 2010) on 14 and 15 December 2010 at the CCM Auditorium, KL Central. Themed "Deterring Fraud Through Financial Criminology with Islamic Perspective", it is expected that more than three hundred participants who have registered will be attending the event. One of the highlights of ICFC 2010 will be the launching of a special issue of the Malaysian Accounting Review (MAR)Journal - Volume 9, No 2. The special issue will publish a total of thirteen (13) journal articles on Islamic Financial Criminology. The launching will be graced by the university's Pro-Chancellor, Tan Sri Arshad Ayub during the conference dinner on 14th December 2010.

CCM Talk on Potential Research on Non-Profit Organizations

Mr Mohamed Sufyan Mohd Mokhtar, an Officer from the Legal and Supervision Department, Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM)and his team came to give talk to ARI and faculty members on possible research topics that could be explored on Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs).
CCM hopes to establish a Code of Best Practice which ultimately will become standards that NPOs need to comply with. The talk is part of CCM's initiative of working together with academics and researchers in this country.
At the end of the half day seminar, ARI members identified several research topics which include among others:
1. Case study on NPO Best Practices
2. Developing NPO Financial Reporting Standard
3. NPO Governance, Accountability and Transparency Framework
4. NPO Commission
5. Governance of Non-Registered NPOs
6. Charity Organizations

IAFC 2010 Continues

Day Two:Day Two saw more papers being presented. The organizers held a special meeting with Professor Malcom Smith to discuss future collaboration. ARI and the Faculty of Accountantcy hope to appoint Professor Smith as a Distinguished Visiting Professor. Basically the meeting discussed possible topics that could be conducted collaboratively between ARI members and Professor Smith. Research topics related to corporate governance, financial reporting, auditing and fraud incidents have been identified as priority areas.
More importantly ARI is extremely happy with the contributions and commitment given and shown by its main co-organizers: Faculty of Accountancy & Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Sabah Campus. Well done and Congratulations.

IAFC 2010: 8 - 9 December 2010

Day One:ARI wishes to congratulate the organizers of the International Accounting & Finance Conference (IAFC 2010)for successfully attracted more than 140 conference papers, forty of which are from international authors and researchers. The two main organizers are namely the Faculty of Accountancy and Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA Sabah. As a co-organizer of the international conference, the Accounting Research Institute (ARI)is happy to be able to network with all participants. The two-day conference,themed "Governance and Liberalization of Private and Public Sector: Issues and Challenges" was graced by the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Sabah, YB Datuk Haji Masidi Manjan. Meanwhile, the keynote speaker was Prof Dr Malcom Smith, Professor of Accounting, Edith Cowan University, Australia. The first day saw the papers being presented in eight parallel sessions. In the evening, there was a conference dinner where eight outstanding papers were recognized. As part of the entertainment event, a cultural show was showcased by UiTM Sabah's students and our international participants were greatly mesmerized.

CSSR 2010 : Day Three

Day Three
The remaining ARI's eleven papers were presented on the last day of the conference. Most presenters have received some very good feedbacks from the other participants and this hopefully would enable the researchers to further improve their papers for future publications.
This year's CSSR has attracted more than 100 international papers from countries such as UK, USA, India, China, Bangladesh, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Indonesia and many others. It was indeed a very good way to network. Most importantly, researchers get to think and strategize some form of transdiciplinary research projects for the future. Perhaps forthcoming CSSR conference will see more of the merger of science and social science research to be presented and published.

CSSR 2010 Continues

Day Two
After a very brief opening ceremony by the Chairman of IEEE Malaysian Chapter and the presentation of two keynote papers in the morning, the conference proceeded with eight parallel sessions in the afternoon.
All in all, four hundred papers have been successfully reviewed and to be presented during the three-day conference.
Eleven ARI papers were presented today. Seven papers were presented in the "Accounting Application" session; three papers in "Policy and Governance" group and One paper in the "Frontiers in Education" Track. Congratulations all.

CSSR 2010: Tutorial sessions

Day One:The first day of CSSR is filled with useful tutorials. For the social science researchers, three tutorial sessions are useful and relevant to them. They are namely:(1) Writing Research Articles for the Engineering Field by Dr Ramesh Nair. This session elaborates part of a large study that examined the writing of Malaysian Academics and the author highlights lessons that we can laern from the engineering researchers; (2) Research, Publication, Citation and World-Class University by Prof Szarina Abdullah. The tutorial explains the significance of research, publication and citation, which cummulatively have been used, interalia as indicators of world class universities; (3) Researching into Forecasting Management: From Quantitative to Qualitative Study by Prof Rozainun, ARI's own member. This topic presents a way forward within the area of Management Accounting, in particular with the role of planning. The main emphasis here is forecasting management, which has received attention and interest among the forecasters to examine the behavioural aspects of forecasting. All in all, it was a good starter for CSSR 2010.

International CSSR 2010

The annual Conference On Science and Social Research (CSSR) of Universiti Teknologi MARA is going international. This year's CSSR 2010 is jointly organized by Universiti Teknologi MARA, IEEE and the Computer Society. Three international conferences namely IEE Conference on Open Systems, International Conference on Computer Applications & Industrial Electronics and International Conference on Science and Social Research will be held concurrently at the Seri Pacific Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 5-7 December 2010. Proceedings of the three conferences will be published in IEEE Explorer and ultimately published and indexed by SCOPUS/ISI Thomson. ARI researchers will be presenting and publishing total of 22 papers as follows:
1. Balanced Scorecard Equity Valuation Model
2. An Exploratory Study on the Possibility of Misappropriation of Assets - A Case
Study of a Local Authority
3. Strategy Maps as a Communication Tool in Balanced Scorecard Implementation:
Study of a Malaysian Utility Company
4. Bridging Theory and Practice: Lessons on Management Accounting from Selected
Practices in Malaysia
5. The Impact of Ownership Structure on Stock Returns
6. Corporate Governance Structure and Voluntary Risk Disclosures
7. The Use of Managerial Accounting Information (MAI): Perceptions of Users and
Preparers
8. Malaysian Enterprise Risk Management (MERIM) Framework
9. Financial Performance of Malaysian Local Authorities: A Trend Analysis
10. Neuro Teaching: An Impact to Performance
11. Corporate Governance Structure, Regulatory Regimes and Voluntary Disclosures
12. Fraud Diamond Risk Indicator: An Assessment of Its Importance and Usage
13. Self-Regulating Corporate Governance: Towards a Self-Governance Regime
14. Learning from K-Mart's Mistakes: New Improvements on Mydin Hypermarket's
Business Strategies
15. Organizational Commitment and Emotional Intelligent: Explaining the Interaction
of Personality Traits of Auditors
16. Dividend Trend and the Relevance of Dividend
17. Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice of Forecasting in Malaysia: A
Practical Insight
18. The Importance of Intellectual Capital Information to SMEs in Malaysia
19. Tax Planning and Corporate Effective Tax Rates
20. Determinants of Successful Utilization of Tax Incentives in SME's Manaufacturing
Sectors
21. Innovation Capacity in Higher Education
22. Quality of Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions Performance in Five East Asian
Countries