Factors influencing acceptance of Robo-Advisors for wealth management in Malaysia

Since the 2008 global financial crisis, many innovations have emerged in the financial sector as investors started to look for alternative methods to eliminate irrational decision-making in wealth management, and Robo-advisors is among those. Nine years after the first launching of Robo-advisors in the U.S. in 2008, the Securities Commission Malaysia has been issuing licenses to seven Robo-advisor platforms. The current COVID-19 outbreak has made this industry more in demand, increasing 763% in registration in 2020. However, much skepticism about Robo advisors' ability and reliability in providing a similar quality or better advisory service compared to human-financial advisors. Therefore, this study examines the factors influencing the acceptance of Robo-advisors in wealth management in Malaysia. Adopting some factors from various established technology acceptance models, an online survey with 122 respondents was conducted using convenience sampling. Findings show that Relative Advantage, Effort Expectancy, and Social Influence significantly positive influence the Malaysian Behavioral Intention to Accept Robo-Advisors. On the contrary, there is no significant relationship between Perceived Risk and Malaysian Behavioral Intention to Accept Robo-Advisors. The study provides a positive insight into factors influencing the acceptance of Robo-Advisors in Malaysia. © 2023 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Financial reporting quality in pandemic era: case analysis of Vietnamese enterprises

This study aimed to evaluate the financial reporting quality (FRQ) of Vietnamese enterprises in the pandemic era. It also examines the effect of the Big 4 audit firms in addition to non-Big 4 audits, and internal control effectiveness (ICE) on FRQ. The case study method was implemented to complete the scale of the FRQ identified by IASB in 2010 (FASB & IASB 2010) and identify the challenges encountered when preparing and representing financial reports (FRs) during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The survey was conducted to measure the FRQ and to examine the effect of the three factors detailed above on the FRQ. The research results indicate that all three factors significantly affect the FRQ. The results also imply the predictive value of Vietnam enterprises' FRs in that they have been strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

WASH, vulnerability, severity, and the response of urban slum dwellers to the COVID-19 pandemic

Urban slum dwellers lacked water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and health care assistance during the COVID-19 outbreak. This research aimed to investigate the lived experiences of slum dwellers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were obtained through 453 questionnaires and 29 semi-structured interviews with community people and organizations from two slum neighbourhoods in Bangkok, Thailand. The results showed that respondents who had no access to WASH perceived the pandemic as more severe (t = -3.807, p < 0.001;df = 451), whereas respondents who had access to WASH had a higher protective intention towards COVID-19 (t = -3.947, p < 0.001;df = 431). However, there are no differences between the two groups in terms of knowledge, practice, vulnerability, perceived self-efficacy, response efficacy, or response cost between accessibility and non-accessibility to WASH. The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) results showed that the knowledge of slum dwellers drives their current practice (beta = 0.456, p < 0.001) and perceived vulnerability (beta = 0.180, p < 0.001), wherein the current practice is influenced by their perceived vulnerability (beta = 0.163, p = 0.002). Their current practice also influences their perceived self-efficacy (beta = 0.314, p < 0.001), response efficacy (beta = 0.557, p < 0.001), and severity (beta = 0.198, p = 0.003). Their perceived severity affects their protective intention (beta = 0.102, p = 0.043) and perceived self-efficacy promotes their protective behaviours (beta = 0.308, p < 0.001). Future pandemic prevention programmes should improve the awareness about COVID-19 protection, self-efficacy, and response efficacy through community sensitization.