Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences

Poor maternal and child health has been identified as a health issue of migrants in Thailand. The main barriers to the access to healthcare services of migrants in Thailand include education, knowledge, language, socio-economic status of migrants, and attitudes of health service providers. Although the Thai government has declared the rights of migrant children to obtain birth registration and associated social services since 2008, only a few have obtained such a legal document. The World Vision Foundation of Thailand and Foundation for Rural Youth conducted the project “Empowering Civil Society Organisations for the Protection of Migrant Children” (ECPMC) funded by the European Union (EU) during February 1, 2016 to January 31, 2019 in which one of its main objectives was to increase the number of recorded birth registrations in Chumporn, Ranong and Tak provinces. An end-of-project impact evaluation was conducted during February to May 2019. A mixed method approach was used for data collection. This study aims to analyze assess of birth registration among migrant children and key drivers and barriers in obtaining birth registrations of migrant children in Thailand under the ECPMC project. Over the project period, there was an increase of 37% in birth registrations of children aged less than one year. Key driver of the process of birth registration is increasing awareness and knowledge of reproductive health, antenatal care, and safe delivery of migrant women. Enabling pregnant women to receive services of antenatal care at local hospitals was a crucial step to ensure that they obtained a birth certificate from the hospital, which is one of the important documents required for the process of birth registration.

Global business environment forces such as globalization, technological advancements, financial innovation, regulation, and deregulation have driven banks to utilize alternative channels such as electronic banking (e-banking), mobile banking and automated teller machines (ATMs). This study aims to determine and highlight the importance of technology-enabled banking services using a focus group study method in an emerging market, South Africa. The study used a descriptive research design and a qualitative research method. The findings of the focus group study revealed that customers opt to use e-banking because it provides them with several benefits and identify crucial e-banking dimensions such as privacy and security, ease of use, availability, convenience, efficiency, reliability, responsiveness and contact and aesthetics. The results of the study suggest that the e-banking service indeed creates value for customers, enhances their banking experience that ultimately creates satisfaction, and builds a long-term bank-customer relationship, which translates into customer loyalty. The insight provided in this study is expected to assist marketing scholars and professionals engaged in the banking sector. By determining and highlighting the importance of technology-enabled banking services using a focus group, this study provides original insight into consumer behavior in technology-enabled products in an emerging market, South Africa.

Keywords: technology, e-banking, focus group, value, satisfaction, loyalty.

Employee engagement is pivotal to the success of an organization. The literature has indicated that employee engagement is enhanced via strong leadership, improved work-life balance, increased training and development as well as employee recognition. As such, this study aimed to examine the effects of these factors on employee engagement, especially among the Malaysian private sector, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study would provide an impetus to the Malaysian private sector to enhance employee engagement with policies that focus on making employees at the workplace passionate and highly involved. The results of this study will also add value to the existing literature on employee engagement. A quantitative survey was conducted, with questionnaires distributed online. This study targeted both male and female employees aged between 20 years old and 60 years old working in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia. A total of 154 respondents answered the online questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS Software to identify the reliability and linearity of these variables as well as the testing of the correlation, and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study indicated that both leadership and training and development had significant positive relationships with employee engagement. The scientific novelty of the study can be found from the findings of this research whereby employees desire a leader during the difficult times who can help them be more engaged in their work, and employees require more training and development, which are job-related, especially as the private sector embraces the endemic stage of COVID-19. Implications of the research findings are presented in this study.

Keywords: employee engagement, leadership, work-life balance, training and development, recognition.

Indonesia has a large market potential in the halal food industry, thus attracting other countries to enter developing business in Indonesia, including Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks. This needs to be highlighted because it relates to non-halal issues at several critical points, such as the supply chain, starting from the procurement of raw materials, and storage, to distribution. This study aims to examine and analyze the effect of halal logo, food quality, and price consciousness, which is moderated by religious commitment. This study uses secondary and primary data to obtain information based on structured questions. A total of 176 respondents, Muslim Indonesian citizens (WNI) participated in filling out online questionnaires through the Google Forms media, which were then processed using WARP-PLS 7.0. The findings showed that the direct influence on willingness to pay was accepted, then the role of religious commitment as a moderating variable in the fifth hypothesis was rejected, the sixth hypothesis was accepted and the seventh hypothesis was rejected. This can be explained if the role of religious commitment can only prove if it can strengthen the relationship of the influence of food quality on willingness to pay. With the up-to-date conditions, the number of the respondents, and the emphasis on the case, the study can provide constructive implications. This research encourages halal food companies, including domestic MSMEs, to emphasize and pay attention to price fixing, product quality improvement, and the essence of the halal supply chain by procuring a halal logo.

Keywords: halal food, religious commitment, willingness to pay.

Comparing several approaches in the theory of human ecology is an interesting activity; since this science was born, until now, several approaches have been developed. This paper compares the three main approaches of human ecology: cultural ecology, ecosystem models, and system approaches. The goal is to identify its advantages, weaknesses, practicality and compatibility with conditions in Indonesia. The method used is the comparison method. Through this method, it is concluded that the system approach is the best and relatively suitable for the conditions and development of Indonesian society compared to the other two approaches. The advantages of this system approach are: (1) viewing humans as rational animals and placing them into social systems separate from ecosystems, (2) connecting social systems and ecosystems through processes of selection and adaptation, as well as energy, matter, and information flows, (3) a holistic scope of study. The placement of the human being into the social system within this approach is in accordance with the empirical facts and what it should be (das sein and das sollen). In terms of human interaction with the environment, human behavior as a rational animal predominates and determines which is what is different from other biotic components. This approach is holistic since it observes all components of social systems and ecosystems to the fullest. Because the results of the study show that the system approach is the most appropriate approach to the conditions of the Indonesians, it is hoped that, in the future, this approach can be used by social researchers, who generally do not use the human ecology approach, but instead use many other approaches (sociology, anthropology, and psychology), to examine Indonesian society.

Keywords: human ecology, comparative study, conformity, Indonesian society.