Manuscript type: Research paper. Research aim: This paper aims to investigate the external factors that influence tax auditors’ conciliatory style when dealing with tax disputes. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: A self-administered questionnaire which serves as the research instrument was used in this study. Respondents were tax auditors attached to the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) in Peninsular Malaysia. Research findings: Findings show that the external factors of tax complexity and managerial control significantly influence tax audi-tors’ conciliatory style. However, taxpayers’ cooperation carries no impact. Theoretical contribution/ Originality: This study provides empirical evidence which demonstrates the influence of external factors (such as taxpayers’ cooperation, tax complexity and managerial control) on tax auditors’ conciliatory style. Practitioner/ Policy implications: The findings are relevant to the IRBM who can use the outcome to improve its dispute resolution process as well as to gain a better understanding of tax auditors’ behaviour. Research limitation/ Implication: The findings of this study can only be generalised to the population in Peninsular Malaysia. Thus, future studies may be conducted in East Malaysia and other Asian countries so as to examine if tax auditors’ behaviour differs across cultures.

The objective of this study is to determine the factors influencing home refinancing among Muslim customers in Malaysia. For conventional banks, the common reasons are interest rate and monthly payment reduction of the loan. However, these reasons might not be applicable for bank customers who refinanced their loans by switching from conventional to Islamic home refinancing schemes. The study distributed 150 survey questionnaires for Muslim bank customers at 11 states and Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur in February to March 2011. The findings indicated that reasons for refinancing were fluctuation of home financing profit rate, reduction of maturity period and monthly payment, good services of new banks and awareness among respondents to align their belief with their daily financial and economic practices. This study enhances the understanding of academics, scholars and bankers on factors influencing home refinancing activities, especially among Muslim customers in Malaysia. It is suggested that the future research can be done to compare home refinancing activities with the real changes in profit rates.

Halal industry is a vast industry that consists of several sectors; ranging from food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, services (i.e. transportation and logistics) and, banking and finance. All these various sectors in the actual state of practices are currently positioned separately. This paper expands the proposal of integrating halal industries with the Islamic funds. Principally, these sectors should not be deemed separately as they are under the same umbrella of Shariah. The collaboration of the industry can lead to harmonious system that can support each other. In this case, the Islamic financial system through Islamic banking and capital market instruments will channel their long term funding to other Halal industry. As the start, it is important to look at the current practices of authority bodies in the sectors of Halal industry (except for Islamic banking and finance) and Islamic capital market. This outlook is prioritized given that the authority bodies will influence the behavior of the players. This paper focuses on Halal industry in Malaysia. Specifically, the main selected documents of the related authority bodies in this industry were assessed to grasp their approaches regarding Shariah compliance approval or Halal recognition. This will contribute to an initiative that can integrate this industry from the policy makers and supervisors' perspective. Finding shows that there are different angles of Halal aspects focused by these authority bodies, and there is a room for adjustment towards integration.

To date, entrepreneurs seem to dominate the establishment of business types. The success of a small-scaled business relies heavily on the owner's characteristics, such as their personality. Although vast studies have investigated entrepreneur personality as a success factor in an offline setting, only a handful have looked into the context of online. It is highly probable that a variable or perhaps more from the offline entrepreneur context is (are) missing within the online entrepreneur context. Additionally, new variables are yet to be unraveled in light of online entrepreneurs. The outcomes retrieved from a systematic literature review appear to support this notion. Hence, this study proposes a conceptual framework for online entrepreneur success by emphasizing personality variables. This calls for more empirical testing on the suggested variables in the context of online entrepreneurs shortly.

The way a tax auditor deals with taxpayers can give an impact on audit settlement outcomes. Qualitative studies show that tax auditors often use the conciliatory style as a strategy to resolve disputes because it expedites audit settlement and promotes long-term compliance. However, there is no study that has empirically examined the factors that influence tax auditors' conciliatory style. This study aims to examine the influence of personal characteristics i.e. attitude towards achieving goals, experience and ethical ideology on tax auditors' conciliatory style in resolving audit settlement disputes. Six hundred and thirty-six questionnaires (63.6% of response rate) were usable for data analysis. The results revealed that all the personal characteristics surveyed significantly influenced tax auditors' conciliatory style. This study can extend the literature on tax auditors' behaviour and facilitate the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia in better understanding their auditors. � 2017 Universiti Putra Malaysia Press.