CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3

Subject:BusinessPrice:18.89 Bought3

Share With

CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 INTRODUCTION This chapter will elaborate on the research methodology process that has been conducted to meet the objectives of the study. It will discuss the techniques used to collect data needed for this study as well as the techniques used to analyse the data. This chapter will also explain the research design and survey methods carried out in this study. 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN Research design refers to the overall strategy that has been chosen to integrate the different components of the study in a coherent and logical way, thereby, ensuring effectiveness when addressing the research problem. This research is a mixed research which combines quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. The quantitative analysis is using Correlational Design which explores the relationship between two or more variables between dependent variable and independent variable through a correlational analysis. The intent is to determine if and to what degree the variables are related. Secondly, on Grounded Theory Design by using qualitative analysis. The focus is to develop an understanding of a phenomenon or situation in order to be able to develop a theory/model for items such as factors, a form of interaction, or a process. The mixed methods can overcome the weakness of a single design and also to complement the strengths of a single design. 3.3 DOCUMENT ANALYSIS 1 Document analysis is done to analyse an entire form or to describe the structure of a document (Diem, Kleber, & Sablatnig, 2017). It is the procedural network of analytical steps through which information is processed and provided to other researchers on an account of what data were collected, why they were collected, and how they were analysed. Research helps in decision making because the analysis data provides the clear picture concerning underlying problems. A challenge for the researcher was to get other than the document from publishers and scholar is public documents such as newspapers and magazines (Altheide, 2018). Document analysis is a type of normative-survey research which deals with records that already exist. It does not concern with the general importance of the documents, but only with certain characteristics which can be identified and counted. Among the sources of data for document analysis are from records, reports, printed forms, letters , catalogues, pictures and films. When using document sources, one must bear in mind that the fact that data appearing in print are not necessarily trustworthy. Documents used in this research must be subjected to the same careful types of critics employed by the historians. Not only is the authenticity of the document important but the validity of its content is also crucial in fact. Document analysis works best when the purpose is to gain insight into an instructional activity or approach. The purpose of the document analysis is to describe the prevailing practices or conditions which to discover the relative importance of, interest in certain topics or problems, to discover level of difficulty of presentation in textbook or in other publications, to evaluate bias, prejudice or propaganda in textbook presentation and lastly to explain the possible casual factors related to some outcome. 3.4 DATA AND INFORMATION COLLECTED 2 Population refers to a total set of people or items of interest in a research project while a sample is a portion of elements in the population selected to represent the populations under study. A minimum sample size is required to obtain factors and solutions that are adequately stable and correspond closely to population factors (MacCallum, Widaman, Zhang, & Hong, 2017). The most important part of the research is the collection of primary and secondary data for the purpose of the study. The primary data were obtained through an interview with the Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH) officer, who is a direct person to monitor all LTH office market / buildings. Primary data is important for research because of the nature of the originality collected by the direct owner. Secondary data is a study of information, data collected from books , articles or any institution related to this study. Secondary data is an additional support to the research objective and acts as a platform for better understanding of the research topic. Secondary data is quite reliable as a guide for the researcher to get a general view of the study. The secondary data will involve exploratory search of the literature review from the previous chapter and provide guidance to derive to the research problem. It also provides background knowledge to the researcher related to the study area. 3.5 LEMBAGA TABUNG HAJI (LTH) LTH is the board of Malaysian Hajj pilgrims fund. It was formerly known as Lembaga Urusan and Tabung Haji. The headquarters is located in Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur. Lembaga Tabung Haji was incorporated in 1963. Before Lembaga Tabung Haji was set up in 1963, there was no Islamic financial institution to mobilise the Muslim community’s savings for the hajj pilgrimage. As of 2019, there are 9.3 million depositors (2019) with accumulated funds of RM 72 billion funds at the end of the year. 3 Deposit, Hajj and investment are the main business of LTH. Currently, LTH has 120 branches to collect deposits and hajj transactions from depositors across the country. LTH 's main investment allocations are equity, property, money markets and fixed income (refer Figure 3). Income Equities and Dividend Securities Money Market Tenancy Financing Others 8% 4% 6% 10% 58% 14% Figure 6: LTH Sources of Income 2019 Assets are needed by an entity in order for it to maintain its ability to achieve future outcomes. Without such assets the future well-being of the company could be in jeopardy. The purpose of the property asset strategy is to ensure all decisions including investments and disposals are in line with service delivery strategies, considering risks and represent value for money, maximising value, reducing cost and increasing return. As investment is one 4 of LTH’s core activities, investment management plays a key role in its business operations. The funds accumulated from the savings of depositors are invested in selected shariah-compliant business activities to generate competitive returns. LTH has ventured into long-term investment properties both locally and abroad. Its strategic participation in the property sector is through the acquisition of office buildings, stores, factories, hypermarkerts and hospitals. Among them are Menara TH Selborn, Menara TH Perdana, Menara TH Uptown, Mydin USJ, Lot N at KL Sentral. LTH has been active in long term investment activities through the property market, locally and abroad as an effort to diversify its investment portfolio within the strategic asset allocation framework. The growth in global investment opportunities has increased interest in international property investment as an important element in a mixed asset portfolio, and has generated key international property finance considerations. Property investments are able to provide capital appreciation and steady returns to LTH in the long run. Today, LTH owns nine office buildings in Kuala Lumpur City Centre: TH Selborn, TH Perdana , TH Uptown, TH Tower, TH Platinum Park, TH Glomac, Lot N, Horizon 2 and Horizon 3. These buildings are enjoying occupancy rate of 76.5% while national office occupancy rate is 78.5% in 2016. 5 3.6 PRIMARY DATA The interview was conducted with an officer from Lembaga Tabung Haji where the interviewee managed to explain extensively when given the research questions. The interviewee was an anonymous as the researcher had promised to keep the interview confidential. The findings from the interview are described in the next chapter. The full transcription of the interview can be referred to in the attachment. 3.7 Secondary Data Below is the information on the data collected based on the annual reports from Real Estate Department, Lembaga Tabung Haji regarding its office buildings. Table 3.1 : Information on LTH Office Buildings as at Mac 2019 Building 1 TH Occupied Location Area Occupancy since (%) (year) as mac 2019 1995 Damansara KL Fringe 79 1998 CBD KL City 83 Uptown 2 TH Selborn Centre 3 TH 1998 CBD Perdana KL City Centre 6 88 4 TH 2013 Damansara KL Fringe 100 Glomac 5 TH Tower 2001 KL Sentral KL Fringe 83 6 Lot N 2007 KL Sentral KL Fringe 100 7 Horizon 2 2013 Bangsar KL Fringe 83 KL Fringe 91 Golden KL City 25 Triangle Centre South 8 Horizon 3 2013 Bangsar South 9 Platinum 2014 Park Source : Real Estate Department, Lembaga Tabung Haji 2019 Table 3.2 : Occupancy rate of LTH office buildings from year 2016-2019 Building 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 (%) (% ) (% ) ( %) (%) 1 TH Uptown 89 89 88 79 80 2 TH Selborn 79 82 86 88 87 3 TH Perdana 63 63 94 92 88 4 TH Glomac 6 6 5 TH Tower 53 60 60 63 83 6 Lot N 100 100 100 100 100 - - 7 - 7 Horizon 2 - 85 85 85 83 8 Horizon 3 - 88 88 88 91 9 Platinum Park - 1 18 20 - Source : Real Estate Department , Lembaga Tabung Haji Table 3.3 : Anchor tenants of LTH office buildings 2019 Building Office space area Main Tenants (sq. ft. ) 1 TH Uptown 149,209 Golden Arches and private company 2 TH Selborn 287,323 Subsidiary of Lembaga Tabung Haji and government Office 3 TH Perdana 339,534 Kementerian Kesenian dan Warisan, Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) 4 TH Glomac 255,360 Vads Berhad 5 TH Tower 171,087 Malakoff Corporation Berhad 6 Lot N 352,368 PricewaterhouseCoopers 8 7 Horizon 2 112,460 Air product and Malaysian Electric Clearing corporation 8 Horizon 3 108,458 Touch n go 9 Platinum 399,000 Subsidiary of Lembaga Tabung Haji Park Source : Real Estate Department, Lembaga Tabung Haji Table 3.4 : The average rental on office building (sq ft) and distance of office buildings from public infrastructure, MRT/LRT Building Average Rental Accessibility Distance (sq ft) (MRT / LRT) RM4.00 MRT 2500 metre RM3.50 LRT 1300 metre RM3.00 LRT 700 metre RM4.00 MRT 50 metre RM6.00 LRT 50 metre 1 1 TH Uptown 2 2 TH Selborn 3 3 TH Perdana 4 4 TH Glomac 5 5 TH Tower 9 6 6 Lot N RM4.00 LRT 150 metre RM4.00 LRT 800 metre RM4.00 LRT 800 metre RM6.00 LRT 1200 metre 7 7 Horizon 2 8 8 Horizon 3 9 9 Platinum Park Source : Real Estate Department, Lembaga Tabung Haji and author 3.8 REGRESSION Economists use regression analysis to test hypotheses, derived from economic theory, against real-world data, by analyzing the regression output, and then check the signs of the model coefficients: if consistent with the hypotheses. The next thing is checking the statistical significance with model coefficients. A t-test had been used for the analysis of variable means through the use of statistical examination. The tstatistic is the coefficient estimate divided by the standard error. The t-value measures the size of the difference relative to the variation in the data. A t-statistic greater than 1.68 indicates the coefficient is significant. The R-Square statistic represents the percent of the total variation in the dependent variable that is explained by the independent variables. real and the objective is to test hypotheses. A regression actually analyzes the statistical correlation between one variable and a set of other variables. 3.9 STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING 10 The structural equation model or popularly known as SEM is a second generation statistical analysis technique developed for analysing the inter-relationships among multiple variables in a model. The inter-relationships among variables could be expressed in a series of single and multiple regression equations. The structural Equation Modelling technique employs the combination of quantitative data and the correlational. SEM is capable of estimating a series of inter-dependence among constructs simultaneously in a model. In fact, SEM is a more efficient method to analyse the correlational and causal relationships among latent constructs as well as observed variables, estimating the variance and covariance, test hypotheses, modelling conventional regressions and running the Confirmatory Factor Analysis(CFA). Modelling the Causal Relationship, at least two measurement involved , dependent construct and independence construct. Moderating variable is the variable that moderates the strength of casual effects from an independent variable X to its dependent variables Y. The moderation effects of moderating variable would ‘alter’ the casual effects of independent variable X on dependent variable Y. For example , the casual effect of independent variable X on its dependent Y is significant. When the moderating variable or Variable M introduced into the model, the causal effects would change due to some interaction effect between independent variable X and moderator variable M . The effects of X and Y could be no longer significant or it could be more significant after interaction. In others words, the moderator variable M is ‘moderating’ the strength of X-Y relationships. Below is the summary on the model using Structural Equation Model in this research. The construct in the model is using equation : Y= a+ b????1 + c????2 + d????3 + e????4 + residual Occupancy = constant + rental + location + building (age) + facilities + others factors rate Summary to construct on the analysis 11 1) Y is dependent variable ie. occupancy rate of office buildings 2) ???? are independent variables that affect the occupancy rate of office buildings. 3) b, c, d and e refer to moderating variables which assume = 0( no interaction effects involved) ????1 refers to rental per sq ft of the office buildings ????2 refers to the location (accessibility ) to the public infrastructure ????3 refers to the age of the building ????4 refers to the facilities surrounding building 3.10 RESEARCH LIMITATIONS The relationships between variables in the model are assumed to be linear and a linear equation was formulated. There are other factors that affect the office occupancy rate such as information technology, investor’s perceptions and various other socioeconomics factors but are not taken into consideration in this study. 3.11 SUMMARY The theoretical aspects of this study is the application of occupancy relation with other features in order to understand the behaviour of the tenants on occupied the office building. The linear regression analysis was carried out to test the relationships between variables. The relationships between variables in the model were assumed to be linear thus linear equation. The location, rental , age, facilities rate were independent variables while occupancy dependant variable. 3.12 CONCLUSION 12 This chapter provides the methodology involved in the study which are an interview as the primary data and annual reports as the secondary data. The primary data have answered all the research questions and it has led to the achievement of the research objectives. This chapter also outlines the research strategy of the study, providing the overall operational framework by which the objectives of the research can be achieved.