Abstract
The purpose of this study is to determine and examine Internet marketing strategies that can be implemented by medical doctors/practitioners in Malaysia. Despite the increasing importance among many organizations of the Internet as a marketing tool, few studies have been conducted to examine the potential of the Internet as a marketing platform for medical doctors in the Malaysian context. The results reveal that compared to offline advertising, Internet marketing is a better mechanism and an important strategy for medical doctors. In this work, the advantages of using Internet marketing are highlighted, and implications for marketing strategy are demonstrated. We believe that Internet marketing can help Malaysian doctors improve their customer service and performance
Introduction
Due to advances in technology and science, we are now living in a world without boundaries, in a global economy that has changed our lifestyle. The Internet is the most creative innovation that we have today. Use of the Internet has exploded, creating a powerful mechanism that has helped transform our lifestyle and allowed close communication. In addition to connecting more than 333 million people, 1 Internet has seen more than a million-fold increase in the number of websites in recent years. Therefore, the Internet has had a great impact on the health care industry in Malaysia. Today, most of us can get information about health online, and there are many sites that provide information about health and health-related topics. The Internet also enables consumers to buy and sell products online, and there is no doubt that the Internet has become ubiquitous since its introduction in late 1999.
Based on the 1996 HIMS/Hewlett-Packard Leadership survey of 1,200 health care information technology professionals, Internet is widely used in health care to support clinical research (55%) and facilitate communication (33%) as well as to provide health care information to consumers (24%). Advances in technology, especially in the Internet, have had an important impact on the art and means of marketing techniques in different industries, including the health care industry. The number of customers using the Internet increases every year and continues to grow. Initially, the Internet seemed to be used primarily to obtain information, but it is now used to network socially with our friends and colleagues, shop online, and build new relationships.
The potential of using the Internet as a marketing strategy has been widely discussed for other professionals, including lawyers, dentists and accountants, among many others. It has been accepted that the Internet will represent the new revolution in and frontier of marketing. The potential of the Internet and for using websites for marketing in the health care industry has been widely discussed and researched. 2 – 4 Samiee 5 argues that the Internet can be used for marketing in four ways: communication and advertising, direct sales of existing products, sales of Internet-based products, and the online distribution of digital information or data. However, the application and implication of Internet usage in the health care industry are still limited and focus on basic applications, such as promotion and advertising, administrative transactions, patient and physician education, and providing the practice’s contact information. 6 – 11
As the number of websites providing information on health care have grown, so have marketing opportunities for doctors, which can help consumers choose the best expert for their needs. Customer centricity, that is, the nurturing of an enduring relationship with a profitable customer, is a vital element of business success. 12 – 14 This article explores the nature of medical practitioners in Malaysia and the implementation of Internet marketing strategies that can help promote medical practitioners’ services to customers or patients. Previous research from Hirwani et al.15,16 indicated that Internet marketing is still new in Malaysia and needs to be publicised further, especially for legal services. The authors focused only on the marketing of legal services and determined whether Malaysian lawyers used Internet marketing as a tool to find and attract clients. However, the same principle can also be applied to medical practitioners in Malaysia because the medical profession is similar to the legal profession in terms of the professionalism and integrity inherent in the practice. In professional services such as these, it is very important to know about new strategies that can help attract new customers and maintain relationships with them. Strauss & Frost claim that Internet marketing is different from traditional mass media marketing. Using Internet marketing also helps to build trust and create benefits for the customer.
The first section of this article will examine the background of the Internet by looking at its historical development. The Internet was introduced more than a decade ago, and the marketing potential that the Internet represents is just now being realized by many organizations. The strategic use of the Internet has received considerable attention from academic circles, and researchers have proposed several prescribed models that businesses can adopt to identify the strategic potential of the Internet in business.
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Further, this article will explain the development of the medical practice in Malaysia and analyse whether Malaysian doctors lag behind in promoting and marketing services relative to their counterparts in the UK and US. Because medical doctors provide a professional service, marketing must be conducted in an appropriate fashion. Restrictions in the context of the marketing of professional services were debated in the case of Bates v. State Bar of Arizona. In that case, the Supreme Court removed restrictions on professional service practitioners interested in marketing their professional services to the consumer. In his written opinion, Justice Henry stated the following about professional images: The assertion that advertising will diminish the attorney’s reputation in the community is open to question. Bankers and engineers advertise, and yet these professions are not regarded as undignified. In fact, it has been suggested that the failure of lawyers to advertise creates public disillusionment with the profession.
In Malaysia, the use of marketing by medical doctors is still new, and combining the perspective of marketing with that of doctors’ services needs to be better understood. Combining these two elements requires a proper strategy and plan to make it become sustainable and positively impact doctors in Malaysia. This article will look at current developments concerning medical doctors in Malaysia to determine whether these doctors should be involved in marketing. It is important to determine whether medical doctors in Malaysia compete with each other for clients or if they do not have to do. This question will help determine whether Internet marketing can help medical doctors. Next, this article will look at the types of Internet marketing available for use by medical doctors in Malaysia. There are many Internet marketing strategies that can be used, but we chose a reliable Internet marketing strategy that can be implemented by medical doctors in Malaysia. Finally, this article will discuss the legal implications for medical doctors of advertising. This article also analyzes future recommendations that can be expanded further to determined which Internet marketing strategies are available to Malaysian doctors.
Malaysia is a developing country in Asia and has become one of the popular destinations for health care treatment. There are many private hospitals in Malaysia that offer a variety of packages and special treatments to attract foreign customers. This increase in the number of foreign patients has occurred because of the affordable cost, short waiting periods, and advanced facilities and equipment, which has rendered the country the best choice for people travelling to get medical treatment. Frost & Sullivan's Principal Consultant of Healthcare for Asia Pacific, Dr. Pawel Suwinski, made the following comment: “At this growth rate, Frost & Sullivan sees potential revenue garnered from this sector reaching RM 390 million (USD 124 million) in 2010, as compared to RM150 million (USD 48 million) five years ago.” As has been mentioned by Quelch and Klein, 18 the revolution of the Internet helps to keep marketing costs low. Currently, small clinics can compete on a more equal footing with the large clinics and hospitals in Malaysia by providing the best services to the consumer. Consumers will benefit from this because they can get access to information about their health and information about a clinic with a single click of a mouse. 3
Marketing medical doctors in Malaysia
Providing the best service to the customer is important in the service industry, as it generates loyal customers. Kotler 19 discussed this principle in his popular book Marketing Management, which provides different philosophies from the concepts used for manufacturing, selling and business production. He further stressed that the concept of marketing can be implemented when business objectives are achieved through understanding and satisfying customer needs. For the medical services sector in Malaysia, providing the best service will help the customer know and feel confident about the services provided by doctors; additionally, this will enable the doctors to build brands.
Internet user and population growth
Data from: http://www.internetworldstats.com.
In Malaysia, there are more than 25 medical colleges, which are predicted to generate more than 4,000 medical doctors every year. There are more than 26 million citizens and 13 states in Malaysia, and compared to countries such as the United States and United Kingdom, the number of medical doctors in Malaysia is still low. A statement by Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Health mentioned that the amount of doctors is still low compared to other countries. The World Health Organization recommends a doctor to patient standard target ratio of 1:600, but the ratio in Malaysia is still below 1:1145, i.e. one Malaysian doctor treats more than one thousand patients. The number of doctors who practice in Sabah and Sarawak, two states in Malaysia, is low because most doctors are disinclined to work there. The Malaysian government has created an attractive scheme to attract doctors to practice in these areas. Malaysian government aims to become a developed country by 2020. Therefore, the current objective in Malaysia is to increase the number of doctors in the country, and the Malaysian government has taken many actions to achieve this. However, this article looks at this issue from the different perspective of implementing Internet marketing strategies and providing Malaysian doctors with knowledge about Internet marketing. We believe that in the next 10 years, there will be enough doctors in Malaysia, similar to the United Kingdom and the United States; this article will therefore provide an overview of implementing proper marketing strategies for doctors’ services.
Exploratory research is needed to describe or evaluate a certain phenomenon or problem before it can be used to develop a model or rigorous design for comprehensive analysis. Such studies are undertaken when there is a lack of information needed to analyse the situation or when there is not enough information available to explain similar problems that have been solved in the past. If data are collected through observation and analysing of documents, the research can be exploratory in nature. Therefore, the exploratory method has been used to discover and analyse data. Exploratory studies are important for obtaining a good overview of the phenomenon of interest and thus to advance knowledge by using theory building and hypotheses testing. 20 Data collected can reveal patterns in a phenomenon of interest, which can help in the development of theories and hypotheses and in the formulation of tests and further analyses. In this article, we look at research analyses of previous studies to identify Internet marketing strategies that can be implemented by Malaysian doctors and analyze their importance. Our research will try to combine three main disciplines – marketing, medical practice, and Internet. This combination may provide a new discipline for medical practitioners that may help them to advertise their services better.
Ultimately, the Malaysian market may become saturated with medical doctors, and the competition may become fierce. Therefore, it is very important for doctors to prepare themselves adequately to compete in the medical industry, and hence there is a need for research in medical advertising.
Importance of Internet marketing
Research by Hoffman and Novak 21 showed that Internet is creating a paradigm shift in business and at the same time is changing the ways of doing business with the customer. There are many manufacturing companies that utilize new ways to attract customers and at the same time sell products to the consumer. The first publications about Internet were in the year 1996 by Berthon et al. 22 In this article, Berthon mentioned that Internet would have a large impact on lifestyle and create a new marketing platform. This publication brought widespread attention to the importance of the Internet. Thereafter, there were many publications on Internet and the marketing strategies that can employ it, including publications by Ha 23 and Kim and McMillan. 24 Early Internet marketing tools, such as banners and pop-up ads have given way to a new model of Iinternet marketing that offers more value to the customer, involving the use of search engines and social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. These new types of Internet marketing strategies help consumers to interact and connect advertisers with consumer more easily and develop new relationship with a patient. 25 – 27
Marketing using the Internet as the primary platform helps a company to advertise more services and products and provides more purchase options and value to the consumer. In the case of medical doctors, the consumer can identify the best services that are available on the market using the Internet to solve their problems and needs. However, despite many advantages, marketing using Internet also presents drawbacks for consumers. First, Internet marketing in Malaysia is still new, and it is difficult to determine what type of Internet marketing strategy are best-suited for medical doctors. Medical doctors in Malaysia should first learn about Internet marketing strategies and then identify which type of Internet marketing will give the best return on their investment. The costs of Internet marketing increase every year, and it is very important for medical doctors to learn it by themselves and apply it to their services. Second, doctors should utilize Internet marketing tools that can help in maintaining the business. There are many tools available on the market, ranging from website development to marketing tools that help medical doctors. Finding the right and best tools is important for doctors to develop Internet marketing strategies that will help get clients from all over the world.
Types of Internet marketing strategy
It is predicted that the population of Internet users has been rapidly increasing over the last few decades in the United Kingdom and also in the United States.24,28 There are a few models that have been used in Internet marketing strategy previously, such as the AIDA model, which refers to attention, interest, desire, and action, 29 the hierarchy-of-effect model 30 and also a model that is used to explain consumer persuasion processes. Here, we illustrate Internet marketing strategies that are available to attract customers and maintain relationships with them. In addition, these marketing strategies will improve customer satisfaction with the services they receive. Satisfied patients will eventually become loyal customers and will contribute positively to the success of the business. 31 McAlexander et al. 32 stated that satisfaction with dental care contributes to the intention of visiting a dentist.
These days, many people prefer to seek online medical advice rather than use traditional methods. While the majority of health care-seeking practices have always been performed outside the formal spaces of health facilities, this does suggest a shift in the manner and locations in which everyday health-seeking practices are conducted.
In this article, we outline the Internet marketing strategies that can be implemented by medical doctors in Malaysia and explain the best and most suitable for doctors’ marketing needs. These are the common strategies that have been used by medical practitioners. People going online for medical advice every day exceed the number of people who visit health professionals. 33
Viral marketing
Viral marketing is an Internet marketing strategy that is available to medical doctors. It is also known as word-of-mouth marketing. Viral marketing occurs when a message is spread by an individual to another via a network. Viral marketing techniques help to promote services or products faster and economically because it does not require a lot of money. Viral marketing techniques applied in the field of health and disease it can help spread awareness of the disease and reduce the number of cases of the disease by promoting medical practices online, viral marketing can help medical doctors advertise their expertise to the public and help society know about the services they offer. On the Internet, most of a customer’s purchase decision is based on the recommendation from someone that he trusts, not just from the advertisement marketing. Viral marketing techniques help society gain information about the doctors and at the same time increase the confidence level of the customer. Viral marketing has been defined by Phelps et al. ‘as the process of encouraging honest communication among consumer networks’. 34 This definition shows that viral marketing will occur when the customer is satisfied and feels confident about the service or product. Montgomery noted that viral marketing is ‘one type of marketing that infects its customer with an advertising message which passes from one customer to next customer like a rampant flu virus’. Basically, viral marketing is sharing an experience by spreading the information among the consumers whenever they are satisfied or not with the services or product.35,36 When a viral marketing strategy is employed, most consumers are strongly influenced by the perception and comments by their peers. 37
Kiss and Bichler 38 reported that viral marketing is a marketing strategy that uses customers’ social network through self-replication and message diffusion. For medical doctors, this marketing strategy can help to maintain relationships with consumers and at the same help to establish networks with consumers. The customer will write a review about his perceptions of the service provided for him by medical doctors. If the consumer writes a good review, it will spread among the network, but if the customer writes a bad review, the reputation of the medical doctor being reviewed will be negatively affected. Online reviews can help to convert other users into new customers,2,39– 41 and doctors do not have to spend more money on the advertising.
Website marketing
Website marketing is another Internet marketing strategy that can be used by medical doctors in Malaysia. Establishing a website is just like opening a medical clinic but in the virtual world. The website will allow the doctors to promote themselves online and tell the customer about their expertise. Websites can also be used by medical doctors to advise their customer and also can be used by the customer to make an appointment with the doctors. An interactive and attractive design website can signal professionalism of doctors and can thus make customers feel more confident in hiring them.
Further, after establishing the website, the next step is to create content that attracts visitors. The content of the website includes information about the clinic, the background of the doctors and the times when the doctors are available to see their patients. On the website, the consumer can learn more about the doctors. The website also can be used by the consumer to book appointments, which will help the doctors focus attention on the consumer. Providing suitable content on their websites can help doctors market themselves to the consumer, who can recognize the relevant expertise of the doctor through this content and thus become more confident in their services. However, judging by the results of a search on Google.com, there are still very few website clinics and a lack of health information in Malaysia in Internet. This shows that many medical doctors do not create websites and make full use of the Internet as a new marketing strategy. There is research done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project showing that over 52 million Americans make use of Internet to find information about disease, medical treatment and clinical trials. In the United States, the number of websites related to medical services is increasing; for example, the website America’s Doctors (http://americasdoctor.com/) has over 150 physicians who provide health-related information. Further, the website WebMD (http://webmd.com/) enables users discuss certain topics and share their experience with other users. Another website, CyberDocs (http://cyberdocs.com/), provides consultations and charges $50 to $100 per ‘virtual house call’ session. This website attracts more than 3,000 users per day who seek advice from certified medical doctors.
Based on the previous paragraph, it is very important for Malaysian medical doctors to establish a website as an online platform that can help them interact and communicate with consumers. This new branch of health information will provide consumers with knowledge and also help them make their health decisions.
Video marketing
Video marketing is another Internet marketing strategy available to Malaysia doctors. Marketing using video has gained wide attention in recent few years. The President of the United States, Barack Obama, also implemented this tactic during the US election to get that attention of voters in the US. A report by Gnoffo 42 indicated that by the end of 2004, the estimated number of users of TiVos and DVRs will increase to more than 2 million. The importance of video marketing is shown by Google’s possession of the company Youtube in 2006 for more than $1.65 billion. This was the biggest merger in Internet history, one that demonstrated Google’s realization of the importance of this technique in as a marketing strategy. There are many video-sharing websites available on the Internet, such as Metacafe (http://www.metacafe.com), Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com/), and Daily Motion (http://www.dailymotion.com). These video-sharing sites help users upload their videos and share them on social networks. For medical doctors in Malaysia, video sharing can be used as a platform to promote their services and clinics and also advise patients about diseases. This will increase the confidence level of their patient and expand their business globally.
Forum marketing
Forum marketing can also be used by medical doctors in Malaysia. There are many online forums and communities available online. Malaysian doctors can use this platform to advise consumers and give explanations about certain issues. Literature explaining the importance of forums as a marketing technique is still scarce, especially in the Malaysian context. Using a forum, the user can discuss certain issues and get opinion or feedback from other users on solving problems. Forums benefit users by allowing them to create relationships with patients and helps medical doctors expand their consumer networks. One website, Sparkpeople (http://www.sparkpeople.com) is a weight loss website that offers free weight loss information. This website helps people share information and experience on how to manage weight and achieve weight loss. This website has a large global network and provides an ideal platform for medical doctors to demonstrate their expertise to potential clients.
Social networking sites
Another Internet marketing strategy is through social networking sites (SNS). The increasing number of SNS can also help medical doctors market their services. SNS are based on Web 2.0, where users can communicate and interact online, rather than Web 1.0. There are many SNS available online, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and, the latest, Twitter. Using SNS helps to facilitate online connections with people as an alternative to traditional methods of connecting. In Asia, the number of uses of SNS is over 60 million, over 5 million of whom are from Malaysia. Employing social networking-based marketing can create word-of-mouth marketing and viral marketing on the Internet. Doctors do not have to spend more money on other types of marketing because using SNS will save advertising costs. There are many organizations that use this marketing strategy, recognizing it as a powerful marketing strategy that creates a powerful connection with consumers. Research done by Pruden and Vavra 43 indicates that this type of marketing is the best way to create market awareness and foster consumer relationships.
Other types of Internet marketing strategies
There are also other types of Internet marketing strategies that we have not discussed in this research, such as keyword advertising, email marketing, SEO (search engine optimization) marketing, article marketing, buzz marketing, and press releases. These types of marketing are good approaches that medical doctors can use to attract consumers to use their services. One additional marketing strategy that we believe will have a great impact in future is mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is still new in Malaysia, and it can be implemented by medical doctors to attract more consumers. 44
Mobile marketing is considered to be the best way to create awareness, test customer loyalty and develop a database of the customer demographics. In particular, mobile e-mail is considered to be an effective tool to ‘enhance brand awareness, build or test customer loyalty, and develop or enhance demographic databases’. 44 SMS advertising, compared to other channels such as the Internet, radio, television and newspapers, is more convenient because it allows marketers to get more value from their money. 45 Medical doctors also can use this technique to build trust and gain credibility. 46
Legal implications of Internet marketing for doctors
As mentioned previously, medical doctors may also face legal implications from using the Internet as a marketing strategy. In Malaysia, there is still uncertainty over using the Internet as a marketing strategy, as the law is still unclear on this matter. However, our opinion is that a medical practice’s implementation of an Internet marketing strategy would be the same as with other advertising professionals such as lawyers and accountants. 47 More importantly, for medical doctors, the use of marketing strategy requires that they be aware of and maintain their professionalism. However, medical doctors also face drawbacks from implementing an Internet marketing strategy. In this article, we explain the advantages and drawbacks that we believe will affect doctors who become involved in marketing.
Rising cost
One of the main problems resulting from medical doctors marketing their services is that the costs of their services rise. This would not be a problem for a customer who has health insurance, but will be a disadvantage for low-income customers. Most doctors will have to pay for the marketing and at the same time measure the return of investment from the strategy. One of the techniques that can be used to avoid this scenario is for the government to provide an appropriate Internet marketing platform for medical doctors. Medical clinics should also establish a marketing department that will determine and execute necessary marketing strategies. Using this mechanism will help medical doctors promote themselves to the public.
Ethical considerations
When promoting and advertising online, it is very important for medical doctors to always maintain their integrity and professionalism in their profession. It is very important for medical doctors to always pay attention to the ethics of their profession. Doctors should not reveal their patients’ problems to the public as a marketing strategy, and they should always maintain good relationships with their customers and ensure patient confidentiality. Similar to other professionals such as lawyers and accountants, medical doctors should always provide the best service and improve customer satisfaction.
Future recommendations
In this article, we provide recommendations for the future that can be used to enhance research on marketing for medical practitioners in the Malaysian context. Marketing for medical doctors is important for Malaysian doctors because the number of patients is increasing every year. Malaysia has been recognized as the country with the best medical services and treatments in Asia. Using Internet marketing as a platform to attract patients will help the doctors expose and create consumer networks. The Malaysian government should be more aware of marketing through Internet and provide training for medical practitioners to learn about and implement marketing strategies. Medical tourism is a large industry, one that contributes to the country’s economic development. Training medical doctors about Internet marketing will help doctors be aware of customers’ needs and provide them with the best service.
Practical recommendations
Practical tips for Internet marketing strategy
Transforming medical education
By looking at the structure of medical education in Malaysia, the issue here is how medical schools in Malaysia can adapt to the new environment to teach their students about marketing strategy. Including a marketing course for medical students will improve the capability of medical students to market themselves and not just merely learn about medicine. The new Malaysia Qualifying Agency (MQA) has introduced a new niche area that insists on students’ understanding of entrepreneurship. We feel that this is a good strategy that should also be introduced in other faculties such as nursing schools and dental schools. Transforming the entire education system will create a more dynamic student and help to sustain Malaysian higher education into the future.
Medical clinics in the stock market
Using marketing strategies also can help medical doctors make money and establish their own brands. We predict that in the future, there will be medical clinics that will be traded on the stock market. This scenario is already happening in Australia, where there is one legal firm that has been traded on the stock market. The legal firm in Australia, Slater and Gordon, is traded on the Australian stock market and raised over AS 35 million (£14 million) from its IPO. The money that this legal firm generated from the stock exchange will be used to purchase other small firms and expand their business to other states in Australia.
Based on the previous paragraph, we believe that medical clinics traded on the stock market will have an important impact on the health care industry in Malaysia and that this would also help to improve medical tourism in Malaysia. Medical tourism presents an opportunity for hospitals to boost economic growth and exploit the international market, and advances in science and medical technology can help patients get quality medical doctors among the health care providers available globally.
Conclusion
The intention of this article is to provide new ideas for medical doctors in Malaysia to utilize Internet marketing as a strategy in promoting and advertising their services to the customer. It is important for medical doctors to make use of Internet as one of the marketing tools. The implications of marketing were discussed, and marketing strategies suited to competitive business environments were introduced. The result of this current study reveals that the proposed method could provide a general understanding as there is no model that can fit all cases. 48 Medical doctors should learn about this new marketing strategy and try to implement it for their practices. The medical establishment and practitioners should also be involved in marketing seminars or workshops, which can foster more understanding about marketing strategies that are available to medical practitioners.
This study clearly demonstrates the value of using Internet marketing as a mechanism to promote and advertise medical services. In Malaysia, medical practices that use the Internet as a marketing platform for medical doctors are rare and new. However, more research is needed to assess customer loyalty to medical doctors in the Malaysian context.
Footnotes
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Author's Biographies
Wan Mohd Hirwani Wan Hussain is a Lecturer at UKM-Graduate School of Business. He completed his Bachelor of Laws in 2008 at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and holds a Master of law from the same University. His research interests include legal marketing, technology transfer, innovation and commercialization.
Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman is an Associate Professor in Quality and Operations Management at the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, UKM. His research interests include quality operations, modern quality management such as supply chain, BSC, Six sigma, Production SPC etc. He graduated in Industrial Physics in 1996 and obtained an MSc in 1999 from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and followed by an PhD from the University of Nottingham. He has been working as an R&D Engineer with Panasonic AVC Networks, and has worked in Japan for a couple of years.
Wan Kamal Mujani (Associate Prof. Dr.) is currently attached as Deputy Director of Institute of West Asian Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He received his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Al-Azhar University, Master of Arts in Islamic Studies from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia as well as Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. His current research topics include Economic History in the Middle East; Mediterranean & Levant; Islamic Historiography as well as Early and Medieval Islamic History.
Zinatul A Zainol currently leads the Biotechnology and Biodiversity Research Group at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Her main research interest includes biotechnology and biosafety law and policy. She teaches Intellectual Property Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution. She is also a Domain Name Panelist and Arbitrator with the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA). She was educated at International Islamic University Malaysia and London School of Economics, Univeristy of London.
Noor Inayah Ya’akub (Prof. Dr.) is a Professor at Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Principal Fellow of Institute of West Asian Studies, UKM. She received her Bachelor of Shariah Law (Hons) and Bachelor of Law (Hons) from International Islamic University, Malaysia, LLM (Master of Comparative Civil & Banking Law) from University of Bristol, United Kingdom and Ph.D. (Comparative Civil & Islamic Banking Law of Guarantee) from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Her research areas of interest include Islamic and conventional banking, takaful and insurance law.