Bridging the gap between theory and practice of forecasting in Malaysia: A practical insight

A survey was carried out to investigate forecasting practices in Malaysian firms, in order to understand level of familiarity, usage, problems and improvements for the practices. Results show that practitioners prefer simplicity and ease of use and it was also found that software packages take the place of formulating and calculation of forecast figures and trends that might make studying for forecasting redundant in universities as practice promotes learning on-the-job. Majority of the respondents indicated that the biggest challenge in their forecasting function is to obtain sufficient data to produce accurate forecasts. The respondents also suggest that better training and exposure for the people involved in forecasting is necessary with better coordination of accounting and forecasting methods.