Malaysians’ awareness towards legal metrology and Weights and measures act, 1972

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine the level of awareness of the public about Weights and Measures Act, the awareness of Metrology Corporation Malaysia (MCM) services such as verification sticker and the awareness about ways to file a complaint by the public. Design/methodology/approach - A quantitative research methodology survey was used to collect data. The quantitative collected data were analysed to achieve the objectives of this study. Findings - The results of this study showed a low awareness level of the general public, especially non-stakeholders, knowledge, attitude and actual behaviour about the work of verification and re-verification and checking for verification sticker as well as ways of complaining if the instrument is not verified. In addition, the number of stakeholders working in the legal metrology area was high and Facebook was one of the most preferred media by the public to get awareness messages. Research limitations/implications - It is recommended for other researchers to enlarge the sample size and implement the study on more companies in the industry. Practical implications - The findings of this study revealed that public awareness, knowledge and intention have significant and positive relationship with actual behaviour of the public and that awareness, knowledge and actual behaviour among the non-stakeholder were low compared to the stakeholder. The results also enriched the stakeholders in legal metrology for improving public awareness, knowledge and actual behaviour toward the legal metrology and Wight and Measure Act, 1972. Social implications - This study shows that Facebook was one of the most preferred media by the public to get awareness messages. This reflects the important role that social media plays. This is useful to the companies because it helps them understand the preferences of public in the society. In addition, the results of this study are useful to the decision-makers in the industry, which is expected to impact the performance of such companies. Originality/value - This study is among the few studies conducted in the Malaysian context.