Citation
Halkias, D. (2013), "Special issue: Islamic marketing and business in the global marketplace", Management Research Review, Vol. 36 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr.2013.02136daa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Special issue: Islamic marketing and business in the global marketplace
Article Type: Guest editorial From: Management Research Review, Volume 36, Issue 4
As throughout history, today’s business leaders have been confronted with continuous challenges. Innovation allows the global business community to move forward and face these challenges. A business with a social conscience needs to nurture its market to creating social, environmental, cultural, and ethical values that are as important for its long-term survival as generating economic capital. Financial, human and social capital cannot exist in failed societies, therefore when business embraces social and cultural values, we are all offered new frontiers for global business interaction. Such is a business mindset and model that gives birth to social innovation.
Welcome to this special issue of the Management Research Review (MRR). The issue includes a selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the 2nd Global Islamic Marketing Conference (GIMC) which was held in Abu Dhabi in January 2012 and was jointly organized by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) University, UAE and the International Islamic Marketing Association, London, UK. The conference for the second year in a row was organized and made possible by the committed work and leadership of Dr Baker Ahmad Alserhan, College of Business and Economics of United Arab Emirates University.
The GIMC, a very popular event among scholars from around the world, researching Islamic markets and consumers, interdisciplinary areas of research and seeks to promote scholarly collaboration worldwide. Islamic marketing is the fastest growing discipline in the global economy. Scholars and business persons within and outside of the discipline of marketing converge each year to network with colleagues and share their research and business ideas at the GIMC. The next gathering of GIMC scholars will take place May 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey with plans to hold one of its 2014 meeting in North America. Moreover, the Abu Dhabi conference witnessed the awarding of the first ever prize in the field of Islamic marketing which was a total of US$ 15,000 sponsored by Mr Mohammad Alfahim Chairman of the Alfahim Group. Winning authors received their awards in the conference closing ceremony.
Topic areas covered within the area of “Islamic marketing and business” included include Islamic marketing and branding, Islamic hospitality, tourism and entertainment, Islamic finance and banking, work ethics, Islamic business studies, Halal studies, commercialization of Islam, regional Islamic studies, comparative market-religious studies, and entrepreneurship. The five papers selected for this Special Issue cover international marketing perspectives from several Asian countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan, UAE, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Hameedah Sayani and Melodena Stephens Balakrishnan in their paper “Marketing an Islamic index: perceived value of KMI30 index” use the KMI30 index of Karachi Stock Exchange as a case study to analyze the customer perceived value for shareholders in investing in Islamic stocks. The authors rely on their findings to highlight the value of an Islamic branded index.
Mamunur Rashid et al., investigate customer-centric corporate social responsibility in Islamic banks in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and the Arabian Gulf Region. Their results reveal that the reports of Islamic banks show that the selected banks are too customer centric and efficiency driven, that efficiency is targeted at the cost of sacrificing Shari’ah norms, and that commitments to basic Islamic rules fall far below the average.
Dahlena Sari Marbun from Indonesia looks into the concept of Islamic leadership through describing concepts of attribution and requirements of leadership and links them to related Islamic concepts. Her findings show that there a significant correlation between attribution and requirements of “conventional” and Islamic leadership.
Yoosuf Cader and his research team from the UAE study the extent to which knowledge management (KM) is practiced by Islamic and conventional banks in the UAE. Their findings which utilized data from structured in-depth, qualitative interviews with CEOs, senior managers, and department heads of eight banks in the UAE, reveal that Islamic banks in the UAE were more actively engaged in KM than conventional banks. However, none of the banks were identified as possessing a strong organization-wide KM culture.
Khuram Shahzad Bukhari et al., from Pakistan explore the perceived importance of various corporate governance dimensions being practiced in the Pakistani Islamic banking context. Their findings reveal that the most significant dimensions which affect corporate governance in Islamic banks are BOD and SSB, while the significant factors for Islamic banking windows are almost all dimensions of corporate governance.
N. Jamaludin, Associate Professor in Commence at Urumu Dhanalakshmi College in India writes in his paper, “Marketing of Shari’ah based financial products and investments in India”, on the status of marketing activities of Shari’ah based investments and a comprehensive review of avenues for Islamic investments in India. The findings reveal the emergence of Islamic investment opportunities on Shari’ah based in India. This paper also provides suggestions on enhancement of Islamic investment opportunities in India.
A note of thanks to Dr Joseph Sarkis, Editor of MRR and his staff for graciously hosting these papers. Through such dissemination of global knowledge, the MRR has given these Special Issue authors the opportunity to share with readers an understanding of cross-cultural Islamic marketing structures and to provide a strong foundation for critical thinking in a very important area of international management.
Daphne HalkiasGuest Editor