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Innovation is a fundamental element for developing countries’ development. For instance, the innovation process should be integral to a country’s development plan for it to achieve high standard socio-economic development. For this reason, the global development agenda in the contemporary era underline innovation as a crucial issue to be addressed within development assistance programs. The Global North as traditional donors predominantly contend that innovation should be supported by high private sector development (PSD), and therefore, emphasizes this agenda to be delivered through their foreign aid schemes. However, this character differs considerably as compared to new emerging donors with insufficient PSD capacity, such as Indonesia. This paper aims to examine Indonesia’s technical assistance (TAC) to Timor-Leste and scrutinizes whether or not it supports the innovation development of the receiving country.

This study used a qualitative method by conducting a literature review, document tracing and depth interview with Indonesia’s South–South Cooperation National Coordinating Team.

Based on this study, it can be proven that Indonesia’s TAC has the ability to support innovation development in Timor-Leste as a least developed country. This is because Indonesia’s TAC is directed toward knowledge sharing and technology transfer that are needed by Timor-Leste. Other supporting conditions, such as similarity in the process of development, shared principles and solidarity ties among developing countries, have also created a more decent environment for aid delivery. Thus, aid initiatives among developing countries must remain to be supported as key to attain mutual progress and collective self-reliance.

This study shows that Indonesia as an emerging economic has the capability to support innovation development of other developing countries. It was a new area of study but has a lot of potential to be explored such as effectiveness and interests.

This study aims to develop a comprehensive insolvency model tailored to Islamic banks, ensuring alignment with Shariah principles throughout pre-insolvency, bankruptcy and post-bankruptcy stages.

The research adopts a qualitative research method, using a desktop research approach. Primary sources and secondary sources are examined to gather information and draw conclusions.

This study presents a comprehensive insolvency model designed for Islamic banks, rooted in Shariah principles. The model covers pre-insolvency, bankruptcy (taflis) and post-bankruptcy stages, incorporating key Shariah parameters to ensure adherence to Islamic finance principles. It addresses challenges such as adapting to dynamic financial landscapes and varying interpretations of Shariah principles. Notably, the model recognizes the separate legal personality of Islamic banks and emphasizes transparency, fairness and compliance with religious obligations. In the post-bankruptcy stage, directors are urged to voluntarily settle remaining debts, aligning with ethical and Shariah-compliant standards.

The study contributes to the stability and growth of Shariah-compliant financial systems by extending insolvency principles to Islamic banks, providing a foundation for future research and policymaking specific to this context.

Takaful is a social security approach that guarantees business risks in light of shari’ah, thus playing a crucial role in human life and the economy. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence the behavioural intention of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) entrepreneurs to participate in takaful in Sri Lanka.

This study is designed quantitatively with deductive approach using the theory of planned behaviour. A total of 432 MSMEs in Sri Lanka were surveyed using convenience sampling to measure the intention to participate in takaful as a risk mitigation. The collected data were analysed through partial least square-structural equational modelling.

Attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control variables positively influenced the intention, with t-values of 3.216, 3.813 and 3.859, respectively. The influence of these variables exhibits not much difference.

This study only focuses on MSMEs and a general takaful scheme. Future researchers may consider family takaful involvement among Sri Lankan business entrepreneurs.

Takaful practitioners should gain from the entrepreneurs’ intention to participate in takaful. Findings from this study could help marketing managers to revamp their strategies to further attract the entrepreneurs and make them to understand risk they are facing and, subsequently, participate in the takaful scheme.

This paper focuses on the context of Muslim minority among pluralism, where there is no regulation for Islamic financial products and services, and under the Islamic financial market crisis. This unleashes how business owners feel about takaful system on different dimensions.

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting micro, small and medium entrepreneurs’ (MSMEs) behavioural intention to participate in takaful schemes in Sri Lanka.

This research adopted a quantitative approach using primary data from a questionnaire. Out of 470 questionnaires, 432 were collected (91.91%) from MSMEs in Kalmunai business region in Sri Lanka. The data obtained were analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling.

This study revealed that the extension model of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) can be effectively applied to behavioural intentions towards a takaful scheme by MSMEs. Out of eight hypotheses, seven were significant, including: attitude towards behavioural intention; subjective norm; perceived behavioural control; knowledge; religiosity; income; trust in takaful as a significant influence. However, awareness of intention was not found to be significant.

This study suggests advantages for takaful providers in Sri Lanka, especially marketing departments, for enhancing sale of products, refurbishing marketing strategies and understanding the purchasing motivation of business entrepreneurs. This study guides takaful companies as to where they should concentrate to enhance market penetration.

Previous studies have concentrated on only three factors which comprise TPB. This paper’s main contribution is on the uniqueness of the Muslim minority context in a pluralistic context, providing a marketing model for takaful operators based on the different relevant dimensions.

Islamic banking institutions have been in operation for nearly 50 years now and despite having been in competition with much more entrenched conventional rivals have demonstrated remarkable potential for growth and sustainability in different countries in both Muslim-dominated and Muslim-minority jurisdictions. The sustained upsurge in Islamic banks’ operations level to even a double-digit mark is not accidental but a replica of the levels of engagement of customers with Islamic banking institutions among other factors. There are various studies on Islamic banking, which covered wide range of issues, including those on Islamic banks customers’ patronage factors.

Accordingly, this chapter presents discussions on factors that influence customers’ engagement/patronage with Islamic banking. From plethora of studies conducted over long period of time and in different countries, many different factors have been identified as the determinants of customers’ engagements. The factors include but are not limited to customers’ personal attributes such as their understanding, knowledge, and perceptions of banking products, the banking institutions’ related factors such as product pricing, technology adopted by bank, environmental factors, and other myriads of determinants.

This study aims to analyze the level of customer awareness of Islamic Banks’ activities toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the Kingdoms of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and test whether both groups have similarities or not. The outcome of this study determines the extent to which customer awareness regarding Islamic banking activities furthering the betterment of society and achieving socioeconomic goals beyond their financial objectives.

Quantitative methods are used in this study covering Islamic Banks in both the Kingdoms of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia; using a survey questionnaire distributed to a total of 150 customers in the Kingdom of Bahrain and 100 customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The weighted means are calculated, and statistical tests are used, such as, Kruskal–Wallis H and independent sample tests, in analyzing the data.

The results of the survey reveal that the level of customer awareness is generally low in terms of the pursuit of corporate social responsibilities by the Islamic Banks. The significant statistical difference in the data gathered from the sample is highlighted when they are grouped according to their respective banks. It proves that the level of customer awareness varies considerably among the Islamic banks in the survey. It was also found that there is no significant difference between the two groups of Islamic banks’ customers in the two countries in terms of their awareness toward the CSR practices of the Islamic banks.

The findings of this study could be used to aid policymakers in the field of CSR of Islamic banks to formulate a more efficient set of CSR activities that are better aligned with the ultimate goal of achieving society’s betterment. This study may also facilitate Islamic banks in the region to set up strategies that highlight their CSR efforts and raise the awareness levels of their customers.

This study aims to evaluate the awareness level of Islamic finance principles among employees of financial institutions in Moscow, Russia.

A quantitative method is used with a Likert scale questionnaire. A survey was conducted to 310 financial institutions’ employees to determine the level of their awareness of major Islamic finance principles. The sample population is selected using the judgment sampling technique. A descriptive analysis with frequency, percentage and weighted mean are used to analyze the data.

The study finds that the level of awareness of financial institutions’ employees towards Islamic finance is low. This is probably due to the minority of the Muslim population and geographically far from to the countries where Islamic finance is being implemented. All respondents have a good education background, thus implementing some training sessions for its employees or hiring some outside specialists could transfer the knowledge and widespread the adoption of Islamic finance instruments.

The academic institutions such as universities in Russia could play a pivotal role to offer Islamic finance-related subjects, while the government as a regulatory body, should support the Islamic finance initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the contemporary implementation of social media within the public sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain by reviewing each of the ministry’s presence in the social media especially on specific social media websites (Twitter, Facebook and YouTube). This study also attempts to identify the types of information that the public is interested to receive from various government social media accounts.

A descriptive analysis with frequency distribution and weighted mean was used to analyze the demographic profile of the respondents, internet preferences and government information sources. The study has employed two types of survey methods in collecting data, namely, checklist and questionnaire surveys. A snowball sampling technique was employed for the sampling selection. Among the selected respondents of 500, 384 (76.8 percent) respondents completely responded to the questionnaires.

The study has confirmed the fact that most of the Bahrain Government’s ministries have social media platforms with a minimum of at least one official account to reach out to the various segments of the society. It also reveals that the respondents are active internet users who are looking for information in different platforms, i.e. search engines, social media, and have interests in different media forms like blogs, forums, official websites as well as multimedia images and videos. Meanwhile, the respondents are found to be interested in various types of information from the government that ranges from serious topics like emergency alerts, citizens’ rights and healthcare, to lighter topics like ways to protect the environment, science and technology and job seeking advice.

This clearly declares the inevitability of an increase in the dissemination of information by the Government of Bahrain through social media. The recommendations in this research could be highly beneficial for the Government of Bahrain if implemented as it could improve the cyber relationship between the government and the public.

This study aims to examine the moderator effect of religiosity on the relationship between halal brand awareness and habit towards purchasing decisions of halal products.

The quantitative method is used in this study. Descriptive and statistical (multiple and moderated regression) analyses are employed to test the hypothesis according to the research model. The data is collected using a cross-sectional design from 197 respondents consisting of business owners in North Sumatera, Indonesia.

It is found that both halal brand awareness and habit have a positive and significant effect on the purchasing decision of halal products. Meanwhile, religiosity significantly acts as a moderating variable in the relationship between awareness and purchasing decisions, as well as habit and purchasing decisions.

This study revealed the important factor of religiosity as a moderating factor in purchase decisions of halal products. The government may need to collaborate with Islamic educational institutions to raise awareness of the halal concept and product awareness. It is assumed that individuals who know about the Islamic religion will have a higher degree of awareness of halal products compared to individuals with limited knowledge of Islam; thus, providers of Islamic education play a crucial role in raising the level of awareness of halal products. Schools may serve as catalysts for the dissemination of knowledge of halal products.

Developing halal product markets can be done by enhancing the religiosity level of consumers, one of them through attending formal or informal religious classes.

This paper aims to analyze the Halal industry before, during and after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Qualitative content analysis derived from a narrative-type literature review – supported by expert opinions elicited from semi-structured interviews and transcripts from the keynotes of five prominent speakers at a Halal industry conference during the pandemic. The conference theme covered the Halal industry’s development and strategies before, during and after the COVID-19 outbreak.

There are opinions, concerns and actionable suggestions from the five prominent guests on how the Halal industry is faced with challenges but also new opportunities, with the potential to lead an agenda toward community and transparency.

The halal industry could survive the ravaging COVID-19 and still has the potential to be explored. Expectedly, it makes this occasion an assessment or benchmark to improve the Halal industry and lifestyle in the future and contributes to the betterment of the ummah and Muslim countries.