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This study aims to investigate the factors that influence the use of e-government services among male and female samples, aiming at gaining a deeper understanding of how to promote digital inclusion and maximize the benefits of digitalization.

This study uses binomial logistic regression modeling on two data sets: a nationwide survey at the individual level of 8,854 usable samples conducted in 2019 and village potential statistics.

The survey indicates low adoption and use of e-government services among both males and females. The statistical analysis further reveals that although there might be some variations in the influencing factors between the genders, the overall patterns are similar. These findings suggest that the low adoption and use of e-government services among males and females can be attributed to factors such as misperceptions about internet-based services, resulting in low motivation to use the services, inadequate internet connectivity, affordability, limited digital skills and exposure to harmful online content.

This study conducts a gender-disaggregated analysis to determine whether the antecedents of males’ decisions to adopt e-government services differ from those of females. Such a study is underrepresented in the extant literature, particularly in the context of e-government service use.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between customer relationship management (CRM) dimensions (i.e. top management support, customer orientation, training orientation, customer data, customer information-processing and integration) and organizational performance in telecommunication companies in Kuwait.

This is a quantitative study, and the response came from 167 employees of three telecommunication companies. Data collected were subjected to correlation and regression analyses in pursuance of the study’s stated objective.

The results of this study found that top management support, customer data and customer information processing are positively related to organizational performance, while other variables of customer orientation, training orientation and integration of CRM have no significant influence on organizational performance.

The paper addresses CRM dimensions issues specifically for telecommunication companies in Kuwait.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the excecution of various leadership styles, namely, transactional, transformational and laissez-faire that are being practiced among the government organizations in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The study compares and differentiates these three leadership styles with that of the major Islamic leadership concepts.

The study used a descriptive analytical method. A number of 100 government employees participated in the survey which has been selected as the sample of the study using the snowball sampling technique.

The study detects that the transactional leadership is the most highly applied leadership style in the government organizations of Bahrain. The finding is identified on the basis of the employees’ attributes based on their gender (male and female); current positions (employee and manager); work experience (less than a year, from one to five years, from 6 to 10 years); and age (less than 20 years, from 20 to 35 years, from 36 to 50 years, more than 50 years). Meanwhile, the second style mostly applied among the employees is the transformational leadership style. It is perceived that this style has been applied by employees with 10 years of work experience and are in the age group of more than 50 years. The least applied leadership style is the laissez-faire.

The study can be used by the Government of Bahrain to set up policies on how to improve efficiency within the government organizations in the Kingdom. This study also fills up the gap in the leadership styles literature, as no prior studies of this manner involving the government organizations of the Island have ever been conducted.

The global emphasis on sustainability is driving organizations to embrace financial technology (Fintech) solutions as a means of enhancing their sustainable performance. This study seeks to unveil the intermediary role played by green finance and competitiveness, along with the moderating impact of digital transformation (DT), in the intricate relationship between Fintech adoption and sustainable performance.

Drawing on existing literature, we construct a comprehensive conceptual framework to thoroughly analyse these interconnected variables. To empirical validate of our model, a dual structural equation modelling–artificial neural network) SEM–ANN approach was employed, adding a robust layer of validation to our study’s proposed framework. A sample of 438 banking employees in Pakistan was collected using a simple random sampling technique, with 411 samples deemed suitable for subsequent analysis. Initially, data scrutiny and hypothesis testing were carried out using Smart-PLS 4.0 and SPSS-23. Subsequently, the ANN technique was utilized to assess the importance of exogenous factors in forecasting endogenous factors.

The findings from this research underscore the direct and significant influence of Fintech adoption and DT on the sustainable performance of banks. Notably, green finance and competitiveness emerge as pivotal mediators, bridging the gap between Fintech adoption and sustainable performance. Moreover, DT emerges as a critical moderator, shaping the relationships between Fintech adoption and both green finance and competitiveness. The integration of the ANN approach enhances the SEM analysis, providing deeper insights and a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.

This study contributes to the enhanced comprehension of Fintech, green finance, competitiveness, DT and the sustainable performance of banks. Recognizing the importance of amalgamating Fintech adoption, green finance and transformational leadership becomes essential for elevating the sustainable performance of banks. The insights garnered from this study hold valuable implications for policymakers, practitioners and scholars aiming to enhance the sustainable performance of banks within the competitive business landscape.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the development of intelligent agriculture (IA) in China, which is an important tendency in advancing the agricultural productivity in the coming era.

Considering publications as featured evidence of an emerging phenomenon, the authors review publications of IA. Specifically, the use of term, definition and examples of IA, both English and Chinese literature, and government policies of China are all reviewed. Additionally, the authors use basic statistical and thematic analysis to help synthesizing the literature and drawing conclusions. Findings from various sources of publications supplement with each other.

IA in China has shown three main characteristics: unbalanced geographic distribution, an early stage of the trend and attention mainly focused on a limited range of technologies. Compared with the development of IA in other countries, such as Japan, India and the USA, featured with diversified properties, similarities and differences of IA development in China and in other countries are also discussed.

This general review contributes by uncovering the emergence of IA, identifying its general definition with a comprehensive set of practical examples and pointing out the present characteristics and problems of IA development in China. The general review provides a necessary summary for the policy makers and researchers to have a systematic understanding of IA and better promote its future development. At last, the paper calls for a process-based strategy with different goals at different stages, a sustainable mechanism coordinated by multiple participants, and a localized consideration for relevant policy making.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the awareness of non-Muslims coming from a non-Muslim-majority country regarding Islamic financial services, in particular, the takaful products.

This paper uses structured questionnaires to acquire and understand South Korean citizens’ perceptions of Islamic financial services (primarily takaful) to reinforce the scant previous literature in this area of research. The questionnaires are developed and adapted based on a previous study by Htay and Salman (2013). The sample consisted of 121 Korean people who were living in Ampang, a popular suburb for South Koreans in Kuala Lumpur.

The findings indicate that even South Korean citizens who have dwelled in Malaysia for a significant amount of time had little awareness of Islamic financial services. Upon personal explanation about the product, however, they showed a significant interest to get to know about takaful and a willingness to subscribe to it in the near future.

Respondents are limited to only South Koreans who are residing in Malaysia.

Understanding the level of awareness about Islamic financial services among non-Muslims residing in Muslim-majority country.

There is ample scope to penetrate the non-Muslim market for Islamic financial products.

There is a growing concern over the lack of research in the area of perceptions of Islamic financial services among non-Muslims from non-Muslim-majority countries. The lack of study in this area of research has often been overshadowed by research studies on perceptions of Islamic financial services among non-Muslim residents in Muslim-majority countries, which may have led to a dearth of proper strategies in the Islamic financial industry to penetrate non-Muslim-majority markets.

Zakat has succeeded in becoming one of the safety nets for welfare during the crisis. As a result, continuous improvement is a necessity, especially through strengthening technology adaptation. This study aims to explore the factors determining Muslim behavior on their intention to pay zakat by taking into consideration the adoption of digital technology using the modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT).

The data collected were 265 respondents who live in urban and suburban areas. They were processed using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) design. Furthermore, the multigroup analysis (MGA) was conducted to capture the difference results between urban and suburban.

The findings show that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, perceived security and privacy and zakat literacy significantly increase the intention of Muzakki to adopt financial technology. Perceived security and privacy has succeeded in being an important predictor of digital payment adoption for Muzakki. This paper provides a specific description of the adoption of Muzakki living in urban and suburban areas by using MGA. The research findings illustrate that there is a different urgency between the related variables. Suburban communities have more significant results regarding the research model used.

This research provides new component variables that can drive individuals’ intentions to use digital services to pay zakat online by using the redesigned UTAUT model. Further research can explore more variables related to zakat digitalization, such as social media interaction, by conducting in-depth interviews with stakeholders to improve zakat performance in this digital era.

The result of this research recommends that zakat institutions enhance their zakat literacy and education among the Muslim population to improve zakat performance. The government should pay attention to the digital ecosystem to attract the community to use a digital platform.

This research modified the UTAUT model by integrating several other important constructs to produce more comprehensive findings in investigating the factors that can influence an individual's intention to pay zakat through an online digital platform. This study also examined the indirect effect to obtain significant results by positioning perceived security and privacy as an intervening variable. The implementation of the MGA was conducted to divide research respondents into two categories (urban and suburban) and compare the test results.

This article investigates the determinants of cross-section variation of initial public offerings' (IPOs) first-day returns in a sample of 710 issues across seven emerging markets between 2013 and 2017.

Ordinary least squares regression (OLS) and the semi-parametric quantile regression (QR) technique are employed. QR enables to analyse beyond the explanatory variables' relative mean effect at various points in the endogenous variable distribution. Furthermore, parameter estimates under QR are robust to the existence of outliers and long tails in the data distribution.

Underpricing varies across countries with an average of 78%. According to the OLS results, independent variables explain 26% of the variation of IPOs' first-day returns. Findings show that employing QR is important, given the non-normality of the data and because each quantile is associated with a different effect of explanatory variables.

In addition to firm-specific, market-specific and issue-specific factors, the paper extends IPOs' underpricing literature through studying the impact of country-specific characteristics, largely neglected by literature, on IPO underpricing.

The purpose of this study is to extend the extant literature on the relationship between financial risk tolerance (FRT), awareness of Islamic financial principles (AWIF) and positive financial behaviour (FB) on financial satisfaction (FS) of micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) owners by principally investigating the mediating effect of access to Islamic financing (AIF) on these relationships.

A quantitative survey method of data collection through a self-administered questionnaire. The sample of 384 MSME owners was selected in which 208 questionnaires were retrieved and analysed using the partial least square structural equation modelling (SEM).

The result shows that the relationships between FRT and AIF as well as FB and AIF are not significant. However, the AWIF–AIF relationship was found to be positively significant. Moreover, only the mediating effect of AIF on the AWIF–FS relationship was established.

The result implies that AIF could strongly influence the FS of MSME owners, and the AWIF–FS relationship is better explained with sufficient AIF. However, AIF could not mediate the relationships between FRT–FS and FB–FS. Therefore, policymakers and MSME owners should emphasize on AWIF and AIF to enhance FS.

This study pioneers the examination of the mediating influence of AIF on FRT, AWIF, FB and FS of MSME owners in a single framework. Despite the importance of MSME owners on economic sustainability, literature on MSME owners' FS is lacking expressly among developing countries, particularly in Nigeria. This study also revealed new theoretical and practical knowledge by illuminating the mediating effect of AIF on AWIF–FS relationship.

This study aims to investigate the differences in the credit profiles of Islamic and conventional banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region and attempts to identify the factors responsible for those differences.

Financial data sourced from the Bankscope database for a sample of 25 Islamic and 56 conventional banks headquartered in the GCC region between 1987 and 2014 are used. The credit risk of Islamic versus conventional banks is compared using a variety of univariate (mean difference test and correlation analysis) and multivariate tests (pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions with robust standard errors and year fixed effects, regressions with interaction variables and logistic regressions).

Pooled OLS regressions find that Islamic banks have lower credit risk than conventional banks. Robustness checks using logistic functions and interaction variables confirm this result. Using multiple econometric specifications, we also find that higher capitalization, greater liquidity and cost inefficiency contribute to the lower risk profile of Islamic banks.

The study is unable to disaggregate data for banks offering both Islamic and conventional banking services and hence does not include conventional banks with Islamic windows. In addition, there are differences across countries even within the GCC region as to what is considered Sharia’h-compliant and what is not.

The results are of potential interest to not only researchers, but also market participants, regulators and legislators. The methods used in this study could be extended to other two-tiered banking systems and, in the case of Islamic and conventional banking, to other markets.

The authors use a unique sample of banks headquartered in the GCC countries, whose banking markets are similar, if not homogeneous, thus excluding operations of multinational banks. By focusing on the Gulf region, differences in the credit profiles of Islamic and conventional banks can be examined without the confounding effects of unobserved factors like culture, accounting regime or regulatory environment.