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Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an innovative approach to learning that employs a multitude of strategies critical for success in the twenty-first century. It exposes students to the real world, opens an extended inquiry process, and boosts their communication skills and interdisciplinary learning. However, the extant literature on PBL places more emphasis on learning through internal rather than external projects. Industrial collaboration projects build partnerships and provide opportunities to work on real problems, often seeking multidisciplinary approaches. This study explores and suggests the benefits that students derived from their participation in an external research and consultancy project at a University in Oman.

The study follows a qualitative analysis approach founded on an exploratory research design. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten research assistants, two research coordinators, and two project leaders involved in the project. The data from the interview were subjected to the thematic inductive qualitative analysis using Atlas.ti 8 software.

The results of the study revealed that students derived some direct academic benefits, mainly in the area of conducting research. The major learning happened mostly in non-academic areas, for they learned many things necessary for success in real-life work situations. The students benefited largely on behavioural skills and abilities such as communication, self-confidence, English language skills, planning, thinking, and time management skills. Altogether, project-based learning offered them a different skillset beyond what they usually acquire in the conventional teaching and learning environment.

The outcomes of this research support the development of curriculum design and instructional pedagogy in higher education in a specific context, concluding that PBL has much to do with the practical aspects of learning and employability. The finding suggests that by engaging in PBL, students can develop certain skills that cannot be acquired in a conventional teaching environment. PBL enables self-learning and prepares students to deal with different situations and challenges on the ground while inculcating professionalism to act in real-life situations. This study advocates the introduction of some PBL based courses in the curriculum to nurture a balanced set of skills and abilities among business students.

The research outcomes support Oman’s Vision 2040 and one of its strategies for capacity building that aims to adopt innovative methods for individual/collective development of students, as well as for their life-long learning.

Project-based learning described in this study provides a pedagogical way to connect university education to a real-life situation. These results offer promising prospects for infusing outdoor multidisciplinary projects in the course curriculum. This work bears significant value for educators in designing curriculum and facilitating projects, particularly in environments where students exhibit weaknesses or inhibitions to receive the knowledge, appropriately, from the conventional mode of teaching.

This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of transformational leadership (TL) and work engagement (WE) on health-care clinic nurses’ performance and the crucial role of these variables in the work environment (WEV).

Data were collected from 353 nurses working across various health-care clinics in the United Arab Emirates. This study used descriptive correlational statistics from the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, the Pearson correlation coefficient, confirmatory factor analysis for model validity, Cronbach’s alpha for reliability and path analysis to determine the results.

The relationship between TL and job performance among nurses in health-care clinics was strongly influenced by WE. In addition, a moderate WEV increased the positive influence of TL on job accomplishment. Furthermore, there were no statistically significant differences between the participants’ demographics characteristics and the main variables of the study.

Health-care management can support and enhance nurses’ job performance through TL, create a more structured WEV and support WE.

This study involves a specific investigation into WE as a mediator, WEV as a moderator and the effect of TL on nurses’ job performance.

This chapter defines the role of women entrepreneurship in developing countries in general with more emphasis on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. It also introduces trends and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, incentives to start their own businesses, the support mechanism provided for them, the common conditions for women entrepreneurship, and profile of women entrepreneurs in the GCC and Kuwait. The chapter also covers the impacts of Covid-19 crisis on entrepreneurship (small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)) along with the country policy responses to mitigate these impacts and ends with sharing useful recommendations on what needs to be taken into consideration in the future for the development of women entrepreneurship in general and more specifically within GCC countries and Kuwait.

This paper aims to provide an understanding of agripreneurs motivation from the Islamic perspective. The objective of this paper is to explore the proposition that motivations to become agripreneurs is directly influenced by religious intentions and Islamic values, which would indirectly have an effect on entrepreneurial behaviour.

An exploratory qualitative approach was used to capture the respondents’ Islamic values and intentions, which motivate them to become agripreneurs. In-depth face-to-face interviewing technique was adopted whereby the respondents were asked to share their thoughts, views and understanding of the issues presented. A sample of five Muslim agripreneurs were interviewed for this study.

The study found that Islam plays a significant role in influencing the agripreneurs entrepreneurial motivation. Their entrepreneurial behaviour is also underpinned by some Islamic values, which have a positive impact on their mindsets and the growth of their businesses; such as having utmost faith in Allah (taqwa) and believing that Allah is the sole provider, makes them fearless in the business environment and results in a healthy competition amongst agripreneurs.

The study has several limitations. Firstly, the study is based on a small sample of five Muslim agripreneurs who are willing to be interviewed in a specific Islamic environment such as Brunei. Thus, the findings cannot be generalised and may not be a true reflection of all Islamic countries and to Muslims residing in countries in which they are not the majority. Secondly, cultural differences within a country may influence the attitude towards entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship intentions. As this study focusses on Brunei, which is based on Malay Islamic Monarchy, the motivations might be different in other countries because of the cultural differences. Thirdly, agriculture types in this study are limited. Finally, the methodology is purely qualitative.

The findings may assist the government to devise strategies and policies to attract more youth into agriculture particularly in creating a supportive environment for the farmers.

The findings of this paper have shown that their Islamic motivations and values result in a more socially responsible entrepreneur in shaping the economy and community at large and more importantly, it also brings them closer to Allah.

This paper highlights the role of Islam in influencing and motivating the respondents to become agripreneurs and persevere in the challenging business environment.

The purpose of this study is to examine the legal paradigm of multiple Sharia' board directorship practice from the Sharia' law concept of Maslahah Al-Mursalah (public interest).

It uses a doctrinal research method that relies on the commonly referred sources of Quran and Sunnah, with a specific focus on Maslahah Al-Mursalah and, where applicable, commentaries by contemporary scholars, academics and practitioners as well as translations of classical book of Fiqh. This study scrutinises the polarity of views concerning the distinct Masyaqqah (necessity) surrounding the practice in discussion: the Masyaqqah that encourages and one that discourages the application of the practice.

This study is keen to suggest the industry to adopt a cautious approach and consider exploring a corporate governance framework that appraises the theoretical and practical Sharia' issues concerning its application in cognisance of its adversarial influence towards the sustainability of Islamic banking industry.

Since Murat Unal’s study of multiple Sharia' board directorships in 2009 and 2011, empirical works that scrutinise the practice from the Sharia' law perspective have remained limited or almost non-existent. It is aspired that this study may assist fellow readers and future researchers alike in evaluating and appreciating the divergent views surrounding the application of this practice in Islamic banking.

This study aims to examine women’s leadership in Oman, seeking to empirically determine whether and how local perceptions of “success” and lifestyle preferences are related to women’s agency and propensity for leadership.

Drawing on the literature, this paper qualitatively analyzes 32 semi-structured interviews of diverse Omani women leaders, identifying their conceptions of success as predominantly subjective or objective. At the same time, the study uses Hakim’s (2006) lifestyle preference model to explore women's agency.

Contrary to the literature on the central importance of domestic responsibilities for Arab Muslim women, more women in leadership positions are identified as career-centered (14/32, 44%); those who did identify as family-centered (6/32, 19%) did not cite Islam to justify that preference, and success is envisioned more subjectively (19/32, 59%).

The sample has an urban bias and does not claim to be representative of all Omani women. Interviews were conducted in English; most women leaders in Oman are required to speak English.

By analyzing work-life balance preferences as a proxy for agency and interrogating Omani women's own conceptions of success, the study may lead to more robust and culturally aware policies to support women’s leadership.

Defining in subjective terms suggests that success is not necessarily equated with achieving a high level position for Omani women. Further, only 6/32 were identified as home-centered, thus indicating the critical importance of domestic support from hired labor or family members.

This study contributes new empirical findings on women leaders in Oman that illustrates the role of personal agency and lifestyle preference in contrast to many studies that treat culture as a constant.