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To develop a new conceptualisation of the public particular emphasis is placed on later developments in the work of Niklas Luhmann using theoretical terms such as medium, form and observation.

Current theoretical approaches conceptualise the public domain as a sphere, field or system, and theorists disagree about the range of meanings of the term public. While acknowledging that diversity of meanings, this paper seeks to avoid the limitations imposed by figures such as sphere, field or system by invoking the sociological theory developed by Niklas Luhmann.

Building on Luhmann’s work, the public is conceived here as (connection) medium and projection.

The paper draws on a range of diverse phenomena to illustrate the wider scope of this conception and its potential application, including public interactions, the transformation of texts as publications, audience formation, the role of media communication and the concept of traffic. In so doing, the paper contributes to the development of system theory as well as to a wide-ranging theory of the public.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the different segments of consumers in the Islamic financial services industry (IFSI) and their relationship with product/brand positioning for Islamic financial services (IFS).

In‐depth interviews were conducted with individuals in managerial positions among the key market players in the IFSI to explore the segmentation of consumers and their buying motives.

Four segments of IFS consumers emerged, namely, Religious conviction group; Religious conviction and economic rationality group; Ethical observant group; and Economic rationality group. These segmentation groups were appropriately categorized through a psychographic (value)‐based approach.

The empirical findings of this study pave the way for embarking on promising and relevant future research, which is needed to substantiate and enrich the academic understanding and managerial practice of linking market segmentation and brand positioning for IFS in the global market. Future research should focus on analysing these issues from the perspective of consumers of IFS to identify the purchase trend.

The study provides empirical evidence of the bases or initial dimensions of consumer segmentation for IFS. The findings are useful in guiding the management of institutions offering IFS in making decisions relating to the marketing communication and promotion strategy as well as product and brand positioning strategy.

For both academia and the IFSI, this study provides useful knowledge in strategically using market segmentation to position IFS in the global market.

This paper revisits the foundational concepts of agency and action in routine dynamics to provide guidance for intentional and directional change in a world in flux from a routine dynamics perspective. First, the authors put forward a relational-temporal triad of agency as a ratio of the past, present, and future to outline what gives shape to individual action. Second, the authors combine with this a relational-temporal triad of routine as a ratio of patterning, performing, and projecting to outline what gives shape to social action. Based on this, the authors reconceptualize the dynamic of routines as an enfolding inside-out and outside-in process that expresses the relational constraints between the intentionality of individual action and the directionality of social action. In managing a world in flux toward desirable futures, routines – as temporal structures for carrying out organizational work – need to be able to carry some degree of continuity to bring about change in fulfilling a desired and identified direction. The authors identify in-tension-less, in-tension-al, and in-tension-ful as three different degrees of intentionality in individual action and continuing, renewing, and transforming as the spectrum of a continuum of directionality in social action for routine change. Using time to bring in a fully relational understanding of agency and action in routine dynamics, the authors render the complexities of structure-agency and continuity-change dualities clearer and reveal their otherwise latent properties. This more complete picture of routine dynamics would allow for more intentional organizational routine change forward when facing significant environmental and social challenges in a world of flux.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the current research on the Islamic financial services industry attempts to classify its consumers and provide a fresh and critical insight into the retail Islamic banking market segmentation to harness and enhance understanding, as well as provide a guideline for a better segmentation to bank marketers.

This study is conceptual in nature. Based on Qur’anic verses and previous literature, the authors aim to propose an applicable model of market segmentation for the retail Islamic banking market in Malaysia. Consumer segmentation in the conventional financial service industry is analysed, and prior studies on the selection criteria of Islamic banks are evaluated.

In moving forward, taking cue from the classification of people in classical doctrinal and historical literature and the initial exploratory study conducted from the managerial perspective, the authors propose five cluster groups of consumers for the retail Islamic banking market in Malaysia, namely, religious conviction, religious and economic rationality, economic rationality, ethical observant and economic rationality and ethical observant. A discussion linking consumer segmentation to the branding in the retail Islamic banking market is discussed.

The five cluster groups of consumers for the retail Islamic banking market in Malaysia proposed in this study pave the way for embarking on promising and relevant future research, which is needed to substantiate and enrich the academic understanding and managerial practice of linking market segmentation and brand positioning for Islamic banking market in Malaysia. Future research should focus on verifying the five proposed segments by conducting empirical studies on a larger scale among the retail banking consumers in Malaysia and globally.

The study provides an initial bases or dimensions of consumers of the retail Islamic banking market in Malaysia. The proposed consumers segments are useful in guiding the management of Islamic bank in Malaysia in making decisions relating to the promotion strategy as well as product and brand positioning strategy.

For both academia and the Islamic banking industry, this study provides useful knowledge in strategically using market segmentation to position Islamic banking products and services in Malaysia and the global market.

Cooperative knowledge spaces create new potentials for the experimental fields in natural sciences and engineering because they enhance the accessibility of experimental setups through virtual laboratories and remote technology, opening them for collaborative and distributed usage. A concept for extending existing virtual knowledge spaces for the means of the technological disciplines (“ViCToR‐Spaces” ‐ Virtual Cooperation in Teaching and Research for Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Engineering) is presented. The integration of networked virtual laboratories and remote experiments (“NanoLab Approach”), as well as an approach to community‐driven content sharing and content development within virtual knowledge spaces (NanoWiki) are described.