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Ohmic heating generates temperature with the help of electrical current and resists the flow of electricity. Also, it generates heat rapidly and uniformly in the liquid matrix. Electrically conducting biofluid flows with Ohmic heating have many biomedical and industrial applications. The purpose of this study is to provide the significance of the effects of Ohmic heating and viscous dissipation on electrically conducting Casson nanofluid flow driven by peristaltic pumping through a vertical porous channel.

In this analysis, the non-Newtonian properties of fluid will be characterized by the Casson fluid model. The long wavelength approach reduces the complexity of the governing system of coupled partial differential equations with non-linear components. Using a regular perturbation approach, the solutions for the flow quantities are established. The fascinating and essential characteristics of flow parameters such as the thermal Grashof number, nanoparticle Grashof number, magnetic parameter, Brinkmann number, permeability parameter, Reynolds number, Casson fluid parameter, thermophoresis parameter and Brownian movement parameter on the convective peristaltic pumping are presented and thoroughly addressed. Furthermore, the phenomenon of trapping is illustrated visually.

The findings indicate that intensifying the permeability and Casson fluid parameters boosts the temperature distribution. It is observed that the velocity profile is elevated by enhancing the thermal Grashof number and perturbation parameter, whereas it reduces as a function of the magnetic parameter and Reynolds number. Moreover, trapped bolus size upsurges for greater values of nanoparticle Grashof number and magnetic parameter.

There are some interesting studies in the literature to explain the nature of the peristaltic flow of non-Newtonian nanofluids under various assumptions. It is observed that there is no study in the literature as investigated in this paper.

In pursuit of good governance and better allocation of resources, corruption and informal economy are of interest to policymakers and citizens alike. The impacts of military spending on the informal economy are scant. Moreover, the effects of an external factor, such as corruption that moderates this relationship, have largely been neglected in previous studies. Hence, this paper investigates how corruption moderates the effects of military spending on the informal economy in 30 Asian countries from 1995 to 2017.

This paper utilizes the GMM estimation technique, which allows cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity in panel data analysis, to examine the moderating role of corruption on the relationship between military spending and the informal economy.

Empirical findings from this paper indicate that an increase in military spending declines the informal economy while corruption increases it. Interestingly, the negative effects of military spending on the informal economy will mitigate with a greater degree of corruption in the Asian region. We also find that enhancing economic growth and attracting more FDI has reduced the informal economy in Asian countries.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted to examine the moderating role of corruption on the military spending – informal economy nexus. Thus far, this approach has not been investigated in the existing literature, particularly for Asian countries.

This paper aims to review 69 studies related to Muslim consumer behavior and determine the relationship between these topics and Islamic rationality. In addition, this paper elaborates on Al-Ghazali’s Islamic rationality model.

A text analytics approach is used to map 69 studies on Muslim consumer behavior. In addition, the historical-critical and inductive approach is used to identify Muslim scholars’ concepts and opinions regarding Islamic rationality, especially Al-Ghazali.

This study confirms that Muslim consumer behavior is in line with the concept of Islamic rationality proposed by Al-Ghazali. This is evidenced by a strong awareness of Islamic morals and values, which fosters a high commitment to halal products.

The findings of this study will provide essential benefits in the development of Islamic rationality theory, which can then be used as an alternative in explaining Muslim consumer behavior and also can be used as a reference for stakeholders in the industry to mainstream halalfication on products offered in the Muslim market.

The value of originality in this study lies in identifying the relation between Islamic rationality and Muslim consumer behavior, and this effort was confirmed through 69 selected studies related to Muslim consumer behavior.

Continuous professional development (CPD) plays a crucial role in the library workplace by equipping library and information science (LIS) professionals with the skills and technical knowledge to bridge the theory-praxis gap, assuring that library practitioners and their organisations continue to innovate and stay successful and tailored to the requirement of their users. The aim of the study was to investigate the channels of CPD for LIS professionals working in the university libraries of Northern India. Also, it explored the motivations and barriers related to the LIS professionals’ CPD.

The study adopted a quantitative research design followed by the survey research method. The study population included LIS professionals working in the university libraries of Northern India. Data was gathered from 177 respondents via the census sampling method.

LIS professionals engaged in CPD activities through multiple channels. Intrinsic factors primarily governed the motivation for CPD. Similarly, time and finance were significant challenges for LIS CPD. Lastly, most libraries were headed by in-charge librarians (non-professionals). De-professionalisation, or the deliberate de-skilling of professional roles, threatens the basis upon which librarians establish their credibility as professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is the first of its kind from the perspective of a developing country, adding to the CPD literature in academic libraries.

This study aims to explore green practices within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their implications for determining environmental performance. Targeting SMEs in Pakistan, the study examines the influence of green intellectual capital (GIC), innovation and creativity on environmental performance.

A comprehensive survey addressed top, middle, and lower-level managerial perspectives. A sample of 243 respondents was statistically selected, and the survey questionnaire was used to measure the key constructs of the study. Using a 5-point Likert scale, the study captured the respondents' insights regarding green practices. Data analysis was executed using SPSS for descriptive tests and Smart-PLS 4 for advanced structural equation modeling (SEM).

GIC significantly enhances green innovation within SMEs, leading to improved environmental performance. Green creativity is a crucial moderator, indicating that SMEs have higher creative approaches to counter environmental challenges. These findings accentuate the importance of fostering an environment that stimulates green creativity to uplift GIC in achieving environmental performance.

The study offers a profound understanding of how SMEs in Pakistan leverage GIC to elevate their environmental performance, thereby providing strategic insights for businesses aiming for sustainable growth.

This study aims to investigate how social capital (e.g. cognitive and relational) influences students’ trust (e.g. cognitive and affective) as mediator variables, affecting students’ information sharing activity on Facebook.

The sample consists of 398 valid participants obtained through an online survey and using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the research hypotheses.

The empirical results indicate that social capital has significant and positive effects on students’ trust (e.g. cognitive and affective-based trust), also mediator variables. Furthermore, the mediator variables partially mediate social capital and information sharing based on the concept of cognition-affection-behavior (CAB).

This study was limited to Indonesian students. Therefore, future study is needed to analyze across cultures and regions. It can help practitioners, regulators and researchers to observe the dynamic behavior on the impact of social capital on social media users’ activities.

Education stakeholders (e.g. lecturers and teachers) can identify the students’ goal and rational concerns to improve their social capital and trust to share information. The government as a regulator needs to support students’ activities on social media to provide updated information regarding economic and social conditions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study contributes to the literature on virtual communities. Specifically, it considers how social capital influences trust, which subsequently affects information sharing based on the CAB context among Indonesian student’ Facebook users.

The breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments all over the globe to bring radical changes to all walks of life. Strict lockdowns are not only adversely affecting the social, economic, and psychological wellbeing of individuals but also questioning the sustainability of most businesses. In wake of the current scenario, this study is aimed at exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic is influencing the sustainability of entrepreneurship particularly from a female perspective and further providing insights into the role of Islamic financial institutions in the sustainability of businesses during COVID-19.

This is a qualitative study that takes social constructivism approach to study the underlying phenomenon. Semi-structured interviews are conducted to collect primary data. Secondary data are also utilized in this study to theoretically define various concepts relating to entrepreneurial sustainability. The application of thematic analysis revealed various risks associated with sustainability. The interviews reveal the ground realities and tell us about the hardships being faced by the entrepreneurs due to ongoing crises. The participants of the study also shed light on the role of Islamic financial institutions during the pandemic.

The study results revealed that it may look impossible for women entrepreneurs to halt or avoid the adverse consequences of the pandemic; however, a few female entrepreneurs strived to guard their existing portfolios with the help of Islamic microfinance institutions. Whereas, several women, especially those running home-based businesses, lost their income streams. Despite these rapid challenges, most female entrepreneurs are working on inventive online systems to sustain their business activities during the crisis. Finally, guidelines are suggested which can help achieve sustainability of the entrepreneurial startups.

The outcomes of this study are expedient for funding agencies, government authorities and Islamic financial institutions as well as for non-government institutions to establish sustainable and broader policies for women to become successful entrepreneurs during severe disasters like COVID-19. Moreover, the study is a helpful tool for women entrepreneurs to avert the worst impact of the pandemic with the help of Islamic microfinance institutions. The themes of this study help generate realistic information to appraise the strategies to create facilitating business environments that drive the women to carry out the entrepreneurial activity during any crisis like the COVID-19.

The results of this study provide evidence that crisis can be anticipated up to some extent if entrepreneurs become able to take proactive decisions in case of expected or identifiable threats. The study may also help the women entrepreneurs to comprehend the serious consequences of the pandemic by shifting their mode of financing to Islamic finance. Although this pandemic is a cause of physical discomfort instead this research may encourage the female entrepreneurs not to lose heart, just find the potential opportunities for their home-based and small businesses and manage funding from the Islamic microfinance institutions.

The study adds to the existing literature on entrepreneurial sustainability with a particular focus on the role of Islamic microfinance institutions for women entrepreneurs' sustainability in Pakistan. Secondly, the study employs the entrepreneurial sustainability model (ESM) that, according to the best of our knowledge, has not been used by the researchers earlier to study the given research phenomenon. Thirdly, the study findings are expedient for funding agencies, government authorities and financial institutions as well as for non-government institutions to establish sustainable and broader policies for women to become successful entrepreneurs during disasters like COVID-19.

The adoption of Islamic banking (AIB) among customers has remained in the limelight due to its significance in the strategic marketing of Islamic banking (IB) services. Although researchers have devoted a significant effort to investigating the drivers of AIB, little is known about the exclusive barriers hampering AIB. Accordingly, this paper aims to examine the underlying barriers to the adoption of Islamic banking (BAIB) and categorize them into different research clusters using bibliometric analysis.

The data was collected from 132 articles published in Scopus database between 2007 and 2022 and analyzed using VOSviewer to explore BAIB.

The findings clustered the barriers to AIB into three groups, namely, efficiency of IB products and services (service quality, Shariah compliance level, availability of services), behavioral (knowledge and awareness, religiosity, trust and intention) and personal attributes (innovativeness, understanding of mobile/internet banking and technology acceptance) factors of Islamic bank customers.

The sample size of this study is relatively small, as the data was imported from Scopus database only to perform Bibliometric analysis. Future studies may use larger sample size by retrieving data from other databases such as Web of Science and PubMed to develop better research clusters of BAIB.

The dynamic business environment and unprecedented changes in consumer behavior require managers creating suitable conditions to foster adoption of their services and capture a better market share.

Following the findings of this research, future research avenues are identified for strategic embeddedness and global development of IB by overcoming BAIB.

Microfinance emerged as an essential catalyst for socio-economic development and financial inclusion to reduce poverty. Microfinance institutions cannot meet their primary objective of poverty reduction if they are not sustainable financially. With the theoretical support of profit incentive theory, this paper aims to investigate the impact of organizational structure (OS), growth outreach (average loan per borrower [ALPB] and number of active borrowers), women empowerment (percentage of women borrowers [PWB]), liquidity, leverage and cost efficiency (cost per borrower) on the financial sustainability of microfinance providers (MFPs) in India and explore the possible moderating effect of the national governance indicators (NGIs).

A financial sustainability index has been developed by using principal components analysis, including both conventional measures (return of assets and return on equity) and efficiency measures (operational self-sufficiency and financial self-sufficiency). Due to the existence of endogeneity and heteroskedasticity, this study uses two-step system generalized method of moments estimates to examine the relationships for a period of 2006 to 2018.

The finding reveals that there is a strong significant relationship between financial sustainability and its influential factors. Organizatioanl Structure, loan size, women borrowers, Gross Domestic Products and inflation enhance the financial sustainability of India’s microfinance sector. However, a number of borrowers, liquidity, leverage and operating costs negatively affect the financial sustainability of MFPs of India. The estimates demonstrate that NGIs significantly moderate the association between financial sustainability and its influential factors. The NGIs negatively affect the positive impact of Organizatioanl Structure on financial sustainability. National governance increases the positive effect of loan size (ALPB) and reduces the negative effect of a number of borrowers and leverage on the financial sustainability of MFPs of India. However, NGIs negatively affect the positive relationship between Percentage of Women Borrowers and Financial sustainability of Microfinance Providers of India.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that incorporates all of the six dimensions of the National Governance Indicators (NGIs) and uses as a moderator. Secondly, a financial sustainability index has been developed for measuring the financial sustainability of Microfinance Providers (MFPs).

This paper aims to examine the antecedents of adoption intention of profit-sharing investment deposits (PSID) among Moroccan customers.

Applying an extended version of diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and using a non-probability sampling technique with convenience approach, a quantitative survey was developed and administered to 171 Islamic banking users. Structural equation modeling was then used to evaluate the significance of relationships between the various variables under study using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 26.0 statistical packages.

Empirical findings of the structural analysis indicated a significant direct relationship between adoption intention and six out of seven variables: perceived relative advantage, perceived compatibility, perceived complexity, perceived risk, religiosity and social influence, all of which had a significant effect on Moroccan customers’ intention to invest their funds in profit-sharing based deposit instruments, whereas customer awareness exerted an insignificant positive effect.

The absence of a longitudinal study tracking the actual adoption behavior is the main limitation of this study. Furthermore, data were collected solely from Islamic banking users. Finally, despite being insightful, the empirical findings should be generalized with caution since the sample was purposely selected by the banks’ management.

This study implied that participatory banks should pay substantial attention to risk perceptions, as PSID adoption intention is typically inhibited by high perceived risks associated with these products. Moreover, this study provides great indications to Moroccan regulators and policymakers on a number of issues related to this emerging business.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents the first attempt to confirm the effectiveness of the Rogers’ DOI in examining the intention to adopt a financial innovation in the Moroccan context. It is also the first of its kind to address customers’ apprehensions regarding profit-sharing investment products.