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This paper aims to assess the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among female university students and employees at the Hashemite University (HU) and, then, to identify risk factors for developing vitamin D deficiency among this population. Vitamin D deficiency remains widespread in many countries, including Jordan, and has been linked to many diseases.

In this cross-sectional study, blood samples were taken from 320 healthy females – 160 students and 160 employees – aged between 18 and 65 years old who presented for routine checkup at the medical center of HU. Level of direct sun exposure and barriers to getting enough sunlight (dress style, skin color and sunscreen use) were questioned. Serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were measured, and the daily intakes of vitamin D, calcium and phosphorous were estimated through completing an adopted food frequency questionnaire. All required data were collected using a face-to-face interview by trained dietitians. The software package ESHA was used to determine the daily intake from the nutrients.

The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (25-OHD < 25 nmol/L) was 31.2 per cent in female students compared to 20.5 per cent in female employees. Prolonged exposure to sun was independently related to vitamin D deficiency (odds ratio = 4.55); participants exposed for 30 minutes daily were at a higher risk for vitamin D deficiency. However, estimated vitamin D intake was not affected by age and working status.

The present study has some important limitations. First, this study based on serum 25-OHD results, which alone, without biochemical parameters such as parathyroid hormone (either primary or secondary), might be linked to accelerated degradation of 25-OHD and shorter half-life. Second, the half-life of 25-OHD was not consistently available. Third, the smaller sample size of participants. Finally, the present study did not distinguish between intake of vitamin D2 and D3. This limitation caused the inability to precisely evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the studied population.

This study indicates that it is crucial to create awareness concerning the daily intake of vitamin D in the community to avoid long-term complications related to vitamin D deficiency, by using urgent measures including vitamin D supplementation and fortification of some highly consumed food, milk and other dairy products. Educational endeavors about sensible sun exposure should be implemented to improve vitamin D status among this population. The findings of the present study call for action at the national level to build strategies for health promotion about vitamin D supplementation in groups at risk for low supplementation (e.g. younger female students, with previous chronic diseases and poor sun exposure), and engage these populations in strategizing for successful and demographically relevant outreach and education in their own communities along with effort to prevent obesity and diabetes as well as raising awareness through simple programs to prevent and treat vitamin D deficiency among women living in Jordan.

The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among female university students in this study emphasizes the necessity of vitamin D supplementation and calls for action to build strategies for health promotion concerning vitamin D supplementation.

This study aims to examine the results of structural equation modelling in applying unified theory of acceptance and use of technology in adopting Islamic Fintech among millennials in Malaysia via measurement and structural models.

A total of 418 valid responses have been obtained from Malaysians who are using Islamic Fintech. Before the data is analysed into measurement and structural modelling preliminary analysis such as common method bias has been conducted.

All the requirements for model fit in this study have been achieved. Four exogenous constructs are performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition. The mediating construct is behavioural intention, whereas the endogenous variable is user adoption. All exogenous constructs show significant p-values except for effort expectancy.

This study offers important implications, specifically for the digital economy that is currently making its way throughout every aspect of human life, namely, social, religious, financial transaction, entertainment and others. The impact of the digital economy can be traced through the emergence of Fintech. The adoption of Islamic Fintech is one of the least discussed areas academically, therefore, this study is considered necessary to explore the prediction of consumer behaviour in Islamic Fintech adoption as a part of the digital economy in Malaysia.

This study fills the perceived gap in the existing financial technology literature by assessing Islamic financial technology adoption via measurement and structural modelling.

Throughout the extant studies on Islamic work values, many variations in the concept of Islamic work values were found. This has created some confusions and misunderstandings on what is the core of Islamic work values that is highly emphasized by Islam. The unanimity of Islamic work values is fundamental to Islamic organizations, and businesses in particular, as it indicates ethical, effectiveness and religious reputations of the organizations. This paper aims to identify the core Islamic work values based on Islamic legal texts (the Qur‘an and the Hadith as the two main Islamic sources), the writings of Islamic scholars and then to have experts verify whether or not the identified work values are core Islamic work values.

The paper used a qualitative approach where Islamic legal texts (the Qur’an and the Hadith) as well as the writing of Islamic scholars were used as a main reference to identify the core Islamic work values. These identified core Islamic work values were later verified by the muftīs. The verification assessment involved six muftīs from Malaysia.

The final result revealed that 14 core Islamic work values have been verified by the muftīs. These 14 considered core Islamic work values are essential work values of Islam which are important to achieve effective work performance.

The findings presented are useful for managers and employees in Islamic organizations to decide on what Islamic work values that should be given more precedence and to be practised in their organizations.

This is a novel study that combines two approaches, the Islamic legal texts and muftīs verification regarding the work values obtained that can be accepted as the core Islamic work values. Therefore, these findings can be a guide for many future studies in the area of Islamic work values.

This study aims to evaluate the knowledge structure of halal certification in food and beverages. The growth of the Muslim population and the expanding economic activities among the Muslim community have necessitated extensive and comprehensive halal certification, particularly in food and beverage products.

Through a science mapping approach, this study explores the knowledge structure based on past publications in food and beverages and its association with halal certification, logos and brands. Applying bibliographic coupling and co-word analysis, the present and future trends of halal certification in food and beverages are explored by presenting a network visualization to present the underlying themes and research streams.

The main finding from recent and emerging themes shows that the pivotal perspective is increasing consumers’ knowledge and awareness of halal-certified food products. Future trends stemming from the co-word analysis suggest the importance of exploring consumer halal food product determinants.

This study is relevant to stakeholders, scholars and practitioners, particularly in disseminating information and voice on the importance of halal-certified food products that are recognized as having better quality and contributing to environmental sustainability.

This study aims to examine the factors influencing the intention of Muslim Millennial Generation in Indonesia to donate cash waqf digitally.

A quantitative approach was employed, surveying 284 Muslim Millennial Generation in Indonesia. The study integrated the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior (DTPB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to investigate the key factors driving the intention to contribute to cash waqf digitally. The researcher analyzed data using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings of this study indicate that all hypotheses related to the variables are supported, including both direct and indirect correlations, except for perceived religiosity. This study confirms that the decision of millennials to donate cash waqf online is influenced by various factors, including their attitudes, the environment they are in, their ability to control their behavior, their perception of the ease and usefulness of technology and the availability of suitable facilities. Knowledge of technology is also a decisive component. Nevertheless, this study yielded intriguing findings that the perceived level of religious devotion does not impact the millennials’ willingness to make online cash waqf donations.

This study’s findings offer valuable insights for waqf institutions, providing a better understanding of Muslim millennials’ characteristics and preferences regarding spending, donations and waqf activities. This understanding can be instrumental in enhancing innovative digital platforms for cash waqf in the digital economy era.

This study uniquely explores the determinants of digital cash waqf donations among Muslim Millennial Generation in Indonesia. Contributions include integrating the DTPB and the TAM for a comprehensive analysis. Cross-disciplinary perspectives from behavioral economics and digital marketing enrich the research. Comparative studies and potential longitudinal analysis enhance depth, providing nuanced insights into the dynamic factors shaping digital donation behavior among Muslim millennials.

The purpose of the present paper is to provide a systematic overview of dimensions that need to be enfolded or considered in microfinance policies and strategies designs as well as impact studies aiming to empower or assess the empowerment of a specific category of women, namely women entrepreneurs. Afterward, the study aims to suggest some directions for future studies.

To meet its purpose, the paper applies the systematic review approach. The applied methodology follows guidelines for systematic reviews of social and economic interventions as set out by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). More specifically, the authors examine 87 empirical papers from 6 databases investigating the impact of microfinance institutions on the empowerment of women entrepreneurs.

Overall, findings of the study suggest that dimensions of the empowerment of women entrepreneurs are formed and conditioned by normative, cognitive and regulative institutional logics. Additionally, the systematic review suggests key research avenues and calls for more inclusive empirical studies in terms of geographical coverage, microfinance services/products assessed and method designs applied.

Findings of the current review provide clear theoretical contribution and useful practical implications in the field of microfinance and the empowerment of women entrepreneurs. On the one hand, the study suggests to scholars key avenues for future studies likely to bring new insights in terms of theory, context and methods. On the other hand, this study extents the understanding of microfinance practitioners on the concept of women empowerment as the field of female entrepreneurship is concerned. This implication is likely to enable the design of appropriate microfinance strategies and policies, allowing women entrepreneurs to achieve an overall empowerment.

The present paper contributes to the debate around the multidimensionality of the concept, “women empowerment.” The multidimensional nature of the addressed concept is well established in the existing literature. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has provided a conceptual analysis of empowerment dimensions of a particular category of women, namely women entrepreneurs. Unlike most of the studies assuming that all women face identical challenges, the present paper brings new insights on the topic as it is built on a different assumption. The paper takes ground from the institutional theory and applies it to the specific case of female entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the socio-economic condition of low-income households in Malaysia, many products and services are available, including access to working capital and enterprise development training programs. This study examined the impact of access to working capital and micro-enterprise development training programs on household income and economic vulnerability among participants of development initiatives in the eKasih (national poverty data bank) in Peninsular Malaysia.

Adopting a cross-sectional design, the authors collected data randomly from the selected 300 micro-entrepreneurs from the list of development organizations available in the eKasih (national poverty data bank) located in four states of Peninsular Malaysia. Quantitative data were collected through structured interviews with the respondents from October to November 2017.

Both the length of participation and total amount of economic loan were found to increase the household income. However, there was no positive and significant impact of total number of training hours on household income. Interestingly, length of participation was found to reduce the level of economic vulnerability, except total amount of economic loan, and total number of training hours.

Despite the overwhelming empirical evidence, the findings indicated that the impact of enterprise development training programs was inconclusive. The effect of total amount of loan on economic vulnerability was also inconclusive. Hence, both policy makers and development organizations should understand how their programs benefit the poor households that can be improved through new implementation strategies.

The purpose of this study is to understand the situation of hotels and tourism industry in Malaysia during and in post Covid-19 and to mitigate indirect damage caused by COVID-19 to the hotel business and tourism industry by examining the factors that have an influence on hotel’s customer satisfaction rating and revisit intention through an integration of service quality (SERVQUAL) framework and expectation-confirmation theory (ECT).

The SERVQUAL and ECT were considered the underpinning theoretical models but are integrated and extended by including a few additional variables. Data were collected from 458 respondents of travelers and hotel customers in Malaysia and analysed by applying partial least squares structural equation model technique.

The empirical results established that significant positive relationships exist between the three newly emerged independent variables (IVs), namely, hygienic practice, greenness of service and digitalization and hotel customer satisfaction towards hotel revisit intention, and only two variables from SERVQUAL, namely, reliability and assurance, have a significant relationship with hotel customer satisfaction towards hotel revisit intention. The results reveal that customer satisfaction has significant direct effect between above-mentioned IVs and customers revisit intention.

The use of purposeful sampling method in only one country might limit the generalizability of the results. Future research should be planned to duplicate the current study using a sizable sample of participants from multiple countries and include other related factors related to the pandemic phenomena such as safety, hotel location and health value offered.

Theoretical findings imply that service quality is a dynamic theory that should be examined continuously to achieve sustainable and resilient performance in today’s competitive business environment, as some modifications inevitably occur over time and new factors could be emerged. Regarding practical implications, study findings proved the great significance of assurance, reliability, digitalization, greenness and hygienic practices on customer satisfaction towards intention to revisit to hotel. Therefore, it is critical for hotel management to retain hotel business industry in a way that fits and matches customer’s health protection, meets customer’s newly prompted expectations and needs and ensures resilience during unsettled times.

This study is unique as the newly emerged variables are included in the research framework, and thus it helps to close the literature gap by introducing an integrated SERVQUAL and ECT theoretical model, which rarely performs in this context and can be replicated or extended with validated scales. This study contributes to enhancing hotel and tourism sustainable service quality performance to achieve myriad economic and health values.