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Despite being a Muslim-dominated country, Bangladesh has widely embraced traditional microfinance since its inception in the mid-1970s. However, Islamic microfinance, which has a lot to offer to the poor, is still in its infancy and has yet to gain momentum in the country. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of Islamic microfinance and propose alternative Shariah-compliant microfinance models in Bangladesh.

This study is based on the desk research method, which relies on existing literature to collect secondary data on key concerns of traditional microfinance programs. In addition, institutional-level secondary data were also collected from the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) of Bangladesh. Guided by the Maqasid-al-Shariah, this study then proposes several Islamic microfinance models to overcome selected challenges faced by the microfinance industry in Bangladesh.

This study suggested three composite Shariah-compliant microfinance models, which are likely to help the underprivileged and thus ensure the achievement of the sustainable development goals in Bangladesh. The first model explained how the operational strategy of incumbent microfinance institutions (MFIs) could be restructured, while the second proposed the organizational strategies for establishing a new MFI. The third model used the notion of Sadaqah (charity) to address the multiple borrowing issues of the industry. Meanwhile, the successful transformation of the conventional microfinance industry to an Islamic one is dependent on the effective collaboration between the regulatory authorities, practitioners and MFIs.

Albeit the paucity of literature on the topic, the findings of this study will guide policymakers/practitioners in designing relevant microfinance models to help transform conventional microfinance into Islamic microfinance in Bangladesh.

This study aims to develop and test a research model that explores the empirical relationship between consumer religiosity, brand love and consumer forgiveness. Its objective was to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms that can influence consumers to extend forgiveness to brands in the context of Islamic banking in Tanzania.

The study used a quantitative cross-sectional survey design to gather data from 399 respondents in the Dodoma and Dar-es-salaam regions of Tanzania. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data, which were subsequently analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS 21.

The study’s findings revealed that consumer forgiveness is influenced by the level of brand love at an individual level. Additionally, the findings indicate that in the context of Islamic banking, brand love is an emotional behavior that is influenced by the strength of religious beliefs, that is, consumer religiosity. Consequently, the findings highlighted the mediating role of brand love in the proposed relationship between consumer religiosity and consumer forgiveness.

The fact that Islamic banking is guided by Islamic laws (Sharia) and Islamic values means that competitiveness in this sector can be established by serving consumers who are well-versed in Islamic teachings and doctrines. Furthermore, customers who possess a strong understanding of Islamic teachings and doctrines can be an asset to Islamic banks, as they are less likely to switch banks due to service delivery issues.

This empirical study is one of the few attempts to explore the relationship between consumer religiosity, consumer forgiveness and brand love. It expands our understanding of consumer forgiveness by examining the influence of deontological norms (applying norms to assess Islamic banking practices) and teleological evaluation (evaluating Islamic banking practices based on the overall balance of right and wrong expected to occur).

This study aims to explore commonalities and differences between Islamic social finance (ISF) and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The study has adopted a qualitative library-based research method, and the secondary data is collected through the available literature on the topic.

This study concludes that the majority of SDGs are compatible with ISF. Moreover, it finds that the global ISF possesses adequate financial resources to assist Muslim majority nations in achieving some of the most critical and urgent SDGs on time.

The scope of this study is confined to examining the possible role of ISF in achieving many of the most pressing development goals aligned with the SDGs. To maintain coherence within the study’s focus, this paper makes no comparisons between the ISF and other types of endowments/charities.

This paper outlines an agenda for the ISF-led development strategy and makes some crucial recommendations on how the global ISF might potentially lead the charge of Islamic charities in achieving the SDGs in Muslim majority nations.

This paper adds original value to the available literature on the potential of ISF and SDGs in the arena of development. The paper analyses the role of ISF in achieving the SDGs.

Islamic banking has undergone significant adaption since its inception. This study aims to investigate why and how Islamic banks adapt their services, using participatory financing as evidence.

A qualitative study is designed, using working capital financing and commodity operations financing in Pakistan as analytical units. The data for each analytical unit is analyzed using a qualitative content analysis, while the findings are synthesized using a cross-case synthesis method.

Findings suggest that participatory financing has undergone extensive adaptation in the Islamic banking industry of Pakistan, in the wake of resolving constraints to participatory financing and increasing its viability. Consequently, participatory finance has emerged as an attractive and viable option in Pakistan. These findings suggest that unlike in the past, where Islamic banks used to buffer themselves from the environment and ignore the market demands, they have learned to respond effectively to the market demands and the challenges posed by the environment.

Findings suggest that the adaptation strategy is more effective than the migration strategy, because it enables the financial service systems to reduce the underlying risks by avoiding emergent threats and eradicating the inherent weaknesses.

The extant literature provides a generalized view on the adaptation process that Islamic banks undergo to comply with their environment. However, it is limited in terms of conceptualizing the adaptations and innovations in their products and the underlying structural variations. The present study fills this gap.

This study aims to investigate the comparative importance of factors influencing the customer shift behavior from conventional to Islamic banking for consumer finance in Pakistan.

First, a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature was conducted to identify a broad range of factors related to customer shift behavior. Through an expert sampling, 14 essential factors were chosen for further investigation. Second, a questionnaire was developed using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). This questionnaire was then distributed among customers who had previously been using conventional banking services but had made a shift toward Islamic banking. The purpose of this questionnaire was to gather data and insights regarding their motivations and decision-making process behind the shift, and a sample 215 customers are taken in the study.

The results of AHP depicts that the religiosity is a most important factor influencing customers to shift from conventional to Islamic banking, and the second most important factor is pricing. The other subsequent important factors are reputation of the bank, marketing and promotion, service quality, behavior of banks staff, Shariah compliance, management, convenience, fastness and charges/fees. Whereas documentation, ambiance and recommendation are found least important factors to patronize Islamic banking.

The study recommends Islamic banks to create awareness, concentrating on religious factor to have a greater impact on growth of Islamic banking and shrinking of conventional banking. Further, it suggests Islamic banks to apply Shariah-recommended approach of doing business, to help community in best possible way and to launch differentiated marketing techniques to attract customers. It also proposes regulatory authorities to provide facilitation to Islamic banking business by providing level playing field similar to conventional banking, tax equality and conversion of public financing from conventional banking to Islamic banking.

The originality of this study lies in its comprehensive analysis of factors influencing consumer shift behavior from conventional to Islamic banking in the context of consumer finance in Pakistan. By using the AHP, the study provides a structured approach to understanding the relative importance of these factors. This is the uniqueness of the paper that it applies the AHP for the analysis. Furthermore, the study offers practical implications for Islamic banks and regulatory authorities to effectively address and capitalize on this consumer shift trend.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the adoption of Islamic finance products (murabaha, musharakah, mudarabah, salam, ijara, istisna and Qard Hassan) by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Cameroon, a non-Islamic Sub-Saharan African country.

It used primary data collected from a cross-section of 1,358 SMEs in eight regions of Cameroon using self-administered structured questionnaires. To facilitate the analyses and interpretation, these products are grouped into four groups based on certain characteristics. A multivariate probit model is estimated to take into account the interaction between these different Islamic finance products.

This study revealed that the desire to comply with Sharia law, awareness, attitude and intention were critical determinants of the decision to adopt Islamic finance products by Cameroonian SMEs. The least influential factors were perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, enterprise characteristics (size, age and location) and socio-demographic characteristics of the entrepreneur (gender, age and marital status). The extension of the multivariate approach permitted us to compute for predicted probabilities which revealed that there exists a synergy effect between the different Islamic finance products. That is, Cameroonian SMEs combine different Islamic finance products at the same time based on their needs. This is especially the case between the partnership-based products (musharakah and mudarabah) and manufacture/rent products (istisna and ijara).

Policymakers are encouraged to develop stakeholder-oriented strategies to promote effective consumer education in Islamic finance products which will boost awareness. Also, Islamic finance institutions should endeavor to develop innovative financial products that are Sharia-compliant and economically beneficial to the individual and business needs of SMEs. Moreover, policymakers and management of Islamic finance institutions should ensure the putting in place of effective governance structures to guide Islamic finance operations. Finally, policymakers should endeavor to take into account the possible synergy between the different Islamic finance products in their quest to develop this activity.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyses the adoption of different Islamic finance products while taking into account the possible synergy that exists between these products.

This study reports the results of the empirical investigation of the Shari'ah legal framework which serves as a basis of the crowd humanitarian fund and poverty reduction among members of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for improving living conditions of less privileged people in the society.

Quantitative design was employed in this study and the population comprised middle and high-skilled workers among members of the OIC.

The results demonstrated that the majority of middle- and high-skilled workers were from the middle east and others were from Saudi Arabia, Asia and Africa respectively.

Most studies on crowd humanitarian funds were theoretical in nature, this study has empirically investigated.

By making crowd humanitarian funds to be grounded within the framework of Shari'ah, it will enable majority of people in predominant Muslim countries to partake in mutual or crowd funding in order to help the less-privileged individuals among OIC members in the society.

It is an important contribution for financial inclusion and economic growth for improving social and living conditions of the less privileged people in the society.

Most studies on crowd humanitarian funds were theoretical in nature; this study has empirically provided a substantial direction for activating the mindset of the empirical investigation of different financial concepts.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2022-0773.

This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review on consumer behavior (CB) in Islamic banking (IB), encompassing an overview of researched contexts and topics, identifying literature gaps and proposing a comprehensive future research agenda.

By using bibliometric citation and content analysis, this study investigates 135 documents sourced from Scopus indexed publications.

This study delves into the growing field of CB in IB, offering a comprehensive understanding that encompasses influential journals, theories, research context, characteristics and methods used in IB research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide a comprehensive review of CB studies in the IB domain detailing research topics, prevailing theories, research settings, important variables and research methods.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the study of the relationship between sharia governance (SG), which is represented by the Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB), and internal sharia compliance, and whether it can affect the performance of Islamic banking.

Literature search consists of two steps: random literature review and systematic literature review. The methodology adopted in this article is a systematic literature review.

The variable of internal sharia compliance, sharia risk and internal sharia audit on one of the indications of SG newly researched variable which will later be used as a new paradigm, to measure the implementation of Islamic sharia principles in sharia banking.

The development of a conceptual framework by using measurement of the new SG has practical implications for sharia bank, which can later be applied to also increase sharia banking performance by complying with Islamic sharia principles. This new concept can be used as a reference by the Financial Service Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan) to establish regulations regarding SG framework, especially in Indonesia.

Further research can add more of it or replace it with other variables that are more relevant, in such a way that it could be empirically tested on how the independence and remuneration (lit. performance allowance) of SSB and the internal sharia control team can affect the performance of sharia banks.

This study aims to investigate what past scholars have learned about Muslim consumer compliance behaviour in Islamic banks and identify what future research is needed. In addition, it also explores the relationship model between the previously studied determining factors and the customer’s Sharia compliance behaviour.

This study used a bibliometric–systematic literature review analysis using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) technique by reviewing the articles published from 2013 to 2023. The PRISMA procedures involved several stages, including identification, screening, eligibility, analysis and conclusion based on the findings.

The results found that customer Sharia compliance behaviour determinants in Islamic banks are attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, Islamic financial literacy, religiosity, consumer conformity, Islamic branding and behavioural intention. Interestingly, the results indicated that such factors as consumer conformity, Islamic branding and sustainable intentions are less discussed.

Decision-makers in Islamic banks must use digital technology to offer better service and make operations more reachable for customers to access information, complete transactions and manage their accounts by Sharia principles. Therefore, the bank needs to continually produce innovative products and services so that customers have a greater variety of options to suit their Sharia-compliant financial needs. Theoretically, this study has contributed by finding the main critical domains influencing customers’ Sharia compliance behaviour, such as attitudes, subjective norms, perceptions of behavioural control, knowledge of Islamic finance, religiosity, consumer conformity, Islamic branding and behavioural intentions. Then, it makes a theoretical contribution by establishing a model that explains how customers make decisions based on Sharia-related factors in the context of their purchases.

Past studies focused on the Sharia compliance behaviour in paying Zakat for takaful customers. Therefore, this study provides critical factors of Sharia compliance behaviour on conformity, Islamic branding and sustainable intention regarding unexplored consensus on the determinants and outcomes of customer Sharia compliance behaviour of Islamic banking.