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The main purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of monetary policies on Islamic mutual fund flows in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In this study, a panel regression model was used to test the research hypotheses. The sample consists of 4,760 seasonality data and 119 Islamic mutual funds over ten-year period between 2011 and 2020. The dependent variable of the study is the cash flow of Islamic mutual funds and the independent variable of monetary policies includes the money growth rate, the liquidity growth rate, interest rate and inflation rate.

Based on the results of the hypothesis test, all research variables including money growth rate, liquidity growth rate, interest rate and inflation rate have a negative and significant impact on Islamic mutual fund flows. These findings are consistent with the efficient market hypothesis and signaling theory.

This study has implication for policymakers, regulators and fund managers. The results show that the negative impact of monetary policies on Islamic mutual fund flows has a direct effect on the allocation decisions and investment strategies of Islamic mutual fund investors and managers. Also, the results of the research can reduce policymakers’ concerns about monetary policies and provide them forward-looking guidance policy.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically examine the impact of monetary policies on Islamic mutual fund flows in an emerging economy and provides a significant contribution to the literature of mutual funds.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the fund flow – performance relationship for Islamic and conventional equity funds in Malaysia.

The authors use panel regression models to estimate the relationship between fund flows and performance for Islamic and conventional equity funds in Malaysia from 2001 to 2009. The data for each fund include fund flows, assets under management, management expenses, fund age, portfolio turnover, fund risk and return and the number of funds in the fund’s family. The authors also include market returns and year effects. The sample consists of 127 Malaysian equity funds with at least 65 per cent domestic equity holdings comprising 35 Islamic and 92 conventional equity funds.

Islamic fund investors respond to performance in much the same way as conventional fund investors, increasing fund flows to better performing funds and decreasing fund flows to poorer performing funds. However, there is also evidence that Islamic fund investors are relatively less responsive toward poorly performing Islamic funds, suggesting an asymmetry in the expected positive fund flow – performance relationship, but only for Islamic fund investors. When choosing funds based on other fund attributes, Islamic fund investors again exhibit similar behaviour, and like conventional fund investors direct larger percentage fund flows into smaller funds as well as funds with larger past fund flows and higher expense ratios.

The authors were only able to access data on annual net fund flows not quarterly or monthly fund inflows and outflows as usual in developed markets and this may obscure some important aspects of investor decision-making. There is also insufficient data for matched-sample techniques, which may better control for fund-specific characteristics.

Islamic funds like conventional funds will experience increased fund flows with better performance and vice versa. However, Islamic fund investors appear somewhat less likely to remove monies from poorly performing funds. The authors believe this is because investors either place a premium on the non-return attributes of Shariah-compliant funds and/or wish to avoid search costs in finding another suitable Islamic fund. Apart from this, Islamic and conventional fund investors behave in a similar manner, and the authors believe that this is possible in Malaysia given the size and diversity of its Islamic fund sector.

This paper is one of the very few empirical studies concerning the behaviour of Islamic investors, particularly in Malaysia, primarily because of limitations in data availability.

This paper aims to provide an empirical evidence on the fund flows-past return performance relationship by also considering the management expense ratio, the portfolio turnover, the fund size and the fund age of Islamic equity funds (IEF) investors in comparison with conventional equity funds (CEF) investors.

By using panel data, the sample of Malaysian domestic managed equity funds is considered which comprises 20 individual funds from IEF and CEF from 2011 to 2013.

The results provide evidence that IEF investors have different factors when choosing funds in comparison with CEF investors. The study finds that the key factor influencing the fund flows of IEF is the management expense ratio, compared to the CEF which is fund size. This study also shows that all the fund characteristics of IEF and CEF are positively or negatively related to the fund flows.

The present study may be extended by considering other fund categories such as the money market fund, the balanced fund, the bond fund and the fixed income fund.

The empirical findings of this paper clearly call for fund managers and investors to review their investment policy. The results could also provide better information and guidance for investors as well policy makers on the factors that affect the fund flow for Malaysian Islamic funds and CEF.

This paper is among the earliest empirical evidence studies on the fund flows-past return performance relationship by focusing in a comparative manner on IEF investors and CEF investors in Malaysia.

This study aims to examine the role of fund family size on the money flow of Saudi Arabian open-end equity mutual funds. The author also investigates whether the relationship between fund flow and past return varies based on the fund's family size.

The study analyses 256 equity funds that operated in Saudi Arabia from 2006 until 2017. Pooled and fixed-effect regression models are used to test the relationship between mutual fund flow and family size.

The results indicate that fund flow is higher for large size family funds. The results also show that the relationship between mutual fund flow and past performance is more pronounced for large size families, which supports the concept that investors pay extra attention to funds' return and size.

The author provides evidence of the significant effect of family size of mutual funds on future money flow, which helps fund managers to understand investors' motivations for allocating their cash.

This paper contributes to the literature by examining the impact of family size level on the interaction between fund flow and past performance. This study is believed to be the first to investigate the family size factor in Saudi Arabia using a comprehensive data set.

This paper evaluates the performance of actively managed conventional and Islamic equity funds in a developing economy with a focus to assess the performance-growth puzzle posited by Gruber (1993) (a.k.a Gruber’s puzzle). Under the context of an emerging market of Pakistan, this study explores if actively managed equity fund (AMEF) managers have been able to add value by outperforming the market in terms of stock-selection and market-timing abilities; and the comparative performance analysis of Islamic versus conventional AMEFs is also carried out.

We employ Sharpe and Treynor ratios, Capital asset pricing model, Fama–French three factors model (1993), Carhart four-factor model (1997) and Hendrickson (1981) market timing models on 45 equity funds comprising of 23 conventional and 22 Islamic equity funds operating in Pakistan for a period of 10 years. The overall sample period (2008–2018) is divided into two 5 years sub-periods (i.e. 2009–2013 and 2014–2018) and three 3 years sub-periods (2009–2011, 2012–2014 and 2015–2017) to be viewed in conjunction with the country's macro-economic condition.

We report that the actively managed equity funds (AMEFs) were unable to beat the market index with their stock selection or market timing capabilities. However, AMEFs depicted improved performance in the post-global financial crisis period where both conventional and Islamic AMEFs generated substantial rewards for the given amount of risk. Also, conventional AMEFs outperformed Islamic AMEFs potentially due to their holdings in highly leveraged value and large-cap stocks, while Islamic AMEFS invest more cautiously in small-cap and value firms. Analysis of market timing skills revealed that the funds have not been able to select the undervalued stocks and adopted a defensive strategy in the post-global financial crisis recovery period.

Our findings shed some interesting insights and raise some pertinent questions for research, policy, and practice – specifically for developing countries’ context. The no ‘return-growth’ configuration defies its fit with the ‘Gruber puzzle’ and somewhat presents a case of what we call the ‘Inverse Grubber puzzle’. This novel notion of the ‘Inverse Grubber puzzle’ should inform policy and practice to reflect on their practices, institutional arrangement, regulatory framework and policy design in developing economies characterized by lacklustre performance and growth of AMEFs. For example, the regulatory design may consider focusing on stimulating financial inclusion and deepening by motivating low-cost Index tracker funds (ITFs) – with lower fund management costs, while allocating the avoided cost to flow towards effective marketing campaigns driving greater awareness, financial deepening, and investor base diversification. For future research, financial development researchers may explore the implications and appropriateness of AMEFs versus ITFs in other developing economies.

The work reported in this paper is original and constitutes a valuable asset for ethno-religious-sensitive investors. The research has not been published in any capacity and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some unique phenomena on Islamic fixed (sukuk) mutual fund price during financial global crisis in Indonesia. It aims to show that the sukuk mutual fund did not adopt the actual price of sukuk which may contradict Islamic teaching with regards to transparency and could cause investors to make wrong decisions. In addition the paper also aims to analyse correlation analysis, dependency of sukuk price to conventional bond and proposed recommendations.

The study applies benchmarking graph analysis, Pearson correlation as well as Correlogram Granger Causality test and Response to Cholesky. To show that sukuk did not adopt the actual price, benchmarking analysis and correlation analysis were conducted as additional tools.

The paper finds that the sukuk price movements were affected by the conventional bond and have a strong correlation, while the Islamic fixed mutual fund did not apply the actual price, which was unstabler. This has caused the fund to remain in a steadily increasing trend and stable; in addition, this has brought about good performance which actually did not show the real price.

This research is practically of benefit because it helps to show the correlation of price movement in sukuk and conventional bond. Fund managers should be transparent in marking the real price and prudent in managing the liquid reserve of the sukuk mutual fund.

This case may only occur in Indonesia as decreasing price of stocks and bonds in the USA has habitually caused the same to be seen as very expensive in some countries. Thus, bond price in Indonesia was affected significantly; this was actually caused by panic action. Foreign investors withdrew their funds because of liquidity and currency depreciation. On the other hand, an Islamic market that might be based on a conventional system was indirectly affected with benchmarking price problems. Sukuk mutual fund performance would look nice and stable as it did not adopt the actual price, this could mislead the performance analysis of the fund.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the return performance and persistence of ethical and conventional mutual funds during two extreme events, the Asian and the global financial crises under Shariah constraints.

The overall sample comprises of 129 Islamic mutual funds (IMFs) and 350 conventional mutual funds (CMFs) in Malaysia, and the average monthly data cover two periods of market cycles, before and during a financial crisis. The net of all expenses data is obtained from the Morningstar Database. This study employs various market risk-adjusted performance measures (ratios) to estimate the funds’ overall performance during the crises, and then it uses CAPM model to estimate the parameters via panel data approach. Moreover, paper employs the two persistence performance measures on IMFs and CMFs through contingency tables. It tests for the performance persistence effects for IMFs, CMFs using repeat winner and the cross-product ratio (CPR) tests proposed by Malkiel (1995) and Brown and Goetzmann (1995), respectively.

The main findings of the paper are: on average, both funds IMF and the CMF outperform the market return during the entire sample period; none of the funds is better than the “others” during the financial crises and the pre-crisis periods; the ethical fund – IMF outperforms the CMF over the study period. This outcome also indicates that ethical funds are more persistent especially during and the pre-crisis AFC and the GFC periods.

The finding of this study is limited to only Malaysian data because the objective was to guideline investors and market players in Malaysia to prefer investing in Islamic ethical funds to diversify their investment portfolio.

Cautions to use existing ratio measures and CAPM model rather persistence measures may be used with existing methodologies in light of extreme events which influenced investor decision making for better returns at lower risks.

A class of ethical funds consists of religious sustainable, socially responsible and impact-investing (SRI) funds but Shariah implications of halal investment must be observed to avoid prohibited practices within the class of SRI funds.

The work done in this paper are original in the sense that the authors employed various ratios to measure fund performance in conjunction with CAPM model and then tested for two persistence performance measures; the repeat winner and CPR tests.

This study aims to analyze the impact of different governance characteristics on the ratings of both Islamic and conventional mutual funds.

This study used panel data ordered probit regression model. Furthermore, to capture the mutual funds rating persistence effect and address the issue of endogeneity dynamic panel model is used and the results are estimated using the generalized method of the moment (GMM) technique.

The results indicated that amongst the corporate governance characteristics, board size, the board independence, directors and institutional ownership, and overall governance quality positively affect the ratings of both Islamic and conventional funds. However, chief executive officer (CEO) duality and board gender diversity did not show a significant impact on the ratings of these funds.

The current research provides input to the asset management firms as to how they can increase the fund ratings by implementing strong governance practises. Furthermore, the study also provides input to the rating agencies to account for governance characteristics along with financial indicators, when issuing the rating of any fund.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first attempt to analyze the impact of corporate governance characteristics on the rating of both Islamic and conventional mutual funds and hence provides a significant contribution to the literature.

This paper aims to fill a gap in the literature of marketing communication by exploring the role of different nudges implemented through advertising and personal selling in enhancing purchase intention and sales of mutual funds in Pakistan.

Data collected by 20 semi-structured individual qualitative interviews in Pakistan were subjected to thematic analysis.

This study reveals the way managers apply different nudges in the form of Islamic beliefs and values in advertising and personal selling to enhance purchase intention and sales of mutual fund products among Muslim customers. Nudges that can be used in marketing communication may include religious cues, religious beliefs, religious values, spiritual elements, halal aspects of investment plans, religious icons and symbols, cultural music and images, appropriateness and correctness of sales messages and communicating halal aspects of mutual funds.

The conclusions are based on findings from a relatively small number of respondents from one investment firm, but they offer an empirical basis for future research on the effect of advertising and personal selling on the sales and purchase intention of mutual fund products in an Islamic society.

This study offers practitioners a better understanding of the marketing communication tools likely to influence consumers’ purchase intention of mutual fund products, with positive implications in creating advertising and sales management in Pakistan.

Despite the prevalence of promoting mutual fund products, little research-based analysis has been available to academics or practitioners.

This study aims to determine antecedents of market discipline. A model was constructed by extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explore the cognitive, psychological and social factors that influence the market discipline in the form of withdrawal behavior.

This study applied a quantitative approach by surveying 181 Indonesian retail investors in Sharia mutual funds, which were represented by civil servants. The samples were collected using the purposive sampling technique. This study used the partial least square–structural equation model to analyze the data.

The results revealed that the Islamic financial literacy, the attitudes toward withdrawal, the subjective norms and the perceived behavioral control had a positive significant effect on the withdrawal intention, whereas financial risk tolerance had an insignificant impact. Then, all the exogenous variables and intention to withdraw had a significant contribution in explaining market discipline. Contrary to the proposed hypothesis, the attitude toward withdrawal had a negative impact on market discipline. The structural model indicated that the TPB could be extended by adding some exogenous variables (i.e. Islamic financial literacy and financial risk tolerance) in determining the intention to withdraw and withdrawal behavior, which indicated the market discipline in Sharia mutual funds.

This study was limited to individual investors who work as civil servants. This study did not accommodate different demographic factors such as age and gender, which influence fund withdrawal behavior.

The government must focus on the inclusion of market discipline in Sharia mutual funds’ regulation to encourage the risk management disclosure, specifically that related to Sharia compliance.

Previous studies applied a traditional finance theory to predict market discipline, but this study contributes to filling the theoretical gap by explaining the market discipline from a behavioral finance perspective that was found in Sharia mutual funds.