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This paper aims to investigate the subject matter of Islamic economics that will be the object of a study as a discipline by classifying and unifying different approaches proposed by Islamic economists.

The paper is a conceptual paper using discursive analysis analysing the perspective and approaches proposed by Islamic economists in defining economic problems from an Islamic perspective. The perspective and approaches proposed are classified and analysed for their implications in constructing the subject matter of discipline.

Islamic economics, as a new body of knowledge, needs to clarify the economic problems that will be its subject matter. The paper brings an insight into the subject matter of Islamic economics as conceived by scholars in two approaches, namely, economic problems “as they are” and economic problems “as they should be”. The paper also proposes a unified perspective in defining the subject matter of Islamic economics for further development of the discipline.

This paper only provides philosophical guidance for researchers in mapping the problems and the goals of the policy being studied, although it does not offer any practical use for policymaking as each policy is faced with different and specific cases. This paper may be used to assist future researchers in shaping other unexplored fields in Islamic economics as a body of knowledge.

Islamic economics as a discipline will be strengthened if it has a clear subject matter that will be the object of study. However, the conception of economic problems proposed by Islamic economists is based on life-reality, i.e. of what human beings face in their life (practical-type economic problems as they are) and based on life guidance from the Qur’an on how human beings should live as well as life-objectives, i.e. of what goals he should strive for (ideal-type economic problems as they ought to be) brings implication that there are differences in determining the object of study of Islamic economics.

This paper promotes the unification of two conceptions of economic problems proposed by scholars by defining Islamic economics as “a study of resource appropriation to realize human well-being (maslahah)”. This suggests that economic problems as manifested in life reality will be studied within the grand objective of life in Islam (maqasid al-Shariah), and economic problems as perceived in life goals will be studied in the context of life reality. Islamic economic theory will be formulated not only to solve the apparent problem of “what is” but also formulated in a way that refers to goals (ideals) of “what ought to be” that will provide solutions to current economic problems according to certain vision and to take steps to move in that visionary direction.

This chapter explores the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from an Islamic Shari'ah-compliant perspective. It provides a comprehensive literature review on CSR with an explicit focus on the Islamic perspective of CSR, Islamic models of CSR, CSR practices in conventional and Islamic banks, and the consequences of CSR to Islamic banks. This chapter's main contribution lies in considering the current CSR literature from a Shari'ah perspective. Likewise, it identifies gaps in the current literature and suggests potential areas for future research. This chapter attempts to improve the understanding of how Islamic banks integrate social responsibility into their operations. The insights from this chapter are helpful to practitioners and academic scholars in Islamic finance, accounting, and CSR. This chapter emphasizes the importance of incorporating Islamic values and principles into CSR practices and encourages further research and investigation in this area.

This study aims to discuss the behavioral economics and Islamic economic joint criticisms against the conceptual and economic political view of the mainstream.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of mainstream economic policies in addressing unemployment. Furthermore, it critically assesses the mainstream perspective on unemployment within the contexts of Islamic economics and behavioral economics, separately. The commonalities and disparities between the approaches of Islamic economics and behavioral economics regarding unemployment are evaluated. Subsequently, the conventional viewpoint on unemployment is scrutinized from the combined standpoint of Islamic economics and behavioral economics. This article employs a theoretical approach to address these concerns.

Although there are some differences, the recommendations and values of Islamic Economics and behavioral economics in the context of unemployment are almost the same. And, more importantly, both approaches are similar in their emphasis on the ineffectiveness and distance from human values of mainstream economic policies.

This article is the first to examine unemployment from the joint perspectives of Islamic economics and behavioral economics. It is also the first article to criticize the mainstream view of unemployment from the common framework of these two approaches.

This study aims to investigate the public deficit issue by contrasting conventional and Islamic views encompassing the paradigm, technical base, orientation and consequence detailed in nine discussions, which are rarely investigated in the research. There is a predisposition that contemporary Muslim scholars discuss the public deficit as well as the private sector perspective, which is used in the conventional conception, without riba as a primary feature.

The paper develops a comparative approach that derives two perspectives from the available literature using the qualitative method under the critical thinking method. It was drawn up in detail on how the paradigm and its related budgeting process contribute to public deficits, mainly in government institutions.

The paper reveals a prominent difference in public deficit in the Islamic view from a conventional perspective. From 9 points of comparison, the analysis covers 18 discussion that differentiates between private and public area criticism seems to overlap. The foundation giving a unique perspective in Islam toward public deficit is the concept of ownership that differs from capitalism, mainly the function of public spending is to distribute the wealth among people not for economic growth. The Islamic Government spent for public purposes based on cash-basis budgeting. The budgeting system in Islamic public spending is founded on treasure availability.

The paper uses a qualitative method that cannot empirically snapshot the actual or factual condition, in which subjectivity plays a plausible role. Furthermore, there is no actual sample (best practices) of the concept to be examined.

The research encompasses overlap between Islamic and conventional perspectives, including public and private issues regarding public deficits. The main beneficiary of the paper is a policymaker, including academicians or practitioners who are appropriate to use the concept in their circumstances.

The study is a pioneering study in public deficit comprehensively comparing conventional and Islamic perspectives and drawing up conceptual and technical aspects.

The objective of this study is to construct a theoretical framework concerning wage determination, grounded in principles and supplemented by conventional theories. It discusses the Islamic perspectives on minimum wage and examines contemporary challenges and intricacies in its application.

This study uses thematic analysis to create the conceptual framework, drawing upon a review of pertinent literature such as academic papers, books and articles published up to 2023.

The framework encompasses various categories, namely, employee characteristics, job characteristics, market factors, compensation practices and Islamic principles. Each category consists of multiple variables. The resulting framework offers a holistic and ethically grounded methodology for wage determination, aligning with both Islamic and conventional perspectives. This study notes the absence of a universally agreed-upon minimum wage. Islamic economics faces challenges due to the unclear application of principles, limited awareness, legal constraints and a lack of empirical evidence on wage systems, along with complexities in their implementation.

The paper’s limited scope focuses solely on the Islamic perspective on wage determination, without comparing it to the conventional viewpoint. This may have implications for future research.

The insights on Islamic principles and wage determination guide scholars and policymakers interested in promoting just and equitable wages.

This study is distinct in its integration of various factors to propose an all-encompassing framework for wage determination, rooted in the Quran and principles, while also reinforcing the framework with conventional theories. Additionally, it adds to the growing body of literature by investigating the Quran’s stance and principles on minimum wage, as well as discusses the challenges involved in implementing an Islamic approach to wage determination, which has received limited attention in Islamic literature.

This paper investigates the effect of Islamic entrepreneurship on small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) business performance and the development of a framework to comprehensively investigate Islamic entrepreneurship to achieve competitive business advantages. Islamic entrepreneurship was measured through the Islamic entrepreneurial model, which is based on two unobserved constructs: business and spiritual perspectives. These two constructs were used as predictors of business performance. This paper aims to develop a new scale of Islamic entrepreneurship from business and spiritual perspectives to achieve SMEs’ successful business performance.

In total, 189 Muslim respondents were involved and analyzed their responses using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory composite analysis.

The empirical findings proved that the Islamic entrepreneurial scale with two perspectives is an absolute measure. Besides, the predictive validity findings revealed that business (i.e. trustworthiness, honesty and truthfulness) and spiritual perspectives of Islamic entrepreneurship (i.e. Taqwa, good intention and respecting religious obligations) positively affected SMEs’ business performance.

The novelty of this study lies in expanding the existing research, developing a measurement scale and empirically testing the Islamic entrepreneurship model. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that contributes to the Islamic entrepreneurship literature in the SME context and offers new avenues for potential researchers. The new scale will allow SMEs to understand the halal and haram concepts in more depth and apply the Islamic rules and principles with full spirit.

The aim of this paper is to reconcile the diverging opinions among Islamic economists toward the concept of scarcity and to present a holistic model of scarcity and abundance from a Qur’anic perspective.

Analyses of both interviews and texts were performed. The method in studying scarcity from Islamic perspective consisted of semi-structured interview with five experts in the field of Islamic economics and development.

One major implication of this study is that the concept of scarcity as it is postulated by mainstream economics tends to clash with the Islamic worldview, as it does not have any reference in Islam. Scarcity can act as a phenomenon in economic activities but not as the defining concept in Islamic economics.

Practically, this paper will contribute to the making of the first lecture of the course of Islamic economics.

Socially, this paper will contribute to the process of transforming the science of economics and Islamic economics for a sustainable tomorrow.

This paper is a fundamental paper that addresses some aspects from critical realism and transcendental idealism into the making of Islamic economics. Not only that the discussion on the concept of scarcity in Islamic economics is limited and seems to be lacking; in addition, this paper offers a critical discussion on the validity of the concept of scarcity in economics from a critical perspective.

In relation to the critical problem, this paper aims to present an understanding of the agency theory and the stakeholder theory from the perspective of the Islamic principles. Indeed, a thorough examination of the theoretical background explaining corporate governance from the Islamic perspective is necessary to conduct research analysing corporate governance in Islamic banks.

The authors followed a critical review discussion; this method takes into consideration presenting important theories and comparing those theories with Islamic perspective.

The authors presented important arguments on the difference between ordinary theories to explaining corporate governance and Islamic perspective. The paper browsed into whether the Shariah Supervisory Board is a fit with the agency theory by explaining the agency theory and how it differs from the Islamic banking concepts. The paper involved an analytical review on stakeholder theory and presented a critique and the rationale as to why there is ample room for the Shariah Supervisory Board to be considered a fit with the stakeholder theory, as the Shariah Supervisory Board is an independent body influencing the firm.

The paper is of important value to those conducting research in the area of governance in Islamic banks; they may find it beneficial in terms of underlining theory building their research framework.

This study aims to present the perspectives of heterodox economics and Islamic economics on environmental economics, as an alternative to mainstream economics, which takes economic growth as its main objective and argues that environmental problems will largely disappear when economic growth is achieved.

In this study, there was no intention to conduct a detailed analysis of heterodox economic models and Islamic economics. Instead, the approaches to the “environment,” which can be considered as an urgent need of the planet, were evaluated, and the inadequate proposals of the mainstream economics’ environmental approach were theoretically criticized and heterodox economics and Islamic economics were proposed as an alternative model.

Heterodox and Islamic economics offer alternative models of development prioritizing social and ecological justice to address environmental problems, which is in contrast to mainstream economics’ narrow focus on market mechanisms and individual rationality. Thus, engaging in more dialogue in the context of the environment is inevitable for both schools, considering the vast geography inhabited by Muslims and the proposed heterodox economic policies, and moreover, these approaches are modeled for the first time.

This article presents a synthesis of Islamic economics and heterodox thinking in contrast to mainstream economic policy, highlighting their similarities and differences and providing a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities and potential solutions of environmental problems. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this approach has not been previously explored, making it an original contribution to the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast conventional management thought, its main features of leadership, and work motivation with those from an Islamic perspective. The paper fills in the literature gap that exists, despite the growing importance of a need for knowledge on management from an Islamic perspective.

This paper is conceptual in nature. Therefore, the method adopted is descriptive and approached using revealed knowledge sources, as well as knowledge from conventional management literature from the cultural school of management thought.

Leadership and motivational concepts in Islamic management are more comprehensive than the conventional theories. Islamic motivation frameworks also provide fundamentals for developing a strong Islamic leadership. Implications of these Islamic management concepts are not only confined to this materialistic world but also have connotation for subscribers of the belief of attaining eternal success in the hereafter.

The paper gives a better understanding and guidelines for managers of multinational corporations, especially those working in Muslim countries, in order to achieve their corporate objectives successfully.