Search results

The study aims to find out the impact of financial inclusion and financial development on financial stability using panel data from eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

To achieve the aim of the study, the researcher prepared two indicators of financial inclusion and governance to find out the impact of financial development on the relationship between financial inclusion and financial stability. Data on financial inclusion was obtained from the International Monetary Fund, data on financial development and financial stability were obtained from the World Bank.

The results of the fixed and random effect methods show that financial inclusion has a significant positive effect on financial stability. Additionally, financial development represents a moderating variable in the significant positive effect on the relationship between financial inclusion and stability in the MENA countries.

The current study suffers from some limitations that researchers must be aware of in future research. First, there is an inability to determine qualitative aspects such as time and cost when designing a composite indicator of financial inclusion. Second, due to limited data, we used only eight countries from the MENA. It is suggested to expand the sample to include other countries.

This paper contributes to the related literature between financial inclusion and financial stability by confirming or denying the results of previous studies. Also, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the only one that explains the role of financial development in the relationship between financial inclusion and stability in MENA countries, using a composite index to calculate financial inclusion. Finally, the study seeks to focus the attention of the government and policymakers to build a system of financial inclusion that leads to improving financial stability.

Surveys in Europe show that immigration is more of a challenge than an opportunity for a significant number of people. However, little attention is given to attitudes toward immigration in the Middle East. This paper examines the effects of personal values and religiosity on the anti-immigration attitudes of citizens in the Middle East and North African countries.

Utilizing data from the World Values Survey, we analyze how personal values and religiosity affect anti-immigration attitudes in nine Middle Eastern countries. The data covers individual-level data of 9 MENA countries from the WVS Round 7 (2017–2022). Factor analysis is applied as a data reduction method. Afterward, an OLS regression analysis is conducted on the pooled data.

Anti-immigration attitudes increase with age, education, and religiosity. Personal values such as national pride, support for nationals, and belongingness to one’s country significantly affect anti-immigration attitudes. Furthermore, the importance of religion as a measure of religiosity was found to be positively associated with anti-immigration attitudes.

This paper contributes to underexplored literature by investigating how individual-level determinants, such as demographic indicators, personal values, and religious factors, shape anti-immigration attitudes in the MENA context, distinct from European dynamics.

This study aims to address the noted gap in comprehensive overviews detailing the developmental trajectory of Islamic finance (IF) as an interdisciplinary academic field.

The study introduces a unique approach using the combined methodologies of co-word analysis and main path analysis (MPA) by examining a broad collection of IF research articles.

The investigation identifies dominant themes and foundational works that have influenced the IF discipline. The data reveals prominent areas such as Shariah governance, financial resilience, ethical dimensions and customer-centric frameworks. The MPA offers detailed insights, narrating a journey from the foundational principles of IF to its current challenges and opportunities. This journey covers harmonizing religious beliefs with contemporary financial models, changes in regulatory landscapes and the continuous effort to align with broader socioeconomic aspirations. Emerging areas of interest include using new technologies in IF, standardizing global Islamic banking and assessing its socioeconomic effects on broader populations.

This study represents a pioneering effort to map out and deepen the understanding of the IF field, highlighting its dynamic evolution and suggesting potential avenues for future academic exploration.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of product offering and other service quality (SQ) dimensions on the satisfaction of the customers of both Islamic and conventional banks, using evidence from an oil-based economy that is based on a prolonged SERVQUAL model with 11 dimensions and other statistical analysis methods.

The data were collected from 461 Islamic and conventional bank customers in Qatar via a survey and several tests were used to test certain hypotheses. Component analysis, factor analysis and gap and ascendency analysis were used in this study. Afterward, a correlation analysis and regression model were used to examine the hypotheses and validate the instruments used.

The results show that regardless of the type of bank, customers always have greater expectations of the services than they had perceived. A customer’s expectation of the product on offer is the only dimension that is significantly different in relation to the two types of banks. However, reliability, competence, responsiveness, credibility and empathy dimensions are significantly different of the two types of banks in customers’ perception of quality. In addition, the results suggest that both types of banks need to concentrate their efforts on the product offering, competence and courtesy dimensions.

The size of our sample of Islamic and conventional banks is unequally balanced. Future studies might therefore choose an equally balanced sample.

Bank managers in both types of banks need to continue improving the quality of their service including product offering and to adopt advanced methods to enhance customer satisfaction (CS) and reduce the gaps in quality in the dimensions used. Furthermore, managers in both types of banks need to put more emphasis on product offering, competence, courtesy and communication if they wish to improve SQ. Moreover, Islamic banks must guarantee that they possess competent, highly trained personnel who are familiar with Islamic finance products, so as to enhance the quality of service and attract customers.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effect of product offering and other dimensions of SQ on CS in both Islamic and conventional banks by using 11 dimensions of SQ. In addition, it provides evidence of gaps in SQ, at the dimensions level, for both types of banks in an oil-based economy. The results of this study are valuable in helping decision-makers and bank managers who wish to raise the level of SQ and improve CS and in validating the results from other countries with a dual financial system.

This study aims to empirically investigates the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on ethical and nonethical stocks in Indonesia. Ethical stocks which are characterized by moral-based companies’ activities and lower debt are expected to have better resilience during the COVID-19 crisis compared to nonethical stock.

This study observes 589 firms of ethical and nonethical stock during sample periods ranging from March 2, 2020 (first case announced) to June 30, 2021. Panel regression, with some control variables, was applied.

Testing firms in Indonesia revealed a significant difference in stock resilience, in which ethical stock has a better resilience compared to nonethical, with Islamic socially responsible investment (SRI) stock having the highest resilience, followed by Islamic stock and then SRI stock. This study documents a significant effect of some financial criteria on the stock resilience, namely, return market (RM), market capitalization (MCAP) and share turnover (TURN). Overall, after splitting the sample into different time horizons, this study consistently reveals that ethical firms have better resilience compared to nonethical stocks.

This study makes several contributions to the literature on Islamic finance, especially concerning Islamic screening with SRI factors. In practical terms, this study supports the argument that focusing on integrating environmental, social and governance criteria in sharia screening will improve the quality of Islamic firms. The “Islamic” label is not only a marketing label but also a quality certification.

This study can be used as a reference for developing Islamic finance more focused on sustainability issues including socioeconomic and human development by improving the quality of screening of Islamic firms. Therefore, this study suggests that the establishment of Islamic SRI index is very crucial and significant to promote ethical-based investment.

This study aims to determine the effect of bank ownership on the credit risk of Indonesian Islamic local banks (ILBs).

This study uses the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique with a sample of 155 Islamic local banks in Indonesia from 2012 to 2019.

The results show that commissioner board (D.COW) ownership has a negative effect on credit risk. This indicates that an increase in the number of shares of Islamic local banks owned by the commissioner board reduces credit risk. On the other hand, government ownership (D.GOW), the Sharia supervisory board (D.SOW) and the director board (D.DOW) do not affect credit risk.

The government, Sharia supervisory board and director board need opportunities to easily own more Islamic local bank shares. Therefore, the provisions regarding the share ownership rights of the government, Sharia supervisory board and director board need to be improved to increase their role in reducing credit risk.

Previous researchers have not studied the effect of government ownership, the commissioner board, the Sharia supervisory board and the ownership of directors on credit risk at the ILB in Indonesia.

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.

The Islamic financial system is a sector with a high potential for development, and the agenda has been set with theoretical studies before practical studies in this field have begun. The increase in theoretical studies on the establishment of the Islamic financial system has led to the issue being placed on the agenda of the Islamic world. Following the theoretical studies, the sector gained popularity with applications. The aim of this study is to systematically review the literature on the subject, which has been theoretically agenda-setting and functionalised with applications.

In this context, the place of the concepts of “Islamic Finance or Islamic Accounting and AAOIFI or IFRS” in the international literature and their coverage were examined; a bibliometric analysis of the articles written in this field between 2001 and 2023 and scanned in the Scopus database was carried out. The R bibliometrics software was used to analyse the data, and the results were evaluated by carrying out performance and scientific mapping analyses of the publications.

Based on the results of the bibliometric analysis, a total of 969 publications in the form of articles, books, book chapters and proceedings were identified in the Scopus database. It is evident that there has been a steady increase in the number of articles pertaining to the research topic over the years, and the years with the highest volume of publications are 2020 and 2022. The Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research is the most frequently published journal in this field, with the most commonly published authors being K. Hussainey and M.K. Alam.

A bibliometric analysis of the literature pertaining to the subject has been conducted to examine primarily theoretical shortcomings and translate them into practical improvements. This pioneering study of theoretical investigations on the subject is aimed at eradicating practical deficiencies.

Sharia-compliant financial technologies (Islamic fintech) are becoming increasingly popular among Muslims and non-Muslims. As the Islamic fintech landscape continues to grow and transform, it is crucial to understand the factors that influence the acceptance or adoption of Islamic fintech services from the past literature. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) to investigate and compile factors that could influence a user to adopt Islamic fintech.

The current study adopted the systematic literature review approach using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses technique to examine research on Islamic fintech adoption. A set of inclusion criteria was applied to filter out irrelevant documents and ensure the selection of only the most relevant ones. The criteria were limited to quantitative journals published in English between 2012 and 2022, as identified in Scopus outlets.

Despite the existence of various theoretical frameworks, the technology acceptance model and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 frameworks have gained prominence as the most frequently applied frameworks in examining Islamic fintech adoption. In addition, trust is the most important self-developed construct for the adoption of Islamic Fintech.

The current study does not segregate the intention, actual usage and retention, as the author is interested in understanding the overall adoption of Islamic fintech services. To obtain more specific analysis results, future research could potentially separate the three types of adoption exposure, i.e., consumer acceptance, intention and retention. Next, future studies can also expand their analysis and gain a better understanding of the research topic by exploring alternative data sources such as Web of Science, ERA or JSTOR.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study makes a significant contribution to the literature by providing the first systematic literature review of factors influencing fintech adoption from an Islamic perspective.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between board structure and risk-taking, exploring how this association is influenced by advanced technologies in the banking sector.

This study uses a panel sample of 22 Pakistani banks from 2011 to 2018. To test the authors’ hypothesis, the authors use regression analysis with two-way cluster robust standard errors. Further, the authors also check the robustness of the authors’ findings using alternate proxies of board structure and bank risk-taking behavior. To address endogeneity concerns, the authors use the two-stage least square technique.

In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Pakistani banks’ digitalization is modeled by the presence of Temenos-T24/Oracle as their core banking system (software providing end-to-end operational integration). Its interactional effect with corporate governance is evaluated to implicate informed risk-taking by the board as a result of improved information access and analysis. The authors find that board size has a positive association with risk-taking, and the use of modern technology reshapes this association in the banking sector.

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, the impact of board structure on bank risk-taking has not been extensively researched in Pakistan – a highly volatile and unpredictable economy. Second, the evaluation of the role of technology on bank risk is being researched for the very first time – a uniqueness of this paper.