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The purpose of this paper is to examine the factor persuading the acceptance of Islamic pawn broking (Ar-Rahnu) among Islamic bank customers.

The authors collected the data using a self-administered questionnaire design and analysed using SPSS Statistics and smart partial least square. The study is restricted to only respondents who are based in the area of Klang Valley (Selangor and Kuala Lumpur), as these two areas have a larger number of Islamic banks and a decent number of Islamic banks’ clients. A total of 381 respondents’ responses are used for this study, and the constructs involved for analysis purpose are affect, social factor, facilitating conditions, perceived financial benefits and perceived risk constructs.

The finding suggests a significant positive association for social factor and perceived risk, while negative association learnt for affect on acceptance of Ar-Rahnu financing. On the same note, the facilitating condition and perceived financial benefit are found insignificantly related.

The findings generated from this study are expected to enrich the literature on the body of knowledge, as it has served to broaden the understanding of the Ar-Rahnu acceptance level in Malaysia. As mentioned, there is limited literature available using this type of financing. Existing studies focus too much on conventional financing products such as personal financing, credit card, short-term loan and many others. Less attention is given to Ar-Rahnu financing. Thus, this study expected to add value to the literature available in the context of Islamic pawn broking business. Moreover, the findings of this study will be very helpful for the Islamic financial institutions to find the best way to retain Ar-Rahnu clients and encourage more client to choose Ar-Rahnu as a mode of financing.

This study owns greater potential to assist Islamic financial institutions to discover the best techniques to retain and encourage the grander number of clients for Ar-Rahnu as a mode of financing.

The present paper aims to propose a viable alternative model for human capital development (HCD), termed as the integrated cash waqf micro enterprises investment (ICWME-I) model, which is expected to contribute to the development of micro enterprises in Malaysia.

This is a conceptual paper for the development of the ICWME-I model. It is purely qualitative in nature, using content analysis. It comprehensively reviews the literature related to HCD issues faced by micro enterprises and existing studies related to cash waqf (Islamic endowment) to construct the ICWME-I model.

The proposed ICWME-I model is specially designed for HCD of micro enterprises. It is an appropriate initiative to upgrade micro enterprises through HCD programmes by ensuring proper utilization of cash waqf funds to build modern training centres at subsidized costs with state-of-the-art facilities. The training centres would subsidize the participation fees of micro enterprises and provide them with facilities to undertake education and training programmes, as well as other kinds of activities for upgrading, improving and enhancing human capital capacity and skills of micro enterprises. The potential challenges of the ICWME-I model are also highlighted in this study.

This paper attempts to construct the ICWME-I model based on an extensive review of literature related to micro enterprises, cash waqf and HCD. Among its major limitations is the fact that the ICWME-I model is not empirically validated and tested in this research. This can be carried out in future studies.

The present study could have an enormous impact on micro entrepreneurs via HCD programmes. The most important impact would be on government budgets, as this ICWME-I model is expected to generate its own funds from cash waqf for micro enterprises’ HCD.

This paper brings forward an original and viable model to develop human capital for micro enterprises development. This model involves the building of training centres using cash waqf raised from donors.

This paper aims to explore the opinions and recommendations of various experts on the integrated cash waqf micro enterprise investment (ICWME-I) model, particularly in terms of its suitability, applicability and prospects in the market.

The research involves primary data which are collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with experts from various backgrounds. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data.

The experts support the suitability of the ICWME-I model in providing financial services to micro enterprises. They highlight the importance of establishing, managing and operating ICWME-I model under the aegis of the State Islamic Religious Council in Malaysia or the corporate sector. They further emphasize that the characteristics of micro enterprises, the element of sustainable funding, the importance of proper management and administration, legal matters and public awareness are key factors that influence the sustainability of the ICWME-I model.

This paper adds to the literature on waqf and micro enterprises especially from the Malaysian context. The paper validates the ICWME-I model in terms of its suitability, applicability and prospects in the market by interviewing experts from various backgrounds.

Waqf institutions in many Muslim countries including in Malaysia are facing liquidity constraints in developing waqf land. This paper aims to offer a sustainable model of source of financing for waqf institutions to meet their liquidity constraint in developing waqf land, which is known as the crowdfunding–waqf model (CWM). Later, CWM validated its acceptance in the field among the crowdfunders by adopting the theory of technology acceptance model (TAM).

The primary data are collected from the survey administered to donors or crowdfunders in Selangor, Penang, Johor and Pahang. The total number of respondents are n = 1,000. The analysis is conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Based on findings, both the perceived usefulness and perceived easy to use of CWM are found to have a positive impact on the behavioral intention of crowdfunders or donors in assisting waqf institutions to develop waqf land in Malaysia. Furthermore, perceived easy to use has a positive relationship and direct effect on perceived usefulness of crowdfunders to use the CWM.

There are some limitations of the current study. The sample size and area of study become the obvious limitations. Thus, there is a need for caution in the interpretation of the results, and the conclusion cannot be as generalized. Besides, the use of current factors might limit the ability to explore other potentially important determinants of the crowdfunders’ behavioral intention on using CWM. Thus, future research can be conducted by incorporating new factors and provide new insights for optimizing CWM. Other potential moderator variables should be included into the research model in order to obtain more robust results.

The findings of this paper will provide a new avenue for waqf institutions to raise funds for developing waqf land, particularly in Malaysia. The present study also has implications for the government and policymakers. Through CWM, it enables to reduce the expenses of the government for the development of waqf land. Indeed, CWM could be applied in other Muslim countries that are facing liquidity constraint in developing waqf land.

This paper offers an additional literature on waqf and crowdfunding, especially in the Malaysian context. The paper proposes a viable alternative model for waqf institutions as a source of financing by using crowdfunding.

This paper aims to examine the role of religion in influencing the public relations activity of Islamic banking institutions in Malaysia by adopting circuit of culture (COC) model as theoretical framework.

A narrative analysis is used in this study. This analysis has basically involved the application of symbolic interactionist tenets to respective websites and relevant documents of Islamic banks in Malaysia.

The paper has identified six Islamic value orientations elements, especially respect for religious authority, affinity with the past, fatalism, communal kinship, attachment to the eternal life and spirituality and idealism relative to public relations practice among the Islamic banks in Malaysia. The study finds that the respective banks are embedded with Islamic values in their communication tools that reflect public relations activity.

The theme of value orientations that have been generated and used in this study are constantly in flux. There are some other orientations that might be affecting the cultural value of public relations activities of Islamic banking in Malaysia. Furthermore, these value orientations are less effective in identifying dominating cultural factors that can be amended with situational flexibility, as the current study focuses on Malaysian context. Future research is required by incorporating a quantitative means of testing and measuring the effectiveness of website by using cultural-economic model for building.

The study suggests that public relations researchers should not ignore the vital relationship between religion and public relations activity. The findings of this paper provide Islamic banking institutions to improve and enhance their public relations activity.

This paper offers an additional literature related to public relations activity by using cultural-economic model. While previous studies have focused on product, brand matters and organization behavior to define cultural and public relation, very little research has been focused on the role of religion in determining public relations activity and cultural pattern. Indeed, no study has been focused explicitly on public relations activity of Islamic banks in Malaysia using COC.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) of China on investment opportunities in five ASEAN economies.

This paper employs advanced empirical approaches, such as Multivariate DCC-GARCH and Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) to test the research objective. The period of analysis involved monthly data from 2003 until 2019.

This paper provides evidence where the Malaysian stock market to be the least exposed to risks emanating from Chinese EPU, followed by Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Results for investment opportunities based on time horizon suggest, for a short-term holding period, investors are better off investing in Singapore and Indonesia, while, for medium-term holding periods, all ASEAN markets appear lucrative except for the Philippines.

From a managerial perspective, the outcome or findings of this study are expected to aid the retail and institutional investors in designing better strategies on diversifying a stock portfolio with different holding periods.

Theoretically, the findings of this study contribute fresh insights into an emerging strand of literature focusing on the transmission of regional policy. Methodologically as well, this study is a novel venture to the best of authors' knowledge.

The sustainable development of Islamic banking services has motivated a significant number of depositors to choose Islamic bank services instead of the conventional bank. There are various factors that can persuade the depositors’ choice to choose an Islamic bank. This paper aims to examine the factors that persuade individuals’ behavioral intention to choose Islamic bank services.

To achieve this objective, this study uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as the underlying theory to measure the factors that persuade the depositors’ behavioral intention to choose Islamic bank services. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed to the Malaysian Islamic Bank’s depositors in Peninsular Malaysia. The data from the questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The result showed the three variables that predicted behavioral intentions of the depositors, namely, attitude (ATT), subjective norms (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC), were found to be significant in persuading depositors’ behavioral intention to choose Islamic bank services. Furthermore, the findings of the study also confirmed the relevance of using TPB to measure the depositors’ behavioral intention. The results could advance knowledge in the area of Islamic finance and also have positive implications for practitioners.

The study offers an insight into the present environment involving Islamic banking services which was established in Malaysia 30 years ago. In the context of the current study, the present environment refers to the depositors’ intention to opt for the service and the factors that influence the depositors to choose Islamic banking services apart from the religious factor which has been well acknowledged by a significant number of previous studies.

This study aims to investigate the behavioural intention and adoption of internet banking (IB) among clients of local and foreign Islamic banks in Malaysia.

Survey questionnaires were distributed among the Islamic banks’ clients at two main states, namely, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. The number of clients involved is 319 (n = 319). The data was analysed using the partial least square (PLS) and theoretically, the research framework in this study is guided by the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2).

The smart PLS analysis yielded three main outcomes, namely, the variables such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, price value, facilitating conditions and habit have a positive influence over the behavioural intention and subsequently lead to the adoption of IB. The other two variables, namely, social influence and hedonic motivation were negatively-related and insignificant for behavioural intention. Third, this paper also noticed that facilitating conditions and habits have a direct relationship with the adoption of IB.

Based on the findings, Islamic banks can take necessary action to design a better policy to further accelerate the usage of IB among their client. By identifying those factors, this, perhaps, can allow Islamic banks to invest more ideas on those significant factors that influence their interest, and subsequently leads to good business to Islamic banks as the clients nowadays are looking for simplicity and convenience factors when using IB.

This research is expected to enhance existing literature on internet banking, especially in Islamic banking research on the technological edge. Limited research has been done in Malaysia, particularly on the intention and continuous adoption of IB in Islamic banks using the UTAUT2 framework. This would be breakthrough research in identifying factors that influence customers’ continuous adoption of IB.

Waqf (Islamic endowment) in the form of cash is important to address the problem of developing idle waqf lands. Although there are various existing models of cash waqf, there is still a need for innovative cash waqf models. This paper aims to offer an alternative mode of financing for developing idle waqf lands using the concepts of cooperatives and waqf.

The present study first evaluates relevant literature on financing issues faced by waqf institutions in developing idle waqf lands as well as existing models of cash waqf. Based on the prevailing gap in cash waqf models, the study proposes a hybrid model of cooperative-waqf to finance idle waqf lands in Malaysia.

The proposed model is unique owing to the new dimension of membership being embedded into the waqf project. It considers donors as members of the waqf project, which is funded through the cash waqf collected, and thus, donors are given the privilege to receive benefits from the commercialised projects that are developed on the waqf lands. The existing models of cash waqf use traditional methods in which donors merely contribute cash waqf without any awareness of how the contributions are utilised. Usually, this problem occurs due to the lack of reciprocal communication between cash waqf donors and waqf institutions.

The present study examines the case of waqf land development in the context of Malaysia only. Secondly, the paper does not contain any empirical analysis, and the development of the paper is based on existing literature that discusses various models of cash waqf practised in Muslim-majority and -minority countries. Future research can conduct surveys of donors and other stakeholders on the practicality of the model.

It is expected that the proposed cooperative-waqf model will be able to create a synchronised relationship between cash waqf donors and waqf institutions and hence boost participation in developing waqf lands.

The present study adds to the existing literature in the area of waqf and cash waqf models, especially the application of this instrument in the context of Malaysia. It also offers a new hybrid model to the State Islamic Religious Councils (SIRCs) – Malaysia’s sole trustee of waqf assets management – such that the implementation of the proposed model could boost the collection of cash waqf in developing commercial projects on idle waqf lands.

Crowdfunding has become one of the preferred mechanisms to raise funds by startups and small entrepreneurs. As such, this paper aims to develop an appropriate framework for Sharīʿah-compliant equity-based crowdfunding (SEC) for entrepreneurship development in Malaysia.

The research begins by analyzing the intention of 200 entrepreneurs in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor regarding the use of crowdfunding to raise capital. The analysis is based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA), which is also associated with the technology acceptance model (TAM) and is effected by using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The entrepreneurs agree on the ease of use of crowdfunding in raising capital, although it appeared that they are quite reluctant to share their business ideas online. Subsequently, an SEC framework is proposed, to further enhance entrepreneurship development in Malaysia particularly in meeting the need for raising funds in line with Sharīʿah (Islamic law) principles.

This paper aims to contribute more to the development of a blueprint for an SEC platform for market players and regulators in Malaysia.

This paper also aims to highlight the growing needs of entrepreneurs, particularly in Malaysia to have a Sharīʿah-compliant alternative to raise funds via crowdfunding.

This paper makes two main contributions. First, it provides evidence on Malaysian entrepreneurs’ intention to use crowdfunding for fundraising through TAM and SEM analysis. Second, it proposes an SEC framework for the development of entrepreneurs in Malaysia.