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The purpose of this study is to analyze the economic, social and environmental impacts of climate change on farmers' livelihoods and adaptive capacity while highlighting specific adaptation strategies in the local climate context.

Data were collected using a survey questionnaire and analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Respondents were selected from seven farmer organizations (Pertubuhan Peladang Kawasan) located in Kedah, Malaysia.

The study revealed that farmers perceive the economic, social and environmental impacts of climate change. These adverse effects of climate change have an impact on their livelihoods as well as their adaptive capacity. The findings also demonstrated that farmers' livelihoods mediate the relationship between economic and environmental impacts of climate change as well as the adaptive capacity of farmers.

Climate change severely affects the agricultural sector as well as farmers' livelihoods. To minimize its effect, scientists and policymakers emphasize the improvement of farmers' adaptive capacity as well as appropriate adaptation methods. However, there is little research on how climate change affects the livelihoods of farmers in the context of Malaysia. Therefore, the results of the study will provide a new perspective for policymakers to formulate a better adaptation policy framework as well as select appropriate adaptation strategies for sustainable agricultural development.

Life insurance remains an essential part of financial and social security. The insurance penetration rate is high in the developed countries but very low in developing countries such as Malaysia, with only 4.8% penetration and extremely low underwritings. Therefore, this study aims to scrutinize the underlying determinants of a household purchase behaviour of life insurance.

The data generated from the administration of survey questionnaires to 325 households were analysed, using structural equation modelling to obtain the research purposes.

The analysis reveals that the knowledge of life insurance, attitudes towards life insurance, subjective norms (SN), trust and risk perception, affect the tendency of a household to purchase life insurance. The results of this study also highlight that households’ purchase-propensity influences the purchase behaviour of life insurance. Concurrently, the intention to purchase has mediating effects on explanatory variables and purchase behaviour.

This paper established awareness, SN, perceived behavioural control, trust and risk perception as the key determinants promoting positive attitudes towards purchasing life insurance. The findings of this study can be successfully applied to different stakeholders in a similar context. This study suggests that the managers of life insurance companies should adjust their policy guidelines in accordance with the positive relationship between the constructs and consumers’ intention to purchase life insurance.

In light of the rapid evolution of information and communication technology (ICT), every society is faced with many issues such as social exclusion, inequality and the digital divide. Hence, there is need to solve these complex challenges without comprising any development objective. A practical solution in this regard includes establishment of a sustainable model of community development. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the role of education in promoting the awareness on the use of ICT-based infrastructure among the general public to enhance their socioeconomic status. In addition, this study sets out to establish the nexus between socioeconomic status, ICT programme as well as the awareness of Kemaman Smart Community (KSC) development project.

This paper adopted a quantitative approach based on data collected through a survey on information literacy in KSC. The logit behavioural model and structural equation model were adopted as a quantitative technique to verify the objective of the study.

The result of the logit behavioural model showed that education, income and age have a positive impact on the KSC programme awareness. The SEM models revealed that income level and education (especially at the tertiary level) significantly enhance the awareness of KSC project. On the contrary, poverty remains regressive towards the community awareness of KSC programmess

Information literacy and knowledge-based programme promote a more inclusive development approach. Moreover, education, socioeconomic status, information literacy and knowledge-based programme are essential to develop a smart community towards achieving a high-income nation status. Future replication of smart community project in other parts of Malaysia may need to consider these factors for a comprehensive community development strategy.

KSC is the first smart city initiative by the government of Malaysia. Besides, primary data were used in this study. The findings of the study will provide academics and policymakers a better understanding of the smart city initiative.

The study attempts to establish the relationship between demographic dividend and GDP growth rate by utilising panel data from 1990 to 2017 in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

This study employs the pooled OLS model, using data from the World Bank's database for the period 1990–2017 for five selected South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.

The results reveal that demographic dividend affects economic growth in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, thereby supporting the demographic dividend hypothesis. For the country-specific analysis, it was also observed that demographic dividend impacts the economic growth of the five SAARC countries. In addition, growth of gross capital formation is highly significant for both aggregated and country-specific analyses. However, economic growth is unaffected by trade openness and unemployment rates. Moreover, the rate of labour force participation is negatively related to the GDP growth rate in the aggregated model.

This paper bestows insight into the fact that the impact of demographic dividend on the economic growth of the SAARC regions cannot be fully actualised if the workforce are underutilised. This region needs to adopt appropriate policies to strengthen the considerable benefits of demographic dividend on the economic growth.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of remittance inflow on households’ savings behaviour in Bangladesh. Remittances are considered as the countercyclical flow of income for its recipient economies. It surges the liquidity of the households receiving remittances, allows them to endure local economic shocks and facilitates them to practice productive activities. Remittances often form a big pool of resources for investment which complement the national savings and support the country’s growth through higher rates of capital accumulation. Therefore, if a significant portion of the remittance is used for savings it can lead to prominent economic growth in the long term.

Existing literature indicates remittance-receiving households have a greater propensity to use remittance income to meet basic consumption. However, based on the survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics on remittances and household savings (SIR, 2016) and using the ordinary least square regression analysis method, to identify the connection between remittances and household’s saving (SIR, 2016) and using the ordinary least square regression analysis method, to identify the connection between remittances and household’s savings behaviour in Bangladesh.

The findings of this study represent remittances encourage households to pursue different kinds of savings in Bangladesh. Savings are made in the form of opening savings accounts, deposit pension scheme/fixed deposits/Bonds, insurance policies, also savings through non-governmental organizations, cooperative societies and savings at home. Other than remittances the demographic characteristics of the household head also influence the savings choices.

To enable the implementation of appropriate policies to boost savings, analysis from both perspectives; the household and the national level, requires strong vigilance and surveillance.

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) knowledge (ICT-K) for female in socio-economic development in Middle East countries. Currently, men play major roles in the development of Middle East countries without heed being paid to women. The role for women is normally reserved to the home and child caring. Men continue to dominate power structures, education, finance, and travel. Overall levels of women’s ICT entrepreneurship are among the lowest in the Middle East although more women are studying ICT programs in the universities. Even statistics on the number of women entrepreneurs and women’s economic participation are often unavailable or incomplete in this region. Mainly, women’s entrepreneurship and economic participation are relatively limited due to gender-specific barriers to business creation and development, including cultural norms, civil law, or barriers in the business environment. This chapter investigates the challenges and constraints faced, and the support and opportunities available for these female entrepreneurs in ICT. This chapter also presents research on the growing phenomenon of female entrepreneurship in Middle East and suggests a number of ways in which institutions of state and trade – which often act as barriers to women practically running a business – could be overcome.

Today, the global market for “clean” vehicles is generating double-digit growth annually. However, in most emerging or Islamic countries, sales of such cars remain at a very low level and green consumption patterns are poorly explored. This paper aims to expand the understanding of factors influencing attitudes and behaviors toward electric vehicle in an emerging Islamic country, namely, Saudi Arabia. It investigates whether the willingness of Saudis to purchase electric vehicles depends on religious and ethical considerations. The effects of environmental concern, Islamic and some personal values (self-transcendence and conservation) on green vehicle purchase intention were considered.

The literature review is predominantly of studies on emerging or Islamic countries. A convenience sampling method was used, and a total of 354 valid questionnaires were collected. An exploratory factor analysis under the principal component analysis was used to reveal the factor structure underlying the items in the questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis on Lisrel helped to assess the validity of the measurement models. The causal relationships of the research framework were measured using simultaneous equation modeling.

The results suggest that Islamic Values (IsV) and Conservation (Cv) values do not influence environmental concern (EC) or Electric Vehicle Purchase Intention (EVPI). On the contrary, self-transcendence values (ST) exerted a significant influence on EVPI and the mediation of EC in this relationship was supported.

The theoretical framework provides a better understanding of how customers evaluate electric vehicles and the factors underlying their attitudes and behaviors toward such products in an Islamic and emerging market. The results suggest that consumers’ intentions to purchase electric vehicles are not driven by Islam or conservation values (conformity, tradition and security). Nevertheless, subjects for whom self-transcendence is an important value that guides their lives showed a higher willingness to purchase electric vehicles. This research also confirmed that EC is predictive of EVPI.

Marketers should focus on values of self-transcendence, which are benevolence and universalism, to influence electric vehicle purchase intention in Saudi Arabia. Neither Islamic nor conservation values are useful in this regard. However, managers and authorities are advised to establish a link between Islam and environmental awareness and behavior. Marketing communication and religious preachers should point out the commandments of Islam which stand for the preservation of nature. The authors concluded that much more should be done on the part of scholars to obtain a satisfactory understanding of green behavior in the Islamic world. Although green vehicles are rarely used there, these markets hold great sales potential for such products.

Little is known about consumer attitudes and behavior toward green products in Islamic countries. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first study to investigate whether Islamic and some personal values are related to environmental concern and electric vehicle purchase intention. The results showed that EC and EVPI depend on ST. The causal model indices for IsV and Cv were not significant.