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This chapter uses panel data techniques to analyze the impact of corporate governance and competition on performance of the firms operating in Muslim and non-Muslim economies. Also analyzed the corporate data of 3,158 firms operating in five non-Muslim economies and 1,785 firms operating in five Muslim economies. It is observed from the results that most of the firm-level variables have similar behavior with firm performance irrespective of ownership structure. It is also found that direct majority-owned firms are more profitable as compared to independent firms irrespective of the operating region. Further, it is also observed that operating environment, specifically governance system, has significant impacts on firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of innovation and technological learning in building a knowledge-based economy in the Muslim world. Despite abundant financial and human capital, most Muslim countries still lack adequate scientific and technological infrastructure to absorb, apply and create knowledge and disseminate information.

Using various major international institutions’ databases (UN, World Bank, OCED, etc.), a holistic approach is used to analyse the critical role of science, technology and innovation to build a knowledge-based economy in Muslim countries.

This paper examines the main challenges facing Muslim countries to build a knowledge-based economy driven by innovation and technological learning. In doing so, a framework for building an effective innovation system that will achieve a knowledge-based economy in Muslim countries is presented, taking into account a variety of international, institutional and intellectual perspectives.

Given the scarcity of information and data about the subject area on Muslim countries, the study uses several sources of secondary data which are considered the most valid and reliable data available internationally about the subject.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse three drivers of the Islamic economy: global Muslim demography; operational sectors and demand; and faith-based consumerism.

This paper follows a constructivist approach to the Islamic economy, undertaken through an exploratory study of global Muslim population, the growth in opportunities in the Islamic economy and plurality of religious thought across the diaspora.

The research finds four trends (t) positively impacting the growth of the Islamic economy: (t1) above-nominal increase in global Muslim population, with greater intra-religious interactions of varying Muslim cultures; (t2) an increasing demand for a diversity of Shari’ah-compliant and halal products and services; (t3) improving socio-economic status of Muslims in developed and emerging countries; and (t4) a widening perspective of faith understanding and rising interest in religious literacy.

This research serves to inform global businesses of opportunities in Islamic economy sectors, highlighting global demographic change and informing how business is impacted through the plurality of Muslim faith interpretation.

Based on this research, businesses can better align their services with the socio-economic environment and faith sensibilities of Muslim consumers.

The paper provides a first look at the activity across Islamic economic sectors and disaggregates their activity and potential for growth across Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority markets. In particular, three areas were examined – demography, emergent Muslim lifestyles and religiosity.

The paper aims to study the consequences of the development of Islamic marketing on the social construction of Muslim religious identities.

The paper uses Max Weber's ideal-type methodology to analyze actors and strategies in Islamic marketing, as represented by their self-presentation on French-, English- and Arabic-language web sites.

First, the paper argues that by conflating values and preferences, rational choice theory fails to recognize an essential function of values, which govern the relationship between the personal and the social. Second, it describes the emergence of brand markets within traditional Muslim commodity economies. Third, it uses these distinctions, between the personal and the social and between commodity and brand economies, to construct four ideal types of Muslim economic actors: “collectivists”, “differentialists”, “integrationists”, and “entrepreneurs”.

The choice of web sites to survey Muslim economic and religious actors favors producers over consumers, religious specialists over laypeople. Future research should include protocols designed to test ways in which Muslims negotiate the conflicting demands of religion, society and economics in their daily lives.

In contradistinction to studies that emphasize the influence of Muslim consumer demand on the development of goods and services, this paper shows that economic conditions, notably globalization and market segmentation, affect the way Muslims construct their religious identities.

Discusses the present‐day economic trans‐formation sponsored by the IMF in the direction of privatization in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Chooses as case study the Muslim CIS bloc as the perfect example of the fiasco of the prescriptions of structural transformation by the socialist and capitalist orders. Adopts a methodological and empirical approach to demonstrate the extreme destabilization and disequilibrium, which are shown to remain embedded in these prescriptions of change. Hence, the monetary, fiscal, trade and pricing policies prescribed by the IMF are under attack as much as the old socialist prescription is shown to have been an unreal one. Gives a brief history of the Muslim CIS bloc pointing to an altogether different approach to structural change desired by these people: the world view of Islam in socioeconomic matters. Gives details of this to bring out the nature of this world view in the form of a universally knowledge‐based model of structural change. Discusses the policy implications in the context of this Islamic knowledge‐based world view.

The paper was written to highlight the advantages of initiating economic integration among Muslim countries across the globe, drawing special lessons from Europe's experience; its successful economic integration and challenges which trailed the process.

The methodology is basically descriptive and analytical. Theoretical construct and model on economic integration was developed for adoption by the Muslim countries. The model seeks to enhance their economic strength through intra and inter trade relations and reduces their weaknesses through specialization. Secondary data from Organization of the Islamic Conference and Islamic Development Bank member countries were exhaustively used in the study.

The paper found out that integration is plausible and beneficial, however, a concerted effort must be made in promoting technological development, raise human capital, and improve the product diversification among Muslim countries while developing stable institutions and infrastructures. Two, the potential benefits of integrating exceed the costs. The emphasis needs to be, not in cutting costs/inputs (reductionist approach), but on generating more wealth/revenue/income (incrementalist approach) that results in reducing the huge external debt, poverty, diseases, frustration, and corruption in most Muslim countries. Three, key to Muslims' socio‐economic happiness is through mutual cooperation for growth and development (Qur'an 42:38, Q3:159).

The major contributions of this paper are three, firstly, the paper explores a faith‐based integration effort, and secondly, it identifies reasons for low success in the integration efforts among Muslim countries and finally suggests an econometric model based on faith that neglects the artificial geographical barrier.

The practical implication of the paper is the recommendation to establish a Muslim Economic Bloc because Muslim countries are economically heterogenous group, with uneven development and growth pattern.

The paper is major contribution in the field of Islamic economics and applied economics. Contrary to what we know in the conventional economics, this paper advocates a faith‐based economic model and bloc in a globalised world economy. It is a contribution to existing literature.

Capitalism is fundamentally an economics of producers that has always served the cause of producers. Its special concern for economizing the production process in the guise of economic efficiency went always in favor of producers at the cost of interests of workers and consumers thereby creating a strong sense of economic deprivation in the conscience of workers and low‐income consumers who generally constitute the majority of the population in almost all the developed countries including the United States of America. It is this growing sense of economic deprivation that can be easily observed, especially in the big cities of the United States of America, as a catalyst for Marxist reaction. The Marxist fruit of Capitalist international economics appeared in the form of cold war within the global economy between the rich and the poor countries. Keeping in view the historical dynamics of Marxist movement, twentieth century Capitalist economists have consciously started to counter the threat of Marxism by incorporating in economics the extensive analysis of issues such as social welfare function, interdependent utility functions, intertemporal utility functions, equity in distribution, unemployment insurance, economic development, labor unionism, full‐employment of labor, economic rents, consumer protectionism etc. in the form of labor economics, public sector economics and development economics. It was no doubt a Capitalists' cleverish attempt to redress the grievances, mainly resulting from market failures, of the economically depressed classes within the Capitalist system. So far problems of the depressed classes could not be solved and are not at all expected to be fully solved within the original Capitalistic framework due to its inherent exploitative tendencies.

This study aims to explore the awareness and willingness of Muslim Indians toward Islamic banking. Subsequent to financial crises during the past few decades, Islamic banking has attained global acceptance and has gained a momentum in emerging economies as a substitute for the conventional (interest-based) banking. As India ranks third in terms of Muslim population globally, it is quite spontaneous to analyze the concept of Islamic banking in an Indian perspective.

To collect data, adopting purposive sampling, a sample of 290 Indian Muslims was surveyed in Delhi National Capital Region of India using a self-structured questionnaire. Appropriate statistical tools were applied to analyze the data.

The results concede that majority of the respondents lack an understanding of how Islamic banking works. The results further concede that majority of the respondents are willing to go for Islamic banking if informed properly and offered better customer experience. The results suggest that Islamic banking organizations need to frame effective communication strategies to increase awareness among the populace about how Islamic banking operates.

If approached strategically, one would expect India to be a huge market for Islamic banking. By offering a preliminary understanding about the awareness and willingness of Indian Muslims, this study can prove helpful for organizations to design and deliver informative advertising campaigns to inform potential customers about Islamic banking operations and to ensure the ability to provide efficient service before starting the operations in any country for the first time.

By exploring the awareness and willingness of Indian Muslims, the current study takes an important research gap into account and, therefore, enriches the existing Islamic banking literature.

The paper aims to revive the Islamic economic system discourse given the increasing interest in the moral economy agenda.

Proponents of Islamic economics theorise that the Islamic system presents the ideal form of a socio-economic order. However, the reported huge gap between theoretical construct and real activities seems to support the critics’ claim that it is a mere utopian state that directly challenges the viability of the Islamic economy idea.

The fact of the matter is that homo economicus is overpowering homo Islamicus despite the presupposed position of homo Islamicus as the mainstay of Islamic economics.

To manifest the Islamic economic system notion further, it is argued that a shariah-based values infusion policy (VIP) needs to be formulated to actualise the predominance of homo Islamicus.

Owing to the overarching and holistic nature of the proposed public policy, the operations of individuals, firms and state agencies should have the tendency to reflect the expected behaviour of homo Islamicus better than the present state of affairs.

The success of the VIP would include the enhancement of social integration and cohesion.

The link between moral economy, homo Islamicus and public policy is clearly established. Thus, this research guides policy makers in promoting the Islamic economic system as a universally-aspired moral economy project.