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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reading habit and attitude among rural communities in the low literacy rate areas in Malaysia.

Multi-stage cluster and simple random sampling were employed and 400 respondents who live nearby the rural library were selected.

Moderate levels of reading attitude were obtained from the result of the study, in which several variables produced a significant relationship in the reading attitude (education level, household income and time spent in reading).

Better understanding on the reading habit and attitude among rural communities could produce better information on the service provision towards the establishment of rural libraries in low literacy rate areas in Malaysia. This would also increase the utilisation of reading sources and services provided.

The paper provides better understanding on the reading habit and attitude among the rural communities in the low literacy rate areas in using the facilities provided by the rural libraries. The findings may be useful to the rural literacy and library development community in the developing countries.

Islamic finance and Halal product sectors are thriving successfully. This chapter is a general review of the perception of Asian consumers on Islamic finance and Halal sectors in the global Halal economy.

The first section will briefly describe the Halal concept in both Islamic finance and Halal industries, and the growth of both sectors in Asian countries. The second part highlights the review of Asian consumers’ perception towards Islamic finance products and Halal products.

The review found that the consumers’ perception towards the Islamic finance products and Halal products is distinctive. This is due to the diversity of Asian countries in terms of geography, religion, culture, ethnic, school of thoughts (madzahib), income per capita and government’s involvement.

The third part of the chapter concentrates on planning towards Halal marketing, which involves the move and future challenges in different layers of industries to gear up and strengthen the Halal economy.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the anti‐cholesterol activities of Ganoderma lucidum on Sprague–Dawley white rats.

Rats were divided into four groups with a sample size of six rats per groups. Different formula diets were given to each group for a period of six months. At regular intervals, blood samples were taken and analysed for the total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C) and low density lipoprotein (LDL‐C) levels.

Administration of hyperlipidemia diet in rats fed with 1 per cent cholesterol diet caused an increase in the TC, TG, as well as LDL‐C level as compared to the control. A decrease of 23.6 per cent in the HDL‐C level was also noted. However, supplementation of the feed with G. lucidum (0.1 per cent) in rats decreased the TC, TG and LDL‐C level significantly (P < 0.05) while further increased the plasma concentration of HDL‐C. In the case of rats fed with diet containing a mixture of 1 per cent cholesterol and 0.1 per cent of Ganoderma, the lipid profile showed much higher readings (p < 0.05) compared to the chol group.

The possible efficacy of G. lucidum in reducing the deposition of cholesterol in the wall of the blood vessels was indicated.

This article provides useful information to health care providers and consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of board attributes on Sukuk rating in firms listed in Bursa Malaysia (Malaysian Stock Exchange) during the period of 2008 to 2013.

This study uses ordinal logit regression model to examine the influence of board attributes (CEO-chairman duality, board size and board independence) on the dependent variable (RATING).

The findings of this paper generally support the agency theory and stakeholder theory. Results show that after controlling for firm characteristics, the Sukuk rating is positively associated with CEO-chairman duality, board size and board independence; and negatively correlated with leverage while positively related to profitability and size. The findings of this study also provide evidence that having two positions in an organization as CEO and chairman could have added higher responsibility towards making corporate decisions and provide better Sukuk rating performance. In addition, findings show that the larger the board size, the better Sukuk rating. Also, higher board independence enjoys higher rating.

This study was limited to the investigation of the relationship between board attributes (CEO duality, board size and board independence) on Sukuk ratings using aggregate data from 2008 to 2013 among Malaysian Sukuk issuers.

The findings of this paper describe the impact of board attributes on Sukuk rating in Malaysian Sukuk market which in turn gives the useful insights to many of the actors in the markets such as issuers, investors and policymakers which can be relied upon in making strategic decisions to issue and invest in Islamic bonds in Malaysian market. In addition, the findings could prove to be useful also for regulators because they are responsible for the acceptable level of corporate governance standards.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by focusing heavily on enhancing Sukuk ratings by reducing conflict between managers and Sukuk holders in Malaysia. Additionally, this study benefits from the agency theory and stakeholder theory to provide evidence on the effect of board attributes on Sukuk rating.

Innovation is defined as the creation and adoption of changes that are new to an organisation or industry. The high probability of failure and the lack of innovation in the construction industry have highlighted the importance of innovation (both creation and adoption) as a business orientation. Although they are related to the construction industry, architectural firms receive little attention from an innovation perspective despite being perceived as important drivers of innovation. Thus, this paper aims to examine the distinctive characteristics of various innovation orientations and determine the state of innovation among architectural firms.

A postal survey was sent to 1,004 registered architectural firms in Malaysia. The data were processed using descriptive analysis. A factor analysis was conducted to categorise innovation creation and adoption, and a paired samples t-test was performed to examine the innovation orientations of architectural firms.

Innovation creation and innovation adoption are two distinct orientations with different characteristics. Architectural firms in Malaysia are oriented towards innovation creation, which intersects with innovation adoption.

This study used a questionnaire survey that generated only statistical results. Future research should conduct interviews or focus group discussions to obtain comprehensive findings.

The innovation concept is expanded in terms of its orientations.

This study illustrates significant differences between innovation creation and innovation adoption in the architectural firms of a developing country, i.e. Malaysia.

An organisation’s performance tends to be associated with its innovativeness. However, innovation remains challenging in the construction industry, partially due to the complex nature of this industry. Nevertheless, innovation orientations (i.e. creation and adoption) shed new light on innovation in the construction industry. These orientations are similar but not entirely identical. Although most studies do not discuss these orientations in any detail, this study aims to classify the characteristics of the innovation orientations and determines the state of innovation among construction companies in Malaysia.

A survey questionnaire was mailed to 1,230 construction companies in Malaysia. Descriptive analysis was used to examine the respondents’ profiles, and factor analysis was used to classify the innovation orientation characteristics. A paired samples t-test was used to determine the state of innovation among the construction companies.

Innovation creation reflects a pioneer’s efforts and involves being a market explorer that tolerates risk and is research and development (R&D)-oriented, whereas innovation adoption involves being a creative imitator, a market follower and a safe player. Construction companies in Malaysia are innovation adoption–oriented.

This study uses quantitative methods only; therefore, the findings are statistically oriented. The small sample size makes generalisation challenging, so this study reflects only the built environment of the developing country of Malaysia.

This study classifies the characteristics of innovation creation and innovation adoption with respect to the innovation orientation of construction companies in Malaysia.

Purpose – This chapter examines the application of the concept of maslahah in household debt management.

Methodology/approach – A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches is employed. Questionnaires were used for data collection.

Findings – Malaysian Muslims become indebted for four main purposes: buying their first car, their first home, helping family members, and financing their studies. Thus, Muslims principally borrow funds to fulfil their dharuriyyat (essentials) and hajiyyat (complementary) needs, and in some cases, they borrow for tahsiniyyat (luxury) purposes.

Research limitation/implications – The respondents of this research are working Muslims in the Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Practical implication – This study helps Islamic finance institutions to develop better products to offer customers. Its results can also give a real picture about borrowing activities to the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency.

Originality/value – Prior studies have mainly examined household debt management. This study surveys local Muslims’ household borrowing pattern to understand the nature of personal debt management and then analyses these data against the concept of maslahah. This will enrich the currently available literature.

Despite the critical issues involving Middle East countries such as war and a drop in currency exchange rates, a large number of students leave their country to pursue a higher education abroad, every year. The purpose of this paper is to understand the difficulties that these students face while conducting their research in a foreign country and in doing so hopes to enhance a greater awareness of the kind of hindrances they face to complete their studies.

The respondents of this qualitative study are PhD students from the Middle East who were studying in a public university in Southeast Asia. This university has recorded an increasing enrollment of international students, particularly from the Middle East in the last few years. Data were collected using a series of unstructured interviews that elicited information on critical incidents that characterized the kind of difficulties students had to face in their research. The data obtained was further analyzed using a qualitative software package – NVivo (QSR International, 10).

Six main themes emerged from the content analysis of the interviews, which are the role of the supervisor, student characteristics, family commitments, financial problems, psychological and research barriers which provide a holistic picture of student perspectives on the factors that affect research progress. While these students might have faced difficulties that might have been cited in existing literature, this paper argues that the respondents have indicated experiencing psychological barriers that were not described in earlier studies, such as the state of mind they were in as a result of being worried for family members due to war or violence in their home countries, drop in currency exchange rates and difficulties in acquiring money due to international sanctions imposed against their countries.

This study provides important insights on the factors that affect the progress of PhD students from the Middle East, while at the same time revealing a serious gap in supervisors’ role which can contribute to the delay in the research progress of PhD students.

This paper aims to investigate consumers’ preferences regarding the distribution channels for subscription, contribution payment and compensation claims of microtakaful scheme in Malaysia.

Consumers’ preferences were explored through questionnaires and focus group discussions (FGD) conducted among the bottom 40% income classification households (B40) in five zones: northern, central, eastern, southern and Sabah and Sarawak.

Empirical findings from cross-tabulation analysis revealed that takaful company is the preferred distribution channel for purchasing protection plans and making compensation claims. However, the online platform is the favoured channel to make contribution payments. Further investigation through FGD suggested that the selection of a channel for subscription, contribution payment and compensation claim is influenced by consumer trust, cost-effectiveness and simplicity of procedure.

Limitation is pertaining to only cross-tabulation analysis used in explaining the choice of distribution channel for microtakaful among B40 group. Thus, advanced analysis is required to strengthen the findings.

Findings of this study would help marketers and practitioners to formulate strategies to promote their microtakaful protection to enhance subscription among the low-income population.

Empirical findings offer academic contributions to the existing body of knowledge on microtakaful area as the primary data collected will eventually allow future researchers to explicate the contribution of the current study to understand the important of distribution channel for microtakaful from the perspective of subscribers and potential subscribers.

The purpose of this paper is to come-up with a systematic exertion on Maqasid Shari’ah in Islamic economics, banking and finance, with a clear focus on forming an appropriate and novel framework that identifies the effort of contemporary scholars and detects the existing gap that might possibly champion new research commitments.

A systematic approach to literature review was steered through the means propagated by the Centre for Reviews and Disseminations (DSR), but modified to the precise requirements of this review. Google Scholar was searched throughout the passage. The search criteria are confined to English documents that are within the period of 2006-2016. Articles that did not score or did not convince that the subject of Maqasid Shari’ah has been applied in Islamic economy, Islamic banking, Islamic finance, Islamic financing products and economic development are excluded. Appropriate search keys are used to gather better results.

The findings inform that contemporary scholars show a robust commitment to the themes of the result during the stated period. The outcome reveals that contemporary scholars designate more interest and attention on Islamic banking and expose their potential specialty in the expanse than other themes. The study further highlighted the gap of some significant areas that are either outside the coverage of the reviewed documents or require more attention from contemporary scholars, for instance, wealth formation and management, wealth consumption, socioeconomic security, risk management, corporate governance, management policy, human resource development, prohibition of Riba, profit and loss sharing (PLS), etc.

The paper is limited to contemporary aspects of Islamic economics, banking, finance and economic development that have a link with the subject of Maqasid Shari’ah.

A review of these scholarly reported documents has the potential to draw attention toward filling the existing gap that will likely result in salvation of current issues on the subject of Maqasid Shari’ah that has a direct association with Islamic economy, banking and finance.

The paper is original in its nature considering the fact that it is assumed as the maiden attempt of its kind in the field. It is a treasure to all those who may cherish and find it relevant in their progressive and rounded convention or application on the matter.