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Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide credit to low-income beneficiaries, enabling them to gain access to financial assistance. To ensure that clients are protected, all MFIs should adhere to basic corporate governance principles to guarantee uniform standards, transparency and good corporate governance practices in their institutions. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the client protection practices and sustainable performance of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), a leading MFI in Malaysia.

Closed-ended questionnaires were distributed to managers and assistant managers at 76 AIM branches across the peninsular Malaysia. A response rate of 68 per cent was achieved from the total questionnaires distributed.

The result shows that the level of client protection in AIM is high. It shows that accountability and debt collection process have a significant influence on the level of sustainable performance of AIM, whereas transparency and transaction costs have an insignificant impact on the level of sustainability of AIM. Consistent with the agency theory and institutional theory, the result also implies that having better debt collection process policy and structure, and accountability among management will enhance the level of sustainability of AIM.

Previous studies focused on the single issue of sustainability in microfinance, such as on repayment performance among the poorest people whom AIM served as clients. However, studies on the accountability towards clients are still underdeveloped by researchers. Hence, the current study fills the gap by examining whether client protection affects the sustainability of AIM.

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 provision of meals has long been regarded as an essential part of treatment of hospitalized patients complementing medical procedures and nursing management. Today, despite changes in the health-care landscape, which focused on improving the quality and efficiency of hospital care, malnutrition among inpatient was still a common worldwide concern.

This was a multi-centre, randomized study conducted in 21 study sites comprising 21 state and specialist government hospitals under the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. The sample size for this study was calculated with purposive sampling method, followed by proportionate sampling to determine the random sample size of each of the study sites. The total sample size required for this study was 2,759 subjects. A validated data collection form was used in the study.

Only 32.2 % and 37.6 % of subjects achieved adequate energy and protein intake, respectively, during their admission to medical ward. The study result showed that the overall mean energy and protein intake was 794.6 ± 487.8 kcal and 35.2 ± 24.3 g, respectively. The estimated energy (p = 0.001) and protein (p = 0.001) intake of all study sites was significantly lower compared to the adequacy value.

The adequacy intake in this study was only carried out in medical wards, thus reproducible result among other wards in different study sites could not be confirmed. Besides, this study assumed that the portion eaten by subjects during lunch and dinner was the same, and therefore, either one was recorded together with breakfast and either lunch or dinner to represent a subject’s daily intake.

This was the first nationwide study to report the adequacy of energy and protein intake of patients receiving therapeutic diets in the government hospital setting in Malaysia.

Muslim consumers’ tendency to patronize stores with Halal images and purchase genuine Halal products is closely related to their effort to maintain Islamic identity, and this is further supported by many empirical data. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the relationships between attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and Halal principle knowledge and their effect on Muslim consumers’ behavioral intention to patronize retail stores. On top of that, the mediating effect of Halal image on these relationships is also investigated.

Data were analyzed using multiple and hierarchical regression analysis to test the model via the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software among 480 valid samples of Muslim consumers.

Empirical results of the hierarchical regression analysis and the Sobel test revealed that there is a significant mediating effect of Halal image on the relationship between consumers’ attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control of consumers’ behavioral intention to patronize retail stores. Consumers with high attentiveness of the stores’ Halal image have a positive impression of the stores, a high motivation to patronize and, without any conditions, may follow through their intention to patronize the retail stores.

This research study offers guidelines to the retailers, marketers and the authorities in enhancing marketing strategies and the implementation of stricter Halal consumption laws. Hence, this research puts forward the following strategies: adopting Halal marketing strategy, promoting Halal images in retail stores and reinforcing Halal principle knowledge in the mind of consumers.

The main theoretical contribution relates to the insertion of the Halal image as a mediating variable in the matter of Muslim consumers’ behavioral intention to patronize Halal stores in Malaysia. An inspection of the effect of Halal principle knowledge on Muslim consumers’ behavioral intention to patronize retail stores is also rewarding.

This study aims to examine attitude, perceived behavioral and religiosity that influence Muslim consumers’ intention in patronizing at food premises with halal logo.

The data were collected from 450 respondents on random sampling basis. Quantitative analysis was conducted using SEM SMARTPLS version 3.3.

Based on the findings gathered using PLS analysis with n = 450, it was indicated that attitude, perceived behavioral control and religiosity significantly influence Muslim consumers’ intention on patronizing at food premise with halal logo.

The data collection for the present study was limited to the respondents in Kuala Lumpur among Muslim consumers, and limited to 450 sample sizes.

The presence of halal logo should be crucial in attracting consumers due to the comprehensive meaning it brings.

In the context of food premises, the results of the research suggest that the halal logo shown by the food premise seems to operate significantly in attracting Muslim consumers toward the food premises. Muslim consumers need to be nourished by proper Islamic teachings and have a good understanding of halal principle.

The halal logo of food premise concerns the Muslims. Muslim consumers are relying on surrogates in selecting the alternatives for packaged goods in Islamic marketing literature. However, it is little known how Muslims use indicators to select food premises when there is no halal logo.