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The purpose of this paper is to evolve a theoretical account that highlights the determinations for achieving financial inclusion in Islamic finance.

The methodology used is a library approach where the existing and relevant document remains the sources of concern.

The outcome of the study designates that robust technology; microcredit and microfinance services; legal and regulatory commitment of the regulators and policymakers of the Islamic financial institutions; extensive public awareness of Islamic financial services and products; financial proficiency and literacy; and financial infrastructure are some of the imperative drives for realising financial inclusion particularly for women, low income earners and rural poor.

The paper limited itself to realising financial inclusion in Islamic finance. Thus, anything beyond the stated limitation is outside the scope of our objective. The paper has an inference for the concerned professional bodies, regulators, policymakers, stakeholders and practitioners of Islamic financial institutions.

The paper is original in its nature, it is also a pearl and a reference to those who may conceive and cherish the relevance of its capacity.

This study examines the role of financial development and its interaction with corruption in the environmental degradation of eight Sub-Saharan African countries from 2000–2014.

The study utilizes Pedroni cointegration and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) techniques for the estimation of the models.

The results of the cointegration test reveal that there exist long-run relationships among the variables in the model with the interaction of financial development and corruption, and in the model without interaction. The FMOLS estimates show that in the former model, the interaction of financial development with corruption is positively significant in determining the level of environmental degradation in those countries. Moreover, in the latter, financial development, trade openness, and corruption have a positive effect on their environmental degradation

Unavailability of data, the study was limited to only eight Sub-Saharan African nations

The finding that financial development and its interaction with corruption have an adverse effect on the environments of the Sub-Saharan African countries implies the need to focus on how efficient credits are being allocated in those countries. For better management of environmental quality, this may require the implementation of policies that enhance credit allocation to users with energy-efficient technology and appliances that promote the quality of environments. In addition, stringent policies could be embarked upon to curtail all acts of corruption in the region for an efficient credit allocation and a better environment in the development of Sub-Saharan African society.

The dearth in empirical studies on the Sub-Saharan African countries motivates this study. In particular, little is known about the interaction effect of corruption and financial development on the environmental degradation of those countries, as the work on this is limited in the existing literature.

This study examines the roles of cross-sectional dependence, asymmetric structure and country-to-country policy variations in the inflation-poverty reduction causal nexus in selected sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 1981 to 2019.

To account for cross-sectional dependence, heterogeneity and policy variations across countries in the inflation-poverty reduction causal nexus, this study uses robust Hatemi-J data decomposition procedures and a battery of second-generation techniques. These techniques include cross-sectional dependency tests, panel unit root tests, slope homogeneity tests and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel Granger non-causality approach.

Unlike existing studies, the panel and country-specific findings exhibit several dimensions of asymmetric causality in the inflation-poverty nexus. Positive inflationary shocks Granger-causes poverty reduction through investment and employment opportunities that benefit the impoverished in SSA. These findings align with country-specific analyses of Botswana, Cameroon, Gabon, Mauritania, South Africa and Togo. Also, a decline in poverty causes inflation to increase in the Congo Republic, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. All panel and country-specific analyses reveal at least one dimension of asymmetric causality or another.

All stakeholders and policymakers must pay adequate attention to issues of asymmetric structures, nonlinearities and country-to-country policy variations to address country-specific issues and the socioeconomic problems in the probable causal nexus between the high incidence of extreme poverty and double-digit inflation rates in most SSA countries.

Studies on the inflation-poverty nexus are not uncommon in economic literature. Most existing studies focus on inflation’s effect on poverty. Existing studies that examine the inflation-poverty causal relationship covertly assume no asymmetric structure and nonlinearity. Also, the issues of cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity are unexplored in the causal link in existing studies. All panel studies covertly impose homogeneous policies on countries in the causality. This study relaxes this supposition by allowing policies to vary across countries in the panel framework. Thus, this study makes three-dimensional contributions to increasing understanding of the inflation-poverty nexus.

This chapter provided systematic and comprehensive analysis on trawl fisheries management and conservation measures in the Straits of Malacca. Detailed analysis is conducted on Malaysian fishery management framework particularly domestic country's trawl fishery status, legal structure, input-control strategies, ecosystem protection plan, pollution, law enforcement, and complementary measures that designed to reduce and prevent overfishing in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Malacca Straits. Gaps and challenges found in existing trawl fisheries literature are presented followed by recommendations for improvement in the management and conservation of trawl fisheries.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of micro-pits technology to the problem of tribological performance in a sliding motion.

Vegetable oil is a sustainable and economically viable alternative to both mineral and synthetic oils, offering significant savings in both the cost of research and manufacturing. To solve the depriving issue and boost lubrication film thickness, the micro-pits on the surface may function as reservoirs that provide the oil to the contact inlet area. In this research, an aluminium block is used as the workpiece material in an evaluation of a through pin-on-disc tribotester. Lubricating oil in the form of super olein (SO) was used in the experiment.

The results show that the friction performance during a rubbing process between a hemispherical pin and an aluminium block lubricated with SO using aluminium alloy materials, AA5083, was significantly improved.

In this study, a material that breaks down called SO, which is derived from the fractionation of palm olein, was used to use a modified aluminium micro-pit sample that will serve as a lubricant reservoir in pin-on-disc tribotester.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-07-2023-0200/

The purpose of this study is to analyse, firstly, whether education, financial inclusion, financial literacy and financial planning can be antecedents that affect Islamic welfare and, secondly, whether productivity can be a mediator to improve Islamic welfare.

This study involved quantitative research using data obtained from a survey. The respondents were 538 Muslim families in East Java, Indonesia. Structural equation modelling was used for the analysis.

This study tested 13 hypotheses, of which 10 were accepted. The accepted hypotheses refer to the effects of financial literacy on productivity, financial inclusion on productivity, financial planning on productivity, financial planning on Islamic welfare, education on Islamic welfare, productivity on Islamic welfare, financial literacy and productivity on Islamic welfare, financial inclusion and productivity on Islamic welfare and financial planning and productivity on Islamic welfare, as well as the effects of financial inclusion on Islamic welfare. Meanwhile, three hypotheses were not accepted; they refer to the effects of financial literacy on Islamic welfare, the effect of education on productivity, as well as the impact of education and productivity on Islamic welfare.

The study was conducted only with respondents living in East Java, so the results depict the condition of Muslim families’ welfare in East Java.

Research into the antecedents of Islamic welfare has received little academic attention, so this study explores how education, financial inclusion, financial literacy, financial planning and productivity could affect Islamic welfare among Muslim families.

Research on financial inclusion (FI) in Islamic countries has evolved and gained prominence. This study aims to construct an extensive multidimensional FI index to ascertain the level of inclusion and trends in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) countries. Additionally, this study examines the potential role of Islamic finance in improving access to financial services.

Data for the study were collected from databases covering MENA countries for the period 2010–2020. An inclusion index has been constructed using the entropy method.

Key findings indicate that the overall FI has improved in Islamic countries. However, it should be noted that all MENA countries fall within the low or medium levels of the inclusion index. It was observed that insurance access and penetration savings were poor in the Islamic MENA countries.

The authors recommend that policymakers focus on insurance access and saving behaviour in their respective countries. Based upon these observations, policymakers should promote the economic benefits of Islamic finance, which will help improve FI and economic development in Islamic countries. This study emphasises the necessity of policy framework reform to provide Islamic financial services to the poorest in society at low or no cost for better economic benefits.

Most studies tend to overlook important indicators such as insurance, savings and credit penetration while calculating the index. These indicators add value to the existing literature. The majority of prior studies used United Nation Development Programme methodology or principal component analysis for Inclusion Index measurements. The adoption of the entropy weighting method is the novelty of this study.

Islamic microfinance is a substantial tool for poverty alleviation and economic empowerment. The paper aims at accessing the potential of Islamic microfinance for the purpose of achieving the economic empowerment in Tunisia.

A structured questionnaire survey method is used. The method is intended for some of the beneficiaries of Zitouna Tamkeen (ZT), the only Islamic microfinance institution in Tunisia. Responses are analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences program.

The authors infer that though the Islamic and conventional microfinance have similar objectives, the methods are different. What is more, the economic empowerment requires not only financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, but also skill development. The results of the survey reveal that ZT has contributed to certain economic empowerment of most of ZT's beneficiaries. In addition, the authors bring to the fore that providing supportive infrastructure and investment is a prominent component of the economic empowerment process.

In the paper, the sample is limited.

The authors have highlighted that some structural barriers to entrepreneurship – such as legal, operational and marketing challenges – need to be addressed in a practical way.

This paper establishes the relationship between the Islamic microfinance and economic empowerment. The current paper is the first investigation in this field in Tunisia.

This study aims to uncover the determinants of Islamic financial inclusion in Indonesia.

This study uses the analytic network process (ANP) to gather expert opinions and responses from academics, regulators and practitioners.

The ANP analysis discovered that the level of Islamic financial inclusion in Indonesia is influenced by two main drivers: the supply and the demand. The demand factors for Islamic financial inclusion, ranked based on their level of significance, are as follows: financial literacy (0.27), religious commitment (0.22), socioeconomic factor (0.19) and social influence (0.17), respectively. From the supply side, primary catalysts for Islamic financial inclusion based on their level of importance are human capital (0.32), product and services (0.24), infrastructure (0.18) and policies and regulation (0.17), respectively.

The present study does not include the Islamic insurance sector in its determinant framework of Islamic financial inclusion in Indonesia.

This study serves as a reference for regulators in formulating appropriate policy strategies to strengthen the Islamic financial inclusion in Indonesia.

This study is a pioneer attempt to identify distinctive factors that influence the level of Islamic financial inclusion in Indonesia by analyzing expert opinions from diverse groups of Islamic finance stakeholders.

This study aims to investigate how the Islamic banking share (percentage of total Islamic banking assets relative to total banking sector assets) and individual characteristics (gender, age, income and education) affect financial inclusion in 14 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries with different income levels.

This study uses data from the 2014 World Bank Global Findex database to analyze the impact of individual characteristics, Islamic banking share and countries’ developmental levels on financial inclusion and its barriers in MENA countries. The probit estimation method is used for estimations.

The findings indicate that financial inclusion, particularly in middle-income MENA countries, is lower than the global average. While being male, rich and older positively affects financial inclusion in these countries, education does not. Islamic banking practises also contribute to financial inclusion, especially for individuals with strong religious affiliations. The effect of Islamic banking on financial inclusion is found to be greater in middle-income MENA countries.

Islamic banking institutions could play a greater role in promoting financial inclusion in the MENA region by offering Sharia-compliant products that meet individuals’ needs, matching the specific requirements and status of each country with affordable costs and offering adequate information to customers. Governments should promote more Islamic banking and incentivise investments in technology, which helps expand financial inclusion.

This is the first study to examine the influence of Islamic banking share and countries’ levels of development on financial inclusion in the MENA region.