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Microfinance emerged as an essential catalyst for socio-economic development and financial inclusion to reduce poverty. Microfinance institutions cannot meet their primary objective of poverty reduction if they are not sustainable financially. With the theoretical support of profit incentive theory, this paper aims to investigate the impact of organizational structure (OS), growth outreach (average loan per borrower [ALPB] and number of active borrowers), women empowerment (percentage of women borrowers [PWB]), liquidity, leverage and cost efficiency (cost per borrower) on the financial sustainability of microfinance providers (MFPs) in India and explore the possible moderating effect of the national governance indicators (NGIs).

A financial sustainability index has been developed by using principal components analysis, including both conventional measures (return of assets and return on equity) and efficiency measures (operational self-sufficiency and financial self-sufficiency). Due to the existence of endogeneity and heteroskedasticity, this study uses two-step system generalized method of moments estimates to examine the relationships for a period of 2006 to 2018.

The finding reveals that there is a strong significant relationship between financial sustainability and its influential factors. Organizatioanl Structure, loan size, women borrowers, Gross Domestic Products and inflation enhance the financial sustainability of India’s microfinance sector. However, a number of borrowers, liquidity, leverage and operating costs negatively affect the financial sustainability of MFPs of India. The estimates demonstrate that NGIs significantly moderate the association between financial sustainability and its influential factors. The NGIs negatively affect the positive impact of Organizatioanl Structure on financial sustainability. National governance increases the positive effect of loan size (ALPB) and reduces the negative effect of a number of borrowers and leverage on the financial sustainability of MFPs of India. However, NGIs negatively affect the positive relationship between Percentage of Women Borrowers and Financial sustainability of Microfinance Providers of India.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that incorporates all of the six dimensions of the National Governance Indicators (NGIs) and uses as a moderator. Secondly, a financial sustainability index has been developed for measuring the financial sustainability of Microfinance Providers (MFPs).

The available research works dealing with Halal food are centrally concerned with the Halal certification, logistics, export market, consumer awareness and business ethics with minimal study explores Muslim consumers’ purchase behaviour of Syubhah semi-processed food. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between Muslim consumers’ knowledge on the wholesomeness, labelling, trust and purchase behaviour of Syubhah semi-processed food.

The study respondents are Muslim consumers in the semi and rural areas. Through a self-administered survey, 780 usable responses were successfully collected. The study hypotheses were analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling. Mediation analyses were conducted, focusing on the effect of trust on the relationship between consumer knowledge on the wholesomeness, labelling and purchase behaviour of Syubhah semi-processed food.

This study confirms that lack of knowledge on the wholesomeness and labelling among the semi and rural Muslim consumers influences them to purchase the Syubhah semi-processed food. Trust significantly plays a significant mediation role on the consumer Syubhah semi-processed food purchase behaviour.

This study confirms there is lack of knowledge among the semi and rural Muslim consumers on Syubhah semi-processed food. Such pessimistic indications of Syubhah food products carry varying consequences and implications for Muslim consumers, Halal food producers and the relevant religious authorities.

Regular monitoring of bacteria, especially Escherichia coli, in wastewater is crucial to ensure the maintenance of public health. Amperometric detection proves to be a fast, sensitive and economically viable solution for E. coli enumeration. This paper reported a prototype amperometric sensor based on PANI-ZnO-NiO nanocomposite thin films prepared by sol–gel method and irradiated with gamma ray. The purpose of this study is to investigate the sensor performance of PANI-ZnO-NiO nanocomposite thin films to detect E. coli in water.

The films were varied with different compositions of ZnO and NiO by using the formula PANI-(ZnO)_1-x-(NiO)_x, with x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8. PANI-ZnO-NiO nanocomposite thin films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the crystallinity and surface morphology of the films. The sensor performance was conducted using the current–voltage (I-V) measurement by testing the films in clean water and E. coli solution.

XRD diffractograms show the peaks of ZnO (1 0 0) and NiO (1 0 2). AFM analysis shows the surface roughness, and the grain size of PANI-ZnO-NiO thin films decreases when the concentration ratios of NiO increased. I-V curves show the difference in current flow, where the current in E. coli solution is higher than the clean water.

PANI-(ZnO)_1-x-(NiO)_x nanocomposite thin film with the highest concentration of ZnO performed the highest sensitivity among the other concentrations, which can be used to indicate the presence of E. coli bacteria in water.

This study aims to examine the impacts of Shariah-compliant products, value-added benefits, mortgage repayment policy and well-versed bankers on the consumer acceptance of Islamic home financing. These variables, thereafter, are called the “critical success factors” (the CSFs) for Islamic home financing.

Guided by the Islamic theory of consumer behaviour (ITCB), this study intends to propose the specific CSFs that ensure consumer acceptance of Islamic home financing a success. The term success refers to consumers’ willingness to take up the facility. A questionnaire survey was conducted to elicit responses pertinent to the level of agreement/disagreement of the CSFs. A total of 460 respondents usable responses were obtained and analysed accordingly.

The results obtained indicate that Shariah-compliant products, value-added benefits, mortgage repayment policy and well-versed bankers are instrumental to influence the consumer acceptance of Islamic home financing.

Like other works, this study has confined its context to capture only a limited geographical area, and the study’s contributions are restrained to the variables analysed to a specific context of Islamic home financing in Malaysia.

The results obtained can become as a yardstick to measure the consumer acceptance of Islamic home financing.

New proposed CSFs can help to address the new demand of Islamic home financing accordingly, where a new area of improvement is brought into play. This study also extends the applicability of the ITCB to include Islamic home financing products.

The Asian crisis, which exploded in Thailand in July 1997 initially, spilled to the other ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines) and later it spreads to Korea and even crossing the continent to Russia and Brazil. The chronological pattern seems to indicate the contagious behaviour of the crisis. However, the sequential economic down‐turns that occurred in the Asia Pacific do look like a contagion effect. The idea that currency speculators contributed to the depth of the crisis is agreeable but to conclude that they are the roots of the problem would be misleading. This paper argued that the roots of the problems lie in current account deficit and loss of competitiveness, and moral hazard and over‐investment This paper also argued that the currency crisis is a symptom and not the cause of the Asian crisis.

The non-existence of the corporate governance (CG) concept for practices by non-financial medium-sized firms (MSFs) in Nigeria informed. This study aims to determine whether CG practices influence firms’ performance and whether sustainability initiative (SI) mediates the relationship between CG and MSFs’ performance in Nigeria.

A total of 300 firms were selected on convenience sampling basis from South Western Nigeria using a structured questionnaire. The authors used Statistical Package for Social Sciences for exploratory data analysis and hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

The results show that CG has a significant positive effect on performance [financial performance (FNP) and non-financial performance (NFP)] and SI. SI has a mixed impact on performance, e.g. a significant positive impact on NFP but insignificant negative impact on FNP. Similarly, SI has a combined mediating effect in the relationship between CG and performance, e.g. fully mediates CG → NFP and does not mediate CG → FNP. Firms are to invest in social and environmental initiatives substantially. CG codes will complement the International Financial Reporting Standards for MSFs.

This study supports the assumptions of theories (institutional, stakeholder and agency) as the basis for the usage of multiple approaches to determine the outcome of hypotheses, especially in developing climes.

The study contributes to CG and performance literature by examining the mediating effects of SI. The paper also shows the necessity to emphasise NFP aspect. Policymakers should evolve CG codes to encourage stakeholders to believe more in the corporate existence of MSFs for strengthening capital-base and quality personnel engagement.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first empirical attempts showing the evidence on the relationship between CG and NFP in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of intellectual capital (IC) on the performance of Malaysian automotive manufacturing firms. It also examines the role of strategic thinking (ST) as a moderating variable in the relationship between IC and performance in these firms.

This study used a quantitative approach, with an initial sample of 228 firms in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the study hypotheses.

The results of the PLS-SEM analysis are as follows: Human capital (HC) and relational capital (RC) have significant effect on performance, but not structural capital (SC). ST has no moderating effect on the relationship between RC or SC and performance although it does moderate the relationship between performance and HC.

Together with the government, CEOs hold responsibility for ensuring that organizations practice effective ST and IC. With the assistance of government, CEOs should exert every effort to be leaders in this matter. In addition, CEOs of automotive manufacturing firm should reduce their emphasis on classical ways of managing organizations processes.

The findings offer guidance to automotive firms considering how to develop IC and ST to improve performance, especially in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

This is the first study to examine the moderating effect of ST on the relationship between IC and performance worldwide.

The purpose of this study is to examine the critical success factors (CSFs) for the receptiveness of Islamic home financing in Malaysia.

A framework of the CSFs for the receptiveness of Islamic home financing is developed. The framework evaluates the effects of product type, competitive value proposition, Islamic debt collection policy, Islamic bankers' knowledge and maqasid al-Shariah compliance on the receptiveness. Data from 744 usable questionnaires are analysed to confirm the applicability of the framework in Islamic home financing context.

The results suggest that product type, competitive value proposition, Islamic debt collection policy, Islamic bankers' knowledge and maqasid al-Shariah compliance are significantly related to the receptiveness of Islamic home financing.

Two limitations are available for future studies. Firstly, the respondents of this study are limited to Malaysians, signifying further testing of the proposed model across different geographies is required to determine the generalisability of the model. Secondly, the contributions of the proposed framework are confined to a specific area of Islamic banking products. Thus, extending the framework to other banking products or conducting a comparative study between Islamic home financing and its conventional peer can improve its generalisability.

The results obtained offer a fresh direction on how to market Islamic home financing products successfully, where the new CSFs are brought into play.

This study examines the new proposed CSFs for the receptiveness of Islamic home financing in Malaysia.

This study aims to see the moderating effect of board diversity on the relationship between ownership structure and real earnings management.

This study uses unbalanced panel data of 75 listed energy firms (346 firm-year observations) from three South Asian emerging economies (Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan) from 2015 to 2019. The two-step system GMM estimation is used for data analysis. This study also uses fixed effect regression to obtain robust findings.

The findings show that firms with a greater ownership concentration and managerial ownership significantly reduce real earnings management. In contrast, the data refute the idea that institutional and foreign ownership affect real earnings management. We also find that board diversity interacts significantly with ownership concentration and managerial ownership, meaning that board diversity moderates the negative link of the primary relationship that reduces real earnings management. On the other hand, board diversity has no interaction with institutional and foreign ownership, implying no moderating effect exists on the primary relationship.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is unique research investigating how different ownership structures affect real earnings management in the emerging nations’ energy sector, which the earlier studies overlook. More specifically, this research focuses on how board diversity moderates the relationships between ownership structure and real earnings management, which could be helpful for future investors.