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In this article, we examine the historical and cultural foundations of Nordic states’ strong contemporary social indicators to understand whether their successes can be replicated in other contexts.

We draw on a range of academic literature to frame a comparison of two regions’ cultural and theological roots, identifying contrasts to make arguments about prescriptions for contemporary welfare policy.

We find Nordic history contributes to a duty-based culture with strong cohesion and social trust. These cultural norms make palatable welfare policies with strong activation measures, while the US model prefers to avoid the latter because of its strong cultural orientation to rights and autonomy.

To mitigate differences between the Nordic states and other cultural contexts, policymakers seeking to replicate Nordic welfare successes should consider welfare programming that combines stronger activation policies with oversight and relational components that mitigate gaps in social cohesion.

We uniquely bring together the literature on comparative welfare policy and on religion and culture to understand the precursors of contemporary attitudes and their implications for welfare policy prescriptions.

This study aims to analyze the concept of Zakat as an instrument to increase the economy and poverty eradication in Indonesia.

This study used a qualitative method based on library research sourced from books, financial reports and another previous research.

The results show that the empowerment programs conducted by Zakat institutions in Indonesia are based on the scale of priorities and the potential of Mustahik. Zakat management considers the level of productivity and long-term impacts that improve Mustahik Economy. Thus, the empowerment programs lead to the reduction of Mustahik living below poverty line.

This study contributes in two ways: first, it analyzes a model to identify the Mustahik’s potential for the Zakat institution in Indonesia. Second, it encourages the awareness of Muzakki and Mustahik regarding the role of Zakat in the Indonesian economy. This is expected to prompt their level of participation in optimizing the potential of Zakat in Indonesia.

Given the scarce literature that provide qualitative and critical reviews of the implementation Zakat empowerment programs to alleviate poverty conducted by the Zakat institutions in Indonesia, this research can act as a bridge for future research in performing empirical studies regarding the impact of a Zakat empowerment program on society.

As populations are ageing and the global average life expectancy is rising, the provision of care for older people is an increasingly salient issue. This paper aims to focus on family-provided care for older immigrants, examining how older immigrants and care providers experience and construct family caregiving.

Based on interviews with care recipients, family care providers, municipal staff and representatives for migrant organisations in Sweden, this study presents a typology of family caregiving for older immigrants.

The authors found three caregiving types, namely, solely family-provided care and a combination of family care and public care (predominantly one or the other). The decision to select family-provided or publicly-funded care depends on personal and institutional factors.

The paper makes three empirical contributions to the literature on care provision for older immigrants. Firstly, this study provides insights into the structural and personal factors that shape care-giving arrangements for older immigrants. Secondly, this study examines the perspectives of care recipients and care providers on family-provided care. Care expectations differ between both groups and sometimes result in intergenerational disagreement. Thirdly, in terms of institutional support, this study finds that the Swedish state’s notion of individual needs does not match the needs of immigrant elderly and their caregivers. The paper places the care types in a broader discussion about eldercare provision in the Swedish welfare state, which has experienced a decline in publicly funded care services and an increase in family caregiving in the past 30 years. In addition, it addresses questions of dignified ageing from a minority perspective.

The halal cosmetics industry continues to grow significantly. Furthermore, using halal cosmetics is a must for Muslims. This study aims to analyze the factors influencing the switching intention to halal cosmetics in Indonesia.

This quantitative study uses a Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) on 214 respondents. The variables include halal certification, halal awareness, product image, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, attitude, advertisement and switching intention.

The product image plays the most influential role in deriving the attitude toward switching intention to halal cosmetics, following perceived behavioral control, halal awareness and subjective norm, but not halal certification and advertisement. The result indicates that the image of halal cosmetics influences customers’ attitudes toward switching to using halal cosmetics. Indonesian customers know the obligation to use halal products because they are Muslim. However, the existence of halal certification does not derive the switching intention to halal cosmetics.

This study conducts research only in Indonesia. As a recommendation, further studies might conduct a comparative test using multicultural respondents in several countries. Other studies also suggested examining factors of switching intention through different generational, especially in countries with high individualism traits.

This study will encourage the halal industry, especially the halal cosmetics industry, to pay more attention to the product image. Meanwhile, the government can provide incentives or rewards to promote industry participation in halal cosmetics. The findings provide a more detailed understanding of how product image can influence someone to switch to halal cosmetics.

Research on switching intention to halal cosmetics is still limited. This study uses halal variables, while previous studies only used religiosity. This study also introduced the product images motivating customers’ switching intention to use halal cosmetics.

The purpose of this paper is to explore two financial inclusion measures adopted within the local welfare context of the city of Milan, Italy, examining their functioning and underpinning representations. The aim is also to understand how such representations take concrete shape in the practices of local actors, and their implications for the opportunities and constraints regarding individuals' effective inclusion. To this end, this paper takes a wide-ranging look at the interplay between the rise of financial inclusion and the individualisation and responsibilisation models informing welfare policies, within the broader context of financialisation processes overall.

This paper draws on the sociology of public action approach and provides a qualitative analysis of two case studies, a social microcredit service and a financial education programme, based on direct observation and semi-structured interviews conducted with key policy actors.

This paper sheds light on the rationale behind two financial inclusion services and illustrates how the instruments involved incorporate and tend to reproduce, individualising logics that reduce the problem of financial exclusion, and the social and economic vulnerability which underlies it, to a matter of personal responsibility, thus fuelling depoliticising tendencies in public action. It also discusses the contradictions underlying financial inclusion instruments, showing how local actors negotiate views and strategies on the problems to be addressed.

The paper makes an original contribution to the field of sociology and social policy by focusing on two under-researched instruments of financial inclusion and improving understanding of the finance-welfare state nexus and of the contradictions underpinning attempts at financial inclusion of the most vulnerable.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a waqf-based microfinance program on clients’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study obtained primary data from a survey distributed to 282 respondents, consisting of 150 clients and 132 nonclients of the Bank Wakaf Mikro (BWM) Al Kausar in Indonesia. This study constructed a well-being index (WBI) and compared clients’ and nonclients’ WBI before and during the pandemic using the difference-in-differences (DID) method. DID measures the effect of a treatment in a “treatment group” versus a “control group” using data from two periods.

This study found that clients and nonclients alike experienced an increase in well-being throughout the pandemic, but the increase was greater for clients than for nonclients. This study argues that the waqf-based microfinance program run by Bank Waqf Mikro model can assist their clients – as more vulnerable groups in society – to maintain their well-being during the pandemic.

To ensure the effectiveness of waqf-based microfinance programs in diverse settings, this study should include more respondents from different institutions.

This research has several practical recommendations, particularly for integrating Islamic charity for microfinance. The findings of this study suggest that the BWM model, which combines three institutions – the government, zakat groups and Islamic boarding schools (pesantrens) – can play a substantial role in enhancing the welfare of its members during the pandemic.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge on Islamic microfinance by providing empirical evidence of the importance of waqf-based microfinance in reducing the pandemic’s impact on clients well-being.

Information opacity in donation crowdfunding activities has constrained the healthy development of China’s public welfare activities. Addressing the trust crisis and enhancing public engagement warrants further investigation. This study aims to uncover the moderating effect of activity transparency by utilizing data from 1,029 donation crowdfunding projects on the Sina Weibo Public Welfare Social Platform. In this way, we seek to elucidate the impact of donation crowdfunding events on fundraising ability.

This study selects text complexity, number of supporters, creator experience, and social capital as explanatory variables; innovatively selects the number of updates of online crowdfunding activities and total reading volume as moderating variables; selects the number of shares of crowdfunding activities as a mediating variable; and constructs a moderated mediation multiple regression model for fundraising ability.

Our findings indicate that independent variables, such as text complexity, number of supporters, and social capital, can significantly affect the dependent variable, fundraising ability. However, creator experience does not influence fundraising ability. Furthermore, social interaction has a mediating effect, whereas activity transparency has a reverse moderating effect. These results indicate that social interaction can enhance the fundraising ability of donation crowdfunding events. However, with an increase in information transparency, the fundraising ability of social media decreases.

The originality of this research is in clarifying the internal factors affecting fundraising ability through induction, making bold assumptions, and focusing on how social media’s effective interaction and activity transparency will affect public welfare crowdfunding fundraising ability.

This study aims to explore commonalities and differences between Islamic social finance (ISF) and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The study has adopted a qualitative library-based research method, and the secondary data is collected through the available literature on the topic.

This study concludes that the majority of SDGs are compatible with ISF. Moreover, it finds that the global ISF possesses adequate financial resources to assist Muslim majority nations in achieving some of the most critical and urgent SDGs on time.

The scope of this study is confined to examining the possible role of ISF in achieving many of the most pressing development goals aligned with the SDGs. To maintain coherence within the study’s focus, this paper makes no comparisons between the ISF and other types of endowments/charities.

This paper outlines an agenda for the ISF-led development strategy and makes some crucial recommendations on how the global ISF might potentially lead the charge of Islamic charities in achieving the SDGs in Muslim majority nations.

This paper adds original value to the available literature on the potential of ISF and SDGs in the arena of development. The paper analyses the role of ISF in achieving the SDGs.

The purpose of this study is to present an in-depth examination of stakeholder engagement processes in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from the perspective of NGO managers to enhance accountability and the effectiveness with which aid services are delivered. Specifically, demand-side (downward) accountability and the implications of an accountability system that is predominantly supply-side (upward) focused are explored.

This study draws on evidence gathered from 25 in-depth interviews with representatives of leading NGOs in Nigeria to explore and uncover the nature of stakeholder engagement and accountability processes in their respective organisations. This study shows prospects for entrenching organisational reform that balances power and influence that benefits the less economically powerful demand side of the stakeholders. A relevant aspect of stakeholder theory was used to frame the analysis.

The study reveals an overlay of a blanket engagement system and a seeming reluctance of NGOs to disclose critical information to the demand-side stakeholders (DSS), and suggests ways to meet sustainability demands and address the militating concerns. A perceived lack of understanding and prospects or outcomes of demand-side accountability are central to this; however, engagement outcomes that account for impact rather than output are explored and reported. The findings suggest that proper accountability involves adequate stakeholder engagement which is a prerequisite and paramount for sustainability.

This study primarily delineates NGO managers’ views on NGO engagement and accountability dynamics. Future research may explore the perspectives of downward stakeholders themselves. The study highlights the concern for NGOs to maintain a defined stakeholder engagement process that resists external forces that may impact on their operations and derail their mission, resulting in duplication of services.

The study shows the implications of donors’ influence on accountability practices which can be improved by re-structuring supply-side stakeholders to significantly include DSS accountability requirements in the key performance indicators of NGOs in developing countries. The authors present a nuanced perspective to aid delivery and access that ensures improved services and more effective, impactful and sustainable aid which is of practical relevance to NGOs and their accountability mechanism.

This study deepens the understanding of the dynamics of stakeholder engagement and accountability processes and shows that the most effective way to deploy aid funds to meet sustainability goals is to draw on the experiences and local knowledge of the DSS. This would require an effective and results-driven dialogue among all the stakeholders involved. The proposed engagement and management framework contribute to theory and practice by fostering multi-stakeholder cooperation, DSS accountability and the advancement of sustainable development

Knowledge transfer which refers to the communication of knowledge from a source so that it is learned and applied by a recipient has long been a challenge for knowledge management. The purpose of this study is to understand influencing factors of transactive memory system (TMS) and knowledge transfer.

Drawing on the theories of communication visibility, social distance and flow, this study develops a research model. Then, data are collected from users of the social media mobile App. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is employed to analyze data.

TMS is a valid second-order construct in the social media mobile app context, which is more reflected by credibility. Meanwhile, communication visibility and social distance each have positive effects on TMS which further has a positive effect on knowledge transfer. Flow has a positive effect on knowledge transfer.

Developers of the mobile App should carefully consider the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in supporting TMS and knowledge transfer. They should consider recommendation algorithm so that the benefit of communication visibility can be retained. They should design the feature to classify users based on similarity so as to stimulate users' feeling of close social distance. They should keep on improving features based on users' holistic experience.

This study incorporates the perspectives of communication visibility, social distance and flow to understand TMS and knowledge transfer, presenting a new lens for research.