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This paper aims to identify Islamic influence on customer satisfaction in Pakistan Takaful and conventional insurance industry. Specifically, it analyses the vital role of Shari’ah perception in achieving higher customer satisfaction.

The data from 400 customers of both the family Takāful and life insurance (200 each) were collected. Further, the regression-based bootstrapping approach was applied through process macro developed by Hayes (2013).

The results indicate that a higher Shari’ah perception positively affects the customer satisfaction in the Takaful industry with improved service and relationship quality; whereas, it negatively affects customer satisfaction in case of the conventional insurance. Further, it has been found that customer satisfaction partially mediates the customer switching intentions in both the Takaful and conventional insurance industry in the presence of service quality and relationship quality.

This research will enable the practitioners to understand the factors that affect customer satisfaction in Pakistan. It has the essential policy and managerial implications for the growth of the Takaful and conventional insurance industry.

This is one of the pioneer studies investigating the impact of Islamic influence (specifically Shari’ah perception) on customer satisfaction in both the Takaful and conventional insurance industry in Pakistan.

This paper aims to provide an analysis on how takaful operators choose, which takaful model to adopt when managing their insurance operations.

The research uses a qualitative methodology and uses the Kingdom of Bahrain as a case study. A single/holistic case study design is used to holistically analyse how a takaful operator chooses which takaful model to adopt when managing its insurance operations.

The results reveal that generally, takaful operators adopt either the hybrid wakala-mudharaba or wakala model of takaful, depending on whether a takaful operator is managing/investing the participants’ general or family fund, respectively.

As the empirical data and results pertain to one jurisdiction, it may be difficult to generalize the empirical findings upon other jurisdictions.

This research may have contributed to knowledge by adding to literature empirical data and results in relation to takaful in the Kingdom of Bahrain that may have not previously existed in literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis on whether takaful operators actually maintain separated and segregated accounts between the operator and participants’ funds, thereby conforming to Shariah compliance requirements or not.

The research uses a qualitative methodology by analysing secondary data relating to two takaful operators in each of the jurisdictions of the Kingdoms of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

The findings generally reveal that the financial statements and Shariah Supervisory Board annual reports of the takaful operators in the Kingdom of Bahrain confirm the Shariah-required maintenance of separate accounts between the operator and participants, as well as reveal transparency-related issues and Shariah governance weaknesses for takaful operators in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Generalizing based on a single case study may affect the accuracy of the findings. It may also be argued that qualitative researches are generally considered as less valid than quantitative researches.

This research may have provided empirical data that did not previously exist in the literature.

This study aims to develop and estimate the Musharaka demand and supply model for full-fledged Islamic banks to explore patterns and stability of Musharaka equilibrium in the market.

This quantitative study uses a deductive approach to explore financial statement-level data of 30 Islamic banks of six countries between 2012 and 2017.

The results show that the Musharaka market is stable when Musharaka demand is purchase price elastic and supply is sale price inelastic. It indicates that the current banking industry is unable to increase supply when there is an increase in Musharaka returns. In comparison, industry demand for Musharaka is increasing at a higher rate, corresponding to a decrease in Musharaka price.

This study is fundamental in estimating the market stable market returns and market quantity of Musharaka financing. If market returns and quantity deviate, market forces will push it to equilibrium.

The theoretical and empirical studies worked on the application and suitability of Musharaka financing. However, they failed to explain demand and supply forces in determining the level of Musharaka financing in the economy using empirical data. Without an equilibrium model, policymakers would be unable to predict the movement of the Islamic stock market index (the price of Musharaka financing) and the incidence of Musharaka financing. Further, it is not possible to apply expansionary intervention by policymakers if the stability of the market is unknown.

This study aims to compare the nexus between donations to Islamic and conventional microfinance institutions (MFIs) and their credit risk, financial performance and social outreach.

The authors use fixed effects and two-step system generalized methods of moments models with internal instrumentation. The analysis is conducted on an international sample of 1,519 MFIs in 55 countries during 1999–2019.

Islamic MFIs receiving greater donations experience an increase in credit risk, whereas the opposite occurs among their conventional counterparts. Donations are associated with an improvement in the depth of outreach of Islamic MFIs, allowing them to serve a poorer client base, despite a simultaneous decline in the breadth of their outreach. On the other hand, donations improve both the depth and breadth of conventional MFIs outreach. Donations also exhibit a positive relation with productivity, efficiency and sustainability in conventional MFIs.

This paper addresses a gap in the literature on Islamic MFIs and their use of donor funds by examining how donations contribute to the quality of their credit portfolios, financial performance and social outreach. This study used Ahmed’s (2012, 2017, 2020, 2021) total factor productivity model to capture the impact of donations on the performance of MFIs.

Donations are found to contribute to positive financial inclusion outcomes for both Islamic and conventional MFIs, a promising implication for society and donors alike.

This paper addresses a gap in the academic literature on Islamic MFIs and their use of donor funds by examining how donations contribute to the quality of their credit portfolios, financial performance and social outreach.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of Islamic microfinance on poor households through the case of the IKSAR Qard al-Hasan Program in Turkey. To achieve this aim, it examined the changes in the socio-economic status of beneficiaries before and after the program.

This paper adopts the convergent parallel mixed method design. It conducted two surveys to micro-entrepreneurs: the first is when they received the loan and the second is when they finished their installments. In addition to the longitudinal data obtained from these two surveys, qualitative data were collected by participant observation and interview technique with visiting these people periodically throughout the interest-free loan (qard al-hasan).

According to the results obtained from the analysis of the pre- and post-surveys, a statistically significant increase of 35% was experienced in the monthly household income after receiving the qard al-hasan loan compared to before. Similarly, a statistically significant increase was found in the monthly expenditures of 23 out of 30 households after receiving the qard al-hasan.

There are two originalities of this study. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first research that examines the only Islamic microfinance program in Turkey. Second, it uses longitudinal data while examining the impact of Islamic microfinance on the welfare of the poor. In the relevant literature, no study has been identified that uses longitudinal data in Islamic microfinance. Similarly, a limited number of longitudinal studies examine the impact of conventional microfinance institutions on the poor.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the possible gaps in the Sharīʿah governance, and suggest how to fill the same, in line with the principles of Islamic finance and the global developments regarding social and value-based financial intermediation.

The paper uses secondary data gathered through analysis of documents and regulations to portray the current Sharīʿah governance framework and to suggest a unique paradigm to be adopted by the regulators of Islamic financial institutions.

The paradigm encompassing value-oriented financial ecosystem would need a comprehensive set of discipline, accountability and governance for making the pursuit of sustainable development goals and corporate social responsibilities effective in a well-defined schedule prepared and implemented by the regulators.

The scope of this research is limited to theory building in the light of emerging trends in responsible and social finance. It is not to empirically test the impact of the governance framework in terms of social justice, corporate responsibility and sustainability.

It would help the policy makers, regulators, researchers and the practitioners in finance to align banking and finance with social and environmental responsibility, and equity through governance and accountability for realizing the sustainable development goals.

It links the regulatory approaches to the emerging paradigm and ecosystem comprising sustainability and value-based governance, awareness and corporate social responsibility.

The paper adds value to the current regulatory frameworks enabling the Islamic financial institutions to realize the economic, social and sustainability objectives, in addition to Shariah legitimacy and enhanced credibility.

The main purpose of this study is to experiment with interest-free microfinance (IFMF) products and investigate the factors affecting IFMF institutions.

This study uses both quantitative and qualitative data types that will be collected through questionnaires, secondary data, interviews and experimental tests to answer key questions. The collected data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis ANOVA. This study determines the factors affecting the default rate of Islamic microfinance (MF) products, and evaluates the repayment performance of IFMF products using field experiments.

The participants found that the repayment performance level is higher than that of Qard Al-Hassan, which shows that it is one of the best mechanisms to reduce the default rate among borrowers. It has been observed that women have higher repayment performance than men, and those with different income sources have higher repayment performance levels than those who do not. This study showed that the effects of age, marital status and educational status on the repayment performance level of the participants were not statistically significant. In addition, it was shown that the participants’ status of having or not having children did not have a significant effect on the level of repayment performance.

This study differs from other studies in two ways. First, in terms of field experimentation, this study focuses on the practical impact of IFMF products on customer reimbursement performance. Second, this study tested different demographic variables that could affect the reimbursement performance.

Despite being a Muslim-dominated country, Bangladesh has widely embraced traditional microfinance since its inception in the mid-1970s. However, Islamic microfinance, which has a lot to offer to the poor, is still in its infancy and has yet to gain momentum in the country. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of Islamic microfinance and propose alternative Shariah-compliant microfinance models in Bangladesh.

This study is based on the desk research method, which relies on existing literature to collect secondary data on key concerns of traditional microfinance programs. In addition, institutional-level secondary data were also collected from the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) of Bangladesh. Guided by the Maqasid-al-Shariah, this study then proposes several Islamic microfinance models to overcome selected challenges faced by the microfinance industry in Bangladesh.

This study suggested three composite Shariah-compliant microfinance models, which are likely to help the underprivileged and thus ensure the achievement of the sustainable development goals in Bangladesh. The first model explained how the operational strategy of incumbent microfinance institutions (MFIs) could be restructured, while the second proposed the organizational strategies for establishing a new MFI. The third model used the notion of Sadaqah (charity) to address the multiple borrowing issues of the industry. Meanwhile, the successful transformation of the conventional microfinance industry to an Islamic one is dependent on the effective collaboration between the regulatory authorities, practitioners and MFIs.

Albeit the paucity of literature on the topic, the findings of this study will guide policymakers/practitioners in designing relevant microfinance models to help transform conventional microfinance into Islamic microfinance in Bangladesh.

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.