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This chapter is about the role Islamic finance has been able to stay on the track of facing social–economical predicaments and on the way to sustainable development with the involvement of social prosperity. When trying to investigate the convergence between social finance and Islamic standards, what is argued is that a need for observing financial operations in the same way as prodevelopment theories arise. It is considered that in a holistic approach, which assumed a social justice as the basic ethic of the Islamic financial system, the final result tends to be more appropriate. One of the main elements that makes Islamic banking stand up in a high grade is maqasid al-Shari'ah due to its responsibility to assess social performance and apply new updated technologies for sustainable growth based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition to that, the situation is critically observed and the gap between ambitions functions and the reality in Islamic banking and finance is also pointed out to find some reconciliation between aspirations and facts. While its ancient foundations did point to the prospect of Islamic banking to serve as a major contributor to the social and economic development, the industry players of today have now been preoccupied with the profit-making objectives and financial performance rather than social banking. This chapter focuses on the role of Islamic finance as a breakthrough force and shows the way that this influence could shape the discussions of financial systems, so that economics follow, and ethical principles and become factors for the national economy to grow more robustness.

The objective is to develop a more effective model that simplifies and accelerates the news classification process using advanced text mining and deep learning (DL) techniques. A distributed framework utilizing Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) was developed to classify news headlines. This approach leverages various text mining and DL techniques on a distributed infrastructure, aiming to offer an alternative to traditional news classification methods.

This study focuses on the classification of distinct types of news by analyzing tweets from various news channels. It addresses the limitations of using benchmark datasets for news classification, which often result in models that are impractical for real-world applications.

The framework’s effectiveness was evaluated on a newly proposed dataset and two additional benchmark datasets from the Kaggle repository, assessing the performance of each text mining and classification method across these datasets. The results of this study demonstrate that the proposed strategy significantly outperforms other approaches in terms of accuracy and execution time. This indicates that the distributed framework, coupled with the use of BERT for text analysis, provides a robust solution for analyzing large volumes of data efficiently. The findings also highlight the value of the newly released corpus for further research in news classification and emotion classification, suggesting its potential to facilitate advancements in these areas.

This research introduces an innovative distributed framework for news classification that addresses the shortcomings of models trained on benchmark datasets. By utilizing cutting-edge techniques and a novel dataset, the study offers significant improvements in accuracy and processing speed. The release of the corpus represents a valuable contribution to the field, enabling further exploration into news and emotion classification. This work sets a new standard for the analysis of news data, offering practical implications for the development of more effective and efficient news classification systems.

By any count or criterion, Pakistan is a national security state. It always was. The country has fought four wars with India, and it continues to suffer the devastating consequences of confrontation with its formidable neighbor – India; it has been put under siege for more than 40 years by the terrorist and religious extremist groups; it has suffered long spells of military rule; its political structure remains fragile; its civil society organizations are vulnerable, weak, and toothless; and its media, universities, research institutes, and judiciary are under huge stress. Given the state of affairs, the realization is rather slow to grow that human development strengthens national power and national security much more than weapons. It is in this context that a study on food insecurity in Pakistan has been undertaken. It aims to explain as to how a predominantly agricultural country has been reduced into a food resource poor country, and how has the neglect of social, economic, and cultural sectors made Pakistan more insecure. This study covers a number of related issues as well, but it mainly looks for answer to two questions: first, should food insecurity be studied in isolation as a separate issue or as a part of the larger issue of governance, security, and people; and second, isn't there a need to drastically restructure the economic, political, and security landscape and framework to significantly diminish poverty, illiteracy, and food insecurity in the country?

Extant literature investigating the tax payment behaviour of politically connected firms largely supports the notion that politically connected firms have tax sheltering incentives, i.e. politically connected firms pay significantly less tax. Our paper adds to this stream of literature by considering the tax payment behaviour of two different groups of politically connected firms in Pakistan, viz. civil connected firms and military connected firms.

The paper sheds light on the tax payment behaviour of politically connected firms and provides evidence that the tax incentives of politically connected firms are shaped by the institutional structure and contextual factors.

The results indicate that civil (military) connected firms pay significantly lower (higher) tax than non-connected firms. The findings hold in the face of a number of robustness tests, including the use of alternative proxies for the tax variable and endogeneity concerns.

These results make a significant contribution to the existing literature examining the tax payment behaviour of politically connected firms by providing evidence suggesting that tax sheltering is not the only viable option for politically connected firms; rather, some groups of connected firms have tax under-sheltering incentives. Our findings add to the political cost hypothesis and the signalling hypothesis in relation to tax payment incentives of politically connected firms.

The concept of smart city has been adopted by various cities across the world. As urbanization is enlarging at a flying pace, the number of cities that engage the smart city concept is to rise, including in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. This chapter discusses issues related to the development of (Islamic) smart cities in the GCC countries to create sustainable well-being through ecological and environmental resilience. This issue starts from the conflict between economic and human development on the one hand and ecological and environmental resilience on the other hand as one of the fundamental challenges of sustainable development. The higher the Human Development Index (HDI),, the higher the ecological footprint. Likewise, in the GCC region, all member countries are classified as Very High Human Development; however, all of these countries have a high ecological footprint. Therefore, through a literature study, this chapter focuses on investigating the development of (Islamic) smart cities in the GCC countries in reducing ecological footprints through a circular economy innovation with the support of technology and a digitally-enabled community in creating ecological and environmental resilience. This chapter provides valuable insight into the implementation of the (Islamic) smart cities in the GCC region in taking a global strategic role in green transition through the circular economy to transform their region toward sustainable well-being and become a symbol of sustainable smart global Islamic civilization.

There is a dearth of evidence on how and when perceived corporate social responsibility (PCSR) contributes to brand evangelism in the consumer behavioural literature, especially during a pandemic situation. In an attempt to examine this phenomenon, this study investigates the effect of fear-of-COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) and regional identity on PCSR and brand evangelism effect in the South Asian retail context. It theorises linkages mainly from behavioural inhabitation system theory and social identity theory.

A survey was administered to a representative sample of 2,242 retail consumers representing Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India.

The results revealed a positive impact of PCSR on brand evangelism, but interestingly varying levels of strength of the key relationships based on country-wise fear-of-COVID-19 and regional identity during the pandemic.

For the first time, the results of this research shed light on incorporating consumers’ regional identity as well as consumer fear as cultural predictors for better explaining the PCSR and brand evangelism link of nations within a region. This has implications for both theory and practice in the domain of consumer behaviour.

The study reflects its originality by revealing the relevance of country level social identity and negative emotions of nations that can manipulate the business results of corporate ethical responsiveness from a consumer culture theory perspective, especially during and just after a crisis. These results underlie what is active inside consumer black box by explaining as to what external stimuli drive consumer collective and moral mind set in a given culture. This adds to the body of knowledge on ethical consumption behaviour more specific to consumer–brand interaction in market crises.

As the world advances towards a sustainable and more environmentally friendly future, the need for protecting the environment becomes more and more apparent in every area. The tourist business has seen remarkable expansion, making a considerable contribution to the worldwide Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Nevertheless, this expansion has coincided with an increase in the release of greenhouse gases and the deterioration of natural ecosystems. In order to tackle these difficulties, there is an increasing acknowledgment of the need for a fundamental change in approach towards implementing sustainable tourism practices. This chapter analyses the present state of tourism and its contribution to the increase of carbon footprints. It also investigates possible remedies, including the implementation of environmentally friendly hotels, the use of cleaner energy sources, and the adoption of ideas from the circular economy. In addition, by using bibliometric analysis, the chapter offers valuable information on current research patterns in sustainable tourism, such as prominent authors, nations, keywords, and topics. This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state and future potential of sustainable tourism. It is a vital reference for policymakers, academics, and industry professionals, offering guidance on how to develop a more sustainable and resilient tourist business.

The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by researching the direct effects of media and personal characteristics on online participation in climate change, indirect effects when mediated by interpersonal communication and personal characteristics as predictors of media communications as sources of information about climate change.

A structured questionnaire is distributed to collect data about the uses of communication sources and online responses toward climate change by using a quota sampling technique. The structural equation modeling by using Smart PLS 4 is used to explore the effects’ size.

Small levels of direct and indirect effects are found. Direct effects are found in online newspapers, YouTube, television news, personal relevance toward climate change and political interest in online participation in climate change. Indirect effects are found of WhatsApp on online climate participation through interpersonal communication. Personal relevance toward climate change has motivated respondents to take information about climate change from Facebook. Climate skepticism is found among respondents who have received information from television news/talk shows, printed newspapers and WhatsApp.

University teachers in Pakistan will have to work on educational strategies to increase the knowledge of university students about energy generation through carbon and renewable energy sources.

The results of this study highlight the communicative-cultural dimensions of online discourse about climate change in the context of the less-researched country of Pakistan. This is the first study of researchers’ knowledge that comprehensively defines the digital media ecology in the context of climate change considering Pakistan.

Many studies have explored the relationship between green human resource management practices (GHRM) and employees’ green creative behavior (EGCB) within the hospitality industry. However, most prior studies have relied primarily on mono-method approaches, thereby limiting the depth of understanding about the underlying mechanism through which GHRM impacts employee behavior. The authors, in this paper, aim to argue that the connection between GHRM cannot be universal, and some individual factors will act as boundary conditions between these relationships. The authors employ a mixed-methods research design to address this gap to identify potential boundary conditions.

The authors adopted a two-phase approach, integrating qualitative (study 1) and quantitative (study 2) methodologies. Through qualitative research, the authors uncover valuable insights and construct a framework that is subsequently tested in the quantitative phase.

The findings suggest that the strength of the GHRM-EGCB relationship is contingent on the level of Environmental Specific Psychological Empowerment (ESPE) among employees. Employees with a higher degree of ESPE exhibit a stronger connection between GHRM perceptions and EGCB. Furthermore, the authors identify employees’ altruistic values (EAV) as an important moderator, indicating that the intervening effect of ESPE on the GHRM-EGCB relationship is particularly pronounced among employees with high levels of altruism.

By unmasking the complexity through a mixed-methods design, this study contributes to the existing literature by providing a more nuanced understanding of the mechanism between GHRM and green creative behavior.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) can revolutionize higher education by allowing students to pursue their academics easily and comfortably. When this becomes a celebration for students as they get access to information with a click, it also points out the massive impact it can create on academic ethics and responsibility. Most of the research reveals that the results or information generated by these tools, like ChatGPT, sometimes are more general or even false. Are students aware of issues in using tools that align with the integrity of their work? The role and responsibility of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is to nurture AI literacy in students so that they can use AI tools appropriately for maximum efficiency and capabilities. This study was conducted to primarily understand students' psychological attitudes and beliefs towards using generative AI tools. Secondly, it examined the ethical and moral values the students could consider when applying generative AI tools. A survey of undergraduate students from HEIs all over Oman was conducted using a Five Point Likert Scale, and the collected survey data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and thematic analysis for open ended questions. According to the respondents, GAI can bring scientific and technological progress in education but not much likely to change their behaviour and bring intellectual advancement. The study could also discover a high sense of moral and ethical values among the respondents while using GAI in education. This research study could form a base to embark on initiating generative AI governance in HEIs of Oman.