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This study aims to evaluate the role of the prevailing currency systems in achieving (or departing from) the socio-economic objectives of a progressive and just society; i.e. featuring stability and equitable distribution of wealth.

After documenting historical developments in currency systems, the study reviews the Islamic perspective on the matter. Features of an ideal currency system are listed and then a critical evaluation of existing currency systems – fiat, banking and cryptocurrency – is undertaken.

It is found that existing currency systems – fiat, banking and cryptocurrency – are not compatible with the socio-economic objectives of a forward-looking, progressive society, which upholds transparency and justice as its core values. The study documents that Sharīʿah norms have no preference or dislike for any of the existing currency systems. Any prudent currency system compatible with the objectives of the Islamic financial system (i.e. stability and equitable distribution of wealth) is acceptable. A single international reserve currency (with country-specific legal tendering) is subject to the risk of destabilisation across global markets.

This paper recommends autonomy of central banking, the spending of seigniorage for the welfare of community members, development of asset-backed currencies (following ṣukūk structures), as well as multiple international reserve currencies and joining of hands by professionals and Sharīʿah scholars to design a currency system compatible with the Islamic financial system. This paper’s recommendation is against the adoption of cryptocurrency that lacks the backing of real assets.

The study contributes to the literature by evaluating the compatibility of existing currency systems in the achievement of socio-economic objectives of a welfare state which seeks to uphold justice and equitable resource distribution as core values in the financial system.

A descriptive case study approach was adopted to examine employees' perceptions of the prevalence and usefulness of wellness programs. Relying on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health ScoreCard (CDC HSC), this study aims to assess the prevalence of worksite wellness programs, policies and benefits in general and incorporated employee perspectives to contextualize the CDC HSC wellness assessments.

The authors first compared the CDC HSC assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of wellness programs in 20 select organizations. Follow-up employee interviews (n = 25) were conducted to contextualize the CDC HSC assessments.

A variety of wellness programs are likely to increase employee engagement and participation when organizations adopt a bundling approach to combine wellness policies, incentives and an array of wellness programming opportunities that encourage and incentivize employees’ health promotion behaviors.

Future researchers might examine health metrics, in terms of dollars, doctor visits or biometrics before and after the implementation of a wellness program or paid wellness coordinator. Because this study interviewed employees and not members of executive leadership or finance and accounting, financial metrics were not available or the focus of this study. The inclusion of leaders and directors of wellness initiatives would offer additional ways for examining the impact of wellness initiatives on employee behaviors on organizational outcomes.

Nutrition, weight management and chronic disease management were identified as major challenges impacting the health of employees. Even when organizations reported robust scores in their CDC HSC assessments, employers identified these three areas as critical for sustaining the health and well-being of their employees. Finally, the issue of employee safety was a top priority for all organizations regardless of how they scored on their CDC HSC assessments.

The authors suggest that when high-impact wellness practices are linked to organizational supports in the workplace, these efforts are likely to have more positive effects on both employee outcomes and organizational outcomes. A regular routine of checking on wellness issues can help keep potential problems from going unnoticed. An example of this is a reminder to stretch at a morning meeting or during work hours as a reminder to stay focused on health and well-being.

The authors aggregated the organizational assessments for different wellness interventions and compared the scores (falling above or below) with standardized CDC wellness scores. The incorporation of the CDC scorecard ensured a standardized and evidence-based evaluation of workplace wellness programs. This additional step informed the interview guide and follow-up with employees who offered recommendations for how organizations could enhance their wellness programs and policies.

While it is essential to further research the growing diversity in western metropolitan cities, little is currently known about how the members of various ethnic communities acculturate to multicultural societies. The purpose of this paper is to explore immigrants’ cosmopolitanism and acculturation strategies through an analysis of the food consumption behaviour of ethnic consumers in multicultural London.

The study was set within the socio-cultural context of London. A number of qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, observation and photographs were used to assess consumers’ acculturation strategies in a multicultural environment and how that is influenced by consumer cosmopolitanism.

Ethnic consumers’ food consumption behaviour reflects their acculturation strategies, which can be classified into four groups: rebellion, rarefaction, resonance and refrainment. This classification demonstrates ethnic consumers’ multi-directional acculturation strategies, which are also determined by their level of cosmopolitanism.

The taxonomy presented in this paper advances current acculturation scholarship by suggesting a multi-directional model for acculturation strategies as opposed to the existing uni-directional and bi-directional perspectives and explicates the role of consumer cosmopolitanism in consumer acculturation. The paper did not engage host communities and there is hence a need for future research on how and to what extent host communities are acculturated to the multicultural environment.

The findings have direct implications for the choice of standardisation vs adaptation as a marketing strategy within multicultural cities. Whilst the rebellion group are more likely to respond to standardisation, increasing adaptation of goods and service can ideally target members of the resistance and resonance groups and more fusion products should be exclusively earmarked for the resonance group.

The paper makes original contribution by introducing a multi-directional perspective to acculturation by delineating four-group taxonomy (rebellion, rarefaction, resonance and refrainment). This paper also presents a dynamic model that captures how consumer cosmopolitanism impinges upon the process and outcome of multi-directional acculturation strategies.

Tourism on wellness is a rapidly expanding segment of the travel industry; nevertheless, it is still in its infancy, and more study research is needed to develop a scientific foundation for health and wellness tourism. The study uses bibliometric indicators like as citations to determine the field structure on wellness tourism from 1998 to 2021, and the VOSviewer software to map the significant trends in wellness tourism (WT) area, to examine the present situation.

To reach this objective, the theme of “wellness tourism” was searched in the “Scopus” database, and bibliometrics data on the publications were obtained. In total, 414 papers were found during the initial search, which was then narrowed according to the criteria. Using this strategy, the author discovered 386 records, and after removing 4 duplicates and 1 irrelevant document, the refining produced 381 related documents. The most-cited papers, significant authors, co-citation of references, sources and authors were all investigated for the publications related to WT.

According to this report, research into wellness tourism has increased in recent years. The authors discovered two papers with over 238 “Scopus” citations and a total of 10 studies with 1414 citations. According to Scopus, the document Napier et al. receives 36.5% of citations each year. There were a total of 804 authors who published about WT between 1998 and 2021, with Smith, M, Voigt, c, and Puczkó, L being the most-cited reference authors in the subject. Han h. has the highest index of 56 of all the authors.

The “Scopus” database was used for bibliometric analysis, although the VOSviewer was used exclusively. This considered as a first study to utilize a bibliometric method to address this research gap, identifying the tools, journals, and, most crucially, conceptual subdomains like spa, yoga, therapy, spirituality and trekking that will be significant in future research.

Using a bibliometric analytic approach, this article looked at papers on wellness tourism published between 1998 and 2021. Thus, its goal is to learn more about wellness tourism and to enlighten wellness tourism scholars on the field's structure.

This study aims to validate a potential synergistic venture between cash waqf (Islamic endowment) institutions (CWIs) and financial cooperatives (FCs) in the provision of affordable Islamic home financing (IHF) in Malaysia.

The study adopted semi-structured interviews with ten experts to validate the cash waqf-financial-cooperative-mushārakah mutanāqiṣah (CWFCMM) model. Thematic analysis technique was used to analyse the verbatim texts.

The findings show that the majority of the informants have positive perceptions of the potential of the CWFCMM model to provide financially affordable IHF products in Malaysia. Nevertheless, this study sheds light on the varying degrees of latent issues and challenges that might arise in the implementation of this model. For example, FCs need to practice the correct business model, implement good governance structures and employ the right people. Meanwhile, CWIs need to work on their accountability issues by publishing their audited accounts in mainstream newspapers, much like what is being done by non-governmental organisations such as the widely recognised Malaysian Medical Relief Society (MERCY Malaysia).

This study interviewed a small, industry-specific number of informants in generating its findings. Time and budget constraints are some of the limiting factors in carrying out the study. Because of these factors, the generalisation of the study’s findings will be limited.

First, the CWFCMM model offers an alternative, financially affordable IHF instrument to low- and middle-income households in Malaysia. Second, the involvement of third-sector institutions such as FCs and CWIs in the provision of IHF will reduce the burden of the government in its spending on home financing solutions for civil servants. Third, this model will harness the potential of waqf-based financing beyond the contemporary limited applications to mosques, graveyards and taḥfīẓ (Qurʾan memorization) schools.

This study presents an alternative IHF model that transcends the current institutional framework that is heavily dominated by Islamic commercial banks and government-owned home financing institutions. The study does not focus on a single third-sector institution but on an integration of at least two of them, CWIs and FCs, in implementing the IHF model.

The purpose of this study is to develop an empirically informed framework to analyze women empowerment and entrepreneurship, contextualized within a collective society.

The authors conducted 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs located in the United Arab Emirates to understand their entrepreneurial experiences and how they were empowered.

Findings suggest that the three aspects of power characterized as “positive” from within Rowlands’ distinctions (“power to”, “power with” and “power within”) dominate, as opposed to those emphasized in the literature (“power to” and “power over”). Findings include empowerment of the “me” (individual) also synergistically contributes to empowerment of the “we” (society), when considering empowerment within a collective society.

A psychology model was used as a basis to develop a Collective Empowerment Process Framework. This framework provides a fresh look at empowerment, allowing for explanations of how women in specific contexts experience empowerment and social change.

The innovation of cryptography technique and blockchain has made cryptocurrency an alternative medium of exchange due to its safety, transparency and cost effectiveness. But its main feature cannot be separated from the users who use cryptocurrency for their illegal transactions. There are several arguments related to the legality of cryptocurrency. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nature of cryptocurrency based on characteristics of money, legal perspective, economic perspective and Sharia perspective.

In this study, the methodology used is descriptive with a qualitative approach. The object of this research is cryptocurrency. The data are secondary data obtained from peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers review, working paper and Sharia consultant reports addressing the legality of cryptocurrency. The literature review analysis includes the following steps: material collection, descriptive analysis, discussion with people in Sharia competency and intuitive-subjective material evaluation.

Regarding the characteristic of money, cryptocurrency is acceptable. But in terms of the legal perspectives, cryptocurrency does not meet the criteria as currency. From the economic perspective, cryptocurrency does not fully meet the characteristic currency due to high price volatility, and from the Sharia perspective, cryptocurrency can be considered property (mal) but not as a monetary value (thamanniyah).

The research findings are based on the journal articles, working paper and Sharia consultant report, and it may lack Sharia’s opinion. Any further discussion related to Sharia perspectives will be a great input to enrich the study.

This study also includes the implications related to the opportunities and the risks of cryptocurrency that can be discussed for the development of the cryptocurrency in the future.

This study includes the implication cryptocurrency is using as nature of money and not as speculative instrument.

This study argued the legality of cryptocurrency in four perspectives such as the nature of money, legal, economy and Sharia perspective.

This study aims to define the parameters of the reward-risk principle in Islamic finance as established in the literature and discuss propositions that are presented on how such a principle is to be applied to Islamic banking products.

A descriptive approach is used to explore the normative parameters and criticisms of the application of reward-risk in Islamic finance.

The study finds that the principle of reward-risk is embodied in the multi-component concept of ʿiwaḍ (counter value) which must be evident in market transactions that involve commercial exchanges. The components include risk, costs, effort, value-adding and capital, all of which apply uniquely to different contractual forms of financing.

The study uses academic literature and industry documents along with modest contact with prominent practitioners who provided general feedback on prevalent Islamic finance industry practices.

This study exposits the variety of approaches in applying the reward-risk principle and sheds light on the primary elements of the principle which will facilitate its greater consideration by the Islamic finance industry.

This study is a meaningful attempt at conveniently summing up and applying the parameters that are considered when discussing the scope of the reward-risk principle in Islamic finance.

This study aims to measure and further compare the countries in terms of the achievement in the degree of financial inclusion over the study period and between income groups considering 26 nations from Asia for the period 2013-2017.

While measuring the degree of financial inclusion, the study prepares an index using weighted arithmetic mean and the inverse of the Euclidean distance method. Further, comparison between the study period and between the income groups has been made using the dependent samples t-test as well as the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and independent samples t-test, respectively.

The study extends empirical insights by laying out the ranks for the countries considered for each of the study periods individually as well as in terms of mean financial inclusion scores for the study period. Further, comparison in terms of mean financial inclusion scores shows significant differences between the income groups, whereas the differences between the study periods turn out to be non-significant.

Less availability of intended variables over time restricts the predictive capability of sketching the phenomena in a true sense and claims further an exhaustive research to pursue in the future.

With the declining trend except for 2016-2017 in the achievement of financial inclusion scores over time, the study suggests emphasizing the initiatives targeted to include the excluded within the ambit of the formal financial system, which somehow seems unstable.

The novelty of the study lies in the portrayal of a measure that seems representative of the scale for development with deeper insight.

In Malaysia, both Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) and Islamic co-operatives (ICs) provide mushārakah mutanāqiṣah (diminishing partnership) (MM) financing. It was initially a preferred contract as it is deemed to be more Sharīʿah-compliant and free from the element of ribā (interest) in comparison to other Sharīʿah-compliant sale contracts. Nevertheless, MM is now considered less appealing to IFIs due to its existing challenges. This paper aims to emphasise on MM as practiced by ICs which will highlight approaches to default, pricing of rental rates, profit sharing method and early settlement which differ to the practice of MM by IFIs.

This study focuses on Koperasi Pembiayaan Syariah Angkasa (KOPSYA), an IC based in Malaysia, which the authors concurred as being an ideal organisation to study on the matter due to its strong stance in promoting Sharīʿah-compliant financing products.

The research highlights the flexibility of MM implementation in KOPSYA to provide some insights on the rationale behind MM operations in KOPSYA.

The authors are hopeful that this paper will aspire further interest by giving the readers better understanding on the implementation of MM in KOPSYA and how it will benefit the customers.