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The study aims to discuss the special needs-centric information delivery as a new genre of the academic library services. It also sheds light on the assistive technology used to help blind or visually impaired (BVI) students to access the available digital contents and use online services conveniently. A particular emphasis placed on gaining some insights into BVIs’ perceptions towards the orientation and assistance offered by the access service librarians, as well as any experience in using assistive educational technology for reading and information access.

The authors used semi-structured interview survey to gather the necessary data from 35 BVI university students drawn from the Special Needs Services (SNS) Unit at the UAE University. The interview was concerned with use of library e-resources and online services for doing their assignments, easy-to-use facilities to access the e-resources and main challenges facing them in communicating with the librarians.

The findings revealed that the BVI students considered that the university library does not answer their needs for getting access to digital content and using online services adequately.

The Main Library should cooperate closely with the SNS Unit to get the most benefits from their experience in the BVI-devoted services to develop an efficient library information discovery and delivery to this student group.

There is scarcity of scholarly studies on the pedagogical and information acquisition challenges facing the BVI university students in the UAE higher education. This is the first research study that tackles the experience of the BVI students in using the academic library.

This paper aims to develop an instrument that helps in managing liquidity. Liquidity is one of the most critical issues to be considered by the financial management of the business firms to meet its financial obligations. It is more vital for banks because of the liquid nature of its assets and liabilities, along with the fact that the confidence in the bank and degree of risk depends heavily on liquidity as an indicator of its wellbeing. Islamic banks (IBs) look at the liquidity issue from the same side as the traditional banks. IBs – the most apparent Islamic financial institution – suffered from the problem of not benefiting from the lender of last resort that Central Banks (CBs) offer to traditional banks because IBs cannot borrow from the CBs at interest. The experience of Institution(s) offering Islamic Financial Services[1] (IIFS) regarding the establishment of Islamic money markets did not show a tangible success instead of the early studies done by some scholars. In spite of the rich experience of some countries in creating new money market instruments or configuration of the interest-based ones according to Islamic - Sharī’ah[2], the designs of these instruments have many limitations in terms of their tradability and flexibility, restricting their use for open-market operations by CBs.

The purpose of calculating the time weighted debt units (TWDUs) is to find the equivalent amount of money that the supplier can borrow to the lender in the future for a maturity that differs from the first credit contract. It is a swap between an amount of credit for a particular period of time and another amount for another period. The scheme are called traditionally as reciprocal (mutual) loans, reciprocal (mutual) deposits, swapped conditional loans and “I lend you, provided you lend me” (Hammad, 2010). It is also well known in Pakistan as time multiple counter loan (TMCL), and known within some Arabic IBs as specks (Nomar = numbers) system. This contract will be called the reciprocal loans in the current paper.

The current paper represents a blue print of suggested money market instrument (scheme) that is based on the idea of Al Qardh El Hasan (interest-free loan) – called TWDUs. This instrument does not promise any revenue for the supplier and no charge for the lender.

The suggested model is known in traditional and contemporary writings of Islamic economists and - Sharī’ah scholars. It is accepted by many - Sharī’ah Boards in IBs (Merah, 2011) and was accepted by the Council of Islamic Ideology in Pakistan in 1980 through the TMCL. Despite that, it is still not discussed in depth by international - Sharī’ah boards as the International Islamic Fiqh Academy – in addition to the wide spread of opponent viewpoint that considers this contract as a kind of riba.

TWDUs is presumed to help IBs and other IIFS to add more flexibility in liquidity management in the side of risk management[3] (represented by the potential loss to IIFS arising from their inability either to meet their obligations or to fund increases in assets as they fall due without incurring unacceptable costs or losses) in addition to avoiding the case of hoarding surplus funds in the short term. Also, the suggested instrument will not be exclusive to IBs or IIFS; it can be developed to be used at a later stage by them as a mean of overdraft between IBs and their clients. Moreover, beside its viability to help in liquidity management for other firms in business sector (non-financial) or government agencies in liquidity management, TWDUs look for Islamic financial theory as an alternative to the traditional financial theory that is based on interest. Moreover, TWDUs is expected to play an important role in monetary policy in a totally Islamic financial system or even in a mixed one (Islamic and capitalistic).

This paper aims to focus on how the e‐library interoperates with the e‐learning process within the academic computing environment (ACE) at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU).

This paper is inspired by the existing findings of a questionnaire survey conducted by the Laptop Project at the UAEU (2002‐2003) and sequel research (2004‐2005) on the acceptance and adoption of the Blackboard, a web‐based instructional platform, by the students. Personal interviews were conducted with the instructors who were involved in the e‐learning initiative to find out the appropriate e‐information services that should be provided to support their respective Blackboard‐aided courses.

The paper finds that the instructors have viewed e‐learning as a sound instructional tool and an evolving genre capable of providing more than just textual information. According to their viewpoints, the e‐library could support e‐learning courses with a bundle of networked e‐information services such as development of course‐related electronic collections, virtual reference help, current awareness and SDI, online document delivery, etc. E‐literacy was found to play an essential role in fostering adoption and acceptance of e‐learning, whereas the language barrier has constrained e‐learning initiative in the colleges where Arabic is the teaching language, i.e. Blackboard does not support creation of Arabic contents and interface so far.

The capabilities of the e‐library in providing networked e‐information services have made the integration with the e‐learning process a highly urgent requirement.

A model representing the integration of the e‐library functions with the e‐learning process is presented in the paper. The proposed model could be applicable in learning settings within an academic computing environment.

The paper aims to present a conceptual model for networked academic library services in a research‐intensive university. It also seeks to focus on the potential challenges that the networked library faces in responding to massive needs of the researchers for digital content in different forms and formats.

The author conducted a personal interview (face‐to‐face, and email communication) with 75 research faculties and postgraduate students in the colleges of business, engineering, IT, and sciences at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). The approach to design the conceptual model for the research‐oriented library service was based on the feedback and observations of the interviewees on the pattern of query processing, research consultations (e.g. comprehensive, expert, topical search), e‐resources coverage, and relevance of the returns to their queries and information needs.

The proposed conceptual model demonstrates the virtual reference service, processing of research queries, online information search and retrieval, and data delivery to the researchers within a virtual research environment (VRE) in the UAEU. The study argues that the UAEU library should employ new strategies to meet the arising challenges of digital content and ongoing advances in information and communication technology (ICT), as well as considering how to embed itself within a research‐intensive university.

The personal interview does not claim to be all‐inclusive since the research faculties in the humanities and social studies were not reached. The inference of the study is encouraging the directors of the academic and research libraries to consider new models and strategies for providing reliable research‐oriented information services for supporting the emerging paradigm of e‐research activities.

The study derived research‐oriented service implications for the subject librarians to engage effectively with the research‐devoted community either in the physical or in the virtual sphere, i.e. a two‐faceted sphere.

An extensive literature review revealed that there is a lack of scholarly works on research‐oriented library services that are provided by the academic libraries at the UAE‐based universities. The study is the first in the UAE to provide a broad understanding to an academic library in a research‐intensive environment for adjusting its web‐based information services. It presents also a suitable approach to embed librarians in the activities of the new paradigms of e‐learning and e‐science.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an alternative conceptualisation of commercial insurance that is based on service thinking and compares it to the ideas flowing from goods thinking that currently appears to be a dominant mindset.

When deliberating on commercial insurance, Muslim jurists and scholars followed a misleading route of logical reasoning that is based on comparing insurance to other approved commercial contracts within Islamic Law. In this paper, the author questions such reasoning by contrasting the framework of service thinking to that of goods thinking.

The alternative framework proposed in this paper repositions commercial insurance as a unique type of service (rather than a good). It shows that commercial insurance can be seen as a bundle of benefits, which unfold in a gradual, intermittent, sporadic manner depending on the circumstances. This mode of a servicing relationship focuses on harm removal rather than the opportunistic actualisation of unfair monetary gain. Insurance premium is conceptualised as an availability fee, while compensation payout is recast as the restoration of value.

Muslim jurists and marketing practitioners can use this framework to further scrutinise the permissibility of different varieties of commercial insurance in the contexts of both Muslim and non-Muslim majority countries. As service thinking radically repositions the essence and structure of commercial insurance, the views on the relevance of “gharar” and “riba” may undergo significant re-conceptualisation. Moreover, the design of takaful options can be improved on this basis.

Service thinking can better elucidate a positive societal role of commercial insurance that is in accord with the societal and Islamic maxim of harm removal. Some objections to commercial insurance relate to public policy failures. Well-regulated commercial insurance industries can substantially contribute to the economic development of impoverished societies.

This paper exemplifies compelling power as well as potential of the discipline of Islamic marketing in contributing to significant debates concerning the permissibility of modern commercial options.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between brand trust and consumer doubts towards new products in the Egyptian mobile phone market. The study controls for the effects of age differences and risk aversion.

The study applies a questionnaire methodology that consists of measures adopted from existing and tested scales on a randomly selected sample of Egyptian mobile phone users. It applies multiple regression analysis in order to predict the hypothesized relationships.

The research findings reveal that brand reliability is negatively associated with consumer doubts towards the perceived risks and the relative advantage of new products. On the other hand, brand intentions are negatively associated with doubts towards the performance risk of a new product. Besides, age and risk aversion do not control the hypothesized relationships.

This paper examines brand trust from a multi‐dimensional perspective to evaluate consumer doubts towards new products in the Egyptian context.

The purpose of this study is to investigate conceptually and empirically the direct and indirect relationships between university social responsibility (USR), university social innovation strategy (USIS) in terms of social awareness (SA), intention for social innovation (ISI), organisational structure for social innovation (SSI) and innovativeness in social value creation (ISVC) and gaining a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) at quality-accredited faculties of an emerging market.

A conceptual model was presented and a mixed-methods approach was exploited to fill a research gap detected in strategic corporate social innovation literature. The authors formed a data collection team that contacted all the quality-accredited public and private/international faculties, of which 109 faculties in 11 Egyptian governorates responded and their quality units filled questionnaires that were analysed by structural equation modelling. For comprehensive understanding, qualitative interviews were set to gather data from managers/leaders and teaching staff working at those faculties in quality management and community engagement practices as well as students.

Results demonstrated that USR positively and significantly influenced SCA and USIS. Further, USIS (in terms of ISI, SSI and ISVC) positively and significantly influenced SCA. However, USIS (in terms of SA) had a positive yet insignificant influence on SCA. Indirectly, USIS was found to be partially mediating USR–SCA relationship.

University leaders/staff can gain insights on how to adopt differentiation strategies, which enable their institutions to shift from being just socially responsible to becoming socially innovative by presenting solutions to social, economic, cultural, environmental and health-care problems/challenges within their communities in general and during pandemics. This can be sustained through developing innovative quality-based processes/programmes/services related to education, research and community outreach that better serve social needs to be quality-accredited and unique over their rivals.

Satisfying social needs through promoting innovative processes/services can reinforce a favourable social change.

From a cross-disciplinary perspective, the authors interwove conceptually sparse literature of strategic, operations, knowledge capacity and innovation management that studied university social innovation research area. Also, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that examined empirically USR–USIS–SCA relationships of quality-accredited faculties in an emerging economy during Covid-19 pandemic.

The purpose of the paper is to showcase the significant achievements of Egypt's scientists in the 20th century across various fields of study such as medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, math, geology, astronomy and engineering. The paper highlights the struggles and successes of these scientists, as well as the cultural, social and political factors that influenced their lives and work. The aim is to inspire young people to pursue careers in science and make their own contributions to society by presenting these scientists as role models for hard work and dedication. Ultimately, the paper seeks to promote the importance of science and its impact on society.

The purpose of this review is to present the scientific biographies of Egypt's most distinguished scientists, primarily in the field of Natural Sciences, in a balanced and comprehensive manner. The work is objective, honest and abstract, avoiding any bias or exaggeration. The author provides a clear and concise methodology, including a brief introduction to the scientist and their field of study, an explanation of their major contributions, the impact of their work on society, any challenges or obstacles faced during their career and their lasting legacy. The aim is to showcase the important achievements of these scientists, their impact on their respective fields and to inspire future generations to pursue scientific careers.

The group of outstanding scientists in 20th century Egypt were shaped by various factors, including familial upbringing, education, society, political and cultural atmosphere and state support for scientific research. These scientists made significant contributions to various academic disciplines, including medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and engineering. Their impact on their communities and cultures has received international acclaim, making them role models for future generations of scientists and researchers. The history of these scientists highlights the importance of educational investments and supporting scientific research to foster innovation and social progress. The encyclopedia serves as a useful tool for students, instructors and education professionals, preserving Egypt's scientific heritage and honouring the scientists' outstanding accomplishments.

The encyclopedia preserves Egypt's scientific heritage, which has been overlooked for political or other reasons. It is a useful tool for a variety of readers, including students, instructors and education professionals, and it offers insights into universally relevant scientific success factors as well as scientific research methodologies. The encyclopedia honours the outstanding scientific accomplishments of Egyptian researchers and their contributions to the world's scientific community.

The practical implications of this paper are several. First, it highlights the importance of education, family upbringing and societal support for scientific research in fostering innovation and social progress. Second, it underscores the need for continued funding and support for scientific research to maintain and build upon the accomplishments of past generations of scientists. Third, it encourages young people to pursue scientific careers and make their own contributions to society. Fourth, it preserves the scientific heritage of Egypt and honors the contributions of its outstanding scientists. Finally, it serves as a useful tool for students, instructors and education professionals seeking to understand the factors underlying scientific success and research methodologies.

The social implications of the paper include promoting national pride and cultural identity, raising awareness of the importance of education and scientific research in driving social progress, inspiring future generations of scientists and researchers, reducing socioeconomic disparities and emphasizing the role of society, politics and culture in shaping scientific researchers' personalities and interests.

The paper's originality/value lies in its comprehensive documentation of the scientific biographies of Egypt's most prominent scientists in the 20th century, providing unique insights into the factors that contributed to their development and their impact across various academic disciplines. It preserves Egypt's scientific heritage and inspires future generations of scientists and researchers through the promotion of educational investments and scientific research. The encyclopedia serves as a useful tool for education professionals seeking to understand scientific success factors and research methodologies, emphasizing the importance of supportive and inclusive environments for scientific development.

This study provides a meta-review of global virtual team (GVT)–related reviews, creating a resource that highlights dominant themes, research trends and shifts in topics over time culminating in a summary of opportunities for future research. By analyzing and grouping the evidence presented in previous research, this meta-review provides key insights toward future research and managerial implications.

This meta-review identifies 35 existing GVT-related reviews across 32 publication outlets, providing a longitudinal and cross-disciplinary view of GVT research to date.

Results of the analysis reveal over time that there has been a largely adopted reconceptualization of the GVT paradigm toward a continuum of virtuality. There has been a shift in the view of the cross-cultural and global components of GVTs toward a recognition that a greater variance of dimensionality exists. Additionally, popular themes across the literature emerge, notably, virtuality, concepts of culture, trust, leadership and communication technology.

As a multidisciplinary GVT-focused meta-review, this study complements previous efforts by taking a tour across this wide topic and is dedicated to those who are researching, teaching, working and managing GVT-related strategies. The reviews selected represent work published across multiple literature streams, providing a comprehensive and forward thinking perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the role of virtual teams in organizational transformation. This conceptual paper explores the significant influence of the digital era on organizational structures, specifically focusing on the transformative shift toward virtual teams (VTs) with a strong message for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The article is based on the review of existing concepts identified in the previously published studies and their critical reflection. The literature search was conducted in the Web of Science database in May 2024 by using the keywords VTs, Digitalization and SMEs.

In the rapidly changing business environment, organizational transformation is no longer a choice but a prerequisite for the survival and growth of businesses. It is argued in the study that organizations, especially SMEs, need to embrace VT despite the challenge of a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding VT and the need for the development of a novel theory, which has been a reoccurring phenomenon and subject of debate in the literature. Furthermore, the paper underlines the necessity of providing essential preparation and training for VTs, focusing on both technological skills and collaborative work methods. In the context of SMEs, the paper argues that collaboration with external partners and the adoption of virtuality can enhance competitiveness. In the end, the emergence of virtual learning communities is proposed as a solution, providing a platform for SME owners/managers to share experiences and acquire new skills.

Overall, this study provides several recommendations for future research on VTs.