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Proponents of Islamic banking believe that this banking model is relatively superior in times of financial crises. This study aims to examine whether Islamic banks were more resilient to the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic than their conventional peers, especially in terms of two of the most important banking risks, capital and liquidity risks.

The authors use a regression model to examine whether Islamic banks were more resilient to the recent health crisis, as compared to their conventional counterparts. The results are robust to alternative crisis time periods, the use of different model specifications and the inclusion of different control variables.

Unlike during the 2007–2008 global financial crisis (GFC), Islamic banks have not performed relatively well during the more recent crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that Islamic banks experienced an increase in both capital and liquidity risks. The results also indicate a decrease in bank profitability, improved solvency and asset quality and a decrease in operational risk.

This study contributes to the literature on banking business model and resilience to economic crises. Contrary to some expectations and to their performance during the GFC of 2007–2008, Islamic banks were found to be more vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic than conventional banks.

Using data on 739 banks from 22 countries with a dual banking system from 2012 to 2019, this paper aims to examine whether capital inflows affect banks’ profitability in recipient countries.

The authors check the conjecture about the effect of capital inflows on the profitability of the host country’s banks by estimating the following regression:

Pict=α0+α1·CFct+α2·Islamici+α3·CFct×Islamici+δ·Xict+θ·Yct+εict (1)

where the dependent variable (P_ict) refers to bank profitability, measured by either ROA or ROE for bank i, country c and year t. ROA is defined as the ratio of net profit to average total assets expressed as a percentage, which determines how efficiently a bank uses its assets to generate a profit. ROE is defined as the ratio of net profit to average total equity expressed as a percentage, which is a measure of increases in shareholders’ wealth.

The authors find that capital inflows are generally positively associated with bank profitability. However, cross-border capital inflows reduce the rate of return in Islamic banks relative to their conventional counterparts. When decomposing inflows by instrument, the authors find that the enhancing role of capital inflows on bank profitability comes mainly from debt inflows and borrowers; the authors observe that the documented results emanate mostly from the inflows to the financial sector. These results remain unchanged if holding a bank’s risk constant. Overall, foreign funds in the form of debt inflows targeting the financial sector can disproportionately improve the performance of commercial banks in recipient countries.

The paper is an original research project. The analysis contributes to the existing literature in several ways: the authors study whether the impact of capital inflows on bank profitability varies with the bank business model by looking at both the Islamic and conventional bank systems. The profitability of the banking system is an important catalyst for growth and stability. The authors also decompose capital inflows to recipient countries into their equity and debt components and study the differential impact of those components on the profitability of Islamic and conventional banks.

This paper examines the profitability and performance measurement of U.S. regional banks during the period 1994–2011, using the GMM estimator technique. Our study extends prior research by including several factors not previously considered using U.S. data.

We use bank-specific, industry-specific, and macroeconomic determinants of profitability contemporaneous with our performance indicators. We follow the accounting fundamental analysis path in explaining the bank performance.

Among the performance measures, the efficiency ratio and provisions for credit losses are negatively and equity scaled by assets is positively related to profitability. However, these relationships either reverse (efficiency ratio and provisions for credit losses) or become insignificant (equity scaled by assets) when the target becomes change in profitability. The level of nonperforming assets is negatively related to profitability across all measures of profitability used. Macroeconomic variables are largely unrelated to profitability during the year they are measured. However, they have a significant relationship with earnings change measures, suggesting they have a lagged effect on profitability. The slope of the yield curve is especially strong in this regard.

We use our determinants to model changes in bank profitability one year ahead, in addition to including several factors not previously considered, using the predictive focus of the fundamental analysis research.

The purpose of this study is to examine the internal determinants of bank profitability and stability in Pakistan banking sector. Because of specific research objectives, this study excludes the external factors of profitability and stability to find the role of bank internal determinants in achieving high performance.

A panel regression analysis is built on a balanced panel data using 24 commercial banks over the sample period of 2007-2015. The authors performed a separate analysis of bank profitability and stability. Both models used a comprehensive set of bank internal determinants.

The results that were obtained from profitability model indicated that bank size, credit risk, funding risk and stability have statistically significant impacts on profitability, while liquidity risk showed the statistically insignificant impact on profitability. Regression findings from stability model reveal that bank size, liquidity risk, funding risk and profitability have statistically significant impacts on stability, while credit risk had an insignificant effect on stability. However, the effect of the financial crisis is uniform and showed statistically insignificant impact in both models.

Overall, the authors’ findings bring some new but useful insights to the banking literature. Some recommendations may be functional for the sustainable performance of banks.

In view of study results, the authors provide interesting insights into the practices and characteristics of banks in Pakistan. This study also highlights significant bank internal determinants to improve understanding in the existing literature.

The study aims to make a comparative assessment of the degree of market power for listed commercial banks operating in India and Bangladesh and identify various bank-specific market structures and macroeconomic determinants of market power.

The study relied on secondary data from 2011 to 2022 to assess the market power of 48 listed commercial banks in India and Bangladesh, employing the adjusted Lerner index (ALI) and the generalized method of moments (GMM) regression technique to explore the factors influencing market power.

The findings demonstrate that Indian banks possess more market power than their counterparts in Bangladesh and bank capitalization, diversification, operational inefficiency (OI) and gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate are crucial determinants of market power for both economies.

The result provides significant takeaways for the respective country regulators and banks. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should implement measures to reduce market power. In contrast, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) should carefully monitor the increasing trend of competition and look into possibilities of bank consolidation without hampering the competitive agenda. Further, banks in both economies need to focus on operational cost-cutting.

This study is among the first to compare market power and its determinants for listed commercial banks of India and Bangladesh. It has also incorporated a new variable, technology, alongside other established determinants.

Over the past three decades, financial deregulation and various reforms have significantly transformed the competitive environment for banks in Indonesia. These changes have introduced new challenges for banks to retain their market power and ensure their survival. In light of this, the article aims to assess the current levels of market power held by Indonesian banks and explore the factors that influence it.

The paper measured the degree of market power and identified its impacting factors for 22 listed commercial banks using the Adjusted Lerner Index (ALI) and appropriate regression technique over a period of 2011–2023.

The empirical findings reveal that banks in Indonesia enjoy high market power, and factors such as capitalization, diversification, operational inefficiency, asset quality and GDP growth rate significantly impact banks’ market power. Additionally, the findings contradict the structure-conduct-performance paradigm, which advocates that a concentrated banking system impairs competition.

The study suggests that regulatory authorities should closely monitor the market power levels and promote strategies to enhance competition within the banking sector. Additionally, banks should prioritize implementing measures to reduce operational costs and improve the quality of assets.

This research represents one of the early attempts to gauge the market power of publicly listed conventional commercial banks in Indonesia by employing the Adjusted Lerner Index. Additionally, it introduces “technology adoption” as a novel variable to the analysis alongside other established variables.

The house not only provides shelter and security but also is a reflection of human privacy. One of the important factors involved in house design is privacy. The current research is a case study that examines privacy's evolution in contemporary houses in Kerman using space syntax techniques.

This study is based on the quantitative approach of space syntax. A total number of 15 houses in Kerman built in three periods of Qajar, Pahlavi and the Islamic Republic, were examined for the space syntax indices using UCL DepthMap. The DepthMap outputs were also analyzed using one-way ANOVA.

The findings indicated that the arrangement of spaces in houses has altered over time from the 1920s onwards. There is a significant difference between houses of the Qajar, Pahlavi and the Islamic Republic eras, indicating a reduction in the hierarchy of access and reduced privacy in houses in the Islamic Republic.

Numerous factors affect privacy (e.g. confidentiality, interface spaces, quality of openings and visibility). Nevertheless, this study focused on the impact of spatial configuration on privacy. It can be stated that the design of houses from the Pahlavi period was gradually associated with changes in culture and modern architecture, leading to a decrease in privacy.

This study used space syntax to examine the evolution of privacy in contemporary Iranian houses. Since privacy is a substantial issue in the middle east communities, the findings can help designers and relevant organizations consider privacy as much as other comfort factors in the early stages of design.

Substance use disorder is one of the most prevalent health issues among prison populations. In this regard, addiction treatment and harm reduction programs have been implemented in Iranian prisons since 2002. The purpose was to describe the practical experience of implementing harm reduction programs in Iran’s prisons, emphasizing the impact of policy decisions on it.

The study was qualitative study. In addition to analyzing 16 documents, the authors conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 11 key informants who were asked questions about the evolution of treatment and harm reduction programs in prisons. The authors analyzed the data using the content analysis method and MAXQDA-10 software.

The HIV outbreak in Iranian prisons in the late 20th century posed a significant challenge. Initially, policymakers’ responses were varied from denying the issue to solving it, reflecting the prevailing abstinence paradigm among drug experts and politicians. However, a legal amendment was eventually issued based on evidence-based health literature. Despite initial obstacles such as financial constraints and lack of human resources, the successful implementation of large-scale harm reduction measures, including methadone maintenance treatment and interventions targeting infectious diseases, has led to the development of a unique health model in the Persian Gulf region. This model, born out of the Iranian experience, offers hope for the future of prison health.

Lessons from the Iran case could provide valuable insight for countries about the role of policy in implementing harm reduction programs in prisons. Policy advocacy and reform is one of the main measures to provide evidence-based health interventions in prisons.

This paper aims to investigate the determinants that contribute to the financial stability and banking sector of Palestinian banks listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange (PEX) by using yearly data for the years 2012–2022.

Pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and two-stage least squares (2SLS) were used to identify the variables and factors affecting the financial stability and banking sector of Palestinian banks. The study’s data were collected from the banks listed on PEX and from the yearly reports posted on the Palestine Monetary Authority’s (PMA) webpage over the years from 2012–2022. According to this research’s analysis, SMEs loans and capital sufficiency have a statistically significant positive impact on the stability of Palestinian banks. Unobserved heterogeneity, simultaneity and dynamic endogeneity are taken into account when using the 2SLS regression approach to adjust for the study endogeneity factor.

The study’s findings show that some factors and determinants might have both good and negative effects on financial stability and banking sector. Loans to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and enough capital are two characteristics that statistically have a major favourable impact on the stability of Palestinian banks since they help the banks withstand deficits. A further potential discovery relates to the favourable effects of financial inclusion (FI) and digital financial services (DFS) on the stability of banks.

This research has faced some limitations, such as the lack of a defined index from the regulatory organizations, this research is based on information from bank annual accounts. It has mostly relied on self-developed or World Bank indexes. Furthermore, the research solely used information from the supply side (banks); demand-side data were not taken into consideration.

This paper has managerial implications for stability of banking sector. The Palestine Monetary Authority, as the central bank, must increase the percentage of bank loans directed to small and medium-sized companies and oblige bank management to adhere to adequate capital standards, which contributes to strengthening the Palestinian banking sector and increasing its profits. The study findings advise banks that are enjoying financial stability to speed up the pace of FI and DFSs because most of these reliable banks have relatively low FI ratios. PMA is responsible for preserving the stability of the financial system. PMA, decision makers and banks management must retain adequate liquidity in their institutions and raise client collateral expectations to raise credit conditions.

This paper adds some contributions to the literature. To adjust for discrepancies between various types of banks, the authors concentrate on conventional and Islamic banks, which enables us to use a homogenous data set as opposed to depending on dichotomous variables. The authors used Z-scores, which have recently been used in research, to measure stability and FI at the level of specific institutions. This research contributes in some key aspects that no prior research has addressed. Conventional banks are different from Islamic banks, and a number of issues might impact their stability. To evaluate the connection between FI and DFSs, it is important to consider the actions of bank regulators.

The purpose of this paper is to extent the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), when extended by self-identity and religious commitment (RC), and is able to predict Muslim consumers’ willingness to pay (WP) for certified halal food.

A survey of 277 Muslim consumers in Malaysia was conducted and the cross-sectional data were analysed using the partial least squares technique.

Attitude (ATT) and religious self-identity (RSI) were found to have a positive impact on WP for certified halal food. Additionally, RC has a positive effect on ATT and RSI and has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between perceived behavioural control and WP.

The findings can benefit halal food companies by offering an insight into the willingness of Muslim consumers to pay for certified halal food.

The findings contribute to the research on halal foods by illustrating the factors that determine Muslim consumers’ WP for certified halal food. This study also extends the understanding of the TPB to the halal food context.