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This study aims to know the present structure and move of the Islamic banks of Pakistan as well as current issues and challenges for Islamic microfinance. However, this is based on perceptions of the Islamic bankers, regulators and micro-entrepreneurs and petty traders, as they are the key players in the credit market.

The study gathered relevant information through conducting field survey. Two questionnaires were designed for the survey. One questionnaire was administered to survey 270 micro-entrepreneurs and petty traders in three major cities of Pakistan. Another survey deals with the perceptions of Islamic bankers. In total, 100 people from middle and top management were surveyed from five full-fledged Islamic banks of Pakistan. The SPSS software, version 16, was used for questionnaire reliability and descriptive analysis to analyse the data.

In general, the study found the strong opinions of the respondents speak in favour of Islamic microfinance under a system of profit and loss sharing. Conversely, the majority of the clients also feel that Islamic banks do not encourage lower-income micro-entrepreneurs. In addition, the study found that Islamic microfinance is constrained by lack of knowledge, experience and professionalism of the supporting staff; however, Islamic bankers have shown great consensus that Islamic banks should offer Islamic microfinance products and instruments to respond to the needs of the poor for poverty alleviation.

The first limitation of the study is the meagre interest of micro-entrepreneurs and petty traders to participate in the survey. The second limitation of this work concerns the extremely busy schedule of top management and administrative impediment to approach and fix an appointment. Despite these limitations, the findings of this study provide insights to Islamic banks in diversifying their products by offering Islamic microfinance to the low-income entrepreneurs but with proper guidelines and policies.

There is a need to educate the community towards the merits of Islamic banking system by developing a good information system using good visuals and professionally presented seminars, banners and arranging regular sessions with the business community. The growth and development of Islamic banking in the country largely depend on its customers’ enhanced knowledge and awareness about its products and services.

It is the responsibility of the community as well as of government to change the mindset of the poor that banks are meant to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of social, economic and political status.

Theoretically, this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in the area of Islamic microfinance by examining the perceptions of Islamic bankers and micro-entrepreneurs. This can help Islamic banks of Pakistan to design and formulate new administrative as well as operational procedures to serve the interest of the poor with commitment towards Islamic values.

The current study aims to determine the viability of the tool developed by Abbas and Sarfraz (2018) to translate English speech and text to Pakistan Sign Language (PSL) with bilingual subtitles.

Focus group interviews of 30 teachers of a Pakistani private university were conducted; who used the PSL translation tool in their classrooms for lecture delivery and communication with the deaf students.

The findings of the study determined the viability of the developed tool and showed that it is helpful in teaching deaf students efficiently. With the availability of this tool, teachers are not dependent on human sign language (SL) interpreters in their classrooms.

Overall, this tool is an effective addition to educational technology for special education. Due to the lack of Sign Language (SL) understanding, learning resources and availability of human SL interpreters in Pakistan, institutions feel dependency and scarcity to educate deaf students in a classroom. Unimpaired people and especially teachers face problems communicating with deaf people to arrange one interpreter for a student(s) in multiple classes at the same time which creates a communication gap between a teacher and a deaf student.

This study aims to examine the effect of Islamic governance through Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB) on performance of Islamic banks (IBs). Specifically, it investigates the impact of seven proxies for Islamic governance of SSB (size, number of meetings, independence, financial and accounting experiences, previous experience on SSBs, change in composition and presence of higher Sharia supervision) on the financial performance (return on assets [ROA]) of 28 listed IBs from 10 different Arab countries between 2019 and 2023.

Data were collected from the annual reports and other information available on banks’ websites, the websites of central banks and the financial markets.

OLS regression results indicate that greater member independence, SSB members’ prior expertise and less change in the SSB composition have a significant positive influence on the financial performance of IBs.

The study findings are useful to IBs, and the governing bodies in Islamic countries in terms of emphasizing the importance of maintaining the financial independence of SSBs, appointing expert members and maintaining stability in the composition of SSBs.

The study’s findings offer significant implications for Islamic investment banks and regulatory authorities. These findings highlight the critical importance of maintaining the financial independence of Shariah Supervisory Boards, selecting expert members, and preserving board stability.

Policymakers may consider the authors’ recommendations to establish a higher SSB, affiliating this monitoring body with the financial market authority or the monetary authority, to create a sound governance system at the macro level and better enforcement.

This study provides an original contribution to Islamic banking and Islamic governance literature as a cross-countries study, in its consideration of the presence of higher Sharia supervision in the country, alongside members’ financial independence as variables in the effectiveness of SSBs, and as a result on the performance of IBs.

Tourism, Technology and Climate Change: The tourism industry is indispensable both for its socio-cultural offerings and its profound economic implications. The economic multiplier effects inherent in the drivers of tourism can stimulate the regional economy even before these areas emerge as tourism meccas. While vast amounts of research have detailed tourism's overarching significance, there is an evident void in understanding its multifaceted impacts, particularly where technological advances, environmental performance (EP) and economic benefits converge. A thorough examination of 907 research records led to this chapter, which identifies these gaps by referencing nine observational and 11 intervention studies. Achieving a Cohen's kappa value of 0.75, the authors note a strong consensus among reviewers, adhering to Cohen's (1940) standards. The findings from the first quarter highlight several areas within the tourism industry that have been under-researched. Particularly, the integration of technology, from ATM infrastructures enhancing tourist financial experiences to digital platforms elevating traveller education and awareness, and tech-driven solutions addressing demographic and ethical considerations in tourism, remains insufficiently explored. Additionally, the authors recognise an existing gap in knowledge regarding the nexus between tourism development and its climatic repercussions, especially before tourism ventures are fully realized. This chapter aims to channel future research into these lesser-trodden areas, fostering a comprehensive grasp of tourism's evolution in the face of rapid technological advancements and its interplay with environmental shifts.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unprecedented mental health repercussions in the lives of every individual including university students. Therefore, study on students’ psychological state and its associated factors during the pandemic are of importance. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.

An online survey was done on a total of 207 university students of Pakistan to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics, concerns or fears amidst COVID-19 and mental distress. Validated tools; Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)-Depression were used to assess stress, anxiety and depression, respectively.

Around 14% of the university students were experiencing severe stress and anxiety, while 8.2% had severe depression. The authors found that stress among university students was related to psychiatric illness or symptoms (OR = 5.1: 1.1, 22.9) and unpredictability due to the pandemic (OR = 3.7: 1.2, 11.2). The significant determinants of anxiety were psychiatric illness/symptoms (OR = 6.6: 3.4, 12.9), implementation of public health measures (OR = 3.7: 1.1, 11.6), employed mothers (OR = 2.4: 1.1, 5.0) and lack of support from university administration (OR = 2.2: 1.0, 5.0). While the factors associated with depression included psychiatric illness or symptoms (OR = 8.4: 3.3, 21.5), unpredictability due to pandemic (OR = 6.8: 2.2, 20.7), impaired social support system (OR = 3.7: 1.3, 10.4) and studying without a scholarship (OR = 2.1: 1.0, 4.4).

These findings call for an urgent need to develop appropriate interventions and educational programs that could address the psychological needs of students.

The study directs the role of university and faculty in dealing the mental health needs of the student in COVID-19 pandemic time.

Educational programs are important that could address the psychological needs of students in COVID-19 pandemic.

University students reported mental distress during COVID-19 pandemic which shows that younger people are at risk of COVID-19 repercussions. Moreover, several stressors (i.e. impaired social support system and lack of support from universities) were revealed that could be mitigated by implementing appropriate strategies.

Most research on information and communication technologies (ICT) differences has been related to gender and ethnicity, and to a lesser extent religious affiliation. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this field of research by situating the discussion in the context of British Muslims and extending current research into ICT differences beyond gender and ethnicity.

This paper explores the ICT differences in access and use by British Muslim teenage girls at Islamic faith schools, and ICTs’ perceived influence on learning. The qualitative research was undertaken by conducting 45 semi-structured interviews with British Muslim teenage girls in Islamic faith schools.

The study provides tentative findings that Islamic faith schools are not only framed by the wider diverse Muslim community, but also by the supplementary schooling of madrasahs. The findings suggest that the home use of ICTs was reinforced rather than compensated for by the Islamic faith schools. This seemed to inhibit many pupils’ access to online educational resources. The authors found that didactic instruction was prevalent and this provided tentative insights into the types of digital inequity experienced by many pupils.

The research into ICT differences in the UK adopted the premise that the unity in Muslim identity increasingly transcends ethnicity and gender in the Muslim community.

This study investigates the flow and heat transfer in a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) ternary hybrid nanofluid (HNF), considering the effects of viscous dissipation and radiation.

The transport equations are transformed into nondimensional partial differential equations. The local nonsimilarity (LNS) technique is implemented to truncate nonsimilar dimensionless system. The LNS truncated equation can be treated as ordinary differential equations. The numerical results of the equation are accomplished through the implementation of the bvp4c solver, which leverages the fourth-order three-stage Lobatto IIIa formula as a finite difference scheme.

The findings of a comparative investigation carried out under diverse physical limitations demonstrate that ternary HNFs exhibit remarkably elevated thermal efficiency in contrast to conventional nanofluids.

The LNS approach (Mahesh et al., 2023; Khan et al., 20223; Farooq et al., 2023) that we have proposed is not currently being used to clarify the dynamical issue of HNF via porous media. The LNS method, in conjunction with the bvp4c up to its second truncation level, yields numerical solutions to nonlinear-coupled PDEs. Relevant results of the topic at hand, obtained by adjusting the appropriate parameters, are explained and shown visually via tables and diagrams.

Front line employees (FLEs) duel challenges of handling exceedingly customer demands and stressful supervision. Service organizations highly dependent on knowledge sharing among organizational employees. This study incorporates the unique internal and external negative forces of abusive supervision and customer mistreatment, forming a negative emotion towards the organization and customers and reduces the knowledge sharing appetite. This study aims to demonstrate the effect of the abusive supervision and customer mistreatment on the revenge attitude and felt obligation to moderate the knowledge hiding.

Survey data collected from the 201 lower rank police officers, who were directly interacting with their respective supervisors and public members (customers). Cross-sectional collected data analysed using structural equation modelling partial least square regression in SmartPLS 3.1.

FLEs perceived abusive supervision and customer mistreatment significantly influence the revenge attitude. The revenge attitude significantly explicates the lack of sharing, playing dumb and rationalized knowledge hiding among FLEs. However, the effect of revenge attitude on the evasive knowledge hiding was insignificant. Moreover, the effect of felt obligation significantly explains the evasive and playing dumb knowledge hiding among the FLEs. Felt obligation significantly moderates the revenge attitude and playing dumb knowledge hiding.

Limitations of study included the direct and indirect role of other factors that can bring more understanding of the knowledge hiding behaviors in the future research. These factors could be culture, service delivery nature and work system at the macro-level,and personality type, ability to focus and locus of control at a personal level, inducing the knowledge hiding behaviors.

The study results highlight the consequences of abusive supervision and mistreatment from the customer as a revenge attitude among the FLEs. Moreover, the revenge attitude may not leads to knowledge hiding with harmful purposes. However, felt obligation at a personal level can reduce the knowledge hiding attitudes at the workplace. A trust climate can promote knowledge sharing.

The study is the first of its kind to explore the FLEs negative emotion of revenge triggered by the abusive supervision and mistreatment from customer leads to different aspects of knowledge hidings. Knowledge hiding is not always associated with the negative motivation and curtailed with the promotion of felt obligation at employee levels. The study also extends the knowledge hiding behaviours antecedents within the work settings. Moreover, the management of knowledge hiding behaviours curtailed with the enhancement of employees felt an obligation. Service industries need to realize the importance of managing customer expectation and supervisor role for better service performance with the promotion of knowledge sharing within the organization.

Studies emphasise the critical role of a suitable organisational culture (OC) in successfully implementing lean production (LP) and argue that failure to consider OC can hinder organisations from fully benefiting and sustaining the success of LP. It is also observed that consensus regarding the suitable OC required for implementing LP remains elusive, with existing research predominantly theoretical and in developed economies. Using a systematic approach, this study aims to evaluate organisational readiness for LP implementation from the OC point of view by identifying the suitable OC for LP implementation, examining the existing OC to determine the most dominant (primary OC) and evaluating the suitability of the current OC for LP implementation. The paper uses empirical data collected from Pakistan’s textile sector as a case study.

The study used the competing values framework of OC and a quantitative approach. The data was collected by surveying 162 textile professionals, including first-level supervisors, middle managers and top management. Data analysis included quantitative techniques such as testing of hypotheses and multiple regression analysis techniques. SPSS, Minitab and SmartPLS 4.0 were used for data analysis.

The study revealed that characteristics of developmental and rational culture profiles are the most suitable for implementing LP in Pakistan’s textile industry. However, the group and hierarchy culture profiles do not significantly impact the implementation of LP. Moreover, the group culture profile (GCP) is the most dominant (primary OC) within the selected sector and the hierarchy culture profile is the least dominant. As a result, the current prevailing OC profile i.e. GCP is unsuitable for lean deployment.

Although this study provides valuable insights, it is important to acknowledge its limitations. Data could not be collected from the employees with low education. Its applicability to other countries or industries may be limited due to its specific context. However, the approach used to assess organisational readiness regarding OC is both innovative and practical. Additionally, this research fills a gap in the literature by including a case study from a developing economy. Despite these contributions, future research could further validate and refine the proposed framework through comparative studies across diverse contexts.

The study’s findings emphasise the significance of OC in driving lean transformation and offer valuable recommendations and approaches for management, consultants and academicians to enhance lean deployment. By realising the significance of OC, stakeholders can effectively tailor strategies and interventions to align OC with lean principles.

This research is novel in terms of the structured approach and the selected case for evaluating the preparedness of organisations concerning OC for implementing LP. This approach can be used for other sectors and contexts.

The Takāful (Islamic insurance) industry operates on the principles of Maqāṣid al-Sharī’ah, and of late, the industry has witnessed significant market growth. The purpose of this study is to develop a performance measurement model based on Maqāṣid al-Sharī’ah to evaluate the performance of Takāful firms.

A mixed-method research approach was adopted to conduct the present study. Priorities were assigned to various dimensions of the Maqāṣid model using analytic hierarchy process and by taking inputs from 18 Takāful experts. On the contrary, six experts were involved in identifying the elements and measures for the operationalization of the Maqāṣid dimensions.

Maṣlaḥa (0.359) was found to possess the highest priority, followed by Justice (0.345) and Educating Individuals (0.295). Furthermore, under Necessity, protection of religion (0.398) and protection of life (0.388) are assigned almost similar priorities. These two are followed by the protection of progeny (0.107), protection of wealth (0.058) and protection of intellect (0.047). The final outcome of this study is a hierarchical model for the evaluation of performance of Takāful firms.

The application of the performance evaluation model will provide information to the management of Takāful firms on where they stand in terms of fulfilling Maqāṣid al-Sharī’ah principles. If any firms are found to have a deficiency in a certain part of Maqāṣid components, then proper and adequate measures can be taken to ameliorate the situation.

It is necessary to have a performance evaluation model based upon Maqāṣid al-Sharī’ah to evaluate the performance of Takāful firms as these firms operate on the principles of Maqāṣid al-Sharī’ah. Because there does not exist any such model, this study fills up this gap. Details of the measures that can be used to evaluate the performance of Takāful firms are also provided.