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The purpose of this paper is to explore the types of Shariah capabilities of Islamic banks, which provide bases for the types of Shariah value propositions, offered by the relationship managers in their front-line service experiences with the customers.

A resource-based view of Shariah capabilities and a service-dominant logic view of value propositions are adopted. Fifteen relationship managers from multiple Islamic banks in Pakistan are interviewed to find a typology of Shariah capabilities and a resultant typology of value propositions for Islamic banks.

The findings suggest that Islamic banks claim to possess five types of Shariah capabilities, namely, Shariah governance capability (SGC), Shariah compliance capability (SCC), Shariah monitoring capability (SMC), Shariah structuring (product) capability (SSC) and Shariah learning capability (SLC). These capabilities lead to four types of values propositions, namely, Shariah identity value (SIV), Riba-free value (RFV), Shariah disclosure value (SDV) and Tangibility value (TV) of the real assets in transactions.

The study has relied on the front-line experiences of relationship managers who are connected to the Islamic banks’ capabilities inside the banks and the value propositions that they offer to show relationships with customers in front-line service experiences. Other stakeholders may have different perspectives on both capabilities and value propositions.

This paper contributes to Islamic finance theory by theoretically and empirically showing two typologies for the Islamic banks' capabilities and value propositions, respectively.

The purpose of this paper is to explore EFL reading anxiety of first-year undergraduate engineering students and its effect on their reading performance in a public sector engineering university in Pakistan. It specifically aims to explore their top-down, bottom-up and classroom EFL reading anxiety.

Data for the present study were collected from 200 first-year engineering students to explore their reading anxiety. A 20-item questionnaire developed by Zoghi and Alivandivafa (2014) was used to measure students’ EFL reading anxiety, while an IELTS academic reading test was used to measure their reading performance. The data were analyzed through exploratory factorial analysis and multiple regression analysis to determine which type of reading anxiety has a significant effect on students’ reading performance.

It was found that the bottom-up reading anxiety and the classroom reading anxiety have a significant negative impact on the reading performance of the first-year undergraduate engineering students of a Pakistani university. However, top-down reading anxiety has an insignificant negative impact on the reading performance of university students.

The data for the current study were drawn from one Pakistani public sector engineering university, and all the students were first-year undergraduates. The data were collected through a self-reported questionnaire and IELTS (academic) reading test. Some of the students may be unfamiliar with the IELTS test pattern, so their reading performance might have been affected.

Teachers should adopt such a methodology in their EFL classrooms which helps students reduce their reading anxiety. Reading texts must be selected considering the proficiency level of students, and reading strategies must be explicitly taught to reduce bottom-up and top-down reading anxieties. Teachers should create a positive learning environment in their classroom by encouraging students to make an effort to improve their reading skills in order to deal with classroom reading anxiety. Students must be explained that they should help one another rather than ridiculing each other’s reading mistakes. Differentiated instruction can also be adopted to facilitate weak readers. The teachers can provide additional/out of the class support to weak readers in order to help them deal with reading anxiety.

The EFL reading anxiety among university students in the Pakistani context has received little attention from the researchers. Furthermore, although the impact of EFL reading anxiety on EFL students’ reading performance has been explored previously, the impact of three types of EFL reading anxiety on EFL learners’ reading performance has not been adequately investigated.

Current research addresses the issue of brand loyalty while identifying its potential predictors. The research also examines the direct impact of brand credibility on brand loyalty and attitude toward brand and the direct impact of attitude toward brand and on brand loyalty respectively. Moreover, this research examines the mediating effect of attitude toward brand for the relationship of brand credibility and brand loyalty.

This is a cross-sectional research. Data is collected with the help of structured questionnaire. Simple random sampling technique is used for gathering the data from 220 Samsung users from Lahore, Pakistan.

Results indicate that brand credibility has a positive influence on attitude toward brand and brand loyalty respectively. Attitude toward brand partially intervenes the relation of brand credibility and brand loyalty.

There are some limitations of the current research. It includes only the customers of Samsung mobile. Data is collected from the customers of Lahore, Pakistan, only. This research can also be conducted among the customers of OPPO, Vivo and Apple and compare the results of current research with the results of OPPO, Vivo and Apple, which will provide the useful insights. This kind of research will also be conducted among the customers of other kinds of products like FMCGs, luxury items and even on the organizations of industrial products for generalizability. In future, customers of other cities of Pakistan like Karachi, Multan and Faisalabad may also be included for generalization.

This research provides a practical framework for the marketing department of Samsung mobiles and explains how brand credibility shape the brand loyalty through the path of attitude toward Samsung mobiles. So, Samsung mobiles can maintain current policies regarding brand credibility and attitude toward brand for attaining the better level of brand loyalty. Longitudinal research studies on these variables will also be helpful for the marketing department of Samsung for checking the level of propose relationships periodically and comparing it with previous results which will provide the true picture about propose relationships. If the value of propose relationships increases or remains at same level, then Samsung can maintain the current policies about these variables and if the value of these variables decreases, the Samsung will improve the current policies about these variables.

This research contributed in theory of reasoned action by proposing the brand credibility, attitude toward brand and brand loyalty in single model. Before this, these relations were explained separately. This research adds to the body of literature by checking the mediating effect of attitude toward brand for the relationship of brand credibility and brand loyalty.

Mr Qazi was sitting in his office in the Multan branch, reviewing his past month’s key performance indicators when he got a call from his Town Operations Supervisor, Mr Ahmed, based in Bahawalpur. Ahmed was recently promoted and transferred to Bahawalpur, from Multan branch. He informed Qazi about the huge inventory variances, which were not earlier reported by the previous Town Operations Supervisor, Mr Sagheer. Qazi was informed that differences were around 2.37% of total sales vs the allowable company limit of Zero inventory variance. Qazi was worried about whether to report these differences to higher management or not. He was very well aware that reporting might even cost him his job, and that of Sagheer too. He could not see any solution to the recovery of the inventory or cash against the same. Should Qazi take a risk and let go of Sagheer? Should he report the differences?

1. Demonstrate the fraud and integrity-related issues. Why and how happened? 2. Analyzed the role of organizational policies in the decision of blow the whistle. 3. Identify the behaviors that helped a whistle-blower. 4. Assess the ethical dilemmas in which professional duties may conflict with personal ethics. 5. Propose organizational policies to encourage whistle-blowing and to discourage the fraud or integrity-related issues.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

BBA.

Islamic banking has undergone significant adaption since its inception. This study aims to investigate why and how Islamic banks adapt their services, using participatory financing as evidence.

A qualitative study is designed, using working capital financing and commodity operations financing in Pakistan as analytical units. The data for each analytical unit is analyzed using a qualitative content analysis, while the findings are synthesized using a cross-case synthesis method.

Findings suggest that participatory financing has undergone extensive adaptation in the Islamic banking industry of Pakistan, in the wake of resolving constraints to participatory financing and increasing its viability. Consequently, participatory finance has emerged as an attractive and viable option in Pakistan. These findings suggest that unlike in the past, where Islamic banks used to buffer themselves from the environment and ignore the market demands, they have learned to respond effectively to the market demands and the challenges posed by the environment.

Findings suggest that the adaptation strategy is more effective than the migration strategy, because it enables the financial service systems to reduce the underlying risks by avoiding emergent threats and eradicating the inherent weaknesses.

The extant literature provides a generalized view on the adaptation process that Islamic banks undergo to comply with their environment. However, it is limited in terms of conceptualizing the adaptations and innovations in their products and the underlying structural variations. The present study fills this gap.

This study aims to explore the safe-haven properties of sukuk and analyze the co-movement and interdependence between sukuk and conventional bond indices to provide insights into the potential role of diversification.

The study uses the data set from 2012 to 2022, retrieved from the Eikon Reuter database. Different machine learning tools such as decision trees, random forests, gradient boosting and deep neural networks have been applied to capture the non-linear relationship and co-movement among the variables. Furthermore, K-clustering captures the hidden patterns and periods of high and low co-movements.

The results state that the sukuk and conventional bond indices exhibit various degrees of co-movement influenced by regional and global market sentiments. The clustering analysis shows strong positive and negative correlations. The sukuk shows some instances of zero co-movement, but the results are inconsistent across all scenarios. Moreover, investors need to do their research first before investing in sukuk.

This study uniquely applies K-clustering and advanced machine learning tools to understand the nonlinear relationship among variables better. In contrast, the previous studies mainly focused on linear relationships. It is critical to understand that financial variables tend to have nonlinear relationships, and these techniques best suit those needs.