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The aim of this study is to develop a mathematical model for solar power generation system which starts with the quantification of solar resources on different characteristic surfaces at any location.

This study is based on a detailed quantitative analysis of solar potential at three different cities of Saudi Arabia: Riyadh, Mecca and Sharura. Direct normal insolation is calculated for one-axis tracking surfaces with rotation about East–West (EW) and North–South (NS) horizontal axes, a two-axes tracking surface and a fixed surface tilted at the latitude of each location and facing south. One-axis tracking parabolic trough collector with rotation about horizontal EW and NS axes, and photovoltaic systems are modeled; their performances and heat and optical losses from both systems are quantified for each location.

The findings demonstrate that energy output from the selected solar technologies is maximum and relatively stable in Sharura, whereas Mecca and Riyadh showed large variations during the course of the year.

A comparative analysis between the solar technologies would be very helpful for policy decisions to choose the best option.

Prior evidence that financial reporting quality (FRQ) of publicly listed firms improves investment efficiency in developed markets leaves unaddressed questions of whether this relationship holds in emerging and frontier markets and what channels influence this relationship. This study aims to test the role of financial constraints faced by firms and managerial risk-taking on the association of FRQ and investment efficiency in 13,231 publicly listed firms in 24 emerging and frontier markets.

Available accounting data from 1998 to 2022 are collected for all listed firms across 41 industries in 24 countries. Causal relationships are tested using fixed-effect regression analysis, several additional tests and robustness checks are applied using alternative proxies and concerns for endogeneity are addressed using two-stage least square and system generalised method of moments analysis.

Findings show that FRQ of firms in emerging and frontier markets positively affects investment efficiency, the affirmative impact of FRQ on investment efficiency is higher when firms are facing more financial constraints and when managerial risk-taking is lower and financial constraints and risk-taking have a more pronounced impact on the link between FRQ and investment efficiency in the under-investment scenario.

These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence, shedding light on the meticulous interplay between FRQ and investment efficiency in frontier and emerging markets. Specifically, the increased financial constraints encountered by firms and a more conservative approach to managerial risk-taking emerge as crucial factors complementing this relationship.

This study aims to examine the link between financial reporting quality and investment efficiency in publicly listed firms in frontier markets, taking into account country-level investor protection. By comparing real and accrual earnings management, this paper demonstrates the context-dependent nature of the impact of financial reporting quality. It emphasises the importance of improving investor protection and reducing agency conflicts in promoting investment efficiency in frontier markets.

Accounting data from 1998 to 2020 are collected for all listed firms in six frontier market countries across 21 industries. Fixed-effect regression analysis is used to test causal relationships; several robustness checks are performed; and two-stage least squares is used to address endogeneity concerns.

Higher financial reporting quality improves investment efficiency in frontier markets. Furthermore, the positive effect is amplified when country-level investor protection in frontier markets is strong.

These findings add to the growing body of evidence showing that financial reporting quality improves investment efficiency, even in frontier markets. Furthermore, the level of investor protection within a country strengthens this relationship, particularly in firms that are prone to underinvestment.

The environmental performance of organizations has come under public policy limelight since the phenomenal increase of natural resource degradation and industrial waste. Thus, green concepts have been put forward, but the implementation of green practices faces many barriers and challenges. These barriers require attention as organizational practices are negatively affecting the environment leading to global warming and climate change. Therefore, this chapter systematically identifies four internal barriers including inadequate management commitment and support, insufficient technology competence and infrastructure, financial constraints, the uncertainty of economic benefits, and eight sub barriers within an organization concerning green concepts implementation. Moreover, this chapter also identifies four external barriers including lack of stakeholder's interest, inadequate environmental administrative support, scarce academic research, and lack of green collaborative practices, and eight sub barriers outside an organizational context concerning green concept implementation. The barriers in this research were identified by reviewing the existing literature on the topic. This chapter advances the green literature by identifying multiple barriers and challenges to the successful implementation of green concepts in organizations. This is of significance as if these barriers are tackled strategically, it would reduce environmental degradation problems and help make financial gains. Moreover, this research can help managers understand the key barriers to green concept implementation and provide guidance to them when attempting to implement green practices in their organizations. This research would also motivate researchers to extend further investigation on how to overcome such barriers and find out strategies to mitigate the barriers to green concept implementation to effectively address environmental issues.

The purpose of this paper is to draw a map of the general features of epistemological and critical concerns in contemporary Islamic philosophy. This study will not be confined to the domain of academic philosophy or to those who are professionals in the field of philosophy.

The paper adopted the critical rational approach in dealing with contemporary Islamic philosophy in the Arab world. The scope will include scholars from different fields of epistemology who tried to present a “vision” of the attitude that should be adopted in facing the challenges of the age and the problems of the nation on the epistemological level or the political, economic and social levels.

There is a need for a philosophy of action and progress rather than a philosophy that is based on abstract ideas and theories and of words/rhetoric. The ethics required to accomplish this ought to identify the attributes of the citizen who can reach self-actualization through legitimate means based on a progress agenda with theoretical and philosophical foundations.

Because a critical rational approach can be dealt with from different perspectives, this paper will adopt the classification of the principal intellectual trends: the reformist, secular and liberal.

This paper covers a long time span to determine whether the philosophical projects have been effective.

This paper, which criticizes the philosophic projects that are theoretically unsound and that do not address real social problems (like poverty), argues the need for a philosophy of progress and action. This will lead to devising an agenda that addresses the challenges the society is facing and to finding alternative and creative solutions resulting in development.

This study aims to compare capital structure determinants' effect on the leverage levels of Shariah-compliant (SC) and noncompliant (NC) firms in Pakistan. This study also estimates and compares the capital structure adjustment speed for both firm types.

Based on the Karachi Meezan Index screening criterion, a balanced panel of 117 SC and 68 NC firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2018 was constituted. This study used the generalized method of moments to identify the significant determinants of capital structure and estimate the speed of adjustment. In addition, the F-test was used to check whether the effect of the determinants on the leverage is same for SC and non-SC firms.

The authors found that different determinants affect both firm types' leverage levels (book and market) differently. The authors also found that the adjustment speed of SC firms toward their target leverage ratio is slower than their NC peers. Lastly, significant variation was observed in the results under different screening criteria.

This study fills the literature gap by providing a comprehensive comparison of the capital structure decisions of the SC and non-SC firms. Because this study is limited to Pakistan, generalizability would be an issue.

This study will guide the management of SC and non-SC firms about which factors are reliably important in choosing their capital structure. The findings also call for bringing harmony in the different Shariah screening criteria being in practice.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comparative study that identifies the significant capital structure determinants for SC and NC firms and investigates their effect on the leverage of both firm types. By testing joint hypotheses of same relationship, this study seeks to determine if, because of Shariah restrictions, the capital structure determinants of SC firms are similar to NC firms or they exhibit different behavior. The authors also repeat their analysis using other prominent screening criteria to assess the consistency of their results.

Islamic Insurance (Takaful) played a dynamic role in Islamic Social Finance (ISF). The popularity of the Takaful concept is being increased with each passing day. To describe the process, it is important to understand past areas of research, research differences, areas of unknown Takaful research, as well as the existing data. However, the purpose of the paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the development of qualitative research by carefully examining the nature of science and aspects of social relations in ISF.

Field, concerns with analysing and measuring the scholarly literature, quantitative characteristics of sciences and scientific technologies are known as scient metrics. This research includes queries such as “Islamic Insurance”, “Takaful” and “Shariah Insurance” as a reference in “Article title, Abstract and Keywords” based on Scopus from 2002 to 2022. This analysis was conducted in February 2022. The Bibliometrics, R-Studio, VOSviewer and Excel software are used to analyse the collected data and apply the bibliometric analysis.

The gist of the results and findings is that there are clear research gaps in the existing literature on Takaful. The available research on this subject does cover historical background, concept and models of Takaful and customer satisfaction towards Takaful model. Very important areas such as use of technology for bringing innovation in Takaful products and Shariah issues in existing practice and their solutions were not found in the present literature on Takaful.

This is the comprehensive research article to examine current literature on Takaful with bibliometric analysis. Results and potential areas of this research could be much helpful for scholars and researchers to create more dynamic improvements in the scientific development of Takaful in ISF.

This study aims to investigate two primary objectives. First, this study examines the influence of modified service quality dimensions on Islamic bank customer satisfaction using a compliance, reliability, empathy, assurance, tangible, operational efficiency, responsiveness (CREATOR) model. Second, the study explores the relationship between customer satisfaction, trust, loyalty and word of mouth (WOM) in Islamic banking of Pakistan.

The proposed model was analyzed using PLS-SEM-based approach. A total of 312 usable responses were used for data analysis.

The results indicate that all CREATOR dimensions have a significant positive impact on Islamic banks’ customer satisfaction. Similarly, this study also found a significant positive relationship between customer satisfaction, trust, loyalty and WOM. Overall, this study modified a well-established service quality framework by successfully implementing the CREATOR model in Islamic banking.

This study will provide helpful policy guidelines for Islamic bank managers improve their service quality and strengthen their relationships with existing and new customers. The authors are also sure that their proposed model will add value to the ongoing service quality literature by indicating the role of operational effectiveness in increasing customer satisfaction and promoting positive WOM.