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In Islamic finance (IF), the safety-first rule of investing (hifdh al mal) is held to be of utmost importance. In view of the instability in the global financial markets, the IF portfolio manager (mudharib) is committed, according to Sharia, to make use of advanced models and reliable tools. This paper seeks to address these issues.

In this paper, the limitations of the standard models used in the IF industry are reviewed. Then, a framework was set forth for a reliable modeling of the IF markets, especially in extreme events and highly volatile periods. Based on the empirical evidence, the framework offers an improved tool to ameliorate the evaluation of Islamic stock market risk exposure and to reduce the costs of Islamic risk management.

Based on the empirical evidence, the framework offers an improved tool to ameliorate the evaluation of Islamic stock market risk exposure and to reduce the costs of Islamic risk management.

In IF, the portfolio manager – mudharib – according to Sharia, should ensure the adequacy of the mathematical and statistical tools used to model and control portfolio risk. This task became more complicated because of the increase in risk, as measured via market volatility, during the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007. Sharia condemns the portfolio manager who demonstrates negligence and may hold him accountable for losses for failing to select the proper analytical tools. As Sharia guidelines hold the safety-first principle of investing rule (hifdh al mal) to be of utmost importance, the portfolio manager should avoid speculative investments and strategies that would lead to significant losses during periods of high market volatility.

This study aims to simultaneously examine the influence of demographic, psychographic and situational factors on consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium (WTPp) for robotic restaurants and to profile market segments based on consumers’ WTPp levels (positive, neutral and negative).

Using an online survey, the data were gathered from a sample of 897 Thai consumers who had dined at a robotic restaurant in the past 12 months. Structural equation modeling, chi-square tests and the one-way analysis of variance were used for data analysis.

Demographic (gender, age, income and marital status), psychographic (perceived advantages/disadvantages, personal innovativeness and personality traits) and situational factors (perceived health risk and self-protection behavior) significantly influence consumers’ WTPp for robotic restaurants. The positive price premium group differs significantly from the neutral and negative price premium groups in terms of demographic, psychographic and situational profiles.

The findings of this study help restaurateurs target the correct customers and set up appropriate price fences to safeguard profits and maximize return on investment.

This study contributes to the literature on technology-based services and hospitality by heeding the calls made by Ivanov and Webster (2021) and providing much-needed empirical evidence of possible changes in consumers’ WTPp for robot-delivered services in restaurants due to COVID-19.

This paper aims to provide insights into service innovation (SI) during the COVID-19 crisis and its potential impact on tourism development in the medium-to-long term. The pandemic had a devastating effect on the industry, requiring immediate mitigation. It is yet to fully establish the impact of SI in the face of the COVID-19 volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). This study discusses the potential link between SI and COVID-19 crisis mitigation and offers recommendations for tourism recovery.

This paper synthesizes empirical evidence on post-crisis tourism SI using a theory-based general literature review approach.

COVID-19 crisis spun various forms of SI, which emerged as a conventional solution to crisis prevention, encompassing the management of crisis-time competitiveness, revenue deficits and risk perception. However, resistance to innovative services is linked to situational conditions.

COVID-19 is an unprecedented crisis. Therefore, this study serves as a primer for further inquiry into SI. For instance, areas such as governance in tourism innovation and consumers' inclination toward innovation-driven services are underexplored.

SI acts as a situational facilitator, but its characteristics can impede or facilitate adoption. Moreover, the irrelevance of innovations in some environments is evidenced. Thus, practitioners must adopt a responsive learning approach in SI adoption. To mitigate the COVID-19 impacts, reconfiguration in SI, recovery marketing strategy, knowledge gap and governance will be critical interventions.

This paper is one of the first comprehensive discussions on the potential role of SI in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on the THI.

The purpose of this research is to further the understanding of how to implement gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) systems. The author explores whether GRB reforms might benefit from integration into a performance-oriented budgetary structure and whether GRB's equity orientation is linked to additional implementation challenges.

This research follows a qualitative case study of South Korea guided by a predetermined research framework and built from extensive documentation, archival records and expert interviews.

GRB’s integration into a performance framework can be burdensome, and the equity orientation of GRB results in additional implementation challenges, such as higher vulnerability to the political context and active resistance from public officials.

This research shows that integrating GRB with performance systems may require overcoming significant administrative obstacles. Also, GRB’s equity orientation is linked to a higher vulnerability to the political cycle and active resistance from civil servants.

The study sought to examine the mediating effect of employee environmental commitment (EEC) in the relationships between green human resource management practices (Green HRMPs) and environmental sustainability (ES) and employee turnover intentions (ETI).

Using a cross-sectional survey approach, data was sourced from 296 respondents from five manufacturing firms listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and SmartPLS.

Results showed that EEC had a partial mediation effect on the relationship between Green HRMPs and ES at the organisational level but fully mediated the relationship between Green HRMPs and ETI at the individual level.

It is evident from the findings that Green HRMPs improve ES and employee stability. Therefore, practitioners and educational institutions should consider integrating environmental concerns into their functional processes and operations. In addition, governments as policymakers should formulate and strengthen the enforcement of already-existing environmental management and sustainability policies that promote the integration of green practices and initiatives in both private and public entities.

Little is known about Green HRM and its effect on organisational and individual-level outcomes, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study presents empirical evidence from an emerging economy.

Considering the panel data from 1984 to 2020, this study examines the impact of demographic structure (young age, working age and old age manpower) on financial development in 44 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. Following the World Bank’s classification, the SSA region is sub-sampled into 21 low-income, 18 lower-middle-income and five upper-middle-income countries to separately study these groups, along with studying for the whole region in a panel.

Drawing from the literature, it incorporates economic growth, economic globalization and inflation as a set of control variables in the financial sector development function. This study employed PCSEs and FGLS regression methods along with applying the FMOLS test for results robustness.

The result of PCSEs and FGLS evidences an adverse impact of the young and old age population on financial development for the entire SSA region, low-income and lower- and middle-income countries, but the same is found to be positively related to financial development in the upper- and middle-income countries. We observed varying effects of economic growth, economic globalization and inflation for different groups within the SSA region.

From the policy perspective, it suggests that policymakers of the groups of low-income and lower-middle-income countries need to scrutinize the adverse effects of the young and old-age populations on financial sector development and should also be taken seriously in the formulation of their long-term financial development policies.

This chapter considers the process of entrepreneurial activity to deploy financial technologies (fintech) through mandate-specific new companies in Latin America. We deal with important historical issues such as defining the term, establishing temporal and industrial activity boundaries, positioning this particular process within other organizational forms typical of the region, the role of women, and other relevant issues such as the modernization of retail payments and personal lending. A central question is whether fintech start-ups have had a “scissor” effect in the entrepreneurial process of Latin America: at the base of the pyramid (i.e., reducing frictions to support overall entrepreneurial activity, increasing financial inclusion, etc.) and near the top (by creating new business leaders). As a result, this chapter provides an initial assessment of gender disparities and barriers enabling women entrepreneurs in the fintech ecosystem.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in emotion brought by eating the midday meal. Many aspects of eating out have been studied, yet emotions remain an under‐researched area, despite having been shown to play a significant role in food consumption.

This paper reports findings from a qualitative study, involving semi‐structured interviews with British undergraduates about changes in their emotional state after eating their lunchtime meal. Data were analysed through the technique of thematic analysis.

Participants observed a clear relationship between their emotions and eating a meal, with changes noted in concentration, energy and happiness levels. The quality of the food eaten was an issue of concern to participants; access to a healthy meal was seen to be important, given the perceived benefits for emotional and physical health. Finally, eating was deemed to be both a physical and social activity. Eating in company enhanced the emotional experience of dining, as it offered the opportunity to bond with friends. Recommendations for further research are made.

This research addresses a paucity of information on the link between food and emotion, helping to better understand the role of emotions when eating out. Further research into different settings is called for in order to broaden the understanding of the relationship between eating and emotional state, and to find out whether or not similar findings emerge from alternative settings.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test an existing conceptual model from Mak et al. (2012a, 2012b) to discern which factors have the most influence on food choices when travelers visit destinations with different options, i.e. local foods, other than those available in their home environments.

The quantitative study surveyed 330 travelers and used descriptive analyses of all the variables involved. A hierarchical linear regression was calculated to predict for the dependent variable of local cuisine consumption, based on the independent variables of culture and religion, socio-demographic factors, motivational factors, food trait personality and exposure effect/past experience.

Culture, motivational factors and food-related personality traits were consistently significant predictors of local food consumption.

Limitations include using an English-only online questionnaire and self-reported bias. The impacting delimitation relates to data collection from US travelers and thus limiting generalizability findings.

The study explained factors involved in travelers’ decision to consume local foods at a destination. Government, tourism-related organizations, producers and service providers gain information to improve products, increase interest, create additional employment opportunities, increase tax revenues that assist local communities and increase consumption of local foods, products and services.

The limited availability of research on this topic prompted the interest of the researchers. Mak et al. (2012b) provide a conceptual model that was first tested empirically in this study. It presents a five factors impacting tourist food consumption at a destination. Local food consumption of tourists was tested using the aforementioned conceptual model.