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This paper aims to discuss the methodology of mainstream Islamic economics and also gives an alternative approach which is yet not very much taught in the different academic institutions, i.e. Tawhidi methodology. From the curriculum of the different academic institutions and also from the literature, it is observed that mainstream Islamic economics is the imitation of the conventional economics and mainly neoclassical economics. Maqasid-i-Shari’ah is not matching with the Tawhidi one.

It is based on the self-observations of the authors where they taught during their academic career.

This study found that the mainstream Islamic economics could not be able to solve the local and global issues because it is the replica of the conventional economics only there are some injunctions of Shari’ah.

This study gives the guideline to the student of Islamic economics that how they will be able to understand the methodology of Islamic economics and finance.

It provides the guidance to the academicians and policymakers, especially those belonging to the Muslim countries.

It also provides the glimpses to the social scientist about the solutions of the social and economic issues at the local and global levels.

It is an original effort.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the realtionship between the strategic maneuvers in working capital management (WCM) and the ensuing corporate performance, chiefly within the purview of companies aligned with Shariah-compliant financial practices during epochs of fiscal distress.

This study deploys a fixed effect regression model to dissect the WCM-performance nexus for Shariah and non-Shariah compliance firms in the UK. Here, the authors used FTSE 350 index data from 1990 till 2022. The authors used return on assets, return on equity and net profit margin as the dependent variables and they used working capital as the independent variable. Finally, a set of different control variables including, size, leverage, dividend and research and development. Furthermore, for robust purposes, the authors use the system generalized method of moments estimation.

The findings reveal a significant relationship between WCM and firm performance across different crisis periods. Effective WCM is associated with improved profitability and stability in firms. This study shows that firms with efficient WCM strategies were better positioned to navigate the financial turmoil of the GFC, the operational disruptions during COVID-19 and the economic impacts of the Russia–Ukraine conflict.

This research provides a significant perspective by spotlighting Sharia-compliant entities, thus charting new territory in the strategic finance discourse. In addition, the focus on Shariah-compliant firms introduces a novel perspective within the financial management domain, offering valuable insights for both academic researchers and financial practitioners.

Small islands are particularly vulnerable to environmental impacts, as multiple environmental as well as socio-economic changes are impacting their local communities and especially the most vulnerable segments of their population. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly viewed as an opportunity for small islands to mitigate and adapt to climate change. ICT may help to monitor short-term and long-term climate trends, raise awareness, help protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions. Though the ICT sector has been recognised as crucial in ensuring sustainable development, it is also important to address its potential adverse impacts like energy consumption, electronic waste generation and digital inequality among others. The ICT-environment link is thus rather complex. While there is extensive literature on the ICT-climate change nexus, the evidence remains mixed. The evidence on small island economies is rather scant. The objective of this chapter is to investigate into the ICT and environment linkage for small islands taking on board the specificities of island economies. The Panel Vector Error Correction Model (PVECM) is used on 38 small islands over a period 2000–2020, and the long-run results show that higher use of ICT has resulted in lower carbon emissions.

The purpose of this paper is to observed the gender roles and changes in decision-making structure in a village of the Punjab, Pakistan. Spatial mobility of young females by time periods and responsibility regarding supervision of young boys and girls are also included. Decision making regarding education, family disputes, property and domestic purchases are described from 1960 through 2008.

A sample survey was conducted in the village. Systematic sampling technique is used for the selection of the respondents of age 55+ years. An interview schedule was developed as a tool for data collection. The results are based on descriptive and decade wise analyses.

Results show traditional gender roles, particularly of women are changing since 1980s, mainly due to education that has partially influenced their autonomy. Positive change in attitudes toward daughters is observed to have appeared in the recent past. Fading away of role of grandparents in decision making is evident from the data. To an extent, it has replaced the autonomy of parents and grownup children.

This study is an original research which is significant to develop the understanding of the changing gender roles in the rural community of the Punjab, Pakistan. Furthermore, public policies might be designed to encourage or discourage the change in a structured manner.

The exponential rise of digital payments has underscored the critical importance of digital payment security, particularly in payment gateway systems. This chapter delves into the vulnerabilities within these systems and proposes a comprehensive security enhancement framework to address them. Recent security breaches, such as those at SONY and Ontario’s birth registry, have emphasised the urgent need for improved protective measures. The proposed framework integrates advanced technologies like data encryption, next-generation firewalls (NGFWs), unified threat management (UTM), network traffic analysis, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). It aims not only to defend against current cyber threats but also to remain adaptable to future vulnerabilities, ensuring the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of transactional data. Moreover, aligning with regulatory standards such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is crucial for building trust and ensuring security in the digital transaction ecosystem. This chapter also highlights the importance of balancing security measures with user experience and advocates for user education and user-centric security solutions. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain are proposed for real-time fraud detection and maintaining immutable transaction records, offering innovative solutions to contemporary security challenges. Empirical analysis supports the efficacy of the proposed framework, showing improvements in data loss prevention, user satisfaction, and fraud mitigation. This framework, termed ‘Guardians of Trust’, represents a paradigm shift in payment gateway security, providing a scalable and forward-looking model that balances robust security protocols with user experience and compliance considerations. This chapter contributes significantly to the academic discourse on digital payment security.

With ambidextrous innovation (AI) gaining paramount importance in the manufacturing sectors of emerging markets, this research aim to explore how leadership and management support (LMS) amplify this type of innovation by leveraging knowledge sources (KS). The study further probes the knowledge management capability (KMC) as moderating effect between KS and AI.

Using the convenient random sampling technique of a sample of 340 professionals within Pakistan’s manufacturing realm, data was collated via a structured questionnaire. The subsequent analysis harnessed the power of the variance-based partial least squares structural equation modelling approach.

This research underscores the pivotal role of LMS in elevating both facets of AI i.e. exploitative innovation (ERI) and exploratory innovation (ERT). KS emerge as a vital intermediary factor that bridges LMS with both types of innovation. Notably, the potency of KS in driving AI is significantly boosted by an organization’s KMC.

This study fills existing gaps in contemporary research by offering a nuanced perspective on how LMS enrich an organization’s dual innovation spectrum via KS. It sheds light on the symbiotic interplay of leadership, knowledge flows and innovation in Pakistan’s burgeoning manufacturing sector.

This study examines the effects of CLS and DS on companies' WCME and analyses the differences in WCME at company and market levels.

This study adopts the DEA approach, regression, differences, and additional analyses to achieve its objectives. This study employs 235 non-financial companies and 1,175 company-year observations from eight active industries in the United States from 2016 to 2020.

The findings indicate that CLS and DS strategies positively influence companies' WCME. Additionally, WCME differed across size categories and industries, with large companies and those operating in the communication services industry showing better WCME. By contrast, WCME did not differ between the periods before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study scrutinizes the impact of CLS and DS strategies on companies' WCME to bridge the gap in this field. It extends the investigation of competitive strategies as explanatory variables for a company's WCME and examines the differences in companies' WCME at the company and market levels, which may assist decision-makers in improving their strategies and efficiencies for continuous improvement.

This study enhances current knowledge by uncovering the influence of CLS and DS strategies on improving companies' WCME, an underexplored topic. It also explores companies' WCME trends and patterns regarding company size, industry type, and the pandemic period to draw interesting conclusions about the essence of WCME.

In the 21st century, spirituality is becoming an interesting phenomenon in the workplace and has been discussed by academicians, researchers, and practitioners alike. This growing knowledge offers important insights and calls for conceptual and empirical studies on workplace spirituality. Accordingly, the current research aims to examine how ethical leadership (EL) helps to foster workplace spirituality and job satisfaction (JS) in the information technology (IT) industry. Additionally, it investigates the mediating role of workplace spirituality and moderating role of self-efficacy (SE) in the relationship between EL and JS.

Using a cross-sectional design, the data were collected from 268 employees in the IT industry and analyzed on SmartPLS 3.2 using structural equation modeling.

The findings indicated that EL promotes a sense of spirituality and increases JS. Additionally, results suggested that workplace spirituality partially mediates, and SE moderates the relationship between EL and JS.

The results suggest that the top executives should work on identifying and developing ethical qualities to promote a sense of meaningfulness (workplace spirituality) and increase JS.

The research provides an important contribution to the academic literature by exploring the role of EL in fostering spirituality among employees and the moderation of SE on the relationship between EL and JS in the services industry.

By examining the impact of the day of the week during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic recession, it is possible to provide insights into market behaviour during volatile times that can be furnished to investors and policymakers for informed decisions.

This study investigates the day-of-the-week effect on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), with particular emphasis on the variations in this effect during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis.

The study applies the Exponential Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) model, allowing for the evaluation of asymmetric responses to positive and negative shocks. The data span from January 2006 to December 2022 and are segmented into different periods: the entire sample, war and post-war periods, the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis period, each reflecting distinct market conditions.

The study uncovers a significant day-of-the-week effect on the CSE. Mondays and Tuesdays typically show a negative effect, while Thursdays and Fridays display a positive impact. However, this pattern shifts notably during the COVID-19 pandemic, with all weekdays exhibiting significant positive impact, and varies further across different waves of the pandemic. The economic crisis period also shows unique weekday effects, particularly before and after an important political event.

Leadership has a decisive role in the success of all types of businesses and firms, including small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the ethical behavior of leaders is a key component which brings a sense of respect, fulfillment, trustworthiness and acceptance among the employees, which later become visible in their job performance (JP). This study aims to check the immediate effect of ethical leadership (EL) on employee’s JP (EJP) and also explore the indirect mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on this EL and EJP nexus.

Primary data was obtained from the employees of manufacturing SMEs of Northern Italy using a cross-sectional design from the end of 2019 to the start of 2020. This paper circulated 450 self-administered questionnaires using simple random sampling, and 202 (44.88%) valid questionnaires were returned. The PROCESS macro was performed using statistical package for social sciences to ensure whether or not EL affects EJP and is there any mediation effect of CSR present in this nexus.

The results indicate that EL has a strong positive connection with EJP and CSR. Interestingly, CSR positively influences EJP. Furthermore, the results also report the strong mediating effect of CSR in the nexus of EL and EJP.

This scholarly work seeks to contribute not only to the literature of EL and EJP but also enriches the understanding of this EL-EJP association by highlighting the indirect effect of mediating variable CSR in the SME sector.