This study aims to portray the ethical disposition of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) globally by investigating the ethical gap identified in the empirical literature to date. Two methods of analysis used in this study are content analysis and ratio analysis. While the former was conducted to identify the main themes of empirical studies and to gauge the gap between theory and practice of ethical principles and business practice in the Islamic banking and financial industry, the latter quantified the intensity of the gap identified. The findings indicate that global ethical practices were found to be above medial, and the South East Asian region stood out with a relatively better performance along with the subpar performance of the African region. Among the ethical parameters, the praxis of marketing ethics was found to be distinctly aligned with the principles, and the organizational ethical decision-making behaviour was held to be least harmonized with the norms. The findings of this study help researchers and regulators to better understand the issues and provide practical solutions to address the shortfalls of ethics in Islamic finance in practice. In spite of the vast literature, comprehension of the overarching ethical standing of IFIs is still equivocal. This study contributes to the growing literature of ethical and/or Islamic finance primarily in two ways. Firstly, it provides a comprehensive depiction of the ethical standings of the IFIs all around the globe, which can be treated as a guiding document for regulators and industry practitioners to better understand the issues and provide practical solutions to address the shortfalls of ethics in Islamic finance in practice. Secondly, it helps researchers identify research gaps and provides a systematic direction for future studies in the area of ethics in Islamic finance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the burdening effect of Shariah knowledge on the sales performance of salesforce in Islamic financial institutions with special reference to gender heterogeneity. A total of 324 responses were collected from salesforce in Islamic financial institutions of Malaysia, and empirical assessment was conducted with the measures of model fit and bootstrapping techniques using partial least square multi-group analysis. Empirical findings indicate that burdening effect is evident among salesforce, and the intensity of burdening effect is relatively lesser in female salesforce compared to male salesforce. Empirical findings suggest that respective authorities of Islamic financial institutions to intensify capacity building for their salesforce, particularly in the area where the Shariah knowledge and nature of underlying Islamic contracts are employed in the financial products. There is a significant competitive advantage in preferring more female salesforce to improve the slow growth of the industry that results from burdening effect of Shariah knowledge. Not least of all, it is highly recommended for Islamic financial institutions to provide more training for the male salesforce to overcome the issue of information overload in sales performance. While there is ample literature documented that examines the gender effect in conventional sales and marketing discipline, little emphasis has been given to the salesforce in the Islamic finance industry. Further, the findings of this study provide vital implications for the management in formulating crucial policies with respect to the salesforce preference and capacity building in dealing with the burdening effect of peculiar features of the Shariah knowledge in the light of the ongoing slow growth of the Islamic finance industry.

This study aims to investigate the reaction (in terms of returns and volatility) of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country-wise stock markets (both conventional and Islamic) in response to the surge of COVID-19 cases, with special reference to the announcement of financial stimulus packages in each country and the recent global oil price plunge. Further, the study also examines the impact of COVID-19 cases on the stock market returns of each GCC country and the continuous dynamics of correlation between COVID-19 cases and GCC stockmarkets. This study uses an exponential generalized auto regressive conditional heteroskedasticity model and continuous wavelet coherence to estimate the stock market volatility and comovement between COVID-19 cases and stock returns. Empirical findings indicate an adverse reaction (negative returns and high volatility) during the period examined, with the stimulus package resulting in a positive transformation of returns in each country-level stock market as well as the regional stock index. Further, no evidence of an adverse effect of the oil price plunge is identified. All findings are identical between both conventional and Islamic stock indices. While ample research has been conducted on the impact and dynamics of the pandemic on stock markets, little has addressed the areas of financial stimulus packages and the oil price plunge. The findings of this study show that further research needs to be conducted to elucidate the ways in which effective financial stimulus packages can be formulated in the GCC region to mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 for economies without causing major financial deficits, as well as to find strategies to diversify economies away from the oil curse.

Though the lex loci applicable to Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) are derived from Shariah that embeds ethical and moral values, IFIs still face ethical dilemma. Since the leadership and managerial roles are played by both genders, it is imperative to understand the implication of their contribution in this. As such, the objective of this paper is to examine the influence of gender using the aspects of al-Ghazali's ethical philosophy in explaining the formation of ethical and unethical behavior within the purview of the Islamic finance industry of Malaysia, where both genders play a pivotal role in the industry. A total of 418 samples were collected from IFIs in Malaysia using a purposive sampling technique, and the empirical analysis was conducted with the measures of model fit and bootstrapping technique using Partial least square Structural equation modeling and Multi-group analysis. The empirical findings indicate the dedicated use of intellect in making decisions related to ethical issues where desires and emotions tend to overwhelm reason and human choices. While divine knowledge is found ineffective guidance of the intellect, the element of satanic force is found to significantly impacting decision-making. As the lack of religious consciousness is evident among respondents, higher exposure to operational risk is expected. These findings were found identical among both genders under study. Findings suggest respective authorities of Islamic financial institutions to intensify the capacity-building programs on the foundation of faith which includes Islamic thought and worldview, to enhance the corporate ethical decision-making irrespective of gender.

According to UAE Ministry of Economy, the SME sector represents more than 94 per cent of the total number of companies operating in the country and provide jobs for more than 86 per cent of the private sector's workforce. There are more than 350,000 companies working at the SMEs platform, and providing over 86 percent of the private sector's total workforce. They contribute to more than 60 percent of the UAE non-oil GDP. According to the Central Bank of UAE's data, credit provided to microenterprises grew 26.3% during the period from December 2017 through March 2019.

This study aims to examine the decision-making behaviour of Islamic banking practitioners of the United Arab Emirates with special reference to the operational line heterogeneity by employing factors that are religious in nature such as intellect, satanic force and divine knowledge as encapsulated in alGhazali's ethical philosophy. A total of 337 samples were collected from the Islamic banking practitioners in the United Arab Emirates using a purposive sampling technique, and the empirical analysis was conducted with the measures of model fit and bootstrapping technique using Partial least square Structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. The empirical findings reveal that the dedicated use of intellect in making decisions related to ethical issues where desires and emotions tend to overwhelm reason and human choices. While divine knowledge is found ineffective guidance of the intellect, the element of satanic force is found significantly impacting decision-making. As the lack of religious consciousness is evident among respondents, higher exposure to operational risk is expected. These findings were found identical across the Islamic banking practitioners in different lines of operations. Findings of the study highly suggest respective authorities of Islamic financial institutions to intensify the capacity-building programs on the foundation of faith which includes Islamic thought and worldview, to enhance the corporate ethical decision-making. Moreover, equal importance should be given to all the banking practitioners regardless of line of business operations. With undue emphasis is given to the juristic (fiqh) aspects of Shariah compliance in the Islamic banking and finance industry, less has been attempted to explore its ethical dimension (akhlaq) in the compliance parameters that leave a relatively large gap to address prevailing unethical practices in Islamic finance institutions. Findings from this study can be useful as a warning to the Islamic banking firms to enhance the sense of God-fearing and improve existing measures in the organisation in mitigating operational risks that may arise from people or system and consequently ensure the smooth governance of the Islamic banks.

While ample emphasis has been given to the juristic (fiqh) aspects of Shariah compliance in Islamic banking and finance, relatively little has been attempted to explore its ethical dimensions (akhlaq) in the compliance parameters. Further, Shariah compliance has been product centric rather than people-centric. This is evident in view of recurring unprincipled events reported in the Islamic banking and finance industry where its ethical standing is under public scrutiny. Given this undesirable circumstance, this study intends to examine the factors determining decision-making behaviour in Islamic banking related to ethical issues as defined by the Ferrell and Gresham (1985) contingency model as well as factors that are religious in nature as encapsulated in Al-Ghazali's ethical philosophy. The first objective of the study is to develop a "synthesized conceptual model", which incorporates selected aspects of Al-Ghazali's ethical philosophy into the Ferrell and Gresham (1985) contingency model. The second objective of the study, which is an empirical examination of factors influencing 'decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues' is conducted based on newly 'synthesized conceptual model'.

This paper aims to portray the publication pattern, key themes, study trends and future directions for the studies on ethics in Islamic finance. A total of 194 published documents that includes journal articles, books and book chapters and conference proceedings were screened for the period 1988 to August 2022 and categorized based on designated sectors of the Islamic finance industry. This paper also highlights the change in research trends in all three sectors of Islamic finance and suggests possible areas for future research. A comprehensive systematic literature review was conducted using the “advanced search” function of “google scholar” by using the option “find articles” with the keywords “Ethic (s/al)”, “Islamic banks”, “Islamic banking”, “Islamic finance”, “Islamic capital markets”, "Takaful, Islamic insurance" without restricting the time frame, author list and the platform. Furthermore, the search for relevant articles was conducted on other mainstream index databases such as “Web of Science” and “Scopus”. Among the highlights of the findings were an increase in publications on ethical issues after the global financial crisis and an increase in publications in high-impact mainstream business and finance journals. A higher number of studies were documented in the area of Islamic banking and finance followed by Islamic capital markets and Islamic insurance/takaful. Although a greater number of empirical studies were published than conceptual studies, dominance was resulted due to the replication of the studies in various jurisdictions based on the same concepts or models rather than applying diversified concepts in various jurisdictions.

The novel COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented human crisis around the globe. The necessary actions implemented to contain the virus have sparked both economic and social downturn. It shows the fragility and unpreparedness of the economy to face such a pandemic. Significant weakening of economic conditions has escalated the pressure on households, businesses and financial markets. Governments all over the globe are in the process of formulating and implementing appropriate policies to continue economic activities amidst this turmoil. Financial institutions are obligated to respond towards the policies adopted by respective governments.

The purpose of this paper is to use Ferrell and Gresham (1985) contingency model to examine the impact of situational factors on decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners. A total of 262 samples are collected from Islamic banking practitioners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and data analysis is conducted using structural equation modelling (SEM) with a confirmatory approach. The empirical findings indicate that decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners is significantly influenced in the process of interacting with persons who are part of the organisation, and these influences are determined by the intra-organisational distance and legitimate authority between the individuals and the focal person. Further, it is also empirically verified that decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners is significantly influenced by the presence and/or absence of the opportunity factors such as corporate policies, professional codes of ethics and rewards/punishment system that prevails in the organisation.

The Department of Labour in the US recently released their COVID-19 Occupational Risk Score. The statistics are based on their Purchasing Power Parity, the homogeneity of the job description and the risk of exposure to COVID-19. The figure above may be used to depict a more generic occupational risk correlated with salary grades, that are experienced internationally, including Malaysia. The Occupational Risk Score can be divided into four quadrants: i. high income-low risk, ii. high income-high risk, iii. low income-high risk, and iv. low income-low risk. Those with the highest exposure to infection include what is now termed as the 'frontliners'. These include doctors, nurses, and other medical officers and officials, police & army, and volunteers (RELA) entrusted to enforce the movement control orders (MCO). Immigration and other enforcement officers stationed at entry and exit points are also amongst those facing the highest levels of occupational risk.

This study aims to examine the ethical dimensions of Islamic bankers, with a reference to the factors influencing decision-making behavior related to ethical issues based on al-Ghazali's ethical philosophy. The findings reveal the manner in which Islamic banking practitioners brace themselves into situations that warrant the use of reason in making decisions related to ethical issues, where desires tend to dominate human choices. While the guidance of divine knowledge has been found to be ineffective in decision-making, the element of satanic force was found to significantly influence this process. The insignificant heterogeneous effect of work experience suggests that banking authorities should intensify the capacity building in the area of ethical teachings and the foundation of Islamic faith, regardless of the job tenure of employees. This study contributes to the growing literature on the ethical aspects in Islamic banking and organizational behavior by offering important implications for understanding and refining the ethical stance related to Islamic banking practices based on the Islamic perspective.

This paper aims to investigate the differences in patronage factors influencing "retail customers" and "institutional clients" to bank Islamically and to identify the reasons bankers perceive that their customers' bank with them in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A total of 237; 416; and 70 balanced responses were collected from Islamic bankers, retail customers and institutional clients of UAE, respectively. Weighted average scores were computed for ranking the selection criteria factors across the data set and paired comparison analysis was conducted to analyse the variation of selection criteria between the data sets. Empirical results indicate that Islamic banking practitioners maintain an identical perception with retail customers in relation to the selection criteria of Islamic banking products and services, with the "Shari'ah-compliance" factor dominating other factors under examination. With respect to the perception regarding institutional/corporate clients, Islamic bankers exhibited a divergent perception in connection with selection criteria of Islamic banking products and services and the factor "cost and affordability" and "rates and return" are prioritized above factor "Shari'ah-compliance". The scope of the study is limited to a single country. Hence, the finding of this study cannot be generalized to the other regions. Although the study covers a considerable sample from each segment, still there is an avenue for improvement by covering more respondents into the survey. Consequently, the results of this study should be read with these limitations. Further, analysis of the variation among intra divisions of each segment such as Muslim and non Muslim with respect to retail customers; the different level of management at the banks and focusing the specific sector of the industry is beyond the scope of this study. These directions provide avenues for future research.

This study aims to examine the impact of information overload (referred to as the saddling effect in this study) of underlying contracts on the sales performance of the salesforce at takaful institutions with special reference to addressing the heterogeneous effect among distribution channels. A total of 311 samples were collected from the sales professionals of the takaful industry in Malaysia using a purposive sampling technique and the empirical analysis was conducted with the measures of model fit and bootstrapping technique using partial least square structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis. Empirical results indicate that the saddling effect of the underlying contracts is evident among salesforce and the magnitude of the impact was found to be heterogeneous between the groups of salesforces in different distribution channels. Findings recommend respective authorities of takaful institutions to intensify capacity building for their salesforce, particularly in the area of shariah knowledge and nature of underlying Islamic contracts used in the takaful products. A significant heterogeneous effect between distribution channels suggests that the actions and policy formulations should be diverse between the salesforce at different distribution channels and higher attention should be catered for the salesforce at the direct selling channel.

Recent statistics released by the IMF (Figure 1) provide a comparative on the significant impact that COVID-19, and the lockdown in fighting and containing the pandemic has on global economies. The IMF forecasts that the impact is expected to be more devastating than the growth experienced in the aftermath of the Global financial crisis in 2009. The Euro area is where the most severe impact is envisaged, with estimates of economic contraction at almost 8%. This is followed by the United States with an estimated contraction of 6% and Japan contracting slightly more than 5%. China and India are expected to post positive growth at 2% and 1% respectively.