International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management最新文献

Purpose

Islamic endowment (awqaf), particularly awqaf land, is one of the potential Islamic social assets to serve the public interest, particularly to provide public infrastructures such as business centers, public hospitals and airports. However, unfortunately, most of them are still unproductive lands, especially in the form of idle lands. One problem to use such unproductive awqaf lands is the lack of awqaf land model as the platform to use such awqaf lands. This paper aims to construct and propose a model called Sukuk-linked Awqaf (SLA) to use awqaf lands as an underlying for Sukuk issuance.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper constructs mechanisms and formulas of SLA by involving Sukuk issuer, awqaf management (Nadzhir), Sukuk investors and tenants of the infrastructure. In particular, the SLA model is proposed based on the unique characteristics of both awqaf asset and Ijarah (leasing) Sukuk, considers the intention of state-owned enterprise (SOE) to construct buildings to be rented to the tenant and to be owned by the awqaf manager and formulates equations and uses net present value theory to determine Nadzhir and Sukuk investors’ investment decisions.

Findings

Engaging awqaf land with SLA model can ease its benefit for the society. The model addresses the strategic roles of Nadzhir, SOE, investors and contractor in using awqaf land.

Research limitations/implications

The SLA model could ease related parties to use the awqaf land for the sake of public benefits.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first assessment on the potential implementation of Islamic hedging with a commodity as an alternative hedging in Indonesia.

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the short-term market reaction for the world’s 100 largest listed defence firms at and around the three recent largest threats to the global economy – Ukraine–Russia war, Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis and the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

Design/methodology/approach

The author examine the impact of the three recent largest threats to the global economy in the largest listed defence firms using an event study methodology.

Findings

The results show a positive and statistically significant short-term reaction around the three geopolitical threats. The results also reveal the existence of higher abnormal returns for defence firms with greater weight of defence sales, in line with the captured regulator theory and for firms with higher research and development and capital expenditure intensity.

Originality/value

The effect of the war on stock markets has been relatively little examined in the financial theory. This study intends to fill this gap in the literature through the analysis of the three recent largest threats to the global economy.

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the immediate effect of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic by investigating volatility transmission and dynamic correlation between stock (conventional and Islamic) markets, bitcoin and major commodities such as gold, oil and silver at different investment horizons before and after 161 trading days of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The MGARCH-DCC and maximum overlap discrete wavelet transform -based cross-correlation were used in the estimation of the volatility spillover and continuous wavelet transform in the estimation of the time-varying volatility and correlation between the assets at different investment horizons.

Findings

The authors observed a sudden correlation breakdown following the COVID-19 shock. Oil (Bitcoin) was a major volatility transmitter before (during) COVID-19. Digital gold (Bitcoin), gold and silver became highly correlated during COVID-19. The highest co-movement between the assets was observed at medium and long-term investment horizons.

Practical implications

The study findings have a financial implication for day traders, investors and policymakers in the understanding of volatility transmission and intercorrelation in a bid to actively manage stylized and well-diversified asset portfolios.

Originality/value

This study is unique for its employment in estimating the time-varying conditional volatility of the investable assets and cross-correlations between them at different investment horizons, particularly before and after COVID-19 outbreak.

Purpose

This study aims to price the risk contribution of general Takaful at the level of tariff cells, considering a spatial dependency framework.

Design/methodology/approach

Three different models, including a generalized linear model, a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) and a spatial generalized linear mixed model (SGLMM), according to the actuarial modeling of general Takaful, are used to price pure risk contribution (PRC).

Findings

The results reveal that the SGLMM yields more accurate predictions of the PRC compared to the other models, emphasizing the significance of spatial modeling in this context. Following the estimation of the PRC, the gross contribution according to the mechanism of Takaful models is calculated considering the spatial model.

Practical implications

Considering the similarities between Takaful and insurance, this study addresses the pricing of general Takaful within different Takaful models through a spatial dependency framework, such that the practical implications of the study are applicable for running Takaful's business in both Islamic and non-Islamic countries.

Originality/value

Most studies consider only the social or practical view of Takaful. This study contributes to the broader knowledge and understanding of Takaful by presenting a conceptual understanding of Takaful and then investigates the practical application of pricing risk contribution using innovative modeling of claim frequency and severity at the level of tariff cells.

Purpose

Islamic banking and microfinance institutions (MFIs) share the core objective of serving the underprivileged. This study aims to investigate whether Islamic banking development facilitates (greases) or hinders (sands) the social mission of MFIs.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for 19 countries covering the period 2010–2018 were collected from the World Bank, Bank Focus and International Monetary Funds and analyzed using conventional econometric methods. Endogeneity-corrected techniques and alternative proxies were employed to ensure robust results.

Findings

The study revealed that Islamic banking development (proxied by the size of the Islamic banking assets) weakens the depth of outreach of MFIs (measured by average loan size). In countries with growing Islamic banking, MFIs appear to shift their focus toward wealthier clients, potentially due to market saturation among the poor. This is evidenced by MFIs offering larger loans, suggesting a mission drift toward profit maximization. Therefore, it can be inferred that competition from Islamic banks, to some extent, erodes the social mission of MFIs.

Originality/value

This study is among the few to examine the recent and comprehensive relationship between Islamic banking development and the social mission of MFIs.

Purpose

This study aims to examine how capital structure influences earnings management for firms in the Saudi market, which is influenced by an Islamic environment that discourages excessive borrowing.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a data set that covers the period from 2013 to 2020 for firms listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) and uses panel data regression models to test the impact of capital structure on earnings management.

Findings

The empirical results reveal that earnings manipulation is less common among firms that have less debt, which implies that firms in the Saudi market face high scrutiny to maintain lower leverage to meet the investment requirements of stakeholders based on religious status, which in turn reduces information asymmetry and constrains opportunistic behaviour in managing earnings.

Practical implications

This study provides insights for regulators, investors, and managers on the role of religion in shaping capital structure and monitoring financial reporting practices. This study recognises that firms’ decision-making can be explained by non-economic motives, such as religion, which can serve as a less costly external mechanism to alleviate agency costs compared to other economic motives.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by exploring how capital structure and earnings management relate to a distinctive and unique Islamic context that remains largely unexamined. This context allows us to investigate this issue by examining how the Islamic environment, which is not driven by economic or legal reasons, affects managers’ choices of capital structure and earnings management. This study reveals how a strong religious setting can shape firms’ choices regarding capital structure and financial reporting practices.

Purpose

Islamic banks (IBs) place significant importance on their religious identity, prompting the utilization of impression management (IM) strategies to emphasize such identity. This paper aims to discuss the motivations behind using IM in the creation of religious identity by IBs, and to explore the use of religious symbols and language as a form of religious rhetoric. It is argued that to counteract the threats to their religious identity, IBs use IM techniques, predominantly through the inclusion of religious symbols and rhetoric.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical exploratory study, using content analysis, was conducted on the annual reports of the largest IBs for the year 2022. The analyses involved a total of 39 banks based on a filtered list from The Banker’s Top Islamic Financial Institutions of 2022. A manual content analysis was undertaken to extract religious symbols, images and contents.

Findings

The findings reveal the use of IM techniques that emphasize the religious identity of these banks. Notably, IBs consistently reaffirm their commitment to Sharia compliance and disclose their contributions to Zakah. In addition, the analysis reveals the incorporation of Quranic verses, religious iconographic images and other religious rhetoric statements in the annual reports of many IBs.

Research limitations/implications

The analysis concludes that the assertion by IBs that their guiding principles are rooted in Islamic values are supported by the religious terminology and imagery embedded in their annual reports. Alongside mere religious symbolism, the terms and images are integral part of the corporate identity of the Islamic that not only sends persuasive signals to stakeholders but also help build an impression on the activities of the IBs.

Originality/value

IM has been a key objective and strategy of companies. This study aimed at exploring whether and how IBs used religious symbolism as an integral part of IM and corporate identity.

Purpose

This study aims to examine the influence of Islamic microfinance services (IMFS) on poverty reduction in the eastern part of Ethiopia.

Design/methodology/approach

A binary logistic regression model was used to analyze poverty reduction and income, education, household size, age and saving of IMFS through a semi-closed questionnaire by using a purposive sampling technique. A semi-closed interview with higher officials from an Islamic microfinance service was also used.

Findings

The study results show that the income, education, household size and age of the IMFS’ clients are the major influencing factors that affect poverty reduction in Ethiopia.

Practical implications

The study’s findings provide insights for policymakers to revise intensively their regulations and directives for Islamic microfinance operators. It emphasizes the government’s role in serving the community’s interests through financial inclusion and in developing programs to enhance the effectiveness of Islamic microfinance operations in the poverty reduction process. As a social implication, Islamic microfinance service providers gain insights into how beneficiary-side variables contribute to the country’s poverty reduction after offering Islamic microfinance products to them.

Originality/value

The results of this study are distinctive because they show how poverty reduction in Ethiopia is influenced by how income level is increased, how better educational level is attained, how household size is managed and how well the age of the client is effectively used for productivity. The paper also provides a new view of Islamic microfinance in Ethiopia, its influencing factors for poverty reduction and challenges with the operating system.

Purpose

This paper focuses on the different Shari’ah resolutions on preference shares. This study aims to provide a systematic review to cover all authentic, peer-reviewed literature on this issue between the years 2001 and 2020.

Design/methodology/approach

This library research combines, compares and contrasts the discussions and the results of all these papers besides the opinions and discussions of some renowned scholars in the field.

Findings

The aim of this paper was met as every research during that period was included and scrutinized which resulted in a comprehensive knowledge about the presence shares.

Research limitations/implications

One of the limitations was the limited research on the Shari’ah issues in preference shares as a regulatory capital that meets Basel III accords.

Originality/value

This paper will be the reference for any researcher who wants to add value on this issue and to start from where researchers ended.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how stock markets responded to corporate dividend policy changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Likewise, it explores how efficiently market prices incorporate the news by examining the speed of stock price adjustment to various dividend announcements.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample includes 741 dividend announcements from 2017 to 2021 made by 326 firms listed in the stock markets of the GCC countries. A series of regression analyses examine how dividend announcements influence the market reaction during the COVID-19 pandemic, controlling for other well-documented firm characteristics.

Findings

This study reveals an adverse stock price reaction to all the dividend announcements in most GCC markets. The findings also show strong asymmetric effects of COVID-19 on how the markets react to different dividend changes. Likewise, the authors show that investors tend to underreact to the good news of dividend increases amid hard times of crises due to prevailing uncertainty and bearish sentiment. Besides, regression results reveal that firms with dividend reductions during the pandemic experience less adverse market reactions than dividend-decreasing firms prepandemic.

Practical implications

For firms, the findings confirm the role that corporate dividend policy can play in conveying signals to investors, especially during hard times of crises and turbulences, thereby affecting their share price. For policymakers, the results substantially affect market efficiency and firm valuation in the GCC markets.

Originality/value

This study is not only one of the first few attempts to scrutinize how the pandemic has affected the market reaction to changes in corporate dividend policies but also, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first to examine how corporate dividend policy could affect stock markets during COVID-19 in the context of GCC markets.