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Different worldviews have been posed as constraining to information sharing. Religion is one element that constitutes the way people view the world. In many countries, religion has become a source for violent conflicts. This study investigates how Christians and Muslims in Ambon, Indonesia shared information at cafes situated at border areas and it helped the two religious communities reconcile their different worldviews after over a decade of living in conflicts.

Informed by information grounds theory, this study analyzes data collected through a series of observation at three cafes situated at border areas and in-depth interviews with 31 informants. The analysis illuminates the processes that enable Christians and Muslims to exchange their different worldviews.

This study found that, after the conflict, Christian and Muslim communities longed for the interaction they had with the other as it was before the conflict. However, these same communities tended to remain in there religiously homogenous environments as there was a conception that the others' area was unsafe. Cafés at the borders became platforms to fulfill the need to meet with the other, promoting inter-religious interactions. At the cafés, an array of information was shared to establish mutual interests, from which more meaningful interpersonal relationships such as friendship and collaboration arose. Such relationships allowed regular visitors to exchange worldviews, re-stitching the broken social fabric in post-conflict Ambon.

This study expands the applicability of information grounds theory to the context of a religious conflict in Southeast Asia. It demonstrates processes of how continuous interactions at information grounds can gradually facilitate communities with adversarial relationships to exchange their different worldviews.

This study aims to examine the diametrically opposite effects of probabilistic (risk) and nonprobabilistic uncertainty (ambiguity) on accounting conservatism.

This study uses panel regression models with year and industry-fixed effects. It uses financial and market data from the communication and energy sectors of 24 countries, encompassing 1,946 firms and 5,838 firm-year observations.

The study reveals that conservatism is a rational response to risk. However, in the presence of higher ambiguity where uncertainty exceeds firm control and outcomes become unpredictable, management reduces conservative accounting practices. Robustness tests support the validity of these findings across different institutional frameworks, agency risks, sample selection and heterogeneity.

This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring the contrasting effects of risk and ambiguity on accounting conservatism. It enhances the understanding of how various institutional factors influence the asymmetric recognition of bad news compared to good news under conditions of uncertainty.

By understanding the role of accounting conservatism in responding to uncertainties, regulators can develop more informed and effective policies that align with the dynamic nature of business environments.

This research provides novel and original ideas suggesting that the change in accounting conservatism is contingent upon the firms’ ambiguity or risk.

Halal is an emerging business sector and is steadily gaining popularity among scholars and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate and review the reported literature in the broad area of Halal using bibliometric technique and network analysis tools. Moreover, this paper also proposes future research directions in the field of Halal.

This paper employed a systematic review technique followed by bibliometric analysis to gain insight and to evaluate the research area associated with Halal. Furthermore, data mining techniques are used for analysing the concerned article title, keywords and abstract of 946 research articles obtained through the Scopus database. Finally, network analysis is used to identify significant research clusters.

This study reports top authors contributing to this area, the key sub-research areas and the influential works based on citations and PageRank. We identified from the citation analysis that major influential works of Halal are from the subject area of biological science and related areas. Further, this study reports established and emerging research clusters, which provide future research directions.

Scopus database is used to conduct a systematic review and corresponding bibliometric study; the authors might have missed some peer-reviewed studies not reported in Scopus. The selection of keywords for article search may not be accurate for the multi-disciplinary Halal area. Also, the authors have not considered the banking/financial aspects of Halal. The proposed four research clusters may inform potential researcher towards supporting the industry.

The novelty of the study is that no published study has reported the bibliometric study and network analysis techniques in the area of Halal.

Shariah board (SB) is a unique corporate governancemechanism in Islamic financial institutions. Over the last decade, an increasing number of studies discusses the relationship between SB and Islamic banks' (IB) performance. These researches report conflicting findings due to the heterogeneity of their samples. Therefore,the purpose of this paper is to meta-analyze the results of the previous empirical studies to assess if the differences in findings were attributable to moderating effects related either to the system of SB or the used SB variables or the variables used to identify performance.

To examine the direct and moderating effects of SB attributes, this study uses a meta-analysis technique on a sample of 46 empirical studies, using Hunter and Schmidt’s approach followed by three exploratory moderator analyses: ROE, ROA and Tobin’ Q. Significant results are discussed.

Overall, the meta-analysis findings show that there is a positive significant association between SB meetings and qualifications and IBs’ performance. In testing the moderating effects of financial performance measurement during the post-subprime crisis period, the meta-analysis findings suggest that there is a positive significant association between SB characteristics (size, qualification, reputation, interlock and expertise) and performance. The meta-analysis findings stress the importance of several SB attributes in improving IBs’ performance, especially, during the economic recovery period.

This paper adds significance to the extant Islamic finance literature as well as assists the appropriate stakeholders in assessing the determinants of IBs’ performance from Shariah governance perspective. It further aims to reconcile the findings of the previous studies around the world. Moreover, the findings help future research to build a comprehensive Shariah governance index for IBs.

Sustainable economic growth in both developed and developing countries requires the restructuring and expansion of road transportation infrastructures (RTIs). However, RTIs are always subject to high costs and delays, especially in developing countries with fewer resources than developed ones. Cost overruns and inaccurate forecasts usually lead to project failures. In this regard, some governments in developing countries have adopted public–private partnerships (PPPs) to deliver RTI projects with very positive outcomes. However, academic research has not yet studied the most recurring barriers and associated solutions to adopting PPPs in RTIs particularly for developing countries. This paper aims to fill up this knowledge gap in the existing literature.

A Delphi survey method involving 103 experts in RTIs based in Iran was implemented. Results indicated that the most perceived barriers to applying PPPs in RTIs in developing countries are linked to political, legal and economic factors. Ten other experts also participated in semistructured interviews, which were thematically analyzed to provide practical effective solutions for overcoming those identified barriers.

The findings indicated that all the presented barriers achieved above-average scores and could be considered severe obstacles of applying PPPs in RTIs for developing countries. In terms of barriers and solutions reported, these seem to converge on three profound elements: political stability, legal framework and conjoint management.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first-ever research study regarding the barriers to adopting PPPs in delivering RTI projects for developing countries. Practical recommendations for overcoming these perceived barriers and achieving better implementation of PPPs in RTIs for developing countries were advocated. This work has contributed to the extant PPP theory as the management of coproduction in delivering RTI projects.

While the success of the toll road projects procured through public private partnerships (PPPs) routes are widely confined to the cost, time and quality performance in the delivery context, considerable evidence suggests that such success criteria are not sufficient when the toll road projects are assessed in relation to meeting the long-run community expectations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors associated with the success of the toll road projects from a societal perspective in Indonesia.

Based on the input from 12 experts and a rigorous literature review, a questionnaire survey was designed and a total of 206 respondents from three broad stakeholders’ groups, namely, government, private and end-users’ communities were surveyed to measure the performance of eight toll road projects. The data were primarily analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and reliability test using SPSS Software.

Four significant factors associated with the project social benefit were established as a measure of the overall success criteria in toll road projects. It is expected these can be used as guidance to deliver project social benefit to the community in the overall project lifecycle.

This research contributes to the incorporation of social project benefit attributes to the the toll road projects’ success criteria in overall project lifecycle.

This study can be used as guidance for the overall stakeholders, such as the government and the project manager to address the current social problems and better navigate the project direction in order to achieve the overall toll road project success in the overall project lifecycles.

The research highlights how the Indonesian government’s program of developing toll road projects using the PPP procurement routes can be supported for complete social inclusivity by considering the social dimension to achieve long-term success.

Identification of the key project social factors based on the data set with a wide representation of the stakeholders has made the research original and unique.

Despite being a Muslim-dominated country, Bangladesh has widely embraced traditional microfinance since its inception in the mid-1970s. However, Islamic microfinance, which has a lot to offer to the poor, is still in its infancy and has yet to gain momentum in the country. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of Islamic microfinance and propose alternative Shariah-compliant microfinance models in Bangladesh.

This study is based on the desk research method, which relies on existing literature to collect secondary data on key concerns of traditional microfinance programs. In addition, institutional-level secondary data were also collected from the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) of Bangladesh. Guided by the Maqasid-al-Shariah, this study then proposes several Islamic microfinance models to overcome selected challenges faced by the microfinance industry in Bangladesh.

This study suggested three composite Shariah-compliant microfinance models, which are likely to help the underprivileged and thus ensure the achievement of the sustainable development goals in Bangladesh. The first model explained how the operational strategy of incumbent microfinance institutions (MFIs) could be restructured, while the second proposed the organizational strategies for establishing a new MFI. The third model used the notion of Sadaqah (charity) to address the multiple borrowing issues of the industry. Meanwhile, the successful transformation of the conventional microfinance industry to an Islamic one is dependent on the effective collaboration between the regulatory authorities, practitioners and MFIs.

Albeit the paucity of literature on the topic, the findings of this study will guide policymakers/practitioners in designing relevant microfinance models to help transform conventional microfinance into Islamic microfinance in Bangladesh.

In recent years, entrepreneurship education has become increasingly popular to promote economic development and encourage entrepreneurship. This chapter aims to review the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education and the mode of delivery. This review will help understand the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education (entrepreneurial skills, entrepreneurial intention, enhanced entrepreneurial mindset and greater business success). It will also help understand the mode of delivery (classroom instruction, experiential learning, mentoring and coaching and online learning) Using the traditional review methodology, the chapter focusses on the outcomes of entrepreneurship education on students and their attitudes, intentions and behaviours towards entrepreneurship. The chapter also evaluates the various modes of delivery, including traditional classroom-based instruction, experiential learning and online education. The review compared the United States of America and South African points of view on entrepreneurship education to posit significant directions on how to effectuate entrepreneurship education. The chapter further reviews the sustainable development goals that are aligned with entrepreneurship. Overall, the chapter concludes that entrepreneurship education is effective in promoting entrepreneurial attitudes, intentions and behaviours, and its mode of delivery significantly influences its impact. The chapter recommends the integration of active and experiential learning methods into entrepreneurship education, and the development of innovative modes of delivery to reach a wider audience. Policymakers should also support the integration of entrepreneurship education into the formal education system to promote economic development.

Halal food (HF) has received significant attention from scholars and practitioners. However, no studies have explored the distinct role played by HF literature as part of knowledge diffusion. Given the increasing number of scholarly outputs, this study aims to examine the HF development over the past decades comprehensively, including emerging topics and knowledge transmission paths and structure.

This study conducted a keyword co-occurrence network analysis and main path analysis (MPA). The MPA included four types of main paths to trace the historical formation of HF based on 253 articles extracted from the Web of Science database.

The findings show that: HF research revolves around several dimensions, including HF safety and trust, halal certification, HF supply chain management and attitudes towards HF purchasing, and the focus of HF research has shifted from the business perspective to the consumer perspective. In recent years, there has been a trend to explore how blockchains can benefit HF supply chains by improving traceability, transparency and consumer trust in HF.

This study addresses the need to examine the knowledge diffusion paths in the HF domain. This study offers a framework to investigate the knowledge dissemination and structure, helping researchers deal with hundreds of articles effectively and increasing their understanding of the past, present and future research trends in the HF domain.

This study aims to examine the halal brand image, halal logo and halal awareness of non-Muslim customers on attitude and behavioral intention.

This study uses a quantitative survey approach to 400 respondents consisting of 400 non-Muslim millennials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore who have to buy halal cosmetics two years later. The sampling technique is purposive sampling. The analysis technique used in this study is structural equation modeling.

This study showed that halal logo, halal awareness and halal brand image have an effect on customer attitude. Then, the halal logo, halal awareness and halal brand image have an influence on behavioral intention. The existence of this positive signal has provided a great opportunity for businesses to make profits by meeting the demand for the halal market. Consumption of halal cosmetics produced by manufacturers attracts many non-Muslim consumers because of the safety, comfort and cleanliness of product ingredients, which of them must be given by the halal product, especially for cosmetics.

This study broadens the understanding of the attitudes and behavioral intentions of non-Muslim consumers toward halal cosmetic products. Furthermore, this research has provided a deeper interpretation of non-Muslim understanding of halal logos, halal brand images and halal awareness which have been minimal in research studies.

This study contributes to the literature related to the behavioral intentions of millennial non-Muslim consumers for halal cosmetics. Therefore, respondents in the study were specific, that is, non-Muslims who are millennial generation in the Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore context.