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Analysis of relationship between energy and growth offers the sustainable energy pathway for a country’s sustainable economic development. This study aims to focus on the evaluation of the Pakistan’s energy system using long-run energy alternative planning (LEAP) modeling framework through different growth scenarios.

Principal component analysis has been adopted for indicators index formation. Study period of 1980 to 2030 is covered by forward and backward simulations in LEAP software.

The study reveals that current energy policy does not have the potential to lead the country toward a desired goal of economic sustainability.

In falling off scenario, negative growth rate (-5 per cent) assumption is also debatable; LEAP shows an error in the analysis and takes the last positive available value for any further analysis as a default. This case could have been simply omitted from results but for research contribution, the computations for this case are also reported.

Long-range energy alternative planning model has been applied to answer the corresponding question for simulation period of 1980 to 2030 to better compare the past trend and future expectations. Critical analysis of four selected scenarios (BAU, moderate, advanced and falling off) indicate that energy policy of Pakistan is poorly managed to maintain energy system’s effectiveness.

As far as statistical difference is concerned, early years have more fluctuation; however, from 2009, curve flattens for energy consumption and energy demand. The increasing demand of energy impacts the society and hence disturbs all sectors.

Policymakers have been so dragged off from the main route to sustainability, despite all odds there is a huge unexplored potential in the country for use to move in step with the world for a better tomorrow. The study educates the policymakers to comprehend the future energy scenarios and make rational decisions based on the study outcomes.

Mobile phone payment is a significant advancement in e-commerce and retailing. This study aims to look at the influencing factors for the attainment or letdown of mobile payment systems (MPS). The coping theory (CP) and innovation resistance theory (IRT) components were applied in the tourism sector.

The data were gathered from 402 tourists who utilized MPS for the first time to book their vacation. In a longitudinal study, an online questionnaire was used to contact clients of several travel businesses to predict their intentions and behavior. Covariance-based structure equation modeling (CB-SEM) was applied using IBM-SPSS AMOS to analyze the data.

CP factors provided highly thought-provoking results, calling into question several apparent beliefs. At the same time, the relationships covering the aspects of the IRT were supported. It has also been found that intentions are a valid predictor of behavior.

The study's findings can be used by governments, media houses, hotels and travel and tourism agencies, particularly in developing countries like Malaysia.

This study adds to the existing literature by offering a complete model that demonstrates the influence of conceptualizations utilized from the most robust theories connected to technology toward MPS for trip reservations from the perspective of developing countries. Importantly, this study measures the consumers' continuous buying behavior by employing a longitudinal research design.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of trade openness on the cost of financial intermediation and bank performance. Developed and developing countries are currently pursuing trade openness to achieve higher bank performance with less intermediation costs.

In attaining the study's objectives, several regression methodologies were employed (i.e. system generalized method of moments (GMM), fixed effect, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and vector error correction model (VECM)). The authors tested the hypothesis on data of 885 banks from BRICS countries, which span 18 years (2000–2017).

The results from this robust study showed that embedding higher trade openness reduces financial intermediation costs and improves banks' performance. The results remain robust following the use of different estimation methods and alternative variables as proxies. In addition, results were still valid upon considering bank level, industry level and country level as control variables. It was also observed that the relation pattern holds its rigidity during “good” and “bad” times (i.e. the global financial crisis).

The results provide better references for bank regulators, academics and policymakers to take advantage of the low financial intermediation costs resulting from trade openness.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of trade and financial sector openness and their simultaneous openness on financial development of South Asia.

To serve the purpose, a panel data set of four South Asian economies, namely, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, was constituted for the period spanning from 1996 to 2015. Along with the conventional panel unit root test and co-integration test, pooled mean group estimations were used to formulate the empirical findings.

The findings suggested a significant negative impact of financial openness and significant positive impact of trade openness on the financial development of South Asia. The empirical evidence did not support simultaneous openness of trade and financial sector for the studied region.

The study contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the effect of trade and financial openness on financial development of South Asia. The study provides substantial evidence to the stakeholders for formulating policies that can boost financial development of the region.

Although 76% of the population of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is Muslim, takāful (Islamic insurance) has a much smaller share of business in the UAE than conventional insurance does. The purpose of this study is to highlight the importance of brand equity (BE), which is known as the incremental value that provides reason to buy a brand. This study provides useful insights that can help the health takāful industry to gain a feasible market share in the UAE.

This is a quantitative study in which stratified random sampling was adopted for data collection from 300 respondents through a self-administered questionnaire from August to November 2018. Underpinning the study is the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique has been used to examine the impact of BE on purchase intentions (PI) through the moderating role of demographic factors such as age, income, education and religion. Three dimensions of BE, i.e. brand awareness (BAW), brand association (BAS) and perceived quality (PQ), are evaluated in terms of their significance as dimensions of BE.

The major findings of this study confirm that BE has a strong positive influence on the PIs of health takāful customers in the UAE and that all three dimensions of BE make significant contributions to the overall BE. The results show that education does moderate the relationship between BE and PI while age, income and religion do not. A new finding of this study is the nonsignificant moderating role of religion, whereby it was found that takāful products in the UAE are not limited to Muslim customers but can include potential customers who are followers of other religions.

To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first of its kind to examine the impact of BE on the PI of health takāful customers in the UAE. The findings of the study give academia, researchers and marketers a better understanding of the importance of BE and of its vital role in promoting takāful products in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries such as the UAE.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the individual bounded rationality of the rural poor toward participation in borrowing from rural development scheme (RDS). Specifically, how do respondents’ demographic variables such as gender, age, education, income and religion affect their attitude, subjective norms (SNs) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) to influence bounded rationality toward actual participation in borrowing the Islamic funds from RDS?

To answer these questions, the theory of bounded rational planned behavior as its basis was established. Data (n = 375) were collected from rural women clients of RDS based on snow-balling sampling technique. Data were analyzed following the procedure of structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that all the demographic variables except education influence attitudes, SNs and PBC in turn influence the individual respondents’ bounded rational intention toward participation in RDS.

The sample was not randomly drawn to represent a population to which findings could be generalized. Instead, it was a snow-balling sample, and as such, the ability to generalize the findings very far beyond the sample is limited.

This paper implies that respondents’ socioeconomic characteristics are important to consider changing individual subjective rationality of human being toward performing actual behavior.

Social implications refer that rural women in Bangladesh are positively and subjectively motivated toward bounded rational intention and participation in RDS.

This research is based on the primary data collected from the participants in an Islamic microfinance institute called RDS. This paper draws on several insights about the participation behavior of the rural poor in Bangladesh.

This paper aims to propose a new framework for the management of a waqf land registration system in Malaysia that is compliant with Islamic law and the Malaysian legal system. The study sought to answer the following two research questions: what are the issues of the waqf land registration system and how to solve the issues of waqf land registration in Malaysia.

This study used a qualitative research method by using content analysis, legal investigation and doctrinal research. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with lawyers, academicians and executive officers from the Department of Land and Mines, the State Islamic Religious Council and reviewed documents mainly from the Department of Waqf, Zakat and Hajj Malaysia.

A new framework for the management of waqf land registration in Malaysia was identified, which was developed based on current waqf issues such as problematic registration methods, lengthy and complicated procedures, interference in the jurisdiction of the civil court and idle waqf land. The framework overcame the flaw of the previous waqf land registration system in Malaysia.

The new framework will provide solutions to the current registration system within the National Land Code, 1965, which will secure property in the future.

Existing literature affirms that almost half of the young generation has remained unemployed worldwide. On the contrary civic engagement can be a powerful tool in combating this problem. However, the influencing factors that encourage the active participation of young adults yet to be identified. The purpose of this paper is to fill the research gap by creating and validating a research model by including three motives social presence commitment and online offline civic engagement.

The study took a quantitative approach to conduct a cross-sectional study. In total, 214 data were collected from the member of a Facebook group of Bangladesh named Foodbank, a restaurant review page through the online questionnaire. After that structural equation modelling techniques have been used to analyse the data, test the model validity and hypothesis.

The result shows that both commitment and social presence influence offline and online civic engagement. Excitement motives have a higher effect than information and convenience motive. Besides, 8 out of 10 hypotheses have shown significant results, with only the convenience motive not having any positive influence and effect on social presence and commitment.

Almost 47.6 out of 158.5 million are young people who are incapable of contributing fully to national development due to a lack of civic engagement. The outcome of this study will be useful for the Government of Bangladesh, as well as for non-governmental organisations and decision-making authorities to form assessments and develop policy on how to engage the young generation in civic activities to achieve further socio-economic development in the country.

This study contributes to existing literature with newly developed relationships between social presence-civic engagement and commitment-civic engagement. These unique relationships have been empirically tested and resulted insignificant. The study also identifies that it is vital to engage young people more in social works and increase their participation in offline and online activities.

This study examines the dynamics of the comovement and causal relationship between conventional (Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance coin) and Islamic (OneGram, X8X token and HelloGold) cryptocurrencies.

This study uses wavelet coherence approach to examine the time-varying lead-lag relationship between conventional and Islamic cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, the authors use BEKK-GARCH model to estimate the optimal weights, hedge ratio and hedging effectiveness in pre-COVID-19 and during the COVID-19 period.

The authors find no significant comovement in pre-COVID-19. However, the authors find significant positive comovement in conventional and Islamic cryptocurrencies at the beginning of the pandemic, and in most cases, conventional cryptocurrencies are leading. X8X and HelloGold have no/weak correlation with conventional cryptocurrencies, implying that investors can diversify the risk by making an Islamic and conventional cryptocurrencies portfolio. The authors also calculate the optimal weights, hedge ratio and hedging effectiveness using the BEKK-GARCH model. Based on the optimal weights, for the portfolios of conventional–Islamic cryptocurrencies, investors are suggested to increase their investment in Islamic cryptocurrencies during the COVID-19 than normal period. The results of hedge ratios show that hedging costs are higher during COVID-19 than before.

The findings of the paper offer several practical policy implications for investors, portfolio manager, Shariah advisors and policymakers pertaining to asset allocation, risk management, forecasting and diversification. Specifically, investors can maximize the risk adjusted returns of their conventional cryptocurrencies portfolio by adding some portions of Islamic cryptocurrencies. Considering the comovement is time-varying, investors/manager should adjust their investment strategies frequently. For the entrepreneurs in crypto-industry, it is advised to introduce new Islamic cryptocurrencies, as it has a huge growth potential because of their distinct features and performance.

This is the first study that explores the linkages between conventional and Islamic cryptocurrencies, therefore this study extends the literature of Islamic finance, stablecoins and cryptocurrencies in pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19 period. The study results provide insights to conventional crypto investor on how to manage their portfolio during normal and turbulent period.

The study investigates the experience and significance of strategic factors in organizational innovation (OI) and organizational learning (OL). The study also examines the impact of OI and OL on organizational performance.

The study takes a quantitative approach, with cross-sectional data collected to achieve its purpose. The respondents are CEOs of different organizations. The data collection tool, a survey questionnaire, is applied to a random sample. In total, data from 360 usable cases are analyzed to infer the results.

After employing structural equation modeling (SEM), the study findings reveal the positive and significant impact of strategic factors on OI and OL, with these factors comprising personal mastery, transformational leadership, a shared vision, proactivity, and the environment. Furthermore, OI and OL have a positive and significant impact on organizational performance.

The study's findings may reinforce knowledge of the different strategic factors/capabilities needed to attain a satisfactory level of organizational capabilities and, consequently, may increase organizational performance and encourage entrepreneurship. An investigation of these factors may impart benefits to an organization, such as becoming more innovative or providing a boost to learning. Managers of organizations may generate circumstances to make it easier to achieve the growth of these strategic factors/capabilities.

The study's findings may help to develop a better understanding of strategic factors, OI, OL, and organizational performance, particularly in a developing country context.