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The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the return and dividend characteristics of two different types of Malaysian real estate investment trust (REIT) series, namely, conventional and Islamic, against macroeconomic variables over the period 2011-2017.

The required data are derived from Datastream database. Multiple regression analysis is used to determine the impact of macroeconomic variables on financial performance of 13 Malaysian REIT series.

Results show that the macroeconomic variables are able to predict future returns and dividends of Malaysian REITs. The analysis also suggests that Islamic REITs are seen to be less sensitive to macroeconomic variables and display better portfolio diversification benefits as compared to their conventional counterpart. The ongoing implications for large-cap and small-cap REITs are also highlighted.

The main limitation of the study is the small percentage of Islamic REITs sample due to limited period of observation available. However, the two Islamic REITs included are representative of Islamic REITs in Malaysia as both of them are listed in the Bursa Malaysia with asset size and market capitalization values more than RM1bn.

The results of this study may serve as a useful input for financial market players on making strategic business decisions especially with regards to differences between conventional and Islamic REITs characteristics.

The main contribution of this paper is to explore the relationship between REITs and macroeconomic factors on a unique capital market (Malaysia) that allows comparison between conventional and its Islamic counterpart.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the perception of Islamic bank employees in Malaysia and selected Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, namely, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE, on various issues related to Islamic business ethics and the practices of the Islamic banks at which they work.

The required data to determine Islamic bank employees’ ethical perceptions is sourced from 144 completed survey questionnaires and interviews with 12 Islamic bank senior executives. Islamic model of normative business ethics is used to measure the relationship between attitudes and behaviours of employees and the ethical practices of Islamic banks.

Results show that the Islamic bank personnel working in Malaysia and the GCC perceived that their banks conform to Islamic ethical norms in business. These banks were seen to be concerned with their impact on society, and ethics prevailed over profit-maximisation. The findings also suggest that despite being less regulated compared to Malaysia, Islamic bank personnel in GCC had a better impression of the ethical standard practised in their institutions compared to the feedback given by their Malaysian counterparts. Additionally, this research also proves that, in general, there is a positive correlation between attitudes and behaviours of employees and the ethical practices of Islamic banks.

The main limitation of the study is that the respondents were not selected randomly but rather through a convenient sampling of personal contacts. Despite the inherent limitation of the sampling method because of the constraints of time and resources, the large number of respondents from 12 different banks are representative of the Islamic bank employees in Malaysia and the GCC.

The findings may serve as a useful input for Islamic financial institutions in improving their practices to conform with Islamic ethical norms.

The topic of Islamic business ethics and the practices of Islamic banks have not been fully understood by its stakeholders. This paper aims to give insights on how far Islamic bank business practices in Muslim majority societies fit with the prescribed business framework in Islam and its contributing value for both the organization and employees.

The paper aims to construct a theoretical framework to investigate whether the Shariah debt ratio screening in contemporary Shariah stock screening methodologies results in a bias towards a certain set of corporate financial behaviour for Shariah-compliant firms in the USA where access to a liquid Islamic debt market is non-existent.

The paper extends the earnings valuation approach of Modigliani and Miller (1963) to theoretically asses the impacts of the 33% conventional debt limit on Shariah-compliant firms’ corporate financial behaviour. Then, supporting evidence is shown via empirical stylised facts of samples of Shariah-compliant firms in the USA.

A theoretical floor limit to investment cut-off rates is found for US Shariah-compliant firms so that lesser projects pass their internal rate of return versus conventional firms. Subsequently, such firms consistently show the following corporate financial characteristics: above-average size, larger marginal change in size and profitability in response to a given marginal change in investments, low book-to-market ratio and lower investment rates.

The findings of this paper may not hold where access to a liquid Islamic capital market is present.

Caveat emptor. These findings may be inconsistent to the investor’s risk preferences.

The findings suggests that Shariah-compliant firms are more conservative compared to their conventional counterparts.

The paper is the first to introduce a theoretical framework to address consistent biasness in corporate financial behaviour due to the Shariah debt screening. It may prove useful for future academic studies as well as investment managers.

The purpose of this paper is to present the essential role that currency order flow plays in the foreign exchange markets of emerging economies in the determination of their currencies in the short and the long-run against major currencies of the world, which cannot be over emphasized, most especially against the US dollar. Insomuch that, if some of these emerging economies can be successfully transmitted into full development, it would be a good model for other emerging economies and the world at large.

A hybrid model (portfolio shift model) proposed by Evans and Lyons (2002a, 2002b) is extended to analyze a data set of every quarter of an hour currency order flow and currency exchange rate fluctuations of Thai Baht (THB) against the US$ for the period of six years (January 2010 to December 2015). To reflect the pressure of currency excess demand, the authors construct a measure of currency order flow in the Thailand currency exchange market. Vector autoregression model is applied to estimate the effectual role of currency order flow in the determination of exchange rate for the THB against the US$.

Currency order flow indeed accounted for a sizeable and significant portion of the fluctuations in the THB and the US$ exchange rate.

Insomuch that, the results show that currency order flow has significant explanatory power in the emerging markets economy to capture the THB exchange rate variability, and it then brings to the attention of the Thailand Monetary Authority the importance that should be attached to the market microstructure.

This paper aims to investigate the dynamic portfolio optimisation performance of numerous samples of Shariah-compliant firms in the USA vis-à-vis the overall conventional sample.

This paper constructs efficient frontiers and subsequently the capital market line using the ovport set of commands in STATA. From the capital market line, the tangent portfolio is found, and the Sharpe ratio of the tangent portfolio is the primary measurement of the dynamic portfolio optimisation performance of the samples of Shariah-compliant samples in this study.

This paper finds that the overall conventional sample will outperform the Shariah-compliant samples in most cases. However, there exists a consistent trend whereby the performance of the overall conventional sample will converge towards the performance of the Shariah-compliant samples (and even be lower at times), as the market approaches a looming crisis suggesting that the Shariah-compliant samples do not experience significant deteriorations in their performance as compared to the conventional sample and that they provide stability during such times.

This paper assumes no transaction costs, illiquidity, bid-ask spread and non-compliant revenue purification all of which may negatively affect portfolio performance.

The findings of this paper suggest that Shariah-compliant samples should be included in portfolios during times of crisis because they are less affected by market-wide volatility.

The stability of Shariah-compliant samples reflects the conservativity of the contemporary Shariah stock screening methodologies and the Shariah itself.

Portfolio optimisation studies on Shariah-compliant samples are usually static in nature and are conducted in selected Muslim countries. This paper studies the dynamic portfolio optimisation in the USA where a liquid Islamic capital market is non-existent.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the financial well-being (FWB) of Malaysian households and to construct a subjective FWB index with present and future time perspectives.

Data were collected from 1,867 respondents across five major regions in Malaysia. Adapting the InCharge Financial Distress/Financial Well-being (IFDFW) Scale by Prawitz et al. (2006) and the method of computing an index by Devlin (2009), this study develops an FWB index using subjective measures that include future time perspectives (retirement). The index was employed to measure the FWB across low-, middle- and high-income groups and socio-demographic characteristics.

This study finds evidence that Malaysians' FWB is at an average level (46.8). Middle-income households' FWB (46.1) flanks between the financial well-being index (FWBI) levels of the low-income (37.4) and high-income households (58.7). Across age groups, education levels and employment sectors, the FWB of Malaysians significantly varies, although not across different ethnics, religions, zones and residential areas. Overall, the results suggest that the detrimental effects of FWB are perceived by all Malaysian households nationwide regardless of their religion, ethnicity and residential areas.

The results of this study complement the other well-being indices used by policymakers and may serve as a useful input for government and policymakers for them to formulate appropriate strategies to promote higher FWB of Malaysian households based on their socio-demographic characteristics.

This study used primary data and developed a subjective FWB index that leverages on people's perceptions of their own financial well-being while including present and future time perspectives. The main contribution of this paper is to construct an index that is easily interpretable and that complements the existing FWB indices, and to identify the segments of society that have low vis-à-vis high FWB.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the importance of the understanding of the halal business from an Islamic perspective. Business use of the Quranic and fiqhi word halal is now conspicuous because of the penetration of halal product ideas not only into the food products but also into the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, leisure and entertainment industries.

This paper evaluates the Islamic authenticity of the prevailing halal business initiatives. Toward this evaluation, explains the frame of reference and shows the Islamic ethical excellence of business enterprises. This framework is based on the Quranic injunctions and instructions regarding usury (riba), intoxicants (khamr), trade with mutual consent (taradim minkum) and trading during Friday prayer (Jumuah), which have direct or indirect implications for the management of business enterprises. Then, it describes and evaluates two cases, namely, halal chicken and Sharīʿah-compliant hotel. Materials for these cases are obtained through an internet blog and literature review.

The evaluation reveals that these halal business cases are overwhelmingly product-centric and they violate or neglect people’s rights. On the scale of ethics and social responsibility, while they largely maintain legal responsibility, moral and spiritual responsibilities hardly draw their attention. Hence, a need for a fundamental reorientation of halal business thought is suggested in the conclusion.

The findings may serve as a useful input for halal business owners in improving their practices to confirm with all moral and spiritual standards of Islamic business conduct, and not the only product. These standards have significant implications for equitable growth in a society and a blissful eternal life.

The topic of product-centric halal business has not been fully explored and understood by its stakeholders. This paper aims to give insights to an overwhelming trend toward equating halal products with the whole of the halal business.

This paper investigates the behavior of contrarian strategy payoffs under varying degrees of financial liberalization in the context of Asia-Pacific emerging market namely China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand for the period 1997–2017. These markets represent economies that display a gradual change in the degree of financial liberalization instead of fully opening their markets to foreign investors at once.

Using a daily dataset of 2,468 firms and four different measures of the degree of financial liberalization, the paper employs portfolio formation, panel regressions and binary modeling methods to reveal the impact of partial and complete financial liberalization on contrarian returns.

This paper documents a negative relationship between the degree of financial liberalization and contrarian strategy payoffs. The results further indicate that small-sized emerging markets reveal more significant and higher contrarian returns as compared to their larger counterparts. Moreover, the returns are significantly higher during negative market states, higher volatility and crises periods. The study findings are consistent with the investor-base broadening hypothesis.

The findings may serve as a useful input for investors and fund managers to devise contrarian investment strategies in emerging market economies. Together, the study provides additional insights for policymakers in managing financial liberalization and integration policies within their respective countries.

This study provides a novel viewpoint by examining the relationship between the degree of financial liberalization and contrarian strategy payoffs. The authors contribute to the existing debate by shifting the discussion to the investor-based broadening argument in which small and less liberalized emerging markets offer opportunities for investors and fund managers to produce abnormal contrarian returns that cannot be earned by other conventional investment strategies.

Islamic banking contributes significantly to the total assets of Malaysian banking sector. Yet, many argue that Islamic banking in Malaysia does not receive satisfactory support and participation from the public mainly due to poor awareness of its products and services and misconception about the Islamic banking system. It is timely to study consumers’ awareness of Islamic banking in the hopes of providing useful strategies for and assistance with marketing plans. This study is to explore consumer awareness towards Islamic banking products and services across a diverse set of demographic variables.

A quantitative approach was used in this study. A total of 1,000 questionnaires were distributed via convenience and snowballing sampling method to bank customers in a public university in Malaysia, and 817 responses from the survey were used for the analysis. Descriptive and non-parametric statistics were employed to answer objectives of this study.

The findings of this study are anticipated to provide a holistic and comprehensive marketing insight to improve and strengthen Islamic banking in Malaysia.

This study examines the role of demographics such age, gender, race/religion, education level, occupation and income level in trying to understand the issues of Islamic banks’ product awareness. It is well accepted that the consumer’s attitude or behaviour should be studied among others through understanding customers’ demographics.