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This study aims to test mutual fund superiority, comparing the performance of 646 Islamic mutual funds with 475 ethical funds and conventional proxies.

This study uses statistical methods including paired t-statistics of independent samples, one-way Bonferroni test–analysis of variance–F-statistic for testing means equality, the chi-squared test for median equality and regression models corrected for heteroscedasticity. These methods are used to identify superiority of mutual funds and to validate the significance of the results.

The findings confirm the superiority of conventional funds over ethical funds and ethical funds over Islamic funds. Both ethical and Islamic funds, however, outperform conventional proxies during some recessionary periods. Moreover, stronger performance is recorded for Islamic funds in Europe and North America regions and across age and asset allocation categories, but limited support for reversal fund size, composition focus and reversed price effect.

These findings should assist investors when deciding to invest and motivate Islamic and ethical funds to improve their portfolio formation and asset allocation strategies set by their professional managers.

The originality of this study is in its comprehensive approach in that it compares the performance of funds after accounting for such characteristics as fund objectives, size, age, asset allocation, geographical investment focus, fund composition focus, share price levels and the effect of global crises. This study approach is not only original and productive in documenting Islamic funds’ performance for the past three decades (1990–2022) but can also update the literature on these characteristics collectively and individually.

The purpose of this study is to identify the main drivers which can explain the relative success of BRIC countries (i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China), collectively and individually, in attracting foreign direct investment (FDIs). Unlike previous studies that have identified gross domestic product (GDP) as a major determinant, we find that for the sampling period 1980-2008, social variables (namely, high population growth and educated labor) and political variables account for 40 and 7 per cent of the variance in net inward FDI, respectively, and no importance for economic variables. Interestingly, for a sub-period (1999-2008), we observe the salience of financial (namely, sizable GDP economy, favorable net trade balance and controlled currency risk and sovereign debt risk) determinants of inward FDI (R2 is 44 per cent). On the other hand, when testing individual countries, it seems that FDI determinants are not universal as each country enjoys different characteristics and sources of strengths that attract FDIs. The implication is to focus more on those incentives that the host country is weak in to be able to optimize the amount of FDI flowing in from foreign investors.

Three blocks of variables were examined: economic/financial, social and political variables. The economic/financial variable set expands on a prototype developed by Dunning (1981), which distinguishes three types of influences on inward FDI. First, it suggests some domestic market characteristics to influence FDI. They include the market size and the direction of trade flows. Another set of economic/financial factors includes measure of the host country’s overall financial performance such as the inflation rate and the effectiveness of the service sector. Social factors of the host country are considered an important determinant of FDI. Our social model included: the degree of human capital development, the extent of urbanization, the quality of life and the adequacy of the health-care system. Political factors were also considered. Using the STATA statistical package, we run a regression analysis on our transformed data twice: once over the full sampling period (1980-2008), and a second time using a partial data set covering the past 10 years (1999-2008), after controlling for multicollinearity and other econometric problems.

Regressing net FDI inflows on all financial, social and political variables during the full data series (1980-2008), and after controlling for severe econometric problems, the nested block regression concludes that the social variables account for 40 per cent of the change in net inward FDI, followed by political variables (7 per cent). The nested regression for the past 10-year data series (1999-2008), however, shows the economic/financial variables block and social variables blocks contribute the most to FDI variations (R2 is 44 and 7 per cent, respectively), while political variables appear insignificant. The findings for each individual country show that the four countries have few common determinants.

Our results are not without limitations. Our sample is limited to BRIC countries that had attracted significant FDIs in the past two decades. Testing for a larger set of countries with smaller or less attractive countries included could be useful before any final conclusions can be drawn. Also, this research can be extended to cover the busted 2008-2010 years. It would be interesting if our results still hold in recent down market conditions. For example, in early 2008, there was a big credit crisis in the USA, followed by a universal market crash in September and October due to large financial institutions collapsing, which resulted in the recent bubble explosion. More recently, we witnessed the European financial crisis beginning with the Greece debt default (followed by fears in Spain, Portugal and potentially others).

Overall, our findings suggest that individual countries enjoy different levels of strengths in economic/financial, social and political variables. A country that strives to attract more inward FDI may consider focusing more on those unique country-specific incentives that it is weak in to be able to optimize its intake of FDIs.

The main goal of our paper is to bring updated evidence on the relevant set of incentives which have made the BRIC block the penchant for FDI, and whether these incentives are the same for each of the BRIC countries. Our paper makes three major contributions. First, it expands Mathur and Singh’s (2007) set of explanatory variables, especially to reflect the effect of financial markets and economic conditions (such as currency exchange rate risk, level of real interest rate, size of national debt, sovereign credit rating risk and inflation), new social variables (such as life expectancy at birth, people receptivity to foreign investors and the number of graduate degree holders) and new political variables (host country’s level of restriction on capital repatriation). Second, it brings more updated evidence by using a longer sampling period (1980-2008). Third, we test BRIC as a group and we retest individual BRIC countries. We also ensure that our results are free from econometric (autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity) problems.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that determine rural households’ access to finance provided by Islamic microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Indonesia.

A two-year panel data set with logistic regression is used to identify the determinants of access to finance by rural households. The study sample comprises of 289 Islamic MFIs’ clients and 140 non-clients from East Java, Indonesia. The clients consist of 111 rural households with profit and loss sharing (PLS) schemes, 162 clients with non-profit and loss sharing (non-PLS) schemes and 16 clients with both schemes.

The empirical results show that age, gender and income influence rural households to access finance provided by Islamic MFIs. The results show an increase in age and income increase the respondents’ likelihood to access finance. Further, male respondents are more likely to access finance from Islamic MFIs than females.

The empirical analysis is limited to data obtained from East Java province in Indonesia, and other provinces may show different results. However, this study is among the few studies that investigate access to finance from Islamic MFIs based on PLS and non-PLS schemes.

The novelty of this study lies in the unique financing accessibility between PLS and non-PLS schemes in Islamic MFIs. This study will be an important addition to the emerging literature on Islamic microfinance.

The purpose of this study is to update the investment literature by providing latest evidence of performance of Islamic mutual funds by using global sample mutual funds data to support with empirical facts.

This study analyzes the comparative performance of Islamic and conventional mutual funds by using capital asset pricing model, Fama & French’s three-factor model and Carhart’s four-factor model. Further, the study tested the coskenwness effect by using data envelopment analysis approach.

The authors find evidence that when size of the funds is controlled, Islamic investment underperform the conventional mutual funds in four out of six models. The size of underperformance varies from model to model: from 32 basis points in the Carhart’s four-factor model with the skewness factor to two basis points at the Fama and French’s three-factor model. Also the study finds that alpha(s) are only insignificant for conventional mutual funds when the skewness factor is included in the regression. While comparing the loading on Islamic mutual funds, results show that Islamic mutual funds are less risky than conventional mutual funds when they are controlled for skewness.

This study uses the different factor models of performance evolution which help in overcoming weakness of measuring the Islamic mutual funds’ performance.

This study aims to empirically compare the performance of Islamic indices vis-à-vis to their conventional counterparts in India.

The performance of the Islamic and selected conventional indices is evaluated using various risk-adjusted performance measures such as Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, M-square (M²) ratio, information ratio, capital asset pricing model (CAPM), Fama-French three-factor model and Carhart four-factor model in India context. The period of study is from December 2006 to 2018.

The risk-adjusted performance measures based on the Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, information ratio, the M² ratio show that the return of Islamic indices provides slightly superior performance. However, performance investigated using CAPM, Fama-French and Carhart benchmarks produce a statistically insignificant differences in return of the Islamic and conventional benchmarks.

The Sharīʿah-compliant indices can provide a viable, ethical and alternative investment avenue for faith-based investors as it will not make them worse off in comparison to the conventional benchmarks. This also offers opportunity to conventional investors for portfolio diversification. The promotion of faith-based investment can serve as a tool for financial inclusion to attract a huge segment of Indian population in the formal financial system. The findings of the study suffer from the limitation of small sample size and empirical methods used.

This study contributes to the literature on the comparative performance of Islamic and conventional indices in general and emerging markets, in particular, using most recent data and covering a relatively long span of time. To the best of the knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study examining the performance of Islamic indices, using multiple Islamic indices and various risk-adjusted measures in the Indian context.

This paper aims to add to the debate regarding the appropriate methodology to purify tainted components from shari’ah-compliant equities.

Based on the Qur’anical prohibition against riba and an analysis of the purification methodology recommended by Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) shari’ah Standard 21, this paper highlights the shortcomings in Standard 21 and references the corporate finance literature to argue for the need to also purify the interest tax shield from debt.

Purification is a pivotal element of the Islamic investment process, yet Standard 21 permits a loose interpretation which causes portfolios to be under-purified. Standard 21 also makes no mention of the interest tax shield from debt even though the benefits are at odds with the principles of social justice in Islam. That there is no mention of the interest tax shield from debt in the (limited) literature on the purification of Islamic equities is puzzling.

This paper has implications for the Islamic funds industry and for devout Muslim investors.

The specific contribution of this paper is the identification of the interest expense tax shield (well-established in the corporate finance literature) as a significant non-compliant riba-related component that needs to be considered in the purification process.

To wipe out the criticism of being a replica of conventional financial institution, Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) need to comply with Islamic principles not only on financial side but also while branding and marketing their products and services. This will bring the coherence between their overall market image and core business activities. This paper aims to discuss in detail the Islamic marketing traits relevant to the IFIs for positioning and offering their products.

This study follows the research design based on reviewing existing sources of Qura’an and Hadith, the secondary research literature on this novel topic and substantial intellectual discourse with the field experts.

It is criticized that IFIs lack the spirit of Islamic values for marketing and branding a commercial business entity. Therefore, this paper outline the differences between Islamic and conventional marketing. Also, it contributes to explain the traits of Islamic marketing mix relevant to the IFIs based on Islamic established principles.

This study gives valuable practical guidelines for the marketing policymakers of Islamic financial institutions. Islamic marketing mix; product, price, place and promotion, related strategies can be designed and branded keeping the true spirit of Islamic marketing values intact.

This study is practically important for Islamic financial intuitions to sustain their “Islamic” image by making sure of Islamic principles in their product development, pricing, promotions and distribution.

The socioeconomic system is the brand of Islamic economics and finance. IFIs being the stakeholders of this brand can contribute to the well-being of the society by enhancing their acceptability with the help of divine image and operations.

Literature on practical Islamic marketing approach in particular to the IFIs is very limited. This study gives comprehensive findings on all the major aspects of marketing based on Islamic values for Islamic financial institutions.

The growing demand for alternative investment vehicle which adheres to shari'a principles has prompted other measures to boost the Islamic capital market. Unit trust funds in Malaysia have been growing exponentially and their existence signifies the extent of development in the Malaysian financial market. For foreign and domestic investors who have low risk tolerance and wish to diversify, unit trust funds offer the opportunity to invest. The increasing relevance of unit trust funds as an investment instrument has driven us to analyze the fund's performance. This paper addresses these issues.

The paper examines the comparative performance of Malaysian unit trust funds vis‐à‐vis their non‐Islamic counterparts using a variety of measures, such as Sharpe, Treynor, Jenson and Fama's selectivity, net selectivity and diversification. The paper also examines the persistence of performance using Carhart's four‐factor pricing models. Lastly, the paper employs an analysis of cointegration to examine how the Islamic unit trust funds are related in long term with their non‐Islamic counterparts, as well as their respective market portfolios.

The paper finds no convincing performance differences between Islamic and non‐Islamic Malaysian unit trust funds. Controlling performance for style differences, the paper finds that non‐Islamic unit trust funds in Malaysia are value‐focused while Islamic unit trust funds are small cap oriented. In addition, similar reward to risk and diversification benefits exist only between Islamic and non‐Islamic Malaysian unit trust funds.

The Worldscope data are used to construct four‐factor models as opposed to Malaysian‐based data – given that Malaysia is an open economy that attracts global investors. Also, US T‐Bill rate is used rather than Malaysian risk‐free rate because no other securities are as riskless as US Treasury Bills.

The paper observes a significant long‐term relationship between Islamic unit trust funds portfolio and non‐Islamic unit trust funds portfolio. The implication here suggests that investors in Malaysian unit trust funds will most likely benefit from international diversification of financial risks. They do not, however, stand a good chance to gain from portfolio diversification in the local unit trust funds market.

The study contributes to the existing Islamic investment literature by pursuing an empirical analysis on the performance of both Islamic and non‐Islamic Malaysian unit trust funds by using more recent data and further investigating the long‐run relationship between Islamic and non‐Islamic unit trust funds.

The objective of this chapter is twofold. It first explores the complementarities of Islamic investment with Socially Responsible Investment. Secondly, it examines the financial price, for investors, of being both shariah-compliant and socially responsible.

Using a value-weighted approach, we experiment the construction of a set of sharia-compliant stock portfolios with different Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. We use the KLD ratings of 238 companies listed in U.S. stock market from 2007 to 2011. We measure and compare their performance using the model developed by Fama and French (1993) and extended by Carhart (1997).

The results indicate no adverse effect on returns due to the application of a double screening, Islamic and SRI, and show a substantially higher performance for positive governance screen during 2008–2011 periods. This outperformance cannot be explained by differences in investment style. Though, we observe significant outperformance for some ‘irresponsible’ portfolios involved in community and human rights controversies.

The study only focuses on U.S. market. Future works should extend the experimentation to other markets.

This study provides a venue for Islamic funds managers to consider SRI screening as fully in line with shariah-compliance requirements, while preserving the performance of their portfolios.

Potentially, the reconciliation of Islamic investment with positive SRI practices may foster the implementation of CSR policies by firms’ manager willing to attract Islamic investors.

With reference to the many studies emphasising the compatibility between CSR criteria and Islamic principles, this experimental study is the first to investigate the integration of a positive screening process designed to select companies based on their ESG performance in addition to a traditional shariah-compliant screening.

This paper empirically investigates the performance of Islamic funds, which have been praised for weathering the 2008 financial storm relatively well and compares it to a European product designed to protect the most vulnerable of investors, UCITS funds.

This paper builds on 128 time-series regressions using various factor models to analyse the risk-return relationship of 242 Islamic and UCITS funds relative to a market benchmark, over a 10-year period starting January 2006, to capture severe bear and bull market conditions.

Islamic funds do not face a competitive disadvantage arising from their strict compliance with Sharīʿah principles, and their performance and investment style is relatively similar to UCITS schemes.

Islamic funds represent a low risk investment due to their very mild betas. Therefore, when forming part of a diversified portfolio, they can act as a hedging tool against adverse market movements.

Muslim investors are not punished relative to conventional retail investors when following their own beliefs. Other investors can consider Islamic funds in their portfolio allocation, especially those who seek socially and ethically responsible investments.

This paper fills a lacuna in the existing literature, because the sample is made up of Islamic funds established worldwide and includes not only equity, but also fixed income and mixed allocation funds.