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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the US states and territories’ official tourism information websites based on the Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) and Section 508 guidelines to identify the compliance of websites towards disabilities policies and their behaviour pattern.

The official tourism websites of 57 states and territories were analysed through the TAW tool for WCAG 2.0 and AChecker for Section 508. Cluster analysis was used to produce a group of websites underlying the accessibility issues obtained from the online tool to understand the common pattern of behaviour.

The result revealed that websites have serious and significant accessibility issues underlying the prescribed guidelines that would interfere with the use of the website by disabled people. The main issues that make the website least accessible focussed on the following guideline of WCAG 2.0: compatible, navigable, text alternative, distinguishable and adaptable.

The empirical results provide the US states and territories’ tourism authority to better understand web accessibility in their websites and its impact on disabled people.

As the web plays an important role in individual lives, this study highlights the accessibility issues which need immediately focussed and technically planned actions from the respective states and territories to ensure that designed web content should communicate effectively and universally.

This study aims to evaluate cognitive, personal and environmental factors affecting investors’ behavioral intentions (BI) to invest in ṣukūk (Islamic investment certificates) in Pakistan.

Data from 462 participants were collected through survey-questionnaires by using the convenient sampling technique. Hypothesized proposed relationships among the constructs were examined by applying the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique through smart partial least squares.

Compatibility, internal influence, external influence and intrinsic motivation were found to be significant predictors of investors’ BI to invest in ṣukūk. In addition, it was found that the religious aspect not only affects investors’ BI positively but also works as a moderator in the relationships between BI and both internal and external influence.

The results are quite helpful for ṣukūk issuers and regulators to consider cognitive, personal and environmental factors that might enhance the adoption of ṣukūk, especially among Muslim investors.

This study is among the few research studies that shed light on investors’ BI to invest in ṣukūk. Using social cognitive theory, the study investigates the cognitive, personal and environmental factors influencing ṣukūk adoption, which were previously unexplored. In addition, this is the first study that unveils the influential factors of ṣukūk adoption in Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country.

The accelerating need for sustainable development across the globe has put firms under great pressure to play their role in social sustainability by working on several objectives. Among them, the demand for a highly resilient and engaged workforce to sustain their competitive edge is at the forefront. Despite noted literature revolving around work engagement, there is a lack of research investigating the effect of sustainable leadership on employee resilience and work engagement. The current epidemic (COVID-19) brings many challenges for organizations. In these times of uncertainty, sustainable leaders provide the basis for achieving the human dimension of sustainability by fostering and cultivating a vision across the employees that enables the organizations to work positively for their well-being, enhancing their ability to be resilient and engaged in their work. The present chapter has two broad aims, first to give a comprehensive review of our present understanding of work engagement, that is, the conceptualization, operationalization, and prediction of work engagement; and the second part outlines the interventions that may facilitate the sustainability of work engagement in times of uncertainty. The study suggests that sustainable leadership and the ability of resilience enables employees to overcome their experience of fluctuating levels of engagement. It is established that in the uncertainties of an epidemic, the construct of work engagement with its antecedents and consequences has its theoretical and practical implications for academicians as well as for industry.

It is widely evident that trust and commitment are important pillars for strengthening the relationship between financial service firms and their customers. However, it has not been explored how the service quality, perceived cost and role of agents are important for financial service firms. To overcome this gap, this study aims to investigate the role of service quality, perceived cost and the role of agents as the commitment–trust factors in the financial insurance service (Takaful) in Malaysia, enhancing customer satisfaction.

The study follows a quantitative design in which primary data was collected using a survey instrument. The measurement instrument was adapted from the previous research, and data were collected from 264 customers of the Takaful financial service organizations in Malaysia. The data were analyzed using variance-based structural equational modeling in Smart-PLS software.

This research has revealed several useful insights that demonstrate a significant impact on service quality, perceived cost and the agents’ role in forging close relationships with their customers. Corporate image has a moderating role in relationships and has significantly impacted takaful insurance companies. The results imply that regardless of the corporate image of the financial service organizations, customers are concerned about the prices and the quality of the agents’ services.

In this study, only the predictors such as service quality, perceived costs and agents’ roles as trust–commitment factors were examined to determine customer satisfaction. Other investigations are highly recommended, such as value co-creation in takaful, takaful customer experience and takaful trust. This study offers insights to takaful insurance companies on how to keep up a positive corporate image, which will boost their trust–commitment factors and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

By presenting commitment–trust factors and company image in an identifiable framework, the current study has expanded the discussion on takaful financial insurance services. The methodology is developed and rigorously tested to gauge customer satisfaction in takaful financial service organizations’ context.

The purpose of this paper is to draw a map of the general features of epistemological and critical concerns in contemporary Islamic philosophy. This study will not be confined to the domain of academic philosophy or to those who are professionals in the field of philosophy.

The paper adopted the critical rational approach in dealing with contemporary Islamic philosophy in the Arab world. The scope will include scholars from different fields of epistemology who tried to present a “vision” of the attitude that should be adopted in facing the challenges of the age and the problems of the nation on the epistemological level or the political, economic and social levels.

There is a need for a philosophy of action and progress rather than a philosophy that is based on abstract ideas and theories and of words/rhetoric. The ethics required to accomplish this ought to identify the attributes of the citizen who can reach self-actualization through legitimate means based on a progress agenda with theoretical and philosophical foundations.

Because a critical rational approach can be dealt with from different perspectives, this paper will adopt the classification of the principal intellectual trends: the reformist, secular and liberal.

This paper covers a long time span to determine whether the philosophical projects have been effective.

This paper, which criticizes the philosophic projects that are theoretically unsound and that do not address real social problems (like poverty), argues the need for a philosophy of progress and action. This will lead to devising an agenda that addresses the challenges the society is facing and to finding alternative and creative solutions resulting in development.

This study aims to theoretically investigate the effect of activating corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on the association between adopting corporate social responsibility (CSR) and tax avoidance (TA). Based on the analyzing of the previous studies, the authors support the results of studies that found a positive effect for activating CG on the adoption of CSR. Also, they found that there is a negative impact of activating CG mechanisms on TA, as CG includes controls and procedures that contribute to limiting opportunistic behaviors of management and ensures making decisions that maximize value for shareholders. To the best of the authors' knowledge, it is the only chapter that examines the effect of activating CG mechanisms on the association between CSR and TA.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an original framework to explore the effects of social influence (SI), market orientation (MO) and service quality (SQ) with moderating effect of emotional intelligence (EI) on customer loyalty (CL) and to discuss the mediational role of customer satisfaction.

This study applies six original concepts – SI, MO, SQ, EI, customer satisfaction to develop an integral model to enhance CL. In addition, this research employs an empirical study by means of the questionnaire survey method to verify the hypotheses and to explore its managerial implications. Structural equation modeling has been applied to verify the research framework.

The empirical results show that MO, SI and SQ significantly affect CL with presence of customer satisfaction as a mediator. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the direct relationships between MO and SI on CL are not supported. However indirect paths present full mediation except in case of SQ where mediation was partial. Moreover, EI was found to enhance the partially mediated relationship between SQ and CL with mediational role customer satisfaction. Hence, banks should invest resources to increase MO, SI and SQ to increase customer satisfaction and CL.

This study summarizes the literature on customer satisfaction and relationship marketing into a new managerial framework of CL. It utilizes new arrangement of four construct – SI, MO, and SQ with EI – to develop an original framework to enhance CL. Although past research has highlighted the relevant issues about CL, none explores it with MO and moderating role of EI on SQ. Therefore, this paper develops the research framework of CL to fill the research gap specifically in Pakistani context.

Multiplicity and conflicting Halal standards involve unnecessary repetition of testing for demonstrating the Halal integrity of the process and the product, thus making it difficult for the Halal commodities to get traction in international markets. The purpose of this paper is to suggest initiatives to facilitate harmonisation of Halal standards as to eliminate trade barrier of Halal and to assure the availability of Halal consumables to larger masses.

Ranking of the initiatives for the harmonisation of Halal standards taking in consideration the costs of accomplishment and associated benefits obtained has been done through the application of integrated Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP) and Fuzzy Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (Fuzzy TISM). This integrated methodology with the weighted criteria have refined the value of the net dominance of different variables, thereby increasing the efficacy of IRP in decision making.

Findings suggest that strengthening the strategic coordination and collaboration among competent HCBs is a significant initiative. This initiative needs to be undertaken to mitigate the conflict between HCBs. This necessitates to develop a common platform in making the collective decision for effectively controlling Halal businesses. Moreover, recognising competent HCBs will prompt the effective implementation and execution of Halal standards across the supply chain, and ease the global trading of Halal products. A framework has been conceptualised to enable harmonisation of Halal standards which intimates to develop globally agreed protocols for Halal practices.

The framework presented may act as a prelude to harmonise Halal standards and may positively affect the international trade of Halal commodities by phasing out the discriminatory and market-impeding standards.

A harmonised system may provide correct information to the stakeholders and may help in making an informed decision.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of transformational leadership and employee empowerment on employee performance and organizational commitment through the mediational role of behavioral integrity (BI).

Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire based on measurement of variables adopted from earlier studies. A total of 532 usable responses were collected through officer grade and executive level employees of selected banks from the Multan district, Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis was run using AMOS 23.0 whereas PROCESS macro in SPSS 23.0 was used for path analysis.

The study results revealed that transformational leadership and employee empowerment positively affect employee performance and organizational commitment through the mediational effect of BI.

The role of BI in enhancing employees’ performance and organizational commitment has been overlooked in the extant literature. Especially, in the emerging economies, where there is growing employer–employee trust deficit, this investigation brings in useful contribution.

Halal integrity assurance is the primary objective of Halal supply chain management. Several halal-related risks are present that have the potential to breach halal integrity. Therefore, this study aims to develop the framework for the assessment of halal-related risk from a supply chain perspective.

Risk related to halal is identified through the combined approach of the systematic literature review and experts’ input. Further, these risks are assessed using the integrated approach of intuitionistic fuzzy number (IFN) and D-number based on their severity score. This integrated approach can handle fuzziness, inconsistency and incomplete information that are present in the expert’s input.

Eighteen significant risks related to halal are identified and grouped into four categories. These risks are further prioritised based on their severity score and classified as “high priority risk” or “low priority risks”. The findings of the study suggests that raw material status, processing methods, the wholesomeness of raw materials and common facilities for halal and non-halal products are more severe risks.

This study only focusses on halal-related risks and does not capture the other types of risks occurring in the supply chain. Risks related to halal supply chain management are not considered in this study. Prioritisation of the risks is based on the expert’s input which can be biased to the experts' background.

The proposed risk assessment framework is beneficial for risk managers to assess the halal related risks and develop their mitigation strategies accordingly. Furthermore, the prioritisation of the risks also assists managers in the optimal utilisation of resources to mitigate high-priority risks.

This study provides significant risks related to halal integrity, therefore helping in a better understanding of the halal supply chain. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study for developing a risk assessment model for the halal supply chain.