Research Methods for Islamic Banking and Finance Law: Interdisciplinary Research Method

This study presents an original guideline for choosing valid research methods when analyzing Islamic banking regulations and Islamic finance laws. It presents a theoretical model that explains the complexity of the field of Islamic banking and finance, provides legal scholars with a brief analysis of the various issues and challenges that may arise while researching Islamic banking and finance law, and offers different possibilities and solutions to progress and supply high-quality research into Islamic finance. Research on Islamic finance in recent decades has produced extensive literature; however, most of it is descriptive and lacks standard research methods. This creates uncertainty for young scholars and graduate students about the method that should be adopted to address the legal approach to Islamic banking and finance. The outcome of the study leads to the fact that due to the complexity of the subject, multiple research disciplines may interfere with each other in answering different research questions. Accordingly, various solutions have been proposed to help researchers and students with their choices. The study offers an original and unique standard for legal scholars in approaching Islamic banking and finance law. Abstract — In recent years Islamic finance has steadily increased in popularity. In this respect, the research sets itself a task to evaluate some key features of Islamic finance in the Bulgarian financial market. To achieve this Fuzzy AHP method and deductive, inductive reasoning are used. The results show that the understanding of Islamic banking principles in Bulgaria has social banking characteristics. These characteristics are related to consumer expectations that can be defined as fundamental or basic such as the provision of a financial product or service, interest-free loans and securities with a social function for stakeholders. The results are unique and representative of the Bulgarian experts’ opinions, processed scientifically to showcase the potential of Islamic finance in the local financial market. Hitherto, presumably, no other research concerning Bulgaria has done such an evaluation. The main limitation of this research is the lack of Islamic financial institutions operating in the Bulgarian market. The research relies on the knowledge of local banking experts on Islamic finance principles. The findings can be applied in the decision-making process in the Islamic finance context. Abstract — In the current global context, policymakers are called to face complex and numerous challenges in achieving sustainable development with rapid urbanization and industrialization. The world’s population is growing, and cities will be increasingly condensed in the future. Nowadays, cutting-edge technologies and digitalization are radically changing urban life and how cities are planned, financed, and managed. A new urban model, known as a “smart city”, is being developed throughout Europe and elsewhere worldwide. In a smart city, all the infrastructures are interconnected and integrated in an efficient and functional way through ICT by optimizing resource consumption, enhancing the quality of public services (Government services) through participatory governance, and increasing citizens’ security. Indeed, urban transformation requires multiple stakeholders to come together toward shared and common goals. City leaders face challenges in enacting changes in balancing the needs of citizens, government, businesses, NGOs, and others: smart city development requires a strategic, long-term vision to create inclusive, fully integrated and synergistic systems. Technological progress is a fundamental requirement for the development of smart cities, but it must be supported by sustainable financial instruments. This paper aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the smart cities’ projects and financial instruments used for implementing those models, traditional as well as innovative and sustainable. In particular, the analysis aims to highlight the ethical financial approach having in mind the European and Islamic models- that characterizes some of these smart city models and the underlying idea of sustainability. Abstract — This research aims to explain the correlation between macroeconomics and company fundamentals on the returns from the placement of funds in Islamic stocks against the Jakarta Islamic Index (JII) from 2011 to 2020. The method used in this study is quantitative. The sample used considers eight sharia issuers using the purposive sampling method. The data analysis technique used is panel data regression analysis. The results of this study indicate that macroeconomic factors and company fundamentals simultaneously influence sharia stock returns. Meanwhile, this study partially found mixed results, including inflation and ROA having a significant effect on Islamic stock returns. In contrast, GDP and DER don’t significantly affect Islamic stock returns. Abstract — Islamic Microfinance rides two recent growing trends: conventional microfinance and Islamic banking. It offers financial flexibility to the poorest strata of the population in different Muslim countries by borrowing and mixing techniques from these two sources. In particular, risk management and loan qualifications tend to be similar to those operating inside conventional and Islamic financial institutions. The loan approval process heavily relies on scoring applicants mostly on their financial criteria. This paper aims to demonstrate that an alternative framework based on artificial intelligence improves traditional financial techniques. This framework also resonates more with the fundamental and specific values of Islamic Microfinance as it captures some non-financial attributes of the applicant that are informationally rich. We first present the critical components of this novel approach. Then, we apply it to a business case (approximately 30,000 applications to a microfinancing institution in the Central African Republic) to demonstrate its usefulness.