Islamic banking initially established to cater for the needs of Muslims customers, as Muslims are obliged to obey the Shari’ah principles (Islamic Jurisprudence) in all aspects of life. However, the number of non-muslims involved in Islamic banking is increasing. In the case of Malaysia, the contributions of non-Muslims towards the development of Islamic banking have been remarkable, as some banks report that more than half of their Islamic financial products is by non-Muslim customers. It is argued that Muslims patronize Islamic banking due to religious consideration however, it is not clear why the non-Muslims patronize Islamic banking. Hence, the study aims to examine critical criteria for Islamic banks selection. The findings from the literature show that there are six main reasons why customers prefer Islamic banking, namely understanding of Islamic banking concept, Shari’ah compliance, religious contradiction, quality and attractiveness of offerings, willingness to deal with Islamic banks and prospect and potentials of Islamic banking

This paper aims to scrutinize the concept of Islamic financial literacy and propose the suitable items for its measurement. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory study is conducted due limited existing research works are available in the area of Islamic financial literacy. The items for measurement of Islamic financial literacy in this paper consider a number of significant features of Islamic finance. Findings: A proposed measurement items of Islamic financial literacy have been developed. Several questions are constructed and grouped namely the money basics, Islamic banking, Takaful and Shariah-compliant investments.Research implications: This study attempts to contribute towards acquiring new theoretical models, especially in suggesting items to measure the level of Islamic financial literacy and personal financial behavior. Practical implications: The expected outcomes from this research will highlight an idea to the Islamic financial literacy and also act as a tool in order to improve the financial behavior as guided by Shariah. Originality/value: This study is the first of this kind to advocate the items for measurement of Islamic financial literacy level by developing test questions consist of these four main aspects in Islamic finance and four elements to be measured in personal financial behavior.

Cooperative enterprises have been recognized as a democratic entity organization. The financial statement is practically prepared for internal users (cooperative members) and for external users (The Cooperative Commission Malaysia (SKM)). The financial statement is a map to understand and measure the financial health of a cooperative. Financial ratio analysis has received the attention in determining detailed coverage of the cooperative liquidity, resources and operations. Report prepared from financial ratio analysis is extensively accepted whether it is a large or small company. This paper indicate financial and non-financial indicators that most importantly reflect business and can be used to examine the performance of cooperatives, most importantly to indicate which financial ratios that reflect business and financial position of cooperatives. Given the recent rapidly increased number of cooperative established with increased number of cooperative members and expectation of performance stability in Malaysia, it becomes a relevant subject matter to conduct this study.

Islamic financial institutions apply few mathematical formulas in constructing Islamic home financing models. However, the available products in the markets are deemed to be a burden to the low to medium income earners, while the mortgage takaful only compensates selected cases such as death and total permanent disability without including the protection against those who loss an effort to work. Hence, this study derives a new formula of Islamic home financing where the profit is calculated based on one-third of the total amount of financing, while the new model of mortgage takaful will compensate those who are losing effort to work. Therefore, this study aims to derive a new formula of home financing and mortgage takaful model by using an integrated model.

Diversification strategy has been subjected to extensive research among strategic management and finance scholars. This study examines the effect of diversification strategy and performance in public listed automotive manufacturing firms in Asean countries using return on invested capital as a proxy of performance. The study uses panel data analysis for a sample of 28 Aseans' firms during the period 2007 to 2014 based on quarterly reporting data provided by Bloomberg database. The evidence produces interesting findings that related diversification has a significant effect on performance. In the meantime, several other variables show positive impact too. Therefore, automotive manufacturing firms should solely diversify around their core business to maintain their performance. Nevertheless, difference measures of performance should be adopted to check on consistency of the results.