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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of women on board moderated by firms’ competitive advantage on firms’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures. Design/methodology/approach The sample consists of 332 firm-year observations from the year 2012 to 2017 of 65 firms listed in Bursa Malaysia. To improve the robustness of this analysis, the authors adopt clustering techniques in the regression analysis. Sensitivity analysis is also conducted using two-stage least square regression and robust standard errors for panel regression with a cross-sectional dependence approach. Findings The findings of this research indicate that women on board encourage ESG and environmental disclosures. Nonetheless, in competitively advantaged firms, the authors find that the interaction between WOMENPER and COMADVANTAGE is negatively influencing ESG scores. However, no evidence is found to indicate that women on board in a competitively advantaged firm have an effect on the environmental scores of a firm. Research limitations/implications The findings urge regulators to ensure the appointment of qualified and competent women on board, particularly in competitively advantage firms. Practical implications Though firms with more women on board are associated with better ESG disclosures and environmental disclosures, the author’s additional analysis found that this is less pronounced in competitively advantage firms. Since a number of the competitive firms are owned by family firms as well as government-linked firms, the appointment of women should not be based on directors’ affiliation, network and family relationships. Originality/value To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies which seek to investigate women’s appointment in competitive advantage firms.

Globalization and economic pressure faced by governments including Malaysia, have led universities to be independent and source out their own fund for development, operation and research activity. In Malaysian case, the government has launched National Higher Education Strategic Plan Beyond 2020 to prepare for new challenges. As a result, the plan offers new autonomy for public universities. While government gives special attention to  public university, literature provides limited discussion on the funding and sustainability of private universities. As such, this paper aims at exploring waqf as one of the financing instruments for private university’s sustainability. The paper proposes conceptual model to transform conventional method of financing university into corporate waqf university (CoWU), based on Yayasan Universiti Multimedia (YUM) experience. The study expands previous research and highlights the potential of transforming existing conventional endowment to Islamic endowment (waqf). The study adopts qualititative approach where desk research, interview, discussion,  benchmarking  as well as primary data collection were employed. It opens up possibilities and proposes practical model where corporate sector and university can work together to establish and fund corporate waqf university. The study also examines issues in implementing corporate waqf university, discusses opportunities and challenges in managing waqf for higher learning institutions. Finally, the paper suggests some pertinent points for policy maker and practitioner consideration.

Construction industry is continuously being accused with common issues such as low performance, corruptions, spillages, bad practices in addition to common project failures despite advances in project management tools and techniques. This further adds to the existing and increasing complex and multi-facets business environment in construction projects that has resulted in the increasing pressure and challenges faced by project leaders and project managers today. Researchers in project management literature calls for more project leadership research as leadership now is increasingly recognised as project success factor. Ethical dilemma and leadership crisis facing the project managers and business organisations reveals the shortcomings and inadequacies of the conventional non-Islamic leadership that is believed to be or that has not fully considered the religious, spiritual, moral and ethical dimensions. Examples of these theories of leadership are authentic leadership, servant leadership and ethical leadership. Therefore, recent trend from literature has implicitly suggested a new form of leadership for construction project manager which is spiritual, moral, values and ethical form of leadership. The uniqueness of Islam is that it does not separate religion and other aspects of human life activities. Construction and project activities are part of the whole economic and social transactions of a nation and thus it is part of Islam. Project management in particular leadership awaits divine intervention that is tied to God consciousness and accords with values and principles prescribed in the Quran and Sunnah. This research is intended to overcome the spiritual and religious shortcomings of the present leadership models by proposing an Islamic perspective of leadership for construction project manager.

Project management is a combination of both science and art as the merger of the terms of 'project' reflects to the technical knowledge, skills and competencies and 'management' refers to the human related components such interpersonal and leadership capabilities. Leadership is identified as central and core to successful business outcomes and prevails as crucial in any group or collective tasks. Project management is a business and an organisation, and the need to have an effective project leadership in place at all project phases is salient to ensure successful project outcomes, that fulfils project objectivesas well as adhering to the objectives from the lense of Islam; to seek the pleasure of Allah (Mardhatillah) and His reward and eventually to achieve success in this world and in the Hereafter. With the increasing leadership challenges in leading construction projects nowadays, as complexity, stakeholders' requirements and project failure grows, as well as continuous ethical issues and malpractices, project management awaits divine guidance that has its sources from and accord to the principles and values as prescribed in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. This paper aims to highlight, compare and discuss the Western modern perspective of project leadership with the one from the proposed Islamic perspective and also attempts to demonstrate some points on the merits of imbuting Islamic principles of leadership into projects.