CALL FOR PAPERS - Islamic Finance in a Changing World

Abu Dhabi, October 15-16, 2012. The prime theme of this event will be the impact of the recent rapid changes on the Islamic finance sector in all pertinent aspects. The Conference will consider the spectacular political and socio-economic developments that we have been witnessing and their probable effects on the performance and future position of Islamic financial institutions (IFI’s), the regulatory set-ups, and popularity of Islamic products being offered to the public, governments and business firms.

The Conference is being organised by Emerald Group Publishing, the world’s leading scholarly publisher of journals and books on business and management. Over 220 academic journals are currently published by Emerald, covering some 24 managerial disciplines, in addition to a strong and growing presence in other related fields such as LIS, social sciences, and engineering.

This Conference follows on the success of the Global Islamic Marketing Conference held in Dubai over the period 20-22 March 2011, organised by Emerald in association with the United Arab Emirates University.

 

Conference Objective

The chief objective of the forthcoming Conference is to assess the future of this sector, taking note of the historic events that have been unfolding in the world generally, and more particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Matters relating to government policy, raising new finance, regulation, Sharia-compliant financial instruments, corporate performance, and acceptability of Islamic products will be analysed and discussed in depth.

The proceedings of this Conference should arouse strong interest from both academics and practitioners who are concerned with various sub-sectors of the Islamic-finance industry, including government officials, regulators, bankers, investment analysts/managers, stock-market specialists and others. The heavy accent of the papers and discussions will be on prevailing events and their anticipated consequences. All this should enlighten and inform decision-makers in various economic sectors around the globe, who need to know about the future of this major and growing part of global finance.

Focus Areas

On this basis, papers (including case situations) are invited primarily (though not exclusively) on the following seven focus areas:

(A) Islamic finance and socio-economic development. Frequently, IFI’s are criticised for their limited contribution to the development of majority-Muslim nations and other communities where they function around the world. How can this critical issue be examined, and to what extent can this claim be supported by hard analysis? Can Islamic finance assist with poverty alleviation? Also, can a link be established with the micro-finance movement?
 

(B) Performance of Islamic financial institutions. How do IFI’s compare with their conventional counterparts, in terms of survival in the face of financial crises and economic fluctuations? Also, how do they fare in terms of actual performance? What measures are suitable to be employed in this connection (e.g. profitability, growth, product innovations, expansion etc.)?
 

(C) Islamic finance and the new geopolitical realities. Issues here relate to the repercussions of changes in the political landscape on government policies, including those in the economic and business areas and in particular as they influence the health and growth of the Islamic finance sector. Are there likely to be any consequences on sovereign wealth funds, in terms of their size, investment strategies or management models?
 

(D) Islamic finance and the global financial crisis. How has this crisis affected IFI’s and the national economics of the MENA region? Also, have the acute problems faced by some Eurozone countries, as well as the spiralling US debt mountain, impacted on the Islamic finance sector and MENA economies? With regard to corporate performance, has the global crisis since 2007/8 affected IFI’s and conventional financial institutions to the same extent?
 

(E) Variety of Islamic financial products. What changes are currently taking place in the types of financial products provided by IFI’s? These product categories include property mortgages, current accounts, investment accounts, personal investment portfolios, takaful products, and many others. Can we expect significant shifts in the relative importance of these products? Also, should we expect innovation of new products? What changes might occur in the use of Islamic instruments to fund specific projects?
 

(F) Regulation of the Islamic finance sector. How effective is the current regulatory framework by national central banks and multilateral bodies? Taking into account the latest institutional and political developments, what adjustments on this set-up might be deemed appropriate?
 

(G) Non-Banking Islamic financial institutions. What is the role and importance of this sub-sector? How can we assess its performance? Also, how can relevant concepts (e.g. waqf, takaful, and micro-finance) be incorporated into this subsector as well as the wider Islamic-finance sector more generally?

Submission Process

It is preferable that draft papers (including abstracts) are received by the fist deadline (February 24th 2012). However, authors wishing to present papers and who could not finalize their draft papers by this date should in the first instance submit a summary of the work, as well as a brief profile of themselves, in Word format.
 

All correspondence and documents should be forwarded to Dr Kadom Shubber, the Conference co-chairman of, as per the following e-mail address: kshubber@emeraldinsight.com

The following documents are required at this stage:

- Abstract and title of the proposed papers (200 to 300 words), as well as the draft paper wherever possible.
- Biographical summary (200 to 250 words)
- List of author’s relevant publications (up to one page), if any.
 

It is required that papers presented at the Conference will be of publishable quality and written exclusively for presentation at this event. Works identical or substantially similar to those already presented elsewhere will not be admissible. With regard to referencing, please refer to the guidelines set out by the International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance & Management (www.emeraldinsight.com/imefm.htm).

The Conference programme committee will notify authors whose papers have been accepted by Friday, April 6th 2012. In cases where only an abstract has been presented, only a provisional acceptance can be given by this date, while final approval will need to await the review of the full paper.

All accepted papers and their supporting materials will become the property of Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., and may not be re-produced in any form or submitted elsewhere without permission. No submissions will be returned.

It is intended that the five top-rated Conference papers will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, on a date to be decided. All other papers admitted to the Conference can also be submitted to be reviewed in the normal way by the same journal.

Relevant Dates

- Abstract, biographical summary, list of publications (and preferably the draft paper) Not later than Friday 24 February 2012
- Draft of paper (if not already submitted) Friday, 20 April 2012
- Final completed paper Friday, 20 July 2012