Purpose This paper aims to address and identify the major stakeholders in the medical tourism industry, based on their participation in medical tourism activities and their support for medical tourism development. Design/methodology/approach This paper systematically reviews the content of medical tourism studies from literature to identify key stakeholders and address the roles they play in the medical tourism industry. Findings This study shows that the key stakeholders in the medical tourism industry are eight, namely, medical tourists, health-care providers, government agencies, facilitators, accreditation and credentialing bodies, health-care marketers, insurance providers and infrastructure and facilities. These stakeholders strongly influence medical tourists’ decision-making process in seeking medical treatment abroad. Besides, a successful medical tourism development depends greatly on the excellent partnership between all stakeholders. Practical implications This paper sheds light on the crucial role of these stakeholders that can be an important consideration in medical tourists’ decision-making process and industry growth. The study can facilitate policymakers in designing and developing policies to improve medical tourism practices. Originality/value This paper expands the knowledge about medical tourism literature by identifying and explaining the significant role of each stakeholder in the industry. The results of this paper are quite revealing to all practitioners in terms of the potential strategies and medical tourism growth. The study establishes a foundation for future medical tourism research in the rapidly growing industry.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to confirm that there is a great need for international Islamic accreditation body as a response of the growing number of the Islamic-friendly hospitals and Islamic practices among medical tourism providers across the globe, with a specific focus on the Malaysian industry. Design/methodology/approach This paper systematically reviews the content of medical tourism studies and international accreditation organizations for health-care providers from literature to meet its objective. Findings The establishment of international Islamic accreditation body becomes necessary nowadays as the response of the growing of Islamic medical tourism market. Creating standards based on Islamic laws and ethics may assess medical tourism providers when dealing with Muslim medical tourists. Furthermore, the most important benefit of Islamic accreditation is the development of uniform standards for Islamic medical tourism practices that combines health care and tourism services together. Practical implications An international Islamic accreditation body should be developed to assist practitioners and policymakers to use standards to select policies to improve Islamic medical tourism practices, which in turn may facilitate the identification of effective services that can meet Muslim medical tourists’ needs and expectations. Originality/value This study is the first that suggests the need to establish an international Islamic accreditation organization that assesses hospitals to offer Islamic medical tourism practices for Muslim medical tourists. It may contribute and add value to the body of Islamic medical tourism.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between emotional labour (EL) strategies and employees’ performance by considering the role of emotional intelligence (EI) as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach This study focused on the administrative staff of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) who deal with students and guests from different countries. A total of 186 valid questionnaires were gathered from administrative staff selected using random sampling. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses of this study. Findings The results showed significant relationships of EL strategies with administrative staff performance. Furthermore, moderation analyses revealed that EI moderates the relationships between EL strategies and staff performance. Originality/value The study extends the current research on the effects of EL strategies on work performance and tests the moderating role of EI in these relationships in higher learning institutions. Moreover, it examines the performance of EL strategies and EI in cross-cultural context.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about Muslim consumer’s perceptions toward advertising practices. Design/methodology/approach The approach taken was qualitative methodology, using phenomenological method. The qualitative data through semi-structured interviews have been collected from 20 Muslim consumers, 9 participants were women and 11 were men. The interviews lasted between 45 and 60 min. Furthermore, documentation technique was used to cast further insight into the advertising practices and to corroborate other forms of evidence. Findings From Muslim consumer perceptions, this qualitative research has generated factors that may be considered in advertising practices. These factors consist of social values (family, tradition and culture), Islamic ethics and rules and regulations. In addition, several practices regarding advertising production were extracted to guide marketers when targeting Muslim consumers. Research limitations/implications The generalizability of the findings was limited because of convenience sampling and the small sample size. Originality/value This study contributes to the knowledge in the field by exploring factors and practices that should be considered in advertising practices when targeting Muslim consumers.

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