There is a continuing academic debate on corporate social responsibility (CSR), its goals and practices, and its impact on business and society. Following this debate, this study has made a critical investigation of CSR practices of business enterprises with a view to examining their spirit, intentions and roles in terms of pristine business goals. After analyzing the contents of pertinent literature (126 articles, of which 89 are empirical) in both developed and developing country contexts, the study finds that corporate managers are still less concerned about the meaning and essence of pristine business goals and the true goals and role of CSR. They practice CSR largely in a voluntary philanthropic fashion to build public image and primarily enhance business profit, not necessarily for social wellbeing. Their CSR practices have been found to be more of a cosmetic and face‐saving marketing strategy, undermining the social wellbeing goal for sustainable development. The CSR movement, therefore, needs reformation.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop traits and model of entrepreneurship development from Islamic point of view. Design/methodology/approach – The study is descriptive, in so far as its goal is to describe a method, and the nature of the paper is conceptual. The study draws on secondary materials through library research. Findings – In this paper both the traits as well as model of entrepreneurship are developed from Islamic perspective. The salient traits are knowledge, initiative, risk taking, customer orientation, employee involvement, strategic thinking, fear of Allah, hard working, innovativeness, excellence, honesty and truthfulness, morality, vision, optimism, patience, social welfare, Halal earnings and economical. The model would be used for developing entrepreneurship from Islamic perspective by performing various types of activities relating to the phases of preparatory and awareness development, support and motivation and feedback. Research limitations/implications – The paper has implications for government, potential entrepreneurs and existing entrepreneurs of Muslim countries representing one fourth of the world population. It is also expected that the study will help and encourage Islamic scholars to think over the matter and make them more aware in developing entrepreneurship based on Quran and Sunna in the modern business world. Practical implications – The findings of this research can be used as a guide to develop entrepreneurship in Muslim countries from Islamic point of view. The study could have practical implications falling within the purview of social sciences such as economics, business studies, public administration, political science, development studies, sociology, law, Quranic science, industrial management, education and human resource management. Originality/value – While many studies, partially, have focussed on traditional entrepreneurship sparing the demand of Muslim world, in this paper, the authors open a new avenue contributing to the literature on entrepreneurship development from Islamic perspective. The proposed model will be of genuine interest and benefits to government as prime policymaker, existing entrepreneurs, potential entrepreneurs, Islamic scholars and academicians.

Around 3 billion people are living in poverty of which 35 % are from Muslim World (World Bank 2010). In this case, global Muslim community has prime role to address the injustice of global poverty through zakah as an Islamic faith-based institution and having potential annual fund of $139.32 billion in Muslim world. This study designed an explanatory sequential mixed method. For qualitative data, 17 managers were interviewed and 85 zakah recipients were purposively surveyed (disproportionate sampling) for quantitative purpose between August 1 and December 30, 2013. The results indicate that zakah has significant bearing on the conditions of zakah recipients and lie the foundation of developing small business entrepreneurship by mobilizing zakah as seed money (investment) and not as spent money (consumption). A five-phased process model underpinned by two well-grounded theories: Becker's human capital theory and Kirkpatrick's training evaluation taxonomy has been proposed for developing entrepreneurship having universal application. The model's implications for alleviating poverty by governments, zakah management institutions, and policy makers also discussed in the paper.JEL Codes: I32; L26; P36

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop the features as well as model of organisational culture from Islamic point of view.Design/methodology/approachThe study is descriptive, in so far as its goal is to describe a method, and the nature of the paper is conceptual. The study draws on secondary materials through library research.FindingsIn this paper both the features as well as model of organisational culture are developed from Islamic perspective. The salient features are trust on Allah, missionary zeal, justice, accountability, mutual respects, mutual trust, absolute sincerity, hard working, cooperation, excellence, brotherly treatment, honesty and truthfulness, morality, consultative decision making, knowledge, good behaviour, sacrifice, neat and cleanliness.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper has some implications for Islamic managers and employees who have to deal with ethical dilemmas between traditional and Islamic organisational culture in Muslim countries representing one fourth of the world population. It is also hoped that the study will reinforce managers' Islamic behaviour and make them more aware of the code of conduct based on Quran and Sunna in a modern organisational set up.Practical implicationsThe findings of this research can be used as a guide to Islamic organisational culture in Muslim countries. The study could have practical implications falling within the purview of social sciences such as political science, management and organizational studies, education, international law, and human resource management.Originality/valueWhile many studies, partially, have focused on traditional organisational culture sparing the demand of Muslim world, in this paper, the authors open a new avenue contributing to the literature on organisational culture from Islamic perspective. The proposed model will be of genuine interest and benefits to Islamic as well as non‐Islamic managers, employees, and academicians.

Green banking or sustainable banking is one of the issues of the concern of all stakeholders of the world. Following this concern, this study has investigated the status of green banking practices of the non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) and commercial banks of Bangladesh. Analyzing the contents of annual reports as well as websites of banks and NBFIs, the study finds that 44 out of 57 banks and 13 out of 33 NBFIs, to a varying degree, have exposures in direct or indirect green financing. But only 45 banks and 25 NBFIs conducted environmental risk rating. Most of the banks and NBFIs practice green banking only in a limited scale and volume and disclose green banking information in a semi structured manner in both the annual reports and corporate websites. However, except one, all the 56 scheduled banks and all the 33 non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) have their own green banking policy guidelines. They also have green office guide for conducting in-house green activities. The study finds that green banking disclosures in their annual reports exceed that in their websites. It is also found that both private commercial banks (PCBs), and foreign commercial banks (FCBs) have surpassed state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) and state-owned specialized development banks (SDBs) in terms of the green financing.

Purpose This study aims to look into the scope of exploring and promoting business zakah for the enhancement of the well-being of the underprivileged in society. Design/methodology/approach This is mainly a qualitative research conducted using both primary and secondary data. Primary data have been collected from 34 business entrepreneurs in Bangladesh through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The secondary data have been collected from annual reports with a view to calculating business zakah of five business enterprises for providing an indicative picture of prospective volume of business zakah in Bangladesh. Finally, collected qualitative data have been analyzed thematically following the due procedures with a view to addressing the research questions. Findings The findings reveal that around thirty five percent of sample entrepreneurs have used business zakah fund for fully and partially financing their social projects. It also reveals that on average annual business zakah fund amounts to nearly 144m BDT (around US$1.7m) per business enterprise. These findings bear clear witness that business zakah has extensive scope and promising prospect to be an instrument of financing social projects aimed at ensuring social well-being of the disadvantaged. Practical implications The findings of this research can be used as a guide to promote business zakah to finance social programs aimed at ensuring the well-being of the underprivileged of all societies particularly of Muslim countries representing one-fourth of the world population. Originality/value Exploring and promoting business zakah as an initiative of broadening the base of zakah is an innovative move and net addition to the literature of Islamic finance. It contributes greatly to the poverty alleviation movement in the sense that Muslim business entrepreneurs will now find their business zakah fund readily available to finance their social projects aimed at ensuring well-being of the impoverished.

The growth performance of Bangladesh over the last one and a half decades along with the stock market development sparks the question of whether stock market development has a significant impact on economic growth of the economy. The study investigates the time series evidence of the influence of stock market development on growth of Bangladesh economy for the period 1993-2016 employing ARDL Bounds testing approach and finds stock market development has direct impact on economic growth both in the short-run as well as in the long run together with financial depth, interest rate spread and real effective exchange rate. Granger causality tests confirm a bidirectional causal relationship between stock market development and economic growth. However, the study fails to identify a system convergent to equilibrium in regard to stock market development along with other factors that has important economic implications. Persistent improvement in financial depth and fall in interest rate spread throughout the sample period with consistent performance of real effective exchange rate except some spikes in recent years raise the demand for playing the needed role by all concerned for confirming the stability of stock market and its development in order to validate the steady state of equilibrium in the long-run.