This study attempts to examine the impact of service quality on customer loyalty and customer satisfaction using the SERVQUAL model for four main Islamic banks in the Sultanate of Oman. This is a quantitative nature of a study, which involved a structured, self-administered questionnaire based on a convenience sampling method gathering data from 120 customers of Islamic banks in Oman. The study data were analyzed using SPSS, and the reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) was established. The correlation analysis examined the significant relationships among the study variables. The impact of service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction was captured through regression analysis. The key findings of the study revealed that the respondents showed on average an “Agree” response in the five areas, namely, tangibles, responsiveness, reliability, assurance, and empathy. The correlation results depicted a significant relationship between the three variables: service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Similarly, regression results demonstrated that empathy and responsiveness dimensions have a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction. It is, therefore, recommended that banks should focus more on empathy and responsiveness considering the significant relationship of these two variables on customer satisfaction. However, banks should not neglect the importance of other variables such as reliability, assurance, and tangibles that are revealed as important by responses of the participants for the bank’s provisions.

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Scholars in linguistic anthropology and discourse analysis (e.g. Zubair, 2007; Mele, 2008) note how gender can be constructed through metaphor. These researchers further argue that metaphor is not just a mere rhetorical ornament or a literary device but rather, a powerful means by which people constitute their social identities and relations. In this paper I report an analysis of the complex and often subtle ways in which some female authors used metaphors to describe women in Nigerian newspapers. I also discuss the presuppositions and inferences associated with the indexing of feminine gender through metaphor, highlighting the role they play in the process. Drawing upon Lazar"s (2005) notion of feminist critical discourse analysis, Lakoff and Johnson"s (1980) conceptual metaphor theory and the pragmatic notion of presupposition, I analyze a total of 339 metaphors about women identified in the 100 opinion articles on gender in five Nigerian newspapers, namely: The Guardian, Daily Trust, New Nigerian, The Punch, and Vanguard from 1999 to 2014. The analysis demonstrates that Nigerian women still use metaphorical expressions, which largely kept in place a gender ideology, which upholds male dominance and female subordination. It also reveals that the underlying cognition of (some) Nigerian female authors of opinion articles indicate their consent to patriarchal hegemony. Hence, the study makes the claim that how one may perceive and describe gendred self in relation to others can be influenced or constrained by the dominant gender ideology in society.

In order to address maintenance need of specific structures, a criticality analysis of the structures is essential. This paper presents an analysis of experts' judgment using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Four criteria; people, assets, environment and reputation were considered as criteria. Sample representatives of Ten (10) civil engineering structures from onshore process plant were treated as alternatives. The judgment of the criteria with respect to the main goal was consistent with consistency value of 0.03. Control building (CB) was considered to be the most critical among the selected structure. Although, the technique is based on subjective experts' judgment, but is considered very important in designing maintenance plan for existing structures where design data is not available.

The overall aim of this paper is to explore the potential of fintech in transforming Islamic banking industry in Oman. Islamic banks in Oman lack economies of scale, limited nationwide outreach, low penetration rate due to low level of public awareness. FinTech present a huge opportunity for the Islamic banking sector to be more competitive in the marketplace. Data and technology are converging, so, Islamic banks at the end of the day, must deliver excellent financial services at relatively low cost. Collaboration or joint venture between fintech firms and Islamic banks will allow Islamic banks to attract more customers, increase efficiency, but more importantly introduce a proposition for youth to be excited to join the industry and drive its development and growth.