IslamicFinance.de

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