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The development of everyday financial instruments is an important dimension of modern life, and credit cards are considered to be the main instruments and facilitators of spending in modern economies. Together with the Internet, which facilitates the spending process, credit cards have become essential instruments of spending. In response to this, and due to the expansion of Islamic banking and finance, the Islamic equivalent of credit cards (Islamic credit cards or ICCs) have been engineered with their own sophisticated financing methods alongside conventional credit cards (CCCs). Malaysia is one of the pioneering countries in Islamic finance and has developed a number of ICC products. This study aims to analyse the two main aspects of credit cards, namely, the selection criteria and the impact of credit cards in Malaysia in general, as well as the difference between ICCs and CCCs in particular. The selection criteria are investigated in terms of various factors, including those that explain the first motivation for credit card holding, selection factors influenced by the credit cards’ embedded features, the difference between the satisfaction and the loyalty level of CCC holders as compared to ICC holders, the customers’ perceptions of ICCs, an investigation into whether ICCs are perceived as being inferior to CCCs, religious commitments of ICC holders as opposed to CCC holders, and how the socio-demographic characteristics may have deterministic power over the holding of ICCs and CCCs. The impact of credit cards is investigated through their usage as well as the perceptions of the credit card holders. In conducting the research, this study assembled primary data from Malaysia through a questionnaire survey with 507 participants. In addition, interviews with financiers or bankers, Shari’ah scholars, economists, and cardholders were conducted to verify the results that were established through a quantitative data analysis of the questionnaire. The findings of this study, inter alia, indicate that Malaysian cardholders are found as perceiving credit card selection factors not much differently than individuals in other nations. ‘Protection’ and ‘convenience’ appear to be on the top of the selection list, while ‘reputation’ is in the lowest rank. Furthermore, in investigating the selection attributes, ICC holders were found to value religious factors more highly than in comparison with CCC holders. It was also revealed that ICC holders were less satisfied with having a credit card but they were more loyal than CCC holders. Interestingly, the results also revealed that ICC holders perceived ICCs to be more Islamic than CCC holders, although, in an overall evaluation, ICCs were perceived as inferior to CCCs by ICC holders. It should be noted that the religious commitments among the ICC holders were also higher than those of the CCC holders. Furthermore, the ‘ethnicity’ and ‘religion’ of the socio-demographic variables appear to be significantly related to the holding type. Therefore, the results reveal that religious factors are more influential in the selection process of the ICC holders as compared to CCC holders. In terms of determining the impact of credit cards, the study indicates five determining factors for Malaysian revolving credit cardholders, namely, ‘education’, ‘income’, ‘credit behaviour’, ‘car loan’, and ‘number of credit cards held’. A further analysis to determine the impact between sixteen usage and perception variables with holding type indicates that ICC holders suffer a less negative impact for the use of credit cards in comparison with CCC holders. There is also a higher agreement among respondents in believing that credit card companies use aggressive strategies and misleading advertisements. Importantly, the results also indicate that there is, in reality, no obvious difference between ICC and CCC issuers in marketing their credit cards. It should also be noted that the respondents indicate rationality in their thinking, as the majority admit that widespread credit card debt is due to their self-attitude. This study is useful for various parties, including customers, to examine how credit cards can create financial difficulty. It will also aid financial issuers in understanding the attitudes and perceptions of cardholders, hence, allowing a better strategy in structuring their credit cards. Policy makers, on the other hand, will be able to use it as a guide in implementing policies to curb credit card debt from proliferating.

This study explores social and technical aspects of the electronic Customer Relationship Management (e-CRM) in Egypt. A pragmatic research approach using mixed methods with a range of stakeholders was employed. A framework is drawn in order to identify the main factors affecting e-CRM readiness in the Egyptian banking industry. In order to better understand the problem at hand, three different structured questionnaires were devised to survey a large number of bank employees and users. Data collected was analysed statistically using SPSS. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with a small number of decision makers at five different banks, which allowed a more penetrating study in Egyptian banking industry. Quantitative method was used through distributing a questionnaire to employees in five banks. Data obtained from the questionnaire was triangulated with data gathered from other sources: interviews with branch managers and observations. Findings of the empirical research were evaluated against the framework suggested in the beginning leading to a final framework that assesses e-CRM readiness in banking industry. Findings revealed that the use of technology, organisational culture, corporate strategy and customer perceptions affect e-CRM readiness while the employees’ perception does not affect e-CRM readiness. The interpretation of the results illustrated that organisational culture and corporate strategy have a strong effect one-CRM readiness, whereas use of technology has a modest effect on it. The investigation was conducted mainly in Alexandria, as the second main city in Egypt. From the data analysis, supported by a review of literature, a revised framework was generated. When results were brought together, similarities and differences between employees, customers and bank managers helped the researcher better understand the problem at hand, derive conclusions and make recommendations to the main stakeholders, which would help promote and enhance the e-CRM in Egypt.

Ethical equity investing account for roughly 22% of all assets under management in the UK – this puts it in a position where it can no longer be neglected. This thesis evaluates the performance of ethical equity investing in the UK. We look at three key issues: performance of ethical funds versus conventional funds; performance of ethical indices versus conventional indices; and finally, performance of certain ethical criterion versus other such criterion. Previous studies have looked at these issues but they have used a Mean-Variance (MV) and/or asset pricing model based methodologies; both these approaches suffer from serious drawbacks and hence we choose to employ a more robust Marginal Conditional Stochastic Dominance (MCSD) methodology. This is the first study in the area of ethical investing to use an MCSD approach to evaluate performance. In line with previous studies, we find that neither ethical nor conventional funds dominate each other. However, we find in contrast with previous studies that on average both ethical & conventional funds dominate the market; the said outperformance is resilient to the effect of fees. We also find in contrast with previous studies that the US & Global ethical indices are dominated by conventional ones. Thus in the US & Global context a passive ethical index investor has to pay a price for being ethical. In the UK & EU context, they pay no such price. We believe that the contrast in our findings with those of previous studies arises out of our use of a superior MCSD methodology as compared to the MV and/or model based methods used by them. And finally, we find that UK ethical funds which employ a comprehensive ethical strategy (i.e. subscribe to all ethical criteria) and/or invest locally (i.e. only in UK listed firms) outperform the market. Since the US & Global ethical indices also fare poorly, it appears that UK ethical investors would be better off investing in funds & indices with a local focus.

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