Aspirations of an Islamic bank: an exploration from stakeholders' perspective

Purpose - It is believed that Islamic banks are aimed at the welfare of its stakeholders (Dusuki, 2008). The major stakeholders consist of customers, employees, competitors and management. But whether the Islamic banks are really able to communicate and convey their mission to their stakeholders is an area which has not be given due importance. This paper aims to attempt to unveil this issue. Design/methodology/approach - This study comprised two distinctive methodological stances, where mission statements of selected (five) Islamic banks were analyzed using content analysis, readability and understandability in first instance. In second step, various stakeholders responded for their perception of objectives of stakeholders through personally administrated questionnaires. In all, 370 respondents recorded their responses in this stage. Findings - Findings of the study show that Islamic banks are not well in communication to their objectives through their missions statements. Moreover, most of the stakeholders are not clear about the objectives of Islamic banks. Originality/value - This study is first of its type which covers content analysis, mission statement readability and understandability and perception of stakeholders in one study.