Kabir Hassan has significantly contributed in scholarly research of Islamic Finance. He has published high-quality papers and supervised and examined others' papers. In addition, he has created social work initiatives and models intended to bring sustained economic growth following the guidance of Shariah. He continuously strives to make Islamic Finance a field of academic discipline globally.
Contemporary Analysis of Islamic Finance & Banking Field:
The field of Islamic Finance links religious values of social justice with modern economics and finance principles with the objective to foster growth. The addition is to maintain financing practices that adhere to religious and ethical standards and benefit society. A notable difference of Islamic Banking is the refrain from using interest as the profit driver.
Professor Hassan developed many teaching modules in Islamic banking and finance. Many Islamic finance papers have been published in highly-rated Academic Journals. However, these papers were mostly researched by non-Muslim authors and/or non-Muslim institutions in the west. Unfortunately, research from universities in the east (often holding Muslim institutions and Muslim authors) lack the quality and funding to place in top-ranked journals. Professor Hassan is one of many academics who are working on the bridge within the discipline. As a result, Islamic Finance has progressed from a faith-driven field to an independent academic discipline within institutions globally.
Research & Impact:
In the 1990s, Professor Hassan focused on Islamic social finance that sought to improve social well-being. At the end of 1990s, his attention turned towards addressing the financial crisis which was affecting Asian countries. He investigated the possibility of achieving financial stability using Islamic finance frameworks and principles across fifteen Muslim-majority countries. His findings provided recommendations to use Islamic finance to stabilize economy. Renowned professors from around the world praised Professor Hassan for his research in Islamic Finance (i.e. Professor Volker Nienhaus, the Ex-Presient of Marburg University, Germany; Professor R. Ibrahim Adebayo, University of Ilorin, Nigeria; and Professor Mahfuzul Haque of Indiana State University).
Professor Hassan has researched to the Islamic finance industry in areas such as:
· Private Equity Funds (Mehri, Hassan & Jouaber-Snoussi 2016)
· Islamic Corporate Finance (Hayat & Hassan 2017; Elhanas, Hassan & Ismail 2017; Elhanas, Hassan & Ismail, 2017b)
· Financial Stability (Bitar, Hassan & Walker, 2017; Hassan & Aliyu 2018)
· the Stock Market (Merdad & Hassan 2015)
· Mutual Funds (Merdad & Hassan 2016)
· Capital Adequacy and Capital Decision (Hassan, Unsal & Tamer, 2016; Bitar, Hassan & Hippler, 2017)
· Corporate Governance (Mollah, Hassan Faruq, Mobarak, 2016)
· Fatwa Issues (Oseni, Ahmad & Hassan, 2016)
· Survey of Literature (Zaheed & Hassan 2001; Aliyu et al. 2017; Hassan and Aliyu, 2018).
Impact factors measure productivity and quality of academic work. They are aligned to a journal or an author. Three most commonly used impact factors are: the h-index, theg-index, and the i10-index. The h-index is the amount (h) of published papers that have been cited at least h times. The g-index is the largest unique number such that the top (g) articles in a given set together have received at least g2 citations. The g-index improves upon the h-index and averages the number of citations (the h-index ignores largely cited papers). The i10-index is the number of publications with at least ten citations. According to this, as of April 14, 2019, Professor Hassan has an h-index of 62 publications. Furthermore, he has an i10-index of 292 publications. Professor Hassan’s Research Gate impact factor is 37.95, which puts him amongst the most recognized contributors of the research social network.
Social Islamic Financing in Bangladesh:
Professor Hassan has also made positive work towards economic development via the Islamic charity of Zakat. He helped establish the Center for Zakat Management (CZM) in 2008 with an aim to motivate Zakat eligible Muslims to distribute their Zakatable assets in a Shariah-compliant manner. The management fund then appropriately allocates the assets to best provoke long-term growth in communities in Bangladesh (Professor Hassan’s primary area of focus).
Professor Hasan has written numerous papers regarding practical and effective disbursement of Zakat to best create growth in an economy between the rich and poor in a lower-income country like Bangladesh. In regards to Bangladesh, Professor Hassan believes that sustainable economic development is only possible after sufficient employment is in place within the rural segment to fulfill its basic needs and factor economic production. The two aspects important for attaining equitable distribution of wealth and economic growth: (a) Islamic Financing used to foster development initiatives in the agricultural and rural sectors and (b) Institutional Support must be provided to maintain and execute the aspired initiatives. Professor Hassan inspired this initiative, the Rural Development Scheme (RDS) of the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL), via his research in sustainable Islamic Financing.