Waqf investment funds represent an innovative approach to sustainable finance, integrating Islamic investment principles with contemporary social and economic goals. The research explores how Waqf investment funds affect socio-economic factors in Saudi Arabia through their influence on personal income, healthcare systems, and education while analyzing financial sustainability. The study assessed primary socio-economic indicators through beneficiary survey data, expert interviews, and secondary sources. The study used chi-square tests, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and regression analysis to evaluate the long-term impact of the funds on social welfare and economic stability. The results highlight several significant achievements, the most important of which is that personal income benefited most from enhanced purchasing power. At the same time, healthcare outcomes improved significantly due to support for chronic disease treatments. Support for student housing and living services positively impacted the education sector by providing learning stability and access to educational opportunities. Financial sustainability reached its peak through improved financial security measures. The full potential of Waqf investment funds remains restricted because they face continuous issues with investment diversification, governance effectiveness, and entrepreneurial support. The results show that Waqf investment funds work as a welfare tool while also serving as a strategic tool for sustainable development in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This study explores the long-run relationship among the environmental footprint (EnF), renewable energy consumption, energy use, industrial growth, and urbanization in Saudi Arabia from 1990 to 2023, employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, alongside Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR) for robustness checks. Results indicate a significant long-term relationship among the variables, with renewable energy adoption emerging as a crucial factor in reducing carbon emissions. The ARDL bounds test confirms the existence of cointegration, revealing the dynamic interplay among renewable energy, economic growth, and environmental sustainability. The findings show that renewable energy consumption significantly reduces the environmental footprint (CO₂ emissions), supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals for economic diversification and sustainable development. However, industrial expansion, while critical for economic growth, still contributes to increased emissions, underscoring the need for further investment in clean technologies. The study also highlights the role of urbanization, which, while essential for development, poses challenges for environmental sustainability. Short-term dynamics, represented by the Error Correction Model, indicate a fast adjustment speed toward equilibrium, with deviations corrected by approximately 52% each period. The study offers valuable insights for policymakers aiming to balance industrial growth with environmental protection, emphasizing the need for strategic investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. This research contributes to the understanding of energy–economy–environment interactions in oil-rich economies, providing a foundation for future studies to explore the impact of advanced technologies and policy interventions on sustainable development

This paper examines the determinants of CO₂ emissions in Oman from 1990 to 2024, focusing on the impacts of energy consumption, economic growth, urbanization, financial development, and foreign direct investment. The analysis utilizes stepwise regression to systematically identify the most significant predictors, ensuring a parsimonious model. Robust least squares (ROLSs) are employed to account for potential outliers and heteroscedasticity in the data, providing more reliable estimates. Fully Modified Least Squares (FMOLSs) is applied to address issues of endogeneity and serial correlation, offering robust long-term coefficient estimates. Canonical cointegrating regression (CCR) further refines these estimates by handling non-stationary variables and ensuring consistency in the presence of cointegration. Cointegration tests, including the Johansen and Engle–Granger methods, confirm long-term equilibrium relationships among the variables; this study reveals several key findings. Energy use per capita (ENGY) and real GDP per capita (RGDP_C) are consistently significant positive predictors of CO₂ emissions. Urbanization (URB) also significantly contributes to higher emissions. Conversely, the Financial Development Index (FDX) and foreign direct investment (FDI) do not show significant effects on CO₂ levels. The high R-squared values across models indicate that these variables explain a substantial portion of the variation in emissions. Cointegration tests confirm long-term equilibrium relationships among the variables, with the Johansen test identifying two cointegrating equations and the Engle–Granger test showing significant tau-statistics for FDX, ENGY, and URB. The VEC model further highlights the short-term dynamics and adjustment mechanisms. These findings underscore the importance of energy policy, economic development, and urban planning in Oman’s efforts towards sustainable development and decarbonization.

The complex relationship between environmental degradation—more especially, air pollution—and economic growth in the Sultanate of Oman between 1990 and 2022 is examined in this article. To identify short- and long-term dynamics in the relationship between air pollution and economic growth, we use vector error correction models and cointegration. Additionally, Granger causality analysis is used to look into the causal relationships between these important variables. This dataset includes several control variables as well as environmental quality-related factors. The empirical findings demonstrate that the variables have a consistent long-term cointegration relationship. Furthermore, our results show that energy consumption and economic growth have a statistically significant positive effect on CO₂ emissions. Moreover, an annual adjustment of about 14.1% in N₂O emission disequilibrium is revealed by the short-term analysis. The Granger causality study shows that there are unidirectional causal linkages between CO₂ emissions, economic growth, and N₂O emissions. These results have significant policy-related ramifications for Oman. Oman has to implement strong climate change policies in order to effectively cut greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, as a potential replacement for conventional oil and gas resources, the government can be a key player in promoting and supporting the use of renewable energy sources like green hydrogen.

This paper aims to identify the key factors influencing sustainability of women entrepreneurship in Oman. The study adopted a mixed design approach. The data for the study was collected through a structured questionnaire including 107 women entrepreneurs, in addition to interviews with two women entrepreneurs in Muscat A stratified random sampling was employed to provide a better representation of the women entrepreneurs sectors. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and T-test and Chi-square test were used to determine the key factors influencing the sustainability of women entrepreneurship in Oman and validate the study hypotheses. The main findings of the study showed that entrepreneurial characteristics, entrepreneurial personalities, government support, external environment, and entrepreneurial human capital have a significant impact on sustainability of women entrepreneurship in Oman. Furthermore, 86.2% of women entrepreneurs in Oman were experiencing loses during the last four years. The main challenges facing women entrepreneurship in Oman include complexity of rules and regulations of doing business, unfair competitions with large enterprises, lack of access to finance, and lack of skilled workers. The implications of such challenges have been discussed and some recommendations to promote sustainability of women entrepreneurship in Oman have been suggested.

This article explores the intricate relationship between environmental degradation, specifically air pollution, and economic growth in the Sultanate of Oman spanning the period from 1990 to 2022. We employ cointegration and vector error correction models to uncover both short- and long-term dynamics in the association between air pollution and economic growth. Fur-thermore, Granger causality analysis is utilized to investigate the causal links between these crucial variables. This data encompasses factors related to environmental quality and various control variables. The empirical results unveil a sustained long-term cointegration connection between the variables. Additionally, our findings highlight a statistically significant positive impact of economic growth and energy consumption on CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the short-term analysis reveals an annual adjustment of approximately 14.1% in N2O emissions dis-equilibrium. The Granger causality study indicates unidirectional causal relationships involving N2O emissions, economic growth, and CO2 emissions. The implications of these findings for Oman's policy landscape are substantial. To effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is imperative for Oman to establish robust climate change policies. Additionally, the government can play a pivotal role in encouraging and endorsing the use of renewable energy sources, such as green hydrogen, as a promising alternative to traditional oil and gas resources.