The perceived determinants of Islamic finance for China’s belt and road initiative

There is a growing tide of global interest in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013. The initiative has brought in its wake enormous opportunities for creating economic development infrastructure, strengthening open regionalism and accelerating the pace of trade and investment in nearly 70 countries including 27 Muslim countries. Although a large number of finance options for the BRI projects have been highlighted in literature, the strategic role of Islamic finance has not been adequately explored. This paper bridges the knowledge gap by examining the strategic role of Islamic finance in the context of the BRI. Based on an empirical study, the authors explore the dimensions of Islamic finance in attracting investments in BRI projects and test the psychometric properties of the underlying dimensions. The authors discuss important managerial implications of these findings.