Wittenborg Lecturer Contributes to Two Books on Finance and Digital Manufacturing

27.12.2016

Wittenborg Lecturer Contributes to Two Books on Finance and Digital Manufacturing One of Wittenborg's visiting lecturers, Muhammad Ashfaq, recently contributed to and co-edited two books, one of which is published in English and German.

Besides lecturing, Ashfaq is also CEO of Amanah IIFE, an ethical banking and Islamic finance consulting firm, based in Germany with an office in Pakistan.

In the book Digital Manufacturing: Prospects and Challenges Ashfaq contributed a chapter called “Value Chain Digitization: A Practical Roadmapping Guideline”. Herein he points out that that manufacturing industry has undergone significant changes in last few years, and innovations in IT sector have played an important role. "The impact of digitization is not merely limited to manufacturing industry but several other sectors may benefit from it," he writes.

He also co-edited the German finance title Befunde zu Wirtschaftsethik in der globalisierten Gesellschaft Grundsätzliche Überlegungen aus Theorie und Praxis in Wirtschaft, Recht und im Speziellen, and contributed two chapters.

"This book has a multi-disciplinary approach to discuss contemporary issues and challenging’s faced by the global financial system. After the financial crisis of 2007-09, the economists and investigators emphasized the significance of ethics in Business," Ashfaq says.

He highlighted the fact that, in recent years, consumer awareness has increased and ethical banking and Islamic finance (an interest-free financial system) have been seen as important areas for future growth. "Currently the growth of Islamic financial assets is very low if it is compared with total assets of traditional finance. However, Islamic finance has witnessed much higher growth rate compared to the conventional finance." Ashfaq also highlighted that this niche market is expected to cross the mark of $2.7 trillion by the end of 2016.

Ashfaq has been working as visiting lecturer at WUAS since June 2014. He teaches modules in both the IBA and MBA programmes.

WUP 27/12/2016