Governing higher education waqf in Malaysia: an integrated model of dual accountability, multi-scalar regulatory fragmentation and dual mission

Purpose This study aims to develop an integrated model for waqf management and governance in Malaysian public universities, addressing persistent gaps in accountability, multiscalar regulatory fragmentation, and institutional sustainability. Institutional theory provides the conceptual anchor through which the model’s constructs are grounded and justified. Design/methodology/approach A systematic thematic analysis of 43 Scopus-indexed, peer-reviewed journal articles was conducted using Atlas.ti 24. Three-stage coding, open, axial and selective, generated 280 initial codes, 19 axial codes and three core categories that underpin the model’s backbone. Findings This study identifies three primary governance categories: the legal and regulatory framework, the management and governance framework and socioeconomic impact and development. Analysis demonstrates that coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism, alongside path dependence, were shown to influence governance practices in ways that no existing model, the Shariah Supervisory Board, Maqasid al-Shariah framework, Yale/Swensen endowment model, waqf/mutawalli model or nonprofit working board, addresses simultaneously. Research limitations/implications The integrated model extends institutional theory and the policy-field approach to a religious endowment context where multiscalar regulatory fragmentation of secular and Islamic regulatory logics runs in parallel, offering a theoretically grounded basis for future empirical testing across OIC nations or religious endowments globally. Practical implications This study provides an integrated model that serves as a reconciliation mechanism for managers (mutawallis) to navigate the “iron cage” of institutional complexity inherent in religious endowments. Originality/value No prior governance model addressing the dual accountability, multiscalar regulatory fragmentation, and dual mission conditions has ever been developed. This study fills that gap with a conceptually derived, institutionally grounded integrated model.