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The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on some fiscal and monetary indicators in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The research relied on data, studies and reports issued by the International Monetary Fund, Arab Monetary Fund, Saudi Central Bank, Investing Website and the World in Data Website.

Many sectors have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which outbreak has been associated with a high cost, in addition to increased inflation and prices, a result that was confirmed by the increase in consumer price indices for different sectors. The general consumer price index for the second period rose above that of the first period, while an upward shift occurred in the curve depicting the Saudi Riyal exchange rate against the United States (US) dollar during the second period above that of the first period, only in slope, due to outbreak of the pandemic. Impact of the number of daily new cases infected with COVID-19 was the highest on the opening and closing price indices of the food retail sector, the pharmaceutical sector and the transportation sector; while impact of the number of daily deaths by COVID-19 was the highest on the opening and closing price indices of the banking sector, the general index and the investment and finance sector. In addition, impact of the daily reproduction rate of COVID-19 was the highest on the opening price indices of the energy sector, the food production sector and the transportation sector.

The research aims to demonstrate measures taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through fiscal and monetary policies.

The COVID-19 pandemic is still an ongoing global pandemic. The virus was first identified in Wuhan City in China at the beginning of December 2019. At the end of January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of the virus represented a public health emergency, and later, on March 11, 2020, WHO declared the situation had transformed into a pandemic. Until January 17, 2022, the pandemic had caused more than 328 million cases and 545 million deaths, while 188 million of the cases had recovered. It is worth mentioning that the pandemic caused several social and economic disruptions, including a global economic recession; shortages in goods, supplies and equipment due to consumers' panic and thus tendency to buy; besides causing other disruptions like the negative impacts on health, as well as political, cultural, religious and sport events that influenced economic policies, including both the fiscal and monetary policies of world countries (Wikipedia, 2022).

Social implications steps that taken to reduce the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to measuring the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (as the main event next to which other events fade up) on some of the fiscal and monetary indicators for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The research aims to demonstrate measures taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through fiscal and monetary policies to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to measuring the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (as the main event next to which other events fade up) on some of the fiscal and monetary indicators for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Given the great upheaval in the international situation and the increasing operating risk in international business, research on corporate diplomacy is thriving. However, it still lacks clear conceptualization and operationalization. Based on social capital theory, our study conceptualizes corporate diplomacy as a three-dimensional construct and quantifies its distinct and combined impacts on multinational enterprises’ (MNE) subsidiary performance.

This research analyzes 134 responses collected from a questionnaire survey among key informants in Chinese MNEs using the regression method.

This research finds that corporate diplomacy is positively correlated with MNEs’ subsidiary performance. Specifically, compatriot-oriented diplomacy is the most effective, followed sequentially by host-partner-oriented and host-regulator-oriented diplomacy. In addition, compatriot-oriented diplomacy substitutes for host-partner-oriented diplomacy but complements host-regulator-oriented diplomacy in enhancing subsidiary performance.

Our research enriches the conceptualization and operationalization of corporate diplomacy and provides a nuanced view of its distinct and combined effects on MNEs’ subsidiary performance.

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) has attracted considerable attention worldwide, and the challenges of managing employees’ entrepreneurial behaviours are increasingly recognised. However, the paucity of research on managers’ entrepreneurial behaviour in the United Arab Emirates multinational corporate environment creates a salient gap in the current understanding of how national and organisational cultures that not always align frame the critical problems of CE. This study aims to fill this research gap by examining multinationals’ CE antecedents drawing on an institutional perspective in Dubai.

The author conducts 54 in-depth interviews with middle managers in multinational enterprises. This study adopts a multiple case study research design to reveal whether an emergent discovery is exclusive to a particular case or is consistently replicated by multiple cases. The author has used abductive reasoning to systematically integrate analytical framework deduction with raw data induction.

This study’s findings indicate that CE in Dubai is ineffective and fragmented. Arguably, the cultural background of employees creates different circumstances and determinants of entrepreneurial behaviour. Hence, CE may not achieve epitome competencies without identifying multicultural nuances in an organisational context.

Existing research has placed relatively little emphasis on the role of individual national culture in multinational enterprises. This study’s results offer potentially valuable implications for theory, practice and future research addressing other emerging countries. This model presents a distinct CE architecture with compelling evidence for national culture (at the macro level), organisational culture, Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument and emergent factors (at the meso level) and individual middle managers' real-life experience (at the micro level).

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a good example of a Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) world. Higher educational institutions (HEIs) have faced a massive hit because the jobs in this industry have become unexpected. Considering the most valuable assets ‘Teachers’ crunched in the VUCA crisis, the study intends to determine if personal harmony (PH) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) would enhance teachers’ job satisfaction (JS).

Design/methodology/approach: Data are collected from the teachers of Indian HEIs and teachers who have experienced the impact of the COVID-19 catastrophe (VUCA). Considering the pandemic restrictions, data have been collected through an online survey (N = 364).

Practical Implications: PH is an individual’s internal quality and attribute that cannot be developed on force or situational need. Even in an uncertain situation, teachers have tried their best to contribute through professional service. Hence, people who possess PH contribute their best even though unsatisfied with their jobs.

Originality/value: This study has focused on finding the relationship between two different variables, PH and OCB (which has not been explored in Asian countries, majorly in India, where it has a vast cultural diversity and structure influencing the educational policies) that hinders the factors influencing JS, where these two variables are highly influenced by hygiene factors such as values, culture, ethical standards, personal belief, leadership styles, and fair treatment showcased by the organisations/institutions.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of product offering and other service quality (SQ) dimensions on the satisfaction of the customers of both Islamic and conventional banks, using evidence from an oil-based economy that is based on a prolonged SERVQUAL model with 11 dimensions and other statistical analysis methods.

The data were collected from 461 Islamic and conventional bank customers in Qatar via a survey and several tests were used to test certain hypotheses. Component analysis, factor analysis and gap and ascendency analysis were used in this study. Afterward, a correlation analysis and regression model were used to examine the hypotheses and validate the instruments used.

The results show that regardless of the type of bank, customers always have greater expectations of the services than they had perceived. A customer’s expectation of the product on offer is the only dimension that is significantly different in relation to the two types of banks. However, reliability, competence, responsiveness, credibility and empathy dimensions are significantly different of the two types of banks in customers’ perception of quality. In addition, the results suggest that both types of banks need to concentrate their efforts on the product offering, competence and courtesy dimensions.

The size of our sample of Islamic and conventional banks is unequally balanced. Future studies might therefore choose an equally balanced sample.

Bank managers in both types of banks need to continue improving the quality of their service including product offering and to adopt advanced methods to enhance customer satisfaction (CS) and reduce the gaps in quality in the dimensions used. Furthermore, managers in both types of banks need to put more emphasis on product offering, competence, courtesy and communication if they wish to improve SQ. Moreover, Islamic banks must guarantee that they possess competent, highly trained personnel who are familiar with Islamic finance products, so as to enhance the quality of service and attract customers.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effect of product offering and other dimensions of SQ on CS in both Islamic and conventional banks by using 11 dimensions of SQ. In addition, it provides evidence of gaps in SQ, at the dimensions level, for both types of banks in an oil-based economy. The results of this study are valuable in helping decision-makers and bank managers who wish to raise the level of SQ and improve CS and in validating the results from other countries with a dual financial system.

With increasing globalization, the importance of referring to cross-cultural contexts is also amplifying in the contemporary era. The models, framework and dimensions devoted to such situations are increasingly mannered in practice today. With due consideration derivation to the input manner, an organization’s performance is also taken aside for its increasing marginality. The following study aims to examine the American multinational oil and gas company operating in Kuwait's oil sector to evaluate the respect. The branch has a total of 600 employees, which were all included in the data collection phase. Hence, the results derived with cumulative aspects of leadership, power distance and organizational value as their impact on human resource management (HRM) functions.

Through the quantitative approach of a self-adapted questionnaire, 101 responses were collected, and through SPSS Version 22, results were discreet.

The results reverted with the manual that the cultural dimension of Hofstede, i.e. power distance, did not have an apparent impact on the HRM functions. Whilst leadership and organizational values had their dissolved set of effects on HRM functions of the chosen firm. However, HRM functions were apparent enough to have its impact upon leadership, power distance (PD) and organizational value accumulated. Opening to the opportunities where in the future studies, a greater extent of population as well as variables could be considered for a better impact.

The Major limitation of the study is related to the number of respondents as the research was conducted solely for the chosen branch of this private oil and gas firm in Kuwait, which makes its results limited and narrowed in the analysis phase. Moreover, the methodology selection did not do justice to the resulting research’s agenda, which was restricted due to the pandemic’s situation. Where with a better and respective methodology approach, better results could be attached.

The rationale of research refers to the gap concerning theoretical aspects within a field of business. As for the resulting study, in a cross-cultural management setting, the relevancy and implication of HRM functions concerning their transparency have not been explored. Globally, in different industries, the, study of similar nature has been conducted but has not examined, the fossil fuel industry particularly, which would be the focal point of this research.

The rapidly changing international business landscape, driven by dynamic factors such as technology, emerging markets, and unpredictable crises, demands that organizations innovate to survive while gaining and sustaining competitive advantages. Culture, an intricate multilevel construct, presents challenges for transnational enterprises and international business as a key “soft” element of organizational strategy.

This paper employs a triangulated method combining a systematic literature search, machine learning, and qualitative thematic content analysis to explore the relationship between culture and innovation within the context of international business. The analysis involved scrutinizing 697 journal articles indexed in the Web of Science database.

Using k-means, which is an unsupervised machine-learning tool in Python, and hypertext preprocessor language scripting, we identified seven topic clusters and 94 keywords. Qualitative thematic content analysis facilitated the recognition of prevailing patterns in researchers' conceptualizations of the interplay between innovation and culture. We identified influential relationships between cultural configurations and innovation.

Our analysis contributes to developing a comprehensive research field map encompassing international business, innovation, and culture.

This study significantly enhances our knowledge of culture and international innovation. Future research that recognizes culture as a dynamic configuration at multiple levels (e.g. national, organizational, professional, and individual) and employs more comprehensive measures of innovation and culture could substantially advance our understanding of the intersection of culture and innovation in international business.

This study examines how informal business networks achieve marketing goals in socially uncertain contexts. Drawing from multiple historical sources, Shangbangs, a type of business network that thrived in pre-1949 China, are analyzed.

The Critical Historical Research Method (CHRM) undergirds a study of Shangbangs’ historicity (i.e. their socio-historically embedded multiplicity, including organizational forms, activities and connotations.

As informal regional, professional, project-based, special-product-based or mixed marketing networks, Shangbangs relied on “flexible specialization” and coupled multiple business needs to market goods and services, business organizations, specific social values and, when necessary, to debrand business rivals.

This analysis extends theories about marketing networks by probing their subtypes, diverse marketing activities, multipronged channels and relationship building with social entities (including underground societies, business associations and guilds) in response to pre-1949 China’s market uncertainties. Substantiating an alternative approach to “flexible specialization” and marketing innovations within the pre-1949 Chinese economy shows how a parallel theoretical framework can complement western-based marketing theories.

This first comprehensive analysis of Shangbangs, an innovative historical Chinese marketing network outside the conventional market-corporate dichotomy, can inform theory building for marketing strategy-making and management conditioned by social contexts.

This paper aims to explore the construction of a valid and reliable measure for the competitiveness of cities that excludes the drivers of competitiveness from the index construction. Not incorporating these drivers in the index avoids the problem of assuming relative contributions (i.e. weights) of these drivers on competitiveness as a maintained hypothesis.

From the definition that competitiveness is the ability of a city to sustain prosperity, this study derives a model called the hedonic well-being index (HWI) in which prosperity is measured by using the consumption of goods and service including leisure. This study then uses secondary data sources to construct an exploratory HWI (assuming a Cobb Douglas functional form) and compare this index to three benchmarks, namely, income, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the World Happiness Report (WHR) index. This study also review the component expenditure of the index across geographical locations.

The HWI is better predicted by the WHR index (a subjective well-being index) than by the GDP per capita (a measure of output), owing to the inclusion of leisure and household production absent in per capita GDP. This study explored and found regional variations in the distribution of the expenditure components in the HWI.

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of constructing an exploratory HWI to measure the competitiveness of cities using secondary data. The reliability of the index can be improved using primary data in future research. Separating the drivers from the definition of competitiveness allows testing of the contribution and interaction of these drivers on competitiveness.