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This empirical study identifies, examines, and compares the perceptions of HRMs in selected organizations in one developed country (the USA) and one less‐developed country (Jordan) toward arguments supporting nepotism. It also identifies, examines, and compares the perceptions of these HRMs toward arguments against nepotism in these two countries. The results of this study indicate that few HRMs in each country have agreed with arguments supporting nepotism. In contrast, many of these HRMs have agreed with arguments against nepotism. While there are differences between the perceptions of US and Jordanian HRMs toward arguments for and against nepotism, these differences are not significant.

Examines the relationship between nepotism and various organizational characteristics (size, ownership, and geographic region) in certain organizations in two countries – Jordan and Egypt. Results indicated that HRMs in large organizations, the public sector and urban regions reported higher levels of nepotism than their rural counterparts in smaller, medium‐sized organizations, in the private sector.

The purpose of this paper is designed to address the nature of small manufacturing firms in Saudi Arabia, their products, customers, suppliers, and prevailing competition.

This paper uses a survey of 85 firms and collects data relevant to the study objectives.

The small manufacturing firms in the Kingdom operate in a competitive environment and are actively engaged in market research relevant to market needs and customer loyalty. These firms are mostly owned by Saudi nationals.

The paper offers managers and researchers various avenues to compete in a market that experiences economic growth.

The paper is exploratory in nature. It provides a unique insight into the nature of business environment in the manufacturing sector.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way that multinational companies can design effective transfer pricing systems of intangible assets with special consideration of the effect of e‐commerce within the restricted regulations of tax authorities of American and Foreign governments.

The new trends in transfer pricing and the nature of intangible assets are discussed. Different strategies of multinationals' ownership techniques are examined. The selection of the appropriate transfer pricing methods is analyzed.

The paper concludes that the most effective transfer pricing system should include: tax and non‐tax strategies to manage global earnings of the company; objectives behind the system; potential global income tax consequences; selection of the best transfer pricing method; and key issues to help in avoiding tax audits in the future.

This paper fulfills an urgent need for an effective transfer system of the e‐commerce to meet tax regulations of different countries.

This paper examined the relationships between national culture and strategic behavior in the banking industry in Jordan and U.S. The study first developed a strategic posture and secondly a cultural profile for the top management of the research domain. The strategic posture suggested the readiness for strategic response from managers. The degree of readiness was correlated with the constructed cultural profile of the managers and financial performance of the banks. The study found significant relationships between certain national cultural strategic characteristics, (risk propensity, time orientation, and openness to change, uncertainty avoidance and managerial perception of control over the environment) strategic behavior and financial performance.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the optimal profit-and-loss sharing (PLS)-based contract when market frictions occur.

This paper opts for an adverse selection analysis and Monte Carlo simulation to assess the less risky contract for the principal and the agent when musharakah, mudarabah and venture capital financings are used in imperfect markets. Furthermore, this framework enables us to capture the level of market frictions that the principal can bear and the level of audit that he/she may undertake to mitigate bankruptcy.

The simulation results reveal that Musharakah is the less risky contract for the principal compared to Mudarabah and venture capital when the shock is low and high. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the increase of market frictions engender higher audit cost and profit-sharing ratios. The increase of the safety index in the case of high shock is most likely attributed to the increase of the audit parameter for all contracts to mitigate the selfish behavior of the agent. Accordingly, the principal tends to require a higher profit-sharing ratio to compensate for the severer information asymmetry.

This paper has two main limits. First, the results were not compared to real data because the latter are not available. Second, this paper is a general framework to determine the less risky contract for the principal and does not consider the firm and sectoral characteristics. However, it can be extended in various ways where stress can be put on conflicts of interest between the principal and the agent with the aim to determine the contract that aligns their interests. In addition, the examination of firm dynamics in the case of equity and debt financing can provide further arguments for economic agents regarding the value of the firm, the growth rate and the lifetime of the project when information is asymmetrically distributed.

The findings shed some light on the necessity of the Islamic finance experts to re-think of the promotion of Musharakah because it dominates the two other contracts when market frictions occur.

Although Maghrabi and Mirakhor (2015), Alanzi and Lone (2015) and Lone and Ahmad (2017) among others showed that profit and loss sharing can ensure economic growth, findings may motivate economic players to consider Musharakah financing with the aim to reach financial inclusion and social, which is in line with Shari’ah requirements and Islamic values.

Although several papers highlighted the financial contracting theory from Shari’ah perspective, they ignored the financial issues that are associated to adverse selection. This paper provides theoretical evidence regarding the selection of the less risky financing mode in case of equity financing using Monte Carlo simulation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance (CG) best practices, and the extent to which board characteristics and shareholding structures can explain discernible differences in the level of voluntary CG disclosure in a number of emerging Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) economies.

The paper uses a number of multivariate regression methods, namely, ordinary least squares, weighted, non-linear, lagged-effects, two-stage least squares and fixed-effects regression techniques to analyse data collected for a sample of listed corporations in emerging MENA economies from 2009 to 2014.

First, in general, MENA listed firms have a relatively lower level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, CG practices compared to listed firms in developed countries. Second, the evidence suggests that corporate board characteristics, including board diversity, have a positive association with the level of voluntary CG disclosure. In contrast, the findings indicate that unitary board leadership structure, director shareholdings and government shareholdings negatively impact on the level of voluntary CG disclosure. The study does not, however, find any evidence to suggest that family shareholdings have any significant relationship with the level of voluntary CG disclosure. The findings are generally robust to alternative measures and potential endogeneity problems.

This is one of the first empirical efforts at investigating the association between CG mechanisms and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies that observably relies on a multi-theoretical framework within a longitudinal cross-country research setting.

The purpose of this study is to provide a detailed descriptive account and analysis of corporate internet reporting (CIR) practices among non-financial companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) at two points in time – December 2010 (pre) and December 2013 (peri) political and social unrest in Egypt.

The study developed a disclosure index to determine the extent of CIR practices among all non-financial companies listed on the EGX in December 2010 and December 2013. The study uses ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and isometric log-ratio transformations for compositional independent variables to empirically examine the factors affecting CIR in Egypt using a modern institutional theory lens.

The findings of this investigation suggest that listed companies in Egypt have started embracing the power of the internet as a disclosure channel, but the extent of these practices increased significantly over the investigated period, with great variations evident among the sampled companies in this regard. Such variations were chiefly dependent on the changing institutional actors over the two time frames. Additionally, the findings show that the time factor is particularly important for a given institutional field to induce a sufficient diffusion of corporate practices, especially in periods with drastic institutional change.

The evidence presented reflects the voluntary nature of CIR practices and the absence of a reinforced regulatory framework for organizing and monitoring such practices, with companies having discretion in terms of the amount and type of information disclosed via their websites. The results should, therefore, provide useful guidelines for regulators and standard-setters in identifying best practices, which, in turn, should allow CIR practices to become more consistent, making them easier to monitor and govern.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines CIR practices at two points in time using a comprehensive disclosure index and a modern institutional theory lens.

This study investigated the impact of the type of strategy on the type of environmental scanning activity of Egyptian CEOs at Egyptian banks. Results indicated that CEOs with a cost‐leadership strategy were involved in environmental scanning activities that provide information concerning threats. Their counterparts with a differentiation strategy were involved in environmental scanning activities that provide information concerning opportunities.