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This study aims to examine the combined impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings on the market and financial performance of Egyptian companies during the period from 2007 to 2016 and, thereby, determines the influence of the recent political revolutions –that broke out in the MENA region in early 2011 – on the association between ESG practices and corporate performance.

The present work uses data from the S&P/EGX ESG index, which is the first of its kind in the MENA region. The ESG index is designed to increase the profile of companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange and is expected to boost the level and quality of ESG practices in the Egyptian context. The sample includes the 100 most active Egyptian companies in the Egyptian Stock Exchange as measured by the EGX 100 index in the financial year that ended in 2016. The sample begins in 2007, concurrent with the start of the ESG index, and ends in 2016. The period from 2007 to 2010 represents the pre-revolution period, and the period from 2012 to 2016 is the post-revolution period.

Firms with high ESG ratings are found to enjoy a better financial and market performance. The authors found some evidence that the influence of ESG ratings on financial performance is more obvious after the revolutions than before the revolutions.

This study provides insights regarding the impact of political events on the market in the Middle East region. Despite its increasing economic and political importance, this region still suffers from inadequate attention in the literature. The present work investigates the variances that evolved out of the events that started in early 2011 and the implications of these events on the market. The results of this study have implications for regulators and investors in the Egyptian stock market. The authors believe that the relatively new S&P/EGX ESG index provides a way to enhance ESG ratings in Egypt.

The results of the present study provide insights for policymakers regarding the usefulness of the sustainability indices.

The present results contribute to the growing literature on the economic consequences of ESG ratings, especially in relation to a context characterized by intense political/revolutionary changes. In particular, this study contributes to the few works that have addressed the economic implications of ESG ratings in emerging markets.

The purpose of this study is to investigate in depth how an organisation is able to achieve its economic objectives in a situation of institutional complexity through being institutionally dexterous. The study also investigates how this is done through overriding formal controls and concentrating on socio-political and communal-based controls.

Theoretically, the study draws on the perspectives of institutional complexity and ambidexterity to link higher-order institutions with mundane labour control practices observed at the micro level of the case company. Methodologically, the study adopts an interpretive – case study – approach. Empirical data were solicited in an Egyptian village community, where sugar beet farming and processing constitutes the main economic activity underlying its livelihood. Data were collected through a triangulation of interviews, documents and observations.

The study concludes that, especially in socio-political contexts such as Egypt, the organisational environment can better be understood and perceived as institutionally complex situation. To manage such complexity and to effectively meet its economic objectives, the organisation needs to be institutionally dextrous. Thereby, this study presents an inclusive view of management control (MC) which is based not only on rational economic practices, but also on social, religious and political aspects that are central to this institutional environment.

The study contributes to MC and logics literature in a number of respects. It extends the institutional logics debate by illustrating that logics get re-institutionalised by the “place” through its cultural, political and communal identities that filter logics’ complexities to different ends. Further, it extends the cultural political economy of MC by illustrating that MC in socio-political settings is also an operational manifestation of the logics prevailing in the context. These logics produced an informal MC system that dominated the formal known MCs.

The purpose of this study is to provide a political explanation of management, accounting and control (MAC) practices in a traditional and unstable African setting. This was done by exploring the influence of latest revolutionary politics in Egypt along with labour dynamics in the context.

Theoretically, the study uses the institutional logics perspective to understand the effects of higher order institutions on corporate management and workers at the micro level. Methodologically, the study adopts an interpretative case study approach. Data were collected using a triangulation of interviews, documents and observations.

The study finds that volatile political settings can have different contradictory implications for MAC practices. It also concludes that revolutionary events play a central role not only in the configuration of MAC practices but also in the mobilisation of labour resistance to these practices.

The study contributes to the literature by investigating the different appearances of MAC practices in a volatile, political or revolutionary context, in contrast to highly investigated stabilised Western contexts. This broadens the definition of the social in the area of accounting and control.

The study aims to investigate the appearance of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices in a context where economic, communal and political institutions are highly central and competing with each other.

Theoretically, the study draws upon the institutional logics perspective and the theoretical concepts of logics centrality and compatibility to understand how higher-order institutions interact with mundane CSER practices observed at the case company's micro level. Empirical data were solicited in an Egyptian village community, where fishing, agriculture and especially salt production constitute the main economic activities underlying its livelihood. A combination of interviews, informal conversations, observations and documents solicits the required data.

Thereby, this study presents an inclusive view of CSER as practiced in developing countries, which is based not only on rational economic perspectives – as is the case in developed and stabilised contexts – but also on social, familial and political aspects that are central to the present complex institutional environment.

The reported findings in this study highlight the role of non-economic (societal) logics in understating CSER in African developing nations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices disclosure and firm value in the Egyptian context. This is done through investigating the influence of being listed and ranked in the Egyptian Corporate Responsibility Index on firm value during the period starting from 2007 to 2016.

Using univariate and multivariate analyses, the findings support the economic benefits of ESG disclosures.

The authors find that firms listed in the ESG index have higher firm value, and that there is a positive association between firms’ higher rankings in the index and firm value, as measured by Tobin’s q.

The findings provide feedback to regulators and standard-setters in the developing countries, and more specifically the Egyptian regulators, on the benefits associated with the introduction of the sustainability index (Standard & Poor’s (S&P)/EGX ESG index). This, in turn, clarifies how the government’s efforts to promote ESG provide benefits to publicly traded firms.

By linking ESG to firm value, the ESG index will enable investors to take a leading role in inducing firms to enhance transparency and disclosure, and hence, improving their reporting standards. This, in turn, will ultimately result in improving sustainability and governance practices in Egypt.

The reported positive market reactions to social and governance practices disclosures can motivate firms to improve their social and governance performance.

The study contributes to the literature by addressing the combined economic effects of social and governance disclosures on firm value, and by investigating the economic effects of such disclosures on firm value in an emerging market.

This study aims to present an institutional analysis of modern slavery to understand the accountability status for domestic workers in the West Asian context, notably Lebanon. This study also aims to explore how today’s modern age – where Internet technologies and social media platforms are highly dominant – affects modern slavery.

The study is based on conversations and secondary data such as previous studies, Internet websites and media reports published in the West Asian region, especially Lebanon.

The study found a context where different institutional factors are influential with no specific definition of accountability. The context specificities, including the misuse of Internet technologies, contributed to the migrant domestic workers’ precarious life and the absence of resistance and actions from the domestic workers’ side (account holders). Further, weak institutional settings and indigenous cultural factors have contributed to the lack of accountability and responsibility from power holders such as households and employers’ governments.

This study provides insights to researchers and other stakeholders concerned with socioeconomic issues in West Asia. Further, it has a social implication by highlighting the humanitarian problem of marginalised migrant domestic workers traveling from poor African and South Asian countries to West Asian countries and indicating to the broader society’s social responsibility or duty concerning this problem.

This study explores the relationship between institutional logics and workers’ agency in business organisations. The purpose of this paper is to explain management control in a complex setting of workers’ resistance and institutional multiplicity and complexity. Exploring the inherent political volatility at the macro level, the work also investigates the political aspects of economic organisations and the intermediary role of individuals who deal with these institutions.

Theoretically, the study triangulates institutional logics and labour process theories, linking higher-order institutions with mundane labour practices observed in the case study. Methodologically, the study adopts a post-positivistic case study approach. Empirical data were solicited in a village community, where sugar beet farming and processing constitutes the main economic activity underlying its livelihood. Data were collected through a triangulation of interviews, documents and observations.

The study concludes that, especially in LDCs agro-manufacturing settings, economic and societal institutions play a central role in the mobilisation of labour resistance. Control can be effectively practiced, and be resisted, through such economic and social systems. This study affirms the influence of institutional logics on individuals’ agency and subjectivity.

The study contributes to literature by investigating the relationship between subalterns’ agency and institutional logics in a traditional political and communal context, in contrast to the highly investigated western contexts; and providing a definition of management control based on the prevalent institutional logics in the field.

The purpose of this study is to address the impact of the related party transactions (RPTs) on firm value. The authors bring evidence from a usually ignored empirical setting: an African emerging market.

In particular, the authors focus on companies listed on the Egyptian stock market using a sample of EGX 30 from 2012 to 2017.

Unlike the literature, the authors find no significant relationship between RPTs and market value.

This research provides insights for policymakers and other interested parties concerning the perception of RPTs in Egypt.

The reported different findings of this study assure the intermediary role of the context and the local culture in the relationship between RPTs and firm value, in contrast to the negative view that is mostly reported in the literature.

This study investigates state institutions' influence on corporate accountability and control practices in a rural African context. Exploring the different rationales behind state existence in the context of sugar production in Egypt, this work clarifies how accountability is practised differently in the case of the high centrality of state logics in the business sector.

Theoretically, the study draws insights from the institutional logics perspective. Following the case study approach, data are collected through interviews, observations and documents.

The study found that state institutions can play a supportive rather than a mere constraining role in the management, accountability and control processes. Notably, it clarified how state-related institutions were highly central and influential in a way that enabled them to curb the (negative) influences of the community and business institutions. In this context, it is social – rather than functional – accountability which emerges as the central control practice to achieve answerability and enforcement.

Thus, this study's reported findings confirm the role of institutional (political) logics as supportive in society.

The study examines how calculative practices and accountability appear in a rural community of marginalised people in Egypt who depend on jasmine plantations that contribute to the production of global essences.

The data were collected from various sources, namely conversations with villagers, documents and relevant videos and news available on social media and the Internet. This study draws on the concepts of social accountability, the politics of blame avoidance and using calculative practices as a language to explain accountability in context.

The author found a lack of accountability on the part of the government and business owners, with serious implications for the livelihoods of people in a community that has been wholly dependent on jasmine plantations for a century. Power holders have deployed a blame-shifting game to avoid social responsibility. In response, calculative practices rather than advanced accounting tools are used by the poor in the community to induce power holders to be accountable.

The findings of this study show that authorities need to take proactive steps to address the disadvantaged position of powerless people in the lower echelons of society, recognising their accountability for those people.

This paper enhances the understanding of the status of calculative practices and accountability in a community of marginalised people who contribute to the production of global commodities. The paper also enhances the understanding of what goes on behind the scenes with popular and prestigious commodities, whose development is initiated in poor countries, with the end product marketed in rich Western countries.