Search results

This paper addresses the clustering of several Arab states on Hofstede's national culture dimensions and its implications for international firms targeting the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. It is imperative to distinguish the region's various national cultures, in order to enable enhanced segmenting strategies. The authors argue that reexamining the Arab states' national cultures can provide interested firms with a better understanding of their differences and similarities, so as to appropriately adjust their products and services to better serve their consumers.

Hofstede's Values Survey Module 2013 (VSM 13) questionnaire is employed. In total, 1400 surveys were disseminated to all the Arab states, 200 for each country.

find evidence that national cultural differences do exist for Arab states and discuss implications toward international firms expanding in the region.

Empirical contributions include the dissemination and translation of Hofstede's national culture survey, the VSM 13, on seven Arab states: Kuwait, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon, Iraq, Libya and Egypt. Second, the VSM 13 survey measured the Arab states on two more dimensions which had not been previously measured before the present study's investigation. Last, the theoretical contribution of the present study offers empirical evidence that the MENA region's national culture profiles differ on all dimensions, and as such its findings are seen as an extension and validation of Hofstede's national culture theory.

This study aims to deal with the evaluation of institutional development and effectiveness of regional parliaments; it provides a scientific contribution to the development of the field of parliamentary studies by developing a set of indicators to present a parameter for evaluating regional parliaments with application to the Arab Parliament. The study concluded with the development of a parameter of 35 indicators to measure institutionally, efficiency and effectiveness of the institution, with application to the Arab Parliament, as well as developing an integrated assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in the institutional aspects and organizational efficiency.

The study is predicated on the principle of institutional approach and the systems analysis. The curriculum is applied to the Arab Parliament as an institution to quantify efficiency and efficacy according to the implementation of a set of proposed practical indicators. The study additionally applies both Huntington’s institutional standards such as Adaptability, Involution, Autonomy and Coherence, as well as the indicators of institutions efficiency according to PrePanti such as Openness, Reception (R), Autonomy (A), Balance (B), Congruence (C), Internal Efficacy (I), Reformulation (R) and Roles (R), which refer to the first seven Latin letters “First RABCIRR”.

The researcher endeavored to answer the main questions; How to quantify the degree of institutionalization, its impact on the efficiency and efficacy of regional parliaments. The researcher’s approaches and the standards of efficiency and efficacy figured a comprehensive set of indicators that composed an integrated parliamentary standard to assess the degree of institutionalization, efficacy and efficiency of regional parliaments as a scientific contribution based on the Arab Parliament that can be applied to all regional parliaments.

This research is an attempt to create a Parliamentary Index to complement the previous scientific initiatives and efforts in developing such an index, which consists of 35 indicators and its application to the Arab Parliament. This research uses the principles of institutional approach, system analysis methodology and efficiency. The approach is applied to the Arab Parliament as a regional parliament to measure efficiency and effectiveness by applying a set of the proposed indicators.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incentives, options, and obstacles to transfer technology to the Arab Gulf region.

A validated and reliable instrument was used to gather data from former expatriates who were employed by American-based multinational corporations.

The results indicate that the Arab Gulf States possess a wide range of resources and incentives offered to investors which contribute to the Gulf's attractiveness. At the same time, however, industrialization efforts, including transfer of technology to the Gulf region, are hampered by lack of industrial management expertise and technical skills among the relatively small national population and by resistance to new forms of technology by local residents.

Technology transfer cannot be seen as the only resort for attaining growth rates. Education, innovation, and basic science are necessary to achieve economic development. In addition, the Arab Gulf States must address serious demographic challenges.

This exploratory, empirical investigation provides insight into the opportunities and challenges of technology transfer to the Gulf region. It identifies areas that need further investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to review how the Arab states individually and especially collectively have tackled the question of persistently high charges for international mobile roaming.

The approach takes the form of a review of the decisions and decision‐making processes of the League of Arab States, of the Gulf Cooperation Council and of certain of its member states in the matter of international mobile roaming charges.

The weaknesses of partial liberalisation and of flawed systems of governance of telecommunications markets at the national level are compounded at trans‐national level by divergence of interest. Lack of experience in dealing with consumer issues and competitive analysis have limited the ability of institutions to respond.

Data on roaming markets are very limited, making analysis difficult. Transparency of decision making by international institutions is often weak or selective.

The decision to try to use price caps neglected the opportunity to try to complement the actions of Zain in abolishing roaming surcharges.

The regulators and ministers have pursued their own interests with little regard for consumers. They have failed to quantify the likely benefits of their proposed price caps on roaming charges.

This paper complements others on different regions. It sheds some light on telecommunications in the Arab world, a subject which is infrequently addressed in the academic literature.

This paper aims to examine GCC companies' use of visual images to interplay modernity and globalism with tradition, Islam and local culture. The analysis aims to bring attention to the way that businesses in the GCC use visual images to engage with or influence debates in their societies concerning the tension between modernity, globalisation and traditional values in the Arab‐Islamic world.

The analysis is critical and discursive and based on a close reading of the visual images reported in the 2005 annual reports of companies listed on GCC stock markets.

The analysis suggests that GCC companies on many occasions used visual images to depict and represent the possibility of a successful profitable, modern and global business that is also sympathetic to tradition and operates within the framework of Islamic principles.

While visual images are increasingly used in companies' annual reports they have been largely ignored in accounting research. Furthermore, when this research manifests, it has been concerned with investigating Anglo‐American and Western contexts. This paper instead emphasises the significance of researching the use of visual images in a variety of contexts and locations. It critically and contextually explores the use of visual images in a largely unexplored, non‐Western and a significantly Islamic context.

Examines the cultural and business realities of the Arab world. Presents a framework which incorporates cultural variables and their influence on business, in two similar yet distinct Arab subcultures. Discusses business strategies with cultural dimensions within the context of the framework.

The intellectual capital of a nation (or a region of nations) requires the articulation of a system of variables that helps to uncover and manage the invisible wealth of a country. Most importantly, an emphasis on human capital allows for a better understanding of the hidden values, individuals, enterprises, institutions, and communities that are both current and potential future sources of intellectual wealth. This paper endeavours to address the five research questions. The main outcomes of this paper are the development of a national intellectual capital measurement methodology and index. The NICI is also used within a structural equation model to test several hypotheses related to national intellectual capital development.

Non-politicized bureaucracy plays a fundamental role in the survival of states during times of transition and drastic change. Moreover, non-politicized bureaucracy protects state institutions from failing. In fact, state survival bureaucracy (SSB), as an alternative to Deep State, obtains all mechanisms for the sustainability of the state, both its entity and identity. In case of resistance to the elected officials and executives’ abrupt decisions, professionals and experts came up with Deep State to reflect the elements of rejection.

The paper uses both system and function approaches in analyzing the role of bureaucracy in states going through transition. It also draws comparisons from the harsh experiences in the Arab region after Arab revolutions where most of the states collapsed while Tunisia and Egypt survived. The authors will use the available literature in reviewing different arguments regarding the role of bureaucracy in addition to the own observations as scholars who were engaged in the political process in Egypt for sometimes and during the drastic changes since January 25, 2011 and the knowledge about political process in Tunisia and other Arab states.

In the study of the collapse of a number of Arab states and the survival of Tunisia and Egypt, it was found out that it is SSB which holds state together in cases of drastic changes or tangible threats. SSB includes bureaucrats and policy implementing agencies that are committed to both entity and identity of the state. The role of SSB emerges clearly in a state of utmost survival crisis of the state. SSB does inherently obtain self-correcting mechanisms that help states face, experience drastic change and cope with it.

Non-politicized bureaucracy plays a fundamental role in the survival of states during times of transition and drastic change. Moreover, non-politicized bureaucracy protects state institutions from failing. In fact, SSB as an alternative to Deep State, as defined in this paper, obtains all mechanisms for the sustainability of the state, both its entity and identity. The analysis will show how SSB is a constructive mechanism for the survival of the state when its entity and identity as well as well-established national interests are under tangible threats.

As there are many Arab students seek to earn an international degree, this research article aims to explore the factors that influence Arab students' adaptation to the foreign cross-culture of the USA and how it is related to their academic achievement. Exploring these factors will introduce different insights into the effectiveness of adaptation and studying in a foreign country and earning an international degree. Besides, this study contributes to the body of knowledge of international higher education by including Arab students as a less-researched group. Arab students' adaptation process is explained in terms of the Cross-cultural Adaptation Theory (Kim, 2001).

This qualitative research study was conducted using a focus group discussion (FGD). Multiple face-to-face interviews were conducted to obtain data from the participants. Participants were divided into four groups, each female group contained nine participants and each male group contained seven participants. The researcher explained to each group independently about their perception, beliefs and attitude toward earning international degrees, the adaptation to the host culture and their academic achievement. The researcher carried out five FGDs for each group. Each interview continued for 60 minutes in length. All participants received a consent form. The discussions were audio-recorded and then transcribed.

Arab students are a group of enthusiastic learners; however, their feelings of homesickness enable them to develop overwhelming sorrowful emotions, howbeit their communication with their ethnic group facilitates the adaption and acceptance of the host cultures, which requires quite some time to adjust to new surroundings. Arab students are recognized with high academic achievements; nevertheless, they require prolonged periods to complete course assignments. American society gives international students a warm welcome; this may encourage other Arab students to consider earning an American degree and prepare themselves for this intercultural transition.

This is subjective qualitative data; some limitations need to be addressed when interpreting the findings. Participants are English as a Second Language (ESL)learners, which may influence their word choice during the discussion. Interesting future research could be related to designing an assessment model to evaluate the academic achievement of ESL in different methods that focus on their achievement motivations and communication skills.

Based on the findings, professors can integrate the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to help multi-cultural students to learn and earn an international higher education degree.

Higher education institutions can offer more social multi-cultural opportunities to include multi-cultural students and develop their social skills to facilitate the adaptation process to the new host culture.

This qualitative research study represents an original work of the researcher, and it has not submitted elsewhere. All research ethical codes were followed by the researcher and participants. There is no fund for this research project.

This paper focuses on the disparity that exists between Arab and non‐Arab trading blocs and the potential that e‐commerce offers in narrowing this gap. The current Arab intra‐trade state of affairs is analyzed, targeting potential trade opportunities. These prospects are evaluated, along with the adoption of technology to render advantages to the Arab world. Many countries have and continue to benefit from the acceptance of e‐commerce; understanding its applicability and effectiveness beyond and within the Arab trading blocs is of vital importance to increase trade. Our analysis presents a perspective on regional trade and utilization of technology within the global community and broadening trade possibilities among Arab countries.