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Culture and economic settings are often perceived as key influential elements in formulating the entrepreneurial ecosystem, either on the organizations level or the entire social system. In their different forms, culture and economic conditions have always been critical drivers for innovation and entrepreneurship. Understanding the community's cultural traits and economic status helps entrepreneurs map their entrepreneurial objectives and define enablers and deterrents. This chapter investigated the cultural and economic environment within the Gulf Council Countries (GCC), mapped their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices and entrepreneurial performance. It was evident that some cultural traits, such as tribalism, could play an adverse role in supporting entrepreneurship. However, the economic system, which mainly relies on oil and gas production, could be the best enabler for entrepreneurship, which has a unique nature in the GCC and receives high government reinforcement through massive capital surpluses generated from the oil revenue. The latest statistics ranking the global entrepreneurship performance indicated that the GCC lay in the middle area among other countries worldwide. Qatar came on the top of the GCC with a global rank of 22, while Saudi Arabia came last, at position 45 globally. The government legislative and economic support for entrepreneurship activities contributes to preparing a proper authoritative climate that promotes entrepreneurship and could be a golden opportunity for entrepreneurs in the GCC.

Given the persistence of low oil prices and the continued shrinking of government revenues, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries continue to adapt to the new normal of the oil price environment, with a focus on pressing ahead with subsidies’ reforms and measures to increase non-oil revenues, as well as accelerating debt issuance, which raise concerns about fiscal sustainability and the implications on macroeconomic stability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the sustainability of fiscal policy in GCC by exploring governments’ reaction to rising public debt accumulation via the estimation of a fiscal reaction function to higher debt. Subsequently, the paper compares the obtained results with other similar and non-similar groups, in terms of economic structures and oil dependency, to understand how some macroeconomic factors affect differently the fiscal policy responses, in a context of oil price shocks and high price volatility.

The results show that the coefficient of the lagged debt stock was significant and positive, which means that GCC are increasing the pace of reforms and the fiscal primary balance as they issue more debt to ensure a sustainable fiscal policy. The evidence is consistent with the theory that higher levels of debt warrant greater fiscal effort, but at lower debt levels, countries still have the space to increase spending without jeopardizing debt sustainability as long as they remain committed to fiscal reforms to increase the primary balance. The evidence supports the notion that the region’s public finances have improved in response to recent fiscal adjustments. However, national experiences differ considerably, especially given variation in the fiscal breakeven prices against the new normal of low oil prices. Moreover, the findings reveal that various measures of economic performance, as captured by economic growth, openness and the oil price, were also found to be important factors in explaining fiscal performance. The combined effects of low oil prices and high degree of openness warrant further efforts to reform the budget to increase the primary balance while safeguarding priority spending tomobilize non-energy growth and ensure debt sustainability in GCC.

Given recent experiences and the “low for long” oil price, policy priorities and reforms are necessary in oil-dependent economies, including GCC, to ensure macroeconomic sustainability. Sustaining the momentum of non-energy growth would reduce continued dependency of GCC economies on oil revenues and fiscal spending in the medium-term, creating a bigger scope for private sector participation in economic activity and increasing the prospects of further diversification away from long dependency on oil price volatility and their adverse implications on the fiscal budget and economic cycles.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the value relevance of accounting information in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) region with an emphasis on the potential impact of IFRS adoption. This paper aims to not only examine the value relevance of accounting information in the MENA region but also draw comparisons between Gulf countries (GCC) and non-GCC country firms to determine whether there are distinct differences across the two regions.

To investigate the value relevance of accounting information in the MENA region, two pooled regression models are used based on the Ohlson (1995) model. The first regression model is conducted for the GCC and non-GCC regions separately. A second regression model is conducted using a pooled sample of the MENA region collectively with dummy and interaction variables to further explore the potential differences between the two regions in terms of the value relevance of accounting information.

The empirical results show that the measures of accounting information have a highly significant positive relationship with the market value per share for firms in the MENA region, thereby indicating that accounting information in the MENA region is value relevant. Although book value per share and earnings per share are significant determinants of value relevance in both GCC and non-GCC country firms, operating cash flows per share is only a significant determinant of value relevance in non-GCC country firms. The research findings of the study also show a significant negative impact of IFRS adoption on the value relevance of accounting information in the MENA region.

This research paper provides important insights for investors and regulators by providing evidence that accounting information is value relevant in the MENA region, and that IFRS adoption does not necessarily lead to a greater degree of value relevance. In fact, investors and regulators should be aware that the adoption of IFRS in MENA country firms results in diminished value relevance of accounting information. This finding is of particular significance to policymakers attempting to improve accounting disclosure.

The paper expands the value relevance of accounting information literature in the context of developing economies, in general, and the MENA region, in particular. There is a paucity of research into the value relevance of accounting information for MENA country firms, particularly in the case of the impact of IFRS adoption. Thus, this paper provides an important contribution in terms of expanding the value relevance literature in relation to IFRS adoption in the MENA region.

This study investigates the capital structure determinants of the Middle East tourism sector by examining intellectual capital (IC) efficiency and institutional governance along with firm-specific and macroeconomic variables. This research also identifies the determinants of capital structure for tourism companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and non-GCC countries.

Data were collected from 45 listed tourism companies of nine Middle Eastern countries over five years from 2014 to 2018. The data were analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and checked for robustness using the generalised methods of moment (GMM) estimation.

Overall, the results indicate that tourism companies rely more on short-term debt (STD) than long-term debt (LTD), thus decreasing liquidity and increasing financial risk. Furthermore, tourism companies in non-GCC countries have higher IC efficiency compared to those in GCC countries. The aggregate institutional index is much higher for GCC countries compared to non-GCC countries. The OLS estimations suggest IC efficiency and institutional governance index provide inconclusive evidence as a determinant of capital structure proxy. High capital employed efficiency (CEE) is associated with more leverage for tourism firms. Theoretically, the results support pecking order and trade-off theories due to the relationships between firm-specific indicators and debt.

This study closes the gap in the capital structure debate by providing valuable insights into IC efficiency and institutional governance. These two factors serve as capital structure determinants in the Middle East and the GCC and non-GCC regions.

The present paper seeks to investigate the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on the foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region for the period 1980–2017. This study relies on the information asymmetry theory, according to which IFRS adoption, as a positive signal for investors, should attract more FDI. This research is crucial and presents an interesting framework for providing a major motivation for empirical insights since the macroeconomic evidence on the impact of IFRS adoption on FDI is still unclear in the GCC region and no empirical evidence has been provided in the existing related literature.

The analysis was conducted based on panel data from GCC countries over the period 1980–2017 and using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modeling approach and the pooled mean group (PMG) estimation method.

The findings indicate that the decision of adopting IFRS in GCC countries has a positive impact of 3% on FDI inflows in the short run. However, the adoption of IFRS in the region leads to a decrease of 10.4 % in FDI inflows in the long run.

These findings should be of a major interest to regulators and policymakers in GCC countries, practitioners and academic researchers, international investors, managers and any other interested groups about the accounting environment in GCC countries and other developing countries having an interest in the economic consequences of IFRS adoption, as a driver of FDI, in developing countries.

This investigation provides original empirical evidence on the effect of IFRS adoption on FDI inflows within the context of the GCC area. In fact, the current international literature is lacking empirical evidence on the effect of IFRS adoption on FDI inflows for the GCC countries as a whole. Furthermore, this study offers an original methodological contribution to the macroeconomic impact of IFRS adoption literature by using the PMG estimator since there has been no research works to date that has used this method of estimation.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the extent to which governments of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries play a moderating role in the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth.

The study uses a 10-year time series (2006-2015) for six GCC countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Secondary sources of data were collected from The World Bank database, general available statistics on the GCC, the Global Entrepreneurship Index from the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI) and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database.

Results indicate that governmental support has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth in the GCC. Furthermore, the strongest indicators of entrepreneurial investments in the Gulf have been found to be risk capital and high growth, which indicate a rapid growth in entrepreneurial investments. The lowest scoring indicators were found to be technology absorption and innovation process.

Despite the necessary measures taken to assure standard results such as testing data validity, care should be taken when generalizing the research results mainly because the time series of the study (2006-2015) could have been affected by the International and Financial Crisis, though the study has taken this into consideration.

This study has clarified the significant role of GCC governments in moderating the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth. Thus, the findings of this study are important because they help the GCC governments recognize their significant role and hence to utilize this role by supporting new and existing entrepreneurs particularly through regulatory quality, risk capital, technology absorption and process innovation. Furthermore, this study proves the extent to which entrepreneurship can help enhance the GCC economic growth, hence elaborating the importance of the sustainable resource, such as the human capital, in achieving diversification of sources to move from an oil-based to a more diversified economy.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the potential of renewable energy as an essential future energy source in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. This paper summarizes the main projects and measures established to start the transition toward renewable energy. The opportunities and challenges for developing renewable energy projects have been discussed to reach a better understanding of the future of renewable energy in the region.

The paper provides a literature-based study on the status of the renewable energy sector in the GCC, including potentials, projects, targets and strategies. The opportunities and challenges of the development of renewable energy sources in the GCC region have been discussed based on the literature.

The paper shows that the GCC countries have begun to adopt a more proactive approach toward renewable energy, while the reorientation of strategies and plans for renewable energy is evolving in these countries. All of the GCC countries focus on solar and wind energies and plan to invest in waste-to-energy (WtE), while only Saudi Arabia is interested in going for geothermal.

The paper contributes to the provision of an extensive literature review on the development of renewable energy in the GCC countries. It provides an updated and comprehensive overview of the region’s renewable energy potential and highlights the main renewable energy strategies and targets. This paper targets regional decision-makers as well as multilateral stakeholders to formulate a set of recommendations to promote renewable energy deployment and improve industrial capabilities.

This article examines the main factors that drive live animal imports in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the Middle East.

The analysis is based on a gravity model framework, and it incorporates annual data for imports of cattle, sheep and goats during the period 2004–2017 for six countries. The panel estimation technique is employed to disentangle the drivers of the GCC live animal imports.

The results reveal that imports of live animals are consistently positive and statistically significantly correlated with the economic sizes of importer countries, liner shipping connectivity (LSC) (for cattle and goats) and culture (for cattle and sheep). Other determinants include falling tariffs for live cattle imports and falling costs of doing business for live sheep imports. Distance is found to exert statistically significant friction for imports of live goats.

The GCC countries offer substantial opportunities for livestock trade to fulfil the growing demand for meat as a dietary requirement. Countries aiming at the GCC live animal segment of agricultural business would have to ensure reliable access to maritime transport connectivity and better understanding and insights into the business environment, transport logistics, trade policies, economic strength and cultural connections with meat consumption. The food-related supply chain system ought to have an extensive awareness of variables as the findings of this study revealed that can impact exchanges encountered across the supply chains.

Until now, no study has empirically investigated the effect of live animal imports within a coherent trade theoretical framework in the GCC. The novelty of this research is that it makes the first attempt to identify the factors driving the extensive GCC live animal imports for meat consumption with a specific geographical focus. This study also complements the existing sparse empirical literature on trade-in live animals.

This study investigates the perception of users of corporate annual reports about various aspects of accounting harmonization. To serve this purpose, a questionnaire was distributed to four user groups (investors, government officials, auditors and academics). The results of the analysis revealed that sharing the same language, as well as sharing similar economic and cultural features are the most important factors expected to positively affect the harmonization of accounting practices in the GCC countries. However, the most important factors expected to obstruct accounting harmonization practices across GCC countries are the lack of professional and legal requirements as well as enforcement problems. The outcome of the analysis also revealed that harmonization is expected to (1) improve comparison between companies, (2) increase usefulness of financial information to decision makers, and (3) ensure consistency in the use of accounting rules over time. It was also evident from the analysis that lack of harmonization is viewed as the most likely factor to prevent some investors from investing across the GCC countries.

This chapter presents a theoretical and evidence-based investigation of the contribution that national educational systems make to the development of and transition to a knowledge economy in the Arabian Gulf, generally, and Saudi Arabia, specifically. The challenges to creating an Arabian Gulf knowledge economy are twofold. One is a functional and structural challenge of developing a knowledge economy-oriented mass education system. The other is a cultural and contextual challenge of aligning Arabian Gulf expectations, traditions, and norms with institutionalized expectations for knowledge economies. The knowledge economy development challenge that is specific to national versus non-national Gulf populations, information and communication technology (ICT), and formal mass education systems is highlighted. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role that national innovation systems play in knowledge economy development in the Arabian Gulf countries.