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Despite the quick spread of the use of mobile devices in survey participation, there is still little knowledge about the potentialities and challenges that arise from this increase. The purpose of this paper is to study how respondents’ preferences drive their choice of a certain device when participating in surveys. Furthermore, this paper evaluates the tolerance of participants when specifically asked to use mobile devices and carry out other specific tasks, such as taking photographs.

Data were collected by surveys in Spain, Portugal and Latin America by Netquest, an online fieldwork company.

Netquest panellists still mainly preferred to participate in surveys using personal computers. Nevertheless, the use of tablets and smartphones in surveys showed an increasing trend; more panellists would prefer mobile devices, if the questionnaires were adapted to them. Most respondents were not opposed to the idea of participating in tasks such as taking photographs or sharing GPS information.

The research concerns an opt-in online panel that covers a specific area. For probability-based panels and other areas the findings may be different.

The findings show that online access panels need to adapt their surveys to mobile devices to satisfy the increasing demand from respondents. This will also allow new, and potentially very interesting data collection methods.

This study contributes to survey methodology with updated findings focusing on a currently underexplored area. Furthermore, it provides commercial online panels with useful information to determine their future strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how organizations might support older workers' learning.

The paper highlights an incoming HR challenge (training older workers), conducts a review of corporate responses in Europe, and then identifies lessons. Examples are drawn from the case study database of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.

The paper identifies four lessons. The first is to adopt a targeted approach, which involves both identifying older employees with key abilities and tailoring training products to their needs. The second lesson is to develop training initiatives that update job‐related skills and knowledge. The third is to complement skills update products with programs that expand the knowledge horizon of older employees. The fourth lesson is to integrate training into recruitment initiatives that target experienced job‐seekers.

Many organisations are developing initiatives to tap into the older worker talent pool. Training is a critical component of strategies that seek to retain or attract experienced professionals. The paper provides practical advice that will help organizations to design and implement learning programs for older workers.

The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between economic challenges, tribalism and the use of the wasta informal network in the workplace across Middle East and North Africa (MENA) organizations, with Jordanian public organizations taken as an illustrative case.

A qualitative approach was applied, and a total of 28 semi-structured interviews were conducted with human resource (HR) officials working in different public organizations such as state-owned enterprises (SOEs), ministries, government agencies (GAs) the military forces and security agencies.

The authors' findings show that employees who live in rural areas are more likely to use wasta in public organizations than the counterparts living in the capital Amman. This contrast is accounted for by major differences between mentalities, the strength of tribalism, norms and living standards among residents of urban and rural areas. The authors argue that these differences play a pivotal role on the use of wasta informal networks in the workplace.

The outcomes obtained in this study have proven to be unique and important due to the authors' holistic theoretical understanding of wasta, which offers important insights into its emergence, evolution and use in the workplace. The outcomes of this study also serve as guidance for organizations in understanding the “hidden force” of wasta and the extent to which the organizations' businesses may be impacted by this, based on the type of employees the organizations already have or intend to hire and employees' tribal ties. This study accounts for the wide use of informal networks in managerial activities, based on important social and economic realities that have not been previously explored in the literature.

Wasta is an Arabic word that means the intervention of a patron in favor of a client in attempt to obtain privileges or resources from a third party. In Arab countries, wasta is often used to obtain employment, thus causing unequal opportunity. The purpose of this paper is to study the attributions that people make regarding the competency and morality of wasta users. The main hypothesis is that those that use wasta in obtaining employment will be perceived as less competent and moral than those that do not.

The study is designed as a factorial quasi‐experiment, with three independent variables; wasta, employee qualification and socioeconomic status. The dependent variables are perceived competency and morality. Data were gathered from 421 Egyptian undergraduate business students attending a public and a private university.

In support of the hypotheses, subjects discounted the competency and morality of employees that used wasta to obtain the job. Additionally, subjects from lower socioeconomic groups evaluated wasta users more positively than more affluent subjects.

This is the first study that attempts to use attribution theory to examine the effects of wasta on perceptions of competency and morality. The study may be useful in identifying the disadvantages of using wasta, thus reducing its use.

This study employs Stein Rokkan's methodological approach to analyse state formation in the Greater Middle East. It develops a conceptual framework distinguishing colonial, populist and democratic pacts, suitable for analysis of state formation and nation-building through to the present period. The framework relies on historical institutionalism. The methodology, however, is Rokkan's. The initial conceptual analysis also specifies differences between European and the Middle Eastern state formation processes. It is followed by a brief and selective discussion of historical preconditions. Next, the method of plotting singular cases into conceptual-typological maps is applied to 20 cases in the Greater Middle East (including Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey). For reasons of space, the empirical analysis is limited to the colonial period (1870s to the end of World War 1). Three typologies are combined into one conceptual-typological map of this period. The vertical left-hand axis provides a composite typology that clarifies cultural-territorial preconditions. The horizontal axis specifies transformations of the region's agrarian class structures since the mid-19th century reforms. The right-hand vertical axis provides a four-layered typology of processes of external intervention. A final section presents selected comparative case reconstructions. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time such a Rokkan-style conceptual-typological map has been constructed for a non-European region.

The pervasiveness of the globalization phenomenon has triggered a significant number of studies related to the measurement of globalization and its implications for firms. Interestingly, most of the work is based on objective data, neglecting the importance of subjective and perceptual measures of degree of company globalization (DoCG). This study reviews the preliminary attempts to develop a subjective construct and a perceptual measurement tool for company globalization. Based on the work of Cavusgil, Yeniyurt, and Townsend (2004) a confirmatory factor analysis with partial least squares (PLS) path modeling illustrates relevant factors that capture the degree of globalization from a sample of multinationals. Post-hoc tests for the applicability of the generated framework are conducted to examine the consistency of results from the factor analysis. We also test the relationship between subjective and objective measures of company globalization. Although the small sample size does not allow the generalizability of the findings, this study contributes to the body of research aspiring to clarify the nature of a global company, offers a subjective measure for this phenomenon that can stimulate survey-based research with corporate elites, and thus provides a platform for further research.

The monograph argues that American racism has two colours (white and black), not one; and that each racism dresses itself not in one clothing, but in four: (1) “Minimal” negative, when one race considers another race inferior to itself in degree, but not in nature; (2) “Maximal” negative, when one race regards another as inherently inferior; (3) “Minimal” positive, when one race elevates another race to a superior status in degree, but not in nature; and (4) “Maximal” positive, when one race believes that the other race is genetically superior. The monograph maintains that the needs of capitalism created black slavery; that black slavery produced white racism as a justification for black slavery; and that black racism is a backlash of white racism. The monograph concludes that the abolition of black slavery and the civil rights movement destroyed the social and political ground for white and black racism, while the modern development of capitalism is demolishing their economic and intellectual ground.

This chapter explores how state–business relations (SBR) in the Arab world influence public policy on industrial clusters and the resulting economic benefits from these clusters on innovation and productivity. The main SBR actors are identified as the state, big capitalists (or tycoons), and small and medium business managers and owners (entrepreneurs). The framework used here focuses on interactors' power relations. Such power relations are reflected in the ability/inability of the state to enforce its will with less consultation with and/or favorite treatment to nonstate actors. It is also reflected in the ability/inability of nonstate actors to act individually or organize in order to defend their interests and influence government policy formulation and implementation. Such power relations are reflected in the ability of nonstate actors to organize – especially entrepreneurs – and the level of favoritism provided by state officials to tycoons. The power dynamics in SBR lead to different SBR modes and different economic outcomes, one of which is the development of industrial clusters and how efficient they are in fostering innovation and productivity in Arab countries. This chapter suggests that the development of industrial clusters in the Arab world necessitates institutional reform, addressing the power relations governing SBR in the region. A more open political system allowing the independence and growth of broad-based business associations and curbing favoritism is necessary for realizing the benefits from implementing recommended policies, leading to cluster development and reaping the economic benefits from such development. Using statistical and regression analysis, empirical evidence supporting these arguments is provided.

The purpose of this study was to, using a case study research design informed by organizational economics theory, to examine the prospects for micro-insurance in promoting micro-credit in a low-income Anglophone country in sub-Saharan Africa – The Gambia. Two main research questions are addressed: first, what is the most appropriate micro-finance institution (MFI) organizational structure to maximize the economic benefits of micro-insurance? Second, what are the financial management and wider economic benefits of the use of micro-insurance by MFIs?

To address our two research questions, we used a semi-structured interview protocol, informed by the organizational economics literature, to interpret the data collected from our field cases. We believe that these intrinsic qualities of case study methodology are particularly apt in the present study, given the complex and emergent nature of micro-finance and micro-insurance in low-income countries such The Gambia. By focusing on case studies in a single country, we also to some extent help control for variations in business environment that could confound interpretations of field data obtained from different jurisdictions.

The results of our study suggest that the mutual (cooperative) structure of credit unions is likely to be the most cost-efficient and effective organizational form for reducing information asymmetries, agency problems and transaction costs. We also observe that micro-insurance can help reduce the risk of loan defaults, thereby increasing returns on savings and lowering the costs of debt. As such, micro-insurance stimulates the demand–supply of financial intermediation in less developed countries and so helps promote economic development. In addition to contributing new insights, our findings have potentially important commercial and public policy implications.

We acknowledge that our research is subject to inherent limitations such as the focus on three interviews in three different types of MFI organization while excluding other structural forms of organization such as government-owned/sponsored organizations. Nonetheless, the organizational characteristics of the cases examined in the present study are representative of most MFIs in developing countries. Given the prevalent hierarchical nature of corporate systems in sub-Saharan Africa, the views of the interviewees are also deemed to reflect those of other board members. Nonetheless, we acknowledge that the conclusions from our research may need to be tempered in line with these inherent limitations with the research approach adopted.

The insights obtained from our Gambia-based research could be generalized to developing countries elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, and indeed, other parts of the developing world. Consequently, the study could be of interest and relevance to international financiers (e.g. the World Bank), aid agencies, governments and other development organizations.

Despite its evident business and development potential, academic management research on micro-insurance, and in particular, its role in supporting micro-finance initiatives, is still very much at an embryonic stage. Our study thus seeks to fill this knowledge gap.