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This paper investigates the global financial integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets, which is important for financial economists, global investors and policymakers.

The first step is to estimate a benchmark one-factor model and multifactor models over the entire sample period to obtain the time-invariant global integration estimates for the Gulf Cooperation Council markets. Because the global integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets may be time varying, the second step is to use 24-month rolling regressions to estimate the time-varying integration estimates. To explicitly test for structural breaks in global integration, this study applies a supremum Wald test to endogenously search for structural breaks.

Empirically, consistent evidence suggests that the Gulf Cooperation Council markets are increasingly integrated with international equity markets at different levels of financial development and from different regions. However, compared to other emerging and frontier markets, the global integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets is still relatively low, suggesting that these markets still offer significant diversification benefits for global investors.

This study contributes to the literature by systematically investigating the global integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council markets with monthly data (to account for the gradual information diffusion in international equity markets) and a longer sample period (to more robustly identify the trend in the global integration).

This paper delves into the critical role of women in the domains of architecture, engineering, construction and urban planning, particularly within the context of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the imperative of achieving gender parity. Concentrating on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, this paper explores the profound importance of women as essential contributors to urbanisation and sustainable development. It scrutinizes the existing gender disparities within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries; evaluates prevailing women empowerment indices in diverse sectors; and presents a strategic framework for harnessing women’s engagement to cultivate inclusive and sustainable urban cultures in the GCC. This conceptual paper introduces an actionable framework that can serve as a guiding agenda for empowering women in the AEC sectors by incorporating their socio-cultural, economic and ecological contributions towards creating sustainable cities.

Centring its focus on Gulf Cities, this paper employs a comprehensive approach to examine the current gender disparities within the architecture, engineering and construction sectors. It probes potential barriers and advocates for leveraging women’s participation to foster inclusive and sustainable urban development in the GCC. The study introduces the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) for the Gulf AEC industry elucidating how these measures are translated into a tailored framework.

The paper presents a practical framework that provides actionable guidance for engaging various stakeholders, including governments, academia and industry players, to empower women within the AEC industries. An “Agenda for equitable AEC industries for sustainable urban development: Our Common Gulf Cities” is culminated in a Women Empowerment Index for the AEC Industry (WEI-AEC) designed to serve as a guidance tool to monitor progress within industry, governments and academia.

Future research endeavours could advance the framework by conducting institutional support analyses, multi-stakeholder collaboration studies and practical testing of the framework within real-world scenarios.

The findings of this study can guide and influence a diverse range of initiatives, including policy development, educational strategies, corporate endeavours, awareness campaigns, capacity-building programs, skill enhancement initiatives and knowledge exchange among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

This conceptual paper introduces a practical framework that can serve as a roadmap for implementing the study’s potential to shape policies, educational programs and corporate initiatives aimed at advancing both gender equality and the development of sustainable cities.

The purpose of the paper is to provide some insights into the importance of family business in the transition of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region into a diversified, modern economic region.

This is a viewpoint paper, bringing together recent relevant academic and industry literature combined with the authors' observations of emerging regional trends.

The authors find that family businesses have been an anchor of private sector economic development in the GCC. Family businesses across the region reflect both the challenges and opportunity of the context. Recent social and economic changes present challenges to the historical ways of operation, and yet they also present opportunities.

This paper is intended to be thought provoking and insightful for those in the region and those with an interest in the region. The unique social, historical and economic characteristics of the region are discussed along with their impact on family businesses.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of countries has some of the highest electricity consumptions and carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the world. This poses a direct challenge to the GCC government’s ability to meet their CO₂ reduction targets. In this review paper the current household electricity consumption situation in the GCC is reviewed.

Three scenarios for reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions are proposed and evaluated using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) as well as the political, economic, social, technical, legal and environmental (PESTLE) frameworks.

The first scenario found that using solar Photovoltaic (PV) or hybrid solar PV and wind system to power household lighting could save significant amounts of energy, based on lighting making up between 8% to 30% of electricity consumption in GCC households. The second scenario considers replacement of conventional appliances with energy-efficient ones that use around 20% less energy. The third scenario looks at influencing consumer behavior towards sustainable energy consumption.

Pilot trials of these scenarios are recommended for a number of households. Then the results and feedback could be used to launch the schemes GCC-wide.

The proposed scenarios are designed to encourage responsible electricity consumption and production within households (SDG12).

All three proposals are found viable for policymakers to implement. However, to ensure successful implementation GCC Governments are recommended to review all the opportunities and challenges associated with these schemes as laid out in this paper.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between political connections, financing decisions and cash holding.

Based on historical data from 181 active non-financial firms listed on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Stock Exchange Markets during the period of 2009–2016, this study uses ordinary least squares and dynamic system-generalized method of moments to test the research hypotheses. The final data set comprises a total of 1,448 firm-year observations from ten major non-financial industry classifications.

This study finds a positive relationship between political connections and each of internal financing proxied by retained earnings ratio and external financing proxied by short- and long-term debt to total asset. The findings also show a positive relationship between political connections and cash holding.

The findings of the study provide a better understanding of the role of politically connected directors in financing decisions and cash holding in the GCC. Investors can consider the presence of royal family members in the board of directors when making investment decision. Policymakers are encouraged to develop more effective policies that encourage listed firms to provide information on the political positions of the board of directors, managers and major shareholders/owners of companies.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between political connections and financing decisions by focusing on the GCC region. This study also highlights that boards in connected firms in the GCC have lower monitoring role owing to political interventions, and that connected firms face higher agency problems as they have weak governance and boards compared with non-connected firms.

This study aims to empirically examine the impact of internal corporate governance mechanisms (ICGM) related to the size of the board, board composition, CEO duality and audit committee independence as a single metric on a firm’s investment decisions.

This study attempts to develop an internal corporate governance quality index comprising 10 items under four main ICGMs – size and independence of the board, CEO duality and audit committee independence – employing panel data analysis to investigate its impact on the investment decisions in 301 nonfinancial firms listed in six emerging capital markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries for the years 2015–2020. Data were extracted from sample companies' websites, stock markets, annual reports and Refinitiv database.

This study provides convincing evidence that effective ICGMs minimize inefficient investment and ultimately boost investment efficiency. The findings remain consistent even after considering the potential endogeneity bias.

This study provides empirical evidence on investment efficiency in the GCC region and emphasizes the importance of high-quality ICGMs in reducing inefficient investment. By examining the impact of ICGMs on investment inefficiencies, this study contributes to the corporate governance literature. The GCC region's unique economic and social contexts, with its growing economies, are considered to shed light on this issue.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the factors that influence the adoption of new sustainability reporting (SDG) and external assurance (EXTA) practices. This study also examines the relationship between sustainability reporting activity and corporate economic performance for a sample of 99 companies in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that addressed SDGs in their sustainability reports published in 2019.

Using a two-stage analysis, this study examines how firms’ characteristics and corporate governance variables affect SDG and economic performance, as well as the firm’s decision to adopt EXTA statements for a sample of companies in that addressed SDGs in their sustainability reports published in 2019. The authors collected data from the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Disclosure database and the Bureau van Dijk for Orbis database.

The results show that the variables firm size, profitability, big 4 auditors and government ownership significantly affect SDG and economic performance. The results also reveal that firms operating in the manufacturing sector are positively correlated with SDG and the firm’s decision to adopt EXTA statements. Furthermore, the results indicate that board independence positively affects SDGs and EXTA.

The results can be particularly relevant and timely in helping large GCC companies promote their engagement to sustainable development practices by adopting more sustainable long-term strategies and policies. The findings could also guide managers in the strategic direction to identify firms’ characteristics and corporate governance features essential to promote sustainability reporting, an increasingly important performance indicator for investors and to enhance their confidence in the capital market. The results may also have practical implications to policymakers and other regulators in GCC countries to define effective frameworks that promote sustainable development reports and the use of EXTA.

The results make significant contributions by providing new insights to the existing literature on sustainability reporting in emerging markets by examining a unique perspective on the influence of firms’ characteristics and corporate governance features on the adoption of new sustainability reporting practices. The authors further add to the previous literature on the relationship between a firm’s economic performance and sustainable reporting by providing evidence from large companies in GCC countries, which might benefit from the adoption of multiple conceptual lenses, in this case, legitimacy and stakeholder theories. Lastly, through the empirical findings, this study provides economic validity to the 2018 joint initiative of the GRI and the United Nations Global Compact to strengthen corporate actions to achieve the United Nations SDGs.

This research aims to develop and validate a framework for eradicating women’s discrimination in architectural design firms (ADFs) in Egypt and propose strategies for prospective adoption in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to increase the transformational impact of women on the architectural and urban developments of the Gulf region.

A combined qualitative and quantitative research approach was designed to accomplish four objectives. Firstly, to investigate the nature of business in ADFs, women’s discrimination and policies for gender equity (PGE) in architecture. Secondly, to analyse three case studies to validate the identified causes and impacts of women’s discrimination and examine the role of PGE towards eradicating women’s discrimination in ADFs. Thirdly, to conduct a survey questionnaire with a representative sample of ADFs to investigate their perception of women’s discrimination and the correlation between PGE towards eradicating women’s discrimination in ADFs. Based on the above, the research developed and validated a framework to eradicate women’s discrimination in ADFs in Egypt and suggested strategies for potential application in the GCC countries to increase the transformational role of women in the architectural and urban developments of the Gulf region.

Through literature review and case studies, the research identified and validated the causes and impacts of women’s discrimination as well as PGE in Architecture. The findings of data analysis showed that the highest-ranked causes of women discrimination in ADFs were “customs and beliefs” followed by “Underestimating women’s work” and “Recruiting males more than females”. Moreover, the highest-ranked impacts of women’s discrimination were “career shift and leaving the profession” followed by “decrease in creativity and innovation” and “decrease in economic growth”. Furthermore, the Spearman correlation test showed that while some PGE were correlated, others were not. These findings helped in the development of the proposed framework and proposed strategies.

This research presents a practical framework to eliminate women’s discrimination in ADFs in Egypt based on the findings of literature review, case studies and survey questionnaire. The framework explained in a workable way the objectives of the framework functions; activities; tools and techniques; involved personnel and needed resources as well as enforcing mechanisms. It was validated by a representative sample of ADFs in Egypt to ensure its practicability and viability and suggested strategies for implementation in the GCC countries to increase women’s role in architectural and urban development.

The research identified and validated the causes and impacts of women’s discrimination as well as PGE in Architecture. Moreover, the research investigated the perception of women’s discrimination and the correlation between PGE through conducting a survey questionnaire with a representative of ADFs in Egypt. The research tackled a topic that received scant attention in construction literature, especially in Egypt and the GCC countries. The research developed and validated a framework to eradicate women’s discrimination in ADFs in Egypt. It represents a synthesis that is novel and creative in thought and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not previously occurred. The research suggested several strategies for the prospective implementation of the framework in the GCC countries as an approach to enhancing the transformational role of women in the architectural and urban developments of the Gulf region.

This paper aims to examine the impact of the mandatory adoption of (International Financial Reporting Standards [IFRS] 9) on loan provisions, nonperforming loans (NPL) and impairment loan loss in Gulf banks. This study also investigates potential variations in outcomes compared to prior models and explores the use of the Callaway and Sant’Anna (2021) estimator for difference-in-differences (DiD) with multiple time periods.

The research is based on a sample of 53 Gulf banks covering the period from 2012 to 2020. The study analyzes the changes in loan provisions, impairment loss and NPL following the implementation of IFRS 9. It uses statistical analysis and the DiD method to compare the outcomes between the experimental group (treated by IFRS 9) and the control group (not treated).

The findings reveal a statistically insignificant increase in loan provisions, impairment loss and NPL after the adoption of IFRS 9. These results align with previous studies and suggest that Gulf banks were proactive in anticipating and mitigating the impact of the new standard. The study also observes a synchronization of provisioning practices across Gulf countries and a certain level of consistency in recognizing loan losses.

The practical implications of this study suggest that Gulf banks have successfully absorbed the impact of IFRS 9 and have implemented collaborative approaches.

The study offers some new sight into IFRS9 outcomes in developing countries and opens the door for implementing a novel DiD estimation in future research studies.

All colleges of medicine in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) adopt English as a language of instructions. This study aimed to examine medical students' views on introducing medical terminology in Arabic within an English-based curriculum.

This descriptive study targeted preclinical second- and fourth-year students in the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences at the Arabian Gulf University, during the academic year 2022–2023 (n = 407). Within the pharmacology teaching material in unit I (second year) and unit VIII (fourth year), which are taught in English, students were provided with medical terms in Arabic. At the end of these two units, students' views were sought by using a self-administered questionnaire.

The number of respondents was 263 (response rate 64.1%: 22.2% males, 77.8% females). Most participants received their school education mainly in Arabic (78.8%). A significant percentage of students believed that providing Arabic terms helped their learning (79.8%). If pharmacology is taught exclusively in English, majority of the students anticipated to face difficulties when explaining drug treatment to their patients in the future (71.3%). Most respondents expected this intervention to help them communicate with patients (86.7%), and preferred to include it in the clinical skills training (82.2%). The second-year students and those whose school education was mainly in Arabic were more likely to agree to the intervention (p < 0.05 for both).

The introduction of medical terms in Arabic is an acceptable alternative to complete Arabization, and is believed to help students in their learning and communication with their patients.