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Business ethics, sustainability and economic development.

This case is suitable for both advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The case presents a pioneering initiative run by the Egyptian General Authority for Investment (GAFI) to mitigate the implications of the 25th of January revolution on SMEs. The case describes the “Business Clinic” program that was designed to provide SMEs with world class consultancy services through the CSR programs of large local and multinational consultancy firms.

The case should help students in: defining corporate social responsibility and describing its importance; describing the role of SMEs in economic development; identifying the different growth obstacles that face SMEs; relating theories in different managerial fields that could be linked to CSR and development; investigating the Arab Spring and describing its repercussions on economic development and sustainability; and illustrating CSR role in solving SME problems.

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The purpose of this paper is to measure the relationship between the organizational factors that affect innovation performance and the idea generation of employees. Factors examined include: appropriate use of rewards inside the organization, management support for developing new ideas, the tolerance in accepting failures and taking risks, allocation of resources and specially the free time, and finally the organizational structure and the related centralization of decision making.

The purpose of the study is achieved through an empirical quantitative study on the software development industry of Egypt.

Results indicate that, while all factors proved to be significantly correlated with employees’ innovative ideas generation; the availability of innovation based rewards, action based managerial support and decentralized decision making proved to be the most important factors contributing to the increase of innovation ideas generated and shared by employees. Results also indicate that managers and leaders generate more ideas than junior employees.

Understanding the organizational factors that contribute to the employee’s generation of innovative ideas enables organizations to adapt their practices towards maximizing the contribution of their employees to more successful organizational innovation.

The study aims to learn of the contributions of the skilled Egyptian diaspora to the development of Egypt; to understand how these contributions differ according to their characteristics; and to discover obstacles and incentives to these contributions in the areas of investment, entrepreneurship, and return migration.

A total of 384 skilled Egyptian diasporans were surveyed online using a snowball sampling technique. Data were analyzed through frequency analyses, crosstabulations, and chi‐square statistics.

The skilled Egyptian diaspora did make some contributions to Egypt; especially in technology transfer, entrepreneurship, return migration, remittances, and charity. However, their potential is not fully utilized. Contributions of the diaspora differed according to their age, industry, and prior work in Egypt. Government bureaucracy, unfair competition, and lack of innovation acted as obstacles to diaspora engagement, while the attractiveness of the Egyptian market, availability of labor, and the Egyptian culture acted as incentives.

The use of a non‐probability sample poses challenges to the generalizability of the results. The use of questionnaires meant that more in‐depth analysis was not possible to obtain.

Government reform, market stimulation, and better outreach programs are needed for further diaspora mobilization.

Not enough research has been conducted to gauge the effect of the diaspora in Egypt even though they represent an important development opportunity for the country.