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The primary objective of this research is to conceptualize the integration of enterprise risk management (ERM) as a mechanism to enhance the connection between corporate sustainability (CS) reporting and financial performance. This study suggests that future researchers should validate the proposed conceptualization by conducting a comprehensive content analysis of sustainability reports of Malaysian oil and gas companies. This analysis will allow for the collection of pertinent data regarding CS reporting and ERM implementation. The present study takes a comprehensive approach by integrating legitimacy, stakeholder, and resource-based view (RBV) theories, proposing a robust conceptual design that emphasizes the role of ERM in the connection between CS reporting and firm performance. Drawing on theoretical foundations, this study proposes that CS reporting will have a direct effect on financial performance. Moreover, the integration of ERM serves to strengthen the nexus between CS reporting and financial performance. This study offers valuable insights for stakeholders in the oil and gas sector by providing strategic guidance to enhance financial performance not only through CS reporting but also by implementing ERM. Moreover, the framework proposed in this study is expected to bring tangible and intangible benefits to corporations, including reducing information asymmetry, improving the quality of disclosure, and creating value within the field of CS. The proposed conceptual framework holds great significance as it enhances the applicability of legitimacy, stakeholder, and RBV theories, while also creating value for stakeholders through CS reporting and the adoption of risk management practices to enhance financial performance.

Here, we examine the challenges to democratization in Bahrain, with a particular focus on how the recent 2011 Uprising has resulted in a deepening of authoritarianism. It is argued that the recent unrest has brought into sharp relief the absence of “quality” democracy in Bahrain, and that any form of democratic transition is dependent on the will of a conservative Al Khalifa-Saudi nexus. While the pro-democracy movement may have prompted minor concessions on the part of the government, the extent of the popular mobilization triggered the Al Khalifa regime’s authoritarian reflex, and they have reacted to throttle the Uprising by putting in place legislative, ideological, and political barriers to reform, which points not only to a current de-democratization, but also a lack of future democratization. In addition to arguing for the post-2011 undoing of democracy in Bahrain, this paper also points to two major barriers to future democratization; (1) a conservative, post-Independence Al Khalifa-Saudi coalition assisted by large military resources (2) protracted communal tension brought about by the government’s instrumentalization of sectarianism.

This chapter review studies on green banking practices and identifies information gaps to justify future research approaches.

A systematic literature review has been conducted by analyzing 44 Scopus-indexed articles on adopting green banking practices through the PRISMA flowchart and analyzed through Vosviewer software.

The findings indicate that survey studies comprised 82% of the selected papers. The Journal of Cleaner Production was the most-cited publication, with 471 citations. France was most frequently involved in collaborative research, with connections to six other countries. Notably, two-thirds of the listed countries had collaborated internationally in publications, but with less than 10 countries involved, based on the 44 studies included in the analysis.

According to the authors' best knowledge, no systematic literature review on green banking practices from the Scopus database utilizing the PRISMA approach has been published in academic literature.

The pitfalls observed in previous research, such as the paucity of an empirical and conceptual methodology and a systematic investigation of theory development, give numerous opportunities for future research. Following this, many new trends in green banking are outlined to assist researchers in identifying gaps in the literature and future study directions.

The study aids researchers, professionals, and managers in understanding green banking adoption's significance. Banks can increase their economic scenarios by using this concept in new markets with excessive potential for employment and business avenues. In addition, the study highlights the value of sustainable practices, environmental concerns, and the importance of green banking.

The chapter explores the impact of the global knowledge economy upon education and social reform programmes in the Middle East. It highlights the difficulty of modifying school curricula to accord with a view of education which is based upon human capital formation coupled with standardised testing regimes designed to accommodate performativity; both of these phenomena being products of a neo-liberal agenda of the global north. The narrative considers the contrasting perspectives of regionally based Arab commentators, and it demonstrates the difficulty of reconciling the passionately held convictions of those who shun the modernist project with those who wish to embrace the democratic and social values of the global north. From his first-hand experience of government schools in the region, the author concludes with a plea for the formulation of education reforms which may succeed through more closely reflecting the cultural and educational traditions of the region rather than by the wholesale imposition of western values.

This chapter approaches the topic of teaching the Western scholarly tradition in non-Western countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from three perspectives employing the following metaphors: as a Public Servant motivated by public service to the goals and aims of the country’s development articulated by UAE rulers and its citizens; as Cultural Diplomat, representing the Western tradition and its scholarly achievements while respecting other traditions; and as Intellectual Imperialist, aiming at a colonising incorporation of the UAE into the Western academic world.

The main methodology adopted is the Weberian ideal type, located within a comparative and historical context that produces the metaphors as analytically possible perspectives as a western expatriate faculty member. Additional critique is drawn from Bourdieu, Said, Freire, Giroux, Foucault, Goffman and cross-cultural organisation studies.

The findings consist of an analytic framework consisting of public servant, cultural diplomat and intellectual imperialist as a set of conceptions for analysing possible orientations of Western expatriate academics in developing countries.

The implications are threefold: on a personal level, what experientially does each of the metaphors mean for one’s sense of identity, profession, values and relationships; on a pedagogical level, what principles and values distinguish the curriculum and teaching styles as well as orientation to Arab and Islamic scholarship; and politically, what is the potential impact and unintended consequences for the indigenous culture, sovereignty and societal survival of a country under the heavy influence of globalisation. The contention of this chapter is that one cannot avoid adopting one or more of these roles and may even perform in contradictory ways.

The originality is in establishing a new set of analytic categories drawing on post-colonial, diplomacy and critical studies.

Leadership in higher education has become of increasing importance as the size of the enterprise has grown, and this has naturally led to a growing research interest in the topic. Using systematic review methods, this chapter interrogates and synthesises the research literature on leadership in higher education in terms of its meanings, application and practice, and the issues and critiques raised. It concludes that research into leadership in higher education has been both extensive and global in nature, identifying a variety of understandings, practices and approaches adopted, and the continuing dominance of white men in senior leadership positions. There is clearly scope for more research on this topic, which could both emphasise different issues and give greater recognition to the particular nature of higher education and higher education institutions.

Research on institutional logics has missed the opportunity to understand how and why societies may fundamentally differ in their material and symbolic systems. In this chapter, the authors offer a qualitative examination of the implementation of infrastructure public–private partnership (PPP) projects in the Arab state of Qatar. The authors illustrate how the macrofoundations of Qatari society are rooted in the notion of tribe, an inter-institutional system under which the intertwined institutional orders of the state, the market, and the family have historically developed and operated. Their study sheds light on how these macrofoundations shape the processes and mechanisms that underpin the resistance to the introduction of innovative organizational forms. The chapter makes two contributions. First, it identifies how “foreign” organizational forms rooted in Western institutional orders trigger adverse reactions from societies characterized by different institutional orders. Second, it demonstrates the challenge of implementing PPPs in an institutional context that is unfavorable to them and where actors seek to preserve the supremacy of the extant inter-institutional system.

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.