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The aim of this paper has twofold: (1) to explain and compare the financial evolution of Islamic and conventional banking sector in the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) to explore the key success factors that might affect Islamic and conventional banks performance before and mainly during COVID-19 pandemic period.

Orbis Bank Focus database and annual financial reports are used to collect financial information of Islamic and conventional banks in GCC countries over four years: 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Descriptive statistics, T-test, multiple regression, and 2SLS and GMM models are employed to analyze the financial structure and performance of Islamic and conventional banks before and during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Results of this study reveal that (1) there is a significant difference between Islamic banks and conventional banks during the crisis of COVID-19, where the conventional banks have presented a higher level of financial performance and financial liquidity than their Islamic counterparts, (2) conventional banks have revealed higher capacity to manage their financial risk during the crisis period, and (3) a high level of non-performing loan, high inflation rate and high percentage of non-important cost have a negative impact on the financial performance of Islamic banks mainly during the pandemic period of COVID-19. However, the result indicates that a high level of liquidity risk increased the performance of Islamic banks but this impact falls sharply during the pandemic period.

This study provides information that supports investors, regulators and executive managers in GCC countries. A well-structured balance sheet would improve the financial performance and risk management of the banking sector in GCC countries, especially in times of crisis and pandemics.

This paper aims to examine how gender diversity and women’s empowerment influence the performance of family entrepreneurships and explores the role of firm characteristics as a moderating factor.

The study used a structured questionnaire as the survey tool to collect data from 91 women managers working in family entrepreneurships, which originated from entrepreneurial initiatives, located in various Lebanese regions. The validity of the construct was assumed using the fitness of extracted index, incremental fit-index, non-normal fit-index, root mean square of residuals and standard root mean square residual. Composite reliability, Cronbach's alpha and value confirmatory factor analysis were used to measure the internal consistency. Data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling method.

This study reveals that gender equality, education level and family support significantly affect women's empowerment while an insignificant association was found between empowerment and earning social status and achieving financial independence. This paper also showed a significant interaction between women’s empowerment and the performance of family entrepreneurships. Additionally, the results showed that women holding managerial positions in family entrepreneurships is positively associated with firm performance. Finally, it was concluded that the location of the family firm moderates the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance.

This research contributes to theory and practice regarding the role of women in family entrepreneurships and sheds light on gender differences influencing family entrepreneurships and women empowerment issues.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the impact of dynamic managerial innovative capabilities on the competitive advantage (CA), financial performance (FP) and non-financial performance (NFP) of the health-care sector during the very turbulent Covid-19 pandemic period. The focus is on human behavior and personnel interaction in the hospitals that receive Covid-19 cases.

Data for this research was collected from the medical sector in Lebanon. The authors approached 14 public hospitals and 60 private hospitals for the study and only 48 hospitals (total of 284 respondents) accepted to complete the survey and provide data using a structured questionnaire.

This study reveals the moderating impact of CA on the relationship between dynamic managerial innovative capabilities and the performance of the health-care sector. Based on 48 Lebanese health-care centers during the Covid-19 pandemic, the results of the structural equation modeling model indicate that dynamic managerial innovative practices positively impact on CA and NFP. The results also reveal that CA has a moderating effect on the relationship between dynamic managerial innovative practices and NFP.

This study does not reveal any direct or indirect relationship between managerial capabilities and FP during the pandemic.

As the world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, the health-care sector needs new approaches and methods for confronting the constantly evolving and turbulent environment. This study examines how health-care leaders are dealing with these dynamic challenges and tests a three-dimensional SEM model of dynamic managerial capabilities (sensing, seizing and reconfiguration) that impact CA.

This study contributes to examining the factors that drive the adoption of cryptocurrencies for financial transactions in the tourism and hospitality industries. This is crucial to develop tourism and hospitality and stimulate financial inclusion in developing and developed countries.

This research paper employs the SEM model and bootstrapping method on a sample of 417 French participants involved in tourism and hospitality industries to reveal the causal pathway between a set of independent factors and the willingness to adopt cryptocurrencies for financial transactions.

The empirical findings reveal that ease of use, perceived usefulness, social influence, and financial literacy increase the willingness to use cryptocurrencies. French hotels need to have a strategic orientation, to deal with customers, competitors and changing technological environment. The study also reveals that social influence and financial literacy reduce the level of perceived financial risk and thus, leads to increase the intention to adopt the new type of decentralized currencies.

In contrast to previous studies that focused on the volatility and risk of cryptocurrencies, this research employs a human-centric approach covering different factors that could lead to the adoption of the new type of currency for financial transactions in tourism and hospitality industries.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the impact of strategic competitive innovation types on the financial performance of SMEs during a very critical period: the COVID-19 pandemic. Four strategic competitive innovation types are considered in this study: marketing innovation, organizational innovation, product innovation and processes innovation.

To examine empirically the relationship between strategic competitiveness and financial performance, data were collected from a sample of 426 Lebanese SMEs belonging to seven different sectors.

The empirical findings of principle component analysis model (PCA) and multiple regression model (MR) reveal that the ability to innovate is essential to an SME’s survival during a crisis. The results of this study confirm the existence of a positive impact of marketing innovation and processes innovation on the financial performance of SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, results suggest that, in Lebanese SMEs, product innovation and organizational innovation do not have any impact on the financial performance during the pandemic period.

This research focused on strategic competitive innovation as a broadly considered essential condition for the survival of SMEs during the COVID-19 crises.

Social entrepreneurship is gradually becoming a potent driving force for economic and social development in developing countries as a result of governance deficits. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinant factors of successful social entrepreneurship in the emerging circular economy of Lebanon. The objective extends to exploring the mediating role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the success of social entrepreneurship in Lebanon.

Using a cross-sectional survey design, the authors collected primary data from 389 social entrepreneurs through questionnaires in selected locations in Lebanon. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The hypotheses were tested using linear regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) for predicting the impact of independent variable on the dependent variable. The validity, progressive and various models fits were tested using root mean square of approximation, root mean square of residuals, standard root mean square residuals, incremental fit index, fitness of the extracted and non-normal fit index.

The SEM estimations reveal that three main factors determine the success of social entrepreneurs in Lebanon, namely, environmental factors, psychological factors and prior experience. Moreover, the results reveal that support of NGOs positively moderates the relationships between the success of social entrepreneurship and two different variables (psychological factors and environmental factors), but failed to moderate the relationships between success of social entrepreneurship and four variables (experience, education, leadership and founding team composition).

The study contributes to the entrepreneurship and circular economy literature by explicating empirically the determinant factors of successful social entrepreneurship in Lebanon’s emerging circular economy. It also provides a fact-based social awareness on the role of local and international NGOs in supporting the social entrepreneurs in driving the idea of a circular economy. The study also validates multiple entrepreneurship theories.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new conceptual framework for big data analytics (BDA) in the healthcare sector for the European Mediterranean region. The objective of this new conceptual framework is to improve the health conditions in a dynamic region characterized by the appearance of new diseases.

This study presents a new conceptual framework that could be employed in the European Mediterranean healthcare sector. Practically, this study can enhance medical services, taking smart decisions based on accurate data for healthcare and, finally, reducing the medical treatment costs, thanks to data quality control.

This research proposes a new conceptual framework for BDA in the healthcare sector that could be integrated in the European Mediterranean region. This framework introduces the big data quality (BDQ) module to filter and clean data that are provided from different European data sources. The BDQ module acts in a loop mode where bad data are redirected to their data source (e.g. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, university hospitals) to be corrected to improve the overall data quality in the proposed framework. Finally, clean data are directed to the BDA to take quick efficient decisions involving all the concerned stakeholders.

This study proposes a new conceptual framework for executives in the healthcare sector to improve the decision-making process, decrease operational costs, enhance management performance and save human lives.

This study focused on big data management and BDQ in the European Mediterranean healthcare sector as a broadly considered fundamental condition for the quality of medical services and conditions.

The purpose of this research is to reveal the impact of public legal protection on the efficiency of internal corporate governance in banks. In addition, this research proposes a new corporate governance index that could be employed by the banking sector to evaluate the performance of their internal corporate governance mechanisms.

Orbis database, annual reports and direct questionnaire are used to collect corporate governance data of 127 banks from 14 countries during 2020. The Mann–Whitney U-test is employed to compare the efficiency of corporate governance mechanisms based on three subsamples of countries having different legal protection levels (weak, middle and strong).

This research suggests a new corporate governance index for banks based on seven constructs and 62 variables. This new non-parametric index could be used by bankers to improve the monitoring process and enhance the overall performance of banking. The results of this research show that the existence of a strong public legal protection environment within a specific country enhances the efficiency of corporate governance mechanisms in the banking sector and thus, leads to improve the protection of shareholders, depositors and other relevant stakeholders. However, in countries that are characterized by weak legal protection level, the efficiency of corporate governance mechanisms is very low and there are possibilities of entrenchment, expropriation and extraction of private benefits. These findings could be interpreted within the prediction of agency, moral hazard, asymmetric information, political and entrenchment theories.

This research paper provides information that bankers and other relevant stakeholders in the banking sector working in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) and European countries. A strong public legal protection level could improve the efficiency of internal corporate governance mechanisms within banks.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the current literature on international entrepreneurial careers by employing the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. It mainly aims at identifying determinants of international entrepreneurial intentions among young people and after their first employment experience in Lebanon.

The paper uses SEM on a sample of 150 young Lebanese employees to analyze the relationships among the model constructs.

The SEM broadly holds and adequately fits the data. The entrepreneurship context and the motivation of young employees are the variables that positively affect entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurship education and social norms have no statistically significant impact. Finally, risk awareness and professional experience are the variables that negatively affect entrepreneurial intentions. The level of international entrepreneurial intentions among young Lebanese employees is relatively low, which may be justified by the bad economic and political situation.

Data were drawn from organizations located in a specific geographical area, namely, Lebanon. Thus, this may constrain the generalizability as well as causality of the results.

This study provides an empirical explanation of having an international entrepreneurial career after the first employment experience, with a sample of 150 young employees in Lebanon. By applying the SEM, this study developed a multi-perspective framework covering various factors that may affect the choice of an international career in entrepreneurship, especially after the first job experience. Even though this study's results reflect a particular case, its recommendations could facilitate the achievement of better learning outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to discover the motivating factors for cryptocurrency investment during an economic crisis in the MENA region, with reference to the economic crisis of 2019–2022, in Lebanon.

The authors used t-test, and logistic regressions on a sample of 254 Lebanese investors to differentiate between cryptocurrency investors, and non-investors. Linear regressions of a subsample of cryptocurrency investors determined the factors that explained increasing cash investment in cryptocurrencies. Data were collected from investors in Lebanon, which could limit the generalization of the research results across the MENA region.

Investors differed from non-investors in that they were male, owned investments in the stock, bond and commodity markets, had prior investment experience in cryptocurrencies, were risk-takers and had expectations of high returns. Investors increased the dollar investment in cryptocurrencies, if they were male, as they invested more funds in securities, had previously invested in cryptocurrencies and had stronger risk-taking propensity. Expectations of high returns drove investors to cryptocurrencies, but such expectations do not stimulate further cryptocurrency investment.

This study is an initial attempt to comprehend the reactions of investors in the MENA region to a currency crisis that triggered investment in cryptocurrencies following the collapse of fiat currencies, central bank default and restrictions on bank withdrawals.