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In an attempt to attain a better understanding of the research work on building information modeling (BIM) adoption, this study aims to examine the criticality of BIM adoption barriers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) developing countries from the lens of the sociotechnical theory. Further, the study investigates the differences in the perceptions of various constructions players (owners, contractors and designers) to BIM barriers, as well as possible discrepancies in the perception of BIM users and non-BIM users to the significance of the perceived constraints.

To reach this aim, the study starts with a systematic evaluation and a critical review of the literature on BIM barriers. A set of 22 BIM adoption limitations was drawn from the literature which was used to design the survey. To capture a broad perception, a mixed approach was used, and data were collected through an interview study and a survey involving Architecture, Engineering and Construction professionals in the MENA construction sector. The collected data were analyzed using the mean score, standard deviation and nonparametric tests. The further principal component analysis (PCA) grouped the barriers to uncover the latent factors of BIM barriers.

The actors ranked the barriers as follows: lack of knowledge and BIM awareness, commercial issues and investment cost, lack of skills and BIM specialist, interoperability and lack of client demand. The examination of the PCA resulted in four underlying BIM limitation factors namely: human, technological, structural and financial. The analysis of the ranking indicated that 16 of the 22 barriers are considered critical in the MENA area. The results of the Mann–Whitney test indicated that there is a statistically significant difference in perceptions of BIM users and nonuser for seven barriers, pointing out that users care most about the financial barriers; however, nonusers are mostly concerned with structural and technological barriers. However, the results of the Kruskal–Wallis test indicated that there is no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the three categories of stakeholders in ranking all BIM barriers.

The outcomes will back policymakers and construction participants with the knowledge to develop policy propositions that can positively affect BIM adoption in the construction industry. The significance of this study lies in being one of the very first explorative investigations that comparatively and empirically explored BIM adoption barriers across the whole MENA developing countries.

While several research studies have examined BIM adoption barriers in various countries, none to the best of the authors' knowledge have attempted to study the whole MENA region as one entity, and none highlighted the impact of user's roles on their perception of adoption barriers within their community. The results contribute to the discussion of the relationship among practitioners' level of involvement in BIM projects and their perception of adoption barriers which is underrepresented in extant studies. The above can assist with prioritizing the barriers that are considered to be more significant given the characteristics of the community under study. The result revealed the value of the structural and human attributes in prioritizing BIM adoption barriers within the MENA construction industry.

This paper researches the diffusion patterns of various BIM functionalities across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) construction industry.

The study grounds on the innovation diffusion theory proposition that both the internal and external factors drive the widespread adoption of innovative trends. The study empirically analyzes the diffusion patterns of BIM by employing and comparing three mathematical influence models: internal, external and mixed models.

The results of the questionnaires point out that the mixed model as having the highest explanatory power and shows that the internal influence factors outperform the external factors in affecting the diffusion of BIM functionalities in the MENA Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry.

This paper can be of significant value for academic researchers as well as BIM business developers who are interested in emerging markets via providing an enhanced understanding of the adoption process of different BIM functionalities as well as a theoretical basis for explaining the diffusion patterns of information technology innovations in the AEC industry.

This study is among the first applications of the influence models to examine the adoption of BIM functionalities in the AEC industry and the very first across the MENA region.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate lean tools correlation, interactions and implementation in manufacturing industry at multinational corporation and its impact on operational performance.

This paper used a survey questionnaire based on previous work done in the US industry. The questionnaire was distributed to 340 firms in 11 countries in the MENA region. These firms are multinational companies operating in this region post-2001, i.e. Greenfield manufacturing facilities. Total usable responses were 139 from 340 contacted by emails and phone, whereas 15 were face-to-face. The survey included 139 companies of which 66 companies were from North America, 40 from Europe and the rest were from South-East Asia (mainly Japan and South Korea).

Multinational manufacturing companies in MENA region are at an advanced level of lean implementation. Results present a detailed analysis of the top 16 lean practices and their impact on 15 operational performance metrics. In addition, the results also reveal a correlation and grouping/bundling of the 16 lean tools and their direct influence on the top 8 operational metrics.

Because the sample size only includes multinational companies operating in MENA region, the countries’ social, economic and political issues will directly influence them. For example, some of the countries have no or very weak unions, whereas other countries give the power to the organizations to force restrictions and guidelines that cannot be followed by other organizations. Therefore, the results need to be considered with caution.

Research about lean implementation in MENA region is rare, although few companies implemented lean since day one of their establishment. This research paper provides operations managers and practitioners with a guide that links lean tools implementation to operational performance metrics objectives with more depth and breadth in comparison with previous empirical studies on the topic.

A new case study of accelerated internationalization (AI) shows that in only two years, Saudi telecom (STC) entered markets across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Managerial analysis identifies reasons for success while questioning strategic choices and their implications. Theory-driven analysis reviews STC's experience in light of selected theories and frameworks. This case is also intended for teaching purposes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Responding to Welch et al.'s call, the authors use “interpretive sense-making” and “contextualized explanation” and highlight environmental context in the case study development. The authors review case-based research, explain data collection problems, present managerial and theoretical analyses of the case, discuss the findings relative to the literature, and suggest directions for research.

Case analysis reveals STC's focus on global portfolio development as a driver of AI. Theoretical analysis confirms the psychic distance construct and its paradox, as well as the notion of epochs of internationalization while warning that the path and stages models of internationalization are at odds with AI. The authors call for a contingency view of the resource-based view as a function of context.

Limitations arise from the use of secondary data for case development because direct access to this Saudi company was not feasible.

AI is popular among wealthy Gulf telecoms ambitious for growth. Regional competition in the Gulf is characterized by copycat and follow-the-leader strategies which preclude elaboration of unique, inimitable or non-substitutable assets, resources or capabilities.

This innovative approach to case development provides a rich database for probing analyses of managerial and theoretical implications of AI in a Gulf-based company.

This study aims to investigate the effect of income and asset diversification on earnings management using discretionary loan loss provisions (LLP) in banks, and the role of risk level in mediating this effect.

A sample of banks operating in Middle East and North Africa countries was used to test the mediation model of Baron and Kenny (1986) with different measures of diversification and risk.

The results show that bank income and asset diversification have unique and combined effects on earnings management. The results also support the idea that a risk-mediating effect contributes to explaining this relationship among banks. Specifically, bank diversification strategies positively affect LLP-based earnings management by increasing bank risk. This result is relevant for conventional banks. However, only a direct and positive effect of diversification strategies on LLP-based earnings management can be observed in Islamic banks, and the indirect effect is not supported.

This study extends previous research by examining the unique and combined effects of income and asset diversification strategies on earnings management in the banking sector. Specifically, it provides new evidence that diversification strategies increase LLP-based earnings management, both directly and indirectly, through bank risk.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the job satisfaction levels between International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001-certified and non-ISO 9001-certified project-based companies in Jordan, for project managers (PMs) and project team members (consultants, engineers and architects).

The study sample consists of individuals from the aforementioned four roles of ISO 9001-certified and non-ISO 9001-certified companies. A questionnaire survey was used to collect the data from 57 companies. In total, 72 valid questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of 92.98 percent. The data obtained were statistically analyzed, and then the independent t-test was used to test the study hypotheses.

The results revealed that ISO 9001-certified companies experience higher job satisfaction level for the four roles compared to non-ISO 9001-certified companies. Between the two samples, it was noted that there is a significant difference in the PMs’, consultants’ and engineers’ satisfaction with co-workers and without any remarkable difference in the specific satisfaction. No significant difference between the two samples in general satisfaction was found for PMs and engineers. Finally, no significant difference was found in three satisfaction elements for architects.

Understanding the linkage between being ISO 9001-certified company and project members’ job satisfaction can provide a new strategic direction for project-based companies’ performance management that can help in achieving superior work outcomes. A small sample size is considered the main limitation of this study.

This study attempts to fill the knowledge gap that is rarely investigated in the literature, i.e. the link between being ISO 9001-certified company and the level of project members’ job satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the driving forces (economics and socio-demographic) that influence family Takaful demand in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, using a sample of 15 countries from the MENA.

The authors use multivariate analysis, bootstrapping and generalised method of moments techniques. They first examine a full model that combines all variables; second, a model that controls for product market factors; and finally, a model that controls for socio-demographic factors. They further separate all models into linear and log-linear demand functions.

The authors demonstrate that the relationship between the demand for family Takaful in MENA and Islamic banking deposits, education, dependency rate, female life expectancy and Muslim population is significantly positive. On the other hand, the significant factors that are inversely related to the demand for family Takaful in MENA are inflation, financial development and male life expectancy.

The crucial limitation of this study is the amount of data available in regards to the dependent variable, family Takaful contributions. Consequently, to improve the understanding in explaining the family Takaful demand in MENA, further research can take advantage of expanding the variables that were omitted in this research as a consequence of the unavailability of data. Some of the possible influential variables can include government social security expenditure, legal system and government policies, price of Takaful and level of competition within the Takaful and insurance industry.

It is obvious that there are very few studies that focus on the MENA market, and indeed, none of them gives attention to the factors that influence demand for family Takaful. While this study is expected to provide more understanding and awareness on the concept of Takaful and the factors that influence its demand, the authors hope that it would encourage more studies on various issues on the Takaful industry so as to help researchers to understand more aspects of this new emerging business.

This paper empirically examines the impact of terrorism on the insurance–growth relationship in the context of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, thereby attempting to address the unexplored area in the relevant literature.

The study considered MENA as it has been one of the terribly affected zones in the world during the study period. Panel data for the period (2002–2017) are sourced from reliable sources for 14 member economies of the MENA region.

After employing the suitable econometric procedures on the panel data, the results indicate that terrorism appears to have detrimental impact on the observed positive relationship between insurance and economic growth. In addition, trade openness seems to be the main driving force behind economic growth of the selected MENA countries. Surprisingly, the study suggests a negative association between the growth of physical capital and economic growth. Human capital has played a positive but insignificant role in improving economic growth as it is insignificant in majority of the specifications. The growth of labor force has although positively but insignificantly influenced economic growth. Finally, the results demonstrate that government expenditures and high inflation are harmful for growth.

The study investigated the impact of terrorism on the insurance–growth relationship for the first time, and hence policymakers of the MENA region are expected to be benefited enormously from the findings of the study.

This paper aims to offer a wider examination of the research concerning entrepreneurship characteristics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region via a review of recent studies relevant to this topic. Research publications concerning entrepreneurship within the MENA region evidence growing interest in this field of study, with the potential to boost and drive future economic development and growth. This focus within entrepreneurship research is because of the economic development in the region, which is becoming increasingly important for policymakers and businesses.

The author performed a systematic literature review to produce robust information about entrepreneurship in the MENA region, followed by a thematic analysis to identify key research themes within each category.

Despite the growth in entrepreneurship research in the MENA region, research on certain factors is lacking. An analysis of 271 studies published between 2009 and 2019 identifies 9 main research categories, within which 30 themes have attracted significant academic attention. Female entrepreneurship and gender, youth entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship behaviour and orientation are the three key categories influencing perspectives on entrepreneurship in the MENA region. This study highlights research gaps and provides recommendations to guide future research on the sustainable development of entrepreneurship in the MENA region.

This paper highlights trends in entrepreneurship research amongst scholars within the MENA region and suggests paths for future research efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the total factor productivity (TFP)[1] change and to investigate its determinants in the case of MENA Islamic banks.

In the first stage, bootstrapped Malmquist index approach is used to provide a robust analysis of the changes in the productivity of 33 Islamic banks operating in 10 MENA countries during the period 2006-2011. In the second stage, panel data models are used to investigate the determinants of TFP change.

The results of the first stage show that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banks have known a productivity decline between 2006 and 2011 due to technical regress and scale inefficiency. In contrast, non-GCC banks have improved their productivity by benefiting from scale economies. The results of the second stage show that the productivity growth of MENA Islamic banks was mainly determined by bank-specific factors and that TFP indices decreased in the period of global financial crisis.

This paper provides relevant recommendations for improving the productivity of Islamic banks operating in the MENA countries.

This paper attempts to fill a demanding gap in the literature by examining productivity change and investigating its determinants using cross-country data of MENA Islamic banks. In addition, it is one of the few studies that have applied the bootstrapped Malmquist index approach in the case of Islamic banking.