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Company disclosures on the web are a useful tool to promote the efficiency of financial markets. Moreover, they can be a source of strategic financial communication. The objective of the study reported in this paper is to make an inventory of the information published on the web sites of companies listed in the Moroccan and Tunisian stock exchanges, and to compare the practices of those companies with those of their European counterparts. The study also seeks to identify the determinants of these disclosures.

The study develops a composite scale to measure the quality of web site disclosures. This scale is used to score the web sites of the top 91 companies listed on the Casablanca and Tunis stock exchanges in 2007. The quality of those web sites is compared with the quality of some web sites of European companies. A number of hypotheses relating to the determinants of web site quality are then tested using linear modeling techniques.

Two thirds of the firms listed in the Casablanca and Tunis stock exchanges have a web site (www.casablanca‐bourse.com). An average of 39.7 percent of Moroccan web sites and 19.4 percent of those from Tunisia meet the benchmark quality criteria used by this study, compared with between 48 percent and 61 percent for European firms. The average extended score is 32.80 percent; Moroccan firms score 38.34 percent on average, while Tunisian firms score 28.12 percent. The determinants of this information level are found to be accounting performance and the proportion of shares held by foreigners. Web site quality is also linked to firm size. Apart from those characteristics, no effect of the economic sector, the country or market performance could be detected.

The study presents an international comparison (north/south) and builds a novel scale in order to explain web disclosures. This is an area that has not previously been explored, and includes some financial markets that are under‐researched.

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the main determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the case of the Arab Maghreb countries.

We employ a dynamic panel analysis using the General Method of Moments for a sample composed of 105 countries over the period 1985–2018.

We show that FDI stability, market size, higher education enrolment, quality of institutions, distance, sharing of common border, and bilateral investment and integration agreements are the main determinants of FDI location. These determinants are neither general. The potential for attracting FDI from AMU countries is poorly exploited. FDI to the AMU is lower than estimated stock. The observed FDI to potential FDI ratio does not exceed 87%. France and Spain are the main investors in the AMU region thanks to historical and cultural links. The FDI from the United States, Canada, Germany, Belgium, and Japan are below what is expected.

The contribution of this paper is observed on the examining oh the determinants of the FDI in the Arab Maghreb countries. Our study demonstrate that the political stability can decrease investment risk in these countries. The administrations correspondingly require expanding their rules and strategies with union demonstrations which were at the beginning of the departure and closing of several foreign companies.

The purpose of this paper is to study how proximity affects the trade-migration link. By focusing on two case studies, France and Egypt, the authors explore if migrants promote and help to deal with market heterogeneity in international markets. Using an ethnic network approach the authors also test for interactions between the characteristics of migrants and proximity issues.

The paper builds on two case studies to illustrate the main working hypotheses. The main framework is that of ethnic networks, proximity ties, and market heterogeneity. Static and dynamic panel data methods are employed when estimating extended gravity trade equations. The authors account for country-pair fixed effects and instrument by lagged stocks of migrants, in order to deal with bilateral commonalities and endogeneity issues in the estimation procedure.

The paper provides evidence on how proximity enhances trade. Additional trade effects are found for countries sharing closer ties. Networks of migrants appear to help firms to deal with fixed trade costs, also generating some market heterogeneity that at the end influences the trade-migration linkage. Characteristics of migrants also seem to matter, interacting with proximity issues, and resulting in specific trade effects.

Proximity issues seem to matter in the trade creation effects of networks of migrants. In this way integration processes between countries would be showing some positive externalities in the side of trade flows. Characteristics of emigrants should be taken into account when defining migratory policies, mainly for the education and assimilation issues.

The paper get deeper insights in some emerging issues in the trade-migration literature by focusing in two relevant case studies.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how context influences the quality of business relationships. This theoretical question is studied from the point of view of trust, one of the important components of business relationship quality. The authors study how trust is related to the dynamics and management of the business relationship in the context of an emerging market.

This paper is based on qualitative interviews with 15 spare-parts resellers in the Tunisian automotive industry. The authors take a monadic view, interviewing resellers about their relationships with their wholesalers-importers. The decision to undertake the research in Tunisia is based on three factors. First, Tunisia is an emerging country and there is very little published research based in the Maghreb countries. Second, the Tunisian automotive parts market structure is relatively simple and, hence, easily understood, with most spare-parts being imported because of the low level of local production. Third, the actors in the study are all Tunisian companies, so research allows us to explore relationships between local companies in an emerging country.

The authors find that different kinds of trust play different roles over the dynamics of the relationship. Perceived trust is more important at the emergent stage of a relationship, and as the two parties learn from each other, experienced trust becomes more important in the established relationships. The initial perceived trust creates the possibility of building trust, and when mutual trust exists between the parties, it motivates them to maintain the relationship, but there is always the threat of the degradation of the quality of the relationship because of the violation or destruction of the trust.

This paper shows that more care should be taken when using trust as the variable under scrutiny. Different aspects of trust manifest themselves at various stages of the relationship building cycle.

The results emphasize that when initiating a business relationship, managers first need to create perceived trust. Thereafter, once trust is built up, it is the trust that may “manage” or act to control the on-going relationship as long as the partners’ behavior or network changes do not violate the trust.

The results of this paper show that there is a mutual but not necessarily symmetrical or balanced influence of trust on the behavior of the partners involved. The influence of the different parties is dependent on the power architecture, the history of the relationship and the network position of the actors.

The purpose of this article is to address certain gaps and contribute to enriching the literature on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Africa; describe the phenomenon taking into account the particularity of the country; address recommendations to public policies and investors and make this article a ground-breaking article on research into the phenomenon of the M&A market in North Africa.

With description and an exploratory intention, the authors develop phenomenon driven research. As appropriate phenomenon driven research, the authors focus on characteristics of Moroccan M&A market. The authors use scientific investigation to provide descriptions and explanations of the phenomena in order to add a new perspective to the M&A literature in North African region. The authors work on the particularity of companies in Morocco, typology of M&A, geographic areas, socio-economic indicators, trade agreements, politics and culture.

Understand that the phenomenon of domestic M&A is a phenomenon of big cities and knows the participation of small and medium enterprises. The political variable, the trade agreements and the socio-economic weight of the countries influence the cross-border M&A in to out. Sharing a border and common culture has no impact on cross-border M&A but the history of colonization has an impact.

The scientific contribution is first an extension of the neoclassical theory on the initiation of M&A operations. Throughout these 29 years of history, the existence of external shocks such as regulations has influenced the activity of M&A operations. Privatization, partial opening of sectors to foreign investment tax incentives have contributed to the realization of M&A operations.

This paper also has an economic and practical contribution, as it informs about the absence of M&A operation in the agriculture and agri-food sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. This region recognizes a food shortage that will increase by 70–100% between 2010 and 2050 with a strong population growth. The authors also note that regulations, royal directives, influence the activity and geographic choices of M&A. The political variable remains decisive for the cross-border M&A activity between Morocco and Algeria, but encourages acquisitions in countries in West and Central Africa.

M&A research in Africa is poor and suffers from several shortcomings; these barriers push researchers to produce fewer papers on this phenomenon. Through data collection, description and explanation, the authors tried to produce a paper focusing on the M&A phenomenon in a country in North Africa. To the authors’ knowledge, no article has dealt with this phenomenon in this country which is known for its strong M&A activity.

The purpose of this study is to show how foreign direct investment (FDI) affects domestic investment and economic growth. This study empirically examines this question in the case of three developing countries (Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco).

Using the GMM estimator technique, the authors constructed a system with simultaneous equations by three endogenous variables: economic growth (GDP), FDI and domestic investment (DI).

The study was a nuance, its results, at the role of investment–growth relationship, are of paramount importance though subtle and slightly different.

The authors used data from international institutions such as the IMF, UNCTAD, OECD and the World Bank for macroeconomic aggregates. However, the interest rate variables are derived from the central banks of the three countries in the sample. The analysis covers the period from 1980 to 2014.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and compare bank efficiency between the two Maghreb countries, Tunisia and Morocco, over the period 2005–2014.

The authors follow the stochastic frontier analysis, where the preferred cost model is determined via various hypothesis tests based on the maximum likelihood estimation. Then, the first and the second derivates of the cost function are employed to determine scale elasticities, scale inefficiencies and technological progress.

Specification tests indicate that the Fourier Flexible form provides better fit to the data set. Further, the estimated model shows that Tunisian and Moroccan banks’ efficiency is positively affected by banking service quality, but negatively influenced by both bank capitalization and GDP growth. Overall, Moroccan banks are found to be the most efficient despite the decrease of efficiency levels in both countries. Additionally, foreign banks have a higher scale inefficiency and, therefore, a lower cost efficiency. Equally, the technical progress raises banking costs in both countries, providing a decrease in efficiency scores.

The findings of this study provide novel insights to Tunisian and Moroccan policy makers on the relevance of the smaller banks’ consolidation to improve bank efficiency by achieving unrealized economies of scale. Also, more reforms should be implemented in Tunisia to reduce non-performing loans.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first which offers a comparison between Tunisian and Moroccan banks to clarify the sources of inefficiency and to make strategic decisions.

This paper is an appraisal of existing literature on IFRS in Africa. In a bid to determine what exists and what is missing in the literature, the authors have reviewed three streams of studies, namely, adoption, compliance/harmonisation and consequences of IFRS in Africa, with the aim to suggest what remains to be investigated on IFRS in Africa.

This paper uses a systematic review approach including synthesis of a variety of archival materials. Articles on Africa were summarised under three main headings: adoption, compliance/harmonisation and consequences of IFRS.

This review finds limited research on IFRS in Africa. It reveals that although past cross-continent studies claimed to cover Africa, they are limited to only a few countries and mainly predominated by South Africa. The authors identified only one study that investigated the impact of economic and cultural factors on IFRS adoption in Africa and few cross-continent studies but considering only very few African countries. Regarding compliance, four studies concluded that compliance with IFRS is dependent on a firm’s characteristics. The authors also identified that some of the generalised findings from prior research on consequences of IFRS are of limited significance in the African context.

This study suggests the determinants of adoption, compliance and consequences of IFRS in Africa are different if studied separately. It identifies some gaps in the literature that require further research, specifically, IFRS on taxation, fair valuation practices and the institutional capacities of countries to implement the standards.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how Internet of Things can contribute to the achievement of a sustainable development based on people, profit and planet. Based on the triple bottom line theoretical framework, this work explores the relation between technology and the creation of value in management operative and support processes carried out by a firm with a direct impact in society and the environment. By doing so, new insights on strategic management to create value and consolidate sustainable business models are provided.

The present study analyzes firms within the context of the European Union, considering the involvement of the region in achieving sustainable development, in particular, the usage of technology and specifically Internet of Things to create value and contribute to company’s position as leaders in the industry’s change toward sustainable development. To achieve this goal, the Spanish market was analyzed, specifically companies who were publicly listed in the IBEX35, which is the benchmark stock market index of Spain’s main stock exchange (Bolsa de Madrid). In addition, firms were also considered regarding the strong impact within their industries not only nationally, but also worldwide.

Findings show that companies incorporating Internet of Things can enhance their role as leaders in change toward sustainable development. Similarly, the usage of these technologies positively impacts the pollution reduction and limiting usage of non-renewable resources, as well as positively impacting people’s lives. Furthermore, technology has a positive effect on the creation of value, considering management, operative and support processes. By considering people and planet, companies can have a profitable business model that is also sustainable in the long-run, creating a win-win situation within the triple bottom line.

This study shows the links between Internet of Things and sustainable development within the framework of the triple bottom line. It portrays the relevance of technology in value creation to achieve business models that can cater to profit, people and planet objectives. Consequently, practitioners can incorporate Internet of Things elements to create value and contribute to their corporate social responsibility objectives, establishing synergies between managerial and socio-environmental aspects. Moreover, researchers studying business strategy can incorporate these variables to further enlarge the results herein derived. Finally, this work reinforces the usage of triple bottom line theory to analyze a firm’s sustainable development and its business models.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the rationale and synergies of a Japanese firm's acquisition of India's leading pharmaceutical firm, Ranbaxy, and to answer the following pertinent questions: could Ranbaxy have been able to survive and succeed, had the firm not gone for this strategic sale to a foreign firm? What is the rationale for this strategic sale immediately after undertaking many major acquisitions during the previous two‐year period? For what strategic reasons did a Japanese firm pay a premium price for this international acquisition?

An exploratory method was used in this study to analyze the rationale and synergies of the acquisition. The method of case writing has been followed as a design (case situation first, then goes back to the past, then comes back to the current situation).

The findings confirm that Ranbaxy got a premium price for agreeing to be acquired for their share (much higher price than the market price). Japanese firm Dai‐Ichi got greater market access and control of Ranbaxy, which were driving factors for them to pay a higher share price for Ranbaxy.

This original study gives insight into the points to be taken into consideration while thinking about international acquisitions.