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1 – 10 of 94Mostafa Adel Elsebaei, Omar Elnawawy, Ayman Ahmed Ezzat Othman and Mohammed Badawy
The construction industry is considered one of the most dangerous industries especially in developing countries such as Egypt. Although safety in Egypt is regulated by mainly four…
Abstract
Purpose
The construction industry is considered one of the most dangerous industries especially in developing countries such as Egypt. Although safety in Egypt is regulated by mainly four pivotal legislations, namely, Law No. 12 (2003) and Ministerial Decrees No. 211, 126 and 134, construction accident records in Egypt are high. Accordingly, this paper aims to develop a framework to activate the health and safety regulations in the Egyptian construction industry.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve this aim, a research methodology consisting of a literature review and a survey questionnaire was developed to accomplish three objectives. First, a literature review was used to identify the causes of site accidents and strategies adopted in different countries to improve and enforce safety, safety roles of stakeholders. Second, a survey questionnaire was conducted with a representative sample of large- and medium-sized construction firms in Egypt to examine their perception of the causes of site accidents. Finally, a framework was developed to activate the health and safety regulations in the Egyptian construction industry.
Findings
The research identified 16 causes of construction site accidents. These causes were classified into three categories based on the party responsible for the occurrence of site accidents, namely, workers, organization management and government. Results of data analysis showed that “lack of housekeeping” and “lack of governmental inspection for safety” were ranked the highest causes of site accidents in the Egyptian construction industry, whereas “inefficiency of old safety equipment or no safety equipment at all” and “reluctance to input resources for safety” were ranked the least causes.
Originality/value
This research provides valuable information about the nature of the construction industry with a particular focus on site accidents, causes and impacts of construction site accidents. The study highlighted the safety roles of the Egyptian Governmental bodies in Egypt to improve and enforce safety. The research tackled a topic that received scant attention in construction literature especially in the Egypt context. The framework presented in this paper represents a synthesis that is important and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not previously occurred in the Egyptian construction industry.
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Majed M. El‐Farra and Mohammed B. Badawi
This paper aims to identify employee attitudes toward organizational change in the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility in the Gaza Strip and factors affecting these attitudes.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify employee attitudes toward organizational change in the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility in the Gaza Strip and factors affecting these attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used descriptive and analytical methods to investigate the phenomena. The study population includes all the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility employees. The population number was 128. A semi‐comprehensive survey was used. A close‐ended questionnaire was considered as a main tool for data gathering from the field.
Findings
The study concluded that employee attitudes toward organizational change were positive but weak, which could elicit some supportive behaviors. Employees hold ambivalent cognitions; they believe that change benefits all employees and would increase work efficiency, but they do not see themselves or their departments as contributors to this improvement. In addition, they hold moderate positive emotions of happiness, excitement, relief, and hope. Moreover, employees hold moderate intentions to support the change passively by complying with, and showing acceptance of change. Multiple regression analysis indicated moderate prediction of attitude toward organizational change by four predictors: organizational support, self‐efficacy, quality of information, and threat appraisal. The model explained 52.0 percent of variance in employee attitudes toward organizational change.
Practical implications
The paper provides a managerial framework for applying change to organizations successfully and generating a positive employee attitudes and behavior toward change.
Originality/value
This research is the first to be conducted in Palestine and to consider a practical and empirical approach to evaluate management of change in one of the most important service provider institutes in the Gaza Strip.
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Mohammed Bajaher, Murya Habbash and Adel Alborr
This paper aims to examine whether board governance mechanisms and ownership structure play a role in foreign investors’ decisions when buying shares in Saudi listed companies
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine whether board governance mechanisms and ownership structure play a role in foreign investors’ decisions when buying shares in Saudi listed companies
Design/methodology/approach
Foreign investment in the Saudi capital market started in 2015 and reached a peak in 2019, with corporate governance regulations having been updated in 2017. The authors tested the proposed relationships using hand collected data for all Saudi non-financial firms in 2019.
Findings
This study found that it does not play a role in attracting foreign investment in the Saudi capital market. Foreign investors also seem to avoid firms with concentrated ownership that either have high government or director ownership; however, accounting and market variables show significant impact on foreign investors' decisions. The outcomes of this study provide empirical evidence that current foreign investors in the Saudi stock market do not place enough merit on board governance and their investment decisions tend to depend on share performance. Thus, the results show that the current governance changes and capital market regulations in Saudi Arabia may not have been sufficient to stimulate the inflow of institutional foreign investment to the country to date, but rather they have attracted individual retail foreign investors.
Originality/value
This empirical study is one of only a small number of studies to investigate the impact of internal corporate governance on foreign ownership in developing countries and the first in the Saudi context. In fact, most previous governance research in Saudi Arabia focused on how board governance and ownership structure influences firm performance. A review of the prior studies found that only Badawi et al. (2019) examined the determinants of foreign ownership among Saudi listed firms. Thus, the present investigation extends that study by examining the role of board governance in attracting foreign investors.
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Amina Buallay, Allam Mohammed Hamdan, Sameh Reyad, Sherine Badawi and Araby Madbouly
This study aims to examine the impact of intellectual capital (IC) efficiency on bank’s operational, financial and market performance.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of intellectual capital (IC) efficiency on bank’s operational, financial and market performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study examined 59 banks for 5 years to ends up with 295 observations. The independent variable is the modified value added IC component; the dependent variables are performance indicators (return on assets [ROA], return on equity [ROE] and Tobin’s Q [TQ]).
Findings
The findings deduced from the empirical results demonstrate that there is a positive relationship between intellectual capital efficiency and financial performance (ROE) and market performance (TQ).
Originality/value
The results of this study may give a wake-up call for banks to examine the reasons of imperfect relationship between the IC and asset efficiency (ROA).
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The purpose of this study is to examine the critical success factors (CSFs) for the receptiveness of Islamic home financing in Malaysia.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the critical success factors (CSFs) for the receptiveness of Islamic home financing in Malaysia.
Design/methodology/approach
A framework of the CSFs for the receptiveness of Islamic home financing is developed. The framework evaluates the effects of product type, competitive value proposition, Islamic debt collection policy, Islamic bankers' knowledge and maqasid al-Shariah compliance on the receptiveness. Data from 744 usable questionnaires are analysed to confirm the applicability of the framework in Islamic home financing context.
Findings
The results suggest that product type, competitive value proposition, Islamic debt collection policy, Islamic bankers' knowledge and maqasid al-Shariah compliance are significantly related to the receptiveness of Islamic home financing.
Research limitations/implications
Two limitations are available for future studies. Firstly, the respondents of this study are limited to Malaysians, signifying further testing of the proposed model across different geographies is required to determine the generalisability of the model. Secondly, the contributions of the proposed framework are confined to a specific area of Islamic banking products. Thus, extending the framework to other banking products or conducting a comparative study between Islamic home financing and its conventional peer can improve its generalisability.
Practical implications
The results obtained offer a fresh direction on how to market Islamic home financing products successfully, where the new CSFs are brought into play.
Originality/value
This study examines the new proposed CSFs for the receptiveness of Islamic home financing in Malaysia.
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A. Bahrawy, Mohamed El-Rabiei, Hesham Elfiky, Nady Elsayed, Mohammed Arafa and Mosaad Negem
The commercial stainless steels have been used extensively in the biomedicine application and their electrochemical behaviour in the simulated body fluid (SBF) are not uncovered…
Abstract
Purpose
The commercial stainless steels have been used extensively in the biomedicine application and their electrochemical behaviour in the simulated body fluid (SBF) are not uncovered obviously. In this research, the corrosion resistance of the commercial stainless steel of Fe–17Cr–xNi alloys (x = 4, 8, 10 and 14) has been studied. This study aims to evaluate the rate of corrosion and corrosion resistance of some Fe–Cr–Ni alloys in SBF at 37°C.
Design/methodology/approach
In this research, the corrosion resistance of the commercial stainless steel of Fe–17Cr–xNi alloys has been studied using open circuit potential, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization in the SBF at 37°C and pH 7.4 for a week. Also, the surface morphology of the four alloys was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, elemental composition was obtained via energy dispersive spectroscopy and the crystal lattice structure of Fe–17Cr–xNi alloys was obtained using X-ray diffraction technique. The chemical structure of the protective oxide film has been examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and metals ions released into the solution have been detected after different immersion time using atomic absorption spectroscopy.
Findings
The results revealed that the increase of the Ni content leads to the formation of the stable protective film on the alloys such as the Fe–17Cr–10Ni and Fe–17Cr–14Ni alloys which possess solid solution properties. The Fe–17Cr–14Ni alloy displayed highest resistance of corrosion, notable resistance for localized corrosion and the low corrosion rate in SBF because of the formation of a homogenously protective oxide film on the surface. The XPS analysis showed that the elemental Fe, Cr and Ni react with the electrolyte medium and the passive film is mainly composed of Cr2O3 with some amounts of Fe(II) hydroxide at pH 7.4.
Originality/value
This work includes important investigation to use commercial stainless steel alloys for biomedical application.
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Muhammad Adnan Khurshid, Abdulrahman Al-Aali, Ahmed Ali Soliman and Salmiah Mohamad Amin
– The purpose of this study is to develop an Islamic corporate social responsibility (ICSR) model.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop an Islamic corporate social responsibility (ICSR) model.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on Qur’anic verses and previous literature, the authors aim to develop an ICSR model with an extension of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory of Carroll (1979).
Findings
This study extends the theory of Carroll (1979) using an operational definition of CSR that encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic dimensions of CSR from an Islamic perspective. This ICSR model is applicable to both Islamic and non-Islamic business systems because both Islamic and Western CSR have common humanitarian grounds.
Research limitations
The conceptual research is not tested in this article. Further, not all Islamic principles are integrated in this model.
Originality/value
Many Western theoreticians have attempted to offer theoretical, moral and ethical grounds for CSR initiatives. However, these attempts have been broadly criticized for problems relating to justification, conceptual clarity and possible inconsistency and for failing to provide adequate ethical guidance to business executives who must determine which course to pursue and their level of commitment. Therefore, there is a need to develop the concept of CSR, which has gained popularity and wide acceptance among the Western and Islamic business communities, especially from an Islamic perspective.
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Francesco Calza, Nadir Aliane and Chiara Cannavale
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the positive effects of cultural bridges on European firms’ internationalization to SMCs and MECs. We analyse the meaning and the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the positive effects of cultural bridges on European firms’ internationalization to SMCs and MECs. We analyse the meaning and the role of managers’ cultural competence in order to understand if and how it contributes to the formation of effective cultural bridges.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the few contributions existing on the topic, and the lack of a general theory, a multiple case‐study analysis seems appropriate to the topic. In particular, we present five case studies of European large firms, which have successfully internationalized in SMCs and MECs. In each firm, we interviewed local and foreign managers, in order to understand the importance of cultural issues and the ways companies overcame cultural distance.
Findings
Cultural distance is a big problem for European firms investing in SMCs and MECs. They impact both intra‐ and inter‐organizational relationships and cultural bridges can be useful to overcome the effects of its perception. Cultural bridges are effective if based on managers’ cultural competencies, and can be represented by a specific manager, or by an organizational unit. In any case, the involvement of local people and the adaptation to local customs are crucial.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis is still limited, and, in the future, we’ll look for a methodology able to isolate cultural knowledge and cultural competence as key factors in order to evaluate the importance of each factor.
Practical implications
When entering Islamic countries, foreign investors should be aware of local values, particularly religious and family value, which deeply impact on business and social relationships. Based on a deep cultural knowledge, cultural bridges enable fruitful relationships both inside and outside the organization.
Originality/value
Whereas cultural competence is often mentioned in the literature, only a few contributions focus on cultural competence as a key aspect of internationalization. In addition we explore the concept and the relevance of cultural bridges, and the multiple case‐study analysis show some best practices firms could follow to succeed in SMCs and MECs.
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Mohammed Sani Abdullahi, Kavitha Raman and Sakiru Adebola Solarin
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of succession planning practice (SPP) on employee engagement (EE) and employee performance (EP) in Malaysian private…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of succession planning practice (SPP) on employee engagement (EE) and employee performance (EP) in Malaysian private universities (MPU).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper used a survey research design, and the study unit of the analysis consists of the academic staff of MPU. In the selection of the sample from the focused respondents (10,473) of the study, a stratified and simple random sampling method was used, and the study sample consists of 314 MPU academic staff. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the focused respondents while partial least square–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the study hypotheses.
Findings
The findings revealed that SPP has a significant effect on EP, and the relationship between SPP and EP is partially mediated by EE.
Practical implications
Sound succession systems for achieving academic staff performance should be put in place by the university management. Furthermore, the outcome of this research urges the policymaker to come up with a sound policy that can allow internal talents of the university to hold key leadership positions of any nature when the need arises before considering external talents, with that the talents will be satisfied and put decisive effort to achieve a positive result.
Originality/value
This paper has made a significant contribution to the knowledge and operationalization of the EE, EP and SPP literature. The research also assists the university management to mobilize qualified and talented staff for an unexpected and sudden resignation of staff which saves the university the cost of hiring and development, and at the same time, it encourages internal hiring.
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