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This study aims to analyze the nature of challenges facing five low-tech Palestinian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clusters and to understand their dynamics. The study proposes a number of key policies necessary to foster start-ups and the growth of the current clusters.

Five low-tech Palestinian clusters were selected for investigation. Using multiple sources of evidence, the research questions are answered using a case study approach. Twelve semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with representatives from the government, private sector and universities. Content analysis was used to analyze the data obtained from the interviews.

These five low-tech clusters in Palestine are located in a complex environment that imposes a mix of challenges which adversely affect their performance. The challenges facing Palestinian clusters are different in terms of their degree of complexity. The common challenges facing the Palestinian low-tech SME clusters are the fundamental lack of innovative stimulation policies or of incentives in the Palestinian ecosystem, lack of trust, unfair competition, limited access to finance, lack of access to promising markets and the limited collaboration between different parties. More focused policies are suggested to the Palestinian authorities.

Clusters represent a new and complementary way of understanding an economy, organizing economic development, enhancing competitiveness and innovation through sectoral specialization and cooperation and implementing public policies. In the overwhelming majority of Palestinian entities categorized as SMEs, clustering adds value to the firms from the point of view of productivity and by battling unemployment, which is rampant among Palestinian youth.

Even though the issue of clusters in SMEs has been well researched in developed countries, empirical studies are still lacking in this developing region. The attention given to policies in this article allows using the insights gained for cluster development in Palestine.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of total quality management (TQM) implementation in Palestinian governmental and non-governmental hospitals using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) framework.

The study is based on collecting data using a survey questionnaire that was designed according to the MBNQA criteria. In total, 363 questionnaires from governmental and non-governmental hospitals operating in Gaza Strip were analyzed to assess the level of TQM implementation level in all hospitals (governmental and non-governmental).

The main results of this study indicate that Palestinian hospitals operating in Gaza Strip perform at a relatively acceptable level. Comparing results shows that the performance of non-governmental hospitals is better with higher degree of TQM implementation than the governmental hospitals. Detailed analysis identifies improvement opportunities-related specific aspects of the human resources focus and the performance results.

Although this study has collected data from one Palestinian Territory, the Gaza Strip, it still identifies the critical factors and practices for TQM implementation within the Palestinian healthcare organizations to improve performance.

This paper suggests that business excellence models such as the MBNQA criteria can be used to assess the level of implementation of quality practices and identify the strengths and weaknesses to improve the quality of service delivery, processes, and performance of hospitals.

Despite the widespread use of TQM in the developed countries, little attention has been placed to implement and assess the quality initiatives by organizations in the developing countries and even fewer in low-income Arab countries (Aamer et al., 2017; Øvretveit and Al Serouri, 2006). In addition, a very few number of studies in reference to the assessment of TQM implementation in the Palestinian context, in general, and in healthcare organizations, in particular, highlight the need for this study. To move the field in that direction, the goal of this research was to assess the level of TQM implementation in the healthcare organizations (mainly hospitals) in Gaza Strip (one of the least fortunate areas of the Palestinian-occupied territories) where no prior similar research studies could be found. Therefore, this study contributes to filling this gap in the literature by providing empirical assessment of TQM level of implementation in Gaza Strip hospitals.

This paper aims to provide an assessment of the quality of management practices and implementation in hospitals operating in the West Bank of Palestine using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) Criteria.

Based on the MBNQA Criteria, a survey of 51 hospitals was conducted using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups to gather data. Data were analyzed and compared across all administrative types of hospitals using the MBNQA points system.

The results show that the performance of non-governmental organizations and private hospitals was superior with respect to all other administrative types. A closer look at the results show that all hospitals exhibit areas of concern such as human resource focus, information and analysis, as well as performance results.

Despite the exclusion of hospitals operating in the Gaza Strip, this research promotes critical management practices aimed at improving quality of management practices and their subsequent implementation in the surveyed hospitals.

The MBNQA Criteria, as well as other quality assessment tools, can be used to measure the various activities of hospitals and identify competencies and weaknesses in a tangible manner to improve hospital performance.

This paper presents a fresh perspective on the quality management issues in Palestinian hospitals to practitioners, administrators and academics using the MBNQA Criteria. Also, it serves as a foundation for future initiatives and programs aimed at improving quality in hospitals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of total quality management (TQM) practices implemented in Palestinian hospitals and their relationship to organizational performance using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria.

A survey of 51 hospitals operating in the West Bank of Palestine was conducted in order to test the validity and reliability of TQM constructs and their relationship to organizational performance.

The results showed that TQM constructs used in this study are positively related to hospital performance and for the most part the relationship was significant; they were capable of explaining a significant portion of variance in performance. Three elements were found to be strongly significant predictors of performance- people management, process management, and information and analysis.

Although hospitals operating in the Gaza Strip were excluded from the study, this research promotes critical management practices that help channeling organization resources into areas aimed at improving quality and performance.

The study showed that there are certain areas where administrators or managers need to focus on should they aspire for better performance. The constructs used in this study can be used to assess the implementation of quality practices and highlight areas for movement.

This paper provided practitioners, administrators, and academics with a fresh perspective on quality management practices and their impact on organizational performance. It also served as a foundation for future initiatives and programs aimed at improving quality in hospitals.

This paper aims to document the relative performance of non-financial shariah-compliant firms and non-financial non-shariah-compliant firms in the MENA (Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain) region during the period between 2005 and 2009.

This paper uses pooled ordinary least squares regression analysis to document the effect of shariah compliance on stock price performance in the MENA region on a sample of non-financial firms that consists of shariah- and non-shariah-compliant firms.

Using market-adjusted returns as a proxy for performance, this paper shows that shariah-compliant firms underperform non-shariah-compliant firms. The results also show that underperformance of shariah-compliant firms holds in the civil law and in the common law countries. Interestingly, this paper also shows that difference between the performance of shariah-and non-shariah-compliant firms disappears during the crisis period.

This paper argues that the characteristics of shariah-compliant firms are such that these firms are at a disadvantage relative to their non-shariah-compliant counterparts. For example, high leverage of their counterpart firms can act as a disciplining mechanism and positively affect performance of these firms. Similarly, high account receivables and high cash allow non-shariah-compliant firms to make more effective business networks than shariah-compliant firms and fund large capital expenditures. Consequently, shariah-compliant firms underperform non-shariah-compliant firms. This study’s results, however, should be read with caution, as they are mainly based upon the performance of large volume, statistical significance, sampling errors and possible labeling miss-specification. Further research on this topic with different research methodology is essential.

This paper takes a financial view rather than religious view while highlighting the impact of shariah characteristics on firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors that impact knowledge sharing (KS) and their importance in technology-intensive service organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

An extensive literature review was conducted to identify the critical factors for KS in technology-intensive organizations. Then, an analytical hierarchical process (AHP) was applied to prioritize the primary criteria and sub-criteria. This study consists of nine primary criteria and 34 sub-criteria that are relevant to KS in technology-intensive organizations.

The results show that organizational leadership (OL) is the most important factor that impacts KS in technology-intensive organizations, which is followed by organizational culture (OC), organizational strategy (OSY), corporate performance (CP), organizational process (OP), employee engagement (EE) and organizational structure (OST). According to the results, the least impactful factor is human resource management (HRM).

Because the results in this study were only obtained from service organizations, future studies can include manufacturing organizations from different countries and additional success factors. Future studies could also use structural equational modelling methodology for better understanding the relations among these critical factors for KS.

This paper is one of the first in the UAE to examine the broad range of critical success factors for KS in technology-intensive organizations.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of financial development (FD) on economic growth and growth-enhancing transmission channels for the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region in three different periods: the pre-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era (1990–1999), during the MDGs (2000–2017) era and the main period (1990–2017).

The study used the system generalized method of moments (SGMM) approach on 45 SSA countries from 1990 to 2017, using the data collected from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The long-run effect of the study showed mixed results in pre-MDGs and during MDGs periods but was positive in the main period. For growth-enhancing transmission channels, the results were mixed, although in many cases, institutional (INST) quality, human capital (HC) and foreign direct investment (FDI) were the main transmission channels.

Some of the countries were dropped from the analysis due to data inadequacy.

The empirical results of this study provide evidence that the financial sector has robust positive effect throughout 1990–2017. Furthermore, the financial sector depends on several factors to improve economic growth. The SSA region has to focus on improving HC, INST quality in terms of good governance and create environment that is attractive to FDI since they were the main growth-enhancing channels.

Most of the studies in SSA countries assessed the direct effect of FD on economic growth without considering its transmission channels in different time frames. Moreover, they often used specific variables but not the financial index. This study extended the scope by considering various financial sector transmission channels, in different time periods and the financial index.

This paper aims to document the information transmission capacity of Shariah-compliant firms.

The vector auto-regression (VAR) model is used to test the information transmission capacity of Shariah-compliant firms in India during the period between 2010 and 2015.

The findings show that the returns of non-Shariah-compliant firms lead the returns of Shariah-compliant firms. It is argued that non-Shariah-compliant firms possess certain financial characteristics (higher leverage, higher accounts receivable and higher cash holdings) that make their information environment better than information environment of Shariah-compliant firms. The authors argue that superior information environment leads to timely incorporation of market-wide information, thereby causing the returns of non-Shariah-compliant firms to lead the returns of Shariah-compliant firms. It is also shown that the result holds in various market conditions.

It is believed that prior literature does not adequately address the information transmission capacity of the stock prices of Shariah-compliant firms. The gap is filled by documenting that stock prices of Shariah-compliant firms that are more informative than stock prices of non-Shariah-compliant firms.

This paper aims to answer the following questions by using the data from the MENA region (Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain): Do Shariah-compliant firms differ from other firms in the quality of information disclosure? and Can investors consider information disclosed by Shariah-compliant firms more truthful than information disclosed by other firms?

Using regression analysis, this paper examines the relationship between earnings management and Shariah compliance during the period between 2005 and 2009.

Results show that Shariah-compliant firms engage in lower earnings management than non-Shariah-compliant firms. This paper argues that financial characteristics of Shariah-compliant firms (i.e. low leverage, low account receivables and low cash) provide lower chances to managers to misreport earnings. It is also shown that external conditions can minimize the difference in earnings management between the two groups. Results show no significant difference between earnings management of Shariah-compliant firms and earnings management of non-Shariah-compliant firms in the common law countries and during the crisis period. This paper considers high risk of litigation in common law countries and enhanced monitoring of stock market participants during the crisis period main factors behind these results. This paper argues that external governance mechanisms can result in improving disclosure practices of non-Shariah-compliant firms to a level that minimizes the impact of Shariah compliance on earnings management.

Results have implications for investors and regulators functioning in the MENA region. These results indicate that non-Shariah-compliant firms, being more prone to earnings misreporting, need more scrutiny from regulators than Shariah-compliant firms.

The authors believe that this paper is the first attempt to argue that it is the financial characteristics of Shariah-compliant firms (i.e. low leverage, low account receivables and low cash) that result in better disclosure of reported earnings.

This study investigates the effect of corporate governance mechanisms and country-level factors on the extent of Internet Financial Reporting (IFR). We used a sample of 106 listed firms from five African countries. A financial reporting disclosure index was used to compute the aggregate IFR scores, which are made up of two components: content and presentation. Our results indicate that IFR relates to board size, firm size, country-level governance, economic development and index return. These results evidence the predominance of country-level factors over firm-specific factors in explaining the extent of IFR in Africa. It also shows that corporate governance mechanisms via board practices are insufficient to explain IFR in Africa. By further extending our analysis into the two components of IFR, we find that factors affecting the content and presentation dimensions are different. This study is among the first to investigate the extent of IFR in several African countries and adds to the existing evidence that has mainly focussed on firm-specific factors.