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The Arab world is made up of 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. These countries are subjected to many social, economic, political and geographical vulnerabilities contributing to increased risks or ineffective emergency and disaster management. This paper examines these vulnerabilities, how they may impact the country's ability to face disasters, and how they can improve disasters' overall management.

The author selected Qatar, Oman to represent the Arab oil-rich countries, while Jordan, Egypt and Morocco to represent non-oil rich countries. The research was conducted in a qualitative, inductive systematic literature review based on a well-established systematic literature review methodology. Selected literature was based on its recency and the countries in question.

The review reveals population gaps that could threaten the social system in the event of a disaster in countries like Qatar and Oman. The majority of the countries lack community engagement and pre-planning for emergency preparedness due to social and cultural barriers. Other nations like Jordan, Egypt and Morocco are prone to long-lasting economic challenges due to lack of resources, mismanagement or corruption. The paper also highlights the need to raise the educational attainment among citizens to understand disaster risk reduction.

This study utilized the research method developed by Williams et al. (2017) to present a comprehensive systematic and comparative review of disaster management in the Arab world. Considering that disaster and emergency management has remained disproportionately unexplored in the Arab world, this paper reviewed several vulnerabilities and how those vulnerabilities may affect disaster and emergency management efforts in the Arab countries.

The purpose of this paper is to help in providing a better understanding on knowledge sharing amongst academics in higher education institutions (HEIs). The aim of this study is realized by profiling existing literature to understand the determinants of knowledge sharing, research trends, theories, and future research opportunities.

After carefully examining the extant literature and by utilizing relevant academic-based research databases, a total of 73 papers published in peer-reviewed journals over the last decade were reviewed and analyzed using well-established systematic literature review methodology.

The adopted systematic review revealed that there are limited contributions in understanding knowledge sharing in HEIs when compared with other sectors. The review provides a number of avenues for future research including technological, cultural, organizational, and behavioral aspects at different levels.

This study helps in offering a focal point to senior management in HEIs for realizing the requirements for developing appropriate strategies and programs to promote knowledge sharing among academics and consequently enhance their institutions’ performance.

This study utilized Jesson et al. (2011) in presenting a comprehensive systematic review of knowledge sharing specifically in the context of HEIs. This paper offers some theoretical and practical insights on what contributes toward understating the determinates affecting knowledge sharing practices among academics.

This study aims to investigate the moderation role of the percentage of women in the country labour force in the relationship between firm-level governance factors (board size, institutional ownership, ownership concentration, board independence, performance, firm size, firm’s risk and sector) and women on boards (WOBs) in publicly listed firms in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

The study relied on a sample of 436 publicly listed firms in 2018 in six GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates).

The study concluded that the percentage of women in the country’s labour force has a moderation role in the relationship between board size and WOB, as well as firm market performance and WOBs. However, ownership concentration, firm size, firm risk and firm sector do not affect the percentage of WOB; consequently, the percentage of women in the country’s labour force did not have a moderation role in the relationship between these variables and the percentage of WOBs.

The study incorporates an institutional level variable which is the percentage of women in the country’s labour force in a firm-level relationship mostly understood by agency theory.