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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of female portrayal in advertisements on Palestinian female consumers’ purchasing decisions. TV and online media were selected as the medium for the study. Specifically, the researchers examine the one-dimensional sexualized female portrayal in advertisements.

Culture is used as the lens through which the study examines the relationship between independent and dependent variables concerning the topic of this study. The study collected primary data from 395 Palestinian participants through a survey questionnaire.

The findings of the study revealed that there is a relationship between the independent variable (the sexualized female portrayal in foreign advertisements – advertisements originating in foreign countries) and the dependent variable (Palestinian female consumers’ purchase decision). Additionally, the study found that the cultural differences between Palestine and other foreign countries have a negative impact on the Palestinian female consumers’ perception of the product being advertised.

Although traditional marketing procedures would allow companies to filter and adapt particular adverts to suit various cultural, social and political environments, the advent of the open web and satellite TV channels extend the advertisements reach to audiences beyond their intended demographic.

This is the first study set in the Arab context (including Palestine) to explore the impact of sexualized female portrayal in advertisements on Palestinian female consumers’ purchasing decision.

Content analysis was used to measure corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions with robust standard errors are used to examine the relationships for a sample of 168 firm-year observations listed on the Palestine Exchange during 2018–2021. A logistic regression is also utilized as an alternative measurement for CSR quantity disclosure and to ensure the robustness of the author’s main findings.

Based on 168 observations listed on the Palestine Exchange (PEX) between 2018 and 2021, this study examines the impact of women's representation on the CSR reporting of Palestinian firms' boards. Moreover, the moderating effect of ownership concentration on the relationship between BGD and CSR reporting is examined. In order to test the hypotheses, the author’s employ OLS regressions with robust standard errors. A logistic regression is also utilized as an alternative measurement for CSR quantity disclosure and to ensure the robustness of the author’s main findings.

The results reveal that Palestinian companies with more women on their boards have higher CSR practices and disclosure levels. In addition to the validity of agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories, the findings show the relevance of gender socialization and critical mass theories in explaining the favorable influence of women's presentation on boards in promoting best practices among Palestinian firms, such as CSR disclosure.

The study contributes to the limited literature in the MENA and Arab region countries by examining the influence of BGD on CSR reporting in Palestine, an emerging economy characterized by highly political and economic instability. The study offers a novel contribution by examining the impact of BGD, on not only the CSR reporting quantity but also the reporting quality. However, the generalizability of the study is limited due to the small sample size.

The findings of the study may bring the issues of CSR disclosure and female representation on board of directors to the attention of Palestinian firms' board of directors and managers, investors, professional associations, policymakers and regulators. While listed firms are only required to provide general information that falls under the scope of CSR in their annual reports under the Palestinian code of corporate governance, women representation on boards of directors is not addressed.

This study adds to the very limited literature on the role of the BGD in promoting CSR reporting in the Middle Eastern and Arabic markets in general, and in the Palestinian context in particular. This paper not only investigates but also seeks to theorize this role.

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of Afghan female engineers regarding opportunities and barriers to starting their own engineering/construction company in Kabul through three career trajectory chokepoints related to training through higher education, the engineering workplace and entrepreneurship, through the lens of feminist theory.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted. A Web-based survey was also conducted to collect data from participants who were not able to participate in the in-depth interviews. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the collected data.

As a result of the analysis, three main themes were developed related to “chokepoints” that Afghan female engineers face along the path to starting their own construction companies: “entering and studying engineering,” “career development” and “starting her own engineering business”; the authors address the subthemes of barriers and opportunities confronted by Afghan women at each chokepoint.

Due to civil unrest, the authors are only able to reach a sample of Afghan female engineers working in the capital city of Kabul.

Afghanistan shows, perhaps, the most severe underrepresentation of female engineers of all countries in the world, yet no research gives them a voice to explain the challenges their face to starting their own engineering/construction businesses. The authors are able to report their perceptions and articulate recommendations to encourage female entrepreneurship in the engineering/construction sector in Afghanistan.

Afghan women face significant barriers to having meaningful careers in the science, technology, engineering and medicine professions. The findings provide information for regulators regarding why Afghan women do not start their own engineering firms.

As physical security and resource constraints generate difficulty in accessing Afghan women in general, this is the first paper to report the perceptions of Afghan female engineers regarding the barriers and opportunities they perceive on the path to engineering entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between attitude functions and attitude towards social media advertising. Additionally, this study also examines the relationship between attitude towards social media advertising and purchase intention.

The data was collected via an online survey among Malaysian Muslim participants. Quantitative analysis was used to test the hypothesis. A total of 280 respondents participated in the online survey but only 264 responses fit the analysis. The data was analysed via SPSS and partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings of this paper show that attitude functions, namely, utilitarian, value-expressive, ego-defensive and religiosity have a significant positive influence on attitude towards social media advertising, whilst knowledge function was found to be insignificant. Attitude towards social media advertising was also found to have a significant positive influence on purchase intention.

Advertisers should also consider the religious aspects of Muslim consumers and their level of sensitivity as Muslims nowadays are well-informed. This is to avoid controversies and have a better understanding of their consumer needs.

This is one of the few studies examining the influence of religiosity in the social media advertising of controversial products such as bubble tea.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors that attract (pull) or discourage (push) Palestinian students from Israel (PSI) to study at a Palestinian university, the Arab American University in Jenin (AAUJ), for the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948.

A qualitative research method using in-depth interviews with 15 PSI who study at AAUJ attempts to define the motivations behind PSI preferring AAUJ, on one hand, and constraints, on the other hand.

The findings of the study show factors that attract PSI to study at the AAUJ and what subjects they choose to study there, the encounter with a similar culture and nationalism in a Palestinian campus in the occupied West Bank; the most significant difficulties and impediments they face there, whether economic or political, are discussed. This paper contributes to an understanding of the new national re-encounter between two Palestinian groups in a university campus, one under Israel’s occupation and the other that has Israeli citizenship.

It is a unique phenomenon in the trends of international students’ mobility in the world.

The focus of this chapter is drawn from the author’s lived experience and background as a third generation stateless Palestinian refugee who lived in one of the Palestinian camps in Lebanon and inherited the refugeeship from her parents and grandparents. Even though the author agrees with Hannah Arendt (1943) that ‘We don’t like to be called refugees’ (p. 264), the process of this research and thoughts behind it are attributed to the author’s personal experiences, as Arendt (1964) confirms in her statement that the process of thought can seldom be possible without being attributed to a personal experience.

This paper aims to examine the variation in Arab/Muslim consumers’ willingness to buy (WTB) from product’s origins (POs) involved in the Arab/Muslim-Israeli animosity case despite their common nationality and religious affiliation.

Qualitative research methodology is used. A total of 30 Arab and Muslim individuals were interviewed, and web documents were analysed. A grounded theory approach is adopted to analyse the data collected.

The results reveal that the variation in WTB from offending PO among Arab/Muslim consumers is influenced by the intensity of animosity (IOA) as perceived by the individual consumer towards the PO. IOA is a variable affected by the antagonistic emotional impact which is evoked by the egregiousness of the PO’s actions (PO involvement) and consumer connection with the political issue (consumer involvement) and is moderated by the time of the PO’s egregious actions.

Politically favourable POs in the Arab/Muslim world need to target consumers who perceive greater connection with the political issue, whereas politically unfavourable POs need to target consumers who perceive weaker connection with the political conflict, in addition to distancing themselves from it.

This is an original attempt to gain insight into the different levels of willingness of fellow nationals to buy a product from an offending nation in the context of Arab/Muslim-Israeli animosity which is explained through the IOA model of foreign product purchase.

Purpose – This chapter studies the lyrics and music videos of Palestinian hip-hop artists, exploring their narratives of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and constructions of identity and place.

Design/methodology/approach – This semiotic analysis profiles lyrics and music videos found almost exclusively on the Internet. The dominant themes that the chapter discusses emerge directly from the data, creating important connections across borders and requiring a transnational analytical framework.

Findings – Artists in Palestine and in the diaspora appropriate concepts and terminology from criminal justice to narrate life under occupation. In contrast to this construction of occupation, artists also employ metaphors of nature to signify a biological connection to the land of Palestine that represents both victimization and a steadfast and “rooted” resistance. Mapped onto this cross-borders shared semiotics are implications for new understandings of place and identity.

Research limitations – Limitations exist in both content and methodology. Interpreting in the lyrics an embrace of a primordial connection to the land should raise concerns about Orientalist representations of non-Westerners. I devote a section of the chapter to problematizing the primordial Palestinian. In terms of method, I speak no Arabic or Hebrew, though I have taken steps to mitigate this problem, including privileging songs in English or with English translations and employing the assistance of an Arabic and Hebrew speaker.

Originality/value – Despite these limitations, this chapter contributes to an understanding of the transnational potential of hip-hop to craft counter-hegemonic narratives of identity, place, and conflict.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the external environment on the strategic thinking dimensions in Malaysia and Palestine on the banking sector.

This paper focuses on dynamism and complexity in political and economic external environments. This study uses qualitative methodology through a comparative case study method. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from in-depth semistructured interviews with 33 bank executives from Malaysia and 17 from Palestine.

The findings revealed that the banking sector in both Malaysia and Palestine shared five common strategic thinking dimensions, including vision, creativity, conceptual thinking, futurism and opportunity. However, a sixth dimension, intent-focused, was unique to Palestinian bank executives. This study indicates that Palestine’s financial strategic thinking environment is more dynamic and complex than Malaysia’s. Additionally, the study highlights the significant influence of both microenvironments (such as types of banks) and the macroenvironment (such as political and economic situations). These findings hold important implications for decision-makers in the banking sector of both countries.

As with many studies, this study has some limitations. First, the analysis examines only the turbulent and stable environment in the two countries by using a qualitative approach which enables the analysis of thoughts and actions and exposes the beliefs, perceptions, mental maps and structures of belief in their perceptions (Cavana et al., 2001). As such, the results are limited to a particular time, date and geographical location; thus, opinions and perceptions might be altered due to changes in the external political and economic environment. The second limitation of this work is that the case study might not be appropriate for generalization (Stake, 1978). Finally, the limited number of female participants in Palestine shows a high level of inequality compared to Malaysian participants.

This study explores the implication of uncertain environments at the national level on executives’ cognition and actions, links the micro- and macro-environment of the banking industry to a theoretical perspective and develops a conceptual circular model to show the effect of macro environments on bank performance. The findings offer practical contributions to the current literature, providing insights for executives to navigate a dynamic and complex banking industry.

This study fills the literature gap by exploring how strategic thinking dimensions triggered by macro- and micro-environments impact banking sector performance in Malaysia and Palestine.