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Global interest in adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has risen rapidly; however, the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries have reacted differently towards the international diffusion. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the IFRS adoption/rejection decision on the quality of MENA region firms' financial reporting.

The quality of accounting is examined through five metrics models to measure earnings smoothing, managing earnings towards a target and timely loss recognition. The research sample consists of nine countries over a period of ten years (2006–2015), resulting in 3,040 firm-year observations in the main phase, and 2,580 firm-year observations in the additional analysis.

The findings reveal that the overall sample of IFRS adopters in the MENA region has benefited from the adoption of IFRS, as the results show that there is a reduction in earnings management for IFRS adopters in comparison to local standards adopters. The sub-sample analyses also reveal that firms that adopted IFRS, in both the rentier (oil-dependent states) and non-rentier states, have a higher financial reporting quality than non-IFRS adopters. However, the magnitude of the financial reporting quality was higher for IFRS adopters in rentier states.

Similarly to previous research in this field, this study adopts a strict sample selection approach. Such an approach may limit the sample size, although the researchers have taken every possible step to ensure the use of an adequate sample size. The researchers acknowledge the strict period of ten years, despite having stated its rationale and importance of a more extended period to the quest of the paper.

This research provides valuable input by evaluating the current status of MENA region firms' financial reporting quality, based on their followed accounting regime. The implications of this paper result in better-informed decisions for investors as the information contents of the annual reports enhance comparisons that facilitate the further flow of investments. This research also provides significant insight into the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The findings of this study will assist the IASB in understanding the MENA region by measuring the consequences of the countries' decisions on the quality of firms' financial reporting.

The findings of this study contribute to the literature by revealing that countries with medium levels of governance quality have benefited the most from the IFRS adoption, while IFRS adopters in countries with stronger governance quality demonstrate lower financial reporting quality.

Political Science in the United States has focused too much on variable-oriented, quantitative methods and thus lost its ability to ask “big questions.” Stein Rokkan (d. 1979) was an eminent comparativist who asked big questions and provided such qualitative tools as conceptual maps, grids, and clustered comparisons. Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), arguably the first social scientist, also asked big questions and provided a universal explanation about the dialectical relationship between nomads and sedentary people. This article analyzes to what extent Ibn Khaldun's concepts of asabiyya and sedentary culture help understand the rise and fall of the Muslim civilization. It also explores my alternative, class-based perspective in Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment. Moreover, the article explores how Rokkan's analysis of cultural, geographical, economic, and religio-political variations within Western European states can provide insights to the examination of such variations in the Muslim world.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the characteristics and dynamics of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the ICT sector in Qatar.

The methodology of this research is based on a literature review and information collected through semistructured interviews with the different stakeholders involved in the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the ICT sector in Qatar.

The results show that two opposite forces shape the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the ICT sector in Qatar. On one hand, the strong determination and intervention of the Qatari government to diversify the economy by creating a vibrant ecosystem in the ICT sector. On the other hand, entrepreneurs in this sector are still facing some barriers and difficulties, and those issues are tightly related to Qatar's economic characteristics as a rentier state whose economy is driven by hydrocarbon resources.

These findings contribute to the clarification and critical analysis of the current dynamics of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the ICT sector in Qatar, which would have several policy implications.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of rent-seeking behaviour and rentier state in the context of ẓulm (injustice and exploitation), which is one of the key concerns in Islam in general and Islamic economics and finance in particular.

As a conceptual paper, it draws on the literature of rent-seeking as part of public choice theory and examines the potential vulnerabilities as well as existence of rent-seeking in Muslim-majority countries, where Islamic finance industry primarily operates.

The paper identifies several areas where both actual and potential rent-seeking exists.

The paper is conceptual. Based on the analysis presented here further studies can be undertaken to determine the scope of rent-seeking and their impact in Muslim-majority societies.

Incorporating rent-seeking in the theoretical and conceptual framework of Islamic economics and finance can enhance understanding about ẓulm and its ubiquitous presence, as Islam has a firm stance to aspire to have a ẓulm-free society.

Understanding rent-seeking behaviour can help appreciate why corruption, inequality and poverty are so entrenched, and why limiting the discourse to ribā (interest) ignores the broader scope of injustice and exploitation.

This might be the first focused paper that conceptually deals with rent-seeking behaviour, connecting the discourse about ribā-interest equation.

The aim of this chapter is to show how new players in an emerging market, through their multinationals, have strategized and operationalised their international interests. This international context consists of various stakeholders: states, civil society organisations, multinationals, local communities and institutions which define and regulate the power relations. This study highlights how CNPCIC, a Chinese multinational owned by the state, designs and implements its proclaimed ‘win-win’ cooperation strategy with its host country and the local community for an oil extraction project – called the Rônier Project – in southern Chad.

The analysis is based on a case study approach, especially concerning the town of Koudalwa, the oil-producing area in southern Chad. The author conducted qualitative research to collect the data, using ethnographic strategies consisting of field research, interviews with stakeholders.

Negative externalities as consequences of practices from CNPCIC underlie environmental degradation, socio-economic conflicts and governance problems, despite the existence of an alleged regulatory framework, the role of which is to avert the ‘resource curse’.

Organisations of local and international civil society oscillate between the logic of cooperation, alliance and confrontation with their main stakeholders, CNPCIC and the government.

The ‘win-win’ cooperation advocated by China is implemented in the form of commercial cooperation with full mercantilism where CNPCIC benefits from oil, the Chadian state benefits from oil revenue in the form of royalties and other stakeholders, such as the local communities, only benefit from a fraction of the revenues. The chapter concludes that, within this oil project, CNPCIC developed a corporate diplomacy stance within which, according to the circumstances, predation, philanthropy and strategic alliance are valued at the expense of corporate responsibility despite civil society advocacy for a responsible extraction.

Some stakeholders of the project declined the invitation to participate in the research. This may have influenced its findings.

The value of this chapter resides in the use of various theories (corporate diplomacy, stakeholder theory, resource curse) to explain the practices and interests of stakeholders within an oil project at different scales, both local and international.

This article explains that in the current global context dominated by market ideology, there has been a significant shift in the nature of the state based on promarket neoliberal principles in most countries, including those in the developing world. Under this emerging neoliberal state characterized by the primacy of market forces and adoption of market-driven policies and programs, the role of the public service has also changed in terms of its increasing concern for streamlining public sector activities, enhancing economic efficiency, improving customer satisfaction, and so on. After exploring such impacts of the current neoliberal state formation on the public service's role, the article briefly examines the socio-political consequences of this changing role, especially in developing nations.

This study aims to investigate the implications of natural gas rents and institutions as co-drivers of economic growth, focusing on the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) with panel data between 2001 and 2021.

This research paper uses a specialised two stage estimator, the panel instrumental variable technique (panel IV), which takes care of the potential endogeneity issues in the model.

The findings show that natural gas rent significantly impacts the economic growth of the GECF. On average, natural gas rent increases the sample’s growth rate by about 2.634% percentage points in the short run. The result indicates that the qualities of institutions (political and economic) have a significant positive long-term effect on the economies of the GECF. In addition, the study’s energy price volatility positively correlates with the countries’ growth.

There might be a need to investigate the effects of natural gas rents and institutions as co-growth drivers in each country within the GECF. The likelihood exists that the impact of natural gas rents and institutions on economic growth at the country’s level may differ from the outcome of such an experiment on the group level. Because of space and time limitations, this study could not carry out the specific country’s investigation of natural gas rents and institutions as a co-growth driver. That limitation may constitute further study to advance this study to a new height.

With good institutions, natural gas rent is likely to be an alternative growth driver for some economies that rely on fossil fuels like oil as a growth driver. By extension, the GECF has the potential to rival Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the global energy market, particularly in achieving Sustainable Development Goal number seven. In essence, evidence in this study suggests that natural gas rent has long-term positive effects on the growth of the GECF, conditioned on good institutions. Moreover, the drive of global energy consumption towards sustainable energy usage is an economic blessing for the GECF. By extension, the demand for natural gas would continue to rise, creating opportunities to improve natural gas rents. By implication, the GECF would continue to benefit from the pursuit of sustainability as the world shifts towards energy consumption with less CO₂.

Firstly, this study models the qualities of institutions for the GECF. Secondly, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first attempt to examine natural gas rents and the qualities of institutions as co-determinants of economic growth among the GECF (a potential cartel).

As components of society, social classes contain individuals who are carriers of productive relationships. In the era of global capitalism, chains of accumulation are functionally integrating across borders and regions – uniquely altering the formation of productive relationships. How can we understand class relations in the global era, and in the context of regions and countries in Oceania and Asia? How do transnational capitalist-class fractions, new middle strata, and labor undergird globalization? How have state apparatuses and other institutions in this part of the world become entwined with new transnational processes? To begin to consider these questions, this paper provides an overview and summary of studies on transnational class relations and the associated political economic changes occurring across areas of Asia and Oceania.

The study aims to deal with three theoretical approaches to answer the research question: Does political reform in rentier States (Kuwait as a model) lead to political stability? The first approach: Following the steps of political reform in rentier States leads eventually to political stability. The second approach: Political stability in rentier States does not necessarily lead to political reform. The third approach: In rentier States, the decisive factor in interpreting the correlation between political reform and political stability requires explaining other intermediary factors.

David Easton’s input-output model: Easton defined the political system as the interactions related to the authoritarian allocation of values in society, that is, the distribution of resources by decisions adopted by individuals, and provided a framework for analysis of the political system in which it sees an integrated circuit of a dynamic nature that starts with inputs and outputs feedback, input and output. Inputs refer to the effects of the environment on the system. Outputs are the effects of the system on the environment, which are the decisions and policies taken by the system to meet the demands. Reverse feedback is the flow of information to the system about the results of its actions, the results of its decisions and policies. Generate new inputs in the form of a demand or support, and the system’s feedback feeds a kind of movement.

It can be said that the future of the rentier state is particularly dangerous in the Arab countries where the problem today is the sharp drop in oil prices, which requires the need to enter into the stage of major transformations and work to bring about fundamental changes and enter into radical constitutional, economic, political and social reforms before turning them from the state rent to countries that lack political stability.

The aim of this research is to present a theoretical study of political reform. The study began to consolidate the concept of political reform, which was and still is the goal of many political and social reform leaders and movements, in addition to being a major topic in political theories. Reform can be carried out by violence and by peaceful change. In any case, reform remains a humanitarian need that cannot be ignored or avoided, because the alternative is worsening and deteriorating political and social conditions.

The Arab Spring revolutions set many challenges for the Arab countries. These countries had to start political reforms. The State of Kuwait was one of the most important rentier countries that, after the Arab Spring revolutions, was concerned with ensuring that individuals and groups exercised their political rights through political participation in decision-making. It guarantees the human existence of society and protects it through the law and its legislation, and grants rights and freedoms and does not oppose it.

Political reforms lead to accommodating the demands of the opposition, increasing the political participation of citizens, activating the political role of women, activating the role of civil society and increasing political mobility.

The importance of the research paper is to emphasize the term rentier state and confirm the importance of reform in rentier countries and the paper asks whether the expansion of political rights, citizenship and participation will lead to stability or instability in these countries.

Purpose – This chapter examines the impact of oil price volatility on domestic political stability in a key supplier state.

Methodology – This chapter uses prospect theory to analyse socio-political instability based on significant changes in a supplier state's largest revenue source. Prospect theory posits that decisions are framed around a pivotal reference point which may or may not correspond to the status quo, but which nonetheless directly affects risk appetite. This analysis uses Iran as a case study, and relative oil price as the reference point to analyse risk-acceptant decision-making surrounding the 2009 Presidential election.

Findings – Dramatic economic context could be a contributing factor to risk-acceptant behaviour in domestic politics. Specifically, volatile price swings in Iran's main source of income, oil, which contributes over 80 per cent in direct and indirect revenue, and perceived external decline therein, may have been a destabilising factor. Combined with loss aversion, this context may have facilitated measures beyond those dictated by rational utility calculus to secure conservative rule in the 2009 election, and in the ensuing unrest.

Research Limitations – Prospect theory is difficult to test outside of carefully framed laboratory experiments. Although its insights have been applied to investment behaviour, management and domestic politics, in conflict studies, robust empirical support remains underdeveloped. Moreover, since prospect theory is an individual model of decision-making, difficulties arise when dealing with nation states with multiple centres of power.

Implications – Prospect theory may be a useful analytic tool for analysing risk-acceptant decision-making in the context of dynamic economic situations.

Originality – Although this analysis complements research on rentier state theory, prospect theory integrates recent developments in behavioural economics and political psychology that may offer a new way to conceptualise the role of expectations and choice framing in decision-making which drives political stability.