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Universities and other higher educational institutions play an increasingly important role in providing entrepreneurship education, training, and technical assistance to existing and potential entrepreneurs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship and the role of universities in developing enterprise education in Oman, focusing on the case of Sohar University.

The research used a questionnaire based survey to collect primary data. From the total population of 3,633 students registered across different faculties during the academic year 2012-2013, a sample size of 200 was drawn using convenience sampling and the proportional allocation method.

The research outcomes revealed that the majority of the university students were optimistic and interested in starting their own business, but lacked knowledge about how to start a business. The students’ willingness to run a business and their sociable, go-getter attitude, confidence, and effective connections with established entrepreneurs were observed as enablers. Fear of failure and unwillingness to take risks were the major obstacles facing university students in treading an entrepreneurial path.

Overall, the study indicated a need for enterprise education, at programme and course levels, to nurture entrepreneurship among students in Oman.

Currently, Omani society is affected by a high level of unemployment. The research outcomes will help policy makers in assessing the potential of enterprise education. The promotion of entrepreneurship among women will enable more women to work shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts in building Oman’s economy. In a region where even today large numbers of women would never remove the face veil in front of male non-family members, these developments are very significant.

Very few studies have examined university students’ attitude to entrepreneurship and enterprise education in Oman. This study helps in bridging that gap.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and explore the effectiveness of using balanced scorecard (BSC) as a management tool in the evaluation of the performance and thereby the quality services of a University.

The survey was conducted among the various faculties and departments Sohar University through a well-defined questionnaire. The collected primary data were compiled, analyzed and a critical analysis was carried out using a null hypothesis, χ², and regression analysis.

Our empirical result clearly reveals that there is a strong association exists between the strategic road map and the four perspectives of BSC.

The study was carried out in Sohar University, Oman and the same can be extended to all the higher educational institutions globally.

The study reveals that the key performance measures identified under the classification the four perspectives of BSC, play a crucial role in establishing the framework based on the strategic map determined by the vision and the mission of the University.

The study demonstrates that the BSC concept can be introduced to an educational institution to fill up the gap created between the creation of strategy and implementation of the same.

No study has investigated the performance evaluation of a higher education institution in Oman, using the four perspectives of BSC, and this is a first hand study.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors affecting store image and customers’ choice of hypermarkets in Oman and compares two big hypermarkets in Sohar– the prominent industrial city of Oman.

A detailed review of literature was conducted initially to identify the attributes affecting store image and choice of hypermarkets in Oman and a questionnaire was developed later using the key attributes, vetted by a panel of professionals and consumers. Data were collected using convenience sampling from the targeted customers with due care to reduce possible biases. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), using SPSS, was then performed to arrive at the key factors affecting store image and choice of hypermarkets in Oman. Two most popular and leading hypermarkets of Sohar – Lulu and Al Safeer were selected to study consumers’ preferences for store choice and comparisons. The Mann-Whitney U-test in association with the Wilcoxon W-test was applied, using Minitab, for further comparison of the two hypermarkets.

Retailing industry in Oman is changing. The focus of consumers is shifting from traditional markets to modern retail formats. The presence of hypermarkets has attracted customers away from traditional souqs. Customers are attracted to hypermarkets for various reasons, including the local and socio-cultural ones. The factor analysis produced four components, namely, “purchase experience”, “visit experience”, “augmented experience”, and “repeat-purchase experience” affecting customers’ choice of hypermarkets and store image in Oman. A comparative analysis of two leading hypermarkets revealed that Lulu hypermarket acquired, overall, a better store image over Al Safeer on all the components. Purchase experience and visit experience, in Omani hypermarkets, were forerunners in satisfying customers than the augmented and repeat-purchase experience.

The study contributes to the narrow base of extant literature on consumer preferences of hypermarkets and their choice of related retail formats in the Islamic world. Although the use of EFA has been quite informative in revealing the findings, the limitation mainly arises due to the lack of confirmatory techniques, which were not intended at this stage of research. Whist the study opens room for researchers to contribute further in this regard, it brings forth certain implications for the managers, academics, and professionals working in the retail sector.

Analysis and discussions reveal that hypermarkets, particularly in Oman, need to take into account the factors, as identified in this study, and the differences in context of local conditions and religion. The study emphasizes that managers of retail formats in Oman need to give due importance to consumer experience to secure better store image and consumer patronage.

The study makes a pioneering attempt to analyse consumer preferences for retail stores, especially hypermarkets in Oman. It recognizes that the consumer expectations and business requirements of Oman, in particular, or Gulf countries in general are somehow different than the rest of the world. A heed to the identified factors and underlying variables would help the retail sector in serving consumers better as well as in increasing the store image and consumer patronage.

Drawing from the firm’s entrepreneurial identity and ecology perspectives, this study aims to explain why the firms deviate from standard corporate governance practices and apply innovative management control.

The authors used a panel of 2,538 public companies listed with the New York Stock Exchange to explain the impact of corporate governance deviance on firm’s performance. The authors relied on unique governance variables extracted from the Bloomberg database to develop the governance deviance index.

Study unveils that deviance from governance practices influences firm’s performance. Consequently, it can be said that the firms which use innovative governance mechanisms, usually stay ahead of the market by leading the governance trends. The findings also generalise the firm’s entrepreneurial identity and organisational ecology perspectives.

Research implies that the firm’s entrepreneurial identity demands innovative managerial control. This study is focused on the US financial market, but in future, researchers could revalidate the deviance index. Scholars can also use mixed methods to test the need for innovative governance mechanisms in emerging markets.

The firms should focus on innovative governance practices not only to safeguard the firm’s entrepreneurial identity but also to pursue the growth objectives. Such innovative mechanisms and managerial controls are helpful to deal with industrial transformations to satisfy key stakeholders.

The study contributed to governance and management control research by sharing insights and catering the potential endogeneity problem faced to measure corporate governance measures. The study also proposes an alternative testing tool to measure governance deviance to add methodological uniqueness and reduce knowledge gap.

This research is in response to the growing need for economic diversification in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as they seek to manage the impacts of volatile oil revenues. To this end, governments in the region are encouraging their citizens to undertake entrepreneurial activities. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of entrepreneurial education (EE), trait competitiveness (TC) and psychological capital (PC) on the entrepreneurial behavior (EB) of university students.

As a quantitative study, primary data were collected through a survey administered to the team of young university students in Oman. Using stratified sampling techniques, 858 questionnaires were retrieved and used for the analysis out of the 1,176 sample. The analysis of the data was done using structural equation modeling.

The results have established a positive influence of EE, TC and PC on the EB of university students in the GCC region. This study also found that PC acts as a bridge between EE, TC and EB.

This paper provides further literature evidence on the contribution of other variables like TC and PC to EB, particularly in the GCC context, by providing a model of the influence mechanism on EB. This research reveals a very unique influence of PC on the relationship between TC and EB. The findings confirm that there is no direct relationship between TC and EB. However, the relationship was established with the introduction of PC.

The concept of Islamic banking (IB) as a discipline and the introduction of the full-fledged Islamic banks and Islamic windows are relatively newer developments in the banking sector in Oman. This paper aims to assess customers’ perceptions of the Islamic banks and IB windows in Oman.

Following the interpretive paradigm and an exploratory research design, data collected through personal interviews with a group of 60 respondents in two of the prominent cities in Oman were analysed qualitatively.

The study found that customers in Oman had mixed feelings about the Islamic Banks. While some of them were not sure if the banks follow the Islamic principles, a majority of them had not opened an account with the Islamic banks or Islamic windows. The study revealed some vulnerabilities in the areas of their operations, marketing practices, staff knowledge of products and customer-dealings, as well as customers’ understanding of Islamic banks, their principles and practices.

As the advent of IB is relatively new to Oman, the insights gained by this study will have wider implications for the growth of IB locally. The outcomes of this study would appraise the officials and regulators of Islamic banks and Islamic windows with customers’ perception of IB. The elimination of the identified weaknesses would help them to improve the knowledge, quality and the marketing and promotion of products and services while competing with the conventional banks.

This study is a pioneering effort to know the status of IB and customers’ motivations in Oman towards IB.

This study aims to analyze the trends manifested in literature from the area of knowledge management and performance, with emphasis on bibliometric analysis.

To explore the studies focused on the area under investigation, the authors performed a search in ISI Web of Science and Scopus using the combination of keywords such as “Knowledge management” AND “Performance.” Generally, this study covered a period of 33 years, from 1988 to 2021 because the first study was published in 1970 and the databases have not covered all the journals and studies which date back to the early 1970s or 1980s. The final data set comprised 1,583 publications with 40 articles removed during the screening and eligibility process.

The results of the bibliometric analysis indicate that the interest in the area of knowledge management and performance has significantly increased, especially from 2000 to 2021. The application of bibliometric analysis on the relationship between knowledge management and performance uncovered various themes, productive authors and widely cited documents. The study highlighted how the knowledge management–performance relationship has evolved over the years and how the interplay between knowledge management and performance may help the firms in gaining the sustainable competitive advantage.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to conduct the bibliometric analysis on knowledge management and performance. This study can be a starting point for scholars interested in understanding how knowledge management is related to performance.

The participation and productivity of women in Oman’s labor force are very low and heavily skewed toward the government sector. There are few women in the private sector and the reasons for this are not well-known. The challenges that women workers face specifically in the Arab World are worth understanding from a participation and policy perspective. The purpose of this paper is to explore employers’ perceptions of women workers and the major challenges they face in Oman in the context of government efforts to develop the female workforce in this Middle East region.

Data collected by interviewing the top executives (employers) from 28 organizations in two major cities in Oman were analyzed qualitatively, grouped into emerging themes, triangulated, and discussed.

The results indicated that employers, in general, are impressed by women workers in Oman. However, they identify a number of challenges women face. This study synthesized and grouped employers’ perceptions of these challenges in the following categories: women’s natural and physiological composition, their attitude at work, post-marital challenges, socio-cultural barriers, nature and place of work, organizational preparedness and governance, biases or prejudices of employers, and work-life balance (WLB) issues facing them.

This study suggests that since female participation in the government sector in Oman is substantial, women can also be attracted to work in the private sector if policies are formulated to safeguard their interests.

There is an absolute dearth of studies about female participation in the Omani workforce; this study is one of the pioneering efforts. Whereas the extant literature on WLB issues represents mostly the western perspective, this study highlights the major WLB issues in Oman and fills some important gaps between the West and the Middle East by focusing on women, WLB, and policies triangle.

The interruption of on-campus teaching and learning, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, forced universities around the globe to rethink their pedagogical models and adopt innovative strategies and approaches that enabled continuity of learning. Engineering schools and faculties were faced with the challenge of how to continue to engage students with the practical component of coursework, especially in terms of lab work and experimentation, which are mandatory requirements for degree awards.

This study documents how the Faculty of Engineering in a university in Oman engaged students with the practical component of their course during the pandemic by launching the remote DoIt@Home Lab. The DoIt@Home Lab approach included the design and development of video recorded labs, virtual labs, simulation exercises and DoIt@Home experiments which were provided to students as teaching tools and guides to conducting home experiments remotely.

This study presents the DoIt@Home Lab approach introduced to Year 2 Chemistry for engineering students. Students' grades improved by 11% over the previous year when the course was delivered face-to-face. Failure rates dropped by 8% while the number of students earning a 3.25 grade point average (GPA) or higher increased by 18%.

The DoIt@Home Lab for engineering courses could enhance students' learning experience and create an effective remote learning environment. While the DoIt@Home Lab was created to supplement on-campus activity in the event of a temporary disruption, it can also be used to supplement regular face-to-face program delivery.

The case will offer insight to the students regarding the idea generation and development of a viable sustainable venture. It will promote the understanding of students regarding SDGs and how SMEs can contribute towards their attainment. They will learn to develop the action plan for a green business venture and understand how each of the business activity in each phase of value chain contributes towards environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Rana Waseem, a young business graduate started a small ecopreneurial venture to offer sustainable food from raw material till disposal in developing nation context named as Dhuaan ‘n’ Dukhaan (D ‘n’ D) in Sargodha, Pakistan. He had an aim to create a model of business that not only supports the local economy in terms of offering decent employment but also promotes a food business that generates nutritional self-sufficiency as per the triple bottom line concept. This case gives an exploratory insight into the actual sustainable operations that have survived eight months successfully and on the path of growth without profit being the sole aim. D ‘n’ D has benefited the lives of people in Sargodha by offering job opportunities, a decent wage, healthy food at affordable rates, reduction in diseases, reducing food wastage and efficient resource usage with a positive impact on the environment.

The case is suitable for undergraduate and post graduate students studying entrepreneurship and small business management.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship