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This paper aims to examine the impact of firm-specific characteristics on managers’ identity disclosure in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

Research data were collected from 2010 annual reports and financial statements of 403 listed firms in the GCC countries. The data were analyzed by multiple regression models.

Evidence suggesting that managers’ identity is significantly disclosed by firms that separate the office of chairman from that of chief executive officer was documented. It was also found that mature firms significantly disclose their managers’ identity. Our finding suggests that firms’ declaration that they comply with a set of corporate governance code leads them to disclose managers’ identity. However, we find that firms that are related to the state significantly disclose their managers’ identity, contrary to expectation.

One limitation is the lack of a uniform classification of industries by the stock exchanges in the GCC region. The implication of this is that researchers are lacking a uniform standard to apply in their research. Another limitation is the use of only 2010 annual reports and accounts; thus, there is a problem of inter-temporal generalizability. As markets in the GCC countries are evolving, it will be interesting to capture the state of managers’ identity disclosure after 2010.

The paper has the potential to influence firms in the GCC region to begin disclosing managers’ personal details and other contact information. In addition, there is the prospect that market regulators in the GCC region and other emerging markets who may read this research may now require firms to disclose their managers’ identity.

This is an Original research paper.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate red tourism in China and, in doing so, shed light on the complex relationships between tourism, heritage and identity politics.

Mixed methods – literature review, document analysis, interviews with government officials, travel agents and tourists.

Red tourism is an initiative to preserve, promote and pass down China’s communist past that is underpinned by political purposes. It has resulted in an imbalance between the government’s designation of communist heritage sites all over the country and the concentration of visitors in a small number of popular destinations. Red tourism fosters allegiance to the Communist Party of China. At the same time, it is expected to bring economic opportunities to remote locations through tourism spending and the branding opportunities that it provides. However, a different emphasis can be discerned at the national and local levels, whereby the former emphasizes political cohesion and the latter stresses local economic development.

Four sites are investigated in detail out of the hundreds that might have been explored.

Recommendations are made to: diversify the product, increase stakeholder involvement, enhance heritage conservation plans, improve interpretation.

Many implications for relationships between governments at all levels and the Chinese population. Also implications for the economic well-being of places and people adjacent to red tourism sites.

One of very few papers in either English or Chinese that addresses the red tourism policy in detail and with substantial empirical materials.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an updated and critical assessment of the share reforms relevant to Chinese A‐share issuers listed in the two mainland markets of Shanghai and Shenzhen. The reform programme first began in 2005 and has now spread widely across issuers in the two markets. It is therefore timely to assess how effective the reforms have been as well as gauging the ongoing effects of the transformation (of non‐tradable scrip into tradable form) on A‐share prices.

The “Split Share Structure” reform programme represents a major policy initiative in China and potentially opens‐the‐door to large‐scale state‐share disposals. The evidence to date however suggests that the Chinese authorities are primarily concerned with the reconfiguration of the array of share types that presently exist into a more comprehendible, streamlined form. The various checks and balances imposed on controlling shareholders engaged in the transformation of their shares from non‐tradable to tradable form suggest that eventual re‐designation of the holdings into an unfettered tradable type will not necessarily translate to the state's acquiescence in the disposal of such shares. On the contrary, state holdings in the most strategic of assets are likely to be retained more or less intact. Insights are developed by focusing on examples involving major A‐share issuers. In particular, a case study of the Sinopec reform proposal of August/September 2006 is set out to help illuminate the principal features of the reform package. Critical examination of the empirical literature relating to the A‐share price effects of the share reform programme also features.

There is little evidence to date of significant stock disposals amongst the largest and most strategic of China's issuers. However, for a number of A‐listed issuers, parts of the lock‐up moratoria have already expired or are set to do so in the very near future. Given the precipitous fall in A‐share prices (in Shanghai and Shenzhen) since late 2007, largely wrought by the enveloping global credit‐crunch, the Chinese authorities have an even more compelling case than hitherto to assiduously dampen fears of large‐scale state‐share disposals. Notwithstanding this, at least a small part of the drop in A‐share values during 2008 derives from the building risk‐premium on this issue.

As the trading moratoria on re‐designated shares still applies in most cases, at least in respect of the majority of domestic stock holdings, a clearer picture will not emerge until 2009‐2011 when all such moratoria would have lapsed.

The discussions in this paper help to bring into focus a highly topical issue within the context of the Chinese equity market.

This study investigates state institutions' influence on corporate accountability and control practices in a rural African context. Exploring the different rationales behind state existence in the context of sugar production in Egypt, this work clarifies how accountability is practised differently in the case of the high centrality of state logics in the business sector.

Theoretically, the study draws insights from the institutional logics perspective. Following the case study approach, data are collected through interviews, observations and documents.

The study found that state institutions can play a supportive rather than a mere constraining role in the management, accountability and control processes. Notably, it clarified how state-related institutions were highly central and influential in a way that enabled them to curb the (negative) influences of the community and business institutions. In this context, it is social – rather than functional – accountability which emerges as the central control practice to achieve answerability and enforcement.

Thus, this study's reported findings confirm the role of institutional (political) logics as supportive in society.

The owner-manager of small firms is recognised as having a potentially significant role in the small firm’s competitiveness, growth and failure. However, the owner-manager’s own resilience has been largely overlooked in the small firm resilience literature. The purpose of this paper is to redress this and expand the debate and empirical basis of small firm owner-managers’ personal resources for resilience.

This longitudinal qualitative study deployed semi-structured interviews with nine owner-managers, each being interviewed three or four times. Analytical procedures were used with an established framework, which conceptualised four key personal resources for resilience, as follows: adaptability, confidence, social support and purposefulness.

There were four key findings, as follows: owner-manager adaptability can appear in extremes including a sense of helplessness or optimism where disruptive circumstances are not sensed as problematic; owner-manager confidence levels often echo their own mindset of adaptability, that is, from helplessness to positive ambition; owner-managers can use discursive tactics with strong/weak ties for a range of affective and technical resources for resilience; and purposefulness tended to be framed in terms of a necessity for a longer term future state related to own or family lifestyle rather than profit. It is also noted that the owner-manager and the firm are closely interrelated, and therefore, enhancement of personal resilience resources is likely to positively influence their resilience, and therefore, the resilience of the organisation and strategic capability of the firm.

The small firm resilience literature typically focusses on the organisational level, which de-emphasises the salient role of the owner-manager and their resilience. This study attempts to redress this.

China is in the midst of an aggressive privatisation process in which key state‐owned enterprises have already tapped, or have plans to tap, international capital through initial public offerings in Hong Kong. Aims to critically assess two major SOE bank IPOs, the Bank of Communications and China Construction Bank offerings of June and October 2005, respectively, in an attempt to shed light on the evolving share ownership structure of China's leading SOEs especially the extent of capital injections from “foreign” (i.e. non‐Mainland) entities.

The objectives of this paper are pursued, as noted above, through detailed analysis of recent ownership change in two highly topical and major SOE bank cases.

The forms and mechanisms for recent “foreign” capital injection are outlined – in terms of both the private equity and IPO capital injection routes – as well as recent initiatives, in a number of SOEs, to convert non‐tradable PRC stock holdings into tradable holdings. Recent cases suggest that foreign equity fusion is taking place at an unprecedented pace and scale, and is fostered by recent innovations like “unlisted foreign shares”.

Only time will tell whether the evolving ownership patterns of China's leading SOEs result in the kind of governance and performance benefits that are eagerly anticipated. As this process of ownership is ongoing, and in some senses still in its early stages, much research will be necessary in the future to confirm whether the expectations of foreign investors and the SOEs themselves are likely to be met.

The case analysis of the evolving equity structure of SOE banks presented here provides useful background for those wishing to evaluate the merits of other SOE banks that are in the midst of IPO preparations, especially in light of the key vetting role played by the introduction of new stake holders.

In sum, this paper provides key insights on how a unique equity model is being transformed such that SOE stakeholders are rapidly, in many cases, seeking ways to share and diversify ownership risk. This paper sheds light on the mechanisms for doing so by reverting to real and highly topical examples with the SOE bank sector.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the population of Chinese state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) listing A‐ (Chinese Mainland) and H‐ (Hong Kong) shares with a view to explaining differential pricing across the two stock types.

Despite the fact that both A‐ and H‐shares carry ostensibly the same shareholder benefits, when issued by a given SOE, major pricing differences are apparent. The behaviour of such prices for 20 quarters spanning January 2001 to December 2005 was examined. During this period, a marked contraction in the mean A‐ to H‐price relative occurred, whereby A‐prices generally softened and H‐prices soared.

It was noted that that the principal factors relevant to the contraction in the A‐ to H‐share price relative relate to two issues: first, an enveloping risk premium centring on state‐share disposal fears, and second, the firming of expectations surrounding the likely deployment of a qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) scheme.

Modelling of changing expectations, especially in relation to uncertain policy deployment, is an invidious task. Measurement of such expectations is obviously strewn with difficulties.

As pertinent factors largely hinge on the deliberations of the PRC state, the analysis herein provides useful input into how policy can either wittingly or unwittingly shape general share price movements. Such insights are especially important given the evolving nature of the Chinese economy.

This paper investigates how the global financial crisis changes the effects of state ownership and foreign ownership on corporate cash holdings in an emerging market.

We employ an interactive term between state ownership (foreign ownership) and a crisis dummy to analyze how the global financial crisis determines the effect of state ownership (foreign ownership) on corporate cash holdings.

With a research sample including 5,493 observations from 621 listed firms over the period 2007–2017, we find that state ownership (foreign ownership) is negatively (positively) related to corporate cash holdings and the effect of state ownership (foreign ownership) is stronger (weaker) during the crisis period. Moreover, the increase in the effect of state ownership is larger in financially unconstrained firms.

Prior research shows that the effects of state ownership and foreign ownership on corporate cash holdings in emerging markets are still debatable. This paper extends this line of research by investigating how the global financial crisis – an exogenous shock – changes these effects.

The purpose of this paper is to provocatively enter four imagined worlds of enterprise education with the express aim of contemplating an emerging future. The authors do so not to expressly determine what positioning is most appropriate for enterprise/entrepreneurship education, but rather to consider the issues associated with each of the four imagined worlds.

The authors’ approach is built around a combination of cycles of reflective practice and the use of scenario development processes. The authors seek to suspend their collective judgement whilst entering the four imagined worlds, but ultimately do not claim to have hidden their personal biases.

It is concluded that enterprise/entrepreneurship education should be shared across the university and not owned by any school or faculty. While the authors find it difficult to dismiss the underlying purpose of each scenario, they sense an opportunity to unite their common focus on the development of a transformative student experience.

This process has provided unexpected insights into the potential of scenario planning as a tool that could conceivably be employed more often to tackle complex issues, such as the positioning of enterprise/entrepreneurship education in Higher Education.

This paper, despite its inherent biases, offers the reader an opportunity to gain a sense of the various roles forced upon enterprise/entrepreneurship education by its various key stakeholders. In doing so, the shortcomings of the current situation are highlighted.