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The recent political crisis in the Middle East, coupled with several banking failures, have raised concerns about the safety of this region's banks among potential customers and investors in the international market. This paper presents an analysis of the safety of Middle Eastern banks, using capital strength as a measure of safety. A comparison of the capital strength of Middle Eastern banks with a sample of the world's largest banks and the largest U.S. banks (based on capital) is conducted for the period 1988 to 1992. The results of this study indicate that Middle Eastern banks possess significantly higher capital to assets ratios than both world and U.S. banks, and very few Middle Eastern banks failed to meet the Basel minimum capital ratio during this period.

Tourism in the Middle East is distinct and diverse, as are its associated challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine the various opportunities and constraints facing the Middle East region in developing and promoting its tourism.

Content analysis of the current literature was conducted, and industry white papers and government portals were consulted to identify the historical relevance, current proceedings and future scope of tourism in the Middle East.

Given the diverse attractions, history, heritage and cuisine, the scope and potential to develop tourism in the Middle East region is enormous. However, political turmoil in the past and its stereotypical image emerged as the major constraints. Acknowledging the significance of the tourism sector, the governments of the region are trying hard to improve international arrivals and revenues.

Despite a steep growth in international arrivals, tourism in the Middle East has not been adequately addressed in academia. This paper highlights the region’s tourism-related background, issues and constraints, thus, addressing a critical gap in the literature.

This paper aims to review the contribution made by the theme issue to the body of knowledge on tourism growth drivers and challenges in the Middle East and the subsequent impact of tourism growth drivers in the region in developing and promoting tourism.

A content analysis of the contributing articles featured in this theme issue was undertaken. Additionally, industry white papers and government portals were consulted to identify the historical relevance, current proceedings and future scope of tourism in the Middle East.

This summary article highlights the key outcomes relating to the tourism growth drivers and challenges in the Middle East that will assist in policy and decision-making by the pertinent stakeholders, especially in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Despite steep growth in international arrivals, tourism development in the Middle East has not been adequately addressed in academia. This theme issue highlights the region's tourism-related background, problems and constraints, thereby addressing a critical gap in the literature.

Human capital analytics (HCA) is integral to all other human capital processes. With a mature analytics practice, leaders can make better decisions more quickly and with greater confidences. This paper aims to describe results of research that shows how organizations in Middle East countries are investing in HCA. Specifically, it describes as follows: the extent to which they are investing; types of projects in which they are investing; and factors critical to making analytics work.

While research may include respondents from organizations in developing countries, only recently have efforts been made to monitor progress specifically in these countries. This paper attempts to describe the most recent findings of such research, paying specific attention to the use of HCA in the Middle East.

Organizations in the Middle East embrace HCA. While still in its infancy, analytics is poised to be a strategic driver that will lead to improved organizational performance.

Whether investing in leadership development, talent acquisition, employee engagement or talent development, analytics plays a central role in informing decisions about people investments. To make HCA work, Middle East organizations plan to continue building capability through training; embracing technology and striving to link data across programs and platforms; and integrating systems, processes and people with other functions, particularly finance. In the end, organizations will seamlessly integrate HCA into all processes to drive organization performance.

The Middle East is currently proving an attractive destination for retailers, with many sectors now being represented in the region’s markets. This case considers the opportunities and threats presented by the Middle East environment and outlines the expansion of UK department store Debenhams in the region. With franchise partner M&H Alshaya, it now has six stores in the region, with further openings planned.

Interest in creating high performance organizations (HPOs) has been growing in the Middle East and Middle Eastern managers have been looking into practices that will help them elevate organizational performance. Unfortunately there is a shortage of HPO studies conducted in the Middle East which could help these managers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of the recently developed HPO Framework in a Middle Eastern context, namely at Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU). The goal of the study was to evaluate whether this framework could be applied in the Middle Eastern context and thus help improve performance of Middle Eastern organizations.

A workshop was conducted with management and staff of the university at PPU's premises in Hebron. During the workshop, management, staff and teachers filled in the HPO questionnaire, which gauges the current HPO status of an organization. The resulting HPO score of PPU, and the comparison with the scores of other Middle‐Eastern organizations in the database of the researchers, were discussed during a workshop with representatives of PPU and initial improvements were established and put down in an action plan.

With an average HPO score of 6.8, PPU was an average scoring organization that performed more or less the same as the other Middle‐East organizations. However, two main issues for PPU emerged that had to be addressed in order to transform the university in an HPO. The first issue was that PPU's performance management process had to be improved, as not everything that mattered to PPU's performance was communicated to everybody adequately enough. The second issue was that the performance‐driven behavior of PPU's people had to be strengthened, as the decision‐making and action‐taking processes took too long and people were nor resilient and flexible enough to deal quickly with changing conditions.

Practically, the research findings could help managers of Middle Eastern organizations to achieve sustainable high performance in their organizations.

The research described in this paper constitutes one of the first studies into the determining factors of sustainable high performance in the Middle East and as such, it adds to the strategic management literature by showing that the HPO concept can be applied in the Middle East to evaluate the high performance status of Middle Eastern organizations.

This chapter attempts to uncover the decision code of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, based on 12 decisions he made concerning the Middle East during his third term as president, from 2012 until October 2015.

The study was carried out to understand Putin’s line of thought and decision-making, in light of Putin’s increasing importance throughout the last decade, globally and in the Middle East, in particular. After understanding the decision calculus of Putin, it might also be possible to predict his future decisions concerning the region.

Decision rules can be inferred by analyzing a set of decisions. Analysis of such decisions is made in this chapter using the Applied Decision Analysis (ADA) method that uncovers historic decisions, and aims to peer into the mind of the decision-maker.

The results show the main decision rule for each of Putin’s decisions. The work proves that when it comes to foreign issues, the decision code which leads Putin in his decisions is rational. The results also reveal Putin’s strong desire to promote Russia and himself, while using holistic, maximizing, and compensatory processing, as long as his political survival is not compromised.

This article tries to examine concerns and opportunities that American companies may face in the Middle East. American companies and managers should have a better understanding of this part of the world to be more effective and successful in their operations. This article starts first by describing the demographics, geography, and political composition of the Middle East, and then goes on to address the issues and challenges, for example, unions and security issues that American companies conducting business in the region might face. After discussing the challenges, this article explains the opportunities available, such as; privatisation. Finally, the conclusion is that the Middle East could offer American companies an opportunity to expand their operations, however, for any company to succeed in the region it should have a deep understanding of the culture, politics, and people.

Super-tall towers have surfaced as a pragmatic remedy to meet the escalating requisites for both residential and commercial areas and to stimulate economic growth in the Middle East. In this unique regional context, optimizing spatial usage stands as a paramount consideration in the architectural design of skyscrapers. Despite the proliferation of super-tall towers, there exists a conspicuous dearth of comprehensive research pertaining to space efficiency in Middle Eastern skyscrapers. This study endeavors to bridge this substantial gap in the literature.

The research methodology utilized in this paper adopts a case study approach to accumulate data regarding super-tall towers in the Middle East, with a specific focus on investigating space efficiency. A total of 27 super-tall tower cases from the Middle East were encompassed within the analytical framework.

Key findings can be succinctly summarized as follows: (1) average space efficiency was 75.5%, with values fluctuating between a minimum of 63% and a maximum of 84%; (2) average ratio of the core area to the gross floor area (GFA) registered 21.3%, encompassing a spectrum ranging from 11% to 36%; (3) predominantly, Middle Eastern skyscrapers exhibited a prismatic architectural form coupled with a central core typology. This architectural configuration mostly catered to residential and mixed-use functions; (4) the combination of concrete and outrigger frame systems was the most frequently utilized; (5) as the height of the tower increased, space efficiency tended to experience a gradual decline and (6) no significant discernible disparities were detected in the impact of diverse load-bearing systems and architectural forms on space efficiency.

Despite the proliferation of super-tall towers, there exists a conspicuous dearth of comprehensive research pertaining to space efficiency in Middle Eastern skyscrapers. This study endeavors to bridge this substantial gap in the literature.