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This research aims to develop and validate a framework for eradicating women’s discrimination in architectural design firms (ADFs) in Egypt and propose strategies for prospective adoption in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to increase the transformational impact of women on the architectural and urban developments of the Gulf region.

A combined qualitative and quantitative research approach was designed to accomplish four objectives. Firstly, to investigate the nature of business in ADFs, women’s discrimination and policies for gender equity (PGE) in architecture. Secondly, to analyse three case studies to validate the identified causes and impacts of women’s discrimination and examine the role of PGE towards eradicating women’s discrimination in ADFs. Thirdly, to conduct a survey questionnaire with a representative sample of ADFs to investigate their perception of women’s discrimination and the correlation between PGE towards eradicating women’s discrimination in ADFs. Based on the above, the research developed and validated a framework to eradicate women’s discrimination in ADFs in Egypt and suggested strategies for potential application in the GCC countries to increase the transformational role of women in the architectural and urban developments of the Gulf region.

Through literature review and case studies, the research identified and validated the causes and impacts of women’s discrimination as well as PGE in Architecture. The findings of data analysis showed that the highest-ranked causes of women discrimination in ADFs were “customs and beliefs” followed by “Underestimating women’s work” and “Recruiting males more than females”. Moreover, the highest-ranked impacts of women’s discrimination were “career shift and leaving the profession” followed by “decrease in creativity and innovation” and “decrease in economic growth”. Furthermore, the Spearman correlation test showed that while some PGE were correlated, others were not. These findings helped in the development of the proposed framework and proposed strategies.

This research presents a practical framework to eliminate women’s discrimination in ADFs in Egypt based on the findings of literature review, case studies and survey questionnaire. The framework explained in a workable way the objectives of the framework functions; activities; tools and techniques; involved personnel and needed resources as well as enforcing mechanisms. It was validated by a representative sample of ADFs in Egypt to ensure its practicability and viability and suggested strategies for implementation in the GCC countries to increase women’s role in architectural and urban development.

The research identified and validated the causes and impacts of women’s discrimination as well as PGE in Architecture. Moreover, the research investigated the perception of women’s discrimination and the correlation between PGE through conducting a survey questionnaire with a representative of ADFs in Egypt. The research tackled a topic that received scant attention in construction literature, especially in Egypt and the GCC countries. The research developed and validated a framework to eradicate women’s discrimination in ADFs in Egypt. It represents a synthesis that is novel and creative in thought and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not previously occurred. The research suggested several strategies for the prospective implementation of the framework in the GCC countries as an approach to enhancing the transformational role of women in the architectural and urban developments of the Gulf region.

This paper delves into the critical role of women in the domains of architecture, engineering, construction and urban planning, particularly within the context of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the imperative of achieving gender parity. Concentrating on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, this paper explores the profound importance of women as essential contributors to urbanisation and sustainable development. It scrutinizes the existing gender disparities within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries; evaluates prevailing women empowerment indices in diverse sectors; and presents a strategic framework for harnessing women’s engagement to cultivate inclusive and sustainable urban cultures in the GCC. This conceptual paper introduces an actionable framework that can serve as a guiding agenda for empowering women in the AEC sectors by incorporating their socio-cultural, economic and ecological contributions towards creating sustainable cities.

Centring its focus on Gulf Cities, this paper employs a comprehensive approach to examine the current gender disparities within the architecture, engineering and construction sectors. It probes potential barriers and advocates for leveraging women’s participation to foster inclusive and sustainable urban development in the GCC. The study introduces the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) for the Gulf AEC industry elucidating how these measures are translated into a tailored framework.

The paper presents a practical framework that provides actionable guidance for engaging various stakeholders, including governments, academia and industry players, to empower women within the AEC industries. An “Agenda for equitable AEC industries for sustainable urban development: Our Common Gulf Cities” is culminated in a Women Empowerment Index for the AEC Industry (WEI-AEC) designed to serve as a guidance tool to monitor progress within industry, governments and academia.

Future research endeavours could advance the framework by conducting institutional support analyses, multi-stakeholder collaboration studies and practical testing of the framework within real-world scenarios.

The findings of this study can guide and influence a diverse range of initiatives, including policy development, educational strategies, corporate endeavours, awareness campaigns, capacity-building programs, skill enhancement initiatives and knowledge exchange among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

This conceptual paper introduces a practical framework that can serve as a roadmap for implementing the study’s potential to shape policies, educational programs and corporate initiatives aimed at advancing both gender equality and the development of sustainable cities.

The purpose of the paper is to provide some insights into the importance of family business in the transition of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region into a diversified, modern economic region.

This is a viewpoint paper, bringing together recent relevant academic and industry literature combined with the authors' observations of emerging regional trends.

The authors find that family businesses have been an anchor of private sector economic development in the GCC. Family businesses across the region reflect both the challenges and opportunity of the context. Recent social and economic changes present challenges to the historical ways of operation, and yet they also present opportunities.

This paper is intended to be thought provoking and insightful for those in the region and those with an interest in the region. The unique social, historical and economic characteristics of the region are discussed along with their impact on family businesses.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the influential and intellectual aspects of the literature on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region's banking activities.

This study undertakes a bibliometric meta-analysis review of the GCC region banking literature, covering 199 articles published between 2004 and 2022, extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database, followed by a content analysis of highly cited papers.

This paper identifies the influential aspects of the GCC region banking literature in terms of journals, articles, authors, universities and countries. The paper also identifies and discusses five major research clusters: (1) bank efficiency; (2) corporate governance (CG) and disclosure; (3) performance and risk-taking; (4) systemic risk, bank stability and risk spillovers and (5) intellectual capital (IC). Finally, it identifies gaps in the literature and highlights some important research issues that provide directions for future research.

This paper is limited to the articles indexed in the WoS database and written in English. Though the WoS database encompasses a wide range of multidisciplinary journals, there is a chance that some relevant articles are not included in the WoS database or written in another language.

This study provides regulators, practitioners and academics with valuable insight and an in-depth understanding of the banking system of the GCC region.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first review paper on GCC region banking literature. This study provides regulators, practitioners and academics with valuable insight and an in-depth understanding of the banking system of the GCC region.

This study aims to investigate the moderating effects of the Shariah committee (SC) on the extent of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) of Islamic banks.

This study provides evidence from an analysis of a sample of Islamic banks in multiple countries over a seven-year period (2012–2018). The extent of intellectual capital information was measured and regressed against several corporate governance attributes covering board and audit committee characteristics, gender diversity of SC members and moderating variables of the SC, while controlling for firm-specific variables. A checklist was developed to measure the extent of the ICD of Islamic banks on a rubric scale ranging from 0 to 3.

The results show that the size and gender diversity among SC significantly influence the ICD practices of Islamic banks. Apart from contributing to the literature, this study may serve as valuable input for Islamic banking practitioners including regulators and standard setters to empower women and use all their potential for better intellectual capital output.

The paper highlights two main implications. Firstly, the regulator should look at the size and composition of the SC to enable a conducive environment for sound deliberation of Shariah matters. Secondly, the gender diversity among SC should be considered because women and man may have different approaches, and the best optimal combination of resources could enhance Islamic banks’ competitive advantage.

This study highlights the importance of gender diversity and size of SC in influencing the disclosure practices related to Shariah matters by the Islamic banks.

This study aims to examine the role of royal family members’ board of directors, as a specific aspect of corporate governance, on the firm’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures. Many firms in the world enjoy special political connections, benefit from tax exemptions and favorable treatments that are largely responsible for their economic endurance and strong performance.

The authors collect data from Thomson Reuters database on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-listed firms for 2010–2018. Royal family board directors’ data is manually collected using a systematic approach to ensure accuracy. Fixed effects’ panel regression model is used to estimate relationships. The authors interact variables to test the moderating effect of board independence and sustainability committee on the influence of royal family board directors.

This study finds that royal family directors on GCC boards negotiate fewer ESG reporting in firms. While board independence, board gender diversity, sustainability committee and governance committee increase the level of ESG-disclosures in the traditional way of reducing agency costs to stakeholders, this study finds that royal family board members convey beneficial consequences on firms without perceiving the need to disclose their ESG activities. Additionally, these firms do not show a spillover effect from the royal family members on the board’s independence or the existence of a sustainability committee; rather these members use a different channel for protecting and building the business value. These results are robust with respect to controls for company size, leverage, return on assets and growth. Instrumental variables are then introduced in the analysis to perform a sensitivity test.

The study results indicate the need to improve GCC market transparency over supplementary limitations that exist on their corporate governance condition. This may be consequential to regulators, lenders and investors. The results suggest the need to raise awareness of the importance of governance and balancing firms’ financial and social performance in the presence of royal family board directors. Policymakers and governance agencies are responsible for promoting the importance of forming sustainability committees and having a set of performance indicators that measure the effectiveness of their actions.

This paper explores the impact of interior design education and its effectiveness in the work environment for women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as they are the primary recipients of interior design programs. The analysis focuses on the role of women in interior design in the Gulf countries and the update of an interior design program curriculum as part of the continuous development program requested by the UAE Commission of Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the national Ministry of Education (MoE).

The research adopts different methodologies: an academic annual effectiveness report (AER), requirements of relevant international and regional accreditation bodies and a double round of surveys and interviews with female students, alumni, instructors and professionals.

The article collects and compares data from different perspectives, from the academic to the professional point of view, discussing challenges and opportunities for female students in contemporary interior design in the UAE. After collecting the necessary feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the bachelor’s program, a set of informed recommendations has been developed, approved and introduced during the academic year 2022/2023. At the end of the year, a second feedback from faculty and external reviewers was gathered and analyzed, providing preliminary insights into the effectiveness of the curricular revisions and highlighting the significant benefits for the female students.

The paper discusses the comprehensive and up-to-date combination of traditional elements, innovative approaches and sustainable practices, alongside the strategic planning of the United Arab Emirates, proposed to enhance female learning experiences while reinforcing their skills and competencies for their future careers.

The global financial crisis of 2008 has put greater doubt on the bank risk-management effectiveness around the world. As a part of the response to such doubt, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is formulating some feasible approaches to manage bank risk. In this regard, an understanding of the role of the region’s culture and economic freedom will provide immense input into this risk management approach. This study examines the impact of national culture and economic freedom on bank risk-taking behavior.

Data on bank risk measures, culture and economic freedom are obtained from the FitchConnect, World Bank database, Hofstede’s insights and Heritage Foundation. Generalized least squares and two step-system generalized method of moments are then used to examine the risk-taking behavior of the region.

Banks of the GCC region operating in the low power distance, high collectivism, masculine and low uncertainty avoidance cultures are susceptible to assuming more operational and insolvency risks. Furthermore, banks’ overall risk-taking inclination is positively increased once the region has considerable business and monetary freedom.

The governments and bank regulatory bodies may benefit from the study findings by developing the best economic freedom index and national culture that enriches risk management practices and curves excessive risk-taking inclination.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to address the interplay among culture, economic freedom and bank risk to ensure constructive risk-taking behavior for the GCC banking industry.

In recent years, the field of financial technology (Fintech) has garnered significant attention due to advancements in technology, evolving consumer preferences and the growing need for financial services that are more accessible and user-friendly. The exponential expansion of Fintech is presenting novel prospects and obstacles for business. This study aims to investigate the relationship between gender diversity on corporate boards and firms’ performance, with a particular focus on the moderating role of Fintech.

The study sample consisted of financial sector firms listed on the Bahrain Bourse (banks and insurance firms) during the period 2016–2022. The data were gathered primarily from annual reports and the Bahrain Bourse website. The independent variable represents the percentage of female directors on corporate boards while firms’ accounting and market-based performance were measured using return on assets and Tobin’s Q variables. The moderating variable, Fintech, was measured using a checklist developed using the Global Fintech Adoption Index. Fixed effect (FE) regression was used to analyze the study data. An alternative gender diversity measure was used to test the reliability of the main regression analysis.

The results of the study indicate a positive relationship between gender diversity on corporate boards and financial performance. Additionally, the findings of the study highlighted the positive impact of Fintech practices on firms’ performance. Nevertheless, the impact of Fintech on the relationship between board gender diversity and corporate performance was found to be insignificant.

The study sample included a particular sector in a single country, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Also, the current study applied FE regression to analyze the data; however, other econometric approaches could be used to overcome the endogeneity issue.

The findings of this study may have implications for policymakers and society, particularly in terms of promoting gender diversity and Fintech innovation.

This study contributes to the existing body of research by examining the potential impact of the percentage of female directors and the utilization of Fintech on firms’ performance in Bahrain. Given the ongoing endeavors to provide advanced Fintech solutions in the financial sector and the increasing focus on enhancing gender diversity in Bahraini corporate boards, this research aims to provide additional evidence in this domain. Moreover, this study stands out as one of the limited number of research endeavors that use Fintech as a moderating variable in the investigation of the impact of female directors on firms’ performance.

Bank creditworthiness refers to the evaluation of a bank’s ability to meet its financial obligations. It is an assessment of the bank’s financial health, stability and capacity to manage risks. This paper aims to investigate the credit rating patterns that are crucial for assessing creditworthiness of the Islamic banks, thereby evaluating the stability of their industry.

Three distinct machine learning algorithms are exploited and evaluated for the desired objective. This research initially uses the decision tree machine learning algorithm as a base learner conducting an in-depth comparison with the ensemble decision tree and Random Forest. Subsequently, the Apriori algorithm is deployed to uncover the most significant attributes impacting a bank’s credit rating. To appraise the previously elucidated models, a ten-fold cross-validation method is applied. This method involves segmenting the data sets into ten folds, with nine used for training and one for testing alternatively ten times changeable. This approach aims to mitigate any potential biases that could arise during the learning and training phases. Following this process, the accuracy is assessed and depicted in a confusion matrix as outlined in the methodology section.

The findings of this investigation reveal that the Random Forest machine learning algorithm superperforms others, achieving an impressive 90.5% accuracy in predicting credit ratings. Notably, our research sheds light on the significance of the loan-to-deposit ratio as a primary attribute affecting credit rating predictions. Moreover, this study uncovers additional pivotal banking features that intensely impact the measurements under study. This paper’s findings provide evidence that the loan-to-deposit ratio looks to be the purest bank attribute that affects credit rating prediction. In addition, deposit-to-assets ratio and profit sharing investment account ratio criteria are found to be effective in credit rating prediction and the ownership structure criterion came to be viewed as one of the essential bank attributes in credit rating prediction.

These findings contribute significant evidence to the understanding of attributes that strongly influence credit rating predictions within the banking sector. This study uniquely contributes by uncovering patterns that have not been previously documented in the literature, broadening our understanding in this field.