Search results

This study aims to explore the relative efficiency of the working capital management (WCM) for Emirati firms before and during the coronavirus crisis. Next, this study explores the potential impact of WCM on the likelihood of financial distress.

A data envelopment analysis (DEA) was applied to assess the relative efficiency of the WCM. This study uses the emerging market Z-score model to predict the likelihood of financial distress. The logistic regression was applied to investigate the impact of the efficiency of WCM on firms’ financial distress.

The results of this study model showed a negative and significant influence of the efficiency of WCM on firms’ financial distress likelihood.

The findings have important implications for many stakeholders, including decision makers, WC managers, financiers, investors, financial consultants, researchers and others, in increasing their awareness of firms’ WCM performance before and during the crisis. Further, the results could have implications for trading strategies as investors seek attractive economic gains from their investment in firms that care about WCM.

The implications of WCM performance on social interests would cause firms’ decision makers to operate efficiently and achieve the best practices to minimise the probability of firms' financial distress.

This study advances a novel contribution to the literature by introducing a novel model to assess WCM based on DEA technology.

This study develops a robust model to measure intellectual capital efficiency (ICE). It also analyzes ICE across Gulf companies, sectors and countries.

This study uses data envelopment analysis (DEA), the Malmquist productivity index (MPI), difference tests and additional analyses on a dataset consisting of 276 firm-year observations.

The findings indicate that the study model is robust to additional analysis. The results show significant differences in ICE between firms during the study period and noteworthy differences between countries, where the Qatari and Bahraini firms achieved the best ICE compared to other countries.

The results of this study have significant ramifications for increasing knowledge of ICE analysis models among relevant parties. In addition, the findings may affect trading strategies because investors and financiers are motivated by the potential for lucrative financial returns on their investments in companies that prioritize ICE strategies.

This research contributes to the literature by proposing a robust model for estimating the ICE. It also compares ICE across Gulf companies, industries and countries to shed light on their ICE challenges.

Stock market performance is paramount to every country, as it signifies economic growth, business performance, wealth maximization, savings deployment and consumer confidence. This study investigates the disparities in the market performance of listed firms in Romania. This study also examines whether the COVID-19 crisis affected market performance.

The data were collected from 69 firms listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) from 2018 to 2022, belonging to 11 sectors. This study used several methods to achieve its objectives. Difference tests were considered to analyze the performance of Romanian companies before and during the COVID-19 crisis, as well as across sectors. Regression analysis was also conducted to estimate the effect of the COVID-19 crisis and classification type on Romanian companies' performance. Additional analyses were performed to verify the findings of the present study.

The study’s findings indicate a clear difference in market performance between the pre-crisis and crisis periods. The COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse and significant impact on market performance. However, after the market contraction in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the stock market outperformed the pre-pandemic capitalization levels and the regional and global indices evolution. Furthermore, there was a difference in market performance across sectors. In particular, the communication services sector has specifically demonstrated accelerated growth.

This research examines the variation in the market performance of companies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and across different sectors. It also provides evidence of the potential impact of COVID-19 on firms' market performance. This research contributes to a better understanding of how sectors perform during times of crisis.

This study investigates the impact of managerial ability and auditor report readability on the cost of debt and corporate liquidity in Omani-listed industrial companies.

The study uses data from the S&P Capital IQ database and audited annual reports published on Muscat Securities Market. The sample consists of 35 firms (175 firm-year observations) from 2015 to 2019. Managerial ability is measured using the data envelopment analysis proposed by Demerjian et al. (2012a, b). Auditor report readability is measured as a log of the auditor report digital file size proposed by Loughran and McDonald (2014).

This study finds that a company's managerial ability reduces the cost of debt lending support to upper echelons and agency theory. Highly able managers of industrial companies are associated with increased corporate liquidity consistent with the precautionary motive of holding cash. In addition, less-readable auditor reports contribute to higher debt costs and reduce corporate liquidity.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, few studies have explored the influence of managerial ability and auditor reporting readability on firms' financial policy. For industrial-sector firms, this study demonstrates the managerial ability and readability of auditor readability as significant determinants of the cost of debt and corporate liquidity, especially during periods of uncertainty. Thus, the findings can be generalized to other non-financial sector firms in the country and the Middle East.

The efficient use of organizational resources is integral to the existence of prime firms. This study, using Malmquist data envelopment analysis (DEA), aims to assess in the level of operational and financial efficiency and its determinants for ensuring and sustaining excellent performance in 33 Egyptian private hospitals.

This study adopted a Malmquist DEA approach to assess the changes in operational and financial efficiency in Egyptian hospitals. Tobit regression was also used to identify the significant variables affecting their efficiency. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is carried out for model validations.

Out of 33 hospitals, 17 were found inefficient due to the decline in their technical efficiency. Moreover, the total value of the software programs and operational expenses and the total number of employees are common factors affecting both operational and financial efficiency. In addition, the number of physicians significantly affects the hospital's financial efficiency.

The study sheds light on the value of using DEA to assess efficiency. DEA in the context of emerging economy such as Egypt's can be a useful tool for decision-makers and practitioners in identifying and addressing performance weaknesses and thus supports continuous improvement in performance.

Several studies have adopted the DEA approach to assess the overall efficiency of hospitals in Europe and the United States. However, in the MENA region, these studies are uncommon. This study is thought to be one of the earliest attempts to assess hospitals' efficiency in Egypt.

This study assesses the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on the relative efficiency of conventional and Islamic Egyptian banks in the period 2012–2018.

A three-stage approach is adopted. First, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to assess the relative efficiency of Egyptian banks. Second, a CSR index is designed and used to assess the extent of aggregate CSR practices in Egyptian banks, together with their sub-dimensions. Third, a Tobit regression model is used to examine the impact of CSR on the technical efficiency of these banks.

There is no statistically significant difference between conventional and Islamic banks as regards their purely technical efficiency. Egyptian banks, on average, have achieved a medium score in their practices of CSR and conventional and Islamic banks have not shown significant differences, except in 2018. Moreover, the aggregate CSR practices positively affect the technical efficiency of Egyptian banks. The practices of the CSR sub-dimensions, apart from the community sub-dimension, also affect the banks' technical efficiency.

The legislative institutions and the Central Bank should enhance CSR practices in Egyptian banks, particularly the practices related to customers and the community, in order to enhance the purely technical efficiency of these banks.

The paper is original in investigating the impact of CSR on banks' relative efficiency in Egypt.

Using data on 51 firms traded in the Egyptian Exchange from 2014 to 2016, this paper aimed to assess the efficiency of corporate governance (CG) and intellectual capital (IC) practices and to explore their influence on the probability of a firm's financial distress.

The relative efficiency of CG and IC practices has been measured under the Malmquist data envelopment analysis model. A modified Z-score model was applied to assess firms' financial distress.

The Wilcoxon signed-rank test revealed almost insignificant evidence regarding the improvement of CG and IC efficiency over the study period. The efficiency score of CG practices had no impact on the likelihood of financial distress. However, the efficiency score of IC negatively affected the probability of financial distress.

The integration of data envelopment analysis with Tobit regression was required for identifying the significant drivers of efficient CG and IC.

The findings shed light on the role of CG and IC in alleviating the degree of financial distress in Egypt as an emerging market, especially the need to raise firms' compliance with the Egyptian CG code from a voluntary to mandatory status.

This study, using Malmquist data envelopment analysis, is among the first attempts to assess the relative efficiency of CG and IC practices and their effects on financial distress.

Leadership is basically about influence and ability to cultivate followership. This chapter examined the nature of indigenous socio-political leadership in Africa using Zimbabwe, Sudan and Nigeria as caselets and compared this with the post-colonial or modern-day leadership realities. A survey was conducted among senior executives at Lagos Business School, Nigeria, with a sample size of 200 persons, to find out their perception of the African indigenous leadership system. An overwhelming 90% believe that culture plays a big role in shaping African leadership style. However, two-thirds of the respondents agreed that Africa lacks proper institutional structures to support good leadership, thus encouraging corruption (97% of the respondents) and non-accountability among the leaders. Also, only 5% thought cultural orientation was the reason why the African followers do not hold their leaders accountable. In other words, it is not in the African culture not to hold leaders accountable for their actions. So, what went wrong? We attempted a deeper look at the effect of colonial rule and the attendant militarisation of the African continent. Our conclusion is that the colonisation of the continent by Europe brought significant distortion to the traditional African indigenous leadership institutions and the psyche of the African leader and the followers alike. Post-colonial Africa has witnessed 133 recorded coups d’etat between 1952 and 2016. This chapter is recommended to all those who seek a deeper understanding of the nature of the African indigenous leadership practices and the factors that have shaped these over the years.

Al-Qaeda is conventionally portrayed as a monolithic, hierarchical organization whose activities – coordinated by the network's leader Osama bin Laden – are the source of international terrorism today. Al-Qaeda is considered a radical tendency within the broader Islamist Salafi movement, legitimizing its terrorist operations as a global Islamist jihad against Western civilization. Al-Qaeda's terrorist activity today is considered, “blowback” from long finished CIA and western covert operations in Afghanistan.

The conventional wisdom is demonstrably false. After the Cold War, Western connections with al-Qaeda proliferated around the world, challenging mainstream conceptions of al-Qaeda's identity. Western covert operations and military – intelligence connections in strategic regions show that “al-Qaeda” is a network whose raison d’etre and modus operandi are inextricably embedded in a disturbing conglomerate of international Western diplomatic, financial, military and intelligence policies today. US, British, and Western power routinely manipulates al-Qaeda through a complex network of state-regional and human nodes. Such manipulation extended directly to the 9-11 hijackers, and thus to the events of 9-11 itself.11This paper advances an original argument based partially on research in Ahmed (2005), supplemented here with significant new data and analysis. Also see Ahmed (2002).