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Egyptian youth played a central role in the Arab Spring (AS) uprisings, demanding bread, justice and opportunities. This paper examines the perceptions of young Egyptians about the AS through their responses on the economic, institutional and sociopolitical conditions in the pre-AS and post-AS periods.

The empirical analysis relies on a micro-level dataset extracted from the SAHWA Youth Survey. The estimations are carried out through the bivariate ordered probit model.

The results reveal that the perceptions about the AS-related outcomes are not uniform, and that social values and ideological characteristics matter more than the standard socioeconomic attributes in comprehending the responses. They indicate that individuals with secularist, non-traditionalist and gender equality inclinations have generally formed more favorable perceptions about the AS-related changes. Also, the results suggest that the AS has generated propitious perceived conditions for further global connection, relative to the Arab and Islamic ties. They show that the perceptions of individuals who place credence in entrepreneurial attitude have been relatively unfavorable vis-à-vis the post-AS conditions.

The findings underscore the importance of comprehending the perceptions about the AS-related outcomes. They imply that the AS has produced “winners” and “losers,” and has laid down the basis for social transformations in Egypt.

Employment and skill mismatch among youth constitute a major obstacle for access to the job market in the Middle East and North African region. The purpose of this paper is to explore factors explaining employment and the perception of the skill-mismatch problem among the youth in Lebanon using a novel data set covering young people aged from 15 to 29. The paper provides a set of empirical insights that help in the design of public policy targeting school-to-work transition.

The authors control for a rich set of youth and household characteristics to jointly estimate the probability of being employed and the likelihood of reporting a skill-mismatch problem. The empirical analysis uses a bivariate probit model where the first equation estimates the employment status while the second estimates the determinants of skill-mismatch perceptions. The bivariate probit model considers the error terms in both equations to be correlated and the model tests for such a correlation. The authors estimate the model recursively by controlling for the employment dummy variable in the skill-mismatch equation since employed youth could be more or less likely to perceive the skill mismatch. The estimation is conducted first over the whole sample of youth, and then it is implemented by gender and region.

The authors find that youth employment is mainly correlated with age, being male, being single, having received vocational training and financial support from parents, living with parents and receiving current education. The skill-mismatch perceptions are mainly driven by being male, being single, having received post-secondary education and belonging to upper and middle social classes. The authors also find that employability level and skill-mismatch problems are jointly determined in the labor market for males and in the core region only.

The paper covers a country that is neglected in the literature on the employment-skill mismatch nexus in the context of school-to-work transition. The study also uses a novel data set focusing on youth. The paper contributes to our understanding of the school-to-work transition in particular and to the youth-to-adulthood transition in general.

The purpose of this paper is to study the role of institutions (including civil law origin), financial deepening and degree of regime authority on growth rates in the Middle East and North Africa region.

This paper examines the implications of industrial firm-related and national factors for the determinants of economic growth using panel data through a fixed effect model.

The results reveal that English civil law origin and the establishment of the rule of law work with the development of financial institutions to increase economic growth in these economies; however, the democratization of the political institutions and foreign direct investment do not assist financial development in promoting economic growth.

Data covered is limited to four years.

The findings emphasize the prominence of overcoming institutional weaknesses and establishing transparent public policy governing businesses as a pre-requisite for successful universal integration in developing countries.

This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between finance and economic growth in two aspects. First, the authors focus on the contribution of the institutional setting and its interaction with the financial development and how this affects economic growth of the manufacturing firms. Second, the authors explore the relationship between the role of institutions, governance, the country civil law origin and the economic growth.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the export behaviour of manufacturing firms located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys Database.

This paper examines the factors influencing the export behaviour of manufacturing firms located in the MENA region through a probit model for export decision and through a fractional logit model for export intensity.

The empirical results show significant positive effects of private foreign ownership, information and communication technology, and firm size on the probability of exporting and on export intensity of MENA manufacturing firms. Government ownership tends to exert negative effects on firms’ propensity to export. The results underscore enhancing effects of national economic development levels on firms’ export performance. Also, they indicate that firms’ propensity to export decreases with larger domestic market size. The empirical analysis reveals considerable heterogeneity in the implications of firm characteristics for firms’ export behaviour through firm size categories and across MENA countries.

This paper contributes to the literature by conducting overall and comparative cross-country empirical analyses of the factors influencing the export behaviour of manufacturing firms located in the MENA region. It also explores the specificities of small and large firms’ responses to the factors influencing firms’ export behaviour. The results have implications for policies intended to enhance industrial growth and international competitiveness of the manufacturing sector in the MENA region.

Labour market constraints constitute prominent obstacles to firm development and economic growth of countries located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of firm characteristics, national locations, and sectoral associations for the perceptions of firms concerning two basic labour market constraints: labour regulations and labour skill shortages.

The empirical analysis is carried out using firm-level data set sourced from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys database. A bivariate probit estimator is used to account for potential correlations between the errors in the two labour market constraints’ equations. The authors implement overall estimations and comparative cross-country and cross-sector analyses, and use alternative estimation models.

The empirical results reveal some important implications of firm characteristics (e.g. firm size, labour compositions) for firm perceptions of labour regulations and labour skill shortages. They also delineate important cross-country and cross-sector variations. The authors also find significant heterogeneity in the factors’ implications for the perceptions of firms belonging to different sectors and located in different MENA countries.

Reforms in labour regulations and investment in human capital are important governmental policy interventions for promoting firm development and economic growth in the MENA region. This paper contributes to the empirical literature by analysing the factors influencing the perceptions of firms located in the MENA region concerning labour regulations and labour skill shortages. It provides policy-makers with information needed in the design of labour policies that attenuate the impacts of labour market constraints and enhance the performance of firms and the long-run economic growth.

In the light of high reliance on digital technology to mitigate the consequences of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its containment measures, this study investigates the factors influencing firms' decision to adopt digital technologies during COVID-19 in four Middle East and Northern African (MENA) countries, namely, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

The study used the International Labour Organization (ILO)/Economic Research Forum (ERF) COVID-19 - MENA Monitor Enterprise Survey (CMMENT), comprising 5,480 firms, surveyed during 2020–2021. The empirical model is estimated using the linear probability model (LPM) to address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity between firms, countries, and time.

The results revealed that firm characteristics, such as firm size and foreign ownership, encourage digital transformation in the business sector. Moreover, firms that face challenges during the pandemic, comply with the containment measures, and receive government assistance are more likely to adopt digital solutions. Furthermore, the results indicated that firms operating in services sector have a higher likelihood to adopt digital technology. Disaggregating the total sample into several sub-samples, the results are robust across countries and technology types, supporting the initial hypothesis that COVID-19 encourages digital transformation in the MENA region.

The study has numerous contributions. First, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the sole study that uses micro data collected during the COVID-19 to examine the factors influencing firms' decision to adopt and invest in digital solutions in the MENA countries. Second, the paper employs the LPM estimator to address the issue of unobserved heterogeneity between firms, countries and time. Finally, the paper offers some practical recommendations for accelerating digital transformation in MENA region.

The purpose of this study is to review the use of partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in the field of hospitality and tourism and thereby to assess whether the PLS-SEM-based papers followed the recommended application guidelines and to investigate whether a comparison of journal types (hospitality vs tourism) and journal qualities (top-tier vs other leading) reveal significant differences in PLS-SEM use.

A total of 206 PLS-SEM based papers published between 2000 and April 2017 in the 19 SSCI-indexed hospitality and tourism journals were critically analyzed using a wide range of guidelines for the following aspects of PLS-SEM: the rationale of using the method, the data characteristics, the model characteristics, the model assessment and reporting the technical issues.

The results reveal that some aspects of PLS-SEM are correctly applied by researchers, but there are still some misapplications, especially regarding data characteristics, formative measurement model evaluation and structural model assessment. Furthermore, few significant differences were found on the use of PLS-SEM between the two fields (hospitality and tourism) and between the journal tiers (top-tier and other leading).

To enhance the quality of research in hospitality and tourism, the present study provides recommendations for improving the future use of PLS-SEM.

The present study fills a sizeable gap in hospitality and tourism literature and extends the previous assessments on the use of PLS-SEM by providing a wider perspective on the issue (i.e. includes both hospitality and tourism journals rather than the previous reviews that focus on either tourism or hospitality), using a larger sample size of 206 empirical studies, investigating the issue over a longer time period (from 2000 to April, 2017, including the in-press articles), extending the scope of criteria (guidelines) used in the review and comparing the PLS-SEM use between the two allied fields (hospitality and tourism) and between the journal tiers (top-tier and other leading).

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that examines the sale and provision of healthy beverages across four sectors of the hospitality industry: restaurants, cafes, pubs and quick-service/takeaways. Specifically, the research investigates perceptions of demand for healthy products, challenges to distribution and strategies for increasing supply. In addition, business managers’ attitudes and behaviours with regard to offering healthy beverages, including probiotic beverages (i.e. kombucha, kefir, etc.), are explored, as these are among the fastest growing drinks category.

Data were collected in 2018 through 400 telephone interviews with hospitality business managers from Australia (n=250) and New Zealand (n=150). Data were analysed through SPSS and Stata using descriptive statistics and Probit regression, with a binary outcome variable of “sell/ do not sell” probiotics to consumers.

Results suggest that the business’ decision to sell healthy beverages is influenced by perceptions of consumer demand, profit margins, shelf life of the products and if locally produced.

The findings from this exploratory study present new insights on how hospitality firms respond to consumer demand for healthy options, and the factors influencing their decision to incorporate healthier beverages in their menus.

This paper aims to systematically explore the experiences of restaurant patrons with quick response (QR) code menus during the pandemic to extract insights pertaining to the acceptance of technology adoption in service settings for the post-COVID era.

COVID-19 has enormously impacted consumer perceptions toward technology adoption in restaurants. Identifying these impacts requires qualitative inquiries because qualitative techniques, unlike quantitative methods, enable researchers to seek insights into the phenomenon without a predetermined stance. This study applied a qualitative research method. The qualitative data was obtained through in-depth interviews and a focus group. Thematic analysis was conducted.

This study identified perceived attributes of QR code technology by patrons: positive attributes such as easy to learn, quick and contactless; and negative attributes such as effortful and reliance on a smartphone. Also, the results distinguished perceived advantages of utilization of QR codes as restaurants’ menu: advantages such as hygienic, environmentally friendly due to no printing and contactless; and disadvantages such as poor menu design and lack of interaction.

This research presents patrons’ views on QR code menu utilization at restaurants under the pandemic conditions. Contradictory responses on the same features of technology reveal a lack of menu design in the utilization of QR codes. Restaurant practitioners can extract insights about how to better use technology like QR codes, cost-effective and environmentally friendly, in their operations in the postpandemic era.

This study included both deductive and inductive approaches. An inductive approach that progressed from theory to data was applied while forming interview questions. A deductive approach was used to inform theory with the findings of the data. The value of research derives from differentiating technology attributes (QR codes) and utilization domain (restaurant menu) in the realm of acceptance of technology in the consumer context.