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This study utilizes cultural values from the World Values Survey (WVS) to investigate the cultural hypothesis regarding economic growth. Following Granato et al.'s (1996) theory, this paper describes a systematic method for developing analytical models that clarify the effect of cultural values on economic growth by using seemingly unrelated regression (SUR).

The results are sustained through regression analysis using ordinary least squares (OLS) and SUR. The sample size covers all WVS countries from the third wave in 1994 to the seventh wave in 2021, due to the limited sample size in the first and second surveys, which is insufficient for estimation.

Results highlight culture as a crucial factor for economic growth. Although the study found a positive effect of autonomy, life satisfaction, and post-materialism on economic growth, trust has been found to have a negative impact.

Although the literature has theoretically proven the impact of cultural values on economic growth, there is a significant disparity in the empirical studies, owing to a lack of applied studies. This study deepens the cultural analysis compared to earlier empirical investigations. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt to assess the combined effect of the selected four cultural values on economic growth during 1994 and 2021. Furthermore, SUR analysis allows for the estimation of the variables' effects throughout the five waves.

This paper aims to examine the nature of the relationship between internal marketing (IM) and customer orientation, with the mediating role of job satisfaction and affective commitment. The study encompasses workers of the service sector in Bahrain.

In total, 300 questionnaires were distributed, using a simple random sample, to employees of different service industries. The response rate was (73%). Simple and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data and test hypotheses.

The main findings of the study reveal a significant positive relationship between IM practices and customer orientation. It also indicates a significant positive effect of one of IM practices, internal communication, on customer orientation. The regression confirms a significant positive effect of IM on job satisfaction and affective commitment. Furthermore, the effect of job satisfaction and affective commitment on customer orientation were demonstrated. In addition, the results show a mediating effect of job satisfaction and affective commitment on the path of the relationship between IM and customer orientation, which was full for job satisfaction and partial for affective commitment.

This paper was trying to address a societal problem, the mediating role of job satisfaction and affective commitment in the direct path along the relationship between IM and customer orientation in the private sector in Bahrain. This cannot be done in a vacuum, as all research builds upon previous work. A deep literature review of books and journals on what is known so far about the problem was a guide to lead us to focus on filling the gaps in the knowledge about such a problem.

This paper aims to investigate and provide an objective appraisal of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Islamic and conventional financial institutions and Islamic windows in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

The panel data techniques are conducted country-wise in each financial institution type: random-effect model, fixed-effect model and Hausman test.

The results of the first phase analysis that extends from 1 January 2020 to 30 October 2020 show that Islamic financial institutions are less exposed to the repercussions of the COVID-19 outbreak than the conventional and Islamic window financial institutions in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. Moreover, the Islamic financial institutions in Saudi Arabia and Oman have not been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The second phase analysis for the COVID-19 outbreak that extends from 1 November 2020 to 17 March 2021 confirms the disappearance of the negative impact of COVID-19 on Islamic financial institutions in Bahrain and Oman.

The findings present that Islamic banks are not as resilient in the COVID-19 pandemic as in the 2008 financial crisis. It can be suggested that regulatory authorities, financial institutions and other key policymakers in the GCC countries should focus on implementing regulatory reforms related to human capital, innovative products, research and development to further develop individuals, societies and institutions within the framework of Islamic ontology to be more resilient in such crises.

This paper provides a different perspective from existing literature on the pandemics and financial institutions by comparing the stock prices in Islamic and conventional financial institutions and Islamic windows in GCC countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this paper should be considered as a contribution to filling a gap in the literature.

The current study investigated the effect of internal marketing practices, specifically the training and rewards system, on job satisfaction, affective commitment and employee turnover intention.

Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted on a sample of 288 responses from employees working in different organizations and diverse industries in Morocco.

The findings revealed that internal marketing positively affected employee job satisfaction and affective commitment and negatively affected employee turnover intention.

The current investigation extends our understanding of the effects of internal marketing practices, especially training and rewards, on an emerging country context and contributes to the organizational behavior and management field. The results may be of interest to organizations and managers who should consider the importance of internal marketing in enhancing job satisfaction, affective commitment and decreasing employee turnover intention.

The current study is the first of its kind to investigate the impact of internal marketing practices on job satisfaction, affective commitment and employee turnover intention in Morocco.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences an organization in deciding its ethical approaches in the corporate practices and also important to maintain sustainable development. Islamic banks are capturing almost 40% of the total bank account holders in Bangladesh and contributing to the socio-economic and environmental development of the country through their CSR activities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of CSR activities of Islamic banks for sustainable development in Bangladesh from the perception of the beneficiaries.

This study is based on a questionnaire survey of 200 conveniently selected beneficiaries from five purposively selected Islamic banks in Bangladesh. Respondents’ agreement score for various CSR-related activities has been observed in a five-point Likert scale and, finally, to identify the impact of CSR, exploratory factor analysis has been done.

Results revealed that respondents are expressing strong agreement for almost all the activities, and they are much satisfied with ongoing CSR activities by Islamic banks, which implies positive attitudes of beneficiaries regarding CSR activities. The results of factor analysis further confirm the perception of respondents toward CSR activities of Islamic banks in terms of social enhancement, education and health, socio-economic well-being and contemporary arts and culture.

The Islamic banks should enhance their CSR activities for socio-economic development, provide more allocation in education programs, increase sponsorship in sports events and assist in flourishing Bangladeshi arts and culture.

This study aims to examine the impact of social media (SM) on the creation of digital entrepreneurship by female (irrespective of age) and youth male (aged 18–29 years) entrepreneurs, investigate if SM empowers those entrepreneurs and compare the empowerment characteristics between female and youth male entrepreneurs before and after starting their businesses.

Self-assessment questionnaires were collected from a sample of 408 Egyptian female and youth male digital entrepreneurs from Greater Cairo, whose businesses had been operating for more than one year.

The research showed the following four results: Of the surveyed entrepreneurs, 95% asserted that without SM, they would not have started their businesses. Female and youth male entrepreneurs are empowered both on personal and relational levels, and women’s empowerment is more evident in the latter. Before digital entrepreneurship, youth males have significantly higher averages than female entrepreneurs in almost all empowerment characteristics, whereas after digital entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurs have significantly higher averages in making decisions related to investment, personal education and personal health, as well as those of other household members. Female entrepreneurs are relatively more empowered than youth males after digital entrepreneurship when each group is compared with its initial status.

This study’s originality stems from using a large sample of entrepreneurs, including youth males, not just females; employing a more structured, comprehensive measure of empowerment than found in the literature because it included the rarely used psychological dimension; considering more than one SM tool and comparing empowerment of females to that of youth males.

This study aims to examine the effect of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on financial fragility in non-financial corporations, using Nishi’s operationalization of Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis. Specifically, the study investigates the influence of board size, board independence, CEO duality and audit quality on the financial fragility of non-financial companies (NFCs).

Using a panel logit regression model, the authors analyse annual data from (66) NFCs listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, spanning over the period 2015–2021. This methodology enables us to assess the relationships between the identified CG mechanisms and the categorical proxy of financial fragility.

The findings of this study reveal that a large share of NFCs fall within Minsky’s “Ponzi” classification, indicating elevated levels of financial vulnerability. Remarkably, the analysis demonstrates that larger board sizes and the CEO-Chairman duality exacerbate financial fragility within these firms. Conversely, the study results suggest that board independence and audit quality exhibit limited effects on financial fragility. In addition, profitability, firm size and financial leverage are identified as key predictors of financial fragility.

This study adds to the current literature by using a financial fragility index grounded in Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis. The constructed index is then used to examine specific CG factors in relation to financial fragility, which offers new insights into the dynamics influencing the default exposure of NFCs. Furthermore, the study findings have direct implications for policymakers and stakeholders aiming to enhance CG practices and foster financial stability in the private sector.

This study aims to investigate the reaction (in terms of returns and volatility) of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country-wise stock markets (both conventional and Islamic) in response to the surge of COVID-19 cases, with special reference to the announcement of financial stimulus packages in each country and the recent global oil price plunge. Further, the study also examines the impact of COVID-19 cases on the stock market returns of each GCC country and the continuous dynamics of correlation between COVID-19 cases and GCC stock markets.

This study uses an exponential generalized auto regressive conditional heteroskedasticity model and continuous wavelet coherence to estimate the stock market volatility and co-movement between COVID-19 cases and stock returns.

Empirical findings indicate an adverse reaction (negative returns and high volatility) during the period examined, with the stimulus package resulting in a positive transformation of returns in each country-level stock market as well as the regional stock index. Further, no evidence of an adverse effect of the oil price plunge is identified. All findings are identical between both conventional and Islamic stock indices.

While ample research has been conducted on the impact and dynamics of the pandemic on stock markets, little has addressed the areas of financial stimulus packages and the oil price plunge. The findings of this study show that further research needs to be conducted to elucidate the ways in which effective financial stimulus packages can be formulated in the GCC region to mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 for economies without causing major financial deficits, as well as to find strategies to diversify economies away from the oil curse.

The aim of this paper has twofold: (1) to explain and compare the financial evolution of Islamic and conventional banking sector in the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) to explore the key success factors that might affect Islamic and conventional banks performance before and mainly during COVID-19 pandemic period.

Orbis Bank Focus database and annual financial reports are used to collect financial information of Islamic and conventional banks in GCC countries over four years: 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Descriptive statistics, T-test, multiple regression, and 2SLS and GMM models are employed to analyze the financial structure and performance of Islamic and conventional banks before and during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Results of this study reveal that (1) there is a significant difference between Islamic banks and conventional banks during the crisis of COVID-19, where the conventional banks have presented a higher level of financial performance and financial liquidity than their Islamic counterparts, (2) conventional banks have revealed higher capacity to manage their financial risk during the crisis period, and (3) a high level of non-performing loan, high inflation rate and high percentage of non-important cost have a negative impact on the financial performance of Islamic banks mainly during the pandemic period of COVID-19. However, the result indicates that a high level of liquidity risk increased the performance of Islamic banks but this impact falls sharply during the pandemic period.

This study provides information that supports investors, regulators and executive managers in GCC countries. A well-structured balance sheet would improve the financial performance and risk management of the banking sector in GCC countries, especially in times of crisis and pandemics.

This study aims to investigate the dependence structure and volatility spillovers among two strategic commodities (crude oil and gold) and a set of Islamic and conventional regional stock market indices, while examining the Ramadan effect

The empirical strategy consists of two complementary measures of dependence and connectedness. This study first uses copulas to examine the dependency between the markets considered, then spillovers compute the magnitude of the connectedness among them.

The copulas analysis shows that Frank’s copula appears to better capture the relationship between most asset returns and highlights the almost absence of extreme dependence and, therefore, the existence of diversification opportunities. Moreover, the connectedness analysis suggests that gold is a net volatility receiver and provides, thereby, greater diversification benefits compared to crude oil. In addition, the high levels of time-varying connectedness support strong integration among the financial markets studied, specifically during the COVID-19 crisis period. Furthermore, the connectedness among the markets studied increases during the Ramdan subperiods, supporting shift contagion among financial markets considered during this religious holiday.

The results provide investors with a better understanding of the nature as well as the magnitude of the interdependences between commodity markets and a set of Islamic and conventional regional stock markets. Indeed, it is of paramount importance for investors to clearly understand how Islamic and conventional markets are segmented or integrated during stress and stress-free periods, as well as the effect of the month of Ramadan on the interdependence among markets, to better assess risks, diversify portfolios and implement more effective hedging strategies.

While a considerable body of literature examines financial contagion and volatility transmission between financial markets, there is still much to be said regarding connectedness among commodity and stock markets, particularly when it comes to studying the effects of religious holidays on the interaction between conventional and Islamic assets. This paper fills in this gap by focusing on the dependence structure as well as the connectedness between Islamic stock indices, conventional stock indices, gold and crude oil for six different regions, while examining the Ramadan effect.