Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally and Ahmed Diab
This study aims to investigate the institutional changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on the Bahraini insurance sector. This study also examines how those changes…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the institutional changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on the Bahraini insurance sector. This study also examines how those changes affected the risk management practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This study deploys a qualitative methodology with a case study design. The data are collected from multiple sources such as semi-structured interviews, documents and website analyses.
Findings
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an institutional change in the Bahraini insurance sector. Pre-COVID-19, the professional logic was the dominant institutional logic. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic and its related uncertainties made the economic logic the most dominant logic. Accordingly, risk officers are currently responding to the crisis by being more risk-averse than risk managers. This study presents an inclusive institutional understanding of risk management as informed by the professional logic and socio-political and economic logics.
Practical implications
This study has implications for regulators and insurance customers by giving a snapshot of how insurers’ risk officers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, which can help envisage their plans and actions.
Originality/value
This study contributes to risk management and institutional logics literature by illustrating how changes in risk management practices in emerging markets are an operational manifestation of sustaining profits and maintaining the positions of risk officers. This extends the risk management literature by bringing early evidence from an emerging market regarding risk officers’ behaviours and control plans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this study extends the institutional logics literature by exploring the micro-level impacts of logics in an emerging insurance market.
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Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally and Ahmed Diab
In developing countries, how risk management technologies influence management accounting and control (MAC) practices is under-researched. By drawing on insights from…
Abstract
Purpose
In developing countries, how risk management technologies influence management accounting and control (MAC) practices is under-researched. By drawing on insights from institutional studies, this study aims to examine the multiple institutional pressures surrounding an entity and influencing its risk-based management control (RBC) system – that is, how RBC appears in an emerging market attributed to institutional multiplicity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used qualitative case study research methods to collect empirical evidence from a privately owned Egyptian insurance company.
Findings
The authors observed that in the transformation to risk-based controls, especially in socio-political settings such as Egypt, changes in MAC systems were consistent with the shifts in the institutional context. Along with changes in the institutional environment, the case company sought to configure its MAC system to be more risk-based to achieve its strategic goals effectively and maintain its sustainability.
Originality/value
This research provides a fuller view of risk-based management controls based on the social, professional and political perspectives central to the examined institutional environment. Moreover, unlike early studies that reported resistance to RBC, this case reveals the institutional dynamics contributing to the successful implementation of RBC in an emerging market.
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Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally, Ahmed Diab and Mostafa Kayed Mohamed
This study aims to examine the impact of Covid-19 on transforming accountability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and office operation and control. This paper explains how…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of Covid-19 on transforming accountability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and office operation and control. This paper explains how unleashing the rationality of health and safety along with internal CSR made the transformation to telework successfully operable in a periphery of a western multinational corporation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws upon the theories of governmentality and social accountability. It adopts an interpretative qualitative research approach and uses the case study method. Data were collected from one of the biggest private sector telecommunication companies in Egypt.
Findings
This study finds that Covid-19 and its related health and safety discourse represented a good rationale for the western home office to accelerate the initiation of its office transformation plan to reach full working from home policy in a less developed country peripheral subsidiary. Under the guise of CSR, the company spent a large budget to make this transformation quickly operable, while its Egyptian subsidiary is financially distressed. Moreover, the company achieved its objectives from this new rationality as employees currently prefer the telework mode which reduces the company costs in the long run.
Practical implications
The study provides practitioners with evidence and practicable knowledge regarding the impact of Covid-19 on office reconfiguration and the ways used to achieve this in the Egyptian telecommunication sector.
Originality/value
The current study extends the governmentality literature by illustrating that transformation to telework in emerging markets is an operational manifestation of cost reduction and efficiency rationality under the guise of CSR. Moreover, it extends the office transformation literature by bringing early evidence regarding office transition plans during COVID-19 in an emerging market.
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Samir Ibrahim Abdelazim, Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally and Saleh Aly Saleh Aly
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of firm financial and operational characteristics on the level of forward-looking information disclosure (FLID) by…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of firm financial and operational characteristics on the level of forward-looking information disclosure (FLID) by Egyptian-listed non-financial companies. The present research also aims to investigate the moderating role of gender diversity on the board of directors.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample incorporates the non-financial companies included in the EGX 100 of the Egyptian Stock Exchange (ESE), whose reports were available during the study period from 2013 to 2018. The final sample comprises 49 companies with 294 observations. Statistical analysis is performed using multiple regression analysis.
Findings
This study found a significant positive impact of return on assets, leverage, company size and age on the level FLID, while external audit firm type and industry were found to impact the level of FLID negatively. Further, the board gender diversity (BGD) is found to have a moderating impact as it strengthens the effect of financial and operational characteristics on the level of FLID.
Practical implications
The present study has some implications for Egyptian companies, investors in the Egyptian market and regulators in emerging economies, which include paying more attention to BGD when selecting the board members by companies as well as following up the female representation in all the listed companies by regulators.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the moderating role of BGD and its impact on the level of FLID in emerging markets. This extends the disclosure literature as the present study brings new evidence from an emerging market regarding BGD moderating role as early research concentrated on the direct impact of BGD on the level of FLID.
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The Australian banking system was subject to extensive measures ofderegulation in the 1980s. As a result there has been a dramaticincrease in marketing research and a tendency to…
Abstract
The Australian banking system was subject to extensive measures of deregulation in the 1980s. As a result there has been a dramatic increase in marketing research and a tendency to rely more on advertising in maintaining and expanding market shares. Attempts to measure the effectiveness of the advertising of a number of Australian banks. Tests static and dynamic optimal advertising criteria and examines, using a simultaneous‐equations model, the interdependence between market shares and advertising of Australian banks. Short‐term analysis seems to suggest that the actual advertising/revenue ratios of Australian banks are much higher than the optimal ratios. Also Australian banks seem to follow a long‐run profit maximization policy with respect to their advertising expenditure. The banks seem to give a positive shadow price to the stock of goodwill. Moreoever, both banks and rival advertising exert a significant influence on the competitive position of Australian banks, as given by their market shares. Also shows that rates of return on the advertising of the small banks are much lower than those of the large banks.
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Ali M. Metwalli and Roger Y.W. Tang
This paper provides an overview of the merger and acquisition (M&A) activity of Middle‐Eastern (M.E.) countries from 1990 to 2000. The following information is presented: M&A…
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the merger and acquisition (M&A) activity of Middle‐Eastern (M.E.) countries from 1990 to 2000. The following information is presented: M&A transactions by the nationality and industries of the target firms; home countries and industries of the acquiring firms and the acquisition methods. The largest twenty mergers and acquisitions in the Middle East during the 1990–2000 period are identified. The paper also compares the M&A activity in four important countries (Egypt, Israel, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia). Learning the M&A activity in the Middle East is essential in identifying target or acquirers, and conducting future M&A transactions.
Ahmed Diab and Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally
The study aims to investigate the appearance of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices in a context where economic, communal and political institutions…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to investigate the appearance of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices in a context where economic, communal and political institutions are highly central and competing with each other.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretically, the study draws upon the institutional logics perspective and the theoretical concepts of logics centrality and compatibility to understand how higher-order institutions interact with mundane CSER practices observed at the case company's micro level. Empirical data were solicited in an Egyptian village community, where fishing, agriculture and especially salt production constitute the main economic activities underlying its livelihood. A combination of interviews, informal conversations, observations and documents solicits the required data.
Findings
Thereby, this study presents an inclusive view of CSER as practiced in developing countries, which is based not only on rational economic perspectives – as is the case in developed and stabilised contexts – but also on social, familial and political aspects that are central to the present complex institutional environment.
Originality/value
The reported findings in this study highlight the role of non-economic (societal) logics in understating CSER in African developing nations.
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Are men and women akin to single‐minded, “cold” calculators, each out to maximize his or her own well‐beings? Are humans able to figure out rationally the most efficient way to…
Abstract
Are men and women akin to single‐minded, “cold” calculators, each out to maximize his or her own well‐beings? Are humans able to figure out rationally the most efficient way to realize their goals? Is society mainly a market place, in which self‐serving individuals compete with one‐another‐at work in politics and in courtship enhancing the general welfare in the process? Assuming human beings see themselves both as members of a community and as self‐serving individuals, how are the lines drawn between the commitments to the commons and to one's self? we are now in the middle of a paradigmatic struggle. Challenged is the entrenched utilitarian, rationalistic — individualistic, neoclassical paradigm which is applied not merely to the economy but also, increasingly, to the full array of social relations, from crime to family. One main challenger is a social‐conservative paradigm that sees individuals as morally deficient and often irrational, hence requiring a strong authority to control their impulses, direct their endeavors, and maintain order (Etzioni, 1988).
E. Abdel‐Latif, F.A. Amer, M.A. Metwally and M.E. Khalifa
The purpose of this paper is to synthesise some new 5‐arylazothiazole disperse dyes and study their application in dyeing polyester fibres.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesise some new 5‐arylazothiazole disperse dyes and study their application in dyeing polyester fibres.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of 5‐arylazo‐2‐(arylidenehydrazino)‐4‐substituted‐thiazole dyes were prepared by cyclocondensation of hydrazonoyl bromides with various thiosemicarbazone derivatives.
Findings
The dyed fibres exhibit very good washing, perspiration, sublimation and light fastness properties with little variation in the moderate to good rubbing fastness. The ease of preparation and the acceptable fastness properties makes these dyes particularly valuable.
Research limitations/implications
In the present paper, the synthesis of 5‐arylazo‐2‐(arylidenehydrazino)‐thiazole disperse dyes was achieved by one step pathway. In addition, the variations in substituents on the aryl and thiazole moieties could also be studied.
Practical implications
The new arylazo‐thiazole disperse dyes are superior in terms of yield, purity, colour strength, and having fastness properties of an order acceptable for commercial utilisation.
Originality/value
The synthesised disperse azo dyes are superior in terms of preparation, yield, purity, and fastness properties.
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Alsadek Gait and Andrew Worthington
The purpose of this paper is to review the attitudes, perceptions and knowledge of Islamic financial products and services.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the attitudes, perceptions and knowledge of Islamic financial products and services.
Design/methodology/approach
A synoptic survey of empirical analyses about Islamic financial products and services and comparison with the literature on conventional financial services and products.
Findings
It was found that while religious conviction is a key factor in the use of Islamic finance, consumers also identify bank reputation, service quality and pricing as being of relevance. When selecting a financial institution's products and services, business firms usually employ criteria that are more conventional, such as the cost of finance, in their decision making. There is also interest among financial institutions in supplying Islamic financial products and services, but this is mitigated by complications with firm management and a lack of familiarity with business conditions. The concept of risk sharing with borrowers serves as a substantial barrier to most financial institutions engaging in Islamic methods of finance. Research limitations/implications – This survey is limited to work published in refereed journals, books and book chapters.
Practical implications
Need for further theoretical and empirical research on how religious convictions affect consumers in their financial decision making. In addition, most work on Islamic finance is in a single national context, international comparisons are required.
Originality/value
This paper is the only known empirical survey of attitudes, perceptions and knowledge of Islamic financial products and services. It provides guidance for future research in Islamic finance and serves as an aid for decision making by policymakers, consumer interest groups, business firms and financial institutions.