Arab Economic and Business Journal最新文献

Currently, there is a global trend towards the use of renewable energy resources. This is due to their benefits in terms of economic diversification, job creation, and sustainable development. Given the suffering of the Egyptian economy from the chronic unemployment problem, this paper has adopted the effect of electricity generation from renewable resources on unemployment. It tests the hypothesis which implies an inverse relationship between renewable electricity generation and unemployment rate in Egypt. By using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to identify the effects in the short and long run during the period (1989-2013), it has been found that the hypothesis was achieved in the long run only. This is due to the fact that renewable energy projects in their establishment stages focus on capital intensity more than labour intensity, but with time both direct and indirect employment effects start to emerge. The econometric results agree in the presence of a significant negative impact of both economic growth and investments on the unemployment rate.

The study examines the relationship between reducing time and international trade. Primarily, through the role of information and communication technology, within the trade facilities, in reducing the time required for import and export, and discussing its impact on economic growth. The Two-Stages Least Squares method was used to estimate the econometric model for 16 Arab countries during the period (2005-2011). The study concluded that the information and communication technology leads to time and cost reduction, thereby increasing the value of merchandise exports and imports. In addition, there is a positive relationship between the decline in time and economic growth.

The study aims to identify the reality of the application of social responsibility in Jordanian banks, and its impact on competitive advantage. It also seeks to determine the most important pillars of the Jordanian banks that facilitate the success of social responsibility with a view to achieve its objectives in favor of the related parties. This happens through trying to identify the extent of the application of social responsibility within the nine following dimensions: community, environment, customers, employees, shareholders, government, suppliers, competitors, minorities and people with special needs. In order to achieve that, the researchers selected a random sample of 170 employees of the study population and the bank employees in the scope of various aspects of their work. Questionnaires were also distributed to managers of banks directorates and branches; they included 45 paragraphs about social responsibility and 16 paragraphs about competitive advantage. Data were integrated into the computer and processed using SPSS statistical program. The study concluded that social responsibility is a subject of interest, along with competitive advantage for banks. It also found out that there is a relationship between social responsibility and competitive advantage among directorates and branches under study.

This empirical research paper focuses on establishing a relationship between external determinants and economic growth of Pakistan economy. Empirical analyses are carried out with time series econometric techniques using data over the period of 1977-2013. The main finding is that external determinants such as foreign remittances, foreign direct investment, and foreign imports matter from a growth perspective. Foreign remittances and foreign direct investment have a significant positive role in the growth process of Pakistan economy. Furthermore, it is found that foreign imports have adversely influenced the economic growth of Pakistan. The study recommends that policy makers shall take appropriate steps to increase the inflow of both foreign remittances and foreign direct investment in order to achieve the long run economic growth.

Each passing day brings new brands to India each vying for a share of wallet in the prospering market. By 2020, the median age of Indian population will be 29 years and owing to the absolute population of India, the presence in Indian market will be rewarding for the multinationals. But the twenty-something targets, because of their ‘variety seeking’ disposition, are a challenge, even for the most experienced marketers. The marketers create brands with a vision to create sustained loyalty, which however gets diluted by consumers coveting for ‘something new’ and ‘something different’. As a defensive, the marketers are now attempting to create an emotional bond with the customers. This phenomenon is termed as brand love and it is likely to influence desirable marketing outcomes such as commitment, positive word of mouth by customers, etc. This research attempts to explore the perceived ‘brand love’ of young Indians. A structured, non-disguised questionnaire was used, data was collected through personal interviews and a total of 160 complete questionnaires were obtained. The findings describe the comparative status of brands loved by the Indian consumers and will help marketers to understand their perceived brand image, customer engagement and attitude of customers towards their brands.

The current study aims at determining the main sources of internal recruitment in mobile telecommunication companies in Jordan and its significant impact on job satisfaction. It also determines the main criteria applied in internal recruitment policies. A total amount of 300 employees from three mobile companies (i.e., Zain, Orange, and Umniah) participate as a unit of analysis. The data is collected through a structured questionnaire which was analyzed by regression analysis and t-test. The results show a positive relationship between all sources of internal recruitment (i.e., internal advertising, promotion, transfer, and friends) and job satisfaction. In addition, the findings reveal that all mobile companies applied specific criteria in internal recruitment process which have a good knowledge about their employees, and the development of recruitment sources and criteria.

Crime appears to be strictly related to the level of education attained and to individuals’ economic and social background. The objective of the study examines multiple factors i.e., education, unemployment, poverty and economic growth which contributed to the rate of crimes in Pakistan during the period of 1972-2011. The study finds a positive relationship between crime rates and unemployment rate in Pakistan. Higher unemployment diminishes the rate of return of legal activities, and is more likely to increase the return of illegal activities. There is a significant negative relationship between the crime rates and the higher education. More education directly induces high earnings of individuals and may increase both the opportunity cost of crimes and the cost of time spent in criminal activity. The study further assesses that GDP per capita leads to higher crime rates in the long-run but to lower rates in the short-run. Higher income shows that there are greater benefits for criminals as for thefts and robberies. Affluent areas attract more criminals due to the opportunities available to them. Finally, there is a positive relationship between the crime rates and poverty in the long-run but there is a negative relationship in the short-run. Poverty may lead to a high level of stress and mental illness which in turn causes individuals to adopt the criminal behavior. The study posits a caution that policy formulation in ameliorating crimes in Pakistan should anchor both social and economic factors.

The objective of this study is to explore the factors that are keys for an idea to be implemented on an online crowdsourcing platform. A data set of 320 implemented ideas from My Starbucks Idea – an online crowdsourcing platform – has been analyzed. We find that only one out of 500 users’ submitted ideas are selected for implementation. The number of implemented ideas increases significantly at the early stage of the platform. At the mature stage, even though an increasing number of ideas are submitted, implemented ideas are proportionately low. Among the three categories of ideas – product, experience, and involvement – ideas of the product category are implemented with lower values of some associated variables than that of the experience category whereas those values in the involvement category are higher. Linked ideas need lower scores than sole ideas to get implemented. The chance that an idea to be implemented largely depends on votes received by and points earned on that idea.

The Sudan currency crisis in 2012 occurred when the Sudanese pound lost 66 percent of its value against the US dollar. In this article we adopt statistical methods such as the signal approach and econometric methods such as the Probit Model for identifying and evaluating the currency crisis. We utilize some economic indicators that have the ability to predict the crisis. We examined the capability of these indicators in generating an early warning system for Sudan currency crisis. The study confirms that the incidence of currency crisis in Sudan increases by increase in inflation rate, increase in import percentage of GDP, rise in claims against the central government, reduction in external reserves and existence of political crisis. Moreover, the study finds that the most important predictor of currency crisis in Sudan is decline in external reserves.

This paper provides the first evidence for empirical tests of the impact of rational expectations as well as behavioral biases, including among other animal spirits such as defined by Akerlof and Shiller on the variability of trading. Using a daily data for five international capital markets in developed countries, strong evidence is found. The hypothesis of rationality fails to determine the investors’ trading behavior. The economy is, however, driven by behavioral biases, including more especially animal spirits summarized in investors’ sentiments and beliefs.