Globalisation, the global village and the civil society

Human dynamics, institutional change, political relations and the global environment have become increasingly intertwined. The development of multicultural societies has certainly not been without its problems. The re-emergence of extremist political parties, the segregation of cultures and ethnic conflict, illustrate the problematic side of socio-cultural integration at the local level. We argue that socio-cultural factors not only change as a result of globalisation, but also can be causes, as well as challenges to the process of globalisation itself. We describe how the recent introduction of the MGI and KOF globalisation indices can be used to empirically address to what extent globalisation affects social phenomena. Overall, while the rigidity of national boarders slackens, to speak about a global community is misleading. National borders still exist and the nation-state still matters. The fact is that they have to co-exist with civil society. The institutions of global civil society place limits upon the government and function as a sort of check on various forms of government, especially the authoritarian and absolutist varieties.     

中东离乱事国人冷眼观--中东乱局溯源

当前世界上最大的政治经济动向是“全球化”。这个“全球化”被一些西方学者直白地称为“西方化”,即所有非西方人要学着以西方人的眼光观察社会,以西方人创造出来的一整套的方法论来改造自己民族的社会形态。我看这个说法是有一定道理的。现在我们中国人依旧以中国旧传统的“阴阳五行观”的角度来观察、认识和对待客观世界的只剩下中国传统医学的医师和风水学的巫师了,但是在中东北非南亚（以下的文字中只称为“中东”）,坚持不接受西方人看待世界的方法的大有人在。他们顽强地对抗着来自西方的“文化渗透”,拒绝接受“全球化”,甚至不惜付出生命的代价来抵制这一进程,这就构成了现今世界政治的一个主要内容--全球化过程中的一股“逆流”--中东各国政治格局持续普遍的动荡。     

The demand elasticity of mobile telephones in the Middle East and North Africa

This study investigates the components of the mobile telephone demand in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) between 1995 and 2007. We find that the magnitude of demand elasticities do not entice collusive behavior between service providers because the effect of price reductions is neutral on total revenues. We also find that the cost of service and administrative corruption have a strong negative effect on mobile penetration, which, surprisingly, is higher in countries with more unequal income distribution. The study discusses how market reforms in developed countries fail to translate to developing countries because several negative externalities are often overlooked.     

Capital Market Integration in the Middle East and North Africa

This paper studies capital market integration in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries and its implications for international portfolio investment allocation. Starting with four cointegration methodologies, we significantly reject the hypothesis of a stable, long-run bivariate relationship between each of these markets and the European Monetary Union (EMU), the United States, and a regional benchmark. This indicates the existence of significant diversification opportunities for three categories of investors (EMU, world, and regional investors). A recursive analysis based on Barari (2004) suggests that recently, the MENA markets have started to move toward international financial integration. Investigating the effect of selected financial, economic, and political events on such a process, we extend the methodology and find that the markets react heterogeneously to the different categories of shocks. They should therefore not be treated as a bloc for global allocation purposes. Finally, after adjusting the integration levels by relative market capitalization, Israel and Turkey are the most promising markets in the region, followed by Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. Tunisia and Lebanon seem to be lagging behind.     

Migration and manpower needs in the Middle East and North Africa, 1975-85

The authors review current flows and expected changes in the volume and characteristics of international labor migration to eight oil-producing Middle East countries. The implications for both labor-exporting and importing countries are explored     

Building a knowledge-based society: The case of South East Europe

Dangers, threats and challenges facing South East European countries are analyzed in the context of the salient features of the contemporary world and of the development program of the European Union (EU). This analysis leads to the conclusion that building a knowledge-based society is an imperative for each country. A roadmap of tasks to be done during the next few decades is outlined.     

Family firm disclosure and accounting regulation reform in the Middle East: The case of Jordan

We examine the quality of accounting disclosures by family firms using mandatory and voluntary disclosures as proxies for the quality of disclosure. We find that family firms comply more fully with mandatory disclosure requirements than do non-family firms but they disclose significantly less voluntary information. We also document that the enhanced accounting regulation improves the strength of the association between family ownership and mandatory disclosure compliance. Another important finding is the greater disclosure, both mandatory and voluntary, for firms with high family ownership compared to firms with low family ownership.     

Dynamic linkages among equity markets in the Middle East and North African countries

The relaxation of security laws and regulations in emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) provides abundant opportunities for foreign investors. These markets exhibit high-expected returns and substantial volatility. In this paper, we investigate the lead/lag relationship between the MENA countries and regions. We find no market causality or spillover from one country to another in the North Africa region. Our results for the Levant region reveal that there are linkages between stock markets in this region. The results for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region show that there is more interaction and linkage in the GCC region than in the North Africa and Levant regions. An unexpected result is that UAE's stock market leads all the markets in this region. Finally, we investigate linkages among the three regions. We find that GCC influences the other two regions.     

An empirical investigation of stock market behavior in the Middle East and North Africa

This paper analyzes excess market returns in the relatively understudied financial markets of nine Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries within the context of three variants of the Capital Asset Pricing Model: the static international CAPM; the constant-parameter intertemporal CAPM; and a Markov-switching intertemporal CAPM which allows for the degree of integration with international equity markets to be time-varying. On the whole we find that: (1) Israel and Turkey are most strongly integrated with world financial markets; (2) in most other MENA markets examined there is primarily local pricing of risk and evidence of a positive risk-return trade-off; and (3) there is substantial time variation in the weights on local and global pricing of risk for all of these markets. Our results suggest that investment in many of these markets over the sample studied would have provided returns uncorrelated with global markets, and thus would have served as financial instruments with which portfolio diversification could have been improved.     

Challenges for civil society involvement in civic entrepreneurship: a case study of local enterprise partnerships

Civic entrepreneurship involves engagement between the state, business and civil society to produce economic growth for the public good. In the UK context a key initiative to encourage such engagement has been the creation of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs); these structures are intended to be a key delivery driver of regional economic growth. This paper draws on insights from semi-structured interviews with actors involved in the development of a LEP in the north of England. Findings draw attention to concerns from civil society over losing its distinctiveness through these partnerships, and in the process losing its ethos as a guardian of the public good.     

中国信保启动应对中东局势的应急机制

针对中东局势的急剧恶化．中国信保已迅速启动应急处理机制,调整了有关国家的国别风险等级,全面评估已承保业务的风险水平并采取相应控制措施,对相关出口企业也已发出预警信息     

中国企业在中东跨国经营的政治风险及其规避

自9·11事件以来,恐怖主义风险成为全球跨国经营企业的主要障碍之一。本文将恐怖主义视为一种新型的政治风险,概括了中东恐怖主义产生的背景、特征及其危害,总结了中国企业在中东跨国经营的现状和发展趋势,分析了中东恐怖主义对中国企业跨国经营造成的重大人员伤亡和财产损失,最后就中国企业如何应对恐怖主义提出了对策建议,以使中国企业更好地走出去。     

The roles of accounting in organizations and society

The paper seeks to contrast the roles that have been claimed on behalf of accounting with the ways in which accounting functions in practice. It starts by examining the context in which rationales for practice are articulated and the adequacy of such claims. Thereafter consideration is given to how accounting is implicated in both organizational and social practice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for accounting research.     

"一带一路"背景下中国与中东地区文化传播:机遇、挑战与策略

"一带一路"倡议的推进为沿线100多个国家和地区的发展提供了机会,促进了中国与其他国家经济,政治,文化的交流传播,其中,作为陆上丝绸之路和海上丝绸之路交汇点的中东地区,对"一带一路"具有重要的战略意义.因此,本文主要研究在"一带一路"的背景下,中国与中东地区文化的传播交流,从跨文化的视角出发,分析双方在文化交流中面对的机遇和挑战,以及挑战背后深层次的原因,旨在通过对现状的分析,为双方的跨文化传播提出可行性的解决策略,抓住机遇,迎接挑战,采取稳定局势,尊重文化差异,加强高层互访,培养人才等方式促进双方文化的共商共建.     

International portfolio diversification: Is there a role for the Middle East and North Africa?

We examine the issue of possible portfolio diversification benefits into seven Middle East and North African (MENA) stock markets. We construct international portfolios in dollars and local currencies. Ex ante weights are obtained by plugging five optimization models and two risk measures into a rolling block-bootstrap methodology. This allows us to derive 48 monthly rebalanced ex post portfolio returns. We analyze the out-of-sample performance based on Sharpe and Sortino ratios and the Jobson–Korkie statistic. Our results highlight outstanding diversification benefits in the MENA region, both in dollar and local currencies. Overall, we show that these under-estimated, under-investigated markets could attract more portfolio flows in the future.     

The Balanced Scorecard: Slogans, Seduction, and State of Play

This paper outlines claims and evidence concerning the balanced scorecard (BSC) from the research literature, integrating current thinking about its substantive content and assumptions, strategic alignment, implementation issues, judgment and decision-making, organisational performance, compensation plans, and comparisons to other performance-measurement practices. In doing so, diverse localisations of the BSC are brought into view, as well as difficulties accompanying the practice of the BSC. Future directions for practitioners and researchers are indicated.     

Multinationals in the Middle Kingdom: Performance,Opportunities, and Risks

For many U.S. companies, China is the most promising growth opportunity in the business portfolio. The interest of managements and boards has been backed up with action, making China the preferred country for foreign direct investment in the last several years. Yet the experience also shows that many companies were unprepared to operate in a developing economy and with a foreign culture. The normal start‐up problems have been aggravated by unfamiliar joint venture partners, large regional differences in purchasing power, language, and regulation, and weak enforcement of intellectual property rights. The first wave of China investment by U.S. multinationals, corresponding roughly to the decade of the 1990s, was marked by poor performance. But in the last five years, multinationals have made significant adjustments—particularly, the “localizing” of suppliers, the workforce, and the products offered. And recent data indicates much improved profitability. Still, there remain substantial challenges to further growth, including increasing local competition, a thin human resources market, the lack of prime acquisition candidates, and continued low rates of consumption. The different experiences of multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, Anheuser‐Busch, and Wal‐Mart are used to illustrate these challenges and provide some important lessons for companies now evaluating their opportunities in China.