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"This book is a current reference source for the latest scholarly research on the accountability contemporary businesses face for the environmental, social, and economic impacts that they create, highlighting the variant expressions between developed and developing countries"--

PurposeThis purpose of the paper to examine the interplay of constraints and opportunities affecting female entrepreneurship in developing countries. The paper integrates salient micro‐ and macro‐level perspectives and provides a rounded account of opportunities and constraints as part of a holistic interdependent system.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts an integrative multi‐level research design and an interpretive research methodology, capitalizing on in‐depth interviews with ten women entrepreneurs to explore their perceptions and interpretations of constraints and opportunities facing female entrepreneurship in the Lebanese context.FindingsThe findings presented in this paper clearly illustrate the relevance of micro‐, meso‐, and macro‐level factors in entrepreneurship research and the usefulness of integrating multiple lens and units of analysis to capture the complexity of the women entrepreneurship experience in any particular context.Originality/valueThe value added of this research lies in adapting a framework recently popularized in the context of diversity management for use in entrepreneurship research, helping to capture in turn the dynamic interplay of multiple levels of analysis and objective/subjective factors influencing female entrepreneurship.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly heralded as an innovative policy tool for remedying the lack of dynamism in traditional public service delivery. The logistics and policy requirements for successful PPP implementation have yet to be systematically explored. This article synthesizes the opportunities and challenges encountered in the context of PPPs and identifies critical success factors and/or policy requirements for successful PPP implementation. This case study assesses a recent PPP initiative in the telecommunications sector of Lebanon and draws out lessons for improving the effectiveness and viability of PPP projects in the context of developing countries.

The concept of public private partnerships (PPPs) has attracted worldwide attention and acquired a new resonance in the context of developing countries. PPPs are increasingly heralded as an innovative policy tool for remedying the lack of dynamism in traditional public service delivery. However PPPs have also become mired in a muddle of conceptual ambiguities. This paper sheds light on the PPP concept and the rationale for invoking private participation in developing countries. It also identifies critical success factors and policy requirements for successful PPP implementation. Finally, the paper presents a case study assessment of a post‐war PPP initiative in the Lebanese telecommunications sector and draws out lessons for improving the effectiveness and viability of PPP projects in the context of developing countries.

This two-volume book unveils trends, strengths, weaknesses and overall dynamics and implications of social entrepreneurship in the Middle East region, whilst identifying both opportunities and threats facing social entrepreneurship and supplements through a wealth of insights and examples inspired from practice and current applications

This two-volume book unveils trends, strengths, weaknesses and overall dynamics and implications of social entrepreneurship in the Middle East region, whilst identifying both opportunities and threats facing social entrepreneurship and supplements through a wealth of insights and examples inspired from practice and current applications.

The practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the Middle East is explored in this volume, through a unique compilation of data and perspectives from authors living and working in the region. The authors demonstrate how the long-entrenched traditions of philanthropy and generosity in Arab culture have been reinvigorated in recent years and are starting to cross-fertilize with new and more institutionalized forms of giving, advocated through advances pertaining to CSR. Using a variety of cases, this book ponders the multiple facets of CSR in the region, including philanthropy, strategic giving, social entrepreneurship, internal CSR and responsible human resource management practices, effective CSR integration in SMEs, corporate environmental responsibility and its evolution, CSR reporting and lingering challenges in this respect. It also considers the relevance and applicability of CSR to a wider spectrum of societal actors and institutions. The contributions nicely capture and reiterate commitment to CSR in the Middle East.

PurposeCorporate social responsibility (CSR) is a new trend that has swept the world of business by storm. With globalization proceeding unabated and CSR acquiring global interest and resonance, examining how companies can make adaptations to their CSR in an international context becomes a timely and important issue.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on institutional theory, this study aims to identify three types of host country institutional complexity that accompany the internationalization process, namely, cultural, regulatory and economic, hence necessitating nuanced CSR adaptations in context and as illustrated in this paper requiring different tailoring and adaptation of CSR programs and interventions between developed and developing countries.FindingsThe authors propose a series of research propositions for exploration toward broadening and deepening the understanding of the above institutional complexities and the necessity of CSR tailoring and adaptation to accompany the internationalization process.Originality/valueThe paper is one of the first to highlight the necessity of CSR tailoring in the context of the internationalization process while considering host country institutional complexity highlighting nuanced differences between developed and developing country landscapes and implications for how multinational corporations should approach CSR in these differentiated environments.

AbstractManuscript TypeReviewResearch Question/IssueThis study provides a systematic multi‐level review of recent literature to evaluate the impact of corporate governance mechanisms (CG) at the institutional, firm, group, and individual levels on firm level corporate social responsibility (CSR) outcomes. We offer critical reflections on the current state of this literature and provide concrete suggestions to guide future research.Research Findings/InsightsFocusing on peer‐reviewed articles from 2000 to 2015, the review compiles the evidence on offer pertaining to the most relevant CG mechanisms and their influence on CSR outcomes. At the institutional level, we focus on formal and informal institutional mechanisms, and at the firm level, we analyze the different types of firm owners. At the group level, we segregate our analysis into board structures, director social capital and resource networks, and directors' demographic diversity. At the individual level, our review covers CEOs' demography and socio‐psychological characteristics. We map the effect of these mechanisms on firms' CSR outcomes.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsWe recommend that greater scholarly attention needs to be accorded to disaggregating variables and yet comprehending how multiple configurations of CG mechanisms interact and combine to impact firms' CSR behavior. We suggest that CG‐CSR research should employ a multi‐theoretical lens and apply sophisticated qualitative and quantitative methods to enable a deeper and finer‐grained analysis of the CG systems and their influence on CSR. Finally, we call for cross‐cultural research to capture the context sensitivities typical of both CG and CSR constructs.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsOur review suggests that for structural changes and reforms within firms to be successful, they need to be complemented by changes to the institutional makeup of the context in which firms function to encourage/induce substantive changes in corporate responsible behaviors.

Purpose– This paper aims to propose a multi-level integrative research framework anchored in an institutional theory that can successfully capture the multitude of factors affecting the expression of female entrepreneurship in context. Although female entrepreneurship is known to contribute to economic growth and vitality, and to enhance the diversity of employment in any economic system, there is very little research pertaining to female entrepreneurship in the Middle East. The authors use this framework to provide insights into multi-level factors enabling and constraining the experience of female entrepreneurship in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and advance knowledge of female entrepreneurship in a particular Middle Eastern context as well as cross-nationally.Design/methodology/approach– Analytical framework and qualitative research methodology consisting of focus group meetings and interviews with 15 female entrepreneurs and five male partners in the UAE.Findings– Our findings aptly highlight the salience of a complex set of entangled factors lying at multiple levels of analysis in shaping female entrepreneurship in the UAE. Our findings also accentuate the importance of the institutional and social contexts in shaping the situational opportunities and constraints that affect female entrepreneurship and its complex expressions in a particular society. Although our findings document a positive tide of change in favor of female entrepreneurship, they also reveal the persistence of various traces of stereotypes and patriarchy that continue to constrain the free expressions of female entrepreneurship in the UAE.Research limitations/implications– This study contributes empirically by conveying the lived experiences of a sample of women entrepreneurs in the UAE, but the results cannot be generalized given the limited size of the sample investigated. Conceptually, the analytical framework proposed in this paper represents a simplified heuristic tool rather than an explanatory model of the complex dynamics and interplays between different levels of analysis and institutional pressures when examining female entrepreneurship.Originality/value– The value added of this research is to present original insights into female entrepreneurship from a vibrant Middle Eastern context, namely, the UAE, a country that has attracted and witnessed increasing attention in recent years in the context of globalization. In view of the Western-centric nature of academic publication on the topic, there is a real need for fresh theoretical and empirical insights stemming from an Arab-Middle Eastern context to advance knowledge and scholarship in this area.