This study presents factors that encourage Palestinian NGOs to embrace financial sustainability employing modern ideologies that encompass community engagement, voluntarism, collaboration, and business-like practices in order to meet societal challenges. The study explores the reliance of Palestinian NGOs on external funds (donor-driven funds) and the environment impact of their attempts at financial sustainability. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews with 22 NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza in 2019. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis using the computer software MAXQDA. Key findings were that Palestinian NGOs need to alleviate the dependency on a donor-driven model by functioning independently from donors' agendas; and that Palestinian NGOs need to collaborate with each other to centralize their efforts and avoid fragmentation. Further, the Palestinian government needs to revisit the relevant laws to regulate the civil society sector and avoid competition between NGOs and private sector on the one hand, and NGOs and governmental institutions on the other hand.
This study presents factors that encourage Palestinian NGOs to embrace financial sustainability employing modern ideologies that encompass community engagement, voluntarism, collaboration, and business-like practices in order to meet societal challenges. The study explores the reliance of Palestinian NGOs on external funds (donor-driven funds) and the environment impact of their attempts at financial sustainability. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews with 22 NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza in 2019. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis using the computer software MAXQDA. Key findings were that Palestinian NGOs need to alleviate the dependency on a donor-driven model by functioning independently from donors' agendas; and that Palestinian NGOs need to collaborate with each other to centralize their efforts and avoid fragmentation. Further, the Palestinian government needs to revisit the relevant laws to regulate the civil society sector and avoid competition between NGOs and private sector on the one hand, and NGOs and governmental institutions on the other hand.
Mason,Michael: ; Jordan's mining industry is one of the main contributors to economic growth and a principal generator of national income. The government of Jordan paid special attention to this sector and gave the Natural Resources Authority (NRA) the responsibility of supervising the exploring, prospecting and mining activities in Jordan. Investment in the mining sector in 2000 was 1.12 billion US dollar. The extractive industries share of this investment is (67.8%), while the remaining (32.2%) are investments in manufacturing industries, which depend on mining products. The contribution of exports of the mining sector to national export for the years (1995-2001) ranges from 37-45% (NRA 2003). Large-scale industries in Jordan consist mainly of phosphate and potash mining. Exports of phosphate, potash and cement represented 90% of the mining sector's export in 1999 (JIB 2003). Today the Jordanian stone industry experienced a significant growth due to the recent trade agreements with the US and the EU. Since then, the stone industry has received a lot of attention, and is expanding. Figure (1.4) shows the continuous growth of the natural stone from 1997 till 2003. Large investments, using the state of the art technology, are being deployed to achieve such goals (JMOP 2003). The processing equipment utilized by the Jordanian companies had a positive trend over the past 10 years with a (250%) increase during the years 2000-2002 (JMOP 2003).
PurposeInterest in creating high performance organizations (HPOs) has been growing in the Middle East and Middle Eastern managers have been looking into practices that will help them elevate organizational performance. Unfortunately there is a shortage of HPO studies conducted in the Middle East which could help these managers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of the recently developed HPO Framework in a Middle Eastern context, namely at Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU). The goal of the study was to evaluate whether this framework could be applied in the Middle Eastern context and thus help improve performance of Middle Eastern organizations.Design/methodology/approachA workshop was conducted with management and staff of the university at PPU's premises in Hebron. During the workshop, management, staff and teachers filled in the HPO questionnaire, which gauges the current HPO status of an organization. The resulting HPO score of PPU, and the comparison with the scores of other Middle‐Eastern organizations in the database of the researchers, were discussed during a workshop with representatives of PPU and initial improvements were established and put down in an action plan.FindingsWith an average HPO score of 6.8, PPU was an average scoring organization that performed more or less the same as the other Middle‐East organizations. However, two main issues for PPU emerged that had to be addressed in order to transform the university in an HPO. The first issue was that PPU's performance management process had to be improved, as not everything that mattered to PPU's performance was communicated to everybody adequately enough. The second issue was that the performance‐driven behavior of PPU's people had to be strengthened, as the decision‐making and action‐taking processes took too long and people were nor resilient and flexible enough to deal quickly with changing conditions.Practical implicationsPractically, the research findings could help managers of Middle Eastern organizations to achieve sustainable high performance in their organizations.Originality/valueThe research described in this paper constitutes one of the first studies into the determining factors of sustainable high performance in the Middle East and as such, it adds to the strategic management literature by showing that the HPO concept can be applied in the Middle East to evaluate the high performance status of Middle Eastern organizations.
The usual crisis mode of economic operations in Palestine intersects with the adverse consequences of COVID-19 and necessitates an innovative response to survive. This research builds on potential synergies between industry and university to expand the Palestinian agriculture sector resilience. We report on an explorative study that sought to understand the reality of the university–industry linkages (UILs) by considering information and experience gathered from 29 interviews in January 2020 and April 2021. Interviewees represent five key actor groups: farmers and agribusinesses, private institutions, universities, the Ministry of Agriculture, and NGOs. Content analysis revealed a nascent collaboration scope and uncovered the lack of a confident attitude among farmers towards agriculture research efforts, the poor communication performance, and misalignment of purpose. University actors need to encompass the UILs in their mission and touch farmers' needs by providing novelty evidence research. Yet, farmers and agribusinesses may take the initiative to communicate their problems and search for renovation. We developed a framework of underpinnings to enhance collaboration and a healthier agriculture sector. We suggest activating the cooperatives and diversifying farmers' income as deemed more resilient to face the pandemic.
PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to propose a model of economic development able to generate a cross‐border sustainable economic development, in regions in conflict. The Italian industrial district model implements a community industry synergy process led by the authorities according to a top‐down approach. The cluster model implements a clustering specialization process led, in the American version, by a bottom‐up approach and in the European version by a top‐down approach. The regional innovation system (RIS) provides the regional and international innovation networking required for both models in order to confront the global competition. The proposed progressive model creates the industrial specialization (industrial district) required for the development of the clustering process supported by the RIS.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have selected, from the list of producers (growers and producers of olive oil), a random sample of 103 growers of olives and producers of olive oil from both groups from the Northern regions (Galilee in Israel and the Northern West Bank): 26 Palestinian growers, 25 Palestinian producers, 13 Israeli growers and 39 Israeli producers of olive oil, and interviewed them.FindingsThe results show that the community‐industry synergy of the industrial district model is supported by the economic actors from both sides of the border but refused for political reasons by the regional authorities and professional associations. The raw material (olives), the human capital and the knowledge required in order to start the clustering process exist.Practical implicationsThe study has evaluated the Israeli‐Jewish and Arab and the Palestinian olive sector, and clearly indicates that bottom‐up decision‐making process is the only way for the moment for initiating the cluster and RIS models in the olive sector. The intervention of a third party is required in order to start the bottom‐up implementation of the industrial district model and launch the clustering process.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper lies in organizing the industrial district in such a way that it will generate a cluster in the long run. Thus, it is called progressive model.
