The impact of the prevailing organizational culture on the adoption of green marketing in chemical-industry companies in three Arab states in west Asia

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the prevailing organizational culture on the adoption of green marketing in chemical-industry companies in three countries: Syria, Kuwait and Jordan. The research used a survey methodology. A questionnaire was designed and administered simultaneously in the three countries using three different samples consisting of 220 respondents, 12 respondents, and 132 respondents, respectively. The questionnaires collected from the three samples were coded and analyzed. The study concluded that the organizational culture in the samples from the three countries has positive attitudes towards the adoption of green marketing. The Kuwaiti sample has the highest level of positive attitudes in comparison with the other two samples. The task-oriented culture is the dominant prevailing organizational culture in the chemical-industry companies located in Syria and Jordan, but a fulfillment-oriented culture is the dominant prevailing organizational culture in chemical-industry companies located in Kuwait. Our analysis shows that the impact of the prevailing organizational culture differs in accordance with differences in employee education level, country, and years of experience.Organizational culture; Chemical industrial companies; Green marketing; Culture

Perceptions of Corporate Annual Reports' Users toward Accounting Information and Voluntary Disclosure and its Determinants: The Case of Kuwait

This study investigates four significant dimensions of the corporate annual reports (CARs) environment in one of the emerging markets in the Middle East, Kuwait: [1] the perceptions of major external users of annual reports regarding current voluntary disclosure practices, [2] the identification of voluntary items perceived as useful, [3] the assessment of voluntary disclosure levels and their evolvement over the period covered by the current study (2005-2008), [4] the impact of a comprehensive set of company characteristics and corporate governance attributes on explaining variations in the extent of disclosure. A questionnaire survey is used to test the first two dimensions, covering four user groups, while hand-collected data from a sample of 206 annual reports of non-financial companies and other complementary sources are used to test the other two. The study employs a theoretical framework (agency, signalling, legitimacy, and stakeholder theories) to explore the motivations of companies to release voluntary information. The 143 received responses are analysed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. The analysis brings to light the remarkable agreement among the participants on the importance of CARs, interim reports, and advice from specialists as sources of information for making judgments. Regarding the level of voluntary disclosure, respondents strongly agree that the annual reports of listed companies provide inadequate information to users. Participants also indicate their desire for more information to be required than companies currently provide, to improve decision making and the usefulness of CARs. The results suggest that most users believe that there is a necessity to develop sophisticated capital market infrastructure and comprehensive regulations to help foster confidence in the capital market and protect market participants. Although multivariate analysis reveals that the actual level of voluntary disclosure is low, the overall level is gradually improving over time. The extent of voluntary disclosure tends to be significantly higher as the percentage of government ownership increases. Disclosure practices are also positively influenced by cross-listing and company size. Conversely, voluntary disclosure practices are negatively influenced by cross-directorships, board size, role duality, and company growth, while family members, ruling family on the board, and audit committees have no bearing on disclosure. Interestingly, the determinants of disclosure vary among the categories of information. No single explanatory variable explains the variation in the overall level of voluntary disclosure and the variations in the disclosure level of all categories of information

Sustainable Public Procurement in the Kuwait Public Sector

Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) is the act of integrating the sustainable development concept into the procurement operations undertaken by the government. The extension of sustainability to public procurement is an emerging area of research; the literature provides little evidence on how to address SPP in general, and specifically in a developing country context. This thesis aims to bridge this gap by investigating the practices of SPP in a developing country such as Kuwait. The primary objective of this doctoral thesis is to assess the current SPP policies and practices in the Kuwait public sector organizations and to identify the main drivers and barriers currently faced by public organizations in their efforts in implementing SPP. This thesis employs quantitative and qualitative research methods supported by the Purchasing Social Responsibility (PSR) model. The data used in the thesis was collected through tender document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires distributed among officials in the Kuwait public sector. The results show that some SPP practices are present in the public procurement process. The government is mainly stimulating local industry through intensive use of local products and resources and supporting local suppliers’ business; the findings also convey that health and safety and human rights aspects are the most embedded SPP practices. The results indicate that currently, there is a significant effect of cultural norms and Islam religious beliefs on SPP practices in Kuwait. The finding also shows that financial considerations, whether as the costs of sustainability or its financial benefits, are the most significant factors for implementing SPP in Kuwait public sector organizations. Accordingly, this study has policy implications; I believe that the determinants of sustainability-oriented procurement that resulted from this thesis are useful to public procurement managers, policy makers and SPP scholars, as they could be used as a basis for developing a practical managerial framework, guidelines, and policies to procure more sustainably

Corporate Governance and Auditor Choice in Kuwait

Although auditor choice has been studied extensively in the audit literature, research examining this issue in developing markets has been scarce thus far. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of corporate governance (CG) on external auditor choice in the context of the small Kuwaiti emerging market. Specifically, the present study uses both a survey and hand-collected 2012 fiscalyear data pertinent to 53 Kuwaiti listed companies to examine whether firm’s auditor choice is influenced by company’s board size, board independence, directors’ shareholdings, Audit Committee (AC) size, and/or AC independence. Using a logistic regression model, the study’s results reveal evidence of a meaningful relation between auditor choice and AC size, company’s leverage, and company’s belonging to the finance sector. These findings could be useful to market regulators and corporate executives, especially in Kuwait, in improving CG practices within corporations. The research findings should also be of value to international researchers interested in carrying out related research

Entrepreneurial Leadership In Kuwaiti private firms

This study examines the traits and characteristics of entrepreneurial leaders within the Kuwaiti context, by drawing from the different but related leadership and entrepreneurship theories. We first identified several areas where these fields theoretically converge with an emphasis on traits, styles and behavioural characteristics, which led to the emergence of a new leadership paradigm herein referred to as ‘entrepreneurial leadership’. Entrepreneurial leadership is conceptualised as a process of social influence, transformation, and empowering in rapidly changing and uncertain contexts. We operationalised the construct of entrepreneurial leadership by identifying the key traits and characteristics of Kuwait’s private sector leaders. These traits and characteristics included the leaders’ values and beliefs, vision, proactivity, creativity and innovation, opportunity-seeking and risk-taking. The study adopted a predominantly positivist ontology and objective epistemology in order to better understand the phenomenon under investigation (i.e. entrepreneurial leadership). This necessitated obtaining data largely from surveys of 345 leaders, mainly from the financial banking and investment sectors of Kuwait, complemented by qualitative data from 12 interviews. The study provides important insights into the concepts related to entrepreneurial leadership in a non-Western environment and enriches our knowledge in this sector of the management field. The research contributes to knowledge on leadership in Kuwait by conceptualizing a model of entrepreneurial leadership, which places emphasis on leaders’ traits and characteristics and how that relates with leadership effectiveness. The implications of the research relate closely to the way in which companies must be managed or led in a global and competitive environment

A study of the financial and management performance of the Kuwaiti commercial banks

The primary research objectives were to ascertain and evaluate management performance practices and generate recommendations that might help in improving overall performance in Kuwaiti commercial banks. A theoretical framework for the financial and management performance of Kuwaiti banks was, therefore, developed and the research objectives and hypotheses were translated into relevant policy issues. These issues were identified by conducting field research in Kuwait. Kuwait was chosen because it is the country of the author and also constitutes an important developing country within the gulf. Six Kuwaiti commercial banks were surveyed to ascertain management opinion on management performance practices. These banks were: National Bank of Kuwait, Gulf Bank of Kuwait, Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait, Burgan Bank, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, and The Bank of Kuwait and The Middle East. The methodology used to test the hypotheses and achieve the research objectives incorporated a mail questionnaire which was distributed to 108 branch managers through the main offices of each bank. This part of the field survey was conducted simultaneously with 12 face-to-face interviews with senior executives i. e. two interview per study bank. When the field survey was completed the results were analysed and conclusions were drawn regarding the hypotheses and policy issues. In summary, the main findings of the study were that: management performance is dependent on: management training, management resource planning, performance related pay; and external environmental factors (local economy, bank internal regulations, customer satisfaction, inadequate information technology resources, bank size, bank location, and cultural considerations). However, rather interestingly, one of the external factors, social and personal ties (wastah) had no affect on management performance. Personal and job-related considerations such as educational qualifications, manager's age, manager's monthly salary, etc., had an affect on individual management performance but other factors such as the manager's nationality, and gender, had no affect. The findings of this research, as well as the evidence from previous studies, showed that management performance in Kuwait is frustrated by interrelated and interdependent contextual elements. Management performance as a multidimensional and multipurpose-activity has yet to be fully comprehended in Kuwait. Social and cultural considerations, such as intimate social tics and social status, are important and complicated issues which undoubtedly affect management performance. Consequently, there is a national misconception about the significance of management performance and the effect cultural consideration and personal ties (wastah), have on a scientific approach to the management performance process in Kuwaiti banks

Corporate Disclosure on Anti-Corruption Practice: A study of Social Responsible

This paper seeks to determine the extent of anti-corruption information disclosure in the sustainability reports originating from Gulf countries. Focus primarily on the fight against corruption, this study utilizes a deeply-rooted content analysis technique of corporate sustainability reporting, covering 66 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) firms during 2014. Strengthened by the application of institutional theory, insight into the results points to a state of limited maturity regarding the disclosure of anti-corruption procedures in the region. More specifically, the results highlight the compliance in the reporting of conduct code, while reporting information on whistle-blowing was significantly less in comparison. Firms in Qatar and UAE ultimately release better informed reports; inclusive of detailed information on internal anti-corruption practices