Rethinking the Lebanese economic miracle: The extreme concentration of income and wealth in Lebanon

I combine household surveys, national accounts and personal income tax records for the 2005-2014 period to produce the first estimates of the national income distribution in Lebanon. I find that income is extremely concentrated, with the top 1 and 10% of the adult population receiving 25 and 55% of national income on average, placing Lebanon among the countries with the highest level of income inequality in the world. These figures, which are the first recent statistics on income inequality in an Arab country, question the view of Lebanon as a paragon of economic success in the Middle East. The dynamism of the tourism, banking and real-estate sectors has benefited only a minority of the population, while a large part still lives in extreme poverty

A Taxonomy of Emerging Markets

Focusing on emerging markets is now a significant imperative for business professionals as well as strategy, management, and international business (IB) scholars. However, there are no accepted categorizations of these countries. Furthermore, major international organizations, institutions, scholars, and multinational, all approach classifying these countries from a multitude of different perspectives. Using institutional theory as a framework and drawing on research from multiple disciplines such as IB, sociology, economics, and economic geography, this dissertation proposes a framework by which a more nuanced reclassification of emerging markets into eight subgroups is considered appropriate. The application of this multidimensional and multidisciplinary approach shows how economic, social and cultural dimensions can contribute to the emergent status of a country. Consequently, this dissertation delivers practitioners, policy makers, and academic communities with a tool to illustrate national context more effectively. In doing so, research, policy, and strategy can positively benefit from a new set of contextual and boundary conditions to frame issues of strategic importance

The Effects of Acknowledging Cultural Differences on Therapeutic Alliance in Cross-Cultural Therapy

Therapeutic alliance has been documented to have a significant impact on therapy. This study examined the impact that acknowledging visible cultural differences in the first session of treatment has on therapeutic alliance, perceived clinician cross-cultural competency, and potential attrition. A vignette study design was utilized with 26 subjects who were patients at the PCOM Center for Brief Therapy. The patients were randomly assigned one of four vignettes that consisted of a cross-cultural therapy situation, in which visible cultural differences were either addressed or not by a clinician. Following the reading of the vignette, the subjects were asked to complete the Working Alliance Inventory-Client Version, the client modified version of the Cross Cultural Counseling Inventory-Revised, and a Client Attrition Questionnaire. The results of the study indicated a significant difference in perceived clinician cultural competency in a situation where a clinician acknowledges multiple cultural differences rather than a single difference. A significant negative correlation was found between age and therapeutic alliance as a whole. Female subjects were also found to be significantly more likely than male subjects to make a higher rating of their potential to prematurely drop out of treatment. Future research should expand beyond the vignette model and utilize an intervention study to focus on the impact of broaching visible cultural differences in cross-cultural therapy during the first session of treatment

The Impact of Culture on Customer Expectations

A critical component of customer satisfaction is in the understanding of customer expectations. In this work we propose that culture plays an important role in molding those expectations. Utilizing five cultural dimensions we develop testable propositions that aims to dissect the possible impact of culture upon five sources of customer expectations: personal needs, explicit promises, implicit promises, word-of-mouth, and past experienc