Corporate reporting and disclosures in the emerging capital market of Kuwait:the perceptions of users and preparers

The objective of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of users and preparers regarding financial disclosure practices in annual reports of Kuwaiti listed firms. To measure participants' views, a questionnaire survey was distributed in Kuwait between October and December 2012, to preparers (financial managers) and users (financial analysts) within Kuwaiti listed companies. The study compares between the perceptions of financial managers and financial analysts regarding disclosing information in corporate annual reports as well as the main obstacles facing the disclosure process and what the problems restricting the use of companies' annual reports. The study also seeks to investigate whether there is a perceived need for improving the usefulness of Kuwaiti companies' annual reports for decision-making. The results, based on 137 responses, indicate that accounting practices in Kuwaiti firms are firmly rooted in a decision-usefulness tradition with management and the board of directors viewed as the key audience for reporting information. Indeed, the annual reports of Kuwaiti listed companies are perceived as the most important sources of information. On the whole both users and preparers shared similar concerns regarding the volume of information contained within annual reports; however, their views differed in terms of identifying potential solutions. The results of the study are likely to have implications for decision makers, the academic community and accounting standard setters. 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature

Potentials, Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism Development in Qatar

Qatar has experienced extraordinary development in its economic, social and environmental sectors, thus improving its worldwide ranking in several aspects. As per 2018 Statistics, Qatar ranked on the top of economies with the highest GDP per capita (PPP), $128487.1, followed by Macao SAR in the second position with a level of GDP per capita (PPP) of$118098.9 (International Monetary Fund, IMF, 2018). Additionally, Qatar was also ranked as the second happiest country in the Middle East and as per energy export, Qatar has maintained its position as the top liquefed natural gas (LNG) exporter in the year 2018 and it is also expected to maintain this position for at least the next 15 years

Innovations and Hotel Performance in the Aftermath Announcement of Qatar Hosting FIFA 2022 World Cup

This article explores innovation processes in tourism within the context of Qatar Hotel sector. A theoretical framework, drawing on the existing literature, is developed to analyze innovation- performance relationships. Using the partial least squares-structural equation modeling technique for a sample of all the three to five-star hotels in Qatar over 6 months between 2016 and 2017, the relationship between four innovations types and five types of performances are examined. The results show the existence of an innovativeness path beginning from organizational innovation leading to an improvement of the hotels' financial performance. Most specifically, organizational innovation is a key driver of innovative performance, while operational performance is the main driver of financial performance. Our research provides a better understanding of the innovation types driving hotels performance in the developing world, which may differ from the world developed countries. The findings of this study should inform policy discussions and the development of strategies to enhance innovation capacity among tourism enterprises 2022. Cognizant, LLC.This work is supported by Qatar University (grant number QUUG-CBE-DFE-15/16-13). The authors would like to thank the Office of Academic Research (OAR) at Qatar University and the associate dean of research office at the college of business and economics for their continuous support.Scopu

Innovations and Hotel Performance in the Aftermath announcement of Qatar Hosting FIFA 2022 World Cup

The innovation-performance relationships continue to raise an ongoing debate in which the existing literature yields no conclusive results mainly in the tourism sector of resource-rich countries. This paper contributes to the literature by proposing a theoretical framework which links four innovations types to five types of performances in the hotel industry. Using a sample of all three, four and five stars hotels in Qatar over six months between 2016 and 2017, the results show the existence of an innovativeness path beginning from organizational innovation leading to an improvement of the hotels' financial performance. Specifically, the findings suggest that organizational innovation is the stronger driver of service innovation, and market performance is the main driver of financial performance. Accordingly, the results have several recommendations for hotels' managers and Qatari policymakers for successfully innovation implemention. The evidence also provides a better understanding of innovation types that driving hotels performance in the developing world, which may differ from the world developed countries

Effect of aggregate, mandatory and voluntary disclosure on firm performance in a developing market: The case of Kuwait

This paper examines the relationship between corporate disclosure and firm performance for the case of listed companies in the Kuwait Stock Exchanges (KSE). Our sample contains 51 non-financial firms that represent 42% of the total number of listed companies in Kuwait. The empirical results show that the linear relationship between aggregate, mandatory and voluntary disclosure and firm performance is not significant, while there is strong evidence for nonlinear relationship between the disclosure types and firm performance proxies. Specifically, we found strong evidence of U-shaped relationship between corporate disclosure and firm performance. Moreover, we found that the relationship between disclosure and firm performance is not governed by the firm size variable.Quantitative Fisheries Center, Qatar National Research FundScopu

Insurance and economic growth nexus: New Evidence from OECD countries

AbstractThis study tackles the debate on the relationship between insurance development and economic growth by providing new evidence on the insurance sector. Most of the existing empirical studies focus primarily on the banking sector. This article applies linear dynamic panel-data approaches to examine the nexus between insurance (life insurance, non-life insurance, and the total insurance) and economic growth in 16 OECD countries from 2009 to 2020. We show that insurance development is associated with economic growth. The relationship between life and non-life insurance premiums and economic growth is non-linear. Based on the analysis of the data, an inverted U-shaped relationship is observed between insurance premiums and economic growth, thereby supporting the hypothesis reported in the literature on the non-linear relationship between financial development and economic growth. This implies that more finance may only be better up to a point, after which it tends to harm growth. Thus, our results confirm that the relationship between the insurance sector and economic growth appears to behave like the association between the financial industry and GDP. These findings offer several useful empirical implications for insurance companies and certain perspectives that would help policymakers, governments in OECD and other regions identify important aspects that can be considered while formulating financial regulations related to insurance activities

Analysis of the resilience of the Turkey tourism industry to exogenous shocks: new evidence from a NARDL model

This paper analyses the resilience of the Turkey tourism industry to exogenous shocks over the period from January 1997 to December 2018. Using the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model, our results show strong evidence for the existence of an asymmetric effect of terrorist attacks on tourism receipts and the number of tourist arrivals. Interestingly, the results reveal that terrorist attacks decreases have a higher impact on tourism demand compared to the impact of terrorist attacks increases. This finding confirms the resilience of the Turkey tourism sector to exogenous shocks. The result indicates the significant role of the Turkey government in supporting the tourism sector during periods of instability. These findings offer several valuable insights for policy-makers and researchers