Mamoun Benmamoun

The Arab Spring, MNEs, and virtual public spheres

Purpose – Although multinational enterprises (MNEs), according to John Dunnings work, are driven by motives of ownership, location, internalization and, ultimately, higher returns, these business entities, by virtue of their transnational products and services, and extensive reach and resources, provide direct and indirect mechanisms that can shape political and social outcomes. This paper seeks to explore those mechanisms in the context of the so‐called “Arab Spring”, the popular uprising that has ensued in a number of Arab countries. The paper also aims to explore virtual public spheres, the platform from which the Arab Spring was launched, and which owes much to the presence of MNEs.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is grounded on the theoretical construct of the virtual public sphere. The approaches taken are that of a general review and secondary research.Findings – The main findings of this paper are three‐fold. First, in the examination of the role of MNEs and the virtual public sphere in...

Arab and Middle Eastern business research: a review of the empirical literature (1990-2013)

Purpose – The purpose of the current study is to examine the empirical research conducted on the Arab region as reported in the top 46 business journals over the past 23 years (1990-2013). After identifying patterns over time (focal country and methodologies), the identified methodological challenges that scholars have reported in their published research are presented. Design/methodology/approach – The Arab region in this study comprised all 22 member-countries in the Arab League. We also added three other countries that are very much tied to the Arab region and are usually included in the Middle East: Turkey, Israel and Iran. Following the recommendations of previous authors (DuBois and Reeb, 2000; Nicholls-Nixon et al., 2011; Martinez and Kalliny, 2012), published articles are reviewed, but not book chapters, book reviews and dissertation abstracts from our sample, as they do not meet the sample selection criteria (Inkpen and Beamish, 1994; Samiee and Athanassiou, 1998). Findings – As Table I indicates...

A Comparative Analysis of Arab and U.S. Cultural Values on the Web

ABSTRACT This study aims to explore the depiction of cultural values on global websites. There exists a research gap in terms of better understanding cross-cultural differences in web communications between the Arab and Western worlds. Thus, we conducted content analysis to examine the cultural values on websites from Arab countries and the U.S. The results suggest that local websites of Arab countries and the United States tend to differ significantly from each other on cultural contents. The proposed cultural findings can serve as a guide for creating culturally congruent international websites.

Localizing to Arabic consumers: Insights from print advertising

This study argues that understanding the nature and influence of cultural differences in print advertising is important for an effective international marketing strategy. Previous studies have investigated cross-cultural differences in advertising, but have not focused on advertising from the Arab world. There is also a shortage of studies providing specific recommendations about localizing advertising for Arab consumers. This study therefore conducts a comparative analysis of Arab and US print advertisements in magazines, to identify cross-cultural differences in advertising and make recommendations on localizing advertising to Arab consumers, and in particular, those in the Persian Gulf states.

The spillover effect of international trade and investment flows: spotlight on Arab unrest

ABSTRACT:The economic and political grievances of Arab youth is fueling social and political upheaval across the Arab world and is reviving the call for equitable and inclusive economic development. The Arab world, where young people constitute a significant proportion of the population, is lagging behind other developing regions over human development. Indeed, addressing the human development challenge has become a necessity and strategic path to achieve peace and security in the Arab world. The purpose of this article is to investigate the spillover effects of economic globalization, economic flows, and restriction on trade and capital on Arab human development. This article attempts, both theoretically and empirically, to answer four questions. First, could economic globalization fulfil the promises of human development in the Arab world? Second, whether actual economic flows (trade, FDI and portfolio investment) to the Arab world have been enough to make meaningful contributions in terms of human welfare. Third, do Arab countries’ restrictions on trade and capital diminish human development? Fourth, whether Arab countries’ governance impede actual economic flows’ development potential. We opted for the Generalized Method of Moments “System GMM” to analyze the effects of international trade and capital flows and openness to trade and foreign capital on Arab human development. The statistical approach, designed for dynamic panel model, helps account for unobserved country specific effects and endogenous determinants. Our panel consists of 18 Arab countries for which data is available on all variables and covers the period between 1990 and 2011. The system GMM models reveal that economic globalization increases the rate of human development both in aggregate and via two channels: international trade and capital flows and trade and investment regimes. These findings highlights the positive effects on human development of a more globalized economy where international trade and capital flows plays a significant role. We also find considerable backing of our hypothesis that openness to trade and capital will likely accelerate human development in the Arab world. The results are consistent with the conjecture of trade and free-market theories of that nation may benefit from engaging in international trade. We conclude by stressing the need for Arab economies to globalize further and they must implement outward-oriented policies that maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of economic globalization more effectively. The Arab world stands at a crossroads and the continuous unrest is a stern wake-up call to tackle the human development challenge.

The role of MNCs and information flow on institutional change

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of large business corporations, particularly media corporations, such as television (e.g. satellite networks), newspapers and social media (e.g. Facebook), on institutional change in the Arab world, which directly impact political and civil liberties in the region. Design/methodology/approach – Although there are several methods to measure institutional change, this paper relied on Kaufmann et al. (2010)’s governance indicators that capture, historically, how authority is exercised in a nation state. As the focus of this paper is on how information flows have empowered citizens in the Arab world, we built a panel database around one relevant governance indicator: “Voice and Accountability”. As a measure of governance, “Voice and Accountability” summarizes the condition of political, civil and human rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of association in a given country. This indicator takes scores ranging from 2.5, corresponding t...