International audienceThis paper examines the relationship between boards of directors' demographic diversity and firms' financial performance. In particular, we highlight how women and ethnic minorities can affect Middle Eastern SMEs' financial performance. Using an unbalanced panel of 1,855 firm-year observations of 371 boards of directors from nine Middle Eastern countries, our results support the positive impact of women and ethnic minority group members on Middle Eastern firms' performance. However, our evidence implies that when Western ethnic minority members increase, firms' performances tend to decrease, because these board members are appointed for regional and international board reputation legitimacy, personal business agendas, and links to the external corporate environment
International audienceThe purpose of this paper is to detect the impact of audit committee characteristics on Lebanese financially distressed and non-distressed banks. Four characteristics of the audit committee are being examined; size, composition, frequency of meeting and financial expertise. The sample includes 54 ebanese banks with fiscal years-end between 2009 and 2011. The financially distressed and non-distressed banks have been identified from bank profitability. Our Results show that the financial distress of banks has a significant negative relation with the meeting frequency of the audit committee. Hence, the evidence suggests that the meeting frequency of audit committee members is an important factor as it helps the audit committee to hinder the financial distress of the bank. Meeting frequency plays an important role to ensure audit committee effectiveness. In other words, the audit committee with frequent meetings is able to help audit committee members to ensure the integrity of financial reporting, to provide better monitoring and to review effectively the operations. The establishment decision of audit committee was adopted in 2008 and was modified in 2010 in Lebanese banks. Then, this study examines an actuality subject. Consequently, this paper represented an added value to the corporate governance in Lebanese banks and shows the importance of the audit committee impact on financial performance. Future studies concentrate on the impact of managerial dominance over the board (board composition, CEO duality and management ownership) on the independence of audit committee which may have an influence on bank performance
The role of the audit committee in oversight of the internal control and internal audit function has grown in the last decades as corporate governance mechanisms after the dramatic scandals and failures. This paper examines the impact of the audit committee and the presence of internal audit function on a company's financial reporting quality. Moreover, this study focus on the association between the audit committee and internal audit function and company's financial reporting quality measured as accruals quality and absolute discretionary accruals. It is hypothesized that the financial reporting quality is related to the strength of internal corporate governance mechanisms, including audit committee and internal audit and its association. Different mechanisms are being examined: audit committee size and independence, frequency of meeting, financial literacy, existence of internal audit function and its meeting independently. To test our hypothesis, we employ panel data analysis for 71 nonfinancial firms through 139 observations listed on the Muscat Securities Market during the period of 2013 and 2014. The data used in the analysis were collected from the companies' annual reports published by the Muscat Securities Market. Ordinary least squares is used to regress financial reporting quality linear variables on audit committee and internal audit. The findings suggest that audit committee meetings frequency and the presence of internal audit function positively affect a company's financial reporting quality. Hence, an audit committee that meets more frequently provides effective monitoring of financial reporting and increases the likelihood of discussing and following up any problems and findings in the financial statements and audit reports. Thus, frequent audit committee meetings provide better oversight of the annual accounts. Likewise, the internal audit function is considered an important corporate governance mechanism to safeguard the quality of financial reporting by monitoring organizational risks, assessing internal controls and detecting possible manipulation because the internal auditor evaluates financial procedures. However, results suggest that the relationship between other corporate governance mechanisms and financial reporting quality is not significant.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: what motivates refugees to create their own businesses in a developing country, and how do they go about it? Design/methodology/approach A quantitative study was conducted before Syrian refugees in main camps in Lebanon. The self-administrated survey was translated into the Arabic language to fit the respondents understanding of the questions asked and answers choices. Closed questions with nominal ratio and Likert scales were used to gather the primary data in the line of the study of Wauters and Lambrecht. The data were analysed with a logistic regression analysis under SPSS. Findings The findings show that 71 per cent of Syrian refugees seem to have a willingness to start a new business in Lebanon. The respondents are mostly young, with 62 per cent being between the ages of 18 and 35. Most of them are men (66.67 per cent) against 33.33 per cent of women. 60 per cent have already been entrepreneurs, and they are mostly motivated by earning a living but in the sector they used to work in before in their home country. Finally, the obstacles seem to be linked to financial and administrative issues, but also to the local policies. However, the fact that they share some cultural values with Lebanese such as the language or food, allow them to integrate easier and to create social bonds. Research limitations/implications The research is limited by the fact that the authors cannot generalise the findings since the Lebanese environment is very different from other countries’ environment. Besides, the Syrian refugees share already a lot of values and lifestyle with Lebanese. So, the authors cannot transpose their case to other ethnic population. Also, the study is limited by the lack of a gender statement and the link between the education level and the decision of creating a new business. Practical implications The authors propose some recommendations to the Lebanese Government and NGOs in order to facilitate and support the entrepreneurship actions of refugees shortly after they arrive to Lebanon. Social implications This paper confirms the importance of social ties in encouraging entrepreneurship in the case of refugees. Originality/value In this paper, the authors make four contributions to the academic debate: first, the authors studied the entrepreneurial motivations of refugees in a middle-eastern developing country while the other studies have focussed upon the adaptation of such individuals in a western and developed environment. Second, the refugees are motivated by pull and push factors at once as the authors discussed in the precedent section. Third, although adaptation to the Lebanese culture is easier, resilience is nevertheless needed due to the Lebanese Government’s policies, which forbid refugees to work in the country. Fourth, with regard to migration studies in general, this paper stands half way between the various studies conducted on ethnic entrepreneurship, immigrant entrepreneurship and refugees. Indeed, the authors brought together many concepts such as social bonds, social capital, culture, political environment, and the service industry. On the managerial level, the findings allow the institutions and the government to target those refugees who show an appetence to entrepreneurship to stimulate their action, shortly after arriving in Lebanon, as their entrepreneurial intent decreases with the time they spend, often unemployed, in the host country. Should government policy change, both the integration of refugees, and entrepreneurship in general would benefit.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.