This study aims to assess workers’ perception of occupational and environmental risks and hazards using the psychometric paradigm. For this purpose, data were collected using survey questionnaires from 360 mineworkers recruited from mineral and sand mines. Respondents were asked to evaluate eight occupational and environmental risks and hazards on nine commonly used risk characteristics. The principal component analysis revealed that two components, “Dreaded” and “Unknown”, explained 73% percent of the total variance in workers’ risk perception. The results also showed that the risk of developing an occupational disease was perceived as the most dreaded and unknown type of risk, while landslide, occupational noise, and vibration exposure were the least familiar to the respondents. A practical implication of this research is that the results may offer an insight into the employees’ perceptions of the hazards and risks associated with their working environment. This could help risk management develop and implement effective risk management and communications strategies.

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Purpose -Political-legal risk perception is just as important a consideration in dealing effectively with the threats exposed by international enterprises. This research emphasizes how important it is to integrate the perception of risk factor into the analysis. This is an essential factor when catastrophic risks are involved. Relatively, nevertheless, little work has been done to explore the concept of political-legal risk as it applies to international commercial and business applications. The purpose of this research is to first examine the perception of Kuwaiti executives to political-legal business environment while conducting outward investment and where a number of recent events like those in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen illustrate that the rise of enterprises onto the world stage will not necessarily be entirely without risk and second, to explore the correlations between the executives' perceptions of political-legal variables and enterprise-specific characteristics. Design/methodology/approach -A review of the literature relating to risk in international business in both developed and emerging markets is provided. The empirical research was conducted via a questionnaire survey. In line with the research aim, questionnaires were distributed to the entire target population of Kuwaiti international enterprises. Nonparametric statistics were used to analyze the findings. Findings -The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been shaken like never before. The recent events of the uprising in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya and the regional reverberations of the upheaval are unfolding, inter alia, concerns about rising exposure to more risks and the instability in the MENA have reached a fever pitch. Findings of this research suggest that the political-legal related risks associated with enterprises' activities pose a threat to the majority of executives and the vulnerability to these risks are not related to any enterprise's-specific characteristics. Originality/value -The research on international enterprises states that some parts of the globe have remained detached. Given its economic and political importance, the most obvious omission is the Middle East. To date and despite that the region has garnered its fair share of coverage in current news, little is known on management practices by enterprise in the region. This research, therefore, provides empirical evidence of executives' perception of political-legal business environment in an emerging market context: Kuwait. Furthermore, most recent literature omits oil-producing nations. Focusing on this oil-rich region is an attempt to fill this void.

Evaluating the financial performance of banks has always been in the center of attention among both academics and practitioners. In that matter, CAMELS framework has always been one of the most widely used model in evaluating the financial soundness of banks and exploring the weakness areas a bank has. The model is used to distinguish good banks from bad ones. This study aims to evaluate the financial soundness of Kuwaiti banks that are listed at Kuwait stock exchange over the period 2011-2016 using CAMELS framework. Results obtained from this study showed that Ahli united bank was the top performing bank in Kuwait during the study period despite showing weakness in terms of capital adequacy and liquidity while the worst performing bank was Kuwait finance house. Kuwait finance house showed very poor performance in capital adequacy and management efficiency. The results from this research would be useful for the Kuwaiti banks to address their weak areas and try to improve on them. Contribution/Originality: This study is one of very few studies which have investigated the financial soundness of Kuwaiti banks using CAMELS framework. The results highlighted the weak areas in every bank listed at Kuwait stock exchange which must be addressed by the bank to improve its performance. from the five main segments of a bank operations: Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management quality, Earnings ability and Liquidity. Since 1996, out of the desire to stronger focus on risk, to the five components was added the

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