scholarly journals Non-financial corporations in Lebanon: Who governs? “The governance myopia”

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mireille Chidiac El Hajj ◽  
Richard Abou Moussa ◽  
Maha Akiki ◽  
Anthony Sassine

The purpose of this paper is to study governance practices in non-financial enterprises in Lebanon, and it is the first time that such enterprises are studied in the Lebanese context. Only three non-financial institutions are listed in the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE), which constitute the whole population of this research. Built on Principles, Governance is based on transparency and on accurate, relevant, and timely information in order to support the Board members’ decision-making (OECD, 2015). Balanced between Jensen and Meckling’s (1976) agency theory and Donaldson and Davis’ (1991) Stewardship theory, the results of our Qualitative study showed that the main problems faced by the enterprises are not in the quality of information but rather in its selection and filtering, which opens doors to “Governance Myopia”. Face-to-face interviews showed that the primary conflict in our case is between the non-financial enterprises and the BSE, since the BSE is controlled by the enterprises and is not controlling them. The main reason of such practices come from the fear of the BSE of losing a potential position in the MENA Exchange Market, doubled with the fear of losing potential investors. All these reasons weigh heavily on the Administrators of the BSE in Lebanon, forcing them to choose the “Laisser passer” way. Referring to the soft Law when dealing with the companies, the BSE is playing the double role of a marketer and a controller, thus not willing to impose restrictions. A need for “harder laws”, for “Privatization” of the BSE, and a call to the Capital Market Authority (CMA) to put more restrictions on Corporations should be observed.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Martin ◽  
Maureen A. Flynn ◽  
Zuneera Khurshid ◽  
John J. Fitzsimons ◽  
Gemma Moore ◽  
...  

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to present a quality improvement approach titled “Picture-Understanding-Action” used in Ireland to enhance the role of healthcare boards in the oversight of healthcare quality and its improvement.Design/methodology/approachThe novel and practical “Picture-Understanding-Action” approach was implemented using the Model for Improvement to iteratively introduce changes across three quality improvement projects. This approach outlines the concepts and activities used at each step to support planning and implementation of processes that allow a board to effectively achieve its role in overseeing and improving quality. This approach matured over three quality improvement projects.FindingsThe “Picture” included quantitative and qualitative aspects. The quantitative “Picture” consisted of a quality dashboard/profile of board selected outcome indicators representative of the health system using statistical process control (SPC) charts to focus discussion on real signals of change. The qualitative picture was based on the experience of people who use and work in health services which “people-ised” the numbers. Probing this “Picture” with collective grounding, curiosity and expert training/facilitation developed a shared “Understanding”. This led to “Action(s)” from board members to improve the “Picture” and “Understanding” (feedback action), to ask better questions and make better decisions and recommendations to the executive (feed-forward action). The Model for Improvement, Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles and a co-design approach in design and implementation were key to success.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time a board has undertaken a quality improvement (QI) project to enhance its own processes. It addresses a gap in research by outlining actions that boards can take to improve their oversight of quality of care.


Author(s):  
Mohamad Hossein Pourhanifeh ◽  
Kazem Abbaszadeh-Goudarzi ◽  
Mohammad Goodarzi ◽  
Sara G.M. Piccirillo ◽  
Alimohammad Shafiee ◽  
...  

: Melanoma is the most life-threatening and aggressive class of skin malignancies. The incidence of melanoma has steadily increased. Metastatic melanoma is greatly resistant to standard anti-melanomatreatments such as chemotherapy, and 5-year survival rate of cases with melanoma who have metastatic form of disease is less than 10%. The contributing role of apoptosis, angiogenesis and autophagy in the pathophysiology of melanoma has been previously demonstrated. Thus, it is extremely urgent to search for complementary therapeutic approachesthat couldenhance the quality of life of subjects and reduce treatment resistance and adverse effects. Resveratrol, known as a polyphenol component present in grapes and some plants, has anti-cancer properties due to its function as an apoptosis inducer in tumor cells, and anti-angiogenic agent to prevent metastasis. However, more clinical trials should be conducted to prove resveratrol efficacy. : Herein, for first time, we summarize current knowledge of anti-cancerous activities of resveratrol in melanoma.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wasan Yahia Ahmed ◽  
Suaad Adnan Noaman Al-Shammari ◽  
Ahmed Taher Kadhim Al-Anbagi

The subject of green accounting is one of the modern topics in accounting science, which has received great attention by researchers and writers because of its great role in measuring and disclosing environmental activities and in line with the interests of internal and external users of accounting information.  The research stems from a fundamental problem that taking into account the costs of green accounting within the financial statements of economic units would improve the quality of accounting information provided to users. To achieve the goal of the research, a questionnaire was designed and submitted to the stakeholders of users of information and employees of a number of economic units listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange, as well as the use of different statistical methods and methods to extract results related to the role of information on green accounting in improving the quality of accounting information provided by Before economic units. The research reached several results, the most important of which was the need to take into account the costs of green accounting and manifested within the financial statements of economic units, because of its role in improving the quality of accounting information and commensurate with the interests of users, so it should work to measure those costs and disclosed to contribute to Meet the wishes and interests of users of financial statements.


1968 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Lonsdale

This paper attempts to provide a frame of reference for evaluating the role of ordinary rural Africans in national movements, in the belief that scholarly preoccupation with élites will only partially illumine the mainsprings of nationalism. Kenya has been taken as the main field of enquiry, with contrasts and comparisons drawn from Uganda and Tanganyika. The processes of social change are discussed with a view to establishing that by the end of the colonial period one can talk of peasants rather than tribesmen in some of the more progressive areas. This change entailed a decline in the leadership functions of tribal chiefs who were also the official agents of colonial rule, but did not necessarily mean the firm establishment of a new type of rural leadership. The central part of the paper is taken up with an account of the competition between these older and newer leaderships, for official recognition rather than a mass following. A popular following was one of the conditions for such recognition, but neither really achieved this prior to 1945 except in Kikuyuland, and there the newer leaders did not want official recognition. After 1945 the newer leadership, comprising especially traders and officials of marketing co-operatives, seems everywhere to have won a properly representative position, due mainly to the enforced agrarian changes which brought the peasant face to face with the central government, perhaps for the first time. This confrontation, together with the experience of failure in earlier and more local political activity, resulted in a national revolution coalescing from below, co-ordinated rather than instigated by the educated élite.


Author(s):  
John Gastil ◽  
Laura Black

The discipline of communication encompasses a broad spectrum of humanistic, interpretive, and social scientific approaches to studying public deliberation. Early work engaged Habermasian theories of the public sphere, and rhetorical scholarship has foregrounded the deliberative threads running back to the discipline’s earliest history in ancient Greece. The bulk of contemporary work, however, has examined the dynamics of deliberation, particularly in the context of face-to-face discussions and dialogues in small groups. These studies have revealed the importance of narrative and dialogic exchanges during deliberation, as well as the critical role of facilitation and the maintenance of deliberative norms. Research has also assessed the practical consequences of participating in deliberation. The discipline’s practical orientation has led some scholars to seek ways to optimize deliberative designs to maximize simultaneously the quality of their decision outputs and their civic impacts on participants.


Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2116
Author(s):  
Marija Geroldinger-Simić ◽  
Thomas Bögl ◽  
Markus Himmelsbach ◽  
Norbert Sepp ◽  
Wolfgang Buchberger

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease with fibrosis of the skin and/or internal organs, causing a decrease in quality of life and survival. There is no causative therapy, and the pathophysiology of the SSc remains unclear. Studies showed that lipid metabolism was relevant for autoimmune diseases, but little is known about the role of lipids in SSc. In the present study, we sought to explore the phospholipid profile of SSc by using the lipidomics approach. We also aimed to analyze lipidomics results for different clinical manifestations of SSc. Experiments were performed using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry for the lipidomic profiling of plasma samples from patients with SSc. Our study showed, for the first time, significant changes in the level of phospholipids such as plasmalogens and sphingomyelins from the plasma of SSc patients as compared to controls. Phosphatidylcholine plasmalogens species and sphingomyelins were significantly increased in SSc patients as compared to controls. Our results also demonstrated a significant association of changes in the metabolism of phospholipids (phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine plasmalogens species and sphingomyelins) with different clinical manifestations of SSc. Further lipidomic studies might lead to the detection of lipids as new biomarkers or therapeutic targets of SSc.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-325
Author(s):  
Michelle Kundmueller

Abstract Atticus Finch, protagonist of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and longtime hero of the American bar, is well known, but he is not well understood. This article unlocks the secret to his status as the most admired of fictional attorneys by demonstrating the role that his rhetoric plays in his exemplary fulfillment of the duties of an attorney to zealously represent clients, to serve as an officer of the court, and to act as a public citizen with a special responsibility for the quality of justice. Always using the simplest accurate wording, focusing on reason over emotion, and speaking in the same manner whether in private or in public, Atticus’s rhetoric exemplifies the ancient Roman style known by students of rhetoric as “Attic.” Using this style to navigate the potential for conflict among his duties, Atticus reveals the power, the elegance, and the ethical necessity of Attic rhetoric. Connecting Atticus’s name to the Attic style of rhetoric for the first time, this article advances several scholarly debates by demonstrating the mutual compatibility of the duties imposed by the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and proffering a powerful tool to attorneys seeking to practice or to teach improved ethical conduct.


Author(s):  
Rizqi Umar Al Hashfi ◽  
Ahmad Maulin Naufa ◽  
U’um Munawaroh

The aim of this research is to verify the role of Islamic value in stock mispricing in the Indonesian capital market. Empirically, high investor sentiment can lead to mispricing on equity appraisal. When investors feel excessively optimistic about their valuation, equity will be overpriced, or vice versa. The presence of Islamic values, such as the prohibition of interest, speculative and uncertain transactions, and excessive leverage, arguably reduce sentiment-based mispricing. Daily and cross-sectional market data were employed. In addition, principal component analysis was conducted to construct a firm-specific investor sentiment variable. With regard to the method, the Hausman-Taylor (H-T) approach was used to deal with heterogeneity, endogeneity, and the time-invariant variable in Fama-MacBeth regression. The results show that our baseline analysis confirms the mispricing of overall stocks. However, Islamic stocks are less exposed to sentiment-based mispricing than their non-Islamic counterparts. The results are consistent with our robustness test, in which we estimate the equation model across industry and portfolio. Finally, our findings imply various insights for both investors and policymakers.


Author(s):  
G. Olevsky

The article studies role of knowledge in business and analyzes tendencies of the formation of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (business) in the EU. It is shown that for small and medium-sized enterprises prospects of expansion of knowledge production and sales of products and services are associated with the internationalization of business. The author proposes the matrix of decision-making entrepreneurs, depending on the completeness and quality of information at their disposal on the market.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia B. Dias ◽  
Sofia J. Hadjileontiadou ◽  
José Diniz ◽  
Leontios J. Hadjileontiadis

AbstractCoronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has imposed a complete shut-down of face-to-face teaching to universities and schools, forcing a crash course for online learning plans and technology for students and faculty. In the midst of this unprecedented crisis, video conferencing platforms (e.g., Zoom, WebEx, MS Teams) and learning management systems (LMSs), like Moodle, Blackboard and Google Classroom, are being adopted and heavily used as online learning environments (OLEs). However, as such media solely provide the platform for e-interaction, effective methods that can be used to predict the learner’s behavior in the OLEs, which should be available as supportive tools to educators and metacognitive triggers to learners. Here we show, for the first time, that Deep Learning techniques can be used to handle LMS users’ interaction data and form a novel predictive model, namely DeepLMS, that can forecast the quality of interaction (QoI) with LMS. Using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, DeepLMS results in average testing Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) $$<0.009$$ < 0.009 , and average correlation coefficient between ground truth and predicted QoI values $$r\ge 0.97$$ r ≥ 0.97 $$(p<0.05)$$ ( p < 0.05 ) , when tested on QoI data from one database pre- and two ones during-Covid-19 pandemic. DeepLMS personalized QoI forecasting scaffolds user’s online learning engagement and provides educators with an evaluation path, additionally to the content-related assessment, enriching the overall view on the learners’ motivation and participation in the learning process.


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