Search results

This study aims to establish a new system to predict the defect liability phase (DLP) cost using the Six Sigma methodology, which investigates sources of variations and reduces the error level to 3.4 per million through five phases: define, measure, analyze, design and verify.

After the initial handover of the construction project, the DLP follows the practical completion. During this stage, the contractor is responsible for the remedy of any defects that appeared in the project. Many researchers have studied defect reasons and their associated costs in different industries, while the construction industry remains a green field for this kind of research. The objective of this study was to develop a model to predict the DLP cost. The research methodology adopted the five stages of the Six Sigma cycle: defining objectives, measuring the data, analyzing performance, designing the model and verifying the results. Twenty factors were identified as potential factors affecting the DLP cost. Factors were categorized into two main clusters: project data and organization data. Interviews were conducted with 42 project management experts, who have 8–35 years of experience in construction project management, to rank the 20 factors based on their importance. Simo’s procedure was used to obtain the weight of each factor affecting the DLP cost based on the opinions of the experts. The Pareto principle was used to select the “Vital Few” factors affecting the DLP cost, and six factors were selected. The design of experiments (DOE) was used to establish a dynamic model to predict the DLP cost using a sample of 41 construction projects obtained from the above-mentioned 42 project management experts. The model accuracy was verified using data obtained from a different sample of five construction projects, which were not used to establish the model.

The results showed that among the 20 factors, only six were found to have a cumulative impact of 50% over the cost of the DLP: type of project, project contract value, nationality of the employer, project manager experience, DLP duration and sector of the employer. A model was established through the DOE to predict the DLP cost using the values of the aforementioned factors.

As a natural limitation of using DOE, the newly developed model can be applied to predict the DLP cost based on data within the range of data used during the model development, which means that model is confined within the specific measured values of factors. Furthermore, it will be beneficial for future studies to study the impact of other factors related to the types of materials or equipment used in building the project because it was not considered during this study because of the huge diversities in these factors and difficulties in determining its impact on the DLP cost.

The unique results of using DOE through Minitab software facilitated obtaining of a dynamic model, which means that researchers can modify any value of the six factors and monitor instantly the expected change in the DLP cost, which will allow a better understanding of the impact of each factor on the DLP cost. Moreover, the new model will help contractors to predict the expected DLP cost to be added for their project budget, which will mitigate the risk of cost overrun resulted from the cost of defect rectification.

A dynamic model was established to predict the DLP cost using the DOE. The new model was validated, and the prediction error ranged from −18% to +21%.

This paper aims to discuss the evolution of the Egyptian banking sector and the main trends in financial development in Egypt. The purpose of this study is to examine empirically the relationship between the development of the financial sector and economic growth in Egypt between 1980 and 2016.

The paper draws comparisons based on critical financial indicators between Egypt and selected emerging markets and developing economies. It uses a new data set of financial development indexes released by the International Monetary Fund. This paper uses econometric time series modelling of bivariate regressions for real growth per capita and measures of financial development to assess the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Egypt.

There are three specific findings based on the empirical analysis. First, there is a strong association between real growth per capita and financial development measured by money supply to GDP. Second, access to and the efficiency of banking services are not associated with real per capita income. Third, the Financial Markets Access Index – which compiles data on market capitalization outside of the top ten largest companies and the number of corporate issuers of debt – indicates a robust association with real per capita GDP.

The paper uses advanced empirical investigation techniques and new data sets available to assess the critical relationship between finance and growth in Egypt. The main policy implications of the empirical results of this paper suggest a stronger focus on promoting a more proactive role for the financial services industry in Egypt. In particular, there is a critical role for bank financing to support the private sector to maintain an inclusive growth momentum. Further development of the capital market will promote sustainability of such economic growth.

It is claimed that port supply chain integration (PSCI), thanks to its attributes, holds a potential to trigger a port to strategically sustain performance- and competitiveness-measures through strengthening and/or reinforcing an array of port sustainability aspects. This paper aims to empirically investigate the existent influence of PSCI on economic and environmental pillars of port sustainability.

Based on a resource-based view, this paper hypothesises that PSCI has a certain impact on port “economic” sustainability (PECS) and port “environmental” sustainability (PENS). Measures of PSCI, PECS and PENS are refined and validated using data collected from the maritime logistics industry in Egypt, and structural equation modelling is employed to test the hypothetical relationships.

The results indicate that a port having adopted an integrative strategy into supply chains could enhance its cost and operational efficiency, financial and investment situation, while offering high-quality services to its customers. Similarly, PSCI is emphatically correlated with water and air pollution management, energy efficiency and green port management practices.

Having identified the acute potential of PSCI for sustainable development in maritime logistics and supply chains, this line of research allows port operators and/or authorities to better understand strategic options with which they are able to improve their sustainability practices. This paper is, however, limited only to two dimensions of sustainability by not exploring the “social” aspect of port sustainability due to data-related issues.

This line of research could be regarded as an extended application from other industrial sectors to the port industry in a way to empirically examine the inclusive relationship of PSCI with economic and environmental parameters. The findings from this research make a due contribution to the field of port sustainability in general and Egyptian ports in particular.

Understanding how leaders make foreign policy and national security decisions is of paramount importance for the policy community and academia. It is our assertion that decisions in these domains can be explained best by tracing the cognitive process leaders go through in formulating and arriving at their decisions, using the Applied Decision Analysis (ADA) method (Mintz, 2005; Mintz & DeRouen, 2010).

Consequently, this chapter summarizes the Applied Decision Analysis method which is utilized throughout the chapters comprising this volume. We then discuss the findings presented in this volume, while demonstrating the merit of both ADA and the poliheuristic theory of decision (Mintz, 2004), in the robust analyses of decisions made by Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Benjamin Netanyahu, Winston Churchill, Mao Zedong, Barack Obama, Saddam Hussein, Khaled Mashal, Muammar Gaddafi, Pieter Botha, and Frederik de Klerk. We conclude by providing a brief summary of the case studies which are included in this volume.

In Africa, the public sector is very often not able per se to deliver the resources needed to assure access to basic public goods and services. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has heavily invested in infrastructure to help overcome these long enduring bottlenecks, which have hampered economic growth in the continent. Given the AfDB’s ambitious objectives of contributing significantly to development and poverty reduction, and its continued thrust into infrastructure development through New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Africa50, and a range of collaborations to leverage resources for the continent, it is useful to consider the nature of the Bank’s involvement in Public–Private partnerships (PPPs) and identify lessons learned and recommendations for improvement. The methodology employs mixed methods, with desk reviews, staff consultations and analytical analysis of project data from 2006 to 2014 in 18 countries. Lessons and recommendations are drawn from the ‘Evaluation Results Database’, covering the period 2001–2012 from projects in 12 countries and six sectors. Overall, 64.4% of the PPP volume of the AfDB’s portfolio was allocated to lower middle-income countries, with low-income countries receiving about a quarter. The energy sector accounted for over 78% of the total PPP volume. A pragmatic account of what was done and learned from PPP implementation processes over a decade in the African continent is provided in this chapter, together with successes and failures from the AfDB’s experience, as the Bank itself and a range of other Multilateral Development Banks and donors continue to scale up infrastructure financing in Africa.

The present study investigates the direction of causality between stock market development and economic growth in the case of the United States. We use the Johansen‐Juselius cointegration procedure followed by vector error‐correction modelling. We examine both the long‐run cointegrating relationships and associated causal orderings, and short‐run interactions among the variables. The results indicate that there are stable long‐run equilibrium relationships among the variables and that the stock market contains information about future changes in real income.

The paper investigates relative efficiency of the banking industry in Bahrain by employing a panel of 31 banks for the years 1998 and 2000. We employ non‐parametric (Data Envelopment Analysis) to examine five efficiency measures, namely, cost, allocative, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency scores. We also investigate the conventional accounting measures of performance, and correlate them with five measures of efficiency to investigate whether higher accounting performance impact the bank cost efficiency. Our results show that, on the average, the banking industry in Bahrain is profitable with average ROE and ROA being 10.36% 1.622% in 1998 while 13.49% and 2.097% in 2000 respectively. The average allocative efficiency (inefficiency) is about 73% (37%), whereas the average technical efficiency (inefficiency) is about 56% (78%). This indicates that the dominant source of inefficiency in Bahrain banks is due to technical inefficiency rather than allocative inefficiency, which is mainly attributed to diseconomies in scale. Overall, average scale efficiency (inefficiency) is about 79% (26%), and average pure technical efficiency (inefficiency) is about 71% (41%), suggesting that the major source of the total technical inefficiency for Bahrain banks is pure technical inefficiency (input related) and not scale inefficiency (output related). The results also indicate that all banks have improved their efficiency levels and experienced some gains in productivity. Finally, regression analysis is used to investigate the determinants of the overall efficiency scores. We find that larger and profitable banks are more likely to operate at a higher level of efficiency. Also, another finding reveals that market power plays an important role in cost and technical efficiencies. Notably, banks with greater contribution from shareholders tend to be more technical efficient

This study aims to compare the value relevance of accounting numbers prepared under the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards with those produced under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for Takaful companies (TC).

The authors assess the value relevance of accounting numbers using the Easton and Harris (1991) and Ohlson (1995) return and price models. They also use 54 insurance companies from 10 developing countries in Asia and the Middle East from 2006 to 2015.

The analysis shows that book value is significantly related to stock price under AAOIFI and IFRS. It also shows that TC adopting AAOIFI accounting standards have a more significant effect on stock price. This suggests that AAOIFI standards are more value relevant than IFRS.

TC and their stakeholders can use the findings to determine which accounting standards (IFRS or AAOIFI) produce the more relevant accounting information. This study is useful for investors that consider Islamic ethical practices to make their investment decisions for the standards-setting bodies that focus on establishing accounting standards for the Takaful industry.

The authors investigate a new aspect of the topic of value relevance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, they believe this is the first paper examining the value relevance of TC’ accounting information prepared under AAOIFI and IFRS.

Understanding how leaders make foreign policy and national security decisions is of paramount importance for both the policy community and academia. It is our assertion that decisions in these domains can be explained best by tracing the cognitive process leaders go through in formulating and arriving at their decisions, using the applied decision analysis (ADA) method.

Consequently, this chapter introduces readers to Applied Decision Analysis (also see Mintz, 2005; Mintz & DeRouen, 2010), which is utilized throughout the chapters comprising this volume. We describe the methodological and theoretical implications of the research findings presented in this edited volume. Specifically, the range of leaders analyzed in this volume using ADA (namely, Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Khaled Mashal, Mao Zedong, and Saddam Hussein) substantiates this method’s capacity to provide robust analysis of decisions made by leaders from diverse nations and cultures. We conclude this introduction by providing a brief summary of the chapters that are included in this volume.

This volume is the second of two volumes analyzing decision-making, policy, and strategy of 12 prominent political leaders from the East and West through the lens of ADA. The chapters comprising both volumes seek to uncover how political leaders make decisions: their decision calculus and the motives and factors affecting their crafting of foreign as well as national security policies. The concluding chapter outlines the empirical and analytic contributions of ADA and poliheuristic theory to analysis that should be undertaken in national security and foreign policy affairs. Specifically, the chapter underscores ADA’s policy relevance and ramifications vis-à-vis intelligence analysis, international security analysis, as well as cross-cultural decision-making studies of rivals and allies.