Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of improving supply chain management on fostering innovation within Lebanese SMEs. The results and conclusions were obtained after studying professionals and performing reliability analysis, factor analysis, and regression analysis.

The positive relationship was found, and improved supply chain management was proved as a primary source of innovation in businesses which is highly required in the current global world characterized by fierce competition, and unprecedented challenges.

Decentralization by devolution (D by D) is a driving force for service delivery, so if all elements of D by D complement each other the delivery of water service can be realized. This study examined decentralization by devolution in Tanzania: Reflections on water service delivery in selected wards of Ilala municipality.   The objective of the study was to examine the influence of D by D on water service delivery. The focus of the study was the variations between urban and peri-urban areas of Ilala Municipality. Existence of few empirical studies on the impact of D by D on water service delivery is the motivation for this study. The study adopted a descriptive comparative cross-sectional survey design that involved the use of questionnaires and interviews in collecting data from a sample of 384 respondents selected from a population of 64,579. The study also involved 9 key informants purposively selected from among the household and 5 purposively selected from local government officials and 3 purposively selected from central government officials so that to provide qualitative data to supplement the quantitative data obtained from questionnaires. Data was analyzed using frequencies, means, and standard deviation. The study revealed that the one aspect of D by D (fiscal aspect) has no influence on water service delivery and also coefficients revealed that by comparison, out of the three elements of decentralization by devolution, political decentralization explains a higher variance in water service delivery, followed by administrative decentralization. The study recommends that since D by D among other things aims at bringing services closer to the people, local officials should involve citizens in deciding matters affecting their livelihoods including planning and setting their priorities especially in water service delivery and there is need for water policy to state clearly how D by D works especially on water service delivery.

Strategic planning is a systematic process for designing the future of higher education institutions. The planning process usually focuses on enhancing the quality of teaching, increasing research and scholarly outputs, and fostering community partnerships in academe. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of leaders and faculty members on strategic planning implications at a selected business school. As a case study, the research was conducted at the College of Business Administration in King Saud University (KSU-CBA), Saudi Arabia. The population selected for this study included 449 faculty members. The sample for the research included only 348 faculty members. There were 17 personal interviews conducted and a survey was administered with a sample size of 248 faculty members. Subsequently, the responses were statistically analyzed. The findings that were derived from the analysis of the data collected in this study include: KSU-CBA leaders and faculty members did not significantly differ in their perceptions of the historical evolution of strategic planning process in higher education. KSU-CBA leaders and faculty members perceived that strategic planning helps in designing the future of their school and respondents agreed on the potential use of strategic planning in higher education, and both leaders and faculty members perceived that the current strategic planning of KSU-CBA was as successful as possible; however, the full implementation of the plan would benefit the institution in sustaining its identity, image, and reputation.

The study investigates employee views on payroll computerization and its impact on their productivity. The researchers used qualitative research design to conduct the study. Grounded theory was also adopted for theory building. Eleven employees were carefully selected from three different institutions to participate in the study. A taped interview was conducted using semi structured questions. A peer review rates of the transcript suggest ≥ 86% agreement. The study reveals among other things that accuracy in reward computation, job enrichment as well as timely payment of employee’s benefits increases employee’s productivity. The study proposes some recommendations and suggests other avenues for further research as well.

 According to Michel Porter there are two generic strategies-cost leadership and differentiation. Using the case of a newly established Saudi airline company Flydeal we attempt to analyze how one of these strategies is selected and applied in real-life business, instigate how activities and business processes are used to support the selected strategy, try to identify sources of competitive advantage and discuss if the new company will be able to sustain it.

In this study, the researcher tried to examine the influence that leadership has on improving organizational learning. There is an increasing need to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by effective leaders who are visionaries, and able to promote organizational learning. This article found that organizational learning is promoted by collaborative leadership through innovativeness and employees’ benefits.

Leadership styles have an essential, direct cause and effect relationship on business success and their development. Leaders’ roles are revolved in forming values, visions, and employee’s motivation. Several leadership styles were analyzed in this study such as transformational, transactional and charismatic. A review of the literature showed several empirical businesses. The problem of the study was to cover the gap in the literature related to leadership styles in achieving total business success. Data collected in this study using a leadership survey including demographic, leadership styles and business success questions. Hundred questionnaires were distributed and only 85 valid respondents completed and appropriate for further analysis in the survey. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multiple regressions were used to test the research hypotheses. The study was assumed that a transformational transactional and charismatic leadership styles were the most dominant of leadership styles in the business. The study found that most companies have same styles of leadership. Based on the results, transactional leadership style has a significant positive impact on business success. Additional, transformational leadership style, however, showed a negative impact on business success. This means that success of business would not develop or increase when transformational style is found.

This paper examines the impact of gender differences on the work engagement level of the academicians in higher education institutions. The impact is examined through an empirical study involving 123 academic staff members from three universities (University of Kashmir, Central University of Kashmir and Islamic university of science and technology) of Kashmir region, using the independent samples test. The results reveal that the work engagement level of female academicians is significantly better than that of the male academicians in the sample institutions.