EN:

This study tested the transformational leadership theory among managers at functional levels in United Arab Emirates (UAE) banks. The UAE banking sec-tor was chosen due to its importance in the U.A.E. economy and its significant contribution to the Emirates GDP. The paper examines the effects of both transformational and transactional leadership styles of bank managers/supervisors on employees' satisfaction and self-perceived performance. Self-esteem and leadership disposition (Romance of Leadership) of employees were hypothe-sized to act as moderators. Data was collected from employees working in national and international banks operating in the UAE. A multiple regression analysis indicated that transformational leadership style and self-esteem were related to job satisfaction. On the other hand, transformational leadership, Romance of Leadership (RLS), and self-esteem were all related to self-perceived performance. Results confirmed that to elicit higher levels of satisfac-tion and performance among bank employees, managers/supervisors need to demonstrate transformational leadership attributes.

EN:

While there is substantial literature examining the flow of foreign investments into various regions of the world, there is still lack of research focus on foreign investment activities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). One objective of this paper is to remedy this neglect and extend previous empirical work by focusing on foreign investments in that region. The second objective is to focus on non-traditional determinants that have tended to be overlooked or underestimated in previous research. The paper will focus on factors such as governance, legal environment, and economic freedom and examine their impact on foreign investment activities in the MENA region.

EN:

A rising standard of living is the result of many contributing factors interacting in a complex pattern. One such contributing factor is the capacity of a nation's firms to achieve high levels of productivity, and to increase productivity over time. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries have significantly lower productivity, as measured by added value per employee in comparison with developed countries. One reason for this imbalance is the traditional business practice in many developing countries of price competition as opposed to product innovation and superior customer value. The concept of added value is used to characterise three business strategies with decreasing, unchanged and increasing added value. In the third strategy the increased added value is the result of a price increase, justified through improved functional product or service quality. Since product improvement mostly leads to higher costs, the crucial issue is to find a method to analyse when increased sales price, and hence also increase in added value, leads to lower profit due to higher production costs. The model suggested to cope with this issue is based on three parameters: added value grade, profit margin and refinement cost grade.