Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between board of directors’ roles namely strategy, service and control roles and ambidextrous innovation. This study also aims to determine whether the independence and gender diversity of boards have mediating effects in this relationship.Design/methodology/approach: On the basis of a quantitative approach, the authors conducted a survey on all Tunisian-listed firms. A partial least square method was used to analyze the quantitative data. The authors also conducted semi-structured interviews with a sample of boards’ members of the surveyed firms followed by a thematic analysis of the discourses to discuss the results.Findings: Results revealed that ambidextrous innovation is negatively linked to board’s control role. The outcomes of this research show also that ambidextrous innovation is positively associated with board’s service role and that the gender diversity moderates positively this link. Findings do not indicate a significant relationship between board’s strategy role and ambidextrous innovation but show evidence that the relationship is negatively moderated by independent directors, while positively moderated by gender diversity.Originality/value: This research sheds light on the effects of Boards’ roles on ambidextrous innovation and the moderating effect of board’s gender diversity and independence as well. This paper addresses the gap in the literature as this thematic has not been studied, offering key insights with regard to corporate governance of companies looking to achieve ambidextrous innovation.

This study seeks to provide empirical evidence of the efficacy of board characteristics in constraining management opportunism, measured by real earnings management. The paper uses regression analysis to document empirical evidence regarding the impact of the independence of boards of directors and the independence of committees on real earnings management in 7,481 US firms over the period 2000 to 2009. This study contributes to empirical studies on the role of corporate governance in financial reporting quality by demonstrating the role of the independence of boards of directors and the independence of committees in constraining real earnings management. These results should contribute to providing an orientation for future regulators regarding possible amendments, especially in the wake of the current financial crisis.

The aim of this paper is to study the impact of voluntary information disclosure on cost of debt capital. Our survey has been achieved on a sample of 22 firms listed in the Tunis stock exchange over a period spanning from 1998 to 2004. The results confirm the existence of a negative and significant relationship between the frequencies of voluntary disclosure on cost of debt. This study's survey shows that the information disclosure mitigate the asymmetric information between manager and lenders which would consequently decrease the cost of capital.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comparative analysis of internal and external determinants of bank’s performance in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries.Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a static unbalanced annual panel data of banks operating in eight countries pertaining to the MENA region (Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Lebanon, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) over the period from 1999 to 2014.Findings: The findings reveal that the determinants of intermediation margins in the MENA region differ across countries. Overall, banks interest margins are explained by both bank-specific variables and macroeconomic factors except for Saudi Arabia in which interest margins exclusively depend on bank-specific factors.Originality/value: These findings contribute to the clarification and critical analysis of the current state of bank’s performance in some countries located in MENA region, which would have several crucial policy implications.

Aims: Severe competition exists among the medical service providers at Saudi Arabia. The competition has propelled hospitals to look beyond the idea of providing just a service and has oriented them to consider the customer loyalty, which stems out of service quality, as an important competitiveness factor. Large-sized hospitals can demonstrate successful performance when they satisfy the quality of medical services expected by patients. This paper investigates the influence of medical services quality on the extent of patient loyalty. Methodology: For the purpose of this research, an empirical investigation was conducted nearby 293 patients of King Khalid University Hospital, within the period from 01-03-2016 until 30-04-2016. A questionnaire was designed as an instrument to collect the data. Hypotheses were tested using a Multiple Regression Analysis with SPSS. Results: Findings showed that medical service quality affects positively patient loyalty, especially the service tangibility dimension perceived as the most significant by patients. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, marketing implications have been formulated for large-sized hospitals to offer patients effective medical services. A continually improvement of tangible aspect of healthcare services is important but not sufficient, it should be supported by an implementation of a marketing information system to enhance healthcare services quality at lower cost.