A rapid pace of change presents an unforeseen and perpetual competitive challenge for organizations. Despite the existence of numerous change management models, organizational change leaders often encounter obstacles during the implementation phase that limit change effectiveness. This paper seeks to make a difference in managerial actions, specifically when implementing planned change, by directing them to use specific leadership actions during the change stage. While previous research has acknowledged the potential linkage between leadership and change effectiveness, a comprehensive exploration of this relationship within the realm of strategic change management remains lacking. This study aims to address this gap by comparing transactional and transformational leadership styles through the lens of the leadership-as-practice perspective. Specifically, this paper analyzes the alignment of these leadership styles with the Kotter model for implementing organizational change and investigates which leadership components or behaviors positively impact predetermined stages of change. Using the MLQ and a developed Kotter questionnaire, data was collected from 385 Lebanese employees working in SMEs experiencing change across the five provinces of Lebanon. PLS structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze the results, and the GoF value indicated that the study model is valid to be considered as a PLS global model. Our findings shed light on the dynamic interplay between leadership efficacy and distinct change stages. Rooted in the leadership-as-practice perspective, this study contributes a nuanced understanding of effective leadership’s crucial role in navigating the multifaceted challenges of organizational change, offering insights for practitioners and scholars alike.

Women's financial inclusion represents a key element in enhancing women's entrepreneurship. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of age, education, employment, income quintile, and region on the level of financial inclusion (FI). The data for the four Gulf countries (Gulf Cooperation Council) and five Western Balkan countries were gathered from the Global Findex Database 2017. The total sample includes 3,973 women. Multiple linear regression is used to investigate the impact of socio-demographic factors on FI. Additionally, the paper provides an overview of the latest available data on several indicators related to FI at the macro level. The results show that education, employment, and income quintile have a statistically significant positive impact on FI. The relationship between age and FI is statistically significant, exhibiting an inverted U-shape. This means that FI increases up to 55 years, and after that transition point, it starts to decline. Moreover, the region plays a significant role, considering that the level of FI of the respondents from Western Balkan countries is lower than that of those from the Gulf region.

Successful digital transformation does not only depend on the successful implementation of information systems but also depends on how effectively those systems are being utilized by people in the organization

Entrepreneurship is widely promoted as a pathway to refugee self-reliance, yet the conditions under which entrepreneurial livelihoods unfold, and the forms of labor they generate, remain underexamined. This study investigates how displacement and patriarchal household relations shape refugee women’s entrepreneurship, asking when survival-oriented enterprise produces labor vulnerability rather than alleviating it. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research with Syrian refugee women entrepreneurs in Lebanon, the study reveals that entrepreneurship emerges primarily as a survival response to exclusion and precarity rather than an opportunity-driven choice. As a result, entrepreneurial activity becomes embedded within informal, relationally governed arrangements that intensify dependency and constrain exit, while women’s labor is regulated through overlapping household expectations, kinship obligations, and gendered moral economies that reproduce unprotected, difficult-to-exit work. The study shows that entrepreneurship and labor vulnerability may be co-constituted, repositions households as institutions of labor governance, and bridges entrepreneurship and forced labor scholarship by demonstrating how constrained labor emerges within self-employment through relational governance and survival imperatives. These findings challenge policy approaches that treat entrepreneurship as a stand-alone solution to refugee labor exclusion, revealing how market-based inclusion may normalize precarity instead.

Despite being one of the fastest-growing industries, the aviation business is infamous for difficulties affecting its operations. During the past thirty years, the airline industry has faced multiple crises that crushed passenger demand. Nonetheless, the industry was always prepared and showed resilience by emerging stronger after every crisis. However, this fact appeared to change since the COVID-19 pandemic, whereby the industry encountered an unprecedented crisis. Countries closed their borders and airspaces, thus bringing airline operations to a complete halt. Therefore, airlines deployed all their knowledge in crisis management and emergency response to operate repatriation flights and ensure preparedness to resume operations whenever the situation changes. The aim of this paper is to identify the emergency response and crisis management procedures implemented by Kuwait Airways and Kuwait Civil Aviation Authority (DGCA) during the COVID-19 crisis and assess whether those measures can be used in any similar future crisis, which can be considered as qualitative research. Data was collected using expert interviews and document analysis. The study employed data triangulation by cross-referencing insights obtained from interviews with senior personnel at Kuwait Airways and the Kuwait DGCA with official documentation published by international authorities. These findings were further validated through additional interviews with experts from the aviation industry. The study found that Kuwait's aviation sector responded effectively to the COVID-19 crisis. This paper concluded that the procedures and guidelines followed by Kuwait’s aviation sector can be replicated across different countries or country blocs taking into consideration challenges such as international collaboration and technological integration.

This study investigates the contemporaneous associations between investor sentiment, market microstructure, and daily sectoral returns on Boursa Kuwait. The analysis utilizes daily data spanning from January 2021 to May 2025, integrating sectoral returns, trading volume, liquidity, and volatility proxies alongside a manually constructed sentiment index derived from financial news and market announcements. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were estimated for each sector. Baseline specifications incorporate the High–Low Range, Parkinson volatility, and trading volume, while expanded models include the Log_Amihud illiquidity measure, CC_Volatility, Brent crude oil returns, the Boursa Kuwait All Share Index (AllShare_Return), and the first difference of Central Bank of Kuwait discount rate (D_CBK_DiscountRate). Initial results indicate that investor sentiment is significantly associated with returns in several sectors, though the direction and magnitude of these associations are heterogeneous. Upon controlling for broader market and macroeconomic conditions, the sentiment coefficient remains statistically significant in the Technology and Health Care sectors, with the Technology coefficient changing from positive in the baseline specification to negative in the expanded specification. Liquidity and volatility measures continue to exhibit sector-specific associations. AllShare_Return is positively and statistically significantly associated with returns across most sectors, whereas Brent_Return and the D_CBK_DiscountRate show limited, sector-specific relationships. These findings suggest that broader market conditions account for an important part of daily sectoral return variation, whereas the associations of investor sentiment and market microstructure with returns continue to differ across sectors.