This paper investigates the bank-level and country-level factors determining nonperforming loans (NPL) in the commercial banking industry of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Specifically; it examines the impact of the sectoral distribution financing growth and Islamic finance methods growth on NPL. To do so, we apply generalized method of moments (GMM) techniques, over the 2005–2011 period. Our findings indicate that the sectoral distribution of Islamic financing has an adverse impact on NPL, which suggest that the sectoral financing growth of Islamic banks increases the credit risk exposure more than conventional banks. The findings of the Islamic finance methods growth show that the impact of fixed-income debt contracts could increase NPL more than profit-and-loss-sharing contracts

This study examines the impact of three macro uncertainty factors: economic policy uncertainty (EPU), political instability (PIS), and cultural uncertainty avoidance (UA), on corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and carbon emission reduction targets. Additionally, we examine whether these macro factors are affected by the profitability of the company. Using an unbalanced sample of companies located in the USA, China, and the UK during the period 2013–2020, results show that during times of economic uncertainty, companies are more likely to engage in ESG activities, including establishing emission reduction targets. Companies in countries with lower levels of political stability (PS) exhibit greater levels of social and environmental engagements, and companies operating in societies that tolerate risks, including the risk associated with climate change, are more likely to have better ESG performance and be committed to emission reduction targets. The results also suggest that profitable companies are more likely to deal with uncertain environments successfully, as they have the required resources to invest in ESG. The study suggests several practical implications for managers and policymakers.

Biorefineries provide economic, environmental, and social benefits towards sustainable development. Because of the relatively small size of typical biorefineries compared to oil and gas processes, it is necessary to evaluate the options of decentralized (or distributed) plants that are constructed near the biomass resources and product markets versus centralized (or consolidated) facilities that collect biomass from different regions and distribute the products to the markets, benefiting from the economy of scale but suffering from the additional transportation costs. The problem is further compounded when, in addition to the economic factors, environmental and safety aspects are considered. This work presents an integrated approach to the design of biorefining facilities while considering the centralized and decentralized options and the economic, environmental, and safety objectives. A superstructure representation is constructed to embed the various options of interest. A mathematical programming formulation is developed to transform the problem into an optimization problem. A new correlation is developed to estimate the capital cost of biorefineries and to facilitate the inclusion of the economic functions in the optimization program without committing to the type of technology or the size of the plant. A new metric called Total Process Risk is also introduced to evaluate the relative risk of the process. Life cycle analysis is applied to evaluate environmental emissions. The environmental and safety objectives are used to establish tradeoffs with the economic objectives. A case study is solved to illustrate the value and applicability of the proposed approach.

Social network sites (SNSs) are the most essential communication tools among students, especially at higher levels of education. The purpose of this study is to identify and examine the factors that have an impact on the academic performance of students by using SNSs. The suggested factors that affect student performance are interactions with colleagues, interactions with instructors, engagement, and cooperative learning. The primary research objective of this case study is to determine which factors affect students' academic performance while using SNSs. In this study, i.e., quantitative research, a survey was conducted to analyze the factors associated with student's performance, among undergraduate and graduate students during the 2016/2017 academic session. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistical correlations and regression models. The findings indicate that SNSs have a significant positive effect on interactions with colleagues, interactions with instructors, engagement, cooperative learning, and student performance. In addition, interactions with colleagues and instructors while using SNSs simplify the communication between students and instructors, which leads to an enhancement of cooperation, knowledge sharing, and improvement and development of the learning process and also provides many learning chances.

This study investigates the impact of issuing sukuk (Islamic bonds) on the issuing banks’ efficiency, in selected GCC countries by applying stochastic frontier approach with translog cost function. The empirical application covers 13 Islamic banks and conventional banks providing Islamic windows, from Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar, using quarterly data from Q3 2009 to Q2 2019. The results show that issuing Islamic bonds (sukuk) increases bank efficiency, through increasing financial leverage and liquidity. The results of the cost frontier analysis suggest that higher input prices bring more funds that increase bank efficiency. The results of output variables indicate that higher output leads to higher total cost. However, the higher order terms of output variables have a negative relationship with cost, suggesting that doubling bank output could diminish total cost.