Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of social media (SM) on the creation of digital entrepreneurship by female (irrespective of age) and youth male (aged 18–29 years) entrepreneurs, investigate if SM empowers those entrepreneurs and compare the empowerment characteristics between female and youth male entrepreneurs before and after starting their businesses.Design/methodology/approach: Self-assessment questionnaires were collected from a sample of 408 Egyptian female and youth male digital entrepreneurs from Greater Cairo, whose businesses had been operating for more than one year.Findings: The research showed the following four results: Of the surveyed entrepreneurs, 95% asserted that without SM, they would not have started their businesses. Female and youth male entrepreneurs are empowered both on personal and relational levels, and women’s empowerment is more evident in the latter. Before digital entrepreneurship, youth males have significantly higher averages than female entrepreneurs in almost all empowerment characteristics, whereas after digital entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurs have significantly higher averages in making decisions related to investment, personal education and personal health, as well as those of other household members. Female entrepreneurs are relatively more empowered than youth males after digital entrepreneurship when each group is compared with its initial status.Originality/value: This study’s originality stems from using a large sample of entrepreneurs, including youth males, not just females; employing a more structured, comprehensive measure of empowerment than found in the literature because it included the rarely used psychological dimension; considering more than one SM tool and comparing empowerment of females to that of youth males.

This study mainly examines the relationship between generalized/horizontal/social trust and economic growth in countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, considering the substantial decline in their trust values since 2005. The study utilizes a multiple linear regression model based on panel data comprising 104 countries over the period from 1999 to 2020. Trust data were obtained from the last four waves of the World Values Survey (WVS). A Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS) estimation technique was used, and interaction terms between trust and several dummy variables were employed. The results show an overall positive and significant relationship between trust and economic growth in the general model and for all country classifications, except for MENA, where the overall relationship is negative but almost negligible. Trust has the highest impact on growth in transition economies, followed in order by developing Asia, developed, developing/Sub-Saharan Africa, developing America, and then MENA countries. Further investigations reveal that the overall negative/reversed effect of trust on economic growth in MENA is only during waves 6 and 7, where the coefficients are sizable.

Objective: People's psychological tendencies are attuned to their sociocultural context and culture‐specific ways of being, feeling, and thinking are believed to assist individuals in successfully navigating their environment. Supporting this idea, a stronger “fit” with one's cultural environment has often been linked to positive psychological outcomes. The current research expands the cultural, conceptual, and methodological space of cultural fit research by exploring the link between well‐being and honor, a central driver of social behavior in the Mediterranean region.Method: Drawing on a multi‐national sample from eight countries circum‐Mediterranean (N = 2257), we examined the relationship between cultural fit in honor and well‐being at the distal level (fit with one's perceived society) using response surface analysis (RSA) and at the proximal level (fit with one's university gender group) using profile analysis.Results: We found positive links between fit and well‐being in both distal (for some, but not all, honor facets) and proximal fit analyses (across all honor facets). Furthermore, most fit effects in the RSA were complemented with positive level effects of the predictors, with higher average honor levels predicting higher well‐being.Conclusions: Our findings highlight the interplay between individual and environmental factors in honor as well as the important role honor plays in well‐being in the Mediterranean region.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the host country determinants of Chinese Outward FDI (OFDI) and, given these determinants, examines whether Chinese OFDI in MENA is less than elsewhere. Design/methodology/approach: Data for the top 40 Chinese OFDI recipients including seven MENA countries from 2003 to 2012 were obtained. A pooled ordinary least squares estimation technique on the lagged explanatory variables and the lagged dependent variable – flows and stocks alternatively – with robust standard errors was used. Findings: Chinese OFDI is market, resource and efficiency seeking and is attracted by poor governance. The seven MENA countries seemingly receive significantly less Chinese OFDI flows compared to other countries. However, careful inspection shows that UAE is creating this bias. This maybe because exporting to UAE rather than licensing or FDI seems like the best scenario, or UAE is already satiated with FDI from other countries, or China is waiting for the right time to enter such an FDI-competitive market like that of UAE. Originality/value: Chinese OFDI is particularly important for MENA because it has a comparative advantage relative to other FDI source countries, and no research so far has investigated if it is less than in other regions, which could provide insights on how to attract it.

Purpose: This paper aims to test the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) in developing Asian countries by examining whether lax environmental laws are a determinant of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into these countries, which are characterised by being the largest FDI recipients among developing countries and also by being among the most highly polluted and the highest carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitters worldwide.Design/methodology/approach: Panel data for the main determinants of FDI inflows including a carbon dioxide emissions and an agglomeration variable are collected for all developing Asian countries for the 1996-2016 period and a fixed effects model with robust standard errors is used.Findings: Results show that lax environmental laws are a significant determinant of FDI inflows for the selected Asian countries as a whole. A closer look shows that this result cannot be generalised for the whole region, but applies particularly to three countries China, Hong Kong and the Philippines. PHH is thus only partially supported.Originality/value: FDI is a main engine of growth for developing countries. However, it might adversely affect them, specifically in terms of environmental deterioration in the absence of stringent and well-enforced environmental policies. Some developing countries might even deliberately relax their environmental policies to attain comparative advantage especially in polluting industries and thus attract FDI. This leads to serious repercussions and might eventually limit growth, where augmenting it was the intention in the first place.