Credit scoring has been regarded as a core appraisal tool of banks during the last few decades, and has been widely investigated in the area of finance, in general, and banking sectors, in particular. In this thesis, the main aims and objectives are: to identify the currently used techniques in the Egyptian banking credit evaluation process; and to build credit scoring models to evaluate personal bank loans. In addition, the subsidiary aims are to evaluate the impact of sample proportion selection on the Predictive capability of both advanced scoring techniques and conventional scoring techniques, for both public banks and a private banking case-study; and to determine the key characteristics that affect the personal loans' quality (default risk). The stages of the research comprised: firstly, an investigative phase, including an early pilot study, structured interviews and a questionnaire; and secondly, an evaluative phase, including an analysis of two different data-sets from the Egyptian private and public banks applying average correct classification rates and estimated misclassification costs as criteria. Both advanced scoring techniques, namely, neural nets (probabilistic neural nets and multi-layer feed-forward nets) and genetic programming, and conventional techniques, namely, a weight of evidence measure, multiple discriminant analysis, probit analysis and logistic regression were used to evaluate credit default risk in Egyptian banks. In addition, an analysis of the data-sets using Kohonen maps was undertaken to provide additional visual insights into cluster groupings. From the investigative stage, it was found that all public and the vast majority of private banks in Egypt are using judgemental approaches in their credit evaluation. From the evaluative stage, clear distinctions between the conventional techniques and the advanced techniques were found for the private banking case-study; and the advanced scoring techniques (such as powerful neural nets and genetic programming) were superior to the conventional techniques for the public sector banks. Concurrent loans from other banks and guarantees by the corporate employer of the loan applicant, which have not been used in other reported studies, are identified as key variables and recommended in the specific environment chosen, namely Egypt. Other variables, such as a feasibility study and the Central Bank of Egypt report also play a contributory role in affecting the loan quality.

Islamic finance has gained important momentum in the 1990s, and is now recognised by financial institutions and regulators all over the world. The development of Islamic finance in the Sudan has been through the Islamisation of economic and financial sectors along with the political shift towards Islam. It is, therefore, important to asses the progress and performance of Islamic financial instruments in a political setting such as in the Sudan. The study, therefore, covers, explores and evaluates the development of Islamic banking in the Sudan for the period 1990-2005 mainly, by focusing on five main areas: first, it investigates whether the PLS contracts are dominating the Islamic banking system in Sudan. Second, the study evaluates musharakah characteristics and its performance perceptions. Also, the study analyses how staff characteristics, bank characteristics and overall environment affect the preferences and performance of musharakah finance. Third, it investigates the factors influencing decision making in Islamic banks as regard to musharakah finance. Fourth, it investigates the implications of using musharakah mode of finance. In this regard, this study examines the perception of the implications of using the musharakah mode of finance by the Sudanese Islamic banks and provides an empirical assessment of these perceptions about musharakah characteristics, performance, preference and obstacles. This study also provides an empirical investigation of how central bank policies have affected musharakah finance in Sudan. Fifth, It investigates musharakah management to recognise the obstacles and factors influencing decision making and aims to suggest possible remedies. In fulfilling its aim and objectives, this study utilised both primary and secondary data from Sudan. This study finds that banking staff prefer musharakah over other types of Islamic modes of finance. However, ш reality the Sudanese banks prefer musharakah over other types of Islamic modes of finance with a gradual shift towards musharakah. It is therefore argued that government pressure has been the major factor behind this shift towards more musharakah finance. The study also shows that significantly, the dominant type of musharakah is a short term one which lasts for 3 to 6 months. The results indicate the correlation between musharakah risk and the average age of musharakah. Hence, the major dilemmas facing the present Sudanese Islamic banks nowadays are the fact that these banks have to involve in long term finance according to its theory. The non-parametric test confirms that the perception about the performance for musharakah is high in both profitability and risk. However, the comparative financial performance of the Islamic financial methods found no difference in both risk and profitability. The credit policy and size of banks was found to be the most important factor influencing the distribution of bank funds among different types of finance. Lack of proper feasibility studies was found to be the main cause of non-performing musharakah finance. The lack of PLS modes of finance performance, because of managerial efficiency, can be considerable and may threaten the existence of Islamic banking, which is already facing strong competition. Significantly, lack of specialized departments were found to be the main cause of the weakness in the following up. The study finds that financial capability is the most important factor determining the capability of the entrepreneurs. Satisfaction with performance measurement systems was not high and not acceptable. Training provided to the employees is not enough and needs strengthening. There is a need for national policies specially designed and oriented towards SMEs as well as a policy to ending the current BOS financing policies hindering musharakah and BOS discriminatory regulations so as to encourage PLS finance. Based on the results, this study made a number of recommendations to manage and measure musharakah risk.

The emergence of knowledge management (KM) as a practical business discipline is connected to the growing realisation that knowledge is an essential resource for organisations to retain sustainable competitive advantages. The SECI model, proposed by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) best embraces the nature of KM and of knowledge conversion. This model uses four processes of knowledge conversion: socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation to create knowledge in organisations. A review of the relevant literature, however, suggests that the application of the SECI model is suffering from a lack of research in banking, even though this is a knowledge-intensive industry. Since the model was driven from Japanese values, the applicability of the model in different cultural contexts is also arguable. This study aims to examine the use of the SECI model in Egyptian banks and its effect on the innovation process. To examine the model in a different cultural context, Egypt as the biggest Arab country was a suitable research site. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to achieve the research aims. The qualitative data were used to triangulate the quantitative data by detailing the SECI conversion process, and its relation to innovation. Two hundred and ten self-administered questionnaires were used to investigate to what extent Egyptian banks perform the SECI and innovation activities, and 26 semi-structured face-to-face interviews provided details about how the Egyptian banks perform these activities. The survey data were analysed by using Predictive Analytic SoftWare (PASW). Different types of statistical applications were used, namely factor analysis, Cronbach’ alpha, descriptive analysis, multiple regression, t-test and one-way ANOVA. Content analysis was used to analyse the interview data were by looking for noticeable patterns to be connected to the research framework. The findings indicate that the SECI processes were used for knowledge creation in Egyptian banks. However, some self-imposed limitations minimised the benefits of the socialisation and externalisation processes in creating and sharing knowledge. In contrast, internalisation and combination faced fewer limitations, revealing that Egyptian banks focus more on formal rather than informal knowledge. Therefore, the study supports the view of the model as being universal, but the use of each process is subject to the cultural context, leadership support, and types of task. The findings also suggest that the SECI processes - whether separate or as a whole - positively influence the innovation process by increasing the generation of ideas for banking services, products and processes. The internalisation process had the most positive influence on innovation, followed by the combination, externalisation and socialisation processes respectively. Many of the product and process innovations in the last few years were due to the introduction of new technologies.