With over forty institutes of higher education in Lebanon, each offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in Computer Science and IT-related majors, it is surprising and disappointing not to have any academic publications in IT managerial issues. This complete silence may be partly due to the fact that the focus of such programs is more technical than managerial, and partly because the majority of Lebanese universities are “teaching-oriented”, rather than “research-oriented” institutions. One of the major contributions of this thesis is to pioneer IT managerial research in Lebanon and pave the way for future research in this vital area. The main scope of this thesis is to determine how to derive business value from enterprise IS investments, and what conditions maximize that value. While each of the extant theoretical models provides insight on one key aspect of the IT value proposition, what seems missing is a model that combines the salient points from each of various models, and one that incorporates both a process and variance orientation, providing a more comprehensive explanation of the IT value proposition. Therefore, the main contribution of this thesis is development of a comprehensive new IT value model, providing a framework of the processes and factors needed to derive optimal business value from such investments. The new model incorporates salient features of extant IT value models, and is grounded in the data gathered in this thesis. The strength of the new model lies in combining three individual IT value research threads. The first is the RBV research stream, which posit that to derive business value from IS investments, organizations must invest in organizational resources, and must develop individual and organizational IS competencies. The second is the IS process research stream, which evaluates the path that IT investments take from value conception to value creation, and proposes a sequence of phases and activities that must be followed during that investment journey. The third research stream stresses the importance of considering additional contextual factors when engaging IS investments. A review of the extant literature is conducted to develop an initial conceptual framework combining salient features of existing IT value models. Next, using multi-grounded theory and multiple investigative methods, primary data is gathered from thirty-six large Lebanese organizations representing several business sectors. In order to ensure validity and reliability, data is gathered in iterative phases, starting with one-on-one structured interviews with CIOs, followed by a survey and CIO group discussions using the “communities of practice” method, and culminates in one-on-one structured interviews with all other stakeholders involved in the IS value proposition at four of the thirty-six participating organizations using the “deep case study” method. The data is analyzed to determine the key challenges inhibiting the success of IS investments, the key competencies and factors needed to derive business value from such investments, to validate and refine the initial conceptual IT value model, and to ground the attributes of the new model to reflect the Lebanese experience. The thesis concludes by suggesting guidelines for how organizations may develop and nurture the proposed organizational competencies. It also paves the way and suggests possible future research opportunities in Lebanon and beyond.

The recent financial crisis highlights the importance of understanding factors that affect financial market price efficiency. Experimental methods allow us to control the intrinsic value of an asset, thus become an attractive technique for studying asset market price efficiency. This dissertation consist three essays, all of which devoted to experimental asset markets. The first essay explores the role of liquidity on the mispricing of an asset. This issue has been the subject of Kirchler et al. (2012) AER paper. By re-analysing the evidence in that article, the first essay concluded that their experimental design have a weakness that biased the results. Therefore, I designed an experiment that eliminates the weakness. The results of my experiment indicate that Constant C/A ratio could reduce mispricing of experimental asset market significantly, but not necessary to lead to undervaluation. The second essay explores how the description of the asset market to the human participants influences the mispricing of the asset being traded. This issue has been the subject of Kirchler et al. (2012) AER paper. When re-assessing the evidence, I was puzzled by the findings and thought that the small sample size of the dataset collected might explain why a minor change to the description of the asset market provided to the participants produced completely different behaviour. This essay replicates the experiment, with a larger sample size and relies on different statistical tests to analyse the data. I find that the treatment with a different contest (“stocks of a depletable of gold mine”) exhibits similar level of mispricing and overvaluation with the baseline treatment., which is not consistent with Kirchler et al. (2012). The third essay is about an experiment that compares how team decision-making vs. individual decision-making differ in how they influence the mispricing of the asset being traded. The main result is that team decision-making does not result in smaller price bubbles. However team decision-making result in less variance among markets (sessions). Further more, my experimental design allows us to record the chat dialogues, which enable us to have insight into team decision-making. The content of the messages allows us explore the reasons behind traders' asks and bids.

The diploma thesis is focused on improving the functioning of business process management in the selected trading company. With the help of theoretical knowledge, based on which an analytical evaluation of the current status and a qualitative research are created, it proposes changes in the individual phases of the currently used process.

There are a number of audited companies in Libya which have gone into bankruptcy between 1995 and 2005. Therefore, there is a significant question about the audit quality situation in Libya. There is not itself much research about audit quality in Libya. In particular, there is not much research that has tried to measure audit quality in Libya. This study is an attempt to pursue further some of the issues around financial audit quality in Libya. Secondary data analysis presents observations of Libyan companies from 2006 to 2009 to measure discretionary accruals. It applies an appropriate type of statistical method, to identify accruals and then examine the type of audit opinion related to these statements. Findings indicate that there is earnings management in almost all financial statements. The findings divided all companies into 113 positive andl40 negative discretionary accruals. In addition, Findings indicate that auditors of the agency and auditors working for him/her self issued in general 85.7% unqualified (clean) audit opinion for financial statements that have earnings management, and 11% modified audit opinion. The results answer the first question in this study about the level of audit quality in Libya: audit quality level in Libya is low. The semi-structured interviews support finding of the secondary data analysis, that is the level of audit quality in Libya is low. Also findings indicate that in Libya there are some fundamental elements which themselves are insufficient to deal to develop audit quality. Furthermore, the Libyan audit context suffers from some obstacles and problems that prevent the development of audit quality.

This thesis concerns strategic profitability management. The emergence of strategic management accounting has created a growing need for companies to discover the key factors that affect profitability and then to understand how these factors should be managed. To fulfil strategic management accounting requirements necessitates the use of appropriate strategic management accounting techniques. However, the traditional profitability system is inappropriate to meet the task. In addition, there has also been a lack of attention paid by researchers to the study of the integration between the most important drivers affecting profitability (cost, assets, and revenue). Moreover, there has inadequate Investigation of the management of each driver using strategic management accounting techniques. Therefore, this study attempts to create a new model for managing profitability to fulfil the requirements of strategic management and to evaluate the perceptions of managers related to the influence of such a new proposed model on profitability. A broadly positivist View, which utilizes both deductive reasoning coupled with a quantitative approach, was employed to create the profitability model. The creation of profitability model is enacted through an exploratory study. In order to create the profitability model, this thesis proposes three models for managing the key profitability drivers (cost, assets and revenue). The building of these models is based on the determination of the most important factor (driver) and approach that affect profitability in each model's case. In the light of such determination, strategic management accounting techniques were proposed to manage each driver in each model. The comprehensive profitability model is also proposed using the measurement levels of the cost, assets and revenue models. Models were tested in the Egyptian communication and information technology sector. A self-administrated questionnaire delivered and collected by hand was used to examine the hypothesized relationships. A total of 190 valid responses were used for quantitative analysis. The hypotheses related to the components of all the proposed models were examined via non-parametric measure of association, Spearman's rho technique and ordinal regression technique. The study found that there is a positive association between each proposed driver in the cost, assets, and revenue and profitability models. It also found that there is a positive association between each proposed approach in the assets and revenue model, and profitability. The main conclusion of this thesis was that the profitability model, which contains the measurement levels of the cost, assets and revenue models, is the most appropriate model because its predictors are most strongly associated with the profitability. The findings of this study can be generalized to the Egyptian ICT sector's members. In addition, the generalization of findings beyond the Egyptian ICT sector should be made with caution.

This thesis deals with the issue of cultural differences and women in business. The goal is to, based on the division of the world into seven cultural units, present a global perspective on women's position in society and their percentage in managerial positions in selected countries representing different world cultures. The thesis is divided into three main chapters. The first is the theoretical introduction to culture and comprehensive picture of the cultural diversity of the contemporary world. The second chapter discusses the role and status of women in the world, again in terms of world cultures. The third final chapter is an analysis of women in business in selected countries of the world's cultures; the goal is to determine the relationship between the status of women in society and the possibility of her career advancement.

This thesis examines several important aspects of the impact of religiosity, national culture, corporate governance, BIG4 auditors and legal environment on earnings management practices in the U.S. and 63 other countries. First, the study investigates the extent to which religious socials norms of the firms' environment interact with corporate governance and BIG4 audit to affect managers' motivation to engage in expense and revenue misclassification in order to influence reported core earnings. The results show that religiosity decreases misclassification and complements corporate governance and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) to mitigate classification shifting in high, rural and geographically centralised segment areas. In a religious social norm environment, the study finds that managers have a disincentive to shift revenue items from, and core expenses into, special items to inflate reported core earnings to avoid market penalties and beat analysts' forecasts, even more so in the presence of board independence. In addition, the study shows that the interactive term between religiosity and audit from the big four auditors also lowers the presence of misclassification. Overall, the results show that religiosity lessens misclassification and complements corporate governance and audit against the misclassification of revenue items or core expenses. Second, the study examines the extent to which religiosity, firms' legal environment, and the interaction between these two variables affect accrual-based and real-activities earnings management. The results suggest that religiosity, legal environment and the interaction between them mitigate accrual-based earnings management. In contrast, the study observes a positive association between religiosity and real-activities earnings management, suggesting that religious social norms facilitate real-activities earnings management. However, the positive effect of religiosity on real activities is subdued when the study interacts the legal environment with religiosity. The results also indicate that firms' corporate governance mechanism mitigates both accrual-based and real activities earnings management. Finally, in Chapter four, the study provides new international evidence by examining the relationship between the misclassification of core expenses into special items and country-wide religiosity, the national dimensions of culture, and the legal environment in developed, emerging and developing countries. The study observes that the interaction between religiosity and legal environment, or national cultural dimensions and legal environment, mitigates expense misclassification in developed, emerging and developing countries. Therefore, the positive effect of power distance, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance on earnings management can no longer be demonstrated when national dimensions of culture interact with the legal environment. In Chapter five, the study concludes, summarises and discusses some of its major findings and contributions. The limitations of the study, policy implications and suggestions for future research are also provided.

The perceived capability of corporate organizations to influence politics, although fueling an ongoing public debate, features in literature as a source of probable benefits. According to the majority of the pertinent studies, these benefits, more often than not, materialize with important value-adding implications. In the U.S. context, whereby political money contributions constitute the prevalent way of establishing connections, this can result in a hefty return on a firm's political investment. Our research posits that if political connections formed via monetary donations elevate the donor to a higher status, this should reflect in circumstances whereby a firm needs to assert its quality to other economic agents. This is the case for firms that are plagued by the market newness liability. Whether as a form of insurance from tail risk or entitlement to economic rents, proximity to politics offers legitimacy and a compelling way of introducing a new venture to the marketplace. To prove this conjecture, we mainly draw from IPOs for representing a setting of acute uncertainty. Our findings confirm that both lobbying and PAC (Political Action Committee) expenditure pays off on listing day as donors incur less underpricing; an effect which can be amplified with contribution size and strategic targeting of recipients. Donor IPOs also experience negative offer price revisions and lower aftermarket volatility. Collectively, these results offer new empirical grounding to uncertainty and signaling theories. Subsequently, we frame IPO pricing as an efficiency problem for prospective issuers and develop an approach of general application in finance, where relationships of influence are suspected. Rather than imposing a regression-based framework, we allow relationships to manifest themselves in a data-driven manner. Our analysis reveals nonlinearities between IPO pricing efficiency and the two contribution avenues (justifying the fully nonparametric treatment). We are able to uncover relationships separately according to business sector, which we interpret in terms of varied competitive environments. Broadening up our scope prior to and after the IPO event, we document that connected firms are associated with a longer time to venture or other equity capital financing, attesting to a greater financial autonomy. Additionally, they attain larger market shares and have a superior likelihood of survival in the public domain.

The financial crisis that started in 2008 led to issues of corporate financial distress and bankruptcy. The global financial crisis has resulted in many venerable institutions being rescued by the government. There is an ongoing research debate in law and economic theories about the efficiency of the US bankruptcy code (Senbet and Wang, 2012; Jory and Madura, 2010; Zhang, 2010; Faelten and Vitkova, 2014). Due to the global financial crisis, there is a fundamental issue questioning whether the bankruptcy law (e.g., Chapters 11 and 7 of the US Bankruptcy Code) is efficient in rehabilitating economically efficient but financially distressed firms and liquidating economically inefficient firms (Senbet and Wang, 2012). Mergers and acquisition (hereafter M&A) involving financially distressed targets and bankrupt targets have become a common practise in the US. Theoretically, restructuring is meant to be a way of reorganizing operations and generating extra resources. However, due to the complexity of businesses and recent global financial crises, there is inconsistency in the association of rewards for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and management with the firm's performance. This thesis explores the issues about corporate restructuring, performance and governance of firms including banks in the US emanated from the economic crisis. It comprises three empirical pieces of research. The first empirical research is on the wealth creation of bidders and of M&As of financial distressed and bankrupt targets. Our second research is about the earnings management behaviour of managers. Of those that were involved in the restructuring and reorganization of an organization. It is especially related to carve-out, sell-off, spin-off and other types of divestitures. Our third essay is on bank efficiency; taking into consideration the importance and crucial and urgency in the research related areas, such as the pay structure of the top management, and the existence of the internal monitoring. Institutional ownership plays an important role in corporate performance of firms particularly to banks in the US. First, we examine the wealth effects of M&A activities involving financially constrained targets (hereafter FCTs). By interrogating the wealth creation of bidders of these target firms, this study extends the analysis on the relationship between the discount on deal value, and the financial health of bidder firms. Based on sample data between 1985 and 2012, the study finds that bidders of FCTs earn abnormally positive cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) the day of the M&A announcement. This contrasts with the findings of negative to zero CARs accruing to bidders of financially healthy targets, as documented in the literature. The bidder firms benefit from a low M&A premium on these deals. However, in the long run, both their stock and operating performance lag those of bidders of healthy targets. Second, we examine the earnings management (hereafter EM) behaviour of firms engaged in corporate reorganization and restructuring. More specifically, our sample includes carve-outs, spin-offs, asset sell-offs, and divestitures. We follow Anagnostopoulou and Tsekrekos (2015) and Cohen and Zarowin (2010) to calculate the EM variables. This is so especially the accrual-based and real EM variables. To measure firm performance, we use industry-adjusted return on assets (ROA), cumulative abnormal returns (CARs), and Buy-and-Hold Abnormal Return (BHARs). We use the standard deviation of monthly stock returns (SDAR), as the proxy to measure the stock volatility and information asymmetry. We document a direct relationship between firms that manage earnings above the industry-year median EM index, and changes in the ROA, CARs, and BHARs. Conversely, firms that manage their earnings EM are associated with lower standard deviations in the firms' stock returns for carve-outs. Finally, we examine the relationship between the CEO's pay (CPS) and each of the bank's efficiency and risk. We use several measures of CEO pay including the ratio of CEO pay-to-the total pay of the top five managers. The ratio of CEO pay to the total pay of executives who also serve on the firm's board. We use the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to measure bank efficiency. To measure firm risk, we compute the Z-Score and standard deviation of daily and annual returns. We document an inverse relationship between CEO pay ratio and bank efficiency. Conversely, high pay disparity is associated with lower insolvency risk, lower Z-scores, and lower standard deviations in the banks' stock returns.

In empirical financial accounting research, there continues to be a debate as to what the best predictors of future earnings and future cash flows might be. Past accruals, earnings and cash flows are the most common predictors, but there is no consensus over their relative contributions, and little attention to the underlying accounting identities that link the components of these three prominent variables. The aim of this thesis is to investigate this controversy further, and to apply an innovative method which yields consistent estimations of future earnings and cash flows, with higher precision and greater efficiency than is the case in published results to date. The estimation imposes constraints based on financial statement articulation, using a system of structural regressions and a framework of simultaneous linear equations, which allows for the most basic property of accounting - double entry book-keeping - to be incorporated as a set of constraints within the model. In predicting future cash flows, the results imply that the constrained model which observes the double entry condition is superior to the models that are not constrained in this way, producing (a) rational signs consistent with expectations, not only in the entire sample but also in each industry, (b) evidence that double entry holds, based on the Wald test that the estimated marginal responses sum to zero, and (c) confirmation of model improvement by way of a higher likelihood and greater precision attached to predictor variables. Furthermore, by then using an appropriately specified model that observes the double entry constraint in order to predict earnings, the thesis reports statistically significant results, across all industries, that cash flows are superior to accruals in explaining future earnings, indicating also that accruals with a lower level of reliability tend to be more relevant in this respect.