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Egypt is seeking to accelerate comprehensive and sustainable development and to achieve higher growth rates for the interest of all classes and categories of society. According to what was published in 1/7/2013 by the public association for adult education AEA at the information and decision support centre in Egypt; 14.9% of population in age between 15 and 35 years old are illiterate. Here, we have to ask:" How a society where 14.9% of its young working power is illiterate can execute the mentioned adopted strategy of development?!"The Egyptian young working power is poor educated due to the bad education system ranking 131 out of 144 in the world. There is a need for a good High Educational system, affordable to those who does not have the opportunity to leave there jobs, from where they gain to live, in order to have a good education to improve their social life, and help them being part of the required development. Making benefit from the technological revolution and the excitement and passion of using it, can give the chance to offer an E-learning service through which a human development could be achieved. Then, strategies could be well adopted to improve society. In Organizations; Total Quality Management (TQM) has become most widely used management acronym and is considered as the buzz word in the management practices, keeping an eye on details. TQM is mainly concerned with continuous improvement in all work, from high level strategic planning and decision-making, to detailed execution of work elements on the shop floor. On the other hand, Enterprises find ways to set themselves apart in the hyper-competitive global marketplace by applying e-service. E-Service may provide the greatest return on investment (ROI) and sets the foundation for adding and integrating other E-Business functionality in the future. Customers can achieve the service through web page without a need to any help or support at any time. E-service and Total quality management (TQM) seek for same goals, but from different perspectives. Now, what if an organisation offers an E-service while applying Total quality management (TQM)? Hoping to achieve a good affordable High educational E-learning system, it was decided to study “The Implications of applying TQM on E-Learning in Egypt”. This is for the great impact of the E- learning quality on the education as main national issue in Egypt. E-Learning was implemented in the near past few years, through limited programs in national Universities, and the Egyptian E-learning University established in 2009. The Quality management were also taken as essential of management in the higher educational institutes there. This research take a track to suggest Total Quality management Model to improve E-learning service offered in one of the Higher Educational Institutes in Egypt. The suggested e-learning Model emphasize that the eight elements of TQM were engaged in the Baldrige criteria framework. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) the main tool of evaluation of all the processes. The Idea of this model is to use Quality function Deployment (QFD) to translate and plan the‖ voice of the customer‖ into the quality characteristique of the service before enter the market. QFD analyse the client‘s requirements,define how each requirement will be satisfied by the service,organize the needs,illustrate the relationship between the requirement of the customer in the market and the needs to fullfil them. The result will be transmitted to the leadership Management,who will deploy the quality ,and apply the eight Total Quality Management Principles going through the seven categories of the Baldrige Criteria. The result of all the model phases shall affect the learner through the afforded high quality E-learning service. The high qualified personnel educated through the high quality E-learning system, will affect the social culture and environment from where comes the ―voice of cutomer‖, to be analyzed through the QFD, to the leadership management, and the improvement cycle continue. The suggested E-learning service Quality Model represents required emerged recognised set of procedures for validation of quality framework.

Recognising quality to be a key focus for competitiveness, Total Quality Management (TQM) was established and used in developed countries as a new philosophy for managing organisations. However, TQM in developing countries has received little attention and little research has been conducted into the successful implementation of TQM systems in these countries. The research described in this thesis assesses the adoption of TQM factors in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in Jordan and identifies the main impediments to successful adoption. In addition, this research explores the impact of TQM implementation on improving competitiveness and the role of environmental factors (government policy and social culture) in encouraging the implementation and sustainability of TQM in the Jordanian ICT sector. Both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed to fulfil the study objectives. The questionnaire aimed to investigate the implementation of TQM in the ICT sector, while, semi-structured interviews with General and TQM managers aimed to gain an understanding of themes which had emerged from the questionnaire. In order to fully understand company performance, customers of the ten largest companies in the Jordanian ICT sector were also interviewed. Analysis of the data identified three potential impediments to the successful implementation of TQM. These impediments being; the internal cultural characteristics of organisations, the level of employee empowerment and the degree of continuous improvement that takes place. The results also indicate the critical impact that successful TQM implementation has on improving company competitiveness. The results also show the success of government reward policy, government policy identifying quality performance levels of organisations and the national education system as the source of qualified staff. These are seen as encouraging and supporting TQM implementation. Conversely, governmental policy towards taxation and new licences, bureaucracy and customer perspective regarding quality which gives a priority to price rather than quality as the discouraging factor. The research findings have enabled the development of a model to support TQM implementation within the Jordanian ICT sector. The study has made an original contribution to the academic and practical knowledge of quality management. This is an important first exploratory empirical study of TQM implementation in the ICT sector in Jordan. Some recommendations for further research have been derived from this research.

This study is an attempt to understand the phenomenon of technology transfer. The study examines the extent of technology transfer from foreign firms to their local suppliers in Jordan, and also investigates the factors that affect the extent of technology transfer. In this study, an effort was made to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of technology transfer to local suppliers, how foreign manufacturing companies are supporting their local suppliers, and what types of assistance are provided to local suppliers. Furthermore, this study has explored the obstacles to the formation of backward linkages with local firms. These findings are based on an administrated questionnaire to a sample of 223 foreign firms operating in Jordan and semi-structured interviews conducted with purchasing managers. A total of 93 usable responses were collected, a response rate of 51%. For the purpose of data analysis the study utilises descriptive statistics and multivariate statistics (i.e. multiple regression and correlation analysis). The results show that the overall level of backward linkages and technology transfer is low. A number of factors affect this transfer, including market orientation, experience of the firm in host country, ownership structure, size of firms, the level of autonomy granted to firms, origin of firms, and geographical proximity. There is a significant relationship between types of industries and the extent of technology transfer. In addition, the findings reveal that most obstacles to the formation of backward linkages with local firms are the lack of local inputs and the poor quality of the locally available inputs; in particular, the specialised intermediates and components. A distinguishing feature of this study is that it extends previous studies in understanding the phenomenon of technology transfer and the factors that affect this transfer. The results suggest that creation of backward linkages and transfer of technology requires the availability of local suppliers with good quality, sufficient quantity, and competitive cost compared to their previous suppliers. This finding, therefore, raises implications for future technology transfer researchers and, by drawing off backward linkages and technology transfer literature, overcomes some of the deficiencies of previous research relating to backward linkages and technology transfer.

Culture is deemed to be a crucial basis for creativity in various respects. The aim of this study is to explore the relationships between different cultural dimensions, and the work environment for creativity. Within this area of study, little empirical research has been conducted that examines the roles that national and organisational cultures play in influencing a work environment that stimulates or impedes creativity. A research model has been developed that illustrates the possible relationships between the cultural dimensions and the creative work environment of an organisation. Essentially this model is to be utilised as a framework to examine the impact of cultural dimensions on the work environment for creativity. The method used to investigate this research question is a quantitative investigation of six companies that operate in the Libyan oil and gas sector: three Libyan companies, one Italian, one Spanish and one German. This was supplemented with qualitative investigations. This entailed gathering information through semi-structured interviews with Libyan employees from senior management to lower level employees, from different sectors including oil, food, banking services and communications. The aim was to identify the aspects of Libyan cultural dimensions that have an impact on creativity. The study draws the following conclusions: (1) Generally, the results of the study found a direct relationship between power distance and creativity. However, the relationship between power distance and creativity was found to be not mediated by power culture; that is, the correlation between power culture and creativity was weak. Similarly, the correlation between individualism and creativity was significant. In examining the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and creativity, it was found that uncertainty avoidance was not directly correlated with creativity, but that the relationship was mediated by role culture. In examining the relationship between femininity and creativity, it was found that there was no direct or indirect correlation between them. (2) There are differences in countries’ status on national culture dimensions. Libya, on one hand, and Germany, Italy and Spain on the other, have significantly different organisational culture types, which have affected the work environment for creativity. (3) A quick review of the principles of Libyan culture and the ways they conflict with creativity is in order. The first principle is the Family System, which blocks creativity through strict gender role expectations, rigid parent–child relationships and an overemphasis on obedience and loyalty. The second principle is the Education System, which inhibits creativity through rote learning, memory and conformity, and in which quantity is favoured over quality in the process of eradicating illiteracy; it has produced an unskilled workforce requiring extensive on-the-job training in order to be creative workers. The third principle is the Hierarchical Relationships, which decrease creativity through unequal relationships, rigid social structure, gender role expectations, and authoritarian relationships between people. The fourth principle is Self-Effacement which stifles creativity through suppression of emotion, the silence ethic, an extreme value of humility, and conformity; due to fear of losing face (dignity, prestige and self respect) among peers. Such self-effacement is linked to the Arabic cultural value of modest behaviour, a highly respected virtue in Libyan society. (4) Trust was found to be the key intervening variable, the necessary foundation, from which a creative context could be built. The establishment of trust between different levels of management and between management and employees had the most significant effect on organisational creativity. The effect of lack of trust was shown by Libyan employees – no willingness to present their ideas, even though the work environment still had problems with obstructing contextual elements, such as poor communication, and lack of autonomy, as there was a lack of trust operating between different levels of management, and management and between employees. As a consequence of the lack of trust, employees felt that even though they were provided with a number of organisational stimulants, they were not able to be creative within their work environment.

Despite the improvements in mathematical forecasts and teh creation of new formulas in forecasting, the increase in the accuracy forecasts is not yet significant, thus, leading to an increase in the size of the gap between academia and practice. Furthermore, Applying mathematical forecasting techniques alone is not sufficient in light of the existing lack of knowledge about forecasting, which, thus, gives rise to the importance of judgements and the possible contributions they may add to the forecasting management process.

The application of a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to determine the factors affecting the use of Decision Support Systems (DSS) in strategic decisionmaking in local authorities in both the UK and Egypt was the main core of this research. Although the use of DSS has become widespread in recent years for operational control its use in strategic decision-making has only rarely been seen. This research explores the problems which cause decision-makers not to use DSS effectively in making strategic decisions. Both the UK and Egypt have long histories of implementing IT in general and DSS in particular in local government. Although the UK has longer experience in adopting IT, both countries have failed to achieve the goals from this technology in a strategic context; however its operational use is quite good. The results of this research showed that the percentage of DSS usage in both the UK and Egypt were 40% and 30% respectively which means more than half of the investments in this kind of technology have not yet been used properly. This research has examined the strategic use of DSS and defined the most severe problems that could face decision makers when they use DSS strategically. To define the factors that affect DSS usage in making strategic decisions the researcher used the TAM which was first introduced in 1986 by F. Davis. This model enjoys a rich base of academic acceptance. Many subsequent studies have proven reliability of the measures and validity of the constructs and overall model. This study argues that TAM could be applicable to the context of the strategic use of DSS in local government in developing countries as it is successfully applied in developed countries in different kinds of technologies. This dissertation outlines a framework for the different factors that affect the strategic use of DSS in both the UK and Egypt. Also this research tries to find answers to the following questions: 1. What are the problems related to DSS usage in making strategic decisions? 2. What is the relative severity of these problems in both the UK and Egypt? 3. What are the differences between the UK and Egypt relating to the problems that decision-makers encounter? The hypotheses of this research were tested using a questionnaire as the main datagathering instrument in addition to interviews made mainly to validate and support the results of the quantitative approach. Rigorous validation procedures and statistical analysis methods were performed on the data, including face and content validity, alpha Chronbach and Factor analysis. The questionnaire was tested for reliability and validity and proved to be highly valid and reliable. The results of the analysis supported all hypothesised relationships. The results of this research showed that Perceived Usefulness (PU) made a significant direct effect on DSS usage in the UK group while Perceived Ease of Use (PEU) showed no significant effect in both countries in all variables apart from the internal support which was significant in the UK group. Also the results of this research showed that there was some similarity in both countries regarding the problems of strategic use of DSS, which were: absence of training for decision-makers to use DSS and failure to commit the required resources. These results indicate that if DSS is to be effectively used strategically by decision makers, local government in both developed and developing countries needs to apply greater funds to training, to making top-level decision makers comfortable with the use of DSS in hybrid (quantitative/qualitative) problem contexts and to providing those decision makers with DSS which target mainly strategic problems.

Although management accounting research based on contingency theory has a relatively long tradition, many recent studies have called for additional work in order to increase the understanding of possible contingency factors that explain the adoption of management accounting practices (MAPs). This, in addition to a general lack of knowledge of MAPs, especially in developing countries, is the motivation for this research study. The main focus of this research is to investigate the state of MAPs within Libyan companies and identify and explain the relationships between these MAPs and contingent factors. To capture these relationships in sufficient depth, a theoretical contingency model which includes 14 variables was developed based on an extensive review of the relevant literature and the examination of various possible forms and levels of fit. This model adopts both congruency and contingency approaches of fit and considers mediated relationships between contingent variables, MAPs and organisational performance. Primary data were collected by means of a survey questionnaire from 123 companies and face-to-face interviews with senior managers in 10 of these companies. The results of this study show that the adoption rates of most MAPs in Libyan companies are lower than those found in other countries as reported in the literature (e.g. USA, UK, Australia and India). MAPs in these Libyan companies also seem to serve a narrow range of purposes. In addition, budgeting practices are more popular and take precedence in the respondent companies. The testing of hypothesised direct and mediated relationships using regression analysis indicates that there is no single variable that has a significant effect on all three types of MAP (i.e. cost, budgets and measurement performance). Nine of the 14 contingent variables are statistically links to the type of MAP; seven of these (i.e. build strategy, differentiation strategy, prospector strategy, formalisation, product diversity, size and ownership type) to budgeting and performance measurement practices, and the other two (i.e. formalisation and ownership type) to cost and budgeting practices. Of significance also is the result that MAPs play a mediating role between many contingent variables and organisational performance. While most interviewees acknowledged the importance of contingent variables in relation to MAPs, they mentioned several reasons for not having MAPs that fully encompass the business environment. The reasons include lack of knowledge about MAPs, shortage of financial resources, the company being newly established, lack of top management support, absence of the culture of using MAPs and fear of change. Finally, this study represents a most comprehensive survey and explanation of MAPs in a developing country, namely Libya, which is an emerging economy. It contributes to enriching our understanding of how MAPs can be adopted more effectively and efficiently from a contingency perspective, through identifying the impact of this relationship on organisation effectiveness in developing countries, and to bridging the gap in MAPs literature. However, this study not only contributes to the inspiration and helps to identify whether there are differences in the relationship between contingent factors and MAPs between industrialised and developing countries, but also gives a more in-depth understanding of these relationships for discerning the individual impacts of the various variables of contingent factors on various MAPs (i.e. cost, budgets and measurement performance).

This study considers how an increase in production costs following an action to reduce environmental pollution would be shared between the producer and the consumer. As such, it makes an interesting contribution to the literature on environmental economics by discussing, and modelling, how such a cost increase would be shared between the producer and the consumer. Producers might be more willing to undertake pollution control given that they are more than likely not going to have to bear all of the control cost. Consumers would bear some of that through a price increase. They would need to recognise that they should accept some of the responsibility for pollution control through higher prices that contribute to the cost of installing ‘cleaner’ production methods. The method used in the study is a descriptive and analytical (time series analysis and the application of microeconomic analysis tools) to determine the potential effects of environmental policy on the case study company. In essence, the study calculates price elasticities of demand and supply and applies an appropriate value for the cost of environmental improvement. Then the relative elasticities are used to determine producer and consumer shares of the cost increase. The student has selected one of the major cement producers in Libya – the Ahlia Cement Company and studied four of their cement manufacturing plants. He spent three months working with the plant managers to compile a database of costs and revenue; this data being previously unavailable in this form. Data was collected for the period, 1988-2008. The environmental cost used in the estimation is drawn from their company accounts. The study starts by setting the world context for cement production, and pollution, and then puts Libyan environmental policy into that wider context. It then concentrates on the four separate cement manufacturing plants within the Ahlia Cement Company. The specific lessons that can be drawn for managing environmental improvements in the Libyan cement industry can be extended somewhat to other Libyan industries and the wider global environment.