This thesis provides an empirical indication of how the objectives of official development assistance (ODA), granted by the top five donors, affects the aid policy in the MENA region during the period 1990-2012, and how these objectives have changed during the period 2005-2012. As a first result, alleviation of poverty, commercial interests and the democratic status of the recipient altogether influence aid policy in the region. Recipients’ need and commercial interest are both important objectives for the donors but they have both lost some of its impact in recent times. Historical ties with France affect the aid policy in the region and strategic interests of the donors appear to have an unexpected effect on aid allocation behavior e.g. oil rich countries receive less aid, ceteris paribus. The democratic status of the recipient has a positive significant effect on received aid for the average recipient and the impact has increased with time in the MENA region. Moreover, donors react differently to recipients’ needs, commercial interest and democracy and there are also several differences among recipients with abundant oil resources and those with insignificant oil resources.

The aim of this thesis is to understand the phenomena of the high growth and rapid internationalisation of firms from emerging markets. It explores the applicability of international entrepreneurship theory to the context of the emerging market enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It integrates the literature of strategic entrepreneurship and that of portfolio entrepreneurship with the literature of international entrepreneurship to provide a closer fit of applicability in that context. The main research questions of this thesis focus on: why, where, and how do some emerging market enterprises grow fast and internationalise early and rapidly? Particular attention is paid to entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial teams and the entrepreneurial process in the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of new business opportunities. Despite the strength of the international entrepreneurship theory in identifying the sources of rapid internationalisation for small and medium enterprises from developed markets, it has been criticized for failing to address the same phenomena for firms from emerging markets. This thesis explores why, where, and how the MENA region emerging market firms have attained their spectacular performance over the last few years up to 2008, and contributes to filling the theoretical gap in the literature. This exploratory study suggests that the entrepreneurial and management processes of international business opportunities play an important role in achieving the high growth and rapid internationalisation of firms from emerging markets. A multiple case study strategy was adopted, and qualitative data was collected through interviews with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial team members in the research site of the emerging markets of the MENA region. Other interviews with financial experts, staff of international financial institutions, and international analysts in specialized publications were conducted in order to achieve triangulation and bias minimization. Guided by a newly formulated conceptual theoretical framework, data was explored and thematically analysed by coding into different categories to enhance the understanding of the processes that underlined the entrepreneurial strategies associated with the rapid internationalisation and high growth of the theoretically sampled case companies. Resource orchestration, innovativeness, entrepreneurial leadership and international diversification were found to be crucial elements employed by lead entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial team members through utilising human and social capital of networks and knowledge throughout the internationalisation process. The findings revealed that integrating the concepts of strategic entrepreneurship and portfolio entrepreneurship with international entrepreneurship produced a coherent approach to the application of those theories to understanding the behaviour of multinational enterprises from the MENA region. However, other valuable themes emerged from the findings. Chief among those are: strategically targeting hostile markets with inefficient institutional competencies and insufficient infrastructure, thus benefiting from a no competition status. Networking internally with entrepreneurial team members and international churning were other key elements revealed by the findings that explained the interactions and processes which enhanced the companies’ rapid internal growth, A recommendation for management practice is made for firms to encourage internal networking with entrepreneurial teams’ members thus enhancing trust and supporting intrapreneurs’ initiatives in identifying and exploiting new international opportunities. A mainstream policy recommendation for emerging markets is to strengthen the private sector performance with government incentives of a financial (tax reductions, banking facilities) and non-financial (political reform, education and health services) nature to encourage such entrepreneurial activities. In addition to its contribution to the theoretical understanding of high growth and rapid internationalisation from emerging markets, the findings of this thesis accentuate the impact of the pattern of internationalisation into antagonistic environments with scarce infrastructure as a strategic entrepreneurship process of deployment of dynamic capabilities to craft unique competitive advantages thus achieving and sustaining high growth and performance in new international markets. This thesis is also unique in compiling the first dataset for MENA region enterprises with similar attributes of high growth and rapid internationalisation.

La région du Moyen-Orient et d’Afrique du Nord (MENA) a été le théâtre de réformes institutionnelles et financières ayant pour objectif de promouvoir le développement économique. Alors que les théories traditionnelles se concentrent sur l’accumulation du capital et le progrès technique comme facteurs explicatifs fondamentaux de la croissance économique, les travaux donnant naissance à la « nouvelle économie institutionnelle » ont mis en relief la contribution majeure du développement institutionnel à la croissance économique. L’objectif de cette thèse est de comprendre le rôle de la qualité institutionnelle et de la régulation bancaire dans l’explication du développement financier et de la croissance économique des pays de la région MENA depuis les années 1980. A partir de modélisations économétriques appropriées, la thèse cherche à répondre aux trois grandes questions suivantes : quel rôle jouent la qualité institutionnelle et la régulation bancaire dans l’explication des variations des fonds propres, du risque et de l’efficacité bancaire dans le système bancaire de la région MENA ? Y a-t-il un effet significatif du développement institutionnel sur les développements bancaire et économique ? Dans quelle mesure les différences transnationales en termes de performance économique peuvent-elles être expliquées par des facteurs institutionnels ? Les principaux résultats de la thèse sont que : (i) la qualité institutionnelle a un effet significatif sur les fonds propres, la prise de risque et l’efficacité des banques opérant dans la région du Moyen-Orient et d’Afrique du Nord ; (ii) la régulation bancaire a un effet positif et significatif sur le développement bancaire, et il existe une interdépendance positive et significative entre développement économique et développement bancaire ; (iii) l’effet de la qualité institutionnelle sur les pays qui affichent une faible croissance économique en moyenne est plus fort que l’effet sur les pays à forte croissance économique. / The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has witnessed many institutional and financial reforms meant to stimulate economic development. While traditional theories of economic growth promote capital accumulation and technological progress as fundamental determinants of economic development, studies that gave birth to the “new institutional economics” stress the major contribution of institutional development to economic development. The objective of this dissertation is to understand the role of institutional quality and financial regulation in the process of financial development and economic growth in the MENA region since the 1980s. Based on recent and adequate econometric models, this dissertation answers the following questions: What is the role played by institutional quality and banking regulation in explaining capital, risk and efficiency adjustments in the banking system of the MENA region? Is there a positive and significant effect of institutional quality on banking and economic development? Can inter-country differences in terms of economic performance be explained by institutional factors? significant effect on bank capital, excessive risk taking and efficiency of banks operating in the MENA region; (ii) Banking regulation has a positive and significant effect on banking development, and there is positive and significant interdependence between economic growth and banking development; (iii) the impact of institutional quality is stronger in countries that witnessed a weak growth rate on average compared to fast-growing countries where the institutional effect is not significant.

The declines in oil and gas prices in 2014 by 50% or more led governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to decrease healthcare budgets correspondingly by more than 30%. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the marketing strategies that managers of international pharmaceutical companies have successfully implemented in the MENA region to ensure profitability after the 2014 decreases in the healthcare budgets, which followed the decline in oil and gas prices. The study involved data collection through semistructured interviews of 6 middle and executive managers working in 2 international pharmaceutical companies located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The cultural intelligence and strategic flexibility theories constituted the conceptual framework for this study and exploration of challenges associated with implementing marketing strategies for international pharmaceutical companies in the MENA region. Participants had a minimum of 5 years of experience in planning and implementing marketing strategies in the MENA region. The findings from the thematic data analysis led to the identification of major marketing strategies, which have helped to maintain business sustainability of pharmaceutical companies, despite difficulties with the reduction in healthcare budgets in the MENA region. The important themes emerging from this study included: (a) product launch strategy and operating model, (b) transformation of leaders by vision and guidance, (c) recognition of culture and diversity, and (d) the importance of training and learning agility. The results of the study may contribute to positive social change because pharmaceutical and healthcare knowledge benefits human health and may serve to influence positive job creation and enrichment of the economies of the region.

The development of a methodological framework for local and institutional sustainability assessment can be helpful for planners and urban governments. The aim of this research is to develop an approach to local and institutional sustainability assessment (ALISA). It is designed to assist in the clarification, formulation, preparation, selection, and ranking of key indicators to facilitate the assessment of city sustainability at the local and institutional level in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) cities. The ALISA methodological framework is developed using joint documentary and analysed data in the two case studies of Benghazi and Amman. The data for this also includes focus-group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires that reflect the approach required in order to develop a combined framework that assists the development of sustainability indicators. The initial list of proposed sustainability indicators for Benghazi contains 37 indicators. This list was developed based on logical information and procedure which has been supported by consultants and specialists in sustainability and urbanization from the University of Benghazi in the form of workshops as well as searching through the literature on sustainable development. Similarly, with support from consultants and specialists in sustainability and urbanization from the Applied science University a list of 36 indicators was also developed in Amman. Both lists were given to the local communities in Benghazi and Amman to be ranked based on priority to identify two final lists of sustainability indicators. The results indicated that economic and social indicators were highly ranked in Benghazi and Amman, respectively.

Cette thèse examine l'impact du développement du marché du crédit sur la croissance économique et essaye d'apporter un éclairage sur certains résultats empiriques controversés relevant de cette littérature. A cette fin, nous investiguons l'impact du développement du marché du crédit à la consommation et celui du marché du crédit à l'investissement sur la croissance. A l'aide d'une extension du modèle d'Aghion et al (2005), nous mettons en évidence que le développement du marché du crédit à la consommation au détriment de celui des crédits à l'investissement affecte défavorablement la croissance économique. Ces constatations sont validées empiriquement sur un échantillon de 27 pays européens.Sur le plan empirique, nous exploitons les techniques des séries temporelles et celles des données de panel afin de dégager les relations de court terme et de long terme entre le développement du marché du crédit et la croissance économique. L'application porte sur un échantillon de 20 pays hétérogènes couvrant la période 1960-2009. Les évidences empiriques valident une relation positive à long terme entre le développement du marché du crédit et la croissance économique alors que la relation de court terme diffère d'un pays à un autre.En utilisant un panel de pays MENA, nous démontrons que le développement du marché du crédit islamique et celui du marché du crédit conventionnel affectent négativement le développement économique de la région. Enfin, nous démontrons que la relation crédit-croissance dans les pays MENA est non linéaire et déterminée par le niveau de développement du secteur des technologies de l'information et de la communication. / This thesis examines the effect of credit market development on economic growth in order to provide explanations for the ambiguous results of empirical studies on this relationship. To this end, we assess the different effects of consumer credit market and entrepreneurial credit market on economic growth. Using an extension of the framework of Aghion et al (2005), we show that the development of the consumer credit market to the detriment of the development of entrepreneurial credit market affects negatively economic growth. We provide empirically validation of these findings on a sample of 27 European countries during the period 1995-2009.Moreover, using both time series techniques and panel data methods, we investigate empirically the short-term and long-term relationships for a sample of 20 heterogeneous countries over the period 1960-2009. Our results confirm a positive long-term relationship between credit market development and economic growth while the short-run relationship differs from one country to another.Furthermore, we inspect the effects of the development of islamic credit market and the development of conventional credit market on economic growth in MENA countries. Applying the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators developed for dynamic panel, we find that both islamic credit market and conventional credit market harmful for economic growth. Examining the non-linear effect of credit market development on economic growth, we show that that economies in Mena region can benefit from credit market development only once a threshold of ICT development is reached.

Cette thèse examine (i) l'impact du secteur bancaire et des marchés financiers sur la croissance économique, (ii) l'effet de la qualité institutionnelle sur la détermination du développement financier, (iii) Comment la qualité des institutions affecté la relation entre le développement financier et la croissance économique. A cette fin, nous construisons un indice de qualité institutionnel pour les pays de la région MENA. Appliquant la méthode d'estimation des moindres carrés généralisés (MCG) pour un échantillon de 18 pays de la région MENA pour la période de 1984-2007 nous constatons que ni le secteur bancaire ni les marchés financiers ne contribuent à la croissance économique et qu'ils l'affectent même négativement. Adoptant l'approche d'estimation sur données de panel et celle des variables instrumentales (IV) nos résultats montrent l'importance de l'environnement institutionnel dans la détermination du développement financier de la région MENA. En outre, nos résultats montrent que la qualité des institutions a un important effet dans la relation entre développement financier et croissance économique. Plus précisément, elle permet d'atténuer l'effet négatif du développement financier sur la croissance économique. Par conséquent, nos résultats fournissent une évidence empirique, que pour que le développement financier puisse contribuer à la croissance économique, les pays de la région MENA doivent avoir un certain niveau de développement institutionnel. Examinant l'effet non-linéaire de la qualité des institutions sur la relation entre développement financier et croissance économique nos résultats montrent que la relation entre développement du secteur bancaire et croissance économique présente la forme du "U-inversé", par contre cette forme n'est pas observée lorsque les marchés financiers sont considérés. / This thesis examines (i) the impact of banks and stock markets on economic growth (ii) the effect of institutional quality in determining financial development and (iii) how institutional quality affects the finance-growth nexus in the MENA region. To this end, we construct a yearly institutional index for MENA countries. Applying the generalized method- of-moments (GMM) estimators developed for dynamic panel data for a sample of 18 MENA countries over 1984-2007 period, we find that both bank and stock market development are unimportant or even harmful for economic growth. Considering both a panel data and the instrumental variable (IV) approaches of estimation, our results outline the importance of institutional quality in determining financial development in MENA region. Moreover, our results show that institutional quality affects the finance growth nexus in MENA countries. In fact, it mitigates the negative effect of financial development on economic growth. Therefore, our results provide empirical evidence that in order for financial development to contribute to economic growth, MENA countries must possess certain level of institutional quality. Examining the non-linear effect of institutional quality on the finance-growth nexus, our results show that banking sector development and growth exhibit an inverted-U shaped relationship. However, we do not find the same pattern in the stock market-growth relationship

Depuis le milieu des années 1980, les pays en développement ainsi que d'autres pays membres du Fonds monétaire international (FMI) se sont engagés dans le processus de libéralisation du compte de capital dans le cadre de leurs programmes d'ajustement structurels et de l'intégration économique. Particulièrement, la libre circulation internationale des capitaux était perçue comme étant une solution pour collecter plus d'épargne, accroître les Investissements Direct Étrangers (IDE) et stimuler par la suite la croissance économique à long terme. Cette initiative a entraîné une forte hausse des flux d'investissement internationaux pendant les deux dernières décennies, la région MENA a, cependant, reçu seulement 6.5% du total des flux mondiaux des IDE. Cela soulève deux questions importantes à savoir : comment la libéralisation du compte de capital stimule les IDE? Et comment les IDE favorisent-ils la croissance économique ? Dés lors, dans cette thèse, nous examinons les déterminants des IDE dans la région MENA et leur impact sur la croissance économique tout en tenant compte du rôle de la libéralisation du compte de capital et la qualité institutionnelle. À cette fin, nous utilisons un modèle en panel dynamique estimé par la Méthode des Moments Généralisés (GMM) en système pour un échantillon de 17 pays de la région MENA sur la période entre 1985 et 2009.Les résultats montrent que la stabilité politique couplé à une politique de libéralisation du compte de capital stimule les IDE dans la région MENA. En particulier, l'impact positif de la libéralisation de compte de capital sur les flux d'IDE dans la région MENA est conditionné par le renforcement de la qualité des institutions et la réduction des risques politiques. Cependant, bien que les facteurs institutionnels s'avèrent être importants dans le choix d'implantation des investisseurs étrangers, la corruption et la bureaucratie ont augmenté les flux d'IDE dans les pays les plus ouverts financièrement de la région MENA.En ce qui concerne le rôle des IDE ainsi que leurs déterminants dans la promotion de la croissance économique, les résultats révèlent que les IDE, la qualité des institutions et la libéralisation du compte de capital sont des facteurs stimulateurs de croissance dans la région MENA. Néanmoins, leurs influences sont différents selon qu'il s'agit des pays membres du Conseil de Coopération du Golfe (CCG) ou non. Alors que, l'effet des IDE sur la croissance est positif dans les pays de GCC et négatif dans les pays non-membres de GCC, l'impact de la libéralisation du compte de capital et la qualité institutionnelle dans les pays non-membres de GCC sont positifs mais moins important que celui observé dans les pays de GCC. Les résultats révèlent également que, contrairement aux pays membres de GCC, la politique de libéralisation du compte de capital dans les pays non-membres de GCC ont réduit les avantages des IDE sur la croissance. Enfin, les résultats montent que les pays qui ont un cadre institutionnel sein bénéficient plus de l'effet de la libéralisation du compte de capital sur la croissance économique. / Ever since the mid-1980's, developing countries as well as other member countries of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have engaged in the process of capital account liberalization as part of their structural adjustment programs and economic integration agenda. The motive behind the removal of restrictions on capital account transactions was to attract capital flows mainly, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which is considered as an engine of economic growth. This initiative has led to a surge in international investment flows over the past two decades, the MENA region has, however, received only 6.5% of the global FDI inflows. This raises two important issues and policy challenge for the region, namely, how does capital account liberalization affect FDI inflows? And how does FDI promote economic growth? In this thesis, we examine the determinants of FDI in the MENA region and their impact on economic growth by focusing on the role of capital account liberalization and institutional quality. To this end, we conduct two empirical studies by using a GMM-System estimator developed for the dynamic model over the period between 1985 and 2009 for a sample of 17 MENA countries. Our findings reveal that while the level of capital account openness alone may discourage the inflows of FDI, if it is coupled with higher levels of institutional development or political stability, it can have a net positive impact on the volume of FDI inflows. MENA countries that are able to reap the benefits of the capital openness policy satisfy certain threshold conditions regarding the level of political stability and institutional quality. However, although institutional factors appear to be important in the location choice of FDI, corruption and bureaucracy have increased FDI inflows in the financially open countries in the region. Regarding the role of FDI and their determinants in boosting economic growth, we show that FDI, institutional quality and capital account liberalization constitute important growth stimulating factors in the MENA region. Nevertheless, their influences are different in GCC and Non-GCC countries. While, the effect of FDI on growth is positive in the GCC countries and negative in Non- GCC countries, the impact of capital account liberalization and institutional quality in the Non-GCC countries are positive but less than in the GCC countries. Results reveal also, that in contrast to the GCC countries, capital account liberalization policy in the Non-GCC countries have reduced the benefits of FDI on growth. This finding is explained by the fact that most of the Non-GCC countries have engaged in the process of financial reforms and have poor quality of institutions. Finally, we demonstrate that institutional conditions matter for capital account liberalization and growth relationship in the MENA region.Keywords: FDI, capital account liberalization, economic growth, institutions, MENA region, panel data.

Actuellement, le secteur des télécommunications est toujours concerné par les questions liées au triptyque de « la régulation (re-régulation), la privatisation et la libéralisation ». Bien que le cadre réglementaire de l'industrie des télécommunications ait radicalement changé depuis les années 80, il reste encore beaucoup à faire, notamment dans les pays en développement. En raison de pressions exercées par les institutions internationales, les pays en développement sont actuellement en train de privatiser leurs opérateurs historiques, de libéraliser leurs secteurs et de créer des institutions indépendantes de régulation. Le cas de la région du Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord (MENA) peut être distingué de deux points de vue. Premièrement, les pays de la région MENA sont en retard dans la mise en oeuvre des réformes par rapport aux autres pays en développement. Deuxièmement, la nature institutionnelle, politique et économique de ces pays façonne leurs décisions relatives à l'adoption des réformes. Cette thèse propose d'analyser l'adoption des réformes en tenant compte de la nature institutionnelle, politique et économique des pays de la région MENA. Nous visons également à tester empiriquement l'effet des séquences des réformes sur la performance du secteur. L'impact des restrictions du marché des télécommunications sur la performance des télécoms est également abordé. Enfin, nous étudions le phénomène de substitution fixe-mobile dans la région MENA et ses implications. Nous obtenons des résultats empiriques qui servent à élaborer des pistes de politiques économiques dans le secteur des télécommunications des pays du MENA. / At this stage of development of the telecommunication sector, it is still concemed with issues related with the triptych regulation - re-regulation, privatization and competition. Although the institutional and regulatory framework of the telecommunication industry has changed radically since the 80s, a lot still remains to be done notably in developing countries. Due to pressures from international institutions, developing countries are privatizing their state owned incumbent operators, allowing entry of foreign and domestic operators and establishing separate regulatory institutions, a a way to alleviate the existing poor performance. The case of Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) countries ca be distinguished from two perspectives, first, they were Iate in implementing reforms compared to other groups of developing countries. Second, the institutional, political and economic nature of such countries shapes their decisions regarding the adoption of different reforms. This study aims at discussing the introduction of different telecom reforms depending on the institutional, political and economic specificities per country. We also aim at testing the effect of different reform sequences on the sector performance. The impact oftelecom market restrictions on MENA telecom performance is also addressed. Finally, we study the phenomenon ofFixed-mobile substitution in MENA region and its implications. We reach important empirical results that help to derive useful policy implications in MENA telecom sector.

It is more than a decade since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, and the European External Action Service (EEAS) was founded to unify the EU's foreign policy and make it more coherent and consistent. With the creation of the EEAS, the Commission delegations were transformed into EU delegations, and the delegations started to represent the whole EU abroad politically. The Lisbon Treaty clearly strengthened the EU foreign policy and arguably gave the EU a common voice in the world. However, the speed at which the transformation took, and takes place, is not the same in all third (non-EU) countries where the EU is present. Many scholars argue that there is still a lack of consistency in EU foreign policy, and some aspects of EU external action after Lisbon are still understudied, such as EU external action in specific regions. Against this backdrop, and within a theoretical framework of Frauke Austermann’s theory of a European diplomatic service of “different speeds,” this thesis examines the consistency of the political role between EU delegations in selected Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries in an attempt to answer the following research question: How consistent is the political role between EU delegations in the MENA region twelve years after the founding of the EEAS and the political sections of the delegations? This is done by conducting and analysing semi-structured interviews with diplomats working in the political sections of fourteen of the sixteen EU delegations in the region. With the help of a qualitative content analysis method, the consistency of the political role is examined by investigating the function of the political sections, their main tasks within the respective delegations and their relations and interaction with headquarters in Brussels, EU member states’ (EUMS) foreign missions and host country authorities. The findings of this thesis show that a few observations of the interviewees could put the consistency of the political role into question. The main issues concerned malfunctioning cooperation between the sections of the delegations, the influence of specific EUMSs on the work of the delegations and the poor staffing (although this was a rather consistent issue). Yet, for the most part, based on the aspects studied in this thesis, the political role proved to be very consistent between the delegations of the region.