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Due to the important contribution of women to economic development, we propose to investigate the factors that affect women entrepreneurs’ success in Saudi Arabia. 271 women in Saudi Arabia participated in the study. A conceptual model is developed, while PLS-SEM software is used for analysis. The findings show a positive association between women’s empowerment as successful entrepreneurs and certain dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation, including economic factors, autonomy, innovativeness, and proactiveness. These findings shed light on the factors that influence women’s ability to become successful entrepreneurs and identify the dimensions and external factors in the entrepreneurial orientation model that are the best predictors of women’s success. This paper contributes to new knowledge on the conditions of women’s entrepreneurship by developing and validating an analytic model for promoting women’s entrepreneurship Saudi Arabia. From a policy perspective, the model can inform the design of training programs to support women’s entrepreneurship in the country. The study has practical implications and suggests future directions for research in this field$.$

The object of this paper is to simulate and optimize small scale concentrating solar power tower (CSP) built and operationalized at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, through analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique. The aim is to facilitate cost effective integration of solar power coupled with energy generation technologies subjected to challenging climatic conditions; and also to present the effects of changing in parameters such as receiver, heliostats, storage tanks or power generation subsystem on the cost and system performance. This study adopts the AHP technique to obtain the most appropriate receiver shape out of three possible shapes; spherical, cubic, and cylindrical. The used criteria in this in this optimization are reliability, manufacturing in the vicinity, manufacturing cost, service and maintain cost, lower operation risks, and high performance. Based on the results of AHP analysis, square shape is selected. A finite element analysis via ANSYS is performed to compute the through analytic division of temperature in the receiver. The highest temperature from the simulation is 503°C. The thermal power, dispensed by the molten is 12.52 kW during the heat exchanger. However, 13 kW is the design thermal power; while about 3.7% is the percentage error in the thermal power. The findings of this research will provide the needed knowledge and scientific background to assist the authorities concerned in the energy sector in establishing a commercial-scale plant. At the end, Artificial Neural Network algorithms/Fuzzy system is modeled to optimize the process.

This research aims to investigate whether attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social norm and gender predict entrepreneurial intentions of Saudi Freshmen students. Starting from the findings of GEM report in Kelley & al. (2010), entrepreneurial intention of Saudi people was recorded as the lowest rate of 1% among 59 countries. This research focuses on studying factors explaining intentions. Based on a literature review, we use a theoretical model of intention based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) which was tested earlier by Boissin et al. (2007a) to French context. We intend to retest it in Saudi context. We add gender as control variable and a potential predictor of intention. Then, we conduct a research survey from Autumn 2013 to Autumn 2014 of 289 Saudi (183 males and 106 females) students. The collected data was analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique. Then, results are shown and discussed, and finally, some recommendations are presented.

Recent innovation diffusion in organisations literature suggests that innovation diffusion dimensions and characteristics are not independent of each other, rather organisational internal environment interacts with both an organisational external environment and an innovation’s characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of the framework consisting of organisational innovation dimensions and characteristics within Saudi Arabian organisations. We test this model with survey data from a large-scale survey of 223 Saudi public and private project-based organisations, these organisations had either adopted, or intended to adopt, the project management office (PMO). To obtain a broad representation of respondents, and to minimise bias, the survey did not target any specific industry. Statistical analysis, specifically exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to ascertain the factors underlying each construct. Structural equations modelling (SEM) was sequentially utilised to determine the factor structure of the model and to assess the relationships between model constructs. This paper took an initiative step towards a conceptual framework for organisational innovation diffusion, represented by the PMO. Its results revealed that perceived organisational innovation climate functions as a gateway to the organisational innovation diffusion. It was also found that technology mediate the relationships between socio-culture and organisation climate for innovation. More importantly, PMO complexity was not related to the intention to implement the PMO. The quantitative study showed that the framework is a useful tool for studying the diffusion of organisation innovation. The model can potentially form the foundations of a framework for organisations seeking to enhance the organisational innovation diffusion that could in turn strengthen their business performance.

This paper examines the adoption of Smartphones in Saudi Arabia. A theoretical research model is developed based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. A web-based survey has been used to gather data from randomly selected Smartphone users in Saudi Arabia. For data analysis, SEM approach was followed, SPSS and AMOS were utilized for analyzing data. The results indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, brand influence, perceived enjoyment, and design constructs have a positive and significant relationship with users’ behavioral intention to adopt and use Smartphones in Saudi Arabia.

Although traditional cultural norms have tended to impede Saudi women’s engagement in entrepreneurship, there are successful female business owners in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government, seeing female entrepreneurship as a way to strengthen both the family unit and the economy, has recently created programs to encourage more women to become business owners. However, few women have taken advantage of these programs to date. This study aimed to identify factors that enable female business owners to realize their entrepreneurial potential. Nine business-owning women were interviewed for this phenomenological study. Drawing on Kreuger and Brazeal’s Model of Entrepreneurial Potential (MEP), the study investigated Saudi female entrepreneurs’ perceived self-efficacy, perceived desirability, perceived feasibility and propensity to act on entrepreneurial opportunities. Currently, limited empirical research exists on women’s entrepreneurial activity in Saudi Arabia. This study sought to fill that gap. Results from this study revealed unique strategic approaches and business success factors from the perspective of Saudi women, including their ability to work within or around cultural norms and rules to operate their businesses. The study suggests ways in which Saudi society can support women in realizing their entrepreneurial potential and also makes policy recommendations for government and business support entities.

We investigate the influence of innovations, creative organisational climate and culture on competitiveness and performance of firms. Data came from a survey of 135 Saudi Arabian executives. Findings indicate that incremental innovations directly influence the performance of Saudi Arabian firms. We found significant influence of firms’ working environment on their competitiveness, which in turn directly influences their performance. The overall results of this study point to the need of firms in Saudi Arabia to improve their innovativeness, competitiveness, and performance in the light of the recent drop in oil prices that has resulted in drastic reduction in the country’s revenues.

Technology business incubators support economic growth by developing innovative technologies. However, assessing the performance of technology business incubators in Saudi Arabia has not been well recognised. This study provides a conceptual framework for assessing technology business incubators based on knowledge sharing practices and sharing, diffusion of innovation and individual creativity. Partial least squares structural equation modelling, such as (PLS-SEM) path modelling was used to test the model. The results provide empirical insights about the performance of technology business incubators. The findings show knowledge donation and collection has positive effects on technology business incubator. The importance–performance map analysis shows additional findings and conclusions for managerial actions.

The Saudi government has made some efforts in incorporating the principles of sustainable development into the planning process by establishing a framework for considering environmental consequences of development activities. The framework is guided by the General Environmental Code. The Ministerial Committee on the Environment (MCE) coordinates the environmental assessment of plans, policies and programmes prior to approval. However, the framework tends to focus on plans and programmes at the national level with little or no explicit provision for ensuring the assessment of municipal plans, policies and programmes. This paper evaluates the integration of environmental assessment into the municipal planning process and the plan documents. The findings indicate that the implementation of environmental assessment at the municipal planning level is minimal. Inadequate institutional framework and lack of effective environment assessment legislation are the main barriers to the implementation. Overall, the assessment shows that there is the need to improve sustainability planning practice in the Kingdom.

This study examines the role of e-entrepreneurship in fostering the future economy, with a specific focus on Saudi women entrepreneurs. The emergence of digital technologies and the internet has opened up new opportunities for entrepreneurship, especially for women facing traditional barriers to business participation. In particular, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has witnessed many women entrepreneurs who leverage e-commerce platforms to establish and grow their businesses. Combining e-entrepreneurship with environmental conscience depicts a future in which sustainable development and economic prosperity coexist. This research will explore the motivations, challenges, and strategies employed by Saudi women entrepreneurs in the e-commerce sector and analyse the impact of their entrepreneurial activities on the future economy. The study followed a quantitative and post-positivist approach. Data were collected cross-sectionally from the women working in different start-ups in the big cities of KSA. The study adopted the systematic random sampling approach to reach the respondents. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed. However, 388 were included for analysis after the screening process. The findings reveal that e-entrepreneurial significantly impacts women’s entrepreneurial and economic growth. Moreover, Entrepreneurial self-efficiency significantly mediates the relationship between women’s entrepreneurial and economic growth. The findings comprehensively understand complex dynamics and guide future research and practical applications in related domains. Furthermore, the study found that Saudi women entrepreneurs should receive financial and technical support to initiate their ventures. Moreover, policy recommendations of the study demand addressing cultural barriers and fostering an enabling environment for their entrepreneurial endeavours.

Based on an examination of mutual perceptions between China and Saudi Arabia toward each other’s development strategy, especially through the lens of government officials, journalists, and scholars, this article argues that great progress has been achieved in key areas of strategic alignment between China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision, including policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people exchanges. Meanwhile, political, economic, security and social risks remain prominent in the process of China-Saudi strategic alignment which need to be managed by appropriate measures.

This study aimed to explore emergency planning requirements for managing disasters in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The study adopted interpretivism; an inductive approach; a descriptive survey; and qualitative methods to address its aim. The techniques used included a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The study sample consisted of 13 experts from the KSA General Directorate of Civil Defence (GDCD). The data were analyzed by using content analysis. The study findings revealed that the emergency planning requirements are administrative requirements, including regulations and legislation; technical requirements, which include equipment; human resources, including staff and responders; identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risks; determining the tasks and responsibilities of the relevant agencies and stakeholders; qualified leadership; determining the chain of command at national and local levels; coordination and cooperation among stakeholders; knowledge gained from local or international experiences; updated database; the availability of sufficient financial resources; completed infrastructure; and improved training and practice. The study also found that although emergency planning requirements are more or less in place, there is a need for further improvement and development; specifically, there is a need for better understanding, knowledge, and awareness. Consequently, it strongly recommends that all emergency planning requirements developed from this study should be implemented simultaneously and as an integrated whole. By doing so, it could help decision makers and emergency planners at government emergency agencies to improve, develop, and reinforce emergency planning, specifically in reducing disaster risks.

This is a conceptual paper that tries to highlight, articulate and think about the relationship of public relations (PR) with culture, and examines how Saudi Arabian traditional cultural practices, such as wasta and karam, influence how PR functions in this area. While PR in the Middle East is currently still developing, its present state is affected by confusion as to what PR means and what it should do in a company. Researchers have examined what determines the state of PR in this area by examining the economic development of the countries and the relationship between PR practitioners and journalists. Existing research has, however, chosen to look at Arab PR through a Western lens, which means they have examined the state of PR in this area by Western standards of PR and have not taken into consideration Arab culture. The paper will examine how the elements and cultural differences complicate the understanding of PR practice in Saudi Arabia and therefore what questions need to be asked to be able to clarify these things at a theoretical level, but also to be able to look at the practice in analytical terms.

This research focus of this paper is entrepreneurial growth in Saudi Arabia in relation to existing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how exploration of financial support systems (FSS) and exploiting finance leads to this growth. Entrepreneurs are able to grow their SMEs by accessing finance from FSS and that finance availability offers a noticeable influence on entrepreneurial characteristics. Where FSSs are used to grow SMEs, people in business and other areas work towards increased roles in entrepreneurship as they see FSSs as assisting businesses growth. A second set of logics is that growth of SMEs and entrepreneurship happens because entrepreneurs are able to explore FSS and exploit finance. Entrepreneurs are able to accomplish growth because some characteristics motivate such accomplishment.

Significant attempts have been made by national governments in recent years to provide services and information on the Internet using information and communication technology. However, the accomplishment of these efforts strongly depends on how the targeted users, such as citizens, relay, use and adopt them. As a consequence, a common need to understand the adoption and diffusion of electronic government, or e-government, has emerged in both developed and developing countries. Several impediments may prevent citizens from adopting e-government services, however, and trust is one of the major barriers. Therefore, this study aims to understand the influence of citizens' trust on the adoption of e-government services in the example of Saudi Arabia. From the data analysis, the exogenous variables of trust in Internet, government ability, government benevolence and integrity, and social influence were found to significantly affect citizens' trust in e-government services, whilst citizens' trust propensity was found to more usefully predict citizens' behavioural intention to use e-government services.

In response to the recent housing finance shortage in Saudi Arabia, many solutions have been suggested. Levying taxes on the ownership of undeveloped and extensive lands is one of them. This is because the increase in land prices in recent years has affected the total housing cost, which in turn has impacted on the process of obtaining housing finance. The current picture of lending shows that lenders, including banks, do not lend enough money to enable the borrower to buy a home, given the high cost of housing. As a result, people have avoided borrowing. Therefore, the main purpose of the suggestion to levy taxes on land is to reduce land prices (by encouraging landowners to sell), which will lead to reduced housing costs, so that the latter will be proportional to the loans provided by banks. Thus borrowers will be able to afford to buy houses, and housing finance will be stimulated. However, approval of this suggestion has faced some legal obstacles. They consist of two questions: are constitutional limitations accommodated in this suggestion, and does a tax levy comply with Islamic law, which is considered the main source of the Saudi legal system? The paper found that the suggestion needs to be adjusted to comply with constitutional limitations. Also, it found that the second question has been answered by the Council of Senior Ulama (CSU), which expressly stated that imposing tax does not comply with Islamic law. Therefore, a moderated suggestion is offered by this paper: instead of levying taxes, impose zakat, or zakah, which is an Islamic instrument. The paper found that zakat will play the same role as taxation and is accepted by both believers and Muslim scholars. However, zakat cannot be applied in the case of lands owned by non-Muslims, who are not subject to this instrument. This issue has been addressed by the following proposal: impose taxes on lands owned by non-Muslims and zakat on lands owned by Muslims.

Although many studies have indicated that an enormous number of organisational change initiatives fail due to several reasons, in the forefront of them is resistance to organisational change (ROC). However, study of this phenomenon has not received adequate attention from researchers. Therefore, this paper examines the impact of leader-member exchange (LMX) on ROC in Saudi Arabian organisations that are being privatised. Based on data collected from 406 managers and employees in three Saudi organisations, the results of statistical data analysis showed that LMX was correlated negatively to the components of resistance, namely affective, behavioural and cognitive. Moreover, the results revealed that participants' age, qualification and job were negatively related to ROC, while there was a non-significant relationship between organisational tenure and resistance.

This paper is an attempt to improve the understanding of the role played by professionalism in the implementation of a high-performance work system (HPWS). Based on institution theory, this paper seeks to investigate how professional norms (i.e. the competence and political stature of the actors involved) as an institutional factor affects the efficacy of the relationship interaction between human resources (HR) and line managers when implementing HPWS functions. In other words, investigating the extent to which the partnership and co-ordination between HR and line management exists based on their professional norms. Using a case study involving two Saudi banks, and conducting semistructure interview with 54 managers, results indicated that both HR professionals and unit members' political stature and competencies have significant impacts on building trust and reciprocity. Furthermore, line managers' work-type priorities and interests form another vital factor that has an implication for the level of interaction between the two players.

This paper analyses forced labour and human trafficking laws from the UK and the Saudi Arabian perspective. It begins with a discussion of the characteristics of human trafficking and the legal frameworks adopted by transnational and trans-regional bodies to restrict human trafficking. Next, the paper analyses the legal instruments in the UK and Saudi Arabia for the protection of victims of trafficking, and finally it provides a critical commentary on forced labour and the international and national legal instruments for preventing this. This examination of both states' efforts to identify the weaknesses and strengths of each, and in particular to address the weaknesses in the Saudi system as compared to the UK system, is the main purpose of this paper. Saudi Arabia can improve its ranking from Tier 3 to Tier 2 (United States Department of State, 2002) if reforms are introduced in the legislation and enforcement domains. (Tier 1 means ‘countries whose governments fully comply with the TVPA's [Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000] minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking’; Tier 2 means ‘countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards’; and Tier 3 means ‘countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so’.) The anti-trafficking laws are also improving in Saudi Arabia, with an emphasis on the role of the law enforcement agencies in preventing the occurrence of trafficking across Saudi borders.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions, level of knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of female nursing students at the Technical Institute for Health Training (TIHT) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, towards using electronic medical records (EMRs). A questionnaire comprised of closed and open questions was distributed to 70 female nursing students of whom 56 (80%) responded. Results showed that while 58.9% of students have heard of EMR, 78.6% of them have not received any formal EMR training. The findings show that there is no significant relation between age and the level of the study, and the knowledge or attitude towards EMR, although there is a significant relationship between age and the readiness to use EMR, with students over 23 years of age being more prepared to use EMR than those who are under 23 years.