This study uses a self-constructed Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) index to examine the extent to which companies in Saudi Arabia, a developing country with an emerging financial market, use the Internet for financial disclosure. The paper also considers factors affecting such disclosure. According to data collected from the Tadawul Website for all listed companies in years 2004 and 2005, all 74 Saudi Listed Companies (SLCs) had active and accessible websites during that period. In addition to descriptive analyses, hypotheses were tested to identify the determinants of Internet-based financial disclosure. It was found that, the Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) emerges as the most significant factor affecting IFR in Saudi Arabia as minimum IFR requirements are applied. Aside from the employment of the BIG-4 international auditors that they implement IFR, the empirical results show that banking industry and the location of main cities play an important role in the implementation of IFR. Moreover, in both years government and foreign ownerships were shown to be insignificant for IFR adoption. These current findings indicate that exploitation of the full potential of Internet financial disclosure by Saudi companies has yet to be made.

This research aimed to determine the relationship between quality level of banking services and the marketing performance of Saudi banks in Qassim Region , using the descriptive analytical method, based on primary data collected through responses to questionnaires that were distributed to 300 individuals at all administrative levels. The results of the study showed that most officials within the Saudi banks in Qassim Region are of the view that banking services are fairly Weak, and that there are no differences among their views which can be related to the administrative level (senior management, middle management and supervisory management). The study also showed that availability of the physical tangible facilities ranks first, safety considerations come in second place, interest of the bank customer in third place, responding to client requests comes fourth, and finally the reliance of customers on their bank to get the service ranks fifth. Finally, the study findings proved that there is a statistical significant relationship among each of the speed in responding to customer requests (response dimension) and the customer's feeling of safety (security dimension) and the availability of the physical tangible facilities (physical dimension) and the attention of customers interests (empathy dimension) and the reliance of customer on the bank (reliability dimension) as independent variables and marketing performance indicators of the investigated Saudi banks as the dependent variable, and this differs from a variable to another.

This study aims at examining the impact of strategic information systems upon managers' effectiveness in Jordanian telecommunication companies. To achieve the objective of this study, self administrated questionnaire was used to collect the data. It was developed and distributed to (500) respondents from the (4) Jordanian telecommunication companies. The retrieved questionnaires valid for analyses were (439) questionnaires. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data, and the most important findings were as follows: The perceptions of employees in Jordanian telecommunication companies toward the availability of strategic information systems were at high level, and so was their perception toward the level of managers’ effectiveness. There is an impact of strategic information systems dimensions (inputs, process, and outputs) on the managers' effectiveness level (managerial, personal, and ...) in Jordanian telecommunication companies. The study recommends that the managers of Jordanian telecommunication companies must focus on strategic information systems dimensions through developing the information technology infrastructure, software, and networks for its positive impact on managers’ effectiveness. The study also recommends further research to investigate the role of planning strategic information systems, and decision support systems in internal process effectiveness.

Due to the increase of foreign share in Jordanian manufacturing industry, the objective of this study is to evaluate the determinants of inward FDI in Jordan's manufacturing sector during the Period 1995-2010. An econometric model "Gravity model" was used to evaluate the factors that influence the distribution of FDI across industries and countries of investor-origin A disaggregated analysis allows us to consider the determinants of inward FDI industrial manufacturing sectors; these determinants are not uniform across the industries. Such analysis will allow us to determine the implications for existing and potential policies that affect FDI behavior in these different sub-industries. Maximum likelihood estimation techniques based on the Tobit Model have been used to evaluate the determinants of inward FDI. The results are largely confirmed with the validity of the Gravity Model approach for determinants of FDI analysis. GDP and geographical proximity were found to be significant determinants of FDI inflows for the manufacturing sector for aggregate analysis; on the other hand for disaggregate analysis, seven out of eight manufacturing industries were significant. Concerning the influence of other country characteristics on FDI inflows, the study shows that there is considerable diversity across manufacturing industries. The study also supports a positive correlation between foreign investment and trade "exports and imports" in Jordan. This suggests that FDI and trade are complementary, rather than substitutes. The study findings have a number of policy implications for Jordan. First, the difference in determinants across manufacturing industries suggests that investment promotion strategies should be differentiated across industries and countries. Second, the findings on the complementarily of trade and FDI in Jordan should convince policy makers about the benefit of liberal trade policy; therefore if Jordan's choice is still in favor of promoting FDI inflows, Jordan should continue with an open trade policy.

Despite the fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest oil exporter, it is also one of the largest energy consumers per capita in the world, which leads to more concern about the future of energy in the kingdom. This is due to the governmental subsidies in the form of restricted low prices for domestic oil, natural gas, gasoline, and diesel compared to worldwide prices. The study aims to clarify the size and effect of governmental subsidies. As a result, the price gap between domestic prices and international prices increased rapidly by an average of 5.5-8% annually. This led to a rapid growth of the subsidies during the period 2001-2010. The study showed that the subsidies reached one trillion and third of trillion of S.R. In addition, this study showed that a cointegration exists between the rapid growth of local energy demand and the indirect governmental subsidies with one direct Granger queasily from the indirect governmental subsidies. The results showed a great need for a reform in the governmental subsidies system and energy policy to achieve desired Sustainable development.