BA Graduate Programs

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    An Assessment of the Airline Industry in Lebanon's Uncertain Environment
    (2008) Kouatly, Tamador Dallal
    This research aims at examining the macro environment of the airline industry at a global, regional and domestic level to identify relevant driving forces outside a company's boundaries bearing on strategic decisions an airline company ultimately makes. It will also observe the impact of different political and security events pertaining to Lebanon on traffic & sales variations and analyze current competitive environment of airlines, with a special focus on market attractiveness to foreign carriers considering the relevant external forces. It aspires to cover the subject from a strategic management perspective.
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    Assessment of Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME) Environment in Lebanon
    (2005) Hagopian, Alexan Edgar
    While SME or Small and Medium Size Enterprises is a widespread term echoed assertively in globalized and highly integrated world economies as a catalyst for real and rapid economic transformation, it remains of limited echo in the Lebanese economy even though much of Lebanon's businesses are SMEs. The underlying study aims at assessing the fundamental and environmental foundation upon which the Lebanese SMEs rest with the aim arriving at recommendations that would create a favorable environment for SMEs in Lebanon. In such an attempt, this project aims to define SMEs in Lebanon, to conduct an exploratory research at the micro- and macro-environmental levels, to highlight environmental obstacles, and to raise recommendations for developing a more enabling environment for these SMEs. After arriving at an appropriate definition of the SMEs in Lebanon as business enterprises with workforce sizes not exceeding forty employees, the study reviews the Lebanese macroeconomic environment embodying the SMEs along with the legal and financial frameworks within which these SMEs operate to highlight a set of descriptive hypotheses revolving around the influential factors on the employment decisions, the business investment decisions, the registration patterns, the past performance, and the future expectations. In addition and in light of the data gathered from the field survey of fifty four SMEs, the research examines the possibility of a relationship between these decisions on one hand and the demographics - gender, age, educational background, experience - of the SME owners, and location, size, sector, date and manner of establishment, and legal status or business type of the SME, on the other hand. At the end, recommendations to develop an enabling environment for the Lebanese SMEs are briefly presented based on the observations noted throughout this preliminary research.
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    Bond Immunization: Beyond the Theory
    (2005) Missakian, Hagop Antranik
    Several authors in financial investments have investigated the validity of immunization in theory and in applied work. These authors assume different immunized portfolios, apply a few changes in interest rates, and evaluate the process by examining the results. In this study, we examine different portfolios and define the scope of bond diversification and the selection process of the bonds in order to have more immunized outcomes. Actually, we find that forming immunized portfolios from composites of only two bonds simplifies the selection process and serves in maximizing the overall return of the investment. We also rely on different websites to gather information on various bonds currently trading in the market. Furthermore, we form a number of immunized portfolios using different pairs of these bonds. Because the path of interest rates is unknown, we simulate every possible path that interest rates may have for a five years time horizon by using a program in Microsoft Excel, which also calculates the end results of each portfolio in relation to each path of interest rates. Because the range of the outcomes is quite large, we use different statistical summaries and tests in order to evaluate the overall outcome of the portfolios and eventually to validate the theory of immunization. We use histograms to plot the outcomes of each portfolio and realize that not all portfolios' outcomes have normal distributions as their corresponding data are scattered away from the mean thus increasing the risk of not being able to meet the obligation. The analysis shows that although all the selected portfolios have means greater than the desired outcome, these portfolios do not have similar risks nor do they have the same probabilities in scoring satisfactory results and we find a relation between the risk and the realized yield of the portfolios. We conclude by saying that immunization is workable and our analysis provides enough proof to be able to validate this theory especially that we do not use rebalancing in our study, which is one of the problems of the theory, yet we still have positive results.
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    Consumer Motivation When Shopping at Malls: Case of Lebanese Consumer
    (2010) El Chafei, Oussama
    The study is about consumer motives when shopping at malls. It presents a brief summary of what researchers, psychologists and academicians have done regarding classifying shoppers in general and mall shoppers in particular according to their behavior, motives and satisfactions. The study summarizes the evolution of the marketing concepts, motivation theories, emergence of malls and goes into differentiating mall shoppers' experience and motives into hedonic motives and utilitarian motives. Using already established and tested items for hedonism and for utilitarianism, the study test these items on 770 active shoppers in City Mall, Beirut, Lebanon. The study presents the effect of demographic factors on the motives of mall shopping. It studies the effect of mall visits and mall spending on these motives. The study presents active shoppers' appraisal of specific areas at City Mall and calls for improvement. This study is very important to mall administrators and mall developers as it reflects the profile of active shoppers with their spending patterns and their number of small visits.
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    Consumers' Intention to Adopt HCE in Lebanon
    (2017) Mokhtarian, Mireille
    The increased uptake in advanced mobile devices coupled with improved infrastructure has led to a global trend in mobile computing, and has redefined a lot of societal aspects and the interactions involved therein. In particular, the rise of smartphones to ubiquity has initiated nothing short of revolutionary ideas regarding the future of mobile payments and the marketplace. Mobile banking is essentially an application of mobile computing which greatly reduces spatial and temporal limitations on banking activities, and provides for more rapid and convenient interaction with the banking platform at hand. Various technologies have been used to enhance the mobile banking experience, such as Short Message Service, Quick Response code, Bluetooth, and Near Field Communication, to varying degrees of success. The most recent wireless banking technology that has refined its predecessors, and is the topic of this paper, is termed Host Card Emulation. The latter provides many silent advantages relative to technologies it aims to supersede whilst at the same time enhancing the user experience as well as benefiting financial institutions that realize its implementation. In effect, this research aims to analyse and collect data regarding the prioritization of factors that influence the successful adoption of the innovative payment technology, Host Card Emulation. This will in turn be used to answer the question: What are the determinants of consumers’ adoption of Host Card Emulation in Lebanon? Collected data from approximately 200 respondents has been critically assessed to suggest the best practices to the banking industry in order to achieve the widespread adoption of Host Card Emulation. This is particularly important since Host Card Emulation technology is already implemented by default in recent smartphones which are already ubiquitous, and its adoption in turn provides banks with a massive market that remains untapped. The importance of its adoption cannot be overstated, because it provides a unified approach to mobile payment. Host Card Emulation does away with the incoherence and overhead of simultaneously supporting various platform-dependent methods of payment such as ApplePay, SumsungPay, and Google Wallet for both banks and businesses, which is the case of the older Near Field Communication technology. The present study outlines a number of factors to be probed in their capacity to predict and explain consumer behaviour in regards to novel technologies. To this end, two paradigm standards were used as a basis for the theoretical model of the paper; the Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Diffusion of Innovation. The findings showed that only three of the six factors used were significant; relative advantage, ease of use, and personal innovativeness. The paper elaborates on a number of managerial and theoretical implications in the context of the aforementioned findings.
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    Corporate Social Responsibility in Lebanon
    (2008) Sagherian, Hera Hrayr
    The popularity and importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasing in recent years. In fact, being active in CSR is becoming a competitive advantage for many international companies. Furthermore, in order to survive and compete in a global market, companies need to engage in CSR activities, because CSR is becoming a criterion for investment opportunities and expansion plans. The purpose of this study is to provide insight into how well Lebanese companies and industries, understand and implement CSR. Focusing on the concepts and theories presented in literature, a qualitative research method including the design and administration of a questionnaire has been used. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed qualitatively to explore the situation of CSR in few companies of different industries in Lebanon. As a result of the conducted analysis, hypotheses were posed that will help further research uncover the constituents of CSR in Lebanon and its effect on Lebanese companies.
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    Customer Satisfaction in Financial Institutions
    (2005) Sarkissian, Nayiri K.
    In this paper, we study the service quality factors of customer satisfaction in financial institutions. We discuss the results using the stepwise discriminant analysis based on data collected from customers of a leading bank in Lebanon. The approach enables us to assess a coefficient of ten service quality factors related to customer satisfaction, which are as follows: 1- Employees Cooperation (Responsiveness) 2- Working Environment (Tangible) 3- Dressing code (Tangible) 4- Employees good and professional behavior (Courtesy) 5- Employees speed in performance (Competence) 6- Employees knowledge of the products (Competence) 7- News update to customers (Competence) 8- Employees motivation (Competence) 9- Waiting line system (Tangible) 10- Communication over the telephone (Courtesy) We find the factors have the highest loadings, which are employees' knowledge, employees' cooperation, waiting in line system and telecommunication with the branch. In order to facilitate managerial action, we discuss how specific service quality factors should be interpreted to enable us to enhance customer satisfaction. This approach and findings have significant implications for managing customer satisfaction in the financial industry.
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    Employee Motivation and Its Impact on Employee Performance: Empirical Study Conducted in Two Lebanese Companies
    (2008) Akahian, Christine Kevork
    In today's fast paced and competitive workplace environment, motivating employees for better job performance is very crucial for not only the organization's success but also its survival. Motivation in the workplace is one of the greatest challenges for managers. High levels of motivations are directly connected to high employee performance. A lack of motivation in the workplace is a major issue for managers and unfortunately many business managers today are not aware of the effects that motivation can and does have on their business. The purpose of this study is to understand the importance and effects of motivation on employee performance by identifying the most important motivational factors. This was done by studying two companies one of which is considered to well apply the various motivational techniques while the other one applies them in a lesser degree. The methodology used to obtain the information and data needed was through two sets of questionnaires distributed to employees and managers in both companies. The results were analyzed using various statistical techniques such as descriptive analysis, comparative analysis, hypothesis testing, and correlation and regression analysis. As a result of the conducted analysis, in both companies, we were able to see how using motivational techniques affected positively on employee performance, and how using it less frequently or not at all had a negative impact.
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    Evaluating the Services of a Primary Health Care Center Case Study: Howard Karagheusian Commemorative Corporation - Beirut, Lebanon
    (2007) Ohanian, Serop Haroutioun
    Primary Health Care Centers aim at responding to people's health needs and demands and at safeguarding, promoting and restoring health. However, health is not an aim per se, but a condition for human development and well-being. The underlying study seeks to evaluate the services of one of the active Primary Health Care Centers (PHC) in Lebanon, the Howard Karagheusian, Commemorative (HKCC). In this attempt, this project defines the role of a Primary Health Care (PHC) in comparison with an Emergency Medical Assistance (EMA), hence summarizes the characteristics of both centers and to focus on the particular services of HKCC as a PHC. After arriving at an appropriate definition of PHC and EMA, the study highlights the impact of HKCC as a PHC in Bourj Hammoud. For this purpose, a set of questions was distributed to the visitors and staff members of HKCC to explore the level of the respondents' satisfaction and their corresponding suggestions. Descriptive hypothesis statements revolving around the characteristics of a PHC comparing it to the characteristics of HKCC were developed. Two hundred and nine visitors and twenty two staff members at HKCC during the month of March 2007 have responded to this survey. The research examines the possibility of a relationship between the frequency of the visits of the clients on the one hand and the level satisfaction of the clients with the services of HKCC on the other hand. At the end, recommendations were given to HKCC management and board of directors to improve the services of HKCC based on the observations noted throughout this preliminary exploratory research.
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    Factors Affecting Organizational Performance in For-profit and Not-for-profit Organizations in Lebanon
    (2012) Yoghourdjian, Houry Artine
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting organizational performance in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in Lebanon, and to find out whether those factors are different in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. An empirical study was performed, using survey research. The data was collected through a questionnaire conducted on 110 organizations in Lebanon, and the questionnaire was developed based on extensive literature review. The results of the study indicated that appropriate organizational culture, proper decision-making, putting employees first, group and team performance management, talent and performance management, evaluation and feedback system, leadership, and organization design and structure are positively related to organizational performance. The result also concluded that these 8 factors identified as affecting organizational performance are not different in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.
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    Factors of Healthcare Quality That Affect Patient Satisfaction in Lebanese Hospitals
    (2016) Abou Melhem, Maya Sami
    The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of quality of healthcare offered in Lebanese hospitals on Lebanese patients of different educational level, age, monthly income, family status… Moreover, this study aimed to show whether there is a difference in satisfaction between accredited and non-accredited Lebanese Hospitals. An empirical study was performed using a survey questionnaire which was distributed to 1000 Lebanese patients. 226 patients responded to the questionnaire, 91 from accredited hospitals and 110 from non-accredited ones. Descriptive statistics were conducted followed by a reliability test, Factor Analysis, Multiple Regression with Stepwise method, Independent T-Test and One way ANOVA. Empirical evidence from this study shows that there were quality health factors that positively correlated with level of satisfaction of patients with the care in the hospital. Nevertheless, patients of accredited hospitals were more satisfied than patients of non-accredited hospitals. On the contrary, there was not enough evidence to prove that socio demographic characteristics affect level of satisfaction. The study recommends to managers of hospitals to greatly empathize on factors that affect satisfaction and work on improving them so that better satisfaction levels will be achieved by patients.
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    Factors of Success for a Sample of Lebanese Entrepreneurs
    (2010) Barbour, Dany Charbel
    Entrepreneurship in Lebanon is gaining more importance. Its role is becoming crucial in the development of the Lebanese community. Entrepreneurial activity is becoming a vital one to any country in terms of creating jobs, invigorating markets, and generating innovation. Generally to become an entrepreneur, an individual must follow a certain path called "entrepreneurial process." To become a successful entrepreneur, there are certain factors of success an individual should possess. I will be studying whether the successful Lebanese entrepreneurs possess these factors of success that are revealed in literature related to entrepreneurship. The methodology used to study my research question was through the analysis of data obtained by administering a questionnaire that pertained to the major factors of entrepreneurship. The sample of my study was 71 entrepreneurs, all clients of a major international bank in Lebanon. The data was analyzed using statistical techniques such as cross-tabulations, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, correlation & regression. Our results indicate that Lebanese successful entrepreneurs are similar in many ways to successful entrepreneurs described in literature but that they also show so many idiosyncrasies.
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    Factors that have an Impact on University/Major Entry Decision-making Satisfaction of High School Students in Lebanon
    (2016) Hariz, Farah Suhail
    The main purpose of this study was to examine the factors that affect the decision-making processes of high school students with regards to choosing their major and university and make them satisfied with their choices. The instrument used in this study is a survey questionnaire composed of 23 questions developed by the researcher based on related literature. The students to which the questionnaires were distributed were selected from both public and private universities all over Lebanon. The sample size was around 400 responses. Descriptive Statistics were conducted followed by Reliability Test, Factor Analysis, Multiple Regression Analysis with Step-wise method, Independent samples T-Test, and One-Way ANOVA. Empirical evidence from this study showed that a number of independent variables have a statistically significant relationships with the satisfaction with the choice of major and a number of independent variables had statistically significant relationships with the satisfaction with the choice of university. The study recommends better information provision by schools, universities, families, the communities at large (i.e. the Education Ministry, NGOs) Schools should play an important role in involving and introducing students and their parents to various university cultures through open doors, workshops, orientation sessions, and campus visits. Moreover, the study recommends that parents should provide their children the needed information regarding finding solutions to their financial problems, and should be oriented to know how important it is to be emotionally supportive to their children. Furthermore, students should be guided by their schools and parents about their future career options, aware of and informed about the career development related to each major, and should be guided not to choose their majors based on salary expectations, but to do majors that they love. Finally, it is very important for universities to guide students by providing needed information about registration, majors, accreditation status, faculty, admissions, financial aid and scholarships through their websites and social media.
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    Factors that Impact Employee Acceptance of Overtime
    (2017) Estepan, Manuel Estepan
    Overtime refers to the time worked beyond normally scheduled working hours. It is an important part of people’s working experience and daily life, affecting them in various areas such as health, productivity, work-life balance and finances. The aim of this study has been to understand all the ramifications and challenges that overtime work produces as studied by researchers, and compare it to the Lebanese experience. The sample under study was collected, through a survey questionnaire, from 207 employees working in different Lebanese industries, i.e., health care, banking, manufacturing, hospitality, security, education, administrative, technology and sales. The survey questionnaire explored the different types of overtime work done, i.e., voluntary, involuntary or a combination of both and whether the employees accepted to work overtime. It was hypothesized that certain factors, the “independent variables”, will have an impact on the employee’s acceptance of overtime work, the “dependent variable”. The independent variables have been found to be: 1.having a purpose for doing overtime work, i.e., show commitment, strengthen job opportunities, supplement income, avoid social problems (such as pressures from managers and peers), and accommodate the workplace. 2. Being impacted by overtime on personal level, i.e., in mental health, physical health and in work-life balance. 3. Being impacted by overtime on work level, i.e., quality of work and productivity in work. Also, were studied the impact on overtime acceptance by number of overtime work hours in a month and shift of overtime work; and a few socio-demographic factors, such as gender, age, education, marital status were included together with type of work, and position in work of the employee. Data collected were analyzed using statistical techniques, such as Regression analysis, ANOVA, T-Test, and Factor Analysis. The results of the analysis showed the following findings: 1.among the purposes to work overtime, strengthening job opportunities and supplementing income related positively with acceptance of overtime, and avoiding social problems, although related to acceptance of overtime, but the relationship is negative here. 2. There is a negative relationship between impact of overtime work on personal level and acceptance of overtime. 3. Quality of work related positively with acceptance of overtime, whereas productivity related negatively. 4. Gender related significantly to overtime work: males were accepting more. 5. Age, education, type of work, job position, number of hours worked in a month, the shift of overtime work had no significant relationship with acceptance of overtime work. 6. Marital status had a significant relationship: the singles were accepting overtime work more than married employees. 7. There was no significant relationship between the voluntary unrewarded and the involuntary rewarded with acceptance of overtime, whereas the relationship between the voluntary rewarded and the involuntary unrewarded with acceptance of overtime was significant. As a limitation of this study we can mention that in-depth interviews with a significant number of employees as well as managers could have strengthened the explanatory power of the results. However, we can also mention that this study contributed to the understanding of this important topic, particularly in the Lebanese setting where we did not find thoroughly studied research work.
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    Factors that Influence Information Communication Technology Usage by Private University Instructors in Lebanon
    (2015) Estepan, Shant Estepan
    This study aimed at developing a comprehensive and thorough understanding of the factors that drive more frequent use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) by higher education instructors. We used a model where attributes of ICT operationalized as speedy and updated equipment, accessibility, ease of use and basic training provided, and organizational/social factors which we called Continuous Quality Management (CQM) and operationalized as leadership involvement, ICT continuous needs assessment/provision of solutions, ICT continuous upgrading activities, ICT continuous trainings and ICT continuous awareness campaigns were integrated. We proceeded in doing two studies. In the study 1 we showed the positive influence of ICT key attributes and CQM attributes on the instructors’ Perceived Usefulness (PU) of ICT operationalized as Productivity and Effectiveness, and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) of ICT operationalized as Easy Operation of ICT and Easiness of What Wanted to be done. In study 2 we showed the positive relationship between increased PU and PEOU of the instructors and the actual more frequent usage of ICT tools (Software, Hardware, Communication tools and Information Management and Gathering Technologies) We administered a survey research questionnaire to a sample of private university full time instructors from seven of the League of Lebanese Universities (LLU).
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    Factors that Influence Online Shopping Intentions of Lebanese Consumers from a Trust and Technology Perspective
    (2012) Sahaguian, Harout Atam
    There are many factors that influence online shopping intentions of Lebanese consumers. The factors were tested from a trust and technology perspective. Perceived familiarity with the E-vendor, perceived trustworthiness and reputation of the E-vendor, perceived privacy and security protection were identified as trust factors that influence positively the intentions to shop online of Lebanese consumers. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the website were identified as technology factors that influence positively the intentions to shop online of Lebanese consumers. An empirical study was conducted in which the contributions of both perspectives were explored and reported. The survey was conducted with 240 Lebanese potential online shoppers. This study provided empirical evidence that the Lebanese consumers' trust in internet shopping is the result of specific factors. The 1st relates to the vendor's familiarity, the second to the vendor's reputation and trustworthiness and the third to the security and privacy provided by the website of the E-vendor. Also, the Lebanese consumers' acceptance of technology factors of online shopping is the result of the Ease of use of the website and its usefulness.
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    Foreign Exchange Reserves and the Macro-economy in GCC Countries
    (2017) Abou Khodor, Wael
    This research looks into foreign exchange reserves accumulation and macro-economic growth in GCC countries, namely Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Using yearly covering the period from 1996 through 2015, the empirical results show positive relationships between foreign exchange reserves accumulation on one hand, and oil prices, GDP, current account to GDP, and broad money to GDP on the other hand. Moreover, the results point to negative relationships between foreign exchange reserves accumulation on one hand, and real effective exchange rate, debt to GDP, and call money rate on the other hand. However, the results show that the stockpile of foreign exchange reserves in GCC countries is less sensitive to nominal effective exchange rate, imports to GDP, and interest rates on US Dollar. Furthermore, and most importantly, the study shows that both foreign exchange reserves and oil prices appear to spur economic growth in these countries by raising GDP and GDP per capita.
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    Gold Price Determinants: An Empirical Study
    (2005) Sajian, Toros
    This paper demonstrates an empirical link between gold price, consumer price index, Euro exchange rate, the Brent oil price and the Dow Johns industrial average. The research shows that there is a relationship between the gold price and each of the other variables, each one alone and all together. In the first part, simple regression models are used to find out the relationship between the gold and the other variables. ln the last part of the paper, we do a multiple regression model by taking all the dependent variables together to find their relationship with the gold price, using concurrent economic data from 1997 to 2005.