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This paper explores how AI drives GCC sector retail towards the fulfillment of the UN SDGs. Analyzing a survey conducted on 410 retail executives, using PLS-SEM, this study underlines the role of AI in promoting operational efficiency, waste reduction, and consumer engagement with greener products. Key highlights include that AI-enabled marketing strategies improve the adoption of sustainable practices among consumers; AI-powered smart distribution channels enhance supply chain efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and optimize logistics. For a retailer, practical applications of AI include the use of AI in demand forecasting to potentially reduce waste, personalized marketing to efficiently promote sustainable products, and deploying smart systems that reduce energy consumption. While these benefits are real, data privacy and algorithmic bias remain valid concerns, thus underlining the need for ethics and transparency in the practice of AI. The following study provides actionable insights for GCC retailers on how to align AI adoption with sustainability goals, fostering competitive advantages and environmental responsibility.

Many price indices must be constructed without quantity data at the elementary level. The paper shows that for some consumer goods in the United States and other countries, one can approximate expenditure shares using weights derived from the retail distribution of sellers. These weights are based on the share of outlets selling an item, or the share of outlets adjusted by the total number of items sold in each. Relative to using no weights, the paper finds that using such imputed weights substantially reduces bias in the frequency of price changes, in annual inflation, and in price comparisons across countries.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between board structure (consisting of board size, board composition, CEO role duality and chairman composition), investment account holders (IAHs) and social contribution and the bank performance in one of the fastest-growing industries, Islamic banking. Design/methodology/approach – A generalized least square (GLS) regression model was used to investigate such relationship applying data from a sample of 40 Islamic banks operating in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries over the period of 2008 until 2011. Findings – The results show that both size and composition of the board have a negative effect on bank performance. On the other hand, the separation of CEO and chairman roles and the IAHs have no effect, while the chairman independence has a positive impact. As for the control variables, bank size positively influences bank performance whereas leverage has a negative effect. Zakah and gross domestic product produce no significant effect on bank performance. Research limitations/implications – Even though the model has explained the significant part of the variation in performance, there are other factors considered as noise in the model which are unexplained due to the lack of data. As such, other mechanisms of corporate governance (CG) comprising attributes of the remuneration and nominating committees and ownership structure may be used in future research. The sample size is also limited; thus, in future research, the sample size could be increased by including Islamic banks operating in all Middle East countries. Practical implications – The results suggest that to yield a better bank performance, Islamic banks should enhance the effectiveness of CG through the board of directors (BODs), whereby any decisions made by the BODs would lead to greater investors’ confidence in the market. The results suggest that policymakers should impose new mechanisms that could impact the effectiveness and compliance of BODs on the code of CG and guidelines of micro-finance, in general, and among Islamic banks, in particular. The community also has the right to know up to what extent are the Islamic banks are in compliance with Shariah principles and rules and the impact of their transactions on the society’s welfare. Originality/value – BODs’ failures are the primary reason for the recent financial collapses, and Islamic banks are not spared from these events. Even though many studies have examined the influence of BODs effectiveness on the performance of conventional banking industry over time, studies on the Islamic financial institutions are quite scarce. In addition, the results obtained by the studies on conventional banks may not be applicable to Islamic banks. This is because the BODs of Islamic banks discharge their responsibilities and duties along with the existence of the Shariah supervisory board (a multi-layer structure), which is quite different from the CG structure in conventional banks that is dependent on the BODs (a single-layer). Therefore, this research attempts to fill the gap in the literature by addressing this issue in the Islamic banking industry by using a stakeholder theory based on Islamic perspective which has not been used yet in previous studies.

This paper contributes to the existing empirics of finance-growth nexus of all GCC countries with new results based on a larger dataset and longer time period 1975–2012, incorporating additional control variables, FDI, interaction term of FDI & financial development variables, and oil production. We employed four estimation techniques, Pooled OLS, Fixed effect estimation, Random effect estimation, and the system GMM estimation and used static and dynamic panel data. We obtain a robust finding of consistently a positive effect of financial sector development (FSD) on economic growth of GCC region with implication that a substantial improvement in FSD was in place. The results indicate that FDI, Fixed capital formation and oil production contribute positively to the economic growth of this region. The study results signify for a continuity of the on-going financial reform process, supervision & monitoring exercises to bring hitherto more dividends to the GCC economies.

A concise review is presented of the essential elements of the book publishing and bookselling business in a complex and diverse market. Demographics create the diversity while Arabic is the one language spoken across a multitude of different countries. Three features are common to all of these countries and they are: the dominance of English as the second language, education has and will remain to be a priority, and economic pressures cause price sensitivity to be a major challenge especially in the educational market segments. It is the price sensitivity as a key factor for the lack of respect for intellectual property and copyright regulations. A review of distribution and retail stores is a very important topic in relation to this complex collection of countries. The emergence of e-books is discussed especially in the educational, professional and reference market segments. Finally, there is a review of the Arabic language publishers and local book fairs to bring this article to closure.