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Business ethics, sustainability and economic development.

This case is suitable for both advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The case presents a pioneering initiative run by the Egyptian General Authority for Investment (GAFI) to mitigate the implications of the 25th of January revolution on SMEs. The case describes the “Business Clinic” program that was designed to provide SMEs with world class consultancy services through the CSR programs of large local and multinational consultancy firms.

The case should help students in: defining corporate social responsibility and describing its importance; describing the role of SMEs in economic development; identifying the different growth obstacles that face SMEs; relating theories in different managerial fields that could be linked to CSR and development; investigating the Arab Spring and describing its repercussions on economic development and sustainability; and illustrating CSR role in solving SME problems.

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International business, international marketing.

Senior students majoring in international business and/or marketing.

Internationalization processes for organizations represents a hard turmoil that some excel in and a few enjoy its benefits. Cilantro Café represents a landmark in the Egyptian economy for its success in turning from a local coffee shop house chain to a global one in less than a decade from its earlier inception. Such success relied heavily on their internationalization strategy as well as their marketing communications. The main learning objective in this case is presenting Cilantro's path for internationalization as a model for local organizations striving to go global.

Identifying the internationalization process, explaining a success story in moving from local to global business operations, and highlighting the post 25th of January cultural implications in Egypt.

Teaching note.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication. This paper specifically aims at introspecting into CSR communication patterns in the Egyptian context, where the top ten companies in the Egyptian Stock Exchange–Environmental, Social and Governance Index (EGX-ESG) are sampled.

The paper presents an exploratory study where content analysis of the communications of the ten top-listed companies in the ESG Index in Egypt was analyzed.

The results showed that most companies are using the “stakeholder information” strategy, with the “stakeholder involvement” strategy being the least used.

The results are limited to the use of the content analysis method which is a qualitative methodology. Hence, the results should be generalized with caution.

CSR communication is crucial to the success of companies, regardless of business size, industry or culture. Several aspects of CSR communication, to this day, remain vague for academics and practitioners alike. Therefore, additional insights about the topic should be generated. The present work aids in the understanding of CSR communication as a facet of organizational change and a new trend in emerging markets.

The current exploratory study sheds light on the topic of CSR communication in an important emerging market in transition, namely Egypt. The results of the communication strategies utilized by the top-listed companies can be generalized to other similar contexts.

The majority of the studies conducted on this particular topic took place in the USA and Europe; hence, few insights are provided about the concept in emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to review the corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept in Egypt via six sub-purposes which are the operational definition, activities, corporations’ strategic direction, budgeting and drivers for and obstacles against CSR alongside the implications of the January 25th 2011’s revolution on the concept.

This research is a perception study adopting a mixed methodology. A sample of 20 corporate managers undertaking CSR activities had been interviewed. Results are analyzed using content analysis and non-parametric z-tests.

The research identified the prevalent hands-on definitions of CSR which highlight an identification problem, as well as the leading two activities undertaken that are highly linked to the lack of a corporate strategic direction. Also, it showed that budgeting was a vague undisclosed aspect and further highlighted the drivers for and obstacles against CSR before and in transition post January 25th 2011, revolution.

This overview serves as a building block for practitioners to identify the CSR build-up in Egypt, to guide further current or future endeavors undertaken.

This paper provides a genuine contextualized review of CSR in Egypt that had been a reported gap in literature by identifying its operational definition, activities, budgeting, corporations’ strategic direction and drivers for and obstacles against the concept in light of the timeline pre and in-transition post the January 25th 2011 revolution.

The purpose of the study is to explore novel antecedents to workplace envy. The authors explore the role of workplace ostracism (WO) as a contextual antecedent in triggering envy, as well as the mediating effects of metacognitive resources (MR) and dimensions of social perception (DSP) as cognitive antecedents. The authors integrate affective events theory, social comparison theory and schema theory to develop their arguments.

Using the survey approach, the authors recruited 490 professionals employed in Egypt and validated the proposed model and hypotheses in structural equation modelling (SEM).

The results show a significant relationship between WO and workplace envy. Additionally, metacognitive experiences (MEs) and warmth mediate the relationship among them.

By addressing how WO is a predictor of envy, this study is among the few to consider social-related events as predictors of envy. Additionally, the study is one of the first that has extended affective events theory to explore the role of an individual's cognition in generating envy.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (2017, pp. 14–15) identified that “industrialization is the seedbed for entrepreneurship, business investment, technological progress, the upgrading of skills, and the creation of decent jobs.” This placed studying different industrial sectors and their respective clusters, which are key drivers for economy, innovation, and knowledge creation (Slaper, Harmon, & Rubin, 2018), at the forefront of research. This chapter tackles the automobile industrial cluster in Egypt that possesses promising potential yet faces some challenges. It aims to provide an overview of the cluster, alongside underpinning its strengths and obstacles facing it. Moreover, the chapter displays the importance of the labor dimension in increasing the labor competitiveness of the cluster and showcases this through two cases of German automobile manufacturers that pioneered in venturing into the market through employing technical and vocational education and training. In conclusion, recommendations are provided to help in steering the cluster toward success.

This paper aims to look into Islamic CSR, a literature domain that is rarely researched. The article has three goals. First, it provides an overview of the varying conceptualizations and paradigms underpinning CSR. Second, it presents an analogy relating commonalities and deviations between Islam and some of the basic international CSR paradigms. Third, it proposes a novel model of Islamic CSR based on the Islamic legislation (shar'iah) and applies it to an MNC with explicit application of Islamic CSR.

A case study of an explicitly Islamic‐abiding corporation has been investigated to test for the applicability of the proposal model. Semi‐structured interviews have been employed with both the CSR and the HR Heads in Egypt. In addition, various corporate communications have been also utilized in this study.

The research reflects upon international paradigms of CSR versus the Islamic one, highlighting its origins and providing an analogy among both perspectives. Also, a new model is developed and further put into action by the case study employed. Further research is needed to assess further the generalizability of the proposed model, especially with companies operating in Muslim‐majority countries and, hence, with potential implicit application of Islamic CSR.

Generalization of the model cannot be generated at this stage of the model development. Further large‐scale empirical research is needed for further development of the proposed model.

This research would prove useful for corporations operating in Muslim‐majority countries as well as for managers of companies interested in understanding the Islamic perspective on important contemporary world issues like CSR.

This article put forth a comprehensive Islamic CSR model based on the shari'ah while presenting the commonalities and differences between basic international CSR paradigms and the Islamic perspective on CSR.

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the recruitment conditions of multinational companies (MNCs) in Egypt, along with problems and de‐recruitment activities such MNCs face.

Surveys in the form of questionnaires were used and data from 55 MNCs operating in Egypt were acquired to investigate the recruitment function's processes and problems MNCs faced along with de‐recruitment practices MNCs undertake.

Results indicated that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) showed higher adoption rate of the recruitment process than large enterprises (LEs). In addition, results indicated that the recruitment function is perceived to be run jointly by human resource management (HRM) and line management, giving an upper hand to HRM. In general, two sets of problems facing recruitment were revealed; candidate‐ and organization‐related problems, where the former had been more frequently reported by SMEs rather than LEs. Finally, the findings illustrated the actual de‐recruitment practices undertaken by MNCs operating in Egypt. SMEs adopted less aggressive de‐recruitment activities than LEs, where mainly recruitment freezing and early retirement are mostly used.

This paper highlights three under‐researched areas by studying the organizational size dimension of recruitment and identifying the pattern of de‐recruitment activities employed by MNCs of different sizes, and also identifying recruitment problems facing MNCs in Egypt. Such findings could help organizations either planning to start up or in enhancing their operations in the Egyptian market. As well, these findings provide insight to recruits about the recruitment stages and problems they might encounter.