IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buetqu/v23y2013i01p69-96_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nepotism in the Arab World: An Institutional Theory Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Sidani, Yusuf M.
  • Thornberry, Jon

Abstract

We examine the practice of nepotism in the Arab World and analyze how a rational-legal model of bureaucracy was never able to take hold. We draw upon ideas from institutional theory and related notions of legitimacy to provide an explanation of nepotism’s extraordinary persistence. Then we use arguments to speculate how the appearance of institutional entrepreneurs who are advocates for a new hybrid form of nepotism might begin to colonize a social space created by larger political and economic changes that are sweeping the Arab World. Those entrepreneurs must persuade other members of an extended family that the current practice of nepotism is typically destructive of a firm’s competitive performance. In addition, they will argue that nepotism as currently practiced violates teachings of Islam. This second argument is likely to be particularly effective with an audience that sees Islam as a source of universal notions of justice and fairness.

Suggested Citation

  • Sidani, Yusuf M. & Thornberry, Jon, 2013. "Nepotism in the Arab World: An Institutional Theory Perspective," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 69-96, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:23:y:2013:i:01:p:69-96_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1052150X00005376/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Silviya Dimitrova, 2017. "Ethical Issues in Multinational Companies' Business," Izvestia Journal of the Union of Scientists - Varna. Economic Sciences Series, Union of Scientists - Varna, Economic Sciences Section, issue 1, pages 224-236, November.
    2. Hearn, Bruce & Filatotchev, Igor, 2019. "Founder retention as CEO at IPO in emerging economies: The role of private equity owners and national institutions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 418-438.
    3. Naeem A. Albihany & Abdullah M. Aljarodi, 2024. "The role of personal connections Wasta on early-stage entrepreneurial orientations: empirical evidence from Saudi Arabia," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Elbanna, Said & Abdelzaher, Dina M. & Ramadan, Nora, 2020. "Management research in the Arab World: What is now and what is next?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(2).
    5. Hearn, Bruce & Strange, Roger & Piesse, Jenifer, 2017. "Social elites on the board and executive pay in developing countries: Evidence from Africa," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 230-243.
    6. Ayman Issa & Mohammad A. A. Zaid & Jalal Rajeh Hanaysha, 2022. "Exploring the relationship between female director's profile and sustainability performance: Evidence from the Middle East," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 1980-2002, September.
    7. Jamali, Dima & Jain, Tanusree & Samara, Georges & Zoghbi, Edwina, 2020. "How institutions affect CSR practices in the Middle East and North Africa: A critical review," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    8. Dowling, Michael & Vanwalleghem, Dieter, 2018. "Gulf Cooperation Council cross-border M&A: Institutional determinants of target nation selection," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 471-489.
    9. Sarah Hudson & Helena V González-Gómez & Cyrlene Claasen, 2019. "Legitimacy, Particularism and Employee Commitment and Justice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 589-603, July.
    10. Dina M. Abdelzaher & Amir Abdelzaher, 2017. "Beyond Environmental Regulations: Exploring the Potential of “Eco-Islam” in Boosting Environmental Ethics Within SMEs in Arab Markets," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 357-371, October.
    11. Grzegorz Ignatowski & Łukasz Sułkowski & Bartłomiej Stopczyński, 2021. "Risk of Increased Acceptance for Organizational Nepotism and Cronyism during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-35, March.
    12. Sarah Hudson & Helena V. González-Gómez & Cyrlene Claasen, 2022. "Societal Inequality, Corruption and Relation-Based Inequality in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(3), pages 789-809, December.
    13. Guillermo Wated & Juan Sanchez, 2015. "Managerial Tolerance of Nepotism: The Effects of Individualism–Collectivism in a Latin American Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 45-57, August.
    14. Sidani, Yusuf & Al Ariss, Akram, 2014. "Institutional and corporate drivers of global talent management: Evidence from the Arab Gulf region," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 215-224.
    15. Hearn, Bruce & Oxelheim, Lars & Randøy, Trond, 2016. "The Role of Institutions in the Migration of Corporate Governance Practice into Emerging Economies – The Case of Africa," Working Paper Series 1122, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    16. Samara, Georges, 2021. "Family businesses in the Arab Middle East: What do we know and where should we go?," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3).
    17. Berger, Ron & Silbiger, Avi & Herstein, Ram & Barnes, Bradley R., 2015. "Analyzing business-to-business relationships in an Arab context," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 454-464.
    18. Alisa Sydow & Benedetto Lorenzo Cannatelli & Alessandro Giudici & Mario Molteni, 2022. "Entrepreneurial Workaround Practices in Severe Institutional Voids: Evidence From Kenya," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(2), pages 331-367, March.
    19. Shahzad Virk, Nader & Nawaz, Tasawar & Molyneux, Philip, 2022. "A canary in a Coalmine! religious agency and its impact on the performance of Islamic banks," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:23:y:2013:i:01:p:69-96_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/beq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.