In the Gulf States, there has been increased emphasis on requiring MNEs to indigenize their staffing. Based on a survey of 157 HR directors in MNEs headquartered in Saudi Arabia, this article explores why so little headway has been made through applying and extending Resource Curse Theory. Surprisingly, we found formal ties with government had little effect; Resource Curse Theory would suggest this would be due to the concentration of regulatory scrutiny and support on the oil and gas industry, where, indeed, indigenization was most pronounced Again, although they may compensate for regulatory shortfalls, we found intra firm ties made little difference in advancing indigenization. Again, Resource Curse Theory would suggest that nonminerals sectors suffer a drain in capital and human resources, which would make indigenization more challenging. Resource Curse Theory assumes that mineral endowments negatively impact on macroeconomic and societal outcomes, but only accords limited attention to how these pressures are transmitted via organizations. Through providing organizational level evidence, we both further illuminate Resource Curse effects in practice, and contribute to extending the base and scope of application of the theory. We draw out the implications for practice.

The school of Business and Technology, university of gloucestershire, oxstalls campus, gloucester, uK; b leadership & organizational agility Department, college of Business and economics, united arab emirates university, al ain, uae; c Institute of Public administration (IPa), riyadh, saudi arabia; d Dubai Business school, university of Dubai, Dubai, uae; e henley Business school, university of reading, reading, uK

Owing to rising unemployment among Saudi nationals, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has instituted Saudization, a localization policy that strives to induce the employment of more Saudi nationals in the private sector. A major gap in the literature is the lack of empirical investigation regarding the relationships between indigenization and the underlying principles of its process. This study seeks to fill this gap. The study assesses the success or otherwise of the Saudization initiative empirically and uncovers several features. It finds that TNCs that experience the external pressures to "localize" their workforce, and those that wish to enhance their social legitimacy, are more likely to comply with Saudization. Furthermore, TNCs do not believe that the process of localization provides them with economic gains. Legal coercion to adhere to the Saudization initiative turns out to be a highly significant instrument in making TNCs adhere to the localization process. The study also finds that neither age nor the size of the firm have an impact on the Saudization programme. Implications for theory and practice are drawn out.

Objective The current literature suggests that more intensive blood pressure (BP) treatment is clinically more effective than less intensive treatment in patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this analysis, we evaluated the potential clinical benefit and cost-effectiveness of more intensive BP treatment in patients at high risk of developing CVD over their lifetimes. Methods A Markov state-transition model was developed for the BP strategies to estimate the lifetime incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) per quality-adjusted-life-year (QALY) using evidence published from a meta-analysis. The other model inputs were retrieved from previous studies. Estimated costs were collected from five hospitals in Riyadh. The model used a lifetime framework adopting Saudi payer perspective and applied a 3% annual discount rate. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA) to evaluate the robustness and uncertainty of the estimates. Results Treating 10,000 patients with high CVD risk with more intensive BP therapy would avert a total of 873 CV events over their remaining lifetimes as compared with a less intensive strategy. The projections showed that more intensive BP therapy would be cost-effective compared to the less intensive strategy with incremental costs per QALY of $20,358. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis suggested more intensive control would be cost-effective compared with the less intensive control of BP 87.25 % of the time. Conclusion The result of this study showed that more intensive BP treatment appears to be a cost-effective choice for patients with a high risk of CVD in Saudi Arabia when compared with a less intensive BP strategy. Thus, this finding provides strong evidence for the adoption of this strategy within the Saudi healthcare system.

The present work develops design guidelines for a photovoltaic power plant to shave peak electricity demand in an arid climate, which cover approximately 1/3rd of earth land mass and a good portion of this climate is in the Middle East and North Africa. In a typical desert climate, such as the Arabian Peninsula a large portion of the electricity consumed is due to the use of air conditioning units during hot sunny days. In the present work the energy consumption pattern of a typical building in an arid area is studied. Additionally, overall regional grid power demand in Tabuk located in Northwest of Saudi Arabia is studied. Guidelines for development of solar plants (i.e., panel ordinations) are presented to shave off the peak demand. It is determined that for most desert climates the peak electricity demand is between 2:00–5:00PM during summers.