This paper examines the influence of financial and non-financial performance measures on perceived Islamic banks' service quality in the United Arab Emirates. External customers and internal customers of Islamic banks were considered in the study. External customers represent individuals dealing with the banks and their sample consisted of 230 customers. Internal bank customers represent banks' employees with a sample size of 174 participants from five main Islamic banks in UAE. Data were collected mainly through a questionnaire and analyzed and tested through two proposed models using structural equation modeling techniques. The results indicate strong positive relationship between service quality and banks' performance and that banks internal operations mediate the relationship for the external customers group.

PurposeThis study sets out to analyze the efficiency and productivity issues of the insurance sector from both the policymakers' and investors' points of view to insulate the business and financial risks of UAE corporate houses.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses two inputs of “administrative and general expenses”, and “equity and change in legal reserves”, versus two outputs of rate of “return on investments” and “liquid asset to total liabilities ratio” to assess the allocative efficiency of the companies using DEA. Using the the Malmquist productivity index the efficiency is broken down into technical and scale efficiency to evaluate the performance of the insurers.FindingsWhile the scale of operation of insurers is, by and large, acceptable, there is a considerable degree of managerial inefficiency among the insurers, with the least efficiency in 2000, and higher efficiency in 2004. Further, the insurers on average achieved a mere 0.8 percent annual gain in total factor productivity over the period in question.Research limitations/implicationsThe data set is narrow with 19 insurers in the region, which is the limitation.Practical implicationsThe results have policy implications for the regulators and managerial implications for the existing insurers to face the growing competition in the region.Originality/valueThis is the first study to investigate the productivity changes of insurance sector operations in a developing economy: the UAE in the Middle‐East region. The study findings help the insurers to take appropriate managerial steps to improve the efficiency of their operations.

This study investigated cost inefficiencies and its relationship with value drivers of insurers in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study revealed that there were 21-33% cost inefficiencies in these insurers under different model specifications of stochastic frontier and DEA; value drivers such as lower leverage risk, lower capital risk significantly improved cost efficiencies consistent with Basel II norms; ROE positively influenced cost efficiencies with further trade off between increased profit margin, decreased asset utilization and|or reduced equity multiplier by the insurer managements to achieve a target-ROE; and the trend of cost efficiency was improving during 2000-2004. The study suggests that stock insurers could overcome their cost inefficiencies through adoption of efficient measures such as risk mapping of clients, risk prioritization besides ALM techniques. The study has direct implications for individual and institutional investors in making their portfolio investment decisions in insurance sector, policymakers, and regulators to closely monitor inefficient insurers consistent with Basel II norms. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose: The study investigated the Impact of Monetary and Psychological Incentives on Employees’ performance.  The problem of the study that is there is any statistically significant impact of the monetary incentives on employees' performance. Is there any statistically significant impact of the psychological incentives on employees' performance?  The study aimed to examine the impact of monetary incentives on employees' performance. To determine the impact of psychological incentives on employees' performance   Theoretical framework: This study utilized quantitative. Research strategy approach. It has two independent variables, which are 1- Monetary incentives 2. Psychological incentives and one dependent variable is employee performance.   Design/methodology/approach: the study adopted an inductive approach, descriptive-analytical approach, and historical approach. The questionnaire was used to collect data from commercial banks in the United Arab Emirates. To achieve the goals of the study, the following hypotheses were tested: First hypothesis: there is no significant relationship between Monetary incentives and employee performance. The second hypothesis there is no significant relationship between psychological incentives and employees’ performance   Findings: The study found several results, among which is that there is a significant relationship between financial, and psychological incentives and employee performance. Qualification does not affect the performance of staff in the commercial bank.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The study recommended several recommendations, among which; Interest in developing an effective system to evaluate the performance of staff, interest in providing psychological support, and praise for the staff to raise the level of their performance.   Originality/value: The value of the study is to provide a clear outlook regarding how to balance between the monetary incentives and embark the psychological incentives to maintain and increase the employee’s performance in the field of banking. The result finding can guide the managers about the best practices related to incentives, offered to their employees.

No abstract