This paper empirically compares the market timing, the stock selection and the performance persistence of Islamic and conventional HSBC Saudi mutual funds by using monthly returns from April 2011 to December 2018. The data was grouped into five portfolios based on geographical investment basis (locally, Arab, internationally) and Sharia compliance (Islamic and conventional). The empirical results indicate that Islamic funds underperformed conventional funds internationally but not locally. Findings suggest that the market selectivity skills of managers in the Islamic funds are better than the conventional funds. In addition, only the managers of Saudi conventional funds investing internationally have a good market timing skills, thus, they are able to beat the market index by predicting its movements and buying and selling accordingly. Furthermore, this study gives a brief idea about the performance persistence of HSBC Saudi funds. The results confirm existence of the persistence performance when the funds do not apply Sharia law and when they are instead focused internationally.

The Journal of Economics and Business is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied, and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

The Journal of Economics and Business is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied, and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

This paper investigated whether the royal decree of September 2017 allowing women to drive affects the relationship between market orientation and firm performance of official car dealerships in Saudi Arabia. In the empirical investigation, a quantitative method was used, focusing on car dealership managers and executives. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling with data collected from 94 questioned. Market orientation dimensions that were investigated included customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter-functional coordination. The results indicate a positive effect of market orientation on company performance in Saudi Arabia over two periods, before and after the application of the decree. Before the royal decree, only two of the three dimensions of market orientation affected company performance, customer orientation, and inter-functional coordination. After the decree, all three dimensions of market orientation affected company performance. This proves that political decision has intensified competition in this market. Our results underlined the non-necessity of equality and the strength of the three components belonging to the market orientation on performance. Yet, our investigation is unprecedented having sought to resolve this classic relationship in a specific context.