ZU-WP 2025-22

Citizenship Penalty in the Global South: Highly Skilled (Non-Western) Migrants and Mobility Pathways

By: Mouawiya Al Awad, Froilan Malit, Jr.

This study investigates the labor market discrimination experienced by highly skilled Filipino nurses in the UAE, highlighting how citizenship-based disparities-coined here as the "citizenship penalty"-adversely affect their wages, career progression, and employment security. While the Gulf region hosts large numbers of migrant workers from the Global South, most research has focused on low-skilled labor migration. This article sheds light on the structural barriers facing non-Western, highly skilled professionals. Specifically, it explores why Filipino nurses, despite their essential healthcare contributions, encounter wage gaps and professional immobility compared to similarly qualified Western expatriates.

ZU-WP 2025-21

Safeguarding AI in the UAE: Preserving Cultural Heritage, Ethics and Visualities of the Future

By: Zoe Hurley

The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) investment in generative artificial intelligence (GENAI) and digital transformation, under the banner of the UAE AI Strategy, aligns with the UAE Centennial 2071's focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation. This AI roadmap will contribute to all sectors of the UAE, including education, economy, government development, and community happiness through various GENAI technologies implementations in different sectors to include energy, tourism, and education.

ZU-WP 2025-20

Empowering Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy: Shaping the UAE's Diversified Economic Future

By: Zeina Hojeij, Ali Al Marzouqi

The study examines the integration of Entrepreneurship Education (EE) within UAE's Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programs during the country's transition to a knowledge-based economy. This research is crucial as it addresses the growing need for entrepreneurial skills development in the UAE's workforce diversification efforts.

ZU-WP 2025-19

Quantile Connectedness of Artificial Intelligence Tokens with Energy Sector

By: Zaghum Umar, Farooq Malik

There has been an enormous recent interest in artificial intelligence (AI) because of the disruptive impact it has across many sectors of the economy. In financial industry, AI can potentially create optimal portfolios, offer investing advice and can even detect fraudulent activity. AI has the potential to enhance economic progress by increasing efficiency and productivity (Mokyr, 2018). Recent explosion in NVIDIA stock price, which is a key player in manufacturing chips used in AI computation, provides evidence of the AI potential. As a matter of fact, recently NVIDIA CEO crowned AI as a 'whole new industry' amid 'tipping point' after his company passed Google for third most valuable company in the world. Technological innovations in AI are expected to have a major influence on businesses by assisting financial decision-making under intricate settings (Ashta and Herrmann, 2021).

ZU-WP 2025-18

Advancing Environmental Sustainability in the UAE: The Interplay of Women's Empowerment, Financial Development, and Natural Resource Management

By: Suzanna Elmassah

Women's empowerment and environmental sustainability are among the foremost priorities for governments globally. The connection between women and the environment has its roots in ecofeminism theory, which emerged in the 1970s. Recently, this relationship has garnered renewed attention in academic and policy debates, particularly in the context of sustainable development goals (SDGs), which has spurred extensive research into the women-environment nexus.

ZU-WP 2025-17

From Policy to Practice: Examining Sustainability Implementation in UAE Secondary Schools

By: Sandra Baroudi, Hounaida Abi Haidar

The integration of sustainability in education has gained global attention as a critical component of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Within the United Arab Emirates (UAE), significant efforts have been made to incorporate sustainability into national policies, reflecting the country's vision for sustainable economic, social, and environmental development. This study examines the extent to which sustainability policies are implemented in UAE secondary schools, highlighting gaps in communication, coordination, and awareness among stakeholders.

ZU-WP 2025-16

Stimulating Environmental Protection Through Utilizing Statistical Methods for Climate Resilience and Policy Integration

By: Sanaa Kaddoura

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become a prominent example of commitment to addressing climate change, particularly in managing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and implementing climate adaptation strategies. This focus is evident in the UAE's National Climate Change Plan, which seeks to minimize climate risks and bolster the country's adaptive capacity to the evolving climate landscape. These efforts highlight the importance of aligning technological advancements with environmental oversight to ensure climate challenges are met with practical solutions. The plan emphasizes the need for preparedness and robust risk management strategies, ensuring the UAE remains resilient in climate-related disruptions.

ZU-WP 2025-15

Promoting Statistical Literacy in UAE: Cohesive Society and Preserved Identity

By: Rafiq Hijazi, Taoufik Zoubeidi

Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing attention to data and information accompanied with significant efforts to emphasize the role of statistics in advancement and prosperity of modern societies. In light of this, there is a remarkable consensus among educators and policy makers on the integration of statistical literacy and skills in data processing and interpretation into modern education (Engel, 2017). As emphasized by Johannssen et al. (2021), statistical literacy became a paramount across all walks of life in our data-driven society especially as a result of COVID-19 pandemic (Franklin, 2021; Kahlenberg et al., 2023). According to Gal (2002), statistical literacy is defined as "people’s ability to interpret and critically evaluate statistical information and data-based arguments appearing in diverse media channels, and their ability to discuss or communicate their reactions to such statistical information." As noted by Rumsey (2002), being statistically literate means having the ability to consume and critically "digest" the vast wealth of information produced in modern society.

ZU-WP 2025-14

A Tale of Sea Level Dynamics in the Arabian Gulf

By: Muhammad Usman

The present-day configuration of the Arabian Peninsula results from its Eocene to Oligocene separation from the Horn of Africa. As a result, the west and northwest part of the Arabian Peninsula has the Red Sea and mountains respectively whereas the land slopes on the eastern side move towards the Arabian Gulf and end up against the Iranian Zagros mountains. From the climatic perspective, the Arabian Gulf is influenced by the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Sea in the northern part of the Indian Ocean. It mostly lacks the intense storms of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. This proves to be advantageous from a climatological perspective that the "noise" of the daily and seasonal fluctuation does not entirely mask the potential long-term trends.

ZU-WP 2025-13

Unveiling User Perspectives: The Role of AI Empathetic Chatbots in Psychotherapeutic Interventions (Emotional Connection)

By: Mohammad Amin Kuhail, Jihene Mrabet, Rafiq Hijazi, Justin Thomas

Chatbots, also known as conversational agents, are transforming how humans engage with artificial intelligence by providing seamless, human-like interactions. Recent advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) have significantly enhanced chatbots' ability to understand and respond to human inputs with increased accuracy. Consequently, chatbots are now being integrated across various domains, including healthcare (Jain et al., 2024), education (Kuhail et al., 2023), and customer services (Torres & Delgado, 2022).

ZU-WP 2025-12

Cultivating Practice Excellence and Community Impact: A Pathway for Developing Competency and Ethical Guidelines for Social (Care) Professionals in the UAE

By: Mazna Patka, Hana Shahin, Hamad Almehairi, Meera Bin Thalith, Shatha Al Hamedi, Linda Smail

Mental health is a critical component of overall well-being, yet it remains underrepresented in national policies across many countries. Globally, there has been a shift toward community-based mental health care, moving away from institutionalized models (World Health Organization, 2014). However, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), mental health services remain predominantly institution-based, with Al Amal Hospital in Dubai serving as the only public psychiatric hospital offering both inpatient and outpatient care (UAE Government, 2024). This centralized service delivery limits access to mental health care for the broader UAE population. Meanwhile, the private sector has emerged as a significant provider of outpatient mental health services, but its operations remain loosely regulated and underdeveloped (Garhy et al., 2021).

ZU-WP 2025-11

Quality of Life for Emirati Women with Cervical Cancer: A First Look in the UAE

By: Linda Smail

Cervical cancer is a significant global health burden, ranking as the fourth most common cancer in women and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Among Emirati women, cervical cancer holds a prominent place as one of the most prevalent cancers, with gynecological cancers comprising 7% of all cancer cases in the UAE. Despite improved survival rates owing to HPV vaccination and screening initiatives, challenges persist in the quality of life (QoL) of survivors. These challenges, spanning physical, emotional, and financial domains, are compounded by cultural, social, and economic factors unique to the UAE.

ZU-WP 2025-10

Engaging the public in environmental issues: An exploratory study of social capital, communicative action, and pro-environmental behavior among residents of Dubai

By: Kyung Sun Lee, Narae Kim, Kang Li

Dubai is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates and an "entrepot" of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa (The Economist, 2022). In recent years, regional unrest and economic development has attracted an influx of people to the city: Between 2010 and 2024, Dubai's population reached a 104 percent increase (Al Msaddi, 2024), of which 88.5 percent are migrants. With a surge in population, Dubai faces the challenge of addressing growing environmental issues, including its scarce fresh water, waste management, desertification, and air pollution. Over the past decade, the UAE government has actively invested in environmental awareness and education initiatives in line with its national priority of environmental sustainability (UAE Government Portal, 2024).

ZU-WP 2025-09

Industry 5.0 platform for COVID-19 Pandemic in the UAE using Fog Computing

By: Fatma Taher, Mohamed Elhoseny, Zahraa Tarek

Corobots can do routine tasks like routine checks that physicians undertake thanks to Industry 5.0. Therefore, medical professionals will concentrate on more senior level of jobs. By receiving constant input from surgeons, corobots will be able to perform even the most complex surgeries with pinpoint accuracy during COVID-19 pandemic. Digital twins (DT), edge computing (EC), collaborative robots, IoE, blockchain, big data analytics, upcoming 6G systems and beyond can aid physicians in early disease diagnosis and individualized drug prescriptions. Industry 5.0 was developed to increase operational effectiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Corobots, a key enabling technology in Industry 5.0, were among the solutions proposed for treating COVID-19 patients without physical contact. In addition, they proposed using intelligent robots to scan and treat patients with COVID-19, thereby lowering the risk of viral exposure for front-line healthcare workers.

ZU-WP 2025-08

The Impact of Global and Local Crises on UAE Financial Markets

By: Efstathios Polyzos

This study investigates the effects of global and local crises on the financial markets of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As a rapidly diversifying economy and regional financial hub, the UAE offers an interesting context for examining how emerging markets respond to global and regional crises. The financial markets in the UAE, characterised by their openness and integration into global systems, provide a compelling case for understanding market resilience and adaptability during periods of uncertainty. The primary objective of this research is to assess the impact of significant global and UAE- specific crises on firm-level market performance, using cumulative irregular returns (CIRs) as a measure. It aims to uncover asymmetries in market responses across different event types and firm characteristics.

ZU-WP 2025-07

Assessing the Adversarial Robustness of Multimodal Medical AI Systems: Insights into Vulnerabilities and Modality Interactions

By: Ekaterina Mozhegova, Asad Khattak, Adil Khan, Roman Garaev, Bader Rasheed

Deep learning systems have shown rapid development and are currently being extensively applied in a wide range of fields, including healthcare, where the reliance on diverse data types - texts, images, numeric recordings is essential. Task-specific models are commonly employed for analyzing these data types. Recently, general-purpose multimodal large models have emerged, offering the potential to process these different data simultaneously. Despite their potential, deep learning models often remain vulnerable to adversarial attacks. These attacks involve small, often imperceptible, perturbations to the input data, capable of misleading model predictions. Due to the healthcare realm being an area with high demands to systems accuracy and robustness, it is crucial to thoroughly understand the vulnerabilities of these models to ensure their reliability and safety in medical applications.

ZU-WP 2025-06

Navigating AI Ethics Through the Lens of Personality Traits and Well-being: Policy Framework for Young People in the UAE

By: Areej ElSayary

Digital ethics, a subfield of applied ethics, addresses the moral issues arising from the use and development of digital technologies, ensuring behaviors that respect privacy, transparency, accountability, and fairness (Schiff et al., 2020). AI ethics focuses on artificial intelligence technologies, addressing concerns about bias, autonomy, data security, and societal impacts, promoting ethical AI development and deployment (Ng et al., 2021) .

ZU-WP 2025-05

Strengthening Global Health Education in the UAE: an Assessment of the Current Landscape and Future Directions: A Policy Brief

By: Ali Artaman, Hillani Bekele, Ross Millar

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made significant strides in strengthening its healthcare system and contributing to global health initiatives. However, there remains a critical gap in global health education within the country, which hinders its ability to fully address both national and global health challenges. Global health education is essential for equipping future professionals with the knowledge and skills to tackle transnational health issues, ranging from infectious to non-communicable diseases and climate change-related health impacts. This brief emphasizes the need for the UAE to expand and integrate global health education across both undergraduate and postgraduate programs, ensuring a skilled workforce capable of contributing to global health solutions and advancing health equity and sustainable development goals.

ZU-WP 2025-04

Factors influencing Undergraduate Students' Self-Perceived Employability in the UAE: Policy Recommendations

By: Aizhan Shomotova

The employability of university graduates is a critical issue globally and particularly in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where higher education plays a pivotal role in economic and social development. Self-perceived employability (SPE), or an individual's assessment of their ability to secure and maintain employment, has emerged as a key factor influencing career outcomes. This study investigates the internal and external factors shaping SPE among undergraduate students in the UAE. These factors include personal demographics, family background, academic experiences, and extracurricular participation. The findings aim to inform policies and strategies to enhance graduate employability and align educational outcomes with labor market demands.

ZU-WP 2025-03

Enhancing Medical Care Systems and Services in UAE through Artificial intelligence

By: Ahed Abugabah, Atif Mehmood

Lung cancer is one of the malignant tumors with the highest mortality rates and incidence in the world. It is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide with poor survival in the absence of early detection methods. The 5-year survival rate for people diagnosed with lung cancer was merely about 2% primarily due to the fact that 70% of these patients are already in the advanced stages of the disease when they are diagnosed and have few treatment options only. Therefore, intelligent medical diagnosis mode has become an increasingly important development trend in the early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. This project uses various types of Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to develop a smart application and models for early detection of lung cancer.

ZU-WP 2025-02

United Arab Emirates Economy Diversification through the Space Sector and its Diplomacy

By: Adam Krzymowski

Economic diversification is based on a structural transformation from the natural resources sector to sectors generating higher added value. One such sector is the space sector, whose global expenditure in 2023 amounted to USD 117 billion. Most (over 80%) are satellites, especially satellite navigation and communications. Another significant element of the space economy is Earth observation (16%), which is used in many areas of the economy. In 2023, the United States (USD 73 billion) was the leader in spending on space programs, followed by China (USD 14 billion). In the context of all satellites launched in the 21st century, the United States is also the leader (67%), followed by Europe (12%) and China (8%).

ZU-WP 2025-01

Upcycling Waste Cotton Cloth into Carbon Textile: A Durable and Scalable Layer for Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries Applications

By: Mohamed Adel Allam, Mohammad Ali Abdelkareem, Hussain Alawadhi, Abdul Ghani Olabi, Abdulmonem Fetyan

The decrease in traditional fuel sources and the increasing worry regarding ecological contamination have accelerated the investigation of eco-friendly and enduring energy alternatives, like renewable power. Nevertheless, these sustainable sources face obstacles, including sporadic availability and variable output. To address these challenges, storage systems such as redox flow batteries (RFBs) have emerged to bridge the gap between electricity production and consumption. Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs), which Skyllas-Kazacos developed, are the RFB variation that has garnered the most interest because of their attractive features, which include their adjustable design, extended lifespan, and unique power and energy storage capabilities. VRFBs utilize positive and negative vanadium ions in both electrolytes, reducing the risk of cross-contamination and ensuring prolonged cycle life and increased energy efficiency.

ZU-WP 2024-04

Igniting Innovation: The Surge of Youth Entrepreneurship in the UAE: International Journal of Entrepreneurship

By: Mouawiya AlAwad

In recent years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has evolved into a global epicenter for innovation and startups, driven by a surge in entrepreneurial activities among its youth population. This transformation is fueled by a combination of government initiatives, a burgeoning startup culture, and changing perceptions of entrepreneurship. This article delves into the intricate evolution of youth entrepreneurship in the UAE, analyzing the key drivers behind this trend. The UAE's economic landscape and government initiatives form a robust foundation for its thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. Favorable economic conditions, coupled with a commitment to diversification and business-friendly policies, position the UAE as a global leader in fostering innovation. The article highlights the significance of economic diversification, ease of doing business, and strategic support for startups in this trajectory. Education plays a pivotal role in shaping the entrepreneurial landscape, with UAE institutions actively incorporating entrepreneurship into curricula and establishing innovation hubs. The collaboration between academia and industry ensures a continuous pipeline of skilled entrepreneurs ready to tackle real-world challenges. Moreover, government support programs, exemplified by Dubai SME, play a central role by providing financial aid, training, and mentorship to small and medium-sized enterprises. Additionally, technology and innovation hubs, represented by Dubai Internet City, contribute significantly by providing essential infrastructure, collaborative spaces, and support services to startups. Youth entrepreneurship initiatives, including the UAE Youth Hub, Sheraa's Ibtikari, and the Hult Prize UAE, take center stage in empowering young entrepreneurs through mentorship, funding opportunities, and collaborative platforms. The article also addresses the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs, such as securing funding, navigating market competition, and understanding regulations. Testimonials from successful entrepreneurs underscore the instrumental role of government-backed programs and strategic approaches in overcoming these challenges, showcasing the transformative potential of youth-led innovation in the UAE's dynamic business environment.

ZU-WP 2024-03

Entrepreneurial Fear-of-Failure among the Emirati Youth: An Ordered logistic Regression Estimation.

By: Mouawiya AlAwad, Aleciane da Silva Moreira Ferreira, Linda Smail

This article aims to investigate the fear of entrepreneurial failure among the Emirati youth enrolled in a university in the United Arab Emirates. This is a quantitative study that used a survey of 324 university students with an average age of 20.7 years and a standard deviation of 3.1 years. The data collected were analyzed using Ordinal Logistic Regression with Proportional Odds to find factors that may provoke the fear of entrepreneurial failure and assess the research hypotheses among this group of Emirati youth. The results showed that although these young people have a degree of fear of entrepreneurial failure, they recognize that entrepreneurial education, social support, understanding of opportunities and mitigating obstacles can contribute to the transformation of this fear into reasons to undertake. It is concluded that entrepreneurial education can be a promising means of developing technical and emotional skills capable of dealing with the challenges of fear of failure.

ZU-WP 2024-02

Predictors of Entrepreneurial Attitude and Intention Among Emirati Youth: Insights from a Structural Equation Modeling Analysis.

By: Aleciane da Silva Moreira Ferreira, Linda Smail, Mouawiya AlAwad

This study examines the determinants of entrepreneurial attitude and intention among Emirati youth, with the aim of identifying critical predictors to promote entrepreneurship in the region. Using a cross-sectional survey of 324 Emirati university students and structural equation modelling, we find that self-belief positively impacts intention and mitigates risk aversion, while risk aversion negatively affects entrepreneurial intention. A positive attitude towards entrepreneurship predicts intention, and the subjective norm influences entrepreneurial attitude, though the effect of entrepreneurial education on intention is inconclusive. Our results underscore the need for national policies that provide access to capital, such as grants, subsidies, and low-interest loans, and the integration of entrepreneurship education at all levels of education in the UAE.

ZU-WP 2024-01

Exploring the Influence of Environmental, Social, and Individual Factors on the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Emirati University Students.

By: Linda Smail, Mouawiya AlAwad

The aim of this study is to comprehensively understand the factors and their interrelationships that influence university students' entrepreneurial intention in a rapidly developing entrepreneurial country. A cross-sectional survey of 324 Emirati students was conducted, followed by a structural equation analysis of the obtained data. The study identified strong associations between positive attitudes, self-efficacy, perceived university and country-level support for entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial intention. However, the relationship between social norms and entrepreneurial intention was not direct, but an indirect relationship was found when coupled with self-efficacy and attitudes. The findings suggest that increasing public awareness and promoting entrepreneurship as a viable career option will significantly impact students' entrepreneurial intention in the UAE. Furthermore, providing practical educational and resource opportunities can facilitate the process of starting a business. This study contributes to entrepreneurship research by providing a unique perspective on the interrelationships among social, government, and economic influences in an entrepreneurial context. The findings offer a predictive outcome that could have significant implications for western economies, particularly during a time of global economic flux.

ZU-WP 2023-03

The Complexity of Large-scale Migrations from South Asia to the Gulf

By: Marko Valenta, Zan Strabac, Jo Jakobsen, Mouawiya AlAwad

Oil-rich countries in the Arabian Gulf have for decades been prime destinations for migrants from South Asia. The sponsorship-based temporary migration systems in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are among the largest receivers of labor migrants in the world; and migrants from large countries in South Asia, such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, dominate these migrations. In this chapter we discuss and nuance the following dimensions of South Asian migrations to the Gulf: (i) the complexity of migration patterns and trajectories; (ii) the variety of drivers and motivations for migration; (iii) the distribution of migrants in local labor markets; and (iv) the facets of protracted temporariness of the migrations and temporary residence in the Gulf.

ZU-WP 2023-02

The Future of Government Jobs: A 5-year Outlook. Prime Minister's Office, Dubai. UAE.

By: Nagham Sayour, Daryn Howland, Mouawiya AlAwad

The study investigates the shifting landscape of government employment in the UAE, focusing on the impact of technological advancements, digitalization, sustainability, and demographic changes on public sector jobs. It identifies roles at risk due to automation and emerging roles necessitated by new competencies. The paper stresses the need for strategic policy reform, including upskilling initiatives and private sector partnerships, to navigate the transition effectively and capitalize on the evolving job market for a future-ready workforce.

ZU-WP 2023-01

Future Skills for Future Jobs: Cultivating the skills to support a knowledge-based economy in the United Arab Emirates

By: Nagham Sayour, Daryn Howland

The document "Future Skills for Future Jobs" examines the skill sets necessary for the UAE's workforce to adapt to the evolving job market shaped by technology, globalization, and sustainability trends. It identifies four categories of future skills: cognitive, interpersonal, self-leadership, and digital, and aligns them with the UAE's strategic priorities for economic growth. The research draws on various sources, including the World Economic Forum and industry surveys, to outline the skills in demand globally and in the UAE specifically. It provides detailed policy recommendations for education and workforce training to close the skill gaps, emphasizing the importance of STEM education, language proficiency, and continuous learning. The study emphasizes the need for public-private collaboration to ensure the education system meets labor market demands and prepares students for future jobs, especially in green sectors and advanced technologies.

ZU-WP 2022-33

Exploring Immersive Learning Experiences

By: Mohammad Amin Kuhail

Research shows that immersive technologies substantially improve learning since they simplify and simulate advanced concepts in several fields. Yet, there is a shortage of studies that evaluate the recent evidence-based immersive learning experiences utilized in classrooms or the public arena. This study aligns with two key UAE priorities: education for the future, and innovation and R&D. This research is of interest to the ministry of education. Immersive technologies in education remain limited due to various challenges such as cost and complexity. However, the evidence for effectiveness seems promising. As such, this study could be a reference for researchers and educators worldwide and in the UAE to develop effective and usable immersive learning experiences.

ZU-WP 2022-32

Investigating the effect of financing technology startups in the UAE: An explorative study

By: Amril Nazir

Technology entrepreneurship and innovation are important pillars for the UAE Vision 2021. In promoting innovation, the UAE government has accelerated the creation of new technology innovative start-up companies. Various incentives have been implemented, such as the establishment of free zone companies and high-tech startup accelerators and incubators. One of the most important strategic goals of the UAE vision 2021 is to successfully build an innovation-driven economy as part of its measure to diversify its current economy away from the oil sector.

ZU-WP 2022-31

A Deep Learning based Dual Encoder-Decoder Framework for Anatomical Structure Segmentation in Chest Fluoroscopic Images

By: Babar Shah

In this study, we presented a deep learning-based framework that can effectively identify anatomical structures, which include the lungs, heart, and clavicles, in chest x-ray images. A dual encoder-decoder network is notably employed, which can iteratively refine the output of the first network by fusing it with the input image and passing it through the second network to identify the anatomical structures in the x-ray images. Furthermore, the first encoder-decoder incorporates the use of a pre-trained VGG19 network, which allows the proposed framework to be efficiently trained using limited datasets. In addition, it also allows the proposed model to extract essential features to enhance the anatomical structure segmentation. In the second encoder-decoder, we integrated the input image with a segmentation mask to guide the network and focus on the essential features and avoid the outliers, which permit the proposed network to effectively segment the anatomical structures.

ZU-WP 2022-30

Does Change Incite Abusive Supervision? The Role of Transformational Change and Hindrance Stress.

By: Filareti Kotsi, Melodena Stephens, Frederik Panz

One of the challenges a young country like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) faces is that preserving heritage and culture is complex with rapid modernization, globalization, and the dilution of its indigenous population. Though culture and heritage are closely related and often used interchangeably, they are not the same thing, and very few papers explore the boundary conditions for each. While several tools exist to measure culture, few (or none) exist to measure heritage. UNESCO (2019) highlights that culture is acknowledged as the cornerstone of identity, providing a sense of belonging and communities' social and economic cohesion. The UN's Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11, Target 11.4) aims to "strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world's cultural and natural heritage." This research aims to identify the difference between culture and heritage from a theoretical framework and identify the perception of the Emiratis of these terms.

ZU-WP 2022-29

Does Change Incite Abusive Supervision? The Role of Transformational Change and Hindrance Stress.

By: Stijn Decoster

In today's competitive work environment, organizations must continually adjust their ways of working to survive, which is often referred to as transformational change. Unfortunately, transformational changes have often failed to be successful. Although organizations often expect their supervisors to be successful role-models and change-agents during the transformational change process, in our paper, we argue that transformational change often fails because organizations do not pay sufficient attention to supervisors' reactions to this change process. More specifically, transformational change could increase supervisors' stress levels, which may result in undesirable and abusive behaviors towards employees.

ZU-WP 2022-28

Toward culturally responsive E-learning in post-COVID-19 higher education: Perspectives from the United Arab Emirates

By: Sarah Hopkyns

In the Gulf states, cultural, religious, and sociolinguistic dynamics can present challenges for teaching and learning online. Such challenges became especially apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic period of emergency remote teaching and learning (ERT&L). The purpose of this study is to gain the perspectives of Emirati university students on E-learning experiences with the aim of tailoring online and blended learning to the specific context through a focus on culturally and linguistically responsive educational policies and pedagogy.

ZU-WP 2022-27

Internal crisis communication practices and frontline employees job performance during COVID-19 Pandemic: the mediating effect of internal crisis communication satisfaction

By: Haseena AlKatheeri

Drawing upon situational crisis communication theory and organizational renewal theory, the study examines the influence of internal crisis communication practices on internal crisis communication satisfaction and job performance of frontline employees. Also, the mediating effects of internal crisis communication satisfaction is also discussed.

ZU-WP 2022-26

Stockpiling Soft Power: Consolidating Leadership Beyond Country's Borders

By: Hisham Soliman

Soft power has been growing in significance with respect to UAE's foreign policy. This became evident with the launch of the first strategy cycle 2017-2022 ((The UAE Soft Power Strategy - The Official Portal of the UAE Government, 2017). As the cycle is coming to close, it is quite important to reflect on what has been achieved and to envision how to move forward, in line with the UAE's 2071 centennial vision.

ZU-WP 2022-25

Examining the Asymmetric Impact of Macroeconomic Policy in the UAE: Evidence from Quartile Impulse Responses and Machine Learning

By: Efstathios Polyzos

This paper examines the asymmetric effects of changes to monetary and fiscal variables on different types of firms in the UAE. By computing impulse responses on selected shock and switching variables, we examine 180 firms listed in the UAE exchanges and find significant asymmetries among financial and non-financial firms and among low and high-debt firms when there is a shock to macroeconomic monetary or fiscal variables. Quartile analysis shows that firms belonging to the first and last quartile of debt respond negatively to expansionary policies, while middle-quartile firms respond more positively.

ZU-WP 2022-24

Happiness and Stock Markets in the UAE

By: Perihan Iren

Public happiness sentiment is important to all countries around the world. Global leaders and organizations are increasingly talking about using happiness as an alternative measure of countries'' success. Under the pillar of Cohesive Society and Preserved Identity of National Agenda, UAE aims to be amongst the happiest of all nations. Despite of all these developments, to our knowledge, there are no studies looking at the links between happiness and financial variables, using UAE data. This study is the first one to analyze happiness sentiment and its effects on the UAE markets. Although some previous studies have examined the link between happiness and different financial variables, it is still not clear how investor happiness sentiment affects stock returns in the UAE, first and only country with a Ministry of Happiness. This study aims to fill this gap and investigate the association between daily investor happiness sentiment and stock returns of the firms trading in the UAE Stock Exchanges.

ZU-WP 2022-23

Modeling Surplus Food Partnerships Using Game Theory: When Does Food Become Surplus?

By: Sinan Salman, Suzan Alaswad

Large-scale and industrial production and distribution of food results in a significant portion of it going to waste. Not only does this amount to a significant waste of resources, but it also negatively impacts the environment through waste sent to landfills and greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere. This comes at odds with the fact that a significant portion of the population does not have reliable access to daily nutritional sustenance. This work aims to reduce this waste through rescuing and redistribution of food surplus through business partnerships between food supply chain nodes (producers, distributors, and retailers) and charitable organizations (governmental and non-governmental). Food surplus can occur when a food product is not suitable for normal sale channels but is still perfectly useful for human consumption. We target with this study some of the UAE's priority areas such as corporate social responsibility, public private partnership (PPP), and sustainability.

ZU-WP 2022-22

The "Privacy Paradox" in the UAE Insights and Future Research Directions

By: Lena Connolly, Michael Lang

The emergence, rapid development and wide adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has exponentially increased the amount of personally identifiable information (PII) being collected by commercial and government entities. Although research demonstrates that information privacy is a major concern for citizens in the digital age, scholars have also drawn attention to the 'privacy paradox', a phenomenon that describes the contradiction between individuals' privacy attitudes and their actual behaviour. The information privacy paradox has significant implications for e-commerce, online social networking and government privacy regulations. The presence of the privacy paradox encourages e-commerce and online social networking sites to collect vast amounts of personal information. At the same time, it serves as a call for action for legislators and policymakers to address the problem of excessive collection of information by the aforementioned entities. While the information privacy paradox phenomenon has received an abundance of attention among the academic community, research in this area is scarce in some cultural contexts, including within the UAE. The objective of this research, therefore, is to examine privacy attitudes and privacy behaviour in the UAE by assessing the efficacy of current data protection measures.

ZU-WP 2022-21

An Ethnography of Measurement Innovation by Numbers, Metrics and Indices in the Arab Gulf

By: James Redman

This project is about innovation and its measurement. The goal of this study is to first examine the logics of innovation metrics and how these fit into GCC policies and the region’s future-focused developmental models. The most prominent and widely used instrument for measuring innovation currently - both internationally and regionally in the GCC - is the Global Innovation Index (GII), a composite index. This research takes a critical look at innovation indices like the GII to see if they can actually serve as reliable benchmarks for development policy in the GCC. This means departing from conventions that take these indices at face value in order to examine the underlying theoretical assumptions, weightings and calibrations of these instruments.

ZU-WP 2022-20

Consolidating Emirati women's economic agency: Heritage and succession

By: Valerie Priscilla Goby

Purpose and importance of study for the UAE This research was undertaken to respond to the fact that Emirati women's economic participation remains limited despite decades of supportive state policy. The low uptake of economic opportunities by women, especially of women with children, has serious implications for the success of the localisation policy and the overall stability of the future UAE labour force. Method Narrative methodology was used, and this gathers data from informal interviews. The unstructured nature of these interviews allows the participant to collaborate in her own way and tell the story she chooses. This permits personalised interpretations of broad societal narratives from which emerge new insights into changing social structurations and their implications for women.

ZU-WP 2022-19

Endowments and Human Well-being: Investigating the Resource Curse in the UAE

By: Suzanna Elmassah

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) became a federal country inside the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 1971. The country is richly endowed with natural resources. Since its discovery in the early 1960s, oil has instigated the country's exports and foreign currency, as well as being the primary driver of government revenues. However, the UAE's success in leveraging its natural resources for economic development and enhanced well-being does not rule out the possibility that any of the resource curse's symptoms exist. It is widely held that natural resources do not stymie development on their own; however, they may cause some disparities that act as transmission channels to impede economic advancement. This study determines whether there is an indication of a resource curse for well-being in the UAE by considering both the direct and indirect effects of natural resources on human well-being. We mainly aim to answer two fundamental questions: How did natural resource endowments contribute to human well-being in the UAE between 1990 and 2019? And how did institutional quality, human capital, and environmental efficiency influence the impact of natural resource endowments on human well-being in the UAE? In doing so, we employed various time series econometric techniques, including the ARDL bounds testing method and the VECM Granger causality approach, among others.

ZU-WP 2022-18

Towards an Understanding of Multi-stakeholder Relationships in Technology Enabled Entrepreneurial Ventures in the UAE

By: Saiqa Aleem, Farkhund Iqbal

Given the prevalence of business scandals we hear on regular basis, it is natural for people to attribute them to carry unethical, selfish, and narrowly defined profit-driven constructs. Several stakeholder theorists have argued that there is an alternative way to look at businesses in our society. According to them, it is in the businesses' interest to align their functioning with a myriad of stakeholders. In the North American or Western cultures, many technology driven entrepreneurial ventures have difficulty aligning their interests with multiple stakeholders. However, for a holistic understanding of the discipline, similar inquiries are required in the context of the Middle Eastern cultures, such as in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In this study we attempt to fill this research gap. We borrow concepts from the stakeholder theory and apply the repertory grid technique (personal construct theory) to advance our understanding about the relationships between tech-industry stakeholders, belonging to the Middle Eastern cultural background. It is expected that tech-venture owners focus on managing their relationships and commitments with value adding, as well as competing stakeholder groups to succeed. However, the true essence of 'value creation' is not properly captured and defined in the context of different cultures. We contend that these definitions will differ largely due to diverse cultural backgrounds, which may have an impact on the success of these ventures. Therefore, we use the repertory grid technique, which is a structured interviewing method that allows researchers to elicit 'personal constructions' from the target population. The repertory grid allows us to develop a path between the elements and the study's objective through various personal constructs or attributes to all intents and purposes. These constructs are generally described as ideas expressing perceptions of the participants for making sense of elements, either introduced by the researcher or provided by the study participants (Hardison & Neimeyer, 2012). This interviewing technique was developed by George Kelly (1955) to investigate people''''s cognitive constructions without influencing their references (Diaz De Leon & Guild, 2003; Shah & Guild, 2017). It is relevant to investigate our proposition that technology start-up venture founders have idiosyncratic mental models and abilities to make business decisions that influence the sustainability and success of their ventures in the long-term.

ZU-WP 2022-17

A Comparative Assessment of Human Factors in Cybersecurity with Implications for Cyber - governance

By: Farkhund Iqbal

Cybersecurity and cyber vulnerabilities are usually attributed to various physical and humanistic, or social factors. Many global institutional policymakers and governments prefer building more robust physical infrastructures to counter them. This phenomenon is also recognized as an outdated "Castle Model," according to which thick defense boundaries (or walls) are built around the system to protect against security breaches. The Castle Model helps protect; however, due to cultural diversity, complex socio-technical systems, and cybersecurity awareness levels among global populations, it is challenging for governments and concerning stakeholders to eradicate these cyber risks. Therefore, a detailed evidence-based investigation of human factors and cyber risk awareness levels is required to build a holistic cybersecurity framework. According to a general observation, global Internet users possess divergent habits and behaviours while operating online. To support this point, according to the Cybersecurity Exposure Index (CEI, 2020) , the United States of America (USA) has one of the lowest exposure rates of 0.145, whereby the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a comparatively higher exposure index of 0.359. Consequently, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region seems more exposed to cyberattacks than the United States of America (USA). These facts illustrate that there are significant differences in the cybersecurity risk awareness of various countries. We suspect that global cybersecurity exposure scores result from behavioural aspects of human factors that influence cybersecurity awareness. For instance, the diversity between cultures, socioeconomic characteristics, digital divide, education, and beliefs of people living in the GCC countries versus the USA directly influences these rankings. Therefore, we plan to pursue an evidence-based safety and cybersecurity assessment study that provides a clear roadmap for better cyber-governance in the UAE.

ZU-WP 2022-16

Mathematical Modeling of Energy Management in Green Roofs

By: Marc Calvo-Schwarzwalder

The transition from rural living to urbanization is a fact. It is predicted that two-thirds of the global population will be in urban areas by 2050. In Dubai, the urban and built area has increased by a factor 170 between 1960 and 2020, while its population has increased by a factor 80 in the same period. However, increasing levels of urbanization lead to problems such as poor air and water quality, growing demands on water availability, high energy consumption and a deterioration of the natural environment. Urban areas are also known to be significantly warmer than their outlying areas, which is known as the urban heat island effect. This phenomenon has several causes, which include, for instance, the large presence of paved structures and high emissions of pollutants.

ZU-WP 2022-15

A Novel Image - Based Diagnostic System for Accurate Diagnosis of Autism

By: Fatma Taher

This project aims to develop a clinically usable software tool for the accurate diagnosis of autism and to create a brain "map" showing the anatomical differences between the brains of autistic patients and controls through the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). These new machine learning tools developed will improve the delivery of healthcare in the UAE and worldwide by providing a new early diagnostic tool for accurate and early diagnosis of autism. For that, the same methodology will be adapted for the dataset collected from hospitals and families with children facing autism in UAE. Our technology will reduce the diagnostic costs of autism as demonstrated in our application, benefiting patients, payers, and health insurance organizations. Thus, if the technology is successful, it is expected to have a significant market capitalization benefiting the commonwealth of UAE through jobs from either startup companies that will be established by emirates students/faculty or venture capital companies that will license our technology. Furthermore, this problem is of great interest to the UAE health authority, the knowledge and expertise gained from this project will be a step towards the achievement of the knowledge-based economy as outlined by the UAE 2030 plan by developing a highly skilled and professional workforce. The publications which will result from this project and the know-how are part of Zayed University’s research mission in the strategic area of computer and Artificial Intelligence Technology.

ZU-WP 2022-14

Tensions in Relationship Management: Organization - Employee Relational Maintenance Strategies in Flexible Work

By: Ganga S Dhanesh, Hilke Steenkamp

The COVID - 19 pandemic compelled organizations to adopt various operating models such as remote and flexible work to keep business operations from grinding to a complete halt. While flexible modes of work ensure business continuity, it can trigger various tensions and contradictions that employees and organizations need to navigate. Our study aims to interrogate existing relational maintenance strategies and examine the strategies organizations employ to deal with these tensions. Findings can inform policy on human resource management in the United Arab Emirates, particularly with a focus on employee well-being in contexts of remote/flexible work. This is of high significance to the UAE considering that the country has been creating infrastructures that support virtual/remote work and aims to make the UAE one of the happiest places to live and work in.

ZU-WP 2022-13

Intelligent Health Care System

By: Ahed Abugabah

The aim of this project is to develop an intelligent health care system for disease control and management at the country level in UAE. Using machine learning and data mining, our proposed system will serve as a vulnerability assessment index for better disease treatment and control

ZU-WP 2022-12

Mapping Visual Cultures of the United Arab Emirates: Past, Present and Future Visions

By: Zoe Hurley

This study explores Dubai's visual cultures and visible economies via the comparative case of two Dubai-based social media influencers (microcelebrities), @Stacey (pseudonym) from the United Kingdom (UK) and @Al.maiiith from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This helps to reveal the diverse visual practices of the emirate that are being mapped by social media influencers' past, present and future visions of the cityscape. The central question asks, how do images of Dubai circulate in the global, visual economy, why and with what effects? This study's focus on Dubai culture(s), at the nexus of visuality, is important to develop critical insights into how social media influencers not only draw on the contemporary visibilities of the Dubai cityscape but also utilise the historical and future orientated visual practices constituting the UAE.

ZU-WP 2022-11

The UAE Employees' Perceptions Towards Factors for Sustaining Big Data Implementation and Continuous Impact on their Organization's Performance

By: Syed Mustapha

UAE has officially launched the Big Data Initiative in the year 2022 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Even though it is recently officiated, the Big Data technologies have been adopted and implemented in a large scale by organizations from both public and private sectors. One of essential component to ensure the success of the new technologies is the employees and their perceptions towards the implementation of the Big Data and its sustainability. The purpose of the study is to investigate the perceptions of employees in UAE on the factors that contribute towards sustaining the implementation of Big Data initiatives.

ZU-WP 2022-10

Customer Churn Prediction using Deep Learning Technique

By: Asad Masood Khattak

Customers are the backbone of any business. That's why every company wants to achieve the highest level of their customers' satisfaction. Customer churn is the period in which a company suffers a heavy loss due to the discontinuation of regular customers. If any company (e.g., Etisalat or Du) wants to satisfy their current customers, they must know why their customers are leaving. Several factors force a customer to move on to another company, like cost and/or quality of service. A huge number of customers leave the company when they feel that a particular product or service is not up to the mark, or they feel that the company does not provide security. Therefore, due to trust and/or satisfaction issues, customers might leave the company and move to another. Due to customer churn, companies must face massive profit loss, or even worse, they may have to cease their business. Companies spend a lot on attracting new customers which makes it even more crucial to retain the existing customers.

ZU-WP 2022-09

The quest for economic diversification: A study of the connectedness of oil shocks, green bonds, sukuks and conventional bonds

By: Zaghum Umar

A well-functioning economy is imperative for a healthy society. However, changes in oil prices affect the economy and financial markets through a complex dynamic process. The impact of oil price shocks is even more pronounced on economies with oil as a major source of revenue. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one such country and its leadership, cognizant of the importance of economic diversification, has put in place both long-term and short-term plans for exploring alternative sources of financing and revenue for economic development and growth. Sovereign bond is one of the main sources of long-term financing for any economy and in recent years we have seen new additions to the traditional sovereign bond universe. In particular, the transition toward ethical financing alternatives have led to the development of a parallel market with a focus on sustainable financing solutions.

ZU-WP 2022-08

A Critical Review of Crypto Innovation in the UAE

By: Don D.H. Shin

Distributed ledger technology is highlighted as a solid tool to address social and ecological challenges. Cryptocurrency is seen as a network with a socio-technical structure since the systems are composed of technical infrastructure and the social relations between users of the crypto ecosystem. The sociopolitical ramifications of cryptocurrency are critically assessed to identify key features and conceptualize issues to unlock opportunities to guarantee a sociotechnical approach to blockchains. Despite progressive initiatives, a series of challenges, such as trust, cybersecurity, and scalability, have emerged as cryptocurrency begins to develop its full potential. With these issues, sociotechnical concerns have surfaced regarding how to respond to the possible consequences that such a policy choice would entail, how to govern the crypto economy, and how to create a sustainable crypto ecosystem. We argue that cryptocurrency is a socio-technical system that constitutes new and important objects of social inquiry that must be addressed beyond the myopic context of a financial asset. Crypto technology promises to transform every sector and industry, and the design of cryptocurrency has focused on technical performance or isolated platforms whose stakeholders contribute mechanically by operating algorithmically automated transactions. We propose the significance of sociotechnical dimensions within a broader ecosystem that encompasses a wide range of technical and non-technical conditions. A cryptosystem should be designed by the people, for the people, and of the people, such that it develops in a user-oriented and socially sustainable way to contribute to a more visible and more trusted development, which leads to a significant, positive impact on a clear responsibility.

ZU-WP 2022-07

A Model of Leadership from the UAE to the World

By: Abdelrahman Baqrain, Raquel Warner, Gouri Menon, Mouawiya Alawad

In December 2021, the UAE celebrated the jubilee anniversary of the union. In comparison to many global states, this country has witnessed tremendous changes over the five decades. Most notably the ambitious vision and pace of development has earned the UAE global repute. There has not been much research about the leadership style evident among Emirati leaders in both public and private sector in the UAE that facilitated this tremendous rate of national development in this global environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. There are not many of the leadership theories that have been successfully investigated to explain the Emirati model of leadership (Abdallah and Al-Homoud, 2001). This study draws on integral leadership theory to undertake a holistic assessment of leadership development, leadership practices and cultural values among Emirati leaders in the UAE to determine what is the salient model that has contributed to the success of the country. In addition, the study examines the challenges of leadership development in the UAE and determine the mitigation strategies to ensure continuity of the high-performance leadership strategies.

ZU-WP 2022-06

Factors affecting academic entrepreneurial intentions and attitudes among Emirati students

By: Linda Smail, Wasseem Abaza, Mouawiya Alawad

Recent global events have put increasing pressure on world markets, especially with regards to global oil prices, a cause of concern most notably for Middle Eastern countries. To counter the growing concern over the dependence on oil, several nations are seeking to develop their private sectors (Antoncic, 2006; Evren, 2018; Turkama, 2019) using Entrepreneurial endeavors to diversify their economies. However, in the UAE context one of the impediments to achieving a diversification strategy is the lack of Emirati participation in the private sector (Antwi-Boateng & Al Jaberi, 2022) warranting a comprehensive study of Emirati intention and attitudes toward Entrepreneurship that could lead to more Emirati participation in new business creation.

ZU-WP 2022-05

Quality of Life of Emirati Women with Breast Cancer

By: Linda Smail

Female breast cancer (BC) is the leading cause of death among women and one of the leading cancer types worldwide in terms of the number of new cases since 2018. Many efforts have been made over the last decade not only to understand, prevent, diagnose, and treat BC but also to improve the quality of life (QoL) of BC survivors. There is a large amount of research on the QoL of women with BC in Western societies, however, research in the Arab world is very limited. The few existing studies in the UAE showed that women in the UAE (Emirati and non-Emirati) have little to poor knowledge about BC. This low level of knowledge is coupled with social, cultural and religious restrictions, resulting in low uptake of BC screening services.

ZU-WP 2022-04

Risk, Entrepreneurial Education, and Attitude among the Emirati Youth: A Structural Equation Modeling Estimation

By: Aleciane da Silva Moreira Ferreira, Linda Smail, Mouawiya Alawad, Shanzila Ahmed

Entrepreneurship is a detriment to the success and social development of many countries. It creates jobs and aids economic growth. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) especially relies heavily on entrepreneurship. Statistics show that small to medium scaled businesses contribute 40% of the total value added to Dubai''s economy (Oxford Business Group, 2018). The UAE also ranked 4th in the global entrepreneurial index. One of the goals of the governments is to increase this ranking to be one of the top 3 countries (United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy, 2021). This requires an in-depth understanding of entrepreneurship behaviour among the young Emiratis. In order to effectively promote entrepreneurship within the region, it is important to understand what the current beliefs about entrepreneurship are. To do so, we need to research the variables that are most important for improving entrepreneurship intentions about the Emirati youth. Finding a positive or negative correlation among the variables like risk aversion, entrepreneurial education, self-efficacy and so on will help guide the correct path to take in order to promote entrepreneurship intentions.

ZU-WP 2022-03

Determinants of entrepreneurial risk among young Emiratis

By: Linda Smail, Mouawiya Alawad, Aleciane da Silva Moreira Ferreira, Jorge López Puga, Ana María Ruiz-Ruano García

Economies are considered complex systems therefore, the individual entrepreneurs embedded in those economic webs must cope with risky decisions when trying to maximize economic profit. The propensity or ability of entrepreneurs to take optimal decisions in situations under uncertainty has sometimes been considered a negative feature. However, entrepreneurs are not currently considered mindless decision takers, but optimal decision-makers when situations are inherently uncertain. They are expected to efficiently manage uncertainty in economic markets to make a profit from it. They make calculated risky decisions to take advantage of uncertain situations to build economic wealth.

ZU-WP 2022-02

Entrepreneurial Fear-of-Failure among the Emirati Youth: An Ordered logistic Regression Estimation

By: Mouawiya Alawad, Aleciane da Silva Moreira Ferreira, Linda Smail

The National Agenda of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aims for the country to be among the best in the world in entrepreneurship as it plays a key role in unlocking the potential of nationals and enables them to be a driving force of the UAE's economic development through small and medium enterprises in the private sector. Furthermore, the National Agenda strives to instill an entrepreneurial culture in schools and universities to foster generations endowed with leadership, creativity, responsibility, and ambition. Thus, entrepreneurship is now regarded as a principal element to be integrated in the curriculum offered by higher education institutions in the UAE, making it an ideal context for studying Entrepreneurial attitudes. For this purpose, higher education institutions should commit to helping students achieve their full potential through personal and entrepreneurial development as well as opening new opportunities for future growth through multi-disciplined lenses.

ZU-WP 2022-01

Learning a Bayesian structure to model entrepreneurial intentions and attitudes towards business creation among Emirati Youth

By: Linda Smail, Mouawiya Alawad, Wasseem Abaza, Firuz Kamalov, Hamdah Alawadhi

The vision of the UAE National Youth Agenda is to equip the young Emiratis with the necessary resources to be “Productive youth with an entrepreneurial spirit who realize their full potential and embody Emirati values”. Furthermore, the Federal as well as the local strategies strive to infuse an entrepreneurial culture in schools and universities to foster generations endowed with leadership, creativity, responsibility, and ambition. This will allow the UAE to be among the best in the world in the ease of doing business, innovation, entrepreneurship, and R&D indicators. For these above-mentioned reasons, entrepreneurship is now considered as an essential element to be incorporated in the curriculum offered by higher education institutions in the UAE. Intentions and attitudes toward entrepreneurship have become crucial factors that explain entrepreneurial behavior in recent entrepreneurship research.

ZU-WP 2021-01

Determinants of Early Retirement in the UAE

By: Eda Orhun, Wifag Adnan, Mouawiya Alawad

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the retirement behavior of UAE nationals by understanding the socio-economic characteristics of early retirees and identifying the main determinants of early retirement. Accordingly, a survey study is created and deployed for current employees and retirees affiliated with Abu Dhabi Retirement and Pension Benefit Fund (ADRPBF). The survey was designed to reach 100 retirees and 200 currently active workers from those registered at the ADRPBF. The survey was conducted by employing the online survey method and face-to-face interviews. The total number of respondents is around 244, with a total response rate of 81.33%. Some factors related to the psychosocial work environment play a significant role in the early retirement decision of Emiratis. These factors are stress level, autonomy level and authority level at work. In addition to these, the level of work environment comfortability and life-work balance seem to also affect the early retirement decision. In general, the results indicate that higher the stress level, lower the level of autonomy and authority; higher the early retirement decision within the Emirati workforce. Last but not least, the likelihood of early retirement increases significantly if employees face a work-related health problem. Initiatives at the government and company level to adjust the working conditions for the capacity of elderly people shall be considered. Healthy living campaigns and sport programs might be launched to reduce work-related health problems and consequently early retirement. Our work is the first comprehensive study exploring the early retirement decision of the UAE nationals. One limitation of our study is the limited number of participants in the survey. Future work that will include a higher number of participants and supplementary questions to cover more job features (physical workload, other psychosocial factors) might be helpful.