This edited volume contributes a novel understanding of the past, present and future of higher education across the six countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Against the backdrop of intense political, ideological and epistemological disruptions across the Arabian Gulf Region over the last two decades, this volume adopts critical comparative perspectives in order to chart the history, present-day and future realities of higher education in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. By focusing on dynamics relating to neoliberalism, and using the notions of 'tensionality' and 'locality' to situate topics such as curricula, policies, practices, the volume engages with current discourses, controversies and themes such as the internationalization and marketization of higher education in these countries. In doing so, the book offers a theoretical framework to enable greater understanding of the contemporary functioning of higher education in the Arabian Gulf Region. This text will benefit scholars, academics and students in the fields of higher education and international and comparative education more broadly. Those involved with educational policy and politics, and Middle Eastern studies in general, will also benefit from this volume.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Digital Economy, ICDEc 2019, held in Beirut, Lebanon, in April 2019. The conference was founded in 2016 to discuss innovative research and projects related to the support role of Information System Technologies in the digital transformation process, business innovation and e-commerce. The 31 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 89 submissions. The theme of ICDEc 2019 was "Digital Economy: Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation". The papers were organized in topical sections named: digital transformation; e-finance; social media communication; intelligent systems; e-commerce and business analytics; e-learning and cloud education; e-commerce and digital economy; data science; digital marketing; and digital business model.

Organizations can use the valuable tool of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to make informed decisions on developing successful strategies, setting specific goals, and identifying underperforming activities to improve the output or outcome of performance measurement. Strategic Performance Management and Measurement Using Data Envelopment Analysis highlights the advantages of using DEA as a tool to improve business performance and identify sources of inefficiency in public and private organizations. These recently developed theories and applications of DEA will be useful for policymakers, managers, and practitioners in the areas of sustainable development of our society including environment, agriculture, finance, and higher education sectors.