Resumen de The role of MNCs and information flow on institutional change
Morris Kalliny, Mamoun Benmamoun, Robert Cropf, Seung H. Kim
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of large business corporations particularly media corporations such as TV (e.g. satellite networks), newspapers, and social media (e.g. Facebook) on institutional change in the Arab world which directly impact political and civil liberties in the region.
Design/methodology/approach Though there are several methods to measure institutional change, this paper relied on Kaufmann, Kraay and Mastruzzi (2010)�s governance indicators that capture, historically, how authority is exercised in a nation-state. Since the focus of this paper is on how information flows have empowered citizens in the Arab world, we built a panel database around one relevant governance indicator: �Voice and Accountability.� As a measure of governance, �Voice and Accountability� summarizes the condition of political, civil and human rights such as freedom of expression, and freedom of association in a given country. This indicator takes scores ranging from 2.5, corresponding to strong governance, to -2.5, corresponding to weak governance.
Findings As predicted, the information flows variable has a positive and significant effect on institutional change. Table 2 also suggests that political globalization has a positive and significant effect on institutional change in the Arab world. In contrast, the variables for cultural proximity and human capital are associated with negative effects on institutional change.
Originality/value This paper is unique in the the sense that it tackles a growing trend in the Arab world, namely the impact of media on institutions.
