International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies issn 1855-3362 (printed) issn 2232-6022 (online) The aim of the International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies is to promote intercultural dialogue and exchanges between societies, develop human resources, and to assure greater mutual understanding in the Euro-Mediterranean region. L‘objectif de la revue internationale d‘etudes Euro-Méditerranéennes est de promouvoir le dialogue interculturel et les échanges entre les sociétés, développer les ressources humaines et assurer une compréhension mutuelle de qualité au sein de la région euro-méditerranéenne. Namen Mednarodne revije za evro­mediteranske študije je spodbujanje medkulturnega dialoga in izmenjav, razvoj cloveških virov in zagotavljanje boljšega medsebojnega razumevanja v evro-mediteranski regiji. ijems is indexed in Scopus, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, Directory of Open Access Journals, Index Islamicus, oclc, and Summon by Serial Solutions. editor-in-chief Abdelhamid El-Zoheiry, Euro-Mediterranean University, Slovenia zoheiry@emuni.si managing editor Jaka Vadnjal, Euro-Mediterranean University, Slovenia, editor.ijems@emuni.si associate editors Barbara Gornik, Science and Research Centre Koper, Slovenia Karim Moustagh.r, Al Akhawayn University, Morocco Chahir Zaki, Cairo University, Egypt editorial advisory board Abeer Refky, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Egypt Francesco Martinico, University of Catania, Italy Mona Esam Othman Fayed, University of Cairo, Egypt Claudio Cressati, University of Udine, Italy Lola Bañon Castellón, University of Valencia, Spain Nataša Uroševic, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia Boštjan Udovic, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Maysoun Ibrahim, Palestinian Syndicate for Information Sciences and Technology, Palestine Péter Kacziba, University of Pécs, Hungary Lot. Ben Romdhane, University of Sousse, Tunisia Mejjad Nezha, University Hassan ii of Casablanca, Morocco International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies Table of Contents 155 Various Aspects of History: The Present and Future in Euro-Mediterranean Research Jaka Vadnjal 159Loyalty and A.liation of the Andalusian Elites towards Muluk Al-T¯ aw¯ a’if during the 11th Century/Fifth ah Meshal Alenezi . 175 Exploring State E.ectiveness in Sustainable Development: Development and Use of a Measurement Tool for the Fez-Meknes Region Adjoba Audrey Paule N’ze and Abderrahman Tenkoul 201 Measuring the Transparency of the Central Bank of Egypt as a Prerequisite for Adopting In.ation Targeting Policy Hebatalla Emam, Nagwa Samak, and Israa Abd ElAziz 221 Career Decisions in the Mediterranean: To Be or Not to Be an Entrepreneur? Predrag Ljubotina and Jaka Vadnjal 251 Assessment of Coastal Water Quality by Testing a Linear Model Using Landsat 8 sst Data: Exploratory Study Yousra Ezzghari, El Khalil Cherif, Ayman Bnoussaad, Hamza El Azhari, and Hakim Boulaassal 281 Résumés 285 Povzetki 289 ã information for authors Manuscripts are accepted on the understanding that they are original and not under simultaneous consideration by any other publication. Submitted manuscripts may be subject to checks in order to detect instances of plagiarism. All manuscripts are double-blind peer reviewed. Manuscripts should be prepared following The Chicago Manual of Style. For submissions and detailed instructions about the style and content of papers, please see https://ijems.emuni.si. copyright notice The International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies is an Open Access Journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Copyright for all articles published in ijems is held by individual authors. No author fees are charged. published by Euro-Mediterranean University Trevisini Palace Kidricevo nabrežje 2 si-6330 Piran, Slovenia https://ijems.emuni.si ijems@emuni.si Print run: 200. Printed in Slovenia by Demat d.o.o., Ljubljana Mednarodna revija za evro-mediteranske študijejenamenjena mednarodni znanstveni in strokovni javnosti; izhaja v anglešcini s povzetki v slovenšcini, francošcini in arabšcini. Izid je .nancno podprla Javna agencija za znanstvenoraziskovalno in inovacijsko dejavnost Republike Slovenije iz sredstev državnega proracuna iz naslova razpisa za so.nanciranje domacih znanstvenih periodicnih publikacij. Revija je brezplacna. Various Aspects of History: The Present and Future in Euro-Mediterranean Research jaka vadnjal Euro-Mediterranean University, Slovenia jaka.vadnjal@emuni.si https://emuni.si/ISSN/2232-6022/16.155-158.pdf In this new issue the International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies, we are proud to present .ve articles with very diversi.ed content. Two articles focus on past historical periods, two deal with the business reality of today and the last is centred on one of the most important questions concerning the future: our fresh water supply. Meshal Alenezi (Kuwait), in his article ‘Loyalty and A.liation of the Andalusian Elites Towards Muluk Al-T¯ aw¯ a’if During the 11th . Century/Fifth ah’ explores how 11th century Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus) witnessed political and military dis­integration caused by its division into twenty-two Arab and Berber states. In the presence of intellectual and scienti.c prosperity, schol­ars and historians were also prompted to examine the cultural pros­perity of the Islamic states in al-Andalus, the domination of Chris­tians in these states as well as the con.ict between the Islamic states. This research clari.es the loyalty of Andalusian elites to the 11th century Muslim rulers in the Iberian Peninsula. It delves into the political positions and ambitions of these elites, particularly those of famous poets and jurists since many scholars concentrate on how the political weakness of the Iberian Muslim rulers impacted the cultural contributions of poets and jurists without examining how it a.ected their political ambitions and loyalty to those rulers in question during this century. Adjoba Audrey Paule Nze and Abderrahman Tenkoul (Morrocco), in her article ‘Exploring State E.ectiveness in Sustainable Develop­ment: Development and Use of a Measurement Tool for the Fez-Meknes Region’ investigates the application of sustainable devel­opment, which has evolved into a fundamental tenet that is incor­ [156] porated into numerous laws and frameworks for governing bodies. The paper presents a tool for measuring and comparing internal governance capacity for sustainability and operationalisation in the Mediterranean region, such as the provinces and prefectures of the Fez-Meknes region, which aims to be a reference for the sub-region as a smart, resilient, and sustainable city. Using this tool reveals the variety of governance arrangements and their various capacities. It also shows where and how our modes of cultural management, which can be further reinvented and better organised, can be im­proved in terms of governance of the sustainability of governments and administrations. Hebatalla Emam, Nagwa Samak, and Israa Abd Elaziz (Egypt) fo­cused on modern day .nance in their article ‘Measuring the Trans­parency of the Central Bank of Egypt as a Prerequisite for Adopt­ing In.ation Targeting Policy.’ It has been almost two decades since the Central Bank of Egypt (cbe) initially announced its intention to adopt the it regime once the fundamental prerequisites were met. The transition towards the it policy has been part of the complete revamping and reform of monetary policy in Egypt following the various challenges in the Egyptian economy that have been under­waysincethelatenineties(AlMashat2008).Thus,the cbe haspaid continuousattentionincomplyingwiththepreconditionsofthe it policy. The purpose of this paper is to assess the degree of trans­parency of the cbe over the period 2005–2021. The study relies on the most recently developed index for Central Bank Transparency (cbt) for in.ation-targeting central banks, designed by Al-Mashat et al. (2018) to quantify the degree of transparency of the cbe. The analysisrevealsthat cbt inEgyptisadvancing,butwitharelatively reasonablepathofchange.Still,the cbe hasalargevoidto.ll,espe­cially pertaining to the transparency related to the Forecasting and Policy Analysis System and policy-making process. Predrag Ljubotina and Jaka Vadnjal (Slovenia), in their article ‘Career Decisions in the Mediterranean: To Be or Not to Be an En­trepreneur?,’ discuss recent research on family business succession, which has primarily focused on the importance of individual and family factors; nevertheless, regional in.uences have often been disregarded. This study investigates the in.uence of regional cir-[157] cumstances on the career choice intentions of family company heirs with respect to employment, beginning their own entrepreneurial endeavour, or family .rm succession using individual level cross-country data. The authors have found that there are several dis­tinctions between the European and non-European Mediterranean countries. Even beyond circumstances, such as the university set­ting, entrepreneurship in the curriculum, entrepreneurial mindsets, locus of control, power distance and subjective standards, individual characteristics of the family business and start-up time are impor­tant determinants. Policies regarding company succession and re­lated .rm survival should be particularly based on various macroe­conomic and youth labour market factors in order to reduce succes­sion failures. Yousra Ezzghari, El Khalil Cherif, Ayman Bnoussaad, Hamza El Azhari and Hakim Boulaassal (Morrocco) in their article ‘Assess­ment of Coastal Water Quality by Testing a Linear Model Using Landsat 8 sst data: Exploratory Study,’ discuss the richness of the ecology of the Mediterranean Basin, which lies o. the coast of Tang­ier, Morocco, considered one of the most valuable waters. However, pollution is a growing problem along this coastline. In order to de­termine the northern Mediterranean coastal water quality in .f­teen selected sites along the coast from Tangier to Ksar-Sghir, a lin­ear model was developed for the Atlantic western coastal waters of Tangier using a sea surface temperature estimated from Landsat 8 images and Escherichia coli concentration. According to the .nd­ings, the cities around the Souani and Mghogha Rivers, and Tangier Med Port, had the highest measurements, which is indicative of low quality and extremely high levels of hazardous contamination. The tested model is useful for estimating the quality of coastal water on the Mediterranean side of Tangier, and in the future, as a means of potentially monitoring pollution in this region. We hope you will enjoy reading these articles. Please feel free to recommend them to your colleagues for use in their own research and to refer them to ijems for future submissions for potential publication. [158] Loyalty and A.liation of the Andalusian Elites towards Muluk¯ Al-Taw¯ a’if during the 11th . Century/Fifth ah meshal alenezi Kuwait University, Kuwait meshal.alenezi@ku.edu.kw 11th century Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus)wit­nessed political and military disintegration caused by its division into twenty-two Arab and Berber states. However, there was still cultural, intellectual, and scienti.c prosperity, prompting scholars and historians to examine the cultural prosperity of the Islamic states in al-Andalus, the domination of Christians in these states as well as the con.ict between the Islamic states. This research clari.es the loyalty of Andalusian elites to the 11th century Mus­lim rulers in the Iberian Peninsula. It delves into the political po­sitions and ambitions of these elites, particularly those of famous poets and jurists since many scholars concentrate on how the po­litical weakness of the Iberian Muslim rulers impacted the cultural contributions of poets and jurists without examining how it im­pacted their political ambitions and loyalty to these rulers during this century. The methodology of this study is historically centred which analyses several primary sources in the 11th century, thus providing arguments to .ll gaps in the existing literature. Key Words: Jurists, Poets, al-Andalus, loyalty, Muluk Al-T¯ aw¯a’if . https://emuni.si/ISSN/2232-6022/16.159-174.pdf introduction In the .rst two decades of the 11th century, the Umayyad Caliphate in al-Andalus weakened due to internal .ghting for rule, which re­ sulted in a state of chaos. The weakness of the last Umayyad caliphs gave the rulers of the Andalusian provinces the opportunity to se­ cede. In the third decade of the 11th century, the Umayyad Caliphate in the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus) collapsed. Consequently, al-Andalus was divided into twenty-two Arab and Berber states, among which were: Sevilla (Ishb¯iliya)under theruleofBan¯ ad, Cordoba i Abb¯ (Qurtubah)under Ban¯i Jahwar, Granada (Girnat¯ a)under Ban¯iZ¯ir¯i, .. [160] Badajoz (Batalyaws)under Ban¯ial-Aftas, Toledo (Tulaytilah)under . . .. Ban¯iTh¯ un, Zaragoza (Saraqust iH¯ iAn¯ a)under Ban¯ ud and Valencia . (Falansyah)under Ban¯i Amir. This era was called the era of Mul¯ uk¯ al-Taw¯ a’if. These states had reached a stage of weakness against the . Christians in the Peninsula, and had lost their legitimacy. However, The era of Mul¯ ¯ aw¯ uk al-T a’if witnessed cultural, intellectual, and sci­ . enti.c prosperity, because the Andalusian rulers sponsored and in­terested in scienti.c and cultural aspects of society (Palencia 1955, 78). Consequently, many scientists excelled in various sciences, in­cluding Ibn Sa¯id al-Andalus¯i (d. 462 ah/1070) from Toledo, who . specialised in astronomy, religions, and history (Al-Hat¯amlah 2000, . 98). In addition, in this era, eminent jurists included poets, such as Ab¯ id al-B¯ i(d. 476 ah/1084), Ibn Hazm (d. 456 ah/1064), ual-Wal¯ aj¯ . Ab¯ afs i(d. 460 ah/1068), andIbn Abd al-Bir (d. 463 uH al-Hawzan¯ .. ah/1071). Accordingly, this research delves into the political positions and ambitions of jurists and poets to analyse their loyalty to Mul¯ uk al-Taw¯ a’if during the eleventh century. The aim of this investigation . is to clarify the impact of the weakness of Muluk al-T¯ aw¯ a’if on the . loyalty of the Andalusian elites towards the latter, as well as the am­bitions of these elites during this period. literature review Many scholars and historians concentrate on cultural prosperity in al-Andalus. For example, in his article, Sal¯ Jar¯ ah ar discusses the sci­ .. enti.c and literary contributions of Abb¯ as(d.273ah/887). as b. Firn¯ Jar¯ aswrotecertainpoemstopraisepar­ ar (1990) urges that Ibn Firn¯ ticular Umayyad emirs in Andalus to obtain .nancial gains. Anwar Chejne (1982), in his book entitled, Ibn Hazm, concentrates on the . scienti.c aspects of Ibn Hazm’s life. Chejne discusses Ibn Hazm’s .. education, teachers, and his scienti.c and literary contributions. Additionally, theses scholars examine the impact of the political weakness of Muluk al-T¯ aw¯ a’if on Andalusian literature. For example, . Khawlah M¯is¯ am (2009), discuss the weak­ i(2015)and LayláJugh¯ ness of Islamic rule in al-Andalus and the fall of the Andalusian cities during the 11th century, which resulted in the increase in poems of lament, which described the loss of the Andalusian cities, such as [161] Toledo and Valencia. In addition, in her master thesis, the scholar Rasma’¯ Abd al-Rah an (2011) discusses the impact of the political m¯ . conditions of al-Andalus in the 11th century on the style of Andalu­sian poetry. She a.rms that these circumstances contributed to the development of poems of lament in al-Andalus during this century. Other scholars look at various aspects of al-Andalus during the 11th century. Kar¯imah Naq¯ uqarbah list az (2017) and al-Shaykh b¯ the poems that described Andalusian architecture in the 11th cen­tury.In his book,Muhammad Sa¯id (2020) discusses the status of . Andalusian poets, such as Ibn Zayd¯ mad un(d.463 ah/1071)andAh . b. Abdal-Malik(d.426 ah/1035),whobecameministersamongthe 11th century Andalusian rulers. In addition, Sa‘¯id examines the po­etry of al-Mutamid b. Abb¯ ad (461–484 ah/1069–1091) to his fa­ther al-Mutadid (434–461 ah/1042–1069) after his failure to an­ . nex Malaga to Sevilla. Henry Peres (1983) studies various topics of 11th century Andalusian poetry, such as nature, animals, promiscu­ity, wine, praise, sports, marriage, masculinity, asceticism and mys­ticism. the andalusian cultural community and the weakness of muluk al-t¯ aw¯ a’if. In the last year of the 10th century, the King of Navara, Garcia Sanchez ii (384–390 ah/994–1000), died, and his son, Sanchez iii (390–426 ah/1000–1035), ascended the throne of Navara (Ibn Kardabus¯ 1971). The latter was married to Elvira (d. 458 ah/1066), thesisteroftheKingofCastile,GarciaSanchez(408–420 ah/1017– 1029). The latter was assassinated in 420 ah/1029 in the Church of the Crown of Leon during his marriage ceremony to Dona Sancha (An¯ an1997).Consequently,Sanchez iii becametheKingofNavara and Castile. Sanchez iii appointed his son Fernando i (420–457 ah/1029–1065) as the King of Castile. Furthermore, Sanchez iii conquered the Crown of Leon and annexed it to his crown. In 426 ah/1035, Sanchez iii died, and his son Fernando I inherited the three kingdoms in the north. Therefore, it can be noted that the Christian kingdoms united under the rule of one king, Fernando I, [162] whereas at that time, there were twenty-two Islamic states of the southern Iberian Peninsula. Fernando I exploited the division of Islamic rule into twenty two states in the south of the Peninsula by attacking and capturing many Andalusian states. In 448 ah/1057, he captured the city of Vizeu from Ban¯ as in Badajoz, and killed many of its inhabitants ual-Aft . (Anan¯ 1997). In addition, between 454 ah and 456 ah/1062 and 1064, Fernando I attacked the states of Toledo and Sevilla, but he did not seize any towns from them. However, in 456 ah/1064, he cap­tured the city of Coimbra from BanuD¯ an¯ ¯is in the west of al-Andalus (Bleye 1963). Before these attacks, a few intellectual elites appeared and warn­ed of the division of al-Andalus into several states, because they thought that this situation would encourage the Iberian Christians, who had united under the rule of one king, to capture the Andalu­sian states. The weak point of these elites was that they had not been supported and directed by the political elites, particularly min­isters. Abu¯ Abd Allah¯ al-Bazlyan¯ ¯i(d. 445 ah/1054)was thelone minister who warned about the political situation of Iberian Is­lamic rule (Al-Hat¯ amlah 2000). He was a minister for the ruler of . Granada,Bad¯ ¯ ab¯ isb. H us(429–465 ah/1038–1073),beforebecoming . the minister for the ruler of Sevilla, Abu¯ Amr Abb¯ id ad al-Mutad . (434–461 ah/1042–1069). Al-Bazlyan¯ ¯i was aware of the danger of the situation of Islamic rule in al-Andalus, as a result of which, al­Mutadid had him killed. In addition, the Muslim inhabitants in . al-Andalus supported and preferred certain Andalusian rulers (Ibn Abb¯ ud 1983, 27), out of fear that some of these rulers harboured wishes to maintain the political status quo. Some of these rulers relied on cruelty and violence against any attempt by political, cul­tural, and public elites to change the situation (Al-Kahlut¯ 2010). . However, the intellectual elites in the Iberian Peninsula were di­vided into two parties. The .rst party included a few jurists, who were from di.erent parts of al-Andalus (Al-Kahl¯ut 2010). They were . against the Andalusian rulers’ acts that weakened the prestige of Is­lamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula and put it at risk of collapse. This political situation a.ected the cultural activities, lives and careers of these jurists, and some exploited their careers and cultural capabil-[163] ities, such as teaching, poems, the judiciary, and their expertise in al-amr bi al-Mar¯ uf wa al-Nahy an al-Munkar (enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong) to urge these rulers to unite under one strong and e.cient ruler (Al-Hat¯ amlah 2000). It can be argued . that some of these jurists abandoned some of their interests, partic­ularly historiography and the teaching of Islamic law for the public due to their movements to convince the Andalusian rulers to unite. The members of the .rst party were Abual-Wal¯ ¯id al-Baj¯ ¯i, Ibn Hazm, . Ab¯ afs uzan¯ ual-Wal¯ i(d. 488 ah/1095), and uH al-H¯ i, Ab¯ id al-Waqsh¯ .. Ibn Abd al-Bir (Al-Maqqar¯i1843; Ibn Abb¯ud 1983). The other party included those poets who did not care about the division of Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula into twenty-two states. They continued to practise their cultural activities in their favour instead of focusing on the fate of Islamic rule due to security and .nancial reasons as well as their political ambitions and posi­tions. the jurists’ political efforts and loyalty Abual-Wal¯ ¯id al-B¯ iwas from Beja (B¯ aj¯ ajah), which was part of Bada­joz under the rule of Ban¯ as, and Ab¯ afs al-Hawzan¯iwas ual-Aft uH . .. from Sevilla under the rule of Banu¯ Abbad¯ (Adang, Fierro, and Schmidtke 2012, 5). In addition, Ibn Abd al-Bir was from Cordoba under the rule of Banu¯ Jahwar. In thefourthdecadeofthe 11th century, Ibn Abd al-Bir began to move from the east to the west of the Andalusian territories to ask the most prominent Muslim rulers to unite with each other under one ruler. Consequently, he remained in Badajoz and took over the judiciary, probably because heprobablybelievedBan¯ astobethemoste.cientrulerfor ual-Aft . the southern Iberian Peninsula (Ibn Khallik¯ an 1972). By taking con­trol of the judiciary, he most likely thought this position would urge the inhabitants of Badajoz and other Andalusian states to unite un­der the rule of Banual-Aft¯ as through issuing fatw¯a (legal opinion). . Thus, he left his interests represented in the teaching of the Qur’¯ an, al-Had¯ith, and jurisprudence, areas in which he was a scholar (Abu¯ . Abb¯ as 2020). [164] In 463 ah/1071, Ibn Abd al-Bir visited Xativa (Shat¯.aba), which had been part of Valencia under the rule of Banu¯ A¯ amir, to try to convincethestatetocomeundertheruleofBan¯ as. However, ual-Aft . Ibn Abdal-Birfailedinthismatter. He then died andwas buried in Xativa (Ibn Khallik¯ an 1972). Ibn Abd al-Bir was the leader of these jurists in improving the status of Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula, because these ju­rists, including al-Baj¯ ¯i, considered him the most learned jurist in al­Had¯ith (the Prophet Muhammad’s statements) in the Iberian Penin­ . . sula (Ibn Khallik¯ an 1972). This contradicts the claim of Abd al-Rahman¯ al-Haj¯i(2014,375) .. that there were disagreements between Ibn Abd al-Bir and al-Baj¯ ¯i. Al-Haj¯i has referred to disagreements between al-Baj¯ ¯iand Ibn Abd . al-Bir due to the latter’s following of al-Z¯ idoctrine. Al-Haj¯ ahir¯ i’s .. claim was based on a non-contemporary source, Ibn Umayrah, who died in 599 ah/1203 (Ibn Umayrah 1967, 71). WithregardtoAb¯ idal-B¯i,hedirectedhise.ortsinim- ual-Wal¯ aj¯ proving the status of Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula after he returned from his scienti.c trip from al-Mashriq, which lasted for 13 years, from 425 to 438 ah/1034 to 1048 (Al-Shantar¯in¯i1979 ). It can be assumed that al-Baj¯ ¯idid notwrite down andteach the ex­planations of jurisprudence that he had learned from the jurists of al-Mashriq following his return due to the political situation in al-Andalus. Abd al-Rahm¯ aj¯ aj¯i commenced anal-H i(2014,375)arguesthatal-B¯ .. his e.orts in 477 ah/1084 after the ruler of Badajoz, al-Mutawakil b. al-Aftas (437–487 ah/1045–1094), requested him given that the . King of Castile, Alfonso vi (457–503 ah/1065–1109), had attacked many states in al-Andalus, including Badajoz; the latter had also re­quested a large tribute. This may be refuted by arguing that in 477 ah/1084, Alfonso vi mobilised his army to besiege Toledo, which was his primary aim (Ibn Kardab¯ us 1971). Ab¯ id al-B¯ i, during his movement to eastern, western, ual-Wal¯ aj¯ northern and southern al-Andalus, adapted the teaching profession as a mean to invite Muslim students to unite in the cities in which he taught (Abb¯ as 1971). Many of his students were poets, and they described this e.ort in their poems (Al-Maqqar¯i1968). Al-Baj¯ ¯iwas a [165] famous poet in the 11th century. He used poetry in di.erent ways, including to praise some of the jurists and judges whom he visited in al-Mashriq, to grieve his sons who died and to invite Muslims to join the movement of asceticism. However, he did not utilise poetry to invite the rulers in al-Andalus to unite. He was strict with them; he used clues from al-Qur’¯ an and the statements of the Prophet Muhammad (al-Had¯ith) to warn these rulers about plots, advising . . them to unite. Consequently, most rulers respected and welcomed him (Al-Shantar¯in¯i1979 ). Many historians, such as Abd al-Rahman¯ al-Haj¯i(2014)and .. Muhammad Abd Allah¯ Anan¯ (1997), believe that after the Viking . conquest of Barbastro (Barbashtar) in 456 ah/1064, during which many Muslims were killed in Barbastro, which had been part of ZaragozastateundertheruleofBan¯ ud,themovementsofjurists uH¯ among the most prominent Andalusian rulers and their inhabitants to encourage them to unite under one ruler increased (Al-Haj¯i2014, . 367, 390;An¯ aj¯ an (1997) were an 1997, 374–379). Al-H i(2014)and An¯ . probably referring to the poets Abu¯ Abd All¯ al from Toledo ah al-As¯ (d. 487 ah/1094) and AbuIsh¯ aq¯ al-Alb¯ir¯i (d. 459ah/1067) from . Granada who wrote poems to encourage the Muslims of al-Andalus and their rulers to unify to recapture Barbastro (Ibn Al-Khat¯ib 1956, . 2:231). These two poets did not join Abual-Wal¯ ¯id al-Baj¯ ¯i, Ibn Hazm, . AbuH¯ afs uzan¯ al-H¯ i, and Ibn Abd al-Bir in their movements to ask .. the Iberian Muslim rulers to unite and stop plotting against one other that pre-dated the fall of Barbastro. However, it can be consid­ered that these two poets were Islamicists, because they interacted with the fall of an Andalusian city to which they did not belong and applied the Islamic principle that Muslims should help each other. The fall of Barbastro did not increase the movements of Ab¯ ual­aj¯ uH Wal¯id al-B¯ i, Ibn Hazm, Ab¯ afs al-Hawzan¯i, and Ibn Abd al-Bir . .. to request the Andalusian rulers to unite. It is possible they realised that their summons for unity before the fall of Barbastro had not achieved any result. Consequently, the scholar of al-Had¯ith, Abu¯ . Hafs i, critiqued Ab¯ ad al-Mutadid, the ruler al-Hawzan¯ u Amr Abb¯ .. . of Sevilla (Abb¯ as 1971). [166] Al-Hawzan¯i wrote poetry expressing the negligence of al-Muta­did in recapturing Barbastro from the Vikings (M¯is¯i2015).Conse­ . quently, this criticism angered al-Mutadid, who killed al-Hawzan¯i . in 460 ah/1068 (Al-Quda¯¯i1985,2:41). Thelatterusedpoetryin­ . stead of al-Had¯ith for his criticism of al-Mutadid, because he be­ . . lieved that poetry would a.ect al-Mutadid, who was interested in . literature, particularly poetry. Al-Hawzan¯i’s poems to al-Mutadid, . including touching words about the great incidents against Mus­lims, did not provoke the jealousy of the Muslim ruler (Al-Quda¯¯i . 1985,2:41).Thus,Sevilla lost itsmostimportant scholarin al-Had¯ith. . After the fall of Barbastro, Ibn Hazm did not use poetry against . al-Mutadid, because Ibn Hazm died in 456 ah/1064. However, he .. used poetry against al-Mutadid after the latter burned the former’s . books in Sevilla. This act caused al-Andalus to lose approximately 400 intellectual works that had been created by Ibn Hazm (Halver­ . son 2010). Ibn Hazm expressed in his poems that burning his books . would not stop him from telling the truth, because the contents of his books were preserved in his chest (Al-Ham¯ adah 2011, 77). . Some scholars believe that al-Mutadid burned Ibn Hazm’s books .. because the latter was a follower of the al-Z¯ i doctrine, which ahir¯ . was at odds with all al-M¯ i jurists in al-Andalus (Gleave 2012, 169). alik¯ Consequently, al-M¯ i jurists in Sevilla incited al-Mutadid against alik¯ . Ibn Hazm, who was present there in this period (Al-H adah 2011, am¯ .. 77). This may be refuted by arguing that there was a relationship of respectandadmirationbetweenAb¯ idal-B¯ iandIbnHazm, ual-Wal¯ aj¯ . inwhichthelattersaidthatAb¯ idal-B¯ iwasoneofthemost ual-Wal¯ aj¯ e.cient al-Malik¯ ¯i jurists in the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Thahab¯i1998, 1:56). Ibn Hazm met al-Baj¯ ¯i on Mallorca Island on the eastern coast . of the Iberian Peninsula that had been ruled by the Muslim ruler of D¯ iIqb¯ ulah (436–468 ah/1044–1075) (Al­ anyah state, Al¯ al al-D¯ Maqqar¯i1968,2:67).Itispossiblethattheir meetingwas of acultural nature or to discuss the fate of Islamic rule on the Iberian Peninsula. The prime reason which led al-Mutadid to burn Ibn Hazm’s book .. is that Ibn Hazm’s origins were in Cordoba, and he had combat­ . ted the attempts of Banu¯ Abbad¯ to annex Cordoba. Banu¯ Abbad¯ claimed that they found Hish¯ am al-Mu’ayyad, a missing Umayyad Caliph in 424 ah/1033, when the inhabitants of Cordoba thought [167] thathehaddisappearedin403 ah/1013. Banu¯ Abb¯ ad wanted to ap­point him as a .ctitious caliph of Sevilla and Cordoba, so they could control him (Al-Andalus¯i1987, 2:9 7). Ibn Hazm was not convinced of the e.ciency of Ban¯ ad,u Abb¯ . especially al-Mutadid’s rule of al-Andalus in a uni.ed manner, be­ . cause of his plots against the Andalusian rulers, particularly the An­dalusian Berber rulers, as well as al-Mutadid’s weakness against the . Christian kings (An¯ an 1997, 493). An example to support this view is that al-Mutadid made great e.orts and sent a lot of money to annex . the western and southern states of al-Andalus to Sevilla, and created many plots to annex Granada, which was under the rule of BanuZ¯ ¯ir¯i, belonging to the Sinh¯ ajah, a Berber tribe. At the same time, he was . so weak against Fernando I, the King of Castile, Navara and Leon, that al-Mutadid was subject to him, paid him tribute and promised . him all his demands (Casewit and Böwering 2015, 3; An¯ an 1997, 48). It can therefore be deduced that the plots of al-Mutadid were a vi­ . tal obstacle, which hindered the e.orts of the jurists from uniting al-Andalus under one ruler. According to Ibn Bassam¯ al-Shantar¯in¯i (d. 541 ah/1147), a contemporary historian of this era, al-Mutadid . was a source of strife and disintegration among the Muslims of al-Andalus (Al-Shantar¯in¯i1979 ). With regard to the e.orts of al-Baj¯ ¯i in recapturing Barbastro, he metAb¯ afs iinZaragozain1064toencouragetheMus­ uH al-Hawzan¯ .. lims to .ght to recover Barbastro (Aayad¯ 1965, 4:825; Dayf 1989, .. 379). Consequently, they mobilised 6,000 .ghters under the lead­ership of the ruler of Zaragoza, al-Muqtadir Ahmad b. H¯ ud (441– . 475 ah/1049–1082),whosucceededinrecapturingBarbastroin457 ah/1065 (Pau and Ramirez 2004, 160). After the recapture of Barbastro, Ab¯ id al-B¯ istayedfor ual-Wal¯ aj¯ awhile in Zaragoza (Anan¯ 1997, 282). It is possible that the ruler ofZaragoza,al-MuqtadirAhmadb. H¯ aj¯ ud, requested al-B¯ itostayin . Zaragoza due to the latter’s e.orts in recapturing Barbastro. In addi­tion,al-Baj¯ ¯ uH¯ iprobablybelievedthatBan¯ udwasthemostquali.ed to rule al-Andalus since in the seventh decade of the 11th century, the ruler of Zaragoza, al-Muqtadir Ahmad b. H¯ud, annexed Denia . [168] (D¯anyah) state in the east of al-Andalus that had been established in404 ah/1014byal-Muj¯ amir¯ ahid al-A¯ i. In addition, Zaragoza had not been attacked by Fernando I nor his son Alfonso vi, the kings of Castile (Ibn Khald¯un 1999, 4:354; Luis Corral 1998, 155–156). Con­ sequently, Abual-Wal¯ ¯id al-Waqsh¯ilefthis native city Toledo for D¯ a¯¯i anyah (Al-Qud i 1994, 1:136). It can be assured that al-Waqsh¯ . believed that al-Muqtadir b. Hud¯ would be the most e.cient ruler (Bad¯i 2006, 370). He had been considered the best astronomer un­ der the rule of Ban¯ ud (Abb¯ uH¯ as 1971). In addition, it can be as­sumed that the ruler of Zaragoza al-Muqtadir Ahmad b. H¯ ud earned . legitimacy, because al-Baj¯ ¯ alik¯ iwas theleading M¯ ijuristof the period of Mul¯ ¯ aw¯ uk Al-T a’if (Jenkins 2011, 131). . the poets’ ambitions and loyalty Poetry was one type of literature that .ourished in al-Andalus in the 11th century, during which the status of Andalusian poets reached a climax within Andalusian society and among political authori­ ties. Some Andalusian rulers were famous poets, such as the rulers of Almeria, al-Mutasim b. S adihum¯ (443–484 ah/1051–1091) and .. . al-Mutamid b. Abb¯ ad. The latter used his ingenuity of poetry to describe his social life, including his love for his wife Itimad¯ al­ Ram¯ikiyah (d. 487 ah/1095), who was also a famous poet. The poets who became ministers in Andalusian states, did not employ their ingenuity of poetry to urge the Andalusian rulers to stop the plots and to unite under one ruler, because these poets wanted to maintain their political positions. For example, before he was appointed a minister in Cordoba by Ban¯ un uJahwar, Ibn Zayd¯ had mourned the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in al-Andalus (Palencia 1955, 80.). It is possible he realised that the division of al- Andalus into many states following the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate would subject Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula to potential col­ lapse. However, he wrote poems to praise Ban¯ uJahwar, whoalsohad appointed him an ambassador to negotiate with certain Andalusian rulers (Anan¯ 1997, 26; Palencia 1955, 84). In addition, Ibn Zayd¯ un employed his poetic prowess to express his love for Wal¯ adah b. al­Mustakf¯i(d. 483 ah/1091),adaughteroftheUmayyadCaliphin al-Andalus, al-Mustakf¯ ah(415–416ah/1024–1025). Thispolitical [169] ibiAll¯ position, as well as the romantic relationship with Wal¯ adah b. al­Mustakf¯i, increased haters and envious people against Ibn Zayd¯ un (Menocal, Scheindlin, and Sells 2000). For example, the minister Ibn Abd¯ adah,hadincitedBan¯ us (d. unknown), who loved Wal¯ uJahwar against Ibn Zayd¯ un. The latter was therefore, jailed in Cordoba (Pa­lencia 1955, 82). However, he was able to .ee to Sevilla and become the minister of al-Mutadid in 466 ah/1054 (al-Zarkal¯i 2002, 158). . IbnZayd¯ idthelatter’splots un did not dare to discuss with al-Mutad . against the Andalusian rulers. He probably feared being killed like Abu¯ Abd All¯ an¯ id. ah al-Bazly¯ ihad been,on the orders of al-Mutad . Consequently, Ibn Zayd¯ id against un praised the plots of al-Mutad . the Andalusian rulers (Palencia 1955, 85), justifying them for the purpose of unifying Islamic rule in al-Andalus. Another example worth citing is that of the poet Ab¯ uBakrb. Am¯ ar(d.477 ah/1085),whohadbeenaministerofal-Mutamid b. Abb¯ uBakrb. Am¯ ad.Ab¯ arusedhispoeticskillsforhisownpersonal interests. At the beginning of his life, he was poor, so he relied on po­etry to earn money from rich people in al-Andalus (Ecker 2004, 56). He then used his poetic prowess in spinning to retain his position and friendship with al-Mutamid, who was interested in spinning poetry (Anan¯ 1997, 68). In addition, due to the political ambitions ofAb¯ ar,hedidnotusehisingenuityofpoetrytourge uBakr b. Am¯ the Andalusian rulers to unite under one ruler, rather aiming to rule aspotof al-Andalus (Al-Hat¯ amlah 2000, 497). He succeeded in con­ . vincing al-Mutamid to prepare a campaign for Murcia (Mursiyah)in south-eastern al-Andalus, which resulted in the annexation of Mur­cia to Seville. He then ruled Murcia and announced its independence from Seville (Palencia 1955, 92). Consequently, al-Mutamid killed him in 477 ah/1085 (Crompton 2006, 168). With regard to the poets who did not hold any political position in the palace of the Andalusian rulers, there was AbuIsh¯ ¯ ir¯ aq al-Alb¯ i . from Granada. He criticised the internal political situation of his state, Granada, through poetry focusing on the ruler of Granada, Bad¯ ¯ ab¯ is b. H us, because the latter had appointed a Jewish minister, . Y¯ alah (d. 458 ah/1066). B¯ is b. Habus¯ had appointed usif b. Nigr¯ ad¯ . [170] Y¯ alahduetothee.ortsofhisfather,theminister,Ism¯ il usifb. Nigr¯ a¯ b. Nigr¯ alah (d. 447 ah/1055), who had participated in appointing Bad¯ ¯is as the ruler of Granada after the death of Bad¯ ¯is’ father, Habus¯ b. M¯ aksin (410–429ah/1019–1038), the second ruler of Granada (Stillman 1979 ,56).Inhis poems, AbuIsh¯ ¯ ir¯ aq al-Alb¯ iexpressed that . the master of Sinh¯ ad¯ abus¯ be­ ajah, a Berber tribe to which B¯ is b. H .. longed, committed a sin when he appointed an in.del a minister in Granada, which resulted in apparent ´gloating´ over the Mus­lims of Granada (Balq¯in 1955, 54). These words led the inhabitants of Granada to kill this particular minister and many Jews in Granada. Consequently, Bad¯ ¯is b. Habus jailed Ab¯ uIsh¯ aq al-Alb¯ir¯i(Balq¯ ¯ in 1955, .. 54), whodied inprison. It canbeassumed that this poet expressed his loyalty to his country by rejecting the appointment of Jews as ministers in his nation. Some poets exhibited no loyalty, because their primary aim was to receive .nancial gains from the Andalusian rulers. They did not therefore, care about the status of Islamic rule on the Iberian Penin­sula. In fact, some Andalusian rulers depended on them to legit­imise their fragile rule and to hide their .aws. The role of these po­ets was to praise these Andalusian rulers whether they were right or wrong. For example, Ibn Ham¯idis (d. 527 ah/1133), one of the . poets of al-Mutamid b. Abb¯ ad, praised the ruler very much. After the Battle of Sagrajas, Ibn Ham¯idis described Mutamid b. Abbad¯ . as a protector of Islam and Islamic rule on the Iberian Peninsula (Ibn Khallikan¯ 1972, 3:214–215). This D¯ an of poetry was proba­ iw¯ bly used as a tool to legitimise the rule of al-Mutamid in the eyes of the Muslim inhabitants of al-Andalus after the rise in popular­ity of al-Murabit¯ ¯ un from al-Maghrib. Consequently, he was .nan­ . cially rewarded by Mutamidm (al-Zarkal¯i 2002, 274). Ibn Ham¯idis . left al-Andalus for North Africa after al-Mutamid was deposed in 484 ah/1091. There, he praised rulers of North Africa, particularly BanuZ¯ ¯ir¯iin Ifr¯iqya to receive .nancial gains (al-Zarkal¯i2002,274). Some poets, including Abu¯ Al¯ is b. al-Yam¯ iIdr¯ an(d.470ah/1077), preceded Ibn Ham¯idis and praised certain Andalusian rulers, ben­ . e.tting from some of them .nancially. Abu¯ Al¯iIdr¯is b. al-Yaman¯ praised the ruler of Toledo, al-Ma’m¯ un (d. 1077), although the lat­ter had many weaknesses (Far¯ un was in [171] ukh 1985, 623). Al-Ma’m¯ constant con.ict with al-Andalusian states and was in a state of submission to Fernando I (Anan¯ 1997, 383–384.). Abu¯ Al¯iIdr¯is b. al-Yam¯ id. The poet Ibn an also praised the ruler of Sevilla, al-Mutad . al-Had¯ i (d. 480 ah/1087) followed in Ab¯ iIdr¯is b. ad al-Andalus¯ uAl¯ . al-Yam¯ im an’s footsteps by praising the ruler of Almeria, al-Mutas . b.Sum¯ .,andthe rulerofZaragoza, al-Muqtadirb. H¯ adih ud (Cortes . Garcia 2009, 46–48). Additionally, there was Ibn Abbar¯ al-Khul¯ an¯ ¯i (d. 433 ah/1042), who praised Banu¯ Abb¯ id’s plots against ad, and justi.ed al-Mutad . the Andalusian rulers for the purpose of unifying Islamic rule in al-Andalus (Ibn Khallikan¯ 1972, 1:142). It can therefore be concluded that these poets contributed to the continuation of the weakness of the Andalusian rulers. In addition, it can be assumed that some of these poets were mercenaries while others feared for their lives from the oppression of the rulers. Another example is that of the mercenary poet, Ibn al-Bun¯i(d. 490 ah/1097). He satirised al-Murabit¯ ¯ un following the deposition . of the Andalusian rulers in the last decade of the 11th century (Mahm¯ iwasbrilliantinthespinningpoetry ud 2011, 17). Ibn al-Bun¯ . that had been a favourite among the Andalusian rulers, particularly al-Mutamid. It can be deduced that Ibn al-Bun¯ibene.tted from these Andalusian rulers .nancially. conclusion In the 11th century, there was prosperity across all .elds in al-Andalus except for the political arena. Fernando I and his successors exploited this situation and imposed their domination on many of the Andalusian states. Consequently, the loyalty of jurists was to the strongest Andalusian ruler, whereas the loyalty of poets depended on their personal interests. Further research related to this region and period could be under-taken in the future. 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The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. Exploring State E.ectiveness in Sustainable Development: Development and Use of a Measurement Tool for the Fez-Meknes Region adjoba audrey paule n’ze Euro-Mediterranean University of Fez-Meknes a.audreynze@ueuromed.org abderrahman tenkoul Euro-Mediterranean University of Fez-Meknes a.tenkoul@ueuromed.org The implementation of sustainable development has become a key guiding principle that has been integrated into many policies and governance models. Governments and administrations have put in place governance arrangements to guide their actions towards sustainability. How can the success of this integration of sustain­ability into government and administrative activity be assessed? This paper presents a tool for measuring and comparing internal governance capacity for sustainability in the region of Mediter­ranean area, such as the provinces and prefectures of the Fez-Meknes region, which aims to be a reference for the sub-region, as a smart, resilient and sustainable city. The application of this tool reveals the diversity of governance arrangements and their dif­ferent capacities and indicates where and how the governance of the sustainability of governments and administrations can be fur­ther improved with regard to our modes of cultural management, which can be further reinvented and better organised. Key Words: territorial collectivity, governance, sustainability, Euro-Mediterranean area https://emuni.si/ISSN/2232-6022/16.175-199.pdf introduction Since the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, all societal ac­ tors have adopted the 2030 Agenda to promote sustainable devel­opment. The essence of this strategy is subdivided into seventeen Sustainable Development Goals with one hundred and sixty-nine speci.c targets, most of which should be achieved by 2030. Through their adoption as a point of reference in international [176] political declarations and in a modi.ed discourse within global in­stitutions, the governance principles underlying the Sustainable Development Goals, including universality, coherence, and integra­tion, have become part of the dominant discourse in institutions. As a result, many countries have begun to integrate these goals into their administrative systems, and some governments such as the Kingdom of Morocco have designated bodies and formed new units for the implementation of the sustainability goals. This executive complex of the state is decisively involved in the preparation and implementation of policy decisions and thus plays a decisive role in the governance of social transformation (Hasan 2018). They initiate models and plans, and establish governmental and administrative coordination bodies focused on sustainability. In other words, they assess the compatibility of projects with sustainability and develop relevant expertise (Dounya and Mbarek 2021; Houdret and Har­nisch 2019). Today, sustainability has become a major concern for governments and administrations (Amrani et al. 2021; Raynal 2009). After seven years of implementation, less attention has been paid to understanding whether these goals have had a policy impact within sub-national governance to address such pressing challenges as zero poverty, peace and e.ective institutions, and the question of how sustainability can be integrated into the actions of government and administration. Given the heterogeneity of the trade-o.s, the ques­tion arises as to how the sustainability-oriented internal governance capacity of governments and administrations can be systematically recorded and compared: How can the extent to which sustainabil­ity is integrated into government and administrative activities be empirically determined? The present contribution is to design, contextually operational­ize, and successfully implement a tool for measuring the governance capacity of the internal state oriented toward tangible development. As the Shari.an Kingdom (Morocco) has adopted advanced re­ gionalization (Royaume du Maroc 2021a; 2021b; Conseil regional Fès-Meknès 2018), one can expect very little variety of governance arrangements and a sketch of the state of play that allows for sys­tematic comparison. The list of existing measurement tools (Ibourk and Raoui 2021; https://siredd.environnement.gov.ma/fes-meknes [177] /indicateur; https://www.hcp.ma; https://bti-project.org/en/index /political-transformation) should therefore be complemented by an approach that focuses on the domestic domain of government and administrative action on the one hand, and that can take into ac­count the varied, but little-studied national level, on the other. Based on a review of existing measurement tools, we develop a concept of sustainability-oriented internal governance capacity based on a three-dimensional understanding of governance. We then operationalize it for the context of the Fez-Meknes region in Morocco and present the results of its application. We re.ect on the added value and limitations of the measurement tool and conclude with implications for governance practice. conceptual framework and strategic approach Contextual Framework The Fez-Meknes region is situated in the northern part of Mo­rocco, encompassing a substantial portion of the central-northern territory. This region boasts diverse topography, ranging from the rugged landscapes of the Middle Atlas Mountains to the fertile plains of the Saïss Valley. The region is crossed by several rivers, with the Oued Sebou playing a vital role in irrigating agricultural lands. It is known for its natural resource wealth and signi.cant contribu­tion to Moroccan agriculture. The region’s strategic location makes it an important trade and economic hub. Fez-Meknes comprises nine prefectures and provinces, each presenting unique geographical fea­tures; Fez: located in the northern part of the region, is known for its rich history, medieval medina, and cultural signi.cance; Meknes: situated to the west, is another historically signi.cant city, o.ering insights into Morocco’s imperial past; Taounate: positioned in the north, is known for picturesque landscapes and agricultural activi­ties; El Hajeb: nestled in the Middle Atlas Mountains, is character­ized by mountainous terrain and agricultural practices; Boulemane: located to the east of the region, is marked by diverse landscapes and natural beauty; Taza: is found in the north-eastern part of the [178] region, known for its proximity to the Rif Mountains; Sefrou: sit­uated south of Fez, is renowned for its agricultural heritage and traditional practices; Ifrane: often referred to as ‘Little Switzerland,’ is known for its alpine architecture and lush green surroundings; Moulay Yacoub: recognized for its thermal springs and spa resorts. The Fez-Meknes region in Morocco has a complex institutional architecture that comprises several levels of governance, namely the regional and prefectural/provincial levels. The Regional Council, governed by the Organic Law on Moroccan Regions, serves as the legislative body, empowered to deliberate, adopt policies, and make decisions on regional development, economic planning, education, healthcare, and more. It formulates development plans, regional budgets, and oversees policy implementation. The Wali, appointed by the King, represents the central government in the region, imple­menting national policies as per the law. They coordinate regional authorities and enforce national laws and regulations. Prefectures and provinces have local responsibilities, including urban planning, education, healthcare, and public services, with governors exercis­ing decision-making authority. Municipalities are autonomous en­tities with powers de.ned by the General Code of Local Authorities. Elected municipal councils address local needs, especially in urban planning and resource management. Decentralized agencies handle speci.c areas like agriculture and culture, operating under legisla­tive and regulatory texts, making decisions in their domains. Social partners, such as professional organisations and unions, engage in regional development decisions, adhering to labour and association laws. Approaches to Measuring Sustainable Development Governance Measuring sustainability is not a new topic. Many approaches fo­cus on speci.c concepts and rely on di.erent measurement meth­ods. Some aim to measure the e.ectiveness of the management of sustainable development policies using outcome indicators while others focus on assessing ecological footprints by measuring en­ergy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management and other key environmental factors. Thus, this tool is used to monitor environmental conditions and to diagnose environmen-[179] tal conditions and their variability in cooperation with regional ac­tors participating in regional networks to collect and exchange data and information (see https://siredd.environnement.gov.ma/fes­meknes/indicateur). However, there are no indicators that actually assess the capac­ity for action of governments and administrations. For example, the Rokhas index used by Morocco is a tool for assessing the operational performance of local authorities in obtaining urban planning per­mits (see https://www.collectivites-territoriales.gov.ma/fr/rokhas). Other approaches focus explicitly or implicitly on the capacity to act. ‘Capacity’ is conceptualised in a narrow sense, either by focus­ing on sustainable development (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi 2008) or on design options for speci.c practices such as sustainabil­ity strategies (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2017). The Bertelsmann Foun­dation’s Sustainable Governance Indicators (sgi) approach is prob­ably the most important instrument for measuring sustainability governance and is conceptually more comprehensive compared to the African Development Bank’s governance rating, which assesses the quality of the institutional framework. Governance capacity, together with democratic quality and polit­icale.ectiveness,isoneofthethreepillarsofthe sgi approachand is de.ned as the political leadership to lead processes successfully (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2017). Governance is examined on the ba­sis of two categories: that of governmental performance, and com­petence of participation of external actors. This perspective is not merely a simple analysis of the instrument, but also goes beyond the internal governance of governments and administrations, which is of particular interest here. Methodologically, the Sustainable Governance Indicators (sgi) examine governance and decision-making processes in all oecd membercountriesandthe eu,withtheaimofassessingtheneedfor reforms in each country and the capacity to achieve them (Schraad-Tischler and Seelkopf 2015). The indicators are constructed from quantitative data collected by international organisations, com­plemented by qualitative analysis by recognized national experts. [180] This combination provides a detailed picture of policy outcomes, the quality of democracy and steering capacities. However, whether experts have su.cient visibility into internal administrations to reliably assess capacity remains doubtful. These doubts are likely to a.ect in particular, the sub-national level, which is much less subject to expert observation than the national level, given the dif­.culty of determining the measure of internal governance capac­ity of governments and administrations focused on sustainability, which is also under the spotlight here. To arrive at a more authentic alternative, we propose an approach that is conceptually based on a di.erentiated understanding of internal governance capacity and methodologically based on objective data. We emphasise, in this re­gard, the need to integrate sustainability as a fundamental reference point to guide actions and engage various stakeholders in policy de­velopment. Furthermore, the interactions among di.erent factors provide a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of how governance capacity functions in a sustainability-focused context. In summary, our approach distinguishes itself through the rede.ni­tion of governance capacity, the introduction of governmental and administrative capabilities, the provision of a comprehensive model of governance capacity, and the emphasis on the institutional an­choring of sustainability. methodology Conceptualisation: Internal Governance Capacity for Sustainability Our approach is based on an understanding of governance capacity as the ability of a governance arrangement to steer social problem-solving action towards a collectively shared goal. To this end, sus­tainability must .rst be integrated into the mechanism in ques­tion, i.e., it must become an obligatory and signi.cant reference point for its action. Governmental and administrative capacity thus describes the ability of a state government to include various ac­tors to make sustainability a guideline for executive management of issues and policy making. Building on the existing understand­ing of governance, we conceptualise internal governance capacity in a sustainability-oriented way as the interaction of institutional fac-[181] tors, content or idea factors and the power factor. The governance of an entity is based on a multidimensional framework that requires in-depth exploration for a comprehensive understanding. Firstly, the structural dimension of governance focuses on internal organi­sation, hierarchy, and the distribution of responsibilities. It encom­passes the rules, policies, procedures, and formal mechanisms that shape the entity’s operation. This dimension reveals how decisions are made and how responsibilities are allocated, playing a central role in governance (Mériade 2019). The content dimension of gov­ernance emphasises the substance of decisions and policies within the entity. It involves evaluating the content of policies, laws, reg­ulations, and organisational practices, examining what is actually decided and how these decisions align with the entity’s objectives, values, and standards. Lastly, the political power dimension of gov­ernance concerns the in.uence and control exerted by political ac­tors within the entity. This includes the analysis of power relations, political coalitions, decisions driven by speci.c interests, and how power is exercised and distributed among stakeholders. This dimen­sion highlights the political and social aspects that in.uence de­cisions and policies within the entity, completing the governance landscape (Treib, Bähr, and Falkner 2007). By combining these di­mensions, a comprehensive and nuanced view of the governance of an entity emerges, showing how its structure, content, and political power interact to shape its operation. For sustainability to be re­alised in the actions of a government, it must .rst be embedded in the institutional architecture. Organisational structures, rules and norms stabilise the expectations of actors. They ensure that sustain­ability issues receive the attention of the government and adminis­tration and become decisive for their thinking and actions (Wang, Van Wart, and Lebredo 2014). For example, the specialised sustainable development units in- Adjoba Audrey Paule N’ze and Abderrahman Tenkoul table 1 List of Factors f1 Administrative unit specialised in humanitarian aid f2 Institutions anchored in sustainability f3 Interdepartmental coordination institution f4 Legitimacy [182] f5 Comprehensive and binding sustainability models f6 Sustainability strategies f7 Treatment of cross-cutting issues climate, biodiversity, sustainable nutrition f8 Ex-post evaluation tools f9Pre-event evaluation tools f10 Sustainable development expertise f11 External legitimacy f12 External networking f13 Commitment of government leadership notes See Annex 1 for additional information. dicate who is responsible (factor 1). Other policy-related factors are the reference to sustainable development in other areas of the or­ganisation (factor 2) and interdepartmental coordination (factor 3). Constitutional and legal bases oblige governments and authori­ties to address sustainability issues or take into account sustainabil­ity standards and provide the basis for legitimising the respective actions (factor 4). The ability to integrate sustainability into governmental and reg­ulatory action relies secondly on its anchoring in the conceptual foundations of executive action (Hartley and Zhang 2018). The vi­sions, goals, problem analysis, structural metrics and indicators, and action orientation of subjects from a cognitive perspective are also important sources of motivation and debate. Sustainability en­gagement in content and ideas leads to comprehensive and binding sustainability guidelines (factor 5), sustainability strategies that in­clude several policy areas as a programmatic commitment to sus­tainability (factor 6), as well as addressing cross-sectoral and cross­cutting topics such as climate change protection and adaptation, biodiversity, sustainable food, digitalisation or a circular or green economy (factor 7). Evaluation tools (e.g., post-monitoring and pre­evaluation based on sustainability indicators; factors 8 and 9) as well as sustainability expertise enable administrative agencies to orient their actions according to this guiding idea (factor 10). Fi­nally, the internal governance capacity of the government and the sustainability-oriented administration is based on elements of po­litical power (political dimension) that politically legitimise the ac-[183] tions of sustainability-oriented change agents within the govern­ment and regulators, while reinforcing this action against other political concerns. Administrative actors can strengthen their in­ternal performance capacity by providing external support for their concerns (Bouzoubaa 2009). This is done, for example, by receiv­ing subsidies (factor 11) or by mobilising professional and politi­cal networks (factor 12). In addition, the mass media towards sus­tainability and the voluntary commitment of political leaders to government signal a corresponding political preference and willing­ness to politically support internal sustainability issues (factor 13). From this three-dimensional concept, this tool has to be designed progressively. Thus, the institutional position of an administrative department responsible for sustainable development (factor 1) de­termines its capacity to act. If it is positioned in direct proximity to the government, this promises a greater capacity to in.uence and steer decisions towards sustainability than at a lower hierarchical level (e.g., in a department). Operationalisation: Indicators and Measurement in the Example of Provinces and Prefectures of Fez In ordertobeabletomeasure thecapacityfor internal sustainability-oriented governance in the context of speci.c political institutions, we operationalised the factors described at the Fez region in Mo­rocco. To optimise comparisons between provinces, we selected in­dicators that could be recorded on the basis of objective data for all nine provinces and prefectures of the Fez-Meknes region. This was not possible for factors 2 and 3, so they were excluded from the analysis. Table 2 presents the 11 metrics and their associated measurement operations. Based on this system of indicators, we carried out in December 2022 a measurement focusing on the sustainability of the internal table 2 The Multidimensional Measurement Tool: Conceptualisation (Factors) and Context-Speci.c Operationalisation (Indicators) of Sustainability-Oriented Internal Governance Capacity Structural dimension [184] i f1 Department of Sus­ f2 Administrative body f3 No operationalisa­ f4 Sustainability in tainability for social assistance tion and measure- constitutional and social assistance ment legislative texts 0 No sustainability de­partment 1 Sustainable Devel­opment Department at O.ce level 2 Sustainable develop­ment department in the regional council 3 Department of Sus­tainability close to the Head of Govern­ment No legal base Grounded in the substantive law Anchored in the constitution/the law of administrative or­ganisation Rooted in the con­stitution and the law on administra­tive organisation Continued on the next page governance capacity of the Fez-Meknes region. To do so, we .rst compiled publicly available policy documents, such as regional land use strategies, legal compendiums, monitoring reports of the High Commission for Planning, and administrative descriptions (organi­grams) on regional websites. We also identi.ed events in which the prefectures would participate, as well as funding instruments pro­posed by the Ministry of National Planning, Urban Development, Housing and Urban Policy and the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development. We have searched the administrative documents on the databases of the High Commission for Planning as well as the regional reports of the Fez-Meknes region for relevant information, which we have recorded. We then quanti.ed the results for each indicator, gener­ally using a four-point scale to assess the strength of each factor. This measure is based on the assumption that the more globally dif­ferentiated and explicit sustainable development is in the internal Exploring State E.ectiveness in Sustainable Development table 2 Continued from the previous page Content dimension f5 f6 f7 f8 f9f10 iUnderstand-Policy strat-Handling of Sustainabi-Sustainabi-Participation ing of sus-egy for sus-cross-cutting lity monitor-lity assess-in external [185] tainability tainable de-issues ing and re-ment knowledge velopment porting events 0No under­standing of sustainabil­ity No policy strategy re­lated to sus­tainability Activities on 0–1 cross­cutting issue No sustain­ability moni­toring No sustain­ability as­sessment 0–4 partici­pation in the Sustainable Development Forum 1Sectoral un­derstanding of sustain­ability 2 Comprehen­sive and sim­ple under­standing of sustainabil­ity 3 Comprehen­sive and dif­ferentiated understand­ing of sus­tainability Apoint for: The gen­eral require­ment of so­cial assis­tance in pol­icy strategy; long-term horizon (>4 years); in­tegration of development assistance in policy plan­ning Activities on 2–3 cross­cutting ques­tions Activities on 4–5 cross­cutting is­sues Activities on 6transversal themes One point each for: Participation in siredd; Monitor­ing that goes beyond siredd in­dicators; Sustainable development report inte­grated into the political control pro­cess Occasional assessment of sustain­ability with­out its own instrument Regional sus­tainability assessment instrument without com­mitment Structured and manda­tory sustain­ability as­sessment process 5–9partici­pation in the Sustainable Development Forum 10–14 par­ticipation in the Sustain­able Devel­opment Fo­rum =14 partici­pation in the Sustainable Development Forum governance of prefectural executives, the greater their capacity to act for sustainable development. We created the index by combin­ing eleven metrics. We .rst calculated the average of the unweighted measures for each governance dimension and divided the sum of the averages by the number of dimensions. Sum of (Measures × Dimension)Weighted Average = Sum of Dimensions In contrast to the simple average, this method takes into account the conceptual equality of the governance aspects. The weighted av­erage is a statistical measure where di.erent values are assigned spe­ Adjoba Audrey Paule N’ze and Abderrahman Tenkoul table 2 Continued from the previous page Dimension of political power f11 f12 f13 iApplications to the funding Engagement in the national Government commitment [186] programme 0 No application to the Sus- sustainability network. 0 participation in the net- to sustainability No commitment to sustain­ tainable Development work ability Funding Programme. 1 1–2 applications to the Occasional participation Sustainable Development Funding Programme 2 3–4 applications to the Regular participation Commitment to sustain- Sustainable Development ability Funding Programme 3 =4applications to the Sus- Management function in tainable Development the network of regional Funding Programme sustainability o.ces notes f1–f13 – factors, i – indicators of context-speci.c internal sustainability gover­nance capacity, 0–3 capacity measurement. ci.c weights based on their relative signi.cance in the dataset, and is used to obtain an overall picture while emphasising diversity within the sample (López-Penabad, Iglesias-Casal, and Silva Neto 2022). results Table 3 presents the indices for each province in the Fez-Meknes re­gion. Using the index of internal governance capacity for sustain­ability that is placed in the very last row of our table, we distinguish two levels of capacity: three provinces with an index of at least 2 have high capacity. Six other provinces with an index between 1 and 1.9 indicate medium capacity. The inventory con.rms that a variant of the sustainability governance prototype can be found in the region and at all capacity levels (Bartle and Leuenberger 2006; Fukuyama 2013; Keskitalo and Preston 2019). Even for the high index locations, no uniform pattern emerges (Bajpai, Stratton-Short, and Adelekan 2022). Sefrou is the only province that scores in all three dimensions of governance with an average value above 2 points. The other high-capacity localities achieve at least average values. On the one hand, this underlines the fact that high capacities cannot be achieved only by high values in the individual dimensions. On the other hand, it also shows that there is no successful model of internal sustainabil­ity governance (Peters et al. 2022; Tils 2007). Despite this diversity, certain patterns can be discerned. For ex-[187] ample, achieving a high index (over 2 points) requires a sustainabil­ity department. To achieve a high index, a province must therefore assign responsibility for sustainability to a single department. How­ever, it does not matter where and at what level in the administra­tive organisation this position is located. Sustainability expertise is therefore, an important precondition for acting sustainably. If we compare the expressions of the factors, we notice that the indicators f5 ‘Understanding of sustainability’ (3 points), f6 ‘Sus­tainability strategy’ (3 points), f11 ‘Application to the funding pro-gramme’ (3 points) and f13 ‘Government commitment to sustain­ability’ (3 points) achieve the highest average values. Indicators f1 ‘Dedicated service to sustainability’ (1.1 points), f4 ‘Sustainability inconstitutionalandlegaltexts’ (1pt)and f9‘Sustainabilityassess­ment’ (1.3 points) have the lowest average values. This suggests that provinces tend to build internal governance capacity for sustainability through factors that determine their le­gitimacy through institutional and legal texts on sustainable devel­opment (factor 4) or sustainability models (factor 5). Factors that directly a.ect the individual capacity of governmental and admin­istrative actors are only developed in a subordinate way, namely the acquisition of sustainability expertise (factor 10), external legiti­macy and networking (factors 11 and 12) or political commitment (factor 13). In order to align their own actions with sustainability, governments and administrations tend to create structural condi­tions for action. On average, these provinces have higher values for the factors relating to the speci.c capacity of government actors and administrative agencies to act sustainably than for the factors relat­ing to the condition for action. Therefore, the ability to steer govern­ment action towards sustainable development is not only re.ected in the operating conditions of the provinces with high indices, but also in the individual competences of the administrative and gov- table 3 Internal governance capacities of the provinces and prefectures of the Fez-Meknes region focused on sustainability [188] Internal governance capacities Fez-Meknes Ifrane Meknès Boulemane Fes Moulay Yacoub Sefrou Taounate Taza El Hajeb Sustainability Department 3 0 0 1 2 0 3 0 2 2 Sustainable administrative and legal texts 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 0 0 Understanding of sustainability 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Sustainability policy strategy 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Activities on transversal issues 3 1 2 3 3 1 1 2 1 1 Monitoring and reporting on sustainability 2 0 3 3 3 0 3 0 2 0 Sustainability evaluation 3 3 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 3 Participation in external knowledge events 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 3 2 Applications to the funding programme 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Involv. in the national sustain. network 2 2 3 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 Province’s commitment to sustainability 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Average 2.5 1.7 1.92.1 2.4 1.8 2.3 1.6 1.91.8 ernmental actors focused on. This result may be partly in.uenced by the objective approach, which focuses more on factors that re­.ect externally visible conditions for action than on those that re­.ect the individual capacities of actors. Yet it can also be understood as the logical expression of government and administrative action in general. These clearly tend to shape the conditions of action such as establishing an administrative organisation, enacting laws, and forming models, rather than directly building the capacities of their actors. The Fez-Meknes region is characterised by substantial variations in internal capacity within its prefectures and provinces concern­ing the promotion of sustainability. Each of the prefectures and provinces has its own characteristics, resources, and priorities in terms of sustainable development. Consequently, administrative capacities vary based on these local factors. Similarly, the speci.c skills of administrative personnel and existing collaborations with local or international partners in.uence the ability of prefectures and provinces to achieve sustainability goals. Understanding these figure 1 Map of the Fez-Meknes Region Ac­cording to Internal Governance Capaci­ties Focused on Sus­tainability of the Provinces and Prefec­tures regional variations and neighbouring e.ects is crucial for design­ing e.ective policies aimed at promoting sustainability across the entire Fez-Meknes region. This can be observed through Figure 1, which presents the performance mapping of the capacity index, and can be attributed to the new administrative con.guration in the Fez-Meknes region in 2015. This restructuring facilitated geo­graphic proximity between these administrative entities, resulting in signi.cant regional variations in terms of the internal capacity of administrations to promote sustainability. However, it is essen­tial to note that regional variations can also lead to inequalities in sustainable development. Some prefectures or provinces may lag in terms of internal capacity, necessitating additional support to strengthen their e.orts in this domain. reflection Potential and Limitations of the Measuring Instrument The exemplary application of the measurement tool to the provinces of the Fez-Meknes region shows that it can be used to build a com­prehensive and nuanced picture of how governments and admin­istrations behave towards the population. Public administrations promote sustainability in their actions (Benkada et al. 2018). 11 in­dicators are used to show di.erentiated patterns of di.erently de­veloped structural (political), substantive or content (political) and power (political) governance capacities. In addition, the aggregate capacity index makes it possible to assess the extent to which sus­tainability is embedded in government and administrative activities in general. On the one hand, the instrument is therefore, suitable [190] for recording the diversity of sustainability-oriented governance ar­rangements that exist at sub-national level to determine their capac­ity and to compare them. On the other hand, the innovation of the measurement instrument lies less in the presentation of new fac­tors. It is indisputable that the presence of sustainability strategies or sustainability assessment tools enhances the administration’s ca­pacity to direct its e.orts towards sustainability (Meadowcroft and Steurer 2018; Ousaa and Fasly 2023; Santoro 2019) but rather, the conceptual contribution of the measurement instrument lies in the combination of known factors (and the plausibility of some new ones)based on awell-founded, comprehensiveand at thesametime, di.erentiated understanding of the internal governance capacity for sustainability. Most existing approaches focus on outcome and impact measures (Maldonado and Corbey 2016; Sueyoshi and Ryu 2021), whereas this methodology distinguishes itself in the way gov­ernments and administrations are structured and organised to pro­mote sustainability. The article highlights the diversity of gover­nance arrangements for sustainability, allowing for a better under­standing of the various approaches adopted by governmental ad­ministrations. This in turn, facilitates a more precise delineation of the di.erent strategies in place to promote sustainability at an ad­ministrative level, and the determination of which practices yield the best results. The identi.cation of areas where sustainable gov­ernance can be strengthened constitutes a signi.cant contribution, as it goes beyond merely identifying shortcomings to provide practi­cal recommendations for enhancing government sustainability. Fi­nally, instead of o.ering a generic approach, the article customises the measurement instrument to a speci.c geographical and politi­cal context, thus enabling an in-depth analysis of sustainable gov­ernance at regional level. The combination of institutional, content-related and process-related factors goes beyond the existing analyt­ical perspectives on the region. From an empirical point of view, the measurement instrument provides the possibility of distinguishing the characteristics of the capacity factors. Instead of considering de­partments or sustainability strategies as capacity building, it is pos­sible to measure the capacities of di.erent forms of departments and strategies. This allows for a detailed and reliable comparative [191] analysis of the capacities of di.erent governance arrangements un­der similar contextual conditions (e.g., the capacities of sub-national entities within a state). While the models identi.ed and their impli­cations initially apply to the local level in Morocco, the geographical basis of the measurement tool – the three-dimensional understand­ing of governance – allows the approach to be transferred to other political and institutional contexts. This has necessitated a context-speci.c adaptation of the indicators. Thus, in other contexts that are distinguished by their own competencies and resources, other mod­els of governance for sustainable development are to be expected andshouldberepresented by modi.edindicators. To further strengthen sustainable development governance and promote state capacity in this area, it is insu.cient to simply reor­ganise the public administration; it is also necessary to reorient the minds and hands that work in it. At the same time, the limits of the approach become visible. On the basis of the measurement instru­ment, no statement can be made as to whether the capacities are ac­tually re.ected in the results. For example, if external networking in other governmental and administrative systems (e.g., at local level or in other federal states) tends to be organised in informal sustain­ability networks, this must also be re.ected in the indicators and measurement operations. Quantitative and qualitative analyses can also show how speci.c contextual conditions a.ect the functioning and capacities of the corresponding governance arrangements. The fact that it wasnot possibletomeasure twomainfactors, such as interdepartmental coordination facilities and administra­tive bodies related to sustainability, reveals the methodological lim­itations of the measurement instrument or even the fact that this region is not fully open to the disclosure of information. These are located where the public visibility of governmental and adminis­trative organisations ends. It is precisely at sub-national level that the approach increases traceability compared to expert assessments such as the ‘sgi’; this shows us the missing link between local and global scales and the lack of coordination between departments. This opens up new possibilities, so time series analyses can be used [192] to capture the evolution of the capacity to identify explanatory fac­tors for high or low capacity. The data for the Fez-Meknes region allows us to assume that external socio-economic conditions, such as the degree of urbanisation, the relative level of prosperity, the Ramsar convention, and the administrative size or political oppor­tunities could act as explanatory factors for the level of internal gov­ernance capacity for sustainability. In addition, the National Human Development Initiative programme could be used as the means by which each department should work towards the smooth running and implementation of sustainability in each locality. Implications for Governance Practice In this article, we present and discuss an instrument for measur­ing the internal governance capacity of governments and adminis­trations for sustainability and apply it as an example to the region of Fez-Meknes. Using this approach, a di.erentiated picture can be drawn, which is based on a thorough and comprehensive under­standing of governance on the one hand, and objective data on the other. It appears that the governance arrangements of the provinces and prefectures di.er considerably in their ability to steer govern­ment and administrative action towards sustainability. A high index can be achieved with di.erent arrangements. Even if certain models are recognisable, it is not possible to identify a successful model for internal sustainability governance. Observations on the relationship between factors that target the conditions for action and factors that concern the empowerment and capacity of government and administrative actors themselves are revealing for the practice of governance. While the former tends to be more pronounced, the latter generally receives medium values. However, a small number of provinces and prefectures with a high index give relatively more importance to factors related to the mode of operation. Governments and administrations, therefore, seem to focus on factors that refer to the conditions for action – for exam­ple, the establishment of a sustainability department and the cre­ation of a legitimacy base, as the national policy of the kingdom aims to develop a good understanding of sustainability to achieve a high-capacity index. However, the administrative and governmen-[193] tal actors themselves also need to be empowered. In this respect, the development of expertise in the .eld of sustainability seems partic­ularly e.ective. It would be a major asset to strengthen this whole system with the participation of certain stakeholders such as civil society. These results should also be interesting for the debate on the governance of sustainable development in general. They show once again, that it is not just a question of rigid, but rather .exible con­ditions for action. annex 1 Additional information for operationalisation: Indicators and mea­surement of internal governance capacity for sustainability in the context of the Fez-Meknes region. Political Dimension: Structural Factors Factor 1: Specialised administrative unit for sustainable develop­ment . Sustainable development department. Key Question: Has a regional sustainable development department been institutionalised and where is it located organisationally? The administrative bodies responsible for sustainability raise aware­ness of sustainability within government and administration and ensure that sustainability concerns are considered by government and administrative actors. The governance capacity for sustainable development is higher (1) the closer an administration is designated as the lead for sustainable development and (2) the closer it is to the decision-making centre, i.e., the higher it is in the administrative hi­erarchy. Factor 2: The institutional embedding of sustainability . Adminis­trative o.ces linked to sustainability. Factor 3: Cross-cutting coordination structures . no operationali­sation and measurement. [194] Factor 4: Legal anchoring of sustainability . Sustainability in con­ stitutional and legal texts. Key Question: How is sustainability anchored in regional law? A legal anchoring of sustainability creates legitimacy and commit­ment for government and administrative action. The more generally binding the legal anchoring of sustainability, the greater the capac­ity for governance of sustainability. It is assumed that the general binding nature of simple substantive laws, ranging from adminis­trative organisation laws to constitutional articles, will increase. Policy Dimension: Content Factors Factor 5: Sustainability mission statement . understanding of sus­tainability. Key Question: Does the locality have a transversal and di.erentiated understanding of sustainability? Global sustainability models are an expression of the fact that sus­tainability is embedded in terms of content and ideas in govern­ment and administrative action. The governance capacity for sus­tainability is greater the more (1) an understanding of sustainabil­ity is formulated across government and (2) the more di.erentiated it is. A less di.erentiated, but globally formulated understanding of sustainability indicates a greater capacity than a more di.erenti­ated understanding of sustainability formulated at the department or o.ce level. Factor 6: Sustainability strategy . Policy strategy related to sus­tainability. Key Question: Does the region have a comprehensive, long-term, strategic action plan for sustainability? The existence of cross-sectoral strategic policy planning for sustain­ability increases the binding nature and e.ectiveness of sustain­ability for government and administrative action. The sustainability governance capacity associated with a sustainability-oriented pol­icy strategy is all the greater if (1) an overall sustainability claim is made in the policy strategy, (2) a long-term perspective is adopted and (3) the sustainability-oriented strategy is integrated into (real) policy planning. Factor 7: Higher level treatment: Sustainability issues . Activities on cross-cutting issues. Key Question: Howmanycross-cutting sustainability issues (climate protection, climate adaptation, biodiversity, sustainable food, digi­talisation, circular economy or green economy) are addressed? The preoccupation of government and administration with cross­cutting sustainability issues indicates whether the issues are po­ [195] tentially addressed in a comprehensive and integrated manner. Sustainability governance capacity is higher the more strategies and programmes are developed and communicated on speci.c and cross-cutting sustainability issues. Activities on the following cross­cutting issues were recorded: climate protection and adaptation, biodiversity, sustainable nutrition, digitalisation and circular or green economy. Factor 8: Post facto (ex-post) evaluation of sustainability . Sustain­ability monitoring and reporting. Key Question: Does the region have a sustainability monitoring sys­tem? Ex-post sustainability assessments are instruments for aligning government action with sustainability. The capacity for sustain­ability governance is enhanced if (1) sustainability-oriented devel­opment monitoring, e.g., on the basis of the Indicator Circle (ic), (2) this is carried out regularly, (3) monitoring is based on a dif­ferentiated basis and (4) reporting is integrated into the canton’s control process (e.g., basis of the policy strategy). Factor 9: Prior (ex-ante) sustainability assessment . sustainability assessment. Key Question: Does the region have binding instruments and pro­cesses for ex-ante sustainability assessment of projects? The instruments and basis for carrying out ex-ante sustainability assessments of plans and projects strengthen the integrative con­sideration of sustainability concerns in government and adminis­trative action. The capacity for sustainability governance is all the higher if (1) there is a speci.c sustainability assessment instrument, (2) it is based on a conceptually di.erentiated basis and (3) there are binding regulations for the application of sustainability assess­ment. Factor 10: Sustainability expertise . Participation in external knowl­edge events. [196] Key Question: Is the region developing sustainability expertise by participating in knowledge events (participation in the region’s Sus­tainable Development Forum)? The sustainability knowledge of the administrative sta. is a prereq­uisite for competent handling of sustainability issues. The capacity for sustainability governance is higher the more frequently prefec­tural sta. participate in external events with an explicit reference to sustainability, e.g., the nationally oriented Sustainability Forum. Political Dimension: Political Power Factors Factor 11: External legitimacy . Application to the federal funding programme. Key Question: Does the region participate in forward-thinking, projects to initiate innovative activities for sustainability (funding programme)? If administrative actors acquire external resources for projects and activities, they strengthen their legitimacy and internal assertive­ness. The more provinces and prefectures participate in innovation-oriented funding programmes, the higher the capacity for sustain­ability governance. The number of entries of provincial and prefec­tural authorities in the development assistance programme serves as an indicator. Factor 12: External networking . Participation in national sustain­ability network. Key Question: Does the region participate in the interregional net­work of sustainability specialists? Participation and exchange in external sustainability networks strengthen the internal assertiveness of administrative actors. The capacity for sustainability governance increases as sustainability o.cers become involved in the national network for sustainable development. Factor 13: Commitment of senior government . Regional govern­ment commitment to sustainability. Key Question: Does the government make a public commitment to sustainability in strategic policy documents? Public communication and political leadership commitment to sus­tainability signals political importance and willingness to support and promote sustainability concerns internally. Sustainability governance capacity is higher the clearer it is. The regional organisation has committed itself to sustainability in strategic policy documents. The government’s visible and o.cial statements on sustainability, for example in the legislative pro-gramme, serve as indicators. [197] references Amrani, N., M. Sadik, and M. 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Bähr, and G. Falkner. 2007. ‘Modes of Governance: Towards a Conceptual Clari.cation.’ Journal of European Public Policy 14 (1): 1–20. Wang, X., M. Van Wart, and N. Lebredo. 2014. ‘Sustainability Leadership in a Local Government Context.’ Public Performance & Management Review [199] 37 (3): 339–64. Measuring the Transparency of the Central Bank of Egypt as a Prerequisite for Adopting In.ation Targeting Policy hebatalla emam israa abd elaziz Cairo University, Egypt Cairo University, Egypt hebatalla.atef@feps.edu.eg israa.abdelaziz2013@feps.edu.eg hebatalla.emam@cu.edu.eg nagwa samak Cairo University, Egypt nagwasamak@feps.edu.eg It has been almost two decades since the Central Bank of Egypt initially announced its intention to adopt the it regime once the fundamental prerequisites were met. The transition towards the it policy has been part of the complete revamping and reform of monetary policy in Egypt following the various challenges in the Egyptian economy has been undergoing since the late nineties (Al-Mashat 2008). Thus, the cbe has paid continuous attention to comply with the preconditions of the it policy (Youssef 2007). The purpose of this paper is to assess the degree of transparency of the cbe over the period 2005–2021. The study relies on the most recently developed index for Central Bank transparency for in.ation-targeting central banks, designed by Al-Mashat et al. (2018) to quantify the degree of transparency of the cbe. The analysis reveals that cbt in Egypt is advancing, but with a rela­tively reasonable path of change. Still, the cbe has a large void to .ll, especially pertaining to the transparency related to the Fore­casting and Policy Analysis System and policy-making process. Key Words: central bank transparency, in.ation targeting, central bank transparency for in.ation-targeting central banks index, Central Bank of Egypt https://emuni.si/ISSN/2232-6022/16.201-219.pdf introduction The in.ation targeting (it) regime refers to the monetary policy framework that several central banks have adopted since the late 1990s. It assigns the ultimate priority to the price stability objective which any other potential goals should be in line with and subordi­nate to (Bernanke et al. 1999). A considerable part of literature on the it regimefocusesonspecifyingtheimportantpreconditionsfor [202] the adoption of such a regime (Eichengreen et al. 1999; Savastano, Masson, and Sharma 1997; Khan 2003; Batini and Laxton 2006). Ba­sically, these prerequisites could be categorized as institutional and technical prerequisites. On the institutional side, central bank independence, high levels of transparency, and well-de.ned decision-making arrangements are among the main prerequisites. Technical prerequisites incorpo­rate the existence of an appropriate price index for measuring the in.ation target, an e.ective transmission mechanism between the monetary policy instrument and in.ation, the timely availability of high-quality data, and sophisticated forecasting models for in.a­tion forecasting. It is notable that the transparency prerequisite of it has gained momentum since the early stages of adopting it as it is highly related to the e.ectiveness and success of each one of the abovementioned preconditions (Eichengreen et al. 1999; Peter, Heenan, and Roger 2006). Therefore, central bank transparency has become one of the key features of monetary policy of most central banks that adopt the it regime (Crowe and Meade 2008). This increasing importance of cbt entails both theoretical and empirical rationales (Eij.nger and Cruijsen 2007). Theoretically, cbt could promote the central bank‘s ability to build its reputation, decrease the in.ation bias, and provide the central bank with greater .exibility to adjust to unexpected shocks (Woodford 2005; Freedman, Klaus, and Broad­dus 2002). Moreover, cbt fosters the e.ectiveness of monetary policy and sets the basis for central-bank accountability (Geraats 2000). Empirically, it has been proved that greater levels of cbt are associated with lower levels of in.ation and unemployment and accordingly, stable economic performance. This is attributed to well-anchored in.ation expectations, which in turn help to ful.l the ulti­mateobjectiveofthe it regimeofpricestability(Siklos2002;Dincer and Eichengreen 2007; Lyziak, Mackiewicz, and Stanislawska 2007; Crowe 2010; Dincer and Eichengreen 2010; Capistrán and Ramos-Francia 2010; Dincer and Eichengreen 2014). Consequently, there has been an international trend towards en­hancing monetary policy transparency. However, transparency is a qualitative concept that is not easily measurable. Yet, without ro-[203] bust measures of cbt, it is impossible to assess the economic im­pacts of di.erent degrees of cbt across various countries or even for one country across time. Thus, there has been a continuously increasing number of studies that attempt to quantify cbt by con­structing several indices and updating them regularly to incorporate changesinthedi.erentaspectsandde.nitionsof cbt. Mostofthe cbt indices focus on disclosed information about monetary policy process: objectives, policy decisions, the implementation of these decisions, and their rationale (such as Fry et al. (2000) and Eij.n­ger and Geraats (2006)). Other cbt indices consider dimensions, such as clarity and ac­tual comprehension of the central bank’s disclosed information (like de Haan, Amtenbrink, and Waller (2004) and Fracasso, Genberg, and Wyplosz (2003)). In addition, the methods by which central banks convey their key messages are of utmost signi.cance as they have a crucial role in the understandability of the released informa­tion. Thus, the analysis of di.erent communication tools of central banks (i.e., monetary policy report (mpr) or in.ation report, mon­etary policy committee (mpc) meeting minutes, and .nancial sta­bility reports) has gained greater attention in order to comprehen­sively tackle both released information and its quality (Blinder et al. 2001; Jeanneau 2009). Notwithstandingthevarious indicesdevelopedtomeasure cbt, there is only one study presented by (Al-Mashat et al. 2018) that triestoconstructaspeci.c cbt indexfor it monetarypolicy. Given that the it regime is considered the most transparency-requiring monetary policy regime compared to others, it is of paramount sig­ni.cance to develop a particular cbt index to account for the re­quired sophisticated forms of information disclosure and communi­cationbyany it centralbank. Theindexof(Al-Mashatetal.2018)of three main categories; transparency regarding monetary policy ob-jectives, transparency regarding the Forecasting and Policy Analysis System (fpas), and transparency regarding the monetary policy­making process. These categories are the crucial underpinnings of a fully-.edged it system (Svensson 1997). Moreover, Egypt has been [204] out of the scope of most studies that either construct cbt indices or assess the impacts of di.erent levels of cbt. The empirical stud­ies on assessing Egypt’s cbt remain thin on the ground. Only few studies endeavour to analyse some aspects of Egypt’s cbt (Farrag and Kamaly 2007; Emam, Fayed, and Fouad 2021) as part of their at­tempts to quantify the degree of independence of the Central Bank of Egypt (cbe). Therefore, it is important to present recent studies that could provide a thorough assessment of the transparency of the cbe, with particular attention paid to its vital role in the successful transition towards a fully-.edged it regime. Therefore, this study attempts to quantify the transparency of the cbe from 2005 to 2021 by applying the cbt-it index. It pro­vides a comprehensive analysis of how the cbt-it of the cbe has evolved since the early announcement of the cbe’s intention to adopt a fully-.edged it regime in 2005, taking into consideration the various reforms and changes that monetary policy and the en­tire Egyptian economy have witnessed since then. Accordingly, the study presents an inclusive elaboration of the cbe’s performance on each component of the cbt-it index during this period. It con­cludes that the cbe’s transparency has kept improving since 2005 till2021;still,the cbe hasalargevoidto.ll,especiallyinthe fpas and policy process transparency. literature review The seminal work of (Dincer and Eichengreen 2007) is the .rst to includethe cbe initscross-countrysample.Theirstudyappliesthe methodology of the Eij.nger and Geraats (eg) index¹ (2002) for 100 central banks over the period (1998–2005). It has reported that the degree of Egypt’s cbt is modest and profoundly lower than the av­ erage transparency of both the entire sample and that of the whole African region in 2005² (Eij.nger and Geraats 2002). Thereafter, Dincer and Eichengreen (2010; 2014) updated their earlier study by expanding the dimensions of time and countries. They have found that the transparency of the cbe has experienced a remarkable in­creasesince2005.Forinstance,in2010,Egypt’sscoreonthe eg in­dex of cbt (5) exceeded the African average cbt score (4.4). Be­sides,thedi.erencebetweentheaveragecbtscoreofthetotalsam-[205] ple (which was 5.5 in 2010) and cbe’s score has decreased (Dincer and Eichengreen 2010; 2014). In the aftermath of the global .nancial crisis, Dincer, Eichen­green, and Geraats (2019) have presented a modi.ed version of their previous index of cbt. The cbe was among the 112 central banks for which have measured cbt. According to their calculations, the transparency of the cbecontinued to increase even after the crisis and reached a score of 6 out of 15 in 2015, which is, fortunately, higher than the African average score (4.9). Another study that measured transparency of the cbe was that of Horvath and Vasko (2016). They quanti.ed the .nancial stability transparency(fst) of 110 countries during the period (2000–2011). Although they have reported a worldwide trend towards higher transparency about .­nancial stability issues, the cbe has received the lowest score on their fst index, because it did not publish a .nancial stability re­port during the study period (Horváth and Vaško 2016). The main void of the abovementioned cross-country studies is thattheyhavenotprovidedanin-depthcountryanalysisof cbt in Egypt, in addition to ignoring the most recent changes in the Egyp­tian monetary policy context. Furthermore, other relevant studies covering Egypt are mainly related to the Central Bank Independence (cbi) literature. They have dealt with cbt only as a component of the cbi indices,hencetacklingonlypartofthetransparencycriteria contributing to cbi. Amongthe cbi studies,studiesbyFarragandKamaly(2007)and Emam, Fayed, and Fouad (2021) have measured the transparency of the cbe as a sub-index of cbi. First, Farrag and Kamaly (2007) assessed cbt in line with applying the legal cbi index of Jácome (2001)³ for the cbe over the period (1961–2004). In the context of this index, cbt is tackled only by the frequent publishing of .nan­cial statements veri.ed by external auditor. Their study concludes that the cbe reached the maximum score of cbt (i.e., it scored 1 out of 1 in the cbt sub-index from 1972 until 2004) due to its legal commitment to regularly disclose its externally certi.ed .nancial statements. [206] Second, Emam, Fayed, and Fouad (2021) evaluated the de jure and defacto cbi ofthe cbe,andtriedtomeasurethegapbetweenthem during the period (1993–2017). Both indices involve cbt as one of their sub-indices. The cbt sub-index of the de jure index focuses on policy and procedural transparency in terms of publishing reg­ular reports and notes on policy changes with their justi.cations. They have pointed out that the legal cbt score is very modest and constant at 0.25 out of 1 throughout the study period, because of thede.cientlegalobligationofthe cbe toreleaseperiodicreports. Meanwhile, their de facto cbi index incorporates a wider range of cbt pillars. Namely, economic transparency in the form of the dis­semination of macroeconomic forecasts and forward-looking anal­ysis. Besides, it has expanded procedural transparency practices to comprisetheproclamationof mprs(orin.ationreports)and mpc meetings’ minutes. Unlikethedejure cbt score,thedefactotrans­parency of the cbe has improved gradually since 2011 and reached the highest score of 1 in 2017. The study indicates that the remark­abledi.erencebetweenbothmeasuresof cbt (i.e.,adefactoscore of 1 compared to a de jure score of 0.25 in 2017) is justi.ed by the insu.ciency of the legal provisions to enhance cbt. methodology Thisstudy employsthe cbt-it indexproposed byAl-Mashat et al. (2018). This index is divided into three main elements: transparency about monetary policy objectives, transparency about the Forecast­ ing and Policy Analysis System (fpas),4 and transparency about the monetary policymaking process. Each element of the index is fur­ ther divided into several criteria. The total number of criteria in­ cluded in the index is 20. Each of the 20 criteria is coded by a uniform scale from zero to one, with zero representing the lowest degree of transparency and one for the highest degree of transparency. The transparency score within each criterion varies according to the rele­ Measuring the Transparency of the Central Bank of Egypt table 1 Main Components of the cbt-it Index Component Criteria Transparency Statement of the central bank objective(s). about monetary Clear communication of the central bank announced policy objective(s). [207] objectives The role of .nancial stability in monetary policy communication. Communication of the achievement of the central bank objective(s). Transparency about the fpas Public availability of the pivotal economic databases used within the fpas. Publication of the core monetary policy model. Publication of the reaction function or loss function. Publication of all key central-bank forecasts produced by the fpas. Publication of fan charts for all key central-bank forecasts. Publication of underlying methodology used to produce the fan charts. Publication of forecast revisions of all key central-bank projected macroeconomic variables. Publication of alternative scenarios. Publication of the historical data and forecasts of the .nancial variables. Transparency Publication of press releases. about Policy Webcasting of the press conferences and the public availability Process of their presentations. The public availability of the q&a sessions with the regular forecast updates. Publication of the minutes of the mpc meetings. Explicit communication of the role of sta. and policymakers in the baseline forecast process. Public availability of periodic review of the forecasting performance. Public availability of an external and independent evaluation of the policy framework and the fpas. notes Adapted from Al-Mashat et al. (2018). vanttransparencypractice(s).Themaximumscoreofthecbt-it in­dex is 20, re.ecting the highest degree of central bank transparency forin.ationtargeting. The cbt-it indexiscalculatedasthesumof the scores of each criterion. measuring the cbt-it of the cbe Although the Egypt-focused studies have provided quanti.cation forsomedimensionsof cbt,theyhavenotpresentedacomprehen­ sive measure of cbt. Moreover, they have not paid the appropriate [208] attentiontothe cbtpracticesthatareofutmostsigni.cancetothe it policy. Therefore, this study .lls the void in literature by measur­ing the cbt for it policy for the cbe from 2005 to 2021. These 17 years can be categorized into three sub-periods according to the con­temporaneous substantial variations that the monetary policy and the entire economy have witnessed. The .rst sub-period (2005–2010) startedwiththeo.cialannouncementof cbe’sintentiontoswitch towards the it policy, accompanied by thorough economic, mon­etary, and banking reforms. This period also re.ects the early be­ginningofthe cbe’se.ortsforfostering cbt. The second sub-period (2011–2016)witnessed remarkable political and economic changes in Egyptthathaveimpacted cbt practices. The third sub-period (2017– 2021) marks Egypt’s adoption of an economic and monetary reform programme. Besides, the cbe has disclosed its in.ation forecast – for the .rst time – which is considered a serious step towards pro­motingthe cbt-it.Therefore,itisimportanttotrackhoweachele­mentofthe cbt-it indexhasevolvedacrossthethreesub-periods. Transparency about Monetary Policy Objectives The only transparent practice followed by the cbe in the .rst pe­riod has been the explicit disclosure of the price stability overriding (Central Bank of Egypt 2005). Therefore, it begins with a score of 1 out of 4 in the .rst period. The cbe has emphasised the prior­ity of price stability objective on its o.cial website and each issue of its periodic publications (e.g., annual reports and mpc press re­leases) throughout the 3 sub-periods of the study. In addition, the cbe spares no e.ort in expressing its keenness on sustaining the output and investment growth without jeopardizing its primary ob­jective of price stability. Yet, neither law no. 88 of 2003 nor law no. 194of2020havedeclaredsuchapriority. Onanothernote,the cbe has turned out to be more open about its .nancial stability concerns andintroducedits macroprudentialtoolkit in thesecondsub-period (Central Bank of Egypt 2011; 2014), therebyscoring double in trans­parency regarding objectives (i.e., 2 out of 4) in the second period. Additionally, the cbe has been sharing publicly quantitative in.a­tion targets with well-de.ned target horizons since 2017 (Central Bank of Egypt 2017). This in turn allowed the cbe to gain a higher [209] score in the third period, which was 2.5 out of 4. On the contrary, there exists some ambiguity about the achievement of cbe’s policy objectives (i.e., the management of the short-run output-in.ation trade-o.)whereby there has not been any published quadratic loss functiontacklinghowthe cbe assignspenaltiestothedeviationsof in.ation from its target and output from its potential level in any of the sub-periods. Transparencyaboutthe fpas The cbe has exerted various e.orts to improve its performance withinthisdimension.Inthe.rstsub-period,The cbe paiddueat­tention to the process of building and the ongoing amelioration of various in.ation forecasting models (Al-Mashat 2008). Moreover, it created the monetary policy sector to provide a regular objective evaluation of the monetary policy to the mpc before each meet­ing (Central Bank of Egypt 2004). In addition, the technical infras­tructure of the monetary policy sector has been enhanced through hiring well-educated and specialised sta., as well as developing the skills of the existing sta. via training courses in cooperation with international central banks and institutions (Central Bank of Egypt 2013). In addition, the cbe has worked on promoting the quality and accuracy of its macroeconomic databases, especially in.ation and gdp (Al-Mashat2008).Italsobecameaparticipantintheimf’s Special Data Dissemination System (sdds)5 in January 2005. Fur­thermore, the cbe inaugurated its core cpi in.ation measure6 in 2009.StartingfromSeptember2009,the cbehasembarkedonpub­lishing a monthly in.ation note to provide the public with a regu­larly updated analysis on the main in.ationary dynamics. In the second period, for the .rst time, there was a separate sec­tion in the cbe’s o.cial website for the key time-series datasets, such as di.erent interest rates of various frequencies, core and head-line in.ation rate, gdp, and miscellaneous macroeconomic and .­nancial variables. Moreover, all these time series are available for the public in an Excel downloadable format and can be customized accordingtovariousfrequenciesandtimespan.Thus,the cbe isas­ [210] signed a score of 0 in most of this category’s criteria, except for the part related to the publishing of few macroeconomic and .nancial datasets, which allows for achieving a score of 0.8 out of 9in the .rst and second periods. During the third period, in.ation forecasts and their achieve­ment horizons have been quarterly published in the mprs since June 2017. The cbe has published fan charts for in.ation forecasts to highlight the uncertainty surrounding them and the conditional­ity of these disclosed forecasts on the available information, explain­ingwhythe cbe hasgainedahigherscore(1.2outof9)inthe fpas category in the third period of the study. Nevertheless, the underly­ing methodology of those fan charts has not been elaborated upon inanyofthe mprs. Althoughthe cbe hasnotpublishedalternative scenarios to its in.ation forecasts, the upside and downside risks to the announced in.ation forecasts are reviewed and discussed in the in.ationoutlooksectionofthe mprs. Yet,suchdiscussionsofrisks are relatively brief and need to be supported with an econometric alternative scenario simulation. On the other hand, the de.ciencies in the cbe’s transparency performance in the fpas regard, which are inherent in all the sub-periods, have included the obscurity of the core forecasting model to draw baseline forecasts, the unavailability of the main macroe­conomic and .nancial variables forecasts, and the absence of any forecast revisions. Transparency about Policy Process The cbe hasexertedremarkablee.ortstoexplainitspolicyframe­work and decision-making process via publishing miscellaneous re­ports and bulletins at various frequencies such as via a monthly statistical bulletin, quarterly economic review, annual report, and quarterly external position of the Egyptian economy (Central Bank of Egypt 2004). The cbe has continuously tried to improve the quality and understandability of its publications by incorporating charts and analytical indicators into its analysis and promoting the macroeconomic analysis (Central Bank of Egypt 2012). In addition, a communicationunithasbeensetuptoimprove cbt aboutthepol­icy process (Serrao 2017). Besides, a new user-friendly website for [211] the cbe was initiated in 2016, with thorough informational con­tent on each sector of the cbe, a wide range of datasets, and the cbe’s periodic publications (Central Bank of Egypt 2016). The cbe has also aimed at delivering its vision and e.orts to various audi­ence via the most user-friendly techniques. In particular, it launched an o.cial YouTube channel in 2018 to share swiftly and easily the cbe’s initiatives, its participation in various international and do­mestic conferences, and the multimedia interviews with the cbe’s top management. The cbe’s board members and sta. have exerted great e.orts in enhancing dialogue with all stakeholders by expand­ing their contribution to educational presentations and media in­terviews. Recently, the new Central Bank Act (no. 194 of 2020) com­mittedthe cbe tomoretransparentandaccountablepractices,such astheobligationofthe cbe toreleaseonitso.cialwebsiteandthe o.cial Egyptian Gazette each decision related to the conduct of its monetary policy, banking supervision, and regulatory framework (Abulnaga 2021). Moreover, the cbe instituted an electronic por­tal for the Investor Relation (ir) on its o.cial website in 2021. The goal of that portal is to build bridges of trust and communication between the cbe and all investors (Central Bank of Egypt 2021). Despitethevarietywithinthe cbe’scommunicationtoolkit,this category has been assigned a constant score of 1 throughout the three periods under study. The cbe’s transparency about the pol­icyprocessstilllagsbehindthebestpracticesofthe cbt-it. Among the main shortcomings are the absence of a periodic press confer­encewitha q&a sessionaftereachscheduled mpc meetingtodis­cuss and explain its policy decisions or upon the publication of key forecasts. Instead, cbe onlypublishesabriefpressstatementinEn­glish and Arabic immediately after every mpc meeting. However, the cbe has occasionally held some press conferences with q&a sessions for speci.c purposes (e.g., presenting the draft of law no. table 2 Evolution of the Components of the cbt-it Index for the cbe (2005–2021) Component ....–.... ....–.... ....–.... cbt-it score for the cbe ... ... ... [212] Transparency about the objectives Transparency about the policy process Transparency about the fpas ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... notes Calculations based on the cbt-it index for the cbe. 194of2020).Onanothernote,itisnotcleartothepublichow mpc decisions are taken, as neither the mpc meeting minutes with its attributed voting outcomes nor the forecast role in the decision­makingprocessarepublished.Lastly,the cbe hasnotdisclosedany informationaboutthepotentialrevisionorassessmentof fpas in­ternally or externally. Overall, the cbt-it score for the cbe has improved over the three sub-periods. The most notable improvement in the cbt-it score was found in the last sub-period (2017–2021) due to improve­ment embedded in the objectives and the fpas category scores, respectively, compared to the .rst sub-period. Still, the score of transparency about policy process category has not exceeded one throughout the three sub-periods. It is evident that the cbe still hasalongwaytogo,especiallyconcerningthe fpas andpolicypro­cess categories. The coming section provides a way forward for the cbe tofollowtoreach thefrontiers of the cbt-it. the way forward Transparency about Monetary Policy Objectives The cbe should incorporate explicitly the precedence of the price stability objective into its legal statute. This can eliminate the mis­match between the cbe’s legal framework and its o.cial website regardingthestatementofthe cbe’sprioritizationofobjectives. In addition,aswithmost it centralbanks,theinclusionofapricesta­bility goal and a quantitative in.ation target in the legal framework could help the cbe demonstrate its commitment to achieving such a goal. Another criterion of the cbt-it that the cbe should work on is the communication of the quantitative in.ation target and its bands. Further elaboration is needed on the interpretation of the bands around the target to reinforce cbe’s credibility and steer in­.ationexpectationwherebythe cbe mustdisclosetothepublicthat it targets a speci.c point of in.ation and there can be some varia-[213] tion in the actual in.ation. In other words, the cbe should assure its keenness to attain the midpoint of the in.ation variation band despite any possible deviation. Finally, the publication of the loss or reaction function could strengthen the communication channel betweenthe cbe andallstakeholders,especiallytheacademiccom­munity. It could therefore, act as a quantitative assessment of the cbe short-run in.ation-output trade-o. management. Transparencyaboutthe fpas While no central bank has attained the full score of this category, the cbe has missed most of the transparent criteria adopted by other it central banks. First, a wider set of historical and forecasts of macroeconomic and .nancial variables should be available and downloadableontheo.cialwebsiteofthe cbe oratleastthelinks of those datasets in other statistical institutions. Second, the cbe needs to release its core projection model along with generating codes and assumptions in a working paper format that gets updated every .ve years. Third, the risk and uncertainty analysis should gain greater attention in the cbe’s periodic publications, particularly in itsquarterly mprs,andnotjustbemerelyexpressedthroughwords as is currently the case, Each disclosed forecast (not only in.ation) should be associated with fan charts to display the uncertainty in­tervals along with a detailed explanation for the underlying method­ology. Besides, the cbe must regularly incorporate alternative sce­narios into its core forecasts to explain any potential risks. Transparency about Policy Process Notwithstanding the cbe’s e.orts to institute a comprehensive communication process, more is needed from the cbe side to be better aligned with the transparency criteria required for the it policy (Emam 2021). First, holding frequent and live-streamed press conferences,especiallyaftereachmeetingofthe mpc andthepub­lication of core forecasts must be a convention. In addition, the presentations and the q&a sessions of those conferences should be accessible online in both Arabic and English. Second, the cbe [214] could start gradually disclosing the discussions and opinions of the mpc membersontheannounceddecisions. Third,thewholepolicy process,includingthe fpas,mustbeevaluatedperiodicallybyboth the cbe’s economists and external experts or institutions. Their outcomes could be published on the cbe o.cial website. Furthermore, just as the shift to a fully-.edged it policy can­not be accomplished overnight and requires steady preparation, the optimal performance of the cbt-it might take some time as well. The real concern, however, is the continual e.orts to shorten that transition period by adopting the best practices. It is also worth em­phasising that each central bank has its own vision of the acceptable level of cbt, which is de.ned by the central bank’s assessment of various stakeholders’ social, political, and economic circumstances. conclusion Tomeasurethetransparencyofthe cbe asaprerequisiteforadopt­ ingthe it policy,thepresentstudyhighlightsthemostrecentlyde­ veloped cbt index by Al-Mashat et al. (2018), known as the central bank transparency index for in.ation-targeting central banks (cbt­ it), which has been especially developed to account for the best prac­ ticesof cbtrequiredforafully-.edgedit regime.Thecbt-itindex is composed of three main elements; transparency about monetary policy objectives, transparency about the fpas, and transparency about the monetary policy-making process. The study assesses the transparency of the cbe throughout the three studied sub-periods (2005–2010, 2011–2016, 2017–2021) by employing the cbt-it index within each sub-period. The study .nds that the performance of the cbe in the three categories of the cbt-it index has witnessed a relatively reasonable path of progress across the studied periods. Regarding the objectives, the cbe’s transparency has improved signi.cantly over the course of the study. First, it started with the clear disclosure of the price sta­bility overriding, in the .rst sub-period. Following that, the cbe became more open about .nancial stability concerns in the second sub-period. Then, it eventually disclosed quantitative in.ation tar­gets with well-de.ned target horizons, starting in 2017. However, the cbe neither discloses its preferences nor its short-term trade-[215] o. betweenin.ationand output. On the fpas side, the cbe has exerted various e.orts to im­prove this dimension: the most remarkable features of e.orts are the cbe’s subscription to sdds in 2005 to ensure the timeliness, accessibility, integrity, and quality of its published databases, the in­augurationofthe cbe’score cpi in.ationmeasurein2009,andthe release of a monthly in.ation note to provide updated information on the key in.ationary dynamics. Moreover, in the third sub-period ofthestudy,the cbe initiatedmanytransparentpractices,suchas the disclosure of the cbe’s numeric in.ation target, and the publi­cation of in.ation forecasts and their uncertainty bands (i.e., their associated fan charts). Still, there remain some inherent shortcom­ings in this regard such as the obscurity about the core forecasting model to draw the baseline forecasts, the unavailability of the main macroeconomic and .nancial variables forecasts, and the absence of any forecast revisions. Pertaining to transparency about the policy process, the cbe has taken many steps towards reinforcing communication with all stakeholders via publishing miscellaneous reports and bulletins at various frequencies, establishing a specialised unit of communica­tion inside the cbe, diversifying its communication channels such as its user-friendly o.cial website, its YouTube channel, and other educational and multimedia presentations. Nonetheless, more mea­sures are still missing as the cbe has not held any periodic press con­ference with a q&a session, neither after each scheduled mpc meet­ing to discuss and explain its policy decisions nor when publishing its key forecasts. Furthermore, the public has not been provided a clearpictureofhowthe mpc reachedmajorpolicychoices,because neitherthe mpc meetingminuteswithattributedvotingoutcomes nor the forecast role in the decision-making process are publicly dis­closed. Lastly, the cbe has provided little information about its in-ternalorexternalinitiativestoreviseandassessits fpas.Thus,the cbe’s transparency performance is still in need of further reforms to be compatible with the required swift transition towards a fully-.edged it regime. [216] notes 1 The egindexisthe.rstmonetarypolicytransparencyindexthatassesses thepolitical,economic,procedural,policy,andoperationalaspectsof cbt. Their index is calculated from the scrutiny of actual information disclosure related to each stage of the decision-making process of monetary policy. 2 WhilethecbtscoreofEgyptwas2in2005,the(unweighted)averagescore of the whole sample and the African region were 5.2 and 3.9, respectively (Dincer and Eichengreen 2007). 3 For further information about this legal cbi index, see (Jácome 2001). 4 The fpas is the organisational framework that provides the regular .ow of macroeconomic information to policymakers for their decisions on the policy instrument path (e.g., the policy interest rate) (Clinton et al. 2015). 5 The aim of the cbe’s subscription to sdds was to ensure the timeliness, accessibility, integrity, and quality of its published databases by the appli­cation of international best criteria (International Monetary Fund 2005). 6 Thismeasureofcpiisdi.erentfromtheheadlineoneintermsofdropping thetemporary noise(i.e.,price .uctuations in the highly volatile goods such as foodstu. and subsidized goods) from the permanent price move­ments. references Abulnaga, R. 2021. ‘Monetary Policy Implementation in the Arab Republic of Egypt.’ In Central Bank Background Papers on Monetary Policy Frame­works in The Arab Region, 144–63. 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Youssef, H. 2007. ‘Towards In.ation Targeting in Egypt Fiscal and Institu­tional Reforms to Support Disin.ation E.orts.’ Economic Papers 288, European Commission, Brussels. Career Decisions in the Mediterranean: To Be or Not to Be an Entrepreneur? predrag ljubotina School of Advanced Social Studies in Nova Gorica, Slovenia predrag.ljubotina@gmail.com jaka vadnjal Gea College of Entrepreneurship and Emuni University, Slovenia jaka.vadnjal@gmail.com The signi.cance of individual and family traits has been the main focus of recent studies on family business succession; neverthe­less, regional e.ects have frequently been overlooked. Using in­dividual level cross-country data, this study examines the e.ects of regional circumstances on the career choice intentions of fam­ily business heirs regarding employment, starting their own entre preneurial venture, or family .rm succession. By employing data from the 2018 guesss survey and applying binominal logistic regression, we have discovered that two groups of several nations (European and non-European Mediterranean countries) have sev­eral di.erences. We also show that individual features in the fam­ily .rm, and start-up time, are signi.cant factors, even beyond conditions such as university environment, entrepreneurship in the curricula, entrepreneurial attitudes, locus of control, power distance and subjective norms. Policies regarding company succes­sion and related .rm survival should be particularly based on var­ious macroeconomic and youth labour market factors in order to reduce succession failures. Key Words: entrepreneurship, business succession, family business, career choice intention, Mediterranean region https://emuni.si/ISSN/2232-6022/16.221-249.pdf introduction The family context of businesses is typically included in the en­ trepreneurship study .eld, which has expanded over the past few decades from traditional studies of start-up operations and expand-ingbusinessconcernsasapart of entrepreneurialdynamicsthrough to its lifecycle. Consequently, within the conventional family com­pany cycle, family business succession has recently been considered as a potential new venture cycle. [222] This paper seeks to examine the problem of students’ career de­cisions, which also includes family business succession as an op­tion. Various inputs, both internal and external, contribute to the process’ complexity, making its procedures di.cult and demanding. However, before the Global University entrepreneurial Spirit Stu­dent’s Survey (guesss) research was introduced in 2003, potential successors and their own positions were largely disregarded, depriv­ing them of the chance to speak out on this, in their opinion, impor­tant issue. As may be predicted, the .rst few decades of family business study were mostly carried out at us universities. A number of paradigms have been established for textbook thinking and uni­versity courses on family company management that are based on American business and living culture. These include traditional cor­porate governance norms and family values. The notion that family and family values are a very real foundation for operating a com­mon interest in business has only lately been con.rmed by studies in the sector that have been extended to other nations and cultures, beginning in Europe but quickly moving to other regions. As a re­sult, conventional research paradigms have begun to focus more on the unique cultural characteristics of many nations and areas of the world,suchasthe Mediterranean, whichhas so farbeenatopic of common research in di.erent socio-economic .elds (Mongelli, Scardigno, and Merico 2012). The state of the economy and whether it is growing or stagnat­ing are topics of frequent discussion in national development pro-grammes, politics, and among the general public. Economic scenario analyses have resulted in the development of a number of policy ini­tiatives with the goal of boosting the economy and raising the aver­age person’s standard of living. Additionally, it is well acknowledged that entrepreneurship is one of the primary global drivers of value creation, employment cre­ation, innovation, and social change. In order to investigate the po­tential in.uence of circumstances on the profession choice inten­tions of family business heirs, a new study framework has been de­veloped. The overall dearth of research linking the diverse categories and taxonomies of entrepreneurial endeavours, including the vari-[223] ous family business succession models, to the activity and develop­ment of the economy in a given region, served as the impetus for writing this article. A clear geographic division characterises the economy of the Mediterranean region. According to (Glassmann 2016), government modernisation initiatives in some areas gave rise to the ‘family wel­fare model,’ which was based on labour contracts from big busi­nesses or the civil service, and provided substantial welfare bene­.ts. In some areas, the ‘family business model’ is prevalent. This model developed as a result of the male breadwinner sacri.cing social rights in favour of less protected employment alternatives (small .rms). On the other hand, family members that make this decision are more likely to pursue formal employment and higher educational goals, which may improve economic performance compared to ar­eas where the ‘family welfare model’ is still prevalent. In accordance with these .ndings, the motivation emerged to verify the broader data set model, focused on the geographical area of the Mediter­ranean with its speci.c cultural, economic and historical character­istics. In order to provide a theoretical framework and context for the research, we begin with a review of the pertinent research literature. In this chapter, hypotheses are also derived for empirical investi­gation. The next chapter presents and explains the .eld study con­ducted in some countries of the Mediterranean region that provided the primary data, along with the methods, sampling and data col­lection procedures. Results from applying multinomial regression to the data are shown in order to help determine whether the hy­potheses are accepted or rejected. We examine the results and their implications for potential real-world applications in the .nal sec­tion. theoretical background and hypotheses development Finding a Job Or Self-employment Finding a job or pursuing self-employment is a signi.cant aspect of [224] individuals’ lives, and it has implications for various factors such as health, mental wellbeing, career development, and economic bene­.ts. Several studies have explored these topics and shed light on the bene.ts and challenges associated with .nding a job or engaging in self-employment. A study that examined the barriers and bene.ts of self-employ­ment on health found that self-employment can have both posi­tive and negative e.ects, suggesting that further research is needed to understand this complex relationship (Rietveld, van Kippersluis, and Thurik 2015). Career development is an essential aspect of .nd­ing a job or pursuing self-employment. A recent study proposed a conceptual model for evaluating the professional development of women. The model can be applied to various .elds and provides in­sights into the factors in.uencing career advancement (Magrane et al. 2012). The role of public policies in promoting self-employment is also a topic of interest. Kumar (2012) developed a model of self-employ­ment that incorporates transitions between unemployment and self-employment. The model can inform policymakers in designing e.ective strategies to support individuals in their entrepreneurial endeavours (Kumar 2012). Furthermore, the impact of unemploy­ment insurance bene.ts on self-employment has been investigated. A study which examined the relationship between social security and self-employment suggests that more self-employment is cre­ated when more social security is provided (Camarero Garcia and Hansch 2020). Creativity and innovation are also crucial for entrepreneurship development, especially among young people. Juliana et al. (2021) investigated the relationship between creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship development. The study highlighted the positive impact of creativity and innovation on entrepreneurship (Juliana et al. 2021). Finding a job or pursuing self-employment has implications for individuals’ lives, especially at the beginning of their careers. For this reason, it is essential to know the factors that shape young people’s career decisions as precisely as possible, especially among the student population. In this regard, today’s demanding socio-[225] political environment is even more unforgiving towards both the in­dividual and society, which pays insu.cient attention to this issue. Mediterranean Countries Di.erences between European and non-European Mediterranean countries can be observed in various aspects, including economic systems, healthcare, societal quality, cultural background, and tour­ism. Regarding economic systems, Mediterranean countries are char­acterised by a higher concentration of savings at the top and con­sumption at the bottom of the income ranking compared to North­ern European countries (Ranaldi 2020). This .nding suggests that there may be greater income inequality in Mediterranean countries. Societal quality is another aspect that di.ers between European and non-European Mediterranean countries. A study analysing the societal quality of Southern European Mediterranean coun­tries (Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Greece) found that these countries have lower societal quality than other European countries (Beri­cat and Martín-Gimeno 2020). This suggests that there may be dif­ferences in governance, social cohesion, and other societal factors. Cultural background also in.uences the di.erences between Eu­ropean and non-European Mediterranean regions. Several studies have observed cultural disparities, with Greece as an example (Pe­trakis 2011). These cultural di.erences may in.uence economic de­velopment indicators, other aspects of society, and individuals’ ca­reer choices. These di.erences highlight the diverse nature of the Mediterranean region and the need for tailored approaches to ad­dress the speci.c challenges and opportunities faced by di.erent countries within this region. h1 There is a di.erence in students’ career intention in.uencing fac­ tors between European and non-European Mediterranean re­gions. University Environment [226] Environmental factors can strongly in.uence the entrepreneurial process (Kolvereid and Isaksen 2012). Individuals would not decide to start a company that is not embedded in the environment, in­stead preferring to consult their immediate environment, and are thus in.uenced by others, their intentions and decisions (Aldrich and Zimmer 1986). Thus, researchers list two important predictors of entrepreneur ial intention for the student environment. One of them is the sup­portive university environment. If the university provides knowl­edge and inspiration for entrepreneurship, the possibility of choos­ing an entrepreneurial career will increase (Turker and Selcuk 2009). In a susceptible period, the university environment plays an impor­tant, if not one of the key roles in students’ lives. At that time, students are expected to make a career decision after their stud­ies. Existing surveys among students from di.erent countries have shown that career preferences are in.uenced by the reputation of entrepreneurship and the support of the university environment (Autio et al. 2001). Research has con.rmed that encouraging the entrepreneur is critical to promoting economic growth. Indeed, cultural and insti­tutional frameworks in.uence entrepreneurship (Wennekers and Thurik 1999). University education a.ects the career choice of students so that universities can be a potential source of entrepreneurs (Turker and Selcuk 2009). The probability of starting a business is statistically greatest between the ages of 25 and 44 (Wortman 1985). This is ex­actly why it is so essential to research the student population in this context. h2 The more a student perceives support for entrepreneurship in the university environment, the more likely they are to choose an en trepreneurial career right after their studies. Entrepreneurship in the Curriculum Several studies have explored the relationship between univer­sity education and students’ career decisions and found that en­trepreneurship education programmes and university business in­cubators play a crucial role in shaping students’ career choices (Guer-[227] rero, Urbano, and Gajón 2020). These programmes provide students with the necessary skills, knowledge, and opportunities to pursue entrepreneurial ventures and entrepreneurship. On the other hand, the same programmes also enhance students’ employability options and increase their con.dence in areas such as communication, col­laboration, opportunity recognition, critical thinking, and problem-solving (Rodriguez and Lieber 2020). Entrepreneurship education has been found to positively im­pact students’ attitudes towards entrepreneurial careers (Khalid, Islam, and Lee 2019). It increases students’ entrepreneurial self-e.cacy, which is their belief in the ability to succeed as entrepre­neurs. This self-e.cacy, outcome expectations, and entrepreneurial interests in.uence students’ career choices (Uskuri and Sesen 2022). Furthermore, entrepreneurship education enhances students’ en trepreneurial skills, in.uencing the decision to become entrepre­neurs (Windiarti, Pulungan, and Adnyana 2022). The impact of en­trepreneurship education on career decisions is not limited to un­dergraduate students. It has also been found to in.uence secondary students’ career readiness. Education helps students develop an en trepreneurial mindset and increases their con.dence in communi­cation, collaboration, and critical thinking (Rodriguez and Lieber 2020). All mentioned skills are transferable and valuable in various career paths, not just entrepreneurship. The in.uence of entrepreneurship education on career decisions is not only limited to the education system, but also extends to the broader ecosystem. Entrepreneurial university ecosystems, which include entrepreneurship education programmes and university business incubators, provide students with the necessary support and resources to pursue entrepreneurial careers (Guerrero, Urbano, and Gajón 2020). These ecosystems facilitate employability options for graduates, including academic entrepreneurship. It has been proven that entrepreneurial university education has a signi.cant in.uence on the career decisions of students. It equips students with the necessary skills, knowledge, and opportunities to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. Entrepreneurship education [228] programmes and university business incubators heavily in.uence students’ career choices and enhance their employability options. University programmes and ecosystems also increase students’ self-con.dence. We ground our third hypothesis on this basis. h3 The more entrepreneurially rich the curriculum, the more likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. Entrepreneurial Attitude The in.uence of entrepreneurial attitude on students’ career deci­sions is a topic of great interest in entrepreneurship and education. Several studies have explored the relationship between entrepre­neurial attitude and career decisions, shedding light on the factors in.uencing students’ choices. A recent study found that college students’ entrepreneurial self-e.cacy signi.cantly and positively a.ects entrepreneurial attitude and intention. The study also revealed that entrepreneurial attitude is partially intermediary in the relationship between entrepreneur ial self-e.cacy and entrepreneurial intention (Liu et al. 2019). It is suggested that students with a solid entrepreneurial attitude are more likely to consider entrepreneurship a career option. Another study focused on Hungarian students found that a pos­itive entrepreneurial attitude increases the chances of choosing an entrepreneurial career (Gubik 2021). The .nding supports the idea that entrepreneurial attitude plays a crucial role in career decision-making among students. Moreover, the role of entrepreneurial mindset in career deci­sions has been explored in several studies. Burnette et al. (2020) conducted a growth mindset intervention to enhance students’ entrepreneurial self-e.cacy and found that this intervention pre­dicted career development. So, cultivating an entrepreneurial mind­set can positively impact students’ career decisions and outcomes. Overall, the literature suggests that entrepreneurial attitude, self-e.cacy, and mindset are important factors that in.uence students’ career decisions. Fostering a positive entrepreneurial attitude, en­hancing self-e.cacy, and cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset [229] can contribute to students’ consideration of entrepreneurship as a viable career option. These .ndings form the basis of our fourth hypothesis. h4 The higher the level of entrepreneurial attitude, the more likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. Entrepreneurial Skills Several studies have explored the relationship between entrepre­neurial skills and career choices, shedding light on the factors in­.uencing individuals’ decisions to pursue entrepreneurial careers. Callanan and Zimmerman discussed the career decision-making process of entrepreneurs and highlighted the need for comprehen­sive models that consider both endogenous and exogenous in.u­ences. While existing models provide insights into the factors in.u­encing entrepreneurial career selection, they do not capture the full complexity of the decision-making process (Callanan and Zimmer­man 2016). Further research is needed to understand the in.uence of entrepreneurial skills on career decisions fully. Overall, the literature suggests that entrepreneurial skills, such as a growth mindset, entrepreneurial self-e.cacy, and entrepre­neurial passion can positively in.uence individuals’ career decisions (Burnette et al. 2020). However, the decision to pursue an entrepre neurial career is complex and in.uenced by various factors, includ­ing job satisfaction, cultural values, and career stage (Blaese, Noemi, and Brigitte 2021). Therefore, further research is needed to understand the relation­ship between entrepreneurial skills and career intention among the younger generations. h5 The higher the level of self-assessed entrepreneurial skills, the more likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. Locus of Control [230] The in.uence of locus of control on career decisions has been exten­sively studied in psychology. Locus of control refers to an individ­ual’s belief about how much he or she has control over his/her life and the outcomes experienced (Lyons, Schweitzer, and Ng 2015). Re­search has shown that locus of control is positively related to career decision-making, career self-e.cacy, and career maturity. Individu­als with a high internal locus of control, who believe they have con­trol over their actions and outcomes, tend to be more decisive and proactive in making career choices (Kim and Lee 2018; Siregar 2021; Sholikah 2021; Zellweger, Sieger, and Halter 2011). Those individuals have higher levels of career self-e.cacy, which is the belief in one’s ability to perform career-related tasks and make e.ective career de­cisions successfully (Kim and Lee 2018; Turan 2021). Self-e.cacy, in turn, leads to higher levels of career maturity, which is the abil­ity to make informed and realistic career choices (Kirdök and Har­man 2018). On the other hand, individuals with an external locus of control, who believe that external factors or luck determine their outcomes, may experience di.culties in making career decisions. They may feel less con.dent in their ability to make e.ective ca­reer choices and may rely more on external sources of guidance and decision-making (Kim and Lee 2018; Al-Bahrani et al. 2021). This can lead to lower career self-e.cacy and maturity levels (Harman and Kirdök 2018). Additionally, research has shown that locus of con­trol is related to other factors that in.uence career decisions, such as personality traits, career orientations, and socio-economic status (Lyons, Schweitzer, and Ng 2015). Understanding an individual’s locus of control can provide valu­able insights into their career decision-making process and inform interventions and support strategies to enhance career self-e.cacy and maturity. h6 The higher the internal locus of control, the more likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. Power Distance Power distance, which refers to the extent to which individuals in a society accept and expect power inequalities, has been found to in­.uence career decisions signi.cantly. Several studies have explored the relationship between power distance and various aspects of ca-[231] reer decision-making, including career proactivity, career success, career intentions, and career exploration behaviour. Smale et al. (2018) examined the moderating role of national cul­ture, including power distance, on the relationship between proac­tive career behaviours and subjective career success. The authors suggested that cultural di.erences in power distance could a.ect the meanings attached to career proactivity and subsequently in.uence career behaviours and outcomes). In another study, Yang and Chau (2016) investigated the relationship between proactive personality, career success, and power distance orientation. The .ndings indi­cated that the extent to which leader-member exchange mediates the relationship between assertive personality and career success depends on power distance orientation. Dalci and Özyapici (2018) explored the in.uence of cultural val­ues, including collectivism and power distance, on students’ inten­tions when choosing an accounting career. The results revealed that collectivism and considerable power distance were associated with a signi.cant relationship between parental and peers’ in.uence and students’ intentions of choosing an accounting career (Dalci and Özyapici 2018). Moon and Choi examined the impact of career man­agement on organisational commitment, with the mediating role of subjective career success. The study found that proactive career be­haviours, such as career transition and job change, were less com­moninhigh-power-distance cultures (Moon and Choi 2017). Existing studies suggest that power distance can shape individ­uals’ career decisions and behaviours. In cultures with high power distance, individuals may be less likely to engage in proactive career behaviours and may have di.erent career intentions than in cultures with low power distance. The cultural meanings attached to career proactivity and the in.uence of power distance on career success and exploration behaviour highlight the importance of considering power distance in understanding career decisions. h7 The higher the level of perceived centralisation of society, the more likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. [232] Subjective Norms Subjective norms play a signi.cant role in career decision-making. Several studies have explored the in.uence of subjective norms on career decisions and have found that they can have both positive and negative e.ects (Zellweger, Sieger, and Halter 2011; Vadnjal and Ljubotina 2016). Muzika et al. (2019) examined the relationship between subjec­tive social status and career decision-making self-e.cacy. The study found that a higher personal social level predicted lower career in­decision and greater career decision-making self-e.cacy. The study concluded that individuals with higher subjective norms are more con.dent in their career decisions. Amalia, Mayasari, and Ogundajo (2021) found that internship experiences positively a.ected sub­jective norms, attitude toward behaviour, and perceived behaviour control, which in.uenced career intentions. Consequently, positive internship experiences can shape individuals’ subjective norms and in.uence their career decisions. Overall, studies con.rmed that subjective norms signi.cantly in­.uence career decisions. Understanding these in.uences on young people can help individuals make more informed and authentic ca­reer choices in di.erent societies and regions. h8 The higher the level of perceived subjective norms, the more likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. Entrepreneurial Parent The in.uence of parental factors on career decisions has been ex­tensively studied. Research consistently shows that parents signif­icantly impact shaping their children’s career choices. A study con­ducted on a sample of young people aged 14–18 years old found that parents exert the most signi.cant in.uence on their child’s career choice compared to other social factors and pressures (Stritch and Christensen 2016). This highlights the crucial role of parental in.u­ence in career decision-making. Moreover, studies have explored the relationship between family in.uences and career choices across cultural contexts. For instance, [233] a survey of Asian Americans revealed that family in.uences, such as parental attachment and individualism-collectivism, are associ­ated with career decision-making self-e.cacy (Kwong 2018). Cul­tural factors may therefore, interact with parental in.uence when shaping career choices. Parental expectations and perceptions of ca­reer choices also play a signi.cant role in in.uencing their children’s decisions. Students’ perception of parental expectations is an essen­tial factor in career choice as a parental in.uence (Agarwal, Kumar, and D’Souza 2016). Similarly, parental encouragement, providing in­formation about speci.c careers, and encouraging consideration of various education and career options signi.cantly in.uence career choices among students (Okesina 2022). Speci.cally, entrepreneurial parents have been found to impact their children’s career decisions. A study examining the entrepre­neurial intentions and willingness to consider entrepreneurship as a career option revealed that children are in.uenced by their parents’ entrepreneurial background (Costa, Caetano, and Santos 2016). Ac­cordingly, growing up in an entrepreneurial family can shape indi­viduals’ attitudes and aspirations towards entrepreneurship as a ca­reer path. The in.uence of entrepreneurial parents on students’ career de­cisionsisacomplexand multifaceted topic. Parentssigni.cantlyim­pact their children’s career choices while cultural factors, parental expectations, and personal predispositions can mediate this in.u­ence. Understanding the role of parental in.uence in career decision-making under di.erent societal conditions can provide valuable in­sights for career counselling and guidance programmes. h9 Students with entrepreneurial parents are more likely to choose an entrepreneurial career path compared to their peers from non-entrepreneurial families. methods Participants and Procedures With the research, we wanted to investigate students’ career inten­tions in the Mediterranean countries, namely in the context of en [234] trepreneurial intentions. We explored particular factors and how they shape students’ career intentions. For this purpose, we used thedatacollectedintheframeworkof guesss 2018(GlobalUniver­sity Entrepreneurship Spirit Student Survey) in the research. More than 208,000 valid survey questionnaires from 54 countries were collected as part of the research. We collected data from Mediter­ranean countries and divided them into two groups for our research. Our goal was to compare European countries (Albania, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) with non-European countries (Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey). The identi.cation-based guesss survey presented multiple re­sponses and was conducted using the online questionnaire from September 2018 to January 2019. The survey allowed students to remain anonymous. To our knowledge, it is the largest global study of students’ career intentions. At the same time, the study focuses precisely on the aspiration levels of entrepreneurship as a career op­tion. The research has been carried out since 2006, every two years. Each implementation is improved based on past experience. The 2018 study already includes a wide range of sociological and person­ality traits that potentially shape a young person’s career intention. Each factor is measured using repeatedly veri.ed instruments that have been proven to be reliable in high-pro.le research so far. The collected data thus o.er wide possibilities for studying correlations between individual factors as well as comparing di.erent geograph­ically or otherwise de.ned groups of young people. Students who have already established their own companies are excluded from the analysis to allow a prospective view and avoid so-called survivor bias, from which retrospective studies might suf­fer when interviewing entrepreneurs about motives after starting a .rm (Gartner 1989). Since we focused on students who can already de.ne their career goals immediately after completing their stud­ies, we excluded unde.ned respondents from the survey. After .l­tering the data, there were 33,970 respondents from European coun­tries, while the non-European group consisted of 2,839respondents. 36,806 students are included in the research, of which 38.7. are men and 61.3. are women. Among the respondents, 31. come from en trepreneurial families. As such, we considered families in which at [235] least one parent is self-employed or is the majority owner of the company. In doing so, we relied on one of the de.nitions of a fam­ily business (Barnes and Hershon 1976). Respondents were assured strict con.dentiality to avoid the in.uence of social desirability con­cerns (Podsako. et al. 2003). Measures Dependent Variable We asked students about their career decision (employee or en­trepreneur) immediately after completing their studies and .ve years thereafter. With the second question, the time span was lim­ited to .ve years after the studies according to the observation that typical entrepreneurs work elsewhere before starting their business (Brockhaus 1987). Table 1 illustrates the career intention in both observed groups, i.e., for the period immediately after the studies and .ve years there­after. We can understand that in both regions, the relationships change signi.cantly over a period of .ve years, which is in line with previous studies, according to which an individual gains experience as an employee elsewhere before starting his or her entrepreneurial career. From the above results, it can be seen that a small number of students realise their potential entrepreneurial intention immedi­ately after their studies. For this study, we focused on group compar­ table 1 Career Intent in European and Non-European Mediterranean Countries European Non European After study . years later After study . years later Employee ..... ..... ..... ..... Entrepreneur .... ..... .... ..... Do not know .... .... .... .... ison (European and non-European Mediterranean countries) in the period which follows immediately afterstudy. Our dependent vari­able is therefore, categorical and can take two values: (1) employee or (2) entrepreneur. [236] Independent Variables Seven factors were included among the independent variables, mea­ sured using a 7-point Likert scale. We measured the university en­ vironment’s support for entrepreneurship with three items (Franke andLüthje2004).Thedegree of inclusionofentrepreneurial content in the curriculum was captured by .ve items (Souitaris, Zerbinati, and Al-Laham 2007). Five items were used to measure entrepreneur ial attitude (Liñán and Chen 2009) and seven items for self-assessed mastery of entrepreneurial skills (Zhao 2005). The internal locus of control level is also measured with three scienti.cally veri.ed items (Levenson 1973). The perception of power distance in society is cov­ ered with three items taken from the globe survey (House et al. 2004). Three additional items also cover subjective norms (Liñán and Chen 2009). In addition to the mentioned variables, we included a categorical variable in the analysis, which was used to de.ne whether the stu­dent comes from an entrepreneurial family. It is a potentially impor­tant factor that can shape a student’s career intention, as evidenced by existing research (Zellweger, Sieger, and Halter 2011). results Since we compared two independent samples, a t-test was used with the intention of comparing the mean values for individual variables. The results of the t-testare givenintable 2, from whichwecan see the observed groups of countries di.er in a highly statistically sig­ ni.cant way, namely in all the observed factors. We can understand that students in the European part of the Mediterranean feel greater support for entrepreneurial thinking in their university environment. In this group of students, it is per­ceived that a greater importance is attributed to subjective norms in connection with their career purposes. The picture is di.erent table 2 T-Test between Groups (Non-European versus European Mediterranean Countries) Variable t df Sig. md University support for entrepreneurship –..... ....... ..... –..... Entrepreneurship in the curiculum Entrepreneurial attitude ..... ...... ........ ....... ..... ..... ..... ..... [237] Entrepreneurial skills level ..... ........ ..... ..... Level of internal locus of control ..... ....... ..... ..... Perc. level of power distance in the society ...... ........ ..... ..... Subjective norms –..... ....... ..... –..... for the other observed factors, where higher average values are ob­served in the group of non-European Mediterranean countries. In these countries, the study curriculum contains more entrepreneur ial content. We also measured a signi.cantly higher level of incli­nation towards entrepreneurship and self-assessment of entrepre neurial skills. The same applies to the degree of internal locus of control and to the perceived degree of centralisation of society. The results of the t-test thus con.rm hypothesis h1 with a high degree of statistical signi.cance. Since the perceived di.erences between the observed regions are highly statistically signi.cant, with the intention of gaining deeper insight into the relationships between the variables, we continued the analysis with a regression model. A regression model is devel­oped for each of the two regions, thus enabling the comparison of regression coe.cients between the two models. Therefore, all hy­pothesesfrom h2 to h9aretestedineachofthetwogroupsandre­sults are compared. Since our dependent variable is categorical and can take only two values (employee or entrepreneur), logistic regres­sion is the most appropriate method. After constructing and testing our logistic regression models, we found that chi-square tests are highly signi.cant (p = 0,000), which shows that our models are signi.cantly upgrading the null-model (intercept only model). A statistically non-signi.cant Hosmer and Lemeshow test additionally con.rms that we have a good model .t in both groups (European: p = 0.667, non-European: p =0.909). The Predrag Ljubotina and Jaka Vadnjal table 3 Logistic Regression Models Group Variable B Sig. Exp(B) Non European University support –..... ..... ..... Entrepreneurial curriculum ..... ..... ..... [238] Entrepreneurial attitude ..... ..... ..... Entrepreneurial skills ..... ..... ..... Locus of control –..... ..... ..... Power distance –..... ..... ..... Subjective norms –..... ..... ..... Parents entrepreneurs ..... ..... ..... Constant –..... ..... ..... European University support –..... ..... ..... Entrepreneurial curriculum ..... ..... ..... Entrepreneurial attitude ..... ..... ..... Entrepreneurial skills ..... ..... ..... Locus of control –..... ..... ..... Power distance –..... ..... ..... Subjective norms –..... ..... ..... Parents entrepreneurs ..... ..... ..... Constant –..... ..... ..... results of both regression models are shown in table 3. University support turns out to be an important factor in the European part of the Mediterranean, where higher support statistically and signif­icantly lowers the probability of deciding on an entrepreneurial ca­reer immediately after completing studies. It is an interesting .nd­ing, which would certainly be worthy of in-depth research with the aim of .nding the reasons for such a result. In the non-European part of the Mediterranean, we did not detectstatistically signi.cant in.uential support from the university environment in relation to the probability of an entrepreneurial career. Our hypothesis h2 is rejected in both regions, although it is worth bearing in mind that in the European part, we detected signi.cant results, but contrary to expectations. Wemustalsorejecthypothesis h3 inbothregions,asoursample measurements do not contradict the null hypothesis. Thus, we did not perceive that the amount of entrepreneurial content in the cur­riculum would a.ect the probability of choosing an entrepreneurial career path immediately after completing studies. The .nding ap­plies to the entire Mediterranean area. Hypothesis h4 can be con.rmed for the entire Mediterranean [239] area. A more recognised individual’s entrepreneurial tendencies in­crease the probability of choosing an entrepreneurial career com­pared to employment. The regression coe.cients indicate a slightly more pronounced in.uence in the European part of the Mediter­ranean, where an increase in the inclination towards entrepreneur­ship by one degree increases the probability of deciding on an en trepreneurial career immediately after study by 1.132 times. In the Non-European part of the Mediterranean, this factor is 1.074. Hypothesis h5 canbecon.rmedinthe European part of the Mediterranean, where a higher self-assessment of entrepreneurial skills signi.cantly increases the probability of an entrepreneurial ca­reer after studying. We did not detect a statistically signi.cant im­pact in non-European regions. A similar .nding was also detected in the analysis of the in.u­ence of the internal locus of control. In the non-European part of the Mediterranean, the degree of internal locus of control does not signi.cantly a.ect the probability of deciding on an entrepreneur ialcareer. Hypothesis h6 isthus rejectedinthisgroup.IntheEuro­pean Mediterranean countries, the picture is di.erent. Hypothesis h6 cannot be con.rmed, but the observed results are statistically signi.cant. A higher level of internal behavioural control reduces the probability of deciding on an entrepreneurial path immediately af­ter completing studies. In the analysis of the impact of the centralisation of society, de­spite the known di.erences in the socio-political environment of the observed two regions, we did not detect statistically signi.cant impacts on the probability of choosing an entrepreneurial career among students in any region. Hypothesis h7 is therefore rejected for the entire Mediterranean area. Subjective norms are an important factor in both observed re­gions. In both cases, a higher level of subjective norms reduces the probability of a student’s decision to pursue an entrepreneur ial career path. The aforementioned applies, of course, to the pe­riod immediately after the end of studies. The more importance a student attaches to the opinions of those close to him/her, the less [240] likely he/she is to pursue an entrepreneurial career after complet­ing his/her studies. Here too, the reasons for such results should de.nitely be investigated more deeply. One could speculate that students want to maintain the positive opinion of those close to them and therefore, .nd it more di.cult to embark on a risky entre preneurial career path without prior experience. We detected a greater di.erence between the groups in the in.u­ence of entrepreneurial parents. Parental entrepreneurs in the non-European part of the Mediterranean do not signi.cantly in.uence their o.spring’s decision about career paths immediately after com­pleting their studies. It is entirely di.erent in the European part of the Mediterranean, where this factor strongly in.uences the prob­ability of choosing an entrepreneurial career after completing stud­ies, increasing the said probability by more than two times (exp(B) = 2.07). discussion and implications Students with a familial background in business face a unique dilem­ ma when choosing their career route. Their selection is more com­ plicated and sets them apart from their peers due to the possibility of taking over the family business. Previous research has examined the psychological, emotional, and societal components of this pro­ fession choice dilemma. Our study adds to a better understanding of the broader career choice intention perspective by examining the impact of regional cultural issues. The presented work may be seen in part as exploratory, because there are few studies that link the cultural issues of the Mediterranean region to the career choice in­ tentions of young people, particularly when focusing on a speci.c set of students with a background in family enterprises. The countries under investigation are fundamentally and ex­ tremely di.erent in terms of their economic circumstances and political systems. Some nations were far from western democracy­based societies at some point in the distant past. Young students might anticipate di.erent job and professional development oppor­tunities in such circumstances. These circumstances have changed or are continuing to change quickly over the past few decades. However, several nations operate stable market economies. Despite [241] spanning such a wide range of European economies, our substantial regression results imply that it may be possible to generalise the .ndings in other parts of the globe. Table 4 compares our model re­sults from the two set of countries the research observed for debate and implications. There are several important .ndings which can be derived from the table 4. Interestingly and somehow disappointingly, is the fact that according to the analysis of hypothesis h3, which was rejected in the both groups, the inclusion of entrepreneurship in curricula does nothavemuchimpactonentrepreneurial decisionsinthe stud­ied areas. Similarly, the level of perceived centralisation of a society (hypothesis h7) seems not to have any signi.cant meaning for the decision of an entrepreneurial path. On the other hand, for the whole studied sample, two hypotheses are con.rmed for the both sub-samples. These were expected: (i) the importanceoftheentrepreneurialattitude(hypothesis h4)and(ii) thelevelofsubjectivenorms(hypothesis h8),whichwerecon.rmed with an opposite logic. For both hypotheses, we can .nd consistent support in previous research. Another study found that a positive entrepreneurial attitude increases (hypothesis h4) the chances of choosing an entrepreneurial career (Gubik 2021). Additionally, an­other study found that a higher personal social level predicted lower career indecision and greater career decision-making self-e.cacy, suggesting that individuals with higher subjective norms are more con.dent in their career decisions (Muzika et al. 2019). There are four pairs of hypotheses con.rmed only for the Eu­ropean Mediterranean countries and rejected for those outside Eu­rope. First, is the perception of entrepreneurship support in the uni­versity environment (hypothesis h2), which can lead to the inter­pretation that universities of non-European Mediterranean coun­tries do have several challenges in securing the more supportive Predrag Ljubotina and Jaka Vadnjal table 4 Hypotheses Con.rmation for Both Sets of Countries Hypothesys (.) (.) h. The more a student perceives support for entrepreneurship in No Yes– the university environment, the more likely they are to choose [242] an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. h. The more entrepreneurially rich the curriculum, the more No No likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right af­ ter their studies. h. The higher the level of entrepreneurial attitude, the more Yes Yes likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right af­ter their studies. h. The higher the level of self-assessed entrepreneurial skills, the No Yes more likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. h. The higher the internal locus of control, the more likely stu-No Yes– dents are to choose an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. h. The higher the level of perceived centralization of society, the No No more likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right after their studies. h. The higher the level of perceived subjective norms, the more Yes– Yes– likely students are to choose an entrepreneurial career right af­ter their studies. h. Students with entrepreneurial parents are more likely to No Yes choose an entrepreneurial career path compared to their peers from non-entrepreneurial families. notes (1)non-European,(2)European.No –nonsigni.cantresult,yes –signif­icant result, yes– – signi.cant, but opposite logic than hypothesised. Result signif­icance < 0.05. university environment for future promotion and assistance in the career paths of students, which is also consistent with the recom­mendations from previous research (Turker and Selcuk 2009). Sec­ond, is the perception that self-assessed entrepreneurial skills are not linked to a higher attitude towards entrepreneurship in the non­Europeancountries(hypothesis h5),whichmaybeinterpretedwith a lower level of awareness about the importance of entrepreneurial skills in these countries. This .nding is coherent with the proposi­tion that the decision to pursue an entrepreneurial career is com­plex and in.uenced by various factors, including job satisfaction, cultural values, and career stage (Blaese, Noemi, and Brigitte 2021). Third, the higher level of internal locus of control (hypothesis h6) does not lead to a higher level of entrepreneurial attitudes in the non-European countries. This seems to be consistent with previ-[243] ous pieces of research that have shown the locus of control is re­lated to other factors that in.uence career decisions, such as person­ality traits, career orientations, and socio-economic status (Lyons, Schweitzer, and Ng 2015). Fourth, the role of entrepreneurial par-ents(h9)does notseemto playanimportantroleinnon-European countries, which is hard to explain, but is probably due to cultural di.erences; however, this may be consistent with the suggestion that growing upinan entrepreneurial family canshape individuals’ attitudes and aspirations towards entrepreneurship as a career path (Costa, Caetano, and Santos 2016). Limitations of the Study Cross-sectional data from the guesss 2018 survey were used, as observational research at one particular point in time, providing a result. Conversely, the regional landscape of the Mediterranean is subject to vast .uctuations and societal changes that may have an impact on our survey participants. Although a longer study would better address the problem, it would also be more complex and ex­pensive. The potential selection causation bias has been mitigated by removing students who are self-employed. Possibilities for Future Research Research on the intended career path of family business heirs is still lacking. Our .ndings point to the necessity and signi.cance of eval­uating the regional impact factors and the profession choice of fam­ily business heirs. It would be bene.cial to repeat the study and in­corporate more countries from both sides of the Mediterranean, as well as a larger sample size of nations. In order to compare with stud­ies that are similar to ours in terms of career choice intention, future longitudinal research ought to focus on actual job choice as well. By incorporating additional environmental and human data into the model, explanatory models with a higher level of complexity can be constructed. Studying in a .eld that o.ers diverse career options outside of family enterprises in a volatile labour market at a particu­lar moment should be given more weight when evaluating personal [244] characteristics. In comparable geographical and circumstances, this might also a.ect the heir’s intended career choice. Investigating why various factors a.ect target group job decision intention is possible through qualitative research. Building a more predictive multilevel quantitative model that takes into account various geographic and cultural factors could be aided by preliminary qualitative research. The outcomes of these upcoming research projects could serve as crucial benchmarks for policy, curriculum, and employment. conclusions Our research establishes a connection between family business suc­ cession aspirations and the cultural dimension of di.erent countries of the Mediterranean region. The presence of statistically signi.cant associations is a promising avenue for improving the study models pertaining to the career choice intention of family business heirs. More complex models may be employed in order to provide a better explanation of the correlation between various factors (personal, so­ cial, and environmental) and career decision intention, as suggested by statistically signi.cant regression coe.cients for control vari­ ables and earlier research (Zellweger, Sieger, and Halter 2011). As a result, our study makes a signi.cant contribution to the literature on family business succession. Our accomplishment of the study’s primary objective, which was con.rming the relationship between succession intention and the nation’s regional position within the Mediterranean, has opened the door to a more thorough examination of the causal relationships be­tween economic conditions and students’ career aspirations. Every young person must choose his/her profession, and stu­dents are almost certainly very close to beginning their own careers after completing their education. Students from families that own and operate businesses make up a very distinct, although increas­ingly signi.cant, group of young people, and they have a major re­sponsibility for the future viability of family enterprises. Their ca­reer decision is highly signi.cant on a national level, as small and medium-sized family-owned enterprises account for the majority of all companies in each country’s market, while it is highly complex on a personal and family level. In today’s cultures, when family compa-[245] nies play a major role in ensuring economic stability and prosperity, it is imperative to grasp the intention behind their job decision. references Agarwal, R.,A.Kumar,and K. D’Souza. 2016. ‘Issues in Career Choicesof Successors in Family Businesses: Perspective from Literature Review.’ Journal of Applied Management and Investments 5(1): 1–19. Al-Bahrani, M., Y. A. 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Zhao, F. 2005. ‘Exploring the Synergy between Entrepreneurship and In­novation.’ International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research 11 (1): 25–41. Assessment of Coastal Water Quality by Testing a Linear Model Using Landsat 8 sst Data: Exploratory Study yousra ezzghari Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Morocco yousra.ezzghari@etu.uae.ac.ma el khalil cherif Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, Italy c.elkhalil@uae.ac.ma ayman bnoussaad Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal aymanbnoussaad@gmail.com hamza el azhari Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Morocco hamza.elazhari@etu.uae.ac.ma hakim boulaassal Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Morocco h.boulaassal@uae.ac.ma The Mediterranean Basin, o. the coast of Tangier, Morocco, is one of the most valuable seas, because of the diversity of its ecosys­tem. However, pollution has become a growing issue along this coast recently. For this reason, we tested a linear model developed for the Atlantic western coastal waters of Tangier using sea sur­face temperature (sst) estimated from Landsat 8 images and Es­cherichia coli concentration (E. coli) in-situ measurement to deter­mine the Mediterranean northern coastal waters quality of Tang­ierin15SelectedSites(ss1 to ss15)alongthecoastfromTangier to Ksar-Sghir. In addition, descriptive statistics, and geographic information systems (gis) were employed to explore the spatial association of the data. The results indicate that the sst and E. coli distributions have the highest values in the ss4–ss13 and ss15 due to the Souani and Mghogha rivers and Tangier Med Port, re.ecting poor quality and a very high level of dangerous contam­ination in this area. The ss1, ss2, ss3, and ss14 re.ected low lev­ els of ssts and E. coli concentrations thus, medium, and good- quality water is present around the cities of Tangier and Ksar- Sghir. The relationship between water temperature and E. coli con­ centration showed a high correlation coe.cient, 80. (rmse = [252] 0.8), while the idw, helped frame the pollution zone along the shore. Although only values near the shore are valid, the values deeper in the Gibraltar Strait were extrapolated due to the absence of data points at depth. This idw results showed the negative im­pact of discharges from estuaries and maritime tra.c. As a result, the tested model is useful for estimating the quality of coastal wa­ter on the Mediterranean side of Tangier, and in the future, as a means of potentially monitoring pollution in this region. Key Words: Mediterranean waters, Escherichia Coli, Landsat 8, sst, quality water, Gibraltar Strait https://emuni.si/ISSN/2232-6022/16.251-280.pdf introduction The coastal waters o.er some of the best landscape areas (Yi et al. 2022; Gravari-Barbas and Jacquot 2018) and serve other important purposes, such as marine aquaculture, commercial navigation, or as a repository for sewage and industrial waste (Cherif, Salmoun, and Mesas-Carrascosa 2019). Such activities are not always compat­ ible with each other nor the population that lives along the coastal zone, which represents 40 percent of the total population (Maul and Duedall 2019; Sloggett et al. 1995). Furthermore, the expansion of these activities has a serious impact in the environment, putting hu­ man health and aquatic life habitats at risk (Lamghari Moubarrad and Assobhei 2005). For sustainable coastal water, water resource management and constant monitoring are required. Furthermore, water treatment requires an awareness of the quality of the water body. Water quality considers the thermal and biological character­ istics of a body of water. It is used as an index to determine the suit­ ability of water. De.ning seawater quality can be di.cult as its usage varies widely (Gong et al. 2019). Remote sensing is widely used for land cover and land use classi.cation and has been shown to be ef­.cient for use in heterogeneous mesh segmentation (Gómez 2003; Sertel et al.2022),but water bodieshaveprovendi.cult to mapdue to their homogeneity and high variability in re.ectance, and a num­ber of satellite remote sensing products for water resources man­agement are still in their infancy (Yang et al. 2022; She.eld 2018; [253] Gholizadeh 2016). Nevertheless, there is tremendous potential for the use of remote sensing imagery for monitoring and assessing wa­ter quality (Cherif et al. 2020). Relying on the spectral properties of water leaving radiance, it is possible to remotely determine and quantify water quality parameters (Bourouhou and Salmoun 2021b). Sea surface temperature was one of the .rst ocean variables to be studied from earth observation satellites, and the satellite in­struments to retrieve and estimate these ssts have undergone over a half century of development (Cherif, Salmoun, and Mesas­Carrascosa2019;Govekaretal.;Amanietal.2022).The sst param­eter has demonstrated its association with many bacterial concen­trations. For instance, in the infamous John Snow cholera case in London, it was discovered that sea surface temperature, retrieved from satellite imagery, showed an annual cycle similar to the cholera case data collected from 1992 to 1995 in Bangladesh (Alparslan et al. 2007). This association was later con.rmed for other bacterial con­centrations, such as E. coli, with a high correlation coe.cient (R2= 0.85) (Anding and Kauth 1970). The traditional way to calculate E. coli concentrations consists of collecting samples from the site and analyzing them in a labora­tory. The results in this case are highly explicit (Cherif et al. 2020; Sikder et al. 2021). In marine environments, E. coli concentration is considered a fundamental parameter of water quality and is used to monitor fecal coliforms (fc) (Odonkor and Mahami 2020; Brando and Dekker 2003). However, although e.ective, this conventional method is also costly and time-consuming (El-Din et al. 2013). Fur­thermore, in-situ measurements are sometimes inconsistent and proved to be di.cult to use to assess water quality, especially in large areas. Hence, since the 1970s, many researchers have applied remote sensing techniques to assess water quality (Anding and Kauth 1970; Topp at al. 2020; Giardino et al. 2014). Remote sensing has been applied to monitor di.erent water bod­ies, such as coasts, lakes, and arti.cial ponds (Doña et al. 2016; Peng et al. 2022; Hadjimitsis and Clayton 2009). Many of these study areas su.er from di.erent quantitative computational problems. How­ [254] ever, the application of remote sensing imagery in forecasting and water quality assessment is progressively improving (Alparslan et al. 2007). The main water quality parameters under consideration are the core objective of many of these studies, such as sea surface tem­perature (sst), turbidity, chlorophyll-a, Secchi depth, dissolved oxy­gen, and others. These parameters can be used to determine other water concentrations, such as, in our case, E. coli concentrations, based on thermal data derived from satellite or drone imagery (Kon­dratyev et al. 1998). The assessment and predictive capability of the developed models are highly argued. Naturally, the accuracy of E. coli concentration estimation captured by small unmanned aerial vehicles (suav or drone) is higher than the satellite-based imagery due to its higher resolution (Topp at al. 2020; Giardino et al. 2014). Our study area is on the northern coast of Morocco, in a Mediter­ranean region that has historically been a high-tra.c volume area with three main estuaries: Oued El Maleh, Oued Lihoud, and Oued Souani (Er-Raioui et al. 2012). Furthermore, the Strait of Gibraltar plays a crucial role in controlling all exchanges and modi.cations of the biogeochemistry of the marine ecosystem and the circulation between the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean (Maillard and Santos 2008). The bathingwatersofthiscoast are particularlyfre­quented by both locals and tourists, which raises concerns consid­ering the health risks. More than 40. of the world’s population lives in coastal areas and along lake or river shores (Cherif et al. 2020). Therefore, any changes in aquatic ecosystems due to human, urbanization, indus­trial, or touristic activities have grave e.ects on these areas. Tangier Ksar-Sghir, located on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, has experienced signi.cant demographic growth and increased industrial activity in recent years, particularly since the new Tangier Med port began service in 2016. This situation directly a.ects the quality of the coastal water in this region. Brando et al. (2003) adopted a linear model based on thermal data from Landsat 8 and in-situ measurements of E. coli to estimate the water quality on the western coast of Tangier, Morocco. Their results showed a signi.cant correlation between log E. coli and the temper­ature di.erence between water and air. [255] The aim of the present work is twofold. First, it describes the per­formance of testing a linear equation to estimate the concentration of E. coli and the water quality in the Tangier Mediterranean coast (Tangier Ksar-Sghir coastal water). Second, it demonstrates the po­tential of using remote sensing as an early and e.ective warning sys­tem for coastal water pollution using statistical analysis and gis. materials and methods Study Area TangierKsar-Sghir coastal water(.gure 1)islocated in theStraitof Gibraltar between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The coast is famous by its proximity to the capital of northern Mo­rocco, Tangier. Tangier, an area of 17 262 km2, representing 2.43. of the total area of the Moroccan Kingdom. Over 40 km is comprised of the village of Ksar-Sghir, which covers an area of 50,000 m2.This region is well known by Tangier Med Port (Ben Ali and Mahacine 2022). It is a signi.cant link to more than 180 ports in 70 countries and due to its geographical position, it is known as the second bus­iest sea lane in the world, with more than 100,000 boats per year (El-Din et al. 2013). The region’s climate varies from sub-humid Mediterranean in the mountains to semi-arid along the coastal strip. It is strongly in.u­enced by the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the relief (Haut Commissariat au Plan 2020). Due to altitude, latitude and ocean, the climate of study area presents a strongly heterogeneity. The annual average rainfall varies between 400 mm and 700 mm depending on altitude. In general, the temperature remains mild in winter, soft in summer as well on the coasts as in altitude. Moreover, due to geographical localization of Tangier Ksar-Sghir, the coastal area is very windy thanks to coastal currents (East or West) that rush through the Gibraltar lane. f igure 1 Situation Map of the Study Area The TangierKsar-Sghiris particularlya.ected by the negative consequences of climate change and marine pollution. It has expe­rienced, in recent decades, a variety of pressures from increasing urbanization. According to the last census in 2015, it had 1,065,601 inhabitants (Bouramtane et al. 2021). Moreover, the coastline be­tween Tangier Ksar-Sghir is characterized by intense port activity based mainly at the level of the Tangier Med Port complex (commer­cial port) and the port of the city of Tangier (Ben Ali and Mahacine 2022). In terms of industrial activities, most of the industrial units are located along the coastline (Doney 2010). This represents a type of severe impact due to the discharge of liquid e.uents into the sea. Additionally, .shing activities and seaside tourism cause pressure on marine ecosystems and have a negative impact on water quality in this region, respectively (Islam and Tanaka 2004). Selected Sampling Point In the last few years, the Tangier-Ksar-Sghir region has undergone a signi.cant evolution in terms of industrial, economic, and touristic activities. The main objective of this investigation is to frame the study area and determine the ideal sampling points that will provide a fair estimation of the bacterial propagation of E. coli. Assessment of Coastal Water Quality table 1 Selected Sites with Their Geographical Coordinates ss1 Marqala ss6 Ghandouri ss11 Ksar-Sghir ss2 Tangier city ss7 Lamrissat ss12 Port Tangier Med ss3 Tangier city ss8 Sidi Kanqouch ss13 Port Tangier Med ss4 Tangier Malabata ss9Oued Aliane 1 ss14 Port Tangier Med [257] ss5 Tangier Malabata ss10 Oued Aliane2 ss15 Oued el Marsa In this study, the sampling waters were collected in 2017 at 15 di.erent locations (three samples were collected at each location) for bacteriological parameters. The sampling stations were chosen with uniform spacing and little variation, and were based on the ge­ographical conditions, accessibility, and the most known sites for human activities (urbanism, industry and tourism) and materials of sampling (it is not according to work in depth). Table 1 illustrates the geographical coordinates of each site. Study Procedure In this study, the water quality in the Tangier-Ksar-Sghir area was analyzed using data from Landsat 8 images (Thermal Infrared Sen­sor) and based on the in-situ measurements of E. coli concentrations provided by Bourouhou and Salmoun (2021a). We used a methodol­ogy for estimating the concentration of E. coli on the northern coast of Tangier, which was previously used on the Atlantic western cost of Tangier and proved e.cient (Cherif et al. 2020). The statistical approach was conducted in order to analyze and compare the in-situ and estimated data to see if they behaved simi­larly. The descriptive statistics, the correlation matrix, and the scat­terplots are produced using Excel. The use of the spatial aspect of the sites is accomplished through data posting, using arcgis software to graphically investigate our dataset and gain a better understand­ing of it. Sea Surface Temperature Data The Landsat 8 (l8) satellite can continuously provide a signi.cant volume of data for all landmasses and near-coastal areas on earth with high performance and quality (Bradtke 2021; Wu et al. 2019). Landsat 8 has two bands of tirs. The tirs sensor provides im­age data for two thermal bands: Band 10 (b10) and Band 11 (b11) with high spatial resolution (100 m), and wavelength (10.0–12.5 µm) (Amani et al. 2022). [258] The atmosphere between the satellite and the earth’s surface con­sists of various gases that absorb and/or scatter both incident and re.ected sunlight (Grau and Gastellu-Etchegorry 2013). The Landsat instruments do not contain on-board sensors to measure these con­ditions, so this information is obtained through other observations, called auxiliary data (us Geological Survey 2023b). More recently, however, the United States Geological Survey aims to improve the Landsat products to prevent this natural reac­tion and to support Earth’s change studies (Roy et al. 2014). There­fore, it has initiated an e.ort to create a collection of Landsat Level 2 Science Products (l2sp) (Galve et al. 2022). It requires the atmo­spheric auxiliary data from multiple external sources for surface temperature data processing (Banzon et al. 2016; Donlon et al. 2012). For this, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Re.ection Ra­diometer Global Emissivity Dataset (aster ged) data are used by the Surface Temperature (st) algorithm in order to obtain the emis­sivity auxiliary data. Additionally, for the atmospheric correction, the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (geos-5) Forward Process for Instrument Teams (fp-it) data is used in the Single Channel algorithm (us Geological Survey 2023b). It’s impor­tant to note that the Single Channel algorithm that generates the st bandrequires l1’s tirs Band10asaninput(us GeologicalSur­vey 2023a). Additional details describing the auxiliary .le structures can be found on the us Geological Survey website (us Geological Survey 2023a). The Landsat Level-2 products are derived from the correspond­ing Level-1 products and additional corrections are applied to re­move their temporally, spatially and spectrally varying atmospheric e.ects (Teixeira Pinto et al. 2020). Compared to the Level 1 products, which the Digital Number (dn) is converted to Top-of-Atmosphere (toa) through the radiometric calibration process and then into toa Brightness Temperature, the Level 2 products are atmospher­ table 2 tirs Images for sst Estimated Details (Path/Row 201/35, b10, and Level2) lc08_l2sp_201035_20170423_20200904_02_t1 lc08_l2sp_201035_20170626_20200903_02_t1 lc08_l2sp_201035_20170728_20200903_02_t1 lc08_l2sp_201035_20170914_20200903_02_t1 lc08_l2sp_201035_20171117_20200902_02_t1 lc08_l2sp_201035_20171219_20200902_02_t1 [259] ically corrected data (Teixeira Pinto et al. 2020). More information on Landsat 8 Level 2 Science Products (l2sp) band speci.cations can be found on the us Geological Survey o.cial website (us Geo­logical Survey 2023b). In this research, the sst values are derived from the Collec­tion 2 Level 2 Science Product (l2sp) b10 Thermal Infrared Sen­sors (tirs). Six images covering the Tangier Ksar-Sghir area from 2017 were uploaded (table 2). To achieve a high accuracy of light re­.ectance from the Earth’s surface, cloudy images were not included. Once the Landsat 8 thermal band (b10) images were down­loaded, the estimated sst values corresponding to our points of interest were computed using the Sentinel Application Platform (snap) software developed by the European Space Agency (esa) (Ramdani et al. 2021; Ritchie et al. 2003). To do this, we .rst started by converting the temperature values from Kelvin to Celsius. The selected sites were imported according to their geographical coordinates to extract the sea surface temper­ature of each point using pinning tools, and then the selected pins were exported. The following .owchart presented in .gure 2 illus­tratesthe processfollowedtoextractseasurfacetemperature(sst) from Landsat8 b10. Water Quality Estimation In this part of our study, a total of 15 sites were selected from the to­tal concentration in-situ measurements and are available. After de­riving the in-situ data from the year 2017 (Bourouhou and Salmoun 2021b), we matched the data with the ssts and Air Temperatures f igure 2 Flowchart for Extracting Sea Surface Temperature from Landsat8 b10 table 3 Quality Classes According to Moroccan Norm nm 03.7.200 Quality classes A (good B(medium C(temp. D(poor quality) quality) polluted) quality) E. coli (ufc/100 mL) =150 =250 =500 =500 (ats)ofthe same date.TheconcentrationsofE.coliinTangier Ksar-Sghir were determined based on the linear model of (Cherif et al. 2020). y = 0.37x + 2.4, where x = sst – at, and y = log10 [E. coli (ufc/100 mL)]. As previously mentioned, the sst values of each point were de­rivedfromband10of tirs images. TheAirTemperature(ats)was obtained from the Tangier Ibn Batouta airport weather station (Sey­han and Dekker 1986). See Table 3 for further information. The water quality class of each selected site was assigned according to Moroc­can quality standards (Moroccan norm nm 03.7.200), represented in table 3 (Mahjoubi 2019; Usali and Ismail 2010). results and discussion Exploring the potential of remote sensing for estimating water tem­perature has drawn many authors to using satellite imagery for this purpose in various regions around the world (Giardino et al. 2014; Wang and Ma 2001; Pyo et al. 2016; Morgan et al. 2020; Cheng et al. 2022) and in Morocco’s northern waters (Anding and Kauth 1970; Brando and Dekker 2003; El-Din et al. 2013). We tested a linear equationtodetermineE. coliconcentrationsusingexisting sst and f igure 3 Location of the Two Statistical Anomalies in the Study Area Air Temperature data from several locations in the Mediterranean coastal water of Tangier (Anding and Kauth 1970). This equation allowed for the estimation of E. coli concentrations along Tangier’s Ksar-Sghir region’s coastline in 2017. Exploratory Data Analysis Table 4 summarizes the results of the in-situ measurements (sea surface temperature, E. coli concentration, water quality class, and air temperature for each selected site (El-Din et al. 2013; Ritchie et al. 2003) and estimated quantities (sea surface temperature extracted from band 10 of Landsat 8, the concentration of E. coli estimated from the equation (Vanhellemont 2020), and water quality classes (Mahjoubi et al. 2019; Usali and Ismail 2010)). The estimated water quality classes showed medium to high cor­relation with in-situ measurements, ss1 and ss6 having relatively lower correlation. The bathing water in ss1 was classi.ed as class B instead of D; this .uctuation can be explained by the presence of the pre-treatment station near the .rst site (.gure 3), that spills period­ically. The ss2 and ss3 were classi.ed as good quality (class A) for both in-situ and estimated variables. On the other hand, ss4 and ss5, were class D, C and D, D in-situ and estimated respectively, due to the rejection of the estuary of Souani and Mghogha rivers. The selected sites from ss6 to ss13 were characterized by poor quality water (class D), which re.ects a very high level of dangerous contam­ table 4 Bacteriological Results of the Concentration of E. Coli Estimated, Sea Surface Temperature Estimated (sst) and Water Quality Classes Sites (.) (.) (.) (.) (.) (.) (.) (.) (.) ss. ...... ...... ...... –........ ........ ... ...... D B [262] ss. ss. ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... –........ –........ ........ ........ .. .. ..... ..... A A A A ss. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ ... ...... D D ss. ...... ...... ...... –........ ........ ... ...... D C ss. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ .. ...... A D ss. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ .... ....... D D ss. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ .... ....... D D ss. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ .... ....... D D ss.. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ .... ....... D D ss.. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ .... ....... D D ss.. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ ... ...... B C ss.. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ ... ....... C D ss.. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ .. ...... A B ss.. ...... ...... ...... ........ ........ .... ....... D D notes Column headings are as follows: (1) sst (°C), (2) at (°C), (3) sst b10 (°C), (4) X (°C), (5) Y (°C), (6) [E. coli] in-situ (ufc/100 mL), (7) [E. coli] estimated (ufc/100 mL), (8) water quality class (in-situ), (9) water quality class (estimated). ination in this region, which hosts several resorts and public beaches (.gure 3). Furthermore, it represents a signi.cant concentration of E. coli. This high concentration of E. coli indicates that the envi­ronment is suitable for its survival. According to an environmental impact study carried out by Tangier Mediterranean Spatial Agency (tmsa) (2010), the presence of fecal bacteria (E. coli) could be due to rejections from ships (marine tra.c) (us Geological Survey 2019). ss14 was classi.ed as class A and estimated at B, and in ss15, the water quality was poor (class D for both in-situ and estimated) (ta­ble 4). This classi.cation re.ects the presence of an important level of urbanization in this region. Univariate Analysis Sea Surface Temperature According to the descriptive statistics, sea surface temperature was measured in 15 locations o. Morocco’s northern coast in 2017. The table 5 Descriptive Statistics of the In-Situ Measurements of the Sea Surface Temperature Statistic elements Values (°C) Statistic elements Values (°C) Mean ...... Skewness –..... Standard Error ..... Range ...... [263] Median ...... Minimum ...... Standard Deviation ..... Maximum ...... Sample Variance ...... Sum ....... Kurtosis –..... Count .. distributionofthe sst isslightlyskewedwithalefttail(negatively asymmetric), because the median is slightly greater than the mean. In addition, the regional average of the sst is equal to 23.548 °C, and the typical deviation from this value is equal to 5.057 °C (table 5). From the comparison of the sea surface temperature of each se­lected site, it was observed that in 50. of the sites, the sst was smaller than 24.437 °C (table 5). It therefore represents a great deal of variability. Table 5 shows the minimum temperature in Ghandouri (16.21 °C) and the maximum temperature in Ksar-Sghir (30.066 °C). On the other hand, we can deduce the following using the de­scriptive statistics of sea surface temperature estimated using the tirs Band 10 (sst Band 10) product over the study area (table 5): First, in 2017, sst Band 10 was estimated over the same 15 sites o. the northern coast of Morocco. Second, the sst Band 10 distri­bution is slightly skewed with a left tail (negative skew) as the me­dian is slightly higher than the mean. Third, the regional mean of sst band 10 is 24.441 °C, and the typical deviation from this value is7.032 °C. Inaddition,the sst band10islessthan24.883°Cin50. ofthesites. Finally,the sst band10hasalargevariability:themin­imum value was estimated at Port Tangier Med (13.04 °C) and the maximum at Marqala (35.62 °C) (table 5). We can conclude from the above that the distribution of the two sets of sea surface temperatures (measured and estimated) has the same characteristics (.gure 4), similar regional values, and variabil­ity. Furthermore, because the minimum and maximum values at dif­ferent locations vary, more spatial exploration is required. figure 4 [264] Distribution Chart of the Sea Surface Temperatures (Measured and Estimated) E. Coli Concentrations The concentrations of the bacteria have been measured in the same locations where the sea surface temperature was measured, and the estimated values were concluded from the same sea surface temper­ature measurements (Brando and Dekker 2003). Below are the de­scriptive statistics of the in-situ measurements of E. coli bacteria concentrations over the study region (table 6), from which we can discern that E. coli concentrations were measured in 15 sites o. Mo­rocco’s northern coast in 2017. The results indicate that the distri­bution of the concentration is slightly skewed with a right tail (pos­itively asymmetric), because the mean is slightly greater than the median, while the regional average of the concentration is equal to 1047.667 ufc/100 mL and the typical deviation from this value is equal to 1189.707 ufc/100 mL (table 6). Additionally, the concen­trationissmaller than880 (ufc/100 mL)in50. of thesites, and the concentration has a great deal of variability: the minimum value was observed in Tangier City (14 (ufc/100 mL)) and the maximum in Lamrissat(4500 (ufc/100 mL)) (table 6). Furthermore, table 6 displays descriptive statistics of the esti­mated concentrations of E. coli bacteria across the study region, from which we can deduce the following: in 2017, the concentra­tion of E. coli bacteria was estimated at 15 sites o. Morocco’s north­ern coast. Moreover, the distribution of the concentration is slightly skewed with a right tail (positively asymmetric), because the mean is slightly greater than the median. Additionally, the regional aver­ Assessment of Coastal Water Quality table 6 Descriptive Statistics of In-Situ Measurements of the E. Coli Bacteria Statistic elements Values Statistic elements Values (UFC/...mL) (UFC/...mL) Mean ........ Skewness ..... Standard Error ....... Range .... [265] Median ... Minimum .. Standard Deviation ........ Maximum .... Sample Variance ....... Sum ..... Kurtosis ..... Count .. ageofthe concentrationisequal to 998.366 ufc/100 mL,and the typical deviation from this value is equal to 886.569ufc/100 mL (ta­ble6). In 50.ofthe sites, theconcentration is smaller than712.146 ufc/100 mL, and the concentration has a great deal of variability: the minimum value was estimated in Tangier City (19.881 ufc/100 mL)andthemaximuminLamrissat(2631.436 ufc/100mL)in50. of thesites (table 6).Theconclusionthatwecan draw from this sec­tion is that the measured and estimated values’ distributions are very similar in terms of proximate range, regional values, and vari­ability. Concerningly, the minimum and maximum value locations are the same and hence, further spatial exploration needs to be con­ducted. More generally, both sets of sea surface temperatures and the E. coli concentrations have conformity (.gure 5), while the mean is dragged in the direction of the extreme values, and because the sets are correlated (Brando and Dekker 2003), the distributions are the same even if the sets have opposite skewness. Bivariate Analysis [266] From .gure 6 (left), where the sst variables’ matrix is illustrated, correlationofthese variablesisextremely high (88.5.), we cancon­clude that there is an association between them, which is proven by therootmeansquareerror(rmse =0.885). Thoughitwasexpected to have a positive association, because the correlation had previ­ously been proven (Cherif et al. 2019), temperatures on the shore are being inspected in addition, where E. coli concentrations are probed and are more sensitive. The sst variable increases with the sst Band10variable.Thescatterplotoftheserelationshipsalsoem­phasizes the conclusion that there is a strong association between measured and estimated sea surface temperatures. While .gure 6 (right) showed that the relationship between mea­sured and estimated E. coli concentrations is not quite linear, it could be if the two anomalies (ss5 and ss15) are ignored. Thus, in this situation, the correlation coe.cient is not enough to deter­mine the relationship between the measured and estimated concen­trations over the northern shore. This means that the adequacy of this coe.cient to represent the strength of the relationship is not valid. Even though the relationship is not linear, the bacterial con­centrations’ association is extremely high (80.); after exploring the matrixcorrelationofthesevariables,weconcludethatthe (rmse = 0.8), which means that there is an association between them, but the nature of this association is not clear. The concentrations of E. coli are indeed sensitive to water temperature, but further parameters need to be inspected and analyzed before we can draw any conclu­sions. Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis Data Posting and Regional Histograms The following section illustrates the use of the spatial aspect of the sites, by data posting (arcgis) to graphically investigate our dataset and gain a better understanding of it. From the data posting maps [267] f igure 6 Scatterplot Illustrating the Association of: (left) sst Measured and Estimated (x: Measured, y: estimated); (right) Concentration of E. Coli Measured and Estimated (Anomalies: Circle) f igure 7 Spatial Distribution of sst and E. Coli Concentration (Ranges of the Scale Depict the Water Quality Index A–D) (.gure 7), we can extract some spatial distribution information; a relative spatial correlation between the estimated and measured val­ues can be noted. The higher concentrations of the E. coli and tem­perature were located near the estuaries. Moreover, there is no ap­parent trend over the study area. Regional histograms of both sets of variables were produced to further explore the spatial association of the data (.gure 8). The range of values for each histogram is separated into eight classes. Histograms indicate that the data is unimodal, asymmetric, and rel­atively heterogeneous. The left tail of the distribution of the E. coli concentration histograms indicates the presence of a few sample points with low values. f igure 8 Indicator Map of the Selected Sites and Their Distribution Over the Regional Histograms (Estimated on the Left, Measured on the Right) When sites on the map are selected, we can investigate if we have a spatial regime around the biggest city, Tangier. We can conclude that we have no proportional e.ect in the Tangier area, because the points are spread throughout the histogram. Voronoï Map and Local Moran’s I Statistics To visualize the variation in E. coli concentration at each point us­ing the Voronoï map (.gure 9), we used it in spatial statistics anal­ysis to investigate the variation of each point in relation to its sur­roundings, meaning that instead of depending on the points’ loca­ f igure 9Voronoï Map of the E. Coli Concentrations in the Study Area f igure 10 Location of the Voronoï Anomalies in the Study Area tions, it depends on the distance between them. A conclusion can be drawn from visualizing our produced Voronoï map of the estimated E. coli concentrations; the spatial distribution seems homogeneous overall in the study region, where the spatial autocorrelation pat­tern tends more to anisotropy with the major continuity direction in the east/west. We will assume that the concentrations estimated are isotropic so that we can model the global spatial autocorrela­tion, because the anisotropy patterns cannot be modeled. The high­est values are in the center. The lowest values are near Tangier. No figure 11 [270] Spatial Autocorrela­tion of the Estimated E. coli Concentra­tions by Distance (z-Scores of the Local Moran’s I Statistic) apparent trend is visible over the study domain. There are two out­liers: the .rst site is proximate to a small port, and the second falls directly on a marine outfall (.gure 10). The 15 sites selected were subject to a visual inspection, thus we can assume that the two sites with anomalies are more susceptible, which explains that the .uc­tuating variance of the bacterial concentrations is due to proximity to hazardous emissions. Nevertheless, the data used is very scarce, and more sample sites are needed to conduct further statistical in­vestigations and draw a clearer conclusion. We used inverse distance squared (Maleika 2020) for the concep­tualization of spatial relationships considering the continuous na­ture of the concentrations (estimated), and using the incremental spatial autocorrelation tool to select an appropriate threshold dis­tance, we constructed a line graph of the distances and their corre­sponding z-scores of the local Moran’s I statistic. The peak z-scores indicate distances where spatial processes promote clustering; these are the appropriate values to use in tools that require a distance band or threshold distance parameter. As a result, we got 3 statistically signi.cant peaks (.gure 11); clus­tering is pronounced at each of those distances, which correspond to a statistically signi.cant peak at 12000 m, 12800 m, and 22000 m, respectively. According to these values, we can indicate that there were no spatial outliers nor clusters of low or high values (though we considered taking the second peak); all the points are not sta­tistically signi.cant, which means that we do not have enough evi­ figure 12 Semi-Variogram Model of the Esti­mated E. Coli Con­centrations by Dis­tance dence to reject the ‘complete spatial randomness’ hypothesis, which is justi.ed by the .gure that the E. coli concentration can be a.ected by the distance. InverseDistanceWeighting (idw) To .t a model using the predicted and error graphs, and the sum­mary information on prediction errors, as well as by examining pairs of measured and predicted values, we got the semi-variogram in .gure 12. With the model (560010*Nugget + 256610*Gaussian (0.04419)), with the respective parameters (Nugget: 560010; Partial Sill: 256610; Major Range: 0.04419°), these parameters characterize the model’s function represented by the line in .gure 12. The magni­tude of the rmse (Root Mean Square Error) values did not change much, except where the last values (averaged) are concerned, which are presented in a value range of 2.91 to 4.364, indicating that the mean error is not close to zero in all observations. The idw utilizes values around the prediction location and can predict values for unsampled locations accordingly, assuming that ‘things that are close to one another are more related than things that are farther apart’ (El Azhari et al. 2022; Masoudi 2021). 15 points were taken to observe the E. coli concentration in the Tangier Ksar-Sghir Region in 2017 and were used as sample points to interpolate thesurroundingE. coliconcentration.Thisispresentedinthe idw prediction map framing the northern coast of Morocco (.gure 13), which respectively represents the bathing water quality. The purpose of this study was to present the results of the idw for the spatial distribution of the E. coli concentration data in the Tangier Ksar-Sghir region. The lower values on the map represent f igure 13 Predicted Surface of the Estimated E. Coli Concentrations Using InverseDistanceWeighting (idw) low levels of E. coli concentrations in nine samples, which account for 60. of the samples, while the higher values represent higher amounts of pollution detected in the samples (ss7, ss8, ss9, s10, ss12, and ss15), the maximum being in sample ss7 with an aver­age (from 1809.8 to 2637.4) of estimated E. coli concentration. From the results, we can conclude that only values near the shore are valid, while the values deeper in the Gibraltar Strait were extrapolated due to the absence of data points in depth (Cherif and Salmoun 2017). Tangier Med Port was established in 2016 and it has signi.cantly changed the landscape (Jebbad et al. 2022); for instance, in just one year, it relieved one of the most heavily tra.cked ports in northern Africa, Maritime Tangier Port, which directly implies the accumula­tion of pollution from routine ship spills, including garbage and fuel [273] (Er-Raioui et al. 2012). As it is possible to see, around the Tangier-Med port there are much higher values of pollution (Luigia et al. 2020), as well as around the estuaries. This is explained by the pres­ence of runo. from agriculture, industry, and sewage, rich in waste, that settle in the sediments of the shore in these regions, which in­creases the pollution levels registered there. The city of Tangier has the lowest values in the study region. Nowadays, remote sensing made it possible to forecast the qual­ity of coastal waters. Through our study, we have demonstrated the potential of Landsat 8, which provides useful information at a high spatial resolution (100 m) for the identi.cation of coastal water pol­lution. Furthermore, the strategic methodology applied in this study goes beyond the limits of the current norm, which assesses microbi­ological quality based solely on viable bacteria enumerated at .xed stations within the bathing zone. By using the methodology (Cherif et al.2020),the concentrationofE.coli could directly be determined from the di.erence between Sea Surface Temperature (sst) and Air Temperature (at). This method was applied and tested on the At­lantic coast of Tangier and the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, and could be used in any location which su.ers from sim­ilar environmental problems. Generally, to improve the performance of remote sensing, it will be necessary to simulate the dynamics of di.erent physiological states of E. coli populations in response to physico-chemical .uctu­ations. conclusion In the perspective of environmental protection, this study aims to contribute to the establishment ofa coastal monitoring system, the development of new management solutions, and the implementa­tion of the functionality of Escherichia coli (E. coli), as an indicator in prediction, of the marine pollution phenomena. The development of forecasting systems will allow local authorities to identify spe­ci.c mitigation measures at the right time, thus reducing the risks [274] to bathers’ health coming from fecal bacteria. The concretization of this project was important to further apply our knowledge of spatial statistics tools and use the spatial aspect of the data that has been hitherto untreated. The application of these tools helped us understand the relationship between the di.erent variables, and the contrasts in the levels of bacterial propagation in the northern shore of Morocco. The results of the present study showed low E. coli concentra­tions and sst values in Tangier City (ss1, ss2 and ss3), and Ksar-Sghir (ss14). In addition, the high values of E. coli concentrations and sst valuesat ss4–ss13and ss15canbeattributedtodischarge from the Souani and Mghogha rivers,and rejections from ships (ma­rine tra.c) in Tangier Med Port. Therefore, a signi.cant correlation was found between the remote sensing temperature from Landsat 8 images and di.erent bacteriological parameters. Indeed, the tested equation previously developed for use in the western Atlantic coast of Tangier (Cherif et al. 2020), proved a great result determining the quality of the Mediterranean northern coastal waters of Tangier. Compared to traditional methods, remote sensing is one of the best tools for providing interesting information to decision makers based on sensed water temperature data. It can provide high tempo­ral and spatial resolution information for the assessment and regu­lar monitoring of this region’s marine environment. Therefore, the regression model provides evaluation and detection of potential pol­lution along the coast, which is represented by an R2 of 80.. More­over,the idw showedthattheregionofpollutioniscorrelatedwith the discharge and port zones. Only values near the shore are valid, while the values deeper in the Gibraltar Strait were extrapolated due to the absence of data points at depth. The present study should be taken as a preliminary result, and these results may be relevant to areas with similar characteristics as Morocco and elsewhere. In perspective, other analyses, such as heavy metals and other bacteriological analyses, are necessary to de­velop a control approach to limit the negative impacts of seawater pollution in the context of sustainable development and the preser­vation of water resources. Overall, the results will support decision makers in establishing adequate policies to prevent environmental [275] hazards and achieve good water quality along the coast of Tangier Ksar-Sghir, Morocco, in the future. acknowledgments Conceptualization, E. K. C. andH.B.; methodology, E. L. C.,Y.E.; soft­ware, Y. E. and A. B.; validation, E. K. C. and H. B.; formal analysis, Y. E. and A. B.; writing—original draft preparation, E. L. C., Y. E. and A. B.; writ­ ing—review andediting,E.A. H., Y. E., H.E.A., andA. B.; visualization, A. B.; supervision,E.K.C.and H. B.;funding acquisition, E. K. C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. 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Cependant, la prospérité cultu­relle, intellectuelle et scienti.que était toujours présente, ce qui a incité les chercheurs et les historiens à examiner la prospérité culturelle des États islamiques d’al-Andalus, la domination des chrétiens dans ces États, ainsi que les con.its entre les États islamiques. Cette recherche clari.e la loyauté des élites andalouses envers les souverains musulmans du xie siècle dans la péninsule ibérique. Elle se penche sur les positions et les ambitions politiques de ces élites, en particulier celles de poètes et de juristes célèbres. En e.et, de nombreux chercheurs se concentrent sur l’impact de la faiblesse politique des souverains musulmans ibériques et sur les contributions culturelles des poètes et des juristes, mais ils n’exa­minent pas l’impact de cette faiblesse sur leurs ambitions politiques et leur loyauté à l’égard de ces souverains au cours de ce siècle. La métho­dologiedecette étudeest centréesur l’histoire et l’analyse deplusieurs sources primaires du xie siècle, fournissant ainsi des arguments pour combler les lacunes de la littérature existante. Mots clés : juristes, poètes, al-Andalus, .délité, Muluk Al-T¯ aw¯ a’if . ijems 16 (1): 159–174 Exploration del’e.cacitédel’Etat enmatière de développement durable : élaboration et utilisation d’un instrument de mesure pour la région de Fès-Meknès adjoba audrey paule n’ze et abderrahman tenkoul La mise en œuvre du développement durable est devenue un principe directeur essentiel qui s’est intégré à de nombreuses politiques et mo­dèles de gouvernance. Les gouvernements et les administrations ont mis en place des dispositifs de gouvernance pour orienter leurs actions vers la durabilité. Comment évaluer la réussite de cette intégration de la du­rabilité dans l’activité gouvernementale et administrative ? Cet article présente un outil de mesure et de comparaison de la capacité de gouver­nance interne axée sur la durabilité et l’opérationnalisation dans le contexte des provinces et préfectures de la région de Fès-Meknès. L’application de l’outil de mesure documente la diversité des dispositifs de gouvernance et leurs di.érentes capacités. L’application de cet outil révèle non seulement [282] la diversité des arrangements de gouvernance et leurs di.érentes capaci­tés, mais indique aussi où et comment la gouvernance de la durabilité des gouvernements et des administrations peut être encore améliorée. Mots clés : collectivité territoriale, gouvernance, durabilité, région Euro­méditerranéenne ijems 16 (1): 175–199 Mesurer la transparence de la Banque Centrale d’Egypte comme condition préalable à l’adoption d’une politique de ciblagedel’in.ation hebatalla emam, nagwa samak et israa abd elaziz Près de vingt ans se sont écoulés depuis que la Banque Centrale d’Égypte (bce) a annoncé son intention d’adopter le système de ciblage de l’in.a­tion (ci) une fois que les conditions préalables fondamentales seraient remplies (Banque Centrale d’Égypte 2005). La transition vers la politique de ci s’inscrit dans le cadre de la refonte et de la réforme complètes de la politique monétaire égyptienne à la suite des di.érents dé.s auxquels l’économie égyptienne est confrontée depuis la .n des années 1990 (Al-Mashat 2008). Ainsi, la bce a accordé une attention continue au respect des conditions préalables de la politique de ci (Youssef 2007). Le pré­sent document a pour objet d’évaluer le degré de transparence de la bce au cours de la période 2005–2021. L’étude s’appuie sur l’indice le plus ré­cent de la Transparence de la Banque Centrale (tbc) mis au point par Al-Mashat et al. (2018) pour quanti.er le degré de transparence de la bce. L’analyse révèle que la tbc en Égypte progresse, mais avec une trajec­toire de changement relativement raisonnable. Toutefois, la cbe a un grand vide à combler, surtout en ce qui concerne la transparence liée au Système de prévision et d’analyse des politiques (spap) et au processus d’élaboration des politiques. Mots clés : transparence des banques centrales, ciblage de l’in.ation, trans­parence des banques centrales pour l’indice des banques centrales ciblant l’in.ation, Banque centrale d’Égypte ijems 16 (1): 251–280 Décisions de carrière dans la région Méditerranéenne : être ou ne pas être un entrepreneur ? predrag ljubotina et jaka vadnjal L’importance des caractéristiques individuelles et familiales a été au centre [283] desétudes récentessur la succession d’entreprisesfamiliales. Cependant, l’e.et régional a souvent été négligé. En utilisant des données au niveau de l’individu mais comparatives car issues de divers pays, cette étude exa­mine les e.ets des circonstances régionales sur les intentions de choix de carrière des héritiers d’entreprises familiales en ce qui concerne l’emploi, la création de leur propre entreprise ou la succession de l’entreprise fami­liale. Nous avons utilisé les données de l’enquête guesss 2018. En ap­pliquant la régression logistique binominale, nous découvrons que deux groupes de plusieurs nations (pays méditerranéens européens et non eu­ropéens) présentent nombreuses di.érences. Nous montrons également que les caractéristiques individuelles de l’entreprise familiale et la période de démarrage sont des facteurs signi.catifs, même au-delà de conditions telles que l’environnement universitaire, l’entrepreneuriat dans les pro-grammes d’études, les attitudes entrepreneuriales, le locus de contrôle, la distance de pouvoir et les normes subjectives. Les politiques relatives à la succession d’entreprise et àlasurviedel’entreprisedoivent être parti­culièrement adaptées en fonction de divers facteurs macroéconomiques et du marché du travail des jeunes a.n de réduire les échecs de la succes­sion. Mots clés : entrepreneuriat, succession d’entreprise, entreprise familiale, intention de choix de carrière, région Méditerranéenne ijems 16 (1): 221–249 Evaluation de la qualité des eaux côtières en testant un modèle linéaire à l’aide des données sst de landsat 8 : étude exploratoire yousra ezzghari, el khalil cherif, ayman bnoussaad, hamza el azhari et hakim boulaassal Le bassin méditerranéen, au large de la côte de Tanger au Maroc, est l’une des mers les plus précieuses en raison de la diversité de son écosystème. Cependant, la pollution est devenue un problème croissant le long de cette côte. Pour cette raison, nous avons testé un modèle linéaire déve­loppé pour les eaux côtières occidentales de l’Atlantique de Tanger en uti­lisant la température de surface de la mer (tsm) estimée à partir d’images Landsat 8 et la concentration d’Escherichia coli (E. coli) mesurée in situ pour déterminer la qualité des eaux côtières méditerranéennes au nord de Tanger dans 15 sites sélectionnés (ss1 à ss15) le long de la côte de Tanger à Ksar-Sghir. De plus, des statistiques descriptives et des systèmes [284] d’information géographique (sig) ont été utilisés pour explorer l’associa­tion spatiale des données. Les résultats indiquent que les distributions de tsm et d’E. coli ont les valeurs les plus élevées dans les ss4–ss13 et ss15 en raison des rivières Souani, Mghogha et du port de Tanger Med, re.étant une mauvaise qualité et un niveau très élevé de contamination dangereuse dans cette région. Les ss1, ss2, ss3 et ss14 ont montré des niveaux bas de tsm et par conséquent une faible concentration d’E. coli. Ceci signi.e que la qualité d’eau est moyenne à bonne, autour des villes de Tanger et Ksar-Sghir. La relation entre la température de l’eau et la concentration d’E. coli a montré un coe.cient de corrélation élevé, 80. (rmse = 0,8), tandis que l’idw a aidé à délimiter la zone de pollution le long du rivage. Bien que seules les valeurs près du rivage soient valides, lesvaleurs plus profondesdansledétroit de Gibraltar ont étéextrapo­lées en raison de l’absence de points de données en profondeur. Ces ré­sultats d’idw ont montré l’impact négatif des rejets des estuaires et du tra.c maritime. En conséquence, le modèle testé est utile pour estimer la qualité de l’eau côtière méditerranéenne de Tanger et, à l’avenir, comme moyen pour surveiller potentiellement la pollution dans cette région. Mots clés : eaux méditerranéennes, Escherichia coli, Landsat 8, tsm, qua­lité de l’eau, détroit de Gibraltar ijems 16 (1): 251–280 Povzetki Zvestoba in pripadnost andaluzijskih elit Muluk Al-T¯ aw¯a’ifu . v 11. stoletju meshal alenezi V 11. stoletju je bila islamska vladavina na Iberskem polotoku (al-Andalus) prica politicnemu in vojaškemu razpadu, ki ga je povzrocila razdelitev na dvaindvajset arabskih in berberskih držav. Vendar je še vedno obsta­jal kulturni, intelektualni in znanstveni razcvet, kar je spodbudilo uce­njake in zgodovinarje, da preucujejo kulturni razcvet islamskih držav v al-Andalusu, prevlado kristjanov v teh državah ter spore med islamskimi državami. Ta raziskava pojasnjuje zvestobo andaluzijskih elit musliman­skim vladarjem 11. stoletja na Iberskem polotoku. Poglobi se v politicna stališca in ambicije teh elit, zlasti znanih pesnikov in pravnikov, saj se mnogi raziskovalci osredotocajo na to, kako je politicna šibkost iberskih muslimanskih vladarjev vplivala na kulturne prispevke pesnikov in prav­nikov, ne preucujejo pa, kako je vplivala na njihove politicne ambicije in zvestobo tem vladarjem v omenjenem stoletju. Metodologija te študije je zgodovinsko usmerjena, saj analizira vec primarnih virov iz 11. stoletja in tako zagotavlja argumente za zapolnitev vrzeli v obstojeci literaturi. Kljucne besede: pravniki, pesniki, al-Andalus, zvestoba, Muluk Al-T¯ aw¯a’if . ijems 16 (1): 159–174 Raziskovanje ucinkovitosti države pri trajnostnem razvoju: razvoj in uporaba merilnega orodja za regijo Fès-Meknès adjoba audrey paule n’ze in abderrahman tenkoul Izvajanje trajnostnega razvoja je postalo kljucno vodilo, ki je bilo vklju­ceno v številne politike in modele upravljanja. Vlade in uprave so vzpo­stavile mehanizme upravljanja, da bi svoje ukrepe usmerjale k trajno­stnemu razvoju. Kako lahko ocenimo uspešnost tega vkljucevanja trajno­sti v vladne in upravne dejavnosti? V tem clanku je predstavljeno orodje za merjenje in primerjavo zmogljivosti notranjega upravljanja, usmerje­nega v trajnost in operacionalizacijo v okviru provinc in prefektur regije Fès-Meknès. Uporaba merilnega orodja dokumentira raznolikost uredi­tev upravljanja in njihovih razlicnih zmogljivosti. Uporaba tega orodja ne razkriva le raznolikosti ureditev upravljanja in njihovih razlicnih zmoglji­vosti, temvec tudi kaže, kje in kako je mogoce upravljanje trajnosti vlad in uprav še izboljšati. Kljucne besede: lokalna uprava, upravljanje, trajnost, evro-sredozemska [286] regija ijems 16 (1): 175–199 Merjenje preglednosti Centralne banke Egipta kot predpogoj za sprejetje politike in.acijskega ciljanja hebatalla emam, nagwa samak in israa abd elaziz Skoraj dvajset let je minilo, odkar je Centralna banka Egipta (cbe) ob­javila svojo namero, da bo sprejela politiko in.acijskega ciljanja (ic), ko bodo izpolnjeni temeljni predpogoji (cbe 2005). Prehod na politiko ic je delceloviteprenove in reformeegiptovskemonetarne politike, kije sledila razlicnim izzivom, s katerimi se egiptovsko gospodarstvo sooca od konca devetdesetih let (Al-Mashat 2008). Tako je cbe stalno posve­cala pozornost izpolnjevanju predpogojev politike ic (Youssef 2007). Na-men tega prispevka je oceniti stopnjo transparentnosti cbe v obdobju 2005–2021. V študiji je za kvanti.kacijo stopnje preglednosti cbe upo­rabljen najnovejši indeks preglednosti centralnih bank (pcb), ki so ga razvili Al-Mashat in drugi (2018). Analiza razkriva, da pcb v Egiptu na­preduje, vendar z razmeroma razumno trajektorijo sprememb. Vendar pa mora cbe zapolniti še veliko vrzel, zlasti kar zadeva preglednost, pove­zano s sistemom za napovedovanje in analizo politik (Policy Forecasting and Analysis System – pfas) in procesom oblikovanja politik. Kljucne besede: preglednost centralne banke, in.acijsko ciljanje, pregle­dnost centralne banke za indeks centralnih bank, ki ciljajo na in.acijo, Centralna banka Egipta ijems 16 (1): 201–219 Karierne odlocitve v sredozemskih državah: biti ali ne biti podjetnik? predrag ljubotina in jaka vadnjal Pomen individualnih in družinskih posebnosti je bil v središcu nedavnih študij o nasledstvu družinskih podjetij. Kljub temu, je bil regionalni vpliv pogosto spregledan. Omenjena študija sloni na podatkih, ki zadevajo po­sameznike v razlicnih državah in preucuje ucinke regionalnih okolišcin na namere dedicev družinskih podjetij glede izbire poklicne poti v zvezi z zaposlitvijo, ustanovitvijo lastnega podjetniškega podjema ali nasled­stvom družinskega podjetja. Uporabili smo podatke iz raziskave guesss 2018. Z uporabo binominalne logisticne regresije smo ugotovili, da se dve skupini vec narodov (evropske in neevropske sredozemske države) med [287] seboj precej razlikujeta. V študiji je prikazano tudi, da so individualne znacilnosti v družinskem podjetju in cas zagona pomembni dejavniki, celo poleg pogojev, kot so univerzitetno okolje, podjetništvo v ucnih pro­gramih, podjetniški odnos, lokus nadzora, razdalja moci in subjektivne norme. Politike v zvezi z nasledstvom podjetij in s tem povezanim pre­živetjem podjetij bi morale biti posebej prilagojene na podlagi razlicnih makroekonomskih dejavnikov in dejavnikov mladinskega trga dela, saj le tako bi zmanjšali število neuspešnih nasledstev. Kljucne besede: podjetništvo, nasledstvo podjetja, družinsko podjetje, na­mera poklicne izbire, sredozemska regija ijems 16 (1): 221–249 Ocena kakovosti obalne vode s testiranjem linearnega modela z uporabo podatkov Landsat 8 sst: raziskovalna študija yousra ezzghari, el khalil cherif, ayman bnoussaad, hamza el azhari in hakim boulaassal Sredozemski bazen ob obali mesta Tanger, v Maroku, je zaradi raznoli­kosti svojega ekosistema eno najdragocenejših morij. Vendar je onesna­ževanje ob tej obali vse vecji problem. Zato smo preizkusili linearni mo­del, ki smo ga razvili za zahodnoatlantske vode ob obali mesta Tanger, z uporabo temperature morske površine (tmp), ocenjene na podlagi po­snetkov Landsat 8, in koncentracije Escherichie coli (E. coli), izmerjene in situ, za dolocitev kakovosti sredozemskih obalnih voda severno od me­sta Tanger na 15 izbranih lokacijah (il1 do il15) vzdolž obale od mest Tanger do Ksar-Sghir. Poleg tega smo za raziskovanje prostorske pove­zanosti podatkov uporabili opisno statistiko in geografske informacijske sisteme (gis). Rezultati kažejo, da imajo porazdelitve tmp in E. coli naj­višje vrednosti na il4–il13 in il15 zaradi rek Souani, Mghogha in pri­stanišca Tangier Med, kar odraža slabo kakovost in zelo visoko stopnjo nevarnega onesnaženja v tej regiji.il1,il2,il3 in il14 so pokazale nizke vrednosti tmp in posledicno nizke vrednosti E. coli. To pomeni, da je kakovost vode v okolici mest Tanger in Ksar-Sghir povprecna do dobra. Povezava med temperaturo vode in koncentracijo E. coli je pokazala vi-sok 80-odstotni korelacijski koe.cient (rmse = 0,8), medtem ko je idw pomagal razmejiti obmocje onesnaženja ob obali. Ceprav so bile veljavne le vrednosti ob obali, so bile globlje vrednosti v Gibraltarski ožini zaradi pomanjkanja globokih podatkovnih tock ekstrapolirane. Ti rezultati idw so pokazali negativen vpliv izpustov iz ustij rek in pomorskega prometa. [288] Zato je preizkušeni model uporaben za ocenjevanje kakovosti sredozem­ske obalne vode ob mestu Tanger in v prihodnosti kot sredstvo za more­bitno spremljanje onesnaženosti v tej regiji. Kljucne besede: sredozemske vode, Escherichia coli, Landsat 8, tmp, kako­vost vode, Gibraltarska ožina ijems 16 (1): 251–280 ã )       9  . . . .  v  ^ H . ^    .        [   d . .  Z ¥ Z r . . 9 H . { H U   H  H   ? H l .   H       H . [290]   T Y Y ^      f . . f { H . l  . . H . H . H . . 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