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This study aims to explore the determinants of companies' long-term investments within the context of Gulf Cooperation Council markets. The importance of this study arises from the fact that earlier researchers who investigated this subject had mostly concentrated on developed markets and evidence from developing markets is largely absent. Besides, the existing studies had focused on factors influencing companies' long-term investment at the company level, and evidence related to the impact of macroeconomic factors on such investments is scarce. A Panel Ordinary Least Squares regression is utilized to analyze the data of 435 companies from the year 2000 to 2014. This period is chosen due to the steady economic conditions of the investigated markets as they enjoyed a less volatile macroeconomic environment compared to post-2014, where the fall of oil prices severely affected these markets' growth. The analysis revealed contradicting findings compared to the existing literature regarding both macroeconomic factors and companies related factors that influences long-term investments. For instance, government spendings, oil prices, and trade levels are all significant factors in the Gulf Cooperation Council companies' long-term investments which is not the case in other emerging markets. Also, the industrial companies within these markets are not severely influenced by these factors compared to the services companies. Hence, the current study extends the existing literature on two dimensions by providing new insight into this subject from new markets and reveals new findings regarding the impact of macroeconomic factors on companies' long-term investments.

Affordable and clean energy for any rural community is crucial for the sustainable development of the community and the nation at large. The utilization of diesel-based power generation is one of the barriers to the sustainable development of these communities. Such generations require fuel that has a volatile market price and emits massive greenhouse gas emissions. This paper presents the design, modeling, and simulation of a hybrid power system for a rural area in the Sultanate of Oman that aims to reduce daily consumption of diesel fuel and greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) is utilized to model multiple energy mix hybrid systems and to propose the best optimal energy mix system for a selected community. In addition, Electrical Transient Analyzer Program (ETAP) software is employed to assess hybrid system operational performances, such as bus voltage profiles and active and reactive power losses. This study revealed that the PV–wind–diesel system is the optimal energy mix hybrid microgrid for the Al-Dhafrat rural area in Oman, with a net present cost of USD 14.09 million. Compared to the currently operating diesel-based system, the deployment of this microgrid can reduce the levelized cost of energy, diesel fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions per year by 54.56%, 70.44%, and 70.40%, respectively. This study confirms that the Sultanate of Oman has a substantial opportunity to install a hybrid microgrid system for rural diesel-based communities to achieve sustainable development in the country.

This paper emphasizes on the possibility of merging Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technologies to solve academic qualifications forgery issues in the educational sectors. Empirical data is collected through interviews with many specialist and technical people who is interested in the emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and focused group discussion in the field, as well as from reports in the reviewed literary articles. Scientific journals have also been accessed to analyze the paper goals and objectives. The findings are based on the conclusion suggest that emerging technologies can be integrated to become more efficient and effective in detecting fraud and forgery before it occurs. Considerable attention should be given to reducing and combating these issues because they have significant negative impacts on the economy and education. Accordingly, the study makes recommendations based on the results and areas of future research, considering the establishment of a unified and integrated system. Initially will be applied as a pilot in Sultanate of Oman, then gradually will be extended to the Gulf Cooperation Council States (GCC) and internationally particularly the affiliated and the recognized educational institutions to avoid the phenomena that affect the reputation and quality of education institutions and academic qualifications. In the conclusion considering the impacts of the proposed system in the education and economy as well in general. This research aims to investigate academic forgery cases in the world and then focuses in Oman. Furthermore, it explores the possibilities of merging technologies (Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain) to contribute in eliminating fraud before it occurs. In addition, to propose a framework that will help to find solutions based on the suggested integrated technologies. Finally, it assess the probabilities of the proposed solutions performance and its impacts in the academic sector.