Two faculty members at the Adnan Kassar School of Business (AKSOB) have been awarded the Emerald Literati Award for outstanding contributions to scholarly research: Associate Professor Maya Farah, who is also co-chairperson of the Hospitality and Marketing Department, and Assistant Professor at the Department of Finance and Accounting Rabih Nehme. 

The news is a big feat for AKSOB, whose dean, Dr. Said Ladki, said after the awards were announced, “AKSOB is pleased to see two of its young and promising faculty members being recognized as distinguished scholars and recipients of outstanding awards.”

“I have no doubt that the achievements of our faculty will improve the school’s ranking and will enhance the classroom teaching and learning environment,” he added.

Dr. Farah, who sits on the editorial board of the International Journal of Bank Marketing, was granted the 2018 Emerald Literati Award as an Outstanding Reviewer for the journal. She has been researching marketing and consumer behavior throughout her career and previously received the Emerald Literati Award in 2016 for a highly commended paper published by Emerald.

“It always feels great to have my academic work recognized internationally, and, in turn, to take LAU and more particularly AKSOB to higher academic horizons, reflecting our academic excellence and standing as a world-class institution,” said Farah upon winning the award.

Farah’s research focuses on a number of topics – from consumer psychology and behavior to the consumer-retailer relationship in the digital era, with a particular focus on disruptions caused by gamification, and self-service technologies such as Dash buttons and drone delivery. Most recently, she and her colleague Dr. Zahy Ramadan won the Best Paper Award at the 43rd European International Business Academy Conference. 

Farah thanked her school for supporting her and other ambitious researchers. “AKSOB continues to nurture the culture of its faculty participating in the most renowned academic conferences, which allows faculty members to interact and build connections with experts in the academic sphere,” she said.

At AKSOB’s Department of Finance and Accounting, Dr. Nehme was highly commended for his article “Performance Evaluation of Auditors: A Constructive or a Destructive Tool of Audit Output,” published in Emerald’s Managerial Auditing Journal.

Nehme says he likes to believe that hard work is recognized, but that it is a matter of time and patience. He is an international expert in his field and has published widely on auditor behavior, organizational culture, corporate governance and audit quality, among other topics.

Speaking of his win, Nehme said the award would “give me a further push to excel in my current research about external auditors’ behavior, and it will help as well in potential receipt of funds from firms that could be interested in such research.”

He added that he hopes his research can be of use outside of scholarly pursuits, for example in allowing “academics, executives and accountants improve the world of accountancy and mitigate future auditing scandals.”

The Emerald Group – a global academic publishing leader – has been giving out the Literati Awards for over 25 years. It uses six criteria to determine award winners: internationality, diversity, support for scholarly research, encouragement of applied research, commitment to high-quality scholarship, and a desire to ensure that reader, author and customer experience is the best possible.