Sulaiman Mousell is currently the Dean of the Business Administration Faculty and Senior Lecturer of Finance at Arab International University (AIU). He is also the Director of the International Relations Office and the Head of the Centre for Research and Training Support in Business Administration at AIU. He also coordinates one of Erasmus+ projects that focuses on developing NGO management curricula (MORLE). During his time at AIU Sulaiman was also the internal coordinator on modernizing academic teaching and research environment for the Lebanon and Syria (MATRE) project. He has a number of publications in high ranking journals such as The British Accounting Review (BAR), ABACUS, International Review of Financial Analysis, Business: Theory and Practice, Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Journal of Knowledge Economy and Journal of Risk Finance. He was also awarded the Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) certificate from the University of Manchester and in 2015 was ranked among the top 10 researchers in social sciences in Syria.
Several studies suggest that the more open an economy is, the more vulnerable it will be to major global events and what is happening in neighbouring countries. This column summarises empirical evidence that goes against this narrative of the importance of such ‘external shocks’. In the context of the transition towards a knowledge-based economy in Syria, internal shocks have a stronger impact.