Tamima Elhassan

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Creative leadership is vital for managing financial crises. Leaders with vision, motivation, and adaptability steer organizations toward stability and success. They anticipate potential crises by establishing conflict prevention mechanisms and internal controls, thereby ensuring resilience and enabling proactive, calm management during crises. Creative leadership is increasingly important for small and medium-sized enterprises in unstable regions like Lebanon. This paper examines how creative leadership dimensions impact financial crisis management through the mediating roles of conflict prevention and internal control. This 2024 study used a questionnaire completed by 157 employees at Lebanese SMEs. Principal component analysis (PCA) identified three creative leadership dimensions: inspiring vision, adaptability, and self-motivation. Results showed that inspiring vision and adaptability affect financial crisis management. Structural equation modeling (SEM) confirmed that inspiring vision and adaptability significantly influence crisis management, mainly through the mediating effects of conflict prevention and internal control. Conflict prevention had the strongest direct effect on crisis management, with internal control showing a similar impact. Therefore, conflict prevention and internal control mediate the relationship between inspiring vision, adaptability, and successful financial crisis management. Adaptability and internal control are key pillars for effectively responding to financial crises. Creative leaders utilize crisis management models and controls to address financial crises. To enhance financial resilience, organizations should implement controls and proactive conflict prevention.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Lebanon is characterized by a fragile economy, rising deficit, and low compliance. Tax deviance poses a major drain to public finances and undermines fiscal sustainability, particularly in the Lebanese context, where the quality of the tax framework directly influences taxpayer behavior. Hence, understanding the mechanisms by which tax legislation and administration shape the intent to defraud is crucial for strengthening tax compliance. This paper examines the influence of the tax framework, namely tax legislation and administration, on tax evasion intentions, with a focus on the mediating role of taxpayer preparedness. The analysis adopts a quantitative approach, using a questionnaire administered to 318 SMEs registered as taxpayers in the Akkar area, employing simple random sampling. The data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, followed by structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses. The results reveal that tax legislation has a direct effect on evasion intention (β = 0.466; p < 0.001), while tax administration exerts a moderate direct influence (β = 0.148). Taxpayer preparedness emerged as a primary determinant with a strong direct impact (β = 0.744) and a proven mediating role between tax legislation (β = 0.098), tax administration (β = 0.012), and tax evasion. These findings corroborated that evasion is a causal process in which individual preparedness is key to enhancing compliance. Effective tax policies must incorporate targeted actions on tax education and procedural simplification. Consequently, the study advocates for a transition from coercive to educational tax policies, emphasizing that a comprehensive institutional overhaul is required to rebuild trust in Lebanon’s fiscal system.