This study investigates the impact of risk management and agile methodology on the success of cybersecurity projects, emphasizing the mediating role of team collaboration within the financial sector. Based on a sample of 229 professionals, including IT specialists, project managers, and risk officers, data was collected using a structured survey instrument and analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using SmartPLS. The results confirm that both risk management and agile methodology have direct positive effects on cybersecurity project success. Additionally, both factors significantly enhance team collaboration, which in turn positively influences project outcomes, thereby confirming its mediating role in the relationship between these variables and cybersecurity project success. All proposed hypotheses were supported. The findings highlight the crucial interplay between management practices and team dynamics in ensuring project success. The findings also provide valuable theoretical insights and practical implications for enhancing cybersecurity initiatives in the financial industry.

This study investigates the critical role of IT infrastructure and project flexibility in achieving project success within the financial sector. Based on resource-based theory and the dynamic capabilities perspective, we propose a conceptual model wherein IT infrastructure influences project success both directly and indirectly through its impact on project flexibility. Data collected from 190 financial sector professionals were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Our findings provide strong support for all hypothesized relationships. Specifically, we find that IT infrastructure has a significant positive impact on both project success and project flexibility. Furthermore, project flexibility is found to mediate the relationship between IT infrastructure and project success, indicating that a robust IT infrastructure contributes to project success, in part, by fostering greater project flexibility. These findings indicate the strategic importance of IT infrastructure investments for financial institutions seeking to enhance project outcomes in a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive landscape.

This paper investigates the impact of lagged-exchange rate along with market risk and financial sector indicators on country risk in Kuwait. For this purpose, time series analyses both in aggregated and disaggregated approach are conducted along with the correlation and descriptive outcomes. Overall study sample is divided into fourth groups; namely the whole-time period, 1980 to 1990, 1991 to 2000, 1991-2005 and finally 1995-2005. To achieve this objective, regression equations are developed, indicating the set of lagged predictors along with market and financial sector indicators of exchange rate volatility. For the whole sample of the study, it is found that exchange rate lagged values are significant predictors of country risk from 1980 to 2005. Under the first subsample, lagged 1 and market risk through real interest rate are blamed for creating exchange rate (ER) volatility. For the 2nd disaggregated analysis, the factors like lagged 1 of ER along with deposit interest (DIR) and price level of the Government (PLG) are significant predictors of exchange rate. Additionally, during the period 1995-2005, none of the regression models appears to create the exchange rate volatility. However, for the last disaggregated time series analysis, it is found that ERL1, and PLG significantly determine the country risk in the region of Kuwait. Findings of the study are contributing in the present literature while confirm the fact that lagged values of exchange rate are very much significant to be observed to understand the current trend in ER. Besides, the re-sults can also support the argument that exchange rate risk and interest rate are interlinked with each other.