Entrepreneurship in the Times of Pandemic: Barriers and Strategies

Using a mixed method approach, this study investigates the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed for entrepreneurs and the strategies that organizations can adopt to make a turnaround towards survival and growth. Empirical analysis is done on the factors which have affected smaller firms during economic slowdowns in the past, and policies and plans adopted by firms to overcome the barriers. Factors such as lockdown, remote working, digital marketing and digitization were accounted through qualitative research. In the empirical analysis section, descriptive statistics and confirmatory factor analysis have been used. In the qualitative section, thematic analysis and hierarchy charts were made with the help of NVivo software. The prime barriers which affected the firms were organizational readiness, infrastructural support by government, technological inadequacy and financial crises. The main strategies emphasized by founders to overcome the barriers of organizational readiness and financial crunch were marketing, strategic networking and product and services, and for technological ineptness was digitization.

Women and Guangdong Native-Place Charity in Chinese Australian Pentecostalism

This chapter presents a case study of Christian charity work among mobile Chinese of the Cantonese Pacific which suggests that the pull of native place charity was not weaker among women Christian converts than among men wedded to patriarchal hometown lineages. Braced by her triple marginalization as a woman, a Pentecostal, and a member of the minority Chinese community in Australia, Mary Kum Sou (Wong Yen) Yeung (Chen Jinxiao 陳金笑‎, 1888–1971) expressed her faith through a life of empathy for the marginalized and generosity towards those in need. By tracing Yeung’s strategic networking, her vocal support for charitable contributions, and the patterns of community engagement that characterized her charitable work, this research illustrates the concrete connections linking her spiritual beliefs to her distinctive style of hometown charitable engagement. Mary Yeung’s experience as a girl, a young woman, and a pioneering missionary and charity worker of the Australian Pentecostal church is more than a story of native place charity. It is also a story of faith and suffering, and privilege wedded with sacrifice. At the same time, in Mary Yeung’s charitable practice we find native-place welfare preserved and transformed within a radical Christian protestant tradition.

Evaluierung der Nationalen Vernetzungsplattformen des BMBWF.

As part of the initiative "Strategic Networking Platforms in the Context of Major Societal Challenges", the BMBWF funded four networking platforms, starting in mid-2016: - Network Ageing - Ageing and Demographic Change as Challenge and Opportunity". - National networking platform for personalised medicine (ÖPPM) - National networking platform for "Sustainable Water Systems - National Networking Platform for "European and International Climate Agendas The three-year funding periods of these networking platforms will end in 2020 at the latest. Therefore, the EU and OECD Research Policy Division (Division V) responsible for the networking platforms OECD Research Policy (Department V/5) of the BMBWF commissioned Technopolis Group Austria to evaluate the National Networking Platforms of the BMBWF. The aim was to analyse what has been achieved so far and, on this basis, to develop recommendations for future work, both individually for each funded networking platform and for the design and management of the platform initiative itself by the BMBWF - with regard to the latter, the four funded networking platforms serve as pilot projects.

Evaluierung des Netzwerks Altern. Endbericht.

In 2015, the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF), together with the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT), the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and other partners, founded the initiative "Strategic Networking Platforms in the Context of Major Societal Challenges", including such a platform on issues of demographic change. The BMBWF has commissioned the Austrian Platform for Interdisciplinary Ageing Issues(ÖPIA) with its implementation. The three-year BMBWF funding for the Ageing Network expired in mid-2019. Therefore, Department V/10 of the BMBWF commissioned Technopolis Group Austria to evaluate the Ageing Network. The aim of this evaluation was to form a basis for the decision on the further funding of the Network Ageing after the expiry of the current contract. To this end, we analysed and evaluated what has been achieved so far and developed recommendations for the future work of the Network Ageing. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Middle Powers' Crucial Peace Dividend: Networking Development

This research provides insights into regional middle powers’ postures and constraints, showing evidence of a gradually structured peace dividend resulting from networking economic development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Using three case studies, Turkey/Israel, Iran/Pakistan, and Turkey/Iran, this research demonstrates that external regional constraints and internal capacity needs have facilitated strategic economic relations, including joint electricity, gas, and water projects, joint infrastructure and technology initiatives, and joint R&D and military industries. In turn, this strategic networking of economic development projects has restricted these states’ reactions to tension and conflict, prompting them to negotiate and engage in diplomacy to resolve bilateral disagreements so as to not compromise their mutual economic interests. This research contends that the security dilemma faced by middle power states in MENA is a motivator for economic integration even when there is no clearly expressed desire for peace. Economic integration increases their bargaining leverage with the West, while simultaneously resulting in bilateral conflict reduction behaviour patterns. This research further discusses the implications of categorising regional middle power states as regional stability facilitators, since economic integration can satisfy their security concerns, maintain their middle power statuses, and restrain the possibility of war.