Leveraging on the Urban Economy to Promote the Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Bangladesh

Purpose: The contribution of small businesses to a country’s economic growth is vital. It makes sense to accentuate the small businesses by emphasizing the neglected segments. The present study aims to explore the women-owned small businesses (WOSB) and their various problems. The study also examines if the city-based features of the urban economy can be favorable to promote the growth of WOSB. Methods: The concept paper conducts secondary research by selecting sample literature on WOSB of Bangladesh from the manufacturing, and trading sectors. The selection and classification of extant literature were conducted by emphasizing problems faced by WOSB, and the city-based amenities of developing countries. The extracted information is analyzed by categorizing and interpreting relevant issues to create a base-model of venture-growth. Results: Based on the literature review, a growth-framework is formulated that reflects the issues faced by WOSB categorized as financial illiteracy, inadequate human capital, insufficient social capital, and business environmental hiccups. Also, the substandard growth of WOSB is envisaged in the model if the problems are not addressed timely. The study also discovers that the urban economy could be leveraged to make these issues less coercing for the women owners. Implications: The paper creates a nexus with the WOSB and the privileges of urban platforms to ensure better growth of the firms. Originality: As far as authors could determine, the aimed research-domain was mostly covered from the perspectives of developed countries, rarely covered in the context of developing countries, and almost absent in Bangladesh. This paper attempts to fulfill that gap.

Methods for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economic Effectiveness of Business Activities

Purpose: This paper suggests the methodology for comprehensively and dynamically evaluating the economic effectiveness of business activities in a view of scientific and technological development. Methods: Authors analyze the previous studies related to evaluating the economic effectiveness of business activities and suggest the methodology using the weight coefficients and pair-evaluation standards. Results: The findings reveal that comprehensive economic effectiveness of business activities reflects the effective use of various resources including labor, material, fixed asset, liquid materials, and R&D expenditure into the business activities in a certain period of time and it must be assessed by using the integrated indicator. Implications: The findings may contribute to the theories related to the economic effectiveness of business activities. It is also likely to improve organizational decision-making.

Social Entrepreneurship: A New Genre of Entrepreneurship

Purpose: Social entrepreneurship has evolved as a domain of great significance for researchers. The positive impact of social entrepreneurship on alleviating social problems has already been proven. Traditionally, entrepreneurship has been viewed as an entrepreneur's logical response to the opportunities created by the dynamic competitive environment and thus generate profits for individuals or organizations by exploiting the opportunities. This research investigates whether social entrepreneurship is a new genré of entrepreneurship and how it differs from traditional entrepreneurship. Methods: Followed by the archive method of research, this article establishes the legitimacy of social entrepreneurship as a separate academic field and explores several factors, e.g., mission, identification, and exploitation of opportunity, and resource strategy is differentiating social entrepreneurship from its commercial counterparts. Implications: The study findings would help policymakers develop the institutional framework for supporting the social venture development process and bringing desired policy reforms to encourage social entrepreneurs' sufficient encouragement and motivation.

Factors Affecting Firm’s Annual Turnover in Selected Manufacturing Industries of India

Purpose: This study makes a comparison of the manufacturing sector and its determinants for India and selected Asian countries. It examines the factors affecting the annual turnover of randomly selected 154 firms in seven different industries of the Indian manufacturing sector. Methods: In this study, the firm’s annual turnover is used as a dependent variable. Labor productivity, age, investment on plant & machinery, annual expenditure on marketing, total employees, production technology up-gradation, shortage of skilled workers, skills to improve the process, use of hi-tech tool and technique in production activities, technology transfer abilities, in-house R&D expertise, quality certification, foreign collaboration, waste management capabilities and building capacity of firms are used as independent variables. Regression coefficients of explanatory variables are assessed using linear, log-linear, and non-linear regression models. Results: The study concluded that the firm's annual turnover has a significant association with technological development related variables, labor productivity, age, technology transfer abilities, in-house R&D expertise, quality certification, and waste management practices of firms. Implications: It suggests that Indian policymakers need to adopt a strong IPRs, education, and S&T policy in research institutions. India needs to increase R&D expenditure and researchers in research institutions. Research institutions should collaborate with the existing industries to discover more technologies and innovations for the manufacturing sector. All research organizations must set up technology transfer offices to increase technology transfer and commercialization. Furthermore, India needs to set up hi-tech firms to face global challenges. Originality: It uses primary data of 154 firms which are collected from seven different industries across Indian states. Thus, the study substantially contributes to the existing literature. Limitations: This study considers seven different industries that have high diversity in socio-economic, science & technological and IPRs related activities, technology transfer, commercialization of technology, and association with research institutions. Therefore, this study cannot provide policy suggestions for a specific industry.

The Audit Quality and Audit Delay: Evidence from Indonesia

Purpose: This study specifically aims to identify the impact of Audit Quality on Audit Delay. Audit Quality is measured by the proxy log natural fee audit (LNFE). Methods: This is a causal research with quantitative analysis. This study involves six companies listed in the sub-sectors of Cable under the manufacturing sector in the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period of 2013-2019. It applied panel data set in a regression model using STATA MP - Parallel Edition Ver14.00 application. Results: The findings show that the Audit quality has a significant negative impact on the Audit Delay with an average delay of 83.62 days. Implications: This study could be extended further by considering all manufacturing firms of IDX which may provide more insight into the audit quality with other proxies.

Adoption of the National Health Insurance Scheme and Its Influence on Organizational Commitment

Purpose: The study examines the influence of the adoption of the National Health Insurance Scheme on organizational commitment with particular reference to Kwara State, Nigeria. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was adopted for the study. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select 350 civil servants from the Ministry of Health in Ilorin. Data were analyzed with the assistance of mean and ordinary least square method of estimation. Result: The results reveal that the adoption of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has a significant influence on organizational commitment. This indicates that the “modus operandi” of the scheme is a strong predictor of organizational commitment in Nigeria. Implication: Deduction to be made from this result is that the “modus operandi” of the scheme is a strong predictor of organizational commitment. This indicates that the sustainability of the NHIS is a guarantee in the country. This will pave the way to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of ‘universal health coverage, such as financial risk protection, access to quality essential health care services, and access to safe, effective, quality, and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all by 2030.

Impact of Transport Infrastructure on Gross Regional Products: Evidence from Chinese Provinces under the “Belt and Road Initiative”

Purpose: This paper analyzes the impact of transport infrastructure on Gross Regional Products in Chinese provinces under the “Belt and Road Initiative”. Methods: The impact of the key elements of transport infrastructure on Gross Regional Products is analyzed based on the data related to development levels of transport infrastructure and economic development. Correlation and regression analyses were used for data analysis. Results: It is found that railways and highways, which are the key elements of transport infrastructure, have a strong correlation with Gross Regional Products, and their effects are diverse among provinces under study. Implications: The findings demonstrate the position and role of diverse infrastructural elements in enhancing the economic benefits of infrastructural investment and promoting economic growth. Thus, it is expected to facilitate decision-making related to infrastructural investment under the “Belt and Road Initiative”.

Financial Inclusion and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Purpose: Financial inclusion entails the delivery of financial services to individuals and businesses at segments of the society at a reasonable rate that meets their desired transactions. In view of this, the paper examined financial inclusion and economic growth in Nigeria from 1981-2018. Methods: The ARDL model was used to analyze the annual time series data collected from the CBN Statistical Bulletin and the World Bank report. The augmented Dickey Fully (ADF) unit root test, to test for stationarity of the variables preceded the ARDL model. Results: The ADF unit root test results showed that the dependent variable was stationary at order zero I(0), while the independent variables were stationary at order one I(1). Based on the first-hand results, it was revealed that both in the short-run and long-run, access and effective usage of financial services bring about a significant increase in economic growth. But per capita income has a negative but significant relationship with economic growth. Implications: The study conforms to finance-led growth theory which averred that the financial system is a positive function of economic growth. Based on these findings, the paper recommended that more efforts needed to be done to enhance and extend financial inclusion services such as electronic transaction in the form of POS, ATM, mobile money, etc to all rural communities in Nigeria as well as financial literacy and engagement of low-income people in the formal financial services in order to increase economic growth.

Sexual Harassment at Workplace: A Systematic Review of Literature

Purpose: Globally, sexual harassment is a burgeoning issue, which has been witnessed everywhere. Gripping the gravity of its significance, the present study sets forth to explore the reasons of sexual harassment in organizational settings. Methods: Following the three-stage approach, a systematic review of the available literature was done extensively. A list of 3380 articles published from 2010 to 2019 were derived from widely explored databases, such as Taylor and Francis Online, Science Direct, JSTOR and Emerald Insight. 67 studies were selected from the list based on their relevance and suitability. Results: From the extensive literature review, it is revealed that there are five dominant reasons for the widespread sexual harassment, namely ‘inadequate governmental laws and organizational policies,’ ‘perceptions and attitudes,’ ‘male dominance’, ‘power differentials and organization structure’ and ‘cultural influence’. Implications: To abate its further disastrous consequences, the present research proposes some intervention by linking the current observation with the previous empirical and theoretical studies. Directions for the future research are also provided.

HR Professionals’ Intention to Adopt and Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruiting Talents

Purpose: The present study is an attempt to explore the antecedents of behavioral intention to use artificial intelligence (AI) in recruiting talents by the HR professionals in Bangladesh. Drawing on the principle of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), which was built on the premise of technology acceptance model, the theory of planned behavior, the theory of reasoned action, and so forth, the current study has been conducted in the context of Bangladesh. Method: Building on the understanding of the deductive reasoning approach, the investigation followed the positivism paradigm via a quantitative research strategy. We collected 226 replies from the end-users of AI through a self-administrative survey. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) via SmartPLS. Results: Henceforth, the results in the findings filmed that all the hypotheses were supported. Implications: One of the important implications of the present study is the use of the intervention mentioned in this study for the manufacturing and service firms. Limitation: The major limitation is the use of cross-sectional data which implies that future research must use both cross-sectional and longitudinal data for the generalizability of the observed findings.