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The purpose of this study is to explore the interplay among self-organization, networks and sustainable innovations within microfinance institutions (MFIs) and to examine the extent to which organizational resilience plays a significant role in shaping these dynamics as a mediator.

This paper adopted a cross-sectional research design combined with analytical and descriptive approach to collect the data. Smart partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to construct the measurement model and structural equation model to test the mediating effect under this study.

The results revealed that organizational resilience is a significant mediator in the relationship between self-organization, networks and sustainable innovations among microfinance institutions in Uganda.

The data for this study were collected only from microfinance institutions in Uganda. Future studies may collect data from other formal financial institutions like commercial banks and credit institutions to test the mediating effect of organizational resilience. More still, the study adopted only a single approach of using a questionnaire. However, future research through interviews may be desirable. Likewise this study was cross-sectional in nature. Therefore, a longitudinal study may be useful in future while investigating the mediating role of organizational resilience traversing over a long time frame.

A possible implication is that microfinance institutions which desire to have sustainable innovative solutions for their business operations in disruptive circumstances may need to scrutinize their capacity to be resilient and self-organize.

Microfinance institutions play a great role to the underserved clients. Thus, for each to re-organize to be able to provide services that meet users’ needs, without physical products so as to ensure long-term financial and social welfare combined with the ability to bounce back and adapt in times of economic downturn to avoid mission adrift.

While most studies have been carried out on organizational resilience, this paper takes center stage and is the first to test the mediating role of organizational resilience in the relationship between self-organization, networks and sustainable innovations, especially in microfinance institutions in Uganda. This paper generates strong evidence and contributes to the powerful influence of organizational resilience in enhancing the level of sustainable innovations based on self-organization and networks.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of project communication on project‐stakeholder commitment. Earlier studies have emphasized the significant influence of project‐stakeholder commitment to project success; and to date, lack of stakeholder commitment is still listed as a key cause of project failure. In an effort to improve project stakeholder commitment, the paper investigated project communication as a key antecedent of project‐stakeholder commitment.

The study adopted a cross sectional study design and results were drawn from a sample of 92 citizenship projects conducted by 16 commercial banks in Uganda. Data collection was based on a specific type of project in order to obtain context‐specific responses.

The results obtained after running a hierarchical regression indicated that intra‐project communication and extra‐project communication had a positive combined predictive potential of project‐stakeholder commitment with a Beta coefficient of 0.54. It was recommended that project management should create an atmosphere for effective project communication as one of the primary means of ensuring commitment of various project‐stakeholder commitment.

This is the first paper to document the effect of project communication on stakeholder commitment in Uganda. Many people in projects in Uganda have lacked commitment to projects due to inadequate information, attributable to gaps in the communication system. The results indicate that project communication has implications for project commitment.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the key issues that how social capital augments the initiation of strategic renewal through the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation and the moderating role of organizational flexibility. In the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of developing economies, the study developed and tested the theoretical model of strategic renewal for analyzing its major outputs.

This study utilized cross-sectional design and employ quantitative approach. The data were collected from the owner, managers and executive directors of pharmaceutical SMEs of Pakistan. The study used statistical analysis of correlation and regression for the analysis of data.

The study discovered that entrepreneurial orientation mediates the positive relationship of social capital and strategic renewal. Moreover, high organizational flexibility strengthens the association between social capital and strategic renewal of SMEs.

This research contributes to the body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence that how to thrive the mechanism of strategic renewal. The study further provides understanding of the effects of organizational social capital, entrepreneurial orientation and organizational flexibility on strategic renewal.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the readiness of Ugandans to accept electronic voting under the restrictive conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A semi-structured questionnaire, built on a five-point-Likert scale with responses ranging from 1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly agree was used to get quantifiable data from four main electoral stakeholders i.e. the policymakers, urban and semi-urban youth, rural voters and government officials. These stakeholders were purposively and conveniently selected because of the influential roles they play in promoting electoral democracy in Uganda. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the authors adopted correlational and quantitative research designs to collect and analyse data. Data was collected from a maximum sample size of 384 as recommended by Krejcie and Morgan (1970) from which 252 useful responses (65.6% response rate) were obtained. Using a statistical package for social scientists version 21.0, the authors performed a Pearson correlation coefficient to determine the relationships between study variables and linear regression analysis to predict the readiness of the stakeholders to accept e-voting more especially under the constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

There was a positive significant relationship between perceived usefulness (PU) and attitude towards adoption, perceived ease of use and attitude towards adoption, attitude and readiness and finally trust propensity and readiness. The regression results show that 65% of the variations in readiness to adopt e-voting can be explained by perceived ease of use, PU, trust propensity and attitude towards adoption. Attitude towards adopting e-voting accounts for the highest variations in the model followed by trust propensity and finally PU. However, perceived ease of use was found to be insignificant.

The study was limited to only PU, perceived ease of use, trust propensity, attitudes towards using/adoption and readiness to accept e-voting amidst the COVID-19 strict conditions. In Africa, electoral democracy can be influenced by a number of factors such as finances, education levels, sectarianism, voter rigging, perceived risk, political and economic environment. These were not taken into consideration yet they would affect the stakeholders’ attitudes and perceptions which would directly or indirectly affect the adoption of electronic voting.

Given the low levels of technology infrastructure in the country, there is a general low uptake of technology-oriented systems. The internet reach is low and quality is poor whilst the radio and televisions network is limited to a few urban settings, poor quality technology systems such as the recently acquired voter biometric systems and the constant government actions to switch off the internet and social media whenever there are contentious political issues. These inadequacies together with the restrictive COVID-19 conditions have compromised the participation of stakeholders which dents the stakeholders’ readiness to accept e-voting which consequently compromises electoral democracy in the country. Therefore, government, electoral observers, the international community and civil society organizations need to accelerate the technology infrastructure development in the country, training and development of technical skills and competences, as well as mass mobilization on the use of technology-oriented platforms aimed at promoting electoral democracy. The country should come up with ICT policies and regulations that encourage the use of ICT in areas that promote democracy. These may include; the use of an easy e-voting system such as emails and voting via the post office. Also, Lawmakers, civil society organizations and the international community should make it punitive for anyone who disenfranchises people through internet disconnection, denial of access to broadcast, print and online media. These interventions will restore peoples’ attitudes and perceptions towards electronic voting, consequently increasing their levels of participation in the electioneering process.

The Ministry of Health, the Uganda Police Force and other security agencies have come out strongly to enforce the COVID-19 standard operating procedures which among others include the banning of political gatherings, processions and meetings of any kind. As a remedy, the Electoral Commission is encouraging political parties, electoral candidates, voters and other stakeholders to use technology-oriented systems such as mobile phones, broadcast and print media, the internet and others to reach out to the electorate. With the government in full control of all these electronic, print and broadcast media, having previously switched them off during the 2011 and 2016 polls consequently disenfranchising many people from their democratic rights, it remains unknown the extent to which the electorate is ready to accept and appreciate scientific voting more so during this time when restrictions against COVID-19 are not making it any better for the voters and other key participants to carry out their political and civil activities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of Muslim society marriages – forced, arranged or marriages of choice/love, on women entrepreneurial intentions (EI), with reference to Ajzen’s (2002) theory of planned behaviour. It is postulated that marriage type has a significant influence on women household dynamics towards EI and business growth.

A qualitative methodology was used and a total of 20 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with Muslim married women entrepreneurs operating home-based and market-based small businesses.

The findings show that all these three types of married women entrepreneurs are active in the entrepreneurial process. However, the authors found different paradoxes in their EI and desire for business growth based on their marriage choices or marriage-related constraints that may have been imposed on them.

Qualitative research on a small sample size certainly presents a limitation on the generalizability of this work, because it is difficult to capture data regarding this sensitive issue. Future research could also be carried out in other cultural and religious traditions.

The paper provides good insights to understand the entrepreneurial journey of Muslim women entrepreneurs in the conservative society based on their marriages options.

The contribution of this research is twofold. First, the paper offers a theoretical perspective related to female EI and business growth based on religious marriages. Second, it applies Ajzen’s (2002) planned behaviour theory to establish how marriage constraints may influence women EI in the Muslim society.

This paper aims to evaluate the extent of materiality assessment disclosures in sustainability reports and their determinants. The study examines the disclosure practices of listed companies based in the member states of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, colloquially referred to as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

First, the materiality assessment disclosures were scored through a content analysis of sustainability reports published by listed GCC companies during a five-year period from 2013 to 2017. Second, a fixed effect ordered logic regression was used to examine the determinants of materiality assessment disclosures.

While sustainability reporting rates improved across the sample period, a significant majority of listed GCC companies do not engage in sustainability reporting. The use of internationally recognised standards has also declined. While reporters provide more information on their materiality assessment, the number of sustainability reports that offer information on how the reporter identifies material issues has declined. These trends potentially indicate the existence of managerial capture. Materiality assessment disclosure scores are positively influenced by higher financial performance (Return on Assets), lower leverage and better corporate governance. However, company size and market-to-book ratio do not influence materiality assessment disclosures.

The findings may prove useful to managers responsible for preparing sustainability reports who can benefit from the examples of materiality assessment disclosures. An evaluation of the materiality assessment should be included in the scope of assurance engagements and practitioners can use the examples of best practice when evaluating sustainability reports. Stock exchanges may consider developing improved corporate governance guidelines as these will lead to materiality assessment disclosures.

The findings may assist in improving sustainability reporting quality, through better materiality assessment disclosures. This will allow corporate stakeholders to evaluate the reporting entities underlying processes, which leads to transparency and corporate accountability. Improved corporate sustainability reporting supports the GCC commitment to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and transition to sustainable development.

This study addresses the call for greater research examining materiality within a sustainability reporting context. This is the first paper to examine sustainability reporting quality in the GCC region, focussing particularly on materiality assessment disclosures.

It is generally agreed that shortage of food, which is one of the main problems bedevilling Sub-Saharan African region, can be eliminated via the adoption of modern agricultural production technology, one of which is chemical fertiliser. The purpose of this paper is to assess the factors that can be used to improve the intensity of fertiliser use in rural Sub-Saharan African countries, taking Tofa, a local government area in Kano State, Nigeria, as the case study.

The study adopted a two-stage sampling technique. In the first stage, four districts were chosen using a simple random sampling technique from the list of the 15 districts in the local government area, namely, Tofa, Langel, Lambu and Doka. In the second stage, 25 farmer households were systematically selected from each of the selected communities. Moreover, Tobit Regression model was used to examine and analyse the influence of some socio-economic factors on fertiliser use intensity.

To improve the rate of fertiliser use intensity, farmers need to be exposed to skills and training on some off-farm jobs to raise the farmers’ income to enable them to afford more fertiliser. The study finds that income, contact with extension agent, age of the farmer and method of fertiliser application have positive significant impacts on the intensity of fertiliser use. On the other hand, price of fertiliser was found to have negative impact on the intensity of using fertiliser in the study area. Furthermore, based on the data obtained from the selected samples, the average rate of fertiliser application in Tofa local government area during the crop season of 2011/2012 was 25 kg per hectare.

Policies that will strengthen the farmers’ contact with extension agents throughout the farming periods should be adopted. Also, farmers need to be exposed with skills and training on some off farm jobs to raise the farmers’ income to enable them afford more fertiliser.

The combination of action and process has remained the attention of the psychology of entrepreneurship research. Moreover, special attention has also been paid to the whens and hows of entrepreneurial psychological training. Keeping this in view the current study has tested the impact of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) training on small business entrepreneurial career resilience. Using action regulation theory (ART), a serial mediation model of IEO behaviour and entrepreneurial career adaptability is hypothesised.

This study used a longitudinal randomised controlled field experiment in which the data were collected at four points. A total of 546 small business owners from Lahore, Pakistan, participated in this research (training group = 265, control group = 281). The data were analysed using ANCOVAs and PROCESS Model 6.

The research has found that IEO training impacts the entrepreneurial career resilience of small business owners through the development of IEO behaviour and career adaptability.

This experimental inquiry is a novel attempt to extend the career-related outcomes of IEO training (career resilience) based on ART through the mediating role of IEO behaviour and career adaptability. In addition, it has tested the IEO training in the developing country of Pakistan, which is a relevant context for enhancing its socio-economic growth.

Academic scholars have tested students’ entrepreneurial intention (SEI) through the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Still, the link between entrepreneurial intention and career is missing in previous studies. An extensive literature review developed the rationale that existing theories in the entrepreneurial discipline have limitations in linking entrepreneurial intention with career. This research is conducted to develop a comprehensive model for the relationship between entrepreneurial university support, student entrepreneurial intention, behavior and career. Stimulus-Organism-Behavior-Consequence (SOBC) paradigm from organizational behavior research is borrowed to entrepreneurship literature.

The cross-sectional data was collected from Pakistani university students enrolled in business incubators. A sample of 100 responses was tested with a partial least square–structural equation modelling approach.

The study established that by the underpinning of SOBC, entrepreneurial university support influences students’ entrepreneurial intention. It is also found that the students’ entrepreneurial intention strongly influences their entrepreneurial behavior, leading them to entrepreneurship careers.

The policies influencing students’ entrepreneurial intention and behavior can be developed using the SOBC paradigm. Higher education institutions can improve students’ entrepreneurial intentions and behavior to lead them to entrepreneurship careers.

This research introduced the SOBC paradigm in entrepreneurial intention and behavior literature. SOBC underpinning explored a new dimension of entrepreneurial intention and behavior literature.