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Female entrepreneurs have made increasing contributions to entrepreneurial activity and economic development worldwide, especially in emerging economies. It is well acknowledged that Bangladesh is one such South Asian emerging economy with many institutional and sociocultural challenges. This study aims to examine the effect of the institutional environment (formal and informal institutional factors) that influences female entrepreneurs in an emerging country, namely, Bangladesh.

The authors used a quantitative research method using a questionnaire. The authors established the conceptual framework reflecting a model so that they could test their assumptions among female entrepreneurs from an institutional perspective. The conceptual framework was empirically tested and validated. Consequently, this study comprised 324 usable survey responses. To analyse the quantitative data, partial least squares-structural equation modelling was used.

The findings highlight that social networks, access to finance and non-economic support have negative and insignificant effects on informal female entrepreneurs. Conversely, entrepreneurial attitudes, cultural context, institutional policy, family roles and education were positive and significant and found to be more important for female entrepreneurship in Bangladesh.

The results of this study offer empirical evidence of institutional factors as well as focus on three dimensions, women’s experiences from an institutional perspective, Asian culture and the operation of female entrepreneurial activity in an emerging economy (contextual perspective).

The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the dynamics of institutional practices, socio-economic status and vulnerability of shrimp fry catchers in the south-west region of Bangladesh.

This study draws on primary research conducted through face-to-face interviews with women fry collectors in the south-west region of Bangladesh. This study attempts to identify the nature and extent of the impact of institutional practices on the women engaged in catching fry regarding their positioning within the institutional framework.

In the coastal region of Bangladesh, the shrimp sector has opened up economic opportunities for women in terms of access to income and employment. However, women have to make a trade-off between employment gain in terms of wage and health hazards caused due to poor working conditions. The findings of the study indicate that shrimp fry catching, complemented by other sources of income, can only help women to survive. The study also finds that the vulnerability of the fry collectors is the end result of mutually interacting institutional practices under different institutional domains. Accordingly, recommendations are made with a view to effectively utilizing social capital at the community level, which will be particularly helpful in raising fry catchers’ voice in the local political arena and strengthening their position in the marketplace. Due to the higher preferences of buyers towards wild fry and the participation of a huge number of people in fry collecting, this study suggests rethinking government intervention in this regard.

This is original research focusing on the underlying structural and institutional factors behind the marginalization and vulnerability of women and devising policies that will enable modification of the factors that restrain women.

Mexico’s 1994 peso devaluation and ensuing crisis surprised the markets and caught international markets and many policy makers off‐guard. Some of the contributing factors were due to structural deficiencies and institutional rigidities, while others dealt with public policy issues. In addition, Mexico’s membership to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and ensuing rapid trade liberalization and deregulation of capital market and banking, were paramount to the peso crisis. Financial deregulation in Mexico, as in Korea and other crisis countries of Asia, took place before adequate, prudential regulation and supervision were in place. The result was excessive build‐up of bank credits driven by moral hazard. This paper deals with various factors leading to the peso crisis and presents the logical sequence of the unfolding of the events by analyzing the structural and institutional factors. Also, major developments in the post‐crisis period are discussed.

This study attempts to identify the key structural and institutional factors that influence the decision to export using a database of 8,047 firms in manufacturing, services and agricultural activity and in 81 countries. A Probit model of the export decision is estimated for the full sample of firms and for sub‐samples of firms in various country groupings. The study's results indicate that size, age, previous export experience, ownership status, the provision of subsidies and market competition are the most important determinants of the export decision.

With a few exceptions, the mainstream literature on learning in multinational enterprises (MNEs) has shown little concern for the transformational nature and the social constitution of learning. This paper aims to address this gap by drawing on Scandinavian institutionalism, social learning perspectives, and comparative institutionalism.

A comparative case study of two subsidiaries of the same MNE was conducted. The subsidiaries received similar practices from headquarters (HQ) but displayed contrasting learning outcomes.

It is shown that learning outcomes differed based on the varying extent to which practices were translated, which depends on the participation of local actors. The difference in participation pattern, in turn, is rooted in differences in the institutional context of the two subsidiaries.

It is recognized that apart from institutional influences, organizational idiosyncrasies may be at work. In addition, the paper briefly considers the extent to which the notion of contrasting forms of capitalism is still useful when comparing the German and British institutional contexts.

The findings highlight the importance of involving employees in the translation of new practices. A challenge for MNEs is that learning of new practices can differ by institutional context. Where enabling institutional conditions are absent, conscious effort may be needed to ensure employee participation.

This paper highlights that MNE practice transfer rests on the translation of the practice content to the local context, and that subsidiary‐level learning processes may be institutionally embedded, thus establishing a link between subsidiary learning and the macro‐level context. As such, this paper both illustrates the value of social learning perspectives and the relevance of the work of institutionalists for understanding MNE learning processes.

This study recruited students who struggled to meet institutional deadlines for summative assessments. Increasing the number of diverse and non-traditional students in higher education (HE) institutions presents challenges in learning and teaching in online, conventional and hybrid contexts, impacting on student academic success. The purpose of this paper is to expand our understanding of student perceptions of the factors involved in academic achievement.

Using qualitative methods and in-depth semi-structured interviews, 14 participants were interviewed. Using Freire’s concept of empowerment, and Bordieu’s concept of habitus, the authors explore student perceptions of assessment.

Results presented thematically indicate that student perceptions of the purpose of the assessment and academic qualification are at odds with institutional habitus. Several embargoes impacting on academic achievement were revealed.

Shifting organisational patterns and modes of production within HE institutions have influenced the student experience of academic writing and assessment. Findings highlight the factors that impact on academic success in HE institutions for non-traditional students in particular. Social class and educational background (habitus) are not factors taken into account when students are assessed. This impacts on capacity to achieve academic success.

The paper includes implications for curriculum designers, and self-reflective practitioners on issues related to academic success for non-traditional students.

The study uses two case studies from two countries, Scotland and Brazil, both countries have invested heavily to address the twenty-first century learning agenda. Issues of widening access have increased student diversity, however, embargoes on academic achievement remain powerful factors that require further discussion and study.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how issues of widening access can be mitigated, in particular for non-traditional students.

This article seeks to explain why the public provision of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Reggio di Calabria – the largest city of the Calabria region in Southern Italy – has remained among the lowest in the country, failing to respond to the growing local demand for such services. Most of the limited formal supply of ECEC services currently available in the city is almost exclusively provided, for a fee, by private – until recently unregulated – day care centres, whereas households who cannot afford them must still rely on family care.

Based on original research findings, the article explains how such a supply configuration is the result of several concurrent factors – structural, institutional and cultural, on both the demand and the supply side of the service relation – and has been conditioned by both national and local specificities.

The complex interplay of these factors accounts not only for the enduring absence of an adequate public provision of ECEC services in the city and its region but also for the reproduction of an “unsupported” familistic model of care, while a loosely regulated private supply answers the growing demand coming from the working women who can afford it.

The lack of public ECEC, which was significantly aggravated by the 2008 financial crisis, represents a major constraint for women's emancipation and social justice in an already difficult socio-economic context.

The article provides in-depth knowledge on the enduring deficit of public ECEC services in a region and city that are little studied, together with a contextualized interpretation of its causes and implications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of banking stability in Africa.

The authors present four measures of banking stability embedding banks’ loan loss coverage ratio, insolvency risk, asset quality ratio, and level of financial development, thereby allowing analysis of banking stability determinants from four complementary perspectives: protection for downside credit losses, distress arising from insolvency risk, non-performing loans, and financial development. The authors use the regression methodology to estimate the impact of financial structure, institutional, bank-level factors on bank stability.

The findings indicate that banking efficiency, foreign bank presence, banking concentration, size of banking sector, government effectiveness, political stability, regulatory quality, investor protection, corruption control and unemployment levels are significant determinant of banking stability in Africa and the significance of each determinant depends on the banking stability proxy employed and depends on the period of analysis: pre-crisis, during-crisis or post-crisis.

Banking supervisors in African countries should consider the role of financial structure and institutional quality for banking stability in the African region.

This study is the first to examine banking stability determinants in Africa that takes into account institutional quality and financial structure.

Every year, 311,000 women die of cervical cancer globally, a disease which is preventable and treatable. Pap-testing should be part of a comprehensive approach to tackling cervical cancer; however, barriers to pap-testing do exist and migration may present additional barriers. In 2018, 2.3 million overseas Filipino workers were recorded and uptake of pap-testing for this group is low. The study aims to understand barriers and enablers to screening for overseas Filipino workers, which is essential to improve uptake of pap-testing for this population.

Embedded in a mixed-methods study, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted with Web-based, in-depth interviews (N = 8) with female overseas Filipino workers, mostly domestic workers, based in Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore and Hong Kong. Results were analysed using thematic analysis. A socio-ecological conceptual framework was used to explore barriers to uptake of pap-testing.

Barriers to pap-testing were cognitive factors, such as limited knowledge and fear of the outcome of pap-testing, as well as cultural and structural barriers. Findings revealed structural contexts not conducive to pap-testing, including difficulty navigating the health-care system, poverty, difficult employment circumstances and the overriding need to provide financially for family and children in the Philippines.

This study explored barriers to pap-testing with a hard-to-reach group, who are underrepresented in the literature. Barriers to pap-testing were embedded in structural barriers, resulting in health inequalities. Host and sending countries benefit from overseas Filipino workers and have a responsibility to care for their health and well-being, and should strive to tackle these structural factors.

This article develops an innovative multidisciplinary conceptual framework in the field of refugee entrepreneurship by combining the theory of mixed embeddedness with the concepts of intersectionality and agency. Focusing on the phenomenon of refugee entrepreneurship, this conceptual framework addresses the following questions: how is entrepreneurship informed by the various intersectional positions of refugees? And how do refugees exert their agency based on these intersecting identities?

By revising the mixed embeddedness approach and combining it with an intersectional approach, this study aims to develop a multidimensional conceptual framework.

This research illustrates how the intersectional positions of refugees impact their entrepreneurial motivations, resources and strategies. The authors' findings show that refugee entrepreneurship not only contributes to the economic independence of refugees in new societies but also creates opportunities for refugees to exert their agency.

This conceptual framework can be applied in empirical research and accordingly contributes to refugee entrepreneurship studies and intersectionality theory.