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The main purpose of this paper is to establish the mediating effect of credit counselling in the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of micro small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa post COVID-19 pandemic with data collected from rural Uganda.

Structural equation modelling (SEM) through SmartPLS 4.0 was used to generate the standardized parameters to test whether credit counselling mediates the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of MSMEs in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa post COVID-19 pandemic with data collected from rural Uganda.

The SEM bootstrap results revealed that credit counselling enhances access to microcredit by 27% to promote survival of MSMEs in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa post COVID-19 pandemic with data collected from rural Uganda.

The current study focused only on women MSMEs. Future studies may possibly collect data from all the MSMEs to draw better generalization of the findings within the sector.

The findings can help public finance policy to ensure provision of credit counselling to microentrepreneurs who borrow from different financial institutions to reduce the problem of loan defaults and delinquency rampant in lending. This could be done through conducting routine business education and counselling sessions for microentrepreneurs who often need credit to grow their businesses.

This study is amongst the first few studies to establish the mediating effect of credit counselling in the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of MSMEs in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic with data collected from rural Uganda. There is a dearth in literature and theory on the rehabilitative and preventive role of credit counselling in reducing repayment defaults amongst borrowers within the credit market to spur survival of MSMEs seen as the main enabler of economic growth, especially in developing countries. In fact, credit counselling acts as a safety net by substituting financial literacy and education to solve the rampant problem of overindebtedness amongst borrowers who are debt illiterate within the credit market.

The main purpose of this paper is to establish whether trust plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises in under-developed financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa. The main focus of this paper is to specifically test whether relational social capital built by young women from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups can be more effective in promoting economic exchange in under-developed financial markets since interpersonal trust has recently been found to harbor group collusion, especially among kins. Overall, the paper distinguishes trust among individuals based on their age, gender and ethnic diversity.

This study used structural equation model to test whether trust significantly mediates the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises using Analysis of Moments Structures (AMOS) based on recommendations by Hair et al. (2022) and Baron and Kenny (1986).

The findings from this study revealed that trust significantly and positively mediate the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises in under-developed financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa. Trust developed from relational social capital among young women from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups create a stronger basis for economic exchange in under-developed financial markets.

While this study generates a positive evidence on the impact of access to microcredit on survival of young women microenterprises, the results cannot be over emphasized and generalized because the data were collected from only a single developing country. Future research may extend the current study to include other developing countries to make a more justified comprehensive analysis.

The findings from this study highlights the importance of using a blend of social policy guided by norms combined with formal regulations as an informal contract enforcement mechanism to achieve efficient economic exchange in under-developed financial markets. Relational social capital formed on the basis of informal norms among groups from diverse population can supplement formal laws to enforce contractual obligations in microcredit access, especially among youthful microentrepreneurs, who seems to have stronger relational behaviors than adults. Financial institutions such as banks should use informal contract enforcement system to increase the scope of financial inclusion of young microentrepreneurs, especially in unbanked rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive where formal laws are weak and sometimes not functional. The findings also show that younger people have a stronger relationship behavior than adults. Therefore, policy should create structures that can promote social activities among youth. Governments in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive through their respective Ministry of Gender, Labour and Youth Affairs should create youth clubs that can increase interaction and relational social capital among the younger population to derive economic empowerment. sub-Saharan African governments, Uganda inclusive should rely more on social policy based on relational social capital as a missing link to promote and achieve economic development.

This paper provides an evidence on the unique role of age, gender and ethnicity in information sharing and exchange based on social policy in the financial market to limit group collusion. The authors indicate that diversity in relational social capital among young women microentrepreneurs prohibit strategic defaults, which promotes access to microcredit for survival of women micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through socialization. High level of interaction among younger women microentrepreneurs from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups allow them to close the information gap to timely meet borrowing contractual obligations to derive economic benefits. The paper shows that younger women have more trust than older women while searching for economic value through socialization. In fact, social policy can wholly supplement formal policy to promote growth and survival of young women microenterprises, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive.

This study aims to explore the ways and contexts in which fintech firms are being developed, operated in the market and responds to competitive pressures and technological changes through isomorphism and decoupling mechanism.

How can new technology platform business successfully distinguish themselves from competitors while also ensuring that they are seen as legitimate and appropriate? This paper draws on a case study of fintech start-ups in Indonesia.

This study shows that managing market pressures for distinctiveness (customer-appealing) versus business pressures for profits (investor returns) drives firms’ quest for optimal distinctiveness. It is evident that fintech firms increase their control by consolidating themselves through their industrial association and by forming a close relationship with regulators. However, to escape the iron cage of the field, they increasingly control the coupling of profitability and compliance.

Through a qualitative-inductive approach, this study provides insights into technological development of platform business in the context of financial services and responsive movement towards cashless society.

This study assesses the impact of online grocery shopping and food delivery services on food insecurity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study uses an online survey of 1,532 respondents. Respondents’ sociodemographics, food consumption, purchasing behavior, food security status, food insecurity coping mechanisms and concerns associated with food safety were asked before and during COVID-19.

Online grocery shopping and food delivery services increase food insecurity. Moreover, households with female primary shoppers were less likely to be food insecure than households with male primary shoppers. Furthermore, households with children were more likely to be food insecure. Minority households, such as Black, Hispanic, Native American and younger households, were more likely to be food insecure.

Panel data with the same households surveyed before and after COVID-19 would be a better approach. Similarly, the impact of online shopping on food insecurity needs further research, as many factors could be associated with online shopping that impact food insecurity, especially during a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, a study of the long-term impact of online shopping on food insecurity would be interesting and could present broader and more generalizable results.

The impact of online shopping on food insecurity before and during COVID-19 has yet to be studied sufficiently. Given the increase in popularity of online grocery shopping, its impact on food insecurity still needs to be discovered. Besides online grocery shopping, we also study online food delivery services whose demand has gained momentum over the past few years, including during the pandemic.

War is one of the worst characteristics of human nature. Wars over territory, religion, and governance were and are always present through history. War and tourism seem dissonant at first glance. However, the post effects of war enable its components, such as battlefields and artefacts, to become tourist attractions. People share the impetus to visit war attractions such as battlefields, military museums, cemeteries, memorials, and other war-related sites. There is a supply for this type of tourism in exchange for the demand. This type of tourism is referred to in the literature as battlefield tourism. The meaning and definition of battlefield tourism are the main aim of this chapter. What is battlefield tourism? What are the components of battlefield tourism? How can battlefield tourism be defined? These are the primary questions this study tries to address.

Under the circumstances of the accelerated technological advance and the overlapping of various global crises in the recent years, one of the main strategic priorities of the European Union in medium and long terms consists of building resilient regional and local communities which implies the aim to protect citizens against the impact of climate changes. Considering the essential role of the human capital in this endeavor, this chapter aims to investigate the relationship between human resources and economic development focusing a SWOT analysis in the case of Romania taking into account recent developments and trends of the European and global labor market related to various aspects induced by the green transition. The analysis of the structural demo-economic characteristics of Romania’s population revealed a decline of the total population, against the background of negative demographic and net migration, the increase in the average and median age of the total population, the rise in demographic and economic dependency ratios representing serious challenges for the development strategy on short, medium and long terms. To these, increasing quantitative and qualitative shortages in the labor market are added, which complicate the advancement of the green transition in Romania. In the conclusions of this chapter, strategic milestones on policies and measures in the short, medium and long terms at macroeconomic and labor market levels are proposed.