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This chapter analyzes the link between the digital divide, infrastructure regulation, and disaster planning and relief through a case study of the flood in San Jose, California triggered by the Anderson dam’s overtopping in February 2017 and an examination of communication failures during the 2018 wildfire in Paradise, California. This chapter theorizes that regulatory decisions construct social and disaster vulnerability. Rooted in the Whole Community approach to disaster planning and relief espoused by the United Nations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, this chapter calls for leadership to end the digital divide. It highlights the imperative of understanding community information needs and argues for linking strategies to close the digital divide with infrastructure and emergency planning. As the Internet’s integration into society increases, the digital divide diminishes access to societal resources including disaster aid, and exacerbates wildfire, flood, pandemic, and other risks. To mitigate climate change, climate-induced disaster, protect access to social services and the economy, and safeguard democracy, it argues for digital inclusion strategies as a centerpiece of community-centered infrastructure regulation and disaster relief.

Achieving innovation performance (IP) through high-performance work system (HPWS) remained relatively unexplored. Literature on the HPWS-IP linkage mechanism raises a question mark and highlights the existence of a black box. Therefore, the present study aimed to empirically fill the gap in the literature by developing a framework to theorize HPWS nexus with IP through serial mediation of intellectual capital (IC) and organizational ambidexterity (OA).

To answer the study questions survey-based, multi-source and time-lagged data were collected to examine the proposed model. SPSS 24 version was used to evaluate descriptive statistics and through Smart-PLS 3.32., partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the study hypotheses.

Study findings indicate that HPWS not only has a significant direct impact on IP but also has a significant indirect relationship with IP through the mediation of IC and OA. Both IC and OA also mediated this relationship serially.

The originality of the study lies in the fact that it studied HPWS as an antecedent of IC and OA and IP as the consequence. Further, the study fills the knowledge gap in previous literature in which limited or no study has used the serial mediation model with two mediators particularly IC and OA to explore the relationship between HPWS and IP.

Financial inclusion is more than just granting access to financial services; it involves fostering individuals’ overall financial health and prosperity. Financial inclusion has gained significant importance for policymakers and academia in the preceding two decades. It encourages individuals by extending ownership of their financial situation and empowering them to make well-informed decisions regarding their future. The literary work highlights the importance of financial inclusion in promoting prosperity and progress in society. Furthermore, the psychological effects of financial inclusion are addressed with an emphasis on reducing anxiety and stress associated with accessing necessary financial resources and increasing experiences of financial assurance and trust. Finally, the current condition of financial inclusion and ongoing initiatives to improve it is discussed with a regional focus on Asia. The idea of the empowered consumer is introduced, along with a discussion of how financial inclusion may enlighten customers, making them more knowledgeable and engaged members of the financial market. Finally, the conclusion presents a global perspective of underdeveloped nations, emphasizing the imperative requirement for financial integration in these places and the potential benefits it can provide. The chapter provides a comprehensive understanding of financial inclusion, its significance, and its psychological effects on people and their communities, particularly in Asia and developing nations.

The purpose of this study is to develop an integrated model for the stochastic multiproject scheduling and material ordering problems, where some of the prominent features of offshore projects and their environmental-degrading effects have been embraced as well. The durations of activities are uncertain in this model. The developed formulation is tri-objective that seeks to minimize the expected time, total cost and CO₂ emission of all projects.

A new version of the multiobjective multiagent optimization (MOMAO) algorithm has been proposed to solve the amalgamated model. To empower the MOMAO, various procedures of this algorithm have been modified based on the multiattribute utility theory (MAUT) technique. Along with the MOMAO, this study has employed four other meta-heuristic methodologies to solve the model as well.

The outputs of the MOMAO have been put to test against four other optimizers in terms of convergence, diversity, uniformity and computation times. The results of the Mean Ideal Distance (MID) metric have revealed that the MOMAO has strongly prevailed its rival optimizers. In terms of diversity of the acquired solutions, the MOMAO has ranked the first among all employed optimizers since this algorithm has offered the best solutions in 56.66 and 63.33% of the test problems regarding the diversification metric and hyper-volume metrics. Regarding the uniformity of results, which is measured through the spacing metric (SP), the MOMAO has presented the best SP values in more than 96% of the test problems. The MOMAO has needed more computation times in comparison to its rivals.

A real case study comprising two concurrent offshore projects has been offered. The proposed formulation and the MOMAO have been implemented for this case study, and their effectiveness has been appraised.

Very few studies have focused on presenting an integrated formulation for the stochastic multiproject scheduling and material ordering problems. The model embraces some of the characteristics of the offshore projects which have not been adequately studied in the literature. Limited capacities of the offshore platforms and cargo vessels have been embedded in the proposed model. The offshore platforms have spatial limitations in storing the required materials. The vessels are also capacitated and they also have limited shipment capacities. Some of the required materials need to be transported from the base to the offshore platform via a fleet of cargo vessels. The workforces and equipment can become idle on the offshore platform due to material shortage. Various offshore-related costs have been integrated as a minimization objective function in the model. The cargo vessels release CO₂ detrimental emissions to the environment which are sought to be minimized in the developed formulation. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the MOMAO has not been sufficiently employed as a solution methodology for the stochastic multiproject scheduling and material ordering problems.

After the electoral victory in 2018, the newly formed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government presented its National Education Policy Framework, chalking out its priorities of bringing more than 22 million out-of-school children to schools, improving educational quality, and introducing a uniform education system in the country. However, the government’s grand ambitions, transpired quickly, only to produce a draft of a new unified curriculum in 2020. This chapter investigates the newly formulated Single National Curriculum (SNC) in Pakistan by using the lens of Critical Cultural Political Economy of Education (CCPEE). To understand the endogenous and exogenous factors shaping the SNC, the chapter argues that securitization and neoliberalization are the significant factors informing the development and the production of the new curriculum.

This study aims to propose a Sharīʿah-based and information and communication technology-driven microfinance model (SIMM) to reduce extreme poverty in rural areas. Existing microfinance models run by microfinance institutions exclude severely poor individuals from their activities.

This study uses an exploratory sequential mixed-method design structured as Studies 1 and 2. Study 1 uses the grounded theory methodology to develop the emergent SIMM through interviews and focus group discussions with the participants (12 rich, 6 rural elites and 18 poor) of the target village. Study 2 uses a survey of 421 household members in the target village to evaluate their attitudes (ATT), subjective norms (SN) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) related to SIMM. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling is used to evaluate relationships between constructs.

Study 1 identifies seven themes, in which aspirational hope is recognised as a core theme. Study 2 indicates significant relationships between ATT and PBC and between SN and PBC. Thus, the SIMM can alleviate poverty in rural communities.

The application of the SIMM in the pilot study provides aspirational hope for eradicating extreme poverty.

Other rural communities should be encouraged to apply the SIMM to alleviate extreme poverty in their villages.

This study contributes to the development of an innovative microfinance model (SIMM) to eradicate extreme poverty in rural areas.

Drawing insights from institutional theory, this paper aims to examine whether and to what extent banks have reconfigured their management control systems (MCSs) in response to growing institutional pressures towards sustainability, understood as environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

The authors conducted an exploratory study at the three largest Italian banking groups to shed light on changes made in MCSs to account for ESG issues. The analysis is based on 12 semi-structured interviews with managers from the sustainability and controls areas, as well as from other relevant operational areas particularly concerned with the integration process of ESG issues. Additionally, secondary data sources were used. The Malmi and Brown (2008) MCS framework, consisting of a package of five types of formal and informal control mechanisms, was used to structure and analyse the empirical data.

The examined banks widely implemented numerous changes to their MCSs as a response to the heightened sustainability pressures from regulatory bodies and stakeholders. In particular, with the exception of action planning, the results show an extensive integration of ESG issues into the five control mechanisms of Malmi and Brown’s framework, namely, long-term planning, cybernetic, reward/compensation, administrative and cultural controls.

By identifying the approaches banks followed in reconfiguring traditional MCSs, this research sheds light on how adequate MCSs can promote banks’ “sustainable behaviours”. The results can, thus, contribute to defining best practices on how MCSs can be redesigned to support the integration of ESG issues into the banks’ way of doing business.

Overall, the findings support the theoretical assertion that institutional pressures influence the design of banks’ MCSs, and that both formal and informal controls are necessary to ensure a real engagement towards sustainability. More specifically, this study reveals that MCSs, by encompassing both formal and informal controls, are central to enabling banks to appropriately understand, plan and control the transition towards business models fully oriented to the integration of ESG issues. Thereby, this allows banks to effectively respond to the increased stakeholder demands around ESG concerns.