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The review examines the existing literature on blockchain-based small and medium enterprise (SME) finance and highlights its trend, themes, opportunities and challenges. Based on these factors, the authors create a framework for the existing literature on blockchain-based SME financing and lay down future research paths.

The review follows a systematic approach. It includes 53 articles encompassing multiple dimensions of blockchain-based SME finance, including peer-to-peer lending platforms, supply chain finance (SCF), decentralized lending protocols and tokenization of assets. The review critically evaluates these approaches' theoretical underpinnings, empirical evidence and practical implementations.

The review demonstrates that blockchain-based SME finance holds significant promise in addressing the credit gap by leveraging blockchain technology's decentralized and transparent nature. Benefits identified include reduced information asymmetry, improved access to financing, enhanced credit assessment processes and increased financial inclusion. However, the literature acknowledges several challenges and limitations, such as regulatory uncertainties, scalability issues, operational complexities and potential security risks.

The article contributes to the growing knowledge of blockchain-based SME finance by synthesizing and evaluating the existing literature. It also provides a framework for the existing literature in the area and future research paths. The study offers insights for researchers, policymakers and practitioners seeking to understand the potential of blockchain technology in filling the SME credit gap and fostering economic development through improved access to finance for SMEs.

The study compares the socioeconomic development of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to that of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). SAARC was established on December 8, 1985, as a result of former President Ziaur Rahman's efforts to promote the welfare of the people and mutual trust. ASEAN was founded in August 1967 with the goal of accelerating the region's economic growth, social progress, and cultural development while also promoting regional peace and stability. The SAARC countries share problems such as poverty and unemployment. SAARC countries have a GDP per capita four times that of ASEAN. A qualitative analysis based on secondary data pertaining to SAARC and ASEAN reveals that SAARC has not been more successful than ASEAN. National and international conflicts are common within SAARC. SAARC has 22% of the world's population and 3% of the world's economy, and there are enormous opportunities for economic growth and human development.

The purpose of the present study is to determine how the cash conversion cycle (CCC) affects the financial performance of manufacturing companies in Bangladesh.

The authors have collected data of 61 Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE)-listed firms from the 10 distinct manufacturing industries of Bangladesh for 18 years, from 2003 to 2020. The data have been analyzed through the two-steps system generalized method of moment (GMM) regression model, using profitability indicators return on asset (ROA) and earnings per share (EPS) as dependent variables, while CCC has been used as the independent variable, whereas asset turnover (ATO) and financial leverage (LEV) were used as control variables to assess the relationship between the CCC and financial performance.

The findings indicated that CCC has a negative connection with profitability – ROA and EPS, with the connection between CCC and EPS being highly significant. This indicates that reducing the inventory conversion time, reducing the period of receivable collection and making payments to creditors with potential delays might help Bangladeshi manufacturing firms boost their profitability. In addition, the firm-specific characteristics, namely ATO and LEV significantly affect the firm's profitability.

The research was based only on secondary sources and information was scarce. This research was conducted to determine the impact of the CCC on the corporate profitability of the manufacturing sector solely. There might be many other working capital variables that are still unexplored through this study.

The current study's findings are consistent with the traditional rule that minimizing the firm's days of the cash cycle may optimize financial performance. The results of this research have added to the existing body of knowledge on the topic of working capital management (WCM). Future research endeavors can be initiated for assessing the impact of the CCC on the firm's profitability in other industrial sectors or to identify other working capital variables that have much impact on corporate profitability.

This study is an original work of the researchers and adds value to the current literature in the domain of WCM and corporate profitability. The present study is the first one that covers firms in all the manufacturing industries in Bangladesh. The corporate managers, creditors, investors and other concerned stakeholders will be benefited from the findings of the present study.

The present study's goal is to analyze the impact of audit quality (AQ) on earnings quality (EQ) using different audit attributes. The study shows empirical evidence from India, considered an emerging market.

The sample selected represents the 376 non-financial firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). With a 20-year time frame, the authors used the absolute value of discretionary accruals (McNichols, 2002) (DA) as a proxy for EM, which is inversely related to EQ. The authors analyzed data using OLS, fixed effect (FE), 2SLS and Panel-IV estimators.

The authors found that most audit attributes positively affect EQ. In the Indian context, joint auditor (JA), auditor size (A_SIZE), auditor fee (A_FEE) and auditor tenure (A_TENURE) have a negative association with EM indicating high EQ. In contrast, auditor rotation (A_ROTATON) positively affects EM confirming low EQ.

The present study uses Big-4 and its member firms as a proxy of auditor size (A_SIZE); instead, other bases may be taken for it, like the dominant audit firms in a particular industry in sample data, etc. The authors have started audit tenure from the base year, i.e. 2001, which may ignore the association of auditor and auditee just before 2001.

The study findings would enhance policymakers' willingness to prepare appropriate regulations regarding JAs and auditor rotation, which might improve financial market efficiency and reduce financial fraud among Indian corporates.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to incorporate “Joint Auditor” (JA) as a proxy for audit quality in the Indian context, which might significantly contribute to the literature.

A leader plays an important role in the growth of an organization. The leader is a person who influences the standards, structure, culture and behaviour of the individuals employed in the organization. A leader also has effects on the result and productivity of teams. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of transformational leadership style on team performance. This paper will also analyze the existence of a relationship between transformational leadership style and team performance.

For this study, the researcher collected the data from 354 individuals employed in IT organizations in Pune. The team members answered questions asked about the transformational leadership style, and the team leaders answered questions related to team performance. The data has been analyzed using the latest available version of Statistical Product and Service Solutions.

The results of this examination suggest that there is strong and positive relationship between the transformational leadership style and team performance. Further, it was also found that transformational leader helps in a great way in improving team performance which in turn increases the organization’s productivity.

Few limitations of this research work are that the data collected for this research work is non-cognitive in nature and simultaneously respondents may incline to evaluate the positive facets of opinion poll more propitiously than negative facets. Secondly, the data have been collected only from companies located in Pune.

This research study provides empirical data that will be helpful for human resources department of an organization, as it can help them in the development of policies and practices. It will also provide help leaders to support employees who are seeking effective ways to support struggling employees in context to their team performance.

The present study can be differentiated from past studies, as it thinks over an ensemble of transformational leadership style as an essential antecedent of team performance and also enhances the knowledge of the researchers and practitioners about the leadership style that upshot to the team performance. This will also help the managers, researchers, organizational development specialist and employees who are seeking effective ways to support struggling employees in context to their team performance.

Increasing trends of climatic risk pose challenges to the food security and livelihoods of smallholders in vulnerable regions, where farmers often face loss of the entire crop, pushing farmers (mostly men) out of agriculture in destitution, creating a situation of agricultural making agriculture highly feminization and compelling male farmers to out-migrate. Climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) are promoted to cope with climatic risks. This study aims to assess how knowledge related to CSAPs, male out-migration, education and income contribute to the determinants of male out-migration and CSAPs adoption and how they respond to household food security.

Sex-disaggregated primary data were collected from adopter and non-adopter farm families. STATA 13.1 was used to perform principle component analysis to construct knowledge, yield and income indices.

Yield and income index of adopters was higher for men than women. The probability of out-migration reduced by 21% with adoption of CSAPs. An increase in female literacy by 1 unit reduces log of odds to migrate by 0.37. With every unit increase in knowledge index, increase in log-odds of CSAPs adoption was 1.57. Male:female knowledge gap was less among adopters. Non-adopters tended to reduce food consumption when faced with climatic risks significantly, and the probability of migration increased by 50% with a one-unit fall in the nutrition level, thus compelling women to work more in agriculture. Gender-equitable enhancement of CSAP knowledge is, therefore, key to safeguarding sustainable farming systems and improving livelihoods.

The enhancement of gender equitable knowledge on CSAPs is key to safeguard sustainable farming systems and improved livelihoods.

This study is based on the robust data sets of 100 each of male and female from 100 households (n = 200) using well-designed and validated survey instrument. From 10 randomly selected climate-smart villages in Samastipur and Vaishali districts of Bihar, India, together with focus group discussions, the primary data were collected by interviewing both men and women from the same household.

As focal firms in supply networks reflect on their experiences of the pandemic and begin to rethink their operations and supply chains, there is a significant opportunity to leverage digital technological advances to enhance socially responsible operations performance (SROP). This paper develops a novel framework for exploring the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies for improving SROP. It highlights current best-practice examples and presents future research pathways.

This viewpoint paper argues how Industry 4.0 technology adoption can enable effective SROP in the post-COVID-19 era. Academic articles, relevant grey literature, and insights from industry experts are used to support the development of the framework.

Seven technologies are identified that bring transformational capabilities to SROP, i.e. big data analytics, digital twins, augmented reality, blockchain, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. It is demonstrated how these technologies can help to improve three sub-themes of organisational social performance (employment practices, health and safety, and business practices) and three sub-themes of community social performance (quality of life and social welfare, social governance, and economic welfare and growth).

A research agenda is outlined at the intersection of Industry 4.0 and SROP through the six sub-themes of organisational and community social performance. Further, these are connected through three overarching research agendas: “Trust through Technology”, “Responsible Relationships” and “Freedom through Flexibility”.

Organisational agendas for Industry 4.0 and social responsibility can be complementary. The framework provides insights into how Industry 4.0 technologies can help firms achieve long-term post-COVID-19 recovery, with an emphasis on SROP. This can offer firms competitive advantage in the “new normal” by helping them build back better.

People and communities should be at the heart of decisions about rethinking operations and supply chains. This paper expresses a view on what it entails for organisations to be responsible for the supply chain-wide social wellbeing of employees and the wider community they operate in, and how they can use technology to embed social responsibility in their operations and supply chains.

Contributes to the limited understanding of how Industry 4.0 technologies can lead to socially responsible transformations. A novel framework integrating SROP and Industry 4.0 is presented.