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Cloud computing services gained huge attention in recent years and many organizations started moving their business data traditional server to the cloud storage providers. However, increased data storage introduces challenges like inefficient usage of resources in the cloud storage, in order to meet the demands of users and maintain the service level agreement with the clients, the cloud server has to allocate the physical machine to the virtual machines as requested, but the random resource allocations procedures lead to inefficient utilization of resources.

This thesis focuses on resource allocation for reasonable utilization of resources. The overall framework comprises of cloudlets, broker, cloud information system, virtual machines, virtual machine manager, and data center. Existing first fit and best fit algorithms consider the minimization of the number of bins but do not consider leftover bins.

The proposed algorithm effectively utilizes the resources compared to first, best and worst fit algorithms. The effect of this utilization efficiency can be seen in metrics where central processing unit (CPU), bandwidth (BW), random access memory (RAM) and power consumption outperformed very well than other algorithms by saving 15 kHz of CPU, 92.6kbps of BW, 6GB of RAM and saved 3kW of power compared to first and best fit algorithms.

The proposed multi-objective bin packing algorithm is better for packing VMs on physical servers in order to better utilize different parameters such as memory availability, CPU speed, power and bandwidth availability in the physical machine.

This paper aims to examine house price drivers in Dubai, addressing nonlinearity and heterogeneity.

The study applies a combination of linear and nonlinear, as well as quantile regression, specifications to address these concerns and better explain the real-world phenomenon.

The study shows the double-log quantile regression approach is an overarching description of house price drivers, confirming that not only the price of housing and its determinants are non-linearly related but also that their relationship is heterogeneous across house price quantiles. The findings reveal the prevalence of sub-market differentials in house price sensitivity to house attributes such as size (in square meters), location and type of house, as well as government laws. The study also identifies the peaks and deflation, as well as the rebounding nature of the house price bubble in Dubai.

The data used are limited, in that information on only a few house attributes was available. Future research should include data on other house attributes such as house quality, zip codes and composition.

The findings of this study are expected to suggest results with significant ramifications for researchers, practitioners and policy makers. From a policy perspective, there is an obvious interest in understanding whether the price of housing is affected by different attributes differently along its distribution.

This study allows policy makers, developers and buyers of higher-priced houses to behave differently from buyers of lower-priced or medium-priced houses.

Methodologically, it demonstrates alternative linear and nonlinear, as well as quantile regression, specifications to address two increasing concerns in the house price literature: nonlinearity and heterogeneity. Unlike most other studies, this study used a rich data (140,039 day-to-day transactions of 10 years’ pooled data). The Dubai housing market presents an interesting case. UAE (Dubai, in particular) is named as the second-hottest marketplace for global residential property investors, ahead of Singapore, the UK and Hong Kong (Savills plc, 2015).

Considering the importance of human capital in innovation, entrepreneurship and thus economic development, this study attempts to examine formal learning as a mechanism of human capital development in institutions of higher learning. Ironically, students in such institutions are automatically assumed to learn and accumulate pertinent capacity, which would then enable them to compete in the business world or pursue further studies in future. Consequently, lack of this cognizance culminates in little being known about how students learn to accumulate knowledge, skills and requisite competencies. Notwithstanding this, the challenges posed in the twenty-first century require well-rounded students those especially who can address the global transformations witnessed in the business arena. The purpose of this paper is an attempt to fill this gap using data from the University of Dubai (UD) to examine how formal learning takes place in an institution and what determines it.

Learning is conceptualized in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies accumulated as proxied by cumulative general point aggregate. All the data used came from the UD. In addition to in-depth descriptive analysis, the study uses limited dependent techniques to identify the most significant determinants of institutional learning.

The empirical results generated indicate that demographic characteristics such as age, nationality and gender had a positive effect on learning. Moreover, a student’s initial condition influenced his/her learning positively. Whereas the mode of study under personal preferences did not seem to affect learning, the number of course sections taken had a positive influence on learning. As anticipated, student transfer had a negative influence on learning. The number of credit hours accumulated affected learning positively.

The main limitation of this study is that results are only applicable within a limited geographical scope, and thus they cannot be generalized for global consumption. Nonetheless, the discussion and results obtained make insights to any future-related studies.

As pointed out in the previous sections, learning will be conceptualized in the form of knowledge, skills and competency acquisition. In a school setting, knowledge, skills and competencies are better captured by the grade attained in each subject. The general student learning can, therefore, be equally captured by the cumulative grade point aggregate. The authors purport that learning can be visualized, or in other words conceptualized, as a complex process that is determined by five main factors that include demographic characteristics; student initial condition; personal preferences and choices; and time factor curriculum and anticipated future career.

Dietary management is one of the cornerstones of diabetes care and is based on the concept of healthy eating in the context of social, cultural and psychological influences on food choice. In Ethiopia, there is a scarcity of data on diabetic patients’ dietary practices, which undervalues their importance in diabetes management. Hence, this study assessed the level of proper dietary practice and its associated factors among type 2 diabetic patients in Gambella hospitals, Ethiopia.

An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 190 randomly selected diabetic patients in two hospitals in the Gambella region, Ethiopia. Data was entered into Epidata version 3.1 and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Logistic regressions were used to check the association between dietary practice and explanatory variables. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the strength of the association between dependent and independent variables.

More than half (57.4%) of the study participants followed a healthy dietary practice. Getting nutritional education from doctors (AOR = 4.6; 95% CI: 1.6, 13.2, p = 0.031), having access to fruits and vegetables (AOR = 2.1; 95% CI: 1.1, 4.1, p = 0.018) and family involvement during patient counseling (AOR = 2.4; 95% CI: 1.9, 6.5, p = 0.021) were factors associated with good dietary practice.

A self-reporting method was used rather than direct observation of patients’ dietary practices, which may result in recall bias.

Adherence to the recommended dietary practice among diabetic patients was relatively low. The integration of diabetes-based nutritional advice with family involvement and strengthening agricultural activities should be emphasized in the study area.

The two-hospital design of this study ensures that a representative sample of study subjects in the Gambella hospitals is obtained, which is useful for intervention strategies and activities. Data gathering tools that were standardized and verified for use by the World Health Organization were used.

Though many studies in the past dealt with the survival and growth of enterprises both in the local- and export-markets, less attention was given to the analysis of the duration of enterprises entry into the export-markets. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to analyze the duration of Ethiopian enterprises entry into the export-markets.

This paper used data collected from 848 enterprises through a cross-sectional survey method conducted by the World Bank in 2015. In order to estimate the average duration – the time that enterprises need to wait before entering into the export-markets and the associated factors – the authors used the mixture of non-parametric (Kaplan-Meier) and parametric (Weibull) models.

The non-parametric results show that enterprises are required to wait for an average of about eight years before entering into the export-markets after their establishment. In addition, foreign-owned enterprises were found to be faster in entering into the export-markets than their domestically owned counterparts. The parametric results revealed that enterprises’ product innovation, enterprises’ size and age, and custom and trade regulations are factors that curtail the durations of enterprises entry into the export-markets. On the other hand, enterprises’ operational costs, the size of enterprises’ locality, and enterprises’ location are factors that slow the durations of enterprises’ entry into the export-markets.

This study is the first to offer pioneering evidences on the duration (time in years) that Ethiopian enterprises need to wait before entering into the export-markets and the factors that affect the length of their waiting time.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the work-life boundary management experiences and challenges women entrepreneurs face in combining their work-life responsibilities.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 31 women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia using a grounded theory approach to investigate how they manage the boundaries between their work-life roles, the challenges they face and how these challenges affect their boundary management experiences.

Integration, as a work-life boundary management strategy, is imposed on women as a result of normative expectations on women to shoulder care and household responsibilities, as well as to fulfil societal roles and obligations. In addition, challenges related to managing employees at home and at work frequently require women to combine work and life roles, forcing them to integrate even more.

The findings of this study underline the need to recognise the work-life interface challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and to develop programmes and hands-on training to help them adopt work-life boundary management tactics. In addition, it is hoped that the findings will inform policies and women entrepreneurship development programmes designed by the government, development partners and other stakeholders.

This paper contributes to the work-family literature by highlighting the contextual and environmental factors imposing work-family boundary management styles on women entrepreneurs in the Sub-Saharan country of Ethiopia.

Micro-businesses contribute to economic development by improving individual welfare. Women are the primary drivers and owners of such businesses in urban Ethiopia. The purpose of this study is to investigate the poverty status and determinants among women-owned micro-businesses.

The basic study units were women who owned micro-businesses. A sample of 384 women-owned micro-business was chosen using a stratified and systematic random sampling technique. Thirty-six participants were purposely chosen for in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Questionnaires, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect data. The poverty head count, poverty gap and poverty severity indices were computed to estimate poverty status. The major determinants of women’s poverty were investigated using a logistic regression model.

The overall poverty incidence, gap and severity were estimated to be 24.27%, 3.85%, and 1.11% respectively, among the women who owned micro-businesses. Eight of the 14 poverty determinants, including age, dependents, savings, remittance and the number of days and hours women work in their businesses, were found to have a significant effect on women’s poverty. The results suggest that local governments, technical and vocational training institutions should work together to reduce the impact of poverty-aggravating factors on women and increase the contribution of women-owned micro-businesses to poverty reduction.

This study addressed the poverty status of women who run micro-businesses, which is a crucial issue in Ethiopia’s urban context. It adds new knowledge to the issue of gendered economic participation, poverty reduction and poverty determinants in the Ethiopian context.

In this paper, the authors explore the reasons for reluctance to use mobile banking with the help of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and modifications proposed by the literature that is particularly adequate for developing countries and mobile banking: the theory of trying (TT) and the concept of attitude strengths.

This study intends to shed more light on the acceptance of mobile banking in Ethiopia from the banking industry's perspective. To this end, the authors identify models used in the literature for explaining acceptance and fit them to a sample of Ethiopian bank customers. The authors' sample of 394 mobile banking subscribers does not include non-banked individuals, because the authors' main intention is to help banks understanding why banks' platforms are not used as desired.

The authors' findings suggest that attitude is the most significant factor determining acceptance, a multi-dimensional approach to attitude is more recommendable to understanding how mobile banking users shape users' attitude and combining TAM and TT is impactful and better explains the factors influencing attitude.

The authors' analysis suggests focusing on improving the attitude of users toward mobile banking since users' attitude is the integral component for acceptance decisions. In doing so, banks shall concentrate on making mobile banking services/platforms easy to use than promoting the usefulness of mobile banking, because the perception of ease of use has a more significant influence on attitude than usefulness.

Practical application of the authors' findings may guide future marketing decisions while individuals can elucidate where individuals stand on mobile banking.

Due to global trade and transportation, the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly reached all corners of the world; it has most impacted the poor communities and rural areas with limited or no access to recovery. This paper aims to understand the pandemic's impact on the market supply of vegetables (agrifood) in Ethiopia and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa and to implement scientifically based recommendations that can improve the challenges caused by the pandemic and improve the livelihoods of vegetable producers.

This study assessed the major incidents that follow the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia with the factors that significantly influence onion market supply in the Mecha district of Northwestern Ethiopia using linear multiple regression.

The study revealed that producers, processors, local collectors, cooperatives, wholesalers, retailers and consumers are the main actors. The most important difference that happened on the onion market channel after the outbreak of coronavirus was brokers were removed from the market channel after the pandemic and this saved the cost producers pay as a commission. The pandemic disrupted input distribution, extension and cooperative services and created labor scarcity. Access to market, postharvest value addition, price and marketing contract were significant factors that influence the market supply of onion. The study identified the need for policy interventions by the government to overcome the postpandemic challenges and ensure the sustainable development of onion production and marketing in the Mecha district.

The limitations of the study are primarily related to the methodology as data are collected at a single moment in time. However, the study observes that those changes after the pandemic are better understood if we collect data at different time. Therefore, the future study needs to provide longitudinal data to examine stability of response and to observe performance of the market that occur over time.

This original research is the first to study the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Northwestern Ethiopia. The data used in the analysis are primary.

This study aims to analyze the factors that determine non-farm enterprise diversification among farm households in Ethiopia. It extends the analysis by examining enterprises and using pooled data, which has the capacity to generate more accurate outcomes. The existing empirical evidence has focused on all non-farm activities, based on single period, single region data. Much of the existing empirical evidence is based on small-scale and location-specific sample surveys that do not demonstrate the characteristics of aggregate populations.

The empirical analysis was conducted using a quantitative method. To cater to the censoring nature of participating in non-farm enterprise activities, a panel data double-hurdle model is used to a representative sample of 3,594 Ethiopian rural households.

The study finds that the age of household head, household size, distance to the market, social capital and access to credit, are determinants for owning one or more non-farm enterprises. The level of income from these enterprises is then determined by the age and education level of the household head, household size, agricultural equipment, distance to markets and access to credit.

This study brings to light factors that influence households to participate in non-farm enterprises and the determining factors for the income level.

Non-farm activities are an important source of household income and a driver of development. This paper provides empirical evidence on factors that determine enterprise ownership using panel data.