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In the digital economy era, digital platforms are vital infrastructure for innovation subjects to perform digital innovation activities. Achieving efficient and smooth knowledge transfer between innovation subjects through digital platforms has become a novel research subject. This study aims to examine the knowledge transfer mechanism of digital platforms in the digital innovation ecosystem through modeling and simulation to offer a theoretical basis for digital innovation subjects to acquire digital value through knowledge-sharing and thus augment their competitive advantage.

This study explores the optimal symbiotic interaction rate between different users based on the classic susceptible-infected-removed (SIR) model. Additionally, it constructs a knowledge transfer mechanism model for digital platforms in the digital innovation ecosystem by combining the theories of communication dynamics and symbiosis. Finally, Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB) software is used for the model and numerical simulation.

The results demonstrate that (1) the evolutionary path of the symbiotic model is key to digital platforms' knowledge transfer in the digital innovation ecosystem. In the symbiotic model, the knowledge transfer path of digital platforms is “independent symbiosis—biased symbiosis (user benefit)—reciprocal symbiosis,” aligning with the overall interests of the digital innovation ecosystem. (2) Digital platforms' knowledge transfer effects within the digital innovation ecosystem show significant differences. The most effective knowledge transfer model for digital platforms is reciprocal symbiosis, whereas the least effective is parochial symbiosis (platform benefit). (3) The symbiotic rate has a significant positive impact on the evolutionary dynamics of knowledge transfer on digital platforms, especially in the reciprocal symbiosis model.

This study's results aid digital innovators in achieving efficient knowledge transfer through digital platforms and identify how symbiotic relationships affect the knowledge transfer process across the ecosystem. Accordingly, the authors propose targeted recommendations to promote the efficiency of knowledge transfer on digital platforms.

The purpose of this paper is to find out how financial capital from rural banks is contributing to the livelihoods development of women farmers who constitute the most vulnerable and disadvantaged group in Ghana and other developing countries.

Women farmers were randomly sampled, resulting in 100 beneficiary and 100 non‐beneficiary women farmers who were used for the study. The incomes of women farmers were compared and the factors influencing income earnings estimated using simple regressing analysis.

Financial capital from rural banks was found to have positive contributions to the livelihood development of the women farmers and the poor in general. Whereas, the beneficiary women farmers had significant improvement in their access to health care, education and increased income among others, the non‐beneficiaries only had marginal improvements.

Women farmers do not keep accurate records on their production activities and had to rely on their memories to give costs of production and outputs obtained. This might have slightly affected the results.

Governments and development partners in third world countries should integrate the provision of financial capital in their development policy formulations. This is critical for the attainment of the millennium development goals (MDGs), especially on the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger as well as gender equality and empowerment.

This research paper brings to light the fact that financial capital is an important tool that can be used to turn life around for poor families and individuals in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere. It demonstrates how financial capital is critical for the attainment of the MDGs.

The welfare impacts of the food security on the beneficiaries can be understood from multiple dimensions. This paper, thus, examines the impact of the India's National Food Security Act (NFSA) on the welfare of the beneficiary households from a multidimensional perspective.

The study is based on a sample household survey covering three different states of India. The stratified random sampling technique was used to select the states, districts and blocks. Sample villages and households were selected purposively. A total of 1,523 households comprising 1,069 beneficiary and 454 non-beneficiary households constituted the sample. In order to find out the impact of the programme on different dimensions of welfare, the endogenous switching regression model is employed as it helps control for any absence of randomization and the unobserved heterogeneity bias. Propensity score matching is also employed to supplement the results.

The substitution effect and income effect of the food subsidy policy combined improve the overall welfare of the households presented through the subjective measures of food consumption behaviour, income transfer and educational achievements. The bargaining effect of the food subsidy programme is reflected in the enhanced social status and women's empowerment. The food security programme seems to augment the food consumption of the beneficiaries as observed from the food consumption score.

The food security policy has improved the overall welfare of the households and can play a major role in enhancing household welfare even further. The non-beneficiaries' welfare could have increased if they would have been included in the food security programme. The subjective assessment may, however, be subjected to personal biases, and there is also absence of a common reference point. Hence, the implications of the findings may be generalized with caution.

This study provides evidences of the impacts of food subsidy from a multidimensional standpoint considering both subjective and objective dimensions of household welfare.

The purpose of the study is to assess the nutritional and health status of people living with HIV/AIDS (18-60 years) in selected health facilities in the eastern region of Ghana and to determine the influence nutrition support programmes (NSP) have on the nutritional and health status of people living with HIV/AIDS.

A retrospective study design was used. Purposive and convenience sampling was used to select four hospitals and 200 beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the NSP. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the sociodemographic, anthropometric, biochemical and clinical history of the participants. Dietary intake was assessed with food frequency and 24-h dietary intake questionnaires. Previous data from the medical record within three to six months before the research was collected and compared with current data.

The prevalence of underweight (using body mass index) was 17 per cent and overweight/obesity was 37 per cent. Most respondents had adequate consumption of phosphorus (70.5 per cent); inadequate intake of calcium (95 per cent), vitamin E (77.5 per cent) and vitamin A (94 per cent); and excess intakes of sodium (93 per cent), selenium (77 per cent), copper (83.5 per cent) and manganese (76 per cent). There was no significant difference in nutrient intake of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the NSP, although there were significant differences in the frequency of consumption of fruits (p < 0.001), vegetables (p < 0.001), legumes (p = 0.002), animal foods (p < 0.001) and cereals, grains and starch (p < 0.001) between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of NSP. About 38 and 20 per cent of respondents, respectively, had low haemoglobin (Hb < 11 g/dL) and high viral load (1,000 cp/mL). Comparing the current and previous (three to six months before the study) health and nutritional status of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of NSP, among the beneficiaries of NSP, monocytes increased by 40.6 per cent (p = 0.028) and mean weight decreased by 2.4 per cent (p = 0.007), Hb decreased by 7.1 per cent (p = 0.27) and viral load decreased by 4.2 per cent (p = 0.49), whereas among the non-beneficiaries, mean weight decreased by 0.05 per cent (p = 0.95) and Hb increased by 9.6 per cent (p = 0.06) and monocytes increased (p = 0.28) and viral load increased by 98.2 per cent (p = 0.34).

A significant proportion of people living with HIV/AIDS had a high prevalence of underweight and overweight/obesity, inadequate nutrients intake and high viral load. The NSP for people living with HIV/AIDS in the eastern region of Ghana did not significantly influence the nutritional and health status of these people.

Knowing the nutritional status will help health institutions plan activities towards improving the health and nutritional status of people living with HIV/AIDS. This research is aimed at not only contributing to the existing body of knowledge but also making recommendations of action towards improving NSPs of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Improvement in nutritional and health status of people living with HIV/AIDS will help reduce morbidity and mortality and its related cost to families, communities and the nation.

This study is first to determine the influence of NSPs on nutritional and health status of people living with HIV/AIDS in the eastern region of Ghana.

The authors investigated cocoa farmers' access to subsidized fertilizer in Ghana and implications on productivity.

Primary data were sourced from 435 cocoa farmers. Cragg hurdle and two-step Tobit model with continuous endogenous regressors/covariates were applied for the drivers of cocoa farmers' participation in fertilizer subsidy programme and productivity. Propensity score matching (PSM), inverse-probability weights (IPW) and augmented inverse-probability weights (AIPW) were applied for productivity impact assessment of fertilizer subsidy.

All the farmers were aware of fertilizer subsidy for cocoa production in Ghana. Farmers became aware of fertilizer subsidy through extension officers, media and other farmers. Half of cocoa farmers benefitted from fertilizer subsidy. Averagely, cocoa farmers purchased 292 kg of subsidized fertilizer. Many socio-economic, farm-level characteristics and institutional factors determine cocoa farmers' participation in fertilizer subsidy programme, quantity of subsidized fertilizer obtained and productivity. Beneficiaries of fertilizer subsidy recorded higher cocoa productivity than non-beneficiaries. Hence, fertilizer subsidy for cocoa production in Ghana leads to a gain in productivity.

There should be more investments in fertilizer subsidy so that all cocoa farmers benefit and obtain the required quantities.

The authors provide new evidence on cocoa productivity gain or loss emanating from fertilizer subsidy by combining different impact assessment techniques for deeper analysis: PSM, IPW and AIPW.

This study aims to assess the effects of microfinance institution (MFI) services on the productivity of family farms in Cameroon, in the region of Mbam and Kim. It will be a question, therefore, of determining the level and determiners of the outputs of family farms, in particular those concerned by the cultures of cocoa, beneficiaries of the agricultural services of MFIs.

The authors use the Blinder (1973) and Oaxaca (1973) model of decomposition of the productivity differential between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of agricultural credits on a sample of 130 cocoa farming households and four MFIs of the same area between 2008 and 2011.

The yield gap between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of agricultural credits is estimated at 0.19 tons per hectare. This gap is explained positively by the financial aid variable, the farm size variable, which is significant in the explanation of the beneficiaries' level of returns and the constant term. On the other hand, all the socio-economic variables of the farmers contribute to reduce this gap of productivity.

This financial assistance from CVECA is essential to increase agricultural yields because it helps to cancel out some structural barriers. However, as this improvement in yields is only possible for large farms, the services of the MFIs would rather favor extensification policies. Nevertheless, the study results are limited by the negative effects of the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers on these yields, the study having been revealed without any selectivity bias.

This study seeks to reverse the trend that in rural areas, MFIs are financing agriculture to increase extensification rather than enhancing intensification in sub-Saharan Africa by challenging the role of MFI services in intensification.

The impact of cash transfers on improving the living conditions of children and reducing early-life deprivations and vulnerabilities are crucial to safeguarding equality of opportunities and achieving sustainable, equitable and inclusive growth within the Sustainable Development Goals. The study aims to examine the change in deprivation rate among children aged 0–17 years between 2010 and 2012, as well as the impact of cash transfer on multidimensional child poverty in Ghana using the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

The study used the Ghana Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Impact Evaluation Survey data, which has the baseline data collected in 2010, and the follow-up was collected in 2012. The authors used the difference-in-difference estimation technique to assess the impact of the cash transfer program on the MPI of pre-school (0–5 years) and school-aged (5–17 years) children, and compared the results with that of Propensity Score Matching.

The deprivation trend reveals that deprivation among pre-school children increased for nutrition, water and sanitation. The estimated result shows that cash transfer significantly reduces MPI of pre-school and school-aged in beneficiary households by 10.5 and 1.3% relative to non-beneficiary children, respectively.

For cash transfer programs to efficiently alleviate child poverty in Ghana, the paper recommends that the conditionality aspect of the program that has been neglected by managers of the program should be enforced. Also, the program should be supplemented with food nutrients for children to reduce the deprivation of nutrition.

This research is to investigate the effect of the improvement of investment environments with investment incentive on Korean national economy by looking into the foreign investment support system in Korea. To this end, first research model was set up based on our literary study and case study was conducted on 150 foreign companies that were located in industrial complex for foreign companies, received the tax benefit and government subsidization. And it was found that even though the foreign companies were contributing to the national economy in general such as in the area of production, export, employment, development of technology, there was no significant contributory difference between the investment incentive beneficiary and non‐beneficiary foreign companies. Therefore it deemed reasonable to reconsider the way Korean government supports foreign companies in Korea and to reinforce foreign companies’ relevance to national policy agenda with additional incentives to foreign companies located in comparatively less developed areas. As a way to promote foreign investment, promotion of investment infra such as improvement of follow‐up services, openness to foreign investment, industrial deregulations in capital area, revitalization of free economic zone, efficient system to promote foreign investment and the reinforcement of public relations were considered necessary, especially the upgrading of economic structure and the integrated management of domestic and foreign investors deemed necessary for the optimal distribution of the industries.

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become widespread in poor countries as a way to alleviate current poverty and provide investments in human capital that improve families’ living conditions in the long-term. The first goal is accomplished when poor families receive money from governments on a monthly basis. The second goal is reached by conditioning the cash transfers on certain behaviors such as children's regular school attendance. However, these programs may also have impacts on time use decisions within beneficiary households, particularly with respect to time spent working. Using data from 2003, we measure the impact of the Brazilian Bolsa Escola CCT program on children's and parents’ labor status using the econometric framework of policy evaluation. Probit regressions and propensity score-matching methods show that this program reduces the probability of work for children aged 6–15, increases school enrollment, and increases mother and father participation in the labor force.

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) aims to assist expectant mothers in low-income households. It might address the insufficient prenatal and postnatal healthcare services in rural areas of low-income nations, including Bangladesh. However, the effectiveness of such intervention is rarely investigated in rural Bangladesh. The study aims to explore the impact of CCT on certain health outcomes of expectant mothers in southwestern rural Bangladesh.

The study applied the quasi-experimental Propensity Score Matching method to assess the effectiveness of CCT in health outcomes of expectant mothers. The authors also deployed logistic regression to explore the predictors of three health issues – blood pressure, hemoglobin adequacy and morning sickness.

The Average Treatment Effect shows that the CCT program significantly improves maternal health by lowering the extent of blood pressure and morning sickness and enhancing the hemoglobin adequacy of the CCT recipient women compared to the non-recipient. The result reveals that CCT beneficiary status as well as the education and immunization are positively and significantly associated with normal blood pressure and hemoglobin adequacy. CCT is also a negative predictor of morning sickness. The study recommends to expand the coverage of the CCT program and also emphasize on the improvement of education, training and immunization for rural pregnant women.

To assist in scaling purchasing power and nutritious food for poor pregnant and lactating mothers in low-income households, “Nobojatra” project initiated the CCTs in the southwest region of Bangladesh. Yet, the impact of such cash transfers on their health outcomes is rarely explored in the context of Bangladesh. This study provides evidence regarding the effectiveness of cash transfers to pregnant women of low-income households in rural Bangladesh.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2022-0512