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Book part
Publication date: 14 December 2015

Debra A. Riley-Huff

To provide librarians with a better understanding of what makes online content truly accessible and to increase awareness of the current common accessibility issues found in…

Abstract

Purpose

To provide librarians with a better understanding of what makes online content truly accessible and to increase awareness of the current common accessibility issues found in library web sites and vendor supplied electronic resources.

Methodology/approach

A through and in-depth literature review takes a look at the web accessibility problems historically found in library web sites. It then briefly explains the basics of web accessibility and delves more deeply into structural content access, which is the hallmark of true accessibility. The simple mechanics as well as the pros and cons of traditional methods of providing keyboard access to web content is discussed. The chapter then provides a gentle introduction to HTML5 and the Web Accessibility Initiative-Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), current use, techniques for use, and application opportunities. The chapter also provides the research results of a broad examination of the basic structural accessibility state of many current database providers.

Findings

The research shows that the accessibility of library web sites is improving; however many library vendor database products still have significant accessibility problems.

Practical implications

Through the practical accessibility explanations, the chapter points out the ways librarians can use this knowledge to work with users and communicate with product providers regarding the accessibility of library resources.

Originality/value

This chapter provides a rich resource for understanding and implementing web accessibility, particularly as it applies to keyboard navigation and the new accessibility features in HTML5 and WAI-ARIA.

Details

Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities and the Inclusive Future of Libraries
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-652-6

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2023

Muhammad Faisal Sultan, Asim Rafiq, Rais Ahmad and Muhammad Asim

Fintech businesses have the tendency to revolutionize the entire world. Especially, the tasks associated with banking needs, and therefore, there is a significant scope for…

Abstract

Fintech businesses have the tendency to revolutionize the entire world. Especially, the tasks associated with banking needs, and therefore, there is a significant scope for Fintech in the banking industry. Although when the country’s major population is unbanked and most of the population is also financially excluded, then the scope of Fintech gets exaggerated for microfinance institutions (MFIs), and therefore, the significance of Fintech for MFIs is much higher than the commercial and Islamic banks. Hence, this chapter has been written purposively to illuminate the impact, role, significance and implications of Fintech for MFIs in Pakistan in order to boost the knowledge and understanding of diverse stakeholders. The specialty of this chapter is that it is written specifically with reference to Pakistan as there is least research work with respect to the application of Fintech in MFIs. Similarly, the chapter also contains the anatomy of the value chain activities of MFIs and their linkage with the role of Fintech applications in boosting the performance of MFIs. Last, but not the least, the chapter also has a detailed discussion on factors that are required to boost the usage of Fintech in the MFI sector. Therefore, this chapter is pervasive for academicians, researchers, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and students for grasping, understanding and applying recent knowledge towards the betterment of academic and pragmatic activities.

Details

Financial Inclusion Across Asia: Bringing Opportunities for Businesses
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-305-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 June 2021

Christine Jeptoo Sawe

Women entrepreneurs face a myriad of challenges in running their enterprises, such as inadequate market information for their products or services, lack of marketing skills…

Abstract

Women entrepreneurs face a myriad of challenges in running their enterprises, such as inadequate market information for their products or services, lack of marketing skills, insufficient capital to start and run the business and unfavourable policies in county governments among others, leading to unwillingness to participate in businesses. To overcome these challenges, a number of initiatives had been put in place as a way of empowering these women, for example, Women Enterprise and Development Fund (WEDF) aimed at financing and sustenance of women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Despite these initiatives, women continue to lag behind in terms of entrepreneurship leading to this study to unearth underlying issues pertaining to women entrepreneurship and empowerment. The study was guided by the following objectives: to determine the effects of WEDF loans on women empowerment, to evaluate accessibility of credit by women entrepreneurs, to establish the role of capacity building on the performance of women enterprises and to establish the effects of women enterprises on household livelihoods. This study is significant as it aimed at establishing the relationship between gender enterprise in relation to women empowerment by use of descriptive and explanatory research designs. The study targeted 246 women entrepreneurs in Eldoret whereby 51 respondents were sampled randomly who were issued with questionnaires having closed- and open-ended questions. Secondary data obtained from the banks were also used to enhance the accuracy of the data. The study established that WEDF loans had a positive effect on women empowerment and an improved household livelihood. On accessibility of loans, a few entrepreneurs had benefitted as women were required to be in groups in order to benefit and in addition, have collaterals. Performance of business enterprises owned by women who possessed marketing skills was good as opposed to those without the skills necessitating capacity building. The study therefore recommends that there is a need to encourage vulnerable groups to participate in economic development and women entrepreneurs to form groups which will enable them do table banking hence making them financially empowered.

Details

Enterprise and Economic Development in Africa
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-323-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 19 September 2022

Alex Taremwa

Digital media platforms in Uganda experimented with subscription-based models as an alternative to the traditional advertising model and as a recovery plan from the effects of…

Abstract

Digital media platforms in Uganda experimented with subscription-based models as an alternative to the traditional advertising model and as a recovery plan from the effects of COVID-19. Drawing from the theory of the political economy of the media, this study focusses on the critical success factors for subscription-based models in digital media platforms, audience consumption habits vis-á-vis payment for content, the effect of paywalls on the company financials and finally, establish the barriers to subscription uptake in Uganda. Media started charging users subscription fees for content in the 1990s (Chyi, 2005). Technological advances changed audience consumption habits from consuming hardcopy newspapers to accessing content on the go through their smartphones, tablets, and computers (Berger, Matt, Steininger, & Hess, 2015). Whilst some consumers pay for content, several audience surveys in East Africa indicated a lack of consistency among the paying audiences (KARF, 2019). Most consumers never purchased subscription and were avert to paywalls. The study used a mixed-method approach to find that the increase in internet penetration in Uganda and smartphone usage were the most significant enablers of paid-content consumption in Uganda. The quality of content, poor packaging, and unfair prices by publishers were the biggest barriers to consumption of paid news content.

Details

COVID-19 and the Media in Sub-Saharan Africa: Media Viability, Framing and Health Communication
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-272-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 November 2021

Hugo Rosa da Conceição and Helen Finlay

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly seen as a holistic approach to a wide array of environmental and societal problems. Crucially, much of its appeal stems from its…

Abstract

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly seen as a holistic approach to a wide array of environmental and societal problems. Crucially, much of its appeal stems from its potential to address multiple challenges at once, being not only valuable for their positive impacts toward sustainability and human welfare but also their cost-effectiveness when compared to some engineered solutions. This helps to explain the growing awareness of the private sector of the market opportunities arising from the introduction of NBS to their operations. This chapter presents some of the opportunities for businesses in implementing NBS, such as the risk and cost reductions, compliance with regulatory requirements, reputational and financial gains, among others. I will also introduce some of the challenges they might face, such as the difficulties for companies to fully internalizing all benefits generated by investing in NBS, the need for long-term planning in adapting NBS in a company's operations, possible hindrances in financing innovative NBS, among others. The chapter will also showcase NBS being implemented by companies in urban contexts, based on the responses of local governments that disclose to CDP's cities questionnaire. This concluding section of the chapter provides policy recommendations for public entities to incentivize the uptake of NBS by the private sector.

Details

Nature-Based Solutions for More Sustainable Cities – A Framework Approach for Planning and Evaluation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-637-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 19 October 2016

Marcus Taylor

Conceptualizing development in terms of risk management has become a prominent feature of mainstream development discourse. This has led to a convergence between the rubrics of…

Abstract

Conceptualizing development in terms of risk management has become a prominent feature of mainstream development discourse. This has led to a convergence between the rubrics of financial inclusion and risk management whereby improved access for poor households to private sector credit, insurance and savings products is represented as a necessary step toward building “resilience.” This convergence, however, is notable for a shallow understanding of the production and distribution of risks. By naturalizing risk as an inevitable product of complex systems, the approach fails to interrogate how risk is produced and displaced unevenly between social groups. Ignoring the structural and relational dimensions of risk production leads to an overly technical approach to risk management that is willfully blind to the intersection of risk and social power. A case study of the promotion of index-based livestock insurance in Mongolia – held as a model for innovative risk management via financial inclusion – is used to indicate the tensions and contradictions of this projected synthesis of development and risk management.

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2023

Abstract

Details

Financial Inclusion Across Asia: Bringing Opportunities for Businesses
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-305-3

Book part
Publication date: 22 July 2014

Libby Schweber

The UK government’s support for sustainable construction involves an explicit attempt to introduce a new institutional logic into the construction sector, while the use of…

Abstract

The UK government’s support for sustainable construction involves an explicit attempt to introduce a new institutional logic into the construction sector, while the use of Building Research Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) as a preferred policy mechanism exemplifies neoliberal use of voluntary self-regulation to promote policy goals. This paper uses the case of BREEAM to examine the role of science and scientific expertise in the exercise of neoliberal governance. More specifically, it combines a neo-institutional analysis of change with Foucault’s theory of governmentality to explore the effect of BREEAM on eight construction projects. The concepts of visibility, knowledge, techniques, and identity provide an analytic grid to explore the effect of BREEAM on understandings and practices of “green building.” Appeals to science and scientific authority are found to be most important in those instances where institutional logics clash and the legitimacy of BREEAM as a carrier of sustainable construction is challenged. From a theoretical perspective, the case studies highlight the role of instruments in the micro-dynamics of institutionalization. Empirically, it underlines the limited, but nonetheless significant, effect of weakly institutionalized neoliberal policy mechanisms.

Details

Fields of Knowledge: Science, Politics and Publics in the Neoliberal Age
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-668-2

Book part
Publication date: 14 September 2020

Virginia Munro

Since the 2015 introduction of the United Nations Global Goals, also referred to as the sustainable development goals (SDGs), we have witnessed a movement toward inclusion of…

Abstract

Since the 2015 introduction of the United Nations Global Goals, also referred to as the sustainable development goals (SDGs), we have witnessed a movement toward inclusion of goal-related initiatives listed under CSR strategy and in CSR sustainability reports. At the time of writing this chapter, the United Nations were presented a speech by young activist Greta Thunberg and many other activists commenced riots in major cities. All are pointing toward, what they perceive, as a lack of effort to solve issues related to climate warming. At the same time new research has revealed that targets for the SDGs are falling behind levels expected for 2030. There has also been concern for the potential of “SDG washing,” reported in the academic literature. This would greatly decrease the credibility of the goals over time. For this reason, it is vitally important to measure the impact of initiatives introduced to fit each SDG category and label. This will also assist with funding SDG implementation at a much faster rate. This chapter commences with a brief introduction of the SDG framework and discusses the United Nations and OECD methodology and the development and implementation of key global goals. Various research reports are discussed alongside a tracking study on uptake of the SDGs, and the need for SDG metrics to create transparency and evaluation. The chapter ends with example case studies of CSR strategy implementing and measuring the SDGs, alongside a discussion of financial vehicles released to support further development. The chapter also makes suggestions for future research opportunities to assist SDG progression.

Details

CSR for Purpose, Shared Value and Deep Transformation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-035-8

Book part
Publication date: 4 January 2014

Daniela Marconi and Francesca Sanna-Randaccio

The purpose of this study is to analyse the role of the clean development mechanism (CDM) established by the Kyoto Protocol in channelling foreign technology to China. Appraising…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyse the role of the clean development mechanism (CDM) established by the Kyoto Protocol in channelling foreign technology to China. Appraising the experience of CDM remains of key importance when drawing lessons for the post-2012 climate regime.

Methodology/approach

Descriptive analysis of the sources and the determinants of foreign technology transfer based on the examination of 1,355 registered projects. Econometric analysis of the probability of having a foreign supplier of technology in any project.

Findings

The prominence of German firms as technology providers and the absence of a strong relationship between technology suppliers and credit buyers. The econometric analysis finds that project size and cost, project location, credit buyers’ and consultants’ characteristics, as well as technology diffusion are all relevant factors in determining the probability of having a foreign supplier of technology.

Research implications

China is a particularly interesting case for analysing technology transfer in CDM projects since, after a slow start, the country has become the largest and most dynamic CDM recipient worldwide. Furthermore, the analysis of CDM projects may offer some insights into the complex web of technological links between Chinese and foreign firms.

Practical implications

The transfer of emission-saving technologies to developing countries is expected to play a major role in addressing environmental problems worldwide.

Originality/value

This study analyses the sources and determinants of international technology transfer in CDM projects in China, and offers some insights into how the characteristics of the major players and the links between them affect this phenomenon.

Details

International Business and Sustainable Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-990-4

Keywords

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