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After a long observation of the high rate of rice importation and low productivity in Côte d’Ivoire, the certified rice seed was introduced and encouraged to be used by the local farmers. This study evaluates the profitability of rice production and the impact of certified seed usage on the yield and income of farmers in Côte d’Ivoire.

Data were collected from 265 rice farmers. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the challenges faced in using certified seeds. Profitability analysis was used to examine the profitability of rice production. To eliminate bias due to the counterfactuals, the endogenous switching regression was employed to investigate the impact of the certified seeds on income and yield.

The difficulties faced by the rice farmers in the procurement of certified seeds were the unavailability of seeds, the high cost of seeds and poor credit access. Furthermore, rice farmers using certified seeds get a higher net income (USD 263.74/ha) than those using farmers' seeds (USD 212.31/ha). The average treatment on the treated was 1.61 for the yield and 574.75 for the income. The average treatment on the untreated was 1.20 for the yield and 422.59 for the income. These indicate a higher yield and income among adopters of certified rice seed.

Certified rice seed usage is profitable and enhances the output and income of rice farmers. The study advocates the creation of a stronger relationship between the farmers and the extension agents to encourage the use of certified seeds and increase the profit of the farmers.

There is scant information on the profitability of certified rice seed usage and how it affect yield and income. Therefore, this study serves as empirical evidence for policymakers to develop strategies that are required to enhance certified seed usage, boost rice productivity and achieve food security.

This study aims to discuss climate change, by modifying the timing of several agricultural operations, reduce the efficiency and yield of inputs leading to a lower production level. The reduction of the effects of climate change on production yields and on farmers' technical efficiency (TE) requires the adoption of adaptation strategies. This paper analyses the impact of climate change adaptation strategies adopted on maize farmers' TE in Benin.

This paper uses an endogeneity-corrected stochastic production frontier approach based on data randomly collected from 354 farmers located in three different agro-ecological zones of Benin.

Estimation results revealed that the adoption of adaptation strategies improve maize farmers' TE by 1.28%. Therefore, polices to improve farmers' access to climate change adaptation strategies are necessarily for the improvement of farmers' TE and yield.

The results of this study contribute to the policy debate on the enhancement of food security by increasing farmers' TE through easy access to climate change adaptation strategies. The improvement of farmers' TE will in turn improve the livelihoods of the communities and therefore contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2 and 13.

This study contributes to theoretical and empirical debate on the relationship between adaptation to climate change and farmers' TE. It also adapts a new methodology (endogeneity-corrected stochastic production frontier approach) to correct the endogeneity problem due to the farmers' adaptation decision.

This research examines the impact of the National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration Project (NRECDP) on poverty reduction and income growth in rural China.

The study develops a theoretical framework, which considers the role of geographical, technological, institutional and cultural factors for the e-commerce poverty alleviation (e-CPA) model. Empirically, this study applies the difference-in-differences (DID) model and the event study approach to evaluate the effectiveness of NRECDP on the basis of large-scale county-level and household-level panel data spanning 2010 to 2020.

The study found that the NRECDP, as a government-led, information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled, market-based program, has led to a significant increase in per capita output of primary industry employees, as well as in the disposable income of rural residents, especially those in national-level poverty-stricken (NP) counties. The interventions of the NRECDP achieved these positive outcomes through transportation and Internet infrastructure improvement, ICT adoption and human capital accumulation in impoverished towns and villages in remote rural areas. These effects are larger in the eastern region of China, followed by the central region, whereas the weakest effects were found in the western region. However, we found little evidence of the NRECDP increasing household developmental expenditure.

The study findings have important practical and policy implications for rural e-commerce development and self-sustained poverty alleviation solutions. The research revealed the significance of government NRECDP interventions for increasing rural income, reducing living costs, and empowering the rural population in its multiple social roles, namely, as consumers, producers, employees and microentrepreneurs. The local cultural context may also play a role in ICT adoption and entrepreneurship cultivation with a downstream effect on the effectiveness of e-CPA practices. Policymakers would need to ensure a supportive entrepreneur-friendly environment for rural e-commerce development and continue implementing progressive policies for poverty alleviation.

This study explores poverty alleviation issues in China by developing for the first time a multi-faceted framework that is subsequently tested by both county-level and household-level large-scale observations. Also, it is the first study to provide nationwide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of e-CPA in narrowing down the spatial and digital divides in China. In addition to the impact of geography, technology and governmental support, this study also sheds light on the role of culture in the adoption and diffusion of digital technologies and as a source of local entrepreneurial opportunities.

This study aims to analyze the factors affecting tea-producing farmers' intention to use e-commerce exchanges (ECEs) to sell their products, combining the technology acceptance model (TAM) theory and barrier factors.

The authors use the generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) to analyze the intermediate model that is built on TAM.

Research results show that perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) significantly influence farmers' intention to use ECEs to sell their products. However, knowledge and information barriers hinder farmers' intention to use such ECEs.

Encouraging farmers to use ECEs is the most helpful solution for agricultural economic development in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

From an academic perspective, this is the first study that combines the TAM theory of Davis (1989) and barrier factors to analyze farmers' intention to use ECEs. The findings are valuable references for policymakers to propose strategies for agricultural economic development during the current pandemic. At the same time, the empirical results obtained from this study provide good orientations for agricultural economic development 4.0 in the future.

The halal cosmetics industry continues to grow significantly. Furthermore, using halal cosmetics is a must for Muslims. This study aims to analyze the factors influencing the switching intention to halal cosmetics in Indonesia.

This quantitative study uses a Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) on 214 respondents. The variables include halal certification, halal awareness, product image, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, attitude, advertisement and switching intention.

The product image plays the most influential role in deriving the attitude toward switching intention to halal cosmetics, following perceived behavioral control, halal awareness and subjective norm, but not halal certification and advertisement. The result indicates that the image of halal cosmetics influences customers’ attitudes toward switching to using halal cosmetics. Indonesian customers know the obligation to use halal products because they are Muslim. However, the existence of halal certification does not derive the switching intention to halal cosmetics.

This study conducts research only in Indonesia. As a recommendation, further studies might conduct a comparative test using multicultural respondents in several countries. Other studies also suggested examining factors of switching intention through different generational, especially in countries with high individualism traits.

This study will encourage the halal industry, especially the halal cosmetics industry, to pay more attention to the product image. Meanwhile, the government can provide incentives or rewards to promote industry participation in halal cosmetics. The findings provide a more detailed understanding of how product image can influence someone to switch to halal cosmetics.

Research on switching intention to halal cosmetics is still limited. This study uses halal variables, while previous studies only used religiosity. This study also introduced the product images motivating customers’ switching intention to use halal cosmetics.

The farm sector is crucial for rural poverty alleviation, alongside the non-farm sector, which contributes to mitigating risks associated with crop failures. This paper investigates the effects of public policies on productive employment within both the farm and non-farm sectors in sub-Saharan Africa.

A meta-analysis is conducted exclusively on the results of the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP)-funded studies under the Policy Analysis on Growth and Employment (PAGE II) initiative. Selected studies focused on the impact of public policies on productive employment in rural farm and non-farm sectors, encompassing a total of nine sub-Saharan Africa countries in: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

The results indicate that public investments in rural areas and public policies that facilitate access to productive resources are likely to enhance productive employment. The overall effect size is positive and significant, ranging from 2% to 10% increases in productive employment. Sources of variation include the sector of activity and the policy instrument. In addition, the policy effects are gender-sensitive and seem more consistent in the non-farm sector.

Although the selected working papers addressed several aspects of productive employment, other aspects warrant further investigation. Policies involving restrictions or regulations have received little attention in the impact analysis. Researches to fill this gap would be important. Another suggestion for further research is the analysis of the relative importance of non-farm employment in rural areas in developing countries. It is always assumed that rural households depend heavily on agriculture for their subsistence.

The contribution of the paper lies in the comparative analysis of numerous public policies implemented in nine distinct countries. By consolidating data from fourteen 14 different experiences into a single study, the paper offers valuable insights on factors that determine policy effectiveness and contribute to understanding what worked for whom and why.

Using features of social media, peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payment enables users to foster social interaction every time transactions are made. Given the increasing popularity of social features in P2P mobile payment applications, it is worth understanding how these components contribute to users’ switching behavior between conventional mobile payment and P2P mobile payment services. By treating sociability of P2P mobile payment as a pull factor, this study aims to extend the push–pull–mooring framework in the context of P2P mobile payment.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain data. Respondents from the USA were exclusively selected due to the emerging number of P2P mobile payment users and the volume of transactions in this country. Based on a sample of 232 Amazon Mechanical Turk mobile payment users, the authors tested the hypotheses using the partial least squares structural equation model technique with SmartPLS software version 3.

The finding reveals that sociability is triggered by social presence, social benefit and social support within the P2P mobile payment platform. Moreover, dissatisfaction with perceived enjoyment of conventional mobile payment (push factor), customer innovativeness (mooring factor) and sociability of P2P mobile payment (pull factor) jointly influence users’ intention to switch to P2P mobile payment services, and subsequently drive their migration behavior.

Unlike past research that mainly focuses on utilitarian-related factors, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to thoroughly examine the sociability features of P2P mobile payment service as a form of a social-centric system.

This study addresses the empirical results of the spillover effect with export as the primary economic activity that enhances local businesses' total factor productivity (TFP). A learning mechanism is expected to be generated and used as the basis for the policy implication.

This study adopted the Cobb–Douglas function and multiple estimation approaches, including the generalized method of moments, the Olley–Pakes and the Levinsohn–Petrin estimation techniques. The findings were estimated based on the panel data of a Vietnamese local businesses survey conducted by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) from 2010 to 2019.

The results showed that the highest TFP belongs to the businesses in the Southeast region, the Mekong Delta region, the mining industry and the foreign-invested enterprises. The lowest impacted TFP are businesses in the Northwest region and agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors. In addition, the estimated results also show that the positive spillover effect on TFP is shown through forward and backward linkage. The negative spillover effect is expressed through the backward and horizontal channels.

This study offers original empirical evidence on the learning mechanisms via which exports contribute to productivity improvement in a developing Asian economy, so making a valuable contribution to the existing academic literature in this domain. The findings of this research make a valuable contribution to the advancement of understanding on the many ways via which spillover effects manifest such as horizontal, forward, backward and supplied-backward linkage.

The study's findings indicate that it is advisable for governments to give priority to the development and improvement of forward and supply chain linkages between exporters and local suppliers. This approach is recommended in order to optimize the advantages derived from export spillovers. At the organizational level, it is imperative for enterprises to strengthen their technological and managerial skills in order to efficiently incorporate knowledge spillovers that originate from overseas partners and trade counterparts.

This study sheds new evidence on the export spillover effect on productivity in emerging economies, with Vietnam as the case study. The paper contributes to the research's originality by adopting novel methodological aspects to estimate local businesses' impact on total factor productivity.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0373

The authors propose to estimate a varying coefficient panel data model with different smoothing variables and fixed effects using a two-step approach. The pilot step estimates the varying coefficients by a series method. We then use the pilot estimates to perform a one-step backfitting through local linear kernel smoothing, which is shown to be oracle efficient in the sense of being asymptotically equivalent to the estimate knowing the other components of the varying coefficients. In both steps, the authors remove the fixed effects through properly constructed weights. The authors obtain the asymptotic properties of both the pilot and efficient estimators. The Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed estimator performs well. The authors illustrate their applicability by estimating a varying coefficient production frontier using a panel data, without assuming distributions of the efficiency and error terms.

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between the existing theoretical and empirical studies by examining the asymmetric return–volume relationship. Indeed, the authors aim to shed light on the return–volume linkages for French-listed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) compared to blue chips across different market regimes.

This study includes both large capitalizations included in the CAC 40 index and listed SMEs included in the Euronext Growth All Share index. The Markov-switching (MS) approach is applied to understand the asymmetric relationship between trading volume and stock returns. The study investigates also the causal impact between stock returns and trading volume using regime-dependent Granger causality tests.

Asymmetric contemporaneous and lagged relationships between stock returns and trading volume are found for both large capitalizations and listed SMEs. However, the causality investigation reveals some differences between large capitalizations and SMEs. Indeed, causal relationships depend on market conditions and the size of the market.

This paper explains the asymmetric return–volume relationship for both large capitalizations and listed SMEs by incorporating several psychological biases, such as the disposition effect, investor overconfidence and self-attribution bias. Future research needs to deepen the analysis especially for SMEs as most of the literature focuses on large capitalizations.

This empirical study has fundamental implications for portfolio management. The findings provide a deeper understanding of how trading activity impact current returns and vice versa. The authors’ results constitute an important input to build and control trading strategies.

This paper fills the literature gap on the asymmetric return–volume relationship across different regimes. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first empirical attempt to test the asymmetric return–volume relationship for listed SMEs by using an accurate MS framework.